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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 [NYTr] Iran Abiding by Nuke Non-Proliferation Treaty
2 [NYTr] Iran seizes on Olmert's atomic 'confession'
3 AFP: Britain, Russia report progress in bid to agree UN sanctions on
4 AFP: Khamenei vows more Iran progress in nuclear drive
5 AFP: Israeli PM to rally Italy's support on Iran sanctions -
6 Guardian Unlimited: Negotiations on Iran Sanctions Delayed
7 Hankyoreh: Rice says U.S. will be looking for 'really' important N.K
8 Korea Herald: Seoul promises flexible incentives for Pyongyang's tan
9 Guardian Unlimited: N.M. Gov., North Koreans to Meet Friday
10 Korea Times: Resilient Measures to Match N. Korea's Nuke Abandonment
11 AFP: North Korea appears serious about denuclearization talks - US -
12 AFP: South Korea builds world's largest garbage-fuelled power plant
13 english.eastday.com: DPRK urges US to give up hostile policy
14 UPI: Seoul calls for initial anti-nuke steps
15 Guardian Unlimited: S.Korea Calls for Progress on Nuke Talks
16 [NukeNet] Congress, Bush Hand India WMD/Nuclear Materials
17 US: UCS: 10,600 Scientists Condemn Political Interference in Science
18 US: Deseret News: Matheson gets energy, commerce spot
19 Xinhua: Russia criticizes U.S. plans to build missile defense shield
20 US: Guardian Unlimited: New Publishing Rules Restrict Scientists
21 AFP: US defends its opposition to ban on weapons in space -
22 [NYTr] Big Fuss after Olmert Admits Israel Has Nukes
23 [NYTr] Israeli Prime Minister's Slip of the Tongue Causes Uproar
24 [NYTr] Helsinki urges clarity from Israel on 'nukes' remark
25 Guardian Unlimited: Comment is free: Sun worship
26 AFP: EU presidency wants Olmert to explain nuclear comments -
27 Guardian Unlimited: Annan Says Time Running Out in Mideast
28 UPI: EU wants Olmert to clarify nuclear slip
NUCLEAR REACTORS
29 US: NRC: NRC Staff to Hold Two Public Meetings to Discuss License R
30 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Nuclear plant's cooling pump explodes:
31 US: AP Wire: Tripped turbine shuts down TMI reactor
32 Platts: Poland proposes to take 25% stake in Baltic nuclear plant
33 US: Gainesville Sun: Utility eyes Levy site for nuclear plant
34 US: NRC: Licensing Support System Advisory Review Panel
35 US: NRC: Nuclear Management Company, LLC; Monticello Nuclear Generat
36 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Interim Staff Guidance Documents
37 US: NRC: Public Meeting on Consideration of Rulemaking To Reduce the
38 AFP: Indian PM seeks nuclear blessing in Japan
39 US: MyWestTexas.com: Business group warns of looming energy shortage
40 US: Orlando Sentinel: Florida could get new nuke facility - Orlando
41 US: Tampabay: Progress picks Levy for new nuclear plant
42 US: New London Day: Whistleblower Settlement Fair, Says Labor Law Ju
43 UPI: Analysis: India looks to boost nuke power
NUCLEAR SECURITY
44 US: Duck & Cover: TMI Replaces 3rd Secuirty Chief in 3 years
NUCLEAR SAFETY
45 Sydney Morning Herald: Key to brain age a matter of fallout -
46 US: AP Wire: Nuclear weapons workers trumpet museum
47 US: Naperville Sun: Radiation comp decision delayed
48 US: Deseret News: U.S. issues Divine Strake pledge
49 BBC: Radiation alert
50 washingtonpost.com: Two Old Friends at Center of Poison Mystery -
51 TheStar.com: Ontario passes whistleblower law
52 Australia Network: Nexus - Maralinga Part 1
53 Australia Network: Nexus - Maralinga - Part 2
54 AU ABC: Ghan crash raises safety, environmental concerns.
55 UPI: Spy-killing polonium-210 cost $25 million
56 US: UPI: University cited for nuclear material
57 US: Colorado Daily News: WWII, uranium still at issue
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
58 RGJ: County votes to send complaint letter to DOE
59 Pahrump Valley Times: Japanese trip highlights transport of nuclear
60 Pahrump Valley Times: Yucca boosted by incoming chairman of energy p
61 Pahrump Valley Times: DOE working toward solving 'chronic' Yucca des
62 US: SF New Mexican: Shipment of suspended Idaho nuclear waste to WIP
63 US: SF New Mexican: Navajo country wrestles with water, uranium
64 US: Deseret News: Delegates from Utah peer into the future
65 US: Platts: Uranium spot prices rise to at least $65/pound; more gai
66 Platts: USEC, NMC sign uranium enrichment contract
67 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: DOE to restart suspended shipments from
68 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Matheson is nominated for powerful House pane
PEACE
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
69 DOE: Pursuant to its authority under section 5051 of Public Law
70 Lodinews.com: Nuclear risks concern local activists
71 Recordnet.com: Tracy nuke-lab options laid out
72 DenverPost.com: Salazar blocks nominee until Flats workers get aid
73 KnoxNews: More weapons uranium on the way to Oak Ridge
74 Inside Bay Area: Leaner lab draws criticism
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 [NYTr] Iran Abiding by Nuke Non-Proliferation Treaty
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 14:11:39 -0500 (EST)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com
Iran Will Continue to Abide by Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Teheran, Dec 13 (Prensa Latina) Iran intends to remain in the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty (NNPT), Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran s Supreme
National Security Council, affirmed Wednesday in Teheran.
The decision does not exclude a projected revision of relations with the
International Atomic Energy Agency, due to what Larijani rated as
"unfriendly actions by that UN entity," according to statements broadcast
by the Iranian TV.
Larijani announced Teheran will conclude research to control atomic
technology soon, and reiterated the peaceful objective of its nuclear
program.
Referring to the draft resolution being debated at the Security Council, he
added the sanctions predicted in that text will not influence his country s
achievements.
sus dig msl mf
PL-8
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2 [NYTr] Iran seizes on Olmert's atomic 'confession'
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:18:23 -0600 (CST)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[It's not as if the fact that Israel is nuclear-armed has been a secret'
We've all known it long before Mordechai Vanunu courageously provided proof.
But Israel has been allowed to play it's coy game of "don't ask, we won't
tell" unchallenged for the most part... until Olmert himself blew the lid
off. Now the Israelis and the EU are in high dudgeon about it all. And it's
given Iran a perfect opening for showcasing its own adherence to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -- to which neither US pals India and
Israel are willing to commit. -NY Transfer]
Reuters via MSNBC - Dec 13, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16186372/
Iran seizes on Israeli PM's atomic 'confession'
Tehran demands U.N. action as tensions increase between two countries
TEHRAN - Iran on Wednesday called for U.N. Security Council action against
Israel, seizing on remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert widely
interpreted as an admission that the country has nuclear weapons.
"This confession reveals a real threat to security and stability in the
Middle East and shows the evil aims and plots of this regime," said Foreign
Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini.
Quoted by the official IRNA news agency, Hosseini called for "effective and
rapid measures in the Security Council and the Organization of Islamic
Conference and other regional organizations to combat these explicit
threats."
In a German television interview broadcast on Monday, Olmert said: "Iran,
openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can
you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear
weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?"
Olmert aides said the remarks did not constitute an admission that Israel
had atomic weapons.
Leading opposition lawmakers in Israel have accused Olmert of undermining
Israel's campaign to curb the atomic ambitions of Iran with his remarks.
Independent analysts believe Israel has built up to 200 nuclear warheads
since the late 1960s. Israel refuses to discuss the matter, under an
"ambiguity" policy aimed both at deterring regional foes and avoiding an
arms race.
Increasing rhetoric
The reticence is a major grievance for Iran, which sees a double standard
in Western calls for Tehran to accept checks on a nuclear program that it
says is for civilian use.
"Iran recommends that the Security Council place emphasis on combating the
open and real threats of the nuclear weapons capabilities, instead of
putting unreal issues on its agenda," Hosseini said.
Iran and Israel have traded increasingly confrontational rhetoric and
accusations in recent months.
In an interview with Germany's Spiegel magazine last week Olmert called for
dramatic measures against Iran and declined to rule out a military attack
against the Islamic Republic.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday on Israel would soon
be consigned to history, as happened to the Soviet Union.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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3 AFP: Britain, Russia report progress in bid to agree UN sanctions on Iran -
by Gerard Aziakou Wed Dec 13, 5:16 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Six major powers edged closer to agreeing
UN sanctions against Iran" /> over its refusal to halt sensitive
nuclear fuel work, raising hopes that the Security Council could
vote on a compromise package soon.
After a new round of informal talks on a sanctions draft
resolution early Wednesday by envoys from the Security Council's
five veto-wielding members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and
the United States -- plus Germany, several participants emerged
reasonably upbeat.
"We had a good meeting this morning. we made substantial
progress," British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told reporters.
He expressed hope that a compromise text would be agreed on this
week and that the full 15-member council "will vote as soon as
possible after that."
Western diplomats say they expect passage of the resolution by
Christmas.
France's UN envoy Jean-Marc de La Sabliere also spoke of
"progress" following amendments presented by Russia and the
United States to a revised European draft drawn up by France,
Britain and Germany.
"Important matters of principle have basically been agreed,"
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.
While there were still differences on some issues, including a
proposed travel ban on officials directly involved in Iran's
nuclear and ballistic missile programs, the six powers now "have
a basic understanding that we should be focusing on uranium
enrichment, chemical reprocessing, heavy water projects and
nuclear delivery systems," he added.
The European draft would mandate a ban on trade with Iran on
goods related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and
impose financial and travel restrictions on persons and entities
involved.
Jones Parry said nuclear experts of the council would go over
the text Thursday morning while envoys of the six major powers
would take it up again later that day.
In the meantime, the amendments and the comments made during
Wednesday's session would be forwarded to the envoys' respective
capitals, he added.
Churkin for his part described the text as "very positive,"
"even tough there are certain restrictions on activities which
we are concerned about."
In Washington, the State Department described amendments put
forward by US deputy UN representative Alejandro Wolff as
"tweaks."
Churkin hailed on Monday the European changes to the draft but
objected to the proposed travel ban on officials linked to
Tehran's nuclear and missile programs.
The text contains in its annex a list of 12 officials targeted
for a travel ban, including some associated with the Natanz
nuclear fuel processing facility and with the heavy-water
reactor Iran is building in Arak, as well as Iran's
Revolutionary Guards chief General Yahya Rahim Safavi.
It dropped, however, all references in the draft to Iran's first
nuclear power station, a one-billion-dollar facility that Russia
is helping to build in Bushehr.
Meanwhile Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed
Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would make further progress
in its nuclear program despite the objections of world powers,
state television reported.
Tehran has consistently rejected UN demands that it halt uranium
enrichment, a process which can provide fuel for nuclear
reactors but also, in highly refined form, material for the core
of a nuclear bomb.
In The Hague" /> , former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix
said Wednesday that giving security guarantees to Iran could
help persuade Tehran to scale down its nuclear ambitions and
freeze uranium enrichment.
"To avoid Iran going for enrichment, one must go into the
concerns they have ... they might be concerned by an attack of
the US," Blix told journalists.
Blix is now chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction
Commission (WMDC), an independent body that works to limit the
dangers posed by WMD.
The West claims Iran is running a secret nuclear military
program parallel to its civilian one, an allegation strongly
denied by Tehran which says its nuclear ambitions are entirely
peaceful and aimed at producing electricity.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
4 AFP: Khamenei vows more Iran progress in nuclear drive
Wed Dec 13, 7:04 AM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed
that Iran" /> would make further progress in its nuclear
programme despite the objections of world powers.
"In the nuclear energy issue, international powers insisted that
Iran should not achieve this advanced technology, but Iranians
unanimously insisted on obtaining this right and as a result
reached a very advanced level.
"Of course, this is not the end of the way, and the Iranian
nation will make more progress in this regard," Khamanei said,
without specifying what this would involve, state television
reported.
Iran has been locked in a standoff with Western countries over
its controversial nuclear programme, which they fear could be
diverted towards making nuclear weapons.
The five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany
appear to be nearing an agreement on a resolution that would
impose sanctions on Iran for defying international calls to
freeze uranium enrichment.
Enrichment lies at the centre of dispute over Iran's nuclear
programme as the process can be used to make atomic weapons as
well as nuclear fuel.
Iran vehemently denies charges it is seeking nuclear weapons,
insisting it only wants to enrich uranium for peaceful energy
ends.
Iran currently has two cascades of 164 centrifuges for uranium
enrichment in a plant in central Iran but plans to install 3,000
centrifuges by March.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
5 AFP: Israeli PM to rally Italy's support on Iran sanctions -
Wednesday December 13, 02:26 PM
[Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (L) shakes hands with
Romani Prodi]
ROME (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has gone into
talks with Prime Minister Romano Prodi hoping to convince his
Italian counterpart to back sanctions against Iran's nuclear
programme.
Olmert, who is in Italy on the second and final leg of a brief
European tour, will later join Prodi at a press conference.
The Israeli leader earlier was given a private audience with
Pope Benedict XVI, who said in August that he hopes one day to
visit the Holy Land, if possible "in times of (Advertisement)
[ src=] peace".
In Germany, his previous stop, Olmert won backing for
anti-Tehran sanctions from Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said
that "unfortunately the time has come for sanctions" after Iran
had turned its back on attempts to persuade it to stop enriching
uranium.
Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP that Rome too was
expected to rally behind moves by Israel and the United States
to try to bring Iran into line.
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who has said Israel should
be wiped off the map, says his country's nuclear programme is
aimed at purely civilian use.
Also during his talks with Prodi, Olmert will "underline the
importance for Israel of Italy's participation in the Interim
United Nations Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)," Eisin said Wednesday.
Rome is to send 2,500 troops and take over command of the UN
peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, which was beefed up
after a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in July and
August.
As part of the UN force, German navy ships have been patrolling
the Lebanese coast to prevent any arms smuggling into the
country.
Olmert will also raise possible ways of reviving dormant peace
talks with the Palestinians, provided Europe continues to
boycott the Hamas-led Palestinian government, Eisin said.
"Germany, Italy and Europe in general have a role to play to
advance the peace process," Eisin said. "But there cannot be any
recognition of the Hamas government as long as this movement
does not recognize Israel and does not give up its mission to
destroy it."
Although Olmert said in Berlin on Tuesday that Israel remained
opposed to talks with Syria as "the time is not ripe", Rome,
which for its part favours dialogue with Damascus, is expected
to discuss how European nations could play a role as an
interface between the two camps.
Italy too will urge Israel to agree to place the disputed Shebaa
Farms area, a small corner of land sandwiched between Lebanon,
Syria and Israel, under UN administration, Italian diplomatic
sources said.
The sources said this would bolster the hand of beleaguered
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, whose country has
demanded sovereignty over the area since 1967, while Israel
argues it is part of the Syrian Golan Heights annexed at the
time.
The UN has offered to administer the territory pending a
settlement.
"We will also seek how to develop the European observer mission
at the Rafah border (between Gaza and Egypt) to guarantee better
freedom of movement," the Italian sources said.
AFP
*****************************************************************
6 Guardian Unlimited: Negotiations on Iran Sanctions Delayed
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday December 13, 2006 4:46 AM
AP Photo XHS109
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Negotiations on an Iran sanctions
resolution were unexpectedly postponed Tuesday because of
Russia's anger at the United States for raising the plight of an
opposition leader in Belarus in the U.N. Security Council.
Belarus, an authoritarian former communist state that has close
ties to Russia, is not on the agenda of the U.N.'s most powerful
body. Russia's Ambassador Vitaly Churkin strongly objected when
senior U.S. diplomat William Brencick brought up the 54-day
hunger strike of jailed former Belarusian opposition
presidential candidate, Alexander Kozulin, council diplomats
said.
The five veto-wielding council members - the U.S., Russia,
China, Britain and France - along with Germany had been
scheduled to meet soon after to discuss Russian amendments to a
revised European draft resolution on Iran. But because of the
diplomatic tiff over Belarus, the meeting was put off.
``It wasn't the best timing by the U.S.,'' said Britain's U.N.
Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry.
Churkin, asked why the meeting was postponed, said: ``Because I
said so.''
The Europeans circulated a revised text on Friday in a bid to
win backing from Russia and China, and Churkin said after talks
Monday he was pleased with the direction of the negotiations
though specific points still needed to be worked out.
A U.S. official said Washington felt it was important to raise
the issue of Kozulin in the Security Council because of U.S.
concerns for freedom of political expression and democracy,
especially in the heart of Europe.
``We raised this issue and our goal was to highlight the plight
of this individual and what it means for the state of democracy
in this country,'' the official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because the council meeting was closed.
Kozulin, who ended his hunger strike on Tuesday, has been jailed
since March when he led a protest march following presidential
elections in which he was one of three candidates challenging
authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Kozulin had been on hunger strike to protest his sentencing in
June to five and a half years in prison for organizing the
unsanctioned protest.
Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, quashing dissent and
maintaining power through elections that have been dismissed by
critics abroad and at home as illegitimate.
The new draft resolution specifies in greater detail exactly
what materials and technology would be prohibited from being
supplied to Iran for possible use in its nuclear and missile
programs. The Russians and Chinese had previously complained
that proposed sanctions were too broad.
The draft also removes reference to a nuclear facility being
built by the Russians at Bushehr, Iran - another demand by
Russia. The facility, expected to go on line in late 2007, would
be Iran's first atomic power plant.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
7 Hankyoreh: Rice says U.S. will be looking for 'really' important N.K. steps
at next nuke talks
The United States and its allies will be looking for "really
important steps" toward denuclearization by North Korea at the
next round of six-party talks, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said Tuesday.
She did not set a deadline for the negotiations, but reaffirmed
that the talks should not be held just for the sake of talks.
"What we don't want to do is to get into a circumstance where we
are just talking about tit-for-tat, but rather keeping an eye on
really important steps toward along the road of
denuclearization," she told reporters after her meetings with
Australia's foreign and defense ministers.
After a hiatus of nearly a year, the six-party talks restart in
Beijing next week with the negotiators from South and North
Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan expected to discuss how
to implement their agreement in September last year.
In last year's Sept. 19 joint statement, Pyongyang agreed to give
up its nuclear weapons and programs in return for political and
economic incentives from other parties.
North Korea faces demands that it take concrete steps toward
dismantling the weapons and programs before the incentives are
implemented.
In an interview Monday, Rice said the U.S. wants to see
Pyongyang's denuclearization during the George W. Bush
administration.
"It's the only timetable I've got because, you know, I will be
long gone in two years. So of course that's my timetable," she
said.
Asked the same question on Tuesday, she said no one is asking
for a firm deadline.
"But I do think that there is an expectation in the
international community that these talks are not for the sake of
talks," she said.
The incentives have already been laid out in the Sept. 19
statement, she added, including economic and energy assistance
and more political contact leading to eventual normalization of
relations.
But she also reminded that next week's talks open under a
different context created by Pyongyang's Oct. 9 nuclear weapon
test.
The U.N. Security Council resolution "did send a very strong
message" to the North that its nuclear program was unacceptable,
Rice said.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said talks only for
the sake of talks "would be pointless." "They have got to be
talks that produce real outcomes," he said, "There are
constructive ideas on the table."
He singled out China's role, saying there has been a
"constructive and dramatic evolution" in its diplomacy. "It's
very heartening to see that," he said.
Washington, Dec. 12 (Yonhap News)
Posted on : Dec.13,2006 20:30 KST
© 2006 The Hankyoreh Media Company. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
8 Korea Herald: Seoul promises flexible incentives for Pyongyang's tangible steps
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said yesterday North
Korea will be given corresponding and flexible incentives if it
takes tangible steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
"It is important (at the upcoming six-party talks) to agree on
the first stage of implementation measures for the Sept. 19
Joint Statement," Song said in his first press briefing since
taking office Dec. 1.
He explained that the first stage does not mean disarmament,
but taking preparatory steps.
The preparatory steps would be agreeing on the approach toward
dismantlement such as by halting the reactor, reporting all
nuclear facilities, closing down nuclear test sites and
complying with inspections.
Foreign Minister Song Min-soon addresses a news conference
yesterday. [The Korea Herald]
"I believe it is also in the direct interests of North Korea to
implement the first stage of the Joint Statement and we will
exert creative efforts to make this happen," Song said.
"We expect North Korea to fully acknowledge the importance of
this opportunity and make an effort to see visible results."
Once the first stages of dismantlement are agreed upon,
corresponding measures will be discussed at different working
groups.
The working groups will most likely tackle five separate issues.
The main issue is North Korea's nuclear dismantlement, which
would serve as a barometer for the overall implementation of the
Joint Statement.
The second is energy aid, while the third is on normalizing
ties between North Korea and the United States and North Korea
and Japan.
A separate forum will be established to discuss a formal end to
the Korean War with directly involved parties.
The issue of Banco Delta Asia, the Macau-based bank accused of
circulating North Korean counterfeit dollars, will be dealt with
exclusively between the United States and North Korea.
"Based on the strong resolve of South Korea, we will play a
constructive role in getting the negotiations going by closely
working with the United States and China and efficiently talking
with North Korea," Song said.
The six-party talks are scheduled to resume on Dec. 18.
By Lee Joo-hee(angiely@heraldm.com)
2006.12.14
*****************************************************************
9 Guardian Unlimited: N.M. Gov., North Koreans to Meet Friday
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday December 14, 2006 12:31 AM
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Gov. Bill Richardson is to meet Friday
with two top North Korean officials in New Mexico.
The governor's office said Wednesday that the North Koreans
asked for the meeting to discuss upcoming multilateral talks on
North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The six-party talks,
scheduled to resume Monday in Beijing, will include North Korea,
South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States.
Richardson said that while he will not act as an official
representative of the Bush administration, he will do whatever
he can to move the talks forward.
``I believe we have an opportunity to use diplomacy to end this
crisis and bring stability to the Korean Peninsula,'' he said.
``I will press the North Koreans to start dismantling their
nuclear weapons.''
North Korea agreed in late October to reconvene the negotiations
three weeks after conducting an atomic bomb test. The
breakthrough came after pressure from China and a U.S. offer to
discuss financial penalties already in place.
U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said Wednesday his aim in
resuming negotiations with North Korea is an agreement to
denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
The U.S. State Department granted permission for the two
diplomats from the North Korean Mission to the United Nations to
come to Santa Fe, the governor's office said.
The governor, a former congressman, energy secretary and U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, has dealt extensively with
North Korea. He has traveled to North Korea five times, most
recently last October.
Friday's visit will mark the second time a North Korean
delegation has traveled to Santa Fe to meet with Richardson. The
first took place shortly after he took office in January 2003.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
10 Korea Times: Resilient Measures to Match N. Korea's Nuke Abandonment
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times
By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Song Min-soon
The priority at the six-party talks next week is to produce an
agreement on the ``early-phase¡¯¡¯ actions that could lay the
groundwork for the implementation of the joint principle
agreement reached in September last year, South Korea¡¯s top
diplomat said on Wednesday in Seoul.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Song Min-soon, who took
office Dec. 1, said in his first weekly media briefing that each
step of dismantling the North¡¯s nuclear programs will come with
``resilient¡¯¡¯ corresponding measures.
He declined to elaborate on what the measures would be. He also
refused to predict whether any tangible results would be made in
the next round of the talks, set to reopen Monday.
But he said the North would benefit from implementing the
agreement.
Song, Seoul¡¯s top nuclear negotiator in 2005, said the six
participating states need to reach a compromise on tangible
measures now, given that they have already decided which
direction they will go.
The talks have been in limbo since November last year, when the
North boycotted them, citing Washington¡¯s hostile policies,
including financial sanctions in response to Pyongyang¡¯s
alleged money laundering and counterfeiting.
``South Korea will play a constructive role for progress in the
talks through smooth communication with the North, as well as
close consultations with the United States and other parties
concerned,¡¯¡¯ he said.
Before becoming minister of foreign affairs and trade, Song
worked for President Roh Moo-hyun as his chief security
secretary.
Song's appointment as foreign minister was opposed by the main
opposition Grand National Party, which accused him of being
biased against the United States.
He has been credited for playing a key role in producing the
Sept. 19 joint statement in Beijing last year, in which North
Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in return for
security guarantees and economic assistance.
He also led successful negotiations on the extension of South
Korea's military missile range limit from 180 kilometers to 300
kilometers in 2000, when he was director-general of the
ministry¡¯s North American affairs bureau.
