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line and first line of body
NUCLEAR POLICY
1 AFP: Annan says Mideast leaders consider Iraq war 'a real disaster'
2 [NYTr] China Warns Against Threats to Iran
3 [NYTr] IAEA Calls US Iran Report "Outrageous and Dishonest"
4 [NYTr] IAEA Calls US Iran Report "Outrageous and Dishonest"
5 Guardian Unlimited: Chavez Vows Aid for Iran Against Attack
6 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA: U.S. Report on Iran 'Dishonest'
7 Guardian Unlimited: Elie Wiesel Calls on U.N. to Expel Iran
8 Guardian Unlimited: Iran and European Union Postpone Talks
9 Guardian Unlimited: Top Iranian Envoy Praises Early EU Talks
10 Reuters: IAEA protests "erroneous" U.S. report on Iran
11 BBC: US Iran report branded dishonest
12 Xinhua: Iran ready for "new conditions" on nuclear dispute
13 AFP: Ahmadinejad in Havana as NAM backs Iran in nuclear row
14 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Spokesman slams America's allegation
15 AFP: US: Fight for sanctions on Iran will be tough, take weeks -
16 AFP: Iran to answer US charges that is should face nuclear sanctions
17 AFP: Iranian ambassador challenges his US counterpart to nuclear deb
18 Reuters: Iran says atom deal possible only without threats
19 UPI: U.N.: Mutual mistrust blocking Iran deal
20 Guardian Unlimited: Bush, Roh Want to Restart N.Korea Talks
21 Korea Herald: Roh, Bush commit to reviving nuclear talks
22 Korea Herald: Questions hang over New York six-party talks
23 Reuters: Bush, Roh paper over differences on N.Korea
24 BBC: US 'committed' to N Korea talks
25 AFP: Bush, Roh, recommit to six-party talks to end North Korea nucle
26 UPI: U.S. presses China for North Korea talks
27 Guardian Unlimited: Paranoia and provocation in Pyongyang
28 AFP: UN nuclear watchdog blasts US Congressional commitee
29 IPS-English POLITICS: Indo-US Nuclear Deal Tests Japan's
30 IPS-English TRADE: Brazil, India and South Africa Optimistic
31 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Israel Eye-To-Eye on Mideast Peace
32 Japan Times: Emerging from the nuclear shadow
NUCLEAR REACTORS
33 US: Post-Gazette: Cover-up at Shippingport
34 US: NRC: NRC Issues New Edition of Information Digest
35 US: Guardian Unlimited: Nuke Plant Contractor Accused of Coverup
36 US: Arizona Daily Star: 12 disciplined at Palo Verde nuclear plant
37 US: St. Paul Pioneer Press: Xcel Energy's nuclear-storage lease reje
38 RIA Novosti: Investment in Russia's power sector to hit $80 bln -
39 US: POAC: NRC mostly satisfied with Oyster Creek
40 US: post-gazette: Worker at Beaver Valley nuclear plant conceals rev
41 US: Platts: Louisiana regulators looking at policies for new nuclear
42 Telugu Portal: Brazil, South Africa back India's quest for nuclear e
43 Energy Business Review: Scottish nuclear workers on strike -
44 TCS Daily: From No Nukes to New Nukes
45 US: BFP: My Turn: NUCLEAR POWER TOO COSTLY
46 US: Vermont Guardian: Testing safe to public, VY, Entergy officials
47 US: APP.COM: Reactor passes a safety inspection
48 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY safety topic of hearing
49 US: Hudson Valley News: Nighttime IP siren test is a success
50 US: Hudson Valley News: Committee approves legislation to require di
51 AFP: Swedish nuclear plants still too unsafe to re-open
52 SABCnews.com: IBSA agrees to peaceful usage of nuclear energy
NUCLEAR SECURITY
53 IAEA: Congress Panel Cooking Intel on Iran
54 US: Guardian Unlimited: Senate OKs Ports Security Bill
55 US: Dallas Morning News: Police seek truck carrying radioactive mate
56 US: Deseret News: Activists urge stronger security at nuclear plants
57 Reuters: Japan prosecutors indict 4 over nuclear devices
NUCLEAR SAFETY
58 US: Patriot News: Day cares' evacuation plans still unsettled
59 The Hindu: `Public concerns on radiation should be properly addresse
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
60 US: [CMEP] Public Citizen Testifies Before Congress on Nuclear Waste
61 US: [NukeNet] Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at
62 US: By 9/15: Help Stop Deregulation of Nuclear Waste!
63 US: Las Vegas SUN: Industry executive says nuclear waste safe at pla
64 US: USNews.com: Some in House suspicious of Senate nuclear waste bil
65 US: Bradenton Herald: Lockheed attorneys respond to complaint
66 US: The NewStandard: Under Pressure, Govt. Halts Nuclear Dump on Ind
67 reviewjournal.com: Chief notes concerns with Yucca project
68 US: reviewjournal.com: Industry executive says nuclear waste can rem
69 US: Rocky Mountain News: Dump to be radioactive waste site for 3 sta
70 US: Courier News: Middlesex to rid 9-acre tract of contaminants
71 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Goshute says feds, state let the tribe down
72 US: The Australian: Uranium buy sets off chain reaction
73 US: The Australian: Wrong to refuse to sell uranium - Ferguson
74 US: kutv.com: Goshutes: We Lost Millions Over Nuke Fallout
75 US: Star Beacon: U.S. EPA official enthusiastic about river dredging
76 US: Public Citizen: Public Citizen Testifies Before Congress on Nucl
77 US: AU ABC: China buys into future uranium mine -
78 US: AU ABC: China can't sidestep uranium safeguards - Rann.
79 Whitehaven News: Unions lose confidence in the sell off of BNFL
PEACE
80 Asia Times: Japan's nuclear cop-out
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
81 DOE: DOE Assistant Secretaries in China to Discuss Energy Cooperatio
82 Platts: DOE got 14 nuclear spent fuel facility responses - Official
83 Hanford News: Reactor to stand at least until '09
84 Tri-City Herald: Glimpse Hanford during a tour
85 Tri-City Herald: Evaporator helps condense waste
86 Hanford News: Getting hot training
87 Hanford News: Evaporator helps condense waste
88 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Fernald
89 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Idaho
90 Rocky Mountain News: A phony threat
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 AFP: Annan says Mideast leaders consider Iraq war 'a real disaster' -
by Gerard Aziakou Thu Sep 14, 3:27 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Kofi Annan" /> Kofi Annansaid
most Middle East leaders he recently conferred with considered
the Iraq" /> Iraqwar "a real disaster," but felt the United
States should not pull out just yet.
"Most of the leaders I spoke to felt that the invasion of Iraq
and its aftermath have been a real disaster for them ... They
believe it has destabilized the region," Annan said Wednesday
during a wide-ranging press conference on his recent trip
abroad.
However, he added that many of the same leaders wanted the
Americans to stay in Iraq until the security situation improved,
pointing out that "having created the problem they cannot walk
away."
Other leaders, notably in Iran" /> Iran, felt that "the presence
of the US is a problem and that the US should leave, and if the
US were to decide to leave they would help them," Annan said.
"So in a way the US finds itself in a position where it cannot
stay and it cannot leave," he said.
Reaction from the White House was swift.
"I'm not going to engage in a further disputation with the
secretary general of the United Nations" /> United Nations, but
we disagree with the characterization," White House spokesman
Tony Snow said, while acknowledging the "sectarian violence" in
Iraq.
Annan, who returned Friday from a 12-day tour of the Middle
East, said he was encouraged by the seriousness with which
Lebanon and Israel" /> Israelwere pressing ahead with
implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 aimed at
shoring up last month's truce.
However, he said the war between Israel and the Hezbollah
militant militia was a "wake-up call" for the Middle East that
highlighted the need to tackle other pressing regional issues.
He threw his weight behind plans to hold a Security Council
ministerial session here next week on a comprehensive peace in
the broader Middle East.
He said the Arab League's proposal for the meeting, despite
opposition from the United States and Israel, "should not bother
anyone."
Annan said he had been told by the current president of the
Security Council, Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, that
the meeting, tentatively set for September 21, was not "quite
settled" although "the vast majority of council members want
it."
"I don't think the intention is to come up with concrete
solutions but really to discuss the issue and raise awareness of
the urgency of tackling outstanding peace issues in the region
as well as perhaps asking the council to come up a mechanism or
commission a report that will make recommendations as to how to
proceed in the future."
To avoid further unrest in the region, the UN chief urged more
transparency from Iran on its nuclear ambitions.
"We cannot afford another crisis in this region," he said. "I
appeal to the Iranians to ...lift the cloud of uncertainty
surrounding their (nuclear) program, so hopefully this will be
done."
He noted that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Tehran's
top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani held constructive talks last
Saturday and said he hoped their next meeting "will be equally
fruitful."
The next Solana-Larijani gathering had been scheduled for
Thursday but the two men decided Wednesday that only their
"representatives" would meet Thursday in Paris.
"The representatives need to do some more work," Solana's
spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said, and then Solana and Larijani
would speak again to decide when they could meet.
"I don't think confrontation is in anyone's interest," Annan
said. "The best solution is a negotiated one."
Solana is negotiating with the Iranians in the name of six major
powers -- the five permanent UN Security Council members and
Germany -- to coax Tehran to accept political and economic
incentives to suspend uranium enrichment as demanded by the UN
Security Council.
Annan said the main problem was a lack of trust between Iran,
which has refused to comply with the UN demand for a freeze, and
the West, which suspects Tehran is seeking a covert nuclear
weapons capability.
Iran denies the charge and maintains that its nuclear program is
strictly civilian and solely designed to generate electricity.
Turning to strife-torn Darfur, the UN chief reiterated his
appeal to Khartoum to reconsider its opposition to the
deployment of a 20,000-strong UN force in the region in western
Sudan.
He said the issue was "complicated one" that would take time to
resolve.
Commenting on his at times testy relations with Washington,
notably soured by his opposition to the Iraq war, Annan said he
worked "very well" with US President George W. Bush" />
President George W. Bushand Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice"
/> Condoleezza Rice.
"My relations with the (US) administration is good," he noted.
"I cannot say my relations with everybody in Washington is
good."
The secretary general said he had no plan to stay on when his
second five-year term expires at the end of December.
He encouraged UN member states to find a successor "as soon as
possible."
Recommend It: Not at All Somewhat
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
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2 [NYTr] China Warns Against Threats to Iran
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 19:53:25 -0500 (CDT)
X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com
China Warns: No Threats to Iran
Berlin, Sept 14 (Prensa Latina) China4s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao denounced
the possible imposition of international sanctions against Iran due to its
refusal to abandon nuclear fuel production.
China called for caution, and to resolve the issue, recalling that
sanctions will not attain this goal (...) we would not approve of Iran
developing nuclear arms nor that stability and peace be disturbed, he said.
The statements precede the meeting of EU Foreign Affairs and Security
Minister Javier Solana and Iranian Negotiator Ali Larijani in Geneva.
Solana represents the Group of Six, the countries with veto power in the
Security Council plus Germany, that offered Iran economic and nuclear
advantages to quit its N-program to generate electricity, it maintains it
requires to boost the economy.
Wen and his host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, attended a press
conference on matters of bilateral interest and Chinese domestic policies,
among them human rights and freedom of the press.
PM Wen's visit to Germany is part of a tour that included Tadzhikistan,
Finland and Britain.
ef/ccs/emw/hav
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3 [NYTr] IAEA Calls US Iran Report "Outrageous and Dishonest"
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:34:25 -0400 (EDT)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Reuters via Truthout - Sep 14, 2006
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091406F.shtml
IAEA Protests "Erroneous" US Report on Iran
By Mark Heinrich
Vienna - U.N. inspectors have protested to the U.S. government and a
Congressional committee about a report on Iran's nuclear work, calling
parts of it "outrageous and dishonest", according to a letter obtained
by Reuters.
The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA and the Bush
administration before the 2003 Iraq war over findings cited by
Washington about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that proved false,
and underlined continued tensions over Iran's dossier.
Sent to the head of the House of Representatives' Select Committee
on Intelligence by a senior aide to International Atomic Energy Agency
chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the letter said an August 23 committee report
contained serious distortions of IAEA findings on Iran's activity.
The letter said the errors suggested Iran's nuclear fuel program was
much more advanced than a series of IAEA reports and Washington's own
intelligence assessments have determined.
It said the report falsely described Iran to have enriched uranium
at its pilot centrifuge plant to weapons-grade level in April, whereas
IAEA inspectors had made clear Iran had enriched only to a low level
usable for nuclear power reactor fuel.
"Furthermore, the IAEA Secretariat takes strong exception to the
incorrect and misleading assertion" that the IAEA opted to remove a
senior safeguards inspector for supposedly concluding the purpose of
Iran's program was to build weapons, it said.
The letter said the congressional report contained "an outrageous
and dishonest suggestion" that the inspector was dumped for having not
adhered to an alleged IAEA policy barring its "officials from telling
the whole truth" about Iran.
Diplomats say the inspector remains IAEA Iran section head.
The IAEA has been inspecting Iran's nuclear program since 2003.
Although it has found no hard evidence that Iran is working on atomic
weapons, it has uncovered many previously concealed activities linked to
uranium enrichment, a process of purifying fuel for nuclear power plants
or weapons.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said: "We felt obliged to put the
record straight with regard to the facts on what we have reported on
Iran. It's a matter of the integrity of the IAEA."
Diplomats say Washington, spearheading efforts to isolate Iran with
sanctions over its nuclear work, has long perceived ElBaradei to be
"soft" on Tehran.
"This (committee report) is deja vu of the pre-Iraq war period where
the facts are being maligned and attempts are being made to ruin the
integrity of IAEA inspectors," said a Western diplomat familiar with the
agency and IAEA-U.S. relations.
*
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4 [NYTr] IAEA Calls US Iran Report "Outrageous and Dishonest"
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:37:48 -0500 (CDT)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Reuters via Truthout - Sep 14, 2006
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091406F.shtml
IAEA Protests "Erroneous" US Report on Iran
By Mark Heinrich
Vienna - U.N. inspectors have protested to the U.S. government and a
Congressional committee about a report on Iran's nuclear work, calling
parts of it "outrageous and dishonest", according to a letter obtained
by Reuters.
The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA and the Bush
administration before the 2003 Iraq war over findings cited by
Washington about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that proved false,
and underlined continued tensions over Iran's dossier.
Sent to the head of the House of Representatives' Select Committee
on Intelligence by a senior aide to International Atomic Energy Agency
chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the letter said an August 23 committee report
contained serious distortions of IAEA findings on Iran's activity.
The letter said the errors suggested Iran's nuclear fuel program was
much more advanced than a series of IAEA reports and Washington's own
intelligence assessments have determined.
It said the report falsely described Iran to have enriched uranium
at its pilot centrifuge plant to weapons-grade level in April, whereas
IAEA inspectors had made clear Iran had enriched only to a low level
usable for nuclear power reactor fuel.
"Furthermore, the IAEA Secretariat takes strong exception to the
incorrect and misleading assertion" that the IAEA opted to remove a
senior safeguards inspector for supposedly concluding the purpose of
Iran's program was to build weapons, it said.
The letter said the congressional report contained "an outrageous
and dishonest suggestion" that the inspector was dumped for having not
adhered to an alleged IAEA policy barring its "officials from telling
the whole truth" about Iran.
Diplomats say the inspector remains IAEA Iran section head.
The IAEA has been inspecting Iran's nuclear program since 2003.
Although it has found no hard evidence that Iran is working on atomic
weapons, it has uncovered many previously concealed activities linked to
uranium enrichment, a process of purifying fuel for nuclear power plants
or weapons.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said: "We felt obliged to put the
record straight with regard to the facts on what we have reported on
Iran. It's a matter of the integrity of the IAEA."
Diplomats say Washington, spearheading efforts to isolate Iran with
sanctions over its nuclear work, has long perceived ElBaradei to be
"soft" on Tehran.
"This (committee report) is deja vu of the pre-Iraq war period where
the facts are being maligned and attempts are being made to ruin the
integrity of IAEA inspectors," said a Western diplomat familiar with the
agency and IAEA-U.S. relations.
*
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5 Guardian Unlimited: Chavez Vows Aid for Iran Against Attack
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday September 14, 2006 11:16 PM
AP Photo XRC110
HAVANA (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pledged Thursday
that Venezuela will support Iran if it is invaded as a result of
the Middle Eastern nation's high-stakes nuclear standoff with
the United Nations Security Council.
``Iran is under threat; there are plans to invade Iran,
hopefully it won't happen, but we are with you,'' Chavez told
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a meeting of the Group
of 15 developing nations.
The U.N. has demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment amid
concerns by some nations that it could be used for nuclear
weapons. Iran insists that its enrichment efforts are peaceful,
aimed solely at producing electrical energy.
Chavez said Venezuela stands with Iran in this time of crisis,
just as it has with Cuba, where Fidel Castro handed over power
to Raul while recovering from intestinal surgery. If they don't
defend each other, no one else will, Chavez said.
``Under any scenario we are with you just like we are with
Cuba,'' Chavez said. ``If the United States invades Cuba, blood
will run... We will not have our arms crossed while bombs are
falling in Havana or they carry Raul off in a plane.''
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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6 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA: U.S. Report on Iran 'Dishonest'
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday September 15, 2006 12:16 AM
AP Photo VIE105
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A recent House of Representatives
committee report on Iran's nuclear capability is ``outrageous
and dishonest'' in trying to make a case that Tehran's program
is geared toward making weapons, a senior official of the U.N.
nuclear watchdog has said.
The letter, obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday outside
a 35-nation board meeting of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, says the report is false in saying Iran is making
weapons-grade uranium at an experimental enrichment site, when
it has in fact produced material only in small quantities that
is far below the level that can be used in nuclear arms.
The letter, which was first reported on by The Washington Post,
also says the report erroneously says that IAEA chief Mohamed
ElBaradei removed a senior nuclear inspector from the team
investigating Iran's nuclear program ``for concluding that the
purpose of Iran's nuclear program is to construct weapons.''
In fact, the inspector was sidelined on Tehran's request, and
the Islamic republic had a right to ask for a replacement under
agreements that govern all states relationships with the agency,
said the letter, calling the report's version ``incorrect and
misleading.''
``In addition,'' says the letter, ``the report contains an
outrageous and dishonest suggestion that such removal might have
been for 'not having adhered to an unstated IAEA policy barring
IAEA officials from telling the whole truth about the Iranian
nuclear program.'''
Dated Aug. 12, the letter was addressed to Rep. Peter Hoekstra,
chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence. It was signed by Vilmos Cserveny, a senior
director of the Vienna-based agency.
An IAEA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he
was not authorized to comment on the letter, said it was written
``to set the record straight.''
Jamal Ware, a spokesman for the House committee, confirmed they
had received the letter and said the chairman had referred it to
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Rep. Rush Hold, D-N.J. They will
review it and issue a formal response if necessary, he said.
``All IAEA complains about is a photo caption. If you read the
report, it's very clear that what it is saying is that Iran is
working to develop the capability to enrich uranium to weapons
grade, not that they have done so,'' Ware said. ``They use a
string of adjectives, while not pointing to any substantive
criticism of the report. There are areas where we would disagree
with them. A disagreement does not make what we say erroneous.''
The dispute was reminiscent of the clashes between the IAEA and
Washington over whether Saddam Hussein was trying to make
weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms. American
arguments that Saddam had such covert arms programs were given
as the chief reason for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam.
ElBaradei's criticism of the U.S. standpoint on Iraq and
subsequent perceptions that he was soft on Iran in his staff's
investigation of suspicions Tehran's nuclear activities may be a
cover for a weapons program led to a failed attempt last year by
Washington to prevent his re-election.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
7 Guardian Unlimited: Elie Wiesel Calls on U.N. to Expel Iran
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday September 14, 2006 5:46 PM
NEW YORK (AP)- Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel says Iran
should be expelled from the United Nations.
``I began a campaign for the expulsion of Iran from the U.N. and
the declaration of its president as a persona non grata all over
the world because he threatens a member state of destruction,''
the Holocaust survivor said Thursday in a telephone interview
with The Associated Press.
Iran announced April 11 that it had enriched a small quantity of
uranium, fueling international concerns that it is well on the
way to developing an atomic bomb. The country insists its
nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to
be ``wiped off the map'' and has dismissed the Holocaust as a
myth.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
8 Guardian Unlimited: Iran and European Union Postpone Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday September 14, 2006 4:16 AM
AP Photo VIE107
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The European Union's foreign policy chief
and Iran's top nuclear negotiator on Wednesday abruptly
postponed talks on easing tensions over the refusal of the
Tehran regime to suspend uranium enrichment.
Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy official
Javier Solana, did not say what prompted the decision to
downgrade Thursday's meeting in Paris to the level of aides to
Solana and Ali Larijani, Iran's senior nuclear negotiator.
But the decision of the two principals to stay away from what
would have been their third meeting in a week suggested snags
had developed from their direct contacts over the weekend.
The absence of Solana and Larijani was bound to dampen high
expectations for the meeting. Their two sessions in Vienna had
been described by both men as making progress toward solving the
impasse over Tehran's defiance of a U.N. Security Council that
it freeze enrichment.
Members of delegations familiar with the outcome of the talks
Saturday and Sunday had said Iran suggested it was ready to
consider suspending enrichment for up to two months.
But the officials also told The Associated Press that Iran
continued to refuse pressure to stop enrichment before talks
with a six-nation alliance meant to resolve the nuclear
standoff, even though those nations conditioned starting
negotiations on a freeze.
In Dakar Senegal, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said
Thursday that his country's nuclear standoff with the West can
be solved through dialogue, and called for unspecified ``new
conditions'' in negotiations.
Ahmedinejad, on an hours-long stopover in Senegal en route to
Cuba for a summit of the Nonaligned Movement, said the debate
over Iranian nuclear enrichment could be solved peacefully.
``We're partisans of dialogue and negotiation. We believe that
we can resolve our problems in a space of dialogue and justice -
together,'' he told reporters.
Oil-rich Iran says it needs uranium enrichment to produce fuel
for nuclear reactors that would generate electricity. Enrichment
can also create material for atomic bombs, however, and the
United States and other nations suspect that is Tehran's real
goal.
Gallach, the EU spokeswoman, said the results of the meeting
Thursday would be reported to Iran's capital and EU headquarters
before a decision on scheduling further talks between Solana and
Larijani.
In a telephone call from the EU offices in Brussels, Belgium,
Gallach said the two aides meeting Thursday - EU negotiator
Robert Cooper and Javad Vaeidi, deputy head of Iran's powerful
National Security Council - had also held talks in Vienna on
Tuesday.
Different interpretations of what was achieved at the weekend
talks were reflected earlier in the day.
In moderate language, Britain, France and Germany only alluded
to the threat of Security Council sanctions if Iran continues to
enrich uranium and called on the Tehran regime to negotiate the
dispute with the international community.
The United States, in contrast, said it was time for the council
``to back international diplomacy with sanctions.''
The relatively soft tone of the European statement at a meeting
of the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency
appeared focused on keeping confrontation low a day ahead of
what then was still thought to be a Solana-Larijani meeting.
Diplomats accredited to the IAEA meeting, who agreed to discuss
the matter only if granted anonymity, said that while France and
Britain favored a tougher approach, Germany wanted a more
toned-down text.
The need for bargaining among the Europeans - and the sharper
tone of the U.S. statement - reflected uncertainties about
Iranian intentions after Tehran suggested during the talks
Sunday that it was ready to consider a short-term enrichment
freeze.
``We continue to extend an open hand to Iran,'' the European
statement said. It added that if Iran met the demand on
enrichment, ``we will ask to suspend action in the Security
Council.''
The three said the Solana-Larijani meetings had ``helped clarify
some misunderstandings.''
But the chief U.S. delegate, Gregory L. Schulte, accused Iran of
``a history of deception, lack of transparency, provocative
behavior and disregard for its international obligations.''
``The time has come for the Security Council to back
international diplomacy with international sanctions,'' he said.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will take up the sanctions
issue with other diplomats when the U.N. General Assembly meets
next week in New York.
The five permanent members of the Security Council - the U.S.,
Britain, France, Russia and China - along with Germany have
offered Iran economic and political rewards if it agrees to
consider a long-term moratorium on enrichment and commits to an
enrichment freeze before talks to discuss details of their
package.
Reflecting differences over how to deal with Tehran, they gave
up an attempt to jointly criticize Iran's defiance Tuesday,
after China and Russia refused to endorse U.S.-backed tough
language, diplomats said.
Those two countries have resisted U.S.-led efforts to move to
sanctions quickly, despite the passing of the Security Council's
Aug. 31 deadline for Iran to freeze work on developing
enrichment technology. They favor continued negotiations.
---
Associated Press writer Palma Benczenleitner contributed to this
report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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9 Guardian Unlimited: Top Iranian Envoy Praises Early EU Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday September 14, 2006 2:31 PM
AP Photo VIE108
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A senior Iranian envoy on Thursday called
contacts between Tehran and the European Union a ``step in the
right direction'' in resolving the standoff over his country's
refusal to freeze uranium enrichment and accused the U.S. of
trying to sabotage the talks.
Ali Ashgar Soltanieh spoke as senior EU and Iranian
representatives prepared for a new round of talks later in the
day in Paris on the nuclear impasse.
Only ``the continuation of dialogue and negotiations free from
any kind of threat, pressure or any preconditions can pave the
way'' to a negotiated solution, Soltanieh told a meeting of the
Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation
board.
Also Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the
nuclear standoff can be solved through dialogue, while calling
for unspecified ``new conditions'' in negotiations.
Ahmedinejad, on a stopover in Dakar, Senegal, en route to Cuba
for a summit of the Nonaligned Movement, said the debate over
enrichment could be solved peacefully.
``We're partisans of dialogue and negotiation. We believe that
we can resolve our problems in a space of dialogue and justice -
together,'' he told reporters.
``I must announce, we're available, we're ready for new
conditions'' in talks, he said without elaborating. Ahmadinejad
spoke in Farsi, with his comments interpreted into French.
Soltanieh said talks up to now have been positive, ``even though
the U.S. poisoned the positive environment'' before the first
EU-Iran meeting through ``unfounded allegations'' suggesting
Iran was trying to make nuclear weapons.
He dismissed U.S. suggestions that Washington's push for U.N.
sanctions against Iran was part of the diplomatic process,
saying the Americans had also described their ``unilateral
military invasion in Iraq as 'multinational democracy.'''
Both sides described as positive talks that ended Sunday between
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Ali Larijani, Iran's
chief nuclear negotiator. Officials in delegations familiar with
the outcome of their talks said Larijani had suggested his
country was ready to consider an enrichment freeze for up to two
months.
But they later said the Iranian suggestion fell short of demands
by the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany
that Iran impose the freeze before negotiations begin on
resolving the nuclear standoff. The six countries are leading
the push to persuade Iran to stop enrichment.
In a possible indication of snags in their talks, Solana and
Larijani on Wednesday abruptly postponed plans to attend the
meeting in Paris, downgrading it to the level of their aids.
There was no official explanation for the decision.
But a European official who requested anonymity in exchange for
divulging confidential information told the AP that there was
``nothing sinister'' about the move. ``There are details to be
worked on and that's best done at the senior expert level,'' the
official said.
Asked about enrichment, Soltanieh told reporters: ``such a
matter had not been discussed.'' But a senior diplomat familiar
with the talks told The Associated Press the subject had
surfaced during two rounds of talks between Solana and Larijani.
Soltanieh said negotiations were going well. ``Everything is on
the right track,'' he said.
Iran insists it has a right to develop its enrichment program as
a way to generate electricity, but there is increased concern it
wants to make weapons-grade uranium for nuclear warheads. The
U.S. has called for swift economic and political sanctions
against Tehran.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also suggested that Iran had
raised the possibility of suspending enrichment. ``They are now
saying that let's negotiate, so suspension will be on the
agenda, and may be possible during the negotiations,'' he told
reporters in New York.
Reflecting different interpretations on the progress of talks,
key European nations urged Iran to negotiate, while Washington
said the time had come to punish Tehran with U.N. sanctions.
In moderate language, Britain, France and Germany only alluded
to the threat of Security Council sanctions. The United States,
in contrast, said it was now up to the council ``to back
international diplomacy with sanctions.''
The three European nations, along with Russia, China and the
United States, are offering Iran economic and political rewards
if it agrees to consider a long-term moratorium on enrichment
and commits to an enrichment freeze before talks to discuss
details of their package.
Underscoring differences over how to deal with Tehran, the six
gave up their attempts to join together in criticizing Iran's
nuclear defiance at the IAEA meeting after China and Russia
refused to endorse U.S.-backed tough language, diplomats said.
In Berlin, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao reiterated his
opposition to imposing sanctions against Iran, saying a solution
could still be reached through negotiations.
``Our goal is to find a solution to the Iranian nuclear problem,
but sanctions do not necessarily lead to this goal, they can
also achieve the opposite,'' Wen said through a translator after
a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
---
Associated Press writer Palma Benczenleitner contributed to this
report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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10 Reuters: IAEA protests "erroneous" U.S. report on Iran
Friday September 15, 6:51 AM
VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. inspectors have protested to the U.S.
government and a congressional committee about a report on
Iran's nuclear work, calling parts of it "outrageous and
dishonest," according to a letter obtained by Reuters.
The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA and the Bush
administration before the 2003 Iraq war over findings cited by
Washington about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that proved
false, and underlined tensions over Iran's dossier.
Sent to Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, Republican chairman of
the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, by a senior aide to International Atomic Energy
Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the letter said an Aug. 23
committee report contained serious distortions of IAEA findings
on Iran's activity.
The letter said the errors suggested Iran's nuclear fuel program
was much more advanced than a series of IAEA reports and
Washington's own intelligence assessments had determined.
House committee spokesman Jamal Ware admitted a caption to a
photo of the Natanz facility said incorrectly that Iran had
produced weapons-grade material. He dismissed the error, saying
it was not part of the body of the report.
"There's nothing substantive here. They complain about a photo
caption and the other things are issues we apparently disagree
on," Ware said in Washington. "There are no errors in the
report."
