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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 London Times: Russia defies West and goes ahead with nuclear fuel sa
2 Xinhua: Iran defies on nuke issue as UNSC resorts to sanction measur
3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI calls for US policy change 
4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI keeps on peaceful N-activity 
5 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Nuclear case is closed - President 
6 AFP: Iran offers Arab states nuclear technology 
7 AFP: Moderates progress in Iran vote amid strong turnout - 
8 AFP: Russia hopes for UN consensus on Iran by year's end - minister 
9 Guardian Unlimited: UN resolution on Iran 'emerging' 
10 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Offers to Transfer Nuke Technology 
11 [NYTr] North Korea Nuclear Talks to Resume Monday
12 AFP: US, NKorea to meet before nuclear talks 
13 Korea Herald: Negotiators gather in Beijing for nuke talks   
14 RIA Novosti: Russia to seek Korea peninsula nuclear-free status at t
15 YONHAP NEWS: N. Korean envoy urges U.S. to lift sanctions
16 YONHAP NEWS: Hill asks N. Korea to abide by its promise to denuclear
17 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Nuclear Talks Will Reconvene
18 Korea Times: Time Is Not on Bush¡¯s Side 
19 Antiwar.com: So Much for Inalienable Rights - 
20 US: LU-S&J: NUCLEAR LEGACY: Atomic comp program criticized
21 London Times: Shake-up for UK’s nuclear sub yards - Sunday Times - 
22 Xinhua: Interview: Ban Ki-moon outlines major tasks as new U.N. chie
23 Scotsman.com: Scots Labour MPs oppose Trident
24 icWales: Scots case boosts anti-tip campaign
25 Guardian Unlimited: Blair outlines Mid East peace hopes
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
26 [NYTr] China, USA, Westinghouse Sign Nuke Contract
27 The Hindu: India confident of Japan's support on nuclear energy 
28 India PRwire: Technopark joins hands with US laboratory 
29 HindustanTimes.com: 'Objectional clauses must be deleted from N-deal
30 Interfax: Environmentalists hold rally to protect Lake Baikal
31 US: KnoxNews: TVA bonus pool takes dip
32 BBC NEWS: China awards massive nuclear deal
33 Economic Times: All's not well with US N-law- 
34 Economic Times: 'India shouldn't hurry in signing N-deal'- 
35 US: APP.COM: Radioactive isotope found near Oyster Creek nuclear pow
36 US: Clarion-Ledger: Energy: Can Miss. safely lead the way? - 
37 AFP: China says will work for energy security 
38 AFP: China opts for US firm over French in nuclear energy deal 
39 AFP: Beijing, Washington Sign Pact
40 US: Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Growing needs, changing attitudes fuel 
41 US: Star-Banner: Nuclear power makes comeback 
42 IHT: Swedish reactor shuts down after mishap - 
43 AFP: Indian PM confident of Japan's support to US nuclear deal -
44 AFP: India's top nuclear scientists oppose US deal 
45 US: Times Union: Nuclear power, U.S. aren't a good mix 
46 AFP: Bush to sign 'hugely important' India nuke deal 
47 Shanghai Daily : US trumps France in reactor bid
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
48 washingtonpost.com: Japan Upgrades Its Defense Agency - 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
49 [NYTr] Polonium 210: Evidence Points to Russian Exiles, Not Putin
50 US: Nuclear Weapon Almost Accidently Detonates In Texas
51 Polonium 210 - evidence points to exiled Russians - not Putin
52 London Times: Ex-spy ‘killed for dossier on Kremlin boss’ - 
53 US: Pantagraph.com: Letters | U.S. shouldn't use depleted uranium
54 US: GazetteOnline: No radioactivity concerns from I-80 truck leak
55 US: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Censored WWII reports unveiled 61 years later
56 New York Times: Poisoned Spys Wife Says He Feared Kremlins Long Re
57 AFP: Litvinenko murdered over damaging file on Russian business part
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
58 London Times: Former BNFL unit in $8bn nuclear deal with China - 
59 Herald Sun: Greenpeace to intercept 'nuke' ship
60 US: Sydney Morning Herald: Australia sending uranium to Taiwan - 
61 Sydney Morning Herald: Nuclear cargo movement to stay secret - 
62 The State: Yucca nuclear storage project may be doomed
63 US: The State: Nuke waste, spent fuel might stay in S.C.
64 AU ABC: Greenpeace angry after nuclear waste transported through Syd
65 Independent: Britain turns to Bechtel as it plans giant nuclear wast
66 US: The Australian: Rudd 'won't force uranium mining' | | 
67 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: Certain WIPP waste shipments on hold 
68 US: The Australian: Secrecy over nuclear fuel 'necessary' 
69 US: cbs4denver.com: Facility Could Face Fines For Radioactive Waste
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
70 ENS: Environment, Energy Top New U.S.-China Strategic Agenda 
71 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Meddling with research 
72 Tri-City Herald: Consider community in Hanford contracts 
73 Tri-City Herald: Yakamas to assess Hanford's toll 
74 washingtonpost.com: Panel Seeks Consensus On U.S. Nuclear Arsenal -
75 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Republican senator objects to proposed fundi
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 London Times: Russia defies West and goes ahead with nuclear fuel sale to Iran
              
The Sunday Times                         December 17, 2006                    

Mark Franchetti, Moscow
 		   		 		
RUSSIA is to begin supplying Iran with nuclear fuel early next 
year despite mounting concern in the West that this could 
accelerate Tehran’s plans to build a nuclear bomb. 

Sergei Shmatko, head of Atomstroyexport, Russia’s state nuclear 
fuel exporter, said last week that preparations to send fuel to 
Iran would start next month and the first consignment was 
expected to reach the Islamic republic in early spring. 

The announcement, at a time when Russia is asserting itself as
an energy power, has caused anxiety in western countries which
are trying to convince the Kremlin to end its nuclear
co-operation with Tehran. 

The concerns were strengthened yesterday when President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad was reported to have told a Kuwaiti envoy that Iran
was ready to transfer its nuclear technology to neighbouring
countries. 

The nuclear fuel will be sent to Bushehr, Iran’s first nuclear
power station, which has been built by Russia over the past
decade as part of a £450m contract. Iran says the plant will be
used to produce energy and that its nuclear programme is solely
for civilian purposes. 

Officially at least Moscow accepts the claim. The West has
little doubt that Tehran’s real aim is to build a nuclear bomb
and is afraid that as a nuclear power Iran would threaten Israel
and destabilise the region. 

Shmatko estimated Bushehr would become operational about six
months after the first fuel reaches it in March. 

“We are simply fulfilling our contractual obligations,” said
Irina Esipova, of Atomstroyexport. “Every country has a right to
develop its own peaceful nuclear power programme. The fuel is
ready and in storage in Siberia. In the spring it will be sent
to Tehran by plane.” 

After lengthy negotiations last year Moscow signed an agreement
with Iran that the Russians believe will prevent the Islamic
republic from developing a nuclear device. 

Spent nuclear fuel produced at the Bushehr plant is to be sent
back to Russia for storage and the process will be monitored by
the International Atomic Energy Agency. But there are fears in
America that Iran will find ways of siphoning off spent fuel
containing plutonium, which could be used for a bomb.   	 		



Far from seeking to appease the United States, Russia has been in 
talks with Iran about the possibility of building as many as five 
more reactors, including a second one at Bushehr, over the next 
10 years.

"The Russians are playing a complex game of brinkmanship," said a 
western diplomat. "The contracts with Iran are lucrative but they 
also give the Kremlin influence.

"On the other hand it knows the Iranians want the bomb. To allow 
this to happen would not be in Russia's interest so it wants to 
help Tehran but not so much as to allow it to build a bomb. It 
may be a shrewd game but it's also dangerous. The Russians may 
yet decide to postpone fuel shipments."

The timing of Atomstroyexport's announcement has also raised 
eyebrows since it came in the week that the United Nations is 
debating Iran's nuclear programme. Russia, which has the power of 
veto in the security council, has up to now opposed imposing 
sanctions on Tehran.

America, Britain, France and Germany quietly agreed this autumn 
to exclude the issue of Russian assistance for Bushehr as a way 
of securing agreement for sanctions.

Ilan Berman, an expert on Iran at the American Foreign Policy 
Council in Washington, said that the American view was: "If doing 
a deal with Bushehr is the only way to get an agreement on 
sanctions, then so be it." Bushehr is too well known to be 
regarded as a prime site for development of nuclear weapons.

"However, if the Iranians do go nuclear, it will be a large 
component in the story of how they succeeded," Berman said.

The Kremlin has recently softened its stance at the UN and may be 
open to a resolution that puts pressure on the Iranians but falls 
short of full sanctions. Talks resumed on Friday at ambassadorial 
level and may be put to a vote at the security council this week. 

                                                                        

Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 2 Xinhua: Iran defies on nuke issue as UNSC resorts to sanction measures
  
  www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-18 07:30:23   

    TEHRAN, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iranian leaders kept their
hardline stance on the country's controversial nuclear program
Sunday while Western powers were trying to seek a sanction
resolution against Tehran at UN Security Council (UNSC) for its
refusal to halt uranium enrichment work. 

    The EU trio Britain, France and Germany on Dec. 8 introduced
a modified draft resolution to 15 member states of the UNSC and
hoped the Security Council could pass it as soon as possible. 

    According to media reports, the draft requested Iran to
cease enrichment and works related to heavy-water reactor and
allow the International Atomic Energy Agency experts to carry
out snap inspections. 

    Last week, Western officials said the EU trio, the U.S.,
Russia and China were making progress toward the resolution that
would impose penalties on Iran. 

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovalso has said
consensus in the UNSC on Iran's nuclear program can be reached
in the next two weeks if the world powers take a "realistic
approach". 

    As a response, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyed
Mohammad Hosseini said Sunday that Tehran's nuclear program had
been in the international rules and regulations and Iran would
not give up its nuclear activities even UN sanctions imposed.   

    "We will continue our peaceful nuclear activities," stressed
the spokesman at his weekly press conference. 

    In the mean time, during a visit to the country's Friday
elections headquarters, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
said"Iranians had already conquered the peak of nuclear progress
and the case with the nuclear issue has been closed". 

    More over, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also
stressed Sunday that Tehran views any UNSC resolution on
sanctions against Iran as a hostile measure. 

    Speaking at a joint press conference with his Armenian
counterpart, Mottaki described referral of Iran's nuclear
dossier to the UNSC as "illegal and politically-driven". 

    "When a completely technical issue is pretended to be a
security problem, it means that they are politicizing the
issue,"he was quoted as saying by local Fars news agency. 

    These remarks from Tehran's leadership came just two days
after Iran's elections of the Assembly of Experts and local
councils.   

    It has been reported that the turnout of both polls were
quite strong on Friday out of previous expectation. Government
officials have touted the high voters turnout as a "message" to
the West and local analysts have also considered the turnout as
a cardiotonic for the government to resist Western pressure on
the nuclear issue.   

    "Through their impressive turnout under the current
sensitive circumstances, the Iranian people sent a clear message
to enemies of Iran's development," the official IRNA news agency
quoted Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi as saying, who
obviously referred to western critics of Iran's nuclear program.
 
  Editor: Lu Hui   

*****************************************************************
 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI calls for US policy change 

  2006/12/16   
  
Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali
Larijani said Friday Washington can count on Tehran's assistance
if the White House changes its policy in Iraq. 

"If Americans insist on their erroneous strategy, they should
not expect us to help them," he told reporters on the sidelines
of the 4th Leadership Assembly of Experts and 3rd Islamic
Municipal Councils elections as well as second by-elections of
the 7th Majlis.
 
Larijani said certain states in the region were acting wickedly
and with their lobbies and adventurist behavior, they want
America not to change its strategy." 

"Americans can move in a more sensible direction provided that
they do not go along adventurism," he added. 

He said the American Administration had committed a great
mistake in its Iraq startegy and now intends to correct it, but
added that "they should first admit that they have stepped into
a mistaken direction." 

"If America adopts the right strategy, it can then count on
Iran's cooperation. We are not willing to assit them in the
wrong way," the SNSC secretary said.
 
Larijani, who is chief negotiator in the talks on Iran's nuclear
case, also said that the referral of the case to the Security
Council was void of any legal siginificance. 

"If there is any technical problem, it should be discussed in
the International Atomic Energy Agency and the best, logical
solution is through negotiations," he asserted. 

Suggesting that a UNSC resolution can harm logical and
reasonable solutions in the region, he said "Regrettably, some
approaches drive us to conditions to withhold the help we can
provide in the region." 

To a question on I.R. of Iran and its relations with the IAEA,
he said Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog enjoy close ties.
 
"As long as the IAEA is not invalidated, we will keep our honest
approach," said the Secretary of the Supreme National Security
Council. 
mk   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir     
*****************************************************************
 4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI keeps on peaceful N-activity 

  2006/12/17   
  
Islamic Republic of Iran on Sunday stressed it would not abandon 
its peaceful nuclear program even if a resolution were adopted 
against the country.
 
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sayed Mohammad-Ali Hosseini made the 
remark while speaking to domestic and foreign reporters at his 
weekly press conference.
 
"Iran will continue its peaceful nuclear activities," he said.
 
He added, "Iran's nuclear activities are carried out within the 
frameworks of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and 
international regulations."
 
M/D   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir     

*****************************************************************
 5 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Nuclear case is closed - President 

  2006/12/17   
  
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that Tehran considered
its nuclear issue as closed.
 
He made the remarks on the sidelines of a surprise visit to the
Interior Ministry's election headquarters two days after the
fourth Leadership Assembly of Experts election was held on
Friday simultaneously with the third Civil and Village Councils
elections.
 
The second by-elections of the Majlis was also held on the same
day (Friday) in three constituencies -- Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat
and Eslamshahr (taken as one), Bam and Ahvaz.
 
Asked how the Friday's elections would influence the fate of IRI
nuclear issue at the international arena, the President said,
"we believe that the nuclear issue is closed."
 
He added that massive turn-out in the elections was a "great
epic" which has made enemies of the country disappointed.
 
The President praised domestic media and press for their full
coverage of the elections saying they have done "a good job."
 
President Ahmadinejad urged winners of the Civil and Village
Council elections to serve the nation and avoid serving their
own interests or those of their relevant parties.
 
He advised them to make use of the opportunity and serve the
noble nation of IRI.
 
M/D   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir     
*****************************************************************
 6 AFP: Iran offers Arab states nuclear technology 

Saturday December 16, 07:06 PM 

  [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]   

TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered to share
Iranian-made nuclear technology with Arab states in the Gulf
after they expressed a desire to acquire it, Iranian media
reported.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to provide its experience
and valuable achievements in peaceful nuclear technology as a
clean source of energy and as oil replacement to all regional
countries," Ahmadinejad told a visiting Kuwaiti envoy, Mohammed
Zeyfullah Shirar.

Ahmadinejad's offer comes a week after Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) leaders ended a two-day summit in Riyadh by announcing
they planned to seek nuclear energy technology.

They said in a statement that "the states of the (Gulf) region
have a right to possess nuclear energy technology for peaceful
purposes ... within the context of the pertinent international
agreements." 

The GCC leaders also called for a peaceful settlement of the
crisis over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects
could be cover for nuclear weapons development.

Iran insists it only wants to produce electricity for its
growing population. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 7 AFP: Moderates progress in Iran vote amid strong turnout - 

 by Farhad Pouladi Sat Dec 16, 5:12 PM ET 		 	 

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian authorities hailed strong turnout in twin 
votes for municipal councils and a powerful clerical body that 
appeared to have helped embattled moderate forces to a 
respectable showing. 

 In Tehran province, a bellwether for national political trends,
partial results for the Assembly of Experts vote on Friday
showed that centrist cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was well
ahead of his ultra-conservative rival. 

Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, seen as a spiritual mentor to
hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was relegated to sixth
place with half the votes counted, Interior Minister Mostafa
Pour Mohammadi said. 

For the local elections, unconfirmed reports showed that Tehran
city council would be shared between conservatives, reformists
and technocrats -- an improvement for moderates who currently
have no seats on the council. 

Even with results creeping in at a slow place, there was little
doubt turnout had exceeded expectations in both votes, with
officials putting the participation nationwide at a minimum of
60 percent. 

Pour Mohammadi said ballots counted so far for the Assembly of
Experts elections showed that 28 million people participated out
of 46 million voters. 

Such a figure is already much higher than in the last elections
in 1998 for the Assembly of Experts -- which has the job of
choosing and supervising the supreme leader -- when
participation only reached 46 percent. 

The previous local elections in February 2003 had proved an
embarrassment for the authorities, with less than 50 percent of
voters turning up nationwide and a paltry 10 percent bothering
to cast votes in the capital Tehran. 

"Also in the local elections we have seen an increase compared
to the two previous polls," Pour Mohammadi added. 

This time the turnout in the capital was around 30 percent,
three times more than in 2003, said the governor of Tehran
province Kamran Daneshjoo. 

"Well done this nation," boomed the headline of the hardline
Kayhan daily. "The enemy was once again petrified in the face of
this epic." 

The authorities had urged people to vote en masse to send a
message to the West at a time of mounting tension over Iran" />
's nuclear programme. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
described voting as a "revolutionary duty." 

The top 16 names in Tehran province will make it on to the next
Assembly of Experts. While Rafsanjani and Mesbah Yazdi both
appear certain to win seats, the strength of Rafsanjani's
showing is proving a major surprise. 

Many commentators were quick to write the political obituary of
the former president after his humiliating election defeat to
Ahmadinejad in 2005. 

However he has since moved closer towards the reformist faction,
a fact symbolised by his decision to cast his vote standing next
to former reformist president Mohammad Khatami" /> . 

"Regardless of any results, one of the key outcomes is the
coalition of reformists," said the Ayanadeh No daily, next to a
picture of the two former presidents voting. 

Any reformist seats on Tehran city council would mark an end to
total hardline domination after conservatives swept all the
seats on the once reformist-controlled body in the February 2003
local elections. 

According to the reports, Ahmadinejad's sister Parvin was also
in line to win one of the seats on the 16-member Tehran city
council. 

Final results are expected by Sunday although those for Tehran
city council may not appear until next week, officials said,
prompting complaints from reformists that the process was too
slow. 

Officials were still arguing ahead of the close of polls late
Friday whether to count the votes in Tehran manually or
electronically. The dispute was resolved with an agreement to
split the counting between both methods. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: Russia hopes for UN consensus on Iran by year's end - minister -
    
 Saturday December 16, 08:33 AM 

  [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov]   
    
MOSCOW (AFP) - Consensus in the UN Security Council on Iran's
nuclear program can be reached in the next two weeks if
negotiators take "a realistic approach," RIA Novosti reported
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.

"I hope that it is entirely realistic to come to a consensus in
the days remaining before the New Year if our partners take a
realistic approach and do not insist on certain positions which
we are convinced have nothing to do with the task before us --
inducing Iran to talks and not trying to punish it," Lavrov was
quoted as saying.

The Security Council's five veto-wielding members -- Britain,
China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany have
been struggling to reach consensus on a resolution because of
Russia and China's opposition to harsh sanctions favored by
Western states.

Lavrov expressed "cautious optimism" about the course of the
talks, saying: "We are succeeding in bringing our positions
closer, the process continues, though artificial problems are
appearing along the way."

Western negotiators are pushing for sanctions after Iran ignored
a previous Security Council resolution calling for it to stop
enriching uranium, which the West fears may be used for weapons
development but which Iran insists is destined for its civilian
energy program. 
 
AFP 
*****************************************************************
 9 Guardian Unlimited: UN resolution on Iran 'emerging' 

From Press Association   

Saturday December 16, 2006 3:48 AM

Britain has said a deal is emerging on a United Nations
resolution to impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend
uranium enrichment. 

But Russia remains opposed to a European and US-backed travel
ban against on top officials in the country's nuclear and
missile programmes. 

Ambassadors from six key nations drafting the resolution --
Britain, France, Germany, the US, Russia and China -- reported
some progress at the latest round of closed-door talks. 

"I think a deal is emerging," Britain's UN ambassador Sir Emyr
Jones Parry said. "On all of the elements that were contentious,
there is now a way through them. It's a question of
consolidating the progress we made." 

He said he expected the resolution to be finalised by Tuesday,
but Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said "things are not
ready yet" to put it in a final form. 

The latest draft would order all countries to ban the supply of
specified materials and technology that could contribute to
Iran's nuclear and missile programmes and impose a travel ban
and asset freeze on top figures in the country's nuclear and
missile programs who are named on a UN list. 

Acting US ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States was
still "fighting for" a travel ban which he called "a top
priority". Churkin said earlier this week that Moscow believed
the ban was unnecessary. 

The six countries offered Iran a package of economic incentives
and political rewards in June if it agreed to consider a
long-term moratorium on enrichment and commit to a freeze on
uranium enrichment before talks on its nuclear programme. 

But Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said
his country would continue enrichment and is not intimidated by
the possibility of sanctions. 

Iran insists its nuclear programme is aimed solely at the
peaceful production of nuclear energy, but the United States and
Europe suspects Tehran's ultimate goal is the production of
nuclear weapons. 

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved. 
		 	 	   
    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 10 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Offers to Transfer Nuke Technology 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday December 16, 2006 11:31 PM

AP Photo VAH113 

BY ALI AKBAR DAREINI 

Associated Press Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday
his country was ready to transfer nuclear technology to
neighboring countries, nearly a week after Arab states on the
Persian Gulf announced plans to consider a joint nuclear
program. 

Ahmadinejad told a top Kuwaiti envoy he welcomed the decision by
the Islamic republic's Arab Gulf neighbors to pursue peaceful
nuclear technology, state-run television said. 

``The Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to transfer to
regional states its valuable experience and achievements in the
field of peaceful nuclear technology as a clean energy source
and as a replacement for oil,'' state media quoted Ahmadinejad
as telling Mohammed Zefollah Shirar, a top adviser to the
Kuwaiti emir. 

Such a technological transfer would be legal as long as it is
between signatory states to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,
or NPT, and as long as the International Atomic Energy Agency
that monitors the treaty is informed of the transfer. 

Iran is at odds with the United States and its European allies
over its nuclear program. The Western powers are seeking a U.N.
Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran for its
program, which the U.S. and Europe say is aimed at producing
nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for
the peaceful production of nuclear energy. 

In Washington, Edgar Vasquez, a State Department spokesman, told
The Associated Press on Saturday that Iran's continued defiance
of international nuclear safeguards represents ``a serious
threat'' to maintaining peace and stability in the region. 

``We expect Iran to comply with international obligations under
the NPT and its safeguards agreement with the IAEA,'' Vasquez
said. 

``Iran's noncompliance up to this point is a serious threat,
which we continue to work with our international partners and
the international community in the U.N. Security Council to
remedy.'' 

Unlike Iran, the United States said it had no problem with Gulf
Arab states developing nuclear energy capability because they
show no interest in using the technology to build atomic
weapons. 

The Gulf Corporation Council - made up of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman - said last week
it was commissioning a study on setting up a nuclear energy
program for peaceful purposes, which would abide by
international standards and laws. 

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said Friday that a
deal was emerging on a resolution to impose sanctions on Iran
for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. 

Ambassadors from six key nations drafting the resolution -
Britain, France, Germany, the U.S., Russia and China - reported
some progress at the latest round of talks. But Russia said it
opposes a U.S. and European proposal to ban travel against top
Iranian officials. 

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly and defiantly said his country would
continue enrichment and is not intimidated by the possibility of
sanctions. 

--- 

Associated Press writers John Heilprin in Washington and Edith
M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
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 11 [NYTr] North Korea Nuclear Talks to Resume Monday
 
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:50:27 -0600 (CST)

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Radio Havana Cuba
http://www.radiohc.cu

North Korea Nuclear Talks to Resume

Havana, Dec 16 (RHC)- Six-party talks with North Korea are set to being
again on Monday.

The meeting will be the first time the negotiating nations have met since
Pyongyang set off a nuclear device in October.

Though a new round is scheduled, North Korea has said it will not dismantle
its nuclear weapons until the US ends its "hostile" policy and abandons
sanctions imposed against it.

Al Jazeera news agency reports that Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's deputy
foreign minister, said it was "too early to be optimistic" about progress.
He said: "The most important issue is for the US to make a switchover in
its policy. The problem will be resolved when the hostile policy is changed
to a policy of co-existence."

The six-party talks, held between North Korea, the US, China, Japan, Russia
and South Korea, are aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear program.
In the September 2005 six-party talks accord, Pyongyang agreed in principle
to scrap its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
The US has demanded evidence of North Korea's compliance.

Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and a former UN ambassador, said
after a meeting on Friday that he had pressed officials from North Korea's
UN mission to invite UN weapons inspectors back to the country and shut
down its nuclear reactor.

Richardson said: "What I believe is that the atmosphere is good for some
progress, and that is a step in the right direction, because for 13 months
there's been no progress."

He said that the North Koreans seemed ready for open dialogue. Vice foreign
minister Kim called on Saturday for sanctions to be lifted before Pyongyang
would abandon its nuclear weapons.

"There is no reason to give up our nuclear weapon now. To do so, it is a
prerequisite to lift sanctions against us"
       
                                *
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*****************************************************************
 12 AFP: US, NKorea to meet before nuclear talks 

December 17, 06:21 PM 

BEIJING (AFP) - The top US and North Korean negotiators on
Pyongyang's nuclear program were due to meet one-on-one in the
Chinese capital on Sunday, ahead of the resumption of six-way
talks stalled since last year. 

