***************************************************************** 11/14/06 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 14.270 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 [v911t] Halliburton Secretly Does Business Key Member Iran's Nuclear 2 Guardian Unlimited: Ahmadinejad: Iran Open to Talk With U.S. 3 washingtonpost.com: Blair Calls for 'Whole Middle East' Strategy, Pr 4 Reuters: Official says U.S. may mull pre-emptive Iran strike 5 AFP: Iran wants 60,000 centrifuges in nuclear drive - Ahmadinejad - 6 AFP: Iran aim to boost uranium enrichment should be "cold jolt" to d 7 AFP: Iran pressing ahead with enrichment - IAEA 8 AFP: Blair presses for rethink in Iraq, warns Iran 9 AFP: US denies rift with Blair on Syria, Iran 10 UPI: Iran reportedly has secret nuclear fund 11 UPI: Qatar urges peaceful Iran nuke settlement 12 Guardian Unlimited: Bolton Says Russia Seeking Iran Changes 13 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Says Nuke Program Is Near Complete 14 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Assures Israel Iran Seen As Threat 15 AFP: Japan squeezes North Korea further on trade 16 Korea Herald: Seoul to reduce inter-Korean funds 17 Korea Herald: Envoys meet on N.K. nukes 18 Korea Herald: Japan bans luxury goods exports to N.K. 19 Korea Herald: [Lauren Keane]N. Korea viewed from Chinese border 20 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL]Ban Ki-moon off to U.N. 21 Korea Times: Seoul Should Secure Nuclear Technology 22 Korea Times: Nuke Talks to Be Held by Middle of December 23 Korea Times: Sanctioning North Korea 24 Japan Times: Speed six-party talks, departing Russian envoy says 25 Old Congress Could Decide on Nuclear Deal with India - FCNL 26 Guardian Unlimited: Simon Tisdall: Bush's visit to the Apec summit i 27 UPI: Blair, Bush no longer united on strategy 28 Telugu Portal; Bush concerned over Chinese n-proliferation to Pakist NUCLEAR REACTORS 29 [NYTr] Stop the India nuke deal - Peace Action URGENT 30 ForUm: Construction of a Chornobyl plant's storage facility resumed 31 US: Beacon Journal: FirstEnergy restarts reactor 32 US: AP Wire: Cook reactor back in service after $100M in maintenance 33 Sofia Echo: BULGARIA SHUTS DOWN NUCLEAR REACTOR UNITS- KALFIN - 34 US: Dayton Daily News: Centrifuge plant facing delays, spiraling cos 35 US: DOW JONES: US Sen Domenici Still Plans To Move Nuclear Bill In 2 36 REA: Environmental Footprints of Renewable Energy vs. Nuclear 37 AFP: Swedish nuclear reactor shut down for weeks after fire 38 SO: Accident Prone Sweden: Nuclear Reactor Shut Down after Fire - 39 AFP: India's nuclear record, Iran links questioned ahead of Senate v 40 UPI: Fire closes Swedish nuclear power plant NUCLEAR SECURITY 41 US: HVN: Indian Point safety drill conducted; opponents say it wasn NUCLEAR SAFETY 42 World Science: Cleansing nuclear fallout from the body 43 [DU List] Khaim Southern Lebanon - A bombs anatomy 44 Guardian Unlimited: Plutonium Found in Iran Waste Facility NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 45 LVN: Meeting on newly proposed Yucca Mountain rail line set for Wedn 46 US: AP Wire: Newspaper: Higher cost raises questions about centrifug 47 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Regaining fragile ground 48 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Taxpayers may foot the bill for legal wrangli 49 US: Deseret News: PFS settlement in works 50 US: Daily Herald: Nuke sites asked for money for future care 51 US: Hampton Union Local News: C-1O group wants hardened storage 52 US: Stockton Interview: Nuclear Renaissance Needs Reliable Uranium S 53 US: AU ABC: Uranium action plan endorsed - 54 Evening Mail: Anger at Mox shipment plan PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 55 [NukeNet] Suit Filed Today Over Energy Dept Violations of 56 Knox News: Comments heard on Complex 2030 57 Middletown Journal: Groups fear Piketon will become dumping ground ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 [v911t] Halliburton Secretly Does Business Key Member Iran's Nuclear Team Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:35:38 -0600 (CST) X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Innocent"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY Halliburton Secretly Doing Business with Key Member of Iran's Nuclear Team By Jason Leopold http://WWW.commondreams.org/views05/0806-21.htm Scandal-plagued Halliburton, the oil services company once headed by Vice President Dick was secretly working with one of Iran's top nuclear program officials on natural gas related projects and, allegedly, selling the officials' oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor, according to Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both companies' business dealings. Just last week a National Security Council report said Iran was a decade away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. That time frame could arguably have been significantly longer if Halliburton, which just reported a 284 percent increase in its fourth quarter profits due to its Iraq reconstruction contracts, was not actively providing the Iranian government with the financial means to build a nuclear weapon. Now comes word that Halliburton, which has a long history of flouting U.S. Law by conducting business with countries the Bush administration said has ties to terrorism, was working with Cyrus Nasseri, the vice chairman of the board of directors of Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran's largest private oil companies, on oil development projects in Tehran. Nasseri is also a key member of Iran's nuclear development team. "Nasseri, a senior Iranian diplomat negotiating with Europe over Iran's controversial nuclear program is at the heart of deals with US energy companies to develop the country's oil industry", the Financial Times reported. Nasseri was interrogated by Iranian authorities in late July for allegedly providing Halliburton with Iran's nuclear secrets and accepting as much as $1 million in bribes from Halliburton, according to Iranian government officials. It's unclear whether Halliburton was privy to any of Iran's nuclear activities. A company spokesperson did not return numerous calls for comment. A White House spokesperson also did not return calls for comment. Oriental Oil Kish dealings with Halliburton became public knowledge in January when the company announced that it had subcontracted parts of the South Pars natural gas drilling project to Halliburton Products and Services, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Halliburton that is registered in the Cayman Islands. Following the announcement, Halliburton announced the South Pars gas field project in Tehran would be its last project in Iran. The BBC reported that Halliburton, which took in $30-$40 million from its Iranian operations in 2003, "was winding down its work due to a poor business environment." Halliburton, under mounting pressure from lawmakers in Washington, D.C., pulled out of its deal with Nasseri's company in May, but has done extensive work on other areas of the Iranian gas project and was still acting in an advisory capacity to Nasseri's company, two people who have knowledge of Halliburton's work in Iran said. In attempt to curtail other U.S. Companies from engaging in business dealings with rogue nations, the Senate approved legislation July 26 that would penalize companies that continue to skirt U.S. Law by setting up offshore subsidiaries as a way to legally conduct business in Libya, Iran and Syria, and avoid U.S. Sanctions under International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is part of the Senate Defense Authorization bill. "It prevents U.S. Corporations from creating a shell company somewhere else in order to do business with rogue, terror-sponsoring nations such as Syria and Iran," Collins said in a statement. "The bottom line is that if a U.S. Company is evading sanctions to do business with one of these countries, they are helping to prop up countries that support terrorism - most often aimed against America," she said. The law currently doesn't prohibit foreign subsidiaries from conducting business with rogue nations provided that the subsidiaries are truly independent of the parent company. But Halliburton's Cayman Island subsidiary never did fit that description. Halliburton first started doing business in Iran as early as 1995, while Vice President Cheney was chief executive of the company and in possible violation of U.S. Sanctions According to a February 2001 report in the Wall Street Journal, "Halliburton Products & Services Ltd. Works behind an unmarked door on the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block. A brochure declares that the company was registered in 1975 in the Cayman Islands, is based in the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Dubai and is "non-American." But, like the sign over the receptionist's head, the brochure bears the company's name and red emblem, and offers services from Halliburton units around the world." Moreover, mail sent to the company's offices in Tehran and the Cayman Islands is forwarded to the company's Dallas headquarters. Not surprisingly, in a letter drafted by trade groups representing corporate executives vehemently objected to the amendment saying it would lead to further hatred and perhaps incite terrorist attacks on the U.S and "greatly strain relations with the United States' primary trading partners." "Extraterritorial measures irritate relations with the very nations the U.S. Must secure cooperation from to promote multilateral strategies to fight terrorism and to address other areas of mutual concern," said a letter signed by the Coalition for Employment through Exports, Emergency Coalition for American Trade, National Foreign Trade Council, USA Engage, U.S. Council on International Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Foreign governments view U.S. efforts to dictate their foreign and commercial policy as violations of sovereignty, often leading them to adopt retaliatory measures more at odds with U.S. goals." Still, Collins' amendment has some holes. As Washington Times columnist Frank Gaffney pointed out in a July 25 story , "the Collins amendment would seek to penalize individuals or entities who evade IEEPA sanctions if they are "subject to the jurisdiction of the United States." "This is merely a restatement of existing regulations. The problem with this formulation is that, in the process of purportedly closing one loophole, it would appear to create new ones. As Sen. Collins told the Senate: "Some truly independent foreign subsidiaries are incorporated under the laws of the country in which they do business and are subject to that country's laws, to that legal jurisdiction. There is a great deal of difference between a corporation set up in a day, without any real employees or assets, and one that has been in existence for many years and that gets purchased, in part, by a U.S. firm. It is a safe bet that every foreign subsidiary of a U.S. Company doing business with terrorist states will claim it is one of the ones Sen. Collins would allow to continue enriching our enemies, not one prohibited from doing so." Going a step further, Dow Jones Newswires reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sent letters in June to energy corporations demanding that the companies disclose in their security filings any business dealings with terrorist supporting nations. "The letters have been sent by the SEC's Office of Global Security Risk, a special division that monitors companies with operations in Iran and other countries under U.S. Sanctions, which were created by the U.S. Congress in 2004," Dow Jones reported. The move comes as investors have become increasingly concerned that they may be unwillingly supporting terrorist activity. In the case of Halliburton, the New York City Comptroller's office threatened in March 2003 to pull its $23 million investment in the company if Halliburton continued to conduct business with Iran. The SEC letters are aimed at forcing corporations to disclose their profits from business dealings rogue nations. Oil companies, such as Devon Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. that currently conduct business with countries that sponsor terrorism, have not disclosed the profits received from terrorist countries in their most recent quarterly reports because the companies don't consider the earnings "material." Devon Energy was until recently conducting business in Syria. The company just sold its stake in an oil field there. ConocoPhillips has a service contract with the Syrian Petroleum Co. that expires on Dec. 31. Jason Leopold is the author of the explosive memoir, News Junkie, to be released in the spring of 2006 by Process/Feral House Books. Visit Leopold's website at www.jasonleopold.com for updates. ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: Ahmadinejad: Iran Open to Talk With U.S. From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday November 14, 2006 11:01 PM AP Photo VAH108 By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran would talk to the United States if it ``corrects its behavior,'' but the White House said there would be no discussions until Tehran took a more constructive role in the region. Ahmadinejad's comment was the highest-level Iranian statement in recent months that the government is willing to talk to Washington, which it has long demonized as ``the Great Satan.'' It also came a day after British Prime Minister Tony Blair advocated seeking Tehran's help in ending the violence in Iraq. At a news conference, Ahmadinejad did not spell out any other conditions for U.S.-Iranian talks, but he accused the Bush administration of pursuing a foreign policy based on aggression, oppression, unilateralism and disrespect for other nations. Ahmadinejad did not define the scope of any talks with the United States, nor did he say that Iraq or the nuclear dispute would be on the agenda of such discussions. At the news conference, Ahmadinejad said: ``We are after positive interaction with the whole world, excluding a country that we don't recognize'' - a reference to Israel. ``We won't talk to the Zionist regime because it is a usurper and an illegitimate entity. But we will talk to the U.S. government under certain conditions. Should it correct its behavior, we will talk to them,'' the president said. In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: ``I don't think this is about a U.S. attitude adjustment. The collective attitude of the world is that Iran needs to play a constructive role in the region, not meddle in Iraq and stop its enrichment activities.'' The United States and the Iraqi government have long accused Iran of aiding the insurgency in Iraq - a charge Iran denies. Johndroe pointed out that Blair had said Monday that Iran must stop interfering in Iraq and cease uranium enrichment. Iran has proposed talks with the United States about Iraq twice this year, first in March and then on Nov. 5. In the most recent proposal, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Tehran would consider talks with the U.S. over regional issues, including Iraq, if Washington requested. Weeks after the first proposal of talks, Iran withdrew the offer. When Tehran renewed the offer this month, analysts said that Iran was concerned about the escalating turmoil in Iraq and might also be seeking to slow Washington's push for sanctions over its nuclear program. The United States welcomed the first offer of talks, but said the negotiations would be confined to Iraq. On Tuesday, President Bush said his line on Iran was: ``We are willing to come to the table with the European Union, as well as Russia and China to discuss a way forward'' in relations. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Bush said repeated the condition that he set weeks ago - that for talks, Iran must agree to verifiably suspend its uranium enrichment activities. One option under discussion at one point by a bipartisan Iraq Study Group headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton was for greater cooperation with Iran and Syria. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 3 washingtonpost.com: Blair Calls for 'Whole Middle East' Strategy, Pressure on Iran - By Kevin SullivanWashington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, November 14, 2006; Page A25 LONDON, Nov. 13 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday that any solution to the Iraqcrisis must involve a "whole Middle East" strategy that starts with addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and includes pressuring Iranto stop backing radical extremists across the region. "Just as the situation is evolving, so our strategy has to evolve to meet it," Blair said in a foreign policy speech a day before he was to share his views in a videoconference with the Iraq Study Group, which is reviewing U.S. policy in Iraq. [The ] The "answer to Iraq" lies outside Iraq, Blair said. (Alastair Grant - AP) Blair, who has been President Bush's chief foreign ally in the Iraq war, offered no dramatic new policy proposals on Iraq or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he called the region's "core" issue. But he placed new emphasis on the importance of confronting outside elements -- he singled out at length the government in Iran -- that are "trying to create mayhem inside Iraq." "A major part of the answer to Iraq lies not in Iraq itself but outside it," Blair said during the speech at London's ornate Guildhall. He said Iraq policy must address the broader issue of a global anti-Western campaign of "terrorism based on a thoroughly warped misinterpretation of Islam." "In Iraq, the pressure from such terrorism has changed the nature of the battle. Its purpose is now plain: to provoke civil war," Blair said, adding that Iran, al-Qaeda and other outside extremists were joining forces with Iraqi radicals to "foment hatred" and choke off development of Iraq's democratically elected government. Blair said Iran was backing Shiite militias in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanonand the most radical elements of Hamas in the Palestinian territories. He said Iran was "using the pressure points in the region to thwart us." "What is happening in the Middle East is not complex," Blair said. "It is simple. Iran is being confronted over its nuclear weapons ambitions. Its stock market has lost a third of its value in the last year, and foreign credit is increasingly hard to come by. The statements of the president -- such as wiping Israelfrom the face of the earth -- are causing alarm, even in Iran." He said Iran's strategy has been to "put obstacles in the path to peace and paint us -- as they did over the Israel-Lebanon conflict -- as the aggressors. They inflame the Arab street. They create political turmoil in our democratic politics." Blair said "a new partnership is possible" with Iran if it supports the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, stops supporting extremists and cooperates with U.N. demands to curb its nuclear ambitions. "Alternatively, they face the consequences of not doing so -- isolation," Blair said. Blair passionately defended his close alliance with Bush and the United States, which has severely damaged his popularity among the British public. "We need America. That is a fact," he said, calling Britain'spartnerships with the United States and the European Union crucial to the country's future strength. "Take any problem Britain wants solving: global terrorism (assuming you don't believe that, but for George Bush, it wouldn't exist); climate change; Israel-Palestine; Iran and North Korea'snuclear program; world trade; or Africa right now, Sudan in particular; global poverty. We may agree or disagree with the United States' position on some or all of these issues. But none of these vital British concerns can be addressed, let alone solved, without America." Blair also defended Bush, who is wildly unpopular in Britain. He said some in Britain profess that it is not America they dislike, but Bush personally. "That's a comforting argument. It separates anti-America from anti-Bush," Blair said. "However, in my view it is also a cop-out." He said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks "would have changed any American president's foreign policy." "Following 9/11, American policy was going to shift," he said. "It was going to get out after the terrorists with all America's might, and any president who didn't do it wasn't going to be president for long." Copyright 1996- The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 4 Reuters: Official says U.S. may mull pre-emptive Iran strike Tue 14 Nov 2006 5:45 PM ET By Adrian Croft LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The United States or other countries will one day be forced to consider pre-emptive action if Iran and North Korea continue to seek nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. government official said on Tuesday. The United States and its allies have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy programme and are pushing for United Nations' sanctions. Tehran denies the accusation. North Korea conducted an underground test of what was believed to have been a small nuclear weapon last month. If North Korea refused to renounce its nuclear programme and Iran developed a nuclear weapons capability, it would lead other countries in their regions to seek nuclear weapons, said the U.S. official, speaking on condition he was not identified. "We, the United States, and others who might be threatened by these developments will have to look at how to respond and inevitably I think people will have to look at the question of pre-emption," the official told reporters. "I think it's inevitable that any American administration, not just this administration but future administrations, will have to look at pre-emptive strategies," he said. He was not saying that the United States was going to launch a pre-emptive strike "tomorrow", he said. He said there could be uncertainty, for example, over whether a missile in the hands of one of the countries had a nuclear warhead attached. "Under those circumstances some people might be inclined to pre-emption, and not just the United States ... Others who might feel threatened in the region might feel more inclined to pre-emption as a defence," he said. "It's a challenge for the international community." He urged the world to think hard about the cost of allowing Iran to "continue to move down the road it's been on". U.S. President George W. Bush says he backs a diplomatic solution in the case of Iran but has refused to rule out a military strike. A U.S. attack against Iran would set back Tehran's suspected quest for nuclear arms by less than four years, U.S. officials and independent experts say. Some analysts have speculated Israel could consider a strike against Iran if it felt threatened. An Iranian official said this week Iran would respond swiftly if Israel attacked it. © Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 AFP: Iran wants 60,000 centrifuges in nuclear drive - Ahmadinejad - by Stuart Williams Tue Nov 14, 11:18 AM ET TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad has defiantly announced the ultimate aim of Iran" /> 's atomic drive was to install tens of thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel. Despite the threat of UN sanctions over Tehran's refusal to hold back its nuclear programme, Ahmadinejad said that the long-term target of Iran should be to install 60,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium. Iran has said it is looking to install 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007, in itself a massive step from the two cascades of 164 centrifuges apiece it has currently at its Natanz plant to enrich uranium on a research scale. "We want to produce nuclear fuel and eventually we should go for 60,000 centrifuges. We should continue along this path. We are at the beginning of the wave," Ahmadinejad told a news conference Tuesday. His comments reaffirmed Iran's insistence that it wants to produce its own nuclear fuel on Iranian soil and will not renounce its right to uranium enrichment, a process the West fears could be diverted to make a nuclear bomb. Experts say that 50,000 centrifuges would normally be sufficient to produce 20 kilos (44 pounds) of weapons grade uranium in under a month, but Iran vehemently denies it wants the bomb. The remarks came as the United States and European powers seek to find agreement for a UN draft resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran over its failure to suspend uranium enrichment. Enrichment is carried out in lines of centrifuges called cascades and is used to make the fuel for civilian nuclear reactors. But in highly enriched form, the uranium can be used to make a nuclear bomb. Building tens of thousands of centrifuges would take Iran's enrichment programme from its current research level to one where it could produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale. World powers wanted Iran to suspend enrichment as a prelude to full-scale negotiations over its atomic programme, a demand that has been repeatedly rejected by Iran. "The question of a suspension has now been passed," Ahmadinejad said. But the president shrugged off the prospect of sanctions. "If they put in place sanctions a new financial order will be put in place." Iran's arch-enemy the United States accuses it of seeking nuclear weapons, but Tehran insists its atomic programme is solely aimed at generating energy. Amid mounting calls in the United States for contacts with Iran to stabilise neighbouring Iraq" /> , Ahmadinejad said talks with Washington could only take place if the United States changed its "attitude" towards Iran. "We would talk with the US government but on certain conditions, on the condition that it corrects its attitude," the president said, reaffirming his traditional stance on talks with the United States. "And at that moment, we will talk with them as we talk with the others," he said. The president confidently announced he would soon send a personal message to Americans and boasted to suspicious world powers that there now was no holding back the Iranian nuclear programme. "I will soon send a message to the American people. I am in the process of preparing it," Ahmadinejad said. "The message will elaborate upon the viewpoints of the Iranian nation, because many Americans asked me for it." Ahmadinejad has already made message-writing part of his personal style, firing off missives to US President George W. Bush" /> and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that were greeted with frigidity by both parties. The president gave no further details of the contents of the latest missive. "The great powers have tried to prevent our people from achieving their rights in nuclear material," he said. "This year I hope will be able to have the great celebration of the nuclearisation of Iran," he added. "We need time before we can arrive at a stage where we can make nuclear fuel for a power station. And yes, it will take time." Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 AFP: Iran aim to boost uranium enrichment should be "cold jolt" to doubters - US - Tue Nov 14, 4:26 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran" /> Iran's announced plans to install tens of thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges should be a "cold jolt" to doubters of Tehran's nuclear arms ambitions, a senior US official said. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a news conference Tuesday that Iran's long-term target should be to install 60,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium, insisting the fuel is for civilian energy production only. "That should be a cold jolt to the rest of the world," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in response. "What that leads to is an Iranian nuclear weapon, which would be an incredibly destabilizing event in the course of Middle East history," he said. Iran has said it is looking to install 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007 and ultimately run 60,000 centrifuges -- compared to two cascades of 164 centrifuges apiece it has currently at its Natanz plant to enrich uranium on a research scale. While Tehran insists its goal is civilian energy production, experts say that 50,000 centrifuges could produce 20 kilos (44 pounds) of weapons grade uranium in under a month. A leaked report from the International Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) in Geneva meanwhile said it was investigating traces of plutonium found in containers at a waste storage site in Iran. The developments came as the United States was struggling to agree on the terms of a UN sanctions resolution with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia. The six powers have been trying for months to entice Iran away from its nuclear ambitions. Iran faces the sanctions for refusing to comply with an earler UN Security Council resolution demanding it freeze its uranium enrichment work. Britain, France and Germany presented a draft resolution last month that focussed on nuclear- and ballistic missile-related sanctions and included travel bans and financial restrictions on Iranian scientists working on the nuclear and missile programs. But the talks have bogged down with Russia, which has strong economic ties to Iran and is helping build the country's first nuclear reactor. Moscow says the measures are too tough and Washington believes they need to be tightened further. The State Department's number two diplomat, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, spoke with his five counterparts Tuesday in a bid to break the stalemate, McCormack said. But there were no signs of an imminent breakthrough. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza Riceis also expected to raise the issue with her Chinese and Russian counterparts on the sidelines of this week's meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Hanoi, he said. McCormack said Ahmadinejad's boast and the IAEA report should "underscore the fact that we need a resolution in order to send a strong message to the Iranians that they need to change their behavior". He said the failure of the six powers to come up with a sanctions resolution "is starting to become also a question of the credibility of the Security Council of whether or not it can follow through in forcing its own resolutions". The Iranian president also proposed talks with Washington if the US changed its "attitude" towards Tehran, an overture immediately rejected by McCormack. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 AFP: Iran pressing ahead with enrichment - IAEA by Michael Adler Tue Nov 14, 2:25 PM ET VIENNA (AFP) - UN nuclear inspectors have found new traces of plutonium, a possible weapons material, in Iran" /> Iran, the UN atomic agency said in a confidential report that was unable to confirm that Tehran's nuclear program is peaceful. The International Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) report, obtained by AFP, also detailed how Iran is pressing ahead with research levels of uranium enrichment -- a process the West fears could be diverted to make a nuclear bomb. Despite the threat of UN sanctions over Tehran's refusal to hold back its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Tuesday that Iran eventually planned to install tens of thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel. The IAEA report said the agency is investigating traces of plutonium found in containers at a waste storage site at Karaj in Iran. Iran has been "requested to provide further clarification" of highly enriched uranium as well as plutonium particles found at Karaj and responded to this request on Tuesday, the report said. A senior UN official told reporters that the Iranian response had come too late to be analyzed before an IAEA meeting next week in Vienna that will review the Iranian nuclear program. The official said an overall problem remains in getting full and timely Iranian cooperation with the IAEA investigation into its atomic program that began in February 2003. Iran needs "to do more" to clear up "the ambiguities particular to some of the alleged military aspects of the program," the official said. According to the report, progress in this regard "is a prerequisite for the agency to be able to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme." Ahamdinejad announced Tuesday that the ultimate aim of Iran's atomic drive was to install some 60,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel. In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormak said the announcement was a "cold jolt" to doubters of Tehran's nuclear arms ambitions. Iran has installed a new cascade, or production line, of centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz in the center of the country, and now has two cascades of 164 centrifuges each running, as well as several smaller cascades. Iran from August 13 to November 2 fed "a total of approximately 34 kilograms" of feedstock uranium gas into centrifuges in Natanz, producing a small amount of uranium enriched to low levels, the report said. It did not detail how much uranium was produced but said enrichment levels seemed to be below five percent, nowhere near the 90 percent level needed to make atom bombs. The research uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, where Iran wants eventually to build a large-scale facility with over 50,000 centrifuges, is monitored by the IAEA but the agency is also investigating possibly military-related nuclear work by Iran elsewhere. One such site was a physics laboratory at Lavizan in Tehran that was razed in 2004 before IAEA inspectors could visit. "Iran has not yet responded to the agency's long outstanding requests for clarification concerning and access to carry out further environmental sampling of equipment and materials related to the Physics Research Centre (PHRC) nor has Iran provided the agency with access to interview ... (a) former head of the PHRC," the report said. The agency is also waiting for information on high explosives testing and the design of a missile re-entry vehicle, the report said, adding that Iran had not provided "sufficient claification" on experiments designed to separate out plutonium. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 AFP: Blair presses for rethink in Iraq, warns Iran by Prashant Rao Tue Nov 14, 2:50 AM ET LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair" /> called for a change in strategy in violence-torn Iraq" /> , in particular warning Iran" /> to stop aiding insurgents there and elsewhere. In a keynote speech in London, he said the three-year-old conflict -- in which US and British troops appear increasingly mired -- needs to be seen as part of a "whole Middle East" strategy. "Just as the situation is evolving, so our strategy has to evolve to meet it," he said. In the wide-ranging address, he said a major part of the answer to the Iraq problem "lies not in Iraq itself but outside it, in the whole of the region where the same forces are at work." "Just as it is, in significant part, forces outside Iraq that are trying to create mayhem inside Iraq, so we have to have a strategy that pins them back, not only in Iraq but outside of it too ... "This is what I call a 'whole Middle East' strategy," he said. Pressure for a change of direction in Iraq has been fueled by defeat for the Republican Party in last week's American mid-term elections, which led to the departure of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and leaves US President George W. Bush" /> more vulnerable in Congress. Blair's speech was met with scepticism in the British press, however, with two newspapers, the right-wing Daily Telegraph and left-wing Independent, arguing in their editorial columns that it smacked of desperation. In advance of the speech, Blair's office had suggested he would focus his message on efforts to persuade Syria" /> and Iran to help defuse the violence in Iraq, as well as elsewhere. But the final version of the speech omitted almost all reference to Syria, while offering Iran a "strategic choice": essentially, help the West or face increasing isolation. "There is a fundamental misunderstanding that this (strategy in the Middle East) is about changing policy on Syria and Iran ... in any event that is not where we start." "On the contrary, a whole-region policy should start with Israel" /> /Palestine. That is the core. We should then make progress on Lebanon. We should unite all moderate Arab and Muslim voices behind a push for peace in those countries but also in Iraq," he said. Speaking on Iran, Blair said Tehran's strategy was simple: to deflect pressure from the West over its nuclear plans -- which Washington suspects are a cover for developing atomic weapons -- it was helping extremists in Lebanon, Iraq, and in the Palestinian territories. "It is a perfectly straightforward and clear strategy. It will only be defeated by an equally clear one," he said. Under this, the West should "offer Iran a clear strategic choice: they help the Middle East peace process not hinder it; they stop supporting terrorism in Lebanon or Iraq; they abide by, not flout, their international obligations. "In that case, a new partnership is possible. Or alternatively they face the consequences of not doing so: isolation," he said. Blair's speech came a day before he is due to give video-link evidence to the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel led by former US secretary of state James Baker, which is looking at current coalition policy in Iraq. The British leader's testimony to the panel will come a day after Bush's appearance before the experts on Monday. Speaking ahead of his testimony, Bush also warned the Iranians. "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," he said. "There has to be a consequence for their intransigence." Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 AFP: US denies rift with Blair on Syria, Iran by Stephen Collinson Tue Nov 14, 5:55 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House rushed to deny claims of a diplomatic rift with its closest European ally Britain, after Prime Minister Tony Blair mooted a "partnership" with US foes Iran and Syria . As the impact of a major foreign policy address by the British leader started to sink in, the White House bristled at suggestions Blair had struck out from Washington, issuing a fact sheet to debunk the claim. Blair on Monday laid out a "whole Middle East strategy" involving a push for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, a plan for Iraq and a "strategic" choice of cooperation or isolation to be offered to Iran. On Tuesday, the British premier testified by video link-up to the US Iraq Study Group, probing possible new strategies on the war and called for a "strategic choice" for Iran and Syria, Downing Street said. His remarks were seen by some observers in both countries as an attempt to influence US policy in the Middle East, at a time when changes in Iraq strategy are being contemplated following the Republican defeat in mid-term elections. President George W. Bush 's spokesman Tony Snow however told AFP on Tuesday that suggestions in the US and British media that Blair's remarks signalled cracks between Downing Street and the White House were mischaracterizations. "Read his speech, and you'll see there is no difference between the governments," Snow said. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack acknowledged Britain and the United States had historically slightly differed towards Iran -- but did not see "a particularly new policy statement" in Blair's speech. The White House drew particular reference to Blair's comment that "there is a fundamental misunderstanding that this is about changing policy on Syria and Iran." The White House fact sheet unflatteringly compared coverage of Blair's speech by US-based reporters on The New York Times and The Washington Post and their colleagues in London. London-based reporters for the two US newspapers wrote that Blair took pains to ensure his remarks were not seen as a dramatic new policy shift. But the fact sheet noted colleagues on the same papers in the United States had wrongly seen Blair's speech as a policy shift on Iran and Syria, stating: "Prime Minister Blair's Policy Is Not New And Is Similar To President Bush 's Policy." In his speech Monday, Blair said the West should "offer Iran a clear strategic choice: they help the Middle East peace process not hinder it; they stop supporting terrorism in Lebanon or Iraq; they abide by, not flout, their international obligations. "In that case, a new partnership is possible. Or alternatively they face the consequences of not doing so: isolation," he said, adding that Tehran must also stop its nuclear enrichment drive. On Monday, Bush said in a joint appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that talks with Iran were only possible if Tehran halted its nuclear program in line with an already stated international initiative. A Downing Street spokeswoman told AFP on Tuesday that Blair also had told the US Iraq Study Group in the videoconference that any solution in Iraq must be part of a broader Middle East strategy which would also include a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The way to deal with Iran was not to back down on our demands but to take away their ability to exploit Muslim opinion and to confront both it and Syria with a strategic choice," the spokeswoman said. This choice was that they could either be "part of a solution or face isolation," she added. Blair's speech on Monday puzzled some observers, evidenced by several different interpretations on offer in different newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic. Nile Gardiner, a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation think-tank, which has close links to the Bush administration, said the speech was a "major shift in British policy" and an attempt to influence the US Iraq Study Group. "Over here, I think the speech hasn't really sunk in, but it will do in the next few days," he said. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 UPI: Iran reportedly has secret nuclear fund United Press International - NewsTrack - 11/14/2006 1:41:00 AM -0500 TEHRAN, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Iran appears to have a secret $418 million slush fund for expansion of its nuclear operations, the German magazine Der Spiegel reports. The information came from telephone calls made by a top Iranian official on a line tapped by a Western intelligence service, the magazine said. The money would be used to safeguard Iran's nuclear sites from attack by the United States or Israel and to build a secret nuclear plant. Farhad Rahbar, vice-president and head of the planning and budget organization and a director of the Control Center for Nuclear Issues, reportedly wrote a clause authorizing the secret fund into the budget, allowing him to increase military spending by 30 percent. Planning includes moving nuclear operations into tunnels, building additional centrifuges and a new nuclear plant at a secret location. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 11 UPI: Qatar urges peaceful Iran nuke settlement United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 11/14/2006 6:44:00 AM -0500 DOHA, Qatar, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani has called for solving Iran's controversial nuclear case peacefully, reflecting Gulf fears of a military solution. A day after Saudi Arabia stressed the need to solve the conflict through negotiations, Sheikh Hamad told a meeting of the Qatari Consultative Council Tuesday that the row over Iran's nuclear program "is a major concern in our region, and we underscore the importance of settling that matter by peaceful means and through continuing international dialogue with Tehran." Hamad was quoted by Qatari news agency QANA as pledging that "Qatar will deploy every possible effort to consolidate security and stability in our region, which is plagued by acute conflicts and chronic problems." He argued that "the absence of a just settlement for the Palestinian cause and the big sufferings endured by the Palestinian people is the real reason behind the exacerbation and multiplication of conflicts in the Middle East." "We urge the international community to give priority to achieving a just settlement to that cause on the basis of international legitimacy, because temporary or partial solutions are no longer sufficient or accept(able) if we want the region to live in peace and security," Hamad added. The emir also sounded the alarm over the dramatic developments in Iraq and the surge of violence claiming scores of Iraqi victims daily. "Qatar backs all true and genuine efforts aimed at ending Iraq's ordeal and protecting its unity, security and territorial integrity," Hamad said. On Monday, the deputy president of Saudi Arabia's consultative council urged a peaceful settlement of Iran's nuclear controversy, reflecting growing fears in Arab Gulf countries of a possible attack against Iran. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited: Bolton Says Russia Seeking Iran Changes From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday November 14, 2006 3:01 AM AP Photo NYOH107 By JUSTIN BERGMAN Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Russian changes to a draft U.N. resolution on Iran's nuclear program would ``cut back substantially'' on restrictions the U.S. and its allies are seeking, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Monday. Bolton said Russia specified its proposed changes to the text during a meeting Monday of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany - the key parties in a standoff with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. The draft resolution backed by the U.S. and Europe would order all countries to ban the supply of materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs and impose a travel ban and asset freeze on companies, individuals and organizations that are involved. But Bolton said the Russian changes would ``cut back substantially from the scope'' of the lists of suppliers of materials and technology included in the document. He did not elaborate on the differences between the two sides, but said he would consult with Washington about how to proceed before the negotiators' next meeting on Wednesday. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said after the meeting that he had presented the U.S. and its allies with ``extensive technical answers'' to questions they had raised at their last meeting. He sounded optimistic that the negotiations would continue. ``I think the whole purpose of this exercise is to better understand where we all are coming from,'' he told reporters. Russia is building Iran's first nuclear power plant and strongly supports Iran's right to nuclear energy, but has joined the U.S. and Europe in demanding it halt enrichment in order to ease concerns that Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. However, Moscow has rejected the European draft, saying the sanctions are too broad and too strong, and urging revisions including the removal of all references to the plant Russia is building in the Iranian city of Bushehr. In Washington, President Bush warned Iran it will face ``economic isolation'' if it presses ahead with its nuclear program. ``There has to be a consequence for their intransigence,'' Bush told reporters after he discussed Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a meeting Monday. ``I recognize the threat to world peace that the Iranians ... pose, as does the prime minister,'' Bush added. Russia and China, which also has major commercial ties with Iran, have publicly pushed for dialogue instead of U.N. punishment despite the collapse last month of a European Union attempt to entice Iran into talks. China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said Monday the latest discussions centered on a number of ``key, difficult issues,'' but he described the mood as non-confrontational. Last week, Wang had offered a more dire assessment, saying there were many areas of differences among the parties that could not be bridged. Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials over the weekend in Moscow to discuss the nuclear standoff. Larijani remained defiant after the first round of meetings on Friday, saying Tehran would push ahead with its nuclear program. He did not speak to the media afterward, but Russian officials said they believed talks with Iran were still possible. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 13 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Says Nuke Program Is Near Complete From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday November 14, 2006 4:01 PM AP Photo VAH102 By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran would soon celebrate completion of its nuclear fuel program and claimed the international community was ready to accept it as a nuclear state. Iran has been locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program. The United States and its European allies have been seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. ``Initially, they (the U.S. and its allies) were very angry. The reason was clear: They basically wanted to monopolize nuclear power in order to rule the world and impose their will on nations,'' Ahmadinejad told a news conference. ``Today, they have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran, with an Iran possessing the whole nuclear fuel cycle,'' he said. He did not elaborate. President Bush said Monday there was no change in his position that Iran must first suspend uranium enrichment before there can be any dialogue with Tehran. ``Our focus of this administration is to convince the Iranians to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. That focus is based on our strong desire for there to be peace in the Middle East. And an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a destabilizing influence,'' Bush said Monday. The Iranian leader said he hoped ``to hold the big celebration of Iran's full nuclearization in the current year.'' Iran's current calendar year ends on March 20. Though Ahmadinejad did not specify, he appeared to indicate that Iran was on the verge of proficiency in the whole cycle of nuclear fuel - from extracting uranium ore to enriching it and producing nuclear fuel. Russia, which is backed by China, opposes tough action advocated by the U.S., Britain and France, and its amendments to a Western draft resolution would reduce sanctions and delete language that would cut off Iran's access to foreign missile technology. The U.S. and some of its allies allege that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and are suspicious of its intentions after Tehran concealed parts of its nuclear development from U.N. inspectors for many years. Iran claims its program is peaceful and for generating electricity. Uranium enrichment at low levels can be used to produce fuel to generate electricity but at higher levels can be use to make atomic bombs. Iran has said it will never give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel. Officials have said they plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy in the next two decades. Since revelations more than three years ago of a covert uranium enrichment program, Iran has moved to develop its capabilities, activating two small experimental enrichment plants and enriching small amounts of uranium to nuclear fuel level. Although that is far short of the weapons grade uranium that could be used for nuclear warheads, international concerns about Tehran's ultimate intentions led the Security Council to set an Aug. 31 deadline for an enrichment moratorium - which Tehran has ignored. Officials have said they plan to have 3,000 centrifuges operating by next year - enough to make enough material for several nuclear weapons a year. Suspicions also are focused on Tehran's construction of a heavy water reactor that - when completed in the next decade - will produce plutonium waste, another pathway to nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency declined comment on the Iranian president's remarks. The Bush administration, frustrated by U.N. Security Council inaction on sanctions against Iran, is pressing a new agenda - trying to deny Tehran U.N. aid for a plutonium-producing reactor that could be used to make nuclear warheads. Diplomats from nations on the IAEA board say the U.S. is lobbying for denial of Iran's request for help on its Arak research reactor, where Iran says it wants to produce radio isotopes for diagnosing and treating cancer. Seven diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information, told The Associated Press separately Tuesday that they believed that the 35 member nations of the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog would deny Iran's request when the IAEA meets next week. But even a total denial of technical aid for Arak, while symbolically important, is expected to do little to slow the eventual completion of the reactor, let alone Iran's nuclear program. When finished - probably early in the next decade - Arak could produce enough plutonium for about two bombs a year. --- Associated Press Writer George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 14 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Assures Israel Iran Seen As Threat From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday November 14, 2006 1:01 PM AP Photo XEM804 By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will return to his country with reassurances from the Bush administration that it is not backing down from its view that Iran and its nuclear program are a world threat. With Olmert at his side following a White House meeting Monday, Bush told reporters that a nuclear-armed Iran not only would threaten Israel but loom as an ``incredibly destabilizing'' threat to the region and the world. ``I recognize the threat to world peace that the Iranians pose, as does the prime minister,'' Bush said. Israel is worried that political fallout from last week's Republican election defeat and rising calls for U.S. engagement with Iran may soften Bush's resolve against a country whose president has said the Jewish state should be wiped from the map. The president's remarks come as his administration is considering changing its policy in Iraq, following last week's Democratic election triumph that will give them control of Congress next year. Tuesday morning, Bush spoke by telephone with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ``as part of their continuing consultations on issues of importance in the region,'' said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council. He said during the 10-minute conversation the two men discussed Lebanon and Sudan, as well as Olmert's visit and the Palestinian political situation. Before meeting with Olmert, Bush spent an hour with a bipartisan commission that will recommend new U.S. approaches for ending the widely unpopular war in Iraq. Among the options the panel has been considering is engaging Iran and Syria - longtime adversaries of the U.S. - to help bring peace in Iraq. But in his remarks to reporters, Bush did not mention such an approach to Iran. Instead, he emphasized his administration's long-running effort to press Iran to abandon its nuclear program, which the U.S. and Israel say is aimed at developing weapons but Tehran says is designed to produce an energy source. ``It is 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, and one source of isolation would be economic isolation,'' Bush said. He said that ``rational people'' in Iran should know that isolation was not in their interest. Bush reminded Iran ``we are willing to come to the table with the European Union, as well as Russia and China to discuss a way forward'' in relations. He repeated conditions he set weeks ago that first, Iran must agree to verifiably suspend its uranium enrichment activities. In New York, the leading nations of the U.N. Security Council worked once again without agreeing to sanctions that could begin pinching Iran. Olmert, who also met with Vice President Dick Cheney and members of Congress, was heading to Los Angeles on Tuesday to speak to Jewish groups. The Israeli leader, who also came to Washington to discuss the search for an acceptable Palestinian partner for peacemaking, most of all wanted a clear statement from Bush that Iran's threat to erase Israel from the map had implication far beyond the tiny Jewish state. ``There is no question that the Iranian threat is not just a threat for Israel, but for the whole world,'' Olmert said. The two leaders also took note of developments in the Palestinian camp that could push moderates to the fore. With Bush's support, Olmert said he would try to meet soon with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader who has spoken against attacks on Israel. Palestinian factions are trying to agree to a unity government of technocrats. The aim is to bridge Hamas, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction and currently is the dominant force in the Palestinian government, and the more moderate Fatah, some of whose members are pragmatic about coming to terms with Israel to establish a state on land now held by Israel. The United States, Israel and the European Union all have vowed not to deal with Hamas as long as it attacks Israel and refuses to recognize its existence. Bush and Olmert gave no hint of bending on that principle. Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisen, told Israeli reporters: ``There was across-the-board agreement with the president and other officials about the need for the Palestinians to adhere to the conditions of the international community.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 15 AFP: Japan squeezes North Korea further on trade November 14, 07:00 PM TOKYO (AFP) - Japan has slapped a new trade ban on North Korea aimed at hitting the leadership directly by barring exports of two dozen luxury goods including liquor, tobacco and Kim Jong-Il's favorite foods. It is the latest sanction that Japan has taken against its neighbor in response to its nuclear test on October 9. "I don't think it would affect the lives of ordinary people in North Korea," said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "I hope it would be influential and send a strong message of the international community to the government's executive officials," said Abe, who built his career promoting a tough line against North Korea. Japan has already imposed a sweeping ban on all visits by North Korean ships and all imports, including money-makers such as clams, crabs and high-end matsutake mushrooms. In the latest measure approved by the cabinet Tuesday, Japan will prohibit export of 24 items which are seen as benefitting only top leaders including Kim Jong-Il, who is known as a consummate playboy despite his country's poverty. The ban, which will take effect Wednesday, covers cars, liquor, tobacco, gems, leather items, watches, beef, and caviar, a foreign ministry official said. The list specifically included tuna fillets -- which the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said were chosen because they are one of Kim Jong-Il's favorite gourmet foods. Japan also banned exports of cameras, movie equipment and software as Kim is known as an avid fan of foreign cinema, as well as perfume and cosmetic products. "The government listed the items using our own judgment that they are likely to be used by executive members of the North Korean government or provided for their subordinates," said Japan's top government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki. The total export value of the 24 items was about 1.09 billion yen (9.22 million dollars) in 2005, accounting for about 16 percent of total exports from Japan to North Korea, the trade ministry said. However, North Korea conducts two-thirds of its trade with China and South Korea, which support continuing trade with the communist state in hopes of coaxing it to join the international mainstream. Japan's additional sanction came despite North Korea's agreement to return to six-nation talks on ending its nuclear program. Pyongyang had boycotted the dialogue since November last year to protest US financial sanctions against a Macau bank accused of laundering and counterfeiting money on behalf of the regime. Japan is particularly sensitive as North Korea fired a missile over its main island in 1998, leading Tokyo and Washington to step up work on a missile defense system. The Pacific allies have championed a hard line against North Korea since its nuclear test and spearheaded the UN Security Council resolution that imposed sanctions on Pyongyang. Trade Minister Akira Amari said he expected the United States to impose additional sanctions as well and hoped other countries would follow suit. "I hope the move by Japan and the United States would set the guideline" for other countries, Amari said. But South Korea on Monday said it would go its own way, refusing US calls to join naval drills on inspecting North Korean ships. Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 Korea Herald: Seoul to reduce inter-Korean funds The government and ruling Uri Party have agreed to trim next year's budget for inter-Korean exchanges. During a consultative meeting, the two sides agreed to allot 1.83 trillion won ($1.9 billion) to the state-run fund created to support business deals with North Korea. The figure reflects a 25.9 percent decrease from this year, but critics say the change is insignificant as a large proportion of the decrease is due to the halted light-water reactor project. Overall, excluding loans that remain outstanding for financing the reactor project, the budget for the fund is to reach 1.18 trillion won, down 3.5 percent from this year. The government and Uri Party also agreed to maintain the funds allotted for tours to North Korea's Mount Geumgang and the jointly run industrial complex in Gaeseong City. These projects are expected to receive 3.05 billion won and 214.3 billion won, respectively, according to the budget outlook submitted by the Unification Ministry and the Foreign Ministry. Critics, led by the opposition Grand National Party, are demanding significant reductions to the budget in the wake of Pyongyang's Oct. 9 nuclear test. The inter-Korean exchange fund was created in 1991 to help support North Korean policies and business deals with the North. It consists of both government and commercially raised money. Local companies seeking business with North Korea may apply to the Unification Ministry for loans at a 6 percent interest rate. The government compensates up to 90 percent of any losses incurred from inter-Korean deals. (jemmie@heraldm.com) By Kim Ji-hyun 2006.11.15 ***************************************************************** 17 Korea Herald: Envoys meet on N.K. nukes Preparations for six-party talks on North Korea will get a kick start today when chief negotiators of South Korea, the United States and Japan meet in Hanoi, Vietnam. South Korea's Chun Yung-woo, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill and Japan's Kenichiro Sasae will evaluate North Korea's intentions in returning to the nuclear negotiations and discuss how to implement the Joint Statement signed in September 2005. Hanoi is hosting the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Chun said in a radio interview yesterday that it would be possible to restart the six-party talks by mid-December. "It is more important to make preparations to see a substantial achievement when the talks reopen rather focusing on how soon the negotiations are resumed." The three countries are intent on letting North Korea know before returning to the negotiations that it will not be viewed as a nuclear state. They are also determined to pick up the talks where they left off a year ago despite North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test. The parties to the talks - the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia - had agreed last year to negotiate follow-up measures to the Joint Statement on North Korea's nuclear programs dismantlement, in exchange for diplomatic and economic incentives. Sources said the chief negotiators will also reaffirm that U.N. Resolution 1718 on North Korea's nuclear test must be fully executed separately from the six-party talks. They said Chun and Hill could also meet on the sidelines of the trilateral talks. Leaders and top diplomats of 21 APEC member states are in the Vietnamese capital this weekend for the annual forum. U.S. officials said Monday local time that North Korean issues are likely to be included in the APEC joint statement. It is the first opportunity that the nations closest to North Korea's nuclear crisis are meeting face to face. North Korea, which is not an APEC member, is not expected to attend. "You are absolutely right that North Korea will be a subject of discussion, particularly at the bilateral meetings that are held by the president and other leaders at the APEC summit," a senior U.S. administration official was quoted as saying by Yonhap. "North Korea's actions are a cause of concern for regional and international security ... and we would think it would be appropriate to have some recognition of that in the leaders' statement," the official said. Foreign ministers will have their own bilateral and multilateral talks on the sideline but it is unlikely that the five members of the nuclear negotiations will meet exclusively. "I think the decision has been made to have an informal foreign ministers' meeting at APEC, and in that meeting I think there will be a full, fulsome discussion of North Korean issues," the official said. "I think that's the preferred venue rather than trying to put together a five-party meeting." South Korea's Chun, in the meantime, confirmed that South Korean officials contacted his North Korean counterpart recently through a U.N. channel. Without elaborating further, Chun said, "We exchanged useful views on how North Korea considers the six-party talks." He added that Washington was ready to engage in serious negotiations once North Korea proves its determination to dismantle its nuclear programs. Chun also said there must be incentives according to the progression of North Korea's nuclear dismantlement. (angiely@heraldm.com) By Lee Joo-hee 2006.11.15 ***************************************************************** 18 Korea Herald: Japan bans luxury goods exports to N.K. Japan on Tuesday decided to impose a ban on exporting luxury goods to North Korea in a move experts say could dent morale among the communist nation's elite, who receive such items as perks. Japan's cabinet approved bans on exports of 24 kinds of luxury goods to North Korea including cars, wristwatches, liquor, cigarettes, jewelry, perfume and caviar. The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution that among other measures blocks trade with North Korea in luxury goods following Pyongyang's nuclear test on Oct. 9. "We have decided to take measures to ban exports of luxury goods to North Korea in response to the (U.N. Security Council) resolution," Foreign Minister Taro Aso told Tuesday's cabinet meeting. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has long been known for his fondness for cognac and is said to have a wine cellar with space for 10,000 bottles. South Korean intelligence officials familiar with Kim's habits say the biggest gifts for top North Korean cadres are cars, with Mercedes-Benz the top choice. Pianos and camcorders are also popular. Japan first imposed punitive measures after Pyongyang fired off a barrage of test missiles in July, and stepped them up after its nuclear test in October. The measures include a ban on imports and a prohibition on North Korean ships entering Japanese ports. Japan's total trade with North Korea amounted to some $180 million in 2005, about half the 2002 figure. North Korea said recently it would return to six-party talks on ending its nuclear programs. But Japan said it would maintain its sanctions on North Korea despite Pyongyang's agreement to return to the talks, which bring together North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. Tokyo said the sanctions would not be lifted until the communist state committed to abandoning its nuclear ambitions and settled a dispute over Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. Meanwhile, the Australian government has "fully" implemented U.N. sanctions on North Korea following the communist state's nuclear test last month, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. "Australia has taken action to fully implement" the sanctions, Downer said in an e-mailed statement today. The "supply, sale or transfer" of goods to North Korea that could be used in the state's nuclear, weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs is now banned under Australian law, Downer added. "It is also an offence to provide North Korea with training, advice, services, or assistance related to specific items," the statement said. 2006.11.15 ***************************************************************** 19 Korea Herald: [Lauren Keane]N. Korea viewed from Chinese border DANDONG - The city of Dandong in northeastern China has built a thriving industry around North Korea-gawking. Tour boats speed across the river within feet of the North Korean shore, carrying middle-class Chinese tourists who strain for a glimpse of their communist neighbors. The boats dock at a sparkling, tree-lined promenade. Visitors can walk the remaining half of the Yalu river bridge, bombed by Americans in 1953, to its dead end in the middle of the river. Tickets to walk the bridge cost about $8 - binocular rental and North Korean souvenirs not included. It's easy to leave Dandong with the feeling that China treats its neighbor as a tourist attraction. Judging from conversations with more than a dozen Chinese people, the Chinese man-on-the-street regards North Korea primarily as a curiosity. It may require a slap on the wrist, but is certainly no force to be reckoned with on the world stage. Of course, the distance between Chinese public opinion and official policy is often wide. North Korea's recent nuclear test, less than 80 kilometers from the Chinese border, may have rattled officials in Beijing. One statement called actions by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea "flagrant" and declared the Chinese government "resolutely opposed." After long insisting that multilateral negotiations coupled with humanitarian aid would control North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the government agreed to partial economic sanctions, including a reported temporary halt on oil shipments to DPRK. That gamble may have paid off: North Korea agreed to return to the negotiating table. But while their government sprung into action, most Chinese shrugged. "Of course I'm not worried," said Yi Zhiping, a Chinese language teacher at Tsinghua University in Beijing, while having lunch in a crowded cafeteria with another teacher and several American and Japanese-American students. "China and North Korea are close allies," she noted, brushing aside government statements that take an increasingly tough stance toward the DPRK. "The government will take care of all this. We're more concerned about Japan attacking us than about North Korea." Her