The committee will decide whether to respond to the IAEA letter,
he said.
The 29-page report was authored by the staff of a panel
subcommittee and was never discussed or voted on by the full
21-member House Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Jane Harman of California, the panel's senior Democrat,
advised party colleagues in an e-mail the report employed
"analytical shortcuts" that presented Iran as a more dire threat
than it is, aides said.
TAKING EXCEPTION
The IAEA letter said the agency secretariat took "strong
exception to the incorrect and misleading assertion" that the
IAEA opted to remove a senior safeguards inspector for
supposedly concluding the purpose of Iran's program was to build
weapons.
The congressional report contained "an outrageous and dishonest
suggestion" the inspector was dumped for having not adhered to
an alleged IAEA policy barring its "officials from telling the
whole truth" about Iran, said the letter.
Diplomats say the inspector remains IAEA Iran section head.
Ware said report findings were based on discussions among
committee staff and a variety of sources including IAEA staff
members.
"This isn't erroneous. Our staff heard there was pressure to
remove him because of concern about statements he made publicly
about Iran's pursuit of weapons," he said.
The IAEA has been inspecting Iran's nuclear program since 2003.
Although it has found no hard evidence Iran is working on atomic
weapons, it has uncovered many activities linked to uranium
enrichment, a process of purifying fuel for nuclear power plants
or weapons.
Diplomats say Washington, spearheading efforts to isolate Iran
with sanctions over its nuclear work, has long perceived
ElBaradei to be "soft" on Tehran.
(Additional reporting by David Morgan in Washington)
Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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11 BBC: US Iran report branded dishonest
Last Updated: Thursday, 14 September 2006
[Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tours the Natanz nuclear
plant (file photo)]
Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes
The UN nuclear watchdog has protested to the US government over a
report on Iran's nuclear programme, calling it "erroneous" and
"misleading".
In a leaked letter, the IAEA said a congressional report
contained serious distortions of the agency's own findings on
Iran's nuclear activity.
The IAEA also took "strong exception" to claims made over the
removal of a senior safeguards inspector.
There was no immediate comment from Washington over the letter.
But Rep Rush Holt, a Democratic member of the House intelligence
committee, which released the report, said it had never been
meant for release to the public.
"This report was not ready for prime time and it was not prepared
in a way that we can rely on. It relied heavily on unclassified
testimony," he told the BBC's PM programme.
'Deja vu'
Signed by a senior director at the International Atomic Energy
Agency, Vilmos Cserveny, the letter raises objections over the
committee's report released on 23 August.
It says the report was wrong to say that Iran had enriched
uranium to weapons-grade level when the IAEA had only found small
quantities of enrichment at far lower levels.
READ THE REPORT US report on Iran's nuclear programme [689KB]
IAEA (UN) response to US report [227KB]
The letter took "strong exception to the incorrect and misleading
assertion" that the IAEA removed senior safeguards inspector
Chris Charlier for "allegedly raising concerns about Iranian
deception" over its programme.
It said Mr Charlier had been removed at the request of Tehran,
which has the right to make such an objection under agreed rules
between the agency and all states.
He remains head of a section investigating Iran, the IAEA says.
The letter went on to brand "outrageous and dishonest" a
suggestion in the report that he was removed for not adhering "to
an unstated IAEA policy barring IAEA officials from telling the
whole truth" about Iran.
The letter, sent to Peter Hoekstra, head of the House of
Representatives' Select Committee on Intelligence, was aimed at
setting "the record straight on the facts", the IAEA said.
"This is a matter of the integrity of the IAEA and its
inspectors," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in a statement.
A Western diplomat called it "deja vu of the pre-Iraq
war period".
The IAEA and the US clashed over intelligence that Saddam Hussein
had weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the war in Iraq
in March 2003.
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12 Xinhua: Iran ready for "new conditions" on nuclear dispute
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-14 12:25:15
DAKAR, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said here early Thursday that his country was ready
for the "new conditions" on its nuclear issue and he believed
talks would resolve the dispute.
During a midnight press conference, Ahmadinejad, who was
visiting Senegal, told reporters through a translator that Iran
supported dialogue and negotiations and believed the nuclear
dispute could be resolved in this way.
"We are ready for new conditions," the president said,
without elaborating.
On possible sanctions Washington has been pushing the United
Nations to impose on the Islamic republic, the president said
there would be no sanctions since there were no reasons for
sanctions.
Ahmadinejad would fly to Cuba to attend a Non-Aligned
Movement summit in Havana scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
Iran's nuclear issue came to a standoff after Tehran refused
to stop uranium enrichment by Aug. 31, a deadline set by the UN
Security Council in Resolution 1696.
A scheduled meeting between the European Union foreign
policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali
Larijani, slated for Thursday, has also been postponed without
giving reasons.
Solana had wanted to hold talks with Larijani to clarity
Iran's ambiguity on its response to a package of incentives,
offered by Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and
Germany.
Iran has virtually rejected the package, which promised
economic and technical incentives if Iran suspended enrichment,
but said at the same time it would welcome more talks.
The United States has accused Iran of seeking to develop
nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program, a charge
repeatedly denied by Tehran.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is aimed at generating
electricity to meet its surging domestic demand.
Editor: Yao Runping
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13 AFP: Ahmadinejad in Havana as NAM backs Iran in nuclear row
by Patrick Moser Thu Sep 14, 6:31 PM ET
HAVANA (AFP) - Iran" /> 's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held
talks with developing country leaders at a summit in Havana,
where he drew firm backing for Tehran in the tense standoff over
its nuclear program.
His trip to Havana came as the United States pushed for
sanctions against Iran, which has ignored an August 31 UN
deadline to stop enriching uranium.
As his delegation lobbied for further support from the 118 NAM
member states, Ahmadinejad held meetings with several of his
counterparts on the sidelines of the September 11-17 Non-Aligned
Movement meeting.
He drew strong backing from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
during a summit of 18 developing countries (G-15) held in
parallel to the NAM gathering Thursday. "I don't want to leave
here until there is decisive support for Iran," the South
American leader said.
Earlier in the day, Chavez visited his convalescing ally and
mentor Fidel Castro" /> , 80, who hasn't been seen in public
since he underwent surgery and temporarily ceded power to his
brother Raul in July.
"Fidel is more alive than ever," Chavez said after the visit.
It was not immediately clear whether Cuba's communist strongman
would also receive Ahmadinejad, but his government has expressed
strong support for Iran, and Raul Castro, 75, attended
Thursday's summit.
Leaders of the NAM countries were expected to adopt a statement
which stresses Iran's right to acquire and use nuclear energy
and technology for peaceful means.
Ahmadinejad told his counterparts that "some countries are
putting hurdles" in the way of progress in order to keep
developing countries dependent and "exert political pressure" --
a thinly-veiled reference to US-led efforts to get Iran to stop
producing enriched uranium.
Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in
Havana that Tehran was willing "to resume the negotiations
without any preconditions with the interested countries to
clarify outstanding issues."
But in Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow insisted Iran
must first "suspend enrichment and reprocessing activities and
we'll talk."
Nuclear powers India and Pakistan were also expected to play a
key role during the NAM's meeting of national leaders on Friday
and Saturday.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf planned to meet on the sidelines of the summit
in a bid to restart negotiations on the decades-old conflict
over Kashmir" /> , a Himalayan territory shared by the two
countries but claimed in its entirety by both.
The negotiations have been stalled since bomb attacks in Mumbai
killed 183 people in July. New Delhi had pointed the finger at
Islamabad and a Pakistan-backed Islamic rebel group for the
blasts.
Several of the speakers at ministerial meetings ahead of the
full summit insisted that the NAM, created at the height of the
Cold War, remained relevant as a tool for developing nations to
counter US global might.
Israel" /> also came under sharp attack for what a draft
statement called "excessive and indiscriminate force, targeted
attacks and extrajudicial executions" in the Palestinian
territories and for its recent military offensive in southern
Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the summit was abuzz with speculation that Castro,
who cherishes the international spotlight, might show up despite
his ill health, though Cuban authorities remained mum on the
subject.
An Argentine lawmaker who met Castro on Wednesday quoted him as
saying he had regained much of the weight he had lost since his
operation, adding that the Cuban leader can once again speak in
a loud voice fit for speeches.
"I lost 41 pounds (18.6 kilos) ... But I'm putting the weight
back on. Nearly half what I lost already," Miguel Bonasso,
writing in Argentina's Pagina12 daily, quoted Castro as saying.
Raul Castro, who has kept a very low profile for weeks, took
part Thursday in a summit of the Group of 15 developing
countries held on the sidelines of the NAM gathering.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
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14 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Spokesman slams America's allegation
2006/09/14
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on
Wednesday that occupying forces blame other countries for the
insurgency in Iraq thus helping terrorists hide themselves under
such baseless allegations.
He said that such allegations cannot influence the excellent and
brotherly relations between IRI and Iraq and the visit to Tehran
of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is indication of cordial
relations between the two countries.
Hosseini dismissed the statement of White House Spokesman
accusing IRI of supporting insurgents in Iraq and said that the
Islamic Republic of Iran supports democratically-elected Iraqi
government.
He said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reaffirmed to Iraqi
Prime Minister that Iranian nation and government back the Iraqi
government and nation in its efforts towards reconstruction.
The Spokesman said that during the two-day visit of Iraqi Prime
Minister to Tehran, respective officials agreed to cooperate on
trade, transport, energy and development projects.
He hoped that Tehran-Baghdad cooperation would help peace and
stability in Iraq as well as the progress of the neighboring
country.
M/D
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir
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15 AFP: US: Fight for sanctions on Iran will be tough, take weeks -
Thu Sep 14, 4:03 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States acknowledged that it will
face tough resistance from some of its key allies as it presses
for UN sanctions against Iran" /> over its suspect nuclear
program.
Iran's refusal to comply with UN demands that it suspend
uranium enrichment activities some fear could produce nuclear
weapons is set to feature high on the agenda when world leaders
gather in New York next week for the UN General Assembly.
US officials have for weeks been expressing strong confidence
that the permanent Security Council members -- Britain, China,
France, Russia and the United States -- will swiftly reach
agreement on political and economic sanctions designed to force
Tehran to abandon its enrichment program.
Such sanctions were called for in a Security Council resolution
adopted in July, which gave Iran until August 31 to freeze its
enrichment activity -- a demand Tehran ignored.
But with some Security Council partners increasingly reticent to
go down the path of sanctions, State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack admitted Thursday that the upcoming negotiations would
be "hard-fought."
"The reality of it is that there are going to be intense
negotiations on this," he said.
McCormack predicted the process of trying to hammer out a
sanctions package with the other Security Council members "would
take weeks," a far less ambitious timetable than put forward
earlier by Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who said a
deal would be reached in September.
But McCormack continued to express confidence Washington's
allies would ultimately back the sanctions foreshadowed in their
earlier resolution.
"Our diplomatic interactions indicate that while this will be
complex, sometimes hard-fought diplomacy, that we will, in fact,
end up with a Security Council resolution that includes
sanctions," he said.
Earlier Thursday, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy
issued a thinly veiled warning to Washington and Britain -- the
other staunch advocate of sanctions -- that pressing too hard
for sanctions could fracture the coalition confronting Iran.
"If one or two of the permanent members of the Security Council
fail to uphold this dialogue, and there is a growing drive -- on
either side -- towards confrontation, the international
community would split," he said.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also warned on Thursday that imposing
sanctions on Iran could have the "opposite effect" of hardening
Iran's stance in the showdown.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> has said Washington
wants the sanctions to be imposed in a graduated manner to build
pressure on Iran to give up its enrichment program and accept
international offers to help it develop a monitored civilian
nuclear power industry.
Rice confirmed Wednesday that she will meet her fellow foreign
ministers from the permanent Security Council members plus
Germany on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting in New
York to discuss the sanctions.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
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16 AFP: Iran to answer US charges that is should face nuclear sanctions
by Michael Adler Thu Sep 14, 4:28 AM ET
VIENNA (AFP) - Iran" /> Iranis expected to answer US charges that
it should face UN sanctions for defying calls to suspend uranium
enrichment at a meeting Thursday of the watchdog International
Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency.
"We will not leave anything unanswered," Iranian ambassador to
the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh told AFP.
Soltanieh said he would address Thursday's meeting of the IAEA's
35-nation board of governors, after US ambassador Gregory
Schulte had Wednesday told the board that "Iran's refusal to
suspend and its refusal to cooperate is a choice of
confrontation over one of negotiation."
Schulte said "this course would bring no reward but result in
further isolation and sanctions."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in Senegal
that he doubted the UN Security Council would impose sanctions
over his country's nuclear program, which Western countries fear
aims to build atomic weapons.
"We are supporters of dialogue and negotiation and we believe
that the problem can be solved through the legal framework. I
don't believe there will be sanctions because there is no reason
for sanctions," Ahmadinejad told journalists.
Iran is ready to resume unconditional negotiations on the
standoff over its nuclear program, its Foreign Minister
Manoucher Mottaki said at a Non-Aligned Movement summit in
Havana Wednesday.
Schulte and European speakers had Wednesday urged Iran to choose
negotiations over UN sanctions, but said the key to this was
Tehran first suspending enrichment.
EU-Iran talks stalled Thursday, when a meeting planned between
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear
negotiator Ali Larijani was postponed. Only their aides will
meet in Paris, Solana's spokeswoman said.
Solana and Larijani had held talks described as "constructive"
last weekend in Vienna, raising hopes that they might lead to
formal negotiations between Iran and six nations seeking a way
out of the nuclear crisis.
The United States, which charges that Iran is engaged in secret
work to make nuclear weapons, is pushing for UN sanctions
against Iran for failing to honor a UN resolution that set an
August 31 deadline for Tehran to halt the enrichment acitivity.
Schulte said the Larijani-Solana talks were "not negotiations"
but an "an effort by Dr. Solana on behalf of the six countries
to clarify Iran's position and we support this open line of
communication."
But Iran must suspend uranium enrichment, Schulte said, adding:
"That's what's critical now. We're interested in more than
words. We're interested in actions. Actions to comply with the
Security Council resolutions."
Finland, speaking for the 25 European Union" /> European
Unionstates at the IAEA, said Iran had to suspend enrichment,
not as "a voluntary confidence-building measure, but as an
international obligation".
The six nations failed to agree Tuesday on a joint statement on
Iran at the IAEA meeting because "the United States was too
tough" and Russia and China did not want the word "sanctions"
mentioned, a Western diplomat told AFP.
However, Schulte told AFP that the six remained united in
seeking "a full and verified suspension and that means that we
would expect all the enrichment activities to be suspended".
Larijani had offered to consider a temporary halt in uranium
enrichment in talks with Solana in Vienna last Saturday,
diplomats said.
But they noted that this was only an offer to consider a halt,
not to implement it, and that there were conditions attached --
such as the UN ceasing action against Iran -- which made it
unacceptable to the West.
A Western diplomat said Russia and China want to see how the
Larijani-Solana talks play out.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
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17 AFP: Iranian ambassador challenges his US counterpart to nuclear debate -
Thu Sep 14, 7:25 AM ET
VIENNA (AFP) - Iran" /> Iran's ambassador to the UN nuclear
watchdog has challenged his US counterpart to an "open-ended"
debate on Washington's call for sanctions against the Iranian
nuclear program.
"I am fully prepared . . . to have comprehensive review to
technical, legal, security and political aspects in an
open-ended meeting in a debate with the US ambassador in order
to prove . . . that allegations are baseless and the Islamic
Republic of Iran is (the) victim of neglect, discrimination and
double standards," Ali Asghar Soltanieh told a meeting of the
International Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic
Energy Agencyin Vienna.
Soltanieh's challenge echoed Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad call on US President George W. Bush" /> President
George W. Bushto a debate.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
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18 Reuters: Iran says atom deal possible only without threats
By Mark Heinrich Thu Sep 14, 6:54 AM ET
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran" /> urged world powers on Thursday to
take up its call for talks without preconditions on its nuclear
activity and condemned U.N. Security Council" /> intervention as
based on "ridiculous ... political motivations."
Aliasghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic
Energy Agency" /> , spoke to the IAEA's 35-nation governing
board after Washington accused Tehran of "aggressively" seeking
atomic bombs under the guise of a civilian nuclear fuel project.
Diplomats said Iran tentatively offered to consider halting
enrichment of uranium in talks with the European Union" /> last
weekend aimed at finding a basis for negotiations on an offer of
trade incentives to Tehran to drop its program.
But the United States, convinced Iran is playing for time,
called during IAEA board debate on Wednesday for swift drafting
of punitive sanctions against Iran in the Security Council this
month.
Soltanieh told the board Iran was genuinely interested in a
negotiated solution but Washington was trying to undermine the
atmosphere for good-faith talks.
"If there is a political will on the other side, (our) response
would be the basis on which one could pave the way for an
immediate solution through dialogue and negotiation ... free
from any threat, pressure or any precondition," he said.
He called on the Security Council to return Iran's nuclear
dossier to the IAEA and urged six world powers to "commence
negotiations without any preconditions or further delay."
A legally binding Security Council resolution sponsored by the
United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China
demands Iran halt enrichment work before negotiations to rebuild
trust in its nuclear intentions.
Soltanieh accused the United States of trying to poison the
"positive environment" for exploratory talks between Iran
negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana with "baseless allegations" of an Iranian bomb bid.
"The decision to refer Iran's nuclear dossier to the Security
Council was based on ridiculous, non-technical political
motivations and not as a result of diversion of nuclear
materials to prohibited purposes," he said.
IAEA inspectors probing the nature and scope of Iran's nuclear
program since 2003 have found many indications of military
involvement and past cover-ups of sensitive nuclear research,
but no hard proof of an underground weapons project.
Soltanieh reiterated Iran's position that its nuclear activity
is entirely peaceful.
(Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in Vienna)
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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19 UPI: U.N.: Mutual mistrust blocking Iran deal
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence -
9/13/2006 10:56:00 PM -0400
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan Wednesday urged Iran and the international community to
move past mutual mistrust to solve the nuclear issue peacefully.
"There's quite a bit of mistrust between both sides," Annan told
reporters Wednesday at U.N. World Headquarters in New York.
"The West believes that Iran has to reestablish trust and
confidence. The Iranians tell me the same thing: that the west
has to establish confidence with them," the secretary-general
said.
Annan also said there has been a noticeable shift in the Iranian
perspective. Tehran is ready to negotiate and may even consider
suspending its uranium enrichment program, which the
international community fears is part of a nuclear weapons
program.
"I wouldn't say it's a major shift -- a slight shift in the
sense that they are now saying... 'Let's negotiate,'" Annan
said. "Suspension will be on the agenda and may be possible
during the negotiations, not that it's outright rejection."
But even as he expressed hopefulness that a peaceful solution
can be found, Annan said both sides are still far apart.
"The West will tell you the Iranians have been stringing along
the negotiations in order to continue with their enrichment and
that they kept stringing us along and suddenly there they were
in the midst of enrichment," Annan said.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
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20 Guardian Unlimited: Bush, Roh Want to Restart N.Korea Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday September 14, 2006 6:01 PM
AP Photo WHGH105
By FOSTER KLUG
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and South Korean President Roh
Moo-hyun said Thursday their nations are committed to drawing
North Korea back to stalled negotiations over its nuclear
weapons program, ignoring differences about the best way do so.
Bush said that the decision of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il
to boycott the talks ``has really strengthened the alliance'' of
the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, the
partners in the negotiations. The countries ``are determined to
solve this issue peacefully but recognize a threat posed by a
country in the region armed with a nuclear weapon,'' Bush said.
Roh echoed that, saying the countries were working hard to
restart the talks. ``This is not the appropriate time to think
about the possibility of a failure of the six-party process,''
he said through a translator.
Since North Korea began boycotting the disarmament talks in
November, the reclusive country has sparked fears around the
world as reports circulate that it may be preparing for a
nuclear bomb test. North Korea also defied international
warnings and test-launched seven missiles in July.
Some observers have suggested that mixed messages from
Washington and Seoul on how to solve the crisis have allowed
Pyongyang to augment its nuclear arsenal as the country falls
into deeper isolation.
The Bush administration favors a hard-line approach, refusing to
talk to the North outside of six-nation talks. Roh has tried to
engage Kim's communist government.
Roh's low-key trip to Washington had many wondering if there are
cracks in an alliance forged five decades ago during the Korean
War. Before his meetings with Bush, the South Korean leader
acknowledged that people in both countries ``are quite concerned
about the current state of relations between Korea and the
United States.''
Roh and Bush also discussed Seoul's desire to retake wartime
command of its troops from the United States. ``We will work in
a consultative way at the appropriate level of government to
come up with an appropriate date,'' Bush said about that.
Bush said the U.S. is committed to the security of the Korean
peninsula.
``Decisions about the placement of our troops and the size of
our troops will be made in consultation with the Korean
government,'' he said.
On North Korea, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said
Wednesday that Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill,
the chief U.S. envoy at the nuclear talks, would ``be willing to
have as many meetings as the North Koreans could take, in the
context of the six-party talks, if they would only come back to
those talks.''
Referring to the United States' negotiating partners on the
North Korean issue, White House spokesman Tony Snow said it
``remains the proper approach to say to those in the
neighborhood, `You're closest; you have the most influence; you
need to step up''' efforts to restart the talks.
``The incentive is for Kim Jong Il to understand there is a
better way to improve the lives of his people than being
isolated,'' Bush said. ``If he were verifiably to get rid of his
weapons program, there clearly is a better way forward and that
is the message we have been sending to the North Korean
government through the six-party talks.''
Also on the agenda for the two leaders was an ambitious
U.S.-South Korean free trade proposal which, if successful,
would be the biggest for the United States since 1993. Roh,
however, faces intense pressure from South Korean farm and labor
groups who say the agreement would cost jobs.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
21 Korea Herald: Roh, Bush commit to reviving nuclear talks
WASHINGTON - President Roh Moo-hyun discussed joint measures
with U.S. President George W. Bush for reviving the stalled
six-party talks and bringing North Korea back to the negotiating
table.
The two leaders confirmed their commitment to the talks during a
summit at the White House on Thursday (Friday KST).
"The focus of the summit was trained on bilateral efforts for
restarting the six-party talks and maximizing the effect of the
September joint statement," Song Min-soon, the president's top
security aide, said.
The previous round of multiparty talks slipped into a hiatus
shortly after the joint statement when Pyongyang decided to
boycott the negotiations until Washington lifts the financial
sanctions it imposed on a Macao-based bank for money-laundering
and dealing in dollar counterfeits allegedly manufactured by
North Korea.
Song said additional financial sanctions on North Korea failed
to become a major topic. "With the United Nations resolution
already in place, the two sides found it unnecessary to mention
the sanctions," he said.
Yesterday's summit came amid a widening chasm in the two
countries' perception of North Korea represented by a hawkish
Washington and a relatively softer Seoul.
Roh has persisted in engaging the communist regime despite
military provocations including the latest triggered in July
when Pyongyang tested a set of ballistic missiles to breach its
self-imposed missile moratorium.
The Bush administration has been discussing reviving financial
sanctions on North Korea to follow up on the U.N. resolution
that was passed shortly after Pyongyang fired the missiles in
July.
The move to financially isolate the North recently gained speed,
as confirmed by Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department's
undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, who
said last week that 24 international banks have voluntarily
halted business with North Korea.
Roh's line of policy toward North Korea has been constant
engagement, as reflected in his persistent calls for "dialogue"
as the best diplomacy for dealing with Pyongyang and bringing it
back to the six-party negotiations.
The multiparty talks are composed of the two Koreas, the United
States, Japan, China and Russia and are aimed to dismantle North
Korea's self-proclaimed nuclear arsenal.
In talks with Henry Paulson, the U.S. Treasury secretary, a day
before the summit, the president stressed that financial
sanctions on the North should be entwined with efforts to revive
the six-party talks.
Roh also met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hours
before meeting Paulson.
Rice and Stephen Hedley, the White House security adviser,
teamed up to discuss potential topics with South Korean Foreign
Minister Ban Ki-moon and security aide Song Min-soon before the
summit.
Meanwhile, at an afternoon luncheon with business leaders here
on Wednesday, the president confirmed the government's support
for the ongoing free trade agreement talks with the United
States and commitment to the half-century-old alliance between
the two countries.
"In all areas where the United States has been fighting to
establish order and freedom, Korea has always been at the United
States' side," Roh told business leaders at the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce.
Roh will wrap up his four-day U.S. visit this Friday after
stopping over in San Francisco.
(jemmie@heraldm.com)
By Kim Ji-hyun
2006.09.15
*****************************************************************
22 Korea Herald: Questions hang over New York six-party talks
The United States is attempting to hold de facto six-party talks
on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly next week. It
seems very unlikely, at least at this time, that North Korea
will accept the invitation to join the talks.
The discussion will likely set the tone for the future of
efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff.
"We're working on her (Secretary Rice) schedule. We'll try to
do this in a more organized fashion," said Sean McCormack,
spokesman for the U.S. State Department, yesterday.
If North Korea continues to stay away, it will be further
isolating itself, not to mention giving the United States
justification to ramp up sanctions.
North Korea said in July, "We will not be joining any gathering
of the six-parties unless the financial sanctions are removed."
North Korea, which had asked to be reimbursed the $24 million
frozen in its accounts at the Banco Delta Asia in Macau as part
of conditions to return to the nuclear talks, could now be
asking for more as the financial situation becomes more
aggravated.
According to the United States, at least 24 financial
institutions have stopped doing business with the North
following Washington's lead, and more are likely to do so.
But things are not all grim. Efforts by the United States to
completely shut off North Korea's money sources will have limits
without cooperation from China and South Korea, and achieving
that might be difficult.
Of some $4.05 billion in yearly trade revenue, $1.05 billion is
with South Korea and $1.58 billion is with China, accounting for
65 percent of the entire volume. Japan, which is eager to help
the United States, is only responsible for $150 million.
Any strengthening of the sanctions will thus have little
physical impact, but be more of a political move, observers said.
For Washington, it has already demonstrated a more flexible
approach by last week to suggesting bilateral talks on the
condition that North Korea promises to return to the six-party
talks.
Although North Korea refused, Pyongyang has also recently shown
some willingness to return to talks.
"We want more of the six-party talks," said North Korea's
Foreign Ministry in a statement last month.
Observers say if North Korea agrees to meet in New York, it
will give a tremendous kick-start to resuming the nuclear talks.
If it refuses, both China and Russia could choose not to join
the New York talks, government sources said.
(angiely@heraldm.com)
By Lee Joo-hee
2006.09.15
*****************************************************************
23 Reuters: Bush, Roh paper over differences on N.Korea
Friday September 15, 4:20 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and South Korean
President Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday papered over differences over
North Korea while pledging to try to resume six-nation talks to
curb Pyongyang's nuclear program.
The two leaders used a White House summit to play up their
common goal of pushing North Korea back to the negotiating table
after a nearly year-long hiatus, but avoided airing divergent
views on how to deal with Pyongyang.
The United States has led efforts to impose tougher U.N.
sanctions on North Korea, which defied international warnings by
test-firing seven missiles in July and may be preparing a
nuclear test. North Korea is believed to have enough nuclear
material to build as many as a dozen nuclear bombs, but it has
never tested one.
South Korea prefers a softer approach towards its neighbor and
has warned against backing North Korea into a corner.
Tempering his usually hardline tone towards North Korea, Bush
said Washington and its allies were "determined to resolve this
issue peacefully but recognizes a threat posed by a country in
the region armed with a nuclear weapon."
North Korea has refused to return to the talks with South Korea,
China, Japan, Russia and the United States. It demands that
Washington first ends a crackdown on its finances.
Bush said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's should want to
resume the six-party negotiations if he wanted to end his
country's isolation and improve the lives of his people.
"If he were to verifiably get rid of his weapons programs, there
is clearly a better way forward," Bush told reporters.
Roh did not repeat his government's earlier criticism of the
U.S. approach. He stressed instead that South Korea had also
taken measures such as suspending rice and fertilizer aid in
response to North Korea's missile tests, but that it preferred
not to label them sanctions "because we do not want to hurt
inter-Korean relations."
However, when asked whether U.S. threats of further sanctions
jeopardized chances of bringing North Korea back to the table,
he said: "This is not the appropriate time to think about the
possibility of a failure of the six-party process."
NO NEW IDEAS
The two leaders offered no new ideas for breaking the deadlock.
The Bush administration, which has branded North Korea a member
of the "axis of evil," has put the onus on Pyongyang and asked
its neighbors to exert pressure.
Pyongyang has refused to resume negotiations until the United
States lifts financial restrictions prompted by accusations that
North Korea counterfeited U.S. money and traded illegal drugs.
Roh, who won elections in 2002 on a surge of anti-U.S.
sentiment, has criticized hard-liners in Washington for trying
to further isolate an already-reclusive North Korea.
Roh stirred the pot this month by saying in Helsinki the North's
July test-firing of one of its long-range Taepodong-2 missile,
which may someday be able to hit U.S. territory, may have been
more for political than military purposes.
U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, on a visit to China before heading
to Seoul this week, said North Korea was keeping a close eye on
Western incentives being offered to Iran to rein in its nuclear
program.
(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan and Tabassum Zakaria in
Washington) ![]()
President
George W. Bushand his South Korean counterpart Roh Moo-hyun
downplayed their differences and recommitted themselves to
six-party talks aimed at defusing the North Korea" /> North
Koreanuclear crisis.
"We reaffirmed our commitment to the six-party talks so that we
can peacefully deal with the nuclear issue," Bush said during a
joint public appearance with Roh in the Oval Office of the White
House.
Bush urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to abandon his atomic
weapons program in exchange for energy and other aid as well as
diplomatic and security guarantees in the interest of his people
and "for families to be able to have food on the table.
"The incentive is for Kim Jong-il to understand that there is a
better way to improve the livelihood of his people than being
isolated," he said.
Bush stressed that North Korea's refusal to return to talks "has
really strengthened" the resolve of the other five negotiating
parties -- South Korea" /> South Korea, Russia, China, the
United States and Japan.
He said while the five nations were determined to solve this
nuclear issue peacefully, they recognized the "threat posed by a
country in the region armed with a nuclear weapon.
