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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Russia:IRI not threat to Int'l peace 
2 AFP: Khamenei vows no let-up on Iran nuclear drive - 
3 UPI: Iran to continue nuclear program
4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran to Continue Buying Nuke Technology 
5 Guardian Unlimited: China: Security Council Divided on Iran 
6 Guardian Unlimited: Iranian Ayatollah Stands Firm on Nukes 
7 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Wants to Weaken Demands on Iran 
8 Korea Herald: Korea, U.S. vow to achieve results in six-way talks   
9 Korea Herald: 'U.S. Treasury open to direct N.K. talks'   
10 Korea Herald: [Joseph S. Nye]Nonproliferation after N.K.   
11 Korea Times: S. Korea, US Discuss N. Korean Financial Issue 
12 AFP: US to hold more talks with NKorea on frozen accounts -
13 UPI: U.S. to have sanction talks with N.Korea
14 Reuters: U.S. Sen. Biden set to move on India nuclear bill
15 Reuters: Bush's "axis of evil" comes back to haunt him 
16 IRNA: Britain admits Tel Aviv's nuclear arsenal "widely assumed" 
17 Telugu Portal: Pakistan minister raises fear of nuclear exchange 
18 UPI: U.N.: No radioactive weapons in Lebanon
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
19 [NukeNet] IAEA Push To Promote Nuclear Power, Court Climate
20 Sydney Morning Herald: Report backs use of nuclear power - PM - 
21 Sydney Morning Herald: Howard suggests he'll foot bill for nuclear b
22 Calgary Sun: Dinning calls nuclear power oilsands option
23 RIA Novosti: Trial of Russia's ex-nuclear head put off till Nov. 21
24 BBC: China-Egypt nuclear energy deal
25 US: Platts: NRC begins special inspection at Palisades
26 Platts: International audit of France's nuclear safety authority beg
27 US: FCW.com: NRC rule creates Web system to track nuclear material
28 AU: New Matilda: Nuclear Debate: Part One: The Plan
29 AFP: China, Egypt reach nuclear energy agreement 
30 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY fined for mishanding shipment
31 The Australian: Howard instinct says nuclear energy | | 
32 US: JournalStar.com: EPA wants to dig up, ship out ordnance-plant wa
33 Telegraph: Invest or pay later, energy agency warns
34 The Australian: Nuclear power 'to become more viable' 
35 US: Reuters: Incoming House panel head sets energy priorities
36 UPI: China, Egypt talk nuclear electricity
37 SABCnews.com: Eskom deny negligence at Koeberg power station
38 US: NRC: Live NRC Meeting Webcast
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
39 Israel Did Not Use Depleted Uranium During Conflict With Hizbollah, 
40 RIA Novosti: Russian submarine had no nuclear fuel when it caught fi
41 BBC NEWS: World risks 'dirty' energy future
42 Bellona: Residents of contaminated village to be resettled across ri
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
43 US: RIA Novosti: Russia considers mining uranium in Bulgaria
44 US: RIA Novosti: Rosatom to tackle uranium shortage
45 The Raw Story: Swedish group applies for method to store nuclear was
46 UPI: NNSA boosts low grade nuke fuel program
47 Discovery Channel: Yucca Mountain Volcanoes Misjudged
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
48 Knox News: Future of nuke complex up for review, comment 
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Russia:IRI not threat to Int'l peace 

  2006/11/08   
  
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin on
Tuesday stressed that Moscow does not regard the Islamic
Republic of Iran on account of its nuclear program as a threat
to international peace and security. 

Churkin's remarks were made to reporters at UN headquarters in
New York when asked to comment on all-out efforts of America to
isolate Iran.

 America has always blocked efforts of the Iranian nation to
access peaceful nuclear energy and has even moved Iran's
peaceful nuclear case from the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) to the UN Security Council for possible imposition
of sanction s. 

America itself is currently working on the reconstruction of
6,000 atomic warheads and thereby ignoring international calls
for their destruction.

 There are several differences between the Iranian and North
Korean nuclear programs but the two countries look similar when
it comes to the issue of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,
the Russian official said.

 Iran has never conducted a nuclear test and is cooperating with
the IAEA on its nuclear program, he added.

 M.H.Z   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir     
*****************************************************************
 2 AFP: Khamenei vows no let-up on Iran nuclear drive - 

 Wed Nov 8, 7:48 AM 
		 	 
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has 
vowed Iran would press ahead on the "glorious path" of its 
nuclear programme, despite threats of UN sanctions.
 
"Most countries in the world believe that nuclear energy should
no longer be the monopoly of just some powers," Khamenei said a
speech to thousands of people in the town of Semnan, east of
Tehran on Wednesday.
 
"These countries from the bottom of their heart are hailing the
Iranian nation which is standing courageously on this path.
 
"The Iranian nation will go forwards on this glorious path with
power and by harnessing the abilities of its educated
generation, which is growing day by day and challenging the
notions of the West," he said in a speech broadcast on state
television.
 
The United States is leading a drive at the UN Security Council
to impose sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium
enrichment, but world powers are deadlocked over the text of the
draft resolution.
 
Khamenei argued that it was completely wrong to suggest the
world was against Iran's enriching uranium, a process that the
West fears could be diverted towards making nuclear weapons.
 
"As you can see in nuclear energy -- about which they (the
United States) are trying to make a fuss -- look how the world
is perceiving us, especially the Asian and Middle East and
Islamic nations.
 
"However, the Americans always close their eyes and then blurt
out that the world is against Iranian enrichment," he said
 
"No, you (the United States) do not understand the world," he
added.
 
His comments came after informal talks among six major UN powers
ended overnight still deadlocked over how to punish Iran for its
refusal to halt enrichment.
 
The draft mandates nuclear industry and ballistic
missile-related trade sanctions against Tehran. It also calls
for a freeze on assets related to Iran's nuclear and missile
programs and travel bans on scientists involved in those
programmes.
 
It has run into opposition from permanent UN Security Council
members Russia and China, which have demanded substantial
changes to it.
 
Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely aimed at generating
energy, vehemently rejecting US allegations it is seeking
nuclear weapons.
 
Meanwhile, a hardline Iranian newspaper called on the government
to slap sanctions on France, a major investor in Iran, before
the United Nations came up with punitive action of its own.
 
"Let us set aside France from Iran's profitable market and show
others that they should play by the book in economic relations
with Iran," the Jomhouri Eslami newspaper said.

  Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Canada Co. All Rights Reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 3 UPI: Iran to continue nuclear program
     
United Press International - NewsTrack - 

11/8/2006 11:58:00 AM -0500

TEHRAN, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei says his country will continue its nuclear program,
saying the West's monopoly on nuclear energy must end. 

Speaking to a crowd in Semnan, east of Tehran, Khamenei said "a
majority of world countries believe the monopoly of certain
powers on nuclear energy should be broken," the official Islamic
Republic News Agency reported. 

He was quoted as saying "a majority of world countries are
sincerely grateful to the Iranian nation and praise it for the
path it has bravely taken." 

The leader said, "The Iranian nation will bravely move forward
in this honorable path with the help of its current generation
of wise and vigilant loyal supporters who oppose Western
attitudes and approaches."

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran to Continue Buying Nuke Technology 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Wednesday November 8, 2006 10:16 AM
 	
AP Photo XHS108 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 
said Wednesday that his country would continue to acquire nuclear 
technology and challenge what he called ``Western fabrications.'' 

Speaking to a crowd of thousands in Semnan, a city 155 miles
east of Tehran, Khamenei said most countries believe that
``nuclear energy should be taken away from the hands of a few
powers,'' state media reported. 

``The Americans open their mouth and close their eyes and say
whatever they want, such as 'the world opposes enrichment,'
Khamenei said, referring to Iran's enrichment of uranium, which
the U.N. Security Council has called on Iran to cease. 

``No,'' Khamenei replied, addressing the United States, ``it is
you who do not know and does not see the world.'' 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 5 Guardian Unlimited: China: Security Council Divided on Iran 

From the Associated Press        
	 
[UP] 

Wednesday November 8, 2006 11:31 AM
 	
AP Photo NYFF102 
By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - China said Tuesday that the five
veto-wielding Security Council members are so divided over a
resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran that some
differences can't be bridged. 

The four other permanent council members - the United States,
Russia, Britain and France - weren't as pessimistic but all
agree that there are three different views on how to deal with
Iran and reconciling them isn't going to be easy. 

Britain and France outlined their draft resolution at a closed
council meeting on Tuesday morning to the 10 non-permanent
members who are elected to two-year terms on the U.N.'s most
powerful body. 

It orders all countries to ban the supply of material and
technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile
programs and impose a travel ban and asset freeze on companies,
individuals and organizations involved in those programs. 

It would exempt the initial nuclear power plant being built by
the Russians at Bushehr, Iran, but not the nuclear fuel needed
for the reactor. It would also limit assistance to Iran by the
International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog,
to food, agriculture, medical and humanitarian programs. And it
would ban countries from teaching or training Iranians in
disciplines that would contribute to Iran's nuclear and
ballistic missile programs. 

Russia has proposed major changes to the European draft that
would limit sanctions to measures that will keep Iran from
developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and eliminate
any mention of Bushehr. The United States has also proposed
amendments that would strengthen the measures proposed by
Britain and France. 

After a meeting Tuesday afternoon of the five permanent members
and Germany, which has been a key player in European
negotiations with Iran, China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya
whose country supports the Russia text told reporters: ``The
mood is that we are not in serious discussion.'' 

Wang said the six ambassadors tried to see whether they could
bridge differences between the Europeans, Russians and
Americans. 

``Clearly, I think in a number of difficult areas the
differences cannot be bridged, so I believe there should be more
reflections in the capitals and also I believe we need to talk
to each other,'' he said. 

Wang said there are also different interpretations about what
ministers from the six countries agreed on at a meeting in
London last month. 

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin agreed that ``there is a
considerable gap.'' 

Both Russia and China, which have major commercial ties with
Iran, have continued to publicly push for dialogue instead of
U.N. punishment, despite the collapse last month of a European
Union attempt to entice Iran into talks. 

The five permanent council members and Germany offered Iran a
package of economic incentives and political rewards in June if
it agreed to consider a long-term moratorium on enrichment and
commit to a freeze on uranium enrichment before talks on its
nuclear program. 

But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly and
defiantly said his country would continue enrichment, and is not
intimidated by the possibility of sanctions. 

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Tuesday that the United States
doesn't think the Russia text ``is consistent with what foreign
ministers had agreed previously.'' 

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said ``the
main issue is about the scope of the sanctions.'' 

The Russians want sanctions ``limited just to the enrichment and
reprocessing and we think that sanctions have to be broader.'' 
-- 

Tracee Herbaugh contributed to this report from New York. 
		 	 	   

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 6 Guardian Unlimited: Iranian Ayatollah Stands Firm on Nukes 

From the Associated Press        
	 
[UP] 

Wednesday November 8, 2006 3:01 PM
 	
By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
said Wednesday his country would continue to acquire nuclear
technology and challenge what he called ``Western
fabrications.'' 

Speaking before a crowd of thousands in Semnan, 155 miles east
of Tehran, Khamenei said most countries believe ``nuclear energy
should be taken away from the hands of a few powers,'' state
media reported. 

``The Americans open their mouth and close their eyes and say
whatever they want, such as 'the world opposes enrichment,'''
Khamenei said, referring to Iran's enrichment of uranium, which
the United Nations has said must cease. 

The supreme leader, whose word is final on key decisions, spoke
as the U.N. Security Council is wrangling over how to respond to
Iran's refusal halt uranium enrichment. 

``In a glorious way, the Iranian nation - with awareness, an
informed generation and reason - has challenged Western
fabrications and will go ahead strongly,'' Khamenei said. 

The United States and its European allies fear that Iran could
use enrichment to build nuclear weapons, and have proposed a
raft of sanctions to try to curb the country's nuclear
development. Russia and China share those concerns, but seek
much softer measures to induce Iran's cooperation. 

Last week, Russia said it would only support U.N. sanctions on
Iran if they were for a limited time and included a clear
mechanism for their removal. 

Iran, which has praised Moscow for its ``softer policy,'' denies
plans to build atomic bombs, saying it is merely trying to
harness nuclear energy to generate electricity. 

A senior Russian nuclear official said Moscow would soon assess
the timetable for completing construction of Iran's first
nuclear power station. Experts say that Moscow, which has
refused to back the European-proposed U.N. sanctions, could be
using its $1 billion project in Bushehr, southern Iran, as a
lever of influence on Tehran. 

Sergei Shmatko, head of the Russian state company that is in
charge of constructing Bushehr, said that work so far was on
schedule, according to ITAR-Tass. Later this month, he said,
officials would ``determine the final timetable for its
launch.'' 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 7 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Wants to Weaken Demands on Iran 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Wednesday November 8, 2006 5:46 PM
 	
By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Russia has rejected passages in a U.N.
Security Council draft proposing sanctions against Iran's
nuclear and missile programs, reflecting differences with the
West on how to punish Tehran for its atomic program, according
to a document obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. 

Moscow's proposed amendments to European-sponsored draft
resolution, which is broadly endorsed by the United States, also
weaken Western demands that Tehran stop working on a reactor
that can produce plutonium and allow tougher U.N. inspections of
its nuclear program. And it deletes any reference to Iran's
Bushehr nuclear plant, being built with Russia's help. 

The United States had reluctantly agreed to the proposals from
France and Britain to exempt Bushehr from sanctions in a draft
presented earlier this month. But U.N. diplomats said that the
Kremlin wanted no mention of it whatsoever, to reflect its view
that the plant should not be linked to international concerns
that Tehran might be trying to develop nuclear arms. 

The proposed changes from Russian negotiators reflect Moscow's
insistence on reducing sanctions to the minimum needed to
directly target enrichment, which can generate both nuclear
energy or be used to make the fissile core of warheads. 

Senior Security Council diplomats have acknowledged the divide
before, with some suggesting there is not yet common language on
sanctioning Iran for its defiance of council demands that it
freeze enrichment. 

``Clearly, I think in a number of difficult areas the
differences cannot be bridged, so I believe there should be more
reflections in the capitals, and also I believe we need to talk
to each other,'' Wang Guangya, China's U.N. ambassador, said
Tuesday. 

In contrast to the Russian amendments, the European draft calls
for a ban on the supply of material and technology that could
contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs. It also seeks
a travel ban and asset freeze on companies, individuals and
organizations involved in the programs. 

It would exempt the Bushehr plant, but not the nuclear fuel
needed for the reactor. It would also limit assistance to Iran
by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear
watchdog, to nuclear expertise, food, agriculture, medical and
humanitarian programs. And it would ban countries from providing
training to Iranians that could contribute to its nuclear and
ballistic missile programs. 

Sharpening the dispute with Russia, the United States has
proposed amendments that would strengthen the measures proposed
by Britain and France. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 8 Korea Herald: Korea, U.S. vow to achieve results in six-way talks   
        
Vice ministers of South Korea and the United States held a
series of meetings yesterday and affirmed their determination to
bring about a positive outcome when the six-party talks resume.

 The two sides, however, refrained from mentioning the sensitive
subject of the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led
global network of marine interception and search against trade
of weapons of mass destruction.

 The South Korean side, instead, explained in detail the
contents of the inter-Korean maritime agreement, the officials
said.

