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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 IPS-English POLITICS:Iran Awaits Security Council Reaction to
2 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. Disagrees on Sanctions Against Iran
3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Group 5+1 should heed justice
4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI determind to continue N-activity
5 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Solana met IRI's parliamentarians
6 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI complained to BBC on false claimed
7 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Egypt supports IRI nuclear program
8 Middle East Online: A Nuclear Proposal for Iran
9 AFP: Powers pursue Iran sanctions amid N Korean crisis - official -
10 AFP: Major powers send Iran sanctions plan to UN
11 UPI: Iran vows to continue nuclear program
12 [NYTr] Democratic Korea: Nuke Test USA's Fault
13 [NYTr] Wave Big Stick, Get Stung: Pyongyang 1, Bush 0
14 IPS-English POLITICS: U.S. Neo-Cons Call For Japanese Nukes,
15 [NYTr] Jimmy Carter: Solving the Korean Stalemate
16 Christian Science Monitor: North Korea has the bomb. Now what?
17 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Threatens More Nuclear Tests
18 Guardian Unlimited: Annan Calls for U.S.-North Korea Talks
19 Guardian Unlimited: China Holds Key to N. Korea Sanctions
20 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Rejects Idea of Talks With N. Korea
21 Guardian Unlimited: McCain Criticizes Clinton on N. Korea
22 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Threatens War Against U.S.
23 Guardian Unlimited: Rice Says U.S. Will Not Invade N. Korea
24 Guardian Unlimited: Japan bans all trade with North Korea
25 AFP: Japan slaps new sanctions on NKorea over nuclear test -
26 Korea Herald: Roh downplays threat on N.K.
27 IJD: After nuclear test, stimulus' is no longer a dirty fiscal word
28 Daily Yomiuri: NUCLEAR FALLOUT / Japan's diplomacy tested by N. Kore
29 BBC: Japan announces N Korea sanctions
30 BBC: N Korea to face 'repercussions'
31 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Seoul rethinks joining proliferation pact
32 WP: U.S. Waits for Firm Information On Nature and Success of Device
33 Japan Times: Sanctions seen having little impact
34 AFP: International pressure key to pressure North Korea - Rumsfeld -
35 AFP: Bush waves sticks and carrots at North Korea in nuclear standof
36 AFP: NKorea says tough sanctions would be 'declaration of war' -
37 Japan Times: Japan may not want to go nuclear but it's no
38 AFP: Security Council seek to narrow differences over North Korea sa
39 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. to Unveil New N. Korea Resolution
40 US: [NYTr] Cold War Missile Numbers "De-re-classified"
41 US: Will the Nuclear Powers Please Stand Up?
42 US: washingtonpost.com: We Need a New Deterrent -
43 AFP: Bush rules out bilateral talks with NKorea, Iran over nuclear c
NUCLEAR REACTORS
44 US: [NukeNet] New Nuclear Power Plant COL Application Processes,
45 US: NRC: Sunshine Act Federal Register Notice
46 US: Platts: NRC issues order to establish fingerprinting program
47 US: APP.COM: Nuclear plant critics win NRC hearing |
48 US: baltimoresun.com: Energy merger would benefit Maryland -
49 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Higher nuclear security pushed NRC aiming for bett
50 Xinhua: China mulls major reform on power generating system
51 Washington Business Journal: USEC wins $200M contract with Taiwan Po
52 MercoPress: Chile admits energy shortages to British investors
53 US: Lincoln County News: Maine Yankee Awarded Damages in Federal Law
54 UPI: China seeks overhaul of power system
55 SNA: Bulgaria: Bulgaria's N-Plant Accident "Due to Aged Equipment"
NUCLEAR SECURITY
NUCLEAR SAFETY
56 Sydney Morning Herald: Radioactive snails found in Spain -
57 US: LA Daily News: Questions remain over just how big accident was
58 US: Ventura County Star: Cancer isn't trivial
59 US: NRC: PA Site decon proposal
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
60 US: Ventura County Star: Boeing still analyzing study of lab acciden
61 US: Helsingin Sanomat: Farmers and summer residents unite against ur
62 US: Ventura County Star: Editorial: Time for truth at Rocketdyne
63 US: LA Daily News: Santa Susana cover-up
64 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Utah regulators hold hearings on expansion of
65 US: AdelaideNow: Uranium to heat up Labor debate
PEACE
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
66 DOE: Secretaries Bodman & Johanns Kick Off Renewable Energy
67 Las Vegas SUN: Concerns over NTS tests 'premature'
68 DOE: The No FEAR Act Notice
69 Knox News: ORNL shares $5M in grants
70 KnoxNews: Small fire confirmed at uranium warehouse
71 Oak Ridger: Small fire in Y-12 Plants uranium warehouse verified
72 KnoxNews: Newcomer to the area conducts monumental study of Oak Ridg
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1 IPS-English POLITICS:Iran Awaits Security Council Reaction to
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:01:18 -0700
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ROMAIPS AP MM WD IP ML NU=20
POLITICS:Iran Awaits Security Council Reaction to N. Korea
Kimia Sanati
TEHRAN, Oct 11 (IPS) - In a first reaction to North Korea conducting nucl=
ear tests, Iran has said that the best way to stop proliferation was for =
the big powers to begin disarmament themselves.
=94The best solution to combat nuclear weapons is for the big powers to s=
tart by destroying them themselves,=94 government spokesman Gholam Hossei=
n Elham was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency on Tuesday.=
=20
But the country's Supreme National Security Council, the main body dealin=
g with the nuclear issue, is yet to make a pronouncement regarding the No=
rth Korean tests.
=94Officials will be talking generalities for the time being. They'll be =
waiting to see what measures the United Nations Security Council will ado=
pt against North Korea,=94 a political analyst in Tehran, asking not to b=
e named, told IPS.
The North Korean tests come at the start of a week when the permanent mem=
bers of the UN Security Council plus Germany were to discuss sanctions ag=
ainst this country for failing to halt its own nuclear programme. Tehran =
has rejected allegations that trying to develop a nuclear weapons capabil=
ity and has repeatedly said that it is only interested in the peaceful us=
es of nuclear technology. =20
=94The Islamic Republic of Iran is against any use of weapons of mass des=
truction, and nuclear weapons in particular,=94 said Elham, as reported b=
y the Iranian Students' News Agency.
But the political analyst said these statements were only to be expected:=
=94At the moment what you are likely to hear is mostly condemnation of n=
on-peaceful use of nuclear energy in general and putting the blame on the=
West for driving North Korea to the point of having to test a nuclear bo=
mb to gain a better standing against the West.=94=20
IRIB, the state-run TV network gave full coverage of Pyongyang's nuclear =
test and aired a commentary on Monday. =94North Korean appeals to put an =
end to sanctions and United States threats didn't lead anywhere, thus it =
had no other choice than advancing towards non-peaceful use of nuclear en=
ergy,=94 the news commentary said.=20
=94The North Korean nuclear test is a warning to the UN Security Council =
to face international problems wisely, to put an end to sanctions against=
North Korea and to pave the way for universal disarmament through implem=
entation of the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty),=94 it said.
Iran is a signatory of NPT and has always insisted that its nuclear progr=
amme is being carried out within the NPT framework and under the full sup=
ervision of IAEA (International Atamoc Energy Agency) inspectors. It has,=
however, also made it clear it has no intention to stop its uranium enri=
chment programme. =20
Elham was reported saying that Iran had repeatedly announced its stance t=
hat if the big powers moved towards disarmament, other countries and part=
icularly Islamic countries would welcome that. =94To stop nuclear weapons=
, the great powers should begin themselves. The consequences of using nuc=
lear weapons will affect all humanity and won't be beneficial to anyone,=94=
he added.
=94The West should offer encouragement to NPT members that are working to=
wards peaceful use of nuclear energy and expand its cooperation with them=
to strengthen the NPT,=94 Alaedin Boroujerdi, chairman of Parliament's n=
ational security committee, was quoted as saying by IRNA.=20
=94The reason countries like Pakistan, India, North Korea and Israel have=
carried out nuclear tests is that they are not NPT members and do not ab=
ide by international regulations. Therefore, the West should encourage co=
untries like Iran that carry out their nuclear programmes under the super=
vision of IAEA and within the framework of international conventions,=94 =
he added.
