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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 World Politics Watch: Nuclear Fuel Supply Proposals Aimed at Weaknes
2 washingtonpost.com: Europeans Yield on Iran Sanctions - 
3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Zionists' N-weapon, barrier to Peace 
4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Anti-IRI resolution complicate issue 
5 AFP: Iran defiant on nuclear energy despite looming sanctions -
6 AFP: US seeking last-minute changes to Iran sanctions resolution - R
7 AFP: Security Council set to vote Friday on Iran sanctions - 
8 AFP: Russia wants UN vote on Iran sanctions pushed back to at least 
9 AFP: US, Britain move ships to Gulf in signal to Iran 
10 UPI: Europeans soften on Iran sanctions
11 UPI: U.N. council nears accord on Iran
12 Korea Herald: Doubts remain over N.K.'s true intention   
13 Korea Herald: [ANN]US and N. Korea meet directly   
14 AFP: Hopes of progress fade on fourth day of NKorea nuclear talks -
15 UPI: Seoul seeks dialogue with N.Korea
16 UPI: U.N. sanctions hobble N. Korea nuke talks
17 Korea Herald: N. Korea stuck on BDA issue in nuclear talks   
18 US: UPI: Analysis: Three crises pileup?
19 HindustanTimes.com: Nuke war the world should fear 
20 BBC: Doubt on Gulf War chemical claim
21 BBC NEWS: Minister quits after Trident vote
22 Guardian Unlimited: Union warns of funding crisis for UK nuclear cle
23 Mos News: Russia Successfully Tests SS-18 Satan Intercontinental Bal
24 UPI: Analysis: U.K. sends mixed nukes signals
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
25 US: [NukeNet] Bush India Statement Raises Congress Concerns
26 US: toledoblade.com: FirstEnergy gets warning over falsified Pa. rec
27 US: Rutland Herald: U.S. cites Yankee for 'hot' shipment
28 AFP: Canada eyes nuclear power to boost Alberta oil sands production
29 Sofia Echo:  BULGARIA SHUTS DOWN NPP UNITS BY DECEMBER 31 - 
30 US: Brattleboro Reformer: NRC to scrutinize VY shipments
31 US: NRC: FEIS early site permit for North Anna
32 US: NRC: Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station; Notice of Availabilit
33 US: NRC: PPL Susquehanna, LLC; Notice of Correction to the Public Sc
34 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Subcommitte
35 Russia Newswire: Rosenergoatom: First Unit of Kursk NPP is Being Pre
36 AFP: Indian PM voices concern to Bush on nuke deal
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
37 AU ABC: Authorities doubt missing radioactive substance stolen
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
38 US: NRC: NRC Proposes $3,250 Civil Penalty for Pa. Firm for Portable
39 US: PTC: Take Time to Say No
40 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Subcommitte
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
41 US: Moscow Times: Fortum to Buy Nuclear Fuel
42 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Standing strong against Yucca 
43 US: Hanford News: Showdown on nuke waste storage
44 RGJ.com: Talks with NRC welcome
45 US: AU ABC: Miner invests in WA hoping for uranium policy change.
46 PRN: BNFL Announces Sale of Reactor Sites Management Business 
47 Whitehaven News: Shortfall in funding puts nuclear clean-up work at 
48 Taipei Times: Nuclear storage raises worries 
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
49 Hanford News: Scientists put hope in hydrogen sensors
50 UPI: Whistle blown at Pantex weapons plant
51 Hanford News: Showdown on nuke waste storage
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 World Politics Watch: Nuclear Fuel Supply Proposals Aimed at Weakness in Nonproliferation Regime
 
Eric Hundman | Bio | 21 Dec 2006 

World Politics Watch Exclusive 

Angarsk, a city of about 270,000 in southeastern Siberia, is the
home of the Angarsk Electrolyzing and Chemical Combine, a plant
created to enrich uranium for the Soviet nuclear program.
Throughout its history, the plant has been a restricted area --
closed to all foreign visitors. On Nov. 28, 2006, however, the
state-funded Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported that the
Russian government has decided to remove the Angarsk plant from
its list of restricted areas. Soon, according to the report,
Angarsk will become the site of the world's first "international
uranium enrichment center" (IUEC).
 
Enriched uranium fuel is required by almost all nuclear reactors
in use around the world today. However, enriched uranium is also
used in the cores of nuclear weapons. The difference between
bomb fuel and reactor fuel is the level of enrichment --
building a bomb requires that the fuel must be enriched to
contain at least 20 percent of the rarer uranium isotope U-235
(ideally, closer to 95 percent), while most modern nuclear power
plants operate at enrichment levels well below 20 percent.
 
Because the technology used to enrich uranium to the levels used
to fuel power plants is essentially same as the technology
required to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons
-- the difference lies mostly in the time required to enrich the
fuel -- any technology used to enrich uranium fuel for power
plants is inherently "dual-use." Since Article IV of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty ensures access to peaceful uses of
nuclear technology for non-nuclear weapon states, however, the
technology for uranium enrichment must be permitted to all
states under the current nonproliferation regime. Countries like
Iran could therefore, in principle, develop their enrichment
technology up to a certain point under the cloak of a "peaceful"
nuclear energy program before jettisoning the peaceful-use
pretense and rapidly developing nuclear weapons -- a scenario
often described as a "break out."
 
Following India's nuclear test of 1974, concerns about such a
"break-out" scenario led many states that possessed enrichment
technology to band together to form the Nuclear Suppliers Group
(NSG) and create stringent rules for themselves to prevent the
transfer of sensitive enrichment technology. Since developing,
maintaining, and operating enrichment facilities is quite
expensive, for decades recipient states were mostly content to
buy their fuel from NSG members. However, recent events --
including the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the revelation of A.Q.
Khan's black market trade in nuclear technology, North Korea's
nuclear test, and suspicions about Iran's nuclear ambitions --
have raised worries that a future political crisis could
interrupt the steady supply of nuclear fuel. This, further, has
led to concerns among NSG states that more countries will pursue
enrichment technologies themselves, to ensure a continued supply
of fuel.
 
Many hope that this clear proliferation danger can be addressed
by giving states that currently forego indigenous enrichment
capabilities incentives to continue doing so, by strengthening
guarantees that supplier states will not cut off fuel shipments
for political reasons. "Multilateralization" of certain aspects
of the fuel cycle may have the potential to address this issue.
The IUEC in Angarsk gives the most concrete example of such a
proposal to date.
 
Interested states will (in theory) be able to ensure their
access to nuclear fuel from the Angarsk IUEC by meeting
"established non-proliferation requirements" in exchange for
assured access to the fuel produced by the center. Russia
envisions its IUEC will have "equal, non-discriminatory
membership for all," "transparency," and "involvement of the
IAEA in [the fuel center's] activities," but otherwise the
details of the arrangement remain opaque. In any case, Russia
will retain exclusive control of all sensitive enrichment
technology, so the exact nature of "membership" remains an open
question. It could mean anything from a contractual relationship
to some role in physically managing the facility. It is also
unclear how such a facility, situated in Russian territory, will
provide any further assurance that nuclear fuel shipments will
not be interrupted.
 	 	 			
The IUEC in Angarsk is the first specific proposal resulting
from Russian President Vladimir Putin's Global Nuclear Power
Infrastructure (GNPI), an initiative announced on Jan. 25, 2006,
that aims at establishing a network of international fuel cycle
centers (it is unclear whether they will all be based in
Russia). GNPI is one of two major "multilateral" fuel cycle
initiatives in development today; the other is the United
States' Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).
 
GNEP also envisions international membership, but only of
countries already possessing fuel cycle technologies. This
consortium would lease fuel to all interested countries that
meet its nonproliferation requirements, and handle enrichment
and waste management on its own. Essentially, GNEP would be a
more complete sharing of technology among a very limited set of
partners, while GNPI would be a very limited sharing of
responsibility with any interested countries. Both, however,
promise to supply nuclear fuel to all countries which agree to
forego pursuit of enrichment capabilities.
 
GNEP attempts to address the flip side of NSG members' attempts
to keep enrichment technology from spreading: fears among
recipient states that such proposals are thinly veiled attempts
to revoke their "inalienable right" to peaceful nuclear
technology. These fears may even be spurring more countries to
pursue nuclear enrichment technology, in hopes that they can
achieve significant capability before any new international
agreement solidifies and locks them out of the club. Tellingly,
all "multilateral" fuel cycle initiatives advanced at the IAEA
General Conference in 2006 were proposed by actual or potential
nuclear suppliers.
 
Unsurprisingly for proposals pushed by current nuclear
suppliers, most such initiatives aim to create backup-only
supplies that will be available only in the event that the
existing market for nuclear fuel fails and thus will not affect
prices on the nuclear fuel market. For example, the Nuclear
Threat Initiative, a Washington, D.C.-based organization,
recently pledged $50 million to the IAEA to fund the development
of an international nuclear fuel bank. Rather than producing
fuel like Russia's IUEC, the fuel bank would simply store a
reserve to be used in case of an emergency interruption in
supplies of nuclear fuel. If the idea moves forward, the IAEA
will decide how the fuel bank will operate and, presumably, who
would have access to the fuel.
 
The fact that these most such initiatives are simply backup
proposals -- combined with the questionable benefits of
"multilateralization," the general indifference of countries
that purchase nuclear fuel toward such proposals, and the
historically rare interruptions of nuclear fuel supply -- means
it is unlikely they will deter countries truly interested in
pursuing their own enrichment capabilities. Upon close
examination, GNEP and GNPI are not even truly multilateral
initiatives -- Russia will maintain control of the nuclear
technologies used under GNPI, while the United States and
existing nuclear suppliers will do the same under GNEP.
 
That GNEP and GNPI are the most complete fuel cycle proposals to
date shows how immature this debate remains, as well as how
incremental any steps towards true multilateral fuel cycle
management must be. They are still encouraging, however; if
supply of nuclear fuel can be assured further, it may become
easier for the international community to discern the intentions
of countries like Iran. If Iran can get fuel easily from the
international market, a domestic enrichment capability is less
likely to be plausibly peaceful.
 
Finally, the very existence of such a debate is encouraging. The
Angarsk IUEC, once operational, will be a first step toward
finding out whether nuclear technology can be secured quickly
enough to prevent a nuclear tragedy.
 
Eric Hundman has been a researcher at the United Nations
Institute of Disarmament Research and the Center for Defense
Information. He is a recent graduate of Yale University.
 
Counterinsurgency: A New Manual 

The U.S. military's highly anticipated new counterinsurgency
manual was released to the public late last week.
 	
© 2006, World Politcs Watch LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of
*****************************************************************
 2 washingtonpost.com: Europeans Yield on Iran Sanctions - 

Concession at U.N. Aimed at Securing Curbs on Nuclear Trade

By Washington Post Staff Writer

 Thursday, December 21, 2006; Page A24

NEW YORK, Dec. 20 -- , and have scrapped plans to impose a
United Nations travel ban on Iranian officials who are linked to
Tehran's most controversial nuclear activities, a move intended
to win Russian support for a U.N. resolution restricting nuclear
trade, according to U.S. and European officials.

The latest European concession marked a diplomatic victory for
Moscow, which has sought to strip a European draft resolution of
any measures designed to punish top Iranians for defying the
15-nation council's repeated demands to halt Iran's enrichment
of uranium and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. The council's
key Western powers are concerned that such materials might be
diverted to a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program, though
Iran denies it is seeking atomic arms.

The European powers presented the revised resolution Wednesday
night to the Security Council in a closed session. "We will vote
this resolution Friday morning -- that's what we intend to do,"
said Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry.

The United States, which has been pressing for tougher
sanctions, expressed concern that the European resolution was
not strong enough to constrain Iran's nuclear ambitions. But
Washington's chief U.N. envoy, Alejandro D. Wolff, would not
rule out the possibility that the United States would ultimately
support it.

The European draft resolution would bar Iranian trade directly
linked to Iran's enrichment and reprocessing activities, and
prohibit imports and exports of materials that could help Iran
develop a nuclear weapons delivery system or a heavy-water
nuclear reactor. It would freeze the financial assets of
designated individuals linked to Iran's most sensitive nuclear
programs and require states to notify a newly established U.N.
committee when those individuals travel abroad.

The resolution would also call on states to prevent Iranian
students and scholars from receiving "specialized training" in
areas that could contribute to Iran's most sensitive nuclear
programs. But it would exclude most of Iran's other nuclear
activities, including an $800 million program to develop a
Russian-built light-water nuclear reactor in Bushehr, Iran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a Moscow news
conference Wednesday that the council had made "qualitative
headway" in narrowing the scope of the resolution's measures but
that more needed to be done to ensure that the resolution
supports U.N. efforts to uncover mysteries surrounding Iran's
nuclear program and helps "start talks with Iran, rather than
punish Iran."

Lavrov complained that the European resolution would establish a
committee with the power to expand the scope of the trade
sanctions, a process that could "cut off channels for trade and
economic ties with Iran in absolutely legitimate spheres."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a group of
newspaper reporters Tuesday that the resolution had been crafted
to target Iranian officials directly involved in Iran's most
sensitive nuclear programs while avoiding unnecessary hardships
on ordinary Iranians.

As diplomats jousted Wednesday, President Bush harshly condemned
the Iranian government's recent conference questioning the
historical accuracy of the Holocaust. "All that said to me was .
. . that the leader in Iran is willing to say things that really
hurts his country and further isolates the Iranian people," Bush
said at a news conference. He added: "My message to the Iranian
people is: You can do better than to have somebody try to
rewrite history."

Staff writers Peter Baker and Glenn Kessler in Washington
contributed to this report.


The Washington Post Company:            
*****************************************************************
 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Zionists' N-weapon, barrier to Peace 

  2006/12/20   
  
Islamic Republic of Iran's Permanent Representative to the UN
Mohammad-Javad Zarif said that peace and stability cannot be
achieved in the Middle East while the massive Zionists' nuclear
arsenal continues to threaten the region and beyond.
 
In a letter sent to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and
chairman of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Zarif said the
inaction imposed on the Security Council over the past several
decades in addressing the well-documented illicit
nuclear-weapons program by the Zionist regime has given the
audacity to its prime minister not only to explicitly
acknowledge possession of nuclear weapons but even to publicly
boast about its dangerous nuclear weapons.
 
The Iranian envoy further referred to the Zionists' prime
minister's interview with a German television on December 12,
2006, during which he boasted about the unlawful possession of
nuclear weapons by his government.
 
"No doubt that nuclear weapons in the hands of a regime with an
unparalleled record of non-compliance with Security Council
resolutions and a long and dark catalogue of crimes and
atrocities such as occupation, aggression, militarism,
state-terrorism, and crimes against humanity, poses a uniquely
grave threat to regional as well as international peace and
security," Zarif said in his letter.
 
The Zionist regime, as the only obstacle for the establishment
of a nuclear weapons-free-zone in the Middle East, has
constantly and obstinately disregarded international demands and
concerns repeatedly raised about its clandestine nuclear weapons
program in different fora particularly in the NPT Review
Conferences, which have by name, called upon this regime to
accede to the NPT immediately and without any condition, he said.
 
"Moreover, Zionist regime's clandestine development and
possession of nuclear weapons not only violate basic principles
of international law, United Nations Charter, the NPT as well as
numerous General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, but
also clearly defy the demand of the overwhelming majority of the
UN member states who have, time and again, called on this regime
to renounce nuclear weapons and accede to the NPT.
 
"In this regard, as recently as in September 2006, the Heads of
state or government of 118 members of the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM) urged the Israeli regime to renounce possession of nuclear
weapons, to accede to the NPT without delay, to place promptly
all its nuclear facilities under IAEA full-scope safeguards
according to Security Council Resolution 487 (1981), and to
conduct its nuclear related activities in conformity with the
non-proliferation regime," Zarif reiterated.
 
He added that the NAM members also expressed great concern over
the acquisition of nuclear capability "by the Zionist regime,
which poses a serious and continuing threat to the security of
neighboring and other states, and condemned the Zionist regime
for continuing to develop and stockpile nuclear arsenals".
 
The same demands have been also constantly made by the member
states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), he
added.
 
The Iranian envoy further called on the Security Council to
"fulfill its charter-based responsibility to address such a
clear and serious threat to international peace and security,
and take prompt and appropriate actions accordingly".
 