 The Seoul government says the maritime agreement that went into
effect since last year will fulfill Resolution 1718 which calls
for all member states to undertake and facilitate inspection of
cargo to or from the North.

 "The PSI and Resolution 1718 have nothing to do each other. We
focused on the resolution implementation," a government official
said on condition of anonymity.

 South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and U.S.
Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns held the
first Sub-Ministerial session of the U.S.-ROK Strategic
Consultations for Allied Partnership meeting. 

Separately, Director-General for Policy Planning Park In-kook
and Robert Joseph, the undersecretary for security affairs,
discussed U.N. Resolution 1718 against North Korea's Oct. 9
nuclear test.

 At the sub-ministerial talks, the two sides discussed the
overall international scenario including Iran's nuclear
ambitions, but mainly the North's nuclear threat, the officials
said. 

Yu and Burns agreed that it was imperative for the members to
prepare an impeccable strategy before heading into the talks
rather than rushing to the table.

 "We believe that the patience of the members of the six-party
talks and the international community has waned after the
nuclear test. It is therefore crucial to come away with
substantial results (from the talks) to maintain the credibility
of our commitment to solving the nuclear problem," a
high-ranking ministry official said.

 After the talks, Burns met South Korea's chief nuclear
negotiator Chun Yung-woo before leaving. Details of their
discussion remained undisclosed.

 South Korea, in the meantime, is yet to announce its decision
on the PSI.

 South Korea, which concedes to the principle of PSI, hesitates
to formally join the initiative due to fear of a collision with
North Korea as well as strong opposition from the liberal ruling
Uri Party. The United States has been saying that joining the
PSI formally would not necessarily mean a physical collision
between the two Koreas. 

The inter-Korean maritime agreement states that vessels of each
Korea must respond when receiving calls from the respective
side's sentry posts. 

If a vessel ignores the call, the coast guard can interdict and
search the vessel.

 The agreement is being dubbed by the South Korean government as
an effective tool that serves the same purpose as the PSI
program against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

 Park and Joseph spent most of their time explaining their
respective plans of implementing the U.N. resolution. Each U.N.
member state must submit their implementation reports to the
Security Council by Nov. 13.

 Yu and Burns reaffirmed that the five parties of the six-nation
talks do not view North Korea as a nuclear state.

 "(Both parties) looked forward to achieving an agreement at an
early date on ways to implement the Sept. 19 Joint Statement and
to bring North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and nuclear
related programs through the six-party talks," a joint press
release after the sub-ministerial session said. 

The two sides agreed to consult a ministerial strategic
consultation at a "mutually convenient time."

 Yu and Burns also took time to discuss the free trade agreement
negotiations, visa waiver issue and negotiations on sharing
defense costs. 

(angiely@heraldm.com)

By Lee Joo-hee

2006.11.08
*****************************************************************
 9 Korea Herald: 'U.S. Treasury open to direct N.K. talks'   
        
The United States Treasury Department would be willing to hold
direct talks with North Korea over its financial sanctions, a
deputy Treasury secretary said.

 In an interview with Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper, Robert
Kimmitt was quoted as saying that any such bilateral discussions
would be irrelevant to the denuclearization negotiations.

 The United States has agreed to discuss the issue of North
Korea's frozen Banco Delta Asia accounts on the sidelines of the
six-party talks. The Macau-based bank is suspected of laundering
counterfeit dollars produced by North Korea. 

Washington and Pyongyang are likely to compose a working group
to concentrate on the issue separately during the nuclear talks.

 The BDA problem is likely to be overshadowed by more complex
issues during the negotiations, such as an implementation
timetable for North Korea's nuclear dismantlement.

 Kimmit arrived in Seoul yesterday to meet Finance Minister Kwon
O-kyu for a discussion on ways to help reconstruction in Iraq.

 Talks are taking place to gather international cooperation for
the reconstruction of Iraq, led by the United Nations and the
Iraqi government. A treaty will be officially launched at the
end of this month.

 Kimmit also met South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Chun
Yung-woo to discuss the North Korean financial issues.

 The U.S. Treasury Department's investigation into BDA is still
ongoing.

 North Korea had cited the financial sanctions as an example of
Washington's hostility and a reason for its boycott of the
six-party talks.

 The United States and North Korea - with China mediating - met
in Beijing last month and agreed to resume six-party
negotiations. 

(angiely@heraldm.com)

By Lee Joo-hee

2006.11.09
*****************************************************************
 10 Korea Herald: [Joseph S. Nye]Nonproliferation after N.K.   
        
North Korea is the first country to withdraw from the
Nonproliferation Treaty and test a nuclear weapon. It has agreed
to return to six-party talks about its nuclear status, but
skeptics expect little progress. 

Some doomsayers are predicting the collapse of the
nonproliferation regime, but that kind of fatalism is mistaken.
There are many things we can do to prevent such a future. 

We are, in fact, doing better at slowing the spread of the bomb
than might be expected. In 1963 President Kennedy predicted that
there would be 15 to 20 states with nuclear weapons within the
next decade. Every country has a right of self-defense, and
today some 50 countries have the technical capacity to produce
nuclear weapons. Yet only nine do - the original five
grandfathered in the 1968 treaty, along with India, Pakistan and
Israel, which have never signed the treaty, and now North Korea.
Some countries, such as South Africa, developed nuclear weapons
and later gave them up. Many, such as South Korea, Brazil,
Argentina and Libya, terminated active nuclear weapons programs. 

Today is not the first time the nonproliferation regime has been
threatened with collapse. In 1973 India exploded a nuclear
device, and a rapid rise in oil prices fueled great expectations
about the rapid expansion of nuclear commerce. France was
selling a reprocessing plant to Pakistan, and Germany began to
sell enrichment technology to Brazil. Many parties to the treaty
planned to import or develop enrichment and reprocessing
facilities. By the middle of the decade, South Korea and Taiwan
had covert nuclear weapons programs. There was widespread
concern that the nonproliferation regime was unraveling. 

The Ford and Carter administrations prevented such a collapse
with a combination of instruments. One was American security
guarantees. Our allies in Europe and Japan were protected by our
nuclear umbrella, and we told South Korea and Taiwan that our
willingness to defend them would be jeopardized if they
developed the bomb. 

We also strengthened institutions such as the NPT and the
International Atomic Energy Agency by persuading France and
Germany to curtail their exports and by getting countries as
diverse as the Soviet Union and Japan to join us in forming a
Nuclear Suppliers Group. We negotiated an agreement in London in
1977 not to export enrichment and reprocessing facilities. We
also engaged dozens of countries in an International Nuclear
Fuel Cycle Evaluation, which developed more realistic estimates
of the benefits and dangers of nuclear commerce. While this did
not prevent Pakistan from developing a bomb in the next decade,
expectations about nonproliferation were stabilized. 

What are the lessons for today? We again need to use a
combination of instruments, starting with security guarantees.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has correctly reassured
Japan and South Korea of our commitment to their defense, and it
is unlikely that Japan will follow the North Korean example
unless we make the grave mistake of withdrawing our forward
presence in the region. We can also strengthen international
institutions. For example, recent U.N. Security Council
sanctions reinforce the norm of nonproliferation and show that
violation of the NPT is costly. 

In addition, we should increase the IAEA's budget and inspection
capabilities. We should also support IAEA Director Mohamed
ElBaradei's plan for an international bank of enriched uranium
that would be made available with guarantees and concessionary
terms to countries that do not develop their own enrichment
plants. 

With regard to North Korea, the Bush administration is correct
to warn Pyongyang of dire reprisals if we discover any nuclear
exports. Since blockading North Korean ports would not prevent
nuclear exports by land or air, we must work to stiffen the
resolve of Beijing and Seoul in the enforcement of sanctions,
particularly those related to the nuclear program. At the same
time, we should be realistic in our expectations regarding
sanctions. Both of North Korea's neighbors and major trading
partners fear a chaotic collapse in Pyongyang and are unwilling
to cut off the country completely. Moreover, Kim Jong-il has a
record of allowing his people to suffer. Within a year or so,
broad sanctions would be likely to erode. 

A long-term strategy will require a carrot as well as a stick.
We can offer recognition and economic integration in return for
a freeze in the production of fissile material, IAEA inspections
and a renewed commitment to a long-term denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula. Someday, probably within the next decade, the
North Korean regime will disappear (probably more rapidly
through integration than isolation) and prospects will improve
that Korea could follow the South African example. 

North Korea's nuclear test is not the end of the
nonproliferation regime if we develop such a strategy. The
resumption of the six-party talks is a first small step. For
those who believe that the horse is out of the barn, the answer
is that it matters how many horses are out and how fast they are
running. This race is far from over. 

Joseph S. Nye Jr., a professor at Harvard, chaired the National
Security Council Committee on Nonproliferation in the Carter
administration and was assistant secretary of defense in the
Clinton administration. - Ed.

(Washington Post Service)

2006.11.08
*****************************************************************
 11 Korea Times: S. Korea, US Discuss N. Korean Financial Issue 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation   

SEOUL (Yonhap) _ A senior U.S. Treasury official said Wednesday
that he talked with South Korea¡¯s chief nuclear envoy about
ways of clearing one of the biggest obstacles to progress in the
six-way talks over North Korea¡¯s nuclear program.

 The Banco Delta Asia (BDA), a Macau-based bank, remains a main
source of long-running financial disputes between the North and
the United States, although they agreed last week to resume the
nuclear talks later this year.

 Pyongyang and Washington have already agreed to form a
¡°working group¡± to discuss the issue.

 ¡°I did have an opportunity with the vice minister to discuss
the role the Treasury Department will play in the separate
bilateral mechanism in which there will be discussion with the
North Koreans of the BDA case,¡±

 Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said after a onehour
meeting with Chun Yungwoo, South Korea¡¯s chief delegate to the
six-party talks.

 But the U.S. official cautioned North Koreans not to expect too
much.

 ¡°This will be a continuation of talks we had with the North
Koreans that began in New York in March of this year,¡± he said.

 He gave no further details on what he discussed with Chun.

 A team of North Korean officials, led by Ri Gun, director of
American affairs at the country¡¯s foreign ministry, visited New
York at that time and received a simple briefing by U.S.
Treasury specialists on measures on the BDA, although they had
expected to have talks on it.

 Kimmitt reiterated Washington¡¯s position that the BDA issue is
a matter of law enforcement rather than sanctions.

 A South Korean foreign ministry official said that the Treasury
official explained about the procedures of the BDA probe and
follow-up measures but failed to indicate a specific timeframe.

 ¡°He did not provide detailed information on when the
investigation will end,¡± the official told reporters during a
background briefing, asking not to be identified. 

11-08-2006 20:20         
*****************************************************************
 12 AFP: US to hold more talks with NKorea on frozen accounts -

 Wed Nov 8, 3:07 AM 
		 	 
SEOUL (AFP) - The US Treasury has said it will hold more talks 
with North Korea about the freezing of its accounts in a Macau 
bank, a key obstacle to restarting negotiations on its nuclear 
weapons program.
 
Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said the talks would be 
a continuation of discussions in March in New York.
 
He made no reference to the condition North Korea set last week 
for rejoining the six-nation disarmament negotiations -- that the 
financial curbs be "discussed and settled... within the framework 
of the six-party talks."
 
Kimmitt was speaking to reporters after meeting Chun Yung-Woo, 
South Korea's lead delegate to the six-nation forum, which has 
been stalled for a year.
 
He said he and Chun discussed "the roles the Treasury Department 
will play in the separate bilateral mechanism in which there will 
be discussions with North Koreans of the BDA (Banco Delta Asia) 
case, and the basis under which we took the action that we did."
 
"This will be a continuation of the talks we had with the North 
Koreans that began in New York in March of this year."
 
The US blacklisted the Macau accounts within days of an apparent 
breakthrough in the six-party talks in September 2005.
 
The North agreed in principle to scrap its nuclear programmes in 
return for energy and economic aid and security guarantees. But 
it boycotted the talks two months later in protest at the US 
financial curbs.
 
The US pressed the Macau bank and others in Asia to blacklist 
North Korean accounts, saying it suspected the funds were linked 
to counterfeiting of dollars and other illicit activities.
 
Kimmitt said the BDA measures were not sanctions. "They are law 
enforcement measures under the laws of the US and other 
jurisdictions."
 
The Macau accounts were the key issue in the North's decision to 
return to the talks, announced on October 31.
 
US lead negotiator Christopher Hill said at the time the North 
Koreans "wanted to hear that we would address the issue of the 
financial measures in the context of the talks.
 
"And I said we would be prepared to create a mechanism, or 
working group and to address these financial issues," Hill added.
 
Seoul government officials have said the Treasury and State 
Department appear at odds on the issue, with the State Department 
seeking flexibility but the Treasury saying the financial row is 
unrelated to the nuclear negotiations.
 
South Korean media, quoting experts or sources, said last week 
that US Treasury investigators had found that up to half of the 
24 million dollars frozen in the Macau bank was from legal 
sources.
 
The US Treasury declined to comment.
 
Kimmitt Tuesday visited Japan, where he called for implementation 
of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea for its October 9 nuclear 
test.
 
Experts say North Korea has traded in narcotics, counterfeit 
cigarettes and other items in addition to fake 100-dollar bills 
known as "supernotes" for their high quality.

David Asher, from the US Institute for Defense Analyses, in May
estimated the total value of North Korea's illegal trade at
between 450 million and 550 million dollars per year, as much as
35-40 percent of total exports.

*****************************************************************
 13 UPI: U.S. to have sanction talks with N.Korea
     
 United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 

11/8/2006 8:32:00 AM -0500

SEOUL, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- The United States will hold bilateral
discussions with North Korea on financial sanctions separate
from nuclear talks, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. 

"This will be a continuation of talks we had with the North
Koreans that began in New York in March of this year," Deputy
Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said after meeting with Chun
Yung-woo, South Korea's top nuclear negotiator. 

"I did have an opportunity (with Chun) to discuss the role the
Treasury Department will play in the separate bilateral
mechanism in which there will be discussion with the North
Koreans of the BDA case," he said. 

The U.S. Treasury is still investigating the Banco Delta Asia, a
Macau-based bank accused of laundering money for North Korea.
Kimmitt said it is not sanctions but "law enforcement measures
under the laws of the U.S. and other jurisdictions." 

Late last month, North Korea said it would return to the
six-party talks on its nuclear issue "on the premise that the
financial restrictions would be discussed and settled." 

North Korea has boycotted the six-party talks since late last
year, citing U.S. sanctions imposed on BDA, which is believed to
chock off Pyongyang's cash flow.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 14 Reuters: U.S. Sen. Biden set to move on India nuclear bill
                                
Wed 8 Nov 2006 7:29 PM ET                                       

WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - A key Democratic senator on 
Wednesday said he was ready to have the U.S. Senate act quickly 
to approve a landmark nuclear deal with India but other 
congressional sources said much depends on Republicans who 
suffered major defeats in mid-term elections.

 "I think we're ready to do it. I'm ready to go" on the India 
bill, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware told reporters.

 The senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 
Biden is expected to become chairman if Democrats take majority 
control of the U.S. Senate as now appears likely. It depends on 
final results of the race in Virginia.

 The initiative would allow nuclear-armed India access to U.S. 
nuclear fuel and reactors for the first time in three decades.

 It has been hailed by President George W. Bush and others as the 
core of a new U.S. relationship with India after years of 
estrangement, and a financial boon to American business.

