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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Guardian Unlimited: France Says Iran Will Face UN Sanctions 
2 AFP: 'There will be sanctions' on Iran, says French FM 
3 Guardian Unlimited: France Says Iran Will Face Sanctions 
4 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N. Korea Talks Regard Obligations 
5 Hankyoreh: Lead U.S. nuclear negotiator tapped as N.K. policy coordi
6 Korea Herald: Bush foreign policy to gain more realist flavor   
7 Interfax: N. Korea may disarm if U.S. nukes removed from S. Korea -
8 RIA Novosti: Deal needed for 6-nation talks resumption - source
9 YONHAP NEWS: S. Korea to join U.S.-led container security system
10 Xinhua: S Korean president defends stance on DPRK   
11 AFP: Pyongyang not ready to restart six-party talks - report        
12 UPI: Report: N. Korea would give up nukes
13 US: Free Internet Press: Bush Declares ECO-Whistleblower Law Void Fo
14 Xinhua: China woos further nuclear cooperation with IAEA   
15 IAEA: Nuclear Applications Helping China´s Economy
16 Guardian Unlimite: Comment is free: Blair's secret nightmare
17 Scotsman.com: Nukes 'a deterrent we cannot afford'
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
18 Moscow Times: Duma Approves Nuclear Bill
19 AFP: Indian PM warns on US nuclear deal 
20 US: columbia tribune: Missouri reactor won’t get upgrade 
21 CNN-IBN: Rice cooks up terms for N-deal : Indo-US, nuclear agreement
22 RIA Novosti: State Duma passes bill on nuclear power sector reform
23 US: Platts: Bruce Power asks Canadian regulator for export license
24 Platts: EnergySolutions completes its first UK acquisition
25 Platts: European utilities say new nuclear in UK a "tough propositio
26 US: Green Bay Press-Gazette: Point Beach staff pumped for nuclear di
27 US: Evansville Courier Press: Nuclear chief applauds area plant 
28 ITAR-TASS: Rosatom to build 5th unit of Kursk n-plant shortly - Kiri
29 Business Day: SA renews agreement with nuclear watchdog            
30 US: Gallup Independent: Nukes: The Next Generation - 
31 US: MW: (AEHI) Announces Letter of Intent to Construct New Nuclear P
32 UPI: Russian lawmakers OK nuclear sector reform
33 US: Guardian Unlimited: U.S.-Indian Nuclear Bill Bogged Down 
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
34 US: Patriot-News:TMI Mock Drill
35 Reuters: Russia to airlift bomb-grade uranium from Germany
36 AFP: Russia should conduct own probe into ex-spy's death: minister -
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
37 Guardian Unlimited: Traces of Polonium Found at London Stadium 
38 Sydney Morning Herald: Australia to urge nuclear test ban - 
39 US: Boston.com: Radiation pills become available in Pilgrim area - 
40 US: Cape Cod Times: KI - Potassium Iodide Pills 
41 US: FOX11AZ.com: Low turnout for beryllium meeting
42 Guardian Unlimited: Radiation 'found in Moscow Embassy' 
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
43 Pahrump Valley Times: Pro-Yucca Mountain group challenges Reid      
44 US: The Age: Yellowcake exports to China get green light 
45 US: Sydney Morning Herald: Flawed system the only check on nuclear s
46 SLO Trib: Nuclear waste rail line to Yucca Mountain divides Nevada t
47 US: Platts: US court awards SMUD $39 million for nuclear storage cos
48 US: Platts: DOE official touts interim nuclear storage; seeks new wa
49 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste; Notice of Meeting
50 US: ITAR-TASS: Russian-Kazakh company produces 1st ton of natural ur
51 US: The Australian: Uranium deal with China approved 
52 US: Monticello Times: NRC's nuclear storage decision gets challenged
53 US: AU ABC: Report backs uranium exports to China
 
                           PEACE
 
54 London Times: Nuclear nightmare - 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
55 Pahrump Valley Times: Nevada Test Site could generate 1,000 new jobs
56 Rocky Mountain News: Justices send mixed signals in Flats whistle-bl
57 Knox News: Some 17 tons of hazardous chemicals moved from Y-12 
58 Knox News: Munger: ORNL has nukes aplenty, but polonium is not on li
59 CBS News: How Nuke Secrets Left Los Alamos
60 lamonitor.com: Report released on chromium contamination 
61 Rocky Mountain News: Energy & mining: West Slope uranium rush
62 Daily Californian: Labs Submit Designsfor New Warhead
*****************************************************************
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Guardian Unlimited: France Says Iran Will Face UN Sanctions 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Wednesday December 6, 2006 5:31 PM
 	
AP Photo XFM102 
By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press Writer 

PARIS (AP) - France's foreign minister said Wednesday that Iran
will face U.N. sanctions for refusing to halt its nuclear
program, but major world powers remain divided over exactly how
far punishment should go. 

Philippe Douste-Blazy said on RTL radio that the measures would
fall under a part of the U.N. Charter - Article 41 of Chapter 7
- that authorizes the Security Council to impose nonmilitary
sanctions, such as severing or limiting diplomatic and economic
relations, transportation and communications links. 

``The question is about the scope of sanctions, but there will
be sanctions,'' Douste-Blazy said. 

At closed-door talks in Paris Tuesday, France and five other
major powers, including the U.S., failed to reach an accord on a
U.N. resolution to punish Iran, although the French Foreign
Ministry said there was ``substantive progress'' and that ``we
are now close to a conclusion of this process.'' 

The Security Council has been at odds over how to deal with
Iran's defiance of an Aug. 31 U.N. deadline to halt uranium
enrichment. Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that U.N.
sanctions will not force his country to abandon its nuclear
program, which he insisted is for peaceful purposes. Western
powers accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. 

``Nuclear technology is a right for all the countries,''
Manouchehr Mottaki told AP Television News on a visit to The
Hague, Netherlands. ``We are against any limitation to realize
this right for the countries ... for peaceful purposes. 
The Europeans and Americans want tough sanctions; Russia and
China have pushed for dialogue, despite the failure of an EU
effort to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table. 

A top European diplomat said Wednesday that the five permanent
Security Council members - the U.S., China, France, Russia and
Britain - along with Germany remained split on key questions of
visa bans and asset freezes for Iranians linked to nuclear
development. 

Douste-Blazy, however, played down the differences, saying the
talks confirmed major powers' desire to act in concert. 

``We agreed on one thing: There will be a resolution at the U.N.
Security Council in a unified manner, including China and
Russia,'' he said. 

After months of diplomatic wrangling, the U.S. and France had
hoped the talks would produce a resolution to impose sanctions
on Iran for defying U.N. demands to stop uranium enrichment. The
process can produce material for atomic warheads as well as
electricity. 

Russia made some concessions in its resistance to wide-ranging
sanctions - agreeing to a measure prohibiting financial
transfers to ``problematic'' Iranians linked to nuclear or
ballistic programs, a European diplomat said on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. 

Russia still opposes the broader asset freeze that the European
players proposed in a draft U.N. resolution presented in
October, the diplomat said. 

And the question of travel bans for those involved in Iran's
nuclear and missile programs remains ``blocked,'' the diplomat
said. The Europeans and Americans support the bans; Russia
opposes them. 

The working-draft of the U.N. resolution would order all
countries to ban the supply of materials and technology that
could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs. Russia
has said it supports such measures. 

The Russians also remain resistant to a measure expanding the
powers of the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor
Iran's nuclear program, considering that a ``provocation'' to
Iran, the diplomat said. 

The draft resolution - which the U.S. and the Europeans want
adopted by the end of the year - would exempt a nuclear power
plant being built by the Russians in Iran, but not the nuclear
fuel needed for the reactor. Russia wants to remove any mention
of the Bushehr reactor. 

--- 
Associated Press writer Angela Charlton contributed to this
report from Paris. 
		 	 	   
    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 2 AFP: 'There will be sanctions' on Iran, says French FM 

 Wed Dec 6, 7:56 AM ET 
		 	 
PARIS (AFP) - The powers making up the UN Security Council are 
agreed that "there will be sanctions" against Iran " /> Iran, 
though their extent is yet to be decided, France said, after a 
Paris meeting on Tehran's nuclear programme. 

"There is a question as to the extent of the sanctions, but
there will be sanctions," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy
told RTL radio Wednesday.
 
He said the five permanent UN Security Council members plus
Germany "agree on one thing: that there will be a United Nations
" /> United NationsSecurity Council resolution backed by all,
including China and Russia.
 
Political directors from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia
and the United States met in the French capital late Wednesday
to talk about what action to take against Iran, which defied a
UN deadline of August 31 to cease enriching uranium.
 
Several of the countries, especially the United States, fear
that despite Iran's insistence that it is pursuing civilian
nuclear energy ambitions, the programme is in fact designed to
build a nuclear arsenal.
 
Diplomats said the Paris meeting failed to reach agreement among
the six countries on what sanctions should be applied.
 
Russia and China -- which 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 the
United States has sought to harden it.
 
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, though it will accept a ban on shipments
of sensitive goods.
 
Tehran has warned it would regard any attempt to thwart its
nuclear programme as an "act of hostility".
 
Douste-Blazy, at a joint media conference with his Israeli
counterpart Tzipi Livni, said France was "in a hurry" to see
sanctions imposed.
 
"I think this is about the credibility of the United Nations
Security Council," he said.
 
"To my mind, we are going to find a joint solution to be united
behind a resolution," he said, adding that he would soon be
speaking by telephone with the foreign ministers of the five
other countries involved.
 
Livni, whose country is especially alarmed over Iran's nuclear
ambitions and its expressed wish to see Israel
" /> Israelone day wiped off the map, said decisions had to be
made quickly, "because the Iranians are trying to stall" to win
time to master the nuclear processes underway.
 
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 3 Guardian Unlimited: France Says Iran Will Face Sanctions 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Wednesday December 6, 2006 8:01 AM
 	
AP Photo XFM103 
By ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press Writer 

PARIS (AP) - The French foreign minister said Wednesday that
Iran will face U.N. sanctions for refusing to halt its nuclear
program but that major world powers remain divided over their
extent. 

``The question is about the scope of sanctions but there will be
sanctions,'' Philippe Douste-Blazy said on RTL radio. His
ministry said Tuesday that six nations meeting at closed-door
talks in Paris had made ``substantive progress'' but failed to
reach an accord on a resolution to punish Iran for defying
demands to cease enriching uranium. 

Iran's hard-line president threatened to downgrade relations
with the 25-nation European Union if sanctions emerged from the
talks among diplomats from the permanent Security Council
members - the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia -
as well as Germany and the EU. 

After months of diplomatic wrangling, the United States and
France had hoped Tuesday's talks would produce a resolution
imposing sanctions on Iran for defying an Aug. 31 U.N. deadline
to halt enrichment. Western powers accuse Iran of seeking
nuclear bombs, while Tehran insists it only wants nuclear
energy. 

Still, a top European diplomat, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said Russia,
which has sided with Iran on many points, made some concessions
at Tuesday's talks. The Russians agreed to a measure prohibiting
financial transfers to ``problematic'' Iranians linked to
nuclear or ballistic missile programs, the diplomat said. 

Russia still opposes the broader asset freeze that the European
players - Britain, France and Germany - proposed in a draft U.N.
resolution presented in October, the diplomat said. 
		 	 	   

    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

*****************************************************************
 4 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N. Korea Talks Regard Obligations 

From the Associated Press        
	 
[UP] 

Wednesday December 6, 2006 7:01 PM
 	
By GEORGE GEDDA Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - In discussions with North Korean officials,
U.S. diplomats offered specific details on the kind of economic
and energy assistance Pyongyang would receive in exchange for
dismantling its nuclear weapons facilities, a State Department
official said Wednesday. 

Ambassador Christopher Hill discussed what the United States and
other parties to the six-nation negotiation would do in response
to a credible North Korean disarmament commitment, the official
said. 

The basic outlines of the next steps were spelled out in a
statement of principles signed by the six nations in September
2005. There has been little headway since then but Hill's talks
in Beijing raised hopes about the possibility of forward
movement. 

The official asked not to be identified because he was not
authorized to speak on the record. 

The purpose of Hill's discussions in Beijing was to prepare for
the next meeting of the six nations - the United States, North
and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. 

The New York Times reported in its Wednesday editions that Hill
told the North Koreans that progress would hinge on their
agreeing to dismantle some equipment they are using to expand
its nuclear arsenal, even before returning to negotiations. 

Hill said last week the talks could be held in mid-December but
the department official who spoke Wednesday, while not ruling
out that time frame, raised the possibility of an early January
meeting. 

In Beijing, Hill met with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim
Kye Gwan, who returned to Pyongyang to present the proposals to
his government. 

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the
Beijing discussions took place in a positive atmosphere. 

``In these meetings, the North Koreans have been very engaged,''
he said. 

The administration wants the next round of talks to be as well
prepared as they can possibly be to increase chances of
success,'' McCormack added. 

In addition to economic and energy benefits, the statement of
principles signed in September 2005 also contains security
guarantees for North Korea. 

China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States all
expressed a willingness in the statement to provide energy
assistance. 

The six also agreed to promote economic cooperation in the
fields of energy, trade and investment. 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 5 Hankyoreh: Lead U.S. nuclear negotiator tapped as N.K. policy coordinator 

Christopher Hill, the top U.S. nuclear negotiator on Pyongyang, 
is most likely to be named Washington's policy coordinator for 
North Korea, sources here said Tuesday.
 
Currently assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the 
Pacific, Hill is expected to double as both negotiator and 
coordinator, sources here said Tuesday.
 
"His appointment is most likely," one source said, asking not to 
be named.
 
"An announcement is expected sometime next week," the source 
said.
 

The 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law in 
October, requires President George W. Bush to appoint the North 
Korea policy coordinator within 60 days, which falls on Dec. 17.
 
The coordinator would conduct a full and complete interagency 
review of U.S. policy toward the North, including security and 
human rights issues, and provide policy direction for 
negotiations with Pyongyang.
 
Hill represents the U.S. in the six-party process that also 
involves South and North Korea, China, Russia and Japan. The goal 
is to have North Korea give up its nuclear weapons and program in 
exchange for political and economic incentives.
 
It would be the second time that a special envoy would be put to 
charge of talking to Pyongyang. Former Secretary of Defense 
William Perry served in the post during the Bill Clinton 
administration.
 
North Korean issues took on urgency after Pyongyang conducted its 
first nuclear weapon test in October. In July, it test-launched a 
barrage of missiles, including a long-range Taepodong that 
theoretically can strike the U.S. west coast. Both led to United 
Nations Security Council resolutions of condemnation and 
sanctions.
 
The new coordinator is required to submit a report to the 
president and the Congress within 90 days of appointment on North 
Korea policy.
 
Washington, Dec. 5 (Yonhap News)
 
Posted on : Dec.6,2006 20:35 KST                                
 		     	 	
© 2006 The Hankyoreh Media Company. All rights 
*****************************************************************
 6 Korea Herald: Bush foreign policy to gain more realist flavor   

[NEWS ANALYSIS] 
        
The resignation yesterday of John Bolton, the U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations, left an even wider experience vacuum in
President George Bush's foreign policy team.

 Bolton's departure followed that of Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, prompting speculation that the voice of
neo-conservatism in Washington was losing volume.

 Matter-of-factly, Bolton's departure is a result of the
domestic political situation, but could be considered part of
the Bush administration's subtle change toward pragmatism,
observers said.

 "Bolton's departure is a result of persona-non-grata, rather
than a judgment on the administration's foreign policy,"
professor Yoon Duk-min of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and
National Security said.

"Although you cannot say that the Bush administration is heading
for a policy shift, the latest developments hint that the
atmosphere is changing and that pragmatists such as Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice will gain more leeway."

 It is also likely that U.N. Security Council resolution 1718
imposing sanctions against North Korea after Pyongyang's defiant
test of a nuclear device could lose momentum following the
resignation of Bolton, who had initiated the measures.

 Bolton's departure appears to be a political maneuver by
President George W. Bush to avoid any head-on collision with the
Democrats after they took control of Congress following mid-term
elections last month.

 The Democrats had made it clear they would not approve of a
second term for Bolton.

 Bush had bypassed Congress and appointed Bolton as the U.N.
ambassador by naming him during a congressional recess last
year. The appointment expires as early as this week,
coincidently with the closure of the current Congress.

 Observers say the new foreign policy team will thus be led by
moderate realists such as Rice, White House Chief of Staff
Joshua Bolton, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Defense
Secretary designate Robert Gates.

 It remains to be seen how much change the Bush administration
will embrace as it faces complicated nuclear challenges from
North Korea and Iran. It must also extract itself from the mess
of Iraq.

 The neocons led by Rumsfeld had outlined the tone of U.S.
foreign policy, naming North Korea, Iran and Iraq as elements of
the "axis of evil" and implementing hardline measures against
them.

 But the result so far is less than favorable, as Iraq stumbles
into civil war, while North Korea went ahead with a nuclear test
and Iran refuses to give up its own nuclear program.

 Bolton's successor must deal with a number of complex issues
including a resolution to sanction Iran against its uranium
enrichment program, the growing humanitarian disaster in Darfur,
and the crisis in Lebanon.

 Views vary on whether Bush should nominate someone who would
take a more moderate line than Bolton.

 Progressives say Bush must appoint a more pragmatic figure to
win back international support, especially within the United
Nations.

 Conservatives, on the other hand, highlight Bolton's
achievement in leading resolutions against North Korea and
others, and urge that Bush must continue to focus on securing
"command of the subject matter."

 According to USA Today, potential replacements include Zalmay
Khalilzad, ambassador to Iraq; Undersecretary of State Paula
Dobriansky; outgoing Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio; outgoing Rep. Jim
Leach of Iowa; Alejandro Wolff, U.S. deputy ambassador to the
United Nations; and Richard Williamson, a Chicago lawyer and
Republican.

 Observers say it is premature to forecast a major change in the
tone of the Bush administration as other neoconservatives are
still holding the reins of power, including Vice President Dick
Cheney, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National
Security Advisor Elliott Abrams and Under Secretary of State for
Arms Control and International Security, Robert Joseph.

 (angiely@heraldm.com)

By Lee Joo-hee 

2006.12.06
*****************************************************************
 7 Interfax: N. Korea may disarm if U.S. nukes removed from S. Korea -

diplomat

Dec 6 2006 12:00PM
 
XIANGGANG. Dec 6 (Interfax) - North Korea has demanded that, in
exchange for its nuclear disarmament, the U.S. nuclear arsenals
must be pulled out of South Korea and other countries of the
region, a North Korean diplomatic source told Interfax. 

"The statement that North Korea would act as a nuclear power at
the negotiations means that, in exchange for its nuclear
disarmament, it will demand the withdrawal of the U.S. nuclear
weapons from South Korea and other countries of the region," the
source said. 

"As the first step, North Korea agrees to return to the
negotiating table with the strict observance of the conditions
that were determined on October 31," when the heads of the North
Korean, Chinese, and U.S. delegations to the six-party talks met
for consultations in Beijing, the source said. 
    
© 1991-2006 Interfax
 All rights reserved
 
*****************************************************************
 8 RIA Novosti: Deal needed for 6-nation talks resumption - source

06/ 12/ 2006                                  

MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) - Parties to the six-nation
negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program cannot fix a date
to resume talks for lack of an agreement on their possible
outcome, a source in Moscow said Wednesday. 

The talks, involving North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan,
China and the United States, were launched in 2003 to persuade
North Korea to give up its controversial nuclear program after
Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

The talks stalled last November over Pyongyang's demand that the
U.S. lift sanctions imposed on it for its alleged involvement in
counterfeiting and other illegal activities. 

"There is no sense in holding talks without preliminary
agreements," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

 Diplomats representing the parties to the talks have refused to
comment officially on the state of affairs.

 Following North Korea's announcement that it conducted its
first nuclear test October 9, the media reported that the
reclusive Communist state had major differences with the United
States. But Pyongyang accused Japan of obstructing the talks and
demanded Japan's withdrawal.

 Pyongyang's nuclear test provoked widespread calls in the
Japanese leadership for a stronger strategic defense capability.

 "Focusing on its military policy ends, Japan is taking pains to
prevent a positive solution to the problem on the Korean
Peninsula," North Korea's Central Telegraph Agency said
Wednesday.

 The agency, which represents Pyongyang's official position,
concluded that Japan will play an invariably negative role in
further talks.

 It cited as proof of intransigence Japanese foreign ministry
demands that Pyongyang abandon nuclear weapons before talks can
resume, and that the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by
North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, allegedly to train spies, be
addressed. 

The agency said there is no point revisiting the issue, as
Pyongyang has offered an official apology for the abductions,
and has released some of the Japanese who are still alive.