The Security Council should, inter alia, condemn Zionist
regime's clandestine development and possession of nuclear
weapons, compel it to abandon nuclear weapons, urge it to accede
to the NPT without delay, and demand this regime to place
promptly all its nuclear facilities under the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) full-scope safeguards, Zarif
emphasized adding, "Should the 'Israeli' regime fail to do so,
the council must take resolute action under Chapter VII of the
Charter to ensure compliance."
 
The reversal of the hypocritical policy of "strategic ambiguity"
by the Zionist regime has removed any excuse - if there ever
were any - for continued inaction by the council in the face of
this actual threat to international peace and security, he said.
 
"The reaction of the Security Council will show whether the
council is acting, as it is obliged to under Article 24 of the
Charter, on behalf of the members of the international community
who have made their views abundantly clear on this issue, or
whether it is merely a tool for a few permanent members who have
made no secret of their policy to allow and even encourage the
Israeli regime to persist in its lawless behavior with
impunity," the Iranian envoy added.
 
Zarif further called for circulation of his letter as a document
of the General Assembly under agenda items 81, 87, 93 and 13,
and of the Security Council.
 
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     
*****************************************************************
 4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Anti-IRI resolution complicate issue 

  2006/12/21   
  
IRI Foreign Minister said on Wednesday adopting a UNSC
resolution against Iran would merely further complicate status
of Iran's nuclear program, regarded as antagonistic, and within
national security threats. 

Manouchehr Mottaki made the comment in an interview with Saudi
Al-Arabiya satellite network in response to a question on Iran's
probable reaction to a UN Security Council resolution.
 
He added, "Keeping in mind the transparent and logical stands
adopted by Iran on our nuclear program, Iran can be regarded as
a good promoter of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),
and the standard bearer for taking advantage of nuclear energy
for peaceful purposes around the globe." 

The Iranian top diplomat further reiterated, "That is the reason
why Iran has proposed cooperation with regional countries for
expansion of peaceful usage of the nuclear energy." 

Mottaki stressed, "We cannot ignore our nation's absolute right
and it is quite natural that if a resolution would be passed
(against Iran), that would alter the mechanism of our intimate
cooperation with the IAEA, as well as our behavior in various
fields." 

Reacting to recent remarks of the Zionist Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert on that usurper regime's possession of the A-bomb, the
IRI FM said, "Olmert's confession in addition to revealing his
shameless attitude, proves the terrorist nature and identity of
that regime, that has nothing to do but to horrify the entire
region and he world, and to threaten the regional and
international security." 

He added, "We believe the regional countries must strongly react
to that remarks by issuing a joint communique and insist on
declaring the Middle East as a nuclear free zone." 

Mottaki emphasized the need for cooperation of Iraq's neighbors
with that country for establishment of peace and security there,
adding, "Regional countries and Iraq's neighbors can by
harmonizing their stands on establishment of security in that
country assist the Iraqi government in that regard." 

He said, "Iran and Saudi Arabia can be the standard bearers of
unity in Islamic World and thus dismantle the plots hatched
against the Islamic Ummah." 

The Iranian foreign diplomacy chief considered the American
policies in the region as "defeated", arguing, "That country's
policies in Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon have all
faced defeat and repeating the past America's mistakes would
further prove that America is not a good pla yer in this
region." 

Mottaki concluded his remarks arguing, "The regional counties,
relying on their broad potential, can play the major role in the
region if they would closely cooperate with one another." 

mk   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir     
*****************************************************************
 5 AFP: Iran defiant on nuclear energy despite looming sanctions -
     
December 21, 10:14 PM 

  [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]   

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that
nothing would stop Iran pushing ahead with its nuclear
programme, as world powers prepared to vote Friday on sanctions
against Tehran.

"The United States and Europeans know well that they cannot do
anything against Iran and their pressure will not hold back
Iran's desire to fully obtain peaceful nuclear technology,"
Ahmadinejad said.

"The bullying powers today, in confronting Iran's peaceful
nuclear technology, are faced (Advertisement)
[Click Here] [ src=]  with a sea of courageous people," he added
in a speech in Gilan-e Gharb town, in Iran's western Kermanshah
province.

"If they think that nuclear energy only belongs to one group of
the Iranian people they are mistaken."

Qatar, which is chairing UN Security Council sessions this
month, confirmed Thursday that a draft resolution would be put
to a vote before the 15-nation body on Friday.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said her
government was seeking last-minute changes to the draft UN
resolution ahead of the vote.

The draft calls for a ban on trade with Iran in goods related to
its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

It also waters down a contentious proposal for a travel ban on
Iranian officials, in a bid to win Russia's support for the
resolution that has been held up for weeks by wrangling amongst
the Security Council powers.

Western countries want to impose sanctions on Iran over its
refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, for fear that it would
lead to Tehran having nuclear weapons that would radically shift
the balance of power in the region.

Iran counters that its nuclear programme is only aimed at
providing energy for a growing population.

Qatar's UN ambassador Nasser Abdelaziz al-Nasser expressed
misgivings about sanctions, saying Thursday: "We don't know how
the Iranians are going to react."

"The Middle East is going through difficult times," he told
reporters at UN headquarters in New York. "We are worried about
this matter. We live there."

Without elaborating, Rice said Thursday that "there are some
changes that are still to be made" to the draft resolution.

But she added Washington was "very supportive" of the overall
draft -- drawn up by Britain, France and Germany -- and she
expressed confidence it would be adopted.

"I am quite satisfied and quite certain that the resolution that
will be adopted will be one that both says to Iran 'you cannot
defy the international community' and imposes penalties on
Iran," she said.

The New York Times newspaper, quoting unnamed US officials,
reported Thursday that the United States and Britain would move
additional warships into the Gulf region as the Security Council
moves on sanctions.

"Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was expected this week to
approve a request by commanders for a second aircraft carrier
and its supporting ships to be stationed within quick sailing
distance of Iran by early next year," it reported.

In his address Thursday, Ahmadinejad reaffirmed his prediction
that Iran would be able to hold a "nuclear celebration" at the
same time as it marks the 28th anniversary of the Islamic
revolution on February 11.

Iran has not specified exactly what landmark will be feted on
that day, but Ahmadinejad added: "Iran is only one step before
we reach the zenith and we will take that step with pride."

The Islamic republic has set a goal of installing 3,000 uranium
enriching centrifuges at a key nuclear plant by March, in what
would be an important step towards industrial enrichment. 

AFP 

*****************************************************************
 6 AFP: US seeking last-minute changes to Iran sanctions resolution - Rice - 

 Thu Dec 21, 4:11 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is seeking last-minute 
changes to a UN draft resolution imposing sanctions on Iran" /> 
Iranover its nuclear activities, a day before the measure is due 
to be voted, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> 
Condoleezza Ricesaid. 

 "There are some changes that are still to be made to that 
draft," even though the resolution has already been submitted to 
the full 15-member UN Security Council, Rice said, without 
elaborating on the changes being sought. 

But Rice added that Washington was "very supportive" of the
draft resolution drawn up by Britain, France and Germany, and
she expressed confidence the measure would be adopted by the
Security Council. 

"I am quite satisfied and quite certain that the resolution that
will be adopted will be one that both says to Iran 'you cannot
defy the international community' and imposes penalties on
Iran," she said. 

Rice stressed that whatever the final details of the UN
resolution, it will be adopted under Chapter VII of the UN
charter, making its enforcement mandatory for all UN members. 

"We are going to support a resolution that is Chapter VII and
that is strong in showing Iran that the international community
is not going to tolerate its defiance" of a previous UN
resolution demanding Tehran halt its enrichment of uranium. 

Iran rejected the July 31 resolution, insisting its enrichment
activities were aimed only at providing fuel for civilian
nuclear power stations. 

But the United States and others believe Iran's ultimate aim is
to produce enriched uranium to use as the core for nuclear
weapons. 

The latest draft resolution was watered down at the demand of
Russia to ease a proposed travel ban on 12 officials directly
linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. 

In the revised version, the travel ban would not be mandatory, a
change US diplomats had resisted. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 7 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" /> over 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" /> meanwhile 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.
*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: Russia wants UN vote on Iran sanctions pushed back to at least Saturday - 

 Thu Dec 21, 7:06 PM 		 	 

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin
said that he wanted a Security Council vote on nuclear-related
sanctions on Iran postponed from Friday to at least Saturday. [
src=] 

"We believe there should be a postponement (of the vote) to
Saturday," he added. "My understanding is that they (the
European sponsors) are not going to proceed with the vote
tomorrow." 

Speaking after an informal meeting with colleagues from four
other veto-wielding Security Council members -- Britain, China,
France and the United States -- as well as from Germany on a
sanctions draft resolution, Churkin told reporters that "two are
three issues" still remained to be resolved, adding "these are
difficult issues." 

But a Western diplomat close to the talks said that the European
sponsors of the text intended to stick to their plan for a
Friday vote. 

Churkin said he offered some thoughts to ensure that the draft
that the sanctions target only prohibited sectors such as Iran's
enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including
research and development and work on all heavy water related
projects." 

The draft drawn up by Britain, France and Germany slaps
financial restrictions on persons and entities involved in
proliferation-sensitive nuclear and missile programs. 

To overcome Russian objections, the sponsors Wednesday watered
down a contentious proposal for a travel ban on 12 officials
directly linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile
programs. 

The draft warns that if Tehran refuses to comply with demands
that it halt sensitive nuclear fuel work, the 15-member 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.
*****************************************************************
 9 AFP: US, Britain move ships to Gulf in signal to Iran 


 Thu Dec 21, 11:29 AM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States and Britain will reportedly 
start moving additional ships into the Gulf region in a signal to 
Iran" /> as the United Nations" /> weighs sanctions action. 


 "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was expected this week to 
approve a request by commanders for a second aircraft carrier and 
its supporting ships to be stationed within quick sailing 
distance of Iran by early next year," the New York Times quoted 
unnamed US officials as saying. 

Though the US officials said the ships were not part of
preparations for an offensive strike, "they acknowledged that
the ability to hit Iran would be increased and that Iranian
leaders might well call the growing presence provocative." 

The British Navy "plans to add two mine-hunting vessels to its
ships that already are part of the international coalition
patrolling waters in the ... Gulf," the report added. 

In Tehran on Thursday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that
nothing would stop Iran from pushing ahead with its nuclear
program, as world powers prepared for a likely vote that could
slap UN sanctions on Tehran. 

"The United States and Europeans know well that they cannot do
anything against Iran and their pressure will not hold back
Iran's desire to fully obtain peaceful nuclear technology,"
Ahmadinejad said. 

"The bullying powers today, in confronting Iran's peaceful
nuclear technology, are faced with a sea of courageous people,"
he said in a speech in the town of Gilan-e Gharb in the western
Kermanshah province. 

"If they think that nuclear energy only belongs to one group of
the Iranian people, they are mistaken," he added. 

Ahmadinejad also reaffirmed his prediction that Iran would be
able to hold a "nuclear celebration" at the same time as it
marks the 28th anniversary of the Islamic revolution on February
11. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 10 UPI: Europeans soften on Iran sanctions
     
  United Press International - NewsTrack - 

12/21/2006 7:45:00 AM -0500

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- In a move to appease Russian
interests, Britain, France and Germany have dropped plans to ban
travel for Iranian nuclear officials as part of U.N. sanctions. 

In a closed session of the 15-member Security Council Wednesday
night, the three countries made the concession in hopes of
getting punitive measures in place quickly after Tehran ignored
an Aug. 31 deadline to stop enhancing uranium. 

Russia is involved in the construction of an $800 million
nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran. 

The Washington Post said the latest draft proposed by the three
European countries would bar any trade directly linked to
uranium enrichment, freeze assets of Iranian individuals
associated with nuclear development and ban Iranians from
receiving "specialized training" in areas that could contribute
to nuclear programs. 

It also calls for the creation of a new U.N. committee to
monitor the whereabouts of Iranians involved in the advanced
nuclear operations, the report said. 

Iran has repeatedly claimed its uranium enrichment is not for
building weapons and only for electricity generation.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 11 UPI: U.N. council nears accord on Iran
     
 United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 

12/20/2006 10:55:00 PM -0500

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- A new draft Iran sanctions
resolution has been circulated to all 15 U.N. Security Council
members with a vote expected Friday morning. 

A proposed travel ban on officials involved in Tehran's nuclear
and missile programs was eased in the draft, paving way for
passage, said members of the panel of 15. 

The measure, introduced late Wednesday by permanent members
Britain and France, also appears to have been given a green
light from the other veto-wielding members China and Russia,
while the United States has not yet given final approval, unsure
of easing the travel ban. 

Ambassador Alejandro Wolff of the United States, acting
permanent representative, told reporters Wednesday night, "Our
folks in Washington are having a looking at it and we'll have
more to say on that for you tomorrow (Thursday)." 

Asked about a travel ban, opposed to by veto-wielders Russia and
China, Washington's envoy said, "Under the vigilance (section),
obviously, countries can take their decision whether they are
going to allow people to travel into their country or not so it
does not exclude banning travel." 

The vigilance paragraph calls on members states to track a list
of Iranians traveling into their countries and report them. 

The measure was drafted by the EU3 of Britain, France and
Germany, with Washington's support. Berlin is not a member of
the council. 

Other measures in the draft include a call on Iran to
immediately suspend "proliferation sensitive nuclear activities
... all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities,
including research and development" and "work on all heavy
water-related projects." 

The EU3 and the United States, in particular, fear Iran is not
conducting its nuclear research strictly for peaceful purposes
and say Tehran is not operating under terms of the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 12 Korea Herald: Doubts remain over N.K.'s true intention   
        
Korea Herald correspondent

 BEIJING - This could go down as one of the hardest rounds of
negotiations yet: getting North Korea to abandon the nuclear
weapons it claims to already possess. 

"The lesson of history is clear - getting a country to give up
the nuclear weapons it has produced is exceedingly difficult,
and will only occur when there is a change of regime," writes
Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the
Brookings Institution on a Web post.

 Whether North Korea's ultimate goal is to remain a nuclear
state or to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, its true
intention in joining the latest round of six-party talks is a
matter of debate.

 "We cannot have a situation where there's a kind of ambiguity
in what is decided (at the nuclear talks). We cannot have a
situation where they pretend to do something and we pretend to
believe them. So these have to be very real and there has to be
a means to ensure that there's no misunderstanding," Chief U.S.
nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said on the fourth day of
talks.

 Among the countries that either officially or informally have
nuclear weapons, South Africa was the only country that
voluntarily got rid of its nuclear capability. And it did so at
the end of the period of apartheid, Daalder explains. The others
are the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, India,
Israel and Pakistan.

 It is a widely accepted opinion that North Korea's obsession
with becoming a nuclear power is ultimately aimed at being a
guarantee of regime survival.

 As a reclusive state, hated by most and under extreme pressure
from the United States, the North chose to go further down the
path of aggression by testing an atomic device this October,
serving a slap in the face to the six-party talks aimed at a
negotiated denuclearization of the peninsula. 

The North reportedly entered the latest round of the talks
saying they wish to deal with the nuclear weapons and nuclear
programs separately in return for hefty incentives.

 There are those, however, who are more optimistic regarding
Pyongyang's intentions. 

They point out the incessant reassurances from the North that
"denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is the legacy of late
leader Kim Il-sung." Observers say the North Korean delegation
is truly commited to that legacy.

 They claim that ultimately, North Korea is determined to move
toward denuclearization and that its development of the nuclear
weapons was simply a strategy.

 While North Korea's true intentions remain questionable, the
United States and its allies at the six-party talks focused on
tackling the most imminent task - getting North Korea to freeze
activity at its main nuclear facility.

 According to some estimates, North Korea possibly has between
eight to 10 nuclear weapons produced with reprocessed plutonium
from the five-megawatt facility located in Yongbyon. 

In a first agreement on North Korea's nuclear program, the
United States and North Korea in Oct. 1994 agreed to freeze the
Yongbyon facility in exchange for a light water reactor that
cannot produce materials for a nuclear weapon. 

The project, known as the Korean Peninsula Energy Development
Organization, was canceled in 2002, after claims by the United
States that Pyongyang had admitted to operating a clandestine
uranium-based nuclear program. The North continues to deny the
allegation.

 The following year, North Korea announced its withdrawal from
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

 Following China's initiative in creating the negotiating forum
of the six-party talks in 2003, no substantial progress has been
made.