 The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the bill in 
July.

 But despite more than a year of upbeat assessments by 
administration officials and the intervention of Bush and other 
top officials, the Republican-led Senate let the India bill 
languish when the congressional session ended last month.

 Congress is expected to soon hold a "lame duck" session,
so-called because it will include members of the House of
Representatives and Senate who were voted out of office in
Tuesday's elections.

 Whether there will be time for the Senate to act on the India
bill, then have the House and Senate resolve differences in
their respective versions of the legislation, then cast a final
vote, is unclear.

 Biden says he believes final passage is possible but it depends
on the "mood" of defeated Republicans and whether they are
"mature enough to say the voters have spoken."

 A spokesman for Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate's No. 2
Republican, told Reuters: "There's a very good chance" the India
bill will come up in the lame duck session.

 But an aide to Senate Republican leader Bill Frist said
Republicans are still insisting Democrats reduce the number of
amendments to the bill that would have to be taken up in Senate
floor debate.

 Biden said he believed the number of Democratic amendments is
manageable but the Frist aide said: "We still need them to cut
their amendments."

 If the Senate fails to pass the bill in November, the entire
process must start again -- the bill will have to go through the
just-elected new Congress, whose new session starts in January.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.                                              [ border=] 
*****************************************************************
 15 Reuters: Bush's "axis of evil" comes back to haunt him 

0:16 ET, Wed 8 Nov 2006                                                                                                                                                                 

By Matt Spetalnick - Analysis
					 					
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When President George W. Bush lumped
Iraq, Iran and North Korea together into an "axis of evil"
nearly five years ago, it became one of the defining moments of
his first term.
 					 					
Now, weakened by his party's losses in Tuesday's elections, he
will face mounting pressure from critics who say the three
countries he targeted have instead become an "axis of failure"
born of his administration's foreign policy mistakes.
 					 					
With little more than two years left in office and Bush's
presidential legacy on the line, the United States remains
bogged down in an unpopular war in Iraq and confronted by twin
nuclear challenges from Iran and North Korea.
 					 					
Embattled on all fronts, Bush has dug in his heels, saying he
will consider changes in tactics but not strategy in Iraq and
rejecting direct talks with Tehran or Pyongyang.
 					 					
But with Democrats projected winning control of the U.S. House
of Representatives from Bush's Republican Party in midterm polls
widely seen as a referendum on the war, they will now have more
leverage in pushing for a shift in direction.
 					 					
"Staying the course is no longer an option for Bush, not
strategically, not politically," said Christopher Preble,
director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.
 					 					
Adding to the president's woes, America's enemies may see the
election outcome as a sign of crumbling U.S. resolve and try to
capitalize.
 					 					
Though Bush has broad constitutional leeway in foreign affairs,
Democrats will now wield more influence, largely through
congressional probes and budget oversight, than they have since
Bill Clinton was in office. Their problem, however, is they have
yet to agree on a single approach to Iraq.
 					 					
Increased pressure for an exit strategy could also come from
fractured Republican ranks. With the 2008 presidential race
looming, top party contenders likely will urge Bush to heed
voter backlash against rising U.S. casualties in Iraq.
 					 					
He could find a face-saving way to start extricating the United
States from Iraq when a bipartisan commission co-chaired by Bush
family loyalist James Baker presents recommendations.
 					 					
But Bush, clinging to his with-us-or-against-us worldview and
not having to worry about re-election, may hold firm, believing
as he often insists that history will vindicate him.
 					 					
Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial" quotes him as vowing to
stick it out in Iraq even if his wife Laura and his dog Barney
are the only supporters he has left.
 					 					
CALLS FOR DIALOGUE
 					 					
As the Iraq debate intensifies, calls for dialogue with Iran and
North Korea also are expected to grow louder.
 					 					
Analysts say Bush finds himself hamstrung by the doctrine he
laid down after the Sept. 11 attacks to isolate "rogue states."
Having frozen them out, he now has little leverage.
 					 					
"This president tends to be in denial about the scale of the
strategic problems he faces," said Anthony Cordesman of the
Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
 					 					
Bush remains unapologetic about having taken aim at what he
dubbed the "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union speech.
His words, criticized internationally as belligerent, underlined
a U.S. shift from the battle against al Qaeda to a build-up for
war against Saddam Hussein.
 					 					
Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, each problem has appeared to
feed on the others. Seeing the lone superpower tied down
militarily in Iraq has emboldened North Korea and Iran to press
ahead with nuclear programs in defiance of U.S. warnings and
world condemnation, analysts say.
 					 					
Bush has had little choice but to play down the potential use of
force against them. But efforts to forge international consensus
have been hampered by lingering distrust over his decision to
invade Iraq without United Nations approval.
 					 					
Some analysts speculate that if Bush, struggling to stave off
lame-duck status, becomes frustrated with multilateral
diplomacy, he could look at military options against Tehran.
 					 					
Though North Korea has gone further, conducting a nuclear test
last month, the administration sees Iran as the more pressing
threat to U.S. interests, including ally Israel.
 					 					
Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, wrote that after Tuesday's elections "the
preferred European scenario -- Bush hobbled -- is less likely
than the alternative: Bush unbound." 
					 				 
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 16 IRNA: Britain admits Tel Aviv's nuclear arsenal "widely assumed" 

Nov 8, IRNA

The British government has suggested that the reason it has not
made an issue of Israeli illegal nuclear arsenal is because Tel
Aviv has yet to confirm possessing

 "We are aware of the widespread assumption that Israel
possesses nuclear weapons," Foreign Office Minister Lord
Triesman said in response to whether the UK will make
representations to Israel about joining the non-proliferation
treaty.

 "But note that Israel has refused to confirm it," Triesman said
in a written parliamentary reply published Wednesday.

 He declined to answer if Israeli nuclear arsenal, estimated to
be up to 200 warheads or more, was larger than that of the UK.

 But the Foreign Office minister insisted that the British
government has "on a number of occasions called on Israel to
accede to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear
weapons state." It was reported earlier this year that Britain
not only secretly sold the Israeli regime heavy water but also
supplied plutonium to help the Zionist regime develop nuclear
weapons some 40 to 50 years ago.

 The plutonium was supplied by the UK's Atomic Energy Authority
as a result of which Tel Aviv was able to put together a pair of
crude nuclear bombs just in case things did not go as planned in
the 1967 Six-Day war against Arab nations, the New Statesman
reported.

 In August 2005, the BBC revealed fresh evidence from official
documents showing that Britain secretly shipped to Israel a
surplus 20 tons of heavy water in 1958 that was originally
supplied by Norway.

 The New Statesman, a weekly magazine, in March suggested the
British government could find itself in trouble at the IAEA for
breaching the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, saying that it
still has not told the UN watchdog of its plutonium and uranium
sales.
*****************************************************************
 17 Telugu Portal: Pakistan minister raises fear of nuclear exchange 

http://www.teluguportal.net

Posted by adminon 2006/11/8 4:14:36                                   

Washington/Islamabad, Nov 8 (IANS) The danger from a nuclearised 
subcontinent and the unresolved Kashmir issue came to the fore 
when a Pakistani minister told a Kashmiri gathering in Washington 
that in a dispute over the issue his country will not "make first 
use of nuclear weapons, but human beings make errors."

"We won't make first use of nuclear weapons, but you know human 
beings make errors," Pakistan's Minister for Kashmir Affairs and 
Northern Areas Tahir Iqbal told a Kashmiri gathering in 
Washington.

Consequences of an unresolved Kashmir issue could be grave. 
"Should we wait for another 60 years?" the minister asked at an 
open forum sponsored by the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), 
adding that Jammu and Kashmir remained the "nuclear flashpoint" 
of South Asia.

Like his colleague, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, 
recently claiming that India and Pakistan had come close to "an 
understanding" on scaling down military presence on the Siachen 
glacier, Iqbal also made some 'revelations' at the conference.

"The minister also revealed that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh had made some fresh proposals on the Kashmir dispute but
they have not yet been made public. He mentioned that Singh was
due to visit Pakistan in December although a date had not been
decided," Daily Times quoted him as saying.

The minister repeatedly asked India to be "more flexible" and
stop "finger-pointing" at Pakistan, a reference to India's
allegations that Islamabad was fomenting terrorism.

Reporting about the same conference, The News said the
minister's prescription for a solution to the Kashmir issue was
the same as enunciated by President Pervez Musharraf, of a
single government for the entire territory now divided between
India and Pakistan, with both Indian and Pakistani leaders
thinking "inbox".

The newspaper said this expression puzzled the participants till
it became evident that the minister meant to say the two
leaderships should think "out of the box".

Iqbal did not say whose responsibility the three subjects -
defence, foreign affairs and currency - would or should be.   		
		
Â© 2006 TeluguPortal.Net 
*****************************************************************
 18 UPI: U.N.: No radioactive weapons in Lebanon
     
  United Press International - NewsTrack - 

11/8/2006 9:50:00 AM -0500

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- U.N. investigators have
concluded there is no evidence Israel used weapons containing
radioactive materials in fighting in Lebanon. 

An assessment by the U.N. Environment Program looked into
allegations Israel used depleted uranium weapons in Lebanon
while fighting Hezbollah forces. It released a document this
week during a meeting in Kenya saying investigators found no
signs Israel has used such weapons. A final report is expected
next month. 

Investigators visited 32 sites on both sides of the Litani River
and took the samples to Switzerland for testing. 

Israel attacked suspected Hezbollah sites after militants
kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Some 1,500 people, mostly
Lebanese, died in about a month of fighting, which ended with a
U.N.-brokered cease-fire.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 19 [NukeNet] IAEA Push To Promote Nuclear Power, Court Climate
 
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2006 15:43:35 -0800

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<x-flowed>
  From: "FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign"
<foesyd4@ihug.com.au>
To: <Abolition-Global_Council@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 2:50 AM
Subject: Friends of the Earth Europe Press Release
7 Nov 2006 - NUCLEAR POWER CAN'T SAVE THE CLIMATE

   Friends of the Earth Europe

Press Release

For Immediate Release: 7 November 2006


******
NUCLEAR POWER CAN'T SAVE THE CLIMATE

Friends of the Earth Europe deplores International
Energy Agency
proposal to add nuclear nightmare to global
climate crisis.
*****

Brussels, 7 November 2006 - Friends of the Earth
Europe has chastised
the International Energy Agency (IEA) for pushing
a global energy policy
that would promote a nuclear revival, while still
condemning the world
to catastrophic climate change. The policy was
outlined in the IEA's new
World Energy Outlook, published this morning.
Friends of the Earth
Europe has declared the proposed paths dangerous,
a threat to the
climate and economically unviable.[1]

Frank van Schaik, nuclear energy campaigner at
Friends of the Earth
Europe, said:

"Nuclear power is not the solution to the problems
of climate change and
energy security. Nuclear power remains the most
dangerous form of
energy. An accident like the 1986 explosion of the
reactor in Chernobyl
in the Ukraine could happen every day. And the
question of what to do
with highly radioactive waste remains unsolved. We
can secure the supply
of energy ten times cheaper through investing in
energy savings instead
of new nuclear power. On a level playing field,
nuclear power is
economically insane." [2]

Friends of the Earth Europe has highlighted that
beyond burdening future
generations with a dirty legacy for centuries, new
nuclear power comes
at a high financial cost for society, if the real
costs of nuclear
power are properly taken into account. These costs
include century-long
waste treatment and storage, the decommissioning
of old plants and the
costs of potential accidents. Not a single nuclear
power station has
ever been built without massive government
subsidies.
The European Commission has recently started
investigations concerning
illegal state aid for a nuclear power plant
currently under construction
in Finland. [3] Also, contrary to the claims in
the World Energy Outlook
2006, uranium is a finite resource that, even if
nuclear energy capacity
was kept at present levels, would last only 50
years.[4]
New nuclear plants will diminish the world's
chances to avert the
growing climate crisis. Money invested in energy
saving measures and
renewable energies can achieve far greater
emission reductions than if
invested in nuclear power.
Friends of the Earth welcomes the acknowledgment
by the World Energy
Outlook 2006 that policies and measures to
increase energy efficiency
will yield financial savings exceeding initial
extra investment costs
for energy producers and consumers. But the report
does not give
sufficient prominence to cutting energy waste and
exploiting the full
potential of increasing energy efficiency.

Jan Kowalzig, climate campaigner at Friends of the
Earth Europe, said:

"We need drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions
to avoid the economic
and environmental repercussions of catastrophic
climate change. But the
recommendations of the International Energy
Agency's World Energy
Outlook 2006 would lead to soaring emissions for
decades. The report's
suggestions for reducing energy waste are far too
weak, and it lacks
proposals for strong and effective policies to
move away from dirty
energy production into an era of renewable
energies."
Friends of the Earth also debunked the myth that
nuclear energy is an
energy source free of greenhouse gas emissions.
Nuclear power emits as
much CO2 as a modern gas-fired co-generation
plant. When assessing the
overall emissions, the whole lifetime of a nuclear
power station need to
be part of the equation, including fossil fuels
burnt during uranium
mining, processing and transportation, building
the nuclear power
station and decommissioning as well as long-term
waste storage and
treatment.[5]

***

For more information, please contact:
Frank van Schaik, nuclear campaigner at Friends of
the Earth Europe:
Tel: +31 206 126 368; Mobile: +31 620 295 755;
Email:
frank.vanschaik@foeeurope.org
Jan Kowalzig, climate campaigner at Friends of the
Earth Europe:
Tel:+32 25 42 61 02; Mobile: +32 496 384 696;
Email:
jan.kowalzig@foeeurope.org

Rosemary Hall, Communications Officer at Friends
of the Earth Europe:
Tel:+32 25 42 61 05, Mobile: +32 485 930 515,
Email:
rosemary.hall@foeeurope.org


NOTES

[1] The G8 summits in Gleaneagles and St
Petersburg asked the the
International Energy Agency to advise on a 'clean,
clever and
competitive energy future' for the world energy
needs. The World Energy
Outlook 2006 is seen as the response to this
request. It compares a
Business-As-Usual 'Reference Scenario' with an
'Alternative Policy
Scenario'. The latter would still see increases in
global greenhouse gas
emissions by about 30% compared to 2004 levels,
putting for example the
EU's objective of keeping global average
temperature increases below 2°C
out ofreach. In chapter 11, the WEO 2006 also
sketches out a 'Beyond
Alternative Policy Scenario' that however would
merely cap emissions in
2030 at today's levels. See
http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org

[2] "Nuclear power: economics and climate
protection potential": Rocky
Mountains Institute; January 2006; available at
http://www.rmi.org

[3]
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1456


[4] "Nuclear Power: Myth and Reality - The risks
and prospects of
nuclear power" - by Gerd Rosenkranz, published by
Heinrich Böll
Foundation and WISE, Chapter 3: The Nuclear Fuel
Cycle, p.22.
http://www.boell.de/de/04_thema/4064.html

[5] "If one takes into consideration the mining of
resources [uranium],
the transportation, the building and maintaining
of nuclear power
plants, the distribution of the electricity and
the necessary additional
production of heat, then nuclear power does often
look worse for climate
protection than other forms of energy production.
A modern gas-fired
power station in connection with heat production
[co-generation] can be
more favourable for the climate. Even better for
the climate are
renewable energies and most of all the efficient
use of energy." [own
translation] - German Environmental Ministry, in:
'Atomkraft: Ein teurer
Irrweg. Die Mythen  der Atomwirtschaft', March
2006. See (in German)
http://www.erneuerbare-energien.de/inhalt/2715/4592/





Rosemary Hall
Communications Officer
Friends of the Earth Europe
Rue Blanche 15 B-1050 Bruxelles Belgium
Tel.: +32 2 542 6105
Mobile: +32 485 930515
Fax:  +32 2 537 5596
rosemary.hall@foeeurope.org
http://www.foeeurope.org

-- 
--------------------------------------------------
------------
Niccolo' Sarno - Media Coordinator (Amsterdam, The
Netherlands)
niccolo@foei.org - http://www.foei.org/media -
Tel:+31-20-6221369
--------------------------------------------------
------------
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is the
world's largest
grassroots environmental federation with 71
national member groups
in 70 countries and 1.5 million individual members
and supporters
--------------------------------------------------
------------
What do the media say about us? READ PRESS REVIEWS
HERE:
http://www.foei.org/media/medialinks.html
--------------------------------------------------
------------












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*****************************************************************
 20 Sydney Morning Herald: Report backs use of nuclear power - PM - 

www.smh.com.au

November 8, 2006 - 1:30PM
 	 	
Prime Minister John Howard says an international report which
backs the use of nuclear energy has recognised that fission fuel
is part of the solution to climate change.
 