=94Iran is the only country that opposes nuclear weapons on the basis of =
a religious ban on nuclear (and other mass destruction) weapons by its su=
preme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, in addition to having undertaken within=
the NPT framework not to attempt to build nuclear weapons,=94 Boroujerdi=
said adding that the U.S. must stop its =94dual policies=94.=20
=94The only way to put an end to this situation is an international decis=
ion to wipe out nuclear weapons and put an end to their proliferation. As=
long as the U.S., the first country ever to use nuclear weapons on innoc=
ent people, continues to build nuclear weapons against the provisions of =
the NPT, the world will be witnessing more of these nuclear tests,=94 he =
said.=20
Opinions as to the impact of North Korea's nuclear test on Iran's nuclear=
case are varied.=20
A commentary released by the Aftab news website of the Centre for Strateg=
ic Research, headed by Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator, Hasan Roha=
ni, linked the North Korean test to Iran's nuclear future and speculated=
completely opposite outcomes for the Islamic Republic from Kim Jong-il's=
gamble.=20
=94A realistic analysis of the motivations for the North Korean nuclear t=
est, an appropriate prediction of the UN Security Council and the U.S. re=
actions, a correct appraisal of the current problems the U.S. is facing i=
n the region now, an accurate evaluation of the bonds and rifts in 5+1, a=
nd utilisation of the chances for bargaining are factors that can make th=
e North Korean threat a big opportunity for Iran,=94 the Aftab's commenta=
tor wrote.
The permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, France, Unit=
ed States, China and Russia, plus Germany -- are referred to as the =945+=
1=94.=20
There are two possibilities facing the international community now, the c=
ommentary said, the first of which is to forgo sanctions against Iran for=
the moment and to put negotiations back on the 5+1 countries' agenda in =
regards to Iran's nuclear capabilities, or to adopt a series of punitive =
actions including trade and diplomatic sanctions and deterrent military a=
ction against Iran.
The reformist newspaper Etemad Meli's editorial on Tuesday also blamed th=
e West for exerting too much pressure on North Korea, forcing it to follo=
w a road formerly taken by India, Pakistan and others, which the editoria=
l writer believes has been shown to provide these countries with an stand=
ing equal to that of the West.
=94The West should know it doesn't have the credibility to make others ac=
t in unison with it in two fronts, North Korea and Iran,=94 the editorial=
said. =94The West can either be strict against North Korea and more flex=
ible towards Iran or to close its eyes to North Korea's nuclear threat an=
d emphasise encountering Iran's illusionary and unproven threat when neit=
her the international community nor international bodies have been able t=
o see any deviation in its peaceful nuclear programme,=94 Etemad Melli's =
editor wrote.
=94The North Korean nuclear test will not make things easier for Iran. No=
rth Korea will not gain much itself as its nuclear test will not help it =
solve its many economic problems. This can be quite discouraging to Iran.=
The West on the other hand will exert more pressure on Iran because they=
think that without that Iran will not give up its nuclear programme. The=
West knows that if it gives in to North Korea's demands, it will be sett=
ing a bad example for other countries in the world who would want to star=
t their own nuclear programmes to use it as their bargaining chip with th=
e West,=94 a political analyst said.=20
=94Just like North Korea, Iran is seeking security guarantees from the Un=
ited States. If the latter doesn't get them even with a bomb, then Iran c=
an be sure it won't either with an enrichment programme,=94 he said. =94=
A tough reaction to North Korea would lead the Islamic Republic leaders t=
o think twice about their defiant behaviour, whereas a compromising react=
ion with concessions to North Korea would only embolden Iran.=94
(END/IPS/AP/WD/MM/IP/NU/KS/RDR/06)
=20
=3D 10111646 ORP007
NNNN
*****************************************************************
2 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. Disagrees on Sanctions Against Iran
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday October 11, 2006 8:16 PM
AP Photo XHS104A
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The five permanent members of the U.N.
Security Council agreed Tuesday to start working on U.N.
sanctions against Iran next week, but they have failed to bridge
differences on the severity of the measures, diplomats and
officials said.
The officials told The Associated Press that while the United
States called for broad sanctions to punish Iran's nuclear
defiance, Russian and Chinese representatives at the Vienna
meeting favored less-harsh measures. The officials demanded
anonymity in exchange for discussing the confidential meeting.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Group 5+1 should heed justice
2006/10/10
Government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham on Tuesday advised the
group 5+1 to heed justice consistent with international
treaties, a reference to Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), in the
meetings they hold on Iranian nuclear program.
Elham told reporters in his weekly briefing that if the group
5+1 adopts decisions on such an approach, all will benefit from.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran aims the civilian use of nuclear
energy and the national program has been designed for the
peaceful purpose. IRI regards progress and development in line
with NPT and Safeguards Agreement of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) as rights of all signatory states," he said.
The spokesman called on group 5+1 to respect the rights
enshrined by the NPT for the signatory states and act based on
the treaty.
He also recommended non-member states of the IAEA to become a
signatory to the NPT so they should open their nuclear sites for
supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.
Elham added that all countries would sustain damage from
violation of legal frameworks, citing IAEA reports that there
has been no diversion in Iranian nuclear program.
Asked about underground nuclear test, carried out by the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the spokesman
said, "Real tranquility and security will be definitely
established in the world, if disarmament begins from big powers
including America."
He urged the IAEA to prepare ground for all states to use
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes while preventing military
use of nuclear energy.
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
*****************************************************************
4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI determind to continue N-activity
2006/10/11
Iran will continue its efforts to access peaceful nuclear
technology, Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said in Tehran
Wednesday.
"Iran has not suspended (uranium) enrichment and will never
agree to suspension," Haddad-Adel said while addressing domestic
reporters.
"We insist on our rights. News reports saying Iran's nuclear
issue will be transferred to the United Nations Security Council
run counter to ongoing negotiations between Iran's Supreme
National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani and the
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana."
He said that during talks held between Solana and Larijani, the
two sides said their negotiations were "positive." The Speaker
said threats and sanctions do not come hand in hand with
continuation of talks.
He reiterated Iran's call for continued negotiations and warned
that those who use threats to settle Iran's nuclear case will
achieve nothing.
Asked about the disinformation campaign being waged by Persian
Gulf littoral states alleging the Bushehr power plant in
southern Iran is an environmental risk, he said the claim is not
new.
"Persian Gulf littoral states make these accusations because
they are opposed to Iran's peaceful nuclear activities." The
speaker expressed Iran's readiness to take measures to protect
the environment, saying the "Bushehr power plant already has a
built-in system that complies with safety standards of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)."
The speaker reiterated that the "concerns expressed over
possible damage to the environment are politically-motivated."
sam
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir
*****************************************************************
5 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Solana met IRI's parliamentarians
2006/10/11
European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and
Security Policy Javier Solana met a delegation from the Iranian
Majlis (parliament) led by Majlis Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman Mahmoud Mohammadi in Brussels Tuesday evening.
"We had a good meeting. We explained to him the views of the
members of the Majlis and the people of Iran on the nuclear
issue," Mohammadi told reporters after the 45-minute meeting.
"We told him that the people of Iran do not accept the language
of threats and sanctions," he said.
Mohammadi said Solana underlined Iran's right to nuclear
technology for peaceful purposes.
Solana told the Iranian MPs that he held good talks with Iran's
top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and hoped that a way would
be found for a solution.
"We also hope that Dr Larijani and Mr Solana, who is responsible
for Iran's nuclear iossue, would find a solution which would be
beneficial both for Iran and Europe," said Mohammadi.
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir
*****************************************************************
6 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI complained to BBC on false claimed
2006/10/11
Iran has officially complained to BBC over a World Service
report that falsely claimed Tehran was happy about North Korea's
recent nuclear test.
The Iranian embassy here said it wanted to "resister its strong
protest and indeed regret" over the report by the BBC office in
Tehran commenting on Iran's stance regarding the recent test.
The claim is "absolutely biased and misleading," the embassy
said in a letter to BBC World Service Director Nigel Chapman.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has frequently declared its
opposition to nuclear weapons and related activities," it
emphasized.
"Iran has repeatedly called for comprehensive nuclear
disarmament under the auspices of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), while stressing on the inalienable rights
of all signatory states of the Non-Proliferation Treaty to
benefit from civilian technologies," it said.
The embassy also reiterated that Iran profoundly believes in
refraining from any nuclear test by all without exception and
considers the ambitions by some states to be a "real jeopardy to
regional as well as global security and stability."
The embassy said any reported "happiness on the part of Iran is
utterly baseless and the report in no way represents fair and
balanced journalism," it added.
Reporting from Tehran, BBC claimed that there was "considerable
excitement" in Iran over the North Korean achievement and that
the tone of Iran television coverage was "clearly
congratulatory."
The letter called on the BBC to issue a refutation of the report
with similar prominent coverage.
sam
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir
*****************************************************************
7 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Egypt supports IRI nuclear program
2006/10/11
Speaker of Egypt's National Assembly on Tuesday called Iran as a
major player in establishing peace and stability in the Middle
East.