"If he (Kim) were to verifiably get rid of his weapons programs,
there's clearly a better way forward," Bush said.
The United States and South Korea have been split on efforts to
end the nuclear impasse since North Korea walked out of the
talks 10 months ago.
Bush aides acknowledge that the gap has grown so much in recent
months -- "as wide as the Sea of Japan," one senior official
said -- that it will be almost impossible to hide, The New York
Times said.
Washington wants to step up financial and other sanctions on
North Korea while South Korea is aiming to continue aid and
investment to its neighbour to woo it away from isolation.
Roh told reporters Thursday that it was "not the appropriate
time" to discuss about stepping up sanctions on Pyongyang and
"think about the possibility of a failure of the six party
process."
He said ministers would be "consulting closely" to restart the
six party process but did not reveal of any new steps that had
been agreed upon to break the current impasse.
Roh indicated that differences persisted. "We have not yet
reached a conclusion" and "this issue is very complex," he said.
North Korea abandoned the six-party talks in November last year
in protest against US financial sanctions on a Macau-based bank
accused of laundering and counterfeiting money for the North.
Two months earlier, it had agreed at the meeting to give up its
nuclear weapons program in return for aid and other guarantees.
The situation worsened in July when Pyongyang test-fired seven
missiles, sparking condemnation from the UN Security Council
which imposed sanctions related to the missile program.
The two leaders on Thursday also grappled with the troubled
Washington-Seoul military alliance, saying they were against
politicizing a move for South Korea to regain wartime control
over its army from the United States.
Amid increasing calls from South Korea to have independent
control of its military, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
suggested recently that it take wartime control of its troops in
2009, three years earlier than wanted by Seoul.
"We will work in a consultative way at the appropriate level of
government to come up with an appropriate date," Bush said
Thursday. "I agree with the president that the issue should not
become a political issue."
He said the United States was committed to the security of the
Korean peninsula and that decisions about the placement of
American troops and their size would be made in consultation
with the South Korean government.
The US wartime operational rights have been the backbone of
bilateral security ties since 1950 when US troops deployed to
the Korean peninsula to repel North Korean invaders from South
Korea.
About 32,500 US soldiers are stationed at present in Seoul to
help 650,000 South Korean military troops face up to North
Korea's 1.2 million-strong army.
The United States plans to reduce its forces in South Korea to
25,000 by 2008 and is seeking flexibility to deploy them
elsewhere in times of need.
Recommend It: Not at All Somewhat
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
26 UPI: U.S. presses China for North Korea talks
United Press International - Security &Terrorism -
9/14/2006 7:51:00 PM -0400
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The United States is pressing
China to push North Korea back to six-party talks meant to get
Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program.
"I think what you see out there is what I know as well, that the
North Koreans are refusing to come back," said Peter Rodman,
assistant defense secretary for international security affairs,
in testimony to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission in Washington.
North Korea walked away from the talks -- which include the
United States, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan -- nearly a
year ago after the United States cracked down on money
laundering. In February, the U.S. Treasury Department compelled
a Macao bank to drop its North Korean clients.
"They're bringing in these separate -- the issues of our
defensive measures in the financial field, which, in our view,
are defense against some of their illicit activities. They
choose to link these and refuse to come in, and we're not buying
that. And we're putting the pressure on the Chinese and on them
to come back to these talks," said Rodman.
North Korea broke a self-imposed six-year moratorium on missile
launches in July, testing six Scuds and a longer-range missile
that failed.
China is North Korea's primary patron and the country with the
greatest leverage over the regime, but it has yet to convince
North Korea to return to negotiations.
North Korea, for its part, wants to delink negotiations about
its nuclear program from its conventional missile program. Those
two issues were separated in negotiations with the Clinton
administration but were joined together again under U.S.
President George W. Bush. Exporting missiles and related
technologies is one of North Korea's primary means of raising
funds, and it wants economic inducements for giving up missile
proliferation separate from its nuclear weapons program.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
27 Guardian Unlimited: Paranoia and provocation in Pyongyang
Simon Tisdall
Thursday September 14, 2006 The Guardian
Preparations for a North Korean military parade. Photograph:
Getty Images
North Korea's political paranoia spilled into the open this week
when the isolated regime accused the Bush administration of
plotting a nuclear strike. The state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper
said a "sub-critical" underground nuclear test in Nevada last
month was part of Washington's efforts to develop new, offensive
atomic weapons. "The US is perfecting a nuclear war plan after
listing our and other countries as targets for its pre-emptive
nuclear attack," it said.
An US assault is not remotely on the cards, but North Korea's
clamour reflects more than its leadership's persecution complex.
In Seoul the claim was read as possible evidence that the North
is preparing to justify an imminent nuclear weapons test of its
own. South Korean officials have warned that Pyongyang could
conduct a test, or repeat July's destabilising Sea of Japan
missile launches, at any time. Not coincidentally, President Roh
Moo-hyun was in Washingtonon Thursday arguing for a more
"flexible" US line.
Concern about North Korea's intentions is ratcheting up again
across the region. Pyongyang escaped binding sanctions proposed
by Japan after the July launches when China diluted a
condemnatory UN resolution. But it failed in its apparent aim of
scaring the US into relaxing financial sanctions or offering
improved, Iran-style incentives for good behaviour. Now analysts
suggest it may be about to try again.
The US says it would view a North Korean nuclear test as "very
provocative" while the reaction in Japan, the only country to
experience atom bomb attacks, could be explosive. But with the
six-party nuclear talks deadlocked for almost a year, and
differences in approach evident between the US, South Korea,
Japan and China, foolproof mechanisms for avoiding another
dangerous confrontation appear lacking.
"The key has got be some kind of bilateral deal between North
Korea and the US that everyone else can buy into," said
Christopher Hughes, a regional expert based at the University of
Warwick. "An agreement with the US is what the North Koreans
have always wanted. The US is searching for a way to reach them
while stopping Japan over-playing its hand."
But Machiavellian manoeuvring by Pyongyang, diplomatic
divergences and distrust continue to bedevil such efforts. When
Christopher Hill, the US chief negotiator, proposed a one-on-one
meeting with his North Korean counterpart last week, he was
reportedly rebuffed. Kim Jong-il, North Korea's leader, is
meanwhile rumoured to be on the point of visiting China for
consultations.
Japanese officials play down the prospect of a crisis while
admitting that "favourable signs" from North Korea are lacking.
"We do not have any evidence of activities suggesting that
something is going to happen soon, either concerning missiles or
a nuclear test," a senior diplomat said. "But it is very
difficult to predict, especially when it comes to underground
testing."
The likely appointment this month of a hard-hitting
conservative, Shinzo Abe, to replace Junichiro Koizumi as
Japan's prime minister would not change Tokyo's approach, the
diplomat said. "We will maintain our current policy of dialogue
and pressure. We want talks to resume. We also want full
implementation of UN resolution 1695 (that requires countries to
halt WMD or missile-related technology transfers to North
Korea)."
Reports yesterday suggested Japan may impose financial sanctions
later this month, which North Korea says would be tantamount to
a declaration of war. Sources said the US could also adopt
additional punitive measures if no progress is made.
Describing Mr Abe as a "neo-nationalist, more hawkish than Mr
Koizumi", Dr Hughes predicted a tougher Japanese line on nuclear
weapons and on the long-running dispute over Japanese abducted
by North Korea. "Abe portrays himself as a leading statesman. He
believes in reviving the Japanese nation. He wants to rewrite
the constitution and the post-war settlement." Speaking
yesterday, Mr Abe called for a more "assertive" international
role for Japan.
But after fierce Sino-Japanese frictions during the Koizumi era,
Mr Abe would also face considerable pressure, not least from
Washington, to improve relations with China, Dr Hughes said. So
partly to maintain his credibility with the nationalist right
"he will probably still be tempted to bash North Korea quite
hard". And that could be seen as provocation by the paranoiacs
of Pyongyang.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
28 AFP: UN nuclear watchdog blasts US Congressional commitee
Thu Sep 14, 7:19 AM ET
VIENNA (AFP) - The UN nuclear watchdog has protested angrily to a
US Congressional committee for releasing false information on
Iran" /> Iran's nuclear program, in a letter obtained by AFP.
The letter said an August 23 staff report of the House of
Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on
the subject of Iran as a strategic threat "contains some
erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information."
The report, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency"
/> International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), states that Iran is
enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels when, says the
watchdog, Iran is only enriching to 3.6 percent, far below the
90 percent of refinement needed to make nuclear weapons.
The letter signed by IAEA director for external relations,
Vilmos Cserveny, also "takes strong exception to the incorrect
and misleading assertion . . . that the Director General of the
IAEA decided to 'remove' Mr. Charlier, a senior safeguards
inspector of the IAEA" for challenging Iran about "deception
regarding its nuclear program."
IAEA officials have told AFP that Iran has the right to
challenge the appointment of inspectors, and that the agency
must accept this.
The letter points out "that Iran has accepted the designation
(appointment) of more than 200 agency safeguards inspectors, a
similar number to that accepted by the majority of
non-nuclear-weapon states that have concluded safeguards
agreements" under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the IAEA had sent the
letter as it "had to set the record straight with regard to the
facts and this was a case where they were also questioning the
integrity of the IAEA and this just had to be addressed."
A Western diplomat said "this seems to be deja vu on Iraq" />
Iraq," referring to US assertions ahead of the Iraq war that
Saddam Hussein" /> Saddam Husseinhad weapons of mass
destruction, when in fact the IAEA warned that there was no
proof of this.
The letter was sent to Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House
committee.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
29 IPS-English POLITICS: Indo-US Nuclear Deal Tests Japan's
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:53:41 -0700
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X-Sender-Host-Address: 63.203.231.61
X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST
ROMAIPS AP WD DV EN IF IP NU=20
POLITICS: Indo-US Nuclear Deal Tests Japan's Policies
Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Sep 14 (IPS) - Japan's nuclear power industry is under the spotlig=
ht again as the world debates the nuclear proliferation controversy in Ir=
an and North Korea and Tokyo comes under pressure from the United States =
to support its own nuclear cooperation pact with India.
''There is growing tension in the air over a trend that supports nuclear =
power expansion in Asia that is accompanied by nuclear risk in the region=
. We are very much opposed to Japan supporting the nuclear power agreemen=
t signed in 2005 between India and the U.S. because India is not a member=
of the Nuclear Non proliferation Treaty (NPT),'' said Hideaki Ban, a lea=
ding anti-nuclear activist in Japan.
Last week, five of Japan's largest grass-roots environment groups led by =
the Citizens Nuclear Information Network joined hands with 40 other small=
er organisations and sent a petition to the Japanese government demanding=
that Tokyo oppose the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) lifting re=
strictions on the nuclear trade with India.
India has been getting support from several quarters. For example, a joi=
nt statement on Wednesday following a trilateral trade meeting in Brasili=
a, India, Brazil and South Africa (or IBSA) said: =94The leaders agreed t=
o explore approaches to cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energ=
y under appropriate safeguards.=94=20
The fact that Brazil and South Africa renounced nuclear weapons to gain a=
ccess to civilian nuclear technology and that Brazil is the current chair=
of the NSG lends weight to India's case.=20
But Japan's support is important because all the members of the NSG must =
agree so that restrictions on sale of nuclear material and technology to =
India are lifted. Before the NSG gets to that point, however, U.S. Congre=
ss must complete a process to modify U.S. law to approve a special cleara=
nce for India.=20
Ban said that since decisions in the NSG are based on consensus and that =
opposition by Japan will successfully obstruct the U.S. that is canvassin=
g international support for India as a special and deserving case. This, =
despite the fact that India is a self-declared nuclear weapons state. =20
=91'As Japan has experienced nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at
the end of World War ll in 1945, the Japanese government has an obligatio=
n to
not to bend to U.S. pressure,'' said Seiya Oakamoto, representative of th=
e
Movement Against U.S. bases in Atsugi, a municipality that hosts U.S. mil=
itary and air force bases.
Still, there are worrying signs that Japan, the world's second largest ec=
onomy and a leader in nuclear power technology, may itself be moving slow=
ly away from its position of being a non-nuclear state,
''The official position is that Japan remains opposed to the U.S.-India c=
ivilian nuclear pact. At the same time, we have to consider the growing e=
nergy needs of India,'' said a foreign ministry official who declined to =
be named.
In fact, the July 2005 Indo-U.S. nuclear cooperation deal was heavily inf=
luenced by Washington's desire that India abandon a project to import gas=
from Iran through an overland pipeline that cuts through Pakistan.=20
Yet, comments such as those made by the foreign ministry official are vie=
wed with alarm by activists who say they hint at a major change in Japane=
se policy towards India that could pave the way for a nuclear power race =
in Asia where several rapidly developing economies are anxious to meet ri=
sing energy demands.
India's rival and neighbour, Pakistan, which was denied civilian nuclear =
cooperation by the U.S. on the grounds that it had proliferated enrichmen=
t technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, is now expected sign an alte=
rnate deal with China in November. Like India, Pakistan is a self-declar=
ed nuclear power and non-signatory to the NPT.=20
Critics point out that nuclear technology developed for the civilian sect=
or could be readily converted for military purposes, posing a security ri=
sk for the region. Japan's acute awareness of this possibility may be se=
en in a Sep. 6 statement made by former prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone =
that Japan needed to consider the nuclear option, given the presence of n=
uclear states in the neighbourhood and the uncertain future of ties with =
the U.S.
=91'There are countries with nuclear weapons in Japan's vicinity,'' said =
Nakasone. =91'We are currently dependent on U.S. nuclear weapons ( as a =
deterrent) but it is not known whether the U.S. attitude will continue,''=
he said during a press conference held to release a report titled, =91An=
image of Japan in the 21st Century'.
Analysts contend that Nakasone's remark reflects Japan's growing unease o=
ver North Korea's nuclear weapon development programme, seen as a threat =
to East Asian security.
Despite a six-party alliance, including Japan and the U.S. working togeth=
er to defuse the risk, the totalitarian state has not given up its nuclea=
r programme. Pyongyang's decision to launch seven missile tests in July p=
rompted top politicians to call on Japan to attain preemptive capability.
=91'History has proved that diplomacy does not work with Pyongyang. Japan=
must develop a stronger military strategy that could act as a stronger f=
orm of pressure,'' said Prof. Masaru Fukunaga, a South Asian expert at Gi=
fu Women's Univeristy.
The looming Iran crisis as Washington turns the heat on that country to g=
ive up its uranium enrichment programme is also becoming a difficult issu=
e for Japan that depends on Iran for almost 20 percent of its oil supplie=
s.
=91'Asia's energy needs are soaring and nuclear energy is becoming attrac=
tive for countries such as Vietnam, China and Malaysia. Japan is not look=
ing into producing nuclear weapons but rather eyeing the Asian market whi=
ch will boost profits for Japanese energy companies,'' Ban told IPS.
Almost 30 percent of Japan's energy needs are supported by nuclear power =
and the government plans to increase it to 40 percent by 2014 by adding 1=
0 more reactors.
With Iran now becoming a major diplomatic crisis, Japan's own nuclear pow=
er=20
strategy of supporting the NPT has become a position that clashes with it=
s own economic interests, says the foreign ministry official.
*****
+Snubbed by US,Pakistan Doing Nuclear Deal With China (http://www.ipsnews=
.net/news.asp?idnews=3D34563)
+Nuclear Deal With US Clears Domestic Opposition (http://www.ipsnews.net/=
news.asp?idnews=3D34384)
(END/IPS/AP/WD/IP/NU/DV/IF/EN/SK/RDR/06)=20
=20
=3D 09140757 ORP005
NNNN
*****************************************************************
30 IPS-English TRADE: Brazil, India and South Africa Optimistic
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:53:43 -0700
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ROMAIPS AP LA AF DV IF IP GB WT=20
TRADE: Brazil, India and South Africa Optimistic About Future Ties
Felipe Seligman
BRASILIA, Sep 13 (IPS) - The first India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) sum=
mit ended Wednesday in Brasilia with optimism expressed by the leaders re=
garding ambitious active cooperation plans among these emerging powers of=
the developing South and promises for future initiatives in economic and=
cultural complementation.
The steps taken in the meeting, according to Brazilian President Luiz In=E1=
cio Lula da Silva, were fundamental in =94overcoming historical, geograph=
ic, cultural and mental barriers that have always made us look to the Nor=
th rather than the South.=94
Five trilateral agreements and memoranda of understandings were signed by=
ministers from the three countries, in areas like maritime services, agr=
iculture, biofuels and information technologies.
However, as expected, no agreement was signed to begin negotiations towar=
ds a free trade agreement.
=94The idea of the summit was to deepen and unify ongoing debates in diff=
erent areas, and that is what happened,=94 the Brazilian Foreign Ministry=
's press relations officer, Ricardo Neiva Tavares, told IPS.
The IBSA Dialogue Forum was suggested in 2003 by South African President =
Thabo Mbeki when Lula took office in Brasilia. Since then, trade and cult=
ural relations between the three nations have expanded significantly.
For example, between 2001 and 2005, trade between India and the Mercosur =
trade bloc, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, grew from=
less than one billion dollars to 2.3 billion.
Trade between India and South Africa climbed 133 percent in the same peri=
od, from 1.3 billion to 3.1 billion dollars.
The IBSA negotiations are aimed at raising trilateral trade flows to 10 b=
illion dollars next year.
But trade between the three countries represents just two percent of the =
total combined volume of their trade. South African Trade and Industry Mi=
nister Mandisi Mpahlwa said all three countries have potential, but that =
they are still talking in superficial terms. Areas of cooperation must be=
identified, he added, in order to see concrete changes.
According to Mbeki, the adoption of a free trade agreement between these =
three nations would be an unprecedented step in the world trade system, w=
hich means it is essential for it to be taken in an appropriate manner.
Although many advances were seen in Wednesday's meeting, it was already c=
lear that there would be no new developments in terms of a free trade acc=
ord, said professor of international relations Paulo Vizentini at the Fed=
eral University of Rio Grande do Sul.
=94After the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks (in New York and Washington)=
, economic negotiations were pushed to the backburner by discussions on i=
nternational security. For example, the negotiations on the FTAA (Free Tr=
ade Area of the Americas) and in the WTO (World Trade Organisation) have =
ground to a halt. That is why we already knew what would happen here,=94 =
Vizentini told IPS.
Nevertheless, concrete accomplishments were seen in certain areas. Accord=
ing to Rogelio Golfarb, president of the National Association of Automoti=
ve Vehicle Manufacturers, which participated in the summit activities in =
representation of Brazil's business community, good opportunities for bus=
iness complementation emerged.
Brazil and South Africa adopted a three-year pilot project for the export=
and import of cars and spare parts. At the same time, Brazil and India a=
greed on the sharing of alternative technologies.
=94All of this is complementation,=94 Golfarb told journalists. =94South =
Africa specialises in luxury automobiles, and Mercosur is strong in the p=
roduction of compact cars. India expressed great interest in the producti=
on of ethanol fuel (produced from sugar cane) and biodiesel, and Brazil e=
xpressed interest in Indian techniques for producing wind and solar energ=
y.=94
=94But we need things to move rapidly, because the global market is very =
competitive. That is why new meetings have already been scheduled for nex=
t month, and I believe that these business ventures will be up and runnin=
g by late 2007,=94 he added.
The summit was also a good opportunity for the three countries to stress =
their points of view on the resumption of the WTO Doha Round of multilate=
ral trade talks, and on U.S. Security Council reform to incorporate perma=
nent and rotating members from Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the usefulness of IBSA in the i=
nternational community was clear in the leadership role that the three co=
untries played in the Group of 20 (G20) developing nations in the WTO neg=
otiations.
The members of the G20 are pushing for an end to trade-distorting agricul=
tural subsidies and the protectionism exercised by the industrial powers.
Parallel to the summit, an academic seminar brought together university p=
rofessors from the three countries, with the aim of forging closer cultur=
al ties.
=94The seminar served as ammunition for the summit of heads of state and =
government. Among the range of issues that were discussed, a proposal eme=
rged to create a news agency dedicated to the three continents where the =
IBSA countries are leaders,=94 the organiser of the seminar, Jer=F4nimo M=
oscardo, president of the Alexandre Gusm=E3o Foundation, told IPS.
=94We saw that we had much in common, but that the lack of information ab=
out our countries is still a barrier for more effective interaction,=94 h=
e said.
A second IBSA summit will be held next year in South Africa, although the=
precise dates have not been set.
*****
+ BRAZIL: Capital of the Developing South? (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.a=
sp?idnews=3D34659)
+ TRADE: India, Brazil, S. Africa Ties to Soar on Aerospace
(http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=3D34359)
(END/IPS/LA AP AF IP DV IF GB WT/TRASP-SW/FS/DCL/06)
=20
=3D 09140308 ORP004
NNNN
*****************************************************************
31 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Israel Eye-To-Eye on Mideast Peace
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday September 14, 2006 9:16 AM
AP Photo DCPM106
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - If there ever was any doubt that the Bush
administration and the Israeli government are of one mind on
Mideast peacemaking and Iran's nuclear programs, it is fading
during talks Israel's foreign minister is holding here.
Both the minister, Tzipi Livni, and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice have issued identical demands that any
Palestinian unity government renounce violence against Israel
and accept its right to exist.
And Livni and Rice are on the same page in their distrust of
Iran's intentions. ``The world cannot afford a nuclear Iran,''
Livni said Wednesday after meeting with Rice at the State
Department.
While Rice did not repeat the long-held belief within the
administration that Iran is on a fast track to building nuclear
weapons, Rice said Iran's cancellation of talks this week with
the Europeans is further reason for the United Nations to
consider applying sanctions on Tehran.
That is topic A on Rice's agenda for her meetings at the United
Nations beginning next week. ``It is a natural time to see where
we are,'' Rice said as American diplomats try to pull the
Europeans, Russia and China together to punish Iran with a
series of increasingly harsher economic and political sanctions
unless it suspends uranium enrichment.
Iran says it needs uranium enrichment to fuel electric power
plants. Enrichment also can create material for atomic bombs.
The end of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants
in Lebanon, meanwhile, has renewed interest in prospects for
peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is
trying to work out a unity government that would include Hamas
and possibly other militant groups in a power-sharing
arrangement.
``Stagnation is not the Israeli government policy,'' Livni said,
in registering Israel's intention to move ahead toward an accord
with the Palestinians that would ensure them a state.
``We will take all of the efforts,'' she said, while also
reaffirming Israel is interested in dealing with Abbas, who is
considered a moderate.
But, she said, any Palestinian government must fully and
completely meet international demands that it recognize the
existence of Israel and renounce violence or terrorism. ``These
requirements are not negotiable,'' Livni said.
Rice, while cautious about how the unity negotiations might turn
out, was emphatic that a new Palestinian government must meet
those requirements.
``They embody the very essential elements of how we would get
eventually to a two-state solution,'' she said.
``It is hard to have a partner for peace if you don't accept the
right of the other partner to exist,'' Rice said, referring to
Hamas' hard-line stance against Israel.
Like Livni, Rice spoke positively of Abbas. He has accepted
those important principles, Rice said, and ``is someone with
whom we can work and with whom we are working.''
Before meeting with Rice, Livni called on Stephen Hadley, the
national security adviser, at the White House. President Bush
dropped in unexpectedly. According to Hadley's spokesman,
Frederick Jones, the president assured Livni of his strong
support for Israel's security and discussed with her ``the
threat posed by the Iranian and Syrian regimes.''
Thursday was Livni's day to spend on Capitol Hill, meeting with
Democratic and Republican members of Congress and later with
Vice President Dick Cheney.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
32 Japan Times: Emerging from the nuclear shadow
japantimes.co.jp
Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006
By DAISAKU IKEDA Special to The Japan Times
"At any given moment in history, precious few voices are heard
crying out for justice. But, now more than ever, those voices
must rise above the din of violence and hatred."
These are the memorable words of Dr. Joseph Rotblat, who for
many years led the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World
Affairs, a global organization working for peace and for the
abolition of nuclear weapons. Rotblat passed away last year in
August, the month that marked the 60th anniversary of the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was 96. In the final
phase of his life, he consistently voiced his strong sense of
foreboding about the chronic lack of progress toward nuclear
disarmament and the growing threat of nuclear proliferation.
The startling development of military technology has entirely
insulated acts of war from human realities and feelings. In an
instant, irreplaceable lives are lost and beloved homelands
reduced to ruin. The anguished cries of victims and their
families are silenced or ignored. Within this vast system of
violence -- at the peak of which are poised nuclear weapons --
humans are no longer seen as embodiments of life. They are
reduced to the status of mere things.
In the face of these severe challenges, there is a spreading
sense of powerlessness and despair within the international
community, a readiness to dismiss the possibility of nuclear
abolition as a mere pipe dream.
Peace is a competition between despair and hope, between
disempowerment and committed persistence. To the degree that
powerlessness takes root in people's consciousness, there is a
greater tendency to resort to force. Powerlessness breeds
violence.
But it was human beings that gave birth to these instruments of
hellish destruction. It cannot be beyond the power of human
wisdom to eliminate them.
The Pugwash Conferences that were Rotblat's base of action were
first held in 1957, a year that saw a rapid acceleration in the
nuclear arms race that came to engulf the entire planet. On
Sept. 8 of the same year, my mentor, Josei Toda, issued a call
for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The day was blessed with
the kind of beautiful clear sky that follows a typhoon, as Toda
made his declaration at a gathering of some 50,000 young people
in Yokohama:
"Today a global movement calling for a ban on the testing of
atomic or nuclear weapons has arisen. It is my wish to go
further; I want to expose and remove the claws that lie hidden
in the depths of such weapons. . . . Even if a certain country
should conquer the world using nuclear weapons, the people who
used those weapons should be condemned as demons and devils."
Toda chose to denounce nuclear weapons in such harsh, even
strident, terms because he was determined to expose their
essential nature as an absolute evil -- one that denies and
undermines humankind's collective right to live.
Toda's impassioned call issued from a philosophical
understanding of life's inner workings: He was warning against
the demonic egotism that seeks to bend others to our will. He
saw this writ large in the desire of states to possess these
weapons of ultimate destruction.
The idea that nuclear weapons function to deter war and are
therefore a "necessary evil" is a core impediment to their
elimination; it must be challenged and dismantled.
Because Toda saw nuclear weapons as an absolute evil, he was
able to transcend ideology and national interest; he was never
confused by the arguments of power politics. Today, half a
century later, the language of nuclear deterrence and "limited"
nuclear war is again in currency. I am convinced that Toda's
soul-felt cry, rooted in the deepest dimensions of life, now
shines with an even brighter universal brilliance.
If we are to eliminate nuclear weapons, a fundamental
transformation of the human spirit is essential. Since the
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than 60 years ago, the
survivors have transformed despair into a sense of mission as
they have continued to call out for nuclear abolition. As people
living today, it is our shared responsibility -- our duty and
our right -- to act as heirs to this lofty work of inner
transformation, to expand and elevate it into a struggle to
eliminate war itself.
In 1982, as Cold War tensions mounted, the Soka Gakkai
International (SGI) organized the exhibition "Nuclear Arms:
Threat to Our World" at the United Nations Headquarters in New
York. It toured 16 countries, including the Soviet Union and
China and other nuclear weapons states. It was viewed by some
1.2 million visitors in total. SGI members also actively
participated in the global Abolition 2000 campaign. The purpose
of these and other efforts has been to arouse the hearts of
people seeking peace.
To further deepen this type of grassroots solidarity, I would
like to call for the creation of a U.N. Decade of Action by the
World's People for Nuclear Abolition and for the early convening
of a World Summit for Nuclear Abolition. Such steps would both
reflect and support an emerging international consensus for
disarmament.
Needless to say, it is young people who bear the challenges and
possibilities of the future. It would therefore be valuable to
hold a gathering of youth representatives from around the world
prior to the annual U.N. General Assembly, giving world leaders
an opportunity to hear the views of the next generation.
Affording young people such venues and opportunities to engage
as world citizens is critical to building the long-term
foundations for peace.
Crying out in opposition to war and nuclear weapons is neither
emotionalism nor self-pity. It is the highest expression of
human reason based on an unflinching perception of the dignity
of life.
Faced with the horrifying facts of nuclear proliferation, we
must call forth the power of hope from within the depths of each
individual's life. This is the power that can transform even the
most intractable reality.
To emerge from the shadow of nuclear weapons we need a
revolution in the consciousness of countless individuals -- a
revolution that gives rise to the heartfelt confidence that
"There is something I can do." Then, finally, we will see a
coming together of the world's people, and hear their common
voice, their cry for an end to this terrible madness of
destruction. Daisaku Ikeda is president of Soka Gakkai
International, and founder of Soka University and the Toda
Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research. This column runs
on the second Thursday of every month.
The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved
in japantimes.co.jp.
*****************************************************************
33 Post-Gazette: Cover-up at Shippingport
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:57:33 -0700
Worker at Beaver Valley nuclear plant conceals review failures
Thursday, September 14, 2006By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A contract engineer at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Beaver Valley nuclear power
plant covered up his failure to do required reviews on a reactor repair
project, in violation of federal safety regulations.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in documents summarizing a yearlong
investigation, said a Demark Inc. engineer knowingly signed paperwork June
1, 2005, showing all 25 federally mandated design reviews were done on a
project to replace a nuclear reactor vessel head when only two or three had
been finished.
Those engineering reviews are important because they ensure that the
replacement reactor parts fit and are compatible with existing safety
systems. Because the falsified work reports were discovered before
construction began, public safety was not jeopardized.
The reactor head tops the steel container that holds radioactive material
under high pressure. Reactor heads have been the subject of intense
scrutiny since it was discovered in 2002 that FirstEnergy had covered up an
acid leak that nearly ate through the 6-inch-thick steel reactor head at
the Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo, Ohio.
FirstEnergy was in the design phase of replacing the head at its Beaver
Valley Unit 1 reactor in Shippingport, Beaver County, when the Demark
design engineer who worked on site submitted the falsified
design-inspection documents to FirstEnergy.
According to the NRC, FirstEnergy did not know the work record was
incomplete, despite conducting a series of internal reviews. A clerk at
Beaver Valley, filing the completed work package in FirstEnergy's records
system, noticed that supporting documents were missing, and the company
notified the NRC.