US envoy Christopher Hill was due to meet with his counterpart
Kim Kye-Gwan after arriving in Beijing amid North Korean calls
for Washington to end its "hostile policy" toward the isolated
state. 

"What the DPRK (North Korea) needs to do is to get serious with
denuclearization," Hill said upon arriving in Beijing. 

"If they get serious with denuclearization, a lot of good things
can happen ... if they do not get serious about denuclearization
such things will go away." 

A series of bilateral meeting between the six parties -- hosts
China, the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan --
are to be held Sunday ahead of a welcoming banquet, Chinese
officials said. 

Hill said he hoped Kim would be able to immediately begin
discussing the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear programs as
agreed to in a September 2005 agreement brokered in the six
party talks process. 

"I hope they are coming here with a serious intention of moving
ahead and implementing the September agreement," he said. 

The six-party talks started in 2003 and led to the September
2005 deal that calls for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear
weapons in return for aid and security guarantees. 

But North Korea walked out of talks weeks later to protest US
financial sanctions on a Macau-based bank accused of laundering
and counterfeiting money on behalf of the impoverished regime. 

Pyongyang then shocked the world with ballistic missile tests in
July and an October 9 nuclear test that resulted in UN Security
Council sanctions. 

On Saturday after arriving in Beijing, Kim said the talks would
fail unless Washington ended its "hostile policy" -- which the
North says was the reason for its nuclear test. 

"The nuclear issues cannot be resolved until the United States
takes a co-existence policy," Kim said. "I'm not optimistic
about prospects for the six-party talks." 

North Korea has also long-demanded that the US financial
sanctions be lifted. 

"Its precondition is for the sanctions imposed on us to be
lifted. I do not yet know whether the US is prepared to do
that," Kim said, adding they would be prepared to discuss some
promises contained in the 2005 deal. 

According to Chinese officials, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei
would also be holding two-way meetings with his counterparts
from South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States. 

Wu would also be hosting the welcoming banquet Sunday evening at
the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in west Beijing where talks will
formally begin Monday morning, they said. 

China has urged all sides to maintain flexible and pragmatic
attitudes and urged patience and restraint in the negotiations. 

On Saturday in Tokyo, Hill said the United States hoped to
resolve the financial sanctions issue but that Washington was
more concerned with denuclearizing North Korea. 

"We want to resolve this. That will of course depend on their
cooperation and depend on legal matters as well," Hill said
after evening talks in Tokyo with Japanese officials. 

   Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
*****************************************************************
 13 Korea Herald: Negotiators gather in Beijing for nuke talks   
        
Korea Herald correspondent

 BEIJING - Chief negotiators held bilateral meetings in Beijing
yesterday ahead of the six-party talks scheduled to reopen
today. The meetings come against the drastically-altered
backdrop of North Korea's nuclear test which took place during
the 13-month hiatus of the negotiations.

 Upon arriving one-by-one over the weekend, the members of the
multilateral talks met each other throughout the afternoon to
review their positions and pick up the momentum of negotiations.
Russia's Alexander Alexeyev did not come due to illness and sent
the Russian Ambassador to China, S.S. Razov, as his replacement.
The six nations include the two Koreas, the United States,
China, Japan and Russia.

 The members returned to the Chinese capital with a cautious
hope of seeing some progress in the decade-old nuclear standoff.

 "Basically, (the success of) this round of talks hinges on
whether the relevant parties have a political intention to
create an opportunity to cut off the chain of negative
dynamometer that had been dominating and restraining the
six-party talks," a high-rank South Korean government official
said on condition of anonymity.

 North Korea's defiant detonation of its nuclear device on Oct.
9 changed the landscape of the nuclear crisis on the Korean
peninsula.

 Although sanctions against the communist regime intensified,
North Korea became more eager to resume negotiations with the
United States, thrusting its nuclear test card against the face
of the Bush administration that had already been hit by the
mid-term election debacle. 

U.S. chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill remained cautious.

 "I'd like to make sure that he's got enough room to maneuver -
that is, he has enough instructions to make a deal," Hill before
leaving for Beijing.

 Hill was apparently referring to his anticipation for North
Korea's response to the detailed proposals relayed during their
15-hour discussion in Beijing last month.

 At the talks joined by China's Wu Dawei, Hill reportedly
offered North Korea a series of first-stage implementation plans
based on the joint statement from September last year. Kim
returned to Pyongyang without clarifying North Korea's position
and later said they were willing to talk once the official
negotiations resume.

 "I think the rest of us do (have room to maneuver), but with
the DPRK delegation, one never knows," Hill said.

 DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North
Korea's official name.

 Hill had been set to meet one-on-one with Kim later in the day.

 North Korea's Kim, in the meantime, maintained its bellicose
position.

 "The nuclear issues cannot be resolved until the United States
takes a co-existence policy," Kim said upon arriving in Beijing
on Saturday. 

"I'm not optimistic about prospects for the six-party talks."

 "Its precondition is for the sanctions imposed on us to be
lifted. I do not yet know whether the U.S. is prepared to do
that," Kim said, adding they would be prepared to discuss some
promises stated in the joint statement.

 The six-parties had agreed on a set of principles to
denuclearize North Korea and to give corresponding economic,
energy and diplomatic incentives. North Korea's commitment to
the joint statement, however, remains suspicious.

 North Korea boycotted the talks since November last year to
protest Washington's financial sanctions on a Macau-based bank
accused of laundering and counterfeiting money from the North.

 Hill reiterated Washington's position that the BDA issue will
be tackled on the sidelines of the six-party talks.

 "I think it's very important that we not focus on these
financial issues, but rather on the central matter of
denuclearizing the Korean peninsula," he said. 

Japan's Kenichiro Sasae said, "We stand at a very important
point. We have agreed that unless North Korea takes concrete
actions, the situation will become extremely difficult." 

(angiely@heraldm.com)

By Lee Joo-hee

2006.12.18
*****************************************************************
 14 RIA Novosti: Russia to seek Korea peninsula nuclear-free status at talks
 
17/ 12/ 2006

BEIJING, December 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will seek the Korean
peninsula's nuclear-free status at six-nation talks on North
Korea's nuclear program, a source close to a Russian delegation
in Beijing said Sunday. 

The Russian delegation led by Russia's Ambassador to China
Sergei Razov arrived December 17 in Beijing to hold
consultations with the parties to six-nation talks on the North
Korea nuclear problem. 

The six-party talks are scheduled to resume December 18. The
negotiations, involving North and South Korea, Russia, Japan,
China and the U.S., were launched in 2003 to persuade North
Korea to give up its controversial nuclear program after
Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Russia sees its main task in achieving the Korean peninsula's
non-nuclear status, strengthening stability and security and
developing cooperation in North-East Asia, the source said. 

"This can be achieved through a constructive dialog and mutual
respect for each other's interests and concerns," the source
said. 

The six-nation talks stalled in November 2005 over Pyongyang's
demand that the U.S. lift sanctions imposed on it for its
alleged involvement in counterfeiting and other illegal
activities. 

Following North Korea's October 9 announcement that it had
conducted its first nuclear bomb test, the UN Security Council
passed a special resolution October 14 blocking all deliveries
of military equipment and supplies to the country. 

                © 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 15 YONHAP NEWS: N. Korean envoy urges U.S. to lift sanctions

2006/12/16 19:43 KST   

 By Lee Chi-dong

 BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's chief nuclear envoy
warned Saturday that there would be no headway in the upcoming
nuclear disarmament talks unless the U.S. changes its "hostile"
policy and drops financial sanctions against the communist
country.

 "The most important issue (at the talks) can be resolved only
when the U.S. shifts its hostile policy on us into a policy of
co-existence," Kim told reporters upon arrival in Beijing. "It
is difficult to be optimistic (on the talks' outcome) yet."
 Kim said North Korea will keep its nuclear programs as long as
"deterrent capability is needed."
 Kim flew to Beijing for a new round of six-party talks on his
country's nuclear program due to open on Monday after a 13-month
hiatus. The talks also involve South Korea, the U.S., China,
Japan and Russia.

 Kim, who also serves as vice foreign minister, said he was
prepared to discuss the real substance of the nuclear row on the
condition that the U.S. lifts financial sanctions imposed in
September last year over Pyongyang.

 "We're prepared to discuss other promises contained in the
Sept. 19 joint statement. Its precondition is for the sanctions
imposed on us to be lifted. I do not yet know whether the U.S.
is prepared to do that," he said.

 Sources said that Kim would start his diplomatic activity here
with a one-on-one meeting with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu
Dawei on Saturday night.

 The Sept. 19, 2005 agreement calls for North Korea to abandon
its nuclear program in return for security guarantees and
economic aid. But the North boycotted further talks in anger
over U.S. financial sanctions imposed over its alleged currency
counterfeiting and other illegal activities.

 U.S. and South Korean officials hope that this round of talks
will make measurable progress on the basis of the first-ever
concrete agreement reached in more than four years of
negotiations.

 Host China said this round of talks will be open-ended to
ensure progress but U.S. and South Korean officials said it
would break for Christmas and resume in January.

 The talks restart in a new political environment created by the
North's nuclear weapons test on Oct. 9 and U.S. President George
W. Bush's loss of control over the Congress to the Democrats in
mid-term elections. Bush is under increasing domestic pressure
to resolve the nuclear issue through bilateral negotiations with
North Korea.

 Although Kim's remarks in Beijing were not new, they were seen
by many as signaling another round of tough negotiations.

 The U.S. has suggested that a "working group" be set up in the
context of the six-party talks to address the North's concern
about the sanctions issue.

 Chun Yung-woo, South Korea's lead delegate, also flew to
Beijing for a possible meeting with his North Korean counterpart
later in the day and said the upcoming talks would be difficult.

 "I expect this round of talks to be difficult as the situation
has worsened enough for the last 13 months," he told reporters.
"But I also view it as a good opportunity to turn the tables as
there is consensus (among the parties concerned) on the need for
substantial progress."
 Progress will depend on the "political will" of each delegate,
he added.

 The chief U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, currently in Tokyo for
discussions with his Japanese counterpart Kenichiro Sasae, is
expected to come to Beijing on Sunday, along with the chief
Russian envoy, Alexander Alexeyev.

 Hill said he would meet with his North Korean counterpart on
Sunday.

 "I believe I will be meeting with Kim Kye-gwan bilaterally
tomorrow," he said. "I look forward to seeing him tomorrow and
exchanging reviews with him."
 Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South
Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon discussed the North Korean
nuclear issue by telephone on Saturday morning, and agreed to
closely cooperate to resolve the crisis through diplomacy, South
Korea's Foreign Ministry said.

 There were hopeful sings in the U.S., however, that next week's
talks may get off to a good start.

 "I am cautiously optimistic that there is the chance for good
progress," Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico said in a
statement after meeting in his office with North Korea's deputy
U.N. mission chief Kim Myong-gil and First Secretary Song Se-il.

 The White House gave a positive assessment of Richardson's
meeting with the North Koreans. Richardson, regarded as a
Democratic presidential hopeful, has good contacts with North
Korean leaders.

 Various diplomatic sources said that the U.S. may offer to
guarantee in writing North Korea's security if Pyongyang agrees
to take concrete actions to implement the joint statement.

 As the first sign of "good faith," the U.S. wants the North to
halt its graphite-moderated reactor at its main nuclear complex
in Yongbyon and re-allow U.N. nuclear inspections, declare all
of its nuclear-related programs and shut down the underground
site of its nuclear test, they said.

 lcd@yna.co.kr
 (END)
 
*****************************************************************
 16 YONHAP NEWS: Hill asks N. Korea to abide by its promise to denuclearize

2006/12/17 15:55 KST   

 By Lee Chi-dong

 BEIJING, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- The top U.S. nuclear envoy arrived 
in Beijing on Sunday, saying that North Korea must keep its 
promise to abandon its nuclear program under a deal reached last 
year.

"We are much ready, but if they are not serious about the
denuclearization, nothing is going to get right," Christopher
Hill told reporters upon arrival at the Beijing international
airport.

 Hill said North Korea could not avoid U.N. sanctions unless it
gives up its nuclear weapons program. He cited two U.N. Security
Council resolutions this year punishing the communist country
over its defiant missile and nuclear tests.

 "I think the DPRK knows well they (the sanctions) will remain
in effect as long as the DPRK isn't denuclearized," Hill said,
using the North's official name, the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.

 Before flying to the Chinese capital, Hill said in Tokyo that
he planned to meet his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan,
on Sunday, declaring that "the ball is in North Korea's court."
 The U.S. and North Korea are the two key players in the
six-party talks which also involve South Korea, host China,
Japan and Russia.

 South Korean officials also said that the country's chief
nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo will have a bilateral meeting
with Hill later in the day.

 The open-ended talks are scheduled to reopen on Monday after a
13-month break. North Korea has boycotted the negotiating table
in protest over U.S. financial sanctions imposed on it.

 Under a deal signed by all six dialogue partners on Sept. 19
last year, North Korea agreed in principle to abandon its
nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic and political
benefits.

 But two months later, North Korea boycotted further talks,
protesting U.S. financial sanctions imposed over its alleged
currency counterfeiting and other illegal activities.

 The six nations' delegates will have a dinner meeting on
Sunday. The formal talks are scheduled to open at 10:50 a.m.
(0150 GMT) on Monday at China's state guest house, Diaoyutai, in
Beijing.

 lcd@yna.co.kr
 
(END)
*****************************************************************
 17 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Nuclear Talks Will Reconvene

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Sunday December 17, 2006 8:46 PM

AP Photo XHG111 

By BURT HERMAN 

Associated Press Writer 

BEIJING (AP) - For the first time since it exploded a nuclear
bomb, North Korea returns to international disarmament talks.
The United States says the choice is simple - negotiate or face
sanctions. 

The six-nation talks, which reopen Monday in the Chinese
capital, have been plagued by delays and discord since they
began in August 2003. 

The U.S. has sought to line up support against Pyongyang's
nuclear ambitions by enlisting its neighbors - including China,
Japan, Russia and South Korea - in the discussions. 

The North exploited divisions among the U.S. and its partners in
an effort to change the subject and buy time to develop its
atomic arsenal. 

But North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test of a low-yield nuclear
device seemed to stiffen the will of other countries -
particularly China - to persuade it to disarm. 

Beijing joined a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution
sanctioning North Korea for its nuclear test, and brought
Pyongyang and Washington together just a few weeks later to
agree to resume nuclear discussions. 

North Korea had boycotted the talks and called for the U.S. to
stop blacklisting a Macau bank where the regime held accounts.
Washington accused North Korea of using the bank in scheme to
launder money and print counterfeit U.S. currency. 

The U.S. insists its accusations against the bank are a separate
legal matter, but Washington has agreed to conduct working-level
talks about the topic alongside the nuclear negotiations. 

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the U.S. nuclear
envoy, says the main task now is to implement an agreement from
September 2005 - the only accord negotiators have reached so far
- when the North promised to abandon its nuclear program in
exchange for security guarantees and aid. The alternative, he
says, is sanctions. 

``I hope that (North Korea) understands that, as the rest of us
do, that we really are reaching a fork in the road,'' Hill said
after arriving in Beijing. 

Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's chief negotiator, said Saturday that
it is up to the Americans to take the first step. After arriving
in Beijing, he called the lifting of the U.S. financial
restrictions a ``precondition'' to further negotiations. 

Hill, meanwhile, emphasized that U.N. sanctions imposed after
the North's nuclear test would remain in effect until the
North's gives up its atomic programs. 

``Most of the world has told them that we don't accept them as a
nuclear state,'' he said. ``If they want a future with us, if
they want to work with us, if they want to be a member of the
international community, they're going to have to get out of
this nuclear business.'' 

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell told CBS' ``Face the
Nation'' Sunday that ``I don't yet see the conditions for a
breakthrough'' in the diplomatic impasse over North Korea's
nuclear program. But he said that a political solution can
eventually be found. 

All the chief delegates met for dinner Sunday, but Hill said he
merely exchanged pleasantries with North Korea's Kim. He said
that the North did not want bilateral talks with any delegation
before Monday's official start. 

There is no scheduled date for the negotiations to end, but Hill
said he hoped to return to Washington by the end of the week. 

The latest North Korean nuclear crisis began in late 2002, when
U.S. officials said the North admitted running a secret nuclear
program. The program violated a 1994 deal with the U.S., in
which North Korea agreed to halt its atomic development. 

After its admission, North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, expelled international inspectors and
restarted its main nuclear reactor in order to make plutonium
for bombs.	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 18 Korea Times: Time Is Not on Bush¡¯s Side 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion   

By Tong Kim

 As the six party talks resume today to pick up where they left
off 13 months ago, President George W. Bush is running out of
time to bring a successful closure to the North Korean nuclear
issue. After wasting six valuable years, does he now have the
political will to resolve the issue before he leaves office? 

While North Korea¡¯s long pursuit for nuclear weapons is well
documented, the argument that the Bush administration¡¯s
policies would not have made a difference is not plausible. Of
course the genesis of the problem is North Korea. But that does
not exonerate Bush¡¯s inaction and inflammatory rhetoric that
only aggravated the problem. 

There have been some indications, especially in the wake of the
midterm elections, that Bush is rethinking his approach to the
North Korean nuclear issue. Recently he told President Roh
Moo-hyun that he would formally announce an agreement to end the
Korean War along with Roh and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il,
if North Korea gives up its nuclear programs. 

Today¡¯s resumption of talks was made possible primarily because
of the two previous bilateral meetings between the two chief
negotiators of the United Sates and North Korea that were
arranged by the Chinese. This was a significant shift as the
Bush administration had been adamantly refusing to hold
bilateral meetings.

 It is also interesting to note that the Bush administration
last week allowed the deputy of the North Korean mission to the
United Nations, Kim Myong Gil, to travel to New Mexico to
consult with Democratic Governor Bill Richardson, whom the North
Koreans consider to be sympathetic to them.

 Negotiating with the North Koreans has always been tough, and
it is now tougher than ever after they have carried out a
nuclear test. The United States must engage North Korea with the
assumption that a denuclearized Korean peninsula is achievable.
This round could be the beginning of the end. 

Getting into some of the specifics widely reported in the press
_ these call for the so-called four early steps that Washington
wants Pyongyang to take: a freeze on the 5-megawatt graphite
reactor at Youngpyon, reentry of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) inspectors, a declaration of all North Korean
nuclear weapons and programs, and closing of the test site which
was used for the October 9 nuclear detonation. I can see a
possibility of two of the steps the North Koreans could accept
at an initial phase. 

The idea of a reactor freeze was something the North Koreans had
proposed during the second and third rounds of the talks in
return for provision of energy. And in my view it is quite
possible it will be put back on freeze. Up until now, the Bush
administration was not interested in a freeze even as a step
toward dismantlement. It argued that it had tried it before but
it did not work because the North Koreans cheated. It further
argued that the North should not have restarted the reactor to
begin with, bad behavior that should not be rewarded. Why then
does Washington want a refreeze now?

 Once a freeze is agreed upon, there will likely be some sort of
verification by inspection. However, whether the North Koreans
would agree to have IAEA inspectors back is a good question.
They have never liked the IAEA. They are no longer an Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) member. They would probably have
to rejoin the treaty before they would accept IAEA inspections.
Instead, the North Koreans would be likely to seek for a
different type of international inspection until a whole host of
issues is completely resolved.

 Closing of the test site will also be quite possible. North
Korea has already done one test, partially successful or not,
that elevated it to the status of a nuclear power. The North
does not have plenty of plutonium to conduct more tests. They
claim that they already have an adequate amount of ``nuclear
deterrent.¡¯¡¯ 

The issue of a full declaration of North Korea¡¯s nuclear
inventory would be a difficult one for the North Koreans to
accept as a measurable step at this stage of the game. During
the negotiations for the now defunct Agreed Framework in 1994,
North Korean representative Kang Suk Ju balked at a similar U.S.
demand, saying, ``What fool would go out there to sit naked on
the street? You are interested in talking to us because you
suspect we have something you don¡¯t want us to have.¡¯¡¯ The
North Koreans had a credibility problem then and it is worse
now. They would also fear that if they disclose information on
their arsenal, it might provide targets for U.S. attacks.

 Regarding the possibility of signed security assurance, the
North Koreans may think they have been there before. The United
States signed a joint statement disclaiming U.S. hostility and
attacks against North Korea at the end of North Korean special
envoy Jo Myong Rok¡¯s visit to Washington in 2000. Earlier,
President Clinton signed a letter of assurance to complete the
construction of two light water reactors in return for the North
Korean commitment to dismantle its nuclear program as part of
the 1994 settlement.

 Further, Kim Gae Gwan, the current North Korean negotiator,
often said, ``A signed assurance is only a sheet of paper. What
matters is action.¡¯¡¯ On the other hand the North Koreans still
see a political value in a signed paper if it is signed by a
U.S. president.

 Ending of the Korean War would involve a peace mechanism that
can replace the Armistice Agreement. Whereas a peace agreement
is possible without U.S.-North Korea normalization, a peace
treaty is not. And the North Koreans know this. What they want
is a normalized relationship with the United States.

 The current round should be regarded as a success if the
parties agree to set up working groups to deal with a number of
different issues, including freeze and inspection, corresponding
economic measures, peace mechanism, normalization and so on.
Apparently the issue of financial sanctions will be dealt with
separately from the nuclear discussion during and on the
sidelines of the six-party talks. 

In all past negotiations including the four-party talks in
Geneva in the `90¡¯s, the North Koreans were able to attend only
one meeting at a time, plenary or working group. The North
Korean negotiating team is composed only of foreign ministry
officials who may lack technical expertise to discuss the
complex nature of different issues.

 Another problem is the North Korean negotiator does not have
the authority to be flexible in the negotiations. The same may
be said of the U.S. negotiator. Hopefully, this is not the case
this time. In the final analysis, the negotiators are simply
messengers, and ultimately the decisions will be made by the
highest leaders of North Korea and the United States. 

The North Korean leadership should be aware that it would not
serve its interests to prolong the negotiations until after a
new American administration comes in. For President Bush, time
is not on his side. If he wants to resolve this issue, he can do
so before leaving office. A strategic decision is for both sides
to make. What¡¯s your take?

 Tong Kim is former senior interpreter at the U.S. State
Department and now a research professor at Korea University and
a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies (SAIS). 

12-17-2006 18:38         

*****************************************************************
 19 Antiwar.com: So Much for Inalienable Rights - 

by Gordon Prather
 
  December 16, 2006   
  
Two weeks ago, during his Senate confirmation hearings, nominee 
Robert Gates was asked if he believed the Iranians were trying to 
acquire a nuclear weapons capability. 

Gates said he did. 

He was then asked if he believed "the Iranians would consider 
using that nuclear weapons capability against the nation of 
Israel." 

Gates said he didn’t. In fact, he believed the Iranians were 
seeking a nuclear weapons capability as a "deterrent." After all, 
Gates noted that – 

"They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to
their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west
and us in the Persian Gulf." 

Notice that Gates was asked not about nuclear weapons, but about
"nuclear weapons capability." 

What’s the difference? 

Well, to the Likudniks and their Congressional sycophants, there
isn’t any. 

But, as far as the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear 
Weaponsand the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency, 
and the Guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Groupare concerned, 
there is an enormous difference. 

As an NPT signatory, Iran has an "inalienable right" to develop
"without discrimination" the capability to enrich uranium –
subject, of course, to an IAEA Safeguards Agreement, entered
into for the exclusive purpose of verifying that no "source or
special fissionable material" has been diverted to a military
purpose. 

Furthermore, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Russia and China – as signatories to the NPT– have all
undertaken to "facilitate" that development by Iran. 

Nevertheless, despite at least a dozen quarterly reports by IAEA
Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei that he could find no
indication that Iran had ever diverted any source or special
fissionable material to a military purpose, Bush and the
Likudniks have managed to get the IAEA Board of Governors to
repeatedly violate the IAEA Statute and the UN Security Council
to repeatedly disregard the UN Charter, demanding that Iran give
up its rights guaranteed by both the NPT and by the IAEA
Statute. 

Now, you might think that the Likudniks – and maybe even Bush
and Bobby Gates – know something ElBaradei doesn’t know. That
they are not complete idiots. That they don’t really consider an
Iranian capability to enrich uranium in an IAEA Safeguarded
facility to be tantamount to Iran having nuclear weapons. 

But no, one of the more interesting revelations elicited by 
Seymour Hershfrom Scott Ritter during their televised 
 
public discussionthis past October of Ritter’s latest book

  Iran</i>, was that Ritter had cultivated a close
working relationship with Israeli intelligence analysts,
beginning while a US Marine intelligence officer, assigned to
the staff of General Norman Schwartzkopf during Operation Desert
Storm, continuing through his seven years as Chief Inspector for
the UN Commission on Arms Control in Iraq, even informing the 

 booksRitter has written since resigning from UNSCOM. 

After praising ElBaradei for having conducted a multi-year
program of inspections of unprecedented scope and thoroughness,
resulting in no evidence of undisclosed nuclear activity, much
less a diversion of source or special fissionable materials,
Ritter revealed that Israeli intelligence has also been unable –
despite considerable use of on-the-ground "human intelligence"
and analysis of spy-satellite images – to find any indication of
a hidden Iranian nuclear program. 