Ahmad Fathi Sorour made the remark in a meeting with head of
Iran's interest section in Cairo Seyyed Hossein Rajabi. He also
supported Iran's peaceful nuclear activities.
In the meeting held in Egyptian National Assembly building, the
Egyptian parliament speaker also underlined Iran's legitimate
right to produce peaceful nuclear technology.
He said that all countries which have signed up to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty including Iran have the inalienable
right to make use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The two officials also exchanged views on different regional and
international issues and underlined expansion of bilateral and
parliamentary relations.
Turning to establishment of parliamentary friendship group
between Iran and Egypt, he hoped to witness development of
mutual parliamentary relations in the near future.
For his part, Rajabi stressed Islamic Republic of Iran's
readiness to expand ties with the Islamic countries including
Egypt.
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir
*****************************************************************
8 Middle East Online: A Nuclear Proposal for Iran
First Published 2006-10-11, Last Updated 2006-10-11 09:13:47
A joint venture could essentially guarantee that Iran would not
divert any of the low enriched uranium for military purposes,
says Kaveh L. Afrasiabi.
This week the United States has warned that the current
Iran-European negotiations are the last chance for Iran to
accept a compromise before sanctions are initiated at the UN
Security Council. But unless the UN is prepared and capable of
imposing severe sanctions that translate into more than wrist
slaps, Iran is highly to respond to punitive measures, and this
raises the specter of some kind of military confrontation.
There may be an opportunity to solve the Iran nuclear crisis in
light of Iran's suggestion of a French-led enrichment program
announced recently by Mohammad Saidi, the Deputy Director of
Iran's atomic agency. The development could take two different
forms: either a brand new enrichment facility by an
international holding company, or the conversion of the present
Iranian enrichment program into one jointly owned and operated
by Iran and outside governments. The International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) has already envisioned the possibility of
multi-lateral operation of existing facilities.
Under this scenario, Iran would pledge not to engage in any
other enrichment activities. This is a pledge that has been made
by several countries joining Urenco, the Dutch-led uranium
enrichment consortium, which keeps sensitive parts of its
operations in a "black box," that is, outside the purview of
local scientists and technicians.
A recent example of such an operation is the Urenco/Louisiana
Energy Services (LES) corporation for a joint enrichment
facility in New Mexico. Per that agreement, sensitive Urenco
centrifuge technology is totally enclosed within an outer vacuum
casing. This prevents the local employees from seeing sensitive
components, nor will they get information on how to repair the
centrifuges.
In the Iranian scenerio, centrifuges would be imported into Iran
as complete units and removed from the country as complete units
if in need of repair. While the Iranian personnel working at the
joint facility would operate them, the centrifuge units would be
installed and removed solely by outside employees.
The joint venture could essentially guarantee that Iran would
not divert any of the low enriched uranium for military
purposes. Western technicians would be permanently present at
the facility, which would be jointly operated with respect to
business activities, and other operational decisions. This would
be coupled with constant IAEA inspections and remote monitoring
to verify Iran's compliance with the safeguard standards.
Following a recent proposal by two MIT scientists, the joint
venture could be created as a holding company that would lease
centrifuges from an outside source such as Urenco. A typical
Urenco facility, equipped with 50,000 advanced T-21 centrifuges,
is capable of producing fuels for 42 1,000 megawatt nuclear
power plants, like the one under construction in Bushehr.
The partners in the holding company could include the Iranian
government and two or more European countries that have been at
the forefront of negotiating with Iran. Russia might join as
well, in light of Moscow's current role as Tehran's sole nuclear
partner. Russia has just announced the completion date for the
Bushehr power plant -- November 2007, and has recently signed an
agreement with Iran on the return of spent fuel.
As for the capital needed for the multilateral holding company,
the participants would provide the capital for the equipment and
land lease in proportion to their equity in the company. This
plan would not only secure Iran's need for nuclear fuel for its
reactors -- and Iran has plans to purchase more reactors from
Russia in the near future -- but it would also produce enough
low enriched uranium for export to the growing global market for
enriched uranium. Most importantly, the plan provides a firm
guarantee that Iran would not be developing nuclear weapons by
exercising its NPT rights.
Kevah Afrasiabi is a political scientist and author of Iran's
Nuclear Program: Debating Facts vs. Fiction.
*****************************************************************
9 AFP: Powers pursue Iran sanctions amid N Korean crisis - official -
Wed Oct 11, 9:37 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Major powers will press ahead with plans to
impose UN sanctions on Iran over its uranium enrichment
program even as the world body grapples with the reality of a
newly nuclear North Korea .
Senior diplomats from the six nations confronting Iran over its
nuclear program -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and
the United States -- will hold a videoconference Wednesday to
discuss an initial list of sanctions to use against Tehran,
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The six nations' UN ambassadors in New York will then begin
drafting a sanctions resolution, he said.
Foreign Ministers from the five permanent UN Security Council
members plus Germany decided at a meeting Friday in London to
hit Iran with sanctions for ignoring UN demands that it suspend
the uranium enrichment activities.
But plans to draw up a sanctions resolution at the UN this week
were overtaken by North Korea's announcement Monday that it had
carried out its first nuclear test explosion.
The move unleashed a torrent of international condemnation and
diplomats at the world body have since been scrambling to agree
on punitive measures to draw the isolationist regime in
Pyongyang back from the nuclear brink.
The UN Security Council was Wednesday to resume talks on hitting
North Korea with tough punitive actions for its nuclear test,
with Pyongyang's closest ally China now ready to support some
sanctions.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , in a series of US
television interviews, said that despite the dramatic
developments in northeast Asia, parallel moves to draw up a
sanctions resolution against Iran were still on track.
"The United States is quite capable of taking care of several
problems simultaneously," she said, voicing confidence that
"we're going to have a Security Council resolution under Chapter
7, Article 41" against Iran.
Article 41 contains the strongest language of the UN Charter,
allowing for mandatory sanctions against a member nation which
is deemed a "threat to international peace and security".
Rice acknowledged that the pace of discussions on a sanctions
resolution against Iran will be slower than the fast-tracked
deliberations on the more immediate threat posed by North Korea.
"The urgency on North Korea is extraordinary," she said.
"There's no doubt that I've rarely, maybe never seen that kind
of response from the international community."
China and Russia, however, remain only weakly committed to
taking punitive measures against Iran, with which both states
have close economic ties.
Rice has called for a progressive series of sanctions that will
gradually ratchet up the pressure on Tehran to suspend its
enrichment program and enter into negotiations with the six
powers on a package of economic and political rewards --
including the first direct contacts with Washington in nearly 30
years.
The first sanctions resolution is expected to focus narrowly on
freezing assets and barring some trade linked to Iran's nuclear
and ballistic missile programs.
If Iran still refuses to comply, Washington will seek broader
measures affecting Tehran's economy and government.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reaffirmed
Tuesday that his government would not "back down" in the
confrontation.
Iran insists its nascent uranium enrichment program is designed
only to provide fuel for civilian nuclear power stations, and
thus is allowed under the nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty to
which Tehran is a signatory.
But the United States and others fear the program will be
subverted to provide fissile material for nuclear weapons,
although analysts agree this eventuality is years away at least.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
10 AFP: Major powers send Iran sanctions plan to UN
by David Millikin Wed Oct 11, 3:11 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The six major powers confronting Iran over
its nuclear program instructed their UN ambassadors to begin
drawing up a sanctions resolution against Tehran, a senior US
official said.
Senior diplomats from the six -- Britain, China, France,
Germany, Russia and the United States -- finalized a preliminary
list of possible sanctions during a videoconference Wednesday
morning, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told AFP.
"As expected, it was agreed that the matter should now go to the
(permanent representatives) in New York," he said, adding that
consultations on drafting a Security Council resolution would
likely begin later this week.
Iran defied an August 31 UN deadline for suspending a uranium
enrichment program that Washington and others fear will be
subverted to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iran says the program is designed only to provide fuel for
nuclear power stations and as such is allowed under the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
McCormack said that following weeks of intensive discussions
among the six over how to proceed, there was now "a fundamental
agreement on going to sanctions and a sanctions resolution" at
the United Nations .
"I think there is broad agreement on the potential sanctions
that would be included, but not yet agreement on the specific
items that would be in a resolution, that has to be worked out,"
he said.
The five permanent Security Council members plus Germany drew up
in June a list of 15 possible punitive measures against Iran as
part of a "carrots and sticks" package that also included
economic and political rewards if Tehran agreed to suspend
uranium enrichment.