The 57-year-old diplomat served as South Korea's ambassador to
Poland for two years from 2001. He majored in German literature
at Seoul National University and joined the country's diplomatic
service in 1975.
12-13-2006 18:37
*****************************************************************
11 AFP: North Korea appears serious about denuclearization talks - US -
by David Millikin Wed Dec 13, 4:27 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - North Korea" /> North Koreahas indicated it is
ready to "deal in specifics" about giving up its newly proven
nuclear arsenal when it returns to six-party disarmament
negotiations next week in Beijing, the top US negotiator said.
But Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill predicted
"very tough negotiations" when the talks resume at the weekend
after a 13-month break and said there were no guarantees the
process would achieve its goal of convincing North Korea to
dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
"At this point I can't tell you if that strategic choice has
been made or not," said Hill, who has held two rounds of
preliminary talks with the North Koreans since they agreed to
return to the negotiating table after carrying out their first
test of a nuclear bomb on October 9.
Hill told reporters that during one round of meetings on
November 27 and 28 in Beijing, "there were indications that the
DPRK, the North Koreans, would be prepared to deal in specifics
at the coming round."
"The Chinese have also been in direct contact with the North
Koreans on several occasions, and they also have reason to
believe that we will see some specific ideas for moving ahead,"
he said.
Hill declined to provide any details of what specific steps the
US and its allies would demand of North Korea or what incentives
they would offer during the negotiations.
But he stressed that Washington would not allow the talks to
drag on while North Korea pursues its nuclear program.
"It's our very strong view that in this first round, which
starts over the weekend, we want to show some significant
progress."
The six-party talks -- involving China, Japan, North Korea,
South Korea" /> South Korea, Russia and the United States --
started in 2003 to stop Pyongyang from acquiring nuclear
weapons.
North Korea signed on to a vaguely worded joint statement in
September 2005, pledging to give up its nuclear ambitions in
return for security guarantees, energy assistance and improved
relations with the West.
But North Korea pulled out two months later, apparently to
protest US sanctions imposed on a Macau-based bank, Banco Delta
Asia, for allegedly laundering money and circulating counterfeit
US 100 dollar bills on behalf of the cash-strapped communist
Pyongyang regime.
It then conducted its first nuclear test, triggering global
condemnation -- including from closest ally China -- and
unprecedented sanctions agreed by the United Nations" /> United
Nations.
Hill said China's pressure was a critical element in North
Korea's decision to resume negotiations and that Washington's
and Beijing's goals in the talks "are pretty close to identical
-- complete denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula.
"We need concrete progress. We need a sign that we have moved
off of the pages of the September agreement and on to the ground
of the Korean peninsula," he said.
The US diplomat said it was not clear if North Korea's
notoriously unpredictable leadership agreed to resume talks due
of the bite of UN sanctions or "because they have exploded a
nuclear device and they feel very strong as a result of that".
But Hill said he had made clear to the North Koreans already
that "we do not consider them a nuclear power and we will not
consider them a nuclear power."
The UN sanctions, which include a trade embargo on nuclear and
weapons-related material and luxury goods, will remain in place
during the negotiations, he said.
But in a concession to Pyongyang, the US has agreed to hold
simultaneous discussions in Beijing on the Banco Delta Asia
sanctions, he said.
A US Treasury official will lead those talks for Washington.
Hill said he would travel Friday to Tokyo for preparatory talks
with the Japanese and could also visit Seoul before heading to
Beijing, where informal talks will continue among all parties
through the weekend prior to the formal start of negotiations on
Monday.
"I'm not here to predict success or to express optimism, but
I'll have a much better picture of that probably a week from
now," he said.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
12 AFP: South Korea builds world's largest garbage-fuelled power plant -
Wed Dec 13, 3:42 AM ET
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea" /> South Koreahas opened the world's
largest garbage-fuelled power plant and expects to reduce its
imports of heavy oil by 500,000 barrels a year as a result.
The 50-megawatt plant, designed to provide power to more than
180,000 households, began operating on Tuesday. It sits on a
mammoth garbage dump in the city of Incheon west of Seoul, the
ministry said in a statement.
For fuel, it uses only the methane gas naturally generated from
the decomposing garbage on the site.
"It reduces greenhouse gas emissions by burning away methane and
avoids buring more fossil fuel for electricity," Park Han-Eop,
an official of the ministry's waste treatment division, told
AFP.
The plant will save the country the import of 500,000 barrels of
heavy oil and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.37
million tonnes per year, he said.
A private firm, Eco Energy, invested 77 billion won (83 million
dollars) in building the power plant in return for operating it
for 11 years before handing the commercial rights over to the
government, he said.
South Korea has 12 other landfill gas power plants either being
built or operating across the country. They are mostly
small-sized plants producing one to six megawatts.
South Korea currently relies heavily on nuclear power plants
which supply 40 percent of demand. It imports all its oil needs.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
13 english.eastday.com: DPRK urges US to give up hostile policy
13/12/2006 16:56
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) yesterday said
that the United States should draw a lesson from its failing
hostile policy against Pyongyang, and urged Washington to change
its old attitude.
In a signed article published by the leading official newspaper
Rondong Sinmun, the DPRK accused the United States of beefing up
the military deployment against it, under a new military
operational plan.
"The U.S.imperialists kicked up a hysteric row against the the
DPRK in the sky and land and on the sea in and around South
Korea by mobilizing their allies and even the nuclear carrier
task force... ", said the newspaper.
The newspaper also said that the United States wanted to
suppress the DPRK by means of raising sanctions and increasing
pressure.
"It was their calculation that the Korean people would make a
concession and yield to their gunboat diplomacy and horror
strategy," said the Rondong Sinmun.
"The U.S. had better draw a serious lesson from its failure in
its hostile policy toward the DPRK this year and make a
switch-over in its policy," it added.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman announced on Monday that
the six-party talks aimed at seeking a solution to the Korean
peninsula nuclear issue would be resumed in Beijing on Dec.18.
This will be the first resumption of talks since the DPRK
conducted an underground nuclear test on Oct. 9, triggering
protests from the international community and complicating the
Korean nuclear issue.
Xinhua News
*****************************************************************
14 UPI: Seoul calls for initial anti-nuke steps
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence -
12/13/2006 6:42:00 AM -0500
SEOUL, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- South Korea's diplomatic chief Wednesday
urged North Korea to take initial steps on dismantling its
nuclear drive for the sake of its national interest.
In his first press briefing since taking office earlier this
month, Foreign Minister Song Min-soon also called for
flexibility at the six-nation nuclear talks due to resume next
week after a 13-month hiatus.
"It is important to enter the early stage of implementing (last
year's) Sept. 19 joint statement. It is surely in the interest
of North Korea," Song said. "Other countries concerned will be
able to take active and resilient corresponding measures," he
said.
Under the Sept. 19 joint statement, the first formal document
since the six-nation talks began in August 2003, the North
agreed to abandon its existing nuclear weapons and all related
programs as well as return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, in return for economic and political benefits from
U.S.-led allies.
But no progress has since been made on implementing the joint
statement and the six-way nuclear talks have been deadlocked
since November last year.
Nuclear negotiations between North Korea and United States are
scheduled to take place in Beijing on Dec. 18, resuming
long-stalled six-nation nuclear talks that also involve China,
Japan, Russia and South Korea.
"I hope that North Korea will well heed the importance of this
opportunity and move towards making visible progress," Song said.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
15 Guardian Unlimited: S.Korea Calls for Progress on Nuke Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday December 13, 2006 5:31 PM
AP Photo SEL106
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's new foreign minister
called Wednesday for all sides to work for progress at upcoming
talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, saying Seoul
would play an active role in seeking to persuade Pyongyang to
disarm.
Abandoning its nuclear ambitions ``clearly serves North Korea's
interest,'' said Song Min-soon, who became Seoul's top diplomat
last month. He added that Seoul would make ``creative and
active'' efforts to induce North Korea to implement a September
2005 agreement in which the North pledged to scrap its pursuit
of nuclear technology in exchange for energy and aid.
North Korea walked away from the talks - which also include
China, Japan, Russia and the United States - 13 months ago. But
they are set to resume Monday in Beijing.
Song said if the North takes visible steps, the five other
nations should also be prepared to make concessions. He didn't
elaborate.
A Korean language newspaper, meanwhile, reported Thursday that
North Korea has said it could shut down the 5-megawatt nuclear
reactor at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon and accept U.N.
inspections if Washington makes certain concessions.
The newspaper, Hankook Ilbo, said the North Koreans have asked
Washington, in return, to lift financial sanctions imposed
because of its alleged currency counterfeiting and
money-laundering. Pyongyang is also demanding energy aid, the
newspaper said.
South Korea's new unification minister called for ``patience''
by the participants in the revived talks. ``It is important to
create an atmosphere in which the agreement is faithfully
implemented,'' Lee Jae-joung said in a speech.
In Tokyo on Wednesday, the special U.N. envoy on human rights in
North Korea said a resolution of the nuclear standoff could
clear the way for talks on Pyongyang's alleged human rights
abuses.
``A positive development on that front will contribute to the
space for humanitarian action,'' said the envoy, Vitit
Muntarbhorn. ``There are many possibilities once we nurture a
sense of mutual confidence to positive dialogue.''
North Korea routinely tops the lists of countries cited by
activists for human rights abuses. Leader Kim Jong Il does not
tolerate dissent, restricts travel and discourages religion.
Economic mismanagement has, meanwhile, left most of the
population in poverty and created massive food shortages.
Resolving the nuclear issue and addressing human rights abuses
are not incompatible goals, Muntarbhorn said. But other nations
have been reluctant to press Pyongyang on human rights, fearing
that doing so may undermine talks on North Korea's nuclear
program.
``We know very well that the primacy at the moment of course is
on the nuclear,'' Muntarbhorn said. ``But that does not rule out
or negate the possibility of other entry points or other
interactions.''
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
16 [NukeNet] Congress, Bush Hand India WMD/Nuclear Materials
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:26:43 -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
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Nuclear reactors shouldn't exist. They are an abomination in and of
themselves. They should be described as stationary radiological nuclear
weapons. NO one, country, entity should have them. No rational person would
entertain their existence. Irrespective of who has them, they are
inherently massively dangerous throwing aside 100% the proliferation issue.
The USA is responsible for immense terror on earth but that dosen't
mean that most other countries are simply innocent victims. Look at the
litany of vile regimes and people populating every country on earth with
their right wing and moderate views on every issue under the sun- Iran,
Iraq, the Wall Streets and Pentagons of the world, Russia, China, Pakistan,
India, etc., etc.
I don't have time for more, have to run. Let's keep things and the
entire planet and it's politics/economics/media in objective perspective.
No-Nukes for ANYONE,
-Bill Smirnow
----- Original Message -----
From: Arun Shrivastava
To: Bill Smirnow
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 5:12 AM
Subject: Re: [NukeNet] Congress, Bush Hand India WMD/Nuclear Materials
Dear Friends
Whilst I am totally opposed to nuclear proliferation [since 1974, when
India imploded its Made-In-India device] I am equally opposed to activism
barring India from trading nuclear weapons and reactors.
The villain is the USA. It is the only country that has used nuclear
weapons against another, it has consistently used weapons of indiscriminate
destruction [WIDs] against civilians. All over the world.
Instead of telling the Government of India and US Congressmen to
impose/restrict proliferation, please raise your voice against use of WIDs.
And the US Government is the one that should be restrained from using WIDs.
In the process, ban all exports from the US. Fight to curb the
proliferation of WIDs, HAARP, and otehr unknown weapons that can be misused
to further US imperialistic agenda. In doing so, you would be helping us
who are fighting against puppets of the US administration, right here, in
India. Please note this: every Government today with a few exceptions
[Venezuela, Cuba, to some extent Russia & China] is co-opted by your own
Government, the Government of GHWB.
Don't mislead people. It is the Government of the US that is responsible
for over 100 million civilian deaths in the 20th C. It is the single most
devilish power on earth today. And most of you are living on credit,
expropriated from the rest of the world as economic rent for US-assured
survival. If we refuse to buy your nuclear reactor, or even oil, paid for
in US dollar, this country will be bombed to stone age.
Set your house in order.
Arun Shrivastava
New Delhi
On 12/13/06, Bill Smirnow
<smirnowb@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network
(nukenet@energyjustice.net)
For anyone doubting that nuclear reactors are
WMDs see:
http://www.mothersalert.org/crac.html
[Straight from the nuclear industry and their
lapdog best friend the NRC, often referred to with
as a straight face as a watchdog]
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-india-usa.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Bush to Sign India Nuclear Deal Into Law on
Monday
a.. Sign In to E-Mail or Save This
b.. Print
By REUTERS
Published: December 12, 2006
Filed at 7:37 p.m. ET
Skip to next paragraph
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush
will sign into law on Monday a civil nuclear
cooperation deal that allows the United States to
sell nuclear technology to India, the White House
said.
Congress gave final approval on Saturday to the
legislation which the Bush administration and its
allies say will expand ties with the world's
largest democracy and open up billions of dollars
in trade for U.S . companies.
Critics say the legislation, which helps clear the
way for India to buy U.S. nuclear reactors and
fuel, will undermine efforts to curb the spread of
nuclear weapons.
But congressional sponsors said the legislation
included some restraints, such as requiring the
president to stop U.S. exports of nuclear
materials if India tested another nuclear device
as it did in 1998.
India said it views the nuclear cooperation deal
as a big step forward but it was wary of
conditions attached to it by Congress.
``The government has taken note of certain
extraneous and prescriptive provisions in the
legislation,'' India's Foreign Minister Pranab
Mukherjee told parliament.
The deal reversed 30 years of U.S. policy that had
opposed nuclear cooperation with India because the
country developed nuclear weapons in contravention
of international standards and never signed the
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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17 UCS: 10,600 Scientists Condemn Political Interference in Science
December 11, 2006
New Guide Documents Ongoing Federal Abuse of Science; 110th
Congress Must Act
SAN FRANCISCOA statement by Nobel laureates and other leading
scientists calling for the restoration of scientific integrity
to federal policy making has now been signed by 10,600
scientists from all 50 states, the Union of Concerned Scientists
(UCS) announced today at the annual meeting of the American
Geophysical Union. The announcement came as the scientists group
released an "A to Z" guide that documents dozens of recent
allegations involving censorship and political interference in
federal science.
"From airborne bacteria to Ground Zero, science continues to be
misrepresented for political gain," said Dr. Francesca Grifo,
senior scientist and director of UCS's Scientific Integrity
Program. "The new Congress should enact meaningful reforms so
decisions within federal scientific agencies and advisory
committees are based on objective and unbiased science."
The integrity of science statement has grown steadily since it
was first released in February 2004. Signatories now include 52
Nobel Laureates, 63 National Medal of Science recipients, and
almost 200 members of the National Academies of Science.
Meanwhile, the new UCS compendium details censorship and
political interference in federal science on issues as diverse
as air quality, childhood lead poisoning, and prescription drug
safety. For example, in late October UCS released documents
tying high-level political appointees at the Department of
Interior to the manipulation and distortion of numerous
scientific documents to prevent the protection of six different
species under the Endangered Species Act.
"The scientist statement makes clear that while science is
rarely the only factor in public policy decisions, this input
should be objective and impartial," said Dr. Grifo. "Sustained
protest from scientists, individual Republicans and Democrats in
Congress, and the nation's leading editorial pages has not been
enough to make the abuse of science stop."
Reporters: Join our notification listto receive breaking news
from UCS.
For general media inquiries, please call our press office at
202-331-5420.
Press Contacts:
EMILY ROBINSON Press Secretary 202-331-5427 erobinson@ucsusa.org
AARON HUERTAS Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-5458 ahuertas@ucsusa.org
RICH HAYES Media Director 202-331-5437 rhayes@ucsusa.org
© Union of Concerned Scientists
Page Last Revised: 12/12/06
*****************************************************************
18 Deseret News: Matheson gets energy, commerce spot
[deseretnews.com]
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
By Suzanne Struglinski
Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has been assigned to the
House Energy and Commerce Committee for the next session of
Congress, he said Tuesday.
Jim Matheson
While this means he has to drop all
his other committees, Matheson said the wide variety of topics
the committee handles makes it worth it.
"It has the broadest jurisdiction," Matheson said. "It
focuses on issues that are important to me and things that I
have been a leader on."
With his energy business background and opposition to
restarting nuclear weapons testing, Matheson said the committee
will be a good fit.
Republicans have not finalized assignments for Utah.
His bills to create a 25 percent tax on Internet
pornography transactions and enforce video game ratings need to
go through this committee, putting him in a good position to get
the bills to the House floor.
The committee also examines health care policy "the
dominant issue of the next decade," Matheson said.
The Democratic caucus finalizes committee assignments.
Matheson said he asked for the assignment and incoming Chairman
John Dingell, D-Mich., supported Matheson coming to the
committee.
The committee has jurisdiction over five Cabinet-level
Departments and seven independent agencies, including the
departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, Transportation
and the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug
Administration and the Federal Communications Commission,
according to Matheson's office.
Matheson had served on the House Financial Services,
Science and Transportation and Infrastructure committees in the
last Congress.
E-MAIL: suzanne@desnews.com
© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
19 Xinhua: Russia criticizes U.S. plans to build missile defense shield
in Europe
www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-14 05:28:05
MOSCOW, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia's military chief of staff
criticized on Wednesday U.S. plans to deploy missile defense
systems in Europe, saying the planned move is a mistake.
Russia sees the plans as "an erroneous step with extremely
negative consequences for international security," Gen. Yuri
Baluyevsky was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
"The formation of a U.S. missile defense base in Europe
cannot be viewed otherwise than as a serious re-configuration of
U.S. military presence," he said.
The United States is in talks with NATO members Poland and
the Czech Republic in search for a base to deploy missile
defense systems in eastern Europe.
Baluyevsky said the deployment of a European missile defense
shield is "an unfriendly step" to Russia.
"The possible area of interception of ballistic missiles
will cover a significant part of Russia's European territory,"
he said.
Baluyevsky criticized U.S. claims that the missile defense
system will not have any serious impact on Russia's nuclear
deterrence potential and only aim to counter missile threats
from certain Asian states, saying these arguments are only an
excuse.
Editor: Mu Xuequan
*****************************************************************
20 Guardian Unlimited: New Publishing Rules Restrict Scientists
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday December 13, 2006 10:01 PM
By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is clamping down on
scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the latest agency
subjected to controls on research that might go against official
policy.
New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by
agency scientists who study everything from caribou mating to
global warming. The rules apply to all scientific papers and
other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks,
according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Top officials at the Interior Department's scientific arm say
the rules only standardize what scientists must do to ensure the
quality of their work and give a heads-up to the agency's public
relations staff.
``This is not about stifling or suppressing our science, or
politicizing our science in any way,'' Barbara Wainman, the
agency's director of communications, said Wednesday. ``I don't
have approval authority. What it was designed to do is to
improve our product flow.''
Some agency scientists, who until now have felt free from any
political interference, worry that the objectivity of their work
could be compromised.
``I feel as though we've got someone looking over our shoulder
at every damn thing we do. And to me that's a very scary thing.
I worry that it borders on censorship,'' said Jim Estes, an
internationally recognized marine biologist in the USGS field
station at Santa Cruz, Calif.
``The explanation was that this was intended to ensure the
highest possible quality research,'' said Estes, a researcher at
the agency for more than 30 years. ``But to me it feels like
they're doing this to keep us under their thumbs. It seems like
they're afraid of science. Our findings could be embarrassing to
the administration.''
The new requirements state that the USGS's communications office
must be ``alerted about information products containing
high-visibility topics or topics of a policy-sensitive nature.''
The agency's director, Mark Myers, and its communications office
also must be told - prior to any submission for publication -
``of findings or data that may be especially newsworthy, have an
impact on government policy, or contradict previous public
understanding to ensure that proper officials are notified and
that communication strategies are developed.''
Patrick Leahy, USGS's head of geology and its acting director
until September, said Wednesday that the new procedures would
improve scientists' accountability and ``harmonize'' the review
process. He said they are intended to maintain scientists'
neutrality.
``Our scientific staff is second to none,'' he said. ``This
notion of scientific gotcha is something we do not want to
participate in. That does not mean to avoid contentious
issues.''
The changes amount to an overhaul of commonly accepted
procedures for all scientists, not just those in government,
based on anonymous peer reviews. In that process, scientists
critique each other's findings to determine whether they deserve
to be published.
From now on, USGS supervisors will demand to see the comments of
outside peer reviewers' as well any exchanges between the
scientists who are seeking to publish their findings and the
reviewers.
The Bush administration, as well as the Clinton administration
before it, has been criticized over scientific integrity issues.
In 2002, the USGS was forced to reverse course after warning
that oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge would harm the Porcupine caribou herd. One week later a
new report followed, this time saying the caribou would not be
affected.
Earlier this year, a USGS scientist poked holes in research that
the Interior Department was using in an effort to remove from
the endangered species list a tiny jumping mouse that inhabits
grasslands coveted by developers in Colorado and Wyoming.
Federal criminal investigators are looking into allegations that
USGS employees falsified documents between 1998 and 2000 on the
the movement of water through the proposed Yucca Mountain
nuclear waste dump in Nevada. The USGS had validated the Energy
Department's conclusions that water seepage was relatively slow,
so radiation would be less likely to escape.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, scientists and advocacy
groups alike are worried about closing libraries that contain
tens of thousands of agency documents and research studies. ``It
now appears that EPA officials are dismantling what it likely
one of our country's comprehensive and accessible collections of
environmental materials,'' four Democrats who are in line to
head House committees wrote EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson
two weeks ago.
Democrats about to take control of Congress have investigations
into reports by The New York Times and other news organizations
that the Bush administration tried to censor government
scientists researching global warming at NASA and the Commerce
Department.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
21 AFP: US defends its opposition to ban on weapons in space -
Wed Dec 13, 5:44 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States defended its opposition to a
new ban on weapons in space, saying it needed to keep its options
open amid threats from nations seeking ways to attack US space
systems.
Robert Joseph, under secretary of state for arms control and
security, said he was unaware of plans to deploy weapons in
space but that the new National Space Policy does not preclude
that option in the future.
Joseph also said terrorism had emerged as a new potential threat
to US space operations on the ground.
"Ensuring the freedom of space and protecting our interests in
this medium are priorities for US national security and for the
US economy," Joseph said in a speech here on the new US space
policy made public in October.
"But not all countries can be relied upon to pursue exclusively
peaceful goals in space," he said.
"A number of countries are exploring and acquiring capabilities
to counter, attack, and defeat US space systems," he said,
without naming the nations.
The growing threats require the United States to boost its
ability to protect its space assets, he said.
"To achieve this end, the United States needs to remain at the
forefront in space, technologically and operationally, as we
have in the air, on land, and at sea," he said.
"Specifically, the United States must have the means to employ
space assets as an integral part of its ability to manage
crises, deter conflicts and, if deterrence fails, prevail in
conflict," Joseph added.
While the United States sees "no value" in setting new
agreements to ban weapons in space, it will continue abiding
"scrupulously" to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which forbids
placing nuclear weapons in space, he said.
Joseph rejected arguments that the weapons ban was needed to
prevent an arms race, saying there were "no signs of one
emerging."
"Given the vital importance of our space assets, foreclosing
technical options to defend those space assets in order to
forestall a hypothetical future arms race in space, is not in
the national security interest of the United States," he said.
While the US space policy does not direct the development or
deployment of weapons in space, it does not close that option,
Joseph said after the speech.
"There are no programs that I'm aware of in terms of development
and deployment for those types of capabilities," he said in
response to a question.
"But the policy itself, while calling for a full range of
capabilities to protect our interests and to deny others the use
of space for hostile purposes, does not preclude us from moving
in that direction at some point in the future," Joseph said.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
22 [NYTr] Big Fuss after Olmert Admits Israel Has Nukes
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:05:12 -0500 (EST)
X-Sender-Host-Name: olm.blythe-systems.com
X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Innocent"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
excerpted from Abunimah News -
http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi/abunimah/
* Calls for Olmert to resign after nuclear gaffe (Guardian)
* Toothless EU embarassed by Israeli nuclear admission (AFP)
The Guardian - 13 December 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1970861,00.html
Calls for Olmert to resign after nuclear gaffe
By Luke Harding in Berlin and Duncan Campbell
Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was yesterday trying
to fend off accusations of ineptitude and calls for his
resignation after he accidentally acknowledged for the
first time that Israel had nuclear weapons. After decades
in which Israel has stuck to a doctrine of nuclear
ambiguity, Mr Olmert let slip during an interview in
Germany that Israel did indeed have weapons of mass
destruction.