Nevertheless; 

"Israel has drawn a red line that says, not only will they not
tolerate a nuclear weapons program in Iran, they will not
tolerate anything dealing with nuclear energy, especially
enrichment, that could be used in a nuclear program. 

"So, even if Iran is telling the truth – Iran says, 'We have no
nuclear weapons program. We just want peaceful nuclear energy' –
Israel says, 'So long as Iran has any enrichment capability,
this constitutes a threat to Israel,' and they are pressuring
the United States to take forceful action." 

So, Bush and Gates and the Likudniks don’t know something about
Iran’s nuclear programs that ElBaradei doesn’t know, that our
intelligence community doesn’t know, that Congress doesn’t know. 

Speaking of the Best Congress Money Can Buy, what were they
doing while Bush-Bolton-Rice were corrupting the IAEA Board of
Governors and emasculating the UN Security Council? 

Well, busy passing the Iran 

  Freedom and Support Actwhich, inter alia, declared it "should" 
be the policy of the United States not to bring into force an 
agreement for cooperation with the government of any country 
unless "either on its own initiative or pursuant to a binding 
decision of the United Nations Security Council, suspended all 
nuclear assistance to Iran and all transfers of advanced 
conventional weapons and missiles to Iran." 

That law was aimed at Russia, an NPT signatory still attempting
to honor its NPT commitments to Iran. 

Then, in their final hours, the 109th Congress enacted the
US-India 
  Nuclear Cooperation Act (.pdf), which, inter alia,
declared it "shall" be the policy of the United States to 

"Secure India's full and active participation in United States
efforts to dissuade, isolate, and, if necessary, sanction and
contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass
destruction, including a nuclear weapons capability and the
capability to enrich uranium or reprocess nuclear fuel, and the
means to deliver weapons of mass destruction." 

What if India is not assessed by the President to be fully and
actively participating in such efforts? 

He is to provide them a report setting out 

"(I) the measures the United States Government has taken to
secure India's full and active participation in such efforts; 

"(II) the responses of the Government of India to such measures;
and "(III) the measures the United States Government plans to
take in the coming year to secure India's full and active
participation;" 

As for the Likudniks, upon emerging from a meeting last week
with Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert alluded once again to
the possibility of Israeli military action against Iran, saying,
"the people of Iran must understand that if they do not accept
the request of the international community [to give up their
inalienable rights], they're going to pay dearly." 
  
Antiwar.com 
  
  Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy
implementing official for national security-related technical
matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and
Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office
of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr.
Prather also served as legislative assistant for national
security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking
member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate
Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had
earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National
Laboratory in New Mexico.   
      
 Copyright 2006 Antiwar.com         
*****************************************************************
 20 LU-S&J: NUCLEAR LEGACY: Atomic comp program criticized

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal 

Sun, Dec 17 2006    

x-Simonds worker calls claim rejection a case of federal 
flim-flamming.                                                                        

By Joyce Miles Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
                                                                      
NEWFANE  Gordon Jellings is fed up with bureaucratic lip 
service.

Six years after Congress agreed to compensate certain factory 
workers exposed to the deadly byproducts of arms production, the 
former Simonds Saw &Steel worker feels like hes still chasing 
his own tail.

From 1961 to 1979, Jellings worked in the rolling mill at
Simonds, where uranium had been rolled in the late 1940s to
mid-1950s for U.S. atomic weaponry.

In the past 15 years, hes been diagnosed with skin cancer eight
times.

Now, as hes beginning to suspect a ninth outbreak of cancerous
lesions on his upper body, Jellings recently received notice
from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
informing him that, in its view, skin cancer likely is not
caused by radiation exposure and therefore Jellings is not
eligible for compensation.

They flim-flammed us. Now you see it, now you dont, Jellings
says. It took all this time, and now were getting nothing out
of it.

Jellings, 68, takes his rejection letter as proof of what
members of Congress on either side of the aisle have been saying
for months: that the Bush Administration is dragging its heels,
and dragging out the compensation process, in the hopes of
minimizing promised payouts.

The government had said in 2000 that it would award sickened
workers $150,000 compensation each, plus medical benefits, to
make up for the fact that its lack of protective measures in
private-sector factories handling atomic materials likely caused
untold thousands to contract radiological cancers, beryllium
disease or chronic silicosis.

USA Today recently reported a memo by Republican congressional
investigators alleging an Administration effort to minimize the
payouts. Evidence includes an October 2005 memo by the U.S.
Labor Departments director of compensation programs complaining
to White House officials that NIOSH sides too quickly with
claimants, and a written proposal to change the program
oversight panel by adding members who would be skeptical of
workers claims.

Jellings says he was never warned, by Simonds management or the
government, that he might be touching, breathing or even eating
the radioactive dust that lingered in the factory after atomic
production work stopped.

Since the plant closed, nearly every one of his rolling-mill
co-workers has died from cancer, he said, and the only thing
that surprises him is hes still standing.

The guys in my mill are all dead except a couple of them. One
who was a good friend of mine, he was a big, strong guy  and he
suffered something terrible, Jellings said. I thought Id go
before he did.

Jellings will appeal NIOSHs rejection of his case, but hes not
holding out hope hell get anywhere because the program has
always felt like it was filled with hurdles. Simonds has long
been out of business, making workplace information hard to track
down; and people like Jellings, who didnt work in hot plants
until after nuclear production ceased, had to fight for
recognition that didnt come until 2004.

Developments since then leave him with the feeling the promise
of justice is mere lip service.

They knew back in 1949 how bad it was and they never told
anybody. Now its out ... and theyre just waiting for us all to
die, Jellings said. Were getting there.

Area politicians say theyre still paying attention to the
process and want the foot-dragging to stop. U.S. Sen. Charles
Schumer, D-N.Y., last week called for an investigation into a
possible executive scheme to block payouts.

It is astonishing that the Department of Labor and the
Administration have been in cahoots in an effort to keep ...
Cold War heroes from the support they need and the compensation
they deserve, Schumer said. (They) should not have to wait.

The delegation seems more focused, rhetorically at least, on
compensation for nuclear workers than post-nuclear workers like
Jellings. Statements from the offices of fellow Democrats Sen.
Hillary Clinton and U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter also decry the
slow pace of case processing, but focus their official
statements on atomic energy workers, the group who processed
arms components for a brief period in the 1940s and 1950s.

The delegation worked last year to secure special cohort
status for nuclear workers at specific plants where detailed
records dont exist to help the ex-workers prove their claims.
Now, ex-workers with eligible cancers who worked at Linde
Ceramics, Tonawanda, and Bethlehem Steel, Buffalo, for specific
periods in the 40s and 50s are to be compensated automatically,
without extensive individual case review.

Simonds Saw &Steel does not have special cohort status, but it
did generate the second-highest number of compensation claims
filed from more than a dozen plants in New York state. According
to the U.S. labor departments Web site, 273 ex-workers had
filed as of Dec. 12; 46 claims were paid, at a cost of $6.8
million; 165 claims were denied; and the others remain under
investigation. The Web site does not indicate the eras in which
claimants worked.

According to the legislation, anyone who suffered certain
illnesses after working at Simonds between 1948 and 2003 is
eligible to file a claim. Surviving spouses and children can
file as well. 											 <img

  © 2006, Lockport Union-Sun &Journal
 170 East Avenue; Lockport, NY 14094
 Phone: (716) 439-9222, Fax: (716) 439-9239
*****************************************************************
 21 London Times: Shake-up for UK’s nuclear sub yards - Sunday Times - 

The Sunday Times                         December 17, 2006                    

Dominic O'Connell

SUPPORT and maintenance of the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines 
and much of its surface fleet are set for a big shake-up with a 
possible deal between two of the big players in the sector. 

Babcock International, the engineering group that runs the Rosyth 
naval dockyard and the Faslane submarine base, is understood to 
have held exploratory talks about buying a majority stake in 
Devonport Management Limited (DML), the consortium that runs the 
Devonport naval base. A successful bid would result in the 
maintenance and support of the Navy’s submarine fleet, and about 
80% of surface vessels, coming under Babcock’s control. 

At Devonport, Babcock would have to reach agreement with KBR,
the former Halliburton subsidiary that is DML’s majority owner.
The minority shareholders are Balfour Beatty and Weir Group. 

Ministers are thought to be supportive of the move, having been
annoyed at Halliburton’s decision to press ahead with a recent
float of KBR. 

Defence officials are also eager to cut the cost of maintaining
the naval fleet, a goal they think could best be achieved by
consolidation in the sector. 

But the Babcock move may be opposed by BAE Systems, Britain’s
largest defence contractor. 

It owns the UK’s only submarine manufacturing facility, at
Barrow-in- Furness, and is understood to be eager to take part
in any consolidation in the submarine sector — particularly with
the UK being close to committing to a new nuclear-submarine
fleet. 

Some industry analysts think BAE may consider making its own bid
for DML. If BAE were successful, it could roll DML into the
shipbuilding joint venture it plans to create with another
player in the sector, VT Group. 

BAE has yards on the Clyde that build surface warships, and VT
has competing facilities at Southampton. Last week the companies
confirmed they were in talks to combine the operations. 

It is understood a new joint-venture company will be created,
with the possibility of one or both of the partners selling up
in three to five years. 

If the DML operations and BAE’s submarine yard at Barrow were
added, it would create a monopoly supplier of warship building
and support in Britain. 

Although the UK’s recent Defence Industrial Strategy white paper
urged consolidation in the sector, it is not clear if the
Ministry of Defence would welcome the creation of a monopoly. 

Meanwhile, BAE and VT are both hopeful of winning up to £1
billion worth of naval orders from Saudi Arabia following the
scrapping of a Serious Fraud Office investigation into arms
deals. BAE also has expectations of winning an additional
contract to supply Hawk jet-training aircraft.   	 		

Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 22 Xinhua: Interview: Ban Ki-moon outlines major tasks as new U.N. chief 
 
  www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-16 13:21:32   

    UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.N.
Secretary-General-Designate Ban Ki-moon on Friday talked about
his plans to restore trust among member states, reform the U.N.
administration and solve the nuclear issue on the Korean
Peninsula when he becomes the new U.N. chief. 

¡¡¡¡SECRETARIAT REFORM & TRUST BUILDING 

    In an interview with reporters from some Asian media
organizations, Ban said that broadly speaking, his main priority
will be on two aspects: to reform the Secretariat management,
and to engage concerned parties in conflict areas, and major
member states in negotiations and dialogues. 

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks during his first news
conference at the U.N. in New York, Dec. 14, 2006. (Xinhua
Photo) <FONT color=#800000>Photo Gallery &gt;&gt;&gt;</FONT>  

    The Secretary-General-Designate said he would try to restore
trust among member states by acting as a harmonizer and
bridge-builder, though he is fully aware that trust-building
would be a difficult process. 

    But he said he is confident that he can contribute to
bridging the gaps among member states and between member states
and the Secretariat, promising to be "a good listener rather
than a good speaker," who listens attentively to the problems
and wishes of each and every member state. 

    To make that possible, it would require the staff of the
management to be more professional, accountable and transparent
in their work, he noted. 

    Ban said he would do his utmost to strive for the rebirth of
the U.N. Secretariat by setting an example himself and by
requiring its staff to be more mobile and multifunctional. 

    "As Secretary-General, I'll try to enhance a sense of strong
mission and commitment for the Secretariat staff so that they
can provide more efficient and better service to the member
states," he said. "By doing this, I think we can gain the trust
of member states, and major stakeholders." 

    U.N.'S THREE PILLARS 

    Ban said he believes that among the three pillars of the
United Nations, namely, peace and security, development and
human rights, development is the key to all issues. 

    "Without development, without ensuring harmonious
prosperity, you cannot expect peace and security, or the
protection of human rights. Therefore, I'm going to pay more
attention to the development issues," Ban said. 
                                
  Editor: Yan Liang   
*****************************************************************
 23 Scotsman.com: Scots Labour MPs oppose Trident
 
Sat 16 Dec 2006        

PETER MACMAHON SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT EDITOR 

A MAJORITY of Scottish Labour MPs are opposed to Tony Blair's
plans to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system. 

A total of 30 of the 59 MPs from all parties north of the Border
are either "definitely" or "probably" against plans to retain
the submarine-based system, located at the Faslane base on the
Clyde. 

According to a survey by the BBC, 25 of all of Scotland's
representatives at Westminster were definitely against Tony
Blair's plans. A further five said they were probably against. 

Of these, 11 Labour MPs were definitely against and four were
probably against the plan. 

The Prime Minister announced earlier this month plans to replace
the existing Trident system, with a new system lasting into the
middle of the 21st century at an estimated cost of up to Â£20
billion. 

He warned that it would be "unwise and dangerous" for Britain to
give up its nuclear arsenal. 

Only ten MPs said they were definitely or probably in favour of
the Prime Minister's Trident plan but that rose to 22 when
government ministers are included. Seven MPs were unavailable,
undecided or unable to take part. 

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, will seek to win over
Scottish Labour MPs at a meeting of the Westminster group early
next week. 

The decision to go ahead with the replacement of the Trident
fleet was formally ratified at a special meeting of the cabinet
earlier this month, before Mr Blair announced it to the Commons. 

Jackie Baillie, the local MSP, has said the subs' Faslane base
is vital to the economy of West Dunbartonshire, supporting up to
11,000 jobs. 

*****************************************************************
 24 icWales: Scots case boosts anti-tip campaign
         
Dec 16 2006
  
Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail    

A LANDMARK Freedom of Information case in Scotland could reveal
the true impact of pollution on people's health in Wales.

Campaigners are hoping to use the ruling to obtain information
about cases of cancer diagnosed in areas which they might
consider to be "at risk".

The precedent could be a boost to the villages surrounding the
notorious Nantygwyddon tip in the Rhondda, where previous
attempts to get such information have failed on the grounds of
confidentiality.

And experts believe the ruling by three Scottish Court of
Session judges could benefit other campaign groups monitoring
the effect of pollution on people's health, including the
effects of living near landfill, a nuclear power station or a
rubbish incinerator.

RANT - Rhondda Against Nantygwyddon Tip - has resubmitted an
application to the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance
Unit asking for information about the incidence of cancer in the
area.

This is despite a report by US scientists that concluded there is 
little to link the tip with local incidences of death and 
deformities.

June Bacon, secretary of RANT, said it is vital to see the
information in black and white to settle such disputes.


"We have noticed that, around here, there seems to have been an
increase in the number of cancers - we are not seeing single
cases in a household, but two.


"Even though the landfill is closed, the damage has been done
because cancers can take 10 years or more to develop.

"We want this information, we want to know the truth."

Although RANT, and other organisations, have previously asked for 
such detailed data under the Freedom of Information Act, requests 
have been turned down on the grounds that the information could 
identify individuals with cancer.

Dr Chris Busby, director of the Aberystwyth-based environmental 
consultancy Green Audit, who has attempted to gain similar 
information, said, "The argument that the information is 
confidential on the basis that it could identify someone is 
totally ridiculous.

"The reason for the cover-up is because they do not want anyone 
to show the health affects associated with living close to a 
source of pollution because of the implications for the economy 
and for litigation."

In the Scottish case, Andrew Collie, a researcher for Green MSP 
Chris Ballance, had asked for records of all incidents of 
leukaemia in under-15s between 1990 and 2003 in Dumfries and 
Galloway, broken down by the 47 local census wards.

The aim was to discover any cancer clusters by Chapelcross 
nuclear plant or the Dundrennan military range, where depleted 
uranium shells are fired.

Although Mr Collie was told there were 15 cases, no more details 
were released in case the children were identified.

He appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who agreed 
the information should be released, but the request was turned 
down again.

The case was referred to the Court of Session, which agreed with 
the commissioner that the information should be produced, but in 
"barnardisation" form - applying a statistical makeover to the 
raw data to prevent identification.

It was not clear whether the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and 
Surveillance Unit, which collects information about cancer 
diagnoses and outcomes, would release the data in light of the 
Scottish case.

A spokeswoman said she was unable to comment as the process was 
ongoing.

It is understood, however, that a decision will be made only when 
statisticians have collected the relevant data.

But there are fears that releasing such information on an 
individual electoral ward basis could identify the people 
involved, especially if they have been diagnosed with a rare form 
of the disease.

This in turn could prevent people from agreeing to have their 
cancer registered, which could affect the unit's ability to 
analyse trends in the disease.
   	
Limited 2006 icWales is a trade mark of Western Mail & Echo
*****************************************************************
 25 Guardian Unlimited: Blair outlines Mid East peace hopes

From Press Association   

[UP] 

Press Association 

Saturday December 16, 2006 3:48 AM

Prime Minister Tony Blair is to set out his hopes for progress
in the Middle East peace process on the first leg of a visit to
the region. 

Mr Blair will speak to reporters in Ankara alongside his Turkish
counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with whom he earlier held
talks. 

The Prime Minister views Turkey as an important part of an "arc
of moderation" in the Middle East which can help influence other
parts of the Muslim world to turn their backs on extremism. 

His visit comes at a time of heightened tension in both Israel
and the Palestinian territories. 

Rivalry between Hamas and Fatah factions in the Palestinian
territories flared up following a gun attack on Hamas PM Ismail
Haniyeh on Thursday. 

Palestine's Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas has floated the idea
of calling fresh elections in a bid to end the international
isolation suffered since the election in January of a Hamas
Government. But Hamas says any attempt to remove its
administration would amount to a coup. 

And Israeli premier Ehud Olmert is under pressure, with calls
for his resignation after he inadvertently confirmed the
existence of the country's nuclear weapons in a TV interview. 

Mr Blair yesterday said that it was of "immense strategic
importance" for Britain and Europe that momentum was restored to
efforts to find a solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Aides said he would use the current trip to explore the
possibilities for "unbarring the door" to progress in the peace
process, which he sees as the key for a wider resolution of
tensions in the region as a whole, including Iraq. 

Although no major breakthrough is expected during the trip, the
UK will aim to play a "facilitating and helpful role" in
establishing a sense of direction about what the next steps in
the peace process might be, said a spokesman. 

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved. 
		 	 	   
    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 26 [NYTr] China, USA, Westinghouse Sign Nuke Contract
 
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 13:12:57 -0600 (CST)

X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Innocent"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A
X-Spam-Class: HAM

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

China, USA, Westinghouse Sign Nuke Contract

Beijing, Dec 16 (Prensa Latina) US company Westinghouse will supply China
with technology to build four nuclear plants, sources reported Saturday in
this capital.

The memo was signed between China's State Development and Reform Commission
(CEDR) Ma Kai, and US Energy Sub-secretary Samuel Bodman.

US technology from Westinghouse company is based on a nuclear reactor
cooling by using light water, which according to what s been reported has
an advanced design and an automatic system to solve emergencies.

Westinghouse Reactors AP1000 are designed for an installed power superior
to 1000 megawatts each.

China is immersed in burgeoning economic development, with increased oil
consumption, so its main aim is to diversify power resources in order to
become independent from foreign oil suppliers.

The purpose of China is to count by 2020 with nuclear power plants with an
installed capacity of 40 million kilowatts.

The agreement signing took place during a meeting in Beijing of Energy
titular from China, India, South Korea, Japan and United States.

sus gdb jhb mf

PL-15
       
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*****************************************************************
 27 The Hindu: India confident of Japan's support on nuclear energy 

Saturday, December 16, 2006 : 1825 Hrs

Onboard Prime Minister's Special Aircraft, Dec. 16 (PTI):

Confident that "Japan will be on our side when the time comes",
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today maintained that he was not
disappointed that it had not straightaway supported India on the
civil nuclear energy issue. 

After a four-day "relationship transforming" official visit to
Tokyo, Singh told reporters on board Air India One, on his way
back home that the Japanese sensitivities on nuclear issues had
to be respected since it was the only country devastated by
atomic weapons. 

It was clear from the remarks of the Prime Minister that he had
a sense of satisfaction that Japan agreed to engage to
discussions with India on nuclear energy. 

The fact that Tokyo had asked New Delhi to go in for safeguards
under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is seen by the
Indian side as nothing unusual. 

"Our commitment is that we will have in place India-specific
safeguards with the IAEA," the Prime Minister pointed out. 
"I am not at all disappointed. That is adequate appreciation of
the fact that India needs nuclear power for its energy
security," he said. 

Underlining that he had not visited Tokyo to discuss these
matters at great length, Singh said, "I am convinced that when
the time comes (to support India on the civil nuclear issue),
Japan will be on our side. 

His remarks came a day after his talks with Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe after which the latter said that Tokyo was
yet to firm up its position on the matter. 

Japan is part of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)
which is required to amend the guidelines to allow the
international community to have nuclear trade with India. 

Tokyo has made it clear that it will firm up its position on the
basis of negotiations between India and IAEA to finalise
India-specific safeguards. 

To a question on Japanese position, Singh said Abe's statement
reflected the actual situation wherein India has to put in place
a safeguards agreement with the IAEA under the Indo-US civil
nuclear deal. 

The US, he said has to help lobby for India at NSG. 

On the recent passage of law by the US Congress on the nuclear
deal, the Prime Minister said he was ready to speak on the issue
in Parliament if required. 

"The External Affairs Minister has already made a statement. If
there is a debate, and it is necessary for me to intervene, I am
a servant of Parliament, I will be happy to share my thoughts
with Parliament," he said. 

The aspects in the US legislation seen with concern will be
discussed with the US during negotiations for the 123 agreement. 

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu.
*****************************************************************
 28 India PRwire: Technopark joins hands with US laboratory 

       Mon, 18 Dec 2006 08:56:17 +0600
                
 The Technopark campus here, housing over 85 IT firms, has
joined hands with the US based Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL) to form a Technology Collaboration Council (TCC).

TCC will explore areas of potential collaboration between the
two parties, according to a memorandum of understanding signed
between them late Saturday here.

The parties would first identify areas of common interest for
research and development. They would then seek opportunities to
exchange personnel to work on technically challenging projects
and participate in lectures and seminars. 

ORNL is a multi-programme science and technology laboratory
managed for the US department of energy by UT-Battelle, a
non-profit company. It conducts basic and applied research and
development to create scientific knowledge and technological
solutions that strengthen US leadership in key areas of science. 

The formation of TCC was initiated by IT firm IBS Software
Services Pvt Ltd. 

'Research is an integral part of the plan that Technopark
companies use to create solutions and provide services for their
clients. There are potential areas of synergy between ORNL and
Technopark. The purpose of TCC is to empower our organisations
to harness the potential ORNL offers,' said Mathews. V.K
Mathews, chairman and managing director of IBS group. 

Said Jeffrey Wadsworth, director of ORNL: 'This alliance will
significantly enhance our own research and development
capabilities, as it enables our access to both facilities and
resources from Technopark. 

'Besides, this will open new avenues in the way we conduct our
research and manage projects by adopting the remote operations
methodology practiced at Technopark.'	 		 	 	 		 			

Copyright © India PRwire/Indo Asian News Service.
*****************************************************************
 29 HindustanTimes.com: 'Objectional clauses must be deleted from N-deal'

'Improper clauses must be deleted from N-deal': VP Singh

Press Trust of India

Allahabad, December 17, 2006
   
Casting doubts over the feasibility of the proposed Indo-US
nuclear deal, former Prime Minister VP Singh on Sunday said New
Delhi must insist on the deletion of "objectionable clauses"
before putting its seal of approval to it. 

"In the proposed deal, one can not overlook an obvious US design
to first oblige India by offering uranium and then blackmailing
it into toeing its line on international issues," he said.

He said ever since there had been talks of having a partnership
in nuclear energy, "the US has been trying to coerce India into
submission, an example being Washington's insistence on India
voting against Iran at the International Atomic energy Agency
(IAEA)".

"When the deal is finalised, they would undoubtedly try to
extract their pound of flesh. Already, the US has begun to show
that it is not going to treat India as an equal, which is proven
from its stress on India not having the right to re-process
nuclear waste," Singh said.

Singh also questioned the euphoria over nuclear energy, saying,
"At present, only 3 per cent of the country's power requirement
is met through this source, which is unlikely to cross 10 per
cent even after the deal comes into force.

"Bulk of our requirement would be met through coal and hydel
energy for which we do not need external help. Where is then the
need to desperately seek nuclear energy?" he said.   
    
*****************************************************************
 30 Interfax: Environmentalists hold rally to protect Lake Baikal

Interfax.com    Site map   

Dec 16 2006 12:02PM
 
IRKUTSK. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Several dozen people rallied in
Irkutsk on Saturday to demand that the authorities release
information on plans to build an international uranium
enrichment center in Angarsk, a city located in the vicinity of
Lake Baikal in the eastern part of Russia. 

Some 80 people, who gathered for the rally organized by the non-
governmental organizations Baikal Ecological Wave and Baikal
Movement, called for ensuring the environmental safety of the
region in general and Lake Baikal in particular. 

A resolution issued by the demonstrators says that "Angarsk is
located within the area of atmospheric influence on Lake Baikal,
which is part of the World Heritage List."     

