***************************************************************** 12/20/06 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 14.300 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 washingtonpost.com: Rice Stresses the Positive Amid Mideast Setbacks 2 Guardian Unlimited: US considers naval build-up as warning to Iran 3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Seeks Condemnation of Israeli Nukes 4 Guardian Unlimited: Annan: Iran Intervention Would Be Unwise 5 Guardian Unlimited: Blair: Iran obstacle to Middle East peace 6 Guardian Unlimited: Now Blair must appeal to Iran's moderate 7 BBC: PM calls for alliance over Iran 8 Xinhua: Russian FM: UN draft resolution on Iran punitive 9 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI's Nuclear issue, resolved: FM 10 AFP: Security Council set to vote Friday on Iran sanctions - 11 AFP: Ahmadinejad allies defeated in Tehran elections 12 AFP: Blair calls for alliance against Iran 13 AFP: Iran demands UN action to force Israel to forego nuclear weapon 14 Guardian Unlimited: In Mideast, Blair Says Iran Is Main Foe 15 UPI: Mossad chief: No Iran bomb until 2009 16 UPI: Ahmadinejad: Iran now a nuclear power 17 Korea Herald: Nuclear envoys struggle to move talks forward 18 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea: Lift Financial Restrictions 19 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Not Budging on Sanctions 20 Guardian Unlimited: Envoy Urges Details in Korean Nuke Talks 21 Korea Times: Seoul to Build Low-Altitude Missile Defense System 22 Korea Times: Tedious Tug-of-War 23 UPI: Beijing progress, N. Korea talks extended 24 Guardian Unlimited: Brown's first job must be to break free of US sh 25 BBC: US to discuss UK Trident lifespan NUCLEAR REACTORS 26 US: NRC: NRC Cites FENOC for Violation at Beaver Valley Nuclear Plan 27 Guardian Unlimited: British Energy repair delays threaten sale 28 US: NRC: NRC Finalizes White Finding for Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plan 29 US: Vermont Guardian: Vermont Yankee gets good news, bad news 30 US: MiamiHerald.com: FPL Group to buy Wisconsin nuclear plant 31 US: Decatur Daily: Time to update nuclear power emergency plans 32 CTV.ca: Cdn. nuclear group accused of false advertising 33 Independent: More outages at British Energy's nuclear plants 34 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Yankee relicensing moves forward 35 Xinhua: U.S., Russia to enhance nuclear energy co-op 36 US: BJJ: PSC wants to make nuclear plant building cheaper - 37 US: Millstone Whistleblower To Drop Complaint With State - 38 US: NRC: Omaha Public Power District; Notice of Withdrawal of Applic 39 US: Capital Times: Point Beach nuclear plant sold 40 Hemscott: British Energy falls on reactor delay 41 US: Hemscott: FPL Energy buys Point Beach nuclear plant from Wiscons 42 Hemscott: EU rules Spain's new conditions on E.ON, Endesa merger ill 43 DutchNews.nl: Nuclear power statement a 'typing error' 44 US: New London Day: Blumenthal considers challenging Millstone whist 45 US: PRN: Dr. Richard Meserve Joins PG Corp. and Pacific Gas and Elec 46 AFP: With nuclear deal sealed, US asks India to adopt bold reforms - NUCLEAR SECURITY 47 US: Recordnet.com: Anti-terror rules for trains in works NUCLEAR SAFETY 48 BBC: Ex-spy death inquiry team return 49 US: Morris Daily Herald: Pipe replaced after tritium leaked holding 50 InTheNews.co.uk: Scientists reject Gulf War syndrome cause 51 US: Times Union: Scores routed by radiation fear 52 Caller.com: Hovering copter to seek radiation NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 53 RGJ: City sends complaint letter to DOE 54 reviewjournal.com: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Lawmakers join to fight project 55 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada lawmakers promise new fight against Yucca Moun 56 US: Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Transporting toxic cargo 57 US: globeandmail.com: Hedge funds ignite uranium price 58 RGJ.com: Nevada's delegation tries new Yucca tactic 59 LasVegasNOW.com: Yucca Mountain: New Game Plan to Stop the DOE PEACE 60 Japan Times: Nukes still not welcome - Cabinet US DEPT. OF ENERGY 61 DOE: U.S and Russia Develop Action Plan to Enhance Global and 62 Idaho Statesman: INL begins joint venture with Brazil 63 Montrose Daily Press: DOE hopes uranium leasing study out by January 64 Hanford News: Sixth leak-prone tank has been emptied at Hanford 65 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Northern 66 Knox News: OR facility evacuated after lab incident 67 Knox News: Munger: Unknown budget means not-so-comfy Christmas ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 washingtonpost.com: Rice Stresses the Positive Amid Mideast Setbacks - By Glenn KesslerWashington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A19 What many Americans may see as chaos and turmoil in the Middle East is partly the result of the Bush administration hastening historical forces that are destined to reshape the region, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday. She added that the results will not be known for decades. "The old Middle East was not going to stay," Rice said. "Let's stop mourning the old Middle East. It was not so great, and it was not going to survive anyway." Rice, in a year-end interview with a small group of newspaper reporters, emphasized the positive in a year that saw the radical Islamic groups Hamas and Hezbollah gain strength in the region, Iranshrug off international demands to suspend its nuclear program, and Iraqteeter on the edge of civil war. She attributed the setbacks to "counterrevolutionary forces" seeking to undo U.S. success in the region. Rice, who frequently makes historical analogies, likened the current period to the challenges faced by the United States after the end of World War II. "Go back and put yourself in that time," she said. There were "things that could have gone very badly and thrown the whole beginning of the Cold War in a completely different direction," she said, ticking off the gains made by French communists, the civil war in Greece, the victory of Chinese communists and other setbacks. "Does it look that much better than it looks now in the Middle East? I don't think so," Rice said. "When you are at the beginning of a big historical transition, it's very tough," Rice said. "I remember what Harry Truman was able to do, which was to take some very difficult circumstances and some fairly unpopular policies and find a few people across the aisle who were willing to support a long-term strategy of containment." At the time, the onetime scholar of Eastern European militaries said, "who could have predicted" that decades later Germanywould be unified or that NATO could hold summits on the territory of the former Soviet Union? She expressed the hope that the release of the Iraq Study Group report had set the stage for a consensus "to find a sustainable place for American policy in what everybody understands is the beginning of a long struggle, not the end." Rice stressed that she was not being a Pollyanna. "I'm not arguing that it is just going great," she said. "There are a lot of difficult places, of course, and some of these places teeter on the edge of really bad outcomes." But she said that American policymakers had long tolerated bad outcomes in the Middle East for the sake of stability, including then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's gassing of the Kurds, Syria's occupation of Lebanon, and then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's "stealing the Palestinian people blind" and cavorting with terrorism. "Some of it [the current turmoil] is that America challenged some of those old bargains, whether it was deciding that Saddam Hussein finally had to go or saying Yasser Arafat wasn't a partner for peace, yes," Rice said. "But that Middle East was going to break down; it had to break down. You weren't going to continue to suppress all of these negative trends, and so one way or another it was going to come apart." Rice said she is not given to providing "day-to-day assessments" of how she is doing but looks for opportunities that might allow for the "next brick" to be laid for the future. "One does not shift strategy every week if one thinks you have the right strategy," she said. "At the beginning of big historic transitions, yes, everything is on the table and, yes, it can go wrong, but it can also go right," Rice said. "If you just sit in the middle of it and say, 'Oh my God, it's all going wrong,' you miss the hooks, the pillars on which you begin to build to make it go right." But she said historians will not be able to judge whether the Bush administration made the right choices "for decades -- and I mean decades." Among the other issues discussed in the interview: ? The administration is not planning to make any gestures to the Cuban government, such as easing travel restrictions, when longtime leader Fidel Castro dies. "The worst betrayal would be to hand in any way a sense of outreach to someone who may think he is just going to succeed" Castro and become another dictator, Rice said. ? Rice declined to apologize to Khaled al-Masri, the German citizen mistakenly seized in Macedonia on suspicion of terrorism and interrogated for months in an Afghan prison, only to be freed later. The case has stirred outrage in Germany, and Masri has sought an explanation and an apology from the U.S. government. "We have done what we can to deal with the circumstances here, to try to act responsibly, and we are going to continue to act responsibly," Rice said. © Copyright 1996- The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: US considers naval build-up as warning to Iran Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Wednesday December 20, 2006 [US Navy helicopter] The US is considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf. Photo: AP The Bush administration is weighing options for a naval build-up in the Gulf as a show of force and a warning to Iran on its nuclear programme and its support for Shia militias in Iraq, it emerged yesterday. Under the proposed build-up, first reported by CBS television, the Pentagon would send an aircraft carrier to join one already in the region. The proposed deployment was described as a message to Tehran not to take provocative steps, and was not preparation for an attack. The idea of sending a second aircraft carrier was raised this month by the commander of US forces in Iraq, General John Abizaid. But it also comes amid mounting pressure from Saudi Arabia against a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. Pentagon officials were considering Gen Abizaid's request, but few other details were immediately available. A Pentagon spokesman said there would be no comment on military movements. "The administration has been pretty clear about Iran's role in the region, which is that Iran has to stop being provocative," the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, told reporters. The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower has been in the region since September, along with four other ships and submarines carrying 6,500 sailors. The navy could move other carriers into the region within six weeks. The USS Stennis, a cruiser which was scheduled to deploy in early 2007 in any event, would be the most likely ship to be deployed. However, if the US were to contemplate a military strike, it would need far more than two carriers, said Reva Bhalla, an analyst at Strategic Forecasting Inc. The US deployed five carriers ahead of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Outgoing UN secretary general Kofi Annan said yesterday that military intervention in Iran would be "unwise and disastrous", as the Security Council debated a resolution that would impose sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme. "I believe that the council, which is discussing the issue, will proceed cautiously and try and do whatever it can to get a negotiated settlement," he said. The latest draft resolution would order all countries to ban the supply of specified materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear programmes. Reports that the US is leaning towards an even stronger posture against Iran reflects indications that Washington wants to deepen its military presence in the region. It follows warnings from Saudi Arabia that it would fund Sunni militias in Iraq in the event of a US troop withdrawal. "The aircraft carrier is a way of assuring the Saudis that the inclination is to do more rather than less, and that we are not going to leave them in the lurch," said John Pike, a military analyst. The tougher posture on Iran and a temporary troop surge in Iraq would both run counter to the findings of the Iraq Study Group earlier this month which recommended a withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq by early 2008, and the opening of diplomatic talks with Iran and Syria. George Bush has yet to unveil his new strategy for Iraq, postponing a planned policy address until the new year. However, a series of leaks suggest that the White House is in favour of sending an extra 20,000 to 30,000 more troops to Iraq for the next six or eight months. Bush told Washington post on Tuesday he plans to expand the size of the US military to deal with the long-term fight against terrorism. The Pentagon believes the US can only bolster its forces in Iraq by extending deployments, a course that would eventually wear down the army. Meanwhile, the administration is concerned at evidence that Shia militias are receiving support and training from Iran. A Pentagon report on Monday said that the Mahdi Army, the armed militia loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had eclipsed al-Qaida as the most dangerous agent of sectarian violence. The quarterly assessment from the Pentagon was the bleakest to date, describing the security situation in Iraq as "tragic". Violence rose by 22% over the past three months to a new high of 959 attacks a week against US and Iraqi forces, and the Pentagon warned that the continued bloodshed was eroding the legitimacy of the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The growing power of Shia militias has come to occupy a greater share of US attention, and fuelled frustration with Mr Maliki. The Iraqi prime minister is dependent on both militia, and so far has resisted US pressure to confront them. Escalating violence The Pentagon report said attacks on US and Iraqi troops and Iraqi civilians jumped in recent months to the highest level since Iraq regained its sovereignty in June 2004. · From mid-August to mid-November, the weekly average number of attacks increased 22% from the previous three months · There were an average of 959 attacks a week on US and Iraqi forces during the three months ending in November · Ninety-three Iraqi civilians are killed or injured every day. Attacks against Iraqi security forces reached a new high at 33 a day [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 3 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Seeks Condemnation of Israeli Nukes From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday December 20, 2006 2:01 AM By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iran demanded Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council condemn what it said was Israel's clandestine development of nuclear weapons and ``compel'' it to place all its nuclear facilities under U.N. inspection. If Israel refuses to comply, Iran said the council must take ``resolute action'' under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which authorizes a range of measures from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military action. Iran insists its own nuclear program is a purely peaceful effort to develop energy, but the United States and many European nations believe Tehran's real aim in enriching uranium is to produce nuclear weapons. The Security Council is currently debating a resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend its enrichment program. Iran's U.N. Ambassador Javad Zarif said in identical letters to the council and the secretary-general that the council's actions would show whether it was acting under the U.N. Charter or as ``a tool'' for a few permanent members who have encouraged Israel ``to persist in its lawless behavior with impunity.'' The reference appeared aimed at the United States, Israel's closest ally, which would almost certainly veto any council resolution on Israel's nuclear program. Zarif said that Israel was the only obstacle to establishing a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East. Israel has a longstanding policy of ambiguity on nuclear weapons, refusing to confirm or deny whether it has them. But in the German TV interview broadcast Dec. 12, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert listed Israel among countries that possess nuclear weapons. Olmert's comments - which his office said were misinterpreted - came days after Robert Gates, who took over Monday as U.S. defense secretary, said in testimony to a Senate committee that Israel was a member of the club of nuclear-armed nations. Israel's U.N. Mission had no immediate comment on Zarif's letters. The Iranian ambassador insisted in the letters, obtained by the Associated Press, that Olmert's comments were a clear admission that Israel possessed nuclear weapons in violation of international law, the U.N. Charter and numerous Security Council and General Assembly resolutions. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 4 Guardian Unlimited: Annan: Iran Intervention Would Be Unwise From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday December 20, 2006 4:31 AM AP Photo NYSW113 By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Tuesday for key parties to seek a negotiated settlement with Iran over its nuclear program and warned that military intervention would be ``unwise and disastrous.'' Annan, who steps down as U.N. chief Dec. 31, issued the warning as the Security Council debated a resolution that would impose sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. The United States is considering sending a second aircraft carrier to Persian Gulf as a show of force against Iran. After two rounds of closed-doors talks Tuesday, the six key nations trying to negotiate with Iran - Britain, France, Germany, the U.S., Russia and China - remained divided on the scope of sanctions. They scheduled another meeting on Wednesday. ``Our goal is to get this resolution done this week,'' said acting U.S. ambassador Alejandro Wolff. But Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he was more concerned about the content than the timing. Annan addressed concerns about a possible military operation in Iran at a farewell news conference in response to a question about how the Security Council should deal with crises after the Iraq war. The council refused to authorize a war against Saddam Hussein in 2003 and Annan called the U.N.'s failure to stop the conflict ``the worst moment'' of his 10 years as secretary-general. ``You mentioned Iran, which implies that there is concern that there may be another military operation there,'' Annan told a reporter. ``First of all, I don't think we are there yet, or we should go in that direction.'' ``I think it would be rather unwise and disastrous,'' he said. ``I believe that the council, which is discussing the issue, will proceed cautiously and try and do whatever it can to get a negotiated settlement for the sake of the region and for the sake of the world,'' he said. The Bush administration has repeatedly declined to rule out the use of force in Iran, although senior officials have also said their first choice is to rely on diplomacy. A senior U.S. defense official said the idea of building up U.S. Navy forces has been discussed for some time and one proposal is to send a second aircraft carrier to the region. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the idea has not been approved, said it was unclear when a decision will be made. Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed solely at the peaceful production of nuclear energy, but the Americans and Europeans suspect Tehran's ultimate goal is the production of nuclear weapons Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Tuesday that possible Security Council sanctions would not stop Iran from pursuing uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel for civilian purposes or fuel for a nuclear bomb. Annan expressed concern that because of Iran's nuclear program and the situation in Israel, which is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, several governments in the Middle East have said recently they are going to explore facilities to produce nuclear energy. ``What I'm worried about is we may see competitive development of these devices,'' Annan said. ``And we need to take time - we need to take real effort to assure that we don't get into that situation in the region.'' The latest draft resolution being discussed by key Security Council members would order all countries to ban the supply of specified materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs. It would also impose a travel ban and asset freeze on key companies and individuals in the country's nuclear and missile programs who are named on a U.N. list. Russia and China remain at odds with the United States and key European countries over the travel ban and a list of companies and individuals that should be subject to a freeze of their financial assets. ``We still have some difficult problems to resolve,'' Churkin said after Tuesday's meeting. He called the travel ban ``an unnecessary irritant,'' and reiterated that Moscow has still not agreed with the list. Wolff said the U.S. views the travel ban as ``a priority.'' 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 committed itself to a freeze on uranium enrichment before talks on its nuclear program. With Iran refusing to comply with an Aug. 31 council deadline to stop enrichment, Britain and France circulated a draft sanctions resolution in October. Associated Press Writers Paul Burkhardt at the United Nations, Pauline Jelinek in Washington, and Ali Akbar Dareini in Kermanshah, Iran, contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 5 Guardian Unlimited: Blair: Iran obstacle to Middle East peace Wednesday December 20, 2006 [Tony Blair] Tony Blair today labelled Iran as the main obstacle to hopes for peace in the Middle East. Speaking in Dubai at the end of his five-day tour of the region, the prime minister called on moderate Muslim states to unite in combating Islamic extremists, such as the hardline regime of the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr Blair said that Iran wanted "to pin us back in Lebanon, in Iraq and in Palestine", and went on to criticise the "indifference" of many world leaders towards its nuclear ambitions. He said elements of the government of Iran were "openly supporting terrorism in Iraq to stop a fledgling democratic process, trying to turn out a democratic government in Lebanon, flouting the international community's desire for peace in Palestine - at the same time as denying the Holocaust". "And yet," Mr Blair continued, "a large part of world opinion is frankly almost indifferent. It would be bizarre if it weren't deadly serious." Some Iraqi politicians, mainly Sunni Muslims, have accused Tehran of fuelling sectarian violence by supporting Shia militias. Tehran also backs the Lebanese guerrilla group and opposition party Hizbullah, which is leading a drive for early elections after failing to obtain veto power in government. Meanwhile, Iraq's vice president claimed Mr Blair had been "brainwashed" by George Bush into dropping his support for a timetable for US and UK forces to withdraw from the country. Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York yesterday, Tareq al-Hashemi said the prime minister had originally supported his proposal to announce a timetable for withdrawal. In a later interview with the World Tonight on BBC Radio 4 last night, Mr Hashemi said Mr Blair appeared "willing and interested" to raise the matter with Mr Bush when they discussed it several months ago. But once Mr Blair flew out to Washington and met with the US president he appeared to change his mind, said Mr Hashemi. "He promised to take up this matter with President Bush within a couple of days because he was planning to fly to Washington at that time. "But I was observing the joint press conference that he made with President Bush after his visit and I saw him talking about something quite different." Mr Hashemi speculated Mr Bush opposed declaring a timetable for withdrawal "to avoid passing wrong messages to terrorism". [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 6 Guardian Unlimited: Now Blair must appeal to Iran's moderate Simon Tisdall Thursday December 21, 2006 The Guardian Tony Blair claimed yesterday that Iran poses a "strategic challenge" to moderate Middle East governments and the west as a whole, in a message that will gratify the ruling hardliners in Tehran. They believe the US and Britain have conspired to undermine the Islamic republic created after the 1979 revolution - and have failed to recognise its legitimate interests and aspirations. The prime minister's onslaught will be seen in those quarters as an acknowledgement that post-Khomeini Iran is finally emerging as a powerful regional player. Mr Blair certainly did not mean to be complimentary. Little more than a month after floating a civil "partnership" with Tehran in his annual Guildhall speech, he filed a petition for divorce in Dubai. What changed his mind on this (and on Syrian engagement) is unclear. Possibly it was his recent visit to the White House. Whatever the answer, his stated grounds for seeking a separation were clear. "Elements of the government of Iran [are] openly supporting terrorism in Iraq, trying to turn out a democratically elected government in Lebanon, flouting the international community's desire for peace in Palestine at the same time as denying the Holocaust and trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability," Mr Blair said. He could have gone on - and he did. "We have to wake up ... We must mobilise our alliance of moderation in this region and outside to defeat the extremists. Nothing matters more." The world was engaged in a "monumental struggle between those who believe in democracy and modernisation and forces of reaction and extremism". Echoing George Bush, Mr Blair characterised this struggle as the foremost challenge of our time. Last night Iran condemned the speech as "a hostile intervention". The division of states, governments, or "elements" of governments into good and bad guys was once the exclusive preserve of the US president. Not any more. And this change, too, will be welcomed by the ideologues of Tehran and Qom. Leaders such as Ayatollah Muhammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, spiritual adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, counsel confrontation rather then reconciliation with the west. In their view, it strengthens Iranians' sense of national identity and solidarity and helps excuse, or at least distract attention from domestic woes. Mr Blair's pledge to expand security cooperation with Gulf states, coinciding with reports of a planned US naval build-up and continuing efforts at the UN to impose sanctions on Iran's nuclear programmes, may also embolden hardliners on all sides. And his inclusion of undemocratic, oligarchic Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the modernisers' camp will puzzle and dismay thwarted reformers there. In his quest for Middle East moderation, Mr Blair risks pushing matters to extremes. Iranian officials have ready answers to accusations of regional meddling. For example, Tehran seeks a stable Iraq, they say; as a Shia Muslim country, it has no wish to assist Sunni terrorists - but it does have legitimate interests there. The potency of the "threat" posed by Tehran can also be exaggerated, Iran watchers warn. Economically, the country is in poor shape, uncomfortably dependent on windfall oil revenues. Politically, it is divided and fragmented. Last weekend's local elections delivered a sharp kick on the shins to Mr Ahmadinejad and his allies. Moderate or "pragmatic" conservatives and reformist candidates were the big winners. Voters appear to have reacted against Mr Ahmadinejad's failure to create wealth and jobs at home - and his incendiary, anti-Israel, anti-western confrontationalism abroad. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is said to share concerns about Iran's falling international reputation under Mr Ahmadinejad. Trying to isolate or "pin back" Iran, as suggested by Mr Blair, was the wrong approach at the wrong time, said Alex Bigham of the Foreign Policy Centre. "The alliance of moderation must extend to moderates in Iran. There will only be support for long-term change in Iran if there is a positive offer on the table." Affording Tehran a leading regional security role could "unlock the current crisis", he said. Fencing it in may only exacerbate it. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 7 BBC: PM calls for alliance over Iran Last Updated: Wednesday, 20 December 2006 [Tony Blair] Mr Blair says moderat countries must take on Iran Mr Blair in Dubai Moderate Muslim states must form an "alliance of moderation" to counter Iran and challenge its influence, UK prime minister Tony Blair has urged. He called on the world to "wake up" to the monumental struggle between the forces of moderation and extremism. At the end of his Middle East tour, Mr Blair said the ideological battle was the challenge of the 21st Century. His call comes as he was criticised by Iraq's vice-president on the issue of troop withdrawal from Iraq. Speaking in New York, Tareq al-Hashemi suggested Mr Blair had supported his idea of announcing a timetable for withdrawal, but was then "brainwashed" into changing his mind by US President George Bush. President Bush has so far refused to set a timetable for troop withdrawals. 'Partnership possible' Mr Blair has been on a tour of the Middle East, visiting Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, the West Bank and Israel. We must recognise the strateg threat the government of Iran poses Tony Blair In a speech to British and United Arab Emirates businessmen in Dubai, Mr Blair said a new partnership was possible with Iran and Syria, if they were prepared to play a constructive role in the Middle East. But he warned: "We must recognise the strategic threat the government of Iran poses - not the people, possibly not all of its ruling elements, but those presently in charge of its policy. "They seek to pin us back in Lebanon, in Iraq and in Palestine. Our response should be to expose what they are doing, build the alliances to prevent it and pin them back across the whole of the region." He said achieving this would need the support of moderate Middle Eastern countries, but his spokesman later said it was not a call for a confrontation between the two Muslim traditions - Sunni and Shia. 'Unconventional war' Mr Blair, who is due to step down as prime minister next year, said: "We have to wake up. These forces of extremism based on a warped and wrong-headed interpretation of Islam aren't fighting a conventional war, but they are fighting one against us. "And 'us' is not just the West, still less simply America and its allies. 'Us' is all those who believe in tolerance, respect for others and liberty. "We must mobilise our alliance of moderation in this region and outside it to defeat the extremists." During his tour, Mr Blair has met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip to reassure him of the UK's support for Turkey's bid to join the EU. [UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan and Tony Blair] Mr Blair has been on a tour of the Middle East And he has met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to discuss the peace process. In his speech, he set out three priorities to restore momentum to that process, including an early meeting between the two leader and, a relaunch of the political process leading to a two-state solution. He also called for an office of president of Palestine, which should be given the capacity to improve the lives of the Palestinian people. It is hoped a stronger role would allow international aid to be channelled through Mr Abbas - bypassing Hamas, which holds a majority in the Palestinian parliament. The Palestinians have also been suffering under an international aid boycott since Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel or give up its armed struggle, was elected to a majority of seats in January's parliamentary poll. ***************************************************************** 8 Xinhua: Russian FM: UN draft resolution on Iran punitive www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-21 00:02:04 Special report: Iran Nuclear Crisis MOSCOW, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council's draft resolution on Iran looks punitive, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference on Wednesday. Most of the resolution's points "leave one with an impression that our partners are going to punish Tehran," Lavrov was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying. Some countries tried to reshape the wording of the resolution in their favor so as to "block channels for trade relations with Iran in legitimate spheres," Lavrov said. The UN Security Council "must support efforts of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), and not substitute for the IAEA," he said. However, when "it concerns the introduction of restrictions on technological deliveries to Iran," the wording of the resolution shows "qualitative changes and a substantial progress," Lavrov said. He said that there is an "understanding (in the Security Council) that a solution in this field should be not all-embracing,but concern technologies of uranium enrichment, chemical reprocessing of nuclear fuel, deliveries of heavy water reactors, as well as means of delivery of nuclear weapons." "We see positive changes in this respect," Lavrov said. Lavrov reminded reporters that six international mediators "have reached an agreement to seek the solution of Iran's problem through negotiations, and agreed that the use of force in the solution of the conflict is out of the question." "If we observe these principles, the decision will be made quickly," he stressed. Editor: Luan Shanglin ***************************************************************** 9 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI's Nuclear issue, resolved: FM 2006/12/20 Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in a meeting with Vietnam's Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Dung on Tuesday referred to the country's nuclear issue as resolved, saying that the Islamic Republic of Iran's current access to nuclear technology means that the relevant issue is closed. According to a report released by the Foreign Ministry media department, Mottaki said that IRI remains committed to NPT, adding that holding talks is the best way to solve misunderstandings. Meanwhile, the Minister underlined the need to seek a world free of nuclear weapons. He welcomed the measures mutually taken towards expansion of bilateral relations and hoped that IRI-Vietnam talks will lead to proper strategies for bolstering of such ties. He pointed to the continuing insecurity in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as other regional developments, including Hamilton's report on Iraq, and said, "though the report just uncovered 50 percent of the realities, it actually implies all of the US wrong policy on the Middle East in recent years and urges the need for revision." For his part, the Vietnamese official presented a report on mutual ties and the measures taken to pursue broadening the bonds between the two countries. 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 ***************************************************************** 10 AFP: Security Council set to vote Friday on Iran sanctions - by Gerard Aziakou Wed Dec 20, 7:31 PM ET UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Under pressure from the United States, the UN Security Council edged toward a Friday vote on a compromise draft resolution mandating sanctions against Iran" /> Iranover its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work. After the European sponsors offered concessions to overcome Russian objections, Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry announced: "The president of the council concluded there would be a vote on Friday morning" on the watered-down text. The new draft, which watered down a contentious proposal for a travel ban on 12 officials directly linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, was circulated to the council's 15 members Wednesday. "The travel ban is gone," said Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, saying the issue was "addressed in a creative manner which is more in line with our original thinking." The new draft, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, finessed the issue by making the travel ban voluntary. It urged "all states to exercise vigilance regarding the entry into or transit through their territories of individuals who are engaged in, directly associated with or providing support for Iran's proliferation sensitive nuclear activities or for the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems." It further says that all states shall notify a monitoring committee "of the entry into or transit through their territories of persons" designated in the draft's annex as well as additional persons found to be linked with Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The compromise text drawn up by Britain, France and Germany emerged after several rounds of bargaining Wednesday involving envoys of the Security Council's five veto-wielding members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- as well as Germany. "We are down to two or three issues to be tackled," Churkin said. "I hope they will be by tomorrow." The new draft also eases some of the financial restrictions slapped on entities or persons linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. "We believe there is no reason we should not have a vote tomorrow," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. US acting ambassador Alejandro Wolff said he was consulting with Washington over the latest changes to the draft. Asked about the travel ban, which earlier this week he described as a "priority" issue for the US side, Wolff said: "We're still negotiating this... we want a vote early and we want a really good resolution." "We have been working very hard on this resolution which unfortunately we have to do because Iran has not agreed to suspend certain activities which would have opened the door to negotiations," Churkin said. The aim, he added, was to "make sure this is a careful targeted resolution, which would created some problems for Iran in pursuing activities which the Security Council does not want to pursue but also will make it very clear that the door is open for negotiation when Iran accepts the requirement for suspension." Moscow, which like China has strong economic ties with Tehran, strongly backs Iran's right to civilian nuclear technology. The Russians are building the Islamic Republic's first atomic power station in Bushehr. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza Ricemeanwhile spoke by telephone Wednesday with her British counterpart Margaret Beckett to discuss "ways to close the remaining gaps" over the wording of the draft, McCormack said. "I would caution that we're not there yet, we don't have a final agreement on a resolution," the US spokesman added. The draft calls for a mandatory ban on trade with Iran in goods related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and place financial restrictions on persons and entities involved in the sectors. It demands that Iran "without further delay suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development and work on all heavy water related projects." It calls for a report within 60 days by the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency on whether Iran has complied with fully with UN demands. It warns that if Tehran refuses to comply, the council "shall adopt further appropriate measures under Article 41 of Chapter Seven" of the UN charter," a reference to economic sanctions only. The United States and other Western countries suspect that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear energy program. Tehran denies this. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 AFP: Ahmadinejad allies defeated in Tehran elections by Siavosh Ghazi Wed Dec 20, 8:04 AM ET TEHRAN (AFP) - Allies of hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmmadinejad have suffered a stinging defeat in elections for Tehran's city council, losing to moderate conservative and reformist forces. Although final results have still to be published five days after the vote, returns on 80 percent of ballots Wednesday show that allies of moderate Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf are set to win a clear majority. The Tehran count is the last result due from Friday's nationwide elections for municipal councils and for the clerical Assembly of Experts in the first major test of popularity for Ahmadinejad since he swept to power in 2005. Allies of Qalibaf, a technocratic moderate conservative, were set to win eight seats on the 15-member body, bolstered by the win of an independent loyal to the mayor. Reformers were set to gain four seats and Ahmadinejad allies two. The candidates running in the top two places were the city council's current head, Mehdi Chamran, and ex-Tehran police chief Morteza Talaie, both allies of Qalibaf. Another feature was the success of high-profile sportsmen, with seats set to go to reformist Olympic taekwondo champion Hadi Saei and two former world wrestling champions. Ahmadinejad's sister Parvine was running in ninth place. Elsewhere, women picked up four seats on the nine-member councils in the central cities of Qazvin and Ardebil and three places in the desert city of Yazd. The authorities have been keen to emphasise the 60 percent turnout, which easily topped that of the last elections held. "The multitudes of people coming to the ballots showed Iranians were not hindered by the psychological war of enemies who used different means and instruments to dishearten the people," said supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Reformists have grumbled loudly about the long drawn-out vote counting, but officials said the full results would finally be published late Wednesday. The Tehran city council results come after a cleric seen as Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor was trounced by centrist ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in elections for the powerful Assembly of Experts. Rafsanjani, written off in some quarters as a spent force, polled in excess of half a million votes more than the second-placed cleric, and he left Ahmadinejad ally Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi trailing in sixth place. The elections capped a difficult few days for Ahmadinejad. Tehran students disrupted a presidential speech last week by burning his picture and shouting "death to the dictator". With parliamentary elections in 2008 and presidential polls due a year later, the Tehran poll was seen as a bellwether for future national votes. On a three-day tour of the western province of Kermanshah, Ahmadinejad has made no reference to the elections, instead concentrating on local issues and Iran" /> Iran's nuclear programme. One of the key reasons for the weak showing by Ahmadinejad's allies was the split with moderate conservatives, although officials and the hardline press have celebrated the results as a victory for "conservatives" in general. "Thanks to God, the electorate is still putting its confidence in the conservatives," said Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi. However, conservative lawmaker Emad Afroug said voters had said "no to illusion to narcissism ... to populism and to Machiavellianism." Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 AFP: Blair calls for alliance against Iran by Phil Hazlewood Wed Dec 20, 4:27 AM ET DUBAI (AFP) - Britain's Tony Blair" /> Tony Blairaccused Iran" /> Iranof being an obstacle to peace in the Middle East and urged moderate countries in the region to form an alliance to oppose its support for extremism. Speaking to local and British business leaders in Dubai, the prime minister made his strongest criticism yet of Tehran, which the West fears wants to build nuclear weapons and suspect of supporting militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. "We must recognise the strategic challenge the government of Iran poses, not its people, not possibly all of its ruling elements but those presently in charge of its policy," he said. "They seek to pin us back in Lebanon, in Iraq" /> Iraq, in Palestine. Our response should be to expose what they are doing, build up alliances to prevent it and pin them back across the whole of the region." Blair's comments came as he wound up a region-wide tour that has taken him to Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Israel" /> Israeland the Palestinian territories in the past five days to seek assessments on the current state of the Middle East peace process. At each turn, he has stressed the need for those who believe in democracy and modernisation to come together against those who foment reaction and extremism. Part of that involves supporting moderate Muslim opinion to help curb violence and extremism in areas like the Palestinian territories and Iraq. The oil-rich United Arab Emirates -- which Blair has said is making tentative steps towards political reform at its first national polls -- was an example to nearby countries on what can be achieved in the right conditions. "Out of this region, with its complex, fascinating history, has come this challenge. Within this region will come the solution, but everywhere the impact of its future, for good or ill, will be felt," he said. "It's not too late, but in my view it's urgent." Blair, who pledged a renewed round of intensive diplomacy on the Middle East in the new year, said the clash between the two ideologies stretched to places like Afghanistan" /> Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and Somalia. "The lesson of all this I see as startlingly real, clear and menacing. There is a monumental struggle going on worldwide between those who believe in democracy and modernisation and the forces of reaction and extremism. "It is the challenge of the early 21st century," he said. In extracts released to reporters in advance Tuesday night, Blair's office said the prime minister would describe Iran as a "strategic threat", but even the toned down "strategic challenge" he spoke of Wednesday was still bullish. Previously, Blair has trodden a more tempered path, offering Iran and Syria" /> Syriathe chance to play a constructive role with the international community -- but there was no mention of that Wednesday. His remarks coincided with a US television report that the Pentagon" /> Pentagonwas planning a major deployment of naval forces to the Gulf in 2007 in response to what Washington considers acts of provocation by Iran. The Pentagon, however, would not confirm the CBS television report. Blair's spokesman countered suggestions that his stance was at odds with the recent US Iraq Study Group, which called for greater engagement with Iran to help end bloody sectarian violence in Iraq. Neither was he seeking to create a Sunni bloc against predominantly Shiite Iran, putting the two Muslim traditions at loggerheads, he added. Instead, he said the call for an "alliance of moderation" was due to the clearer recognition of extremism by foreign powers and the need to respond to Iran's belligerent tone towards Israel, for example. The spokesman said Blair had been "struck" by the increased willingness on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian question to engage more to end the stalemate. To that end, Blair on Wednesday called for a bolstered Palestinian president's office, an early meeting of leaders on both sides and a relaunch of the political process towards a two-state solution. All three priorities were "deliverable but have to be delivered", he said. As well as Iran's nuclear programme, Blair is concerned about suspected Iranian backing for Shiite militias fighting British forces in southern Iraq plus its support for the ruling Islamists in the Palestinian territories. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 AFP: Iran demands UN action to force Israel to forego nuclear weapons, sign NPT Tue Dec 19, 9:24 PM ET UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Iran" /> Iranhas urged the UN Security Council to condemn Israel" /> Israel's "clandestine development and possession of nuclear weapons" and to consider slapping sanctions if the Jewish state refuses to scrap its arsenal. In a letter to Qatar's UN envoy Nasser Abdulaziz al-Nasser, the president of the Council for December, Iranian Ambassador Javad Zarif cited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's apparent admission last week that Israel possesses nuclear weapons. "The Israeli regime's clandestine development and possession of nuclear weapons not only violate basic principles of international law, the United Nations" /> United NationsCharter, the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and Security Council resolutions, but also clearly defy the demand of the overwhelming majority of UN member states," he said. "Peace and security cannot be achieved in the Middle East while the massive Israeli nuclear arsenal continues to threaten the region and beyond," he added. The Iranian envoy urged the 15-member council to "condemn the Israeli regime's clandestine development and possession of nuclear weapons, compel it to abandon nuclear weapons, urged it to accede to the NPT without delay, and demand that this regime place promptly all its nuclear facilities under IAEA ( International Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency) full-scope safeguards." "Should the Israeli regime fail to do so, the council must take resolute action under Chapter Seven of the (UN) Charter (meaning sanctions) to ensure compliance," Zarif added. Olmert's apparent admission breached the Jewish state's decades-long policy of nuclear ambiguity. Under this policy, Israel, which is believed to have an arsenal of 200 nuclear weapons, would not carry out any nuclear tests and stay silent on the issue in order to prevent a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Olmert's statement threatened to undercut efforts by Israel and the West to prevent Iran from secretly trying to build nuclear arms under the cover of a civilian atomic power program. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 14 Guardian Unlimited: In Mideast, Blair Says Iran Is Main Foe From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday December 20, 2006 6:31 PM AP Photo LON128 By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press Writer DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrapped up a Middle East tour Wednesday with a blunt speech warning that the world faces a monumental struggle between moderates and extremists - and labeling Iran the main obstacle to hopes for peace. In an address to business leaders and journalists in Dubai, Blair said combating extremism and the violence it foments was the greatest challenge of the 21st century. He said the lesson he had drawn from his five-day Mideast trip was ``startlingly real, clear and menacing.'' ``There is a monumental struggle going on worldwide between those who believe in democracy and moderation, and forces of reaction and extremism,'' Blair said. ``We have to wake up. These forces of extremism - based on a warped and wrongheaded misinterpretation of Islam - aren't fighting a conventional war. But they are fighting one, against us - and us is not just the West, still less simply America and its allies,'' Blair said. ``We must therefore mobilize our alliance of moderation in the region and outside of it to defeat the extremists.'' Blair has repeated that message throughout his trip - in Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories and the United Arab Emirates. He identified his chief foe in the region - the government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran is a sponsor of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Western countries claim Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and Blair has accused Iran of backing Shiite insurgents in Iraq. Blair said there were ``elements of the government of Iran, openly supporting terrorism in Iraq to stop a fledgling democratic process; trying to turn out a democratic government in Lebanon; flaunting the international community's desire for peace in Palestine - at the same time as denying the Holocaust and trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability; and yet a large part of world opinion is frankly almost indifferent. It would be bizarre if it weren't deadly serious. ``We must recognize the strategic challenge the government of Iran poses,'' Blair added. ``Not its people, possibly not all its ruling elements, but those presently in charge of its policy.'' Blair's language differed slightly from excerpts of the speech released in advance by Blair's office, which called Iran a ``strategic threat.'' Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini called Blair's speech ``hostile'' and ``obvious intervention'' in the region's affairs. ``The negative and discordant tendencies of Britain, along with the warmongering and unilateral policies of (President) Bush and Blair, have been the reason for tension and extremism and the cause of public hatred in the region,'' Hosseini told the state news agency IRNA. Each stop on the tour played a role in Blair's vision of an ``arc of moderation'' that could work to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and defuse the anger that helps fuel international terrorism. He backed Turkey's bid to join the European Union, praised Egypt's role in mediating between Israel and the Palestinians, and urged support for the fragile Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. On Tuesday, he praised the oil-rich United Arab Emirates and its booming commercial hub, Dubai, as a model of economic openness that could set an example for the wider Arab world - even claiming the UAE's model ``is what Basra or Gaza could be, were there people not so savagely let down by the politics of their countries.'' He said the fate of the Middle East, ``for good or ill,'' would be felt around the world. While Blair's rhetoric was strong, the concrete achievements of the trip have been few. Blair called for an ``early meeting'' between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the relaunch of the peace process and support to bolster Abbas' authority in his struggle with the Islamic militant group Hamas. But he announced no new commitments or agreements on that front. Blair, who has said he will step down by mid-2007, is on one of the last big foreign tours of his 10-year premiership, seeking to cement a foreign-policy legacy that goes beyond his role as the chief U.S. ally in Iraq. A report released Tuesday by the influential Chatham House think-tank concluded that Blair's foreign policy ambitions have stalled because he is unable to exert real influence on the White House, despite offering the United States almost a decade of unflinching support. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 15 UPI: Mossad chief: No Iran bomb until 2009 United Press International - Security &Terrorism - 12/20/2006 2:02:00 PM -0500 TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Israel's intelligence chief says Iran will not be able to build a nuclear bomb until 2009 at the earliest, the newspaper Ha'aretz reported. Mossad chief Meir Dagan, speaking earlier this week to a Knesset committee on foreign affairs and defense, said Iran since June has increased efforts to enrich nuclear fuel and bring 3,000 centrifuges online for the task. Dagan estimated that by 2008, those centrifuges would have produced about 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of enriched uranium, the report said. Ha'artez quoted a senior political source as saying that based on the Mossad analysis, there was still time for a diplomatic effort to block the Iranian program. "The diplomatic effort to block Iran's nuclear program is far from being over," the source said. "The threat is close enough to draw attention and yet far enough to allow time for action." The United States and others, frustrated by Iran's intransigence on its nuclear fuel enrichment, are pressing the U.N. Security Council to impose economic sanctions on the Tehran regime over a touted civilian nuclear program believed to be cover for producing a nuclear weapon. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 UPI: Ahmadinejad: Iran now a nuclear power United Press International - NewsTrack - 12/20/2006 7:12:00 AM -0500 JAVANROUD, Iran, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the country's scientists had completed the nuclear fuel cycle and the country is a nuclear power. In a speech Wednesday in the western city of Javanroud, the president sounded a defiant message to countries opposed to Iran's nuclear development. "Iranian young scientists reached the zenith of science and technology and gained access to the nuclear fuel cycle without the help of big powers," he said. "The Islamic Republic of Iran is now a nuclear power, thanks to the hard work of the Iranian people and authorities." The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as denouncing international "bullying powers," and restated Iran's "right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology." After Iran refused to meet an Aug. 31 U.N. deadline to cease enriching uranium that could be used for weapons, the U.N. Security Council voted to impose sanctions, although there has been no consensus on what they should be. Concluding his speech Wednesday, Ahmadinejad said there was no stopping now. "The Iranian nation will continue in its nuclear path powerfully and will celebrate a nuclear victory soon," he said. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 Korea Herald: Nuclear envoys struggle to move talks forward Korea Herald correspondent BEIJING - U.S. and North Korean delegates held their first bilateral meetings in the six-party nuclear talks in Beijing yesterday. No immediate progress was reported on the second day of the talks. Envoys from six countries prepared for the last phase of the negotiations by holding a series of "business-like" discussions on how to implement measures towards denuclearization, sources from the negotiation said. Based on host China's plan, this fifth round of the nuclear talks will close or take a recess on Thursday to reconvene after the Christmas holiday. The chief delegates to the talks gathered for a second plenary meeting in the morning, followed by a series of bilateral contacts in the afternoon. Christopher Hill of the United States and Kim Kye-gwan of North Korea met for their first bilateral talks inside the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Details of the meeting were undisclosed. A separate discussion on Washington's financial embargoes on a Macau bank accused of money laundering for North Korea also opened on the sideline at the U.S. Embassy here. Sources from the negotiation raised cautious hope for progress by saying that the North Koreans seemed "more sincere and serious" than the day before, describing the overall discussion as having been "very business-like" on substantial issues. "As was shown in the key note speeches (on Monday), we are at a phase where the differences are narrowing bit by bit," a South Korean official said on condition of anonymity. "You could say there was some progress, but that does not guarantee an accomplishment," the official said. The latest round of the six-party talks reconvened on Monday after a 13 month hiatus on a negative note, with North Korea going all out in raising the stakes during a keynote speech on Monday. It claimed the lifting of the sanctions were a precondition of negotiations over its nuclear programs. To the United States and its allies, the lifting of sanctions is seen as a reward for dismantlement rather than an opening gambit. The negotiators exchanged views on each others' positions presented in keynote speeches at the Monday plenary session. The two Koreas also met one-on-one in the afternoon and shared discussed their differences in a "very friendly atmosphere," according to South Korean sources. Japan was the only country that did not hold bilateral talks with North Korea. The two usually keep a distance from each other during the negotiation due to the political complexity over Japan's demand to discuss North Korea's past abduction issue at the nuclear talks. China's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dai Bingguo hosted a dinner for the delegations in the evening. Hill, upon leaving his hotel in the morning, asked North Korea to show good faith. "I think if the other delegations, namely the North Korean delegation believes in this process they should come to it in the mood of trying to reach a deal on beginning the implementation of the Joint Statement." Washington, in the meantime, tried to downplay North Korea's demands. "The pattern of North Korean negotiations is, they start out with a maximalist position and then they start negotiating down from there in hopes that they can achieve as much as they possibly can on their list of demands," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. (angiely@heraldm.com) By Lee Joo-hee 2006.12.20 ***************************************************************** 18 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea: Lift Financial Restrictions From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday December 20, 2006 1:46 PM AP Photo TOK224 By BO-MI LIM Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - North Korea is refusing to back down from its demand at international arms talks that U.S. financial restrictions be lifted before it dismantles its nuclear program, delegates said Wednesday. North Korea agreed to end a 13-month boycott of the talks - which also include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. - to discuss a U.S. campaign seeking to isolate the communist nation from the international banking system. Washington alleges the North is involved in a range of illegal activity, including counterfeiting $100 bills, money laundering and selling weapons of mass destruction. U.S. and North Korean experts discussed the U.S. financial restrictions for five hours Wednesday, their second day of meetings this week that are separate from the arms talks, but made no breakthroughs and planned no further meetings. Daniel Glaser, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes who is leading the American delegation, said the talks at the North Korean Embassy were ``businesslike and useful.'' Glaser said he would possibly meet the North Koreans next month in New York. ``For this process moving forward to be productive and useful, it's going to have to start focusing very, very closely on the underlying concerns of illicit finance,'' he told reporters. ``We hope to get to do that.'' The separate, six-nation nuclear talks are to continue until at least Friday, but negotiators said that does not mean results are guaranteed by then. ``The financial issues are a major interest for North Korea,'' Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae said after the third day of discussions in Beijing. Sasae pleaded with the North to put aside that issue at the nuclear talks. ``I think it is not realistic to treat the financial issue as a major block while putting the broader discussion on hold,'' Sasae said. However, the North said it would be willing to halt operation of its main nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors ``under the right conditions,'' a South Korean official said on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing negotiations ``We are focusing our discussion on what those conditions would be,'' he said. At the nuclear discussions, South Korea's main envoy, Chun Yung-woo, said it remained to be seen whether delegates could make progress by Friday on implementing a Sept. 19, 2005, agreement in which North Korea pledged to disarm in exchange for aid and security guarantees. ``We cannot predict that we will be able to produce a document of breakthrough agreements after two days,'' he said. ``We cannot be just optimistic about the situation since this round of talks opened after many difficulties,'' Chun said, referring to the long break, the North's nuclear test and U.N. sanctions. Earlier Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing met with all delegates and pressed them to find consensus. ``In order to realize a win-win situation, the urgent thing is to make some plans to enact the joint statement and to realize all the commitments every party made in the joint statement,'' Li said, according to a ministry statement. ``We should make concerted efforts to overcome all differences in order for the talks to move forward and reach practical results.'' Before talks began Wednesday, the main U.S. envoy urged the sides to start hashing out substantive details on disarmament or risk squandering the opportunity. ``At this point I don't want to say I am pessimistic or optimistic,'' U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters. ``I just don't know where we are going to end up or when we are going to end up.'' Hill has declined to release details of any U.S. proposals to North Korea, but a news report Wednesday said the Americans had outlined a process in which the North would first freeze its nuclear program, followed by inspections and eventual dismantlement. Washington would be willing to give the North a written security guarantee - a pledge that it would not seek to topple the regime by force - as soon as the North allows the return of international nuclear inspectors, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, citing ``diplomatic sources'' at the talks. South Korea's Chun declined to confirm specifics, but said the ideas were simply ``an official detailed and concrete proposal'' of what the sides had previously discussed. North Korea's state media on Wednesday kept up its tough rhetoric against Washington, saying U.S.-South Korean military preparations showed ``the United States is trying to pull a dirty business against the (North) behind the curtain of talks.'' ``This is clear proof that it is seeking to vanquish (North Korea) with a military strong arm, whetting its sword of aggression under the mask of dialogue,'' the North's communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency. --- Associated Press reporters Audra Ang, Burt Herman and Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 19 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Not Budging on Sanctions From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday December 20, 2006 7:16 PM AP Photo TOK224 By BURT HERMAN Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - North Korea is refusing to back down from its demand at international arms talks that U.S. financial restrictions be lifted before it dismantles its nuclear program, delegates said Wednesday. North Korea agreed to end a 13-month boycott of the talks - which also include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. - to discuss a Washington campaign seeking to isolate the communist nation from the international banking system. The U.S. alleges the North is involved in a range of illegal activity, including counterfeiting $100 bills and money laundering. U.S. and North Korean experts discussed the U.S. financial restrictions for five hours Wednesday, their second day of meetings this week that are separate from the arms talks, but made no breakthroughs and planned no further meetings. Daniel Glaser, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes who is leading the U.S. delegation, said the talks at the North Korean Embassy were ``businesslike and useful.'' Glaser said he would possibly meet the North Koreans next month in New York. ``For this process moving forward to be productive and useful, it's going to have to start focusing very, very closely on the underlying concerns of illicit finance,'' he told reporters. ``We hope to get to do that.'' The separate, six-nation nuclear talks are to continue until at least Friday, but negotiators said that does not mean results are guaranteed by then. ``The financial issues are a major interest for North Korea,'' Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae said after the third day of discussions in Beijing. Sasae pleaded with the North to put aside that issue at the nuclear talks. ``I think it is not realistic to treat the financial issue as a major block while putting the broader discussion on hold,'' Sasae said. However, the North said it would be willing to halt operation of its main nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors ``under the right conditions,'' a South Korean official said on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing negotiations ``We are focusing our discussion on what those conditions would be,'' he said. Negotiators were addressing the implementation of a September 2005 agreement where the North pledged to abandon its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees and aid. ``Whether we can start implementing the agreement this week, time will tell,'' Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Wednesday evening. He said the talks focused on specific steps toward the North's disarmament that the U.S. hoped would happen in a timeframe ``a lot shorter than a year.'' The North Koreans appeared interested and there were many questions between the sides, Hill said. Hill declined to release details of U.S. proposals to North Korea, but a news report Wednesday said the Americans had outlined a process in which the North would first freeze its nuclear program, followed by inspections and eventual dismantlement. Washington would be willing to give the North a written security guarantee - a pledge that it would not seek to topple the regime by force - as soon as the North allows the return of international nuclear inspectors, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, citing ``diplomatic sources'' at the talks. ``We cannot be just optimistic about the situation since this round of talks opened after many difficulties,'' South Korea's main envoy Chun Yung-woo said, referring to the long break, the North's nuclear test and U.N. sanctions. North Korea's state media kept up its tough rhetoric against Washington, saying U.S.-South Korean military preparations showed ``the United States is trying to pull a dirty business against the (North) behind the curtain of talks.'' ``This is clear proof that it is seeking to vanquish (North Korea) with a military strong arm, whetting its sword of aggression under the mask of dialogue,'' the North's Communist Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency. --- Associated Press reporters Audra Ang, Bo-mi Lim and Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 20 Guardian Unlimited: Envoy Urges Details in Korean Nuke Talks From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday December 20, 2006 11:46 AM AP Photo TOK223 By BO-MI LIM Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - The top U.S. envoy urged delegates at the North Korean nuclear talks Wednesday to start hashing out details of a disarmament deal, warning the latest round negotiations could end with no real progress. China's foreign minister echoed the called, urging all sides to live up to promises made in a September 2005 agreement for North Korea to disarm in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees. The six-nation talks started Monday after Pyongyang ended a 13-month boycott during which it tested its first nuclear bomb. ``The urgent thing is to make some plans to enact the joint statement and to realize all the commitments every party made,'' Li Zhaoxing said, according to a ministry statement. ``We should make concerted efforts to overcome all differences in order for the talks to move forward and reach practical results.'' Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said delegates should start working on a draft agreement if they hope to make any progress. ``If we are going to get to the end of the week and have something tangible, I think we probably need to be working at something on paper in the very near future,'' he told reporters shortly before Wednesday's meeting started. ``At this point I don't want to say I am pessimistic or optimistic,'' he said. ``I just don't know where we are going to end up.'' After the meeting, South Korean negotiator Chun Yung-woo said talks would run through Friday but cautioned there was no guarantee of a breakthrough. ``We had initially targeted to end the talks tomorrow, but since serious discussions are continuing ... we have agreed to continue the talks,'' he told reporters. ``We cannot predict that we will be able to produce a document of breakthrough agreements after two days.'' A South Korean news report said U.S. officials had outlined a process in which North Korea would first freeze its nuclear program, then allow inspections and eventually disarm. As soon as North Korea allows the return of nuclear inspectors, Washington would be willing to provide a written pledge not to seek to topple the communist regime by force, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources at the talks. Hill has declined to release details of any U.S. proposals. Chun said only that the sides have discussed details of previously made proposals. In separate talks, U.S. and North Korean financial experts met for five hours over Washington's campaign to isolate the regime from the international banking system. The U.S. blacklisted a Macau bank where the North held accounts, accusing it of complicity in Pyongyang's alleged money laundering and counterfeiting of $100 bills. North Korea cited the measure in boycotting the nuclear talks. Daniel Glaser, U.S. deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, said a resolution of the issue would require a ``long-term process.'' At the start of talks Monday, the North reiterated a slew of long-held demands, including an end to the U.S. financial restrictions as a precondition for disarming. The demands from a regime emboldened by its confirmed nuclear status have raised doubts about an imminent resolution to the standoff. North Korea's state media kept up its tough rhetoric Wednesday. ``This is clear proof that (the U.S.) is seeking to vanquish (North Korea) with a military strong arm, whetting its sword of aggression under the mask of dialogue,'' the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper wrote in a commentary, according to the country's official Korean Central News Agency. --- Associated Press reporters Audra Ang, Burt Herman and Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 21 Korea Times: Seoul to Build Low-Altitude Missile Defense System Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation Low-Altitude Missile Defense System Planned By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea plans to build a missile defense system to shoot down short- and medium-range missiles that could be launched by North Korea if a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday. The scheme is part of the JCS' military power development strategies to counter growing missile and nuclear threats posed by the North, a JCS spokesman said. ``The buildup of a South Korean missile defense system has been stipulated in a guidebook on military strategies and development plans directed by the JCS chairman as part of efforts to enhance military readiness, following Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests,'' Col. Ha Doo-chul told reporters. Ha stressed that the envisaged system is mainly aimed at intercepting intermediate-range Rodong and short-range Scud missiles fired by the Stalinist regime, dismissing suspicions that it is a step to join the U.S.