He told Germany's Sat.1 channel on Monday evening: "Iran,
openly, explicitly and publicly, threatens to wipe Israel
off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when
they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America,
France, Israel and Russia?"
Mr Olmert's admission comes less than a week after the
incoming US secretary of defence, Robert Gates,
speculating at a Senate confirmation hearing on Iran's
possible motives for trying to build nuclear arms,
suggested that Israel had the bomb.
Speaking in Berlin after a meeting yesterday with
Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, Mr Olmert attempted
to backtrack. He insisted that Israel's doggedly held
position of nuclear weapons ambiguity had not changed.
"Israel has said many times - and I also said this to
German television in an interview - that we will not be
the first country that introduces nuclear weapons to the
Middle East," Mr Olmert insisted. He added: "That was our
position, that is our position - nothing has changed."
But his remarks did nothing to assuage criticism in
Israel. Opposition leaders accused him of "irresponsible"
bungling and said he should resign.
"This causes great harm to Israel. We are in the midst of
a huge [diplomatic] onslaught against Iran's attempts to
make a nuclear bomb," former foreign minister Silvan
Shalom, a member of the rightwing Likud party, said on
Army Radio. He added: "We always face the same question
which our enemies ask: 'Why is Israel allowed to [have a
bomb] and not Iran?'"
Yossi Beilin, of the leftwing Meretz party, which is also
in opposition, questioned Mr Olmert's fitness to lead.
"The prime minister's amazing statement regarding nuclear
capability indicates a lack of caution bordering on
irresponsibility," the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted
him as saying.
Mr Olmert's domestic approval ratings have plummeted since
this summer's war against Lebanon's Hizbullah guerrillas.
Aides to the prime minister tried frantically to limit the
damage. His spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, who is accompanying
Mr Olmert on his visit to Germany and Italy, said it did
not mean Israel possessed or wanted to acquire nuclear
weapons. "No, he wasn't saying anything like that."
Israel has long declined to confirm or deny having the
bomb as part of a "strategic ambiguity" policy that it
says fends off numerically superior Arab enemies. But
Arabs and Iran see a double standard in US policy in the
region.
By not declaring itself to be nuclear-armed, Israel gets
round a US ban on funding countries that proliferate
weapons of mass destruction. It can thus enjoy more than
$2bn (#1.02bn) a year in military and other aid from
Washington.
Israel's main atomic reactor, officially for civilian use,
became operational in the early 1960s. The CIA first
concluded that Israel had begun to produce nuclear weapons
in 1968, but few details emerged until 1986 when Mordechai
Vanunu, a former technician at the nuclear facility, gave
the Sunday Times detailed descriptions that led defence
analysts to rank the country as the sixth largest nuclear
power.
Mr Vanunu, who was released in 2004 after spending 18
years in prison, welcomed the prime minister's admission.
"Obviously, I don't welcome the atomic bomb but this
openness could lead at last to some realpolitik - and
maybe to some real peace." Mr Vanunu said he believed the
admission was not accidental. "My idea is that it was said
intentionally. For 20 years they tried to deny me and my
story but the policy of cheating and lying didn't succeed.
There is now a new defence secretary in the United States
and there are also changes taking place in the Arab world,
so I think that may have led to the change."
***
Agence France Presse - 13 December 2006
EU presidency wants Olmert to explain nuclear comments
BERLIN, Dec 13 2006--The Finnish presidency of the
European Union called on Wednesday for Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert to explain his apparent admission
that the Jewish state has nuclear weapons.
"I think that Mr Olmert must explain more fully what this
information means," Finnish Defence Minister Seppo
Kaariainen said in German newspaper Berliner Zeitung.
Kaariainen said he hoped Olmert's words would not have a
negative effect on the UN-led peacekeeping force deployed
in Lebanon following the 34-day war between the Israeli
army and Hezbollah this year."I hope above all else that
the international crisis management that began in Lebanon
in the summer can be continued without interference.
"The EU will be watching very closely to see what reaction
the Israeli explanation provokes."Israel is widely
considered the sole country in the Middle East to have
nuclear weapons but has never confirmed or denied the
suspicions.
But in an interview with a German television station on
Monday, Olmert appeared to break the taboo.
"We never threatened any nation with annihilation," Olmert
told the N24 rolling news channel."Iran openly, explicitly
and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you
say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to
have nuclear weapons, as France, America, Russia and
Israel?" he asked.Israeli officials were on Wednesday
still struggling to contain damage from Olmert's apparent
blunder, insisting the slip did not change the Jewish
state's policy of "nuclear ambiguity".
*
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23 [NYTr] Israeli Prime Minister's Slip of the Tongue Causes Uproar
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:22:06 -0600 (CST)
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Radio Havana Cuba
http://www.radiohc.cu
Israeli Prime Minister's Slip of the Tongue Causes Uproar
Jerusalem, December 13 (RHC)-- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has
sparked an uproar after an apparent slip of the tongue. For the first time,
he admitted that Israel is a nuclear power -- but few believe the mistake
will lead to a change in the Zionist state's nuclear deniability.
Tel Aviv has denied for decades that they have the bomb, but Olmert broke
the taboo in an interview with a German television station as he began a
visit to Berlin. Referring to Iran, he said that the Islamic State is
"aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as France, America, Russia and Israel."
The Israeli prime minister's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, was quick to deny
that Olmert had admitted to Israel having nuclear weapons -- saying that
"Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the
region."
The Israeli premier stuck to the same line on Tuesday, telling a news
conference after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "Israel
will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the region.
That is our policy and it has not changed. There is no need to explain it
any further."
But the blunder -- which came less than a week after Israeli officials came
down hard on the incoming U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates for the same
slip-up during his Senate confirmation hearings -- sparked outrage, with
lawmakers from across the political spectrum calling on the premier to
resign.
"The staggering comments of Ehud Olmert only serve to reinforce the doubts
on his capacity to remain prime minister," according to opposition MP Yossi
Beilin. The right-wing opposition Likud MP Yuval Steinitz called on Olmert
to step down after having made "an irresponsible slip which puts into
question a policy that dates back almost half a century."
Meanwhile, observers warned that Olmert's statement threatened to undercut
efforts by Israel and the West to prevent Iran from pursuing its nuclear
program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes and Washington
claims is a cover for acquiring nuclear weapons.
Mordechai Vanunu, who served 18 years in jail after blowing the whistle on
Israel's nuclear program in 1986, welcomed the premier's remarks. He told
reporters: "The world should now not only talk about Iran but also about
Israel as a nuclear threat that has to be dealt with in order to make a
nuclear-free Middle East and bring peace."
*
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24 [NYTr] Helsinki urges clarity from Israel on 'nukes' remark
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:08:46 -0500 (EST)
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EU Observer - Dec 13, 2006
http://euobserver.com/9/23087/?rk=1
Helsinki urges clarity from Israel on 'nukes' remark
By Mark Beunderman
The Finnish EU presidency has called upon Israel to clarify its apparent
acknowledgement that it has nuclear weapons, with Finland's defence
minister saying he hopes the issue will not impair the international
peace mission in Lebanon.
Finnish defence minister Seppo Kaariainen told Germany's Berliner
Zeitung on Wednesday (13 December) that it is up to Ehud Olmert,
Israel's prime minister, to explain what is widely seen as a
slip-of-the-tongue made on Monday.
Mr Olmert in an interview with German TV, grouped Israel - which has
never publicly admitted that it has nuclear weapons - together with
states which openly run nuclear arsenals.
The Israeli leader said "Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly threatens
to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level,
when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France,
Israel, Russia?"
"I believe Mr Olmert should further explain what this information really
means," said Mr Kaariainen, who was apparently speaking on behalf of the
European Union, adding that "the EU will watch very closely which
reactions the Israeli statement will cause in the region."
"I hope above all that the international crisis management which started
last summer in Lebanon can be continued without interference," the
Finnish minister said, referring to a UN peacekeeping mission in
southern Lebanon which was launched after a bloody summer war between
Israel and Hezbullah.
EU states provide around half of the 15,000 troops of the UN force, with
Italy and France being the largest contributors.
The Finnish presidency during last summer's conflict pushed a critical
EU line towards Israel, calling Israeli operations "disproportionate"
while promoting EU conclusions calling for an "immediate ceasefire."
Some EU states like the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech
Republic however objected to Helsinki's line and took a more pro-Israel
stance.
*
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25 Guardian Unlimited: Comment is free: Sun worship
Long ago the ancient Egyptians practised a religion of the sun,
now we can no longer afford to ignore this inexhaustible
resource.
Jean-Michel Severino
From climate change to volatile oil prices, all signs point to a
looming global energy crisis. Confronting the growing challenge
means that humanity can no longer afford to ignore the
inexhaustible resource found in the organic material that the
sun provides each day through photosynthesis. Solar energy
enables plants to absorb carbon gas and thereby produce not only
oxygen, but also matter that the animal kingdom uses for food -
and that our machines can use for energy.
Since the Neolithic (or late Stone Age) period, humans have been
cultivating this "biomass" in order to feed itself. Yet, even in
today's world, its energy potential is ignored. Beginning with
the industrial revolution, humans sought energy from coal, and
later from oil and natural gas, but this leads to the exhaustion
of non-renewable resources.
Existing alternatives for diversifying energy production are
limited. Nuclear energy presents a number of disadvantages,
owing to concerns about safety and disposal of radioactive
waste. Hydroelectric power is already widely used, while wind
and solar energy are structurally sporadic and disparately
available.
Biomass, on the other hand, has several advantages. Supplies of
it are large and available throughout the world. Moreover, the
technology necessary to convert it into energy - including
high-yield burning, gas conversion, and liquefaction into
synthetic fuel - has long been mastered. Widely used during
World War II, this technology has since advanced considerably.
Biomass energy, however, is the victim of unfair competition
from fossil fuels. Oil's price reflects its extraction,
refining, and distribution costs, but not that of creating the
raw material. Millions of years and 200 tonnes of plant matter
are necessary to produce one litre of oil, whereas just 15
kilograms of plant matter are required to make one litre of
synthetic fuel.
After the oil glut, with oil below $20 a barrel, interest in
developing energy from biomass ebbed, attractive only to "green"
militants and those interested in fundamental science. Yet the
potential is immense. The planet's biomass - forests,
pastureland, savannas, and crops - make up productive capital
that generates a 10% "return" every year. Like a battery that
runs out and is then recharged by the sun, this supply is
renewable indefinitely, as long as it is managed properly. The
annual return on this capital is currently estimated at 60
billion tonnes, yet only two billion tonnes is consumed for food
purposes and 10 billion tonnes for energy.
Increasing the responsible use of this energy source would
contribute to the fight against climate change by reducing the
amount of carbon in the atmosphere and diminishing the amount of
fossil fuel required to produce energy. Moreover, its abundance
in southern countries promises to facilitate their economic
development. Considered the "energy of the poor" until today,
biomass could become a source of wealth if it is grown and
harnessed with the support of the international community.
Thus, "energy crops" could be developed to produce biofuel.
Residue from forest, agricultural, and agro-industrial
activities could be collected and converted. For example, the
six million tonnes of waste produced annually by Niger could
theoretically be used to meet that country's entire energy
needs.
However, in many places, energy cropping would certainly compete
with food crops. Long-term estimates project that over a 50-year
time horizon, most of the planet's arable land would have to be
used to feed the world and for forest conservation. Thus, areas
dedicated to energy production, particularly biofuel, may not
reach the level that societies would wish. But, while such
competition would reveal new global scarcities, it would also
bring higher prices, thereby encouraging producers to increase
yields and productivity.
Thus, while cultivating energy would create new constraints, it
would also open new possibilities for many economic actors. The
farmer and the forest worker could become more involved in the
market, the mine engineer could begin to take an interest in
crop fields, the banker in plant shares, etc. But, in order to
prepare for a scaling up of energy cropping, new policies must
be implemented, both in northern and southern countries, in
terms of agriculture, land and water management, protection of
biodiversity, fuel taxes, and information and awareness raising.
The ancient Egyptians and the Incas practiced a religion of the
Sun, believing it to be at the beginning of all life on Earth.
Science has since proven this to be the case. Nowadays, when it
has become more important than ever that we embrace renewable
resources, we should use the Sun to cultivate our energy, just
as our ancestors used it to cultivate their food.
©Project Syndicate, 2006.
About webfeeds Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2006.
Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396
Registered office: 164 Deansgate, Manchester M60 2RR
*****************************************************************
26 AFP: EU presidency wants Olmert to explain nuclear comments -
[Ehud Olmert]
BERLIN (AFP) - The Finnish presidency of the European Union has
called for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to explain his
apparent admission that the Jewish state has nuclear weapons.
"I think that Mr Olmert must explain more fully what this
information means," Finnish Defence Minister Seppo Kaariainen
said in German newspaper Berliner Zeitung.
Kaariainen said he hoped Olmert's words would not have a
negative effect on the UN-led peacekeeping force deployed in
Lebanon following the 34-day war between the Israeli army and
Hezbollah this year.
"I hope above all else that the international crisis management
that began in Lebanon in the summer can be continued without
interference.
"The EU will be watching very closely to see what reaction the
Israeli explanation provokes."
Israel is widely considered the sole country in the Middle East
to have nuclear weapons but has never confirmed or denied the
suspicions.
But in an interview with a German television station on Monday,
Olmert appeared to break the taboo.
"We never threatened any nation with annihilation," Olmert told
the N24 rolling news channel.
"Iran openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel
off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they
are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as France, America, Russia
and Israel?" he asked.
Israeli officials were on Wednesday still struggling to contain
damage from Olmert's apparent blunder, insisting the slip did
not change the Jewish state's policy of "nuclear ambiguity".
AFP
*****************************************************************
27 Guardian Unlimited: Annan Says Time Running Out in Mideast
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday December 13, 2006 1:31 AM
AP Photo UNFF104
By JUSTIN BERGMAN
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned
Tuesday that tensions in the Middle East were ``near the
breaking point'' and said the Israelis and Palestinians were
equally responsible for fueling the conflict.
In his last address to the Security Council as head of the world
body, Annan offered tough words for both the Israelis and
Palestinians, declaring that time was running out to negotiate a
two-state solution to avoid a greater outbreak of violence.
Annan's criticism of Israel focused on its five-month-long
military operation in the Gaza Strip, during which more than 300
Palestinians were killed, mostly militants. Israel launched the
offensive after one of its soldiers was captured by Hamas-linked
militants in June.
``The use of military force in densely populated civilian areas
is a blunt instrument that only produces more death,
destruction, recrimination and revenge,'' Annan said. ``And as
we have seen, it does little to achieve the desired goal of
stopping terrorist attacks.''
He said, however, the Palestinians will not achieve their goal
of forming a sovereign state without renouncing violent acts.
``No resistance to occupation can justify terrorism,'' he said.
Annan's speech was notably balanced in its criticism of both
sides.
He noted that the Security Council has been accused of a
``double standard'' in applying sanctions to Arab and Muslim
countries but not to Israel. But he warned those critics not to
hold Israel to standards they wouldn't be willing to apply to
other states.
Annan, whose 10-year stewardship of the United Nations ends Dec.
31, said the solution was an immediate return to talks on the
stalled roadmap to a two-state solution backed by the so-called
Quartet of Mideast peacemakers - the United Nations, the United
States, the European Union and Russia.
``Tensions in the region are near the breaking point,'' he said.
``The opportunity for negotiating a two-state solution will last
for only so long.
``Should we fail to seize it, the people who most directly bear
the brunt of this calamity will be consigned to new depths of
suffering and grief. And extremists the world over would enjoy a
boost to their recruiting efforts.''
The Islamic militant Hamas group, which controls the Palestinian
government, and President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate Fatah party
have failed in recent attempts to form a national unity
government, dimming hopes for renewed negotiations with Israel.
Hamas has thus far refused Israeli and Quartet demands to
renounce violence, recognize Israel and honor past peace
agreements. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh hardened the Hamas
line on Friday when he said in Iran that his group will never
recognize Israel or give up its ``jihad-like movement until the
liberation of Jerusalem.''
However, in his speech to the Security Council on Tuesday,
Palestinian U.N. observer Riyad Mansour said Abbas and senior
PLO officials remain committed to the peace process with Israel.
``This is the cornerstone to solving any crisis in the region,''
he said.
Mansour, an Abbas supporter, attempted to downplay Hamas' role
in peace talks by stressing they are the sole responsibility of
the PLO, which is made up of Fatah members. A member of the PLO
Executive Committee said Saturday the largely dormant group was
reactivating its department that deals with Israeli
negotiations.
A presidential statement adopted by the Security Council Tuesday
also called for renewed peace talks between the two sides, but
didn't refer directly to Hamas.
Israel's deputy U.N. Ambassador Daniel Carmon, meanwhile,
rejected the assertion the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the
``source of all instability in our region,'' blaming extremist
elements instead. He cited as an example Iran's hosting this
week of a conference examining whether the Holocaust actually
occurred.
``Iran's denial of the Holocaust, its pursuit of nuclear
weaponry and its strategic backing of Hamas and Hezbollah - and
who knows what next - threatens peace and security,'' Carmon
said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
28 UPI: EU wants Olmert to clarify nuclear slip
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence -
12/13/2006 6:56:00 AM -0500
BERLIN, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The European Union wants Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert to further explain his comments about
Israel as a nuclear power.
Seppo Kääriäinen, the Finnish defense minister who until the end
of the year heads the EU defense council, told Wednesday's
Berliner Zeitung newspaper that "Mr. Olmert should further
explain what this information really means," in reference to
comments the Israeli leader made to a German TV station that
were interpreted as a concession that Israel is a nuclear power.
"I hope that the international crisis management that began this
summer in Lebanon can be continued without disturbances," he
said. "The EU will very carefully observe what reactions the
Israeli explanation sparks in the region."
Answering a question on Iran in an interview Monday evening with
German news channel N24, Olmert included Israel in a list of
some of the world's nuclear powers.
"Iran openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel
off the map," Olmert said. "Can you say that this is the same
level, when you are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as
America, France, Israel, Russia?"
Olmert, however, earlier in the interview said that Israel "has
always said it won't be first to bring nuclear power to the
Middle East. This is our position and it hasn't changed." He
repeated that statement three times Tuesday in a joint news
conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"I was very clear on this," he said, adding that the discussion
about a comment was "too long and exaggerated."
The comments have nevertheless sparked outrage at home, where
opposition politicians have called on Olmert to resign.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
29 NRC: NRC Staff to Hold Two Public Meetings to Discuss License Renewal Process for Wolf
Creek Nuclear Plant
News Release - Region IV - 2006-02 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region IV No. IV-06-027
December 13, 2006 CONTACT: Victor Dricks Phone: 817-860-8128
E-mail: opa4@nrc.gov
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two public
meetings on Dec. 19 in Burlington, Kan., to discuss how the
agency will review the application from the Wolf Creek Nuclear
Operating Corp. to renew the operating license for the Wolf
Creek nuclear plant.
The public information sessions will describe the NRCs license
renewal process, how the public can participate, and will
provide an opportunity for members of the public to comment on
environmental issues they believe the NRC should consider.
The meetings will last about three hours each and will be held
at the Coffee County Library, Burlington branch, 410 Juniatta
St., in Burlington beginning at 1:30 and 7 p.m. NRC staff will
be available about one hour prior to each meeting to talk
informally with members of the public.
Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp. submitted its application for
license renewal on Oct. 4. The current license for the Wolf
Creek nuclear plant expires on March 11, 2025. If approved, the
plants NRC license would be extended for 20 years.
The application is available on the NRC Web site at this
address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati
ons.html.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
NRC news releases are available through a free list serve
subscription at the following Web address:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC
homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail
notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are
posted to NRC's Web site.
Last revised Wednesday, December 13, 2006
*****************************************************************
30 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Nuclear plant's cooling pump explodes: fire quickly snuffed
12/13/2006 |
By David Sneed [Diablo Canyon] Tribune file photo by Laura
Dickinson Diablo Canyon
A loud explosion and an electrical fire in an ocean water
circulation pump at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant Tuesday
afternoon caused an emergency shutdown of one of the plant’s two
reactors.
No one was injured in the incident, no radiation was released
and the public was not required to react to an emergency.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. officials have launched an
investigation.
An electrical fault was listed as the cause of the fire. PG
officials are expected to announce this morning when the reactor
will be restarted, plant spokeswoman Sharon Gavin said.
The accident came two days after the same reactor was shut down
because a faulty sensor incorrectly indicated that a water
circulation pump in a different part of the plant was operating
improperly.
"It’s been a bad couple of days," Gavin said.
Until the investigation is complete, the utility will not have
any explanation for the back-to-back incidents, Gavin said. The
plant’s other reactor remains in operation.
The incident started at 1:40 p.m., when plant employees heard a
loud explosion from one of the plant’s four 12,000-volt
cooling-water circulation pumps. The pump began emitting black
smoke. No one was near the pump when it exploded.
"There’s a lot of noise when you have a fault in something that
big," Gavin said.
The plant’s fire brigade extinguished the fire in three minutes.
CDF/County firefighters also responded.
Each of the plant’s reactors has two ocean water pumps that
circulate cooling water to condense steam that has passed
through the electrical generators. Collectively, they circulate
nearly 2 billion gallons of seawater through the plant each day.
With one pump inoperable, the reactor could have been reduced to
half power. But plant managers decided to shut it down entirely
as a safety precaution, Gavin said.
The loss of the reactor is not expected to cause an electrical
shortage in the state, Gavin said. Electrical demand is less in
the winter because people are not running air conditioners.
"We will have to replace that power, but it is not as critical
as it would have been at other times of the year," Gavin said.
At full power, Diablo produces 2,200 megawatts. Over the course
of a year, the plant generates 10 percent of the state’s power
supply.
The accident required that PG report an "unusual event" to the
federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. An unusual event is the
lowest level of four mandatory reporting thresholds because it
does not require the public to take any emergency action.
Donna Jacobs, the plant’s director of nuclear services, said
this week’s emergency shutdowns are not liable to affect the
plant’s safety rating with the NRC. The agency uses a
color-coding system to rank how safely nuclear plants operate in
various areas.
Diablo Canyon is usually given a green code in all areas, the
highest designation, indicating safe operation. Jacobs said she
does not expect the shutdowns will result in the loss of a green
ranking.
Reach David Sneed at
781-7930.
*****************************************************************
31 AP Wire: Tripped turbine shuts down TMI reactor
12/14/2006 |
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. - The reactor at Three Mile Island, site of the
nation's worst nuclear accident, shut down automatically on
Wednesday without posing a safety hazard after a turbine was
tripped, a federal nuclear regulatory spokeswoman said.
The shutdown just before 6 p.m. was apparently caused by a
disturbance on the electrical grid that tripped the turbine,
which is powered by steam inside the reactor to generate
electricity, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Diane
Screnci said.
"The plant responded normally, and it is stable," Screnci said.
"There was no danger."
TMI spokesman Ralph DeSantis described the incident as "an
offsite disturbance to the power grid." He said there was no
emergency condition.
It was unclear when the plant would resume operation. A
spokesman for the plant operator, AmerGen Energy Co. LLC, did
not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment
Wednesday.
The Unit 1 reactor previously shut down on Nov. 2 after a faulty
instrument reading triggered the automatic safety precaution. No
radiation was released as a result of the shutdown, officials
said at the time.
Unit 1 opened in 1974.
TMI, located in Middletown, about 10 miles southeast of
Harrisburg, was the site of the nation's worst nuclear accident
when a partial meltdown occurred in the Unit 2 reactor in March
1979.
*****************************************************************
32 Platts: Poland proposes to take 25% stake in Baltic nuclear plant
London (Platts)--12Dec2006
Poland has proposed to take a 25% stake in a Baltic nuclear plant
at Ignalina, in parallel with the agreement last week to build a
400-kilovolt connection between the Polish and Lithuanian power
grids.
Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his Lithuanian
counterpart, Gediminas Kirkilas, signed the "energy bridge"
agreement December 8 in Vilnius.
The direct-current connection is expected to cost about 304
million euros and to be completed by 2011, with partial
financing by the European Union. Poland is proposing to
co-finance the plant, which would be between 800 MW and 1,600 MW,
with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
The latter countries earlier this year agreed on a tripartite
nuclear project to replace Ignalina-2, which Lithuania must close
by the end of 2009.