 On Feb. 10 last year Pyongyang announced it possessed nuclear
weapons in an apparent reaction to Washington's definition of
North Korea as one of the "outposts of tyranny."

 The North's demand that Washington drop its "hostile" policy
continues to this day.

 Despite the Sept. 19 agreement last year that for the first
time saw the parties concur on denuclearization principles and
corresponding incentives, the North then boycotted the process
following Washington's imposition of a financial embargo, which,
among other things, froze North Korean accounts in a Macau bank. 

In an apparent attempt to show off its capability to deliver the
weapon, North Korea test fired seven missiles in July, including
one long-range missile.

 On Oct. 9, North Korea's Central News Agency announced a
successful underground test of an atomic device. 

"Our science research section has safely and successfully
conducted an underground nuclear test on Oct. 9," it said. 

(angiely@heraldm.com)

By Lee Joo-hee

2006.12.22
 
*****************************************************************
 13 Korea Herald: [ANN]US and N. Korea meet directly   
        
Efforts to dismantle North Korea's atomic programme entered a 
crunch phase Tuesday (Dec 19) as Washington held direct talks 
with Pyongyang, but diplomats reported no breakthroughs. 

"We do not have any breakthroughs to report," top United States 
nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters after a series 
of bilateral meetings, including one with North Korean 
counterpart Kim Kye Gwan. 

Hill said the North Koreans showed a "willingness to listen and 
engage in our ideas", but declined to give further details on 
Pyongyang's position. 

A US Treasury Department delegation also met separately with the 
North Koreans Tuesday afternoon to talk about Washington-imposed 
sanctions on a Macau bank, which had crippled Pyongyang's 
external finances. 

Daniel Glaser, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant 
secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, met Oh 
Kwong Chol, the governor of the North's Foreign Trade Bank, for 
three hours at the US Embassy in Beijing. 

They will meet again at the North Korean Embassy today (Dec 20). 

Glaser gave no details of their discussions except to say that 
the talks are going to be a long-term process if they are to be 
productive. 

The two meetings are seen as important litmus tests as to whether 
this latest round of the six-party talks - the sixth since 2003 - 
would end in success or failure. 

The talks bring together the United States, China, Russia, Japan 
and the two Koreas. Negotiations have taken on added urgency 
since Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test on Oct 9. 

But North Korea wants the US-led financial curbs to be lifted 
first before it would consider disarmament - a demand it repeated 
on Monday when the latest round of six- party talks opened. 

The US initially insisted that the financial sanctions on the 
Macau bank, where the North allegedly deposited some US$24 
million in illicit money, were separate from the nuclear talks. 

But Washington has since shown some flexibility on the issue, 
agreeing to address the matter on the sidelines of the latest 
round of the six-party talks. 

While no quick resolution is expected, analysts say the very fact 
that the meeting on the financial sanctions took place is a sign 
that Washington is prepared to deal. 

"With denuclearisation, many things are possible," said Hill. 
"Without denuclearisation, nothing is possible."

The US Assistant Secretary of State has made no secret of 
Washington's growing impatience, reiterating the point that he 
wanted to see some progress on implementing an agreement reached 
between the six countries in September last year. 

In that agreement, the North agreed to abandon its nuclear 
programme in exchange for energy aid and security guarantees. 

Hill said: "My delegation has worked very very hard, with lots of 
airplane travel. We have watched every single movie on every 
single airplane. 

"However the six-party talks turn out, it will help determine 
(Pyongyang's) future. I really want to see something get done 
this week."

Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae told reporters last night that 
North Korea's stance remained "far apart" from that of the other 
members of the six-nation talks. 

"At this point, I cannot say that the outlook is optimistic," 
Sasae said. 

Host China has called for patience among the delegates. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang quipped that the 
diplomats should perhaps "practise" their patience by running a 
marathon. 

The diplomats are expected to have more bilateral meetings today. 

China has not set an end date for the talks, though diplomats 
involved in the negotiations are said to have booked their 
flights out of Beijing Thursday and on Friday.

2006.12.21
*****************************************************************
 14 AFP: Hopes of progress fade on fourth day of NKorea nuclear talks -
    
 by Hiroshi Hiyama and Jun Kwanwoo Thu Dec 21, 1:11 PM ET 		 	 

BEIJING (AFP) - Six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea" /> 
North Korea's nuclear program were making little progress, the US 
envoy said as other officials warned the diplomatic drive looked 
likely to falter again. 

 The talks resumed on Monday after a 13-month break with North
Korea, emboldened by its first-ever atomic test on October 9,
outlining a long list of hardline demands to be met before it
would even consider disarming. 

Delegates to the talks -- which involve the two Koreas, host
China, the United States, Japan and Russia -- have said those
demands were not acceptable. 

US envoy Christopher Hill and the Chinese side have said they
want North Korea to recommit to a six-party deal brokered in
September last year, in which Pyongyang agreed it would give up
its nuclear program in return for energy assistance and security
guarantees. 

Hill said early Thursday that was still the goal, and he was
pushing for concrete commitments this week. 

However, Hill, who met with his North Korean counterpart Kim
Kye-Gwan on Tuesday and Wednesday, was involved in a further
flurry of meetings with parties involved in the talks well into
Thursday evening. 

He emerged from those meetings to cast doubt on any progress,
saying the North Korean delegation were under instructions not
to discuss nuclear disarmament until the issue of financial
sanctions had first been resolved. 

"They have had strict instructions from their capital that they
cannot engage officially on the subject of six-party talks until
they have the BDA issue resolved," Hill told reporters. 

"I made clear that I'm not a BDA negotiator." 

North Korea has demanded that US financial sanctions imposed
last year for alleged money-laundering and counterfeiting be
lifted ahead of any disarmament moves. The sanctions have frozen
bank accounts in the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia (BDA) that are
crucial to Pyongyang's ruling elite. 

"I wish I could say I was more optimistic but I am not more
optimistic. Today was a very long day, and we exchanged a lot of
opinions," Hill also said after a dinner meeting with his
Japanese and South Korean counterparts. 

"At this point, I cannot really express any sense of optimism,"
he told reporters. 

Hill is again meeting his North Korean counterpart Friday,
before leaving Beijing on Saturday. 

Other officials and delegates said there was little chance of a
major breakthrough this week. 

Japan's chief envoy, Kenichiro Sasae, said late Thursday that
the four days of talks had achieved "no progress" due to North
Korean recalcitrance. 

"Basically, North Korea has maintained its hard position... we
are not seeing any signs of flexibility," he told reporters. 

Sasae called North Korea's refusal to budge on its demands
"extremely regrettable and unfortunate." 

Financial teams from the two nations met on Tuesday and
Wednesday in Beijing on the sidelines of the six-party forum to
discuss the standoff, but they finished without any agreement
being reached. 

The chief US negotiator on the financial sanctions, Daniel
Glaser, told reporters late Wednesday only that the two sides
may meet again in New York next month. 

A South Korean official said the North Koreans had refused to
entertain other disarmament proposals without the financial
sanctions issue being resolved first. 

"North Korea has kept talking only about the (financial) issue,"
he said. "Other issues have not even been discussed yet." 

The North Korean envoy Kim also said on Monday that United
Nations" /> United Nationssanctions imposed on his country
following the atomic test must be lifted before it would
consider surrendering its nuclear weapons. 

Kim further demanded that North Korea be given help in building
a nuclear reactor for power needs, and that the US policy of
"hostility" towards it must be dropped. 

Many analysts believe North Korea has no intention of
surrendering its nuclear weapons, and is merely using the
six-party talks to give the impression of wanting to negotiate.
	 		 			
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 15 UPI: Seoul seeks dialogue with N.Korea
     
  United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 

12/21/2006 7:27:00 AM -0500

SEOUL, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- South Korea is seeking to resume
dialogue with North Korea to add momentum to resolve the nuclear
dispute, a Seoul official said Thursday. 

With a view to revive deadlocked cross-border relations, South
Korea would resume aid shipments to the impoverished North,
Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told a Seoul forum. 

"What is unfortunate is that the dialogue between the North and
South Korea and humanitarian assistance are still suspended,"
Lee said. "But I believe this will soon be resolved." 

Lee was the highest level South Korean official to express hope
for reviving inter-Korean dialogue and resuming aid to the
communist North. 

The North has broken off all official contacts with the South
since Seoul suspended rice and fertilizer shipments following
Pyongyang's missile tests in July. 

"The (Seoul) government has a principle to resume North-South
dialogue at the earliest date possible," Lee said. 

"I believe inter-Korean talks could help resolve the nuclear
standoff if they can help ease difficulties in the six-party
talks and if an inter-Korean agreement works to support the
six-nation negotiations," he said. 

Nuclear negotiators from South and North Korea, the United
States, China, Japan and Russia are gathering in Beijing this
week to discuss the dismantlement of the North's nuclear weapons
programs.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 16 UPI: U.N. sanctions hobble N. Korea nuke talks
     
 United Press International - NewsTrack - 

12/21/2006 11:29:00 AM -0500

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The fourth day of six-nation talks on
North Korea's nuclear program reportedly achieved little in
Beijing, with U.S. sanctions being the sticking point. 

"I must say today is not a day when we registered much
progress," said Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of
state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. 

While 25 bilateral consultations have been conducted since
Monday between delegates from North and South Korea, China,
Japan, Russia and the United States, Hill said North Korea is
refusing to budge in its demand the United States lift sanctions
that have tied up $24 million of Pyongyang's money in a Macau
bank. 

The bank is suspected of laundering money and circulating
counterfeit currency for North Korea, Japan's Kyodo news agency
said. 

Pyongyang boycotted the talks for 13 months because of the
sanctions, which U.S. negotiators said are part of an incentive
package and not a prerequisite. 

South Korean officials told the Yonhap news agency, the United
States told North Korea it was willing to provide a written
security guarantee if Pyongyang takes its first "good-faith"
move by freezing work at its plutonium-producing 5-megawatt
nuclear reactor. 

The talks resume Friday.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 17 Korea Herald: N. Korea stuck on BDA issue in nuclear talks   
        
Korea Herald correspondent

 BEIJING - North Korea continued to demand Washington lift a
financial embargo against its main foreign exchange channel in
order to tackle the nuclear dismantlement issue as the six-party
talks extended to their fourth day yesterday.

 The United States and North Korea remained fundamentally at
odds over conditions for nuclear dismantlement.

 The nuclear talks that opened in Beijing this Monday after a
13-month hiatus were aimed at laying the groundwork for the
upcoming rounds.

 The six-way talks were set to close for a recess on Friday or
Saturday.

 While the United States was intent on discussing a nuclear
freeze and corresponding incentives, North Korea remained fixed
on seeing that Washington changes its "hostile" policy.

 "(North Korea) has taken the position that it will judge U.S.
determination to change its policies by whether it lifts the
economic sanctions mobilized immediately after the Sept. 19
Joint Statement," Chosun Shinbo, a Japan-based North Korean
newspaper said.

 "(The North Korean side) is relaying to the United States that
only after this problem is solved will the denuclearization
implementation that is correlated with trust between the North
and the United States begin to unfold," the paper said.

 North Korea views Washington's financial embargo against Banco
Delta Asia as the key example of the United States' hostile
policy.

 The U.S. Treasury Department had designated BDA a "primary
concern" on charges of circulating counterfeit North Korean-made
dollars. North Korea has had difficulties in overseas financial
transactions since. 

In a show of willingness to talk with the North, Washington's
finance officials flew in with the nuclear negotiators and sat
with their North Korean counterparts for two days to brief them
on their investigation this week.

 The finance delegation returned to Washington yesterday after
commenting that a follow-up meeting could take place next month
in Washington.

 U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the
Treasury's meeting was at "the most basic level" of exchanging
information. 

The United States and its allies, meanwhile, have been trying to
separate the BDA issue from the main nuclear talks.

 According to reports, the allies' main aim is to get North
Korea to agree to freezing its Yongbyon nuclear facility in
return for a written security guarantee. If North Korea allows
inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it would
be rewarded with talks of energy and economic aid.

 In regard to these offers, the Chosun Shinbo reported, "At this
point, the possibility is not high for (North Korea) to
acknowledge the economic aid and security guarantee as evidence
of Washington's policy change."

 It added that the North was waiting for the United States to
"show in action" and not in "rhetorical words" that it was
abandoning its "hostile policy."

 The North Korean delegation returned to the six-party talks
this week with elevated negotiating power after having detonated
a nuclear device in October.

 In a keynote speech, North Korea said that when "circumstances
matured" it would be willing to abandon its nuclear programs.

 The United States, in the meantime, said the negotiations were
focused on reaching a broader agreement.

 "It's going to get you into endless arguments about what little
thing goes before what next little thing, and I actually don't
think that that's going to get us anywhere," U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice said. 

Instead, progress would be measured in broader fields of
responses, she said. 

(angiely@heraldm.com)

By Lee Joo-hee

2006.12.22
*****************************************************************
 18 UPI: Analysis: Three crises pileup?
     
   United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 

 	
12/21/2006 8:57:00 AM -0500

 By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE UPI Editor at Large

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The year 2006 was the year the Bush
administration reluctantly concluded al-Qaida was only a small
part of a global challenge, which is as ideologically motivated
as communism was against freedom during the 45-year Cold War. 

America's enemies took advantage of a quagmired U.S. in Iraq to
advance their quest for membership in the nuclear club. North
Korea blasted its way into the club to become its ninth member
and Iran was well on its way to becoming number ten. Both North
Korea and Iran long ago concluded that nuclear power was the
only credible deterrent against a U.S. attack. The U.S.
predicament also gave Iran a rare opportunity to push its
radical Shiite pawns forward in Iraq, Lebanon and the
Palestinian territories. 

If president Bush decides to dispatch 20,000 to 30,000
additional troops to try to bring insurgents to heel in Baghdad,
a move opposed by several top generals, the Vietnamese precedent
is worth recalling. Some 16,000 U.S. troops were in-country by
the time President Kennedy was assassinated in Nov. 1963. Upon
the recommendation of Gen. Maxwell Taylor in the fall of 1961,
their status gradually morphed from adviser to South Vietnamese
forces to fighting personnel. President Johnson escalated to
546,000 troops. The last U.S. soldier left Vietnam in March
1973. Saigon fell to communist forces two years later. 

The Bush administration suspends disbelief that close ally
President Musharraf of Pakistan is betting against the U.S.
prevailing in Iraq and staying the course in Afghanistan. The
appalling truth is Musharraf's geopolitical calculation has
given the green light to his Inter-Services Intelligence agency
to resume covert assistance to the Taliban, now fighting NATO
and the U.S. in Afghanistan. 

Husain Haqqani, director of Boston University's Center for
International Relations, is a Pakistani scholar who served as
adviser to Pakistan's principal political leaders - former Prime
Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, both now in exile
abroad. Writing about Musharraf's apostasy, Haqqani says,
"Pakistan's powerful...ISI never liked the idea of removing the
Taliban from power in the first place. Instead of ensuring a
friendly government in Kabul by working with whoever is in power
there, ISI has long been wedded to the idea of installing its
clients and allies as Afghanistan's rulers. Unfortunately (ISI)
has repeatedly chosen extremists unacceptable to the
international community for that role, including the Taliban."
Haqqani once worked at the ISI. 

Rather than face the consequences of Musharraf's betrayal, the
Bush administration has opted for a state of denial. Facing two
major foreign crises at a time is already more than the Beltway
traffic can bear. A third would risk a major pileup. Bush has
recalibrated Iraq from "we're winning" certitude to
"not-winning-not-losing" uncertainty. 

Israel and the Bush administration still believe they can put an
end to Iran's nuclear ambitions before the mullahocracy develops
a deliverable nuclear weapon -- either through terrorists or in
the nose cone of a Shahab-3 missile with a range of 1,800
kilometers (1,280 miles), which are also flown by North Korea
and Pakistan. 

Clearly, whatever watered down compromise the U.N. Security
Council's five permanent members plus Germany can agree to, Iran
won't be deterred. Much has been made of Iran's Achilles' heel,
e.g., its limited refining capacity for gasoline to keep almost
five million vehicles on the road. Three out of four cars are
more than 30 years old or have logged 120,000 miles (President
Ahmadinejad drives a battered 20-year-old Peugeot). Even though
it pumps 10 percent of the world's oil, Iran still has to import
43 percent of its gasoline, 

Iran's staunch ally Venezuela has pledged to make up whatever
shortfall occurs. Cars and trucks are being converted to run on
natural gas at over 100 conversion centers. The government
believes this will save $5 billion a year on gasoline imports.
Iran has the world's second largest natural gas reserve after
Russia -- 16 percent of the world's total. 

