*****************************************************************
10/05/06 ****     RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL)       **** VOL 14.236
*****************************************************************
   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 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Still Opposes Iran Sanctions
2 AFP: Japan stalls on Iran oil deal as sanctions loom - analysts -
3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Ahmadinejad: Lever of talks rejected 
4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Russia slams America's unilateralism 
5 AFP: Big powers to hold crucial meeting on Iran with UN sanctions in
6 AFP: Ministers to thrash out Iran over dinner in London - diplomat -
7 AFP: Rice to attend six power meeting on Iran 
8 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. to Weigh Possible Sanctions on Iran
9 UPI: Iran: Sanctions will not stop enrichment
10 UPI: Rice says time's run out for Iran
11 Guardian Unlimited: 6 Nations to Meet, Talk Action on Iran
12 Guardian Unlimited: Rice flying in for Iran talks
13 N. Korea Says It Will Conduct Nuke Test
14 ICH: U.S. Won't Accept Nuclear N. Korea
15 Guardian Unlimited: Report: S.Korea Warns North on Nuke Test
16 Guardian Unlimited: Moscow to Try Prevent N.Korea Nuke Test
17 BBC: Russians 'in N Korea test talks'
18 washingtonpost.com: Answering North Korea - 
19 washingtonpost.com: Pyongyang Warned on Weapon Testing - 
20 AFP: Russia talking 'directly' with NKorea over nuclear test 
21 AFP: Japan, US push divided UN to punish North Korea 
22 AFP: US and Japan seek sanctions against North Korean nuclear test -
23 AFP: Security Council mulls nuclear sanctions against North Korea -
24 AFP: US military response to North Korean test called unlikely -
25 UPI: Satellite sees N. Korean nuclear activity
26 UPI: Analysts say N. Korean nuclear test likely
27 Guardian Unlimited: Rumsfeld Ponders Nuke Test Ramifications
28 UPI: U.N. considers N. Korea nuke test reax
29 Middle East Newsline: IAEA FUNDS QATARI NUKE PROJECTS 
30 Bellona: $12 billion deal in works with China â€“ if Russia can prod
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
31 US: NRC: Notice of Sunshine Act Meeting
32 US: Main Today: Maine Yankee owners win suit
33 US: Popular Mechanics: The Next Atomic Age - 
34 US: APP.COM - NRC: Tritium leaks don't seem harmful | 
35 US: PoughkeepsieJournal.com: Indian Point issues warning in error
36 US: Rutland Herald: Yankee success in boosting power
37 US: NRC: Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1, 2, and 3; N
38 US: NRC: In the Matter of Southern California Edison Company the Cit
39 US: NRC: Entergy Operations, Inc.; Notice of Partial Denial of Amend
40 US: NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc., Vogtle ESP Site;
41 The Australian: Chernobyl visit 'not relevant to nuclear decision' |
42 US: Bangor Daily News Staff: N-plants awarded $143M - 
43 AFP: Taiwan installs new nuke reactor, as environmentalists make leg
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
44 US: Buffalo News: The executive branch is overstepping its authority
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
45 US: NRC: Notice of Opportunity to Comment on Model Safety Evaluation
46 US: Dr. James Howenstine: Lung Cancer Epidemic From DU Has Begun in 
47 US: MT: School board gets first look at new KI distribution plan
48 US: UPI: Rocket fuel ingredient may affect thyroid
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
49 US: Sydney Morning Herald: Taskforce ponders uranium enrichment - 
50 US: Bradenton Herald: Planners seek Tallevast hearing delay
51 BBC: Funding for life after Dounreay
52 US: Platts: Court awards $142.8 million in damages for spent fuel ma
53 US: St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Tritium leaks go unseen, task force say
54 US: TBJ: Authorities approve GE uranium plan, possible Wilmington pl
55 US: The Australian: China 'could use Australian uranium for bombs' 
56 TPMCafe: George Bush Proposes Yucca Mountain Facility to Store Radio
57 US: Monticello Times: Dry storage ok'd for the nuclear plant
58 Stratford Herald: NUCLEAR WASTE DUMPING FEARS 
59 US: PE.com: More toxin risks found with perchlorate
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
60 MEDIANEWS: Scientists set to open lab, despite opposition
61 AP Wire: Report says Santa Susana lab meltdown may have caused cance
62 DOE: Department of Energy Names New Administrator for Western 
63 DOE: Secretary of Energy Announces $5 Million for Solid State 
64 Tri-City Herald: K East Basins close to cleanup 
65 Hanford News: Experts to consult on 'near misses'
66 Knox News: Federal auditors say TVA on right track to cut debt
67 PR: Fluor Secures Two-Year DOE Contract Extension
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
                         FULL NEWS STORIES
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
 1 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Still Opposes Iran Sanctions
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday October 5, 2006 12:16 PM

AP Photo NY190 

By RYAN LUCAS 

Associated Press Writer 

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Russia's foreign minister said Thursday
that Moscow remains opposed to sanctions against Iran in the
dispute over Tehran's nuclear program. 

Sergey Lavrov said in Warsaw that he will discuss the standoff
with Iran in a meeting with his U.S., British, German, French
and Chinese counterparts on Friday in London. 

Imposing sanctions would be ``extreme'' and unconstructive, he
said. 

``I think that until all diplomatic possibilities have been
exhausted, sanctions would be extreme,'' Lavrov told reporters
after meeting with his Polish counterpart, Anna Fotyga. ``I
think we need to do all we can to push Iran toward starting
negotiations.'' 

The announcement of Friday's meeting followed a key European
negotiator's concession that ``endless hours'' of talks had made
little progress and suggested the dispute could wind up at the
United Nations soon. 

In a sign of Russian impatience with Iran, Lavrov expressed
concern that Tehran had failed to respond positively to a
package of incentives offered by the six powers to persuade
Tehran to freeze its uranium enrichment program. 

``We are concerned that there has been no positive answer yet
from Tehran,'' he said, according to Russia's Interfax news
agency. 

Britain, France, Germany, the United States, China and Russia
are hoping Tehran will agree to suspend uranium enrichment and
return to negotiations. 

The U.S and Britain favor immediate punitive measures. Russia
and China - both major commercial partners of Iran - are
reluctant to agree to immediate punitive measures. France also
has expressed reluctance. 

Oil-rich Iran says it needs enrichment to produce fuel for
electricity-generating nuclear reactors. Enrichment can also
create fissile material for atomic weapons, and the United
States and other nations have accused Tehran of seeking to
develop an atomic bomb - an allegation Iran has denied.	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 2 AFP: Japan stalls on Iran oil deal as sanctions loom - analysts -

October 5, 06:44 PM 

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan has insisted a huge oil deal with Iran is
still alive but analysts said Tokyo appeared to be stalling due
to the risk of sanctions against Tehran and worries about the
quality of the reserves. 

Japan downplayed Iran's statement that it had finally lost
patience and suggested the Islamic republic was resorting to
commercial brinkmanship on the two-billion-dollar deal to
develop its largest onshore oil field. 

"I think it was a sort of negotiating tactic by the Iranian
side. This is a project that Japan needs to succeed, and for
Iran Japan is a huge oil market," said Japan's industry vice
minister Takao Kitabata. 

After last-ditch talks in Tehran on Wednesday, Iran's Fars news
agency quoted Gholam Hossein Nozari, head of the state-run
National Iranian Oil Company, as saying the Japanese had "lost
their chance." 

Japan, the world's second largest economy, is almost entirely
dependent on the Middle East for its oil and imports about 15
percent of its total oil consumption from Iran. 

Tokyo has defied pressure from the United States to cancel the
deal but observers said the prospect of international sanctions
on the Islamic republic over its nuclear program appears to have
put off the Japanese side. 

"Japan is acting ambiguously because there is a risk that
sanctions will be imposed on Iran," said Yoshihiko Inoo, an oil
analyst with brokerage Tokyo Comwealth Inc. 

Analysts said there were also doubts about the quality and size
of the reserves in the Azadegan field in southwestern Iran close
to the Iraqi border. 

"We don't know how much oil there is, and according to the few
samples taken, the oil quality is very bad there. It is a very
heavy type of oil," a fellow at a large energy development
research center told AFP on condition of anonymity. 

Heavy crude oil is more difficult and expensive to process into
fuel than light crude and has a more severe environmental
impact. 

"From the very beginning, this was not a good deal for Japan,"
said the research fellow. 

"Now is the perfect moment for Japan to stop the negotiation, by
using such an excuse as, 'We are agreeing with the US'," he
added. 

Iran, the second-largest exporter in the OPEC cartel, set a
final deadline of September 15 but pushed it back to the end of
September after the two sides failed to agree on profit-sharing
and the increasing cost of the project. 

Inpex Corp., the Japanese oil exploration firm at the centre of
the deal, said it presumed negotiations were still going on. 

"We have not officially heard about such a decision from the
Iranian side at this moment," said a spokesman for the
government controlled company. 

Kitabata, the trade official had said in August that Japan has
built enough oil reserves to cope if sanctions are imposed on
Iran over its nuclear program. 

Nippon Oil Corp. chairman Fumiaki Watari also said last month
Japan's largest oil distributor could buy enough oil on world
markets to make up for any disruption to supplies from Iran. 

The deal signed in February 2004 targeted production of 260,000
barrels per day of oil from Azadegan, which has an estimated 26
billion barrels of oil in place. Work had been due to start on
the oil field by March 2005. 

The head of the National Iranian South Oil Company said Thursday
the Islamic Republic would be capable of developing the Azadegan
field itself but only if it could secure financing from outside,
state radio in Tehran reported. 

   Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
*****************************************************************
 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Ahmadinejad: Lever of talks rejected 

2006/10/05   
  
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday said that the Iranian
nation is in favor of logic and dialogue and those who believe
that talks can be used as a lever to exert pressure are
absolutely mistaken. 

He made the remarks at a public gathering in Savojbolagh in
Tehran province. 

The chief executive said that Iran's enemies presume that, after
failing to achieve their goals through pressure, they can manage
to do it through talks, adding that they should be aware that
Iranians will not be deceived. 

Ahmadinejad said that as the Iranians are taking gradual steps
towards development, they are about to achieve final victory.
 
Turning to great loss inflicted on the adversaries of Iranian
nation, he said that through propagandist tools as well
resorting to secondary and misleading issues, they intend to
create discord. 

The president added that however, they should be aware that they
are doomed to fail.
 
"On the pretext of preventing Iran's access to nuclear weapons,
they are even reluctant to supply to Iran pressing devices used
in auto gas cylinder production," he added. 

Ahmadinejad turned to the enemies and said, "Given that the
Iranian nation succeeded in producing rockets despite your
sanctions, it will also manufacture the required pressing
devices." 

Underlining that the Iranians seek peace and are in favor of
holding talks, he addressed the nation's ill-wishers and said
that if they presume that Iran will give up its course to full
use of peaceful nuclear energy, they are wrong.
 
He ensured the enemies that the Iranian nation will not back off
from its path in the face of threats. 

The provincial city of Savojbolagh, with a population of
220,000, is situated 70 kms to the West of Tehran. 

The President and his entourage departed for a visit to
Savojbolagh and Nazarabad on Wednesday afternoon. 

After his speech, President Ahmadinejad who was accompanied by
Vice President for executive affairs Ali Saeedlou, Senior
Advisor Mostafa Samareh Hashemi and Governor General of Tehran
province Kamran Daneshjou, returned to Tehran.   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir     
*****************************************************************
 4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Russia slams America's unilateralism 

  2006/10/05   
  
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday slammed
Washington for acting unilaterally in the crisis over IRI's
peaceful nuclear programme and urged the world powers to
continue diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue.
 
"We believe the community of action must be continued but
America has already taken a unilateral decision affecting all
parties, which limits activities in IRI not only of American
companies but of all companies," Lavrov said during a visit to
Poland.
 
"The six have already agreed on a number of points, and (EU
Foreign Policy Chief) Javier Solana has held talks with the
Iranians, which did not bring a satisfactory response," he said.
 
"We will continue with the diplomatic effort, even though some
are in favour of sanctions as of now," the Russian Foreign
Minister added.
 
M/D   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir     
*****************************************************************
 5 AFP: Big powers to hold crucial meeting on Iran with UN sanctions in view - 

 Thu Oct 5, 7:44 PM ET 		 	 

LONDON (AFP) - The six major powers confronting Iran" /> over its 
nuclear ambitions hold a crucial meeting Friday in London that 
the US and Britain hope will lead to the drafting of a UN 
sanctions resolution next week. 

After a flurry of diplomatic phone calls and signs of reticence
from key partners in the group, the foreign ministers of
Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US agreed to
Friday's gathering, officials said. 

The encounter will cap off an extraordinary, weeks-long attempt
by European Union" /> foreign policy chief Javier Solana to
convince Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program as
demanded by a UN Security Council resolution. 

Solana admitted this week that the effort had failed to sway the
Islamic Republic's hardline leaders, who reject claims by the US
and others that the enrichment program is aimed at producing
fissile material for nuclear bombs. 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> said Friday's
meeting, which involves the five veto-wielding permanent UN
Security Council members plus Germany, would shift the Iran
effort from negotiations to punishment. 

"What the ministers are going to do... is to say 'We've done the
Solana effort, and now we'll have to move to sanctions'," she
said during a surprise visit to Baghdad. 

Britain's ambassador to the United Nations" /> , Emyr Jones
Parry, said earlier Thursday that once the so-called P5-plus-1
ministers give the green light, discussions would begin at the
UN next week on a sanctions resolution. 

Britain "will be discussing with its partners and with members
of the council the basis for action by the council to adopt
measures under Article 41 against Iran," he said. 

Article 41 of the UN Charter allows the Security Council to
impose diplomatic and economic sanctions on member nations to
enforce compliance with its resolutions. 

But despite the confident statements from the US and Britain,
there were no indications either Russia or China, both economic
allies of Iran, had backed away from their strong reticence to
use sanctions. 

The two countries' foreign ministers were the last to confirm
their participation in Friday's meeting, a senior diplomatic
source here said, holding up a decision to go ahead with the
gathering for several hours. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on a visit to Warsaw
Thursday, still showed little eagerness to move ahead with
sanctions. 

"We will continue with the diplomatic effort, even though some
are in favor of sanctions as of now," he said. 

Senior diplomats from the six nations who have been working on
an initial package of sanctions to use against Iran will also
meet in London Friday to pursue their work, the State Department
said. 

Washington has been pressing its partners to impose a
progressive series of sanctions against Iran since Tehran missed
an August 31 deadline set in an earlier Security Council
resolution demanding an end to uranium enrichment. 

Iran, one of the world's major oil producers, says the
enrichment program is to provide fuel for nuclear power plants.
The United States and others believe it is to produce fissile
material to make nuclear bombs. 

Rice agreed at a six-power meeting in New York last month to
give Solana until this weekend to convince Iran to comply with
the UN resolution in exchange for a package of economic and
diplomatic rewards. 

Solana on Thursday admitted his efforts had failed so far and
that "the time of negotiations of course is not infinite." 

Rice has said the US wants a graduated series of sanctions, to
be implemented through multiple UN resolutions that would ramp
up pressure on Iran if it persists with its nuclear program. 

The first set of measures is expected to focus on preventing the
supply of materiel and funding for Iran's nuclear or ballistic
missile programs. 

Other steps could include asset freezes and travel bans on
officials linked to Tehran's weapons programs. 

Even if China and Russia agree to the first set of sanctions,
many analysts say the timid measures being considered would have
little immediate impact. 

"You can get a peanut of a sanctions resolution passed by the
UN, but it won't be strong enough to significantly affect Iran's
behavior," said Joseph Cirincione, a non-proliferation expert at
the American Center for Progress in Washington. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 6 AFP: Ministers to thrash out Iran over dinner in London - diplomat -

 Thu Oct 5, 7:41 AM ET 		 	 

LONDON (AFP) - Foreign ministers of the six major powers will 
discuss the Iran" /> crisis over dinner in London Friday, a 
diplomatic source said, although British authorities were 
refusing to confirm the talks. 

The ministers from Britain, China, France, Russia, the United
States and Germany will gather from late afternoon before an
evening session seeking a compromise to persuade Iran to suspend
nuclear enrichment, the source said. 

The six powers agreed to set a new deadline this week for Iran
to comply with a UN resolution demanding it freeze its uranium
enrichment programme, which Washington and others believe is a
cover for developing nuclear weapons. 

Otherwise there is growing talk of imposing sanctions on Tehran. 

After the London talks Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett was
expected to sum up the meeting on behalf of the so-called
P5-plus-1 group -- the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council plus Germany, said the source. 

The meeting was expected to agree that Iran "does not want to
negotiate and draw conclusions from that," the European source
told AFP. 

The decision to hold the London talks, which have been rumoured
for some days, was confirmed by a Russian foreign ministry
spokesman in Moscow, quoted by the Interfax news agency. 

But the British Foreign Office has so far refused to confirm
them. A spokesman said Thursday morning that nothing had yet
been decided. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 7 AFP: Rice to attend six power meeting on Iran 

 Thu Oct 5, 4:33 PM ET 		 	 

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> will 
attend a six power meeting on the Iranian nuclear crisis in 
London, her spokesman told reporters. 

 "She looks forward to getting a good and productive meeting,"
the State Department's Sean McCormack said. Earlier, Britain
said ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and
the United States would attend. 

There had been some doubt as to whether China and Russia would
attend, but McCormack said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov had indicated to Rice that he would be there. 

The talks could place in the afternoon and early evening, he
said. 

Next week the United Nations" /> Security Council is expected to
begin discussing diplomatic or economic sanctions against Iran"
/> , following failed efforts to convince Tehran to freeze the
development of nuclear fuel. 

Washington in particular regards Iran's theocratic government as
a rogue regime and has accused Tehran of using its civil nuclear
power programme as a cover for alleged plans to secretly develop
atomic weapons. 

Iran furiously denies this. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 8 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. to Weigh Possible Sanctions on Iran
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday October 5, 2006 10:16 PM

AP Photo NY190 

By EDITH M. LEDERER 

Associated Press Writer 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council will start
discussing possible sanctions on Iran next week following
Tehran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment - but Russia
believes it is too soon and further efforts are needed to push
Iran to negotiate, diplomats said Thursday. 

Senior officials from the six key nations dealing with Iran -
Russia, China, the U.S., Britain, France and Germany - will meet
Friday in London to discuss what to do next about the failure of
European-Iranian talks to convince Tehran to suspend its
enrichment program, Britain's Foreign Office said. 

The ministers are likely to confirm that the European-Iranian
talks are at a standstill and issue a statement referring the
Iran file back to the Security Council and stating the
principles they agree on, a senior council diplomat said,
speaking on condition of anonymity because talks are still
taking place. 

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said he expects ``the
Iran dossier'' to return to the council ``in the course of next
week.'' He said Britain ``will be discussing with its partners
and with members of the council the basis for action by the
council to adopt measures under Article 41 against Iran.'' 

Article 41 of the U.N. Charter authorizes the Security Council
to impose sanctions that do not involve the use of armed forces
such as economic penalites, breaking diplomatic relations or
banning air travel. The council gave Iran until Aug. 31 to
suspend enrichment in return for a package of incentives or face
punishments under Article 41, but the council has held off any
action because of talks between European foreign policy chief
Javier Solana and Iran's top negotiator Ali Larijani. 

Solana conceded Wednesday that ``endless hours'' of talks with
Larijani had made little progress and suggested the dispute
could wind up at the U.N. soon. But he stressed Thursday that
dialogue with Iran must continue even if nuclear talks fail. 

``I think that even if we fail now we should keep the doors open
for dialogue with Iran,'' Solana said in Rome, where he was
meeting top Italian officials. ``We shall not spare any effort
to try to move forward when it is possible. It is not possible
at the moment, but that doesn't mean it will not be possible
later.'' 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Thursday his
country would not be frightened by threats to impose sanctions. 

``Those who threaten Iran by sanctions and embargo should know
that this nation lived under the hardest situation in the past
27 years and achieved nuclear technology. This nation will not
be frightened by the threats,'' state-run television quoted
Ahmadinejad as saying. 

Iran insists that its enrichment of uranium is purely for
peaceful purposes to be used for nuclear energy. But the United
States and many European nations are concerned that Iran wants
to enrich uranium to produce nuclear weapons. 

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow remains
opposed to sanctions against Iran at this time. 

``Some members of the six nations already want to impose
sanctions against Iran. We, however, think first we must
continue multilateral actions,'' he said. 

``I think that until all diplomatic possibilities have been
exhausted, sanctions would be extreme,'' Lavrov told reporters
in Warsaw after meeting with his Polish counterpart. ``I think
we need to do all we can to push Iran toward starting
negotiations.'' 

Later, he accused the United States of ``complicating'' the
six-nation talks with Iran. 

``Unfortunately, the unilateral American law complicates the
work of the sextet in a collective format,'' Lavrov was quoted
as saying by Interfax on his return to Moscow. ``It was agreed
that we would do everything together, including the analysis of
the situation and working out measures of action.'' 

Lavrov did not elaborate, but he was apparently referring to
legislation signed by U.S. President George W. Bush on Sept. 30
toughening unilateral sanctions on Tehran. The new law imposes
mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services
for Iran's weapons program. 

The House of Representatives had debated the wisdom of
strengthening U.S. sanctions while Washington was trying to work
in the U.N. on a multinational approach to Iran's nuclear
threat. 

On Tuesday, diplomats said Western council members - the United
States, Britain and France - favor an embargo on sales of
nuclear or missile technology to Tehran as a first sanctions
step. That would be followed by other sanctions, including
travel bans on Iranian officials and the freezing of their
assets. 

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said
Thursday any measures against Iran must be ``progressive,
proportionate and reversible'' without specifying what those
steps might be. 

--- 

Associated Press writers Ryan Lucas in Warsaw and Ariel David in
Rome contributed to this report. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 9 UPI: Iran: Sanctions will not stop enrichment
     
  United Press International - NewsTrack - 

10/4/2006 11:46:00 PM -0400

TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Iran's president said Wednesday
sanctions would not stop his country from enriching uranium. 

He also declared April 9 "Nuclear Technology Day." 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pledge followed comments by the European
Union's foreign policy chief Wednesday that the matter would
likely be referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible
sanctions because talks had all but reached a dead end, The New
York Times reported. 

A coalition of the United States, Britain, France, Germany,
Russia and China has been working since early June to persuade
Iran to suspend its work on uranium enrichment as a precondition
to discussing a package of incentives for Iran to abandon its
nuclear program entirely. 

Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and
does not violate international law. The United States contends
this is a cover for the development of nuclear weapons. 

Ahmadinejad said he chose April 9 as Nuclear Technology Day
because that is the day when Iranian scientists "succeeded in
completing nuclear fuel circle and Iran joined the handful of
countries which have access to this technology," the official
IRNA news agency said.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 10 UPI: Rice says time's run out for Iran
     
  United Press International - NewsTrack - 

        10/5/2006 10:49:00 AM -0400
 
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Time has run out for Iran
and its ongoing uranium enrichment and United Nations sanctions
are required, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
Wednesday. 

"I think we have come to a time when the Iranians have to make
their choice, and the international system has to act
accordingly," Rice said at a news conference in the West Bank
city of Ramallah, where she was meeting with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas. 

Rice said the world community has been more than patient with
Iran dating back to an October 2003 agreement where Iran agreed
not enrich uranium, but then restarted earlier this year. 

Throughout the debate, Russia and China -- two permanent members
of the Security Council -- have opposed sanctions, and
encouraged more diplomacy. However, the Voice of America
reported U.S. diplomats said there is a consensus for an early
move to sanctions starting with curbs on Iran's ability to
acquire weapons-related technology. 

Talks among the five permanent Security Council members --
Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States -- along
with Germany could take place Friday in London, the report said.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 11 Guardian Unlimited: 6 Nations to Meet, Talk Action on Iran
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday October 5, 2006 11:16 PM

AP Photo NY190 

By BETH GARDINER and EDITH M. LEDERER 

Associated Press Writers 

LONDON (AP) - The U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and
Russia will confer Friday in London to assess Iran's defiant
refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. They are expected to
refer the nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council for talks
next week on possible sanctions, diplomats said Thursday. 

Russia's foreign minister, however, said he believes it is too
soon to impose sanctions on Iran and that further efforts are
needed to push Tehran to negotiate. 

To avoid alienating the Russians and the Chinese, any sanctions
are likely to be relatively mild, including embargoes on missile
and nuclear technology, and possible travel bans and other
penalties on Iranian officials involved in their country's
nuclear program. 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Thursday his
country would not be frightened by threats to impose sanctions. 

``Those who threaten Iran by sanctions and embargo should know
that this nation lived under the hardest situation in the past
27 years and achieved nuclear technology. This nation will not
be frightened by the threats,'' state-run television quoted
Ahmadinejad as saying. 

Iran insists that its enrichment of uranium is purely for
peaceful purposes to be used for nuclear energy. But the United
States and many European nations believe Iran wants to enrich
uranium to produce nuclear weapons. 

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Foreign Secretary
Margaret Beckett and French Foreign Minister Philippe
Douste-Blazy were to attend the London meeting, the British
Foreign Office and France's foreign ministry said. However,
State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington
that the U.S. would be represented by Undersecretary of State
Nicholas Burns. 

Germany, Russia and China will also send high-level officials to
the talks, scheduled for 5 p.m. Of the six nations at the
meeting, only Germany is not a permanent member of the U.N.
Security Council. 

The officials were likely to confirm that the European-Iranian
talks aimed at persuading Tehran to suspend its enrichment
program are at a standstill, a senior U.N. Security Council
diplomat said. They will also probably issue a statement
referring the case back to the Council and listing the
principles on which they agree, according to the diplomat, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because talks were still taking
place. 

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said he expects ``the
Iran dossier'' to return to the council ``in the course of next
week.'' He said Britain ``will be discussing with its partners
and with members of the council the basis for action by the
council to adopt measures under Article 41 against Iran.'' 

Article 41 authorizes the Security Council to impose sanctions
that do not involve the use of armed forces - such as economic
penalties, breaking diplomatic relations or banning air travel. 

Iran was initially referred to the Security Council in February
by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear
watchdog, which said Tehran's suspicious activities represented
breaches of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The
Vienna-based agency also said it could not be sure Iran was not
trying to make weapons. 

The council gave Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend enrichment in
return for a package of incentives or face punishments under
Article 41, but the council has held off on any action because
of talks between European foreign policy chief Javier Solana and
Iran's top negotiator Ali Larijani. 

Solana conceded Wednesday that ``endless hours'' of talks with
Larijani had made little progress and suggested the dispute
could wind up at the U.N. soon. But he stressed Thursday that
dialogue with Iran must continue even if nuclear talks fail. 

``I think that even if we fail now we should keep the doors open
for dialogue with Iran,'' Solana said in Rome, where he was
meeting top Italian officials. ``We shall not spare any effort
to try to move forward when it is possible. It is not possible
at the moment, but that doesn't mean it will not be possible
later.'' 

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow remains
opposed to sanctions against Iran at this time. 

``Some members of the six nations already want to impose
sanctions against Iran. We, however, think first we must
continue multilateral actions,'' he said. 

``I think that until all diplomatic possibilities have been
exhausted, sanctions would be extreme,'' Lavrov told reporters
in Warsaw after meeting with his Polish counterpart. ``I think
we need to do all we can to push Iran toward starting
negotiations.'' 

Later, he accused the United States of ``complicating'' the
six-nation talks with Iran. 

``Unfortunately, the unilateral American law complicates the
work of the sextet in a collective format,'' Lavrov was quoted
as saying by Interfax on his return to Moscow. ``It was agreed
that we would do everything together, including the analysis of
the situation and working out measures of action.'' 

Lavrov did not elaborate, but he was apparently referring to
legislation signed by President Bush on Sept. 30 toughening
unilateral sanctions on Tehran. The new law imposes mandatory
sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's
weapons program. 

The House of Representatives had debated the wisdom of
strengthening U.S. sanctions while Washington was trying to work
in the U.N. on a multinational approach to Iran's nuclear
threat. 

On Tuesday, diplomats said Western council members - the United
States, Britain and France - favor an embargo on sales of
nuclear or missile technology to Tehran as a first sanctions
step. That would be followed by other sanctions, including
travel bans on Iranian officials and the freezing of their
assets. 

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said
Thursday any measures against Iran must be ``progressive,
proportionate and reversible'' without specifying what those
steps might be. 

--- 

Lederer reported from the United Nations. Associated Press
Writers Ryan Lucas in Warsaw and Ariel David in Rome also
contributed to this report. 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 12 Guardian Unlimited: Rice flying in for Iran talks
 
[UP] 

Press Association 

Thursday October 5, 2006 10:38 PM

High-level talks on the Iranian nuclear stand-off will take
place in London ON Friday, the Foreign Office announced. 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will fly into London to
join Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and representatives from
France, Germany, Russia and China. 