However, a Lithuanian energy official said the three Baltic
countries must first agree to let the Polish Grid Company, PSE,
join the project and decide how the project should be structured
and financed.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
33 Gainesville Sun: Utility eyes Levy site for nuclear plant
Gainesville.com | The | Gainesville, Fla.
By NATHAN CRABBE and KAREN VOYLES
Sun staff writers
December 13. 2006
Progress Energy Florida has chosen timberlands in southern
Levy County as its preferred location to build up to two nuclear
reactors.
CEO Jeff Lyash announced Tuesday the company would buy the
3,000-acre site next year as it pursued those plans. He
cautioned that the company is not certain it will build a
reactor, and it would take a decade or more before the reactor
would be operational.
Rainier Co., a timber company, now owns the property, which is
eight miles north of Progress' existing nuclear plant near
Crystal River. Lyash said some plant employees live in Levy
County and the company has a good relationship with community
members, though he acknowledged there would likely be opposition.
"I think with a project of this scope and scale, we expect
people to have some questions and concerns and possibly some
opposition," he said.
The company is initially moving forward with plans for just the
first reactor, leaving open the possibility of the second at
some point in the future. The reactor would cost $2.5 billion to
$3.5 billion to build and produce at least 1,100 megawatts of
electricity, or enough to power 700,000 homes.
Some environmental advocates say the investment would be better
spent on renewable energy, which doesn't produce dangerous
waste. But Levy County Commission Chairwoman Nancy Bell was
among county residents enthusiastic about the economic potential
of the plant.
"I am a leftover '60s flower child and my first reaction when I
heard about this was to pick up a sign and march, but I did due
diligence and now I am excited for the county," Bell said.
"I think we can have something like this and not lose the rural
character we have in Levy County and still have a power plant
that provides a lot of jobs," she said.
Lyash said more than 2,000 workers could be needed for
construction and more than 500 permanent workers to operate the
plant. University of Florida engineering students would likely
be sought for many of those jobs, said Alireza Haghighat,
chairman of nuclear and radiological engineering at UF.
"Progress Energy will need a significant number of people to
get involved in the whole process to build such a plant," he
said.
North Carolina-based Progress Energy serves 1.6 million
customers in 35 counties in Florida, including parts of Alachua,
Gilchrist and Levy counties. The plant would be the first in the
state since 1983.
Lyash said other utilities could be partners in the plant, as
was the case with Crystal River. Gainesville Regional Utilities
helped pay for the Crystal River reactor and gets 11-13
megawatts of power from the plant, or about 4 percent of the
energy in its system.
GRU would consider also investing in the new plant, said Chip
Allen, the utility's assistant general manager of energy supply.
"GRU's position is we're always interested in looking at
generating options," he said.
Rob Brinkman, chairman of the local Sierra Club group, said he
would oppose any involvement by GRU in the new plant. The
investment in nuclear power would be better spent on renewable
energy such as harnessing the power of wind and the ocean's
current, he said.
"To me, nuclear is a dead end," he said.
Progress officials said the plant is the only one of the 31
being proposed nationwide that would be constructed on
undeveloped green space. The plant would mean building over 30
acres of the 3,000-acre wooded property.
The site gives the company flexibility in designing the plant,
said project manager Garry Miller.
"You can start with a clean slate," he said.
Officials said the reactor would be located seven miles from
the Gulf of Mexico, providing increased safety from hurricanes.
The site is two miles north of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal,
which would be connected by pipeline to provide the water
crucial in the nuclear cooling process.
The plant wouldn't interfere with the use of lands around the
defunct canal project as recreational areas, Lyash said.
The nearest community to the proposed site is Inglis, a town of
about 1,900 residents less than two miles south. Town clerk
Sally McCranie said her father-in-law was killed in a
construction accident in the 1960s during preparations to build
the Crystal River plant.
"There will definitely be people who will fight this - there
are a lot of people concerned about having two plants so close
together," McCranie said.
Lyash said the company had concerns about concentrating its
energy generation in such close proximity, but they were
outweighed by the benefits of being in a familiar community.
The proposal would be part of the first wave of new nuclear
plants proposed in the U.S. in decades. Since the Three Mile
Island nuclear plant suffered a partial meltdown in 1979, no new
nuclear plants have been constructed in the country.
Lyash said the nuclear industry's good safety record since the
incident and the lack of emissions in nuclear-power generation
have built support for the industry's expansion. While the
production and transportation of nuclear fuel can create
greenhouses gases, the generation of nuclear power creates only
steam as an emission.
"I think the time, the performance of the industry and the
recognition of the environmental benefits of this energy source
have brought us to where we are today," Lyash said.
But some environmental advocates say they're concerned about
safety, terrorist threats and continued problems with storing
nuclear waste.
The U.S. Department of Energy has long proposed storing waste
in Nevada's remote Yucca Mountain, but the project has been
entangled in political battles. Lyash said he hopes those
battles end, but in the meantime the company will store waste on
site.
It makes little sense to invest in more nuclear plants until
the storage issue is resolved, said Holly Binns, field director
for the Tallahassee-based nonprofit Environment Florida. She
said the issue is particularly important given the state law
allowing utilities to pass construction costs to customers
before the plant is completed.
"We're talking about investing billions of dollars of their
customers' money to construct a power plant that's going to
create more dangerous radioactive waste," she said.
Safety is another concern, but Levy County is already familiar
with the issue. The rural county's proximity to the Crystal
River plant has meant its is under a federal mandate to test its
emergency workers annually, ranging from rookie volunteer
firefighters through county commissioners.
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission grades the county
every other year during a weeklong exercise involving a mock
incident test. In April, federal officials tested how Levy
County would respond if there was a need to decontaminate people
and assist in an evacuation.
At the end of the week, federal examiners told county officials
they had done an "excellent" job in preparing and performing
their responses. Levy County Director of Emergency Management
Mark Johnson said emergency workers have done well in the test
because safety training for a wide range of emergencies is a
regular and routine activity countywide.
Among those likely to feel the first economic impacts if the
plant is built are those who can provide basic services to
construction crews, including food and housing.
But Roy Fantelli, who owns a nearby RV park, predicts legal
battles will await Progress Energy.
"Anybody can stop anything as long as they have enough money to
keep paying the lawyers," he said.
Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or
crabben@gvillesun.com.
What could happen next
+ Late 2007 - Progress Energy would document the need for a new
power plant to the Florida Public Service Commission.
+ 2008 - Combined operating license would be filed with the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
+ 2008-2010 - Progress Energy would decide whether to build the
plant.
+ 2010-2011 - Construction would begin.
+ 2016 - Construction would be complete and the plant
operational.
Source: Progress Energy
Copyright 2006, The Gainesville Sun.
*****************************************************************
34 NRC: Licensing Support System Advisory Review Panel
FR Doc E6-21150
[Federal Register: December 13, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 239)]
[Notices] [Page 74959] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13de06-69]
AGENCY: U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of
renewal of the charter of the Licensing Support Network Advisory
Review Panel (LSNARP).
SUMMARY: The Licensing Support System Advisory Review Panel was
established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a
Federal Advisory Committee in 1989. Its purpose was to provide
advice on the fundamental issues of design and development of an
electronic information management system to be used to store and
retrieve documents relating to the licensing of a geologic
repository for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste, and
on the operation and maintenance of the system. This electronic
information management system was known as the Licensing Support
System (LSS). In November, 1998 the Commission approved
amendments to 10 CFR Part 2 that renamed the Licensing Support
System Advisory Review Panel as the Licensing Support Network
Advisory Review Panel.
Membership on the Panel continues to be drawn from those
interests that will be affected by the use of the LSN, including
the Department of Energy, the NRC, the State of Nevada, the
National Congress of American Indians, affected units of local
governments in Nevada, the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, and a
coalition of nuclear industry groups. Federal agencies with
expertise and experience in electronic information management
systems may also participate on the Panel.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that renewal of
the charter for the LSNARP until December 6, 2008 is in the
public interest in connection with duties imposed on the
Commission by law. This action is being taken in accordance with
the Federal Advisory Committee Act after consultation with the
Committee Management Secretariat, General Services
Administration.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Andrew L. Bates, Office of the
Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555: Telephone 301-504-1963.
Dated: December 6, 2006.
Andrew L. Bates, Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-21150 Filed 12-12-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
35 NRC: Nuclear Management Company, LLC; Monticello Nuclear Generating
FR Doc E6-21152
[Federal Register: December 13, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 239)]
[Notices] [Page 74958-74959] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13de06-68]
Plant; Exemption 1.0 Background Nuclear Management Company, LLC
(the licensee), is the holder of Facility Operating License No.
DPR-22 which authorizes operation of Monticello Nuclear
Generating Plant (MNGP). The license provides, among other
things, that the facility is subject to all rules, regulations,
and orders of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the
Commission) now or hereafter in effect.
The facility consists of a boiling-water reactor located in
Wright County in Minnesota.
2.0 Request/Action Appendix J to Title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR) specifies the leakage rate test
requirements, schedules, and acceptance criteria for tests of the
leak-tight integrity of the primary reactor containment and
systems and components that penetrate the containment. Option B,
Paragraph III.A, of Appendix J requires that the overall
integrated leakage rate must not exceed the allowable leakage
(La) with margin, as specified in the plant's Technical
Specifications.
The overall integrated leakage rate, as specified in Appendix J,
includes the contribution from main steam pathway leakage (i.e.,
through the four main steam lines and the main steam drain line
at MNGP).
Option B, Paragraph III.B requires that the sum of the leakage
rates of Type B and Type C local leakage rate tests be less than
the performance criterion (La) with margin, as specified in the
Technical Specifications.
By letter dated September 15, 2005, the licensee requested
exemption from Option B, Section III.A, requirements to exclude
main steam isolation valve (MSIV) leakage from the overall
integrated leak rate test measurement, and exemption from Section
III.B requirements to exclude the MSIV leakage from the sum of
the Type B and Type C tests. The licensee stated that the MNGP
MSIV leakage effluent has a different pathway to the environment
when compared to a typical containment penetration, i.e., it is
not directed into the secondary containment and filtered through
the standby gas treatment system. Instead, the main steam leakage
is collected and treated via an alternative leakage treatment
pathway, having different mitigation characteristics.
In performing accident analyses, it is appropriate to group
various leakage effluents according to the treatment they receive
before being released to the environment (e.g., from main steam
pathways). Accordingly, the licensee's proposed exemption from
the Appendix J requirements would more appropriately reflect the
MNGP design which employs an alternative leakage treatment
pathway. The calculated radiological consequences of the combined
leakages were found to be within the criteria of 10 CFR 50.67 and
GDC-19. The NRC staff reviewed the licensee's analyses and found
them acceptable as described in a safety analysis accompanying an
amendment regarding alternative source term methodology to be
issued concurrently with this exemption.
By separating the MSIV leakage acceptance criteria from the
overall integrated leak rate test criteria, and from the Type B
and C leakage sum limitation, the MNGP containment leakage
testing program will be made more consistent with the limiting
assumptions used in the associated accident consequences
analyses. The amendment associated with this exemption will
revise Technical Specification Surveillance Requirement
3.6.1.3.13 to limit the maximum allowable combined MSIV leakage
to 200 standard cubic feet per hour, which is the analytical
limit.
Based on the foregoing, the separation of the main steam pathways
from the other containment leakage pathways is warranted because
a separate radiological consequence term has been provided for
these pathways. The revised design basis radiological consequence
analyses address these pathways as individual factors, exclusive
of the primary containment leakage.
3.0 Discussion Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.12, the Commission may, upon
application by any interested person or upon its own initiative,
grant exemptions from the requirements of 10 CFR Part 50 when (1)
The exemptions are authorized by law, will not present an undue
risk to public health or safety, and are consistent with the
common defense and security; and (2) when special circumstances
are present. The licensee's exemption request was submitted in
conjunction with an amendment application to employ the
alternative source term (AST) methodology for design-basis
accidents. The NRC staff had completed its review and is issuing
the proposed amendment on the same date as this exemption. The
exemption and amendment together would implement the AST
methodology. The special circumstances associated with MSIV
leakage testing are fully described in the licensee's September
15, 2005, application for amendment and exemption.
Authorized by Law This exemption would exempt Nuclear Management
Company from requirements in 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix J, thus (1)
Excluding MSIV leakage in the overall integrated leakage rate
test measurement required by Section III. A of Appendix J, Option
B; and (2) excluding the sum of local leak rate test measurements
required by Section III.B of Appendix J, Option B. As stated
above, 10 CFR 50.12 allows the NRC to grant exemptions from the
requirements of 10 CFR Part 50. The NRC staff has determined that
granting of the licensee's proposed exemption will not result in
a violation of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, or the
Commission's regulations. Therefore, the exemption is authorized
by law.
No Undue Risk to Public Health and Safety The proposed exemption
affects only the radiological dose analysis models and the way
containment leak-tightness is measured. No new accident
precursors are created by the exemption; accordingly, the
probability of postulated accidents is not increased and the
consequences of postulated accidents are not increased.
Therefore, there is no undue risk to public health and safety as
a result of the exemption.
[[Page 74959]] Consistent With Common Defense and Security The
proposed exemption, as set forth above, would only affect the
radiological dose analysis models and the way containment leak-
tightness is measured. Thus, this exemption bears no relation to
security issues. Therefore, the common defense and security is
not impacted by this exemption.
Special Circumstances Special circumstances, in accordance with
10 CFR 50.12(a)(2)(ii), are present whenever application of the
regulation in the particular circumstances ``would not serve the
underlying purpose of the rule or is not necessary to achieve the
underlying purpose of the rule.'' The underlying purpose of
Appendix J is to assure that containment leak- tight integrity is
maintained as tight as reasonably achievable, and sufficiently
tight so as to limit effluent release to values bounded by the
analyses of radiological consequences of design-basis accidents.
The NRC staff has determined that the intent of the rule is not
compromised by the licensee's proposed action because containment
leak rates will continue to be limited by MNGP's Technical
Specifications. Therefore, since the underlying purpose of
Appendix J is achieved, the special circumstances required by 10
CFR 50.12(a)(2) for the granting of an exemption from Appendix J
exist.
4.0 Conclusion Accordingly, the Commission has determined that,
pursuant to 10 CFR 50.12, the exemption is authorized by law,
will not present an undue risk to public health and safety, and
is consistent with the common defense and security. Also, special
circumstances are present. Therefore, the Commission hereby
grants MNGP an exemption (1) From the requirements of 10 CFR Part
50, Appendix J, Option B, Paragraph III.A, to allow exclusion of
the main steam pathway leakage from the overall integrated
leakage rate measured when performing a Type A test; and (2) from
the requirements of 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix J, Option B,
Paragraph III.B, to allow exclusion of the main steam pathway
leakage from the combined leakage rate of all penetrations and
valves subject to Type B and C tests.
Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.32, the Commission has determined that the
granting of this exemption will not have a significant effect on
the quality of the human environment (71 FR 70996).
This exemption is effective upon issuance.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 7th day of December, 2006.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cathy Haney, Director, Division of Operating Reactor Licensing,
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. E6-21152 Filed 12-12-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
36 NRC: Notice of Availability of Interim Staff Guidance Documents for
FR Doc E6-21153
[Federal Register: December 13, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 239)]
[Notices] [Page 74959-74960] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13de06-70]
Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Casks AGENCY: Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Einziger, Sr., Materials
Engineer, Structural, Mechanics, and Materials Branch, Division
of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20005-0001. Telephone: (301) 415-2597;
fax number: (301) 415-8555; e-mail: REE1@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) prepares draft Interim Staff Guidance (ISG)
documents for spent fuel storage or transportation casks or
radioactive materials transportation package designs.
These ISG documents provide clarifying guidance to the NRC staff
when reviewing licensee integrated safety analyses, license
applications or amendment requests or other related licensing.
The NRC is soliciting public comments on Draft ISG-1 Rev 2,
Damaged Fuel'' which will be considered in the final version or
subsequent revisions.
II. Summary The purpose of this notice is to provide the public
an opportunity to review and comment on the Draft Interim Staff
Guidance-1 Revision 2 concerning the definition of damaged fuel.
Draft Interim Staff Guidance-1, Revision 2, provides guidance to
NRC staff on what documents should be reviewed and evaluated to
ensure that damaged fuel is sufficiently defined to determine if
it meets all regulatory functions. Additionally, the ISG provides
a technical discussion on gross breaches, a methodology for
defining damaged fuel in terms of its function,
[[Page 74960]] and a default definition based on the ANSI 14-33
standard.
III. Further Information Documents related to this action are
available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/isg/spent-fuel.html
.
From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and
image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession
numbers for the documents related to this notice are provided in
the following table. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if
there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS,
contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at
1-800-397-4209, 301- 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-------
ADAMS Interim Staff Guidance Accession No.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------- Interim Staff Guidance-1 Revision 2.....................
ML063410468
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------- These documents may also be viewed electronically on the
public computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 F21, One White
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR
reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Comments
and questions on the draft SFPO ISG-1 Rev 2 should be directed to
the NRC contact listed below by January 29, 2007. Comments
received after this date will be considered if it is practical to
do so, but assurance of consideration cannot be given to comments
received after this date. Robert Einziger PhD, Sr., Materials
Engineer, Structural, Mechanics, and Materials Branch, Division
of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20005-0001. Comments can also be
submitted on the form provided at the Web site, by fax, or
e-mail, which are as follows: telephone: (301) 415-2597; fax
number: (301) 415-8555; e-mail: REE1@nrc.gov. Submittals should
be in either Word or WordPerfect; no PDF files.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 7th day of December, 2006.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Gordon Bjorkman, Chief, Structural Mechanics, and Materials
Branch Division of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Office
of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. E6-21153 Filed 12-12-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
37 NRC: Public Meeting on Consideration of Rulemaking To Reduce the
FR Doc E6-21154
[Federal Register: December 13, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 239)]
[Proposed Rules] [Page 74847-74848] From the Federal Register
Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13de06-18]
Likelihood of Funding Shortfalls for Decommissioning Under the
License Termination Rule AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is working on a
proposed rule to reduce the likelihood that a licensee will have
insufficient funds to decommission its facility in accordance
with 10 CFR part 20, Subpart E, Radiological Criteria for License
Termination. In the past, these funding shortfalls resulted in
``legacy sites,'' which are sites that are in decommissioning but
whose operators do not have enough funds to complete the work and
terminate the license in accordance with NRC regulations. All of
the legacy sites have been materials facilities, primarily those
that processed uranium and thorium, with undetected subsurface
contamination from operations arising as a significant problem
during decommissioning. A risk- informed approach addressing
subsurface contamination at operating facilities would affect
materials licensees and operators of nuclear power reactors. The
purpose of the meeting is to give stakeholders an opportunity to
discuss their views and interact with other interested parties on
the regulatory issues summarized in the Supplementary Information
section of this document.
To aid in the rulemaking process, NRC is holding a public meeting
with a ``roundtable'' format (defined further in the body of this
notice) to solicit input. The meeting is open to the public. The
NRC is asking those planning to attend the meeting to
pre-register by contacting Jayne McCausland as noted under the
For Further Information section of this document. Individuals
unable to attend the meeting will be able to listen by
teleconference.
DATES: The meeting will be held on January 10, 2007, from 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Registration is from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.; however, all
persons planning to attend the meeting are encouraged to
pre-register in order to facilitate check-in on the day of the
meeting.
ADDRESSES: Residence Inn Bethesda Downtown, 7335 Wisconsin
Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland, 20814. Telephone (301) 718-0200. FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kevin O'Sullivan, telephone (301)
415- 8112, e-mail , of the Office of Federal and State Materials
and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Questions on the meeting
format, including participation in the roundtable, should be
directed to the meeting facilitator, Lance Rakovan. Mr. Rakovan
can be reached at (301) 415-2589 or . To pre-register to attend
the meeting in person or to participate via teleconference, or if
a participant has special needs, please contact Jayne McCausland,
telephone (301) 415- 6219, fax (301) 415-5369, or e-mail .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Current NRC regulations in 10 CFR part
20, Subpart F, Surveys and Monitoring, require licensees to
conduct surveys, as reasonable under the circumstances, to
evaluate (1) the magnitude and extent of radiation levels; (2)
concentrations or quantities of radioactive material; and (3) the
potential radiological hazards. NRC regulations in 10 CFR 20,
Subpart L, Records, contain related record-keeping requirements.
There have been past occurrences among materials licensees, and
recent occurrences at
[[Page 74848]] nuclear power reactors, of inadvertent and
undetected release of radioactive material into the underlying
soils and groundwater.
Such undetected subsurface contamination from operations may
significantly expand the scope of decommissioning when the
facility is shut down, to the extent that the licensee has
insufficient funds to terminate the license in accordance with
NRC regulations.
Amendments to NRC regulations are under consideration that will
affect both facility operations and financial assurance for
decommissioning requirements. One proposed change would require
each NRC licensee to conduct operations, to the extent
practicable, so as to minimize the presence of contamination in
the subsurface environment. A second would require certain
licensees, based on their capability for causing long-lasting
subsurface contamination, to check for the presence of such
contamination. NRC experience with legacy sites demonstrates that
soil or groundwater contamination, if not addressed during the
operating life of the facility, can increase decommissioning
costs to levels much higher than initially funded and may
contribute to off-site radionuclide migration, causing additional
expense and delay in returning the site to other productive uses.
Another regulatory amendment under consideration is to eliminate
the escrow account as an approved financial assurance mechanism
due to its ineffectiveness in bankruptcy actions. Two other
financial assurance mechanisms that pose similar financial risk
during bankruptcy are the unsecured Parent Company Guarantee and
unsecured Self- Guarantee. Reliance on these financial assurance
mechanisms may increase the likelihood of future legacy sites.
The January 10, 2007, public meeting is being held to discuss
these and related issues using a ``roundtable'' format.
Participants at the roundtable will be the invited stakeholders
representing the broad spectrum of interests who may be affected
by this rulemaking.
The roundtable format is being used for this meeting to promote a
dialogue among the representatives at the table on the issues of
concern. Opportunities will be provided for comments and
questions from the audience. The meeting notice and a meeting
agenda will be posted on the NRC Web site at: .
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 6th day of December 2006.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dennis Rathbun, Director, Division of Intergovernmental Liaison
and Rulemaking, Office of Federal and State Materials and
Environmental Management Programs.
[FR Doc. E6-21154 Filed 12-12-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
38 AFP: Indian PM seeks nuclear blessing in Japan
by Shaun Tandon Wed Dec 13, 7:14 AM ET
TOKYO (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has started a
visit to Japan to seek support from the major civilian atomic
power for the controversial US-India nuclear cooperation pact.
Singh, the first Indian premier here in five years, will have a
red-carpet reception throughout his stay as Japan seeks warmer
relations with a fellow Asian democracy to counter frequent
tension with China.
The Indian premier said Japan and India "increasingly find that
their long-term political, economic and strategic interests are
converging."
"I look forward to using this visit to elevate India-Japan
relations to a qualitatively new level," Singh, who arrived
Wednesday evening at Tokyo's Haneda airport, said on leaving New
Delhi.
During the four-day visit, the Indian prime minister will sign
agreements to start negotiations on a free trade pact in January
and to expand flights and trade, officials said.
But despite the good feelings, Japanese leaders appear divided
on one of Singh's signature foreign policy feats -- his deal
with US President George W. Bush" /> President George W. Bushto
bring India out of the nuclear wilderness.
Under the pact, the United States would export nuclear fuel and
technology to India which would put its civilian-use reactors
under outside scrutiny.
The deal needs to be approved by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers
Group, which controls the movement of nuclear material and was
set up to exclude India after its first atomic test in 1974.
Japan is the only nation to have been attacked with nuclear
bombs and also one of the biggest producers of atomic energy, a
paradox that may let it hold the keys to India's entrance into
the global civilian nuclear club.
A foreign ministry official said Japan would wait for Singh's
explanations and to see the final shape of the US-India treaty.
"We should wait for these developments before Japan can define
its own positions," he said on condition of anonymity.
The pact still faces widespread accusations in India that it is
too intrusive.
The criticism comes both from Singh's leftist allies and the
Hindu nationalist opposition, which, while in power in 1998,
declared India a nuclear power with bomb tests that were
replicated by rival neighbor Pakistan.
