***************************************************************** 12/05/06 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 14.287 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Warns EU Against Nuclear Sanctions 2 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Ahmadinejad bemoans bullying powers 3 AFP: Tehran defiant as powers meet on Iran nuclear sanctions 4 AFP: No deal on Iran sanctions at Paris talks 5 Guardian Unlimited: World Powers Fail to Reach Iran Accord 6 UPI: Iran warns Europe over nuclear sanctions 7 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Urges Arabs to Eject U.S. Military 8 Interfax: Russian top diplomat unaware of N. Korean nuclear swap pro 9 YONHAP NEWS: Lead U.S. nuclear negotiator tapped as N.K. policy coor 10 Korea Times: Roh, Howard to Discuss NK Issue 11 US: CBS News: Boxer Says No More Environment Rollbacks, 12 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Agenda Came 1st for Bolton at U.N. 13 [NYTr] Blair's approach is MAD - it's called atomic logic 14 Guardian Unlimited: Remember Nye Bevan's warning ... | 15 Guardian Unlimited: Trident is legally and morally questionable, say 16 Guardian Unlimited: Countering nuclear threats and anti-nuclear argu 17 Guardian Unlimited: A brave nuke world 18 RIA Novosti: Moscow court delays hearing of Adamov case until Dec. 1 19 BBC: Mixed reaction to Trident issue 20 BBC: Russia upgrades nuclear missiles 21 AFP: Blair unveils plans to keep nuclear arsenal, cut warheads - 22 Guardian Unlimited: Forking out for Trident 23 Guardian Unlimited: Condemned to a nuclear future 24 UPI: US Patriot battery in Japan operational 25 UPI: Blair: Britain must keep nuclear deterrent NUCLEAR REACTORS 26 US: NRC: NRC Returns Point Beach to Routine Oversight 27 Helsingin Sanomat: Further delay in construction of Olkiluoto-3 nucl 28 Helsingin Sanomat: Radiation monitors rarely used at Helsinki-Vantaa 29 US: AP Wire: University drops plans to double nuclear reactor's capa 30 US: NRC: NRC Announces Opportunity to Request a Hearing on License R 31 US: DesMoinesRegister.com: Nuclear power unreliable, fouls environme 32 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Indian Point's emergency phone system silenced 33 US: NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting 34 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Nuke relicensing-plan change rejected by NRC 35 US: Oshkosh Northwestern: Nuke plant to go on routine oversight 36 US: APP.COM: NRC rejects plea for more nuclear-plant scrutiny | 37 SABC: SA signs nuclear agreement 38 US: NRC: Energy Northwest, Columbia Generating Station Independent 39 US: Wall Street Journal: Nuclear Power Revival Could Encounter Hurdl 40 US: AFP: India nuclear bill to be on president's desk this week - Fr 41 US: AFP: US Congress nears final India nuclear bill 42 US: UPI: U.S. strives for tamper-proof nukes 43 barrow in furness: Call for apprentices as N-plant starts clean-up NUCLEAR SECURITY 44 US: KVOA News: Tucson ground-zero for nuclear disaster drill NUCLEAR SAFETY 45 US: NRC: NRC Releases Plan for Continued “Mission-Essential” Operati 46 US: USATODAY.com: Memo: Administration tried to cut payouts to nuke 47 RIA Novosti: Russia, Norway to continue cooperation in scrapping nuc 48 BBC: 'No extradition' in Russian probe 49 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Lawmakers fight Divine Strake bid 50 US: Daily Herald: Utah leaders ask for public meetings to explain 'D 51 AFP: Ex-spy investigation moves to Moscow amid tensions 52 UPI: Analysis: Litvinenko affair widens 53 UPI: Kremlin suspected in poisoning plot 54 Guardian Unlimited: Radiation test at embassy in Moscow | UK Latest NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 55 US: Philadelphia Inquirer: Radioactive pile is focus of meetings 56 US: AP Wire: Operations begin at SRS tritium extraction facility 57 US: AU ABC: Govt calls for states to dump uranium mining bans 58 US: Courier Post: Hearing on slag is tonight 59 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste; Meeting on Planning an 60 icWales: Firm's breakthrough in radioactive waste PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 61 The State: SRS plant to extract tritium for nuclear weapons 62 Aiken Today: SRS restarts tritium work 63 DOE: U.S. DOE Awards Contract for Management and Operation of Ames 64 DOE: New High-Efficiency Window Prototype Result of DOE Partnership 65 DOE: New World Record Achieved in Solar Cell Technology 66 SF New Mexican: LANL scientists to talk bird flu 67 Hanford News: Vegetation may aid Hanford cleanup 68 Hanford News: Gregoire open to GNEP information 69 Albuquerque Tribune: John Mitchell retires as LANL deputy director 70 Los Angeles Times: U.S. nuclear labs working on weapons safeguards - ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Warns EU Against Nuclear Sanctions From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday December 5, 2006 11:46 AM AP Photo VAH109 By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Writer SARI, Iran (AP) - Iran's president warned Washington's European allies on Tuesday that Iran would reconsider its relations with them if they insist on punishing Tehran for its nuclear program, saying that would amount to an act of ``hostility.'' His comments came ahead of a meeting in Paris of diplomats from the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany to discuss imposing penalties on Iran for refusing to stop uranium enrichment. ``I'm telling you in plain language that as of now on, if you try, whether in your propaganda or at international organizations, to take steps against the rights of the Iranian nation, the Iranian nation will consider it an act of hostility,'' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech before thousands in northern Iran. ``And if you insist on pursuing this path,'' he continued, Iran ``will reconsider its relations with you.'' It was the first time that Ahmadinejad had threatened to downgrade relations with European nations, which are responsible of a large portion of Iran's international trade. It was not clear what steps Ahmadinejad had in mind. The president does not have the final word in Iran - that lies with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When Ahmadinejad on one occasion was quoted as threatening to retaliate against the West by restricting oil sales, he was quickly countermanded. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Monday that the six nations were nearing an agreement on a Security Council resolution. Iran says it is entitled as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. The U.S. and its allies suspect it is developing a weapons program in secret. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has criticized Iran for concealing significant aspects of its nuclear work and says it has failed to answer all questions about its program. Ahmadinejad, who was visiting Mazandaran province on the Caspian Sea, reiterated there would be no slowing of Iran's nuclear program. ``Thanks to the grace of God and (the Iranian people's) resistance, we are on the final stage of the path to the nuclear peak. Not more than one step is left to be taken. By the end of the year, we will organize a celebration across the country to mark the stabilization of our nuclear rights,'' he said, referring to the Iranian calendar year that ends March 20. By ``stabilization,'' Ahmadinejad appeared to mean that Iran has managed to enrich uranium on an industrial scale, a requirement for making sufficient fuel to power Iran's Russian-built reactor at Bushehr, which is due to go on line next year. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 2 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Ahmadinejad bemoans bullying powers 2006/12/05 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, currently on a visit in the northern Mazandaran Province, said on Tuesday that bullying powers are trampling on the rights of nations. The President arrived in the city of Sari, capital of Mazandaran Province, Tuesday morning for another of his visits to various provinces of the country. Addressing people at the city's stadium, he said most of the problems facing the current world "stem from the fact that bullying powers ignore the teachings of the divine messengers." He criticized American President for negatively reacting to the letters he sent to American officials in early May and late November, respectively. "When we invite their (bullying powers) attention to the teachings of the divine prophets, they become upset and bad-tempered," said the President. He added that in his first letter he invited Bush to come to the path of justice and imbibe the culture of the holy prophets, "but they frowned and reacted negatively to the invitation," said the president. Referring to his second letter sent in late November, he said it was "an invitation to accept the values of humanity and path taken by the holy prophets." President Ahmadinejad expressed hope the persons to whom he addressed his letters will not close their eyes and ears to the values he sought to share, prominent among which are "dignity, justice, friendship and passion." "I am sure that no damage will come to them by accepting the words of the holy prophets and enforcing justice," stressed the President. President Ahmadinejad's current provincial visit is his 22nd to various provinces of the country since the start of his initiative of bringing the government closer to the people. He and his cabinet have already visited the provinces of South Khorasan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Ilam, Qom, Hormuzgan, Bushehr, Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari, Lorestan, Golestan, Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Khorassan Razavi, Zanjan, Markazi, Qazvin, Hamedan, East Azarbaijan, Tehran, North Khorassan, Kordestan, West Azarbaijan and Ardebil. Mazandaran Province has a population of about 2.9 million. sam Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir ***************************************************************** 3 AFP: Tehran defiant as powers meet on Iran nuclear sanctions Tue Dec 5, 5:47 AM ET PARIS (AFP) - High-ranking diplomats from six world powers were preparing to meet in Paris in search of a sanctions package against Iran" /> Iran, as Tehran warned that it would take any attempt to thwart its nuclear programme as an "act of hostility". Top foreign ministry officials from the five veto-wielding UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany were to attend the talks Tuesday evening at the French foreign ministry. A representative of European Union" /> European Unionpolicy chief Javier Solana was also to participate. The aim is to reach agreement over what economic sanctions to impose on Iran for ignoring a UN deadline of August 31 to stop enriching uranium -- which outside powers fear could be used to make nuclear weapons. France's Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the talks had a strong chance of succeeding. "I think that we can now reach agreement on the text," he said in Brussels Monday after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. A draft UN Security Council resolution put together by Britain, France and Germany would bar trade with Iran in goods related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and slap financial and travel restrictions on persons and agencies involved. Russia and China -- who have strong economic interests in Iran -- have tried to water down the text, while Washington wants to beef it up. A top Russian official was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency Tuesday saying that Security Council members were moving closer to an accord. "Our differences on the draft resolution are not strategic in character, but tactical. It is very hard to predict what will happen once it is passed, there are arguments pro and contra, the process is still going on," said Igor Ivanov, secretary of Russia's Security Council. Ahead of the meeting in Paris, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Europe that international action over Iran's nuclear programme could endanger its relations with Tehran. "If you (Europeans) continue making efforts to halt the progress of the Iranian nuclear programme and if you take any step against the Iranian nation's rights, either in propaganda or international bodies, the Islamic republic will consider this an act of hostility," Ahmadinejad said in a speech. "And if you continue with this, the Iranian nation will revise the direction of its path and its plans related to you," he said. His defiance was echoed by the top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, who told a press conference in Dubai: "If this resolution has the aim of stopping the Iranian nuclear programme as its goal, this will serve nothing. "Rest assured that Iran will not give into pressures and will not surrender its inalienable right" to its nuclear programme, he said. The six powers suspect Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian power generation programme -- which Tehran strongly denies. On Sunday Israel" /> Israelapproved the creation of a new ministry for strategic affairs, mainly to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 AFP: No deal on Iran sanctions at Paris talks Tue Dec 5, 6:12 PM ET PARIS (AFP) - Six world powers meeting in Paris said they had failed to agree what sanctions to impose over Iran" /> 's refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work, as diplomats said that Russia was blocking a deal. Top diplomats from the five veto-wielding UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany and a European Union" /> envoy, took part in the talks. "We made substantive progress on the scope of the sanctions, targeting proliferation sensitive activities," the French foreign ministry, which hosted the meeting, said in a statement afterwards. "We are now close to a conclusion of this process," it added, but said there were still "several outstanding issues". "The next step will be in New York," it said, in a reference to the headquarters of the United Nations" /> , without specifying when the next round of talks would take place. The six powers are trying to agree what economic sanctions to impose on Iran for ignoring a UN deadline of August 31 to stop enriching uranium -- which outside powers fear could be used to make nuclear weapons. Moscow and Beijing -- who have strong economic interests in Iran -- have tried to water down a draft UN Security Council resolution drawn up by France, Britain and Germany, while Washington wants to beef the text up. The European draft would bar trade with Iran in goods related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and impose financial and travel restrictions on persons and agencies involved. According to diplomats in Paris, Russia -- though willing to back the trade ban -- is still opposed to sanctions being applied to individuals. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier Tuesday that Moscow would support a ban on shipments of sensitive goods but said broader sanctions would be counter-productive. "We believe it is necessary to approve the proposal on forbidding deliveries of technology, material and services in the field of uranium enrichment, chemical processing of radioactive fuel, and heavy-water technology to Iran from abroad," he was quoted as saying by Ria Novosti news agency. He criticised "our Western partners" for supporting the adoption of wide-reaching sanctions that are "not proportionate" to the monitoring capacity of the International Atomic Energy Agency" /> . "Such a wholesale approach to banning cooperation with Iran in various spheres will only exacerbate the situation," he said. The meeting in the French capital came after Tehran warned it would take any attempt to thwart its nuclear programme as an "act of hostility". In Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Europe that international action over Iran's nuclear programme could endanger relations with Tehran. "If you (Europeans) continue making efforts to halt the progress of the Iranian nuclear programme and if you take any step against the Iranian nation's rights, either in propaganda or international bodies, the Islamic republic will consider this an act of hostility," Ahmadinejad said in a speech. "And if you continue with this, the Iranian nation will revise the direction of its path and its plans related to you," he said. The six powers suspect Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian power generation programme -- which Tehran strongly denies. On Sunday, Israel" /> approved the creation of a new ministry for strategic affairs, mainly to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions. ***************************************************************** 5 Guardian Unlimited: World Powers Fail to Reach Iran Accord From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday December 5, 2006 10:31 PM AP Photo XFM103 By ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press Writer PARIS (AP) - Six world powers made ``substantive progress'' but failed to reach an accord on a U.N. resolution to punish Iran for its nuclear program, the French Foreign Ministry said after talks in Paris Tuesday. ``We made substantive progress on the scope of the sanctions targeting proliferation-sensitive activities. There remain several outstanding issues, upon which we will reflect over the coming days,'' the ministry said in a statement. ``We are now close to a conclusion of this process.'' The talks brought together diplomats from the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia - the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - as well as Germany and a representative of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. They were divided, however, over how to punish Iran's defiance of U.N. demands to stop its nuclear program, and faced a new threat from Tehran of retaliation if they opted for sanctions. The United States and France have expressed hope that the Paris talks would secure agreement for imposing sanctions against Iran. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier that imposing wide-ranging sanctions would be ``irresponsible.'' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Tuesday to stick by the nuclear program and issued a new threat to downgrade relations with the 25-nation EU if European negotiators opted for tough U.N. sanctions. He gave no details on how ties might be downgraded. The EU is Iran's biggest trading partner. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 6 UPI: Iran warns Europe over nuclear sanctions United Press International - NewsTrack - 12/5/2006 1:15:00 PM -0500 TEHRAN, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a strong warning Tuesday to Europe regarding voting on U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Ahmadinejad made the warning on a national television broadcast as senior diplomats from six countries met in Paris to discuss what sort of sanctions to impose for Iran's refusal to stop enriching uranium, Middle East Online reported. "If you (Europeans) continue making efforts to halt the progress of the Iranian nuclear program and if you take any step against the Iranian nation's rights, either in propaganda or international bodies, the Islamic republic will consider this an act of hostility," Ahmadinejad said. Germany and permanent U.N. Security Council members Britain and France were among those debating sanctions Tuesday. Ahmadinejad went on to repeat the government's longstanding claim that nuclear weapons were not the objective but rather increased electricity generation. "Today the Iranian nation has mastered the fuel cycle and with the help of God will make all necessary measures for a full production of nuclear fuel in all of its power stations with wisdom and intelligence," he said. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Urges Arabs to Eject U.S. Military From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday December 5, 2006 11:01 AM By JIM KRANE Associated Press Writer DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran's top national security official urged his Arab neighbors Tuesday to eject the U.S. military from American bases in the region and instead join Tehran in a regional security alliance. Ali Larijani told Arab leaders attending a conference here that Washington is indifferent to their interests and will cast them aside as soon as they are no longer useful. ``The security and stability of the region needs to be attained and we should do it inside the region, not through bringing in foreign forces,'' Larijani told an audience of business and political leaders from the Arab world and elsewhere, including the United States. ``We should stand on our own feet.'' The speech was one of the most explicit expressions yet of rising Iranian assertiveness in its contest with the United States for influence in the region. Many Sunni Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have expressed misgivings about the growing influence of the Persian Shiite-dominated government in Tehran, which once sought to export its Islamic revolution and topple neighboring governments. Tehran's nuclear program is continuing despite the threat of international sanctions, raising fears of a regional nuclear arms race. And Iran's Shiite proxy paramilitary groups have been gaining strength in Iraq and Lebanon. Larijani assured Arab leaders listening to his speech that Iran seeks ``peaceful coexistence'' and could replace the security umbrella of U.S. bases now present in the region, including in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. Other countries have strong military training and U.S. security guarantee deals. ``Iran is in pursuit of regional stability through integration,'' he said. ``It stands by all the Muslim governments in the region.'' Larijani expressed annoyance at Arab fears about Iranian intentions, saying Iran and its Sunni-dominated neighbors had more in common with each other than with the United States or Israel. ``Some countries consider Iran a threat to the region, forgetting about Israel,'' Larijani said. After eliminating Iran's closest enemies - Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan - the United States also worries about Iran's growing influence, although many believe it is highly unlikely any Arab countries would cut security ties with the United States. Some small Gulf countries did, however, decline to participate in recent U.S.-led maneuvers in the Gulf, apparently for fear of antagonizing Iran. Larijani acknowledged that any U.S. departure from the Gulf would come about gradually, but he contended a consensus was building, even among America's Arab allies. ``We don't accept the relationship between the U.S. and the countries of the region,'' Larijani said. ``If you talk to Arab leaders here, you can sense that they aren't happy with the current situation. They feel the Americans are bullies. They don't want the U.S. ambassador ordering them around.'' He told his audience that he believes Washington is caught in a ``strategic stalemate'' in the Middle East. U.S. policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and among the Israelis and Palestinians are failing, he said, and pressure on Iran and Syria has not weakened either regime. Washington needs a major change in policy - starting with a withdrawal from Iraq - to improve its standing, and setting a date for departing Iraq is a first step, Larijani said. ``Should there be a timetable, that would serve as a positive sign,'' Larijani said. ``The clearest sign would be an exit or evacuation of American forces from the region.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 8 Interfax: Russian top diplomat unaware of N. Korean nuclear swap proposal Interfax.com Site map Dec 5 2006 1:33PM MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has no idea about the plans of North Korea to give Russia the right to enrich its uranium in exchange for Russia's support at the six-nation talks. "I can sincerely and honestly say that I know nothing about it," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev told Interfax on Tuesday. He said he had heard about the proposal from the media. "I cannot comment on what I hear for the first time," he said. Earlier Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported that North Korea had invited Russia to support it at the six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear program in exchange for the right to import and enrich uranium from North Korea. The newspaper, quoting Russian government sources, says such talks have been under way since 2002. The six-nation talks involve the two Koreas, China, Russia, the United States and Japan. North Korea suspended them in November last year but they are expected to resume in a few weeks. © 1991-2006 Interfax ***************************************************************** 9 YONHAP NEWS: Lead U.S. nuclear negotiator tapped as N.K. policy coordinator Wednesday, December 06, 2006 The Korea Times By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun is to hold a summit with Australian Prime Minister John Howard in Canberra Wednesday morning (KST) to discuss bilateral issues, including trade and investment and the North Korea nuclear issue. Roh will focus on ways to promote the strategic partnership between South Korea and Australia in politics, diplomacy and security as well as economic ties, especially in the fields of energy and resources, officials accompanying Roh told reporters. On the occasion of the presidential visit, a civic-level joint study will be launched for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries, according to the officials. ``President Roh will also try to gain support from Australia for South Korea¡¯s engagement policy toward the North and its endeavors to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff in a peaceful manner,¡¯¡¯ Roh¡¯s spokesman Yoon Tai-young said. Annual trade between the two countries reached $13.7 billion as of 2005. The two established diplomatic relations in 1961, and Australia is the largest provider of mineral resources to South Korea. Roh arrived in the Australian capital Tuesday afternoon for a three-day state visit after a similar visit to Indonesia. He will fly to New Zealand on Thursday for a state visit. On Sunday, the president will move to Cebu in the Philippines to attend a three-day ASEAN+3 summit, a gathering of the top leaders from 10 Southeast Asian countries, and South Korea, China and Japan. He will return home Dec. 13. 12-05-2006 17:23 ***************************************************************** 11 CBS News: Boxer Says No More Environment Rollbacks, AP Interview: California Sen. Boxer Says the Days of Environmental Rollbacks Are Over - WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2006 By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press Writer (AP) (AP) The Democrat poised to take over the Senate environment committee promises a "sea change" from six years of Republican inaction on global warming and says she expects Congress to send President Bush legislation to start curbing greenhouse gases. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, who will lead the Environment and Public Works Committee beginning in January, acknowledged Tuesday she may fall short of her goal: imposing the nation's first mandatory limits on industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. "I have no line in the sand," she said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Even a little step will look like a big step." In the interview, Boxer also promised to end Bush administration rollbacks on environmental rules if they are not supported by science. "Any kind of weakening of environmental laws or secrecy or changes in the dead of night _ it's over," Boxer said. "We're going to for once, finally, make this committee an environment committee, not an anti-environment committee. ... This is a sea change that is coming to this committee." Her chairmanship will be an abrupt turnaround from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., whose last hearing Wednesday as chairman will be devoted to his view that the news media have fanned alarmism about global warming. Inhofe, who calls global warming a hoax, blocked attempts in his committee to regulate carbon dioxide. Boxer's first hearing next month also will be devoted to global warming, but from an opposite point of view from Inhofe's. "This is a potential crisis of a magnitude we've never seen," she said Tuesday, explaining that her goal is to impose mandatory caps on carbon dioxide, a step vehemently opposed by Bush's top environmental advisers. Nonetheless, she promised to hear from all sides before trying to move a bill to Senate passage. "I very much want the environment to go back to being a nonpartisan issue," she said. She said her model will be a new California law that imposes the first statewide limit on greenhouse gases and seeks to cut emissions by 25 percent, dropping them to 1990 levels by 2020. "Real goals, real percentages," she said. Other areas of primary concern include children's health and toxic chemicals, and contaminated toxic waste sites yet to be cleaned up under the Superfund program. She said she also intends to use a committee chairman's powers to obtain documents on how regulations have been developed and priorities chosen. "We want to send a signal to the world," Boxer said, complaining the United States now lags behind more than 50 other countries addressing global warming. She said she has received calls from several foreign leaders expressing hope for a new U.S. environmental policy. Boxer said she supports European plans to make manufacturers demonstrate that their products and processes won't harm the environment or that they have at least considered safer alternatives. To help pay to clean up Superfund sites that are the nation's worst contaminated, Boxer said she will push to reinstate a special tax on oil and chemical industries and other businesses. She has long criticized the administration for the pace of its cleanup progress. Boxer also plans to hold field hearings in Louisiana on the environmental effects of Hurricane Katrina. Boxer's committee also is in charge of writing highway bills, the next one due in 2009. She said she does not oppose specific projects inserted into bills at individual lawmakers' request, but she said the sponsors should disclose who they are. "What I don't approve of is secret earmarks," she said. On other issues, Boxer said: _There are better alternatives than expanding nuclear power to meet energy needs while reducing greenhouse gases. _Government plans for storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain in Nevada are in even more trouble now because of opposition from her and Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid, D-Nev. MMVI The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Agenda Came 1st for Bolton at U.N. From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday December 5, 2006 10:16 AM AP Photo NY117 By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - When U.S. Ambassador John Bolton took over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council in February, he started meetings promptly at 10 a.m. even if some seats were empty and kept a list of latecomers, not the usual diplomatic behavior. For Bolton, the fine points of diplomacy took a back seat to his aggressive pursuit of President Bush's global agenda. Those efforts ranged from pressing for sanctions against North Korea and Iran to installing U.N. peacekeepers in conflict-wracked Darfur and overhauling the 61-year-old United Nations so it can meet the challenges of the 21st century. He arrived at the United Nations in August 2005, a controversial figure appointed by Bush during a Congressional recess because he twice failed to be confirmed by the Senate. He resigned Monday still a controversial figure, admired for his negotiating skills and for making the 15-member council more punctual but criticized for his style. Tanzania's U.N. Ambassador Augustine Mahiga called Bolton's approach ``sometimes abrasive'' and ``too rigid'' and said it provoked ``unnecessary controversies'' and made compromise and consensus difficult. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose strained relations with Bolton were no secret, reacted coolly to his resignation, saying he ``did the job he was expected to do.'' Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, the target of stinging criticism from Bolton, made his delight clear, telling reporters seeking reaction: ``No comment - and you can say he said it with a smile.'' In June, Bolton said Malloch Brown made ``a very, very grave mistake'' by criticizing the United States for its policy of ``stealth diplomacy'' - relying on the U.N. for many things but refusing to defend the organization to Americans. In September, Bolton charged that Malloch Brown had brought ``great discredit'' to the U.N. for criticizing U.S. and British diplomacy over Darfur. Mahiga said Bolton ``raised red flags'' soon after his arrival when he proposed over 40 amendments to the draft text of a declaration to be issued by world leaders at the September 2005 U.N. summit, ``almost overlooking entirely the millennium development goals.'' The goals, which are a top priority for the developing world, include cutting extreme poverty by half and ensuring universal primary education by 2015. Fortunately, Mahiga said, Bush reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the goals in his speech to the summit ``but that took a lot of time, and that set the tone of future relations between the members of the United Nations and Mr. Bolton.'' The 58-year-old arms control expert with a distinctive white walrus mustache came to the job with a reputation for brilliance, obstinacy and speaking his mind and a mission to reform the United Nations. Bolton loves to spar with U.N. reporters, sometimes several times a day. But Mahiga, who is finishing a two-year term on the council, said Bolton's rush to the microphone after council meetings created ``uneasiness'' among members because it ``appeared like upstaging'' the council president for the month who traditionally speaks first. The Chinese, Greek and Argentine ambassadors agreed that Bolton's effort to reform the Security Council's operations has had one lasting effect - meetings now start on time. During Bolton's presidency, ambassadors would rush by reporters saying they didn't want to be late. Bolton also insisted the U.N. Secretariat give the council a briefing every morning on a key U.N. issue, but that policy has not survived him. Argentina's U.N. Ambassador Cesar Mayoral cited Bolton for his efforts to make the council's selection of the new secretary-general more open and transparent and to make a choice earlier to allow for a transition. China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said Bolton has changed the council ``because his style is different,'' and expressed regret that he is leaving, despite differences on some issues. Was Bolton effective in pushing the U.S. foreign policy agenda? ``He's serious about the American objectives here in reforming the United Nations,'' Wang replied, ``and he pushed hard - but of course sometimes in order to achieve the objectives you have to work together with others.'' Bolton antagonized the powerful Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries and China, by leading other wealthy countries who pay about 85 percent of the U.N.'s budget to impose a cap on budget spending in December 2005 to press for U.N. management reforms. On June 30, the poorer nations rebelled and voted in the General Assembly - where there are no vetoes - to lift the budget cap. In the past, the U.N. budget had always been adopted by consensus and forcing a vote polarized the debate over reform between developing and developed countries - a north-south divide that still lingers. Bolton remains frustrated that ``precious little'' reform has been accomplished so far by the . General Assembly though some diplomats, especially from developing countries, would at least partly blame his blunt tactics. Mahiga said Bolton will be remembered ``for his principled stand on various issues, but at the same time, he was a person who could have done it differently in order to minimize the negative perceptions of the positions of the United States over certain issues.'' But Bolton did play a key role in major U.S. foreign policy initiatives - getting Security Council approval of resolutions imposing sanctions on North Korea for conducting a nuclear test, joining with France to promote Lebanon's democratic government, pushing for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region, and putting Myanmar's repressive military regime on the council's agenda. Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, a staunch U.S. supporter in the budget cap battle, said ``John Bolton had his own style.'' ``He is a superb lawyer and a very skillful and strong negotiator. And I think he did his best in getting results delivered on a number of issues,'' Oshima said. Qatar's U.N. Ambassador Nassir Al-Nasser, who often opposed the U.S. on Lebanon, Sudan and Palestinian-Israeli issues, said Bolton ``represents his country as a very tough negotiator and high-skilled diplomat. He did a great job.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 13 [NYTr] Blair's approach is MAD - it's called atomic logic Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 12:11:11 -0600 (CST) X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Whitelisted"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A X-Spam-Class: HAM Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Simon McGuinness The Independent - Dec 5, 2006 http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/simon_carr/article2040132.ece The Sketch: PM's approach is MAD - it's called atomic logic By Simon Carr Lesser politicians say one thing and mean another. Our Prime Minister says one thing and its opposite and believes them both at the same time. As we're on the subject of atomic weapons we might consider applying Heisenberg's famous Uncertainty Principle to him. Not that the Prime Minister's uncertain about anything. No, but we may be forgiven for being uncertain about him. Heisenberg said that we can know everything about where a Prime Minister is but nothing about where he's headed. Or we can know everything about where he's going but nothing about where he is at the moment. So Tony Blair announces that he wants to increase our nuclear capability and lead the world in nuclear disarmament. He can now go down in history as the man, A) who multiplied our ability to kill billions, and B) the man who halved our nuclear stockpile. That's quite a multidimensional legacy. He conforms to the atomic logic - or the subatomic logic - that says we only want nuclear weapons because we don't want nuclear weapons. That's deterrence. It's also why they called it Mutually Assured Destruction (because of its acronym). But when he says he wants to make it absolutely clear that we have total control over our system and that the Prime Minister alone has the power to press the button ... I found myself wondering what on earth he meant by that. Anyway, it seems to be almost certain that he has decided that we shall update our weapons systems and we are to have a full, four-month debate on it. It offers to be a very interesting experience, with the Prime Minister taking on the David Dimbleby role. I think he's up to it. The House certainly gave him an unusually easy ride. But it's hard to become indignant with someone who spends 15 per cent of every utterance saying your point is cogent, well-made and deserving of serious consideration. He also had a brilliant one-word argument that trumps all others: "France". If they've got one, we have to have one too. I'm sorry, but there it is. Gratifyingly, points made in the House still enjoy an emotional weight, or resonance that television doesn't give them. Ronnie Campbell said he didn't believe in our nuclear weapons because he didn't believe we'd ever use them. I hadn't heard that quite so deftly made before. Though, en passant, I don't know why he believes we'd never use them. So it's entirely possible that this process will add a little lustre to the Commons; I hope it does. We may even learn whether the #20bn estimate for the upgrade includes VAT. NB: I like Gordon Brown's new-found calm. He sits on the front bench chin lifted slightly, eyes slightly down, looking as though he's posing for his sculpted bust. To be hewn out of the side of Mount Rushmore. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 14 Guardian Unlimited: Remember Nye Bevan's warning ... | Comment | Simon Hoggart Tuesday December 5, 2006 The prime minister announced a new fleet of nuclear submarines to an almost eerie silence in the Commons. If he had had a conning tower clipped to the back of his head, he might have detected a few ripples in the ocean, some slight turbulence under the waves, but little that seemed like a threat to his calm progress. His message was that we might not need a nuclear deterrent in 20 years, but if we did, and we hadn't got one, it would be too late. Or as he put it: "We could not recognise, the world we live in now, that it would not be wise to predict the unpredictable in the times to come." I think you can see what he means. David Cameron agreed with everything he said. This looked like a doddle. Ming Campbell was not at his very best. He wanted to put the whole thing off until 2014. Labour MPs, many of whom marched to Aldermaston in their youth (some for job interviews, no doubt) jeered. Ming threw his teddy bear out of the pram. "I remember the 1983 election when a large number of those people there were arguing for unilateral disarmament!" He waved a scornful arm. "It just shows that if you live long enough you'll see everything," he added, and a Tory voice, with ghastly cruelty, shouted out: "You won't!" MPs from all sides agreed with the prime minister. We waited for Michael Meacher, the first Labour rebel. The money spent on the new subs would drain off "colossal" sums from fighting terrorism and climate change. Mr Blair did not seem too troubled by this. It's fair to say that a happy Michael Meacher is as rare as a tap-dancing labrador. Then the first Tory rebel. Edward Leigh asked if we shouldn't we debate other options apart from these expensive subs? Mr Blair ran through them. Air-launched cruise missiles were too slow. Surface ships were easy to hit. Silos on land were just as vulnerable. At this point my eye fell on Margaret Beckett. It was Nye Bevan who famously said 50 years ago that if the Labour conference passed a disarmament motion, "you will send Britain's foreign secretary naked into the conference chamber". Was it this alarming possibility that had led to the cabinet's decision? Either way it did suggest a solution. The Pentagon once wanted to mount nukes on trains which, in the event of a crisis, would be sent in all directions around America. We could mount our deterrent on Mrs Beckett's caravan. Our unnamed enemy would never find it in a traffic jam on the A303 near Cricklade, or in a layby on the Mull of Kintyre - it would be entirely undetectable. The only drawback would be if Mrs Beckett's husband Leo were to think he was lighting the gas for a welcome brew-up, and woomph! - goodbye Tehran. By now MPs were energised. They asked the tough questions. Would we really respond to a terrorist outrage, as Mr Blair seemed to be implying, by nuking the state that sponsored the terrorists? He thought it would certainly put them off. And suppose there was a non-nuclear SNP/Liberal coalition government in Scotland, where would we put the things? Mr Blair said he'd worry about that when it happened. But he won't, since he won't be here. Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 15 Guardian Unlimited: Trident is legally and morally questionable, says church Matthew Tempest, political correspondent Tuesday December 5, 2006 [Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams] The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, pictured in March this year. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA. The Church of England expressed grave doubts today over the government's decision to renew Britain's nuclear missile system, branding the weapons "indiscriminate and horrendous". The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, stopped just short of condemning the decision to spend £20bn upgrading the Trident system, but queried the recommendation on moral, legal and ethical grounds. And Dr Williams stressed that the issue of nuclear destruction was "no less grave" now than at the height of the cold war. In a statement put out on his behalf by Lambeth Palace, Dr Williams agreed with the prime minister that there was a need for a "genuine debate" over the UK's continued nuclear power status. And he welcomed the fact that the prime minister yesterday "accepted that there are perfectly respectable arguments against the judgments the government has made and that he both understood them and appreciated their force." But in a clear indication of the church's feelings on the matter, Dr Williams listed no positive aspects to maintaining a nuclear deterrent, and listed a series of "grave" ethical concerns. He said: "Then [in the cold war], as now, these are weapons that are intrinsically indiscriminate in their lethal effects, and their long-term impact on a whole physical environment would be horrendous. "While there is evidently disagreement - among Christians as well as others - over whether the mere threat of use is morally acceptable, we should not lose sight of what the government itself has called the 'terrifying power' of these weapons." He added that the legality of a programme of updating Trident was open to question under non-proliferation agreements. There were also questions about the strategic value of replacing Trident, he said, especially against a background of "acute" pressures on the armed services. Dr Williams warned that Christians would make their feelings on the issue known to the government. He added: "The white paper must not close down discussion. We need a genuine debate in which Christians, and others whose consciences are disturbed by these proposals, will want to play a full part. "Many will never be persuaded of the morality of a nuclear deterrent; many more will feel that the case needs to be very strongly made for a programme of modernisation at this point if we are to avoid the suspicion that this is about reinforcing national status, at a very high cost to our actual military and strategic commitments at the present moment." Dr Williams's remarks come after strong condemnation of the updating or renewing of Trident from other Christian religious leaders. Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Church leaders yesterday voiced their opposition to renewal or replacement. The Catholic bishops of Scotland, England and Wales have also issued statements opposing the plans. The leader of the Anglican Church in Wales, the Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, said earlier this year that the money proposed for replacing Trident could be used to prevent 16,000 children dying every day from diseases caused by impure water and malnutrition. In July, a group of bishops warned Tony Blair that the possession of Trident nuclear weapons was "evil" and "profoundly anti-God". Guardian Newspapers Limited ***************************************************************** 16 Guardian Unlimited: Countering nuclear threats and anti-nuclear arguments Richard Norton-Taylor and Ewen MacAskill Tuesday December 5, 2006 [HMS Vengeance returns to Faslane submarine base on the river Clyde] HMS Vengeance returns to Faslane submarine base on the river Clyde. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images In his foreword to the white paper on the future of Britain's nuclear deterrent, Tony Blair refers to "regional powers developing nuclear weapons for the first time which present a threat to us ... We are already trying to counter the threat posed by a nuclear North Korea and by the nuclear ambitions of Iran." He adds: "And we need to factor in the requirement to deter countries which might in the future seek to sponsor nuclear terrorism from their soil." In its 40-page white paper published yesterday the government makes a point of addressing the arguments of those opposed to renewing the Trident deterrent in a special section devoted to what it calls "Responses to counter arguments". It lists the past cuts in the number of Britain's nuclear weapons and says the government stands by its "unequivocal undertaking to accomplish [their] total elimination". Key themes in the paper include the government's view of why a deterrent remains relevant after the cold war, why a decision in principle has to be taken now, and what decisions will be taken in future. Maintaining the deterrent HMS Vanguard, the first of Britain's four Trident submarines, will be "going out of service around 2022, and the second around 2024", it says. "Continuous deterrent patrols could no longer be assured from around this latter point if no replacement were in place by then ... A reasonable estimate is that it might take around 17 years from the initiation of detailed concept work to achieve the first operational patrol." The white paper emphasises: "There will be no enhancement of the capability of the missile in terms of its payload, range or accuracy." The white paper, as the Guardian revealed yesterday, says the government has decided to reduce the the number of "operationally available warheads" from fewer than 200 to fewer than 160, with a corresponding 20% cut in size of the overall stockpile. Britain's retention of a deterrent is "fully consistent with our international legal obligations", it says. Article 6 of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty does not "prohibit maintenance or updating of existing capabilities". The paper continues: "We would only consider using nuclear weapons in self-defence (including the defence of our Nato allies) and even then only in extreme circumstances." It lists a number of "enduring principles [that] underpin the UK's approach to nuclear deterrence". The UK's weapons "are not designed for military use during conflict but instead to deter and prevent nuclear blackmail and acts of aggression". The government "deliberately maintain ambiguity about precisely when, how, and at what scale we would contemplate use of our nuclear deterrent. We will not simplify the calculations of a potential aggressor by defining more precisely the circumstances in which we might consider the use of our nuclear capabilities." New threats In a section headed "Insuring against an uncertain future" the white paper says there are "limits to the extent to which intelligence can inform us about medium or long-term changes in the nuclear capabilities of others..." It adds: "The number of states with nuclear capabilities has continued to grow." In a point driven home yesterday by Mr Blair in the Commons, the white paper says: "While our nuclear deterrent is not designed to deter non-state actors, it should influence the decision-making of any state that might consider transferring nuclear weapons or nuclear technology to terrorists. We make no distinction between the means by which a state might choose to deliver a nuclear warhead whether, for example, by missile or sponsored terrorists." In its "Response to counter arguments", the paper says it would be "highly imprudent to mortgage our long-term national security" against the assumption that if Britain gave up its deterrent, others would be encouraged to follow suit. It says the money spent on renewing Trident would not be "at the expense of the conventional capabilities of our armed forces". It also rejects the suggestion - put forward by many independent commentators - that Britain could have a "dormant" nuclear capability. That, says the white paper, would mean that in the event of a crisis Britain would become an active nuclear weapons state in a move which could be seen as escalatory and thus potentially destabilising. Nuclear weapons capability The document says the deterrent has to be able to function even if there is a pre-emptive strike, and that the preference of the UK government is for an invulnerable and undetectable system. It also insists that it be independent: "The UK's current nuclear deterrent is fully operationally independent of the US." On the scale of destruction the UK system could deliver, the government says: "We need to make a judgment on the minimum destructive capability necessary to provide an effective deterrent posture." The conclusion is that the present ability to deploy up to 48 warheads on a submarine on patrol is sufficient. But the number of missiles and warheads could be varied - and their yield reduced - to "make our nuclear forces a more credible deterrent against smaller nuclear threats". Submarines and costs The intention is to begin detailed work on the concept of a new submarine shortly and that a contract for the detailed design could be placed by around 2012 to 2014. Although the document is vague enough to allow for the possibility that instead of building a new submarine from scratch, the new conventional Astute submarine could be modified. But officials say this is unlikely because the costs of modification would not be significantly lower than building a completely new submarine. Crucially, the government signals that the British nuclear submarine fleet will be cut from four to three, which would save £1-2bn. "We will investigate fully whether there is scope to make sufficiently radical changes to the design of the new SSBNS (Trident submarines), and