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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Guardian Unlimited: Baker's panel has 'no magic bullet' to end the a
2 Guardian Unlimited: Blair sets terms for Iranian 'partnership' 
3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI reserves right of response 
4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Any resolution will mean end of talks 
5 AFP: US: No direct talks with Iran 
6 AFP: Six powers to resume bid to agree Iran sanctions 
7 AFP: Six powers hold another exploratory meeting on Iran sanctions -
8 AFP: Israel will 'not tolerate' a nuclear Iran - Olmert 
9 Guardian Unlimited: Bush, Olmert Warn of Threat in Iran 
10 AFP: Israel, US have 'complete understanding' on Iran - Olmert -
11 AFP: Weakened Bush firm on Iran, Syria, Iraq 
12 UPI: Bush, Olmert warn Iran of consequences
13 UPI: Saudi urges peaceful Iran nuke settlement
14 Guardian Unlimited: PM tells Iran: Turn back on terror 
15 Guardian Unlimited: Blair Urges World to Engage Iran, Syria 
16 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Government, Uri meet today on U.S.-led progra
17 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: North Korea decries sanctions by Japanese
18 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Steady as she goes, Seoul says of policy on N
19 Guardian Unlimited: S.Korea Balks at Some Sanctions on North 
20 Korea Times: Seoul Will Not Join US-Led PSI 
21 Korea Times: 'Seoul Should Maintain Inter-Korean Projects' 
22 UPI: SKorea plans no new steps against NKorea
23 US: UPI: Scientists map U.S. nuclear arsenal
24 AFP: Al-Qaeda wants to acquire nuclear weapons - British foreign min
25 Global Research: Israel Detonated a Radioactive Bunker Buster Bomb i
26 Guardian Unlimited: Al Qaida 'seeking nuclear weapons' 
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
27 US: [NukeNet] Brick Timses  Letter Nov 9 Keep Oyster Creek shut ,
28 Call to Stop Nuclear Deal with India
29 [southnews] Germany, Norway, urge US/Russia to Scrap Nukes
30 The Hindu:  India hopeful of nuclear deal 
31 Gulfnews: Nuclear power for future UAE projects unlikely
32 HindustanTimes.com: More than the N-deal 
33 The Hindu: India should set up a Nuclear Data Base Centre - Experts 
34 The Hindu: Chennai News: Seminar on nuclear energy 
35 BBC: GE and Hitachi in nuclear tie-up
36 Sofia Echo: BULGARIA’S NPP CLOSURE INCREASES ELECTRICITY PRICE IN SE
37 Sofia Echo: EC DETERMINED TO KEEP SAME CLOSURE DATE FOR BULGARIA'S N
38 Sofia Echo: Bulgarian nuclear shutdown worries balkans 
39 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Haunted by a nuclear disaster
40 Ynetnews: Egypt begins construction on nuclear power plant - 
41 Xinhua: Official: Egypt's peaceful nuclear program strategy almost c
42 The Hindu: Pranab hopeful of nuclear deal 
43 US: NRC: Exelon Generation Company, LLC; Notice of Denial of Amendme
44 US: NRC: In the Matter of H Inspection Company, Inc., Houston, TX; 
45 US: SWNEBR.NET: "Unusual Event" Declared At Cooper Nuclear Station 
46 US: Montgomery advertiser: Southeast has nuclear future 
47 AFP: General Electric, Hitachi to tie up in nuclear energy 
48 UPI: Analysis: Egypt looks East for nuke power
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
49 RIA Novosti: Russian court fines S.Korean over radioactive imports f
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
50 US: [DU List] shafting the vets
51 [NukeNet] Scotland: Solway beach polluted by radioactivity
52 Radio New Zealand: Top French nuclear safety official due back in Ta
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
53 Guardian Unlimited: France Nuke Waste Shipment Reaches Germany
54 Lahontan Valley News: Now what?
55 Las Vegas SUN: Experts: Reid's Senate rise to help fight against Yuc
56 US: Sydney Morning Herald: Report tips uranium mining shake-up - 
57 US: AU ABC: Macfarlane welcomes uranium industry shake-up
58 The Progressive: Searching for Harry Reid | 
59 US: Las Vegas SUN: Las Vegas to launch outreach program opposing nuc
60 US: Farmington Daily Times: Navajo Nation to discuss uranium mining 
61 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Plan would protect taxpayers from hazardous w
62 US: Cincinnati Post: Off-site contamination found
63 AFP: Nuclear waste convoy reaches dump in Germany - 
64 US: AU ABC: Uranium mining report angers environmental groups. 
65 KRNV.com: Reid and Ensign Expected to Stop President Bush's Yucca Mo
66 KVBC: Will Yucca Mountain plans stall?
 
                           PEACE
 
67 BBC: Arrests at nuclear base protest
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
68 DOE: U.S. and EU Unite to Strengthen Economic Integration and Boost 
69 Hanford News: DOE eyes new plan for sludge treatment
70 Hanford News: Hanford ground water cleanup begins
71 lamonitor.com: Cutbacks, attrition to shrink LANL workforce 
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Guardian Unlimited: Baker's panel has 'no magic bullet' to end the agony 

[UP] 

Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday November 14, 2006

The biggest problem facing the Iraq Study Group is the high
expectations surrounding its report. The initially obscure panel
appointed by Congress in March has lately been treated by the
White House as a potential answer to its agony in Iraq. James
Baker, the panel's co-chairman, has insisted, however, there
will be no "magic bullet" and no simple in-or-out answers.
Officials linked with the panel have been calling journalists to
steer them away from predictions that it will be ready by the
beginning of December, and pointing out that its proposals may
sound familiar.

The options

The ISG panel members have been sworn to secrecy, but that did
not stop Mr Baker expressing his views when promoting his
memoirs earlier this year. He and most of his fellow panellists
favour talking to Iran and Syria on Iraq's future. The Bush
administration opposes talking to Iran without a guarantee that
Tehran will end uranium enrichment, as George Bush repeated
yesterday. But it has also suggested there may be ways to
finesse the impasse, pointing out the US has participated in
international organisations alongside Iran. The commission is
considering whether a conference should look at broad regional
issues, including Lebanon's future and the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.

It is also looking at various types of troop deployment. Most
probably it will suggest pulling US forces out of the urban
patrolling that causes most of the casualties and regrouping in
bases in Iraq or in neighbouring countries. There is still
debate on whether a redeployment should be linked to benchmarks
passed by the Baghdad government or used, as the Democrats
suggest, to prod that government into making hard political
choices. The White House remains opposed to a "fixed timetable"
but the ISG is expected to stress that the US commitment to Iraq
cannot be open-ended.

Another option is a temporary increase in troops in an attempt
to crush Sunni insurgents and Shia militias as a way of giving
the Baghdad government a chance to assert its power.

The panel

Almost all 10 members of the panel, five Republicans and five
Democrats, are known for bipartisan leanings. They seem to have
been picked for their Washington insider status and deal-making
skills. Vernon Jordan, for instance, is best known for trying to
find a job for Monica Lewinsky in the alleged hope of keeping
her quiet. Sandra Day O'Connor, a former supreme court judge,
may have been picked for her moderate credentials and her sharp
legal mind. Odd man out is Edwin Meese, a rightwing ideologue
from Ronald Reagan's administration. He may oppose a softer line
on Iran and Syria.

The methods

The panel prefers collegial chats to formal depositions. It
looked far beyond the US for answers. Mr Baker had a three-hour
dinner with Javad Zarif, Iran's ambassador to the UN, and talk
reportedly hinged on possibilities for US-Iranian conversation.
Aware of high partisan tensions in Washington, Mr Baker and his
co-commissioner, Lee Hamilton, a Democrat, are reportedly
anxious a consensus should emerge. Options are being drafted and
will be debated later this month.

The Democratic victory last week may help to lead to a consensus
if it makes the White House more open to compromises, but
whether there is general agreement or not, the bottom line
stressed by Mr Baker is that there are no good options left in
Iraq, just bad options and worse ones. 

[UP] 

    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 2 Guardian Unlimited: Blair sets terms for Iranian 'partnership' 

[UP] 

Blair outlines Iran 'partnership' plan
 
Matt Weaver and agencies

Monday November 13, 2006 Guardian Unlimited               

Tony Blair will tonight set out the terms for a "new
partnership" with Iran and Syria as part of a new approach to
resolving the crisis in Iraq.

The prime minister will accuse Tehran of backing terrorism in
Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine to thwart international efforts to
block Iran's nuclear ambitions.

But, in his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet in the
City of London, Mr Blair will claim that if it stops such
support and abides by international obligations on nuclear
non-proliferation, the west could work with Iran to secure peace
in the Middle East.

"In that case, a new partnership is possible," he will say.

Aides said that Mr Blair's challenge to Iran to play a more
constructive role in the Middle East applies equally to Syria.

The offer is an example of what Mr Blair calls the "whole
strategy" approach towards the Middle East. He is urging George
Bush to adopt a similar stance in the wake of last week's
midterm elections in America.

But Mr Blair will insist in his speech that it would be a
"fundamental misunderstanding" to suggest that Britain's policy
towards Iran and Syria is shifting.

If Tehran and Damascus choose not to adopt a more cooperative
stance, then the international community will have to relieve
"pressure points" in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine before dealing
with them "from a position of strength", he will say.

Opening talks with Iraq's neighbours is expected to be one of
the key recommendations of the Iraq study group led by James
Baker, the former US secretary of state.

Mr Blair is due to hold video-conference discussions with the
bipartisan group tomorrow.

President George Bush met the study group today for discussion.
Last week he named Robert Gates, one of the study group's
members, as a replacement for the hawkish defence secretary,
Donald Rumsfeld.

Mr Blair's Guildhall speech comes a day after a makeshift bomb
struck a British boat patrol in southern Iraq and killed four
soldiers.

Mr Blair will condemn the attack as "a cruel and wicked reminder
that this terrorism is dedicated to one end: to stop democracy
flourishing in Arab and Muslim countries; to foster sectarian
division; to drive out the possibility of reconciliation between
people of different faiths".

In his speech, Mr Blair will blame outside forces - such as
al-Qaida and Iran - and their support for extremist Iraqi
minorities for the violence in the country.

"Its purpose is now plain: to provoke civil war," he will say.
"The violence is not therefore an accident or a result of faulty
planning. It is a deliberate strategy.

"It is the direct result of outside extremists teaming up with
internal extremists - al-Qaida with the Sunni insurgents,
Iranian-backed Shia militia - to foment hatred and thus throttle
at birth the possibility of non-sectarian democracy."

He will add: "In other words, a major part of the answer to Iraq
lies not in Iraq itself but outside it, in the whole of the
region where the same forces are at work, where the roots of
this global terrorism are to be found, where the extremism
flourishes, with a propaganda that may be, indeed is, totally
false, but is, nonetheless, attractive to much of the Arab
street."

He will explain that his "whole strategy" should include efforts
to resolve tensions between Israel and Palestine, which are "the
core" of the troubles afflicting the whole region.

Progress must then be made on Lebanon and on uniting all
moderate Arabs and Muslims behind the cause of peace.
 
[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI reserves right of response 

  2006/11/13   
  
The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to take due
response in case of any move to deprive of its rights,
Government Spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said monday. 

Elham made the remarks at his weekly press conference when asked
to comment on a resolution which could be adopted by the United
Nations Security Council against Iran's peaceful nuclear program
any time.

 "If the UN Security Council passes a resolution that would
deprive Iran of its rights, the country will have the right to
take due response," he said.

 He said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has
duties and responsibilities which it should carry out as an
international, independent and legal body.

 "Iran stands by all its commitments. It has the inalienable
right to access nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," he
reminded.

 Asked how Iran would react to a possible Security Council
resolution imposing sanctions on the nation, the Spokesman said:
"Iran will make the decision and take the necessary steps to
restore its rights while observing various aspects (of its
international rights and obligations).

 On the results of American mid-term elections which gave a
decisive victory to democrats, he said that the "low voter
participation was tantamount to a rejection of the hegemonic and
bullying policies of the Bush administration." 

"Developments in the world will confirm the complete defeat of
America's policies. In every part of the world, people are
protesting at their bullying policies which violate human
rights," 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
*****************************************************************
 4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Any resolution will mean end of talks 

  2006/11/13   
  
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali
Larijani who wound up his three-day visit to Moscow on Sunday
said "any UNSC resolution against Iran would be tantamount to
change of course." 

Speaking to reporters at Mehrabad International Airport, he said
issuance of resolution means that they do not seek to resolve
the issue through dialogue. 

Voicing Tehran's readiness to continue negotiations to resolve
Iran's nuclear issue through dialogue, he said if they issue any
resolution it will mean that they themselves have changed their
position. 

"We are firm in our position," he said, adding "such a
resolution will mean end of talks but we still underline the
fact that the case should be resolved through negotiations." 

the best response to UNSC resolution would be people's
persistence in their legitimate rights to fully access peaceful
nuclear technology, Larijani said. 

SNSC under-secretaries Javad Vaeedi and Ali Hosseini-Tash and
deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi accompanied Larijani in
his Russia visit. 

sam   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir     
*****************************************************************
 5 AFP: US: No direct talks with Iran 

 Mon Nov 13, 11:12 AM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House on Monday rebuffed mounting 
calls to hold direct talks with Iran Iran, standing by its 
view that Tehran must first suspend sensitive nuclear activities. 

 "At this point, our position in terms of direct talks with the
Iranians is clear," spokesman Tony Snow said after a report that
British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tony Blairhad pushed US
President George W. Bush President George W. Bushto engage
Iran and Syria Syria. 

Washington and Tehran have contacts through "multilateral
forums" and "other parties," Snow told reporters after The
Observer newspaper said Blair had urged Bush to reach out to
Damascus and Tehran to reduce tensions over Iraq Iraq. 

"It is not as if there is no communication," said Snow, who
reaffirmed Washington's position that "it would really work to
the Iranians's advantage to renounce nuclear development -- in
other words to cease nuclear reprocessing and development." 

As for Syria, Snow said: "We have diplomatic relations with
Syria, we continue to have diplomatic relations with Syria." 

Bush and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were to
discuss Iran's nuclear program, and fears it could lead to
Tehran getting atomic weapons, during a meeting at the White
House later in the day. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 6 AFP: Six powers to resume bid to agree Iran sanctions 

 by Gerard Aziakou Mon Nov 13, 4:59 AM ET 		 	 

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Six major powers are set to resume 
attempts to agree on how to censure Iran" /> Iranfor refusing to 
suspend sensitive nuclear fuel work as Russia hinted Tehran might 
be willing to return to negotiations. 

Ambassadors from Germany and the UN Security Council's five 
permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the 
United States -- were to hold another round of informal talks on 
a European draft resolution mandating nuclear and ballistic 
missile-related sanctions against the Islamic republic. 

The tough sanctions, which include travel bans and financial
restrictions on Iranian scientists working on the nuclear and
missile programs, have been the subject of several exploratory
meetings among the six envoys. But the hard bargaining to agree
a text has yet to begin, diplomats said Monday. 

The draft would also allow Russia to continue building a
one-billion-dollar nuclear power plant in the Iranian city of
Bushehr -- an exemption seen as crucial to efforts to secure
Moscow's approval. 

But Russia and China, which both have significant energy and
trade ties with Tehran, view the European draft as too tough and
unlikely to bring about Iranian cooperation. 

The Russians have offered amendments that would drastically
reduce the scope of the sanctions proposed by France, Britain
and Germany, the three countries that led inconclusive efforts
to coax Iran into scaling back its nuclear ambitions. 

But the United States is pushing for even tougher sanctions that
are even more unacceptable to Moscow and Beijing. 

Monday's meeting follows top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali
Larijani's two days of talks with Russian leaders in Moscow on
the Iranian nuclear issue. 

After Larijani's talks with President Vladimir Putin" />
Vladimir PutinSaturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
said Iran would continue to study a package of economic and
security incentives offered by the six powers if Tehran agrees
to halt uranium enrichment. 

"Iran has responded to these proposals and we think that in
showing its good will, there is a possibility, beginning with
the proposals of the Six and taking Iran's response into
account, to find an acceptable basis for talks to restart,"
Lavrov said. 

"In the days ahead, we will continue our contacts with the Six,
which have proposed to Iran ideas which serve as the basis for
the beginning of negotiations," Interfax quoted the Russian
minister as saying. 

After two round of talks last week, France's UN Ambassador
Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said the six powers were trying to
understand each other's positions before moving to narrow their
differences. 

His Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin said that the sponsors of
the draft "have been listening to our explanation and we have
been listening to their rationale." 

"It would be an exaggeration to say we are close to each other,"
he added. "But we do have a mandate (from our ministers) to
agree on a resolution. Our premise is the unity of the Security
Council. In light of the Russian amendments, we have a good
basis for that." 

The Russians want the sponsors of the draft to remove the travel
ban and assets freeze and drop any reference to Bushehr. 

The Russian and Chinese envoys also indicated that they differ
with their four western counterparts about what type of
sanctions were agreed at the ministerial level meeting of the
six powers last summer if Tehran refused to comply with the
demand for a uranium enrichment freeze. 

Iran has defiantly spurned an August 31 Security Council
deadline to halt its uranium enrichment program -- a process
that can lead to the production of fissile material for nuclear
weapons. 

Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at
generating electricity. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 7 AFP: Six powers hold another exploratory meeting on Iran sanctions -
    
 by Gerard Aziakou Mon Nov 13, 7:15 PM ET 		 	 

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Six major UN powers wound up another 
exploratory meeting on proposed sanctions against Tehran over its 
refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear fuel work and agreed to meet 
again on Wednesday. 

 "We had a general exchange of views on a number of key
difficult issues and we agreed to (have) our experts see whether
we can come to agreement to clear those areas," China's UN
Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters after the 90-minute
meeting at France's UN mission in New York. 

He said the six would meet again Wednesday afternoon. 

The informal session brought together envoys from Germany and
the UN Security Council's permanent members -- Britain, China,
France, Russia and the United States -- to review a European
draft resolution urging nuclear and ballistic missile-related
sanctions against Iran Iran. 

The draft put forward by Britain, France and Germany includes
travel bans and financial restrictions on Iranian scientists
working on the nuclear and missile programs. It is viewed as too
tough and counter-productive by Russia and China, which both
maintain close energy and trade ties with Tehran. 

The Russians have offered amendments that would drastically
reduce the scope of the sanctions while the US side is pushing
for even tougher sanctions. 

US Ambassador John Bolton said Monday's discussion focused on
Russia's explanation of their amendments to the European draft
relating to a list of banned items under the Missile Technology
Control Regime (MTCR) and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). 

But he said the Russian amendments "would cut back substantially
from the scope" of the proposed nuclear and missile-related
sanctions. 

As a result, he added, experts of the six powers, both here and
in their capitals, have been tasked with going over those
technical issues before the envoys' next meeting. 

The MTRC is an informal and voluntary association of countries
committed to the goals of non-proliferation of missiles capable
of delivering weapons of mass destruction. 

The NSG is a group of nuclear supplier countries seeking to
prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons through
implementation of guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear
related exports. 

Diplomats said they expected protracted negotiations as the hard
bargaining has yet to begin on a draft which has already been
the subject of several informal discussions by the six powers
for the past three weeks. 

Monday's six-way talks coincided with a new warning from Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that his country would not accept a
nuclear Iran. 

Israel Israel-- widely considered the Middle East's sole, if
undeclared, nuclear weapons power -- views Iran as its chief
enemy, pointing to calls from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for
the Jewish state to be wiped off the map. 

Olmert held talks in Washington with US President George W.
Bush President George W. BushMonday and both rejected making
new overtures to Iran. 

"If the Iranians want to have a dialogue with us, we have shown
them a way forward, and that is for them to verifiably suspend
their enrichment activities," said Bush. 

The US president also called for a renewed global effort to
punish Iran if it does not freeze sensitive nuclear work the
West fears is part of an atomic weapons program. 

In a related development, Tehran has asked the International
Atomic Energy Agency International Atomic Energy
Agency(IAEA) for technical aid in building a heavy-water nuclear
research reactor at Arak, about 200 kilometres (120 miles) south
of Tehran, according to a Western diplomat who spoke on
condition of anonymity. 

The request will first be considered next week by the UN
agency's technical assistance committee before a meeting of the
IAEA's governing board in Vienna on November 23-24, another
diplomatic source said. 

Western countries suspects Iran is covertly seeking to build
nuclear weapons. 

Tehran has spurned an August 31 Security Council deadline to
halt its uranium enrichment program and insists its nuclear
program is peaceful and only aimed at producing electricity. 	
		 			
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: Israel will 'not tolerate' a nuclear Iran - Olmert 

 Mon Nov 13, 8:56 AM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Israel" /> Israelwill not accept a nuclear
Iran" /> Iran, visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told
US television, but while not ruling out military action, said he
hoped diplomacy would dissuade Tehran from pursuing its nuclear
program. 

 "We will not tolerate the possession of nuclear weapons by 
Iran," Olmert told NBC television's "Today Show" program, ahead 
of talks with President George W. Bush" /> President George W. 
Bushon Iran's nuclear ambitions and the Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict. 

Asked whether his country was considering a preemptive strike 
targeting Tehran's nuclear facilities, Olmert answered: "I hope 
we don't have to reach that stage." 

But the Israel leader said his first choice is a negotiated 
resolution. 

"Every compromise that will stop Iran from acquiring nuclear 
capabilities, which will be acceptable to President Bush" /> 
President Bush, would be acceptable to me." 

Olmert added that he was not seeking Washington's protection from 
Tehran. 

"I am not coming to the United States to ask America to save
Israel," he said, saying his country had drawn the lessons of
the Holocaust and World War II. 

"In the 20th century someone said, 'I will liquidate a nation of
people.' And somehow the whole world heard it, may have
understood it, but didn't do much to prevent it." 

"Now we have the president of Iran speaking on every
international platform that the purpose of his efforts is to
ultimately wipe Israel off the map," Olmert said. 

"I am not looking for wars or confrontations. I am looking for
the outcome," he said, adding that in his view the only result
that matters is "whether it will succeed to stop Iran from
possessing nuclear weapons." 

Monday's summit, which comes six months after Olmert's first
meeting with Bush at the White House, has been described by
officials in Jerusalem as "a down-to-business meeting" on Iran. 

With Tehran continuing to reject international calls to halt its
nuclear enrichment efforts, Israel in recent months has moved
the Iranian threat to the top of its agenda. 

Backed by the United States, Israel has said sanctions are
necessary following Tehran's failure to suspend uranium
enrichment, and has hinted at possible military action against
the Islamic republic. 

"This is not an issue of Israel only. It is a moral issue of the
whole world and the whole world has to stop it," Olmert said. 

	 		 			
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 9 Guardian Unlimited: Bush, Olmert Warn of Threat in Iran 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Monday November 13, 2006 11:16 PM

AP Photo XEM804 

By BARRY SCHWEID 

AP Diplomatic Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - At a potential turning point in its war in
Iraq, the Bush administration paused Monday to huddle with
worried ally Israel over the crisis next door in Iran and to
take stock of other Mideast trouble spots. 

