***************************************************************** 11/29/06 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 14.282 ***************************************************************** 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 [NYTr] WH "Hostile" to CIA Rpt: No Evidence of Iran Nuke Weapons Pgm 2 Guardian Unlimited: Paper: Iran Leader Writes to Americans 3 AFP: Iran leader urges US out of Iraq in letter to Americans 4 [NYTr] North Korea, US fail to agree on nuclear talks 5 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N.Korean Envoys to Hold More Talks 6 AFP: US and NKorean envoys dig in for second day of nuclear talks - 7 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N. Korea Reach No Deal on Talks 8 UPI: Outside View: North Korean options-2 9 US: [NukeNet] Increased Bombs NOT necessary - say new studio and 10 IRNA: US has 480 nuclear weapons in Europe 11 Disarmament And Non-proliferation Both Needed To Fight Nuclear Threa 12 Guardian Unlimited: We're not simpletons. Trident will breach the nu 13 Canada News: Pakistan launches nuclear-capable missile NUCLEAR REACTORS 14 [NYTr] Russia Staunchly Defends Iran's Right to Nuclear Energy 15 US: [NukeNet] Press Rel: Pu Pit Review, New Nukes and "Complex 16 US: MercuryNews.com: Build reactors for energy independence 17 allAfrica.com: South Africa: A Nuclear Future 18 US: Steinkrug Publications Ltd: 101 Ways To Kick The Carbon Habit 19 Mineweb: energy Major Chilean conglomerates want nuclear power 20 The Herald: Employers body will not speak out 21 Knox News: Chernobyl survivor speaks at UT on life after explosion 22 Platts: Russia, China to become members of GIF at end November meeti 23 Platts: First Franco-British Nuclear Forum to take place Nov 29 in P 24 US: Sf Chron: PG looking at nuclear plants / Alternative power sourc 25 New Matilda: Nuclear Debate: Part Four: Australia and the World 26 Sofia Echo: NPP DEAL SIGNED IN BULGARIA, REACTOR CLOSURE TO HAPPEN- 27 AZOM: European NULIFE Programme to Prolong Nuclear Power Plant Life 28 People's Daily: Huaneng launches new generating facility 29 AFP: EU ups pressure on Spain to drop restrictions on EON's Endesa b 30 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI opposed to West nuclear monopoly 31 US: Knox News: TVA to buy second turbine plant Agency says another 32 US: Newsday.com: Indian Point test finds all 156 sirens worked, owne 33 SNA: Bulgaria: Bulgaria Signs Belene Nuke Deal NUCLEAR SECURITY 34 The Herald: Nuclear terrorism now arrives in a Nato country 35 UPI: Annan: Nukes world's worst threat NUCLEAR SAFETY 36 [NYTr] Litvinenko 'smuggled nuclear material' 37 [NYTr] Polonium 210 and the hollow triumph of capitalism 38 Guardian Unlimited: Radiation tests for ex-spy staff 39 Guardian Unlimited: Radioactive material found on BA planes (ALL FLI 40 US: NRC: NRC Invites Nominations for Advisory Committee on Medical U 41 New York Times: Billionaire Ally of Dead Spy Issues Statement - 42 BBC: Radioactive traces on BA planes 43 AFP: Investigators find radiation on BA aircraft in poisoned spy cas 44 ITAR-TASS: Chelyabinsk hosts international seminar on radiation risk 45 UPI: Dead spy left poisonous trail in London 46 Guardian Unlimited: Radiation Found on 2 Jets in Spy Probe 47 Guardian Unlimited: Man Cleared of Radiation Contamination NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 48 US: NRC: NRC to Hold Public Meetings on Dec. 5 and 12 Regarding Deco 49 AU: Townsville Bulletin: Aboriginal elders blast government nuke pla 50 US: State Port Pilot: Nuclear fuel staying put 51 Pahrump Valley Times: Power shift will affect Yucca 52 Pahrump Valley Times: New volume outlines history of test site befor 53 US: reviewjournal.com: Nuclear energy official urges look at waste s 54 US: Gallup Independent: Uranium summit to begin Thursday 55 Sydney Morning Herald: Nuclear waste is like asbestos, says MP - 56 Sydney Morning Herald: NT nuclear dump plan moving closer - 57 AU ABC: NT radioactive dump Bill passes Lower House 58 US: New York Times: In Utah, the Half-Life of Arena Naming Rights - 59 US: DOE: Department of Energy Selects Recipients of GNEP Siting Gran 60 US: News 8: DOE Shuts Down Idaho Nuclear Waste Shipments 61 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Don't be fooled by spin 62 Platts: UK's NDA to launch competition for new Sellafield contractor 63 US: People's Daily: Australian mining giant says well placed to 64 AU ABC: NT radioactive dump Bill passes Lower House 65 US: The Mercury: Permanent solution still lacking for nuke fuel rods 66 US: AU ABC: Guarantee fails to allay uranium mining fears. PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 67 Guardian Unlimited: Report: Los Alamos Security Flawed 68 SPI: DOE selects Hanford among 11 possible fuel recycling sites 69 Platts: DOE TAD canister specs to be issued by November 30 70 Tri-City Herald: Plutonium waste taken from trench 71 Tri-City Herald: Hanford - and perhaps FFTF - to be studied for fuel 72 Tennessean: Oak Ridge being considered as site for nuke component pl 73 Knox News: This Price may be right, but system's all wrong 74 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Alliance members awaiting DOE response 75 NMBW: LANL recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium - 76 Times-News: DOE shuts down Idaho nuclear waste shipments to WIPP 77 Albuquerque Tribune: Los Alamos urged to clean up waste 78 BCNG Portals: Radiation exposure cause for dispute 79 lamonitor.com: DOE secretary scolds lab on security issues ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 [NYTr] WH "Hostile" to CIA Rpt: No Evidence of Iran Nuke Weapons Pgm Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:54:53 -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 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Counterpunch - Nov 29, 2006 http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp11292006.html White House "Hostile" to Reality-Based Report CIA: No Evidence of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program By GARY LEUPP According to Seymour Hersh's latest New Yorker shocker, the CIA has found no evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program. The White House, given a draft assessment in the fall, has been "hostile" to the agency's report. Now why would that be? Why no sighs of relief? Why no, "Thank you guys," and pats on the back for all their careful intelligence work? I think the answer's obvious to anyone who's been paying attention. Dick Cheney and his neocon acolytes who still dominate Middle East policy (David Wurmser, Elliott Abrams, Stephen Hadley, Stephen Cambone, Eric Edelman, Elizabeth Cheney, with Abram Shulsky, David Addington and John Bolton in supporting roles) have a certain view of what constitutes good intelligence. It's at variance with the view more widely held among those of us in what they dismiss as the "reality-based community." That includes many intelligence professionals. My university hosts the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy, a prime CIA recruiting ground. I know from personal exposure that some choosing that career (never at my urging) can be decent, self-respecting, conscientious scholars and researchers. If asked to investigate whether or not a country has a nuclear weapons program, they're likely to interpret the assignment literally and give it their best shot. But this is not the neocon understanding of what intelligence entails. When Dick Cheney says, "Find me evidence," he means, "Validate my project with evidence" He wants talking points to disseminate to the American public via Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page to justify regime change in Iran. He wants an Iranian client-state, bridging "liberated" Afghanistan and Iraq, helping to encircle rising China, decorated with permanent U.S. bases keeping a watchful eye on the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea, and friendly with nuclear Israel. Before the Iraq War, Cheney, his deputy "Scooter" Libby and Rumsfeld deputy Paul Wolfowitz all strongly opposed the CIA reports concluding that Saddam Hussein had no important al-Qaeda ties and that Iraq didn't have enough WMDs to threaten anybody. Cheney and Libby repeatedly visited CIA headquarters in person to demand revisions of reports and inclusion of "intelligence" later proven to have come from persons known by the CIA to be unreliable. But dissatisfied with the level of cooperation from the CIA, Cheney with Rumsfeld created the "Office for Special Plans" (headed by Douglas Feith) within the Defense Department to scatter disinformation through the "free" press and then through administration officials appearing on weekend news programs--including the myths of the Niger uranium deal, aluminum tubes as nuclear centrifuges, al-Qaeda training camps in Iraq, etc. So of course the White House---at least if (as I suspect) Cheney retains the upper hand in an apparent power struggle---is going to be hostile to the CIA report, whose existence has likely been leaked by some self-respecting intelligence officers. The administration knows that war critics in Congress might brandish this report to discourage the well-planned attack, calling for negotiations and dialogue with Tehran. Their voice will be all the more convincing if as expected the report of the Iraq Study Group headed by James Baker urges that all Iraq's neighbors be involved in finding a solution to the war in that country. The idea that the CIA would abet such wimps must give the surviving, struggling neocons shitfits. Will the current serve, or will they lose their fortunes? (Hersh writes that the CIA paper has made "planning for an attack on Iranfar more complicated." On the other hand the neocons know that AIPAC is strong, and will passionately argue that opposition to a preemptive attack is appeasement, and Ahmadinejad is Hitler, that Iran wants to "wipe Israel of the map," that Israel's security and U.S. security are the same, and that whatever the cost the U.S. MUST prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. They know that even many now favoring a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq won't stand in the way of an Iran attack because they're intimidated by such reasoning. Few politicians may care to argue back, but they could say, "The historical analogy is ridiculous. Do you even know what Ahmadinejad's constitutional powers are, in relation to military affairs, foreign policy, and the Iranian nuclear program? Don't you think the administration's exaggerating the Iranian threat, like it did the threat from Iraq? Why did State Department Sean McCormack jump last May to validate a totally false and almost immediately discredited report that the Iranian parliament was planning to badge Jews? Are you aware that the IAEA headed by one of the UN's most respected officials, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, has repeatedly reported there is no evidence the Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program? Just as our own CIA has done, for godssakes? Did you know that Iran has never once in modern history attacked another country? By the way, what is Israel doing to encourage friendly relations with Iran, and with its Arab neighbors? Would complete withdrawal from the West Bank and Syria's Golan Heights in accordance with numerous UN resolutions help?" ) I wonder if Dubya's actually "hostile" to the CIA report. Could be that he hasn't read it, or has had it summarized for him by a hostile Cheney, who'll be telling him that the CIA is dominated by liberals who just don't want to see the evidence and interpret it so cautiously that they're risking our security. But his dad's telling him (through James Baker and Brent Snowcroft) to back off a bit on Iran, having screwed up so bad in Iraq, and to actually sit down and talk to the Iranians about settling down that Mesopotamian mess. He's perhaps been urging his boy not to snap at the CIA because those guys are there to HELP him, after all, as they along with the generals gently suggest that he cool his jets. And meanwhile the neocons, his rock of support, whose words must genuinely hurt, declare him a failure. Key neocons (including Bill Kristol) turned on Rumsfeld long ago, damning his inclination to use too little force and firepower. But now some neocons out of power (including Perle, "axis of evil" speechwriter Frum, and "Cakewalk" Adelman) are on the president's own case; having once delighted in his receptivity to their plans (born out his natural callousness and desire to one-up his war criminal pop), they now blame him for not wisely executing the colonization-of-Iraq project. But notice that the neocons out of power and inclined to comment aren't turning on Cheney, from his undisclosed location long serving as the real power behind the throne. Hersh reports that the White House (Cheney) insisted before the midterm elections that even if the Democrats took both houses U.S. policy towards Iran wouldn't change. But, a former senior intelligence officer told Hersh, "[t]hey're afraid that Congress is going to vote a binding resolution to stop a hit on Iran, ` la Nicaragua in the Contra war." Cheney and his neocons are surely working closely with Lantos and Lieberman and other warmonger Democrats to achieve the overthrow of the Iranian government before Bush leaves office. The "Office of Special Plans" has been revived in the same Pentagon offices as the "Office of Iranian Affairs," headed by the Leo Strauss scholar Abram Shulsky and reporting to the vice-president's daughter Elizabeth Cheney. It will take more than a classified CIA report to stop the train, but the train does appear to be slowing down. Despite war preparations, the contradictions within the Bush regime and in the power elite in general suggest that rather than expanding the criminal war, those bearing top command responsibility might just have to back off. Their credibility with the people has hit rock-bottom; the mainstream press is no longer so cooperative; traditional power centers have become alarmed at the influence acquired by the neocon cabal, the Israel lobby and Christian fundamentalist PACs. The regimes targeted for change in Damascus and Tehran are working with a somewhat independent-minded (if still U.S.-dependent) Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The announcement of a summit between Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian leaders in Tehran may have taken Bush by surprise; the meeting in Amman with al-Maliki right afterwards, requiring Bush to fly down from the NATO conference in Riga, looks as though it was hastily called. Meanwhile, according to reports, Baker's Iraq Study Group will suggest that U.S. diplomats sit down and talk with Iraq's neighbors about ending the violence in the invaded country. Will not even the most mule-headed Democrat in the Democrat-led legislature now have to pause before recommending or approving further aggression against those nations bordering Iraq? Perhaps Bush and Cheney have already given them their cue. "If we don't attack Iran," they say, "the Israelis might, and we'd understand that." And the Democrats can, after expressing any personal opinions they may have on Iran-Israel issues, add, "Anyway it's not the U.S.'s business to go attacking a country that even the CIA says poses no threat to us." [Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial Crusades. He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu] * ================================================================ .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 ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: Paper: Iran Leader Writes to Americans From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday November 29, 2006 10:31 AM By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP)- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written a letter to the American people that will be released at U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday, a state newspaper reported. The newspaper gave no details of the letter, an apparent attempt by the firebrand president to reach out to Americans over the head of their government. The state-run newspaper Iran reported the letter in bold type on its front page, saying ``the five-page letter to the American people will be released by Iran's representative at the United Nations today.'' Ahmadinejad wrote a rambling, 18-page letter to President Bush in May, which Washington criticized for not addressing Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. is leading the drive to impose U.N. sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium. Average Iranians were disappointed by the cold response to the May letter, the first official communication between the two countries' presidents since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad said he was planning to write a letter to Americans. ``Many American people asked me to talk to them in order to explain the views of the Iranian people,'' Ahmadinejad told reporters, referring to his visit to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly session in September 2005. Ahmadinejad has alienated many Americans by calling for Israel's destruction and repeatedly dismissing the Holocaust as a myth. He also strongly supports the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the Lebanese faction Hezbollah, which the U.S. State Department lists as terrorist organizations. Twice this year, Iran has proposed talks with the United States over Iraq, but Ahmadinejad has said that for such negotiations to take place, Washington must change its behavior. On Sunday, he said Iran was ready to help the United States get out of the ``Iraqi quagmire if the U.S. changes its bullying policy toward Iran.'' Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when, after the Islamic revolution, militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and kept 52 people hostage for 444 days. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 3 AFP: Iran leader urges US out of Iraq in letter to Americans by Gerard Aziakou Wed Nov 29, 6:15 PM ET UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Iran " /> Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a scathing attack on US President George W. Bush " /> President George W. Bush's policies in an unprecedented letter to the American people in which he urged the 144,000 US troops to leave Iraq " /> Iraq. "Now that Iraq has a constitution and an independent assembly and government, would it not be more beneficial to bring the US officers and soldiers home and to spend the astronomical US military expenditures in Iraq for the welfare and prosperity of the American people?" the Iranian leader said in a letter released by his country's UN mission here. He reinforced that message in Tehran Wednesday as his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani wrapped up a three-day visit to Iran. "I advise you to leave Iraq to save whatever reputation you have left. Leave the responsibilities to Iraqi officials according to a timetable as the Iraqi government wants," Ahmadinejad said, echoing calls earlier by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In his letter addressed to "Noble Americans", Ahmadinejad pointed out that since the start of the US-led war in Iraq in 2003, "hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, maimed or displaced." "I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billion of dollars of annual expenditure from your treasury for this military misadventure." In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey dismissed the letter as "a public relations stunt or a public relations gesture" that brought nothing new. "Our nation has always extended its hand of friendship to all other nations of the world," Ahmadinejad said as he sought to establish a direct dialogue with Americans by bypassing their government. Citing a "common responsibility to promote and protect freedom and human dignity and integrity", he said that "human values and our common human spirit ... have brought our two great nations of Iran and the United States closer together." But while he was conciliatory toward the American public, the Iranian was scathing in his denunciation of the Bush administration's policies. "The legitimacy, power and influence of a government do not emanate from its arsenals of tanks, fighter aircraft, missiles or nuclear weapons," he noted. "Legitimacy and influence reside in sound logic, quest for justice and compassion and empathy for all humanity." "The global position of the United States is in all probability weakened because the administration has continued to resort to force, to conceal the truth and to mislead the American people about its policies and practices," Ahmadinejad said. Last May, he had already sent a surprise, rambling 18-page letter to Bush in which he proposed a return to religious principles as a means of restoring confidence but made no mention of his country's controversial nuclear program. His latest letter also condemned terrorism but rhetorically asked: "Can terrorism be contained and eradicated through war, destruction and the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent?" But there was no word on the standoff over Tehran's refusal to comply with UN demands that it halt sensitive nuclear fuel work. Ahmadinejad referred to the "discontent" of the US electorate reflected in the outcome of the November 7 elections which saw Bush's Republican Party lose control of both houses of Congress to opposition Democrats. "I hope that in the wake of the mid-term elections, the administration of President Bush " /> President Bushwill have heard and will heed the message of the American people," he said. Ahmadinejad, a fierce critic of Israel " /> Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, also took aim at Washington's steadfast support for the Jewish state. "What have the Zionists done for the American people that the US administration considers itself obliged to blindly support these infamous aggressors? Is it not because they have imposed themselves on a substantial portion of the banking, financial, cultural and media sectors?" he said. "I recommend that in a demonstration of respect for the American people and for humanity, the right of Palestinians to live in their own homeland should be recognized so that millions of Palestinian refugees can return to their homes and the future of all of Palestine and its form of government be determined in a referendum," he added. Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 [NYTr] North Korea, US fail to agree on nuclear talks Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:43:17 -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 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit AP via Toronto Globe & Mail - Nov 29, 2006 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061129.wnkorea1129/BNStory/International/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20061129.wnkorea1129 North Korea, U.S. fail to agree on nuclear talks Associated Press Beijing -- U.S. and North Korean envoys failed to reach an agreement Wednesday on when to resume six-party disarmament negotiations on Pyongyang's atomic weapons program. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said that after two days of talks with his North Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, he planned to leave Beijing on Thursday without a follow-up meeting. A U.S. Embassy statement said that Mr. Hill's delegation "shared ideas that could help ensure progress when the six-party talks resume," without elaborating. "The DPRK promised to study these ideas," the statement said, using the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Mr. Hill and Mr. Kim also met with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei during the talks Tuesday and Wednesday. The heads of delegations from the three countries "frankly and deeply exchanged views on the issue of promoting the process of the six-party talks and improve mutual understanding," China's Foreign Ministry said on its Web site. "The three parties also agreed to strive for the progress of the talks." Mr. Hill, who had been scheduled to fly to Seoul after Beijing, cancelled the trip, said Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. She did not give a reason, but said Mr. Hill now planned to leave Thursday for Washington with a possible stopover in Japan. Japan's Kyodo News agency cited unidentified people at the talks as saying that Mr. Kim demanded that the U.S. lift financial sanctions and freeze UN sanctions that were imposed after the North's first nuclear test on Oct. 9. Mr. Hill responded by saying that the possible lifting of financial sanctions can be discussed during the talks and working level discussions, which are expected to be held simultaneously, Kyodo said. Similar stances were taken when the three met bilaterally and trilaterally on Tuesday, Japanese and South Korean media have reported. North Korea agreed in September 2005 to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and aid. But Washington imposed the financial sanctions against a Macau-based bank on suspicions it was laundering counterfeit money for the North Koreans. Angered by the move, Pyongyang withdrew from the talks two months later. The six-party talks involve the United States, North Korea, Japan, South Korea and Russia, which has not sent an envoy to Beijing. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that the main goal of the Beijing meetings was to "make sure that everybody, at least, has a good, solid understanding of what might happen" when the six-nation talks resume. Mr. Kim said earlier this week that the timing of the next round of six-nation talks "depends on the United States." Mr. Kim's trip to Beijing -- a rare overseas visit -- and the presence of other negotiators had lifted expectations that there could be a breakthrough in ongoing efforts to restart the talks. An unannounced meeting between Mr. Hill and Mr. Kim last month in Beijing led to Pyongyang agreeing to return to the arms negotiations amid heightened tensions after the Oct. 9 nuclear test. Meanwhile, a South Korean lawmaker said North Korea could conduct an additional nuclear test next month or early next year unless the United States offers economic concessions such as lifting financial restrictions. "I believe that there are specific movements in North Korea to prepare for a second nuclear test," said opposition lawmaker Chung Hyung-keun, citing information obtained by state intelligence agencies, according to his office. * ================================================================ .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 ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 5 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N.Korean Envoys to Hold More Talks From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday November 29, 2006 4:01 AM By AUDRA ANG Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - The top American, North Korean and Chinese nuclear negotiators met for a second day Wednesday, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said, amid a diplomatic push to resume six-nation talks on Pyongyang's atomic weapons program. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawai at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse for a second round of talks, said Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. She did not have details of the discussions or whether Hill met with Wu and Kim together or separately. The three met on Tuesday. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that the main goal of the current meetings was to ``make sure that everybody, at least, has a good, solid understanding of what might happen'' when six-nation talks aimed at persuading the North to abandon its nuclear weapons reconvene. ``What Chris did today (Tuesday) was to start to provide information on how we might be able to define what is an effective round of the six-party talks that produces concrete results,'' he said. According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, Hill on Tuesday ``stressed that the North needs to report all of its nuclear programs before seeking economic incentives.'' On his part, Kim insisted that Washington lift its financial sanctions on Pyongyang and ``take steps to help normalize relations between the two enemies,'' Yonhap said. North Korea agreed in September 2005 to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and aid. But Washington imposed the financial sanctions against a Macau-based bank on suspicions it was laundering counterfeit money for the North Koreans. Angered by the move, Pyongyang withdrew from the talks two months later. Kim said before Tuesday's meetings got started that the timing of the next round of six-party talks on his country's nuclear program ``depends on the United States.'' ``There are too many outstanding issues'' and both parties should narrow their differences, Kim told reporters. Officials have yet to determine an exact date for the next round of negotiations. The China-hosted talks involve the United States, North Korea, Japan, South Korea and Russia, which has not sent an envoy to Beijing. ``We hope all sides can grasp this opportunity and take a flexible, pragmatic and constructive approach in order to realize the early resumption of six-party talks,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular briefing. Kim's trip to Beijing - a rare overseas visit - and the presence of other negotiators added to prospects of compromises to give new life to the talks. An unannounced meeting between Hill and Kim last month in Beijing led to Pyongyang agreeing to return to the arms negotiations amid heightened tensions after its first nuclear test on Oct. 9. Hill told reporters when he arrived Monday that the U.S. anticipated that the talks would ``get going at some point very soon.'' Hill has also met with South Korea's nuclear envoy, Chun Yung-woo, and Japan's representative Kenichiro Sasae. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 6 AFP: US and NKorean envoys dig in for second day of nuclear talks - by Dan Martin Wed Nov 29, 2:30 AM ET BEIJING (AFP) - US and North Korean envoys have dug in for a second day of tough negotiations laying the groundwork for a resumption of six-nation talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear arms program. US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill was scheduled to meet again with North Korean envoy Kim Kye-Gwan and Chinese negotiator Wu Dawei, US government officials in Washington and Beijing said. The envoys met on Tuesday amid an invigorated push to resume the six-party negotiation process that began in 2003 but have been stalled for the past year over North Korean objections to US financial sanctions against it. Asked on Wednesday if he was optimistic progress would be made, Hill told Japanese television: "Oh, I don't know. I have no idea". "But what I do know is the first round of talks will need to make progress and that's what I'm working on," he said before going into a meeting. The new focus on restarting the process also has drawn Japanese and South Korean envoys to a flurry of diplomatic meetings this week in China, which has played host to the six-party forum. Hill has said he hopes this week's discussions can lead to a resumption of full-fledged nuclear negotiations in mid-December. Tuesday's meeting between Hill and Kim was their first since secret meetings in Beijing on October 31 that also included China's Wu. Following those meetings, North Korea " /> agreed to rejoin the negotiations in principle, but no date was set. The resumption of full talks took on a new urgency following Pyongyang's nuclear test blast on October 9, which triggered United Nations " /> sanctions. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said late on Tuesday that the US, North Korean and Chinese envoys were to meet together and then bilaterally on Wednesday as they did the previous day. The six-party talks have involved China -- Pyongyang's closest ally -- along with North Korea, Japan, Russia, South Korea " /> , and the United States. Washington has insisted it will not resume the multilateral negotiations without assurances they will not be used as a stalling tactic while North Korea pursues its nuclear arms ambitions. McCormack said Tuesday's round of meetings involved discussions on what would be expected from North Korea in terms of beginning its denuclearization and what the other five parties could offer in return. Kim indicated to reporters on his arrival in Beijing on Tuesday that Pyongyang expected to re-enter the multi-party talks with the added leverage of being a nuclear power, a position the United States has rejected. "We have taken defensive measures against sanctions imposed on us, through the nuclear experiment," Kim told reporters, referring to North Korea's October 9 test. "As we have attained that position, we can now have discussions on an equal level. McCormack again brushed aside the North Korean position. "The whole aim of these talks is to have a denuclearized Korean peninsula," he said. Hill, who said on arrival Monday that he planned to visit South Korea and Japan for further talks after leaving Beijing, indicated he could depart China as early as Wednesday. "I just want to get the reaction today from Mr Kim Kye-Gwan and then I'll go on to Seoul," Hill said on Japanese television. Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., N. Korea Reach No Deal on Talks From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday November 29, 2006 9:16 PM AP Photo BEJ101 By ALEXA OLESEN Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - U.S. and North Korean diplomats failed to reach an agreement Wednesday on when to resume six-nation talks on Pyongyang's disputed nuclear program, but stressed their commitment to moving the process forward. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said after two days of talks with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan that the sides ``shared ideas that could help ensure progress when the six-party talks resume,'' according to a U.S. Embassy statement. The North said in its own statement that it ``promised to study these ideas.'' No date was set for the talks to resume. Hill planned to leave Beijing on Thursday without a follow-up meeting, said Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Hill and Kim also met with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei during the talks Tuesday and Wednesday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its Web site late that the parties ``frankly and deeply exchanged views on the issue of promoting the process of the six-party talks and improve mutual understanding,'' without elaborating. ``The three parties also agreed to strive for the progress of the talks,'' the statement said. Japan's Kyodo News agency cited unidentified officials at the talks as saying Kim had demanded the U.S. lift financial sanctions and freeze U.N. sanctions that were imposed after the October nuclear test. Hill responded by saying that the possible lifting of financial sanctions can be discussed during the talks and working-level discussions, which are expected to be held simultaneously, Kyodo said. Similar stances were taken when the three met bilaterally and trilaterally on Tuesday, Japanese and South Korean media have reported. North Korea agreed in September 2005 to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and aid. But Washington imposed the financial sanctions against a Macau-based bank on suspicions it was laundering counterfeit money for the North Koreans. Angered by the move, Pyongyang withdrew from the talks two months later. The six-party talks involve the United States, North Korea, Japan, South Korea and Russia, which has not sent an envoy to Beijing. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that the main goal of the Beijing meetings was to ``make sure that everybody, at least, has a good, solid understanding of what might happen'' when the six-nation talks resume. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in Tokyo that just resuming the talks was not the main objective. ``Our efforts are aimed at holding six-party talks that produce results,'' he said. Kim's trip to Beijing - a rare overseas visit for a North Korean official - and the presence of other negotiators had lifted expectations that there could be a breakthrough in ongoing efforts to restart the talks. An unannounced meeting between Hill and Kim last month in Beijing led to Pyongyang agreeing to return to the arms negotiations amid heightened tensions after the Oct. 9 nuclear test. Meanwhile, a South Korean lawmaker said Wednesday he believed the North was making preparations to possibly conduct a second nuclear test next month or early next year unless the U.S. offers economic concessions, such as lifting financial restrictions against Pyongyang. ``I believe that there are specific movements in North Korea to prepare for a second nuclear test,'' lawmaker Chung Hyung-keun said, citing intelligence obtained by state intelligence agencies, according to Chung's office. He did not elaborate. There had been speculation that Pyongyang was preparing for a second test after it conducted its first nuclear explosion Oct. 9. Last month, however, South Korean media reported that the U.S. military had not detected any signs of preparations for a second test. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 8 UPI: Outside View: North Korean options-2 United Press International - Security &Terrorism - 11/29/2006 6:07:00 PM -0500 By BRUCE BENNETT UPI Outside View Commentator WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Second of two parts The North Korean Army with about 1 million active-duty troops is roughly three times the size of the Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein. A unified Korea would not need such a large armed force on top of the existing 550,000-person South Korean Army. But if the North Korean Army were reduced in size or even disbanded, a large number of trained fighters would suddenly find themselves out of work and desperate to make a living at a time of economic turmoil with few available jobs. Following in the footsteps of the unemployed soldiers of the disbanded army of Saddam Hussein, many former North Korean soldiers would turn to insurgency and could go on fighting for years, seeking to strike out against the capitalist South Koreans who had taken control of their country. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction might be one of the insurgents' few options to obtain income. There have been many efforts to compare a North Korean collapse and absorption by South Korea to the unification of East and West Germany in 1990. Unification is reported to have cost Germans about $1 trillion, and the former East Germany is still behind western standards. Yet as bad as conditions were in East Germany, conditions in North Korea are far worse. Some economists have estimated the cost of Korean unification would be several trillion dollars -- an amount that South Korea could not afford alone. Huge amounts of aid from the United States and other nations would be needed to rebuild the North Korean economy. German unification was also easier than Korean unification would be for other reasons. There was far more contact and much more open communication across the inter-German border before German unification. East Germans were not starving in the manner of the North Koreans. And no other country intervened in German unification the way that China may feel compelled to intervene in North Korea because of refugees, nuclear weapons and other factors. The world may not have much time before a North Korean regime collapse could occur. America should begin talks with China, South Korea, Japan and Russia on what happens after Kim slips into history so that the nations can work in partnership and coordination to deal with the chaos of a North Korean collapse. These five nations need to develop ways to put the North Korean military to work after unification. For example, they could set aside funds to hire the former soldiers to fix North Korea's crumbling infrastructure, much as workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps operated in the United States during the Great Depression. They could create incentives for their own domestic industries to open new factories and other facilities in what is now North Korea to create jobs and spur economic development. And the five nations could prepare initiatives to increase their imports from Korea after unification. U.S. financial commitments would clarify America's willingness to help bear the burden of Korean reunification and reconstruction. In addition, the United States needs to make longer-term commitments to not move its military forces to areas in a unified Korea where China would find them threatening. Because China, South Korea and Japan are particularly concerned about their own security, the United States should offer to provide security assistance to deny the effectiveness of attacks from a desperate North Korean regime. Such assistance could involve offering to deploy U.S. Patriot missile units in Seoul, Beijing and perhaps other cities to provide protection against North Korean nuclear attacks with ballistic missiles. On the civilian side, America should position food and perhaps transportation means in South Korea and China that could help prepare the two nations for the humanitarian disaster and huge number of refugees that could accompany North Korean regime failure. The challenge America and the world face today in deciding how to deal with North Korea is to choose between bad alternatives and worse ones. In making decisions, it's important for leaders to see the world as it is rather than as they would like it to be. If the problems in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq have taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected and be prepared. (Bruce Bennett is a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization.) (United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interest of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.) Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 [NukeNet] Increased Bombs NOT necessary - say new studio and Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:13:09 -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) Doubts cast on need for new nukes Study finds plutonium may last twice as long as expected James Sterngold, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, November 15, 2006 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/15/MNGO4MCVVH1.DTL&type=politics>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/15/MNGO4MCVVH1.DTL&type=politics A highly anticipated government study has found that radioactive plutonium, which provides the immense explosive force in nuclear weapons, has a useful lifespan far longer than previously estimated, potentially undermining part of the Bush administration's argument for manufacturing a new generation of warheads. The study, mandated by Congress and conducted by scientists at the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national weapons laboratories, is scheduled for release in the next few weeks. Scientists and government officials familiar with its findings said the report's authors have about doubled the previous estimates of the time plutonium remains potent as a weapons fuel, to 90 years, at a minimum, and perhaps much longer. The previous estimate was a 45-to-60 years minimum life. The findings are highly technical, several experts said, but they could inspire a tough debate on the Bush administration's aggressive push to scrap the existing stockpile of more than 5,000 warheads -- on the grounds that they are aging and growing less reliable -- and to spend tens of billions of dollars producing new generations of nuclear weapons. Bush's new program -- the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, or RRW -- already is in the design phase. The National Nuclear Security Administration, the Energy Department agency responsible for maintenance, security and performance of U.S. nuclear weapons, has been pushing to move on to engineering studies, and then to rebuild the entire complex for manufacturing warheads, which was partly dismantled after the Cold War. Questions about the aging of plutonium, a rare, manmade substance, have been cited by agency officials as one of the reasons older weapons could not be relied on. But the new study suggests that aging is not likely to be a concern for decades. "They've been running with RRW like you wouldn't believe," Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, chairman of the House subcommittee on water and energy appropriations, which oversees annual spending on nuclear weapons work, said of the National Nuclear Security Administration and the weapons design laboratories. "They see this as a big pot of money to get into. This shows we can take a breather for a while." Hobson said that the government's weapons experts had been "panicked" about the claimed deterioration of plutonium and other aspects of the old warheads, some of which are now more than 20 years old, and had tried to rush Congress into paying for a massive new weapons production complex at a total cost that could run to the hundreds of billions of dollars. "If we'd have listened to the NNSA, we'd have spent billions of dollars" on a new facility for producing the plutonium core components, called pits, Hobson said. "This study should now give us some time to reassess and think about where we are going." One scientist who asked that his name be withheld and who has followed the plutonium aging studies said, "There are still some technical questions and things we don't completely understand, but it's pretty clear that the plutonium is just not a concern for a long, long time." When the Cold War ended, the U.S. government still had more than 10,000 nuclear weapons, but it shut down some parts of the weapons production complex and stopped underground testing. It also ramped up a large program, called stockpile stewardship, under which it spends billions of dollars every year maintaining, refurbishing and studying the existing weapons. The stewardship program has been regarded as an enormous success, keeping the stockpile of thermonuclear weapons in what experts say is perfect working order. Most experts agree that if there is a weak link in the reliability of the U.S. arsenal, it is not the bombs themselves -- each of which is far more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II -- but the missiles and bombers that would deliver the warheads to their targets. Bob Peurifoy, a scientist who spent decades developing nuclear warheads at the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, said that more warheads have been damaged by faulty forklift handling or other accidents than from unexpected deterioration of components, and he said concerns over the aging of plutonium had been wildly overblown. He described the concerns over rapid aging as an attempt by the Bush administration to force Congress to finance a renaissance for the nuclear complex, even though there is little military need for the weapons. "The current stockpile is healthy and it is showing no near-term aging," said Peurifoy. "It has been well built and well maintained." Senior government officials confirm every year that the weapons are almost 100 percent reliable and safe. A number of reports have stated that most weapons, and especially the plutonium used in them, have been found to be almost pristine many years after they had been produced. Two weapons scientists, Joseph Martz and Adam Schwartz, wrote an article for a technical publication in 2003, saying, "Experience from stockpile surveillance programs reflects this point: Pits have remained remarkably pristine and free of corrosion, especially since the adoption of modern cleaning and sealing methods." In the post-Cold War years, the United States has been focusing on disarmament and preventing other countries from obtaining nuclear weapons technology, especially North Korea and Iran. But the Bush administration has argued from the time it came into office that the nation needed new types of nuclear weapons, such as powerful bunker busters to destroy deeply buried targets. The administration has conceded that it has no actual targets in mind, but contends that the U.S. simply needs new capabilities in case threats emerge in the future. After Congress rejected that proposal as unnecessary, the administration followed up with the RRW -- an ambitious new program that would scrap all the existing weapons over the next several decades, and construct an entirely new manufacturing complex, and then build all new weapons. The Congress has provided a low level of initial funding for the RRW program, writing into the legislation that the new weapons had to be reliable without new underground testing, and that they could not add any new military capabilities. The administration has argued that the old weapons, which use a number of sensitive radioactive materials, were never meant to remain stockpiled for decades. The plutonium, which is fashioned into hollow spheres known as pits, has been a particular concern because of uncertainties over the deterioration of this unusual metal over time. "We know that plutonium pits have a limited lifetime," Bryan Wilkes, the spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the weapons complex, said in comments to the Las Vegas Sun in 2002. If the aging pits in the warheads were not replaced, Wilkes said, "we could wake up and find out half our stockpile is gone to waste." Wilkes would not comment on the contents of the aging-plutonium report, but said Tuesday that it would be released by year's end. Congress had mandated that the report be delivered by the end of October. Thomas D'Agostino, deputy administrator of the NNSA, said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in April that the overall aim was to "restore us to a level of capability comparable to what we had during the Cold War." Under the Moscow Treaty with Russia, the United States has promised to reduce the number of deployed warheads to 2,200 or fewer by the year 2012. What the Bush administration has proposed is creating a smaller stockpile with warheads that are more reliable, safer and easier to produce. Also, the administration has said it wants to have the ability to quickly expand weapons production again if needed, even though there is no current threat that would require such production. Philip Coyle, who spent decades as a senior weapons scientist at the government labs and is now a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information, a Washington research institute, said he believed there were valid reasons for at least considering production of new weapons in the future, but that the supposed deterioration of plutonium should not be a rationale. "While no one would expect plutonium or any other metal to last forever, it appears that properly alloyed plutonium is a remarkably robust material, and under carefully controlled conditions can have a lifetime of decades," he said. "Based on what we know today, the aging of plutonium metal, per se, is not sufficient justification for the near-term development and production of a new class of U.S. nuclear weapons." Hobson, who will turn over chairmanship of his subcommittee to a Democrat in January, said he believed that the government wanted to rush Congress into a decision to boost budgets and avoid cutbacks. "They have their own agenda to get us to send more money," Hobson said. E-mail James Sterngold at jsterngold@sfchronicle.com. Page A - 13 __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (2) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | Calendar a010f.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 * 1 New Members Visit Your Group SPONSORED LINKS * Regional truck driving jobs * Regional airport * Regional magazines * Regional gift basket * Regional bgan Yahoo! Mail Get on board You're invited to try the all-new Mail Beta. Y! Messenger Files to share? Send up to 1GB of files in an IM. Yahoo! Photos Order at Yahoo! Pick up at Target . a0123.jpg __,_._,___ _______________________________________________________________________ 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 Attachment Converted: a010f.jpg: 00000001,7c2e8d4c,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: a0123.jpg: 00000001,7c2e8d4d,00000000,00000000 ***************************************************************** 10 IRNA: US has 480 nuclear weapons in Europe Brussels, Nov 29, IRNA Belgium-Nuclear-Protest The US has 480 nuclear weapons deployed in six European countries -- Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Italy and Turkey. In addition to that, the UK has 185 nuclear weapons. The USA has a total of around 7600 nuclear warheads, according to the Belgian peace group `Mother Earth'. Peace activists from Sweden, Finland, Germany and the UK protested at the Swedish embassy in Brussels Monday against Sweden's cooperation with NATO, the group said in a press release. The action was organized by Ofog (Swedish network for a nuclear free world), in cooperaton with Mother Earth. The activists are demanding that Finland and Sweden halt all military involvement with the NATO nuclear alliance. The protest also coincides with the NATO summit in Riga which is expected to give the go-ahead for Swedish and Finnish participation in the NATO Response Force's (NRF) exercises and operations. The NATO Response Force was initiated by the US' ex-defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and became fully operational last month. The NATO Response Force is a rapid reaction force with 21.000 soldiers that can be deployed within 5 days. 260/2321/1414 ---> Belgium-Nuclear-Protest ***************************************************************** 11 Disarmament And Non-proliferation Both Needed To Fight Nuclear Threat - Annan Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:10:51 -0500 DISARMAMENT AND NON-PROLIFERATION BOTH NEEDED TO FIGHT NUCLEAR THREAT ANNAN New York, Nov 28 2006 10:00PM The only way forward to reducing the greatest danger of all the threat posed by nuclear weapons is to tackle the objectives of non-proliferation and disarmament simultaneously and equally vigorously, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today. In a lecture at Princeton University in the United States, Mr. Annan said fierce disagreement between countries over which objective was more urgent meant the world was stuck without a common strategy for dealing with the problem. I said earlier this year that we are sleepwalking towards disaster. In truth, it is worse than that, Mr. Annan said, voicing particular concern at the recent failure to update and strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). We are asleep at the controls of a fast-moving aircraft. Unless we wake up and take control, the outcome is all too predictable. He said States which advocate non-proliferation first and those which push disarmament as a priority have become locked in a sterile debate the result is that mutually assured destruction has been replaced by mutually assured paralysis. The only option is to tackle both fronts at the same time, he said, adding it is also vital to address the threat of terrorism, as well as the threats, both real and rhetorical, which drive particular States or regimes to seek security, however misguidedly, by developing or acquiring nuclear weapons. Mr. Annan called on those nations which already have nuclear weapons to develop concrete plans with specific timetables for implementing their disarmament commitments. And I urge them to make a joint declaration of intent to achieve the progressive elimination of all nuclear weapons, under strict and effective international control. But countries which insist on disarmament first must realize that lack of progress on that question cannot be a legitimate excuse for failing to tackle the dangers of proliferation. No State should imagine that, by pushing ahead with a nuclear weapon programme, it can pose as a defender of the NPT; still less that it will persuade others to disarm, the Secretary-General stated. He also urged those countries to acknowledge disarmament wherever it does occur and to support the efforts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and others to find ways of guaranteeing that all States have access to fuel and services for civilian nuclear needs without spreading sensitive technology. Countries must be able to meet their growing energy needs through such programmes, but we cannot afford a world where more and more countries develop the most sensitive phases of the nuclear fuel cycle themselves. 2006-11-28 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited: We're not simpletons. Trident will breach the nuclear treaty A British decision to renew nuclear weapons will have serious consequences across the world, says Kate Hudson Wednesday November 29, 2006 The Guardian After months of uncertainty about the process for deciding on the future of Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system, it was good to learn that there will be a three-month consultation period prior to a vote in parliament (Cabinet unites behind decision to seek Trident replacement, November 24). But it is disappointing to hear that the government will make its decision before the consultation and vote takes place. Given the widespread demand for a full discussion on all the possible options, a green paper, rather than a white paper pre-determining the outcome, would have been a better route. This is certainly something that CND has been campaigning for ever since John Reid stated last year that there would be a full debate on the issue. The security context has changed enormously since Trident was commissioned in the early 80s, so an open mind and respect for all views is called for. Thus it was equally disappointing to learn in the article that, according to Jack Straw, "only a simpleton could think replacing Trident would breach the nuclear non-proliferation treaty". In fact, the view that there is a legal problem with replacing Trident is widely held, and not only by anti-nuclear activists but by many top legal minds. Article continues Since 1970, Britain has been a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The NPT combines a commitment to disarm by the nuclear weapons states, and a commitment by countries without them not to pursue them. Article VI of the NPT states that each of the parties to the treaty should undertake to pursue "negotiations in good faith on effective measures" relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race and to nuclear disarmament. It is hard to see how replacing Trident contributes to good faith negotiations towards disarmament. And where are the multilateral initiatives from our government that are so badly needed? Recent legal opinion shows that a replacement of Trident would not be acceptable under the NPT. In 2005, Rabinder Singh QC and Professor Christine Chinkin stated their opinion that the replacement of Trident is likely to constitute a material breach of Article VI. "The linkage between the principles of non-proliferation and the obligation to negotiate towards disarmament ... indicate that Article VI is a provision 'essential to the accomplishment of the object or purpose of the treaty'. "The non-nuclear weapon states required commitments from the nuclear weapon states as part of their willingness to accept non-nuclear status under the NPT and failure to comply with article VI thus, in our view, constitutes material breach." That breach will have serious consequences. The failure of countries like Britain to comply with the NPT can lead other countries to proliferate. If we keep or pursue new nuclear weapons, why should countries without them stick to their commitment to remain non- nuclear? David Chaytor is right, as the article reports, that the very fact of a debate and vote on this issue is "progress for democracy". Now let's have a genuine consultation on the issue, with respect for all views, and without a pre-determined outcome. Kate Hudson is chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament campaigns@cnduk.org If you wish to respond, at greater length than in a letter, to an article in which you have featured either directly or indirectly, email response@guardian.co.ukor write to Response, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER. Guardian Newspapers Limited ***************************************************************** 13 Canada News: Pakistan launches nuclear-capable missile Wed Nov 29, 12:53 AM ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan has conducted a test of its nuclear-capable medium range ballistic missile, the military said. "Pakistani troops today conducted a successful launch of the medium range Hatf 4 or Shaheen-1 missile," it said in a statement on Wednesday. Shaheen-1 missile, which has a range of 700 kilometers (437 miles), has been previously test-fired by Pakistan, a military spokesman told AFP. The missile system was handed over to the army strategic force command (ASFC) a few years ago, the statement said. "The event marked the culmination phase of the training exercise and validated the operational readiness of the strategic missile group equipped with Shaheen-1 Missiles," the statement said. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Ehsan Ul Haq witnessed the launch exercise. He hailed "the high standards achieved during training which was reflected in the successful launch and the accuracy of the missile in reaching the target," the statement said. "Pakistan can be justifiably proud of its defence capability and the reliability of its nuclear deterrence," he added. Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 14 [NYTr] Russia Staunchly Defends Iran's Right to Nuclear Energy Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:09:37 -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 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Russia Staunchly Defends Iran's Right to Nuclear Energy Moscow, Nov 29 (Prensa Latina) Russia defends Iran s right to peacefully use nuclear energy, as well as the proposal to create a joint venture to enrich uranium, an initiative included among current efforts to ease tension on that issue. Amid US-encouraged pressures against Iran, in 2005, Moscow proposed to Teheran a joint project to produce uranium on Russian territory, thus supplying Iranian electronuclear plants with that fuel. The Russian stance over the project remains unchanged, and the Iranian nuclear program has no technical problems, the chief of Russia s Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Serguei Kirienko, told press. Every country has the right to use enriched uranium with peaceful goals. "Iran will not be the last country nor will it be the last problem to be discussed, as the number of nations hoping to access that technology as an economic alternative for development is ever increasing," he stated. Referring to the joint venture, Kirienko sustained the Russian party is willing to guarantee safe conditions to enrich uranium, in compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency s regulations. sus dig oda mf PL-16 * ================================================================ .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 ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 15 [NukeNet] Press Rel: Pu Pit Review, New Nukes and "Complex Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:35:36 -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) for further information, contact: Susan Gordon: (206) 547-3175 or any of the local contacts listed at end of advisory. Alliance for Nuclear Accountability A national network of organizations working to address issues of nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup for immediate release, Wednesday, November 29, 2006 Independent Review of Department of Energy Study Undermines "Need" for New Nuclear Weapons Groups call on Energy Department to abandon discredited "Complex 2030" Plan November 29, 2006 - Today marks an important turning point in the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Scientists acting as government consultants have announced conclusions of their independent review of Department of Energy (DOE) studies of plutonium pit lifetimes. Pits are the cores or "triggers" of nuclear weapons. This group, known as the JASON panel, has included Nobel laureates and original Manhattan Project scientists. Their announcement that pit lifetimes of most warheads are at least 100 years, more than double that of DOE's original estimate of 45 years has far-reaching implications. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency within DOE, has been seeking to restart pit production for years. The argument for increased production has largely rested on the NNSA estimated 45 year pit lifetime, making new ones necessary to maintain the current nuclear stockpile. The extended effective life of plutonium pits calls into question the need for several NNSA plans to increase pit and weapons production. Currently, NNSA plans to expand "interim" pit production at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where a limited production line already exists. NNSA has even grander plans to build the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead in a newly constructed, nationwide nuclear complex, called Complex 2030. This "Bombplex" would be capable of producing newly designed warheads and at least 125 pits per year. As Susan Gordon, Director of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability stated, "Pit production, new warheads, and a new 'Bombplex' are completely unnecessary. The U.S. has a huge surplus of plutonium pits and now DOE 's own independent expert scientists confirm that they last 100 years." The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) has been involved in the process of the pit lifetime studies since early 2003. At that time, one of its member groups, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, urged Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to introduce legislation that required independent review by a qualified federal contractor of the NNSA's ongoing pit lifetime studies. Ultimately, the JASONs were contracted to conduct that review. Nuclear Watch's Jay Coghlan commented, "Today's conclusions show, on a practical basis, that we don't need expensive, provocative new nuclear weapons designs and industrial-scale bomb production. These proposals make the U.S. appear hypocritical when preaching to other nations that they can't have weapons of mass destruction. This is an important document and we have Senator Bingaman to thank for providing leadership to make it happen." The U.S. is believed to have approximately 10,600 intact nuclear warheads and another 12,000 plutonium pits in reserve at the Pantex site in Texas. The revelations in the new report shift the focus from weapons production to radioactive waste cleanup and warhead dismantlement. Mavis Belisle, Director of the Peace Farm, located just outside the Pantex Plant said, "The money spent on increased pit production could be better used elsewhere. Dismantling warheads from our huge arsenal would set a great example for the rest of the world." Marylia Kelley, Executive Director at Tri-Valley CAREs in Livermore, CA said, "We call on DOE to abandon its Complex 2030 plan. They need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that focuses on the cleanup of radioactive contamination that is the legacy of 60 years of nuclear weapons development. This study offers the government a chance to go back and get it right." The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability is a national network of 35 groups, most of whom live downwind and downstream from the U.S. nuclear weapons complex sites. These groups have been working collaboratively for nearly two decades to clean up the environmental legacy of nuclear weapons production and stop new nuclear weapons programs. -30- Local Contacts -- Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment Livermore, CA (925) 443-7148 Jay Coghlan, Executive Director, Nuclear Watch of New Mexico Santa Fe, NM  (505) 989-7342, cell: (505) 920-7118 Mavis Belisle, Director, Peace Farm Panhandle, TX (806) 341-4801 Ralph Hutchison, Director, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance Oak Ridge, TN  (865) 483-8202 NNSA press release link: http://www.nnsa.doe.gov/docs/newsreleases/2006/PR_2006-11-29_NA-06-46.htm #### 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 ***************************************************************** 16 MercuryNews.com: Build reactors for energy independence 11/29/2006 | By Olivia Albrecht Today, the United States imports oil at a rate of $400,000 a minute. It is estimated that by 2030, U.S. energy demands will increase by nearly two-thirds, and that by 2050, global energy demand will more than double. Americans must realize the necessity of finding a reliable energy supply in order to sustain economic growth and prosperity in the 21st century and to reduce the security, economic and political risks of U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The imperative is clear: The United States must develop a diverse energy portfolio, encourage technological advancements and make energy policy a priority on the foreign and domestic fronts. The ever-apparent synergy among geopolitics, diplomacy, environmental concerns, economic fears and domestic policy dictates that Americans must periodically reassess our energy portfolio and seek to diversify our sources -- and generate a comprehensive approach to the transnational issues surrounding energy policy. Nuclear energy is the most promising source of power, and it is making a comeback. In recent months, Washington has been buzzing with talk about this subject. However, skeptics question how nuclear energy could wean America off oil, given that transportation, not electricity generation, is the primary guzzler of oil. It is true that oil contributes only 2 percent of U.S. electricity, and nuclear energy generates thousands of megawatts of electricity. Yet analysts agree that as the price at the pump continues to grow, more global consumers will turn away from gas-fueled vehicles and toward alternative-power items to avoid the cost of oil. Imagine if all car owners in the United State traded in their oil engines for electric cars: The drastic surge in electricity consumption could not be sustained by our current electric-output capability. Nuclear energy is ready to handle the demands created by increased electricity consumption as we free ourselves from oil dependence. There has been quiet progress on this front. In the last year, the Energy Policy Act was passed, the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership was introduced, additional reactor designs were certified and numerous utilities began the licensing process to build new reactors. But serious nuclear ambitions have not been sufficiently acted upon. Regrettably, each passing year without substantial changes in U.S. nuclear energy pursuits means America falls further behind in this burgeoning sector. Despite the fact that the United States operates 103 of the world's 443 reactors, the United States has not ordered a commercial power reactor for decades. The industrial infrastructure that supported America's unsurpassed nuclear industry faded with the end of the Cold War, just as demand for new U.S. nuclear power plants diminished. In contrast, those nations that continued to develop their nuclear industry over the past three decades are positioned to lead the emerging global nuclear renaissance. Few realize that the United States must build new reactors in order to sustain the nuclear contribution of 20 percent to the nation's electricity total -- let alone increasing that amount, as many comprehensive energy plans suggest must occur. The United States will have to build 75 to 110 nuclear power reactors of equivalent power to current reactors over the next 25 years just to sustain nuclear power's current level of contribution. Achieving the status quo would require bringing three new reactors on line by 2012, with six or seven being brought on line in most years between then and 2030. Expanding the industry to contribute 30 percent of the nation's electricity would require approximately 200 new reactors over the next 25 years. Even if there were sufficient political will to dictate a grand return to nuclear energy, the American industrial base could not meet the demand. This means that Americans would shift energy dependence from foreign oil fields to foreign nuclear manufacturing facilities. The global economic facts are unpleasantly basic: Oil supplies are tight, prices are high and energy demands are increasing -- primarily because of the exploding consumption rates in places such as India and China. Today, the haves and have-nots of the world are being defined in terms of oil supply. The countries with oil have more influence and more money, while the countries needing oil have less leverage and less money. And those countries that need oil but can't afford to buy it are becoming even poorer and are further removed from the center stage of world affairs. In a rational attempt to guard against the oil cartel, foreign nations, friend and foe, are increasingly looking to nuclear energy as a critical ingredient of their future energy production. They recognize that nuclear energy will stabilize energy prices, reduce pollution and decrease their reliance on foreign sources. If Americans do not engage in this global conversation today, the risks associated with nuclear technology will escalate. If nuclear energy truly is to be a fundamental piece of the United States' diversified energy portfolio, as it should, America must get to work on it -- starting today. OLIVIA ALBRECHT is a Fox News contributor and was the John Tower national security fellow at the Center for Security Policy. She wrote this article for the Baltimore Sun. ***************************************************************** 17 allAfrica.com: South Africa: A Nuclear Future Business Day (Johannesburg) EDITORIAL Posted to the web November 29, 2006 MUCH to the chagrin of environmentalists, government hasn't given up its quest for nuclear power to play a bigger role in SA's energy mix. Just this week, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said that government was poised to make a decision on a "significant" nuclear energy programme for SA. It makes sense. SA has no proven oil or gas reserves and, while coal is abundant, it's not infinite and it's dirty. Eskom may find more ways of cleaning up how it burns coal but, ultimately, more environmentally friendly ways of producing power are needed. Eskom seems likely to build another conventional nuclear plant in Western Cape where SA's only such plant -- Koeberg -- already exists. SA is not alone. Faced with rising oil and gas prices, concern about climate change and a looming global fossil fuel supply shortage, many countries around the world are turning to nuclear power. More than 30 new nuclear reactors are being built, mostly in Asia. The US and many European countries are not far behind. In July this year, the Group of Eight nations publicly endorsed the development of nuclear energy for the first time in 15 years. And last week, representatives of more than 30 countries signed a deal that sets them on the nuclear path, with France set to host the construction of a $12,8bn international thermonuclear experimental reactor. The global trend towards nuclear power presents SA with many opportunities, but also some challenges. On the plus side, it has opened up more doors for SA's pebble bed nuclear reactor, the "mini nuke". This means the project may, finally, attract a credible international partner. But if government is serious about building a conventional nuclear reactor, with perhaps more to follow, it will have to get moving. There's already a shortage of the skills and materials needed to build conventional plants, and most other countries are far ahead in the queue. Sonjica may be right in advocating that a regional approach be adopted in building new nuclear plants -- it will not only reduce the risk for SA but also help build up a pool of skills on the continent. But the big grey area remains the issue of radioactive waste. Until a method can be found of disposing of it safely, it will remain a huge problem for future generations. And in its current enthusiasm for nuclear power, SA must not overlook renewable energy such as solar and wind. These are clearly the true energy sources of the future. Copyright 2006 Business Day. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Steinkrug Publications Ltd: 101 Ways To Kick The Carbon Habit CAMBRIDGE, England, November 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Sometimes lots of small ideas have more impact than one big idea. Currently this seems to be so within the energy market, where concerns over global warming and the security of fossil fuel supplies are driving innovation in the renewable energy sector. In a report published this week, Cambridge UK based analysts, CarbonFree, highlight 101 initiatives that could have a significant impact on carbon emissions and energy demand. The report, '101 Ways To Kick The Carbon Habit', draws parallels between today's energy market and the early days of the Internet. Then large IT vendors, claiming the Internet would never be reliable enough to support commercial applications, largely ignored the army of innovative companies building web based software tools and services. CarbonFree feels that incumbent energy providers are making a similar mistake as they jealously guard the last mile of their grids and claim nuclear energy is the only workable replacement for fossil fuels. The report blames the failure of nuclear power to live up to initial expectations for the industry's present problems. CarbonFree points out that if safe, miniature nuclear reactors were on sale in DIY stores, distributed power and microgeneration enthusiasts would not be installing wind turbines, solar panels and micro CHP systems. CarbonFree acknowledges in the report that transport presents a major challenge in the battle to reduce carbon emissions, but points to automobile and journey sharing schemes as a possible solution. The report highlights interest in these online services from investors who see them as a social networking based solution to congestion in urban areas. The report provides 101 examples of the use of renewable energy technology or emission reduction initiatives. While some of the applications are speculative, for example distributed power generation and household hydrogen refuelling stations, others, such as hot water solar systems and medium size wind turbines, have already been deployed and are earning revenue for vendors. '101 Ways To Kick The Carbon Habit' is available from CarbonFree. http://www.carbonfree.co.uk About CarbonFree CarbonFree carries out research and analysis in a wide range of alternative energy related fields and disseminates results in its highly focussed CarbonFree reports. It also helps organisations reposition themselves in the rapidly evolving alternative energy market. http://www.carbonfree.co.uk Issuers of news releases and not PR Newswire are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content. Terms and conditions, including restrictions on redistribution, apply. Copyright 1996-2003 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. A United Business Media company. ***************************************************************** 19 Mineweb: energy Major Chilean conglomerates want nuclear power www.mineweb.net | By: Dorothy Kosich Posted: '29-NOV-06 08:00' GMT Mineweb 1997-2006 RENO, NV (Mineweb.com) --Energy conglomerate Angelini, mining multinational Luksic and mining/lumber corporation Matte are contemplating nuclear energy as a potential long-term investment to help solve Chiles energy problems. The Chilean newspaper La Tercera reported Monday that the Luksic family has had several meetings with French energy company Avera Group to discuss using nuclear power in Luksic mining operations. Avera is one of the worlds largest manufacturers of pressurized nuclear reactors. Chile now imports 72% of its energy through petroleum, gas and carbon. Chiles National Energy Commission said the nations dependency on imported energy puts the country in a vulnerable position given the volatility of international prices and supply interruptions. Former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos had advocated developing nuclear power as part of a plan to diversify energy sources and safeguard against power shortages. Chile does not have any nuclear power plants. However, the Taltal area, located 300 kilometers south of Antofagasta, is being considered as the site for a potential nuclear power plant. Nonetheless, current Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has steadfastly rejected nuclear energy as an option. Bachelets administration is focusing on the development of hydroelectric and liquid gas, as well as wind energy. Avera asserts that nuclear energy is not vulnerable to climate changes, and is not subject to the market swings of oil and other petroleum products. Argentina has declared that its natural gas imports to Chile may be cut as early as next year. Mineweb always carries details of at least 20 independently written top mining, mining finance, metals and mining sector analysis articles on its homepage as well as a fast news feed to keep you right up to date with what is going on in the mining and metals sectors worldwide. These are continuously updated through the day. Click here to go to Mineweb's home page and access the latest news and comments on developments in mining and metals worldwide. Mineweb, a division of Moneyweb Holdings Limited, 1997-2004. ***************************************************************** 20 The Herald: Employers body will not speak out Web Issue 2692 November 29 2006 PAUL ROGERSON, City Editor November 29 2006 CBI director-general Richard Lambert said yesterday the body will not speak out over Iberdrola's likely takeover of ScottishPower  even though the employers' group has lambasted the tax breaks which have made the Basque predator's potentially knockout bid possible. Lambert was speaking at the CBI conference in London, at which president Sir John Sunderland had earlier accused the Spanish government of "hypocrisy" over its position on foreign takeovers. Sunderland stressed on Monday that while Spanish ministers have helped national registered companies take over foreign firms, they have done everything in their power to ensure Spain's energy companies stay Spanish  in particular blocking a bid by German energy group E.ON for Endesa. Yesterday's conference featured a session at which the accelerating sell-off of trophy UK infrastructure assets to foreign owners attracted intense debate. To widespread surprise, a floor vote of CBI members produced a 70% majority in favour of the proposition that "company ownership matters", a verdict at odds with the aggressively "laisser-faire" tone adopted this week by the CBI hierarchy. An even more emphatic 84% agreed that there are indeed such things as "national champions" or "strategic assets", an implicit reference to continental European nations in particular which take steps to protect flagship companies from foreign predators. Lambert denied the leadership of the employers' group is out of step with its members. "Certainly no-one has said to me we are off track," the former Financial Times editor said. The Herald asked Lambert if the CBI would be speaking out on Iberdrola's bid after it had so vehemently denounced the absence of a "level playing field" which would enable aspiring UK acquirers to operate from an equally advantageous base. "What would you suggest we do?" Lambert responded. John Cridland, deputy director-general, said Iberdrola's approach underlined the importance of ensuring the UK's tax competitiveness does not lag other developed economies. "In Spain they have used tax to boost their competitiveness, and we should not be complacent about (our own position). The response lies in our own hands," he said. CBI's debate on cross-border ownership and protectionism featured a contribution from Jean Louis Beffa, chairman and chief executive of French building materials group Saint-Gobain and adviser to President Jacques Chirac on buttressing French industry. France too was the subject of Sunderland's derision this week for "proclaiming a yoghurt manufacturer, Danone, to be a national champion of strategic importance". Beffa began by criticising chancellor Gordon Brown for simplifying the issue of free trade with the implication that "there is a modern way to do things and a stupid, inefficient way to do them". Each national "brand" of capitalism has different priorities, determined by the leading sectors in each economy, Beffa argued, which in the UK has meant the City of London. Beffa acknowledged the success of London's financial markets, but alleged that other sectors of industry have lost ground or even declined as a result of City short-termism. He pointed to the car industry and the share of gross national product generated by the industrial sector. "Short-term ownership with full rights has brought alot of money to the City, but also instability and volatility," he alleged. "I see financial investors getting more short-term. When they are getting their incentive payments on a six-month or one-year basis that is (inevitable)." Beffa voiced surprise that the UK is so relaxed about seeing strategic assets sold off, indicating his puzzlement that Toshiba, the Japanese electronics giant, was allowed to swallow Westinghouse, the US power plant arm of BNFL, when the government has made nuclear power a major plank of its energy policy. Copyright Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 21 Knox News: Chernobyl survivor speaks at UT on life after explosion By DARREN DUNLAP, dunlapd@knews.com November 29, 2006 Dr. Vladimir Tokarevsky was at home in Kiev, south of Chernobyl, when a unit of the Soviet nuclear power plant exploded and caught fire 20 years ago, spreading radioactive material and exposing thousands of people. Tokarevsky, a nuclear physicist, found it hard to believe at the time. He said he thought the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was safe, that what probably happened was a mechanical failure. His wife, also a scientist, confirmed the news, however. "The word 'Chernobyl' today is known everywhere now," said Tokarevsky, director general of RADON, a state-owned organization under the Ukraine Ministry of Emergencies and Consequences of the Chernobyl accident. He talked about the impacts of the disaster Tuesday at the University of Tennessee Visitors Center. He said he was in Knoxville unofficially and on vacation. He also answered the question he gets most often: what caused the explosion at Chernobyl? "The reason is bad design of the (reactor) protection system - the emergency protection system," he said. On April 26, 1986, an explosion ruptured a reactor vessel at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Ukrainian Republic of the Soviet Union. According to the Chernobyl Forum's report on the disaster's impact, the explosions that ruptured the vessel and the fires that continued for 10 days resulted in release of large amounts of radioactive materials over much of Europe. The Chernobyl Forum is an initiative of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Tokarevsky noted the increasing incidence of thyroid cancer in children, the result of contamination of pastures and milk from cows. From 1992 to 2002, more than 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed among children and adolescents. About 1,000 emergency workers and on-site personnel received the highest doses of radiation during the first days after the accident, according to the report. Some the doses were fatal. Contamination levels are decreasing, he said, using maps of the area to show affected parts of Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation. He and Robert Shelton, senior associate of energy policy at UT's Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, collaborated on a project to clean up contaminated soils in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. "I hope that sometime maybe, the Ukrainian government and the (U.S.) Department of Energy supports this project," Tokarevsky said. "In this case, we will maybe accelerate the recovery of the exclusion zone." No one is allowed to live in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, which is about 1,000 square miles, he said. He was optimistic about remediation efforts. Tokarevsky lives in Chernobyl. "Is there life after Chernobyl? I say 'yes,' " he said. "There is life, and we are still alive in Ukraine." Darren Dunlap may be reached at 865-342-6334. 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel ***************************************************************** 22 Platts: Russia, China to become members of GIF at end November meeting London (Platts)--29Nov2006 Russia and China will become members of the Generation IV International Forum at a meeting of the GIF Policy Group in Paris, France November 30. GIF members will also sign two, and perhaps three, new "systems arrangements," covering collaboration on gas-cooled fast reactor systems, very-high-temperature gas-cooled reactor systems, and perhaps supercritical water-cooled reactor systems, according to officials familiar with the program. Also at the Paris meeting, Jacques Bouchard of France's Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique is to take over the chairmanship of the GIF Policy Group from the US DOE's Shane Johnson. Copyright 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 23 Platts: First Franco-British Nuclear Forum to take place Nov 29 in Paris London (Platts)--29Nov2006 Leaders of the French and British nuclear communities will meet in Paris November 29 for the first Franco-British Nuclear Forum. The forum stems from a decision by the countries' leaders during the 28th Franco-British Summit on June 9 to pool French and British expertise and experience to examine how nuclear energy can contribute to sustainable development. The first forum will kick off the joint examination of three subjects: the political and institutional environment necessary for building a new nuclear facility, the needed skills, and the economic and financial environment of the nuclear industry, according to a fact sheet from the French ministry of industry. A seminar is already planned for London in spring 2007 to discuss the results of the work. The November 29 plenary session will be addressed by Lord Truscott, under secretary of state for energy at the UK Department of Trade and Industry, and Francois Loos, French junior minister for industry. Copyright 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 24 Sf Chron: PG looking at nuclear plants / Alternative power sources being explored David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, November 29, 2006 PG Corp. is considering investments in new nuclear plants outside California as a way to curb greenhouse gases, Chief Executive Officer Peter Darbee said Tuesday at an employee meeting on energy efficiency and climate change. Other possible investments include solar power plants that use focused mirrors to heat water, generate steam and run electrical turbines. California law forbids building more nuclear plants within the state until the United States has a permanent site for storing radioactive waste. But Darbee, whose San Francisco company owns the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo, argues that the country needs nuclear power if it hopes to fight global warming. Nuclear reactors do not produce the greenhouse gases churned out by plants that burn fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas. Darbee's remarks Tuesday were the second time he has publicly embraced nuclear development. He told Wall Street analysts in August that the company was exploring out-of-state nuclear projects. He offered few new details at Tuesday's event, saying that the PG is still "evaluating those opportunities." Nuclear power, once treated as a pariah by the American public, has received renewed interest due to fears of global warming. Some environmentalists have been willing to give nuclear technology a second look. Most, however, haven't. They argue that nuclear plants are too expensive, potentially dangerous and produce waste that the nation still hasn't found a place to store. Ralph Cavanagh, co-director of the energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the United States would have built more nuclear plants over the years if they weren't such financial risks. He spoke at Tuesday's PG meeting and praised the company for its 30-year efforts to promote energy efficiency. Cavanagh said in an interview that he doubts the company will invest in more nuclear power once it has examined the alternatives. "I express to you absolute confidence that after Peter Darbee looks at this, he won't pick nuclear," Cavanagh said. "He has limited funds. He cannot write blank checks." Darbee has broken with many of his peers in the energy business on the climate change issue. Shortly after taking over as PG's chief executive last year, Darbee studied the science surrounding global warming and concluded that climate change poses a grave threat. Since then, he has called for a nationwide system to limit greenhouse gases, supported California's landmark global warming legislation this year and urged other energy companies to follow suit. "There are critics who might say, 'Is Peter on a crusade with this?' But it's smart business, too," Darbee told employees at the meeting, held at the company's San Francisco headquarters. Darbee also expressed interest in a type of solar technology that, he said, could prove to be more cost-effective than traditional photo-voltaic cells. Dubbed "solar thermal," the technology uses focused sunlight to generate steam and power a turbine. E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker@sfchronicle.com. Page C - 3 The San Francisco Chronicle] ***************************************************************** 25 New Matilda: Nuclear Debate: Part Four: Australia and the World Thursday 30 November 2006 By: Julie Macken Wednesday 29 November 2006 When John Howard re-ignited debate about a nuclear future for Australia last July, it was as if the past 30 years hadnt happened. No Chernobyl or Three Mile Island, no terrorists, no intractable problems related to waste or the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Howards message was muddy and unfocused, but it went something like this: the threat of global warming was now so serious, and the new proposed nuclear power plants so sophisticated, and India and China were growing so fast, that the dangers associated with nuclear power had somehow been neutralised. And as the worlds largest exporter of uranium, Australia needed to get on with the business of mining and exporting as much of it as we could, and maybe, while were at it, we might like to consider enriching, fabricating and leasing the stuff. All of this came out of a clear blue sky. While the rest of the world has struggled with Kyoto targets, carbon liabilities and the fast-tracking of renewable energy schemes, the Howard Government has constantly questioned the existence of global warming, refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and dismissed calls to tackle climate change on the grounds that it was not in the national interest. But now, suddenly, the nation is thrown head first into the nuclear cycle on the grounds that global warming requires it. What is going on? Why, with evidence mounting that global warming is now well under wayhas Howard insisted on wasting the last 12 months, huge amounts of time, money and intelligence on something as limited and predictable as the Switkowski Report, while ignoring the whole renewable energy sector? The short answer is: we may never know, and, given that Australia is a democracy and nuclear power is such a contentious issue, that level of ignorance is itself a problem. But the long answer may well involve not only Howards good friend George W Bush, but also his less good friend Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Thanks to Fiona Katauskas George Bush and the US nuclear power industry have a big problem, and its called Yucca Mountain, the proposed repository and terminal storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fule and other radioactive waste. The Bush Administration had problems with the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository even before the Republicans lost control of the US Senate a few weeks ago. But when Nevada Democrat Senator Harry Reid was nominated to become Senate Majority Leader, their problems grew exponentially. Reid told reporters after his nomination that he couldnt single-handedly kill the Yucca Mountain repository outright, something that would require a vote of Congress and approval by President Bush. But he added: Theres not much to kill. If the US nuclear energy industry and the Bush Administration cant find a place to put their waste and four years ago that included 47,000 tonnes of high level nuclear waste and 345 million litres of fluid left over from plutonium production there is little prospect of an expanded nuclear power industry within the US. As Jack Edlow, CEO of Edlow International, a company which ships nuclear fuel and nuclear waste all around the world, told Tom Morton on ABCs Background Briefingin September: The [Bush] Administration has to decide whether the energy future of the United States will include nuclear. If it does, they need to have a waste solution before people will order more plants potentially. The US also has the problem of how to remain the worlds only super power when Russia, China and India insist on forming an axis that challenges that pre-eminence, particularly through energy. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)began life innocently enough. Formed in June 2001, it bought together China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Its intention was, according to the SCO Charter: Strengthening mutual trust and good-neighbourliness and friendship among member States; developing their effective co-operation in political affairs, the economy and trade, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transportation, environmental protection and other fields; working together to maintain regional peace, security and stability; and promoting the creation of a new international political and economic order featuring democracy, justice and rationality. But as former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer, Warren Reed, noted in the Australian Financial Review last June, when the SCO announced earlier this year that India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia would soon become full members, economic enlargement became central to the SCO, and economics primarily means energy, said Reed. As an example of this, Reed details the deal struck between Russia the worlds largest gas producer and second largest oil producer and China, under which Russia became one of Chinas major energy providers. He notes that, Russia has also agreed to help China with its nuclear power program, under which 30 nuclear reactors will be built in the next 15 years. To maintain its hegemony, the US will need to find a way to project itself back into the energy markets of China and India. If two close US allies such as Australia and Canada agree to become nuclear fuel leasing countries, we could help facilitate the projection of US interests in Chian and India but agreeing to take back the leased nuclear fuel as part of that deal. The Bush Administration is not the only one looking for a friendly democracy, with stable geological foundations, to solve their problem with nuclear waste. The Director General of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, is also investigating the creation of a multinational approach that would offer an alternative to Bushs Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). In a speech at Harvard last year, ElBaradei, said: Is it really rational for every country to develop their own enrichment facilities? Well the answer is absolutely no. These are sensitive technologies, and if countries want to use that technology for their own economic social development, they can. But let us multi-nationalise this operation, let us regionalise this operation, so no one country alone can have their hands on highly enriched uranium or plutonium, the materials they need to develop weapons. At this stage it appears that Russia is increasingly seen as a potential site for a multinational nuclear repositorybut that would need the support of not only the IAEA and Russia, but also the US Administration support that, at this stage, cannot be presumed. It may well suit the US and the IAEA to have Australia volunteer to take the worlds nuclear waste. And from a moral and ethical point of view, it may be that many Australians reach the same conclusion. It may be that all of the above is just coincidence and/or speculation. The point is that we do not have sufficient information to make that call, and unfortunately the trust me Im your Prime Minister line is unlikely to carry much weight any more. The debate about Australias engagement with nuclear power needs the utmost transparency. We need to know what the current Government is planning, what their aspirations are, and how those aspirations fit into larger geopolitical dynamics. While the corporations power in the Australian Constitution potentially gives the Federal Government the power to impose a nuclear power industry on Australia, while we remain a democracy it would be an unwise path to take. Therefore, it is back to the debate and back to the demand for transparency. Australian Financial Review. She is now writing a series of books on Australian business, hope and the possibility of political change in Australia. Copyright 2006 New Matilda ***************************************************************** 26 Sofia Echo: NPP DEAL SIGNED IN BULGARIA, REACTOR CLOSURE TO HAPPEN- OVCHAROV :03 Wed 29 Nov 2006 On November 29 the National Electric Company (NEC) and Russia's Atomstroyexport will sign an agreement for the construction of Belene nuclear power plant (NPP). NEC selected on October 30 Atomstroyexport as the project executor. Bulgaria received two offers for the project, one from the Russian company and one from the Czech Skoda Allianz. The project envisions the construction of two 1000 megawatt units, Focus news agency reported. Construction of the Belene power plant became even more necessary because of Bulgaria's commitment to shut down two units of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. The reactor closure resulted from EU entry requirements. Economy and Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov said that Bulgaria already accepted the commitment and could not change it any longer. Recently the European Parliament recommended flexible approach to the closure date. It suggested an eight-month delay for the re-assessment of the reactors. Ovcharov said that through its commitment Bulgaria was going to send a political signal and had to be careful. [Printer friendly version] Comments Being precise here is important. Belene is not necessary, nor becomes more necessary because of the closure of Kozloduy units 3 and 4. Replacement capacity for the latter was developed over the last years, resulting in a surplus that was used for electricity export. Bulgaria exports electricity since 2001, a year before the first two blocks of Kozloduy closed down, and expanded export right after the closure of these blocks. Also, not the European Parliament, but the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament accepted a text on flexibility concerning Kozloduy. The EP has to vote on the issue later this week. Web www.sofiaecho.com ***************************************************************** 27 AZOM: European NULIFE Programme to Prolong Nuclear Power Plant Life The EU's Network of Excellence NULIFE (Nuclear Plant Life Prediction) has been launched under the EURATOM FP6 Program with a clear focus on integrating safety-oriented research on materials, structures and systems and exploiting the results of this integration through the production of harmonised lifetime assessment methods. NULIFE will help provide a better common understanding of, and information on, the factors affecting the lifetime of nuclear power plants which, together with associated management methods, will help facilitate extensions to the safe and economic lifetime of existing nuclear power plants. In addition, NULIFE will help in the development of design criteria for future generations of nuclear power plant. Led by VTT Technical Research Centreof Finland the five-year project has a total budget in excess of EUR 8 millions, with partners drawn from leading research institutions, technical support organisations, power companies and manufacturers throughout Europe. Research and development to assess the service life of nuclear power plants is a multidisciplinary enterprise and must therefore take into account many factors. Lifetime assessment requires knowledge not only of the ageing of materials and components but also of factors such as load effects and reactor water chemistry and the influence of these on plant safety. Research data arising from this work has ultimately to be utilised for the development of safe and economic operation of existing nuclear power plants and the design of new units. By providing research excellence and fostering common approaches in nuclear power plant lifetime prediction, NULIFE will contribute to the Electric Power Utilities' decision making in terms of plant operation and investments. Safety Authorities will also benefit from the knowledge in their duties to grant plant licenses for the continued operation of plants. The core of the network comprises ten leading research institutions, technical support organisations and industrial enterprises from across Europe. These core organisations are supported by 27 associate organisations and several collaborating partners. In addition to the harmonisation of lifetime management methods, the EU funding (approximately EUR 5 millions) is specifically targeted at a process of integration between the contributing research institutions and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the network. Posted November 29th, 2006 ***************************************************************** 28 People's Daily: Huaneng launches new generating facility UPDATED: 08:56, November 29, 2006 China Huaneng Group launched the nation's first 1,000 MW (megawatt) ultra-supercritical coal-fired generating unit yesterday. The unit is at Huaneng Yuhuan Power Plant in East China's ZhejiangProvince, the first phase of which contains two 1,000 MW generating units, involving an investment of 9.6 billion yuan (US$1.22 billion). Huaneng also signed an agreement last Friday with the XinjiangUygur Autonomous Region to develop coal-fired, hydropower and wind power projects. As the nation's biggest electricity producer, Huaneng plans to spend as much as 250 billion yuan (US$31.65 billion) by 2010 to more than double its generation capacity. The investment aims to add new facilities with a combined capacity of 50 GW (gigawatts), according to Li Xiaopeng, president of the Beijing-based power conglomerate, whose total capacity stood at 43.2 GW at the end of last year. China, the world's fastest growing major economy and the second-biggest energy consumer, has urged domestic power makers to make large investments to scale up their capacity portfolios. Newly commissioned generators have greatly eased electricity shortfalls that have plagued most of the country over the past four years, and a supply-demand balance is expected within a couple of years, according to industry analysts. With the boom in China's electricity sector, the nation's top electricity companies see advanced technology as the key to their future development. According to Huaneng, ultra-supercritical coal-fired power generating technology, which is more environmentally friendly and energy-saving than traditional technology, is the world's most advanced coal-fired power generating technology. The State Grid Corp of China, the nation's biggest electricity distributor, started to build the country's first ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission line this August. The 1,000-kilovolt line will supply the city of Jingmen in energy-hungry HubeiProvince with power from the southeastern parts of coal-rich ShanxiProvince. The new line is part of the country's ambitious scheme to connect its resource-abundant west with the energy-intensive east, to improve resource allocation and ensure stable energy supply, analysts said. Apart from the Shanxi-Hubei pilot project, more ultra-high voltage lines with a capacity greater than 800 kilovolts are being planned, which will send power from the country's major electricity bases, which are fuelled by hydro, nuclear and coal sources. Apart from advanced technology, China's electricity giants also aim to achieve expansion through the capital market. Datang International Power Generation Co said yesterday it would start selling shares in China on December 6 to raise funds for the construction of power plants. Datang Power will start discussions with potential buyers to price the shares, the Beijing-based company said in a prospectus to the ShanghaiStock Exchange, where the stock will trade. It won approval from the Chinese Government on November 21 to sell a maximum of 500 million shares. Datang posted 1.27 billion yuan (US$160.8 million) net profit in the first six months of 2006, representing 14 per cent year-on-year growth. Source: China Daily Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 29 AFP: EU ups pressure on Spain to drop restrictions on EON's Endesa bid Wed Nov 29, 12:12 PM ET BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU regulators have raised pressure on Spain to lift restrictions on German energy group EON's bid for Spanish electricity company Endesa by ruling that Madrid's new, eased conditions still broke EU law. The European Commission " /> European Commissionfound that the "new measures concerning the proposed EON takeover of Endesa ... are in violation of the merger regulation provisions," said spokesman for competition issues, Jonathan Todd Wednesday. Spain eased its conditions on the bid earlier this month after the European Commission had determined at the end of September that Madrid was in breach of EU regulations by trying to protect Endesa. After Brussels regulators' new complaint, a Spanish government official stood firm, saying Madrid is now fully compliant with European rules on the matter. The commission has given Spanish authorities until December 13 to respond officially to its latest ruling. If Brussels regulators are unsatisfied with the response, then they could legally require Spain to drop the conditions. Eager to ward off state meddling in cross-border EU deals, Brussels has fought against Madrid's opposition to the takeover ever since Spanish authorities first raised objections shortly after EON lodged its bid. In February, EON launched a hostile offer to buy Endesa for 29.1 billion euros (38.2 billion dollars) and the commission gave the group the green light in April to press ahead with its takeover plans. But Madrid preferred a merger between Endesa and the biggest Spanish gas supplier Gas Natural. Spain's own energy regulator, CNE, placed 19 conditions, most of them contested by the commission, on EON's offer. Prior to EON making its offer, Gas Natural had made a bid for Endesa of 22.5 billion euros. Earlier this month, Spain eased some of the 19 conditions attached to the sale of Endesa to EON, with the industry ministry indicating that the German company would not after all be obliged to sell Endesa's production activities. Spain also said it would ease an earlier requirement forcing EON to sell Endesa's nuclear and coal power plants. However, the ministry said it was maintaining its requirement for a sale of Endesa shares if more than 50 percent of the capital of EON is acquired by a third party within the next 10 years. The commission spokesman said that the antitrust regulator was in particular concerned about Madrid's demand that the German company not sell any assets on the country's islands, keep the Endesa brand, use domestically produced coal and not divert gas to other markets than Spain. "All of these provisions are in the commission's view incompatible with the treaty rules on the right of establishment and the free movement of capital," said Todd. But in the southeastern Spanish city of Murcia, Spanish media quoted deputy economy minister David Vegara as saying: "We believe that the new conditions scrupulously respect European standards." Vegara said Madrid would respond officially to the EU commission in the next few days. He added that the Spanish industry ministry had taken an "adequate" decision in the matter and that he hoped the affair would not end up before a European court. Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 30 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI opposed to West nuclear monopoly 2006/11/29 02:45:51 . Iranian Ambassador to Indonesia Behrouz Kamalvandi in Jakarta on Tuesday said Tehran will not accept a monopoly of nuclear technology by the West. Kamalvandi made the remarks during a meeting of members of the Confederation of Association of South-East Asian Nation (ASEAN) Journalists (CAJ). "All countries have the right to pursue scientific and technological knowledge including peaceful nuclear technology. This right of states cannot be denied by certain hegemonic powers who wish to deprive certain nations of progress," he said. "We are against a monopoly nuclear technology by certain countries," the envoy added. "As per the articles of association of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol, development of peaceful nuclear energy is not only perfectly legal but is also encouraged and supported," Kamalvandi said. He said those four documents do not prohibit enrichment nor set limitations on it. Unfortunately, he said, Iran's nuclear case has been politicized. "But it is a national demand and all Iranians, even those living abroad, support it." Iran has repeatedly said that it does want weapons of mass destruction. Production of these weapons runs counter to the principles of our foreign policy, he added. "The IR Leader (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) has expressly banned it." However, he said, "enrichment knowhow is Iran's inalienable right and it will not back down from this right." Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir ***************************************************************** 31 Knox News: TVA to buy second turbine plant Agency says another facility needed to meet growing peak power demands By Associated Press November 29, 2006 The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to buy a second combustion turbine plant in as many months to help meet growing peak power demands. TVA, the country's largest public utility, will ask its directors Thursday to approve the purchase of a 546-megawatt gas-fired plant in Gleason, Tenn. The three-unit plant, built by Enron Corp. in 2001, is owned by Greensburg, Pa.-based Allegheny Energy Supply. "We're trying to position ourselves to meet our customer requirements at the lowest possible cost," TVA spokesman John Moulton said. "We're buying these plants at attractive prices, and they will help us meet our peak demands, which have been growing about 2 percent a year." TVA agreed in October to buy a 680-megawatt combustion turbine plant near Calvert City, Ky. The three-unit plant was built by Duke Energy in 2002 and sold to TVA by investment firm KGen Partners. The Gleason plant, like the Calvert City plant, is already connected to the TVA power grid. It also is on an interstate gas pipeline and capable of being upgraded to a combined cycle plant to boost output to 870 megawatts, TVA officials said. Both the Gleason and Calvert City plants operated only a few months before natural gas prices spiked a few years ago and they were no longer cost effective as power sources during most periods of the year. TVA plans to add them to its fleet of combustion turbines that are operated only for short times when energy demand is highest - typically on the hottest days of summer and coldest days of winter. TVA, which provides electricity to about 8.6 million people in Tennessee and six surrounding states, has 80 combustion turbines now, including Calvert, at three stand-alone sites and four coal-fired power plants. TVA budgeted $90 million this year to buy peak-power plants after its 34,000-megawatt system came up about 5,700 megawatts short of meeting its highest demands this summer, forcing it to buy power from other utilities. TVA expects to bring a third nuclear reactor at its Browns Ferry station in Alabama back online next summer following a 20-year shutdown and $1.8 billion restoration. Allegheny Energy spokesman Allen Staggers said the Gleason plant is the third and final plant Allegheny will sell after exiting its money-losing, deregulated power supply business. "When the energy market for these types of plants collapsed, we were forced to change our business plan and dispose of those assets," he said. Terms of the Gleason and Calvert City purchases will not be disclosed until the sales are completed, TVA officials said. Copyright 2006, Associated Press. All rights 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel ***************************************************************** 32 Newsday.com: Indian Point test finds all 156 sirens worked, owner says - AP New York November 29, 2006, 5:16 PM EST BUCHANAN, N.Y. (AP) _ In what may have been their final test, all 156 emergency sirens around the Indian Point nuclear power plants sounded on schedule Wednesday morning, the plants' owner said. A new system is expected to be in place by the end of January, before the next test is due. A spokesman for owner Entergy Nuclear Northeast, Jim Steets, said the only glitches in Wednesday's test were computer problems that seemed to show three sirens not working _ two in Westchester County and one in Putnam County. However, observers confirmed that all the sirens went off, he said. The computer problem will be repaired, he added. The sirens are meant to alert the 300,000 residents within 10 miles of Indian Point's two reactors if there is an emergency. Indian Point is in Buchanan on the Hudson River, 30 miles north of New York City. The notification area includes parts of Orange and Rockland counties as well as Westchester and Putnam. In August, a computer malfunction caused the sirens to go out of service for about six hours, and tests before that resulted in partial failures of the sirens. In a September test, all but two of the sirens sounded. Newsfrom amNY.com | Long Island Weddings . Copyright Newsday Inc. ***************************************************************** 33 SNA: Bulgaria: Bulgaria Signs Belene Nuke Deal Kotseva (Sofia Photo Agency) Business: 29 November 2006, Wednesday. Bulgaria's National Electricity Company officially signed the preliminary contract for constructing its second Nuclear Power Plant in Belene. Russian Atomstroyexport landed the contract in a tender and its head Sergey Shmatko put his signature together with that of NEC Chief Manager Lyubomir Velkov and the company's CEO Mardik Papazyan. Economy and Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov and France's Ambassador to Sofia Yves Saint-Geours also attended the signing in the Council of Ministers. Shmatko vowed that his company would start working on the plant's construction right away. Atomstroyexport has to build two 1,000 MW light-water reactors in Belene for the price of nearly EUR 4 M. The other bidder in the tender - Czech Skoda Alliance - did not object the final decision, leaving no obstacles before the launch of the project for Bulgaria's second Nuclear Power Plant. novinite.com All Rights Reserved Novinite Ltd., 2001-2006 - Copyright &Disclaimer - Privacy Policy ISO 9001:2000 Certified Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily ***************************************************************** 34 The Herald: Nuclear terrorism now arrives in a Nato country Web Issue 2692 November 29 2006 Your Letters November 29 2006 Smersh, an arm of Stalin's secret apparatus of state terror, disappeared in 1946, seven years before Ian Fleming re-created it for Casino Royale. Bond, if memory serves, had Cyrillic "Sm" carved on the back of his hand. This torture was an abbreviation of Smersh, itself a portmanteau for the Russian words (in crude Latin phonics) Smyert Shpionam or "Death to spies". While the film of Fleming's novel opened around the world, last week also witnessed the horrible death in London of a real-life former spy, Alexander Litvinenko. Although it never enjoyed the status Fleming created for it, Stalin's Smersh was responsible for the liquidation of renegade agents. Chillingly, the Duma, Russia's parliament, earlier this year legalised the same activity. Who was the west to complain when it had just dumped three-and-a-half centuries of international legal norms, reverting to "regime change" on a pattern unseen since the Thirty Years' War? A few, temporarily off-message, pro-Putin sources in Moscow cited this law before reverting to the "provocation" line advanced by Philip Lardner (Letters, November 28). Is Mr Lardner serious? Who does he think ordered the assassination of Litvinenko, if "someone else in Russia has offered to give us cheaper natural gas if Putin gets deposed"? Tony Blair, perhaps? Does he think the Prime Minister (or whoever) also ordered the fatal shooting of Litvinenko's friend, Anna Politikovskaya  and before that her poisoning on a flight to Chechnya? Does he believe Blair, a self-styled taker of tough decisions, ordered the poisoning in September 2004 of Viktor Yushchenko, not Moscow's man, in the Ukrainian presidential elections? These crimes have the fingerprints of Smersh, whatever its current name, all over them. Alexander Litvinenko was a UK citizen and his murder marks the arrival of nuclear terrorism in a Nato country. If Putin or (more likely) those close to him are responsible, then this will cause the gravest breach in relations between Russia and the west since the Cuban missile crisis. Thomas McLaughlin, 4 Munro Road, Glasgow. Copyright Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 35 UPI: Annan: Nukes world's worst threat United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 11/29/2006 9:51:00 AM -0500 PRINCETON, N.J., Nov. 29 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says nuclear weapons are the gravest of all threats facing the world today. In a lecture Tuesday at Princeton University he focused on "the danger of nuclear weapons, and the urgent need to confront that danger." While almost everyone feels insecure, Annan said, "probably the largest number would give priority to economic and social threats, including poverty, environmental degradation and infectious disease." He said "others might stress inter-state conflict; yet others internal conflict, including civil war," while many people, "especially but not only in the developed world, would now put terrorism at the top of their list." The secretary-general said all threats are interconnected, cutting across borders, calling for "common global strategies to deal with all of them." However, noting the recent failure to update the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, he said the one area where there is no common strategy "is the one that may well present the greatest danger of all ... nuclear weapons." Annan said they "present a unique existential threat to all humanity (and) the nuclear non-proliferation regime now faces a major crisis of confidence. North Korea has withdrawn from the treaty, while India, Israel, and Pakistan have never joined it. "There are ... serious questions about the nature of Iran's nuclear program," he said, adding that "the rise of terrorism, with the danger that nuclear weapons might be acquired by terrorists, greatly increases the danger that they will be used." The only way forward is to tackle the objectives of non-proliferation and disarmament simultaneously and equally vigorously, the secretary-general said. Fierce disagreement between countries over which objective was more urgent, he said, meant the world was stuck without a common strategy for dealing with the nuclear problem. Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 36 [NYTr] Litvinenko 'smuggled nuclear material' Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:08:20 -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 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [Oh, my. The martyr morphs into a nuclear terrorist. NY Transfer] sent by Simon McGuinness The Independent - Nov 29, 2006 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2023856.ece Litvinenko 'smuggled nuclear material' By Cahal Milmo, Peter Popham and Jason Bennetto Alexander Litvinenko, the poisoned former Russian agent, told the Italian academic he met on the day he fell ill that he had organised the smuggling of nuclear material out of Russia for his security service employers. Mario Scaramella, who flew into London yesterday to be interviewed by Scotland Yard officers investigating Mr Litvinenko's death, said Mr Litvinenko told him about the operation for the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB. Police said that Mr Scaramella, who met Mr Litvinenko at a sushi bar in London on 1 November to discuss a death threat aimed at both of them, was a potential witness. He was being interviewed at a "secure location" in London but was not in custody. The Health Protection Agency said that eight people had been referred to a clinic in London for tests for exposure to polonium-210, the radioactive substance that killed Mr Litvinenko. It declined to say whether Mr Scaramella was among them. A post-mortem examination will be carried out on Mr Litvinenko on Friday. In an interview with The Independent shortly after the poisoning became public, Mr Scaramella said that Mr Litvinenko, a friend and professional contact since 2001, told him he had masterminded the smuggling of radioactive material to Zurich in 2000. There have long been concerns that turmoil in Russia and other former Soviet states after the fall of Communism created an international black market in radioactive substances. The operation would have been one of the last carried out by Mr Litvinenko while still an FSB officer, in a unit tackling organised crime and smuggling. He fled Russia for London that year after the FSB began investigating him for corruption - charges which he claimed were invented as revenge for his decision to expose an FSB plot to assassinate the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Friends of Mr Litvinenko, a critic of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said last night that they were unaware of his involvement with any smuggling for the FSB. Alex Goldfarb, an ally of Mr Berezovsky, said: "He did not mention anything about nuclear material while serving with the FSB." Mr Litvinenko died on Thursday last week after publicly accused Mr Putin of ordering his poisoning. Mr Scaramella, an academic and examining magistrate based in Rome and Naples, had been due to meet Mr Litvinenko on 10 November in London, but brought the meeting forward at short notice on 1 November. The Itsu restaurant in Piccadilly, where traces of polonium-210 have been found, is thought to be the first location visited by Mr Litvinenko on 1 November. Later he met two Russian business associates at a Mayfair hotel and visited the nearby offices of Mr Berezovsky and a security firm, where polonium traces have also been found. Last night police confirmed that they were searching the five-star Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair as well as an office building in the West End. Mr Scaramella has denied any involvement in his friend's death and derided suggestions that he was himself a Russian agent.He claims that he has long been involved in investigating the smuggling of radioactive material by the KGB and its successors. He claimed last year that Soviet destroyers had laid 20 nuclear torpedoes in the Bay of Naples in 1970, where they remain. Mr Berezovsky, the exiled Russian billionaire visited almost daily by Mr Litvinenko, said: "I am deeply saddened at the loss of my friend. I credit him with saving my life and he remained a close friend and ally." Russian authorities again denied involvement in the case, while Tony Blair vowed that there would be no "diplomatic or political barrier" to the inquiry. * ================================================================ .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 ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 37 [NYTr] Polonium 210 and the hollow triumph of capitalism Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:08:36 -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 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Simon McGuinness The Independent - 29 November 2006 http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/mark_steel/article2023819.ece Polonium 210 was cancelled due to signal failure If this was carried out by a state department, Putin will announce it's to be privatised by Mark Steel They must be bemused in Chechnya. Because they had about 50,000 people blown up by Putin and no one gave a toss. They probably made countless attempts to interest politicians and reporters from the West, who said: "Hmm, you've had your hospital destroyed by a tank, have you? Well it's a bit 1940s I'm afraid. Have they killed any of you with rocket-propelled bird flu or a remote-controlled piranha - something a bit sexy?" While Putin's army was destroying Chechnya, Tony Blair welcomed him to Britain, and described him as a "great moderniser". And that certainly applies to whoever killed Mr Litvinenko. Because there can hardly be a more modern way of murdering someone than with radioactive sushi. In many ways the two men are so similar that when Putin makes a statement on the incident, he might say: "This is not a betrayal of KGB values. It represents traditional assassination in a modern setting." And if this was carried out by a state-run department, Putin will announce it's to be privatised so it can bid for outside contracts. By now they've probably already made a showreel to publicise their work called "Ready Steady Poison", in which a Russian version of Ainsley Harriott chortles: "Now you only need to add a pinch of this stuff. Too much is a waste. Not only that but it's a bit heavy on the palate, and just because you're killing someone, you don't want to drown out the subtle flavours of the salmon." Most commentators have suggested the killing couldn't be linked to the hierarchy of the Russian government because it's too clumsy and risky. But this is to underestimate government agents. The CIA's attempts to assassinate Castro included placing a bomb inside an attractive sea-shell, in an area of the beach that he strolled on, in the hope it would catch his eye and he'd pick it up. So by comparison this effort was dry and straightforward. Maybe the world's older secret service agents meet up in gloomy pubs to drink bitter and complain: "Youngsters today have it easy. In the old days, if you wanted to murder someone with sea-food you were up all night making an exploding whelk." But this case represents more than one murder, because it's forced much of the British establishment to acknowledge that Russia has gone wrong. This leaves them in some turmoil, because when the Soviet Union collapsed this wasn't just seen as the demise of a tyranny, but the ultimate triumph for capitalism. Big business had won so freedom and prosperity would surely follow. Businessmen scrambled for their piece of this private wealth, and this was celebrated as an example of the new liberty. George Soros, the West's most quoted financier of the time, wrote: "It's robber capitalism, it's lawless, but it's very vital and viable." One flaw in this logic was that most of the newly rich Russian businessmen had previously held senior posts in the Communist Party, which is how they got access to this new treasure. Which means the attitude of the country's new owners was: "Under the old system I believed it was my right to be pampered in luxury, while most people were poor under communism. But now I realise it's actually my right to be pampered in luxury, while most people are poor under capitalism. Truly we should be grateful for this historic change." If you pointed this out at the time, you were scowled at like someone who suggests the week before a World Cup that England aren't going to win. Now, 15 years later the place is in chaos, to the extent that life expectancy for men has fallen from 65 to 59. Which must be another sign of the new freedom, because in the old days people were forced to endure six extra years of turgid communism, but in the free society you've no need to fear you'll be queuing for bread at 60. But this is only a more dramatic version of what's taken place in the West. Over here we hear the same logic, that the only way of building a hospital or maintaining a transport system is to ensure someone will make vast profits from them. For example Network Rail have announced profits of #747m, and awarded their chief executive #1m for running the worst rail service in Europe. And it's the same with everything; the Dome, Wembley, or the Olympics where we've somehow managed to get 18 months behind although it's only 16 months since we were awarded the thing. If only the contract on poor Alexander Litvinenko had gone to a consortium involving Multiplex and Network Rail. He'd still be alive and well in Mayfair, while a spokesman would be summonsed to the Kremlin to say: "I'm afraid the fish was four years late, the polonium 210 was cancelled due to signal failure and I know we said we'd do it for 50 quid but it's now going to cost #350bn." They must be bemused in Chechnya. Because they had about 50,000 people blown up by Putin and no one gave a toss. They probably made countless attempts to interest politicians and reporters from the West, who said: "Hmm, you've had your hospital destroyed by a tank, have you? Well it's a bit 1940s I'm afraid. Have they killed any of you with rocket-propelled bird flu or a remote-controlled piranha - something a bit sexy?" While Putin's army was destroying Chechnya, Tony Blair welcomed him to Britain, and described him as a "great moderniser". And that certainly applies to whoever killed Mr Litvinenko. Because there can hardly be a more modern way of murdering someone than with radioactive sushi. In many ways the two men are so similar that when Putin makes a statement on the incident, he might say: "This is not a betrayal of KGB values. It represents traditional assassination in a modern setting." And if this was carried out by a state-run department, Putin will announce it's to be privatised so it can bid for outside contracts. By now they've probably already made a showreel to publicise their work called "Ready Steady Poison", in which a Russian version of Ainsley Harriott chortles: "Now you only need to add a pinch of this stuff. Too much is a waste. Not only that but it's a bit heavy on the palate, and just because you're killing someone, you don't want to drown out the subtle flavours of the salmon." Most commentators have suggested the killing couldn't be linked to the hierarchy of the Russian government because it's too clumsy and risky. But this is to underestimate government agents. The CIA's attempts to assassinate Castro included placing a bomb inside an attractive sea-shell, in an area of the beach that he strolled on, in the hope it would catch his eye and he'd pick it up. So by comparison this effort was dry and straightforward. Maybe the world's older secret service agents meet up in gloomy pubs to drink bitter and complain: "Youngsters today have it easy. In the old days, if you wanted to murder someone with sea-food you were up all night making an exploding whelk." But this case represents more than one murder, because it's forced much of the British establishment to acknowledge that Russia has gone wrong. This leaves them in some turmoil, because when the Soviet Union collapsed this wasn't just seen as the demise of a tyranny, but the ultimate triumph for capitalism. Big business had won so freedom and prosperity would surely follow. Businessmen scrambled for their piece of this private wealth, and this was celebrated as an example of the new liberty. George Soros, the West's most quoted financier of the time, wrote: "It's robber capitalism, it's lawless, but it's very vital and viable." One flaw in this logic was that most of the newly rich Russian businessmen had previously held senior posts in the Communist Party, which is how they got access to this new treasure. Which means the attitude of the country's new owners was: "Under the old system I believed it was my right to be pampered in luxury, while most people were poor under communism. But now I realise it's actually my right to be pampered in luxury, while most people are poor under capitalism. Truly we should be grateful for this historic change." If you pointed this out at the time, you were scowled at like someone who suggests the week before a World Cup that England aren't going to win. Now, 15 years later the place is in chaos, to the extent that life expectancy for men has fallen from 65 to 59. Which must be another sign of the new freedom, because in the old days people were forced to endure six extra years of turgid communism, but in the free society you've no need to fear you'll be queuing for bread at 60. But this is only a more dramatic version of what's taken place in the West. Over here we hear the same logic, that the only way of building a hospital or maintaining a transport system is to ensure someone will make vast profits from them. For example Network Rail have announced profits of #747m, and awarded their chief executive #1m for running the worst rail service in Europe. And it's the same with everything; the Dome, Wembley, or the Olympics where we've somehow managed to get 18 months behind although it's only 16 months since we were awarded the thing. If only the contract on poor Alexander Litvinenko had gone to a consortium involving Multiplex and Network Rail. He'd still be alive and well in Mayfair, while a spokesman would be summonsed to the Kremlin to say: "I'm afraid the fish was four years late, the polonium 210 was cancelled due to signal failure and I know we said we'd do it for 50 quid but it's now going to cost #350bn." * ================================================================ .