 The agency called on the world community to note Japan's
uncompromising position.

© 2005 RIA Novosti
*****************************************************************
 9 YONHAP NEWS: S. Korea to join U.S.-led container security system

2006/12/06 11:06 KST   

 SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is set to announce its
participation in a U.S.-led campaign to stop container-borne
radioactive materials after refusing to help interdict North
Korean ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction.

 A Foreign Ministry official confirmed Wednesday that Seoul
decided to join the International Container Scanning Network, or
ICSN.

 "The government plans to formally announce the decision later
this week," the official said, asking not to be identified. 

The ICSN calls for its members to install state-of-the-art
radioactivity detectors at their major ports so customs
officials can screen the contents of containers without opening
them.

 International efforts to curb the flow of nuclear materials
have gained more urgency since North Korea conducted a nuclear
test in October.

 Seoul's decision to join the ICSN was widely interpreted as
designed to offset its limited participation in the
Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).

 South Korea said last month that it would stay away from any
PSI-related activity in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula,
citing its unique geopolitical situation. South Korea remains
technically at war with the communist North and the two sides
are vulnerable to military clashes especially in the
poorly-demarcated West Sea.

 South Korea described its position in the PSI as "special
status," as it kept the door open for PSI activities in remote
areas.

 Government officials, however, said the PSI was not considered
when it made the decision to join the ICSN, a project still
being tested. lcd@yna.co.kr
 (END)
*****************************************************************
 10 Xinhua: S Korean president defends stance on DPRK   
    
  www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-06 17:22:13   

    CANBERRA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Visiting South Korean President
Roh Moo-hyun said here Wednesday his country supports the
proliferation security initiative (PSI), but would try to avoid
possible "physical conflict" with the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK). 

    The issue of the DPRK's nuclear test was discussed when Roh
met Australian Prime Minister John Howard during the first
official visit by a South Korean president in seven years. 

    Some Western countries say South Korea is reluctant to fully
implement the PSI, which allows the inspection of ships
suspected of trafficking in nuclear and other illegal material. 

    Roh said his government supported the principles and goals
of the PSI. 

    "My government's position is, although we fully support the
PSI, we would like to evade any situation which could bring a
possible physical conflict" between the DPRK and South Korea, he
told reporters. 

    "In all other areas we are in fact fully cooperating," he
said. 

    "I don't think it's appropriate to label the Korean
government's views on this as a total refusal or a full
participation," he added. 

    "It is wise to restrain from actions that could cause a
physical confrontation between the two Koreas, because, after
all, the purpose of all action by the international community
... is to bring peace," said Roh. 

    "For peace in the region we are making appropriate and
strategic decisions," he said. 

    Howard acknowledged the differences between the two
countries on the DPRK's nuclear issue, stressing that these
differences will not "in any way inhibit our cooperation in
relation to other matters" concerning the DPRK.    

  Editor: Yao Runping   
*****************************************************************
 11 AFP: Pyongyang not ready to restart six-party talks - report                           News
 
 Wed Dec 6, 3:45 AM ET 
		 	 
MOSCOW (AFP) - North Korea " /> North Koreais not ready to renew 
the six-party talks process on its nuclear programme without a 
change in US preconditions, an unnamed North Korean diplomat told 
the Interfax news agency. 

"The renewal of the talks process in December 2006 is not 
possible nor is it -- without changes in the American position -- 
in the foreseeable future," Interfax quoted an "informed North 
Korean diplomatic source" in Hong Kong as saying.
 
The diplomat described as "unacceptable for North Korea"
conditions put forward by the United States during negotiations
in Beijing on November 28-29 on a possible renewal of the
six-party process.
 
North Korea would only give up its nuclear ambitions if the
United States removed nuclear missiles from South Korea
" /> South Koreaand the surrounding region, the diplomat said,
without being specific on the US weapons concerned.
 
North Korea, "in response to its nuclear disarmament will demand
the removal of American nuclear weapons from South Korea and
other countries of the region," the diplomat said.
 
The comments come after the US embassy in Beijing said on
November 29 that North Korea had agreed to study its proposal
regarding the resumption of the stalled six-party talks.
 
The six-party talks -- which involve China, the two Koreas, the
United States, Japan, and Russia -- began in 2003 but have been
stalled for the past year over North Korean objections to US
financial sanctions.
 
The resumption of full talks took on a new urgency after 
Pyongyang's first ever nuclear weapons test on October 9, which 
triggered United Nations " /> United Nationssanctions.
 
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 12 UPI: Report: N. Korea would give up nukes
     
 United Press International - NewsTrack - 

12/6/2006 9:17:00 PM -0500

MOSCOW, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- North Korea would renounce its nuclear
weapons if Washington withdraws nuclear arsenals from the
region, a Russian news agency reported Wednesday. 

In exchange for nuclear disarmament, North Korea "will demand
the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea and
other countries of the region," the Interfax news agency
reported, citing "an informed North Korean diplomatic source." 

Another Russian news agency reported Wednesday North Korea would
not agree to restart the six-nation talks on Pyongyang's
disarmament until "preliminary agreements" were agreed to. 

"There is no sense in holding talks without preliminary
agreements," the Russian Information Agency Novosti, reported,
citing "a source in Moscow." 

The talks -- involving North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan,
China and the United States -- were launched in 2003. They were
intended to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program
after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty. 

The talks broke down in November 2005 over North Korea's demand
that Washington lift sanctions it imposed on Pyongyang.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 13 Free Internet Press: Bush Declares ECO-Whistleblower Law Void For EPA Employees   

  Web -->     freeinternetpress.com -->   


  2006-12-06 15:01:45

 Posted By: Intellpuke 

  The Bush administration has declared itself immune from
whistleblower protections for federal workers under the Clean
Water Act, according to legal documents released Monday by
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a
result of an opinion issued by a unit within the Office of the
Attorney General, federal workers will have little protection
from official retaliation for reporting water pollution
enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of science or cleanup
failures. 

Citing an "unpublished opinion of the [Attorney General's]
Office of Legal Counsel," the Secretary of Labor's
Administrative Review Board has ruled federal employees may no
longer pursue whistleblower claims under the Clean Water Act.
The opinion invoked the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity
which is based on the old English legal maxim that "The King Can
Do No Wrong". It is an absolute defense to any legal action
unless the "sovereign" consents to be sued. The opinion and the
ruling reverse nearly two decades of precedent. Approximately
170,000 federal employees working within environmental agencies
are affected by the loss of whistleblower rights.   

   
  "The Bush administration is engineering the stealth repeal of
whistleblower protections," stated PEER General Counsel Richard
Condit, who had won several of the earlier cases applying
environmental whistleblower protections to federal specialists.
"The use of an unpublished opinion to change official
interpretations is a giant step backward to the days of the
secret Star Chamber." PEER ultimately obtained a copy of the
opinion under the Freedom of Information Act. 

At the same time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
is taking a more extreme position that absolutely no
environmental laws protect its employees from reprisal. EPA's
stance would place the provisions of all major federal
environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act and the Safe
Drinking Water Act, beyond the reach of federal employees
seeking legal protection for good faith efforts to enforce or
implement the anti-pollution provisions contained within those
laws. 

These actions arose in the case of Sharyn Erickson, an EPA
employee who had reported problems with agency contracts for
toxic clean-ups. After conducting a hearing, an administrative
law judge called EPA's conduct "reprehensible" and awarded
Erickson $225,000 in punitive damages but the Labor Secretary
overturned that ruling. 

"It is astonishing for the Bush administration to now suddenly
claim that it is above the law," said PEER Senior Counsel Paula
Dinerstein, who is handling Erickson's appeal of the Labor
Secretary's ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th
Circuit based in Atlanta. "Congress could end this debate by
simply declaring that it intends that the whistleblower
protections of these anti-pollution laws apply to the federal
government." 

Congress is now debating Clean Water Act clarifications in the
wake of a confusing U.S. Supreme Court decision (Rapanos et ux.,
et al. v. United States) handed down this June that muddies the
extent of federal jurisdiction over wetlands. Unless Congress
also resolves the Clean Water Act sovereign immunity question,
scores of federal employee whistleblower cases may be dismissed
or languish in limbo while the issue is litigated. Intellpuke:
Someone needs to remind "King" George and "Lord" Gonzales that
they are in America, where there are no "royals" and no one is
above or beyond the law. I found the above article in the Dec.
4, 2006, issue of an American Federation of Government Employees
newsletter. Sometimes, you can find very interesting things in
newsletters.   
  
Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any
questions. 

http://freeinternetpress.com
*****************************************************************
 14 Xinhua: China woos further nuclear cooperation with IAEA   
    
  www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-06 18:39:46   

    BEIJING, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- China hopes to have more
opportunity to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) in nuclear energy utilization, nuclear technology
exchange, professionals training and non-proliferation of
nuclear weapons, said a senior official. 

    State Councilor Chen Zhili made the remarks when meeting the
IAEA Director-General Mohamed el Baradei here Wednesday. 

    Chen also spoke highly of the fruitful efforts made by the
IAEA in promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy and
non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. 

    Baradei is visiting China from Dec. 4 to 7 at the invitation
of the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA). 

    Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and CAEA director Sun Qin also
held talks with Baradei on Wednesday.   

  Editor: Yao Runping   

*****************************************************************
 15 IAEA: Nuclear Applications Helping China´s Economy
 
+ [IAEA.ORG :: Atoms for Peace] 
 
Director General ElBaradei Speaks at Tsinghua University in
Beijing
 
Staff Report
 5 December 2006 [Mohamed ElBaradei in China] 
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei speaking at China´s
Tsinghua University. (Credit: AP) 

  + Story Resources 
  + IAEA Director General Statement 
  + China´s Challenging Fast Track 
  + IAEA Programme Websites 
  + Nuclear Power Statistics 
  + Tsinghua University
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei this week met with
Chinese governmental representatives in Beijing, and addressed
students and faculty at the Tsinghua University in Beijing on
nuclear power´s future. 

"In the past two decades, China has transformed its economy,
maintained unprecedented growth rates and lifted hundreds of
millions of people out of poverty," Dr. ElBaradei said. "Nuclear
technology has played a supportive role, and I am pleased that
the IAEA has been able to make a small contribution."
 
The Director General noted that China now has ten reactors in
operation and four under construction. China plans a more than
five-fold expansion in its nuclear generating capacity for
electricity production by 2020, expanding from the current 7.6
gigawatts to 40 gigawatts.
 
The Director General pointed out that China is a member of the
IAEA´s International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and
Fuel Cycles. INPRO works to ensure that the future needs of all
countries, including developing countries, are considered when
innovative nuclear systems are evaluated. The country also
supports the ITER global nuclear fusion project.
 
In other fields as well - including medicine, agriculture, and
industry - China is actively applying nuclear science and
technology. "Nuclear and radiological applications are helping
to raise Chinese standards of health, agriculture, industry and
other sectors, often in collaboration with the IAEA," Dr.
ElBaradei said.
 
Dr. ElBaradei was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Tsinghua
University. The award was presented by Tsinghua President Gu
Binglin. Tsinghua Vice President Xie Weihe hosted the award
ceremony, which was attended by Professor Wang Dazhong, Honorary
Chairman of the University Council, among other distinguished
participants.
 
See Story Resources for the full text of his remarks in Beijing.
 Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100,
Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria 
Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: 
*****************************************************************
 16 Guardian Unlimite: Comment is free: Blair's secret nightmare

 John Palmer

The PM's enthusiasm for renewing Trident could be driven by 
hidden fears about France being taken more seriously than 
Britain.
 
December 6, 2006 11:28 

Tony Blair has been coy about identifying the states whose
possession or potential possession of nuclear weapons justifies
his decisionto build a new fleet of Trident submarines. He has
acknowledged that it is "very improbable" that Britain will ever
face a threat from a nuclear state, which would require the
threatened use of Trident as a "deterrent". That would seem to
rule out Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and even Iran or
North Korea as justification for spending billions more on
modernising the Trident system.
 
One must also assume that, as a paid up disciple of American
neoconservatism in foreign policy (remember his declaration
before the war in Iraq - "I am not a stooge of George Bush. It
is worse than that. I actually believe this stuff") Blair thinks
any nuclear threat from the United States is pretty remote.
Moreover the prime minister also readily accepts that the
threatened use of nuclear weapons against a "failed state" which
might harbour terrorists in future would do little or nothing to
influence the actions of the terrorists themselves.
 
So who or what is driving the machinery of state to commit to a
Trident submarine programme which might cost ÂŁ15bn to ÂŁ25bn or
- then again - might be ÂŁ65bn or more at the end of the day?
The Economist magazine suggests that the explanation lies in the
perception among New Labour ministers that the possession of
nuclear weapons of mass destruction ensures that the UK is
treated internationally as "a serious state".
 
The real nightmare, which feeds the desperate anxiety to keep a
nuclear weapons system no matter what the cost, is concern about
a state not included in the list of actual and would-be nuclear
powers above. It is France. Of course Tony Blair has no fear of
France ever posing the slightest threat to Britain's security by
virtue of it maintaining its "force de dissuasion nucleaire".
Indeed Britain and France, ever since the 1998 St Malo
agreementon defence cooperation, have orchestrated their
military resources to a degree that is not widely appreciated in
the UK.
 
The dirty secret about the fear of France has nothing to do with
any threat from across La Manche. But it has everything to do
with a fear that Paris would exercise ever greater influence at
the expense of London in influencing the European Union's common
foreign, security and defence policy, if France but not Britain
was a recognised nuclear "power". In this surreal logic France
would then be regarded as a "serious state" but not Britain.
 
Whatever the final content of the disputed EU "constitutional"
treaty, European foreign and security policy is daily growing in
importance even as the foundations of a US-run Atlantic alliance
weaken and crumble. Indeed the British government's paranoia
about French influence in Europe has become all the greater
following the humiliating failure of the Anglo-American war in
Iraq. Blairite strategists rightly worry that this disaster
could weaken British influence on EU foreign policy for years to
come - to the advantage of France.
 
Of course, this barely concealed Whitehall angst about a
possible French nuclear military monopoly in Europe is utterly
risible. France's possession of a nuclear strike capacity does
nothing for its actual security in a world beset by totally new
problems of anarchy and terrorism in regions where people have a
burning sense of injustice. Neither does it do anything for real
French political or military influence where French governments
would most like such influence - above all in the Islamic world.
Like the British, the French attachment to the symbolism of
nuclear military might has more to do with a fascination with
the international stage on which political leaders like to strut
and posture as major world figures.
 
Tony Blair has promised an "open and honest" public debate about
Trident. That debate would be all the healthier if he came clean
about the extent to which his government's commitment to a new
Trident force is driven by an obsession to match the nuclear
status of France. But perhaps if he did he also has a shrewd
idea that the Trident sceptics would win the argument hands down.
 
About webfeeds  Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2006. 
Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396
 Registered office: 164 Deansgate, Manchester M60 2RR
*****************************************************************
 17 Scotsman.com: Nukes 'a deterrent we cannot afford'

News - Opinion

"Edinburgh Evening News" />Wed 6 Dec 2006    

 	MARGO MACDONALD 

TONY BLAIR says it's crucial that the UK retains its nuclear
weapons. I wonder what William Price III would have made of that
strategic analysis? 

The Californian businessman was no professional diplomat, but
President Reagan owed him, big time. He was one of the wealthy
Republican right-wingers who groomed, bankrolled and smoothed
the path to the White House for the radical right-winger. His
reward was the coveted job of ambassador to the UK. 

I interviewed him when he visited Scotland, near the beginning
of his sojourn in London. The discussion turned to the "special
relationship" between the UK and the US and the special,
trusting arrangement between the two countries regarding
Britain's "independent" nuclear weapon. This amounted to leaving
the delivery system for the British weapons to be manufactured
and maintained by the US. 

I asked the ambassador whether this meant that American interest
could override the British decision to use the British nuke. 

In no uncertain terms he told me that, as the British nuclear
contribution to the Cold War strategy of mutually assured
destruction (MAD), was mere "peanuts", whatever the US wanted to
do would be unaffected by any special pleading by the Brits. 

If four subs were dismissed as "peanuts", what must the
Americans, and Nato, think of a fleet of three subs and a
reduction of 20 per cent in their nuclear weapons? Could their
opinion be coloured more by the politics of the need for the UK
to put up or shut up on the modernisation/replacement of
Trident, than by defence and security considerations? 

"Peanuts" or not, first Polaris, and then Trident, have been
Britain's season ticket to the UN Security Council's directors'
box. In this theatre of pretendy-war, America needed her special
friend. (Anyone doubting this should look to the behaviour of
the British Ambassador to the UN in the lead-up to the assault
on Iraq.) 

In return for supporting Uncle Sam, the UK kept a permanent
Security Council seat, blocking other countries like nuke-free
Japan and Germany from getting their feet under the table. 

Nothing has changed as regards the mutual interest of the UK and
the US. But there's a strong body of opinion in favour of
changing the make-up of the Security Council. 

It would be a supreme irony if the UK committed to nukes costing
at least ÂŁ20 billion, quite possibly, putting the UK Government
in the illegal position of breaching the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty, while the UK's historic position at
the UN is undermined. 

Power in the world is gravitating to China, India and the
Pacific rim and, if humility were a factor in foreign policy, an
admission that the UK is unable to afford membership of the
nuclear club might be due. 

But the wildly exaggerated, thinly veiled scare stories
whispered by Downing Street spin-doctors, or roared from the
rooftops by John Reid, the Home Secretary, as part of his
campaign to strike fear of their own shadows into Scots, are
harder to sell than the old fear of the Soviet Union. 

A plausible, theoretical, case could be made for the Kremlin's
need to conquer Europe. But the lesson from the Cold War is
that, rather than risk even a controlled nuclear strike, the two
main players - the US and the USSR - fought surrogate wars, with
conventional weapons, in Asia, Africa and South America. 

Why should North Korea target the UK? Its interests lie in its
relationships with Japan and the region and, of course, America.
It's a fair bet that should North Korea develop an
inter-continental nuke, it'll be targeted on America's east
coast. We might share in a much-diluted fallout - an argument
for decontamination measures, not useless nukes. 

And what about Iran? Are the Mullahs mad about destroying the UK
rather than dominating their region? What about rogue groups
like Al-Qaeda? It's possible that some of those obsessives might
manage to steal weapons and their delivery systems. But where
would we target our nukes to establish MAD? Son of Trident would
be useless as a deterrent against nomadic enemies of the state. 

We're warned from Westminster, off the record of course, that
Russia might turn bad. True. But this brings us full circle to
our bijou nukes during the Cold War, and Russia's reluctance to
unleash the ultimate horror. 

In any case, times have changed. To bring the European economies
to their knees, all the generals need do is turn off the gas
supply to Western Europe. So let's not spend money that we can't
afford. Stay where you are, boys... 

SCOTT BROWN and Kevin Thomson are magic players. And so was
Derek Riordan when he pulled on the green jersey with the
historic Hibernian emblem. Siren voices might be whispering to
Scott and Kevin that they'd have a different experience. Maybe,
but maybe not. 

If I was advising them, I'd remind them of how the wages
structure at Easter Road has enabled them to concentrate on
their football, knowing that their improved standards of skill
have been recognised, financially, by the club, and that after
this season, it might be easier to leave on a high. City
deserves tram cash help 

I CAN understand the reluctance of the long-suffering residents
of the Capital to put up with the disruption of the installation
of the tram system. But even to stand still we have to think big
- and so must the Scottish Executive. 

Edinburgh represents 20 per cent of the wealth created by the
Scottish economy. The council must have capital city funding to
pay for the knock-on expense of building the tram system. 

©2006 Scotsman.com| 
*****************************************************************
 18 Moscow Times: Duma Approves Nuclear Bill

  Thursday, December 07, 2006 / Updated Moscow Time         
  
The Associated Press 

State Duma deputies gave preliminary backing Wednesday to
legislation for the restructuring of the nation's nuclear
industries. 

The Duma voted 368-51 to approve a bill that would create a
fully state-owned holding company encompassing all enterprises
involved in the civilian nuclear sector. The military nuclear
complex would be managed separately. 

Federal Atomic Energy Agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko said the
restructuring was an essential condition for fulfilling an
ambitious state program to revive the country's atomic sector. 

"In order to be competitive, Russia's atomic industries must be
transformed into an integrated company that would be in charge
of the entire production cycle starting with uranium mining,"
Kiriyenko told deputies.
 
Communist deputies opposed the bill, saying the plan to separate
civilian and military nuclear sectors could badly damage the
atomic industries. 

"The only sector of industry which has been working successfully
would have to undergo restructuring," Communist Deputy Yury
Maslyukov said. "That's yet another blow to Russia's economy."
 