Israel is worried that political fallout from the Republican
election losses and rising calls for U.S. engagement with Iran
may soften President Bush's resolve against a country whose
president has said the Jewish state should be wiped from the
map. Bush offered some reassurance on Iran during an Oval Office
meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. 

``I recognize the threat to world peace that the Iranians ...
pose, as does the prime minister,'' Bush told reporters
following the 90-minute meeting. 

Olmert's White House meeting, his first since an inconclusive
war with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon weakened his own
political footing at home, also covered the deteriorating
political situations in the Palestinians territories and in
Lebanon, U.S. and Israeli officials said. Iraq was a topic, but
Israelis made clear that Iran's influence and support for
terrorism was foremost on Olmert's mind. 

``The Iran issue was the main issue on the table,'' Olmert
spokeswoman Miri Eisin told reporters after the session.
``Talking about what you do with this combination, what do you
do with a president who not only backs terror but is actively
pursuing nuclear weapons?'' 

The United States alleges that Iran has a rogue nuclear weapons
program and is pressing for United Nations Security Council
sanctions to punish Iran if it will not scale back sensitive
nuclear fuel production. Israel is a presumed target if Iran
produced a bomb. Iran denies that it is trying to build nuclear
weapons. 

The nuclear threat has been the focus of recent U.S. concern
about its old adversary, but Iran also has unique influence
within its Shiite neighbor Iraq and the potential to undermine
the U.S. goals for a unified Iraqi government up to the task of
securing and running the country when the U.S. withdraws. 

Bush saw Olmert on the same day he was interviewed by an
independent panel studying U.S. options in the Iraq war. The
bipartisan group's report next month is expected to offer the
Bush administration a possible path to change course or scale
back its ambitions in the war now in its fourth year. 

The Iraq Study Group may also address possible U.S. responses if
the rising sectarian warfare in Iraq becomes the all-out civil
war that Israel and many other Mideast neighbors fear. 

One of the group's co-chairs, the influential Bush family
adviser James A. Baker III, has said the United States should
not cut off dialogue with its adversaries, and the group may
recommend a new overture to Iran and Syria. Israeli officials
say they fear any accommodation of Iran, and has tried to keep
up pressure among European allies as well as the United States. 

``There is no question that the Iranian threat is not just a
threat for Israel, but for the whole world,'' Olmert said
following the session with Bush. ``The fanaticism and the
extremism of the Iranian government, and the fact that the
leader of a nation such as Iran can threaten the very existence
of another nation, as he does towards the state of Israel, is
not something that we can tolerate.'' 

The Bush administration reversed itself earlier this year and
offered to bargain face to face with Iran for the first time in
years, if Iran would first suspend disputed nuclear activities. 

Iran has so far refused the offer and spurned a package of
economic and political incentives that the West hoped to trade
for nuclear concessions. 

Bush said the U.S. has not changed the terms, and he warned of
``economic isolation'' for Iran if it presses ahead. 

``There has to be a consequence for their intransigence,'' Bush
said. 

Negotiations over initial, mild U.N. sanctions on Iran have gone
slowly this fall, and it is not clear that the United States has
support from key partners Russia and China to slap more
punishing restrictions on the oil-rich regime. Neither the U.S.
nor Israel has independent economic clout with Iran. 
		 	 	   

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 10 AFP: Israel, US have 'complete understanding' on Iran - Olmert -

 by Ron Bousso Mon Nov 13, 7:34 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel" 
/> and the United States had "complete understanding" on Iran" /> 
, as President George W. Bush" /> threatened to isolate Tehran 
unless it suspends its nuclear programme. 

Bush said that if Iran continues with its programme, which the
United States and Israel believe is aimed at developing an
atomic bomb despite Iran's denials, "there has to be a
consequence for their intransigence." 

"If they continue to move forward with the program, there has to
be a consequence," he said, speaking to reporters following an
hour-long talk with Olmert at the White House. 

"And a good place to start is working together to isolate the
country," he said, branding a nuclear-armed Iran as an
"incredibly destabilizing, and obviously very threatening to our
strong ally," Israel. 

Olmert said that he had a "deep conversation" with Bush and that
the two leaders had "complete understanding over their
objectives" regarding Iran. 

Backed by the United States, Israel has said sanctions are
necessary following Tehran's failure to suspend uranium
enrichment. 

The president, who used the meeting with Olmert to divert
attention from the situation in Iraq" /> and his Republican
Party's humiliating defeat in last week's midterm elections,
also rejected direct talks with Tehran unless it freezes its
nuclear plans. 

"If the Iranians want to have a dialogue with us, we have shown
them the way forward, that is, for them to verifiably suspend
their enrichment activities," Bush told reporters at the White
House. 

Speaking in Hebrew after the meeting, Olmert said that "our
position is that we must do everything in our power to make sure
the Iranians do not cross a technological threshold that would
allow them to develop nuclear weapons." 

Israel -- widely considered the Middle East's sole, if
undeclared, nuclear weapons power -- considers Iran its chief
threat, pointing to calls from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for
the Jewish state to be wiped off the map. 

After the meeting Olmert also said that Israeli and US officials
discussed ways to kick start the stalled Middle East peace
process. 

"The Americans and us have been exchanging ideas that could
allow positive developments regarding future negotiations
between us and the Palestinians," Olmert told reporters. 

That "intensive dialogue ... includes exchanging ideas and
thoughts on ways to promote conditions that would allow
negotiations with the Palestinians," he said. 

Olmert said he remained attached to the internationaly-backed
"roadmap to peace" based on Bush's vision of a Palestinian state
living side-by-side with Israel. 

Earlier on US television, Olmert said he hoped diplomacy would
dissuade Tehran from pursuing its nuclear program. 

"We will not tolerate the possession of nuclear weapons by
Iran," he told NBC television. 

Asked whether his country was considering a preemptive strike on
Tehran's nuclear facilities, Olmert answered: "I hope we don't
have to reach that stage." 

But the Israel leader said his first choice is a negotiated
resolution. 

"Every compromise that will stop Iran from acquiring nuclear
capabilities, which will be acceptable to President Bush" /> ,
would be acceptable to me." 

Asked what he believed to be the timeline for Iran developing
possible nuclear weapons, Olmert responded, "it's a matter of,
unfortunately, shorter time than most people think." 

"I don't want to measure it in days or weeks, but it's quite
close," he said. 

Olmert added that he was not seeking Washington's protection
from Tehran. 

"I am not coming to the United States to ask America to save
Israel," he said, saying his country had drawn the lessons of
the Holocaust and World War II. 

The Israeli leader added: "I am not looking for wars or
confrontations. I am looking for the outcome." 

He added that, in his view, the only result that matters is
"whether it will succeed to stop Iran from possessing nuclear
weapons." 

On Sunday, Olmert reiterated Israel's position that Iran should
be intimidated into halting its nuclear programme. 

"Iran will not agree to make compromises if it is not afraid of
the options it would face in the absence of a compromise,"
Olmert told reporters. 

He hinted that "Israel has options which I am not ready to
specify" regarding Iran's nuclear programme. 

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday that
Washington no longer sought direct contacts with Iran to discuss
ways to ease unrest in neighboring Iraq, saying that channel of
communication "didn't work out." 

"We went through a period where there was an offer of that
channel of communications," McCormack said. 

"It didn't work out for a variety of different reasons," he
said. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 11 AFP: Weakened Bush firm on Iran, Syria, Iraq 

 by Olivier Knox Mon Nov 13, 7:10 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush" /> President 
George W. Bush, sticking to his guns despite a stinging election 
defeat, rejected calls for new overtures to Iran" /> Iranand 
Syria" /> Syriaand opposed a fixed timetable for a US withdrawal 
from Iraq" /> Iraq. 

 Separately, the US State Department confirmed that it had given
up for now on an offer to hold talks with Iran on the situation
in Iraq as a stand-alone issue apart from the Islamic republic's
suspected nuclear weapons program. 

Bush met behind closed doors with a heavyweight commission
tasked with coming up with a new, politically feasible ways to
fight and win the unpopular war and said later that he eagerly
expected their "interesting ideas." 

"I believe it is very important, though, for people making
suggestions to recognize that the best military options depend
upon the conditions on the ground," he said as he met later with
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. 

That kept Bush on a collision course with opposition Democrats,
who captured the US Congress on November 7 and have quickly
vowed to push ahead with a phased withdrawal of US troops within
four to six months. 

Bush's comments came after a private meeting with the Iraq Study
Group, led by former US secretary of state James Baker and
former Democratic lawmaker Lee Hamilton, that is expected to
unveil far-reaching Iraq advice next month. 

The panel, which will also interview Democrats, has been
reportedly considering proposals that include a call for the
United States and its allies to make new diplomatic overtures to
Iran and Syria to help US-led efforts in Iraq and Middle East
peacemaking in general. 

But Bush and Olmert jointly rejected making new overtures to
Iran and Syria unless Tehran forswears sensitive nuclear work
and Damascus changes its Lebanon policy, and both take steps to
help pacify Iraq and build a democracy there. 

"If the Iranians want to have a dialogue with us, we have shown
them a way forward, and that is for them to verifiably suspend
their enrichment activities," said Bush. 

The US president also called for a renewed global effort to
punish Iran if it does not freeze sensitive nuclear activities
that the West fears are part of an atomic weapons program. 

"It's very important for the world to unite with one common
voice to say to the Iranians that, if you choose to continue
forward, you'll be isolated," Bush added. "There has to be a
consequence for their intransigence." 

"We would love to be able to have negotiations with Syria, but
that must be based on a certain reasonable, responsible policy,
which is not preformed by Syria for the time being," said
Olmert. 

Looking to the Baker/Hamilton panel's advice, Bush said he would
not "prejudge" their report. 

"I believe this: I believe that it's important for us to succeed
in Iraq, not only for our security but for the security of the
Middle East, and that I'm looking forward to interesting ideas,"
said the president. 

Bush said that General Peter Pace, the chairman of the joint
chiefs of staff, was leading Pentagon" /> Pentagonefforts to
overhaul an Iraq strategy that even the White House says has not
worked as well or as quickly as had been hoped. 

"It's not getting better fast enough. And so you need to find
ways, militarily and otherwise, to try to improve the
situation," said Bush spokesman Tony Snow. 

At the US State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed
that an offer to de-link Iraq from nuclear issues in talks with
Iran was frozen indefinitely. 

"That particular channel didn't work out. If in the future we
want to avail ourselves of that channel, then that is certainly
a possibility, but I don't think that right now that is
something that is under consideration," said McCormack. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 12 UPI: Bush, Olmert warn Iran of consequences
     
 United Press International - NewsTrack - 

11/13/2006 4:35:00 PM -0500
 
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush,
appearing with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said that
Iran must face consequences for its nuclear activities. 

"I think it's very important for the world to unite with one
common voice to say to the Iranians that, if you choose to
continue forward, you'll be isolated," Bush said. "And one
source of isolation would be economic isolation. In other words,
there has to be a consequence for their intransigence." 

Bush and Olmert discussed the Middle East Monday at the White
House. 

Asked about the possibility of talks with Syria, both Bush and
Olmert said that would depend on signs that Syria has adopted a
"more responsible" attitude. 

"Everything that they are doing is to the other direction -- in
Lebanon, in Iraq, and the sponsorship of Hamas and Khalid Mashal
as the main perpetrators of terror against the state of Israel,"
Olmert said.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved

*****************************************************************
 13 UPI: Saudi urges peaceful Iran nuke settlement
     
  United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 

11/13/2006 11:06:00 AM -0500

TEHRAN, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia has called for resolving
the international controversy over Iran's nuclear program
through peaceful means and negotiations. 

Deputy President of the Saudi Consultative Council Saleh bin
Saoud al-Ali told the second day of a conference for Asian
parliamentarians in Tehran Monday that "duality by the
international community in dealing with the issue of possessing
nuclear energy should be eliminated." 

"It is not correct to allow big countries to have nuclear
activities while denying other countries the right for similar
activities," the official Iranian News Agency quoted al-Ali as
saying. 

He said the Saudi Consultative Council, a toothless rubber-stamp
body, calls for destroying nuclear weapons and barring
production of weapons of mass destruction in the whole Middle
East "in order to guarantee the interests of all peoples in the
region." 

Iran faces the possibility of international economic sanctions
for refusing to stop uranium enrichment, which the West,
particularly the United States, suspects Tehran will use to
build a nuclear bomb.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 14 Guardian Unlimited: PM tells Iran: Turn back on terror 

[UP] 

Press Association 

Monday November 13, 2006 9:48 PM

Prime Minister Tony Blair has presented present Iran with a
blunt choice - come into line on Iraq or face international
isolation. 

Mr Blair also accused Tehran of backing extremists and
terrorists in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine in the hope of
thwarting international efforts to block its programme to
acquire nuclear weapons. 

In a high-profile foreign policy speech to the Lord Mayor's
Banquet in the City of London, he set out what he terms a "whole
Middle East strategy" to resolve conflicts across the region. 

And he said that Iran has "a clear strategic choice" on whether
it will assist the Middle East peace process, stop supporting
terrorism in Iraq and Lebanon and abide by its international
obligations on nuclear non-proliferation. 

"In that case, a new partnership is possible," he said. "Or
alternatively they face the consequences of not doing so:
Isolation." 

Aides said that Mr Blair's challenge to Iran to play a more
constructive role in the Middle East applied equally to Syria. 

But Mr Blair insisted in his speech that it would be a
"fundamental misunderstanding" to suggest that Britain's policy
towards the two countries is shifting. 

And he suggested that he does not believe their involvement is
necessary for the resolution of the problems in Iraq. 

If Tehran and Damascus choose not to adopt a more co-operative
stance, then the international community must relieve "pressure
points" in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine before dealing with them
"from a position of strength", he said. 

Mr Blair's speech comes a day before he is due to hold video
conference discussions with the Iraq Study Group led by former
US Secretary of State James Baker. The Baker Group is reported
to be considering making recommendations to President George
Bush to bring Iran and Syria on board in the search for peace in
Iraq. 

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 15 Guardian Unlimited: Blair Urges World to Engage Iran, Syria 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Monday November 13, 2006 6:01 AM

AP Photo LLP104 

By JENNIFER QUINN 

Associated Press Writer 

LONDON (AP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged the
international community on Monday to engage Iran and Syria to
advance the peace process in the Middle East and defended his
government's close relationship with the U.S. 

Blair said the outcome of the Iraq war was central to bringing
peace to the Middle East, and the world must make clear to Syria
and Iran how they can assist in the process as well as the
consequences of hindering it. Blair was to deliver the remarks
in a speech later Monday and excerpts of the text were released
in advance by his office. 

The United States has said it was willing to hold direct talks
with Iran about Iraq - which would be the most public exchange
between the countries in years. But the U.S. does not want to
discuss broader subjects such as Iran's contentious nuclear
program which Washington suspects is aimed at making weapons. 

President Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, said Sunday that
the White House would consider U.S. talks with Syria and Iran if
the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which is trying to develop a
new course for the war, recommended that. 

The U.S. and other Western nations have isolated Syria for more
than a year. Washington wants Syria to stop its backing of
Hezbollah in Lebanon, end support of Palestinian militants and
help crack down on insurgents crossing the border into Iraq. 

Blair's address to the annual Lord Mayor's banquet in London
comes a day before he was scheduled to speak by video-link to
the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan Washington commission trying
to devise a new course for the war in Iraq. Blair has been
President Bush's staunchest ally in that war, a position that
has cost him support at home. 

Blair said forging bonds with nations that share Britain's
values is necessary for future security and the best foreign
policy to pursue is one built on strong alliances. 

``Our partnership with America and our membership of the
(European Union) are precisely suited to Britain,'' he said.
``For that reason anti-Americanism or Euro-skepticism are not
merely foolish - they are the surest route to the destruction of
our true national interest. 

``When people say, 'Yes, but we want a British foreign policy,'
I say, 'Of course we do, but in today's world a foreign policy
based on strong alliances is the only British policy which
works,''' he said. 

Britain has sent more troops to Iraq than any nation besides the
U.S., and rising violence there - and a British death toll that
on Sunday reached 125 - have heightened calls for a change of
strategy. 

Britain's Ministry of Defense said Sunday that four British
servicemen were killed in an attack on a patrol boat in Basra's
Shatt al-Arab waterway in southern Iraq. Three servicemen were
wounded, the ministry said. 

Blair has repeatedly said British troops will remain in Iraq
until Iraqi forces can take responsibility for security. 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 16 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Government, Uri meet today on U.S.-led program

November 14, 2006 KST 13:46 (GMT+9)

  November 11, 2006 ¤Ñ The government and governing Uri Party
will hold a consultative meeting today aiming to reach a
consensus on whether or not Seoul should broaden its
participation in a U.S.-led program intended to curb
international trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. 
The meeting will include the senior leadership of the Uri Party
led by its chairman, Kim Geun-tae, and key government officials.

Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and Unification Minister Lee
Jong-seok are also expected to attend the closed-door meeting.

 In the immediate aftermath of North Korea's nuclear test last
month, Mr. Yu said that Seoul is considering actively
participating in the program but the ruling party vigorously
opposed the idea, arguing that doing so would only escalate
tension on the Korean Peninsula and increase the likelihood of
armed conflict between the two Koreas. The Blue House has
remained silent on the issue, but United Nations member-states
are required to report by next week to the UN Security Council
on measures they have taken in accordance with a UN resolution
adopted in response to the North's nuclear test. Seoul is
expected to make a decision on the issue next week. 

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
yesterday that remarks made earlier by Song Min-soon, the Blue
House's chief security advisor, should serve as an indicator of
Seoul's direction. Mr. Song told visiting U.S. officials
recently that in regard to measures against the North, Seoul
should be entrusted with devising them.
 
by Brian Lee africanu@joongang.co.kr>   
	  
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use 
*****************************************************************
 17 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: North Korea decries sanctions by Japanese

November 14, 2006 KST 13:46 (GMT+9)                                                    
                       
  November 14, 2006 ¤Ñ North Korea yesterday denounced Japan for
imposing sanctions against it, calling the Japanese government a
"puppet of U.S. imperialists."

 The accusation came about a week after the communist state said
it would be better for Japan to stay away from international
negotiations on the North's nuclear weapons program.

 "The offensive anti-DPRK maneuvers by the Abe administration
are a shameless act by errand boys loyal to U.S. masters,"
Rodong Sinmun, a newspaper published by the North's Workers'
Party, said in an editorial carried by the Korean Central News
Agency.

 The editorial follows remarks on Nov. 4 by an unidentified
spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry who was quoted by
KCNA as saying, "It is the view of the DPRK that since the U.S.
attends the six-party talks, there is no need for Japan to
participate in them as a local delegate because it is no more
than a state of the U.S. and it is enough for Tokyo just to be
informed of the results of the talks by Washington."

 The nuclear talks also involve South Korea, China and Russia.

 Monday's editorial also comes amid renewed efforts by the new
Japanese administration to address the issue of Japanese
citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago.

 The Rodong Sinmun editorial said the abduction issue has
already been resolved and claimed that raising the issue is an
excuse to intensify Japan's sanctions against it.

 It called the sanctions "cowardly," and said they would lead to
even worse relations between North Korea and Japan.   
	  
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 18 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Steady as she goes, Seoul says of policy on North

November 14, 2006 KST 13:46 (GMT+9)     

  November 14, 2006 ¤Ñ Continuing existing sanctions but taking
no new measures against the North is sufficient to comply with a
United Nations resolution adopted in the aftermath of
Pyongyang's nuclear test, Seoul said yesterday, crushing U.S.
hopes that Seoul would put the squeeze on its neighbor. 

In particular, a broader participation by Seoul in a U.S.-led
initiative to curb international trafficking of weapons of mass
destruction was ruled out by Seoul despite a direct plea by
senior U.S. officials. Pointing to "unique circumstances" on the
Korean Peninsula, Deputy Foreign Minister Park In-kook said, "We
will decide on activities to be taken in the waters surrounding
the Korean Peninsula in accordance with our relevant domestic
laws, including the South-North Agreement on Maritime
Transportation, and international law." 

The official did say Seoul supported the purpose and principles
of the Proliferation Security Initiative. 

Mr. Park repeated what Seoul officials have said on numerous
occasions, that Seoul's membership in multiple international
treaties such as the Missile Technology Control Regime, which
aims to prevent proliferation of unmanned delivery systems
capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction, meets the
goals of the UN resolution in preventing the transfer of
material that could contribute to the North's weapons programs.

The official left the door open for further sanctions, saying
Seoul would adjust its measures as the UN Security Council
fleshes out sanctions under the resolution. The council has not
yet, for example, designated individuals who are thought to be
linked to the North's weapons of mass destruction programs to be
included on a travel ban list. Seoul was expected to hand in a
report to the UN yesterday on measures taken so far.

 In a press briefing with Foreign Ministry officials,
Unification Ministry official Lee Kwan-sei said of those
sanctions by Seoul, "The scope is wider than any other sanctions
imposed by other countries." He said about 80 percent of
inter-Korean economic cooperation projects, both government and
civilian, have been stopped since July, when North Korea
conducted missile tests. Mr. Lee said that Seoul would not
resume shipping rice and fertilizer to the North, while
materials to build railway stations and repair flood damage will
also be put on hold until circumstances dictate otherwise. 

The official added that the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mount
Kumgang tours would continue. Washington has singled out the
tour project to be stopped, fearing the fees could finance the
North's weapons programs. 

by Brian Lee africanu@joongang.co.kr>   
	  
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use |
*****************************************************************
 19 Guardian Unlimited: S.Korea Balks at Some Sanctions on North 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Monday November 13, 2006 4:31 PM

By JAE-SOON CHANG 

Associated Press Writer 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea balked Monday at
Washington's demand that it fully join a U.S.-led effort to
intercept North Korean ships suspected of carrying supplies for
the North's nuclear and missile weapons programs. 

The South insisted that it was already doing enough to stem
possible weapons proliferation from North Korea - which
detonated a nuclear bomb on Oct. 9 - and announced no new
measures to sanction the North under a U.N. Security Council
resolution condemning the test. 

The decision underscored Seoul's reluctance to anger Pyongyang
and complicated efforts to resolve the standoff over the North's
nuclear program now that the communist regime has agreed to
return to long-stalled international nuclear disarmament talks. 

``It's basically not necessary to take (new) measures,'' Park
In-kook, a deputy foreign minister, said at a news briefing. 

Seoul has joined the U.S.-led initiative, aimed largely at
stopping North Korean weapons traffic at sea, only as an
observer out of concern that its stopping and searching North
Korean ships could lead to armed clashes. 

Monitoring North Korean shipping would be much more difficult
without South Korea, because countries in the initiative can
only conduct searches within the territorial waters of
participating countries. Ships on the high seas have right of
free passage under international law. 

South Korea is to submit a report Monday on how it would carry
out the unanimously adopted Security Council resolution to a
U.N. committee charged with overseeing the sanctions on North
Korea. 