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 ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 38 Guardian Unlimited: Radiation tests for ex-spy staff [UP] Press Association Wednesday November 29, 2006 3:13 PM Dozens of staff at the two hospitals which treated the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko have been asked to provide urine for tests to see if they have been contaminated by radiation Of the 4,000 staff at Barnet General Hospital and London's University College Hospital, 106 have been assessed for possible exposure. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said that as of Monday, 40 had been asked to provide a urine sample. Those 40 fall within the figure of 68 people requiring further assessment that the agency released on Tuesday night. In an updated statement on Wednesday, the HPA revealed that the number of hospital staff required to give urine samples had risen to 49. However, the agency said it was now satisfied there was no contamination risk at either of the two hospitals. Furthermore, no hospital staff have been referred to the specialist clinic which is testing people with suspicious symptoms. "All areas in both hospitals have now been checked for contamination and the HPA is satisfied that there is no contamination that would pose a public health risk," an HPA spokeswoman said on Wednesday. "All areas are now open for normal activities and to the public and staff. Of the total 4,000 staff in both hospitals, some 160 healthcare workers needed to be assessed to determine whether they had been at potential risk of contamination in the course of their duties in the hospital and contact they had with the patient. "These 160 assessments have now been completed. As a precaution, of these, some 49 healthcare staff have been asked by HPA staff who have carried out the assessments to provide urine samples for testing. These tests will take up to a week to produce results. Even if a test shows that an individual has been exposed, the level of risk to health is extremely low. None of these healthcare workers have been referred to the specialist clinic." Meanwhile, Italian security expert Mario Scaramella, who was one of the last people to see Litvinenko before he fell ill, said tests have cleared him of radioactive contamination. Scaramella travelled from Rome to meet with Litvinenko at a sushi bar in London on November 1 - the day the former intelligence agent first reported the symptoms that ultimately led to his death in the intensive care ward of a central London hospital. Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 39 Guardian Unlimited: Radioactive material found on BA planes (ALL FLIGHTS LISTED) Moscow flights linked to inquiry into death of former Russian spy Ian Cobain and Dan Milmo Thursday November 30, 2006 The Guardian The investigation into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko gathered pace dramatically yesterday as it emerged that a number of British Airways aircraft that fly between Moscow and London have been contaminated with radioactive material. Two BA Boeing 767s were grounded at Heathrow following tests ordered by Scotland Yard, and a third aircraft was being tested in Moscow after its pilot was warned not to take off. Last night the airline appealed to around 800 passengers to come forward. They flew on four flights between London and Moscow in the days either side of Litvinenko's poisoning on November 1. However, the Guardian understands that the airline is scrambling to contact up to 33,000 passengers and 3,000 of its own staff who flew on the aircraft, on 10 different routes, since October 25. The aircraft are known to have been used for a total of 220 flights. The airline said that only "very low traces" of the substance had been discovered on the Boeing 767s and the risk to public health was low. Passengers concerned about their health should call NHS Direct, it said. It is thought Litvinenko, 43, was not a passenger on any of the jets - he had been granted British citizenship after claiming asylum following his decision to become a whistleblower about the alleged activities of the Russian security services. Aviation industry sources suggested other individuals connected to the police investigation had travelled on the aircraft. The police are particularly interested in a flight from Moscow to London on October 25. It is known Litvinenko met two Russian contacts, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, at the Millennium Hotel in London's West End on November 1, the day he fell ill. Mr Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard who now runs a security company in Moscow, has said that he flew in the day before with his family and friends to attend a Champions League football match between Arsenal and CSKA Moscow and for a series of business meetings. As Litvinenko lay dying, Mr Lugovoi insisted he had been framed by someone who wished him to appear to be the poisoner. "I have the feeling that someone is trying to set me up as the fall guy," he said. Shortly before Litvinenko died last Thursday night, police realised he had been poisoned with polonium 210, a rare and highly toxic isotope. Since then they have found traces of the substance at seven buildings around London, including the former spy's home and the two hospitals where he was treated. Litvinenko's associates were accusing the Kremlin of being behind the poisoning even before he died. Russian officials have dismissed such claims as nonsense, saying he is more likely to have been the victim of intrigue among the Russian emigre community in London. Scotland Yard's newly formed counter-terrorism command, which is managing the inquiry, is refusing to describe it as a murder investigation, prompting speculation that they believe the spy may have poisoned himself. The airline said it was contacted by Scotland Yard on Tuesday night and alerted that it "had a problem" with three of its aircraft. It will be unable to recover the 767 currently stranded in Moscow without permission of the British government, because of the contamination. While there was no immediate confirmation that polonium 210 is the substance discovered on the BA aircraft, it is widely assumed at the airline that this is the case. Each plane can carry 252 passengers plus two pilots and nine cabin crew. The airline is appealing initially to hear from passengers on four flights: BA875 Moscow-Heathrow on October 25 - aircraft number GBNWX BA872 Heathrow-Moscow on October 28 - aircraft number GBNWX BA873 Moscow-Heathrow on October 31 - aircraft number GBNWB BA874 Heathrow-Moscow on November 3 - aircraft number GBZHA. The other routes that the planes are believed to have flown are from Heathrow to Barcelona, Dsseldorf, Athens, Larnaca, Stockholm, Madrid, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Vienna. An airline spokeswoman said: "We are being advised that there is a low risk. But we are keen to contact passengers and ensure that they are aware of what happened and to contact NHS Direct if they are concerned." BA was trawling passenger lists and setting up a dedicated call centre last night as it raced to contact thousands of passengers. The airline has suffered a torrid end to the year, having lost 100m as a result of the terror alert in August and drawing criticism over its suspension of a Christian employee for wearing a cross. Meanwhile, a postmortem examination will be carried out on Litvinenko tomorrow under secure conditions to avoid possible contamination. Mario Scaramella, an Italian KGB expert who met Litvinenko the day he became ill, was under police protection last night and underwent medical tests. He was not contaminated, his lawyer said. Flight dates 220 flights are affected. British Airways confirmed the following: London Heathrow to Moscow/Moscow to London Heathrow October 25, 26, 28, 31, November 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25, 28, 29 London Heathrow to Barcelona/Barcelona to London Heathrow Nov 4, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 London Heathrow to Dsseldorf/Dsseldorf to London Heathrow Oct 30, Nov 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 18, 19, 24, 25, 27 London Heathrow to Athens Oct 30, 31, Nov 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28 Athens to London Heathrow Oct 30, Nov 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 15, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29 London Heathrow to Larnaca/Larnaca to London Heathrow Oct 29, Nov 11, 12, 13, 18, 26 London Heathrow to Stockholm/Stockholm to London Heathrow Nov 3, 4, 19, 22, 23, 24 London Heathrow to Vienna/Vienna to London Heathrow Nov 28 London Heathrow to Frankfurt Oct 26, Nov 2 Frankfurt to London Heathrow Oct 27, Nov 3 London Heathrow to Istanbul/Istanbul to London Heathrow Oct 27, Nov 2, 3 London Heathrow to Madrid/Madrid to London Heathrow Nov 26 UK Helpline: 0845 6040 171 International callers: 44 191 211 3690 NHS Direct: 0845 4647 [UP] Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 40 NRC: NRC Invites Nominations for Advisory Committee on Medical Uses of Isotopes News Release - 2006-14 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 06-146 November 29, 2006 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking nominations for the position of radiation therapy medical physicist on the Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes (ACMUI). Nominees must be U.S. citizens and able to devote approximately 160 hours per year to committee business. The position is for a four-year term beginning Oct. 1, 2007, with possible reappointment to an additional term. The ACMUI was established in 1958 and advises NRC on policy and technical issues related to the regulation of the medical use of radioactive material. Responsibilities include providing comments on changes to NRC rules, regulations and guidance documents; evaluating certain non-routine uses of radioactive material; providing technical assistance in licensing, inspection, and enforcement cases; and bringing key issues to the attention of the NRC for appropriate action. Members who are not federal employees are compensated for their service; all members are reimbursed for travel. Nominees undergo a security background check and are required to complete financial disclosure statements to avoid possible conflict-of-interest issues. ACMUI members possess the medical and technical skills needed to address evolving issues. The current committee membership is comprised of the following professionals: (a) nuclear medicine physician; (b) nuclear cardiologist; (c) medical physicist in nuclear medicine, unsealed byproduct material; (d) therapy medical physicist; (e) radiation safety officer; (f) nuclear pharmacist; (g) two radiation oncologists; (h) patients rights advocate; (i) Food and Drug Administration representative; (j) Agreement State representative; and (k) health care administrator. Interested candidates should submit four copies of their resum to the Office of Human Resources, Attn: Ms. Joyce Riner, Mail Stop T2D32, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington D.C. 20555. Applications will be accepted for 60 days following publication of a call for nominations in the Federal Register. For more information, contact Mohammad S. Saba, in the NRCs Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Program, at (301) 415-7608 or via e-mail at mss@nrc.gov. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NRC news releases are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site. Last revised Wednesday, November 29, 2006 ***************************************************************** 41 New York Times: Billionaire Ally of Dead Spy Issues Statement - By ALAN COWELLPublished: November 29, 2006 LONDON, Nov. 28 Boris A. Berezovsky, an exiled Russian billionaire and fierce opponent of the Kremlin, confirmed Tuesday that the police found radioactive traces in his office after the death last week of his close associate, Alexander V. Litvinenko, who was poisoned by radiation. While the association between the men has become widely known, the discovery of radioactive traces at Mr. Berezovskys Mayfair office highlighted their close ties and offered one more clue about Mr. Litvinenkos movements on Nov. 1, the day he first reported feeling unwell. Late Tuesday, the police said they had broadened their efforts to trace Mr. Litvinenkos whereabouts before he died, searching two more places in central London an address in Mayfair and the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel. Mr. Berezovsky, one of the most prominent and wealthy Russian exiles in London, visited Mr. Litvinenko in the hospital before he died. Apart from the traces at his office, where Mr. Litvinenko was a frequent visitor, he has not been implicated in the police inquiry. Mr. Litvinenko, a former secret service agent, accused the Russian authorities of poisoning him with what the police said was a radioactive isotope, polonium 210. Mr. Berezovsky pointedly refrained Tuesday from making a similarly direct accusation. In what aides said was his first formal statement since Mr. Litvinenkos death, Mr. Berezovsky said he was deeply saddened by the death of his associate, who had worked for both the K.G.B. and its successor organization, known by its Russian initials, F.S.B. Referring to Mr. Litvinenkos claim that he had refused an order to assassinate Mr. Berezovsky in the late 1990s, Mr. Berezovsky said: I credit him with saving my life, and he remained a close friend and ally ever since. I will remember him for his bravery, his determination and his honor. Many of Mr. Litvinenkos friends and I have already publicly expressed our views about what we think might have happened. Therefore I believe the most helpful course we can take is to let the police get on with their work, the statement said. I have complete faith in the British authorities and the police. They are conducting a thorough and professional investigation, and we should now wait for the results. Mr. Berezovsky said the traces of radiation in his office had been discovered as part of an ongoing police investigation of all the locations visited by Alexander Litvinenko on Nov. 1. Previously, the police tracked Mr. Litvinenko on that day to a sushi bar, the five-star Millennium Mayfair hotel in central London and his own home in north London. Officers have also discovered traces of radiation at a security company in Mayfair called Erinys, the company acknowledged in a statement. Mr. Litvinenko visited its office on a matter totally unrelated to issues now being investigated by the police, the company said. Friends of Mr. Litvinenko have said he was a frequent visitor to Mr. Berezovskys office. Mr. Berezovsky fled Russiain late 2000, after amassing a fortune in the freewheeling 1990s through a car dealership, a media empire, the Aeroflot airline and holdings in oil and aluminum. An autopsy is to be carried out on Mr. Litvinenko on Friday, following the formal opening of a coroners inquest on Thursday. The British authorities said Tuesday that eight people had been sent to a clinic to be tested for radiation traces. One of them was a reporter for The Daily Mirror tabloid, Graham Brough, who said he was tested after shaking hands with Mario Scaramella, an Italian academic who said he met Mr. Litvinenko in the Itsu sushi bar in Piccadilly on Nov. 1. Mr. Brough wrote in The Daily Mirror on Tuesday that he had been singled out for testing because Scaramellas palms had been slightly sweaty when I shook hands with him during an interview last week in Naples. British health authorities and the police have said polonium 210 cannot be transmitted through the skin and is not harmful unless it is swallowed, breathed in or passed through an open wound. Mr. Scaramella has also been tested for radiation by the British police, according to Paolo Guzzanti, an Italian senator who led a parliamentary commission investigating the possibility of K.G.B. activity in Italy. The panel employed Mario Scaramella as a consultant, according to Mr. Guzzanti, who said he spoke to Mr. Scaramella on Tuesday. He said he was in a castle outside of London, and I dont know if it is official, but he is under police protection, Mr. Guzzanti said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. He has three armored cars around him with bodyguards and the police or secret service, he added. The British police have declined to confirm those assertions. Mr. Scaramella has told Italian reporters that when he met with Mr. Litvinenko on Nov. 1, he showed the Russian e-mail messages from a mutual intelligence acquaintance listing individuals whose lives were said to be in danger from criminals based in St. Petersburg. The messages reportedly claimed that the same criminals killed Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian investigative journalist, in Moscow last month. Mr. Litvinenkos associates say he was investigating her shooting when he was poisoned. In his first public remarks on the matter, Prime Minister Tony Blairsaid Tuesday that no diplomatic or political barrier would be allowed to thwart the police inquiry into Mr. Litvinenkos death. It is obviously a very, very serious matter indeed, Mr. Blair told a news conference. We are determined to find out what happened and who is responsible. Copyright 2006The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 42 BBC: Radioactive traces on BA planes Last Updated: Wednesday, 29 November 2006 [Alexander Litvinenko] Mr Litvinenko was a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin Traces of a radioactive substance have been found on two British Airways planes at Heathrow Airport, says BA. The planes, plus a third in Moscow, are being tested as part of the probe into the death from radiation poisoning of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. BA is trying to make contact with up to 33,000 passengers who travelled on the 221 European flights affected, including the London to Moscow route. The airline said it had been advised the risk to public health was low. Passengers are asked to check the flight details BA is publishing on its website and to contact NHS Direct or a special helpline number if they travelled on the affected services. BA told the BBC's Moscow bureau the third plane was currently at the city's Domodedovo airport. A British team - thought to be police experts - will go to Moscow shortly to test the aircraft. The airline said it had not been confirmed when the Boeing 767s could have been contaminated but forensics experts were "looking back to the end of October". DESTINATIONS AFFECTED Moscow Barcelon Dusseldorf Athens Larnaca Stockholm Vienna Frankfurt Istanbul Madrid All flight numbers published on the BA website The BBC's Richard Galpin said the traces could be there from anyone who had been in contact with Mr Litvinenko, or could have come from someone bringing the substance to the UK. Initial results of the forensic tests had shown very low traces of a radioactive substance onboard two of the three aircraft, said BA. Traces of radioactive polonium-210 were discovered in Mr Litvinenko's body when he died in London last week. More traces of the substance have been found at venues he visited in the capital on 1 November. The Health Protection Agency - which has been assessing people potentially at risk of contamination - has reassured the public that the risk of having been exposed to the substance remains low. Chief executive Professor Pat Troop said: "What we have heard is that it's either traces or very low levels and what we have learnt so far in our investigation... is that where we have got these areas of low level radiation it doesn't seem to pose a significant health threat." BA was contacted by the government on Tuesday night and took the three planes out of service to let forensic tests go ahead. EXPOSURE RISK Contact with carrier's sweat o urine could lead to exposure But polonium-210 must be ingested to cause damage Radiation has very short range and cannot pass through skin Washing eliminates traces The airline said the investigation was confined to those three B767s, which would remain out of service until further notice. BA chief executive Willie Walsh said: "I am advised that the health risk is actually very low. We've identified all 221 flights that have been operated by the three aircraft since 25 October and those flights are on our website. "I would advise passengers with any concerns to check on the website first to see if they were on one of the flights involved and then contact NHS Direct or contact their local doctor." An estimated 3,000 staff would also need to be checked, he added. Home Secretary John Reid chaired a meeting of the government's COBRA committee on Wednesday, receiving updates from police, health authorities and others on the Litvinenko case. A Home Office spokesman said Mr Reid expected to make a statement to Parliament concerning the investigation on Thursday. Friends have said Mr Litvinenko was poisoned because of his criticism of Russia but the Kremlin has strongly denied any involvement. + British Airways has set up a special helpline for customers in the UK on 0845 6040171 or 0191 211 3690 for international calls. + Passengers who travelled on those flights and want further advice are advised to telephone NHS Direct on 0845 4647. ***************************************************************** 43 AFP: Investigators find radiation on BA aircraft in poisoned spy case by Prashant Rao Wed Nov 29, 6:08 PM ET LONDON (AFP) - Investigators looking into the events surrounding the poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko found traces of radiation on two British Airways aircraft. British Airways said that "very low traces of a radioactive substance" had been found on two of its three aircraft which were taken out of service to "enable forensic examination to be carried out". In a separate statement, the Home Office (interior ministry) said investigators have "started tests on two aircraft at Heathrow Airport and are making arrangements for a third plane to be tested." A BA spokeswoman told AFP that of the three planes, two are in London and one is in Moscow. BA published on its website a list of the Boeing 767 flights concerned, covering incoming and outgoing flights throughout November from London Heathrow to Moscow, Barcelona, Duesseldorf, Athens, Larnaca, Stockholm and Vienna. The airline's chief executive Willie Walsh told British broadcaster Channel 4 News that BA estimated that about 221 flights involving the three aircraft were affected, involving 33,000 passengers. A spokeswoman for the airline, meanwhile, said on Russia's Vesti-24 television station that the plane is due to fly back from Moscow to Heathrow for examination, and will do so as soon as British authorities permit a return leg. Large quantities of the radioactive substance polonium 210 were found in the dead Russian defector's urine. Traces of it have also been discovered at a central London sushi bar where he met with the Italian academic Mario Scaramella and a central London hotel where the ex-secret serviceman met two Russian contacts on November 1. Scaramella has reportedly been given the all-clear from possible radiation contamination. The substance has also been found at Litvinenko's north London home, at the office of exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky -- an acquaintance of Litvinenko -- and a security company. Two other locations are being searched. Britain's domestic Press Association news agency said it understood a number of Litvinenko's friends and family had also been tested, including Berezovsky, but they are said to be in "perfect health". Public health officials have so far sent eight people for precautionary tests at a special clinic. Forty-nine staff at the two hospitals where Litvinenko was treated have also had to provide urine for testing. The results are expected next week. None has been referred to the clinic and there was no risk of contamination at the hospitals, the Health Protection Agency added. Britain's Sky News television said it had spoken to Scaramella, who is currently under police protection at a London safe house, and he had told them he had tested negative for exposure to polonium 210. Scaramella, who Italy denied Wednesday was one of its agents, has become a focus of the probe into Litvinenko's death as the Russian became ill after the pair met at the sushi bar. But Scaramella has denied any involvement, saying the sushi bar meeting was to discuss an alleged Russian secret services "hit list" on which both their names featured. He is being treated by police as a witness and has vowed to do all he can to help them get to the bottom of the mystery. The Independent newspaper on Wednesday quoted Scaramella as saying Litvinenko had told him he had masterminded the transfer of radioactive material to Zurich in 2000 for his former Kremlin paymasters. The operation would have been one of the last Litvinenko carried out while still an officer for Russia's Federal Security Services (FSB), the successor to the Soviet KGB, before he fled to Britain later that year, the newspaper added. Elsewhere, there was speculation that poisoning could also be behind a mystery illness suffered by former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar who was recuperating in a Moscow hospital. Gaidar fell ill on a trip to Ireland last Friday. He heads an economic think-tank in Moscow that frequently criticises President Vladimir Putin " /> 's policy of increasing state control over the economy. British lawmakers discussed London's relations with Moscow in the lower House of Commons on Wednesday. A Labour member of parliament, Chris Bryant, raised questions about Russia's human rights record and press freedom, and claimed about 30 to 60 Russian operatives were currently active in Britain. Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 44 ITAR-TASS: Chelyabinsk hosts international seminar on radiation risk factors 29.11.2006, 11.09 CHELYABINSK, November 29 (Itar-Tass) - An international seminar on raising awareness of population residing near the Mayak nuclear facility about radiation risk factors has opened in Chelyabinsk, southern Urals. Taking part in the seminar are scientists and experts from Russia, Sweden, Germany and Kazakhstan and the heads of administrations of the Urals territories affected by Mayaks radiation in different years. Partakers discuss the reports of scientists, medical and social workers on how to improve living conditions of people residing in the affected territories and exchange experience. They outline recommendations for the Emergencies Ministry and the Federal Atomic Energy Agency. They pointed out that it is necessary to set up an information centre within the framework of a program for elimination of radiation effects to help people of the Chelyabinsk region and other regions of southern Urals. The Mayak plant was built back in 1945-1948 to produce and reprocess nuclear fuel. It was the scene of a major nuclear accident in 1957, when a waste storage facility blew up, releasing 20 million curies of radiation into the atmosphere. As a result, 200 people died of radiation sickness and another several thousands we exposed to radiation. Mayak remains the flagship of Russia's nuclear industry and is still discharging tons of liquid radioactive waste into adjacent areas, where thousands of people still live. Copyright ITAR-TASS all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 UPI: Dead spy left poisonous trail in London United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 11/29/2006 8:56:00 AM -0500 LONDON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Scotland Yard is extending the investigation into the death of a former Russian spy after traces of a radioactive poison were found all over London. Trace amounts of polonium-210, the radioactive isotope that killed Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, were found in seven locations in London the former spy visited after his poisoning, including the office of fellow Kremlin-critic Boris Berezovsky. In 1998, Litvinenko, then a spy for the Russian FSB service, the successor to the KGB, announced at a news conference that his superiors had ordered him to kill Berezovsky, who at the time was one of Boris Yeltsin's top security officials. Both men fled to London. Officials in the English capital fear that the radioactive material will further spread. British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday said the investigation was being treated as a "very, very serious matter," adding that no "diplomatic or political barrier" would be allowed to stand in its way. It surfaced that polonium-210, apart from being used in nuclear reactors and space ships, is also found in commercially available photographic anti-static devices, but the lethal doses are usually enclosed by ceramics or steel. Scotland Yard so far has no real suspects, but is following up on a raft of theories as to who could be behind Litvinenko's death. Litvinenko had probed the recent assassination of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Moscow has come under attack after Politkovskaya, one of Russia's most fiercely anti-Kremlin media figures, was found shot dead on Oct. 7 in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow. Before he died, the former spy accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of his murder. The Kremlin has denied the charge, calling the allegations "absolute nonsense." Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 46 Guardian Unlimited: Radiation Found on 2 Jets in Spy Probe From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday November 29, 2006 10:16 PM AP Photo XAG104 By TARIQ PANJA Associated Press Writer LONDON (AP) - Officials found traces of radiation on two British Airways jets, and the airline appealed Wednesday to tens of thousands of passengers who flew to Moscow or other cities to come forward - the latest twist in the inquiry into the poisoning death of a former Russian spy. The airline said the ``risk to public health is low,'' adding that it was in the process of contacting tens of thousands of passengers who flew on the jets. Two planes at London's Heathrow Airport tested positive for traces of radiation and a third jet was taken out of service in Moscow awaiting examination, British Airways said. Natalia Remnyova, administrator at Domodedovo Airport, the Moscow airport used by British Airways, said she knew nothing of a plane grounded there. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not comment because he had no information about the matter. The airline said it was contacted by the British government Tuesday night and told to ground the jets and to let investigators looking into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko test them for radiation. High doses of polonium-210 - a rare radioactive element usually made in specialized nuclear facilities - were found in Litvinenko's body, and traces of radiation have been found at sites in London connected with the inquiry into his death. It was not immediately clear how radioactive traces got on the British Airways planes. Authorities refused to specify whether the substance detected on the jets was polonium-210. All three planes had been on the London-Moscow route, British Airways said. In the last three weeks, the planes had also traveled to routes across Europe including Barcelona, Frankfurt and Athens. Around 33,000 passengers had traveled on 221 flights on those planes, said Kate Gay, an airline spokeswoman. ``The airline is in the process of making contact with customers who have traveled on flights operated by these aircraft, which operate within Europe,'' British Airways said in a statement. ``British Airways understands that from advice it has been given that the risk to public health is low,'' the airline statement said. The airline has published the flights affected on its Web site, and advised customers who took the flights to contact a special help-line set up by the British Health Ministry. Litvinenko, a former colonel with Russia's Federal Security Service - the successor agency to the KGB - had been a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin before his death from radiation poisoning on Nov. 23. From his deathbed, he blamed Putin for his poisoning. Putin has strongly denied the charge. Britain's Home Secretary John Reid, who chaired a meeting of COBRA, the government's emergency committee, said tests on the planes were part of a wider scientific investigation into sites that could be linked to Litvinenko's death. Meanwhile, Italian security expert Mario Scaramella, who was one of the last people to meet with Litvinenko before the former spy fell ill, said tests cleared him of radioactive contamination. Scaramella came from Rome and met Litvinenko at a sushi bar in London on Nov. 1 - the day the former intelligence agent first reported the symptoms. ``I am fine,'' Scaramella told The Associated Press by telephone. ``I am not contaminated and have not contaminated anybody else.'' Scaramella returned to London to undergo tests and talk with the police Tuesday. He said he is in security protection and refused to say where he was. More than three dozen staff at the two hospitals that treated Litvinenko will be tested for radioactive contamination, Britain's Health Protection Agency said. The agency said 106 staff at Barnet General Hospital and University College Hospital had been assessed for possible exposure, and 49 would have their urine tested. The mysterious death has clouded Anglo-Russian relations. Prime Minister Tony Blair said police were determined to find out who was responsible for Litvinenko's death. ``The police investigation will proceed, and I think people should know that there is no diplomatic or political barrier in the way of that investigation,'' Blair said in Denmark. ``It is obviously a very, very serious matter indeed. We are determined to find out what happened and who is responsible.'' Media reports in Britain and Russia on Wednesday said that Litvinenko had been engaged in smuggling nuclear substances out of Russia. The Independent newspaper reported that Litvinenko told Scaramella on the day he fell ill that he had organized the smuggling of nuclear material for his former employers at Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB. The newspaper reported that Litvinenko said he had smuggled radioactive material to Zurich in 2000. But Scaramella told the AP that he had been misquoted by the newspaper. ``He (Litvinenko) wanted to see me because he knew about smuggling of nuclear material, but as far as I know he was never involved in nuclear smuggling,'' he said. London police say they are investigating the case as a ``suspicious death'' rather than murder, although they have devoted a large anti-terrorist force to the investigation. Scaramella said he had been cleared of any involvement in the 43-year-old former spy's death. ``Let me take the opportunity to say that I'm not under investigation by any British authority,'' he said. ``I am cooperating with them (the police).'' Police declined to say whom they had spoken to. Scaramella said he showed Litvinenko e-mails from a confidential source identifying the possible killers of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and listing other potential targets for assassination - including himself and Litvinenko. Following Litvinenko's death, more than 1,100 people called a health hot line over concerns they might be at risk from polonium poisoning, which is deadly in tiny amounts if ingested or inhaled. Sixty-eight have been referred to health authorities, the Health Protection Agency said - including the 49 hospital staff. Eight have been referred to a special clinic as a precaution. The tests should take about a week. Traces of radiation have been found at six sites visited by Litvinenko. A coroner will perform an autopsy on Litvinenko on Friday, ``subject to appropriate precautions,'' said the local authority responsible, Camden Council. Doctors had sought expert advice on whether Litvinenko's radioactive body posed a threat to those performing the post-mortem. A coroner's inquest will be opened Thursday and then adjourned until the police investigation is complete, the council said. --- Associated Press Writers Jill Lawless in London and Ariel David in Rome contributed to this report. --- On the Net: http://www.ba.com Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 47 Guardian Unlimited: Man Cleared of Radiation Contamination From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday November 29, 2006 4:46 PM AP Photo NAP105 By TARIQ PANJA Associated Press Writer LONDON (AP) - An Italian security expert who was one of the last people to meet with a former KGB agent who fell fatally ill said Wednesday that tests cleared him of radioactive contamination. Mario Scaramella came from Rome to meet with Alexander Litvinenko at a sushi bar in London on Nov. 1 - the day the former intelligence agent first reported the symptoms that ultimately led to his death in a hospital's intensive care ward. In a deathbed accusation, the harsh Kremlin critic blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning. Putin has strongly denied the charge. High doses of polonium-210 - a rare radioactive element usually manufactured in specialized nuclear facilities - were found in his body - and Britain's health protection agency began a screening program for people who visited the same sites as Litvinenko on Nov. 1. ``I am fine,'' Scaramella told The Associated Press by telephone. ``I am not contaminated and have not contaminated anybody else.'' Scaramella returned to London to undergo tests and talk with the police Tuesday. He said he is in security protection and refused to say where he was. More than three dozen staff at the two hospitals that treated Litvinenko will be tested for radioactive contamination, Britain's Health Protection Agency said. The agency said 106 staff at Barnet General Hospital and University College Hospital had been assessed for possible exposure, and 49 would have their urine tested. The mysterious death has clouded Anglo-Russian relations. Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that police were determined to find out who was responsible for Litvinenko's death. ``The police investigation will proceed, and I think people should know that there is no diplomatic or political barrier in the way of that investigation,'' Blair said in Copenhagen, Denmark. ``It is obviously a very, very serious matter indeed. We are determined to find out what happened and who is responsible.'' Media reports in Britain and Russia on Wednesday said that Litvinenko had been engaged in smuggling nuclear substances out of Russia. The Independent newspaper reported that Litvinenko told Scaramella on the day he fell ill that he had organized the smuggling of nuclear material for his former employers at Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB. The newspaper reported that Litvinenko said he had smuggled radioactive material to Zurich in 2000. But Scaramella told the AP that he had been misquoted by the newspaper. ``He (Litvinenko) wanted to see me because he knew about smuggling of nuclear material, but as far as I know he was never involved in nuclear smuggling,'' he said. London police say they are investigating the case as a ``suspicious death'' rather than murder, although they have devoted a large anti-terrorist force to the investigation. Scaramella said he had been cleared of any involvement in the 43-year-old former spy's death. ``Let me take the opportunity to say that I'm not under investigation by any British authority,'' he said. ``I am cooperating with them (the police).'' Police declined to say whom they had spoken to. Scaramella said he showed Litvinenko e-mails from a confidential source identifying the possible killers of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and listing other potential targets for assassination - including himself and Litvinenko. Following Litvinenko's death, more than 1,100 people called a health hot line over concerns they might be at risk from polonium poisoning, which is deadly in tiny amounts if ingested or inhaled. Sixty-eight have been referred to health authorities, the Health Protection Agency said - including the 49 hospital staff. Eight have been referred to a special clinic as a precaution. The tests should take about a week. Traces of radiation have been found at six sites visited by Litvinenko. A coroner will perform an autopsy on Litvinenko on Friday, ``subject to appropriate precautions,'' in a bid to pin down the cause and circumstances of the death, said the local authority responsible, Camden Council. Doctors had sought expert advice on whether Litvinenko's radioactive body posed a threat to the doctors and technicians performing the post-mortem. A coroner's inquest will be opened Thursday and then adjourned until the police investigation is complete, the council said. --- Associated Press Writers Jill Lawless in London and Ariel David in Rome contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 48 NRC: NRC to Hold Public Meetings on Dec. 5 and 12 Regarding Decommissioning Plan for Newfield, N.J., Facility News Release - Region I - 2006-06 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 No. I-06-061 November 28, 2006 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold public meetings on Tuesday, Dec. 5, and Tuesday, Dec. 12, to discuss the decommissioning plan submitted by the Shieldalloy Metallurgical Corp. for its facility in Newfield (Gloucester County), N.J. The NRC notified the company on Oct. 18 that it had sufficient information to begin its technical review of the proposal. Both of the public meetings will begin at 7 p.m. at Edgarton Memorial Elementary School, at 212 Catawba Ave. in Newfield. At the Dec. 5th session, NRC staff will provide an overview of the review process for the plan and field questions from the public. At the Dec. 12th session, NRC staff will offer details about the agencys environmental review for the plan and solicit public comments on possible environmental impacts associated with the proposal. The Shieldalloy facility, located at 35 South West Blvd., conducted smelting and alloy production from 1940 through 2001. One of the raw materials used by the company was a niobium ore called pyrochlore, which contains uranium and thorium and is subject to NRC licensing requirements. The majority of the radioactive material remaining at the site consists of slag generated during production operations and dust from baghouses, which are devices used to filter dust from air exhausted during the manufacturing process. Under its decommissioning plan, Shieldalloy has proposed consolidating all of the materials containing uranium and thorium into a single pile on a portion of the sites storage yard, and then shaping, grading and covering it with an engineered barrier. A fence would be installed around the material. The pile would then be subjected to long-term maintenance and monitoring, and use of that section of the property would be restricted. The focus of the NRC review is to determine if the proposed decommissioning plan meets the agencys requirements for protecting public health and safety and the environment. That would include ensuring that no member of the public would receive exposure to radiation from the material in excess of allowable regulatory limits. The remainder of the site could be released for unrestricted use, provided that the company could demonstrate there was no residual contamination above allowable levels. On Nov. 17, the NRC announced an opportunity for interested organizations or individuals to seek a hearing on the decommissioning plan. The deadline for submitting such requests is Jan. 16. Petitions may be filed by anyone whose interest may be affected by the plan and who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding. Shieldalloys decommissioning plan is available on the NRC web site through its ADAMS document system, at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html, using docket number 04007102. NRC news releases are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site. Last revised Wednesday, November 29, 2006 ***************************************************************** 49 AU: Townsville Bulletin: Aboriginal elders blast government nuke plans 30 November 2006 from our news.com.au network Source: Northern Territory News By Tara Ravens A FEDERAL Government plan to impose a nuclear waste facility on the Territory was yesterday slammed by Aboriginal elders, pastoralists, environmentalists and the Northern Territory Government. Amendments to the Commonwealth Waste Management Act were passed in the House of Representatives, paving the way for a depository at one of four NT sites. The amendments attempt to prevent legal challenges to a deal being brokered by the Northern Land Council (NLC) to build the facility at the indigenous-owned Muckaty Station, near Tennant Creek. Solomon MHR Dave Tollner said the amendments were made after consulting the NLC. "The concern was that after a decision to build the waste facility was made, someone purporting to be a traditional owner would object and hold up the process for years," Mr Tollner said. Muckaty traditional owner Dianne Stokes said only five of 16 clans had been consulted by the NLC. "I don't know who the NLC was talking to, I have never seen the NLC talk to any of these other groups or families." Dave Sweeney, from the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the legislation contradicted the statutory obligations of land councils, which were required to consult the communities before making decisions. "It is not ethically acceptable to impose a radioactive waste facility on an unwilling community," he said. The other potential sites for the waste depository are Fishers Ridge, near Katherine, and Harts Range and Mt Everard in Central Australia. Fishers Ridge pastoralist Valerie Utley said the area was a high-flood zone and unsuitable. "It's just disastrous when you think of the site environmentally because there is such a large area that depends on this drainage system and it floods every year. It would be the most unstable place in the world." Minister for Central Australia Elliot McAdam said the rights of Territorians had been taken away. The North Queensland Newspaper Company Pty Ltd ***************************************************************** 50 State Port Pilot: Nuclear fuel staying put Wednesday, November 29 Southport, NC Progress Energy plans facility for storing its own reactor rods By Staff Writer After nearly two decades of transporting spent nuclear fuel to another facility, Progress Energys Brunswick Plant will begin work next year on an outdoor nuclear fuel storage site. Since the mid-1980s, the Brunswick Plant has transferred, by rail, spent fuel assemblies to Progress Energys Shearon Harris Plant in Wake County. The Harris Plant was designed for four reactors but only one was built, Mike McCracken, Brunswick Plant communications supervisor, said Monday. (The Harris Plant) has extra storage capacity. By 2010, the Brunswick Plant plans to have storage capabilities in place on site, McCracken added. Construction on dry cask vaults reinforced by steel and concrete on Brunswick Plant property is set to begin in 2007. While keeping spent fuel at the plant is a safer alternative to rail transport, Jim Warren, executive director of the Durham non-profit environmental watchdog agency North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction (NC WARN), said the Brunswick Plants plans for spent fuel storage do not adequately protect against terrorist attacks. Before fuel assemblies can be stored in the concrete bunkers, spent fuel must first be cooled for five years in fuel pools, 40-foot-deep pools of water in which the fuel rods and assemblies are submersed, McCracken explained. Every nuclear plant in the country has wet storage. The assemblies remain underwater for five years to cool the radiation and the temperature. After five years the radioactivity decays quite a bit. Its a very safe way of storing fuel, he said. Not so, Warren argued. In fact, Warren said, the real immediate danger at the Brunswick Plant is the fuel pools, not the proposed dry storage sites. The greatest risk factor is the way (the Brunswick Plant) is storing spent fuel now, he said. The pools are high density, meaning they are too highly packed with assemblies, and they are high up inside the reactor buildings. Warren said the pools are surrounded by sheet metal. We have taken legal action in the past to try to get them to protect those pools better. They are poorly protected from sabotage or terrorist attacks. If water drains out (of the pools), that material is almost certain to burn. There is a large amount of radioactive waste in those pools, he said. Surrounded is a misleading description, McCracken said. There is sheet metal on the roof to provide coverage but the pools are in very thick steel reinforced concrete deep within the plant, he said. If the Brunswick Plant would just store fewer assemblies in the pools and take a few extra steps to better protect the dry storage canisters, Warren said the spent nuclear fuel could be safe from possible attacks. The concrete and steel reinforced vaults will be placed together horizontally about 200 yards north of the plant. McCracken said the outdoor storage is designed to prevent most attacks. The fuel is solid. Its sitting there dry inside a steel canister inside reinforced concrete in a protected area. Its enclosed in and will have the same security the plant does. Its not like its just sitting out in the yard, he said. Warren said the canisters are sturdy but their location raises some concerns over safety. NC WARN proposes separating the containers and berming up each canister to minimize the potential of a release of radioactivity in the event of a breach. The berm would also take the target out of the line of sight from the fence line, he added. Were talking about low-tech, low-cost solutions. Progress Energy has a history of delaying costly projects and cutting corners, Warren said. He said Progress Energy was supposed to build onsite storage at the Brunswick Plant in 2005 but instead opted to keep transporting spent fuel to the Harris Plant. They should have kept the commitment they made three years ago. This is just another one of those occasions where they delay taking action as long as no one holds them to the fire, he said. Brunswick Plants license with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ship spent fuel was set to expire in 2005, but McCracken said the Brunswick Plant had the license extended until 2008 because there is still ample storage space at the Harris Plant. McCracken said Progress Energy feels confident that the spent fuel bunkers are safe enough without Warrens recommended precautions. The design we are looking at is 18-inch bunkers with the assemblies inside canisters. There is no need to separate the containers because the assemblies are contained within the steel canisters. It will protect the public and our employees and not have an impact on public health. We are very confident in the security and safety, he said. Spent fuel assemblies cannot explode, McCracken added, but he did admit they could potentially burn, although the likelihood was slim. Anything can burn at high enough temperatures. But it would be very difficult. It would take a tremendous amount of heat, he said. McCracken called the spent fuel vaults an interim storage solution, since a federal storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, has been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But even if plans for that site move forward, McCracken acknowledged that it most likely wouldnt begin accepting spent fuel until 2016. The Yucca Mountain site has been kicked back numerous times, Warren argued. He warned that Progress Energy should look at more long-term solutions instead of waiting for the go-ahead to ship spent fuel across the country. Progress Energy is really having to think long-term about this. They know, despite what they may say publicly, that the Yucca project is on the ropes, he said. Progress Energy is at an important juncture in terms of public trust and they should look at permanent safe solutions. 2005-06, The State Port Pilot. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 51 Pahrump Valley Times: Power shift will affect Yucca Nov. 29, 2006 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- When Congress targeted Nevada as the nation's nuclear waste dumping ground, the state didn't have the political power to say no. Twenty years later, the most ardent foe of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is about to become Senate majority leader. Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid's new job, which gives him control over what legislation reaches the Senate floor, could deal a crippling blow to the already stumbling project. Among Reid's first acts after this month's election was to convene a conference call with home-state reporters to declare Yucca Mountain "dead right now." "It sure is different now than when I came (to the Senate) in 1986," the senator observed. The dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is planned as the first national repository for radioactive waste. It's supposed to hold 77,000 tons of the material -- from commercial power plants reactors and defense sites across the nation -- for thousands of years. About 50,000 tons of the waste is now stored in temporary sites at 65 power plants in 31 states. Reid would leave all of it in place. Originally targeted to open in 1998, Yucca Mountain has been repeatedly set back by lawsuits, money shortfalls and scientific controversies. The Energy Department's best-case opening date is now 2017. The effort to create a national storage site has already cost about $9 billion, $6.5 billion of which has been spent on Yucca. Four years ago, the Energy Department estimated the project would cost $58 billion to build and operate for the first 100 years. New cost projections are being worked up, and they are expected to total more than $70 billion. The department proposed legislation earlier this year meant to fix problems with the dump, which is a mounting liability to taxpayers because the government was contractually obligated to take nuclear waste off utilities' hands starting in 1998. Energy Department officials say at least one legislative change -- formally withdrawing land around the dump site -- is needed before construction can begin. Reid, however, pledged after the Nov. 7 election that not only will no bill to help Yucca Mountain reach the Senate floor under his leadership, funding for the project also will dry up quickly. Annual spending on the dump that has ranged between $450 million and $550 million in recent years "will be cut back significantly, that will be for sure," he vowed. Reid said he couldn't single-handedly kill the dump outright, something that would require a vote of Congress and approval by President Bush. But he added: "There's not much to kill." The project also is losing some of its most persistent supporters as Republicans relinquish control of Congress. Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has been a vocal advocate for years; he'll be replaced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who supports Yucca Mountain but is viewed by Nevada officials as more open to their viewpoints. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who will chair the Environment and Public Works Committee with authority over some aspects of the project, is a vocal Yucca Mountain opponent. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., worked unsuccessfully to corral opposition to the project in a crucial House vote four years ago, when she was minority whip. Administration and industry officials insist the changing of the guard on Capitol Hill won't be the death knell for the project. About 1,500 people in Nevada are now employed there. Yucca Mountain also has lured research grants to the University of Nevada, and even Reid aides say some spending should be maintained. "I don't think the program's gone off the edge by any means," said David Blee, executive director the U.S. Transport Council, an industry group that works on nuclear waste transportation. "It'll be more complicated and take a more creative approach, and more of an approach outside the (Washington) beltway." Supporters say they will now focus on submitting a required license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Energy Department wants to do that in 2008 and it's not dependent on congressional action, though severe budget cuts would be an impediment. Reid said putting the highly radioactive wastes in dry storage casks at power plants will keep it safe for 100 years or more. To industry officials and the Energy Department, that's no answer. Copyright Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006 ***************************************************************** 52 Pahrump Valley Times: New volume outlines history of test site before the nukes e-mailed to: dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com. Nov. 29, 2006 History buffs and test site workers will enjoy a window into the past of an area that was forever changed with the advent of nuclear testing in 1950, with the book, "Before the Nukes -- The Remarkable History of the Area of the Nevada Test Site," by Charles Meier. The author, a retired Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory engineer, has chronicled, with photos, maps, and personal logs, the story of those who were there. "Meier is passionate about his subject, and he succeeds in bringing this arid tract of land to life," said reviewer Barry S. Goold of Las Vegas. The story begins some 10,000 years ago, where occupation of this inhospitable area was, as Los Alamos National Laboratory anthropologist Frederick Worman put it, "a tribute to man's ability to adapt to any environment." Early white exploration went largely unrecorded until several wagons of the infamous Death Valley '49er party crossed the test site in 1849. Their story of the hardships encountered on the test site rivals the tribulations they would later face crossing "the Valley of Death." In the early 20th century, there were many mining ventures in the area, but none larger than Wahmonie, where 1,500 prospectors and entrepreneurs inhabited the town and worked mining claims. One of the prospectors was Clyde Forsythe, noted western painter and friend of Norman Rockwell, who captured what Wahmonie was, and could have been, in "The Gold Strike" series of four paintings shown in the book. Life in the desert in the 1920s is described by B.M. Bower, writer of more than 70 western novels. She lived on the north end of the Nevada Test Site and wrote 11 novels there. The mystery of the Lost Breyfogle mine and the adventures of Dr. Margaret Long, traveling the area in 1928 in her "Studie," are also described in the book. Charles Meier lives in Pleasanton, Calif. In the 1960s he worked at the Nevada Test Site for (then) Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. "Before the Nukes" is available at www.amazon.com. For color photos of "the Gold Strike Series" by Forsythe, other historical photos and/or to order an autographed copy of Before the Nukes, visit www.lansingpublications.com. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006 ***************************************************************** 53 reviewjournal.com: Nuclear energy official urges look at waste storage options Nov. 29, 2006 Yucca Mountain supporters urged to talk with Reid, other opponents By ERICA WERNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Industry supporters of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump must work with incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., but also consider alternative waste storage plans, an energy executive said Tuesday. Despite Reid's strong opposition to a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, "Harry Reid and the Democrats have to be part of the solution," said Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade group. "If they are going to support nuclear power, we've got to figure out ways that we continue to move forward on the nuclear waste issue," Kuhn said at a press conference on the energy industry's agenda in a Democratic-controlled Congress. Some congressional Republicans have offered plans to create temporary waste storage sites around the country because of increasing delays at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The nuclear waste storage site is not projected to open until 2017 at earliest. Some 50,000 tons of nuclear waste is already waiting at power plant sites around the country. Reid and others in the Nevada congressional delegation want to leave it at those sites, stowed in long-term storage containers. "We're open, I think, to looking at various alternatives that might be able to move forward on a step-by-step basis," Kuhn said of that idea. That plan is likely to get more attention, with Reid vowing to cut funding for the Yucca Mountain storage site and keep pro-Yucca legislation off the Senate floor. "I think that there is going to have to be talks with the Republican and the Democratic side about some new ideas that are coming up here, too, to perhaps look at other interim sites for the nuclear waste," Kuhn said. "But I think it is extremely important for us to continue moving forward with Yucca Mountain." Originally targeted to open in 1998, Yucca Mountain has been repeatedly set back by lawsuits, money shortfalls and scientific controversies. The effort to create a national storage site has cost about $9 billion, $6.5 billion of which has been spent on Yucca. Four years ago, the Energy Department estimated the project would cost $58 billion to build and operate for the first 100 years. New projections are expected to top $70 billion. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006 ***************************************************************** 54 Gallup Independent: Uranium summit to begin Thursday November 28, 2006: By Kathy Helms Din Bureau WINDOW ROCK Representatives from Native communities in 14 countries will unite this week in the Navajo Nation's capital to map strategy and organize resistance to new uranium mining. The Indigenous World Uranium Summit begins at 8 a.m. Thursday with opening ceremonies at the Navajo Nation Museum and a traditional blessing by Dr. David Begay, Navajo educator and medicine man. Hazel James of Dineh Bidziil Coalition, principal organizer of the summit, will follow with announcements and the introduction of Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., who will deliver the welcoming address. Past uranium mining has had disastrous consequences on the people, land and the environment, according to Robert Tohe of Sierra Club. "This gathering will have an international focus with delegates from communities worldwide affected by the nuclear fuel cycle," he said. Those delegates arriving for the summit will be given a tour of former uranium mine sites near Church Rock, including the United Nuclear Corp. abandoned uranium mill and tailings disposal facility, now a Superfund site. The summit continue through Saturday, winding up with a special concert at 7 p.m. Tohe said goals of the summit include: + Organize resistance to current and new uranium mining in Native communities; + Support enforcement of the Din Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005; + Stop nuclear waste dumping on Native lands; + Develop national and international collaborations on the nuclear fuel cycle; + Promote sustainable development and renewable energy for Native peoples. President Shirley said, "Every day, the Navajo Nation loses more of ourelders and medicine people who were uranium workers to cancers, respiratory illnesses and other diseases resulting from radiation and uranium exposure. "With them, our Nation loses their knowledge, wisdom, songs, stories and ceremonies needed to keep our culture strong. "Every day, radiation exposure compensation is denied to the survivors of these brave men and women and to the victims and families of above-ground nuclear blasts. "Every day, our scientists work with community members to investigate the effects of uranium mining on our lands, waters and the health of the Navajo people. "Still, we have few answers about the causes of the mysterious illnesses that were not seen before uranium mining began in the 1940s," Shirley said. During the conference, Phil Harrison of the Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee, and Southwest Research and Information Center will be given special recognition for their tireless struggles to bring recognition to the Navajo people and their sufferings related to the uranium legacy. In a recent meeting at Sky City, SRIC's Chris Shuey told those attending the Southwest Uranium Caucus of the Western Mining Action Network that it is tough to go around Navajo and find anything "sustainable" from the Cold War-era uranium mining. "What is sustainable are the waste sites, the health problems, the economic dislocation. Half of my work is spent dealing with environmental and health assessments for people affected by the old mining." Shuey said the former mine operators "have used every method they can think of to extract themselves from their moral, legal and ethical obligations." "It makes absolutely no sense to start a new boom with the same empty promises that were made in the 1950s, '60s and '70s here now with what we know and we know much more than we knew then," Shuey said. Sara Keeney, Western Mining Action Network coordinator, said the organization is made up of community activists, indigenous people and other parties interested in mining issues in the United States and Canada. Keeney said the group was contacted this year by individuals in the region who asked them to bring together people in the Southwest to talk about existing and persisting mining issues, as well as the "so-called new uranium boom." Bob Shimek, mining project coordinator for the Indigenous Environmental Network, located in Benidji, Minn., works with tribes and indigenous communities from Mexico to Alaska "and just about every point in between." When communities have questions related to a mining project such as whether it might be a good thing, "we then step into the picture and help them sort out the issues related to whatever the project proposal is, whether its cleaning up abandoned mines of which there are thousands throughout the whole West all the way to new mining proposals." Tribes and community groups have concerns about where new mining projects are going, Shimek said, but their biggest concern is, "At the end of the day, what are we left with?" "We know that answer, but many times our voice isn't heard. The industry comes in, does its thing for 15 or 20 years, and then they're out and we're left with the contamination," Shimek said. "We're left with the death, the destruction, all these different things. We can't let that be forgotten as we look at the challenges of the new uranium boom going on here in the Southwest." For more information on the Indigenous World Uranium Summit, contact Robert Tohe, (928) 606-9420, or visit http://www.sric.org/uraniumsummit/index.html Tuesday November 28, 2006 Selected Stories: Gallup Independent ***************************************************************** 55 Sydney Morning Herald: Nuclear waste is like asbestos, says MP - www.smh.com.au November 29, 2006 - 2:34PM An independent federal MP has urged Australians to remember the treatment of asbestos mining towns when they are asked to lend their support to the safe storage of nuclear waste. NSW MP Peter Andren said the home town of boxer Anthony Mundine, Baryulgil, had been ravaged due to the asbestos mine nearby, run by James Hardie. He was speaking to a parliamentary bill which provides for the return of nominated Aboriginal land, should such land be selected for a radioactive waste facility, when no longer required for the facility. Mr Andren said the world's nuclear sites would require monitoring for centuries after they close down. "How well did this country monitor asbestos mining, and the town sites of those mining communities?" he said. "Remember Anthony Mundine's home town of Baryulgil, near Grafton, whose largely Aboriginal inhabitants suffered the ravages of asbestos poisoning for 30 years and are now bearing the health costs. "How much did we care to monitor those sites over the years? "You may be able to cover asbestos. You can't do it to radiation." The federal government has selected three possible sites for a low-level nuclear waste dump in the NT. Western Australian Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey said a nuclear waste dump should not be feared but rather seen as an economic opportunity. He said nuclear medicine was already creating low-level waste and the possible advent of nuclear power would create more waste. "This facility would bring a lot of commercial activity," Mr Tuckey said. "I am neither frightened of or concerned about nuclear." Labor's environment spokesman Anthony Albanese slammed the bill, claiming it was a move toward nuclear energy. "It is a disastrous plan," he said. "At the next election this will be a major issue, it will be a referendum for nuclear power." His Northern Territory colleague Warren Snowdon said the bill would push unwanted nuclear waste dumps onto remote communities and was little more than a silent way of undermining land rights. "This legislation says clearly and unambiguously that the minister can accept a nomination for a site without a binding and legal need to ensure that it meets the Land Rights Acts criteria of consultation with, full knowledge of and informed consent of traditional owners," he said. Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison the bill epitomised the government's disdain for the rights of citizens and state and territory governments. "One year ago, the federal government shoved through legislation that superceded Northern Territory laws to clear the way for a nuclear waste dump in the territory," Senator Allison said. "Now it will remove the rights of traditional owners and others, overturning so-called politically motivated objections and removing the obligation of informed consent and the right to appeal." 2006 AAP Brought to you by [aap] 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 56 Sydney Morning Herald: NT nuclear dump plan moving closer - www.smh.com.au November 29, 2006 - 6:30PM Commonwealth plans to impose a nuclear waste dump on Top End desert communities have been slammed by Aboriginal elders, pastoralists, environmentalists as well as the NT government. Hotly debated legislation was passed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, paving the way for a potential dump at one of four sites in the Northern Territory. The legislation is aimed at preventing legal challenges against any move by the Northern Land Council (NLC) to offer up its land for radioactive waste. Federal Science Minister Julie Bishop told parliament that claims indigenous landowners were being bullied were "ridiculous" and dismissed the suggestion the NLC was nominating sites against the wishes of traditional owners. But Dianne Stokes, a traditional owner from the proposed site of Muckaty Station in Central Australia, said only five of the 16 land groups had been consulted by the NLC. "I don't know who the NLC was talking to, I have never seen the NLC talk to any of these other groups or families," she told reporters in Darwin. "We are not happy to have this, it is not our spirit, our spirit is our country, the country where our ancestors were born." Dave Sweeney, from the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the legislation contradicted the statutory obligations of Land Councils, who are required to consult the community before making a decision. "It is not ethically acceptable to impose a radioactive waste facility on an unwilling community," he said. "The current amendments that have passed the House of Representatives today seek to remove the need for community consultation and procedural fairness." A private contractor is currently examining three mooted commonwealth-owned sites in the territory - Harts Range and Mt Everard, near Alice Springs, and Fishers Ridge near Katherine. Muckaty Station has also been flagged with a full report on the possible sites due by March 2007. Valerie Utley, a pastoralist living at Fishers Ridge, said the area was a high flood zone and unsuitable for development. "It's just disastrous when you think of the site environmentally because there is such a large area that depends on this drainage system and it floods every year. "It would be the most unstable place in the world." Mr Sweeney said plans for a dump would affect all Australians because it required large volumes of radioactive material to be trucked, shipped or transported by rail across Australia. NT Minister for Central Australia Elliot McAdam called on the federal government to start working with the territory. "It (the amendments) take away the rights of not only traditional owners but also territorians... "This the commonwealth government stomping on the rights of territorians - both indigenous and non-indigenous." The bill passed by 79 votes to 57 and will go to the Senate on Thursday. 2006 AAP Brought to you by [aap] Copyright 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 57 AU ABC: NT radioactive dump Bill passes Lower House ABC Northern Territory | Local News | Story (AEST)Wednesday, 29 November 2006. 15:00 (ACDT)Wednesday, 29 Several sites in the Territory are being considered. (file photo)Lateline The federal House of Representatives has passed legislation to allow Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory to be used for a radioactive waste dump. The Government says the Bill will allow Indigenous groups to offer their land for use, but have it handed back when the land is no longer needed. Several sites in the Territory are being considered for a radioactive waste facility. Deputy Labor leader Jenny Macklin says the new Bill will mean Aboriginal land rights will be diminished. "The Howard Government is intent on making sure that you have no rights, no legal review avenues, no right to express your view, no right to giving informed consent," she said. "Absolutely no say in this Government's blind pursuit of dumping nuclear waste in the Northern Territory." The Bill will be debated in the Senate tomorrow. ***************************************************************** 58 New York Times: In Utah, the Half-Life of Arena Naming Rights - Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune By Published: November 29, 2006 Steve Griffin/Salt Lake City Tribune Energy Solutions has a nuclear waste facility in the Utah desert. Banks, airlines, insurers and car manufacturers. Telephone and computer companies. An overnight deliverer. And beer, soft drink and ketchup makers. And now, Energy Solutions, a benignly named company that disposes of nuclear waste, has replaced Delta Air Lines as the home of the . Nuclear waste. Yes, it is low-level stuff not spent fuel or old bombs that is now associated with the team with the best record in the N.B.A., rather than, perhaps, last seasons . Radioactivity is quite new to naming rights, unless you count the brief time before Minute Maid replaced Enron as the name of the ballpark. But this is a niche that has reflected corporate Americas changing fortunes whether by bankruptcy, merger or dot-com boom and bust and its need to market itself. There have been three names on the home (PacBell, SBC and AT) and a hat trick of titles on the arena used by the and the (First Union, CoreStates and Wachovia). Energy Solutions has a hazardous- waste facility in the Utah desert. That is a mite different from all those local Citibank branches that are 24-hour reminders of the new ballpark, to be called Citi Field because of the $20 million a year Citicorp will pay the Mets. Inevitably, Citi Field, which is scheduled to open in 2009, will spawn a nickname, as has been the case with Gillette Stadium (the Razor), Minute Maid Park (the Juice Box) and US Cellular Field (the Cell). When the stadium was called Bank One Ballpark, it was the Bob. But naming a stadium for a hazardous-waste disposer is a rare chance for smart alecks to make their bids for the most creative and silliest mockeries of Energy Solutions Arena. Since the announcement of the Delta-to-Energy Solutions name switcheroo last week, KSL-TV, in Salt Lake City, has invited people to send e-mail messages with their proposed monikers, which include: The Glow Bowl and the Isotope. The Dump and ChernoBowl. JazzMat (short for Jazzardous Materials), the Big Bang and the Tox Box. The Power House and the Hot Spot. The Fallout Shelter. And the Melta Center. A letter writer to The Salt Lake Tribune suggested the jaunty Radium Stadium. Itll take on a life of its own, Dennis Haslam, the president of the Jazz, said. People will find a nickname, a shorthand name. But when we have 19,911 fans at a sellout, they arent that concerned about the name of the building. Theyre here to be entertained. Greg Hopkins, a senior vice president, said Energy Solutions analyzed the benefits of educating the public about the nuclear industry and assessed how much derision the arena deal might generate. He said the company also anticipated the dredging up of past stories about regulatory problems involving Envirocare, one of four companies that merged this year to create Energy Solutions. We expected this, he said. Its an industry that people dont understand well, and its radioactive, and youre going to get jokes about it. Some of the nicknames are funny. We expected all of this. But its created a good opportunity to tell our story, he added how a safely run and efficient nuclear power industry can be a solution to . But he said that he did not yet know whether the company would install educational kiosks inside the arena to promote the nuclear industry. Delta, which is in bankruptcy, did not renew its arena deal, which expired Sept. 30. The Jazz wanted a major Utah company, of which there are not many, and Haslam said that Energy Solutions would pay at least as much as Delta did, a figure that has been reported at $1.3 million annually. I think it will end up being a positive for both us, he said. I dont think people will call us the Dump. Still, Steve Greenberg, the architect of the Mets-Citicorp deal, said that in general, the chance that a corporations business will be derided is a major obstacle when a decision is being made on whether to proceed in the naming process. You have to ask how your fans are going to react, as well as whether a business will engender negative associations, said Greenberg, a managing director at Allen &Company, an investment firm. As he and , the Mets principal owner, looked at candidates for the new ballparks naming rights, Greenberg said they looked for long-term compatibility between the teams and companys business interests. As for the impact of binding a team and arena to a company whose line of business can be mocked, Greenberg added, It probably only gets worse. NYTimes.com ***************************************************************** 59 DOE: Department of Energy Selects Recipients of GNEP Siting Grants November 29, 2006 Eleven sites to be analyzed for potential nuclear recycling facilities WASHINGTON, DC  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced that 11 commercial and public consortia have been selected to receive up to $16 million in grants, subject to negotiation, to conduct detailed siting studies for integrated spent fuel recycling facilities under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) initiative. DOE will award the grants early next year after negotiations are completed with prospective awardees. As our economy grows so will the need for reliable, emissions-free energy generation. Nuclear energy can help meet that need and GNEP can do it in a way that maximizes the benefit of nuclear fuel while minimizing the risk of nuclear proliferation, DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said. That is why we are pleased that so many communities across the country are interested in hosting the initial facilities necessary to support this exciting project. These selections are an important initial step in proceeding to evaluate and select locations to host GNEP facilities. Of the 11 sites located throughout the country, six are currently owned and operated by DOE. The study sites and sponsors are: 1. Atomic City, ID EnergySolutions, LLC 2. Barnwell, SC EnergySolutions, LLC 3. Hanford Site, WA Tri-City Industrial Development Council/Columbia Basin Consulting Group 4. Hobbs, NM Eddy Lea Energy Alliance 5. Idaho National Laboratory, ID Regional Development Alliance, Inc. 6. Morris, IL General Electric Company 7. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee 8. Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, KY Paducah Uranium Plant Asset Utilization, Inc. 9. Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, OH Piketon Initiative for Nuclear Independence, LLC 10. Roswell, NM EnergySolutions, LLC 11. Savannah River National Laboratory, SC Economic Development Partnership of Aiken and Edgefield Counties The grantees will perform detailed siting studies related to hosting one or both of the Consolidated Fuel Treatment Center and the Advanced Burner Reactor. The subsequent awards will be for a 90-day period of performance to complete a detailed site characterization study of each sponsored site. Congress provided up to $20 million in FY 2006 for integrated spent fuel recycling facilities siting studies. The remaining funds will be held in reserve to potentially fund supplemental activities if required. Information generated from the detailed siting studies of non-DOE sites is expected to address a variety of site-related matters, including site and nearby land uses; demographics; aquatic and riparian ecological communities; terrestrial plant and animal habitat; threatened or endangered species; historical, archaeological and cultural resources; geology and seismology; weather and climate; and regulatory and permitting requirements. Information requirements for the DOE sites are more limited due to the availability of previous studies. The information may also be used in the environmental impact statement (EIS) that will evaluate the potential environmental impacts from each proposed GNEP facility. At the conclusion of the EIS, DOE will make decisions about whether to move forward with the facilities, and if so, where to locate them. Fourteen applications were originally submitted, and twelve were selected to receive a comprehensive merit review under the criteria listed in the Financial Assistance Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued in August 2006. Two of the twelve recently decided to collaborate and team, as they proposed the same site for study. An advanced nuclear fuel recycling center contains facilities where usable uranium and transuranics are separated from spent light water reactor fuel for use in producing new fuel that can be reused in a power reactor. An advanced recycling reactor is a fast reactor that would demonstrate the ability to reuse and consume materials recovered from spent nuclear fuel, including long-lived elements that would otherwise have to be disposed of in a geologic repository. Both facilities could be located at the same site. The development and deployment of advanced nuclear fuel recycling facilities is a major element of GNEP, part of President Bushs Advanced Energy Initiative. In general, these technologies focus on separating commercial light water reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) into its usable and waste components, fabricating and recycling fast reactor fuel containing transuranic elements from the usable components of SNF, and converting those transuranics into shorter-lived radioisotopes while producing electricity in an advanced recycling reactor. For more information on GNEP, visit: . Additional information on DOEs nuclear energy program may be found on . Media contact(s): Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940 [ ] U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 60 News 8: DOE Shuts Down Idaho Nuclear Waste Shipments CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - The U-S Department of Energy has halted some radioactive shipments from Idaho to its underground nuclear waste dump in New Mexico. The D-O-E took the action after liquid was found in a drum of what was supposed to be dry waste. The agency (on Sunday) shut down shipments from the Idaho National Laboratory, which is trying to send 23-thousand drums of waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The D-O-E's Carlsbad office gave officials in Idaho until December 27th to report how the mistake occurred and how it will be fixed. The problem was discovered while waste drums were being prepared from shipment from Idaho to Carlsbad. WIPP is not allowed to accept any liquid waste because of the risks of leaks or potentially explosive materials. Story Created: Nov 29, 2006 at 3:13 PM MST Copyright 2006 Powered by Broadcast Interactive Media. ***************************************************************** 61 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Don't be fooled by spin November 28, 2006 Despite what new Yucca boss says, accountability missing at same old Energy Department Accountability isn't a word typically found in the Energy Department, especially when it comes to plans to dump 70,000 tons of nuclear waste 90 miles from Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain. But Edward Sproat, the administration's point man on Yucca Mountain, used the word last year in his Senate confirmation hearing, saying accountability was one of his guiding values. Sproat, who was confirmed and took over this summer, should know that was the wrong word. Continuing its abysmal record on Yucca Mountain, which stretches over two decades, the Energy Department once again won't release documents that would provide a bit of - what's that word again? - accountability. Gov. Kenny Guinn wrote to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman earlier this month, calling for a release of more than 2 million documents related to the design and science of the project. The department has been compiling documents that it contends will prove its case for Yucca Mountain and sending them to a database to be used when it asks the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build the nuclear waste dump. By law, the backup documents are supposed to be online six months before the department submits its license application. Sproat has set Dec. 21, 2007, as the deadline to submit the documents and June 30, 2008, as the license application deadline. In his letter, Guinn said all it would take is a "flip of a switch" to make public the latest batch of documents, about 30 percent of the new information the department expects to file. If the documents were made public today there wouldn't be enough time to adequately review them, given the complexity of the documents and the number of them, but at least it would give Nevada and the public more time to study and scrutinize the project. That would be called accountability, which judging by its past, is the last thing the department wants. The woefully conceived project was approved by President Bush and Congress four years ago, but the Energy Department's first attempt at a licensing application was shot down two years ago when its cache of about 1 million backup documents was deemed inadequate. Some of the documents raised questions about the quality of the science, including references to falsifying work to support the project. If the department wants to live up to the word of Mr. Sproat, releasing documents would be the least it could do. Otherwise, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 62 Platts: UK's NDA to launch competition for new Sellafield contractor London (Platts)--28Nov2006 The UK's NDA will launch the competition for a new Sellafield contractor November 28 at an industry seminar in Manchester. More than 200 attendees are expected from around the world, representing consortia, contractors, subcontractors and industry watchers, to learn more about the scope of the contract and the timetable leading up to the contract award in mid-2008. This is "one of the UK's largest ever public procurements," Nuclear Decommissioning Authority communications manager Brian Hough said in a statement November 24. The winning contractor will take over management of the Sellafield site from current manager British Nuclear Group. The contract on offer is likely to be for an initial five years with options to extend. Commercial operations at Sellafield produce revenues of about 1 billion pounds/year. The contractor will also direct cleanup operations at Sellafield, the closed Calder Hall magnox station, the Windscale site that holds the old reactors that produced plutonium for the UK weapons program, and the NDA-owned part of the Capenhurst uranium enrichment site. Copyright 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 63 People's Daily: Australian mining giant says well placed to supply uranium to China, India UPDATED: 14:37, November 29, 2006 Australian mining giant says well placed to supply uranium to China, India n mining giant BHP Billiton Chairman Don Argus said Wednesday that his company is well placed to supply uranium to China and once India satisfies the Australian federal government's export conditions. Argus Argus made the remarks while addressing the company's annual general meeting in Brisbane, Australia's third largest city and capital of the state of Queensland. He reminded shareholders of the government's policy to allow uranium exports to China provided it is used for peaceful purposes, while India is yet to satisfy that condition, Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio reported. He said energy consumption of the two countries is expected to increase dramatically and nuclear energy will play a vital role. Argus said no responsible company or government can ignore nuclear power as part of the range of energy options. Australia's current policy prohibits the sale of uranium to India because the South Asian nation has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But the Australian government has been under pressure from India and the to change its currency policy. Source: Xinhua Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 64 AU ABC: NT radioactive dump Bill passes Lower House Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 14:52:58 AEDT The federal House of Representatives has passed legislation to allow Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory to be used for a radioactive waste dump. The Government says the Bill will allow Indigenous groups to offer their land for use, but have it handed back when the land is no longer needed. Several sites in the Territory are being considered for a radioactive waste facility. Deputy Labor leader Jenny Macklin says the new Bill will mean Aboriginal land rights will be diminished. "The Howard Government is intent on making sure that you have no rights, no legal review avenues, no right to express your view, no right to giving informed consent," she said. "Absolutely no say in this Government's blind pursuit of dumping nuclear waste in the Northern Territory." The Bill will be debated in the Senate tomorrow. ***************************************************************** 65 The Mercury: Permanent solution still lacking for nuke fuel rods storage In many other industries, the difficult environmental questions center on how to safely dispose of raw materials used in a plant or process. But when it comes to generating nuclear energy, disposal is out of the question. The highly radioactive byproducts of nuclear energy -- the spent fuel rods -- instead have to be "stored" indefinitely. This begs an entirely different set of questions and dangerous scenarios. At Exelon Nuclears Limerick Generating Station, the storage of spent fuel rods has demanded some attention and recent action, as the 20-year-old plants accumulated spent fuel is exceeding the initial storage location. As a replacement, Limerick Township Board of Supervisors in July approved land development plans for the Exelon plant to install a concrete pad on which its own dry cask storage facility will be erected. During meetings on those subjects, officials with Exelon and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission insisted the dry casks would only be needed for temporary storage and that the fuel would eventually be moved to Yucca Mountain, a federal disposal siteproposed in Nevada. However, with the November takeover of Congress by the Democrats, opponents of the federal governments planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility beneath Nevadas Yucca Mountain gained a powerful new ally. Harry Reid, the new Senate Majority Leader from Nevada, told reporters in his home state last week that the much-delayed, over-budget project is "dead right now." Originally targeted for opening in 1998, the Energy Department now says the best case scenario for the opening of the Yucca Mountain facility is 2017. It is intended to hold 77,000 tons of the radioactive spent fuel left over after it has been used to boil water in the nations nuclear reactors. About 50,000 tons of that fuel is now stored in dry casks at 65 power plants, including Limericks, in 31 states, according to the Others are not so sure. Edward F. Sproat, director of the Energy Departments Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, told The Associated Press that leaving the fuel stored at the plants is just "pushing the solution off to future generations." Limerick supervisors Chairman David Kane called the idea of leaving the fuel at individual power plants "a terrible solution." Beth Rapczynski, a spokeswoman for Exelon, said, "Its important to keep in mind that the federal government has an obligation under the law to build a central repository for used nuclear fuel, which was mandated by Congress in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1983. "Since then, consumers of nuclear-generated electricity have paid more than $25 billion into the Nuclear Waste Fund for that purpose," Rapczynski said. While everyone passes the buck on how to best store the spent fuel, the residents of the tri-county area surrounding the Limerick plant live each day with the material in our midst. The latest wrinkle that makes Yucca Mountain even more remote as a possibility underscores the importance of making "temporary" storage at Limerick as safe as it can be. After all, it may not be temporary, and the areas future safety may be at stake. 2006 Pottstown Mercury - a Journal Register Property. All Rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 66 AU ABC: Guarantee fails to allay uranium mining fears. 30/11/2006. ABC News Online People on Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide, say they do not feel any safer about the prospect of uranium mining, despite a South Australian Government guarantee. Marathon Resources had planned to access more than 20 properties around Myponga, Yankalilla and Inman Valley to search for uranium. But the work will now be done by the Primary Industries Department to allay residents' fears. A Yankalilla resident, Virginia McMillan, says locals were told at a public meeting last night that the Premier will guarantee no uranium mining. "So that's actually a broader statement than he made in his October press statement," she said. "However, we would like to see how that guarantee would play out in terms of whether or not he would affect legislative changes to protect the Fleurieu Peninsula from uranium mining into the future." ***************************************************************** 67 Guardian Unlimited: Report: Los Alamos Security Flawed From the Associated Press [UP] Wednesday November 29, 2006 8:16 AM AP Photo NY107 By DEBORAH BAKER Associated Press Writer SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - The tens of millions of dollars spent to upgrade security at Los Alamos National Laboratory make the findings of an investigation into a recent security breach at the nuclear weapons lab even more troubling, says the Energy Department's inspector general. In a two-page memo, Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman said security at Los Alamos was ``seriously flawed'' when a worker removed classified documents later found in her home during a drug bust last month. In a number of key areas, security policies at the nuclear weapons lab were nonexistent, not followed or were applied inconsistently, according to Friedman's summary of his investigation. Cyber-security internal controls and safeguards were not functioning as intended, and monitoring by the lab and federal officials was inadequate, he said. Friedman called his findings ``especially troubling'' because the department has spent so much money on improving security in recent years and because previous security lapses were part of the reason the department put the lab's management contract out for bid. Since June, the lab - operated for decades by the University of California - has been run by a team comprised of UC, Bechtel National, BWX Technologies and Washington Group International. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday that the report outlines ``some significant deficiencies and vulnerabilities'' that the agency will quickly address. ``Unfortunately we cannot correct the errors of the past. But we will learn from this incident and we will do better,'' Bodman said in a statement. The department did not release the report itself, which Bodman said contained information the department is prohibited by law from publicly disclosing. Classified documents were found Oct. 17 at the home of Jessica Quintana, 22, a former employee of a lab subcontractor. A man who was renting a room at her home was jailed on drug and probation charges. Quintana's lawyer, Stephen Aarons, has said the classified data was contained on a portable computer storage drive and in about 200 pages of paper documents. Aarons says Quintana, an archivist who was converting lab documents to an electronic format, took the information home to catch up on work. He says she never showed it to anyone and there was no espionage involved. LANL officials have said none of the material was top secret, nor did it contain the most sensitive nuclear weapons information. They said most of the documents were classified at the lowest levels and were 20 to 30 years old. Quintana, who was laid off by the subcontractor about a month before the documents were discovered, hasn't been charged. Lab Director Michael Anastasio said in a statement Tuesday that the lab has taken a number of security steps, including barring portable electronic storage devices in classified computing areas. All classified scanning activities have been temporarily halted, and physical searches have been increased, with random searches occuring an average of more than 100 times daily, Anastasio said. The lab's high-profile security problems include the case of scientist Wen Ho Lee, who pleaded guilty in 2000 to one count of mishandling nuclear secrets. In 2004, the lab was essentially shut down after an inventory showed that two computer disks containing nuclear secrets were missing. A year later the lab concluded that it was a mistake and that the disks never existed. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 68 SPI: DOE selects Hanford among 11 possible fuel recycling sites [seattlepi.com] Seattle Post-Intelligencer] Wednesday, November 29, 2006 Last updated 1:05 p.m. PT By SHANNON DININNY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER YAKIMA, Wash. -- Eleven sites, including south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation, have been selected as possible sites to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday. The announcement is part of the Energy Department's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, which the Bush administration has been touting as a means to control nuclear waste amid increasing reliance on nuclear power internationally. The 11 sites can receive up to $16 million in grants next year to begin site studies for facilities that would reprocess spent nuclear fuel. "As our economy grows, so will the need for reliable, emissions-free energy generation. Nuclear energy can help meet that need and GNEP can do it in a way that maximizes the benefit of nuclear fuel while minimizing the risk of nuclear proliferation," Dennis Spurgeon, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, said in a statement. Spurgeon also said the department was pleased so many communities across the country were interested in hosting facilities. Two proposals were submitted from Richland, Wash., where the Energy Department has been working to rid the highly contaminated Hanford nuclear reservation of toxic and radioactive waste left from Cold War-era plutonium production for the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal. The two proposals were consolidated. [advertising] Also selected for consideration: Idaho National Laboratory; Atomic City, Idaho; Savannah River National Laboratory, S.C.; Barnwell, S.C.; Hobbs, N.M.; Roswell, N.M.; Morris, Ill.; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tenn.; Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Ky.; Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Ohio. Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 1996-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 69 Platts: DOE TAD canister specs to be issued by November 30 Washington (Platts)--28Nov2006 DOE specifications for a new cradle-to-grave canister system will be issued sometime before November 30, clearing the way for cask vendors to develop conceptual designs of the so-called TAD systems, the department said November 28. As envisioned by DOE, a TAD, with a change of overpacks, will be used to transport, age, and dispose of utility spent fuel, eliminating the need to repeatedly repackage the fuel as it moves through the federal waste management system to the repository planned for Yucca Mountain, Nevada. No information was available at press time on what incentives DOE might offer to cask vendors to develop the system and to utilities to use it. Separately, DOE will reference the canister-based system in a repository license application it plans to submit to NRC by June 30, 2008. DOE said November 28 that some TAD system components are not part of the specification and will be developed later, such as ancillary equipment, shielded transfer casks, and site transporters. DOE said that the TAD canister, transportation overpack and aging overpack will be addressed in the specification released this week. Copyright 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 70 Tri-City Herald: Plutonium waste taken from trench Published Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Hanford workers have emptied the first large trench of temporarily buried waste left from plutonium production. Trench 4 had been singled out for a legally binding cleanup deadline because of relatively high levels of carbon tetrachloride vapors. The carcinogenic chemical was used as a solvent in central Hanford, including in the separation of plutonium from other materials for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The Tri-Party Agreement required retrieval of the trench to be completed by the end of 2006. "I've visited this trench several times to learn about the retrieval work, and in each instance I was impressed by the dedication of the workers and how much they're getting done," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., in a statement. "The fact that this project has beaten another TPA milestone is further proof that real progress is being made in cleanup at the Hanford site." Trench 4 included waste from plutonium production after 1970 when Congress ordered all waste that might be classified as transuranic -- waste typically contaminated with plutonium at Hanford -- be disposed of in a national repository. Until the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant opened in the New Mexico desert, the Hanford waste was temporarily buried in drums and boxes. Trench 4, which was 600 feet long and 25 feet wide at its base, held about 2,500 cubic yards of waste in 9,960 containers. Most of it was radioactively contaminated debris, tools and clothing. Oversized boxes and drums of waste were stacked on asphalt pads, covered with plywood and draped with tarps before being covered with dirt. The carbon tetrachloride was trapped as a gas beneath the tarps. Fluor Hanford used a vapor extraction system to draw the gas out of the trench and then captured it on charcoal filters before workers began to retrieve the waste. Fluor Hanford has been retrieving the temporarily buried waste from several areas of central Hanford, where plutonium was extracted from fuel rods and also from recycled waste. It started in October 2003 with some of the drums Fluor knew to be in good shape before attempting work on Trench 4. "This trench was a high priority in our retrieval of suspect transuranic waste because of what bad shape the drums were in," said Keith Klein, manager of DOE's Hanford Richland Operations Office, in a statement. "The experience we gained in trenches with less degraded drums was instrumental in making sure this trench could be emptied safely." The trench included pockets of drums that were in good shape, and other drums that were severely degraded, said Dale McKenney, Fluor Hanford vice president of waste stabilization and disposition. As work progressed on the trench, workers encountered more and more deteriorating drums. "Some of the drums were literally falling apart," he said. Tops were caved in, bottoms were partially detached from the sides or gaping holes had appeared in the outer drum. Workers wrapped sheet metal around some drums so they could be moved and came up with other metal fittings that could be secured to damaged drums with duct tape. In some cases, they lowered larger drums over fragile drums so they could be moved without a potential escape of radioactive contamination. Work was done in the open air, but a portable fabric shade stretched on a steel framework was built to protect them from the weather. "It just makes a huge difference not to be in the sun when you're in protective clothing," McKenney said. In hot weather, a mister was used beneath the shelter to keep workers cooler. On other days it provided some protection from the wind, helping to keep down dust and contamination. The Tri-Party Agreement deadline next month required that all the waste be out of Trench 4, that it be tested to see if it was transuranic or low-level radioactive waste and that it be sent to the appropriate disposal or treatment site. About half of the temporarily buried waste has qualified as low-level waste that can be buried at a lined landfill at Hanford. The rest is awaiting shipment to the New Mexico repository or already has been shipped. Work at Trench 4 "will provide project engineers with valuable experience in designing retrieval strategies that protect workers," said Nick Ceto, Hanford program manager for the Environmental Protection Agency, the regulator on the project. Other trenches are expected to have badly degraded drums and carbon tetrachloride vapors. DOE also faces a second Dec. 31 Tri-Party Agreement deadline to have enough waste to fill 22,600 drums removed from temporary burial grounds. It's on track to meet that deadline with enough waste removed now to fill 22,308 drums. It also faces a deadline to have enough waste removed by the end of 2010 to fill 75,000 drums. That's all the plutonium-contaminated waste temporarily buried in central Hanford except some that's so radioactively hot it will have to be handled with remote equipment. 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire ***************************************************************** 71 Tri-City Herald: Hanford - and perhaps FFTF - to be studied for fuel recycling project Published Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer The Tri-City Development Council has been picked to submit a siting study to use the Hanford nuclear reservation for recycling fuel from commercial nuclear energy production. As part of the effort, Columbia Basin Consulting Group, which has had the support of Benton County Commissioner Claude Oliver, will be looking at whether Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility and related facilities could play a role in the project. Hanford is among 11 sites nationwide to be studied with $16 million in grants to be awarded by the Department of Energy. Hanford will be considered as a possible location for advanced fuels and materials testing and the construction of advanced nuclear facilities that will produce electricity and treat and burn nuclear waste. 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 72 Tennessean: Oak Ridge being considered as site for nuke component plant Nashville, Tennessee - Wednesday, 11/29/06 - Tennessean.com By RYAN NAKASHIMA Associated Press LAS VEGAS The U.S. nuclear weapons agency outlined plans Tuesday to consolidate operations and build a plant to produce nuclear arms components called plutonium pits by 2022. The plan by the National Nuclear Security Administration, called "Complex 2030," calls for the construction of a plutonium pit plant in one of five locations, including the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., said Ted Wyka, document manager for the plan's environmental impact study. Such pits, which serve as the trigger of a nuclear weapon, have been produced at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico since Colorado's Rocky Flats facility was shut down in 1989. Other sites being considered for the pit plant include the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas; the Pantex Plant in Texas; and Los Alamos. " The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. Albert Einstein Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:46 pm Copyright 2006, tennessean.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 73 Knox News: This Price may be right, but system's all wrong By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com November 29, 2006 Les Price is a good guy, and he contributed much to the Department of Energy over a lengthy career, including his last assignment as the federal project chief for the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source. Now he's a double-dipper. Even before he retired from DOE's Oak Ridge Operations in the early summer, Price had agreed to come back on the federal payroll as a consultant. He's working with the Oak Ridge team that heads the U.S. effort on the giant fusion project known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. Over the past 25 years or so, I've written numerous times about the system that can act like a revolving door and permit federal officials to come in and out of government service, sometimes even working for the contractors they once managed. It's a system that is way too lenient and subject to all sorts of abuses. In this case, Price didn't go to work for a federal contractor. He retired and went immediately back to work for DOE, drawing his retirement and his new fees as a consultant. There are rules that govern these activities. In fact, there are many of them, but there are also plenty of exceptions. It was determined that Price was basically a unique asset that didn't exist elsewhere. Indeed, he reportedly was the only one available certified to manage government projects above $400 million - at least the only person in DOE's Office of Science. As I said before, Les Price is a good guy, not someone I think who set out to bilk taxpayers. He said he retired from his government post after the SNS construction work was completed because that job was done and he had all the years of federal service needed to retire at 64. Of course, why stick around when you can retire and draw two salaries? Price said he's not maximizing the terms of his one-year consulting contract, which could earn him up to $100,000. He said he's only working a couple of days a week and probably won't come close to that amount. But it's not hard to see how federal officials could abuse the system and set up deals to help buddies feather their nests in retirement. + Bob Alvarez worked at DOE as an adviser during the Clinton administration, but he has spent much of his adult career critiquing the federal agency and its handling - or, more specifically, its mishandling - of radioactive materials. In a recent report outlining problems at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Alvarez cited statistics that suggested that Y-12 workers were among the most at-risk workers in the nuclear weapons world. "Since 1993, Y-12 workers have absorbed about 42 percent of the total collective internal radiation dose for all DOE sites," he wrote. George Dials, the Y-12 general manager who worked at DOE the same time as Alvarez, didn't take kindly to the criticism. He said Alvarez relied on outdated reports to make his assertions or misrepresented information. "He's living in the past," Dials said of Alvarez. Y-12's staff did not dispute the Alvarez stats but indicated they were misleading. Here's part of their response: "The implication is that this represents an unacceptable risk. Collective dose is a general indicator of the magnitude of the risk to a population, but not to an individual. A better indicator of worker risks would be the average dose to workers with measured dose. "In either case, one needs to include both internal and external exposures when considering worker or population risks. The author's emphasis on internal exposure is inappropriate and is not supported by the scientific community, the regulations of the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) or the DOE." Y-12 produced tables showing that the Oak Ridge facility ranked anywhere from third to ninth among DOE sites in collective radiation dose from the years 1996 to 2005. For average dose, the plant's ranking ranged from ninth to 22nd in 1999-2005, and during that time there were only a couple of abnormally high exposures, the staff said. Senior writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6329 or at munger@knews.com. 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel ***************************************************************** 74 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Alliance members awaiting DOE response Launched:11/28/2006 09:46:45 PM MST CARLSBAD Members of the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance are still waiting for a response from the Department of Energy related to the alliance's interest in hosting DOE Global Nuclear Energy Facilities. On Sept. 7 the alliance, a limited liability company formed from the two counties and the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs, submitted a 25-page proposal to become a GNEP site study. The DOE has made available $20 million to help four successful candidates with site studies within their community. GNEP calls for development of reprocessing technologies as part of a long-term effort to expand the use of nuclear power. The DOE is also looking for private businesses interested in a consolidated fuel treatment facility and an advanced burner reactor. Two partners of the alliance, Washington Group International and Areva, have expressed interest in the private facilities. "We don't have any new information," said Rep. John Heaton, D- Carlsbad. "I met with DOE people today. There's really no information other than they are trying to put it together." The DOE plans to notify communities selected within 90 days of Sept. 7. Other applicants around the country have yet to receive any updates. "All of the respondants are still waiting for a decision from the Department of Energy," said Cliff Stroud, interim director of the Carlsbad Department of Development. "Hopefully, we'll hear something in December. The CDOD remains optimistic that we will be selected for a site study." ***************************************************************** 75 NMBW: LANL recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium - New Mexico Business Weekly: Los Alamos National Laboratory has won the 2006 Federal Laboratory Consortium Regional Award for developing a handheld device for safe, automatic sampling of liquids, solids and gases at the scene of bio-hazard crimes and incidents. The technology was developed at LANL with two grants from Cal State San Bernardino's Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization. Cal State provided $16,075 to LANL for a marketing study and $75,000 for prototype development, testing and evaluation by LANL, says Greg Zerovnik, communications manager with Cal State. LANL's "Handheld Apparatus for Multipurpose Sample Collection & Registration" was able to collect bio-hazard samples while avoiding cross-contamination in either indoor or outdoor settings, Zerovnik says. LANL has demonstrated that the device works in detecting hazardous materials in a variety of in-field situations, Zerovnik adds. "We're actively working with LANL to find a licensing partner for the technology," Zerovnik notes. "LANL owns the technology and the intellectual property, but we're helping them find potential companies to market it." Zerovnik says the FLC Regional Award is a prestigious recognition sought by dozens of federal laboratories every year. "There's no monetary award, but it helps establish the credibility of a lab's capability and the products they develop," Zerovnik says. "Laboratories coast-to-coast compete for the award every year." 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc. ***************************************************************** 76 Times-News: DOE shuts down Idaho nuclear waste shipments to WIPP November 30, 2006 Twin Falls, Idaho Nov 29, 3:23 PM EST CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Energy has halted some radioactive shipments to its underground nuclear waste dump near Carlsbad after liquid was found in a drum of what was supposed to be dry waste. The DOE on Sunday shut down shipments from the Idaho National Laboratory, which is trying to send 23,000 drums of waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The DOE's Carlsbad office gave officials in Idaho until Dec. 27 to report how the mistake occurred and how it will be fixed. The problem was discovered while waste drums were being prepared for shipment from Idaho to Carlsbad. WIPP is not allowed to accept any liquid waste because of the risks of leaks or potentially explosive materials. The drum in question had been cleared to be shipped after an X-ray showed it was liquid-free. The liquid was spotted after workers double-checked the X-ray under a new confirmation procedure the state of New Mexico required beginning Nov. 16, said Kerry Watson, manager of the DOE's WIPP office. State Environment Secretary Ron Curry said he was pleased the procedure worked as it was supposed to. But Jeremy Maxand, executive director of the Boise-based INL watchdog group Snake River Alliance, said it was concerned that the problem drum went all the way through the inspection process before it was caught by double-checking the X-rays. "That the drum wasn't stopped until it was halfway out the door is a red flag for us," he said. Before the double-check confirmation process went into effect, 2,904 similar drums of waste were sent to WIPP, which opened in March 1999. The repository buries plutonium-contaminated waste from the nation's defense industry more than 2,100 feet underground in ancient salt beds. Watson said he's confident no other liquids inadvertently made it through before workers began double-checking X-rays of shipments. "This just appears to be an isolated occurrence," Watson said Tuesday. However, Don Hancock of the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque said, "They're going to have to provide more information than just saying, 'We don't think there's a problem.'" The drums originally came from the Rocky Flats plant near Denver and were sent to the Idaho National Laboratory for storage. INL is now shipping the waste out of Idaho to WIPP under a 1995 agreement with the state of Idaho that the DOE unsuccessfully challenged in federal court earlier this year. The Bush administration has appealed. 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy. Copyright 2006, Lee Publications Inc. Magicvalley.com is an on-line division of The Times-News, published daily at 132 W. Fairfield St., Twin Falls, Idaho 83301 by Lee Publications, Inc., a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises. ***************************************************************** 77 Albuquerque Tribune: Los Alamos urged to clean up waste Associated Press Wednesday, November 29, 2006 LOS ALAMOS State Environment Secretary Ron Curry is pressuring Los Alamos National Laboratory to follow an agreement that calls for the lab to clean up hazardous waste by 2015. However, a spokesman for the lab's new manager said it has met all requirements. "The laboratory takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously and is following the consent order," lab spokesman James Rickman said. The consent order, reached in March 2005 when the University of California was the lab's manager, requires the lab to clean up hazardous waste within a set time. However, the state has proposed fines for the lab four times since July. A new manager, Los Alamos National Security LLC - consisting of the University of California, Bechtel Corp., BWX Technologies Inc., and Washington Group International - took over lab operations in June. Curry said the lab should be spending money cleaning up waste rather than paying fines for violating the agreement. "We want them to embrace it," he said. In October, the Environment Department proposed fining the lab $2.3 million because it had mixed demolition rubble with other waste, and fined it $30,000 for not cleaning up an ash pile where classified documents and trash were burned in the 1950s. The previous month, the department proposed a $795,620 fine over the lab's failure to quickly report chromium contamination in ground monitoring wells. And in July, Curry's department proposed a $125,000 fine after the lab and the government agency that oversees it, the National Nuclear Security Administration, dumped 20 tons of hazardous waste into a Los Alamos County landfill. The fines are all under negotiation. Rickman said Los Alamos National Security agrees it's better to spend money on cleanup rather than fines, and said lab leaders have discussed ways to speed up the work. "With fixed funding, it's crucial that the laboratory maximize activities that meet consent order requirements," he said. "However, the consent order is heavily weighted toward upfront investigation." The Environment Department is particularly concerned about groundwater contamination. "New Mexico's water resources are so precious, and Los Alamos is just beginning to understand its effects on the groundwater," said James Bearzi, chief of the department's Hazardous Waste Bureau. Comments This site does not necessarily agree with comments posted below -- responsibility lies with the relevant reader alone. Read our privacy agreement. Post a comment 2006 The Albuquerque Tribune ***************************************************************** 78 BCNG Portals: Radiation exposure cause for dispute By Jim Sinclair Sooke News Mirror Nov 29 2006 Sooke area resident Bren Keetch has an ongoing dispute with the federal government. The dispute has been brewing since 1958. Keetch says he was one of 600 military personnel ordered to take part in the clean-up following an accident at a nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ontario. He says he has felt exploited and disrespected ever since the atomic accident occurred. He would like the government to issue an official blanket apology to the survivors and their families, as well as providing significant financial compensation to the men based upon radiation-related health woes. Keetch phoned the Sooke News Mirror on November 10 then paid a visit to the Mirror office. He brought along a placard he had taken to the Royal Canadian Legion, asking to use it in conjunction with Remembrance Day Eve ceremonies at the Legion. He was denied. His plan for the following day was to demonstrate within sight of the official Remembrance Day observance in Victoria. Gordon Edwards is the president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR), the following (supplied by Keetch) is an excerpt of a document by Edwards outlining some of the events that have led to Bren Keetch’s long-term campaign for amends. Edwards describes two “rather serious” nuclear reactor accidents that happened in Chalk River, ON back in the 50s. “The first occurred in 1952, when the NRX reactor underwent a violent power excursion that destroyed the core of the reactor, causing some fuel melting.” A large quantity of radioactive material was apparently released into the atmosphere and “a million gallons of radioactively contaminated water had to be pumped out of the basement and ‘disposed of’ in shallow trenches not far from the Ottawa River.” The CCNR account continues, “In 1958, several metallic uranium fuel rods in the NRU reactor overheated and ruptured inside the reactor core. One of the damaged rods caught fire and was torn in two. A three-foot length of fiercely burning uranium fuel broke off and fell into a shallow maintenance pit, spreading deadly fission products and alpha-emitting particles throughout the reactor building. The ventilation system was jammed in the ‘open’ position, thereby contaminating the accessible areas of the building as well as a sizable area downwind from the reactor site. A relay team of scientists and technicians eventually extinguished the fire by dumping buckets of wet sand on the burning uranium fuel.” Keetch may be disappointed by what he sees as a lack of compensation for the men who took part in the cleanup. But he said he is not surprised given the government’s time in apologizing for other episodes, the Chinese head tax, for example. In an email to the Sooke News Mirror, Gordon Edwards of the CCNR stated, “If we  think of all the raw recruits being used as “cannon  fodder” on various battlefields throughout military history,  these unsuspecting young men who were sent to Chalk River were, in a very real sense, radiation fodder. They were there to mop up the radiation that others were considered too valuable to waste on such dangerous and menial work.” Keetch says he is standing up for 600 disenfranchised soldiers, and their families. His crusade began in June 1958 when he discovered he had been exposed to radioactive contamination. “I’ve been writing letters and mainly doing research to support our claims, of the 600 men,” he said. In cases where men who served at Chalk River have passed away, Keetch claims most of them died of cancer. “Chalk River is northwest of Pembroke and Camp Petawawa,” said Keetch, “which was my army base when I joined the armed forces.” He described part of the 1958 incident. “When I was in there, I would say it (radioactive water) was ankle, or mid-shin deep. It was our job to go around with mops and buckets. I spent four days in there.” Keetch says he has spread his message far and wide over the years, including various federal government officials. He indicated he has letters and responses on file. Keetch and his contemporaries have a well-researched, well organized outfit to refer people to – namely the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (www.ccnr.org) “I’m in contact with a handful of my colleagues, and have been in contact with other comrades who have since passed away, said Keetch.” The Ministry of Veterans Affairs has been contacted in regard to Keetch’s concerns, and was very prompt in emaiing a reply. Firstly, the Sooke News Mirror was referred to the Department of National Defence for specific information on the matter. Janice Summerby Media Relations Advisor for Veterans Affairs Canada wrote, “Veterans Affairs Canada’s disability pension (as well as health, and other) benefits are available to Veterans who incurred a service-related disability. This is an evidence-based program (there must be a connection between disability and service) which provides an amount based on the extent of an individual’s disability. Some participants of Chalk River cleanup and of chemical warfare testing have applied, and have been approved for such benefits.” The Department of National Defence in Ottawa was contacted and asked for a statement on the situation with the Chalk River incident. Lieutenant Carol Brown told the Sooke News Mirror she had heard some discussion on the topic as recently as that day (November 23). The lieutenant called back the next day from the National Defence medial liaison office. “At this time we are looking into the CF (Canadian Forces) personnel involvement in nuclear weapons testing, but it should be understood that we can’t offer any immediate response to these types of inquiries because they fall outside our current programs.” Brown added that the merits of each situation are examined as they are brought to the attention of the department. “In the meantime we always emphasize that any Canadian veterans who believe they are suffering from any injury or illness caused by military service, should be encouraged to apply to Veterans Affairs Canada,” she said, “they may be eligible for programs and services, financial and otherwise.” Brown hinted that a news release dealing with research findings (possibly relating to Keetch’s concerns) may be forthcoming, although no time frame was given. Copyright 2006 Sooke News Mirror ***************************************************************** 79 lamonitor.com: DOE secretary scolds lab on security issues The Online News Source for Los Alamos ROGER SNODGRASS roger@lamonitor.comMonitor Assistant Editor A special inquiry into the most recent security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory has uncovered "significant deficiencies and vulnerabilities that need to be addressed," said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in a statement Tuesday. On Oct. 17, police investigators found classified material in the Los Alamos mobile home of a former employee of a laboratory contractor. During a follow-up search images of apparently classified documents were found on a jump drive and several hundred hardcopy pages of laboratory documents with classified markings were recovered, according to the results of the special inquiry. The case is in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but Bodman also requested the department's Inspector General, Gregory H. Friedman, to conduct a special inquiry last month. The results, Bodman said, contain information that cannot be disclosed to the public. But because of public interest, in the matter, he decided to release the cover letter from the IG's report. Friedman's overview bulleted three flaws he considered serious: + In a number of key areas, security policy was non-existent, applied inconsistently or not followed; + Critical cyber security internal controls and safeguards were not functioning as intended; and + Monitoring by both laboratory and federal officials was inadequate. "Regardless of the outcome of the FBI investigations, just the unauthorized removal of the classified material from the lab marks a significant breach of security protocol and of the public trust," Bodman wrote. We cannot correct the errors of the past. But we can learn from this incident and we will do better." LANL Director Michael Anastasio released memorandum he sent to all employees Tuesday, with an update an actions that have been taken in the response to the security breach. That response has so far included a presentation of a list of short-term improvements and establishment of a security action team headed by Principal Associate Director for Operations Jan Van Prooyen. Anastasio recounted the immediate efforts, including a list of reviews, restrictions and engineered controls in the classified computer area. Another layer of security has been added, Anastasio indicated, including a pause in all scanning of classified documents, an enhanced procedure for physical searches and more random searches - now averaging 100 a day. The laboratory has brought in cyber-security experts from the partner companies of the management entitity, Los Alamos National Security, LLC, and their recommendations will be reviewed and incorporated into a new set of policies and procedures. Since the current breach apparently caught the laboratory inadequately prepared to deal with new memory devices like memory sticks and iPods and easy transfer devices like flash drives, the managers have also chartered a Red Team of experts to provide technical advice for avoiding the next generation of security risks. A spokesman for the secretary said that policy related to security liabilities by laboratory contractors is being assessed. DOE's Craig Stevens said the secretary expected results. "We recognize this is a new contractor that has only been on the job a couple of months. We didn't expect all the problems to suddenly go away," he said. "The secretary has laid it at the feet of the laboratory to get the lab fixed," he said, adding that more would be expected than "wringing of hands and paperwork and setting of policy." Sen. Pete Domenici, who chairs the Senate Energy and Water Committee, responded to the announcement with a prepared statement this morning. "I will review this classified report and will work to ensure the lab and Energy Department implement previously proposed reforms that have yet to be fully implemented, as well as immediately act to execute the new procedures and practices identified by the IG," he said. "I believe Secretary Bodman and Lab Director Mike Anastasio take these matters seriously and will work to put these recommended reforms in place." Bodman's announcement said he has directed the department's Chief Information Officer Tom Pyke to follow up as appropriate on the IG report in upgrading the department's cyber security policies and procedures. As was the case, during the false security breach that shut the laboratory down for several months starting in July 2004, the department will take the opportunity to assess the policies and procedures "complex-wide" - in this case, for "issuing and maintaining personnel security clearances." 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************