However, the US Congress passed the deal by an overwhelming
margin last week despite concern by some lawmakers that it set a
bad example to aspiring nuclear powers such as Iran" /> Iran, as
India has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
For Japan, the nuclear taboo has eased since October when
arch-enemy North Korea" /> North Koreatested an atom bomb. Two
top politicians have called for Tokyo to consider developing
atomic weapons itself.
"On the one hand, there are the people who say that we should at
least publicly approve of the pact and then Japanese firms can
also benefit," said Takako Hirose, a South Asia expert at
Tokyo's Senshu University.
"But there are some people who are sort of NPT fundamentalists."
Japan's blessing for the nuclear deal would also be face-saving
for Singh, who faces domestic criticism that he is aligning
proudly independent India too closely with Washington.
Complicating the debate is China, whose rise on the world stage
causes jitters in many quarters in both India and Japan.
To India's surprise, Chinese President Hu Jintao" /> Hu
Jintaosounded upbeat about civilian nuclear cooperation when he
paid a rare visit to New Delhi last month.
His stance may be part of Beijing's strategy to assuage regional
concerns as it seeks a global role. India had initially feared
that China would prevent it from joining the Nuclear Suppliers
Group.
"Now it seems that if other countries like Japan want to block
it, China may follow. But China will not be the only country to
block it," said Hirose, who recently spoke with policymakers in
New Delhi.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
39 MyWestTexas.com: Business group warns of looming energy shortage
This spring's rolling blackouts that hit the Dallas area were,
says Bill Hammond, "the canary in the cage" warning of an energy
shortage looming in the Lone Star State.
Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business, visited
Midland-Odessa Monday to present the association's efforts to
promote fuel diversity as key to meeting the state's future
energy demands. He said his tour of the state was primarily to
support plans to build 19 new coal-fired power plants, including
one near Denver City in Mitchell County, to provide over 13,000
megawatts of new power capacity. He noted opponents of the plants
have already been busy getting their message out to the public
and he felt a positive message was needed.
Unless officials take action immediately, he warned, the state
will face an energy shortfall as early as 2008, citing a
national study by the North American Electric Reliability
Council that positions Texas as the region most at risk for
power grid failures without new generation.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas maintains a 12.5
percent reserve margin in case a power plant goes down or a truck
hits a transmission tower, Hammond said, but by 2008 reserve
margins will fall below that 12.5 percent safety level.
"Unless immediate action is taken we won't have reliable,
affordable energy," he said. "We at the TAB like to say 'no
juice, no jobs.'"
The proposed 19 new coal-fired power generation plants are also
good news, he said, because they are diversifying away from the
state's predominant source of power generation, natural gas. The
state, he said, has become over-reliant on natural gas and that
is one reason Texans are paying such high power costs. He
attributes the 50 percent increase in the state's electricity
prices since 2001 to dependence on natural gas.
Hammond said his association also supports the expansion of or
building of new nuclear power plants, but noted such projects,
which are heavily protested, could take as long as 10 years to
build where as the new coal-fired plants could be online in as
soon as two or two-and-a-half years.
To opponents of the coal plants who say they would pollute the
air, Hammond said the new facilities would use the latest
technology available and cut emissions 20 percent while saving
$1.7 billion in energy costs.
If permits for the power plants are denied, he said, it would be
detrimental "because the new plants use the latest technology
available they would be cleaner than the old plants. If we don't
build new plants, the old plants that have been mothballed will
have to be brought back online and they're not as clean."
He also responded to opponents' assertion that more conservation
is needed, saying "they don't realize the incredible amount of
conservation done over the last 30 years. Without conservation,
demand would be 72 percent higher than it is today."
That additional power is needed to meet growing demand, Hammond
said, citing forecasts from Economist M. Ray Perryman and others
that there will be 6 million more Texans by 2015, driving
electricity demand up 20 percent and 43 percent by 2025.
"It is essential for further economic development for those 19
new plants to be built and built as soon as possible," he said.
"A person coming home from work wants to be able to walk into his
house and turn on the lights. A businessman opening up in the
morning wants to have power."
Other alternative sources like wind and solar power are also
needed, he said, but they are only able to provide a small
percentage of the state's power needs.
Long-term action to meet the state's energy needs include funding
and operating Yucca Mountain to house spent rods from the
nation's nuclear power plants, expand the nation's nuclear power
generation and "implement a sort of 'Marshall Plan' of federal
funding for research into new, non-carbon energy sources,
"something we're not aware of today, like hydrogen," Hammond
said.
©MyWestTexas.com 2006
*****************************************************************
40 Orlando Sentinel: Florida could get new nuke facility - Orlando
The plant in Levy County would be the 6th in Florida. It would
be the first nationwide to win approval in decades.
Kevin Spear and Jack Snyder | Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted December 13, 2006
Riding fears of global warming, uncertainty over energy supply
and fading memories of past disasters, the state's second-largest
utility on Tuesday announced plans for the first nuclear plant in
Florida in more than a quarter-century.
The plant, planned about 75 miles north of Tampa Bay in rural
Levy County, could start as soon as 2016, have 500 workers,
electrify at least 700,000 homes and cost a minimum of $2.5
billion, officials said. A final decision by the utility to
proceed could be a year or more away.
"I think that as folks take a step back and objectively look at
the record and the statistics of the safety and dependability of
nuclear power in this country, it's a striking performance record
-- striking in a very favorable way," Progress Energy Florida
President Jeff Lyash said.
The nation has 103 nuclear plants at 64 sites in 31 states. In
Florida, there are five plants: one in Citrus County, two south
of Miami and two near Fort Pierce, where the state's newest
reactor began generating electricity in 1983.
Nationwide, however, no utility has obtained federal approval to
build a new plant since the late 1970s, a decadeslong lull
brought on by astronomic costs of nuclear power in past years
and by meltdowns at Three Mile Island, Pa., in 1979 and
Chernobyl, Russia, in 1986.
Questions about waste
In addition, the nation has struggled with how to safely dispose
of a mountain of lethal radioactive waste stored temporarily in
pools and containers at existing plants. Debate over a proposal
to bury waste permanently inside Nevada's Yucca Mountain remains
far from settled.
Still, environmentalists and industry experts say public qualms
over harnessing nuclear power have faded considerably in recent
years, overshadowed by worries about global warming triggered in
large part by air pollution from power plants that burn coal and
natural gas.
Many environmentalists far prefer electricity generated by solar
and wind energy. Better yet, they say, is to promote more
efficient use of electricity.
Thomas B. Cochran, director of the Natural Resources Defense
Council nuclear-energy program in Washington, said Florida has
done relatively little to improve efficiency.
"They are a little backwards, I would say, in electricity
planning."
Nuclear power, though, has attracted its share of supporters.
"It has the huge advantage of not contributing to global
warming," said Sanford Berg, a researcher and former director of
the University of Florida Public Utility Research Center at
Gainesville.
Essentially, nuclear fuel performs the same job as coal. It
heats water into steam that turns a generator, yet discharges
virtually no air pollution.
Serving 1.6 million customers in 35 Florida counties, Progress
Energy Florida relies on a mix of fuels -- 42 percent coal, 23
percent natural gas, 19 percent oil and 16 percent nuclear.
The mix is roughly the same for all electric plants combined in
Florida, with the consumption of cleaner-burning natural gas
growing rapidly in recent years. One of the biggest sources of
natural gas is the Gulf of Mexico, where pressure for offshore
drilling nearer to Florida shores has been increasing. Just last
week, Congress approved drilling in an 8.3 million-acre section
of the Gulf.
Progress Energy's announcement comes amid a wave of growing
interest in the Southeast for nuclear power as a substitute for
coal, oil and natural gas.
Utilities from Texas to North Carolina have revealed plans for
building at least a dozen plants, though all have stopped short
of pledging a total commitment for construction. Industry
watchers say Southeastern states generally have regulations that
make it less risky for a utility to recoup investment in a
nuclear plant.
Progress Energy is banking on public awareness of several
factors -- that electricity demand will spike with the state's
rapid growth and that the industry's performance has improved
steadily in the past decade.
The complex would rise from a 3,000-acre tract of pine
plantation about 8 miles north of Progress Energy's 29-year-old
Crystal River nuclear plant. Unlike that storm-vulnerable
reactor at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, the new plant would
be about 7 miles inland and 45 feet above sea level.
© 2006 Orlando Sentinel Communications
*****************************************************************
41 Tampabay: Progress picks Levy for new nuclear plant
If approved, the nuclear plant could begin operations by 2016.
By STEVE HUETTEL and CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published December 13, 2006
Progress Energy Florida chose a pine timber farm north of the
Tampa Bay area in Levy County as the site for a new nuclear
power plant that could be generating electricity within a decade.
The utility has a contract to buy 3,000 acres in Levy County, 8
miles north of its Crystal River Energy Complex in Citrus
County, which includes a nuclear plant and four coal-burning
generators.
The site selection announced Tuesday doesn't necessarily mean
Progress will build the plant.
But the company considers nuclear generation a cheaper and
cleaner alternative to fossil fuel-burning plants, and nuclear
power is a key part of its plan to meet Florida's growing
appetite for electricity.
Licensing and building a plant takes years, and the utility had
to pick a site to keep the process on track, said Progress
Energy Florida chief executive Jeff Lyash.
"It's important to move down this path so we have this option
for our customers," he said.
The project would jolt the economy of rural Levy County. A
single-reactor plant would cost at least $2.5-billion and a
dual-reactor plant more that $5-billion, according to Progress
Energy. The entire 2006 property tax roll for Levy County was
$2.2-billion.
Some 2,000 workers would be on the job during peak construction.
The plant would employ more than 500 full-time employees at
average annual salaries between $80,000 and $90,000, Progress
said.
"I'm really excited," said Levy County Commission Chairwoman
Nancy Bell. "I'm an old '60s person. So, my first idea about
nuclear power was to pick up a sign and march. I've got a lot of
studying to do."
Driving the plan are company estimates that electricity demand
will increase more than 25 percent over the next 10 years in its
35-county service area in west and Central Florida. The state's
second-largest utility, with more than 1.6-million customers, is
adding more than 30,000 homes and businesses a year.
Recent developments, including incentives to utilities pushed by
the White House, have enhanced the appeal of nuclear power.
Unstable oil and natural gas supplies have led to sharp price
increases. Greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants are raising
concerns about global warming.
That has helped remove some of the public stigma from nuclear
power left by the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island
plant and the catastrophic accident at Chernobyl in 1986.
After a long hiatus, power companies are planning new nuclear
plants again. In the next few years the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission expects to receive 19 utility applications for
construction of 30 new reactors, said NRC spokesman Scott
Burnell.
Polling nationally and in Florida show the public supports
nuclear power "as part of a balanced solution to our energy
needs," said Lyash during a conference call with reporters
Tuesday.
Critics, such as Holly Binns of Environment Florida, say the
federal government needs to find a way to store nuclear waste
long-term before permitting new plants.
And Florida consumers will balk, she says, if Progress Energy
increases their bills before a nuclear plant is built to cover
licensing, interest and other costs, as permitted in legislation
signed by Gov. Jeb Bush this year.
The utility says the measure spreads out costs, and customers
would end up paying far less over the life of the plant.
Progress looked at dozens of possible locations. Potential sites
had to be geologically sound and close to massive amounts of
water needed to cool the reactor core and generate steam.
Officials also looked for a supportive local government, not
just to smooth the way for approving the project but to
cooperate in emergency management planning. Citrus County
officials lobbied hard for building the new plant at the
company's Crystal River facility.
Progress decided instead on a site about 8 miles north of
Crystal River that's 40 to 45 feet above sea level and farther
inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
That would protect one of the facilities and its transmission
lines if the other was hit by a hurricane or tornado, Lyash said.
The new plant would draw between 20-million and 25-million
gallons of saltwater daily from the Cross Florida Barge Canal,
about 2 miles to the south.
Progress has a contract to buy the land from Jacksonville-based
Rayonier, a timber company that controls about 2.2-million acres
in the United States. Progress Energy wouldn't disclose a price
for the property, valued at $4.6-million by the Levy County
Property Appraiser's Office.
Not all Levy County officials were sold on the project.
Commissioner Tony Parker said officials should wait to find out
more before endorsing the proposal.
"I think it's possible it could be a benefit to the county," he
said. "But I think we need to do our homework before we make
that decision for sure."
Just a few miles south in Citrus County, officials said they
were saddened by Progress Energy's pick.
Citrus County Commissioner Gary Bartell said local officials had
tried to convince the company to build in Citrus for more than a
year. "It just seemed like the energy complex in Crystal River
would be a natural fit for a new plant," he said.
Helen Spivey, an environmental activist and former Crystal River
City Council member, said she had concerns about the possibility
of building a new nuclear plant.
For one, parts of the Cross Florida Barge Canal are a prime
birthing area for manatees, said Spivey, statewide manatee
issues chairwoman for the Sierra Club.
The project faces long regulatory reviews from local, state and
government agencies.
Progress expects to apply in 2008 for a combined operating and
construction license with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
which estimates the review process will take about 30 months.
The utility hopes to begin building in 2010 but could delay or
cancel the project if financial conditions become unfavorable,
Lyash said.
Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.comor 813
226-3384. Catherine Shoichet can be reached at
shoichet@sptimes.comor (352) 860-7309.
[Last modified December 13, 2006, 01:37:39]
© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
*****************************************************************
42 New London Day: Whistleblower Settlement Fair, Says Labor Law Judge
theday.com
By Patricia Daddona Day Staff Writer\, Millstone\/business
trends E-mail: p.daddona@theday.com Phone No.: (860) 701 - 4324
Published on 12/13/2006
A federal labor law judge called a confidential settlement
between a whistleblower and the owner of Millstone Power Station
fair, according to a ruling released Tuesday.
In a recommended decision and order dated Monday, Administrative
Law Judge Adele Odegard calls the settlement fair, adequate and
reasonable. The document appeared on the U.S. Department of
Labor's Web site after the parties announced their pact publicly.
Whistleblower Sham Mehta of East Lyme had alleged a violation
of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, claiming in a labor
complaint that Millstone owner Dominion retaliated against him
by eliminating his job after he reported last year that the
intruder alert system at Millstone was routinely turned off
because of false alarms.
Last August, the labor department dismissed the complaint and
found that Dominion acted properly when reorganizing Mehta's
department, but Mehta appealed and was to have had his case
heard Monday.
On Monday, Odegard canceled the hearing, approved the settlement
and dismissed the case with prejudice. That means Mehta cannot
re-file the complaint, said John Chavez, a spokesman for the
labor department's Office of the Administrative Law Judge.
Odegard's order can be petitioned within 10 days of its release.
Mehta has two other grievances based on the same complaint
pending under different state or federal statutes with the state
Department of Public Utility Control and the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
The DPUC ordered Dominion to reinstate Mehta in a position
comparable to the one he lost while the agency conducts a full
investigation. That probe has not yet begun, and it is unclear
what affect the labor decision will have on it, according to the
DPUC. Mehta remains employed at Millstone, now as a shift
technical advisor.
Privacy Policy | Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200 | New London,
CT | © 1998-2006 The Day Publishing Co. [Beacon Locator] ~ 02
*****************************************************************
43 UPI: Analysis: India looks to boost nuke power
United Press International - Energy -
12/13/2006 11:29:00 AM -0500
By KUSHAL JEENA UPI Energy Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- India is considering enacting new
legislation to spearhead its nuclear power capacity with an
ambitious target of expanding nuclear power generation from
3,000 megawatts to 30,000 MW over the next 20 years, and to
allow foreign investment.
Global nuclear power companies are watching the new legislation
and the plans the country's Power Ministry has drawn up
following the passage of the landmark India-U.S. civilian
nuclear agreement in the U.S. Senate.
India's leading state-run and private power companies, including
National Thermal Power Corp., Reliance Energy and Tata Power,
have initiated plans to get into the nuclear power sector.
Private power-generating companies are awaiting the government's
formulation of a policy that allows private investment in the
nuclear sector. This policy is likely to be implemented once the
Atomic Energy Act is amended, probably next year.
Several international energy majors - such as GE Energy,
Siemens, Westinghouse and Alstom -- have held talks with Indian
energy companies, including equipment-maker Bharat Heavy
Electrical Ltd., for collaboration when the market is thrown
open for private participation.
"There is vast potential in this market and domestic players are
also keen to play their role," said Harry Dhaul, a key official
of the Independent Power Producers of India, a flagship body of
Indian power companies.
He said that depending on where the fuel is sourced, the cost of
producing electricity from nuclear power plants was low -
between 11 and 22 cents per unit.
Notwithstanding opposition from India's Communist parties and
from the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the India-U.S.
civilian nuclear agreement has been welcomed. The nation's
energy demands are rising on the back of rapid economic growth
and supply is unable to match demand.
The timing of the deal assumes significance for India as it was
planning to renegotiate a liquefied natural gas deal with Iran.
U.S. President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had
on July 18, 2005, signed a deal to allow civilian nuclear
cooperation. India was denied such nuclear technology after it
carried out nuclear weapons tests on May 11 and 13, 1998.
India planned to invest $100 billion in the nuclear power
sector. Both the government and the private sector will build
plants. The move is aimed at expanding the country's nuclear
power generation capacity from 3,000 MW now to 30,000 MW over
the next 20 years. The implementation of the civilian nuclear
deal with the United States is expected go a long way toward
achieving this target.
Nuclear power accounts for 3 percent of India's power
generation. If the country's nuclear goals are met, it will
still account for the same proportion. India has estimated that
by 2031-32, the country's power generation capacity should
increase to 800,000 MW from 160,000 MW.
Growth in India's nuclear power sector has been slow because of
the limited supply of uranium, a key raw material. Uranium that
is available domestically is low grade.
India's nuclear technology capability has also been questioned
several times because the nation is still dependent on the
import of some of key components for which a free market does
not exist.
"Most of the nuclear power plants are unable to run full
capacity due to non-availability of adequate and high-grade
uranium," said Sukumar Shah, an energy analyst at the Federation
of Indian Chambers of Commerce, a key body of Indian industries.
Analysts share the view the civilian nuclear energy deal with
the United States has a significant impact from the strategic
and energy security point of view. The government has said that
if the deal goes through by the end of the ongoing winter
session of parliament Dec. 19, it will move a bill in the next
session in February to amend the Atomic Energy Act to allow
foreign and domestic power companies to enter into the nuclear
sector.
The prime minister's energy coordination committee, which
monitors all government departments relating to energy, has
asked state-run energy companies to come up with plans and
projects for the new nuclear sector.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
44 Duck & Cover: TMI Replaces 3rd Secuirty Chief in 3 years
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:26:34 -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
Plant replaces security chief
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
BY GARRY LENTON
Of The Patriot-News
The chief of security at Three Mile Island has been replaced, but plant
officials are not saying why they made the change.
AmerGen Energy, the operator of the nuclear plant, confirmed yesterday that
Derwin Westbrook, manager of security for two years, no longer holds the
post. Westbrook left the job Dec. 6.
Company spokesman Ralph DeSantis said Westbrook remained an employee of
AmerGen, but he would not say if the former chief was still working at TMI.
DeSantis also declined to identify Westbrook's new responsibilities, or say
if he left the job voluntarily or was removed.
Advertisement
"I can't tell you anything other than that he is still employed by the
company," DeSantis said.
AmerGen is a subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon Nuclear, which owns 10
nuclear plants in the U.S., including TMI, Peach Bottom and Limerick.
Dan Deboer, TMI's operations support manager, was named as an interim
replacement, DeSantis said.
Deboer was responsible for working with the security force at TMI to ensure
that it worked in concert with the plant's other department, DeSantis said.
"Dan has a tremendous amount of managerial experience and is more than
capable of doing that job," he said.
Deboer becomes the third person to hold the post since 2004. He will remain
in the job until the company can hire a replacement, DeSantis said.
The turnover among top security managers at TMI is a cause for concern
because of the loss of institutional memory, said Eric Epstein, chairman of
the watchdog group Three Mile Island Alert.
"This company seems to change out vice presidents and security personnel
too frequently," he said.
DeSantis said the company's turnover rate was not unusual.
Exelon's philosophy is to rotate managers through departments in the belief
it gives them broader experience, DeSantis said.
Westbrook maintained a low public profile during his tenure, but the
retired military veteran oversaw extensive security upgrades at the plant
during 2005 and 2006. Changes included the addition of concrete truck
barriers, vehicle check points, double fencing and the addition of four
guard towers.
GARRY LENTON: 255-8264 or glenton@patriot-news.com
*****************************************************************
45 Sydney Morning Herald: Key to brain age a matter of fallout -
www.smh.com.au
December 14, 2006
Sydney scientists have radiocarbon-dated individual cells of the
human brain. Deborah Smith reports.
HOW old are our brain cells? Do new ones grow in the area
responsible for intelligence, language and creativity as we get
older, or are we born with a fixed number of neurons to last a
lifetime? It has been one of the hottest controversies in brain
science for decades, and now the answer is in.
Sydney scientists have carried out an ingenious new technique
that can determine the age of individual cells in the body,
based on the atmospheric effects of nuclear bomb tests during
the 1950s and '60s.
Their research shows that the neurons of the cerebral cortex are
as old as we are, says Dr David Fink, of the Australian Nuclear
Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). "It's amazing.
These brain cells are the same ones you were born with."
Other parts of the body, however, are constantly regenerating,
and the same radiocarbon dating technique has been used to work
out the age of other tissues, showing, for example, that muscle
cells of adults are only about 15 years old.
Inspired by the findings, Australian doctors plan to collaborate
with Fink and his colleagues at ANSTO to use the new technique
to probe a different part of the brain which does regenerate, to
see whether people with schizophrenia produce more or less nerve
cells than average in this region, known as the hippocampus.
Professor John McGrath, from the Queensland Centre for Mental
Health Research, says the technique is like having a clock to
tell you when each cell was born. "It's breathtaking physics,
it's the archaeology of the human brain,' he says.
The technique is based on the fact that above-ground testing of
nuclear bombs between 1955 and the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty
led to a big increase in the amount of radioactive carbon-14 in
the atmosphere around the globe. Levels have since tapered off,
as the carbon-14 has been absorbed by the oceans and plants and
animals.
"A person born in 1963 had about twice as much carbon-14 in
their system as someone born in 1999," says Fink.
A Swedish researcher, Professor Jonas Frisen, of the Karolinska
Institute near Stockholm, was the first to realise that this
carbon-14 bomb spike provided a unique opportunity to date human
tissues, and that carbon-14 levels in the DNA of cells would
reflect atmospheric levels at the time the cells were born.
Last year, in a preliminary study to test this idea, his
international team took samples from cadavers and found the
average age of tissues did vary, depending on how often the
cells in the organ were replaced.
To resolve the controversy over brain cells, his team collected
cells from several regions of the cerebral cortex of seven
deceased people who had been born in Sweden between 1933 and
1973.
DNA was extracted from individual neurons. The technically
challenging task of measuring carbon-14 levels in the tiny
samples was undertaken by Fink's team at ANSTO, who are world
leaders in carrying out accelerator mass spectrometry of
microgram-sized samples. They found the carbon-14 levels in
neurons from all areas of the cerebral cortex were as high as
the atmospheric levels at the time of each individual's birth.
This finding that we don't make new neurons in this
decision-making region of the brain could explain the mental
prowess that has led to the success of our species, says
Professor Pasko Rakic, of Yale University in the United States.
It may be better to have a permanent population of cells that
store information about language, maths and logic over a
lifetime, rather than growing new naive cells that have not been
exposed to years of experience, as is the case with fish and
frogs, Rakic says.
The research, which was published in the Proceedings of the
National Academies of Science, sparked the interest of McGrath
and his colleagues studying people with mental illnesses.
McGrath says parts of the brain are known to shrink in people
who develop schizophrenia.
The cell-dating technique would allow them to test the
possibility that the illness has reduced the brain's ability to
regenerate cells in these regions.
He says the brain is known to have stem cells that can produce
new neurons, but much still needs to be learnt about how to
switch on these cells so they can replace tissue lost as a
result of stroke, infection, trauma, disease or ageing.
"There's a long way to go, but researchers are tenacious," he
says.
*****************************************************************
46 AP Wire: Nuclear weapons workers trumpet museum
12/13/2006 |
Associated Press
MIAMISBURG, Ohio - Workers who did the once top-secret work of
making triggers for nuclear bombs during the Cold War are trying
to raise the profile of a recently opened museum showcasing
their skill.
