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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Guardian Unlimited: Britain never thought Saddam was threat - diplom
2 Star Tribune: Editorial: Demand proof that Iran seeks nukes
3 Persian Journal Iran: Unexpectedly large turnout in Iran vote - 
4 AFP: Iran could hide sensitive nuclear work if attacked - senior off
5 UPI: Russia ready to prepare nuke fuel for Iran
6 AFP: White House hopeful about Richardson-NKorea talks - 
7 YONHAP NEWS: Seoul remains cautious over outcome of next week's nuke
8 YONHAP NEWS: U.S. shows patience ahead of new round of six-party tal
9 AFP: North Korea may stage second nuclear test - minister - 
10 Guardian Unlimited: N.M. Governor to Meet N. Korea Officials
11 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N. Korea to Resume Nuclear Talks 
12 The Hindu: Don't concede right to tests - scientists 
13 RIA Novosti: Russia, Kyrgyzstan embark on multi-billion dollar energ
14 RIA Novosti: Russia to get new mobile ICBMs
15 REGNUM: Rosatom head Sergey Kiriyenko arrived in Kyrgyzstan
16 Mos News: Russian to Refit Strategic Nuclear Missiles With Multiple 
17 Guardian Unlimited: EU Wants a Middle East Free of Nukes 
18 Guardian Unlimited: Report: Russia to Refit Nuclear Missiles 
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
19 US: [NukeNet] More trouble for Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant
20 US: [NukeNet] Nuclear plant idea takes hold - Group says it will
21 US: [NukeNet] Nuclear plant's cooling pump explodes: fire quickly
22 US: NRC: NRC to Meet with Exelon Dec. 19 to Discuss Safety Issue at 
23 RFERL: Kazakhstan, Ukraine Discuss Nuclear Projects
24 US: Earth Times: Nuke plants can't withstand plane crash
25 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo reactor restarted after fire at 
26 US: SLO Trib: Previous stories on Diablo Canyon's steam generator pr
27 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo wins conservation fight
28 US: NRC: NRC GIVES WEB SITE A NEW LOOK 
29 US: Beacon Journal: Nuclear power plant shut down
30 US: AP Wire: TVA: Key step taken to restore Browns Ferry nuclear rea
31 US: NRC: NRC’s 19th Annual Regulatory Information Conference to be H
32 US: NRC: NRC Completes Staff Review of North Anna Early Site Permit 
33 US: DenverPost.com: Looking to next leap in energy security
34 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Find
35 CMEN: Global nuclear body has 61 projects under way in SA
36 Prague Daily Monitor: Austrian MPs pass resolution on steps against 
37 FOCUS Information Agency: New Hope for NPP Kozloduy 
38 US: Albuquerque Tribune: PNM chief urges Congress to act now
39 AFP: Japan keen on trade, cautious on nuclear issue with India -
40 ITAR-TASS: Kyrgyzstan to resume electric energy deliveries to Russia
41 US: Enewscourier: NRC to discuss Unit 1 reactor restart at Browns Fe
42 US: St. Petersburg Times: Business: Nuclear savings, but at a price
43 Scotsman.com: Look to the Sun to cultivate our energy
44 AFP: Bush to sign 'hugely important' India nuke deal - 
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
45 US: I would rather have a lump of coal, Mr. President
46 US: Arizona Daily Star: Watchdog: Firm nearly detonated nuke bomb | 
47 UPI: BMD Focus: Collision course with Russia
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
48 [du-list] Did Israel Use Experimental Bombs With (Enriched)
49 [du-list] Israel's mystery weapon, DIME and DU
50 US: [du-list] Local Group Joins National Opposition to Nuclear
51 [du-list] 161 depleted uranium missiles found in southern
52 Interfax: Radiation source found in Primorye
53 FT.com: It would not be the first time, Mr Putin
54 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Meeting of 
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
55 Pahrump Valley Times: Tech Review Board to meet in Las Vegas  
56 US: Earth Times: NRC head: Permanent waste solution needed
57 US: Deseret News: Uranium mining spurs jump in claims on federal lan
58 US: RIA Novosti: Russia's Techsnabexport to develop uranium deposit 
59 US: DenverPost.com: Denver plans to ship low-level radioactive waste
60 US: GilroyDispatch.com: Olin Submits Work Plan
61 US: The Australian: Rush for slice of yellowcake 
62 ITAR-TASS: Kyrgyzstan asks for Russia help in uranium dump project
 
                           PEACE
 
63 Top UN Legal Official Calls For Ratification Of Treaty Against Nucle
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
64 DOE: U.S. and China Announce Cooperation on FutureGen and Sign 
65 Hanford News: Parts of Hanford funding in doubt; Democrats in Congre
66 Hanford News: Buildings at PNNL research campus sold
67 Hanford News: State lobbyist named top chief of Senate energy, water
68 cbs13.com: Explosive Controversy Heats Up In Tracy
69 lamonitor.com: LANL auditing KSL actions 
70 UPI: Mishap in dismantling nuclear warhead
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Guardian Unlimited: Britain never thought Saddam was threat - diplomat 

[UP] 

Richard Norton-Taylor

Saturday December 16, 2006

The British government never believed Saddam Hussein posed a
threat to British interests and warned the US that toppling him
would lead to "chaos", according to a Foreign Office diplomat
closely involved in negotiations in the run-up to the invasion
of Iraq.

Damning repudiation of the government's public claims in the
run-up to the war is contained in secret evidence to Lord
Butler's committee on the abuse of intelligence over Iraq by
Carne Ross, a diplomat at Britain's UN mission in New York.

His evidence, in which he says the government privately assessed
that Iraq possessed no significant quantity of weapons of mass
destruction, has been published on the Commons foreign affairs
committee website. Mr Ross gave evidence to the group last month
but some MPs had been reluctant to have it published.

Mr Ross told Lord Butler he read UK and US human and signals
intelligence on Iraq every working day during the four years he
spent in New York up to 2002, and spoke at length to UN weapons
inspectors.

"At no time did [the government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any
other capability) posed a threat to the UK," he told the Butler
committee. "On the contrary, it was the commonly-held view among
the officials dealing with Iraq that any threat had been
effectively contained ... At the same time, we would frequently
argue, when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was
inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse
into chaos."

Mr Ross continued: "There was no intelligence evidence of
significant holdings of CW [chemical warfare], BW [biological
warfare] or nuclear material. Aerial or satellite surveillance
was unable to get under the roofs of Iraqi facilities. We
therefore had to rely on inherently unreliable human sources."

He added: "Iraq's ability to launch a WMD or any form of attack
was very limited. There were approximately 12 or so
unaccounted-for Scud missiles; Iraq's airforce was depleted to
the point of total ineffectiveness; its army was but a pale
shadow of its earlier might; there was no evidence of any
connection with any terrorist organisation that might have
planned an attack using Iraqi WMD."

Mr Ross said he repeatedly questioned FO and Ministry of Defence
officials about their threat assessments of Iraq. He said: "None
told me that any new evidence had emerged to change our
assessment; what had changed was the government's determination
to present available evidence in a different light." Referring
to the government's weapons adviser who later committed suicide,
he added: "I discussed this at some length with David Kelly in
late 2002, who agreed that the Number 10 WMD dossier was
overstated".

He said colleagues in other UN delegations told him the UK sold
security council resolution 1441 - later used to help justify
the invasion - "explicitly on the grounds that it did not
represent authorisation for war".

Mr Ross, who was responsible at the UK's UN mission for
sanctions as well as weapons inspections, said he and his FO
colleagues repeatedly attempted to get the UK and US to act more
vigorously on the breaches.

Mr Ross resigned from the FO in 2004.

Sir John Major, the former prime minister, backed calls for an
independent inquiry into the causes and conduct of the war. It
should include "new information that is becoming available", he
told Radio 4's Today.
 
[UP] 

    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 2 Star Tribune: Editorial: Demand proof that Iran seeks nukes
                                
 It's time to stop assuming it has a covert weapons effort. 	

Published: December 16, 2006 

Of all the Iraq Study Group recommendations, none stimulated such 
vigorous White House rejection as the ISG's proposal that the 
United States seek Iran's help in stopping the sectarian 
bloodshed that is tearing Iraq apart.

The White House opposition partly stems from Iran's deserved
reputation as an international troublemaker. But also prominent
was the administration's article of faith that Tehran is
hellbent on acquiring nuclear weapons. A troublemaker is one
thing, but a lethal, nuclear armed troublemaker in the Middle
East is quite another.

You will recall, however, that this White House also convinced
itself that Saddam Hussein and Iraq were riding the same
hellbent nuclear horse, which proved to be disastrously wrong.

And as with Iraq, there is in fact no hard evidence of an
ongoing Iranian nuclear weapons program.

It is true that Iran is in trouble with the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) and the U.N. Security Council over its
nuclear activities. The IAEA and Security Council concerns,
however, center not on weapons issues, but on whether Iran has
met and is meeting its full obligations under the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), of which it is a signatory.

Iran clearly violated its NPT duties by concealing some nuclear
activities for two decades. Now the IAEA requires that Iran
suspend its small-scale uranium enrichment program and agree to
additional "transparency" so the IAEA can reconstruct what
transpired during those years and assure itself, in IAEA
Director General Muhammad El Baradei's words, of "the peaceful
nature of Iran's nuclear activities."

Regrettably, many people have leaped from the rules-and-process
concerns of the IAEA to the conclusion that Iran is covertly
seeking to manufacture nuclear weapons. That's a huge and
unjustified leap. The IAEA itself says it has no evidence of a
covert nuclear weapons program in Iran, and last summer the CIA
reached the same conclusion.

Writing in the Nov. 27 New Yorker, Seymour Hersh reports that a
"highly classified" CIA analysis "found no conclusive evidence,
as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear-weapons program ...." The
CIA went so far as to warn readers of its report not to conclude
that Iran was merely succeeding in hiding its weapons program;
the agency recalled that the Soviet Union also was adept at
hiding things, but that the United States found them anyway.

Unfortunately, "some in the White House ... had made just such
an assumption -- that 'the lack of evidence means they must have
it,' " Hersh's source told him.

Vice President Dick Cheney and those around him appear just as
determined now to attack Iran as they were to attack Iraq in
2003 -- not only to shut down its supposed nuclear weapons
program but also to shut down its interference in Iraq. Their
logic on why American attacks would have these effects (by
causing the Iranian people to revolt against their government
and cause "regime change") leads many observers to wonder what
they're smoking. If, in addition, Iran actually lacks the covert
nuclear weapons program that is an article of faith for Cheney
and others, any justification for attacking Iran evaporates.

That's why everyone -- and especially Democratic congressional
leaders -- needs to stop accepting as conventional wisdom that a
covert Iranian nuclear weapons program exists. To appropriate a
famous line from former Vice President Walter Mondale,
congressional leaders need to ask, insistently, "Where's the
beef?" Until proof is forthcoming, Congress must hook the Bush
administration to a short leash on Iran. They got fooled on
Iraq; there should be no repeat on Iran. 

Star Tribune. All rights reserved. ||||||||||| 
425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488 (612) 673-4000 
*****************************************************************
 3 Persian Journal Iran: Unexpectedly large turnout in Iran vote - 

Dec 15th, 2006 - 18:16:13                              

 The Christian Science Monitor   

Clutching pens and scraps of paper to write personal notes
requesting assistance, the black-draped Iranian womenwaited for
their hero to finish voting before pressing him with their
problems. But after casting ballots in joint city council and
Expert Assembly elections, Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejadwas thronged as he stepped out of a mosque polling
station. 

The vote is the first electoral test since the archconservative
leader was elected in June 2005. Voting was extended three hours
to accommodate a far larger turnout than expected, something
analysts said was likely to favor reformists, who are currently
shut out of every power structure.
 
Results will also determine the state of a power struggle
between competing conservative factions: the "fundamentalist"
one led by the president and the "traditionalist" one by the
former police chief who is now mayor of Tehran.
 
Some 233,000 candidates are vying for tens-of-thousands of seats
in the country's village and city councils. These were the seats
from which conservatives began making a comeback in elected
offices in 2002.
 
About 166 people vied for a spot on the 86-member Assembly of
Experts, made up of carefully vetted conservative senior
clerics, which has the power to change and choose Iran's supreme
religious leader.
 
But on election day, loyalists of Mr. Ahmadinejad-who voted in
his working-class east Tehran neighborhood, which has seen a
blacksmith's son become the president of the Islamic Republic-
wanted to celebrate their man and share their concerns.
 
Some cried. Some held out notes, which he dutifully gathered
into an ever-increasing stack, as he does during visits across
the country. One womanshouted "Hi!" to get his attention.
 
"Wait your turn!" the president replied, in a deliberately comic
tone that sparked laughter through the tight crowd.
 
"He came out of the heart of the people," says Soosan Jalali,
whose note asked Ahmadinejadto find a job for her daughter, a
blind university graduate. "If you put all the [Iranian]
presidents on one side, he is something else. We've never had
one like this."
 
Another womansaid the president had remembered by name her son,
Mahdi, who had worked on his campaign last year. "He still knows
everyone here," said Fatemah Jamshidi. "We always pray for him."
 
"These people are the pillars of the government and the [1979
Islamic] revolution," says Fatemeh Erfanian. She put her phone
number on her note, so the president could solve her husband's
"problem."
 
Mrs. Erfanian expects a reply. "He promised me," she says. "And
we believe his promises."
 
Not all are true believers in this neighborhood or across Iran,
where current economic policies are raising prices as well as
uncertainty. Unease has also grown in many quarters over the
friction Ahmadinejadhas caused with the West, with his
uncompromising comments about the destruction of Israel and his
handling of the nuclear issue.
 
"These people are a minority in Iran," says a goldsmith called
Reza, stepping in among the black-clad womenand conservative
men, and speaking in English. "The majority of the people are
not happy with this government because the rate of inflation and
[drug] addiction, and unemployment is very high."
 
"In English you say: 'Don't flog a dead horse,' " says Reza, who
came with his daughter, and was too nervous to give his last
name. "Whatever the Iranian government does [domestically], it
is like 'flogging a dead horse.' It does not have any effect."
 
Political indifference among reformists and critics of
conservative clerical rule in Iran began setting in during the
late 1990s, when the popular reform-leaning President Mohammad
Khatami was unable to turn huge electoral victories into a
catalyst for change.
 
Bitterness at the lack of progress was so deep by the end of Mr.
Khatami's second term that many reformist voters gave up on
elections altogether and boycotted the vote, helping pave the
way for a conservative victory by Ahmadinejad- and total control
by conservatives of all levers of power in Iran.
 
That was a lesson for reformists like Kaveh Jazani, a gel-haired
engineering student who stood in line to vote outside a downtown
mosque.
 
"[Absolutely], if reformists had voted then, we would not have
Ahmadinejadas president," says Mr. Jazani. "This [election] is
the only thing we can decide. Usually not a lot of people vote
for the city council, but everything is being controlled by
conservatives, and we want some reformist seats."
 
"A lot of people have given up on elections, and they won't
come," says Navid Naderi, another engineering student standing
in line beside Mr. Jazani, his long hair keeping out the winter
chill. "If those who did not take part in the presidential
election vote today, it could make a difference."
 
"Everyone's decision is different," protests a man standing
behind the two students in line. "I voted for and support
Ahmadinejad, and I don't live [in a poor area]. And so does my
son."
 
"Khatami came to power with 27 million votes, and Ahmadinejadhad
just seven million," argues back Jazani.
 
But the man and his son were not the only Ahmadinejadbelievers
waiting in this line to support his conservative faction again.
Law consultant Khosrow Shahin says he took the president to task
four years ago, when Ahmadinejadwas mayor of Tehran.
 
"I argued with him, very hard. Very rough. But then he laughed,
and kissed me, and said: 'Sit with me, you are my friend,'"
recalls Mr. Shahin, in English. "He accepts criticism. And now,
when I wrote a 10-page letter to the president [critical of all
levels of government], they telephoned me, and one by one, page
by page, item by item, they answered it."
 
Ahmadinejad "is really without ceremony, without lying," says
Shahin.
 
That enthusiasm is not shared on a sidewalk 100 yards away,
where Hamid and his wife have decided it is not worth voting.
 
"We're tired of the system," says the real estate dealer. "It's
27 years since the revolution. There have been lots of people in
power; the situation has changed a lot, but none have done what
they are supposed to do."
 
But their son, Iman, decided to vote for Ahmadinejad, who he
said was "somebody who would be familiar with society, and not
make promises but do things." Some 70 percent of his friends
will vote, he figures, and the rest will not.
 
Such dilemmas do not afflict most people in the president's home
neighborhood. There is a different reality at the mosque where
Ahmadinejadvoted, in front of which, during his 2005
presidential victory, large American and Israeliflags were
painted onto the street for motorists to desecrate by driving
over.
 
"He's an angel! This guy's an angel!" shouts one man, in tears
as he makes his way though the throng and security guards to the
president.
 
"Nobody accepted me, but this one ... he went through a lot of
trouble to get me a job," the man announces. "I'll give my heart
to him, if he wants it. I'll even give my eyes for him. He has
given me much!"
 
"Ahmadinejad is like the truth. He's from here," says Hassan
Hosseini, after the presidential motorcade finally departed.
"You saw the example: He stood for an hour and answered every
question. He could have just driven off."
 
 Iranian.ws

*****************************************************************
 4 AFP: Iran could hide sensitive nuclear work if attacked - senior official - 

By Michael Adler 

  [Ali Asghar Soltanieh]   

VIENNA (AFP) - Iran is ready to hide its uranium enrichment and
continue with the sensitive nuclear work if threatened with
military attack, a senior Iranian official said.

"We have a large country, 1 million 600 thousand square
kilometres and for centrifuge machines (which enrich uranium)
the room of this size is enough," Iran's ambassador to the UN
watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar
Soltanieh told a seminar in Vienna in a medium-sized conference
room.

Centrifuge (Advertisement)
[Click Here] [ src=]  machines "could be done, could be
performed, could be installed anywhere and could be protected,"
he told a gathering at the Austrian Institute for International
Affairs.

Soltanieh was speaking as the UN Security Council debates in New
York whether to impose sanctions on Iran for failing to honor a
Council ultimatum to suspend uranium enrichment, which makes
what can be fuel for civilian nuclear reactors or the raw
material for atom bombs.

Iran insists on its right to enrich uranium as part of a
peaceful drive to generate electricity but the United States
charges that Tehran is hiding secret work on making nuclear
weapons.

Experts have warned that attacking Iran's known atomic
facilities might only drive the Iranian program underground and
Soltanieh's comments were among the first from Iranian officials
that they would do exactly that.

"Iran has got the technology, the know-how of enrichment and it
is authorized by the IAEA. If therefore the Americans say hurry
up, pass resolutions, let's have a military attack to stop Iran
they are making a mistake," Soltanieh said.

"Iran is not a small island that with a Katrina (referring to
the hurricane that devastated New Orleans) would disappear," he
said.

In Tehran, Iran's top nuclear official warned Western powers
they would face "painful measures" by the Islamic republic if
sanctions were imposed.

"If the aim of the West is to erode our will by depriving us of
our nuclear rights, we will have to employ painful measures
against the West," Ali Larijani told reporters.

"If they want to use the weapon of threats, they will have to
expect pressure in return," he added.

The head of parliament's foreign affairs committee, Alaedin
Boroujerdi earlier said Tehran could curb IAEA inspections of
its atomic facilities if sanctions were imposed.

Soltanieh said: "Is it not wise (to maintain) the situation...
that all centrifuge machines (at Iran's enrichment facility in
Natanz) are under 24 hours cameras of the IAEA and almost every
week or two weeks the inspectors are there and everything is
full transparent."

"Let this course of action continue," Soltanieh said. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 5 UPI: Russia ready to prepare nuke fuel for Iran
     
 United Press International - Security &Terrorism - 

12/15/2006 1:59:00 PM -0500

TEHRAN, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Russia could start preparing for fuel
deliveries to Iran's first nuclear power plant in January, a top
Russian nuclear executive said. 

The head of Russia's nuclear equipment and services exporter
said on a visit to Iran Tuesday that preparations would start
next month to send nuclear material in March for the
controversial Bushehr nuclear reactor. 

"Fuel deliveries to the Bushehr NPP require preparations three
months in advance, and we plan to start the preparations in
January 2007 to be able to deliver the fuel in March," Sergei
Shmatko, head of Atomstroyexport, said according to a report
from the RIA Novosti news agency. 

"We have stuck to the schedule, which envisions fuel deliveries
to Bushehr six months ahead of the launch of Iran's nuclear
power plant," Shmatko said after a meeting with Iran's nuclear
chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh, according to the report. 

Shmatko said Moscow and Tehran had agreed on stable funding for
the Bushehr plant. He said Iran has already paid $900 million
and that his company has provided a loan of $140 million for the
project. 

"Most importantly, we have confirmed that everything will
proceed according to plan, but only if Iran finances $20-25
million for the construction of Bushehr every month," Shmatko
said, lauding Iran's payment of $22 million to Russia in
November, Shmatko said. 

"It is about three times more than we received in 2006," he
said. "They have promised us that the Iranian side will maintain
the pace." 

Shmatko said he had held talks with Iranian officials during his
visit about future progress in building the Bushehr plan and
that they had gone well. 

"We have agreed on parameters today, and the head of the Iranian
Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazade, was happy," he
said according to the RIA Novosti report. "We agreed to hold
negotiations on the issue in Tehran after the New Year holidays."

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 6 AFP: White House hopeful about Richardson-NKorea talks - 

December 16, 08:13 AM 
 
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House urged New Mexico Governor
Bill Richardson to use talks with visiting North Korean
officials to push Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons
program. 

"It's important that the North Koreans hear loud and clear what
their responsibilities are," spokesman Tony Snow said just three
days before Pyongyang's planned return to six-nation nuclear
disarmament negotiations. 