The resolution bans the sale of major arms to North Korea and
calls for the inspection of cargo entering and leaving the
country. It also calls for the freezing of assets of businesses
supplying the North's nuclear and ballistic weapons programs, as
well as restrictions on sales of luxury goods and travel bans on
Pyongyang officials. 

South Korea has rejected criticism that it is too soft on North
Korea, citing as an example its suspension of humanitarian aid
to the impoverished North after it test-fired a series of
missiles over international objections. 

The South insists it could inspect North Korean ships under an
inter-Korean agreement but it has never done so despite allowing
dozens of the communist country's vessels to transit its waters. 

On Monday, Lee Kwan-se, an official of the Unification Ministry
that deals with reconciliation with North Korea, said the South
would continue a hold on regular humanitarian aid to the North. 

Lee also said South Korea will suspend subsidies it pays for a
tourism program at the North's Diamond Mountain resort, and also
keep on hold an expansion plan for an inter-Korean industrial
park in the North's border city of Kaesong. 

The two projects, considered key symbols of inter-Korean
reconciliation, are a major source of hard currency for the
North and have been criticized over concern that they may fund
the North's missile and nuclear programs. 

Seoul's measures against the projects are not expected to affect
them seriously because the subsidies for the tour project are
believed to be rather small and the industrial zone expansion
plan is already in limbo due to the North's provocations. 

The two Koreas are still technically at war as the 1950-53
Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. But their
relations have warmed since the first, and only, summit of their
leaders in 2000, with Seoul pursuing engagement rather than
confrontation under the so-called ``sunshine policy.'' 

Hans Blix, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector, said talks
were the only way to resolve the nuclear issue. 

``Waving the whip is counterproductive,'' Blix said in Beijing.
``Regime change is not the idea. Invasion ... is also not the
idea. There remains only talks.'' 

But, Blix cautioned, it would be difficult for negotiators - the
United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia - to
persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions when some
of them have not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty. 

``It's a handicap so long as the nuclear weapon states will not
take seriously and really strive sincerely toward disarmament.
There's going to be a handicap in telling others to stay away''
from nuclear weapons, Blix said. 

The treaty - which bans all nuclear explosions - will not enter
into force until it has been ratified by all 44 states that
participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and have nuclear
power or research reactors. Holdouts include the United States,
China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 20 Korea Times: Seoul Will Not Join US-Led PSI 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times   

By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter

 The government on Monday officially announced that it will not
fully endorse the U.S.-led efforts to interdict cargo ships
suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction (WMD), citing
its ``unique'' circumstance of having North Korea as a neighbor. 

But the government underlined that it supports the purpose and
principle of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), saying
Seoul will adjust the scope of its participation ``at its
discretion.'' 

The announcement came as Seoul reported to the United Nations
the list of measures it has taken or will take in line with the
Security Council's resolution on North Korea's nuclear test. 

As for the lack of new steps on the list, Seoul claimed that it
did not add anything new because the country has already been
fully cooperating with international society in preventing the
Stalinist state from trading in WMD-related items. 

All U.N. member states were required to report to the Security
Council on the measures they took to carry out the resolution
within 30 days of its adoption on Oct. 14. 

``Taking into account the unique circumstances on the Korean
Peninsula, we will decide on activities to be taken in the
waters surrounding it in accordance with our relevant domestic
laws, including the South-North Agreement on Maritime
Transportation, and international laws,'' said a statement
released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 

The statement means that Seoul will not attend interdiction
drills to be held near the Korean Peninsula because of concerns
that such moves could develop into an armed conflict between the
two Koreas. 

``Our declaration of holding this special status in the PSI
could exclude the possibility of an armed clash in waters
between the two Koreas,'' Lee Kwan-se, a director of the
Unification Ministry, said at a press briefing in Seoul. 

Washington has repeatedly called for the South to join the PSI.
Seoul's cooperation has been considered necessary to effectively
execute the interdiction process. 

But Seoul officials said South Korea can properly inspect North
Korean vessels passing the South Korean territorial waters or
anchoring at its ports by using the inter-Korean maritime
agreement, which was activated in August 2005. 

Even though Seoul did not take any new steps to support the U.N.
resolution, Lee said South Korea is conducting the resolution
most actively when it comes to the cross-border trade. 

He said almost 80 percent of inter-Korean trade and Seoul's
financial support to the North, which amounted to $450 million
last year, have been halted, describing the moves as the
``toughest'' measures taken by any other U.N. member states. 

The Security Council's sanctions committee has not yet decided
the North Korean individuals and entities that will face
sanctions as well as the luxury items that the Pyongyang
leaders, including Kim Jong-il, will be banned from importing. 

Seoul is intending to amend its list after reviewing the
committee's final report on its sanctions list to the Security
Council, the foreign ministry said. 

South Korea has been struggling to strike a balance between its
obligations to sanction the North in line with the U.N.
resolution and its desire to not aggravate the security
situation on the Korean Peninsula by angering Pyongyang. 


im@koreatimes.co.kr11-13-2006 17:31         
*****************************************************************
 21 Korea Times: 'Seoul Should Maintain Inter-Korean Projects' 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times   

By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter

Paik Hak-soon 
  
South Korea should not give up the benefits gained from 
inter-Korean projects because of U.S. pressure, a Korean 
researcher said Monday. 

``Seoul should not abandon Mt. Kumgang tourism and the Kaesong
industrial complex projects, in anticipation of possible
political changes in the wake of the congressional
elections,¡¯¡¯ Paik Hak-soon, a program director of the Sejong
Institute, said. 

Paik and two other experts on inter-Korean relations discussed
how the U.S. mid-term elections will affect the Korean Peninsula
during a meeting hosted by the Uri Party Foundation, the
governing party¡¯s think tank. 

He also stressed that it is necessary to work out an overall
roadmap to solve the North¡¯s nuclear issue, ensure peace on the
Korean Peninsula and facilitate order in East Asia. 

Paik said that Seoul should redefine the identity of
inter-Korean relations and maintain consistency from setting a
concept to fulfilling the policy. 

The government can move forward through admitting that the
George W. Bush and Roh Moo-hyun administrations have failed in
policies toward the Stalinist regime, Paik said. 

During the discussion, the three researchers agreed that
Washington would maintain policies toward the North even though
the Democratic Party won the Nov. 7 election. 

``The Democrats as well as the Republicans have little faith in
the North, so their North Korean policy will show little
change,¡¯¡¯ Park Young-ho, a senior research fellow of the Korea
Institute for National Unification, said. 

Park said the United States will continue to apply resolution
1718 which the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted on Oct.
14 to sanction Pyongyang for its nuclear test on Oct. 9. 

The resolution bans trade of military gear, nuclear and
missile-related items and luxury goods, as well as overseas
travel by any person under suspicion of being involved in the
regime¡¯s missile and nuclear programs. It also allows the
inspection of North Korean cargo. 

As for the human rights issue in the North, Park anticipated
that the Democrats will maintain pressure on it because the
party will adhere to its original stance. 

11-13-2006 17:49         
*****************************************************************
 22 UPI: SKorea plans no new steps against NKorea
     
  United Press International - NewsTrack - 

11/13/2006 10:23:00 AM -0500

SEOUL, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- South Korea may largely stay away for
now from a U.S.-led nuclear non-proliferation effort to further
pressure North Korea to end its nuclear program. 

While referring to the Proliferation Security Initiative, South
Korea said Monday it already has stronger measures in place
against its communist neighbor in retaliation for its Oct. 9
nuclear test, the Yonhap news agency reported. 

The announcement said the South's future actions will be linked
to progress in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear arms
program. 

"The South Korean government supports the purpose and principles
of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), and will adjust
the scope of our participation at our discretion," Deputy
Foreign Minister Park In Kook told reporters. He said the 2004
inter-Korean maritime agreement on sea cargo can be used to
check any suspicious shipments from the North through the
South's territorial waters. 

Through the PSI initiative, the United States wants to curb
trade in weapons of massive destruction and related materials by
North Korea and other "rogue" states.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 23 UPI: Scientists map U.S. nuclear arsenal
     
  United Press International - Security &Terrorism - 

11/13/2006 7:42:00 AM -0500

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have devised a
Web-based, three dimensional mapping tool that shows the known
locations of more than 10,000 U.S. nuclear warheads. 

Using satellite pictures and dynamic graphics available from
Google Earth, the map allows users to "fly" onscreen across a
sprawling network of litary facilities in 12 U.S. states and
Europe," said the Federation of American Scientists and the
Natural Resources Defense Council in a statement Thursday. 

Scientists from the two groups pieced together "information from
declassified documents, official statements, news reports,
conversations with current and former officials, and other
publicly available sources" to map the location of the warheads,
said the statement. 

The information is being published in the November/December
issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in an effort to
highlight the huge size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. 

"Fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, there are still
thousands of nuclear weapons at military bases stretching from
Washington's Puget Sound to Turkey," said Hans M. Kristensen,
director of the Federation of American Scientists' Nuclear
Information Project. Kristensen, who has been tracking nuclear
weapons for more than 25 years, added, "The stockpile is down
considerably from its peak, but it is still far in excess of
national security needs, much of it on high alert, and
dismantlement of excess weapons is happening at a snail's pace." 

The highest concentration of nuclear weapons is at the Strategic
Weapons Facility Pacific in Bangor, Wash., which is home to more
than 2,300 warheads -- probably the most nuclear weapons at any
one site in the world. At any given moment, nearly half of these
warheads are aboard ballistic-missile submarines in the Pacific.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 24 AFP: Al-Qaeda wants to acquire nuclear weapons - British foreign ministry - 

 by Prashant Rao Mon Nov 13, 7:21 PM ET 		 	 

LONDON (AFP) - The Al-Qaeda terror network wants to acquire 
technology that will allow it to carry out a nuclear attack on a 
Western country, a spokesman for the British foreign ministry 
told AFP. 

"The aspiration is there. That's something that we will continue
to operate safeguards against," the spokesman said, when asked
whether Al-Qaeda hoped to acquire nuclear technologies. 

He stressed, however, that the Foreign Office did not believe
that Al-Qaeda had acquired such technology. He could not comment
on how far the terror network had gone in attempting to get hold
of the technology. 

A report in the early edition of The Guardian daily's Tuesday
newspaper said that British officials detected "an awful lot of
chatter" on jihadi websites expressing the desire to acquire
weapons of mass destruction, citing an unnamed senior official
within the foreign ministry. 

The same official said that within the past two weeks both the
United States and Russia had signed an agreement to toughen
nuclear non-proliferation measures. 

The foreign ministry spokesman's comments followed warnings last
week from the head of Britain's domestic intelligence agency MI5
that future terror attacks could involve weapons of mass
destruction. 

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said on Friday that while homemade,
improvised explosives may be used now, future terror attacks
could involve chemical, bacteriological, radioactive and even
nuclear material. 

Her assessment came after Muslim convert Dhiren Barot was jailed
for life last week for plotting to kill thousands of people in
devastating attacks in Britain and the United States. 

British Prime Minister Tony Blair" /> late on Tuesday described
Islamic terrorism as a "new and unconventional enemy" and
proposed to combat it, and help support democracy in the Middle
East with a "whole Middle East" strategy. 

In a keynote speech in London, Blair said that a major part of
the answer to the struggles of Britain and the United States in
Iraq" /> lies "in the whole of the region where ... the roots of
this global terrorism are to be found, where the extremism
flourishes." 

Britain has been on high alert since the July 7, 2005 bombings
on London's public transport network killed 52 commuters and the
four Islamist extremist suicide bombers. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 25 Global Research: Israel Detonated a Radioactive Bunker Buster Bomb in Lebanon
What kind of weapon leaves traces of radiation & produces such 
lethal & circumscribed consequences?


Global Research, November 11, 2006
RAI News (translated from the ItaIian) - 2006-11-09

Email this article to a friend
Print this article

KHIAM SOUTHERN LEBANON
A BOMB'S ANATOMY

By Flaviano Masella, Angelo Saso, Maurizio Torrealta

 

The special report was triggered by the radioactivity 
measurements reported on a crater probably created by an Israeli 
Bunker Buster bomb in the village of Khiam, in southern Lebanon. 
The measurements were carried out by two Lebanese professors of 
physics - Mohammad Ali Kubaissi and Ibrahim Rachidi. The data - 
700 nanosieverts per hour - showed remarkably higher 
radiocativity then the average in the area (Beirut = 35 nSv/hr ). 
Successivamente, on September 17th, Ali Kubaissi took British 
researcher Dai Williams, from the environmentalist organization 
Green Audit, to the same site, to take samples that were then 
submitted to Chris Busby, technical adisor of the Supervisory 
Committee on Depleted Uranium, which reports to the British 
Ministry of Defense. The samples were tested by Harwell's nuclear 
laboratory, one of the most authoritative research centers in the 
world. On October 17th, Harwell disclosed the testing results - 
two samples in 10 did contain radioactivity.

On November 2nd, another British lab, The School of Oceanographic 
Sciences, confirmed Harwell's results - the Khiam crater contains 
slightly enriched uranium. Rainews24 also took a sample taken by 
Dai Williams for testing by the Department of Earth Sciences of 
the University of Ferrara. The testing - which is still ongoing - 
found an anomalous structure: the sample's surface includes 
alluminium and iron silicates, normal elements in a soil 
fragment. Yet, looking inside, estremely small bubbles can be 
found with high concentration of iron. Further testing will 
clarify the origin of these structures: what seems to be certain 
at the moment is that they are not caused by a natural process.

What kind of weapon is this? What weapon leaves traces of 
radiation and produces such lethal and circumscribed 
consequences?

Researcher Dai Williams believes this is a new class of weapons 
using enriched uranium, not through fission processes but through 
new physical processes kept secret for at least 20 years.

Physicist Emilio del Giudice form the National Institute of 
Nuclear Phisics came to the same conlcusion: "There are two ways 
to explain the origin of the enriched uranium found in Khiam:

About the origin of enriched Uranium there are two possibilities:

    1) this material was present already in the structure of the 
bombs, but I am puzzled since one should explain the rationale of 
the use of a material which is both expensive and dangerous , 
because of its enhanced radioactivity, to people handling it , 
including military personnel of Israeli Army.

    2) the enrichment has been the consequence of the use of the 
bomb; this possibility is hardly compatible with the known 
effects of conventional nuclear weapons and should imply that 
some newly discovered nuclear phenomenon could be at work.

The Israeli army denied the use of uranium-based weapons in 
Lebanon. So, how can people defend themselves from potential 
uranium-related harm? What precautions will the Unifil troops in 
the area take, and what kind of testing has been carried out to 
prevent the risks? The documentary directly covers those 
qestions.

Translation by Desiree Berlangieri and Maria Letizia Tesorini

http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchieste/09112006_bomba_ing.asp
*****************************************************************
 26 Guardian Unlimited: Al Qaida 'seeking nuclear weapons' 

[UP] 

Press Association 

Monday November 13, 2006 8:08 PM

Al Qaida is determined to acquire the technology to carry out a
nuclear attack on the West, a senior Foreign Office official
warned. 

The official said that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was
actively trawling the world for the materials and know how to
mount an attack using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. 

The latest warning echoes MI5 director general Dame Eliza
Manningham-Buller's remarks last week that future terror attacks
in Britain could involve weapons of mass destruction. 

Asked if she had any doubt that al Qaida wanted to obtain the
materials to carry out a nuclear attack on the West, the
official said: "No doubt at all". 

She said that that terrorists were seeking the means to mount a
range of attacks using chemical, biological, radiological and
nuclear devices. 

"We know that the aspiration is there, we know attempts to
gather materials are there, we know that attempts to gather
technologies are there," she said. 

The latest warning comes as the Government is preparing to make
security a key theme of its legislative programme for the
forthcoming Parliamentary session, to be set out in the Queen's
Speech on Wednesday. 

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved. 

    Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 27 [NukeNet] Brick Timses  Letter Nov 9 Keep Oyster Creek shut ,
 
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:22:59 -0800

X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (borg.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61]
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<x-flowed>
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

(sent to Governor Corzine)



Brick Times –Nov 9, 2006

Letters To The Editor

Keep Oyster

Creek Shut Down

Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant is presently closed and the lights never 
even dimmed with the loss of its minuscule contribution to the PJM power 
grid. What has dimmed a little is the plant's production of 
life-threatening, high level nuclear waste and the threat to our safety 
this dinosaur plant creates every day it operates.

The fact is, Oyster Creek has been supplying less than one percent of 
electricity to the PJM grid. Moreover, with the increase of states to 14 
joining the PJM grid, www. pjm.com, (i.e., Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, 
Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of 
Columbia) the amount of electricity

Oyster Creek supplies has

dwindled proportionately to .0038 percent, considerably less than one percent.

In August 2003, during the Northeast blackout, Oyster Creek shut down. 
However, the PJM grid had a surplus of electricity and sold its excess 
power to New York City, proving that Oyster Creeks input would not be missed.

Let's invest in New Jersey's future and children with safe, labor-friendly 
wind and solar energy that increase jobs. Alternative energy is not a 
terrorist threat that produces massive quantities of nuclear waste to be 
cared for by multiple generations of our children for thousands of years.

Keep Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant shut down permanently. Grace Costanzo 
Vice President , Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch


_______________________________________________________________________
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 28 Call to Stop Nuclear Deal with India
 
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:23:14 -0800

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<x-flowed>
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=226184554&url_num=1&url=http://www.californiapeaceaction.org/>81abb.jpg 


The elections are over, but the old Congress still has work to do before 
the end of the year.

So do we.

In the next few days, we have one last chance to stop the reckless 
U.S.-India nuclear deal from moving forward in 2006.

Can you take a minute to call your senator and help stop this deal? 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=226184554&url_num=5&url=http://www.californiapeaceaction.org/content/view/214/77/>Click 
here to take action.

If enacted, the deal would allow India access to sensitive nuclear 
technology, though India has not committed to reducing its nuclear arsenal. 
The deal would enable India to increase its production of nuclear weapons 
from its current capacity for 10 a year to as many as 50 bombs a year.

This is not the time for the U.S. to pursue such a dangerous proposal. 
North Korea just tested a nuclear weapon, while the international community 
is working to convince Iran to give up its weapons program. Making an 
exception to the nuclear rules for India only puts the world at risk.

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed legislation allowing 
the deal to go forward, but the Senate has not yet voted. When the vote 
comes up, we expect senators to offer amendments to improve the deal and 
strictly regulate its impact on India's nuclear arsenal.

Please help us generate support for these amendments so we can stop the 
most dangerous elements of this deal now. 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=226184554&url_num=6&url=http://www.californiapeaceaction.org/content/view/214/77/>Click 
here find out how to call your senator toll-free today.

Thanks to you, we've worked hard to stop this deal all year--we need your 
continued support for our final push.

Sincerely,

Erin Sikorsky-Stewart
Political Director


Learn More About the India Deal

Read some background on the deal, and find out what happened in the House 
of Representatives 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=226184554&url_num=7&url=http://www.californiapeaceaction.org/content/blogcategory/159/77/>here.






Starting later this month, look for emails from us under our new name, 
Peace Action West! To read more about our plans to work outside California, 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=226184554&url_num=8&url=http://californiapeaceaction.org/>click 
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 29 [southnews] Germany, Norway, urge US/Russia to Scrap Nukes
 
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 02:36:26 -0600 (CST)

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Germany and Norway urged the United States and Russia on Friday to take 
heed of North Korea's nuclear test and resume negotiations on 
dismantling their atomic arsenals to prevent a collapse of the 
non-proliferation regime.

U.S., Russia urged to talk about scrapping A-bombs

By Louis Charbonneau
Reuters
Friday, November 10, 2006; 11:44 AM

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and Norway urged the United States and Russia 
on Friday to take heed of North Korea's nuclear test and resume 
negotiations on dismantling their atomic arsenals to prevent a collapse 
of the non-proliferation regime.

In a joint editorial to be published on Saturday by Frankfurter 
Rundschau newspaper, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and 
his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr-Store warned that North Korea's 
atomic test proved it was time to upgrade the nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty (NPT).

The editorial calls on "the nuclear weapons states, particularly Russia 
and the United States, to fulfill their responsibility and declare they 
are ready to engage in further negotiations about their strategic 
nuclear weapons."

The editorial appears the same week the Democrats wrested control of the 
U.S. Congress from President George W. Bush's Republicans in mid-term 
elections, which many in Europe see as a rejection of Bush's unilateralism.

The two European ministers said Russian-U.S. negotiations should focus 
on both the 1968 NPT and a possible follow-up pact for the Strategic 
Arms Reduction Treaty (Start I), which was signed in 1991 and expires in 
2009, the editorial said.

The NPT, which came into force in 1970, calls on the five official 
nuclear weapons states, the United States, Russia, China, Britain and 
France, to negotiate nuclear disarmament.

"This duty is unambiguous," Steinmeier and Gahr-Store wrote.

In addition to North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT in 2003, 
Pakistan and India are nuclear powers which have never signed the NPT. 
Israel, which neither confirms nor denies having an atomic arsenal, has 
also not signed.

FAILED ATTEMPT TO REPAIR NPT

Steinmeier and Gahr-Store said the nuclear weapons states' refusal to 
demonstrate their commitment to disarmament was one of the reasons an 
NPT review conference in 2005 collapsed.

But it's time to try again, they said.

"The international community must decide whether the North Korean 
nuclear test will lead to another, possibly fatal step toward 
destruction of the NPT or whether a clear signal will be given that the 
international community has reached a credible and sustainable consensus 
on non-proliferation," they wrote.

Bush administration officials have repeatedly said the U.S. military was 
considering developing a new generation of small but powerful nuclear 
weapons, so-called "mini nukes." Russia has also talked about upgrading 
its nuclear arsenal.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Prize-winning head of the U.N.'s 
Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, and many non-proliferation experts have 
criticized Washington and Russia for their nuclear policies, which they 
say send the wrong message to countries which might be interested in 
secretly acquiring atomic weapons.
*****************************************************************
 30 The Hindu:  India hopeful of nuclear deal 

Monday, November 13, 2006 : 0300 Hrs
 
Kolkata, Nov. 13 (PTI): India yesterday expressed hope that the
Indo-US civil nuclear deal would be passed by the US Senate
despite the change of power equation in the Congress following
victory by the Democrats. 

"I hope the bill on civil nuclear agreement will be passed by
the Senate," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said
here referring to the fate of the bill following electoral
reverses in the US Congress. 

The Senate is likely to meet for the 'lame-duck' session this
week and expectedly consider the bill on civil nuclear agreement
that provides for allowing nuclear trade between India and the
US. 

The House of Representatives has already passed the bill but the
Senate could not consider it as its term expired. 

Optimistic Mukherjee hoped that there would not be any change in
the Indo-US relations following the change in power equation in
the Congress. 

"I do not think electoral reverses in the US Congress will have
any adverse effect on Indo-US bilateral relations including on
strategic partnerships like civil nuclear deal," Mukherjee said. 