"We want to have an institution here that preserves the heritage
of this place," said Don Sullenger, a retired employee of the
Mound nuclear weapons plant and past president of the Mound
Museum. "There was a high level of technological skill here, and
they accomplished some amazing things."
The Mound plant, built in 1947, was situated on a 306-acre site
in this city 10 miles south of Dayton. The workers, who numbered
more than 2,000 at the height of production, made plutonium
detonators for nuclear weapons. Their work was highly secretive.
The plant had a small army of security guards and was ringed by
chain-link fencing and razor wire.
When the Cold War ended, the plant discontinued the detonator
work but continued to make generators for space probes. The U.S.
Department of Energy ended production at the plant in 1996,
leaving cleanup of radioactive and hazardous waste as the
primary activity.
A 150-member group of volunteers has been working since 1998 to
develop the museum, which opened three years ago on the plant
site. The museum has been quietly building collections of
technical documents, photographs and other artifacts that trace
Mound's history.
"Right now, we look more like an antique shop than a museum,"
Sullenger said.
The volunteers' early focus was on preserving documents that
were in danger of being destroyed and lobbying to prevent
thousands of Mound photographs from being shipped to the
National Archives.
"They just would've been buried there," said Japnell Braun,
museum vice president and a former Mound chemist. The museum was
able to retain control of 66,000 unclassified photo negatives
documenting activities at the plant throughout its history.
Museum workers plan to scan the photos into a computer to make
them accessible to visitors and researchers. They also want to
rebuild Mound's technical library and work with schools to offer
museum resources and retiree expertise to science students.
Among the museum's displays are artifacts from Mound's days of
building the triggers for bombs and the radioisotopic
thermoelectric generator, which converts heat resulting from the
radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity.
The museum displays parts of the generator that was used in the
historic 1969 Apollo 11 project that enabled Neil Armstrong to
become the first man to set foot on the moon. A similar
generator powers NASA's Cassini orbiter that is now studying
Saturn.
Volunteers hope to raise funds to build an addition that would
double the museum's size and allow for more sophisticated,
user-friendly displays. And they scheduled an open house to try
to raise the museum's public profile.
Sullenger said that even though the Mound plant is disappearing
from view, he wants to make sure it's remembered.
"If you think it was important to stand up to the Soviet Union
during the Cold War, we had a significant role in that," he
said.
ON THE NET
Mound Museum: http://www.moundmuseum.org
Information from: Dayton Daily News,
http://www.daytondailynews.com
*****************************************************************
47 Naperville Sun: Radiation comp decision delayed
Obama targets program's problems
December 13, 2006
By ANDREA HEINSun-Times News Group
A federal board delayed a decision on Tuesday regarding the
compensation process for Blockson Chemical employees during a
meeting in Naperville where Sen. Barack Obama went to bat for
the workers and their families.
"As a nation I think we owe them our gratitude," Obama, D-Ill.,
said of former weapons workers. "The reason I'm here today is my
strong feeling that that gratitude needs to be expressed in more
than just words."
During his brief remarks, Obama addressed a litany of problems
with the compensation program for government contract workers
sickened by radioactive materials.
U.S. Reps. Jerry Weller, R-Morris, and Judy Biggert, R-Hinsdale,
also entered a joint statement calling for fair treatment of
former workers and for a review of criteria for awarding
compensation.
While Blockson family members saw a glimpse of hope for positive
changes, they have dealt with bureaucracy long enough to keep
those feelings in check.
"We've been through this before," said Phyllis Keca, 80, whose
husband worked at Blockson and died of cancer.
In 2000, Congress passed a law that provides for $150,000 and
medical coverage for Cold War-era, government contract employees
who contracted specific illnesses after working at particular
plants.
People working from 1951 to 1962 at Blockson Chemical Co. and
later Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp. are eligible for
compensation. So far, officials have denied most of the claims
and, in some cases, have taken years to make a decision.
"We're dealing with a process now that goes on forever without a
resolution," said Kenneth Grskovic of Joliet, whose father died
of cancer at age 59.
A controversial part of the process, as far as the families are
concerned, is dose reconstruction - or the way the government
calculates radiation exposure of former workers.
Regardless of where someone worked at Blockson, scientists base
employee exposure on presumed conditions in one area called
Building 55, federal officials said Tuesday.
That building was designated as the "covered facility" for
purposes of compensation.
Last year petitions were filed on behalf of Blockson families to
do away with dose reconstruction for claim approval. The
families think the government has no hard data regarding the
amount of cancer-causing radiation workers actually received.
But scientists with the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health, the federal agency that conducts the dose
reconstructions, say they can devise radiation exposure based on
widely accepted information about radioactive materials and
other factors.
The agency Tuesday recommended denial of the petition to the
Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, the body
convening the hearing.
During the meeting Blockson supporters argued that the
government did not consider all factors affecting employee
health and may have made unreasonable data comparisons.
The federal agency, however, stood by its findings.
The two-hour meeting was filled with highly technical
information and industry jargon.
The board ultimately decided it wanted more information and
delayed a decision.
An independent body now will review part of the government
report while the federal agency will host a meeting to gather
information from former Blockson workers and their families.
The soonest the advisory board could reconsider the Blockson
petition is February.
The Herald News
napersun.com
*****************************************************************
48 Deseret News: U.S. issues Divine Strake pledge
[deseretnews.com]
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
No test for 30 days after environmental findings
By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News
The federal government is pledging not to explode the "Divine
Strake" explosive test until at least 30 days after a decision
based on an environmental study.
Also, the government contends the test would kick up
little dust off the Nevada Test Site, despite a previous federal
prediction that it would create a towering mushroom cloud of
dust.
The pledge comes in the form of Dec. 6 letter from a
trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. It was
included in a Tuesday filing with the U.S. District Court in Las
Vegas.
Divine Strake is planned by the Defense Treat Reduction
Agency and the National nuclear Security Administration for the
Nevada Test Site. The non-nuclear detonation would set off 600
tons of fuel oil and ammonia nitrate.
Concerns that the deep-penetrating blast would release
radioactive debris from previous nuclear tests were near the top
of the list of concerns voiced by political experts, activists
and ordinary people. Another complaint concerns dust pollution.
Many of those worried about the impacts in Utah.
Robert R. Hager, a Reno lawyer representing plaintiffs
suing the federal government, filed a statement with the court
Tuesday saying the agencies agreed not to set off the explosion
for at least 30 days after the filing of any Finding of No
Significant Environmental Impact (FONSI) statement.
A Dec. 5 letter by Caroline M. Blanco, attorney with the
Department of Justice, part of the court filling, said a revised
environmental study has not been issued.
After the study is finished, even if the federal agencies
issue a FONSI and decide to conduct the test, "they have
committed to not conduct the detonation of the proposed
experiment until at least 30 days following issuance of a FONSI."
Hager informed the court that the promise "is in no way
intended to be a rejection or refusal by the agencies to
stipulate to 60 days prior notice as suggested by the court" on
Nov. 2.
The court filing also included a Powerpoint presentation
by federal officials to the Utah congressional delegation, dated
Nov. 15, which stresses reasons the agencies want to conduct the
test as well as assurances about its safety.
A page headed "Why we need Divine Strake" makes the
points, "Deeply buried facilities are critically important
military targets — and numbers are rapidly growing. ...
30-plus-years-old targeting tools are imprecise. ... DIVINE
STAKE is a final validation of new targeting tools. ... DIVINE
STRAKE improves our ability to hold deeply buried targets at
risk — providing leaders operational flexibility."
Five sites were considered for the experiment, including
Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, and the NTS was considered the
best, it adds.
Any radiological dose would be low, a "factor of 20 below
federal regulations," says the Powerpoint report. Federal
regulations allow 0.1 millirem of radiation, but at worst,
Divine Strake would produce around 0.005 millirem at the
boundary of the test site. By comparison, people in Colorado are
exposed to 105 millirem per year in the form of natural
radiation in the rocks and soil, it says.
Dust at the boundaries of the Nevada Test Site would be
"1,000 times lower" than allowed by the Clean Air Act, it says.
Responding to concerns that the wind blast would kick up
radioactive material from earlier tests, the briefing said at
the nearest previous test site, wind from the blast would be
moving at 27 mph. That would last one or two seconds, it says.
"Natural sustained winds at same location often greater
than 60 mph," it says.
Divine Strake would produce ground shock equivalent to a
magnitude 3 earthquake, it adds.
"Since 1973 the site has seen: "411 earthquakes 3.5 or
greater. 135 earthquakes 5.0 or greater."
It says public information sessions would be held, though
it does not call them hearings. After a 30-day public comment
period, a decision document will be issued.
The timing is uncertain, because at least one milestone
listed in the briefing document was missed.
© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
49 BBC: Radiation alert
Last Updated: Wednesday, 13 December 2006
[Beach testing]
Traces of radiation were found at Aberdeen beach
A company at the centre of a radiation alert on Aberdeen beach is
being ordered to stop discharging waste into the sea, BBC
Scotland has learned.
Scotoil, which cleans equipment for the oil industry, was named
as the most likely source last year.
Environment protection agency Sepa will officially announce on
Friday that the firm will have to find other means of getting rid
of the material by 2008.
Scotoil said it could close their business, and it plans to
appeal.
Fears have now been expressed about more than 50 jobs at Scotoil.
No alternatives
A stretch of the beach was closed in August 2005 when traces of
radiation were found in the sand.
Sepa said it had found "slightly raised" levels of radioactivity
in a very small area of sand on the high tide line at the
southern end of the beach near the harbour wall.
It originally identified the recycling company Scotoil as the
most likely source. Sepa later said no link had been established.
Scotoil's waste is in the form of naturally occurring radioactive
material produced during oil production.
This is removed from oilfield equipment at Scotoil's premises in
Aberdeen and the waste is disposed of by discharge to the sea.
Job concern
A Sepa spokesman told BBC Scotland: "We believe there is a need
for improvement and we believe two years to do that is a
reasonable length of time."
However Scotoil said it could see no alternative, and that the
2008 deadline could force the business to close.
Offshore union Amicus expressed concern at the potential loss of
more than 50 jobs at Scotoil.
Amicus regional officer Graham Tran said Amicus fully supported
the move to cease radioactive waste being discharged into the
North Sea.
However he said: "It is important that Scotoil is afforded a
reasonable timetable to comply with Sepa's instruction.
"We have to recognise that this is not a multi-national oil
company that we are dealing with.
"I will be seeking an early meeting with local politicians, who
serve the constituency where Scotoil are based, in the hope that
they could use their influence to have Sepa revisit this matter
with a view to agreeing a more realistic timetable."
*****************************************************************
50 washingtonpost.com: Two Old Friends at Center of Poison Mystery -
By Peter Finn and Craig WhitlockWashington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 13, 2006; Page A25
MOSCOW, Dec. 12 -- At a closed hospital run by the Federal
Medical-Biological Agency, two Russian men, friends since they
were 12-year-olds, lie removed from the world and at the center
of an international poisoning drama.
Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoy, who visited with former Russian
intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko the day he fell ill, have
declared their innocence, as the investigation narrows to this
city and to at least one of the men, Kovtun.
[German police officers are searching for traces of
polonium-210 near a house in Haselau, Germany, visited by
Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun, now under treatment in
Moscow. Kovtun has ties to the Russian security services that
murdered ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko alleged were out to kill
him on President Vladimir Putin's orders.
Searching for Polonium Fingerprints
German police officers are searching for traces of polonium-210
near a house in Haselau, Germany, visited by Russian businessman
Dmitry Kovtun, now under treatment in Moscow. Kovtun has ties to
the Russian security services that murdered ex-spy Alexander
Litvinenko alleged were out to kill him on President Vladimir
Putin's orders.
Each discovery of a trace of polonium-210, the radioactive
isotope that killed Litvinenko, acts like a carelessly left
fingerprint. British and German investigators say a trail of
positive readings matches the movements of Kovtun from Moscow to
Hamburg on Oct. 28 and then on to London, where he met with
Litvinenko at the bar of the Millennium Hotel on Nov. 1.
Kovtun and Lugovoy both have ties to the Russian security
services that Litvinenko said were out to kill him on President
Vladimir Putin's orders. Yet they also have long-standing bonds
with Putin's exiled enemies, who are seen in Moscow as likely
suspects. How Kovtun, 41, came into possession of or contact
with polonium-210 remains unanswered. He gave two interviews to
Russian reporters in late November and has remained silent
since. There are unconfirmed reports that he is seriously ill
from radiation exposure.
Asked on Echo Moskvy radio on Nov. 24 what he thought had
happened to Litvinenko, Kovtun said, "Of course I am thinking
about it. But I dealt with justice so I would be very careful
with any comments. I don't want to go into detail and tell
fortunes from coffee grounds."
German police are investigating Kovtun as a suspect in illegal
handling of a radioactive substance. Russian prosecutors call
him a victim and have opened an attempted murder case on grounds
that he was poisoned.
From age 12, Kovtun and Lugovoy lived in the same apartment
block in Moscow, their fathers both employed in the Soviet
Defense Ministry. They went on to the same elite academy, the
Supreme Soviet Military Command School, which turned out
military and KGB officers.
Lugovoy joined the KGB in 1987 and was assigned to the Ninth
Department, or Kremlin guard, which provided security for
high-ranking Communist officials. Kovtun went on to serve in
what was then Czechoslovakia and later in East Germany,
apparently as a military man. Whether he had an intelligence
role there remains unknown.
At some point, Kovtun married a German, Marina Wall, now 31. He
moved to the port city of Hamburg. Authorities there said he has
held an unrestricted visa to live and work in Germany since the
mid-1990s.
Police said they were investigating tips that Kovtun may have
worked in Hamburg as a waiter.
Kovtun and Wall divorced but kept in touch. He rented an
apartment one floor below his ex-wife's residence in a
working-class part of Hamburg, neighbors said, but did not live
there.
Police have established that Kovtun visited Wall in October on
his way to London. He visited a local immigration office on Oct.
30 to update his visa.
In many places he went, he left traces of radiation: on one of
the documents he submitted at the visa office; on a couch where
he slept in his ex-wife's apartment; and in the BMW that brought
him from the airport.
Wall remained hospitalized Tuesday, with her two young children
from a separate relationship, as doctors tried to determine
whether they had been exposed to polonium.
Hamburg law enforcement authorities sent an official request to
the Russian government Tuesday for cooperation, but said
officials in Moscow have not been forthcoming. German inspectors
have not been given access to the Aeroflot plane in which Kovtun
traveled from Moscow to Hamburg.
"The tunnel is still rather dark," Hamburg police spokesman Ralf
Meyer said. "We cannot yet say with certainty whether he had
polonium inside his body, whether he carried it with him on his
body, or what he did here."
Across the street from Kovtun's apartment stands a district
office of the German Greens party. "Nuclear Power? No Thanks,"
shouts a poster in the window.
It came as a shock for the neighbors to learn that the Russian
emigre had potentially exposed them. "That something like this
could be found in a residential neighborhood is just stunning,"
said Phyliss Demirel, a Greens official and city council member
in Hamburg's Altona district. "People have children here. They
live and work here. Every place this guy went, there are more and
more consequences."
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Lugovoy, 41, continued to
serve with a federal protection unit. A year later, he was
director of security at ORT, the television channel controlled by
Boris Berezovsky, the billionaire who fled Russia in 2000 after
clashing with Putin.
In June 2001, Lugovoy was charged with attempting to arrange the
escape from custody of Nikolai Glushkov, first vice general
director of Aeroflot, the Russian airline in which Berezovsky was
a major shareholder. Glushkov and several other Aeroflot
executives were charged with misappropriation of funds.
Berezovsky has said that Glushkov was cleaning up black accounts
in the airline that were used by the domestic security agency,
the FSB.
Lugovoy was found guilty
After getting out of prison, he went into business. In an
interview with Echo Moskvy, he said he is an owner of a factory
producing honey wine south of Moscow. Lugovoy also has an
interest in a security firm in Moscow, according to news reports
here.
Lugovoy said he had known Litvinenko for 10 years but had no
personal or business relationship with him before Litvinenko fled
Moscow after alleging that intelligence services had a role in
the bombing of Russian apartment buildings.
Although Kovtun maintained his German residency papers, he moved
back to Moscow. Lugovoy and Kovtun "began to work together,"
Vyacheslav Sokolenko, another former KGB man who now runs a
security agency, said in an interview. He also served in the
Ninth Department after graduating from the same military college
as the two others.
Investigators are now scrutinizing contacts among these three men
and Litvinenko in London.
Kovtun told Echo Moskvy that he was first introduced to
Litvinenko by Lugovoy in London on Oct. 16. Litvinenko had
"serious contacts with serious British companies which wanted to
get into the Russian market but had experienced difficulties with
this," he told the radio station.
The Nov. 1 meeting at the Millennium Hotel in central London's
chic Mayfair neighborhood was unplanned, Kovtun said. Litvinenko
simply phoned to say he wanted to come over to the hotel.
"We didn't talk much" there, Lugovoy told Moskovsky Komsomolets
newspaper. "He only said that our business meeting was set for
tomorrow at 10."
"Then my 8-year-old son ran in and I introduced him to Alexander.
We stood and talked a little more. Then we went to the lobby and
my wife with the daughters and Vyacheslav Sokolenko came in after
their tour. We said hello and then went to our rooms. I didn't
notice anything unusual in Alexander's behavior. We discussed
Hamburg weather and Dmitry's dog." Kovtun has an Irish wolfhound.
Sokolenko, also at the hotel, said he had come to the city for a
soccer match. "I learned there was a meeting with Litvinenko much
later, on November 17," he said. "Maybe I saw him, but I had no
idea the man was Litvinenko."
The following morning, Lugovoy said, Litvinenko called and said
"he was feeling awful, stomach problems, and that he couldn't go
to the meeting."
Whitlock reported from Hamburg. Special correspondent Shannon
Smiley in Hamburg contributed to this report.
The Washington Post Company:
*****************************************************************
51 TheStar.com: Ontario passes whistleblower law
Dec. 13, 2006. 06:50 PMCANADIAN PRESS
Civil servants who tattle on the government are now protected
after new whistleblower legislation passed the Ontario
legislature Wednesday.
The bill, which protects 65,000 workers should they reveal
government wrongdoing, was given final approval by provincial
politicians.
The new law gives the province's integrity commissioner the
power to look into allegations made by civil servants and report
them to the public.
It also spells out conflict-of-interest provisions for
employees who are supposed to be non-partisan but may also get
involved in politics.
When the bill was introduced last month, opposition parties
supported it but questioned whether complaints would be
addressed quickly given the limited budget of the integrity
commissioner.
Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips said in a statement
that the new law will make the civil service more accountable
and transparent.
"Strong whistleblower provisions will provide public service
employees with the very important ability, should the need
arise, to disclose alleged serious wrongdoing without fear of
reprisal," he said.
"The new legislation will ensure that the Ontario public
service meets Ontarians' expectations for transparency,
accountability and professionalism, while at the same time
providing safeguards and protections that public servants need
to do their jobs."
Whistleblower legislation was passed by the New Democrats in
1994, which would have given workers many of the same rights,
but it was never proclaimed into law.
Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.
*****************************************************************
52 Australia Network: Nexus - Maralinga Part 1
With the complicity of the Australian Government in the 50s,
Great Britain chose a part of the South Australian desert to test
nuclear weapons. In conducting the tests, little consideration
was given for the safety of Australian personnel, or indigenous
people who may have been living in the area.
You’ll notice that a number of words in the transcript are
highlighted. If you click on these, information relating to them
will appear in the ‘notes’ column.
REPORTER 1: We're about here - right on the edge of the Nullarbor
Plain and it's all this area which was handed back to the
Aboriginal people today. Two large chunks aren't included in the
package - an area here around Maralinga and another spot further
north near Emu, and that's where the British atomic bomb testing
took place.
REPORTER 2: The race was now on for the biggest bomb of all.
Britain was competing not only against the Soviet Union, but her
ally, the United States.
SIR MARK OLIPHANT: (Nuclear Physicist) If ever we are engaged
again in a major war, it will mean the obliteration of our
island home.
AN OLDER SIR MARK OLIPHANT: All morality disappears in wartime.
So the British were just as apt to go and bomb women and
children as was Hitler in the beginning. And this worried me -
the fact that if this weapon existed, I felt it was bound to be
used by somebody who had no conscience.
SIR ERNEST TITTERTON: (Nuclear Physicist) It was of the greatest
importance that Britain, the technological leader of the
Commonwealth of Nations, should have nuclear weapons as soon as
possible because this would enormously strengthen the voice of
the Commonwealth of Nations in world affairs.
REPORTER 2: By the end of the forties, Britain had chosen to
pursue its own race for the bomb. A number of test sites were
considered, anywhere between the Falkland Islands and the
Kalahari Desert. But the British settled on the wide open spaces
of Australia, partly because Prime Minister Menzies wanted it
that way.
SIR ROBERT MENZIES: I, Robert Gordon Menzies, do solemnly
declare that I will be good and true to our sovereign lady,
Queen Elizabeth II.
REPORTER 2: Menzies was happy to turn Australia into what was
then described as the arsenal of the empire. When Dr Penney and
his British team arrived at Emu Field in South Australia for the
first mainland tests, there was not a fish-and-chip shop in
sight. Penney was handed a bush hat and Lenny set about making
camp.
ARCHIVE AUDIO: Only now are we permitted to release pictures
taken at Woomera, Britain's rocket and atomic weapon testing
ground. Here on October the fifteenth, Britain's second atomic
bomb was exploded in the South Australian desert.
REPORTER 2: One of the most compelling examples of how the
Australian public was deceived occurred at the firing of Totem
1.
ARCHIVE AUDIO: Only when weather conditions were perfect could
the test take place. There could be no risk.
REPORTER 2: A wrong wind could carry the fallout to populated
areas, poisoning livestock and people.
ARCHIVE AUDIO: ...carried wind recording instruments high over
the firing area. Back came the data - conditions OK.
REPORTER 2: But conditions were not OK. The Royal Commission was
later to discover the scientists had ignored their own criteria
and it was impatience that triggered the blast.
ARCHIVE AUDIO: Following the first pressure wave came a suction
wave which condensed the water in the air causing a dense vapour
fog. Twisted into a 'Z' shape by the wind...
REPORTER 2: The assembled spectators weren't to know part of
this curiously shaped cloud would be called a black mist by
Aborigines caught in its path.
ARCHIVE AUDIO: It is known that the overall verdict is a
complete success.
REPORTER 2: Conventional white wisdom at the time said the area
had been depopulated. Two native patrol officers were assigned
to ensure it remained so. It was a needle-in-a-haystack job. Two
men covering an area the size of England. Clearly unable to
check under every bush, they relied instead on the bush
telegraph.
GEOFF EAMES: (Indigenous Counsel) In Australia, in the fifties,
Aborigines didn't count at all. They weren't even counted in the
Census in Australia. They weren't regarded as citizens. When
Censuses were conducted by station owners, the Aborigines, along
with the with the sheep and cattle, were counted. They really
had no personality, no culture, no society. They were very much
just items on a landscape.
REPORTER 2: Perhaps the effectiveness of the bush telegraph was
a myth. When the Royal Commission began its inquiries, there
were rumours of huddled black corpses being discovered on the
range and secretly buried.
*****************************************************************
53 Australia Network: Nexus - Maralinga - Part 2
After the British nuclear tests at Maralinga in South Australia,
reports began to come in about people becoming sick. A Royal
Commission was set up into the effects of the tests on personnel
and indigenous people who may have been in the area at the time.
Meanwhile a large part of the land used was handed back to the
Yalata people. [ height=]
REPORTER: In the 1970s, veterans and Central Australian
Aborigines were complaining of unusual illness. So in the 1980s,
a Royal Commission investigated.
Tribal Aborigines crossed half a continent to sit and watch. The
Commission ranged between the red sands of Maralinga and the the
burgundy carpets of St James Court in London.
The British exploded twelve major atomic bombs in Australia on
the Montebello Islands to the west, and at Emu Field and
Maralinga in South Australia. The blasts sucked tonnes of
irradiated dust into the atmosphere which would drift and some of
it spread across the land.
Edie Milpuddie was one of the Aborigines discovered at the Marcoo
crater. The Royal Commission found the small dose of radiation
she received was in all likelihood virtually harmless.
MAN 1: Did you have any clothes that time, Edie, or naked?
REPORTER: But the incident proved, if nothing else, that
Aborigines were still there. These quaintly multilingual signs
were not going to stop them crossing land they'd walked for
thousands of years. But what was British justice ever going to
do for these people? They spoke little English and would not
speak at all of the dead.