Richardson was to meet Friday at his gubernatorial mansion with
two envoys from the Stalinist country's mission to the United
Nations, Minister Kim Myong Gil and First Secretary Song Se Il,
at their request, his office said. 

The governor was to brief special US envoy Christopher Hill,
Washington's point man on North Korea, after the talks, a senior
White House official said on condition he not be named. 

"Governor Richardson could play a very constructive role in
reminding the North Koreans that they ought to return to the
six-party talks and to be serious about what they agreed to in
the September accord," said Snow. 

That agreement, reached in September 2005, provides a range of
economic and diplomatic incentives for Pyongyang, as well as
security guarantees, to verifiably abandon nuclear weapons and
the programs to develop them. 

Snow said the pact, frozen when the North walked away from the
talks 13 months ago, was "very important to their government,
but even more significantly to the North Korean people,"
offering them "the opportunity to have some of the basic
necessities in life that they do not now enjoy." 

The White House's broadly supportive tone contrasted sharply
with its barrage of criticism aimed at US lawmakers over recent
and upcoming trips to Syria, which it has branded "not helpful"
and "inappropriate." 

Asked to explain the difference, Snow replied that while "Bill
Richardson is not acting in any official capacity and he's
talking to visitors," he could be expected to push his guests
"in accordance with US policy." 

"If you take a look at his record, it would be likely that he
would be encouraging the North Koreans to abide by the
agreements of the six-party talks and to return in good faith,"
he said. 

The talks group together North and South Korea, the United
States, China, Japan and Russia. 

Richardson has dealt with the North Koreans over a career as a
US lawmaker, ambassador to the United Nations and energy
secretary under former president Bill Clinton. 

He has been to North Korea five times, most recently in October,
and this was to be the second delegation to visit him in New
Mexico, after a similar meeting in January 2003. 

The North staged its first nuclear test on October 9, sparking
international condemnation and United Nations sanctions just
months after alarming the world with a series of missile tests. 

In November 2005, North Korea had pulled out of the talks,
citing US sanctions which froze its accounts in a Macau bank
because of alleged counterfeiting and other illicit activities. 

Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 7 YONHAP NEWS: Seoul remains cautious over outcome of next week's nuke talks

2006/12/15 21:30 KST   


 SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is remaining cautious
about the prospects for the six-party talks on the North Korean
nuclear problem set to resume in Beijing Monday, a government
official said Friday.

 After weeks of intense diplomacy with the United States that
was brokered by China, North Korea has agreed to return to the
new round of six-nation talks, which also involve South Korea,
Japan and Russia.

 "We're neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the upcoming
nuclear talks," the official said, asking not to be named. "We
don't exactly know what the North will bring to the table...and
it is impossible to fully meet its demands."

 Although details of the meeting were still unknown, sources say
the U.S. asked North Korea to suspend the operation of its main
nuclear complex in Yongbyon and again allow in United Nations
nuclear inspectors who were expelled in early 2003 at the height
of the nuclear tension.

 Pyongyang was also urged to declare all of its key
nuclear-related programs and shut down the underground site of
its nuclear weapon test, they said. In response, the North said
it would study the U.S. proposal and give an answer, according
to them.

 Pyongyang, under pressure from U.N. sanctions after it tested a
nuclear device in October, promised to return to the
negotiations aimed at persuading the communist regime to abandon
its nuclear weapons program.

 The talks broke down in November last year after Washington
imposed financial sanctions on Pyongyang over its alleged
counterfeiting and money laundering.

 (END)
*****************************************************************
 8 YONHAP NEWS: U.S. shows patience ahead of new round of six-party talks

Saturday, December 16, 2006

 WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. will not hasten to
judge success or failure of North Korea nuclear negotiations
resuming next week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
Friday in a sign of patience Washington has not shown often.

 "This is going to be a process and so I don't think we ought to
try and judge the first step on its own merits," Rice said in an
interview with Reuters.

 Rather, the U.S. would look at the next round of talks as a
"part of a set of steps" toward the ultimate goal of North
Korea's denuclearization, she said.

 Negotiators from South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia
and Japan will begin negotiations in Beijing from Monday,
restarting the six-party nuclear dialogue that had been
suspended for over a year due to Pyongyang's boycott.

 In a Sept. 19 agreement last year, the North pledged to give up
its nuclear weapons programs in return for political and
economic benefits other parties would provide. But after the
U.S. Treasury took punitive steps against a Macau bank it
accused of laundering money for the North, Pyongyang walked away.

 In bilateral negotiations with North Korea in Beijing in
November, the U.S. offered to address the issue through a
working group if the North returned to the dialogue table.

 Asked about the flexibility on the issue, Rice said the U.S.
will not allow North Korea to continue its illicit activities.

 "But obviously we will look at the totality of all of this and
see where we are after the next couple of rounds," Rice said.

 The U.S. believes North Korea produced and circulated
counterfeit American currency and trafficked drugs and
contraband to fill the pockets of its leaders.

 Cutting off such a flow was one of the key objectives contained
in the U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution adopted after
Pyongyang's Oct. 9 nuclear test.

 Rice reaffirmed that the U.N. sanctions will remain in place
even if the six-party talks show progress. The progress, she
said, "doesn't undo the fact that North Korea tested a nuclear
weapon."
 On South Korean defense minister's comments that North Korea
may be preparing another nuclear test, Rice said she had no such
information.

 ldm@yna.co.kr
 (END)
*****************************************************************
 9 AFP: North Korea may stage second nuclear test - minister - 

 Fri Dec 15, 3:11 AM ET 		 	 

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea" /> North Koreamay stage a second 
nuclear weapons test to strengthen its hand during upcoming 
negotiations on scrapping its nuclear programme, South Korea" /> 
South Korea's new defence minister has warned. 

 Kim Jang-Soo, a former army chief of staff, ordered the
650,000-strong military to step up combat-readiness to deter
possible aggression from the North, the defence ministry said. 

"We have to be thoroughly prepared to counter the possibility of
a second or third nuclear test by North Korea and a possible
hostile act by it in the process of negotiations over its
nuclear weapons programme," Kim said in a written order to his
troops. 

The six-nation nuclear talks are set to resume in Beijing on
Monday, 13 months after the North walked out. They involve the
two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. 

The North staged its first nuclear test on October 9, sparking
international condemnation and United Nations" /> United
Nationssanctions. 

Later that month North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told China that
he had no plans for a second test but that increased
international pressure could trigger "further measures". 

Defence minister Kim issued his order after a closed-door
meeting of 130 senior commanders, including General Kim
Kwan-Jin, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the army,
navy and air force chiefs of staff. 

Foreign ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-Ho said he had no
information about a possible second nuclear test. 

He reiterated that Seoul will not recognise Pyongyang as a
nuclear-armed state when the talks resume. 

"Despite the nuclear test, we have not yet verified whether
North Korea has nuclear devices that can be used as weapons,"
Choo told reporters. 

He said it was unclear what the North's position would be after
its missile tests in July and its nuclear detonation. But the
next round, he said, should consider detailed ways of
implementing a joint statement agreed at the six-party forum in
September last year. 

In that statement North Korea pledged to give up its nuclear
ambitions in return for security guarantees, energy and other
economic assistance and improved relations with the West. 

But it pulled out of the talks two months later, protesting at
US sanctions which froze its accounts in a Macau bank because of
alleged counterfeiting and other illicit activities. 

"The six-party talks should deal with specifics about
implementing the September 19 joint statement and North Korea
should also come on to this track," Choo said. 

"We are coming to the talks with hopes that there should be some
progress in terms of implementing the initial steps..." 

South and North Korea have remained technically at war since the
1950-53 conflict and 29,500 US troops are based in the South. 

The US forces want to consolidate 35 US bases scattered across
the nation into two hub bases by 2008, including one at
Pyeongtaek south of Seoul. 

In addition to his warning about North Korea, defence minister
Kim urged no further delay in the planned relocation of US bases
to Pyeongtaek. 

The defence ministry said this week that South Korea would not
be able to complete the relocation by 2008 as scheduled, due to
protests by residents and a dispute over cost-sharing. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 10 Guardian Unlimited: N.M. Governor to Meet N. Korea Officials

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday December 15, 2006 8:46 AM

AP Photo NY109 

By DEBORAH BAKER 

Associated Press Writer 

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Gov. Bill Richardson's meeting with two
North Korean officials will provide an opportunity for him to
play a role he savors as well as showcase a skill in diplomacy
that could boost any possible presidential bid. 

Richardson was to meet privately with the diplomats Friday at
the governor's mansion to discuss the upcoming six-nation talks
on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The talks are set to
begin Monday in Beijing. 

The governor - a former congressman, U.N. ambassador and energy
secretary during the Clinton administration - says the North
Koreans requested the meeting with him. 

There was a similar meeting at the mansion just after he took
office in January 2003, and Richardson traveled to North Korea
last October, his fifth trip to the communist-led country. 

``The only governor with a foreign policy'' is how Larry Sabato,
director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics,
describes Richardson. 

The Democratic governor, who was just re-elected to a second
term, has remained active in foreign affairs and is considering
running for president in 2008. He has said he would decide in
January. 

``If he's serious about a presidential candidacy ... it gives
him bragging rights no other governor has,'' Sabato said. ``Most
other governors have no foreign policy or national security
experience. Richardson has a great deal of both, and this is
another indication of it.'' 

North Korea walked away from the talks 13 months ago. The
Pyongyang government of Kim Jong Il agreed in late October to
resume the multilateral negotiations, involving the Koreas, the
United States, Russia, Japan and China, three weeks after
conducting an underground nuclear weapons test. 

Richardson has said there is an opportunity to use diplomacy
``to end this crisis and bring stability to the Korean
Peninsula,'' and that he would press the North Koreans to start
dismantling their nuclear weapons. 

Richardson will not be acting as an official representative of
the Bush administration at Friday's meeting. 

``The North Koreans have always found it very useful to use the
governor as a sounding board for their views'' and seek his
advice on their negotiating positions, said Richardson's Asian
affairs adviser, K.A. ``Tony'' Namkung. 

One of the two officials at Friday's meeting, Minister Kim Myong
Gil, will continue on to the talks in Beijing, providing a
bridge between what transpires Friday and what happens across
the negotiating table, Namkung said. 

Richardson acquired a reputation while in Congress as a roving
troubleshooter, traveling to Iraq, North Korea, Cuba and Sudan
to gain the release of captive Americans. 

In September, he traveled to the Sudan and returned with Chicago
Tribune journalist Paul Salopek, who had been held for more than
a month on espionage charges. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 11 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N. Korea to Resume Nuclear Talks 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday December 15, 2006 6:46 PM

AP Photo VADC101 

By BURT HERMAN 

Associated Press Writer 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Negotiators from the United States and
North Korea will sit down with other regional powers for the
first time in 13 months to determine the nuclear fate of the
peninsula, with the North's first atomic weapons test adding
pressure for elusive results. 

The six countries meeting Monday in Beijing for the talks - also
including China, Japan, Russia and South Korea - will pick up
where they left off in November 2005, seeking to implement the
only agreement ever reached at the negotiations. 

The main U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher
Hill, said this week in Washington that the ``purpose is to come
to an agreement and have some effect on the ground.'' 

But Hill remained cautious. ``I don't want to be optimistic that
we are going to achieve that, but that is certainly the
objective,'' he said. 

Hill met last month in Beijing with his North Korean counterpart
to offer what the United States believed to be a timeline - and
incentives - for the North to dismantle its nuclear program. The
North has not publicly responded to the offer. 

Some details leaked in various news reports say the North would
be required to take early steps like shutting down its main
nuclear reactor. The U.S. would eventually sign an agreement to
formally end the Korean War, halted by a cease-fire in 1953 that
has never been replaced by a peace treaty. 

Time is important, with the North required to make decisive
moves toward denuclearization within two years - before
President Bush leaves office. 

The U.S. has agreed to a separate working group to discuss
financial restrictions, placed on a bank with which the North
did business, for its alleged complicity in the regime's
counterfeiting of U.S. currency and money laundering to sell
weapons of mass destruction. That financial issue had been the
North's latest reason for staying away from the nuclear talks,
claiming Washington maintained a ``hostile'' attitude. 

Because of its Oct. 9 nuclear test, the North will now insist it
be treated as a nuclear power. 

``What they have in mind is to have the status of a nuclear
weapons state,'' said Kim Tae-woo, senior research fellow at the
Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul. 

The only thing that could change their attitude would be a
``full guarantee of the North Korean system and safety of the
regime,'' Kim said - not any lesser economic assistance or
political recognition. 

Despite U.N. sanctions passed in response to the nuclear test,
the North's key trade partners - China and South Korea - appear
to have balked at tough measures to entirely isolate the
communist nation. 

The North may believe their reticence buys it time. 

``The North believes that it can afford to be patient, waiting
for a new American administration in 2009. That may well not be
prudent, but then the North does not always seem to value
prudence,'' said Robert Gallucci, a former U.S. diplomat who
signed a 1994 denuclearization deal with North Korea. That deal
fell apart after the latest nuclear standoff began in late 2002,
when the U.S. accused the North of secret enriching uranium. 

South Korea's new foreign minister, himself a former nuclear
negotiator, said Friday the prospects for the talks were
``extremely difficult.'' Song Min-soon said South Korea is
``never optimistic'' about the negotiations, but would still try
its best, Yonhap news agency reported.	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 12 The Hindu: Don't concede right to tests - scientists 

 Saturday, Dec 16, 2006
     
Arunkumar Bhatt 

They advise Government to get concerns addressed   

MUMBAI: India must not directly or indirectly concede its right
to conduct nuclear weapon tests, "if found necessary to
strengthen our minimum deterrence," father figures of the
country's nuclear science community said on Friday. 
But the Hyde U.S.-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act
takes away that option by making it explicit that not only
nuclear cooperation will be terminated if India conducts tests
but the country will be required to return all equipment and
materials that it may have received under the deal. 
Alternative fuel supply 

India and the U.S. have agreed to certain alternative fuel
supply options to avoid any abrupt stoppage of nuclear fuel for
reactors that India may import but the Act has totally
eliminated this option. 

So, any future atomic test will result in heavy economic loss
and render the country unable to operate imported reactors, said
the scientists at a meeting with Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
Chairman Anil Kakodkar here. 

They discussed the Act, which U.S. President George Bush is
expected to sign on Monday next, and considered how the
objectionable clauses could harm India's national interest and
how its provisions were at variance with the Indo-U.S. joint
statement of July 18, 2005 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's
subsequent assurances in Parliament. 

The scientists prepared a review note, advising the Government
to get the concerns addressed in negotiations and eliminated in
the 123 agreement. 

Among those who attended the meeting were the former AEC
Chairmen Dr. Homi N. Sethna and Dr. P.K. Iyengar and Dr. M.R.
Srinivasan (now AEC member), and the former director of the
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Dr. A.N. Prasad. 
Fissile material 

The scientists pointed out that contrary to Dr. Singh's
assurance, the Act required the U.S. `to encourage India' to
identify and declare a date by which it would be willing to stop
production of fissile material for nuclear weapons unilaterally
or pursuant to a multilateral moratorium or treaty. The Prime
Minister had assured the nation that India was willing to join
only a non-discriminatory, multilaterally negotiated and
internationally verifiable Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty
(FMCT). 

Though the Prime Minister told the Rajya Sabha, "our commitment
towards non-discriminatory global nuclear disarmament remains
unwavering," the Hyde Act was totally silent on the U.S. working
with India to move towards universal nuclear disarmament,
pointed out the scientists. 

The Act, however, covered all aspects of the non-proliferation
controls of the U.S. priority, into which it wanted to draw
India. 

Section 109 expects India to jointly participate in a programme
involving the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration to
further its non-proliferation goals. 

"This goes much beyond the norms of the IAEA [International
Atomic Energy Agency] and has been unilaterally introduced
without the knowledge of the Indian Government," says the review
paper. 

The Act requires the President to annually report to Congress
whether India is fully and actively participating in the U.S.
and international efforts to dissuade, isolate and, if
necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its pursuit of
indigenous efforts to develop nuclear capabilities. 

"These stipulations and others pertaining to the Proliferation
Security Initiative (PSI), the Wassenaar Arrangement, and the
Australia Group etc. are totally outside the scope of the
Indo-U.S. Agreement of July 18 and they constitute an intrusion
into India's independent decision making and policy matters,"
says the review paper. 

Though the Act is about civilian nuclear cooperation, it denies
India full cooperation in civilian nuclear energy. 

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu.
*****************************************************************
 13 RIA Novosti: Russia, Kyrgyzstan embark on multi-billion dollar energy project
 
15/ 12/ 2006                                  

BISHKEK, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - Kyrgyzstan and Russia are
launching a major energy-generating project set to attract
billions of dollars in investment, Russia's top civilian nuclear
official said Friday.

 The project to build the Kambarata-1 and Kambarata-2
hydroelectric cascades in the Central Asian state, to be
operated by Russian electricity monopoly Unified Energy System
(UES), is designed to produce electricity for domestic needs and
exports to Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern China.

 "This will be a top investment project worth of billions of
dollars, and will be of the utmost significance from the point
of view of Kyrgyzstan's influence in the region," Sergei
Kiriyenko, head of the Federal Nuclear Power Agency, told a
Russian-Kyrgyz intergovernmental commission.

 Kiriyenko said UES will allocate considerable funds to
preparing a feasibility study for the project before attracting
other investors.

 He said guidelines for bilateral cooperation, including in
electricity supplies from Kyrgyzstan to Russia, will be set out
in a strategic partnership deal, currently being prepared.

 The Central Asian country's prime minister, Felix Kulov, said
talks are underway with Russian regions on possible energy
deliveries.

 "The Altai Territory [southwest Siberia] has proposed buying
Kyrgyz electricity at 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour in 2007,"
Kulov said.

© 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 14 RIA Novosti: Russia to get new mobile ICBMs

Opinion &analysis - 

15/ 12/ 2006                                  

MOSCOW. (Alexander Bogatyryov, defense commentator, for RIA
Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov recently visited the Teikovo strategic missile
division, which placed the first regiment of unique mobile
ground-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles on
combat duty. 

The Russian Strategic Missile Force has received over 40 Topol
silo-based ICBMs since 1997. However, unlike these earlier
missiles, the mobile, hard-to-detect and interchangeable Topol-M
ballistic missiles, which are immune to electromagnetic
impulses, can be launched from a wide area. 

R&D and deployment costs were reduced because the new missile
system retains the main engineering solutions of its
predecessor. 

Moreover, the Topol-M can breach any existing anti-ballistic
missile shield, including the highly expensive U.S. National
Missile Defense system. 

It is therefore hardly surprising that Topol-M missiles will
soon be the mainstay of Russia's Strategic Missile Force and
replace other missiles that have been serving for over 20 years. 

The Topol-M missile has a lift-off weight of 47.2 metric tons, a
range of over 10,000 km and carries a 1,200-kg warhead. 

The Russian Armed Forces, which suffered an all-out crisis in
the 1990s, are now receiving new strategic offensive arms under
an ambitious modernization program. Just like most other major
powers, Russia is focusing on qualitative, rather than
quantitative, military development in accordance with the global
military-political situation. 

The United States has withdrawn from the 1972 ABM Treaty and
resumed tests of tactical nuclear weapons. It also continues to
stockpile (instead of destroying) nuclear warheads and Minuteman
ICBM's, which it launches as drones for missile interceptors. 

Moscow, which is worried about these and many other factors,
must react accordingly. 

Russia's rearmament program is largely motivated by tougher
competition between the great powers for unimpeded access to raw
materials, energy and science-and-technological resources. 

U.S. representatives attending a conference that was held
simultaneously with the NATO summit in Riga discussed the
possible use of power politics for dealing with countries which
allegedly threaten European energy security. NATO can use its
powerful military leverage and strategic potential to attain
this goal. 

In this situation, Moscow has no choice but to rely on military
force to defend its national interests. Consequently, Russia is
attaching priority to maintaining and upgrading its strategic
nuclear deterrent forces and aerospace defense system. 

The Russian Army has adopted Topol missiles; the Air Force is
overhauling its strategic bombers; and the Navy has ordered
Borei-class ballistic missile submarines. 

On April 5, the Government approved a project for expanding the
aerospace defense system up to the year 2016 and beyond.
According to the plan, the Russian Army is to adopt
state-of-the-art early-warning, reconnaissance,
telecommunications, and automated-control systems, as well as
missile interceptors. 

Moscow plans to spend nearly five trillion rubles, or about $200
billion, on weapons development, procurement, modernization and
repairs in the next few years. 

Such massive expenses are motivated by the need to renew the
country's strategic nuclear forces, as well as by economic
considerations. 

Russian authorities hope that the growing national defense
industry will facilitate cost-effective high-tech production and
create thousands of new jobs. 

In this sense, the modernization of the country's strategic
nuclear forces through the procurement of Topol-M missiles is an
extremely promising development. It is hardly surprising that
the Russian Armed Forces plan to receive another batch of Topol
missiles next year. 

© 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 15 REGNUM: Rosatom head Sergey Kiriyenko arrived in Kyrgyzstan

08:29:47  ¤  December 16, 2006 Subscribe 

Sergey Kiriyenko 

Head of the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Energy arrived in
Kyrgyzstan, Russia’s embassy in Kyrgyzstan told a correspondent.
The key aim of the visit is participation in a meeting of
national sections of the Russian-Kyrgyz Inter-Governmental
Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. 

According to press office of the Kyrgyz government, a meeting of
chairs of the national sections of the commission, Sergey
Kiriyenko and Prime Minister , is expected to take place at the
Ala-Archa governmental residence. 

They plan to consider the situation in cooperation in energy
sphere, the process of preparing the resources for a
Russian-Kyrgyz joint venture for natural resources exploration
at potential sites of hydrocarbon exploration in Kyrgyzstan. 