The country now has 31 reactors at 10 nuclear power plants,
accounting for 16 percent to 17 percent of electricity
generation. It plans to build another 42 atomic reactors by 2030.
   
Copyright 2006. The Moscow Times. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 19 AFP: Indian PM warns on US nuclear deal 

December 6, 04:11 PM 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
cautioned against US lawmakers including "problematic"
provisions in final US legislation giving India access to
civilian nuclear technology.
 
He highlighted the concern in a telephone conversation with Bill
Frist, the Republican leader in the US Senate, as Congress began
drafting the legislation reconciling separate bills passed by
the Senate and the House of Representatives.
 
Some of the provisions proposed for the combined bill, expected
to be voted on by Congress this week, go against the spirit of a
landmark nuclear agreement reached between Singh and US
President George W. Bush in July last year, Indian officials
have complained.
 
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has also campaigned for
the removal of the sensitive provisions, including one calling
for New Delhi's support to end Iran's sensitive nuclear program
and for restrictions on US nuclear technology transferred to
India.
 
But Tom Lantos, the incoming Democratic head of the powerful
international relations panel of the House of Representatives,
on Tuesday threw his weight behind calls for a provision for
India to check Iran's nuclear program.
 
Lantos supported the requirement in legislation of a
"determination by the (US) President that India is fully and
actively participating" in "efforts to dissuade, sanction and
contain Iran for its nuclear program."
 
Rice had argued that such a stipulation would be viewed by India
as an "additional condition."
 
"I strongly believed that obtaining such an assessment of
India's policy in this regard is a critical piece of information
to aid our deliberations when we consider an actual agreement
for civil nuclear cooperation with India, as required" by the
final legislation," Lantos said.
 
But he pointed out that he strongly supported the nuclear deal.
 
Senate leader Frist said he telephoned Singh Tuesday to assure
him that enacting the final legislation on the nuclear deal was
a "top" priority by Congress this week before it adjourned for
the year.
 
Singh "stressed that there are a number of provisions in the
House and Senate-passed bills that are problematic for the
Indian government because they depart from the understanding
reached with President Bush on this issue," Frist said.
 
"We discussed several of these provisions, and I assured him
that the conferees are well aware of the Indian government's
concerns," he said. 

But a number of lawmakers have "strongly" insisted including the
sensitive requirements in the final legislation.
 
"Apparently, the Bush administration has entered the nuclear
twilight zone," said Democratic lawmaker Edward Markey. 

"It can go to war in Iraq to disarm imaginary WMD (weapons of
mass destruction), but then turns to give a huge nuclear gift to
India and specifically tells Congress not to ask India to stand
up to Iran's WMD programs," he said. "Whose foreign policy is
the administration promoting?" 

Under the bilateral 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.
 
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, but also set a dangerous precedent for other countries
with nuclear ambitions.
 
   Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 20 columbia tribune: Missouri reactor won’t get upgrade 

www.columbiatribune.com
  
 MU looks at new fuel type for energy.
 

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER of The Associated Press Published

Wednesday, December 6, 2006 

The University of Missouri-Columbia 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 MU 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 the Department of
Energy and the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois on a new
fuel type that "holds some promise," reactor Director Ralph
Butler said.

 "We need to do what we can to focus our energy on conversion,"
he said yesterday. "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."

 A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy’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 MU 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. 

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed. 

Copyright © 2006 The Columbia Daily Tribune. All Rights
*****************************************************************
 21 CNN-IBN: Rice cooks up terms for N-deal : Indo-US, nuclear agreement, bush 

IBNLive.com : 
 
Prerna Kumar                            

CNN-IBN

Posted Wednesday, December 06, 2006 

                                                                                                              
[THE FINAL BILL: On Monday, Rice gave a strong message On the 
Ind-US nuclear deal.]  THE FINAL BILL: On Monday, Rice gave a 
strong message On the Ind-US nuclear deal. 

[Indo-US nuclear deal] 

--> Washington DC: On Monday came the first signal that the US 
Senate and the House were preparing to iron out differences 
between the two bills this week. And with that came a strong 
message from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. 

In a 5-page letter, Rice wrote that the nine-member conference 
committee that will draft the final bill either drop or dilute 
key controversial amendments including: 

  + A clause that bans transfer of nuclear enrichment and 
reprocessing technology to India

  + Cutting off nuclear co-operation and banning fuel supply from 
other countries if India violates NSG guidelines

  + Asking India to back US efforts to sanction Iran for its 
nuclear weapons program

  + Requiring an annual congressional report monitoring India's 
fuel use

Experts however predict that many of these clauses will be 
adopted as non-binding requirements making them harmless.

"There are probably 100s of these legislations that impose 
reporting requirements on the US government," says Director, 
South Asia Program and Center for Strategic and International 
Studies (CSIS), Teresita C Sschaffer. 

Administrations usually don't like them but in the end, they wont 
make a very big effort to get rid of them because the only thing 
that is required is a report. 

And the fact that you tie up a few dozen government servants 
writing the wretched reports is not something that 
administrations will pay a high political price to get rid of.

The conference committee met for the first time on Tuesday to 
kickstart the reconciliation process. The final vote in the 
Senate and the House on the reconciled bill is expected later 
this week. 

 2006, Global Broadcast News. All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
 22 RIA Novosti: State Duma passes bill on nuclear power sector reform
 
06/ 12/ 2006

MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) - The State Duma, the lower
house of Russia's parliament, passed in the first reading
Wednesday a presidential bill to reform the country's nuclear
power sector and facilitate its development. 

The document aims to establish a state-controlled holding
company, Atomenergoprom, using the sector's civilian assets, and
to subsequently allow other Russian corporate entities to
possess non-weapons-grade nuclear materials, nuclear
installations and nuclear storage facilities. 

Exclusive federal ownership of nuclear materials, nuclear
installations and nuclear storage facilities is currently a
major impediment to the development of the nuclear power sector. 

The bill was supported by 368 deputies, with 226 votes required
for passage. Fifty-eight MPs voted against, with one abstention. 

Atomenergoprom, which will be wholly controlled by the
government, is expected to be a large full-cycle corporation
engaged in activities ranging from uranium extraction, fuel
fabrication and electric power generation, to the construction
of nuclear power plants, both domestically and abroad. 

The new corporation will also include nuclear engineering units,
design and research institutes. 

The new government corporation will be established in two
stages. 

In the initial stage, Russia's nuclear fuel producer and
supplier TVEL will become a subsidiary of Atomenergoprom, with
100% of its shares to be assigned to the charter capital of the
new corporation, while nuclear enriching entities will join the
parent company of the new nuclear holding, as requested by the
defense ministry. 

Russia's nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko said there was no need
at the current stage to include spent nuclear fuel processing
and disposal facilities into the new corporation. 

© 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 23 Platts: Bruce Power asks Canadian regulator for export license
 
Boston (Platts)--6Dec2006
 
Bruce Power has asked Canada's National Energy Board to approve a 
plan to export up to 2,000 MW at any one time and up to 7 million 
MWh/year to the US from its Bruce nuclear station near 
Kincardine, Ontario, it said Wednesday.

     A spokesman said the generator's export-license application 
to the NEB was "part of our long-term planning process. A lot of 
other major generators in [Ontario] have export licenses." 

     Bruce Power had applied for such a license "to keep [its] 
options open" for the "shoulder months" when in-province demand 
was low and excess power would be available, he said. 

     "We can't store power," he said, adding that during 
low-demand periods there was ample transmission capacity 
available to send power to New York and Michigan. Quebec would 
also be a potential market, he said, adding that no export 
license was needed to send power there. 

     According to its export-license application, Bruce Power 
would cap its monthly exports at 1 million MWh. 

     Bruce Power has not yet contacted potential power buyers in 
New York and Michigan, the spokesman said, adding that it was 
"early in the process" and that Bruce Power would seek out buyers 
once its export license was in hand.

     Bruce Power is a partnership that leases Ontario Power 
Generation's Bruce station. A partnership of Cameco, TransCanada, 
the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, and two unions 
representing workers at the station leases and operates the four 
nuclear units at the Bruce B portion of the facility.

Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill 
Companies]       
*****************************************************************
 24 Platts: EnergySolutions completes its first UK acquisition
 
London (Platts)--6Dec2006
 
EnergySolutions has completed its first UK acquisition, 
demonstrating the group's commitment to work in the UK and grow 
its business there, said EnergySolutions International Group 
president Philip Strawbridge, December 4. 

A company statement said EnergySolutions EU Ltd. had acquired 
Safeguard International Solutions Ltd., which provides turnkey 
services for the disposition of radioactive materials, including 
waste, from non-nuclear power generating facilities such as 
universities, hospitals, industry and government. The UK firm is 
based in Oxfordshire. Strawbridge said his company believed that 
Safeguard's expertise would be valuable to both nuclear and 
non-nuclear customers. 

EnergySolutions, formerly Envirocare of Utah, acquired BNG 
America and Duratek this year. As part of its growth strategy, 
EnergySolutions has teamed with British Nuclear Group, Jacobs 
Babtie and Fluor Ltd., the UK operating arm of Fluor Corp., to 
bid for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's 200 million 
pounds-plus (roughly US$395 million-plus at current exchange 
rates) contract to manage the UK's low-level radwaste facility 
near Drigg, close to the Sellafield reprocessing complex. 

Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill 
Companies]       
*****************************************************************
 25 Platts: European utilities say new nuclear in UK a "tough proposition"
 
Amsterdam (Platts)--6Dec2006
 
Two European energy producers Wednesday cast doubt on
construction of a
new generation of nuclear plants in the UK even if a pro-nuclear
government
eases the way for new projects.

     "It looks to us a very tough proposition even if planning
is fixed,"
Gearoid Lane, director of gas and electricity procurement at UK
utility
Centrica, said at International Center for Business
Information's Sparks and
Flames conference in Amsterdam.

     The UK's Labor-led government has outlined a long-term
energy strategy
that calls for replacement of the current, ageing fleet of
reactors. But a
lack of certainty - about European-wide carbon prices and the
bureaucratic
process to win approval for new construction - are major
impediments.

     The carbon prices will affect the cost of producing power
with other
fuels, such as coal, and the planning process will affect the
time and expense
of developing nuclear projects.

     Lane said that even with greater certainty, new
construction remained
more costly and required more time to build than other
technologies, making
investment a difficult sell to the corporate boards that would
approve such
projects.

     He did not say Centrica had dismissed nuclear build, and
acknowledged
that the company, formerly British Gas, was a nuclear "rookie."

     "We are trying to wrap our minds around the issues," Lane
said.

     But Lane was not the only nuclear skeptic.

     Marc Hall, vice president of corporate strategy at
Germany's RWE Energy,
said companies also had to consider the vagaries of electoral
politics when
planning long-term projects.

     "Even if you have a government that who is pro-nuclear
power, I think
long-term investors and producers will take into account that
governments
change," Hall said.

     Not all assessments were pessimistic, however.
     Sonia Brown, director of wholesale markets at the UK Office
of Gas and
Electricity Markets, said investors may decide in favor of
nuclear investment
if the planning process is improved and barriers to new
construction are
removed.

     "I think nuclear is a viable technology," Brown said.
*****************************************************************
 26 Green Bay Press-Gazette: Point Beach staff pumped for nuclear disaster drill
 
  Paul Reiser, front, and Randy Pinchard of the Manitowoc County
Hazardous Materials Team wear hazmat suits while checking a car
for radiation during a training exercise Tuesday at the
Manitowoc County Highway Commission building on Wisconsin 310,
west of Two Rivers. Officials conducted a mock nuclear disaster
involving the Point Beach Nuclear Plant. Eric Young/Gannett
   
  What's next
 
Federal Emergency Management Agency and Nuclear Regulatory
Commission officials will release their findings of the
performance of state and local government from Tuesday's Point
Beach Nuclear Plant exercise at 11 a.m. on Friday in the
Manitowoc County Emergency Operations Center, 1025 S. Ninth St.,
Manitowoc.   

  

Posted December 6, 2006

 Point Beach staff pumped for nuclear disaster drill 

Feds will evaluate exercise, report on Friday 

By 
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers 



MANITOWOC — Tuesday's full-scale emergency response exercise at
the Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant went well, particularly in
contrast to the county's first evaluated exercise in 1981,
according to Nancy Crowley, Manitowoc County emergency
management director. 

"It's kind of almost funny when I think of the things that we
did back then compared to the things that we are doing now,"
Crowley said. "It's gotten to be a real state-of-the-art
operation. In those days, everybody who had a nuclear power
plant was kind of bubbling around because nobody knew for sure
how this was supposed to play out until you had some experience
under your belt." 

Crowley said the staff involved in the exercise took an
enthusiastic approach to its responsibilities and that
department members worked as a team during the exercise. 

Federal Emergency Management Agency and Nuclear Regulatory
Commission evaluators will spend the next two days piecing
together what happened during the exercise and release their



"We did not have any serious deficiencies," Crawley said. "I
don't think there was anything that we did or did not do to
jeopardize the safety of the public and that's the key bottom
line. Were we able to demonstrate today that in the event that
this ever happens for real, we can protect the health and safety
of the people who live within that 10-mile radius and I do
believe we did." 


More than 100 Manitowoc County employees and volunteers
participated in the exercise. About 15 county highway department
employees assisted with traffic control points for a 5- and
10-mile radius around the nuclear plant, helped with debris
removal and drove buses to evacuate exercise participants, said
Gary Kennedy, county highway commissioner. 

"I thought it went very well, and I would be surprised if we
didn't get a good evaluation," Kennedy said. "You have a gut
sense of how well it went." 

Manitowoc County response agencies, several municipal
departments, local radio stations, Two Rivers School District,
Silver Lake College, volunteer organizations and Aurora BayCare
Medical Center participated in the exercise. 

Similar staff operations will occur simultaneously in Kewaunee
County and in Madison. 

— Kristopher Wenn writes for the Manitowoc Herald Times
Reporter. 
  
  Contact us at 920-435-4411.        greenbaypressgazette.com
*****************************************************************
 27 Evansville Courier Press: Nuclear chief applauds area plant 

[courierpress.com] 

By TOM RAITHEL

 Courier &Press staff writer 464-7595 or raithel@evansville.net

Wednesday, December 6, 2006             
 
MOUNT VERNON, Ind. - The nuclear-energy industry is undergoing a
renaissance, and BWX Technologies in Mount Vernon will play an
important part, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission said Tuesday.
 
The local BWX Technologies (BWXT) plant is the only U.S. plant
that has received NRC approval to manufacture large components
for U.S. nuclear power plants, NRC Chairman Dale Klein told
employees at the plant Tuesday.
 	 	
And it takes so much time and money to build such plants, the
Mount Vernon facility is unlikely to be duplicated.
 
As a result, "You will be playing a key role in the manufacture
of these large components and in restarting the nuclear industry
in the United States," Klein told the employees.
 
Klein toured the BWXT facility and later spoke to the plant's
100 employees and to reporters.
 
Klein said his agency is responsible for the safety of the U.S.
nuclear industry, which has been at a standstill for nearly
three decades because of safety issues. The Three Mile Island
incident in Pennsylvania and the Chernobyl nuclear plant problem
in Russia contributed to those concerns.
 
"Nuclear is one of those places where an accident anywhere is an
accident everywhere," Klein said. "We need to be a strong
regulator to make sure the public feels secure that we are doing
our job," he said.
 
That job includes making sure the components of nuclear plants
are of high quality, Klein said.
 
"It's a lot easier to do our job if the components are made in
the United States," he added.
 
After his tour, Klein said he was impressed with the BWXT
facility and its employees.
 
Klein said the public is looking more favorably on nuclear
plants these days because of the growing demand for energy and
increased concern about the air pollution created by fossil
fuels.
 
Klein said he did not see that situation changing as a result of
the recent election.
 
While no nuclear plants have been built in the U.S. since 1978,
there are now 31 new orders for plants, and some of these are
expected to receive approval in 2007, Klein said. There are also
103 U.S. nuclear plants currently operating that occasionally
need replacement parts.
 
As a result, there is a need for the large components the Mount
Vernon plant makes, Klein said.
 
Representatives of BWXT's headquarters in Barberton, Ohio,
accompanied NRC officials on the tour Tuesday.
 
John Fees, president and chief operating officer of BWXT, agreed
with Klein's assessment of the industry.
 
"I think we're going ... into an area where there's more demand
(for nuclear plant components) than capacity," he said.
 
BWXT will keep its eye on the market and will expand the Mount
Vernon plant as the industry grows, Fees said.
 
The Mount Vernon facility, originally known as the Babcock
&Wilcox plant, was built in the 1960s. At its production peak in
the late 1970s, it employed 1,400.
 
Fees said that if the nuclear industry expands as he and Klein
expect, employment could exceed that level. The company is
evaluating what its employment needs will be over the next few
years.
 
"I think the possible expansion is a couple of years away," Fees
said.
 
One advantage of the Mount Vernon plant is that it is close to
the Ohio River, as well as to rail and highway - all of which
are used to transport materials to and from the plant.
 
The plant has a loading dock with two immense cranes capable of
lifting onto barges the large equipment - pieces weighing up to
700 tons - the plant makes.
 		 		 		 			 			 		 			 				Comments 				 				 					 					
						
Posted by Perplexed on December 6, 2006 at 2:15 a.m. (Suggest
removal)
			 						 							
© 2006 The Evansville Courier Co
*****************************************************************
 28 ITAR-TASS: Rosatom to build 5th unit of Kursk n-plant shortly - Kiriyenko

06.12.2006, 14.28


 MOSCOW, December 6 (Itar-Tass) - The construction of the fifth
power generating unit of the Kursk nuclear power plant will be
completed within shortest possible timeframe, the head of the
Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, told a
State Duma meeting on Wednesday. 

At present, this unit is almost 96-percent completed. 

“We will end the construction works within shortest possible
time and with small expenses,” he said. 

       
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
store in any medium (including in any other websites),
distribute, transmit, re-transmit, broadcast, modify or show in
public any part of the ITAR-TASS website without the prior
written permission of ITAR-TASS. 


*****************************************************************
 29 Business Day: SA renews agreement with nuclear watchdog                                                              

  Posted to the web on: 06 December 2006

Khulu Phasiwe

Public Policy Correspondent

 SA YESTERDAY renewed its five-year agreement with the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), committing the country 
to using its nuclear installations for peaceful purposes only. 

The agreement, known as the country programme framework, outlined 
SAs current and future priority needs in the areas of nuclear 
technical co-operation and development. The signing of the 
agreement also allows the IAEA to conduct periodic on-site 
inspections and verification to ensure compliance by all 
signatories. 

Science and technology department director-general Phil Mjwara 
signed the agreement on behalf of government. The department is 
resolute that nuclear energy should be applied for peaceful uses 
to benefit SAs health, agriculture, water and technology and 
other resources and sectors, Mjwara said. 

SA became a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 
1991. Responsibility for the management of governments relations 
with and obligations to the IAEA has been delegated to the 
foreign affairs department, which manages the international 
agreements and related matters on behalf of the minerals and 
energy as well as the science and technology departments. 

SA champions the use of nuclear energy for nonmilitary purposes. 

Government has said nuclear energy is going to be a big part of 
SAs energy mix in future. 

Eskom and partners are developing a 110MW nuclear power plant, 
the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR), which is expected to be 
operational by 2013. 

China said recently that it would also build its own PBMR nuclear 
plant. In March, China signed a memorandum of understanding with 
SA enabling them to share technical information for the 
development of PBMR plants. 

Copyright © 2005 BDFM Publishers (Pty) Ltd. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 30 Gallup Independent: Nukes: The Next Generation - 

By Kathy Helms Dine Bureau 

Wednesday, December 06, 2006 

WINDOW ROCK -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory
Committee on Nuclear Waste will meet next week in Maryland to
discuss, among other things, advanced nuclear fuel recycling
centers. 

Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards representatives plan to
brief the committee on their "conceptual approach to licensing
future Global Nuclear Energy Partnership facilities," according
to an announcement in today's Federal Register. 

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), announced in
February by the U.S. Department of Energy, is designed to reduce
Americaąs dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuels by
recycling nuclear fuel and building a new generation of nuclear
power plants, or "Advanced Burner Reactors," that would be
powered by the recycled fuel. 

GNEP plans also include developing and constructing small-scale
reactors designed for the needs of developing countries. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said recently that 16 power
companies have announced their intentions to apply for combined
construction and operating licenses for nearly 30 new nuclear
plants. Worldwide, more than 130 new nuclear plants are on the
drawing board. 

DOE has invited industry from around the globe to propose ways
to move forward with fuel treatment and separation, and for the
Advanced Burner Reactor. 

Government laboratories have been instructed to find the best
way to proceed with an Advanced Fuel Cycle Facility. 