Mukherjee also welcomed the seven party interim government in
Nepal. "We hope people could elect their government in a
democratic way," he said. 

Union Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs
Minister P R Dasmunshi met the External Affairs Minister at his
residence here during the day.

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu.
*****************************************************************
 31 Gulfnews: Nuclear power for future UAE projects unlikely
  
Published: 14/11/2006 12:00 AM

By Saifur Rahman, Business News Editor
    			 			
Dubai: The UAE may not seek nuclear energy to power its future
utility projects after a top government official cast doubt on
the possibility yesterday. 

"I'm not aware of any such move to acquire nuclear energy. I
don't know where this piece of information came from," Mohammad
Bin Dha'en Al Hamili, UAE Minister of Energy, said yesterday. 

The UAE is spending billions of dollars to boost power
generation and water desalination as the country's economy is
growing at 26 per cent. 

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority will invest Dh20
billion in the next five years to triple power and water output.
All the country's power and desalination plants are powered by
oil and gas. 

He said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec)
might consider further cuts in output. 

"At the next meeting of the Opec to be held in Abuja, members
might seek a further cut in production. We will be discussing
the demand and supply situation at the meeting." 

© Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2006. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 32 HindustanTimes.com: More than the N-deal 

November 14, 2006|03:31 IST   

If there is one problem with Indias free and lively media, it
is that they tend to be mono-focal. After the US mid-term
elections, for example, the focus has exclusively been on
whether or not the India-US nuclear deal will pass in the coming
lame duck session. A secondary concern has been the terms and
conditions of the final legislation and the so-called 123
agreement that will operationalise the deal. We seem to be
ignoring a much larger problem in relation to the current mood
in the US. After the electoral drubbing that featured the Iraq
issue, will Washington stay on course in Afghanistan and
Pakistan? This is probably a far more important and immediate
issue than the nuclear deal. Let us be very clear that a
precipitate American withdrawal will be disastrous not just for
the two countries, but for India as well. Both symbolically and
practically, the nuclear deal is important. It will end a
history of US embargo on our civil nuclear programme and permit
India to access financing, technology and nuclear materials from
across the world. Yet, even if it does not go through, the
heavens wont fall. India has an extensive programme built on
indigenous technology, and nuclear energy is not likely to form
too significant a proportion of our energy mix for at least
another 25 years.

But glance across our western border and you will see a
gathering storm that  can be stayed only with a continuing and
determined US presence. The fact that large areas are coming
under the sway of jehadis is not fanciful thinking. If the US is
their main target, India is a No 2 on their list. Instability
and insurgency in Pakistan is not a prospect we should view with
any degree of complacency, leave alone delight.

The Iraq war was a dangerous distraction in the middle of the
American project of transforming Afghanistan and Pakistan. Our
diplomacy in the US must not be so inward-looking that it fails
to notice the resurgence of the Taliban and the failure of the
Pakistani authorities to prevent Taliban spillover into its own
tribal areas. We must push the US to expand, rather than
contract, its engagement in the region and provide all possible
aid to prevent the fire from spreading. Watching the neighbours
house burn is never a good idea. Your house could be next.   
    
*****************************************************************
 33 The Hindu: India should set up a Nuclear Data Base Centre - Experts 

Monday, November 13, 2006 : 1610 Hrs

Manipal, Nov. 13 (PTI): India has the capability to be a world
class leader in the field of nuclear data in the next ten years
and should set up a National Data Base Centre, experts have
said. 

"India has the expertise and capabilities to become a world
leader in the field of nuclear data within a decade and lot of
young scientists should come forward to make it a reality,
experts have said. 

A nuclear data base can assist users in the determination of the
characteristics and performance of nuclear reactors, and permit
improved nuclear power plant operation through the reduction and
elimination of certain types of uncertainties. 

India should set up a National Nuclear Database Centre soon,
said ace experts who participated in the workshop on `Nuclear
data for advanced nuclear systems, nuclear data bases and
applications,' in Mangalore which concluded on Saturday. 

Dr Alan Nichols, Head, Nuclear Data Section, International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said India should take pride in the
manner its energy needs are being addressed with 16 pressured
heavy water reactors operating, constructing fast breeder
reactor and working on advanced heavy water reactor. "It is
important that India stands up and registers its nuclear data
needs for industrial development and sound commercial goals," he
said. 

"The workshop provided an excellent opportunity to define its
nuclear data needs, show the way forward to our understanding
and ability to predict the nuclear-based behaviour of these
relatively novel thorium-Uranium reactor systems," Nichols told
PTI. 

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu.
*****************************************************************
 34 The Hindu: Chennai News: Seminar on nuclear energy 

Tamil Nadu / 

 Monday, Nov 13, 2006
  
Staff Reporter 

  Event expected to attract about 350 science educators   

CHENNAI: The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Central
Board Secondary Education (CBSE) are jointly organising a 2-day
seminar on "Nuclear Energy - Powering the sustainable growth of
India". 

DAE's prestigious annual regional event is expected to attract
about 350 science educators practicing teaching in Physics,
Chemistry and Life Sciences across standards IX to XII in CBSE
schools in and around Chennai. A maximum of three teachers per
school are allowed to register on first-cum-first serve basis,
on November 17 and 18 at D.G. Vaishnav College, Arumbakkam. 

The seminar will comprise lectures by experts from Chennai and
Mumbai on power and non-power applications of nuclear energy and
related domains. A feedback session, a panel discussion and an
optional field visit to a hospital or an industry in Chennai
where radioisotope is being used are the other highlights.

Informal contests will also be conducted and toppers will win
surprise gifts. 

Further details are available with J. Daniel Chellappa, senior
scientist, Public Awarness Cell, IGCAR, Shastri Bhavan (Ph:
28253993). 

Original registration forms in the prescribed format are
available at the CBSE office in Anna Nagar, Chennai-40. The duly
filled-in form should be submitted by November 14. There is no
entry or registration fee. 

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication
*****************************************************************
 35 BBC: GE and Hitachi in nuclear tie-up
 
Last Updated: Monday, 13 November 2006
 
[Hitachi president Kazuo Furukawa (L) and Rudolph
Villa, president of GE Energy's Nuclear Energy-Asia ]  				The
deal between the two firms comes as others are signing tie-ups
			 			   		
General Electric (GE) and Japan's Hitachi are joining their 
nuclear operations in the US and Japan to boost business and gain 
more contracts. 

Hitachi, which has been hit by problems with its nuclear 
turbines, hopes the deal will improve its outlook. 

Nuclear power is seen as an attractive alternative to crude oil, 
which has been rising in price. 

The deal comes amid a recent trend of similar alliances, with 
French nuclear group Areva teaming up with Mitsubishi. 

Outlook 

Toshiba recently agreed the $4.2bn (£2.2bn) purchase of US firm 
Westinghouse, a power plant unit of British Nuclear Fuels. 

General Electric, the world's second largest firm, already works 
closely with Toshiba but said a similar joint venture was not on 
the cards. 

GE and Hitachi will each own the majority stake of their new 
joint venture in their home markets, with GE having a 60% share 
in the US operations and Hitachi holding 80% of the Japanese 
business. 

The international outlook for Hitachi has been uncertain after 
its faulty turbines forced the closure of nuclear power units. 

After including an expected 38bn yen (£169m) cost to fix the 
turbines, the firm has forecast a group net loss of 55bn yen for 
the year to March. 

The firm hopes increased orders to construct boiling water 
reactors will improve its outlook.                                                       



*****************************************************************
 36 Sofia Echo: BULGARIA’S NPP CLOSURE INCREASES ELECTRICITY PRICE IN SEE EUROPE
                     - 
Bulgaria Abroad news
 
www.sofiaecho.com

EUROPE09:03 Mon 13 Nov 2006 

Southeastern Europe would suffer electricity price increase and
supply limitations because of the closure of two blocks of
Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP), analysis of
energyobserver.com showed. 

Bulgaria has to shut down the reactors because of EU demands
related to nuclear safety. EU said that Bulgaria should close
the two units of its six-reactor NPP by the end of 2006. Two of
the NPP units had already been shut down in December 2002. 

The closure of two more units would affect negatively Bulgaria
and its neighboring countries, energyobserver.com said. 

Bulgaria exports electricity to Greece, Serbia, Macedonia and
Romania, satisfying a significant part of their energy needs. 

Analysis showed that Bulgaria would have the capacity to export
less energy in 2007 than it currently exported to Greece only,
the website said.  				 				 				 				 				 	 	 	 [Printer


  Web     www.sofiaecho.com   

*****************************************************************
 37 Sofia Echo: EC DETERMINED TO KEEP SAME CLOSURE DATE FOR BULGARIA'S NUCLEAR REACTORS - 

www.sofiaecho.com

15:24 Mon 13 Nov 2006 

European Commission (EC) would oppose attempts for postponing
the closure of Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP)
reactors, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs' spokesperson
said. 

EC demands that Bulgaria shuts down the two blocks of Kozloduy
NPP by the end of 2006, Darik Radio reported. Units one and two
of the six-reactor NPP had already been closed in December 2002. 

European Parliament (EP) rapporteur for Bulgaria Geoffrey Van
Orden will present his draft report to the EP's Committee of
Foreign Affairs recommending flexible view on the Kozloduy units
closure. 

The units would have to be shut down, Piebalgs' spokesperson
said, and the date was not negotiable. 

EC was monitoring the energy capacity on the Balkans and was
convinced that the region had enough energy production sources.
EC also granted means to Bulgaria and other countries to
construct new such sources. 

The commission had no reasons to believe that the region would
suffer electricity shortage after the units' closure, Piebalgs'
spokesperson said. 

EC has nothing against the construction of a new NPP in
Bulgaria, but the commission had not received such request yet.
Each European country, willing to construct NPP, had to ask EC
for permission.  				 				 				 				 				 	 	 	 [Printer


  Web     www.sofiaecho.com   
*****************************************************************
 38 Sofia Echo: Bulgarian nuclear shutdown worries balkans 

www.sofiaecho.com

09:00 Mon 13 Nov 2006


Altin Raxhimi in Tirana and BIRN teams in Sofia, Skopje,
Sarajevo, Belgrade and Podgorica (Balkan Insight, October 26
2006) 

Gjergj Bojaxhi, Albania’s deputy energy minister, suffers from
back pain that gets worse when he sits. He walks around the
office, hunching and wincing, absorbing the twinges as he
speaks. But one word makes him stand up straight – Kozloduy. 

The towering chimneys of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant lie 300km
from Albania, in northern Bulgaria. But the distance is
irrelevant in a Balkan energy market that was unified by a major
treaty one year ago. 

Across the region, energy officials like Bojaxhi are keenly
concerned by the imminent closure of two of the plant’s four
Soviet-built reactors by December 31, the last day before
Bulgaria joins the European Union. EU officials have made
closure a precondition for accession. 

“It makes me nervous,” said Bojaxhi. But the Albanian minister
is not alone. Concern about the impact of the closure on the
whole of South East Europe is widespread. Hungarian and
Slovenian members of the European parliament issued an
extraordinary eleventh-hour appeal to the European Commission,
requesting a “temporary reprieve” for Kozloduy. 

There is concern also in Montenegro. “We were hoping they would
delay the shutdown again and keep it open for another year,”
Srdjan Kovacevic, head of Montenegro’s electricity utility,
EPCG, told the newspaper Vijesti. 

But a reprieve is most unlikely. Bulgaria’s nuclear plant faces
the same fate as other outdated, Soviet-built facilities in
other new EU member states, most notably Lithuania. 

The Baltic state’s massive Ignalina nuclear power station was
taken off-line at great cost to the country before it could join
the EU in 2004. 

Slovakia, a net exporter of energy in Eastern Europe, faces the
same dilemma. It may turn into an importer if it closes Jasovske
Bohunice, another old Soviet-made plant.
The difference is that Kozloduy’s decommissioning threatens to
have an impact on a larger set of countries in a region where
energy resources are perilously low already.
Albania has a particular problem. Last winter it struggled with
daily power cuts lasting up to 10 hours. This winter, Bojaxhi
says the country must “pay any price” to maintain a better
supply. 

As other countries feel the same way, experts expect energy
prices to rise quickly once bidding for winter power supplies
begins in earnest. 

Croatia and Albania will announce their bids in October 27,
while Macedonia and Montenegro will buy electricity in November. 

As demand for electricity in the region rises by about five per
cent annually, most countries, with the exception of Bulgaria,
Romania and Bosnia, have turned into net importers already, or
are about to. Those three countries have together poured more
than 14 terawatt hours (TWh) in the regional market in the past
year. 

But they cannot fill the gap. “There is simply not enough
electricity in the regional market anymore,” said Atanasko
Tunevski, director of Macedonia’s transmission operator MEPSO. 

The closure of Kozloduy units 3 and 4 will drain about 40 per
cent of the pool of electricity that Albania, Macedonia,
Montenegro and Kosovo use to cover their energy deficits,
according to Platt’s, the industry newsletter. 

Other importers from Bulgaria, including Serbia and Croatia,
could also feel an impact. Serbia has assured its winter imports
from Bulgaria until February but Mijat Milosevic, a manager at
Elektro-Privreda Srbije, said the country could still suffer as
a result of unreliable Russian gas supplies if there is a cold
winter. 

Bulgaria itself might have to import power after the two
reactors shut down, as domestic consumption increases in line
with economic growth. The country exported half of its 7.6 TWh
production last year to Greece, while the rest was sold in the
region. 

Utility officials across South East Europe predict prices to
climb by at least 20 per cent from 0.05 euro per kilowatt hour
(KWh) to more than 0.06 euro. 

Officials in Kosovo and Macedonia say their prices may surpass
0.07 euro per KWh. MEPSO, which has been struggling financially,
said it could cost the country at least 50 million euro more
next year than this one. 

Some bids already exceed these price levels. Albania’s utility
KESh has announced it is ready to pay up to 0.078 per euro KWh
for supplies during the first quarter. 

This could means increases in household electricity bills. At
the moment Montenegrins and Macedonians pay just over three euro
cents per KWh while, Greece pays seven cents. This in turn is
the lowest electricity price in the European Union. The EU
average is more than 10 cents a KWh. 

“If MEPSO buys for more, we will automatically increase the
price,” said Lence Karpuzoska, a spokeswoman with EVN,
Macedonia’s distribution company. 

Wary of rising prices in the international market, energy
utilities are searching for extra supplies closer to home.
Tunevski, of Macedonia’s MEPSO, suggested Macedonia may attempt
emergency refurbishment of the aged Negotino thermal power
station if the market price approaches 0.07 euro per KWh. 

But old plants such as the one at Negotino are in poor shape and
are unreliable. The region is strewn with them, however.
Albania’s last power station was built in 1986, and Montenegro’s
in 1982. If utilities in the region lean too heavily on ageing
facilities, “we will face even worse problems in domestic
production later”, said Tunevski. 

In the meantime, utilities may have to take out high-interest
loans to pay for the imports at a time when governments are
desperate to cut expenses. Customers will bear the cost of such
loans, in the form of immediately raised electricity bills, or
down the line. 

Many already cannot afford much power. Evgenia, aged 72, in
Skopje, who lives on small pension in a country where pensions
average 120 euro a month, says higher bills will be a big blow.
“It is too expensive for me already,” she said. 

The most obvious way out is a substitute supplier, and Romania
aspires to fill this role. Romania boosted electricity exports
20 per cent in the first half of this year, to 2.9TWh, and with
a new nuclear reactor due to reach full capacity by next summer,
it could plug part of the supply hole left by Kozloduy. 

However, next summer is too late for this winter, when
electricity demand will peak, especially if it is dry and cold,
as it has been at least three times in the last 10 years. 

Altin Raxhimi is a BIRN contributor. Tamara Causidis in Skopje,
Albena Shkodrova in Sofia, Saida Mustajbegovic in Sarajevo,
Sijka Pistolova in Belgrade and Nedjelko Rudovic in Podgorica
also contributed to this report. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online
publication.
  				 				 				 				 				 	 	 	 [Printer friendly version]     
  Web     www.sofiaecho.com   
*****************************************************************
 39 Brattleboro Reformer: Haunted by a nuclear disaster

By BOB AUDETTE, Special to the Reformer

 Monday, November 13 PUTNEY -- Looking straight down on a globe
at the North Pole, it's not hard to see that Chernobyl is a lot
closer to Brattleboro than most people realize, a mere 4,200
miles, give or take. 

It may still seem far to most, but the radiation that spewed
from the ravaged reactor in April of 1986 reminded the world
that distances don't really matter much when it comes to
radioactive particles on the wind. 

Jon Block, an environmental lawyer from Putney and an honorary
member of the Concerned Scientists, spoke to a small crowd at
the Putney Town Library Sunday about his trip to the disaster
site last April. 

Block said he was invited to visit the site by Nuclear
Information and Resource Services, an organization that opposes
nuclear power in all its forms and supports research into
alternative energy sources. 

Block, who said "I would never be in favor of them (nuclear
power plants) because there is no place to put the waste,"
returned with haunting memories, photographs and words of
caution. 

Block described Pripyat, a city designed to service what was to 
be a complex of five nuclear reactors at Chernobyl, as a modern 
city left to suffer the ravages of time. When the accident 
happened, the 80,000 inhabitants of Pripyat, many of them 
scientists and engineers, were evacuated from the city, leaving 
empty the rows of apartment buildings, schools and public meeting 
places erected for their benefit. 

After 20 years, said Block, the whole city has become a
crumbling mess. 

Block said he and his fellow visitors were allowed to get within
about 1,000 feet of the reactor, where radiation monitors
registered almost one millirem an hour, or three times the
exposure level allowed by law for nuclear power workers. Block
said they were allowed only 20 minutes at the site because of
the radiation level. 

"If you stayed longer, it's not like you would drop dead, but
you would receive more radiation per minute than is considered
healthy," he said. 

One of the most troubling visits for him though, was a trip to
the Hall of Memories in Kiev, honoring those who gave their
lives stopping the fire, cleaning up the site and sealing up the
reactor. 

In the museum, said Block, are artifacts "of these people who
sacrificed their lives to save millions of people who would have
otherwise felt the effects. Visiting this museum in Kiev was one
of the most moving experiences of my life." 

He said many of the "liquidators," the firefighters who went in
and stopped the fire that was spreading particles around the
world, died shortly after they entered the site. Ironically, a
memorial to the liquidators is in an area that is off-limits to
the general public because of radioactivity. 

Block said since the steam explosion which vented radioactive
particles into the atmosphere 20 years ago, a number of studies
have been performed, with a number of different conclusions.
But, said Block, if you read all the reports, you will find a
middle ground that is disturbing to people like him. 

He said a number of those reports are available on CD at the
Putney Library. 

Block assured the crowd that nearby Vermont Yankee has a
different reactor than was operating at Chernobyl. "You can't
have the same accident," said Block. "But you can sure have an
accident that would be just as devastating." 

He added that "the presumption that you can make a fail-safe
reactor is more dangerous than the reactor itself. It encourages
a culture that is not at the highest level of safety
consciousness." 

If nuclear power were to replace much of the energy supplied by
fossil fuels, said Block, it would mean producing enough nuclear
waste to fill a Yucca Mountain every two years. 

He said those concerned about the effects of nuclear power on
the environment and on the human body can do a very simple thing
to reduce reliance on it. 

"The biggest source of change would be people conserving energy
and doing what is necessary to not use so much of our
resources," he said. "The most effective way to make a change is
to cut down on the amount of energy being used." 

Block said, though there is some dispute between studies whether
the radiation caused a spike in thyroid cancer and lymphoma
after the accident, there is no dispute that "there was a
pronounced increase in a variety of cancers following this event
and they are continuing in this population." 

New England Newspapers, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 40 Ynetnews: Egypt begins construction on nuclear power plant - 

Less than two months after first announcing intentions for
â€˜peaceful nuclear planâ€™, Egypt takes first steps in
constructing nuclear power plant 	 	 		

                        Roee Nahmias                    

Published:     11.13.06, 12:34   

Egyptâ€™s International Cooperation Minister Faiza Aboul Naga, 
said Monday that her country had begun taking steps in 
establishing the first nuclear power plant in Egypt. 

 â€œThe government completed setting its strategy for executing 
the project at the end of last month in accordance with 
international agreements to prevent the spread of nuclear 
weapons,â€ she declared. 

Nuclear Assistance                            
     		
Mubarak to ask China for help with nuclear program / Roee Nahmias                                 
     		
  Egyptian president to visit China, Russia and Kazakhstan,
expected to appeal to China for help on nuclear energy program.
Egyptian official: We could also benefit from Russia's nuclear
knowledge   		

The London based newspaper al-Hayat reported Monday morning that 
in her appearance before a committee of the Egyptian parliament 
Sunday, Aboul Naga said that Egypt needed eight power plants in 
order to take care of the lack in electricity and energy in the 
coming years, and that four plants would be built first. 

 The power plants would be established following an
international declaration. In this context, the minister added,
â€œEgypt signed agreements with a number of countries regarding
the peaceful use of nuclear energy, but it has been over 25
years since then, and the agreements need updating, although
they are still valid.â€ 

 Aboul Naga even tried to calm the committee members who were
preparing a comprehensive report on the future of nuclear energy
and said that Egypt had much experience in the field and that it
was capable of protecting its citizens from danger. 

 She also said that the future of nuclear energy is assured,
considering that oil and natural gas were expected to run out in
about 17 and 34 years respectively, which obligates a
reassessment in the use of alternative energy. 

The minister added that Egypt was close to signing an agreement
with Japan regarding collaboration in the nano-technology field.
In the meantime, the Egyptian nuclear plan got another push from
the home front. 

 According to London based news paper al-Sharq al-Awsat, over
400 academics called on the Egyptian government Sunday to
accelerate its steps in the matter.

[as18-c] Copyright © Yedioth Internet. All rights reserved.  
*****************************************************************
 41 Xinhua: Official: Egypt's peaceful nuclear program strategy almost completed   
    
  www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-13 04:34:24   

    CAIRO, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian minister of
International Cooperation Fayza Abu Naga said on Sunday that the
Egyptian government is about to finish a study on the resumption
of a program for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the
official news agency MENA reported. 

    In a statement before a meeting of the People's Assembly
Energy and Industry Committee, Abu Naga said that the Egyptian
government will submit the plan to the Supreme Council for
Energy by the end of the month. 

    Abu Naga said in her statement that the strategy stressed
Egypt's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy in
accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which
contains a provision granting such right to all parties of the
treaty. 

Egypt's resumption of its nuclear program is a basic right
granted by international treaties, she said, adding that Egypt's
adoption of such drive is based on a thorough and future study
of the non-renewable sources of energy, as petroleum and natural
gas. 

    Petroleum is expected to be exhausted not only in Egypt, but
also in all world countries in about 17 years and natural gas
in34 years which calls for alternative sources of energy, said
Abu Naga. 

    In the 1980s, Egypt signed with several countries agreements
covering the nuclear field, but the implementation of such
agreements was put off following the 1986 Chernobyl reactor
incident and for security reasons, she added. 