The so-called EU3+3 will discuss the latest situation days after
the UK warned it was ready to seek economic sanctions against
the Tehran regime. 

Talks between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's
chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani failed to secure a
suspension of Iran's nuclear enrichment programme. 

And a British official said on Tuesday that preparations were
under way to table a draft resolution at the United Nations
Security Council in New York under Article 41 of the UN Charter
which allows for economic sanctions. 

"Unless there is a sudden unexpected change of heart by the
Iranians, we can expect this to move to New York in the coming
week or so," he said. 

A Foreign Office spokesman would not give any details of the
discussions but said they were "pleased" all six nations had
agreed to come together. 

They would be looking for a way forward, he added. 

The ministers agreed last month, during the UN General Assembly
meeting in New York, that if Iran refused to suspend uranium
enrichment work - a key step in developing a nuclear weapon -
they would seek a new Security Council resolution under Article
41. 

International efforts to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear
programme have been continuing for the past three years. Tehran
has already ignored a UN deadline of August 31 to suspend
enrichment work. The country's hardline president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, has said he would not halt enrichment work for "one
day". 

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 13 N. Korea Says It Will Conduct Nuke Test
 
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 18:01:34 -0500 (CDT)

Oct 3, 7:14 AM (ET)

By BO-MI LIM

(AP) This is a October 28, 2005, photo released by China's Xinhua News
Agnecy showing North Korean... Full Image

Google sponsored links Off Duty Officers - Armed Security Company 24/7
Armed Security Services www.offdutyofficers.com

Security Consulting Firm - We help manage risk through executive
training programs. www.sbrisksolutions.com

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea said Tuesday that it will conduct
a nuclear test to bolster its self-defense capability amid what it calls
increasing U.S. hostility toward the communist regime.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said that the
U.S. would bring up North Korea's statement for discussion Tuesday
morning in a regular meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

"A nuclear test by North Korea would be extraordinarily serious," Bolton
said in an interview with The Associated Press. "The threat is serious
enough that we're certainly going to take this action in the council
this morning, by raising it."

Using the acronym for the country's official name, the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, the North's Foreign Ministry said in the
official English translation of its statement that: "The DPRK will in
the future conduct a nuclear test under the condition where safety is
firmly guaranteed."

The statement gave no precise date of when a test might occur.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso called the purported nuclear test
plan a threat to peace, and said a nuclear test would have graver
implications than North Korean missile tests in July. Aso called the
North's self-described plan "totally unforgivable," and said Japan would
react "sternly" if the North conducted a nuclear test, according to
Kyodo News agency.

China, North Korea's neighbor, ally and chief benefactor, had no
immediate comment. The North Korean announcement appeared to have caught
Chinese officialdom off-guard, coming in the midst of a weeklong
National Day holiday.

Pyongyang has said it has nuclear weapons, but is not known to have
conducted any test to prove its claim. It has not mentioned a nuclear
test in previous public statements.

"The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure
compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for
bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defense,"
said the statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central News
Agency.

The North's "nuclear weapons will serve as reliable war deterrent for
protecting the supreme interests of the state and the security of the
Korean nation from the U.S. threat of aggression and averting a new war
and firmly safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean peninsula
under any circumstances," the statement said.

Multilateral talks on the North's nuclear program have been stalled for
almost a year. Pyongyang has boycotted the six-nation talks to protest
U.S. financial restrictions imposed for its alleged illegal activity,
including money laundering and counterfeiting.

The North said Tuesday that its ultimate goal is "to settle hostile
relations between the DPRK and the U.S. and to remove the very source of
all nuclear threats from the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity,"
accusing the U.S. of posing a nuclear threat in the region.

---_

Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein contributed to this report
from New York.




 
*****************************************************************
 14 ICH: U.S. Won't Accept Nuclear N. Korea
 
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 19:35:17 -0500 (CDT)

X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-Spam-Class: HAM

The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an
energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average
share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to
fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement
on the one hand and terrorism on the other. (Bertrand Russell:
Freedom, Harcourt Brace, 1940)

=== "Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man
have come through people feeling quite certain about something
which, in fact, was false." : Bertrand Russell

=== Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as
the source of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and
hostility to unbelievers; it asks of its disciples that they should
inhibit natural kindliness in favor of systematic hatred. - Bertrand
Russell, Unpopular essays

=== Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about
the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the
liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth
of a private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the
democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism  ownership
of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling
private power. (FDR: message to Congress proposing the monopoly
investigation, 1938)

=== "Philosophy should always know that indifference is a militant
thing. It batters down the walls of cities and murders the women
and children amid the flames and the purloining of altar vessels.
When it goes away it leaves smoking ruins, where lie citizens
bayonetted through the throat. It is not a children's pastime like
mere highway robbery." : Stephen Crane

=== Read this newsletter online http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

RSS FEED http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/rssfeed.xml

News Syndication

You can include the headlines from this newsletter on your own
website free of charge
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/syndicate.htm

=== Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America's War? More
Than 250,000 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11674.htm

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged)
In Bush's War 2736 http://icasualties.org/oif/

The War in Iraq Costs $331,785,350,395

See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

===

October 5 - Day of Mass Resistance

On October 5, people everywhere will walk out of school, take off
work, and come to the downtowns & townsquares and set out from
there, going through the streets and calling on many more to join
us - making a powerful statement: "NO! THIS REGIME DOES NOT REPRESENT
US! AND WE WILL DRIVE IT OUT!"

http://tinyurl.com/q43vf

=== U.S. Won't Accept Nuclear N. Korea

By Dafna Linzer

The Bush administration delivered a secret message to North Korea
yesterday warning it to back down from a promised nuclear test, and
it said publicly that the United States would not live with a
nuclear-armed Pyongyang government.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15225.htm

=== War or Rumors of War?

By Frida Berrigan

According to Time, the Navy has issued Prepare to Deploy Orders
(PTDOs) to a strike group including minesweepers, a submarine, an
Aegis class cruiser, and a mine hunter. Taken alongside disclosures
that the chief of naval operations asked his planners for a rundown
of how a blockade of Iranian oil ports would work, these military
preparations led Time to conclude cautiously that the United States
may be preparing for war with Iran.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15226.htm

=== The Real Foley Scandal is Much Bigger than Foley

By Dave Lindorff

How are we to compare the Republican Party's cover-up of a member's
efforts to corrupt young pages with the same party's conspiracy to
cover up the Bush administration's ineptness and possible foreknowledge
of the 9-11 attacks, and of the campaign of lies and misinformation
it used to drum up hysteria for an illegal and totally unwarranted
invasion of Iraq?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15224.htm

=== Will November Bring Hope or Another Stolen Election?

By Paul Craig Roberts

The Democrats, of course, have done nothing to protect us from Bushs
illegal war or from his assaults on the Constitution and civil
liberty. Democrats have been intimidated by the threat of being
politically placed in the against us camp, and Democrats are as
much in the pockets of AIPAC, the oil industry, and the military-industrial
complex as Republicans.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15227.htm

=== Iraq: At least 65 killed as U.S. occupation grinds on:

A total of 30 bodies, most of them shot and tortured, were found
in different districts of Baghdad during the past 24 hours, a source
in the Interior Ministry said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM530810.htm

=== 13 U.S. occupation troops killed in Baghdad in last 3 days :

Thirteen U.S. occupation soldiers have been killed in Baghdad since
Monday, the American military reported, registering the highest
three-day death toll for U.S. forces in the capital since the start
start of the war http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15136737/

=== U.S. Mercenary killed in Iraq:

Guy Barattieri was an Army Reservist, but was working as a contractor
when he was killed.

http://tinyurl.com/kvlqt

=== 700 police relieved of duty in effort to uproot death squad
connections:

Iraqi authorities pulled a brigade of about 700 policemen out of
service Wednesday in its biggest move ever to uproot troops linked
to death squads, aiming to signal the government's seriousness in
cleansing Baghdad of sectarian violence.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/news/ci_4444497

=== Marines Plead "not guilty" in murder of Iraqi Civilian:

Two Marines pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murdering an Iraqi
civilian in Hamdaniya and then trying to cover up the crime.

http://tinyurl.com/kr3cy

=== How Al Qaeda views a long Iraq war:

A letter from Al Qaeda leaders found in Iraq shows that the group
sees the war as a boon for its cause.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1006/p01s04-woiq.html

=== US in Iraq : Some US Generals want Donald Rumsfeld to resign :

A group of Generals has called on US Defense Secretary, Donald
Rumsfeld, to resign.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/5410762.stm

=== Iraq's universities and schools near collapse as teachers and
pupils flee:

"The militias from all sides are in the universities. Classes are
not happening because of the chaos, and colleagues are fleeing if
they can," said Professor Saad Jawad, a lecturer in political science
at Baghdad University.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329593191-103550,00.html

=== Termination set for Iraq monitor:

Congress has set a 2007 termination date for the special inspector
general for Iraq reconstruction at the behest of the Bush administration,
removing the source of a series of audit reports that have emboldened
critics of the president's war polices.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061003-104001-2200r.htm

=== Iraq: The only solution left:

If we want to stop the relentless slide into anarchy, the answer
is to establish a UN protectorate
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2388886,00.html

=== British find no evidence of arms traffic from Iran:

Since late August, British commandos in the deserts of far southeastern
Iraq have been testing one of the most serious charges leveled by
the United States against Iran: that Iran is secretly supplying
weapons, parts, funding, and training for attacks on US-led forces
in Iraq.

http://tinyurl.com/g4326

=== Security Council set to weigh sanctions against Iran next week:

The UN Security Council is expected to begin discussions next week
on a resolution to impose sanctions on Iran for its failure to halt
uranium enrichment, Britain's UN envoy said
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/061005/1/43vhw.html

=== Russia slams US unilateral move on Iran:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday slammed Washington
for acting unilaterally in the crisis over Irans nuclear programme
and urged the world powers to continue diplomatic efforts to resolve
the standoff with Teheran.

http://tinyurl.com/zzawh

=== U.S. Kills More Canadians In Occupied Afghanistan:

U.S. jets mistakenly strafed Canadian occupation soldiers in
Afghanistan on Monday, killing one and bringing to five the number
of Canadian troops killed during a major push against the Taliban
this weekend.

http://tinyurl.com/fyay4

=== US set to cut deal with Taliban: A

larm bells are going off in the US political and strategic community
over the Bush administration's weighing the option of bringing
Taliban back into the power equation in Afghanistan.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2091218.cms

=== Afghanistan Inc.:

New Report Says "Contractors Making Big Money for Bad Work"

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/05/1430204

=== Blast and rocket find spark fears of plot to kill Musharraf:

Pakistani bomb disposal experts defused two ready-to-fire rockets
apparently aimed at President Musharraf hours after an explosion
near his home http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2390127,00.html

=== North Korea calls for US troop pullout:

NORTH Korea called today for the withdrawal of US forces stationed
in South Korea, a day after it announced it would carry out a nuclear
test.

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,20524597-5005361,00.html

=== 'Too late' to stop N Korea's bomb:

Mr Shen's judgment that nothing can be done to stop Pyongyang
becoming a fully fledged nuclear state deepened the grim mood in
other capitals yesterday.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,20527132,00.html

=== Opec 'to cut oil production':

Any reduction would aim to stem a price slide that has brought
prices to just under $60 a barrel - 25% lower than prices were in
mid-July, Opec trackers say.

http://tinyurl.com/fjhrh

=== Five Palestinians Killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza:

Palestinian health officials reported that a 35-year-old mother was
killed by a tank round in the Rafah fighting and that a man was
killed by gunfire. Later in the day, three Palestinians who witnesses
said were tending goats near the Jabalya refugee camp in northern
Gaza were killed by Israeli fire http://tinyurl.com/hols5

=== Israel Occupation Forces Have Killed Twice As Many Children as
In 2005:

Ninety-one Palestinian children have already been killed this year
in the West Bank and Gaza, almost double the number for the whole
of 2005, with youngsters suffering increasing levels of stress from
violence and fear in the Israeli-Palestinians conflict, according
to the latest United Nations Childrens Fund
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20148&Cr=palestin&Cr1=

=== Olmert tells Rice Israel interested in boosting Abbas:

Abbas on Wednesday vowed to fire the Hamas-led government before
the end of the month unless it changed its policies, accepted
Israel's right to exist, and recognized all the agreements that
were signed with Israel.

http://tinyurl.com/h2pmt

=== More Details on U.S. Plan to Improve Abbas Security :

A proposed plan to intensify security around Palestinian Authority
President and Fatah faction chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)
includes http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=113096

=== Refuseniks: IDF employs apartheid regime:

The group of youths that signed a letter two weeks ago refusing to
be soldiers of the occupation hung banners saying the same from Tel
Aviv highway bridges Thursday.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3311436,00.html

=== Bush Opposed to Israeli Withdrawal from the Golan :

According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot,
U.S. President George W. Bush is opposed to an Israeli withdrawal
from the Golan Heights and a resumption of negotiations with Syria.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=113064

=== URI AVNERY: Peace with Syria:

Peace with Syria would mean giving back the Golan Heights (Syrian
territory by any definition). No peace, no need to give them back.

http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery10052006.html

=== U.S. Financial Aid To Israel:

Figures, Facts, and Impact http://www.wrmea.com/us_aid_to_israel/index.htm

=== Lieberman Queries Lamont Over Commitment to Israel :

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman questioned his opponents commitment to
Israel at a fund-raiser in Manhattan yesterday, saying he had
received important support from several Democrats who have been
critical of Israel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/nyregion/05lieberman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

=== Pigs at the trough:

Oregon House speaker discloses trip to Israel paid for by private
group :

The seven-day trip in November 2005 was sponsored by the Portland
Jewish Federation, and that State Treasurer Randall Edwards went
on the trip as well.

http://www.dailytidings.com/2006/1003/stories/1003_minnis_israel.php

=== Putin warns against using language of blackmail with Russia: -

Russia will not submit to blackmail from anyone, Russia's president
said Wednesday in a clear reference to a diplomatic row with Georgia
over spying allegations.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20061004/54520814.html

=== Possible police role in 2002 Bali attack:

Indonesian police or military officers may have played a role in
the 2002 Bali bombing, the country's former president, Abdurrahman
Wahid says.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/10/12/1128796591857.html

=== Chavez denies being anti-US:

What we are against is the imperial elite and that is very different.
: Aljazeera Interviews President Chavez of Venezuela
http://tinyurl.com/jsspr

=== Stephen Lendman : Alvaro Vargas Llosa Sends Hugo Chavez to
Dante's Inferno:

Since 1999, Hugo Chavez not only reduced poverty in Venezuela, he's
greatly improved the living standards of his people from the non-cash
benefits these programs provide.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15228.htm

=== Bolivia Delegation Urges U.S. to Notify Ex-President Sanchez
de Lozada of Obligation to Return to Trial for 2003 Massacre:

Sanchez de Lozada, Carlos Sanchez Berzain and Jorge Berindoague
have all resided in the US since fleeing Bolivia in 2003 following
a citizen's uprising that removed them from power.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/05/1429255

=== Terror tactics return in Argentina :

A wave of threats against court officials and the disappearance of
a key witness in a human rights trial have led to fears among some
Argentinians that the terror tactics of the military dictatorship
of the 1970s may have returned.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/argentina/story/0,,1887683,00.html

=== Terrorists On No-Fly List: List Includes President Of Bolivia,
Dead 9/11 Hijackers :

The National Security News Service, has obtained the secret list
used to screen airline passengers for terrorists and discovered it
includes names of people not likely to cause terror, including the
president of Bolivia, people who are dead and names so common, they
are shared by thousands of innocent fliers.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/05/60minutes/main2066624.shtml

=== Heather Wokusch : Now That You Could be Labeled an Enemy
Combatant... :

Since Congress recently handed Bush the power to identify American
citizens as "unlawful enemy combatants" and detain them indefinitely
without charge, it's worth examining the administration's record
of prisoner abuse as well as the building of stateside detention
centers.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1004-35.htm

=== Envoy says U.S. errs as Brits did with IRA :

"Every time we fail to stand by our values we act as recruiting
sergeants for terrorists," he said. He called for the shutdown of
the U.S. detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=101867&ntpid=2

=== EU considers visa snub against US :

The European Commission has suggested making US diplomats apply for
visas, in retaliation for the US's refusal to waive visas for people
of 10 EU states.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5408000.stm

=== Software Being Developed to Monitor Opinions of US:

A consortium of major universities, with Homeland Security Department
funds, is developing software that would let the government monitor
negative opinions of the United States or its leaders. - The
"sentiment analysis" is intended to identify potential threats to
the nation, security officials said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/04/news/scan.php

=== This web site represents the effort of one person.

I need your help to offset the costs associated with site hosting
and bandwidth usage. If you find this site informative please help
by clicking here http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/support.htm

=== Peace & Joy Tom Feeley === Liberty can not be preserved without
general knowledge among people." (August 1765) John Adams

_____________________________ Change address / Leave mailing list:
http://ymlp.com/u.php?feminine+rich@math.missouri.edu Hosting by
YourMailingListProvider
*****************************************************************
 15 Guardian Unlimited: Report: S.Korea Warns North on Nuke Test

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday October 5, 2006 11:31 AM

AP Photo SEL805 

By JAE-SOON CHANG 

Associated Press Writer 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun
has ordered his government to send a ``grave warning'' to North
Korea about the consequences of a threatened nuclear weapons
test, Yonhap news agency reported Thursday. 

Roh also ordered the government to draw up a ``contingency
plan'' if the nuclear standoff with North Korea worsens, Yonhap
said, citing unidentified presidential staff. 

At the same time, Roh instructed the South Korean government to
step up diplomatic efforts to forestall a North Korean test, the
report said. 

Roh's orders came after a meeting with his top security adviser,
according to Yonhap. 

Calls to the presidential office went unanswered on the first
day of a three-day holiday. 

North Korea threatened Tuesday to conduct a nuclear test to
prove the country is a nuclear power. Pyongyang claims it has
nuclear weapons and needs them to deter a U.S. attack, but
hasn't performed any known test to verify that. 

The North's announcement prompted outcry from a host of nations
including China, the North's main ally. Beijing's ambassador to
the United Nations urged Pyongyang Wednesday not to go ahead
with a test, warning of ``serious consequences.'' 

Wang Guangya said at the U.N. that ``no one is going to
protect'' North Korea, if it goes ahead with ``bad behavior.'' 

``I think if North Koreans do have the nuclear test, I think
that they have to realize that they will face serious
consequences,'' Wang said Wednesday. 

The comment was China's most forceful public response yet to its
ally's announcement Tuesday, and a break with Beijing's usual
conciliatory strategy of avoiding warnings to or criticism of
the North. 

Beijing - the North's main source of food and fuel aid - had
previously appealed for restraint but hasn't said what it might
do if Pyongyang detonates a bomb. 

The rebuke could spell trouble for North Korea, which faces a
relatively united front against its nuclear aspirations, in
sharp contrast to the fractured reaction to a series of North
Korean missile tests in July. At that time, China accused Japan
of overreacting in calling for sanctions. 

Earlier Thursday, a pro-North Korean newspaper based in Japan
warned that Pyongyang was not bluffing. 

``The nuclear test statement was not empty language, but
announced on the premise of action,'' the Choson Sinbo said.
``Carrying out a nuclear test is an inevitable conclusion ...
under a condition where (the country) declared possession of
nuclear weapons in February last year.'' 

The paper, run by an association of North Korean residents in
Japan, is not part of the North's official media but is
considered one of its propaganda tools. Its articles are
believed to reflect the country's position. 

It hedged its warning by saying the crisis can be overcome if
the U.S. begins to take action toward denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula with ``the same goal'' of North Korea. 

In his first reaction to the North's announcement, Roh called
Wednesday for a ``cool-headed and stern'' response and ordered
his government to let the North know what the consequences would
be if it goes ahead with a test. 

---- 

Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this
report from the United Nations. 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 16 Guardian Unlimited: Moscow to Try Prevent N.Korea Nuke Test
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday October 5, 2006 12:01 PM

AP Photo SEL805 

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
said Thursday that Moscow was working with the government of
North Korea to try to dissuade it from testing a nuclear weapon. 

``We must do everything so that that doesn't happen,'' Lavrov
said during a news conference on a visit to Warsaw. ``We are
working with the leadership of North Korea to stop steps that
could negatively impact the situation.''	 
		 	 	   

      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
*****************************************************************
 17 BBC: Russians 'in N Korea test talks'
 
Last Updated: Friday, 6 October 2006
 
[Sergei Lavrov ]

Mr Lavrov said North Korea must be persuaded back to talks

Russia says it is in direct contact with North Korea to try to 
prevent it from carrying out its plan to test a nuclear weapon. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was talking
to the North Korean leadership in an attempt to dissuade it from
conducting a test. 

Pyongyang's announcement on Tuesday triggered worldwide alarm. 

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said he was ready to
travel to Pyongyang to try to resolve the crisis. 

Mr Ban is the front-runner to replace Secretary General Kofi
Annan, whose term expires at the end of the year. 

In an interview published on Friday, Mr Ban told the Financial
Times newspaper that in this role he would be "in a much better
position to handle this issue" than Mr Annan. 

Possible nuclear test site at Gil

Mr Lavrov, for his part, said Moscow was working directly with
the North Korean government to ease the situation. 

"We are all very worried about this," the minister told
reporters while on a visit to Poland. 

"We are talking about moves we can take and working directly
with the leaders of North Korea to try to convince them to hold
back from committing any act which could worsen the situation." 

Mr Lavrov said that in the interests of the non-proliferation of
nuclear weapons and security on the Korean peninsular, it was
important that North Korea returned to the six-party
negotiations. 

Aid deal 

North Korea says it possesses nuclear weapons, but this has not
been independently verified. 

Pyongyang has been involved in on-off six-party talks with
Russia, the US, China, Japan and South Korea to resolve the
crisis over its nuclear programme. 

The most recent round of talks ended in September 2005, with a 
deal which promised economic aid in return for Pyongyang 
scrapping its nuclear ambitions. 

That agreement, however, appears to have fallen apart over 
disagreements on its implementation. 

North Korea has not specified where or when a nuclear test might 
be carried out. 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a nuclear test by 
North Korea would be a "very provocative act". 

White House spokesman Tony Snow said on Thursday it was 
"enormously important" that North Korea was not allowed to 
develop nuclear weapons. 

But he said US warnings did not amount to a "lethal threat"
against Pyongyang. 

In continuing diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, South
Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is due to hold talks with US
President George W Bush in Washington. 

His visit comes amid talks of a split between Washington and
Seoul on how to handle Pyongyang, after President Roh appeared
to downplay North Korea's recent missile tests. 		 	 		 	 	 
*****************************************************************
 18 washingtonpost.com: Answering North Korea - 

It's up to South Korea and China to make clear that a nuclear
bomb test by Pyongyang would be intolerable.

Thursday, October 5, 2006; Page A32

NORTH KOREA'S threat to conduct a nuclear test is first and 
foremost a threat to its closest neighbors, China and South 
Korea. Pyongyang's emergence as a nuclear power would create a 
grave danger for their people and would probably transform 
regional security in East Asia in ways that both Beijing and 
Seoul would find harmful. Among other consequences, Japan might 
choose to build its own nuclear arsenal. South Korea's policy of 
seeking closer relations with the North and China's complementary 
strategy of propping up the totalitarian dictatorship of Kim Jong 
Il will have produced not stability but a potentially 
far-reaching destabilization.

The United States would be threatened, too, because of the
30,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea. But North Korea
appears to be a long way from developing a missile that can
reach the United States. Its provocative test in July, like a
previous one in 1998, was a flop. A North Korean bomb test,
meanwhile, is likely to empower those in the Bush administration
who have been arguing for much tougher steps to isolate the
North.

It follows that the South Korean and Chinese governments ought
to be leading the effort to stop North Korea from going forward.
They, more than the United States or the United Nations, have
the means to exert pressure. Without the energy and food aid
they supply, and China's willingness to close its borders to
North Korean refugees, the Kim dictatorship would almost
certainly collapse. Most experts believe the North is not
bluffing when it says it could detonate a nuclear warhead, but
whether it does will probably depend on international reaction
to this week's threat.

So far the Chinese and South Korean responses look weak. A
spokesman in Seoul said a test would cause a "shift" in the
government's engagement policy but hastened to add that it
wouldn't abandon the policy altogether. Beijing, meanwhile,
seemed to resist a U.S. and Japanese effort to have the U.N.
Security Council issue a strong warning to Pyongyang. It's not
hard to imagine Mr. Kim reading such reactions as a virtual
green light.

The North's latest provocation produced the usual claims that
the United States was somehow at fault for failing to "engage"
the dictatorship. Yet the Bush administration has made it clear
that it will be open to a broad security dialogue if the North
returns to the multiparty negotiations it has boycotted for the
past year. Just last month the senior U.S. negotiator again
offered to meet his North Korean counterpart to discuss how
talks could resume. There was no response.

Instead of demanding that Washington answer the threats of a
criminal regime with appeasement or bribery, those who want to
prevent a North Korean bomb test should be insisting on action
by the governments that now shirk their responsibility to stand
up to that regime -- South Korea and China.
 	 
The Washington Post Company: 	 	
*****************************************************************
 19 washingtonpost.com: Pyongyang Warned on Weapon Testing - 

U.S. Won't Accept Nuclear N. Korea

By Dafna LinzerWashington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, October 5, 2006; Page A20

The Bush administration delivered a secret message to North 
Koreayesterday warning it to back down from a promised nuclear 
test, and it said publicly that the United States would not live 
with a nuclear-armed Pyongyang government.

North Korea "can have a future or it can have these weapons. It 
cannot have both," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. 
Hill said yesterday in remarks at Johns Hopkins University's 
U.S.-Korea Institute. It was the toughest response yet from the 
Bush administration, coming two days after Pyongyang announced 
plans to conduct its first nuclear test.

Transcript
North Korea Threatens Nuclear Test

David C. Kang, co-author of "Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on
Engagement Strategies," and an associate professor of government
at Dartmouth College, discusses North Korea's announcement that
it plans to test a nuclear weapon.
 
Hill did not explain how the administration would respond to a
test, but he said it is willing to sit with North Korean
officials and diplomats from the region to discuss the crisis.
"We will do all we can to dissuade [North Korea] from this
test," he said. State Department officials said Hill is
considering a trip to Asia to discuss options with key allies.

"We are not going to live with a nuclear North Korea, we are not
going to accept it," Hill said. He said the United States had
passed along a private warning through North Korea's diplomatic
mission to the United Nations in New York.

North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for as many as
11 nuclear bombs. It announced in February that it had succeeded
in building a weapon, although intelligence analysts believe it
is still years away from being able to deliver one.

Tuesday's statement did not set a date for a test. Senior
intelligence officers and some administration officials said
they had no clear signs indicating when one might occur.

"In terms of how much time they need and how far along they are,
we don't know if it's even realistic" to test in the near term,
said one official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in
discussing classified intelligence estimates. State Department
deputy spokesman Tom Casey said U.S. officials are looking at
"all kinds of information" related to the possibility of a test.

Topographical changes resulting from a test would be visible to
U.S. satellites, officials said. The test could also be detected
by ground-based seismic sensors, some owned by U.S. intelligence
and others by international monitoring stations set up to detect
and deter nuclear tests around the world.

Several government analysts suggested that a test could come as
early as Sunday, the anniversary of Kim Jong Il's appointment as
head of the Korean Workers' Party, in 1997. It may also be timed
to coincide with an election at the United Nations on Monday
during which Ban Ki Moon, South Korea'sforeign minister, is
expected to be chosen as the next U.N. secretary general.

In a private phone conversation with Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice yesterday, Ban offered to mediate between
Washington and Pyongyang should he be selected as the next U.N.
chief, according to an official briefed on the call.

Bush's top advisers held an emergency meeting about North Korea
on Tuesday to review a number of strategies under consideration
but came away with little agreement. Officials briefed on the
meeting, chaired by national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley,
said the participants discussed a range of options for
restarting talks with Pyongyang and coaxing allies such as
Chinaand South Korea to adopt a tough line in the face of
threats. "It was the first in a series of meetings we're going
to have to hold," said one official who agreed to discuss it on
the condition of anonymity. "There has been no major policy
shift or change in anything at this point," the official said.

The State Department issued a worldwide communique to foreign
governments afterward reiterating the administration's belief
that a test would destabilize the region.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton discussed
the matter with the Security Council, Casey said. The United
States hopes "to see some action there in the near future," he
added.

But Bolton said that, already, there are disagreements among
council members about how to respond and that a Japanese
initiative to send a council warning to Pyongyang lacks support.

North Korea's nuclear capabilities have grown significantly
during Bush's presidency. When he came into office six years
ago, intelligence agencies estimated that North Korea had the
capability to make one or two nuclear weapons. As the potential
arsenal has grown to as high as 11, the administration has
rebuffed calls to sit down directly with North Korea.