Undeterred by university students burning his poster picture in
front of him, president Ahmadinejad evidently reckons that
whatever economic sanctions are agreed by the world's principal
powers won't bite. With a second U.S. carrier task force about
to leave for the Gulf, he must be assuming that air strikes --
Israeli and/or U.S. -- may kick in before the end of president
Bush's second term. Iran's intensive natural gas preparations
are a clear sign it is girding for the possibility of war. Its
limited refining capacity will be earmarked for jet fuel to keep
its air force and commercial airliners flying and for diesel for
its army and navy. 

Baiting the U.S. and its allies, Ahmadinejad announced Iran "is
now a nuclear power" and added the United States and Britain to
Israel on the list of countries doomed to disappear. "The
Iranian nation will continue on its nuclear path powerfully and
will celebrate a nuclear victory soon," said the diminutive
president. 

Radical Islam is not confined to Iraq and Iran. It is spreading
among Europe's 20 million Muslims from Sweden to Spain. Militant
minorities reject multiculturalism. And non-Muslim Europeans are
beginning to reassess their pre-World War II and post-Cold War
doctrine that appeasement is the better part of valor. 

In Berlin, Mozart's Idomeneo went forward with a scene that
shows the severed head of Prophet Muhammad, along with the heads
of Jesus, Buddha and Poseidon, Greek God of the seas, tumbling
out of a sack humped by Idomeneo. It was director Hans
Neuenfels' idea of a protest against all organized religions. 

Pentagon contingency plans for air strikes against Iran's
nuclear facilities would be incomplete without an analysis of
likely repercussions throughout the Middle East and the rest of
the Muslim world. Europe's estimated one percent of
violence-prone Muslims, or some 200,000 youths, should also be
factored in.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 19 HindustanTimes.com: Nuke war the world should fear 

   Pramit Pal Chaudhuri

New York City, December 21   

Study says Indo-Pak N-exchange can alter Earths climate

One previously unforeseen consequence of an Indo-Pakistani
nuclear war will be global climate change beyond anything
experienced in recorded history. Among other things, says a
study led by Alan Robock of Rutgers University, there will be 10
per cent less rain around the world. The monsoon everywhere will
be badly affected.

Robocks team used climate-change models, but applied them to
the giant smoke clouds that would be created by nuclear
explosions on large cities. Assuming an exchange of 100
Hiroshima-sized atom bombs (each of them a relatively small 15
kilotons) in a subtropical climate, the study concluded the war
would produce large and long-lasting climate change.

The impact would be worsened by a strong sun which will heat the
smoke and drive it higher. Robock says his simulation assumed an
Indo-Pakistan nuclear exchange in May. The plume would be
marginally less high if a war took place in the winter, he said.

Among the results

The smoke cloud produced would see surface global temperatures
fall by 1.25 degrees Centigrade for several years. This would
result in large climatic effects occurring in regions far
removed from the target areas. Places as far apart as central
Africa, Australia, the Deccan and Canada could see even summer
temperatures fall by four degrees C. Says Robock, A severe
disruption of global agricultural production would be
inevitable.

The cooling would weaken the global hydrological cycle.
Rainfall, snow and other forms of precipitation would drop by
about 10 per cent. This would include large reductions of the
Asian summer monsoon. Says Robock of the latter, More models
would be needed, but the one that we did showed sharp drops in
rain in Cambodia, Thailand as well as Pakistan. One
beneficiary: the Sahel region of Africa would get more rain.  

pramitpc@yahoo.com  

*****************************************************************
 20 BBC: Doubt on Gulf War chemical claim
 
Last Updated: Thursday, 21 December 2006
 
[Gulf War]                              

Some veterans have complained of mystery illnesses                                                               

Gulf War veterans suffering mystery illnesses after returning 
from the 1991 conflict were probably not poisoned by pesticides, 
researchers have said. 

Exposure to chemicals has been blamed for veterans' symptoms such 
as depression, poor sleep and mood swings. 

But Bristol University researchers, writing in the Journal of 
Epidemiology and Community Health, blame other environmental 
toxins in this country. 

It is thought more than 8,500 Gulf War troops have reported 
health problems. 

We are getting 50 peop contacting us every month with new claims 
Sean Newton, National Gulf War Veterans and Families Association     

Heavy exposure to organophosphate pesticides routinely sprayed on 
tents and other equipment is just one theory which has been 
examined by those investigating claims of unexplained illness 
among veterans. 

Others include multiple vaccinations given to troops before 
deployment and exposure to nerve agents or depleted uranium 
during the war. 

Several previous studies have found a link between jobs which 
involve regular exposure to organophosphates, such as sheep 
farming, and illness, but none has proven that the chemicals are 
the cause. 

However, people who carry a version of a gene called PON1 appear 
less able to break down and dispose of organophosphates in their 
bodies, offering a potential clue as to why these chemicals might 
affect some people but not others. 

Older women 

The Bristol researchers did not examine Gulf War veterans 
directly, looking instead at a group of older women who were 
unlikely to have had any contact with organophosphates during 
their working lives. 

They wanted to test whether those who carried the variant PON1 
gene were just as vulnerable to the same symptoms as the 
veterans, without the involvement of organophosphates. 

They found that this was true - the women with the variant were 
significantly more likely to report symptoms of depression than 
those with other versions of PON1. 

However, the absence of organophosphates from their lives meant 
that something else was likely to be the culprit in these cases. 

The researchers said this meant that, although they could not 
rule out organophosphate poisoning in Gulf War veterans, a 
different as-yet-unknown toxin at home in the UK was more likely 
to be responsible. 

Sean Newton, vice-chairman of the National Gulf War Veterans and 
Families Association, which has campaigned for recognition of 
so-called Gulf War Syndrome, called for further, independent 
research. 

He said: "This problem is not going away - we are getting 50 
people contacting us every month with new claims." 

Professor Simon Wessely, from the Institute of Psychiatry in 
London, has helped carry out studies into the alleged links 
between the veterans' symptoms and organophosphates. 

He said: "There's no doubt that in someone is exposed to the 
wrong dose, in the wrong place, these can be dangerous chemicals, 
but there were good reasons for using them in the Gulf. 

"What we do know is that organophosphate poisoning is associated 
with peripheral nerve damage. Our study, and another, larger 
study in the US looked for signs of this in large number of 
veterans, and found no evidence of this kind of damage."                                        
	 	 
*****************************************************************
 21 BBC NEWS: Minister quits after Trident vote
 
Updated: Thursday, 21 December 2006, 23:05 GMT

[Malcolm Chisholm]                              

Malcolm Chisholm has spoken out against Trident                                                             

Communities Minister Malcolm Chisholm has resigned from the 
Scottish government after voting with the SNP over the 
replacement of Trident. 

He was one of four Labour members who supported the SNP's motion 
opposing the replacement of the nuclear submarines. 

Mr Chisholm said his decision had been a "matter of principle". 

The Scottish Parliament failed to agree a position on the future 
of the Clyde-based fleet. 

Mr Chisholm has already spoken out against the UK Government's 
plans to replace the nuclear submarines, which are based at 
Faslane. 

It is not tenable for a minister to be going against the Labour 
whip in the way that I did             

Malcolm Chisholm                                                                

In his resignation letter, he told First Minister Jack McConnell: 
"It is with deep regret that I find myself unable to accept the 
official Labour position on the issue of Trident today. 

"In those circumstances, notwithstanding the fact that it is a 
reserved issue, I realise that it is not tenable for me to 
continue as one of your ministers." 

The MSP for Edinburgh North and Leith said that while they 
disagreed over the Trident issue, he and the first minister would 
be "completely united" on the party's other policies. 

Mr McConnell said: "Malcolm Chisholm has made a substantial 
contribution to devolved government in Scotland in both the 
health and communities portfolios, and I am very grateful for 
that. 

"But I understand Malcolm's position and have accepted his 
resignation." 

Trident submarine]            

   A second resignation                            

Speaking to BBC Scotland, Mr Chisholm said: "The important thing 
for me was to signal my opposition to Trident and the obvious way 
to do that was to vote for that last motion put to the 
parliament. 

"It was not easy for me, in fact it proved impossible for me to 
have said one thing a couple of weeks ago and vote the opposite 
of it today. 

"Clearly it is not tenable for a minister to be going against the 
Labour whip in the way that I did." 

SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon congratulated Mr Chisholm for 
taking "a principled stance" and described his resignation as a 
"body blow" for the first minister. 

"Only two weeks ago Mr McConnell told all MSPs to act with their 
conscience and now it appears that he cannot stand to have anyone 
with integrity in his own cabinet," she said. 

'Out of touch' 

"The first minister has failed to stand up for Scotland on the
issue of Trident and has time and time again rolled over to his
London bosses. 

"This whole issue demonstrates just how out of touch he is with
the Scottish public and even members of his own party." 

The SNP's motion was defeated by 72 to 45, while three
amendments - lodged by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the
Conservatives - were also defeated. 

The other Labour rebels were Bill Butler, Elaine Smith and
Marlyn Glenn. 

Mr Chisholm's successor is not expected to be announced until
next year. 		 	 		 	 	 

*****************************************************************
 22 Guardian Unlimited: Union warns of funding crisis for UK nuclear clean-up | |

Mark Milner, industrial editor

Thursday December 21, 2006

[Sellafield nuclear power plant] 

Sellafield in Cumbria, one of Britain's remaining Magnox
reactors. Photograph: PA.
   
 Britain's £2bn a year nuclear clean-up programme is facing a
drastic slowdown because of a threatened shortfall in funding,
according to trade unions. Prospect, the union which represents
engineers in the nuclear industry, blames what it calls
"Treasury short termism gone mad".

The funding shortfall is expected to be about £200m, with
Prospect warning that it understands the British Nuclear Group
reactor sites business will see a shortfall of £106m; UK Atomic
Energy Authority will be £57m short; and the Sellafield site
licence company will have about £50m less than it needs.

The government acknowledged that there were "uncertainties" 
around the amount of cash the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority 
(NDA) would earn from its commercial operations and how much of 
that money would be used to fund the clean-up. But it denied that 
it was cutting its £1bn grant to the NDA, the body responsible 
for cleaning up Britain's civil nuclear legacy.

The NDA receives about £2bn a year, half from the government and
half from cash-generating operations such as the Thorp
reprocessing plant at Sellafield and the last of Britain's
Magnox reactors.

Prospect National Secretary Mike Graham said: "A key tenet of
the NDA's strategy since its inception was that it would fast
track decommissioning and clean-up of the civil nuclear legacy
to provide the best approach in terms of safety, costs and
sustainability.

"That policy has been at the heart of all negotiations with key
stakeholders ...but now the Treasury is set to pull the rug from
under the NDA's feet... This is short-termism gone mad."

The Department of Trade and Industry today said it was in
discussions with the NDA but a spokesman insisted: "We are not
cutting the grant in aid. We are not cutting the [government]
funding but the performance of some commercial operations is
subject to uncertainty. We are talking to them [the NDA] about
the budget.

The NDA said it was "asking our contractors to consider plans
for various budget scenarios", but would not elaborate any
further. "When these plans are further developed and our funding
position for next year is clear we will be in a position to
provide further information."

The NDA said the position was unlikely to be clarified until the
end of January.

Mr Graham warned of the knock-on effect if the NDA did not get
the funds. "What the Treasury fails to grasp is that you can't
stop and start nuclear decommissioning. It requires highly
skilled operators with expertise developed over a long period of
time.
 
[UP] 

    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 23 Mos News: Russia Successfully Tests SS-18 Satan Intercontinental Ballistic Missile - 

- MOSNEWS.COM
 
Photo from www.lenta.ru                 
 	 	
Created: 21.12.2006 16:10 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:39 MSK 	
 	
MosNews
 	 	 	 	 
Russia successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic 
missile Thursday in a launch intended to extend the lifetime of 
aging Soviet-built weapons, the Defense Ministry is quoted by the 
Associated Press news agency.

The RS-20V Voevoda, which NATO identifies as the SS-18 Satan, was 
fired from its silo in the southern Ural Mountains’ Orenburg 
region.

Officials said it hit a target on a testing ground on the Far 
East Kamchatka Peninsula, more than 6,000 kilometers (3,750 
miles) away.

“The launch once again confirmed the technical characteristics of 
the missile and its readiness to perform combat tasks while its 
service lifetime has been extended,” Defense Ministry’s spokesman 
Igor Kostyshin told The Associated Press.

Russia has conducted regular test launches of Soviet-built
ballistic missile to check their readiness. A post-Soviet
funding shortage has left the country short of funds to replace
its aging arsenals with new missiles.

The missile, capable of hitting 10 individually guided nuclear
warheads at targets 11,000 kilometers (more than 6,800 miles)
away, is the heaviest weapon in Russia’s arsenal. The SS-18 and
another multi-warhead missile, the SS-19, have formed the core
of Russia’s strategic forces since the Soviet era. 	 	 	 

Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
*****************************************************************
 24 UPI: Analysis: U.K. sends mixed nukes signals
     
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 

12/21/2006 6:31:00 PM -0500

 By STEFAN NICOLA UPI Correspondent

BERLIN, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The British government is sending out
mixed signals with its recent decision to modernize and at the
same time scale down its nuclear weapons arsenal. 

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a speech earlier this
month, announced his government's plan to replace the country's
U.S.-made Trident D5 nuclear missiles and purchase new British
submarines in a deal worth up to $40 billion over the next 30
years. 

The U.K.'s nuclear weapons arsenal since 1993 consists of
sea-based missiles only. Launched in the mid-1990s, the four
British Vanguard subs are able to carry 16 sea-ground missiles
each able to be mounted with up to 12 nuclear warheads. 

The new vessels are scheduled to begin service soon after the
old Vanguard subs are outdated, starting in 2022. 

While this decision is a clear commitment to keep the U.K.
listed as a nuclear power for the foreseeable future, Blair also
said the stock of nuclear warheads will be reduced by 20 percent
to under 160. Britain thus keeps its title of owning the
smallest stockpile of nukes among the five 'official' nuclear
powers recognized by the Non-Proliferation Treaty -- besides the
U.K the United States, France, Russia and China. 

The move, which Blair said is necessary in light of potential
threats from international terrorism and states with nuclear
ambitions, such as Iran and North Korea, has sparked mixed
reactions. 

"Britain is sending out two different signals," Ronja Kempin,
security policy expert at the German Institute for International
and Security Affairs, a think tank that advises the German
government, Thursday told United Press International in a
telephone interview. 

The first, she said, was the signal that London wants to keep
nuclear weapons as a last defense resort given today's volatile
security situation. "That's naturally encouraging states like
Iran and North Korea" in their quest to acquire nuclear weapons,
she said. 

Observers say any announcement pro-proliferation undermined the
West's negotiations to keep Iran and North Korea from acquiring
nuclear weapons. These negotiations are ongoing and have so far
hardly proven successful. 

Left-wingers from Blair's Labor Party had voiced their
opposition to keeping the nuclear deterrent; they are in a
minority, however, and Gordon Brown, slated to become Labor's
next premier candidate, is also supporting the move. 

The second signal, however -- reducing the number of its nuclear
warheads by 20 percent -- is supportive of non-proliferation
arguments, observers say. 

"That shows the U.K. is taking the non-proliferation treaty
seriously," said Kempin, who, together with her colleague Frank
Kupferschmidt, analyzed the move in a recent paper. 

"With the announced reduction of its atomic warheads, (the
British government) puts on the spot the remaining nuclear
powers -- especially France, which has spent substantial money
to enlarge its nuclear weapons arsenal," the paper said. 

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, France has
evolved into the dominating nuclear force in Europe. French
President Jacques Chirac said earlier this year that France,
having updated its arsenal to be able to launch a tactic strike
against smaller "centers of power," was prepared to launch a
nuclear attack against countries financing terror attacks. 

The move is also aimed at strengthening the domestic economy,
the two experts conclude. BAE Systems, the British arms
manufacturer expected to build the submarines, has been in
trouble recently after allegations of corruption surfaced in
connection with the sale of 72 Eurofighter war planes to Saudi
Arabia. A corruption probe against BAE was dropped by Blair, who
justified the decision with security concerns and a lack of
evidence. "An estimated 50,000 jobs" are at stake in connection
with the deal, the paper said. 