An advanced nuclear fuel recycling center would contain
facilities where usable uranium and transuranics are separated
from spent light water reactor fuel and then used to make new
fuel that can be reused in a nuclear reactor, according to DOE. 

An advanced recycling reactor is a fast reactor that would
demonstrate how to reuse and consume materials recovered from
spent nuclear fuel, including long-lived radioactive elements
such as plutonium that would otherwise have to be disposed of in
a geologic repository. Both facilities could be located at the
same site. 

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M., is the
"geologic repository" for transuranic wastes. Transuranic wastes
can include plutonium, neptunium, americium and curium. 

Contact-handled transuranic waste now passes through the Navajo
Nation and Gallup via Interstate 40 on its way to the WIPP. 

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Lorenzo Curley is sponsoring
legislation to approve a cooperative agreement between DOE's
Carlsbad Field Office and the Navajo Nation. 

That agreement would allow DOE to continue transporting
transuranic waste through 10 Navajo Nation chapter communities
in Apache and McKinley Counties once the Nation signs off on the
agreement. 

Though the Notice of Financial Assistance Award states that the
Nation could receive up to $250,000 over the life of the
agreement, DOE has only obligated $31,250 for the fiscal year to
hire a WIPP Emergency Services Liaison. 

That liaison would conduct tabletop exercises and community
education events to prepare the Navajo Nation to deal with an
accidental spill of radioactive transuranic waste on I-40. 

 Curley told the Navajo Nation Public Safety Committee recently
that future waste shipments would contain much higher levels of
radioactivity than the wastes now passing through the
reservation. 

DOE announced Nov. 29 that it had selected the recipients of
GNEP siting grants. Eleven sites, including two in New Mexico,
are to be analyzed for potential nuclear recycling facilities. 

Eleven commercial and public consortia have been selected to
receive up to $16 million in grants, subject to negotiation, to
conduct detailed siting studies for the spent fuel recycling
facilities.  

DOE will award the grants early next year after negotiations are
completed. 

Of the 11 sites located throughout the country, six are owned
and operated by DOE. The study sites and sponsors are: 

* Atomic City, Idaho, EnergySolutions LLC 
* Barnwell, S.C., EnergySolutions LLC 
* Hanford Site, Wash., Tri-City Industrial Development
Council/Columbia Basin Consulting Group 
* Hobbs, N.M., Eddy Lea Energy Alliance 
* Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho, Regional Development
Alliance Inc. 
* Morris, Ill., General Electric Co. 
* Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tenn., Community Reuse
Organization of East Tennessee 
* Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Ky., Paducah Uranium Plant
Asset Utilization Inc. 
* Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Ohio, Piketon Initiative
for Nuclear Independence LLC 
* Roswell, N.M., EnergySolutions LLC 
* Savannah River National Laboratory, S.C., Economic Development
Partnership of Aiken and Edgefield Counties. 

The grantees will perform detailed siting studies related to
hosting one or both of the Consolidated Fuel Treatment Center
and the Advanced Burner Reactor. 

Congress provided up to $20 million in FY 2006 for spent fuel
recycling facilities siting studies. The study information may
be used in environmental impact statements to evaluate potential
impacts. Once the EIS is completed, DOE then will decide whether
to move forward with the facilities, and if so, where to locate
them. 

Fourteen applications were submitted to DOE for review and from
those, 12 were chosen to receive a comprehensive merit review.
Two of the 12 recently decided to collaborate because they plan
to study the same site, DOE said. 

The development of advanced nuclear fuel recycling facilities is
a major element of GNEP, part of President Bushąs Advanced
Energy Initiative. 

For more information: http://www.gnep.gov/ and
http://www.nuclear.energy.gov/. 

*****************************************************************
 31 MW: (AEHI) Announces Letter of Intent to Construct New Nuclear Plant


Alternate Energy Holdings (AEHI) Announces Letter of Intent to
Construct New Nuclear Plant
 
ROANOKE, VA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 05, 2006 -- Alternate
Energy Holdings (PINKSHEETS: AEHI) announced a letter of intent,
signed December 1, 2006, to construct, own, and operate a
nuclear power plant near Bruneau, Idaho. The proposed 1500
Megawatt light water reactor will provide much needed
electricity for local farm co-op irrigation, while the majority
of the power produced will be sold in the national energy market
to help address west coast power supply challenges. When
completed, this will be Idaho's first large commercial nuclear
plant and only the second one in the region. After approval of
the plant site and design/development preparation, the modular
design can be completed in approximately 36 months -- placing
AEHI at the forefront of nuclear construction in the United
States. 

President and CEO Don Gillispie states, "This is a huge step for
an emerging growth company. We have been working diligently for
months developing a plan to enter the operating market, and
Idaho is a wonderful opportunity for us to begin fulfilling our
corporate vision." The company announced its business strategy,
which includes a project along these lines, early in the year
and expects a binding agreement executed early in 2007 followed
by plant construction in early 2008. 

About Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc. 

Alternate Energy Holdings actively develops and markets
innovative clean energy sources to reduce dependence on foreign
energy sources. Current projects include an economical and
environmentally friendly fuel additive that will reduce the cost
of natural gas energy production by 25% to 40%, marketable
lightning harvesting technology for electricity production, coal
to diesel fuel conversion, carbon dioxide removal from gas
turbine exhaust, and urban mini-reactors for safe, compact power
generation 

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995: This press release may contain certain
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of
the Securities and Exchange Act of 1933, as amended, and Section
21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended,
which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created
thereby. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties. 
                                
 SOURCE:  Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc. 

Copyright Market Wire    
*****************************************************************
 32 UPI: Russian lawmakers OK nuclear sector reform
     
  United Press International - NewsTrack - 

12/6/2006 5:37:00 PM -0500

MOSCOW, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- The lower chamber of Russia's parliament
has passed a bill that would reform the country's nuclear power
industry and its development. 

The bill would establish a state-controlled holding company,
Atomenergoprom, using the sector's civilian assets, RIA Novost
said Wednesday. The legislation subsequently would allow other
Russian corporations to have non-weapons-grade nuclear
materials, nuclear installations and nuclear storage facilities. 

Exclusive federal ownership of nuclear materials, nuclear
installations and nuclear storage facilities is a roadblock to
the development of nuclear power in Russia, officials said. 

Under provisions of the bill, Atomenergoprom, which would be
developed in two stages, would be engaged in uranium extraction,
fuel fabrication and electric power generation, construction of
nuclear power plants in Russia and elsewhere, nuclear
engineering units, and design and research institutes.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 33 Guardian Unlimited: U.S.-Indian Nuclear Bill Bogged Down 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday December 7, 2006 1:16 AM
 	
By FOSTER KLUG Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - A bill to allow U.S. shipment of civilian
nuclear fuel to India has bogged down as lawmakers try to
reconcile differences in the waning days of the congressional
session. 

The second-ranking House Republican stalled a preliminary
settlement on the text after an agreement was reached Wednesday
morning, according to congressional aides. 

The aides, who declined to be identified because of the
sensitivity of negotiations over the bill, said Rep. John
Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared to be interested in attaching
unrelated legislation, though they did not know what that might
be. 

The majority leader's office denied that he was holding up the
bill and said talks were under way. 

Negotiations were expected to resume Thursday. 

The Indian plan is a foreign policy priority for President Bush,
whose Republican majority in Congress ends in January when
Democrats take control. 

Both the House and Senate have endorsed the proposal, which
would overturn three decades of U.S. anti-proliferation policy. 

The Senate version would require that Bush determine that India
is ``fully and actively'' cooperating with U.S.-led efforts to
confront Iran's nuclear ambitions before he could allow nuclear
cooperation with India. The House on Tuesday approved a
nonbinding motion to instruct its negotiators to retain the
Senate's language on Iran. 

The Bush administration and the Indian government have urged
lawmakers to remove the condition. 

Critics of the agreement say U.S.-Indian cooperation could boost
India's nuclear arsenal and spark a nuclear arms race with rival
Pakistan. Proponents say the plan strengthens a key relationship
with a friendly Asian power that has long maintained what the
United States considers a responsible nuclear program. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 34 Patriot-News:TMI Mock Drill
 
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:19:17 -0800

X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (borg.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61]
X-Sender-Host-Address: 63.203.231.61
X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST

<x-flowed>


'Terrorist attacks' repelled at TMI

NRC conducts 2 simulated raids on nuclear plant
Monday, December 04, 2006

BY GARRY LENTON
Of The Patriot-News

The simulated attack on the Three Mile Island nuclear plant began in the 
dark, shortly before 8 p.m., with an explosion.

The attackers, presumably terrorists intent on causing a reactor meltdown, 
tried to blow up part of the double-walled security fence that rings the 
plant. But they didn't get far.

Within minutes they were dead, killed by Wackenhut security officers under 
contract with plant owner Exelon Nuclear to protect the nuclear station. 
One security officer was killed.

A second attack, staged the next night, ended the same way: All of the 
attackers were killed. This time, two security officers died.

None of the attackers made it into the protected area of the plant.

"People were very pleased with the way it turned out," said Ralph DeSantis, 
spokesman for plant operatorAmerGen Energy, a subsidiary of Exelon Nuclear.

Others, such as Eric Epstein, chairman of the watchdog group Three Mile 
Island Alert, were skeptical of the drill's usefulness because plant 
operators are given months to prepare for the raids.

"Terrorists don't make reservations," he said.

For two nights -- Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 -- the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission conducted so-called "force-on-force" drills at TMI. The drills 
are part of a program to ensure that security at the nation's 64 commercial 
nuclear plants meets agency requirements. They are designed to simulate 
combat situations and use the same techniques as those used by the military.

The drills are conducted in secret. The NRC will not discuss the process 
except in general terms, nor will it reveal the outcome of the drills.

The descriptions used for this story were provided to The Patriot-News by a 
source close to the testing who requested anonymity. The source agreed to 
describe what took place in general terms so as not to reveal protected 
information, such as the number of attackers and the type of weapons they 
used.

U.S. sets level of attack:

The NRC, the federal agency that licenses commercial nuclear reactors, 
conducts force-on-force drills at each plant about once every three years.

"We have regulations that require [plants to have] certain security plans 
and personnel, and we do inspections to verify that they have these things 
in place," said Richard Correia, deputy division director for security 
oversight in the NRC's Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. 
"We expect licensees to be able to defend their site against the design 
basis threat."

The design basis threat is the amount of force that the agency expects a 
plant to be able to repel. The NRC will not disclose what it considers that 
threat to be.

The requirements are based on U.S. intelligence agency evaluations of the 
amount of force likely to be launched against a nuclear plant by a 
terrorist or saboteur.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the NRC increased the level of 
threat. But critics, including the Government Accountability Office, the 
investigative arm of Congress, said the NRC did not raise it enough.

Sources familiar with the requirement have told The Patriot-News that the 
anticipated attack force is significantly smaller than the 19 terrorists 
who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

The drills are designed by the NRC with help from consultants to be 
lifelike and challenging, said Ron Albert, chief of the NRC's Security 
Performance Evaluation branch.

The drills are more like a take-home test than a pop quiz, however, because 
there is no way to include the element of surprise.

TMI officials were told in August they would be tested at the end of 
October. The NRC also spent two weeks before the drill conducting 
interviews with security officers, observing firing-range practice and 
conducting "tabletop" drills. The tabletops are like a chess game, Albert 
said.

Plant officials are given a time period of a few hours during which the 
attack will come. They are not told the number of attackers or how the 
assault will unfold.

The Oct. 31 mock attack began 15 minutes into the time period. The Nov. 1 
attack came an hour into the period.

Despite the warning and preparation, some plants still come up short.

"We've have had some issues we have had to deal with. Not a whole lot, but 
a few," Albert said.

Critics point to warning:

The warning provided to the plants leaves some critics wondering how 
effective the drills can be.

"So, if al-Qaida, like the NRC, gives TMI sufficient notice so that the 
armed responders can get in the 10 weeks of training needed to feel 
prepared, the good guys will likely defeat the bad guys," said David 
Lochbaum, a nuclear safety expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists. 
"But what if, for some odd reason, al-Qaida doesn't provide sufficient 
notice?"

A more realistic result would be achieved if the agency gave seven days' 
notice, not 70, he said.

The NRC's Correia said safety and logistics require the advance notice. It 
takes time to get people in place to oversee the drills and ensure that 
they are run safely, he said. "You can't do it any sooner than we do 
without complications," he said.

During the drill, defenders and attackers play a sophisticated game of 
laser tag, using the same technology used by the U.S. military to train 
troops in direct-fire situations. Transmitters attached to each person and 
vehicle replicate the ranges and lethality of weapons.

Those who have trained with the system say it is the closest you can get to 
the real thing without using bullets and explosives.

"This is very realistic," DeSantis said.

The drills help the company fine-tune its defenses, he said. In 2006, 
Exelon spent $5 million on physical security.

Scott Portzline, who studies nuclear security for Three Mile Island Alert, 
acknowledged that the drills are important but said they could be improved.

"The problem is the test is still not a realistic scenario of what can 
occur today," he said. "The number of attackers and the tactics that they 
use are not realistic."

Terrorists use the weapons of war, such as rocket-propelled grenades and 
powerful bombs, Portzline said. If those are turned against nuclear power 
plants, the military will have to step in because private companies will no 
longer be able to afford to protect their assets, he said.

GARRY LENTON: 255-8264 or glenton@patriot-news.com




©2006 The Patriot-News
© 2006 PennLive.com All Rights Reserved.

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 35 Reuters: Russia to airlift bomb-grade uranium from Germany

06 Dec 2006 19:47:50 GMT06

Source: Reuters  

BERLIN, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Russian experts will airlift 300 kg 
(660 pounds) of enriched uranium, much of it weapons-grade, from 
a Soviet-era nuclear research reactor in eastern Germany back to 
Russia, officials said on Wednesday.

 "We cannot release the precise date due to security reasons,"
said a nuclear official in Germany acquainted with plans to
remove 200 kg of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) and 100 kg of
low-enriched uranium from the research reactor in Rossendorf,
outside Dresden.

 The 200 kg of HEU could theoretically fuel around 10 nuclear
weapons if the material is pure enough, he said.

 The transport will be done by airplane and will take place
before the end of the year, he added on condition of anonymity.

 A German government official confirmed what he said.

 The research reactor was built by the Soviet Union in the
former communist East Germany, which ceased to exist after
German reunification in 1990. The Rossendorf centre remains a
key site for nuclear research.

 The transport of the uranium will likely face demonstrations by
German anti-nuclear activitists, who often protest transports of
nuclear waste and other materials across German territory.

 The recovery of the uranium is part of a joint U.S.-Russian
programme in cooperation with a U.N. nuclear watchdog called the
Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI). Its aim is to find,
secure and recover dangerous nuclear materials around the world
to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists.

 In an August 2006 fact sheet, the U.S. Department of Energy
said the GTRI programme had secured more than 400 sites around
the world containing enough radioactive material for 6,000
"dirty bombs", crude explosives laced with nuclear material.

 The GTRI was launched in 2004.		 		 		
 		 
*****************************************************************
 36 AFP: Russia should conduct own probe into ex-spy's death: minister -
    
 Wed Dec 6, 3:04 AM ET 
		 	 
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia should carry out its own investigation into 
the poisoning death in London of former intelligence agent 
Alexander Litvinenko, the deputy justice minister was quoted by a 
newspaper here as saying. 

Given that Litvinenko was a Russian citizen, as well as having 
British citizenship, "our security agencies should not be 
indifferent to what happened," Vladimir Kolesnikov said in quotes 
carried by the Kommersant newspaper, deriving from the Interfax 
news agency.
 
"We should take a procedural decision and carry out our own
full, multi-faceted, objective investigation... cooperating with
the security agencies of other countries including Britain," he
said.
 
On Tuesday Russia laid down strict ground rules for visiting
British counter-terrorism police probing the poisoning and ruled
out the extradition of any suspects.
 
The British team flew in to a frosty reception in the Russian
capital on Monday and, according to a British Embassy spokesman
here, has already begun their inquiries into a case that has
created serious tensions between London and Moscow.
 
While the Russian side has promised to cooperate with the
investigation, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika made it clear that
the British officers would only be allowed to work under tight
controls.
 
At a tense press conference, Chaika stressed that only Russian
investigators had the right to actually question witnesses in
Russia and ruled out any possibility of the British team making
any arrests while here or extraditing suspects.
 
"They can't arrest Russian citizens," he said. "If they have to
be investigated, we can do that in Russia according to a
convention. We can open an inquiry... and put them on trial in
Russia."
 
Chaika also questioned claims made in the British media that the
radioactive substance apparently used to poison Litvinenko,
polonium-210, originated from Russia.
 
"We believe there haven't been any losses of polonium here," he
said, adding that the British authorities would have to provide
hard evidence to the contrary before prosecutors could open an
investigation.
 
Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23, accused Russian
President Vladimir Putin
" /> Vladimir Putinof ordering his poisoning -- a charge sternly
denied by the Kremlin which has taken umbrage at coverage of the
case in the British media.
 
"I see no grounds for speculation actively held in Western media
that this was the long arm of the KGB or FSB, that Litvinenko
knew a lot and was an important intelligence officer. But that
does not at all correspond to reality," Russia's Defense
Minister Sergei Ivanov told the Greek Eleftherotypia newspaper
Tuesday.
 
According to Ivanov, himself a secret service veteran,
Litvinenko was working in a minor role in the interior ministry
when he was hired by the FSB in the mid-1990s for a newly
created department combatting organised crime, and was thus
unlikely to have been much of an insider.
 
Andrei Lugovoi, one of three Russians who met with Litvinenko in
London on the day he fell ill, said Tuesday that he was willing
to be interviewed by the British police team.
 
"I am counting on meeting them in the coming days," Lugovoi, who
like Litvinenko is a former secret service agent, said in a
telephone interview broadcast on NTV television.
 
"If they show me a list of people that they want to meet and if
there are names missing from that list, names that I believe
would be interesting to propose to them, then I certainly will,"
Lugovoi said.
 
According to the Kommersant newspaper, police are investigating
why traces of radiation were found on the planes on which
Lugovoi flew to London and returned to Moscow, and also in rooms
in two London hotels where he stayed.
 
Traces of polonium-210 have also been at London football club
Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, Britain's Health Protection Agency
said Tuesday. 

Police last week listed a dozen locations where the substance,
of which large quantities were found in Litvinenko's urine, had
been detected, but the Emirates Stadium was not one of them. 

"Minute quantities (of polonium-210) were found which were
barely detectable in a couple of localised areas ... there was
no risk to public health," a HPA spokeswoman told AFP. 

"Even the traces that were found were at barely detectable
levels." 

Because there are levels at which polonium is simply "naturally
occurring", the HPA had to check it out and ensure that there
was no public health risk, she added. 

Three Russian men, Lugovoi, Dmitri Kovtun and Vyacheslav
Sokolenko, who met with Litvinenko at a central London hotel on
November 1, the day he fell ill and three weeks before he
eventually died, also watched a football match between Arsenal
and CSKA Moscow at the Emirates Stadium, the Russian newspaper
Kommersant said earlier this month. 

Meanwhile Italian police raided the home and offices of Mario
Scaramella, an Italian contact of Litvinenko, suspecting him of
violating Italian waste management laws, the ANSA news agency
said Tuesday. 

Scaramella is allegedly connected to a scheme involving the
illegal use of building site waste. 

He is in hospital in London after testing positive for a
radiocative substance, but doctors have so far failed to detect
any symptoms of the radiation poisoning that killed the former
Russian spy Litvinenko. 

The raids targeted Scaramella's home and several offices in
Naples, as well as offices he regularly used in Torre del Greco,
Marigliano and San Sebastiano in the Naples region. 

The mass circulation daily Izvestia 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 links between Litvinenko, the exiled Russian businessman
Boris Berezovsky and Chechen envoy Akhmed Zakayev, "one can't
exclude that the bomb was being created in Britain," Izvestia
said.
 	 		 			
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 37 Guardian Unlimited: Traces of Polonium Found at London Stadium 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Wednesday December 6, 2006 11:46 AM
 	
AP Photo LMD103 
By ROBERT BARR Associated Press Writer 

LONDON (AP) - Traces of the radioactive isotope polonium-210
have been detected at a London stadium that hosted a soccer
match attended by a key figure in the probe of the fatal
radiation poisoning of a former Russian spy, a British official
said Wednesday. 

The key figure, Andrei Lugovoi, who is hospitalized in Moscow
and being tested for possible polonium contamination, was to be
interviewed by British investigators Wednesday, according to a
Russian news agency report confirmed by a Lugovoi associate. 