JUSTICE JAMES McLELLAND: We couldn't achieve the impossible. We
were asked to determine whether all proper safeguards were
taken. We've determined that they were not taken.
REPORTER: This is a very small representation of civilian and
service personnel who have died since the tests. They died from
a range of diseases which could be related to contamination by
nuclear radiation. The Royal Commission also had to determine
whether they were victims of the tests. Certainly, servicemen
and civilians were exposed to radiation. Following the blasts,
aircraft would fly into the clouds to collect samples of
radioactive fallout. For the early tests, some of the air crew
and ground crew were given no protective clothing.
INTERVIEWER: Were other people wearing protective clothing?
COLIN BIRD: Oh, yes. The chaps that came round in the jeeps to
collect the canisters, they were were clad up like moon men. You
know, they had the things over their heads and white overalls
and gloves. Things like that. And they didn't even touch the
canister then - we had to climb down the ladder and put it in
the back of the jeep for them.
COLIN CAMPBELL: My most vivid memory was one of the ground crew
with a long probe taking out the samples and putting them in a
box. I was not provided with any protective clothing. I had a
pair of overalls on as normal. It's going a lot more briskly.
One of the most serious accusations directed at Sir Ernest
Titterton and the British is the contamination of the Maralinga
range as a consequence of two of the minor trials. It's very
easy to detect the dust is a fairly active... A clean-up
operation in the '60s, called Operation Brumby, was supposed to
dispose of contamination. When it was finished, the Australian
Government gave absolution to the British. But since then,
plutonium has been discovered scattered in various forms across
the range. Walk beyond this fence and you'd hardly drop dead.
The polluted area is roughly the size of a city shopping centre
and the only inhabitants are a community of normal looking
rabbits. But the tiny fragments of plutonium can be lifted by
the wind and inhaled. Larger contaminated objects would be
lethal souvenirs. This stuff will last not just for one
generation but thousands. It can make you sick and it can kill.
The Royal Commission's most controversial recommendation is that
the British should come back here and clean it all up. And they
should foot the bill of anything up to two-hundred-million
dollars. British scientists did cover up the dangers of the
tests, but they did so with the complicity of Australian
scientists. The British were indifferent to the customs and
values of the Aborigines, but so were we. The British did take
advantage of Australians, but then we invited them to. It'll
tick. In searching for villains at Maralinga, the image of the
British comes through clearly enough. But it's impossible to
avoid our own reflection or at least a reflection of our
attitudes in the 1950s.
REPORTER 2: The Maralinga people are now standing on solid rock,
on sacred ground. This is how a twenty-two-year-old promise was
today kept. The emotion was paramount. Why were the old people
crying today?
MAN 2: Well, their country, their home, where they were born and
reared and that's their home, that's their home.
*****************************************************************
54 AU ABC: Ghan crash raises safety, environmental concerns.
13/12/2006. ABC News Online
The Ghan collided with a truck 130 kilometres south of Darwin
yesterday. (ABC TV)
Rail operator FreightLink says it is only a matter of time
before someone is killed on the Alice to Darwin railway.
There was no boom gate at the level crossing where a truck
yesterday slammed into the Ghan train, 130 kilometres south of
Darwin.
Eleven carriages were derailed in the incident while four
people were taken to Royal Darwin Hospital.
The driver of the truck, who has been arrested over the
incident, is one of two people that remain in hospital.
The other is a woman in the intensive care unit with serious
head injuries.
FreightLink is today calling for better protection at all level
crossings in the Northern Territory.
The company's chief executive, John Fullerton, says the
Territory Government needs to spend more money on improving
safety.
"It's only a matter of time that someone will be seriously hurt
and killed with these incidents," he said.
The head of Great Southern Railways, Tony Braxton Smith, says
while safety gates are important, they do not necessarily
prevent accidents.
"Even at level crossings where there are boom gates and lights
there are numerous examples of drivers who simply ignore them
and ignore them at their peril," he said.
Mr Braxton Smith says the Ghan crash is a reminder to all
drivers to be more careful at level crossings.
Medical response concerns
Meanwhile, the coordinator of the response to the derailment
says Darwin's lack of a dedicated medical helicopter slowed the
arrival of emergency crews.
Doctor Colin Myers says a helicopter from the Royal Australian
Air Force's (RAAF) Tindal base was in the air over the crash
site 90 minutes after he was informed of the crash.
Doctor Myers says helicopter crews in larger cities are
airborne within 20 minutes.
"It's not as good as you would see in the major metropolitan
centres simply because they have emergency air medical
helicopters with crews standing by, ready to go at a moment's
notice," he said.
Police Commander Greg Dowd says while it took some time to get
to the train crash site, emergency crews were glad the accident
did not happen on an even more isolated part of the railway
track.
"Where the accident actually happened is relatively
accessible," he said.
"Whilst it's quite some distance from Darwin, it was relatively
flat ground and fairly easily accessible by road."
Derailment raises uranium transport fears
Meanwhile, opponents of uranium mining say the crash highlights
concerns about transporting radioactive material by rail to the
Top End.
Natalie Wasley from the Arid Lands Environment Centre says
uranium is already transported by rail to Darwin from South
Australia's Olympic Dam mine.
She says volumes would increase if a proposed nuclear waste
dump were to go ahead in the Northern Territory.
She says there have now been several derailments along the line
and there is a risk it could happen to a train carrying uranium.
"I'm pretty sure that not all local towns that the train is
passing through, all local emergency services have been aware of
all of those transports," she said.
"If the Olympic Dam mine is to expand then that would be three
to four times more regularly that uranium yellowcake would be
travelling up through towns and if you look at Alice Springs the
Ghan train line runs straight through the middle of town."
In other developments:
+ Northern Territory Police expect to charge the driver of a
truck that collided with the Ghan passenger train 130 kilometres
south of Darwin yesterday afternoon.
*****************************************************************
55 UPI: Spy-killing polonium-210 cost $25 million
United Press International - NewsTrack -
12/13/2006 2:14:00 PM -0500
BERLIN, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- German investigators say the
radioactive polonium-210 used to kill a former Russian spy in
London last month would have cost $25 million on the black
market.
The Berliner Zeitung quoted a police source Wednesday as saying
police were investigating the possibility some of Alexander
Litvinenko's business activities involved the illegal smuggling
of nuclear materials.
"We know that there has been a demand for nuclear materials in
terrorist circles for several years," the source said.
Litvinenko was a former Russian spy who defected to Britain and
became an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He died of radiation poisoning in London on Nov. 23, and one of
his business acquaintances, Dmitri Kovtun is now in a Moscow
hospital with radiation sickness, the Novosti news agency said.
German police became involved along with British and Russian
investigators after it was learned Kovtun had traveled to
Hamburg before meeting Litvinenko in London, and traces of
radioactivity were found in the car he drove and where he stayed.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
56 UPI: University cited for nuclear material
United Press International - NewsTrack -
12/13/2006 12:48:00 AM -0500
TOKYO, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- A Japanese university was cited for
failing to report nearly three pounds of nuclear materials in
its laboratories.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Akita University received a
warning from government science officials after "unreported
uranium compounds and other nuclear substances" including uranyl
sulfate and thorium compounds such as thorium chloride were
discovered in five locations at the university.
The newspaper said the university has been cited nine times for
similar discoveries in the past two years.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
57 Colorado Daily News: WWII, uranium still at issue
By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado Daily Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 9:23 PM MST
Fallout from the World War II and post-WWII nuclear era lingers
in Boulder - in more ways than one.
Member of Boulder's Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center's
(RMPJC) Nuclear Nexus Project have recently asked the Denver
Water Board to issue an apology to the city of Hiroshima because
a uranium-mining claim on Denver Water property bore the name of
the Japanese city that was decimated by a nuclear weapon near the
end of WWII.
Former Boulder Human Relations Commission member Aya (better
known locally as Mariagnes) Medrud said she would address the
board Wednesday morning to ask for the apology. Medrud is a
Japanese-American citizen, and she and her family spent the
period from August 1942 until December 1944 in an internment camp
in southern Idaho.
"I think a country that is a victor should have some humility
about the use of language, and some understanding about how many
hundreds of thousands of lives were lost as a result of the
atomic blasts," said Medrud Tuesday. "They were considered
enemies, but nevertheless we're talking about human lives."
But should the Board be expected to issue an apology? Information
sent to the Daily from Denver Water said Carl Carlson, a Denver
Water employee, filed location certificates for three uranium
mining claims in 1954, naming them "Holy Terror (numbers 1 and
2)" and "Hiroshima 1." Carlson was also a WWII vet and a mining
engineer.
Certain land parcels upstream from Chatfield Reservoir in
Littleton, Colo., had a number of uranium claims staked on them
in the early 1950s, but the Denver Water document said the mining
in the area was largely "dormant" after 1960 with the exception
of activity, including exploratory drilling, by Energy Fuels
Exploration Company in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Also, a Denver Water document said the Hiroshima name was only
the "name of specific mining rights" and was never in general
circulation, and said the name "disappeared" from documents in
the 1960s.
Only time will tell if the board will issue an apology, but a
release from the RMPJC said the Nexus team has asked the board to
rename the area with a commemorative plaque at the mining site
and apologize to Hiroshima.
Adrienne Anderson, former CU professor of environmental ethics
and the current coordinator of the RMPJC Nuclear Nexus Project,
has also expressed concern that the past mining activity could
threaten water quality at Chatfield.
The Tuesday RMPJC release said the EPA found that a mine near the
Hiroshima claim posed a "potential threat" to public safety if
water in the vicinity were to be used, and said the EPA requested
Denver Water to notify it for possible Superfund investigation if
the board planned to use the water.
The Daily contacted the EPA's Superfund branch Tuesday, but an
EPA representative was unable to verify the RMPJC information
Tuesday before the Daily's deadline.
But the Denver Water document said the EPA conducted a
preliminary investigation of parts of the mining area for
possible Superfund designation in 1988 and said it was "unlikely"
that drinking water standards were violated because of volume
dilution. The document also said treated water from the former
Kassler water treatment plant generally tested at "one-fifth to
one-third" of drinking water radiation standards from 1973 to
1985.
Also, the document said that 2002 to 2006 raw water samples in
the area averaged less than 10 percent of the drinking water
standards for radiation.
Anderson remains skeptical. The RMPJC release said Denver Water
closed the Kassler plant in 1985 "following public disclosure of
extensive toxic (chemical) contamination" from the nearby Martin
Marietta/U.S. Air Force complex, and Anderson said she feels
Denver Water has not been fully cooperative with RMPJC requests
for information in 2006.
"Given that history, citizens feel we should keep a very watchful
eye over the operations of that agency," said Anderson.
Contact Richard Valenty about this story at (303) 443-6272 ext.
126 or valenty@coloradodaily.com.
Colorado Daily Online Edition
2610 Pearl St. Boulder, CO 80302
303.443.6272
*****************************************************************
58 RGJ: County votes to send complaint letter to DOE
[Reno Gazette-Journal] [Reno Gazette-Journal] December 13, 2006
Reno, Nevada, USA
County votes to send complaint letter to DOE Regarding Yucca
route issue. Leader-Courier
Posted: 12/12/2006 04:57 pm
A letter expressing the County’s dissatisfaction with the U.S.
Department of Energy on Lyon’s exclusion from recent nuclear
waste transport scoping sessions has been directed of County
Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Page.
Since legal obstacles are being reexamined for the Mina
Corridor, which was originally proposed some years ago for
transport of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain (near Las Vegas),
several public scoping sessions have taken place in impacted
areas. These include: Amargosa Valley, Caliente, Goldfield,
Hawthorne, Fallon and Reno. Although the track runs through
Fernley, Silver Springs and Wabuska, sessions were not held in
Lyon County. Page noted one official at the Reno session was not
aware the track runs through Lyon.
If Yucca Mountain and this corridor reach fruition, it would see
nearly 77,000 tons of nuclear waste materials from the nation’s
nuclear reactor pass along these tracks. From Lyon, it would
head toward Schurz on its way through several other areas in its
route to Yucca Mountain.
The Lyon County Board of Commissioners directed Page to write
the letter last Thursday. Page explained he is not necessarily
dissatisfied with the method by which nuclear waste would be
transported to Yucca Mountain in as much as he is with DOE’s
failure to host a session in Lyon County. The closest one was
held in Fallon, which is still a nearly 30 mile drive from
Fernley and Silver Springs.
Lyon County Manager Donna Kristaponis said, when she learned of
the Nov. 27 and final session in Reno, she decided to send Page.
Reporting on the session, Page said the format was balanced, as
it included information both for and against the route; however,
he said the session pertained more to the Mina Corridor itself
rather than as a way to voice concern of waste transport through
Reno’s train trench. To him, he said this aspect made the idea
to host a Reno session somewhat “pointless.”
County Commissioner Bob Milz said he had received an email about
two months ago pertaining to the issue; however, Kristaponis
added information presented in this correspondence was too vague
to make an informed decision. Also, until the information
appeared in local papers, Kristaponis said she had not been
aware of DOE’s Dec. 12 deadline for public comment.
Lyon Commissioner LeRoy Goodman noted state park land is also
impacted via the proposed route, thereby making the State
another ally in expression dissatisfaction.
If his route is selected and put into use (as early as 2017 by
current projections) Page said he is also hoping DOE will
provide emergency response training for local personnel.
Bob Loux, Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects executive director,
previously said, even a small hole in one of the containers
contaminate 42 square miles and cost billions of dollars for
cleanup. Extent would depend on several variables including type
of accident and wind direction.
Originally, the Caliente Corridor was being considered southeast
of Lyon, which includes construction of new track. The Mina
route was considered more than 15 years ago; however, the Walker
River Paiute Tribe, which owns track from Wabuska to Schurz
would not allow nuclear waste transportation on their land.
In May of this year, the Tribe did not give the green light;
however, it did give permission to include the corridor in an
Environmental Impact Study (EIS), which would allow a more
informed decision on the matter. As a result, this corridor is
back under the microscope and is being considered over portions
of the Caliente Corridor as it would be cheaper to use existing
tracks.
Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Newspaper.
*****************************************************************
59 Pahrump Valley Times: Japanese trip highlights transport of nuclear fuel
e-mailed to: dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
Dec. 13, 2006
By CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT PVT
Bob Gamble, Nye County's on-site representative to the Department
of Energy, shows the Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory
Board pictures from the fact-finding tour of Japan he and Pahrump
Town Manager Dave Richards took to examine the safe
transportation of nuclear materials.
Bob Gamble, Nye County's on-site representative to the
Department of Energy, and Dave Richards, Pahrump town manager,
recently presented the findings of their fact-finding tour of
Japan to the Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory Board.
Gamble and Richards were in Japan from Oct. 22 through Oct. 28,
when they toured nuclear facilities to learn more about the safe
transportation of nuclear materials.
Nuclear waste from 35 states could be transported through Nye
County on the way to Yucca Mountain where it would be stored.
The trip, which was coordinated by the United States
Transportation Council (USTC), was the second in a series of
trips abroad which focus on studying the safe transport of
nuclear material.
The first USTC tour was in Europe last year and included tours
of the Hague, the Netherlands, and Cherbourg, France nuclear
facilities.
Much of the trip Gamble and Richards made focused on examining
the transportation infrastructure that is in place in Japan.
Richards was not present at the meeting, but Gamble led the
board through an in-depth Power Point presentation displaying
the sites that they visited.
Gamble pointed out at the beginning of the meeting that spent
nuclear fuel and other nuclear material have been moved around
the world without incident for decades by rail, sea and land.
He said the trip was "fascinating" and was particularly
impressed with "the way the Japanese have dealt with the
problem. They're very practical. They've worked with the
community."
He also pointed out that in Japan, "Different utilities work
together in a collegial environment."
The first stop for Gamble and Richards was Tokyo, where they
participated in the Japan Atomic Industry Forum.
The forum covered nuclear energy policy in Japan, which Gamble
described as "forward looking," in showing how nuclear energy in
Japan was based largely on a huge increase in energy
consumption, cheaper costs in comparison to alternative energy
sources, and a way for Japan to have some energy
self-sufficiency.
Also discussed at the forum was the fact that Japan reprocesses
spent nuclear fuel, which can lead to a reduction in the amount
of waste created from three to four times. With a significant
reduction in the amount of nuclear waste being created, the
storage capacity of Yucca Mountain could be increased.
Gamble and Richards also toured the Ogawara Port Transport
Facility, where spent fuel is received at the port via specially
designed ships. The material is then crane-lifted onto trucks
that bring the material inland along dedicated roads.
In Nye County, however, nuclear materials being shipped to Yucca
Mountain would be moved only by rail.
This is because the transport of nuclear materials on two-lane
highways is forbidden by the Nye County Commission Protection
Plan, which was adopted in 2002.
The benefits to the local community of having a transport
facility were also discussed. Thirty percent of the jobs at the
Ogawara facility were held by the local population, and a $1
million in taxes were paid to the prefecture.
An additional $7 million is spent on sub-contracting local
companies for transport and security.
As board member Greg Doyle pointed out at the beginning of the
meeting, "To me the bottom line is economic development. If we
can't benefit economically, why bother?"
Gamble was also particularly impressed with the Rokkasho nuclear
facility that he and Richards toured.
It is an integrated facility which can dispose of, reprocess,
and store nuclear fuel and waste.
Richards and Gamble also looked at canister and cask fabrication
at the Ariake works, where they saw drop tests that were
conducted on the canisters that hold nuclear material for
storage and transportation and the design improvements that
resulted from the tests.
The final day of the trip was culture day, where Richards and
Gamble toured Kyoto.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
60 Pahrump Valley Times: Yucca boosted by incoming chairman of energy panel
e-mailed to: dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
Dec. 13, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The incoming chairman of the Senate Energy
Committee said Friday that Yucca Mountain remains the best
option for nuclear waste disposal and voiced skepticism about
the alternative plan backed by Nevada's congressional
delegation.
The proposed nuclear waste dump "is the best of the options
available to us at the current time assuming that the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission determines that it's an appropriate site,"
Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico said in an interview
with the Associated Press.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Nevada's other federal lawmakers
want to store nuclear waste at the reactor sites around the
country where some 50,000 tons of the stuff now sits.
"I don't think that's politically viable. I don't believe that
will become law," Bingaman said.
When Democrats take over Congress from the GOP in January,
Bingaman will replace Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., as head of the
committee with oversight of the proposed nuclear waste dump the
Energy Department is trying to build.
Domenici has been one of Yucca Mountain's strongest
congressional supporters, introducing legislation the Bush
administration has said is needed to move the troubled project
forward.
Reid, who will become Senate Majority Leader, has said he would
not allow any pro-Yucca bills to reach the Senate floor.
Bingaman said he hasn't discussed with Reid what will happen
with future legislation.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
61 Pahrump Valley Times: DOE working toward solving 'chronic' Yucca design problems
e-mailed to: dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
Dec. 13, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS -- The Energy Department is making a new push to fix
how design mistakes are identified and corrected at the proposed
Yucca Mountain national nuclear waste dump, a top project
official said.
Paul Golan, principal deputy director for the Office of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management, said senior Yucca Mountain
managers were involved in addressing what he characterized as "a
chronic problem."
Auditors have criticized the Energy Department for mistakes
discovered in design documents and other work for the planned
repository for 77,000 tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel and
radioactive waste.
Nevada officials who oppose the project say quality assurance
problems should disqualify the site from receiving waste now
stored around the country.
At a meeting of Energy Department officials and Nuclear
Regulatory Commission staffers in Pahrump, Golan outlined a new
campaign for Yucca managers to screen and set priorities for
reported errors, identify their causes and develop "effective
corrective actions."
DOE plans to hire consultants next year to evaluate whether the
reforms are working, he said.
Susan Lynch, nuclear waste technical administrator for Nevada,
expressed skepticism that the corrective measures would be
effective.
"They assume if they fix one specific problem, then everything
will be OK, but they don't look at it globally to make sure the
fix will prevent reoccurrence," Lynch said.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006
*****************************************************************
62 SF New Mexican: Shipment of suspended Idaho nuclear waste to WIPP will resume
Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:50 pm
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Energy has
authorized the Idaho National Laboratory to resume shipments of
certain radioactive waste to the federal government's underground
repository in southeastern New Mexico.
The DOE halted the shipments Nov. 26 after liquid was found in
what was supposed to be a dry drum. The problem was discovered
while waste drums were being prepared for shipment to the Waste
Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad.
WIPP is not allowed to accept any liquid waste because of the
risks of leaks or potentially explosive materials.
According to the Carlsbad Current-Argus, officials said an
investigation found that the problem was isolated to a single
drum and that no other deficiencies were found.
"On the basis of satisfactory completion of our corrective
action plan and its independent verification, we have authorized
the restart of shipments from that (waste) stream," said Dave
Moody, DOE Carlsbad field office manager.
A waste stream involves similar types of waste from similar types
of processes. Officials said there are 20 different waste streams
at the Idaho lab, which is in the process of sending 23,000 drums
of waste to WIPP. The suspension affected only one of the waste
streams.
Moody said investigators checked 34 drums that had already been
shipped to WIPP. A total of 193 drums in the waste stream were
examined and no more liquid was found.
The drum in question had been cleared to be shipped after an
X-ray showed it was liquid-free. The liquid was spotted after
workers double-checked the X-ray under a new confirmation
procedure the state of New Mexico began requiring last month.
Kerry Watson, senior technical adviser to the Carlsbad field
office, said the qualifications of the X-ray operator were
pulled. To be reinstated, the operator will have to undergo
training and a full qualification process.
"One of the objectives under radiography is to verify that there
is no liquid in excess of the allowable limit," Watson said.
"This operator failed to meet that requirement for this drum."
Terms of Use | ©2006, Santa Fe New Mexican
*****************************************************************
63 SF New Mexican: Navajo country wrestles with water, uranium
Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:50 pm
Good morning, water fans:
When I was growing up in Navajo Country, my mom and I would
ride horses to friends' homes for ceremonies. The families
prepared massive amounts of food and had a ton of dishes to wash
up, which we usually helped with. (We weren't much good at
making frybread.) All the water to cook and wash had to be
hauled in the back of someones truck from miles away. Washing up
meant a big pot of water, warmed on a stove, with a little
Clorox added to it. That water was used and reused as long as
possible for washing dishes before a fresh pot was filled up.
Any water for washing faces was reused for clothes or plants. It
was my first big lesson in water conservation.
Two decades later, thousands of Navajo people still haul water.
That might change for some of them in the next few years.
Politically things are heating up in Navajo country in more ways
then one, all having something to do with water.
For those of you who don't know Indian Country too well (which,
by the way, is where you all live in the U.S.), the Navajo
Nation has the largest land base and largest population of the
330 plus federally-recognized tribes and pueblos in North
America.
Both Congress and the state legislature will take up funding
requests impacting water projects for people on the eastern and
southern sides of Navajo Country, between Shiprock and Gallup.
To oversimplify a complicated situation: the Navajo Nation
claimed a whole lot of water rights along the San Juan River
Basin. Thats the same basin on which cities like Albuquerque and
Santa Fe will soon be drawing water via the San Juan-Chama
project and the Rio Grande. Under a fairly recent settlement
agreement with the state, the Navajo Nation agreed to give up
some of its water rights in exchange for a massive water
pipeline and other facilities. The project is to deliver water
to thousands of Navajo people who dont have running water and to
Gallup, which claims it will run out of water in the next
decade. It will require millions of dollars to build the
project; the state and the feds are haggling over who should pay
what portion.
KNME - Channel 5 will air a documentary on the situation
beginning Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, in that same stretch of country and over to Mt.
Taylor, mining companies have their eyes on new uranium
supplies. The price of uranium ore and renewed interest in
nuclear energy has made the stuff golden to mining companies.
They are promising a lot more responsible form of uranium mining
than what occurred in Navajo country from WWII to the 1970s. If
you missed the LA Times recent excellent series on the history
and legacy of uranium mining, check it out on our website.
The U.S. has yet to clean up the mess it left behind in Navajo
country in the last uranium go round. The tailings piles are
blamed for polluting water supplies and causing numerous health
problems. The Navajo Nation council approved a moratorium on all
uranium mining last year.
It will be interesting to see if there becomes a nexus where
the funding for the Navajo water project and water settlement
crosses with mining companies push to mine uranium in the area.
Well be keeping tabs on it for our readers.
Later, gators.