    However, the risk of depletion of petroleum reserves brought
such agreements in the limelight again, she continued. 

In the meantime, Abu Naga also said an Egyptian-Chinese
businessmen council is due to convene on Monday to discuss ways
to boost bilateral cooperation in the nuclear sphere. 

    The government's nuclear strategy will determine the cost of
using alternative sources and the partners Egypt would work
within this field, together with means of finance and technical
aid to be offered to help set up nuclear reactors, security
systems and training cadres, the official said. 

    According to the strategy, said Abu Naga, Egypt is in need
of four nuclear reactors at the first stage, with the number
expected to increase to eight later on. 

    It will take 12 to 18 months to announce a tender to finance
the establishment of such reactors, added the minister. 

Moreover, she disclosed that both Russia and China welcomed such
decision during President Hosni Mubarak's recent visit to the
two countries. 

    Egypt's decision to resume its nuclear program is both
strategic and inevitable, especially for the coming generations,
she added. 

    On Sept. 21, Mubarak announced that Egypt would continue its
scientific research to develop peaceful nuclear technology
regardless of its high cost. 

    Egypt started very limited nuclear technological research
in1957, but its nuclear program was frozen in 1986 in the
aftermath of the accident at former Soviet Union's Chernobyl
nuclear plant in the same year. 

    In 1968, Egypt signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
and officially supports the elimination of nuclear weapons in
the region.   

  Editor: Mu Xuequan   

*****************************************************************
 42 The Hindu: Pranab hopeful of nuclear deal 

 Monday, Nov 13, 2006

Pranab Mukherjee 

Kolkata: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on
Sunday that he was hopeful that the country's nuclear deal with
the United States would be pushed through despite the change in
composition of both the chambers of the U.S. Congress."There are
political changes in every country, but that does affect
international relations which do not depend on [the view-point
of] a single political party but on relations between [the]
countries [concerned]," Mr. Mukherjee said. Such changes do not
affect a country's relations with another, he added. 

"In the United States, there have been times when the
Republicans were in power, times when the Democrats were. In
India too, we have had the National Democratic Alliance in power
and also the Congress [at other times]. Internal political
changes do not affect relations between two countries. The
relationship between the U.S. and India has been a long one," he
said. Mr. Mukherjee also said that India had welcomed the recent
political developments in Nepal and had all along supported the
movement for democracy in that country. 

Calls on Jyoti Basu 

Mr. Mukherjee had called on veteran Marxist leader and former
West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, at his residence on
Saturday. 

Apart from various issues of national and international
importance, the two leaders reportedly discussed matters
expected to figure at the United Progressive Alliance-Left
Coordination Committee meeting to be held in New Delhi on
Monday. The future of the Pension Fund Regulatory and
Development Authority Bill, 2005 also figured in the talks.

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu.
*****************************************************************
 43 NRC: Exelon Generation Company, LLC; Notice of Denial of Amendment to 
 
                        FR Doc E6-19097 
[Federal Register: November 13, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 218)] 
[Notices] [Page 66201] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13no06-78]                         
 
Facility Operating License and Opportunity for Hearing The U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) has denied 
a request by Exelon Generation Company, LLC (the licensee) for an 
amendment to Facility Operating Licenses NPF-11 and NPF-12, 
issued to the licensee for operation of the Lasalle County 
Station, Unit Nos. 1 and 2, located in LaSalle County, Illinois.
 
Notice of Consideration of Issuance of this amendment was 
published in the Federal Register on March 28, 2006 (71 FR 
15483).
 
The purpose of the licensee's amendment request was to revise the 
technical specifications (TS) to change Surveillance Requirement 
(SR) 3.7.3.1 which verifies the cooling water temperature 
supplied to the plant from the core standby cooling system (CSCS) 
pond (i.e., ultimate heat sink (UHS)) is  100 [deg]F, the UHS 
must be declared inoperable in accordance with TS 3.7.3. The 
license amendment request proposed to increase the temperature 
limit of the cooling water supplied to the plant from the CSCS 
pond to HEARINGDOCKET@NRC.GOV; or (4) facsimile transmission 
addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemakings and 
Adjudications Staff at (301) 415-1101, verification number is 
(301) 415-1966. A copy of the request for hearing and petition 
for leave to intervene should also be sent to the Office of the 
General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 
DC 20555-0001, and it is requested that copies be transmitted 
either by means of facsimile transmission to (301) 415-3725 or by 
e-mail to  . A copy of the request for hearing and petition for 
leave to intervene should also be sent to Mr. Bradley J. Fewell, 
Assistant General Counsel, Exelon Generation Company, LLC, 200 
Exelon Way, Kennett Square, PA 19348, attorney for the licensee. 
For further details with respect to this action, see (1) the 
application for amendment dated March 13, 2006, as supplemented 
by letters dated July 13 and August 4, 2006, and (2) the 
Commission's letter to the licensee dated November 3, 2006.
 
Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's 
Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, 
Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), 
Rockville, Maryland, and will be accessible electronically 
through the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System's 
(ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room link at the NRC Web site .
 
Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems 
in accessing documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC 
PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, (301) 
415-4737, or by e-mail to .
 
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 3rd day of November 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Catherine Haney, Director, Division of Operating Reactor 
Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. E6-19097 Filed 11-9-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 44 NRC: In the Matter of H Inspection Company, Inc., Houston, TX; 
 
                        FR Doc E6-19098 
[Federal Register: November 13, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 218)] 
[Notices] [Page 66201-66203] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13no06-79]                         
 
Confirmatory Order (Effective Immediately) I H Inspection 
Company, Inc. (H), is the holder of Materials License No.
 
 
[[Page 66202]] 42-26838-01 issued by the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC or Commission) on July 30, 1986, last amended on 
June 3, 2003, and is due to expire on June 30, 2013. The license 
authorizes H to possess sealed radioactive sources for use in 
conducting industrial radiography activities in accordance with 
the conditions specified therein.
 
II An NRC inspection was conducted at a temporary job site in 
Rock Springs, Wyoming, and at the H field office located in 
Evanston, Wyoming, on December 15, 2004. Following that 
inspection, an investigation was initiated on January 31, 2005, 
by the NRC Office of Investigations (OI) in order to determine 
whether two radiographers employed by H willfully violated NRC 
regulations.
 
Based on the results of the NRC inspection and OI investigation, 
the NRC determined that three violations of NRC requirements 
occurred. The violations involved failures to: (A) Secure from 
unauthorized removal or access and control and maintain constant 
surveillance of licensed material in an unrestricted area (10 CFR 
20.1801 and 10 CFR 20.1802); (B) have a second qualified 
individual observe radiographic operations (10 CFR 34.41(a)), (C) 
and block and brace a radiographic exposure device during 
transport (10 CFR 71.5(a) and 49 CFR 177.842(d)). The NRC also 
determined that Violation C resulted from willful actions on the 
part of the two radiographers involved.
 
III In a letter dated May 1, 2006, the NRC issued a Notice of 
Violation and proposed Civil Penalty for the three violations 
identified as a result of the December 15, 2004, inspection and 
subsequent OI investigation. In the May 1, 2006, letter, the NRC 
offered H the opportunity to request Alternative Dispute 
Resolution (ADR) with the NRC in an attempt to resolve issues 
associated with these violations. In response to the May 1, 2006, 
letter, H requested ADR to resolve the matter with the NRC. ADR 
is a process in which a neutral mediator, with no decision-making 
authority, assists the NRC and H to resolve any differences 
regarding the matter.
 
An ADR session was held between H and the NRC in Arlington, 
Texas, on August 24, 2006. During that ADR session, an agreement 
was reached. The elements of the agreement consisted of the 
following: 1. The NRC and H agree that a Severity Level-III 
violation of 10 CFR 20.1801 and 10 CFR 20.1802 did occur on 
December 15, 2004, as noted in the Notice of Violation dated May 
1, 2006, in that the licensee stored its radiography camera in 
the mobile darkroom of its truck parked at the licensee's 
facility in Evanston, Wyoming, and the door to the darkroom was 
left unsecured and the licensee did not otherwise control and 
maintain constant surveillance of the licensed material.
 
2. The NRC and H agree that a Severity Level-III violation of 10 
CFR 34.41(a) did occur on December 15, 2004, as noted in the 
Notice of Violation dated May 1, 2006, in that, although the 
licensee had two qualified individuals present at a temporary 
jobsite in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where radiographic operations 
were being performed, the second qualified individual 
(radiographer's assistant) was physically located in the 
licensee's mobile darkroom during radiographic operations, and 
was therefore not able to observe the operations or provide 
immediate assistance to prevent unauthorized entry.
 
3. The NRC and H agree that a violation of 49 CFR 177.842(d) did 
occur on December 15, 2004, as noted in the Notice of Violation 
dated May 1, 2006, in that the licensee transported a 
radiographic exposure device containing licensed material to and 
from a temporary job site without the required blocking and 
bracing.
 
4. The NRC and H agree that the violation of 49 CFR 177.842(d), 
as noted in the Notice of Violation dated May 1, 2006, was a 
willful act on the part of the radiographers involved.
 
5. The NRC recognizes that H took the following immediate and 
effective corrective actions: (1) Replacing the area supervisor 
in the associated field office; (2) replacing other personnel in 
that field office, including those involved in the willful 
violation; (3) holding company-wide safety meetings about the 
deficiencies that NRC found; (4) completing implementation of a 
new locking system (using two physical systems: a lock box 
installed in each dark room and utilization of the lock on the 
dark room door); (5) conducting additional field audits; (6) 
conducting retraining for affected individuals; and (7) 
clarifying Operation and Emergency procedures regarding the 
requirements for the 2-person rule.
 
6. The NRC and H agree that the actions in this paragraph are 
sufficient to address the NRC's concerns. H agrees to issuance of 
this letter and Confirmatory Order confirming this agreement, and 
also agrees to waive any request for a hearing regarding this 
Confirmatory Order. The NRC and H further agree that this 
Confirmatory Order should include the following elements: A. H 
will continue to implement the following corrective actions: (1) 
A new locking system (using two physical systems: a lock box 
installed in each dark room and utilization of the lock on the 
dark room door); (2) conducting additional field audits; and (3) 
annual training on Operation and Emergency procedures regarding 
the requirements for the 2-person rule.
 
B. Not later than 1-year from the date of this Confirmatory 
Order, H will write and submit an article (for publication by 
both the American Society of Non-Destructive Testing (ASNT) and 
the Non- Destructive Testing Managers Association (NDTMA)) that 
is mutually agreeable. The article will address the new H 
management oversight program (detailed below) and the value it 
adds to overall safe and effective operations. Not later than 11 
months from the date of this Confirmatory Order, a draft of the 
proposed article will be submitted to the NRC Region IV office 
for review, comment, and concurrence.
 
C. H agrees to implement a management review and oversight 
program with the following elements: a. Training of the three 
area supervisors and three office managers to the Radiation 
Safety Officer level.
 
b. Requiring each of the six individuals in 6.C.a to conduct 
unannounced audits of one of the other field offices on a 
rotating basis (quarterly for the first 2 years, and annually 
thereafter).
 
c. Requiring one of the three senior corporate managers 
(Radiation Safety Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and 
President) to conduct unannounced performance observations at 
each of the field offices on a rotating basis twice a year. 
Meaning each field office will receive a visit from a senior 
corporate manager twice each year.
 
D. H understands that the NRC, as part of its normal process, 
will issue a press release with this Confirmatory Order. The NRC 
will provide H a copy of the press release prior to its release.
 
E. In recognition of H's extensive corrective actions, the NRC 
agrees to reduce the Civil Penalty originally proposed to $500.
 
On October 10, 2006, H consented to issuing this Confirmatory 
Order with the commitments, as described in Section IV below. H 
further agreed in the October 10, 2006, letter that this
 
[[Page 66203]] Confirmatory Order is to be effective upon 
issuance and that they have waived their right to a hearing. 
Implementation of these commitments will resolve the NRC's 
concerns and will satisfy the response requirements listed in the 
May 1, 2006, Notice of Violation such that no additional written 
response to that letter is necessary.
 
I find that H's commitments as set forth in Section IV are 
acceptable and necessary and conclude that with these commitments 
the public health and safety are reasonably assured. In view of 
the foregoing, I have determined that the public health and 
safety require that H's commitments be confirmed by this Order. 
Based on the above and H's consent, this Confirmatory Order is 
immediately effective upon issuance.
 
IV Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 161b, 161i, 161o, 182 and 
186 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, the 
Commission's regulations in 10 CFR 2.202, 2.205, 10 CFR Parts 20, 
34, and in Part 71 that references 49 CFR 177, it is hereby 
ordered, effective immediately, that: 1. The NRC reduces the 
civil penalty proposed by letter dated May 1, 2006 in the amount 
of $6,500 to $500.
 
2. H will continue to implement the following corrective actions: 
(1) A new locking system (using two physical systems: a lock box 
installed in each dark room and utilization of the lock on the 
dark room door); (2) conducting additional field audits; (3) 
annual training on Operation and Emergency procedures regarding 
the requirements for the 2-person rule.
 
3. Not later than 1 year from the date of this Confirmatory 
Order, H will write and submit an article (for publication by 
both the American Society of Non-Destructive Testing (ASNT) and 
the Non- Destructive Testing Managers Association (NDTMA)) that 
is mutually agreeable. The article will address the new H 
management oversight program (detailed below) and the value it 
adds to overall safe and effective operations. Not later than 11 
months from the date of this Confirmatory Order, a draft of the 
proposed article will be submitted to the NRC Region IV office 
for review, comment, and concurrence.
 
4. H agrees to implement a management review and oversight 
program with the following elements: (a) Training of the three 
area supervisors and three office managers to the Radiation 
Safety Officer level.
 
(b) Requiring each of the six individuals in 4(a) above to 
conduct unannounced audits of one of the other field offices on a 
rotating basis (quarterly for the first 2 years, and annually 
thereafter).
 
(c) Requiring one of the three senior corporate managers 
(Radiation Safety Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and 
President) to conduct unannounced performance observations at 
each of the field offices on a rotating basis twice a year, 
meaning each field office will receive a visit from a senior 
corporate manager twice each year.
 
The Regional Administrator, NRC Region IV, may relax or rescind, 
in writing, any of the above conditions upon a showing by H of 
good cause.
 
V Any person adversely affected by this Confirmatory Order, other 
than H, may request a hearing within 20 days of its issuance.
 
Where good cause is shown, consideration will be given to 
extending the time to request a hearing. A request for extension 
of time must be made in writing to the Director, Office of 
Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555, and include a statement of good cause for the extension. 
Any request for a hearing shall be submitted to the Secretary, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ATTN: Rulemakings and 
Adjudications Staff, Washington, DC 20555. Copies also shall be 
sent to the Director, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, to the Assistant 
General Counsel for Materials Litigation and Enforcement at the 
same address, to the Regional Administrator, NRC Region IV, 611 
Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington, Texas 76011, and to H 
Inspection. Because of the possible disruptions in delivery of 
mail to United States Government offices, it is requested that 
answers and requests for hearing be transmitted to the Secretary 
of the Commission either by means of facsimile transmission to 
301-415-1101 or by e-mail to hearingdocket@nrc.gov and also to 
the Office of the General Counsel either by means of facsimile 
transmission to 301-415-3725 or by e-mail to 
OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov. If such a person requests a hearing, that 
person shall set forth with particularity the manner in which his 
interest is adversely affected by this Order and shall address 
the criteria set forth in 10 CFR 2.309 (d) and (f).
 
If a hearing is requested by a person whose interest is adversely 
affected, the Commission will issue an Order designating the time 
and place of any hearing. If a hearing is held, the issue to be 
considered at such hearing shall be whether this Confirmatory 
Order should be sustained.
 
In the absence of any request for hearing, or written approval of 
an extension of time in which to request a hearing, the 
provisions specified in Section IV above shall be final 20 days 
from the date of this Order without further order or proceedings. 
If an extension of time for requesting a hearing has been 
approved, the provisions specified in Section IV shall be final 
when the extension expires if a hearing request has not been 
received.
 
An answer or a request for hearing shall not stay the immediate 
effectiveness of this Order.
 
Dated this 24th day of October, 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Bruce S. Mallett, Regional Administrator.
 
[FR Doc. E6-19098 Filed 11-9-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 45 SWNEBR.NET: "Unusual Event" Declared At Cooper Nuclear Station 

Republican Valley Media Group, McCook, NE

Article Posted: 11/13/2006 11:42:57 AM

Cooper Nuclear Station, an electric power plant in southeast
Nebraska, declared a Notification of Unusual Event at 5:30 a.m.
Saturday, Nov. 11. The plant is shut down for its planned
refueling and maintenance outage. The event was terminated at
5:58 a.m.

A "Notification of Unusual Event" was declared because of a
small fire in an electric terminal box located on the fourth
floor of the plant’s reactor building. The fire was extinguished
within 11 minutes by plant fire brigade personnel who
de-energized the terminal box and applied dry chemicals to the
fire. A Notification of Unusual Event is declared anytime a fire
lasts longer than 10 minutes.

A "Notification of Unusual Event” is defined as unusual events,
minor in nature, which have occurred or are in progress, which
indicate a potential degradation in the level of safety of the
station. It is the lowest and least serious of four emergency
classifications established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
for nuclear power plants. If placed on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1
being the least serious level of an emergency and 4 being the
most serious level of an emergency, a "Notification of Unusual
Event" would equal a 1.

Plant employees have determined that the damage is contained to
the electric terminal box. There were no injuries, and no impact
on plant operations. Plant personnel followed standard emergency
procedures in declaring the notification, and notifying
appropriate Local, County, State, and Federal agencies of the
incident.

Cooper Nuclear Station is located three miles southeast of
Brownville, Nebraska, near the Missouri River. It is owned and
operated by the Nebraska Public Power District, with
headquarters in Columbus, Nebraska.


Copyright ©2006 SWNEBR.NET (Southwest Nebraska News) All Rights
Reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 46 Montgomery advertiser: Southeast has nuclear future 

www.montgomeryadvertiser.com

  November 13, 2006   
    
By Dennis Sherrer Associated Press

FLORENCE -- In the 1970s, utilities throughout the country
rushed to build nuclear-powered generating plants, creating tens
of thousands of jobs for construction workers, engineers and
skilled laborers.

After a nuclear accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island
generating plant in 1979, most utilities scaled back plans for
new reactors. Instead of nuclear energy, utilities returned to
using coal and natural gas to power new generating plants.

In 1996, when the Tennessee Valley Authority began producing
electricity at its Watts Bar nuclear plant near Knoxville,
Tenn., it marked the end of the nuke plant building boom. No new
nuclear plants have been completed in the United States since.

A decade later, a new rush to build nuclear-powered generating
plants looms on the horizon.

Dale Klein, director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
predicts the agency will experience a groundswell of
applications for licenses to construct new nuclear plants as the
nation's utilities scramble to produce enough electricity to
meet the needs of the its ever-growing population.

"We do have 14 different entities that have expressed an
interest in almost 30 new reactors, so it should be an
interesting and exciting time over the next five years," Klein
said.

About 90,000 people will be needed between 2007 and 2011 to
build and operate those plants, Klein said.

Many of the new nuclear plants will be built in the Southeast.
Klein said Southern Co. wants to expand its Vogtle nuclear plant
near Waynesboro, Ga. Entergy plans to expand its Grand Gulf
Station nuclear plant near Vicksburg, Miss.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is considering expanding its
nuclear fleet, which includes Browns Ferry in Alabama and Watts
Bar and Sequoyah in Tennessee.

Jack Bailey, TVA's vice president of nuclear generation
development, said the federal utility is considering completing
the Unit 2 reactor at Watts Bar. Construction of the reactor was
stopped in 1985 when TVA temporarily shut down its nuclear
program over safety concerns.

A decision on the fate of Watts Bar Unit 2 is expected within
the coming year.

TVA is also mulling a proposal to become part of a joint venture
known as the NuStart Energy Development Con sortium, and build a
new generation of nuclear plants near Scottsboro. The
two-reactor plant would be built at the site of TVA's
uncompleted Bellefonte nuclear plant where construction was
halted in 1988 over cost concerns.

Bailey said a decision on the Bellefonte project could be made
by 2009.

Construction could be completed by 2016.

Adding three nuclear reactors to its generation portfolio is
only one of several possibilities TVA is considering for
boosting its power output to keep pace with economic growth in
the Tennessee Valley, Bailey said.

If TVA opts to complete Watts Bar Unit 2 and build a new nuclear
plant at the Bellefonte site, it could create thousands of jobs
for Shoals residents, said David Freeze, president of the Shoals
Area Labor Council.

He said many Shoals residents worked at Watts Bar and Bellefonte
during the initial construction projects.

"I rode from Rogersville every day to work at Bellefonte myself.
A lot of people from the Shoals worked on that project," Freeze
said.

Resurgence in nuclear plant construction anywhere in the country
would create jobs for skilled crafts workers from the Shoals, he
said. "We go to where the jobs are. It doesn't matter where they
are."

Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist for the Union of Concerned
Scientists, scoffs at the predictions of a nuclear power plant
construction boom that will create thousands of new jobs.

"The economics just aren't there to build new reactors without
huge subsidies from the federal government," he said.

The Washington-based organization advocates using rigorous
scientific analysis, innovative thinking and community advocacy
to build a cleaner, healthier environment.

Instead of a building boom, Lyman suspects the government might
subsidize the construction of as many of six new nuclear plants
in hopes of jump-starting the nuclear power industry.

"We might see a handful of new plants constructed over the next
couple of decades."

Instead of touting new nuclear plants, Lyman said federal
officials should focus their attention on finding a long-term
solution for storing radioactive waste from existing reactors.

Many nuclear plants across the country, including Browns Ferry,
have run out of storage space for radioactive wastes inside the
plant and have begun storing them outside in concrete and steel
containers.

Plans to create a national nuclear waste repository at Nevada's
Yucca Mountain continue to spark controversy. Klein expects the
Department of Energy will submit an application to build the
repository in 2008.

Even if the Nevada facility is allowed to open, it is not
expected to solve the nation's nuclear waste disposal woes.

During a visit to Browns Ferry in 2005, then-NRC Director Nils
J. Diaz said there is already more radioactive waste being
stored at nuclear plants around the country than the repository
could handle.

Klein does not see the lack of storage capacity at Yucca
Mountain as a roadblock to building new reactors.

He said new technologies being used in other countries would
allow the United States to build new nuclear plants even if the
Yucca Mountain repository doesn't open.

Klein said some countries, including France and Japan, recycle
used nuclear fuel from power plants.

He said the same technology could be used in the United States.

Lyman is concerned any plants built in the United States that
recycle spent nuclear fuel rods will be little more than places
to store radioactive wastes away from the reactor where they
were created.

He said Department of Energy requirements for such plants
require them to have the ability to store radioactive wastes for
50 to 100 years.