Copyright 1996- The Washington Post Company | User
*****************************************************************
 20 AFP: Russia talking 'directly' with NKorea over nuclear test 

Thursday October 5, 01:29 PM 

 (Adds further comments by Lavrov)

 WARSAW (AFX) - Moscow is 'holding direct talks with the leaders
of North Korea' to try to prevent Pyongyang carrying out a test
of a nuclear weapon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said
here.

 'We are all very worried about this. We are talking about moves
we can take and working directly with the leaders of North Korea
to try to convince them to hold back from committing any act
which could worsen the situation,' Lavrov told reporters. 

'The entire situation has to be weighed without bringing in any
emotion. We must think of the security of the entire Korean
peninsula and of the necessity to uphold the non-proliferation
of nuclear weapons,' he said.

 Yesterday, Lavrov held talks by telephone with his South Korean
counterpart Ban Ki-moon on North Korea's announcement that it
would conduct a nuclear weapons test.

 During the phone conversation, Lavrov and Ban agreed on 'the
unacceptable nature of acts like this, which can only serve to
worsen the situation and complicate the resumption of six-party
talks', the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. 
Russia and South Korea have been engaged, along with China,
Japan and the US, in negotiations with North Korea designed to
reduce international tensions over its nuclear ambitions.

COPYRIGHT
   
 Copyright © 2006 AFP AFX. All rights reserved. Republication or
*****************************************************************
 21 AFP: Japan, US push divided UN to punish North Korea 

 by Shaun Tandon Thu Oct 5, 7:36 AM ET 		 	 

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan has called on a divided UN Security Council 
to impose tough sanctions on North Korea" /> North Koreaif it 
tests an atom bomb, but Pyongyang warned it would not back down 
unless the United States compromises. 

 Stoking regional jitters, the United States said Thursday it
had detected possible preparations for a nuclear test and a
leading South Korean newspaper predicted the communist regime
could detonate a bomb as early as next week. 

Amid divisions at the UN Security Council, a senior Japanese
official on a visit to Washington backed invoking a chapter of
the UN Charter authorizing far-reaching sanctions or
theoretically military action. 

"In the event that North Korea conducts a nuclear test, it would
inevitably be necessary to seek a resolution with Chapter VII at
the UN Security Council," vice foreign minister Shotaro Yachi
said. 

New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, well known for his hard
line on Pyongyang, is set on Sunday to visit China and South
Korea" /> South Koreawhich have cautioned against further
isolating their communist neighbor. 

"A good discussion has to take place at the United Nations" />
United Nationsto make the North realize that if the country
continues taking such actions it would be in an even more severe
situation," Abe told parliament. 

North Korea on Tuesday dramatically raised the stakes in the
long-running standoff over its nuclear programme by announcing
it would test a bomb at an unspecified date. 

Chosun Sinbo, a newspaper published by ethnic Koreans in Japan
and seen as representing Pyongyang's view, warned Thursday that
a test was "unavoidable" unless the United States adopted a more
conciliatory stance. 

"The DPRK (North Korea) statement on a nuclear test is not empty
talk but clearly premised on action," the newspaper said in a
dispatch from Pyongyang, according to its Korean-language
website. 

Japan and the United States already have imposed most of the
sanctions at their disposal against the impoverished nation,
which conducts the bulk of its trade with China and South Korea. 

The North, which last year declared itself nuclear-armed, has
boycotted six-nation disarmament talks since November to protest
one set of US sanctions aimed at blocking it from money
laundering and counterfeiting. 

But even after Tuesday's statement there was no sign of
unanimity at the Security Council, which rebutted Japanese and
US attempts to invoke Chapter VII after North Korea test-fired
seven missiles in July. 

Christopher Hill, the US lead negotiator to stalled six-party
talks, said Washington had warned the North Koreans against a
test via their mission at the United Nations. 

"I am not prepared at this point to say what we are going to do,
but I am prepared to say we are not going to wait for a nuclear
North Korea. We are not going to accept it," Hill said. 

But South Korea, whose Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon is set to be
the next UN secretary general, went ahead and shipped thousands
of tons of cement to the North as part of aid for recent floods. 

"Before North Korea pushes ahead with a nuclear test we have to
gravely warn of the consequences," President Roh Moo-Hyun" />
Roh Moo-Hyunsaid, "through various channels and stepped-up
diplomatic efforts to resume dialogue amd negotiation." 

The Security Council's 15 ambassadors were due to meet again on
Thursday to study a Japanese draft "presidential statement,"
which is non-binding. 

Japan is willing to downgrade it even to a simple press
statement so it can be passed as quickly as possible before any
test, chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said in
Tokyo. 

A US intelligence official said unusual movement had been
detected at one of several suspected test sites in North Korea. 

"The bottom line is they could conduct it with little or no
warning," said the official, who spoke to AFP in Washington on
condition of anonymity. 

South Korean daily Dong-a Ilbo put two dates on the watchlist
for a test -- Sunday, October 8, marking leader Kim Jong-Il
taking leadership in the ruling Workers Party, and October 10,
marking the party's birthday. 

The newspaper predicted the North Koreans could also pick
October 9, when Abe is due to make his maiden visit to South
Korea as prime minister. 

It said the North Koreans had timed the planned test ahead of
November 7 US midterm elections in which the Republican party of
President George W. Bush" /> President George W. Bush-- who
branded Pyongyang part of an "axis of evil" -- is predicted to
lose seats. 

But senior Japanese officials said they had no signs yet that a
test was imminent. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 22 AFP: US and Japan seek sanctions against North Korean nuclear test -
    
 Thu Oct 5, 5:38 PM ET 		 	 

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The United States and Japan urged the UN 
Security Council to threaten North Korea" /> North Koreawith 
sanctions if it tests a nuclear weapon as Russia sought to stop 
Pyongyang from testing a bomb. 

A day after the United States said it had detected possible
preparations for a nuclear test, the US military reportedly
launched a plane capable of detecting atomic particles. 

A South Korean newspaper predicted a test could take place next
week. 

At the United Nations" /> United Nations, Security Council
experts worked on a Japanese non-binding statement urging
Pyongyang "not to undertake such a test and to refrain from any
action that might aggravate tension." 

The US delegation requested that the text be amended to include
a threat to resort to mandatory sanctions, including an arms
embargo and other trade and financial sanctions under Chapter
Seven of the UN charter if a test occurs, diplomats said. 

Japanese vice foreign minister Shotaro Yachi backed invoking
Chapter Seven, which can authorize far-reaching sanctions or
even theoretically military action in cases of threats to
international peace and security. 

"In the event that North Korea conducts a nuclear test, it would
inevitably be necessary to seek a resolution with Chapter
Seven," Yachi said in Washington. 

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the European Union"
/> European Unionwould support sanctions against North Korea if
the communist state conducts a test. 

"If that happens it will be no doubt some decisions will be
taken at the Security Council and the European Union will
support them," he said. 

New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who takes a hard line on
Pyongyang, is set on Sunday to visit China and South Korea" />
South Koreawhich have cautioned against further isolating their
communist neighbor. 

"A good discussion has to take place at the United Nations to
make the North realize that if the country continues taking such
actions it would be in an even more severe situation," Abe said. 

Meanwhile, Russia was "holding direct talks with the leaders of
North Korea" to try to prevent Pyongyang carrying out its test,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Warsaw. 

"We are all very worried about this," Lavrov said. 

North Korea on Tuesday raised the stakes in its nuclear dispute
with the rest of the world by announcing it would test a bomb at
an unspecified date. 

Chosun Sinbo, a newspaper published by ethnic Koreans in Japan
and seen as representing Pyongyang's view, warned Thursday that
a test was "unavoidable" unless the United States adopted a more
conciliatory stance. 

"The DPRK (North Korea) statement on a nuclear test is not empty
talk," the newspaper said in a dispatch from Pyongyang. 

Japan and the United States already have imposed most of the
sanctions at their disposal against the impoverished nation,
whose main trade partners are China and South Korea. 

The North has boycotted six-nation disarmament talks since
November to protest US sanctions aimed at blocking it from money
laundering and counterfeiting. 

Christopher Hill, the US lead negotiator to the stalled talks,
said Washington had warned the North Koreans against a test via
their mission at the United Nations. 

"I am not prepared at this point to say what we are going to do,
but I am prepared to say we are not going to wait for a nuclear
North Korea. We are not going to accept it," Hill said. 

A US military plane that can monitor nuclear tests flew from a
US airbase in Okinawa, Japan, in the direction of the Korean
peninsula Wednesday, Japanese media said. The Pentagon" />
Pentagondeclined to confirm or deny the reports. 

A US intelligence official said Tuesday unusual movement had
been detected at one of several suspected test sites in North
Korea. 

"The bottom line is they could conduct it with little or no
warning," said the official, who spoke to AFP in Washington on
condition of anonymity. 

A South Korean newspaper, Dong-a Ilbo, put two dates on the
watchlist for a test -- Sunday, October 8, marking the
anniversary of leader Kim Jong-Il taking leadership in the
ruling Workers Party, and October 10, marking the party's
birthday. 

The newspaper predicted the North Koreans could also pick
October 9, when Abe is due to make his maiden visit to South
Korea as prime minister. 

But senior Japanese officials said they had no signs yet that a
test was imminent. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 23 AFP: Security Council mulls nuclear sanctions against North Korea -
    
Thursday October 5, 10:31

 By Gerard Aziakou 

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council resumed
bargaining over a non-binding statement that would threaten an
arms embargo and trade sanctions against North Korea if it
conducts an atom bomb test.

Experts from the 15-member council sought to fine tune a
Japanese statement urging Pyongyang "not to undertake such a
test and to refrain from any action that might aggravate
tension."

At the request of the United States, the text was amended to
include a threat to resort to mandatory sanctions, including an 
arms embargo and other trade and financial sanctions under 
Chapter Seven of the UN charter, if the Stalinist state conducts 
a nuclear test, diplomats said.

Japanese vice foreign minister Shotaro Yachi, on a visit to
Washington, backed invoking Chapter Seven which can authorize
sanctions or even theoretically military action in cases of
threats to international peace and security.

 "In the event that North Korea conducts a nuclear test, it
would inevitably be necessary to seek a resolution with Chapter
Seven," Yachi said.

Japan's UN envoy Kenzo Oshima, which chairs the council this
month, said he hoped a text could be finalized by Friday. "No
one is objecting to issuing a statement," he noted.

But his Chinese counterpart, Wang Guangya, later said the United
States and Russia had come up with new amendments that will
require new talks.

The Japanese text "demands that the DPRK (North Korea) withdraw
its threat to test, return immediately to the six-party talks
without precondition and work toward the expeditious
implementation" of its pledge made in September 2005 to abandon
its nuclear weapons program in exchange for trade and security
benefits.

Pyongyang has boycotted the talks with China, Japan, South
Korea, Russia and the United States since last November in
response to US sanctions against a bank linked to the regime of
Kim Jong-Il.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said
his government expected a "strong Security Council statement"
Friday afternoon.

"We're going to continue to work both bilaterally and
multilaterally on this issue, with the main goal, first and
foremost, of convincing the North Koreans not to go ahead with a
test," he added.

If the North Koreans carry out the test, Casey said: "We are
open to considering a full range of diplomatic actions" but
played down any talk of military action like a naval blockade.

"Should they go ahead with a test, we would expect to see
...sanctions pursued under Chapter Seven," he added, without
elaborating.

Diplomats said the measures under consideration would go beyond
missile-related sanctions ordered by the UN Security Council in
July after North Korea launched seven missiles, including a
long-range Taepodong-2 believed to be capable of striking US
soil.

North Korea announced on Tuesday that it would test a bomb,
though it gave no date.

Once an acceptable text has been agreed by the experts it will
be sent to the ambassadors for approval, diplomats said. Several
delegations, including Russia and China, have been awaiting
instructions from their governments.

The United States said Wednesday it had detected possible
preparations for a nuclear test and a leading South Korean
newspaper predicted there could be an explosion as early as next
week.

Christopher Hill, the US lead negotiator to stalled six-party
talks, said Washington had warned the North Koreans against a
test via their mission at the United Nations.

"I am not prepared at this point to say what we are going to do,
but I am prepared to say we are not going to wait for a nuclear
North Korea. We are not going to accept it," Hill said. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 24 AFP: US military response to North Korean test called unlikely -
     
 by Jim Mannion Thu Oct 5, 7:09 PM ET 		 	 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A North Korean nuclear test is unlikely to 
bring on a US military response because the risk of an all-out 
regional conflict far outweighs what air strikes might 
accomplish, analysts said. 

 US envoy Christopher Hill hinted at a possible military
response when he declared Wednesday: "We are not going to live
with a nuclear North Korea" /> North Korea. We are not going to
accept it." 

His comments were the US government's toughest yet since North
Korea announced that it intends to conduct its first nuclear
test to bolster its deterrent against US threats and sanctions. 

But experts consulted here said the United States has no viable
military options, and if it did strike North Korea it would
invite potentially devastating retaliation against Japan or
South Korea" /> South Korea. 

"What would we attack?" said Robert Einhorn, a former assistant
secretary of state for non-proliferation. 

Einhorn said the United States suspects North Korea has a
uranium enrichment program and enough plutonium for 10 or 11
weapons. But, he said, "We don't have a clue where it is." 

"What would we be gaining with a military strike?" 

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon" />
Pentagonspokesmen have refused to comment on what preparations
the US military is taking in anticipation of a North Korean
nuclear test. 

Japanese news reports said a US WC-135 aircraft equipped to
gather and test air samples for signs of a nuclear blast took
off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa on a monitoring mission off
North Korea. US military spokesmen would not comment on the
report. 

The United States has submarines and warships armed with cruise
missiles in the Pacific and long-range B-52 bombers in Guam that
could be used if President George W. Bush" /> President George
W. Bushordered air strikes. 

Analysts acknowledge that air strikes are not entirely outside
the realm of possibility. 

Former defense secretary William Perry and a former top Pentagon
strategist, Ashton Carter, called in June for cruise missile
strike to stop North Korea from testing a long-range Taepodong-2
missile. 

Their idea was ignored and the North Korean missile failed
shortly after launch on July 4-5. 

But it was the first time that military action was seriously
raised as an option after years of fruitless diplomatic efforts
to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program. 

"This is a far more threatening development than the missile
test and so the balance will tilt somewhat in the direction of
that argument," said Michael Levi, an expert on the Council on
Foreign Relations, in an online question and answer session
hosted by the CFR. 

"Now, where it balances out is difficult to tell because there
are still immense downsides and dangers to any sort of strike,"
said Levi. 

North Korea could inflict massive casualties in Seoul with its
11,000 artillery pieces and large stockpile chemical rounds,
experts say. 

Although North Korea is not known to have armed missiles with
nuclear warheads, some analysts say it should not be ruled out. 

John Pike, director of Global Security.Org, cites nuclear
cooperation between the North Koreans and Pakistanis, and
speculates that Pakistan may have tested a North Korean warhead
in one of two nuclear tests conducted in 1998. 

"North Korea may well have nuclear warheads on top of missiles
today," said Bruce Bennett, a North Korea expert at Rand
Corporation, a Washington think tank. 

"And if we go and start attacking like their nuclear facilities
that they are producing plutonium at, they may well decide that
their best response is to launch a nuclear missile at Seoul or
Tokyo or someplace like that," he said 

If Washington were to opt for limited air strikes, it might
target the small nuclear reactor at Yongbyon that has been North
Korea's sole source of the plutonium so far. 

But bombing it would risk creating a large radioactive cloud,
Bennett said. 

Two larger partially built reactors at Yongbyon and Taechon
would be more logical targets if the United States aims to
contain North Korea's future plutonium production. 

But Michael O'Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings
Institution, said a major military response to the kind of
nuclear test that other countries have conducted would not be
easy to justify. 

"And if we did too much the North Koreans could retaliate and
this would lead to an escalation. Once things get going, there's
no way of knowing where they'll stop," he said. 	 		 			

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 25 UPI: Satellite sees N. Korean nuclear activity
     
United Press International - NewsTrack - 

10/5/2006 2:45:00 PM -0400

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. satellites have found evidence
that North Korea is preparing for an underground nuclear test,
the Times of London reported. 

The satellites detected an increase in movements around one
suspected nuclear site. 

"We have seen some activity in the area -- personnel, vehicles,
materials, things of that nature," an unnamed official told the
newspaper. 

The governments of Russia and China have joined the United
States, Japan and South Korea in warning North Korea not to go
through with the test announced this week. But they are divided
on how to respond, with Russia and China favoring negotiations
to get North Korea back to the six-party talks while Japan urges
a U.N. Security Council resolution that would make Pyongyang
even more isolated.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 26 UPI: Analysts say N. Korean nuclear test likely
     
 United Press International - NewsTrack - 

10/5/2006 11:42:00 AM -0400

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- North Korea is feeling cornered and
its testing of a nuclear bomb is very likely to happen soon, a
number of analysts told the Financial Times. 

"The reality is that U.S. policies over the last decade have
failed to stop North Korea from becoming a nuclear state and now
they are ready to take the next step and prove it," said Jon
Wolfsthal, a nuclear specialist at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington. 

Tuesday, North Korea announced it would conduct a test based on
the United States' "threat of a nuclear war and its vicious
sanctions and pressure," but offered no date. 

"They look at this as an act of war," Daniel Pinkston of the
Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif., told
the Financial Times. He said if Pyongyang went ahead with the
test, it would almost have to take place before mid-November to
avoid heavy snowfalls. 

Bruce Klingner of the Eurasia Group, a political consultancy,
said the country was in a full-blown economic crisis because of
the sanctions, and flexing its muscles. 

"North Korea is feeling cornered so there is a greater chance
than in the past of something happening," Klingner said to the
Financial Times. "It's an internationally nerve-wracking time."

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 27 Guardian Unlimited: Rumsfeld Ponders Nuke Test Ramifications
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Thursday October 5, 2006 11:46 PM

AP Photo WX104 

By LOLITA C. BALDOR 

Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said
Thursday if North Korea successfully tests a nuclear weapon, it
will show weakness on the part of the international community. 

``And that failure ... is something that the international
community would have to register and ask itself how comfortable
are we being that ineffective in this situation,'' Rumsfeld told
reporters at the Pentagon during a visit by Croatian Defense
Minister Berislav Roncevic. 

His comments came as U.S. officials warned North Korea anew not
to test a nuclear weapon. 

``It isn't in their interest and it isn't in anyone's
interest,'' Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the
top U.S. negotiator on the communist country's nuclear program,
told AP Television. ``We will not accept a nuclear state.'' 

Rumsfeld also said that a successful North Korean test could
prompt other countries to pursue nuclear weapons. 

``Because of the ineffectiveness, and the lack of cohesion and
the inability to marshal sufficient leverage to prevent North
Korea from proceeding toward a nuclear program ... it will kind
of lower the threshold, and other countries will step forward
with it,'' Rumsfeld said. 

He added that depending on whether the test is above or below
ground, the United States has as good a capability of detecting
it as any country. But he declined to say whether or not it
would trigger any U.S. military action. 

``I wouldn't be the person who would make a decision like that.
That's a decision for the country, and a decision for
president,'' Rumsfeld said. 

The United States has sent a message of ``deep concern'' to the
North through diplomatic channels at the United Nations in New
York, Hill said Wednesday, adding that the North Koreans had
received it and had not yet responded. 

The North Korean announcement gave no date for any test, but
U.S. intelligence agencies are keeping close watch over activity
at possible test sites in the North, even while cautioning
against reading too much into every movement. 

The United States and North Korea have no diplomatic relations
outside deadlocked six-nation nuclear talks and rarely
communicate with each other so directly. 

Hill would not discuss policy options, but he said senior U.S.
diplomats, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, were
in steady communication with their counterparts in Asia and
Europe. 

In the event of a nuclear test, Hill said, ``We would have no
choice but to act and act resolutely to make sure (North Korea)
understood, and make sure every other country in the world
understands, that this is a very bad mistake.'' 

U.S. and international officials also said the U.N. Security
Council would consider sanctions against the North if the test
occurs. 

A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity
because of the highly sensitive situation with North Korea, said
the United States is now seeing the movement of people,
materials and vehicles and other activity around one possible
test site. But, the official said, it could be similar to
activity seen a couple of months ago. No test occurred then. 

The United States has spy satellites and other eavesdropping
equipment aimed at North Korea, including ground-based seismic
sensors. 

While North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may decide to hold the
test, it cannot be ruled out that Tuesday's threat was
saber-rattling, an effort to force a change in stalled nuclear
negotiations or some other motivating factor. 

--- 

Associated Press writers Barry Schweid, Katherine Shrader and
Foster Klug contributed to this report. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 28 UPI: U.N. considers N. Korea nuke test reax
     
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - 

10/5/2006 4:31:00 AM -0400

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Days after North Korea's
announced it planned to conduct nuclear tests, the U.N. Security
Council is still working to respond with an official reaction. 

After a closed meeting Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton
said it is critical for the 15-member group to "speak very
resolutely on this and not just in a knee-jerk reaction with
another piece of paper." 

Referring to the more than 30,000 U.S. troops stationed in the
region he said, "North Korea's even threatening to conduct a
nuclear test is a grave provocation." 

Ambassador Kenzo Oshima of Japan said there were "different
views as to the approach that should be taken," but did not
elaborate. 

Japan and the United States urged Pyongyang to return to the
six-party talks consisting of China, Japan, South Korea, Russia
and the United States. 

Furthermore, the Japanese government circulated a draft council
statement Wednesday urging North Korea to "return immediately to
the six-party talks without precondition." 

Pyongyang's withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003
precipitated the creation of the six-party talks, which fell
apart in November 2005. 

Nevertheless, the council working toward an official statement
is still an initial stage of diplomacy. 

The 15-member panel is far from issuing the strongest rebuke to
North Korean officials -- a Chapter VII resolution giving the
world body authorization to use military and non-military means
to "maintain or restore international peace and security." 

North Korea has repeatedly called on the United States to hold
bilateral talks, while the U.S. government has pressed instead
for multilateral talks with leaders in the region. 

When asked about how the United States would entice the North
Koreans to rejoin the six-party talks, Bolton joked they should
"buy a plane ticket to Beijing."

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 29 Middle East Newsline: IAEA FUNDS QATARI NUKE PROJECTS 

ABU DHABI [MENL] -- The International Atomic Energy Agency plans 
to finance nuclear projects in Qatar.

Officials said the IAEA would fund five Qatari nuclear energy 
projects worth $1 million. The projects included an early-warning 
network for nuclear accidents and emergencies.

"The IAEA will provide over $1 million to implement the 
projects," Qatari Supreme Council for Environment and Natural 
Reserve secretary-general Khaled Al Madid said.

On Oct. 1, Al Madid said a 14-member agency team would visit
Qatar to assess the project. He said the team would facilitate
the project under the agency's Technical Cooperation Program,
meant to transfer nuclear technology to members. 

 editor@menewsline.comfor further details.





*****************************************************************
 30 Bellona: $12 billion deal in works with China â€“ if Russia can produce

+ In a possible $12 billion deal, China is prepared to
commission Russia to build from six to eight reactor units at
the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant, Rosatom chief Sergei Kirienko
told the President Vladimir Putinâ€™s cabinet on Wednesday, the
Interfax Russian news agency reported. 05/10-2006 


"China is prepared to give us the right to build from six to
eight power generating units," said Kirienko, who recently
returned from talks in Beijing, according to Interfax.

The estimated cost for building a reactor is some $1.5 billion,
thus Russia stands to gain a $12 billion windfall  if it can
come up with the materials, resources and know-how to fulfill
Chinas demands. 

China has rejected fast turbine reactors, which constitute the
first and second reactor units that are already being built by
Rosatoms foreign construction wing Atomstroiproekt at the
Tianwan power plant, opting instead for slow turbine reactors.
The sticking point, said Kirienko, is that Russia does not
produce slow turbine reactors. 

"They need slow turbines which are not made in Russia,"
Kiriyenko told the cabinet.

China is also one of the largest sponsors of Rosatom's floating
nuclear power plant programme and has lent it several milion
dollars in hopes of being a repeat customer for these
environmentally questionable mobile off-shore installations. At
the same time, China has also invested millions more in
alternative energy strategies, which, coombined with nuclear
power, will help it meet its Kyoto Protocol requirements. 

Rosatom is considering several ways of solving the slow turbine
problem for the Tianwan NPP, Interfax reported. "We are in talks
with all of the world's manufacturers of such turbines,"
Kirienko said. 

The production of slow turbines in Russia would allow Moscow to
reap an additional profit of $800m to $1.6 billion. The cost of
one turbine is estimated at $100m to $200m, the Gazeta.ru news
website reported. 

According to Kirienko, several foreign firms have already
expressed interest in helping Russia get its slow turbine
production on it feet. They have all come to us and we are in
negotialtions, he said, according to Gazata Ru. 

Kirienko has laid out strict conditions for any joint ventures
with foreign or domestic slow turbine producers, said Gazeta.ru.
First, production must take place in Russia. Second, potential
partners must have technology that Rosatom has not already
mastered, and third, production of the slow turbines and their
spare parts must be as localised as possible in Russia. 

Kirienko said that one especially promising prospect was a joint
venture with the Russian firm Heavy Machinery, which already
produces fast turbines, but it is unclear if they are able to
build the required slow turbines required by Beijing. 

Another variant under consideration is a partnership the
Kharkov, Ukraine Truboatom, which does produce slow turbines.
Other companies further a-field that have the necessary
technology include Siemens, Westinghouse, BNFL, Alstom and
General Electric, Gazeta.ru quoted Rosatom officials as saying. 

Print Notify a friend Copyright Â© Bellona -- Reprint and
copying is recommended if source is stated ï»¿ Support Bellona's
work for the environment - Phone +47 23 23 46 00 | E-MAIL:
info@bellona.no 
*****************************************************************
 31 NRC: Notice of Sunshine Act Meeting
 
                         FR Doc 06-8530 
[Federal Register: October 5, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 193)] 
[Notices] [Page 58884] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05oc06-85]                         
 
Agency Holding the Meetings: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Date: Week of October 9, 2006.
 
Place: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland.
 
Status: Public and Closed.
 
Additional Matters to be Considered: Week of October 9, 2006 
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 12:55 p.m. Affirmation Session (Public 
Meeting) (Tentative). a. Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and 
Energy Nuclear Operations, Inc., (Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station 
and Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station), Massachusetts Attorney 
General's Petition for Backfit Order (Tentative).
 
* * * * * Additional Information Affirmation of Entergy Nuclear 
Operations, Inc., (Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station), Massachusetts 
Attorney General's Petition for Backfit Order, tentatively 
scheduled for Thursday, October 5, 2006, at 12:55 p.m. has been 
rescheduled tentatively on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 12:55 
p.m. * * * * * The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to 
change on short notice. To verify the status of meetings call 
(recording)--(301) 415- 1292. Contact person for more 
information: Michelle Schroll, (301) 415- 1662.
 
* * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the 
Internet at: 
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html. * * * 
* * The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with 
disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable 
accommodation to participate in these public meetings, or need 
this meeting notice or the transcript or other information from 
the public meetings in another format (e.g. braille, large 
print), please notify the NRC's Disability Program Coordinator, 
Deborah Chan, at 301-415-7041, TDD: 301-415-2100, or by e-mail at 
DLC@nrc.gov. Determinations on requests for reasonable 
accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.
 
* * * * * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred 
subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like 
to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the 
Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301-415-1969). In addition, 
distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is 
available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission 
meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic 
message to dkw@nrc.gov. Dated: October 2, 2006.
 
R. Michelle Schroll, Office of the Secretary.
 
[FR Doc. 06-8530 Filed 10-3-06; 10:40 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M

 
*****************************************************************
 32 Main Today: Maine Yankee owners win suit

 The U.S. government must pay $75 million for failing to remove
used reactor fuel rods from Wiscasset. --> 

Staff and news services Thursday, October 5, 2006

Operators of three closed nuclear power plants, including Maine 
Yankee in Wiscasset, have been awarded $143 million because the 
government has failed to take away their used reactor fuel rods.
The award by the U.S. Federal Court of Claims settles a 
longstanding legal fight waged by operators of the three 
reactors. The others are in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

It also could foreshadow a series of additional financial awards 
to operators of reactors nationwide who have argued that the 
federal government broke contractual agreements that promised the 
waste would be taken by 1998.

The award, granted by Court of Claims Judge James Merow on 
Saturday, was unsealed on Wednesday.

It gives $32.9 million in damages to Yankee Atomic Electric Co., 
operator of the Yankee Rowe reactor in Massachusetts; $34.1 
million to Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co., operator of the 
Connecticut Yankee reactor; and $75.8 million to Maine Yankee 
Atomic Power Co., operator of the Maine Yankee reactor.

The companies had asked for $177 million.