The International Energy Agency - a policy advice arm of the
OECD - warns that countries face a "dirty, insecure and
expensive" future without nuclear energy as oil prices soar.
 
Mr Howard, who has been advocating a nuclear power industry in
Australia, said it was an important report.
 
"I thought the International Energy Agency, which is the most
authoritative international body on energy matters, for the
first time argued very strongly for nuclear power," Mr Howard
told reporters.
 
"What it's basically saying is that it's part of the solution."
 
Mr Howard said renewable energy sources such as wind and solar
energy could never replace coal-fired power stations, so nuclear
power had to be considered.
 
He did not rule out subsidising the nuclear industry to get it
going, saying that was no different to Labor's policy of setting
a mandatory renewable energy target (MRET) for businesses.
 
"If you compel industry to buy a certain proportion of its
energy from renewable resources, that's a subsidy because you're
imposing a cost on them that they wouldn't otherwise have to
bear," he said.
 
MRET costs would be passed on to taxpayers in the form of higher
electricity prices, he said.
 
Mr Howard denied that he had a nuclear "dream", saying he just
wanted a fully informed debate.
 
"I think people have to understand one thing and that is that if
there is to be a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of any
consequence in the time ahead, there is going to be additional
cost involved," he said.
 
Coal was currently Australia's cheapest energy source, but
cleaning it up added to costs because it reduced the efficiency
of the power station, he said.
 
"As you do that nuclear, according to my understanding, becomes
more competitive," Mr Howard said.
 
"My instinct, my belief, is that the way for this country to go
is clean coal technology and genuinely look at the nuclear
option, recognising that renewables can make a contribution at
the margin but they're never going to be able to replace power
stations.
 
"You won't run power stations on windmills."
 	
© 2006 	AAP

Brought to you by [aap] 	
 
© 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald.
*****************************************************************
 21 Sydney Morning Herald: Howard suggests he'll foot bill for nuclear blast-off 

www.smh.com.au
 
Stephanie Peatling

November 9, 2006
 	 	
A NUCLEAR power industry appears closer to reality after John
Howard hinted he was prepared to consider subsidising the
initial cost.
 
The Prime Minister cited the findings of a report by the
International Energy Agency which warned that nuclear energy
might become necessary as a result of rising oil prices.
 
"I think people have to understand one thing and that is that if
there is to be a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of any
consequence in the time ahead, there is going to be additional
cost involved," Mr Howard said.
 
The cost of cleaning up the production of coal, which will
remain Australia's cheapest energy source for decades to come,
would make the cost of nuclear power more competitive, Mr Howard
said.
 
The agency's report predicted that international energy demand
would grow 53 per cent by 2030 - largely as a result of the
burgeoning economies of China and India.
 
If energy consumption grew by that magnitude, the report found,
global greenhouse gas emissions would be 55 per cent higher than
today, significantly worsening global warming. But energy demand
could be reduced by 10 per cent and emissions by 16 per cent by
2030 if the policies already adopted by countries to tackle
climate change actually worked.
 
The report warned nuclear power could play a significant role in
future energy use but government would have to be prepared to
finance some costs.
 
"My belief is that the way for this country to go is clean coal
technology and genuinely look at the nuclear option, recognising
that renewables can make a contribution at the margin but
they're never going to be able to replace power stations," Mr
Howard said.
 
The Wilderness Society campaigner Imogen Zethoven said recent
polls showed people were more supportive of money being spent on
renewable energy rather than on nuclear energy.
 
"There are three other problems that still haven't been solved -
proliferation, plant safety and disposal of waste," she said.
 
The Prime Minister also said he was prepared to face an
environmental backlash if a committee of public servants found
the only way to secure the water of towns and agricultural
businesses dependent on the Murray-Darling river system was to
drain wetlands and reduce environmental flows.
 
Water and irrigation experts remain unsure about whether any of
the measures decided on at Tuesday's meeting of state and
Commonwealth leaders would free extra water.
 
Peter Schwerdtfeger, emeritus professor of meteorology at
Flinders University's Airborne Research Centre, said he agreed
that overallocation of water needed to be stopped, but with
"precious little else" that the meeting decided on.
 
"Water trading as it stands now is an evil nonsense. It has
allowed the fallacious belief to develop that water can be sold
either upstream or downstream without any consequences.
 
"Water that is sold to NSW will not flow downstream and the bed
of the Murray may dry out. It is not environmentally or
economically viable.
 
"Water trading only works if you have a surplus of water & why
don't we encourage people to use water more efficiently?"
 
Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald. 
*****************************************************************
 22 Calgary Sun: Dinning calls nuclear power oilsands option
             
UPDATED: 2006-11-08 01:39:27 MST

By SUN MEDIA

VERMILION -- Alberta Conservative leadership candidate Jim
Dinning says the province must look at nuclear energy as a way
to power development of the oilsands. 													

 Premier Ralph Klein has long opposed nuclear power because of
concerns about the safe disposal of nuclear waste. But Dinning,
a former provincial treasurer, told a candidates' forum last
night nuclear power must be an option. 													

 He said in an interview the issue of disposing of nuclear waste
will have to be "carefully managed." But he said to eliminate it
as an option without further study could lead to wasting natural
gas. 													

 Rival Ted Morton said if he becomes premier there will be no
nuclear plants in Alberta. The other six rivals chose not to
address it on the stage, but Mark Norris later said he's also a
proponent of nuclear energy to power the oilsands.
																																																			 						
© 2006, All rights reserved.                            
*****************************************************************
 23 RIA Novosti: Trial of Russia's ex-nuclear head put off till Nov. 21
 
08/ 11/ 2006                                  

MOSCOW, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow district court has
adjourned until November 21 hearings in the case of Russia's
ex-nuclear power minister, who has been charged with
embezzlement and abuse of office, a RIA Novosti correspondent
said Wednesday.

 The Zamoskvoretsky District Court delayed the retrial of
Yevgeny Adamov, 67, who is being prosecuted along with two
co-defendants, Vyacheslav Pismennyi, former director of the
Troitsky research center, and Revmir Freishut, former director
of TechSnabExport, due to the illness of one of the defendants.

 An international arrest warrant has been issued for a fourth
defendant, Alexander Chernov, president of the Swiss company
Nuclear Services and Supply Ltd, which was created by
TechSnabExport in 1991 to market Russian products abroad.

 Adamov has been accused of leading an organized criminal group
that inflicted damage worth over 3 billion rubles (about $110
million) to the Russian budget, enterprises and organizations.
 "Preliminary hearings cannot by law begin in the absence of a
defendant," said Genri Reznik, who represents Adamov's interests.

 The trial was already adjourned October 26 because Adamov's
lawyers did not appear in court, and one of the defendants was
in the hospital.

 Adamov was originally arrested in Switzerland in May 2005 at
the request of the United States, where authorities accuse him
of misappropriating $9 million given to Russia for nuclear
safety projects. If convicted in the U.S., Adamov would have
faced 60 years in prison.

 He was extradited to Russia in early 2006 to face charges, but
was released by the Russian Supreme Court July 21, after a total
of 15 months in prison, to await trial.

 Adamov, who served from 1998 to 2001 as Russia's nuclear power
minister, said in October he will insist on a trial in a U.S.
court, although the U.S. authorities have accused him of a crime
they said was committed in Russia.

 "It is surprising that Russia's jurisdiction has been
transferred to another state," Adamov said. "I think proceedings
in the U.S. will be adjourned until the process is completed
here [in Russia]."

 He also said he will not ask the court to close his case
because the statute of limitation has expired. "I will not use
the expiration of the statute of limitations [to ask for a
dismissal], because it would imply an indirect admission of
guilt," Adamov said then.

 On October 16, the Moscow City Court canceled the
Zamoskvoretsky District Court's decision to send Adamov's case
back to the Prosecutor General's Office to correct shortcomings
in the investigation and clarify the charges.

 The city court thereby upheld an appeal by prosecutors against
the district court decision. Prosecutors demanded that the case
should instead be sent for retrial in the district court. 

© 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 24 BBC: China-Egypt nuclear energy deal
 
Last Updated: Wednesday, 8 November 2006
 
[Egyptian President Mubarak reviews a military guard with Chinese 
President Hu Jintao ]                              

News of the deal came in a joint communiqué from the presidents                                                          

China says it has reached an agreement with the Egyptian 
president, Hosni Mubarak, to co-operate on the peaceful use of 
nuclear energy. 

China's official news agency said the agreement had been 
confirmed at talks in Beijing on Tuesday between Mr Mubarak and 
President Hu Jintao. 

No further details of the deal have been made public. 

Egypt plans to revive its nuclear energy programme, frozen 20 
years ago after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. 

Russia has also said it is willing to help Egypt to develop a 
nuclear energy programme. 

Following his talks in Moscow and Beijing, Mr Mubarak has moved 
on to Central Asia. 

Egypt announced plans to revive the civilian nuclear power 
programme in September. A plant will be constructed at al-Dabaa, 
on the Mediterranean coast, within the next 10 years, it was 
announced. 

Demand for electricity has been growing at an average rate of 7% 
a year and the country faces worsening shortages.                                                        



*****************************************************************
 25 Platts: NRC begins special inspection at Palisades
 
Washington (Platts)--7Nov2006
 
NRC has begun a special inspection at Palisades after discovering 
that the plant's three auxiliary feedwater pumps were set for 
manual rather than automatic operation, the agency announced in a 
November 7 press release. 

The plant shut down November 1 to repair a leak in a cooling coil 
and returned to service two days later. 

During startup, an NRC inspector discovered the improperly set 
switches, the agency said. Plant staff determined that the 
controls were changed to manual during the shutdown, NRC said.

NRC Region III spokesman Jan Strasma said the plant's technical 
specifications require the controls to be on automatic during 
startup and operation. The NRC team began its inspection November 
7, Strasma said. The error in the pump controls was unrelated to 
the problem that shut down the plant, NRC said.
 

Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
 [The McGraw-Hill Companies]       


*****************************************************************
 26 Platts: International audit of France's nuclear safety authority begins
 
London (Platts)--8Nov2006
 
An international audit of France's nuclear safety authority began 
this week and will run through November 21. 

The IAEA-led International Regulatory Review Service mission, 
known as IRRS, will be conducted by about 15 experts from nuclear 
safety authorities of Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, South 
Korea, Spain, the US, Russia, Finland, Japan, New Zealand and the 
Netherlands, said France's Nuclear Safety Authority, or ASN, said 
in a notice November 7. 

Four observers from other countries will also follow the mission 
to draw lessons for future IRRS missions of their own 
authorities, ASN said. Five staff from the IAEA will support the 
French IRRS. 

This is the first full-fledged IRRS mission the Vienna agency has 
run, although it has done partial IRRS reviews, most recently in 
the UK. ASN officials had hoped that their new nuclear regulatory 
commissioners would be named by the time the IRRS began, but the 
nomination decree had not been published as of November 7.

Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
 [The McGraw-Hill Companies]       
*****************************************************************
 27 FCW.com: NRC rule creates Web system to track nuclear material

BY Brian Robinson

 Published on Nov. 8, 2006

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a final rule
on reporting requirements for various transactions involving
radioactive materials that will involve establishing secure,
Web-based access to a new National Source Tracking System (NSTS).

States and the NRC will use NSTS to closely track the location
and use of various radioactive materials.

Although those materials are used in a range of applications in
industries such as oil and gas, construction, food and medicine,
and a number of separate systems contain information on
companies and individuals who are licensed to use them, no one
system covers all licensees.

In a report earlier this year, however, the NRCs inspector
general warned that the Web-based system may be inadequate
because the supporting regulatory analysis, which provides the
framework for the system, is based on unreliable data from an
interim database.

That interim database of sources of concern was created
several years ago, although reporting to it is voluntary. NSTS
will be mandatory, and all licensed handlers of materials
governed by the new rule will have to report their inventories
and transactions such as transfers or disposals involving the
materials by the end of November 2007.

The NRC rule covers sealed sources of radioactive material that
are either sealed in a capsule or closely bonded to a
nonradioactive substrate that effectively locks the material in
place.

The rule requires licensees to report all transactions involving
these materials by the close of the following business day.
Through the online system, theyll be able to log on and type
the information about a source once into an online form. They
will be able to continue reporting on transactions involving
that source without having to re-enter all of the information.

Licensees will have to establish an account with NSTS, and
afterward will have access only to information regarding their
own material and facilities. Government agencies other than the
NRC will also be given limited access to the data.

Licensees will also be able to submit their information by
mailing or faxing forms. 
		
 FCW.com - NRC rule creates Web system to track nuclear material
 		 
Copyright 2000-2006 1105 Media Inc.. See our <strong>Privacy 
 
*****************************************************************
 28 AU: New Matilda: Nuclear Debate: Part One: The Plan

Thursday 9 November 2006                                      
             
 Julie Macken
 													Wednesday 8 November 2006 												 												
In September 2005, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, used 
his Condor Laucke lecture to declare that the death toll from the 
Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 was just 50 people. 

Four months later, George W Bush, used his State of the Union 
address to launch his Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. 

Three months after this, on 15 May 2006, Prime Minister John
Howard announced from Washington that it was time for
Australians to debate the role of nuclear fuel here. 

And finally — hot on the heels of the Stern Report — last
Saturday, Howard told the Queensland Liberal Party’s annual
convention in Brisbane that ‘nuclear power is potentially the
cleanest and greenest of them all.’ He added: 

We would be foolish from a national interest point of view, with
our vast reserves of uranium, to say that we are not going to
consider nuclear power — not even going to look at it; we are
going to say no to it before the debate even starts … I believe
that the world’s attitudes toward nuclear power are changing and
I believe that Australian attitudes towards nuclear power are
changing. 

So what is going on? Why after 10 years, would Howard suddenly
appear to get the ‘vision’ about nuclear power? And what, if
anything, connects the speeches of Downer and Bush to the demand
by the Prime Minister for a nuclear debate? 

The short answer is, a lot has been going on behind the scenes,
and it is not John Howard who suddenly got the nuclear vision,
but his friend George W Bush. 