Besides, the Kyrgyz premier and the Rosatom head will discuss a
possibility of financing and implementation by the Russian side
of a project on research and exploration works to restore soil
in the territory of Kyrgyz tailing pits in order to secure
environmental and radiation safety of Kyrgyz people. Permanent

news address: 
14:29 12/15/2006

  RIAN.RU     

© 1999-2006 REGNUM News Agency 
*****************************************************************
 16 Mos News: Russian to Refit Strategic Nuclear Missiles With Multiple Warheads - 

MOSNEWS.COM

Vladimir Putin and Sergei Ivanov / Photo: AP            
 	 	
Created: 15.12.2006 15:35 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:43 MSK 	
 	
Russia will replace single nuclear warheads on some of its 
strategic missiles with multiple warheads, The Associated Press 
reported Friday citing Russian news agencies. 

“In the near future we will begin to substitute the single 
warheads on Topol-M intercontinental missiles with multiple 
warheads,” the Interfax-Military News Agency quoted Gen. Nikolai 
Solovtsov, commander of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces, as 
saying Friday.

Fitting multiple warheads to one-warhead Topol-Ms is a cheaper 
way for Russia to upgrade its nuclear arsenals and maintain 
nuclear parity with the United States.

On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin’s visit to a unit of newly
deployed Topol-M missiles mounted on mobile launchers. Putin
called their deployment a “serious step forward in strengthening
Russia’s defense capability.” “It has a stronger survivability,
faster launch and an ability to penetrate any prospective
missile defense,” Putin said.

The Topol-M missiles, capable of hitting targets more than
10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) away, have so far been deployed
only in silos. The new version, which is mounted on a heavy off
road vehicle, makes it harder for an enemy to track it down.

A shortage of cash following the collapse of the Soviet Union
slowed the modernization of Russia’s strategic arms arsenals.
The military has commissioned just over 40 of the Topol-M
missile since its deployment in 1997, and aging Soviet-era
missiles have continued to form the backbone of the nation’s
nuclear capability.

In 2002, Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush signed a treaty
obliging both sides to cut their strategic nuclear weapons by
about two-thirds by 2012, down to 1,700 to 2,200 missiles. When
the treaty was signed, many analysts said the number of Russian
nuclear weapons could fall far below the number set by the
treaty. However, the oil boom of recent years allowed the
Kremlin to bolster the military budget and speed up the pace of
military modernization.

Topol-M’s chief designer, Yuri Solomonov, said earlier this year
that Russia would easily be able to maintain at least 2,000
nuclear warheads by 2011 and beyond.

  Write us: <b>info@mosnews.com</b>
Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
*****************************************************************
 17 Guardian Unlimited: EU Wants a Middle East Free of Nukes 
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday December 15, 2006 5:16 AM

AP Photo JRL111 

By ROBERT WIELAARD 

Associated Press Writer 

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union called Thursday for
a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, responding to
recent comments by the Israeli prime minister that have been
interpreted as acknowledging his country has a nuclear arsenal. 

In interview with a Germany television station broadcast Monday,
Ehud Olmert appeared to list Israel among the world's nuclear
powers. The next day, however, he denied having ``outed'' his
country's nuclear program. 

Although Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons, it
has maintained a policy of ambiguity since the 1960s, refusing
to confirm or deny it. 

``The position of the European Union is very clear,'' said EU
foreign policy chief Javier Solana. ``In the long term, we don't
want to have the Middle East with weapons of mass destruction.'' 

Olmert's remarks came when the interviewer asked him about
Iran's calls for the destruction of Israel. 

``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?'' 

The next day, Olmert insisted that Israel ``will not be the
first country that introduces nuclear weapons to the Middle
East.'' 

Solana has been the U.N. Security Council's point man in
negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. The Islamic
country says its program is meant only to generate power, but
the U.S., its European allies and Israel fear Iran is seeking to
develop nuclear weapons. 

The Security Council could vote next week on whether to impose
sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a
process that can generate power or create the fissile core of
nuclear warheads. 

At a summit Thursday, 25 EU foreign ministers urged Syria to
play a constructive role in Middle East peace efforts and
encouraged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to keep up
efforts to form a coalition government between his Fatah party
and the Islamic militant Hamas. Factional violence between Fatah
and Hamas has pushed the rivals closer to civil war. 

--- 

Associated Press writer David Stringer contributed to this
report. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 18 Guardian Unlimited: Report: Russia to Refit Nuclear Missiles 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday December 15, 2006 3:31 PM

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV 

Associated Press Writer 

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia will replace single nuclear warheads on
some of its strategic missiles with multiple warheads, Russian
news agencies reported Friday, allowing Moscow to modernize its
nuclear arsenal while building fewer new missiles - and spending
less. 

In theory, the shift would also make it easier for Russian
nuclear weapons to evade a U.S. missile defense system. 

``In the near future we will begin to substitute the single
warheads on Topol-M intercontinental missiles with multiple
warheads,'' the Interfax-Military News Agency quoted Gen.
Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of Russia's Strategic Rocket
Forces, as saying Friday. 

``This makes the task of replacing aging missiles much easier,''
said Alexander Pikayev, a Moscow-based defense analyst who is
co-chair of the Committee of Scientists for Global Security. 

On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said the deployment of
Topol-M missiles on mobile launchers was a ``serious step
forward in strengthening Russia's defense capability.'' 

Capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles away, the
Topol-M missiles have so far been deployed only in silos. The
mobile version of the missile, mounted on an off-road vehicle,
is harder to locate and destroy. 

The United States has not deployed similar mobile launch
systems, but it has better access to oceans and can concentrate
its nuclear missiles in submarines, Pikayev said. 

Johns Isaacs, executive director of the Council for a Livable
World in Washington, said Friday that the deployment would not
change the strategic balance between Russian and U.S. nuclear
arsenals. 

``It's a reflection that the Russians as well as the Americans
continue to update their forces with weapons they won't use and
don't need,'' Isaacs said. ``Adding a few more here or there is
not going to make any difference in the balance of power, the
state of the world, peace on earth, or good will toward men.'' 

During the economic shocks of the 1990s, Russia was slow to
modernize its nuclear weapons systems. 

The military has commissioned just over 40 of the Topol-M
missiles since 1997, and aging Soviet-era missiles form the
backbone of the nation's nuclear capability. 

In 2002, Putin and President Bush signed a treaty obliging both
sides to cut the number of strategic nuclear weapons by about
two-thirds by 2012, down to between 1,700 and 2,200 missiles
each. 

When the treaty was signed, many analysts said the number of
Russian nuclear weapons could fall far below the number set by
the treaty. 

However, the recent oil boom allowed the Kremlin to increase
military spending and speed modernization. 

--- 

Associated Press writer Judith Ingram contributed to this
story.	 
		 	 	   
    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

*****************************************************************
 19 [NukeNet] More trouble for Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant
 
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:29:58 -0800

X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (borg.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61]
X-Sender-Host-Address: 63.203.231.61
X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST

<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

<http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1208biz-paloverde1208.html>http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1208biz-paloverde1208.html


More trouble for Palo Verde

Already in hot water with nuclear agency, plant officials must explain 
generator ills

Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 8, 2006 12:00 AM

Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station could be in a deeper hole with the 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission after preliminary inspection findings that 
the plant had an inoperable emergency diesel generator for much of September.

The commission and Palo Verde officials will meet Jan. 16 in Arlington, 
Texas, to discuss the agency's report on the then-faulty Unit 3 generator, 
which was released Thursday.

The stakes are expected to be high for the nation's largest nuclear power 
plant, 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix.

If the NRC finds that the violation is anything more serious than that of 
low-safety, or "green," significance, Palo Verde will sink to the level of 
the most heavily monitored nuclear power plant in the country, along with 
Perry in Ohio.

That likely would cost Arizona Public Service Co. and ratepayers millions 
of dollars because of repairs the increased scrutiny would mandate.

The nuclear plant also could end up at a higher level of regulation if the 
NRC finds anything more than a low-safety violation because of a bad 
chemical mix that plant workers placed in emergency spray cooling ponds 
from 1994 to earlier this year.

Excessive amounts of zinc and phosphate had been mixed into the water to 
try to control erosion of safety components in pipes. But the chemical mix 
led to deposits on the tubes, increased insulation and incorrect heat transfer.

A final report on the chemicals in the cooling ponds is expected before the 
end of the year, said Victor Dricks, an NRC spokesman.

"Each of the findings of these inspections will be assessed independently," 
Dricks said. "But one more finding of anything but green will change the 
landscape for Palo Verde."

Jim McDonald, a spokesman for APS, the largest stakeholder in Palo Verde, 
acknowledged that performance at the plant "hasn't been up to our high 
standards of the past, and we're committed to changing that."



'Degraded cornerstone'

Palo Verde already is one of the most-monitored plants in the country by 
federal regulators.

It is classified as a "degraded cornerstone" because of a "dry pipe" that 
was found during a 2004 inspection that had the potential to disrupt the 
flow of water to the core's emergency cooling system.

According to the NRC's report, a federal investigations team was sent to 
the plant in early October to look into failures in the emergency diesel 
generator on July 25 and Sept. 22 that interrupted electrical transfers.

Each of the three units at Palo Verde has two of the 5,500-kilowatt 
generators to provide standby power if the normal power supply is lost.

The NRC report noted that the generator was inoperable from Sept. 4 to 
Sept. 22 and that incorrect maintenance had been conducted on an electrical 
relay in the unit.

"The licensee (Palo Verde) determined the root cause . . . could be 
attributed to either plastic debris or oxide film buildup," the report said.

Reach the reporter at mark. 
<mailto:shaffer@arizonarepublic.com>shaffer@arizonarepublic.com.
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 20 [NukeNet] Nuclear plant idea takes hold - Group says it will
 
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:30:20 -0800

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Nuclear plant idea takes hold
Group says it will seek power facility for Fresno.
By Jeff St. John / The Fresno Bee
12/14/06 04:13:21

A group of Fresno businessmen announced Wednesday that they have formed a 
corporation and signed a letter of intent with a power-plant developer to 
explore plans for a nuclear reactor in Fresno.

But with a California law banning new nuclear plants until the federal 
government comes up with a plan for safely disposing of spent fuel — and 
with federal plans for such disposal in limbo — the Fresno group's efforts 
could well be in vain, anti-nuclear groups said.
Still, the backers of Fresno Nuclear Energy Group LLC are optimistic, 
noting that new federal incentives for nuclear plants and California's 
growing need for electricity sources that don't emit greenhouse gases could 
improve their prospects.

"We're not rushing," said John Hutson, president and chief executive of the 
new corporation. As chairman of the Fresno Utility Commission, Hutson first 
floated the idea of a Fresno nuclear plant in August. "We're convinced this 
will work," he said.

Hutson cited the economic benefits a nuclear plant could bring to the 
central San Joaquin Valley — thousands of high-paying jobs and hundreds of 
millions of dollars in tax revenues — as well as the role it could play in 
meeting California's growing demand for electricity.
The plan would be to manage the plant under a public-private partnership, 
he said, though he added that the details on how such a partnership would 
be structured is not yet clear.
The 2005 Energy Bill passed by Congress includes federal loan guarantees 
for up to 80% of the cost of construction, which would make finding 
financing for the project much easier, he said.

Hutson acknowledged the state's moratorium on nuclear power plant 
construction is an obstacle, but said advances in nuclear fuel recycling, 
or a resolution by the federal government on storage of spent fuel, could 
allow the plan to go forward.

"The moratorium was written 25 years ago," he said. "I think the technology 
has changed, and I think the subject needs to be revisited."

The plan is to build a $4 billion, 1,600-megawatt nuclear reactor that 
would be cooled with water from the city's waste-water treatment plant west 
of downtown, Hutson said.
His group has signed a letter of intent with UniStar Nuclear Development 
LLC, a subsidiary of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy, to design, build 
and operate the plant.
Current plans call for an "evolutionary power reactor," a new-generation 
pressure water reactor design identical to one UniStar is now building in 
Finland in partnership with the French nuclear power company Areva, he said.

Hutson said the design is much safer than the two nuclear plants now 
operating in California, at Diablo Canyon and at San Onofre. But, he said, 
even those older nuclear plants have strong safety records when compared to 
other industries.

"We want to make sure, first of all, that it's safe," he said. "It appears 
that it is at this point."
The other members of Fresno Nuclear Energy Group include Al Smith, 
president and chief executive of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce; Dick 
Caglia, a prominent Fresno businessman; Richard Egan, owner of Central 
Supply Co. and other businesses in Fresno; Bob Smittcamp, president and 
chief executive officer of Fresno-based beverage and frozen and canned 
fruit company Lyons Magnus; and Tom McClean, a Bay Area-based contractor 
and consultant.

Fresno Nuclear Energy Group has access to about $10 million, the amount 
likely to be required for the multiyear process of seeking construction and 
operation licensing from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Hutson said.

"The federal government says they will not take longer to decide on a 
license than it takes to build it, and that means less than four years," he 
said. With four years to license and four years to build it, that's at 
least eight years before the plant could possibly be built, he said.
Fresno Mayor Alan Autry, responding to questions during an online chat 
Wednesday on <http://www.fresnobee.com/>www.fresnobee.com, strongly backed 
the idea.

"I believe nuclear power holds great promise for the entire San Joaquin 
Valley," Autry wrote. "We must find a way to become energy self-sufficient."

But skeptics of Fresno Nuclear Energy Group's proposal said they doubted 
the plant would ever be built — and the key obstacle, they said, is the 
state's moratorium.
"I think the odds are close to zero that the moratorium will be lifted, and 
for good reason," said Carl Zichella, regional staff director for the 
Sierra Club in Sacramento. "There are so many other things we can do that 
are so much smarter than wasting time on nuclear power."

The Sierra Club would like to see investments instead in alternative energy 
sources like solar and wind power, as well as renewable fuels like ethanol 
and biodiesel.
But Per Peterson, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of 
California at Berkeley, said that he believed that the increasing 
recognition by politicians of the threat of human-caused global warming 
could change opinions about nuclear power.

"Today, compared to the 1970s, we know that carbon emissions are a major 
problem that can have potentially very large environmental consequences," 
he said. Problems associated with "the disposal of waste from nuclear 
plants are extremely small, compared to what we're worrying about from 
carbon emissions."

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which calls for the 
state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, could add 
to pressure on state government to reconsider the moratorium, he said.

But David Weisman, outreach coordinator for the nuclear plant watchdog 
group Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility in San Luis Obispo, said another 
state law passed this year could put a further roadblock to new nuclear 
plants being built in California.

AB 1632 directs the California Energy Commission to assess the potential 
future role of nuclear energy in the state, including the costs and effects 
of storing spent fuel, he said.
Dealing with nuclear waste "is a question that the nuclear industry has had 
on their plate for half a century, and still hasn't answered," Weisman said.

It's also unclear what will become of the current federal loan guarantees 
for nuclear plant construction under a Congress controlled by Democrats. 
Some lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., have 
expressed opposition to such subsidies in the past.
In a 2003 announcement, Feinstein also laid out California's mixed 
experience with nuclear power. Of the six plants built in the state, four 
were decommissioned due to high operating costs and excessive risk, the 
announcement said.

But the state's two operating nuclear plants do provide about 4,400 
megawatts of power, or about 20% of the state's supply, the announcement said.

Hutson, who said he supports investment in a wide array of renewable and 
alternative energy sources as well as in nuclear power, pointed to the low 
costs of electricity from the nuclear plant his group is proposing as 
another reason for optimism.

He cited the need for America to find alternative sources of energy and 
reduce its dependence on foreign petroleum. "We think this is a patriotic 
thing to do," he said.

The reporter can be reached at 
<mailto:jeffstjohn@fresnobee.com>jeffstjohn@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6637.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent
people for a purpose which is unattainable." : U.S. historian Howard Zinn, 1993


Molly Johnson
6290 Hawk Ridge Place
San Miguel, CA 93451
Cell: 805 296-0524

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 21 [NukeNet] Nuclear plant's cooling pump explodes: fire quickly
 
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:30:09 -0800

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Posted on Wed, Dec. 13, 2006 54986c.jpg

Nuclear plant's cooling pump explodes: fire quickly snuffed

By David Sneed
<mailto:dsneed@thetribunenews.com>dsneed@thetribunenews.com
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&E 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&E 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.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent
people for a purpose which is unattainable." : U.S. historian Howard Zinn, 1993


Molly Johnson
6290 Hawk Ridge Place
San Miguel, CA 93451
Cell: 805 296-0524


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Attachment Converted: 54986c.jpg: 00000001,389d0b88,00000000,00000000
*****************************************************************
 22 NRC: NRC to Meet with Exelon Dec. 19 to Discuss Safety Issue at Clinton Nuclear Plant
 
News Release - Region III - 2006-03 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY 
COMMISSION 

Office of Public Affairs, Region III No. III-06-034           
December 15, 2006 CONTACT:     Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 
Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662     E-mail:   
  


The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet Tuesday, Dec.
19, in Lisle, Ill., with representatives of Exelon Generation
Co. to discuss a problem at the Clinton Nuclear Power Station
that might have affected the operation of an emergency cooling
system pump. The plant, operated by AmerGen Energy Co., an
Exelon subsidiary, is located near Clinton, Ill. 

The meeting, called a Regulatory Conference, will be at 1:30
p.m. CST in the NRCs Region III Office, Suite 210, 2443
Warrenville Rd., Lisle. The meeting is open to public
observation. NRC officials will be available after the business
portion of the meeting to answer questions from interested
observers. 

The meeting will cover the safety significance of an issue
identified by NRC inspectors. In a report issued Nov. 29, the
inspectors determined that a high pressure core spray pump, part
of the emergency reactor core cooling system, had the potential
to be damaged under certain circumstances because air might
enter the piping supplying water from a large storage tank. 

In no instance did the damage occur, and no emergency conditions
required the high pressure pump to operate. After inspectors
identified the potential problem, plant operators promptly
changed the pumps water source to a different storage system to
avoid possible pump damage. Subsequently, the systems water
source was permanently modified to eliminate the problem. 

The meetings discussion will focus on the safety significance of
the problem. The NRC assesses the safety significance of issues
with a color codes, ranging from green for an issue of very low
safety significance, through white and yellow to red, indicating
high safety significance. 

The NRCs initial evaluation has determined that the pump problem
represents an issue that is preliminary assessed as greater than
green (i.e. more than very low safety significance) and requires
further review, including additional information from the
utility. 

The final determination of the safety significance will
determine the level of NRCs response to the issue, which could
include additional NRC inspections, further meetings with the
utility, and other regulatory actions. A decision will be issued
several weeks after the meeting and will be available on the NRC
web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/enforcement/current.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 Friday, December 15, 2006 	   
*****************************************************************
 23 RFERL: Kazakhstan, Ukraine Discuss Nuclear Projects

December 14, 2006

-- Kazakhstan and Ukraine today said they were interested in
developing joint nuclear projects. Those could include Ukraine's
participation in the construction of nuclear power plants in
Kazakhstan. The plans are outlined in a joint statement signed
in Astana today by Kazakh Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov and
his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych. The two men vowed
to boost further bilateral economic ties. Trade volume between
the two countries is expected to reach $1.5 billion this year
and Yanukovych said he hoped it would continue to grow in 2007.
Akhmetov and Yanukovych also said Kiyv and Astana supported each
other's bid to join the World Trade Organization next year.
Yanukovych, who is on a two-day visit to Astana, later met with
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev. 

Addressing a news briefing after the talks, the Ukrainian prime
minister said the sides discussed possible joint projects in the
production and transportation of hydrocarbons, and the
processing of crude oil. He also said Kazakhstan had agreed to
buy Ukrainian-made Antonov-148 aircraft. "We discussed the
[possibility] of selling our planes to Kazakhstan," Yanukovych
said. "In 2007, the first two [An-148] planes will be delivered
to Kazakhstan." Yanukovych, who is traveling with several of his
cabinet ministers, is on a two-day visit to the Kazakh capital
for talks expected to focus on energy cooperation. The Ukrainian
prime minister also handed Nazarbaev an invitation to visit Kiyv
in January. (Interfax-Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Today, akorda.kz)

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of 
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W.
Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org 
*****************************************************************
 24 Earth Times: Nuke plants can't withstand plane crash

  Posted on : Fri, 15 Dec 2006 23:08:00 GMT | Author : Energy

  WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 Nuclear plants can't withstand a crash of a 
large airplane but the top U.S. regulator says enough measures 
will prevent or mitigate such an incident.Answering questions on 
new security measures for new nuclear plants at a news briefing 
Friday, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dale Klein said no 
building in the world can withstand a 9/11-style impact of the 
largest airliner, including nuclear plants.

The NRC is debating and will soon adopt new security measures as 
it expects applications for more than 30 new nuclear plants.Klein 
said there are numerous ways the NRC is looking to enhance 
protection of the plants.It can be done in safety systems that 
are inherent. It can be done by different kind of locations of 
critical components, different kinds of backup components, so it 
doesn't mean that you will, say, double the thickness of the 
containment dome as an example, Klein said. (The containment dome 
protects the nuclear reactor.) So it is likely that the new 
requirements will take into consideration the current threats, 
but there will not likely be a requirement that they have to 
withstand a direct hit from the largest airplane that one could 
imagine. Again, the commission will make that decision.He said 
the decision will answer the questions: When is good, good 
enough? When is safe, safe enough?He added, I am very confident 
on security of the existing fleet. There are 103 operating 
reactors in the United States today. The nuclear industry has 
said its plants could withstand such an incident.Copyright 2006 
by UPI                                                                                                                                             

earthtimes.org and we accept no responsibility for the views

(c) 2006 , All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 25 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo reactor restarted after fire at plant

12/15/2006 | 

 The Tribune 

A Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant reactor began operating
again Thursday morning, two days after an explosion and fire in
a seawater pump shut it down. 

Officials with plant owner Pacific Gas and Electric Co. were in
the process of bringing the reactor — one of two at the plant —
up to 50 percent power. It was at 30 percent as of 5 p.m., and
officials expected it to be at half power by day’s end. 