  
© 1991-2006 Interfax
 All rights reserved
 
*****************************************************************
 31 KnoxNews: TVA bonus pool takes dip

Missed goals reduce performance-based pay rewards by $10M

By ANDREW EDER, edera@knews.com 

December 16, 2006                                                               

The Tennessee Valley Authority awarded $10 million less in 
bonuses to employees for fiscal 2006 than in the previous year 
because the federal utility failed to meet several of its 
performance targets. 

TVA's 12,781 employees took in $40 million in bonuses under the 
"Winning Performance" program, down from $50 million a year ago. 
A group of 143 top managers earned $10.5 million in bonuses, 
compared to $12.98 million awarded to 146 managers last year. 

The diminished bonuses reflected a year in which TVA missed its 
performance goals in five of eight measures. 

"TVA did well in several key areas and missed some operational 
goals by only 1 percent," TVA Human Resources Vice President Phil 
Reynolds said in a statement. "We knew when we set our targets it 
would be a challenging year." 

At TVA's board meeting in November, President and CEO Tom Kilgore 
detailed some of the difficulties the utility faced in 2006, 
including greater-than-anticipated costs for fuel and purchased 
power, diminished hydropower generation due to dry weather and a 
fatal workplace accident at the John Sevier Fossil Plant. 

Among TVA's accomplishments in 2006 were a 4.5 percent rate 
reduction, the lowest nitrogen oxide emissions since 1995 and 
continued reliability in TVA's transmission system, Reynolds said 
in the statement. 

The information on TVA's bonuses was released as part of an 
annual submission to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. 

On Friday, TVA also filed its first-ever annual report with the 
Securities and Exchange Commission, detailing financial 
performance, executive compensation and other aspects of the 
utility's operations. 

Federal rules cap TVA's base salaries at $140,000, but the 
utility has several incentive programs to bring executive pay 
closer to the amount paid by the private-sector. 

President and CEO Tom Kilgore earned $651,984 in base 
compensation, along with $627,861 in incentives, $300,000 in 
long-term deferred pay and $6,300 through company matching pay 
for his 401(k). 

According to survey data released by TVA, top-ranked executives 
at energy services companies with revenues of $3 billion or 
greater earned an average of $5.31 million, compared to Kilgore's 
$1.59 million. 

The second highest-paid executive was Chief Nuclear Officer Karl 
Singer, with total compensation of $1.27 million. TVA filed its 
SEC report as part of the requirements of the Consolidated 
Appropriations Act of 2005. 

The annual report showed net income for TVA of $329 million on 
operating revenues of $9.18 billion in fiscal 2006. TVA paid 
$1.21 billion in net interest expenses for the year ending Sept. 
30. 

TVA, the nation's largest public utility, is self-financed 
through power sales and the sale of bonds. It provides 
electricity to about 8.6 million people in Tennessee and parts of 
Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and 
Virginia. 

Business writer Andrew Eder may be reached at 865-342-6318.

© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
*****************************************************************
 32 BBC NEWS: China awards massive nuclear deal
 
Last Updated: Sunday, 17 December 2006, 11:39 GMT 

[Part of an experimental fusion reactor in China] 
China is stepping up its research and development of nuclear 
power                                                           

Westinghouse, the nuclear-plant builder sold by British Nuclear 
Fuels earlier this year, has won a billion-dollar contract to 
build reactors in China. 

The deal, worth about $8bn (£4.1bn), is for four nuclear plants - 
two at Sanmen in Zhejiang province, with another two at Yangjiang 
in Guangdong. 

An expected decline in fossil fuels and increasing energy demands 
have prompted many nations to focus on nuclear power. 

Analysts said that the deal may also help soothe trade tensions 
with the US. 

'Relationship driven' 

US-based Westinghouse defeated a number of other international 
companies to win the tender, including France's Areva and 
Russia's Atomstroiexport. 

The fact that Westinghouse is now owned by Japan's Toshiba may 
also have helped secure the deal, especially after Japan's new 
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signalled an intention to restore 
friendlier ties with China. 

"This is all relationship driven," said David Hurd, an analyst at 
Deutsche Bank. 

"The US is putting pressure on China at the moment, so China's 
response is 'let's thrown them a bone,'" he explained. 

The US, which is running a record trade deficit with China, 
estimated that the deal would create more than 5,000 American 
jobs. At the heart of the deal was the promise of a transfer of 
technology from the US firm to China, analysts said. 

Westinghouse will build AP1000 reactors that should be up and 
running by 2013, while the transfer of technology means that 
China would be able to build itself similar reactors. 

Nuclear future? 

China is having to look at ways of safeguarding its energy 
independence as world oil supplies are squeezed, and its growing 
population and booming economy increase its thirst for energy. 

At the same time, many experts have claimed that nuclear power is 
one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly ways of 
meeting a population's energy needs. 

This view is proving controversial and has been contested by 
environmental groups, which claim that the risks of an accident 
and cost of dealing with radioactive waste far outweigh any 
benefits. 

Even so, demand for nuclear power plants is on the increase, and 
the International Energy Agency estimates that more than $200bn 
will be spent by 2030 on harnessing the atom for energy output.
		 	 		 	 	 
*****************************************************************
 33 Economic Times: All's not well with US N-law- 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2006 02:34:30 AM]   

  NEW DELHI: Top nuclear scientists have concluded that the US
legislation dealing with the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal
deviates from the July 18 joint statement and that the
government should ensure that the problematic clauses are dealt
with in the bilateral agreement that is yet to be negotiated. 

The scientists on Friday discussed the problematic clauses in
the legislation with Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil
Kakodkar at a three-hour long meeting in Mumbai. The scientists,
after the meeting, asked the government to take up these issues
with the US administration and ensure that it is dealt with in
the 123 or bilateral agreement. 

They have concluded that the legislation passed by the US
Congress deviates from the Indo-US joint statements of July 18,
2005 and March 2, 2006 and the Prime Ministers assurances in
Parliament in August. Mr Kakodkar told the scientists that their
views would be presented to the Prime Minister before the debate
in Parliament on Monday on the deal. 

Mr Kakodkar had called the meeting in Mumbai to analyse and
discuss the bill with the scientists and chart a future course
of action. Mr Kakodkar has also said that he had been assured by
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that everyone involved with the
Indo-US nuclear deal, directly or indirectly, would be consulted
before a final decision is taken on the deal. 

He is understood to have told the scientists that their concerns
would be taken care of during the negotiations for the 123
agreement. The ministry of external affairs has also been saying
that all these issues will be clarified and negotiated in the
bilateral agreement, which will be the only agreement binding on
India. 
  
Copyright ©2006Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 34 Economic Times: 'India shouldn't hurry in signing N-deal'- 

PTI[ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2006 04:00:34 PM]   
    
MUMBAI: A group of scientists on Sunday said India should not
hurriedly sign the Indo-US nuclear deal till the the concerns of
the country's top nuclear scientists are addressed. 

Since the public at large does not understand the nuances of the
final US Congress bill, which will be imposed on India once the
deal goes through it is in the interest of the future
generations to work towards making the deal favourable to India,
said members of the Atomic Energy Retirees' Welfare Association
(AERWA). 

They had a two-hour discussion with former Atomic Energy
Commission chairman P K Iyengar on Sunday on the occasion of
"Pensioners Day". Studying the final bill passed by the US
Congress on the Indo-US deal on December 8 is important while
dealing with its discriminatory nature, they said. 

Iyengar said, "Let us not accept the discriminatory process as
we succeeded during the past 50 years. If we accept the deal by
giving into their (US) conditions, then it is not in India's
favour. "In fact, we will do a disservice to our future
generations and to their freedom for research and development,"
he said. 

Iyengar asked members to study the bill in detail on their own
and find out how discriminatory it was, and not to listen to ad
hoc statements issued by various people. 

Replying to a question by an association member on whether it
was former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who decided to
conduct a nuclear test in 1974 and not Indira Gandhi, as
referred to in an article written a retired civil servant,
Iyengar said, "When Shastri took over after the death of
Jawaharlal Nehru, China exploded its bomb and that was the last
atmospheric explosion allowed. 

"Then India had to decide on its security preparedness and had
to explore how we should go about the bomb when an atmospheric
explosion was already banned," he said. 

"So Shastri sent a delegation, including former AEC chairman
Vikram Sarabhai to UK, US and a few more countries to get an
umbrella protection like Japan so that India could avoid
testing, but the delegation came back empty handed. Then India
had to decide on Pokhran but unfortunately Shastri died untimely
and so did Sarabhai," he said. Later, Indira Gandhi had to take
the decision, Iyengar said.   
    
Copyright ©2006Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 35 APP.COM: Radioactive isotope found near Oyster Creek nuclear power plant 

| Asbury Park Press Online

Saturday, December 16, 2006

BY AND STAFF WRITERS                                            

LACEY — The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant reported Friday it
has detected elevated levels of the radioactive isotope
Cesium-137 in leaf and soil samples near the plant.

The amounts detected were within a range typically found in the
general environment and pose no health or safety threat to
people or wildlife, plant officials said. The amounts found were
also below levels that would require them to report their
findings to federal regulators, plant officials reported in a
prepared statement.

However, exposure to radiation from Cesium-137 can result in
increased risk of cancer, according to information on the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency Web site.

Oyster Creek's technical staff "will get to the bottom of this,"
said Tim Rausch, the plant's chief executive. "We will find out
the source and extent of the Cesium-137 we are seeing, and we'll
continue to keep the community informed as information becomes
available."

The test was part of the plant's routine monthly monitoring
program, said Rachelle Benson, a plant spokeswoman.

Cesium-137 in the environment comes from a variety of sources,
according to the EPA. The largest single source was fallout from
atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s, which
dispersed and deposited Cesium-137 worldwide. However, much of
the Cesium-137 from testing has now decayed.

  Copyright © 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 36 Clarion-Ledger: Energy: Can Miss. safely lead the way? - 

December 17, 2006 

On Tuesday, Mississippi Power Co. announced plans to build a
$1.8 billion power plant in Kemper County using lignite - a type
of soft coal found in abundance in Mississippi that technology
is only now making feasible to use.

This comes as Entergy Nuclear is considering building a second
unit at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station.

Gov. Haley Barbour, speaking with The Clarion-Ledger Editorial
Board on Tuesday, outlined other economic development issues
regarding energy, including: two possible liquefied natural gas
(LNG) terminals on the Coast; biodiesel plants in Vicksburg and
the Delta that would transform plant material to fuel; new
pumping technologies to recover residual oil in old Mississippi
oilfields; and new pipelines crossing the state.

In the future, Barbour said, industries won't ask about the cost
of electricity but its availability. Indeed, that's already an
issue with the recovery on the Coast from Hurricane Katrina.
"Our forecast for energy needs is actually greater today than it
was forecasted before Katrina," says Anthony Topazi, president
and CEO of Mississippi Power Co., which is building the Kemper
plant to furnish electricity for its mostly south Mississippi
customers.

Developing alternative sources of fuel and new technologies is
not limited to Mississippi, as last week also saw an
announcement by Nissan Motor Co. which owns an auto plant in
Canton, that it plans to sell another gasoline-electric hybrid
vehicle in 2010, while improving diesel and ethanol-capable
engines and add a fuel-cell vehicle.

These developments are exciting in that they make energy
production more innovative, and use alternate, more abundant
sources than oil, which primarily is controlled by Mideast
regimes.

But are they safe? Environmentally and for humans?

With 5 billion tons of lignite, Mississippi has a lot of
potential electric power production.

But it will require strip mining.

Nuclear power, as proposed for expansion by Entergy at Port
Gibson, has its waste disposal and transportation as well as
reactor safety issues. LNG is highly volatile, capable of
disastrous explosions. Pumping old oil wells can alter and taint
water tables. Gas pipelines can spur landowner eminent domain
disputes, lower property values and pose health and
environmental dangers.

With these developments, Mississippi, as Barbour says, has the
opportunity to lead the nation in new energy development. But
there will be trade-offs and consequences.

Informed public debate is required at each step with an eye on
new energy. 

©2006 The Clarion-Ledger
*****************************************************************
 37 AFP: China says will work for energy security 

  Saturday December 16, 07:20 AM 

BEIJING (AFP) - China wants to work with other countries to help
ensure the security of international energy supplies, Prime
Minister Wen Jiabao has said at the start of a one-day
five-nation energy conference. "China is willing to cooperate
with other countries in developing and exploiting energy
resources ... and contribute to maintaining the stability and
security of international energy supplies," state media quoted
Wen as saying. 

Wen told representatives from India, Japan, South Korea and the 
United States that Beijing had made both the efficient use of 
energy supplies and environmental protection top government 
priorities. 

US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told AFP that Saturday's 
meeting would offer the five nations an opportunity to see "what 
each of us is doing in renewable energy, in nuclear power, in 
clean coal technology, what each of us is doing in other forms of 
research as well as efforts on energy efficiency." 

"It's the first time we have had these five parties meeting in a 
multilateral fashion," he told AFP on Friday, on the sidelines of 
high-level trade talks between China and the United States. 

"I view it as an experiment that is worthwhile," Bodman added. 

Also in attendance were Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora, Japanese 
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amani and South Korean 
Energy Minister Chung Sye-Kyun. Some analysts have said the 
meeting -- described by China as talks among the world's biggest 
energy consumers -- is also designed to reassure China's Asian 
neighbors that its energy policy is sound. 

Energy security is becoming an urgent priority for fast-growing 
China, already the world's second-largest consumer of oil. China 
imported 120 million tonnes of crude oil in the first 10 months 
of the year, up 14 percent on the same period last year, as its 
booming economy boosted demand. 

Washington has expressed concern in recent years about China's 
so-called oil diplomacy in Latin America and Africa, where 
Beijing buys massive quantities of oil, gas and other natural 
resources to satisfy ever-expanding demand. 

Copyright © 2006 AFP AFP. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 38 AFP: China opts for US firm over French in nuclear energy deal 

  Saturday December 16, 05:04 PM 

BEIJING (AFP) - China has signed an agreement to buy four nuclear 
power plants from American firm Westinghouse, scuppering a 
possible deal with French company Areva (Paris: - ) , a US 
official said. "China has agreed to purchase four new nuclear 
reactors for the Westinghouse Electric Company," US Energy 
Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said in a statement released by the US 
embassy in China. 

"This represents a multibillion dollar commitment by the Chinese 
that should create some 5,500 jobs in the United States." The 
American firm was taken over by Japanese company Toshiba (Berlin: 
- ) at the beginning of the year. 

Beijing chose the "third generation" Westinghouse reactors over 
Areva's for technological reasons, Chinese officials said in a 
statement. The long-running tender process was launched in 
September 2004. 

The contract will lead to the construction of four reactors, 
divided between Sanmen, in Zhejiang province, and Yangjiang, in 
Guangdong, and is part of the Chinese government's drive to 
increase its nuclear energy production. "This is an exciting day 
for the US nuclear industry," Bodman was quoted as saying in the 
statement, after signing a protocol agreement in the Chinese 
capital with Ma Kai, minister in charge of the State Development 
and Reform Commission (SDRC), the major planning body in China. 

Bodman, who had taken part in Friday and Saturday's "strategic 
economic dialogue" between China and the US, said the agreement 
showed what could be achieved between the two countries. "It is 
an example that if we work together we can advance not only our 
trade relations but also our common goal of energy security," he 
added after joining the energy ministers of China, India, Japan 
and South Korea at a meeting in Beijing. 

Reports early this year said Areva would not get the deal, 
something the company denied, insisting they were "on course" to 
secure the contract. France's nuclear industry has long been 
engaged in supplying reactors to China, with four of the nation's 
11 nuclear reactors currently operating being French-made. French 
President Jacques Chirac used an official visit to China in 
October to push the Areva deal, "faced with a (Westinghouse) 
project that only exists on paper, from people who have not built 
anything for a long time". 

Areva has been operating in China for the past 26 years. Chirac 
said there was "a political dimension (in the case) and also a 
question of balanced trade on the foreign side that is not in our 
favor," referring to a ballooning US trade deficit with China. 
During trade talks Thursday and Friday, US Treasury Secretary 
Henry Paulson made a new appeal to his Chinese partners for 
"tangible results" in settling their disputes, warning of a 
rising tide of protectionism in the United States. 

The US trade deficit with China has hit a record 240 billion 
dollars this year. Bodman said: "(This deal) will help our 
balance of payments -- it's a multibillion dollar transaction." 

In a statement Saturday, the US Commerce Secretary Carlas 
Guttierrez said the agreement was "an important victory, both for 
Sino (Xetra: - ) -American relations and Westinghouse workers. 
"This agreement reinforces once again the economic relations the 
United States has with its second-biggest trade partner and shows 
China taking a big step in opening new markets to American 
services and products." 

Ma, from the SDRC, said: "This project of cooperation will 
certainly play a very important role in enhancing the cooperative 
partnership between China and the US. "Frankly speaking, this is 
only the start. We still need hard work to realize reliable, safe 
nuclear power plants." 

Copyright © 2006 AFP AFP. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 39 AFP: Beijing, Washington Sign Pact

Saturday December 16, 9:13 am ET 

By Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer 

Beijing, Washington Sign Pact to Let Westinghouse Build Four 
Nuclear Reactors in China 

BEIJING (AP) -- China and the United States on Saturday signed an 
agreement that paves the way for Westinghouse Electric Co. to 
build four civilian nuclear reactors in China, a multibillion 
dollar coup for U.S. business over French and Russian 
competitors.

A memorandum of understanding supporting the transfer of nuclear
technology to China was signed by China's Minister for the
National Development and Reform Commission Ma Kai and U.S.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

"This is an exciting day for the U.S. nuclear industry," Bodman
said at the ceremony. "It is an example that if we work together
we can advance not only our trade relations but also our common
goal of energy security."

The agreement capped several days of top-level trade talks
between China and the U.S. that otherwise yielded few concrete
results. It was signed on the sidelines of a closed-door meeting
of five major oil importing nations hosted by China.

Stephen Tritch, Westinghouse's president and CEO, said the
details of the contract to build facilities at Sanmen, in the
eastern province of Zhejiang, and at Yangjiang in southern
China's Guangdong province have yet to be completed but that it
was a multibillion dollar deal. He said the company want the
plants up and running by 2013.

The agreement, negotiated late into the night Friday, makes
Westinghouse's AP1000 -- which relies on gravity rather than
mechanical pumps to carry water to a reactor in an emergency --
China's choice for developing its own nuclear industry.

Westinghouse, U.S. engineering and construction services
contractor Shaw Group Inc. -- which holds a 20 percent stake in
Westinghouse -- and China's State Nuclear Power Technology Co.
signed a companion agreement to follow through with negotiations
on specific terms for the technology transfer.

According to a statement issued by the Chinese side, French
nuclear group AREVA was their second choice, and a competing bid
by Russia's AtomStroyExport was apparently rejected.

Both U.S. and French politicians had lobbied hard for the deal.
The Chinese side said it chose Westinghouse based on its
technology, its agreement on transferring expertise, the style
of cooperation and the prospects for developing locally based
technology.

The agreement "pushes mankind into a new level of nuclear
technology development," said Ma, China's planning minister.
"This project will certainly play a very important role in
enhancing the cooperative partnership between China and the U.S."

Bodman said the agreement was reached after a meeting with
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao.

"I think they have superior technology," Bodman said after the
agreement was signed. "It will allow production of electricity
in an efficient, safe fashion," he said.

In a terse statement, the French Finance Ministry said only that
the French government "takes note" of the choice in favor of
Westinghouse. An emissary of the Chinese government is to visit
Paris in the coming days to "review the situation and
perspectives for our cooperation in the nuclear domain with
China," the Finance Ministry statement said.

The deal in China will create more than 5,000 jobs in the U.S.,
Bodman said, helping to redress the mammoth U.S. trade deficit
which is on line to exceed last year's record US$202 billion.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse, which was acquired
earlier this year by Japan's Toshiba Corp., is banking on its
AP1000 technology to help lead an atomic-energy renaissance in
the U.S. and the rest of the world.

The system, according to Westinghouse, uses much less cable,
piping, valves and pumps than the previous generation of
reactors, cutting costs and eliminating the need for huge
cooling towers, redundant pumps and backup diesel generators.

"There is going to be some benefit on both sides," Tricht said.
"As we take this technology forward in China we believe it will
also help accelerate the efforts for the United States market as
well."

China is building scores of new nuclear power plants, seeking
the latest technology from industry leaders while working to
shore up its own expertise.

Asia offers the promise of a bonanza for American companies such
as Westinghouse and General Electric Co. which already have a
strong presence in the region. Westinghouse has helped build 14
nuclear plants in South Korea and provided technology for almost
half of Japan's 55 nuclear units. GE, meanwhile, has helped
build 36 reactors in Japan, India and Taiwan.

Eighteen reactors -- about 70 percent of the world's total under
construction -- are going up in Asia, and another 77 are planned
or proposed, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an
industry advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

 Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 40 Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Growing needs, changing attitudes fuel drive for new nuclear plant
 	 	 	 	 	
December 17, 2006 			 			 		 		 	 #sh_menu #sh_innews a {

 By CATHY ZOLLO

Progress Energy Florida, which this week took the first steps
toward building a multibillion-dollar nuclear power plant in
Levy County, is betting it will benefit from a changing public
attitude toward nuclear power.

Only a handful of such plants have gone up in the United States
in the past 25 years, none in Florida.

But with memories of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl fading and
the federal government encouraging nuclear technology, as many
as 30 new nuclear plants could be proposed in the next few years.

Progress Energy secured an option on 3,000 acres in rural Levy
County, about eight miles north of its existing Crystal River
nuclear plant.

It is the first step in what is a multiyear process to gain
approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The initial reaction, especially in Levy County, where the
prospect of 500 jobs is enticing, has been supportive.

"That is not to say we don't expect some opposition," Jeff
Lyash, CEO of Progress, said at a news conference.

"...We'll look forward to addressing that as openly and
collaboratively as we can."

FPL has also said it is considering nuclear energy as an option
for a future power plant, but it has not yet picked a site.

At a series of public meetings recently, FPL officials said they
generally heard support for building more nuclear plants.

"We never take for granted we're going to be able to go out and
build what's needed," said Rachel Scott, FPL spokeswoman.

"We recognize that we need to go out and talk to the community
... listen to their interests and concerns and address them
early and throughout the development of the project."

Nationally, an October 2005 survey of people who live within 10
miles of one of the nation's 64 operating nuclear power plants
showed that 83 percent favor nuclear energy, and 76 percent were
willing to see a new reactor built near them.

Lyash said Progress will complete its application for
construction and operation in the next 18 months and begin the
review with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, though at any
point it could abandon the project.

The single permit for both functions is part of the NRC
permitting process that was streamlined with the Energy Policy
Act of 2005.

The law offers incentives for new nuclear power plant
construction and measures to protect companies against
government review delays.

That will be followed by three or four years of analysis and
design for the plant.

Construction will take about five years, and Progress officials
expect the plant to be online around 2017, producing enough
electricity to power 700,000 homes.

Environmental groups would rather the approximately $3 billion
it will cost to build one reactor in Levy went toward developing
safer, cheaper energy from the sun and wind and for driving up
energy efficiency.

"These nuclear power plants create radioactive waste that is the
most dangerous substance known to mankind," said Holly Binns,
field representative for Environment Florida.

"They'll spend billions and billions of ratepayer dollars on a
plan that will exacerbate that problem."

While environmentalists concede the plants themselves are safer
today, a major problem that remains unsolved is what to do with
the radioactive nuclear waste.

The U.S. government, environmental groups, the nuclear power
industry and the state of Nevada are still wrestling over the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal site.

Cherie Jacobs, spokeswoman for Progress Energy, said wind and
solar power are not practical ways to meet Florida's energy
needs.

"Alternative energies ... are too expensive still to use on a
broad enough scale to handle the kind of power that we're seeing
the state will need in 20 years," Jacobs said.

Progress expects a 25 percent increase in electric usage in its
35-county territory, fueled largely by population growth but
also by increased demand for electricity in existing homes and
businesses.

Nuclear power proponents say new technology and safety
regulations will prevent accidents like Chernobyl from happening
again.

"Even 30 years ago, we couldn't have gotten away with that
design," said Daniel Sprau, professor of environmental health at
East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.

Reactor regulations have stiffened since then and must include
multiple, redundant safety systems as well as automated safety
systems and stronger physical barriers between the radioactive
end of the nuclear energy production and the outside world,
among others safety features.

Sprau, who took his students to Chernobyl in April for the 20th
anniversary of the disaster, thinks nuclear energy can combat
global warming as well as answer the growing demand for
electricity.

"I would prefer nuclear power over coal or any other source of
fuel," Sprau said. "We need to do everything we can with wind
and solar power, but that's not going to cut it with the demand
we have now."

In Levy County, Sue Colson, a clam farmer and member of the
Cedar Key Aquaculture Association, says she's got some studying
to do before she decides if the plant is a good or a bad thing.

She wonders about how warm water from the plant might affect
nearby Gulf of Mexico waters, home to some 200 clam farms and
one of the biggest clam-producing areas in the United States.

But Colson is less worried about a nuclear plant than, say, a
housing development.

"If I had 3,000 acres of private homes going in or condos, I'd
be worried because they cannot be managed," she said. "...The
runoff from people is horrible." 

Last modified: December 17. 2006 5:34AM 		 	 	 			 		 		

*****************************************************************
 41 Star-Banner: Nuclear power makes comeback 

Ocala.com | Ocala, Fla.
 	 	 	 	 	 	