The man who connects all three politicians is Dr John White,
chairman of the Federal Government’s Uranium Industry
Framework(UIF) and head of the Australian waste company, Global
Renewables. 

White is like an old alchemist, he believes everything can be
re-used, re-cycled or transformed — including nuclear waste.
Four days after the Prime Minister used his doorstop interview
in Washington to tell waiting journalists that Australians
needed a nuclear debate, I spoke to White in his capacity as
head of the UIF. 

He had just flown across the Pacific, leaving behind his wintry
home town of Melbourne to land in a balmy Texan evening. Because
he was a man interested in waste, I began by asking if he was in
the US to visit the beleaguered Yucca Mountain nuclear
repositoryin Nevada. He could neither confirm nor deny that, but
he did say that, as head of the UIF, it was part of his brief to
see what the rest of world was doing with their waste. 

Then, without further prompting, he launched into a long
explanation of what he and his colleagues had planned for
Australia. And when he finished he said: 

If we agree to do this for America, we will never again have to
put young Australians in the line of fire. We will never have to
prove our loyalty to the US by sending our soldiers to fight in
their wars, because a project like this would settle the
question of our loyalty once and for all. 

We had that conversation six months ago. The project he referred
to is now well-advanced and more ambitious than anything
previously seen in Australia. It has been developed by an
international consortium of nuclear experts, US think-tanks and
businessmen. And, with the Howard Government’s Review of Uranium
Mining and Processing and Nuclear Energy in Australiadue to
report back within the next few weeks, it is a good bet that
White’s proposition will be woven through the panel’s
recommendations. 

The proposal — one that White and his colleagues have already
spent $45 million of their own money developing — is the
creation of the Australian Nuclear Fuel Leasing (ANFL) company,
which will be headed by White, and which will facilitate and
manage the enrichment, fabrication, leasing, transport and
storage of 15 to 20 per cent of the world’s nuclear fuel needs. 

Not only will it be an Australian company — with International
Atomic Energy Agency and UN oversight — it will use Australia’s
uranium reserves. And all the nuclear fuel rods leased to other
countries will be returned to Australia and stored here forever. 

As White has stressed, this is not just strategically
imperative, it also extremely lucrative. He estimates that by
charging around $3000 a kilogram for the leased nuclear fuel
packages, and targeting a market of around 2000 tonnes of
fabricated fuel per year, Australia stands to make over $6
billion per year for providing this service. 

The reason it would be so financially beneficial for Australia
is because, according to White, ‘We have the most stable geology
in the world.’ 
  
Thanks to Fiona Katauskas  



I’m not sure if White knows it, but that was why the Russians
located their nuclear power plant at Chernobyl — it was
allegedly the most stable geology in the world. And of course,
the Russian people had no say in whether they had nuclear power
plants in their towns, nor were they informed about the full
spectrum of risk posed by this form of power generation. 

The comparisons are unsettling. The scope of White’s proposal
and the fact that it has progressed so far without any public
scrutiny or comment in a democracy like Australia is quite
extraordinary. 

Unbeknown to the Australian public, the four principle directors
of the ANFL have been hard at work for many years. Aside from
White, they are: David Pentz, Daniel Poneman and Michael
Simpson. 

Pentz is probably best known as the US chairman of Pangea
Resources, the company that in 1999 sought to establish an
international high-level nuclear waste dump in outback Western
Australia. Poneman is a Principal of the US-based Scowcroft
Group who, from 1993 until 1996, served as Special Assistant to
US President Bill Clinton and Senior Director for
Non-proliferation and Export Controls at the National Security
Council. And finally, Simpson was Business Development Director
of Britain Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) until 2003. While at BNFL,
Simpson spoke publicly about the possibility of Russia becoming
a giant in the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing market and hinted
that BNFL might be interested in a partnership with Russia. 

The best way to understand how this nuclear fuel leasing cycle
would be run, and what it would mean to ordinary Australians is
to look at the submission made by the ANFL to the Federal
Government’s nuclear energy review on 18 August, 2006. 

Essentially the plan is this: ANFL will get the uranium from BHP
Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia. They will
contract Japan or Germany to enrich and fabricate it — although
with the world currently over-supplied in enrichment by 20 to 30
per cent, this will not be necessary for some years. They will
microchip every last gram of fissile material so that it can be
tracked anywhere in the world, and then lease the nuclear rods
to China and India — and any other country the US considers too
risky to manage their own nuclear enrichment industry. 

When the rods have been spent, they will be left to cool briefly
for a year or two before shipping them back to Darwin by sea
while they’re still ‘hot’ — apparently shipping the rods while
they are still radioactive reduces the chances of the material
falling into unfriendly hands. They will put them on the Darwin
to Adelaide railway line and transport the rods back to South
Australia. Once there, the rods can stay in cooling ponds for
another 30 years, before being stored forever in the Australian
outback. 

Coincidentally, this deal would also help the Adelaide-Darwin
rail link which is owned by Serco Asia Pacific, a leader in the
management and transport of the UK’s nuclear waste. 

In conversation with me, White argued the strategic advantages
to the ANFL plan, but he also tackled the issue from a security,
environmental and then moral point of view, asking: 

How can we justify being the world’s largest exporter of
uranium, while taking no responsibility for its waste? Global
warming is an enormous issue. How can we justify doing nothing
to ensure future generations have a stable climate to grow up
in? With the world’s most stable geology in the world, one of
the most stable democracies in the world, we are in a position
to offer the international community a safe solution to their
nuclear waste problem. How can we walk away from that? 
But this debate is not a simple narrative of right or wrong
action — as we shall see next week in Nuclear Debate Part Two:
The Problems. 												 											   										 										
 											  [ /]    										 										 												
Australian Financial Review. She is now writing a series of
books on Australian business, hope and the possibility of
political change in Australia. 														 													  
												 												 											
Gordon Brown has appointed Al Gore as his adviser on global 
warming. John Howard's climate tsar should be:                                                           
							
2006 © New Matilda
*****************************************************************
 29 AFP: China, Egypt reach nuclear energy agreement 

 Wed Nov 8, 4:30 AM ET 
		 	 
BEIJING (AFP) - China and Egypt have agreed to co-operate on the 
peaceful use of nuclear energy, state media said Wednesday, in a 
development that could rile the United States, a traditional 
Cairo ally. 

 The agreement was announced in a joint communique following 
talks in Beijing Tuesday between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak 
Hosni Mubarakand his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao  Hu Jintao, 
the official Xinhua news agency reported.
 
"Egypt is not going to produce nuclear weapons," said He Wenping, 
an expert on Africa relations at the Beijing-based Chinese 
Academy of Social Sciences, the top government think tank.
 
"It won't affect the international community, because Egypt will 
use the nuclear energy peacefully," she told AFP.
 
No details were immediately available on how the two nations 
planned to co-operate, according to Xinhua.
 
The agreement comes at a time when both have announced plans to 
step up their nuclear energy capacity.
 
China has an ambitious plan to increase its combined nuclear 
power capacity to 40,000 megawatts by 2020, a plan that will 
require about two 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plants to be built 
annually for the next 15 years.
 
Egypt, meanwhile, is reviving its nuclear program two decades 
after it was frozen, following an accident at the Chernobyl power 
plant in what was then the Soviet Union.
 
According to reports, Egypt is now looking to build at least one 
nuclear power station within 10 years.
 
He said Egypt is in fact pursuing two separate purposes.
 
Although it is an exporter of oil, it wants to seek solutions to 
longer-term worries about energy security, but just as important, 
it also hopes to learn technological know-how from the Chinese, 
He said.
 
When Mubarak visited Russia last week, his Moscow hosts also 
signaled a willingness to cooperate with Egypt on nuclear energy.
 
"Egypt has made a decision to transfer to nuclear energy and 
build four stations," said Boris Alyoshin, head of Russia's 
federal industry agency.
 
"It is beyond doubt that we will take part in the tender and I 
think we have good chances of winning," Alyoshin said.
 
It is not the first time nuclear cooperation has been on the 
trilateral agenda between Cairo, Moscow and Beijing.
 
In the 1960s, Egypt sought technical assistance from China and 
the former Soviet Union as it attempted to develop a nuclear 
program to match research by arch rival Israel Israel. However, 
both Beijing and Moscow turned down the request.
 
In a shift of strategy, Cairo became a signatory of the 
Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968 and now officially supports the 
elimination of nuclear weapons in the region.
 
It has sought to reassure the international community by 
insisting it would not import enriched uranium, amid the tense 
climate generated by the standoff with Iran Iranand North Korea 
North Korea's October 9 nuclear test. Nonetheless, analysts said 
a nuclear alliance between Egypt and China -- and possibly 
including Russia -- risked affronting Washington, Egypt's major 
ally. 

"Egyptians know that this step can irritate the United States, 
but they don't want to be under the influence of the Americans on 
this issue," Emad Gad, of the Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies, 
told AFP earlier.
 	 		 			
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 30 Brattleboro Reformer: VY fined for mishanding shipment

KRISTI CECCAROSSI, Reformer Staff

 Wednesday, November 8 BRATTLEBORO -- Nuclear regulators slapped
Vermont Yankee with a safety violation Tuesday, after
determining plant owners failed to take the highest level of
precaution when they shipped radiation-exposed equipment. 

Two months ago a piece of equipment was sent from Vermont Yankee
in a shielded container on a flatbed truck to a nuclear power
plant in Pennsylvania. When it arrived, the freight's radiation
level measured at four times the allowable level. 

Entergy Nuclear received a "white" inspection finding from the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the second lowest of the four
levels of findings. That means the radioactivity posed a "low to
moderate" safety risk to the public, according to Neil Sheehan,
spokesman for the NRC. 

The equipment Entergy was sending to the Susquehanna nuclear
power plant was a control rod crusher and shearer, owned by a
separate vendor. In Pennsylvania, inspectors found a "sliver of
metal" of high radioactivity and two small "hot particles" fell
from the top of the crusher to the bottom, Sheehan said. That
kind of disturbance in the equipment, when in transit, is not
uncommon, he said. 

A white inspection finding from the NRC triggers an increased 
oversight at Vermont Yankee. For the next four quarters, federal 
inspectors will have an enhanced role in reviewing how Entergy 
decontaminates and prepares freight before it leaves the Vernon 
campus. 

But first Entergy has 10 days to file an appeal with the NRC,
challenging the finding. For now, the NRC is still calling the
white finding "preliminary," and has not said for sure what
enforcement action will be taken. 

Efforts to reach Entergy officials Tuesday were unsuccessful. 
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. 

The NRC uses a color-coded system to denote safety risks, with
"green" indicating a very low risk, "white" low to moderate,
"yellow" substantial and "red" high. 

Kristi Ceccarossi can be reached at or (802) 254-2311, ext. 160. 

New England Newspapers, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 31 The Australian: Howard instinct says nuclear energy | | 

This story is from our news.com.aunetwork Source: AAP 

 November 08, 2006 

AN international report backing the use of nuclear energy
recognised that fission fuel was part of the solution to climate
change, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

 
The International Energy Agency - a policy advice arm of the
OECD - has warned that countries face a "dirty, insecure and
expensive" future without nuclear energy as oil prices soar. 

Mr Howard, who has been advocating a nuclear power industry in
Australia, said it was an important report. 

"I thought the International Energy Agency, which is the most
authoritative international body on energy matters, for the
first time argued very strongly for nuclear power," Mr Howard
said.
 
"What it's basically saying is that it's part of the solution." 

Mr Howard said renewable energy sources such as wind and solar
energy could never replace coal-fired power stations, so nuclear
power had to be considered. 

He did not rule out subsidising the nuclear industry to get it
going, saying that was no different to Labor's policy of setting
a mandatory renewable energy target (MRET) for businesses. 

"If you compel industry to buy a certain proportion of its
energy from renewable resources, that's a subsidy because you're
imposing a cost on them that they wouldn't otherwise have to
bear," he said. 

MRET costs would be passed on to taxpayers in the form of higher
electricity prices, he said. 

Mr Howard denied that he had a nuclear "dream", saying he just
wanted a fully informed debate. 

"I think people have to understand one thing and that is that if
there is to be a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of any
consequence in the time ahead, there is going to be additional
cost involved," he said. 

Coal was Australia's cheapest energy source, but cleaning it up
added to costs because it reduced the efficiency of the power
station, he said. 

"As you do that nuclear, according to my understanding, becomes
more competitive," Mr Howard said. 

"My instinct, my belief, is that the way for this country to go
is clean coal technology and genuinely look at the nuclear
option, recognising that renewables can make a contribution at
the margin but they're never going to be able to replace power
stations. 

"You won't run power stations on windmills." 

Privacy Terms © The Australian
*****************************************************************
 32 JournalStar.com: EPA wants to dig up, ship out ordnance-plant waste

 BY ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS / Lincoln Journal Star

 Mead-area residents and the general public are invited to a
meeting tonight to discuss how to clean up radioactive and other
hazardous waste at the University of Nebraska Agricultural
Research and Development Center on the outskirts of town.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing two
possible solutions:  Dig up the waste, separate it, and ship it
to several facilities for proper disposal, or leave it in place
with a protective cap or cover and monitor it for many years.

Depending on which option the federal agency chooses, the cost
could range from $5.7 million to $7.5 million.

EPA says its preference is to dig up the buried waste, separate
it and transport it off site. 

We believe its more permanent  more protective, said EPAs
project manager Scott Marquess.

The buried waste is on the site of the former Nebraska Ordnance
Plant near Mead. After the bomb-making facility closed, the
university bought 9,600 acres of the site during the 1960s and
1970s and used it mostly for agricultural research and storage.

But during the late 1970s and into the 1980s, according to EPA
officials, the university also buried various types of hazardous
waste, including radioactive medical wastes, solvents and
pesticides, and radioactive animal carcasses.

The Legislature appropriated about $4.2 million from its general
fund to help the university pay for the cleanup and transferred
about $2.7 million from the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund,
for a total of $6.9 million.

]Bruce Haley, the universitys project manager, said the waste is
buried in seven trenches, ranging from 30 feet to 100 feet long.
Not everything in the excavated area (trenches) is waste; some
of it is dirt, he added.

Marquess estimated the total volume of all the soil in the
trenches at 1,500 cubic yards, or about 150 dump trucks.

Haley said the university prefers the same option as EPA: dig up
the waste and ship it off-site.

Thats just the right thing to do. We wouldnt be putting these
types of waste that are out there now in a landfill anyway, he
said.

Marquess said work on the first phase of the universitys cleanup
should begin early next year. He said there may be more work
later at an old landfill site on the property.

The former ordnance plant is one of 13 Superfund sites in
Nebraska. So far, millions of dollars have been spent by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clean up contaminated soil and
groundwater near the ordnance plants former bomb-loading lines.

 Marquess said the universitys cleanup activities are separate
from what the corps is doing to clean up contamination.

Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at 473-7243 or .

***

EPA officials are seeking public comment on two possible options
for cleaning up hazardous waste on University of Nebraska-owned
land at the former Nebraska Ordnance Plant. Interested persons
can attend a meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the auditorium at
the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research Center, 1071
County Road G, near Ithaca.

Written comments will be accepted until Dec. 7. They can be
mailed to: Debbie Kring, Community Involvement Coordinator,
Office of External Programs, U.S. EPA Region 7, 901 N. Fifth
St., Kansas City, Kan., 66601.