The plant’s other reactor continues to operate at full power. 

An investigation completed Thursday determined a surge capacitor
(similar to a surge protector for computer equipment) for one of
the plant’s four ocean water circulation pumps failed, causing
the explosion and fire. The reactor automatically shut down. 

Each of the plant’s reactors has two pumps that circulate
cooling water to condense steam that has passed through
generators. 

The fire was extinguished quickly; no radiation was released,
and no one was injured. 

Officials determined the water pump’s motor must be repaired; it
will be returned to service by Tuesday. A cost estimate on the
work was not available Thursday. 

It’s unclear when that reactor might return to full power. 

*****************************************************************
 26 SLO Trib: Previous stories on Diablo Canyon's steam generator project

San Luis Obispo Tribune | 

12/15/2006

APPEAL OF DIABLO PLAN GAINS STEAM 

TWO COASTAL COMMISSION MEMBERS RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE
POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF REPLACING GENERATORS 

Published: Tuesday, May 9, 2006 

By David Sneed 

Two state Coastal Commissioners have joined local nuclear
activists in appealing Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant's
planned steam generator replacement project. 

That makes it all but certain that the panel will scrutinize the
project later this year. 

Commissioners Mike Reilly, a Sonoma County supervisor, and Mary
Shallenberger, an at-large commissioner from Sacramento, have
joined the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and the local
chapter of the Sierra Club in raising questions about the
project. 

The commission will vote whether to schedule a full hearing on
the project when it meets Thursday in Costa Mesa. Allison
Detmer, a Coastal Commission staffer, said the full hearing is
likely to be sometime in the fall. 

Coastal Commission staff has reviewed the appeal and determined
that it raises legitimate questions about how the project will
affect public access, ocean life, water quality and geologic
safety. 

The project calls for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to replace
all eight of the plant's 300-ton steam generators. The state
Public Utilities Commission and San Luis Obispo County have
already approved the project. 

The plant would have to shut down in 2014 if the deteriorating
steam generators are not replaced. With the new generators, the
plant could stay open until its operating license expires in
2025, or longer if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extends the
license. 

"We hope to have our permits by the end of the year," said PG
spokesman Jeff Lewis. "They haven't given us any indication that
we won't." 

The Coastal Commission is unlikely to block the project.
However, it may require PG to make additional environmental
concessions, such as increased coastal access. 

PG has already agreed to pay $1.5 million to improve public
access to the Point San Luis Lighthouse as part of its deal with
the county to move ahead with the project. 

GENERATOR PLAN MOVES FORWARD 

SUPERVISORS OK THE REPLACEMENT OF EIGHT DETERIORATING STEAM
GENERATORS; ISSUE NOW GOES TO COASTAL COMMISSION 

Published: Wednesday, March 8, 2006 

By David Sneed 

County supervisors Tuesday approved the replacement of eight
steam generators at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, setting
the stage for a hearing before the state Coastal Commission. 

The Board of Supervisors approved plans by Pacific Gas and
Electric Co. to build one permanent and several temporary
structures that will allow the utility to replace the
generators. 

The board voted 4-1, with Supervisor Jim Patterson dissenting
because he found the environmental study lacking information
about extending the plant's operational life. 

PG must replace the steam generators to operate the plant
through at least the end of its original operating license. 

The generators are deteriorating and will become inoperable in
2014, a decade before the license expires. 

When the project went before the county Planning Commission in
January, it generated 11 hours of debate and resulted in the
panel voting the project down to send it to the supervisors. 

Donna Jacobs, the plant's director of nuclear services, said the
project could go ahead without building permits but would be
much tougher to accomplish. 

Without the permits, the utility would use existing structures
in place of the temporary ones and would consult with the state
Public Utilities Commission on how to dispose of the old steam
generators. 

One option would be to cut up the generators and ship them
elsewhere for disposal. 

The fact that the project will allow PG to apply to renew the
plant's operating licenses for an additional 20 years has caused
the most controversy. 

Environmentalists and Patterson wanted the project's
environmental impact report expanded to examine the effects of
prolonging the plant's operating life. 

"I think the final (report) is deficient in that regard,"
Patterson said. 

Steam generators are large bundles of tubes that transfer heat
from the nuclear reactors to the electrical generators. 

The replaced generators are considered low-level radioactive
waste and will be stored in a permanent building behind the
plant. 

As part of the project, PG will fund $1.5 million in improved
coastal access in Avila Beach, mostly with enhanced disabled
access to the Point San Luis Lighthouse. 

PG will also improve emergency preparedness in Avila Beach,
including better traffic control and communications equipment
for firefighters. 

The supervisors' hearing included comments from 45 San Luis
Obispo County residents. 

Most of the comments were from people supporting PG and the
replacement project. Typically, such hearings draw more
opponents of the plant. 

Supporters of the project included Diablo Canyon employees,
labor union representatives and chambers of commerce officials,
who stressed the safety of the plant and the economic
contribution it makes to the county. 

Environmentalists urged supervisors to delay issuing the permits
until the environmental consequences of the project can be
addressed. 

David Sneed covers environmental issues for The Tribune. He can
be reached at 781-7930.
*****************************************************************
 27 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo wins conservation fight

12/15/2006 | 

 By David Sneed dsneed@thetribunenews.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- The state Coastal Commission handed Pacific Gas
and Electric Co. a victory Thursday when it removed a
requirement that the utility conserve more than 9,000 acres
around Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. 

Commission staff had recommended the land conservation plan in
exchange for giving PG permission to replace eight deteriorating
steam generators. The plant would have to close in 2014 if
generators were not replaced. 

Instead, the utility has agreed to conserve 1,200 acres
surrounding the Point San Luis Lighthouse. It had originally
agreed to conserve 620 acres but increased it to 1,200 acres
Thursday in an effort to sweeten its deal. 

Many of the commissioners struggled with the fairness of
conserving 9,000 acres. The law requires that any condition of
approval have a direct connection to the project and be in
proportion to its impacts. 

Coastal Commission staff and environmentalists argued that
conserving land is the only way to offset the damage the plant's
cooling system does to the ocean. The plant circulates 2 billion
gallons of seawater each day, killing millions of fish and crab
larvae in the process. 

Marine biologists say that 300 to 1,000 acres of rocky ocean
bottom would be needed to offset that damage. Until now, the
commission has not had a chance to address that issue because it
can impose requirements only when proposed projects would extend
the life of the plant. 

"This is the first time this commission has had the legal
authority to act on Diablo Canyon and its major environmental
impacts," said Peter Douglas, commission executive director. 

PG officials argued that replacing the steam generators is
merely a maintenance project causing no additional impact to the
environment. They said their offer to conserve 1,200 acres was a
gesture of good will to the community. 

After four hours of debate, a majority of commissioners agreed
with PG. Pat Mullen, PG spokesman, said the utility is generally
pleased with the outcome of the hearing. 

However, the utility is not pleased with two other conditions
imposed by the commission. 

One requires that the nuclear plant no longer take water from
Diablo Canyon Creek to use as freshwater. About half of the
plant's freshwater comes from the creek. 

Loss of the creek as a water source will mean PG will have to
spend $3 million expanding its desalination plant. 

In another setback, the commission imposed a requirement to
allow greater access to the popular Pecho Coast Trail to the
Point San Luis Lighthouse, possibly by moving the plant's main
entrance gate back. 

Volunteers who take visitors to the lighthouse say it is
intimidating to have to pass by guards armed with automatic
assault rifles. 

"It's never a warm and fuzzy experience," said Susan Devine, a
volunteer with the Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers
Association. 

PG officials said they will continue to work with the lighthouse
group to find ways to expedite visitor access. 

*****************************************************************
 28 NRC: NRC GIVES WEB SITE A NEW LOOK 
+ 
News Release - 2006-15 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office 
of Public Affairs     Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 
20555-0001     E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 06-151     December 15, 
2006   
  

The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Web site is taking on an
entirely new look. It incorporates the agencys new graphic and
tagline  Protecting People and the Environment  and features a
less cluttered, public-friendly look. A new Google© search
engine is also available at the top of every page to make it
much easier for site visitors to find NRC documents and Web
information. 

The new site is being modernized, reorganized and streamlined in
two phases. Today marks completion of the first phase that
involves changing the graphic on about 40,000 pages of the Web
site to capture the new look. The second phase will be completed
in about three months and will reflect the final streamlined
format with key agency programs featured prominently. The Office
of Information Services is working to complete the new design of
the Web site before the NRCs Regulatory Information Conference
in early March 2007. 

We took a fresh look at our Web site and found it was too
cluttered, too dated in its appearance, and not very
user-friendly for the public, said Office of Public Affairs
Director Eliot Brenner. At the request of the Chairmans Office,
we compared our site to other regulatory agencies and found it
could be made much cleaner, simpler, and more understandable. We
believe this new look will help reinforce the agencys mission of
protecting people and the environment, give the public easier
access to information, and perhaps help in our recruiting
efforts as the agency grows. 

The following table is designed to help users during the
transition to find information that is no longer available from
its previous location on the home page. It is available on the
Web at: http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/where-did-it-go.html . Web
questions or problems should be directed to Jeffrey Main at
WEBWORK@nrc.govor 301-415-6845. 


  
Previous Home Page Link     New Location   
  Radiation Protection     What We Do   
  Contracting with NRC     Business with NRC   
  FOIA Requests     Business with NRC   
  License Fees     Business with NRC   
  NRC Forms     Business with NRC   
  Electronic Submittals (including HLW Filings) 
Renamed - Electronic Submittals     Business with NRC   
  Subscribe to E-mail Notices 
Renamed - Subscribe to News     News & Information   
  Commission Documents     News & Information   
  Public Meetings     Public Involvement   
  Current Rulemakings     Public Involvement   
  Hearing Opportunities     Public Involvement   
  News & Info (Renamed - Media Resources)     News & Information
  
  For the Record     News & Information   
  New on Our Site     News & Information   
  Fact Sheets and Brochures     News & Information   
  Electronic Hearing Docket - High-Level Waste     Electronic
Reading Room   
  Electronic Hearing Docket - Reactors, Materials, Other    
Electronic Reading Room   
  2006 Performance and Accountability Report     Plans, Budget &
Performance   
  Information Digest, 2006-2007 Edition     News & Information   

  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------


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 Friday, December 15, 2006 	   
*****************************************************************
 29 Beacon Journal: Nuclear power plant shut down

12/15/2006 | 

Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. shut its 1,250-megawatt Perry
nuclear power plant Wednesday after noticing fluctuations in the
cooling-water system. 

Operators manually shut the reactor down at 4:35 a.m., said
company spokeswoman Jennifer Young. 

The problem was an air leak in an instrument system, she said. A
pipe coupling has been repaired, though Young did not know the
cost. 

The company is working on startup procedures for the plant, and
hopes to have it back online in a few days, she said. News |







*****************************************************************
 30 AP Wire: TVA: Key step taken to restore Browns Ferry nuclear reactor

12/15/2006

Herald-Leader

 Associated Press 

ATHENS, Ala. - Workers at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant took a
key step Friday toward returning the Unit 1 reactor to operation
next year, the Tennessee Valley Authority announced. 

Technicians started moving 764 fuel bundles from the fuel
storage pool to the reactor, a process that is expected to take
about two weeks, TVA said in a statement. The Unit 1 restart
project is 97 percent complete and should return to service in
May, the agency said. 

Karl Singer, chief nuclear officer for the Tennessee Valley
Authority, which operates the plant, said it was a "significant
milestone" for Browns Ferry and TVA's nuclear program. 

Workers have spent about 11.2 million hours on repairs,
including installing about 150 miles of cable and more than 6.5
miles of pipe. The TVA will also run more than 1,200 tests and
inspections to ensure the systems safety and proper operation. 

"We are committed to starting and operating the unit in a way
that protects the health and safety of the public and employees
while supplying needed power to the Tennessee Valley," said
Browns Ferry Vice President Brian O'Grady. 

The Unit 1 reactor has been dormant since 1985, when it was
taken offline because of safety reasons. It is now in the final
stages of a $1.8 billion restoration. Two other Browns Ferry
reactors - Units 2 and 3 - were shut down around the same time
but returned to operation in the 1990s. 

Browns Ferry is located on Wheeler Reservoir in Athens in north
Alabama. Each of the three units can generate enough power to
supply about 650,000 homes. 

TVA is the country's largest public power provider, serving
about 8.7 million consumers through 158 distributors in
Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky,
North Carolina and Virginia.
*****************************************************************
 31 NRC: NRC’s 19th Annual Regulatory Information Conference to be Held 
March 13-15, 2007 in Rockville, MD 

2006-152 - 

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs     
Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001     E-mail: 
www.nrc.gov   

  No. 06-152     December 15, 2006   
  
More than 2,000 people are expected to attend the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's Regulatory Information Conference (RIC),
March 13-15, 2007, at the Marriott Bethesda North, 5701
Marinelli Road, Rockville, Md. Attendees will include
representatives from more than 17 foreign countries, as well as
staff members from the U.S. Congress. 

Speakers at the conference will include Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Chairman Dale Klein and Commissioners Edward
McGaffigan, Jeffrey Merrifield, Gregory Jaczko and Peter Lyons.
The conference is free and open to the public. Those interested
in attending will be able to register at the NRC's Web site,
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/conference-symposia/ric/registr
ation.html. Onsite registration will also be available during
the conference. The RIC is a joint presentation of the NRC's
Offices of Nuclear Reactor Regulation and Nuclear Regulatory
Research. 

The conference brings together NRC staff, regulated utilities,
materials users and other interested stakeholders to meet and
discuss nuclear safety topics and regulatory trends. Topics at
this year's RIC include licensing new nuclear power plants,
communications and security at currently operating plants,
inadvertent groundwater contamination events and the agencys
ongoing project on the consequences of possible accidents at
U.S. nuclear power plants. 

The conference agenda will be available on the NRC's Web site at
this address:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/conference-symposia/ric/program
.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 Friday, December 15, 2006     
*****************************************************************
 32 NRC: NRC Completes Staff Review of North Anna Early Site Permit Application
 
News Release - 2006-15 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office 
of Public Affairs     Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 
20555-0001     E-mail: No. 06-153     December 15, 2006   

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has issued its final
environmental impact statement (EIS) on the proposed Early Site
Permit (ESP) for the North Anna site, about 40 miles northwest
of Richmond, Va. The report contains the NRC's finding that
there are no environmental impacts that would prevent issuing
the ESP. 

The EIS, combined with the recent issuance of a final Safety
Evaluation Report on the application, marks the end of the
staff's technical review on the North Anna ESP, although
additional steps must be completed before the NRC reaches a
final decision on the matter. The Atomic Safety and Licensing
Board must conduct a mandatory hearing on the matter before the
Commission can reach a final decision on issuing the permit. The
NRC expects to finish this process for the North Anna ESP by the
end of 2007. 

The ESP process allows an applicant to address site-related
issues, such as environmental impacts, for possible future
construction and operation of a nuclear power plant at the site.
The North Anna application was filed Sept. 25, 2003, by Dominion
Nuclear North Anna, LLC. If approved, the permit would give
Dominion up to 20 years to decide whether to build up to two new
nuclear units on the site and to file an application with the
NRC requesting approval for construction and operation. 

The NRC staff's conclusion is based on its independent review of
a report submitted by Dominion, taking into account
consultations with federal, state, tribal and local
organizations, and consideration of comments received from the
public. The staff's conclusions include a finding that there are
no obviously superior alternative sites, and that any adverse
environmental impacts from possible site preparation and
preliminary construction activities at North Anna could be
redressed.   
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------


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 Friday, December 15, 2006 	   
*****************************************************************
 33 DenverPost.com: Looking to next leap in energy security
 
To achieve independence, the U.S. must focus globally, a School 
of Mines graduation speaker says.

By Steve Raabe Denver Post Staff Writer

Article Last Updated:12/14/2006 10:26:38 PM MST

Discussion of national energy independence makes a good sound
bite but falls short for scientist and university president
Shirley Ann Jackson. 

Until the entire world solves its energy problems, the U.S.
won't achieve its goal of security through energy
self-sufficiency, said Jackson, president of Troy, N.Y.-based
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Jackson is expected to tell Colorado School of Mines students at
today's commencement ceremony that their discoveries and
innovations will be a key to finding permanent sources of clean
and reliable energy. 

"We need to replenish our supply of scientists and engineers,"
Jackson said in an interview Thursday, noting the retirement
trend for American scientists who started their careers in the
1960s after the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first
man-made satellite to orbit Earth. 

"Innovation for energy security is a natural for the Colorado
School of Mines," she said. "Much of what they do relates to the
exploitation of our energy resources in as environmentally
benign way as possible." 

About 300 students of the Golden engineering school will receive
degrees at the commencement ceremony, which also will serve as
the inauguration of new president Myles "Bill" Scoggins. He
replaces John Trefny, who had served as president since 2000. 

Developing solutions to global energy problems instead of
focusing on U.S. energy independence will benefit the U.S.
economically and help the nation prevent geopolitical conflict,
Jackson said. 

"Every country needs access to reliable, affordable energy," she
said. "Without it, you have people consigned to poverty who are
much more easily steered to extremism and terrorism." 

Jackson, former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said
additional U.S. development of nuclear power and commercial
production of Colorado's oil shale will be important components
of future energy needs. 

"The technology exists for oil shale," she said. "The real issue
is, when does the price get to a point that it becomes viable?" 

Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-954-1948 or
sraabe@denverpost.com.

 All contents Copyright 2006 The Denver Post or other copyright
*****************************************************************
 34 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding
 
                        FR Doc E6-21355 
[Federal Register: December 15, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 241)] 
[Notices] [Page 75586-75588] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15de06-110]                         
 
of No Significant Impact for License Amendment to Byproduct 
Master Materials License No. 45-23645-01NA, for Amendment of the 
License and Unrestricted Release of the Navy's Facility in 
Keyport, WA AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
ACTION: Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No 
Significant Impact for License Amendment.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Orysia Masnyk Bailey, Health 
Physicist,
 
[[Page 75587]] Materials Security & Industrial Branch, Division 
of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King 
of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19401; phone number (864) 427-1032; fax 
number (610) 680-3497; or by e- mail: omm@nrc.gov.
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of a 
license amendment to Byproduct Master Materials License No. 
45-23645-01NA. This license is held by the Department of the Navy 
(the Licensee), for various locations including its Naval 
Undersea Warfare Center Division (the Facility), located in 
Keyport, Washington. Issuance of the amendment would authorize 
release of Building 5003 at the Facility for unrestricted use. 
The Licensee requested this action in a letter dated October 11, 
2005. The NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in 
support of this proposed action in accordance with the 
requirements of Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 
51 (10 CFR Part 51). Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that 
a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate with 
respect to the proposed action. The amendment will be issued to 
the Licensee following the publication of this FONSI and EA in 
the Federal Register.
 
II. Environmental Assessment Identification of Proposed Action 
The proposed action would approve the Licensee's October 11, 
2005, license amendment request, resulting in release of Building 
5003 at the Facility for unrestricted use. License No. 
45-23645-01NA was issued on March 23, 1987, pursuant to 10 CFR 
Part 30, and has been amended periodically since that time. The 
Naval Undersea Warfare Center was authorized under the Navy's 
Master Materials License from 1987 through 1994 to use unsealed 
radioactive materials (Krypton 85) in a RADIFLO leak test unit at 
the site. From 1976 to 1987, the same licensed material was used 
at the site under NRC License No. 46-09611-03. Building 5003 is a 
one story structure, approximately 60 feet by 31 feet, with one 
to two foot thick outer and inner concrete walls.
 
The RADIFLO unit was contained in a 10 by 17 foot room that was 
ventilated by a separate filtered air exhaust system leading to 
the roof and outer environs. The building is located in an 
isolated area of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. NRC-licensed 
activities performed at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center were 
limited to the use of Krypton 85 gas in a RADIFLO leak test unit. 
Impacted areas were contained within the leak test unit. The leak 
test unit, including the three tanks containing the Krypton 85, 
and exhaust venting within the room were removed.
 
While Krypton 85 was released to the environment during 
operation, because it is a noble gas, no contamination remains.
 
In 1994, the Licensee ceased licensed activities and initiated a 
survey and decontamination of the Facility. Based on the 
Licensee's historical knowledge of the site and the conditions of 
the Facility, the Licensee determined that only routine 
decontamination activities, in accordance with their 
NRC-approved, operating radiation safety procedures, were 
required. The Licensee was not required to submit a 
decommissioning plan to the NRC because worker cleanup activities 
and procedures are consistent with those approved for routine 
operations. The Licensee conducted surveys of the Facility and 
provided information to the NRC to demonstrate that it meets the 
criteria in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20 for unrestricted release.
 
Need for the Proposed Action The Licensee has ceased conducting 
licensed activities at the Facility, and seeks the unrestricted 
use of its Facility.
 
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action The historical 
review of licensed activities conducted at the Facility shows 
that such activities involved use of the following radionuclides 
with half-lives greater than 120 days: Krypton 85.
 
Prior to performing the final status survey, the Licensee removed 
the RADIFLO unit and associated air exhaust system.
 
The Licensee conducted a final status survey of Building 5003 on 
November 15, 2004. The final status survey report was attached to 
the Licensee's amendment request dated October 11, 2005. The 
Licensee elected to demonstrate compliance with the radiological 
criteria for unrestricted release as specified in 10 CFR 20.1402 
by using the screening approach described in NUREG-1757, 
``Consolidated NMSS Decommissioning Guidance,'' Volume 2. Krypton 
85 is a noble gas that would only have accumulated within the 
RADIFLO device which was removed. The maximum radiation levels 
detected at the facility were at natural background levels. The 
NRC concludes that the Licensee's final status survey results are 
acceptable.
 