The plan, which was never officially released but was leaked to
the press, called for a graduated series of measures, firstly
targetting Iran's military programs and later, if these fail,
moving to broader political and economic sanctions.
McCormack confirmed that list sent to the UN ambassadors on
Wednesday was a "subset" of the sanctions included in the
earlier document.
The broader list included an embargo on the export of goods and
technologies linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile
programs, a freeze on assets related to the programs and travel
bans on nuclear and weapons scientists.
Tougher measures would prohibit financial transactions by
individuals or organizations involved in the arms programs and a
ban on investment in entities engaged in the programs.
Washington has been arguing in favor of imposing sanctions since
Iran ignored the August 31 deadline.
But under strong pressure from China and Russia, which both have
important economic ties to Iran and traditionally oppose
sanctions as a diplomatic weapon, the US agreed to several
additional weeks of negotiations aimed at convincing the
Iranians to suspend enrichment and accept the incentives
package.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who
represented the six in those talks, acknowledged last week that
they had failed, setting the stage for a sanctions resolution.
Russia and China were still expected to try to minimize the
impact of any sanctions during the drafting of a Security
Council resolution.
The process was complicated this week by North Korea 's
announcement that it had carried out its first test of a nuclear
bomb.
The claim sparked universal condemnation and urgent moves at the
United Nations for a tough sanctions resolution targetting
Pyongyang.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that
while the North Korea matter is the most urgent to deal with,
parallel moves to draw up a sanctions resolution against Iran
could still proceed.
"The United States is quite capable of taking care of several
problems simultaneously," she said, voicing confidence that
"we're going to have a Security Council resolution under Chapter
7, Article 41" against Iran.
Article 41 contains the strongest language of the UN Charter,
allowing for mandatory sanctions against a member nation which
is deemed a "threat to international peace and security."
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
11 UPI: Iran vows to continue nuclear program
United Press International - NewsTrack -
10/11/2006 5:25:00 PM -0400
SHAHRIAR, Iran, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad Wednesday said threats of reprisals will have no
effect on Iran's nuclear-enrichment program.
Ahmadinejad said the West was angry about Iranian progress and
trying to deprive Iran of its legal rights, the official IRNA
news agency reported.
"On the pretext of development of nuclear weapons by Iran, they
continue disrupting the progress of the Iranian nation," he told
a gathering in the town of Shahriar.
Ahmadinejad added Iran sought dialogue and peace.
His comments came as U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns
and his counterparts in Britain, France, Germany, Russia and
China conferred about possible sanctions against Iran for its
refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Also Wednesday, Iran's ambassador to France revived its proposal
that France enrich Iran's uranium on Iranian soil to end the
nuclear standoff -- an idea France distanced itself from,
stressing the need for unity in the international community.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
12 [NYTr] Democratic Korea: Nuke Test USA's Fault
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:23:03 -0500 (CDT)
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Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com
Democratic Korea: Nuclear Test USA's Fault
Pyongyang, Oct 11 (Prensa Latina) Democratic Korea reiterated its
commitment Wednesday to denuclearize the peninsula and accused the United
States for its having to hold a nuclear test on Oct 9.
The nuclear test of the People's Democratic Republic of Korea (PDRK) is
completely attributable to the nuclear threat, sanctions and pressures by
United States, stated a statement by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The PDRK, added the text, strove to solve the nuclear problem through
dialogue and negotiations, but the Bush administration responded to its
patient and sincere efforts with sanctions and blockade.
The PDRK was obliged to prove with clarity its possession of nuclear
weapons to protect sovereignty and its right to existence, faced with daily
increasing US danger of war, said the document published by the Korean
Central News Agency.
Another part of the document stresses that even though they carried out the
test, Pyongyang does not modify its will to denuclearize the peninsula
through dialogue and negotiations.
The denuclearization of the entire peninsula was the last instruction by
President Kim Il Sung and is a PDRK aim.
North Korea authorities say that the nuclear test "does not contradict the
September 19 joint declaration in which it promised to dismantle nuclear
weapons and abandon existing nuclear programs."
The PDRK is ready not only for the dialogue but also for confrontation,
emphasized the North Korean Foreign Ministry.
And it concludes: "If US pressures against the PDRK continue, we will keep
on taking physical counter-measures, since we would term it a declaration
of war."
sus iff jhb mf
PL-14
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13 [NYTr] Wave Big Stick, Get Stung: Pyongyang 1, Bush 0
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:23:04 -0500 (CDT)
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Counterpunch - Oct 11, 2006
http://www.counterpunch.org/feffer10112006.html
Wave Stick, Get Stung
Pyongyang 1, Bush 0
By JOHN FEFFER
Five years ago, when George W. Bush took office, North Korea didn't claim
membership in the nuclear club. Its plutonium reprocessing facilities were
frozen. It was even willing to negotiate away its missile program.
Instead of pursuing the diplomatic route, the Bush administration tried to
ignore Pyongyang. Then came the schoolyard taunts such as lumping North
Korea together with Iraq and Iran in an "axis of evil." When indifference
and insult failed to move the isolated East Asian country, the
administration accused North Korea of enriching uranium, which led to the
unraveling of the 1994 Agreed Framework and the reigniting of a major
crisis. To top it off, Washington began to squeeze Pyongyang economically
with sanctions.
Pyongyang has refused to cry "uncle." Instead, it has replied in kind. With
its missile launches in July and its recently announced nuclear test,
Pyongyang has demonstrated that it can be as stubborn and as enamored of
military playthings as the Bush administration.
With such a miserable track record in inducing behavior change, why has the
United States continued to speak loudly and wield a big stick against a
hornet's nest like North Korea? It might be, like North Korea's recent
test, a fundamental miscalculation. The Bush administration, after all, has
shown a pathological inability to learn from its mistakes. Or there might
be a deeper, more malign intent at work.
Wave Stick, Hornet Stings
At first, the Bush administration followed the logic of its predecessors.
It looked at North Korea through the prism of Eastern Europe. With a little
nudge, the regime was supposed to topple just like the communist
governments in Warsaw, Bucharest, and East Berlin. But North Korea showed
remarkable resilience, surviving the collapse of its Soviet trading
partner, several years of extreme famine in the mid-1990s, and then the
containment-plus tactics of the Bush administration.
In the absence of a dramatic coup or military putsch in Pyongyang, the Bush
administration had to demonstrate that it was not just twiddling its thumbs
while North Korea unfroze its plutonium reprocessing facilities and moved
full-speed ahead toward a nuclear arsenal. The faintest whiff of weapons of
mass destruction had justified U.S. military intervention in Iraq. And all
the United States could do with North Korea was call it names?
Thus were born the Six Party Talks, a multilateral effort involving the two
Koreas, China, Russia, Japan, and the United States. A remarkable group of
diplomats gathered to talk, but alas, not to negotiate. Guided by the
[fefferkorea.jpg] uncompromising Vice President Dick Cheney, the Bush
administration has viewed any meaningful negotiations with North Korea-and
the prospect of any serious agreement-as simply prolonging the lifespan of
Kim Jong Il's regime. The State Department was on a short leash. The Bush
administration refused to negotiate bilaterally, North Korea's negotiating
process of choice. In the Bush-Cheney lexicon, compromise equals
appeasement and "Munich" stops all conversations.
Here's what the problem with the strategy of pointless talking was: North
Korea was not satisfied with cat-and-mouse maneuvers. Its economy reeling
and its population malnourished, the North Korean government wanted a deal.
And the only thing worth trading that it possessed-or that the world
thought it possessed-was a nuclear program.
The recent nuclear test is the logical consequence of the North's policy
over the last four years. It developed a nuclear program to deter U.S.
attacks, but it also needed a bargaining chip to trade for status, cash,
and other goodies. It froze its nuclear program under the 1994 Agreed
Framework, but probably kept some reprocessed plutonium in reserve just in
case and began a covert uranium-enrichment program as a similar insurance
policy. When the Agreed Framework collapsed in 2002, North Korea changed
tactics, declaring that it did in fact have nukes, which served to
strengthen its deterrent capabilities and increase its ask at the
negotiating table.
But the Bush administration wasn't dealing. So North Korea ended its
self-imposed missile moratorium last July. And when that didn't get the
United States into one-on-one negotiations, it raised the ante once again
with a nuclear test.
Such tactics should surprise no one. Pyongyang has begun giving the world
advance notice of its actions. Psychologists call these signals a "cry for
help." North Korea wants to negotiate, wants to avoid options that are
clearly suicidal. But global 911, staffed by the inattentive Bush
administration, is just not responding.
External Signal, Internal Audience
The nuclear test is a signal to the international community that North
Korea refuses to be disrespected, have its sovereignty abridged, or suffer
a full-frontal military assault. But the test also serves various internal
purposes.