The NRC informed FirstEnergy on Aug. 1 that an "apparent violation" of the
commission's regulations occurred and "escalated enforcement action" is
under consideration.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said engineering inspection reviews are
important because they are supposed to evaluate how well the replacement
reactor head will work with existing safety controls at the 27-year-old plant.
"The safety significance of this was low because it was caught in June 2005
and the head wasn't installed until early this year," Mr. Sheehan said.
"But we care because this is a major component replacement and we need to
make sure it won't adversely affect any of the other major safety systems."
Equally as worrisome, he said, was that FirstEnergy's multistage quality
assurance review process didn't discover the falsified work reports.
Todd Schneider, a spokesman for Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy, said the
Demark employee was fired, and the review was completed by FirstEnergy's
own engineers.
"We should have caught it earlier," Mr. Schneider said. "When we found it,
we removed the contractor and reworked our engineering process. It was
corrected prior to any installation work done on the reactor head."
He said the reactor head installation began in February of this year and
was completed in April, ahead of schedule.
At FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, employees and a
contractor falsified documents to cover up reactor head corrosion, ignoring
serious safety concerns in pursuit of profits. The NRC has called the
incident the worst since the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island
near Harrisburg in 1979.
FirstEnergy paid a $5.45 million fine last year for failing to stop the
acid leak, and this year paid a record $28 million in fines and penalties
for covering up the leak in its reports to the NRC.
The apparent violation of NRC regulations at Beaver Valley could result in
a fine because it involved deliberate falsification of a federally required
review, Mr. Sheehan said.
FirstEnergy has chosen to resolve the issue through a new NRC program,
alternative dispute resolution, in which a mediator at the Institute on
Conflict Resolution at Cornell University will preside over a hearing
scheduled for later this month. The process is so new that predicting an
outcome or penalty amount is impossible.
Dave Lochbaum, nuclear safety project director for the Union of Concerned
Scientists, a nonprofit advocacy organization favoring strict safety
guidelines for the nuclear power industry, said falsification of records is
an offense that warrants serious sanctions.
"This paperwork mistake at Beaver Valley did not create a serious safety
situation, but considering the owner is the same as at Davis-Besse and
falsification was a big issue there, too, there's no excuse for this to
happen," Mr. Lochbaum said. "It could have been worse if they were faking
paperwork to cover a bad situation and the series of internal checks didn't
catch it."
Davis-Besse was closed for two years after the reactor head damage was
discovered in 2002, and the company spent $600 million making repairs and
buying replacement power during the shutdown. The plant returned to full
power in 2004.
In the wake of Davis-Besse, the NRC ordered immediate technical reviews and
inspections of the reactor heads at the other 68 reactors using pressurized
water technology. Several of them, including one of the two at the Beaver
Valley complex, had some rust. But the NRC said none approached the deep
corrosion found at Davis-Besse and none was a threat to public safety.
Because of NRC requirements for more rigorous inspections of older reactor
heads, about a third of the nation's nuclear plants decided to replace the
old heads with new ones rather than perform costly inspections that range
from $3 million to $4 million each. FirstEnergy decided to do that at its
Beaver Valley Unit 1.
"We were going to replace the steam generators anyway, and that required us
to open up the containment building, so we thought we might as well replace
the head at the same time," said Mr. Schneider. "The steam generator work
was driving the project."
Demark was also overseeing the steam generator replacement at Beaver
Valley. It is not currently doing any contract work for FirstEnergy.
The Joliet, Ill.-based company, which provides a variety of engineering
services at 19 nuclear power plants in 15 states, has not been cited or
sanctioned by the NRC, and Mr. Sheehan said the NRC "is not aware of any
other cases where evaluations were not done properly."
Demark President Mark Inserra said he hired the design engineer who
submitted false review records based on a recommendation from FirstEnergy,
which had employed him as a contract engineer at another one of its nuclear
power plants. His name has not been disclosed by the NRC or the companies.
"The first time he worked for Demark was on the Beaver Valley project, and
his work was exemplary there until we were told about the reports," Mr.
Inserra said. "Why he did what he did, we don't know."
(Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983. )
*****************************************************************
34 NRC: NRC Issues New Edition of Information Digest
News Release - 2006-11
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs
Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail:
opa@nrc.gov No. 06-110 September 14, 2006
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its 2006-2007
edition of the Information Digest containing up-to-date
information about the agency, domestic and worldwide nuclear
energy, nuclear materials safety, and radioactive waste in an
easy-to-use format.
This edition, NUREG-1350, Volume 18, provides an expanded
discussion about future U.S. commercial nuclear power reactor
licensing. It also features updated design, graphics, and
illustrations as well as visual cues for easier reference.
The Information Digest, published annually, provides a
compilation of NRC-related and nuclear-related data and is
intended to serve as a quick reference to major facts about the
agency and the industry it regulates. It is available
electronically at: http://www.nrc.gov in the lower right-hand
corner of the NRCs homepage. It may also be purchased from the
U.S. Government Printing Office (Tel. 202-512-1800) or the
National Technical Information Service (Tel. 1-800-553-6847).
Last revised Thursday, September 14, 2006
*****************************************************************
35 Guardian Unlimited: Nuke Plant Contractor Accused of Coverup
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday September 14, 2006 4:31 PM
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A contractor at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Beaver
Valley nuclear power plant failed to do required reviews on a
repair project and tried to cover it up, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission says.
An engineer with consulting firm Demark Inc. had knowingly
signed paperwork on June 1, 2005, that said 25 required reviews
were done on a project the preceded plans to replace a nuclear
reactor vessel head, but only two or three reviews were actually
completed, according to an NRC report that followed a yearlong
investigation.
The reviews are important because they are supposed to evaluate
how well the replacement reactor head will work with existing
safety controls, said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan.
``The safety significance of this was low because it was caught
in June 2005 and the head wasn't installed until early this
year,'' Sheehan said. ``But we care because this is a major
component replacement and we need to make sure it won't
adversely affect any of the other major safety systems.''
Sheehan said the NRC was not aware of any similar cases involved
Joliet, Ill.-based Demark.
The cover-up was caught when a clerk at the plant noticed that
supporting documentation for the reviews was missing, the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Thursday.
The Demark engineer, whose name was not released, was fired and
FirstEnergy's engineers completed the reviews, said Todd
Schneider, a spokesman for Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy.
Demark President Mark Inserra said FirstEnergy had recommended
the engineer. ``Why he did what he did, we don't know.'' Inserra
said.
The NRC informed FirstEnergy last month that ``escalated
enforcement action'' was under consideration related to Beaver
Valley. It expects to resolve the issue through a mediator at
the Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University, who
will preside over a hearing later this month, the newspaper
reported.
FirstEnergy also ran the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in
Ohio, where reactor head corrosion and a coverup led to more
than $33 million in fines.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
36 Arizona Daily Star: 12 disciplined at Palo Verde nuclear plant
| www.azstarnet.com ®
[AzStarNet]
the associated press Tucson, Arizona |
Published: 09.14.2006
PHOENIX — A dozen supervisors and line workers at the nation's
largest nuclear power plant have been fired or transferred since
February to ease federal regulators' concerns about oversight at
the triple-reactor plant outside Phoenix.
Cliff Eubanks, vice president of nuclear operations for the Palo
Verde Nuclear Generating Station, told Nuclear Regulatory
Commission officials in a meeting last week that the changes were
made because "we're very serious about improving performance."
Only three of the country's 103 nuclear reactors have poorer
ratings from the NRC than Palo Verde.
Federal inspectors found 24 minor violations over a six-month
period earlier this year, according to a letter sent to Palo
Verde management on Aug. 31.
.subscribeinstory {
Arizona Daily Star
*****************************************************************
37 St. Paul Pioneer Press: Xcel Energy's nuclear-storage lease rejected
09/14/2006 |
Increased local capacity diminishes need
BY DENNIS LIEN Pioneer Press
Over the past decade, Xcel Energy has spent $23 million on a
plan to store highly radioactive nuclear waste at a Utah Indian
reservation. But that project might be dead.
The Interior Department last week rejected a lease Xcel and
other utilities had signed with the Skull Valley Band of
Goshutes to store waste on its reservation. It's still unclear
whether an appeal will be filed, but Xcel said Wednesday it
would not help pay for one.
The lease would have allowed Minneapolis-based Xcel and seven
other utilities to ship up to 44,000 tons of nuclear waste to
Goshute land southwest of Salt Lake City, where it would be
stored for up to 50 years or until a permanent federal
repository is available, either at Yucca Mountain in Nevada or
elsewhere.
Xcel's need for that approach has diminished in recent years.
In 2003, it received state permission to expand nuclear-waste
storage capacity at its Prairie Island nuclear power plant near
Red Wing. Now, it's seeking permission to build a similar
storage site at its Monticello plant.
After seemingly going nowhere for years, plans to store waste at
Yucca Mountain have accelerated. Congress is considering changes
to a nuclear-waste policy bill that could enable Yucca Mountain
to open in 2017.
Last December, Xcel pledged to withhold future contributions for
the private storage option if plans for Yucca Mountain continue
to advance.
Charles Bomberger, general manager of nuclear assets for Xcel,
said the company is maintaining that stance.
"There is, I think, significant activity and progress being made
on Yucca Mountain,'' Bomberger said.
Of the $23 million Xcel has spent so far on the private storage
option, $800,000 was spent in 2003 and 2004 and none in the past
two years. Still, Xcel has no plans to drop out of the
consortium, called Private Fuel Storage.
"We are a passive participant in PFS,'' Bomberger said. "If
progress is not being made, we reserve the right to resurrect
active participation in PFS.''
Dennis Lien can be reached at or 651-228-5588.
*****************************************************************
38 RIA Novosti: Investment in Russia's power sector to hit $80 bln -
PM Fradkov
14/ 09/ 2006
MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister
Mikhail Fradkov said Thursday the government forecast investment
in the country's power industry at $80 billion in the near term
as a result of an ongoing reform in the sector.
"The ongoing reform in the power sector allows us to attract $80
billion in the near term. The government is ready for
co-financing in some projects," he said, adding that the
government sought building new power stations and
infrastructure.
Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said last
month that Russia planned to double investment in the
development of the country's non-nuclear power sector in 2007 to
160 billion rubles (about $6 bln) as the result of
higher-than-expected rates of growth in electricity demand.
Gref said investment sources had yet to be ascertained, but that
funds could be raised by Russia's electricity monopoly Unified
Energy System from the sale of its power-generating assets.
UES head Anatoly Chubais said Wednesday the company would
consider initial public offerings this month for generating
companies and expected to raise $17 billion.
"I think that with account for increased interest in generating
companies, we can launch the IPO program for most generating
companies," Chubais said. "A new list of companies will be
presented in September this year at a board meeting."
Fradkov said the government should step up efforts to resolve
sector's problems.
"The power industry is hampering the country's economic
development," he said. "We cannot continue to keep silent over
this. The government must help Chubais to resolve [the sector's]
problems."
© 2005 RIA Novosti
*****************************************************************
39 POAC: NRC mostly satisfied with Oyster Creek
By MEREDITH KOLODNER Staff Writer, (609) 978-2015
Published: Thursday, September 14, 2006
[The Press of Atlantic City On The Web]
LACEY TOWNSHIP — The Nu-clear Regulatory Commission
chastised Oyster Creek's owner AmerGen at a public meeting
Wednesday for failing to properly monitor aspects of the plant's
operations, but concluded that the company was abiding by
required safety precautions.
The NRC's report focused on whether the company was keeping
track of the safety impact of aging plant parts. Although the
NRC said it was satisfied overall, it did lodge a complaint
about water leakage near the drywell area.
Leakage is a concern because it can lead to corrosion of the
drywell liner, which in an emergency directs steam toward a pool
of water where it is cooled, helping to keep radioactive
material from becoming overheated.
Michael Modes, the lead inspector at Oyster Creek for the NRC,
said the company had previously committed to monitor water
leakage but that it did not seem aware of leakage found by the
NRC. He said plant workers had thrown away the water before it
could be tested.
“What we now know is what we actually feared for a long
time,” said Richard Webster, a staff attorney at the Rutgers
Environmental Law Clinic, “that there has been leakage and
there has not been monitoring.”
Modes disagreed with Webster's conclusions. “They don't have
documented evidence that they have been monitoring the water,”
said Modes. “That is hugely different than condemning them and
saying that no monitoring has occurred.”
The company said that it had taken steps to ensure that
monitoring was now occurring regularly.
“We understand that ultimately the commitments were not met
and that is not acceptable,” said Tim Rausch, vice president
of Oyster Creek. “We have implemented a corrective action
program and institutionalized it. We have done five inspections
and we have seen no evidence of leakage.”
Plant officials also stressed that the plant had implemented
ultra-sonic testing of the drywell lining and had found no
additional corrosion. Modes confirmed that test results showed a
slowing of the corrosion rate. He added that the NRC would
inspect the plant either right before or right after the
re-licensing to make sure that 64 commitments made by the
company to strengthen its oversight of the aging of the plant
were being upheld.
“Will the plant's license be suspended if they don't meet the
commitments?” asked Dennis Zannoni, supervising nuclear
engineer at the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“The commitments are at various levels of significance,”
answered Randy Blough, director of the NRC's Division of Reactor
Projects. “If they don't, we evaluate for significance, and we
take the appropriate action.”
The NRC would not confirm whether the plant's license would be
revoked if the company failed to meet all of the commitments,
adding that the industry had never failed at that level.
A couple dozen residents of Lacey and nearby towns sat through
the 2-hour meeting. Some argued that the plant was not safe.
“The public has very little time to say what we have to
say,” Paula Gotch said. “I am concerned for our safety, our
homes and our children.”
Others said the plant has been clean and safe for over three
decades.
“Oyster Creek has been good neighbor to Lacey,” said
Committeeman David Most, who works at the plant. “You have to
look at and respect the expertise (of the NRC).”
The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards will hold a
hearing open to the public in Rockville, Md., on Oyster Creek's
license renewal application October 3.
To e-mail Meredith Kolodner at The Press:
MKolodner@pressofac.com
*****************************************************************
40 post-gazette: Worker at Beaver Valley nuclear plant conceals review failures
www.post-gazette.com
Thursday, September 14, 2006 By Don Hopey,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A contract engineer at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Beaver Valley nuclear
power plant covered up his failure to do required reviews on a
reactor repair project, in violation of federal safety
regulations.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in documents summarizing a
yearlong investigation, said a Demark Inc. engineer knowingly
signed paperwork June 1, 2005, showing all 25 federally mandated
design reviews were done on a project to replace a nuclear
reactor vessel head when only two or three had been finished.
Those engineering reviews are important because they ensure
that the replacement reactor parts fit and are compatible with
existing safety systems. Because the falsified work reports were
discovered before construction began, public safety was not
jeopardized.
The reactor head tops the steel container that holds
radioactive material under high pressure. Reactor heads have
been the subject of intense scrutiny since it was discovered in
2002 that FirstEnergy had covered up an acid leak that nearly
ate through the 6-inch-thick steel reactor head at the
Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo, Ohio.
FirstEnergy was in the design phase of replacing the head at
its Beaver Valley Unit 1 reactor in Shippingport, Beaver County,
when the Demark design engineer who worked on site submitted the
falsified design-inspection documents to FirstEnergy.
According to the NRC, FirstEnergy did not know the work record
was incomplete, despite conducting a series of internal reviews.
A clerk at Beaver Valley, filing the completed work package in
FirstEnergy's records system, noticed that supporting documents
were missing, and the company notified the NRC.
The NRC informed FirstEnergy on Aug. 1 that an "apparent
violation" of the commission's regulations occurred and
"escalated enforcement action" is under consideration.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said engineering inspection reviews
are important because they are supposed to evaluate how well the
replacement reactor head will work with existing safety controls
at the 27-year-old plant.
"The safety significance of this was low because it was caught
in June 2005 and the head wasn't installed until early this
year," Mr. Sheehan said. "But we care because this is a major
component replacement and we need to make sure it won't
adversely affect any of the other major safety systems."
Equally as worrisome, he said, was that FirstEnergy's
multistage quality assurance review process didn't discover the
falsified work reports.
Todd Schneider, a spokesman for Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy,
said the Demark employee was fired, and the review was completed
by FirstEnergy's own engineers.
"We should have caught it earlier," Mr. Schneider said. "When
we found it, we removed the contractor and reworked our
engineering process. It was corrected prior to any installation
work done on the reactor head."
He said the reactor head installation began in February of this
year and was completed in April, ahead of schedule.
At FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, employees and
a contractor falsified documents to cover up reactor head
corrosion, ignoring serious safety concerns in pursuit of
profits. The NRC has called the incident the worst since the
partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg in
1979.
FirstEnergy paid a $5.45 million fine last year for failing to
stop the acid leak, and this year paid a record $28 million in
fines and penalties for covering up the leak in its reports to
the NRC.
The apparent violation of NRC regulations at Beaver Valley
could result in a fine because it involved deliberate
falsification of a federally required review, Mr. Sheehan said.
FirstEnergy has chosen to resolve the issue through a new NRC
program, alternative dispute resolution, in which a mediator at
the Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University will
preside over a hearing scheduled for later this month. The
process is so new that predicting an outcome or penalty amount
is impossible.
Dave Lochbaum, nuclear safety project director for the Union of
Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit advocacy organization favoring
strict safety guidelines for the nuclear power industry, said
falsification of records is an offense that warrants serious
sanctions.
"This paperwork mistake at Beaver Valley did not create a
serious safety situation, but considering the owner is the same
as at Davis-Besse and falsification was a big issue there, too,
there's no excuse for this to happen," Mr. Lochbaum said. "It
could have been worse if they were faking paperwork to cover a
bad situation and the series of internal checks didn't catch it."
Davis-Besse was closed for two years after the reactor head
damage was discovered in 2002, and the company spent $600
million making repairs and buying replacement power during the
shutdown. The plant returned to full power in 2004.
In the wake of Davis-Besse, the NRC ordered immediate technical
reviews and inspections of the reactor heads at the other 68
reactors using pressurized water technology. Several of them,
including one of the two at the Beaver Valley complex, had some
rust. But the NRC said none approached the deep corrosion found
at Davis-Besse and none was a threat to public safety.
Because of NRC requirements for more rigorous inspections of
older reactor heads, about a third of the nation's nuclear
plants decided to replace the old heads with new ones rather
than perform costly inspections that range from $3 million to $4
million each. FirstEnergy decided to do that at its Beaver
Valley Unit 1.
"We were going to replace the steam generators anyway, and that
required us to open up the containment building, so we thought
we might as well replace the head at the same time," said Mr.
Schneider. "The steam generator work was driving the project."
Demark was also overseeing the steam generator replacement at
Beaver Valley. It is not currently doing any contract work for
FirstEnergy.
The Joliet, Ill.-based company, which provides a variety of
engineering services at 19 nuclear power plants in 15 states,
has not been cited or sanctioned by the NRC, and Mr. Sheehan
said the NRC "is not aware of any other cases where evaluations
were not done properly."
Demark President Mark Inserra said he hired the design engineer
who submitted false review records based on a recommendation
from FirstEnergy, which had employed him as a contract engineer
at another one of its nuclear power plants. His name has not
been disclosed by the NRC or the companies.
"The first time he worked for Demark was on the Beaver Valley
project, and his work was exemplary there until we were told
about the reports," Mr. Inserra said. "Why he did what he did,
we don't know."
(Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.comor
412-263-1983. )
Copyright ©1997-2006 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights
*****************************************************************
41 Platts: Louisiana regulators looking at policies for new nuclear
Washington (Platts)--13Sep2006
Louisiana regulators are looking at regulatory policies on new
nuclear construction in the state.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission September 13 hired a
consultant to lead the staff initiative and deliver a report by
the PSC?s scheduled December meeting.
In an interview, consultant David Dismukes told Platts that the
PSC wants a set of guidelines it can use to evaluate nuclear
power plant proposals.
Dismukes is assistant director of the Center for Energy Studies
at Louisiana State University. The study will look at current
state regulatory policies and resource planning.
Issues to be reviewed will include ratemaking and cost recovery.
Entergy is exploring the potential for building another reactor
at its River Bend site in Louisiana.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
42 Telugu Portal: Brazil, South Africa back India's quest for nuclear energy -
Posted by on 2006/9/14 6:30:09
Brasilia, Sep 14 (IANS) Brazil and South Africa have supported
India's quest for international civilian nuclear cooperation by
advocating "forward-looking approaches" towards peaceful uses of
nuclear energy with "proper safeguards".
A joint statement issued after the first summit of the
three-nation IBSA, comprising India, Brazil and South Africa,
also called for further cooperation among the three countries in
areas as diverse as multilateralism, UN reforms, energy
security, sustainable development and overcoming poverty and
hunger.
"They agreed to explore approaches to cooperation in the
peaceful uses of nuclear energy under appropriate International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards," said a declaration
issued after a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of
India and Presidents Luiz Inacio da Silva of Brazil and Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa.
"They further agreed that international civilian nuclear
cooperation, under appropriate IAEA safeguards, amongst
countries committed to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation
objectives could be enhanced through acceptable forward-looking
approaches, consistent with their respective national and
international obligations," the declaration added.
The backing of Brazil, the current chairman of the 45-nation
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and South Africa, also an
influential NSG member, for India's quest for global nuclear
cooperation, is an indication of the growing support within the
NSG for the India-US civil nuclear deal.
The NSG will decide on adjusting its guidelines for easing rules
of nuclear commerce in favour of India after the US Congress
passes the necessary legislation and the finalisation of a
bilateral nuclear pact between India and the US.
Besides nuclear energy, the IBSA joint declaration also
underscored the spirit of South-South cooperation that has
brought together the three large democracies in political,
economic and cultural spheres.
"They reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism and the
pre-eminent role of the UN. India, Brazil and South Africa will
continue to work together to strengthen the multilateral system,
particularly through institutions such as the UN and the World
Trade Organization, in order to further promote this goal," the
declaration said.
The three countries also forcefully reiterated the need for
expansion of the UN Security Council "without which no reform of
the United Nations will be complete".
"They reiterated their conviction that the Security Council must
be expanded to include developing countries from Africa, Asia
and Latin America in both its permanent and non-permanent
categories, so as to reflect contemporary realities and make it
more democratic, legitimate, representative and responsive."
Another important area that saw the three countries come
together was terrorism. The three called upon all UN member
states to seriously work towards an expeditious finalization of
the text for the comprehensive convention on international
terrorism.
India's battle against terrorism received a boost with the IBSA
declaration asking "the international community to undertake all
necessary measures to bring to justice perpetrators,
collaborators and sponsors of these and other acts of terrorism,
as well as those who incite the perpetrators to commit them".
The central thrust of the IBSA summit, described by Manmohan
Singh as "historic and without precedent", was to deepen
South-South cooperation so that the collective voice of the
developing world can have greater weight on the world stage.
© 2006 TeluguPortal.Net | | | |
*****************************************************************
43 Energy Business Review: Scottish nuclear workers on strike -
13th September 2006 By Helen Marshall
Workers at power stations in Scotland, UK have begun what looks
set to be a series of weekly strikes over wages.
Members of the Amicus union working at Hunterston nuclear power
stations A have begun taking strike action due to the removal of
a 50 pence per hour enhancement that had been in place for 30
years.
The 40 employees of Balfour Kilpatrick began the strike on
September 12, 2006 and plan to go on strike each consecutive
Tuesday and Wednesday.
The electricians are taking this action because three months ago
Balfour Kilpatrick informed their workforce they would terminate
an agreement with Amicus which had been in place for more than
30 years. This will mean the removal of the 50 pence per hour
enhancement from all employee's hourly rates.
According to the trade union, the national disputes procedure
has been exhausted and, despite continued attempts by Amicus to
resolve this, including approaches to clients, British Energy
and British Nuclear Group, the issue has remained unresolved.
"Amicus nuclear power station workers in Scotland are not
prepared to see their wages cut. Particularly when there is
GBP42 billion of nuclear decommissioning work to be done across
the UK with a significant proportion of it taking place in
Scotland," commented John Quigley, Amicus' Scottish regional
secretary.
©2006 Business Review Ltd
*****************************************************************
44 TCS Daily: From No Nukes to New Nukes
By Evgeny Morozov
15 Sep 2006
The six-month consultation period on the EU's Green Paper on a
European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure
Energycomes to an end on September 24. But no matter what the
accumulated public feedback reveals, recent news headlines
underline some of the key trends shaping the future policy of the
EU.
First, Russia has turned to be a much more agile, sophisticated
and cunning player than the EU was ever prepared to acknowledge.
It expanded its outreach into countries of high geopolitical
importance to the EU. Algeria, Libya, Turkmenistan—just a few
months ago, these were hardly common travel destinations for EU
diplomats. By the time Europeans woke up to their geopolitical
importance, Russians had already established strong business and
government ties there. Since then Brussels has discovered how
dependant it is upon Russia's energy benevolence.
Second, this summer's heat has shown the vulnerability of
alternative energy sources. Apparently, hydroelectric plants no
longer providea stable source of energy, as droughts dry up the
reservoirs and high temperatures boost the use of air
conditioning.
Third, there has been a tremendous amount of bottom-up activity
in the EU, with new members searching for ways to reduce their
reliance on Russian energy rather than relying on Brussels to
find a suitable solution. For example, Warsaw would letthe United
States station an anti-missile defense system on its territory in
exchange for American help in pushing through a project that can
bring gas from Central Asia to Europe bypassing Russia...
In another mutually beneficial exchange, Polish and Lithuanian
leaders are embarkingon a project that would help to hook up the
electrical grids of both countries (with Polish, Czech, and
Swedish companies being invitedto work on a new nuclear power
project in Lithuania). This follows an overall trend of bringing
in the Baltic electrical grids into the Scandinavian net, thus
moving closer to a single European market in energy and ensuring
security of supply.
Given all of these, it is not surprising that EU Energy
Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has stepped up efforts to
promotenuclear power as a viable option for generating
electricity.
Two key arguments have emerged to support the revival of nuclear
power. The first one holds that as nuclear power is the most
Kyoto-friendly source of energy, its total share in energy
production should grow and eventually replace carbon-intensive
coal and natural gas. This argument has a lot of supporters in
Western Europe who want to promote clean energy without placing
any unnecessary burdens on the economy (i.e. to avoid Kyoto-style
targets).
The second argument holds that nuclear energy can help lessen the
EU's dependence on natural gas, and by extension, Russia.
Generating nuclear power requires uranium, but most of its
reserves are concentrated in friendly places like Australia and
Canada and this would not create the same inflexibility as
importing gas or oil from Russia or the Middle East. Obviously,
this argument carries a lot of weight in the countries of Central
and Eastern Europe.
A third argument also might also be in the offing - one made by
big business. As the EU reforms its currently ineffective
Emissions Trading Scheme, the companies will seek new ways to
produce energy, with nuclear power being their most likely
choice. So, once the EU finds a way to impose significant
emissions-driven costs on big businesses, they would line up to
revive nuclear power.
Thus, a somewhat intriguing coalition is on the horizon:
free-market environmentalists from Western Europe, Russophobe
Eastern Europeans, and cost-saving corporations faced with
growing bills for carbon emissions. Looking back into the
relationship between nuclear power and public opinion, it might
indeed take a coalition of this size and composition to push
through the necessary policy change to make Europe
nuclear-friendly again.
The sooner the European Commission and the national governments
make a firm commitment to this nuclear revival, the more chances
they have to meet the Kyoto targets, help jump-start their
economies, and preserve some dignity in their relationship with
Russia.
Investing in the development of uranium mines, creating special
investment vehicles to overcome the prohibitive capital costs
surrounding nuclear construction, and researching the best ways
for nuclear waste management are all complicated tasks, which the
Europeans have been neglecting for decades. It might take another
cold Russian winter of 2007 to convince them to move things just
a little bit quicker...
The author is a TCS Daily contributing writer. He blogs at
www.sharpandsound.com.
>interview@tcsdaily.com
©2000-2006 TCS Daily
*****************************************************************
45 BFP: My Turn: NUCLEAR POWER TOO COSTLY
Burlington Free Press.com | Opinion
burlingtonfreepress.com | Burlington, Vermont
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Arnie Gunderson
All summer I have read opinion pieces about energy issues: wind
power, nuclear power, energy consumption, conservation, and
Vermont's lack of foresight on energy issues. I think the debate
has missed a crucial point.
I have studied these issues for 35 years and have lectured and
taught the economics of energy production. Prior to teaching
math and physics at Burlington High School, I was the senior
vice president of a nuclear firm and a licensed nuclear
operator. I have testified as a nuclear expert witness before
our Public Service Board, at the Statehouse, before the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission and in Europe.
Because climate scientists agree that global warming is real and
is caused by the burning fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas,
governments are seeking quick and easy answers to quench our
thirst for more energy. Conservation methods, energy efficiency,
and new technologies take time to develop, require planning,
significant investment, and lifestyle changes that most people
are loath to make. Rather than dealing with these issues by
finding creative solutions, our government is attempting to turn
back time by once again suggesting that nuclear power is the
best solution.
When the U.S. government created the Atoms for Peace Program in
the 1950s, it claimed that power would be so cheap that
electricity would almost be free if it was produced by nuclear
energy. Now the government claims that nuclear power is our
environmental salvation. I went to college for nuclear
engineering because I wanted to help produce cheap and safe
electricity in order to help our country's economy grow. But my
experiences and research on Three Mile Island and other nuclear
safety cases have taught me that more nuclear power plants are
not the answer to global warming. Nuclear power is neither safe
nor cheap.
Power plants -- both fossil and nuclear -- create waste that
mankind does not know how to contain, adding incredible
financial and environmental liabilities that will last for
hundreds of generations and yet, those costs are never figured
into our current electric bills. We continue to leave these
waste problems and costs for our children's children to solve.
Toxic nuclear waste will be around for 250,000 years, which is
an incomprehensible amount of time. Almost 50 years ago, the
nuclear industry promised us easy waste storage solutions. There
are no easy solutions, and no one knows what to do with its
toxic radioactive waste. The latest reports show that nuclear
waste canisters at the so-called Yucca Mountain repository in
Nevada will begin to leak into the mountain in about 100 years.