Based on its review, the staff has determined that the affected 
environment and any environmental impacts associated with the 
proposed action are bounded by the impacts evaluated by the 
``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking 
on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC-Licensed 
Nuclear Facilities'' (NUREG-1496) Volumes 1-3 (ML042310492, 
ML042320379, and ML042330385). Accordingly, there were no 
significant environmental impacts from the use of radioactive 
material at the Facility. The NRC staff reviewed the docket file 
records and the final status survey report to identify any 
non-radiological hazards that may have impacted the environment 
surrounding the Facility. No such hazards or impacts to the 
environment were identified. The NRC has found no other 
radiological or non- radiological activities in the area that 
could result in cumulative environmental impacts.
 
The NRC staff finds that the proposed release of the Facility for 
unrestricted use is in compliance with 10 CFR 20.1402. Based on 
its review, the staff considered the impact of the residual 
radioactivity at the Facility and concluded that the proposed 
action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the 
human environment.
 
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action 
Due to the largely administrative nature of the proposed action, 
its environmental impacts are small. Therefore, the only 
alternative the staff considered is the no-action alternative, 
under which the staff would leave things as they are by simply 
denying the amendment request. This no-action alternative is not 
feasible because it conflicts with 10 CFR 30.36(d), requiring 
that decommissioning of byproduct material facilities be 
completed and approved by the NRC after licensed activities 
cease. The NRC's analysis of the Licensee's final status survey 
data confirmed that the Facility meets the requirements of 10 CFR 
20.1402 for unrestricted release. Additionally, this denial of 
the application would result in no change in current 
environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of the proposed 
action and the no-action alternative are therefore similar, and 
the no-action alternative is accordingly not further considered.
 
Conclusion The NRC staff has concluded that the proposed action 
is consistent with the NRC's unrestricted release criteria
 
[[Page 75588]] specified in 10 CFR 20.1402. Because the proposed 
action will not significantly impact the quality of the human 
environment, the NRC staff concludes that the proposed action is 
the preferred alternative.
 
Agencies and Persons Consulted NRC provided a draft of this 
Environmental Assessment to the Washington State Department of 
Health, Office of Radiation Protection for review on October 31, 
2006. On November 6, 2006, the Washington State Department of 
Health, Office of Radiation Protection responded by electronic 
mail. The State agreed with the conclusions of the EA, and 
provided editorial comments.
 
The NRC staff has determined that the proposed action is of a 
procedural nature, and will not affect listed species or critical 
habitat. Therefore, no further consultation is required under 
Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. The NRC staff has also 
determined that the proposed action is not the type of activity 
that has the potential to cause effects on historic properties. 
Therefore, no further consultation is required under Section 106 
of the National Historic Preservation Act.
 
III. Finding of No Significant Impact The NRC staff has prepared 
this EA in support of the proposed action. On the basis of this 
EA, the NRC finds that there are no significant environmental 
impacts from the proposed action, and that preparation of an 
environmental impact statement is not warranted. Accordingly, the 
NRC has determined that a Finding of No Significant Impact is 
appropriate.
 
IV. Further Information Documents related to this action, 
including the application for license amendment and supporting 
documentation, are available electronically at the NRC's 
Electronic Reading Room at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can 
access the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System 
(ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public 
documents. The documents related to this action are listed below, 
along with their ADAMS accession numbers.
 
1. NUREG-1757, ``Consolidated NMSS Decommissioning Guidance;'' 2. 
Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 20, Subpart E, 
``Radiological Criteria for License Termination;'' 3. Title 10, 
Code of Federal Regulations, Part 51, ``Environmental Protection 
Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory 
Functions;'' 4. NUREG-1496, ``Generic Environmental Impact 
Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for 
License Termination of NRC- Licensed Nuclear Facilities;'' 5. NRC 
License No. 45-23645-01NA inspection and licensing records; 6. 
Department of the Navy, Termination of Naval Radioactive 
Materials Permit No. 46-00253-B1NP Issued to Naval Undersea 
Warfare Center Division, Keyport, Washington, dated October 11, 
2005 (ML052970305); and 7. Department of the Navy, Final Status 
Survey for Naval Undersea Warfare Center and supporting 
documentation, dated December 15, 2004 (ML060390731).
 
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 email to pdr@nrc.gov. 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.
 
Dated at King of Prussia this 5th day of December 2006.
 
For The Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Marie Miler, Chief, Materials Security & Industrial Branch, 
Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I.
 
[FR Doc. E6-21355 Filed 12-14-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 35 CMEN: Global nuclear body has 61 projects under way in SA

Creamer Media's Engineering News Online, South African Industry
	 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		
  South Africa's nuclear sector has benefited significantly in
recent years, in terms of human capital development, from
assistance from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In the period 2000 to 2004, the IAEA disbursed $4-million in
support for South Africa, providing assistance and project
support for 335 South African scientists and technology
practioners, funding a range of meetings, and technical
workshops that involved 97 participants.

This country also benefited from projects undertaken and
services provided by some 164 international experts.

No fewer than 61 IAEA-supported projects are currently
continuing in South Africa (out of a global total of more than
800).

This assistance is administered by the IAEA's technical
cooperation branch in terms of the agency's Country Programme
Framework with South Africa.

The South African end of this assistance programme falls under
the Technical Cooperation Programme, which is the responsibility
of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), although
responsibility for managing the country's relations and
obligations with the IAEA is vested in the Departments of
Foreign Affairs (DFA), and Minerals and Energy (DME), with the
DFA managing the international agreements and all related
matters with the IAEA on behalf of the DME and the DST.

South Africa has also advanced international nuclear technical
cooperation and knowledge-sharing in the 2000 to 2004 period,
hosting 634 lecturers and participants and 259 visiting research
fellows and scientists.

The IAEA's technical cooperation is intended to supply member
countries with the required skills and equipment to establish
sustainable technology in those countries or regions.

It has become an important international agent in transferring
technology and developing the related skills for the peaceful
application of nuclear technologies.

An African example is the use of nuclear technology to sterilise
tsetse flies, thereby allowing wide area campaigns against this
pest.

This Sterile Insect Technique is now being examined as a
possible counter to other insect pests, which afflict fruit
crops on the continent.

The IAEA has been supporting these projects, and transferring
the requsite technology and expertise, to the countries and
regions concerned.

South Africa has become the first African country to finalise
and sign its second Country Programme Framework with the IAEA.

A Country Programme Frame-work is a mutually agreed strategy for
matching nuclear technology to sustainable development
priorities identified by the partner country.

In the case of South Africa, the second such Framework will have
seven objectives: agriculture and livestock production; human
health; water resources development; environmental management
and integrated pollution control; energy; human capital for
nuclear science and technology; and capacity building.

Published: 2006/12/15
  
  Author: Keith Campbell Portfolio: Senior Contributing Editor 
E-mail: newsdesk@engineeringnews.co.za  

  Copyright Â© Creamer Media (Pty) Ltd   
*****************************************************************
 36 Prague Daily Monitor: Austrian MPs pass resolution on steps against Prague over Temelin - 

www.praguemonitor.com

Vienna, Dec 14 (CTK) - The Austrian parliament today unanimously
passed a resolution calling on the Austrian government to
possibly bring suit against the Czech Republic over the recent
approval of the south Bohemian nuclear power plant Temelin for
use. 

The government should do so unless Prague immediately produces
evidence proving that measures have been taken to upgrade
TemelinÂ´s safety. 

The resolution is binding on the Austrian government. 

Czech President Vaclav Klaus called the Austrian parliamentÂ´s
resolution scandalous. 

He said he cannot imagine Czech parliament passing a similar
resolution [concerning a neighbouring country]. If the Austrian
decision was really unanimous, it is rather sad, Klaus said. 

In the debate preceding the vote today, Austrian Environment
Minister Josef Proell said that his ministry, in cooperation
with experts, seeks ways to bring international suit against the
Czech Republic. 

The ministry will decide on its further steps in a fortnight,
Proell said. 

He said a possible suit must be based on a comprehensive legal
analysis and on a check of the Czech approval of Temelin for
use. If it were not prepared thoroughly, Austria could face a
"spectacular failure" that would forever slam the door to its
similar steps it might take in the future, Proell pointed out in
reaction to what deputies called sluggishness of his drive
against Temelin. 

Austrian Christian Democrat (OeVP) MP August Woeginger said in
his stormy speech that PragueÂ´s approval of Temelin was at
variance with the Czech-Austrian Melk agreement and was
tantamount to a "provocation of a special category on the Czech
part." 

In the Melk agreement from 2001 the Czech Republic pledged to
upgrade TemelinÂ´s safety in exchange for AustriaÂ´s not
blocking its then EU accession negotiations and preventing
further blockades of borders by anti-atom opponents. 

Even some Austrian lawyers admit that AustriaÂ´s chance to push
through possible court proceedings against the Czech Republic
are not big. 

The only court that comes into consideration in this connection,
the International Court in The Hague, cannot deal with a
possible suit unless both parties in dispute give their consent. 

The Melk agreement is not a part of the EU legislation and
therefore it cannot be handled by the European court in
Luxembourg either, some lawyers say. 

The text of the resolution the Austrian parliament passed today
is based on the supposition that by approving Temelin for use a
few weeks ago, the Czech Republic violated the Melk agreement on
the safety dialogue between the two countries. 

Temelin opponents say that the Czech Republic should have
thoroughly reported on the safety measures it had taken before
it definitively approved Temelin for use in November. They say
that technical shortcomings are behind the repeated defects
Temelin has suffered from. 

rtj/mr/vv 
This story copyright 2006 CTK Czech News Agency. 
The and are not responsible for its content. 

[The Prague Daily Monitor uses the CTK news service

*****************************************************************
 37 FOCUS Information Agency: New Hope for NPP Kozloduy 

  15 December 2006 | 08:05 |   
    

Finnish MEP Ari Vatanen from the European People’s Party faction
sent letter to the Chairman of the European Council, the Prime
Minister of Finland and the President of the European Commission
Jose Manuel Durao Barroso with a request for an urgent reviewing
the shutting down of units 3 and 4 of the Bulgarian nuclear
power plant Kozloduy (NPP Kozloduy). Six Bulgarian EU observers
also signed the letter. One of them - Evgeny Kirilov - explained
that Vatanen’s demand was backed by other MEPs who are well
acquainted with the issue.

 However, Mr. Vatanen said the Council of EU was unlikely to
discuss the letter during the summit, which started Thursday in
Brussels.

 EU observer Antoniya Parvanova stated that in case of special
circumstances which threaten the energy balance in the Balkans,
a political decision on cancelling the two reactors could be
taken.
   
  Information Agency FOCUS   
  is a member of FIBEP   
  and is certified under the   
  ISO 9001:2000 standard   

      Focus Information Agency © 2006   
*****************************************************************
 38 Albuquerque Tribune: PNM chief urges Congress to act now

Seeks legislation for climate change
 	
James W. Brosnan/Tribune Reporter

Friday, December 15, 2006                               

WASHINGTON — New Mexico will have another influential voice in
the coming congressional debate over climate change besides its
two senators who lead the Senate Energy Committee. 

That voice belongs to Jeff Sterba, president and chairman PNM
Resources, the parent company of the utility serving
Albuquerque. 

Sterba also is chairman of the Climate Change Task Force of the
Edison Electric Institute, the utility industry lobby. As vice
chairman of the group, he's on track to become chairman of the
institute next summer. 

Sterba's message to Congress about climate change legislation
might be surprising from an industry viewed as a major culprit
in global warming. 

Act now. 

"The sooner you start to make changes, the less draconian the
changes will be," Sterba told The Tribune. 

Plus, Sterba said, the industry needs to know the rules of the
road ahead for future investments in plants and technology. 

"There is nothing that creates greater disruption about trying
to plan future resources than the uncertainty about what carbon
limitations will be imposed. It can make a clean coal project
work or be very disadvantageous," said Sterba at a symposium in
Washington, D.C., last month sponsored by Duke University's
Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. 

That doesn't mean the utility industry is ready to support any
mandate or the entire burden of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions, Sterba said. 

"No one knows what the answer will be because there is no single
answer," he said. 

It would be faster to reduce greenhouse emissions in the auto
and agriculture sectors or through conservation and efficiency,
he said. 

For instance, there are 20 light bulbs in the average
Albuquerque area home. If every Albuquerque household replaced
just five ordinary incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent
bulbs it would reduce energy demand by 10 million kilowatt hours
per year, and savings on electric bills would pay back the cost
of the bulbs in less than a year, Sterba said. 

Sterba, 51, is no stranger in the halls of the Capitol. He
estimates he spends four days a month in Washington. In 2005, it
was more like eight days a month when Sen. Pete Domenici, an
Albuquerque Republican, crafted the energy bill with the help of
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a Silver City Democrat. 

Which party controls the Senate is in doubt due to the illness
of Sen. Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat. If Democrats
retain control, Bingaman will be the committee chairman. 

Bob Simon, Bingaman's staff director on the Energy Committee,
said Bingaman and Sterba have known each other a long time and
are "pretty good friends." 

Simon said Sterba could play an important role in the climate
change debate but faces a difficult task in trying to achieve a
consensus within the utility industry. 

"He doesn't want to be the guy who presided over the blowing
apart of the Edison Electric Institute," said Simon. 

Sterba responded, "I have certain views about climate change and
what our industry ought to do that are shared by some of my
cohorts, and some of them have different views. I think
increasingly the industry understands they must be a part of the
solution." 

Sterba said the biggest problem they face is technology. 

For instance, people often talk about injecting the carbon
dioxide from coal-fired plants into underground caverns, but
there has been no large-scale demonstration of the project, he
said. Nuclear power plants emit no greenhouse gases, but unless
there is some resolution to storing the waste at Yucca Mountain
in Nevada or some alternative like reprocessing, no new plants
will be built in the United States, he said. 

Sterba favors some version of a market-based system that would
allow utilities to trade credits for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. He also favors Bingaman's proposal to require
utilities to generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable
resources like wind and solar power if utilities also get credit
for improving efficiency. 

Sterba is looking to Bingaman and Domenici to play a major role
in a climate change because it will take bipartisan leadership. 
In contrast, he said, the differences could "not be more
dramatic" on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee,
where California Democrat Barbara Boxer succeeds Oklahoma
Republican Jim Inhofe, who disputes the belief of most
scientists that humans are contributing to climate change. 

"I do not dispute the science. Neither can I say it's 100
percent right," Sterba said. "But I'm convinced enough that I'd
rather believe it and be proven wrong rather than not believe
and be proven wrong." 		 		 		 			 			 		 			 				HAVE YOUR SAY
				 				 				
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© 2006 The Albuquerque Tribune
*****************************************************************
 39 AFP: Japan keen on trade, cautious on nuclear issue with India -
     
 by Kyoko Hasegawa Fri Dec 15, 7:52 AM ET 		 	 

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan and India have agreed to start talks on a 
free trade deal to bring the Asian democracies closer, but Tokyo 
declined to immediately support letting New Delhi into the 
civilian nuclear club. 

 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met his counterpart Shinzo
Abe and signed a deal to launch negotiations, to be completed
within two years, on a free-trade pact. 

While the talks are at an initial stage, the agreement holds
symbolic value as Abe has repeatedly said he seeks closer ties
with fellow democracy India to compensate for frequent tension
with China. 

"I agreed with Prime Minister Singh to upgrade the bilateral
relationship to a strategic global partnership," Abe said at a
joint press conference here on Friday. 

The two leaders also agreed to boost people-to-people contacts
and to start annual visits to each other's countries. Singh is
the first Indian premier to visit Japan in five years. 

"I am deeply satisfied with the outcome of my visit and I'm glad
that Prime Minister Abe has accepted my invitation to visit
India next year," Singh said. 

But Abe withheld support on one of Singh's major issues --
nuclear cooperation. 

Singh reached a landmark deal with US President George W. Bush"
/> to allow nuclear exports to India, which in turn would put
civilian-use facilities under safeguards of the UN International
Atomic Energy Agency" /> (IAEA). 

Japan is a key player in the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group,
which controls the transfer of nuclear material and needs to
approve the India-US deal. 

"Singh explained to me about India's growth and the expected
demand for energy," Abe said. "I told Prime Minister Singh that
Japan was the only country that was attacked by nuclear bombs
and so we have a special feeling against them." 

"It is necessary for India to respond to the expectations of the
international community and to deal appropriately during
negotiations with the IAEA," Abe said. 

"Japan intends to take part proactively in the discussions and
we would also like to discuss this bilaterally with India," he
said. 

India in 1998 declared itself a nuclear weapons power and has
refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Japan snapped off aid to India and Pakistan after the rivals'
nuclear tests. But Japan has since warmed to India amid sour
ties with China, in part over the legacy of Tokyo's past
aggression. 

But Japan invested 170 million dollars in India last year, less
than three percent of the amount it invested in China, according
to official Japanese figures. 

Singh, an Oxford-educated economist and former finance minister,
pledged earlier Friday to make India more attractive to foreign
investors. 

"I am, of course, aware of the concerns Japanese investors have
about doing business in India," Singh told a lunch with five
Japanese business organizations. 

"Our government will address all legitimate concerns of
investors. We are committed to improving our infrastructure,
simplifying our taxation regime, reducing further our tariffs
and eliminating bureaucratic delays," he said. 	 		 			
 
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 40 ITAR-TASS: Kyrgyzstan to resume electric energy deliveries to Russia

15.12.2006, 15.56

 BISHKEK, December 15 (Itar-Tass) - Kyrgyzstan will resume
electricity deliveries to Russia next year. 

The decision was made at a meeting of the Russian-Kyrgyz
intergovernmental economic cooperation commission in Bishkek on
Friday. 

Federal Agency for Nuclear Energy chief Sergei Kiriyenko
represented the Russian side and Prime Minister Felix Kulov led
the Kyrgyz delegation. 

Kyrgyzstan’s companies Electric Stations and NES Kyrgyzstan, and
Russia’s Inter RAO UES are to prepare by May 1 a coordinated
proposal for electric energy deliveries from Kyrgyzstan to
Russia via the energy system of Kyrgyzstan. 

The Russian and Kyrgyz sides commissioned authorised agencies of
the Kyrgyz government and the Russian Ministry of Industry and
Energy and the Russian national electricity utility RAO UES to
prepare for signing an intergovernmental agreement of strategic
partnership in the electric energy sphere. 

The economic cooperation commission also agreed to speed up the
preparation of an agreement between the Russia company Gazprom
and the Kyrgyz side on geological exploration of promising areas
in Kyrgyzstan. 

The commission’s co-chairmen, Kiriyenko and Kulov, signed a
respective protocol. 

© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 41 Enewscourier: NRC to discuss Unit 1 reactor restart at Browns Ferry 

Athens, AL - 

Published: December 14, 2006 09:47 pm    											 <img
									 									 									
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials will meet with Tennessee 
Valley Authority officials Monday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at 
Calhoun Community College to discuss the status of TVA's restart 
efforts for the Unit 1 reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. 

The meeting, which is open to the public, will be held at the
college's Aerospace Training Center. NRC officials will be
available after the business portion of the meeting to answer
questions from observers.

The agenda for the meeting is to discuss the status of the Unit
1 restart efforts, including completed work, schedules, closure
of restart items and other activities important to NRC oversight
and inspection of Unit 1. 

All three units of the Browns Ferry plant were shut down in
1985, but retained NRC operating licenses.

Unit 2 was restarted in 1991 and Unit 3 was restarted in 1995.
TVA has been doing extensive work on Unit 1, and expects to have
it ready to begin operating this spring.

Just as with Units 2 and 3, Unit 1 cannot be restarted without
NRC concurrence.

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.• CNHI Classified Advertising
Network• CNHI News Service
Associated Press content © 2006. All rights reserved. AP content
*****************************************************************
 42 St. Petersburg Times: Business: Nuclear savings, but at a price

By HELEN HUNTLEY, Times Personal Finance Editor

 Published December 15, 2006 

Plans for a new nuclear power plant in Levy County, unveiled by 
Progress Energy Florida this week, would carry a huge price tag 
should they come to fruition - at least $2.5-billion for a single 
reactor plant and more than $5-billion for a dual-reactor plant. 
How will it be paid for? How does an extra $2 to $4 a month on 
your electric bill sound for starters? Chief executive Jeff Lyash 
addressed that issue in a conversation with the St. Petersburg 
Times editorial board Thursday. These answers are based on his 
statements.

Will the company have to borrow money?

Financing likely will be a roughly 50-50 split of equity (money
raised by selling new shares of stock) and debt.

Will customers be asked to pay some of the cost in advance?

A new law allows utilities to recover costs such as licensing
and interest as money is borrowed. An application for a rate
increase could come as soon as two years from now even though it
could be 10 years before the plant is producing electricity. The
amount of the customer charge would be reviewed annually.

How much would bills go up?

Probably $2 to $4 a month for a typical residential customer.

Obviously that helps the company. Does it help the customer, too?

Because nuclear fuel is cheaper than alternatives, bills should
go down once the plant is completed. Theoretically, the savings
should allow customers to recover their upfront costs in about
six years. However, that depends on prices for various fuels.

We've talked about recovering interest; what about principal?

That's considered an investment by Progress Energy shareholders. 

The company will be allowed to earn a return on that investment,
which will be reflected in higher rates down the road, offset to
at least some extent by the lower fuel costs.

Who will build the plant?

Most likely Westinghouse or General Electric.

  
[Last modified December 14, 2006, 22:42:45] 

							 							 							 
© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First 
Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact 
the Times | Privacy Policy| Standard of Accuracy| Terms, 
Conditions &amp; Copyright     [ /]  
*****************************************************************
 43 Scotsman.com: Look to the Sun to cultivate our energy
 
[Scotsman.com News]             Saturday, 16th December 2006                    

JEAN-MICHEL SEVERINO 

FROM climate change to volatile oil prices, all the 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 produce not only oxygen
but matter that the animal kingdom uses for food - and that
machines can use for energy. 