``I have been officially informed that our meeting with Scotland
Yard detectives will take place today and proceed with the
participation of employees of the Russian Prosecutor General's
Office,'' Lugovoi said, according to ITAR-Tass. 

Vyacheslav Sokolenko, a business associate, confirmed in an
interview with The Associated Press that Lugovoi would be
meeting with British investigators. 

Lugovoi, who is also a former Russian agent, attended a soccer
match at Emirates Stadium on Nov. 1 after meeting Alexander
Litvinenko. Litvinenko fell ill that day and died Nov. 23 in
London. Toxicologists found polonium-210 in his body. 

The radiation found at the soccer stadium was ``barely
detectable'' and posed no public health risk, said Katherine
Lewis, spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency. 

ABC News reported that British detectives had identified Lugovoi
as a prime suspect in the poisoning. The report cited an unnamed
senior British official. 

Alexander Goldfarb, a friend of Litvinenko's, said he doubted
that Lugovoi played a role in the killing. 

``I frankly doubt that he was the hit man because hit men are
usually people hiding in the dark,'' Goldfarb told the AP. ``I
think it's one of his associates, I think he was used unawares
... Now his life is in danger because he knows a lot.'' 

On Tuesday, Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika said that his
office would fully cooperate with the British investigators, but
all figures in the case would be questioned by Russian
prosecutors in the presence of the British officers. 

On his deathbed, Litvinenko, a strong critic of the Russian
government, blamed President Vladimir Putin for the poisoning.
The Kremlin has vehemently denied the accusations. 

Lugovoi, who had become a businessman, has said that he knew
Litvinenko for a decade. He said Litvinenko had contacted him
from London about a year ago with some business-related
proposals, and that they had met intermittently in London since
then. 

Lugovoi traveled to London three times during the month before
Litvinenko's death and met with Litvinenko four times, according
to Russian media. 

The case has further strained already tense relations between
Russia and Britain, which has infuriated the Kremlin by giving
asylum to tycoon and fierce Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky and
Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev in addition to Litvinenko, a
former Federal Security Service officer. 

Lugovoi was at one point a bodyguard for former Russian Prime
Minister Yegor Gaidar, who also recently fell ill with an
illness that Russian doctors have been unable to diagnose. They
say they suspect poisoning, but are unable to detect a toxic
substance, a Gaidar aide has said. 

--- 
Associated Press writer Judith Ingram in Moscow contributed to
this report. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 38 Sydney Morning Herald: Australia to urge nuclear test ban - 

www.smh.com.au

December 7, 2006 - 11:49AM
 	 	
The government has backed a motion from the Australian Democrats
urging other countries to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test
Ban Treaty (CTBT) as soon as possible.
 
The United Nations opened the CTBT for signature ten years ago
to ban all nuclear tests for all time.
 
One hundred and thirty-seven countries have ratified the CTBT
including Australia, however there are a number of notable
exclusions including the US, China, Pakistan, Israel and North
Korea, meaning the treaty cannot be enforced.
 
Forty-four countries, including Australia, formally participated
in the 1996 session of the Conference on Disarmament, and
possess nuclear power or research reactors.
 
Thirty-four of these countries have already ratified the treaty
and the UN is waiting for 10 more before it can be enforced.
 
Democrats leader Lyn Allison's motion calls for all of these
countries to sign and ratify the CTBT as soon as possible and to
support an early start to negotiation on a fissile material
cut-off treaty.
 
Senator Allison called for all nuclear-weapon states to further
reduce nuclear systems to promote international stability and
security.
 
Her motion also emphasises the need for all countries to take
steps to eliminate nuclear weapons.
 
The motion was passed in the Senate.
 	
© 2006 	AAP
Brought to you by [aap] 	
 
Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald.
*****************************************************************
 39 Boston.com: Radiation pills become available in Pilgrim area - 
 
+ Radiation pills become available in Pilgrim area Associated
Press Radiation pills promised four years ago to protect
residents of the Cape and Islands in case of an accident at the
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station have arrived at local towns and
will soon be broadly distributed. 

Associated Press] 
 
December 6, 2006
 
BARNSTABLE, Mass. --Radiation pills promised four years ago to
protect residents of the Cape and Islands in case of an accident
at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station have arrived at local towns
and will soon be broadly distributed.

The tablets of potassium iodide, or KI, block the thyroid gland
from absorbing radioactive isotopes -- reducing the risk of
thyroid cancer-- if they are taken immediately after radiation
is released from a nuclear power plant, according to the Food
and Drug Administration.

In 2002, the state Legislature passed a law making KI available
to all residents of the Cape and Islands.

In Plymouth, where the plant is located, health officials have
already distributed the pills free through pharmacies, but only
10 percent of the population picked them up, the Cape Cod Times
reported. The pills are now stockpiled at local schools.

On the Cape and Islands, every town on the Cape and Islands has
received at least a portion of its stockpile from the state
Department of Public Health within the last three weeks.

Sandwich will begin handing out the pills through the town
clerk's office next week. Other towns are still formulating
plans to distribute them.

State Rep. Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth, who sponsored the
amendment to have Cape and Islands towns receive the pills, said
people should not rely on KI for protection.

"It's not a cure-all, but it protects the thyroid gland, which
is the most susceptible," Patrick said.

Patrick said the pills were delayed by a lack of urgency on the
part of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and
squabbles over how to pay for them. The pills eventually were
paid for by Entergy, the owner of the Pilgrim plant.

Residents are allowed two pills per household member. The pills
have a shelf life until 2013.

------

Information from: Cape Cod Times, [ /] 
© Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 40 Cape Cod Times: KI - Potassium Iodide Pills 

(December 6, 2006)

 By GEORGE BRENNAN

 STAFF WRITER

Those tiny pills promised more than four years ago to protect the 
thyroid gland in the event of an accident at Pilgrim Nuclear 
Power Station have finally arrived.

Tablets of potassium iodide, or KI, will protect the thyroid 
gland if they are taken immediately after the release of 
radiation from a nuclear power plant. Towns across the Cape and 
Islands must now figure out how to store them and how to get them 
into the hands of residents - and visitors. (Staff photo by Kevin 
Mingora) 

In 2002, the state Legislature passed a law making potassium
iodide, known as KI, available to all residents of the Cape and
Islands.

 The allotments received in recent weeks even account for summer
populations. Falmouth received 200,000 pills instead of 33,000,
for example.

 Most towns are still formulating plans to distribute the KI,
but Sandwich will begin handing them out through the town
clerk's office next week.

 In Barnstable, on the other hand, health director Thomas McKean
has proposed spending $100,000 to advertise the free pills and
hire temporary staff to make them available on nights and
weekends. He said he hopes to put KI in the hands of people and
not stored in a town closet.

Potassium iodide facts
  

In Plymouth, where the nuclear power plant is located, health
officials tried to distribute them free through pharmacies, but
less than 10 percent of the population picked them up, said
Nancy Erickson, a spokeswoman for the town's emergency director.
Now the pills are stockpiled at local schools, where students
must have signed permission slips on file in order to get them.
Adults in Plymouth interested in getting the pills are directed
to the state Department of Public Health, she said.

 KI works by blocking the thyroid gland from absorbing
radioactive isotopes of iodine released during a nuclear
accident, reducing the risk of thyroid cancer, according to the
Food and Drug Administration. The pills should be taken only
after a release of radiation from a nuclear power plant. They
are especially effective in children and are readily available
for purchase on the Internet. On one site they are listed at
$11.99 for 14 tablets.

 ''Right on the heels of Sept. 11, it became obvious that
nuclear power plants were on the target list of terrorists,''
said state Rep. Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth, who sponsored the
amendment to have Cape and Islands towns receive stockpiles of
the pills, along with towns within a 20-mile radius of nuclear
plants.

 Health officials warn that people should not rely on KI for
protection. ''It's not a cure-all, but it protects the thyroid
gland, which is the most susceptible,'' Patrick said.

 A lack of urgency on the part of the Massachusetts Emergency
Management Agency and squabbles over how to pay for the pills
resulted in the lengthy delay in receiving them, Patrick said.

 The pills eventually were paid for by Entergy, the owner of the
Pilgrim plant.

 Every town on the Cape and Islands has received at least a
portion of its stockpile from the state Department of Public
Health within the last three weeks. Officials in all towns but
Yarmouth were reached by the Times this week. Only Sandwich
officials said they had a definite plan for distributing the
pills. Beginning Dec. 15, KI will be available from 9 a.m. to
4:30 p.m. weekdays in the town clerk's office at the town hall
annex, Sandwich health agent David Mason said.

 Residents are allowed two pills per household member. The
clerk's office has the ability to cross-reference voting and
local census data.

 The town has not figured out how to stockpile the pills for
visitors to the town's motels and inns or its 4,000
schoolchildren, Mason said.

 ''We're in the process of reviewing that now,'' Mason said of
the schools. ''There are a lot of financial issues and legal
issues with it.''

 The pills have a shelf life until 2013. There are no provisions
in the law to replace them, he said.

 Along with the KI, Sandwich residents will receive a consumer
package insert provided by the health department with directions
for use and potential side effects. That sheet warns people who
are allergic to iodine not to take KI.

 Some town health agents said they will wait for a regional
health meeting scheduled for Dec. 15 at the Barnstable Superior
Court building to come up with dispensing plans. ''The
likelihood is we will be doing this in June,'' Dennis health
agent Terrence Hayes said.

 Some local health departments are too busy with ongoing flu
clinics to deal with the KI now, county health director George
Heufelder said. ''We'll put together a logical plan for putting
it out.''

 
Chatham had planned only for enough doses for students and
pregnant women, health agent Robert Duncanson said. He plans to
reorganize the town's KI working group to formulate a way to
distribute the 70,000 doses Chatham received.

 Other health agents had just about given up on KI arriving.

 ''We had a plan and the project went nowhere,'' Harwich health
agent Paula Champagne said. ''Now we have to dust off the
preparations we did a few years ago.''

 George Brennan can be reached at gbrennan@capecodonline.com. 

(Published: December 6, 2006)           

Copyright © 2006 Cape Cod Times. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 41 FOX11AZ.com: Low turnout for beryllium meeting

News for Tucson, Arizona 

10:25 AM MST on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 

By: Ryan O'Donnell - Fox 11 News 

Pima County votes to renew an air-quality permit for a plant
that works with a toxic substance and that isn't sitting well
with some environmental groups. It's been a hot topic over the
years here at Sunnyside. 

Anticipating a lot of people, Pima County held a public meeting
Tuesday night to explain a new air quality permit for brush
ceramic products, but hardly anybody showed up. 

It was supposed to an open house, addressing concerns, neighbors
have about the possible dangers of beryllium in the Sunnyside
area, but the neighbors were pretty much a no-show. For about
the last five years South Side residents have complained that
Brush Ceramic Products hasnt been doing enough to ensure the
safety of their community, including its students at Sunnyside
High school. 

"Weve been monitoring for about five years within the
district," said Gene Repola who works for the School District,
and in those five years of testing, not once did he see
beryllium levels exceed federal standards, "our numbers have
always consistently come back lower than the allowed amount." 

But according to Rob Kulakofsky, those readings dont have to
exceed the standards to be harmful. 

"Beryllium is so incredibly dangerous," said Kulakofsky, "some
scientists say there is no none safe exposure level to
beryllium."  

For the next five years, Brush Ceramic Products will be able to
continue operating as they are, the Pima County Department of
Environmental Quality has granted them a five year air-quality
permit, within the deal, more tests are mandatory, and it wont
be up to the School District to do them which saves them
30-thousand dollars a year. 

"In partnership with PDEQ weve agreed to voluntarily fund an
air monitoring program in response to some of the community
comments, Sunnyside School District was previously monitoring,
now its going to be taken over by Brush and PDEQ," said John
Scheatzle with Brush Ceramic Products.  

Two environmentalist groups have appealed the countys decision
for the permit. Now the county must hold a hearing on the appeal
within 30 days, so far, no date has been set. 
	 		
© 2006 KMSB-TV, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 42 Guardian Unlimited: Radiation 'found in Moscow Embassy' 

[UP] 

Press Association 

Wednesday December 6, 2006 8:23 PM
 	
Experts have found minor traces of radiation at the British
Embassy in Moscow but they presented no health risk to the
public, according to an embassy spokesman.
 
"A team of experts have concluded a precautionary check of the
British Embassy in Moscow," he said. "They have found no danger
to public health.
 
"Small traces of radiation were found below level that present a
risk to health. The Embassy is working as normal. There is no
cause for concern."
 
The official did not indicate what kind of radiation had been
found or give any further details.
 
Earlier, it was revealed that Andrei Lugovoi, a key witness in
the radiation poisoning case of former Russian agent Alexander
Litvinenko, would not meet with British investigators on
Wednesday, a Russian news agency reported.
 
ITAR-Tass quoted a lawyer for Lugovoi, Andrei Romashov, as
saying the meeting with Scotland Yard detectives would take
place either on Thursday or on Friday.
 
"Representatives of law enforcement organs have not notified us
of a date or time," Mr Romashov was quoted as saying.
 
Vyacheslav Sokolenko, who has co-operated with Mr Lugovoi in
business ventures, said earlier that the meeting would take
place, but declined to state the time or place.
 
The prosecutor general's office refused to confirm the meeting.
The agency also said investigators have interviewed for a second
time a business associate of Mr Lugovoi - Dmitry Kovtun, who
joined Lugovoi in meeting Mr Litvinenko on November 1, the date
when the ex-KGB agent said he had been poisoned.
 
Mr Litvinenko, 43, died on November 23 in London. Toxicologists
found polonium-210, a rare radioactive substance, in his body.
Mr Lugovoi is a former security service agent who now has
various business interests.
 
© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved.
 
    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 43 Pahrump Valley Times: Pro-Yucca Mountain group challenges Reid        

 dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
 
Dec. 06, 2006 

PAROCHIAL INTERESTS? 

SOME NUKE INTERESTS INDICATE A WILLINGNESS TO WORK WITH NEW
MAJORITY LEADER 	 

By STEVE TETREAULT Stephens Washington Bureau      
 
WASHINGTON -- Leaders of a coalition that supports the Yucca
Mountain repository Thursday began applying pressure on
Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, charging that he is "abusing" his
new powers as Senate majority leader by pledging to block votes
on the Nevada nuclear waste project. 

Reid, who will lead the Senate when it reconvenes in January,
was challenged to allow debate and votes on "fix Yucca Mountain"
bills that might pass even though he adamantly opposes them. 

By refusing to schedule votes, the Nevadan is putting parochial
interests before the needs of the nation to relocate radioactive
spent fuel away from communities, and the desires of fellow
Democrats who have nuclear waste piling up in their states, the
repository advocates said. 

"When (Reid) is leading the majority, he has to act in the best
interests of the majority, and the best interests of the
majority is to move nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain," said LeRoy
Koppendrayer, chairman of the Minnesota Public Utilities
Commission. 

"Would he vote for it himself? I doubt it, but he should let his
members vote," Koppendrayer said at a news conference. 

"To even prohibit it from coming to the floor to be addressed,
to me, is a misuse and an abuse of the position," said Charles
Pray, a former Maine legislator who now is that state's nuclear
adviser. 

"Please, Senator Reid, stand aside," said Jack Edlow, president
of Edlow International, a nuclear transport company that hopes
to compete for Yucca shipping contracts. 

Edlow said Reid is "conflicted" between roles as a Nevada
senator and as majority leader and should "remove himself from
this debate to let others make the decisions." 

The coalition consists of public service commissions, nuclear
utilities and business interests in 26 states where radioactive
spent fuel is stored. It focuses on how the government is
managing more than $14 billion that utility ratepayers have
contributed into a repository construction fund. 

Reid said Thursday the coalition was "whistling in the wind" if
it thought he would step aside or relax his efforts against
Yucca Mountain. 

"This is not a Nevada parochial issue," he contended. "People
all over the country don't like nuclear waste. There is not an
environmental group around that supports (Yucca Mountain). Yes,
the responsibilities I have are broader now. I have more to do
than before, but Nevada comes first. I am not going to abuse my
power." 

Reid has contended that an alternative he has proposed with Sen.
John Ensign, R-Nev., to have the government manage nuclear waste
at reactor sites, would be a safer alternative than shipping it
to Nevada, whose elected leaders argue the Yucca site is flawed
and unsafe. 

That plan, which he has said he will continue to promote in the
new Congress, has picked up only little support since it was
introduced last year. 

Reid also has backed a bill by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to
authorize interim nuclear waste sites in as many as 31 states,
but that idea has been roundly criticized by governors and the
Department of Energy as unwieldy. 

The last time the Senate voted on Yucca Mountain was July 9,
2002, when the repository was approved 60-39. Thirty of those
senators have since retired or lost office. 

Political scientist Barbara Sinclair said congressional leaders
occasionally confront questions of "where to draw the line"
between state and national priorities.
 
"What the national interest is tends to some extent to be in the
eye of the beholder, but mostly the general notion is that of
course leaders are going to use their positions to help their
own states," said Sinclair, who teaches at UCLA. 

Considering public opposition to Yucca Mountain in Nevada, "it
would be crazy" for Reid to be seen as loosening his hold,
Sinclair said. 

Reid is up for re-election in 2010. "Unless he plans on
retiring, this is a no-brainer," because Reid's races generally
have been close and he has little wiggle room electorally to
compromise, said Richard Semiatin, a political science professor
at American University, in Washington. 

But Pray said Reid risks being accused of abusing his leadership
if his decisions on nuclear waste cause problems for Democrats
in states like Pennsylvania and Illinois, which are leading
states in terms of nuclear waste being stored in cooling pools
and on-site dry casks. 

"If (Illinois senators) Durbin and Obama want to vote to protect
Nevada as perceived by Senator Reid, that is a decision they
will have to make," Pray said. 

With Democrats just having captured the Senate on Election Day
and Reid in line to become majority leader, the Nevadan said
Nov. 8 that bills to help Yucca Mountain would never see the
Senate floor. 

Two bills that would allow the Department of Energy to make
progress at the repository site were proposed in the Congress
that is coming to an end this month. It is not yet clear what
will be reintroduced in the next session. 

A bill by Domenici would allow DOE to begin storing nuclear
waste on above-ground concrete pads at the Yucca site in 2010,
which is at least seven years sooner than the Bush
administration has envisioned. 

A separate "fix Yucca" bill proposed by the administration would
authorize a series of changes in law to enable DOE to obtain
permits, land ownership and the necessary financing to move the
program. 

Interest groups and industry organizations that deal with
nuclear waste are refocusing their strategies for dealing with a
reconstituted Congress on Yucca Mountain. 

While the public utility coalition appears to be adopting a
combative stance, reaction among other nuclear interests has
varied. 

The Edison Electric Institute earlier this week signaled a
willingness to work with Reid. "Harry Reid and the Democrats
have to be part of the solution," institute president Tom Kuhn
said at a news conference Tuesday. 

The Nuclear Energy Institute, the largest lobbying organization,
has been low key so far, offering no glimpses as to how it plans
to operate in the new Congress. 

Spokeswoman Tricia Conrad said NEI does not share the view that
Reid would be abusing power by marshaling his leadership against
the repository. "I am told we have not held that opinion nor do
we have plans to do so in the future," Conrad said. 

As for calling on Reid to step aside on repository bills, "We
are not aware of any precedent of this kind," Conrad said.
 	
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006 
*****************************************************************
 44 The Age: Yellowcake exports to China get green light 
                          
www.theage.com.au
 
Katharine Murphy

December 7, 2006
 	 	
SALES of Australian uranium to China have been approved by
Federal Parliament with the proviso that nuclear watchdogs are
given increased funding.
 
A bipartisan parliamentary committee yesterday cleared an export
deal with China, which provoked renewed concern from the minor
parties and environmental groups.
 
The deal was first unveiled by the Australian and Chinese
governments earlier this year.
 
A report from the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties
recommended more money for the International Atomic Energy
Agency and the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation
Office to strengthen existing safeguards and ensure that the
uranium was used only for nuclear power.
 
Greens energy spokeswoman Christine Milne said that ratifying
the export treaty was an act of gross negligence, given that the
committee believed the safeguards were not properly financed.
 
"How could the committee recommend selling uranium to China when
it acknowledged that the IAEA is underfunded and that the
inspections regime is deficient?" Senator Milne asked.
 
Liberal MP and committee chairman Andrew Southcott said the
proposed boost to the IAEA verification budget would ensure a
more robust international safeguards system.
 
Dr Southcott's arguments were backed by committee deputy
chairman, Labor's Kim Wilkie.
 
"With the economic benefits which uranium sales to China will
deliver for Australia, it is the Government's duty to take a
lead role in efforts to strengthen nuclear safeguards," Mr
Wilkie said.
 