Dec. 17, 2006

BY RICHARD CONN STAR-BANNER

OCALA - There hasn't been a license issued for the construction
of a nuclear power plant in the U.S. in nearly three decades, as
the industry has stagnated since the accident at Three Mile
Island in 1979 - the worst in the country's history.

But after years of dormancy, nuclear power may be on the verge
of a renaissance. Energy companies and consortiums have
announced their intentions to apply for licenses to build about
30 reactors throughout the country.

"There is no question that this is the highest level of interest
that there has been in 25 years or so," said Roger Hannah,
spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's regional
office in Atlanta.

And part of that rebirth could happen in Levy County where
Progress Energy has selected a 3,000-acre tract as a site for a
possible nuclear power plant. However, company officials say
that a decision to build is more than a year away.

So what's sparked the renewed interest in nuclear power?
Proponents say the unstable cost of natural gas, the public's
desire to decrease dependence on foreign energy sources, as well
as increased concerns about global warming have turned the tide.
Unlike fossil fuels, nuclear energy does not emit greenhouse
gases such as carbon dioxide. In addition, nuclear energy
experts say the plants are cheaper to operate and maintain.

"It's being driven by economics but it's also being driven by
environmental issues," said Mitch Singer, spokesman for the
Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear energy industry's policy
organization. "It's the largest source of emission-free
electricity in the country."

Singer said Florida is ripe for the building of new power plants
since the state's population is expected to grow by 30 percent
by 2030 while its demand for electricity is forecast to increase
by 76 percent.

Buddy Eller, Florida communications manager for Progress Energy,
said that a switch to nuclear is the best option to possibly
lower customers' energy bills in the future, about half of which
are currently related to rising fuel costs.

"[Nuclear] is a domestic fuel that's very stable over the long
term," Eller said.

But Michele Boyd, legislative director for the energy program of
the advocacy group Public Citizen, said that the push for the
building of new nuclear reactors should really be tied to the
passage of the 2005 Energy Bill, which included billions of
dollars in "cradle-to-grave" subsidies and tax breaks to promote
the building of nuclear reactors.

However, Boyd said that she'll believe in a full-scale nuclear
power resurgence when she sees it. While a number of utilities
have announced their intention to build plants, Boyd said that
applications for only four nuclear reactors have been sent in so
far to the NRC. The plants are too costly to construct and the
public sentiment won't be there if and when companies decide to
build, she said.

"I'm confident we're not looking at a renaissance," Boyd said.
"It's a mammoth expense; there are major, major safety and
security concerns."

Among those concerns, Boyd said, are that power plants remain a
vulnerable target for terrorists more than five years since the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Also, she said radioactive waste is
an ever-present danger, as storage mechanisms for the waste
aren't sufficient.

Boyd said that by making early announcements, utility companies
such as Progress are putting out feelers to find out how much
opposition they would receive if they decide to build.

"Progress is definitely testing the waters to see what kind of
reaction they are going to get," Boyd said.

Singer said public concerns about possible accidents such as
those that occurred at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are
unfounded.

"Those people who have safety concerns are just not
knowledgeable about how a nuclear power plant works," Singer
said. "They are operating more safely than they ever have."

Dr. Alireza Haghighat, a professor and chairman of the
University of Florida Department of Nuclear and Radiological
Engineering, said that there are really only three viable
choices to generate electricity - natural gas, coal and nuclear.
He said that the price of natural gas is too unstable and coal
emits too many greenhouse gases, making nuclear the only viable
option. Renewables won't be ready soon enough to meet the
growing demand for electricity, he said.

"If you think of it in a logical manner, then nuclear looks
good," Haghighat said.

Haghighat said that concerns about the storage of waste are
baseless. He estimated that the radioactive waste from all of
the 104 nuclear reactors in operation in the U.S. would be
enough to fill up one football field six feet high.

If governmental efforts to step up reprocessing take hold,
Haghighat said, "it would only take up an end zone."

Plus, Haghighat said the nuclear industry has made significant
strides to prevent possible accidents since Three Mile Island.

"The industry has improved significantly since [Three Mile
Island] because it helped them become more aware of the issues
and less arrogant," he said.

Singer said that the NEI believes there is bipartisan support
for nuclear power and that public opinion polls show that people
want an alternative to foreign energy sources.

"I think its the economics, the environmental issues, the
political support and the public opinion support," Singer said.
"When you put that all together, it's a pretty strong arsenal."

Boyd said that Public Citizen has already brought forth several
environmental and safety concerns for proposed reactors in
Mississippi and Illinois in hearings before the NRC. If Progress
does decide to file for a license to build in Levy County, she
said her organization would likely get involved there as well.

"We'd certainly look at it," Boyd said.
Richard Conn may be reached at richard.conn@starbanner.comor
867-4045.

  © Copyright 2006, The Ocala Star-Banner
*****************************************************************
 42 IHT: Swedish reactor shuts down after mishap - 

Europe - International Herald Tribune

The Associated Press

Published: December 17, 2006

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: One reactor at Sweden's Forsmark nuclear
plant was shut down on Sunday because of a minor mishap, an
official said. 

"There is nothing dramatic about this," said Claes-Inge
Andersson, information director at the Forsmark Power Plant. "A
minor problem was discovered when we checked a valve in a steam
turbine. This is not serious and there is absolutely no danger." 

Andersson said the reactor, Forsmark 1, will be restarted on
Tuesday. Another reactor, Forsmark 3, was shut down earlier this
week because of fuel damage and is expected to be running on
full capacity by Wednesday. 

In July, two reactors at Forsmark were shut down after two
backup generators malfunctioned during a power failure on July
25. They were restarted last month after officials installed
safety improvements. 

Forsmark is situated about 100 kilometers north of Stockholm on
the Swedish east coast on the site of an old industrial
community. Each year it produces between 20 and 25 billion kwh,
which corresponds to one-sixth of Sweden's total electricity
generation. 	 

All rights reserved   [IHT]    
*****************************************************************
 43 AFP: Indian PM confident of Japan's support to US nuclear deal -
     
 Sun Dec 17, 12:42 AM ET 		 	 

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was 
confident of Japan's support for India's ambitions of entering 
the civilian nuclear club. 

 "I am convinced that when the time comes Japan will be on our 
side," Singh told reporters on board a homebound flight from a 
four-day visit to Japan, according to the Press Trust of India 
(PTI) on Saturday. 

On Friday, Tokyo agreed to start talks with India on a free-trade 
pact but declined to extend support to a deal between India and 
the United States that promises long-denied civilian nuclear 
technology to India. 

Japan is a key player in the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, 
which controls the transfer of nuclear material and needs to 
approve the landmark agreement. 

Oxford-educated economist Singh said he was hopeful that Japan 
would relent. 

"I am not at all disappointed because there is adequate 
appreciation of the fact that India needs nuclear power for its 
energy security," he reportedly said. 

"Our commitment is that we will have in place India-specific
safeguards with the IAEA ( International Atomic Energy Agency"
/> )," Singh said, referring to his talks with Japanese Premier
Shinzo Abe in Tokyo. 

The deal signed last year by Singh and US President George W.
Bush" /> stipulates that India must put its civilian-use atomic
reactors under the IAEA's scanner. 

Abe, following talks with Singh, said India must assure the
international community of its commitment to the IAEA. 

Singh said Abe's "statement reflected the actual situation
wherein India has to put in place a safeguards agreement with
the IAEA," the PTI reported. 

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. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 44 AFP: India's top nuclear scientists oppose US deal 

 Sat Dec 16, 7:23 AM ET 		 	 

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's top nuclear scientists have repeated 
their fears that a landmark nuclear deal with the United States 
will place limitations on the country's weapons programme, the 
media reported. 

The deal allows the export of nuclear fuel and technology to
energy-hungry India for the first time since it first tested a
nuclear device in 1974. US President George W. Bush" />
President George W. Bushis expected to sign the accord on
Monday. 

But the scientists said the final version of the bill, which
reconciled versions of the legislation approved by the US House
of Representatives and Senate, contained clauses that India had
previously objected to. 

"The act makes it explicit that if India conducts such tests,
the nuclear cooperation will be terminated," the scientists said
in a statement published by the Asian Age newspaper. 

Three former chairmen of the country's Atomic Energy Commission
were among those who signed the statement. 

Under the deal announced by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and Bush in July 2005, India, a non-signatory to the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), agreed to place its civilian-use
reactors under global scrutiny. 

The agreement includes a set of international safeguards to be
approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency" />
International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), the global nuclear
watchdog, and to which India must adhere. 

The scientists also raised objections to other clauses, which
require India's participation in US efforts to "dissuade,
isolate, and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran" in its
alleged efforts to develop nuclear weapons. 

"These stipulations... constitute intrusion into India's
independent decision-making and policy matters," the statement
said. 

The scientists have appealed to the government to convey their
concerns to the US administration. 

Prime Minister Singh is expected to make a statement on the
agreement in parliament on Monday, after which lawmakers will
discuss the deal. 

The deal still requires the endorsement of the influential
45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. 

*****************************************************************
 45 Times Union: Nuclear power, U.S. aren't a good mix 

Albany NY
 	
First published: Saturday, December 16, 2006                               
  	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
In a Dec. 4 letter Dominic Fulgieri asks: "... shouldn't America 
be turning to nuclear power ...?"

The knowledgeable answer to that is an emphatic "no," which is 
based on the ugly fact that a power reactor makes about 25 tons 
of radioactive waste annually. This waste will be unsafe for 
240,000 years. We don't know what to do with it.

Furthermore, we must bear in mind the principle (usufruct) that 
we hold the earth in trust for future generations.

THOMAS A. WHALEN

Cohoes 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	   	 
      

  All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2006, Capital
Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.

*****************************************************************
 46 AFP: Bush to sign 'hugely important' India nuke deal 

 Sat Dec 16, 12:52 AM 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 was 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.
*****************************************************************
 47 Shanghai Daily : US trumps France in reactor bid

The Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group 

Ying Lou 2006-12-18 

CHINA picked Toshiba Corp's Westinghouse Electric Co for the 
biggest international nuclear reactor contract in history, 
trumping Areva SA for a project worth about US$5.3 billion.

Westinghouse will build two reactors at Sanmen in Zhejiang
Province and two at Yangjiang in Guangdong, the US Department of
Energy said. US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Ma Kai, head
of China's National Development and Reform Commission, signed
the agreement in Beijing on Saturday.

China becomes the first customer for Monroeville,
Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse's latest technology. The United
States company, bought by Japan's Toshiba for US$4.16 billion in
October, gains an edge in bidding to supply as many as 26 more
reactors by 2020 as China turns to atomic energy to cut coal
pollution and reduce reliance on oil.

"Awarding the contract may ease trade pressures with the US,"
Alice Hui, an analyst at UBS AG, said.

"It's also about China's desire to gain access to new US
technology which it doesn't yet have."

The contract to build the plants for China National Nuclear Corp
ends almost two years of negotiating and lobbying by
Westinghouse, Paris-based Areva and Russia's AtomStroyExport.
China, which wants to get four percent of its power from nuclear
energy by 2020 from about 2.3 percent now, needs to add two
reactors a year to meet the target.

The agreement, signed during a five-nation energy summit, came
after the first round of new biannual China-US trade talks. 

"This represents a multi-billion-dollar commitment by the
Chinese that should generate some 5,500 jobs in the United
States," Bodman said. "It demonstrates that enhanced cooperation
can yield benefits to both nations and advance our mutual goals
of energy security and improved environmental stewardship."

China's order is part of more than US$200 billion forecast to be
spent worldwide on nuclear power by 2030, according to the
Paris-based International Energy Agency, an adviser to 26 of the
world's largest energy users. A surge in oil and natural gas
prices and concern that the carbon dioxide released by burning
fossil fuels leads to global warming are driving the revival.

The construction of the reactors will start early next year.

Shanghai Daily Home | Copyright © 2001-2006 Shanghai Daily
Publishing House 
*****************************************************************
 48 washingtonpost.com: Japan Upgrades Its Defense Agency - 
                    
New Laws Widen Mission, Require Schools to Foster Patriotism

By Anthony FaiolaWashington Post Foreign Service

 Saturday, December 16, 2006; Page A15

TOKYO, Dec. 15 -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government pushed
through landmark laws Friday requiring Japanese schools to
encourage patriotism in the classroom and elevating the Defense
Agency to the status of a full ministry for the first time since
World War II.

Both measures are considered cornerstones of Abe's agenda to
bolster Japan'smilitary status and rebuild national pride in a
country that has long associated patriotism with its imperialist
past. The legislation cleared the upper house of parliament on
Friday after winning approval in the lower house last month and
will take effect early next year.

Abe, Japan's first prime minister born after World War II, had
made education reform a key issue during his campaign to succeed
Junichiro Koizumi in September. His bid to restore patriotism in
schools has drawn harsh criticism from Japanese pacifists, who
argue that such a law echoes the state-sponsored indoctrination
of children practiced by Japan's past military leaders.

But Abe and other proponents counter that a renewed embrace of
patriotism is an essential step forward for Japan as it
gradually emerges from a decades-long sense of guilt over World
War II. In recent years, for instance, municipalities have begun
enforcing laws requiring the national anthem to be sung and the
Japanese flag flown at certain school ceremonies, despite
objections from teachers' unions, which remain one of the last
bastions of pacifism in Japan.

The new education law is likely to dramatically increase the
number of schools using revisionist textbooks that have been
heralded by conservatives here but decried by Japan's wartime
victims -- particularly Chinaand South Korea-- as whitewashing
its past aggression. Such books omit references, for instance,
to "comfort women," a euphemism for the thousands of Asian women
forced into sexual bondage by the Japanese military during the
1930s and '40s.

"The revision bears the historic significance of clearly showing
the fundamental idea of education for a new era," Abe said in a
statement lauding the law's passage.

Also approved were a key set of bills upgrading Japan's Defense
Agency -- created in 1954 after the American occupation of Japan
ended -- to the status of a full ministry. The move gives
defense officials greater clout in national policymaking and
budget decisions, something considered taboo here in the decades
after the war.

The primary mission of Japan's Self-Defense Forces, whose role
had long been strictly defined as defense of the home islands,
will now be expanded to include overseas peacekeeping missions.
Japan deployed noncombat troops in Iraqfrom 2004 until earlier
this year, but only after Koizumi won special authority from
parliament.

The agency's elevation to a ministry will also facilitate
passage of more specific laws giving Japan greater flexibility
to dispatch its forces to international hot spots. More
important, it could eventually allow Japan to offer a larger
measure of logistical support in a regional conflict. Such a
move could change the balance of power in East Asia, empowering
Tokyo, for instance, to assist the United States in defending
Taiwan in the event of Chinese aggression. But officials here
say it may take years before bills that would explicitly permit
such actions are drafted and submitted to parliament.

Nevertheless, the upgrading of the Defense Agency underscores
the growing prominence of the military establishment in Japan, a
nation that renounced the right to use force to settle
international disputes in the postwar pacifist constitution
drafted for it by the United States. Japan has largely relied
for deterrence on its security alliance with the United States,
which keeps about 50,000 troops here.

But with concerns growing about regional security, particularly
as a result of North Korea'spursuit of nuclear weapons, Japan
has begun to shed its pacifist shell. Abe has called for the
drafting of a new constitution that would allow Japan to
officially possess a flexible military again.

&copy; Copyright 1996- The Washington Post Company 
*****************************************************************
 49 [NYTr] Polonium 210: Evidence Points to Russian Exiles, Not Putin
 
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 15:48:02 -0500 (EST)

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Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Steve Wozniak's list via Tim Murphy - Dec 17, 2006
(contributed to Woz by Sharno [Sharon?] Tennison)

Polonium 210 - evidence points to exiled Russians - not Putin

[As predicted earlier last month, whatever happened with Litvinenko's
poisoning, it points to his circle of "friends", all of whom were supported
by exiled Russian oligarch Berezovsky, self-appointed enemy of Putin - and
contrary to the media hype/rage since November 1, Putin had nothing to do
with the poisoning.

Litvinenko, from evidence emerging, was involved with smuggling radio-active
materials, which hopefully will come to light, since it has grave
implications for dirty bombs that could end up in our cities.

Unbelievably... just yesterday, another Washington Post downloaded article
incriminating Putin in the poisoning arrived in our Bay Area Examiner
newspaper.  I have to believe that US editors and journalists are keeping up
with the evidence on this case now that Scotland Yard and German
intelligence are on it - but if so, then why are these fallacious articles
still being circulated?????  -Sharon]

Slate - Dec 12, 2006
http://www.slate.com/id/2155363/nav/tap1/

The Polonium Connection

We have to find out where it came from.

By Edward Jay Epstein

Both Scotland Yard and Russian authorities are now investigating the alleged
murder of Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-lieutenant colonel in the KGB, who
died in London from a dose of polonium-210 on Nov. 23. The focus on Who
Killed Litvinenko has led to the neglect of what may turn out to be a far
more important question: Where did the polonium-210 come from?

Polonium-210 is not a common household substance. It is made by bombarding
bismuth in a nuclear reactor with neutrons from uranium-235, the fuel for
atom bombs. It rapidly decays, with a half-life of 138 days, which means
that it cannot be stockpiled for more than a few months. It is also very
rare-fewer than 4 ounces are produced each year. Virtually all of this known
production comes from a handful of Russian reactors. Russia continues to
produce it because the United States buys almost all of it. And the United
States buys the Russian polonium-210 to make sure that it does not leak into
the black market.

If a rogue nation (or terrorist group) obtained access to any quantity of
polonium-even, say, a half gram-it could use it as an initiator for setting
off the chain reaction in a crude nuclear bomb. With a fissile fuel, such as
U-235, and beryllium (which is mixed in layers with the polonium-210),
someone could make a "poor man's" nuke. Even lacking these other
ingredients, the polonium-210, which aerosolizes at about 130 degrees
Fahrenheit, could be used with a conventional explosive, like dynamite, to
make a dirty bomb.

Under very tight controls in the United States, minute traces of
polonium-210 are embedded in plastic or ceramic, allowing them to be used
safely in industrial static eliminators. To recapture these traces in any
toxic quantity would require collecting over 15,000 static eliminators and
then using highly sophisticated extraction technology. Such a large-scale
operation would instantly be noticed, and its product would be adulterated
by residual plastic or ceramic. In any case, what investigators reportedly
recovered from Litvinenko's body was pure polonium-210.

The polonium-210 has also left a tell-tale trail. At least a dozen people
have been contaminated, including Litvinenko; Andrei Lugovoi, a former
colleague of Litvinenko's in the KGB, who met with Litvinenko at the Pine
Bar of the Millennium Hotel in London the day he became ill, Nov. 1; Dmitry
Kovtun, Lugovoi's business associate, who also attended that meeting; seven
employees of the Millennium Hotel; Mario Scaramella, an Italian security
consultant, who dined with Litvinenko on Nov. 1 at the Itsu Sushi Restaurant
(and whom, one week later, Litvinenko accused of poisoning him); and
Litvinenko's Russian wife, Marina, who went with him to Barnet General
Hospital on Nov. 1.

In addition, traces of the same polonium-210 were detected at Litvinenko's
home and hospital, three luxury hotels and a security firm in London, a
residence in Hamburg that Kovtun had visited en route to London, and on two
British Airways planes on which Lugovoi flew from Moscow to London in
October.

As polonium-210 has not been manufactured in Britain for years, and it
cannot be stockpiled for long, the isotope must have been smuggled into the
country. If it is assumed that no one intended to leave a radioactive trail
in airplanes, hotel rooms, or homes, or contaminate waiters and other
innocent bystanders, there must have been some unintentional leakage of the
smuggled polonium-210. Moreover, we know from the Hamburg trail that the
leakage occurred well before Litvinenko went into the hospital on Nov. 1.
But where did the smuggled polonium-210 come from?

The diversion could have come from only a limited number of places. Just
four facilities are licensed to handle polonium-210 in Russia: Moscow State
University; Techsnabexport, the state-controlled uranium-export agency; the
Federal Nuclear Center in Samara; and Nuclon, a private company. Although
these licensees are monitored by the Russian government, it would not
necessarily require an intelligence service to divert part of the supply
into private hands. A single employee who was bribed, blackmailed, or
otherwise motivated conceivably could filch a pinhead quantity of
polonium-210 and smuggle it out in a glass vial (in which its alpha
particles would be undetectable). Such corruption is not unknown in Russia.

Or the diversion could have come from outside Russia. A number of other
countries with nuclear reactors have been suspected of clandestinely
producing or buying polonium-210, including Iran (where it was detected by
IAEA inspectors in 2000), North Korea (where it was detected by U.S.
airborne sampling), Israel (where several scientists died from accidental
leaks of it in the 1950s and 1960s), Pakistan, and China. But whatever its
source, the polonium diversion has serious implications. The real problem is
not its toxicity, since its alpha particles can't penetrate the surface of
the skin and therefore have to be ingested or breathed in to cause any
damage. (That can happen if you have polonium-210 on your person or
clothes.) The more serious danger is that it could be sold to a country that
wanted to set off a nuclear device, clean or dirty.

Given its value on the nuclear black market, the relationships Litvinenko
had with his contaminated associates may be relevant to its origin.

To begin with, there are his contacts with Mario Scaramella. According to
Scaramella, Litvinenko told him at their sushi lunch that before he had
defected from Russia, his activities had included the "smuggling of nuclear
material out of Russia." If true, why did the ex-KGB officer broach the
subject of nuclear smuggling?

Then, there is the intriguing relationship between Litvinenko and Lugovoi.
According to Lugovoi, the two former KGB officers met "12 or 13 times" in
London to discuss business. Three of these meetings occurred between Oct. 15
and Nov. 1, and after each of them Lugovoi flew back to Moscow. Between the
last two meetings, Litvinenko flew to Tel Aviv and Lugovoi's associate
Kovtun flew to Hamburg. Trails of polonium radioactivity have so far turned
up in Hamburg and Moscow. So, the purpose of these trips is part of the
mystery.

Finally, there is Boris Berezovsky. Both Litvinenko and Lugovoi worked for
him. Litvinenko had been on his payroll in London since his defection in
2000; Lugovoi had helped organize his security in Moscow and recruited
ex-KGB men to work with him. Moreover, his London offices showed traces of
polonium-210, suggesting Lugovoi and/or Litvinenko might have met with him.

The problem here is not merely catching a murderer-if indeed it was
murder-but plugging a leak in the hellish diversion of polonium-210.

[Edward Jay Epstein is the author of The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money
and Power in Hollywood.]

Copyright 2006 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC


       
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*****************************************************************
 50 Nuclear Weapon Almost Accidently Detonates In Texas
 
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 14:39:12 -0500

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http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=147058
  16.12.2006 / 13:38 Mishap in dismantling nuclear
warhead

AUSTIN. December 16. KAZINFORM - 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, Kazinform has learnt
from UPI.

http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=147058

------------------

BWXT-Managed Nuclear Facility Fined

http://newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192208536&path=!news!archive


By Bethany Fuller
bfuller@newsadvance.com / (434) 385-5531
December 15, 2006

A nuclear-weapons plant in Texas managed by BWX
Technologies was fined in
November for violating safety procedures during
the disassembly of a nuclear
warhead in 2005, according to the Department of
Energy and Defense Nuclear
Facilities Safety Board.

The Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit
nuclear watchdog
organization, called the incident a "near-miss"
where production technicians
who were disassembling a W56 warhead were putting
too much pressure on the
warhead.

The Pantex plant, located in the Texas Panhandle,
was fined $110,000 and is
now being investigated by the Department of Energy
for a number of other
alleged safety problems.

"When you're dealing with full- up nuclear
weapons, this near- miss is a
hell of a situation," said Peter Stockton, a
spokesman for the Project on
Government Oversight, or POGO. "A near-miss
generally means that something
horrible almost happened."

Anson Franklin, a spokesman for the National
Nuclear Security
Administration, reiterated that DOE fined the
contractor, but said he
couldn't go into "a point- for-point discussion"
on the incident.

A letter from the NNSA to Pantex officials in
November stated, "While the
successful and timely accomplishment of your
assigned mission is of critical
importance to NNSA, the definition of success must
include the application
of sound nuclear safety principles to the conduct
of each work activity."

The Spring 2005 incident was "particularly
dangerous," according to POGO,
because the W56 warhead was over a decade old and
pre-dated three basic
enhanced safety features that reduce the
possibility of an accidental
detonation, and are now required on more modern
weapons.

BWXT Pantex is the management and operating
contractor at the Texas plant,
which is a government facility administered by the
U.S. Department of
Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration.

BWXT Pantex is part of Lynchburg-based BWXT, which
employs 2,400 at its Hill
City facilities and more than 11,000 nationwide.

An anonymous letter from plant employees sent to
the BWXT Pantex Board of
Managers and John Fees, BWXT chief operating
officer, spurred the latest
investigation by the NNSA and the DOE into the
Pantex plant.

The letter, which was published on the Internet by
POGO, lays out the
unnamed employees' grievances, including the
"degraded" condition of the
plant and the number of hours employees are
required to work every week in
order to meet DOE deadlines.

Franklin said the NNSA launched the investigation
as soon as it received the
letter at the beginning of November.