Since the Neolithic (or late Stone Age) period, humans have been
cultivating this "biomass" in order to feed themselves. 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 the
Second World War, 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 tons of plant matter are
necessary to produce one litre of oil, whereas just 15kg of
plant matter are required to make a 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 per cent "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 tons, yet only two billion tons is
consumed for food purposes and ten billion tons 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. 

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
tons 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 - 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 practised 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. Now, 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. 

â€¢ Jean-Michel Severino is a former vice-president of the World
Bank. 

©2006 Scotsman.com| contact| terms &amp; conditions
*****************************************************************
 44 AFP: Bush to sign 'hugely important' India nuke deal - 

 Fri Dec 15, 3:17 PM ET                          

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush" /> President 
George W. Bushis eager to sign a US-India nuclear agreement that 
he considers "hugely important" to relations with the world's 
largest democracy, the White House said. 

 "It reflects not only the growing importance of India as a
partner and ally with the United States, but I think we have the
growing importance of the United States, also, as an ally with
India," said spokesman Tony Snow. 

Bush is scheduled to sign the pact on Monday in a ceremony at
the White House. 

"It's hugely important," said Snow. "You've got an expanding
economy. You've got the largest democracy on the face of the
Earth. It is a nation that has a democracy that accommodates a
wide variety of religions and cultural groups and racial
groups." 

"And so, it's very important to us that we continue to deepen
our relationship with India," said the spokesman. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 45 I would rather have a lump of coal, Mr. President
 
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:28:08 -0800

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<x-flowed>
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=247165141&url_num=1&url=http://www.peaceactionwest.org/>52bc03.jpg
The Bush administration has tried twice to gain public support to build a 
new generation of nuclear weapons. Both times, we have defeated them. Now, 
their latest attempt brings us Complex 2030—and we may be in for our 
toughest battle yet.

Thanks so much to those of you who have already responded to our calls to 
action to help stop the Nuclear Bombplex. We do need your help.

The fact is the administration’s Orwellian marketing of new nuclear weapons 
has gotten better. Instead of talking about the “more useable” nuclear 
weapons that would burrow 50 feet underground before exploding, the 
administration is talking about building a “leaner” arsenal that would be 
“safer” and “less redundant.” It’s a load of blarney, but unfortunately 
this time, the few media outlets that are covering the story seem to be 
buying it.

The Bush spin machine wants to define this issue, but we can make sure they 
don’t. Can you help our campaign with a tax-deductible gift? 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=247165141&url_num=5&url=https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/capa/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2084&t=pef_20060608l.dwt>Click 
here.

Even more alarming is that the major news outlets have been ignoring this 
story. The administration is considering heading down a path that could 
lead to nuclear testing, and so far this has largely flown under the public 
radar.

In 2007, the Peace Education Fund, along with its sister organization Peace 
Action West, will be making sure this doesn’t continue. We will be 
campaigning on the airways and in the papers to make sure the 
administration’s plans receive full public scrutiny. We’ll make sure 
Americans know what the president is trying to do.

We need you to help us make it happen. Can you support our work to stop the 
Nuclear Bombplex by making a year-end tax-deductible contribution? 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=247165141&url_num=6&url=https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/capa/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2084&t=pef_20060608l.dwt>Click 
here.

It’s not an overstatement to say that we are living at the next nuclear 
crossroads. But we still have a choice about which future we get.

If America chooses to pursue building a new generation of nuclear weapons, 
the global bond of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty would likely break. 
Some nations would take this as a reason to join a new nuclear arms race. 
What will this do to negotiations aimed at dissuading Iran from pursuing 
their own nuclear weapons? Iran won’t listen to “do as we say, not as we do.”

Instead, we can work towards a world that rejects nuclear weapons as 
unthinkably destructive to humanity and the planet, and embraces working 
together for the common good. You can help us choose our course, by giving 
your tax-deductible gift 
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With my warmest regards for the next year,

Jon Rainwater
The Peace Education Fund and Peace Action West

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Read more about the Nuclear Bombplex 
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 46 Arizona Daily Star: Watchdog: Firm nearly detonated nuke bomb | 

www.azstarnet.com Â®
 
By Jeff Nesmith Cox News Service Tucson, Arizona | 

Published: 12.15.2006 

WASHINGTON - An accident that occurred as a decades-old nuclear 
warhead was being dismantled at the government's Pantex facility 
near Amarillo, Texas, could have caused the device to detonate, a 
nonprofit organization charged Thursday.

The Project on Government Oversight said the "near miss" event, 
which led the Energy Department to fine the plant's operator 
$110,000, was due partly to requirements that technicians at the 
plant work up to 72 hours per week.

The Pantex plant, 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, is the 
country's only factory for assembly and disassembly of nuclear 
weapons.

The organization said it was told by unidentified experts who 
were "knowledgeable about this event" that the accident, in which 
an unsafe amount of pressure was applied to the warhead, could 
have caused the device to detonate.

The oversight project also released an anonymous letter, 
purportedly sent by Pantex employees, warning that long hours and 
efforts to increase output were causing dangerous conditions in 
the plant.

In a two-paragraph statement, BWX Technologies, the company that 
operates the Amarillo facility under a contract with the Energy 
Department, said it "takes seriously any employee concerns about 
safe operations" and was comparing statements in the anonymous 
letter "with the reality of day-to-day work."

BWX spokeswoman Erin Ritter declined to comment beyond the 
statement.

Julianne Smith, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, which 
owns the Pantex plant, declined to respond to safety complaints 
outlined in a letter from oversight project Executive Director 
Danielle Brian to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

However, records show that the department last month fined BWX 
$110,000 for the accident and another event involving the same 
warhead.

In a letter to Dan J. Swaim, BWX general manger of the plant, the 
Energy Department said the company had "significantly delayed" 
disclosing the incidents and then submitted a "factually 
inaccurate and incomplete" report.

The letter, signed by Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear 
Security Administration, did not say the incidents could have 
caused a nuclear detonation or what kind of warhead was being 
dismantled when they occurred.

It said that during three separate unsuccessful attempts to 
dismantle the warhead in March and April of last year, workers 
applied too much pressure to the device and a safety mechanism 
failed to work.

Oversight project investigator Peter Stockton, a former Energy 
Department official, said the device was a W56 warhead, with a 
yield of 1,200 kilotons, 100 times the destructive power of the 
Hiroshima bomb. 

*****************************************************************
 47 UPI: BMD Focus: Collision course with Russia
     
  United Press International - Security &Terrorism - 

12/15/2006 1:55:00 PM -0500

 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- There was nothing new in the 
warnings Russia's top general made Wednesday against U.S. plans 
to deploy anti-ballistic missile defense systems in Central 
Europe. The news was that he was repeating what he had said 
before. 

According to a report carried by the RIA Novosti news agency,
four star Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of Russia's general
staff, told a meeting of foreign military attaches in Moscow
"The creation of a U.S. anti-missile base cannot be viewed
otherwise than as a major reconfiguration of the American
military presence." 

"Vanguard groupings of the U.S. armed forces in Europe have
until now had no strategic components," the general said. "This
raises the question as to who U.S. anti-missile plans are really
targeted against, and what kind of implications they may have
for Russia and Europe at large." 

RIA Novosti reported that Baluyevsky "dismissed assurances that
the base's buildup will have no noticeable effect on Russia's
nuclear deterrent potential." 

"An ABM area near Europe's Russian borders is an unfriendly
step, to put it mildly, and an unfriendly signal," he said. "The
potential interception zone for ballistic missiles from this
area will span much of Russia's European territory." 

"Given that its [the shield's] creation may prompt other
countries to step up their activities in missile building, the
situation in the longer term appears all the more alarming. It
is clearly fraught with the potential for a nuclear arms race,
which will have a negative impact on global strategic stability. 

"It will force us to look for certain counter-measures, which
will definitely be asymmetrical and less expensive," Baluyevsky
said. 

Top Russian military commanders never speak the way Baluyevsky
did on Wednesday without being told to so by the Kremlin first.
This is especially the case under President Vladimir Putin, who
has more unquestioned authority and control over the Russian
armed forces than any Russian or Soviet leader in more than 20
years, possibly since the 1960s-1970s days of Leonid Brezhnev
before he slipped into his long decline. 

In these columns, we have repeatedly documented the powerful
warnings Gen. Baluyevsky and his boss, dynamic Russian Defense
Minister Sergei Ivanov, have made against the ongoing U.S. plans
to deploy BMD systems in Central Europe, primarily in Poland and
the Czech Republic. As we have noted, the frequency and
intensity of these warnings have intensified in recent months
since the much criticized Ground-based Midcourse Interceptor
system being deployed around Fort Greeley, Alaska, scored a
direct hit on a target missile in a crucial test in September. 

We have also repeatedly documented in these columns how major
allies of the United States such as Japan and Israel take U.S.
technical progress in BMD very seriously indeed. The deduction
to be drawn from Gen. Baluyevsky's comments this week and the
warnings that have come before is that the Russian leadership
does too. But that is not necessarily a reassuring conclusion.
It signals that the major European nations and the United States
are heading at full speed for a strategic confrontation with
Russia in Central Europe. 

The United States and its NATO allies are ill prepared to deal
with a sudden rise in tensions between themselves and Russia and
its allies in Central Europe. The U.S. armed forces are going to
be bogged down in Iraq for the foreseeable future, probably for
years to come. No major Western European NATO nation has
significant military resources to spare to rush to nations like
Poland and the Czech Republic if they should suffer an upsurge
in terrorism. 

Related threats could come from major crime caused by the
immensely powerful Russian-dominated crime cartels that continue
to operate with impunity throughout most of the former Soviet
satellite nations that are now in NATO. The alliance itself is
already badly overextended by its deployment in Afghanistan. 

In recent weeks, Russia has played tough over its natural gas
supplies to Western Europe, angering and alarming the major
European Union nations. And this week, reports from Moscow
indicated that Russian companies were going to accelerate their
work on finishing Iran's controversial Bushehr nuclear reactor. 

Already, the U.S.-Russian nuclear arms race is in higher gear on
both sides than at any time in the past quarter-century. On Nov.
16, according to another RIA Novosti report, Russian President
Vladimir Putin told a meeting with top military officials,
"Maintaining a strategic balance will mean that our strategic
deterrent forces should be able to guarantee the neutralization
of any potential aggressor, no matter what modern weapons
systems he possesses." 

Putin "called for the creation of cutting-edge strategic
weapons, and emphasized the importance of quality," RIA Novosti
said. 

"We must meet schedules to create new strategic weapons to
secure a balance of forces in the world. This means that we will
not indulge in comparisons of quantitative data of our strategic
nuclear deterrent forces as we did previously," the Russian
president said. 

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told that meeting that
Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces would purchase 17
intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2007, as well as four
spacecraft and four carrier rockets. 

RIA Novosti said then Russia planned to complete the
modernization of the naval component of its nuclear triad by
2016. The Russian navy would deploy "new Bulava ballistic
missiles on Project 955 Borey-class nuclear-powered submarines
and equipping land-based strategic missile units with silo-based
and mobile Topol-M (SS-27) ballistic missiles," the report said. 

According to Russian media reports, some 40 of the planned 79
Topol-Ms scheduled to be operationally deployed by 2015 are
already in place. 

The determination of Russia's leaders to respond to, match and
potentially overcome the new BMD deployments in Europe,
therefore, is no bluster or bluff. President Putin and his
government have the will and the resources to do it.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 48 [du-list] Did Israel Use Experimental Bombs With (Enriched)
 
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:29:20 -0800

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Appears soon in the WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor

DID ISRAEL USE EXPERIMENTAL BOMBS WITH (ENRICHED) URANIUM IN LEBANON?

At the end of October The Independent (UK) reported on the possible find of
enriched uranium in a bomb crater at Khiam in the southeastern region of
Lebanon. The report is based on the partly analysis in a UK Defence laboratory
of a sample that would have been taken from the crater. In the frontpage
article Dr Chris Busby from the European Committee on Radiation Risks (ECRR)
speculates on the use of an experimental uranium bomb by the Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF).[1]

(650.) Laka Foundation - Is this the smoking gun of what the ?believers? in
the anti-uranium weapons movement have always believed, namely that uranium is
used in large guided munitions; or do we have to deal here with constructed
proof caused by a state of mind, called tunnel vision?

During the Israeli attacks on Lebanon I met with a friend of the Amsterdam 
based
grassroots organization D4net, an organization which is among others dealing
with Human Rights issues and the Middle East. We both had the feeling that we
have to bring a visit to Lebanon to express our solidarity with the grassroots
movements in Lebanon and to build contacts with these organizations. Because
the entrance to Lebanon was blocked by Israel we had to wait until the Israeli
blockade was lifted, which finally happened in the second week of September.
Meanwhile an article appeared in the Lebanese (English) Daily Star that
reported on radioactivity that was found in bomb craters at Khiam and at-Tiri.
Dr Mohammad Ali Kobeissi, a member of the Lebanese National Council for
Scientific Research, declares that a crater caused by an Israeli munition in
the Jlahiyyeh quarter in Khiam contained ?a high degree of unidentified
radioactive materials? and: ?A team from the council will test a sample
from the crater in order to find out what kinds of radioactive materials it
contains.? [2]
In order to verify this I decided to take the radiation measuring equipment of
our office with me to Lebanon.

Our journey to Lebanon brought us into contact with a wide range of people: aid
workers, artists, representatives of political parties, journalists, taxi
drivers, scientists, and so on. We also saw a considerable part of Lebanon:
Beirut, the south of Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

First we witnessed the destruction caused by Israel?s attack, and the impact
that has had on Lebanon and the Lebanese people. To begin with Beirut: the city
has mainly remained intact, but the part which was bombed ? the Dahieh area
? has been partly flattened. The buildings are mainly nine-storey apartment
buildings, mostly homes. It is estimated that tens of thousands of houses have
been totally destroyed. In the direction to the south and to the Bekaa Valley,
all overpasses and highways have been bombed, in the Bekaa Valley most of the
factories too. Now Lebanon has almost no industry, because all of the industry
that was present has been largely destroyed.

It was also conspicuous that the fuel tanks at the airport and the power 
station
with an oil terminal south of Beirut had both been set on fire by aerial
attacks. In general, the villages in the south have been between 30% and 70%
destroyed. Most of the targets destroyed did not serve any direct military
purpose. Therefore the conclusion is that it has been attempted to damage the
land and the economy in order to minimize the basis for Hizbullah?s
resistance.

One of the major post-war problems is the wide-spread use of cluster munitions
by the Israeli Defense Forces, mainly in the southern region of Lebanon. During
the last three days of the war, while a solution was in sight, Israel used all
of their 35 years old US cluster shells, stemming from stocks that were made
during the Vietnam war. As a consequence the population and the mine clearance
teams have to deal with submunitions (bomblets) with a high dud rate. According
to Human Rights Watch: ?Cluster submunitions with high initial dud rates
effectively become antipersonnel landmines.? A million of these
?landmines?, more than the US has used in Iraq, Kosovo or Afghanistan, has
been added to the thousands of landmines and unexploded shells from the
previous military conflicts. Every day two or three people are maimed, wounded,
paralyzed or killed by exploding submunitions, most of them are children.
Meanwhile the farmers can?t harvest their crops and can?t plough and sow
their winter crops, which is a serious problem, because the southern region and
the Bekaa Valley are economically mainly depended from agriculture. [3]

During the last weekend of our 15-days during stay in Lebanon we visited Dr
Kobeissi in the vicinity of the town Nabatiyeh, the capital of the southern
Nabatiyeh district. After explaining his career as a nuclear physicist he told
about his findings in the bomb craters of Khiam and at-Tiri. He tested these
pits with a geiger counter from a local scrap dealer and that these results
indicated the presence of uranium. He stressed that he has never said
?depleted uranium? and regretted the political bickerings this has caused
among the different sects. He measured 50 nanosievert (nSv) per hour in the
outside rim of the pits and 300 nSv in the heart of most pits with the
exception of one which measured 800 nsV/h. He also declared that these dose
rates in the pits decreased considerably day by day. On the suggestion that
these higher measures could be due to the concentration of uranium in the ash
(?concentrated background radiation from the burnt material?) he agreed
that this possibility is highly likely.

At his home Kobeissi had collected tens of samples from shrapnel and soil from
more than 50 different places, among which samples from the Khiam-crater. None
of these samples measured a higher radiation dose rate than the background
radiation dose rate. The samples were measured with a calibrated geiger counter
from Laka Foundation.

Before I went to Kobeissi I met with Dai Williams from the UK, the author of a
number of reports in which he explained the types of bunker busters that were
used in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. Though in none of these reports is
delivered any proof that one or more of these bunker busters contains DU he is
continuing to spread this as it is almost a fact. Also, he claims the strange
idea that besides DU the US military also uses ?Natural Uranium? (NU) in
their weaponry in order to mask the use of uranium, because of the same isotope
ratio NU has as the mineral uranium, which is everywhere around us. Now,
Williams visited Lebanon searching for the smoking gun. While meeting him at
the office of the Lebanese daily As Safir he checked all the pictures taken by
one of their photographers during the war and thought to see in a number of
explosions the clouds of uranium oxide dust. Remarkably, Human Rights Watch
Emergencies Director Peter Bouckaert told us that only a few bunker busters
have been used on bridges. Even if it might be true that bunker busters with a
load of DU would exist, it is highly unlikely that these were used on bridges.

Later on it appeared that Williams took a soil sample with to the UK.
Consequently Chris Busby took care for the analysis of this sample at a
laboratory. It has to be noted that Busby?s reputation is controversial. Last
February he was quoted in the international media asserting that uranium oxides
dust particles from the 2003 Iraq War were found on air filters at the British
nuclear weapons complex in Aldermaston. It is very unlikely that dust particles
traveled that far (considering wind-directions, etc), but there is another
reason why this is very improbable. Franz Schönhofer, who was involved in
building modern measurements stations across Europe states: ?That these
claimed elevations would have occurred at only one single sampling station
after the ?particles? travelled all the way from Iraq to Aldermaston is not
explained in this report. Europe is tightly dotted with aerosol sampling and
measurement stations.? [4]

On October 28 The Independent reports about the possible use of ?a secret new
uranium-based weapon? by the IDF in southern Lebanon. Chris Busby bases this
claim on two soil samples with ?elevated radiation signatures? taken from a
bomb crater and the partly analysis of one of the samples, a 25-grams soil
sample. The analysis of this sample indicates the presence of (very) slightly
enriched uranium. According to journalist Zeinab Ghosn from the Lebanese daily
As Safir this report has caused panic among the Lebanese population. Actually
unnecessary panic, because the partly analysis of a 25-grams soil sample is too
small and as a consequence the obtained data is too poor to make conclusive
statements. Therefore Busby?s claim has to be condemned as a highly
irresponsible act. Though Israel has a bad reputation in using dirty and
experimental weapons in Lebanon ? the use of phosphor bombs has been proven
during the last war ? there is no reason to accuse Israel of the use of
radioactive weapons.

In the first week of November UNEP reports that there investigation teams have
not measured radiation levels higher than the background level in Lebanon. In
addition, based on laboratory analyses of samples, UNEP excludes the military
use of DU or use of uranium with another composition of isotopes in Lebanon.
[5] On the analogy of the measurement stations above the question is raised why
Busby c.s. finds slightly enriched uranium, while the UNEP and the Lebanese
National Council for Scientific Research find nothing. Even more peculiar, in
the Daily Star of December 7 Busby states that again (water) samples from the
Khiam crater, has been tested positive for (slightly) enriched uranium. [6] The
council and UNEP have both vowed to follow-up on the issue and conduct more
tests. Though the results of the independent scientific teams employed by UNEP
are not yet published it has to be said that they are experienced and have a
good reputation in accuracy and scholarship concerning there field work and
laboratory analyses on DU. On the contrary Busby can?t be considered as an
unbiased scientist, just like his colleague Dai Williams (psychologist). From
scientific point of view they are at least controversial.

The results of UNEP are in line with the expectations. Laka had already taken
the position that the use of DU munitions by the IDF had to be almost excluded.
Firstly Hizbullah hadn?t any armoured targets, therefore there was no need at
all to use antitank shells. Secondly there is no single indication that DU or
uranium with another isotopes composition are manufactured in cruise missiles,
large guided munitions or so-called bunker buster bombs, or whatsoever, let
alone that such weapons might have been used. This position was more or less
confirmed by the measurements done by the undersigned, a co-worker of Laka
Foundation who participated in a delegation from the Amsterdam-based group
D4net. As said above, tens of samples, including samples from the craters at
Khiam and at-Tiri, were measured at the home of Dr Kobeishi in Nabatiyeh. No
higher level than the background radiation level was detected. The results of
UNEP confirms that there is no evidence of uranium-based munitions used in
Lebanon. Their report will be published one of these days (mid-December).

Contact: Henk van der Keur, Laka Foundation, Ketelhuisplein 43, 1054 RD
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Email: <mailto:info%40laka.org>info@laka.org
Web: www.laka.org

Sources: [1] The Independent, 28th October 2006. Robert Fisk: Mystery of
Israel's secret uranium bomb - Alarm over radioactive legacy left by attack on
Lebanon
<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1935945.ece>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1935945.ece
Chris Bellamy: An enigma that only the Israelis can fully explain
<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1935931.ece>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1935931.ece
[2] Daily Star, 21st August 2006. Scientists suspect Israeli arms used in South
contain radioactive matter (Mohammed Zaatari)
<http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?article_ID=74891&categ_ID=1&edition_id=1>http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?article_ID=74891&categ_ID=1&edition_id=1
[3] Lebanon - ?The Divine Victory? 
<http://www.d4net.nl/node/236>http://www.d4net.nl/node/236
[4] Schönhofer, Franz, Report on DU blown from Iraq to the UK another DU
fantasy
<http://lists.radlab.nl/pipermail/radsafe/2006-February/002215.html>http://lists.radlab.nl/pipermail/radsafe/2006-February/002215.html
more reviews on Busby's report (scroll to the middle of the page):
<http://www.dubbs.info/controversy.htm>http://www.dubbs.info/controversy.htm
[5] UNEP Press Release, 7 November 2006: No Evidence of Radioactive Residue in
Lebanon Post Conflict Assessment
<http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=485&ArticleID=5416&l=en>http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=485&ArticleID=5416&l=en
[6] Khiam bomb crater tests positive for uranium
<http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=77463>http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=77463
(Busby stated in an e-mail message from December 11 that he was wrongly quoted
in this article. ?Depleted? has to be ?enriched?.)