Copyright © 2006. The Age Company Ltd. 
*****************************************************************
 45 Sydney Morning Herald: Flawed system the only check on nuclear safety - 

Opinion -
                           
www.smh.com.au
 
Nadia Watson

December 7, 2006
 	 	
The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties report on uranium sales
to China was tabled in Parliament yesterday, advocating an
expansion of the uranium export industry. Australia's uranium
industry and the Federal Government frequently claim there is no
risk of Australian uranium finding its way into nuclear weapons.
However, the international nuclear safeguards system is flawed
and it cannot provide such assurances.
 
Australia is reliant on the safeguards inspection system of the
International Atomic Energy Agency to prevent military misuse of
its uranium exports. The agency's director-general, Dr Mohamed
ElBaradei, is remarkably blunt about the limitations of
safeguards. He has stated in articles and speeches in recent
years that the safeguards system suffers from "vulnerabilities",
that the agency's basic inspection rights are "fairly limited",
that efforts to improve the system have been "half-hearted", and
that the safeguards system operates on a "shoestring budget".
 
Agency safeguards involve periodic inspections of nuclear
facilities and nuclear materials accounting to determine whether
the amount of nuclear material going through the fuel cycle
matches the country's records. In theory, the system is simple;
in practice, it is complicated and weakened by political and
commercial imperatives.
 
One of the most challenging problems involves "material
unaccounted for" - discrepancies between the "book stock" (the
expected measured amount) and the "physical stock" (the actual
measured amount) of nuclear materials at a safeguarded location.
Such discrepancies are frequent because of the difficulty of
precisely measuring amounts of nuclear material, yet they
provide an obvious loophole for a would-be proliferator.
 
In a large plant, even a tiny proportion of the nuclear material
handled each year might be enough to build one or more weapons
without the threat of detection. For example, the Rokkasho
reprocessing plant in Japan will have the capacity to separate
about eight tonnes of plutonium from spent nuclear fuel each
year. Diverting just 1 per cent of that amount of plutonium
would be very difficult for the IAEA to detect against the
background of routine accounting discrepancies, yet it would be
enough to build at least one nuclear weapon a month.
 
Another problem is that the agency does not inspect all
"safeguarded" nuclear facilities because of resource constraints
and political and commercial sensitivities. For example, it
emerged during hearings of the joint standing committee that of
the 10 Chinese facilities potentially subject to agency
safeguards last year, only three were inspected.
 
The Union of Concerned Scientists has documented a number of
standoffs whereby discrepancies have remained unresolved for
years. Iran and North Korea provide two contemporary examples of
protracted disputes and, of course, North Korea has built and
tested a nuclear weapon while the international negotiations
over its nuclear program continue.
 
Prompted by the limitations of traditional safeguards, the IAEA
initiated efforts to strengthen the system. The model Additional
Protocol, introduced in 1997, meant the agency was theoretically
able to develop a more inclusive "cradle-to-grave" picture of
states' nuclear activities.
 
The improvements include requiring substantially more
information on nuclear facilities and activities; increased use
of environmental sampling; and allowing agency inspectors
extended access, which includes entry to undeclared nuclear
sites. As of October this year, 78 countries had negotiated and
ratified an Additional Protocol, but more than 100 had not done
so.
 
While strengthened safeguards are welcome, serious problems
remain. One is that the development of the full suite of nuclear
fuel cycle facilities - including "dual-use" enrichment and
reprocessing facilities - is enshrined in the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty as an "inalienable right" of all
countries which have ratified the treaty.
 
As ElBaradei noted in December last year: "If a country with a
full nuclear fuel cycle decides to break away from its
non-proliferation commitments, a nuclear weapon could be only
months away. In such cases, we are only as secure as the
outbreak of the next major crisis. In today's environment, this
margin of security is simply untenable."
 
Clearly there is a sharp divergence between the reality of
nuclear safeguards, as acknowledged by the nuclear watchdog, and
the false claims made by the Australian Government and uranium
industry.
 
Of course, it is possible that safeguards could be improved, and
it is possible that Australia could play a leading role in
improving safeguards. However, as Professor Richard Broinowski
details in his 2003 book Fact or Fission? The Truth About
Australia's Nuclear Ambitions, safeguards pertaining to
Australian uranium have been gradually weakened over the years.
 
The reason for this weakening of safeguards was identified by
Mike Rann - then a young Labor Party researcher and now the
pro-uranium Premier of South Australia - in his 1982 booklet
Uranium: Play It Safe.
 
"Again and again," Rann wrote, "it has been demonstrated here
and overseas that when problems over safeguards prove difficult,
commercial considerations will come first."
 
A genuine nuclear debate in Australia would include a
reassessment of the uranium export industry given the risks of
diversion and proliferation identified in this article.
 
Nadia Watson recently completed her studies in international
relations at LaTrobe University and has spent the past six
months studying the international nuclear safeguards regime.
 
Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald. 
*****************************************************************
 46 SLO Trib: Nuclear waste rail line to Yucca Mountain divides Nevada towns

San Luis Obispo Tribune | 

12/06/2006 | 

 Ed Vogel Las Vegas Review-Journal 

SILVER SPRINGS, Nev. (AP) – June Mick fled to this rural Lyon
County community six months ago to get away from the crime and
high costs of south Florida. 

She and her husband paid $230,000 for a manufactured home and
4.7 acres of jackrabbits and sagebrush near an infrequently used
railroad track about 40 miles east of Carson City. Only recently
did Mick learn the track in her backyard was under study as the
rail line on which Energy Department trains would carry
high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, including from the
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near Avila Beach. 

"I don’t want that stuff," she said. "What if there is an
accident? There is no telling what could happen." 

Mick’s thoughts were shared by neighbors a few blocks away.
Retired Navy veteran Robert Brittain moved to his track-side
Silver Springs home last year. Ruth Curtis purchased her mobile
home beside the track 16 years ago. 

"I’m pro-military. But I don’t care for Yucca Mountain.
Ammunition is different. It’s for national security," Brittain
said. 

"Nuclear waste?" Curtis questioned, then answered herself: "Oh,
no." 

Ninety percent of homeowners interviewed in Silver Springs
oppose the proposal to haul nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain
through their inexpensive but rapidly growing community. 

They’ve found peace and quiet in Silver Springs’ wide-open
spaces. They knew trains have occasionally carried bombs past
their homes to the Army Ammunition Depot at Hawthorne since the
1930s. But they were not aware that the Energy Department was
considering using the same tracks to carry waste from commercial
nuclear power plants across the country to Yucca Mountain, 90
miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

State laws require county planning departments to notify
homeowners when new developments are planned in their
neighborhoods, but the federal government isn’t obliged to
notify people when it wants to haul radioactive waste through
their backyards. 

The Energy Department placed advertisements in the Fallon
newspaper about a recent hearing at which residents could
discuss the railroad plan, but in Silver Springs, news travels
largely by word of mouth. 

Whether hauling 77,000 tons of radioactive waste within a few
yards of Silver Springs’ bedrooms poses any danger depends on
whom you ask. 

Bob Loux, executive director of the state Agency for Nuclear
Projects, said a terrorist with a shoulder-held, anti-tank
missile launcher could put a hole in a cask containing nuclear
waste. 

"If 1 percent of the cargo escaped, it would contaminate a 42
square-mile area and take a couple of decades and $8 billion to
$10 billion to clean up," Loux said. 

It is not just Silver Springs residents who have reason for
concern, he added. Trains from power plants will move along the
main Union Pacific line paralleling Interstate 80 from the east
and west. Nuclear waste would be hauled through downtown Reno. 

The nuclear trains would veer off the Union Pacific line north
of Fallon and head more than 300 miles south to Yucca Mountain
along a route near U.S. Highway 95 that goes through Silver
Springs and close to the rural communities of Schurz, Hawthorne,
Mina, Tonopah and Goldfield. 

Costs of constructing this "Mina Corridor" route, including
laying 209 miles of track from Hawthorne to Yucca Mountain, have
been estimated at more than $1 billion. 

Allen Benson, director of external affairs for the Energy
Department’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management,
does not share Loux’s alarm. 

He noted the federal government has been hauling nuclear waste
by truck for 50 years with no problems, including more than
4,000 shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New
Mexico. 

"The safety record is quite remarkable," Benson said. 

Benson noted the waste going to Yucca Mountain would be in
solid, not liquid, form. If a cask were penetrated, some pellets
might fall onto the ground, but a hazardous materials team would
be sent out "to clean it up and move on," he said. 

Security officers will accompany the trains, according to
Benson, and the Energy Department "is not going to advertise"
when shipments will move. He anticipates about two trains a week
over a 24-year period. 

"There is no such thing as a 100 percent safety guarantee,"
Benson said. "But this is definitely not Chernobyl. People have
this fear of nuclear. We understand that. But nuclear is
medicine. Nuclear is electricity." 

The public reaction to the word nuclear is far different farther
south in economically depressed rural Nevada. Of 25 people
interviewed in Goldfield, Hawthorne, Tonopah, Schurz and Mina,
22 expressed support for the rail line. 

Hawthorne businessman Rex Mills expressed their views during a
hearing in Hawthorne. He said rural Nevadans want the Energy
Department to share its Yucca Mountain track with commercial
trains. 

"If they put the railroad here, it will be great," Mills said.
"It will give an incentive for companies nationwide to move into
a lower-taxed area. The waste is going into Yucca Mountain,
whether we like it or not." 

So far the Energy Department has spent $9 billion on the
project. Costs could top $58 billion, based on an estimate made
in 2001. 

Postmistress Theora Janis and resident Dollie Murillo stood in
front of the Mina Post Office and discussed the desperate need
for economic revival in their community. 

The town’s population has dropped to about 100 people, most of
them senior citizens. Many homes and businesses are abandoned.
The elementary school was closed five years ago. The train
tracks were pulled out 10 years ago. 

"They already carry (hazardous) waste through here by trucks,"
Janis said. "We need jobs. A railroad would help us." 

Whether the Energy Department allows private business to share
its Yucca Mountain line has not been determined. 

Bob Halstead, a transportation consultant for the state, said
the Energy Department has been trying to win favor for the new
rail line by suggesting that the line will be shared with
commercial trains. 

Loux said a new rail line would provide little upside to rural
Nevada. 

"They had a rail line to Mina for 50 years and it didn’t do
anything for them," Loux said. "Every rail line there in the
past has been torn out." 

The only reason the Energy Department can contemplate
construction of the Mina route is because of a change in
thinking by the Walker Lake Paiute Indian Tribe, Loux said. 

The tribal council in 1991 rejected an Energy Department move to
study moving waste through the reservation by rail. Last April,
council members agreed to the study. 

Ammunition bound for the Hawthorne depot is carried by rail past
tribal headquarters, homes and a school in the town of Schurz.
Under the Energy Department study plan, the rail line would be
relocated about four miles outside of town. 

Chairwoman Genia Williams responded to questions by handing out
a prepared statement saying the council opposes the new rail
line unless the Energy Department addresses all safety issues
and agrees to ban shipments of nuclear waste by truck on U.S.
Highway 95. 

"Historically our tribe has been a victim of federal government
decisions," Williams said. "I do not like the idea of Nevada
being a dumping ground for nuclear waste, but this may be a
chance to make my tribal community safer from nuclear waste that
may come through our community on a highway," she added. 

Williams wouldn’t discuss whether the Energy Department has
offered financial incentives to win the tribe’s support. 

Back in Silver Springs, Brittain walked beside the tracks and
wondered if the hoopla about the nuclear trains is meaningless. 

"I can’t believe Harry Reid will let Yucca Mountain happen," he
said. 

Reid, D-Nev., the new Senate majority leader, said he controls
what comes up on the Senate floor and he will continue his
opposition to Yucca Mountain. 

On the Net: 

Yucca Mountain project: 
*****************************************************************
 47 Platts: US court awards SMUD $39 million for nuclear storage costs
 
San Francisco (Platts)--5Dec2006
 
The US Court of Federal Claims has awarded the Sacramento 
Municipal Utility District $39.8 million in a breach of contract 
lawsuit against the US Department of Energy, the utility said 
late Monday. 

     SMUD said the award comes after two related trials on the 
storage of spent nuclear fuel from the utility's closed Rancho 
Seco Generating Station.

     SMUD had contracted with DOE to collect and permanently 
dispose of its spent nuclear fuel as required by federal law. But 
SMUD said the federal government did not follow through on its 
obligation to collect and dispose of SMUD's spent fuel due to 
delays in opening the Yucca Mountain storage facility in Nevada.

     In 1998, SMUD filed a lawsuit with the Court of Federal 
Claims in Washington to recover the cost of building and 
operating a dry cask storage system because the federal 
government was not making progress on the Yucca Mountain disposal 
site.

     "This is a major victory as it substantially mitigates the 
costs SMUD has incurred due to the lack of a federal repository," 
said Steve Cohn, SMUD chief assistant general counsel.

*****************************************************************
 48 Platts: DOE official touts interim nuclear storage; seeks new waste laws
 
Washington (Platts)--5Dec2006
 
The US is facing a "new reality" in addressing nuclear waste, and 
with Yucca Mountain potentially "decades" away, the country must 
employ interim storage and reprocessing before shipping most 
civilian waste to the Nevada repository, an official with the 
Department of Energy said Tuesday.

     Speaking at a nuclear power conference hosted by Exchange 
Monitor Publications, Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell said that 
the Nuclear Waste Policy Act "obligates" DOE to push ahead with 
Yucca Mountain, largely to the exclusion of interim storage. 

     He said, however, that new legislation is needed to set a 
policy based on recycling, rather than once-through spent fuel. 
That legislation would, in part, allow interim storage.

     "We are confident that a good facility, an adequate 
facility, can be built [at Yucca Mountain] to store the residue 
of recycled waste or defense waste or other elements of spent 
fuel that cannot be recycled in a safe way for as long as the 
country needs it," Sell said. 

     He added that the ascension of Nevada Democrat Harry Reid to 
Senate majority leader, and the fact that DOE is eight years past 
its NWPA 1998 obligation to take spent fuel, necessitates a 
different approach to handling nuclear waste.

     "There are many ways that we can seek to compromise with the 
congressional leadership in dealing with the question and 
potential uncertainty of spent fuel management over the next few 
decades before Yucca Mountain comes online," Sell said.

     "We do think that it makes a lot of sense as we think about 
moving towards a nuclear fuel cycle that is closed rather than 
once through that ... some type of temporary consolidation of and 
storage of spent nuclear fuel at recycling locations could 
possibly be a wise path forward."

     He added that opening Yucca Mountain by 2017 or 2020 would 
only occur if DOE is "wildly successful."

     Last week Edward Sproat, director of DOE's Office of 
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said 2020 is a "more 
probable" timeframe than the 2017 date DOE had mapped out earlier 
this year under a best-case scenario.

                --Daniel Whitten, daniel_whitten@platts.com
 
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
 [The McGraw-Hill Companies]       
*****************************************************************
 49 NRC: Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste; Notice of Meeting
 
                        FR Doc E6-20536 
[Federal Register: December 6, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 234)] 
[Notices] [Page 70796-70797] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr06de06-100]                         
 
The Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) will hold its 
175th meeting on December 12-14, 2006, Room T-2B3, 11545 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
 
The schedule for this meeting is as follows: Tuesday, December 
12, 2006 10 a.m.-10:05 a.m.: Opening Remarks by the ACNW Chairman 
(Open)-- The ACNW Chairman, Dr. Michael Ryan, will make opening 
remarks regarding the conduct of today's sessions.
 
10:05 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Semi-Annual Briefings by the Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) (Open)--The 
Committee will be briefed by the NMSS Office and Division 
Directors on recent and future activities of interest within 
their respective programs.
 
1 p.m.-2:30 p.m.: RACER: Tools and a Process to Guide Decisions 
about Risk Reduction for Contaminants in the Environment 
(Open)--Dr. John Till from the Risk Assessment Corporation will 
brief the Committee on a methodology (RACER) used for guiding 
decisions on remediating contaminated sites.
 
2:45 p.m.-4:15 p.m.: Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and Electric 
Power Research Institute (EPRI) Views on NRC Interim Staff 
Guidance (ISG) DHLWRS-ISG-01 on Seismic Event Sequences 
(Open)--Representatives from NEI and EPRI will brief the 
Committee on their organizations' respective views on the 
``Review Methodology for Seismically Initiated Event Sequences.'' 
This ISG is intended to supplement the existing Yucca Mountain 
Review Plan to be used to review any U.S. Department of Energy 
License Application for the proposed geologic repository.
 
4:15 p.m.-5:30 p.m.: Discussion of Draft ACNW Letter Reports 
(Open)--The Committee will discuss proposed ACNW letters.
 
Wednesday, December 13, 2006 8:30 a.m.--8:35 a.m.: Opening 
Remarks by the ACNW Chairman (Open)-- The Chairman will make 
opening remarks regarding the conduct of today's sessions.
 
8:35 a.m.-9:30 a.m.: Proposed Revision to Standard Review Plan 
Chapter 11.2, ``Liquid Waste Management System'' (Open)--A 
representative from the NRC Staff will brief the Committee on the 
proposed revisions to NUREG-0800, ``Standard Review Plan for the 
Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants,'' 
Chapter 11.2, ``LIQUID WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM,'' in support of 
new power reactor licensing.
 
9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.: Public Comments on NRC 2006 Low-Level 
Radioactive Waste (LLW) Strategic Planning Initiative (Open)--An 
NRC staff representative will brief the Committee on the public 
comments received in response to the staff's ongoing LLW 
strategic assessment described in the Federal Register in July 
2006 (71 FR 38675).
 
10:45 a.m.-12 p.m: Conceptual Licensing Process for Global 
Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) Facilities (Open)--NMSS 
representatives will brief the Committee on their conceptual 
approach to licensing future GNEP facilities.
 
1 p.m.-2:30 p.m.: Generic Safety Issue 196: Boral Degradation 
(Open)--An ACNW staff member will provide the Committee with 
background information related to the use of Boral for both 
storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel as well as 
conditions under which this material has shown degradation 
issues. Representatives from the Office of Nuclear Regulatory 
Research (RES) will brief the Committee with their reasons for 
removing Boral degradation from the Generic Safety Issue list.
 
3:45 p.m.-5:30 p.m.: Discussion of Draft ACNW Letter Reports 
(Open)--The Committee will discuss proposed ACNW letters.
 
Thursday, December 14, 2006 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: ACNW December 
2006 Briefing to the Commission (Open)--ACNW members will brief 
the Commission on their recent and planned activities. The last 
Commission briefing was held on January 11, 2006.
 
3:30 p.m.-5 p.m.: Discussion of Draft ACNW Letter Reports 
(Open)-- The Committee will discuss potential and proposed ACNW 
letter reports.
 
5 p.m.-5:30 p.m.: Miscellaneous (Open)--The Committee will 
discuss matters related to the conduct of ACNW activities and 
specific issues that were not completed during previous meetings, 
as time and availability of information permit. Discussions may 
include future Committee Meetings.
 
Procedures for the conduct of and participation in ACNW meetings 
were published in the Federal Register on October 12, 2006 (71 FR 
60196). In accordance with these procedures, oral or written 
statements may be presented by members of the public. Electronic 
recordings will be permitted only during those portions of the 
meeting that are open to the public. Persons desiring to make 
oral statements should notify Mr. Antonio F. Dias (Telephone 
301-415-6805), between 8:15 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, as far in advance 
as practicable so that appropriate arrangements can be made to 
schedule the necessary time during the meeting for such 
statements. Use of still, motion picture, and television cameras 
during this meeting will be limited to selected portions of the 
meeting as determined
 
[[Page 70797]] by the ACNW Chairman. Information regarding the 
time to be set aside for taking pictures may be obtained by 
contacting the ACNW office prior to the meeting. In view of the 
possibility that the schedule for ACNW meetings may be adjusted 
by the Chairman as necessary to facilitate the conduct of the 
meeting, persons planning to attend should notify Mr. Dias as to 
their particular needs.
 
Further information regarding topics to be discussed, whether the 
meeting has been canceled or rescheduled, the Chairman's ruling 
on requests for the opportunity to present oral statements and 
the time allotted, therefore can be obtained by contacting Mr. 
Dias. ACNW meeting agenda, meeting transcripts, and letter 
reports are available through the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) 
at , or by calling the PDR at 1-800-397-4209, or from the 
Publicly Available Records System component of NRC's document 
system (ADAMS) which is accessible from the NRC Web site at  or  
(ACRS & collections/ (ACRS & ACNW Mtg schedules/agendas).
 