"While there are some management and perception
issues, there are no
overriding safety concerns," he said.

BWXT spokeswoman Regina Carter said because the
allegations are
plant-specific, the company is letting the plant
handle it.

Lynchburg-based BWXT holds several nuclear-related
contracts managing sites
for the Department of Energy and the Department of
Defense.

In a written statement, BWXT Pantex General
Manager Dan Swaim stated he
disagreed with the letter's accusations.

"BWXT Pantex takes seriously any employee concerns
about safe operations,
and the company is currently comparing the
specific concerns expressed in
the letter with the reality of its day-to-day
work," he said. "Since
assuming the Pantex contract in 2001, the company
has both improved worker
safety and increased weapons production."

The plant, which employs 3,500, is conducting an
internal investigation into
the letter's accusations.

The claims aren't anything new.

According to an August 11 weekly plant report for
the Defense Nuclear
Facilities Safety Board, an independent government
agency, BWXT
Manufacturing Division is experiencing a manpower
shortage at the Pantex
plant near Amarillo, Texas.

"Scheduling commitments for the B61 program have
forced PTs (production
technicians) to work 72 hour weeks (6 days, 12
hours)," the report reads.
"BWXT's internal procedures limit employees to 72
hours in a 7-day period,
unless exempted by written approval of the
Division Manager."

The employees' letter alleges that engineers at
the plant are working up to
12 hours a day, five to seven days a week, and
that production technicians
are required to work 10 hours a day, five to seven
days a week, in order to
keep up with production schedules.

A report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety
Board filed August 18
described puddles that formed after severe weather
from leaks throughout the
facility in several nuclear facility interlocks
and bays, and in equipment
rooms that support nuclear operations.

Investigators found no equipment damage or failure
after the incident, the
report said.

Franklin said both the NNSA and DOE receive those
reports.

Franklin said the federal team in Amarillo began
the investigation into the
allegations, and the NNSA subsequently sent
additional investigators from
Washington, Franklin said the investigation will
include a team of safety
experts who will interview employees and
management.

"It is a thorough investigation and we expect to
get a fairly detailed
report back on any changes we need to make,"
Franklin said.

http://newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192208536&path=!news!archive


*****************************************************************
 51 Polonium 210 - evidence points to exiled Russians - not Putin
 
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 07:05:40 -0600 (CST)

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----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Wozniak
To: Steve's Inform List:
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 2:44 AM
Subject: Polonium 210 - evidence points to exiled Russians - not Putin

As predicted earlier last month, whatever happened with Litvinenko's
poisoning, it points to his circle of "friends", all of whom were supported by
exiled  Russian oligarch Berezovsky, self-appointed enemy of Putin - and
contrary to the media hype/rage since November 1, Putin had nothing to do with
the poisoning.

Litvinenko, from evidence emerging, was involved with smuggling radio-active
materials, which hopefully will come to light, since it has grave implications
for dirty bombs that could end up in our cities.

Unbelievably... just yesterday, another Washington Post downloaded article
incriminating Putin in the poisoning arrived in our Bay Area Examiner
newspaper.  I have to believe that US editors and journalists are keeping up
with the evidence on this case now that Scotland Yard and German intelligence
are on it - but if so, then why are these fallacious articles still being
circulated?????

Sharon

http://www.slate.com/id/2155363/nav/tap1/

The Polonium Connection
We have to find out where it came from.
By Edward Jay Epstein
Posted Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006, at 1:22 PM ET

Both Scotland Yard and Russian authorities are now investigating the alleged
murder of Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-lieutenant colonel in the KGB, who died
in London from a dose of polonium-210 on Nov. 23. The focus on Who Killed
Litvinenko has led to the neglect of what may turn out to be a far more
important question: Where did the polonium-210 come from?

Polonium-210 is not a common household substance. It is made by bombarding
bismuth in a nuclear reactor with neutrons from uranium-235, the fuel for atom
bombs. It rapidly decays, with a half-life of 138 days, which means that it
cannot be stockpiled for more than a few months. It is also very rare-fewer
than 4 ounces are produced each year. Virtually all of this known production
comes from a handful of Russian reactors. Russia continues to produce it
because the United States buys almost all of it. And the United States buys
the Russian polonium-210 to make sure that it does not leak into the black
market.

If a rogue nation (or terrorist group) obtained access to any quantity of
polonium-even, say, a half gram-it could use it as an initiator for setting
off the chain reaction in a crude nuclear bomb. With a fissile fuel, such as
U-235, and beryllium (which is mixed in layers with the polonium-210), someone
could make a "poor man's" nuke. Even lacking these other ingredients, the
polonium-210, which aerosolizes at about 130 degrees Fahrenheit, could be used
with a conventional explosive, like dynamite, to make a dirty bomb.

Under very tight controls in the United States, minute traces of polonium-210
are embedded in plastic or ceramic, allowing them to be used safely in
industrial static eliminators. To recapture these traces in any toxic quantity
would require collecting over 15,000 static eliminators and then using highly
sophisticated extraction technology. Such a large-scale operation would
instantly be noticed, and its product would be adulterated by residual plastic
or ceramic. In any case, what investigators reportedly recovered from
Litvinenko's body was pure polonium-210.

The polonium-210 has also left a tell-tale trail. At least a dozen people have
been contaminated, including Litvinenko; Andrei Lugovoi, a former colleague of
Litvinenko's in the KGB, who met with Litvinenko at the Pine Bar of the
Millennium Hotel in London the day he became ill, Nov. 1; Dmitry Kovtun,
Lugovoi's business associate, who also attended that meeting; seven employees
of the Millennium Hotel; Mario Scaramella, an Italian security consultant, who
dined with Litvinenko on Nov. 1 at the Itsu Sushi Restaurant
(and whom, one week later, Litvinenko accused of poisoning him); and
Litvinenko's Russian wife, Marina, who went with him to Barnet General
Hospital on Nov.
1.

In addition, traces of the same polonium-210 were detected at Litvinenko's
home and hospital, three luxury hotels and a security firm in London, a
residence in Hamburg that Kovtun had visited en route to London, and on two
British Airways planes on which Lugovoi flew from Moscow to London in October.

As polonium-210 has not been manufactured in Britain for years, and it cannot
be stockpiled for long, the isotope must have been smuggled into the country.
If it is assumed that no one intended to leave a radioactive trail in
airplanes, hotel rooms, or homes, or contaminate waiters and other innocent
bystanders, there must have been some unintentional leakage of the smuggled
polonium-210. Moreover, we know from the Hamburg trail that the leakage
occurred well before Litvinenko went into the hospital on Nov. 1. But where
did the smuggled polonium-210 come from?

The diversion could have come from only a limited number of places. Just four
facilities are licensed to handle polonium-210 in Russia: Moscow State
University; Techsnabexport, the state-controlled uranium-export agency; the
Federal Nuclear Center in Samara; and Nuclon, a private company. Although
these licensees are monitored by the Russian government, it would not
necessarily require an intelligence service to divert part of the supply into
private hands. A single employee who was bribed, blackmailed, or otherwise
motivated conceivably could filch a pinhead quantity of polonium-210 and
smuggle it out in a glass vial (in which its alpha particles would be
undetectable). Such corruption is not unknown in Russia.

Or the diversion could have come from outside Russia. A number of other
countries with nuclear reactors have been suspected of clandestinely producing
or buying polonium-210, including Iran (where it was detected by IAEA
inspectors in 2000), North Korea (where it was detected by U.S. airborne
sampling), Israel (where several scientists died from accidental leaks of it
in the 1950s and 1960s), Pakistan, and China. But whatever its source, the
polonium diversion has serious implications. The real problem is not its
toxicity, since its alpha particles can't penetrate the surface of the skin
and therefore have to be ingested or breathed in to cause any damage. (That
can happen if you have polonium-210 on your person or clothes.) The more
serious danger is that it could be sold to a country that wanted to set off a
nuclear device, clean or dirty.

Given its value on the nuclear black market, the relationships Litvinenko had
with his contaminated associates may be relevant to its origin.

To begin with, there are his contacts with Mario Scaramella. According to
Scaramella, Litvinenko told him at their sushi lunch that before he had
defected from Russia, his activities had included the "smuggling of nuclear
material out of Russia." If true, why did the ex-KGB officer broach the
subject of nuclear smuggling?

Then, there is the intriguing relationship between Litvinenko and Lugovoi.
According to Lugovoi, the two former KGB officers met "12 or 13 times" in
London to discuss business. Three of these meetings occurred between Oct. 15
and Nov. 1, and after each of them Lugovoi flew back to Moscow. Between the
last two meetings, Litvinenko flew to Tel Aviv and Lugovoi's associate Kovtun
flew to Hamburg. Trails of polonium radioactivity have so far turned up in
Hamburg and Moscow. So, the purpose of these trips is part of the mystery.

Finally, there is Boris Berezovsky. Both Litvinenko and Lugovoi worked for
him. Litvinenko had been on his payroll in London since his defection in 2000;
Lugovoi had helped organize his security in Moscow and recruited ex-KGB men to
work with him. Moreover, his London offices showed traces of polonium-210,
suggesting Lugovoi and/or Litvinenko might have met with him.

The problem here is not merely catching a murderer-if indeed it was murder-but
plugging a leak in the hellish diversion of polonium-210.

Edward Jay Epstein is the author of The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money
and Power in Hollywood. (To read the first chapter, click here.)

Copyright 2006 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC

(contributed to Woz by Sharno Tennison)
pa
*****************************************************************
 52 London Times: Ex-spy ‘killed for dossier on Kremlin boss’ - 

Sunday Times -

December 17, 2006                    

Jonathan Calvert and Mark Franchetti
 		   		 		
A FORMER associate of Alexander Litvinenko has claimed that the 
ex-spy was killed because he had collected sensitive information 
on a high-ranking Kremlin official. 

Yuri Shvets, a former spy now based in America, claims
Litvinenko had been doing due diligence work for a British
company on the official, who was facilitating a business deal. 

Shvets believes Litvinenko had acquired a damaging eight-page
dossier with details on the official that may have ruined a
multi-million-pound deal with the British company. 

The claims shed new light on the activities of Litvinenko, who
died on November 23 after being poisoned with polonium-210, a
radioactive substance. 

His death has been the subject of several theories, including
claims that he was murdered in a Kremlin plot to silence his
criticism of Vladimir Putin’s regime. 

Shvets is a former KGB major who now works from Washington,
advising businesses on corruption and security in the former
Soviet Union. 

He has been interviewed by detectives from Scotland Yard. He
gave his first full interview last week to his friend Tom
Mangold, a journalist, in a programme for BBC Radio 4. 

Shvets says Litvinenko came to him for help after a British
security company had offered him a $100,000 contract to do due
diligence work on five Russian figures. 

One of the five, whom Shvets refused to name, is said to be a
powerful Kremlin official. 

Litvinenko acquired the eight-page dossier on September 20.
Shvets says Litvinenko showed the dossier to Andrei Lugovoi,
another former Russian agent, two weeks later. 

This, Shvets believes, was a mistake because he claims Lugovoi
probably tipped off the official about the dossier. 

“I believe the dossier was the trigger for the assassination,”
he said. 

Lugovoi met Litvinenko at the Millennium hotel in London on
November 1, the suspected day of the poisoning. Lugovoi has
denied any involvement in the murder and is himself contaminated
with polonium. 

Scotland Yard detectives were present at interviews with Lugovoi
and others during a visit to Moscow last week. The British
officers were not allowed to put any questions, however. Russian
prosecutors conducted the interview.   	 		

Copyright 2006                 Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 53 Pantagraph.com: Letters | U.S. shouldn't use depleted uranium
 
December 16, 2006 12:13 AM CST                                     

Do you know what depleted uranium is?

That is a question I have asked several people recently and the
answer more often than not is a blank stare. They have no idea
what it is.

It is understandable given the state of things that so many
people would remain oblivious to this horror that the United
States, the United Kingdom and most recently Israel have been
scattering in huge quantities across whole regions of the world.

Understandable, but not acceptable.

Depleted uranium is radioactive material left over after the
enrichment process used to create fuel for nuclear power plants.
A 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plant will create roughly 37 tons
of DU every year.

The Department of Energy gives the stuff to the Department of
Defense, which uses it in artillery shells and other armaments.

It penetrates tough tank armor, so it is a very effective tank
killer.

But the tragic problems lie in its long-term effects.

As it impacts its target, much of it pulverizes down to tiny
dust particles that can be breathed in and lodged in the lungs.
There it causes conditions such as cancer, birth defects, etc.,
that are linked to radioactive material.

The harm caused to the region and beyond is indiscriminant,
impossible to clean up and essentially eternal in duration.

The half life of DU is said to be over 4 billion years.

Doug Rokke, a U.S. Army officer and physician, sent by the
Pentagon to study the effects of DU and possible approaches for
cleaning it up, came to the conclusion that the use of DU
weaponry is ``a crime against God and humanity.''

I believe him.

Google search key words and names in this letter. See for 
yourself.

Gregg Brown

Bloomington 		 		

Barbara wrote on December 17, 2006 9:35 AM:"Because of
liability, the Pentagon misinforms -- making the U.S. look
increasingly hypocritical as evidence across the world grows.
It's hard for the world to see us as spreading democracy when
it's DU theyâ€™re noticing. The radiation is spreading. Though
the emission range is small, the distance the particles move is
not. Earlier this year, Dr. Chris Busby, at last able to access
the data recorded by the Atomic Weapons Establishment
atmospheric testing stations, reported spurts of fold increases
in radiation in Great Britain's atmosphere, peaking consistently
nine days after major bombing raids in Iraq. It probably has
something to do with the well-established meteorological history
of Iraq having some of the worldâ€™s greatest dust storms. But
the strategists behind Shock and Awe apparently didnâ€™t consult
with... well, anyone? Finally, unless you're watching, or
discover you are personally affected by DU contamination, you
don't know this. A former editor of USA Today reported that
whenever he was about to publish a story on the DU affecting our
soldier's health, the Pentagon called and the paper was
pressured not to publish it." 

Barbara wrote on December 17, 2006 9:23 AM:"Thank you, Gregg.
"Depleted" means â€œexhausted, used up.â€ But only .007 of DU
is different from that in â€œenriched uraniumâ€: Uranium235,the
fission for nuclear bombs. To enrich uranium, that remaining
.007 is pushed to .035, condensed from seven times its volume of
uranium, leaving a huge amount of DU, with its Uranium235
diluted. 99.3% of enriched and depleted uraniums is identical --
U238, emitting radioactive alpha particles at 12,400/second, for
4,510,000,000 years. Additionally, DU's â€œlow levelâ€ effect
doesn't mean less effecting; it only means shorter ranged, less
disbursed. Once the vaporized particles created by impact are
inhaled, enter the mouth, or land on an open wound --- "low
level" means cellular. In the body, the particle's size and
solubility determine whether they travel swiftly through to the
kidneys, poisoning them with heavy metal toxicity.... Or move
slowly, lodging a while in the soft tissue of the lungs, brain,
intestines, bone marrow, etc, bombarding and mutating cells
continuously. Doctors grew concerned in finding multiple cancers
in patients -- not metastisized, but separate." 

to Wally wrote on December 17, 2006 8:48 AM:"Your writing is
very unclear. You obviously think DU is great, but you need to
be able to write and type a sentence if you want to convince
anyone. I guess one thing you're saying is lead is chemically
toxic, which is true, but not only is DU chemically toxic, but
it has an extremely high concentration of radioactive material
that has made many of our soldiers sick, 70% of their wives are
getting sick and 30% of their offspring that are born after they
returen have genetic defects. Look at the photos of the Iraqi
children that have tremendous birth defects since 1991. I know
that's going to be difficult, because our newspapers and
magazines won't show them." 

Wally wrote on December 16, 2006 11:45 PM:"What a load of
deceptive, misconceived, alliterative nonsense. he Anti-nuclear
crowd cannot be trusted with a technical argument because they
don't care about facts. Gregg thinksthat because he reads
anti-nuclear propaganda on the internet he is an expert. He
repeat their idiotic, unverified assertions hoping to fool the
uninformed into uncritically accepting his hallucinations. If DU
is bad, why don't deaths, disabilities, birth defects, etc show
up for all of the studie, not just the statitical abominations
that the conspiracy theory nut jobs quote? And Greg, did you
know that DU makes excellent armor? And that lead from ordinary
bullets vaporizes, gets absorbed and messe with body chemistry a
lot worse than uranium. Oh, by the way, Depeleted Uranium is
uranium with some or most of the less than 1% of the more
radioactive isotopes removed. Far more concentrated? That's one
way of puttin it." 

jimmy wrote on December 16, 2006 2:06 PM:"depleted uranium is
the fertilizer that must be spread along with the seeds of
democracy... just ask The Decider." 

Well said! wrote on December 16, 2006 7:37 AM:"People don't
understand the basic science of depleted uranium. It is still
half as radioactive as the same amount of pure uranium, but it
is far more concentrated that what is normally found in nature.
All one has to do is look at the tremendous increase in
birthdefects in Iraq. Since 1991, when we first used this
horrible weapon, birth defects and child cancer has increase
over TEN FOLD." 								 							   						 					

| 301 W. Washington St., PO Box 2907, Bloomington, IL 61701-2907 
| Ph. 309-829-9000 | 800-747-7323 Lee Illinois Regional 
Newspapers: | | | Copyright Â© 2006, Pantagraph Publishing Co. 
and Lee Enterprises. All rights reserved. | |                                            
*****************************************************************
 54 GazetteOnline: No radioactivity concerns from I-80 truck leak

Gazette Online - Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, 

Oil found leaking from on-board container

Published:Â 12/15/2006 Â  2:25 PM By: TheÂ GazetteÂ -Â  

The Gazette TIPTON, IA - A truck carrying low-level radioactive 
waste was pulled off Interstate 80 today in Cedar County after 
Iowa Department of Transportation officials noticed the truck was 
leaking an oily substance. Capt. Dean House of the DOT's 
enforcement division said this afternoon that the leak was traced 
to an oil container inside the truck, but the leaking oil itself 
was not radioactive. "This is not a big public health problem," 
House told The Gazette. 

The truck was being weighed at the scales at mile marker 265 at 
the Tipton turnoff when the leak was noticed. The scales were 
closed, sand put around the truck and a radiologic team summoned 
from the University of Iowa to assess the problem, House said. 
The officials also notified public health officials. 

The DOT, House said, is more concerned about possible 
contamination from the oil itself. The truck will be free to 
leave once the leak is cleaned up, he added.          -

*****************************************************************
 55 CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Censored WWII reports unveiled 61 years later 

December 17, 2006

BY JIM RITTER Staff Reporter
						 						 						 
Four weeks after the United States dropped its second atomic bomb 
on Japan, Chicago Daily News reporter George Weller sneaked into 
Nagasaki. 

Posing as a colonel, Weller toured the ruined city and 
interviewed gaunt allied soldiers recently liberated from POW 
camps. 

In a series of articles, Weller wrote about the mysterious
"Disease X" -- radiation sickness -- afflicting bomb survivors
and the horrific conditions in the prison camps. New book
reveals details 

But not one word made it through military censors. 

Weller saved copies, however, and now his son Anthony is
publishing them in First Into Nagasaki, a book due out Dec. 26. 

Had the articles gotten past Gen. Douglas MacArthur's censors,
they would have helped alert the American public early on to the
horrors of the atomic bomb and perhaps slowed the rush to build
a nuclear arsenal, said researcher Mark Selden of Cornell
University's East Asia Program. 

But even 61 years later, the articles "serve to remind us what
it really means to use nuclear weapons," said Monica Braw,
author of The Atomic Bomb Suppressed: American Censorship in
Occupied Japan. 

George Weller was one of the great foreign correspondents of the
20th century. Gutsy and enterprising, he won a Pulitzer Prize
for foreign reporting in 1943. Weller wrote with a literary
flair and spoke five foreign languages in his native Boston
accent. 

At the end of World War II, MacArthur placed southern Japan off
limits to the press. But Weller sneaked away from his military
escort and hopped a train to Nagasaki. He later wrote that he
felt "pity, but no remorse" for Nagasaki victims. "The Japanese
military had cured me of that." Son unearthed dad's work 

At the time, America was the only country with an atom bomb and
was trying to protect its monopoly. So censors figured the less
said about Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the better, Braw said. Also,
U.S. Occupation authorities thought it would be easier to
control the Japanese if they didn't know the full effects of the
bombs. 

In First Into Nagasaki, Anthony Weller suggests other possible
reasons his father's dispatches were censored. Perhaps the
egotistical MacArthur didn't want much known about the bomb
because it would minimize his own role in defeating Japan. And,
MacArthur didn't much like Weller and would have taken Weller's
entry into Nagasaki "as a personal affront." 

In a 1990 interview, Weller said censors "didn't accept my idea
that because peace had broken out, I had a right to report." 

Weller saved his smudged, blue-ink carbon copies from September
1945. But in the aftermath of the war, he lost them. Or so he
thought. After he died in 2002 at 95, Weller's son found the
copies in a mildewed wooden crate. Anthony writes that the
carbons were "crumbling, moldy, brown with age, but still afire
with all they had to say." 

jritter@suntimes.com		 

'It is a piteous scene . . .' 	 			 		 		 		 		 Excerpts from
George Weller's censored newspaper articles from Nagasaki: 

About the atomic bomb: 

The last two or three of what were scores of fires are burning
amid Nagasaki's ruins tonight. They are burning the last human
bodies. 

Look at the pushed-in facade of the American consulate, three
miles from the blast's center, or the face of the Catholic
cathedral, one mile in the other direction, torn down like
gingerbread and you realize the liberated atom spares nothing in
its way. Those human beings whom it has happened to spare sit on
mats or tiny family board-platforms in Nagasaki's two largest
undestroyed hospitals. Their shoulders, arms and faces are
wrapped in bandages. . . . Some adults are in pain as they lie
on mats. They moan softly. One woman caring for her husband
shows eyes dim with tears. It is a piteous scene. . . . 

The atomic bomb may be classified as a weapon capable of being 
used indiscriminately, but its use in Nagasaki was selective and 
proper and as merciful as such a gigantic force could be expected 
to be. 

About Disease X (radiation sickness): 

The atomic bomb's peculiar "disease," uncured because it is 
untreated and untreated because it is undiagnosed, is still 
snatching away lives here. Men, women and children with no 
outward marks of injury are dying daily in hospitals, some after 
having walked around for three or four weeks thinking they have 
escaped. The doctors here have every modern medicament, but 
candidly confessed . . . that the answer to the malady is beyond 
them. Their patients, though their skins are whole, are simply 
passing away under their eyes." 

About allied soldiers liberated from Japanese prison camps: 

The Americans [asked], "B-29s dropping us food keep enclosing 
Saipan newspapers with stuff about some guy named Sinatra. Who is 
he and what's his racket?"                            

suntimes.com:
© Copyright 2006 Sun-Times News Group | User Agreement and
*****************************************************************
 56 New York Times: Poisoned Spys Wife Says He Feared Kremlins Long Reach - 

By Published: December 17, 2006                                  

LONDON, Dec. 16 — Marina Litvinenko, the widow of the former
K.G.B. agent who died of radiation poisoning in London, said
Friday that he began to worry about the safety of Russian exiles
like himself in July, when the Parliament in Moscow, with little
overseas fanfare, approved a law legalizing strikes beyond ’s
borders against those the Kremlin considered to be extremists or
terrorists. 

 Jonathan Player for The New York Times 

Marina Litvinenko said her husband began to worry about the
safety of Russian exiles in July. 

But she said her husband, , still felt protected by asylum in
Britain. 

After the new law was passed in July, “Sasha said: They are
going to kill us,” Mrs. Litvinenko said, using his Russian
nickname. His apprehension deepened in October, when an
associate, the investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was
shot dead in Moscow. 

“He was devastated,” Mrs. Litvinenko said. “But he could not say
he felt he was going to be next: that would have been
unbelievable. He was concerned about other people who have
political asylum here. But he said: It can’t happen in England.”

Mrs. Litvinenko’s recollections in an interview Friday — shortly
before she went to Scotland Yard to tell her story to British
detectives investigating her husband’s death — provided one more
strand in the tangled narrative surrounding the case.

Mr. Litvinenko, a vociferous foe of the Kremlin, died Nov. 23
after a three-week battle against the effects of ingesting
polonium 210, a radioactive isotope. From his deathbed, he
accused the Russian authorities of responsibility for the
poisoning. 

The Kremlin has denied and dismissed his accusations. “For us,
Litvinenko was nothing,” Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said to
foreign correspondents at a dinner late Friday in Moscow,
according to Reuters. “We didn’t care what he said and what he
wrote on his deathbed.”

Investigations in London, Hamburg and Moscow have failed to turn
up — publicly, at least — details of a motive, a method or a
suspect for the murder.

That has only deepened the alarm among Russian émigrés that took
root with Moscow’s new powers.

One, Akhmed Zakayev, is the main spokesman here for Chechen
opponents of the Kremlin, which calls him a terrorist. He was
also a friend and neighbor of Mr. Litvinenko.

“If, four or five years ago, there might be some illusion about
whether it is possible to be killed here in Western Europe,
today we have an answer: yes we can,” Mr. Zakayev said in a
separate interview. 