The staff of the country's nuclear complex-scientists, military officials,
and government representatives-have an important stake in seeing their
project through to completion. As George Perkovich perceptively argued in
his book India's Nuclear Bomb, the team developing nuclear weapons is not
simply a group of technicians that can be turned on or off depending on
government whim. The nuclear complex develops political power within the
overall government system. Tasked to create a bomb, it must demonstrate its
success or it will lose that power. A nuclear test translates into bonuses
and promotions, and consolidated political power within the system.
Another internal rationale is provided by the date of the test: October 9.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il formally took the helm of the Korean
Worker's Party on that date in 1997. There have been only two leaders in
North Korean history. Kim Il Sung founded the country and, despite often
horrendous policies, enjoyed the adulation of the population. With the
famine that took place on his watch and the near collapse of the country,
Kim Jong Il has squandered his father's legacy.
The nuclear test is, in other words, a rather large example of
overcompensation. Economic news out of North Korea hasn't been very
positive. Heavy rains and flooding over the summer damaged the country's
capacity to feed itself. Financial sanctions applied by the United States
have helped stall any economic reforms. Even China, outraged over the July
missile launches, has begun to put a gentle squeeze on its neighbor.
There's not a lot of bread in North Korea and, though the Pyongyang Circus
is quite good, such performances will not distract the population. Kim Jong
Il might have as much charisma as a chunk of anthracite but only a handful
of world leaders have pushed their countries past the well-guarded gates of
the nuclear club.
But did North Korea really test the bomb? The verdict isn't yet in. The
recent test might have been just a lot of TNT or it could have been a very
small weapon tested unsuccessfully. However, from North Korea's point of
view, the perception of deterrence is more important than the reality. It
wants to prevent an attack. If the United States and others are scared off
by empty underground caverns-like Kumchang-ri in 1999-or by a whole lot of
dynamite, so much the cheaper.
To Strike or Not to Strike
Will an attack on North Korea be the administration's October surprise? The
rally-around-the-flag effect of bombing North Korea would be overwhelmed by
the sheer scope of the immediate consequences, not to mention the
longer-term blowback. The Bush administration has insisted on keeping all
options on the table, even though the Pentagon has made it clear that a
military strike against North Korea would lead to retaliatory attacks that
would kill tens of thousands of U.S. and South Korean soldiers and
civilians. The Pentagon has also confessed that it would have great
difficulty eliminating the dispersed nuclear facilities in North Korea.
For military, economic, and electoral reasons, it doesn't make sense for
the Bush administration to launch an attack against any country at this
moment. Alas, the administration seems to be singing only one tune these
days, that old Talking Heads favorite: Stop Making Sense. The
administration ignored the top-level Pentagon advice on Iraq. It could do
so again with North Korea.
If the military option is not really on the table, the Bush administration
is running out of choices. It is unveiling a new set of financial sanctions
and wants inspections on all cargo going in and out of North Korea. But
Pyongyang, while not exactly reveling in its isolation of late, is
accustomed to being the odd man out. Kim Jong Il's regime endured several
famine years; perhaps it calculates that two more cold-shoulder years from
the Bush administration are survivable.
For some in the Bush administration, the nuclear test is cause for
celebration. The coterie around Dick Cheney rejoices at the growing divide
between North Korea and China, the more aggressive military and foreign
policy of Japan, and the compromised efforts of South Korea to engage the
North. The nuclear test is the most effective argument the Cheney crowd can
use to defeat calls for diplomacy. An amplified North Korean threat works
wonders on Capitol Hill and with our allies to push missile defense, more
military spending, and the like.
But the recent test has not destroyed the diplomatic option. Pyongyang has
reiterated its willingness to negotiate. It doesn't have much choice. A
nuclear weapon can't feed its people or rebuild its factories.
The international community, through the UN, should by all means register
its outrage at North Korea's act and translate that outrage into some
concrete actions. But many years of sanctions haven't brought North Korea
to its knees or back to the negotiating table. It's time for the Bush
administration to make up for a half-decade of failed policies by talking
seriously with Pyongyang, both bilaterally and multilaterally. Just inside
the door, North Korea can still be persuaded to back out of the nuclear
club.
[John Feffer is the co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus for the
International Relations Center, North Korea, South Korea: U.S. Policy at a
Time of Crisis (Seven Stories Press).and the editor of The Future of
U.S.-Korean Relations (Routledge, 2006).]
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14 IPS-English POLITICS: U.S. Neo-Cons Call For Japanese Nukes,
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:01:16 -0700
X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (borg.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61]
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ROMAIPS AP NA HD IP BW ML NC NU=20
POLITICS: U.S. Neo-Cons Call For Japanese Nukes, Regime Change
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (IPS) - Encouraging Japan to build nuclear weapons, sh=
ipping food aid via submarines, and running secrete sabotage operations i=
nside North Korea's borders are among a raft of policy prescriptions push=
ed by prominent U.S. neo-conservatives in the wake of Pyongyang's nuclear=
test.
Writing in publications from National Review Online (NRO) to the New York=
Times, neo-conservatives claim, contrary to the lessons drawn by =94real=
ist=94 and other critics of the George W. Bush administration, that Monda=
y's test vindicates their long-held view that negotiations with =94rogue=94=
states like North Korea are useless and that =94regime change=94 -- by m=
ilitary means, if necessary -- is the only answer.
=94With our intelligence on North Korea so uneven, the doctrine of pre-em=
ption must return to the fore,=94 wrote Dan Blumenthal, an Asia specialis=
t at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) who worked for Defence Secre=
tary Donald Rumsfeld during Bush's first term, in the NRO Tuesday. =94Any=
talk of renewed six-party talks [involving China, Japan, Russia, the U.S=
. and the two Koreas] must be resisted.=94
The North Korean test =94has stripped any plausibility to arguments that =
engaging dictators works,=94 according to Michael Rubin, a Middle East sp=
ecialist at AEI, who added that the Bush administration now faces a =94wa=
tershed=94 in its relations with other states that have defied Washington=
in recent years.
=94This crisis is not just about North Korea, but about Iran, Syria, Vene=
zuela, and Cuba as well,=94 according to Rubin. =94Bush now has two choic=
es: to respond forcefully and show that defiance has consequence, or affi=
rm that defiance pays and that international will is illusionary.
=94=E0(He) must now choose whether his legacy will be one of inaction or =
leadership, Chamberlain or Churchill,=94 he added in a reference to the p=
re-World War II debate between the =94appeasement=94 of British Prime Min=
ister Neville Chamberlain and the war policy of his successor, Winston Ch=
urchill.
The neo-conservatives, whose influence on the Bush administration has gen=
erally been on the wane since late 2003 when it became clear that the Ira=
q war that they had done so much to champion was going badly, nonetheless=
retain some clout, particularly through the offices of Vice President Di=
ck Cheney and Pentagon chief Rumsfeld.
They are opposed by the =94realists=94 who are concentrated in the State =
Department and also include former secretary of state Colin Powell; his c=
hief deputy, Richard Armacost; and a number of top national security offi=
cials in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush, such as=
former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, and secretary of state=
James Baker, who just last weekend publicly called for Washington to dir=
ectly engage its =94enemies=94, including North Korea, Syria and Iran.
That stance is anathema to the neo-conservatives and their right-wing all=
ies, such as Cheney, who, at one national security council meeting on Nor=
th Korea several years ago, was reported to have said, =94We don't negoti=
ate with evil; we defeat it.=94
The neo-conservatives' main area of concern has historically been the Mid=
dle East -- indeed, their central focus in recent months has been publici=
sing the threats to the U.S. and Israel allegedly posed by Iran and Hezbo=
llah and opposing any realist appeals to engage Tehran and Damascus in di=
rect talks. But they have also been warning for some time against =94the =
appeasement=94 of North Korea and its chief source of material aid and su=
pport, China.
In their view, Beijing has always had the power to force Pyongyang to giv=
e up its nuclear arms programmes, and the fact that it has not done so de=
monstrates that China sees itself as a =94strategic rival=94 of Washingto=
n, a phrase much favoured by administration hawks during Bush's first yea=
r in office.
Indeed, in the most prominent neo-conservative reaction to the North Kore=
an test to date, former Bush speechwriter David Frum called in a column p=
ublished by the New York Times for the administration to take a series of=
measures designed to =94punish China=94 for its failure to bring Pyongya=
ng to heel.