Lyman said it's irresponsible for the NRC to consider allowing
new reactors to be built before a way to dispose of radioactive
waste is developed. 
*****************************************************************
 47 AFP: General Electric, Hitachi to tie up in nuclear energy 

 by Hiroshi Hiyama Mon Nov 13, 9:24 AM ET 		 	 

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Hitachi Ltd. and General Electric of the
US announced a tie-up in nuclear power as part of a broader
industry realignment fueled by renewed interest in atomic
energy. 

Hitachi and General Electric will hive off their nuclear power
operations into two joint ventures that will build, maintain and
develop nuclear plants and boiling water reactors, with a final
deal expected in early 2007. 

Hitachi will own 40 percent of the US venture and at least 80
percent of the Japanese venture, with the rest going to its
American partner. 

The move is part of a growing trend among Japanese companies to
buy or ally themselves with foreign multinational energy giants
as they seek out promising new growth opportunities in markets
such as China, India and Russia. 

"By utilizing and sharing our knowledge and experience, we
should see synergies to expand our nuclear energy operations in
the global market place," Hitachi president Kazuo Furukawa told
a joint press conference. 

"Hitachi's commitment to compete in the global nuclear energy
business is reflected in the 40 percent stake in the American
venture," he said. 

The Japanese venture will focus on operations in Japan, while
the US venture will cover the rest of the world. 

The United States turned away from nuclear power after a 1979
meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania. No new
reactor has been put into service in the United States since
1996. 

Now, however, President George W. Bush" /> 's administration
wants to relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors in the
United States due to the elevated cost of crude oil, whose price
has been pushed up in recent years by geopolitical tension and
supply concerns. 

"We expect the nuclear industry to enter into a new renaissance
in the very near future," said Rudolph Villa, the president of
Nuclear Energy-Asia, an arm of GE Energy. 

Villa described the international nuclear energy business as
"exciting" as there were "many plans to build many plants"
around the world, particularly in Asia, Europe and the United
States. 

Hitachi and GE began discussions on a fusion last year, after
the US government's policy on purchasing new reactors became
clear, officials said. 

The Hitachi-GE ventures will try to get contracts for one third
of the 25 new reactors that the United States plans to build,
Furukawa said. 

The tie-up is part of a broader industry realignment, including
Toshiba Corp.'s 5.4-billion-dollar purchase of Westinghouse
Electric Co. of the US, a long-term Mitsubishi Heavy partner. 

Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and French group Areva,
meanwhile, agreed last month to team up with an aim to develop a
new midsized nuclear reactor within three years and
commercialize it within a decade. 

General Electric also has an existing nuclear energy contract
with Toshiba. 

GE chairman Jeffrey R. Immelt recently met Mitsubishi Heavy
chairman Takashi Nishioka amid local media reports of a planned
partnership between the two firms in nuclear power plant
operations. 

*****************************************************************
 48 UPI: Analysis: Egypt looks East for nuke power
     
United Press International - Energy - 

11/13/2006 8:30:00 AM -0500

 By DEREK SANDS UPI Energy Correspondent

CAIRO, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Russia and China have both said they
want to help Egypt expand its nascent nuclear energy supplies,
opening the way for stronger ties, but also leading to concerns
over nuclear proliferation in the region. 

Facing a fossil fuel shortage in the coming decades, Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak announced in September that Egypt would
turn to alternative energies, including nuclear power. The very
public push to embrace nuclear energy has been well received in
China and Russia, as well as in the United States. 

After a meeting between Mubarak and Chinese President Hu Jintao
in Beijing last Tuesday, Chinese state media reported that China
had agreed to provide Egypt with cooperation on its nuclear
energy aspirations. The details of the cooperation remain
unclear. Prior to Mubarak's trip to Beijing, he stopped in
Moscow to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Following
their meeting, a Russian official was quoted as saying Russia
would offer Egypt help in its nuclear projects. 

The United States also seems poised to become involved.
Immediately following the September announcement, the U.S.
ambassador to Egypt said on Egyptian television that the United
States was willing to provide technical assistance. And U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used a trip to Cairo in
October to express U.S. support of a nuclear energy program. 

Russia and the United States have a long history of helping
Egypt with its nuclear energy program. The United States
provided a research lab in the 1950s, through the Atoms for
Peace program, and Russia provided a 2-megawatt reactor. The
reactor is still running in Inshas, north of Cairo, as is
another 22-megawatt reactor Egypt bought from Argentina in 1997. 

Whatever past relationship the countries have had with Egypt,
both China and Russia are pursuing their own broader interests
through their nuclear relations, according to Ambassador
Mitchell Reiss, vice-provost for International Affairs at the
College of William and Mary's School of Law in Williamsburg, Va. 

"Assuming Russia and China are interested, of course there would
be political motivations," he said. "Russia is looking to get
back into the Middle East game and Egypt is the most influential
Arab state. 

"China has recently launched a very ambitious initiative to
expand its influence in Africa, and adding Egypt would be part
of its larger approach to gain regional influence." 

John Tkacik, an expert on Asian affairs at the conservative
Heritage Foundation in Washington, sees the situation in a
similar light. 

"China and Russia certainly see an opportunity to entice Egypt
from the U.S. camp despite the massive amount of U.S. economic
and military aid that Egypt gets," Tkacik said. 

The United States, on the other hand, may be more concerned with
the spread of nuclear weapons technology than the spread of its
own influence. 

"Our No. 1 concern would be that no sensitive nuclear technology
be transferred, e.g., plutonium separation or uranium enrichment
technology, and that any technology that was transferred be
subject to IAEA safeguards. Another concern would be that U.S.
companies have a fair chance to bid for these contracts," Reiss
said. 

Despite declarations by Egypt that it is only interested in
peaceful nuclear energy, one of the fears of the international
community is that Egypt will attempt to secretly develop nuclear
weapons, in part to balance Israel's assumed nuclear arsenal. 

"The problem is that either fissile materials purloined during
the fuel enrichment process at the front end and/or during the
reprocessing of spent fuel at the back end of the fuel cycle
might be clandestinely diverted into developing nuclear
weapons," according to Bruce Unger, a professor of international
relations at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va. "Since the
development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is permitted
under the nonproliferation treaty, provided that there are
adequate safeguards to prevent such diversions, what needs to be
done then is to establish those safeguards." 

He said: "One way to do this is to create and operate regional
nuclear fuel centers under International Atomic Energy Agency
supervision or control. It is my understanding that the IAEA is
considering just such an approach." 

In 1981, Egypt fully adopted the NPT, which bars it from
developing nuclear weapons. 

Tkacik said that along with having reason to pursue nuclear
energy, there could also be motivation for Egypt to pursue
nuclear weapons. 

"Egypt came up a bit short in the oil department, so nuclear
power could be seen as a reasonable alternative. But Mubarak and
the Egyptian military leadership must surely be attracted to
nuclear weapons, if only to balance the Persian weapons with
Arab ones," Tkacik said. 

Although there are serious concerns about nuclear weapons
proliferation in the Middle East, especially from Iran, Egypt
has long supported a nuclear weapons-free zone in the region,
largely to pressure Israel. This year Egypt forced a paragraph
referring to a weapons of mass destruction-free Middle East into
the IAEA's referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council. 

While concerns and motivations are being debated, the discussion
of Egypt's nuclear future may be academic unless China, Russia
or the United States turns up with more than a billion dollars
to finance a new reactor. 

"Unless it is heavily subsidized by the supplier state, Egypt
does not have the hard currency reserves to fund a civil nuclear
program," Reiss said. 

Egypt has tried to buy reactors as far back as the 1960s, often
failing because Cairo was unable to finance the projects. This
lack of financing was partly to blame for Egypt abandoning the
purchase of two nuclear reactors in the wake of the 1986
Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union. 

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 49 RIA Novosti: Russian court fines S.Korean over radioactive imports from Libya
 
13/ 11/ 2006                                  

VLADIVOSTOK, November 13 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Russia's Far
East ruled Monday to fine a South Korean national 500,000 rubles
(about $19,000) for illegally shipping radioactive equipment
from Libya in 2004. 

Kim Jong Hon, the president of All Nations Co. Ltd, was arrested
in December 2004 after using forged documents to bring 13
devices containing depleted uranium to the Korsakov port in the
south of Russia's Sakhalin Island. 

The devices, intended for the construction of a liquefied
natural gas plant near the port, were not marked with
radioactivity warnings. 

Jong Hon admitted his guilt, and said he had no intention of
appealing the verdict. 


                © 2005 RIA Novosti   

*****************************************************************
 50 [DU List] shafting the vets
 
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:25:21 -0800

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X-Sender-Host-Address: 63.203.231.61
X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST

<x-flowed>



Shafting the Vets

Conn Hallinan | November 10, 2006
Editor: John Feffer, IRC http://fpif. org/fpiftxt/ 3695
Foreign Policy In Focus
<http://www.fpif.org/>www.fpif.org
“War is hell,” Union General William Tecumseh Sherman famously said 14 
years after the end of the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history. “It is only 
those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the 
wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation.”
Clearly the U.S. Civil War is not on the reading list of psychiatrist Sally 
Satel, a scholar at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute (AEI). 
Indeed, Satel sees war less as hell than as a golden opportunity for 
veteran lay-abouts to milk the government by “ 
<http://www.slate.com/id/2148541>overpathologizing the psychic pain of war.”
Satel, whom the AEI trots out anytime the Bush administration needs cover 
for cutting veteran services and benefits, says the problem for former 
soldiers is not Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “The real trouble 
for vets,” she writes, is that “once a patient receives a monthly check 
based on his psychiatric diagnosis, his motivation to hold a job wanes.” 
Her solution? “Don't offer disability benefits too quickly.”
The commentary makes an interesting contrast to a powerful piece in the 
October 2006 issue of the California Nurses Association's magazine 
Registered Nurse titled “The Battle at Home” by Caitlin Fischer and Diana 
Reiss. They found that “in veterans' hospitals across the country—and in a 
growing number of ill-prepared, under-funded psych and primary care clinics 
as well—Registered Nurses … are treating soldiers … and picking up the 
pieces of a tattered army.”
According to the authors, RNs across the country “have witnessed the guilt, 
rage, emotional numbness, and tormented flashbacks of GIs just back from 
Iraq and Afghanistan,” as well as older vets from previous wars, “whose 
half-century-old trauma have been ‘triggered' by the images of Iraq.”
How many soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will eventually fall 
victim to PTSD is not clear, although a U.S. Defense Department study in 
2006 found that one in six returnees suffer from depression or stress 
disorders, and 35% have sought counseling for emotional difficulties. 
<http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/review/2006_12/76_83mr32.pdf>The 
Veterans Administration (VA) treated 20,638 Iraq vets for PTSD in just the 
first quarter of 2006 and is currently processing a backlog of 400,000 cases.
Out of 700,000 soldiers who served in the 1991 Gulf War, 118,000 are 
suffering from chronic fatigue, headaches, muscle spasms, joint pains, 
anxiety, memory loss, and balance problems, and 40% receive disability pay. 
Gulf vets are also twice as likely to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 
(Lou Gehrig's Disease) and between two and three times more likely to have 
children with birth defects.


The Ills of War

Modern battlefields are toxic nightmares, filled with depleted uranium 
ammunition, exotic explosives, and deadly cluster bomblets. The soldiers 
are shot up with experimental vaccines that can have dangerous side effects 
from additives like squalene. In short, soldiers are not only under fire, 
they are assaulted by their own weapons systems and medical procedures.
Satel need have no worries about the VA rushing to hand out cash to veteran 
couch potatoes. According to Fischer and Reiss, “A returning vet must wait 
an average of 165 days for a VA decision on initial disability benefits. An 
appeal can take up to three years.”
Reserve and National Guard troops—who make up between 40 and 50% of the 
frontline troops in Iraq and Afghanistan—have a particular problem, because 
their military medical insurance benefits only cover conditions diagnosed 
in the first 100 days. PTSD sometimes takes years, even decades to kick in.
When they do complain, vets can expect that their ailments will be 
dismissed or their cause stonewalled.
When Gulf War vets complained about the symptoms which have come to be 
called “Gulf War Syndrome,” the Pentagon told them it was in their heads, 
in spite of studies by the British Medical Journal and the U.S. Center for 
Disease Control that showed the returnees were suffering illnesses at 12 
times the rate of non-Gulf vets.
For five years after the Gulf War the Pentagon denied that any troops had 
been exposed to chemical weapons. It took pressure from veterans' 
organizations and Sen. Donald Riegle (D-MI) to get the Pentagon to admit 
finally that as many as 130,000 troops (the vets say the number is higher) 
were exposed to chemical weapons from the destruction of the Iraqi arms 
depot at Khamisiyah.
Veteran organizations are currently fighting the Pentagon over its refusal 
to screen returning soldiers for mild brain injuries. Figures indicate that 
up to 10% of the troops suffer from concussions during their tours, a 
figure that rises to 20% for those in the front lines. Research shows that 
concussions can cause memory loss, headaches, sleep disturbances, and 
behavior problems. The Pentagon, arguing that the long-term effect of brain 
injuries needs more research, is unwilling to fund a screening program.
Given the wide use of roadside bombs, “Traumatic brain injury is the 
signature injury of the war on terrorism,” George Zitnay, co-founder of the 
Brain Injury Center, 
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-08-08-brain-center_x.htm>toldUSA 
Today. And according to researchers at Harvard and Colombia, the cost of 
treating those brain injuries will be $14 billion over the next 20 years.


In Iraq

Upwards of 20,000 Americans have been wounded in Iraq, some of those so 
grotesquely that medicine has invented a new term to describe 
them—polytrauma. An 
<http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/review/2006_12/76_83mr32.pdf>estimated 
7,000 vets have severe brain and spinal injuries, and have required 
amputations. For the blind, brain damaged, and paralyzed, war is indeed hell.
Calculating the cost of war is tricky, but Nobel Prize winning economist 
Joseph Stiglitz recently calculated that the price tag for the long-term 
health care for Iraq War vets will exceed $2 trillion.
But the hell we bring home is only a pale reflection of the hell we leave 
behind.
According to a 
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/10/16/EDG6PKDSLU1.DTL>recent 
estimate by the British medical journal, The Lancet, upwards of 650,000 
Iraqis have been killed since the invasion. Most of the country's 
infrastructure—already damaged in the first Gulf War or degraded by a 
decade of sanctions—has essentially collapsed.
Iraq's experience is not unique.
The Vietnam War ended more than 30 years ago, but according to the recent 
book, Vietnam: A Natural History, Laotians, Vietnamese, and Cambodians are 
still dying from it.
 From 1964 to 1973, the United States dropped over 14 million tons of bombs 
on those three countries, including 90 million cluster munitions on tiny 
Laos alone. Somewhere between 30 to 40% of those fiendish devices never 
exploded, and, according to the British Mines Advisory Group, they have 
killed or maimed 12,000 Laotians since the end of the war. They continue to 
extract a yearly toll of 100 to 200 people, many of them children.
Traces of the 20 million gallons of Agent White, Agent Blue, and Agent 
Orange herbicides that the United States sprayed over Vietnam still poison 
the water, soil, vegetation, animals, and people of Southeast Asia, 
producing cancer and birth defect rates among the highest in the world.
So war is indeed hell—for those who fight it, those caught in the middle of 
it, and those who eventually pick up the pieces.
Conn Hallinan is a Foreign Policy In Focus 
(<http://www.fpif.org/>www.fpif.org) columnist.


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 51 [NukeNet] Scotland: Solway beach polluted by radioactivity
 
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:25:25 -0800

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<http://www.sundayherald.com/59002>http://www.sundayherald.com/59002
Sunday Herald - 12 November 2006
Solway beach polluted by radioactivity
By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor


----------
A beacH in the south of Scotland has been contaminated with radioactive 
particles from an old nuclear power station, raising fears the country’s 
nuclear legacy is not being properly cleaned up.

The pollution of part of the Solway Firth near Annan, caused by a waste 
pipeline from the nearby Chapelcross nuclear power station, brings to four 
the number of Scottish beaches open to the public now known to have been 
tainted with radioactivity.

The Dounreay nuclear plant is facing prosecution for contaminating Sandside 
Bay and other parts of the Caithness coast, while Dalgety Bay in Fife has 
been repeatedly contaminated with radium dumped by an old military base. 
Last year, radioactively -tainted material, from an oil company, was 
removed from a beach in Aberdeen.

The contamination of the Solway Firth is revealed in the latest official 
report on radioactivity in food and the environment from the Scottish 
Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) and other regulators.

The report says that 95 radioactive particles had been discovered on the 
foreshore in 2005, against a total of 31 particles found over the previous 
five years. The large increase is due to heavy rain and flooding last year 
flushing radioactivity from the Chapelcross waste pipeline, the report said.

The inside of the pipeline, which is 50 years old, is coated with 
radioactive limescale deposited by years of liquid discharges from the 
now-defunct nuclear plant. Pieces break off and are dumped on the beach 
around the end of the outfall by rushing water.

For several years, there have been plans to build a new filter to prevent 
the pollution, but this has been subject to “delays”, according to Sepa’s 
report. The contamination was first discovered in 1992, though it has not 
been publicised.

Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “ 
As old nuclear power facilities are closed down there seems to be a lack of 
interest from anyone in making sure known pollution problems are dealt with.”

Sepa said it was applying “regulatory pressure” to stop the pollution.


----------

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 52 Radio New Zealand: Top French nuclear safety official due back in Tahiti
 
Posted at 5:27pm on 13 Nov 2006 

A senior French official in charge of nuclear safety, Marcel
Jurien de la Graviere, is due back in French Polynesia this
week. 

The French high commissioner in Papeete, Anne Boquet, says he
will be back in Tahiti at her invitation - a month after his
previous visit was overshadowed by acrimony which led to planned
meetings with French Polynesian officials being called off. 

The row centres on whether the more than 40 French atmospheric
nuclear weapons tests produced fallout that damaged people's
health. 

In June, Mr de la Graviere said France did not tell a lie when
it said that the tests were safe. 

Mrs Boquet says she hopes Mr de la Graviere can meet relevant
government ministers to discuss the tests' impact on the
environment. 

Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand International 

*****************************************************************
 53 Guardian Unlimited: France Nuke Waste Shipment Reaches Germany

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Monday November 13, 2006 12:31 PM

GORLEBEN, Germany (AP) - A shipment of reprocessed nuclear waste
arrived at a German storage site early Monday after a more than
two-day journey from western France disrupted by protesters. 

Under heavy police protection, the 12 containers of waste
arrived aboard trucks at the Gorleben site, southeast of
Hamburg. 

Police earlier ended a sit-down protest by some 400 people on
the road from a rail terminal at Dannenberg, where a train
carrying the waste from a reprocessing plant at La Hague,
France, arrived on Sunday. 

They also removed three small groups of protesters who had
chained themselves to concrete blocks on the road. 

The transports are carried out under an agreement that sees
spent fuel from Germany's nuclear power plants sent to France
and Britain for reprocessing and then returned for storage. 

Gorleben has been a traditional focus of anti-nuclear protests.
In the past, shipments have led to clashes between thousands of
demonstrators and police. 

The protest movement has faded somewhat since the German
government embarked in 2003 on plans to phase out nuclear power,
but activists complain that the two-decade timetable for closing
Germany's nuclear plants is too slow.	 
		 	 	   

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 54 Lahontan Valley News: Now what?
	
Opinion

November 13, 2006     				 				
 						
 By Glen McAdoo

Hallelujah, and congratulations to Nancy Pelosi, the first woman
speaker of the House, and to Harry Reid, the fellow from
Searchlight. Who woulda thunk it? Having a Senate majority
leader from Nevada means a lot for this state. 

Now what? It seems to me the Democrats have two choices: They
can continue the divisive partisan politics that have been so
prevalent in the Republican-led Congress and Senate, or they can
choose a different path - a path of reconciliation and
cooperation and progress. I hope they choose the latter. If
Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have their way, the divisive
politics of the Republican-led Congress will not be the way this
Congress does business.

 If you have seen a film by Robert Greenwald titled "Iraq For
Sale," you will understand the importance of investigating the
profiteering, at the expense of our troops, that is going on in
Iraq. I hope that the hearings end there. I don't think
Americans want to see the type of witch hunts that the
Republicans carried out during the Clinton years, nor do I think
they have the stomach for the type of hearings that some
Democrats have suggested. Forget impeachment. He may deserve it,
but it's not worth it. We know how we got into this war. We were
deceived. We don't need hearings to tell us that. Stick those
subpoenas where the sun doesn't shine. America wants a Congress
where people work together to solve problems. 

The Democrats should get on with passing their agenda. For
starters, raise the minimum wage. Reduce the cost of
prescription drugs paid for by the senior prescription drug
program. Reduce the tax burden on the middle class and provide a
college tuition tax credit. Take steps to reduce the national
debt and balance the budget by repealing the ill advised Bush
tax cuts for the very, very rich. Secure our ports and borders
and pass the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Protect
personal freedom and liberty. And for crying out loud, drain the
swamp, as Nancy Pelosi says. The corruption must stop. All of
these things seem reasonable and should garner by-partisan
support. Don't hold you breath. 

It won't be easy. Let's be perfectly honest - this election
reflected a wave of discontent with the Republicans more than it
was a vote for the Democrats. Let us not get cocky. That was
Bush's mistake. One interesting thing happened during this
election that illustrated that this was not a vote against all
incumbents (throw the bums out); it was just a vote against
Republican incumbents. Not a single Democrat running for
re-election lost their race. Not a one! Actually, that's a shame
as Congressman Jefferson, D-La., deserved to lose. Oh well. When
he is convicted Nancy can throw him out.

 Iraq will be difficult. We 're damned if we do and damned if we
don't. President Bush has made a start by removing Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Now he must go further. This is not
just his country; it belongs to all of us, and it is clear that
Americans want a change in Iraq and they want our men and women
in service to come home as soon as possible. Congress can't make
this happen. The president can.

Personally, I think we could be in Iraq another 100 years and
not much would change. They don't like us and we will not win
over their hearts and minds with firepower. Why should one more
brave soldier die to protect people that will kill them at the
drop of a hat? The Shiites in power are just using us to protect
them while they cleanse Iraq of their opposition. Under their
leadership, Iraq is destined to become another Iran. Why help
them? Please, Mr. President, listen to the people. Get us out of
Iraq as soon as practical in a manner which protects our troops,
and let's focus our military might and financial resources on
homeland security, capturing bin Laden and on stopping al Qaeda
and the terrorists. We can't afford to let Afghanistan become
another Iraq.

Several truths came out of this election. Sen. Kerry must stop
telling jokes. Of course, he was talking about the president,
his notes proved that, but that didn't matter to those who, for
political purposes, tried to say he was deliberately insulting
our troops. Actually, the insult was by those who thought the
troops weren't smart enough to figure out that Kerry was talking
about Bush and not them. Still, Kerry is not funny. He's botched
every joke he's ever tried to tell and he botched the last
election. That's not nearly as bad as Bush, who has botched the
war, butchered the environment and bloated the budget.

 Additional truths: "Macaca" is a bad word. Some evangelicals
practice what they preach against. Karl Rove ain't so hot.
Measuring drapes was a good idea. Harry Reid is in charge, so
Yucca Mountain is dead. Rush Limbaugh is a disgrace to the human
race (still). And finally, my landscape guy owes me $50.