What then?
Don't believe me? Read Dr. Helen Caldicott's new book, "Nuclear
Power Is Not the Answer." You may remember that Caldicott is the
medical doctor and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who stopped
above-ground nuclear testing in the Pacific because she proved
that its radiation releases caused cancers. Or talk with the
families living near nuclear power plants, like those near the
St. Lucie Plant in Florida, where 26 families in one cluster
have members with cancer. Nearby, the St. Lucie nuclear plant
illegally dumped radioactive sewage sludge on a farmer's field
for six years. After speaking with these families, I can tell
you that radiation releases really do matter!
The cost of cancers, the cost of accidents, and the cost of
highly toxic waste sitting around for thousand upon thousands of
years have not been factored into any nuclear power costs. Those
costs are left for future generations, and not paid for today
when the profit from nuclear power is being made.
Vermont is known for its purity: its clean air, clean lakes,
fresh snowfall and four-season tourism. We are known for our
natural organic foods, pure maple syrup, flavorful honey, fresh
eggs, creamy butter, a variety of rich cheeses and natural
yogurts, ice cream, maple vodka, fall foliage, hiking and
skiing. Now try selling Vermont's purity to tourists and
consumers when we are stuck with a nuclear waste dump or suffer
the results of a leak or accident at an aging Vermont Yankee.
What we need is a statewide energy policy, and we need it now.
One that takes into consideration the real cost of electric
generation, including its long term toxic wastes, and one that
considers the welfare of our citizens, our children's children,
and the profit of Vermont's wholesome industries, not those of
some out-of-state nuclear power owner. I would rather see
windmills on ridgelines and solar panels reflecting across all
Vermont roofs than risk the environmental purity of our state to
the silent menace of radioactive contamination. Arnie Gunderson
lives in Burlington.
Copyright ©2006 Burlingtonfreepress.com All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
46 Vermont Guardian: Testing safe to public, VY, Entergy officials say
Shutdown would cost company $1.5 million
[ASLB]
Massachusetts resident Hattie Nestel interrupted yesterday's
meeting of the ASLB in Newfane to read a statement of protest
against Vermont Yankee's continued operation. photo by Rebecca
Coffey
By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian
Posted September 14, 2006
NEWFANE A test of Vermont Yankees systems and structure would
endanger neither the public nor the plant, but it would cost the
company at least $1.5 million, VY officials Wednesday.
Their testimony came as a grassroots citizens group got its
first day in court, becoming the only outside party to formally
challenge a power increase at a U.S. commercial nuclear reactor.
The Brattleboro-based New England Coalition (NEC) is asking for
a 20-second, slam-on-the-brakes style test of Vermont Yankee to
determine if the 34-year-old plant can withstand an emergency
shutdown while operating at 120 percent of its design capacity.
The coalition is arguing before the Atomic Safety and Licensing
Board (ASLB), a quasi-judicial panel of judges, that a full
transient test should be performed as a condition to one of the
largest power boosts ever allowed at a U.S. reactor.
The New England Coalition, in reviewing Entergys approach, has
come to the conviction that large transient testing must be
conducted at extended power uprate conditions in order to
demonstrate that the structure, systems and components will
perform as intended and as required under regulations, said Ray
Shadis, the groups technical advisor.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a 20 percent
uprate at Vermont Yankee in March, three years after Entergy
filed its application for the power boost. The plant has been
operating smoothly since it reached full capacity.
If successful, the coalitions challenge could effectively
overrule the NRC staff approval of the uprate, possibly
resulting in modifications or even a halt to the power boost.
If at the end of the day we decided that the contention was
valid, then we can require or issue an order saying so, and the
uprate would be conditioned or possibly subject to the large
transient testing NEC has been asking for, said Alex Karlin,
chairman of the three-member ASLB judges empanelled for this
hearing.
Entergy officials maintain the plants performance since the
uprate renders the testing questions moot, or even capricious.
Once youve had several events over a plants history you have a
much greater understanding of the behavior of the plant, said
Jose Casillas, a consulting engineer for General Electric, the
company that designed Vermont Yankee. To perform another test at
the new maximum power is basically an academic exercise.
Casillas said the reactor had only a certain number of thermal
cycles built into it, so once you spend those events youve used
up essentially what you have.
Vermont Yankees original 40-year operating license expires in
2012, and Entergy has filed for a 20-year license extension.
But Entergy officials also conceded that a full transient test
was unlikely to harm the reactor or endanger the public, and
that Vermont Yankee was built to withstand 70 to 100 more
emergency shutdowns, or scrams.
Entergys uprate project manager, Craig Nichols, also said a full
transient test would necessitate at least a two-day shutdown,
costing the company a minimum of $1.5 million in lost power
sales and forcing Vermont utilities to find replacement power.
The state buys about a third of its total electricity from
Entergy.
The state believes the added power costs would be covered under
an existing ratepayer-protection agreement which requires
Entergy to pay for replacement power if a shutdown is related to
the uprate if the test took place before or during the next
scheduled power outage in spring 2007, when the pact is set to
expire, Sarah Hoffman, an attorney with the Department of Public
Service, told the Vermont Guardian.
The state is attempting to extend the rate protection, in part
because of concerns that the uprate would worsen cracks in the
plants steam dryer, the device the removes water droplets from
steam before it enters the turbines. Entergy discovered more
than 60 hairline cracks in the dryer in 2004, long before the
uprate was implemented.
Nichols said Wednesday that a full transient test would not
cause further damage to the dryer, which has been reinforced.
The ASLB hearing will continue into its second day tomorrow with
testimony from an expert hired by the New England Coalition. The
coalition is expected to argue that the computer modeling code
used by Entergy to determine the reliability of the plant is
outdated.
This code was developed in the late 1970s at a time before
Pac-Man, before the Commodore 64 computer, and there is no
evidence that the code itself has been greatly improved upon in
issuance of revisions since them, Shadis said Wednesday in his
opening remarks.
Friday, Sep. 15, 2006
Daily News Wire Archive
Winooski, VT 05404 Southern Vermont: 139 Main Street, Suite 702,
Brattleboro, VT 05301 Contact: 802.861.4880 (ph) | 802.861.6388
(fax) | 877.231.5382 (toll-free)
©2005 Vermont Guardian |
Visit us: www.vermontguardian.com
This document can be located online:
www.vermontguardian.com/local/092006/ASLBHearing.shtml
*****************************************************************
47 APP.COM: Reactor passes a safety inspection
| Asbury Park Press Online
Thursday, September 14, 2006
But NRC faults broken promise
BY NICHOLAS CLUNN STAFF WRITER
LACEY — While a government inspection of the Oyster Creek
nuclear power plant provided a reasonable assurance that the
reactor could operate safely for an additional 20 years, it also
revealed that plant workers had not followed through on a
promise to check for water leaks.
Officials with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced
those results to plant operator AmerGen Energy Co. during a
public meeting at the Lacey municipal building on Wednesday
night. The meeting marked the end of the inspection, just one of
several reviews regulators will consider when deciding whether
to issue Oyster Creek a 20-year license renewal.
Although AmerGen passed this part of the process, the overall
positive result was blemished with a trust issue stemming from
an unfulfilled promise. AmerGen did not, as it was supposed to,
check several jugs meant to catch water leaking from an upper
portion of the plant.
Frustrated opponent
Paula Gotsch, a Brick resident and a member of the renewal
opposition group Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy
Safety, characterized the criticism from regulators as a slap on
the wrist and said their actions should have been more severe.
Gotsch then expressed frustration over the renewal process.
Using her hand to pound a bench in front of her and seemingly on
the verge of tears, Gotsch accused the NRC of taking it easy on
AmerGen while nitpicking at critics' concerns.
"You are not making it easy for us at all," she told regulators.
"We are under so much pressure from you guys."
The checking of the jugs was meant to help AmerGen determine the
extent of leaks that had once caused a steel radiation barrier,
the drywell liner, to rust and become thinner.
Resembling a light bulb with its base pointed up, the
100-foot-tall liner surrounds the reactor vessel, where atoms
are split to generate heat. It is designed to confine highly
pressurized steam that would be produced during a severe
accident and to direct that steam downward to a pool, where it
would cool and condense into water.
For regulators, the issue with the jugs was not as much a safety
concern as it was a matter principle. While not checking the
jugs, AmerGen was taking other, more effective, steps to make
sure the liner would not rust further, said NRC inspection team
leader Michael Modes.
Still, the shortcoming raised doubts in the minds of regulators
about AmerGen's ability to meet commitments, a responsibility
that will become even more important as the plant ages.
The state Department of Environmental Protection, which had two
observers present during the federal inspections, emphasized in
a letter to an NRC official that the checking of the jugs was a
written commitment that had not been met for at least eight
years.
Change of owners cited
Plant spokeswoman Rachelle Benson said a change in plant owners
was a reason why AmerGen did not meet the commitment.
"When we switched from GPU to AmerGen, this was something that
was not followed through on," she said.
Since the issue was discovered earlier this year, AmerGen has
taken steps to make sure that the jugs are no longer overlooked.
Since the leaks can only occur about every two years, when the
plant is shut down to allow new uranium fuel to be installed,
AmerGen workers will check the jugs every day during those
outages, Benson said. As an extra precaution, workers will also
check the jugs quarterly while the plant is in operation.
In his response to regulators, Tim Rausch, site vice president
of Oyster Creek, said the inspection result did not meet company
standards.
"We are not satisfied with our performance," he said. "It will
not be tolerated going forward."
The condition of the drywell and AmerGen's plan to monitor it
under a renewed license is also being looked at by a separate
set of NRC experts focused on plant safety systems.
Yet another arm of the NRC, a three-judge panel, is also looking
at the issue. The panel will soon decide whether to grant a
hearing on the drywell. The hearing was requested by six
activist groups that believe AmerGen's drywell monitoring plan
is inadequate.
Copyright © 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
48 Brattleboro Reformer: VY safety topic of hearing
By ANDY ROSEN, Reformer Staff
Thursday, September 14
NEWFANE -- Officials from Vermont Yankee and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission held fast Wednesday to their view that the
plant has conducted sufficient testing during its 20 percent
power boost.
More tests of the plant's ability to shut down from its new
output level would be unnecessary and place an undue burden on
the plant, they told a federal panel.
Wednesday was the start of a final hearing before the federal
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, a quasi-judicial arm of the
NRC.
The nuclear watchdog New England Coalition is challenging
Vermont Yankee's uprate on the grounds that the plant should be
required to see if it can safely shut down from its new power
level in the event of an emergency.
If the three-member panel decides the coalition is right, it
could impose additional requirements on the plant, or even
overturn the approval for the uprate. The hearings continue
today at 9 a.m. at Windham Superior Court in Newfane.
In his opening statement, Ray Shadis, technical advisor to the
coalition, called for "large transient testing," during which
Vermont Yankee would fully shut down from its new power level.
He said the computer models that the plant used instead of a
real shutdown are outdated and ineffective, and there is no
substitute for an actual shutdown.
"Large transient testing must be conducted at (uprate)
conditions in order to demonstrate that all structures, systems
and components will perform as intended," Shadis said.
Entergy, the company that owns Vermont Yankee, and the NRC staff
both sent expert witnesses before the board to offer sworn
testimony defending the testing that was conducted.
The hearing was briefly interrupted by a group of protesters
after opening statements. Hattie Nestel, of Athol, Mass., stood
up to read a speech on the dangers of nuclear power. She and her
group were asked to leave, but told they could return if they
were quiet. They declined.
Two consultants with General Electric, which designed the uprate
process, testified on behalf of the plant. Engineers Craig
Nichols and Jose Casillas sat before the ASLB for more than four
hours
They were grilled by the board members about the testing methods
at Vermont Yankee, as the NRC rules call for full transient
testing as part of the uprate process.
"I don't understand how you say it's not worth checking that
out," said ASLB Chairman Alex Karlin.
Still, the two maintained that the plant deserved the exemption
it received from the testing. Full transient testing, they said,
would be costly and ineffective.
Experience at the plant and throughout the atomic industry,
along with computer modeling and other tests, provides assurance
that Vermont Yankee can operate safely with the uprate, they
said.
Casillas told the board that the full testing would likely
require 20 to 30 personnel to be on hand, and the results would
have to be sent out for analysis, which would cost even more. He
said other testing conducted during the uprate cost $25,000.
In addition, a full transient test would likely take Vermont
Yankee offline for several days. He estimated that the plant
would lose $1.5 million in revenue during an outage of 48 hours.
Nichols pointed out that the plant only has so many "transients"
or changes in steady operation, built into its design.
At first the two could not cite the amount of transients that
the plant is qualified to use, or how many it's had. Later in
the day, Casillas said the plant has 270 transients for its
lifetime, and has used between 70 and 100.
None of the dozen or so nuclear plants that have raised their
output in the United States have conducted full transient
testing as part of their approval process.
In fact, Vermont Yankee is the first plant to have its power
boost challenged before the ASLB on any grounds.
Still, other plants have experienced full shutdowns from their
new power levels, and Casillas and Nichols said that experience
helped Vermont Yankee calculate its ability to shut down.
The plant itself has fully shut down from full power, but that
was before the uprate. Nichols said that experience is helpful,
because even at its new power level, Vermont Yankee is still
within its margins for a safe shutdown.
When NRC staff testified, engineer Zena Abdullah told the board
that the modifications made for Vermont Yankee's uprate won't
affect its ability to shut down safely.
Other equipment, including the plant's pump system which was
changed for the uprate, got a thorough examination and testing,
she said.
"The main thing that we focus on ... is pre-uprate and
post-uprate, what are the changes that are relevant?" she asked.
The NRC staff will continue its testimony today, and then the
coalition will get a chance to fully argue its case. The hearing
will continue on Friday if necessary.
Andy Rosen can be reached at or (802) 254-2311, ext. 275.
*****************************************************************
49 Hudson Valley News: Nighttime IP siren test is a success
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Buchanan Only two of the 156 Indian Point warning sirens failed
in Wednesday night testing.
This was the first time the emergency notification system for
the nuclear power plant was sounded in the evening and Indian
Point spokesman James Steets said it went well.
Sounding the sirens at night when people are home and not at
work gave them an opportunity to hear what they sound like, he
said. The basic operational capabilities of the system work well
now, Steets said.
This is the third test in a row that those computer software
issues that plagued the siren system before have worked well.
Only two sirens in Rockland County did not work.
Entergy, the company that owns Indian Point, is in the process
of installed a new $10 million high-tech siren warning system.
HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's
only Internet radio news report.
*****************************************************************
50 Hudson Valley News: Committee approves legislation to require disclosure of leaks
from nuke plants
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Washington - A key Senate committee has approved legislation to
require nuclear plant operators to quickly notify the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, the state and county in which the plant
is located, of any leak of radioactive substances, such as the
releases from the spent fuel pools at Indian Point that occurred
last August.
Senator Hillary Clinton joined Senator Obama in bringing the
legislation to the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee, where it was unanimously approved Wednesday.
Local officials need to know when radioactive materials are
leaked from any of New York's nuclear power plants, including
Indian Point, said Clinton. This important legislation will
ensure prompt notification of any future leaks, and I will be
working hard to move it through the full Senate.
Last fall, the NRC and Entergy discovered leaks of
radiation-contaminated water from the spent fuel pools at the
Indian Point power plant. However, local officials were not
notified of the leaks until weeks after they were discovered.
The legislation approved by the EPW Committee would ensure that
local governments would receive much faster notice of any such
leaks in the future. The bill will next go to the full Senate
for consideration.
The legislation directs the NRC to develop regulations to
require plant owners to notify the NRC, state and county
officials of radiation leaks. For leaks that threaten drinking
water, the bill recommends reporting to the NRC, the state and
the county within 24 hours, unless they are already subject to
more stringent reporting requirements.
HEAR today's news on , the Hudson Valley's only Internet radio
news report.
*****************************************************************
51 AFP: Swedish nuclear plants still too unsafe to re-open
Thu Sep 14, 1:18 PM ET
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Sweden's nuclear power watchdog on Thursday
said safety measures at three of the country's nuclear reactors,
shut down after a safety alert in July, needed to be tightened
before they could re-enter service.
"The three (reactors) need to meet a list of measures before we
give them official approval to resume operations," Swedish
nuclear power inspectorate (SKI) spokeswoman Maria Svensson told
AFP.
The three are the Forsmark 1 and Forsmark 2 reactors and the
Oskarshamn 1 reactor.
No date was set by the agency for the improvements, but the
power stations must adopt the changes before seeking clearance
from SKI.
Svensson's comments came after SKI published a list of safety
measures that it said needed to be tightened before the reactors
could resume production.
Forsmark 1 was shut down on July 25 after a short-circuit caused
a blackout. Two of four backup diesel generators failed to start
automatically, revealing other faults in the power station's
electrical system.
SKI was forced to halt operations at three other of the
country's 10 reactors after the incident at Forsmark.
Forsmark personnel reacted correctly in "a unique situation,"
according to SKI.
The fourth reactor closed down after the scare, Oskarshamn 2,
had made required changes to operating procedures, and was free
to resume electricity production, Svensson said Thursday.
SKI said the incident was a level-two incident on a scale from
zero to seven.
In conjunction with SKI's announcement on Thursday, the Swedish
government said it intended to host an international conference
on nuclear safety.
"The aim of the conference will be to exchange Swedish and
international experience in nuclear power in the hope of
reducing the risk of incidents such as the one at Forsmark,"
Swedish environment ministry spokeswoman Lena Berglund told AFP.
"All countries with an interest in nuclear power could be
invited, both in Europe and from further afield," Berglund
added.
Sweden has closed two of its original 12 nuclear reactors since
1999 as part of a plan to phase out nuclear power over the next
30 years, or when the reactors' lifespan expires.
Nuclear power accounts for nearly half of Sweden's electricity
production.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
52 SABCnews.com: IBSA agrees to peaceful usage of nuclear energy
politics/government
South African Broadcasting Corporation Copyright © 2000 - 2005 SABC
[The meeting between India, Brazil and South Africa will attempt
to boost business ]
IBSA countries agree to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes
September 14, 2006, 12:00
Countries at the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) summit have
agreed to co-operate on peaceful utilisation of nuclear energy.
Leaders at the IBSA summit in Brazil will explore such avenues
under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA).
India, Brazil and South Africa have also signed a bold plan to
facilitate trade between them, however, they have accused
developed nations of blocking progress in reaching a global trade
pact.
Crucial agreements include building ocean highways for increased
trade flows, increase food security, and to bridge the digital
divide.
*****************************************************************
53 IAEA: Congress Panel Cooking Intel on Iran
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:09:38 -0500 (CDT)
X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________
PM Thursday, September 14, 2006
IAEA: Congress Panel Cooking Intel on Iran
The Washington Post is reporting today: "U.N. inspectors investigating
Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and
to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee
report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the document 'outrageous
and dishonest' and offering evidence to refute its central claims."
CARAH ONG, cong@armscontrolcenter.org, http://www.armscontrolcenter.org
Ong is Iran Policy Analyst at the Center for Arms Control and
Nonproliferation. She said today: "The International Atomic Energy
Agency called the report's assertions that Iran is producing
weapons-grade uranium at its facility in the town of Natanz 'incorrect,'
noting that weapons-grade uranium is enriched to a level of 90 percent
or more. Iran has enriched uranium to 3.5 percent under IAEA
monitoring." Ong gives a breakdown of the evidence on her blog
.
ROBERT NAIMAN, naiman@justforeignpolicy.org,
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org
National coordinator of Just Foreign Policy, Naiman said today: "As
in Iraq, the faction of Congress and the administration hungry for
military confrontation with Iran is again trying to cook the
intelligence and undermine the international inspection system. While
the Washington Post ran the committee's report on page 1, the IAEA's
refutation ran on page 17. The IAEA's refutation deserves at least as
much attention as the committee report, since they are the legitimate
experts. Americans should ask their representatives in Congress to
oppose another U.S. military fiasco in the Middle East based on
manufactured evidence."
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
_________________________________________________________________
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*****************************************************************
54 Guardian Unlimited: Senate OKs Ports Security Bill
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday September 14, 2006 11:31 PM
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to
tighten security at U.S. seaports by scanning nearly all
incoming cargo for nuclear weapons or ``dirty bombs.''
The bill, approved 98-0 in a pre-election push on national
defense, would increase safeguards on the rail systems that pick
up cargo from ports and authorize 1,000 new agents to screen
containers coming off ships.
But the legislation does not go as far as some Democrats
demanded in requiring inspections for all U.S.-bound cargo
before it leaves foreign ports. Almost 11 million containers are
shipped annually to the United States.
The plan, which authorizes spending $835 million next year,
``works toward a goal of getting to 100 percent screening'' of
cargo leaving foreign ports, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.,
one of the bill's authors.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said the measure, was ``the most
comprehensive approach to border security we have taken to
date.''
The bill includes elements not covered in a House plan passed in
May. Still, the head of the Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee, GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine,
said she is optimistic that a compromise plan will pass before
the end of the year.
President Bush said in a statement the Senate bill would
``strengthen my administration's efforts to secure our ports and
detect dangers before they reach America's shores.''
The Senate bill requires inspections of suspicious high-risk
cargo at foreign ports. It also sets up a pilot program to scan
for nuclear or ``dirty bomb'' materials in all U.S.-bound
containers at three to-be-determined foreign ports. The trial
would help determine if mandatory inspections would bottle up
commerce and drive up costs, as Republicans fear.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said that could be too late to
prevent massive explosions at U.S. ports or in harbors outside
large cities.
``We don't want to be in a situation where we say, `What if?
What if we had done more?''' Schumer said.
Responded Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.: ``This about the
practicality of making sure that we have something that works.''
Noting the politics of the issue, Coleman added: ``The election
season is upon us. It's getting very close. ... Let us step away
from the sloganeering.''
The president's homeland security chief has said that nuclear
weapons are the gravest threat facing the country, and experts
fear they could be smuggled easily into the U.S. in shipping
cargo.
Such weapons create huge fireballs fed by nuclear chain
reactions. ``Dirty bombs,'' in contract, would use conventional
explosives to scatter radioactive material. This kind of blast
probably would not cause many deaths, experts say, but the fear
of contamination could spark panic while land and buildings hit
with radioactive particles might be unusable for years.
James Jay Carafano, homeland security fellow at the Heritage
Foundation, said the Senate plan largely ignores security gaps
such as the threat from small boats that could detonate
explosives next to larger ships, as happened in the 2000 attack
on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 Americans.
The bill would make available $400 million for security grants
and expedite incoming cargo from previously approved
manufacturers and other business partners. It also included
special items for landlocked states, including $40 million for
northern border air patrols over Great Falls, Mont., requested
by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and extending the daily hours at a
New Mexico border crossing, sought by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
The administration has spent about $10 billion on ports security
since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. About 65 percent of cargo
is already screened for nuclear or radiological materials. The
Homeland Security Department aims to increase that number to 80
percent by the end of the year and to almost 100 percent by the
end of 2007.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
55 Dallas Morning News: Police seek truck carrying radioactive material
08:16 PM CDT on Thursday, September 14, 2006
By RICHARD ABSHIRE / The Dallas Morning News
Police were seeking help Thursday locating a stolen truck that
was carrying radioactive material. [ /] Courtesy Police said the
truck looks similar to this one, but has flames painted on the
hood and front quarter panels.
The white 2001 Ford F-350 was taken Wednesday morning from the
Sunlight Food Mart at 1935 South Jupiter Road in Garland.
Garland police Lt. Scot Bunch said the truck has a cab-over
camper and flames painted on the hood and front quarter panels.
It has the name Bonded Inspections Inc. on the sides, and Texas
license plate 5YL-T51.
The truck was carrying a camera designed to be lowered into
holes to inspect foundations and other structures. The
photographic equipment contained material described as 95 curies
of Iridium 192, which is very radioactive.
The company said if you see this truck do not approach it -
call 911, Lt. Bunch said.
The driver of the truck pulled into the gas station and went
inside to ask the attendant to turn on the pump, then saw
someone driving away in his truck on southbound Jupiter Road. He
was not able to describe the suspect.
Anyone with information about the theft or the suspect can call
the Garland Police Department at 972-485-4840 or the
investigating officer at 972-205-2060.
E-mail rabshire@dallasnews.com
© 2006 The Dallas Morning News Co.
*****************************************************************
56 Deseret News: Activists urge stronger security at nuclear plants
[deseretnews.com]
Thursday, September 14, 2006
By Suzanne Struglinski Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — An anti-nuclear group, in congressional testimony
submitted Wednesday, emphasized the Interior Department's
rejection of Private Fuel Storage's lease in Tooele County as
evidence of the need for stronger security at nuclear power
plants.
Interim storage of nuclear waste has received increased
attention from the House and Senate in the last year, with each
chamber coming up with different proposals that would make
interim storage an option for the Energy Department, although
whether any plan will make it through Congress this year is
unclear.
Michele Boyd, legislative director of the Public
Citizen's energy program, told the House Energy and Air Quality
Subcommittee that making on-site storage at nuclear power plants
more secure should be the only focus now, because "the United
States does not have a near-term solution for the permanent
storage of high-level nuclear waste."
"National focus should be on addressing the threats from
this waste, not on wasting resources on a failed repository
program, a dangerous reprocessing program or interim
away-from-reactor storage," Boyd said.
Last week, the Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the
lease between Private Fuel Storage and the Skull Valley Band of
the Goshutes to store more than 40,000 tons of nuclear waste on
Goshute land in Tooele County. The Bureau of Land Management
also rejected a PFS request to use certain tracts of public land
to help with its transportation plan.
PFS aimed to store nuclear waste until the federal
government opened a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain in
Nevada, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The White House,
a majority of lawmakers and the nuclear industry strongly
support the Yucca plan, but the site might not open until 2017.
It was supposed to open in 1998, and now utilities are having to
deal with what to do with their waste until it opens.
Boyd, in her written testimony, said the lack of a
transportation plan, inadequate law enforcement, lack of an
environmental study on the effects of a terrorist attack and
uncertainty about the availability of a permanent federal
repository all led the Interior Department to reject the PFS
lease.
In the lease decision handed down last week, the Bureau
of Indian Affairs said the PFS plan left too much uncertainty
about when the nuclear waste would actually leave the
reservation for a permanent storage site.
Boyd used this point to argue against storage of waste in
any place but at the reactors that generate it, saying the
so-called temporary sites "would become long-term 'overflow
parking' for high-level radioactive wastes with nowhere else to
go."
"The most sensible action in the near-term is to require
hardened on-site storage," she said.
Utah's entire congressional delegation has co-sponsored a
bill with Nevada's congressional delegation that would allow the
Energy Department to pay for on-site storage until the
government found another storage solution beyond Yucca Mountain.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe Barton said
Wednesday that he would not support any interim storage proposal
except putting waste temporarily in Nevada somewhere at the
Yucca site until the waste would actually be put into the
mountain.
"I don't want interim storage to be the stopping horse
not to do Yucca Mountain," Barton said.
Nuclear utilities also do not want to see money taken
away from Yucca and put toward interim projects.
"A dollar spent on interim storage is a dollar not spent
on the repository," said Stan Wise, chairman of the Georgia
Public Service Commission, who testified on behalf of the
National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
Wise and other nuclear industry officials argue that
leaving nuclear waste on site does not fulfill the Nuclear Waste
Policy Act's requirement of permanent geologic disposal, which
is what Yucca Mountain would do.
E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com
© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
57 Reuters: Japan prosecutors indict 4 over nuclear devices
Thursday September 14, 09:58 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese prosecutors indicted four former
executives on Thursday from a company suspected of exporting
devices that could be used in producing nuclear weapons.
The former executives of Mitutoyo Corp., which makes
precision-measuring equipment, were arrested last month in
connection with the case, in which the company is suspected of
exporting to Malaysia without a licence two devices that could
be used in uranium (Advertisement)
[Click Here] [ src=] enrichment, media reports said at the time.
Tokyo prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday that they
were indicting the four, including the company's former
president, on suspicion of violating foreign exchange and
foreign trade laws by exporting the devices to Malaysia without
a permit.
A fifth man was released.
Police had been investigating possible export routes from Japan
after a Mitutoyo device was found at nuclear facilities in Libya
inspected by the U.N. watchdog International Atomic Energy
Agency between December 2003 and March 2004, media reports have
said.
Mitutoyo is also suspected of exporting similar equipment to
Iran in 1997, and media reports in August said police had raided
an Iranian trading firm in Tokyo in relation to the case.
Mitutoyo said one of the indicted men has quit the firm and the
other three are now part-time advisers. Only the man who was
released is still a company employee.
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
58 Patriot News: Day cares' evacuation plans still unsettled
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:57:19 -0700
DAUPHIN COUNTY
Thursday, September 14, 2006
BY GARRY LENTON Of The Patriot-News
Dauphin County's commissioners want assurance that day care centers within
10 miles of Three Mile Island can be evacuated if there's trouble at the
nuclear power plant.
But they don't want the county to take on additional responsibility for
providing transportation for children inday care, because they don't have
the buses.
"Every transportation resource [the county has] is committed right now,"
Commissioner Nick DiFrancesco said.
Providing transportation should be the responsibility of the day care
owners, he said.
The comment raises more questions about how children and others in
institutional settings near the nuclear plant would be evacuated in a
nuclear emergency such as the one that happened March 28, 1979.
"I have huge concerns," said Terry Casey, executive director of the
Pennsylvania Day Care Association. "I pray we never have to face this,
because clearly we are not ready as a community or as an industry."
Federal nuclear plant licensing regulations require the county to have a
radiological emergency plan for how it would respond to a serious incident
at TMI. The plan must address how people who cannot leave on their own,
such as nursing home residents, prisoners and school children, would be
taken to safety.
Dauphin County recently made minor changes to its plan, and when the
changes came before the board for approval yesterday, Commissioner George
Hartwick asked if day care centers were included.
The plan lists the phone numbers of licensed day care providers but does
not address how they would be evacuated, said Stephen Shaver, director of
the county Emergency Management Agency.
Questions about evacuation of day care centers and nursery schools have
been debated in the midstate for nearly four years.