their operating, manning, training and support arrangements, to enable us to maintain continuous deterrent patrols - with a fleet of only three. A final decision on the number of submarines that will be procured will be made when we know more about their detailed design." On overall costs, the document says: "Our initial estimate is that the procurement costs will be in the range of £15-20bn (at 2006/07 prices) for a four-boat solution, some £11-14bn for the submarines; £2-3bn for the possible future refurbishment or replacement of the warhead; and £2-3bn for infrastructure over the life of the submarines." It adds: "These costs will fall principally in the period 2012 to 2027. The comparable costs for the Trident system was some £14.5bn at today's prices." Despite claims that it would be cheaper to buy submarines from the US, the paper promises that the government's intention is to build the new submarines in the UK. At least two big decisions are postponed, in addition to whether the fleet should be four or three submarines. The first is on warheads. The existing system will likely last into the 2020s. A decision on whether it needs to be refurbished or replaced is likely to be necessary in the next parliament. The second issue, the subject of UK discussions with the US, is on developing a successor to the D5 missile. Guardian Newspapers Limited ***************************************************************** 17 Guardian Unlimited: A brave nuke world Letters Wednesday December 6, 2006 Having studied and taught the Alice-in-Wonderland logic of nuclear deterrence for the better part of 25 years, the only credible case for UK possession was to trigger a US strike against the Soviet Union in the event of American refusal to support Europe against aggression (Renewing Trident coverage, December 5). Today, this hardly applies. If we want insurance - against storm and tempest, as opposed to a meteor landing on your roof - there is a rational case for taking out a premium, namely to put resources into heavy lift, adequate infantry kit and sophisticated surveillance systems. If you want a Trident replacement, declare it a Grade I-listed building and fund it out of English Heritage. Its only justification is as a relic of past glories and a studied refusal to leave the French alone with a Euronuke. Professor Keith Hayward London Plans to replace Trident with a "scaled down" nuclear arsenal might appease one or two wavering Labour MPs, but it will still place the UK in breach of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, cost billions and threaten British security. Having three nuclear submarines instead of four will leave us with a nuclear capacity 1,280 times greater than that which devastated Hiroshima, and it will exacerbate the risk of the global spread of nuclear weapons - to terrorists and non-state actors as much as other nations, such as Iran and North Korea. There is simply no legal, moral, military or economic case for the government to replace Trident. If the government has billions to spend on protecting security, it shouldn't gamble it on chasing cold war shadows, but instead use the cash to tackle the real security threat we face today - climate change. Dr Caroline Lucas MEP Green party, South East England It is understandable that many people balk at the idea of spending £20bn to replace our Trident nuclear deterrent, but that figure should be put in perspective. Firstly, as the cost will be spread over three decades, it comes to less than £1bn a year. Compare that to our GDP last year, which was about £1,240bn. Alternatively, compare the total cost to the annual cost of our EU membership. Several studies have come up with estimates in the region of £50bn-a-year net costs for belonging to an ill-conceived international organisation. How much better to spend £20bn to defend it, equivalent to just five months' worth of those EU costs. Indeed there is a strong rumour that when the Treasury did its sums on EU membership, its central estimate of the net costs was not £50bn a year, but £150bn, which averages out as £2,500 for each of us every year. Dr DR Cooper David Davis Maidenhead, Berkshire So, according to Roy Hattersley, "the way the deterrent worked was too subtle" for people like Bertrand Russell, AJP Taylor, JP Priestley and Canon Collins, who founded CND, to understand (A complete fantasy, December 4). But then these simpletons also thought that nuclear weapons policies were also obscenely immoral. "There would certainly have been war over Berlin," wise Roy tells us, but for the handful of nuclear weapons the US had at the time. Could it be that in 1948 the Soviets, with their 20 million dead and shattered economy, were incapable of doing more than trying to maintain their buffer zone of security and that the US were not going to get involved in another European war after their second world war losses of 360,000. It is comforting to know from Roy that Britain, unlike, say, Iran, behaves rationally. So Attlee's secret decision to go nuclear in 1947 when the country was already bankrupted by the war was rational? And was it rational to saddle a declining power with the crippling costs of an arms race that ensured that our investment-starved manufacturing industry would be decimated by German and Japanese competition? As for Reid and Beckett being former supporters of CND, Hattersley knows full well that Blair, Kinnock and other ambitious Labourites belonged to CND for years so long as it helped their advancement. David Davis Chesterfield, Derbyshire [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 18 RIA Novosti: Moscow court delays hearing of Adamov case until Dec. 11 05/ 12/ 2006 MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow court has postponed until December 11 a hearing in the case of Russia's ex-nuclear power minister, charged with embezzlement and abuse of office, a lawyer said Tuesday. On November 24, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court rejected an appeal by Yevgeny Adamov's defense to send his case back to the Prosecutor General's Office to correct shortcomings in the investigation and clarify the charges, and scheduled a hearing for December 5. "Lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov, who represents the interests of a co-defendant in the case, Vyacheslav Pismennyi, is currently on a business trip," Adamov's lawyer Genri Reznik said. Adamov, 67, has been accused of leading an organized criminal group that inflicted damage worth over 3 billion rubles (about $110 million) to the Russian budget, enterprises and organizations. Adamov is being prosecuted along with two co-defendants, Pismennyi, former director of the Troitsky research center, and Revmir Freishut, former director of TechSnabExport. The trial has already been adjourned twice - on October 26 and November 8 - because Adamov's lawyers did not appear in court, and one of the defendants was in the hospital. Adamov was originally arrested in Switzerland in May 2005 at the request of the United States, where authorities accuse him of misappropriating $9 million given to Russia for nuclear safety projects. Had he been convicted in the U.S., Adamov would have faced 60 years in prison. He was extradited to Russia in early 2006 to face charges but was released by the Russian Supreme Court July 21, after a total of 15 months in prison, to await trial. Adamov, who served from 1998 to 2001 as Russia's nuclear power minister, said in October he will insist on a trial in a U.S. court, although the U.S. authorities have accused him of a crime they said was committed in Russia. On October 16, the Moscow City Court canceled the Zamoskvoretsky District Court's earlier decision to send Adamov's case back to the Prosecutor General's Office for a clarification of the charges. The city court thereby upheld an appeal by prosecutors against the district court decision. Prosecutors demanded that the case should instead be sent for retrial in the district court. © 2005 RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 19 BBC: Mixed reaction to Trident issue Last Updated: Tuesday, 5 December 2006 [Newspapers (generic)] The papers dwell on PM Tony Blair's announcement that Britain will retain its nuclear deterrent in the form of a smaller number of Trident missiles. The decision was "disappointing" and "unsurprising", the Independent said. The Guardian says the government's proposals are "unclear about the strategic purpose... of a British nuclear system in particular". But the Sun believes that in these "troubled and uncertain times, it is vital that we maintain our guard". British question How "Britishness" is defined is considered by several papers. They are responding to the Home Office's decision that people who want to settle permanently here should pass a test on English language and UK life. "Migrants taught how to scrounge," says the front page of the Daily Express - a reference to advice about which benefits people could claim. The Guardian says an extra hurdle is being put before those seeking human rights protection in the UK. Downtown sounds "Country tits and town tits sound as different as the Archers and the Sopranos" is the intriguing headline in the Times. Research suggests the urban Great Tit has ditched the melodious warble still practised by its cousin in the countryside, the Times reports. It has developed a more insistent and staccato sound. The Daily Telegraph notes that researchers think the phenomenon occurs in all "noisy downtown areas". Teapot storm The Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror reveal an RAF Nimrod crew got the best from a teapot on a flight from Cornwall to the Kinloss base in Morayshire. A hatch did not close and "with bitterly cold outside air streaming into the jet they covered the hole with a teapot", reports the Mirror. Both papers quote one of the men on board the plane. He insisted the plane was never in danger and that the story really was "a storm in a teapot". ***************************************************************** 20 BBC: Russia upgrades nuclear missiles Last Updated: Tuesday, 5 December 2006 [Russian Topol long-rang missile] The system is said to give Russia nuclear parity with the US Russia says it is deploying a mobile version of its most important long-range nuclear missile. Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said the new Topol-M missiles would be able to penetrate a multi-layered missile defence system. Russia already has 42 fixed-site Topol-M missile systems, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reports. The missile, known in the West as the SS-27, has a range of more than 10,000km (6,200 miles). Mounted on a heavy off-road launch vehicle, it is harder to detect than the earlier version, which has been in service for more than 20 years. "These systems will form the basis of our strategic missile troops in the future. The first regiment is now being put on combat duty," Mr Ivanov said. Under disarmament treaties, Russia and the US are committed to cutting their nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 each. Russian military expert Alexander Golts said the new Topol-M system would give Russia strategic nuclear parity with the US. ***************************************************************** 21 AFP: Blair unveils plans to keep nuclear arsenal, cut warheads - by Lachlan Carmichael Tue Dec 5, 2:49 AM ET LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair" /> unveiled plans to modernise Britain's nuclear deterrent, cutting the number of warheads but warning that disarming would be dangerous as new terrorist threats emerge. While the Cold War is over, he said states like North Korea" /> and Iran" /> both had "highly dubious" reasons to pursue a nuclear weapons capability, and other rogue states were a distinct reason for Britain to keep its deterrent. The plans include a new generation of nuclear submarines at a cost of up to 20 billion pounds (39.5 billion dollars). In an apparent concession to critics from within his own party and the anti-nuclear lobby, Blair promised to cut the number of stockpiled nuclear warheads by 20 percent from about 200 currently to 160. But he said: "The government's judgment, on balance, is that though the Cold War is over, we cannot be certain in the decades ahead that a major nuclear threat to our strategic interest will not emerge." The premier, outlining the government's proposals to retain the US-built Trident missile system to parliament, said there were "new and potentially hazardous" threats from states like North Korea and Iran. He cited "a possible connection between some of those states and international terrorism", saying that no other nuclear state in the world was considering unilaterally getting rid of its capability. "In these circumstances, it would be unwise and dangerous for Britain, alone of any of the nuclear powers, to give up its independent nuclear deterrent," he told the lower House of Commons. Blair argued that action was needed immediately to take the first steps towards maintaining Trident, because of the estimated 17 years it takes to design, build and deploy a new submarine. A new generation of submarines would cost between 15 billion and 20 billion pounds (22.2 billion-29.7 billion euros, 29.6 billion-39.5 billion dollars), including design and manufacturing costs, he added. No decisions were needed on replacing warheads, as the lifespan of the Trident D5 missile can be extended to 2042, he said. Blair rejected concerns that by retaining Trident, Britain was in breach of its obligations to nuclear non-proliferation. "We have the smallest stockpile of nuclear warheads amongst the recognised nuclear weapons states, and are the only one to have reduced our stockpile of operationally available warheads to no more than 160, which represents a further 20 percent," he said. "Compared with previous plans, we will have reduced the number of such weapons by nearly half." Blair's proposals were met with sceptism in the country's press on Tuesday, which asked: Why now? The Daily Mail, while stating its support for retaining an independent nuclear deterrent asked in its editorial: "Why is the nation being bulldozed into a decision without a proper debate?" "Aren't there vitally important questions we need answered before we are committeed to this huge decision for a generation to come?" The Daily Telegraph similarly asked: "Why the rush?" "The more sceptical will suspect that the entire timetable has been dictated by Mr Blair's endless quest for a political legacy as he prepares to hand over power." The Daily Mirror said in its editorial: "Tony Blair is a man in a hurry to persuade Britons to spend tens of billions of pounds on an expensive new generation of nuclear weapons." "After nine-and-a-half years in power, just three months' debate is inadequate on a decision of fundamental importance that will have far-reaching consequences long after he's gone," it read. Also chiming in was the Financial Times, which similarly noted in the headline of its editorial that there were "unanswered questions surrounding Trident". "Put simply: do we need Trident as 'the ultimate insurance' as Mr Blair says? Or are we clinging to the ultimate vestige of the great power delusions to which this prime minister seems especially prone?" The only two newspapers that offered support for Blair's proposals were The Times and The Sun. "The Sun Says" editorial column said it "was good to see Tony Blair and (Conservative Party leader) David Cameron united yesterday in support of a second generation of Trident nukes." The Times, meanwhile, noted: "There is indeed little chance now or in the next few years that any dictator would be able to launch a nuclear strike on Britain." "But that may not be the case in 10 or 20 years, when nuclear proliferation may have gone far beyond Pyongyang and Tehran." Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 22 Guardian Unlimited: Forking out for Trident Comment is free > [Robert Fox] Starving Britain's conventional forces of funds to pay for a new nuclear deterrent dangerously increases the temptation to use it. December 5, 2006 07:30 PM | Tony Blair has stretched the term "deterrent" to breaking point in that Britain is to go ahead with the replacement to the Trident submarine-launched strategic nuclear weapon system, at a cost of something over £20bn. Both and are right to say that the argument for the new weapon is meaningless in terms of the doctrine of nuclear deterrence of the cold war embraced by the happily absurd acronym Mad (Mutually Assured Destruction). Any British weapon will not deter a nuclear Iran, North Korea, nor any of the eight other known nuclear powers, including Israel. As Tony Blair himself recognised in this week's , it is unlikely deter al-Qaida in its pursuit of exotic weaponry, not only biological and chemical but "baby" nukes. So what is son of Trident for? The old lines of argument are familiar: it keeps the Union Jack on the top table at the UN, keeps Britain as the only European nuclear power fully integrated into Nato (as the French are not), and, well, it keeps the UK submarine-building and nuclear bomb-making industries . Naval shipbuilding is chaotic in this country, yet enough jobs depend on it in key constituencies to worry the politicians. This is why the other big naval project beside submarines, the plan to buy two big aircraft carriers, is in such a tangle. The big ships could cost as much as Trident 2 and the new submarines. The ships are costed, optimistically, at £4bn, but then add in the combat systems, and the aircraft. Currently, there is a to buy some 120 joint strike fighters (JSFs) from the US, in which BAE has a small stake. As things stand, the JSF is the single most expensive aircraft programme ever undertaken by the Pentagon, at a cost of $250bn and rising. It is fast becoming a possibility that even the US cannot afford it. But don't expect any hint of cancellation of the carriers this side of the Scottish elections in May, as much of the final assembly work had been allocated for the Clyde and Rosyth, not unadjacent to the constituencies of Gordon Brown, Chancellor, and Des Browne, Defence Secretary. The decision to buy new strategic nuclear submarines is being taken now in order to give continuity to the BAE submarine-building facility at Barrow. The only alternative would be to go abroad, and that would mean buying American or French. That would rob the weapon system of any vestige of independence (it's not very independent anyway); and working with France would be offering a hostage not so much to fortune as the iron whim of the Elysée, Quai d'Orsay, and Défense. In the 1990s, the UK submarine industry nearly collapsed because teams of designers and engineers expert in the field had been dispersed following the completion of the current Vanguard class of strategic boats. After work started on the new class of Astute SSN (nuclear hunter killer) boats, the project nearly foundered completely. Expertise had been lost in hull design and the for the first three boats headed towards the £1bn mark. The plan is for seven of these boats to be completed over the next decade - and there are whispers in the industry now that the overall cost overrun could be several billion pounds. The Astute design and production engineering teams can now be augmented and adapted to producing the new Trident flotilla. So what does all this do for deterrence? Not much, as things stand, and - according to one chilling paragraph in the Trident - the concept and purpose of the new Trident weapon has taken a subtle shift. On page 18, part of paragraph 3-4 reads: "We will not simplify the calculations of a potential aggressor by defining more precisely the circumstances in which we might consider the use of our nuclear capabilities. Hence, we will not rule in or out the first use of nuclear weapons." It is believed that this is the first time the case for "nuclear strategic ambiguity" has been put so clearly. The fear must be that if Britain's strategic bluff is called, the weapon would be used - particularly by a prime minister who has a sense of divine mission. Not so much a deterrent, Trident and son of Trident are becoming offensive weapons of war. Splashing out such huge sums on big-buck prestige projects like Trident, the aircraft carriers and the Typhoon Eurofighter aircraft, makes a nuclear counter strike more, rather than less, likely. Correspondingly, all three armed services have been starved of the funds and resources needed for their present commitments and operations. A panel of former defence chiefs and analysts has concluded that the army will not be able to maintain operations in Iraq and Afghanistan at their present level without improved equipment and more funds. And there is every chance now that the war in Afghanistan is about to expand dramatically as the Taliban recruits thousands across northern Pakistan for a major offensive across southern Afghanistan. The RAF, meanwhile, is facing the need to cut out one of its major capabilities, and, in the assessment of one of the chiefs, "the Navy could become unviable by next summer." The funding of defence and security has not kept pace with the realities of inflation in the budget, and inflation in ambitions of the Blair foreign policy. Defence budgets and planning are now commanded by the Treasury, and the MoD civil service has surrendered almost all independence. More money and manpower are needed for what the forces have now on their plate - and they are about to get a lot more with Blair's desire to get into Darfur. The forces have to be reconfigured to deal with three major missions at once. Looking at the past 25 years, Britain is hit by a major emergency every five years. We're due for another one well before we can get the troops out of Iraq or Afghanistan. When it arrives, let's hope somebody has firmly put superglue on the nuclear red button before the fantasy strategists of the cabinet office and No 10 can get their collective finger on it. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006. Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396 Registered office: 164 Deansgate, Manchester M60 2RR ***************************************************************** 23 Guardian Unlimited: Condemned to a nuclear future Comment is free: > [Michael Clarke] The case for Trident is based on pessimism rather than prudence - the 'just in case' scenario. December 5, 2006 05:32 PM | The government's on the future of Britain's nuclear forces is a curious document. It takes a series of difficult arguments head on and presents its position eloquently and clearly. Its recommendations are incisive. It knows what it thinks and is intended to offer leadership on the issue. But it achieves this incisiveness on the basis of some simplistic logic. In an uncertain world where any follow-on to Trident will be in service until at least 2050 the case for the deterrent becomes political more than strategic: we don't really know what a nuclear deterrent may or may not do for us now that we are physically safer than ever, but better to be nuclear than non- nuclear as we face the future. In truth, the arguments on all sides have been heard many times before. There is nothing new in the nuclear debate except the thing that matters most: the global context in which it now takes place. The prospects of a global nuclear war have become very distant. But the prospect of nuclear proliferation in volatile regions is all too real and the chances of nuclear use somewhere, sometime, a racing certainty. We lecture Iran and North Korea on the importance of observing international obligations but the nuclear non-proliferation regime is in danger of collapse. The US doesn't really mind because its own military superiority over other forces is overwhelming. It's still not too late to rescue and renew the non-proliferation regime and keep the whole technology under tight control, but we've already used up 15 years of the best opportunity history will ever give us to do this. There is probably not long left and our present thinking is infused by a pessimism that condemns us to a nuclear future. The white paper struggles to make this underlying pessimism sound like prudence: there may be direct nuclear threats, threats from new quarters, threats from state-sponsored nuclear terrorists to our "vital interests". What are our vital interests? And is grim deterrence a better way to pursue them when there are any other number of possible strategies? No answers here. Nor is there much evidence that full consideration has been given to all the options. Does the decision have to be made now when non-proliferation is on life support? The decision is not urgent just because the defence industry wants it to be. A Trident-like system is good value is we intend to stay in the major, strategic deterrence business, but may not be the most cost-effective if we want a genuinely minimum deterrent. There may be scope for Britain to maintain the political advantages but still contribute to non-proliferation by evolving towards "virtual nuclear power" like Japan - capable of a weapons system in less than a year but with no intention under present circumstances of exercising the option. The white paper does not give any serious consideration to the opportunities and costs of simply renouncing nuclear capabilities. The government ruled that out of any discussions at the last election. The Labour leadership, as Polly Toynbee , is hard-wired to be pro-nuclear after all the electoral damage they feel they suffered 25 years ago. And the MoD is hard-wired to go for a straight Trident replacement. It's an understood technology, reinforces interdependence with the US, preserves some technology and jobs in Britain, and provides all the right answers for hard-pressed officials to respond to a determined prime minister while he's still in power. But at root the decision still rests on a "judgement" - as the prime minister told the House of Commons yesterday - dressed up as strategic logic; that the length of the weapons cycle beyond 2050 makes the "uncertainty" argument overwhelming. This is not an argument that any other policy area - even defence - could use. If army chiefs told Mr Brown that they wanted three full new armoured divisions, not for anything they could think of for now, but "just in case" after 2040-ish, one could imagine the reply they'd get. If this decision is really about Britain in the world of 2050 then the logic cuts both ways. It may be right for Britain to remain a nuclear power. But if it is, we should not commit ourselves to such a historic decision on the basis of a quick white paper and one noisy parliamentary debate next March. Still less should we do it to fit the timetable of a prime minister leaving office who wants to register his nuclear credentials with history. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006. Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396 Registered office: 164 Deansgate, Manchester M60 2RR ***************************************************************** 24 UPI: US Patriot battery in Japan operational United Press International - Security &Terrorism - 12/5/2006 1:32:00 PM -0500 KADENA, Japan, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A U.S. Air Force Patriot Advanced Capability 3 anti-missile defense battalion has become operational at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. Air Force Print News recently reported that a ceremony declaring the 1-1 Air Defense Artillery Battalion (PAC-3) unit operational was held at Kadena's 18th Wing Headquarters. During the ceremony 1-1 Air Defense Artillery Battalion Maj. Kevin Ciocca said, "Today is an important day for our soldiers and our people -- it is a commemoration and an honoring of our personnel and the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in our unit's history here in Okinawa." "The PAC-3 is purely a defensive system, which serves to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing ballistic missiles by removing their ability to intimidate and coerce the U.S. and Japan," he said. "This system also serves to deter adversaries from using ballistic missiles by reducing their military value and increasing the risk that a ballistic missile attack would fail." The 1-1 ADA was moved from Texas to Kadena AB under the terms of U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee Roadmap for Realignment Implementation concluded last May between the two countries. Both Tokyo and Washington are increasingly concerned about North Korea's recent nuclear and missile tests and the deployment is designed to allay the Japanese government's concerns about U.S. commitments to Japan's defense. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 25 UPI: Blair: Britain must keep nuclear deterrent United Press International - NewsTrack - 12/4/2006 9:28:00 PM -0500 LONDON, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday the country needs to maintain a nuclear arsenal to deter threats that may emerge in coming decades. Blair released plans to replace the fleet of Vanguard submarines, which carry Trident nuclear missiles, the Daily Mail reported. Designing and building the new submarines would cost an estimated 20 billion pounds (almost $40 billion). "We cannot be sure that a major nuclear threat to our vital interests will not emerge over the longer term," Blair said. "I believe it is crucial that, for the foreseeable future, British prime ministers have the necessary assurance that no aggressor can escalate a crisis beyond U.K. control." Blair's white paper, which was approved by the Cabinet, said the number of nuclear missiles would be cut from 200 to 160. He also said that the submarine fleet might be cut from four to three. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 26 NRC: NRC Returns Point Beach to Routine Oversight News Release - Region III - 2006-03 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III No. III-06-033 December 4, 2006 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that the Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant has taken sufficient corrective actions to allow its return to routine agency oversight by the end of December. The two-reactor plant, operated by Nuclear Management Co., was placed under heightened NRC oversight in early 2003. Point Beach, located near Two Rivers, Wisc., was placed under heightened oversight as a result of three red findings, which means they were of high safety significance, and one yellow finding, meaning it had moderate to high significance to safety. All four findings were associated with problems in the auxiliary feedwater system. These problems did not affect normal plant operations but could have diminished the plants ability to mitigate the effects of an accident under certain abnormal circumstances. The auxiliary feedwater system is used to safely cool the reactor if problems occur during plant operations and to continue removing heat from the reactor after shutdown. The utility took actions to correct problems with the auxiliary feedwater system shortly after discovery. NRC inspection findings are evaluated using a four-level scale of safety significance, ranging from green for a finding of very low significance, through white and yellow to red, for a finding of high safety significance. When the safety significance of findings increase, the NRC increases its oversight. This results in such actions as more frequent and more in-depth inspections and more frequent public meetings during which plant managers report on the status of corrective actions and answer questions from the NRC. As a result of increased oversight at Point Beach, the NRC performed a broad, in-depth inspection from July to December 2003. The inspection reviewed the causes of auxiliary feedwater system problems and took a broader look at other areas of plant operation that could be affected by similar causes. Following the inspection, the utility developed a plan to address the issues identified by the NRC and to improve plant performance. The utility committed to make substantial and sustained improvements in five areas: human performance, engineering design control, engineering/operations interface, emergency preparedness and the corrective action program. In April 2004, the NRC issued a Confirmatory Action Letter which documented these commitments and the NRCs plans to conduct additional inspections to monitor the utilitys progress in accomplishing their stated goals. The letter also stated that Point Beach would remain under increased oversight until the NRC finds demonstrated improved performance in the five areas listed above. In early 2006, the NRC concluded that sufficient progress had been made in all areas of commitment but engineering design control. On April 14, 2006, the NRC issued a revised Confirmatory Action Letter documenting these conclusions. The NRC continued to monitor the plants performance in engineering design control and is satisfied that corrective actions in this area have demonstrated effectiveness and sustainability. The plant will return to routine NRC oversight at the end of December 2006. Although Point Beach has operated safely, staff and management worked hard over the past three and a half years to improve plant performance, said James Caldwell, the NRC Regional Administrator. We recognize their efforts and expect the utility not only to sustain the positive changes they had made but also to continue to improve. All documents related to this issue are available from the Region III Office of Public Affairs or from the agencys online document library at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NRC news releases are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site. Last revised Monday, December 04, 2006 ***************************************************************** 27 Helsingin Sanomat: Further delay in construction of Olkiluoto-3 nuclear reactor Helsinki time Wednesday 6.12.2006 Olkiluoto-3 nuclear reactor ] Construction work on the third reactor of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant on the west coast of Finland has been delayed again. The power company TVO said on Monday that the installation will not be ready until early 2011. Originally the reactor was to have come on line a year and a half earlier - in the summer of 2009. The installation is being built by the French company Areva together with the German Siemens. The builders take the responsibility for the costs caused by the delay. The delay in the construction means a loss of nearly EUR 600 million in lost electricity production. The building contract has a clause on possible delays, but TVO and its shareholders will not disclose details on who is liable for the loss of production. "Quality standards, usability, and safety are nevertheless top priorities", says Seppo Ruhonen, CEO of Helsinki Energy, which holds an eight per cent share in the new reactor project. The construction project, which began in the summer of 2005 has experienced numerous problems both in planning and in the actual construction work. Difficulties have arisen in the organisation of the building site, quality control, and training. Already in the summer it was announced that the completion of the reactor would be postponed by a year. The latest report means a further delay of about six months is in store. When it is complete, the new reactor is expected to generate about 12 terawatt hours of electricity a year. This is about 15 percent of Finlands current electricity consumption. Helsingin Sanomat ***************************************************************** 28 Helsingin Sanomat: Radiation monitors rarely used at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport Wednesday 6.12.2006 Helsinki-Vantaa Airport ] Two cardboard boxes were lying on the floor at the air freight terminal of Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. An attatched red slip of paper shouted "Must not be loaded. Delivery stopped by safety inspection". The boxes contained ski wax they were the only freight delivery to have been rejected that afternoon. Officials saw them as fire hazards. A very small proportion of hazardous material transport is by air. However, in 2002, for instance, 16 percent of air-freighted hazardous materials were radioactive. The room reserved for approved radioactive materials contained only one small package in the afternoon, which was destined for a hospital in the north of Finland. Most radioactive air freight involves substances for hospitals. They are often transported by air freight because they spoil quickly. Finnair uses passenger planes for its air freight. The safety of both air freight and passenger luggage is determined at Helsinki-Vantaa primarily on the basis of what the guards see on the screens of their X-ray machines. Explosive-sniffing devices and radiation monitors are rarely used. Explosive sniffers are used in air freight only for packages that do not fit into the X-ray machine. "Geiger counters are not even used every day", says security chief Jussi Mattila. "Geiger counters are used with luggage if there is cause to suspect radioactivity", says the airports head of security, Jyri Wikström. Much more difficult than radioactive materials, in Wikströms view, are chemical and biological substances, which are more difficult to identify. The airport does not have devices for chemical analysis. On Saturday a Finnair passenger plane was stuck in Moscow because of radiation from a cobalt air freight delivery destined for industry. On Monday, the Ministry of Transport and Communications sent Finnair and the Finnish Civil Aviation Authority a request for clarifications on what kinds of dangerous materials are transported in Finland. By the evening the request had not yet reached CEO Jukka Heinonen, but Taneli Hassinen, the airlines head of communications, was already waiting for it. "The response will be ready as soon as the request reaches us", Hassinen insisted. Helsingin Sanomat 5.12.2006 - TODAY ***************************************************************** 29 AP Wire: University drops plans to double nuclear reactor's capacity 12/05/2006 | ALAN SCHER ZAGIER Associated Press COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Missouri has dropped plans to double the capacity of its nuclear research reactor, citing progress in a nearly 30-year federal effort to develop a safer alternative to the highly enriched uranium the reactor uses as fuel. Six of the eight American universities that continue to use highly enriched uranium - an ingredient experts say is crucial to building nuclear weapons - are in the process of switching to the low-enriched uranium commonly found at commercial power reactors. Technical limitations, such as smaller reactor core sizes, have prevented the University of Missouri and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from converting their reactors - a nationwide process begun in 1978 by the U.S. Department of Energy. University of Missouri officials had long planned to increase the reactor's capacity from 10 megawatts to 20 megawatts, a power upgrade they hoped would enhance the university's ability to help produce cancer-fighting drugs and radioactive isotopes used for medical diagnosis and treatment. But the university's recent application for renewal of its Nuclear Regulatory Commission license makes no mention of the upgrade. Instead, reactor scientists are working with Department of Energy and the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois on a new fuel type that "holds some promise," said reactor director Ralph Butler. "We need to do what we can to focus our energy on conversion," he said Tuesday. "That's the highest priority right now. It's the government's priority, so it's our priority too. "We have tabled our desire to upgrade," he said. A spokeswoman for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration said the alternative fuel could be commercially available by 2010. A statement on the agency's Web site adds, "It has long been U.S. nonproliferation policy to minimize, and to the extent possible, eliminate the use of highly enriched uranium in civil nuclear programs throughout the world." The University of Missouri reactor's federal license limits the amount of unirradiated, highly enriched uranium to 5 kilograms. As little as 25 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, or about 55 pounds, is needed to build a nuclear bomb on the scale of the one dropped on Hiroshima six decades ago. Smaller nuclear bombs could be built using as little as 12 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, experts say. The distinction between irradiated and unirradiated fuel is significant. Once uranium-based fuel is doused with radiation, the number of isotopes rapidly diminishes, making it unsuitable as a weapon. Safety concerns at several campus reactors recently prompted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review security measures at the sites, which typically keep low profiles, rely on campus security guards and can often be found near dormitories and classrooms. The emphasis on conversion of U.S. research reactors also increased after the 2001 terrorist attacks, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered enhanced security at nuclear sites over concerns that terrorists would target such power supplies. Butler said it will take an additional two to three years before results from the experimental fuel studies are known. ***************************************************************** 30 NRC: NRC Announces Opportunity to Request a Hearing on License Renewal Application for Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant News Release - 2006-14 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 06-148 December 5, 2006 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is announcing the opportunity to request a hearing on an application to renew the operating license for the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant for an additional 20 years. The Wolf Creek Generating Station is a pressurized water reactor located approximately three miles northeast of Burlington, Kan. The current operating license expires March 11, 2025. The applicant, Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp., submitted the renewal application Oct. 4. The application is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati ons.html. The NRC staff has determined that the application contains sufficient information for the agency to formally docket, or file, the application and begin its technical review. Docketing the application does not preclude requesting additional information as the review proceeds; nor does it indicate whether the Commission will grant the application. A notice of opportunity to request a hearing will be published soon in the Federal Register. The deadline for requesting a hearing is 60 days following publication. Petitions may be filed by anyone whose interest may be affected by the license renewal and who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding. NRC staff will conduct two public meetings Dec. 19 in the vicinity of the plant to discuss the license renewal process and the scope of the agencys environmental review for the license renewal application. More information about that meeting is contained in the Federal Register notice, and an additional announcement will be made closer to the date. A request for hearing and a petition for leave to intervene must be filed with the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff. Requests may also be submitted by facsimile to (301) 415-1101 or e-mail to HEARINGDOCKET@nrc.gov. A copy should also be submitted to the NRC Office of General Counsel, by facsimile to (301) 415-3725 or e-mail to OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov. Information about the license renewal process can be found on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html. An NRC review schedule for the Wolf Creek nuclear plant will also be posted on the NRC Web site which will identify the deadline for requesting a hearing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NRC news releases are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site. Last revised Tuesday, December 05, 2006 ***************************************************************** 31 DesMoinesRegister.com: Nuclear power unreliable, fouls environment December 5, 2006 There is so much misinformation in Carolyn Heising's Nov 23 Iowa View that it is hard to know where to start ("Let's Call a Truce and Champion Both Wind, Nuclear Power"). For instance, she calls nuclear power an "emissions-free" source of power. Not so. Nuclear power plants routinely release radioactive waste into the air, water and soil. Routine emissions from nuclear reactors include a number of different elements such as carbon-14 and tritium, a known carcinogen. The long half-lives of these radioactive elements allow them to accumulate in the environment and in living tissue. Heising's main point is that nuclear power is a reliable energy source. Once again, she's just wrong. For instance, in 2001, a significant fire at Southern California Edison's San Onofre-3 nuclear reactor was a major cause of the rolling blackouts that plagued California for months. The reactor, which had the capacity to power 1.1 million houses, was suddenly shut down. That meant that 25 percent of the nuclear capacity in California disappeared. The Northeast and Midwest blackout of 2003 also demonstrated the unreliability of nuclear power. When the blackout hit, 21 nuclear reactors, dependent on off-site power, were immediately shut down. The only things that nuclear-power plants can be counted on to reliably produce are radioactive waste and environmental damage. - David Vestal, Clive. Copyright © 2006, The Des Moines Register. ***************************************************************** 32 JOURNAL NEWS: Indian Point's emergency phone system silenced By GLENN BLAIN (Original publication: December 5, 2006) An emergency telephone system used by Indian Point officials to quickly notify local governments and the state about problems at the nuclear plants was out of service for at least part of the weekend. Technicians making routine tests yesterday discovered that the Radiological Emergency Communication System was not working, said Jim Steets, a spokesman for plant owner Entergy Nuclear Northeast. The outage was traced to a computer problem and the system was restored by 9:15 a.m. "It could have gone down over the weekend, but no sooner than last Friday," Steets said. "The system checked out fine Friday afternoon." Steets insisted that the complex has backup systems that would have let it communicate directly with the state and county emergency service officials if necessary. If all else failed, he added, they simply could have called government officials directly. "It is a dedicated phone system set up to communicate in a radiological emergency," Steets said. "It is a phone line. So they would just go to a normal telephone system if we had to make the call." The outage was just the latest problem for Entergy. On Thursday, Entergy had to shut down one of the reactors at the complex because a pipe was found to be leaking water and steam into the containment dome that houses the reactor. The leak was repaired and the reactor resumed operation on Saturday. Entergy recently announced plans to seek new federal licenses for the plants, which would keep them operating through 2035. The original 40-year licenses for Indian Point 2 and 3 are set to expire in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Opponents of the nuclear plants say the telephone system's failure is further proof that Entergy's management of the facility is lacking and that the company should not receive new licenses. "Time and time again we see Entergy management failing to maintain properly emergency equipment, such as sirens and now this phone system," said Lisa Rainwater, director of the environmental group Riverkeeper's Indian Point Campaign. Susan Tolchin, chief adviser to Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, said the communication system outage, while not a serious problem, was "not a good thing." Such communications difficulties, Tolchin added, were among the reasons why Spano believes the plants should not receive new licenses. "They would have had to have called everybody on a normal phone line," she said. Reach Glenn Blain at gblain@lohud.comor 914-694-5066. Copyright 2006 The Journal News, a Gannett Co.Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Serviceand Privacy Policy, updated June 7, 2005. USA Today ***************************************************************** 33 NRC: Sunshine Act Meeting FR Doc 06-9535 [Federal Register: December 5, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 233)] [Notices] [Page 70553] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05de06-83] Dates: Weeks of December 4, 11, 18, 25, 2006, January 1, 8, 2007. Place: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. Status: Public and closed. Matters to be Considered: Week of December 4, 2006 Wednesday, December 6, 2006 2:45 p.m. Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1). Thursday, December 7, 2006 9:25 a.m. Affirmation Session (Public Meeting) (Tentative) a. Hydro Resources, Inc. (Crownpoint, NM) Intervenors' Petition for Review of LBP-06-19 (Final Partial Initial Decision--NEPA Issues) (Tentative). 9:30 a.m. Discussion of Management Issues (Closed--Ex. 2). Week of December 11, 2006--Tentative Monday, December 11, 2006 1:30 p.m. Briefing on Status of Decommissioning Activities (Public Meeting) (Contact: Keith McConnell, 301-415-7295). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address, http://www.nrc.gov . Tuesday, December 12, 2006 9:30 a.m. Briefing on Threat Environment Assessment (Closed--Ex. 1). 1:30 p.m. Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1 & 3). Wednesday, December 13, 2006 9:30 a.m. Briefing on Status of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Programs (Public Meeting) (Contact: Barbara Williams, 301-415-7388). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address, http://www.nrc.gov . Thursday, December 14, 2006 9:25 a.m. Affirmation Session (Public Meeting) (Tentative) a. Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC, & Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station), LBP-06-20 (Sept. 22, 2006), reconsid'n denied (Oct. 30, 2006) (Tentative). 9:30 a.m. Meeting with Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) (Public Meeting) (Contact: John Larkins, 301-415-7360). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address, http://www.nrc.gov . Week of December 18, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the Week of December 18, 2006. Week of December 25, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the Week of December 25, 2006. Week of January 1, 2007--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the Week of January 1, 2007. Week of January 8, 2007--Tentative Wednesday, January 10, 2007 9:30 a.m. Briefing on Browns Ferry Unit 1 Restart (Public Meeting) (Contact: Catherine Haney, 301-415-1453). This meeting will be webcast live at the Web address, http://www.nrc.gov . * * * * * * The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to change on short notice. To verify the status of meetings call (recording)--(301) 415-1292. Contact person for more information: Michelle Schroll, (301) 415-1662. * * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the Internet at: http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html. * * * * * The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in these public meetings, or need this meeting notice or the transcript or other information from the public meetings in another format (e.g. braille, large print), please notify the NRC's Disability Program Coordinator, Deborah Chan, at 301-415-7041, TDD: 301-415-2100, or by e-mail at DLC@nrc.gov. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. * * * * * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301-415-1969). In addition, distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic message to dkw@nrc.gov. Dated: November 30, 2006. R. Michelle Schroll, Office of the Secretary. [FR Doc. 06-9535 Filed 11-31-06; 10:04 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 34 JOURNAL NEWS: Nuke relicensing-plan change rejected by NRC By LIZ ANDERSON (Original publication: December 5, 2006) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected an attempt by Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano to broaden the standards it uses to review plants such as Indian Point when they apply for relicensing. The decision comes just weeks after Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the owners of the Buchanan plants, announced it would seek to continue operating them through 2035. The licenses for the existing plants expire in 2013 and 2015; the company plans to formally apply for 20-year license extensions in the spring. "It is just outrageous," said Susan Tolchin, Spano's chief adviser, of the ruling. "Unfortunately it's a typical decision that didn't take into account all of the things we brought to their attention." She said the decision "once again sides with the nuclear industry rather than with concern about public safety, which is what County Executive Spano is most concerned about." Spano, who opposes the plants' relicensing, had sent a petition to the NRC in May 2005 in the hope of making the process more difficult for Entergy, should it go that route. Among other things, he asked the NRC to treat a plant seeking relicensing in the same way it would a new operator seeking to build a plant in that location today, review such issues as local demographics, the physical site, emergency evacuation plans and site security. The NRC, in its ruling, denied both Spano's request and a similar petition from the mayor of Brick Township, N.J., north of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. The agency said the two petitions "raise issues that the commission already considered at length in developing the license renewal rule." "These issues are managed by the ongoing regulatory process or under other regulations, or are issues beyond the commission's regulatory authority," it added. But Tolchin said the demographics had changed. "When these plants were sited here ... this was something that was not meant to be forever and ever. Things change, roads get clogged, cities get built up, population increases, we had Sept. 11. The county executive remains concerned that he cannot safely evacuate people if the plant has a fast-breaking (disaster) scenario." Lisa Rainwater, director of the Indian Point Campaign for the Riverkeeper, called the NRC's decision "ludicrous." Tolchin said Spano's staff planned to hold a "strategy session" today to discuss what to do next. Reach Liz Anderson at ecanders@lohud.comor 914-696-8538. Copyright 2006 The Journal News, a Gannett Co.Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Serviceand Privacy Policy, updated June 7, 2005. USA Today • ***************************************************************** 35 Oshkosh Northwestern: Nuke plant to go on routine oversight Posted December 5, 2006 TWO CREEK — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is returning Point Beach Nuclear Plant to routine agency oversight after three years of heightened scrutiny resulting from issues with the plant's auxiliary feedwater system. The auxiliary feedwater system problems did not affect normal plant operations but could have diminished the plant's ability to mitigate the effects of an accident under certain abnormal circumstances, the NRC said. The system is used to safely cool the reactor if problems occur during operations and to continue removing heat after shutdown. The NRC said plant management has addressed the problems and the plant will return to routine oversight at the end of December. Point Beach is owned by We Energies of Milwaukee and operated by Nuclear Management Co. of Hudson. — Richard Ryman/Press-Gazette Contact us at 920-235-7700. thenorthwestern.com is a website. ***************************************************************** 36 APP.COM: NRC rejects plea for more nuclear-plant scrutiny | Asbury Park Press Online Tuesday, December 5, 2006 BY NICHOLAS CLUNN STAFF WRITER A petition that sought to strengthen the review nuclear power plants must pass to run for more than 40 years was denied by federal regulators, officials announced Monday. Brick Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli filed the petition last year in an attempt to force the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to take a closer look at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey. Oyster Creek would be allowed to run beyond the expiration of its 40-year operating license in 2009 if regulators approve a 20-year renewal. The petition asked regulators considering renewal applications to evaluate a plant's vulnerability to terrorist attack, emergency evacuation plan and other areas not part of the existing process. Whether a plant could manage the degradation of crucial safety equipment and how a facility would impact the environment are the only issues looked at now. Regulators said the petition raised issues "already considered at length when developing the license renewal rule," according to a published denial. Scarpelli, who is opposed to the renewal, said the NRC let down the public. "The petition for rule change was based on issues that the public and public officials were concerned about," he said Monday. "It was really an opportunity for them to address those concerns, and they dropped the ball again." Scarpelli said he had not decided whether he would challenge the denial in court, but had planned to speak with his lawyer today about an appeal. When Scarpelli announced his plans to file the petition in July, he was joined by leaders from the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group and the New Jersey Environmental Federation. The denial also applied to an almost identical petition filed by a county executive in New York who wanted heightened scrutiny at the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which is about 25 miles north of New York City. Nicholas Clunn: (732) 643-4072 or nclunn@app.com [E-mail] Copyright © 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 37 SABC: SA signs nuclear agreement SABCnews.com South African Broadcasting Corporation Copyright © 2000 - 2005 [Mosibudi Mangena, the minister of science and technology] December 05, 2006, 14:45 South Africa signed a five-year international agreement on its current and future nuclear energy priority needs today, the department of science and technology said. The agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) makes South Africa the only African country to finalise its second Country Programme Framework (CPF). The framework replaces a similar agreement for 1999 to 2004. "The CPF is the mutually agreed strategy for matching nuclear technology to priorities identified by South Africa for its sustainable development," said Dr Philemon Mjwara, the science and technology department's director-general. "The department is resolute that nuclear energy should be applied for peaceful uses to benefit South Africa's health, agriculture, water and other resources and sectors." South Africa becomes a state party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991. Shortly afterwards an agreement was signed with the IAEA which allowed periodic on-site inspections and verification to ensure nuclear materials and installations were used for peaceful purposes. - Sapa ***************************************************************** 38 NRC: Energy Northwest, Columbia Generating Station Independent Spent FR Doc E6-20568 [Federal Register: December 5, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 233)] [Notices] [Page 70551-70552] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05de06-81] Fuel Storage Installation Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact Regarding a Proposed Exemption AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher M. Regan, Senior Project Manager, Division of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Telephone: (301) 415-1179; fax number: (301) 415-1179; e-mail: cmr1@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) is considering a request dated September 14, 2006, from Energy Northwest (applicant or Energy Northwest) for an exemption from certain requirements of Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 72 (10 CFR part 72), specifically, 10 CFR 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(2)(i)(A), 72.212(b)(7), and 72.214, pursuant to 10 CFR 72.7, for the Columbia Generating Station (CGS) Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI), located on the CGS site in Benton County, Washington. The CGS ISFSI is an existing facility constructed for interim dry storage of spent nuclear fuel. At the CGS ISFSI, Energy Northwest has stored spent nuclear fuel in fifteen Holtec International HI-STORM 100 storage casks. As set forth in 10 CFR 72.214, the NRC has approved use of the HI-STORM 100 Cask System in Certificate of Compliance (CoC) 1014. The NRC has issued Amendments 1 (effective date July 15, 2002) and 2 (effective date June 7, 2005) to CoC 1014. Energy Northwest loaded the spent nuclear fuel into the HI-STORM 100 storage casks at the CGS ISFSI under Amendment 1. If approved by the NRC, the exemption would apply to all HI-STORM 100 storage casks fabricated and used in accordance with Amendment 1 of CoC 1014 at the CGS ISFSI. The exemption would authorize the applicant to perform analyses consistent with that granted by the NRC in Amendment 2 to CoC 1014 in lieu of certain analyses required by Amendment 1 to CoC 1014, specifically, Appendix B, Section 3.4.3.a., Site Specific Parameters and Analyses (concerning the determination of Holtec HI-STORM 100/ISFSI pad interface coefficient of friction under environmental conditions that may degrade the pad/cask interface, such as those caused by icing). The NRC has prepared an environmental assessment for this proposed action in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR part 51. Based on the environmental assessment, the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate with respect to the proposed action. Environmental Assessment (EA) I. Identification of Proposed Action By letter dated September 14, 2006, Energy Northwest requested an exemption from the requirements of 10 CFR 72.212(a), 72.212(b)(2)(i), 72.212(b)(7) and 72.214, specifically, exemption from complying with Appendix B, Section 3.4.3.a., Site Specific Parameters and Analyses of Amendment 1 to CoC 1014, which requires a determination of the HI-STORM 100/ISFSI pad interface coefficient of friction under environmental conditions that may degrade the pad/cask interface, such as those caused by icing. Approval of the exemption request would allow the applicant to perform an analysis consistent with that granted by the NRC in Amendment 2 to CoC 1014 when evaluating icing conditions between the bottom of the HI-STORM 100 storage casks and the ISFSI pad in lieu of determining the HI-STORM 100/ISFSI interface coefficient of friction. The presence of ice formation at the interface between the bottom of the HI-STORM 100 storage casks and the ISFSI pad can result in the storage system being in an unanalyzed condition. Energy Northwest determined that the HI-STORM 100 storage casks used at the CGS ISFSI were susceptible to the icing phenomena and developed compensatory measures during cold weather conditions to maintain the friction coefficient in accordance with Amendment 1 to CoC 1014. For the NRC to permit Energy Northwest to demonstrate the safe condition of the HI-STORM 100 storage casks at the CGS ISFSI during cold weather conditions by performing analyses consistent with methods approved in Amendment 2 to CoC 1014, the NRC must grant Energy Northwest an exemption from certain general license conditions defined in 10 CFR 72.212 and the list of approved casks in 10 CFR 72.214. The NRC regulation, 10 CFR 72.212(a)(2), states that the general license for the storage of spent nuclear fuel at power reactor sites is limited to storage in casks approved under the provisions in 10 CFR part 72. By exempting Energy Northwest from 10 CFR 72.214, 10 CFR 72.212(a)(2) and certain other regulations in 10 CFR part 72.212 that concern compliance with the applicable CoC, namely, 72.212(b)(2)(i)(A) and 72.212(b)(7), Energy Northwest will be authorized to deviate from CoC 1014 (Amendment 1) Appendix B, Section 3.4.3.a, which requires determination of the HI- STORM 100/ISFSI pad interface coefficient of friction. II. Need for the Proposed Action Fifteen HI-STORM 100 storage casks have been loaded under Amendment 1 of CoC 1014 and are stored at the CGS ISFSI. Energy Northwest is currently performing compensatory measures during cold weather conditions, including monitoring operator walkdowns, de-icing, and clearing of a pathway on the ISFSI for draining, to maintain the friction coefficient in accordance with Amendment 1 to CoC 1014. Elimination of the need to continue implementation of these compensatory measures would reduce worker radiation dose and free operators to be more responsive to other duties. III. Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action The potential environmental impact of using the HI-STORM 100 Cask [[Page 70552]] System was initially analyzed in the environmental assessment for the final rule to add the HI-STORM 100 Cask System to the list of approved spent fuel storage casks in 10 CFR 72.214 (65 FR 25241; May 1, 2000). In addition, the potential environmental impact of Amendment 2 changes to CoC 1014 was analyzed in the environmental assessment for the final rule that amended 10 CFR 72.214 to add Amendment 2 to CoC 1014 (70 FR 32977; June 7, 2005). Both environmental assessments concluded that there would be no significant environmental impacts as a result of the respective actions, and as such, the NRC made a finding of no significant impact. The NRC staff finds that the conclusions set forth in these environmental assessments continue to be valid. The HI-STORM 100 Cask System is designed to mitigate the effects of design basis accidents that could occur during storage. Design basis accidents account for human-induced events and the most severe natural phenomena reported for the site and surrounding area. Postulated accidents analyzed for an ISFSI include tornado winds and tornado generated missiles, design basis earthquake, design basis flood, accidental cask drop, lightning effects, fire, explosions, and other incidents. Considering the specific design requirements for each accident condition, the design of the HI-STORM 100 Cask System, would prevent loss of containment, shielding, and criticality control. Amendment 1 to CoC 1014, Appendix B, Section 3.4.3.a, requires that the Coulomb friction coefficient for the HI-STORM 100/ISFSI pad interface be at least 0.53 under all conditions. Amendment 2 to CoC 1014, Appendix B, Section 3.4.3.a. includes a provision, that for free standing casks, the response of the casks under the site's Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) could be established using the best estimate of the friction coefficient in an appropriate analysis model. The analysis would demonstrate that the DBE would not result in cask tip-over or cause a cask to fall off the pad, or cause an impact between casks, or if an accident were to occur, would demonstrate that the maximum g-load experienced by the stored spent nuclear fuel would be limited to 45 g's. The use of methods described in Section 3.4.3.a of Appendix B, approved by the NRC in Amendment 2 to CoC 1014, in demonstrating the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel during environmental conditions that might degrade the pad/cask interface friction, such as those caused by icing, will not result in any degradation of specific design requirements, namely, containment, shielding or criticality control. Without the loss of either containment, shielding, or criticality control, the risk to public health and safety is not compromised. By permitting the use of methods described in Section 3.4.3.a of Appendix B, approved by the NRC in Amendment 2 to CoC 1014, there will be a reduction in occupational exposure due to the relief from the performance of compensatory measures. Therefore, the NRC staff has determined that acceptable safety margins are maintained and that there are no significant environmental impacts as a result of using the methods described in Section 3.4.3.a of Appendix B, approved by the NRC in Amendment 2 to CoC 1014, to demonstrate safe storage of spent nuclear fuel at the CGS ISFSI. IV. Alternatives to the Proposed Action The staff evaluated the no action alternative, which would be a denial of the exemption request. Denial of the exemption request would result in continued performance of compensatory measures by Energy Northwest, thereby continuing to subject workers to an increased radiation dose than would be the case if the compensatory measures were not conducted. V. Agencies and Persons Consulted On October 27, 2006, Mr. Michael Mills of the State of Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council was contacted about the EA for the proposed action and had no concerns. Finding of No Significant Impact The environmental impacts of the proposed action have been reviewed in accordance with the requirements set forth in 10 CFR part 51. The proposed action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment because the use of the Amendment 2 methodology will reduce worker radiation dose, and further, will not result in any degradation to specific cask design requirements, namely, containment, shielding, or criticality control. As described in the foregoing EA, the Commission finds that the proposed action of granting an exemption from 10 CFR 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(2)(i)(A), 72.212(b)(7), and 72.214, pursuant to 10 CFR 72.7, which will permit Energy Northwest to perform analyses consistent with that granted by the NRC in Amendment 2 to CoC 1014, Appendix B, Section 3.4.3.a at the CGS ISFSI, is not a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment and, therefore, an environmental impact statement is not required. Further Information In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of NRC's ``Rules of Practice,'' final NRC records and documents regarding this proposed action, including the exemption request dated September 14, 2006, are publically available in the records component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). These documents may be inspected at NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), O1F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of November 2006. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Christopher M. Regan, Senior Project Manager, Division of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. [FR Doc. E6-20568 Filed 12-4-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 39 Wall Street Journal: Nuclear Power Revival Could Encounter Hurdles - WSJ.com Tight Uranium Supplies, Scarce Processing Facilities May Hurt Bush Energy Plan By JOHN J. FIALKA December 5, 2006; Page A4 WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's plan for a "renaissance" in nuclear power may be crimped by tightening world-wide supplies of uranium and a lack of enrichment facilities to turn the uranium into fuel for power plants. In a recent setback, an accident in October flooded the world's largest uranium mine, which was set to open in Canada next year. That nudged prices for processed uranium ore, already up more than 800% since 2001, even higher. Meanwhile, enrichment facilities, which turn uranium into fuel for nuclear power plants, have already pledged their services because of growing interest in nuclear fuel by other countries. The result is that the U.S. is relying more than before on Russia, which provides about half the enriched nuclear fuel used in this country. MORE ON URANIUM [[art]] See a map of U.S. uranium milling facilities from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, learn about how uranium is used to make energy from the Australian Uranium Information Center, and read about the nuclear fuel cycle on the Web site of the Federation of American Scientists. Uranium is extracted from mines and processed into a form called "yellowcake." The yellowcake, in turn, is processed at enrichment plants, into fuel for nuclear-power plants. A far more time-consuming process is required to turn yellowcake into fuel for nuclear weapons. Spurred by President Bush, who for years has touted nuclear power as a clean, safe way to generate electricity, the owners of U.S. utilities have made plans for at least 30 new U.S. nuclear power plants. The administration is calling its plan a "renaissance," as it would revive a domestic industry that has been dormant for decades. The most recent time a utility ordered a new nuclear power plant in the U.S. was 1973. Spurring the renaissance isn't just the tax breaks the administration is offering for the first six plants. Some utilities also are looking to nuclear power because of the soaring prices of natural gas and the prospect of controls on fossil-fuel generated power. Possible climate-change legislation wouldn't affect nuclear power, which doesn't generate the same pollutants. However, the "Ad Hoc Utility Group," an industry collective that represents 85% of the utilities involved in producing nuclear power is nervous about securing adequate fuel supplies for nuclear power plants over the next 10 years. The group is lobbying the administration to allow Russia to sell enriched fuel directly to U.S. utilities. That effort is opposed by USEC Inc., the Bethesda, Md., company that acts as the U.S. agent for Russian enriched fuel under a 1993 agreement that requires Russia to supply $12 billion of enriched uranium derived from its nuclear weapons to the U.S. USEC opposes the introduction of more Russian fuel, arguing that it could interfere with its plans to finance and build a new enrichment plant in the U.S. The supply situation with uranium and enrichment facilities will be discussed today at an international gathering of nuclear power experts here. One speaker, Thomas L. Neff, a senior researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says the supply issues mean that "it will take heroic efforts to fuel the expected growth in nuclear power by 2015. Under the most positive assumptions you might just get there. But they may not pan out." Mr. Neff, who has followed the nuclear fuel market for 30 years, blames the tightening uranium supply on a failure to open mines in the U.S. and elsewhere. Between 1987 and 2001, he says, stockpiles of processed uranium were "sold off really cheap." Some hedge funds, he adds, are exacerbating the situation by buying and holding uranium off the market in an effort to reap profits later. The accident at the Canadian mine highlights the supply problem. In October, the ceiling of the nearly completed mine, located in Saskatchewan, collapsed and let in a flood of water. The mine's owner, Cameco Corp., says the mishap will delay completion for as long as three years. The mine could eventually supply 17% of the world's uranium demand, Cameco says. The dwindling supply of uranium enrichment plants began after two U.S. facilities, built after World War II, shut down, leaving power-plant owners more dependent on the Russians. Natural uranium has less than 1% of the unstable isotope U-235, which must be concentrated to a level of 4% to 5% to make fuel for nuclear power plants. The concentration required to make nuclear weapons is closer to 90%. The concentration is done through a complex sifting process called enrichment. [[Chart]] USEC plans to build a $2 billion enrichment facility near Piketon, Ohio, scheduled to open around 2009, but it still must obtain the financing -- a concern for utility-plant owners who need an assured supply of fuel. The plant will use a type of high-speed centrifuges that haven't been commercially proven in the U.S. Currently USEC operates a plant near Paducah, Ky., built in the 1950s. "If anything happens to that, where do you go?" asks Jim Tramuto, a vice president of PG&E Corp., a San Francisco utility, and a leader of the Ad Hoc Utility Group. "You want to have as many suppliers in the market as you can have," adds Mr. Tramuto, noting that most non-Russian suppliers already have promised their supplies of enriched uranium to buyers. The Russians say they could supply more enriched uranium to the U.S., but they are blocked by an agreement with the Commerce Department that restricts their imports to the current levels managed by USEC. While the Russians have some additional near-term capacity, they say they will cut shipments to the U.S. in half after 2013, when the current agreement to use fuel derived from nuclear weapons ends. "We're having our own nuclear renaissance," says Vladimir I. Rybachenkov, a counselor at the Russian embassy in Washington. He notes Russia recently announced plans to increase its use of nuclear power to generate electricity to 25% from 15%, which means it will need more of its uranium and enrichment facilities. Still, Mr. Rybachenkov says, Russia is willing to help the U.S. if the limits on its near-term imports of enriched fuel are lifted. "If nothing happens by 2013, there will be a black hole in deliveries of enriched fuel for the U.S. from Russia," he predicts. Clay Sell, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy and an architect of U.S. plans for more use of nuclear power, admits that there are near-term problems with both uranium and enrichment services, but adds: "We think it can all be managed." His department is circulating a draft plan among U.S. power-plant owners that suggests that more enriched uranium fuel could be provided by "blending down" highly enriched uranium from retired U.S. nuclear warheads and by reprocessing uranium tails, or wastes from the process of enriching uranium for U.S. nuclear weapons. "The higher uranium prices go, the more these tails look like money instead of trash," Mr. Sell says. Getting more fuel from U.S. enrichment wastes, however, might require the Russians to enrich them, another option under discussion. Mr. Sell says the future U.S. supply picture may not be as bleak as the "black hole" described by Mr. Rybachenkov. "You've got to understand that a lot of what they're saying right now has to do with bargaining," he noted. Write to John J. Fialka at john.fialka@wsj.com ***************************************************************** 40 AFP: India nuclear bill to be on president's desk this week - Frist - Tue Dec 5, 5:33 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senate leader Bill Frist assured India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that a major US-India nuclear energy bill is on track for completion this week. "I spoke today by telephone with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding the pending legislation to authorize civil nuclear cooperation between the United States and India," Frist said. "I assured Prime Minister Singh that one of my top priorities for the remainder of this Congress is to enact this legislation, and I told him I am confident that we will be able to complete congressional action on it this week," he said. The Republican senator, in his final week in Congress after choosing not to stand for reelection, praised the groundbreaking US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation bill, separate versions of which were approved in House and Senate. Frist said negotiators from the two houses are at work merging the legislation into one streamlined bill, and expect to be able to send the bill to President George W. Bush" /> President George W. Bushthis week for signing. "The enactment of this legislation will lead to a much more friendly and robust relationship between the United States and India. I told him we share that objective and are working hard to produce legislation that would help our two nations achieve it," Frist said. The Republican leader said that Singh expressed reservations about several provisions in the bills that are problematic for the Indian government because they depart from the understanding he reached with Bush in July 2005. Frist said he assured the Indian leader that his concerns would be dealt with, saying that he has named himself to be one of the negotiators on the bill "in order to be able to participate personally in the process of refining the legislation." Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 41 AFP: US Congress nears final India nuclear bill by P. Parameswaran Tue Dec 5, 12:18 AM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Congress has begun preparing final legislation to give India access to civilian nuclear technology amid concerns that inclusion of sensitive provisions may break the landmark deal. The House of Representatives and Senate this week will reconcile their bills on the nuclear deal into uniform legislation to be put before the two chambers for approval again and signed into law by President George W. Bush" /> President George W. Bush, officials said. "Work will begin immediately with the intention of completing all action by week's end," Bill Frist, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, said Monday as he appointed five senators from both sides of the political divide to work on the single legislation. Indian officials have expressed concern that some of the provisions proposed contradicted the spirit of the original agreement first reached between Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July last year. Under the deal, India, a non-signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), will be given access to civilian nuclear technology in return for placing its atomic reactors under global safeguards. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza Ricewrote last week to leaders of the House and Senate to remove or weaken some of the provisions, including one restricting nuclear technology transferred to India and another seeking New Delhi's support to end Iran" /> Iran's sensitive nuclear program. But seven House Democratic lawmakers "strongly" insisted that the controversial provisions be included in the final legislation. "Why in the world would secretary Rice ask that Congress remove all of the provisions which would strengthen nonproliferation, such as requiring India to help the United States prevent Iran from going nuclear?" asked Edward Markey, co-chair of the House Taskforce on Nonproliferation, among the seven. "It seems as if the administration is trying to remove the fig leaf from this flawed deal," he said. But Joseph Biden, ranking Democrat in the Senate foreign relations committee, urged India not to be overly concerned. "There is nothing material in that legislation that should cause the Indians, other than for political reasons, to have any concern about the ratification," he told the Indian-American newspaper India Abroad. "I would urge my Indian friends to look at how significant the overall support was," he said, referring to the bill's passage in the Senate two weeks ago with an overwhelming bipartisan support of 85 to 12 votes. The bill also sailed through the House 359-68 in July. Even if the single legislation is passed this week, as Congress leaders expect, the US legislature will still have to consider a comprehensive US-India agreement incorporating all technical elements of the deal, including a set of international safeguards that India had to adhere to. The deal also needs the backing of the influential 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. Bush and Singh agreed to the deal when Singh paid a visit to Washington in July. They reaffirmed it during the US leader's visit to New Delhi in March. The agreement was seen as controversial because the US Congress had to create a rare exception for India from some of the requirements of the US Atomic Energy Act, which currently prohibits nuclear sales to non-NPT signatories. In addition, US weapons experts warned that forging such an agreement with non-NPT member India would not only make it harder to enforce rules against nuclear renegades Iran and North Korea" /> North Korea, but also set a dangerous precedent for other countries with nuclear ambitions. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 42 UPI: U.S. strives for tamper-proof nukes United Press International - NewsTrack - 12/5/2006 12:37:00 PM -0500 LIVERMORE, Calif., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A competition is under way between scientists at two U.S. nuclear laboratories to develop safeguards for nuclear weapons in case they are stolen. The groups have been working for three years at Livermore, Calif., and Los Alamos, N.M., on ways for a weapon to disarm itself without exploding or leaking radiation if they are tampered with, The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. The country's 6,000 nuclear warheads all have electronic locks or other safeguards, but the latest initiative involves the self-destruction of the weapon. However, Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington group that has long criticized the Energy Department for lax security, said a nuclear weapon has never been stolen but materials have been. "The real threat is the uranium and plutonium materials that are spread across the country in totally inappropriate places and inadequate facilities," Brian told the Times. "So, rather than fixing the problem they have, they are trying to fix a problem they don't have." © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 43 barrow in furness: Call for apprentices as N-plant starts clean-up 05/12/2006 SELLAFIELD is crying out for more apprentices to offset the number of nuclear craft workers nearing retirement. BNFL scrapped its own on-site training scheme several years ago, saying it was becoming too costly and there was not the same needs across the various trades. But now, with the start of Sellafield’s big clean-up, the site wants more apprentices to help carry out decommissioning in future. British Nuclear Group’s decommissioning specialists, Project Services, says: “The overall age of the nuclear workforce is increasing so it’s critical that the intake of skilled workers at least matches the retirement rate. “With this in mind, all companies in Sellafield’s supply chain should consider the benefits of using local apprenticeship schemes to support West Cumbria’s future economic prosperity.†BIL Solutions, the instrumentation business of Project Services, is backing the drive for local companies to send bright youngsters for workshop-based apprentice training, BIL has been taking on three apprentices a year in partnership with the main local training provider, the Lillyhall-based GenII. But it is looking for other local firms to follow suit. “This is something which seems to have diminished in recent years but now with decommissioning offering more business opportunities at Sellafield there is also a need for more apprentices and that is good news all round,†said a British Nuclear Group spokesman. Alan Blundell, head of BIL Solutions, said: “We are one of only a few companies at present left in Sellafield’s supply chain to embed intensive workshop-based apprenticeship schemes into the future of the business because we recognise the need to continually replenish our skills base. “The good news for BIL and its customers is that competition for places is fierce, so the quality of our intake is very high. “However, the opportunities for local school leavers to secure workshop-based apprenticeships haven’t been what they used to be up until now.†* After dropping its own scheme in 1999, BNFL was one of five West Cumbrian international companies to help set up GenII to train apprentices. ***************************************************************** 44 KVOA News: Tucson ground-zero for nuclear disaster drill 4, Tucson, Arizona - There were fires set, there was airplane debris everywhere, and a group of injured by-standards were on scene. Tucson is a training ground for a national exercise that could one day be put into use to protect our nation. Hundreds gathered at Davis Monthan Air Force Base Monday to find out if our nation is prepared to handle a nuclear disaster. Organizers in Washington D.C. have been planning the nuclear disaster drill for more than a year. Monday at Davis-Monthan, they kick-started the ten day event. It's a national response drill and DM was the only location chosen, nationwide for the full-scale field exercise. There were fires set, there was airplane debris everywhere, and a group of injured by-standards were on scene. It wasn't real life, but it was designed to look as life-like as possible. "We don't exercise the most difficult scenario very often, but when we do, we need to do it right," says Air Force Colonel Kent Laughbaum. What makes this drill so unique, organizers say, is that our local crews are taking part in the national exercise. It's also the hands-on field training. People from the highest levels of leadership in Washington D.C. work with our local crews for the drill. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Valerie Hasberry told us, "This will definitely help. Any time that you're able to proactive with the other agencies that you would be involved in, you can't help but learn other lessons that you can apply real world." It's called "Vigilant Shield" and about 300 military personnel and civilians took part in the exercise. At the simulated crash site, there were fake mannequins, intended to look like bodies. There was also broken glass and nuclear weapons that fell from the plane. In the scenario, four nuclear weapons fall from the airplane during the crash and release radiation. It's something response crews haven't had to deal with in the past, but say they need to be prepared just in case. Sergeant Decio Hopffer with the Tucson Police Department says, "This is why we're here: to practice, should this happen. We know what worked, what didn't work and be able to respond quicker and more efficiently." Twenty-one Tucson Police Officers were assigned to offer support and at least twenty-one firefighters from Tucson Fire took part in the drill. Paul McDonough with the Tucson Fire Department says, "Being able to practice this is critical to our success should an event like this happen." And the training doesn't end there. For the next ten days, the Department of Defense will be here conducting a variety of exercises, both classified and unclassified. .gif"> All content © Copyright 2003 - 2006 WorldNow and KVOA. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 NRC: NRC Releases Plan for Continued “Mission-Essential” Operations During an Avian Flu Pandemic News Release - 2006-14 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 06-147 December 1, 2006 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released its 90-page plan outlining how the agency would maintain mission-essential and supporting functions during a possible flu pandemic that may cause staff absenteeism of 40 percent or more. The plan says the NRC would systematically shed lower priority work and take certain action ahead of time to better support staff during a pandemic, including enhanced telecommunications and stocking of hygiene supplies. The pandemic plan complements the agencys existing Continuity of Operations Plan and reflects considerations provided by the Department of Homeland Security pandemic planning guidelines. This is a plan that we hope we never have to implement, said NRC Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield, who is taking a lead role in the review of the planning effort. But it is prudent to plan ahead and anticipate what actions might be needed and what prioritization of activities must be done in order for the NRC to maintain its essential, core mission of protecting public health and safety. The federal government planning assumptions for the pandemic include absenteeism as high as 40 percent for periods of weeks in the course of a 12- to 18-month period. The nuclear power industry is creating its own business continuity planning and site-specific options, and is discussing its efforts and potential needs with the NRC. Among other items, the plan includes a three-stage implementation process of initiation, execution and reconstitution, and designated lines of succession for agency leadership. Identified pandemic priority functions include incident response, threat assessment and dissemination, external communications, critical licensing activities, enforcement and administrative support. Some routine licensing, exercises and inspections may be deferred, delayed or cancelled depending on the availability of staff. However, the NRC will not allow operational safety or security to be jeopardized regardless of the pandemic situation. The plan will be updated annually with new planning assumptions. The public portion of the pandemic plan will be available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/comm-sec y/2006/2006-0033comscy-attachment2.pdf. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NRC news releases are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site. Last revised Monday, December 04, 2006 ***************************************************************** 46 USATODAY.com: Memo: Administration tried to cut payouts to nuke workers - FEW CLAIMS PAID About one-fourth of compensation cases filed by nuclear weapons workers have been approved. About 60% of those have been paid. Status of claims as of Nov. 28: Total filed: 97,778 Denied: 36,780 Approved: 24,056 Pending: 36,942 Source: Department of Labor Memo: Administration tried to cut payouts to nuke workers Updated 12/5/2006 8:34 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print | By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The Bush administration repeatedly sought ways to limit payouts to nuclear weapons workers sickened by radiation and toxic material, according to a memo written by congressional investigators and obtained by USA TODAY. The investigation focuses on a federal program created in 2000 to compensate people with cancers and other illnesses tied to their work at government and contractor-owned facilities involved in Cold War nuclear weapons production. About 98,000 cases have been filed under the program, and the Labor Department has approved compensation in about 24,000 of those cases. However, program records show that not all of those approved claims have been paid. Since 2002, "there is a continuous stream of (administration) communications & strategizing on minimizing payouts," according to the Nov. 30 memo by staff for the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, border security and claims. The memo, prepared for the panel's chairman, Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., summarizes and quotes from thousands of pages of records reviewed by the subcommittee in its probe. The subcommittee holds a hearing Tuesday on the investigation. Hostettler is pressing ahead despite losing re-election last month, vowing to release key documents and urging Democrats to continue the probe when they take over in 2007. Administration officials say the memos reflect internal brainstorming on how to avoid compensating workers who aren't eligible. "We're not pursuing those ideas," says Shelby Hallmark, the Labor Department's director of workers' compensation programs. "What we've been doing all along is trying to ensure that the program is implemented in a way that is fair and consistent and in accord with the law." Hostettler was not available for comment, but he said at a November hearing that records reviewed in the investigation "do not support" the administration's stance. "This program was supposed to assure workers & (that) their government was finally going to do right by them," he added. "Those tasked with implementing (it) have failed that purpose miserably and they need to be exposed." The program covers workers from about 350 facilities nationwide, as well as uranium miners. Claimants can get up to $150,000; some also can get paid for medical bills, lost wages and disability. In a memo from October 2005, program director Hallmark complains to White House officials that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which reviews some claims, is adopting "extreme exaggerations of (worker exposure) on the grounds that every decision point must be as 'claimant favorable' as conceivably possible." The documents also show officials debating ways to change the balance of a program oversight panel by adding members skeptical of workers' claims. "You've got bureaucrats pressuring the scientists and when they can't get what they want, they try to squeeze the (adjudication) process wherever they can," says Richard Miller, a claimants' advocate with the Government Accountability Project. "These workers are dying with every day that goes by." Posted 12/4/2006 10:21 PM ET USA TODAY.com: Site Map ***************************************************************** 47 RIA Novosti: Russia, Norway to continue cooperation in scrapping nuclear subs 05/ 12/ 2006 MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's atomic energy agency, Rosatom, said Tuesday that a new five-year agreement it has signed with Norway's Foreign Ministry will further cooperation in dismantling Russian nuclear-powered submarines. A Rosatom press release said Norway has pledged technical, technological and financial assistance in scrapping decommissioned submarines and other nuclear vessels of Russia's Northern Fleet, as well as providing safe storage of reactor compartments and spent nuclear fuel. Norway's allocations for related projects will be made in amounts subject to approval by the country's parliament. Rosatom's chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, said last week that Russia has dismantled 145 of its 197 decommissioned Soviet-era nuclear submarines, and that the remaining 50-odd vessels will be scrapped by 2010. The United States, Canada, Britain, Italy, and Japan have also offered Russia their help in safely disposing of its decommissioned nuclear submarines. All want to ensure that proliferation-sensitive components from the dismantled ships are not sold off to third countries, and that their spent fuel, which contains large amounts of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium, is removed and stored without harming the environment or public health. © 2005 RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 48 BBC: 'No extradition' in Russian probe Last Updated: Tuesday, 5 December 2006 [Alexander Litvinenko] Russia will not extradite suspects in the Litvinenko case Russia will not extradite suspects in the poisoning of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko to Britain, the country's prosecutor general has said. Yuri Chaika said any trial of a Russian citizen must take place in Russia. Nine British police officers are currently in Moscow pursuing inquiries into Mr Litvinenko's death. But Mr Chaika told a Moscow news conference that arrests of Russians by British officers would be "impossible" under the Russian constitution. In a further development, the AFP news agency has reported that Mr Litvinenko will be buried on Friday in a Muslim ceremony. The ex-spy's father, Walter, said his son would be buried in a Muslim graveyard in or near London. He added family and Muslim friends would be present. "It will be quite a special funeral, you understand, the coffin will be closed," he told the agency. Diplomatic relations Mr Chaika said there will not be any trade between Britain and Russia of wanted figures over the death of the former KGB agent. I believe there is no need conduct such an investigation in Russia. Why do you think then that it was not Britain that produced it? Yuri Chaika Russian 'is not Third Man' He also dismissed the claim that the highly toxic isotope polonium-210, which is being linked to Mr Litvinenko's death, was produced in Russia. He said British authorities have not asked for help in tracing the source of the radioactive substance. "I believe there is no need to conduct such an investigation in Russia. Why do you think then that it was not Britain that produced it?" he said. British police launched their investigation after Mr Litvinenko, 43, died in a London hospital on 23 November. Tests have been carried out at a number of venues the ex-spy visited in London on November 1 - the day he fell ill. A hotel and an office are the latest central London locations to be tested for signs of the deadly toxin found in the ex-KGB agent's body. A room at the British Embassy in Moscow is also being tested as a precaution. On Monday, officers from the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism command arrived in the Russian capital to pursue their inquiries. Home Secretary John Reid said officers would "follow the evidence" as Russia warned speculation on the death was harming relations with the UK. BBC correspondent James Rogers said Russian authorities have so far co-operated with the British police, but that comments made by Mr Chaika throw into question just how far their co-operation will go. Radiation tests Russian prosecutors have said they intend to question former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi, who met Mr Litvinenko in London on 1 November. Mr Lugovoi has said he was expecting to meet with British police in the coming days. [Andrei Lugovoi] Andrei Lugovoi has denied any involvement in the poisoning He added that he had been undergoing tests in a Russian hospital for possible radiation poisoning. "If they show me a list of people that they want to meet and if there are names missing on that list, names that I believe would be interesting to propose to them, then I certainly will," he told NTV television. Mr Lugovoi is one of three Russian businessmen reported to have met Mr Litvinenko on that date. But one of them, Vyacheslav Sokolenko, has denied he ever had any contact with the former KGB agent. Vyacheslav Sokolenko told BBC Moscow he was in London, but only to watch the football. He says Mr Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun met Mr Litvinenko, but he was not present, adding he never knew the ex-spy. Friends believe Mr Litvinenko was poisoned because of his criticisms of the Russian government, but the Kremlin has dismissed suggestions it was involved in any way as "sheer nonsense". Meanwhile, Mario Scaramella - an Italian contact of Mr Litvinenko's who also met him on the day he fell ill - is still being observed by doctors after testing positive for polonium-210. So far more than 3,000 people in the UK have called the NHS Direct line since the radiation scare, with 179 being followed up for further investigation, the HPA said. ***************************************************************** 49 Salt Lake Tribune: Lawmakers fight Divine Strake bid By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated:12/05/2006 09:44:37 AM MST WASHINGTON - Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Jim Matheson wrote to the Pentagon last month, expressing disappointment with the decision to conduct Divine Strake - a major explosion designed to help develop bunker-buster bombs - in Nevada. The letter was written after meetings with James Tegnelia, director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which proposes detonating enough explosives to produce a blast comparable to a small nuclear bomb. Hatch, R-Utah, and Matheson, D-Utah, have questioned whether the blast could cause dust and dirt irradiated by past nuclear tests at the site to drift into Utah. Despite DTRA assurances it would not, they wrote, “we represent constituents who rightfully doubt government assertions in this area.” “Inaccuracies in previous government predictions regarding radiation exposure, coupled with errors contained in the initial Environmental Assessment, have not resolved our delegation's concerns about the test,” they wrote. Thousands of Utahns, including Matheson's father, the late Gov. Scott Matheson, suffered cancers they believe were caused by exposure to nuclear fallout as a result of Cold War nuclear tests in Nevada, and a group of those Downwinders has sued to stop the test. DTRA looked at other locations for the test, including Dugway Proving Ground in western Utah, but ruled out those options because of costs and delays. DTRA plans to issue a new environmental study shortly and hold public hearings by the end of the month, then make a final site decision in January. The test would use 280 times the same explosive mixture used to destroy the Oklahoma City federal building and the blast would be 50 times larger than the most powerful known conventional weapon. © Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 50 Daily Herald: Utah leaders ask for public meetings to explain 'Divine Strake' JENNIFER TALHELM - The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Utah officials are pressing the federal government to make good on a promise to hold meetings in Utah before settling plans for a non-nuclear explosion to test bunker-buster bombs at the Nevada Test Site. Utah Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said the Defense Threat Reduction Agency promised to explain the explosion, dubbed "Divine Strake," during meetings in northern and southern Utah around mid-December. But while mid-December is fast approaching, Matheson spokeswoman Alyson Heyrend said Monday, DTRA has not scheduled the meetings. DTRA spokeswoman Cheri Abdelnour said the agency still planned public information sessions and that details would be released later. She could not give any more specifics. "There will be an opportunity for the public to be involved in the process," Abdelnour said. To help pressure the agency to move forward with the meetings, Matheson and Hatch on Monday released a letter they sent last month to DTRA Director James Tegnelia after they were briefed on the program. The Utah officials said they wanted to convey their "deep disappointment" that the agency still favored the Nevada site north of Las Vegas for the blast and asked Tegnelia to explain the program to Utahns. The explosion is expected to send a mushroom-shaped dust cloud high over the Nevada desert. Critics fear radioactive material from decades of previous weapons tests will be loosened by the blast and scattered across Nevada and southern Utah. While DTRA officials say radioactive material would not escape the Nevada Test Site, Matheson and Hatch wrote that their constituents "rightfully doubt" it. "Inaccuracies in previous government predictions regarding radiation exposure, coupled with errors contained in the initial environmental assessment, have not resolved our delegation's concerns about the test," Matheson and Hatch wrote. The explosion was first scheduled for June 2 but postponed indefinitely after Western Shoshone tribe members and "downwinders" in Utah and Nevada filed suit and Utah officials questioned its safety. Earlier this fall, a government lawyer told a federal judge that the test won't take place until after Feb. 1. This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D4. Copyright © 2006 Daily Herald and Lee Enterprises ***************************************************************** 51 AFP: Ex-spy investigation moves to Moscow amid tensions by Nick Coleman Tue Dec 5, 6:13 AM ET MOSCOW (AFP) - A British investigation into the radiation poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has moved to Moscow, testing Russian authorities' willingness to cooperate with the probe. A group of British counter-terrorism officers who arrived in Moscow on Monday are "starting work today and they are going to carry on as long as necessary to complete the part of the investigation taking place in Moscow," British embassy spokesman Anjoum Noorani told AFP Tuesday. Noorani declined to say who the investigators would meet, although he did say that there were no plans for them to travel outside Moscow elsewhere in Russia. Russia's prosecutor general, which is coordinating the visit for the Russian side, said earlier it was ready to help in the investigation, which has put strains on the two countries' relationship. The visit promises to be a sensitive one as Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23 after being poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium-210, accused President Vladimir Putin" /> Vladimir Putinof ordering the poisoning in a letter released after his death. Russian newspapers said that the British officers would most of all want to question Andrei Lugovoi, a former Russian secret service officer who heads a private security firm and who together with two colleagues met Litvinenko in London on November 1, the day he fell fatally ill. "The police are interested in why traces of radiation were found on the planes on which Mr Lugovoi flew to London and returned to Moscow and also in rooms in two London hotels where he stayed," said the influential daily Kommersant. Contacted by AFP, a receptionist at the Pershin security company headed by Lugovoi in Moscow declined to give details of his whereabouts. Kommersant predicted that the meeting with Lugovoi might not take place as he and his family had returned to hospital for a second round of medical checks -- after he was discharged from hospital last Friday and declared himself "absolutely clean". The British investigators were also unlikely to meet former intelligence agent Mikhail Trepashkin, who has reportedly asked to meet them but is serving a jail term in the Ural mountains town of Nizhny Tagil for revealing state secrets. He is said to be gravely ill. A spokesman for the prisons department told AFP that "no state" in the world would allow such a meeting given Trepashkin's crime. "The British investigators risk returning to London empty-handed," Kommersant commented. Russia has voiced irritation at repeated statements by British officials stressing the need for Moscow's cooperation. However Noorani on Tuesday was positive about that cooperation. "So far the Russian authorities have said through people like Putin that they're ready to cooperate... We very much rely on that cooperation and so far we've been receiving good levels of cooperation," Noorani said. The mass circulation daily Izvestia meanwhile said that Lugovoi had in fact met with Litvinenko four times between mid-October and November 1 and had at least once met the exiled businessman and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, who had close ties to Litvinenko. The paper repeated allegations that Litvinenko had been involved in trading in radioactive materials and may have been involved with Chechen militants trying to create a "dirty bomb". Given Litvinenko and Berezovsky's links with Chechen envoy Akhmed Zakayev, "one can't exclude that the bomb was being created in Britain," Izvestia said. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the spy case was "of course harming our relations" and that it was "unacceptable that a campaign should be whipped up with the participation of officials". Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov played down Litvinenko's significance to Russian authorities in an interview published Tuesday in the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia. Speculation "that Litvinenko was a distinguished agent who knew a lot do not correspond to reality at all," Ivanov said. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 52 UPI: Analysis: Litvinenko affair widens United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 12/5/2006 11:06:00 AM -0500 By STEFAN NICOLA UPI Germany Correspondent BERLIN, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- The mysterious radioactive poisoning of a former Russian spy continues to strain European Union-Russia relations with almost daily revelations, prompting EU interior security ministers to put the case on top of their agenda at Monday's summit in Brussels. British Interior Minister John Reid told Sky News that British health and security officials had already started to "liaise" with their European colleagues at the summit, after the radioactive poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former agent in the Russian FSB service, the successor to the KGB, sparked massive security and health concerns in Europe. Litvinenko died Nov. 23 after he succumbed to a large dose of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 that unidentified individuals had managed to put in his body. Traces of the radioactive isotope were found in several places all over London, and in passenger planes traveling to Russia and mainland Europe, moving hundreds of people to come forward for radioactive testing. Aside from the health hysteria, EU-Russian relations have been significantly strained as accusations target the top of the Kremlin. Litvinenko before his poisoning was investigating the killing of fellow dissident Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist assassinated in October. Contacts of Litvinenko said he had also accumulated material that was poised to embarrass the Kremlin in the Yukos affair, the forced split-up of one of Russia's most profitable energy companies. From his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of his murder. "You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life," said a statement by Litvinenko, read out by fellow dissident and friend Alex Goldfarb a day after the former FSB agent's death. "May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people." The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the affair, vowing to cooperate with investigators from Scotland Yard, who Tuesday began work in Moscow. A team of Federal Bureau of Investigation experts in weapons of mass destruction has also been asked to assist Scotland Yard in the case. European leaders this year have been worried by a backsliding democracy in Russia; observers say the country is slowly but steadily reassuming its Cold War image of an isolated and authoritarian power. It didn't help Russia's image when it surfaced Tuesday that Scotland Yard wasn't allowed to question imprisoned former spy Mikhail Trepashkin, who claims Russia created a spy division tasked with killing Kremlin critics such as Litvinenko. Russian officials said no one locked away for divulging state secrets would be allowed to talk to a foreign intelligence service. "Russia must show transparent cooperation" French President Jacques Chirac said Tuesday in western Germany at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Merkel added it was "unsettling" that a "multiplicity of cases" had surfaced in recent weeks. The latest high-profile murder happened Monday, when unknown individuals with automatic weapons gunned down Alexander Samoilenko, the head of a Russian gas firm. Some observers say the hit on Samoilenko is part of a series of economically motivated target killings aimed at redistribution of wealth ahead of next year's Russian parliamentary elections. "It's a disaster for Russia's economy that officials from the banking and economic circles are increasingly targeted recently, but these contractor murders have nothing to do with the Litvinenko case," Alexander Rahr, a leading Russia expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin-based think tank, Tuesday told United Press International via telephone from New York. He added that there were three main theories of who was responsible for Litvinenko's death, the first being that Putin wanted to silence one of his most outspoken critics; the second that conservative forces in Russia wanted to hurt Russia's relations with the West so that Putin would be forced to call back elections and establish a dictatorial regime; the third being that Russian exile oligarchs wanted to destabilize the Kremlin in a way that would allow them to return back home and reclaim their lost wealth. That third theory would include in the range of suspects Boris Berezovsky, the exiled oligarch, in whose house police found traces of the radioactive isotope. Rahr said all three theories had to be pursued, but called the first one "unrealistic." "Putin has come out as the big loser of these murders," Rahr told UPI. "If it was indeed the Russian FSB, why would they transport the polonium in a passenger plane and not in a diplomat's suitcase on board of a Russian Aeroflot cargo plane? Why would they leave so many trails?" While it could be that Putin didn't have control over the entire FSB, Rahr said one of the other two theories appeared more likely to him. "The killings are like terrorist attacks aimed at destabilizing the power structure in Russia," he said. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 53 UPI: Kremlin suspected in poisoning plot United Press International - NewsTrack - 12/5/2006 10:57:00 AM -0500 LONDON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- British intelligence agencies say the radioactive poisoning of a former KGB agent in London bears the hallmarks of Russia's FSB security service. A wide-ranging British investigation is under way into the Nov. 23 death of former spy and defector Alexander Litvinenko, who ingested the rare nuclear isotope, polonium-210. "We know how the FSB operates abroad and, based on the circumstances behind the death of Mr. Litvinenko, the FSB has to be the prime suspect," a source told The Times of London. Another senior police source told The Times the method used to kill the 43-year-old dissident was intended to send a message to his friends and allies who are critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "The sheer organization involved could only have been managed by professionals adept at operating internationally," the source said. Britain's MI5 domestic and MI6 international intelligence agencies are working with Scotland Yard, which has nine officers in Moscow interviewing those known to have dealings with Litvinenko, the report said. Meanwhile, the Itar-Tass news agency reported Litvinenko's body had been turned over to his family in Britain Tuesday to make funeral arrangements. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 54 Guardian Unlimited: Radiation test at embassy in Moscow | UK Latest | [UP] Press Association Tuesday December 5, 2006 7:58 AM A team of experts from Britain investigating the death of former spy Alexander Litvinenko are due to begin to carry out "precautionary tests" for radiation at the British Embassy in Moscow. The tests will be carried out in one room of the embassy by a team of experts who have travelled to the Russian capital from Britain, the Foreign Office said. Amid growing diplomatic tension over the continued furore, a spokesman stressed the tests were just being undertaken as a precaution and the experts "did not expect to find anything". He said: "Precautionary tests are taking place in one room in the British Embassy in Moscow. They are just precautionary tests and they do not expect to find anything." The team of experts arrived in the city yesterday but the spokesman could not say when the tests would be completed. Nine Scotland Yard detectives have also flown to Russia to investigate the death of the former secret agent, who died on November 23 after allegedly being poisoned with the radioactive isotope Polonium-210. The officers plan to interview several potential witnesses in Russia, including those who met the 43-year-old on the day he was allegedly poisoned. A local Russian police force is likely to escort the British detectives during their trip, which could last several days or even weeks. Their arrival in Russia comes at a crucial period, not only for the police investigation but also for Anglo-Russian political relations. Mr Litvinenko pointed the finger of blame for his poisoning at Russia's President Putin in a statement released after his death, but the Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement. © Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 55 Philadelphia Inquirer: Radioactive pile is focus of meetings 12/05/2006 | The NRC will take questions on dealing with the waste in Newfield. By Sam Wood Inquirer Staff Writer The Nuclear Regulatory Commission tonight will host the first of two meetings to decide the fate of a mountain of low-level radioactive waste in Gloucester County. Shieldalloy Inc. is closing its metals factory in the tiny town of Newfield and wants to bury 50,000 tons of radioactive slag - a byproduct of its former smelting operations. The company plans to fence the site and secure the slag pile until the year 3010. Local residents don't like the plan. "We don't want a 30-foot mountain on seven acres covering the borough for the next 1,000 years," said Newfield Mayor Rick Westergaard yesterday. "We want the site cleaned up." NRC approval of Shieldalloy's plan would make the borough New Jersey's first radioactive dump. The NRC, which regulates radioactive waste, will spend the next two years reviewing Shieldalloy's plan and then issue a decision, said spokeswoman Diane Screnci. Tonight's meeting, at 7 at the Edgarton Memorial Elementary School, less than a quarter-mile from the slag heap, will feature NRC officials describing the commission's review of Shieldalloy's proposal. The public is invited. The federal officials also will answer questions. A second NRC meeting, scheduled for Dec. 12, will allow the public to comment on the environmental effect of Shieldalloy's plan. "I'm hoping it will give us a chance to present a case to the NRC and convince them to move it out of here," Westergaard said. Shieldalloy's property is already a federal Superfund site for groundwater contamination. New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection says the slag pile is leaching radioactive material into groundwater. Burying the slag, fencing it and monitoring it for 1,000 years would cost about $5 million, according to Shieldalloy. Moving the pile would cost about $35 million, according to one proposal. Shieldalloy representatives said in the past that removing the slag could bankrupt the company, forcing taxpayers to pay for whatever happens to the heap. Shieldalloy's new spokesman, Pete McDonough, said the company would follow the NRC's procedures and recommendations. "If something needs to be changed, Shieldalloy would have to do whatever the regulator wants," McDonough said. The company's plan faces fierce opposition from the state's political leaders. Gov. Corzine and U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank R. Lautenberg have voiced objections. Yesterday, three local legislators shot off a letter to the head of the NRC demanding the agency consider alternatives to on-site burial. In their letter, State Sen. Fred Madden (D., Gloucester) and Assemblymen Dave Mayer (D., Camden) and Paul Moriarity (D., Gloucester) write that leaving the radioactive material on the site "poses serious environmental, health and financial problems for the borough of Newfield." "They dumped it here," Mayer said. "They created this mess and they made a profit on it. Now they're dumping it on the residents of Newfield." Contact staff writer Sam Wood at 856-779-3838 or at . The Inquirer ***************************************************************** 56 AP Wire: Operations begin at SRS tritium extraction facility 12/05/2006 | Associated Press AIKEN, S.C. - A facility that will help restore the nation's ability to produce a key nuclear weapons component has opened at the Savannah River Site, officials said. Operations began Monday at the $506 million facility, where tritium - the radioactive form of hydrogen gas - will be extracted from commercial nuclear fuel rods. The tritium is then shipped to the Department of Defense, where it is put into weapons. Production of tritium at the former nuclear weapons complex near Aiken stopped in 1988. Fuel rods for the extraction will come from a Tennessee Valley Authority reactor. "The National Nuclear Security Administration will be able to satisfy the nation's tritium needs indefinitely," said Thomas D'Agostino, the agency's deputy director of defense programs. Westinghouse Savannah River Co., which oversees daily operations at the site near the Georgia state line, was penalized by the Department of Energy in 2003 for cost overruns and delays. Construction on the new facility, which employs about 100 people, was completed in January 2005, nearly a year ahead of schedule, officials said. ***************************************************************** 57 AU ABC: Govt calls for states to dump uranium mining bans ABC Western Queensland Tuesday, 5 December 2006. 11:18 (AEDT)Tuesday, 5 December 2006. Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane is calling on the states to remove bans on uranium exploration and mining. Mr Macfarlane says there are 13 projects in three jurisdictions that will not go ahead if the state governments do not remove the bans. Applications for uranium mines in the Northern Territory are decided by the Federal Government and are overseen by the Territory Government. Mr Macfarlane says there is an opportunity for the NT Government to take control of the approvals process if it has a practical approach to uranium mining. "Then the Commonwealth Government would be more than happy to pass the oversight of that back to the Territory Government," he said. "But while ever they have a philosophical approach to uranium mining, then they're basically foregoing their rights to approvals." Mr Macfarlane says the Territory should not get tied down by Federal Labor's stance on uranium mining. "The Territory Government currently opposes approvals to new mines for uranium, yet they have an existing uranium mine and they also allow exports out of the Northern Territory as well as exploration for uranium," he said. "That just doesn't make sense to anyone. "If the Territory Government was fair dinkum then they would allow the approval process to be handled by the Territory Government." Meanwhile, the federal Member for Kennedy in northern Queensland, Bob Katter, has welcomed a parliamentary committee report supporting the establishment of uranium mines in his electorate. The seat of Kennedy has about 25 uranium deposits and Mr Katter says mining them would create about 400 jobs. "The committee weighed the evidence put before them and clearly it is ridiculous to restrict uranium mining," he said. "Now also the committee said that there was no justification or cause or reason to proceed with nuclear power - so it was a very fair outcome." ***************************************************************** 58 Courier Post: Hearing on slag is tonight Tuesday, December 5, 2006 By MEG HUELSMAN Gannett New Jersey NEWFIELD Residents will have the chance this month to hear about and comment on a plan to cap a 30-foot pile of low-grade radioactive rock at Shieldalloy Metallurgical Corp. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold public meetings tonight and Dec. 12. Tonight's session will provide an overview of the review process of the proposal to cap the slag pile for 1,000 years. The second meeting will outline details of the NRC's environmental review of the plan, and residents will have the chance to comment on the possible environmental effects of the proposal. Shieldalloy conducted smelting and alloy production on its six-acre site between 1940 and 2001. One of the materials used by the company contained uranium and thorium, which are substances governed by the NRC, officials said. Most of the radioactive material remaining at the site consists of slag generated during production operations and refined dust, the NRC said. The site was designated a national priority cleanup project, or Superfund site, in 1983. Shieldalloy has worked for years to get permission to cap the pile with a seal, an option that is far cheaper from hauling the slag to another site. Residents and politicians, however, have questioned whether that option is safe. They expressed interest in a plan to have the radioactive rock transported to a disposal facility in Utah. The NRC is not responsible for choosing a plan for the site. Rather it must decide whether the submitted proposal to cap the slag is safe. Copyright 2006 CourierPostOnline.com. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 59 NRC: Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste; Meeting on Planning and FR Doc E6-20515 [Federal Register: December 5, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 233)] [Notices] [Page 70552-70553] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05de06-82] Procedures; Notice of Meeting The Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) will hold a Planning and Procedures meeting on December 12, 2006, Room T-2B1, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The entire meeting will be open to public attendance, with the exception of a portion that may be closed pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552b (c) (2) and (6) to discuss organizational and personnel matters that relate solely to internal personnel rules and practices of ACNW, and information the release of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Tuesday, December 12, 2006--8:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m. The Committee will discuss proposed ACNW activities and related matters. [[Page 70553]] The purpose of this meeting is to gather information, analyze relevant issues and facts, and formulate proposed positions and actions, as appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee. Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, Mr. Antonio F. Dias (Telephone: 301/415-6805) between 8:15 a.m. and 5 p.m. (ET) five days prior to the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Electronic recordings will be permitted only during those portions of the meeting that are open to the public. Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by contacting the Designated Federal Official between 8:15 a.m. and 5 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged to contact the above named individual at least two working days prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes in the agenda. Dated: November 28, 2006. Michael R. Snodderly, Branch Chief, ACRS/ACNW. [FR Doc. E6-20515 Filed 12-4-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 60 icWales: Firm's breakthrough in radioactive waste Dec 5 2006 Tryst Williams, Western Mail A CARDIFF-BASED science company has developed a new way of recycling some of its radioactive waste. GE Healthcare, in Whitchurch, has announced that its Project Paragon initiative has successfully developed a process to recycle its main radioactive waste tritium - a radioactive form of hydrogen. But hopes that the project could develop a recycling process for liquid and gaseous carbon-14 wastes, have been less successful. The company said that it would be technically impractical but it will continue to store radioactive liquid carbon-14 wastes until an alternative process or an off-site disposal route is developed. icWales is a trade mark of Western Mail & Echo Limited. ***************************************************************** 61 The State: SRS plant to extract tritium for nuclear weapons 12/05/2006 AIKEN The Savannah River Site has cranked up a new $506 million plant that will produce a key component of nuclear weapons for the first time in 18 years. The new plant, which employs about 100 people, will extract tritium from commercial nuclear fuel rods. The tritium would be available for use in atomic weapons. SRS once produced tritium, but the 310-square-mile weapons complex quit doing so in 1988 as the Cold War ended. Now, fuel rods for the tritium extraction plant will come from a Tennessee Valley Authority reactor. We now have the capability to produce tritium and continue to meet our future stockpile needs, said Thomas DAgostino, deputy director of defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy. ROCK HILL • Man with knife threatens woman in dorm room A woman says a man with a knife came into her Winthrop University dorm room and put his hand over her mouth before running away after she struggled, campus police say. The incident is similar to several others reported in the neighborhood around campus during the past six months, police said. The student said she was asleep around 4 a.m. Sunday when the man entered her unlocked room and put his hand over her mouth, saying he had a knife, Winthrop Police Chief Frank Zebedis wrote in a campus-wide e-mail. The student struggled with the intruder, who ran away, Zebedis wrote. In at least four other incidents, a man with a similar description has entered an unlocked home near campus late at night, only to be chased away when the person inside wakes up, Rock Hill Police Lt. Jerry Waldrop said. BEAUFORT • Navy mechanic dies in accidental shooting A 22-year-old Navy mechanic died over the weekend in an apparent accidental shooting at the residence of a Parris Island Marine, military officials said. Airman Michael T. Boswell of Chattaroy, Wash., was assigned to Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 31 at the Marine Crops Air Station Beaufort, according to a Marine Corps statement. Boswell died Saturday evening at the home of an unidentified Marine assigned to the weapons and field training battalion at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. CHARLESTON • City drops charges against parking party The city of Charleston will not prosecute a group who recently fed a parking meter in the historic district, set up a table and then ate pizza and drank nonalcoholic beer. The organizer of the party, Vince Graham, was ticketed for obstructing public ways, and had hoped a subsequent trial would lead to more outdoor dining in the city. He had a court date last week but was told the city would not pursue the charge. Graham and others plan to meet with Mayor Joe Riley next month to talk about ways of making the city more friendly for pedestrians. Contributing: Staff writer Sammy Fretwell and The Associated Press ***************************************************************** 62 Aiken Today: SRS restarts tritium work + AikenStandard.com Tue, Dec 5, 2006 By PHILIP LORD Senior writer The official start of radioactive operations at a new facility at the Savannah River Site has restored America's ability to replenish tritium supplies in its nuclear arsenal. The operation of the Tritium Extraction Facility means America can restore supplies of the radioactive form of hydrogen gas in its weapons for the first time in 18 years, the National Nuclear Security Administration said. TEF, as the facility is called, extracts tritium from rods irradiated in the reactors of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The tritium, which has a half-life of 12.3 years, can then be used to beef up America's existing weapons. "This is a great achievement for NNSA, the Savannah River Site and for the safety, security and reliability of our nuclear stockpile," said Thomas D'Agostino, NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs. "With the start of operations in this facility, all the elements of a tritium production enterprise are now in place." The NNSA said many of the weapons currently in America's nuclear arsenal were created during the Cold War and are in need of tritium refurbishing. The $506 million TEF, which is located in the H Area of SRS, was built after a $142 million upgrade of an existing SRS facility, called the Tritium Modernization and Consolidation Project. This upgrade allowed for the shutdown and deactivation of SRS' original tritium facilities, which operated for almost a half century. "With the launch of this facility, coupled with the tritium modernization project at SRS, we now have the capability to produce tritium and continue to meet our future stockpile needs. NNSA will be able to satisfy the nation's tritium needs indefinitely," said D'Agostino. Jim Giusti, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy at SRS, said the TEF facility employs about 100 workers. Construction of the facility, which is a "mini canyon," started in 2000 and was completed in 2005, Giusti said. TEF took so long to build because of the radiation that is released when tritium from the rods irradiated by the TVA is released. As a result, the TEF facility has walls that are about 6 feet thick and are made of concrete. Contact Philip Lord at plord@aikenstandard.com © 2005 The AikenStandard. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 63 DOE: U.S. DOE Awards Contract for Management and Operation of Ames Laboratory to Iowa State University December 4, 2006 WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a new $150 million, five-year contract for management and operation of Ames Laboratory to Iowa State University (ISU). Under the new agreement, ISU has committed to: + Restructuring and clarifying management roles and responsibilities to focus attention on DOEs priority goals in this contract; + Increasing the external and internal scientific communitys representation in the laboratorys governance to increase the potential for innovation; + Reinvesting up to 50 percent of its earned performance fee into the Ames Laboratory Directors discretionary fund; and + Providing other resources to the laboratory, specifically software and equipment upgrades, and providing for joint appointments for selected faculty members. DOE issued a Request for Proposals on June 29, 2006, seeking a contractor to manage and operate the Ames Laboratory. The new award term contract contains a number of innovative provisions intended to provide incentives for superior performance. The department may recognize superior performance through phased extensions of the contract for up to a total of 20 years, if the contractor meets specific performance levels established by DOE. The initial contract term will be January 1, 2007, to December 31 , 2011. During the initial five-year term of the contract and the first five years of any award term extensions, ISU could earn an annual fee of up to $835,000 for superior performance. The amount of the available potential fee would be negotiated for additional extensions up to the maximum possible 20 years. At the forefront of current materials research, high-performance computing, and environmental science and management efforts, Ames Laboratory seeks solutions to energy-related problems through the exploration of physics, chemistry, engineering, applied mathematics and materials sciences. Media contact(s): Brian Quirke, (630) 252-2423 Jeff Sherwood, (202) 586-4826 [ ] U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 64 DOE: New High-Efficiency Window Prototype Result of DOE Partnership December 4, 2006 WASHINGTON, DC  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced a next-generation residential and commercial window prototype. When widely implemented in the marketplace, the high-performance features of the prototype could save billions of dollars annually in energy costs. The new technologically advanced window concept is the result of collaboration between DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and SAGE Electrochromics, Inc. (Faribault, Minnesota). DOE is investing in research to develop and commercialize the products of tomorrow, such as this next generation of window, so that by 2020 we can build homes that are zero net energy, DOE Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Andy Karsner said. This prototype incorporates dynamic electrochromic glass (SageGlass®) that can be electrically controlled to change from clear to dark. The prototype also includes other technology innovations, such as low emissivity (Low E) glass coatings, an unsealed internal plastic triple pane, krypton gas and an insulating frame. This is the first time that all of these technologies have been optimized in an integrated fashion. Continued research and development (R&D) ower the cost of advanced energy-saving glass and will allow todays prototypes to be incorporated into affordable, mass produced products from many window suppliers. Consumers can currently purchase dual pane dynamic windows from SAGE Electrochromics. DOEs long-term window development goal is to produce windows that are as energy efficient as todays walls. By incorporating advanced technologies, windows can actually become a net-energy provider for homes. Advances in window technology will also ensure that their solar heat gain is very low in summer, which could potentially mitigate electricity demand. The window R&D program has a record of successfully partnering with industry to bring new technology to the marketplace. Thirty years ago, DOE invested approximately $4 million in a series of R&D projects coordinated by DOEs LBNL. The resulting Low E glass coatings, which reflect near- and long-wave radiation, have saved the nation more than $8 billion in energy costs. Today, over 50 percent of windows sold have Low E glass, saving millions in energy costs. Consumers in the market for windows should look for those carrying the ENERGY STAR® label. Media contact(s): Chris Kielich, (202) 586-5806 [ ] U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 65 DOE: New World Record Achieved in Solar Cell Technology December 5, 2006 New Solar Cell Breaks the 40 Percent Efficient Sunlight-to-Electricity Barrier WASHINGTON, DC  U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner today announced that with DOE funding, a concentrator solar cell produced by Boeing-Spectrolab has recently achieved a world-record conversion efficiency of 40.7 percent, establishing a new milestone in sunlight-to-electricity performance. This breakthrough may lead to systems with an installation cost of only $3 per watt, producing electricity at a cost of 8-10 cents per kilowatt/hour, making solar electricity a more cost-competitive and integral part of our nations energy mix. Reaching this milestone heralds a great achievement for the Department of Energy and for solar energy engineering worldwide, Assistant Secretary Karsner said. We are eager to see this accomplishment translate into the marketplace as soon as possible, which has the potential to help reduce our nations reliance on imported oil and increase our energy security. Attaining a 40 percent efficient concentrating solar cell means having another technology pathway for producing cost-effective solar electricity. Almost all of todays solar cell modules do not concentrate sunlight but use only what the sun produces naturally, what researchers call one sun insolation, which achieves an efficiency of 12 to 18 percent. However, by using an optical concentrator, sunlight intensity can be increased, squeezing more electricity out of a single solar cell. The 40.7 percent cell was developed using a unique structure called a multi-junction solar cell. This type of cell achieves a higher efficiency by capturing more of the solar spectrum. In a multi-junction cell, individual cells are made of layers, where each layer captures part of the sunlight passing through the cell. This allows the cell to get more energy from the suns light. For the past two decades researchers have tried to break the 40 percent efficient barrier on solar cell devices. In the early 1980s, DOE began researching what are known as multi-junction gallium arsenide-based solar cell devices, multi-layered solar cells which converted about 16 percent of the suns available energy into electricity. In 1994, DOEs National Renewable Energy laboratory broke the 30 percent barrier, which attracted interest from the space industry. Most satellites today use these multi-junction cells. Reaching 40 percent efficiency helps further President Bushs Solar America Initiative (SAI) goals, which aims to win nationwide acceptance of clean solar energy technologies by 2015. By then, it is intended that America will have enough solar energy systems installed to provide power to one to two million homes, at a cost of 5 to 10 cents per kilowatt/hour. The SAI is also key component of President Bushs Advanced Energy Initiative, which provides a 22 percent increase in research and development funding at DOE and seeks to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil by changing the way we power our cars, homes and businesses. For more information, visit the Solar America Initiative website at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar/solar_america/. Media contact(s): Chris Kielich, (202) 586-5806 [ ] U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 66 SF New Mexican: LANL scientists to talk bird flu Tue Dec 5, 2006 5:26 pm By ANDY LENDERMAN | The New Mexican Santa Fe lecture will be 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at SFCC People can protect themselves from bird flu, or an avian influenza pandemic, and scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory want to help. A global outbreak has yet to occur, but there are many things to learn about the potential catastrophe, including its background, current status, biology and government policy, according to lab officials. Lab scientists are hitting the road this month for a series of free public lectures in Taos, Los Alamos, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The first "Frontiers in Science" lecture is 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Taos Convention Center. "What we're going to provide is a scientific understanding for the public so they can interpret the information that's being provided," microbiologist Gary Resnick said. Health officials around the world are currently watching the avian influenza virus H5N1, which is commonly called bird flu. The general concern is the virus could someday mutate and spread quickly from human to human, starting a massive outbreak called a pandemic. Government officials, including the New Mexico Department of Health, have worked on emergency plans in case the disease ever overwhelms the government's ability to handle it. For example, a massive outbreak could impact the number of police, firefighters and hospital beds available to help New Mexicans who get sick. As much as 30 percent of the population could become ill in New Mexico, according to one state report. "We're starting to understand that these very robust social systems -- you can't depend on them during a major catastrophe," Resnick said. Instead, communities and individuals may have to depend on themselves. "This is very much in line with the growing understanding that one can't depend on the federal cavalry to ride in and make everything well," Resnick said, speaking of large-scale disasters. The lab has been heavily involved in avian influenza work. Researchers have used supercomputers to model how a bird flu pandemic could sweep the country and infect as much as 54 percent of the country. And lab researchers continue to work on The Influenza Sequence Database, an effort to help scientists study how the virus evolves. After the Taos lecture, the others are scheduled for: _ 7 p.m. Monday in Duane W. Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School. _ 7 p.m. Dec. 13, at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 2401 12th St. NW, Albuquerque. _ 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Ave. Terms of Use | ©2006, Santa Fe New Mexican ***************************************************************** 67 Hanford News: Vegetation may aid Hanford cleanup This story was published Sunday, December 3rd, 2006 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer The leafy, light green coyote willow that grows along the Columbia River may play a role in cleaning up radioactive contamination seeping into the water at the Hanford nuclear reservation. There's been increased interest in recent years in using nature as much as possible in environmental cleanup, said Tyler Gilmore, technical group manager for field hydrology and chemistry at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. The lab is working on the first planned use of plants at the nuclear reservation to clean up contamination left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. Much of the contamination near the ground surface at Hanford is being excavated. But that's impractical near the river where digging would erode the river bank. Instead, scientists want to see if it's practical to use willow roots to collect contamination. The willows then would be harvested, dried and the contamination disposed of with other radioactive waste at a lined Hanford landfill. "It's one of the most cost-effective remediation technologies that Hanford can benefit from," said Dib Goswami, lead program hydrogeologist for the Washington State Department of Ecology's regulation of Hanford. "If successful, it will protect the Columbia River." An independent panel picked the technology as one of nine projects to research with a $10 million congressional appropriation to find new technologies for cleaning up and protecting ground water at Hanford that moves toward the Columbia River. It looked for technologies that had been successful elsewhere and that showed a high probability of working at Hanford. Phytoremediation, or the direct use of plants and their associated micro-organisms to reduce contamination, has been tested at about 200 sites in the United States and abroad, Goswami said. The technique is most commonly used to clean up nonradioactive contaminants such as lead, but there's also been limited use of phytoremediation to clean up radioactive contamination. At the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Ukraine, sunflowers have been planted and harvested to remove cesium 137 and strontium 90 from surface water, Goswami said. At Hanford, there also is some evidence that native plants can absorb radioactive contaminants. It's along the river shore near N Reactor that Pacific Northwest National Laboratory plans to test using coyote willow to suck up strontium 90. When the reactor was operating to produce plutonium and electricity, water used to cool the reactor and in pools holding irradiated fuel was discharged 800 feet from the river. Enough water was poured into the ground to raise the underground water table, leaving soil above today's water table contaminated with strontium 90. Fluor Hanford has begun work to inject a chemical barrier into the ground that will bind the contamination in place before contaminated ground water in a plume about three-fifths of a square mile reaches the river. A calcium phosphate mineral will bind the strontium in place while its radioactivity decays. A test of a second barrier closer to the ground also is planned, using some of the $10 million congressional appropriation. While the barriers should stop large amounts of contaminated water from reaching the river, neither will address the contamination that's in the soil near the river at the surface. It poses a risk during times when the river level is high. That's where willows will be tested to see if they are effective in cleaning up the soil. Coyote willow was picked for testing because it is a native plant, and, also unlike poplar trees and other plants more commonly used for phytoremediation, it should survive the seasonal flooding along the river bank. "They grow fast and they produce a lot of mass," said scientist Cal Ainsworth, PNNL's principal investigator on the project. Research done so far shows that the willow roots that fan out in a network in the soil will take up strontium, which is similar in size to calcium. It needs the calcium to survive, but does not discriminate between the two. The question researchers need to answer is whether the willows can grow in lush enough stands to remove enough strontium 90 from the soil and ground water to be useful. Ainsworth figures the willows will need to produce 11 tons of leaves and stems per year in a 2.5-acre area to efficiently remove strontium 90. That will require fertilization, likely with a spray on the leaves or spikes stuck in the soil, said John Fruchter, a PNNL scientist. PNNL is planning a field test in an uncontaminated area in north Hanford to see how much biomass the willow can produce. Plans call for harvesting it twice a year, just as would be done if research proceeds to testing at the contaminated area near N Reactor. A decision on whether to proceed with full-scale use of coyote willow would be made in spring 2008. © 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 68 Hanford News: Gregoire open to GNEP information This story was published Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 By Chris Mulick, Herald Olympia bureau OLYMPIA - Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday that she's willing to hear more about any proposal to recycle spent nuclear fuel at Hanford but has concerns about importing new waste for a mission that could compete for federal environmental cleanup dollars for the site. Last week the federal government announced Hanford is one of 11 sites that will be considered for a facility that would reprocess nuclear fuel assemblies for re-use as part of the Bush administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. A separate power plant to demonstrate the use of recycled fuel also could be a part of any project. Gregoire said she is aware of the effort but not in great detail. "I'm this familiar," she said, holding her thumb and index finger barely apart. "My No. 1 priority is cleanup. So if this is an effort that will lead to diminished dollars going to cleanup, then I will have a severe problem with it. If on the other hand it's not going to take away - and someone needs to prove that to me - then I'm open to looking at it." Gregoire said she's long envisioned the economic future of the Tri-Cities to include using Hanford-area brain power to find new ways to put various wastes to good use. But importing nuclear waste from out-of-state commercial nuclear power plants may be another matter. "I have a history as attorney general of opposing that until we get the place cleaned up," Gregoire said. "I am open to learning more about it because I'm not absolutely clear with what's being proposed here. But priority No. 1 for me is always going to be cleanup rather than to invite more waste to clean up." © 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 69 Albuquerque Tribune: John Mitchell retires as LANL deputy director Associated Press Tuesday, December 5, 2006 LOS ALAMOS — Los Alamos National Laboratory Deputy Director John Mitchell will retire at the end of December, lab officials announced today. Mitchell said in a statement that he wanted to stop working full time and be "with my family, to concentrate on the next phase of my life." Mitchell is part of the nuclear weapons lab's new management team, Los Alamos National Security LLC, which took over in June. Before that, he spent 12 years with Bechtel, including as president and general manager at three U.S. Department of Energy sites: Yucca Mountain, the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, and the Nevada Test Site. Mitchell also served for 30 years in the Navy. The deputy director thanked lab employees "for your support, friendship and patience as we have gone through many necessary, but sometimes frustrating, changes." The lab has been beefing up security in the wake of the discovery of classified documents during a drug bust at the Los Alamos home of a former contract worker. The Department of Energy's inspector general concluded recently that security at the lab was "seriously flawed." Facing a budget shortfall it estimates at about $176 million for the current year, the lab also has announced it will lay off up to 600 contract employees and not replace another 300 to 400 employees expected to leave this year. Lab Director Michael Anastasio said Mitchell's participation in Los Alamos National Security's contract proposal to run the lab was vital to its success, and that his leadership at the lab "significantly contributed to our future as a great national security science laboratory." Anastasio said as of Dec. 15, Jan Van Prooyen, principal associate director for operations, would assume the deputy director's duties. HAVE YOUR SAY © 2006 The Albuquerque Tribune ***************************************************************** 70 Los Angeles Times: U.S. nuclear labs working on weapons safeguards - By Ralph Vartabedian, Times Staff Writer 6:55 PM PST, December 4, 2006 LIVERMORE, Calif. -- In response to a secret order from President Bush, U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories are developing technology to make the weapons virtually impossible to use if they fall into the wrong hands. The security system will be part of a new generation of nuclear weapons approved formally last week by a panel of the Defense and Energy departments. A nuclear bomb equipped with the safeguards theoretically could be left on the street and terrorists would be unable, even given months of tinkering, to set off a detonation. Scientists say they are working on technology that would destroy every component inside -- including the plutonium and uranium -- if anyone even tampered with it. But the 3-year-old effort, known as National Security Presidential Directive 28, has evoked strong criticism from many nuclear weapons experts, who doubt that absolute safeguards are necessary or even possible. Instead, they say, the federal government should plug known security weaknesses at bomb labs and nuclear weapons factories. The nation's stockpile of 6,000 nuclear warheads is located on missiles and in military depots in places as disparate as Texas, North Dakota and Europe. They all have electronic locks or other safeguards, known as use controls. But the new plan aims for a dramatic improvement. The big leap would involve the self-destruction of the weapon without dispersing radioactivity or causing an explosion. The system would be able to destroy the electronic and mechanical components, rendering the plutonium and uranium materials unusable for construction of a crude improvised device. How? That's secret. But one possible approach is that the bomb would contain a powerful acid or other chemical that would poison the uranium and plutonium. The resulting sludge theoretically could be reprocessed, but that would require transportation to a highly specialized chemical-processing factory. And, the thinking goes, if terrorists had access to such a factory, they probably wouldn't need to steal a bomb. The nation's two nuclear weapons laboratories -- Lawrence Livermore in California and Los Alamos in New Mexico -- are competing to design the new generation of bombs, known as the reliable replacement warhead. A winner of the competition could be selected by the Nuclear Weapons Council, a panel of top Defense and Energy officials, as soon as this week. "It is essential that we make sure our weapons are impossible for terrorists to use," said Bruce Goodwin, chief of nuclear weapons design at Livermore. The weapons produced during the Cold War, he said, were not designed for an Age of Terrorism. "There was no motivation for the Red Army to send in a suicide squad to steal an American weapon," Goodwin said. "They had plenty of their own. There is tremendous incentive to certain people who don't have nuclear weapons to terrorize this nation by stealing one." Before Sept. 11, security experts had not considered the prospect of a nuclear weapons scientist leading a suicide squad that would seize and detonate a U.S. nuclear weapon. But critics say the risk of a terrorist seizing a U.S. bomb is the least likely form of nuclear terrorism. A more probable scenario, they say, is the theft of highly enriched uranium or plutonium that could be fashioned into a crude nuclear device or the smuggling of a complete nuclear bomb into the U.S. "The real threat is the uranium and plutonium materials that are spread across the country in totally inappropriate places and inadequate facilities," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C., group that has long criticized the Energy Department for lax security. "So, rather than fixing the problem they have, they are trying to fix a problem they don't have." Although a U.S. nuclear weapon never has been stolen, the U.S. accidentally has lost custody of some. Bombs were dropped or destroyed in a 1961 accident in Goldsboro, N.C.; a 1966 accident in Palomares, Spain; a 1968 accident in Thule, Greenland; and a 1980 accident in Damascus, Ark. Those were recovered, but others have been lost at sea. Philip Coyle, a former deputy director of the Livermore lab, worries that even the best U.S. technology might not be truly tamper-proof. "They make it sound like you could leave a nuclear weapon on the streets of Baghdad and nobody would know what to do with it," Coyle said. "I don't think that is quite the case. People can reverse-engineer many things." Another key concern comes from the military, which has worried about putting locks on weapons. The fear is that malfunctioning use controls could prevent the authorized use of a nuclear weapon. "The argument against doing more and more of the use controls is that you lose confidence in the weapon," said David Mosher, a nuclear weapons expert at Rand Corp. Such technical concerns could lead the military to ask for a resumption of underground nuclear testing, he said. But weapons scientists inside the labs say their goal of "absolute surety" is not only the right policy but is clearly achievable. "We know how to do it," Goodwin said. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************