Company officials said the decision does not solve the underlying 
problem that sparked the lawsuit -- the government's failure to 
meet a deadline to dispose of spent nuclear fuel that is today 
being stored in above-ground facilities in three New England 
states.

"We hope this ruling will spur the U.S. Department of Energy to 
begin fulfilling its obligation," said Michael Thomas, vice 
president and chief financial officer of the three Yankee 
companies.

Thomas said in an interview that he expects the government to 
appeal the decision. There was no immediate comment from the 
Energy Department on the issue.

The money would be used to reimburse ratepayers for some of the 
three plants' decommissioning costs, he said.

The federal government collected $24 billion from nuclear plants 
over more than a decade to pay for waste storage, and was 
obligated to take used reactor fuel from commercial power plants 
by 1998. The government missed the 1998 deadline because it 
doesn't have a place to put the spent fuel.

A proposed central repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is 
behind schedule in being completed.

The used reactor fuel remains in above-ground, dry cask storage 
at the sites near Wiscasset, Rowe, Mass., and Haddam, Conn.
Yankee Rowe was shut down in 1992 and the other two reactors 
closed in 1997.

The Yankee company first asked the court to order the Energy 
Department to dispose of the rods, but the request was denied, 
said Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes.
The court said the company could sue the federal government for 
monetary damages, Howes said.

He said the latest order allows the company to seek additional 
damages if the government does not collect the spent rods.

Howes said the company will continue to lobby politicians to have 
the spent fuel removed.

He said the company expects the Yucca waste site to be licensed 
by mid-2007 and ready to receive fuel by 2017. The site was once 
expected to open in 2010.

In a written statement Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, 
D-Maine, chastised the energy department for dragging its feet on 
the Yucca Mountain site.

The three reactors operated by the Yankee companies are each 
owned by as many as eight New England utilities.

-- Staff Writer Elbert Aull contributed to this report.

MaineToday.com reader comments are occasionally printed in the
 Copyright © 2006, Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc. 	 
*****************************************************************
 33 Popular Mechanics: The Next Atomic Age - 

America's nuclear power plants will soon have to be
replaced--but with what?

By Alex Hutchinson
Photographs by Dan Winters              

Published in the October, 2006 issue.          

Leaning over the rail of the metal catwalk, I peer down through
16 ft. of crystal-clear water at the cool, blue glow coming from
the shapes at the bottom: partially spent uranium fuel rods.

"Blue," says Joel Duling, my guide to America's most
sophisticated nuclear test reactor, "not green like on The
Simpsons." The narrow canal snakes under the catwalk and makes a
dogleg through an opening in the wall into the reactor area, a
cavernous room that feels like a jet hangar. The top of the
Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) pokes unobtrusively above the
concrete floor. Most of the 35-ft.-high steel cylinder housing
the reactor core lies underground. The chain reaction occurring
there produces 250 megawatts--enough to power 201,000 homes.

But, the ATR does something more important than generate energy.
The machine tests fuels and alloys against the extreme
conditions expected in exotic new reactors--radical designs that
could produce power in molten salt, snap together like LEGOs and
operate without water, safely and affordably fulfilling the
decades-old dream of clean, abundant nuclear power.

The test reactor, part of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Idaho
National Laboratory (INL), sits on an 890-square-mile tract of
land known simply as â€œThe Site.â€ Located 45 minutes from
Idaho Falls in the southeastern corner of the state, this swath
of windswept desert is the epicenter of American nuclear energy
research. Over the past half century, 51 reactors have been
built here, including first-generation prototypes of the 1950s;
only three still operate. But it is among the relics of these
early experiments that the country's energy future is taking
shape. 

In recent years, the debate over nuclear power has moved to the
front burner, spurred by concerns about foreign oil and the
specter of global warming. But what many on both sides of the
issue often fail 			 		 			 				 				 				to note is that
America's 103 existing nuclear reactors are aging. Over the next
few decades, they will have to be decommissioned--taking 20
percent of the country's electrical supply with them. 

In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress approved up to $2.95
billion in incentives for new nuclear plants, and set aside
another $1.25 billion for an experimental reactor to be built
here in the Idaho desert. The reactor will be the centerpiece of
a modern-day Manhattan Project, with scientists from around the
world working together to revolutionize the production of
nuclear power.                                            

NUCLEAR SHORTCUT

At the heart of every reactor is fuel--usually 
uranium--undergoing a chain reaction that generates heat and 
fast-moving neutrons. A coolant draws away the heat and uses it 
to spin a turbine to generate electricity, and a moderator slows 
the neutrons to keep the reaction under control. Any material 
used in building a reactor has to withstand the heat--as well as 
intense pressure and a constant barrage of neutrons--for the 
reactor's projected lifetime. To prove that a new alloy can last 
25 years, you could put it in a furnace for 25 years and bombard 
it with neutrons--or, if you don't want to wait that long, you 
can use the ATR.

"It is like a time machine," says Duling, the facility's former 
deputy director. The reactor uses uranium enriched to 92 percent 
(anything more than 20 percent is considered weapons-grade) to 
generate a quadrillion neutrons per square centimeter per 
second--100 to 1000 times greater than commercial reactors. By 
cranking up the neutron dose, the ATR can simulate as much as 40 
years of wear and tear on a new fuel or alloy in a single year.

The test reactor is a simple water-cooled model built in 1967. 
But by tuning the pressure, temperature and chemistry inside its 
core, scientists can use it to reproduce the conditions in just 
about any other type of reactor. Recently, they tested chunks of
graphite to see whether it's safe to extend the life of Britain's 
antiquated Magnox reactors. INL staff are now gearing up for an 
even bigger challenge: testing parts for proposed Generation IV 
reactors, which would leap technologically two steps ahead of the 
Gen II designs operating commercially in the United States today.

Despite concerns about catastrophic accidents and radioactive 
waste disposal, Gen II plants "are cost-effective and working 
well, and safety continues to improve," says James Lake, INL's 
associate director. Yet, no new reactors have been ordered in the 
States since the industry's peak sales year of 1973. Simple 
economics quashed further growth. A typical 1000-megawatt reactor 
costs up to $2 billion--2.5 times more than a comparable natural 
gas plant.

ENERGY STAR Only the tip of the 35-ft.-high Advanced Test Reactor 
extends above the floor at the Idaho National Laboratory. The 
machine tests the durability of materials for next-generation 
designs by bombarding them with a quadrillion neutrons per square 
centimeter per second.

Thanks to the 2005 congressional incentives, a dozen utilities 
around the country have once again started the lengthy process of 
applying to build nuclear plants. If all goes smoothly, they 
could produce power by the middle of the next decade. These 
reactors would be Generation III and III+ designs--evolutionary 
improvements on today's Generation II reactors, which use water 
in some form as both a coolant and a moderator. But, according to 
the DOE, what is really needed are even safer, cheaper reactors 
that produce less waste and use fuel that's not easily adapted 
for weapons production. To develop this kind of reactor, 10 
countries, including the United States, joined forces in 2000 to 
launch the Generation IV International Forum. A committee of 
100-plus scientists from participating countries evaluated more 
than 100 designs; after two years, they picked the six best. All 
of the final Gen IV concepts make a clean break from past 
designs. Some don't use a moderator, for instance. Others call 
for helium or molten lead to be used as coolants.

PEBBLE POWER

Kevan Weaver, like most of the lab's 3500 employees, works in a 
sprawling group of campus-like buildings on the outskirts of 
Idaho Falls. Standing in his third-floor office, the fresh-faced 
nuclear engineer holds what could be the future of nuclear power 
in his hand: a smooth graphite sphere about the size of a tennis 
ball. It could take years to weigh the pros and cons of all six 
Gen IV designs, Weaver says, but Congress can't wait that long. 
In addition to replacing the aging fleet of Generation II 
reactors, the government wants to make progress on another front: 
the production of hydrogen, to fuel the dream of exhaust-free 
cars running independent of foreign oil.

As a result, the frontrunner for the initial $1.25 billion 
demonstration plant in Idaho is a helium-cooled, 
graphite-moderated reactor whose extremely high outlet 
temperature (1650 to 1830 F) would be ideal for efficiently 
producing hydrogen. There are a couple of designs that could run 
that hot, but the "pebble bed," so named for the fuel pebble that 
Weaver holds, is attracting particularly intense interest.

A typical pebble-bed reactor would function somewhat like a giant 
gumball machine. The design calls for a core filled with about 
360,000 of these fuel pebbles--"kernels" of uranium oxide wrapped 
in two layers of silicon carbide and one layer of pyrolytic 
carbon, and embedded in a graphite shell. Each day about 3000 
pebbles are removed from the bottom as fuel becomes spent. Fresh 
pebbles are added to the top, eliminating the need to shut down 
the reactor for refueling. Helium gas flows through the spaces 
between the spheres, carrying away the heat of the reacting fuel. 
This hot gas--which is inert, so a leak wouldn't be 
radioactive--can then be used to spin a turbine to generate 
electricity, or serve more exotic uses such as produce hydrogen, 
refine shale oil or desalinate water.

The pebbles are fireproof and almost impossible to use for 
weapons production. The spent fuel is easy to transport and 
store, though there still remains the long-term problem of where 
to store it. And the design of the nuclear reactor is inherently 
meltdown-proof. If the fuel gets too hot, it begins absorbing 
neutrons, shutting down the chain reaction. In 2004, the cooling 
gas and secondary safety controls were shut off at an 
experimental pebble-bed reactor in China--and no calamity 
followed, says MIT professor Andrew Kadak, who witnessed the 
test.

Pebble-bed reactors also could be far more cost-effective than 
Gen II plants, which had an average construction time of more 
than nine years. Even proposed Gen III designs have an estimated 
build time of more than five years. Kadak's group at MIT has 
developed a pebble-bed design in which every part is small and 
light enough to be shipped by train and truck, so the components 
could be mass-produced off-site.

"Our whole approach is that you don't construct a reactor, you 
assemble it," Kadak says. "Think about LEGOs: You just clip them 
together." This could shorten construction time to as little as 
two years; if a part breaks, the module containing it could be 
replaced quickly. Kadak envisions small 250-megawatt reactors, 
with additional units added to meet demand, making the initial 
cost lower than that of current 1000-megawatt giants.

Starting next year, both China and South Africa intend to build 
full-scale prototype pebble beds based on a design developed in 
Germany in the 1960s. However, the concept being considered in 
Idaho will produce hotter gas. "The Chinese and South African 
reactors will be close to 1550 F," says Weaver, who is 
coordinating the pebble-bed program in Idaho, "and we want 1650 
to 1830 F. Those 100 degrees can make a huge difference." The 
extra heat will run the electricity-generating turbines more 
efficiently, and--crucially--meet the threshold for efficiently 
generating hydrogen from water.

Hydrogen is currently produced from natural gas by a process 
called steam reformation, which releases 74 million tons of 
heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. As a 
cleaner alternative, researchers are trying to figure out the 
best way to split the H from H2O. A team at Idaho National Lab 
recently showed that electrolysis--using electricity to split the 
water molecule--is nearly twice as efficient at the high 
temperatures made possible by a pebble-bed reactor.

FAST BREEDERS

Though the pebble-bed reactor is promising, other Gen IV designs 
have distinct advantages, too. Three of the six under 
consideration are fast neutron reactors; the term refers to the 
high speed of the neutrons ricocheting around the reactor core 
when there is no moderator to slow them down. When fast neutrons 
collide with fuel particles, they can actually generate more fuel 
than they burn. Such breeder reactors were developed in the late 
1940s, but remained more expensive than other designs. These 
reactors have more appeal today because they also can burn up the 
longest-lived radioactive isotopes in their fuel, producing waste 
that stays dangerous for hundreds of years instead of hundreds of 
thousands.

These fast reactor concepts differ in the material they use to 
cool the reactor core. One uses gas, another sodium, and the 
third, molten lead. But, so far, all three designs are still more 
expensive and further from completion than the other top 
contenders. One solution, Weaver says, would be to carry two 
different designs forward: "a thermal reactor like the pebble bed 
for the near term, and a fast reactor for the far term."

"Near term" is relative: Last year's Energy Policy Act doesn't 
require a final decision on construction of the demonstration 
plant until 2014, a cautious timeline that frustrates the 
program's boosters. In the meantime, research is pressing on in 
the Idaho desert and in Idaho Falls, where the Thursday night 
entertainment is the monthly dinner meeting of the nation's 
largest chapter of the American Nuclear Society. In the parking 
lot, bumper stickers read, "Split an atom, save a tree."

When I helped found Greenpeace in 1971, my colleagues and I were 
firmly opposed to nuclear energy. But times have changed. Nuclear 
energy is the only non-greenhouse gas-emitting power source that 
can effectively replace fossil fuels and satisfy growing demand.

Nuclear energy is affordable. The average cost of producing 
nuclear energy in the United States is less than 2 cents per 
kilowatt-hour, comparable to coal and hydroelectric.

Nuclear energy is safe. In 1979, a partial reactor core meltdown 
at Three Mile Island
frightened the country. No one noticed that Three Mile Island was 
a success; the containment structure prevented radiation from 
escaping and there was no injury among the public or workers.

Spent nuclear fuel is not waste. Recycling spent fuel, which 
still contains 95 percent of its original energy, will greatly 
reduce the need for treatment and disposal.

Nuclear power plants are not vulnerable to terrorist attack. The 
5-ft.-thick reinforced concrete containment vessel protects 
contents from the outside as well as the inside.

Nuclear weapons are no longer inextricably linked to power 
plants. Centrifuge technology now allows nations to produce 
weapons-grade plutonium without a reactor. Iran's nuclear weapons 
threat, for instance, is distinct from peaceful nuclear energy.

Nuclear reactors offer a practical path to the hydrogen economy. 
Excess heat from the plants, instead of fossil fuels, can be used 
for electrolysis. It also can address the increasing shortage of 
fresh water through desalinization.

Together with a combination of solar, wind, geothermal and 
hydroelectric sources, nuclear energy can play a key role in 
producing safe, clean, reliable baseload electricity.

Not So Fast
Anna Aurilio
Legislative Director, U.S. Public Interest Research Group

Nuclear energy is too expensive, too dangerous and too polluting. 
And, despite claims from industry, it's not necessary either for 
our future electricity needs or to meet the very real challenge 
of global warming. Worldwide, renewable alternatives such as 
wind, solar and geothermal power, along with small decentralized 
heat and power cogeneration plants, already produced 92 percent 
as much electricity as nuclear power did in 2004--and those 
sources are growing almost six times faster.

In a post-9/11 world, nuclear facilities will always be tempting 
targets for terrorists. Government studies have highlighted the
weaknesses in our current safeguards.

Even without attackers, danger is ever present. In 2002, 
inspectors at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio found a 
hole that had corroded almost all the way through a pressure 
vessel, leaving less than an inch of steel preventing the release 
of radioactive steam.

No country in the world has solved the problem of how to dispose 
of high-level radioactive waste. Even the most optimistic 
advanced reactor designs will continue adding to the lethal 
mountain of waste already produced.

Nuclear energy is not our best bet to reduce global warming 
emissions. That argument only makes sense if coal is the only 
other option. That's a false choice, and it ignores the rapidly 
developing range of energy-efficient, clean, renewable energy 
sources.

For 33 years, no one has ordered or built a nuclear plant, for 
very good economic reasons. Now Congress and the nuclear industry 
are distorting the market with new subsidies. They're pushing a 
technology with serious health, safety and economic risks, and in 
doing so diverting research dollars away from better 
alternatives.


Copyright © 2006 Hearst Communications, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. 		 		 		 		[/]  		 		 		 	 		 		 	
*****************************************************************
 34 APP.COM - NRC: Tritium leaks don't seem harmful | 

Asbury Park Press Online
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Thursday, October 5, 2006
  	 	 
Follows study that area plant not leaking radioactive liquid

 Posted by the Asbury Park Presson 10/5/06 

STAFF REPORT 		 		 		 

Inadvertent, unmonitored releases of radioactive liquids
containing mainly tritium from U.S. commercial nuclear power
plants have had no impact on public health, according to a task
force report released Wednesday by federal nuclear regulators.

But such spills need closer monitoring, according to the report
released by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"We looked at a wide range of releases that go back to 1996, and
even included a substantial release from the Hatch plant (in
Georgia) in 1986, and none of these events led to appreciable
radiation doses to people outside the plants," said Stuart
Richards, the NRC senior manager who led the task force.

"There are, however, areas of our regulations that could better
cover these sorts of inadvertent spills and leaks," Richards
said in an NRC statement on the Web.

The report follows last week's announcement that tritium was not
detected in groundwater samples taken at the Oyster Creek
nuclear power plant in Lacey, according to the final results of
a study released by plant officials. Monitoring will continue.

The NRC task force made 26 recommendations that apply to the
NRC, nuclear plant operators or both.

Among them:

The NRC should update its regulations on monitoring radioactive
releases and the environment in and around a plant to take into
account state-of-the-art technology and practices.

Plant operators should work with local and state agencies to
voluntarily report information on radioactive liquid releases
that otherwise fall below NRC reporting requirements.

Tritium, which emits weak levels of radiation, forms naturally
in the atmosphere and as a byproduct of generating electricity
using nuclear energy, according to an Oyster Creek statement
released last week. 

  Copyright © 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 35 PoughkeepsieJournal.com: Indian Point issues warning in error
 
Thursday, October 5, 2006 

Test e-mail message intended for training
 
An emergency message that claimed "an alert has been declared"
at the Indian Point power plant was sent out in error Wednesday
afternoon, the state's Emergency Management Office said.

The cryptic emergency message, which was sent out via e-mail at
1:53 p.m., put people within 10 miles of the nuclear power plant
on warning "to tell you there is a problem at the Indian Point
Power Plant." The message recommended people consult state
Emergency Planning Guide booklets.

But the message was actually a test during a training session
among state emergency employees. It was only intended to be
published internally, said Dennis Michalski, spokesman for the
Emergency Management Office. The mistake amounted to someone
hitting the wrong button.

"Human error, that's what we do training for," Michalski said.
"We thought it was internal and somehow it got out."

A correction was issued about 20 minutes later explaining the
previous message was an error and there was no emergency at the
power plant.

Contrary to the initial alert, no message was delivered via
siren or broadcast to people in the immediate area of Indian
Point, and the false alert was only sent electronically.
The training session involved emergency planners from
Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties, as well as
employees of the state's Joint Information Center.
Michalski said his office was taking steps to make sure there
isn't a repeat of the error.

"We're chasing it down and we'll make the appropriate changes,"
he said.

The Indian Point Energy Center is about 35 miles north of New
York City and generates electricity for about 2 million homes in
the New York area. The last test of the emergency sirens at the
power plant was conducted last month. 

— Nik Bonopartis 

Copyright © 2006 PoughkeepsieJournal.com 
*****************************************************************
 36 Rutland Herald: Yankee success in boosting power

Rutland Vermont News & Information
 	 	 	 	 	 
October 5, 2006 

Vermont recently took a major step toward meeting the state's
critical energy challenges when the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant
successfully achieved a 20 percent increase in its ability to
safely generate environmentally clean, efficient and affordable
electric power.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Vermont Public Service
Board were the lead agencies charged with oversight of the
approval process that ultimately led to the power output
increase. The regulatory review process took three years and was
the most thorough and detailed uprate inspection ever carried
out any U.S. nuclear plant. In fact, the so-called Independent
Engineering Assessment developed for the Vermont Yankee uprate
has become the "gold standard" by which the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission now measures similar applications throughout the
industry.

Once permission was granted to go forward, increasing the
plant's power output was not something achieved with a simple
flip of a switch but required months of extensive and meticulous
planning. Under the watchful eye of the NRC, the General
Electric Corp., and Entergy's own expert engineering staff, the
power ascension process was carried out over the course of
several weeks.

At each stage, every element in the process was checked and
checked again before continuing toward the goal of raising
Vermont Yankee's electrical output from 540 megawatts to 650
megawatts. The standards employed by Entergy not only met the
stringent safety standards required by the NRC and the industry
— it exceeded them.

The additional 110 megawatts of power for our region is all part
of our ongoing program to refurbish and update Vermont Yankee
with the latest technology available and maintain it as a
state-of-the-art facility.

A cleaner environment, reduced taxes and lower electricity bills
would be good reasons to support the continued operation of
Vermont Yankee, even in the best of times. But in these
uncertain times, Vermont Yankee's role is all the more vital if
we are to meet the dual challenge of providing affordable
electricity while protecting the environment.

TED SULLIVAN (Vice president, Entergy Nuclear, Vermont Yankee) 
Vernon
   
© 2006 Rutland Herald
*****************************************************************
 37 NRC: Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1, 2, and 3; Notice 
 
                        FR Doc E6-16445 
[Federal Register: October 5, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 193)] 
[Notices] [Page 58879-58881] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05oc06-82]                         
 
of Consideration of Issuance of Amendment to Facility Operating 
License, Proposed No Significant Hazards Consideration 
Determination, and Opportunity for a Hearing The U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (the Commission) is considering issuance of 
an amendment to Facility Operating License No. NPF-41, Facility 
Operating License No. NPF-51, and Facility Operating License No. 
NPF-74, issued to Arizona Public Service Company (the licensee) 
for the operation of Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Units 
1, 2, and 3, respectively.
 
The proposed amendment would modify requirements of Technical 
Specification (TS) 3.7.2, ``Main Steam Isolation Valves 
(MSIVs),'' to include specific requirements (Conditions, Required 
Actions, and Completion Times) for the MSIV actuator trains. 
Additionally, surveillance requirement (SR) 3.7.2.1 will be 
revised to clearly identify that each MSIV actuator train is 
required to be tested to support the operability of the 
associated MSIV.
 
Before issuance of the proposed license amendment, the Commission 
will have made findings required by the Atomic Energy Act of 
1954, as amended (the Act), and the Commission's regulations.
 
The Commission has made a proposed determination that the 
amendment request involves no significant hazards consideration. 
Under the Commission's regulations in Title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), Section 50.92, this means that 
operation of the facility in accordance with the proposed 
amendment would not (1) involve a significant increase in the 
probability or consequences of an accident previously evaluated; 
or (2) create the possibility of a new or different kind of 
accident from any accident previously evaluated; or (3) involve a 
significant reduction in a margin of safety. As required by 10 
CFR 50.91(a), the licensee has provided its analysis of the issue 
of no significant hazards consideration, which is presented 
below: 1. Does the proposed change involve a significant increase 
in the probability or consequences of an accident previously 
evaluated? Response: No
 
[[Page 58880]] The proposed changes to incorporate requirements 
for the MSIV actuator trains do not involve any design or 
physical changes to the facility, including the MSIVs and 
actuator trains themselves.
 
The design and functional performance requirements, operational 
characteristics, and reliability of the MSIVs and actuator trains 
remain unchanged. Therefore, there is no impact on the design 
safety function of the MSIVs to close (as an accident mitigator), 
nor is there any change with respect to inadvertent closure of an 
MSIV (as a potential transient initiator). Since no failure mode 
or initiating condition that could cause an accident (including 
any plant transient) evaluated in the Palo Verde Nuclear 
Generating Station (PVNGS) Updated Final Safety Analysis Report 
(UFSAR) described safety analyses is created or affected, the 
change cannot involve a significant increase in the probability 
of an accident previously evaluated.
 
With regard to the consequences of an accident and the equipment 
required for mitigation of the accident, the proposed changes 
involve no design or physical changes to the MSIVs or any other 
equipment required for accident mitigation. With respect to MSIV 
actuator train Completion Time, the consequences of an accident 
are independent of equipment Completion Time as long as adequate 
equipment availability is maintained. The proposed Condition A 
Note takes into account the redundancy of the actuator trains and 
the accident analysis assumption that only 3 of 4 MSIVs close in 
the accident. Adequate equipment availability would therefore 
continue to be available and Condition C [of TS 3.7.2] for an 
inoperable MSIV would continue to support the Palo Verde safety 
analysis. On this basis, the consequences of applicable analyzed 
accidents (such as a main steam line break) are not significantly 
impacted by the proposed changes.
 
Therefore, the proposed changes do not involve a significant 
increase in the probability or consequences of an accident 
previously analyzed.
 
2. Does the proposed change create the possibility of a new or 
different kind of accident from any accident previously 
evaluated? Response: No.
 
The proposed changes to incorporate requirements for the MSIV 
actuator trains do not involve any design or physical changes to 
the facility, including the MSIVs and actuator trains themselves. 
No physical alteration of the plant is involved, as no new or 
different type of equipment is to be installed. The proposed 
changes do not alter any assumptions made in the safety analyses, 
nor do they involve any changes to plant procedures that could 
cause a new or different kind of accident from any previously 
evaluated are being introduced.
 
Therefore, the proposed change does not create the possibility of 
a new or different kind of accident from any accident previously 
evaluated.
 
3. Does the proposed change involve a significant reduction in a 
margin of safety? Response: No.
 
The proposed change to incorporate requirements for the MSIV 
actuator trains does not alter the manner in which safety limits 
or limiting safety system settings are determined. No changes to 
instrument/system actuation setpoints are involved. The safety 
analysis acceptance criteria are not impacted by this change and 
the proposed change will not permit plant operation in a 
configuration outside the design basis.
 
Therefore, the proposed change does not involve a significant 
reduction in the margin of safety.
 
The NRC staff has reviewed the licensee's analysis and, based on 
this review, it appears that the three standards of 10 CFR 
50.92(c) are satisfied. Therefore, the NRC staff proposes to 
determine that the amendment request involves no significant 
hazards consideration.
 
The Commission is seeking public comments on this proposed 
determination. Any comments received within 30 days after the 
date of publication of this notice will be considered in making 
any final determination.
 
Normally, the Commission will not issue the amendment until the 
expiration of 60 days after the date of publication of this 
notice. The Commission may issue the license amendment before 
expiration of the 60- day period provided that its final 
determination is that the amendment involves no significant 
hazards consideration. In addition, the Commission may issue the 
amendment prior to the expiration of the 30- day comment period 
should circumstances change during the 30-day comment period such 
that failure to act in a timely way would result, for example, in 
derating or shutdown of the facility. Should the Commission take 
action prior to the expiration of either the comment period or 
the notice period, it will publish in the Federal Register a 
notice of issuance. Should the Commission make a final No 
Significant Hazards Consideration Determination, any hearing will 
take place after issuance. The Commission expects that the need 
to take this action will occur very infrequently.
 
Written comments may be submitted by mail to the Chief, 
Rulemaking, Directives and Editing Branch, Division of 
Administrative Services, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and should cite 
the publication date and page number of this Federal Register 
notice. Written comments may also be delivered to Room 6D59, Two 
White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 
from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Federal workdays. Documents may be 
examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document 
Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area 
O1F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland.
 
The filing of requests for hearing and petitions for leave to 
intervene is discussed below.
 
Within 60 days after the date of publication of this notice, the 
licensee may file a request for a hearing with respect to 
issuance of the amendment to the subject facility operating 
license and any person whose interest may be affected by this 
proceeding and who wishes to participate as a party in the 
proceeding must file a written request for a hearing and a 
petition for leave to intervene. Requests for a hearing and a 
petition for leave to intervene shall be filed in accordance with 
the Commission's ``Rules of Practice for Domestic Licensing 
Proceedings'' in 10 CFR Part 2. Interested persons should consult 
a current copy of 10 CFR 2.309, which is available at the 
Commission's PDR, located at One White Flint North, Public File 
Area O1F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, 
Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible from the 
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System's (ADAMS) 
Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web 
site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/. If a 
request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene is filed 
by the above date, the Commission or a presiding officer 
designated by the Commission or by the Chief Administrative Judge 
of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, will rule on the 
request and/or petition; and the Secretary or the Chief 
Administrative Judge of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 
will issue a notice of a hearing or an appropriate order.
 
As required by 10 CFR 2.309, a petition for leave to intervene 
shall set forth with particularity the interest of the petitioner 
in the proceeding, and how that interest may be affected by the 
results of the proceeding. The petition should specifically 
explain the reasons why intervention should be permitted with 
particular reference to the following general requirements: (1) 
The name, address and telephone number of the requestor or 
petitioner; (2) the nature of the requestor's/petitioner's right 
under the Act to be made a party to the proceeding; (3) the 
nature and extent of the requestor's/petitioner's property, 
financial, or other interest in the proceeding; and (4) the 
possible effect of any decision or order which may be entered in 
the proceeding on the requestor's/petitioner's interest. The 
petition must also identify the specific
 
[[Page 58881]] contentions which the petitioner/requestor seeks 
to have litigated at the proceeding.
 