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 49 [du-list] Israel's mystery weapon, DIME and DU
 
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:29:17 -0800

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Hi - This report includes valuable reference references re: DU.
Charlie

<http://www.traprockpeace.org/israel_dime_bombs_121206.pdf>http://www.traprockpeace.org/israel_dime_bombs_121206.pdf

A free download* is available of this extensively researched
report by James Brooks on Israel's use of a "mystery" weapon
against Palestinians. European and Middle East media (including
Haaretz in Israel) reported on the bizarre injuries.

"The doctors reported an exceptionally large number of wounded
who lost legs, of completely burned bodies and injuries unaccompanied
by metal shrapnel. Some of the doctors also claimed that they removed
particles from wounds that could not be seen in an x-ray machine.
(Haaretz.com - see link to article in report.)

Was this the horrific DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosives)
weapon that has been under development by the US military? Were
Palestinians, including civilians, used liked guinea pigs for testing
this weapon?

Brooks shows that DIME weapons are the latest in a line of
chemical-genetic warfare weapons, such as uranium and white
phosphorus weapons used by the US in Iraq. These weapons
are illegal under international humanitarian law,** but are used anyway
by the US and its allies.

The report is a treasure trove of resources with its 48 notes with
links to on-line scientific studies, media reports and government
documents.

*The report is published by Traprock Peace Center and copyright
James Brooks. It may be downloaded for free for non-profit,
non-commercial use. It may be reprinted and distributed, in its original
form with no changes, but not sold without the permission of the author.

**See also the Consumers for Peace report - "War Crimes Committed
by the United States in Iraq and Mechanisms for Accountability" for
more on the US use of DU and white phosphorus.
<http://www.traprockpeace.org/war_crimes_iraq_101006.pdf>http://www.traprockpeace.org/war_crimes_iraq_101006.pdf

###

Charles Jenks
Chair of Advisory Board
Traprock Peace Center
103 Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
<http://www.traprockpeace.org>http://www.traprockpeace.org

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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 50 [du-list] Local Group Joins National Opposition to Nuclear
 
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:29:40 -0800

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Press Release: December 1, 2006
From: PRESS (Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety &
Security)
National Nuclear Workers for Justice
Contact: Vina Colley, email vcolley@earthlink.net, (740) 353 2275, cell
357-8916 (606) 932 2383, (740) 947 9162


Local Group Joins National Opposition to Nuclear Waste Dump and Plutonium
Reprocessing Plans for Piketon

With the DOE announcement this week that the PGDP is one step closer to
becoming a high-level nuclear waste dump and a plutonium-reprocessing
center, a local watchdog group, PRESS, along with 35 other national
organizations issued a strong condemnation to this proposal. (The DOE
proposal is part of a Bush administration plan to jump-start the ailing
nuclear industry and is being referred to as GNEP or Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership). PRESS (Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety
and Security) is a member of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, an
umbrella group of community organizations that are downwind and downstream
from nuclear facilities that have already suffered first-hand effects of
environmental degradation from nuclear weapons production. PRESS is also
affiliated with the Military Toxic Project.

"As PRESS members, we have often spoken out about worker illnesses and
deaths attributed to chemical and radiological contamination from the
Piketon facility, but these new GNEP proposals are guaranteed to take us
even deeper into environmental, economic, national security and nuclear
proliferation disasters," says Vina Colley, President of PRESS.

The Piketon site was named as one of the eleven "finalists" that will now
be considered for storing large amounts of highly radioactive spent fuel
rods that will be shipped in from the 103 nuclear reactors around the
country. Each shipping container that would bring the waste to Piketon by
truck, train and barge will hold 40 or more times the radioactivity
released by the Hiroshima bomb.

Another aspect of the GNEP plan is to resume reprocessing plutonium from
the spent fuel, a practice that was abandoned in this nation over 30 years
ago due to the unprecedented disasters it brought to areas in which it was
practiced. Decades later all of these sites remain dangerously
contaminated. Of all the steps in the nuclear chain, reprocessing is the
most perilous to human life and has the highest routine discharge of
emissions. The process also leaves enormous quantities of highly
radioactive, acidic, liquid waste that ends up buried in tanks that
eventually leak threatening crucial water supplies. While the DOE is
trying to claim that reprocessing is a sound alternative based on
"recycling" principles, nothing could be further from the truth. Rather
than reducing the amount of poisonous waste requiring long-term isolation
from the human biosphere, the waste left from reprocessing is actually
hotter than the original spent fuel, and additional large quantities of
other contaminants are created in the process.

The DOE is calling their plan for reprocessing plutonium and uranium into a
mixed oxide fuel "consolidated fuel treatment." However, according to
Piketon area resident, Nathan Noy, the technology for the creation of this
experimental fuel is yet to be proven and developed. "The Nuclear
Information Resource Service points out that one of the many problems with
mixed oxide is that as a reactor fuel it is known to be harder to control.
If control is lost, it is twice as deadly as uranium fuel and at least 20
times more expensive to produce," says Noy. None of the 103 nuclear power
plants in the U.S. are equipped to operate on a mixed oxide fuel that would
be produced under GNEP. Therefore the DOE plan calls for building a pilot
fast reactor that might or might not work with the mixed oxide fuel. The
National Academy of Sciences and the Union of Concerned Scientists have
both gone on record stating that the entire GNEP plan is totally
indefensible.

PRESS member, Lorry Swain, warns "the greatest lie in the GNEP proposal is
that it will make us safer from the threat of nuclear weapons. North Korea
recently tested a nuclear weapon it produced from plutonium obtained
through reprocessing. The necessary step between a nuclear reactor and a
nuclear bomb is reprocessing plutonium. This step makes the weapons-grade
plutonium available for sabotage and terrorist weaponry. That's the other
reason that plutonium reprocessing was banned in the U.S. in the 1970s."

The DOE has yet to explain where the billions of dollars will come from
that would be needed to enact this ill-advised GNEP proposal. Meantime,
funding and work on the long-ago, promised clean-up of the contamination
already present at Piketon remains stalled and uncertain. And dying workers
from Piketon, Hanford, Savannah River and other nuclear sites are still
getting the run-around from the EEOICPA, the program that was supposed to
compensate them for their nuclear-related illnesses.


Vina Colley










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 51 [du-list] 161 depleted uranium missiles found in southern
 
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:29:45 -0800

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161 depleted uranium missiles found in southern Serbia


A total of 161 depleted uranium missiles have been recovered in southern 
Serbia in the past nine weeks, local reports said on Monday.

The missiles were left in Reljan, near Presevo after the 1999 NATO bombing 
campaign, the Serbian news agency Beta reported, citing representatives of 
directorate for the protection of the environment.

During its 78-day air strikes on Serbia's predecessor Yugoslavia in 1999, 
the NATO dropped 31,000 missiles and bombs containing depleted uranium, a 
kind of radioactive toxic material that has been linked to Gulf War 
syndrome and spiraling levels of cancer and birth deformities in Iraq.

In Kosovo, the NATO has identified some 112 sites where it acknowledges 
using depleted uranium munitions. But NATO has not given the government in 
Belgrade a comprehensive list for the rest of Serbia.

The cleanup operation in Reljan started on Oct. 1, said the reports, adding 
that 6.5 out of 12 hectares of contaminated grounds have been searched and 
cleared. A total of 2.4 cubic meters of contaminated soil has also been 
collected and removed.

The Serbian government has funded the cleanup operation in the Reljan site 
with 350,000 euros (some 450,000 U.S. dollars).

Source: Xinhua


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 52 Interfax: Radiation source found in Primorye

Interfax.com    Site map   

Dec 15 2006 10:47AM
 
VLADIVOSTOK. Dec 15 (Interfax) - A powerful source of
radioactive emission has been discovered in the town of Artyom,
Primorye territory. 

Specialists found 50 radioisotope smoke detectors that are used
in fire alarm systems inside several boxes stamped
"radioactivity", a spokesman for the Primtekhnopolis company,
which disposes of radiation sources, told Interfax on Friday. 

"Each detector contains two Alfa-emission sources based on
plutonium isotopes," he said. 

Radiation levels at a distance of one centimeter from the boxes
are 400 micro-roentgen per hour, which is 40 times the norm, the
spokesman said. 

An investigation is underway. tm jh 


© 1991-2006 Interfax
 All rights reserved
 
News and other data on this web site are provided for
information purposes only, and are not intended for
republication or redistribution. Republication or redistribution
of Interfax content, including by framing or similar means, is
expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of
Interfax.   

*****************************************************************
 53 FT.com: It would not be the first time, Mr Putin

/ Comment & analysis / Comment - 

Financial Times FT.com
 
By Stephen Fidler

Published: December 15 2006 19:36 

Who on earth could think the Kremlin was behind the murder of
Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence officer,
poisoned by a dose of radioactive polonium-210?

A few cold warriors, perhaps, buried in the bowels of MI5 and
the FBIâ€™s counterintelligence department, and a handful of
exiled enemies of Russia living the good life in London.
Probably the sort of people Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for
President Vladimir Putin, had in mind this week when he said:
â€œThis is a completely new Russia, although some people are
still thinking of the country as the empire of
evil.â€[Advertisement] 

The cold warriors are the sort who would point to the rocket Mr
Putin is said to have given a year ago to the head of the
Russian Federal Security Service for the agencyâ€™s poor
performance. Not to speak of the decision in July from the Duma,
the Russian state parliament, to approve a new law allowing
Russiaâ€™s â€œspecial servicesâ€ to kill enemies of the state
anywhere on the planet. Mr Peskov says not to worry: the FSB is
concerned only with domestic affairs and the new law is aimed
only at terrorists.

Those not up to date with the new Russia might also point out
that the KGB, Mr Putinâ€™s alma mater, and its predecessors had
a nice line in assassination of exiles. Being a mere founder of
the Soviet Union, they might say, was not enough to save Trotsky
and he was not alone. In 1957, the agency had a go at the
defector Nikolai Kholkhov, probably poisoned by radioactive
thallium while attending a conference in Frankfurt. According to
Jeffrey Richelson, the spy-watcher, Kholkov survived after
suffering symptoms that included hideous brown stripes and black
and blue swellings on his body, and blood seeping through his
pores.

Further insight into old Russian practices, now obviously
abandoned, comes from a CIA memo of 1964, now declassified:
Soviet Use of Assassination and Kidnapping. The memo looks into
the techniques known in the KGB as â€œliquid affairsâ€, carried
out by the agencyâ€™s Department 13, which was indeed unlucky
for some. Within it were two secret installations, one producing
special weapons and explosive devices and the other developing
drugs and poisons.

â€œThe large numbers of former citizens of the USSR (and of
imperial Russia) living abroad in protest against the Soviet
regime have been a continuing cause for concern to the Soviets
since the early twenties,â€ the memo said. â€œEmigrÃ© leaders
who participate in anti-Soviet activities have been primary
targets of Soviet abduction or assassination operations. Such
operations are sometimes designed to demonstrate that the Soviet
regime can strike its enemies anywhere in the world. The Soviets
hope thereby to create fear, unrest, confusion and dissension
within emigrÃ© organisations and at the same time deter other
emigrÃ©s from joining their ranks.â€

Fortunately, things are much different today in the completely
new Russia. Arenâ€™t they?


The writer is the FTâ€™s defence and security editor
 The Financial Times Limited 2006


*****************************************************************
 54 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Meeting of the 
 
                        FR Doc E6-21366 
[Federal Register: December 15, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 241)] 
[Notices] [Page 75588] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15de06-111]                         
 
Subcommittee on Plant License Renewal; Notice of Meeting The ACRS 
Subcommittee on Plant License Renewal will hold a meeting on 
January 18, 2007, Room T-2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland.
 
The entire meeting will be open to public attendance.
 
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Thursday, 
January 18, 2007--8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. The purpose of this 
meeting is to continue discussion on the License Renewal 
Application for Oyster Creek and the associated Safety Evaluation 
Report (SER) prepared by the NRR staff with emphasis on the 
containment liner questions raised at the subcommittee meeting 
held on October 3, 2006. The Subcommittee will hear presentations 
by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff, 
AmerGen Energy Company, and other interested persons regarding 
this matter. The Subcommittee will gather information, analyze 
relevant issues and facts, and formulate proposed positions and 
actions, as appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee.
 
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or 
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, 
Mr. Michael Junge (telephone 301/415-6855) five days prior to the 
meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be 
made.
 
Electronic recordings will be permitted.
 
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by 
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 6:45 a.m. and 
3:30 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged 
to contact the above named individual at least two working days 
prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes to 
the agenda.
 
Dated: December 11, 2006.
 
Antonio F. Dias, Acting Branch Chief, ACRS/ACNW.
 
[FR Doc. E6-21366 Filed 12-14-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 55 Pahrump Valley Times: Tech Review Board to meet in Las Vegas  

e-mailed to: dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
 
Dec. 15, 2006 

 
The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board will meet Jan. 24
in Las Vegas. The agenda will include updates on Department of
Energy (DOE) technical and scientific activities related to the
proposed repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain. 

The meeting will be open to the public and opportunities for
public comment will be provided. 

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. and conclude at
approximately 6 p.m. It will be held at the Atrium Suites Hotel;
4255 South Paradise Road; Las Vegas; (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
date. 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 meeting 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. 

Transcripts of the meeting 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
Feb. 19. 

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Atrium Suites Hotel
for meeting participants. When making a reservation, state that
you are attending the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
meeting. Reservations should be made by Jan. 8 to ensure
receiving the meeting rate. 

For more information, contact Karyn Severson, NWTRB external
affairs; 2300 Clarendon Blvd., Suite 1300, Arlington, VA
22201-3367; (tel.) 703-2354473; (fax) 703-235-4495. 	
 
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006 
*****************************************************************
 56 Earth Times: NRC head: Permanent waste solution needed

  Posted on : Fri, 15 Dec 2006 21:33:59 GMT | Author : Energy

  WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 The top federal nuclear regulator says the 
United States needs a finalized plan for storing nuclear 
waste.Dale Klein, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
said at a news conference Friday it will be advantageous to move 
forward on a permanent solution to housing the nuclear waste. 
U.S. nuclear plants and defense programs churn out 2,000 tons of 
waste a year now, with 54,000 tons already produced. But plans to 
create a permanent repository inside Yucca Mountain, 100 miles 
northwest of Las Vegas, are 20 years behind schedule.

The project has been hampered by funding issues, political
blockades and lawsuits, as well as controversy over the science
and quality assurance aspects. The U.S. Energy Department, which
heads the project, estimates it won't open until at least 2017,
but probably after.The nuclear industry wants the waste taken
off its property, as required by law, and has won numerous
lawsuits.This has prompted calls for alternative plans, either
permanently or temporary.At reactor, dry cask storage is safe,
Klein said, although as a citizen I'd prefer an interim central
storage site.But as the chief nuclear regulator, he said the NRC
is not promoting any option, but will review the license
application of whichever option is submitted.Copyright 2006 by
UPI 									 									   
  
(c) 2006 Earthtimes.org, All Rights Reserved.
   
*****************************************************************
 57 Deseret News: Uranium mining spurs jump in claims on federal lands
 
By Mary Clare Jalonick
 Associated Press                                             

WASHINGTON — Metal mining claims on federal lands in the West 
have increased almost 50 percent in the past four years, in large 
part because a resurgence in nuclear power has led to a renewed 
interest in uranium exploration.

       An advocacy and research organization said Thursday its
review of Bureau of Land Management records found that the
number of metal mining claims jumped from 220,000 at the end of
2002 to almost 325,000 this September.

       Nevada had almost 90,000 new claims, more than any other
state, and a 55 percent increase from 2002. Wyoming was second,
with almost 20,000 new claims, or a 97 percent increase.

       The Environmental Working Group said its review covered
gold, silver, copper and uranium claims. The organization said
uranium mining interests are some of the largest claimholders in
seven states — Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, South
Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. No uranium interests were among the
largest Western claimholders when the group last analyzed mining
records, in 2004.

       Uranium prices have risen as nuclear power has rebounded
as a relatively cheap, reliable and emissions-free source of
energy. Many new nuclear power plants are planned around the
world. The increase in prices and construction has led to an
increase in mining claims.

       Wyoming is thought to be the largest producer of uranium
and has the largest reserve base, according to the National
Mining Association.

       The Environmental Working Group said it released the
statistics to bring attention to the nation's antiquated mining
laws. Metals mining companies pay no royalties for extraction on
public lands, unlike the oil and gas industries.

       Dusty Horwitt, an analyst for the group, described metals
mining as "one of the world's most destructive industries."

       "Because most mines operate far from public view, the
ugly scars on the landscape, dangerous chemicals and mountains
of toxic waste that contaminate soil, water and air are the
industry's dirty secret," Horwitt said.

       The group is advocating legislation to require metals
mining companies to pay royalties and create funds for abandoned
mines cleanup.

       Carol Raulston, a spokeswoman for the National Mining
Association, says many of the new claims will not move forward,
and several are in areas that previously have been mined. She
says all metals mines are subject to federal oversight under the
Clean Water Act and hazardous waste laws.

       "All of these mines are regulated under all of the major
state and federal environmental statutes," she said.

On the Net: Environmental Working Group: www.ewg.orgNational
Mining Association: www.nma.org/			  		 		   

© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company

*****************************************************************
 58 RIA Novosti: Russia's Techsnabexport to develop uranium deposit in Australia - 1
 
15/ 12/ 2006

 MOSCOW, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russian state-owned uranium
producer and trader Techsnabexport intends to take part in
developing the world's largest copper and uranium deposit,
Olympic Dam in Australia, the first deputy CEO said Friday.

 "We are conducting talks on this deposit with BHP Billiton,"
Vadim Zhivov said.

 Zhivov said the scheme is the world's largest uranium
production project, with reserves that could last 70 years. He
said the first stage of work to develop the deposit will be
launched in 2013 with production at 4,900 metric tons of uranium
annually, and that the second stage will bring production to
15,000 tons per year.

 The company official said talks are complicated, and will
continue for a considerable time.

 Techsnabexport, which operates on the world market under the
Tenex brand, is 100% state-owned. The company is one of the
world's largest suppliers of nuclear fuel cycle products and
services, and has subsidiaries in Germany, South Korea and Japan.

 BHP Billiton, headquartered in Melbourne with secondary
headquarters in London, is the world's largest mining company.
Its turnover in 2005 was $31.8 billion, and attributable profit
was $6.5 billion.

 In early October, Techsnabexport and Japan's Mitsui announced a
joint project to develop a sector of the Yuzhnaya zone of the
Elkon uranium ore deposit, in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),
in East Siberia.

 Russia's nuclear chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, said earlier the
country's reserves of coal and natural gas will be depleted in
50 years, so Russia is aiming to expand its nuclear energy
sector and meet 60-70% of its uranium demand domestically by
2015. 

He also said Russia intends to boost cooperation with all
uranium-producing countries, including Canada and its uranium
giant Cameco. 

Techsnabexport provides about 35% of global uranium supplies,
and plans to broaden its operations in Central Asia and the
Asia-Pacific region. 

© 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 59 DenverPost.com: Denver plans to ship low-level radioactive waste to Adams county
 
By Jeremy P. Meyer Denver Post Staff Writer

Article Last Updated:12/14/2006 11:01:17 PM MST

Denver is expected next week to ship five containers of
low-level radioactive material to a disposal facility in Adams
County - a move not being welcomed by the county. 

It's the latest action in a controversy that has pitted Adams
County against the state health department, with Denver in the
middle. 

"The bottom line is we're at a point to where we need to dispose
of this waste," said Denver Assistant City Attorney Shaun
Sullivan. 

Adams County officials say they don't want the radium-tainted
material or any low-level radioactive waste at the facility
owned by Massachusetts-based Clean Harbors Environmental
Services Inc. 

Adams County has lost two lawsuits against the state over the
permitting and licensing of the facility. Those cases are on
appeal. 

Clean Harbors officials say they have spent $3 million to ensure
the dump could receive the materials. 

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment says
the facility is properly permitted and licensed to accept
low-level radioactive waste. 

Denver's request to resume shipping the material to Idaho has
been denied twice by the Rocky Mountain Low Level Radioactive
Waste Compact Board - which regulates low-level radioactive
waste in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. 

The board said the request would deliver undue economic harm to
the facility in Adams County. 

A low-level radioactive substance called radium was produced in
the city in the early 20th century and then used in road
projects. 

Radon gas emitted from decaying radium causes lung cancer,
according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

The Denver Radium Site, consisting of 65 properties, was made a
Superfund site in 1983, and the city has been removing the
material for a decade. 

The project was to be completed next year but has been held up
by the legal problems. 

The state said Denver could temporarily store the radium-tainted
materials excavated from its 2005 work for one year. 

In October, the state granted Denver a nine-month extension. 

Denver officials now say they want to resume the project and get
rid of the stored materials. 

Next week, 20 metric tons of materials will be placed on a
flatbed truck for the first shipment. 

"The county's position is any acceptance of radioactive waste,
including this waste, would constitute a violation" of county
land-use rules, said attorney Howard Kenison, who represents
Adams County. 

Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-954-1367 or
jpmeyer@denverpost.com.

 All contents Copyright 2006 The Denver Post
*****************************************************************
 60 GilroyDispatch.com: Olin Submits Work Plan

Gilroy California

 Friday, December 15, 2006

 By Tony Burchyns

Morgan Hill - Olin Corporation's recent cleanup proposal could
take almost two years to complete, focussing on the most
polluted areas of the South County water table.