Three Mile Island Alert, the Harrisburg-based nuclear watchdog group, has
filed complaints with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and
Gov. Ed Rendell's office alleging that the day cares are not protected.
Epstein argues that NRC licensing requirements make local officials
responsible for providing transportation and a relocation sites for the
children. State and federal officials argue that the responsibility lies
with the day care operators.
DiFrancesco agreed with the latter position, at least on practical grounds.
But the Pennsylvania Day Care Association's Casey said officials are
failing to acknow ledge that few day care centers can provide their own
transportation. Few have adequate vehicles, including large centers with up
to 60 infants who are dropped off and picked up by their parents or
guardians, she said.
"We do not have the resources to do that," she said. "So, is the county
telling us 'tough luck'? I can't accept that," she said.
Emergency Management Agency Director Shaver acknowledged that the county's
transportation resources are stretched. "We and other counties could call
upon the same resources in an emergency and it is something that is being
looked at," he said.
Epstein said DiFrancesco's comments confirm the results of a survey of day
care centers conducted last year by the EFMR Monitoring Group.
The survey of 73 state-licensed centers in Dauphin, Cumberland, Lancaster
and York counties, found that 87 percent did not know who would provide
transportation for their children.
EFMR Monitoring Group is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group run by Epstein that
monitors radiation levels around TMI.
"The NRC and FEMA are content that there are reasonable assurances that
transportation will magically appear during a disaster," Epstein said.
"We're asking for proof ... of assistance for our most vulnerable
populations. It's clear there is a gap between what they need and what they
have."
Epstein said the region needs to convene a summit to resolve the problem.
Casey agreed that a meeting between industry and government agencies might
help resolve the problem.
"There's still time to reach out and come to a plan," she said.
GARRY LENTON: 255-8264 or glenton@patriot-news.com
©2006 The Patriot-News
© 2006 PennLive.com All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
59 The Hindu: `Public concerns on radiation should be properly addressed'
Karnataka / Bangalore News :
Thursday, Sep 14, 2006
Staff Reporter
Kakodkar opens Emergency Response Centre
EXPLAINING A POINT: Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Anil
Kakodkar (second from left) having a word with K. Kasturirangan,
MP and former chairman of ISRO, at the inauguration of the
Emergency Response Centre at the Atomic Minerals Directorate for
Exploration and Research (Southern Region), in Bangalore on
Wednesday. With them are Director-General of Police B.S. Sial
(right) and Anjan Chaki, director of AMD, Hyderabad. — Photo: K.
Murali Kumar
Bangalore: Standard operating procedures need to be evolved and
a sound database of different regions based on GIS (Geographic
Information System) set up to handle the Emergency Response
Centre (ERC) better, Anil Kakodkar, chairman of Atomic Energy
Commission, has said.
He was speaking after inaugurating the ERC at the Atomic
Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, Southern
Region, here on Wednesday. Dr. Kakodkar said that the public
perception and concerns about the hazards of radiation were
different from the actual experience. He said that the public
concerns should be adequately addressed by the radiation safety
professionals.
"The ERC is a highly evolved framework and has been in place
since 1987. It is a well established and well-rehearsed
framework," he said. A need was felt to establish such a
framework in the public domain. Dr. Kakodar said that the
universal adoption of concepts such as safety in depth,
redundancy in safety systems, qualified training and safe
operating practices backed by an independent and robust
regulatory authority would ensure negligible probability of any
radiation-related incident at the country's nuclear facilities.
The facilities also have in-place structured response
mechanisms. The expertise was being used in a national capacity
building effort to establish a well-networked radiation
emergency response system across the country with expertise made
available with various agencies. Dr. Kakodkar said that with the
widespread application of radiation in various fields, it was
essential to have such a capability on a national scale. He
urged the emergency response coordinators to network with the
State Government officials and develop standard operating
procedures after consulting them.
Copyright © 2006, The Hindu.
*****************************************************************
60 [CMEP] Public Citizen Testifies Before Congress on Nuclear Waste Safe Storage
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:50:20 -0500 (CDT)
X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST
For Immediate Release: September 13, 2006
PUBLIC CITIZEN TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS ON NUCLEAR WASTE SAFE STORAGE
PRINCIPLES FOR SAFEGUARDING NUCLEAR WASTE AT REACTORS INTRODUCED
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Michele Boyd, legislative director of Public Citizens
Energy Program, testified today before a House of Representatives subcommittee
on the storage of highly radioactive and dangerous nuclear waste from
commercial nuclear reactors. At a hearing before the House Committee on Energy
and Commerces Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, she presented a plan
developed by national and grassroots public interest groups to address the
urgent need to protect the public from the threats posed by the current
vulnerable storage of commercial spent fuel. Ninety-four national and
grassroots groups from 37 states have signed on to the principles thus far.
Boyd outlined why nuclear waste should be stored on-site at nuclear reactors
in hardened casks rather than money being wasted on a failed underground
repository, dangerous and polluting reprocessing or off-site surface storage.
In her testimony, she criticized the Bush administrations Nuclear Fuel
Management and Disposal Act, which seeks to override public health and safety
laws at the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and fails
to address any of the flawed projects fundamental problems. The proposed
Yucca Mountain site is unsafe for geologic storage of nuclear waste and the
program remains mired in bad science, mismanagement and yet another design
overhaul, Boyd said. Even under the DOEs unrealistically optimistic
scenario, the underground repository would not begin receiving waste until
2017, and it would take more than 30 years to transport waste from across the
nation to the site. The waste would have to be taken through many highly
populated cities and towns, with some crashes of the transport trucks and
trains inevitable. Meanwhile, the waste remains vulnerable at reactor sites.
Boyd also advised against President Bushs proposed Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership, which touts reprocessing spent fuel as a solution to the waste
problem. Reprocessing is highly polluting and expensive - the radioactive
material from the United States last experience with reprocessing continues
to threaten the environment and will require tens of billions of dollars over
several decades to clean up. The plutonium waste it produces could also be
stolen and used in nuclear weapons or dirty bombs, presenting a significant
proliferation problem.
Boyd rejected interim storage proposals being considered in the Senate and
House FY2007 Energy and Water Appropriations bills. Centralized interim
storage would increase the transport risks to public health, safety and
security. It also would not reduce the number of sites where radioactive
material is stored. Nuclear waste must be stored on-site for at least five
years to thermally cool and radioactively decay before it can be transported
off-site. Any operating reactor will have at least five years worth of
irradiated fuel - approximately 100 tons - stored on-site at all times.
With the controversies concerning the building of this countrys first
permanent repository, the temporary sites themselves will inevitably turn into
overflow parking for nuclear waste that may never be moved again. Moving
commercial irradiated nuclear fuel to indefinite interim surface storage at
DOE or other sites would simply create the illusion of a waste solution, said
Boyd. But it would be far more risky than retaining it at the reactor site
where it was first produced.
Instead of wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on a dangerous
reprocessing scheme, the flawed repository at Yucca Mountain and centralized
storage sites, Boyd urged Congress to focus on improving the safety and
security of waste storage at existing reactor sites. She cited the Spent
Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Security Act of 2005, introduced in both the
House and Senate by the Nevada and Utah delegations, as a good basis for
incorporating safe storage principles into law.
To read Michele Boyds testimony, visit
http://www.citizen.org/documents/TestimonyHouseWasteSept2006.pdf.
To read Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors, visit
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/nukewa
ste/articles.cfm?ID=15694.
###
If you have questions or comments about this e-mail, or would like to get more
involved, please contact Melissa Kemp at mkemp@citizen.org.
[This email is better viewed in HTML. Please choose HTML under your programs
options for view]
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61 [NukeNet] Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 16:15:08 -0700
X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (borg.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61]
X-Sender-Host-Address: 63.203.231.61
X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Rochelle Becker of Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility was also involved
in creating these Principles which was a great collaberative effort of
many groups - GOOD WORKS FOLKS!!! Molly
For Immediate Release: Contact: Michele Boyd (202) 454-5134
Sept. 13, 2006 Robert Yule (202) 588-7703
Public Citizen Testifies Before Congress on Nuclear Waste Safe Storage
Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors Introduced
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Michele Boyd, legislative director of Public Citizen's
Energy Program, testified today before a House of Representatives
subcommittee on the storage of highly radioactive and dangerous nuclear
waste from
commercial nuclear reactors. At a hearing before the House Committee on
Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, she
presented
a plan developed by national and grassroots public interest groups to
address the urgent need to protect the public from the threats posed by
the
current vulnerable storage of commercial spent fuel. Ninety-four national
and grassroots groups from 37 states have signed on to the principles thus
far.
Boyd outlined why nuclear waste should be stored on-site at nuclear
reactors in hardened casks rather than money being wasted on a failed
underground repository, dangerous and polluting reprocessing or off-site
surface
storage.
In her testimony, she criticized the Bush administration's "Nuclear Fuel
Management and Disposal Act," which seeks to override public health and
safety laws at the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada
and fails to address any of the flawed project's fundamental problems.
"The
proposed Yucca Mountain site is unsafe for geologic storage of nuclear
waste and the program remains mired in bad science, mismanagement and yet
another design overhaul," Boyd said. Even under the DOE's unrealistically
optimistic scenario, the underground repository would not begin receiving
waste until 2017, and it would take more than 30 years to transport waste
from across the nation to the site. The waste would have to be taken
through
many highly populated cities and towns, with some crashes of the transport
trucks and trains inevitable. Meanwhile, the waste remains vulnerable at
reactor sites.
Boyd also advised against President Bush's proposed Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership, which touts reprocessing spent fuel as a solution to the
waste problem. Reprocessing is highly polluting and expensive - the
radioactive material from the United States' last experience with
reprocessing
continues to threaten the environment and will require tens of billions of
dollars over several decades to clean up. The plutonium waste it produces
could also be stolen and used in nuclear weapons or "dirty bombs,"
presenting
a significant proliferation problem.
Boyd rejected interim storage proposals being considered in the Senate and
House FY2007 Energy and Water Appropriations bills. Centralized interim
storage would increase the transport risks to public health, safety and
security. It also would not reduce the number of sites where radioactive
material is stored. Nuclear waste must be stored on-site for at least five
years to thermally cool and radioactively decay before it can be
transported
off-site. Any operating reactor will have at least five years' worth of
irradiated fuel - approximately 100 tons - stored on-site at all times.
With the controversies concerning the building of this country's first
permanent repository, the temporary sites themselves will inevitably turn
into "overflow parking" for nuclear waste that may never be moved again.
"Moving commercial irradiated nuclear fuel to indefinite 'interim' surface
storage at DOE or other sites would simply create the illusion of a waste
solution," said Boyd. "But it would be far more risky than retaining it at
the reactor site where it was first produced."
Instead of wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on a dangerous
reprocessing scheme, the flawed repository at Yucca Mountain and
centralized storage sites, Boyd urged Congress to focus on improving the
safety and
security of waste storage at existing reactor sites. She cited the Spent
Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Security Act of 2005, introduced in both the
House and Senate by the Nevada and Utah delegations, as a good basis for
incorporating safe storage principles into law.
To read Michele Boyd's testimony, visit
http://www.citizen.org/documents/TestimonyHouseWasteSept2006.pdf.
To read "Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors," visit
http://www.citizen.org/documents/PrinciplesSafeguardingIrradiatedFuel.pdf.
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
www.citizen.org.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tori Woodard is a dear friend of mine who now lives in China. She just got
back from a 30-day trip through Mongolia. The following quote is from an
email to me after visiting a temple -
"After we look at some particularly frightening gods, Muugii asks me
what my religion is. I shrug and say I don't have one. Her response
surprises me: "Then you're free!"
Mongolians understand freedom."
Molly Johnson
6290 Hawk Ridge Place
San Miguel, CA 93451
Cell: 805 296-0524
__________________________________________________
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62 By 9/15: Help Stop Deregulation of Nuclear Waste!
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 19:25:23 -0500 (CDT)
X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST
RADIATION ALERT: Help stop the international push for deregulating nuclear
waste!
Public Comments on International Radiation Recommendations (ICRP 2006)
Due Friday 15 September 2006 (apologies for short notice)
HOW TO COMMENT TO ICRP (International Commission on Radiation Protection)
Upload or type your comments into the space on the ICRP website at
http://www.icrp.org/
Full link is http://www.icrp.org/remissvar/remissvar.asp
If full link doesn't work go to http://www.icrp.org
Click on 2006-06-07 2nd round of consultation, draft next ICRP
Recommendations
Click on comments page and scroll down to box for comments or
On left is place to click to Submit comments
ICRP has accepted comments in the past via e-mail to _Jack.Valentin@ssi.se_
(mailto:Jack.Valentin@ssi.se) or _scient.secretary@icrp.org_
(mailto:scient.secretary@icrp.org) but prefers posting on the web site so
that others may see them.
You can see all posted comments on the website as well.
Full report can be viewed at ICRP's web site
http://www.icrp.org/docs/ICRP_Recs_02_276_06_web_cons_5_June.pdf
We encourage all to give input on the International Commission on
Radiological Protection (ICRP) on its 2006 radiation recommendations,
which most
nuclear nations will adopt into law or rule to 'regulate' (or deregulate)
radioactive materials and the nuclear industry and which have several
seriously bad
provisions.
2 IMPORTANT COMMENTS TO MAKE:
1) Delete all discussion and recommendations for EXEMPTIONS and Exemption
levels (delete section 2.4 and any tables supporting exemptions)
2) Encourage ICRP to adopt and incorporate the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE in
the overall framework.
More details on both below.
ICRP is making recommendations which are stated to update their 1990
recommendations.
KEY QUESTIONS and NIRS responses
Should radiation from human-made nuclear waste be "exempted" from
regulatory control? (Section 2.4 Exclusion and Exemption)
Be sure to let ICRP know your views regarding
EXEMPTIONS: the latest term for deregulating, releasing, dispersing
radioactive materials into the marketplace and environment or to regular
trash dumps and incinerators.
In recommending that some level of radiation is too low to worry about
trivia doesn't warrant regulation, ICRP is inappropriately taking on the
societal role of justifying unlimited and unknown numbers of unnecessary and
preventable public exposures. ICRP is mixing its self-designated roles as
provider of scientific information with societal risk decision-maker.
Since ICRP is a closed, self perpetuating body, without nuclear power
critics, it has no moral or representative authority for making assumptions
about the acceptability of risks from involuntary doses to members of the
public from the nuclear power fuel chain. ICRP simply does not have public
representation thus has no authority to assess what additional, unnecessary
radiation risks members of the public around the world in this and future
generations consider trivial or acceptable.
ICRP claims it does not have enough certainty about the effects of low dose
radiation on large populations (termed "collective dose" estimates) to
estimate the number of cancers that will result in that population now or
in the
distant future, yet ICRP thinks it has enough scientific and socio-political
information to actually release radiation to large populations with no
limit
on the number of worldwide releases or exemptions, with no limit on the
number of exemptions per facility or to a community without their consent or
knowledge. ICRP makes a self-determination that the risks are trivial and
acceptable by the public (at the same time it discourages estimating what
those
risks are). ICRP does not know how much total radiation will be released or
received when it, across-the-board, recommends not only that countries adopt
release levels but also specifies a suggested level or range. There is
absolutely not scientific justification for this recommendation - it is
purely
economic for the sake of the industry. The whole concept of exemptions
should be
deleted from the ICRP 2006 Recommendations.
Furthermore, the ICRP should remove the lower bound (essentially an
exemption level) from the radiation levels throughout its text and in its
charts on
"constraints," doses, and bands of regulatory control (including Section
5.8.2
para (204) and Table 4, p. 61). Industries should be responsible for and
protect the public from all doses not just those above an ICRP-selected
level.
ICRP suggests governments decide what they want to regulate and what they don
bt, then establish bwhat could be exempted from some regulatory
requirements because regulatory action is unwarranted...the legislative
framework should provide the regulator with the authority to exempt
situations from
regulatory requirements, particularly from those of an administrative
nature such as
notification and authorization. "Exemption"relates to the power of regulators
to release from specific regulatory obligations - waiving legal obligation.
[page 17, paragraph (42) of Section 2.4] We suggest ICRP completely get
rid of
this strongly objectionable and unacceptable recommendation and all of
Section 2.4.
In the US, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has delayed its rulemaking that
would generically deregulate much radioactive waste and material, but NRC is
regularly taking applications for case-by-case exemptions such as those from
owners of nuclear reactors undergoing decommissioning - allowing some of the
nuclear waste to go to sites without radioactive licenses, permits or
controls. The US public actively opposes and challenges these and opposes
US and
ICRP to allow generic and case-by-case exemptions. We are working to
prevent all
efforts to allow industry-generated radioactive materials and wastes to be
exempted or excluded from nuclear regulation with the goal of preventing
public release and exposure. We suggest ICRP acknowledge and accept this
perspective on public protection from radiation.
ICRP should immediately cease this recommended abrogation of regulatory
responsibility by removing all of Section 2.4 from the 2006
recommendations and
all subsequent documents.
Should ICRP officially adopt the Precautionary Principle - when in doubt,
prevent unnecessary radiation exposures?
ICRP should restructure its framework to incorporate or replace its basic
principles with the Precautionary Principle. ICRP should stop pretending its
value judgments have a technical scientific or even a sociological basis.
ICRPbs composition is completely one-sided; its mission is promotional not
protective of human health and other living beings or biosystems. As ICRP
claims to attempt to open up bbecome more transparent, it must include
members
who are not fully committed to the continuation of all nuclear activities as
there is no objectivity, balance, credibility when those risking the dose are
not even represented. ICRP should be clear about which of its assertions are
scientific and cite the sources for those statements, and just as clear about
which are value judgments (such as the misguided claim that there is a
trivial or acceptable dose that can be exempted, below which resources are
not
justified to regulate, or a lower band of constraint dose that does not
need to
be regulated). Removing the unjustified or one-sided societal judgments could
potentially help the credibility of the ICRP.
ICRP has 3 basic principles for radiation exposure:
Justification - a government body (such as the national legislatures or
nuclear agencies) or the nuclear industry licensee/operator decides that an
activity which releases radioactivity and exposes people to radiation is
"justified."
The general public which is exposed does not get to decide but does receive
the doses. This is clearly unethical and immoral, unfair, unacceptable. Yet
ICRP sees it as a basis for permitting doses and proceeds to provide
ranges of
acceptable doses in various situations - all the way up to 10,000 millirads
per year! A level that will give cancer to 1 in 3 exposed for 30 years. (This
is the ICRP-recommended level that US Department of Homeland Security adopted
in January 2006 as acceptable for moving people back in after a dirty bomb.)
Justification makes sense when the exposed person decides, not when that
person has no say but the entities making and controlling the
potential hazard
decide. It is even more questionable in non-Democratic societies, more and
more
of which are establishing nuclear power and weapons industries right now.
Optimization- a convoluted process by which the nuclear promoters determine
how much it is worth to regulate and reduce exposures. It is used as a
justification for exposing people in all situations. There is no guarantee or
mechanism for the exposed individuals to determine if or how
much radiation is
imposed on their bodies. Includes the concept of ALARA - as low as reasonably
achievable - taking the industry's economic factors into consideration in
deciding what is "reasonable."
Limitation of Dose- The assumption that the radiation establishment chooses
protective dose limits. A major fault is that public doses are not simply,
economically and practically measurable thus are not verifiable or
enforceable.
Another serious flaw is that low, chronic doses are potentially more harmful
per unit dose than single higher doses so simply limiting doses does not
necessarily protect people. In addition, doses are calculated based
on standard
man or, as this update encourages, "gender-averaging" and a "representative
individual" who does not have "extreme" habits. Thus, doses are not based on
risks to the more vulnerable like women, fetuses, older adults, children,
people with AIDS or other reduced immunity or preexisting high cumulative
doses. Unnecessary radiation doses should be prevented and avoided, not
permitted
at low or continuous rates. If they are to be set, they should protect the
most susceptible taking uncertainties including synergistic effects into
account.
What do you think about "averaging" radiation risks?
Do you think it is time that ICRP acknowledged and accounted for non-cancer
health risks from radiation like cardiovascular diseases, reduced immunity,
as well as cancer?
Isn't it about time radiation risks are considered along with those of other
carcinogens and pollutants in the environment, workplace and body?
How should (relatively new) biological knowledge, like the bystander effect
and other uncertainties about the impact of radiation at low doses be
incorporated into existing radiation standards?
Rather than attempting to protect the most vulnerable, ICRP estimates
averages risks to men and women and among age groups to protect the
average rather
than the most vulnerable of those studies - ignoring those groups and
individuals. ICRP also ignores non-cancer health effects--- how
much longer can the
connections between radiation and other diseases and conditions including
cardiovascular and immune deficiencies be ignored by the Commission that
claims to
be comprised of international experts. ICRP also needs to acknowledge and
account for the large potential for much greater health damage from multiple
exposures to radiation and other hazardous materials and conditions in the
environment. Radiation damage is multiple, additive, cumulative and
synergistic
and should be considered such by ICRP. Some of these concerns are addressed
with suggestions for quantifying the risks and uncertainties in the European
Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR) in its 2003 Recommendations of the ECRR:
The
Health Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses and Low Dose
Rates for Radiation Protection Purposes: Regulators' Edition.
We recommend ICRP
more carefully review this report before proceeding with new recommendations.
Should "acceptable" radiation levels (above natural background) be set for
BIOTA (animals, plants and the environment)?
We are glad to see that ICRP is acknowledging that protecting humans does
not de-facto protect other species or ecosystems (as has been the mantra
of the
radiation hierarchy until nowband some still espouse it), however, we
oppose
the legalization or setting of acceptable contamination levels for animals,
plants and environments. The motivation is clearly to relieve radiation
polluters of liability and should be replaced with the precautionary
principle
approach. ICRP should be asking the question - How can we prevent radiation
exposure of nonhuman species? rather than relieving of liability those
that cause
contamination and exposure.
ICRP suggests it will follow the same framework as it has for human beings -
we repeat our call for replacing that framework with precaution - not
spreading
it to other species who have absolutely no way of participating in
"justification"
or "optimization" decisions. ICRP, ignoring all previous complaints
about the "standard man" now "reference person," is pursing the untenable
concept of identifying and using reference animals and plants, when there is
such immense diversity at the cellular and organismic level that such efforts
are almost laughable. The complexity of cells, tissues, individuals,
populations, species, interaction of species, and ecosystems cannot be
simplified to a
reference mammal, reference duck or reference fish. Synergistic effects will
further compound the equations. These increased uncertainties should be
accounted for with increased conservatism and the goal of preventing
exposures.
ICRP has not proceeded very far in this effort, but we repeat our concern
that
our nominations of highly qualified members of the public interest community
to work on the ICRP committee on this topic were completely ignored by the
ICRP.
Some additional areas being addressed include:
C setting exempt and excluded levels of radiation exposure that no longer
need regulatory control (something many of us have been fighting for
decades and
essentially outlawed in some US states);
C discouraging projection of "collective" or population doses - preventing
estimation of harm to populations now or in the future from radiation
exposures -
supposedly due to the uncertainty of health effects at low doses and into
the future - ex: recommending against calculations of the numbers of cancers
from allowable cleanup levels from dirty bombs or from releasing radioactive
materials into commerce from regulatory control or from exposures to
populations
in 10,000 to a million years from the proposed Yucca Mountain site if it
were to be used a nuclear waste dump. Unfortunately not guessing the
damage does
not prevent the damage. Hypocritically, that same uncertainty does not stop
ICRP from recommending actually releasing the radioactivity in its Exemption
and Exclusion section;
**setting legal radiation exposure levels for animals, plants, and ecosystems
in order help radiation polluters escape liability for environmental
contamination and exposure to non-human species;
** continuing to recommend the same public and worker exposures even though
known cancer incidence risks have increased somewhat (by a third in National
Academies of Science BEIR VII report from 8.46 to 11.41 cancers per 10,000
person rads or 100 person grays) and new (since the mid-1990s) biology
indicating
that radiation damages more cells in the current and future generations of
cells than those directly hit by radiation (bystander effect);
** averaging radiation damage over age and gender, leaving the most
vulnerable humans unprotected. This may be an improvement to protecting
the hardiest
members of the population but ICRP should adopt the precautionary approach
and
protect us all;
** continuing its precedent of disregarding radiation damage to future
generations beyond the first 2 generations
** allowing "low-level" releases of radiation while claiming not to know
exactly what damage is done at these doses.
**recommending use of a "representative individual" or "representative
person" that is who appears to be designed to prevent anything but average
assumptions in dose calculations, appears to be evolving from the standard
man,
the most exposed individual, the average member of the critical group, all
created by the radiation establishment to enable mathematical
manipulations which
in many recent cases, allow more radiation contamination and reduce real
public protection, prevention and precaution.
Many Thanks! Diane D'Arrigo, Nuclear Information and Resource Service
_dianed@nirs.org_ (mailto:dianed@nirs.org) ; US phone: 301 270 6477 x 16
9-12-06
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63 Las Vegas SUN: Industry executive says nuclear waste safe at plants
Today: September 14, 2006 at 8:50:15 PDT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Storing spent nuclear fuel at commercial power
plants is safe, but the government still should move forward
with proposals to ship waste to a Yucca Mountain repository or
to temporary storage sites, an industry executive said.
Retired Admiral Frank "Skip" Bowman, president of the Nuclear
Energy Institute, told a House panel Wednesday that public
support for new nuclear plants can't be sustained without signs
of progress in the effort to dispose of highly radioactive
nuclear waste.
"There is absolutely no technical reason, no reason for health
and safety, to change what we are doing now," Bowman told
members of the House energy and water subcommittee.
"But there is a big reason that goes to the public perception of
confidence in where we are going, whether we have a plan, and
that is what we are hearing," Bowman said.
Used fuel is cooled in deep-water pools at operating reactors.
At 42 plants spent fuel also is kept in dry cask storage, sealed
metal canisters enclosed in a metal or concrete shells and
arrayed on concrete pads.
The Department of Energy signed contracts with utilities to take
ownership of the waste and begin moving it to a repository in
1998. But DOE has fallen years behind schedule to build a
repository at the Yucca Mountain site 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
Bowman said polls indicate new public attitudes of nuclear power
at 60 to 80 percent positive, "but it is a little bit of a
fickle love affair. If the public loses confidence in our
abilities, it could be a crippling blow."
Nils Diaz, former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
testified that nuclear waste could remain at power plants for
decades.
"There is no critical timetable in the next 25 years that we
have to have in place," Diaz said, although he added "there is a
demand from Congress and the public to have a solution."
---
Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
64 USNews.com: Some in House suspicious of Senate nuclear waste bill
By Bret Schulte
Posted 9/14/06
Legislators in both chambers are saying they want to give
nuclear power a new boost in the American energy market, but
rival legislation on what to do with rapidly accruing nuclear
waste has left some members of the House questioning the
intentions of their counterparts in the Senate.
Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are
expressing opposition to a Senate bill that would open interim
storage sites for nuclear waste across the country while
Nevada's Yucca Mountain repository continues to be derailed by
poor planning, cost overruns, and fierce opposition by Nevadans,
including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Many House leaders
suspect the Senate proposal is meant to further undercut the
project.
"We should not allow pursuit of interim storage to block Yucca
Mountain," said Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat and
ranking member of the subcommittee on energy and air quality, in
a hearing yesterday. House members say that in order for nuclear
power to expand, a permanent home for nuclear waste is
necessary. Rep. Gene Green, a Texas Democrat, tells U.S. News
that the Senate bill, which would devote money and agency
oversight to interim storage sites, is a masked attempt to kill
the Yucca Mountain project for good.
"If you can't kill it straight up, you can kill it by taking
away resources," Green said. "I know if I opposed Yucca
Mountain, I would be very creative, and this looks like a very
creative way to delay and divert resources from Yucca Mountain."
Copyright © 2006 U.S.News & World Report, L.P. All
*****************************************************************
65 Bradenton Herald: Lockheed attorneys respond to complaint
09/14/2006 |
HERALD STAFF REPORT
Attorneys for Lockheed Martin Corp. this week filed their
answers and defenses to the second amended complaint filed
recently by Tallevast families suing the defense giant and
others for property damage and emotional distress resulting from
a 200-acre plume of contamination beneath the historic
community.
The plume has been traced back to the former Loral American
Beryllium Co. plant at 1600 Tallevast Road, once owned by
Lockheed.
BECSD, a limited Florida partnership that now owns the site, and
Wire Pro Inc., along with its subsidiary WPI Sarasota Division,
which leases the property, also are named defendants in the
suit.
Responses for those defendants were filed Tuesday by Lockheed
attorney L. Norman Vaughan Birch of Sarasota and Clifford Zatz,
Scott L. Winkleman, Richard E. Schwartz and Lynn E Parseghian of
Crowell &Morring LLP of Washington, D.C.
The defendants are demanding a jury trial. They have denied
almost all of the plaintiffs' complaints and reserve the right
to seek a transfer or change of venue.
More than 340 Tallevast residents and family members are listed
on the suit filed by Bruce Denson, a St. Petersburg attorney, on
behalf of the Tallevast legal team led by Edward Cottingham of
the Cottingham Law Firm of Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
-Donna Wright
*****************************************************************
66 The NewStandard: Under Pressure, Govt. Halts Nuclear Dump on Indian Land -
by Michelle Chen
Sept. 14
After a long campaign by indigenous-rights and public-interest
groups, the federal government has dismissed corporations’
plans to create a nuclear-waste dump on an Indian reservation in
Utah.
The decision by the US Department of the Interior (DOI) all but
ends a decade-long controversy that divided an indigenous
community and threatened to turn native land into a repository
for deadly radioactive waste.
Last Thursday, DOI’s Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of
Indian Affairs concluded that the plan to establish a major
storage facility for irradiated nuclear waste on the Skull
Valley Goshute Reservation had failed to adequately address the
safety and health risks the waste dump would pose. Though the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a license for the
facility a year ago, the Interior Department’s disapproval has
for now effectively buried the plan.
The proposal was negotiated in 1997 by Private Fuel Storage, a
consortium of energy corporations seeking storage for
accumulated radioactive waste. In a hotly disputed deal, the
Goshute tribal leadership agreed to lease the land for the
facility, which would have had the capacity to hold 44,000
metric tons of spent fuel. The site would have been about 45
miles from Salt Lake City, in close proximity to a US military
training and testing ground.