British lawmakers will vote on the government's nuclear
proposals in March, although with the Tory Party's support,
approval is sure.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 25 [NukeNet] Bush India Statement Raises Congress Concerns
 
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 17:37:21 -0800

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<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)


    Astonishingly outrageous and yet another
example of Bush's psychopathology and the need for
his removal from office:



http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-nuclear-india-usa.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
  Bush India Statement Raises Congress Concerns
   a.. Sign In to E-Mail or Save This
   b.. Print



By REUTERS
Published: December 21, 2006
Filed at 11:14 a.m. ET

Skip to next paragraph
Blog
The Caucus
Kate Phillips and The Times's politics staff
report on the latest political news from around
the nation.

   a.. More Politics News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A statement by President
Bush issued in connection with the just-signed
U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation law has
raised concerns that Bush may try to circumvent
some of Congress' intentions, lawmakers and
analysts say.

The statement, clarifying Bush's views on law and
policy, was issued after he signed legislation on
Monday permitting U.S. sales of nuclear fuel and
reactors to India for the first time in 30 years.

In the statement, Bush said his signature ``does
not constitute my adoption of the statements of
policyas U.S. foreign policy.'' Also in responding
to reports mandated by Congress, he would consider
how releasing data requested by lawmakers might
``impair foreign relations.''

In one of its most controversial directives,
Congress stipulated in the law that presidents
should report annually on India's cooperation in
restraining Iran's nuclear program, which Bush has
condemned as a major international threat.

``With his recent signing statement, once again
the president has shown he views Congress as a
nuisance rather than an equal branch of government
under the Constitution,'' said Sen. Tom Harkin of
Iowa, a Democrat whose party will control a
majority of the new Congress to be sworn in next
month.

It was ``outrageous that the president has
repeatedly stated the greatest threat to U.S.
national security is a nuclear Iran, yet
explicitly rejects Congress' declaration that it
shall be the official policy of the United States
that India will not use its nuclear technology to
help develop Iran's nuclear weapons arsenal,''
Harkin said in a news release.

'THUMBING HIS NOSE'

In the statement, Bush also said he considered as
only ''advisory'' a congressional directive
prohibiting nuclear transfers to India that
conflict with guidelines of the 45-nation Nuclear
Suppliers Group, which the United States helped
establish years ago to restrain nuclear trade.

Democratic Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts
said this shows Bush is ``reserving the right to
ignore the Nuclear Suppliers Group.''

The president is ``turning decades of U.S.
international policy on its head -- and thumbing
his nose at Congress at the same time,'' added
Markey, co-chair of the House of Representatives
task force on non-proliferation.

Separately, during a telephone conversation
between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
Bush on Thursday, Singh said he still had some
concerns over the law.

``The Prime Minister said India still has some
concerns, though many have already been expressed
in the President's signing statement,'' said a
statement from Singh's office.

Critics in India say the deal may constrain New
Delhi's policy toward Iran as well as its nuclear
weapons program and fails to guarantee
uninterrupted fuel supplies for civilian reactors.

Before U.S. nuclear exports can begin, other
approvals are needed including a Nuclear Suppliers
Group decision to change its rules barring trade
with India and passage of a second U.S. law.

Some non-proliferation experts worry that if the
United States does not win NSG approval -- which
must be by unanimous consent -- Bush will let the
trade with India go forward.

The White House and State Department rejected such
interpretations of Bush's statement.

Asked if Bush might ignore the NSG, a State
Department official told Reuters: ``No, quite the
opposite.''

He said that while NSG guidelines are ``political
commitments,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
``has been very clear that we're not going to do
the (nuclear) deal without consensus in the NSG.''

Meanwhile, a White House official said the
statement's treatment of the NSG ``is not
regarding any particular intended course of
foreign policy or with any particular practical
effect in terms of intended treatment of
materialtransfer.''

Rather, the statement is intended to deal with the
''domestic issue of government power rather than
an issue of international nuclear policy,'' he
said.

Justice Department lawyers were concerned the way
the law is written meant that a change in NSG
rules would force a change in U.S. law, a U.S.
official said.


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*****************************************************************
 26 toledoblade.com: FirstEnergy gets warning over falsified Pa. records

Article published Thursday, December 21, 2006

SHIPPINGPORT, Pa. - FirstEnergy Corp. apparently got off with a
warning over falsified inspection records at its Beaver Valley
Unit 1 nuclear plant here in 2005 - a far cry from the $33.5
million in fines the utility incurred for problems revealed at
Davis-Besse in 2002.
 
Though both cases involved reactor heads, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission said Tuesday it saw that the utility was not directly
responsible for what happened at Pennsylvania site.

 The agency's Office of Investigations agreed with FirstEnergy's
nuclear subsidiary that a former contract mechanical engineer at
Beaver Valley had, in a report submitted June 1, 2005,
deliberately misrepresented the degree to which reactor-head
inspections had been done there.

 The NRC said it is giving FirstEnergy until June 30, 2007 to
submit a "lessons learned" report and case-study analysis on the
matter to all of the nation's 103 nuclear plants.

 In September, the agency said the problem at Beaver Valley was
caught by FirstEnergy but by a clerk filing records, not a
supervisor.

 The agency recognized measures FirstEnergy took in response to
the Beaver Valley incident, including undisclosed disciplinary
action against responsible individuals.
 
 The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660
, (419) 724-6000 
*****************************************************************
 27 Rutland Herald: U.S. cites Yankee for 'hot' shipment

Rutland Vermont News & Information
 	 	 	 	 	 
December 21, 2006 

By DANIEL BARLOW Herald Staff   
  			 
VERNON — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will increase
its oversight of shipments coming out of Vermont Yankee nuclear
power plant after a piece of equipment sent out this summer had
a radiation level four times higher than the federal limit.

The equipment, shipped Aug. 31 to the Susquehanna nuclear power
plant in Salem Township, Pa., had a radiation level of 820
millirems per hour. The maximum allowable level is 200 millirems.

The NRC issued Vermont Yankee a white finding, which means the
agency determined the violation posed a "low to moderate" risk.
White is the second on a four-color scale of violations, one
level above green, which is the least serious.

Green findings generally are handled internally by the energy
company. A white finding requires corrective action from the NRC.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the agency would conduct
supplemental inspections of Vermont Yankee shipments to
determine if the corrective procedures put in place by plant
officials have solved the problem.

"We are going to supplement our inspection resources to
determine how they have dealt with this issue," Sheehan said.
"If we determine that they have dealt with it, then that's the
end of it."

The shipment in question contained a control rod crusher, a
piece of equipment that is used to break down used control rods
— components that are highly radioactive because of their
prolonged exposure to fuel rods. Residual contamination from the
rods spreads to the crushing equipment.

The crusher was owned by a contractor and was being shipped to
the Pennsylvania plant for use there. When it arrived, the
crusher had a radiation level of 820 millirems — more than four
times the allowed limit set by the U.S. Department of
Transportation — was found.

NRC officials ruled in September that the radiation level rose
because a small strip of metal and two hot particles shifted
within the containment box in which the device was shipped. The
shift occurred in transit, when the shipment was on a flatbed
truck.

"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 confirmed with DOT
radiation limits," NRC Administrator Samuel Collins wrote to
plant owner Entergy Vermont Nuclear, according to a news release
from the agency.

Over-the-limit radioactive shipments are uncommon in the
industry, Sheehan noted. In this case, no one was d in danger
because they had contact with the shipment.

"These occurrences are few and far between," he said.

Rob Williams, a spokesperson for Entergy, said the error led
plant officials to evaluate the procedures in place for
shipments that come in contact with radioactive materials.

"We have improvements that are now in place to address this," he
said.

Shipments from the facility will be better "encapsulated" to
ensure that items do not shake loose, he said. In addition, the
facility will use fully enclosed trucks and trailers, as opposed
to the flatbed vehicles previously used.

Vermont Yankee has been issued two other color-coded warnings by
the NRC in the past six years. In August 2001, one month before
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that brought renewed attention to
nuclear facility security, the NRC gave the plant a yellow
finding, the third on the scale, based on a series of security
inspections.

And then in 2004, the NRC gave the plant a green finding because
it failed to update its database of the people in the area who
requested tone-alert weather radios, which are used to warn area
residents of emergencies at the facility.

NRC and Entergy officials said both issues have been addressed.

Ed Anthes of Dummerston, a member of Nuclear Free Vermont, a
grassroots group that is trying to close the 34-year-old
facility, said the NRC ruling "again shows that Vermont Yankee
is not safe."

"Although the NRC seems willing to put up with dirty shipments
coming out from the plant, the people in the state of Vermont
should not," he said.

Entergy officials have waived their right to have a regulatory
hearing before the NRC. The company is required to inform the
agency in 30 days of the corrective measures it has taken.
Williams said Entergy has told the NRC of its new procedures and
planned to formally file that paperwork soon.

*****************************************************************
 28 AFP: Canada eyes nuclear power to boost Alberta oil sands production
    
 Thu Dec 21, 5:49 PM ET 		 	 

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada will likely use nuclear power to feed its 
booming Alberta oil patch, which needs large amounts of energy to 
produce oil to export, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn told 
media. 

 "It's not a question of if, it's a question of when in my
mind," Lunn told the Canadian newspaper chain Sun Media. "I
think nuclear can play a very significant role in the oil sands.
I'm very, very keen." 

"It's absolutely emission free. It's CO2 free," he said. "On
this specific file, I've had discussions this week." 

A spokeswoman in his ministry told AFP she could not elaborate
on Lunn's comments. 

At an estimated 179 billion barrels, Canada's oil sands rank
second behind Saudi Arabia in petroleum reserves. However, due
to high extraction costs, the deposits were long neglected,
except by local companies. 

While crude is pumped from the ground, oil sands must be mined
and bitumen separated from the sand and water. 

Since 2000, skyrocketing crude prices and improved extraction
technology have persuaded several foreign companies to invest
billions of dollars in projects. 

Oil sands production is expected to continue climbing to 3.5
million barrels per day by 2015, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development said in its annual report in June. 

But a government environmental audit released in September found
the oil patch, already Canada's worst polluter, would also
double its harmful greenhouse gas emissions by then. 

Lunn said he believes nuclear power could replace natural gas
and other fossil fuels now burned to help extract bitumen from
the oil sands, suggesting Atomic Energy of Canada would partner
with an oil company to build a reactor. 

But, the plan provoked concern from oil companies over the high
cost of building a reactor and from environmentalists wary of
nuclear power as a panacea to fight global warming. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 29 Sofia Echo:  BULGARIA SHUTS DOWN NPP UNITS BY DECEMBER 31 - 

Bulgaria and the World news
 
:42 Thu 21 Dec 2006 

The Council of Ministers decided to close Kozlodui nuclear power 
plant (NPP) units three and four by December 31 2006. 

Bulgaria has to shut down two units of its six-block NPP to meet 
European Union (EU) nuclear safety requirements, Focus news 
agency said. The closure of the units was included in Bulgaria's 
EU accession treaty signed on April 25 2005. 

Two units had already been closed down in 2002. 

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told Parliament that many times 
while negotiating Bulgarian European Parliament (EP) observers 
from all parties tried to explain to EP the negative consequence 
of the closure. 

When it comes to nuclear energy, opinions in the EU were divided, 
Stanishev said. Still, Bulgaria plans to continue developing 
nuclear energy production. 

On December 21 2006 Bulgaria's Nuclear Regulatory Agency approved 
the site for the construction of Bulgaria's second NPP Belene, 
Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) said. 

Bulgarian and foreign expert organisations and scientific 
institutions concluded that the site  met all standards for 
nuclear and seismic safety. Russian company Atomstroyexport won 
the Belene tender in November 2006. The first unit of the plant 
should be ready in 6.5 years.  				 				 				 				 				 	 	 	 


  Web     www.sofiaecho.com   
*****************************************************************
 30 Brattleboro Reformer: NRC to scrutinize VY shipments

By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff                                   

Thursday, December 21 BRATTLEBORO -- A day after the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission announced it found no environmental or
safety reasons to stand in the way of Vermont Yankee's license
extension, it said the plant would receive "additional
oversight" because of a shipment violation three months ago. 

On Aug. 31, a freight shipment containing radioactively
contaminated equipment was moved from Vernon to the Susquehanna
nuclear power plant, in Salem Township, Penn. According to
federal Department of Transportation regulations, radiation at
the surface of the shipped package can't exceed 200 millirems
per hour, but when the equipment arrived in Pennsylvania, it was
registering 820 millirems. 

The NRC said the increased radiation level was due to movement
of "highly radioactive particles" to the bottom of the package. 

The equipment Entergy sent to the Susquehanna nuclear power
plant was a control rod crusher and shearer, owned by a separate
vendor. In Pennsylvania, inspectors found that a "sliver of
metal" of high radioactivity and two small "hot particles" fell
from the top of the crusher to the bottom. 

Rob Williams, spokesman for Vermont Yankee, said that once they 
were notified of the shipping violation, they began an evaluation 
of their shipping and handling procedures. He said new procedures 
in place "should prevent the movement of metal particles during 
transportation." 

He said equipment shipped and intended for reuse at another
location will be better encapsulated prior to being placed
inside shipping containers. In addition, said Williams, those
shipping containers will now be placed inside enclosed trailers. 

According to a statement from NRC Region One Administrator
Samuel J. Collins, the general public was not exposed to any
increased radiation levels, but those levels had "the potential
to adversely affect personnel who would normally receive the
package." 

"In addition," he wrote, "it was fortuitous that the surface of
the package was inaccessible to the public during transport." 

For the next four quarters, federal inspectors will have an
enhanced role in reviewing how Entergy, the owner of the power
plant, decontaminates and prepares freight before it leaves the
Vernon plant. 

The oversight will continue "until we are satisfied the issue
has been resolved," wrote NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan in an
e-mail. "We will at some point schedule a supplemental
inspection to assess steps Entergy has taken to address the
issue." 

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 classified as "white," which
signifies the issue is of low to moderate safety significance. 

This is the first time in two years Vermont Yankee has received
a white inspection finding. The plant hasn't gotten anything
higher than a "green" inspection finding for the last two years,
the lowest finding. In 2004, the NRC gave the plant a white
finding for its distribution, or insufficient distribution, of
tone alert radios. 

Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.comor (802)
254-2311, ext. 271. 

» BerkshireEagle.com
*****************************************************************
 31 NRC: FEIS early site permit for North Anna

[Docket No. 52-008]
 
                        FR Doc E6-21804 
[Federal Register: December 21, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 245)] 
[Notices] [Page 76705-76706] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr21de06-102]                         

Notice of Availability of Final Environmental Impact Statement 
for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the North Anna ESP Site Notice 
is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
 
[[Page 76706]]
has published NUREG-1811, ``Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 
for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the North Anna ESP Site: Final 
Report'' (FEIS). The FEIS contains two volumes. The site is 
located in Louisa County, Virginia, near the Town of Mineral. A 
notice of availability of the draft EIS was published in the 
Federal Register on December 12, 2004 (69 FR 71854), and a 
supplement to the draft EIS was subsequently published on July 
12, 2006 (71 FR 39372).
 
The purpose of this notice is to inform the public that the FEIS 
is available for public inspection in the NRC Public Document 
Room (PDR) located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike 
(First Floor), Rockville, Maryland 20852, or from the Publicly 
Available Records component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access 
and Management System (ADAMS), and will also be placed directly 
on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov. ADAMS is accessible 
from the NRC Web site at www.nrc.gov/ reading-rm/adams.html (the 
Public Electronic Reading Room). Persons who do not have access 
to ADAMS, or who encounter problems in accessing the documents 
located in ADAMS, should contact the PDR reference staff by 
telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 1-301-415-4737, or by e-mail at

 
pdr@nrc.gov. In addition, the following public libraries in the 
vicinity of the North Anna ESP Site have agreed to make the FEIS 
available for public inspection: Louisa County Library, 
Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, 881 Davis Highway, Mineral, 
Virginia 23117.
 
Hanover Branch Library, 7527 Library Drive, Hanover, Virginia 
23069.
 