Among them, Frum, who is also based at AEI and is sometimes credited with=
inventing the phrase =94axis of evil=94, in which North Korea, Iran, and=
Iraq were lumped together, for Bush's 2002 State of the Union address, u=
rged the administration to cut off all humanitarian aid to North Korea, p=
ressure South Korea to do the same, and thus force China to =94shoulder t=
he cost of helping to avert=94 North Korea's economic collapse.
Frum, who is also based at AEI, urged that Japan, South Korea, Australia,=
New Zealand and Singapore to be invited to join NATO and that Taiwan, wh=
ich China regards as a renegade province, to send observers to NATO meeti=
ngs.
Frum, who in 2003 co-authored =94An End to Evil=94 with former Defence Po=
licy Board chairman, also suggested that Washington =94encourage Japan to=
renounce the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and create its own nuclear =
deterrent.=94
=94A nuclear Japan is the thing China and North Korea dread most (after, =
perhaps, a nuclear South Korea or Taiwan),=94 he asserted.
=94Not only would the nuclearization of Japan be a punishment of China an=
d North Korea,=94 he wrote, =94but it would also go far to meet our goal =
of dissuading Iran (from trying to obtain a nuclear weapons)... The analo=
gue for Iran, of course, would be the threat of American aid to improve I=
srael's capacity to hit targets with nuclear weapons,=94 according to Fru=
m.
Other neo-conservatives echoed Blumenthal's position that the Six-Party T=
alks should be abandoned and called for the administration to resist any =
further appeals for bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang -- r=
epeatedly made by China, South Korea, and Russia, as well as by realists =
here, over the past several years.
=94There will be renewed calls for bilateral talks between Washington and=
Pyongyang. That would be a mistake.=94 according to the lead editorial i=
n the neo-conservative Wall Street Journal, which also urged the U.S. to =
=94make clear that a military response is not off the table.=94
Other commentators called for strong efforts to achieve regime change. Ja=
mes Robbins, senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, called=
for covert action, including =94sabotage, espionage, information operati=
ons, subversion, deception -- the works. A highly paranoid totalitarian r=
egime like Kim (Jong Il's) will be highly susceptible to these methods,=94=
he predicted.
At the same time, former House Speaker and DPB member Newt Gingrich, who =
is also based at AEI, said he favoured continuing shipments of U.S. food =
aid but through a covert delivery system =94consciously designed to under=
mine the dictatorship=94.
=94Food might be parachuted into the country, delivered from submarines a=
nd small boats by clandestine services, shipped in from China and Russia =
through anti-regime middlemen and delivered in every way possible to dive=
rt energy and authority away from the government and toward an alternativ=
e organising system of individuals dedicated to a better more prosperous =
life,=94 he wrote.
Like his fellow-neo-conservatives, Frank Gaffney, the president of the Ce=
ntre for Security Policy, called for accelerated development and deployme=
nt of Washington's embryonic but extraordinarily costly missile defence s=
ystem, including a ship-launched system that can shoot down ballistic mis=
siles of various ranges =94whether launched from places like North Korea =
or from tramp steamers off our coasts.=94
He also urged Washington to resume periodic underground nuclear tests of =
its own, ending a moratorium on such testing announced by former Presiden=
t George H.W. Bush in 1992.
*****
+POLITICS-US/KOREA: No War, No Talks, More Pressure (http://ipsnews.net/n=
ews.asp?idnews=3D35049)
+POLITICS: N. Korean Nuke Tests Say World Must Return to Peace Agenda (ht=
tp://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=3D35041)
+EAST ASIA: North Korean Bomb - Bargaining Chip for China (http://ipsnews=
.net/news.asp?idnews=3D35036)
(END/IPS/NA/AP/IP/HD/NU/BW/NC/ML/JL/KS/06)
=20
=3D 10111624 ORP005
NNNN
*****************************************************************
15 [NYTr] Jimmy Carter: Solving the Korean Stalemate
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:39:18 -0400 (EDT)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Ed Pearl
Here's Jimmy:
"The simple framework for a step-by-step agreement exists, with the United
States giving a firm and direct statement of no hostile intent, and moving
toward normal relations if North Korea forgoes any further nuclear weapons
program and remains at peace with its neighbors. ...but it is unlikely that
the North Koreans will back down unless the United States meets this basic
demand."
The New York Times - Oct 11, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/opinion/11carter.html
Solving the Korean Stalemate, One Step at a Time
By JIMMY CARTER
IN 1994 the North Koreans expelled inspectors of the International Atomic
Energy Agency and were threatening to process spent nuclear fuel into
plutonium, giving them the ability to produce nuclear weapons.
With the risk of war on the Korean Peninsula, there was a consensus that the
forces of South Korea and the United States could overwhelmingly defeat
North Korea. But it was also known that North Korea could quickly launch
more than 20,000 shells and missiles into nearby Seoul. The American
commander in South Korea, Gen. Gary Luck, estimated that total casualties
would far exceed those of the Korean War.
Responding to an invitation from President Kim Il-sung of North Korea, and
with the approval of President Bill Clinton, I went to Pyongyang and
negotiated an agreement under which North Korea would cease its nuclear
program at Yongbyon and permit inspectors from the atomic agency to return
to the site to assure that the spent fuel was not reprocessed. It was also
agreed that direct talks would be held between the two Koreas.
The spent fuel (estimated to be adequate for a half-dozen bombs) continued
to be monitored, and extensive bilateral discussions were held. The United
States assured the North Koreans that there would be no military threat to
them, that it would supply fuel oil to replace the lost nuclear power and
that it would help build two modern atomic power plants, with their fuel
rods and operation to be monitored by international inspectors. The summit
talks resulted in South Korean President Kim Dae-jung earning the 2000 Nobel
Peace Prize for his successful efforts to ease tensions on the peninsula.
But beginning in 2002, the United States branded North Korea as part of an
axis of evil, threatened military action, ended the shipments of fuel oil
and the construction of nuclear power plants and refused to consider further
bilateral talks. In their discussions with me at this time, North Korean
spokesmen seemed convinced that the American positions posed a serious
danger to their country and to its political regime.
Responding in its ill-advised but predictable way, Pyongyang withdrew from
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, expelled atomic energy agency
inspectors, resumed processing fuel rods and began developing nuclear
explosive devices.
Six-nation talks finally concluded in an agreement last September that
called for North Korea to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear
programs and for the United States and North Korea to respect each other's
sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize
relations. Each side subsequently claimed that the other had violated the
agreement. The United States imposed severe financial sanctions and
Pyongyang adopted the deeply troubling nuclear option.
The current military situation is similar but worse than it was a decade
ago: we can still destroy North Korea's army, but if we do it is likely to
result in many more than a million South Korean and American casualties.
If and when it is confirmed that the recent explosion in North Korea was
nuclear, the international community will once again be faced with difficult
choices.
One option, the most likely one, is to try to force Pyongyang's leaders to
abandon their nuclear program with military threats and a further tightening
of the embargoes, increasing the suffering of its already starving people.
Two important facts must be faced: Kim Jong-il and his military leaders have
proven themselves almost impervious to outside pressure, and both China and
South Korea have shown that they are reluctant to destabilize the regime.
This approach is also more likely to stimulate further nuclear weapons
activity.
The other option is to make an effort to put into effect the September
denuclearization agreement, which the North Koreans still maintain is
feasible. The simple framework for a step-by-step agreement exists, with the
United States giving a firm and direct statement of no hostile intent, and
moving toward normal relations if North Korea forgoes any further nuclear
weapons program and remains at peace with its neighbors. Each element would
have to be confirmed by mutual actions combined with unimpeded international
inspections.
Although a small nuclear test is a far cry from even a crude deliverable
bomb, this second option has become even more difficult now, but it is
unlikely that the North Koreans will back down unless the United States
meets this basic demand. Washington's pledge of no direct talks could be
finessed through secret discussions with a trusted emissary like former
Secretary of State Jim Baker, who earlier this week said, "It's not
appeasement to talk to your enemies."
What must be avoided is to leave a beleaguered nuclear nation convinced that
it is permanently excluded from the international community, its existence
threatened, its people suffering horrible deprivation and its hard-liners in
total control of military and political policy.
[Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, is the founder of the Carter Center and
the winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.]
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16 Christian Science Monitor: North Korea has the bomb. Now what?
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:51:20 EDT
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Christian Science Monitor
from the October 11, 2006 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1011/p09s02-coop.html
North Korea has the bomb. Now what?
By Bennett Ramberg
LOS ANGELES
North Korea's atomic weapon test Sunday night leaves Washington's nuclear
elimination strategy on the peninsula in tatters.