Prior to the decision, the Bureau of Land Management received
several thousand letters protesting the plan. Opponents include
members of the Goshute tribe, Indian activists and
public-interest and environmental groups, such as Sierra Club
and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, along with several state
officials. With the capacity to hold 44,000 tons of
nuclear waste, the site would have been about 45 miles of Salt
Lake City and in close proximity to a military air training and
testing ground.
The Interior Department said the proposed facility lacked
critical security measures. The Department also cited the
dangers of transporting the nuclear waste by vehicles to Skull
Valley; the waste cannot be transported by rail, because it
would cut through a wilderness area recently designated for
protection.
The decision noted that the facility had been designed only as a
temporary storage solution for waste ultimately destined for a
permanent underground repository, which the government had
originally planned to build at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. But the
campaign to secure the Yucca site for waste dumping has also
stalled amidst rancorous public opposition.
The Goshutes’ federally recognized chairman, Leon Bear, argued
that the DOI had foreclosed an economic boon for the tribe. News
outlets have reported that the lease would have brought in tens
of millions of dollars over several decades.
Private Fuel Storage and the tribal leadership may still
challenge the decision in court.
As previously reported in The NewStandard, the PFS plan sharply
divided the tribe, as some members accused tribal leaders of
exploiting their land for monetary gain. Bear, who spearheaded
the deal, has faced growing internal resistance, exacerbated by
his recent indictments for tax fraud and embezzlement. Last
month, dissident members of the tribe voted to shut down the
Goshute executive committee, paralyzing the tribal government.
© 2006 . All rights
reserved. The NewStandard
*****************************************************************
67 reviewjournal.com: Chief notes concerns with Yucca project
Sep. 14, 2006
Sproat sees 'quality problem'
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- After three months on the job, the new Yucca
Mountain director says the project suffers from a "quality
problem" that must be fixed before the government tries to
license a nuclear waste repository at the Nevada site.
"The organization has not developed in my opinion in a way that
allows it today to be an appropriate and adequate licensee to
advance and operate Yucca Mountain," Ward Sproat said Tuesday.
"It will be there before we get a license. It is going to be a
long way there."
Sproat, a nuclear industry executive and consultant before he
was appointed to the Department of Energy, said the project
suffers from "a quality problem in terms of the culture and
people and how they view their responsibilities for quality."
"It is time to get this program up to today's standards," he
said.
Sproat delivered his tough assessment in a presentation to staff
at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will handle DOE's
repository licensing bid.
Some of his remarks echoed independent project reviews by the
Government Accountability Office and the DOE inspector general.
Those studies have detailed shortcomings in how project managers
and workers comply with meticulous rules for data gathering,
software development and design controls.
The Energy Department has set a new goal of June 2008 to apply
for a license for Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las
Vegas. In effect, that gives Sproat two years to turn around the
troubled project.
Bob Loux, executive director for the Nevada Agency for Nuclear
Projects, said Sproat should be applauded for his candor.
Whether he can fix the Yucca project is another matter, Loux
added.
"He deserves some kudos for that he is beginning to actually
find out what the real problems are with the program," Loux
said. "The problem I have is his view that all these things are
correctable in the short run."
As part of Sproat's reorganization, the Energy Department on
Tuesday invited bids for independent evaluations of Yucca
Mountain repository designs, its license application and its
efforts to improve quality assurance.
Those reviews will set the stage for further changes, Sproat
said.
"I don't suspect you will see the status quo maintained," he
said. The studies "are intended to give (the NRC) and the public
more confidence that we are not satisfied with where we are and
that we are an inquiring organization."
The repository effort was rocked last year with the disclosure
that hydrologists working for the U.S. Geological Survey swapped
e-mails suggesting that quality assurance documentation had been
falsified.
Sproat said Tuesday that a follow-up DOE study is discovering
that apparent indifference to quality assurance might be a
deeper problem within the project.
"The lack of understanding of the culture is broader than just
the narrow pocket of USGS," he said. "Not that it calls into
question the accuracy of technical work, but it certainly calls
into question the culture of the organization."
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
Stephens Media GroupPrivacy Statement
*****************************************************************
68 reviewjournal.com: Industry executive says nuclear waste can remain at plants
Sep. 14, 2006
But he says Yucca Mountain project needed to maintain confidence
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Spent nuclear fuel can remain safely stored at
commercial power plants but the government still should move
forward with proposals to ship it to a Yucca Mountain repository
or to temporary storage sites, an industry executive told
Congress on Wednesday.
For the nuclear industry to sustain newfound public support and
build new power plants, there needs to be visible progress to
dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste, said retired
Admiral Frank "Skip" Bowman, president of the Nuclear Energy
Institute.
"There is absolutely no technical reason, no reason for health
and safety, to change what we are doing now," Bowman told
members of the House energy and water subcommittee.
"But there is a big reason that goes to the public perception of
confidence in where we are going, whether we have a plan, and
that is what we are hearing," Bowman said.
Used fuel is cooled in deepwater pools at operating reactors. At
42 plants spent fuel also is kept in "dry cask storage" --
sealed metal canisters enclosed in a metal or concrete shells
and arrayed on concrete pads.
The Department of Energy signed contracts with utilities to take
ownership of the waste and begin moving it to a repository in
1998. But DOE has fallen years behind schedule to build a
repository at the Yucca Mountain site 100 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
Bowman said polls indicate new public attitudes of nuclear power
at 60 to 80 percent positive, "but it is a little bit of a
fickle love affair. If the public loses confidence in our
abilities, it could be a crippling blow."
Bowman was among the witnesses at a hearing where lawmakers
pondered nuclear waste policy. In the past, industry officials
and others said it was imperative for the Yucca project to be
completed before nuclear power use could expand.
More recently, however, the landscape for nuclear waste
management has broadened.
The Bush administration is pursuing development of nuclear fuel
reprocessing as a complement to waste burial in Nevada. Congress
also is weighing a bill to create temporary sites where nuclear
waste could be transferred while work continues in Nevada or
until reprocessing might be brought to fruition.
Nils Diaz, former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
testified that nuclear waste could remain at power plants for
decades.
"There is no critical timetable in the next 25 years that we
have to have in place," Diaz said, although he added "there is a
demand from Congress and the public to have a solution."
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
69 Rocky Mountain News: Dump to be radioactive waste site for 3 states
By Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News
September 14, 2006
The Rocky Mountain Low-level Radioactive Waste Compact Board
designated the Clean Harbors dump near Last Chance a regional
facility for Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico on Wednesday.
Anticipating the board's move, the U.S. Senate Judiciary
Committee voted earlier in the day to begin an inquiry into
whether the board is overstepping its authority by allowing
certain low-level radioactive waste from the three states to be
dumped in eastern Adams County.
A bipartisan majority of Colorado's congressional delegation
objects to the waste.
Adams County is locked in a legal battle with the dump's
operators and the state health department, which are pushing to
allow radioactive materials such as mill tailings and water
treatment plant byproducts.
The dump lies on the eastern edge of Colorado's 7th
Congressional District, site of a fiercely contested race for
U.S. representative.
Both candidates voiced opposition to the board's decision
Wednesday.
Democrat Ed Perlmutter is opposed to any level of radioactive
waste at the dump.
Republican Rick O'Donnell said that while some waste from water
treatment plants is harmless, the board's broader designation
for the dump broke a decades-old promise protecting Adams County
residents from such a maneuver. site map-->
© The E.W. Scripps Co.
*****************************************************************
70 Courier News: Middlesex to rid 9-acre tract of contaminants
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Vacant land may become part of transit project proposal, boro
mayor says
By CELANIE POLANICK Staff Writer
MIDDLESEX BOROUGH -- Vacant land long blighted by radioactive
material will soon be cleaned up and could become the parking
lot for a new train station if state transit officials approve,
Mayor Gerald D'Angelo said.
The nine-acre lot, located near Mountain and South avenues just
south of the railroad tracks, was a testing site for uranium and
thorium for the Manhattan Project during World War II and is
owned by the federal government, said Project Manager Allen Roos
of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
It was used by the Marines from 1967 to 1979 and was remediated
through the Atomic Energy Commission as standards changed.
Contaminated dirt from the site that was used as fill in the
borough landfill, a local church and other local sites was
removed from 1998 to 1999; in 1999, the area became an EPA
Superfund site, Roos said.
On Aug. 14, after more than five years of risk assessment and
planning, workers began excavating the remaining spots of
contamination, digging an average of 61Ľ2 feet to bedrock. When
the work is finished this fall or winter, the lot will be
leveled and seeded and will meet environmental standards for
unrestricted use, Roos said.
The property is not considered a safety risk, because it is
fenced, locked and monitored by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Recent tests have not found groundwater contamination, said
Kevin Sumner, the borough's health officer with the Middlebrook
Regional Health Commission.
Legally, after the cleanup is finished, it can't be developed or
sold -- the federal, state and county governments will have a
chance to claim it, but borough officials hope the land will be
deeded to the borough, a process that could take seven years or
more, D'Angelo said.
"Ultimately, we expect that it will be turned over to us," he
said. "If we were successful with the train station, this would
be a perfect spot for the parking lot."
The train station is part of the redevelopment plan for Lincoln
Boulevard and is located just south of a new downtown area
planned near the intersection of Mountain Avenue and Lincoln
Boulevard that would include new retail and residential space,
D'Angelo said.
The station would become a stop on the Raritan Valley line if NJ
Transit approves the site.
Alternate plans for the property include athletic fields, a park
or a new location for the Department of Public Works, which is
now on First Street near South Lincoln Avenue in a residential
zone. The borough has not yet submitted its proposal for the
station to NJ Transit, D'Angelo said.
"Reality is that it's probably a longshot, but it's something
that would benefit the town, so we are very much interested in
pursuing it," he said.
Applications for train stations are considered on an individual
basis, based on potential ridership, projected population growth
and proximity to other stations, such as the ones in Dunellen,
Bound Brook and Plainfield, Dan Stessel, NJ Transit director of
media relations , said.
The last station built in Central New Jersey was the Hamilton
station on the Northeast Corridor line in 1999, he said.
The Middlesex redevelopment area borders Piscataway, where Mayor
Brian Wahler's office is processing the results of a commuter
survey. Many residents are looking for more public
transportation and say they would use a shuttle service to get
to a nearby train station, Piscataway public information officer
Anne Gordon said.
Many Piscataway residents commute into Newark and New York City,
and "any time that we can get people off the roadway and using
public transportation, that's good," Wahler said.
from the Courier News website www.c-n.com
STAFF PHOTO BY ED PAGLIARINI
Contaminated soil cleanup continues Wednesday near the corner
of Lincoln Boulevard and Mountain Avenue in Middlesex Borough.
Copyright © 1997-2006
*****************************************************************
71 Salt Lake Tribune: Goshute says feds, state let the tribe down
Article Last Updated: 09/14/2006 02:07:27 AM MDT
Leader insists nuclear waste facility was in his people's best
interests
By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune
Goshute leader Leon D. Bear said Wednesday that federal and
Utah officials who fought nuclear waste storage on the Skull
Valley reservation betrayed his tiny tribe.
"The thing is, they are supposed to be protecting us, to
help us," said Bear. "When is that help going to come?"
The 123-member Tooele County tribe had fought the Utah state
government, its congressional delegation and public opinion for
a decade when two federal decisions last Thursday appeared to
kill the multibillion-dollar project just months after it
received a federal nuclear license.
The Interior Department blocked transportation of waste to
the site and invalidated the previously approved lease between
the tribe and its utility-company partners. In effect, the
agency ruined the tribe's effort to make money on their
18,500-acre reservation in a desert state where casinos are
banned and where the federal government had pushed for nuclear
waste sites.
"If they want to run the reservation, why don't they just
come out and run it?" asked Bear, noting that the Goshutes and
partner Private Fuel Storage have not decided yet if they will
fight the rulings.
Should PFS opt to fight the ruling, the Goshutes "will stand
by it, I believe," said the tribal chairman in his most
extensive interview since last week's decision.
In comments to national and international news organizations
over the past week, Bear has talked about the nation's history
of erratic sovereign-to-sovereign relations with Indian tribes.
The federal government had promoted such ventures as part of the
1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act and tribal members had voted for
the project, he noted.
As planned, the waste site would have provided an open-air
storage pad for used reactor waste, dangerously radioactive
material that would be stored in steel and concrete containers
on 100 acres across the road from the tribal village. Up to
44,000 tons of waste could be stored there for up to 40 years
under the tribe's contract with PFS.
Bear said Interior Department officials, who by law are
supposed to look out for the Goshutes' interests, had not spoken
with the tribe since issuing their ruling last week.
"They haven't sent me the decision yet - unless they had it
sent by pony express," he said.
Interior Department spokeswoman Maria Streshinsky said the
tribe and PFS have the option of appealing the rulings to the
U.S. District Court. She indicated that after Interior officials
made their final decision, they called Bear and left a message
on his cell phone.
"The first call the department always makes is to the
tribe," she said.
While project opponents wait to learn the tribe and the
consortium's next move, there continues to be speculation about
whether there is enough support among utilities behind the
project to fight the rulings.
Minnesota-based Xcel Energy, which has spent about $23
million on the Skull Valley project, has indicated it will not
fund any further review or appeal. Its chief executive officer
sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, last winter
pledging not to support the Skull Valley site as long as a
national solution, such as the Yucca Mountain, Nev., repository,
is moving forward.
Bear saved his harshest words for Hatch, who served for
years on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and last week
"boasted" about engineering the Skull Valley project's demise,
telling reporters, "it couldn't happen to nicer people."
"It saddens me for one of our politicians to take a stand
like that and not offer any other kind of alternative," Bear
said.
"This is the Goshute people out here - look at history," he
said. "Look at how Hitler treated the Jews. I'm not saying it's
that, but he's putting himself against the people here."
Bear called several parts of the ruling "thin." He noted,
for instance, the Utah-based superintendent of the U.S. Bureau
of Indian Affairs signed off on the PFS-Goshute lease in 1997
but, on Thursday, said the signature was improper.
"That led us to believe that, once the conditions were met
[for legal, safety and environmental review] that they [at BIA]
would sign it."
Bear had led his tribe through a 17-year review process, that
was initially funded by Congress in an attempt to find
communities and tribes willing to accept nuclear waste. San Juan
County in southeastern Utah looked into the program as an
economic opportunity, and the Goshutes actually pursued it.
The Goshute leader also noted that the tiny tribe has spent
lots of its own money on the project while state leaders pumped
millions of dollars into stopping it.
"They were against us," he said, "Yet, they could put all of
those waste dumps out here in the West Desert."
In the desert surrounding the Goshute reservation there is a
chemical weapons destruction plant, a chemical and biological
weapons test site, a hazardous waste incinerator and a low-level
radioactive waste landfill.
"This [nuclear waste site] is something we reached out for,
and we almost got it."
fahys@sltrib.com
*****************************************************************
72 The Australian: Uranium buy sets off chain reaction
Uranium buy sets off chain reaction
Robin Bromby September 15, 2006
INVESTORS need to rerate uranium companies in light of China's
Sinosteel move to take control of a small deposit in South
Australia, according to one analyst.
Far East Capital's Warwick Grigor is sending a note to clients
this morning telling them that the Sinosteel plan to take 60 per
cent of the Crocker Well project means Beijing now rates uranium
as an essential strategic mineral.
"Everyone needs to sharpen their pencils and realise this is not
another dotcom boom," he says.
"Real big money will now start to flow."
Pepinnini Minerals, the company exploring Crocker Well, which
plans to sell a 60 per cent stake to Sinosteel, saw its shares
lift another 7c to 67c yesterday.
Another South Australian explorer which is believed to have been
approached by Sinosteel, Marathon Resources, rose 4c to 79c.
But Mr Grigor sounds one warning note: many of the uranium
projects in Australia will fall by the wayside, especially those
which are reheated ones from exploration in the 1960s and 70s
uranium land rush.
Those with grades too low or a resource too small will not get
over the development hurdle, he says.
"A project will need to have 20,000 tonnes to make the grade -
anything else is tinkering at the edges."
Crocker Well contains an estimated 6735 tonnes of uranium, a
tenth of the size of the mothballed Jabiluka deposit in the
Northern Territory.
It lies just across the border from Broken Hill and near the
Honeymoon deposit, where a Canadian company plans to open
Australia's fourth uranium mine.
Gavin Wendt, resources analyst at financial adviser Fat
Prophets, said the Sinosteel move showed the Chinese would be
looking at the smaller companies where they could deal with
several suppliers and have equity in the project rather than
depend just on existing producers BHP Billiton or Energy
Resources of Australia.
"I don't think this will be the last uranium deal we'll see with
China," Mr Wendt said.
He expected Chinese companies to concentrate initially on
deposits in South Australia and the Northern Territory where
mines could be developed under present political policies.
But he said Canadian interest in our uranium resources would
continue and it was clear those buyers were prepared to take the
long-term view that eventually Queensland and West Australian
bans on mining would be lifted - as shown by the Canadian
takeover of West Australian explorer Redport.
© The Australian
*****************************************************************
73 The Australian: Wrong to refuse to sell uranium - Ferguson
Matthew Franklin September 15, 2006
AUSTRALIA has no right to refuse to sell uranium to any
responsible developing nation in desperate need of energy to
prosper and grow.
Labor resources spokesman Martin Ferguson yesterday cast a
moral case for the party to reconsider its ban on new uranium
mines, following the purchase this week of a rich deposit in
South Australia by Chinese interests.
The former union boss, whose case for change has raised the ire
of much of the left wing of the party, was defiant yesterday,
saying he "couldn't give a stuff" if his support for uranium
exports upset Labor colleagues.
Mr Ferguson, backed by Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, will
attempt to overturn the policy at next year's national
conference.
Mr Ferguson told The Australian the country was fortunate enough
not to need to consider nuclear power generation because it had
ample alternative fuel sources. But he said other nations needed
uranium as part of their energy mix.
"Who are we to deny the developing world what they need?" Mr
Ferguson said, adding that selling uranium to nations that would
use it with "safe hands" would be of mutual benefit.
But the push by China - a developing economy with near
insatiable energy needs - to lock in its uranium supplies
through state-run Sinosteel's purchase of a $160 million
controlling stake in the Crocker Well uranium deposit has
amplified the nuclear debate within the ALP.
Labor's environment spokesman, Anthony Albanese, rejected
uranium mining, saying the Sinosteel deal was bad news.
"While you can guarantee uranium mining will lead to nuclear
waste, you cannot guarantee uranium mining will not lead to
nuclear weapons."
*****************************************************************
74 kutv.com: Goshutes: We Lost Millions Over Nuke Fallout
[clock] Sep 14, 2006 11:57 am US/Mountain
The leader of the Goshute Indians says his tribe has been
betrayed by state and federal officials who worked to kill a
plan to store nuclear waste on the Skull Valley reservation.
Leon D. Bear said that when a lease for Private Fuel Storage was
denied by the Interior Department that his tribe lost the
potential for millions of dollars in revenue.
The Interior Department blocked transportation of waste to the
reservation and invalidated the previously approved lease
between the tribe and its utility-company partners.
PFS had planned to move as much as 44,000 tons of spent nuclear
fuel to the temporary storage site in Skull Valley about 50
miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
"If they want to run the reservation, why don't they just come
out and run it?" asked Bear.
Bear had led his tribe through a 17-year review process, that
was initially funded by Congress in an attempt to find
communities and tribes willing to accept nuclear waste.
But Utah's congressional delegation fought to keep nuclear waste
out of the state, and Bear said nobody met with him to discuss
alternatives for economic development.
"I don't feel very comfortable knowing one of our political
leaders had done something like this to an Indian nation,
without giving the Indian nation any consolation," Bear said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who sat on the Senate Indian Affairs
Committee from 1995 to 2004, said that while has no recollection
of a request to meet with Bear, he has met with Goshutes on
several occasions.
"They strongly opposed the Skull Valley project and shared with
me many allegations of wrongdoing by Leon Bear," Hatch said in a
statement. "These Goshutes know that I stand ready to help them
with other plans for economic development, as I have for other
tribes in Utah."
Support for the embattled Bear and the PFS project has not been
unanimous among members of the tribe.
On Aug. 26, nearly all of the 33 adult tribal members who
attended their annual meeting voted to disband the executive
committee, and they have asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs to
supervise an election. The executive committee conducts the
tribe's daily business. Members also accepted the resignation of
tribal Vice Chairwoman Lori Bear, cousin of Leon Bear.
As planned, the PFS waste site would have provided an open-air
storage pad for used reactor waste, dangerously radioactive
material that would be stored in steel and concrete containers
on 100 acres across the road from the tribal village. The waste
could be stored there for up to 40 years under the tribe's
contract with PFS.
Bear said Interior Department officials had not spoken with the
tribe since issuing their ruling last week.
Bear said his tribe has long been ignored by state and federal
lawmakers.
"The thing is, they are supposed to be protecting us, to help
us," said Bear. "When is that help going to come?"
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
© MMVI, KUTV Holdings Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
75 Star Beacon: U.S. EPA official enthusiastic about river dredging project
; Ashtabula, Ohio -
By SHELLEY TERRY Staff Writer sterry@starbeacon.com
Published September 14, 2006 12:00 am -
BENJAMIN GRUMBLES, assistant administrator Office of Water for
the Environmental Protection Agency, (left) and Rick Brewer,
coordinator of the Ashtabula River Partnership, tour the
Ashtabula River during the early stages of the river dredging.
WARREN DILLAWAY / The Star Beacon
ASHTABULA - - A top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
official said Tuesday he hopes the Ashtabula River dredging
project will be a national model for moving beyond red tape.
The $50 million Great Lakes Legacy Act project is the
culmination of two decades of planning by federal, state and
local partners, said Benjamin Grumbles, assistant U.S. EPA
administrator, during an early-afternoon boat tour of the
dredging site.
Rick Brewer and Carl Anderson of the Ashtabula River Partnership
organized the tour, and Grumbles and his companions seemed very
impressed.
"It's great to be here and see the dredging is finally happening
after years of hand-wringing," Grumbles said. "The dredging
project will benefit the environmental, ecological and economic
viability of the Ashtabula River and protect the waters of Lake
Erie."
Dredging of 550,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment in the
river started Friday and is expected to continue 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, through the month of November. The dredging
will shut down for the winter and resume in March or April. The
project is expected to be completed in fall 2007.
With Anderson at the helm of the boat, Tuesday's tour took EPA
officials, as well as several members of the local media, up to
the mouth of Fields Brook, the hot spot of contamination, and on
to the dredging site. Like other boat captains these days,
Anderson now must keep a close eye on the buoys to avoid hitting
the pipeline. A couple of boaters already have bumped the pipe,
but no damage was done, Anderson said.
"Right now, navigation is difficult," he said. "The water is 3
feet to 1 1/2-feet deep where it's supposed to be 18 feet deep."
The dredging is necessary because industries have discharged
contaminants into the river's 137-square-mile drainage basin
during the past 30 years or so.
The river is polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In
addition, the river bottom is polluted with low-level
radioactive materials, heavy metals, and oil and grease,
according to Scott Cieniawski, an EPA Great Lakes National
Program Office environmental engineer.
The sediment is being removed from the river by a hydraulic
dredge, which creates a slurry of mud and water. The slurry will
be pumped through a 3-mile double-lined pipeline to a disposal
and water treatment facility on State Road. The sediment will be
separated and contained in the disposal facility, and the water
will be treated to clean it before returning it to the Ashtabula
River, Cieniawski said. The Ashtabula River project is the
largest so far under the Great Lakes Legacy Act.
© 2006, The Star Beacon P.O. Box 2100, Ashtabula OH 44005-2100
(440) 998-2323, Send news tips and feedback
Associated Press content © 2006. All rights reserved. AP content
*****************************************************************
76 Public Citizen: Public Citizen Testifies Before Congress on Nuclear Waste Safe Storage
Sept. 13, 2006
Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors Introduced
WASHINGTON, D.C. Michele Boyd, legislative director of Public
Citizens Energy Program, testified today before a House of
Representatives subcommittee on thestorage of highly radioactive
and dangerous nuclear waste from commercial nuclear reactors. At
a hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerces
Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, she presented a plan
developed by national and grassroots public interest groups to
address the urgent need to protect the public from the threats
posed by the current vulnerable storage of commercial spent
fuel. Ninety-four national and grassroots groups from 37 states
have signed on to the principles thus far.
Boyd outlined why nuclear waste should be stored on-site at
nuclear reactors in hardened casks rather than money being
wasted on a failed underground repository, dangerous and
polluting reprocessing or off-site surface storage.
In her testimony, she criticized the Bush administrations
Nuclear Fuel Management and Disposal Act, which seeks to
override public health and safety laws at the proposed nuclear
waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and fails to address any
of the flawed projects fundamental problems.
The proposed Yucca Mountain site is unsafe for geologic storage
of nuclear waste and the program remains mired in bad science,
mismanagement and yet another design overhaul, Boyd said. Even
under the DOEs unrealistically optimistic scenario, the
underground repository would not begin receiving waste until
2017, and it would take more than 30 years to transport waste
from across the nation to the site. The waste would have to be
taken through many highly populated cities and towns, with some
crashes of the transport trucks and trains inevitable. Meanwhile,
the waste remains vulnerable at reactor sites.
Boyd also advised against President Bushs proposed Global
Nuclear Energy Partnership, which touts reprocessing spent fuel
as a solution to the waste problem. Reprocessing is highly
polluting and expensive the radioactive material from the
United States last experience with reprocessing continues to
threaten the environment and will require tens of billions of
dollars over several decades to clean up. The plutonium waste it
produces could also be stolen and used in nuclear weapons or
dirty bombs, presenting a significant proliferation problem.
Boyd rejected interim storage proposals being considered in the
Senate and House FY2007 Energy and Water Appropriations bills.
Centralized interim storage would increase the transport risks
to public health, safety and security. It also would not reduce
the number of sites where radioactive material is stored.
Nuclear waste must be stored on-site for at least five years to
thermally cool and radioactively decay before it can be
transported off-site. Any operating reactor will have at least
five years worth of irradiated fuel approximately 100 tons
stored on-site at all times.
With the controversies concerning the building of this countrys
first permanent repository, the temporary sites themselves will
inevitably turn into overflow parking for nuclear waste that
may never be moved again. Moving commercial irradiated nuclear
fuel to indefinite interim surface storage at DOE or other
sites would simply create the illusion of a waste solution,
said Boyd. But it would be far more risky than retaining it at
the reactor site where it was first produced.
Instead of wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on a
dangerous reprocessing scheme, the flawed repository at Yucca
Mountain and centralized storage sites, Boyd urged Congress to
focus on improving the safety and security of waste storage at
existing reactor sites. She cited the Spent Nuclear Fuel On-Site
Storage Security Act of 2005, introduced in both the House and
Senate by the Nevada and Utah delegations, as a good basis for
incorporating safe storage principles into law.
To read Michele Boyds testimony,
To read Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at
Reactors,
###
*****************************************************************
77 AU ABC: China buys into future uranium mine -
14/09/2006
Just months after signing an export agreement with the
Australian Government, China has bought into a future uranium
mine in South Australia.
The Crocker-Well uranium field, 100 kilometres west of Broken
Hill, will be developed and operated by the state-owned
Sinosteel Corporation, and Australian exploration company
PepinNini.
Sinosteel will pump $30 million into the project, which could
mean the development of a fifth uranium mine in South Australia.
The joint venture is yet to be approved by the Foreign
Investment Review Board, but PepinNini director Rebecca
Holland-Kennedy says the company expects to get the go ahead.
"We've actually got a resource that means the actual uranium
has been verified, the next thing is the fact that it's in South
Australia and South Australia already has three of the four
mines so obviously South Australia agrees with uranium mining,
plus the fact that we're not far from Broken Hill it's a mining
region, so it's just the whole equation is attractive," she
said.
*****************************************************************
78 AU ABC: China can't sidestep uranium safeguards - Rann.
14/09/2006. ABC News Online
The South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, says China would not be
able to sidestep nuclear safeguards if a state-owned company
extracted uranium from the state.
China's second-largest iron ore importer, Sinosteel, has signed
an agreement with South Australian-based mining company
Pepinnini Minerals to help develop a uranium mine.
The Chinese company has agreed to invest $30 million in
Pepinnini's deposit in South Australia's north-east.
Mr Rann says the deposit is a long way off from any development
and China would have to abide by nuclear safeguards.
"It would not be tolerated for China to bypass any nuclear
proliferation safeguards," he said.
"There is already a treaty being drawn up between China and
Australia and that won't be ratified until all of the safeguard
agreements have been put in place."
But the Democrats fear the state will be drawn into a nuclear
arms cycle.
South Australian Democrats leader Sandra Kanck says China has
an active nuclear weapons program and there are no effective
mechanisms to keep Communist Party officials honest.
"We already know that China is a country that hasn't got a huge
regard for human rights," she said.
"There would be very little likelihood of whistleblowers being
able to speak about any truth of what's happening in that
industry.
"That means that effectively there would be a barrier of
silence."
*****************************************************************
79 Whitehaven News: Unions lose confidence in the sell off of BNFL
Published on 14/09/2006
By Alan Irving
“WE are losing confidence in you” — this is the message
which furious trades union and community leaders are sending to
BNFL over the way the state-owned company is handling the sale
of Sellafield.
The unions at Sellafield and local politicians have also united
to condemn BNFL’s “lack of consultation” over the sale and
threaten to withdraw support for the sale unless they are told
what is going on.
They have also criticised the government for rejecting a ÂŁ400
million bid from American giants Fluor to buy BNFL’s
Sellafield operating arm, British Nuclear Group.
Peter Kane, convenor for Sellafield’s biggest industrial
union, BNG, said yesterday: “We are all losing confidence in
BNFL, especially our workforce, in the way this sale is being
conducted.
“ We were told months ago by Mike Parker, BNFL’s chief
executive, that there would be consultations with the key
stakeholders.
“Well there hasn’t been any consultation with the trades
unions, district or county councillors and our MP, so if they
are not key stakeholders then who are?