Video Teleconferencing service is available for observing open 
sessions of ACNW meetings. Those wishing to use this service for 
observing ACNW meetings should contact Mr. Theron Brown, ACNW 
Audiovisual Technician (301-415-8066), between 7:30 a.m. and 3:45 
p.m. ET, at least 10 days before the meeting to ensure the 
availability of this service. Individuals or organizations 
requesting this service will be responsible for telephone line 
charges and for providing the equipment and facilities that they 
use to establish the video teleconferencing link. The 
availability of video teleconferencing services is not 
guaranteed.
 
Dated: November 30, 2006.
 
Andrew L. Bates, Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. E6-20536 Filed 12-5-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 50 ITAR-TASS: Russian-Kazakh company produces 1st ton of natural uranium

06.12.2006, 04.31

MOSCOW, December 6 (Itar-Tass) - Director of Russia's Rosatom
federal agency for atomic energy Sergei Kiriyenko will fly to
Kazakhstan on Wednesday afternoon, to take part in a ceremony
marking the production of the first tonne of natural uranium by
a Russian-Kazakh joint venture. 

Taking part in the ceremony on December 7 will be Kazakh Prime
Minister Danial Akhmetov. 

"In December, Kazakhstan and Russia will complete the process of
setting up another joint venture - a uranium enrichment company
in the Russian town of Angarsk," Kiriyenko said. 

President of the Kazatomprom state-owned company Mukhta
Dzhakishev stated that "Kazakhstan may become the world's
largest producer of uranium in the future." 

In 2005, the country produced 4,300 tonnes of uranium, up 30
percent from 2004. 

The administration of Kazatomprom, which is among the world's
top three uranium producers, aims to boost production to 15
tones a year by 2010. 

Sergei Kiriyenko said at the State Duma lower house of the
Russian parliament on Monday that "the available reserves of
natural uranium in Russia guarantee nuclear fuel for all Russian
nuclear power plants for the next six decades, and also for the
NPPs which Russian specialists are building abroad." 

In his view however, to implement all plans and programs to
develop nuclear power generation of Russia and CIS states, it is
necessary to restore and actively use the whole production cycle
of the former Sredmash, a powerful corporation of the Soviet
defense sector which had control over all nuclear technologies. 

© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 51 The Australian: Uranium deal with China approved 

+ NEWS.com.au | 		

This story is from our news.com.aunetwork Source: Reuters 

 December 06, 2006 

AUSTRALIA will sell uranium to China from next year after a
parliamentary committee approved an export deal today with a
call for tighter international safeguards.
 
Australia, which holds 40 per cent of the world's recoverable
uranium, reached agreement in April to begin exporting uranium
to China in a deal that should double annual revenue from
exports of the nuclear fuel to $1 billion. 

Politicians on the parliamentary treaty committee, who needed to
approve the deal, concluded it was in Australia's national
interest. 

China is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
unlike India, which has tried, but so far failed, to win
approval to buy Australian uranium. 

"The safeguards agreement offers adequate assurance that China
will use Australian uranium and technology for peaceful purposes
only," committee chairman Andrew Southcott said today. 

China, with its huge population and buoyant economy, has a huge
appetite for energy. It is banking on nuclear power to meet its
needs and cut greenhouse emissions from fossil fuels. 

Despite its huge reserves, Australia accounts for only 23
percent of global uranium production, in part because of mining
bans associated with fears over of the safety of nuclear waste
and proliferation. 

The country exports uranium to 36 countries under strict
conditions ensuring its peaceful use. 

On Monday, another parliamentary report called for the
Government to drop restrictions on uranium mining, saying fears
about its safety were misplaced. 

The committee called for Australia to give more money and
backing to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to
strengthen on-site inspections in China. 

Committee members also called for inspection of conversion
plants where uranium is enriched to be declared mandatory by the
IAEA and the five declared nuclear weapons powers - Britain, the
United States, China, France and Russia. 

The deal with China will also pave the way for Australia to
share civilian nuclear technology. 

Privacy Terms © The Australian
*****************************************************************
 52 Monticello Times: NRC's nuclear storage decision gets challenged
                  
www.monticellotimes.com

Wednesday, December 06, 2006            
  
Environmentalists ask the commission to reconsider

By Kathleen Ostroot News Editor

The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) and Fresh
Energy asked the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Tuesday,
Nov. 14, to reconsider a September decision to permit Xcel
Energy to store 30 highly radioactive nuclear waste concrete
casks at the nuclear power plant in Monticello. The $55 million
proposal is to build a storage building that would hold the
casks. The utilities commission will review the request
Thursday, Dec. 14.

According to MCEA communications director Chuck Laszewski, the
MCEA and Fresh Energy argue that the casks will be permanent,
not temporary, and pose a substantial risk from either leaks or
as a target for terrorists. 

"There are cheaper and cleaner alternatives to the Monticello
nuclear plant," he said.

Monticello's 40-year operating license expires in 2010, at which
time the plant will need to store the spent rods in casks. For
that reason, Xcel sought permission from the federal government
to extend the operating license of the power plant another 20
years, which would not be possible unless the storage plan is in
place.

Nevertheless, the environmentalists argue that these casks could
become permanent, since no federal site for nuclear waste
disposal has been established and even if the Yucca Mountain
storage site eventually is permitted, it may be full before it
could accept Monticello's nuclear waste. The state of Nevada is
protesting further development of the storage facility.

According to Laszewski, Minnesota has been through this before.
In the early 1990s, Xcel Energy (then called Northern States
Power Company) sought permission for casks at its Prairie Island
nuclear power plant. He said that the decision was based on a
premise that the federal government would open its Yucca
Mountain site by 2004 and take the wastes. 

"That didn't happen, and, in fact, an administrative law judge
at the time said those casks should be considered permanent," he
said.

The life of the concrete casks is estimated to be between 50 to
100 years. 

"Xcel has not calculated the true costs of long-term storage and
hasn't established a plan for maintenance and upkeep for the
casks in the future or how that upkeep would be paid for,
according to the environmental groups. The request said that
having such a plan is crucial because Xcel may not exist in 50
years and there would be dire consequences from a cask breaking
down on the banks of the Mississippi River," Laszewski said.

The groups asked that the permit for the casks be denied and
Xcel should work on shutting down the plant in 2010 and
replacing its power.

The request asked that alternatives for the power; primarily
increased energy efficiency and using more wind power, stating
that those alternatives are cheaper than the long-term storage
and maintenance of the casks.

Xcel Energy's Jim Alders said these concerns were already
expressed at previous hearings before the commission approved
the request for on-site storage Thursday, Sept. 28.

 "They didn't raise any new issues; these are the same as what
was at the hearings," he said. "The commission approved our
plant as ready to handle the storage facility."

Alders added that without the additional storage Xcel would not
be able to operate the Monticello plant past 2010. 

The item could be before the Legislature in 2007, if they chose
to review it. No building can take place until after that,
Alders said.

Copyright 2006, Monticello Times
*****************************************************************
 53 AU ABC: Report backs uranium exports to China
 
PM - Wednesday, 6 December , 2006  18:29:00
 
Reporter: Annie Guest

 MARK COLVIN: For the second time in a week, a parliamentary
report has given bipartisan support to ramping up Australia's
uranium industry. This time the report concerns exports to China.

It recommends that Australia and China ratify two nuclear
cooperation agreements.

Annie Guest reports.

ANNIE GUEST: The country once isolated and feared by the West
could become a recipient of Australian uranium.

The Liberal Chairman of the Parliamentary Treaties Committee,
Doctor Andrew Southcott, says there's bipartisan support to
ratify two nuclear agreements.

ANDREW SOUTHCOTT: These agreements entering into force will
allow Australian uranium to be exported to China.

ANNIE GUEST: The agreements cover the transfer and safeguarding
of nuclear material and technology to China. 

The recommendation to ratify them comes despite concerns about
inadequate policing of nuclear material.

The Committee's Deputy Chairman is ALP member Kim Wilkie.

KIM WILKIE: It's probably important to say that there are
shortcomings in the safeguards regime.

ANNIE GUEST: But the potential for more profits for Australia's
uranium industry looms large in politicians' minds.

China would become the 37th country to sign nuclear cooperation
agreements with Australia.

And Dr Southcott says China has big plans to expand nuclear
power. 

ANDREW SOUTHCOTT: What does this mean for Australia? One
estimate we had before us was that by 2020 the value in exports
for Australia would be $250-million.

ANNIE GUEST: But he's confident the inquiry has also addressed
the potential dangers associated with exporting uranium to China.

The recommendations include boosting Australian and
international agencies charged with ensuring nuclear
non-proliferation.

The Deputy Chairman Kim Wilkie says under-resourcing has been a
problem.

KIM WILKIE: The International Atomic Energy Agency's head, Mr El
Baradei, has said that the agency is totally under-resourced in
order to perform its function. In fact, he stated that their
budget's less than a small police force, and so therefore one of
the recommendations calls upon Australia to make a voluntary
additional contribution to that body.

ANNIE GUEST: Last month, the Switkowski report advocated
Australia build 25 domestic nuclear reactors within 50 years,
and another parliamentary report this week concluded Australia
should become the world's biggest uranium exporter.

The only dissenting voice on the Treaties Committee, Democrats
Senator Andrew Bartlett, says they're all retrograde moves.

ANDREW BARTLETT: The world as a whole has really dropped the
ball on disarmament, on reducing proliferation of weapons,
whether it's nuclear or otherwise, and, frankly, it's time that
Australia took a lot stronger stand in getting things back on
track, rather than just looking for a quick buck.

ANNIE GUEST: China's status as a signatory to the UN's
Non-Proliferation Treaty doesn't reassure Senator Bartlett, nor
does additional money for policing.

ANDREW BARTLETT: I don't think you can trust any nuclear power,
any country that already has nuclear arms not to use some of
those resources for proliferation.

ANNIE GUEST: The Greens Senator Christine Milne also has no
faith in the safeguards promoted by the committee.

CHRISTINE MILNE: They're saying, oh, yes, put more money into
it, but there'll be no guarantee of that. And at the same time
they're saying go ahead with the exports now.

ANNIE GUEST: Despite the three recent reports endorsing a
greater nuclear industry in Australia, some hurdles remain in
place.

Western Australia and Queensland are opposed to more uranium
mining.

But some Labor members will push for a change in the party's
policy at its annual conference next year.

MARK COLVIN: Annie Guest.   

*****************************************************************
 54 London Times: Nuclear nightmare - 

Comment - Times Online

December 07, 2006                    

Sir, Today Medact publishes a damning report on the devastating 
health effects of the nuclear weapons which may be part of a new 
Trident system, outlined in the government White Paper on Monday. 

Britain’s New Nuclear Weapons — Illegal, Indiscriminate and 
Catastrophic for Health details the health effects from blast, 
heat and radiation of a one-kilotonne nuclear bomb and challenges 
any notion that “sub-strategic” warheads could be “discriminate” 
or have “surgical” use. 

So-called “low-yield” nuclear warheads may be incorporated into
an upgraded Trident system. As health professionals, we have a
duty to draw attention to the death and injury that would result
from the use of any nuclear weapons, whatever the intended
“degree of precision” or “surgical strike”. 

A 1kt nuclear explosion will instantly kill everyone exposed to
its blast within 800 metres. Within 20 kilometres, many people
will be blinded and severely injured by flash and blast and
people exposed to the radioactive fallout will experience
increased incidences of cancer for decades. 

The use of any nuclear weapon is not only illegal under
international law, it is contrary to all ethical standards of
medical practice. We believe that such ethical issues are the
concern of the wider public, not just of medical practitioners. 

The estimated cost for replacing Trident — Ł1.43 billion each
year — would be better spent on improving public health
including wiping out the recurring net overspend of the NHS
which is Ł512 million for 2005-06. 

DR FRANK BOULTON
Chairman, Medact 
SIR DILLWYN WILLIAMS

Emeritus Professor of Histopathology, University of Cambridge 
DR JUNE CROWN
President Medact; former President, Faculty of Public Health
Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians 
PROFESSOR ADRIAN NEWLAND
President, the Royal College of Pathologists 
DR JEREMY HOLMES
Consultant Psychiatrist and Professor of Psychological
Therapies, University of Exeter 
DR HELEN ZEALLEY
   	 		
Copyright 2006                 Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 55 Pahrump Valley Times: Nevada Test Site could generate 1,000 new jobs  

 dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
 
Dec. 06, 2006 

SITE CONSIDERED FOR PLUTONIUM CENTER     
                
By MARK WAITE PVT     

LAS VEGAS -- A consolidated plutonium center to replace the
Rocky Flats weapons arsenal in Colorado could generate 1,000
jobs at the Nevada Test Site, Ted Wyka, a document manager for
the National Nuclear Security Administration 2030 plan said last
week.
 
The 2030 plan outlines what the NNSA thinks the nation's nuclear
weapons complex will look like by that year. The NNSA intends to
consolidate facilities as part of the plan. But while a few
programs could be transferred to the test site, Wyka said it
couldn't be described as a major upgrading of test site programs.
 
During an official presentation at the Cashman Center Wyka said:
"We will evaluate the Nevada Test Site as a receiver site for
one, a consolidated plutonium center; secondly, for consolidated
weapons programs for special nuclear material storage; for
consolidating hydrotesting; and for consolidating major
environmental testing, as well as conducting NNSA flight test
operations currently conducted at the Tonopah Test Range."
 
The test site is one of the sites being considered for a
consolidated plutonium center. Other possible sites are along
the Savannah River Nuclear Plant in South Carolina, Oak Ridge,
Tenn., the Pantex weapons plant in Amarillo, Texas, and Los
Alamos, N.M. That follows the closure of the Rocky Flats Complex
in Colorado, he said.
 
The consolidated plutonium center could become operational in
2022 and manufacture 125 new warheads per year.
 
But while the center would create jobs, it could create
controversy as well.
 
"You have to look at traffic safety issues. That's a big concern
here," Wyka said.
 
Wyka said the NNSA is currently unable to produce certain
components, like plutonium, in sufficient quantities.
 
After the end of the Cold War, the U.S. retired or dismantled
more than 10,000 nuclear weapons, reducing the size of the
weapons complex by 40 percent, Wyka said. Several production
facilities in the complex were shut down.
 
The NNSA employs sophisticated tests, like computer simulations,
to test the aging of nuclear weapons without actual nuclear
detonations, he said. Since 1992 only sub-critical underground
nuclear weapons testing have taken place at the test site.
 
"One thing we could not do is make a replacement for Rocky Flats
to make plutonium pits," Wyka said.
 
A pit is the central core of a nuclear weapon containing
plutonium 239, which typically undergoes fission when compressed
by high explosives, he explained.
 
Hydrotesting is used to determine whether the material implodes
properly; it's normally done with surrogate materials.
 
Talk of limitations by the NNSA, however, led the Union of
Concerned Scientists to express a concern last week that the
Bush administration wants to resume full nuclear testing.
 
The environmental testing would examine the impacts by weapons
in the stockpile on the physical environment at the Nevada Test
Site. More reductions in nuclear weapons are on tap. President
Bush has directed that by 2012 the nation's actively deployed
strategic stockpile should be reduced more than 50 percent,
reducing the stockpile to the lowest level since the Eisenhower
administration in the 1950s, Wyka said.
 
The typical age of the weapons in the stockpile is 20 years, and
since the nation hasn't increased weapons, the stockpile is
aging steadily, Wyka said.
 
Recent studies have shown that plutonium degradation will not
affect reliability over the next several decades. However, Wyka
said a warhead relies on thousands of micro-components that have
to act together in microseconds.
 
"We must continue to preserve the reliability and safety of the
nuclear stockpile without underground testing. We must have a
responsive infrastructure to support the stockpile because we
know that stockpile repair and replacement will be required,"
Wyka said in his prepared statement.
 
The reassignment of joint test flights at the Tonopah Test Range
between the NNSA and the Department of Defense is one of three
alternatives being studied for that range, as outlined in the
2030 NNSA complex plan. Another alternative would be upgrading
the test range, or a third, to take no action at all, preserving
the status quo. 

If joint test flights are transferred somewhere else, they would
then be conducted at either the White Sands Missile Range in New
Mexico or at the test site.
 
Wyka emphasized the Tonopah Test Range wouldn't be closed if
that option is chosen.
 
"Tonopah does a lot of other testing other than testing related
to the nuclear weapons complex. They do a lot of work with the
Air Force," Wyka said. "It's not about closing the Tonopah Test
Range, it's about looking at alternatives but one of the
alternatives is ceasing NNSA flight operations at the test
range."
 
Susan Lacy, an NNSA environmental team leader from the Sandia
Site Office in Albuquerque, said socioeconomic studies on the
impact of ceasing the joint flight operations at the Tonopah
Test Range would be conducted.
 
"What we're trying to do currently at least for Tonopah, we're
trying to figure out where everyone lives, if they own homes,
all of those kinds of things, so we can definitely figure out
what the impact is going to be with the alternatives," Lacy said.
 
The transfer of that program would cut 130 to 150 jobs at the
Tonopah Test Range.
 
"White Sands is potentially closer to Albuquerque," Wyka said.
But he added, "there's good factors with Tonopah and there's
good factors with the Nevada Test Site."
 
Megan Rice, a member of the anti-nuclear Nevada Desert
Experience, was one of the few members of the general public
from Las Vegas at the Cashman Center function. She had a few
comments that weren't part of any of the prepared NNSA
alternatives.
 
"There's no one atom bomb, nuclear weapon, which is moral," Rice
said. "It's against international law to develop nuclear
weapons."
 
"Do we want to spend 51 percent of every tax dollar on
military?" she asked. "No wonder nobody has health insurance,
there are homeless people everywhere. No wonder our schools are
crumbling, our teachers are not being paid, they're overcrowded."
 
The environmental impact statement currently being conducted
will consider alternatives to the 2030 plan including no action
at all, any significant environmental impacts like potential
radiation exposure to workers, release of hazardous materials to
the environment and any impact on cultural resources, Wyck said.
 
Comments may be sent to Theodore Wyka, Complex 2030 SEIS
Document Manager, Office of Transportation, NNSA, NA-10.1, U.S.
Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave. SW, Washington D.C.
20585. The e-mail address is: Complex2030@nnsa.doe.gov.
 	
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006 
*****************************************************************
 56 Rocky Mountain News: Justices send mixed signals in Flats whistle-blower case

James Stone sued Rockwell in 1989, using the federal False Claims 
Act.

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

December 6, 2006

WASHINGTON - U.S. Supreme Court justices sent mixed signals 
Tuesday in a Rocky Flats whistle- blower case that could decide 
how easy or worthwhile it will be for average folks to sue 
companies they suspect of defrauding the government. 

The case goes back to 1986, when James Stone, a laid-off
engineer at the former nuclear-weapons plant, told federal
officials he thought the plant contractor, Rockwell
International Corp., was putting the environment at risk because
of the way it was handling nuclear and hazardous wastes. 
Stone's report touched off a wider federal investigation, and in
1992 the company pleaded guilty to environmental violations and
agreed to pay $18.5 million of criminal fines. 

In the meantime, after the case had gotten widespread media
attention, Stone filed his own civil lawsuit in 1989, using a
portion of the federal False Claims Act that allows average
people to sue on behalf of taxpayers if they think the
government is being defrauded. 

After the federal government joined in a portion of the
complaint, a jury returned verdicts against Rockwell on some
charges, and courts ordered it to pay $4.1 million damages. 

In theory, whistle-blowers who file such lawsuits on behalf of
the government can share in such awards, but Rockwell has
disputed that, saying that Stone does not qualify as a so-called
"original source" for the evidence behind the judgment. 

The question is this: How much specific, firsthand evidence must
a person have to meet that "original source" standard and
qualify to share in the award? 

The high court's decision, which might not be released for
months, could make it easier to qualify, thus encouraging more
whistle-blowers to sue, or clamp down on the definition of
"original source," handing industry a big victory. 

During oral arguments Tuesday, U.S. government lawyer Malcolm
Stewart, assistant to the solicitor general, told justices he
was in a unique position by arguing for the government to get
less money while sharing the settlement with Stone. 

He said the government interest is served by encouraging
whistle- blowers and that it was the type of case Congress
intended to encourage by enacting the law. 

"That's all good," a skeptical Associate Justice Antonin Scalia
said, "but Congress didn't leave it up to you to decide who
should be rewarded." 

Scalia asked repeated questions echoing Rockwell attorney
Maureen Mahoney's arguments that Stone's original complaint was
vague and bore little relation to the final judgment, which was
based on things that happened after he had left the company. 

"The key question is what's the standard, and he has to have
substantial knowledge," Mahoney told the court. 

She said Stone capitalized on the "one little thing he knew,"
and although he predicted that problems with pipes could cause
groundwater contamination, unrelated concrete issues led to the
real hazards - and the judgment. 

Being a "trigger" for an investigation that found those types of
problems is not enough, Mahoney said. "He must have direct
knowledge," she said. 