Privacy Policy / Terms of Use | ©2006, Santa Fe New Mexican,
*****************************************************************
64 Deseret News: Delegates from Utah peer into the future
[deseretnews.com]
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
By Suzanne Struglinski Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — While Utah's congressional delegation correctly
predicted Nancy Pelosi would be the next speaker of the House if
Democrats took control of Congress, it is too early to tell if
the rest of their predictions will come true.
Before the November election, the Deseret Morning News
asked federal officeholders to predict three things that might
happen over the next two years if the Democrats took control of
the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.
The Republicans spent their last days as the majority
party in Congress last week, and Congress officially called it
quits for the year. And for the 109th session, they, along with
Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, will have to see if their crystal
balls worked properly.
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, wrote "liberal San Francisco
representative Nancy Pelosi would be speaker of the House.
That's scary enough," and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, wrote
"Nancy Pelosi will become speaker of the House of
Representatives and third in line for the presidency."
So one point, if there is a score, for each. Pelosi,
D-Calif., will become the first female speaker of the House when
the session starts on Jan. 4.
But the rest of the predictions are a little more
speculative.
"Based on the bills and budgets the Democrats have
proposed in the last few years, the legislative agenda would
shift dramatically to the left and overall spending and taxes
would likely increase significantly," Bishop wrote.
Cannon said the House Democrats "will spend the next two
years attempting to undermine the work of the president and
Republicans in Congress to secure the nation and combat terror"
and that they "will hamstring our efforts to develop the
resources we so desperately need to achieve greater energy
independence and to fuel continued economic growth."
Matheson was a little nicer to his own party, saying he
would "hope for more balanced budgets; the end of funding for
the design and development of new nuclear weapons; and the
adoption of a long-term research and development program to wean
us from our dependence on foreign oil."
Matheson secured a seat on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee on Monday, so while he loses his other committee
seats, he will have a prime spot for determining whether his
predictions come true.
Meanwhile, on the Senate side, Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah,
was not up for re-election this year, but to be fair the Deseret
Morning News asked for his predictions, as well — although by
then, he had the luxury of already knowing the Democrats took
over the Senate.
Bennett said, "If the Democrats do not support the
Republican plan to extend the 2003 Bush tax cuts, many Americans
will see an increase in their taxes."
He also predicted a comprehensive immigration bill would
pass and that "Democrats will recognize that they need to work
with Republicans to pass meaningful entitlement reform."
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, predicted — incorrectly — that
the Democrats would not take over the Senate.
"Americans can still remember what they experienced the
last time they had control," Hatch said. "You'd see efforts to
increase taxes, provide government-run universal health care and
weaken our foreign policy in a way that would threaten the
security of our nation."
Now that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the Democrats will
indeed take over the Senate, the Deseret Morning News asked him
if he had a different response.
His simple answer?
"No," Hatch said.
E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com
© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
65 Platts: Uranium spot prices rise to at least $65/pound; more gains seen
Washington (Platts)--12Dec2006
The spot price of uranium jumped this week to at least $65 a
pound and is expected to rise even higher next week based on the
results of an auction of 260,000 lb U3O8 Friday by Texas-based
Mestena Uranium.
Price reporting companies have over the last several days
raised their spot price indicators. TradeTech moved its indicator
December 8 to $65/lb U3O8, up $1/lb over the price it published a
week earlier. Ux Consulting moved its indicator on Monday to
$65.50/lb U3O8, up $2.50/lb over the price on December 4.
But a number of analysts are saying that it is likely that
some, and perhaps all, of the 260,000 pounds being auctioned by
Mestena could go for at least $70/lb.
--Michael Knapik, newsdesk@platts.com
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
66 Platts: USEC, NMC sign uranium enrichment contract
Washington (Platts)--11Dec2006
USEC and Nuclear Management Co. have signed a contract worth more
than $130 million, USEC announced December 11.
Under the contract, which runs from 2007 to 2013, USEC would
provide uranium enrichment for the fuel to be used in five units
operated by NMC -- Point Beach-1 and -2, Prairie Island-1 and -2,
and Monticello.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
67 Carlsbad Current-Argus: DOE to restart suspended shipments from waste stream
By Kyle Marksteiner
Article Launched:12/12/2006 10:00:34 PM MST
CARLSBAD — The Department of Energy has authorized Idaho
National Laboratory to restart shipments from the waste stream
that was suspended from transport to the Waste Isolation Pilot
Plant near Carlsbad.
The suspension, which took place on Nov. 26, was initiated by
the DOE after liquid was found in a waste drum in excess of what
is allowed. WIPP is not allowed more than negligible levels of
liquid waste because of the risks of leaks or potentially
explosive materials. INL is in the process of sending 23,000
drums of transuranic waste to WIPP.
A waste stream involves similar types of waste from similar
types of processes, Senior Technical Advisor to the Carlsbad
Field Office manager Kerry Watson said. There are about 20
different waste streams at INL, and the suspension did not
interrupt shipments from the laboratory, Watson said.
An investigation has been conducted and corrective actions have
been taken, according to a press release from the DOE.
"We notified the New Mexico Environment Department this
afternoon that we had finished the review, including some
independent checks of corrective actions," said Dave Moody, DOE
Carlsbad Field Office manager. "On the basis of satisfactory
completion of our corrective action plan and its independent
verification, we have authorized the restart of shipments from
that stream."
An investigation, Moody said, showed that the problem was
isolated to a single event, on a single drum, with a single
operator. No additional deficiencies were found.
Moody said the investigation involved checking 34 drums that had
already been shipped to WIPP. A total of 193 drums in the waste
stream were examined, and no additional liquid was found.
"So basically there are no additional actions beyond this
evaluation," he said.
The qualifications of the operator of the x-ray equipment
involved were pulled, Watson said. The operator will have to
undergo training and a full qualification process to be
reinstated as an operator.
Waste drums at DOE sites are first examined through an x-ray
process as part of the characterization activities used to
determine eligibility for disposal at WIPP. Under WIPP's
recently revised state Hazardous Waste Facility Permit, a new
confirmation is conducted on at least seven percent of the
containers in each waste stream designated for shipment to WIPP.
The drum in question had been cleared to be shipped after an
x-ray showed it was liquid free. The liquid was spotted after
workers double-checked the x-ray under the new conformation
process.
"One of the objectives under radiography is to verify that there
is no liquid in excess of the allowable limit," Watson said.
"This operator failed to meet that requirement for this drum."
The drum with the liquid was not shipped to WIPP. At some point
in the future, the liquid will be removed.
Moody stressed that the Nov. 26 identification did not halt
shipments from Idaho to WIPP.
"This was a single waste stream," he noted. "All shipments from
Idaho clearly were not suspended. The confirmation process is
apparently working. We identified this in the confirmation
process. The key is that the confirmation process occurs before
the shipments (leave the laboratory)."
"We followed our permit through this entire process, and we took
the appropriate action upon discovery of this issue," Watson
said.
"We are committed to the whole characterization process and
ensuring that compliant waste, and only compliant waste, comes
to WIPP," Moody said.
Copyright © 2005 Carlsbad Current Argus, a MediaNews Group
Newspaper.
*****************************************************************
68 Salt Lake Tribune: Matheson is nominated for powerful House panel
The Utahn is chosen for seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee
By Thomas Burr
Article Last Updated:12/13/2006 10:05:04 AM MST
Jim Matheson
+ »WASHINGTON - Rep. Jim Matheson, who will be Utah's lone
member of the majority party in Congress come January, has
secured nomination to a powerful House committee.
House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday a
recommendation for several committee assignments. Though all
Democratic members must approve the list, it appears Matheson
has snagged one of eight Democratic seats on the House Energy
and Commerce Committee, which has broad authority and oversees
several Cabinet-level departments.
It has also handled issues ranging from consumer protection
to energy to telecommunications.
Matheson, who will not retain a seat on his current
assignments to the Financial Services Committee nor the Science
Committee, says he can do a lot for Utah from a seat on the
Energy and Commerce panel.
“It's the most powerful committee in Congress,” Matheson
said. “It presents a great opportunity. It affects every
American.”
Matheson added that the committee is a good fit for the
issues he has emphasized in his time in Congress, mainly dealing
with the Energy Department and its role in nuclear weapons
development and testing.
Republican assignments have not yet been announced, though
it's unlikely that Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah will keep his seat on
the Rules Committee, which includes only four members of the
minority party. Bishop, who is entering his third term, has been
on the committee since being elected to Congress.
It's also unclear whether Utah's other House member, Rep.
Chris Cannon, will keep his seats on the Judiciary and
Government Reform committees.
Across the aisle, Pelosi, in a statement, said Democrats
appointed to committees on Tuesday "will be instrumental in
Democrats' efforts to take America in a new direction that
increases security, opportunity, and prosperity, while restoring
civility and integrity to the Congress."
tburr@sltrib.com
© Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
69 DOE: Pursuant to its authority under section 5051 of Public Law
FR Doc 06-9650
[Federal Register: December 13, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 239)]
[Notices] [Page 74960] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13de06-71]
100-203, Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987, the U.S.
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board will meet in Las Vegas,
Nevada, on Wednesday, January 24, 2007. The meeting agenda will
include updates on Department of Energy (DOE) technical and
scientific activities to the proposed repository for spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain
in Nevada. The meeting will be open to the public, and
opportunities for public comment will be provided. The Board is
charged by Congress with reviewing the technical and scientific
validity of activities undertaken by DOE related to nuclear waste
disposal as stipulated in the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act
of 1987.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. and to continue until
approximately 6 p.m. It will be held at the Atrium Suites Hotel;
4255 South Paradise Road; Las Vegas, NV 89109; (tel.)
702-369-4400; (fax) 702-369-3770.
A final agenda detailing meeting times, topics, and participants
will be available approximately one week before the meeting data.
Copies of the meeting agenda can be requested by telephone or
obtained from the Board's Web site at nwtrb.gov. Time will be set
aside at the end of the day for public comments. Those wanting to
speak are encouraged to sign the ``Public Comment Register'' at
the check-in table. A time limit may have to be set on individual
remarks, but written comments of any length may be submitted for
the record. Interested parties also will have the opportunity to
submit questions in writing to the Board. As time permits,
submitted questions relevant to the discussion may be asked by
Board members.
Transcripts of the meetings will be available on the Board's Web
site, by e-mail, on computer disk, and on a library-loan basis in
paper format from Davonya Barnes of the Board's staff, beginning
on February 19, 2007.
A block of rooms has been reserved at the Atrium Suites Hotel for
meeting participants. When making a reservation, please state
that you are attending the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
meeting. Reservations should be made by January 8, 2007, to
ensure receiving the meeting rate.
For more information, please contact Karyn Severson, NWTRB
External Affairs; 2300 Clarendon Boulevard; Suite 1300;
Arlington, VA 22201- 3367; (tel.) 703-235-4473; (fax)
703-235-4495. Dated: December 8, 2006.
William D. Barnard, Executive Director, Nuclear Waste Technical
Review Board.
[FR Doc. 06-9650 Filed 12-12-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6820-AM-M
*****************************************************************
70 Lodinews.com: Nuclear risks concern local activists
+ Associated Press
By San Joaquin News Service
Last updated: Wednesday, Dec 13, 2006 - 06:48:26 am PST
Local peace activists Tuesday asked the government to consider
the impact of apocalyptic global nuclear war when it analyzes
the environmental risks of consolidating and rebuilding the
nation's nuclear arsenal.
The evening meeting was hosted in Tracy to give people living
near Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories' sites a chance to
help shape a planned environmental review of the Complex 2030
program. The program will see most nuclear weapons material
removed from the Lawrence Livermore site and an increase,
decrease or elimination of tritium experiments, high explosives
experiments and some other tests there and at Site 300 next to
Tracy.
"Our nuclear complex is not sufficiently responsive to fixing
the technical problems in the (nuclear) stockpile, or to
reacting to a potential adverse political challenge," said Ted
Wyka, who is working on the environmental review for the
National Nuclear Security Administration.
Wyka said the government is unable through its current nuclear
program to produce certain warhead parts, including plutonium
components, in the quantities that it would like. He also said
the nuclear material is inefficiently scattered among 90
locations.
Local activist Bob Sarvey said it was hypocritical and dangerous
for the U.S. to rebuild its nukes while condemning other
countries for their nuclear programs.
"This plan that you have today is a plan of insanity," said
Sarvey. "You've been told by your own scientists that your
nuclear stockpile is good for another 100 years, and yet you
want to build more weapons."
In fact, none of the community speakers supported Complex 2030,
but Wyka poured cold water on any hopes that their comments
could block or change the program.
"(The nuclear administration) cannot pick and choose which
national security requirements to carry out that is something
that the president, through directives and policy, and the
Congress, through the budget process, decides," Wyka said,
urging them to instead focus on the program's environmental
review.
Jimmy Spearow of freedomfromwar.org and Physicians for Social
Responsibility was one of 11 activists and local residents to
speak to an audience of about 35 people. Many wore "If we build
it, they will too!" stickers, which expressed concern that
Complex 2030 would spark a nuclear arms race.
"The scope of the Complex 2030 EIS (environmental impact
statement) must address whether building the modern plutonium
pit and other Complex 2030 bombplex facilities will ... result
in multilateral nuclear proliferation, global insecurity,
nuclear war and environmental contamination and destruction,"
said Spearow.
"U.S. pre-emptive nuclear first-strike policies as articulated
in the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review, as well as the 2003 invasion
of Iraq, have furthered international fears of unilateral
attacks by the U.S."
Loulena Miles, staff attorney for Tri-Valley Communities Against
a Radioactive Environment, described Complex 2030 as a "dog and
pony show" to justify spending upward of $150 billion to improve
the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Miles asked the nuclear administration to include in its
environmental review the cost of spending that money on nuclear
weapons instead of other programs, and to consider the
alternative environmental benefits of "transitioning the nuclear
weapons business to a world-class hub for renewable energy
research."
Wyka said he expects to hold a public hearing in Tracy on a
draft Complex 2030 environmental impact statement late next
summer, with a final report due a year later. He said comments
on the environmental review can be sent to .
Contact reporter John Upton at .
125 N. Church St. P.O. Box 1360 Lodi, CA 95241 (209) 369-2761
Fax: (209) 369-1084 + Newsroom
© 1998-2006 Lodi News-Sentinel
*****************************************************************
71 Recordnet.com: Tracy nuke-lab options laid out
By Jake Armstrong
Record Staff Writer December 13, 2006 6:00 AM
TRACY - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory could either ramp
up its nuclear weapons research over the next two decades or have
that research transferred elsewhere.
That's the assessment so far as the National Nuclear Security
Administration weighs options for streamlining its nuclear
weapons production, research and testing facilities by 2030, a
plan dubbed Complex 2030.
Residents and anti-nuclear-weapons activists who commented on the
plan Tuesday night at the Tracy Community Center said the NNSA
should be wary of the effects its plans could have on
environmental quality and international relations.
Complex 2030 lays out three options for the nation's nuclear
weapons complex: leaving it as is; reducing operations to support
the existing stockpile of nuclear weapons; or consolidating,
eliminating and relocating various aspects of the nation's
nuclear program currently carried out at eight laboratories and
test sites across the nation. NNSA officials say they intend to
pursue the third option to address reliability of the Cold
War-era nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile and national
security needs.
The political climate in the world in 2030 could be markedly
different from the present, and Complex 2030 should address that
possibility, Tracy resident K. Leo Pullin.
"Can we be certain that our political needs for war in 2030 are
the same as the political needs for war today?" Pullin asked.
Pullin also asked that NNSA officials take into account real
estate values, which additional nuclear research at the Livermore
national laboratory could influence.
While NNSA officials would not comment on specific plans for the
future of Lawrence Livermore, the agency has said it wants to
remove nearly all nuclear materials, except an amount used for
research, from the lab by 2014.
Earlier this month, the agency carted the first shipment of
plutonium and highly enriched uranium from the Livermore lab to
Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Bob Sarvey, a Tracy business owner and a member of the Tri-Valley
Communities Against a Radioactive Environment board, questioned
why NNSA would need to update or replace its nuclear weapons,
given that the agency just weeks ago endorsed a report showing
aging plutonium does not affect the reliability of nuclear
weapons.
Many of the weapons in the U.S. arsenal are more than 20 years
old, and the report found they have a minimum lifespan of about
85 years.
Sarvey discredited the plan as a way to build more bombs. "Now
they're just trying to create some job security and pad some
defense contractors' pockets," Sarvey said.
"It's more nuclear pork," Sarvey said.
Ted Wyka, who is managing preparation of the environmental report
for the NNSA, said that while the plutonium in bombs lasts longer
than eight decades, the sensitive mechanisms in the bombs need
replacement in a much shorter time frame.
NNSA officials will incorporate Tuesday's comments - and those
from about 15 other such sessions across the nation - as they
prepare a supplemental environmental impact study for Complex
2030.
The agency will produce a draft report next summer and report a
final decision on an option in 2008, Wyka said.
Contact reporter Jake Armstrong at (209) 833-1144 or Reader
Reaction
Stockton, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
72 DenverPost.com: Salazar blocks nominee until Flats workers get aid
Last Updated:12/12/2006 10:39:01 PM MST
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar is blocking the confirmation of a Labor
Department nominee because of what he called the
administration's "foot dragging" on helping ill Rocky Flats
workers.
Salazar said he wants to see action by the Bush administration
before he will allow confirmation of Leon Sequeira for
Department of Labor assistant secretary for policy. Under Senate
rules, one senator can block action on a confirmation.
"I harbor no ill will toward Mr. Sequeira," Salazar said
Tuesday. "But I am furious with the foot dragging, the
obstruction, and the neglect that have characterized the
administration's approach toward American citizens who took real
risks for our country during the Cold War, who are suffering
now, and who need and deserve help."
Many who worked at the former nuclear-weapons facility near
Golden were exposed to radiation and other hazards and now have
cancer and other serious illnesses, said Salazar spokesman Drew
Nannis. Those workers and their survivors filed a petition 17
months ago asking for financial compensation.
All contents Copyright 2006 The Denver Post or other copyright
*****************************************************************
73 KnoxNews: More weapons uranium on the way to Oak Ridge
By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com
December 13, 2006
The Y-12 National Security Complex houses the nation's largest
stockpile of weapons-grade uranium, and more is on the way.
The Oak Ridge plant is due to get some of the highly enriched
uranium that's currently housed at the nation's weapons-design
labs - Lawrence Livermore in California, Los Alamos in New Mexico
and Sandia in New Mexico. It's part of a government plan to
consolidate the strategic nuclear materials in as few locations
as possible.
In a press statement last week, Linton Brooks, administrator of
the National Nuclear Security Administration, said, "We are
taking concrete steps to reduce the number of locations where we
process and store significant quantities of nuclear weapons
materials."
Brooks said consolidating the materials was one of the main goals
of the post-Cold War period to make the U.S. weapons complex more
secure.
Y-12 is constructing a new $500 million high-security center for
storing the U-235. That project is about 40 percent complete.
Steven Wyatt, a spokesman at Y-12, confirmed that the Oak Ridge
plant would receive additional amounts of highly enriched uranium
from Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia, but he said it's not
considered a significant quantity.
He wouldn't, however, say how much or when it's arriving.
"For security reasons we cannot provide any specifics on the
quantities to be consolidated at Y-12," Wyatt said.
According to information released out of Washington, all of the
consolidation activities should be accomplished by 2022.
DOE's cleanup chief Steve McCracken got some grief for the
agency's plans to get rid of the uranium-233 stockpile at Oak
Ridge National Laboratory.
A number of folks were upset, even outraged, that DOE would
dispose of the nuclear material without first extracting
radioisotopes of potential use in medical treatments.
According to McCracken, DOE is simply doing as told by Congress.
"The marching orders I have are to disposition that material,"
he said.
He referenced the conference report that accompanied the energy
and water appropriations bill for fiscal year 2006, which nixed
the isotope extraction part of the project. After that decision,
DOE shifted management of the U-233 processing - a complicated
project that's expected to cost about $380 million - to the
environmental cleanup program headed by McCracken.
The earlier strategy was to have the contractor extract the
thorium-229 from the stockpile. That would then be used to
provide actinium-225 and its daughter product, bismuth-213, for
ongoing cancer research.
Indeed, when the Oak Ridge project was announced in 2003,
then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham trumpeted the potential
for medical contributions.
"DOE has an important responsibility to clean up the legacies
from the Cold War," Abraham said in a statement. "That we can
fulfill this mission while producing valuable new tools in the
fight against cancer is an exciting and unique opportunity."
Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Local Oversight
Committee, which evaluates projects for local governments in the
Oak Ridge area, said she was glad to see DOE moving ahead with
work on the U-233, which has been in storage for decades.
But, she said, "I'm very, very disappointed they won't be
getting some beneficial reuse."
McCracken said he's not insensitive to the potential for medical
good, but he emphasized that his job is clean-up. "It seems to
me it's pretty clear we're not a medical isotope recovery
program," he said.
Senior writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for
the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6329 or at . This
column is also available in the opinion section of knoxnews.com.
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
*****************************************************************
74 Inside Bay Area: Leaner lab draws criticism
New bombs, complex seen as a step toward perpetuating nuke
arsenal
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated:12/13/2006 02:54:53 AM PST
LIVERMORE — Lawrence Livermore Lab could lose its fortress-like
Superblock and all its plutonium,
10 square miles used for high explosives experiments and other
tools once critical for designing and maintaining nuclear
weapons.
But disarmament activists and neighbors wary of the hydrogen
bomb lab in Livermore are hardly embracing a new federal vision
for ridding the nation of redundant and less secure nuclear
weapons facilities.
The reason is that vision, called Complex 2030 and presented
Tuesday at a public hearing, is centered on a new,
multibillion-dollar factory for making plutonium fission cores
and a plan to replace the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal with newly
designed bombs and warheads.
Top weapons officials of the Defense and Energy departments meet
Thursday to consider choosing the first of the proposed new
reliable replacement warheads to top submarine-launched missiles
and probably become the most numerous nuclear weapon in the
arsenal.
The new, hardier bombs, plus the $150 billion modernized complex
of weapons labs and factories to produce them, strike critics as
a step toward perpetuating the U.S. nuclear arsenal and away
from U.S. treaty promises in 1968 to negotiate toward general
and complete disarmament.
Were just leading the rest of the world in thinking that nuclear
bombs are OK, said Marlene Candell, a former schoolteacher. We
need to dismantle as soon as possible. On a moral plane, what
youre doing is holding open the possibility of killing millions
of people.
Federal nuclear weapons managers hatched plans for Complex 2030
partly because U.S. weapons factories are out-
dated and partly because of congressional pressure to cut the
nuclear weapons budget. At least one powerful committee
chairman, Rep. David Hobson, saw the new bombs as an incentive
for the Energy Departments National Nuclear Security
Administration to get behind a smaller nuclear arsenal and a
smaller complex to care for it.
But the agencys rough-draft proposal for the new weapons complex
was in trouble even before officials carried it on a 17-hearing
tour across affected states in the South and West. They propose
building the new bomb factory in South Carolina, Texas, New
Mexico or Nevada.
The proposals have proved too timid for Hobson and too
aggressively entwined with new bombs for arms-control advocates.
Jackie Cabasso, head of the Oakland-based Western States Legal
Foundation, dubbed the plan fewer but newer nukes forever.
Complex 2030 or should we call it what it is, Bombplex 2030 is
costly, illegal and dangerous, said Tora Dorabji, an organizer
with a Livermore-based nuclear watchdog group, Tri-Valley CAREs.
What we want to see is an alternative that looks at rapid and
complete disarmament.
In a letter last month to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, Hobson
threatened to block funding for both Complex 2030 and the new
warheads. Then a report based on research by U.S. weapons labs
showed that plutonium in most existing U.S. nuclear weapons
lasts at least 100 years.
In Livermore, a town flush with incomes from two nuclear weapons
labs where teams are designing the new bombs, no one rose to
defend the proposal in hours of hearings Tuesday.
George Allen, head of the NNSAs Office of Transformation,
suggested the proposal might move forward without the new bombs.
Were going to have to have transformation of the complex whether
we have the reliable replacement warhead or not, he said.
Meanwhile, he said, the talk of new bombs and new facilities has
started a national conversation on what nuclear weapons are for
and what kind of complex is needed to care for them.
This is a very exciting time in terms of change, and its a time
period when were going to have to address these issues, Allen
said.
Contact Ian Hoffman at or at (510) 208-6458.
© 2000-2006 ANG Newspapers
*****************************************************************
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material is distributed without profit or payment to those who
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for
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