“It appears to us more and more that some members of the BNFL
board are more interested in what bonuses they’re going to get
out of this deal than the interests of our workforce and the
local community.
“Is it a case that selling off BNG bit by bit will give the
directors a bigger bonus? If so that doesn’t benefit the
workforce and the community who have supported BNFL and the
nuclear industry over all these years.
“If the company is going to go down the road of not consulting
then they are going to risk losing that support unless we know
what we are supporting.
“Everybody is utterly confused about what’s going on. We
have just had a bid of £400 million from Fluor and it’s been
dismissed without any explanation. This offer should have opened
the bidding, leading the way for one or two other big companies
to come in but it appears to have been rejected out of hand.”
Sellafield’s unions are still furious over BNFL’s decision
to sell off its project services division, worth an estimated
ÂŁ100 million, separate to the sale of BNG.
“The workforce wants to stay as one, and we were actually told
that BNG would be sold as one, so what’s the motive here and
just where are we being led, and who’s leading us?” Mr Kane
added.
Labour councillor Tim Knowles, former Sellafield works
secretary, said: “Statements are being made by the chief
executive of BNFL that the change process is part of an on-going
dialogue with stakeholders. Well, as far as I and others can see
this is not true. There are now deep concerns among political
and employee representatives in the area that those handling
policy issues are involved in a piecemeal and disorganised
carve-up of our futures.”
Coun Knowles has declined the offer of a directorship with
Fluor, who recently hired ex-Sellafield chief Brian Watson as a
consultant to help with the sale bid.
Copeland Council leader Elaine Woodburn fears Sellafield could
end up in the hands of many different operators.
“This is something we need to air our concerns about both to
government and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Over the years we have established a good working relationship
with the site operator (BNFL), something which is vital if local
confidence is to be retained. These changes might jeopardise
this position.”
*****************************************************************
80 Asia Times: Japan's nuclear cop-out
Sep 15, 2006
SPEAKING FREELY
By Masako Toki
Historically significant incidents sometimes do not receive the
media coverage they deserve. The long-awaited signing of the
Central Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone treaty last Friday was one
such case.
With the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks on the US dominating media coverage, the establishment of
a nuclear-weapon-free zone in one of the most strategically
important regions in the world in terms of counter-terrorism
measures was treated as minor news. Instead of eliciting
congratulatory remarks from the international community, the
signing ceremony at Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan
was largely ignored, largely because of a lack of support from
the United States and its allies.
However, one country that should have issued a warmer
congratulatory statement was Japan, given its increasing efforts
to strengthen cooperation with countries in Central Asia and,
moreover, its long-standing commitment to ridding the world of
nuclear weapons.
While Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's trip to
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan at the end of August was treated as
relatively minor news, his visit - the first by a Japanese prime
minister to the region - was a significant step toward
establishing stronger ties between Japan and Central Asia.
As a country that has continuously supported the establishment
of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in Central Asia and made
significant financial contributions, more overt congratulatory
remarks from the Japanese government on this important
development would have been in order.
Japan's muted response does not necessarily mean its support for
the nuclear-weapons-free zone in the region is weakening.
However, it is apparent that Japan's support has become less
overtly enthusiastic because of its pro-American security stance
and US opposition to the treaty text establishing the zone. One
could say that Japan's efforts to make the world
nuclear-weapons-free have become more "realistic".
Koizumi's visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, with one month
left in his tenure as prime minister, highlighted Japan's strong
commitment to the region. Koizumi held meetings with President
Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and President Islam Karimov of
Uzbekistan.
Prior to his visit, on June 5, the Japanese and Central Asian
governments issued the Action Plan on Central Asian plus Japan.
The action plan itself is quite praiseworthy, emphasizing the
importance of democratization, the promotion of the market
economy, the eradication of terrorism and poverty, and the
protection of human rights, and Japan has made clear its
intention to continue to support it.
Japan and the Central Asian countries are enhancing their
cooperation in numerous spheres. In fact, when Koizumi visited
Kazakhstan, both countries agreed to further cooperation in the
field of nuclear energy.
However, Japan's commitment to the nuclear-weapons-free zone
seems to be somewhat diminished. Although Japan has continuously
supported the efforts, including contributing US$420,000 to the
United Nations Secretariat to facilitate the drafting of the
treaty, and hosting conferences in Sapporo, Japan, in 1999 and
2000, US opposition to the treaty text has led to Japanese
support for the zone becoming less vocal.
The Japanese government rhetoric in support of the zone has been
repeated at a variety of international forums. At the past
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conferences, the
government always included language supporting the efforts to
establish such a zone. At the 2000 NPT review conference, the
Japanese delegation stated: "Japan vigorously supports their
[Central Asian countries'] political will and has been making
concrete contributions to their negotiating efforts by inviting
them to meet in Japan to hold negotiations." But can this
"vigorous support" be seen in the current Japanese government?
One disturbing sentence from recent documents regarding Japan's
support of the zone is: "Japan supports [it] on condition that
there is an agreement by all the countries concerned."
"All the countries concerned" of course includes the United
States. The United Nations guidelines for establishing a
nuclear-weapons-free zone state that all the relevant countries,
including nuclear-weapons states, should be consulted in the
negotiation process. And it happened in the process of
establishing such a zone in Central Asia. At the same time, the
guidelines say that if the states of a given region agree to
establish a nuclear-weapons-free zone, the international
community should support efforts toward that goal.
Does Japan's loss of enthusiasm for achieving a
nuclear-weapons-free zone reflect its recent tendency to toe the
US line? This may be a small aspect of Japan's policy on nuclear
non-proliferation and disarmament, but it also may indicate a
weakening of Japan's support for a nuclear-weapons-free world.
If Japan cannot fully support the establishment of
nuclear-weapons-free zones, how can it say it is a leader in the
area of nuclear disarmament?
There is widespread agreement that nuclear-weapons-free zones
have helped prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and
created procedural norms for nuclear disarmament. The 2000 NPT
review conference reaffirmed that the establishment of
internationally recognized nuclear-weapons-free zones on the
basis of arrangements freely arrived at among the states of the
region concerned enhances regional and global peace and
security.
Although this process is slow and gradual, the establishment of
such zones contributes to a more peaceful and secure world.
Nuclear-weapons-free zones continue to be important tools for
strengthening the international non-proliferation and
disarmament regime.
Japan has a unique mission to achieve this goal because of its
past. However, if it succumbs to US pressure not to support the
Central Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, it will be deeply
shameful conduct. Japan should show "vigorous support" for the
zone.
Masako Toki is research associate at the Center for
Non-proliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of
International Studies in California.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
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*****************************************************************
81 DOE: DOE Assistant Secretaries in China to Discuss Energy Cooperation
September 14, 2006
[DOE Assistant Secretary Jarrett and Chinese Vice Minister Shang
Yong] BEIJING, CHINA U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant
Secretary for Policy and International Affairs Karen A. Harbert
and Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Jeffrey Jarrett are in
China this week to discuss energy cooperation between the United
States and China. In Hangzhou, Assistant Secretary Harbert
participated in the second round of talks under the U.S. - China
Energy Policy Dialogue to promote global energy security,
protect the environment, and encourage economic growth and trade
between the nations. In Beijing, Assistant Secretary Jarrett
today signed five-year agreement extensions with the Chinese
Ministry of Science and Technology to cooperate and share
information in areas critical to improving energy security and
environmental protection.
As the worlds largest consumers of energy, the U.S. and China
must seize the opportunity to expand our energy mix and employ
innovative technological solutions that hold the promise of
addressing energy security and environmental challenges while
sustaining economic growth, Assistant Secretary Harbert said.
Cooperation between our two countries to meet todays energy
challenges will assist in the transformation of how both
countries produce and consume energy.
The U.S. - China Energy Policy Dialogue between DOE and Chinas
National Development and Reform Commission was created in 2004
as a forum to discuss areas for energy cooperation between the
two countries. During the Dialogue meetings, Assistant
Secretary Harbert and her Chinese counterparts discussed key
energy policy issues, such as the U.S. Energy Policy Act of
2005, Chinas goals under their 11th five year plan, and other
energy efficiency, resource conservation, and renewable energy
programs, including development of biofuels in both countries.
Through the Dialogue, the two countries will share information
on energy security measures, such as strategic petroleum
reserves, energy policies, and strategies to draw needed
investment in infrastructure development and expansion. The
Dialogue also provides a forum to exchange views on a variety of
energy issues of mutual concern including the efficacy of market
and regulatory measures to achieve greater energy efficiency and
reduce environmental impacts.
Assistant Secretary Harbert also traveled to Beijing where she
will meet with officials of Chinas Ministry of Science and
Technology as well as with Chinas Atomic Energy Authority.
While there, she will take part in an industry roundtable with
the U.S.-China Business Council.
Assistant Secretary Jarrett and Vice Minister Shang Yong of the
Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology today signed renewals
of existing agreements for five years extending on-going
cooperation and information sharing in power systems technology;
oil and gas technology; energy and environmental control
technologies; and climate science. An existing agreement on
clean fuels technology, which includes coal-to-liquids and
hydrogen, was discussed but was not in need of extension.
"The U.S. and China are taking a clear leadership position in a
worldwide effort to come to practical and constructive terms on
the need for energy security and reductions of greenhouse gas
emissions that stem from global energy use, Assistant Secretary
Jarrett said. Through international activities like the Carbon
Sequestration Leadership Forum, the International Partnership
for a Hydrogen Economy, the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean
Development and Climate, we are making real progress."
The agreements between the U.S. and China set out specific areas
of activity aimed at improving oil and gas supply, deploying
cleaner more efficient energy technologies for the nations coal
reserves, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through advanced
pollution controls.
Media contact(s): Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940 [ ]
U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW |
Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403
*****************************************************************
82 Platts: DOE got 14 nuclear spent fuel facility responses - Official
Washington (Platts)--13Sep2006
The US Department of Energy has received 14 responses to its
request for expressions of interest in housing integrated spent
fuel reprocessing/recycling facilities that include interim
storage, DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis
Spurgeon said Wednesday.
Spurgeon told the House Appropriations subcommittee that
controls DOE spending that eight of the responses the department
received in the week of September 4-8 involved DOE sites and that
six involved non-DOE sites.
The sites represent every geographic area of the country, he
said. Spurgeon later declined to identify the respondents.
Terms & Conditions
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
83 Hanford News: Reactor to stand at least until '09
This story was published Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
Hanford's B Reactor has escaped another date with the wrecking
ball.
The Department of Energy has delayed the release of the historic
reactor to a cleanup contractor until 2009. The reactor was
scheduled to be turned over for cleanup after the end of fiscal
year 2006, which ends this month, absent a plan to save it.
In addition, a new analysis of preserving the reactor has been
ordered. And it will soon get a new roof.
B Reactor was the world's first full-scale plutonium production
reactor, built in just 13 months during the race to win World
War II.
It produced the plutonium used in the world's first nuclear
explosion, the Trinity Test in New Mexico, and plutonium used in
the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, that helped end the war. It
continued to produce plutonium for the Cold War until the late
1960s.
It's one of nine plutonium-production reactors that line the
Columbia River at the Hanford nuclear reservation. Work is under
way in a process called cocooning to tear down the other
reactors to little more than their radioactive cores and seal
them up to let radiation decay during the next 75 years.
Washington Closure Hanford, which is cleaning up Hanford sites
along the river for DOE, also will be instructed to cocoon B
Reactor if plans to save it as a museum are not successful.
The delay until 2009 will give the National Park Service time to
complete a study of whether B Reactor and Manhattan Project
sites in New Mexico and Tennessee should be preserved, wrote
Keith Klein, manager of DOE's Hanford Richland Operations Office
in a letter to Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.
"I'm pleased that the National Park Service and the Department
of Energy are working together to safeguard the potential for
the B Reactor to be preserved as the study is completed,"
Hastings said in a statement Tuesday.
"The B Reactor has the potential to help teach future
generations about a work force who contributed to our nation's
defense for many years."
In addition, DOE Deputy Secretary Clay Sell has requested a DOE
analysis of the possible preservation and public access to B
Reactor and other Manhattan Project sites, Klein said in the
letter. It will be done by DOE's chief historian/federal
preservation officer.
In the short term, one of B Reactor's most pressing needs has
been a new roof to keep it in sound enough repair to allow it to
be used as a museum. DOE has authorized Washington Closure
Hanford to move ahead with that work. Bids on the project are
due this week and the contractor could announce the award of the
bid as early as next week.
DOE asked the National Park Service to review the work plans to
ensure the project does not inadvertently affect progress on its
study or its outcome, according to Klein. Hastings had earlier
requested the park service involvement, wanting to make sure the
historic integrity of the building is preserved during
maintenance work.
Hastings also had asked earlier this year for assurances that
there was no intention to demolish the ventilation stack or
other components of B Reactor. Klein said DOE was not
considering any such work.
B Reactor now looks much like it did when it was operating, from
the control room to the face of the reactor's core where uranium
fuel was inserted. The B Reactor Museum Association has
collected and labeled artifacts and created displays there to
explain its history.
But the public is rarely allowed inside the reactor. It's in the
secure area of the nuclear reservation and tours require escorts
by officials from DOE or its contractor and must be preceded by
hours of airing out the building because radon can build up when
it is closed.
© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
84 Tri-City Herald: Glimpse Hanford during a tour
Published Thursday, September 14th, 2006
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
The public will have another chance Oct. 17-19 to tour the
Hanford nuclear reservation and the historic B Reactor.
Registration for the tours, the last ones scheduled this year,
will open at noon Wednesday. People wanting to sign up for the
tour are advised to be ready to register then.
The last set of public tours, which were held in July, filled up
within 12 minutes of the start of Internet registration.
The highlight of the tour is a chance to go inside B Reactor,
which looks much like it did during World War II. The reactor
was built in 13 months and produced plutonium for the world's
first nuclear explosion in the New Mexico desert and the bomb
dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, that helped end the war.
The rest of the tour is on the bus through secure areas where
the public is normally not allowed.
It will include a route of historical interest, such as the
former Hanford and White Bluffs town sites where residents were
forced to leave during World War II to make way for the secret
nuclear reservation. And it also will include a look at the
massive cleanup effort under way on the site following the end
of plutonium production.
The tour starts at the Volpentest HAMMER training center, 2890
Horn Rapids Road, Richland. There Hanford workers and others,
including international border patrol units, train on lifesize
props, such as a building that can be filled with smoke.
The tour will drive through the 300 Area just north of Richland,
where buildings are rapidly being torn down that were once used
to fabricate uranium fuel for use in Hanford's nine production
reactors.
The tour also will include a view of reactors along the Columbia
River, where plutonium was irradiated. Several of the reactors
have been cocooned, or torn down to their radioactive cores and
sealed up to allow their radiation to decay.
In the center of Hanford, the tour buses will drive by fields of
underground tanks where 53 million gallons of nuclear waste are
stored. Buses also will pass the processing plants, or "canyons"
where plutonium was chemically separated from fuel irradiated in
the reactors.
Tour participants also will get to drive through the $12.2
billion vitrification plant that's under construction to treat
the tank waste.
The free tours will start each day at 7:30 a.m., 10 a.m. and
12:30 p.m. and last about four hours.
Registration will be on the Internet only at www5.hanford.
gov/publictours. If there are any cancellations, registration
will reopen without notice, so people are encouraged to check
back up to 72 hours before tours.
Tour participants must be U.S. citizens and at least 16 years
old and will be required to bring a valid photo identification
to show at a security checkpoint during the tour. During
registration, tour participants must give their full name
exactly as it appears on the identification they will take on
the tour.
© 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
85 Tri-City Herald: Evaporator helps condense waste
Published Thursday, September 14th, 2006
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
With space in Hanford's newest tanks of radioactive waste at a
premium, work is under way to stretch that space as far as
possible.
By using an evaporator, the Department of Energy has reduced the
volume of waste that must be stored by nearly 14.5 million
gallons.
It's a significant number in the tank waste equation.
Hanford has 145 leak-prone single-shell tanks buried in the
ground that still hold some radioactive sludges and saltcake
from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear
weapons program.
It's emptying those tanks into 28 newer and sturdier
double-shell tanks, each with a capacity of about 1 million
gallons.
But those tanks are close to full.
They have 6 million gallons of space left, of which about 3
million gallons can be used for radioactive waste to be emptied
from the older, leak-prone tanks. The rest must be saved for
emergencies or is unusable because adding more wastes to some of
the tanks could be unsafe.
"Each time we run the evaporator we reduce our total waste
volume that we must store and we also avoid the cost of building
new storage tanks," said Jerry Long, vice president for waste
feed operations for CH2M Hill Hanford Group, the DOE contractor
on the project.
The evaporator has been reducing waste volume since 1994. In its
most recent run, it increased the storage space available in the
double shell tanks by about 300,000 gallons.
The evaporator process is one of the most complicated managed by
CH2M Hill.
As many as three months are spent making sure all of the
instrumentation is working properly and equipment is ready
before the evaporator is started twice a year. It runs for about
two weeks at a time.
The radioactive and chemical makeup of waste in the tanks can
vary widely. Different production processes were used during
more than 40 years and different waste streams have been
combined in the same tank.
The waste must be extensively analyzed before it is sent to the
evaporator. Engineers also need to determine in which of the
double-shell tanks the waste will have the best chemical fit
once its condensed and returned for storage.
If there's excess solid formation, maintaining the correct
chemistry in the tanks is difficult, Long said. Too much solid
forming in one of the single shell tanks was responsible for the
problems in the infamous "burping tank" that has since been
emptied of liquid waste.
If gels are allowed to form in the waste, it can clog pipes used
to move the waste.
The evaporator heats the waste in a vacuum system so it boils at
a lower temperature, about 110 to 115 degrees. Chemicals are
added to keep the waste from foaming.
The water boiled off is sent to Hanford's Liquid Effluent
Retention Facility, where it is treated before it is disposed.
The condensed waste can then be returned to one of the double
shell tanks.
Modifications made to the 1977 evaporator should extend the
operating life of the facility to 2018. That's about the time
Hanford's vitrification plant is expected to start turning some
of the waste stored in the double shell tanks into a sturdy
glass form for permanent disposal.
However, the Washington State Department of Ecology has
estimated that the double shell tanks could be full as soon as
2008, ending work to empty leak-prone single-shell tanks.
The vitrification plant was supposed to be operating by 2011,
freeing up double shell tank space.
More tanks could be built, but some estimates have put their
cost at $75 million each.
CH2M Hill also is taking other steps to reduce waste volume in
the tanks.
As solids are removed from single shell tanks, liquid must be
added to break up and help retrieve the waste.
CH2M Hill is developing technologies to use as little liquid as
possible and in some cases is recirculating tank liquid so less
has to be added to the tanks.
It's also looking at whether more of the 6 million gallons of
space left in the double shell tanks might be safely used to
hold waste.
© 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
86 Hanford News: Getting hot training
This story was published Thursday, September 14th, 2006
By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer
On any other day of the week, the SUV loaded with boxes of
groceries would be of no interest to the untrained eye.
But thanks to portable radiation detection and identification
tools, the soccer mom's wagon caught the attention of agents of
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol training at the HAMMER facility
in Hanford.
Each agent's personal radiation detector - a sensor about the
size of a pager - signaled the presence of radioactive hot
material. And a handheld device pinpointed the hiding place of a
tube of weapons-grade plutonium - under a towel that was beneath
a case of bottled water.
Agents found the material this week at HAMMER during training
put on by instructors and staff of the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory.
This was the 88th class since Sept. 11, 2001, bringing to more
than 2,200 agents of the customs and border patrol who've
trained at HAMMER, said Bill Cliff, manager of the international
border security training program.
The specialized training began in May 2002 at the request of the
Department of Energy, Cliff said.
Much has changed technologically in five years, he said. Agents
now have radiation portal monitors sensitive enough and large
enough to scan for hot rad materials on a drive-by.
The latest tools include handheld isotope identifiers that are
simple point-and-press trigger devices. After pulling the
trigger, the agent sees a text readout on a small screen
detailing what the suspected radioactive material is.
Wednesday's training showed agents how to search an SUV for a
cache of plutonium amid bottled water that was intended to block
or shield the telltale radiation.
Smugglers trying to sneak radioactive materials into the U.S.
can use lead to block the radiation leaks, but X-rays can detect
the lead, and agents would have a reason to physically inspect a
container or vehicle, said Dave McKinney of Ft. Lauderdale,
Fla., a retired customs agent who attended the sessions.
Training sessions are conducted twice monthly throughout the
year at HAMMER.
The first goal is to teach agents how to find the location of
the hot materials, then teach them how to identify the source of
the radiation.
In some cases, there are legitimate explanations, Cliff said.
Someone who has medical isotopes in his body could trigger the
radiation detectors, setting off a security alert. But once the
isotope is identified and the individual can show evidence of
the medical purpose, there is no need for alarm, he explained.
PNNL's program at HAMMER is unique in part because it allows
hands-on training on rad materials in controlled situations.
In addition to training domestic border security forces, Cliff
said the course at HAMMER also is offered to international
groups. Agents from Taiwan will go through the training next
week, Cliff said.
© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
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87 Hanford News: Evaporator helps condense waste
This story was published Thursday, September 14th, 2006
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
With space in Hanford's newest tanks of radioactive waste at a
premium, work is under way to stretch that space as far as
possible.
By using an evaporator, the Department of Energy has reduced the
volume of waste that must be stored by nearly 14.5 million
gallons.
It's a significant number in the tank waste equation.
Hanford has 145 leak-prone single-shell tanks buried in the
ground that still hold some radioactive sludges and saltcake
from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear
weapons program.
It's emptying those tanks into 28 newer and sturdier
double-shell tanks, each with a capacity of about 1 million
gallons.
But those tanks are close to full.
They have 6 million gallons of space left, of which about 3
million gallons can be used for radioactive waste to be emptied
from the older, leak-prone tanks. The rest must be saved for
emergencies or is unusable because adding more wastes to some of
the tanks could be unsafe.
"Each time we run the evaporator we reduce our total waste
volume that we must store and we also avoid the cost of building
new storage tanks," said Jerry Long, vice president for waste
feed operations for CH2M Hill Hanford Group, the DOE contractor
on the project.
The evaporator has been reducing waste volume since 1994. In its
most recent run, it increased the storage space available in the
double-shell tanks by about 300,000 gallons.
The evaporator process is one of the most complicated managed by
CH2M Hill.
As many as three months are spent making sure all of the
instrumentation is working properly and equipment is ready
before the evaporator is started twice a year. It runs for about
two weeks at a time.
The radioactive and chemical makeup of waste in the tanks can
vary widely. Different production processes were used during
more than 40 years and different waste streams have been
combined in the same tank.
The waste must be extensively analyzed before it is sent to the
evaporator. Engineers also need to determine in which of the
double-shell tanks the waste will have the best chemical fit
once its condensed and returned for storage.
If there's excess solid formation, maintaining the correct
chemistry in the tanks is difficult, Long said. Too much solid
forming in one of the single-shell tanks was responsible for the
problems in the infamous "burping tank" that has since been
emptied of liquid waste.
If gels are allowed to form in the waste, it can clog pipes used
to move the waste.
The evaporator heats the waste in a vacuum system so it boils at
a lower temperature, about 110 to 115 degrees. Chemicals are
added to keep the waste from foaming.
The water boiled off is sent to Hanford's Liquid Effluent
Retention Facility, where it is treated before it is disposed
of. The condensed waste can then be returned to one of the
double-shell tanks.
Modifications made to the 1977 evaporator should extend the
operating life of the facility to 2018. That's about the time
Hanford's vitrification plant is expected to start turning some
of the waste stored in the double-shell tanks into a sturdy
glass form for permanent disposal.
However, the Washington State Department of Ecology has
estimated that the double-shell tanks could be full as soon as
2008, ending work to empty leak-prone single-shell tanks.
The vitrification plant was supposed to be operating by 2011,
freeing up double-shell tank space.
More tanks could be built, but some estimates have put their
cost at $75 million each.
CH2M Hill also is taking other steps to reduce waste volume in
the tanks.
As solids are removed from single-shell tanks, liquid must be
added to break up and help retrieve the waste.
CH2M Hill is developing technologies to use as little liquid as
possible and in some cases is recirculating tank liquid so less
has to be added to the tanks.
It's also looking at whether more of the 6 million gallons of
space left in the double-shell tanks might be safely used to
hold waste.
© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
88 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Fernald
FR Doc E6-15266
[Federal Register: September 14, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 178)]
[Notices] [Page 54276-54277] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr14se06-33]
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of Final Open Meeting.
SUMMARY: This notice announces the final meeting of the
Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB),
Fernald. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. No. 92-463,
86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this final meeting
be announced in the Federal Register.
DATES: Saturday, September 23, 2006, 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
[[Page 54277]]
ADDRESSES: Crosby Township Senior Center, 8910 Willey Road,
Harrison, Ohio 45030.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Doug Sarno, The Perspectives
Group, Inc., 1055 North Fairfax Street, Suite 204, Alexandria, VA
22314, at (703) 837-1197, or e-mail:
djsarno@theperspectivesgroup.com.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of
environmental restoration, waste management, and related
activities.
Tentative Agenda 8:30 a.m.--Call to Order. 8:35 a.m.--Chair's
Remarks and Liaison Announcements. 8:45 a.m.--Closure Status
Update. 9:15 a.m.--Present Fernald Citizens' Advisory Board.
10:15 a.m.--Break. 10:30 a.m.--Review and approve final
recommendation. 11:30 a.m.--Closing Issues and Remarks. 11:50
a.m.--Public Comment. 12 p.m.--Adjourn. Public Participation: The
meeting is open to the public.
Written statements may be filed with the Board chair either
before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral
statements pertaining to agenda items should contact the Board
chair at the address or telephone number listed below. Requests
must be received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable
provisions will be made to include the presentation in the
agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to
conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly
conduct of business. Individuals wishing to make public comment
will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present their
comments. This notice is being published less than 15 days prior
to the meeting date due to programmatic issues that had to be
resolved prior to the meeting date.
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public
review and copying at the U.S. Department of Energy's Freedom of
Information Public Reading Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC, 20585 between 9 a.m.
and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday, except Federal holidays. Minutes will
also be available by writing to the Fernald Citizens' Advisory
Board, MS-76, Post Office Box 538704, Cincinnati, OH 43253-8704,
or by calling the Advisory Board at (513) 648-6478.
Issued at Washington, DC on September 11, 2006.
Rachel Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-15266 Filed 9-13-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
89 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Idaho
FR Doc E6-15267
[Federal Register: September 14, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 178)]
[Notices] [Page 54277] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr14se06-34]
National Laboratory AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of Open Meeting Correction.
On August 31, 2006, the Department of Energy published a notice
of open meeting announcing a meeting of the Environmental
Management Site- Specific Advisory Board, Idaho National
Laboratory 71 FR 51809.
In that notice, the meeting was scheduled for September 19, 2006
from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. and September 20, 2006 from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. In
that notice, the opportunities for public participation on
September 20, 2006 was scheduled from 11:45 to 12 p.m. Today's
notice is announcing that the meeting will be September 19, 2006
from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and September 20, 2006 from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. The
opportunities for public participation on September 20, 2006 will
be from 9 to 9:15 a.m. In addition, two agenda topics are being
added: Low-Level Waste Management, and Decontamination and
Decommissioning of Sitewide Facilities (Engineering
Evaluation/Cost Analysis).
Issued in Washington, DC on September 11, 2006.
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-15267 Filed 9-13-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
90 Rocky Mountain News: A phony threat
Editorials
Adams County should relent on dump
September 14, 2006
Denver has put its effort to get rid of radium-bearing pavement
on hold because it's no longer willing to ship the material all
the way to Idaho.
And it shouldn't have to. A site near the town of Last Chance in
Adams County has been cleared by the state health department to
take the low-level radioactive waste.
But the county stubbornly refuses to let it go there, even though
other landfills in its jurisdiction take more dangerous
materials.
The pavement was laid down by Denver almost a century ago. Now it
needs to be torn up and replaced. From 2003 through 2005 the
waste was shipped by rail at great expense to American Ecology
Corp. at Grand View, Idaho.
But the city could save about $1 million a year if it could have
the pavement trucked instead to the Last Chance site, which is
run by Clean Harbors Inc. of Norwell, Mass.
The squabble has been going on for more than a year, and now
Democrat Ed Perlmutter is trying to exploit the issue in the 7th
District congressional race. In a press release Wednesday, he
blasted Republican Rick O'Donnell for allegedly supporting the
state's position. Well, O'Donnell should. And so should
Perlmutter.
Denver, which has removed about half of the offending pavement
and wants to finish by the end of 2007, has suspended the program
until it is settled.
The pavement isn't the kind of stuff that should be going, say,
to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The low-level waste emits less
radioactivity than someone would be exposed to in a year from
being outdoors.
The Last Chance facility was licensed by the state late last year
but Adams County continues to refuse to let in the waste on
grounds that it might also have to take similar, perhaps more
dangerous, waste from other sources. But if any waste were more
dangerous, the state could revoke the permit.
Clean Harbors claims Adams County already makes $500,000 a year
from operating fees and excise taxes charged on revenues from
other wastes accepted at the facility. Presumably revenues would
increase further if the pavement waste were accepted.
Clean Harbors recently filed suit against Adams County asking for
a preliminary injunction that would prevent it from revoking the
certificate of designation issued two years ago.
Adams County sued the state for issuing its hazardous waste
permit but last month a Brighton district judge ruled that the
county didn't have standing. That decision followed an earlier
ruling by a Denver judge dismissing Adams County's appeal of the
radioactive materials disposal license also issued by the state
to Clean Harbors in late 2005.
The facility is cleared to accept materials that fall below the
state threshold for radioactive waste: 0.002 microcuries per
gram. This covers naturally occurring radioactive materials that
are so low-level that they're technically exempted from the
state's definition of radioactive waste.
It's time for Adams County to relent so Denver can resume its
pavement-clearing program. Denver saves a little money, the
county earns a little money and no harm is done to the local
environment or residents.
Site Map| Photo Reprints| Corrections 2006 © The E.W.
Scripps Co.
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