© 2002- , Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved.   
*****************************************************************
 33 Telegraph: Invest or pay later, energy agency warns
 
  [telegraph.co.uk]

By Tom Stevenson Last Updated: 1:01am GMT 08/11/2006


+ Comment: Our addiction to fossil fuels is a habit we must kick
Investment of $20,000bn (£10,480bn) is needed to quench the
world's growing thirst for energy, the International Energy
Agency has warned.

Without more efficient power generation and energy use, the
world faces a sharp rise in greenhouse gas emissions, more
expensive energy and a growing dependence on the world's most
unstable regions, the IEA said.

[Sellafield Nuclear power plant] 
  
Nuclear power: an option according to the IEA's Claude Mandil
  
Paris-based IEA, set up to advise governments after the first
1970s oil shock, has also backed nuclear power for the first
time. Claude Mandil, IEA executive director, said "nuclear power
remains a potentially attractive option for enhancing the
security of electricity supply and mitigating CO2 emissions".

Mr Mandil said: "The energy future we are facing today, based on
projections of current trends is dirty, insecure and expensive."
He said the next 10 years were critical because investment
decisions made over the next decade could determine the energy
landscape for the next 60 years.

But Mr Mandil painted a brighter picture, in which the immediate
introduction of efficiency and technological advances could curb
the worst effects of spiralling energy use over the next 25
years. "New government policies can create an alternative energy
future which is clean, clever and competitive," he
added.

The IEA's 600-page World Energy Outlook sets out a
business-as-usual base-case, in which energy demand increases by
53pc by 2030. Most of the rise is expected to come from
developing countries such as China and India.

Fossil fuels continue to dominate global energy over the period,
with coal seeing the biggest rise in demand. That is expected to
lead to 55pc more CO2 emissions, with China overtaking the US as
the top polluter in 2009.

Developing countries are forecast to account for over three
quarters of the increase in global CO2 emissions between 2004
and 2030. Because they use proportionately more coal and less
gas, emissions in these countries rise faster than energy use.

The IEA's Alternative Policy Scenario shows what might happen if
the world implements energy policies currently under review.

These include greater use of biofuels, nuclear power growth and
more fuel efficient vehicles.

Full implementation of 1,400 measures could reduce global energy
demand by 10pc in 2030, equivalent to China's entire energy
consumption today, the IEA said.

The measures would also reduce global CO2 emissions by 16pc,
equivalent to the current emissions of the US and Canada
combined.

The IEA estimates that every $1 spent on more efficient
electrical equipment and appliances avoids more than $2 in
investment in power generation, transmission and distribution
infrastructure.

Despite a sharp rise in the oil price in recent years,
investment by oil and gas producers to meet higher demand had
been disappointing, the report said. Although spending had risen
since 2000, in cost-inflation adjusted terms investment had
risen by only 5pc by 2005.

Biofuels, currently 1pc of road fuel consumption, are expected
to increase in importance u to as much as 7pc of total
consumption.
 
 © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2006. 
*****************************************************************
 34 The Australian: Nuclear power 'to become more viable' 

The Australian  

This story is from our network Source: AAP 

 By Maria Hawthorne and Peter Veness November 08, 2006 

CUTTING greenhouse gas emissions will push electricity prices
up, making nuclear power more economically viable, Prime
Minister John Howard says.

 
Mr Howard said the cost of cleaning up coal would make nuclear
power more viable after an international report backed the use
of fission fuel.
 
The International Energy Agency, a policy advice arm of the
OECD, has warned that countries face a "dirty, insecure and
expensive" future without nuclear energy as oil prices soar.
 
It predicted world demand for energy would grow by more than 50
per cent in the next 25 years, and said nuclear power could help
reduce carbon dioxide emissions and provide reliable electricity.
 
Its report came a week after the British government-funded Stern
report warned global warming could cost as much as both world
wars and the Great Depression.
 
Mr Howard, who has been advocating a nuclear power industry in
Australia, said it was the first time that the IEA, the world's
most authoritative body on energy matters, had argued strongly
for nuclear power.
 
And he said the Stern report's economic predictions might not
stand up to scrutiny.
 
"I think as time goes by, some of the economic underpinnings of
the Stern review are going to be continually and increasingly
questioned," Mr Howard said.
 
"But I do accept that we need to take steps, take out insurance,
be certain that we do reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
 
Coal is currently the cheapest source of power for Australia,
but it is also the main contributor to greenhouse emissions.
 
Cleaning it up would inevitably add to its cost as
emission-reducing technology would also reduce efficiency, Mr
Howard said.
 
"If you put these things on power stations that suck the carbon
out, you reduce the efficiency so they've got to run faster or
longer in order to produce the same amount of electricity," Mr
Howard said.
 
"As you do that, nuclear  according to my understanding  becomes
more competitive.
 
"I think people have to understand one thing and that is that if
there is to be a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of any
consequence in the time ahead, there is going to be additional
cost involved."
 
However, Mr Howard maintained his support of Australia's massive
coal industry.
 
"I'm certainly not going to target the coal industry ... because
that would do great damage to the economy of this country," he
said.
 
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley also denied he was turning his
back on the coal industry with his push for renewable energy.
 
News Ltd papers reported today that a rift was emerging within
Labor ranks over Mr Beazley's position on coal.
 
"I have been for a very long period of time a devoted supporter
of clean coal technology. It is our major export industry," Mr
Beazley said in Sydney.
 
"What we have to do in this environment now ... is to make sure
that the thing that we export is being supported by it being
rendered effectively consistent with the objectives of bringing
down carbon emissions.
 
"You can do that. The technologies are there to be developed." 


Privacy Terms © The Australian
*****************************************************************
 35 Reuters: Incoming House panel head sets energy priorities

 15:21 ET, Wed 8 Nov 2006                                                                                                                                                                [-] Text

By Chris Baltimore
 					 					
WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The Michigan Democrat who will
head the House Energy and Commerce Committee next year previewed
on Wednesday his energy priorities: cleaner cars powered by
diesel and electricity, storing waste from U.S. nuclear reactors
and probing offshore federal lease deals.
 					 					
Rep. John Dingell, who has been a U.S. lawmaker since 1955, also
gave a strong indication of what he did not plan to do: raise
fuel-efficiency standards for U.S. automobiles.
 					 					
Democrats regained control of the House in Tuesday's election
and Dingell is set to take the gavel of the House Energy
Committee from Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton.
 					 					
As chairman, Dingell will hold the reins of a committee that
writes the lion's share of energy legislation considered by
House lawmakers, and holds wide powers to probe corporate
America.
 					 					
Dingell, whose home district includes Detroit's big three
automakers -- Ford Motor Co. <F.N>, General Motors Corp. <GM.N>
and Chrysler Group <DCX.N> <DCXGn.DE> -- downplayed the need for
boosting U.S. fuel economy rules.
 					 					
"I'm not sure that there's any urgent needs for us to address
those questions," Dingell told CNBC in an interview.
 					 					
Dingell told reporters that any rule changes should weigh "the
needs, the costs, the technological ability and the economic
ability of industry and the market to absorb these changes."
 					 					
The U.S. transportation sector accounts for about half the
nation's daily oil needs of about 20 million barrels.
 					 					
New U.S. vehicles are the fastest and heaviest in three decades,
with the fleet's fuel efficiency no better than the figure for
1994 -- about 21 miles per gallon -- according to government
figures.
 					 					
However, Dingell said Congress should approve more incentives
for U.S. automakers to retool cars to burn alternate fuels like
ethanol and clean-burning diesel, and to make more cars that run
on electricity rather than fossil fuel.
 					 					
Dingell also spoke favorably of boosting electricity produced
from nuclear reactors, and called on Congress to solve the
problem of where utilities can store spent nuclear fuel, which
is piling up at 131 sites in 39 states while the fate of an
underground repository in Nevada remains uncertain.
 					 					
Dingell called nuclear energy "one of the most promising and
necessary courses that we can take in terms of weaning ourselves
off foreign oil."
 					 					
Dingell said Congress also needs to reexamine faulty drilling
leases the government signed with energy companies in the late
1990s that so far have cost the government almost $2 billion in
lost royalties.
 					 					
"If you lift the lid on that you will probably find some bad
smells on leasing very specifically," Dingell said.
 					 					
In those disputed leases, the Interior Department forgot to
include language that would have ended a waiver of royalties
when oil and gas prices reached high levels.
 					 					
Without the price threshold provision in the contracts to limit
the royalty break, the government could lose up to $10 billion
in royalties over the life of the drilling leases. 
					 				 
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 36 UPI: China, Egypt talk nuclear electricity
     
   United Press International - NewsTrack - 

11/8/2006 12:06:00 PM -0500

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao and
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had closed-door talks in
Beijing about Egypt's plans to resume nuclear electricity
generation. 

A statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry gave few details of
what was discussed Tuesday but suggested Mubarak inquired about
help from China in resurrecting its civil nuclear program, China
Daily reported Wednesday. 

Egypt shuttered its nuclear program in 1986 after the Chernobyl
reactor meltdown in Ukraine but in late September indicated it
was considering reviving it. 

Relations between the two leaders are considered warm, as
Mubarak has visited Beijing nine times since 1981, the report
said. 

The two leaders signed four agreements involving economic,
technological, public health and investment issues, Egypt's
Foreign Ministry said.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 37 SABCnews.com: Eskom deny negligence at Koeberg power station

South African Broadcasting Corporation 

Copyright © 2000 - 2005 SABC                                                        

November 08, 2006, 15:00
 				
Eskom has again rejected the report by the Nuclear Energy
Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) on Koeberg, which found there
had been inadequate maintenance and negligence at the power
station.
 
Nyameko Matya, Eskom's managing director for the generation
division, admitted that there had been shortcomings and failures
at Koeberg, but he denies that this was due to negligence. 

Matya says the report was based on Eskom's own investigation. He
says they are implementing action as management to deal with the
findings in the report, but do not agree that there was
negligence on Eskom's part.
 
He says faults do occur, but does not believe they amount to
negligence, but this matter is still between them and Nersa and
still want them to come back to Eskom to clarify the findings.
He was speaking at a Mayoral Committee meeting of the Cape Town
Unicity that focused on safety management and maintenance at
Koeberg. 

Eskom officials grilled at mayoral meeting

 Thulani Gcabashe, Eskom's chief executive, and two members of
his management team, were grilled at length at the mayoral
committee meeting. They first presented a progress report on
what had been done at the plant since the recent faults that had
led to huge power outages in the Western Cape.
 
Helen Zille, the Cape Town mayor, wanted Gcabashe and his team
to explain why Nersa reports pointed to negligence and
inadequate maintenance as the causes. Gcabashe said they did not
agree with the regulator's conclusions, but did admit there were
some shortcomings. 

Zille says she feels more comfortable with the knowledge that
Eskom management is serious about the safety of the Koeberg
nuclear power station. The concerns relate to earlier incidents
and the shutdown of Unit Two last Sunday due to a mechanical
fault. 

She says she has considerable comfort after learning that the
safety of the public is not being compromised, but would have
preferred a more detailed diagnosis of that went wrong.
 				
*****************************************************************
 38 NRC: Live NRC Meeting Webcast
 
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission broadcasts some Commission 
meetings over the Internet as a means of improving communications 
with the public. Upcoming webcasts are:
 
                        Date     Subject   
  11/9/06     
Briefing on Draft Final RulePart 52 (Early Site Permits/Standard
Design Certification/Combined Licenses)
 9:30 A.M.
 
  + Slides   
  12/12/06     Briefing on Status of Decommissioning Activities
 1:30 P.M.   
  12/13/06     Briefing on Status of Equal Employment
Opportunity (EEO) Programs
 9:30 A.M.   
  12/14/06     Meeting with Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste
(ACNW)
 9:30 A.M.   


The following resources will assist you in participating:
 
  + Public Meeting Schedule - provides a complete listing of
agency meetings. Live meetings shown as [webcast] 
  + Commission Meeting Schedule - lists all Commission meetings
for a six week period. Live meetings shown as [webcast] 
  + Slides - available in advance of the meeting 
  + Transcripts - available within 48 hours of the conclusion of
the live meeting 
  + Meeting SRM - documentation of any Commission's decisions
from the meeting 
To view a webcast you will need to download the RealOne plugin
[RealNetworks Media Streaming Player icon] .
 
You may also view previous webcasts at our Webcast 
       
Archive.
 
Comments and Feedback
 
To help us determine the value of continuing to provide this
service, the NRC would appreciate your assistance by providing
comments and feedback on the usefulness, performance, and
frequency with which you might use this service or any other
items related to this service.
 
  + Contact Us About Webcasts 
  + Webcast Interest Survey 
Notes on Accessibility
 
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires equal access to
the Federal government's electronic and information technology.
In compliance with this Act, NRC is including text equivalents
(captioning) as part of the video image being shown over the
Internet during the Commission meeting. Although every effort is
made to assure the accuracy and completeness of this text, users
should be aware that errors may nonetheless occur. Expressions
of opinion in this text do not necessarily reflect final
determination or beliefs. No pleadings or other paper may be
filed with the Commission in any proceeding as a result of any
statement or argument contained in the text-equivalent
(captioned) material.
   
Last revised Wednesday, November 08, 2006       
*****************************************************************
 39 Israel Did Not Use Depleted Uranium During Conflict With Hizbollah, UN Agency Finds
 
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 14:00:23 -0500


 
ISRAEL DID NOT USE DEPLETED URANIUM DURING CONFLICT WITH HIZBOLLAH, 
UN AGENCY FINDS
New York, Nov  8 2006  2:00PM
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has found no evidence 
that Israel used munitions with depleted uranium (DU) during 
its conflict with Hizbollah, but the country’s use of cluster bombs 
in Lebanon remains the main obstacle to a resumption of normal 
life in the affected areas, the head of the agency has said.

Reporting on the findings of a <"http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=485&ArticleID=5416&l=en">UNEP 
assessment 
carried out for three weeks in October, Achim Steiner said 
samples taken from 32 sites south and north of the Litani river 
found “no evidence of penetrators or metal made of DU or other 
radioactive material.”

He further stated that “no DU shrapnel, or other radioactive residue, 
was found. The analysis of all smear samples taken shows no 
DU, nor enriched uranium nor higher than natural uranium content 
in the samples.”

During the fieldwork, the UNEP did confirm the use of “white phosphorous-containing 
artillery and mortar ammunition by the Israeli 
Defence Force (IDF),” Mr. Steiner added.

Mr. Steiner said his agency echoed earlier findings which recognized 
“the huge number of cluster bombs with a low detonation rate 
dropped by the IDF over the last days before the ceasefire as the 
main remaining problem to return to normal life in the affected 
regions.”

The experts covered the following disciplines; asbestos; contaminated 
land; coastal and marine issues; solid and hazardous waste management; 
surface and ground water; weapons and munitions.  “From 
these respective disciplines a wide range of samples were transported 
to three independent and recognized laboratories in Europe 
for tests,” the UNEP chief explained.
 2006-11-08 00:00:00.000 


___________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ 
_______________________________

To change your profile or unsubscribe go to:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/
*****************************************************************
 40 RIA Novosti: Russian submarine had no nuclear fuel when it caught fire
 
08/ 11/ 2006                                  


MOSCOW, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian submarine that
caught fire last week in a northern Russian dock during repairs
had no nuclear fuel onboard at the time, a shipyard official
said Wednesday. 