Each contention must consist of a specific statement of the issue 
of law or fact to be raised or controverted. In addition, the 
petitioner/requestor shall provide a brief explanation of the 
bases for the contention and a concise statement of the alleged 
facts or expert opinion which support the contention and on which 
the petitioner intends to rely in proving the contention at the 
hearing. The petitioner/requestor must also provide references to 
those specific sources and documents of which the petitioner is 
aware and on which the petitioner intends to rely to establish 
those facts or expert opinion. The petition must include 
sufficient information to show that a genuine dispute exists with 
the applicant on a material issue of law or fact. Contentions 
shall be limited to matters within the scope of the amendment 
under consideration. The contention must be one which, if proven, 
would entitle the petitioner to relief. A petitioner/requestor 
who fails to satisfy these requirements with respect to at least 
one contention will not be permitted to participate as a party.
 
Those permitted to intervene become parties to the proceeding, 
subject to any limitations in the order granting leave to 
intervene, and have the opportunity to participate fully in the 
conduct of the hearing.
 
If a hearing is requested, the Commission will make a final 
determination on the issue of no significant hazards 
consideration. The final determination will serve to decide when 
the hearing is held. If the final determination is that the 
amendment request involves no significant hazards consideration, 
the Commission may issue the amendment and make it immediately 
effective, notwithstanding the request for a hearing. Any hearing 
held would take place after issuance of the amendment. If the 
final determination is that the amendment request involves a 
significant hazards consideration, any hearing held would take 
place before the issuance of any amendment.
 
Nontimely requests and/or petitions and contentions will not be 
entertained absent a determination by the Commission or the 
presiding officer of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that 
the petition, request and/or the contentions should be granted 
based on a balancing of the factors specified in 10 CFR 
2.309(c)(1)(i)-(viii). A request for a hearing or a petition for 
leave to intervene must be filed by: (1) First class mail 
addressed to the Office of the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, 
Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; (2) courier, 
express mail, and expedited delivery services: Office of the 
Secretary, Sixteenth Floor, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, Attention: Rulemaking 
and Adjudications Staff; (3) E-mail addressed to the Office of 
the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
HEARINGDOCKET@NRC.GOV; or (4) facsimile transmission addressed to 
the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff at 
301-415-1101, verification number is 301-415-1966. A copy of the 
request for hearing and petition for leave to intervene should 
also be sent to the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and it is 
requested that copies be transmitted either by means of facsimile 
transmission to 301-415-3725 or by e-mail to

 
OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov. A copy of the request for hearing and 
petition for leave to intervene should also be sent to Michael G. 
Green, Senior Regulatory Counsel, Pinnacle West Capital 
Corporation, P.O. Box 52034, Mail Station 8695, Phoenix, Arizona 
85072-2034, attorney for the licensee.
 
For further details with respect to this action, see the 
application for amendment dated September 26, 2006, which is 
available for public inspection at the Commission's PDR, located 
at One White Flint North, File Public Area O1F21, 11555 Rockville 
Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available 
records will be accessible from the ADAMS Public Electronic 
Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have 
access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the 
documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference 
staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e- mail 
to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 28th day of 
September 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Mel B. Fields, Senior Project Manager, Plant Licensing Branch IV, 
Division of Operating Reactor Licensing, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. E6-16445 Filed 10-4-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 38 NRC: In the Matter of Southern California Edison Company the City of 
 
                        FR Doc E6-16446 
[Federal Register: October 5, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 193)] 
[Notices] [Page 58881-58882] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05oc06-83]                         
 
Anaheim, CA; San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Units 2 and 
3; Order Approving Transfer of Licenses and Conforming Amendments 
I.
 
Southern California Edison Company (SCE), San Diego Gas and 
Electric Company (SDG), the City of Riverside, California 
(Riverside), and the City of Anaheim, California (Anaheim), are 
the owners of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Units 2 and 
3 (SONGS 2 and 3), located in San Diego County, California. With 
respect to their ownership, they co-hold the Facility Operating 
Licenses Nos.
 
NPF-10 and NPF-15, for SONGS 2 and 3. SCE is authorized to act as 
agent for the other co-owners and has exclusive responsibility 
and control under the licenses over the physical construction, 
operation, and maintenance of the facility.
 
II.
 
By application dated March 10, 2006, as supplemented May 16, 
2006, SCE, acting on behalf of itself and Anaheim, requested 
pursuant to Title 10, Section 50.80 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (10 CFR 50.80), that the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) consent to certain license transfers to permit 
the transfer of Anaheim's 3.16-percent undivided ownership 
interest in SONGS 2 and 3 to SCE, excluding Anaheim's interest in 
its spent fuel and in the SONGS 2 and 3 independent spent fuel 
storage installation (ISFSI). The initial application and the 
supplement are hereinafter referred to as ``the application'' 
unless otherwise indicated. SCE also requested, pursuant 10 CFR 
50.90, approval of conforming license amendments to reflect the 
transfer. The conforming license amendments would address 
Anaheim's transfer of its above stated ownership interests in the 
facility. Anaheim will retain its ownership interests in its 
spent nuclear fuel and the facility's ISFSI located on the 
facility's site, and financial responsibility for its spent fuel 
and a portion of the facility's decommissioning costs. Anaheim 
proposes to remain a licensee for the purposes of its retained 
interests and liabilities.
 
Notice of consideration of approval of the transfer of the 
Facility Operating
 
[[Page 58882]] Licenses and conforming amendments and an 
opportunity for a hearing was published in the Federal Register 
on June 8, 2006 (71 FR 33321).
 
No hearing requests or written comments were received.
 
Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.80, no license, or any right thereunder, 
shall be transferred, directly or indirectly, through transfer of 
control of the license, unless the Commission shall give its 
consent in writing. After reviewing the information in SCE's 
application and other information before the Commission, and 
relying upon the representations and agreements contained in the 
application, the NRC staff has determined that SCE is qualified 
to hold the licenses to the extent proposed to permit the 
transfer of Anaheim's 3.16-percent undivided ownership interest 
in SONGS 2 and 3 to SCE, excluding Anaheim's interest in its 
spent fuel and in the SONGS 2 and 3 ISFSI, as previously 
described herein, and that the transfer of the licenses is 
otherwise consistent with applicable provisions of law, 
regulations, and orders issued by the Commission pursuant 
thereto, subject to the conditions set forth below. The NRC staff 
has further found that the application for the proposed license 
amendments complies with the standards and requirements of the 
Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1954, as amended, and the Commission's 
rules and regulations set forth in 10 CFR Chapter I; the facility 
will operate in conformity with the application, the provisions 
of the Act, and the rules and regulations of the Commission; 
there is reasonable assurance that the activities authorized by 
the proposed license amendments can be conducted without 
endangering the health and safety of the public and that such 
activities will be conducted in compliance with the Commission's 
regulations; the issuance of the proposed license amendments will 
not be inimical to the common defense and security or the health 
and safety of the public; and the issuance of the proposed 
amendments will be in accordance with 10 CFR Part 51 of the 
Commission's regulations and all applicable requirements have 
been satisfied. The foregoing findings are supported by a safety 
evaluation dated September 27, 2006.
 
III.
 
Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 161b, 161i, and 184 of the AEA 
of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2201(b), 2201(i), and 2234, and 10 
CFR 50.80, It is hereby ordered that the transfer of the licenses 
to SCE, as described herein, is approved, subject to the 
following conditions: After receipt of all required regulatory 
approvals of the transfer of Anaheim's 3.16-percent undivided 
ownership interest in SONGS 2 and 3 to SCE, excluding Anaheim's 
interest in its spent fuel and in the SONGS 2 and 3 ISFSI, as 
previously described herein, SCE shall inform the Director, 
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, in writing of such receipt, 
within 5 business days, and of the date of the closing of the 
transfer no later than 7 business days before the date of 
closing. If the transfer is not completed by September 27, 2007, 
this Order shall become null and void, provided however, that 
upon written application and for good cause shown, such date may 
be extended in writing.
 
It is further ordered that consistent with 10 CFR 2.1315(b), 
license amendments that make changes, as indicated in Enclosure 2 
to the cover letter forwarding this Order, to conform the 
licenses to reflect the subject license transfers are approved. 
The amendments shall be issued and made effective at the time the 
proposed transfers are completed.
 
This Order is effective upon issuance.
 
For further details with respect to this action, see the initial 
application dated March 10, 2006, the supplemental submittal 
dated May 16, 2006, and the safety evaluation dated September 27, 
2006, which are available for public inspection at the 
Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White 
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, 
Maryland, and accessible electronically through the Agencywide 
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic 
Reading Room on the Internet on the NRC's Web site . Persons who 
do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in 
accessing the document located in ADAMS, should contact the 
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation PDR reference staff by 
telephone at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415- 4737, or by e-mail to .
 
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 27th day of September 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
J. E. Dyer, Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. E6-16446 Filed 10-4-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 39 NRC: Entergy Operations, Inc.; Notice of Partial Denial of Amendment 
 
                        FR Doc E6-16448 
[Federal Register: October 5, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 193)] 
[Notices] [Page 58879] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05oc06-81]                         
 
to Facility Operating License and Opportunity for Hearing The 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) has 
denied a portion of an amendment request by Entergy Operations, 
Inc. (the licensee), for an amendment to Facility Operating 
License No. NPF- 38, issued to the licensee for operation of the 
Waterford Steam Electric Station, Unit 3, located in St. Charles 
Parish, Louisiana. The Notice of Consideration of Issuance of 
this amendment was published in the Federal Register on December 
7, 2004 (69 FR 70717).
 
The purpose of the licensee's amendment request was to revise 
Technical Specifications (TS) 3.7.4, ``Ultimate Heat Sink,'' to 
provide clarification that the ambient temperature monitoring 
requirement that is specified in TS 3.7.4.d only applies when the 
affected ultimate heat sink train is considered to be operable 
and to delete TS 3.7.4.c. Deleting TS 3.7.4.c would allow the 
plant to take credit for the dry cooling tower fans that are not 
protected from tornado missiles when a tornado warning is in 
effect.
 
The NRC staff has concluded that the portion of the licensee's 
request regarding deletion of TS 3.7.4.c cannot be granted. The 
licensee was notified of the Commission's denial of the proposed 
change by a letter dated September 28, 2006.
 
By 30 days from the date of publication of this notice in the 
Federal Register, the licensee may demand a hearing with respect 
to the denial described above. Any person whose interest may be 
affected by this proceeding may file a written petition for leave 
to intervene pursuant to the requirements of 10 CFR 2.309. A 
request for hearing or petition for leave to intervene must be 
filed with the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001 Attention: 
Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, or may be delivered to the 
Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White 
Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first 
floor), Rockville, Maryland, by the above date. Because of 
possible delays in delivery to mail to U.S. Government offices, 
it is requested that petitions for leave to intervene and 
requests for hearing be transmitted to the Secretary of the 
Commission either by means of facsimile transmission to 301-415- 
1101 or by e-mail to hearingdocket@nrc.gov. A copy of any 
petitions should also be sent to the Office of the General 
Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001, and because of possible delays in delivery of mail to 
the U.S. Government offices, it is requested that copies be 
transmitted either by means of facsimile transmission to 
301-415-3725 or by e-mail to OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov. A copy of any 
petitions should also be sent to N. S. Reynolds, Esquire, Winston 
& Strawn, 1700 K Street, NW., Washington, DC 20006-3817, attorney 
for the licensee.
 
For further details with respect to this action, see (1) The 
application for amendment dated November 5, 2004, and (2) the 
Commission's letter to the licensee dated September 28, 2006.
 
Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's 
PDR, located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 
11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, and will 
be accessible electronically through the Agencywide Documents 
Access and Management System's (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading 
Room link at the NRC Web site 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have 
access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing documents 
located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by 
telephone at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to

 
pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 28th day of 
September 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Catherine Haney, Director, Division of Operating Reactor 
Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. E6-16448 Filed 10-4-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 40 NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc., Vogtle ESP Site;
 
                        FR Doc E6-16559 
[Federal Register: October 5, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 193)] 
[Notices] [Page 58882-58884] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05oc06-84]                         
 
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and 
Conduct Scoping Process Southern Nuclear Operating Corporation 
(SNC) has submitted an application for an early site permit (ESP) 
for its Vogtle ESP site, located on the west bank of the Savannah 
River in eastern Burke County, in east-central Georgia. The site 
is approximately 100 miles northwest of Savannah, Georgia, and 
approximately 26 miles southeast of Augusta, Georgia, and across 
the river from the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River 
Site (Barnwell County, South Carolina). The application for the 
ESP was submitted by letter dated August 15, 2006, pursuant to 10 
CFR Part 52. A notice of receipt of application, including the 
environmental report (ER), was published in the Federal Register 
on August 29, 2006 (71 FR 51222). A notice of acceptance for 
docketing of the application for an early site permit for Vogtle 
was published in the Federal Register on September 26, 2006 (71 
FR 56187). The purpose of this notice is to inform the public 
that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will be 
preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) in support of 
the review of the ESP application and to provide the public with 
an opportunity to participate in the environmental scoping 
process as defined in 10 CFR 51.29. In addition, as outlined in 
36 CFR 800.8, ``Coordination with the National Environmental 
Policy Act,'' the NRC plans to coordinate compliance with Section 
106 of the National Historic Preservation Act in meeting the 
requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 
(NEPA).
 
In accordance with 10 CFR 52.17 (a)(2), 51.45 and 51.50, SERI 
submitted the ER as part of the application. The ER was prepared 
pursuant to 10 CFR Part 51 and 52 and is available for public 
inspection at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) located at One 
White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, 
Maryland 20852, or from the Publicly Available Records component 
of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, which provides access 
through the NRC's Electronic Reading Room (ERR) link.
 
Persons who do not
 
[[Page 58883]] have access to ADAMS, or who encounter problems in 
accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the 
NRC's PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737, or 
by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. The application may also be viewed on 
the Internet at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/esp/vogtle.html. In 
addition, the Burke County Library, 130 Highway 24 South, 
Waynesboro, GA 30830-4572, has agreed to make the ER available 
for public inspection.
 
The following key reference documents related to the ESP 
applications and the NRC staff's review process are available 
through the NRC's Web site at http://www.nrc.gov: a. 10 CFR Part 
51, Environmental protection regulations for domestic licensing 
and related regulatory functions.
 
b. 10 CFR Part 52, Early site permits; standard design 
certifications; and combined licenses for nuclear power plants.
 
c. 10 CFR Part 100, Reactor site criteria. d. NUREG-1555, 
Standard Review Plans for Environmental Reviews for Nuclear Power 
Plants.
 
e. NUREG/BR-0298, Brochure on Nuclear Power Plant Licensing 
Process.
 
f. Regulatory Guide 4.2, Preparation of Environmental Reports for 
Nuclear Power Stations.
 
g. Regulatory Guide 4.7, General Site Suitability Criteria for 
Nuclear Power Stations.
 
h. Fact Sheet on Nuclear Power Plant Licensing Process. i. Draft 
review Standard RS-002, Processing Applications for Early Site 
Permits.
 
j. NRR Office Instruction LIC-203, Procedural Guidance for 
Preparing Environmental Assessments and Considering Environmental 
Issues.
 
The regulations, NUREG-series documents, regulatory guide(s), and 
fact sheet can be found under Document Collections in the 
Electronic Reading Room on the NRC Web page. The draft review 
standard is at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/license-reviews/esp/esp 
-public-comments-rs-002.html. Finally, Office Instruction LIC-203 
can be found in ADAMS in two parts under accession numbers 
ML011710073 (main text) and ML011780314 (charts and figures).
 
This notice advises the public that the NRC intends to gather the 
information necessary to prepare an EIS in support of the review 
of the application for an ESP at the Vogtle ESP site. Possible 
alternatives to the proposed action (issuance of the ESP at the 
Vogtle ESP site) include no action and alternate sites. The NRC 
is required by 10 CFR 52.18 to prepare an EIS in connection with 
the issuance of an ESP. This notice is being published in 
accordance with NEPA and the NRC's regulations found in 10 CFR 
Part 51.
 
The NRC will first conduct a scoping process for the EIS and, as 
soon as practicable thereafter, will prepare a draft EIS for 
public comment. Participation in this scoping process by members 
of the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal government 
agencies is encouraged. The scoping process for the draft EIS 
will be used to accomplish the following: a. Define the proposed 
action which is to be the subject of EIS.
 
b. Determine the scope of the EIS and identify the significant 
issues to be analyzed in depth.
 
c. Identify and eliminate from detailed study those issues that 
are peripheral or that are not significant.
 
d. Identify any environmental assessments and other EISs that are 
being or will be prepared that are related to but are not part of 
the scope of the EIS being considered.
 
e. Identify other environmental review and consultation 
requirements related to the proposed action.
 
f. Indicate the relationship between the timing of the 
preparation of environmental analyses and the Commission's 
tentative planning and decision-making schedule.
 
g. Identify any cooperating agencies and, as appropriate, 
allocate assignments for preparation and schedules for completing 
the EIS to the NRC and any cooperating agencies.
 
h. Describe how the EIS will be prepared, including any 
contractor assistance to be used.
 
The NRC invites the following entities to participate in the 
scoping process: a. The applicant, SNC. b. Any Federal agency 
that has jurisdiction by law or special expertise with respect to 
any environmental impact involved, or that is authorized to 
develop and enforce relevant environmental standards.
 
c. Affected State and local government agencies, including those 
authorized to develop and enforce relevant environmental 
standards including the State Historic Preservation Officer.
 
d. Any affected Indian tribe including the Tribal Historic 
Preservation Officer.
 
e. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. f. Any person 
who requests or has requested an opportunity to participate in 
the scoping process.
 
g. Any person who intends to petition for leave to intervene. In 
accordance with 10 CFR 51.26, the scoping process for an EIS may 
include a public scoping meeting to help identify significant 
issues related to a proposed activity and to determine the scope 
of issues to be addressed in an EIS. The NRC will hold a public 
meeting for the Vogtle early site permit application EIS. The 
scoping meeting will be held at the Augusta Technical College, 
Waynesboro Campus Auditorium, 216 Hwy 24 South, Waynesboro, GA 
30830, on Thursday, October 19, 2006. The meeting will convene at 
7 p.m., and will continue until 10 p.m., as necessary. The 
meeting will be transcribed and will include the following: (1) 
An overview by the NRC staff of the NEPA environmental review 
process, the proposed scope of the EIS, and the proposed review 
schedule; (2) an overview by SNC of the proposed action, the 
Vogtle ESP, and the environmental impacts as outlined in the ER; 
and (3) the opportunity for interested Government agencies, 
organizations, and individuals to submit comments or suggestions 
on the environmental issues or the proposed scope of the EIS. 
Additionally, the NRC staff will host informal discussions during 
the two hours prior to the start of the public meeting at Augusta 
Technical College. No formal comments on the proposed scope of 
the EIS will be accepted during the informal discussions. To be 
considered, comments must be provided either at the transcribed 
public meeting or in writing, as discussed below.
 
Persons may register to attend or present oral comments at the 
meeting on the NEPA scoping process by contacting Ms. Cristina 
Guerrero by telephone at 1 (800) 368-5642, extension 2981, or by 
Internet to the NRC at Vogtle_EIS@nrc.gov no later than October 
12, 2006. Members of the public may also register to speak at the 
meeting within 15 minutes of the start of the session. Individual 
oral comments may be limited by the time available, depending on 
the number of persons who register. Members of the public who 
have not registered may also have an opportunity to speak, if 
time permits. Public comments will be considered in the scoping 
process for the EIS. If special equipment or accommodations are 
needed to attend or present information at the public meeting, 
the need should be brought to Ms. Guerrero's attention no later 
than October 12, 2006, so that the NRC staff can determine 
whether the request can be accommodated.
 
Members of the public may send written comments on the 
environmental
 
[[Page 58884]] scoping process for the EIS to the Chief, Rules 
and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, 
Office of Administration, Mailstop T-6D59, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and should cite 
the publication date and page number of this Federal Register 
notice. Comments may be hand-delivered to the NRC at 11545 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 
p.m. on Federal workdays. To be considered in the scoping 
process, written comments must be postmarked or delivered by 
December 4, 2006. Electronic comments may be sent by the Internet 
to the NRC at

 
Vogtle_EIS@nrc.gov. Electronic submissions must be sent no later 
than December 4, 2006, to be considered in the scoping process. 
The staff will not consider comments submitted later than as 
specified above unless time permits. Comments will be available 
electronically and accessible through the NRC's ERR link 
http://www.nrc.gov/nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html at the NRC 
Homepage.
 
Participation in the scoping process for the EIS does not entitle 
participants to become parties to the proceeding to which the EIS 
relates. Notice of a hearing regarding the application for an ESP 
will be the subject of a future Federal Register notice.
 
At the conclusion of the scoping process, the NRC will prepare a 
concise summary of the determination and conclusions reached, 
including the significant issues identified, and will send a copy 
of the summary to each participant in the scoping process. The 
summary will also be available for inspection through the ERR 
link. The staff will then prepare and issue for comment the draft 
EIS, which will be the subject of separate notices and a separate 
public meeting. Copies will be available for public inspection at 
the above-mentioned addresses, and one copy per request will be 
provided free of charge. After receipt and consideration of the 
comments, the NRC will prepare a final EIS, which will also be 
available for public inspection.
 
Information about the proposed action, the EIS, and the scoping 
process may be obtained from Mark Notich at (301) 415-3053 or

 
mdn@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd day of 
October, 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Thomas A. Bergman, Acting Director, Division of New Reactor 
Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. E6-16559 Filed 10-4-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 41 The Australian: Chernobyl visit 'not relevant to nuclear decision' | 

 Joseph Kerr October 05, 2006 

THE reactor at the site of the world's worst nuclear accident,
Chernobyl, may not play a significant part in the thinking of
the government-appointed panel looking at the viability of
nuclear power in Australia.

 The six-member panel, headed by former Telstra chief Ziggy
Switkowski, has returned from a world-wide inspection tour of
nuclear enrichment, power and waste storage facilities, which
included visits to Chernobyl and the site of the Three Mile
Island accident. 

Dr Switkowski said that while coming within 100m of the damaged
reactor had created a strong impression on the group, the site
of the 1986 accident was unlikely to be of great relevance to
Australia in its consideration of heading down the nuclear path. 

Chernobyl of itself probably doesnt have elements that apply to
the sort of consideration Australia may make, he said. 

It was a unique design made only in the former Soviet Union and
operated to standards that would not be acceptable in the West,
Dr Switkowski said. After the accidents, nuclear technology over
the decades had become safer.  


Privacy Terms © The Australian           

*****************************************************************
 42 Bangor Daily News Staff: N-plants awarded $143M - 

[Bangordailynews.com]                  
    			 			   			 			   			 
Thursday, October 05, 2006 - Bangor Daily News << Back 

By H. Josef Hebert The Associated Press 

WASHINGTON - Three closed nuclear power plants have been awarded
$143 million because the government has failed to take away
their used reactor fuel rods. 

One corporate executive said Wednesday the money will be used to
reimburse ratepayers for decommissioning costs. 

The award by the U.S. Federal Court of Claims settles a
long-standing legal fight waged by operators of the three
reactors in Maine, Connecticut and Massachusetts. 

It also could foreshadow a series of additional financial awards
to operators of reactors nationwide who have argued the federal
government broke contractual agreements that promised the waste
would be taken by 1998. 

The award, granted by Court of Claims Judge James Merow on
Saturday, was unsealed Wednesday. 

It gives $32.9 million in damages to Yankee Atomic Electric Co.,
operator of the Yankee Rowe reactor in Massachusetts; $34.1
million to Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co., operator of
Connecticut Yankee reactor; and $75.8 million to Maine Yankee
Atomic Power Co., operator of the Maine Yankee reactor. 

The companies had asked for $177 million. 

Michael Thomas, vice president and chief financial officer of
the three Yankee companies, said that while the monetary award
is "very positive ... [it] does not solve the problem of used
nuclear fuel remaining at the plant sites." 

"We hope this ruling will spur the U.S. Department of Energy to
begin fulfilling its obligation," said Thomas. 

Thomas said during an interview that he expects the government
to appeal the judgeâ€™s decision. Eventually, the money would be
used to reimburse ratepayers for some of the three plantsâ€™
decommissioning costs, he said. 

The three reactors, operated by the Yankee companies, are each
owned by up to eight New England utilities. 

There was no immediate comment from the energy department on the
issue. 

The used reactor fuel remains in aboveground, dry cask storage
at the sites near Wiscasset, Maine; Rowe, Mass.; and Haddam,
Conn. Yankee Rowe was shut down in 1992 and the other two
reactors in 1997. 

Federal courts previously have ruled that the Department of
Energy was contractually obligated to begin taking used reactor
fuel from commercial power plants by 1998. But the ruling was
the first finding of a significant financial settlement. 

The government missed the 1998 deadline because it doesnâ€™t
have any place to put the spent fuel. A proposed central
repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is behind schedule in
being completed. 

Once expected to open in 2010, the Yucca waste site has yet to
receive a federal license and is not likely to be completed - if
licensed - by 2018 at the earliest. 

 Bangor Daily News PO Box 1329 491 Main Street Bangor, ME 04401
 Switchboard: In-State Long Distance 1-800-432-7964 or
207-990-8000
 ©2005 All rights reserved.   

*****************************************************************
 43 AFP: Taiwan installs new nuke reactor, as environmentalists make legal challenge - 

 by Benjamin Yeh Thu Oct 5, 3:08 PM ET 		 	 

KUNGLIAO, Taiwan (AFP) - Taiwan installed the second Japan-built 
nuclear reactor at one of its controversial power plants, amid 
legal action by conservationists. 

 The 780-tonne reactor, designed by General Electric and built
by Toshiba, was installed on the island's fourth nuclear power
plant in Kungliao, a coastal township in northeast Taiwan,
during a low-key ceremony. 

"This marked a milestone in the construction of the fourth
nuclear power plant," Huang Pei-shan, from state-run Taipower,
told AFP. 

He added that, as of the end of August, the project was 58
percent completed, at least three years behind the original
schedule, largely due to domestic political factors. 

Conservationist groups did not show up at the construction site,
but pledged to take more steps to shoot down the project. 

"This project must be stopped, given safety considerations of
the plant and a shortage of places to store the nuclear waste to
be generated by the plant," said Ho Tsung-hsun, executive of the
No Nuke Union Taiwan. 

"We have recently filed a lawsuit against Taipower on charges of
illegally setting aside budget," Ho said, referring to what he
said was Taipower's broken pledge not to increase the budget
when the project was first approved by parliament. 

Ho's group plans to launch a nationwide referendum to decide on
the fate of the half-completed project in 2007 or 2008, and also
sponsor a regional anti-nuclear forum. 

Since Taiwan's first nuclear plant became operational in 1987,
nuclear power has generated at least 180,000 drums of
low-radiation waste. 

Taipower had planned to ship the waste to North Korea" /> North
Koreabut was forced to halt the scheme under pressure from South
Korea" /> South Koreaand international conservationists. 

The plant had been scheduled to come on line in July 2006, but
in 2000, the government of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
scrapped the project following an election pledge, plunging the
island into months of political turmoil. 

The DPP reinstated the project in February 2001, having added
billions of dollars to its cost for delay compensation and extra
expense. 

The nuclear power plant will operate two "Advanced Boiling Water
Reactors," each with 1,350 megawatts of capacity. The first unit
of the plant is scheduled to become commercial operation in July
2009 and the second one in July 2110. 

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 44 Buffalo News: The executive branch is overstepping its authority
              
Thursday, October 5, 2006                                                                                             
 					 	 				     					 				 										 					 				 									 			 
 Federal government By                                                                                      
MARTY SANDEN and                                                                                     
JONATHAN WOOLSON                                                                                                                                                                                
 										 										
The Dunkirk-Fredonia Center for Peace and Justice is concerned 
about recent actions by the executive branch of our U.S. 
government. 

The executive branch has claimed the right to prosecute any 
member of the press who reveals any classified government 
information, according to the Washington Post. Without adequate 
explanation, the executive branch chose to reclassify more than 
55,000 government documents that were previously declassified and 
available to the public, the New York Times reported. 

The U.S. press has both the First Amendment right and the
democratic responsibility to provide the citizens of our country
with information about the choices that our government makes in
our name. When the American press cannot (or fears to) inform
us, we lose our right to know what choices our leaders are
making, endangering the foundation of our free and open society.
Once our rights to government information are lost, will there
ever be any incentive for our current or future government to
restore those rights, in effect weakening its own power? 

Since 2001, President Bush has vetoed only one bill - federal
funding for stem cell research. Rather than using his veto on
other bills with which he does not agree, the president has
attached more than 800 "signing statements" to bills passed by
Congress, invalidating their intent. Recently, the Boston Globe
reported, "among the laws Bush has challenged are a torture ban,
oversight provisions in the USA Patriot Act . . . whistle-blower
protections for executive branch employees, safeguards against
political interference in federally funded scientific research
and numerous other statutory restrictions or requirements on his
powers." 

A signing statement is a proclamation written by the president
and attached to a new law explaining how the executive branch
will interpret and enforce it. Under the U.S. Constitution's
checks and balances, the president may either veto or sign a
bill into law. Our Constitution does not allow the president to
reverse the intent of bills signed into law with the equivalent
of a line-item veto. Presidential line-item vetoes were ruled
illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1998. 