The roughly 550 acres directly southeast of the company's
now-closed road-flare plant on Tennant Avenue have seen
perchlorate readings of 24.5 parts per billion or higher since
2001. The state's public health goal is 6 parts per billion.

The work plan, otherwise known as the Area I Plume Migration
Control Work Plan, was submitted Dec. 6 to the Central Coast
Regional Water Quality Control Board. The plan calls for
extracting groundwater, removing pollutants and then either
injecting it back into the soil or sharing it with nearby water
municipalities, such as the city of Morgan Hill, where customers
would drink the water Olin has cleaned. 

The cleanup proposal would take more than 20 months to implement
and is being reviewed by the Central Coast Regional Water
Quality Control Board until the end of January. 

Olin may need to clean other parts of South County's water table
and will submit another work plan in 2007 for those areas.

Olin is responsible for an underground plume of perchlorate
stretching southeast from the company's old road-flare plant on
Tennant Avenue, in Morgan Hill. Perchlorate contamination was
first reported by the company in February 2001 when it was
trying to sell the factory. 

From 1956 to 1995 Olin and Standard Fuse operated the factory
where perchlorate leaked into the ground, possibly from an
evaporation pond for factory water, on-site incineration of
flares and accidental spills. The evaporation pond was used as
an alternative to disposing polluted water into storm drains.

Perchlorate is a chemical used in rocket fuel, explosives and
road flares. It is known to disrupt thyroid function and
prenatal growth and development. Scientists are debating on how
much perchlorate it takes to cause health problems.

Last spring, Olin submitted a plume report that identified four
geographic areas southeast of the factory. Area I is roughly
bordered by U.S. 101, Middle Avenue, the Union Pacific Railroad
and the northern boundary of the Tennant Avenue factory. The
plume report addressed groundwater flow, current and historical
perchlorate concentrations and the number of detections above
the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard
Assessment's public health goal of 6 parts per billion.

Along with the plan, Olin submitted its Area I Plume Migration
Control Feasibility Study, which developed four ways of removing
groundwater and treating it. While the feasibility of plume
migration control is still being evaluated for the entire plume,
the water board requested the Area I Work Plan to be finished
this month so remediation within the highest concentration zones
could begin more quickly.

Area I contains concentrations of perchlorate as high as 24.4
parts per billion and above - which are the highest levels
detected by Olin in the South County watershed. According to
Olin, all readings of 24.5 parts per billion or higher are
located in area I.

The company would spend eight months exploring how to treat
water so it could go directly into drinking water systems,
according to the proposed schedule.

Tony Burchyns covers county issues for the Dispatch. Reach him
at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or 

tburchyns@morganhilltimes.com.

	Tony Burchyns is a staff writer for South Valley Newspapers. He
can be reached at (408) 779-4106 or at
tburchyns@svnewspapers.com.   
*****************************************************************
 61 The Australian: Rush for slice of yellowcake 

+ NEWS.com.au | 		

 Andrew Trounson December 16, 2006 

URANIUM buyers are offering BHP Billiton contract prices above
long-term forecasts in order to grab a slice of a planned
trebling in yellowcake production the miner is planning at its
Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.

 In a presentation to analysts visiting Olympic Dam this week,
BHP said that, with many countries pursuing "massive nuclear
expansion plans", demand was set to be strong. And it noted that
power utilities were on the hunt to secure forward supplies.
That puts suppliers in a strong position. BHP said long-term
contracting was becoming more market based, combining a floor
price with a fluctuating market price, and that buyers were
looking for long-term deals of more than 10 years. 

According to UBS, BHP told analysts that buyers were agreeing to
escalating floor prices, with prices starting above current
long-term price assumptions, though below the currently hot spot
market. 

Most uranium is sold under long-term contracts. That has meant
miners have missed out on the soaring spot price. 

Olympic Dam's current uranium production is fully sold out to
2010 at less than $US20 a pound, compared with a spot price
today of over $US65 a pound. That is almost double where it was
at the start of the year. 

BHP is aiming to complete a pre-feasibility study on a $6
billion-plus expansion of Olympic Dam by mid-2008. The expansion
would treble uranium oxide production to 15,000 tonnes a year
with production ramping up from 2013. 

Privacy Terms © The Australian
*****************************************************************
 62 ITAR-TASS: Kyrgyzstan asks for Russia help in uranium dump project

15.12.2006, 15.31

 BISHKEK, December 15 (Itar-Tass) - The Kyrgyz-Russian
intergovernmental economic cooperation commission finisged its
meeting in Bishkek on Friday. 

One of its decisions was to consider a possibility of Russia’s
participation in recultivation in Kyrgyzstan of uranium
production waste. 

The commission asked the Russia Federal Agency for Nuclear
Energy (Rosatom) to examine feasibility of the project and
“determine the need for and priorities in rehabilitation work”
at uranium and rare metal waste depots. 

The sides also agreed to hold a meeting of joint working groups
of Rosatom and Kyrgyzstan’s Emergency Situations Ministry for
examining bilateral cooperation in “securing radiation and
ecological safety in areas of tailing ponds” in Kyrgyzstan. 

The Kyrgyz side also asked the Russians for examining a
“possibility of funding and research and development for
recultivation of the tailing ponds”. 

Kyrgyzstan has about 30 uranium Soviet-era waste and rare metal
dumps. 

After the Soviet Union’s collapse, any rehabilitation operation
have not been carried out in these areas because of shortage of
funds. 

As a result, many of the waste depots are a danger to the
environment of the whole region. 

© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 63 Top UN Legal Official Calls For Ratification Of Treaty Against Nuclear Terrorism
 
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:00:49 -0500


 
TOP UN LEGAL OFFICIAL CALLS FOR RATIFICATION OF TREATY AGAINST NUCLEAR 
TERRORISM
New York, Dec 15 2006 12:00PM
The United Nations top legal official today appealed to Member States 
to become parties to the International Convention for the Suppression 
of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. 

“The Convention closes for signature on 31 December,” said the UN 
Legal Counsel, Nicolas Michel. “Currently, more than 110 States 
have signed and 11 have ratified, hitting the half-way mark as the 
Convention needs 22 ratifications to enter into force. I call on 
Member States to join in this crucial treaty as soon as possible.” 

The <" http://untreaty.un.org/English/notpubl/English_18_15.pdf">Convention, 
adopted by the General Assembly on 13 April 2005, covers 
a broad range of possible targets, including nuclear power plants 
and nuclear reactors. Under its provisions, the alleged offenders 
must be either extradited or prosecuted. States are to cooperate 
in preventing terrorist attacks by sharing information and 
assisting each other in criminal investigations and extradition proceedings. 


“The Convention will play a crucial role in preventing terrorists 
from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction, the use of which 
could lead to catastrophic consequences,” Mr. Michel said. “It 
will strengthen the international legal framework for suppressing 
terrorism and be a valuable addition to the already existing 
universal anti-terrorism conventions.” 

Of the five terrorism-related treaties deposited with the UN Secretary-General, 
this Convention is the only one not in force, Mr. 
Michel said. “We are approaching the second anniversary of its adoption, 
and it would be wonderful if it could enter into force in 

States which are not in a position to sign the Convention before 
31 December 2006 will retain the possibility of becoming party to 

On 8 September 2006 all 192 UN Member States adopted the UN Global 
Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which Secretary-General Kofi Annan 
<"http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sgsm10625.doc.htm">called 
“an historic breakthrough in many ways”. 

“The General Assembly has set out its vision for defeating terrorism 
around the world,” Mr. Annan said on that occasion. “Member States 
must embark without delay on the journey they have mapped out 
so carefully. They must start translating their commitments into 
reality at once.” 

In the <"http://www.un.org/terrorism/strategy-counter-terrorism.html">Strategy’s 
Plan of Action Member States commit to become parties 
without delay to the existing international conventions and 
protocols against terrorism and also pledge to implement their provisions.
 2006-12-15 00:00:00.000 


___________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ 
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 64 DOE: U.S. and China Announce Cooperation on FutureGen and Sign 
Energy Efficiency Protocol at U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue
 
  December 15, 2006
 
BEIJING, CHINA - The United States and China today announced
that China will join the Government Steering Committee of the
FutureGen project making China the third country to join the
United States in the FutureGen International Partnership.  The
U.S. and China also signed an Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy Protocol renewing cooperation in advancing clean
technology including solar, wind, and biomass.  The agreements
were made as an outcome of the U.S.-China Strategic Economic
Dialogue (SED) in Beijing. 

We welcome China and their expertise to the FutureGen project. 
China and the U.S. share a common energy resource in coal, so it
is imperative that we work together to find ways to use coal
effectively, efficiently, and without contributing emissions,
Secretary Bodman said.  Our joint efforts in developing new
energy technologies including clean coal and renewable energy
will enhance our nations energy security, provide for economic
growth, and reduce harmful pollutants." 

The $1 billion FutureGen initiative is a ten-year effort
announced by President Bush in 2003.  Once operational, this
plant will remove and sequester carbon dioxide while producing
electricity and hydrogen, making it the environmentally cleanest
fossil fuel fired power plant in the world.  FutureGen will
initiate operations in 2012 and will be the first plant in the
world to produce both electricity and commercial-grade hydrogen
from coal, simultaneously.  Virtually every aspect of the 275
megawatt prototype plant will be based on cutting-edge
technology.  Once completed, the technology will be used by
member countries to reduce emissions around the globe. 

In addition, the U.S.-China Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy Protocol renews the joint collaboration in developing and
deploying clean, energy efficient and renewable energy
technology including solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and
hydrogen energy.  Secretary Bodman and Chinas Minister of
Science and Technology (MOST) Xu Guanhua pledged to continue
work to advance clean renewable energy technologies through
discussions on market potential and commercialization and
methods and results of research and development. 

During bilateral discussions with MOST Minister Xu Guanhua and
NDRC Minister Ma Kai, Secretary Bodman also highlighted ongoing
cooperation to advance energy security through a number of
cooperative efforts.  These efforts include the Asia Pacific
Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP); the
International Partnership for a Hydrogen Economy; the Carbon
Sequestration Leadership Forum; the International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor; and the Generation IV International Forum.
 Secretary Bodman met with Chinas Atomic Energy Authority
Chairman Sun Qin during which he underscored the importance of
the U.S. and Chinas cooperation in nonproliferation work and
discussed U.S. private sector development and availability of
the most advanced, safe and cost-effective nuclear energy
technology available.  These meetings follow Secretary Bodmans
meeting Thursday with U.S. business leaders in China where they
discussed current business opportunities and the role of the
business community in the development and advancement of science
and technology in the energy sector. 

Earlier in the day Secretary Bodman participated the SEDs fifth
and final session on Energy, Environment and Sustainable
Development with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Administrator Steve Johnson, NDRC Minister Ma Kai, and Chinas
State Environmental Protection Administration Zhou Shengxian. 
Moderated by Treasury Secretary Paulson, Secretary Bodman and
his counterparts discussed a myriad of energy related issues. 

Secretary Bodman traveled to China after visiting Japan and
Korea earlier this week. Tomorrow Secretary Bodman will
participate in the Five-Party Energy Dialogue with China, India,
Japan and South Korea where Secretary Bodman will highlight the
importance of diversification of supplies and suppliers,
improved energy efficiency, and the use of strategic oil
reserves in advancing global energy security. 

Media contact(s): Anne Womack Kolton, (202) 586-4940     [ ]   

  U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | 
Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403
*****************************************************************
 65 Hanford News: Parts of Hanford funding in doubt; Democrats in Congress
planning to move on to work on 2008 budget
 
This story was published Thursday, December 14th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

Congressional Democrats plan to skip work on passage of a new
Hanford budget for the 2007 fiscal year that began in October
and move on to the 2008 budget. 

Congress adjourned for the year last week without Senate action
on the bill that includes the Hanford budget, the energy and
water appropriations bill, and eight others. 

Instead, a continuing resolution was passed to keep the
government operating until mid-February, more than a third of
the way through the fiscal year 2007, at current funding levels. 

Democrats are blaming Republicans for not passing nine
appropriations bills for fiscal year 2007, which began in
October. 

The chairmen who will lead the Senate and House Appropriations
Committees next year under new Democratic majorities announced
this week that they will "dispose of the Republican budget
leftovers by passing a yearlong joint resolution." 

"Clearly, it's not an ideal situation," said Alex Glass,
spokeswoman for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. 

While details of the continuing resolution proposed to pay for
Hanford and other government programs through September 2007
have yet to be worked out, some Hanford funding is likely to be
in jeopardy. 

The continuing resolution set funding at the fiscal year 2006
level or the amount set in the budget passed by the House,
whichever is less. The House had approved a $600 million budget
for the vitrification plant under construction at Hanford and
the Senate budget, which did not make it to the full Senate, set
it at $690 million. 

For the vitrification plant, that means operating under an
annual budget of $526 million. When construction began on the
$12.2 billion plant to treat some of Hanford's worst waste,
plans were based on steady funding of $690 million a year. 

The details of the yearlong continuing resolution proposed by
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-Va., and Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wis., are not yet
known. 

"We will do our best to make whatever limited adjustments are
possible within the confines of the Republican budget to address
the nation's most important policy concerns," they said in a
joint statement. 

Congress will start work on the new continuing resolutions after
the 110th Congress convenes in January, Glass said. 

Last week Murray criticized Republicans for refusing to move the
energy and water bill forward before adjourning. She said that
would lead to funding delays at Hanford and will mean that
cleanup will take longer and cost more. 

The office of Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., responded by pointing
out that the Republican-led House passed all but one of its
funding bills. Hastings believes continuing resolutions are a
poor way of doing business, said Todd Young, his chief of staff. 

Although the Senate Hanford budget that was not voted on
included more money for the vitrification plant than the House
budget, it included less money for some other projects. 

The House budget would have increased money to build replacement
laboratories at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In
addition, it included more money for technologies to clean up
contaminated ground water at Hanford and for the bulk
vitrification test project. 

Although the details of the yearlong continuing resolution are
unknown, the Department of Energy likely will have some
discretion on how it spends budgeted money. 

© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 66 Hanford News: Buildings at PNNL research campus sold
 
This story was published Friday, December 15th, 2006 

By Mary Hopkin, Herald staff writer 

A handful of buildings at the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory research campus that were being leased by Battelle
have been sold for $72 million. 

Steve Storrar, first vice president of the investment properties
group for CB Richard Ellis in Seattle, brokered the deal with
Hans Siebert of Newmark Realty Capital for Dick Hoch, of Sigma
Financial Group in Kennewick. 

"It was a very complicated transaction," said Storrar, adding
that the deal had been in the works for more than three years. 

The sale includes the Information Sciences Buildings at 3320 and
3350 Q Avenue, the Environmental Technology Building at 3200 Q
Avenue, the National Security Building at 3230 Q Avenue and 620
Battelle Blvd., aka The Guest House at PNNL, which is used to
house visiting scientists, interns and students. 

The buildings were purchased by a group of investors put
together by Mike Henry, who has been managing the buildings,
Storrar said. 

Greg Koller, of PNNL media relations, said Battelle would
continue to lease and work in the buildings, which are part of
PNNL's Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory. 

"Nothing is expected to change," he said. 

Collectively, the buildings, which were constructed from 1990 to
2001, provide more than 300,000 square feet of space. 

        
© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 67 Hanford News: State lobbyist named top chief of Senate energy, water group
 
This story was published Thursday, December 14th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The lobbyist for Washington state is moving to a new job with
substantial influence over critical issues for the state,
including the Hanford nuclear reservation. 

Doug Clapp has been named the clerk, or chief of staff, for the
Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. The
subcommittee develops the Senate budget for Hanford and also
controls the purse strings for money spent on other issues
important to Eastern Washington, including energy, dams and
irrigation. 

"It's a very powerful staff role," said Tim Peckinpaugh, an
attorney and lobbyist for the Tri-City Development Council. 

Clapp was an aide to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and focused on
natural resource issues before being hired by Gov. Chris
Gregoire in 2005. 

She reopened an office in Washington, D.C., to represent state
issues and named Clapp director. The office had been closed
three years earlier to save money. 

Clapp lobbied the administration on issues such as Hanford
funding, health care, employment security, timber policy, salmon
policy, education and energy. 

His work for Murray and Gregoire leaves him in a unique position
to understand the issues important to the Mid-Columbia and the
state, Peckinpaugh said. Although Clapp won't make funding
decisions, he'll work closely with the Senators who do. 

Mark Rupp has been named to replace Clapp as the state lobbyist.
He's currently the governor's policy adviser on health care
issues. 

© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 68 cbs13.com: Explosive Controversy Heats Up In Tracy
           
[clock] Dec 14, 2006 7:49 pm US/Pacific 

John Iander Reporting 

(CBS13) TRACY, Calif. There's an explosion planned at test site
in the Central Valley, and residents fear it could launch
radioactive material into their air. Now there's a fight to stop
those planned tests at Site 300, just outside of Tracy near the
Lawrence Livermore Lab.

The Lawrence Livermore Lab has been setting off 60 to 80 blasts
a year; most have been small, but next year two larger 300-pound
explosions are planned using depleted uranium. For Tracy shoe
shop owner Bob Sarvey, that means the potential of a radioactive
release.

"Depleted uranium is a substance that soldiers in Iraq are
suffering from, it's in the tanks and the artillery shells...I
don't want that happening to my community," said Sarvey. 

Lab officials say any scare is totally irresponsible and
completely unfounded.

"We haven't fired any radio active materials around here and we
never will fire any radio active materials out here," said lab
spokesperson David Schwoegler. 

Sarvey showed CBS13 the risk assessment from the local
government and says someone must be worried to have added a
cancer risk footnote, and that's before any review of potential
radioactivity. 

Scientists say they monitor any noise or air pollution. The air
quality board is set to consider the appeal in January. 
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.) 	 	
From Our Partners
 	 	 		 			 		 	 	 
© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 69 lamonitor.com: LANL auditing KSL actions 

The Online News Source for Los Alamos
 
CAROL A. CLARK Monitor Senior Reporter

The Ethics and Audits Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory 
is auditing their largest subcontractor - KSL Services. According 
to information obtained by the Monitor, the Ethics and Audits 
Division was notified of possible collusion between immediate 
past president Mike Bagale and ScottMadden Inc., a management 
consulting firm brought into KSL during the last 18 months by 
Bagale.

LANL spokesman Kevin Roark confirmed this morning that the lab is 
looking into procedures at KSL. 

"Whenever the lab receives a complaint about any of its
contracts, it's our obligation to diligently look into those
concerns. However, that does not mean we'll find anything,"
Roark said. "We are conducting a review of KSL procedures. That
review is still ongoing and even when it's done, it may be
inappropriate to talk about its results and it is certainly not
appropriate to talk about it while it's ongoing."

Current KSL president David E. Whitaker said in an interview
Monday that Bagale met a ScottMadden consultant while working at
a nuclear power plant in Canada and the two stayed in touch.
Bagale invited him and apparently four to five other ScottMadden
consultants, including Whitaker, to do consulting for KSL. 
Whitaker said he was a ScottMadden consultant for 13 years
before resigning on Aug. 31. He became Bagale's deputy general
manager at that time. Bagale resigned from KSL on Friday and
Whitaker became president and general manager. Whittaker is the
third president at KSL in about the last 13 months.

"As far as we're concerned," Roark said, "this is unconnected to
the recent departure of KSL president and general manager Mike
Bagale." 
Auditor Brenda Fresquez of the Ethics and Audits Division is
said to be conducting the audit.

ScottMadden, according to their website, specializes in the
energy industry providing shared services and outsourcing. The
company was founded some 20 years ago and has offices in Raleigh
and Atlanta.

KSL was awarded the laboratory's Support Services Contract in
February 2003. They are undergoing a re-organization and have
been laying off some of their 1,320 employees recently.

According to their website, KSL provides support services for
LANL. KSL is a joint venture comprised of the following
companies:


+  Kellogg Brown &Root Inc. Government Operations;


+  Shaw Environmental &Infrastructure Inc.; and


+  Los Alamos Technical Associates Inc.

The KSL Board of Directors, as stated on their website, includes
Chairman Joseph Cosumano, Jr. from Kellogg, Brown &Root and
members Peter Glynn from Kellogg, Brown &Root, Ronald Crowell
from Kellogg, Brown &Root, William Winkler from Shaw
Infrastructure, Inc. Daniel Melchior from Shaw Infrastructure,
Inc. Robert Kingsbury from Los Alamos Technical Associates, Dick
Martinez from Technical Design, Inc. and Danny Beavers who
serves as a business representative from Local Union No. 412.

These companies combined, provide more than 75 percent of LANL's
worker force providing multiple services varying from simple
custodial workers to nuclear scientists and technicians,
according to the KSL website.

  © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 70 UPI: Mishap in dismantling nuclear warhead
     
 United Press International - NewsTrack - 

12/15/2006 1:28:00 PM -0500

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A watchdog group charges a
nuclear warhead nearly exploded in Texas when it was being
dismantled at the government's Pantex facility near Amarillo. 

The Project on Government Oversight says it has been told by
knowledgeable experts that the warhead nearly detonated in 2005
because an unsafe amount of pressure was applied while it was
being disassembled, The Austin American-Statesman reports. 

The U.S. Energy Department fined the plant's operators $110,000
last month. 

An investigator for Project on Government Oversight says the
weapon involved was a W-56 warhead with 100 times the
destructive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 

The watchdog group says the problem was caused in part by
technicians at the plant being required to work up to 72 hours
each week. 

They released an anonymous letter, reportedly sent by Pantex
employees, warning that long hours and efforts to increase
output were causing dangerous conditions at the plant. 

A spokesperson for the Energy Department declined to respond to
safety complaints in the letter.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
    
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material is distributed without profit or payment to those who 
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