colleague Yao Wei agreed. Asked if anything about a nuclear North Korea worried her, she seconded, "Japan." That sentiment seems common. If the Chinese are concerned, it is not that the North Koreans might train their weapons on China, but that any military conflict over Korea would necessarily pit China, North Korea's closest ally, against Japan. That would strain historically cool relations that have grown frosty in recent years, though they may have thawed a little with the visit of Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The worry about Japan may belie larger concerns about American domination: Criticizing Japan is socially acceptable in China, while many Chinese are more hesitant to criticize the United States, especially to an American journalist. After 30 minutes of conversation, Yi and Yao broached the subject. "All this hype about sanctions and multilateral action is just the United States wanting to keep the rest of the world from becoming powerful, too," Yi said. "Why shouldn't North Korea have the right to conduct nuclear research?" One reason it shouldn't, some Chinese say, is that size matters. "North Korea is just too small," said Wang Jiewen, 49, a taxi driver in Datong, a coal-mining city near Beijing. Small countries, he said, often make decisions without regard for consequences to the rest of the world. "They don't take any responsibility for their actions and what might happen next," Wang said. "It just shows how vain they are." Despite their criticisms, Wang and other older Chinese compare North Korea today to China in 1964, when it conducted its first nuclear test: an isolated country suffering under socialism, trying to gain credibility on the world stage. For some, like Yi, that comparison is further justification for North Korea's actions. Passing judgment on a starving society that wants to be taken seriously could be seen as hypocritical given that China was in similar shoes not so long ago. Others, including Wang, see those similarities as a hopeful sign that North Korea may follow China's footsteps toward a more open society with a modified form of socialism. Their reasoning is based on a sense of Communist camaraderie witha their neighbor, information gleaned about the North from the Chinese media and widespread agreement that life in China has improved since 1964. That's especially true for those who remember China's nuclear debut as an early landmark moment in the country's opening up to the world. Why wouldn't North Korea want to follow China's example? But members of the younger generation remain skeptical of drawing parallels between North Korea and China. China's test was during the height of the Cold War, when the nation was isolated from an outside world that was itself not so interconnected. As Peking University graduate student Sophia Jin, 24, said, "What about all these years of globalization? The world is a completely different place now." Jin and her contemporaries hardly regard the North Korean nuclear program as a crisis and seem largely unconcerned with politics. "This doesn't really affect me, so I don't really pay much attention," Yao said. "Politics is the government's business, not mine." The lack of opinion may reflect a shoulder-shrug attitude toward politics in general, or it may be a referendum on China's worry about a nuclear North Korea. A recent Chicago Council on Global Affairs study, conducted before the nuclear test, found that, "Instability and conflict on the Korean Peninsula" ranked 11th most important out of 13 potential threats to national interests. The AIDS epidemic and avian flu topped the list. Just 28 percent of Chinese considered the possibility of "unfriendly countries becoming nuclear powers" to be a critical threat. That may be because they don't consider DPRK an "unfriendly country." Those surveyed described China's relations with North Korea as "quite warm." The world's ability to contain North Korea may depend on whether their perception of the political climate is accurate. Still others give the issue a shrug because cynicism toward North Korea is so deeply ingrained. That's particularly true of those living on the border, for whom firsthand experience with refugees or North Koreans doing business in China holds more sway than government propaganda or Chinese history - experiences that, in many cases, have left the Chinese with negative impressions of their counterparts across the Yalu river. "What can you do? They're just poor and belligerent," said Zheng Linhu, a taxi driver from Jilin province, which borders North Korea. Ethnically Korean, with ancestral roots in the DPRK, Zheng was born in China and considers himself Chinese. On a fall afternoon four days before the test, as his cab wound its way south 500 kilometers along the length of the China-North Korea border, Zheng mused about China's options for handling its neighbor, which he compared to a "misbehaving younger brother." He expressed doubts about the potential for defusing the conflict, especially via diplomacy. If the North Koreans he's met on the Chinese side of the border are any indication, he said, "Whatever you give them, it's never enough." "They pressure you for money, and maybe you give them 10 yuan," he said. "They whine and want 100. You give them 100, they guilt you for 1,000. Even if you give them that, they'll still curse your back as you walk away." China, despite joining the international denunciation of North Korea, displays a calm reaction that may be informed by a deep understanding of an obstreperous old ally. Lauren Keane is a Blakemore Freeman Fellow in Chinese language at Tsinghua University's IUP Center. A former Henry Luce Scholar at China's "Caijing Magazine," she is currently a freelance journalist living in Beijing. - Ed. (YaleGlobal) 2006.11.15 ***************************************************************** 20 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL]Ban Ki-moon off to U.N. "I am not Korea's (U.N.) secretary-general, but I will be a Korean secretary-general." With these words, South Korea's outgoing foreign minister tried to define where he would stand in regards to his own country and the world body over the next five years. The direct English translation sounds a little hazy. We believe he must have meant that he would not forget that he is a Korean, but he would not be working for Korea. As he leaves for New York today, we hope that he will equally share his concerns for all nations and peoples, and that the world community will receive Ban Ki-moon without adding the tag "Korean." It was truly extraordinary that the U.N. members picked a candidate from the Korean Peninsula, a major area of conflict and tension since the end of World War II - and the inauguration of the United Nations - to lead the world organization. This gives one pause to ponder that the world does not see South Korea as just one half of a divided nation. Rather the world sees it as a representative entity on the peninsula which, having achieved democracy and a strong market economy, pursues the values and objectives of the United Nations. While it is inconceivable for the U.N. to have, for example, an Israeli or a Palestinian secretary-general - at least for the time being, - it now has a chief from South Korea. As Koreans regard Ban's election to be an indication of the world community's recognition of their political and economic achievements over the past six decades, they take pride from it although they acknowledge Ban's personal merits helped significantly. Ban will shortly meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London to complete his round of visits with the heads of governments of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members, and start preparations for his new job. A man of great diligence, Ban will certainly bring a breath of fresh air and innovation to the United Nations, an organization which Ban has determined needs to be reformed. Reforming an organization like the U.N. will not be quite the same as overhauling a state agency or a corporation, and he will need the support of the leading powers for the task. Here, he will have to master in-house diplomacy with the richer members expeditiously to launch a campaign against inefficiency and suspected corruption within the 61-year-old world body. Protecting the interests of small states in the distribution of U.N. assets will be another major task for the new secretary-general. And, one of his earliest tasks as the world's top troubleshooter will inevitably be dealing with the North Korean nuclear problem. Ban said he was thinking of naming a special U.N. envoy on the North Korean question, but he may have to personally assume a mediatory role as his predecessors have done on major international disputes. And sooner or later he will perhaps have to make a visit to Pyongyang. On that occasion, the South Korean U.N. secretary-general may momentarily be confused about who he represents and what he stands for. Reminding himself of his own words in his farewell speech to the National Assembly will help him correctly perform his task and earn the respect and trust of the world community. 2006.11.15 ***************************************************************** 21 Korea Times: Seoul Should Secure Nuclear Technology Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Kim Tae-woo South Korea needs to secure technology for uranium enrichment and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel as part of its mid- and long-term security strategy, following North Korea's apparent breach of a 1992 inter-Korean denuclearization pact with a nuclear test on Oct. 9, a nuclear expert said. ``At a time when the two Koreas were signing an agreement to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons in 1992, I objected to the plan because I anticipated it would constrain South Korea's position once the North violated the pact,'' Kim Tae-woo, a senior research fellow at the state-funded Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), said at a seminar in Taejon on Monday. The two Koreas concluded the joint declaration on Dec. 31, 1991, and it went into effect in February 1992. Under the six-point agreement, the two sides pledged not to test, produce, receive, store, deploy or use nuclear arms. ``Pyongyang repeatedly defied international agreements on the buildup of its nuclear weapons program, such as the 1992 inter-Korean denuclearization pact and the 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States, and at last went ahead with a nuclear test,'' Kim said. After withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003, the Stalinist regime announced for the first time it possessed manufactured nuclear weapons on Feb. 10 last year. The researcher stressed that the Seoul government should send a strong signal to the Kim Jong-il regime by taking symbolic steps, for instance, announcing abandonment of the inter-Korean treaty unless the North scraps all of its nuclear weapons programs. ``I know it is unrealistic and difficult to have such nuclear enrichment and reprocessing technology now because of a much more strengthened U.S.-led nuclear inspection regime than before. It is more so considering Washington is the most important ally in handling the North's nuclear threat,'' he said. The North's increasing ``asymmetrical'' military capability of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons will tip the security balance between the two Koreas, making South Korean citizens ``nuclear hostages,'' Kim said, dismissing President Roh Moo-hyun's remarks that the nuclear test will not affect the military balance on the peninsula. He called for the establishment of a special military unit and building advanced weapons systems to neutralize Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and infrastructure. Kim said he thinks the prospects for the upcoming six-party talks, expected to be held in mid-December, are not bright because North Korea is likely to try to be recognized as a nuclear power, while the U.S. government would maintain its hard-line policy toward Pyongyang. gallantjung@hotmail.com11-14-2006 17:49 ***************************************************************** 22 Korea Times: Nuke Talks to Be Held by Middle of December Hankooki.com > The Korea Times S. Korea, US, Japan Plan to Discuss NK Nukes By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Chun Yung-woo, Seoul's chief nuclear envoy, said on Tuesday that the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs are expected to be held by mid-December at the latest. He made this prediction before leaving for Hanoi where he will attend a three-way meeting with his American and Japanese counterparts on Wednesday to discuss ways to move forward with the denuclearization negotiations. It is the first time for the three officials get together since Pyongyang promised to return to the negotiating table late last month. ``An early resumption of the talks is not important,'' Chun told a radio program in Seoul. ``Rather, it's more important to prepare well and try to make practical progress when the talks resume.'' Previously, the talks were expected to be held later this month or early next month. A diplomatic source in Seoul said, asking not to be named, that the Washington administration now has little time to pay attention to the six-party talks as it has been swamped by the Democrats' criticism on President George W. Bush's foreign policy failures in Iraq since the Republicans' defeat in mid-term elections on Nov. 7. After the three-way meeting in Hanoi, Chun plans to hold bilateral discussions with the United States' Christopher Hill and Japan's Kenichiro Sasae, respectively. The three nuclear envoys have agreed to gather in the Vietnamese capital as the city hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this weekend, officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul said. In a related development, Chun confirmed that diplomats from the two Koreas recently met in New York to exchange ``valuable'' opinions on the six-party talks that have been stalled over the past year. ``When the talks are resumed, it's important to confirm the North's intention to scrap its nuclear programs,'' Chun said. ``I think the United States is ready to go ahead with the talks sincerely if the North's sincerity toward the talks is confirmed.'' Wi Sung-lac, minister for political affairs at the South Korean Embassy in Washington, met with Kim Myong-kil, who recently replaced Han Song-ryol as North Korea's deputy chief to its U.N. mission. Chun also said he does not expect Washington's new North Korea policy coordinator, who is set to be named next month, to have a ``big impact'' on the talks, underlining that what's more important is how much Washington is determined to invest ``diplomatic capital'' to resolve the nuclear standoff. Not later than 60 days after the enactment on Oct. 18 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, the U.S. administration has to appoint a senior presidential coordinator of the American policy on North Korea. It is the third time for Washington to appoint a policy coordinator of its kind, but the first since Bush became president in 2001. The legislation requires the president to report to Congress twice a year with the latest U.S. government and intelligence community assessments about North Korea-related issues, including security and human rights, and make recommendations about how Washington might improve its policy on North Korea. 11-14-2006 17:06 ***************************************************************** 23 Korea Times: Sanctioning North Korea Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion Diplomatic Settlement Should Precede Punitive Actions The government has virtually refused to help interdict North Korean ships suspected of carrying supplies to build weapons of mass destruction. It also will add no specific sanctions to the existing ones to punish PyongyangˇŻs nuclear test on Oct. 8. These are realistic decisions in view of this countryˇŻs peculiar position of having to live right beside the desperately belligerent regime. Still, some problems remain _ the seeming discordance between words and actions and relationship with America. Critics of the Roh Moo-hyun administration attack the decision as either cowardly or political, or both. If the settlement of the nuclear standoff is the goal and sanctioning the North is its means, however, the government may be forgiven. The Security CouncilˇŻs resolution itself guarantees each countryˇŻs discretion as long as its measures conform to its spirit and purpose. Although the United States took the lead in its adoption, it does not mean each signatory is obliged to follow WashingtonˇŻs intention. Still, it cannot be denied SeoulˇŻs actions are far weaker than its denouncement made right after PyongyangˇŻs nuclear detonation. Government officials may say this is a way of diplomacy, in which one should be firm in rhetoric but flexible in behavior. If the inconsistency between words and actions becomes a countryˇŻs habitual pattern, however, it would cause a problem of trust in international society. We can only hope the officials had sufficient dialogue with Washington in this regard. As we all have witnessed, excessive engagement of the recalcitrant regime can make the latter increasingly wayward and unpredictable, while undue pressure lead it to become aggressive and autistic. The difficulty lies in where to draw the line. The biggest dilemma is Seoul cannot stay too far away from the international joint front, while also minding about its unique situation of bordering on the worldˇŻs most reclusive regime. It should take steps with both perpetrator and its punishers. Nor should the governmentˇŻs decision have anything to do with the latest developments, namely the NorthˇŻs return to the six-way talks and the U.S. DemocratsˇŻ electoral victory. As Washington will unlikely change its position on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, so will SeoulˇŻs stance on attaining it through peaceful diplomatic means. Rather, the government should stage more active diplomacy on the peace-first principle in global stage. As seen in the U.S. policy failure in Iraq, goal can hardly justify means in international politics if the option is between peace and war. Among regional powers, Seoul and Beijing are going in the right direction in this regard, while and Tokyo is not. We hope the new U.S. Congress would redirect WashingtonˇŻs course to win the approval of the rest of the world as well as future generations. 11-14-2006 17:04 ***************************************************************** 24 Japan Times: Speed six-party talks, departing Russian envoy says japantimes.co.jp Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006 Speed six-party talks, departing Russian envoy says By REIJI YOSHIDA Staff writer The departing Russian ambassador to Japan urged Monday that international talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons threat be accelerated. "Now we can't keep talking at a slow pace, as has been the case with the six-party talks" thus far, said Alexander Losyukov, who will soon return to Moscow after serving as ambassador since March 2004. "In one or two years, the situation will be worse, and the danger of conflicts will increase" if the talks continue at their current pace, Losyukov said through an interpreter at a news conference at the Japan National Press Club. Before his posting to Japan, Losyukov served as deputy foreign minister and chief negotiator to the six-party talks, which brings together Russia, Japan, the United States, China and the two Koreas. The other parties have been trying for several years to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arms program and the weapons it is already believed to possess, so far to no avail. Losyukov also said the next round of six-party talks, the first since North Korea began boycotting the talks, may take place early next month. According to media reports, Losyukov is expected to be reappointed as Russia's chief negotiator to the talks. He confirmed at the news conference he "may return to the talks as a participant in the negotiation." Losyukov noted that during his previous stint as negotiator, Pyongyang insisted it had no nuclear weapons or weapons program. "The situation has radically changed," he said, pointing to Pyongyang's Oct. 9 declared nuclear test. "Now North Korea says it is a nuclear state, and that it will defend itself with nuclear (weapons)," Losyukov said. The major outstanding issue between Tokyo and Moscow remains the territorial dispute over the Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, a problem that showed little sign of being resolved during Losyukov's stint. Losyukov blamed rigid public opinion both in Japan and Russia that leaves little room for compromise. "Japanese public opinion has forced (the government) to maintain an extreme position," said Losyukov, urging the mass media to suggest that people change their stance. The Soviet Union seized the four islands from Japan in the closing days of World War II, expelling 17,000 Japanese residents. The dispute has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a peace treaty formally ending wartime hostilities. The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 25 Old Congress Could Decide on Nuclear Deal with India - FCNL Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:46:20 -0600 (CST) X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Whitelisted"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY This week the people voted to send a new Congress to Washington, changing the balance of power and electing new leadership in the House. But before that new Congress takes office in January, the old Congress will reconvene here in Washington next week for a "lame duck" session. We need your help to ensure that when members of Congress come back to Washington next week they don't use this short session to undermine nuclear non-proliferation efforts. In particular, FCNL lobbyists have learned that the Senate may try to approve the president's dangerous U.S.-India nuclear deal. Read more about the deal at: www.fcnl.org/nuclear Senators from both major political parties support the nuclear deal with India, but FCNL is urging Congress to amend the deal to ensure that it does not undermine global non-proliferation efforts or allow India to produce more nuclear bombs. Several senators are planning to offer amendments to the U.S.- India nuclear deal (S. 3709) that would ensure that it does not undermine the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and require that India stop production of bomb-making materials. *Take Action: Help Keep the World Safer from Nuclear Weapons Urge your senators to support nonproliferation amendments to the U.S.-India nuclear deal (S. 3709) that would keep India from producing more nuclear weapons. You can use FCNL's website to write a letter: http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=9131421&type=CO *Mark your calendars: Next Tuesday, November 14th, FCNL is joining with other peace groups for a national call-in day to amend the U.S. -- India nuclear deal. Use FCNL's online congressional directory or call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 1-202-224-3121, ask for your senators by name, and urge them to amend the U.S.