On Aug. 8, the American Bar Association issued a report saying
in part, "the American Bar Association opposes, as contrary to
the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of
powers, the issuance of presidential signing statements that
claim the authority or state the intention to disregard or
decline to enforce all or part of a law the president has
signed, or to interpret such a law in a manner inconsistent with
the clear intent of Congress." 

We ask our fellow citizens to consider whether actions taken by
our federal government support the rule of law, protect
fundamental principles of democracy and uphold the rights
guaranteed by the Constitution. 


Marty Sanden and Jonathan Woolson are members of the
Dunkirk-Fredonia Center for Peace and Justice.
 
Copyright  1999 - 2006 - The Buffalo News 
*****************************************************************
 45 NRC: Notice of Opportunity to Comment on Model Safety Evaluation and 
 
                        FR Doc E6-16450 
[Federal Register: October 5, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 193)] 
[Notices] [Page 58884-58888] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05oc06-86]                         
 
Model License Amendment Request on Technical Specification 
Improvement Regarding the Removal of the Main Steam and Main 
Feedwater Isolation Valve Times Using the Consolidated Line Item 
Improvement Process AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
ACTION: Request for comment.
 
SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the staff of the U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has prepared a model license 
amendment request (LAR), model safety evaluation (SE), and model 
proposed no significant hazards consideration (NSHC) 
determination related to changes to Standard Technical 
Specification NUREG-1430, 1431, 1432, (STS) 3.7.2, ``Main Stream 
Isolation Valves (MSIVs);'' NUREG-1430, STS 3.7.3, ``Main 
Feedwater Stop Valves (MFSVs), Main Feedwater Control Valves 
(MFCVs), and Associated Startup Feedwater Control Valves 
(SFCVs);'' NUREG-1431, STS 3.7.3, ``Main Feedwater Isolation 
Valves (MFIVs), Main Feedwater Regulation Valves (MFRVs), and 
Associated Bypass Valves;'' and NUREG-1432, STS 3.7.3,''Main 
Feedwater Isolation Valves (MFIVs), and MFIV Bypass Valves.'' 
These valves are herein referred to generically as the Main Steam 
and Main Feedwater Isolation Valves. The Babcocks and Wilcocks 
Owners Group (BWOG), the Combustion Engineering Owners Group 
(CEOG) and the Westinghouse Owners Group (WOG) participants in 
the Technical Specifications Task Force (TSTF) proposed these 
changes to the STS in TSTF-491, Revision 2 ``Removal of Main 
Steam and Feedwater Valve Isolation Times.''
 
[[Page 58885]] The purpose of these models is to permit the NRC 
to efficiently process amendments to incorporate these changes 
into plant-specific Technical Specifications (TS) for Babcock and 
Wilcock Pressurized Water Reactors (BWPWR), Combustion 
Engineering Pressurized Water Reactors (CEPWR) and Westinghouse 
Pressurized Water Reactors (WPWR).
 
Licensees of nuclear power reactors to which the models apply can 
request amendments conforming to the models. In such a request, a 
licensee should confirm the applicability of the model LAR, model 
SE and NSHC determination to its plant. The NRC staff is 
requesting comments on the model LAR, model SE and NSHC 
determination before announcing their availability for 
referencing in license amendment applications.
 
 
DATES: The comment period expires November 6, 2006. Comments 
received after this date will be considered if it is practical to 
do so, but the Commission is able to ensure consideration only 
for comments received on or before this date.
 
 
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted either electronically or via 
U.S. mail. Submit written comments to: Chief, Rulemaking, 
Directives, and Editing Branch, Division of Administrative 
Services, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: T-6 D59, U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
 
Hand deliver comments to: 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland, between 7:45 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. 
Submit comments by electronic mail to: CLIIP@nrc.gov. Copies of 
comments received may be examined at the NRC's Public Document 
Room, One White Flint North, Public File Area O1-F21, 11555 
Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Peter C. Hearn, Mail Stop: 
O-12H2, Division of Inspection and Regional Support, Office of 
Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555- 0001, telephone (301) 415-1189, e-mail 
pch@nrc.gov.
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background Regulatory Issue Summary 
2000-06, ``Consolidated Line Item Improvement Process for 
Adopting Standard Technical Specifications Changes for Power 
Reactors,'' was issued on March 20, 2000. The CLIIP is intended 
to improve the efficiency and transparency of NRC licensing 
processes. This is accomplished by processing proposed changes to 
the STS in a manner that supports subsequent license amendment 
applications. The CLIIP includes an opportunity for the public to 
comment on proposed changes to the STS following a preliminary 
assessment by the NRC staff and finding that the change will 
likely be offered for adoption by licensees. This notice is 
soliciting comment on a proposed change to the STS that relocates 
the Main Steam and Main Feedwater Isolation Valves Closure Times 
for the Babcock and Wilcock PWR STS Revision 3.0 of NUREG-1430, 
Combustion Engineering PWR STS Revision 3.0 of NUREG-1432 and 
Westinghouse PWR STS Revision 3.0 of NUREG-1431 to a Licensee 
Controlled Document that is referenced in the Bases. The CLIIP 
directs the NRC staff to evaluate any comments received for a 
proposed change to the STS and to either reconsider the change or 
proceed with announcing the availability of the change for 
proposed adoption by licensees. Those licensees opting to apply 
for the subject change to TSs are responsible for reviewing the 
staff's evaluation, referencing the applicable technical 
justifications, and providing any necessary plant-specific 
information. Following the public comment period, the model LAR 
and model SE will be finalized, and posted on the NRC Web page. 
Each amendment application made in response to the notice of 
availability will be processed and noticed in accordance with 
applicable NRC rules and procedures.
 
This notice involves relocating the Main Steam and Main Feedwater 
Isolation Valves Closure Times for the Babcock and Wilcock PWRs, 
Combustion Engineering PWRs and Westinghouse PWRs to a Licensee 
Controlled Document that is referenced in the Bases. By letter 
dated May 18, 2006, the BWPWR, CEPWR and the WPWR OG proposed 
these changes for incorporation into the STS as TSTF-491, 
Revision 2. These changes are accessible electronically from the 
Agency-wide Documents Access and Management System's (ADAMS) 
Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet (ADAMS Accession 
No. ML061500078) at the NRC Web site 
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingF 
R.html&log= [fxsp0]linklog=http:// 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have 
access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the 
documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC Public Document 
Room Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, 
301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. Applicability These 
proposed changes will revise the Sections 3.7.2 and 3.7.3 for the 
Babcock and Wilcock, Combustion Engineering and Westinghouse 
plants.
 
To efficiently process the incoming license amendment 
applications, the NRC staff requests that each licensee applying 
for the changes addressed by TSTF-491, Revision 2, using the 
CLIIP submit an LAR that adheres to the following model. Any 
variations from the model LAR should be explained in the 
licensee's submittal. Variations from the approach recommended in 
this notice may require additional review by the NRC staff, and 
may increase the time and resources needed for the review. 
Significant variations from the approach, or inclusion of 
additional changes to the license, will result in staff rejection 
of the submittal. Instead, licensees desiring significant 
variations and/ or additional changes should submit a LAR that 
does not claim to adopt TSTF-491.
 
Public Notices This notice requests comments from interested 
members of the public within 30 days of the date of this 
publication. Following the NRC staff's evaluation of comments 
received as a result of this notice, the NRC staff may reconsider 
the proposed change or may proceed with announcing the 
availability of the change in a subsequent notice (perhaps with 
some changes to the model LAR, model SE or model NSHC 
determination as a result of public comments). If the NRC staff 
announces the availability of the change, licensees wishing to 
adopt the change will submit an application in accordance with 
applicable rules and other regulatory requirements. The NRC staff 
will, in turn, issue for each application a notice of 
consideration of issuance of amendment to facility operating 
license(s), a proposed NSHC determination, and an opportunity for 
a hearing. A notice of issuance of an amendment to operating 
license(s) will also be issued to announce the revised 
requirements for each plant that applies for and receives the 
requested change.
 
Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 28th day of September 2006.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Timothy J. Kobetz, Chief, Technical Specifications Branch, 
Division of Inspection and Regional Support, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation.
 
Attachments--For inclusion on the Technical Specification Web 
Page the following example of an application was
 
[[Page 58886]] prepared by the NRC staff to facilitate the 
adoption of Technical Specifications Task Force (TSTF) Traveler 
TSTF-491, Revision 2.
 
The model provides the expected level of detail and content for 
an application to adopt TSTF-491, Revision 2. Licensees remain 
responsible for ensuring that their actual application fulfills 
their administrative requirements as well as NRC regulations.
 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Document Control Desk, 
Washington, DC 20555.Subject: Plant Name, Docket No. 50-[XXX,] 
Re: Application For Technical Specification Improvement To Adopt 
TSTF-491, Revision 2 ``Removal of Main Steam and Feedwater Valve 
Isolation Times.'' Dear Sir or Madam: In accordance with the 
provisions of Section 50.90 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (10 CFR), [LICENSEE] is submitting a request for an 
amendment to the technical specifications (TS) for [PLANT NAME, 
UNIT NOS.]. The proposed changes would revise Sections 3.7.2, 
``Main Steam Isolation Valves'' and 3.7.3, ``Main Feedwater 
Isolation Valves''. The changes are consistent with NRC-approved 
Industry Technical Specification Task Force (TSTF) Standard 
Technical Specification Change Traveler, TSTF-491, Revision 2 
``Removal of Main Steam and Feedwater Valve Isolation Times.'' 
The availability of this TS improvement was announced in the 
Federal Register on [DATE] ([ ]FR[ ]) as part of the consolidated 
line item improvement process CLIIP.
 
Enclosure 1 provides a description and assessment of the proposed 
changes, as well as confirmation of applicability. Enclosure 2 
provides the existing TS pages and TS Bases marked-up to show the 
proposed changes. Enclosure 3 provides final TS pages and TS 
Bases pages. [LICENSEE] requests approval of the proposed license 
amendment by [DATE], with the amendment being implemented [BY 
DATE OR WITHIN X DAYS]. In accordance with 10 CFR 50.91, a copy 
of this application, with enclosures, is being provided to the 
designated [STATE] Official.
 
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United 
States of America that I am authorized by [LICENSEE] to make this 
request and that the foregoing is true and correct. [Note that 
request may be notarized in lieu of using this oath or 
affirmation statement]. If you should have any questions 
regarding this submittal, please contact [ ].
 
Sincerely, Name, Title Enclosures: 1. Description and Assessment 
of Proposed Changes 2. Proposed Technical Specification Changes 
and Technical Specification Bases Changes 3. Final Technical 
Specification and Bases pages cc: NRR Project Manager, Regional 
Office, Resident Inspector, State Contact, T. Kobetz. 1.0 
Description This letter is a request to amend Operating 
License(s) [LICENSE NUMBER(S)] for [PLANT/UNIT NAME(S)].
 
The proposed changes would revise Technical Specification 3.7.2 
`` Main Steam Valves Closure Times'' and 3.7.3 ``Main Feedwater 
Isolation Valves Closure Times'' to allow relocating the closure 
times to a Licensee Controlled Document that is referenced in the 
BasesTechnical Specification Task Force (TSTF) change traveler 
TSTF-491, Revision 2, ``Removal of Main Steam and Feedwater Valve 
Isolation Times'' was announced for availability in the Federal 
Register on [DATE] as part of the consolidated line item 
improvement process CLIIP.
 
2.0 Proposed Changes Consistent with NRC-approved TSTF--491, 
Revision 2, the proposed TS changes include: Relocating the main 
steam and main feedwater isolation closure times to a Licensee 
Controlled Document that is referenced in the Bases.
 
3.0 Background The background for this application is as stated 
in the model SE in NRC's Notice of Availability published on 
[DATE ]([ ] FR [ ]), the NRC Notice for Comment published on 
[DATE] ([ ] FR [ ]), and TSTF-491, Revision 2.
 
4.0 Technical Analysis [LICENSEE] has reviewed References 1 and 
2, and the model SE published on [DATE] ([ ] FR [ ]) as part of 
the CLIIP Notice for Comment. [LICENSEE] has applied the 
methodology in Reference 1 to develop the proposed TS changes. 
[LICENSEE] has also concluded that the justifications presented 
in TSTF-491, Revision 2 and the model SE prepared by the NRC 
staff are applicable to [PLANT, UNIT NOS.], and justify this 
amendment for the incorporation of the changes to the [PLANT] TS.
 
5.0 Regulatory Analysis A description of this change and its 
relationship to applicable regulatory requirements and guidance 
was provided in the NRC Notice of Availability published on 
[Date] ([FR [ ]), the NRC Notice for Comment published on [Date] 
([ ] FR [ ]) and TSTF-491, Revision 2.
 
6.0 No Significant Hazards Consideration [LICENSEE] has reviewed 
the proposed no significant hazards consideration determination 
published in the Federal Register on [DATE] ([ ] FR [ ]) as part 
of the CLIIP. [LICENSEE] has concluded that the proposed 
determination presented in the notice is applicable to [PLANT] 
and the determination is hereby incorporated by reference to 
satisfy the requirements of 10 CFR 50.91(a). 7.0 Environmental 
Evaluation [LICENSEE] has reviewed the environmental 
consideration included in the model SE published in the Federal 
Register on [DATE] ([ ] FR [ ]) as part of the CLIIP. [LICENSEE] 
has concluded that the staff's findings presented therein are 
applicable to [PLANT] and the determination is hereby 
incorporated by reference for this application.
 
8.0 References 1. Federal Register Notices: Notice for Comment 
published on [DATE] ([ ] FR [ ]).
 
Notice of Availability published on [DATE] ([ ] FR [ ]).
 
Model Safety Evaluation--U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation-``Technical Specification 
Task Force TSTF-491, Revision 2, ``Removal of Main Steam and 
Feedwater Valve Isolation Times.'' Model Safety Evaluation--U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation--``Technical Specification Task Force TSTF-491, 
Revision 2,''--``Removal of Main Steam and Feedwater Valve 
Isolation Times.'' 1.0 Introduction By letter dated [----, 20--], 
[LICENSEE] (the licensee) proposed changes to the technical 
specifications (TS) for [PLANT NAME].
 
The requested changes are the adoption of TSTF-491, Revision 2, 
``Removal of Main Steam and Feedwater Valve Isolation Times'' 
which was proposed by the Technical Specification Task Force 
(TSTF) by letter on May 18, 2006. The proposed changes would 
revise Technical Specification 3.7.2 `` Main Steam Valves Closure 
Times'' and 3.7.3 ``Main Feedwater Isolation Valves Closure
 
[[Page 58887]] Times.'' The proposed TSTF would allow relocating 
the isolation valve closure times to a Licensee Controlled 
Document that is referenced in the Bases. Technical Specification 
Task Force (TSTF) change traveler TSTF-491, Revision 2, was 
announced for availability in the Federal Register on [DATE] as 
part of the consolidated line item improvement process CLIIP.
 
2.0 Regulatory Evaluation Section 182a of the Atomic Energy Act 
(the ``Act'') requires applicants for nuclear power plant 
operating licenses to include TS as part of the license. The TS 
ensure the operational capability of structures, systems and 
components that are required to protect the health and safety of 
the public. The Commission's regulatory requirements related to 
the content of the TS are contained in 10 CFR Section 50.36. That 
regulation requires that the TS include items in the following 
specific categories: (1) Safety limits, limiting safety systems 
settings, and limiting control settings (50.36(c)(1)); (2) 
Limiting Conditions for Operation (50.36(c)(2)); (3) Surveillance 
Requirements (50.36(c)(3)); (4) design features (50.34(c)(4)); 
and (5) administrative controls (50.36(c)(5)). In general, there 
are two classes of changes to TS: (1) Changes needed to reflect 
modifications to the design basis (TS are derived from the design 
basis), and (2) voluntary changes to take advantage of the 
evolution in policy and guidance as to the required content and 
preferred format of TS over time. This amendment deals with the 
second class of changes.
 
In determining the acceptability of revising STS 3.7.2 and 3.7.3, 
the staff used the accumulation of generically approved guidance 
in NUREG-1430, ``Standard Technical Specifications, Revision 3 
Babcock and Wilcox Plants,'' dated June, 2004; NUREG-1431, 
Revision 3, ``Standard Technical Specifications, Westinghouse 
Plants,'' dated June, 2004; and NUREG-1432, ``Standard Technical 
Specifications, Revision 3 Combustion Engineering Plants,'' dated 
June, 2004.
 
Licensees may revise the TS to adopt current improved STS format 
and content provided that plant-specific review supports a 
finding of continued adequate safety because: (1) The change is 
editorial, administrative or provides clarification (i.e., no 
requirements are materially altered), (2) the change is more 
restrictive than the licensee's current requirement, or (3) the 
change is less restrictive than the licensee's current 
requirement, but nonetheless still affords adequate assurance of 
safety when judged against current regulatory standards. The 
detailed application of this general framework, and additional 
specialized guidance, are discussed in Section 3.0 in the context 
of specific proposed changes. Nomenclature specific to the 
Westinghouse Plants is used in the following Technical 
Evaluation.
 
3.0 Technical Evaluation The NRC staff has reviewed the 
justification for the proposed TSTF as described in the September 
13, 2005 submittal. The detailed evaluation below will support 
the conclusion that: (1) There is reasonable assurance that the 
health and safety of the public will not be endangered by 
operation in the proposed manner, (2) such activities will be 
conducted in compliance with the Commission's regulations, and 
(3) the issuance of the amendment will not be inimical to the 
common defense and security or to the health and safety of the 
public.
 
3.1 Main Steam Isolation Valves (MSIV) One MSIV is located in 
each main steam line outside of the containment. Closing the 
MSIVs isolates each steam generator from the others and isolates 
the turbine, steam bypass system and other auxiliary steam 
supplies from the steam generator.
 
By isolating the steam flow from the secondary side of the steam 
generator the MSIVs prevent over cooling the reactor core 
following a high energy line break (HELB). By preventing core 
overcooling the MSIVs protect the reactor core from being 
damaged.
 
TSTF-491 is proposing to relocate the required closure times for 
the MSIVs to the Licensee Controlled Document (LCD) that is 
referenced in the Bases. Changes to LCDs are subject to the 10 
CFR 50.59 process. The 10 CFR 50.59 criteria provide adequate 
assurance that prior staff review and approval will be requested 
by the licensee for changes to the Bases or LCD requirements with 
the potential to affect the safe operation of the plant. 
Furthermore, the MSIVs are subject to periodic testing and 
acceptance criteria in accordance with the Inservice Testing 
(IST) Program. Compliance with the IST Program is required by 
Section 5.5.7 of the Standard Technical Specifications (STS) and 
10 CFR 50.55. The IST Program includes specific reference value 
baseline operating times for valves that are not subject to 
arbitrary changes.
 
10 CFR 50.36 requires the inclusion of the periodic testing of 
the MSIVs in the Surveillance Requirements not the actual closure 
time of the valves. TSTF-491 change maintains the periodic 
testing requirements for MSIVs in accordance with 10 CFR 50.36. 
Based on the requirements of 10 CFR 50.36, 10 CFR 50.59 and IST 
Program, the staff concludes that relocating the MSIV closure 
time to the LCD as referenced in the Bases is acceptable.
 
3.2 Main Feedwater Isolation Valve (MFIV), Main Feedwater 
Regulation/ Control Valve (MFRV) and Associated Bypass Valves 
(BV) The MFIVs and BVs or the MFRVs and BVs isolate the nonsafety 
related portions from the safety related portions of the system.
 
In the event of a secondary side pipe rupture inside containment, 
these valves limit the quantity of high energy fluid that enters 
the containment through the break and provide a pressure boundary 
for the controlled addition of auxiliary feedwater to the intact 
loops.
 
By isolating the feedwater flow from the affected steam generator 
the MFIVs, MFRVs and BVs prevent overcooling the reactor core and 
over pressurizing of the containment from feedwater pump runout.
 
As with the MSIVs, TSTF-491 is also proposing to relocate the 
required closure times for the MFIVs, MFRVs and BVS to the LCD 
that is referenced in the Bases. Changes to the Bases or LCD are 
subject to the 10 CFR 50.59 process. The 10 CFR 50.59 criteria 
provide adequate assurance that prior staff review and approval 
will be requested by the licensee for changes to the Bases or 
Licensee Controlled Document requirements with the potential to 
affect the safe operation of the plant. Furthermore, the MFIVs, 
MFRVs and BVs are subject to periodic testing and acceptance 
criteria in accordance with the Inservice Testing (IST) Program. 
Compliance with the IST Program is required by Section 5.5.7 of 
the Standard Technical Specifications (STS) and 10 CFR 50.55. The 
IST Program includes specific reference value baseline operating 
times for valves that are not subject to arbitrary changes.
 
10 CFR 50.36 requires the inclusion of the periodic testing of 
the MFIVs, MFRVs and BVs in the Surveillance Requirements not the 
actual closure time of the valves. TSTF-491 maintains the 
periodic testing requirements for MFIVs, MFRVs and BVs in 
accordance with 10 CFR 50.36. Based on the requirements of 10 CFR 
50.36, 10 CFR 50.59 and the IST Program, the staff concludes that 
relocating the MFIVs, MFRVs and BVs closure times to the LCD as 
referenced in the Bases is acceptable.
 
 
[[Page 58888]] 4.0 State Consultation In accordance with the 
Commission's regulations, the [------] State official was 
notified of the proposed issuance of the amendment.
 
The State official had [(1) no comments or (2) the following 
comments--with subsequent disposition by the staff].
 
5.0 Environmental Consideration The amendment[s] change[s] a 
requirement with respect to the installation or use of a facility 
component located within the restricted area as defined in 10 CFR 
part 20 or surveillance requirements. The NRC staff has 
determined that the amendment involves no significant increase in 
the amounts, and no significant change in the types, of any 
effluents that may be released offsite, and that there is no 
significant increase in individual or cumulative occupational 
radiation exposure. The Commission has previously issued a 
proposed finding that the amendment involves no significant 
hazards consideration and there has been no public comment on 
such finding published [DATE] ([ ] FR [ ]). Accordingly, the 
amendment meets the eligibility criteria for categorical 
exclusion set forth in 10 CFR 51.22(c)(9). Pursuant to 10 CFR 
51.22(b), no environmental impact statement or environmental 
assessment need be prepared in connection with the issuance of 
the amendment.6.0 Conclusion The Commission has concluded, based 
on the considerations discussed above, that (1) There is 
reasonable assurance that the health and safety of the public 
will not be endangered by operation in the proposed manner, (2) 
such activities will be conducted in compliance with the 
Commission's regulations, and (3) the issuance of the amendment 
will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the 
health and safety of the public. Proposed No Significant Hazards 
Consideration Determination Description of Amendment Request: 
[Plant name] requests adoption of an approved change to the 
standard technical specifications (STS) for Babcock and Wilcock 
PWR STS Revision 3.0 of NUREG-1430, Combustion Engineering PWR 
STS Revision 3.0 of NUREG-1432 and Westinghouse PWR STS Revision 
3.0 of NUREG-1431 plant specific technical specifications (TS), 
to allow relocating the main steam and main feedwater isolation 
valve closure times to a Licensee Controlled Document that is 
referenced in the Bases. The changes are consistent with NRC 
approved Industry/Technical Specification Task Force (TSTF) 
Standard Technical Specifcation Change Traveler, TSTF-491, 
Revision 2.
 
Basis for proposed no-significant-hazards-consideration 
determination: As required by 10 CFR 50.91(a), an analysis of the 
issue of no-significant-hazards-consideration is presented below: 
Criterion 1--The Proposed Change Does Not Involve a Significant 
Increase in the Probability or Consequences of an Accident 
Previously Evaluated The proposed change allows relocating main 
steam and main feedwater valve isolation times to the Licensee 
Controlled Document that is referenced in the Bases. The proposed 
change is described in Technical Specification Task Force (TSTF) 
Standard TS Change Traveler TSTF-491 related to relocating the 
main steam and main feedwater valves isolation times to the 
Licensee Controlled Document that is referenced in the Bases and 
replacing the isolation time with the phase, ``within limits.'' 
The proposed change does not involve a physical alteration of the 
plant (no new or different type of equipment will be installed). 
The proposed changes relocate the main steam and main feedwater 
isolation valve times to the Licensee Controlled Document that is 
referenced in the Bases. The requirements to perform the testing 
of these isolation valves are retained in the TS. Future changes 
to the Bases or licensee-controlled document will be evaluated 
pursuant to the requirements of 10 CFR 50.59, `` Changes, test 
and experiments'', to ensure that such changes do not result in 
more than minimal increase in the probability or consequences of 
an accident previously evaluated.
 
The proposed changes do not adversely affect accident initiators 
or precursors nor alter the design assumptions, conditions, and 
configuration of the facility or the manner in which the plant is 
operated and maintained. The proposed changes do not adversely 
affect the ability of structures, systems and components (SSCs) 
to perform their intended safety function to mitigate the 
consequences of an initiating event within the assumed acceptance 
limits. The proposed changes do not affect the source term, 
containment isolation, or radiological consequences of any 
accident previously evaluated. Further, the proposed changes do 
not increase the types and the amounts of radioactive effluent 
that may be released, nor significantly increase individual or 
cumulative occupation/public radiation exposures.
 
Therefore, the changes do not involve a significant increase in 
the probability or consequences of any accident previously 
evaluated.
 
Criterion 2--The Proposed Change Does Not Create the Possibility 
of a New or Different Kind of Accident from any Previously 
Evaluated The proposed changes relocate the main steam and main 
feedwater valve isolation times to the Licensee Controlled 
Document that is referenced in the Bases. In addition, the valve 
isolation times are replaced in the TS with the phase ``within 
limits''. The changes do not involve a physical altering of the 
plant (i.e., no new or different type of equipment will be 
installed) or a change in methods governing normal pant 
operation. The requirements in the TS continue to require testing 
of the main steam and main feedwater isolation valves to ensure 
the proper functioning of these isolation valves.
 
Therefore, the changes do not create the possibility of a new or 
different kind of accident from any previously evaluated.
 
Criterion 3--The Proposed Change Does Not Involve a Significant 
Reduction in the Margin of Safety The proposed changes relocate 
the main steam and main feedwater valve isolation times to the 
Licensee Controlled Document that is referenced in the Bases. In 
addition, the valve isolation times are replaced in the TS with 
the phase ``within limits''. Instituting the proposed changes 
will continue to ensure the testing of main steam and main 
feedwater isolation valves. Changes to the Bases or license 
controlled document are performed in accordance with 10 CFR 
50.59. This approach provides an effective level of regulatory 
control and ensures that main steam and feedwater isolation valve 
testing is conducted such that there is no significant reduction 
in the margin of safety.
 
The margin of safety provided by the isolation valves is 
unaffected by the proposed changes since there continue to be TS 
requirements to ensure the testing of main steam and main 
feedwater isolation valves. The proposed changes maintain 
sufficient controls to preserve the current margins of safety.
 
Based upon the reasoning above, the NRC staff concludes that the 
amendment request involves no significant hazards consideration.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Project Manager, Plant Licensing Branch, Division of Operating 
Reactor Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. E6-16450 Filed 10-4-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 46 Dr. James Howenstine: Lung Cancer Epidemic From DU Has Begun in U.S.
 
LUNG CANCER EPIDEMIC FROM DU HAS BEGUN IN U.S. 
  
By Dr. James Howenstine, MD.
 April 6, 2006
 NewsWithViews.com 

In the year 2005 there were 175,000 new cases of lung cancer in
the United States. The months of January and February of 2006
have already yielded 172,000 new cases of lung cancer in our
nation. What has lead to this shocking new development? 

Second hand smoke exposure and cigarette smoking obviously can
not explain this dramatic rise in lung cancer. Following
exposure to radioactive iodine particulate debris in the air
from shells and bombs, between 2 to 5 years of time is needed to
lead to the appearance of malignancies. Our bombing of
Afghanistan began in October 2001 (four and a half years ago)
and the new bombing in Iraq began in March 2003 (exactly three
years ago). Aerial bombs are more effective than artillery
shells in increasing airborne radioiodine because they release
more dust into the atmosphere. The radioactive iodine increment
from these bombings was registered in the UK in the Aldermaston
Report[1] released on Feb. 19, 2006. 

The U.S. government has not released any information about the
levels of radioactivity being observed in the U.S. and the
controlled media in Europe and the U.S. has said nothing about
the 4 genocidal nuclear wars the United States and it’s British
ally have foisted off on the populace of the world. (Bosnia,
Iraq twice and Afghanistan). The DU wars surely reflect the
population lowering program for the world being implemented by
the New World Order elitists (Tilateral Commisson.,
Bilderbergers, Club of Rome, 33 rd degree Masons, Illuminati,
Council of Foreign Relations.) 