Salem Church Library, 2607 Salem Church Road, Fredericksburg, 
Virginia 22407.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jack Cushing, Environmental 
Projects Branch 1, Division of Site and Environmental Reviews, 
Office of New Reactors, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555- 0001. Mr. Cushing may be contacted by 
telephone at 301-415-1424, or by e-mail at jxc9@nrc.gov. Dated at 
Rockville, Maryland, this 14th day of December, 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
James E. Lyons, Director, Division of Site and Environmental 
Reviews, Office of New Reactors.
 
[FR Doc. E6-21804 Filed 12-20-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 32 NRC: Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station; Notice of Availability of 
 
                        FR Doc E6-21805 
[Federal Register: December 21, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 245)] 
[Notices] [Page 76706-76707] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr21de06-104]                         
 
the Draft Supplement 30 to the Generic Environmental Impact 
Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, and Public 
Meeting for the License Renewal of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power 
Station Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC, Commission) has published a draft plant-specific 
supplement to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for 
License Renewal of Nuclear Plants (GEIS), NUREG-1437, regarding 
the renewal of operating licenses DPR-28 for an additional 20 
years of operation for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station 
(Vermont Yankee). Vermont Yankee is located in the town of 
Vernon, Vermont, in Windham County on the west shore of the 
Connecticut River. Possible alternatives to the proposed action 
(license renewal) include no action and reasonable alternative 
energy sources.
 
 
[[Page 76707]] The draft Supplement 30 to the GEIS is publicly 
available at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR), located at One 
White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 
20852, or from the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and 
Management System (ADAMS). The ADAMS Public Electronic Reading 
Room is accessible at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html. The Accession 
Number for the draft Supplement 30 to the GEIS is ML063390344. 
Persons who do not have access to ADAMS, or who encounter 
problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should 
contact the NRC's PDR reference staff by telephone at 
1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737, or via e-mail at

 
pdr@nrc.gov. In addition, the following libraries have agreed to 
make the draft supplement to the GEIS available for public 
inspection: Vernon Free Library, 567 Governor Hunt Road, Vernon, 
Vermont; Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, 
Vermont; Hinsdale Public Library, 122 Brattleboro Road, Hinsdale, 
New Hampshire; and Dickinson Memorial Library, 115 Main Street, 
Northfield, Massachusetts.
 
Any interested party may submit comments on the draft supplement 
to the GEIS for consideration by the NRC staff. To be considered, 
comments on the draft supplement to the GEIS and the proposed 
action must be received by March 7, 2007; the NRC staff is able 
to assure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date. Comments received after the due date will be 
considered only if it is practical to do so. Written comments on 
the draft supplement to the GEIS should be sent to: Chief, Rules 
and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, 
Office of Administration, Mailstop T-6D59, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Comments may be 
hand-delivered to the NRC at 11545 Rockville Pike, Room T-6D59, 
Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal 
workdays. Electronic comments may be submitted to the NRC by e- 
mail at VermontYankeeEIS@nrc.gov. All comments received by the 
Commission, including those made by Federal, State, local 
agencies, Native American Tribes, or other interested persons, 
will be made available electronically at the Commission's PDR in 
Rockville, Maryland, and through ADAMS.
 
The NRC staff will hold a public meeting to present an overview 
of the draft plant-specific supplement to the GEIS and to accept 
public comments on the document. The public meeting will be held 
on January 31, 2007, at the Latchis Theatre, 50 Main Street, 
Brattleboro, Vermont. There will be two sessions to accommodate 
interested parties.
 
The first session will convene at 1:30 p.m. and will continue 
until 4:30 p.m., as necessary. The second session will convene at 
7 p.m. with a repeat of the overview portions of the meeting and 
will continue until 10 p.m., as necessary. Both meetings will be 
transcribed and will include: (1) A presentation of the contents 
of the draft plant-specific supplement to the GEIS, and (2) the 
opportunity for interested government agencies, organizations, 
and individuals to provide comments on the draft report. 
Additionally, the NRC staff will host informal discussions one 
hour prior to the start of each session at the same location. No 
comments on the draft supplement to the GEIS will be accepted 
during the informal discussions. To be considered, comments must 
be provided either at the transcribed public meeting or in 
writing. Persons may pre-register to attend or present oral 
comments at the meeting by contacting Mr. Richard L. Emch, Jr., 
the Senior Project Manager, at 1-800-368-5642, extension 1590, or 
via e-mail at

 
VermontYankeeEIS@nrc.gov no later than January 24, 2007. Members 
of the public may also register to provide oral comments within 
15 minutes of the start of each session. Individual, oral 
comments may be limited by the time available, depending on the 
number of persons who register. If special equipment or 
accommodations are needed to attend or present information at the 
public meeting, the need should be brought to the attention of 
Mr. Emch's attention no later than January 24, 2007, to provide 
the NRC staff adequate notice to determine whether the request 
can be accommodated.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Richard L. Emch, Jr., 
Environmental Branch B, Division of License Renewal, Office of 
Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Mail Stop O- 11F1, Washington, DC, 20555-0001. Mr. Emch may be 
contacted at the aforementioned telephone number or e-mail 
address.
 
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day of December, 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rani L. Franovich, Branch 
Chief, Environmental Branch B, Division of License Renewal, 
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. E6-21805 Filed 12-20-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 33 NRC: PPL Susquehanna, LLC; Notice of Correction to the Public Scoping 
 
                        FR Doc E6-21807 
[Federal Register: December 21, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 245)] 
[Notices] [Page 76706] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr21de06-103]                         
 
Comment Period for the Environmental Impact Statement for the 
License Renewal of Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Units 1 
and 2 Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC or the Commission) has corrected the public 
scoping comment period for the plant-specific supplement to the 
``Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS),'' NUREG-1437, 
regarding the renewal of operating licenses NPF-14 and NPF-22 for 
an additional 20 years of operation at the Susquehanna Steam 
Electric Station (SSES), Units 1 and 2.
 
The application for renewal was received on September 13, 2006, 
pursuant to 10 CFR Part 54. A notice of Receipt and Availability 
of the license renewal application (LRA), was published in the 
Federal Register on October 2, 2006 (71 FR 58014). A notice of 
acceptability for docketing, notice of opportunity for a hearing 
and notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement 
and conduct scoping process, was published in the Federal 
Register on November 2, 2006 (71 FR 64566).
 
The purpose of this notice is to inform the public that the NRC 
has corrected the end of the comment period on the environmental 
scope of the SSES license renewal review from December 18, 2006, 
to January 2, 2007.
 
Any interested party may submit comments on the environmental 
scope of the SSES license renewal review for consideration by the 
NRC staff. To be certain of consideration, comments on the 
scoping process to the GEIS must be received by January 2, 2007. 
Comments received after the due date will be considered if it is 
practical to do so, but the NRC staff is able to assure 
consideration only for comments received on or before this date. 
Written comments on the environmental scope of the SSES license 
renewal review should be sent to the Chief, Rules and Directives 
Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of 
Administration, Mailstop T-6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
 
Comments may also be delivered to the NRC, Room T-6D59, Two White 
Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, from 7:45 
a.m. until 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. Electronic comments may 
be sent via the Internet to the NRC at SusquehannaEIS@nrc.gov. 
All comments received by the Commission, including those made by 
Federal, State, and local agencies, Indian tribes, or other 
interested persons, will be made available electronically and 
accessible from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management 
System (ADAMS) Public Reading Room on the Internet at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have 
access to ADAMS, or encounter problems in accessing the documents 
located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC's Public Document Room 
reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, or (301) 415-4737, or by 
e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alicia 
Mullins, License Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program, 
Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Ms. Mullins may also 
be contacted at (301) 415-1224, or by e-mail at

 
axm7@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 15th day of 
December 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Pao-Tsin Kuo, Acting Director Division of License Renewal Office 
of Nuclear Reactor, Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. E6-21807 Filed 12-20-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 34 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Subcommittee 
 
                        FR Doc E6-21815 
[Federal Register: December 21, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 245)] 
[Notices] [Page 76707] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr21de06-105]                         
 
Meeting on Materials, Metallurgy, and Reactor Fuels; Notice of 
Meeting The ACRS Subcommittee on Materials, Metallurgy, and 
Reactor Fuels will hold a meeting on January 19, 2007, Room 
T-2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
 
The entire meeting will be open to public attendance.
 
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Friday, 
January 19, 2007--8:30 a.m. until the conclusion of business.
 
The Subcommittee will review the NRC staff's proposed technical 
basis for supporting a revision to the technical acceptance 
criteria for fuel during a LOCA. The Subcommittee will hear 
presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the 
NRC staff, their contractors, representatives of the nuclear 
industry, and other interested persons regarding this matter. The 
Subcommittee will gather information, analyze relevant issues and 
facts, and formulate proposed positions and actions, as 
appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee.
 
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or 
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, 
Mr. Ralph Caruso (telephone 301/415-8065) five days prior to the 
meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be 
made.
 
Electronic recordings will be permitted.
 
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by 
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 7:15 a.m. and 
5 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged to 
contact the above named individual at least two working days 
prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes to 
the agenda.
 
Dated: December 14, 2006.
 
Antonio F. Dias, Acting Branch Chief, ACRS/ACNW.
 
[FR Doc. E6-21815 Filed 12-20-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 35 Russia Newswire: Rosenergoatom: First Unit of Kursk NPP is Being Prepared for Restart
 

Date:     21/12/2006                                                  

MOSCOW (RNWire) - The 1st unit of Kursk NPP is being prepared for 
restarting. It was automatically stopped on Dec 18, 2006, 
following the switching-off of two circulation pumps.
 
The automatic protection system reacted in line with the project 
algorithm, which has proved once again that the security system 
of the KNPP is quite effective and reliable.
 
The preliminary assessment of the incident is 0 on INES scale (no 
significant risk).
 
The radioactive emission rate is within admissible limits. On Dec 
19 the gamma radiation background in the nearby area was 
0.08â€“0.11 micro sievert/hour, which is exactly the level 
registered in the area before the launch of the NPP in 1975.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           



© 2004-2006 Russia Newswire   

  
*****************************************************************
 36 AFP: Indian PM voices concern to Bush on nuke deal

December 22, 03:16 AM 
 
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian premier Manmohan Singh has expressed
"some concerns" on a nuclear deal with the United States in a
telephone talk with US President George W. Bush, officials said. 

Singh told Bush that "India still has some concerns, although
many have been addressed," the prime minister's spokesman
Sanjaya Baru said on Thursday. 

The landmark deal, which offers India access to long-denied US
civilian nuclear technology, was signed by Bush on Monday. 

"Both leaders expressed the hope that remaining concerns will be
addressed in the next stage of negotiation," Baru added. 

Under the deal, which is still being finalised, the US 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 Singh in July 2005 in
a strategic partnership that also aimed at boosting military
ties and investments and trade. 

   Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 37 AU ABC: Authorities doubt missing radioactive substance stolen
 
ABC Perth | Local News | Story 

 Thursday, 21 December 2006. 21:15 (AEDT)Thursday, 21 December

 The Health Department says a canister containing radioactive
material is missing somewhere in Western Australia. 

The radioactive substance is used by the mining industry to
search for minerals, oil and gas. 

It was due to be transported from Perth to Dampier in the
state's north-west last month but did not arrive. 

The Health Department says there is no suggestion the canister
was stolen and it could be on the side of the road somewhere
between Perth and Dampier. 

The Health Department's acting director general, Simon Towler,
says people should stand at least five metres away from the
canister because it emits low radiation and the risk is higher
if it is tampered with. 

"We believe it would be very difficult to open. If you were to
be exposed to it for any substantial period of time, like any
radiation, that would be when there is a significant risk," he
said. 

"It is appropriate that people take care if they discover the
device. 

"If you are exposed to any form of radiation you can in fact
become quite sick over time. 

"The radiation is dependent on time and exposure, you can get
skin damage, quite often you can get damage to the bone marrow." 

*****************************************************************
 38 NRC: NRC Proposes $3,250 Civil Penalty for Pa. Firm for Portable Nuclear Gauge Violations
 
News Release - Region I - 2006-06 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY 
COMMISSION 

Office of Public Affairs, Region I No. I-06-066                          
December 21, 2006 CONTACT:     Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil 
A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331                     E-mail: 
opa1@nrc.gov  

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a $3,250 fine for 
Pennoni Associates, Inc., a Bethlehem, Pa., engineering firm, for 
three violations of agency requirements involving the control and 
security of a portable nuclear gauge. The device, which contains 
small amounts of radioactive material, is used for such 
industrial purposes as checking the density of soil at 
construction sites. 

NRC inspectors identified the violations during a special 
inspection conducted between Aug. 21 and Sept. 21 at the companys 
Bethlehem offices and at temporary job sites in Rehrersburg and 
Chambersburg, Pa. That inspection was performed to review the 
circumstances surrounding an event that took place in August. 

On Aug. 21, Pennoni notified the NRC that a portable nuclear 
gauge belonging to the firm was missing. The gauge had been 
stored in a vehicle owned by a company employee authorized to use 
the gauge. The employee had loaned the vehicle to a relative at 
11 p.m. on Aug. 19 to perform a short errand. The gauge was 
locked and stored in the back seat of the vehicle when it was 
borrowed. It was inside a locked transportation container, which 
was secured to the vehicle by a locked cable. The vehicle was not 
returned to the company employee that night, as promised. 

On Aug. 23, another relative of the company employee located the 
vehicle and returned it. However, the gauge and its 
transportation container were missing. The relative informed the 
Pennoni staffer that the gauge had been removed from the vehicle 
and left on the front porch of a residence in Bethlehem. The 
company retrieved the gauge from the porch later that day and 
returned it to a company storage location in Bethlehem. It was 
determined that a lock on the transportation container had been 
broken and one of its handles damaged. However, there was no 
damage to the gauge and the radioactive material inside was still 
safely shielded. 

Although you determined that the sources remained in their 
shielded position during the time the gauge was in the public 
domain and, therefore, no member of the public received 
measurable radiation exposure, these violations are of concern to 
the NRC because (1) the failure to control radioactive material 
resulted in the gauge being in the public domain for 
approximately four days; and (2) such sources can result in 
unintended radiation dose to an individual if the sources are 
removed from their shielded position, NRC Region I Administrator 
Samuel J. Collins wrote in a letter to Pennoni Associates 
notifying the company of the enforcement action. 

The violations identified by the NRC are: 1) a failure to use a 
minimum of two independent physical controls to prevent 
unauthorized removal of a nuclear gauge when it was not under 
direct control and constant surveillance of company personnel; 2) 
a failure to maintain constant surveillance of the device in an 
unrestricted area; and 3) a failure to make an immediate 
telephone report to the NRC after the gauge was discovered to be 
missing. 

The company participated in a predecisional enforcement 
conference with the NRC in order to provide additional 
information about the event and inspection. The conference, which 
was open for observation, was held on Nov. 28 at the NRC Region I 
Office in King of Prussia, Pa., and included a discussion of 
steps taken by the firm to recover the gauge and to prevent a 
recurrence. These corrective actions include the appointment of a 
new Radiation Safety Office as soon as the individual has 
completed training and the launch of a program to perform 
unannounced audits of authorized gauge users to ensure compliance 
with safety and regulatory requirements, including assuring that 
radioactive material is secure at all times. 

The company is required to provide the NRC with a written reply 
within 30 days.   
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------


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 Thursday, December 21, 2006 	   
*****************************************************************
 39 PTC: Take Time to Say No

Pulse of the Twin Cities - Locally Grown Alternative Newspaper
 
[• Frames, Lenses, Contacts • Eye Exams • Dr. James Buchli On 
Staff • Thin Lens Specialist • Unique Selection of Frames • 
Hours: M-F 10 am - 6pm Sat. 10 am - 3 pm] 1 Search: Welcome to 
PulseTC.com

Thursday 21 December @ 20:54:28            

[News] by SUSU JEFFREY

Half of Minnesota's population is in the radiation shadow of two
nuclear power plants on the Mississippi River. The radiation
zones from the Monticello and Prairie Island nuclear plants
overlap in the Twin Cities so we get a double dose of "routine"
releases. Monticello, 30 miles north, went online in 1970, with
a 40-year license and was just relicensed for another 20 years.
Imagine driving a 40-year-old car for another 20 years. 