-India nuclear deal to keep India from producing more bombs. Access the online congressional directory at: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/ *Background In June 2005, President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a nuclear agreement that set the groundwork for the sharing of nuclear technology and fuel with India. By providing India with nuclear fuel under the agreement, the U.S. would free India's domestic uranium deposits for use in production of more nuclear weapons. India is a known nuclear weapons state that conducted nuclear testing most recently in 1998, and has not signed the NPT, a treaty controlling the spread of nuclear weapons and signed by 187 countries. Before the deal can be approved, Congress must amend the Atomic Energy Act to allow the U.S. to enable nuclear cooperation with India without requiring India to sign the NPT or give up production of nuclear bomb making materials. The House has already passed legislation allowing the deal to proceed while the companion bill in the Senate has not received a vote on the floor. The leadership in the Senate of both parties has publicly stated that it is their priority to bring up the bill in the upcoming lame duck session. Read more at: www.fcnl.org/nuclear See a timeline of the deal: http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1946&issue_id=2 Find out what others are saying about the deal: http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1848&issue_id=54 Read an article from FCNL staff on the U.S. -- India Nuclear Deal entitled "Loose Nukes for India" (TomPaine.com) at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/05/loose_nukes_for_india.php _______________________________________ The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign, http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/ Contact Congress and the Administration: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/ Order FCNL publications and "War is Not the Answer" campaign bumper stickers and yard signs: http://www.fcnl.org/pubs/ http://www.fcnl.org/forms/forms.php?type=bump Contribute to FCNL: http://www.fcnl.org/donate/ Subscribe or update your information to this list: http://capwiz.com/fconl/mlm/. To unsubscribe from this list, please see the end of this message. Subscribe to other FCNL legislative, policy, and action alert lists: http://www.fcnl.org/forms/forms.php?type=ls. ________________________________________ Friends Committee on National Legislation 245 Second St. NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795 fcnl@fcnl.org * http://www.fcnl.org phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330 We seek a world free of war and the threat of war We seek a society with equity and justice for all We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled We seek an earth restored. ***************************************************************** 26 Guardian Unlimited: Simon Tisdall: Bush's visit to the Apec summit in Vietnam is intended to shore up US influence in a region increasingly dominated by China Simon Tisdall Tuesday November 14, 2006 Guardian Unlimited The US president, George Bush. Photograph: AP As a young man he was less than keen to go to Vietnam, but after his mid-term "thumping" George Bush may welcome the chance to hole up in Hanoi at this Friday's 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit. Vietnam is a one-party state. After last week, the US no longer is. Escape from the States or not, Mr Bush's attendance in Hanoi is necessitated by ongoing efforts to maintain US influence in a region increasingly dominated by China. Critics say Apec is being outstripped by rival organisations. Next month the Philippines will host the latest East Asia summit, a new Beijing-backed group that excludes Washington. Apec is supposed to promote free trade and investment. Its communique is expected to urge a "last chance" rescue of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) stalled Doha round of liberalisation measures. It will also raise the prospect of an Apec-wide free trade zone. Together the 21 member states account for nearly half of world trade. But Mr Bush's hopes of furthering his free trade agenda by normalising trade ties with Vietnam's communist-capitalist bosses were dashed by Congress this week. Although the measure could be resurrected, the defeat was a sign of things to come. Many Democrats in the new congressional intake have adopted protectionist positions in response to voter concerns about "unfair" foreign competition. And Mr Bush's fast-track authority for approving a global trade deal will expire next July. Much of the summit's unofficial work will take place off-stage. Mr Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, are finally expected to shake hands on Russian membership of the WTO, long delayed by US objections. That could help ease bilateral friction over Moscow's energy policies and its democratic deficit. Mr Bush in turn will again press Mr Putin to back UN sanctions on Iran's nuclear programme. Russia halted discussions on a punitive resolution last week, prompting the US ambassador, John Bolton, to accuse Moscow of reneging on earlier undertakings. Russian officials are in no hurry to endorse Washington's allegedly confrontational approach. "We have to be very careful not to derail the process. We must avoid a situation where we reach a point of no return, such as Iran withdrawing from the NPT [non-proliferation treaty]," a senior diplomat said. The Apec meeting will see similar consultations over North Korea's recent nuclear test, involving China's president, Hu Jintao, the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe and other members of the six-party process. Oddly, North Korea was not invited to the summit even though it has agreed to resume negotiations. Mr Bush will press South Korea to reconsider its refusal to help search the North's ships for WMD-related material. "The Republic of Korea is doing virtually nothing to impose a cost on the North," Michael Green, a former Bush official, told the Washington Post yesterday. Mr Hu and Mr Abe may prefer their new kiss-and-make-up policy. Absent from Apec's agenda, official or unofficial, are issues of good governance, democracy and human rights. Mutual interest dictates that martial law in Thailand, corruption in Taiwan and Indonesia, free speech curbs in Singapore, racism in Australia, political persecution in China and for that matter torture and illegal detention by the US are not to be discussed. It seems Mr Bush's "freedom agenda" does not stretch to Asia. That will suit the summit hosts. Although the US state department eased the way for Mr Bush this week by claiming that religious tolerance in Vietnam was improving, watchdogs say denial of fundamental political, civil and religious rights remains systemic. A report by Human Rights Watch says mistreatment of homeless people is increasing before the showpiece summit. "Government round-ups to clear Hanoi's streets of 'wanderers' and 'vagrants' are landing street children in detention centres where some are beaten and subject to other forms of abuse," it says. "Street children are particularly vulnerable to arrest as the Vietnamese government attempts to present its best face." [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 27 UPI: Blair, Bush no longer united on strategy United Press International - NewsTrack - 11/14/2006 8:21:00 AM -0500 LONDON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London that he and U.S. President George Bush have different strategies for the Middle East. Outlining his government's foreign policy at the annual Lord Mayor's banquet Monday night, Blair said he favors lobbying Iran and Syria for support in stabilizing Iraq and preventing a civil war there, The Times of London reported Tuesday. However, Bush is more adamant on stopping Iran's nuclear development and has rebuked Syria for interfering with Lebanon's political development. Bush has two years left in his term, while Blair will be stepping down within months for national elections. Blair also said his speech Britain had no plans of military intervention in Iran, and said he believed the United States didn't either. After the banquet, Blair's office told reporters the approach was not really a new one for Blair, as they claimed he made the same remarks in a speech in Los Angeles in July, the newspaper said. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 28 Telugu Portal; Bush concerned over Chinese n-proliferation to Pakistan - Posted by on 2006/11/14 3:21:17 Washington, Nov 14 (IANS) US President George W. Bush may raise the issue of nuclear proliferation by Chinese entities to Pakistan when he meets President Hu Jintao in Hanoi later this week. He is also likely to urge him for a "strong dialogue" with the Dalai Lama over the issue of religious freedom for Tibetans. "As far as China's relationship with Pakistan is concerned, we have on many occasions spoken very clearly to the Chinese government about our concerns about proliferation and proliferation by Chinese entities to Pakistan," a senior administration official said. "So if the issue were to come up, I think that would be reiterated," he said during a background briefing on Bush's trip to Vietnam. The official was commenting on a report that China and Pakistan may sign an agreement on nuclear cooperation when Hu meets Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf later this month. In reply to another question, he said, "I'm sure the Dalai Lama issue, as it has before, will come up between the two leaders because of the importance that we have placed on believing that a dialogue needs to be a strong dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama to move toward some resolution of a very longstanding issue." "As you probably know, this president has a personal strong interest in the subject of religious freedom worldwide, and every meeting he's had with a Chinese leader since he came into office he has discussed the issue of personal freedom and religious freedom. "He puts it in this context, and I think it's important to understand, he believes that it is good for China. It is not so much that the United States is asking China to do something that is being imposed on them, but rather that China and President Hu talk about creating a harmonious society. "Harmonious societies, in our view, are societies where people are allowed to express their personal individuality, their personal freedom, the right to gather and worship in a fashion that they wish to." "And so I think you can be assured that the president will, once again, raise these issues with President Hu during their meeting," the official said. --By Arun Kumar © 2006 TeluguPortal.Net | | | | | ***************************************************************** 29 [NYTr] Stop the India nuke deal - Peace Action URGENT Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:25:37 -0500 (EST) X-Sender-Host-Name: olm.blythe-systems.com X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Kevin Martin, Peace Action - Nov 14, 2006 Peaceact@mail.democracyinaction.org Stop the India nuke deal - National Call In to the Senate Incredibly enough, the Bush Administration is trying to secure Senate approval as early as this week for a nuke deal that will reward Indias nuclear ambitions, and encourage an arms race in Asia. Even though stopping the spread of nuclear weapons is a critical priority for all governments and every sane person in the world, the deal with India would allow them to build up to 50 nuclear weapons every year, even though India has repeatedly refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. A vote in the lame duck Senate could happen *this week*. Click here for a toll free number and information to call you Senators TODAY, and tell them to stop this madness! (And if you don't see this email until Wednesday, we still urge you to make the calls to your senators - the recent election has put almost everything in flux and we can't be 100% sure when this vote is coming up.) The nuclear deal with India is yet one more aspect of the Bush Administrations wildly incoherent policies on nuclear weapons proliferation: we invade Iraq over phantom nuclear weapons, threaten Iran with military attacks for processing uranium, wink at Israels nuclear arsenal, give barely a slap on the wrist to Pakistan's veritable nuclear Wal-Mart, and now reward India for building nuclear weapons and refusing to sign nuclear treaties. Not only has India refused to sign the NPT, it has conducted nuclear tests and refuses to reduce or cap its nuclear arsenal in any way. It is one of the few countries that has used "peaceful" nuclear technology to create nuclear bombs, precisely what we must prevent from happening. Approving this agreement would be one of the hugest mistakes this lame duck Senate could make - but with enough opposition in the Senate - which ultimately means opposition from you, the American public - we can still stop it. Click here to call your Senators and stop the India nuke deal. Its also critically important that the India nuke deal will provide sweeping exceptions to long-standing U.S. laws that prohibit trade in nuclear technology with countries building nuclear weapons. The deal will encourage nuclear weapons production at precisely the time when the global framework to prevent the spread of such weapons is under grave assault. You have done fantastic work leading up to last weeks election, and soon we will have a new Congress to work with. But we cannot let up our efforts while we wait for that new Congress, and if we are going to contain the spread of nuclear weapons I urge everyone of you to call your senators today and tell them in no uncertain terms - stop the India nuke deal! And then let your friends know, and ask them to call as well! Sincerely, Kevin M. Martin Executive Director Peace Action p.s. - Please help stop this lame duck deal that threatens to upset all global norms against nuclear weapons proliferation - call your senators today and tell them - no nuke deal for India! * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 30 ForUm: Construction of a Chornobyl plant's storage facility resumed News / 14 November 2006 | 15:00 The Chornobyl nuclear power plant's director Ihor Hramotkin says that completion of building of a storage facility for waste nuclear fuel is planned to be finished by the end of the year 2010. Construction of the storage facility was suspended in April 2003 for several reasons, Cabinet's press office reported. According to him, that was the reason of non-decommissioning of the first and third reactors of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Construction has been now resumed. Comments Only registered users can add comments. For registered users to enter e-mail and password. Be aware, Editorial staff may not share opinions and ideas of readers and commentators. All rights are reserved by © LTD. Inter-Media, ForUm 2001-2006 ***************************************************************** 31 Beacon Journal: FirstEnergy restarts reactor 11/14/2006 | From staff and wire reports FirstEnergy Corp.'s Beaver Valley nuclear plant Unit 2 reactor in Shippingport, Pa., has restarted after maintenance plus an upgrade and is will be making more electricity than ever. The Akron utility increased the reactor's capacity by 5 percent, from 821 megawatts to 864 megawatts, since shutting it down on Oct. 2. One megawatt is enough electricity to power 800 to 900 typical homes. As of Monday morning, the plant was at about 30 percent of capacity and was expected to ramp up to full power by the middle of the week. FirstEnergy said it replaced 60 fuel assemblies in the reactor as part of a regularly scheduled refueling. In addition, the company made a number of improvements to make the reactor safer as well as to increase electrical output. Changes included: • Expanding a containment sump strainer, making it less susceptible to clogging if there is a loss-of-coolant accident and allowing spilled coolant to be recirculated back into the reactor core. • Reinforcing welds. • Modifying other equipment so that the reactor's electricity output can be increased another 5 percent over the next two years. Beaver Valley 1 continues to operate at normal capacity, the company reported. The power plant is next to the Ohio River, close to where Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia meet. The two plants' combined output, including the latest modifications, will be 1,732 megawatts. FirstEnergy also owns and operates the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants in Ohio. ***************************************************************** 32 AP Wire: Cook reactor back in service after $100M in maintenance, upgrades 11/14/2006 | Associated Press BRIDGMAN, Mich. - The owner of the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant said Tuesday it used a 58-day refueling outage for one of its two reactors to make more than $100 million worth of capital improvements at the plant. The Unit 1 reactor was returned to service Monday, according plant licensee Indiana Michigan Power Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power Co. Besides regular refueling and maintenance work, workers replaced the reactor's vessel head, installed three new low-pressure turbine rotors and made other system improvements, the utility company said. "This has to be the most complex and comprehensive equipment and system upgrade ever completed at a nuclear plant within a regular refueling in such a timely fashion," said Mano K. Nazar, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer. The improved efficiency resulting from the upgrades will increase the reactor's output capacity of 1,026 megawatts by 25 megawatts during summer and 40 megawatts during winter. Similar system upgrades are planned for the Unit 2 reactor when it is refueled in fall 2007. The Cook plant is near Bridgman in southwestern Michigan's Berrien County. ***************************************************************** 33 Sofia Echo: BULGARIA SHUTS DOWN NUCLEAR REACTOR UNITS- KALFIN - www.sofiaecho.com Tue 14 Nov 2006 Bulgaria will close the third and fourth blocks of Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP), Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said in Brussels. On November 13 the European Commission said that it was going to be firm on the closure dates for the two reactors. In a report European Parliament (EP) rapporteur for Bulgaria Geoffrey Van Orden called for flexible approach concerning the closure dates. The EP lacked the authority to suggest any course of action to the EC, Kalfin said. Bulgaria was going to proceed with the reactor closure as previously agreed, he told Bulgarian National Television. Bulgaria refrained from taking part in several electricity export tenders for Balkan countries because of the upcoming reactor shut down, said Kalfin. Previously Economy and Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov sent a warning letter to the EC, saying that the closure of the reactors could lead to electricity shortage on the Balkans. Bulgaria is among the major electricity exporters in the region and provides export to meet significant part of the energy needs of its neighbouring countries. To meet domestic needs it now had to limit export, said Ovcharov. Despite the fact the country was going to meet EU engagements accepted previously and was going to proceed with the closure of the units by the end of the year, Ovcharov said. [Printer friendly version] www.sofiaecho.com www.sofiaecho.com. Sofia Echo ***************************************************************** 34 Dayton Daily News: Centrifuge plant facing delays, spiraling costs DaytonDailyNews.com Part three of three By Tom Beyerlein and Lynn Hulsey Staff Writers Tuesday, November 14, 2006 Ohio's nuclear future could be in the hands of a company with ambitious plans and a shaky revenue stream. USEC Inc. of Bethesda, Md., wants to build the most efficient uranium enrichment centrifuge plant in the world. And it wants to do it in job-starved Piketon. The plans call for fueling nuclear reactors worldwide using 12,000 of the tallest, fastest centrifuges on earth. But the company is behind schedule, and its costs are spiraling. Nobody knows yet if the machines will perform as promised. Supporters say the project is necessary for the country's national security and energy independence. They say it could fuel a rebirth of nuclear power. And if it fails? America has no fallback plan for replacing the 1940s-era technology it uses for enriching uranium. And for Piketon, the dream of 500 good-paying jobs would be gone. Copyright ©2006 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All ***************************************************************** 35 DOW JONES: US Sen Domenici Still Plans To Move Nuclear Bill In 2007 By Maya Jackson Randall WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is still planning to advance a bill next year that would aid the federal government's plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Last week's elections made way for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., to take over Domenici's seat as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Despite the seat change, Domenici said Monday in remarks to the American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting in New Mexico that he remains committed to the Yucca Mountain-related legislation he introduced in September and that he plans to reintroduce the proposal next year. "In the Senate next year, I hope to tackle the final issue of what to do with our national backlog of spent nuclear fuel," Domenici said. "We must get Yucca Mountain back on track. We need Yucca Mountain. "We must complete the necessary first steps that bring nuclear recycling back to our country," he added. Those policies are needed as part of an overall goal to revive nuclear energy in the U.S., Domenici said. He noted that the energy bill he largely crafted in 2005 included risk insurance for companies that build the first new wave of nuclear reactors in the country. That provision and others have helped to stimulate the nuclear industry, Domenici said. "In the 15 months since Senator Bingaman and I passed the Energy Bill we have seen 31 planned applications for new nuclear power plants," he said, noting that no nuclear power plant applications were submitted to the federal government during the 25 years before the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was enacted. However, Domenici noted that the job is far from done on nuclear waste policy. -By Maya Jackson Randall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263; Maya.Jackson- Randall@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires 11-13-061909ET Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. ***************************************************************** 36 REA: Environmental Footprints of Renewable Energy vs. Nuclear Renewable Energy Access Q: A senior nuclear power exec claimed at a recent seminar that the environmental footprint of a nuclear power station was 100 times smaller than an onshore windfarm. (no sizes given unfortunately). What are the comparable eco-footprints? -- Polly H., London, United Kingdom In 2003, The Energy Department has asked permission to reserve use of 308,600 acres of public land across rural Nevada to develop a railroad corridor to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, located in Nye County, which has a land area of 11,560,960 acres. Nye County is larger than the total acreage of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Delaware. A: According to wind energy expert Tom Gray (and Director of Communications and Outreach at the American Wind Energy Assocation), "My rule of thumb is 60 acres per megawatt (MW) for wind farms on land." According to the Energy Information Administration, The Fort Calhoun 476 MW nuclear power plant, operational since August 9, 1973, is located on 660 acres near Omaha, Nebraska and has an easement for another 580 acres, the acreage being maintained in a natural state (see Fort Calhoun link below). So on the face of it, on the same 1200+ acres, nuclear gets 480 MW versus 20 MW for wind, or 40 times more. But the capacity factor for the nuclear plant hovers above 80% and wind is approximately 30%, so clearly the '100 times more' claim seems to be 'on the mark' if you chose to forget the nuclear fuel cycle. We now have active farming onsite at large windfarms, and there is no reason to believe we could not also harvest crops between the large wind generators for biomass electric power, which could increase electrical output of the same acreage substantially. But a nuclear power generation plant is not an independent entity like wind. A number of processes are needed to keep the generation plant operational, most of which take place elsewhere or at other times than the actual production of electricity. The total package is referred to as the 'process chain,' which consists of the following steps: * mining, refining and transport of the raw materials and uranium fuels; * construction and maintenance of the power station; * conversion of fuel or uranium into electricity; * dismantlement of the power station at the end of its life span; * processing of the resulting waste during the life of the generation plant. Mining uranium takes lots of land. Uranium is widely distributed in the earth's crust but only in minute quantities, with the exception of a few places where it has accumulated in concentrations rich enough to be economically mined as an ore. The main deposits of ore, in order of size, are in Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada, South Africa, Namibia, Brazil, the Russian Federation, the USA, and Uzbekistan. Storing nuclear wastes also takes lots of land. According to EPA, in 2000, the USA had approximately 600,000 cubic meters of different types of radioactive waste were generated, and approximately 700,000 cubic meters were in storage awaiting disposal. Radioactive wastes in the form of spent nuclear fuel (2,467 metric tons of heavy metal) and high-level waste "glass logs" (1,201 canisters of vitrified high-level waste) are in storage awaiting long-term disposal (see EPA link below). In 2003, The Energy Department has asked permission to reserve use of 308,600 acres of public land across rural Nevada to develop a railroad corridor to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, located in Nye County, which has a land area of 11,560,960 acres. Nye County is larger than the total acreage of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Delaware. Of this vast land area, only 822,711 acres (or just over seven percent of the total) is private land; the majority of the county's land is owned by the federal government. In regard to nuclear, add potential land loss to human and technical error, harsh weather and earthquakes, and potentially, to terrorism -- and the land issue becomes the least of the differentiations between the technologies. -- Scott Sklar Scott Sklar is President of The Stella Group in Washington, DC, a distributed energy marketing and policy firm. Scott, co-author of "A Consumer Guide to Solar Energy," uses solar technologies for heating and power at his home in Virginia. Copyright © 1999-2006 Renewable Energy Access - All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 37 AFP: Swedish nuclear reactor shut down for weeks after fire Tuesday November 14, 08:32 PM [A fire engine is parked outside the Ringhals 3 reactor] STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A Swedish nuclear reactor was shut down, possibly for weeks, after a transformer at a power plant caught fire, but no one was injured, Sweden's nuclear energy authority and news reports said. "A fire in a transformer at the Ringhals 3 reactor took place near midnight (2300 GMT Monday)," the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate said in a statement on its website. "The reactor was shut down on an emergency basis, and all security systems worked as they should have." The cause of the fire was unknown, said an inspectorate spokesman, who pointed out that the transformer was located in a separate building located some 50 to 60 meters (yards) from the reactor. The Ringhals plant is located in southwestern Sweden. The reactor was expected to be stopped for at least two weeks, according to Swedish news agency TT. Sweden has 10 nuclear reactors, accounting for almost half of the country's electricity production. AFP ***************************************************************** 38 SO: Accident Prone Sweden: Nuclear Reactor Shut Down after Fire - SPIEGEL ONLINE + | November 14, 2006 Nuclear Reactor Shut Down after Fire A fire forces Sweden to shut down its largest nuclear power plant. The incident is the second nuclear safety problem to hit the country in recent months. [One of the reactors at the Ringhals nuclear plant in Sweden, which was shut down when a fire broke out on Tuesday] [Zoom] DPA One of the reactors at the Ringhals nuclear plant in Sweden, which was shut down when a fire broke out on Tuesday Just months after a brush with disaster in Sweden, a fire at the country's biggest nuclear power plant forced the shutdown on Tuesday of yet another reactor. A spokesperson for the plant said that the fire near Reactor No. 3 in Ringhals had been of an "explosive nature." "There was some kind of a bang with flames shooting up," said spokesman Gosta Larsen. The blaze, which broke out in the small hours of Tuesday morning at the Ringhals plant was quickly put out by fire fighters. All safety systems functioned without problems and a shutdown was triggered immediately, he said. At no stage was there a danger of a radioactive leak. The fire broke out shortly after midnight in a transformer about 70 meters (230 feet) away from Reactor No. 3. There were no injuries. The security system automatically shut down the 1,000 Megawatt reactor. "From a nuclear security standpoint this was not a serious incident," Larsen emphasized. It was not immediately clear when the reactor would be restarted. [Graphic: Nuclear power plants in Sweden.] [Zoom] DER SPIEGEL Graphic: Nuclear power plants in Sweden. Swedish nuclear safety already came in for some hefty criticism after a previous incident this summer. On July 25, two reactors at the Forsmark plant were shut down after two backup emergency generators malfunctioned during a power failure. There wasn't enough power for the plant's control electronics. It was only through the prompt action of an employee that the situation didn't get out of control. As a safety precaution, four of Sweden's ten nuclear reactors had to be shut down for up to three months after the incident. Ringhals, around 60 kilometers south of Gothenburg, has four reactors and is the biggest nuclear power plant in Sweden. It produces 28 billion Kilowatt hours of energy a year, about 18 percent of the energy consumed in the country. The first reactor at the plant was put into operation in 1975, the last in 1983. smd/spiegel/ap ***************************************************************** 39 AFP: India's nuclear record, Iran links questioned ahead of Senate vote - by P. Parameswaran Tue Nov 14, 6:48 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - A non-partisan US Congressional study has underlined lawmakers' unease over India's non-proliferation record and its links with nuclear renegade Iran" /> , on the eve of a Senate vote on a landmark US atomic deal with New Delhi. The report by the Congressional Research Service raised the issue of whether India had adequate teeth to implement export control regulations in efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. In 2004, the United States imposed sanctions on two Indian scientists for nuclear related transfers to Iran, which is facing sanctions for refusing to comply with UN demands it freeze its uranium enrichment work. The Congressional report by Sharon Squassoni, a national defense specialist, noted that President George W. Bush" /> 's administration had not formally responded to claims that India had a "flawed" nonproliferation record in the nuclear area. It also cited allegations that New Delhi had a "poorly implemented" national export control system and an "illicit" procurement system for its own nuclear weapons program, as well as a procurement system that "may unwittingly transfer sensitive information" about uranium enrichment. "Indias nonproliferation record continues to be scrutinized, as India continues to take steps to strengthen its own export controls," the report said ahead of an expected Senate vote this week on the US-India civilian nuclear deal clinched by Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in March. Under the deal, India, a non-signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), would be allowed access to long-denied civilian nuclear technology in return for placing its atomic reactors under global safeguards. To facilitate the deal, the US Congress has to create an exception for India from some of the requirements of the US Atomic Energy Act, which currently prohibits nuclear sales to non-NPT signatories. The US House of Representatives gave its thumbs-up to the deal in July but a Senate vote had been delayed due to legislative elections last week that resulted in Democratic control of both chambers in the new Congress from January. The current Congress is Republican dominated but the party is divided on the Indian nuclear deal. "President Bush has tried to sell this nuclear deal by claiming that India is our natural ally, but as Ronald Reagan" /> once said, 'Trust, but verify.'" said Edward Markey, who co-chairs a House bipartisan taskforce on nonproliferation. "It is clear that on the issue of preventing Iran from going nuclear -- and on the crucial issue of nonproliferation -- India's record is not encouraging," he said. Squassoni suggested that some kinds of Indian support might be more important than others, for example, in backing a diplomatic drive to pursue negotiations with Iran or by coming aboard the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative aimed at containing the spread of unconventional weapons. She said Indias long relationship with Iran and its support of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) positions on nonproliferation "are obstacles" to Indias taking a hard line on Iran. Yet, the Bush Administration, she added, had asserted that US-India nuclear cooperation would bring India into the "nonproliferation mainstream." US weapons experts have warned that forging a civilian nuclear agreement with non-NPT member India would not only make it harder to enforce rules against renegades Iran and North Korea" /> , but also set a dangerous precedent for other countries with nuclear ambitions. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 40 UPI: Fire closes Swedish nuclear power plant United Press International - NewsTrack - 11/14/2006 12:57:00 PM -0500 STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- An explosion and fire at a transformer near a nuclear reactor in southwestern Sweden Tuesday triggered an automatic shutdown of the reactor. The incident happened at the 24-year-old Ringhals facility on the west coast south of Gothenburg just after midnight, but the facility's own fire department managed to extinguish the blaze after several hours, Radio Sweden reported. A plant spokesman told reporters the fire never threatened the reactor itself, and there was no risk of a radioactive leak. There were no injuries reported in the incident, the report said. The country's nuclear regulator, SKI, monitored the fire and issued a statement saying all security procedures for fires and explosions had worked properly, the country's English-language newspaper, The Local reported. Officials said it was too early to predict how long the 1,000 watt reactor -- one of four at the facility -- would remain out of service, the newspaper said. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights ***************************************************************** 41 HVN: Indian Point safety drill conducted; opponents say it wasnt realistic enough Hudson Valley News Tuesday, November 14, 2006 Buchanan  The Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, SEMO and the NRC Tuesday conducted a bi-annual drill at the Indian Point nuclear power plants to review how responders did in the face of simulated emergencies. While the results of the drill will be scrutinized and reviewed, a consortium of environmental groups opposed to the continued operation of the plants, gave the drill a failing grade. The Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition believes that since the drill was inadequate and the emergency plan is very, very weak, said coalition steering committee member Michel Lee. There is absolutely no way you can have a workable emergency plan for a major accident or terrorist attack at Indian Point, but you could certainly have the best of many bad plans and were not even there yet. James Steets, spokesman for Indian Point owner Entergy, said emergency services can be well prepared based on what they learn from these simulated exercises. Many, many parts of these exercises are real, even though they are playing a role, theyre dealing with events that they have to address, that they have to make decisions about, that consider all kinds of real obstacles for making decisions about what can be done or should be done about protecting the plants. HEAR today's news on , the Hudson Valley's only Internet radio news report. ***************************************************************** 42 World Science: Cleansing nuclear fallout from the body Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:03:19 -0500 X-Sender-Host-Name: corpgate0.mail.atl.earthlink.net X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Innocent"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY

* Cleansing nuclear fallout from the body:
A U.S. government scientist envisions purging the
body of fallout with a compound from crab shells.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061113_chitosan.htm


* Gay men likelier to gamble addictively, study
suggests:
A small study may fuel a charged debate over why
homosexuals, as growing evidence suggests, suffer
addictions unusually often.

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/061109_gambling.htm


* Saturn moon found to resemble Earth at life’s birth:
Hazy skies on early Earth, similar to those on
Saturn’s moon Titan, could have provided the
ingredients for life, chemists say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061106_titan.htm


* Mystery of sudden infant deaths may be solved:
researchers
"Sudden infant death syndrome" results from
abnormalities in the brain stem, a primitive brain
region, a study suggests.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061108_sids.htm


* Testosterone levels dropping, research finds:
Scientists cited a "substantial," unexplained drop
in American men's testosterone levels in the past
two decades.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061104_testosterone.htm


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***************************************************************** 43 [DU List] Khaim Southern Lebanon - A bombs anatomy Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:21:42 -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] 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 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.rainews2 4.rai.it/ ran24/inchieste/ 09112006_ bomba_ing. asp http://www.globalre search.ca/ index.php? context=viewArticle &code=20061111& articleId= 3813 Downsize DC, http://www.downsize dc.org/mission. shtml - Read The Bill Act, http://www.downsize dc.org/rtba_ legislation. shtml. Many other quick and simple ways to email your voice on Constitutional rights and organizing for activism - https://secure. downsizedc. org/rtba/ coalition/ . Dei Jurum Conventus Ed Ward, MD; http://www.theprice ofliberty. org/arc_ward. htm Independent writer/Media Liaison for The Price of Liberty; http://www.theprice ofliberty. org/ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos. Get Yahoo! Photos __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Links 1cf43a.jpg Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity * 3 New Members Visit Your Group SPONSORED LINKS * Pandora bead * Government software * Government contract * Pandora jewelry * Pandora Ads on Yahoo! Learn more now. Reach customers searching for you. Yahoo! Mail Drag & drop With the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta Y! GeoCities Share Photos Put your favorite photos online. . 1cf44f.jpg __,_._,___ Attachment Converted: 1cf43a.jpg: 00000001,0aa66e9f,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: 1cf44f.jpg: 00000001,0aa66ea0,00000000,00000000 ***************************************************************** 44 Guardian Unlimited: Plutonium Found in Iran Waste Facility From the Associated Press [UP] Tuesday November 14, 2006 6:01 PM AP Photo VAH102 By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer VIENNA, Austria (AP) - International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday. The report, prepared for next week's meeting of the 35-nation IAEA, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency's attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear program that have lead to fears it might be interested in developing nuclear arms. And it said it could not confirm Iranian claims that its nuclear activities were exclusively nonmilitary unless Tehran increased its openness. ``The agency will remain unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran,'' without additional cooperation by Tehran, said the report, by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei. Such cooperation is a ``prerequisite for the agency to be able to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program,'' it added. As expected, the four-page report made available to The Associated Press confirmed that Iran continues uranium enrichment experiments in defiance of the U.N. Security Council. Both highly enriched uranium and plutonium can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, and Iran is under intense international pressure to freeze activities that can produce such substances. But Tehran has shrugged off both Security Council demands that it stop developing its enrichment programs and urgings that it cease construction of a heavy water research reactor that produces plutonium waste. It insists it wants enrichment only to generate nuclear power and says it needs the Arak research reactor to produce isotopes for medical research and cancer treatment. Earlier Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran would soon celebrate completion of its nuclear fuel program and claimed the international community was ready to accept it as a nuclear state. Iran has been locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program. The United States and its European allies have been seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. ``Initially, they (the U.S. and its allies) were very angry. The reason was clear: They basically wanted to monopolize nuclear power in order to rule the world and impose their will on nations,'' Ahmadinejad told a news conference. ``Today, they have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran, with an Iran possessing the whole nuclear fuel cycle,'' he said. He did not elaborate. President Bush said Monday there was no change in his position that Iran must first suspend uranium enrichment before there can be any dialogue with Tehran. ``Our focus of this administration is to convince the Iranians to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. That focus is based on our strong desire for there to be peace in the Middle East. And an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a destabilizing influence,'' Bush said Monday. The Iranian leader said he hoped ``to hold the big celebration of Iran's full nuclearization in the current year.'' Iran's current calendar year ends on March 20. Though Ahmadinejad did not specify, he appeared to indicate that Iran was on the verge of proficiency in the whole cycle of nuclear fuel - from extracting uranium ore to enriching it and producing nuclear fuel. Russia, which is backed by China, opposes tough action advocated by the U.S., Britain and France, and its amendments to a Western draft resolution would reduce sanctions and delete language that would cut off Iran's access to foreign missile technology. The U.S. and some of its allies allege that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and are suspicious of its intentions after Tehran concealed parts of its nuclear development from U.N. inspectors for many years. Iran claims its program is peaceful and for generating electricity. Uranium enrichment at low levels can be used to produce fuel to generate electricity but at higher levels can be use to make atomic bombs. Iran has said it will never give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel. Officials have said they plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy in the next two decades. Since revelations more than three years ago of a covert uranium enrichment program, Iran has moved to develop its capabilities, activating two small experimental enrichment plants and enriching small amounts of uranium to nuclear fuel level. Although that is far short of the weapons grade uranium that could be used for nuclear warheads, international concerns about Tehran's ultimate intentions led the Security Council to set an Aug. 31 deadline for an enrichment moratorium - which Tehran has ignored. Officials have said they plan to have 3,000 centrifuges operating by next year - enough to make enough material for several nuclear weapons a year. Suspicions also are focused on Tehran's construction of a heavy water reactor that - when completed in the next decade - will produce plutonium waste, another pathway to nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency declined comment on the Iranian president's remarks. The Bush administration, frustrated by U.N. Security Council inaction on sanctions against Iran, is pressing a new agenda - trying to deny Tehran U.N. aid for a plutonium-producing reactor that could be used to make nuclear warheads. Diplomats from nations on the IAEA board say the U.S. is lobbying for denial of Iran's request for help on its Arak research reactor, where Iran says it wants to produce radio isotopes for diagnosing and treating cancer. Seven diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information, told The Associated Press separately Tuesday that they believed that the 35 member nations of the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog would deny Iran's request when the IAEA meets next week. But even a total denial of technical aid for Arak, while symbolically important, is expected to do little to slow the eventual completion of the reactor, let alone Iran's nuclear program. When finished - probably early in the next decade - Arak could produce enough plutonium for about two bombs a year. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 45 LVN: Meeting on newly proposed Yucca Mountain rail line set for Wednesday Lahontan Valley News November 14, 2006 Kim Lamb/LVN photo A newly proposed rail line to Yucca Mountain could send nuclear waste through Churchill County near Hazen. A meeting on the route will be held Wednesday. JOSH JOHNSON A meeting designed to gather input on a proposed rail line that could send nuclear waste shipments through Churchill County to Yucca Mountain will be held Wednesday at the Fallon Convention Center from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event is one of six scoping meetings scheduled by the U.S. Department of Energy in Nevada. Other meetings have been or will be held in Amargosa Valley, Caliente, Goldfield, Hawthorne and Reno. The meetings are open to the public and will include detailed information including the route. No presentation from the DOE will be made, and comments from the public can be submitted to a court reporter, according to a DOE press release. The results will be reviewed after the comment period ends Dec. 12. The meetings are in response to the newly proposed Mina rail corridor, a 280-mile route to transport nuclear waste by train from Wabuska, south of Silver Springs, to Yucca Mountain while passing near the towns of Hawthorne, Luning, Mina and Goldfield. Existing track would be used from Wabuska to Hawthorne, while a new rail corridor would need to be constructed further to the south. Yucca Mountain is located in Nye County, northwest of Las Vegas and east of Beatty. Nuclear waste could pass through northwestern Churchill County near Hazen if trains from the east traveling along a railway that parallels Interstate 80 are directed south toward Yucca Mountain, said Churchill County Commissioner Lynn Pearce, who monitors the Yucca Mountain project for the county board. Pearce said the route has a good chance of succeeding because of its favorable cost compared to another route. "It makes really good sense from an economic standpoint in a process were costs were ballooning out of control," he said of the project. It also removes the issue of having nuclear waste pass near Clark County, he said. The other rail route under consideration is the Caliente corridor, which would transport waste 319 miles from Caliente to the west, circling the Nevada Test Site before turning south toward Yucca Mountain. The route has an estimated cost of $2 billion. If the Mina route was approved, Pearce said the county would seek adequate training for emergency personnel regarding nuclear waste in case an accident were to occur. "My primary concerns are to make sure that there's money placed in training and outfitting first responders, fire crews and search and rescue," he said. "I just want to make sure our emergency people are trained." The Mina route is again under consideration following a decision by the Walker River Paiute Tribal Council to withdraw its objection to an environmental impact statement through its reservation in May, according to information from DOE. The tribe informed the DOE in 1991 that it would not allow nuclear waste to be transported across its reservation, a decision that halted exploration of the Mina route until this year. In a letter to the DOE dated May 4, Tribal Chairman Genia Williams states, "The Tribal Council reiterated its opposition to any nuclear waste passing through Schurz, whether by rail or truck. We understand that if rail shipments are not allowed, nuclear waste may still be shipped through the Reservation by truck. Our intent in allowing the EIS is to determine if shipments on the railroad would be less dangerous than shipments by truck through Schurz." The letter also states if tracks were constructed that bypassed the town of Schurz, they might also be used to transport explosives to the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Depot. Residents will have the chance to view detailed maps and documents concerning the route at the meeting, said Allen Benson, director of the Office for External Affairs of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, DOE. Representatives from the DOE will also be on hand to answer questions. So far, comments about the proposed route have been mixed, Benson said. "People are simply saying they like it or they don't like it," he said. More information and e-mail comments on the route can be requested at . All contents © Copyright 2006 lahontanvalleynews.com Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard - 562 North Maine Street - Fallon, NV 89406 ***************************************************************** 46 AP Wire: Newspaper: Higher cost raises questions about centrifuge project 11/14/2006 | beacon journal Associated Press DAYTON, Ohio - The cost of building a proposed uranium-enrichment plant in southern Ohio is running higher than previously estimated, raising questions about the future of the project, the Dayton Daily News reported Tuesday. The American Centrifuge project, located at an old atomic weapons plant near Piketon, would be used to produce fuel for nuclear reactors by 2011. USEC Inc., the Bethesda, Md., company that wants to build the plant, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month that costs are running "significantly higher" than a prior estimate of $1.7 billion. "These cost increases could make the project uneconomic," USEC said in its filing. "We cannot assure investors that efforts that we take to mitigate cost increases will be successful or sufficient, and cost increases could jeopardize our ability to successfully finance and deploy the American Centrifuge project." USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said the wording was included in a "risk factors" section of the company's filing, something that is required by the SEC to warn investors of the worst possible scenario. "We fully expect to secure the financing and deploy the American Centrifuge project," Stuckle said. The project would consist of 12,000 towering centrifuge machines rising 43 feet in the air. The machines use centrifugal force to separate the uranium, concentrating isotopes into forms that can be used as fuel. The project would also generate tons of radioactive waste - enough over 30 years to fill 41,000 cylinders weighing about 14 tons apiece, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. USEC announced Oct. 10 that its centrifuges exceeded performance expectations at early tests in Oak Ridge, Tenn., but full performance and reliability data won't be available until mid-2007. USEC said it plans to start running uranium hexafluoride gas through its test machines in Piketon later this month. ON THE NET http://www.usec.com/ ***************************************************************** 47 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Regaining fragile ground Today: November 14, 2006 at 7:37:3 PST With Democrats in charge, there is hope for the future of our land, water and air Environmentalists are hoping that the overwhelming wins by Democrats last week will result in a Congress that reverses the damage done by Republican-supported environmental policies. Those who support habitat protection for endangered species, strict environmental reviews before development occurs and other conservation-driven policies were ecstatic when California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo was ousted by his Democratic opponent. Pombo, a rancher, had worked to dismantle the habitat protections provided under the Endangered Species Act. He supported horse slaughter, commercial whaling, the trapping of animals in wildlife refuges and oil-drilling in such places as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. According to a Las Vegas Sun story Monday by reporter Launce Rake, Pombo, former House Resources Committee chairman, worked closely with Rep. Jim Gibbons, a Republican and former congressman who is now Nevada's governor-elect. The pair co-wrote a pamphlet two years ago that said the federal government exaggerated the toxic dangers of mercury, which is emitted from mining operations and coal-fired power plants. But Pombo's defeat is not the only win. With Democrats in charge of both the House and Senate, support should unravel for the Bush administration's promotion of some of the most backward and damaging environmental policies in recent history. Bush has promoted drastic budget cuts that have left the entire National Park System in near-total disrepair. The president and his formerly Republican Congress have so often failed to increase funding for the Bureau of Land Management that a report released earlier this year shows that the agency could not adequately manage the 262 million acres under its care. Bush also shifted the BLM's focus away from conservation and cultural resource protection and mandated an increase in drilling permits for natural gas and oil. From ignoring the problems created by greenhouse-gas emissions and global warming to cutting funding for water conservation programs to continued support for building a high-level nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, Bush and the Republican-led Congress have been on the wrong side of every issue. Their poorly conceived regulations and laws will be difficult to reverse, as logging, mining and other industrial interests aren't going away. They will fiercely fight any reversal of Bush's industry-friendly environmental policies. But Congress should be the protector of the nation's water, air, wildlife and natural resources. Those Democrats entering, or returning to, Congress must work diligently and quickly to reverse six years of disastrous environmental policy. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 48 Salt Lake Tribune: Taxpayers may foot the bill for legal wrangling over site Nuclear waste storage By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake TribuneArticle Last Updated:11/14/2006 A proposed nuclear waste storage site on an Indian reservation 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City may be dead. But the legal wrangling and bills live on. Taxpayers may soon find themselves footing a legal tab of up to $1 million for attorneys who successfully fought state laws to derail the project. The Legislative Management Committee is slated to consider a settlement today between the state and Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, which was to host the waste, and Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear reactor companies planning to build and operate the storage site. Although the exact amount is a secret, the panel of legislative leaders is only authorized to approve settlements between $500,000 and $1 million. As the state was poised to wrap up that case, it filed its opening brief Monday in Washington to have the waste project's federal nuclear license struck down. Utah Department of Environmental Quality Director Dianne Nielson said the state is going forward with the appeal despite two Interior Department rulings in September that effectively kill the waste project. She said Utah needs to make it clear that it does not accept the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision to give the waste site a license. "We've seen situations where those decisions come back to get us," she said. Then-Gov. Mike Leavitt and the Legislature tried to head off the project back in 2001, with a trio of tough laws that banned high-level nuclear waste and, if the site went forward, required $150 billion cash as accident insurance and a 75 percent tax on any individual or company providing goods or services to the project. Those, coupled with two earlier laws, were the target of a lawsuit brought soon after by the tribe and the consortium. Utah U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell declared the laws unconstitutional, and her decision was validated by a Denver appeals court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case last December. The state balked in February when it received a bill for legal fees totaling $1.3 million. Tim Vollmann, an attorney for the 123-member Skull Valley Goshutes, would not disclose the settlement amount. Had the project gone forward, his clients might have made hundreds of millions of dollars by allowing their reservation in Tooele County to serve as a long-term parking lot for up to 44,000 tons of used reactor fuel. State attorneys and legislative staff have said they have no list of past state settlements for comparison. But among those publicly reported in recent years was a payment of about $400,000 to attorneys of public employees unions over a law barring payroll deduction of political contributions, some $2 million to plaintiffs attorneys in a 2005 tax-refund case and, in 1997, $10,000 for an open-meetings law violation. fahys@sltrib.com © Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 49 Deseret News: PFS settlement in works Tuesday, November 14, 2006 Lawmakers to consider 'discount' proposal By Joe Bauman and Lisa Riley Roche Deseret Morning News Lawmakers today will consider a "discount" settlement of nearly $850,000 with attorneys for Private Fuel Storage and the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, who successfully fought state laws designed to keep out high-level nuclear waste. Members of the Legislative Management Committee can act on the settlement, which was negotiated down from more than $1 million, Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said. "I think it'll be acceptable to the Legislature," Valentine said. "The settlement is a good discount for the state." Meanwhile, the state has filed a new appeal on a separate issue, challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's granting a license for PFS. The Deseret Morning News has learned the amount of the settlement, which covers attorneys fees, is $775,000 for PFS and $68,000 for the Skull Valley Band. The money would come from a fund previously appropriated in the budget for the Department of Environmental Quality. Dianne R. Nielson, executive director of the DEQ, confirmed that the settlement is for attorneys fees but did not disclose the amount. The issue involved state laws severely restricting the transportation of high-level nuclear waste in Utah. PFS and the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indians challenged the statutes in federal court, and "we lost that case" before U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell, Nielson said. Following that ruling, the state appealed the matter to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Losing there, Utah officials asked the Supreme Court to review the case; last December, the highest court declined to hear it. The PFS high-level nuclear storage plan appears dead after recent federal decisions refusing to allow construction of the temporary storage site on Goshute land. But the lawyers for PFS and the Goshutes must be paid by the state as winners in their legal challenge. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s office also declined to confirm the amount of money agreed to in the settlement. "The governor is supportive of settling with both the attorneys for PFS and the attorneys for the band," his general counsel, Michele Christiansen, said. "It's a good resolution in the sense the possibility would have been out there the state could have ended up paying more in attorneys fees." And on Monday, Utah attorneys filed a brief appealing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision that allowed the plant's licensing. "Technically, PFS still has a license and we don't want to lose any of the appeals that we have from the nine years of litigating this case," said Assistant Utah Attorney General Denise Chancellor. Utah officials want to challenge the "more egregious NRC decision," she said. The matter was filed with the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. In the earlier case before the 10th Circuit, the judges wrote that PFS and the Skull Valley Band "have properly asserted that their legally protected interests have been injured by the challenged statutes .... "On the merits, we agree with the district court's ruling that the Utah statutes are pre-empted by federal law." State laws passed between 1998 and 2001 would have established state licensing requirements for storing spent nuclear fuel, required county governments to impose restrictions on the material, and allowed the Legislature and governor to regulate road construction to the storage site. Nielson said the state attempted to "provide a framework similar to laws other states have for managing high-level nuclear waste traveling through the state." However, federal law — the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 — takes precedence over state laws, the court ruled. E-mail: bau@desnews.com; lisa@desnews.com © 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 50 Daily Herald: Nuke sites asked for money for future care Tuesday, November 14, 2006 The Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah lawmakers may require EnergySolutions to put up more money to keep its low-level radioactive dump secure long after the dump shuts down -- when the company may not own the land. An advisory panel wants EnergySolutions to add a one-time $13 million to a so-called perpetual care fund under state control that contains about $3 million in company funds now. The proposal will go to the Legislature's Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee on Wednesday. The fund is meant to safeguard the dump starting a full century after it's closed, forever. EngergySolutions also has a $58 million insurance policy to guarantee it will have the money to cover the more immediate costs of shutting down the dump and monitoring it for the first 100 years after closure. The company argues that the fund doesn't need a boost and isn't needed because the buried waste will lose its radioactivity and turn inert after 100 years. That means that even if the site is disturbed no radioactivity will escape. "We just don't feel it's necessary," EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said Monday. EnergySolutions opened the perpetual fund and deposited contributions during years it was planning to seek approval to take wastes thousands of times more radioactive. It abandoned that plan in 2005 at the behest of state politicians fighting an even hotter dump for spent nuclear fuel rods at the Skull Valley Indian reservation. Now that project may be dead. The Interior Department scuttled the project in September by vetoing a lease that a group of nuclear-power utilities had obtained from the tribe, and by blocking a plan to transport fuel rods by rail or highway to the reservation. EnergySolutions, which operates a mile-square dump about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, isn't the only company that could be affected by changing state policies. Clean Harbors Environmental operates the so-called Grassy Mountain hazardous waste landfill about 10 miles west of Salt Lake City. The Grassy Mountain dump isn't required to have a perpetual care fund, but the advisory Solid and Hazardous Waste Board wants Clean Harbors to establish a $2.6 million account for that purpose. It also wants the company to provide a separate funding guarantee to cover costs of the dump's eventual shutdown and monitoring for 30 years. Craig W. Anderson, a Salt Lake City lawyer and chairman of the waste board, said the proposals for firmer guarantees on waste dumps is "looking way, way down the road" for taxpayers. "If those financial assurances are in place, and they are sufficient, then the likelihood the public will have to deal with (perpetual care expenses) will be reduced," he said. Phil Retallick, Clean Harbor's senior vice president for compliance and regulatory affairs, said the company hasn't decided yet how to respond to the funding requests. This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D4. Copyright © 2006 Daily Herald and Lee Enterprises ***************************************************************** 51 Hampton Union Local News: C-1O group wants hardened storage November 14, 2006 By Susan Morse smorse@seacoastonline.com SEABROOK -- The current dry cask storage being built at FPL Energy Seabrook Station and other nuclear power plants nationwide leaves them vulnerable to a terrorist attack, according to a member of the board of directors of the C-10 Foundation, a nuclear watchdog group. Chris Nord believes the new Democrat majority in Washington, D.C., will help in getting nuclear power plants to adopt Hardened On Site Storage (HOSS), a method that costs millions more than what is now standard. "In this new Democratic Congress, I am certain we're going to see a movement to pass legislation to force the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to implement hardened on site storage and changing the basic design threat," he said. Nord spoke at a required public hearing of the Nuclear Decommissioning Finance Committee in Seabrook last Thursday night. The dry cask storage the NRC is permitting around the country only meets one of three significant criteria for mitigating a terrorist attack, Nord said. "One criterion their system meets is it has air cooling," he said. The dry storage is not hardened to withstand a missile attack, or a fully fueled airplane diving into it, he said. The third point is the spent fuel is contained in one place in a blockhouse arrangement, rather than being dispersed. The risk is of radioactive material being released, rather than of a nuclear explosion, he said. "The chances of it going critical are small," he said. "It's a dirty bomb waiting to be set off." The Nuclear Decommissioning Finance Committee administers funds toward decommissioning. Members had asked Seabrook Station for a brief overview of the plant's dry storage, currently being built. "I made some points that I think were useful to the committee," Nord said, "and they seemed to be very willing to have me back to provide information at their next meeting." The next meeting is expected to be held this winter. Dry storage is being built on site at the nuclear power plant to hold spent fuel rods now stored in pools. Spent fuel will be stored on site because of lawsuits over opening a national facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. "This particular committee is interested only in economics," said Sandra Gavutis, executive director of C-10 in Newburyport, Mass. "Our job at C-10 is to convince the commissioning panel, the whole issue of spent fuel pool is economic. My concern is ... if there's any leakage, that whole area becomes a Superfund site." Al Griffith, spokesman for Seabrook Station, said the plant has already chosen a dry storage plan. "The bottom line is this," he said, "Seabrook Station's dry storage is a safe, proven technology, fully authorized, legal, approved and most importantly, it's perfectly safe." About half of the nuclear power plants in the United States now use dry storage, Griffith said. He has heard of none using the HOSS method. "C-10 can submit as many plans as it wants," he said, "the decision on dry storage has already been approved." Copyright © 2006 Seacoast Online. All rights reserved. Please Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., a Dow Jones Company. ***************************************************************** 52 Stockton Interview: Nuclear Renaissance Needs Reliable Uranium Supply 2006-11-14 06:27:32 - Jamie Strauss, head of institutional sales for Hargreave Hale (UK), believes the nuclear renaissance could be held back if there is a further delay of uranium coming to market. He thinks the U.S. government may someday pressure the Australian government to release their uranium resources to U.S. utilities. November 14, 2006 (PR-Inside) Sarasota , FL - Jamie Strauss of Hargreave Hale (UK) told StockInterview.com, ''We are somewhat concerned the nuclear renaissance may be, to some extent, slowed down unless we find new ore bodies or bring more production onstream quickly as a result of the Cigar Lake problem.'' The head of institutional sales for the London-based brokerage said the impact of the recent flooding at Cameco's Cigar Lake underground mine could make U.S. utilities more aggressive in obtaining future uranium supplies. He told StockInterview.com, ''Are they going to sit by and watch this thing happen? I suspect they're going to go straight down to Australia and say, ‘release your reserves.''' Asked if the U.S. government would get involved, Strauss replied, ''I think they must. Australia is sitting on 30 to 40 percent of the world's known resources. They have signed a nonproliferation agreement, a free trade agreement around the world and the uranium deal with China. Then, you've got to try and release that.'' ABOUT STOCKINTERVIEW.COM The feature article entitled, ''Reliable Uranium Supply Needed for Nuclear Renaissance to