The Akula-class nuclear submarine K-317 "Panther" was docked at
the Sevmash plant in the northern Arkhangelsk Region. 

"Welding during repair work was the cause of the fire November
2," a spokesman said. "The submarine is commissioned with the
Russian Navy, but there was no nuclear fuel onboard at that
moment." 

He added that the plant's firefighting units quickly
extinguished the blaze and that nobody was injured in the
incident. 


		© 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 41 BBC NEWS: World risks 'dirty' energy future

Last Updated: Tuesday, 7 November 2006, 10:00 GMT

Economics of energy mix                                 

The world could be dependent on "dirty, insecure and expensive" 
energy by 2030, an influential report has warned. 

Current trends showed that demand for power was set to grow by 
53% by 2030, the International Energy Agency said. 

But if governments deliver on promises to push cleaner and more 
efficient supplies, growth in demand could be restrained by about 
10%, it suggests. 

Greater use of nuclear power could be a "valuable option" to cut 
imports and curb CO2 emissions, the study added. 

Projected primary energy demands in 2030                                 

The International Energy Agency's (IEA) World Energy Outlook 
(WEO) 2006 also echoed the findings of a recent UK report that 
said the benefits of cutting emissions outweighed the costs of 
combatting climate change. 

"WEO 2006 reveals that the energy future we are facing today, 
based on projections of current trends, is dirty, insecure and 
expensive," said Claude Mandil, executive director of the IEA. 

"But it also shows how new government policies can create an
alternative energy future which is clean, clever and
competitive," he added. 

The document considered two scenarios: 


  + Business as usual - Referred to in the report as the
"reference scenario", this projects how the globe's energy mix
would look in 2030 if current trends were followed
  + Alternative policy scenario - projects how the energy mix
would appear in 2030 if the package of policies and measures
being considered by governments were adopted 

Under the business as usual scenario, the document warned that
the demand for fossil fuels, and the related carbon emissions,
would continue to grow through to 2030, if there was no action
from the world's politicians. 

	
Potential CO2 emission savings

Overall, the WEO says primary energy demand would grow by about
53%, with fossil fuels accounting for 83% of the increase
between 2004 and 2030. 

But it said that the alternative policy scenario projected that
the growth in demand for energy could be cut by 10% by 2030 -
the equivalent to China's current total energy consumption. 

It also said this scenario would deliver 16% less carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions than the business as usual scenario, the same as
the current total emissions from the US and Canada combined. 

Nuclear option 

The WEO champions the role of nuclear power, saying it could
make a "major contribution to reducing dependence on imported
gas and curbing CO2 emissions". 

It forecasts that the total global generation capacity of
nuclear power plants could increase from 368 gigawatts in 2005
to 519 gigawatts in 2030. 

The additional nuclear power plants would also have the
advantage of being less vulnerable to fuel price changes than
coal or gas-fired generation, helping to enhance the security of
electricity supplies. 

However, it said that governments would have to convince the
private sector that the initial investment of about $2bn-3.5bn
(£1-1.8bn) per reactor would be a wise move. 

Ian Hore-Lacy, director of public communications for the World
Nuclear Association, welcomed the IEA's report. 

"Given that world energy demand, and more particularly
electricity demand, is increasing strongly, we need sources of
electricity supply that are safe, affordable, with abundant fuel
and are environmental benign," he said. 

"The virtues of nuclear power in all of those respects are
becoming widely obvious." 

But Greenpeace International called it a "wasted opportunity". 

In a statement, the environmental group said: "While it is
important that the IEA has finally recognised the need to
drastically change the global energy supply in light of climate
change, it has offered 'business as usual' solutions, which are
not commensurate with the problems it seeks to solve." 

They said the agency's nuclear plan would require more than 200
new nuclear reactors in the next 24 years, which was "neither
desirable nor realistic". 

Biofuels growth 

The report also projected that biofuels were set to play an
increasing role in road transport, providing up to 7% of the
total consumption in 2030. 

[A refinery (Image: EyeWire)

Biofuels: The next generation                           

To meet this demand, the IEA envisaged that the total amount of
arable land required would be equivalent to at least the
combined size of France and Spain. 

But the WEO warned that the growing demand for food would limit
the potential of the plant-derived fuel produced using current
technologies. 

Yet the emergence of new "second generation" technologies, which
allow more of a plant's material to be turned into fuel, could
allow biofuels to play a much bigger role in either of the
projections outlined in the report's two scenarios, it said. 

As for the financial viability of the alternative policy
scenario, the IEA reached a similar conclusion to the findings
outlined in a report by Sir Nicholas Stern, who was commissioned
by the UK government to assess the economic impact of climate
change. 

"The good news is that these policies are very cost effective,"
said Mr Mandil. "There are additional upfront costs involved,
but they are quickly outweighed by savings in fuel expenditure." 

He added that every $1 invested in energy efficient appliances
and equipment delivered a $2 saving on power generation. 

The report concluded that a shift to the alternative scenario
would "serve all three of the principal goals of energy policy:
greater security, more environmental protection and improved
economic efficiency". 
*****************************************************************
 42 Bellona: Residents of contaminated village to be resettled across river
from former dwelling

CHELYABINSK/ ST. PETERSBURG - The village of Muslyumovo's 3,500 
remaining mostly Tartar residents, who have lived for nearly 50 
years along the radioactively contaminated banks of the Techa 
River, and whose Russian population was relocated decades ago, 
may finally be moving themselves - to the polluted river's 
opposite side in an initiative spearheaded by the Chelyabinsk 
Regional government, officials here told Bellona Web.   Vera 
Ponomareva,  08/11-2006 - Oversatt av Charles Digges  ,  Vera 
Ponomareva

Locals, who have long dealt with the radioactive hazards poured 
on them by the Techa River Cascade, took the suggestion as an 
insult, and Muslyumovo residents and ecologists are speaking out 
against the proposal, demanding that local officials cast a wider 
net in the search for a new village for Muslyumovo's inhabitants.

"Everyone is leaning toward the station, that's the final 
solution " said Ilya Ananyev, chief of the Chelyabinsk 
gubernatorial press office in reference to the Muslyumovo train 
station, located a mere three kilometrers from Muslyumovo itself. 
At present, some 700 people live in and around the station, 
Ananyev told Bellona Web.

For years, Muslyumovo and the areas surrounding - which are some 
of the most radioactively contaminated places on earth - have 
been a hot bed of radioactive contamination because of accidents 
and substandard waste disposal techniques at the Mayak Chemical 
Combine, located in the Chelyabinsk Region in the town of Ozersk 
in Russia's southern Ural Mountains.

Between 1949 and 1956, radioactive contaminants were dumped into 
the Techa River to such a degree that some 124,000 residents 
living along its banks had to be evacuated.

Not counted among those who were invited to take part in the 
exodus, however, were the Tartar residents of Muslyumovo - a 
blatantly anti-Muslim move on the part of the Krushchev 
administration. Fences were erected, signs put up and other 
stop-gap measures were taken, but Muslyumovo residents and others 
who remained behind largely ignored the warnings and continued to 
draw water and from and fish in the contaminated river. They had 
no other choice.

In recent years, the necessity of evacuating Muslyumovo's 
residents has taken on more urgency in Russia's corridors of 
power, and plans have been discussed to relocate the population, 
but nothing has found tread until recently.

Rostatom and the presidential administration, having developed a 
scheme to relocate the residents, gave Muslyumovo's residents a 
choice - either move to the new village, or take 1 million 
roubles ($37,000) to buy their own homes.

The location of the new village has been a bone of contention for 
a number of months now because the new village seems simply to 
have sprung up across the river around Muslyumovo station.

"You can't move people to the station - such a decision will 
delay the present problem for another 10 years," said Nedezha 
Kutepova, the chairwoman of the Ozersk-based ecological and human 
rights organisation Planet of Hopes in an interview with Bellona 
Web.

Kutepova said that conditions surrounding the station were no 
better than the ones residents would be leaving behind. People 
still let their cattle graze the banks of the Techa on the 
station side, which is only a half a kilometer from their home. 
"These people have to be relocated themselves."

Despite the fact that a half a century has passed since a waste 
tank at Mayak blew up and showered the countryside with 
radioactive fallout - a sort of preview to Chernobyl - the 
contaminated zone is still populated with people. Tatarskaya 
Karabolka, Musakaeva, and Ust-Bagryak are some of the villages 
that still eke out a living along the banks of the Techa.

The 'motherland' of the ill

But as far as the Chelyabinsk Regional Government is concerned, 
the residents of the area should not stray too far, even if it is 
from an ecological disaster area.

''First, they were born there. The motherland is the 
motherland,'' Ananyev told Bellona Web in an interview in 
Chelyabinsk. Indeed, there is nothing to argue - since the 
accident in 1957, Muslyumovo became the motherland for three 
generations of people suffering from inborn pathologies and 
oncological deseases.

The second reason given by administration is the lack of funds. 
On October 23rd, Petr Sumin, the governor of the Chelyabinsk 
Region, told the regional government to develop a plan for moving 
people from Muslyumovo to Missky village close to Chelyabinsk. 
But the bureacracy concluded the plan was not permissable.

''We have no opportunity to move people there because it will be 
much more expensive'' Ananyev said.

Aside from that, it turned out that the land offered by Missky 
was the sanitary zone of a sewage treatment plant.

''We are like pawns in someone else's game,'' a woman who 
identified herself only as Ramziya told Bellona Web in an 
interview in Musyumovo. ''Big sums of money are in play and they 
are just moving us to the other side of the river, like on a 
chessboard.''

Rosatom chief Sergei Kirienko, during a visit to the Chelyabinsk 
region in spring 2006, announced that the residents of Muslyumovo 
would be moving, and Rosatom earmarked 600 million roubles for 
the project - with another 450 million coming from the regional 
budget. The bulk of this money will be spent on building the new 
village near Muslyumovo station.

Some residents against the plan

Muslyumovo residents say that the new location of the village was 
picked without taking their interests into account.

"You give us such an opportunity and we want to move somewhere 
clean so we don't have to move 10 times," said Ramziya.

Take the money and run
Data collected in a questionnaire showed that the majority of 
families in Muslyumovo want to take their state-promised million 
roubles and leave. Some 300 (less than half the residents of the 
village) said they would agree to live near the station. 
Subsequently, however, the number of those who would agree to 
live there took a nosedive.

According a survey, carried out in September by a group selected 
for the purpose, residents of only 60 homes in the village wish 
to move to the station area, which is less than 10 percent of the 
741 current homes in the village.

But Rosatom is trying.

"If it is only 10 families that move to the housing development 
at the station, we will build them homes all the same," said 
Advisor to Rosatom Head Igor Konyshev in an interview with 
Bellona Web.

The new development will include not only homes, but schools, 
kindergartens, stores - the gamut, including Mosques - said 
Rosatom's Ananyev. The plans for the development have already 
been laid out, he said.

"It was worked out in the 1990s, "said Kutepova. "And now the 
regional administration wants to save money on its design."

Other variants
Muslyumovo residents held a gathering on September 12th, during 
which the majority of them said they would prefer to move to a 
clean suburb of Chelyabinsk, and sent an official appeal to the 
regional administration, Rosatom and the president.

After the gathering, Muslyumovo residents struck out to find a 
new prospective home for themselves, finding the village of 
Kremenkul, some 15 kilometres from Chelyabinsk. The presidential 
administration and the private contractors who would build the 
new development were on the residents' side.

But the Chelyabinsk Administration and Rosatom shot the idea 
down. Both were afraid of skyrocketing prices of building the 
replacement development on private land as opposed to state land, 
where the station is located. This torpedoed the safer location 
in favor of holding costs down.

"It makes absolutely no difference to us how many people move to 
New Muslyumovo - but on the area of the station, we can guarantee 
costs, quality, deadlines," Rosatom's Konyshev said. "But when 
you start dealing with private land, a whole new mechanism starts 
churning."

Konyshev said that private owners could duck their obligations, 
leaving Muslyumovo residents empty-handed.

But this should not be a problem for such large administrative 
bodies as Rosatom, said Nina Popravko, a lawyer with Bellona St. 
Petersburg.

''Business relationships can always be settled. The main thing is 
a correctly composed agreement which compells both parties to 
fulfill its conditions. By refusing to conduct this work, 
authorities admit their helplessness.''

Information centre

An information centre for Musyumovo residents was opened two 
weeks ago by Rosatom. According to Rosatom officials, the centre 
will be a busy hive of laywers, real estate specialists, 
representatives of local and regional authorities and non 
governmental organisations (NGOs). Yet so far, the centre's only 
employee is Vera Ozhogina, who also heads up Nabat, an NGO that 
supports the resettlement of Musyumovo's residents to the area of 
the station.

Kirienko visit postponed until end of November
Rosatom head Kirienko was scheduled to visit the area on November 
1st, but the night before he was to come, his visit was shuffled 
to the end of Novemeber due to what his spokesmen said was a 
change in his working schedule.

But Kutepova had her own ideas about why the visit was postponed.

''The local administration wanted to show a free space (for New 
Musylomovo) with levelers working and people queuing up at the 
information centre. There is none of that now,'' she said. 
*****************************************************************
 43 RIA Novosti: Russia considers mining uranium in Bulgaria

08/ 11/ 2006                                  

MOSCOW, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is considering mining
uranium in Bulgaria after its nuclear services exporter won a
tender to build a power plant outside Sofia, a senior nuclear
official said Wednesday. 

Russia's newly-formed uranium production company will study the
issue. 

"If the recently established Uranium Mining Company carries out
the economic study together with Bulgarian colleagues, and
uranium production proves to be economically attractive, the
project will be launched," said Pyotr Lavrenyuk, vice president
of Russia's nuclear fuel producer and supplier TVEL. 

The TVEL company and the state-owned uranium trader
Tekhsnabexport (Tenex) merged into the Uranium Mining Company on
November 2 to develop uranium deposits inside and outside
Russia, and import uranium. 

Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly,
Atomstroiexport, won a tender on October 30 to build two
1,000-megawatt reactors for an NPP in Belene, about 150 miles
from Bulgaria's capital, Sofia. 

Russia's uranium production accounts for around 8% of the global
output. Up to 90% of the profit in Russia's nuclear sector comes
from nuclear fuel, power and services exports, according to
nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko, but the country is seeking to
import more nuclear fuel. 

The TVEL official said the company already imported uranium from
other east European countries, including the Czech Republic. 

TVEL's cooperation in uranium production with other countries
takes various forms. For example, Ukraine produces uranium
independently, sends it to Russia for enrichment, and Russia in
turn supplies uranium fuel for 15 nuclear power generating units
in Ukraine. 

Russia and Kazakhstan established a joint venture in October to
enrich uranium near Irkutsk, about 5,000 kilometers (3,100
miles) east of Moscow. 

Under the Soviet system, the three countries shared a nuclear
power infrastructure under the Ministry of Medium Machine
Building, a complex that Russia's nuclear chief wants restored. 

Kiriyenko also said in mid-September that nuclear energy must
replace natural gas in Russia's energy balance, as the country's
reserves of coal and natural gas will be depleted in 50 years. 

He also said Russia plans to meet 60-70% of its uranium demand
domestically by 2015. 