Stone's attorney, Maria Vullo, said Mahoney was minimizing the
role Stone played in spearheading the case and sounding warnings
about the design of the waste storage areas. 

Chief Justice John Roberts was skeptical that Stone's warnings
about the design proved that Rockwell defrauded the government
by taking payments while it concealed problems. 

"All it says is (that) this design won't work," Roberts told
Vullo. "There's a lot of things that don't work. That doesn't
mean there's a fraud of the government." 

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said there could be a
problem in future cases if the court ruled against Stone. 

If that happened, she said future whistle-blowers, which the
court calls "relators," might have less incentive to join forces
with the government. 
That's because if people could only share in settlements for
things they had the most direct, firsthand knowledge about, they
might resist federal officials who want to pursue a case based
on different charges they think they can prove. 

"Why should the relator be punished for that good litigation
practice?" Ginsburg said of cooperation. 

Whistle-blowers' cut 

• The case: Rockwell International Corp. vs. United States 

• The issue: How much specific information must whistle-blowers
have before qualifying as an "original source," giving them the
ability to share in civil judgments against companies. 

• The origin: In 1986, James Stone, an ex-engineer at the former
Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, told the FBI and federal
environmental officials he believed there were widespread
violations at the plant. Rockwell was ordered to pay fines of
$18.5 million, and later more than $4.1 million in response to a
suit filed by Stone. The question is whether all the money
should go to the government or whether Stone should get a share. 

• What's at stake: If the U.S. Supreme Court defines "original
source" quite strictly, it could mean that whistle-blowers would
need more specific, firsthand knowledge of potential wrongdoing
to share in such lawsuits.
*****************************************************************
 57 Knox News: Some 17 tons of hazardous chemicals moved from Y-12 

OAK RIDGE -

Anderson / Blount briefs: Dec. 6

More than 6,700 containers of hazardous chemicals - totaling
about 17 tons - were successfully removed from the Y-12 nuclear
weapons plant during the past year, officials announced Tuesday.

The $4.1 million project was part of an ongoing effort to
identify and get rid of surplus materials at the federal
installation. Rosanne Smith, who managed the project, said in a
prepared statement, "Getting rid of legacy materials makes sense
because it protects the environment, prevents pollution,
complies with requirements and continuously improves our work
environment." 				 				   				 				 				   				 				 		 		 	 		
		 				  





    © 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
 

*****************************************************************
 58 Knox News: Munger: ORNL has nukes aplenty, but polonium is not on list 

By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com 

December 6, 2006 

If this year's holiday stress becomes too much and you plot 
revenge against a relative who sent you the bad fruitcake, don't 
expect to purchase your poisonous polonium from Oak Ridge 
National Laboratory. "As far as I can tell, we haven't made it in 
40 years," said Jerry Klein, one of the managers of ORNL's 
radioisotopes program. 

Pololnium-210, of course, has been much in the news recently 
following the death of former Russian spy Alexander V. 
Litvinenko. Traces of the radioactive substance were even found 
on two British Airways flights. 

Klein said the lab received a barrage of calls from media types 
(such as me) in recent days, seeking more information about 
polonium and inquiring whether ORNL -- one of the world's leading 
radioisotope suppliers -- was selling the short-lived material. 
Po-210 has a half-life of 138 days, which means that half of a 
source will decay in that period, then half of that in the next 
138 days, and so on and so on. 

"We could make it (in the lab's High Flux Isotope Reactor), but
we don't," he said. 

ORNL typically manufactures isotopes that are not available
elsewhere on a commercial basis, and polonium-210 apparently has
plenty of suppliers. Some news reports indicated polonium could
even be purchased over the Internet, with a fatal dose costing
as little as $23. 

Historically it's been used in anti-static brushes and smoke
detectors and as a trigger for nuclear weapons. 

+ 
BWXT, the contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, declared
a "criticality deficiency" recently because workers were months
behind in the schedule to inspect a large coolant tank
associated with the machining of enriched uranium. 

A Nov. 3 report by the staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board said a subsequent analysis of the coolant tank
"indicated a much higher holdup (of enriched uranium) than
expected." BWXT, however, said there was "no significant amount
of material present." 

A deficiency is a relatively minor infraction but indicates all
the necessary procedures weren't being followed for nuclear
safety. The layers of procedures are designed to prevent a
nuclear criticality accident, which is an uncontrolled chain
reaction with a dangerous release of radiation. 

Y-12 spokesman Bill Wilburn said there have been 39 criticality
deficiencies reported so far this year. The trend is positive,
however, based on statistics he provided. 

In 2005, there were 55 deficiencies reported, and 78 the year
before, he said. 

There are three more serious levels above a deficiency in the
occurrence reporting system, Wilburn said. "We routinely detect
and correct conditions early on to prevent challenging limits
that lead to the upper three levels," he said. 

+ 
Oak Ridge National Laboratory could have two petascale
supercomputers in operation around 2011 if things come to be as
planned. 

One of those is already in the planning stages under DOE
sponsorship and under a partnership with Cray Inc. to produce a
machine with a peak capability of 1,000 trillion calculations
per second (one petaflop) and have it operating at the lab
sometime in 2008. The project is code-named Baker. 

Another machine with a sustained operating capability of a
petaflop or more could join the machine at Oak Ridge in 2011 if
a proposal headed by the University of Tennessee is selected.

UT's team, which also includes Cray, is among the four final
teams -- the others are headed by California, Illinois and
Carnegie-Mellon -- in a competition run by the National Science
Foundation. 

Thomas Zacharia, ORNL's associate lab director for computational
sciences and a tenured professor at UT in electrical and
computer engineering, is a key figure in both.
 					
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
*****************************************************************
 59 CBS News: How Nuke Secrets Left Los Alamos

 Young Archiver Downloaded Weapons Secrets To Thumb Drives - 

  [Nuclear Armed World]     Nuclear Armed World

The world's nuclear weapons powers, missile defense and a
history of the nuclear weapons age.


    WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2006

  Quote
"There is no oversight." 

A source on security at Los Alamos
 
(CBS) After seven years of security scandals at the nation's
premier nuclear weapons research facility, the Los Alamos
National Laboratory, the latest incident shows security — at
least for some — amounts to little more than an honor system. 

CBS News has learned how shockingly easy it was for a young
employee to walk out of Los Alamos with classified data — data
related to decades of U.S. underground nuclear weapons tests. 

Underground nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the U.S. for
decades in secrecy, the data from the tests kept as
closely-guarded national secrets. 

It was that data that Jessica Quintana was hired to archive,
reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. The lab gave
her top-secret security clearance when she was just 18. Sources
say she also had access to the documents telling how to
deactivate locks on nuclear weapons. 

In August, she was allegedly able to walk out the door with 400
pages of classified documents, contained in "thumb drives" —
small portable computer storage devices about the size of a
thumb. 

CBS News has learned that, at what's supposed to be one of the
most secure facilities in the world, nobody even bothered to
check Quintana's backpack when she left, that day or any other. 

"They just waved," says a source. "There is no oversight." 

The documents were found six weeks later by accident in a drug
raid on Quintana's roommate at their trailer home. Quintana, now
22, says she never gave the data to anyone. 

But the case is baffling watchdogs such as Rep. Ed Markey,
D-Mass., a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, who thought security holes had been tightened after
the scandals. 

"These are secrets that could be valuable for al Qaeda," Markey
said. "9/11 was a warning to us. Our enemies want to have access
to the most dangerous technologies to hurt our country." 

The case also has the FBI scrambling to see if the material got
into the wrong hands. Agents have spent about six hours in two
interviews with Quintana, so far. 

Sources say she worked in a secure office space called a
"vault," but monitoring of the super-secret area is so lax that,
more than once, she got locked inside and had to pound on the
door to get out because nobody even knew she was in there
working. 

The computers in the vault had working USB ports, which means it
was scandalously simple to copy classified documents onto a
small, portable storage device. 

And as odd as this may seem, Quintana had a higher security
clearance than the FBI agents questioning her, so "they couldn't
talk (with her) about everything," a source told Attkisson. 

Markey says the lab is the opposite of the song "Hotel
California" where "you can never leave." At Los Alamos, "You can
leave anytime you want. Take whatever you want. We're not even
going to be looking at your bags," he says. 

The Energy Department inspector general has already weighed in,
calling the incident "especially troubling," since taxpayers
have spent "tens of millions of dollars" to upgrade security
there in recent years. 

A spokesman for Los Alamos tells CBS News that after the October
raid on Quintana's trailer, many new security measures were
installed. These include disabling the ability to download
classified materials to unauthorized electronic devices and
banning computer memory devices in certain areas. However, an
official with the Department of Energy tells CBS News he thought
those measures had been taken long ago. 

"It is clear that despite almost a decade of repeated warnings
and problems regarding the security associated with classified
materials, the department has failed time and time again to
actually do anything about it," Markey stated in a letter to
Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman. "It appears that there are
significant institutional barriers within the Department and at
the Laboratories that have prevented real reforms from moving
forward." 

Markey, in his letter, posed a series of questions to Bodman and
asked for answers by Jan. 5, 2007. 

Two billion tax dollars are spent each year to operate the lab.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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*****************************************************************
 60 lamonitor.com: Report released on chromium contamination 

The Online News Source for Los Alamos
 
CAROL A. CLARK Monitor Senior Reporter

An interim measures investigation report for chromium
contamination identifies the cooling towers associated with the
TA-3 power plant at the head of Sandia Canyon as the main source
of chromium contamination at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 
The report was released on schedule on Nov. 30 as required by
the New Mexico Environment Department.

It describes the work that has been performed to address the
chromium contamination. The investigation was implemented to
ensure the protection of drinking water while longer-term
corrective action remedies are evaluated and implemented. 

Scientists Mathew Johansen, the environmental manager for the
National Nuclear Security Agency Site Office and Danny Katzman,
project leader for the chromium investigation for LANL, briefed
NMED on the interim measures investigation report in Santa Fe on
Tuesday.

"We walked them through the more salient points of the report,"
Katzman said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. "We basically
gave them an oral executive summary. They will review the report
and their response will trigger the next phase for us." 
According to the report, the findings are used to evaluate
spatial and temporal trends in chromium contamination at a
multiple-watershed scale, including variations in contaminant
concentration at increasing distances from the source areas and
as a function of time since chromium releases were halted.

A review of archival records and interviews shows an estimated
58,000-230,000 pounds of chromium VI was released into the south
fork of upper Sandia Canyon from these operations around
1956-1972. 
Other sources of chromium VI include the cooling tower at the
Omega West Reactor at TA-2 in Los Alamos Canyon and sites at
TA-35 and TA-48 in the Mortandad watershed.

The report indicates that a few other regional groundwater
monitoring wells may contain slightly elevated chromium but
additional monitoring data are needed to further assess whether
these results indicate contamination.

The Environmental Programs Directorate at Los Alamos National
Laboratory prepared the report pursuant to the compliance order
on consent signed March 1, 2005. The order contains requirements
for the investigation and cleanup, including corrective action,
of contamination at LANL.

The investigation stemmed from a Dec. 23, 2005, report from LANL
of the discovery of elevated chromium in the regional
groundwater in R-28, one of the laboratory's newest monitoring
wells, located in Mortandad Canyon.

The investigations were conducted this past summer and fall to
characterize the nature and extent of chromium in surface water,
alluvial groundwater and perched-intermediate groundwater in and
beneath watersheds of Los Alamos, Sandia and Mortandad Canyons.
Wells extending into the regional aquifer also were considered.

Johansen said the team did a tremendous amount of work on this
project over these months. "More than 100 workers contributed to
this effort," he said. "There was a 24-hour working period at
one point to meet the goal, which shows the importance of this
issue to the lab and to NNSA."

"It's important to note that there is no evidence of chromium in
the drinking water supply system in Los Alamos and we monitor
this very closely in coordination with Los Alamos County,"
Johansen said. "If chromium or other elements do arrive in a
drinking water well, they are readily treatable. We know this
from experience working around the country."

Los Alamos County Utilities Manager Robert Monday said this
morning that the lab is on top of this issue. "We know our
groundwater is fine and there are no traces of chromium or
anything else," Monday said. "We have to be vigilant because
this stuff moves through the ground. There wouldn't suddenly be
a large amount of something but rather increased levels. We keep
on top of this because we have to and because we want to."

Johansen said the lab will continue working closely with the
county to provide vigilant monitoring, including quarterly water
sampling.

Katzman and Johansen said they are not to the point where they
are ready to make decisions on remediation. The work in phase
two will occur in 2007 and they expect to make a decision on
remediation sometime thereafter.

LANL spokesman James Rickman presented background information on
the project. LANL and Los Alamos County have been monitoring
community water-supply wells for more than 40 years for a wide
range of potential contaminants, including chromium, he said.
"This finding represented the first time contaminant levels at
the laboratory have exceeded EPA limits in the regional
aquifer," Rickman said.

Rickman explained that chromium is an element occurring in
nature and is found in surface water, groundwater, rocks,
animals, plants, soil, volcanic dust and gases.

Sources of manmade chromium contamination include corrosion of
stainless steel, chrome plating, leather tanning, dyes and
pigments, and use in water-cooling systems associated with power
plants to prevent scaling and minimize biological growth.

LANL stopped using chromium in cooling towers in the early
1970s.   

  © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.   
*****************************************************************
 61 Rocky Mountain News: Energy & mining: West Slope uranium rush

Skyrocketing price of metal prompts resurgence of digging
                  
Ken Papaleo ©

Glen Williams, the manager of mining for Cotter Corp., heads into 
the JD-8 Mine in Nucla in March 2005 to check on its progress. At 
the time, the mine - which was to produce uranium and vanadium, 
an element used to increase the tensile strength of steel - was 
in its digging stage, about 700 feet into the side of the 
mountain. Colorado's vast stores of uranium are once again 
causing an unprecedented rush of investors, hedge funds and 
prospectors toting Geiger counters and stake poles. 

By Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News

December 6, 2006

Colorado's vast stores of uranium are once again causing an 
unprecedented rush of investors, hedge funds and prospectors 
toting Geiger counters and stake poles. After three decades on 
hiatus, thousands of prospectors are back on the Western Slope, 
staking claims and seeking permits, bent on tapping the region's 
rich uranium reserves. 

And with uranium prices hitting record highs, they are ready to 
cash in before everyone else. 

The price of the metal used as raw material inside nuclear 
reactors has jumped nearly 100 percent during the past year, 
buoyed by demand from energy-hungry nations such as China and 
India that are embracing nuclear-fired electricity to power their 
galloping economies. 

Uranium is selling at more than $60 a pound, up from $7 in 2000 
and about $30 last year, and many believe the price could top $70 
early next year - given strong demand. 

"This is like a gold rush," said Vince Matthews, director of the 
Colorado Geological Survey. 

Uranium claims on Colorado's federal lands, mostly in Montrose 
and Mesa counties, have jumped threefold during the past couple 
of years to 3,800 so far this year, up from 1,200 in 2004, the 
Bureau of Land Management said. 

That compares with a mere handful of claims staked in the 
previous 30 years. In fact, two-thirds of all claims on BLM lands 
in Colorado this year were uranium. The remaining were gold, 
copper and other metals. 

"People are always looking to find that mother lode of minerals 
that will give them retirement," said Bill Patterson, chairman of 
the Montrose County Board of Commissioners. "Everybody wants to 
make money, but the reality is the first people tend to make more 
than the others that come along later." 

Investors and hedge funds have bought more than 8 million pounds 
of uranium this year, or nearly one-third the spot market. 

David Noble, managing director of Cornerstone Energy Ventures in 
Denver, said his firm was "kicking the tires" on uranium 
investment. 

"Investors are becoming aware," Noble said. "Look at 
nuclear-power technology today - it doesn't emit greenhouses 
gases and they can make smaller plants instead of the giant ones 
like before, which make a lot of sense. But nuclear-waste 
disposal is an issue." 

Nucla resident Clifford Chiles, along with his father and two 
brothers, holds more than 50 uranium claims in Montrose and Mesa 
counties. They sold dozens more to eager mining companies. 

The Chileses pay the BLM an annual fee of $135 per claim, or 
thousands of dollars each year, to hold on to their claims. A 
family of miners, the Chileses hope to begin mining some of their 
claims along the Colorado- Utah border as soon as they get the 
BLM's approval. 

"We can't afford to have all those claims and not be mining," 
said Clifford Chiles, 48, who works in a coal mine. 

A nuclear-weapons race triggered the previous uranium boom in the 
1950s. After touching more than $50 a pound in the 1970s, prices 
slid during the past two decades. 

The end of the Cold War stopped the nuclear-arms race, and cheap 
imports from Russia's decommissioned nuclear arms flooded the 
market. 

A meltdown at the Three Mile Island reactor in Middletown, Pa., 
in 1979 and the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl plant in the 
Ukraine stunted growth of reactors and led to further price 
declines. 

Today, uranium is back in business, thanks to skyrocketing oil 
and gas prices that are driving nations to nuclear power as a 
source of energy. 

"As long as demand for electricity increases, nuclear will be a 
part of the resource mix," said Stuart Sanderson of the Colorado 
Mining Association. "Colorado is rich in uranium reserves, and 
the state may play an important role as a nuclear-energy 
producer." 

Some doubt the voracity of the latest rush. They don't think all 
the claims will progress to actual mining for the metal. Case in 
point: There's no operating mill in the state to process the 
uranium. 

Cotter Corp. shuttered Colorado's only uranium mill in Cańon City 
in September 2005. The company is looking at the economics of 
restarting the mill, a move that could cost millions of dollars. 

There is talk of Energy Fuels Inc. building a mill in Montrose. 

"There is no doubt an increase in staking claims and opening 
previously closed mines, but there is no place to take the ore 
other than stockpile, so I couldn't compare it to the gold rush 
of the 19th century," said Melodie Lloyd of BLM's Grand Junction 
office. 

Also, it takes months, if not years, to advance from staking 
claims to actual mining. Prospectors have to submit a development 
plan to the BLM, detailing the method of mining and the impact to 
the surface and environment, before getting a mining permit. 

"The telltale indicator (of mining) is when we start getting 
plans of development, and we haven't seen a lot of those lately," 
said Jim Edwards at the BLM's Denver office. 

Dan Hancock of the Southwest Research and Information Center in 
New Mexico said he has been watching the surge in claims "with 
interest." His group backs Navajo landowners who have banned 
uranium mining on their land in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. 

"The uranium bubble is a worldwide bubble, and we need to turn it 
into a bust on various levels," Hancock said. "We are very 
concerned about the kind of health and environmental damage that 
happens if uranium gets restarted."                                                                      
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2006 © The E.W. Scripps Co.
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 62 Daily Californian: Labs Submit Designsfor New Warhead

BY Anna Chang Contributing Writer    

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

A decision expected to be made in the next couple of weeks could 
determine the design for the first nuclear weapons built in the 
U.S. since the Cold War era. 

        The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Council is expected to declare a 
winner for a nuclear warhead design competition that began last 
summer between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los 
Alamos National Laboratory, which are both both managed by the 
University of California. 

        Both labs submitted designs for a submarine-launched 
ballistic missile warhead to the council earlier this year. 

        The competition was launched in an effort to determine 
the plausibility of the Reliable Replacement Warheads Program, a 
program that aims to make the nuclear weapons in the U.S. 
stockpile safer and more reliable, said Julianne Smith, special 
adviser for public affairs for the National Nuclear Security 
Administration. 

        After reviewing the work done by the laboratories, the 
weapons council decided to go forward with the replacement 
warhead program, though they have yet to choose the winning 
design, Smith said. 

        Once the council chooses a design, the lab whose design 
was chosen will act as lead lab for the program while the other 
lab will provide assistance, said Lynda Seaver, spokesperson for 
the Livermore lab. 

        However, the U.S. is still far from actually producing 
the warheads. 

        “If a design is chosen, it still has to go through a 
long final analysis,” said UC Berkeley earth and planetary 
science professor Raymond Jeanloz, who worked as part of a team 
of scientists that reviewed the laboratories’ research on 
plutonium. 

        Further study would still have to be done in terms of 
cost analysis, production and engineering, and a move toward 
engineering development and production would require 
congressional and presidential approval, Smith said. 

        Though it is still in a research-only stage, the 
replacement warhead program has already drawn criticism from 
anti-nuclear proliferation groups. 

        “This is absolutely the wrong path for the United 
States to promote,” said Marylia Kelley, the executive director 
of Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, a 
Livermore-based organization that works to eliminate production 
of nuclear weapons in the U.S. “We should be moving toward 
disarmament, not rearmament.”                                                                                         

Contact Anna Chang at achang@dailycal.org.                                                                                                                                                  

(c) 2005 the Daily Californian
    
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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: 
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> 
    
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