Next week, no politics, I promise.

Glen McAdoo can be reached at glynn@phonewave.net

All contents © Copyright 2006 lahontanvalleynews.com
Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard - 562 North
Maine Street - Fallon, NV 89406 			 		   	 
*****************************************************************
 55 Las Vegas SUN: Experts: Reid's Senate rise to help fight against Yucca Mountain 
 
November 12, 2006 

By MARTIN GRIFFITH ASSOCIATED PRESS 

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Sen. Harry Reid's rise to power in the
Democratic-controlled Congress will give a big boost to efforts
to halt a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, experts agree. 

The state also will benefit if Sen. John Ensign becomes head of
the Republican campaign arm in the Senate as expected, they say. 

Reid, Ensign and other top Nevada elected officials have been
fighting the Bush administration's attempts to get the stalled
nuclear waste repository back on track. 

Bush wants to ship the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain,
about 110 miles north of Las Vegas. 

Republican Jim Denton, a veteran campaign consultant from
Henderson, said Reid's Senate leadership can't help but bolster
the fight against Yucca Mountain. 

"Absolutely, that's big for Nevada. Yucca Mountain will go
nowhere because of him," Denton said. 

"Reid is Senate majority leader. Ensign will move up. I don't
know how Nevada could be in a better position from a national
perspective, I just don't," Denton added. 

Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of the Nevada
environmental group Citizen Alert, said Reid - as Senate
minority leader - has been effective in keeping budget requests
low enough to slow the Department of Energy's plans at Yucca
Mountain. 

"As majority leader we are confident Sen. Reid can stop Yucca
Mountain in its tracks," Johnson said. "We can't begin to tell
you how positive this is for the final nail in the coffin for
Yucca Mountain." 

DOE spokesman Craig Stevens said Sunday the Bush administration
was moving ahead with plans to submit by mid-2008 a license
application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and
open the repository, with a goal of opening it by 2017. 

"It was voted on by both houses of Congress in 2002, and it's
currently the law of the land that a repository be built at
Yucca Mountain," Stevens said. 

"It's the most studied piece of real estate in the world. The
national experts agree it's a safe place for spent nuclear
fuel," he said. 

If the U.S. is to keep up with increased demands for electricity
and maintain a healthy economy, Stevens added, it will need to
develop nuclear energy. 

"To develop it, we need space to store nuclear fuel and Yucca
Mountain is that place," he said. 

But John J. Pitney Jr., a professor of politics at Claremont
McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., and a former Republican
strategist, said the new Congress will be more friendly to Reid
causes. 

"For the next Congress, one of the watchwords will be, `Don't
mess with Nevada,'" Pitney told the Las Vegas Sun. "It'd be very
difficult to do anything to Nevada that Harry Reid doesn't want
done." 

Reid, after the election, pledged to push legislation requiring
that nuclear waste be stored on-site where it's produced. 

Johnson said her group would continue trying to drum up
opposition to Yucca Mountain by stressing the dangers of
transporting nuclear waste. 

"There are still a lot of Democrats, now in the majority, that
need to be convinced, so we will need to get our allies across
this country mobilized to convince their senators and
representatives that this is not only a foolhardy but a very
dangerous proposition," Johnson said. 

All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 56 Sydney Morning Herald: Report tips uranium mining shake-up - 

www.smh.com.au
 
November 13, 2006 - 7:12PM

A government-backed think tank largely made up of uranium
industry executives has called for a shake-up of the way uranium
ore is regulated and mined in Australia. 

A report released by the Uranium Industry Framework (UIF)
steering group makes 20 wide-ranging recommendations. 

The report says the industry should work to promote a better
understanding of uranium, that mining laws around Australia be
harmonised, and that indigenous communities be encouraged to
become involved in mining. 

The UIF report comes a week before the federal government
nuclear energy task force, headed by former Telstra boss Ziggy
Switkowski, is due to report on the future of the nuclear
industry in Australia. 

The UIF said the Australian uranium industry should establish a
"stewardship platform" to promote the industry. 

The paper said transport constraints hampering shipping of
yellowcake be removed and that state and territory governments
should develop radiation safety and protection courses for
miners as well as a certification system. 

"Demand for uranium is rising with many countries making more
use of nuclear power," Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said in
a statement regarding the paper. 

"The spot price for uranium has almost tripled over the last
three years, creating valuable export opportunities." 

He said Australia currently held about 40 per cent of the
world's uranium resources, but accounted for only 23 per cent of
the world's production. 

Australian Uranium Association executive director Michael Angwin
said in a statement that the report was another step towards the
industry being recognised as part of the mainstream of
Australia's resources industry. 

"Australia's uranium industry is a source of jobs and prosperity
for Australia and Australians and a means by which the world
will be able to address the problems of global warming," Mr
Angwin said. 

The Australian Conservation Foundation said the report was
another example of the government showing their ideological
support for uranium mining. 	

© 2006  AAP
Brought to you by [aap] 	 

When news happens:send photos, videos &tip-offs to 0424 SMS SMH
(+61 424 767 764), or us. 
*****************************************************************
 57 AU ABC: Macfarlane welcomes uranium industry shake-up
 
ABC Northern Territory | Local News | Story 
November 2006. 20:20 (ACDT)Monday, 13 November 2006. 17:20

The report recommends removing restrictions to the growth of the
uranium mining industry in Australia (file photo).ABC TV 

The federal Resources Minister has welcomed a report aimed at
removing restrictions to the growth of Australia's uranium
mining industry. 

Ian Macfarlane says a plan for the future of the uranium mining
industry is aimed at removing the structural and political
impediments to growth. 

Mr Macfarlane set up the Uranium Industry Framework (UIF)
steering group in August last year. 

He has backed the group's report that lists 20 recommendations,
including the creation of a uranium stewardship system that it
says avoids a punitive and regulatory approach. 

"But there's no suggestion that in any way the regulation or the
safety requirements will be lessened," he said. 

The recommendations also include redressing a shortage of
radiation safety officers, a national approach to transporting
uranium and closer partnerships with Indigenous land owners. 

Mr Macfarlane says state governments should ease restrictions on
transporting uranium oxide that force all exports through
Darwin's port. 

"In the end many of these regulations are set by state
governments and therefore subject to the vagary of their
politics," he said. 

Mr Macfarlane says until recently the biggest roadblock has been
opposition by state and territory governments to new mines. 

"That's created an uncertainty in the industry about its
future," he said. 

"But with the support of the South Australian Government and
with mining proceeding in the Northern Territory, most people in
the resources sector see the uranium industry as a secure
industry to be part of." 

*****************************************************************
 58 The Progressive: Searching for Harry Reid | 

By Stephen Elliott 

March 2005 Issue 

An hour down the interstate, fifty-four miles southeast of Las 
Vegas on a new four-lane highway, sits the old mining town of 
Searchlight. Itâ€™s much in the news these days as the birthplace 
and home of the new Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. 

In this sparse and rugged spot, with a population hovering around 
800, the houses are modest, many of them trailer homes. Itâ€™s a 
place not unlike the America that elected George Bush. Rural and 
spacious. A place that appreciates small government and smaller 
taxes, though it doesnâ€™t mind taking a handout once in a while. 

I arrive in Searchlight on a cold afternoon in early January, two 
months after the Presidential election, the Democratic Party in 
disarray and on the defensive. At thirty-five degrees, itâ€™s 
about as cold as it gets in this part of the state. I stand in 
front of the townâ€™s only casino, staring west across the valley 
to where the crabgrass and cedar roll up into the mountain range 
separating the town from the city on the other side. Itâ€™s easy 
to see why the Senator loves Searchlight. He loves it so much 
that he mentions it every time he gives a speech, telling anyone 
who is willing to listen that his father was a hard-rock miner 
and his mother took in laundry. And though their house 
â€œdidnâ€™t have hot water or an inside toilet, it was truly a 
family home to me and my three brothers.â€ Reid continues to 
live here. He even wrote a scholarly book about the town, 
Searchlight: The Camp That Didnâ€™t Fail, published by the 
University of Nevada Press. 

There are pictures of the house the Senator was born in. A
wooden shack with a stovepipe chimney, surrounded by empty
desert, two phone poles off in the distance. Thereâ€™s another
picture, a young Harry Reid, six or seven, in front of a larger
wooden house built from railroad ties. Still another picture,
undated, shows his father, Harry Reid Sr., standing against a
series of vertical slats, a mop of dark hair rising from his
head as if on fire, undershirt tucked into his pants, long thin
arms in his pockets, a dog at his feet. Harry Reidâ€™s father
would commit suicide just as his son, the politician, was in the
early days of his career. 

There was no high school in Searchlight, so Harry had to
hitchhike to Basic High in nearby Henderson. There he met his
wife, Landra Gould, and his mentor, a teacher named Mike
Oâ€™Callaghan. His high school picture shows a clean-cut and
serious young man with a shiny forehead, hair combed carefully
up along the sides with a wave across the front. 

Reid returned to Henderson years later with a law degree from
George Washington University and served as the city attorney. In
1968, he was elected to the Nevada Assembly at the age of
twenty-eight and two years later became the stateâ€™s youngest
lieutenant governor, winning as Mike Oâ€™Callaghanâ€™s running
mate. In 1977, he was appointed chairman of the Nevada Gaming
Commission, a board notoriously dominated by the mob. Reid was
unfazed, calling mob representative Joe Agosto a hoodlum. Toward
the end of his tenure, Reid narrowly escaped a hit after a bomb
was found plugged into the engine of his family car. After that,
Harry Reid took to starting his car by remote control. 

I meet Jane Overy at the Searchlight Museum, a single room in
the community center that also houses a meeting room and the
town library. â€œHe doesnâ€™t walk around acting important,â€
she tells me. â€œHeâ€™s done the dead work. Thatâ€™s what they
call it in the mines, the hard work that you do to get the
prize.â€ Overy, who oversaw the creation of the museum,
explains when the town was founded it was nothing more than a
mining claim fourteen miles from the Colorado River. It would
have stayed that way if they hadnâ€™t discovered a water table a
few hundred feet in the ground while digging for oil. She shows
me a quote from one of the early miners that possibly explains
the name of the town. â€œIf there is gold in this rock,â€ it
says, â€œweâ€™d need a searchlight to find it.â€ 

According to the Senator, Searchlight is the kind of place the
Democrats are going to have to appeal to if they hope to take
back power. He cites an unwillingness by Democrats in the past
to reach out. â€œYou canâ€™t appeal to rural voters if you
donâ€™t go to rural voters,â€ he says. â€œWe need as Democrats
to not be afraid to go places outside the big cities.â€ He
points out that John Kerry lost disastrously in rural Nevada,
and had he done better there he could have taken the state.
â€œWe donâ€™t need to change who we are or what we believe in,
we just have to do it better,â€ he adds. 

By the time I leave Searchlight to return to the slick neon of
Las Vegas, itâ€™s gotten late and whatâ€™s left of the sun is
hidden by storm clouds. Coming upon Boulder Ridge, Iâ€™m
confronted by the headlights spilling over the pass from across
the range. With the new road just completed, cutting the commute
from Vegas to under an hour, itâ€™s only a matter of time before
this little town that could is submerged beneath Vegasâ€™s
endless sprawl. The mining town, like the Democratic Party, is
going to have to change. 

In Vegas near the garish Hard Rock Hotel and Casino I meet with
Jon Ralston, the political correspondent for the Las Vegas Sun.
â€œHe is a scary guy,â€ Ralston says of Reid. â€œHe loves to
meddle at all political levels. Heâ€™s Machiavellian, ruthless.
And he doesnâ€™t relate well with the media. He once wouldnâ€™t
talk to me for two years because he didnâ€™t like something I
wrote. People were surprised when he twice called the President
a liar on Yucca Mountain, but thatâ€™s the way he is.â€ 

Michael Green, a Nevada political historian, agrees. He tells an
old local joke that goes like this: former Senator Richard Bryan
â€œwoke up in the morning wondering if heâ€™d shaken
everybodyâ€™s hand. Harry Reid wakes up in the morning wondering
if heâ€™s gotten back at all his enemies.â€ 

Asked to describe himself, the Senator says, â€œI am just how I
am. Itâ€™s no secret. Iâ€™m very consistent. I donâ€™t skip
around. Iâ€™m dependable.â€ Most people who know him share the
same opinion, and even his detractors defend him as an honest
broker. 

An adviser from Reidâ€™s first Senate campaign in 1986, Joseph
McCullough, an English professor at UNLV, remembers him as a man
who sought counsel before making decisions. â€œHe had a good
team and he was genuinely interested in everyoneâ€™s
opinions,â€ McCullough says. â€œHe wanted honest opinions on
all the issues.â€ 

But the word most commonly used to describe the Senator is
tough. He was an amateur boxer before entering politics. Heâ€™s
known as a no-holds-barred backroom dealer and is given most of
the credit for engineering the defection of Vermont Senator Jim
Jeffords that gave the Democrats a brief majority in the Senate.
Heâ€™s spoken of as a man capable of bringing people together as
well as someone you do not cross. 

I need your support. We're putting up all this interesting and 
fresh material on our website, and though we're giving it away 
free, it costs us a lot to do so. What's more, we're 
frighteningly short of money here at The Progressive, which is a 
nonprofit legally and oh so literally. That's why I'm urging you 
to make a tax-deductible contribution today. I really appreciate 
it. Your contribution helps us raise our voice for peace and 
justice.                  Matthew Rothschild               

*****************************************************************
 59 Las Vegas SUN: Las Vegas to launch outreach program opposing nuclear dump 

LOOKING IN ON: CITY HALL 

November 12, 2006 

By Mark Hansel Las Vegas Sun

A Las Vegas committee on Yucca Mountain agreed Tuesday to launch
a public outreach program that will expand on the city's
opposition to the planned nuclear waste dump. 

The program, which would require the approval of the City
Council, has been placed on the agenda for Wednesday's council
meeting. 

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas in Nye County,
has been chosen by the federal government as the nation's
repository for high-level nuclear waste. 

City officials have expressed concerns that the city's proximity
to the site, as well as the potential that shipments headed to
the facility will travel through or near Las Vegas, pose a
threat to residents. 

Committee members said the program is necessary because of
public apathy over the Yucca Mountain project, which is not
slated to open until 2017. Officials fear it is not an immediate
concern for most residents. 

The city has a limited outreach program and Ward 2 Council
Member Steve Wolfson, who led the meeting, said the goal should
be to expand on those efforts. 

The estimated cost of the program is $29,500. 

               
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 60 Farmington Daily Times: Navajo Nation to discuss uranium mining at summit

By Lisa Meerts 

The Daily Times Article Launched:11/13/2006 12:00:00 AM MST

DURANGO, Colo.  Some advocates for a Navajo Nation ban on mining
uranium fear the tribe's authority to enforce the law may soon
be called into question.

 The Navajo Nation Council passed the ban in 2005 so the people,
lands and water would not suffer additional damage from uranium
mining. But speakers at a Fort Lewis College lecture held
Thursday said mining companies around the U.S. want to reopen
old mines within Navajo borders.

 Phillip Harrison, a council delegate for the Red Valley and
Cove chapters, described how he and his family members worked in
uranium mines, unaware they were exposing themselves to
radiation as they picked away at the rock. Many miners 
including seven of his family members  then died from lung
cancer and other respiratory illnesses, he said.

 The Navajo Nation will host the Indigenous World Uranium Summit
from Nov. 30 through Dec. 2 in Window Rock, Ariz. It expects
international guests, members from other Native American tribes
and legislators, such as U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, to attend.

 Discussion topics at the summit include organizing resistance
to new uranium mining, supporting the Navajo Nation ban (known
as the DinÃ© Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005),
preventing nuclear waste from being dumped on native lands, and
promoting sustainable development and renewable energy.

 Travis Stills, a lawyer representing the Energy Mineral Laws
Center, told more than 50 people who attended the lecture the
market price for uranium shot from $9 to $60 in two years. Some
people believe it may be a clean alternative for energy
production, he said. Consequently, speculators have laid out
proposals to reopen mines throughout the Four Corners region,
including some within the Navajo Nation boundaries. Others fall
in Colorado and Utah.

 "We're all downwind in some respects," he said. "This is an
issue for the entire region." 

Norman Brown, an activist, drew a map of the Navajo Nation
checkered with squares of land the federal government controls.
Mining companies want to open mines located there, in places
like Churchrock and Crownpoint. Should the U.S government permit
them, it will violate the DinÃ© Natural Resources Protection
Act, he said.

 But if the Navajo law successfully wards off the uranium
mining, it will strengthen the tribe's sovereignty, said Brown.
"It's probably one of the most important laws in Indian law."

 Robert Baker, a Southern Ute member, pointed out that his tribe
has jurisdiction over all federally owned lands that fall within
the Southern Ute reservation. He wondered whether the Southern
Utes could be used as a case study to support the Navajos.

 A student group at Fort Lewis College called Small Acts, Small
Steps plans to attend the Indigenous World Uranium Summit. For
more information about the summit, visit
www.sric.org/uraniumsummit/.

Lisa Meerts: lmeerts@daily-times.comPrint Friendly View   			

*****************************************************************
 61 Salt Lake Tribune: Plan would protect taxpayers from hazardous waste costs

Legislative committee will ponder proposals to provide more 
funding for perpetual care of radioactive landfills

By Judy Fahys 

The Salt Lake Tribune 

Article Last Updated:11/13/2006 12:35:11 AM MST

Taxpayers shouldn't get saddled with the bill for tending
defunct hazardous waste sites, the thinking goes. 

   So citizen and staff advisers for the state are suggesting
increasing the amount of funds those businesses must provide for
perpetual care of radioactive and hazardous landfills. 

   “We don't want to foot the bill for taking care of these
facilities once the operators disappear,” said Bill Sinclair,
deputy director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. 

   The funding hike and other proposed changes will be before
the Legislature's Interim Natural Resources, Agriculture and
Environment Committee on Wednesday. 

   The two companies affected by the proposed changes would be
EnergySolutions, which operates a mile-square radioactive waste
site about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, and Clean Harbors
Environmental, which operates the Grassy Mountain hazardous
waste landfill about 10 miles west of the city. 

   The plan would require EnergySolutions to come up with a $13
million payment right away to have a fund big enough - about $93
million - for tending the site in perpetuity a century after it
shuts down. The company also has a fund for closing the site and
for overseeing it in the 100 years after shutdown. 

   Company spokesman Mark Walker said plenty of money is 
available for these functions, and another $400,000 a year has 
been dedicated to perpetual care over the past five years. 

   “That's a lot of money that's going to collect money over
time,” he said. 

   For the Grassy Mountain site, there is no federal requirement
for a perpetual care fund, but the advisory Solid and Hazardous
Waste Board has recommended $2.6 million for it, along with
funds for closing the site and monitoring it for 30 years. 

   Phil Retallick, senior vice president for compliance and
regulatory affairs, said Clean Harbors has not decided how it
will address the proposal. 

   Craig W. Anderson, an attorney in Salt Lake City and chairman
of the waste board, said the issue is “looking way, way down the
road.” 

   “If those financial assurances are in place, and they are
sufficient,” he said, “then the likelihood the public will have
to deal with [perpetual care expenses] will be reduced.” 

   More changes may also be in the works. 

   One would bar the state government from dipping into the
funds, as Washington and South Carolina, which also have
radioactive waste sites, have done. Another would require the
state and federal government to resolve the question of who will
own the EnergySolutions site after the business shuts down. 

   Still another proposed change would tie the size of the
perpetual care fund to the remaining capacity of the waste site. 

   Kent Bradford, chairman of the Radiation Control Board, noted
that many elements of the radioactive waste at EnergySolutions
endure long beyond the 120 years currently covered by state and
federal oversight. 

   “We felt like that was our responsibility” to make the
recommendations, he said. “We are the experts in this area and
they [in the Legislature] want our advice.” 

   fahys@sltrib.com 

   Funding for the future 

   Main recommendations for long-term hazardous waste funds: 

    * Boost “perpetual care” funds for hazardous and radioactive
landfills immediately. 

   * Decide whether state or federal government owns
EnergySolutions site after the landfill closes. 

   * Create a “lock-box” of perpetual care funds that cannot be
tapped by the state. 
    
Â© Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 62 Cincinnati Post: Off-site contamination found
 
Piketon project may top $4.5B Associated Press
 
CHRIS STEWART/Dayton Daily News
  
  Clyde Blanton works on the well at his home, which is near the
Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
   
PIKETON - Cleaning up radioactive and hazardous waste at a
former uranium-processing plant may top $4.5 billion, and there
is evidence that contamination has migrated off the 3,714-acre
site, the Dayton Daily News reported Sunday.

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which once enriched
uranium for weapons and nuclear fuel, closed in 2001.

The newspaper said the government has spent $1 billion so far
digging up soil, emptying ponds, capping unlined toxic
landfills, treating groundwater and hauling contaminants away -
more than 43,000 containers of hazardous, radioactive and other
waste and 8,400 tons of radioactive scrap metal.

Officials with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency say the
worst of the plant's contamination is confined to the federal
land, in part because thick bedrock slows the spread of
groundwater. They also say the plant's environmental record
improved in recent years as plant operators adopted modern
waste-handling practices and began following rules governing
discharges to air and waterways.

Still, there is evidence of offsite contamination.
According to its most recent environmental reports, the U.S.
Energy Department in 2003 and 2004 found small amounts of
radioactive contamination outside the southern Ohio plant.

Tests on two area deer killed by cars showed traces of uranium
isotopes in the livers of both and in the muscle of one. Traces
of uranium were also found in milk and egg samples from area
farms and in three vegetables taken from the gardens of plant
neighbors.

Air, water and sediment tests also revealed small amounts of
radioactive uranium, plutonium or technetium, and three fish
from area waterways had traces of uranium or plutonium.
The U.S. Department of Energy told the newspaper that none of
the amounts are large enough to pose a health threat.

Messages seeking comment were left for the Energy Department by
the Associated Press.

The cleanup hasn't ended disputes between the Energy Department
and the Ohio EPA. Most recently, the Energy Department pushed
for a reduced groundwater cleanup standard, arguing that the
lesser standard is appropriate because no one drinks the water
underneath the plant site, according to memos obtained by the
Daily News.

"We represent the taxpayers. Our goal here is to make sure we
are doing cost-effective, smart cleanup," William Murphie,
manager of the Energy Department office overseeing cleanup, told
the newspaper.

Some of the most dangerous cleanup work is being done inside
three massive enrichment buildings, where workers are removing
uranium deposits that cling to surfaces inside equipment and 600
miles of piping. They must use extreme care because mishandling
the radioactive deposits could cause a small nuclear reaction, a
"criticality" that could kill workers and spread radiation
through the area. Murphie said nothing like that has happened.

"We've never had a criticality event, and I have no reason to
believe that we ever will have a criticality event," he said.

In 2000, the Energy Department launched an investigation that
identified hundreds of accidental releases of uranium gas or
toxic fluorine at the plant since the 1950s and concluded there
was a failure to properly monitor emissions or workers' exposure
to radiation.