Continue,'' appears on the financial news website, StockInterview.com: www.stockinterview.com/News/11142006/Strauss-nuclear-renaissance. html Stockinterview.comis an online news service, which provides investigative reporting, editorial, analysis and commentary of the nuclear fuel cycle, uranium mining, nuclear power, the environment and the natural resource industry. For more information on StockInterview's 304-page trade softcover edition of ''Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market,'' please visit: bookstore.stockinterview.com/ Contact: Julie Ickes Editor, StockInterview.com Telephone: 1+ 941-929-1640 Email: editor@stockinterview.com WWW: www.stockinterview.com (Source: StockInterview.com) ***************************************************************** 53 AU ABC: Uranium action plan endorsed - 14/11/2006 The Federal Government has endorsed a two-year action plan to remove impediments to the growth of Australia's uranium industry. The Uranium Industry Framework Steering Group has released a report which outlines recommendations for better public information and suggests involving Indigenous communities in uranium mining. Michael Angwin from the Australian Uranium Association says global demand for uranium is growing quickly. "The report is going to help Australians think about the industry on its merits," he said. "It's a factual and dispassionate review of the prospects for the industry and of the impediments to its development. "It's reports like this which add to the increasing momentum which is surrounding the development of Australia's uranium mining and exporting industry." ***************************************************************** 54 Evening Mail: Anger at Mox shipment plan barrow in furness Published on 14/11/2006 ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners have launched a furious attack on nuclear bosses today over plans to ship plutonium-based Mox nuclear fuel out of Barrow. Normally, the road-hauled 1.2 tonne Mox consignment — carried in a thick steel flask inside a special lorry — is shipped out from Workington, much nearer Sellafield, where the new-style nuclear power station fuel is made. But work on the dock system in Workington saw the special BNG ship Atlantic Osprey temporarily moved to Barrow last week. BNG said it was staying in Barrow until its next assignment, but would neither confirm or deny that it was a Mox run. Now Martin Forwood, head of Cumbrians Against a Nuclear Environment, said he had confirmed that four Mox assemblies from BNG are expected at Cherbourg in France around November 21 on their way to a Swiss nuclear power station. This morning Atlantic Osprey moved from the BNFL terminal to the Anchor Line basin to carry out manoeuvres. It was seen by Barrow Island resident Anne Carruthers of Aberdare Street. She said: “I would like to know what is going on. We don’t want nuclear fuel going down a residential street like Ramsden Dock Road. It could attract all sorts of people and is very threatening to the community.” CORE believes the Mox will be shipped from Sellafield by road during the night, then driven on to the Atlantic Osprey in the Anchor Line Basin. That means it will pass the residential area of Ramsden Dock Road. ***************************************************************** 55 [NukeNet] Suit Filed Today Over Energy Dept Violations of Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:22:03 -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] 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 NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net) Read on... for more information, contact: Loulena Miles, Staff Attorney, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148 Marylia Kelley, Executive director, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148 for immediate release, November 14, 2006 ENERGY DEPT. VIOLATES FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW, LIVERMORE LAB "WATCHDOG" FILES FEDERAL LAWSUIT Tri-Valley CAREs Sues on 5 Separate Freedom of Information Act Violations; Lawsuit has National Implications as Group Asks Court to Rule on Agency Pattern of Abuse LIVERMORE -- Today, Tri-Valley CAREs filed a major lawsuit in the federal district court in San Francisco against the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) for numerous failures to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the nation's leading open government statute. The DOE has failed to provide responsive documents as required by law for as long as three years on five separate information requests. The DOE's failure to respond thwarts the community's basic right to know, according to the group's litigation. "The DOE has been thumbing its nose at the law," charged Tri-Valley CAREs' Executive Director, Marylia Kelley. "Moreover, these FOIA requests involve potentially catastrophic releases of plutonium and biological agents from Livermore Lab operations," said Kelley, who lives down the street from the Lab. The 5 FOIA requests that are the subject of the litigation involve unclassified information on the feasibility of developing earth-penetrating nuclear weapons, the environmental implications of a terrorist attack or catastrophic accident on Livermore Lab's existing plutonium stockpiles, the Lab's "10-Year Site Plan," and the Dept. of Homeland Security's bio-warfare agent research plans at Livermore Lab. "These documents will provide information about the dangers faced by our community from spills, accidents, releases and potential terrorism," said Kelley. "Keeping this hidden does nothing to protect the public," she continued. "Instead, it renders us unable to press for changes that will truly safeguard worker and community health and the environment." "The DOE's illegal conduct frustrates Tri-Valley CAREs' efforts to educate the public regarding key activities at the Livermore Lab," said Tri-Valley CAREs' Staff Attorney, Loulena Miles. Miles continued, "The DOE has exhibited a 'pattern and practice' of not responding to FOIA requests in the manner prescribed by statute. Routinely, the DOE has failed to fulfill Tri-Valley CAREs' FOIA requests and those of other individuals and organizations within the allotted timeframe." The suit filed today also asks the judge to issue a court order appointing a Special Counsel to investigate DOE's pattern of failing to comply with the law. The Special Counsel would then determine whether disciplinary action is warranted and against whom. "A positive ruling could set a precedent with national implications," stated noted New Mexico FOIA attorney, Steve Sugarman, who is assisting Tri-Valley CAREs with the case. Tri-Valley CAREs was forced to bring similar lawsuits against DOE in 1998 and 2000. Only after filing and pursuing these cases did DOE finally produce documents as required by law. "Tri-Valley CAREs should not have to file lawsuits in order to obtain public information, concluded Staff Attorney Miles. "The FOIA was enacted specifically so that organizations like ours would have free access to records that disclose the operations of the government. Fundamentally, this lawsuit is intended to vindicate the public's right to be informed and to comment knowledgeably on the country's nuclear and other programs that impact our lives and our future." Presently, the DOE stands poised to launch "Complex 2030," the agency's blueprint for revitalizing U.S. nuclear weapons design and production capability. The agency's continued refusal to provide needed information having a direct bearing on future activities at Livermore Lab therefore has an ongoing deleterious impact on public discourse. The DOE will be holding meetings in Livermore and Tracy on December 12, 2006 to receive public comment on the scope of future activities at Livermore Lab and other sites in the nuclear weapons complex. "The government is proposing a major transformation of nuclear programs as well as housing biological warfare agent facilities at the Livermore Lab's main site and site 300. The DOE's refusal to release vital, unclassified information at this time makes it impossible for the public to meaningfully comment on these plans," noted Miles. -- 30 -- A FAXED COPY OF THE COMPLAINT FILED TODAY CAN BE OBTAINED IMMEDIATELY BY CALLING TRI-VALLEY CAREs AT (925) 443-7148. IT WILL BE AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE SOON AT www.trivalleycares.org Marylia Kelley, Executive Director Tri-Valley CAREs 2582 Old First Street Livermore, CA 94551 Ph: (925) 443-7148 Fx: (925) 443-0177 Web: www.trivalleycares.org Email: marylia@trivalleycares.org or marylia@earthlink.net _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings or access the archives at: http://mail.energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 56 Knox News: Comments heard on Complex 2030 Most object to plans to build more nuclear weapons at Y-12 By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com November 14, 2006 OAK RIDGE - The government's plans for the nuclear weapons complex of the future - known as Complex 2030 - could expand work at the Y-12 warhead facility, including a possible role with plutonium. Y-12 historically has manufactured the secondary stage of nuclear warheads, specializing in work with highly enriched uranium. Under the new proposal, the Oak Ridge plant is among five sites being considered to process plutonium - one of the world's most hazardous materials - and manufacture warhead parts with it. The National Nuclear Security Administration, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, held public meetings here Monday to begin preparations on an environmental impact statement. The EIS would supplement earlier plans for maintaining the nation's weapons stockpile and the production facilities. Almost any scenario would maintain Y-12's work with enriched uranium, although those capabilities could be reduced or upgraded depending on the alternative chosen. A $500 million high-security storage facility for uranium is under construction and about 40 percent complete, and a $1 billion Uranium Processing Facility is being promoted to replace the plant's aging production operations. About 75 people attended the first comment session, which began Monday morning at the Oak Ridge Mall. A second session was to be held Monday night. Most of the speakers voiced objections to the plans. Some suggested the government should be tearing down the Cold War weapons plants, not spending billions of dollars to rebuild them in the 21st century. "I believe in family values, and I don't think WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) come under that heading," said Mary Olson of Asheville, N.C. She is southeast director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Center. Brita Larsen Clark of Johnson City said it makes no sense to build national security around nuclear weapons, which are built for mass murder. "It's crazy," Clark said. The Department of Energy has not had a plutonium manufacturing facility since the late 1980s, when the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado was shut down. DOE is trying to re-establish that capability as part of its Complex 2030 plan, with the intent of manufacturing new "reliable replacement warheads" for old weapons. In addition to Y-12, other federal sites being considered for the consolidated plutonium center are Los Alamos in New Mexico; Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Pantex in Texas; and Nevada Test Site. Y-12 has never worked with plutonium on a meaningful scale, and some observers doubted Oak Ridge would be chosen to host such a facility. However, Ted Wyka, federal document manager for the Complex 2030 project, said Y-12 was a realistic option - not just window-dressing for an environmental impact statement. "You have a lot of expertise here," Wyka said. Several speakers questioned why the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant was not being evaluated as part of the weapons complex because the TVA reactor produces radioactive tritium for use in nuclear warheads. George Allen, director of the National Nuclear Security Administrations' Office of Transformation, noted that Watts Bar wasn't a federal facility, and he said documents did not include vendors who provide products and services to the weapons complex. Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, strongly objected to that answer and suggested Allen was being frivolous. Providing tritium for warheads should not be compared to buying nuts and bolts, Hutchison said. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. JOE HOWELL/NEWS SENTINEL Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, asks questions Monday during a public meeting on Complex 2030. © 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel ***************************************************************** 57 Middletown Journal: Groups fear Piketon will become dumping ground MiddletownJournal.com By Lynn Hulsey, Tom Beyerlein Staff Writers Tuesday, November 14, 2006 PIKETON Over 50 years, as three U.S. plants churned out enriched uranium for atomic bombs and nuclear reactor fuel rods, workers wheeled giant metal cylinders full of radioactive waste into open-air factory yards where they sat. And multiplied. As the cylinders containing depleted uranium hexafluoride accumulated at enrichment plants in Piketon, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Oak Ridge, Tenn., other kinds of nuclear material piled up at federal weapons plants in Ohio and Washington state. Meanwhile, a different waste product dangerous, highly radioactive spent fuel rods collected at more than 100 American nuclear reactors. With plans stalled for a deep-burial nuke graveyard at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, there is no permanent place to put them. All of these problems converge at the Energy Department's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon. " Construction is under way at Piketon on a facility to convert 20,000 cylinders of old enrichment waste, known as DUF6, to a more benign chemical form. Without conversion, the corroding cylinders could unleash poison clouds if breached. " The plant is home to the Uranium Management Center, a storage site for 4,500 metric tons of radioactive metals, powders and fuel pins. Much of the material came from federal cleanup projects at the Feed Materials Production Center near Fernald and the Hanford weapons plant in Washington. The Energy Department contends that the material is valuable, but so far nobody has stepped forward to buy it. " A Piketon-based company is pursuing a federal grant to study building a plant that would remove plutonium from highly radioactive spent fuel rods for reuse in an advanced burner reactor. The spent rods, from across the United States and perhaps overseas, would be stored at Piketon. For many in jobs-starved Appalachian Ohio, these activities translate to the kind of middle-class employment the atomic plant provided for generations. "Anything that'll bring in good-paying jobs, we'll accept," said Pike County Commissioner John Harbert. "The plant, it's just been a standard here since the 1950s." The president of a plant workers' union said it makes sense to consider other nuclear-related reuses for the contaminated grounds. "It's a nuclear facility. I don't think it's going to be a fun theme park in the near future," said Dan Minter of United Steelworkers Local 5689. But at least two local watchdog groups have raised concerns that Piketon will become a new dumping ground, even as work progresses on a massive cleanup of radioactive and chemical waste from old uranium enrichment work. Piketon even was a stopping point for radioactive material from Libya's dismantled nuclear program. "Piketon has been a sacrifice zone. We have become a national dump site," said Vina Colley, a former plant worker and president of the watchdog group Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security. "How can they say we cleaned up the Piketon site and then make a dump out of it again with tax dollars? Seems crazy to us." The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which has battled the Energy Department over a number of issues, doesn't want a waste dump at the site. "We are very much opposed to them bringing in materials from other places," said Brian Blair, environmental supervisor for the Ohio EPA's southeast office. "This is not an appropriate facility to be a regional waste disposal area." But the Ohio EPA can do nothing to stop the Energy Department from transferring radioactive material unless it is mixed with other hazardous waste. The Energy Department is responsible for ensuring that the radioactive material is handled safely. William E. Murphie, plant site manager for the Energy Department, denied Piketon is a dumping ground. He said the Fernald/Hanford material and the 20,000 depleted-uranium cylinders eventually will be shipped elsewhere. Conversion will take time, money Before the depleted uranium cylinders can be shipped anywhere, they have to be converted to something less dangerous. The cylinders most from Piketon, some shipped in from Oak Ridge, Tenn. weigh up to 14 tons and contain radioactive "depleted" uranium hexafluoride so corrosive it could eventually eat through the metal and release a toxic gas. Even now, access to the storage yards is limited because the cylinders emit radioactive gamma rays, subjecting nearby workers to radiation. The material is commonly called "tails." The Energy Department hired Uranium Disposition Services LLC of Lexington, Ky., to convert the material so that the cylinders can be safely hauled away. UDS is building plants for this task at both Piketon and Paducah, which has a backlog of 40,000 cylinders. It'll cost taxpayers an estimated $2.9 billion to convert it all. The conversion process creates hydrofluoric acid and uranium oxide. The hydrofluoric acid will be sold for industrial use and the uranium oxide will likely be shipped to Utah or Nevada for disposal. The Piketon conversion plant is slated to open in 2008. Government officials estimate it will take until 2026 to convert the existing backlog of cylinders. But the number of cylinders piling up there will multiply if the American Centrifuge gets off the ground. The proposed plant, scheduled to go on line in 2011, would generate 41,000 cylinders of waste over 30 years, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. With new enrichment facilities in the works, "the problem of these vast amounts of depleted uranium has suddenly become a huge environmental issue," said Arjun Makhijani, who heads the anti-nuclear Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Md. Makhijani said converting depleted uranium hexafluoride is "very important for the public safety." Uranium is waiting, but no buyers are emerging The Energy Department is offering metal ingots and uranium billets for sale to qualified buyers, but so far none have emerged. Most of the radioactive material was shipped from Fernald and Hanford to meet cleanup deadlines at those facilities. Maria Galanti, the Ohio EPA site coordinator at Piketon, said shipping dangerous material between plants just shifts the burden from one community to another. "It's kind of a shell game, more or less," she said. The Uranium Management Center, which opened in 2000, is billed as a secure warehouse for radioactive material awaiting sale to industry. None of the material is high-enriched or weapons-grade. A sales catalog offers descriptions of the excess materials, which include 55-gallon drums filled with powdered uranium dioxide, described as "virgin material, not containing transuranics or fission products." Transuranics and fission products are highly radioactive elements formed in a nuclear reaction. "It's not waste," Murphie said of warehouse inventory. "It's material that is an asset." One potential customer, Nuclear Fuel Services of Tennessee, evaluated samples and determined at least 40 percent of the stockpile is useless, according to executive vice president Steve Schutt. "In essence, the (Piketon) nuclear material is orphaned," he said. "Too expensive to dispose of and, with no value to buyers, it has nowhere to go." Murphie acknowledged that some of the material "has less economic value than others." The Energy Department rejected Schutt's company's offer to haul away the material for a fee. Marketing all of the saleable material will take until at least 2023, according to the department. 'They think we're dumb' The Bush administration and some lawmakers are touting reprocessing as the solution to the main stumbling block to nuclear power: what to do with plutonium-contaminated spent fuel rods. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years. The Energy Department hopes to build a plant that would remove the plutonium from spent fuel rods, allowing utilities to reuse them. The recovered plutonium would then fuel an advanced burner reactor. The Southern Ohio Nuclear Integration Cooperative (SONIC) has applied for a $5 million federal grant to study building the reprocessing plant and burner reactor at Piketon. Fourteen groups are in the running for grants. As many as 5,000 jobs could be created, said SONIC founder Gregory Simonton. He said SONIC doesn't want to turn the site into a dump; the goal is safe reindustrialization. SONIC officials say they would also consider other uses for the site, including a next-generation nuclear reactor or a coal-fired power plant. "It's really important to us that we do a good job, a responsible job, to ensure that any job we do is safe," Simonton said. U.S. Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, is leading the reprocessing effort in Congress as chairman of the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee. He said the work is "not unsafe" and would provide good jobs, but the decision on whether to seek a plant is ultimately up to the residents of Piketon. "I want to see what they want to do," Hobson said. "I don't want to push it on them, because they'll push back." Some of them already are. "They think we're dumb because we're poor and they can just pull anything over on us they want," said Tressie Hall, whose home is about a half-mile from the plant. "They always have." Hall is a founding member of the Southern Ohio Neighbors Group, which is launching an aggressive fight against the reprocessing proposal. Geoffrey Sea, also a founder of the group, says members have gathered 1,000 signatures on petitions with the heading, "NO NUCLEAR DUMP AT PIKETON." The group doesn't buy SONIC's assurances that the plant would be safe. And they say they have another concern: terrorism. "Where does that put us on the terrorist hit list now?" Teresa Mahan of Beaver asked federal officials at a Sept. 27 public meeting in Piketon. "Are we going to be in the top 10, the top three, second to the White House? What are you doing to us?" Others have raised pollution concerns. The nation's only commercial fuel reprocessing facility closed in West Valley, N.Y., in 1976, leaving behind a mess that has cost $1 billion so far to clean up. Energy Department spokeswoman Meg Barnett said high-level radioactive waste will remain there until the federal government opens Yucca Mountain, now scheduled for 2017 at the earliest. "(Reprocessing) has always been far more expensive and far more polluting than they anticipated," said Ivan Oelrich, vice president for strategic security programs for the Federation of American Scientists. Pike County's top development official also is leery of Energy Department plans for the site, particularly if those plans include storing highly radioactive spent fuel rods. "I know this is being marketed as temporary, but we know DOE's 'temporary' is like 100 years," said Jennifer Chandler, Pike County community and economic development director. "Their temporary turns into permanent." 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