Mrs. Litvinenko, 44, has not figured prominently in the
unfolding investigation into Mr. Litvinenko’s death, but her
story offers a poignant tale of a modest life as a ballroom
dancer in the former Soviet Union, transposed abruptly into
exile because of her husband’s high profile as a whistleblower. 

The couple fled Russia clandestinely in 2000. When she arrived
in Turkey to be reunited with Mr. Litvinenko on the way to
England, she said, “It was the first time he told me: Marina,
prepare yourself not to go back to Russia. It was devastating
for me. I just could not believe it.”

 Her husband’s death has added much more pain. 

“Sometimes I think I’m going to be all right,” she said, then
paused, shrugging her shoulders and dabbing at tears on her
cheeks. “But then, I am not.”

Speaking in what her advisers said was her first interview with
an American newspaper since her husband died, she disclosed how
she learned only hours after his demise of the macabre toxin
that had eaten away at him, leaving him hairless and comatose. 

At 3 a.m. the next day, Mrs. Litvinenko said, the British police
roused her from her grief and fatigue to tell her that the cause
of his death was poisoning by polonium 210. Police officers told
her to pack a few things and drove her, she said, to other
accommodations at an undisclosed address. Her home in north
London was sealed. She has not been allowed to return since.

“I kept blaming myself; I still believed Sasha would live —
until the last day,” she said, recalling the three-week vigil at
his bedside when, she said, she rebuked herself for not doing
more to save him. But when the police arrived to tell her why he
had died, they brought a different message.

 “They told me he never had a chance,” she said. More Articles
in 				International » 
Tips
 To find reference information about the words used in this
article, hold down the ALT key and click on any word, phrase or
name. A new window will open with a dictionary definition or
encyclopedia entry. 

*****************************************************************
 57 AFP: Litvinenko murdered over damaging file on Russian business partner - BBC - 

  [Alexander Litvinenko]   

LONDON (AFP) - Ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was murdered
over a damaging file he compiled for a British firm about a
potential Russian business partner, the BBC said, citing a
Litvinenko associate.

Yuri Shvets, a former spy who became a business associate of
Litvinenko, told the BBC Saturday he believes Litvinenko was
poisoned after his eight-page dossier was deliberately leaked to
the unnamed powerful Moscow figure.

Shvets said the British company, working with Litvinenko through 
a business risk management firm, wanted the dossier of commercial 
and political information before it invested millions of pounds 
in Russia.

"I cannot really be 100 percent sure (about the theory), but I
am pretty sure," Shvets, who is based in Washington, told the
BBC, which ran the interview on its website and also broadcast
it.

"Obviously there is always room for other suspicions, but in a
tradecraft there is such a thing as most probable theory, and
this is the one," Shvets said.

Litvinenko, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, fell
ill on November 1 in London, and died November 23 with large
quantities of the radioactive substance polonium-210 found in
his urine.

On his deathbed, he accused Putin of being behind the poisoning,
but the Kremlin denies any involvement.

Shvets, who advises on legal and security issues in the former
Soviet Union, said Litvinenko had told him from his hospital bed
that he was convinced that he was poisoned when he met three
Russians at the Millennium Hotel in London.

"He drank a tea which was not made in front of him. He was
agonized by the understanding that as a professional he failed,"
Shvets said.

"He was always saying 'I can identify my enemy a mile away'. But
in this particular case, when it came to his own life, he
failed." 

Shvets said London's Metropolitan Police, who interviewed him,
now have the dossier as part of the investigation into
Litvinenko's murder. Shvets did not name the British firm for
which he compiled the dossier.

Shvets, who trained at the KGB academy in the same class as
Putin, worked for Russian intelligence services between from
1980 to 1990, and was based in Washington from 1985. He
emigrated to the United States in 1993. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 58 London Times: Former BNFL unit in $8bn nuclear deal with China - 

December 18, 2006                    

Former BNFL unit in $8bn nuclear deal with China 

Sarah Butler
 		   		 		
Westinghouse Electric has signed an agreement worth an estimated 
$8 billion (£4.1 billion) to sell four nuclear power plants to 
China, only three months after the engineering firm was sold to 
Toshiba by British Nuclear Fuels. 

Toshiba finalised the $5.4 billion acquisition of Westinghouse,
the US nuclear reactor unit of British Nuclear Fuels, the
British government subsidiary, in October after agreeing the
deal in February. 

The Japanese firm’s win of the tender with China, edging out
French and Russian rivals after a two-year process, is likely to
raise questions as to whether the British Government achieved
value for money from the sale. 

The cash deal was nearly three times the initial expected asking
price for Westinghouse, but came just as the nuclear energy
industry is enjoying a resurgence. 

Westinghouse’s deal with China, which will create 5,500 jobs in
America, is expected to smooth relations between Beijing and
Washington, which have clashed recently over a range of issues
from the yuan currency to the Chinese bid for US independent oil
firm, Unocal. 

Samuel W. Bodman, the US Secretary of Energy, said, after
signing a protocol agreement in Beijing: “[The agreement]
represents a major step forward in our relations and will
advance our bilateral trade relationship and the energy security
of both our nations,” Mr Bodman added that the deal would help
America’s balance of payments with China, which hit a record
$240 billion this year. 

Beijing said that it had chosen the third-generation
Westinghouse reactors over those of France’s Areva for
technological reasons. 

The contract will lead to the construction of four reactors,
divided between Sanmen, in Zhejiang province, and Yangjiang, in
Guangdong, and is part of the Chinese Government’s drive to
increase its nuclear energy production. 

Toshiba is already a big player in Japan’s nuclear power
industry, having installed about a third of the nation’s nuclear
generators. 

The signing of the deal with China shows quick success for its
strategy of using Westinghouse to help it to expand outside the
saturated Japanese market into China and the US. 

Toshiba has said that by 2015 it wants to triple its revenue
from the nuclear power business. 

Electric charge 


+ 1995 Westinghouse Electric Corporation buys CBS 


+ 1996 Sells defence electronics business and buys Infinity
Broadcasting 


+ 1997 Company is renamed CBS Corporation 


+ 1999 CBS Corporation sells nuclear business to BNFL, whch
operates it as Westinghouse Electric Company. A new subsidiary,
Westinghouse Electric Corporation, manages the Westinghouse
brand 


+ 2000 BNFL buys ABB’s nuclear power business and merges it into
Westinghouse Electric 


+ 2006 Westinghouse Electric is sold to Toshiba   	 		

							   	 	
Copyright 2006          Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 59 Herald Sun: Greenpeace to intercept 'nuke' ship

 				
December 17, 2006 11:35pm 			 			 				Article from: AAP 			 			

GREENPEACE boats plan to intercept a ship carrying spent nuclear
fuel from Sydney's Botany Bay. 						 	

Six shipping containers carrying the spent fuel from the Lucas
Heights nuclear reactor, in Sydney's south, will be loaded
aboard the Seabird, Greenpeace Australia Pacific (GAP) said. 

The vessel is due to arrive in Botany Bay shortly to pick up the
containers and depart about 2am (AEDT) for the east coast of the
United States. 

It is understood the spent fuel will be stored somewhere in the
US. 

Greenpeace activists are cruising the area in at least one boat
and plan to film the departure and possibly approach the ship. 

We're here to expose the transport and to protest against it,
GAP campaign head Steve Campbell said from aboard a Greenpeace
vessel. 

But Mr Campbell would not divulge how far he and his fellow
activists would go to make their intentions known. 

We will have to wait and see what actually happens before we can
say that, he said. 	 							 							 							 							 								
									 										 									 								 		 		 			
© Herald and Weekly Times. All times AEDT (GMT + 10).
*****************************************************************
 60 Sydney Morning Herald: Australia sending uranium to Taiwan - 

www.smh.com.au

December 18, 2006 - 5:49AM

Controversy surrounds Australia's first uranium shipment to
Taiwan since it may clear the way for future exports to
nuclear-armed India. 

BHP Billiton refused to confirm the timing of the shipment via
the US but the buyer was less constrained, Fairfax newspapers
reported. 

"We like to diversify our fuel sources, so this first shipment
from Australia is appreciated," Taipower's Sydney-based
executive Samson Lee told Fairfax. 

Mr Lee confirmed the uranium would "only be for peaceful power
generation". 

The shipment to Taiwan employs an indirect sale arrangement
through the US, which will first convert and enrich the ore
under a bilateral agreement between Canberra and Washington. 

The shipment coincides with the shipment of spent nuclear fuel,
in six shipping containers, from Sydney's Lucas Heights reactor
via ship to the east coast of the US. 	
© 2006 	AAP
Brought to you by [aap] 	 
When news happens:send photos, videos &tip-offs to 0424 SMS SMH
(+61 424 767 764), or us. 

 Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald. <
*****************************************************************
 61 Sydney Morning Herald: Nuclear cargo movement to stay secret - 

www.smh.com.au

December 18, 2006 - 7:59AM

The nuclear regulator says it cannot tell Sydney residents when
cargoes of nuclear material are transported through their
suburbs because the information could attract "mischief".

On Sunday night, containers carrying spent nuclear fuel rods
were taken under police escort from the Lucas Heights nuclear
facility in Sydney's south to a ship at Port Botany, for
reprocessing in the US.

Helicopters and firefighters were involved in protecting the
convoy that transported the containers through Sydney streets.

Greenpeace, which used inflatable craft to witness the cargo
being taken to a ship at Port Botany in the early hours of
Monday morning, says the convoy could have been a terrorist
target.

"In an age of terrorism and fears about nuclear proliferation,
these nuclear waste shipments are a magnet for terrorist
activity," Greenpeace spokesman Stephen Campbell said.

"Spent fuel rods can be combined with explosives to make dirty
nuclear bombs."

A spokesman for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation (ANSTO) said local councils were told about nuclear
waste shipments but the secret routes were determined by police.

"Local councils are sent a letter a few weeks before the
shipment takes place and media are notified as well, but
specific residents aren't informed," the spokesman said.

"We can't inform people of the timing or the route of the
shipment for security reasons, in case somebody tries to make
mischief and in fact ends up causing more harm to local
residents than if they weren't informed.

"NSW police determine the route of the shipment."

ANSTO chief of operations Dr Ron Cameron said he wanted to
assure residents that Sunday night's transfer of waste had been
carried out safely.

"Residents' safety was of paramount concern," Dr Cameron told
ABC radio.

"These containers are very robust and very well engineered.

" ... overseas they crashed a locomotive and four wagons into
them and the locomotive was destroyed and the cask was intact,
so that just shows how strong they are.

"We do of course have contingency arrangements whereby if one
truck broke down we have two spare trucks and the capability of
transferring the loads onto those."

He said more than 7,000 similar shipments had been undertaken
throughout the world since 1971.

A police spokeswoman said a Greenpeace boat attempted to stop
the material being loaded onto a ship at the Port Botany
terminal.

"A vessel carrying protesters was intercepted and inspected by
police from the Marine Area Command as it sailed towards the
ship before it docked at Port Botany," she said.

But a Greenpeace spokeswoman said no attempt had been made to
intercept the shipment and the three Greenpeace inflatable craft
had stayed outside the stipulated 30 metre exclusion zone at all
times.

Mr Campbell said police had wrongly claimed Greenpeace tried to
"intercept" the Seabird, the ship carrying the cargo of spent
fuel rods.

"Greenpeace did not make any attempt to board the Seabird," Mr
Campbell said in a statement.

"Our peaceful protest was aimed at exposing the inherent risks
of this unnecessary nuclear technology and bearing witness on
behalf of the people of Australia." 	
© 2006 	AAP
Brought to you by [aap] 	 

Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald. 
*****************************************************************
 62 The State: Yucca nuclear storage project may be doomed

12/17/2006 

 By DAVID WHITNEY McClatchy Newspapers 

WASHINGTON  A few years ago, the plan to store the nations
nuclear waste in Nevada seemed all but certain. 

Congress decided that highly radioactive waste from commercial
nuclear-power plants, which takes centuries to decay, needed to
be stored underground. And it reaffirmed by wide margins in 2002
that Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles from Las Vegas, was the
place to build such a repository. 

Now thats being rethought, for a variety of reasons. And the
Nov. 7 elections, which propelled Democrats into power on
Capitol Hill, are likely to accelerate that thinking despite
strong bipartisan support for Yucca Mountain in Congress. 

• The incoming majority leader of the Senate, Nevadan Harry
Reid, long has pledged Yucca Mountain will never open. The
incoming chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee, Californian Barbara Boxer, agrees. Both voted against
the Yucca repository. 

They think that nuclear waste should stay right where it is  at
the nations nuclear power plants  at least until better waste
technology comes along. 

Theres no rush to put it someplace thats dangerous, Boxer
said. 

• There are questions about how safe the Yucca Mountain facility
would be, and others about whether transporting radioactive
waste on roads and rail lines would pose unacceptable risks of
accidents or terrorist attacks. 

• More than 100 national and state environmental groups 
including the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources
Defense Council  coalesced in September behind a set of
principles that include permanent storage of used fuel at the
reactor sites. 

• Even the nuclear-power industry is giving ground. It still
wants Yucca Mountain opened, but its willing to allow taxes
that plant operators pay into a fund for Yucca Mountain to be
used for interim storage, a kind of euphemism for aboveground
storage until theres a way to reprocess old fuel assemblies
safely into new fuel. 

The Energy Department is eight years late in responding to a
federal mandate to open an underground repository. Deputy Energy
Secretary Clay Sell said recently it could be decades before
Yucca Mountain opens. 

Because of the long delay, nuclear power plants already are
turning to surface storage. At facilities such as Pacific Gas
and Electric Co.s Diablo Canyon, near San Luis Obispo on
Californias scenic central coast, construction is well under
way on thick concrete pads that eventually will hold
concrete-encased steel containers where nuclear fuel assemblies
would be entombed. 

PG&E spokesman Shawn Cooper said the company still was hopeful
Yucca Mountain would open someday. But as long as the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission licenses cask storage, the waste could be
there well into the next century, venting heat from the decaying
fuel into the brisk Pacific Ocean winds. Its called temporary
dry-cask storage, but the canisters can hold the waste 100
years, he said. 

Among Boxers biggest concerns about Yucca Mountain is that its
not as impervious to water as initially thought. Sophisticated
testing has shown that water percolates through its caverns and
heads toward the Colorado River. 

Sixteen million Californians drink from that river, Boxer
said. 

Jon Summers, Reids spokesman, said the senator would do all
that he could to make sure Yucca Mountain never opened because
the site was unsuitable. He said Reid had introduced legislation
a year ago directing the Energy Department to take possession of
the waste at the nations nuclear plants and store it on site. 

The bill went nowhere this year. The chairman of the Senate
environment committee, James Inhofe, R-Okla., favors a Yucca
Mountain repository. When Reids bill is reintroduced next year,
however, Boxer will be heading the committee  and she likes it
or something like it. 

She leans toward on-site storage but with the possibility of
constructing regional or state gathering places for some of it. 

Although shes a skeptic, Boxer also favors research into
reprocessing, something that environmentalists oppose. 

Boxer said that if a way to reprocess nuclear waste safely could
be found, it would help with the waste issue, produce new fuel
for reactors and make me feel more positive about nuclear
power as a pollution-free alternative for lowering
greenhouse-gas emissions from oil-, natural gas- and
coal-burning power plants. 

Growing interest in building a new generation of nuclear plants
since the enactment of an energy bill that offers generous
government subsidies is driving the industrys shifting attitude
about waste storage. 

Since Congress began working on the energy bill, nearly three
dozen applications for new reactors have been planned. The bill
was signed into law in August 2005, touching off what Sen. Pete
Domenici, R-N.M., called a nuclear renaissance. 

I am a pragmatist, Boxer said. The vast majority of the
members on my committee support nuclear power, and so do the
majority in the Senate. So my focus is on safety, security and
research, because I dont think there is any question that we
are going to be seeing new plants. 

Victor Gilinsky, who served on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
from 1975 to 1984, said a reshaping of the waste debate was
under way, which eventually would spell the end of the notion of
a repository at Yucca Mountain. 

Now that they (the nuclear industry) have a possibility of
building new reactors, they dont want to be chained to this,
Gilinsky said of Yucca Mountain. They are working their way
around to saying that surface storage of the waste is a workable
solution.
*****************************************************************
 63 The State: Nuke waste, spent fuel might stay in S.C.

12/17/2006 

Opposition to Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository could
force states to continue to handle storage

 By SAMMY FRETWELL 

South Carolina could be saddled indefinitely with nearly 6,000
huge containers of nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site and
hundreds of tons of commercial spent fuel if a Nevada senator
successfully slows an atomic waste disposal project near Las
Vegas. 

The burial grounds arch-opponent, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid,
D-Nevada, will become Senate majority leader when Democrats take
control of Congress next month. That makes him more effective in
opposing the Yucca Mountain plan  and Reid said recently he
will do everything possible to derail the project. 

While Reid cant single-handedly stop Yucca Mountain, his
influence presents a potential roadblock. As majority leader,
Reid can refuse to schedule votes on bills affecting Yucca
Mountain. 

Legislation supporting Yucca Mountain will be killed next year
in Congress, an aide to Reid said this month. 

Yucca Mountain supporters in South Carolina  primarily the
commercial power industry and SRS backers  say the government
needs to keep its word and open the permanent disposal site for
the high-level waste. 

The site was supposed to open in 1998. That has been delayed
until at least 2017, in part because of environmental concerns.
The government has spent more than $4 billion on the project. 

It is extremely important for the Savannah River Site and the
nation for Yucca Mountain to eventually open, said Mal
McKibben, director of Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness,
a supporter of SRS. 

Yucca, a hollowed out mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas,
is being designed to hold nuclear waste for 10,000 years. Reid
and some environmentalists have said that, despite government
studies, it isnt safe. 

Many opponents of Yucca Mountain prefer holding nuclear waste at
atomic power plants and federal weapons facilities. 

Backers of the Yucca Mountain plan say it is safer to store all
the nations high-level nuclear waste in one spot, rather than
scattered around the nation. 

If Yucca Mountain is stopped, the Savannah River Site will
continue storing highly radioactive waste in vaults at the
nuclear weapons complex near Aiken, the U.S. Department of
Energy says. 

According to plans, SRS will produce 5,862 canisters of highly
radioactive material for eventual disposal at Yucca Mountain.
The Energy Department is turning deadly waste sludge into glass
in an attempt to stabilize the material. 

The glass is poured into 10-foot-long steel canisters, which are
kept in vaults at the weapons complex. The Energy Department has
produced more than 2,000 glass-filled cans since 1996. The glass
logs weigh about 5,000 pounds each. 

Amy Poston, an Energy spokeswoman in Aiken, said the government
would need to build extra storage areas for the canisters if the
waste cant be shipped to Yucca Mountain. 

The commercial nuclear industry is perhaps more concerned about
not having a permanent site to ship atomic waste. 

Nuclear power accounts for more than half the energy produced in
South Carolina, one of the nations highest percentages. Atomic
energy executives want to get rid of the toxic refuse. 

Four atomic power stations owned by South Carolina Electric
&Gas, Progress Energy and Duke Energy produce tons of atomic
waste every 18 months when reactors refuel. Because the material
is highly radioactive, it must be stored in pools or sealed,
above-ground casks to contain the radiation. 

SCE, which generates 26 tons of high-level nuclear waste every
18 months, believes it is time for Yucca Mountain to open, said
company spokesman Robert Yanity. One of the four sites in the
state is SCEs V.C. Summer plant near Jenkinsville, northwest of
Columbia. 

When it comes to politics, you just never know, Yanity said.
We will continue to handle waste appropriately and safely as we
have always done., but it has long been our belief... that it
makes sense for all spent fuel to be handled and maintained by
the government. 

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, nuclear power
companies have been reluctant to say how much nuclear waste they
store at atomic power stations. The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission reported in 2002 that 6,000 used fuel assemblies were
stored at atomic power stations in South Carolina. Fuel
assemblies typically weigh about 1,500 pounds each. 

Progress Energy, which operates the Robinson nuclear plant near
Hartsville, reported this week that it has about 194 tons of
spent nuclear fuel stored at that facility. 

Nationally, nuclear waste is growing at a rate of about 2,000
tons per year, experts have said  and thats only at current
operating levels. 

SCE and Duke Energy, which runs plants in Oconee and York
counties, are interested in growing their operations in South
Carolina. In SCEs case, the amount of nuclear waste it produces
annually could triple if it adds two new reactors at its power
station in Fairfield County. 

Yucca Mountain supporters note that an Energy Department plan to
begin recycling nuclear fuel from atomic power plants could
reduce the amount of waste that goes to Nevada. 

Part of the discussion involves developing regional interim
storage sites for high-level nuclear waste, but Yucca Mountain
supporters say the site still will be needed for waste created
from the recycling process. Recycling is still years away
because of funding problems and political opposition. 

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said he doesnt think Reids
opposition will stop the Yucca Mountain project. Reid could cut
funding for studies at the site, but Clyburn said the project
will go forward. Clyburn, the incoming House majority whip,
supports opening Yucca Mountain. 

It may be symbolic, his new leadership position, but it doesnt
change anything, Clyburn said. 

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will continue to push to open
Yucca Mountain, spokesman Kevin Bishop said. 

Sen. Graham remains a strong supporter of building a nuclear
waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Bishop said. Some of the
first waste that will be transported to Yucca will come from the
Savannah River Site. 

Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537. McClatchy newspapers
contributed to this story.
*****************************************************************
 64 AU ABC: Greenpeace angry after nuclear waste transported through Sydney
 
ABC Sydney | Local News | Story 

December 2006. 06:11 (ACDT)Monday, 18 December 2006. 04:11 (AWDT)

 A shipment of used nuclear material has been transported
through Sydney overnight. 

Spent nuclear fuel rods from the Lucas Heights reactor have been
trucked during the night to a ship docked at Port Botany. 

The covert operation involved police, helicopters and
firefighters to monitor the operation and direct the 10 trucks
carrying the nuclear material. 

Greenpeace says there were a dozen police boats and three
Greenpeace boats surrounding the specialised nuclear ship
carrier, the Seabird. 

Greenpeace mounted a protest, which campaigner Steve Campbell
says is about highlighting the issue of nuclear waste. 

"We're here to warn the Australian community that if the
Government pushes through with its plan to build nuclear
reactors around Australia, that it's going to mean a massive
escalation in this kind of dangerous nuclear waste transport
through Australian communities," he said. 

Mr Campbell says the public should be told when nuclear material
is being transported through their suburbs. 

"Residents have not been told of this nuclear transport," he
said. 

"They never are, they always keep these shipments secret, which
basically shows how unsafe they are. 

"The shipment will also be passing out through the Pacific and
around the region and if we build more nuclear reactors in
Australia we are going to see many many more transports like
this." 

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chief of
operations Ron Cameron says Greenpeace is blowing the issue out
of proportion. 

"I think it's important to say that residents are informed so,
as I say, there have been eight such shipments and each time we
have told people beforehand that they will be transported," he
said. 

"We have regular community forums with our residents and they
have the opportunity to ask questions and to learn some more -
this hasn't been a major issue for them." 

It is understood the Seabird is heading to the United States,
where the spent nuclear material will be stored. 

*****************************************************************
 65 Independent: Britain turns to Bechtel as it plans giant nuclear waste site 

By Tim Webb 

Published: 17 December 2006 

American engineering firms Bechtel, Washington Group and Jacobs
Group have been approached by the British government over the
construction of a huge £12bn repository to store the UK's
nuclear waste. 

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which is overseeing
the project, will put the design, construction and operation of
the repository out to tender early next year. 

The NDA said earlier this month that it wanted to start looking
for a contractor as soon as possible so that one would be in
place by the end of 2008. Bidding will take up to two years. 

Amec, which specialises in nuclear decommissioning and project
services work, is interested in a project management role at the
repository. 

The US firms have already given the Government informal advice
on how to proceed. Bechtel, which built a huge nuclear waste
storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is interested in the
construction work. The NDA has not yet begun talks with
interested companies. 

The building and operating contracts could be worth at least
£12bn. Analysts estimate it would cost £2bn to build a
combination repository, which would store low-level and
intermediate-level waste as well as spent fuel. Because the
waste will be stored there potentially for thousands of years,
operating the facility - and safely storing newly delivered
nuclear waste - could cost another £10bn. 

Around 470,000 cubic metres of existing nuclear waste and future
waste from reactors yet to be decommissioned needs to be safely
stored. The waste is currently stored temporarily at 30 sites
around the country. 

The Government will issue the long-awaited findings of its
energy review in March and is expected to sanction the
construction of a new generation of nuclear reactors. But it is
anxious to find a solution to the problem of how and where to
store existing nuclear waste before more reactors are built. 

© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited 
*****************************************************************
 66 The Australian: Rudd 'won't force uranium mining' | | 

+ NEWS.com.au | 		

This story is from our news.com.aunetwork Source: AAP 

 December 16, 2006 

LABOR leader Kevin Rudd supports uranium mining but believes
states should decide whether or not they want it in their own
backyards.

 Mr Rudd says he will argue at the next national Labor
conference for a change to the party's no new uranium mines
policy because he believes they are important for the nation. 

But Mr Rudd today assured WA Premier Alan Carpenter, who is
staunchly against uranium mining, that if Labor won the next
federal election he would not force states to mine uranium. 