"We take a lot of lumps for the past processes and, face it,
mistakes that were made," Murphie said. "We've learned from the
past. We're all smarter than we were in the past." 
Publication date: 11-13-2006 
  
[Cincinnati.Com]     
  
Copyright1995-2006. The Cincinnati Post
*****************************************************************
 63 AFP: Nuclear waste convoy reaches dump in Germany - 

November 13, 10:06 AM 

  [Castor containers are loaded from a nuclear waste train to
trucks at the station of Dannenberg]   

BERLIN (AFP) - A convoy of trucks carrying 175 tonnes of highly
radioactive nuclear waste has reached a storage dump in northern
Germany after a three-day journey interrupted by protests.

The trucks carrying the 12 containers of reprocessed waste
rumbled into the dump in Gorleben at about 6:00 am (0500 GMT)
Monday.

Hundreds of anti-nuclear activists tried to prevent the waste
reaching the dump on the final leg of its journey which had
begun by train in northern France on Friday.

Dozens of protesters chained themselves to concrete blocks
Sunday evening on a road leading to Gorleben, while 400
activists staged a sit-in across a road in a bid to prevent the
trucks leaving the town of Dannenberg.

The containers had arrived there by train on Sunday afternoon.

Protesters from Greenpeace climbed on trees and hung banners
from the branches, but hundreds of police moved the
demonstrators out of the way.

Police said the protests were peaceful in contrast with similar
transports in previous years.

A total of 16,000 police were mobilised to protect the train as
it edged through Germany after leaving the reprocessing plant at
La Hague in northwest France on Friday.

The waste is produced by German power plants but sent to France
because Germany has no reprocessing facilities.

Germany is contractually obliged to take the waste back, but
activists argue that Gorleben, a disused salt mine which was
selected in 1977 as a temporary storage site, is unsafe.

The transports are scheduled to continue until 2010. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 64 AU ABC: Uranium mining report angers environmental groups. 

14/11/2006. ABC News Online

The ACF says the recommendations go against the circumstances 
that surrounded the establishment of Ranger uranium mine. (File 
photo)

Environmental groups have been incensed by a report published by
the Uranium Industry Framework Steering Group, which is aimed at
removing impediments to uranium mining.

 The Federal Government-commissioned report gives 20
recommendations to remove impediments to uranium mining.

 It recommends a national program to ease transport restrictions
on uranium oxide and calls for uranium "stewardship" rather than
punitive regulation of the industry. 
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) spokesman Dave Sweeney
says the steering group is dominated by uranium industry
executives and pro-mining government officials.

 He says the report reads more like a brochure for uranium
mining than a serious discussion of a contentious industry.

 "It is not inevitable, it is not desirable, it is not safe or
sustainable and if you do a genuine and rigorous assessment, it
is not a good clean business for this country to be involved
in," he said. 

"Unfortunately this report doesn't do a genuine or rigorous
assessment, it's an industry advocacy document."

 Environment groups are also sceptical about a promise from the
federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane not to start new
uranium mines without the support of Indigenous traditional
owners.

 Four recommendations urge closer partnerships with Indigenous
people who own land sitting on uranium deposits.

 Mr Macfarlane has reiterated that mines will not go ahead
without their consent, but Mr Sweeney says it is a surprising
promise given the industry's history. 

"I wish they could make that retrospective, because they'd close
Ranger," Mr Sweeney said.

 "It has never enjoyed Aboriginal consent. It was actively
opposed by the Mirrar people, but there was a determination
following a Federal Government process at that time that the
opposition of the Mirrar would not be allowed to prevail, and
ever since then we've seen a gradual increasing pressure on
people to say yes to mining." 

ACF says a report from senior figures connected to the mining
industry cannot guarantee that uranium exports will not be used
in nuclear weapons.

 Mr Sweeney says the document glosses over massive holes in the
global nuclear safeguards regime and its inability to track
Australian uranium.

 "We have to be absolutely red hot certain that we can track,
guarantee and isolate and quite frankly we're not," he said. 

"We cannot guarantee that Australian uranium will not
inadvertently either end up in nuclear weapons programs or free
up other uranium to end up in nuclear weapons programs." 

*****************************************************************
 65 KRNV.com: Reid and Ensign Expected to Stop President Bush's Yucca Mountain Plan

It wasn't on the ballot but last week's elections may have a big 
impact on plans at Yucca Mountain. 

Nevada Senator Harry Reid's rise to power in the now 
democratically controlled Congress, as well as Senator John 
Ensign's continued rise in the Republican Party is expected to 
help stop the President's plan to re-start Yucca Mountain. 

Reid and Ensign have both been fighting the Bush administration's 
plan but their new positions could make their efforts a reality.   


      All content © Copyright 2001 - 2006 WorldNow and KRNV. All
Rights Reserved.


  

  



*****************************************************************
 66 KVBC: Will Yucca Mountain plans stall?

Plans to dump nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain may stall now that
Nevada Senator Harry Reid is set to lead the Senate. Both
Republicans and Democrats also say Nevada will benefit if
Senator John Ensign becomes head of the Republican campaign arm
in the Senate as expected. 

Reid, Ensign and other top Nevada officials are fighting the
Bush Administration's attempts to get the nuclear waste
repository back on track. 

Bush wants to ship the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain,
which is about 110 miles north of Las Vegas. They insist it's a
safe place to store nuclear waste.   

  

      All content © Copyright 2000 - 2006 WorldNow and KVBC. All
Rights Reserved.
  

  
*****************************************************************
 67 BBC: Arrests at nuclear base protest
 
Last Updated: Monday, 13 November 2006
 
[A protester at Faslane in July with police officer] 
                                
Campaigners plan protests at Faslane over the next year                         
                                        
Seven anti-nuclear protesters have been arrested for breach of 
the peace as campaigners from Wales joined a protest at Faslane 
naval base in Scotland. 

The base on the Clyde is home to the UK's Trident nuclear 
submarine fleet. 

Campaigners from Cardiff, Bangor and Colwyn Bay travelled for a 
72-hour Draig Goch (Welsh Dragon) protest as part of an ongoing 
campaign. 

A Ministry of Defence (MOD) spokesman said no decision on any 
replacement for Trident had been made. 

Strathclyde Police confirmed that seven people were arrested this 
morning for alleged breach of the peace 

'Tenacity' 

CND Cymru said four arrests involved campaigners from Wales. 

The Bishop of Bangor, the Rt Rev Anthony Crockett, was present to 
wave off 30 campaigners from Bangor. 

"I'm very glad to be able to offer my support to the group," said 
the Rt Rev Crockett. 

He said that the possibility that £24 billion would be spent on 
replacing Trident was "not only a terrible waste of our 
resources" but the spread of nuclear weapons was "one of the 
greatest threats to the safety and peace of the world". 

[Protesters leaving Bangor for Scotland] Protesters left Bangor 
and other places in Wales at the weekend                                                                 

The bishops of the Church-in-Wales have already expressed their 
concerns, with the support of their governing body. 

"I personally want to praise the tenacity of the peace protesters 
and support them in their commitment to peace," added the bishop. 

Campaigners started a year-long series of civil resistance to 
Britain's nuclear weapons programme. 

The Trident missile system and the Vanguard submarines which 
carry them need replacing by 2024 and a decision is set to be 
taken in the next year. 

A MOD spokesman said a White Paper would be published around the 
end of the year, followed by a debate and vote in Parliament. 

"We remain committed to achieving a world in which there is no 
place for nuclear weapons and when we are satisfied with progress 
towards this goal will put our nuclear weapons into the 
negotiations," he said. 

"But nuclear disarmament must be undertaken through a process of 
international negotiation and no timetable for such negotiations 
has yet been agreed." 

The spokesman said no decision on any replacement for Trident has 
been made and officials were now "assessing future risks and 
threats and options" to prepare for the decision. 
*****************************************************************
 68 DOE: U.S. and EU Unite to Strengthen Economic Integration and Boost Jobs
, Growth and Competitiveness
 
  November 9, 2006
 
WASHINGTON, DC  Today, the Bush Administration hosted the
second informal U.S.-EU economic ministerial meeting to discuss
transatlantic economic integration and shared economic
challenges.  Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and Energy
Secretary Samuel W. Bodman met with European Union Commission
Vice President Günter Verheugen and Finnish Minister for Trade
and Industry Mauri Pekkarinen to review joint progress in the
most significant areas of the transatlantic economy, including
innovation, intellectual property rights (IPR), regulatory
cooperation, and energy security. 

The U.S. and EU economic relationship continues to be the
largest and most successful bilateral trade and investment
relationships in the world, said Gutierrez.  However, we also
recognize the need to continue to focus on the burdensome
regulations that slow down economic growth, promote enforcement
of intellectual property rights, and identify ways to
collaborate on innovation efforts.  Today we agreed to look at
new projects in these areas, such as the automotive and
healthcare sectors, to bring meaningful results for both
economies. 

The aim of strengthening growth and competitiveness, creating
jobs and boosting productivity through innovation, lies at the
heart of both the European economic agenda and of the
transatlantic Economic Initiative, said Verheugen.
Results-oriented policies in the areas of innovation - which
includes protecting and enforcing our intellectual property
rights - and regulation will reduce bureaucracy and regulatory
barriers to trade and investment.  It will make a real
difference for our citizens and our businesses on both sides of
the Atlantic. 

The United States and the members of the European Union share
common goals in providing reliable, affordable, and clean energy
to our countries, Bodman said.  We are committed to
strengthening our joint energy security by intensifying our
collaboration to diversify our energy sources and types, promote
greater energy efficiency, and encourage clean energy technology
investments. 

Following the adoption of a joint strategy to fight soaring
global illegal trade in counterfeit and pirate goods, U.S. and
EU experts are working closely together to protect Intellectual
Property Rights. The teams are working to improve border
enforcement cooperation, help the private sector to enforce
their rights, and help third countries such as China and India
fight counterfeiting and piracy. 

Gutierrez, Bodman, Verheugen, and Pekkarinen also agreed to
strengthen efforts to remove regulatory barriers to trade and
investment.  The parties will explore a limited number of
projects including in the automobile sector and health-related
industries.   

The participants also welcomed the progress made under the
transatlantic Innovation Initiative, and agreed to support
innovation in areas such as health-related industries,
nanotechnology and automotives. 

Participants further discussed a range of other critical
economic issues, including the challenges of the global energy
market and the Doha Development Agenda negotiations. 

Background 

The U.S.-EU relationship is the deepest and largest bilateral
trade and investment relationship in the world. It encompasses
$756 billion of trade in goods and services each year, large
flows of investment and provides employment to as many as 14
million people on both sides of the Atlantic. Strengthening the
relationship between the U.S. and the EU could translate into
huge economic benefits and make both economies more competitive
and dynamic. 

Business organizations, including UNICE, the American Chamber of
Commerce and the Trans-Atlantic Business and Consumer Dialogues,
have renewed calls to keep transatlantic cooperation as a top
priority 

The meeting follows on commitments made in the 2005 U.S.-EU
Summit, confirmed at the 2006 Summit, which called for further
transatlantic economic integration. The next U.S.-EU Summit is
due to take place in the first half of 2007. 

Media contact(s): Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940     [ ]   

  U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | 
Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403
   
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 69 Hanford News: DOE eyes new plan for sludge treatment
 
This story was published Sunday, November 12th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The Department of Energy is evaluating a potential new plan to 
treat radioactive sludge from Hanford's K Basins. 

DOE is weighing cost, schedule and safety factors as it looks at 
hauling the sludge to central Hanford for treatment rather than 
preparing it for disposal where it is now near the Columbia 
River. 

That could allow the area where the K Basins sit to be turned 
over to Washington Closure Hanford sooner to finish cleanup. The 
treatment process also could be less risky. 

But the change also could delay treatment of the waste for years. 

DOE asked contractor Fluor Hanford earlier this year to develop a 
plan to speed up the turnover of the K Basins to the contractor 
cleaning up the river corridor, Washington Closure. The request 
came amidst uncertainty in the sludge treatment system that now 
appears to be mostly resolved and cleanup delays at the basins in 
recent years. 

DOE plans to decide by the end of the month if it is interested
in pursuing some or all of the Fluor plan. It would then start
talks with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington
State Department of Ecology and the Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board, which also need to approve the changes. 

The K East and K West Basins were built in the 1950s to store
irradiated reactor fuel underwater until it was processed to
extract plutonium for nuclear weapons. But after the last
Hanford processing plant was shut down, leftover irradiated fuel
remained in the pools, each holding more than 1 million gallons
of water, for more than a decade. 

The fuel corroded and particles mixed with dirt and concrete
that sloughed off the sides of the basins to form a radioactive
sludge. 

The fuel has been removed, but removing the sludge has proved
far more difficult and taken longer than DOE or Fluor Hanford
anticipated. Fluor recently completed vacuuming the bulk of K
East sludge into underwater containers and started pumping it
over to the K West Basin for storage until it can be treated. 

When the last of the sludge is pumped from the K East Basin this
spring, the way will be cleared for the water to be removed from
the basin and for work to begin to tear out the concrete. 

K East has leaked significant amounts of radioactive water in
the past, so getting it emptied is a higher priority than
draining the K West Basin. 

The plan has been to store 60 cubic yards of K East and K West
sludge in underwater containers at the K West Basin until a
treatment system was ready at the nearby Cold Vacuum Drying
Facility. 

The last of the sludge to be treated would be stored in the K
West Basin for 21D2 years, delaying further cleanup there and
the start of work by Washington Closure Hanford. DOE has until
the end of November 2009 to complete sludge treatment under the
legally binding Tri-Party Agreement covering Hanford cleanup. 

Under the proposed plan, the waste would be packed into vented
containers and taken to T Plant in central Hanford for storage
and later treatment there. That would allow the K Basins to be
removed and other cleanup work in the area to be completed
sooner. 

The plan also calls for the sludge to be treated at a lower
temperature and pressure, which would reduce the potential risk
to people and the environment in case of an accident. 

However, the treatment system would need some redesigning to fit
in T Plant. 

Storage of the sludge would start in October 2007 at T Plant,
but treatment would not start until November 2011. That is two
years after the current legal deadline for finishing treatment,
according to a weekly report of the Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board. 

The delay in treatment could be longer than four years, but, "It
is conceivable that interim storage could be extended based on
future funding," the report said. 

DOE also will have to consider whether T Plant would be able to
treat K Basin sludge without disrupting other planned projects.
For instance, the plant is set to be used to treat
remote-handled transuranic waste. 

The new proposed treatment plan also addresses how the concrete
that forms the basins would be removed. 

The plan has been to add grout to the basins around debris and
fuel racks that covered the bottom of the pools. That grout
would then be cut into blocks and huge cranes and trailers would
be used to lift the blocks out of the basins and move them to
central Hanford. 

However, workers removed most of the debris that would have been
grouted in place after it proved too difficult to vacuum the
sludge around it. That clears the way for a more traditional
tear-down of the concrete in the basin. 

© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
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 70 Hanford News: Hanford ground water cleanup begins
 
This story was published Monday, November 13th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

Work has begun on nine new projects to help clean up the 80
square miles of contaminated ground water beneath the Hanford
nuclear reservation. 

Congress set aside $10 million in the Department of Energy
budget for the recently ended fiscal year for projects that
could protect the Columbia River from the migration of ground
water contaminated by hazardous chemicals or radioactive waste
toward the river. The contamination is left from the past
production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons
program. 

Some technologies being used don't work as well as the
Department of Energy would like, and DOE lacks new technologies
to address contamination issues. 

DOE began 2006 with a list of 23 proposed projects for the $10
million earmark and relied on a steering committee, then an
independent review panel to come up with the final list of nine
projects this summer. 

"They are all technologies used elsewhere that have a high
probability of working here," said John Morse, a DOE senior
technical adviser. 

All should lead to cleaner ground water. 

"These are not test tube studies," said Matt McCormick, DOE
assistant manager for central Hanford projects. 

Currently, Hanford relies primarily on two ways to treat
contaminated ground water. Pump and treat systems pump water out
of the ground, treat it to remove contaminants and then reinject
the clean water back into the ground. 

But DOE would prefer better long-term solutions that will
continue to passively treat contaminated ground water. It has
tried injecting chemical barriers into the ground to either bind
up contaminants before they reach the river or turn them into a
less toxic chemical form. 

Among projects being paid for with the $10 million is the
injection of iron into one barrier created to turn chromium into
a virtually immobile and less toxic form. Some forms of chromium
are particularly harmful to fish. 

The chemical barrier began deteriorating a few years after it
was installed in 1999. But laboratory tests have indicated that
iron injections might be able to mend deteriorating portions of
the barrier. 

Another project would test whether injecting polylactate into
the soil would reduce the concentration of chemicals such as
nitrates and dissolved oxygen that can interfere with the
longevity of the barriers. 

Chemical barriers also are showing promise for trapping
radioactive strontium as ground water migrating toward the river
reaches the barrier. However, 50 percent to 70 percent of the
strontium contamination from N Reactor is in shallow sediments
above ground water. 

About $790,000 of the congressional earmark will be spent to
develop a strategy to inject the chemical to address
contamination near the soil surface. 

In addition, $433,000 will be used to see if plants also might
be used to help remove strontium contamination. 

Coyote willows will be planted to see how well they suck up
contaminated water and hold the strontium. The plant would then
be harvested to remove contamination from near the river. Among
the goals of the project is testing the best ways to grow and
fertilize the plants to remove the largest amount of
contaminants. 

In Hanford's 300 Area, DOE needs a new plan to treat ground
water contaminated with uranium after the plume did not
naturally dissipate as expected. Laboratory tests have shown
that water-soluble phosphate compounds can stabilize uranium.
Wells are being dug in the 300 Area just north of Richland to
inject the phosphate compounds there to see how well they work
in the field. The $1.73 million project also includes more
laboratory tests. 

The largest portion of the congressional earmark, $2.2 million,
will be spent to try a method of treating chromium-contaminated
water pumped out of the ground that may work more quickly than
the existing system. An electric field will be applied to the
water to cause the pollutants to precipitate, forming a solid
that can be easily removed. 

Some of the money will be spent on projects to learn more about
contaminants, including where they are continuing to move into
ground water, how they move through the ground and how they
might react to different treatment strategies. That includes
studies on carbon tetrachloride in central Hanford and chromium
near the Columbia River. 

All the projects have been assigned to Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory or Fluor Hanford. 

"We certainly support efforts to look at improved technologies,"
said Nick Ceto, Hanford program manager for the Environmental
Protection Agency, one of Hanford's regulators. 

The state also has pushed for development of improved and new
technologies to address ground water contamination. 

More money could be available in fiscal year 2007, which started
last month, once the new budget is approved. The U.S. House has
included an extra $20 million in its proposed budget for Hanford
for ground water technology projects. The Senate hasn't approved
its version of the Hanford budget yet. 

© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 71 lamonitor.com: Cutbacks, attrition to shrink LANL workforce 

The Online News Source for Los Alamos
 

ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor

SANTA FE - Los Alamos National Laboratory intends to shed
another 300-400 jobs, about 4 percent of its workforce, through
attrition, Michael Anastasio said. 
The lab director said he was still committed to avoiding forced
reductions, but that the lab would realize additional savings by
absorbing voluntary retirements and departures.

The laboratory is working to compensate for what Anastasio now
estimates to be $176 million in added costs, including new taxes
to the state government, new fees to the for-profit management
company and new salaries and employer-paid benefits. With no
additional revenues expected from the Department Energy,
Anastasio said he was seeking ways to increase budgets from
other sponsors. 

Speaking to a state legislative oversight committee on Thursday,
Anastasio reported on developments at the laboratory during the
last three months, including onerous budget constraints and a
recent security breach that made the front page of the current
Newsweek magazine.

Combining 300-400 workforce losses by attrition next year with
previously announced intentions to lay-off 450-600
subcontracting employees would bring the total reductions for
the next year to 750-1,000 people. He said about 230 lab
employees had not been replaced during the last fiscal year. 
In answer to previous inquiries by LANL Oversight Committee,
Anastasio provided the first public numbers on the effect of the
management transition

Through the end of the fiscal year, he said, there had been 665
terminations at the laboratory, including 340 retirements and 80
involuntary terminations. 
A relatively large number, 700 employees who worked for the
former manager, the University of California, opted for the
alternative Total Compensation II package, which enabled them to
retire under the UC pension plan, while resuming work as new
employees under Los Alamos National Security, the newly formed
management company.

House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, said he hoped the retirees'
skill-sets could be identified so that local people could be
trained to replace them, but Anastasio restated the lab's
intention "to absorb the attrition and do very little
replacement."

"If we have people doing those jobs now, we need those people
doing that work," Lujan said.

Anastasio answered that less money meant less work. The
laboratory, he said, had to figure out what not to do and what
could be spread out over more time.

"That's what concerns me," Lujan said, "It's jeopardizing the
security of my country."

Roberto "Bobbie" Gonzales, D-Taos, the committee co-chair, took
a similar line in his questions.

"We'll do less?" he asked. He wanted to know what effect that
would have.

Anastasio replied that the lab would have to become more
efficient. He said the new managers had accepted the competitive
challenge to work more efficiently, but had planned to phase-in
the efficiencies over a longer period of time. He pointed to the
flat budget situation and what he called "a sizable amount of
uncertainty" posed by discrepancies in the appropriations bills
that have not been resolved by Congress.

DOE, which funds the nuclear weapons complex, is operating on a
continuing resolution that expires next week. On top of the
changes in store from the new elections, Anastasio said, "It was
not clear how it would be resolved."

The director also repeated earlier admissions that the
laboratory would not be able to meet its goals for small
business subcontracting this year.

"That's a challenge for us," he said, considering that the
current work at the lab includes a $100 million supercomputer
project with IBM and major construction projects, which will
employ small businesses but could not be counted against the
50-percent small-business commitment unless they were prime
contractors.

"There were going to be hurts, we just didn't know where the
hurts were going to come from," said Rep. Jeanette Wallace,
R-Los Alamos. She called for the community to rally round and
some of the legislators agreed.

"We need to continue every effort with our congressional
delegation to require additional funding," Lujan said.

Two Republican legislators were especially interested in giving
advice on the security crisis at the lab.

Sen. William Sharer, R-San Juan, scolded the laboratory for "a
decade or so" of security issues and "half a dozen or so
directors."

"Maybe we have a flawed mind-set," he said. "I won't even
recommend public flogging but that's what comes to mind."

His suggestion was to "go to the prison guys," and get some
expertise on how things can walk out the door from professionals.

Rep. Thomas Anderson, R-Bernalillo, asked how many different
security manuals the laboratory used.

Anastasio said the laboratory has orders from the DOE, plus its
own policies, as well as security plans that implement those
directives.

"A hierarchy of documents and regulations, let's say," he said.

"Do the documents conflict?" asked Anderson.

As with much of the other generous advice he received on the
subject, Anastasio said, "That's one thing we are evaluating
right now."   

  © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.   
    
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