Breathing radioactive particlulate matter has long been known to
cause lung cancer. Miners working in uranium mines and other
types of mining where radioactivity is an occupational hazard
have a higher incidence of lung cancer. This danger from
airborne radioactive iodine is greater than that found from
cigarette smoking. The radioactive iodine particles go directly
to DNA which is “trashed”. There are no ways the human body can
rid itself of the radioactive particles so the health damage is
permanent. This results in severe health problems particularly
malignancies which have no effective therapies. Physicians in
Bosnia are seeing patients present for care with three
simultaneous malignancies something never previously reported in
medicine. 

Children in Iraq are dying in epidemic numbers from
malignancies. In most nations cancer in children is uncommon.
This makes depleted uranium shells and bombs an ideal vehicle to
diminish the world population. The absence of media exposure
critical of this genocidal program makes DU warfare a low risk
program for lowering world population. One of the attractive
features of using radioactive uranium for biologic warfare and
population lowering is that there are no known effective ways to
heal an individual who develops a malignancy after radioiodine
iodine exposure. 

A frightening aspect of depleted uranium warfare is that there
is no way to protect oneself from this hazard. Clothing and gas
masks are easily penetrated. The key persons running the New
World Order are brilliant planners. They would not want
themselves to die from lung cancer along with the rest of
humanity. My guess is they have discovered methods to protect
themselves from developing lung cancer. Certainly one has to be
impressed with how effectively David Rockefeller, Zignev
Brezinski and Henry Kissinger appear to have managed to avoid
the infirmities of aging at least to outward appearances. 

I do not know if persons living in the Southern hemisphere are
also being exposed to radioiodine fallout. Recently Christopher
Reeves wife, Dana, died of lung cancer at age 44. She was a
healthy non smoker so her death appeared puzzling. The DU
fallout may provide a rational explanation. 

Because prevailing winds have carried radioiodine dust to Europe
and probably the U.S. it appears that at least half the persons
on planet earth are currently breathing radioiodine. The topic
of depleted uranium bombs and shells will not be discussed in
the media because the world’s media is controlled by the New
World Order elitists. World wide public outrage could ruin their
plans to rapidly lower the world’s population by 90 % if this
issue was publicly discussed. 

When a biologic warfare agent like the borrelia burgdorfi
spirochete (Lyme Disease) turns out to spread person to person
it becomes a gigantic success. We all must breath to stay alive.
With at least half the persons on earth now breathing
radioactive iodine the bio-warfare scientists appear to have
their second big winner. Expect lung cancer deaths to rapidly
increase worldwide.
 
Footnotes: 
1, CNN American Morning program March 8, 2006 Miles and Soledad
O'Brien 

© 2006 Dr. James Howenstine - All Rights Reserved 

Dr. James A. Howenstine is a board certified specialist in
internal medicine who spent 34 years caring for office and
hospital patients. After 4 years of personal study he became
convinced that natural products are safer, more effective, and
less expensive than pharmaceutical drugs. This research led to
the publication of his book A Physicians Guide To Natural Health
Products That Work. Information about these products and his
book can be obtained from amazon.com and at
www.naturalhealthteam.comand phone 1-800-416-2806 U.S. Dr.
Howenstine can be reached by mail at Dr. James Howenstine, C/O
Remarsa USA SB 37, P.O. Box 25292, Miami, Fl. 33102-5292. 

E-Mail: jimhow@racsa.co.cr

Children in Iraq are dying in epidemic numbers from
malignancies. In most nations cancer in children is uncommon.
This makes depleted uranium shells and bombs an ideal vehicle to
diminish the world population. 
  
*****************************************************************
 47 MT: School board gets first look at new KI distribution plan

www.monticellotimes.com
                                                                                                        
Thursday, October 05, 2006              
 
By Bobby Hart Times Reporter

The Monticello School District took another step toward putting
a policy in place to further protect students in the event of a
nuclear accident at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant. 

The Monticello School Board went through the first reading of a
new Radiological Emergency Plan (REP) for Schools, which
pertains to the distribution of potassium iodide (KI). 

KI is a form of iodine that can offer partial protection from
some types of radiation.

In June, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety announced
that Minnesota had become the 21st state, of 31 states that have
nuclear plants, to accept the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
voluntary supply of potassium iodide (KI).

At that time, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Division
of Homeland Security recommended that districts within a 10-mile
radius of a nuclear plant set up a KI distribution plan.
Although no sort of legislation has been passed requiring
districts to put a KI plan in place, Monticello Superintendent
Jim Johnson basically decided that it's better to be safe than
sorry, from a liability standpoint.

"I have a difficult time finding an answer of how I'd respond to
parents and people in the community and say there's a reason we
didn't do this when all indications are this will be in the best
interest of our kids," he said. "We can't distribute (KI)
without something like this in place."

The district is planning on mailing a KI information sheet along
with parent permission forms in the first week of November.
Parents will have the option as to whether or not their child
will be eligible to receive KI in such an emergency. KI will be
available in both chewable tablets and liquid form for
elementary students. 

Monticello Middle School Assistant Principal Eric Olson and
district nurse Patrice Bogart worked with neighboring districts,
the state department of homeland security and personal from each
of the buildings in the Monticello district to put a
building-specific distribution plan in place. Olson, who has
been attending state meetings on KI since last December,
presented a first draft of that plan, in policy format, at
Monday's meeting.

"As a district, each site has put together a KI team, and I'm
here today to tell you that each building did a wonderful job
and we are KI-ready," he said. "If this policy were to go into
place and it were the second reading, we could implement this,
we could gain parent permission, we could distribute KI and we
would be able to maintain and monitor logs and a KI count." 

Johnson said the state department of homeland security reviewed
the policy and sent an email saying that Monticello was ahead of
the game, compared to many districts in the state.

"Many districts have approved a policy, but are nowhere near
where we are in terms of implementation," Johnson said.

Evacuation, a plan the district has had in place for many years,
is still the primary option in the case of an emergency at the
plant. 

KI distribution would take place only in the unlikely event that
evacuation to the designated sister school-in this case, Maple
Grove High School-is not possible. 

The board discussed a possible point of confusion that may stem
from the procedure that initially included the ability to
distribute KI on the bus during evacuation, in addition to
distributing it in the schools prior to evacuating, and in the
destined shelter. The board decided to strike the "bus" clause
from the policy, to simplify and ensure the timeliness of the
evacuation.

The liability of the district was also a concern that was
raised. For example, what if a child who had parent permission
to take KI wasn't treated, or vice versa?

Johnson said, in a rare crisis incident such as this, people
could attempt to sue a number of different parties involved,
from the state to the local level. 

Although the district could never be completely safe from a
lawsuit, Johnson said he believes this plan is in the best
interest of the safety of the district's students. 

"If you talk to our lawyers, they're always going to say, 'Did
you make every reasonable attempt to do what was necessary to
keep kids safe?" Johnson said. "Are people still going to sue
you in the end? Absolutely. We do what's reasonable with the
resources and the time that we have, and I think this plan has
gone a long way in taking us in that direction."

The policy will go before of the board for approval by the Nov.
7 regular meeting, Olson said. The KI plan is expected to be
ready to implement in January. 

In other action Monday, the board:

• Heard a second reading and approved three updated policies.
After slight revisions, the board approved Policy 205 (Open
Meetings and Closed Meetings), Policy 206 (Public Participation
in School Board Meetings/Complaints About Persons at School
Board Meetings and Data Privacy Considerations), and Policy 430
(Purchasing Card). 

• Recognized Monticello High School senior Casey Pennington, who
was named a Commended Student in the 2007 National Merit
Scholarship Program. The board presented her with a Letter of
Commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship
Corpor-ation (NMSC), which conducts the program. Approximately
34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being
recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although
Pennington will not continue in the 2007 competition for Merit
Scholarship awards, she placed among the top five percent of
more the 1.4 million students who entered the 2007 competition
by taking the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship
Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

• Heard a financial report by Director of Finance Bill Holmgren
who went over the fiscal year 2006 report and some numbers for
the current fiscal year-2007. 

• Approved to change the Dec. 6 and Dec. 13 meeting times from 6
p.m. to 5 p.m. The change was made to allow time for church
related events on those nights. 

• Approved a special board meeting for Nov. 8 at 10 a.m. to
present the election results.

 The next board meeting will be a special board meeting Oct. 16
at 6 p.m. The next regular board meeting is Nov. 6 at 6 p.m.

Copyright 2006, Monticello Times
*****************************************************************
 48 UPI: Rocket fuel ingredient may affect thyroid
     
United Press International - Consumer Health - 

10/5/2006 4:44:00 PM -0400

ATLANTA, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. women, particularly those with low
iodine intake, may have reduced thyroid function due to
perchlorate exposure, not found in men, a study found. 

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta examined 2,299 men and women ages 12 and older who
participated in the CDC's National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey from 2001 to 2002. 

Examining the relationship between perchlorate concentrations in
urine and concentrations of the thyroid hormones thyroxine and
thyroid-stimulating hormone in blood, the researchers observed
that perchlorate was a significant predictor of thyroid hormone
levels in women, but not in men, according to the study
published on the Web site
www.ehponline.org/members/2006/9466/9466.pdf. 

This study is the first to examine women with lower iodine
levels for a potential effect of perchlorate on thyroid
function, say the CDC researchers. 

Perchlorate's main use is as an oxidizer in solid rocket fuels,
but it is also used in explosives, road flares and pyrotechnics.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 49 Sydney Morning Herald: Taskforce ponders uranium enrichment - 

www.smh.com.au
 
October 5, 2006 - 4:25PM
 	 	
A government task force could recommend Australia move towards
uranium enrichment, despite the owner of the nation's biggest
uranium deposit rejecting the idea. 

Mining giant BHP Billiton has declared uranium enrichment
unviable and has also cast doubt on the prospects of nuclear
power without a big carbon tax, as Prime Minister John Howard's
taskforce wraps up its inquiry into the nation's nuclear energy
options. 

But the head of the inquiry, former Telstra chief Ziggy
Switkowski, has hinted a move towards uranium enrichment could
still be among the taskforce's recommendations. 

Rio Tinto - which owns the Northern Territory's Ranger and
Jabiluka uranium leases - also played down the commercial
viability of enriching the mineral, saying there was no supply
deficit in the enrichment market. 

"Downstream processing of uranium in Australia should only be
considered if there is a sound business case," the company said
in a submission to the taskforce. 

Dr Switkowski - who has visited the site of the Chernobyl
disaster as part of his inquiry - said Rio Tinto's conclusion
was "very reasonable", but indicated enrichment could still be
among his taskforce's recommendations. 

"If you project that several decades you can see environments
where there'll need to be new enrichment capacity brought on
stream and that may provide opportunities for new plants," he
told ABC Radio. 

The prospect of enrichment - which makes uranium suitable for
nuclear power generation and for making nuclear weapons - has
received upbeat assessments from Mr Howard, Industry Minister
Ian Macfarlane and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. 

But BHP Billiton - the owner of the giant Olympic Dam mine in
South Australia - has poured cold water on the idea in a blunt
submission to the taskforce. 

"We do not believe that conversion and enrichment would be
commercially viable in Australia for the foreseeable future,"
the company says in its submission. 

BHP has also raised doubts about the immediate future for
nuclear power in Australia without a high carbon tax - an impost
on energy sources which emit carbon dioxide. 

However, the company said a sufficiently high tax would make
nuclear power more attractive than coal or gas-fired operations. 

Dr Switkowski would not reveal whether his report would suggest
that nuclear power generation was viable, but said his visits to
countries which were significant users of the energy showed that
it could be. 

"I think the sum of the experiences of other countries suggests
that nuclear power can be competitive with conventional power
generation infrastructure," he said. 

His visits have also taken him to the scene of the world's worst
nuclear accident - the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine -
as well as Three Mile Island in the American state of
Pennsylvania, a plant which experienced a core meltdown in 1979. 

"You can't, I think, have a conversation around the options
around nuclear energy without being mindful of the experiences
of Chernobyl," Dr Switkowski said. 

"Although the characteristics of that reactor and the
circumstances of that accident seem like they can't be
reproduced anywhere else in the world, nevertheless there's now
20 years of aftermath from that accident that we can learn
from." 

© 2006 	AAP

 Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald. <img
*****************************************************************
 50 Bradenton Herald: Planners seek Tallevast hearing delay

10/05/2006 | 

Posted on Thu, Oct. 05, 2006 email this print this 

 DONNA WRIGHT Herald Staff Writer 

TALLEVAST - County planning staff has recommended that a public
hearing scheduled for today on The Forum, a light industrial and
retail project slated for the northeast corner of Tallevast Road
and U.S. 301, be continued at a later date, according to Norm
Luppino, planning manager. 

Luppino said there are traffic-impact issues that need to be
addressed before the public hearing can be held. 

Bob Pederson, community planning administrator, said the
applicant, Trey Desenburg, of Covered Bridge Holdings II LLC, is
being asked to revise and update the traffic study previously
submitted for The Forum. 

Pederson said staff will ask county commissioners to reschedule
the public hearing for Dec. 2. 

"We found some corrections that need to be made in the way the
traffic study was done," said Pederson. 

Tallevast residents have complained to the county that the
project will have a negative effect on their historic community,
and that the construction phase could create additional health
hazards if underground toxins related to the Tallevast plume of
pollution are disturbed. 

The Tallevast plume has been traced back to the former Loral
American Beryllium Co. plant at 1600 Tallevast Road. The plume
is now known to cover more than 200 acres. 

Lockheed Martin Corp., the owner of the facility when the
contamination was discovered in 2000, is responsible for
cleaning up the plume. 

That process, Lockheed says, will take 20 years. 

Donna Wright, health and social services reporter, can be
reached at 745-7049 
*****************************************************************
 51 BBC: Funding for life after Dounreay
 
Last Updated: Thursday, 5 October 2006
 
[Dounreay]

The Dounreay site is undergoing decommissioning                                                                 

A £500,000 fund has been set up to help the far north economy 
become less reliant on the Dounreay nuclear plant. 

The North Highland Regeneration Fund will offer start-up support
to new businesses. 

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is also to publish
details of its socio-economic policy. 

It will set out how the NDA will work with other organisations
to ease the impact on the area once Dounreay is fully
decommissioned. 

NDA's chief executive, Dr Ian Roxburgh, said it was crucial that
it used the time available to prepare for the nuclear site's
eventual closure. 

Sustainable jobs 

He said: "The Dounreay site contributes £200m to the local
economy at the moment and will do so for a period. 

"We have got 20 years and we need to make a start on encouraging
and introducing now sustainable jobs to replace those that will
vanish along with the Dounreay nuclear complex." 

The UK Atomic Energy Authority, which runs the plant, expects
decomissioning work to be completed in 2036. 

The 140-acre Dounreay site is being cleaned up at a cost of
£2.9bn. 		 	 		 	 	 



*****************************************************************
 52 Platts: Court awards $142.8 million in damages for spent fuel management
 
Washington (Platts)--4Oct2006
 
The US Court of Federal Claims unsealed a decision Wednesday
awarding a total of $142.8 million in damages to three New 
England utilities that have had to manage spent nuclear fuel 
storage at their shutdown reactor sites. 

     The utilities--Yankee Atomic Electric Co., Connecticut 
Yankee Atomic Power Co., and Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co.--sued 
the federal government in 1998 after the Department of Energy 
failed to begin disposing of utility spent fuel by a 1998 
contract date. 

     Nothing in the decision, which the court issued September 
30, addresses the utilities' concerns about when the spent 
nuclear fuel will be removed from their decommissioned reactor 
sites. 

     The court had placed the ruling under seal in late September 
because it was concerned the document might contain proprietary 
business or security information. 

     The federal government has 60 days to appeal the court 
ruling. --Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com

Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill 
Companies]       
*****************************************************************
 53 St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Tritium leaks go unseen, task force says

OCTOBER 5, 2006 
                                

By ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH10/05/2006 

Leaking radioactive tritium from the nation's nuclear power 
plants can reach the environment undetected through equipment 
that isn't subject to regular inspection and maintenance, a 
federal task force has concluded.
 
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's "lessons learned" task force
found that tritium leaks that have been discovered at U.S. power
plants - including AmerenUE's Callaway nuclear plant in central
Missouri - pose no threat to public health. The report was
released on Wednesday.
 
But the task force, which included a representative from
Illinois, determined that "the potential exists for unplanned
and unmonitored releases of radioactive fluids to migrate
offsite into the public domain" under existing regulations.
 
According to the report, that's because pipelines and some other
components containing radioactive fluids are: 


Built to commercial standards considered less stringent than
other power plant safety systems.
 
Not subject to surveillance, maintenance or inspection under
Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements.
 
Underground and not visible to plant operators, reducing the
likelihood leaks would be discovered.
 
The task force made 26 recommendations to improve the detection,
response and public awareness of accidental leaks and spills
from nuclear power plants.
 
"In looking at our regulations, the task force has found many
areas where improvements could be made," said Scott Burnell, a
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman.
 
Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project at the
Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said tritium leaks now
appear to be industrywide and the task force report "doesn't
build our confidence" in regulators' approach to the problem.
 
In Missouri, AmerenUE announced in June that it had discovered
small amounts of tritium and other radionuclides had leaked from
a discharge pipeline carrying cooling water and low-level
radioactive waste to the Missouri River.
 
None of the material has reached local water supplies or crops,
and the company has taken temporary measures to capture leaking
water from air-release valves that are housed inside the
pipeline manholes, said Ameren spokesman Mike Cleary.
 
Ameren, he said, has found new valves that do not leak and is
considering their use as replacements for the leaking valves.
 
kleiser@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8215
 [spacer] Top of page [E-mail this story] E-mail this story to a
friend [Printer friendly] Printer friendly [Subscribe to the
Post-Dispatch] Subscribe to the Post-Dispatch for just 50 cents
a day.   

*****************************************************************
 54 TBJ: Authorities approve GE uranium plan, possible Wilmington plant -

Triangle Business Journal: 

Triangle Business Journal - 10:47 AM EDT Wednesday
 
GE Energy Inc.said Wednesday that U.S. government regulators have 
given the green light for the company to develop and 
commercialize a laser-based, uranium-enrichment technology and 
possibly build manufacturing facilities in Wilmington. 

Atlanta-based GE Energy had announced in May a deal with Silex 
Systems Ltd.to develop the technology. 

The agreement between GE Energy and the Sydney, Australia,
company gives GE the right to commercialize the technology under
a "phased approach" and possibly build a test loop, pilot plant
and a full-scale, commercial enrichment plant. 

The facilities would be built at GE's existing nuclear energy
headquarters in Wilmington "or another suitable location in the
United States," the company said in May. 

GE officials said the company would pay Silex an undisclosed
amount in scheduled milestone payments and royalties should the
technology reach commercialization. Financial details were not
disclosed. 

The Silex technology represents a new, laser-based "isotope
separation" process for enriching uranium for use in civilian
nuclear power plants. It is more efficient than existing
civilian fuel enrichment processes such as gas diffusion or gas
centrifuge plants, says GE. The low-grade enriched uranium would
be used for industrial purposes. 

"GE's commercialization of the Silex enrichment technology is a
crucial part of our long-term growth strategy for the nuclear
business, positioning GE to be a leading global competitor in
the industry for decades to come," said Andy White, president
and CEO of GE Energy's nuclear business. 

About 6,000 of GE's 330,000 worldwide employees work in North
Carolina, where the company has 20 locations. 


© 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors.
*****************************************************************
 55 The Australian: China 'could use Australian uranium for bombs' 

 Michelle Wiese Bockmann October 05, 2006 

CHINA could siphon off Australian uranium for military purposes
because a bilateral agreement lacked proper safeguards, the
Australian Conservation Foundation told a federal parliamentary
inquiry in Adelaide today.

ACF spokesman David Noonan said claims that if Australia didn't
supply uranium to China somebody else would amounted to "the
drug dealers' defence". 

The inquiry is examining the Howard government's April 2006
agreement to export uranium to China, reversing a long-standing
policy not to supply uranium to the nuclear weapons state. 

Mr Noonan said Australian yellowcake would be enriched and
converted at facilities in China jointly run by the military. 

He said there was no way international or Australian authorities
could adequately monitor or check whether uranium was used for
nuclear weapons. 

China's appetite for uranium for non-military purposes is
rapidly increasing. Ten of the world's 442 nuclear power
reactors are in China with plans to build a further 13 and
proposals for another 50, the Association of Mining and
Exploring Companies (AMEC) said in its submission. 

China's uranium demands would be "significant," and establishing
treaties the "optimal" method of securing influence to monitor
its use, the AMEC said. 

BHP Billiton, which owns the Olympic Dam uranium mine, gave
evidence behind closed doors, requesting a private briefing. 

Joint Standing Committee on Treaties chairman Dr Andrew
Southcott said the private briefing was necessary to secure the
information. 

A $7 billion proposed expansion for the mine, to triple output
to 15,000 tonnes of uranium oxide annually, would make the mine
the world's largest and BHP Billiton the major beneficiary of
China uranium sales. 

The inquiry will hear evidence in Perth tomorrow, Melbourne
later this month with a report and recommendations would be
prepared by year's end, Mr Southcott said. 


*****************************************************************
 56 TPMCafe: George Bush Proposes Yucca Mountain Facility to Store Radioactive Republicans | 

[From: Coffee House] [The Coffee House] 

By Stirling Newberry | bio 

George Bush today proposed a new facility to store long term
radioactive Republican politicians. The target would be the
ability to contain Republican politicians whose high level
danger to tax cuts and social security privatization reaches
critical levels. Current Republican radioactive politicians are
kept in temporary storage in Virginia, often with mansions
constructed prior to their being declared publicly radioactive.

There have been inquires from Hewlett-Packard about whether
private sector high level radioactive executives could be stored
at the facility - noting that in the recent case there that even
the standard industry procedure of using a golden parachute to
shroud the radioactivity is in sufficient.

The press is already noting that these calls from the White
House have been made more urgent by the very public meltdown of
Mark Foley. The general belief in Washington is that the Fordham
explosion, the by-product of trying to rapidly shut him down
before any more damage was done, has only moved Dennis Hastert
closer to critical. 

While some Republicans believe Hastert's levels of radioactivity
are tolerable until after the elections, arguing that if Hastert
were removed now that the burst of radiation might be lethal to
other members of the Republican leadership, particularly people
like Rep. Johnson of Connecticut who were partially contaminated
by their involvement in the page program oversight.

The other body of Republican opinion however, is that by giving
a face to Republican radioactivity, that the current scandal
will expose the voter's optic nerves, and this might sharpen
their ability to remember in November. A White House insider,
speaking on the condition of anonymity said that while Bush is
supporting Hastert's handling of the scandal in statements to
the press, privately he is angered that the cooling program of
lower gasoline prices is being wasted by allowing the Foley
reactor to get out of control.

The current situation shows the difference between the present
ad hoc storage program, and the previous ways of handling
radioactive politicians. Democrats have tended to either use
jail, or academia, though in recent years they too have favored
dumping radioactive politicians into K street storage. In no
small part this is because the Republican radioactivity is
exacerbated by its combination with hypocrisy - having come to
Washington claiming reform, term limits and moral character as
the solution to the endless treadmill of scandal, Foley being
caught having stayed in Congress long after term limits would
have sent him home, and having written the very legislation
which his behavior violated is seen as symptomatic of a
Republican party that can't keep the one real promise they made:
that no one would get off an elected official inside a the White
House or Capitol building.

The storage facility was previously discussed, but with the
apperant containment of the Abramoff scandal - even with dozens
of visits to the White House - the urgency seemed to fade. While
the toxic clean up of Ohio seemed likely to cost the Republicans
the governorship, it was not clear that there would be
consequences beyond that, or perhaps Burns in Montana. While
having to seal up Rep. Ney was a blow, over all the loses seemed
acceptable.

Democrats are already objecting to the use of public money to
deal with the after effects of what is a partisan effort to
ignore the growing danger signs inside of Congress, and argue
that there is no need for a federally funded facility to take
care of a Republican problem. In part this is thought to be
their position because it is well known that radioactive
Democratic politicians, such as Rep. Jefferson, would not be
eligible for storage in the new facility. 

Of course the question that would have to be asked is how the
Senate would act. Partially because there are growing worries
that Senators Bill Frist and George Allen are reaching dangerous
levels of radioactivity. Frist because of his connections with
the health care industry, and Allen because of a string of
racist comments that build on a long pattern of behavior going
back to his college years. Senate Republicans would be loathe to
move on an expensive facility which would store House waste,
without having some plan for dealing with their own. 

(Nods to the Onion). login to post comments
 Oct 5, 2006 -- 09:17:04 AM EST | Tags: On October 5, 2006 -
4:05pm MNPundit said: 

I've hated HP management with a vengeance since that bitch
Fiorina merged them with Compaq and that bitch Dunn set the
current debacle in motion.

I say take their severance package ($14,000,000 for Fiorina) to
help pay for it. login to post comments | link | Rated 3 by one
user. On October 5, 2006 - 3:07pm CParis said: 

Is Bu$hco going to outsource construction and maintenance of
this facility? Looks like a job for Halliburton! login to post
comments | link | Rated 4 by one user. 
Comment viewing options
 Flat list - collapsedFlat list - expandedThreaded list -
collapsedThreaded list - expanded Date - newest firstDate -
oldest first 10 comments per page30 comments per page50 comments
per page70 comments per page90 comments per page150 comments per
page200 comments per page250 comments per page300 comments per
page Select your preferred way to display the comments and click
"Save settings" to activate your changes. 		 

 Copyright Â© 2006 TPM Media LLC. All Rights Reserved 
*****************************************************************
 57 Monticello Times: Dry storage ok'd for the nuclear plant

www.monticellotimes.com

Thursday, October 05, 2006              
 
By Kathleen Ostroot News Editor

On Thursday, Sept. 28, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission
unanimously approved Xcel Energy's request to store radioactive
nuclear waste in up to 30 above-ground containers in a storage
facility at the Monticello nuclear plant.

"This decision will take effect in June of 2007 unless the state
legislature decides to review it. They can choose to say
nothing," Mary Sandok, of Xcel Energy, said.

Because the federal government's Yucca Mountain waste storage
facility in Nevada is not complete, further operation of the
Monticello plant requires that the waste be stored on-site.

In separate but related actions, Xcel asked the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to extend its license until 2030, and
permission to build the temporary waste storage facility will be
necessary to continue operating the facility.

Currently, Xcel's 40-year operating license expires that year,
which means if the plant is not granted a license extension, it
will be decommissioned and shut down.

Xcel will store the radioactive spent fuel rods in 20-ton dry,
sealed steel canisters, and place those canisters within a large
concrete vault that would be built near the plant's reactor
building.

The plant operates a single-unit boiling water reactor powered
by nuclear fuel. In such a configuration, a nuclear reaction in
the reactor core generates heat, which boils water to produce
steam inside the reactor vessel, which is then routed to turbine
generators and produces electrical power. The water is cooled in
a condenser and returned to the reactor vessel to be boiled
again. The cooling water is force-circulated by electrically
powered feed water pumps. Emergency cooling water is supplied by
other pumps, which can be powered by diesel fuel.

Proposed spent fuel storage

At present, the spent fuel pool is located on the refueling
floor in the reactor building of the plant, and is filled with
storage racks that hold the spent fuel assemblies and other
irradiated reactor components. The water in the pool is 37 feet,
9 inches deep. The pool is equipped with redundant cooling
systems to remove heat that continues to be generated by the
process. The water above the spent fuel also provides a
radiation shield. The spent fuel pool provides an area to fill
the casks with the spent fuel.

Xcel estimates that 1,520 spent fuel assemblies would be
discharged from Monticello's reactor during operations between
2010 and 2030.

Xcel Energy proposes to use storage containers that each hold 61
spent fuel assemblies. 

In order for the plant to operate from 2010 through 2030, up to
30 storage containers will be necessary, according to Xcel.

 The pool area is configured so that a container can be lowered
into the pool and assemblies transferred to it for removal to
dry storage or transport.

Currently, the Monticello plant's NRC license allows for storage
of up to 2,237 spent fuel assemblies in the current spent fuel
storage rack configuration.

Eight of the licensed spaces are not available because they do
not meet the required dimensional specifications, leaving 2,229
spaces available in the spent fuel pool. Since 20 of the
available spaces hold control rod blades, there are 2,209 spaces
available for spent nuclear fuel storage in the spent fuel pool.

The new storage facility proposed by Xcel Energy will be
provided by Transnuclear, Inc. According to the Web site
www.transnuclear.com, Transnuclear provides services for the
"nuclear fuel cycle," including transportation, storage and
handling of spent nuclear fuel, radioactive waste and other
radioactive materials. The system it has proposed for the
Monticello plant-the Transnuclear NUHOMS 61 BT spent nuclear
fuel container, storage vault, and transport system-was licensed
by the NRC in 2001. 