"What state governments do in the future, in relation to their
own land management systems, and approval systems for mining
licences and permits et cetera, is a matter for state
governments,'' Mr Rudd said. 

"I am a federalist, I actually believe that we have national
powers and responsibilities that we have got to be responsible
for, and that includes our export control regime, and when it
comes to state governments, they are responsible for land
management.'' 

Mr Carpenter said his government would not support uranium
mining, or the development of a nuclear industry in WA, or allow
the state to be used as an international nuclear waste
repository. 

"I believe very firmly that if we pick up one end of the stick
of the nuclear industry, that is uranium mining, we will pick up
the other end of the stick, that is accept the waste,'' Mr
Carpenter said. 

"In Western Australia I am absolutely certain that those two
things would go together. 

"The agreement that I have had with Kevin Rudd today is that
this issue is a matter for state jurisdiction. 

"If the South Australian people, and the South Australian
Government, want to expand their uranium mining industry then
that is a matter for the South Australian people and the South
Australian Government.'' 

Privacy Terms © The Australian 	 	 	 	 
*****************************************************************
 67 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Certain WIPP waste shipments on hold 

By Kyle Marksteiner

Article Launched:12/15/2006 08:47:09 PM MST

CARLSBAD — Shipments of certain radioactive waste from Idaho
National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near
Carlsbad are again on hold. 

The U.S. Department of Energy has temporarily suspended the
batch of shipments, related to one waste stream, while the New
Mexico Environment Department reviews the situation, a DOE
official said. 

The DOE had originally halted the shipments from the waste
stream after liquid was found during a double-check of an X-ray
in Idaho. A waste stream involves similar types of waste from
similar types of processes. All other shipments from Idaho
National Laboratory have continued. 

The problem was discovered while waste drums were being prepared
for shipment to WIPP, which is not allowed to accept more than
negligible amounts of liquid waste because of the risks of leaks
or potentially explosive materials. 

Earlier this week, the DOE authorized the lab to resume the
shipments to WIPP after an investigation showed no new liquid,
and corrective action was taken. The authorization remains
intact, but on Thursday the DOE opted to put the shipments from
the stream on hold, pending a review by the state agency, DOE
spokesman Dennis Hurtt said Friday. 

"We've authorized Idaho to ship but we're looking for a 
concurrence on resuming the shipment from James Bearzi. He is 
out, so we made the decision to wait until he gets back and has a 
chance to concur with us." 

Bearzi is the NMED's Chief of the Hazardous and Radioactive
Materials Bureau. 

"This is something on our part," Hurtt said. "On Thursday, we
found out he was out of the office. We just decided to wait
until he is back." 

"WIPP is voluntarily holding back shipments until we've had a
chance to review the way they evaluated the waste stream in
question," state Environment Secretary Ron Curry said through a
spokeswoman Friday. "We expect a thorough evaluation of the
drums already at WIPP to be acceptable to citizens and the
environment department. WIPP must evaluate the potential impact
of the drums from the stream that has been shipped to WIPP,
regardless of when they were shipped." 

In an e-mail to the Current-Argus Friday, Don Hancock of the
Southwest Research and Information Center indicated a need for a
thorough evaluation. 

"Hopefully, the permittees will now develop a plan for a
thorough evaluation and carry it out. Then, the results should
be reviewed," Hancock wrote. 

"The NMED and the public should know that there are no
prohibited items at WIPP," he wrote "If there are, they should
be removed, and changes should be made to ensure that the
problem doesn't occur."

  Copyright Â© 2005 Carlsbad Current Argus, a MediaNews Group
Newspaper.
*****************************************************************
 68 The Australian: Secrecy over nuclear fuel 'necessary' 

This story is from our network Source: AAP 

 December 18, 2006 

SYDNEY residents cannot not be told when and where cargoes of
spent nuclear fuel rods will be transported through their
suburbs because of security concerns, the nuclear watchdog says.

Environmental group Greenpeace says the practice is a terrorist
target. 

Containers carrying spent nuclear fuel rods were taken under
police escort from the Lucas Heights nuclear facility in
Sydney's south to a ship at Port Botany, for reprocessing in the
US. 

Helicopters, firefighters and police protected the convoy that
transported the containers through Sydney streets. 

Greenpeace activists watched the cargo being taken to a ship
early today. 

"In an age of terrorism and fears about nuclear proliferation,
these nuclear waste shipments are a magnet for terrorist
activity," Greenpeace spokesman Stephen Campbell said. 

"Spent fuel rods can be combined with explosives to make dirty
nuclear bombs." 

Police said a Greenpeace boat attempted to stop the material
being loaded  but that was denied by the group. 

A spokesman for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation (ANSTO) said local councils were told about nuclear
waste shipments but the secret routes were determined by police. 

"Local councils are sent a letter a few weeks before the
shipment takes place and media are notified as well, but
specific residents aren't informed," the spokesman said. 

"We can't inform people of the timing or the route of the
shipment for security reasons, in case somebody tries to make
mischief and in fact ends up causing more harm to local
residents than if they weren't informed." 

ANSTO chief of operations Dr Ron Cameron said he wanted to
assure residents last night's transfer of waste had been carried
out safely. 

"Residents' safety was of paramount concern," Dr Cameron said on
ABC radio. 

"These containers are very robust and very well engineered ...
We do of course have contingency arrangements whereby if one
truck broke down we have two spare trucks and the capability of
transferring the loads onto those." 

He said there had been more than 7000 similar shipments
internationally since 1971. 

  
Privacy Terms © The Australian
*****************************************************************
 69 cbs4denver.com: Facility Could Face Fines For Radioactive Waste
                
Dec 15, 2006 6:26 pm US/Mountain 

(CBS4) DEER TRAIL, Colo. An waste facility could face fines if
it accepts a shipment of low level .

The facility, called Safe Harbors, is 70 miles east of Denver in
the town of Deer Trail. 

The licensed Safe Harbors to accept the waste last spring and
then Adams County objected.

The county said its land use permit for the facility prevents
Safe Harbors from accepting any kind of radioactive waste.

If a delivery occurs, the county would consider it a violation.

"The county's objecting because they don't want to become a
dumping ground for radioactive waste for the state of Colorado,
nor frankly for the other three states that would be allowed to
bring the waste to this facility," said Howard Kenison, attorney
for Adams County.

The waste is old roadbed dug up from Denver streets and stored
in five containers.

Denver said it would prefer to ship the waste to Idaho but has
no choice but to send it to Adams County because of the
requirements of an over-site board. 

(© MMVI CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 70 ENS: Environment, Energy Top New U.S.-China Strategic Agenda 

Environment News Service (ENS)

BEIJING, China, December 15, 2006 (ENS) - The United States and
China each must address environmental as well as economic
challenges, so "our governments can lead by creating good
environmental policies that yield positive economic results,"
U.S. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson told the inaugural
meeting of the U.S.– China Strategic Economic Dialogue today. 

Johnson accompanied U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson,
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and other administration
officials to the two day meeting in Beijing, which concluded
today. 

The Chinese delegation to the dialogue included ministers in
charge of finance, development and reform, science, labor,
railway, communications, health, environment, and the central
bank. 

[Wu] Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi (Photo courtesy Government of
China) "We have come to a number of consensus, although we
remained different on some issues," Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi
told reporters after the landmark dialogue. 

The two sides agreed to increase bilateral cooperation in more
efficient and environmentally sustainable energy use,
facilitation of personal and business travel, and development of
lending. 

During his visit, Johnson signed a trilateral statement of
cooperation with the Chinese State Environmental Protection
Administration, SEPA, and the Asian Development Bank. 

The agreement is intended to support the development of a cap on
sulfur dioxide emissions and an emissions trading mechanism, the
use of economic and market tools to address environmental
issues, and the strengthening of SEPA's regional infrastructure. 

The two countries agreed to launch a joint economic study on
energy and environment. 

"Throughout America's history, we have learned that we can
protect the environment while enjoying economic growth," Johnson
said. 

[U.S. officials] U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, flanked
by U.S. cabinet secretaries and other officials, responds to
reporters' questions today in Beijing. U.S. EPA Administrator
Stephen Johnson and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman stand
together to Paulson's immediate left. (Photo courtesy U.S.
Embassy in Beijing) China will join the Government Steering
Committee of the clean coal FutureGen project, officials of both
countries announced today, making China the third country to
join the United States in the FutureGen International
Partnership. South Korea signed on in June. 

”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. 

The $1 billion FutureGen initiative is scheduled to begin
operations in 2012. It will be the first plant in the world to
produce both electricity and commercial grade hydrogen from
coal. Once completed, the technology will be used by member
countries to reduce emissions around the globe. 

"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," Bodman said. 

[Xu] Xu Guanhua is China’s Minister of Science and Technology.
(Photo courtesy Government of China) Secretary Bodman and
China’s Minister of Science and Technology 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. 

In addition, officials of both countries signed the U.S.-China
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Protocol, renewing
collaboration in developing and deploying clean, energy
efficient and renewable energy technologies, including solar,
wind, biomass, geothermal, and hydrogen energy. 

China’s Atomic Energy Authority Chairman Sun Qin and Secretary
Bodman discussed the importance of cooperation on
nonproliferation and the development and availability of "safe
and cost-effective" nuclear energy technology. 

Saturday, Secretary Bodman will participate in the Five-Party
Energy Dialogue with China, India, Japan and South Korea. The
officials are expected to discuss diversification of supplies
and suppliers, improved energy efficiency, and the use of
strategic oil reserves in advancing global energy security. 

In a joint press briefing, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
hailed the dialogue, saying "it is important and encouraging
that we have agreed on so many principles." 

Both sides agreed that the New York Stock Exchange and the
NASDAQ should open offices in China. The United States has
approved China's intention to join the Inter-American
Development Bank. 

The next Strategic Economic Dialogue will be held in Washington,
DC in May 2007. 

China's top authorities will require officials pay much closer
attention to the environment in 2007, the official Chinese news
agency Xinhua reported today. 

"Cutting energy consumption and pollution is the most effective
approach to restructuring our economy and improving our economic
efficiency," said Ma Kai, minister in charge of the National
Development and Reform Commission. 

In a national meeting mapping out economic policies for 2007
that was held last week, the Central Government listed eight
economic priorities for next year, and environmental protection
came in third place, just after economic macro-control measures
and agricultural development.   

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2006. All Rights
Reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 71 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Meddling with research 

Today: December 17, 2006 at 8:36:0 PST 

Government geologists criticize new reviews that they fear are
peppered with politics 

U.S. Geological Survey scientists are concerned about a new Bush
administration policy that calls for scientists to submit all
reports and presentations to agency managers to determine
whether they meet its approved scientific standards. 

According to a Thursday story by The Washington Post, USGS
scientists are concerned that their reports would be altered or
censored from public view if their findings conflict with
established Bush administration policies. 

The agency's associate director told the Post that the reviews
are designed to ensure "the scientific excellence of USGS
products." But another provision of the new Bush rules - which
requires scientists to notify the agency's press office
regarding any reports with "potential high visibility" or
containing "policy-sensitive issues" - indicates that the
administration is concerned about the public getting hold of
information that conflicts with Bush policy. 

And USGS researchers have clashed with administration policy. In
2002, the Post reports, the agency released a study saying that
oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska
could harm caribou. The report was rereleased a week later
saying that the caribou would not be harmed. This came at a time
when Bush was pushing Congress for permission to drill in the
Arctic refuge. 

But the Bush administration never has been known for embracing
objective, fact-based scientific conclusions - especially when
they conflict with the president's policies. His administration
has meddled with government scientists in many agencies,
including those charged with approving drugs and studying global
warming's effects. 

Government geologists are among the scientists studying Nevada's
Yucca Mountain as a proposed site for a high-level nuclear waste
repository. Bush wants that dump to be built, and the project
already has been riddled with shoddy scientific work and
political tampering. An investigation last year showed USGS
scientists had falsified data concerning how fast water could
corrode the storage canisters. Adding rules that seemingly
require scientific geological conclusions to pass the
president's policy test only further erode our confidence in the
government's science. 


All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 72 Tri-City Herald: Consider community in Hanford contracts 

Opinions

Published Sunday, December 17th, 2006 

Hanford's latest contract proposals prove the Department of
Energy needs to take a broader view of its obligations. 

Cleanup is the top priority, and DOE has that much right. 

But community interests deserve consideration too. After all,
the Tri-Cities is largely populated by families who have spent
lifetimes carrying out government policies at Hanford. 

Right now, that isn't happening. Proposals for three new
contracts at the nuclear site don't contain adequate provisions
for community involvement, economic development or incentives
for small businesses. 

Sure, it's easy to understand the appeal of a procurement
philosophy aimed at limiting cleanup costs to the minimum
required for the job. 

If you're Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman or Jack Surash, deputy
assistant secretary for the Office of Environmental Management,
it probably seems like a no-brainer. 

But these top DOE officials need to reconsider. 

If their offices were in Richland instead of Washington, D.C.,
they'd find it impossible to view Hanford cleanup in isolation
from the social and historical context that surrounds it. 

The community is beginning its 64th year as part of the nation's
nuclear weapons program, dating back to the selection of the
little farming towns of Hanford and White Bluffs for the world's
first plutonium production facility in December 1943. 

And for the most part, DOE and its contractors have recognized
the obligations inherent in that relationship. Past initiatives
have made the Tri-Cities a better place to live and helped
diversify our economy away from almost total dependence on
Hanford. 

But political and business climates have changed. Without
mandates, the pressure to come in with the lowest bid will make
it difficult for competitors for the new contracts to factor in
the cost of being a good neighbor. 

And without explicit and strong requirements, the support for
local small businesses -- the kind that are fully vested in the
community -- will falter. 

No one wants handouts or a blank check, but we do want
assurances that companies awarded billions of dollars in Hanford
contracts recognize their stake in the community. 

Bodman or Surash could fix the shortcomings by tweaking the bid
requirements before the final request for proposals is released. 

Awards must be based on price and performance, not on what the
bidders say they are willing to do for the community. There's no
argument there. 

But potential contractors also should know that they're expected
to be a part of the community, and play a role in assuring the
Mid-Columbia will continue to thrive after cleanup is complete. 

There's no profit for companies at Hanford, nor success for DOE,
without the efforts of families that still will be here after
the last contractor is gone. 

Hanford contracts need to reflect that reality. 

© 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 73 Tri-City Herald: Yakamas to assess Hanford's toll 

Published Sunday, December 17th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The Yakama Nation has told the Department of Energy that it
plans to complete its own assessment of natural resource damages
at the Hanford nuclear reservation. 

"We have waited for decades for the federal government to fix
our natural resources they injured," said Philip "Bing" Olney,
chairman of the Yakama Nation General Council, in a statement.
"Now the Yakama Nation itself has decided to assess the full
extent of the injuries caused by the Hanford pollution." 

The Yakamas already have asked a federal judge to require DOE to
pay the costs of performing an assessment to meet the
requirements of Superfund site laws if DOE does not perform its
own assessment or otherwise cooperate. 

The Yakamas have been joined in part in that lawsuit by the Nez
Perce, the Umatillas, and the states of Washington and Oregon.
The tribes have treaty rights to hunt and gather food and
medicines in the Hanford area. 

"They want to make sure that when cleanup is finished, the
natural resources for which they're trustees are actually
restored," said Brian Barry, a consultant to the Yakamas. 

Doing the assessment now will provide valuable direction for
planning and conducting cleanup at the nuclear reservation, the
tribes believe. Hanford was used for more than 40 years for the
production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons
program. 

The Yakamas decided to do their own assessment after completing
a screening of the effects of hazardous and radioactive
contaminant releases to soils, water, plants and animals. 

The screening concluded that more than 144 million curies of
radioactivity have been released at Hanford since 1943, compared
to the release of 150 million curies of radiation into the air
during the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine in 1986. 

During Hanford's production years, 750,000 curies of radioactive
material, mostly iodine 131, were released from stacks into the
air to drift downwind, the Yakamas said. 

Other waste was disposed of in the ground under policies in the
site's early years that called for permanently disposing of
solid and liquid radioactive and chemical waste on parts of the
586-square-mile nuclear reservation. Current environmental
regulation would prohibit much of those earlier practices. 

During Hanford's production years, more than 200 billion gallons
of liquid process wastes were poured into the ground, the
Yakamas said. In addition, water used to cool the cores of
nuclear reactors was released back to the river with more than
113 million curies of radioactivity, the Yakamas said. 

Today, about 80 square miles of ground water beneath Hanford is
contaminated with radionuclides or chemicals in excess of
drinking water standards. 

As a result of past and current releases into the ground or
water from waste left at Hanford, plants and animals have been
harmed or likely will be in the future, the Yakamas concluded. 

Over the last three years, DOE has rejected proposals to assess
injuries to natural resources, the Yakamas said. That included
mediation, a cooperative project management plan, a cooperative
pre-assessment screening and a cooperative natural resource
injury assessment, according to the Yakamas. 

DOE has argued in a motion to have part of the lawsuit
dismissed, saying that it's too early to do a natural resource
damage assessment. Once cleanup is completed, Superfund law
allows other governments, such as tribes and states, to file
claims against DOE if damages remain. 

Final decisions have yet to be made on how to clean up different
areas of the site, and those decisions will be based on analyses
of the nature and threat to resources posed by contamination,
DOE has said. 

But the Yakamas believe assessing damages now can help guide
cleanup decisions and could ultimately save DOE money by making
sure cleanup is done correctly. 

The Yakamas point out that a 1993 DOE document -- Integrating
Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Environmental Restoration
Activities at DOE Facilities -- says integration of the
assessment and cleanup decisions should "lead to the restoration
of natural resource services sooner than a sequential approach"
and "help ensure the selection of remedial actions that reduce
the potential for natural resource damages." 

© 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 74 washingtonpost.com: Panel Seeks Consensus On U.S. Nuclear Arsenal -
                    
By Walter PincusWashington Post Staff Writer

 Saturday, December 16, 2006; Page A08

A prestigious Defense Department advisory panel has determined 
there is no national agreement on what the nation needs in the 
way of nuclear weapons in the post-Cold War period.

In a recently released declassified version of a report on U.S. 
nuclear capabilities completed earlier this year, the Defense 
Science Board reported that its task force on the subject 
concluded "there is a need for a national consensus on the nature 
and role of nuclear weapons, as well as a new approach to 
sustaining a reliable, safe, secure and credible nuclear 
stockpile."

The task force found "most Americans agree that as long as
actual or potential adversaries possess or actively seek nuclear
weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, the United States
must maintain a deterrent to counter possible threats and
support the nation's role as a global power and security
partner." Beyond that, however, it found "sharp differences."

William Schneider Jr., the board's chairman, said yesterday that
the report "reflects the fact that the post-Cold War environment
has changed, but there is no real consensus of what to do with
the nuclear posture we were left with that was designed for use
against the Soviet Union."

The report, which talks of a "lack of genuine debate" over
nuclear weapons in the future, calls on senior administration
officials "to engage more directly to articulate the case for
nuclear transformation that provides an integrated vision of the
role of nuclear weapons . . . and the prospects for further
stockpile reductions." Plans call for reducing the stockpile of
about 10,000 warheads, of which 6,000 were deployed.

The administration wants Congress to continue funding
refurbishment of deployed nuclear weapons and support
development and future production of the Reliable Replacement
Warhead, a design for which is expected to be finalized within
months. In addition, it wants approval for Complex 2030, a
costly program for rebuilding the 50-year-old nuclear facilities
where the weapons are both assembled and disassembled.

One of the science board's recommendations is that the weapons
complex "be capable of producing a predetermined number of
RRW-class warheads per year by 2012," the date by which the
current level of deployed, older-but-refurbished warheads is to
drop to a level of 1,700 to 2,200.

The science board consists of about 40 scientists and other
experts who advise on technical issues, acquisition programs and
other matters of interest to the Defense Department. The nuclear
task force was co-chaired by John Foster, a former head of
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who once ran Pentagon
research and development, and retired Gen. Larry Welsh, former
Air Force chief of staff.

The science board voices concern that one "influential segment
of the U.S. population" has what the report describes as an
"entrenched set of views" that transforming the stockpile with
new warheads "is the wrong way to shape the security
environment" because it runs against the U.S. goal of preventing
proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Such political opposition has caused "little progress to date in
evolving needed U.S. nuclear capabilities to address effectively
the more diverse range of potential threats likely to emerge in
the 21st century," the report says.

The report has become public as one Democrat, who will be taking
over a congressional subcommittee that oversees nuclear weapons
programs, has indicated she plans to take a hard look at the
program.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), who will chair the House Armed
Services subcommittee on strategic forces that authorizes the
weapons program, said in an interview this week that she plans
to study the program and the underlying numbers and rationale
established five years ago by the Bush administration's Nuclear
Posture Review.

Tauscher, whose district contains two of the nation's nuclear
laboratories, opposed earlier administration plans for a new
generation of warheads with new capabilities, and helped defeat
research on the nuclear "bunker buster."

Hans Kristensen, director of the nuclear information project of
the Federation of American Scientists, who first called
attention to the science board's report, described it as an
effort to "resell" the 2001 Nuclear Posture Review. "I hope when
Congress returns in the new year it will hear others than the
old gang promoting that program," he said.

The Washington Post Company
*****************************************************************
 75 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Republican senator objects to proposed funding resolution 

Article Launched:12/15/2006 08:47:29 PM MST

CARLSBAD — A tentative plan adopted by Senate and House 
Democratic leaders "will likely have serious negative 
consequences on a large number of New Mexico projects and 
activities," if it passes, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R- N.M., said 
in a press release issued Thursday. 

Sen. Robert Byrd, D- W.Va. And Rep. Dave Obey, D- Wisc., in a
joint press release issued Dec. 11, suggested a proposal dealing
with remaining FY2007 appropriations bills. The proposal would
involve a joint funding resolution foregoing all the funding
priorities set this year by the House and Senate appropriations
committee through Oct. 31, 2007, according to a press release.

Funding for all federal activities outside the departments of
Defense and Homeland Security would be limited to the lower
amount of either FY2006 or approved FY2007 appropriated levels. 

Domenici, outgoing chairman of the Senate Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Subcommittee, said the Democratic
leadership plan "is probably unprecedented in congressional
history, will kill or delay many New Mexico projects, and may
ultimately be a complete surrender of congressional
responsibilities under the Constitution." 

Last week, spending as under the FY2006 budget was extended until 
February by President Bush. 

Locally, Department of Energy WIPP acceleration funds earmarked
for FY2007, DOE funding for the Center of Excellence for
Hazardous Materials Management and funding for the WIPP records
archive could be at risk. 

The monies were earmarked for the FY 2007 Energy and Water Bill. 
WIPP acceleration monies are put to a variety of uses around
Carlsbad related to education and economic development. 

Domenici issued the following statement in Thursday's press
release: 

"I have reviewed the proposed draft plan, the so-called Joint
Resolution released by the incoming Democratic leadership of the
House and Senate, outlining a plan to handle the remaining 2007
fiscal year appropriations bills," he wrote. "The Democratic
proposal, if adopted, would have serious negative consequences
on a large number of New Mexico projects and activities and
would likely lead to delays in important initiatives and some
layoffs at facilities in our state." 

The resolution, Domenici wrote, would worsen the already chaotic
state of the FY2007 appropriations. 

"As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I
would have opposed this plan if it had been proposed by the
Republican leadership, as I opposed our leadership's decision to
punt on these funding bills last week. But, the Democratic
proposal takes the Republican punt and completely fumbles it." 

The resolution, he wrote, will kill or delay many New Mexico
projects, surrender congressional responsibilities, and give
most members of Congress limited authority to protect their
constituents. 

"I seriously doubt that almost anyone in Congress, or in the
Administration, has any idea how this Joint Resolution would
work in practice, other than giving to the Executive Branch
almost carte blanch to do whatever it wants in spending for
FY2007," he wrote. "I have been approached by New Mexico
officials and senior management of some facilities in our state.

I have told them bluntly that the Democratic plan is
unacceptable to me, but that they should prepare for the likely
negative impact of the plan. 

"I prefer an approach that would have allowed Congress to work
its will, as the Constitution requires, on each of the remaining
individual FY2007 bills. This would mean that many New Mexico
initiatives would have a chance to become law, including
additional funding for our national laboratories, schools, and
individual New Mexico community projects. The Democratic
leadership should rethink its plan, and do what's best for the
country—abandon this terrible plan." 

Byrd and Obey, in their press release, cited the "financial mess
left by the outgoing Republican Congressional Leadership." 

"As incoming Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees, we are now responsible for finding a way out of this
fiscal mayhem," they wrote. "After discussions with our
colleagues, we have decided to dispose of the Republican budget
leftovers by passing a year-long joint resolution." 

The two Congressmen promised to do their best to make whatever
limited adjustments are possible to address the nation's most
important policy concerns, but noted their desire to restore an
accountable process for funding. 

"There will be no Congressional earmarks in the joint funding
resolution that we will pass," they wrote. "We will place a
moratorium on all earmarks until a reformed process is put in
place. Earmarks included in this year's House and Senate bills
will be eligible for consideration in the 2008 process, subject
to new standards for transparency and accountability."

  Copyright Â© 2005 Carlsbad Current Argus, a MediaNews Group
Newspaper.
    
*****************************************************************

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this 
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who 
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for 
non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more 
information go to: 
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> 
    
*****************************************************************