© 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 44 RIA Novosti: Rosatom to tackle uranium shortage

Opinion &analysis - 

08/ 11/ 2006                                  

MOSCOW. (Igor Tomberg for RIA Novosti) - A founding treaty to
set up the Uranium Mining Company was signed on November 2 at
Russia's Federal Agency for Nuclear Power (Rosatom). The event
marked the beginning of a new era in the Russian nuclear
industry, aimed at consolidating all the branch's uranium
production assets. 

The agency has proposed to invest between $60 and $70 million in
the construction of dozens of nuclear power plants by 2030.

These measures and money are expected to prevent a shortage of
electric power and increase the share of nuclear energy in
Russia's energy balance to 25%. The plan envisages the
construction of two generating units annually with 1 gigawatt
capacity each. But the nuclear industry's ambitious plans both
in Russia and abroad may be thwarted by a shortage of uranium
raw materials. To tackle the problem, the agency has begun
actively implementing its own raw materials program. 

The overall volume of discovered uranium reserves whose
production costs do not exceed $130 per kilogram is about 4.7
million metric tons, which is enough for 85 years of operation
of all the world's nuclear power plants. 

The overall volume of all uranium reserves in the world is
probably much greater and is about 35 million tons, says the
"Uranium 2005: Resources, Production and Demand" report,
prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

Country-by-country data differ a great deal. According to some
Russian sources, discovered uranium reserves in Russia amount to
615,000 tons (15% of world reserves), and probable reserves to
830,000 tons. U.S. Energy Department data show that the largest
reserves are in Australia (about 27% of world reserves, although
Australia does not have a single nuclear plant), Kazakhstan
(17%), Canada (15%), South Africa (11%), Namibia (8%), Brazil
(7%), Russia (5%), and the United States and Uzbekistan (4%
each). Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, which possess sizable uranium
reserves, are not included in the report. 

Russia produces over 3,000 tons of uranium annually (2004 data),
and consumes about 9,000 tons. If the nuclear reform goes
through, by 2020 the uranium demand will grow to 16,000 tons.
There is a plan to increase its production by a thousand tons by
2010. This is clearly not enough even for home consumption. If,
however, production is not increased approximately fivefold,
Russia will finally turn from a uranium exporter (a country
supplying dozens of foreign reactors) into an importer. 

The optimum method of supplying nuclear projects inside and
outside the country is for Russia to restore the nuclear
industry that existed in the U.S.S.R. With that purpose in view,
the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power has begun negotiations with
Ukraine and Central Asian countries, above all Kazakhstan. All
founding documents are already prepared to set up an
international uranium enrichment center based on the Angarsk
Electrolysis and Chemical Plant. The center will be set up
jointly with Kazakhstan, but third countries interested in
uranium enrichment will be able to use its services.

Shareholders of the joint venture will have open access to all
aspects of its operation, but the enterprise will not be allowed
to "touch" military technologies. 

Besides, steps have been taken to consolidate the branch's
production, financial, intellectual and raw materials resources
to raise natural uranium output and processing to meet the
growing requirements of the country's nuclear industry. The
signing of the founding documents of the Uranium Mining Company,
which will combine the uranium assets of two large Russian
state-owned companies - TVEL and Techsnabexport - is significant
in this respect. The world's third largest uranium mining
company has been created. 

TVEL will contribute three mining assets to the company: Hiagda,
Priargunskoye Production Mining Chemical Association, and Dalur.
Techsnabexport will contribute the Elkonskoye deposit in Yakutia
and its share in the Russian-Kyrgyz-Kazakh JV Zarechnoye. In
addition, the company may include Kazakhstan's Yuzhnoye
Zarechnoye and Budyonnovskoye deposits, and set up JV Akbastau
to develop them. Additionally, Techsnabexport is continuing
talks to start up a uranium operation in Uzbekistan. The new
uranium company might tap world uranium markets and even hold an
IPO. 

The new mining company will do several things: follow up
exploration and exploitation of deposits located in Russia and
development of the country's raw materials, including geological
prospecting. The company is also expected to set up joint
ventures to produce uranium in and outside the country, and
import uranium. 

In addition, it will channel Russian and foreign investments
into uranium production. The new company may form a partnership
with western investors to develop uranium deposits. 

For example, Japan's Mitsui, which signed an agreement with
Techsnabexport to finance the advanced development of the
Elkonskoye deposit, may become a minority shareholder of the new
company. The list also includes Canadian Cameco, and world
giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. The presence of foreigners in
a traditionally off-limits sector is not an attempt to follow
the fashion, but a financial necessity. By establishing a joint
mining company, the agency ensures the construction of nuclear
power plants in Russia and abroad. Discovering and developing
deposits involves massive resources, and the only way to
increase processing and to prevent uranium shortages in the
future is to attract private foreign investments. 

To be competitive the Russian nuclear industry must offer its
projects on the world market and work together with its CIS
neighbors. In addition to building nuclear facilities abroad,
the industry also exports enriched uranium, nuclear fuel, and
stable and radioactive isotopes, i.e. has a full spectrum of
high-technology services available on the international market. 

Supplying raw materials calls for complex organizational,
technical and investment decisions. Restoration of Soviet-era
cooperation in uranium production and processing might benefit
all participants in the process, and make CIS countries
producers and exporters of advanced nuclear materials. 

Igor Tomberg, Ph.D. (Economics), is a leading research fellow at
the Center for Energy Research, Russian Academy of Sciences'
Institute of World Economy and International Relations. 

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author
and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti. 

© 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 45 The Raw Story: Swedish group applies for method to store nuclear waste 

By Lennart Simonsson

dpa German Press Agency

 Published: Wednesday November 8, 2006 

By Lennart Simonsson, Stockholm- The Swedish company that
handles spent nuclear fuel applied Wednesday for official
approval for a system to store spent radioactive waste in
special copper-sealed cannisters. "It is a milestone in the
Swedish nuclear waste programme," Claes Thegerstrom, head of the
Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) said. 

The application, consisting of 11 binders containing hundreds of
documents and graphs, was to be reviewed by among others the
Swedish Nuclear Inspectorate (SKI) and would take several years
but "long lead times are part of the nuclear energy system,"
Thegerstrom said. 

For the past 30 years, SKB that is funded by the operators of
Sweden's 10 current nuclear reactors, has developed a method to
store the spent fuel in cannisters that are 5 metres high and
have a diameter of 1 metre, and weigh some 20-25 tons. 

Pending final approval from the government, regulatory and
environment authorities, the cannisters would be stored at 500
metres depth in granite bedrock at a planned final repository
site. 

In its application, SKB said it wanted to build the plant to
make the cannisters at the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in
south-eastern Sweden. 

The cost of the plant was estimated at 4 billion kronor (558
million dollars) and would employ 25 people, Thegerstrom said,
adding the plant would only handle Swedish waste. Building of
the plant could begin 2012 and the first cannisters be ready in
2018. 

The technology has raised interest outside Sweden including in
neighbouring Finland, Britain and South Africa, SKB said. 

"The cannisters would be sealed by friction stir welding," Saida
Laârouchi-Engstrom of SKB said, adding that the welding seals
would be inspected with X-rays and ultrasound. 

Before being placed in the cannisters, the spent fuel would be
dried and then transported to its resting place in the bedrock.
The method would allow future retrieval of cannisters should
need arise. 

Oskarshamn is one of three locations for the country's 10
nuclear reactors, and it also houses an interim facility for
nuclear waste. 

Thegerstrom said SKB had yet to decide on whether Oskarshamn or
Osthammar, north of Stockholm would be the location for the
final repository of spent nuclear fuel. 

Studies were pending on the bedrock and an application for a
final storage repository was likely due in 2009, Thegerstrom
said. 

Peter Wretlund of the ruling Social Democratic Party in
Oskarshamn's municipal council said "a majority of parties and
inhabitants backed the plan." 

Under Swedish law, municipalities have a veto in matters like
where spent nuclear fuel can be stored. But both Oskarshamn with
some 26,000 inhabitants and Osthammar that is the location for
the Forsmark reactors have signalled interest in housing the
permanent storage sites. 

Wretlund said he opposed staging a local referendum on the plan,
saying that the municipality had for over a decade openly
discussed various aspects of nuclear waste and storage in
working groups made up of a broad section of the inhabitants.
 
© 2006 dpa German Press Agency
 
*****************************************************************
 46 UPI: NNSA boosts low grade nuke fuel program
     
 United Press International - Security &Terrorism - 

11/8/2006 4:56:00 PM -0500

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A U.S. nuclear safety agency
announced Wednesday it was expanding its low-grade nuclear fuel
program. 

The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security
Administration said in a statement that it was pushing ahead
with President George W. Bush's program "to provide reliable
access to nuclear fuel for civilian reactors to countries that
refrain from pursuing their own enrichment and reprocessing
technologies. 

The NNSA said it wanted to solicit "proposals to down-blend 17.4
metric tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) into reactor grade
fuel for use in the Reliable Fuel Supply program." The agency
said the RFS program "also contributes to the administration's
proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership." 

"Establishing a reliable fuel supply supports the
administration's twin goals of expanding the use of nuclear
power and curbing nuclear proliferation," said U.S. Secretary of
Energy Samuel Bodman. 

Last year, Bodman said the administration would set aside 17.4
metric tons of HEU to be down-blended to about 290 metric tons
of low enriched uranium, worth approximately $750 million. "The
fuel will be available to qualifying countries that face a
disruption in supply that cannot be corrected through normal
commercial means," the NNSA said. 

"Down-blending this HEU will mark an important milestone in
implementing the reliable fuel supply arrangement. Such a
mechanism is essential if we are to avoid the uncontrolled
spread of fuel cycle capabilities needed for producing nuclear
fuel that can also be used for manufacturing nuclear weapons,"
said Linton F. Brooks, the NNSA administrator. 

The NNSA said it hoped to award a contract for the proposal in
early 2007. The agency said it believed the nuclear material it
was providing would be "down-blended and available as a back up
reserve in 2010."

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 47 Discovery Channel: Yucca Mountain Volcanoes Misjudged

Nov. 8, 2006  

A rather common sort of small volcano cluster found near the 
proposed high level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain may be 
lying about its eruption history, says a government volcanologist 
who is trying to help pin down the volcanic risk of the region.

A closer look at the "scoria cone" volcanoes at Crater Flat in 
southern Nevada, as well as some other others in the area, has 
revealed that these little volcanoes can actually lose portions 
of their crater-like eruption cones and float away on their own 
lava. That creates what appears to be several volcanoes and 
eruptions where there might only be one true volcano and only one 
eruption. [advertisement] [line] Besides faking additional mouths 
for lava to flow from, the cones can also pour out lava in 
different directions at different stages of the same eruption  
which has also led earlier geologists to mistake one eruption 
event for many stretching over millennia.

"The assumption was that they had to be different ages," said 
volcanologist Greg Valentine of Los Alamos National Laboratory, 
regarding the black lava beds flanking the crater-like cones. 
Valentines re-examination of the scoria cones appears in the 
November issue of the Bulletin of the Geological Society of 
America.

The problem with the Crater Flat cones, like others that erupted 
dark, basalt lavas, is that they are hard to date directly using 
standard radiometric techniques, Valentine explains.
 
Normally researchers would measure the proportion of potassium to 
argon in the rocks to determine how long the rocks had been 
solid. Potassium decays and becomes argon at a reliable pace over 
millions of years.

But basalt lava contains very little potassium to start with. 
That magnifies the margin of error for radiometric dating to the 
point that its essentially worthless on craters like these, which 
are less than a million years old and could have had eruptions 
separated by a few years or by millennia.

Copyright © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.
*****************************************************************
 48 Knox News: Future of nuke complex up for review, comment 

By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com 

November 8, 2006

Peace activists are calling it "Bombplex 2030." The government's 
roadmap for the nuclear weapons complex, including the future 
role of the Y-12 warhead plant in Oak Ridge, promises to be a hot 
topic in coming months with opportunities for public involvement. 

The U.S. Department of Energy and its sub-unit, the National 
Nuclear Security Administration, will host "public scoping" 
meetings Nov. 13 in Oak Ridge to get early comments for the 
Complex 2030 initiative. 

The government is preparing a supplemental environmental impact 
statement to address changing requirements in the weapons 
program. The stated goal is to evaluate research-and-production 
facilities, determine what's needed to make the complex more 
responsive by the year 2030 and address the potential impacts. 

Local meetings will be held 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 6-10 p.m. at the 
Oak Ridge Mall. Other meetings are being held at affected sites 
around the United States. 

"NNSA officials will be available to informally discuss the 
Complex 2030 proposal during the first hour," the Federal 
Register notice said. "Following this, NNSA intends to hold a 
plenary session at each scoping meeting in which officials will 
explain the Complex 2030 proposal ." 

The proposal would continue current modernization plans,
including efforts under way at Y-12, although the feds say the
impact statement will "evaluate reasonable alternatives for
future transformation of the nuclear weapons complex." 

The Federal Register notice is available for viewing at:
http://www.eh.doe.gov/nepa/noi/61731.pdf.

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance is urging its members
to participate and voice disapproval of the Bush
administration's development of the Reliable Replacement Warhead
and other aspects of the 2030 proposal. 

"Your government is counting on you to not notice until it's too
late," the group said in a recent newsletter. 

"This plan is being rushed to a decision while Bush holds power.
Bombplex 2030 is not based on military requirements or homeland
security needs. The plan is rooted in a desire to keep billions
of dollars flowing to contractors in districts that build bombs
- in New Mexico, Tennessee, California, Missouri, Texas, and
South Carolina." 

Meanwhile, Y-12 officials are preparing a site-wide
environmental impact statement to support the construction of
new Oak Ridge facilities - including a $500 million storage
center for bomb-grade uranium and a proposed $1 billion uranium
manufacturing facility. 

Steven Wyatt, a federal spokesman at Y-12, said a draft report
has been completed and is under review at DOE headquarters in
Washington, D.C. As soon as that is completed, a copy will be
available for comment, and a public meeting will be scheduled,
he said. 

"We're hoping to get it done in December," Wyatt said. 

+ 
DOE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information has set up
a featured archive of some of Alvin Weinberg's papers. 

You can find the electronic link at OSTI's home page:
http://www.osti.gov. 

Weinberg, the longtime director of Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, died Oct. 18. He was 91. A memorial service is set
for 4 p.m. Nov. 18 at Pollard Auditorium in Oak Ridge. 

+ 
The super-secret Sapphire Project in 1994 is getting a new buzz
amid reports that some workers might have been unwittingly
exposed to beryllium while repackaging the highly enriched
uranium and bringing it from Kazakhstan to Y-12. 

Sapphire was the first big project in the post-Cold War era that
rescued vulnerable stocks of fissile material in the former
Soviet Union. Oak Ridge workers were involved in the project
every step of the way. 

Y-12 spokesman Bill Wilburn acknowledged that the uranium was
alloyed with beryllium but noted: "The Sapphire team knew this
in advance, and all proper precautions were taken. The material
was repackaged at the job site in a glove-box environment where
workers were using all proper personal protective equipment and
had undergone training as beryllium workers." 

He added: "When the material was brought to Y-12 (in November
1994), it was never removed from the packing and was safely and
securely stored at Y-12 until it was transported to Lynchburg
(Va.) for processing." 

All of the Sapphire materials were shipped out of Y-12 by
October 1995, Wilburn said. 

Senior writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for
the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6329 or at
munger@knews.com. This column is also available in the opinion
section of knoxnews.com.
 					
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
    
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