-Japan Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system to which some civic groups are vehemently opposed. To build the missile shield, the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD) will develop sophisticated early warning radar with technological support from other nations by 2012 and purchase land-based command-and-control equipment from the United States, the spokesman said. The radar is capable of detecting enemy missiles hundreds of kilometers away. Under the system, once a hostile missile has been detected by the early warning radar, the Air Force would launch Patriot missile interceptors to take it down within minutes based on directions from the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) system. As part of a $1 billion project, codenamed ``SAM-X,'' South Korea is to buy 48 advanced Patriot missiles and launch modules from Germany beginning in 2008 to replace its aging ground-to-air Nike Hercules missiles. ``Since North Korea conducted a nuclear test in October, our military is redoubling efforts to secure advanced weapons systems regarding surveillance, precision strike, guided missiles and nuclear defense,'' a senior official at the Defense Ministry said, asking not to be named. ``The establishment of the missile system is a key part of the new war readiness strategy.'' Currently, the U.S. 7th Air Force based in Osan, Kyonggi Province, is in charge of air defense on the peninsula. The Kim Jong-il government is believed to have more than 800 Scud and Rodong missiles that can hit South Korea and Japan. The Scuds, or Russian R-11 series missiles, have a range of 130-700 kilometers, while the latest version of the Rodong missile, a further development of the Scud, has an estimated 1,500 to 2,000-kilometer range. It also has the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile that can reach Alaska. On July 5, Pyongyang test-launched seven missiles, including the multi-stage Taepodong-2, into the East Sea, defying the international community. The test firing of the Taepodong-2 was later confirmed to have failed for technical reasons, but the other six missiles were successful. gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr12-20-2006 17:48 ***************************************************************** 22 Korea Times: Tedious Tug-of-War Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion Washington, Pyongyang Should Show Maximum Flexibility As expected, the six-party talks to put an end to North Korea¡¯s nuclear programs are making painfully slow progress. The United States is pressing the communist regime to come up with actions, not words, to affirm its declared principle of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang, on the other hand, is holding fast to its precondition that Washington first ease financial sanctions. The key seems to lie in whether they can meet each other half way through reasonable give and take. The four-stage proposal Washington made Wednesday seems to be the most promising sign thus far for the successful settlement of the Beijing conference. It is the first detailed U.S. incentives in response to Pyongyang¡¯s four corresponding steps ¤Ñ freeze, report, verify and dismantle. However, the North has yet to give any clear reply to this offer, merely reiterating its calls to de-freeze its account at a Macau bank. Pyongyang¡¯s position leaves much to be desired, however. North Korea might have thought its negotiating status has been sharply enhanced due to its detonation of a nuclear device in early October. That¡¯s a mistaken idea, as no other participants are ready to recognize it as an established nuclear power, like, for instance, Pakistan, much less Russia. The United States also seems to have its own misconception that Pyongyang has finally yielded to Washington-led international pressure when it decided to return to the conference table. It is only partially true. Our attention is drawn to their bilateral talks to discuss financial sanctions on the sideline of the nuclear disarmament talks. We think Washington needs to consider unfreezing the withdrawal of $24 million at the Banco Delta Asia, as long as it has no clear evidence of Pyongyang¡¯s counterfeiting and money laundering. North Korea for its part should give a full explanation to reduce suspicions until the U.S. clearly understands what has been going on. Both sides should take maximum care not to allow this to be a stumbling block to progress in the nuclear talks. The foremost task of the talks is to decide the concrete steps each country should take to implement the joint declaration of September 2005. This should include at least a freeze on and inspection of North Korea¡¯s nuclear facilities and corresponding measures by other participants. Beijing¡¯s proposal for launching several working groups to deal with major subcategories and Seoul¡¯s offer of a packaged approach in major stages are both helpful for formulating an overall frame of action. Success of the three-year-old process depends on how much progress the parties can make in the ongoing session. This in turn relies on how realistic Washington and Pyongyang can get. As mediators, Seoul and Beijing should carefully mix sticks and carrots, through correct and fair judgment of the two archrivals¡¯ sincerity. 12-20-2006 18:06 ***************************************************************** 23 UPI: Beijing progress, N. Korea talks extended United Press International - NewsTrack - 12/20/2006 8:56:00 AM -0500 BEIJING, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Apparent progress Wednesday in six-nation nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea in Beijing has led to an extension through Friday. The talks that began Monday among North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States almost came to a halt Monday night when North Korea made demands the other countries rejected outright, China's Xinhua news agency said. But Wednesday, South Korea's chief envoy, Chun Yung-woo, said "serious and substantial consultations" had been achieved in five hours of bilateral U.S.-North Korean talks, the Yonhap news agency reported. "Unlike the first plenary session, substantial negotiations are going on," Chun told reporters. The talks appeared set to wind down Thursday, but Chun said they would continue through Friday, and possibly into the weekend. The main stumbling block has been Pyongyang's insistence U.S. financial sanctions be dropped before negotiations on its nuclear weapons program continue, Japan's Kyodo news agency said. Sources told Yonhap the six countries have prepared incentives such as large-scale food, energy and other economic aid if North Korea opens its nuclear facilities for U.N. inspection. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 Guardian Unlimited: Brown's first job must be to break free of US shackles [UP] Comment A new prime minister has the opportunity to do what Blair never could - leave Iraq and face the consequences Max Hastings Thursday December 21, 2006 The Guardian Gordon Brown's first hundred days as prime minister have already prompted more speculation than Santa Claus. We assume that there will be showy initiatives and sweeteners for all, not least because he will be tempted to call an early election, in 2008. Today, no issue can be exercising Brown's imagination more than Iraq. The most dramatic achievement the nation's new leader could offer the electorate ahead of a poll is to get us out. Brown knows nothing of foreign policy, and always seems uncomfortable with it. Yet how he must crave a coup. Most people believe that horrible things will happen after American and British troops leave Iraq, whenever that may be. This is why Bush and Blair are alike desperate that there should be no explicit admission of defeat on their watch. Yet there is little evidence to make us suppose that the prospects can be improved by military means. The only plausible path to a less bloody outcome lies through diplomacy. If the Washington administration was willing to talk to the Iranians and Syrians, and work actively towards improving the Israel-Palestine situation, there might be a slender chance of averting a regional war. George Bush, however, remains unwilling to parley with people he regards as implacable foes of western interests, and Blair cannot make him. This means that the presence of American and British troops in Iraq is merely deferring a horror story that will eventually be acted out, whether we leave in five days or five years. It is absurd to suppose that extra time spent on training local troops and police will do anything save make them more effective fighters for their respective factions when the showdown comes. Some American or British forces will have to linger in the north, to quarantine the Kurds from the mess, and to safeguard against Turkey becoming drawn into the struggle. The rest of the country, however, will have to resolve its own destiny. It is no good talking about Britain and the US "staying to finish the job". We are incapable of mending Iraq's fuses, never mind rewiring the country. It would be logical for Brown to announce in the first weeks of his premiership that British troops will quit southern Iraq by, at the latest, the end of 2007. He could draw a line under the Bush-Blair partnership, and dramatically highlight the fact that he will do things differently. Most of the British people would applaud. Brown would signal the abandonment of Britain's cringe-making role as poodle to the most disastrous US president of modern times. Yet it seems extremely doubtful that Brown will do any such thing. From the moment he enters No 10, foreign policy advisers will crowd around him, wringing their hands and shaking their heads about the risks to the Atlantic relationship should Britain act precipitately. If this country had declined to participate in the original 2003 invasion, there would have been some sulks in Washington. Sooner or later, however - especially when it became plain that the occupation was a failure - most Americans would have forgiven the British, just as they had to forgive us for refusing troops for Vietnam. Today, however, when we stand shoulder to shoulder beside them in the manure heap, it is a different story. If the British army abandons its Iraq one day before the US troops quit, many Americans will be angry. This is what makes our predicament so humiliating. We are joined hip and thigh to the US administration, despite the fact that even Blair thinks its Middle East policies woefully mistaken. Bush's presidency still has two years to run. It is unlikely that he will preside over any dramatic foreign policy U-turn while he remains in the White House. His inner circle continues to urge him to remain true to himself and his convictions, whatever polls and doomsayers demand. They want to ensure that his successor, and not George W, is the president who goes down in history as having "lost" Iraq. Although most smart military people oppose any attempt to destroy Iran's nuclear programme by air attack, the bombing option remains prominent on the Oval Office agenda. This is the problem about dealing with a US leader who takes his cues from God. Bush will remain capable of almost anything until the day he leaves office, which is likely to be after the next British election. Here is Brown's dilemma. How big a row is he willing to have in order to extricate Britain from Iraq ahead of the Americans? Given his admiration and affection for the US, together with his instinctive caution, he will find it hard to be bold. In the first weeks of his premiership, he will be invited to the White House, and embraced by Bush with embarrassing warmth. Few people, even those who hold the highest offices in their own countries, visit an American president without awe. It will be a hard thing for Brown to fly home from Washington bent upon quarrelling with the most powerful man on earth. Yet there is a strong case for urging that he should do it - not stridently pick a fight with Washington, but commit himself to British withdrawal from Iraq. Sooner or later, and almost certainly while Brown is prime minister, the troops will have to leave and the bloody consequences faced. Britain needs to realign its Middle East policy, not least on Israel. There must be no repetition of Blair's shameful support for Israeli action in Lebanon. The British commitment to Israel's right to exist will remain unchanged, but there is no case for acquiescence in continuing Israeli expansionism on the West Bank, nor for tolerance of Israeli military excesses. Whoever sits in the White House, America's support for Israeli government policies is likely to persist. But there is no requirement for Britain to continue to be identified with the great Palestinian injustice. Brown has an opportunity to take a new direction - not as an opponent of the US, but as leader of a nation which must be free to pursue its own beliefs. Our needs and policies often march beside those of the US, which is welcome. But never again should we join a Washington administration in supporting actions directly inimical to the interests of the British people. Today, thanks to Blair's identification with Bush, we find ourselves facing enemies whom we do not wish to fight, and associated with causes in which we have no belief. Brown will be offered a chance to break the shackles. He should take this, however much it hurts. Email comments for publication to: politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 25 BBC: US to discuss UK Trident lifespan Last Updated: Wednesday, 20 December 2006 [HMS Vanguard] Trident is a submarine-based nuclear weapons system President Bush has agreed to discuss a further extension of the lifespan of the UK's Trident nuclear missiles. The US already plans to extend the life of the missiles, which both the US and the UK use, into the 2040s. But in an exchange of letters Mr Bush has agreed to Tony Blair's request to discuss "a further life extension for UK purposes" of the Trident missiles. This would mean that they could last to the 2050s, matching the lifetime of the UK's proposed £20bn submarine fleet. When he launched the white paper on The Future of the UK's Nuclear Deterrent earlier this month, Mr Blair told MPs the D5 Trident missiles could have their lives extended by the US to 2042. Invitation The UK, he said, would then seek to collaborate with the US to ensure that its next generation of missiles would be usable in the UK's proposed fleet of nuclear submarines which are expected to be in service from 2024 to the 2050s. But in a letter to the White House to confirm these agreements, Mr Blair also says there would be merit in the UK having the opportunity "to discuss a further life extension - for UK purposes - of the D5 missile, to match the potential out of service date of our new submarines". TRIDENT MISSILE SYSTEM [Trident] Missil length: 44ft (13m) Weight: 130,000lb (58,500kg) Diameter: 74 inches (1.9m) Range: More than 4,600 miles (7,400km) Power plant: Three stage solid propellant rocket Cost: £16.8m ($29.1m) per missile Source: Federation of American Scientists How Trident works In his reply President Bush invites the UK to "participate at an early stage in any program to replace the D5 missiles or to discuss a further life extension - for your purposes - of the D5 missile to match the potential out-of-service date of your new submarines". President Bush confirms that "any successor to the D5 system should be compatible, or capable of being made compatible with, the launch system for the D5 missile, which you will be installing into your new submarines". The white paper outlined plans to spend up to £20bn on a new generation of submarines for Trident missiles. The current Vanguard nuclear submarines need to be replaced by 2024 if the UK is to continue with a submarine based Trident nuclear system, and Mr Blair says in his letter to Mr Bush that "we have decided that we will replace" them. The white paper set out the decision Mr Blair had taken on Trident, with a three month consultation period now taking place before MPs vote on the plan in February or March. But Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Willie Rennie said the letters showed Mr Blair had already made the decision. "This is typical of his attitude to Parliament," he said. "One legacy the prime minister does not want to leave behind is a decision on this country's future nuclear deterrent for the next 30 years that was made without a full and proper parliamentary debate and vote." A number of Labour MPs oppose the government's plan, but the Tories say it would be "crazy" not to have UK nuclear weapons. The Lib Dems want a decision on the submarines put back to 2014. Critics believe the money would be better spent elsewhere and that Trident belongs in the Cold War era, not at a time of threats to the UK such as international terrorism. ***************************************************************** 26 NRC: NRC Cites FENOC for Violation at Beaver Valley Nuclear Plant News Release - Region I - 2006-06 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I No. I-06-064 December 19, 2006 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited the company that operates the Beaver Valley nuclear power plant for a violation of agency requirements that occurred in 2005. The violation is related to the preparation of a work package that was to be used for the replacement of the Beaver Valley Unit 1 reactor vessel head earlier this year. The enforcement action the details of which were determined during the NRCs Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) process requires FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC) to take several actions to prevent recurrence. As noted in a letter to FENOC on July 31, 2006, an investigation conducted by the agencys Office of Investigations (OI) confirmed a finding identified by FENOC and reported to the NRC in 2005 that a former contract mechanical engineer at the Shippingport (Beaver County), Pa., plant had failed to complete required work for an Engineering Change Package (ECP). Specifically, OI confirmed that the engineer did not attach all of the necessary evaluations for the reactor vessel head replacement but signed a document on June 1, 2005, indicating the ECP was complete. OI determined the engineers actions were deliberate. FENOC responded to the letter by requesting the use of the ADR process. ADR, in this context, refers to a process in which a neutral mediator with no decision-making authority assists the NRC and license-holders in reaching an agreement resolving any differences regarding an enforcement action. Toward that end, an ADR mediation session was held between FENOC and the NRC at the agencys Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa., on Sept. 28, 2006. As a result of that session, a settlement agreement was reached. The terms have now been confirmed by the NRC via a Confirmatory Order issued to FENOC. Under the agreement, the NRC and FENOC agree that the contract mechanical engineer deliberately failed to adhere to a procedural requirement; that the violation most closely qualifies as a Severity Level IV the least significant of four severity levels used by the NRC based on its technical merits; and that the violation should be classified as a Severity Level III given its deliberate nature. In addition, the NRC acknowledges that within two weeks of the occurrence, FENOC identified the ECP was not complete. This happened very early in the design change process, approximately 8 months prior to the start of the outage in which the head was replaced. The companys design process included additional reviews before official acceptance of the work. Also, a new ECP was completed after the problem was discovered, and the new ECP was deemed satisfactory. Therefore, there was no actual safety impact of the violation. Further, FENOC implemented corrective actions to prevent a recurrence. These steps included conducting a thorough review of previous work by the contractor; retraining Beaver Valley engineering personnel in 2005; and taking disciplinary action against responsible individuals. As a result of the ADR mediation session, FENOC has agreed to take additional steps, including: submittal of an operating experience report to the rest of the industry, conveying lessons learned; using a case-study format, providing lessons-learned training to engineers at all of its nuclear facilities; and modifying procedures to further clarify the intent of the responsible engineers signature. The agreement requires FENOC to complete the additional steps by June 30, 2007. The company must respond and provide the NRC with a final report within 30 days of completion of those actions. A copy of the enforcement action will be posted on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/enforcement/actions /. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NRC news releases are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site. Last revised Wednesday, December 20, 2006 ***************************************************************** 27 Guardian Unlimited: British Energy repair delays threaten sale Mark Milner, industrial editor Wednesday December 20, 2006 Guardian Unlimited [Hinkley Point nuclear power station near Bristol] British Energy warned today that repairs at two of its nuclear plants will take until the end of March to complete, matching its own worst case assessment outlined last month. News of the delays to the full return to service at Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B saw British Energy shares fall more than 5% to 542p today, further denting the government's prospects for an early sale of part of its 65% holding. British Energy, which can provide up to 20% of Britain's electricity requirements through its eight nuclear and one coal-fired power stations, said it had largely completed the work on cracked boiler pipes at the two plants but had discovered "a small number of defects" in another boiler component, the tail pipes. Repairs have been carried out to the R4 reactor at Hinkley Point but have not yet been completed on the R4 unit at Hunterston. British Energy said it is planning further inspections to the R3 units at both plants. "The company is now working towards a return to service of all four units by the end of March 2007." Last month British Energy said it was looking at a return to service this month, by the end of January or by the end of March. "This is a company which has repeatedly disappointed. It's disappointing again and could disappoint in the future," according to SG analyst, Mark Hives. Analysts at Deutsche Bank were less concerned. "While today's announcement is disappointing, the company appears to be making progress in resolving the issues and the valuation impact from today's announcement is limited," they said in a research note. British Energy, which needed state support in 2002 when it was hit by a slump in power prices and the rising cost of nuclear clean-up operations, warned in November that the problems at Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B would have a significant impact on its financial results. Not only will it lose revenues from the electricity it is unable to supply, but may be forced to buy higher priced electricity in the market to meet its contracts. There was better news from the BE Hartlepool plant, shut for repairs to the water cooling system in October. British Energy said one of the plant's two units was back in service and the second would be brought on line next week. Last month BE said it expected the government to take account of operational issues when deciding on share sales, a message underlined by today's news. · Email business.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 28 NRC: NRC Finalizes White Finding for Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant over Shipment of Radioactively Contaminated Equipment News Release - Region I - 2006-06 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I No. I-06-065 December 20, 2006 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will receive additional oversight from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission based on a violation involving a shipment of radioactively contaminated equipment. The violation, which has now been finalized, stems from a shipment that went from Vermont Yankee to a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant last summer. The NRC uses a color-coded system to categorize inspection findings. They range from green, for a very low safety issue, to red, for a highly significant safety issue. In this case, the Vermont Yankee violation has been determined to be white, which signifies the issue is of low to moderate safety significance. The finding is based on an inspection the NRC carried out from Sept. 6 through Oct. 6, 2006. On Aug. 31, 2006, Vermont Yankee, which is located in Vernon, Vt., and operated by Entergy, prepared and shipped a package containing a radioactively contaminated control rod crusher/shearer to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant, in Salem Township, Pa. U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements apply to such shipments. DOT requires that this type of shipment be prepared so the radiation level on any external surface of the package not exceed 200 millirems per hour. However, upon arrival at the Susquehanna plant on Sept. 1, 2006, the radiation level at a location on the bottom exterior surface of the package was measured at about 820 millirems per hour. It was later determined that during transit, discrete highly radioactive particles shifted to the bottom of the package, resulting in the radiation levels in excess of the DOT limits. It is important to note that no actual public radiation exposure occurred during the shipment from Vermont to Pennsylvania because the affected package surface was inaccessible to members of the public. The actual condition did not involve an exposure or hazard to the public, but it had the potential to adversely affect personnel who would normally receive the package or respond to an incident involving the package since responders could have a reasonable expectation that the package conformed with DOT radiation limits, NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins wrote to Entergy in a letter regarding the enforcement action. In addition, it was fortuitous that the surface of the package was inaccessible to the public during transport. The company did not request a regulatory conference on this matter but is required to respond to the violation within 30 days. The NRC will conduct a supplemental inspection at a future date to evaluate the companys corrective actions. NRC news releases are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site. Last revised Wednesday, December 20, 2006 ***************************************************************** 29 Vermont Guardian: Vermont Yankee gets good news, bad news December 20, 2006 VERNON Just one day after federal officials gave Vermont Yankee the signal that they found no problems in their preliminary review of the enviornmental impact of plans to extend the operating license for 20 years, the plant was hit with a safety violation for a shipment this summer that exceeded acceptable radiation exposure limits. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced the safety ruling on Wednesday. On Tuesday, NRC staffers said they "had not identified any issues that would preclude it from recommending in favor of the application with regard to potential environmental impacts," said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC's Region 1 office. The NRC will hold two public meetings on Jan. 31 at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro to receive public comments on its draft report on the so-called Final Enviornmental Impact Statement. A final report is scheduled to be released in August 2007. Meanwhile, Wednesday's violation was deteremined to be "white," and stems from a shipment that went from Vermont Yankee to a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant last summer. The NRC uses a color-coded system to categorize inspection findings. They range from green, for a very low safety issue, to red, for a highly significant safety issue. In this case, the Vermont Yankee violation has been determined to be white, which signifies the issue is of low to moderate safety significance. The finding is based on an inspection the NRC carried out from Sept. 6 through Oct. 6. On Aug. 31, Vermont Yankee, owned by Entergy, prepared and shipped a package containing a radioactively contaminated control rod crusher/shearer to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant, in Salem Township, PA. U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements apply to such shipments. DOT requires that this type of shipment be prepared so the radiation level on any external surface of the package not exceed 200 millirems per hour. However, upon arrival at the Susquehanna plant on Sept. 1, the radiation level at a location on the bottom exterior surface of the package was measured at about 820 millirems per hour. As a result of this, Vermont Yankee will receive additional oversight from the NRC until we are satisfied the issue has been resolved. We will at some point schedule a supplemental inspection to assess steps Entergy has taken to address the issue, said Sheehan. It was later determined that during transit, discrete highly radioactive particles shifted to the bottom of the package, resulting in the radiation levels in excess of the DOT limits, the NRC said in a statement. NRC officials claim no public radiation exposure occurred during the shipment from Vermont to Pennsylvania because the affected package surface was inaccessible to members of the public. The actual condition did not involve an exposure or hazard to the public, but it had the potential to adversely affect personnel who would normally receive the package or respond to an incident involving the package since responders could have a reasonable expectation that the package conformed with DOT radiation limits, NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins wrote to Entergy in a letter regarding the enforcement action. In addition, it was fortuitous that the surface of the package was inaccessible to the public during transport. Entergy officials did not request a hearing into the finding, and has 30 days to comply with the ruling. Posted December 20, 2006 Winooski, VT 05404 Southern Vermont: 139 Main Street, Suite 702, Brattleboro, VT 05301 Contact: 802.861.4880 (ph) | 802.861.6388 (fax) | 877.231.5382 (toll-free) ©2005 Vermont Guardian | Visit us: www.vermontguardian.com This document can be located online: www.vermontguardian.com/dailies/122006/122006.shtml ***************************************************************** 30 MiamiHerald.com: FPL Group to buy Wisconsin nuclear plant 12/20/2006 | BY JIM POLSON AND RENEE LAWRENCE Bloomberg News FPL Group, owner of Florida's biggest utility, agreed to buy the Point Beach nuclear power plant in Wisconsin from Wisconsin Energy Corp. for about $998 million to almost double its generating capacity in the Midwest. Wisconsin Energy will buy all of the output from the plant, located about 30 miles southeast of Green Bay, through at least 2030 under a long-term agreement, Juno Beach-based FPL said today in a statement. The plant's two reactors can generate 1,033 megawatts, enough to supply about 826,000 average U.S. homes. In a separate statement, Wisconsin Energy said the per-kilowatt cost of buying power from FPL will be lower than if its Wisconsin Electric Power Co. utility continued to own and operate the plant, its only nuclear station. FPL has been expanding its wholesale power generation business outside Florida, buying nuclear plants and building wind-powered generators. FPL has 660 megawatts of generating capacity from wind turbines in Wisconsin and five other Midwest states and it bought a majority stake in Iowa's Duane Arnold nuclear plant last year. In October, the company abandoned a $12.4 billion takeover bid for Constellation Energy Group, a Baltimore-based utility owner and power generator, because of regulatory delays in Maryland. The purchase price for Point Beach includes $783 million for the plant and $215 million for fuel, inventory and other items, FPL said. Wisconsin Energy will transfer to FPL $360 million of nuclear decommissioning funds, money already paid out by customers, when the transaction closes. Wisconsin Energy Chief Executive Officer Gale E. Klappa announced in February that the company would consider selling Point Beach after fueling costs hurt profit in the fourth quarter of 2005. ***************************************************************** 31 Decatur Daily: Time to update nuclear power emergency plans www.decaturdaily.com WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2006 EDITORIAL The anticipated restarting of Unit 1 at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant understandably has Limestone County Emergency Management Agency looking at the need to update procedures. The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to fire up the unit in May. It has been down since 1985. But Limestone EMA Director Spencer Black suggested that 26-year-old emergency response plans need updating. He cited the lack of emergency power to operate shelters in Limestone County and elsewhere. The nuclear energy industry has changed greatly during the time Unit 1 has been idle. Even the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does business differently when it comes to rebuilding and constructing nuclear plants. So, if some radiological emergency plans are a quarter century old, it behooves the government to update them. Gone are the days when "unusual occurrences" at Browns Ferry were routine, but accidents still occur. We need to be properly prepared. Copyright 1999 THE DECATUR DAILY. All rights reserved. THE DECATUR DAILY 201 First Ave. S.E. P.O. Box 2213 Decatur, AL 35609 (256) 353-4612 webmaster@decaturdaily.com ***************************************************************** 32 CTV.ca: Cdn. nuclear group accused of false advertising Updated Wed. Dec. 20 2006 8:50 AM ET Canadian Press OTTAWA -- Environmental, health and church groups have filed a false-advertising complaint against the Canadian Nuclear Association over its ad campaign touting nuclear energy as clean. The complaint, submitted to the Competition Bureau on Monday, comes amid renewed debate about the nuclear option as an alternative to fossil fuels that are mainly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. It's false to claim nuclear energy is clean because radioactive waste remains dangerous for thousands of years, said Mark Winfield of the Pembina Institute, one of the groups in the coalition. "We've got generation of just enormous amounts of waste at each stage of the process, and these are extraordinarily difficult-to-deal-with wastes," he said in an interview. The complaint is based on $1.7 million in advertising by the Canadian Nuclear Association in 2005, mostly on television, touting nuclear energy as "clean, reliable and affordable." The ad campaign continued this year as well. The Canadian Nuclear Association did not respond to a request Monday for comment. A Pembina report found that the Canadian nuclear sector produces: + An estimated 575,000 tonnes of acidic tailings each year from the mining of uranium fuel. These contain a range of acids, long-lived radioactive material, heavy metals and other contaminants. + Approximately 85,000 waste-fuel bundles annually. As of 2003, 1.7 million radioactive bundles were in storage at reactor sites. It's estimated these wastes will have to be secured for approximately a million years. Canada still lacks a plan for permanent disposal of nuclear waste although the problem has been under study for many years. Health Canada and Environment Canada have determined that the discharge from nuclear plants meets the criteria to be categorized as toxic under the Canada Environmental Protection Act. The Pembina study also found that nuclear plants in Canada have a history of cost overruns. In Ontario, for example, nuclear construction projects have run 40 per cent to 270 per cent over their projected capital costs. "Our concern is that the nuclear industry's advertising budget and approach distorts objective decisions which have to be made right now about the future of (Canada's) electricity system," said Julia Langer of the Canadian arm of the World Wildlife Federation. A spokeswoman for the Competition Bureau, which is responsible for charges of false-advertising, said the bureau does not comment on individual complaints, and not all complaints are investigated. The bureau receives 40,000 complaints a year, said Maureen McGrath. © 2006 CTV Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 33 Independent: More outages at British Energy's nuclear plants By James Moore Published: 21 December 2006 Just as the market was beginning to think that British Energy was finally turning the corner, the company has come out and dashed everyone's hopes again after admitting yesterday that it faced a "worst case scenario" at two of its ageing nuclear power stations that will wipe £100m from its profits. The troubled nuclear operator was forced to admit that units at its ageing Hunterston B and Hinkley Point power stations would not be back online until March of next year. That date represents the costliest of three possible scenarios that had been outlined by the company in November when it emerged that cracks were appearing in boiler pipes at the stations. British Energy also revealed that further inspections had revealed a small number of defects on boiler tailpipes. While repairs on these have been completed at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, they are yet to take place at Hunterston in Scotland. A planned power outage there will be brought forward, although that will boost financial results in the next financial year. The upshot of all this is that the company will lose nine terrawatt hours of electricity output in the current financial year, compared to six in the two more optimistic scenarios. The shares responded by tumbling 35.5p to 538.25p as investors' hopes were brought back down to earth with a painful bump. They had been snapping up the shares on rumours that the company was set to surprise on the upside. But Lueder Schumacher, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort, summed the situation up when he said: "Realities keep catching up with the company," adding: "By and large the market has medium to long term output assumptions which are just too high. The last output statement just showed how many operations problems that they are facing. The realities of the AGR (reactor) technology just keep hitting them. There is not very much you can do about it. They are just there." The two plants will still only be operating at 70 per cent efficiency when the work is completed. The company will then have to decide whether the most cost-effective option is to undertake further work to get them up to 100 per cent, or whether simply to continue running them at the lower level. High energy prices bailed British Energy out when it reported last month, as production fell well short of targets. British Energy also ousted its chief nuclear officer, Roy Anderson, who is set to receive a payoff of close to £1m as part of a management shake up. One source said yesterday: "Those plants are just ageing and they haven't been adequately maintained over the last 20 years. Not enough money has been spent, and a catch-up operation is now going on." The company is hoping that it will be able to capitalise on the Government's controversial decision to "go nuclear" to help cut Britain's spiralling carbon emission levels, but the benefits are likely to be a long time in coming, and it is likely to take at least 10 years before any new plants are brought online. Most of British Energy's existing plants will have reached the end of their useful lives by 2023. © 2006 Independent News and Media Limited ***************************************************************** 34 Brattleboro Reformer: Yankee relicensing moves forward By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff Wednesday, December 20 BRATTLEBORO -- Federal regulators announced Tuesday that Entergy Nuclear's request for a license renewal at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant had passed its environmental review, but not quite with flying colors. More specifically, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a report stating the "adverse environmental impacts of license renewal (are) not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy planning decision makers would be unreasonable." NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Tuesday the federal government didn't find any factors that would keep the NRC from making a recommendation in favor the renewal. But Sheehan said it's still up to Vermont officials to take the NRC's recommendation and make their own decision. "We always make it clear in these environmental impact studies that the ultimate decision is up to state officials," he said. Just over a year ago, Entergy approached the state with a request to extend its license 20 years past its current 2012 expiration date. The NRC's release of its 650-page draft EIS is one in a series of steps required for the state to determine whether it should grant Entergy's request. The next step is two public meetings, scheduled for Jan. 31 at the Latchis Theatre. NRC officials will take public comment into account as they put together the final EIS, which Sheehan said may be released by August next year. "Whenever we do this, we hold meetings and give people a chance to comment on the potential impact of the renewal," said Sheehan, who warned casual readers of the scope of the document. "There's a great deal of detail in the report," he said, adding "for anybody who is interested in what would happen during the license extension period, it would be well worth their time to actually read the document." Sheehan said the NRC looks at up to 92 areas during an EIS of a nuclear power plant, all of them related to environmental impacts, plant safety and "the way they have managed key aging systems and structures in the plant." At least one local activist wasn't surprised by the NRC's conclusion. "Our Legislature is going to have to close it, because the NRC won't," said Ed Anthes, of Nuclear Free Vermont. "The people of Windham County have already decided that 2012 is long enough and Vermont Yankee should be closed at the end of its license. It's up to our legislators to make that same determination." Anthes said the report's conclusion is questionable at best because it fails to address the issue of storing nuclear waste on the banks of the Connecticut River. "They don't address the biggest problem with nuclear power, the waste," said Anthes. "They have a theory it will be taken care of somehow." The Legislature intends to lead its own review of Entergy's relicensing application, but whether or not state lawmakers will get to have a meaningful role in the discussion is unclear. NRC officials have said federal preemption dictates that its authority would overrule any decision made by legislators. Only the state's Public Service Board, a quasi-judicial and governor-appointed panel, has a guaranteed voice in the relicensing review. The board approved the original construction of Vermont Yankee, as well as the sale, the power uprate and, most recently, a plan to build dry cask storage outside the plant. It will host a similar review and issue a ruling on license renewal. The NRC's draft EIS described the impact of license renewal as a "small significance." "Except for collective offsite radiological impacts from the fuel cycle and high-level waste and spent fuel, which were not assigned a single significance level," the report states. A small impact is defined as "environmental effects (that) are not detectable or are so minor that they will neither destabilize nor noticeably alter any important attribute of the resource." Larry Smith, spokesman for Vermont Yankee, said he was pleased the plant's license renewal was moving forward. "It's another step in the process for us," he said, adding Entergy's "licensing folks" were already reviewing the massive document. Sheehan said the report can be accessed online at nrc.gov by entering access code ML063390344 into its electronic document system. It will also be available at four libraries in the tri-state regions -- in Brattleboro, Vernon, Hinsdale, N.H., and Northfield, Mass. He said that people and organizations who requested a copy of the DEIS should also be receiving their copies soon. Though the NRC is not involved with the regulating of the temperature of discharge water into the river, it wrote "the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation may impose 37 further restrictions or require modifications to the cooling system to reduce the impacts on 38 aquatic resources from entrainment and impingement." Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.comor (802) 254-2311, ext. 271. » (802) 254-2311 » 62 Black Mountain Road » Brattleboro, VT 05301-9242 ***************************************************************** 35 Xinhua: U.S., Russia to enhance nuclear energy co-op www.chinaview.cn 2006-12-20 09:05:54 WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Russia has agreed to enhance global and bilateral nuclear energy cooperation, said a statement released by the Energy Department on Tuesday. "U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman and Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) Director Sergey V. Kiriyenko last week submitted to U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin a joint work plan that will provide a framework for further bilateral cooperation in the development of nuclear energy technology and deployment," said the statement. The plan was completed and signed by both sides as part of an agreement that stemmed from the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, in July of this year, the statement added. "The safe expansion of emissions-free nuclear energy provides a wealth of possibilities to developed and developing countries alike," Bodman said in the statement. "This agreement between our two nations will help further nuclear technology, but also the path to more securely expand the use of nuclear energy around the world," he added. The plan details principal areas of cooperation as well as short-term cooperative focus areas, underscoring that both countries see a strong need and role for the expansion of safe, emissions-free nuclear power. In addition, it discusses the two nations' common vision for the structure of the global nuclear energy system of the future, and for discouraging the spread of sensitive nuclear fuel cycle technologies through comprehensive nuclear fuel services, according to the statement. Editor: Liu Dan ***************************************************************** 36 BJJ: PSC wants to make nuclear plant building cheaper - The Business Journal of Jacksonville: The Business Journal of Jacksonville - 2:18 PM EST Wednesday On the heels of Progress Energy's plans to build a nuclear power plant in Levy County, members of the Florida Public Service Commission are proposing rules that would lessen the "sticker shock" of building more nuclear power plants in the future. The proposed rules would permit investor-owned electric utilities to request partial recovery of the planning and construction costs of a nuclear power plant prior to commercial operation of the plant, according to a release. In doing that, the commission said it hopes to reduce risks and encourage financial investments in nuclear plants to allow costs to be recovered as they are incurred. "The commission's proposal will protect ratepayers while promoting investment in Florida's energy future," said commission chair Lisa Polak Edgar, in a release. "By encouraging the development of a viable alternative energy source, we are further diversifying the state's fuel supply and promoting a balanced mix of fuel sources for years to come." St. Petersburg-based Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN) is looking at 3,000 acres of land in Central Florida as the site of a new nuclear power plant. bizjournals| BizSpace.com| Jobs| bizwomen.com © 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors. ***************************************************************** 37 Millstone Whistleblower To Drop Complaint With State - Thursday, December 21, 2006 , POSTED: 7:53 am EST December 20, 2006UPDATED: 7:57 am EST December 20, 2006 WATERFORD, Conn. -- A worker at the Millstone nuclear power plant who lost his job after complaining about safety gaps is withdrawing his complaint, and that's not sitting well with Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Blumenthal is considering challenging Sham Mehta's decision to withdraw the complaint he has pending before the state Department of Public Utility Control. Mehta had alleged retaliation from Millstone owner Dominion for reporting security concerns. He has filed paperwork withdrawing his complaint. The New London Day reported that a settlement last week on a similar complaint before the U.S. Department of Labor calls for withdrawal of the DPUC complaint. Last year, Mehta filed complaints that Dominion had retaliated against him by eliminating his job after he reported that the intruder alert system at Millstone was routinely turned off because of false alarms. Blumenthal, who had intervened in the DPUC case on Mehta's behalf, says the case has ramifications for other potential whistleblowers at the nuclear power complex. He's considering his options to keep the case alive. Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 NRC: Omaha Public Power District; Notice of Withdrawal of Application FR Doc E6-21673 [Federal Register: December 20, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 244)] [Notices] [Page 76376-76377] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr20de06-131] for Amendment to Facility Operating License The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC/the Commission) has granted the request of Omaha Public Power District (OPPD, the licensee) to withdraw its August 11, 2005, application for proposed amendment to Facility Operating License No. DPR-40 for the Fort Calhoun Station, Unit No. 1, located in Washington County, Nebraska. The proposed amendment would have revised the Technical Specifications (TSs) pertaining to the volume of trisodium phosphate (TSP) needed in containment. Specifically, this proposed change would have revised TS Figure 2-3, ``TSP Volume Required for RCS [Reactor Coolant System] Critical Boron Concentration (ARO [All Rods Out], HZP [Hot Zero Power], No Xenon),'' and related technical information used for calculating minimum volumes of TSP required for maintaining sump pH equal to or greater than 7. The amendment was necessary to account for the increase in the RCS volume as result of the planned replacement of the steam generators and pressurizer. The amendment is no longer needed since the NRC staff has approved the OPPD amendment dated August 21, 2006, to remove the TSP and replace it with sodium tetraborate. The Commission had previously issued a Notice of Consideration of Issuance of Amendment published in the Federal Register on September 27, 2005 (70 FR 56502). However, by letter dated November 30, 2006, the licensee withdrew the proposed change. For further details with respect to this action, see the application for amendment dated August 11, 2005, as supplemented by letter dated November 3, 2005, and the licensee's letter dated November 30, 2006, which withdrew the application for license amendment. Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible electronically from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management Systems (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading- [[Page 76377]] rm.html. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day of December 2006. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Alan B. Wang, Project Manager, Plant Licensing Branch IV, Division of Operating Reactor Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E6-21673 Filed 12-19-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 39 Capital Times: Point Beach nuclear plant sold Staff/news services MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin Energy Corp. said today that one of its subsidiaries will sell the Point Beach nuclear power plant to Florida-based FPL Energy in a deal worth about $1 billion. Wisconsin Electric Power Co.'s definitive agreement with the company, a subsidiary of FPL Group Inc., includes $783 million for the plant, and $215 million for its nuclear fuel and other inventories. Under the agreement, FPL Energy will sell the entire output of the plant, in Two Rivers, to Wisconsin Electric Power, which does business as We Energies based in Milwaukee. The transaction, which is expected to close next August, needs approval from the state Public Service Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. Point Beach, a 1,033-megawatt facility, put its first unit into commercial service in 1970 and it is licensed to operate until 2030, while a second unit was brought into service in 1973 and is licensed to operate until 2033. As part of the transaction, FPL Energy said it will keep the plant's 660 employees working for 18 months. FPL Energy, based in Juno Beach, Fla., will also be responsible for the ultimate decommissioning of the facility and the cost of that decommissioning. We Energies said that, after closing the transaction, it will receive approximately $300 million from a trust fund that had been established to pay for the decommissioning of the plant. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin will determine how the net proceeds from the sale, and the decommissioning, will benefit customers. Wisconsin Energy announced in February its intent to conduct a formal review of options for the future ownership and operation of Point Beach. Several options to preserve the benefits of Point Beach were considered, including continued operation of the plant by Nuclear Management Co., operation by a third-party operator other than NMC, a return to in-house operation of the plant by We Energies, or the partial or complete sale of the plant with a long-term energy agreement. "Our goal was to identify the best outcome for our customers and stockholders and to protect a valuable energy resource for Wisconsin," said Gale E. Klappa, chairman, president and CEO of Wisconsin Energy. "I believe we have achieved that goal." FPL Energy and its parent company, FPL Group, operate nuclear plants in Florida, Iowa and New England. FPL Energy is considered the largest wind energy producer in the country. It owns and operates 47 wind energy facilities, including the Montfort Wind Energy Center in Montfort. Wisconsin's other nuclear power plant, Kewaunee, was sold last year to Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va. The Kewaunee deal was opposed by several customer groups in Wisconsin who were concerned about the loss of state oversight and that profits from the plant's sale would move out of state. Earlier this year, Madison-based Alliant Energy's Iowa-Minnesota utility unit Interstate Power and Light sold its 70 percent stake in the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in Iowa to FPL Group for $373 million. FPL now sells power from the plant to IPL. Published: December 20, 2006 comments and suggestions. Copyright 2006 The Capital Times ***************************************************************** 40 Hemscott: British Energy falls on reactor delay Kam Patel, 20/12/06 12:57 Shares in nuclear power generator British Energy fell sharply after it disappointed mightily by delaying the restart of four injured reactors by 2-3 months. Not that you can tell from today's statement that there has been a hold up as British Energy talks merrily of having the two reactors at Hinkley and two at Hunterston stations working at 70% capacity at the end of March. Perhaps the directors have conveniently forgotten that only a month ago it reckoned on having one reactor at each power station running at 70% capacity by the end of December and the other two at 70% by the end of January. In an update today, the group says it has largely completed inspection and repair of boiler tube cracks at all four units. The work, however, has uncovered 'a small number of defects' in other boiler tube components, called tail pipes, and these too require repair. Tail pipes consist of a length of boiler tube at the top of the boiler. It assures shareholders that the issues affecting the tail pipes are specific to Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B. Repair of these tail pipes has been completed at Hinkley Point B R4 and but has yet to be completed at Hunterston B R4. There will be further inspections at both R3 units so that the company can be satisfied as to the integrity of the boilers for the return to service of all four units at 70% of full capacity. Because of the additional work and lack of manpower, the company is now working towards a return to service of all four units by the end of March. Even then the restart is 'subject to approval of the associated safety cases and assuming no further unexpected problems are identified by the inspections'. Despite the two-month delay, the group is sticking to the guidance issued with its interim results on the impact on nuclear output in the financial year 2006/07. In that half-year statement it indicated that unplanned losses will be around 4TWh, assuming units return to service in December 2006; 6TWh assuming units return to service in December 2006/January 2007; or 9TWh assuming units return to service at the end of the current financial year. It is the 9TWh guidance that looks most pertinent now as the group's current financial year, rather conveniently, runs to 31 March. The group also says that it is looking to bring forward the work intended for the planned outage of both units at Hunterston B in May 2007. This should have a positive impact in the financial year 2007/08. Elsewhere, it notes that Hartlepool station is in the process of being returned to service after repairs to cast iron pipe work related to the cooling water system. Today's statement is the latest in the line of disappointing output and reactor updates from the group over its current year. In its first quarter statement in August, it warned it would miss its output target for 2006/7 after mistakes in communications between staff and equipment problems -, including boiler leaks and faults with cooling systems on its nuclear reactors - caused a 48% rise in unexpected output losses in the first three months. Then in September it warned of further delays to a return to service at Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B as it need more time to complete repairs on cracked boilers. The problems forced the group in October to lower output at the stations. The drip-drip of bad news from the group, especially on the reactor front, resulted in its shares diving nearly 50% from the August warning through to late October. Since late October, the shares have made up for quite a bit of lost ground on growing confidence that it would soon put its problems behind. In the last month the shares have risen nearly 20% to yesterday's close of 573.75p. Over the year they were still up 7% to yesterday's close. Today's disappointing update, however, led to British Energy Group Plc shares slumping 6% or 35p to 538.75p by midday, valuing the group at just over £3bn. Financial Information for British Energy Group PLC Copyright 2006 Hemscott Group Limited. Hemscott is the UK registered trademark of Hemscott Group Limited. ***************************************************************** 41 Hemscott: FPL Energy buys Point Beach nuclear plant from Wisconsin Energy for 1 bln usd MILWAUKEE (AFX) - Wisconsin Energy Corp said its Wisconsin Electric Power Co subsidiary has agreed to sell its Point Beach Nuclear Plant to FPL Energy, a subsidiary of FPL Group Inc, for 1 bln usd. Following the transaction, FPL Energy has agreed sell the entire output of Point Beach to Wisconsin Electric Power, it added. The transaction is expected to close in August 2007. Point Beach is a 1,033-megawatt facility in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Its first unit went into commercial service in 1970 and is licensed to operate until 2030, while the second was brought on line in 1973 and is licensed to operate until 2033. newsdesk@afxnews.com har Copyright AFX News Limited 2006. All rights reserved. The Copyright 2006 Hemscott Group Limited. ***************************************************************** 42 Hemscott: EU rules Spain's new conditions on E.ON, Endesa merger illegal BRUSSELS (AFX) - The European Commission has ruled that the new conditions the Spanish government attached to German utility E.ON AG's proposed acquisition of utility peer Endesa SA are illegal. The ruling confirms a preliminary assessment made by the EU executive on Nov 29. The obligations, imposed by the Spanish minister of industry, tourism and trade, deemed unlawful by the EU are that Endesa maintains its brand for a five year period and the companies owning electricity assets outside mainland Spain are kept within the Endesa group for a period of five years. In addition, also unlawful are the conditions that Endesa's power plants using domestic coal continue to use such an energy source as foreseen in the national mining plans and that E.ON does not adopt strategic decisions, regarding Endesa and affecting security of supply, contrary to the Spanish legal order. The commission said the conditions violate EU merger rules by breaching measures on the free movement of capital and of establishment. It added that some of the conditions breach measures on the free movement of goods. It added that, for now, it has not adopted a negative decision on the conditions requiring that any acquisition of stakes in Endesa's share capital should be subject to rules of the Spanish legal system and that the group fulfils all existing obligations concerning the management of nuclear power plants. The commission also said it has taken note that the Spanish minister has not modified, but 'merely clarified', the condition imposed by CNE with regard to gas supply requirements. Spain has until Jan 19 to withdraw the conditions or face legal action, it said. The commission in November received notification of amendments made by the Spanish government to the original conditions it attached to the transaction. In July, Spain's energy regulator Comision Nacional de Energia (CNE) attached 19 conditions to the planned 26.9 bln eur acquisition. At the end of September, the commission said Spain must remove the conditions, after finding the majority of them illegal. It also called for a change in Spanish law to amend the powers of the CNE. In mid-October, the commission launched legal action. The commission said today that its assessment of the conditions imposed by CNE remains valid in so far as the amendments made by the Spain have 'not modified or has only slightly modified' the CNE's earlier conditions. It added that it is still evaluating whether the Spanish authorities complied with its September decision. At the end of April, EU competition regulators approved the acquisition. It said the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition. simon.zekaria@afxnews.com sz/cml COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2006. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 43 DutchNews.nl: Nuclear power statement a 'typing error' Wednesday 20 December 2006 Nuclear power is still one of the most controversial issues when it comes to the future of Holland’s energy policy and this was reflected in an ‘unexpected’ comment by the chairman of the government appointed Energy Transition Taskforce last week, reports today’s Financieele Dagblad. Originally during the Taskforce’s report recommended a focus on ‘clean fossil fuels (coal-fired plants with underground CO2 storage) and nuclear energy’. According to the FD, the Taskforce’s chairman and Shell Nederland director Rein Willems has now changed this to ‘clean fossil fuel and/or nuclear energy’. The paper quotes Syble Schone, who represented the environmental lobby on the Taskforce, as saying that the original version of the report had included a ‘typing error’ which had led to a silly misunderstanding. ‘But we are now agreed that the discussion on nuclear energy should be left to others,’ said Schone. A recent energy report by the influential socio economic council SER also ignored the issue of nuclear power. ‘Otherwise we would not have been able to reach a unanimous recommendation,’ the paper quotes an insider as saying. The council promised to come back to the issue in a separate recommendation in the future. DutchNews.nl ***************************************************************** 44 New London Day: Blumenthal considers challenging Millstone whistleblower's complaint withdrawal AG May Keep Case Alive theday.com By Patricia Daddona Day Staff Writer\, Millstone\/business trends E-mail: p.daddona@theday.com Phone No.: (860) 701 - 4324 Published on 12/20/2006 in Business » Business Local Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is considering challenging a whistleblower's decision to withdraw the complaint he has pending before the state Department of Public Utility Control. Sham Mehta of East Lyme, the whistleblower who alleged retaliation by Millstone Power Station owner Dominion, filed paperwork withdrawing his complaint on Monday. A settlement last week on a similar complaint before the U.S. Department of Labor calls for withdrawal of the DPUC complaint, said his lawyer, Hank Murray of Hartford. The settlement is confidential. As part of our settlement with (Millstone owner) Dominion, we agreed to withdraw the complaint before the DPUC, said Murray Tuesday. We have a 'global' settlement with Dominion which deals with the issues raised before the Department of Labor and the Department of Public Utility Control. Last year, Mehta alleged in complaints before three different agencies that Dominion had retaliated against him by eliminating his job after he reported a security concern  that the intruder alert system at Millstone was routinely turned off because of false alarms. The labor department ruled against Mehta this past summer, but he appealed and by Dec. 11 had settled with the company. The labor's Office of Administrative Law Judges approved the move. Mr. Mehta is glad that the matter's over, said Murray. But Blumenthal, who had intervened in the DPUC case on Mehta's behalf, said the case has ramifications for other potential whistleblowers at the nuclear power complex and whether they are working in an environment that allows employees to bring up concerns without fear of retaliation. We continue to believe that the DPUC has a responsibility to proceed with this case regardless of the settlement, and also to reveal publicly the settlement's terms so as to assure that Dominion has taken adequate steps to protect whistleblowers, Blumenthal said. Blumenthal is reviewing the options available to him under state law and may file the necessary paperwork soon to keep the case open, he said. At the DPUC, common practice typically involves reviewing and accepting a request for withdrawal, said DPUC spokeswoman Beryl Lyons. The DPUC's lead commissioner is reviewing the request and will make that decision, she said. The DPUC had been set to conduct a full investigative hearing on Mehta's case after having ordered him restored to a position at Millstone comparable to the one he lost. The third complaint, lodged before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, resulted in a finding last week that the company did not discriminate against Mehta. Dominion Spokesman Pete Hyde declined to comment on the withdrawal of the case before the DPUC. Privacy Policy | Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200 | New London, CT | © 1998-2006 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 45 PRN: Dr. Richard Meserve Joins PG Corp. and Pacific Gas and Electric Company Boards of Directors PR Newswire SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PG Corporation (NYSE: PCG) today announced the election of Dr. Richard A. Meserve to its Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of utility unit Pacific Gas and Electric Company, effective immediately. With more than 30 years of experience in the legal, scientific and energy communities, Meserve, former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), is president of the Carnegie Institution, a Washington-based nonprofit organization dedicated to research of biology, earth sciences and astronomy, and is Senior Of Counsel to the law firm of Covington & Burling. "Dick's distinguished background and experience, and his knowledge of our industry, make him an excellent addition to our Boards," said PG Corporation Chairman, CEO and President Peter A. Darbee. "We look forward to his contributions." As Chairman of the NRC, Meserve was the principal government official with responsibility for regulating nuclear power plants and the use of nuclear materials. Appointed by President Clinton in 1999, Meserve remained in that position for the first two years of the Bush administration and played a key role in post-9/11 policy formulation and implementation. Meserve is currently chairman of the International Nuclear Safety Group of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering. He is a member of the National Commission on Energy Policy; the National Academies Science, Technology and Law Panel; the National Academies Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy; and the MIT Department of Nuclear Engineering Visiting Committee. Meserve also serves on the boards of directors of Universities Research Association, Inc. and the Foundation for Nuclear Studies. Previously, Meserve served as legal counsel to President Carter's science and technology advisor, and was a law clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court and to Judge Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Meserve received his Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University, his J.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Law Review, and his B.A. (magna cum laude) from Tufts University. SOURCE PG Corporation Related links: + http://www.pgecorp.com Copyright © 1996- PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 46 AFP: With nuclear deal sealed, US asks India to adopt bold reforms - Wed Dec 20, 8:24 AM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States have asked India to adopt sweeping reforms, including lifting ownership caps and reducing high tariff rates, to draw foreign investments and fuel rapid growth in the world's second most populous nation. The call came as the two countries braced for a new era of investment and trade ties capped Monday by US President George W. Bush" /> President George W. Bush's signing into law of a landmark bill for Washington to transfer nuclear fuel and technology to India. Although India in recent years has embraced reforms which have helped fuel the country's current rapid economic growth, "significant challenges" exist, US Under Secretary of Commerce Franklin Lavin said, suggesting key reforms. He called for the opening of India's retail sector to foreign multi-brand retailers, saying it would allow Indian consumers access to the "best products at the lowest prices" and improve supply chain efficiencies in the world's second most populous nation. "Despite recent news stories about cracks in the dam on retail access, the fact is that barriers remain," he said, apparently referring to American retailer Wal-Mart's penetration of the Indian retail market through a local partnership. Lavin, in charge of the US Commerce Department" /> Commerce Department's international trade portfolio, also suggested that India eliminate foreign equity caps in the financial services, banking and insurance sectors. "Right now, investment caps are very low," he said, citing particularly the 26 percent equity limit in the insurance sector which prohibited foreign firms from participating in the lucrative pensions sector. Lavin, who just returned after leading the largest US trade mission to India, said that India should realise that long term funding provided by insurance companies could help pay for much-needed infrastructure development. He also urged India to bring down its "high" tariffs and formulate laws that protect patents and copyrights, and sought joint ventures for open access to foreign broadcasting and cable TV. As India entered its fourth year of booming economic growth, Lavin asked whether the government would continue with long term reforms. "It will be very easy for anybody in leadership position looking at eight, nine, 10 percent growth numbers to say, 'we've broken the code, we have done it, its not a bad bit of work," he said. "Will these reforms continue or will India pull back? I think it's somewhat an open question what the long term prospects for reforms are. It's a question that can be answered by the Indian people and government." Comparing the Asian giant with tiny but business friendly Singapore, Lavin said India had immense potential to draw investments if it pursued reforms. Overall, as of 2005, India received 45 billion dollars in foreign direct investment with eight billion dollars from the United States compared with Singapore's 186 billion dollars in foreign direct investment with 48 billion dollars from the United States, he said. Lavin then compared India's average tariff on industrial goods of 12.5 percent to four percent of the United States, saying "India's tariffs are still high." Some 258 American executives from 200 companies participated in the one week trade mission to six Indian cities. They included 14 US civilian nuclear companies eyeing 100 billion dollars worth of opportunities that could arise from the bilateral civilian nuclear deal. Under the deal, which is still being finalised, the United States will transfer civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India for the first time since New Delhi tested a nuclear device in 1974. The deal was first agreed between Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2005 in a strategic partnership between the world's two largest democracies that also aimed at boosting military ties and investments and trade. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 47 Recordnet.com: Anti-terror rules for trains in works Wednesday December 20, 2006 - Regulations aimed at tank cars with hazmat loads By Alex Breitler Record Staff Writer December 20, 2006 6:00 AM That tank car sitting on the tracks for days could be loaded with harmless corn syrup - or potentially deadly chlorine. Proposed federal rules to be published today are meant to secure chemical railroad tankers that could become tools in terrorists' hands. Tank cars rolling down the tracks behind your home or sitting unprotected in a rail yard might carry two of the most-dangerous hazardous materials: chlorine, used to purify public water supplies, and ammonia, used in fertilizer. Officials either won't or can't say how much of these toxins might be on the rails any given day. "We really don't know what's traveling through the county" every minute, said Ron Baldwin, San Joaquin County's emergency services director. For similar reasons, the shipment of hazardous materials via railroad has drawn public scrutiny across the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as well as the more-recent bombings of passenger trains in England, Spain and India. And in the future, the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear repository in Nevada could mean nuclear waste being shipped through dozens of states via truck and train. A number of cities are considering ordinances that would force railroads to reroute trains around their communities. "There is no security in the American railroad system, and there never will be. You can't put fences around 142,000 miles of track," said Fred Millar, a Virginia-based hazardous-materials expert who works as a consultant for the conservation group Friends of the Earth. The group supports rerouting. Stockton doesn't qualify as a high-threat urban area, according to the federal government, but the new regulations could have some effect here: » Homeland security officials will be allowed to inspect railroads and rail yards, examining tank cars for signs of tampering. » Railroads must compile annual reports on hazardous-materials shipments. » Attendants must be present when tank cars are transferred. Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe officials declined to talk about the implications of these rules for San Joaquin County, instead referring questions to the Washington-based Association of American Railroads. About 1.8 million carloads of hazardous materials are transported each year throughout the nation. Beer, paint and propane are among the materials classified as hazardous by federal regulators, said Tom White, a spokesman for the association. The more-dangerous toxins, such as chlorine and ammonia, add up to about 100,000 carloads per year, White said. Many of the tank cars people see in the city may be empty, however. "We try very hard to make sure they are not just sitting around," White said. Under federal law, railroads cannot deny shipment of these substances. While details aren't publicized, fire departments across the nation can request lists of hazardous materials moving through their communities. The Stockton Fire Department, for instance, subscribes to a database that can give real-time data about materials on passing trains. But officials can't track every shipment. "We handle more hazardous materials on the nation's railroads than people could ever imagine," said Tim Smith of Auburn, who represents the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. "It's every day. Constant." The tracks are indeed vulnerable, he said. Many rail yards lack lights and fences to keep the public out. Stockton should be concerned, Smith said, since the city is a hub for freight transport. One of the federal government's worries is a terrorist planting a bomb onto a chlorine tanker in a rural area, then detonating that device as the car passes through a large city. "It would be so simple," Smith said. Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com Stockton, Inc., All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 48 BBC: Ex-spy death inquiry team return Last Updated: Wednesday, 20 December 2006 [Alexander Litvinenko] Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital last month British detectives who went to Moscow to investigate the murder of Alexander Litvinenko have returned to the UK, Scotland Yard has said. Officers went to Russia as part of the inquiry into the death of the ex-KGB spy, thought to have been poisoned with radioactive isotope polonium-210. They reportedly interviewed two Russian men who allegedly met Mr Litvinenko in London on the day he fell ill. Agencies have started cleaning sites in London where polonium-210 was found. In a statement on Wednesday, Scotland Yard said: "The team of Metropolitan Police officers who carried out a number of inquiries in Moscow into the death of Alexander Litvinenko have now returned to London. "The team have worked closely with the prosecutor general's office in Moscow and the team have thanked the office for its co-operation. "The investigation continues and we are following all lines of inquiry." Hotel meeting A spokesman for the force said the British officers had received "satisfactory co-operation" from the Russian authorities. Mr Litvinenko, 43, died in University College Hospital, London, last month. On his deathbed he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind his poisoning. Moscow has denied any involvement. It emerged that he met two Russian men at the Millennium Hotel, London, on 1 November, the day he fell ill. The men he is thought to have met, Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi, were reportedly interviewed by the Scotland Yard team in Russia. Checks During the investigation into his death 30 sites across the capital, including aircraft, were identified as being actually or potentially contaminated with polonium-210. The majority have since been declared safe for public use. It was announced on Wednesday that agencies led by Westminster City Council have begun the task of cleaning up the remaining locations. The council has said it will arrange for independent checks to verify the work has been completed. Westminster City Council's chief executive, Peter Rogers, said: "Every step in this process has been taken with public safety paramount in our concerns. "By combining due speed and minimal risk we hope to resolve this issue as quickly, and as safely, as possible." ***************************************************************** 49 Morris Daily Herald: Pipe replaced after tritium leaked holding water Greater Grundy County Area Email Us at: news@morrisdailyherald.com 12/20/2006 1:19:00 PM By Jo Ann Hustis Herald Reporter Dresden Generating Station's underground water pipe replacement project is working well, believes spokesman Bob Osgood. "We're drawing samples of water from the pipe and analyzing them every week," he said Monday. "We haven't found anything adverse." About 250 feet of the underground piping system was recently replaced after tests determined this as the probable source of a tritium leak identified earlier in the year. The underground line holds water that would be sent from a storage tank to cool the reactor in event of an emergency. Tritium is a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen that emits a very low level of radiation, and is found in more-concentrated levels in water used in nuclear generating stations. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has gone on record stating public health and safety has not been jeopardized by the releases. The leak was confined to shallow groundwater in a 50-foot area near the center of the plant site, inside the protected security area, and was stopped shortly after it was discovered. Osgood said tritium concentrations from the leak peaked at 1,069,400 picocuries per liter in one monitoring well on Feb. 15, then dropped to 47,600 picocuries per liter five days later. The federal standard is set at a maximum of 20,000 picocuries per liter for drinking water. The California standard is lower, at 400 picocuries per liter. Osgood said the tritium concentrations in the one monitoring well quickly declined after the leak was stopped, and did not present a safety hazard to the public. Tests indicated no tritium from the leak had come close to the edge of Dresden's property. After the incident was discovered, the pipe was isolated at the tank until the repairs were completed. Dresden then conducted a pressure test in which water was pumped through the new section and moved through the pressurized line. "To make sure nothing was coming out," said Osgood. "The test was fine, and showed no leakage. The pipe is holding water, and there are no leaks." Osgood said a quarterly surveillance will be conducted on the line to make sure the line is functioning correctly. "Which doesn't necessarily tell us if we have a leak in the pipe, though," he said. "We have several wells as part of our environmental monitoring program, and we'll sample those wells as well." Water samples will be drawn and analyzed on a weekly basis. The sampling schedule could be changed in the future if tests results continue to be negative to radioactive substances, Osgood noted. Station Vice President Danny Bost said successfully replacing the pipe was an important project for Dresden Station and its owner, Exelon Nuclear. He said the replacement was a major project involving excavation, shoring of underground structures, and working with specially trained industrial craftsmen. The new pipe was wrapped in a protective coating and other monitoring capability was added, then the excavation was refilled. "We are committed to being good stewards of the environment," Bost said in a prepared news release. "Successfully replacing this pipe was an important project for Dresden and Exelon Nuclear." The utility completed an environmental monitoring program in September of the 10 sites in its nuclear fleet, assessing all systems that handle tritium, and taking measures to reduce risk of inadvertent releases of tritium to the environment. The assessment showed no active tritium leaks at Dresden Station, or additional tritium above the federal standard, Exelon said in the press release. Morris Daily Herald • 1804 N. Division St. • Morris, Illinois 60450 (815) 942-3221 • (800) 215-9778 Software © 1998-2006 1up! ***************************************************************** 50 InTheNews.co.uk: Scientists reject Gulf War syndrome cause Thursday, 21 Dec 2006 00:01 Gulf War syndrome affects those who fought in the 1991 conflict Poisoning from organophosphates is not the elusive cause of Gulf War syndrome, a new study has said. Scientists from the University of Bristol and University of Southampton made the claim after establishing that a genetic variation was responsible for symptoms associated with the syndrome. Publishing their research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the scientists state their belief that the symptoms suffered by Gulf War syndrome patients, including depression, irritability, variable sleep patterns and concentration difficulties, are not caused by organophosphates. They tested a group of females aged between 60 and 79 for susceptibility to organophosphates but found that the symptoms were associated with a specific gene type rather than with the organophosphates themselves. "Although our findings cannot determine the mechanism, they do suggest that the association of [the gene type] with symptoms of depression are not restricted to sheep dippers and Gulf War veterans," the report concluded. Most of the victims of Gulf War syndrome are found among US military troops who participated in the 1991 military conflict against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, although many British soldiers serving in the same theatre have also experienced the syndrome. No definite single cause has been established for the group of unexplained symptoms. Many believe depleted uranium, chemical weapons, an anthrax vaccine and infectious diseases to be responsible, together or separately, for the health complaints common to the syndrome's sufferers.[End of story] © 2004-2006 Privacy ***************************************************************** 51 Times Union: Scores routed by radiation fear Albany NY No leak found after meter that uses isotopes is run over during construction and prompts evacuation By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer First published: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 ALBANY -- The Albany County Courthouse and other buildings along Columbia Street were reopened just before 5 p.m. after a state Health Department inspection cleared any fears that a radioactive leak had occurred. Workers and members of the public streamed from the Albany County Judicial Center, the state Court of Appeals, City Hall and homes and businesses in the immediate vicinity during an evacuation around 3 p.m. County sheriff's deputies and Albany police directed traffic while firefighters readied hoses at hydrants near the affected buildings. A backhoe from J.H. Maloy &Company, which is working on a renovation of the historic Eagle Street court facility, ran over a compaction meter earlier in the afternoon, said Detective James Miller, a spokesman for the Albany Department of Public Safety. The device, which works like an X-ray machine, was being used to measure the density of soil at the construction site. The box that contains radioactive isotopes was not damaged and did not release any radiation. "There was no danger at any time," Miller said. "No health risk at all. Everything was done as a precaution." By 4:15 p.m., officials were awaiting the go-ahead from health officials to declare the area safe. While Albany County Sheriff James Campbell originally said investigators said radioactive readings around the piece of equipment were low, state health officials later determined there had been no leak at all. The decision to evacuate the buildings caused confusion at first. Scores of office workers -- after standing in clusters outside St. Mary's Catholic Church in the cold -- were told they could not go to vehicles parked inside the affected area. Some sat out the cold in their vehicles, even though they were blocked by fire apparatus. Workmen were working on the north side of the courthouse complex when the mishap occurred. Morgan Bolton can be reached at 434-2403 or by e-mail at mbolton@timesunion.com. All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2006, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y. ***************************************************************** 52 Caller.com: Hovering copter to seek radiation System to find gamma rays undergoing tests By Fanny S. Chirinos Caller-Times December 20, 2006 A Department of Public Safety helicopter will hover over the city today as a new mobile detection system is tested on its ability to detect radiation. Although the system will look for gamma rays, it is only a test to see how the machine works and not a mission to find any suspicious activity, said Capt. George Pearson, operations officer with Texas Military Forces. Gamma rays are high-energy rays that come from radioactive sources, such as nuclear explosions. The two-hour scheduled flight, manned by members of the governor's Texas Military Forces, will test a system purchased by the state to detect natural and man-made disasters that omit gamma rays, Pearson said. "It detects radiation in low levels and tracks it with a mapping program," Pearson said. "We can use this system in a land vehicle, at sea or in the air. We've tested it on land, but this is the first time it will be in the air over Texas. We want to see what the differences are from land and air." Pearson said Corpus Christi was chosen because of the Texas Military Forces' good ties with the city and the Port of Corpus Christi, from where the helicopter will take off and land. The state purchased the system for the Texas National Guard from a private company. Pearson would not release the name of the company nor the cost of the system. "This (system) could be used to detect radioactive spills or releases," said Adam Musil, a spokesman for the organization. "I don't believe they have anything similar to this in the state." Contact Fanny S. Chirinos at 886-3759 or HYPERLINK mailto:chirinosf@caller.com chirinosf@caller.com Howardnewspaper. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 53 RGJ: City sends complaint letter to DOE [Reno Gazette-Journal] Reno, Nevada, USA 775-788-6200 City sends complaint letter to DOE Staff Report Posted: 12/19/2006 03:26 pm FERNLEY–Although 77,000 tons of nuclear waste may be traveling through Fernley, Silver Springs and Wabuska on its way to Yucca Mountain, the U.S. Department of Energy didn’t include any Lyon County community that is directly impacted by the proposed transportation in public scoping sessions. The recommended Mina Corridor route would bring nuclear waste material through the Nevada communities of on its way to Yucca Mountain, near Las Vegas. The Fernley City Council voted at its Dec. 6 meeting to send a letter to federal officials on concerns levied by Councilman Monte Martin at the meeting in a written draft outline. The Council voted to direct City Manager Gary Bacock and Councilman Martin to craft a letter to federal officials with the City’s concerns. Previously, the Lyon County Commissioners also directed County Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Page to also send a letter to DOE officials of the County being excluded from public scoping meetings. The City of Fernley’s letter read, “Lyon County seems totally left out of the official scoping but heavily affected if the route becomes a reality: key information about communities actually affected and potential impacts are obscure and these communities are not brought into the process, Hazen, Fernley, Silver Springs (including Lahontan State Recreation Area, which is an important regional recreation area with up to 40,000 people on a holiday).” It continued, “The existing Wabuska track of the proposed Mina project goes to Silver Springs-Lake Lahontan to Hazen where it then joins to the main Union Pacific track which runs east to Fallon and west to Fernley and then Reno. Northern EIS Scoping Hearing were limited to Reno and Fallon. Fernley is no even on the map. “There were no EIS scoping meetings held in Lyon County.” The City’s letter also indicated the map in the EIS does not show the complete rail access route or the main rail line. Further, “Maps and handout literature don’t show where radioactive material is linking to the proposed routes. “There probably is nuclear material coming from both west and north (California and Idaho/Washington.).” Martin and Bacock’s letter also pointed out that previous EIS data involving Fernley is two years old and “very inaccurate and must be updated.” Part of the information indicated that Fernley’s population is at about 20,000 people and quickly growing. Further the population is spreading with proposed subdivisions and industrial parks near Hazen. The letter indicated, “There are many large subdivisions right along the ten mile railroad track frontage Fernley has with Highway 50A and the railroad tracks which is just north of Highway 50A.” Also included in the letter is Fernley’s main business park is near the railroad tracks. The letter also read, “We think that an EIS should be conducted from Wabuska to Hazen. a. There are obvious potential problems such as will the track be build to handle the weight of the train and cars carrying the waste? b. What about places where the track intersects important state roads. Is either the road or the RR going to be made into an under or over pass? (At least four paces that there are ‘at grade’ crossings: Hazen/Highway 50A; Silver Springs/Highway 50, Fort Churchill State Park/Highway 95A and Wabuska/Highway 95A. and Wasbuska/95A. C. The City is in the process of designing a fresh water treatment plant which has a common frontage with the UP east/west main track.” City officials mailed the letter last week. Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc.Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 54 reviewjournal.com: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Lawmakers join to fight project Dec. 20, 2006 Congress members launch bipartisan effort Incoming Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., right, and other members of Nevada's congressional delegation conduct a strategy session Tuesday on opposing the Yucca Mountain Project. Seated at the table counterclockwise from Heller are Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Rep Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Rep Jon Porter, R-Nev. Photo by K.M. Cannon. Nevada's congressional leaders vowed Tuesday to put a bipartisan stranglehold on funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project while continuing to raise awareness among their out-of-state colleagues about the risks of hauling deadly spent fuel across the nation. After meeting for more than an hour behind closed doors at the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse, the lawmakers led by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., announced they also intend to launch a number of new legal moves through Nevada Attorney General-elect Catherine Cortez Masto aimed at stopping the Department of Energy's attempt to license the planned repository. Reid said the strategy session coincides with a "changing landscape" that has resulted from the DOE's consideration of delivering waste by rail through Northern Nevada on the so-called Mina corridor to reach Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "There's an intensely more significant interest in Northern Nevada now," Reid said, adding that Cortez Masto and Rep.-elect Dean Heller, R-Nev., will add to the new landscape. Regardless of sentiments against the project in Nevada, Reid and Ensign said the mood among their Washington colleagues favors slashing funding on projects like Yucca Mountain that are behind schedule and over budget. Reid noted that last year $470 million was spent on the project and there's been a request for nearly $1 billion. "It goes to show you that money is not going to be as free and loose as it has been in the past," he said. "The reason for this meeting is to indicate that we're going to fight on all fronts." Reid said that Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., will write letters to all new House members. Ensign said from the Republican side "we're going to try to work with our members on our side of the aisle." "We just lost power in the House and the Senate and one of the reasons that Republicans lost power is that we were being fiscally irresponsible," Ensign said. He said the last estimate on the price tag for the project in the late 1990s was $58 billion. "We're waiting on the new estimate to come out and most of us are expecting it will be closer to $100 billion and remember that people are saying they need a second repository," Ensign said. "And from a fiscal standpoint it blows the lid off any kind of fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C., and that's a message we're going to be taking to our side of the aisle." Department of Energy spokeswoman Megan Barnett said the agency has heard similar reports before about opposition to Yucca Mountain. "We're hopeful we can work on a solution," she said, noting that energy is a critical issue facing the new Congress and 20 percent of the nation's electricity comes from nuclear energy. "The department remains committed to licensing and opening Yucca Mountain as the repository for the nation's spent nuclear fuel," Barnett said. Heller, who was elected to the seat vacated by Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons, reflected on past efforts by Nevada governors to keep nuclear waste out the state. "My job and my effort is to help carry this banner with this delegation. I think we have a new perspective. I think we have a new direction." Cortez Masto said, "Yucca Mountain has always been a priority for me on a legal perspective. It's nice to ... be a part of what's important for the state: Working with the delegation on preventing Yucca Mountain from occurring here." Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006 ***************************************************************** 55 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada lawmakers promise new fight against Yucca Mountain December 19, 2006 By ERICA WERNER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Nevada lawmakers who will represent the state come January met Tuesday for a strategy session to combat Yucca Mountain, emerging to promise more setbacks for the nuclear waste dump. With Democrats in control of Congress and Sen. Harry Reid as majority leader, the waste dump project could face crippling blows, they told reporters after meeting in Las Vegas. "The next two years may very well be the death knell to sending nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Berkley is planning to write to fellow House Democrats to enlist support against the project the Energy Department is trying to build 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Some 70,000 tons of toxic waste would be stored there. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., is planning a letter to House Republicans. Reid is aiming to cut annual appropriations, which have ranged from $450 million to $550 million in recent years. The lawmakers plan to meet with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must issue a license before the nation's nuclear waste could be stored at the dump site. They also want Nevada Attorney General-Elect Catherine Cortez Masto to review legal options to gum up the project with lawsuits. Reid said that too much money is being spent on outside lawyers and he wants state officials to reassess that. Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said they won't allow pro-Yucca legislation to reach the Senate floor. The Energy Department wants certain legislative fixes, and Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has introduced legislation in the past to make such changes Domenici will lose his chairmanship next year, but Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said recently he plans to reintroduce the bill. "We have every legislative tool at our disposal to defeat this. We will use every legislative tool, and I think they have virtually no chance" of moving pro-Yucca legislation through the Senate, Ensign said. Cortez Masto was one of the newly elected officials in the meeting. Newly elected Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., also participated, and Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons sent a representative. Originally targeted to open in 1998, Yucca Mountain has been repeatedly set back by lawsuits, money shortfalls and scientific controversies. The Energy Department's best-case opening date is now 2017. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 56 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Transporting toxic cargo Today: December 20, 2006 at 7:21:26 PST Bush administration's rail security proposals ignore the nation's most hazardous cargo Federal Transportation and Homeland Security department officials have proposed tightening safeguards for the nation's rail system, saying that a chemical spill from a derailment or one caused by a terrorist attack could result in an urban catastrophe. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has proposed that railroads should use routes that are the farthest from residences and cities for shipping chlorine, anhydrous ammonia and other poisonous gases and hazardous loads. Peters' plan was announced Friday, shortly after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outlined his recommendations for improving railway security, the Associated Press reports. Chertoff's plan would require that railroads curtail the amount of time that cars carrying hazardous loads stand still. He also said that freight and passenger cars should undergo regular inspections and be kept in secure areas when not in use. However, these plans apply mostly to urban areas that have concentrated populations and are perceived to be at higher risk of terrorist threats and catastrophic outcomes. Hazardous materials would be rerouted through remote areas or smaller communities - places that, we can assume, would have fewer people and resources for reacting to attacks or spills. "Radioactive substances" are included in the government's definitions of hazardous materials. But specific references to trains carrying high-level nuclear waste were not made - as usual. The proposed rules do say, however, that transport of hazardous materials is "unavoidable." Certainly fuel for motor vehicles or chlorine to purify drinking water is essential. But federal officials bent on opening a repository for nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain also would have us believe that transport of nuclear waste is necessary. Proposed train routes for this toxic cargo would cross remote areas - which are not included under these new proposed security upgrades. Democrats, who are to take control when Congress reconvenes in January, told AP that they would introduce legislation that includes calling for increasing the number of hazardous materials inspectors and routing trains carrying dangerous materials away from areas in which a spill could do serious damage. Still, discussion of the most hazardous type of cargo - high-level nuclear waste - needs its own soapbox. Nevada's congressional delegation must aggressively emphasize that, even with tighter security, there is no safe way to tote this lethally toxic substance across the country by train to Nevada. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 57 globeandmail.com: Hedge funds ignite uranium price POSTED ON 20/12/06 ENERGY Reactor fuel cost doubles in past year ANDY HOFFMAN AND JOHN PARTRIDGE The price of uranium surged to a record high this week, capping an extraordinary run for the radioactive metal, which has doubled in value over the past year on interest from hedge funds, financial firms and speculative buyers. The spot price for the material used to fuel nuclear reactors jumped 9.9 per cent from $65.50 (U.S.) a pound to $72, the biggest weekly gain yet, according to Ux Consulting Co. of Roswell, Ga., which publishes a uranium spot price each week. "One of the things you have now is that the hedge funds are involved in the market, so you have some additional demand," Ux Consulting president Jeff Combs said in an interview. Hedge funds and financial investors now account for roughly a third of the uranium spot market purchases, according to Mr. Combs and other industry experts. About 35 million pounds of uranium changes hands on the spot market each year, they said. Hedge funds and investment firms have purchased between 20 million and 25 million pounds of uranium during the past two years that is now sitting in licensed storage facilities. "It's a feeding frenzy. Any time material becomes available on the spot market, you have all these types of players willing to pay whatever it takes," said Gene Clark, CEO of industry consulting firm Trade Tech in Denver. Mr. Clark said his firm is anticipating an eventual retreat in uranium prices as "fickle" financial investors find other areas to deploy their capital. "If uranium starts to flatten out and another commodity starts to come up in some other market, they'll say 'let's take these dollars we have in uranium and throw them somewhere else,' " he said. Dustin Garrow, the president of ZB Marketing, a consultancy based in Littleton, Colo., facilitated the auction last week that led to the record price. A single buyer purchased 260,000 pounds of uranium from Mestena Uranium LLC, a privately held producer based in Corpus Christi, Tex. "I think the next deal we'll see $75 a pound," Mr. Garrow said an interview. He declined to identify the buyer, but said it was made by a "non-utility, non-uranium producer." He has conducted 11 auctions this year for Mestena, selling roughly one million pounds of uranium. Among the first financial players to begin buying actual uranium was Robert Mitchell, who heads Adit Capital in Portland, Ore., and began buying on the spot market in 2004. Despite the surging price, he sees little risk of a significant increase in uranium supply in the short term. "This is not as easy a metal to mine as many had presupposed," he said. In October, the world's largest uranium producer, Cameco Corp. of Saskatoon, said it would delay production at its Cigar Lake mine by at least a year because of flooding. The mine was supposed to begin production in 2008 and eventually supply up to 10 per cent of the world's uranium needs. "The Earth's crust is abundant with uranium and at some point that supply will get to market. My point is, it ain't going to be any time soon," Mr. Mitchell said. Slightly more than 108 million pounds of uranium were produced worldwide last year. Demand was roughly 165 million pounds, but the shortage was easily covered by existing supplies. By 2020, demand could top 220 million pounds, according to Trade Tech. Investors have flocked to uranium stocks in the belief demand will soar as more nuclear power stations are built in what has been dubbed the "nuclear renaissance." China has said it wants to build two new nuclear plants a year. Hundreds of uranium firms have sprung up in hopes of joining the handful of actual uranium producers. Some, including Paladin Resources Ltd. and sxr Uranium One Inc., are within months of production. Most juniors are years, if not decades, away from production. "Nothing in this industry happens quickly, except the uranium price going up. It takes years to build mines and nuclear facilities," Mr. Combs said. Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. globeandmail.com and The Globe and Mail are divisions of Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc., 444 Front St. W., Toronto, Canada M5V 2S9 Phillip Crawley, Publisher ***************************************************************** 58 RGJ.com: Nevada's delegation tries new Yucca tactic December 20, 2006 DMARRERO@GNS.GANNETT.COM --> Posted: 12/20/2006 Department of Energy: www.ocrwm.doe.gov WASHINGTON -- Nevada lawmakers want to meet with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission early next year to begin a dialogue regarding the agency's proposal to dump nuclear waste in Southern Nevada. It's something they have not tried to do in the past, said incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid hopes that meeting with members of the commission could help them come up with solutions for what to do with the nation's nuclear waste. The new tactic was among developments Tuesday from a meeting between Reid and other Nevada lawmakers in Las Vegas to discuss the latest Yucca Mountain plan and ways to continue fighting the proposed nuclear waste dump. Members of Nevada's congressional delegation also plan to reach out to new lawmakers who will take office in January to brief them about the issue. "We have a lot of things we are talking about," said Reid, who says he will be able to use his position in the Senate to continue to stall the project. "Everyone's concerned about Yucca Mountain." The Yucca Mountain issue has been of particular interest for residents of Reno and other Northern Nevada communities recently, after the public learned about a proposed railroad route being studied by the Energy Department that could ship nuclear waste through Northern Nevada on its way to Yucca Mountain. "There's an intense and significant interest in Northern Nevada now," Reid said. Lawmakers also plan to tailor their message against the project in different ways. U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., says the issue is about fiscal discipline, something voters feel Republicans have forgotten. "That's one of the messages we're going to take on Yucca Mountain," he said. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc.Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 59 LasVegasNOW.com: Yucca Mountain: New Game Plan to Stop the DOE Adrienne Augustus, Investigative Reporter The fight to preserve Yucca Mountain is gaining some new momentum at a meeting called by Senator Harry Reid. Congressional representatives laid out a new game plan to stop the Department of Energy from building a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. The site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been the focus of a twenty-year battle. Now, with a shift in Congress, Nevada's elected officials are pledging to work in a bipartisan effort to kill the plan. Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, (D) Nevada, said, "I have always believed there will never be one nanogram of nuclear waste stored at Yucca Mountain. But I think the next two years will be the death kill for shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain." Strategies mentioned at Tuesday's meeting are continuing to fight the proposal in court and finding alternatives to using the Yucca Mountain site to store nuclear waste. .gif"> All content © Copyright 2000 - 2006 WorldNow and KLAS. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 60 Japan Times: Nukes still not welcome - Cabinet japantimes.co.jp Thursday, Dec. 21, 2006 The government repeated Wednesday that it would not allow nuclear-armed ships to pass through its waters under any circumstances, dismissing a remark last month by defense chief Fumio Kyuma that passage would be allowed in an emergency. The government's clarification took the form of a written, Cabinet-approved reply to a question posed by Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima. "Any attempt to take nuclear weapons into our country, including the passage of a nuclear-armed U.S. military ship through our territorial waters, is subject to prior consultations" between Japan and the United States under a bilateral security treaty, the document says. "In the event prior consultations are held, the government will invariably refuse the attempt," it says. Kyuma told the House of Representatives Security Committee on Nov. 24 that the passage of a nuclear-armed U.S. warship through Japanese waters "would be unavoidable in the event of an emergency." He also said Japan would in an emergency allow a U.S. naval vessel to pass through its waters without prior notification, provided the move was reported later, although such actions are also subject to prior consultations under the Japanese-U.S. security treaty. The U.S. has a policy of not disclosing whether its warships deployed to Japan carry atomic weapons. According to Japan's three nonnuclear principles of not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory, and arrangements under the bilateral security treaty, Japan would refuse the passage of nuclear-armed ships in prior consultations. The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 61 DOE: U.S and Russia Develop Action Plan to Enhance Global and Bilateral Nuclear Energy Cooperation December 19, 2006 WASHINGTON, DC  U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman and Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) Director Sergey V. Kiriyenko last week submitted to U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin a joint work plan that will provide a framework for further bilateral cooperation in the development of nuclear energy technology and deployment. The plan was completed and signed by both parties the week of December 11, 2006, as part of an agreement that stemmed from the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, in July of this year. The safe expansion of emissions-free nuclear energy provides a wealth of possibilities to developed and developing countries alike, Secretary Bodman said. This agreement between our two nations will help further nuclear technology, but also the path to more securely expand the use of nuclear energy around the world. The Report, Joint Working Group on the Development of a Bilateral Action Plan to Enhance Global and Bilateral Nuclear Energy Cooperation, details principal areas of cooperation as well as short-term cooperative focus areas, underscoring that both countries see a strong need and role for the expansion of safe, emissions-free nuclear power. In addition, the Report discusses the two nations common vision for the structure of the global nuclear energy system of the future, and for discouraging the spread of sensitive nuclear fuel cycle technologies through comprehensive nuclear fuel services. The Report establishes measures that will promote sustainable and safe nuclear energy use and expansion, in the United States, Russian Federation, and worldwide while strengthening nuclear nonproliferation and effectively addressing waste management. Specifically, it outlines national strategies in nuclear power; identifies the common bases for U.S.-Russian cooperation in advanced reactors, exportable small and medium reactors, nuclear fuel cycle technologies, and nonproliferation and; defines a plan for cooperation. Principal areas of cooperation in nuclear science and technology outlined in the report include: 1. The development of exportable small-and-medium power reactors; 2. Use and design of fast reactors; 3. Development and demonstration of new nuclear fuels for fast reactors and processes for their fabrication; 4. Development and demonstration of advanced methods for the recycling of spent nuclear fuel and transmutation; 5. Developing methods for providing international nuclear fuel cycle services; and 6. Development of nonproliferation and safeguard concepts, methodology and technology. In early 2006, President Bush and President Putin presented - independently of each other  initiatives concerning global nuclear energy expansion aimed at pursuing sustainable development in the world and concurrently addressing nonproliferation issues in a reliable manner. Both leaders agreed that in order to safely expand nuclear energy, the world must consider issues related to nonproliferation, energy security, sustainability, international stability, and environmental security. The Working Group membership is comprised of representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy, DOEs National Nuclear Security Administration, the U.S. Department of State, representatives from leading national laboratories, and the Russian Federations Rosatom, Rostekhnadzor nuclear oversight service, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Defense. It will be co-chaired by U.S. DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon and Rosatom Deputy Director Nikolay Spasskiy. The Group will also be supplemented at the technical level by an expert team comprised of appropriate representatives of DOE and national laboratories participating in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program and representatives of Russian organizations engaged in the implementation of President Putins Fuel Cycle Initiative. The Department of Energy seeks to complete work on similar work plans as soon as possible, and as appropriate, with other key partners sharing GNEP goals. Letter 12 19 06 Final U S Russia Press Release Media contact(s): Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940 [ ] U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 62 Idaho Statesman: INL begins joint venture with Brazil 12-20-2006 statesman staff The Idaho National Laboratory is launching a joint venture between the Idaho lab and the Brazilian government to assess the country's potential for hydropower development. The $15 million project will use technology and methodologies developed by INL in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey including three-dimensional hydrology. "The present study will provide a comprehensive inventory of all the country's natural stream water energy resources by virtual analysis in the time it would take to ground survey less than a handful of major river systems," said Doug Hall, INL project manager. The data will be available online to the public, free of charge. "This will go beyond just showing symbols on a map. It provides attribute data for any feature that is displayed," Hall said. "The collection of all this data in one application will provide perspectives of Brazil that few have seen before." ***************************************************************** 63 Montrose Daily Press: DOE hopes uranium leasing study out by January Staff Report GRAND JUNCTION  A decision by the U.S. Department of Energy on whether to expand its uranium leasing program wont come until at least next month, a department official said. Tracy Plessinger, program lead for the DOEs leasing effort, said the draft environmental assessment issued by the DOE last summer is still being reviewed by department officials for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. There are a lot of components to that, Plessinger said. The department had originally hoped to conclude its review in October. The existing leasing program was initiated in 1974, and was most recently reviewed in 1995. The DOE administers 13 lease tracts that are held by the Cotter Corporation and Montrose-based Gold Eagle Mining. The DOEs preferred plan of action would expand the program to offer 25 additional leases, all located in western Montrose and San Miguel counties and the southern edge of Mesa County. Other options examined in the study include maintaining the program at its current size and shutting down the program. Plessinger said the DOE could also choose to expand its NEPA review by initiating an environmental impact statement. Copyright © 2006 Montrose Daily Press ***************************************************************** 64 Hanford News: Sixth leak-prone tank has been emptied at Hanford This story was published Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Hanford workers have finished emptying the sixth of Hanford's leak-prone underground tanks holding radioactive waste. They've been working to empty the remaining solids and sludge from 149 single-shell tanks into newer tanks to await treatment. The last of the pumpable liquids that posed the greatest threat of leaks from the old tanks was removed in 2003. The most recent tank to be emptied of sludge is Tank C-204, one of a group of four smaller tanks that date from the 1940s in the C Tank Farm, a grouping of 16 underground tanks. They were used until 1980 as part of a storage system for waste left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The four smaller tanks, each with a capacity of 55,000 gallons, are now emptied, along with two nearby 530,000 gallon tanks. "With each tank we're gaining experience and demonstrating our ability to use innovative technologies and commitment to safety to achieve our Tri-Party Agreement goals," said Roy Schepens, manager of the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection, in a statement. The Tri-Party Agreement sets legally binding deadlines for completing Hanford cleanup. Work on five of the six tanks emptied has been completed in the last 20 months. While work has speeded up since the start of work to retrieve solids in 2003, DOE still has missed the Tri-Party Agreement deadline to have all 16 C Farm tanks emptied before Oct. 1, 2006. CH2M Hill Hanford Group, the DOE contractor at the tank farms, emptied solid waste from Tank C-204 using a vacuum system inserted inside the closed, underground tank. Because the tank is suspected of leaking in the past, workers had to be careful not to add too much liquid to the tank while retrieving the 1,500 gallons of sludge left in the tank when solid removal began in July. The vacuum head inserted into the tank was equipped with high-pressure, but low-volume, water nozzles to break up the waste. The water was vacuumed up almost as quickly as it was used. "With each of the four tanks where the technology was used we have not only improved the retrieval equipment, but we have learned how to improve our operations and communications," said CH2M Hill President Mark Spears in a statement. Improvements have included less-congested access for workers around the tanks, adding a second in-tank camera to guide work, improving lighting in the tank and a refurbished hydraulic power pack to move equipment within the tank, according to CH2M Hill. Preparations now are under way to retrieve waste from a seventh tank in the C Farm, Tank C-108. CH2M Hill plans to use a technology called modified sluicing, which uses liquid to break up and mobilize the waste so it can be moved toward a pump in the center of the tank. Waste retrieved from the single-shell tanks is being stored in 28 newer double-shell tanks that have not leaked. The worst of the tank waste will be turned to a stable glass form at the vitrification plant under construction. In the meantime, some of the liquid waste in the double-shell tanks will be used for the sluicing operation in Tank C-108. "By recycling liquid waste in our sluicing operations, we are reducing the overall volume of waste that we have to store and ultimately treat and dispose," Schepens said. Work also is under way to two tanks in another farm, Tanks S-112 and S-102. Earlier this month CH2M Hill began using a new technology, the rotary viper, in Tank S-102. It's helped remove about 12,000 gallons of waste from the tank from a total of 200,000 gallons that had been so thick that it quickly plugged the pump being used to remove waste. The viper has a rotating spray system mounted on a long shaft that is inserted directly into the waste inside the tank. It injects water at 32,000 pounds per square inch pressure at a flow rate of just six to 12 gallons per minute and delivers about 300 horsepower of mixing force. The viper thins the waste by slowly spinning as it moves up and down and injects water. The other S Farm tank, Tank S-112, has 3,700 gallons of waste remaining. DOE and CH2M Hill are evaluating technologies that might work to remove the last of it. © 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 65 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Northern FR Doc E6-21722 [Federal Register: December 20, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 244)] [Notices] [Page 76306] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr20de06-60] [[Page 76306]] New Mexico AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Northern New Mexico. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. No. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register. DATES: Wednesday, January 31, 2007, 2 p.m.-8:30 p.m. ADDRESSES: Jemez Complex, Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Menice Santistevan, Northern New Mexico Citizens' Advisory Board, 1660 Old Pecos Trail, Suite B, Santa Fe, NM 87505. Phone (505) 995-0393; Fax (505) 989-1752 or e-mail: msantistevan@doeal.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and related activities. Tentative Agenda: 2 p.m. Call to Order by Deputy Designated Federal Officer (DDFO), Christina Houston. Establishment of a Quorum. Welcome and Introductions by Chair, J.D. Campbell. Approval of Agenda. Approval of Minutes of September 27, 2006, Board Meeting. Approval of Minutes of November 29, 2006, Board Meeting. 2:15 p.m. Board Business/Reports. Old Business, Chair, J.D. Campbell. Report from Chair, J.D. Campbell. Report from Department of Energy (DOE), Christina Houston. Report from Executive Director, Menice Santistevan. Other Matters, Board Members. New Business. 3 p.m. Break. 3:15 p.m. Committee Business/Reports. A. Environmental Monitoring, Surveillance and Remediation Committee--Introduction of Recommendations, Pam Henline. B. Waste Management Committee--Introduction of Recommendations, Committee Chair. C. Introduction of Other Recommendations to DOE, J.D. Campbell. D. Ad Hoc Committee on Bylaws, Presentation of Proposed Amendments for First Reading, Donald Jordan. 4:15 p.m. Reports from Liaison Members. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Rich Mayer. DOE, George Rael. Los Alamos National Security (LANS), Andy Phelps. New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), James Bearzi. 5 p.m. Dinner Break. 6 p.m. Public Comment. 6:15 p.m. Consideration and Action on Recommendations to DOE. 7 p.m. Presentation on Environmental Management at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 8 p.m. Round Robin on Board Meeting and Presentations, Board Members. 8:15 p.m. Recap of Meeting: Issuance of Press Releases, Editorials, etc., J.D. Campbell. 8:30 p.m. Adjourn, Christina Houston. This agenda is subject to change at least one day in advance of the meeting. Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public. Written statements may be filed with the Board either before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements pertaining to agenda items should contact Menice Santistevan at the address or telephone number listed above. Requests must be received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Individuals wishing to make public comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments. Minutes: Minutes will be available at the Public Reading Room located at the Board's office at 1660 Old Pecos Trail, Suite B, Santa Fe, NM. Hours of operation for the Public Reading Room are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Monday through Friday. Minutes will also be made available by writing or calling Menice Santistevan at the Board's office address or telephone number listed above. Minutes and other Board documents are on the Internet at: http://www.nnmcab.org. Issued at Washington, DC on December 14, 2006. Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. E6-21722 Filed 12-19-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6405-01-P ***************************************************************** 66 Knox News: OR facility evacuated after lab incident By News Sentinel staff December 20, 2006 OAK RIDGE - A couple of hundred workers were evacuated from a building at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Tuesday because of an "adverse chemical reaction" in a research lab. A Department of Energy spokesman said no one was injured and there were no hazardous releases to the environment. John Shewairy of DOE said the incident occurred about 3 p.m. when a worker poured nitric acid into a container that apparently contained other chemicals. The chemical reaction caused the glass container to burst, he said. The incident occurred in Building 4500 North. "I would liken it to something you might see in a high school chemistry classroom," Shewairy said. The DOE spokesman said all of the work took place under a ventilation hood, which removes the fumes from the reaction. He said there were no releases to the environment and no involvement of radioactive materials. "The building was evacuated as a precaution," Shewairy said. "It turned out to basically be a nonevent, but the system worked." After a hazardous material team evaluated the scene and cleanup operations began, evacuated workers were allowed to return to Building 4500 South to retrieve their personal belongings before leaving for the day. "The affected facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is secure, and there is no further information to report," DOE said in a statement released Tuesday evening. © 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel ***************************************************************** 67 Knox News: Munger: Unknown budget means not-so-comfy Christmas By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com December 20, 2006 At Christmastime, everyone wants to know what Santa will leave in his or her stocking. It's not much different in a government town like Oak Ridge, which depends on another white beard (Uncle Sam) to bring lots of goodies from a northern outpost called Washington, D.C. Well, the holiday season has arrived in force, and unfortunately, there's still uncertainty over the federal funding for Oak Ridge, even for the current fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Per usual, lawmakers in Washington didn't get a budget done on time. That means federal facilities, including the Department of Energy institutions in Oak Ridge, are operating under a continuing resolution. In budget parlance, that's simply known as the CR. As a part of the political upheaval in Washington, with Democrats regaining control of Congress and now wanting to reassert their influence, it's looking as if the continuing resolution may be extended for the entirety of fiscal 2007. There'll be rules in place to govern how much the federal plants can spend, although it's not yet clear what rules will be used or how they will be implemented. Whatever the case, it's almost a sure thing that the money outcome won't be as good as a newly passed budget - at least for most of the operations. This situation could have a particularly unpleasant impact on the Oak Ridge cleanup operations, which Bechtel Jacobs Co. manages for DOE. Bechtel Jacobs is nearing the end of its closure contract with DOE, and the company is ramping up efforts to finish the cleanup of important projects. That work will culminate with the demolition and cleanup of the gigantic K-25 uranium-enrichment facilities. The efforts at K-25, now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park, will reduce the risks to humans and the environment and set the stage for reuse of that property for private industrial development. The K-25 project was supposed to be completed by the end of fiscal 2008, but it's already running about a year behind. If funds aren't available to ratchet up that effort, the schedule could lag further. It also could affect Bechtel Jacobs' fee, which is based on performance. Project delays and cost overruns result in financial penalties. "The point is, we had a plan to do a certain quantity of work this year," Paul Clay, Bechtel Jacobs' deputy general manager, said recently, "and that was based on anticipated funding." At the moment, the contractor isn't able to execute the plan as scheduled, and there may be some tough decisions on where to put the money that's available. "It slows you down," Clay said. "That's the way the congressional budget works. It's the law, and we've got to work within the law." John Shewairy, a spokesman in DOE's Oak Ridge office, said federal officials are still trying to figure out the budget situation. "The bottom line is, right now, we don't have a very good handle on what the overall impact is," Shewairy said. "We think we'll have a much better idea in the January time frame when the (congressional) committee staffers meet with the agency heads and start going through things." In the meantime, Oak Ridge officials are looking at their programs and trying to establish priorities in case cuts have to be made. "We might feel a bit of a pinch," Shewairy said. The same situation exists at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, which comes under the guidance of the National Nuclear Security Administration - a semi-independent unit of DOE. "The potential impact of an extended continuing resolution is simply not known at this time," said Steven Wyatt, a federal spokesman at Y-12. "We likely will face some budget challenges this year," Wyatt said. "In the meantime, we are being very conservative and have restricted nonessential travel, overtime, training and other activities until a more complete picture becomes available." It could be an uncomfortable Christmas in Oak Ridge. Senior writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6329 or at munger@knews.com. 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