This should come as no surprise. For more than four decades, North Korea
dedicated itself to getting the bomb. It will not give it up now. To believe that
Kim Jong Il will follow the path of Libya, South Africa, and former Soviet
states in giving up their nuclear programs is illusory. Once we accept this
proposition, we can begin to fashion a strategy to contain the nuclear risk North
Korea poses.
During the past two administrations, Washington attempted multiple strategies
to turn Pyongyang away from its nuclear course. The Clinton administration
tried bilateral engagement and offers of food and energy assistance. The Bush
administration tried economic isolation and multilateral coaxing. Neither
approach worked, not because they were ill-conceived, but because North Korea
immovably associates nuclear weapons with regime preservation.
Compare this case with countries that surrendered the bomb. South Africa gave
up following the departure of threatening Soviet and Cuban troops on its
border and a desire to end its international isolation. Ukraine, Belarus, and
Kazakhstan saw the remnant Soviet arsenals as strategic and economic albatrosses.
Feeling the strains of decades-old opprobrium, Libya used the lure of nuclear
dismantlement to ensure regime survival and generate economic revival.
By contrast, North Korea concluded that survival requires seclusion, which
the bomb preserves. We delude ourselves if we believe that we can reverse what
is irreversible. No agreement with Pyongyang will eliminate its nuclear
program. And military action against its nuclear facilities is out of the question
due to the radiological consequences and the very bloody war that would ensue
and envelop South Korea and possibly Japan.Thus, rather than bemoan the failure
of past policy, it's time to craft a strategy that copes with this new reality.
The two challenges we must face
A nuclear North Korea presents two challenges: preventing it from using
atomic weapons and preventing it from sharing nuclear materials with rogue nations
or terrorists.
The first may be easier to meet. The proper strategy is the one we already
have in place: military deterrence coupled to the capability to destroy, with
certainty, the North by any means necessary in the event it attacks South Korea
or Japan. Yes, Mr. Kim is unpredictable. But, despite his bluster, he clearly
understands this long-standing US policy, which has deterred his nation from
serious military operations against Seoul.
There is a caveat. Nuclear war could still be triggered inadvertently. Take,
for example, an intelligence failure. The North might believe, mistakenly,
that the United States intended to wipe out its nuclear capability, forcing it
into a quandary to use its nuclear arsenal or lose it. Another concern: the
North's inability to exercise command and control over its nuclear forces in a
period of crisis could result in the decision by a local commander to launch a
nuclear strike.
We should implement several measures to reduce these risks. First, establish
a crisis "hot line" with the North. Such an emergency communications network
served the Soviet Union and the United States well during the cold war.
Reduce North Korea's paranoia
Second, reduce the North's concerns about surprise attack. For example,
eliminate all military exercises near the South/North border and give advance
notice of all large exercises anywhere on the peninsula.
Third, provide Pyongyang with low-resolution satellite intelligence of the
borderland. Keeping it blind about military activities near the demilitarized
zone feeds its paranoia.
Finally, give the North a greater stake in its financial future - and reduce
its isolation and paranoia - by encouraging the South's efforts at economic
engagement.
Economic intercourse may deliver another benefit. It could abate Pyongyang's
incentive to sell military equipment - including nuclear materials, or even
weapons - to generate hard currency. However, we cannot rely on this tack.
Accordingly, the US must reserve the right to intercept any North Korean
commerce that could provide nations or terrorists with nuclear capability. In the
post-9/11 era, it would be imprudent to do otherwise.
Critics of this action plan will contend that it gives in to North Korean
blackmail by allowing Pyongyang to retain its nuclear program while providing
economic rewards. But because we cannot eliminate its nuclear program without
tremendous costs, these proposals are practical. Consider the alternative: a
North Korea further isolated, increasingly paranoid, with poor intelligence,
placing its nuclear forces on hair-trigger alert, while attempting to get hard
currency by selling nuclear weapons to terrorists. We must not allow such a legacy
to result from the current crisis.
• Bennett Ramberg served in the State Department during President Geeorge H.W.
Bush's administration. He is the author of three books on international
security.
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. All
rights reserved.
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17 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Threatens More Nuclear Tests
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday October 11, 2006 11:16 PM
AP Photo XGB115
By HANS GREIMEL
Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea threatened more nuclear
tests and said Wednesday it would consider additional sanctions
an act of war, stoking tensions in an already jittery Asia.
Unfazed by the latest threats, Japan banned all North Korean
imports - such as clams and mushrooms - and barred the North's
ships from its ports.
South Korea said it was making sure its troops were prepared for
atomic warfare and said it may bolster its conventional forces
as well. The top U.S. general in the South said American
soldiers were poised to repel any attack.
``I would urge the North Korean authorities not to escalate the
situation any further,'' U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said
at the United Nations. ``We already have an extremely difficult
situation.''
On the streets of North Korea's capital, it seemed like business
as usual. Video by AP Television News showed people milling
about Kim II Sung square in Pyongyang and rehearsing a
performance for the 80th anniversary of the ``Down with
Imperialism Union.''
North Korea, in its first formal statement since it announced an
atomic bomb test Monday, hailed the blast as a success and
warned that it would counter further pressure from the
international community with physical retaliation.
``If the U.S. increases pressure upon the DPRK, persistently
doing harm to it, it will continue to take physical
countermeasures, considering it as a declaration of a war,''
said a statement by the North's Foreign Ministry and carried by
the official Korean Central News Agency. It did not say what
those measures could be. DPRK is shorthand for the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea's No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam threatened in an
interview with a Japanese news agency that there would also be
more nuclear tests if Washington continued what he called its
``hostile attitude.''
Kim, second to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, told Kyodo News
agency that further nuclear testing would hinge on U.S. policy
toward his communist government.
``The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to U.S. policy
toward our country,'' Kim Yong Nam was quoted as saying when
asked if Pyongyang will conduct more tests.
At the White House, President Bush demanded stiff sanctions on
North Korea but said the U.S. has ``no intention of attacking''
the regime despite its claims that it needs atomic weapons to
guard against such a strike.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the security threat
cited by North Korea ``either does not exist in reality, or is
very exaggerated,'' according to the country's Yonhap news
agency. It was a rare direct criticism of the communist regime
from the South's leader.
Japan announced a crackdown meant to impact the North's
1-million-member military, the world's fifth largest.
The new measures ban North Korean imports and prohibit ships
from the impoverished nation from entering Japanese ports. North
Korean exports like clams and mushrooms earn precious foreign
currency on the Japanese market.
North Korean nationals will also be barred from entering Japan,
with limited exceptions, the Cabinet Office said after an
emergency security meeting.
``Japan is in gravest danger, if we consider that North Korea
has advanced both its missile and nuclear capabilities,'' Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters following the meeting.
``These measures were taken to protect the peace.''
Ferries have long served as a major conduit of communication and
cash between Japan and North Korea, which have no diplomatic
relations.
South Korea's military, meanwhile, was checking its readiness
for nuclear attack, Yonhap reported. The Joint Chiefs of Staff
recommended improving the military's defenses, possibly with
state-of-the-art weapons to destroy nuclear missiles, it said.
Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said Seoul could enlarge its
conventional arsenal to deal with a potentially nuclear-armed
North Korea.
The top U.S. general in South Korea said that American forces
are fully capable of deterring an attack.
``Be assured that the alliance has the forces necessary to deter
aggression, and should deterrence fail, decisively defeat any
North Korean attack against'' South Korea, Army Gen. B.B. Bell
said in a statement to troops. ``U.S. forces have been
well-trained to confront nuclear, biological and chemical
threats.''
About 29,500 U.S. soldiers are deployed in the South, a remnant
of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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18 Guardian Unlimited: Annan Calls for U.S.-North Korea Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday October 11, 2006 9:31 PM
AP Photo NYOH101
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the
United States on Wednesday to hold bilateral talks with North
Korea and called on the communist nation not to escalate an
``extremely difficult'' situation.
Annan expressed concern at North Korea's reported nuclear test
Monday, its threat to conduct another test and its warning that
U.N. sanctions would be tantamount to a declaration of war -
moves that have heightened tensions especially in Japan and
South Korea.
``I would urge the North Korean authorities not to escalate the
situation any further,'' Annan told reporters. ``We already have
an extremely difficult situation.''
The United States said it hopes to circulate a revised U.N.
resolution on North Korea soon, with the U.S. still at odds with
China over how strong sanctions against North Korea should be.
The secretary-general said it's clear that North Korea's leader,
Kim Jong Il, ``has not paid attention to the will of the
international community and all the appeals that have been made
to him.''
Asked whether he believes the United States and North Korea
should hold bilateral talks, Annan said: ``I have always argued
that we should talk to parties whose behavior we want to change,
whose behavior we want to influence, and from that point of view
I believe that ... (the) U.S. and North Korea should talk.''