Prairie Island's two nuclear reactors went online in 1973 and
1974, 40 miles downstream on the Mississippi River. In addition
to the two reactors (a double nuke), there are 22 casks storing
nuclear waste on the island. Each cask weighs 122 tons. Prairie
Island is a sandbar at the confluence of the Vermillion and
Mississippi rivers.

The casks look like giant beer cans--16 feet, 10 inches tall.
Each 8-inch-thick cask is made of steel (not lead) and holds
6,760 very hot fuel rods. Rods get cooked inside a reactor for
three to five years until they lose efficiency, at which point
they are gently removed and placed in a cooling pool for 10
years. All this heat boils water which creates steam which turns
turbines which then generate energy.

Cooling pools at both Monticello and Prairie Island nuclear
plants might be tempting targets. (Does the Department of
Homeland Security understand this?) Prairie Island has one
outside wall, which could be breeched by a single person armed
with a shoulder-held rocket launcher. Monticello's cooling pool
has two outside walls, a metal roof and is located on the same
level as the reactor. 

Minnesota's nuclear plants are "world-class dirty bombs
ready-to-go, strategically located, lacking only a detonator,"
says George Crocker, co-founder of the North American Water
Office. How these suicidal designs pass the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission is a question only money can answer.

"Retired" nuclear fuel rods rest in a pool of circulating river
water for about 10 years to contain radiation and dissipate
heat. The hot rods, more than 600 degrees Fahrenheit, are
subsequently removed to outdoor, above-ground casks for
temporary storage. The 22 casks at Prairie Island can hold more
than 148,000 rods. 

Each fuel rod contains plutonium

Plutonium is a by-product of the reactor process. There is no
permanent storage for this poisonous nuclear waste, dangerous
for 240,000 years. The casks are designed to have a 25 to
50-year lifespan. There is no proven method for unloading or
moving the casks--it's never been done. 

The Monticello Nuclear Power Plant will run out of room in its
cooling pool, since it now has an extended 20-year operating
license. Instead of a transition from nuclear to wind-generated
power, Xcel is pushing for a 60-year reactor life and above
ground casks for "temporary" nuclear waste storage. 

When the power company was locally owned, Northern States Power
officials stated that above-ground nuclear waste storage at
Monticello, just upstream of the Twin Cities, was politically
unacceptable. Monticello is about 25 miles upstream from the
Minneapolis and St. Paul water intake pipes in Fridley.

If accidental releases into the Mississippi occur, water intake
valves would be closed until the radiation-contaminated water
passes downstream. Minneapolis has a 24-hour reserve water
supply. The Monticello nuclear plant routinely vents into the
air, and from the air, contamination falls to the ground and
into the water. Routine emissions are not considered
emergencies. Eighteen million Americans drink out of the
Mississippi. 

"None of this makes any sense unless you look at who makes the
money," says NAWO's Crocker. Xcel runs 71 generating plants,
with 9,781 employees, in 10 states, and exists to create wealth
for its stockholders--by law that is its mission. Taking into
account all costs and risks, nuclear power is the most expensive
method of electrical generation. NAWO's mission is to phase out
destructive, obsolete energy systems and to phase in efficient
technologies and modern renewables. 

Nukes v. Renewables
In 2003 the Legislature voted itself out of the decision-making
process, and to allow the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission
(PUC) authority to permit dry cask storage at Monticello--with
the caveat that in the year following the decision, the
Legislature could reverse that decision. In the upcoming
legislative session, which begins Jan. 3, 2007, the Legislature
has a chance to take responsibility and reverse its decision. 

The PUC decision was premised on the following delusions: that
the risk of continued nuclear operations, the risk of component
failure and metal fatigue, the risk of routine emissions, and
the risk of terrorism or sabotage at Monticello, is less than
the risk of relying on wind/gas power. So the question is
whether the wind will continue to blow "routine" releases out of
Monticello until 2030. The other future is one of efficiency and
a transition away from World War II technology.

Soon the bottom line will sink the economic heresy of nuclear
power. Efficiency pays for itself with everything from light
bulbs to energy audits. Wind power generation with hybrid gas
backup is already cheaper than nuclear power and could be in
production before the Monticello fuel pool fills up in 2010,
Crocker states. And beyond that, what do we do with the waste
for the next 240,000 years? 

"Pawlenty has done more for energy transition than any other
governor," Crocker says. Surprised? And State Sen. Ellen
Anderson (DFL-St. Paul) is chair of the Jobs, Energy and
Community Development Committee and a longtime clean energy
supporter.

In the state House, Rep. Bill Hilty (DFL-Finlayson) is chair of
the Energy Finance and Policy sub-committee. Crocker calls Hilty
one of the smartest, deepest thinkers in the Legislature. The
players are lined up. "We couldn't do better," says Crocker.

To avoid a nuclear waste dump on the Mississippi just upstream
of the Twin Cities and to regain Minnesota's business lead in
wind power generation, ask legislators to team up in a
bipartisan effort to transition to clean energy. 

Public pressure is needed: Gov. Tim Pawlenty 651-296-3391. Your
state representative 651-296-2146. Your state senator
651-296-0504.

FFI: North American Water Office: 
Nuclear Information and Research Service: 
Union of Concerned Scientists:   

Copyright © Pulse of the Twin Cities
*****************************************************************
 40 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Subcommittee 
 
                        FR Doc E6-21816 
[Federal Register: December 21, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 245)] 
[Notices] [Page 76707-76708] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr21de06-106]                         
 
Meeting on Power Uprates; Notice of Meeting The ACRS Subcommittee 
on Power Uprates will hold a meeting on January 16-17, 2007 at 
11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, Room T-2B3.
 
 
[[Page 76708]] The entire meeting will be open to public 
attendance.
 
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Tuesday, 
January 16, 2007--8:30 a.m. until the conclusion of business.
 
Wednesday, January 17, 2007--8:30 a.m. until the conclusion of 
business. The Subcommittee will review the proposed 5% power 
uprate for the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Unit 1. The 
Subcommittee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with 
representatives of the NRC staff, the Tennessee Valley Authority 
(the licensee), and other interested persons regarding this 
matter. The Subcommittee will gather information, analyze 
relevant issues and facts, and formulate proposed positions and 
actions, as appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee.
 
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or 
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, 
Mr. Ralph Caruso (Telephone: 301-415-8065) five days prior to the 
meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be 
made.
 
Electronic recordings will be permitted.
 
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by 
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 7:15 a.m. and 
5 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged to 
contact the above named individual at least two working days 
prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes to 
the agenda.
 
Dated: December 14, 2006.
 
Antonio F. Dias, Acting Branch Chief, ACRS/ACNW.
 
[FR Doc. E6-21816 Filed 12-20-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 41 Moscow Times: Fortum to Buy Nuclear Fuel

  Friday, December 22, 2006 / Updated Moscow Time         
  
Issue 3567. Page 6. 

Bloomberg 

Fortum, the Nordic region's No. 2 utility, will buy "hundreds of
millions of euros" of nuclear fuel from Russia to supply the
Loviisa power plant in Finland. 

Fortum will buy between 20 and 21 tons of low-enriched uranium
for its two reactors at Loviisa, said Ossi Koskivirta, the
utility's purchase manager for nuclear fuel. The contract with
Russian nuclear-fuel company Tvel will start in fall 2008 and
last until the end of the plant's operating life, the companies
said Thursday in a joint statement. 

"The offer from Tvel was the best one,'' Koskivirta said
Thursday. The contract is worth "hundreds of millions of
euros,'' he said. 

Power companies are boosting their use of nuclear fuel after oil
and gas costs surged over the past five years. Russia is
reorganizing its nuclear industry to take advantage of the
renewed interest. 

Tvel is already contracted to sell fuel to Loviisa's second
reactor until 2007, with British Nuclear Fuels supplying the
first. The tender for a long-term contact for both reactors took
place in 2005, Fortum said Thursday in a statement. 

"This was a complicated tender, and our win comes as another
confirmation of the high level of Russian technology in the
nuclear field,'' Anton Badenkov, head of Tvel, in a statement.   

Copyright 2006. The Moscow Times. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 42 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Standing strong against Yucca 

Today: December 21, 2006 at 7:23:4 PST 

Delegation should also lead fight against more nuke plants and 
their deadly wastes 

The new Democratic majority in Congress, which includes Senate
Majority Leader -elect Harry Reid of Nevada, offers the best
chance in two decades to bring about the beginning of the end of
Yucca Mountain. And as before, Nevada's congressional delegation
stands in bipartisan readiness to lead the way for this action. 

The delegation, including incoming Republican Rep. Dean Heller,
met Tuesday at the George Federal Building in downtown Las
Vegas. The members discussed strategy for turning Congress
against the project, which would see the nation's high-level
nuclear waste dangerously transported across the country for
unsafe burial at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas. 

Among the delegation's strategies is to meet with the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to propose alternative solutions for the
waste. The NRC is the agency that will decide whether to license
the rightfully stalled Yucca repository if the Energy Department
ever submits an application. 

Other encouraging strategies include reiterating to every member
of Congress the dangers associated with Yucca, and to widen the
scope of the state's lawsuit against the project. 

It was not encouraging, however, to hear President Bush's
support of nuclear power during a Wednesday press conference.
The president touted "the technologies that will eventually come
to fore that will enable us to reduce the wastes, the toxicity
of the waste and the amount of the waste." 

Scientists independent of the Bush administration, however, are
skeptical that such technologies can ever be developed. In
standing strong against Yucca Mountain, our delegation should
also lead congressional opposition to more nuclear power plants.
They would produce even more waste for burial - if not in
Nevada, then someplace where it would be just as dangerous. 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 43 Hanford News: Showdown on nuke waste storage
 
This story was published Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 

By David Whitney, McClatchy Newspapers 

WASHINGTON - A few years ago, the plan to store the nation's 
nuclear waste in Nevada seemed all but certain. 

Congress decided that highly radioactive waste from commercial 
nuclear power plants, which takes centuries to decay, needed to 
be stored underground. And it voted by a wide margin in 2002 that 
Yucca Mountain, 100 miles from Las Vegas, was the place to build 
such a repository. 

But after the Nov. 7 elections, which propelled Democrats into 
power on Capitol Hill, the plan is facing challenges. 

Despite strong bipartisan support for Yucca Mountain in
Congress, the incoming majority leader of the Senate, Nevadan
Harry Reid, pledges that Yucca Mountain will never open. The
incoming chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee, Californian Barbara Boxer, agrees. Both voted against
the Yucca repository. 

They say nuclear waste should stay right where it is - at the
nation's nuclear power plants - at least until better waste
technology comes along. 

"There's no rush to put it someplace that's dangerous," Boxer
said. 

Opponents are raising questions over how safe the Yucca Mountain
facility would be and whether transporting radioactive waste on
roads and rail lines would pose unacceptable risks of accidents
or terrorist attacks. More than 100 national and state
environmental groups - including the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and
the Natural Resources Defense Council - coalesced in September
behind a set of principles that include permanent storage of
used fuel at the reactor sites. 

"The problem is the concept that the public wants the waste
moved," said Michele Boyd, the legislative director and nuclear
expert at Public Citizen. "That's a 20-year-old concept." 

The nuclear power industry is giving ground. It still wants
Yucca Mountain opened, but it's willing to allow taxes that
plant operators pay into a fund for Yucca Mountain to be used
for interim storage, a euphemism for aboveground storage until a
way is found to reprocess old fuel assemblies safely into new
fuel. 

Because of the long delay, plants already are turning to surface
storage. At facilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s
Diablo Canyon, near San Luis Obispo on California's scenic
central coast, construction is well under way on thick concrete
pads that eventually will hold concrete-encased steel containers
where fuel assemblies would be entombed. 

PG spokesman Shawn Cooper said the company was still hopeful
that Yucca Mountain would open someday. But as long as the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses cask storage, the waste
could be there well into the next century, venting heat from the
decaying fuel into the brisk Pacific Ocean winds. "It's called
temporary dry-cask storage, but the canisters can hold the waste
100 years," he said. 

Jill ZamEk, a leader of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, was
one of the signers of the environmentalists' principles in
September. Mothers for Peace is fighting to force a
rearrangement of the dry casks so that they'd better survive a
terrorist attack, and the Supreme Court will decide soon whether
to hear that case. 

"We want Diablo Canyon plants shut down," ZamEk said. When it
comes to the plant's waste, however, she said, "the risk of
transporting it is so great it needs to stay where it is." 

Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, whose district includes Diablo
Canyon, agrees that the waste should stay put but with more
security. 

"I believe that we should actually be beefing up security
against potential terrorism and improving safety to prevent
accidents at all nuclear facilities around the country," she
said in a statement. 

Among Boxer's biggest concerns about Yucca Mountain is that it's
not as impervious to water as initially thought. Sophisticated
testing has shown that water percolates through its caverns and
heads toward the Colorado River. 

"Sixteen million Californians drink from that river," Boxer
said. 

Jon Summers, Reid's spokesman, said the senator would do all
that he could to make sure Yucca Mountain never opened because
the site was unsuitable. He said Reid had introduced legislation
a year ago directing the Energy Department to take possession of
the waste at the nation's nuclear plants and store it on site. 

The bill went nowhere this year. The chairman of the Senate
environment committee, James Inhofe, R-Okla., favors a Yucca
Mountain repository. When the bill is reintroduced next year,
however, Boxer will be heading the committee. She leans toward
on-site storage but with the possibility of constructing
regional or state gathering places for some of it, such as that
at Rancho Seco where a reactor closed in 1989. 

Boxer also favors research into reprocessing, something that
environmentalists oppose. 

Boxer said that if a way to reprocess nuclear waste safely could
be found, it would help with the waste issue, produce new fuel
for reactors and "make me feel more positive about nuclear
power" as a pollution-free alternative for lowering
greenhouse-gas emissions from oil-, natural gas- and
coal-burning power plants. 

Growing interest in building a new generation of nuclear plants
since the enactment of an energy bill that offers generous
government subsidies is driving the industry's shifting attitude
about waste storage. 

Since Congress began working on the energy bill, nearly three
dozen applications for new reactors have been planned. The bill
was signed into law in August 2005, touching off what Sen. Pete
Domenici, R-N.M., called a "nuclear renaissance." 

"I am a pragmatist," Boxer said. "The vast majority of the
members on my committee support nuclear power, and so do the
majority in the Senate. So my focus is on safety, security and
research, because I don't think there is any question that we
are going to be seeing new plants."

© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 44 RGJ.com: Talks with NRC welcome
 
December 21, 2006

Editorial RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL-->

SNAPSHOT 

TOPIC: Yucca Mountain
OUR VIEW: A new generation of cheap, safe, efficient nuclear
power might have been developed by now if everyone had been
talking. 

Who knew? Nevada's delegation in Washington has never conducted
a dialogue with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal
agency that oversees and regulates power plants, licensing and
safety. Such talks should have started long ago.

Pronouncements in which the Energy Department and other
administration officials say that Nevada will take the nation's
spent nuclear material and store it, while Nevada officials say
we won't is not a dialogue. It's a standoff. Failure of the
appropriate officials at the NRC to conduct high-level talks
with the Nevada congressional delegation has produced nothing,
except delay and bitterness.

If pragmatic, scientific provisions for disposal of nuclear
waste had been made when the nuclear power industry began
gearing up in the middle of the 20th century, Yucca Mountain
might never have become such a line in the sand.

There would have been no stonewalling to hold back progress on a
repository that threatens to endanger the health of Nevadans.
There would have been no allegations of fraud regarding
substandard plans for the dump. There would have been no reason
to fear possible spills as the federal government ships waste by
rail through Northern Nevada.

Further, if federal officials had been talking instead of
forcing the repository on Nevada, some of the rancor of the past
decade could have been avoided. Further, a new generation of
cheaper, safer, more efficient technology might have been
developed by now. The nation might have developed a reasonable
plan for getting rid of the radioactive waste.

Dialogue with the NRC is a welcome new strategy.

At the end of 2005, plants were generating electricity in 31
states, excluding Nevada. About 50,000 tons of nuclear waste
were waiting at the sites for storage, and officials are eager
to ship the waste out of their states, mostly in the East, and
ship it to the dump site north of Las Vegas. Nevada's lawmakers
deserve credit for holding their ground and refusing to take
this treatment lying down.

Regardless of what Nevada lawmakers say or do, it is impossible
to say the administration will stop trying to push this project
through, but a dialogue that focuses on facts and aims to
discover solutions for storing waste could be productive. 

Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a
Gannett Co. Inc.Newspaper.
*****************************************************************
 45 AU ABC: Miner invests in WA hoping for uranium policy change.
        
22/12/2006. ABC News Online
 	
A junior uranium exploration company says it is investing in
Western Australia in anticipation of the state's mining ban
being lifted within the next five years.

 Epsilon Energy has just been granted an exploration licence for
10 tenements near Balladonia in WA's south-east, in what will be
its third project in the state.

 The company's managing director, Matt Gauci, says Epsilon has
projects in the Northern Territory and South Australia, where
uranium mining is permitted, but also in Queensland and Western
Australia.

 Mr Gauci says investing in states where uranium mining is
banned is a gamble, but an increasing number of investors are
confident a policy change is imminent.

 "From last reports there's now 65 uranium juniors listed on the
ASX and that's obviously a massive difference to what it was two
years ago, let along 10 years ago," he said.

 "So I guess the momentum is certainly in favour of uranium
companies."

 Premier Alan Carpenter has previously stated the State
Government has no intention of modifying its ban on uranium
mining in Western Australia. 


*****************************************************************
 46 PRN: BNFL Announces Sale of Reactor Sites Management Business 

PR Newswire

    LONDON, December 21 /PRNewswire/ -- BNFL today announced it 
has commenced the sale of its reactor sites management business, 
which manages the safe delivery of operations and decommissioning 
at 10 nuclear sites across the UK, on behalf of the Nuclear 
Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

    Mike Parker, BNFL's Group Chief Executive said: "BNFL will 
ensure that the sale will follow a fair and transparent process.

    "During this process, our focus continues to be the safe, 
secure and cost-effective operation and clean-up of the UK's 
civil nuclear sites. In doing so, our key objectives remain to 
ensure a good home for our people and the delivery of value to 
our shareholder."

    The sale will be of the entire share capital of a new 
wholly-owned business called Reactor Sites Management Company, 
which is responsible for the management of the Magnox reactor 
sites in the UK.

    Magnox Electric Limited, which is the holder of a nuclear 
site licence for each of the NDA's Magnox reactor sites, will be 
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reactor Sites Management Company and 
therefore will be included in the sale.

    Magnox Electric Limited comprises 10 nuclear reactor sites, 
which have generated electricity safely for nearly 50 years. Four 
are still generating, with two ceasing by the end of 2006 and the 
last scheduled to cease in 2010. The Reactor Sites Management 
Company will employ around 70 staff directly at its base in 
Berkeley, Gloucestershire and has management responsibility for a 
further 3,500 employees across all its UK sites.

    The sale is being handled for BNFL by its financial advisers, 
NM Rothschild & Sons Limited and any interested parties should 
contact Richard Guest at reactorsites@rothschild.co.uk.

    Notes to Editors:

    - NDA's Magnox reactor sites are Dungeness A, Sizewell A, 
Bradwell, Berkeley, Hinkley Point A, Oldbury, Trawsfynydd, Wylfa, 
Chapelcross, Hunterston A.

    - Oldbury is scheduled to cease generation in 2008; Wylfa is 
scheduled to cease generation in 2010. SOURCE British Nuclear 
Fuels plc (BNFL)

Copyright © 1996- PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights
Reserved.
 	A United Business Mediacompany. 

*****************************************************************
 47 Whitehaven News: Shortfall in funding puts nuclear clean-up work at risk
 						
Published on 21/12/2006

IT has been claimed the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) 
faces a Â£200 million funding shortfall that could threaten 
clean-up work and lead to substantial job cuts. 

The Times newspaper last week claimed the NDA, is looking at a
Â£160 million drop in its decommissioning grant from the
Government at the same time as its commercial income from
reprocessing and Magnox nuclear reactors has fallen sharply. 

The NDA has asked its main contractors â€” British Nuclear Group
(BNG), which is awaiting a four-way sell-off to the private
sector, and the UK Atomic Energy Authority â€” to think of
cost-saving measures to try to deal with the budget reduction.
BNGâ€™s reactor sites will see a shortfall of Â£106 million
while the Sellafield reprocessing plant will be Â£50 million
short of its requirements and the UKAEA will have Â£57 million
less than it needs. The NDA usually receives a grant of Â£1
billion from the Treasury and generates a similar amount from
commercial activities. 

Unions fear that important clean-up programmes will be curbed
and that job losses could run into thousands. 

Last night the DTI denied that its level of funding for the NDA
had been cut but admitted that commercial income for the NDA was
â€œuncertainâ€ and that it was talking about the issue as part
of its annual budget discussions. 

And in a response to the claims, Jon Phillips of the NDA said:
â€œThe NDAâ€™s funding comes from a combination of income from
commercial operations and grant-in-aid from the DTI.
 
â€œThere is no question of the DTI cutting any of the funding
which it provides to the NDA, however the performance of some of
our commercial operations is subject to uncertainty and we are
talking about this issue with them as part of the routine annual
budgetary discussions. 

â€œIn the meantime, we are taking the prudent step of asking our
contractors to consider plans for various budget scenarios.
 
â€œWhen these plans are further developed, and our funding
position for 2007/8 is clear, we will be in a position to
provide further information. This is unlikely to be before the
end of January. No decisions have yet been made.â€
 
www.whitehaven-news.co.uk
*****************************************************************
 48 Taipei Times: Nuclear storage raises worries 

  Thu, Dec 21, 2006     

BEST ALTERNATIVE: Taipower maintains that the manner in which it 
currently stores nuclear waste is optimal, but that is not enough 
for nearby residents 

By Shih Hsiu-chuan 

STAFF REPORTER Thursday, Dec 21, 2006, Page 2 

Taipei County residents led by county officials yesterday
threatened to take to the streets if the government fails to
take care of nuclear safety issues in the county, where two
nuclear power plants are in operation and one is under
construction.

 "The existence of the three nuclear plants is a security
problem for the 3.76 million residents in Taipei County," Taipei
County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (©P¿üÞ³) said at a press
conference.

 Chou, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), KMT
Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (§d¨|ª@), People First Party Legislator
Lee Hung-chun (§õÂE¶v) and the residents asked the central
government to meet their two demands.

 The government should request that state-owned Taiwan Power
Company (Taipower), the owner of the nuclear power plants,
provide an evacuation plan -- based on international norms -- in
case of a radiation emission incident, Chou said.

 "In accordance with international norms, the plan should cover
a radius of 16km to 32km from the nuclear power plant, but
Taipower's current plan is just for a radius of 5km," he added.

 Chou noted that Environmental Protection Administration (EPA)
Minister Chang Kow-lung (±i°êÀs), a long-term environmentalist
who was a member of the anti-nuclear movement before assuming
office, had in the past called for the government to adopt a
32km evacuation plan.

 "The 5km evacuation plan is far below even the lowest standard.
Chang should put the 32km plan into effect now that he has
become EPA minister," he said.

 High and low-level radioactive nuclear waste is temporarily
stored in the Taipei County plant complex, with a location for
final disposal yet to be determined.

 Taipower has stated that the manner in which it currently
stores nuclear waste is at the moment the best alternative to a
permanent location for disposal.

 Taipei County residents have asked Taipower to speed up the
removal of nuclear waste from the county.

 Lee urged Taipower to hold public meetings with residents of
the county so that they could express their opinion on the
storage plan.

 "We will call upon the residents of Taipei County to stage a
protest against Taipower and the government if they continue to
ignore our demands," Wu said.

 Chou said the Taipei County government had issued 240 notices
to Taipower for infractions of environmental regulations, with
fines totaling NT$280 million (US$8.6 million) from July until
last month. These measures have failed to convince Taipower to
change its ways. 

This story has been viewed 534 times.     

Copyright © 1999-2006 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 49 Hanford News: Scientists put hope in hydrogen sensors
 
This story was published Thursday, December 21st, 2006 

By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer 

A tiny buttonlike sensor may be the key to bringing the world
into the hydrogen age. 

At least that is what Dan Briscoe, vice president of business
development at Apollo in Kennewick, hopes will happen in the
next few years. 

Apollo has developed the hydrogen gas sensor with the help of
scientists at the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry in
Moscow. 

Briscoe said the two entities linked up at the suggestion of the
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Global Initiatives for
Proliferation Prevention Program. 

Briscoe said PNNL approached Apollo about four years ago with
the idea to work with Russian scientists on designing and
building a better hydrogen gas sensor that would be more
reliable, work faster and cost less than commercially available
sensors currently in use. 

The collaboration resulted in a cooperative research and
development agreement between Apollo and Battelle, which
operates PNNL as a Department of Energy lab. 

Battelle licensed the patent applications in May 2006, and
Apollo applied for the global patent on the new hydrogen gas
sensor in September. 

Having a gas sensor that is fast and reliable is the key to
taking advantage of developing hydrogen-based energy and power
systems, Briscoe said. 

The button-sized sensors can detect hydrogen in minute amounts
in parts per million, which is important because concentrations
of the gas of only 4 percent can result in an explosion, Briscoe
said. 

Briscoe said Apollo created a a new division, Apollo Sensor
Technology, to help develop a market for the sensors and find
the right high-tech company to help make the items. He expects
they will be priced between $100 and $200 each, which is less
than one-tenth the cost of the best hydrogen gas sensors
available today. 

"What makes our sensor different from others is it has a large
range or spectrum of detection sensitivity, and can respond with
a reading in less than one second," Briscoe said. 

Apollo's Russian-designed sensor also has very little
cross-sensitivity to other gases which would give false positive
readings, and it is more durable than other sensors, not
requiring frequent recalibrations, he said. 

The sensors would be ideal for safety detection systems in
futuristic hydrogen-powered cars, but that potential is at least
10 to 15 years a way, Briscoe said. 

A better market for the sensors already exists where hydrogen is
the fuel for internal combustion engine power plants, such as
with emergency backup systems used at microwave towers, radio
stations and hospitals in the event of conventional power system
failures. 

Briscoe said the demand for hydrogen sensors in those areas
could be 10,000 to 12,000 units a year. 

The sensors also would be valuable safety units at petroleum
refineries where hydrogen gas is involved in processing heavy
crude to light crude. 

Briscoe said if the commercialization and marketing goes well,
the Apollo Sensor Technology product could be selling 100,000
units annually by 2011. 

Because of the collaboration through PNNL with the Russian
scientists, the profits would be split three ways, he said.

© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
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 50 UPI: Whistle blown at Pantex weapons plant
     
United Press International - NewsTrack - 

 	
12/21/2006 5:21:00 PM -0500

AMARILLO, Texas, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The Pantex nuclear weapons
plant in Texas has been plagued by accidents and safety
violations, U.S. Energy Department records showed. 

Although "maintaining the safety, security and reliability of
America's nuclear weapons stockpile" is the stated motto on
Pantex's Web site, the Austin American-Statesman reported
Thursday that an anonymous employee recently wrote a letter that
warned of "unthinkable hazards" at the plant. 

The letter appeared to have been the work of several employees
who said they had decided to speak out due to concerns about
public safely. "An accidental nuclear detonation at Pantex (or
anywhere in the U.S.) could bring the nation to its knees," the
letter said. "At what price do we break our silence?" 

The whistleblowers complained that they were being pressured to
increase the number of nuclear weapons being dismantled and that
it was causing some engineers to work up to 100 hours a week for
several weeks in a row. 

Government reports acknowledge problems at Pantex. 

The newspaper said numerous incidents have been described in
weekly reports written by government representatives assigned to
the contractor-operated Pantex plant, the nation's only facility
for assembling and disassembling nuclear weapons.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
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 51 Hanford News: Showdown on nuke waste storage
 
This story was published Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 

By David Whitney, McClatchy Newspapers 

WASHINGTON - A few years ago, the plan to store the nation's 
nuclear waste in Nevada seemed all but certain. 

Congress decided that highly radioactive waste from commercial 
nuclear power plants, which takes centuries to decay, needed to 
be stored underground. And it voted by a wide margin in 2002 that 
Yucca Mountain, 100 miles from Las Vegas, was the place to build 
such a repository. 

But after the Nov. 7 elections, which propelled Democrats into 
power on Capitol Hill, the plan is facing challenges. 

Despite strong bipartisan support for Yucca Mountain in
Congress, the incoming majority leader of the Senate, Nevadan
Harry Reid, pledges that Yucca Mountain will never open. The
incoming chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee, Californian Barbara Boxer, agrees. Both voted against
the Yucca repository. 

They say nuclear waste should stay right where it is - at the
nation's nuclear power plants - at least until better waste
technology comes along. 

"There's no rush to put it someplace that's dangerous," Boxer
said. 

Opponents are raising questions over how safe the Yucca Mountain
facility would be and whether transporting radioactive waste on
roads and rail lines would pose unacceptable risks of accidents
or terrorist attacks. More than 100 national and state
environmental groups - including the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and
the Natural Resources Defense Council - coalesced in September
behind a set of principles that include permanent storage of
used fuel at the reactor sites. 

"The problem is the concept that the public wants the waste
moved," said Michele Boyd, the legislative director and nuclear
expert at Public Citizen. "That's a 20-year-old concept." 

The nuclear power industry is giving ground. It still wants
Yucca Mountain opened, but it's willing to allow taxes that
plant operators pay into a fund for Yucca Mountain to be used
for interim storage, a euphemism for aboveground storage until a
way is found to reprocess old fuel assemblies safely into new
fuel. 

Because of the long delay, plants already are turning to surface
storage. At facilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s
Diablo Canyon, near San Luis Obispo on California's scenic
central coast, construction is well under way on thick concrete
pads that eventually will hold concrete-encased steel containers
where fuel assemblies would be entombed. 

PG spokesman Shawn Cooper said the company was still hopeful
that Yucca Mountain would open someday. But as long as the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses cask storage, the waste
could be there well into the next century, venting heat from the
decaying fuel into the brisk Pacific Ocean winds. "It's called
temporary dry-cask storage, but the canisters can hold the waste
100 years," he said. 

Jill ZamEk, a leader of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, was
one of the signers of the environmentalists' principles in
September. Mothers for Peace is fighting to force a
rearrangement of the dry casks so that they'd better survive a
terrorist attack, and the Supreme Court will decide soon whether
to hear that case. 

"We want Diablo Canyon plants shut down," ZamEk said. When it
comes to the plant's waste, however, she said, "the risk of
transporting it is so great it needs to stay where it is." 

Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, whose district includes Diablo
Canyon, agrees that the waste should stay put but with more
security. 

"I believe that we should actually be beefing up security
against potential terrorism and improving safety to prevent
accidents at all nuclear facilities around the country," she
said in a statement. 

Among Boxer's biggest concerns about Yucca Mountain is that it's
not as impervious to water as initially thought. Sophisticated
testing has shown that water percolates through its caverns and
heads toward the Colorado River. 

"Sixteen million Californians drink from that river," Boxer
said. 

Jon Summers, Reid's spokesman, said the senator would do all
that he could to make sure Yucca Mountain never opened because
the site was unsuitable. He said Reid had introduced legislation
a year ago directing the Energy Department to take possession of
the waste at the nation's nuclear plants and store it on site. 

The bill went nowhere this year. The chairman of the Senate
environment committee, James Inhofe, R-Okla., favors a Yucca
Mountain repository. When the bill is reintroduced next year,
however, Boxer will be heading the committee. She leans toward
on-site storage but with the possibility of constructing
regional or state gathering places for some of it, such as that
at Rancho Seco where a reactor closed in 1989. 

Boxer also favors research into reprocessing, something that
environmentalists oppose. 

Boxer said that if a way to reprocess nuclear waste safely could
be found, it would help with the waste issue, produce new fuel
for reactors and "make me feel more positive about nuclear
power" as a pollution-free alternative for lowering
greenhouse-gas emissions from oil-, natural gas- and
coal-burning power plants. 

Growing interest in building a new generation of nuclear plants
since the enactment of an energy bill that offers generous
government subsidies is driving the industry's shifting attitude
about waste storage. 

Since Congress began working on the energy bill, nearly three
dozen applications for new reactors have been planned. The bill
was signed into law in August 2005, touching off what Sen. Pete
Domenici, R-N.M., called a "nuclear renaissance." 

"I am a pragmatist," Boxer said. "The vast majority of the
members on my committee support nuclear power, and so do the
majority in the Senate. So my focus is on safety, security and
research, because I don't think there is any question that we
are going to be seeing new plants."

© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
    
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