"Cost estimates are $35 million for the structure and the first
10 casts that will be loaded. It is still much cheaper than
building a new facility," Brad Sawatzke, plant manager said.

The proposed dry spent fuel storage facility would consist of a
lighted area, approximately 400 feet long by 200 feet wide,
roughly 3.5 acres in size, located adjacent to the reactor and
generating building on the 2,150-acre Xcel property.

The tallest structures would be the light poles, which are
approximately 40 feet tall. Two fences would surround the
facility, with a monitored clear zone between them. Within the
storage area, spent fuel will be encased in a canister, placed
in a transfer cask for removal to modular concrete vaults, then
removed from the transfer cask and stored in the vault, which
will be placed on a reinforced concrete support pad, 18 to 24
inches thick. A small concrete building, approximately 20 feet
by 22 feet, would be located within the installation to house
electrical equipment. The site and storage vaults would be
monitored with cameras, other security devices and temperature
sensors. An access road would connect the storage facility to
the rest of the plant.

Certificate of need

According to Minnesota statutes, approval is subject to
accepting a certificate of need by the Public Utilities
Commission. In any proceeding under this subdivision, the
commission may make a decision that could result in a shutdown
of a nuclear generating facility. In considering an application
for a certificate of need pursuant to this subdivision, the
commission may consider whether the public utility that owns the
nuclear generation facility in the state is in compliance with
statutes and the utility's past performance.

The plant must also show that the storage of spent nuclear fuel
in the pool and in dry casks at a nuclear generating plant is
managed to facilitate the shipment of waste out of state to a
permanent or interim storage facility as soon as feasible in a
manner that allows the continued operation of the plant
consistent with statutes.

The plant must also show that the demand for electricity cannot
be met more cost-effectively through energy conservation and
load-management measures, unless the applicant has otherwise
justified its need.

The selected dry spent fuel storage system will not generate
waste or pollutants, Sawatzke said. Because the canister and
cask assembly is sealed, welded and decontaminated before
leaving the reactor building, no residual radioactive
contamination is released to the environment.

"Direct radiation from the storage system will be released, but
it will be limited to low levels by the heavy gamma and neutron
shielding in the over pack and vault design. Radiation doses to
the population around the site will be significantly below
federal requirements," Sawatzke said.

According to Xcel, no alternative was shown to be more
reasonable and prudent than Xcel's proposed storage facility. It
is about $1 billion less expensive for ratepayers than any
alternative analyzed in the record, according to the office of
administrative report from hearing before the commission.

Xcel Energy has invested an average of $10 million a year in
capital projects to meet regulatory requirements, perform
preventive maintenance, and address component wear and aging.
Only limited major capital investments will be needed to keep
the plant operating efficiently beyond 2010. Xcel Energy has
about $135 million in investments above normal annual
investments that may occur in the future.

Copyright 2006, Monticello Times
*****************************************************************
 58 Stratford Herald: NUCLEAR WASTE DUMPING FEARS 

Fri 6th October
 
FOUR South Warwickshire villages could be back on the agenda to
become nuclear dumping grounds.

 Sites at Bearley, Kineton, Long Marston Airfield and
Wellesbourne Airfield may be thrust back onto the table if, as
expected, the government backs underground storage as the best
way to dispose of nuclear waste.

 The four sites were first identified for underground burial of
radioactive material in 1990, but later ruled out. But a report
published in July by the Committee on Radioactive Waste
Management recommended underground disposal as the best way
forward for the disposal of nuclear waste, following a
three-year study.

 The government is expected to endorse the report’s findings
this month which, according to anti-nuclear campaigners, puts
the South Warwickshire locations under threat.

 Cllr Martin Heatley (Cons, Nuneaton), Warwickshire County
Council’s portfolio holder for the environment, said: “There is
absolutely no evidence at this stage to suggest anyone is
considering the burial of radioactive material in Warwickshire."

 For the full story, see the Herald. 

Disclaimer | © Copyright Stratford Herald 2006 
*****************************************************************
 59 PE.com: More toxin risks found with perchlorate

Inland Southern California | Inland News
 
11:36 AM PDT on Thursday, October 5, 2006 

By DAVID DANELSKI The Press-Enterprise 

LOW THYROID FUNCTION 

Symptoms may include: 

Tiredness 

Difficulty losing weight 

Dry skin 

Constipation 

Hair loss, especially the outer third of the eyebrows 

Difficulty concentrating 

Difficulty carrying pregnancy to full term 

In women, irregular menstrual periods 

Fetuses can have neurological deficiencies 

Baby may have goiter at birth. State law requires thyroid
testing of newborns, so underactive thyroid can be treated and
corrected. 

Source: Dr. Suvesh Chandiok, endocrinologist who teaches in UC
Riverside's bio-medical program; National Institutes of Health   

More than a third of U.S. women are more vulnerable to the
harmful effects of a rocket-fuel chemical found in hundreds of
water supplies and various foods nationwide, federal researchers
found in a study released on Wednesday. 

The researchers discovered that women with low levels of iodine
in their bodies had reduced thyroid function from consuming
perchlorate, most probably in their water and food. 

The scientists said they were surprised because the thyroid
changes were detected even when perchlorate exposure was very
low. 

An estimated 36 percent of the nation's female population have
low levels of iodine, the researchers said. 

Perchlorate contamination is widespread in Inland groundwater
supplies, forcing water agencies to shut down some wells. They
also treat the water or blend it with cleaner sources before
sending it to customers. 

The study, published in the federal journal Environmental Health
Perspectives, is expected to be a bombshell in a years-long
debate over how much perchlorate should be allowed in drinking
water and food, observers said. 

With more than 2,000 research subjects, the study by scientists
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is
the most comprehensive to date on the human health effects of
perchlorate, an oxidizer used in rockets, munitions, road
flares, fireworks, matches and car airbag propellants. 

A California health official said the new research could prompt
the state to could reconsider a recommended drinking water
standard. 

The federal scientists measured perchlorate in the urine of
2,299 people 12 and older from 30 locations nationwide; 1,111 of
them were female. The thyroid changes were not observed in men. 

Among 348 women with low iodine, higher perchlorate levels
correlated with reduced thyroid function, researchers found. 

It was measured by the amount of thyroid hormones in their
blood. 

Thyroid hormones control the body's metabolism and, in pregnant
women, guide fetal brain and nerve development. 

Mild hypothyroidism -- reduced thyroid function -- during
pregnancy has been linked to "subtle cognitive deficits in
children," the researchers said. 

Rene Sharp, an analyst with the Environmental Working Group
research and advocacy organization, said the group will demand
tough state and federal standards for food and drinking water
because of the CDC research. 

California and federal officials are moving toward standards
that wouldn't protect people's health, she said. "They were
wildly off." 

Ben Blount, a CDC research chemist, and his colleagues found
that low-iodine women with as little as 2.9 parts per billion of
the chemical in their urine were affected by perchlorate. Two
parts per billion is equivalent to about a teaspoon in an
Olympic-size swimming pool. 

It's unclear how much perchlorate the women were consuming in
their food and water during the study, which took place in
2001-2002 

The study did not make clear the relationship between
perchlorate in urine and the amount consumed; but the CDC group
found that perchlorate levels in 62 colleagues were much higher
in their urine than in the city's drinking water. 

Water agencies didn't routinely test for perchlorate until the
late 1990s, when a technique was developed that could detect
tiny amounts. Some Inland wells have been found to contain
perchlorate in hundreds of parts per billion, but the water is
not served to consumers. 

Perchlorate has been found in cow's milk, human breast milk,
grain, fruit, lettuce and other foods. 

California health officials have proposed a drinking water limit
of 6 parts per billion. Most Inland water agencies say they
serve water with 0 to 4 parts per billion. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, based on a National
Academy of Sciences review, last year declared that 24.5 parts
per billion is safe for drinking water. 

Both California and National Academy officials relied heavily on
an industry-sponsored study, published in 2002, that exposed 37
people to different levels of perchlorate and concluded that 245
parts per billion had no effect on humans. 

That study did not look specifically at women with low iodine
levels. Some scientists criticized the research because the raw
data showed that some of the subjects appeared to affected by
the chemical at levels the authors said had no effect. 

Richard Pleus, a Seattle toxicologist who co-authored the
industry study, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. 

Staff writer Sharon McNary contributed to this report. More
headlines... 


Press-Enterprise
*****************************************************************
 60 MEDIANEWS: Scientists set to open lab, despite opposition

Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 Today in the

 Oct. 05, 2006 

 By Ian Hoffman 

Scientists are preparing to open a new biodefense lab inside
Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons laboratory, even as a federal
appeals court weighs legal challenges to the new facility. 

A Livermore watchdog group filed an emergency request late
Tuesday night that asked a federal judge to halt the start of
work in Lawrence Livermore's new biosafety level 3 lab. The
group, Tri-Valley Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment,
argues that earthquakes, accidents or a terrorist attack could
release the lethal germs being studied inside. 

"This move is very dangerous because they're proposing to do
operations without what we consider the proper level of
(environmental) review," said Marylia Kelley, the group's
president. 

Livermore lab officials say the new lab -- a portable research
facility delivered by truck last spring -- has been through four
safety reviews by the University of California and the National
Nuclear Security Administration and should be ready for
operations by mid-November. 

"We believe that there's a critical need for the facility, and
we're doing our best to get it going," said lab spokesman Steve
Wampler. 

Livermore researchers have been among the most prolific U.S.
teams in developing genetic probes for detecting biowarfare
germs that cause anthrax, plague and other diseases. Those
probes, or assays, are used in the network of biodetectors that
sniff for potential bioterror agents in more than 30 major U.S.
cities. 

Caroline Purdy, a chief scientist at the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, said in court papers last February that the
new lab at Livermore is important for upgrading the BioWatch
network. 

"It is my professional opinion that LLNL's BSL-3 facility will
significantly improve our nation's ability to detect and respond
to the threat of terrorism using biological agents and that
delaying commencement of operations at LLNL's BSL-3 facility
would directly and adversely impact the national security of the
United States," she said in an affidavit. 

Federal and lab officials have made the same argument since
2002. In 2003, Kelley's group and Nuclear Watch of New Mexico
sued the National Nuclear Security Administration, the nuclear
weapons arm of the U.S. Energy Department, alleging that the
agency wrongly neglected to perform a full environmental impact
analysis and underestimated the risks from earthquakes,
terrorists and accidents. The two nuclear-disarmament groups
also say placing the new lab inside a top-secret nuclear weapons
facility would invite foreign nations to place offensive
biological programs inside secret defense labs and deny
inspectors access to them. 

U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong rejected those
arguments, and Tri-Valley CAREs asked for review by the 9th
Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals while at the same time seeking an
injunction against operations of the new lab. The appeals court
referred the injunction request to the lower court, which never
ruled because the National Nuclear Security Administration
announced that it had no intention of starting operations until
November 2006. 

Contra Costa Times
*****************************************************************
 61 AP Wire: Report says Santa Susana lab meltdown may have caused cancers

10/05/2006 | 

• Central Coast Sun Bulletin

 ROBERT JABLON Associated Press 

LOS ANGELES - A 1959 nuclear reactor meltdown at the Santa
Susana Field Laboratory in eastern Ventura County may have
caused hundreds of cancers in the surrounding community while
chemicals from the site threaten to contaminate local ground and
water, according to a report released Thursday. 

The report by an independent advisory panel estimated it was
likely radiation released during the meltdown caused about 260
cancers within a 60-square-mile area around the reactor. There
was a slim chance the numbers could be as high as 1,800,
according to the report, which relied on technical modeling
rather than hard data. 

The panel said the federal government and the lab's former
owner, Rocketdyne, have refused to release many key details of
the incident. 

"They won't even release the information as to which way the
wind blew during the meltdown," said Dan Hirsch, co-chair of the
Santa Susana Field Laboratory Advisory Panel, which conducted
the study. 

However, Hirsch said the report, which was funded by the state,
was still valuable. 

"People have been asking for 20 years what was the impact of the
meltdown, and now they will at least have an approximation of
how many people may have been hurt," said Hirsch, who also heads
the Committee to Bridge the Gap, which sued the U.S. Department
of Energy over its cleanup efforts at the site. "These studies
indicated that quite a bit of radioactivity might have been
released." 

Rocketdyne has said for years that no significant radiation was
released. But the independent advisory panel said the incident
released nearly 459 times more radiation than a similar one at
Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island in 1979. 

The panel's conclusion contradicts several previous studies that
found "we don't have a radiological issue," said Mike Lopez,
project manager for the Energy Department's cleanup efforts at
the site. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reviewed the site in
2003 and concluded there was no risk, Lopez said, adding ground
and water near the lab have been tested for decades. 

"And nobody's been able - to my knowledge - to establish a
direct link" between Santa Susana and offsite contamination,
Lopez said. 

The 4.5-square-mile site about 30 miles northwest of downtown
Los Angeles was used for nuclear research for four decades
beginning in the 1940s. Rocket engines also were tested there. 

A Rocketdyne spokesman said the company, now known as Pratt &
Whitney Rocketdyne, no longer owns the lab site and referred
questions to current owner, Boeing Co. 

The Energy Department, Boeing and the state have been involved
in efforts to decontaminate the site. The state has estimated
more than 1.73 million gallons of toxic trichloroethylene was
dumped on the grounds and 500,000 gallons have saturated the
bedrock beneath the lab. 

The advisory panel concluded local soil and groundwater also may
have been contaminated. The rocket fuel additive perchlorate has
been found in a local well but Boeing has disputed assertions it
came from the lab. 

Long-term exposure to high levels of perchlorate can cause
thyroid problems. 

The report concludes the site "poses a continuing threat to the
public," Hirsch said. 

Blythe Jameson, spokeswoman for Boeing disputed that, calling
the site safe. 

In 1999, the federal Agencies for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry concluded people in the area were not being exposed to
levels of chemicals or radiation that impact their health, and
three other studies failed to find any evidence of increased
cancer rates, Jameson said. 

Boeing, however, agreed last year to pay $30 million to settle a
lawsuit alleging pollutants from the site caused nearby
residents to get cancer. That ended an eight-year legal battle.

*****************************************************************
 62 DOE: Department of Energy Names New Administrator for Western 
Area Power Administration
 
  October 5, 2006
 
LAKEWOOD, CO  U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel W.
Bodman today announced the selection of Timothy J. Meeks as the
new Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration
(Western), effective Jan. 4, 2007. 

Tim is a committed public servant who brings years of
leadership experience and engineering expertise to the post,
Secretary Bodman said.  In addition, I would like to
congratulate the outgoing administrator Michael Hacskalyo for
his dedicated service to the Department of Energy and wish him
well in his retirement. 

Mr. Meeks currently serves as Westerns Chief Operating Officer
where he provides executive leadership and strategic direction
for Westerns engineering and administrative programs critical
to Westerns mission.  Mr. Meeks's career spans 24 years in the
electrical utility industry.  He began his career in government
in 1982 as an engineering student with Western in Sacramento,
CA.  As a new college graduate, he joined Western as an
electrical engineer.  Mr. Meeks has served in progressively
responsible positions with Western including Maintenance Manager
for the Sierra Nevada Region and Assistant Administrator for
Power Marketing Liaison in Washington, D.C. 

A California native, Mr. Meeks earned a bachelors degree in
electrical and electronics engineering and a masters degree in
engineering. He is currently completing a masters degree in
counseling psychology.  A registered professional engineer in
California, he is a member of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. 

Western is a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, and markets
and delivers reliable, cost-based hydroelectric power and
related services within a 15-state region of the central and
western U.S. 

"Western is an important provider of electricity to the people
of the region, and I look forward to working with Tim to
continue Western's strong record of reliability," Secretary
Bodman said. 

Westerns current Administrator Michael S. Hacskalyo will be
retiring from federal service at the end of the year after a
distinguished career with Western and earlier with the
Department of the Interior. 

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
*****************************************************************
 63 DOE: Secretary of Energy Announces $5 Million for Solid State 
Lighting Research
 
  October 5, 2006
 
ALBUQUERQUE, NM  U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary
Samuel W. Bodman today announced the selection of seven
projects, valued at nearly $5 million, for Solid State Lighting
(SSL) research in nanotechnology.  SSL has the potential to more
than double the efficiency of general lighting systems, reducing
overall U.S. energy consumption and saving consumers money. 
Sandia National Laboratory is expected to receive approximately
$2.6 million of the total funding.  This funding comes from
DOEs Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 

Following the Presidents call for new technology in the
Advanced Energy Initiative, the research for Solid State
Lighting represents not only the next generation of lighting but
a focus on energy efficient technology that will change the way
we power our nation, Secretary Bodman said. 

Secretary Bodman made the announcement while hosting a press
conference with New Mexico Senators Pete Domenici and Jeff
Bingaman, and Congresswoman Heather Wilson (NM-1st) at DOEs
Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque.  

By 2025, DOE expects to develop advanced SSL technologies that
are 50 percent more efficient, last longer, and are
cost-competitive compared to conventional lighting technologies
that accurately reproduce sunlight.  This SSL nanotechnology
research will include scientific efforts to gain more
comprehensive knowledge and understanding of nanometer scale
phenomena for the specific application of SSL. 

Unlike incandescent and fluorescent lamps, solid-state lighting
creates light without producing heat.  A semi-conducting
material converts electricity directly into light, which
maximizes the lights energy efficiency.  Solid-state lighting
includes a variety of light-producing semiconductor devices. 
SSL includes light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic
light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).  LEDs are found in all kinds of
devices; they form numbers on digital clocks, light up watches,
and transmit information from remote controls.  Consumers may
also see LEDs in brake lights, traffic signals and exit signs. 
OLED technology is more commonly used commercially, for example
in small screens for mobile phones, portable digital music
players, and digital cameras. 

The following projects have been selected: 

Sandia National Laboratory: Development of White LEDs
This project proposes to develop blends of oxide nanophosphors
and semiconductor quantum dots in encapsulants to produce high
conversion efficiency white-emitting blends with a variety of
correlated color temperatures and good color rendering index.
The ultimate goal of this research is to produce white LEDs
containing nanophosphor-QD blends that are superior to LEDs made
with QDs or traditional phosphors alone.
Project funding: $599,757 

Sandia National Laboratory: Investigation of Surface Plasmon
Mediated Emission from InGaN LEDs using Nano-patterned Metal
Films.
This project proposes to develop a high efficiency LED structure
taking advantage of surface plasmons.  Surface plasmons are
electromagnetic waves at the interface between a metal and
dielectric (semiconductor) which have been shown to improve
light emission by as much as 90 times in specialized, optically
pumped LED structures.  This project aims to develop
electrically injected devices which benefit from the plasmon
effect.
Project funding: $795,000 

Sandia National Laboratory: Nanowire Templated Lateral Epitaxial
Growth of Low Dislocation Density GaN.
This project proposes to develop decreased defect density GaN
substrates enabling higher efficiency LED devices.  This goal is
to be accomplished by developing growth techniques for GaN
nanowires which are then induced to grow laterally and coalesce
into a high quality planar film.
Project funding: $616,000  

Sandia National Laboratory: Nanostructural Engineering of
Nitride Nucleation Layers for GaN Substrate Dislocation Reduction
This project proposes to develop MOCVD growth methods to further
reduce GaN dislocation densities on sapphire which inhibit
device efficiencies.  This study will first firmly establish the
correlation between the nuclei density and dislocation density.
Following this, methods to reduce the nuclei density while still
maintaining the ability to fully coalesce the GaN films will be
investigated.
Project funding: $605,000 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Low-Cost Nano-engineered
Transparent Electrodes for Highly Efficient OLED Lighting.
This proposal addresses two challenges whose solution is crucial
to improve the efficiency of organic-LEDs: enhanced internal
quantum efficiency via control over the singlet/triplet ratio,
and enhanced carrier transport through poorly conducting organic
materials by using carbon nano-tubes as low-cost transparent
electrodes.
Project funding: $600,000 

Los Alamos National Laboratory: Hybrid Nanoparticle/Organic
Semiconductors for Efficient Solid State Lighting
The objective of this project is to establish a new class of
high efficiency, low-voltage, stable hybrid OLEDs for general
illumination.  This new class of hybrid OLEDs will be fabricated
from organic/inorganic nanoparticle composite semiconductors.
Project funding: $800,000 

Argonne National Laboratory: Low Cost Transparent Conducting
Nanoparticle Networks for OLED Electrodes.
Development of transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) is critical
for OLED device efficiency.  This project proposes an innovative
transparent conducting layer consisting of a self assembled
network of conducting particles whose nanometer dimensions and
large open area ratios make them much more transparent for a
given electrical conductivity than conventional TCOs.
Project funding: $956,100 

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
*****************************************************************
 64 Tri-City Herald: K East Basins close to cleanup 

Published Thursday, October 5th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The Department of Energy believes it is close to completing work
on one of its most vexing Hanford projects: Getting the
radioactive sludge in the K East Basins into underwater
containers. 

DOE and its contractor, Fluor Hanford, missed a December 2002
deadline to start retrieving the sludge. Then under a new plan,
they missed a DOE commitment to have all the sludge in
containers by the end of 2004. 

The current plan includes a commitment to have the sludge
vacuumed into containers by the end of this month. 

DOE is on track to complete the work by Oct. 17, two weeks ahead
of schedule, if work continues at the present rate, said DOE
Hanford spokeswoman Karen Lutz. Workers have 99 percent of the
sludge contained. 

DOE has notified the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
that the early finish is a best-case forecast. That caution
reflects the history of unknown circumstances encountered in the
basins, Lutz said. 

DOE told the board, which provides oversight of Hanford, that
vacuuming has been slower than expected in the past six weeks
because more small debris littered the bottom of the basin than
expected. 

The work may not be completed until early November -- and in the
worst case -- in early December, it told the board. 

The K East Basin is one of two K Reactor Basins holding 1
million gallons of water each that were built in the 1950s to
hold irradiated reactor fuel until it was processed to remove
plutonium for use in producing nuclear weapons. 

After the last Hanford processing plant shut down, leftover
irradiated fuel remained in the pools for more than a decade. It
corroded and particles mixed with dirt and concrete that
sloughed off the sides of the basins to form a radioactive
sludge. 

It's proved much more difficult to remove from the K East Basin
and the less contaminated K West Basin than DOE or Fluor Hanford
anticipated. 

Workers stand on grates above the water in the K East Basin and
maneuver tools with 27-foot handles through holes in the grating
to vacuum up the sludge, guided by underwater video cameras.
They've frequently had trouble with water too clouded by sludge
to see what they were doing. 

While the plan does not include a legal deadline under the
Tri-Party Agreement to get the sludge into containers, DOE did
commit to the defense board that the work would be done by the
end of this month. 

That will keep work at the K Basins on track to meet legal
deadlines that include getting the sludge moved from the K East
Basin containers to the K West Basin by the end of May, and
getting the bulk of the K West sludge into containers by the end
of July. 

The work needs to be finished so cleanup in the 100 K Area,
which includes the K reactors and their attached basins, can be
completed by a Tri-Party Agreement milestone of 2012. 

By the Environmental Protection Agency's count, it has adjusted
the K Basin schedule 10 times to reflect DOE's requests for
flexibility in cleaning up the basins. EPA has said that better
characterization of the sludge could have led to a better design
for retrieval and avoided many of the problems. 

© 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 65 Hanford News: Experts to consult on 'near misses'
 
This story was published Thursday, October 5th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

Washington Closure Hanford had another "near miss" electrical
accident this week, less than a month after the Department of
Energy proposed reducing the contractor's pay because of
electrical safety problems. 

Washington Closure Hanford plans to bring in experts from
Washington Group International to cast a fresh eye on safety
practices and work controls and suggest improvements, said Todd
Nelson, spokesman for Washington Closure. 

Washington Closure's problems come as DOE is focusing on
reducing electrical safety problems across its nationwide
complex. 

Tuesday morning, a worker doing cleanup work in the area of N
Reactor near the Columbia River cut into an electrical conduit,
unaware that it was energized with 120 volts of power. He saw
sparks coming out and immediately stopped work, Nelson said. 

Washington Closure and Department of Energy officials are
investigating the cause of the near miss. 

It follows three incidents over the summer. Two involved cutting
underground electrical wires. In the third case, a worker using
a portable saw in a wet environment received an electrical
shock, but was not hurt. 

DOE responded by proposing to deduct $100,000 from Washington
Closure's incentive fee. The amount will not be set until
Washington Closure responds with information on conditions that
might be considered mitigating factors. 

DOE is not expected to estimate how much incentive fee
Washington Closure earned in 2006, based on factors such as how
much work was done and how quickly, for several months. 

DOE saw an increased number of electrical safety events at its
sites starting in 2004 and has launched a safety emphasis to
address the trend. 

© 2006 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 66 Knox News: Federal auditors say TVA on right track to cut debt

Building more plants to meet power needs could hinder plan

By Associated Press 

October 5, 2006

CHATTANOOGA - The Tennessee Valley Authority's plan for cutting 
its debt by nearly a third in the next decade is realistic, 
according to government auditors. 

However, the Government Accountability Office warned that TVA's 
plan to reduce long-term financial obligations some $7 billion by 
2015 may have to be scaled back if TVA decides to build more 
power plants to meet growing power demands. 

"Overall, GAO's review found TVA's approach to developing its 
plans to reduce financing obligations reasonable," the agency 
said in a just-released report to Congress dated Aug. 31. 

Knoxville-based TVA, the nation's largest public utility, has 
more than $25 billion in long-term financial obligations, 
including statutory debt, leases and energy prepayment contracts. 

That debt is bigger than that of any other U.S. utility, although 
TVA is able to borrow money at lower interest rates than 
investor-owned utilities and doesn't have to pay dividends to 
private stockholders. 

TVA has cut its total financial obligations by more than $2 
billion since its peak in 1997, including $340 million this year. 
But the utility fell short of its original goal of cutting its 
debt in half by 2007, according to the GAO, Congress' 
investigative arm. 

Republican U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. of Knoxville, who chairs 
the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment, 
asked for the GAO review after TVA revised its original 1997 plan 
and projected it would reduce its total debt by $3 billion to $5 
billion by 2015. 

In its budget request to the White House released earlier this 
year, TVA expanded its original debt reduction goal to nearly 
$7.1 billion by 2015. In March, a new part-time TVA board was 
appointed to oversee the utility and ordered the staff to develop 
another strategic plan. 

TVA Director Dennis Bottorff, a Nashville banker and venture 
capitalist who is chairman of the board's rates and budget 
committee, said last week the strategic plan should be completed 
by the end of the year. 

Bottorff has previously indicated TVA may focus less on debt 
reduction and pay more attention to meeting future power demands 
at the lowest rates possible. 

The new strategic plan "will provide a fresh look" at TVA's debt 
and future power needs, TVA spokesman John Moulton said. 

TVA currently is focused on completing a $1.8 billion restart of 
a Browns Ferry nuclear reactor next year in Alabama, but it has 
begun studying completion of a second reactor at its Watts Bar 
site in Tennessee. 

"Any new or unplanned capital expenditures would use cash 
otherwise intended to be used to reduce financing obligations, 
thus affecting TVA's ability to meet its planned (debt) 
reduction," government auditors said.

Copyright 2006, Associated Press. All rights

© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
*****************************************************************
 67 PR: Fluor Secures Two-Year DOE Contract Extension
 		
-->10/5/2006                            

Irving, TX - Fluor Corporation announced recently that the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) awarded Fluor Hanford, a unit of the
Fluor Government Group, a contract extension for its nuclear
cleanup work at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington
state. The contract extension is for up to two years and will
run through September 30, 2008. 

The contract will continue to be managed by the DOE’s Richland
Operations Office. During the extension period, Fluor’s cleanup
work will include: 

  + Completing demolition of the radioactive Liquid Waste
Treatment Facilities and cleaning out glove boxes at the
Plutonium Finishing Plant; 
  + finishing containerization and transfer of radioactive
sludge from the K East reactor basin to the K West reactor basin
and design of the sludge treatment system; 
  + reaching 60 percent of all suspect-transuranic waste
retrieved for disposal (equivalent to 45,000 55-gallon drums); 
  + installing and/or operating systems to address groundwater
contamination, including a new pump-and-treat operation at
100-K, a new technology at 100-D, a 300-foot barrier at 100-N,
and at least 30 new monitoring wells; 
  + demolishing 10 high-risk industrial facilities; and 
  + removing about 700 gallons of sodium from the Fast Flux Test
Facility. 

Fluor also executes DOE nuclear cleanup work at the Fernald, OH
site, once known as the Feed Materials Production Center, 20
miles north of Cincinnati. The job was originally estimated to
take as much as 27 years to complete at a cost of $12.2B. Fluor
Fernald will complete the cleanup in 13 years for $4B. Work at
Fluor Fernald is expected to be completed by the end of 2006. 

SOURCE: Fluor Corporation 		   		 		 		 	 


Copyright © 1996-2006, VertMarkets, Inc. 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: 
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> 
    
*****************************************************************