The United States has refused to talk one-on-one with North
Korea except on the margins of six-party talks aimed at
persuading the North to abandon its nuclear program.
But North Korea has boycotted the talks for over year, demanding
instead that the U.S. drop financial sanctions it has imposed to
punish Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting and money
laundering.
Annan expressed hope that North Korea would respond positively
to appeals from around the world to return to the six-party
talks which involve the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, China and
Russia, stressing that ``the talks are necessary.''
As for U.S.-North Korea talks, Annan said, ``whether it's done
in the context of the six-party talks or separately, one must
talk.''
The secretary-general spoke as the five permanent Security
Council members - the U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France -
and Japan, which holds the council presidency this month, met to
try to bridge differences on a U.S. draft resolution that would
impose sanctions on North Korea for defying its appeal not to
conduct a test. Experts from the 15 Security Council nations
also were meeting to go over the text.
The United States and Japan have urged the council to act
swiftly to adopt the resolution.
``There are a number of disagreements,'' U.S. Ambassador John
Bolton said after the meeting. ``We think the fact that North
Korea has conducted a nuclear test does amount to a clear threat
to international peace and security and warrants action under
Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter as well as a variety of strong
measures.
``There's not agreement on all of those points, so we're
continuing to press ahead and we'll have to see what further
discussions entail,'' he said.
Chapter 7 includes a range of measures to deal with threats to
international peace and conflicts, ranging from breaking
diplomatic relations and imposing naval blockades to military
action.
A special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao left Wednesday
for the United States and Russia, China's Foreign Ministry said.
State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan will stop in Washington and Moscow
on a ``working visit as a special envoy of the president,'' the
ministry said without giving other details.
Sean McCormack, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said Tang
would meet with Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill
and McCormack expects Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also
will see Tang.
Annan stressed the importance of the Security Council
maintaining the unity in its initial statement condemning the
test.
``What is important is the Security Council has spoken with one
voice that the action of the North Korean government was
unacceptable - and it complicates an already difficult security
situation in the Korean peninsula,'' Annan said.
``I suspect the council will come together and take firm action
against North Korea. Discussions are going on, and I hope they
will be able to come up with one voice,'' he said.
Annan said the council should take its time and come up with
measures that are not only effective but ``sustainable.''
``It is a serious situation that we should tackle firmly and we
cannot play down, and I'm pleased that the council is fully
seized, and they're all working very actively on it,'' he said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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19 Guardian Unlimited: China Holds Key to N. Korea Sanctions
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday October 11, 2006 9:46 PM
AP Photo XGB114
By GREG BAKER and JOE McDONALD
Associated Press Writers
DANDONG, China (AP) - Scores of Chinese trucks rumbled across
the Friendship Bridge into North Korea on Wednesday, part of a
stream of subsidized food and fuel from China that keeps leader
Kim Jong Il's regime afloat.
As the world weighs possible sanctions against the North for its
claimed nuclear test, the key to enforcing them lies with
Beijing and how much it is willing to squeeze its tiny ally.
China is the North's economic lifeline, providing up to 90
percent of its oil and 80 percent of the consumer goods in a
nation so poor that it cannot feed its 23 million people without
foreign donations.
``Any type of sanctions that have any bite to them certainly
would plunge North Korea back into famine,'' said Peter Beck,
director of the Seoul office of the International Crisis Group,
a think tank.
The United States wants the U.N. to adopt a series of measures
including inspecting cargo to and from North Korea, banning
trade in luxury goods and military items and restricting
financial dealings.
But Beijing opposes squeezing the North too hard, apparently
afraid that such punishments would lead to the regime's
collapse, unleashing a flood of refugees and eliminating the
country's role as a buffer between China and U.S. troops in
South Korea.
``I'm quite sure China is not prepared to support a full-on
economic embargo and a blockade. Limited sanctions possibly, but
not an outright blockade,'' Beck said.
North Korea's No. 2 economic partner is South Korea, which is
also reluctant to back tough sanctions. And without Beijing and
Seoul taking part, any attempt to police shipping ``will surely
be only a symbolic gesture,'' he said. ``They would be able to
harass ships but not stop all North Korean shipping.''
After a one-day suspension Tuesday while the North marked an
official holiday, Chinese shipments were back in full swing
Wednesday. In Dandong, a column of 81 cargo-laden trucks rolled
across the Friendship Bridge into the North in one 30-minute
period. A 20-car cargo train pulled out of Dandong for the
North.
Chinese and North Korean soldiers patrolled their respective
sides of the Yalu River, which forms a border between Dandong
and the North Korean town of Sinuiju. Nearby, AP Television News
footage showed uniformed North Koreans in the fields, harvesting
corn.
Chinese goods reach North Korea by road and rail, and oil is
delivered via a cross-border pipeline. North Korea also has a
rail line to Russia, but Pyongyang lost its sea link to Japan on
Wednesday when Tokyo banned the North's ships from its waters.
South Korea, meanwhile, has very limited access by road to a
joint export manufacturing zone and a tourist resort in the
North.
The contrast between towns on the Chinese and North Korean sides
of their border is striking.
Bustling Chinese towns have emerged where bridges cross the Yalu
and Tumen Rivers into North Korea, featuring modern hotels in
neon-lighted Dandong and Yanji. Dilapidated buildings litter the
North's side, dark at night except for floodlights trained on a
statue of Kim Il Sung, the North Korean state's communist
founder.
The North's economy collapsed in the mid-1990s following the
loss of Soviet aid, but foreign trade has risen sharply as it
eased its self-imposed isolation in hopes of spurring a revival.
Still, Chinese and South Korean figures indicate total trade
last year was less than $4 billion - the equivalent of less than
a single day's imports by the United States.
South Korea saw total trade with the North jump by more than 50
percent last year to just over $1 billion, according to the
South's Unification Ministry. South Korean companies have
factories in an export zone in the North Korean city of Kaesong
and investments in Diamond Mountain, a resort for foreigners,
both accessible by road.
But China is the North's dominant trade partner, with total
imports and exports jumping 14 percent last year to $2.2
billion, according to the Commerce Ministry in Beijing.
The North relies on China for 90 percent of its oil, according
to a report by Li Dunqiu, director of Korea research at the
Chinese Cabinet's Center for Development Studies. Li said the
North was working with China to exploit oil reserves off its
west coast.
In return, China buys North Korean goods that range from
minerals to seafood - but trade is mostly one way, and Pyongyang
ran a $1 billion deficit last year. China also has invested in
North Korean industrial projects, including a glass factory near
Pyongyang. A Chinese company manages the North Korean capital's
biggest department store.
Although China is afraid of the North Korean regime's collapse,
Beck said it isn't clear that comprehensive sanctions would
accomplish this.
``Even if China were to participate in sanctions, it would make
life very difficult for most if not all North Koreans, but the
regime would survive,'' he said. ``They'll just go into a
hunker-down mode and life will get far more grim than it is
today.''
But sanctions could have unexpected and dangerous effects on a
North Korean people grown used to economic misery, said Cui
Yingjiu, a Chinese expert on North Korea and former classmate of
Kim Jong Il.
``A friend from North Korea visited me the day before yesterday.
He said, 'Ordinary people have been living on famine's edge for
so long they're at their limit,''' said Cui. ``People are so
worn out that joining up to mount an insurrection is unlikely.
But they're not afraid of war.''
---
McDonald reported from Beijing; Associated Press writer Charles
Hutzler also contributed from Beijing.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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20 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Rejects Idea of Talks With N. Korea
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday October 11, 2006 11:46 PM
AP Photo WHRE116
By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush unapologetically defended his
approach to North Korea's nuclear weapons program Wednesday,
pledging he would not change course despite contentions that
Pyongyang's apparent atomic test proved the failure of his
nearly six years of effort.
Bush rejected the idea of direct U.S.-North Korea talks, saying
the Koreans were more likely to listen if confronted with the
combined protest of many nations.
The president said he was not backing down from his assertion
three years ago that ``we will not tolerate nuclear weapons in
North Korea.''
He said the United States ``reserves all options to defend our
friends and our interests in the region against the threats from
North Korea,'' a stance he said includes increased defense
cooperation, especially on missile defense, with Japan and South
Korea.
But he added: ``I believe the commander in chief must try all
diplomatic measures before we commit our military.''
The president appeared at a news conference in the White House's
Rose Garden in an effort to rescue a diplomatic drive to contain
North Korea and to rebut charges he had been distracted by the
Iraq war from the developing threat in Asia.
Aftershocks of North Korea's claimed nuclear test continued
reverberating around the world.
At the United Nations, the United States and Japan pushed China
and South Korea torth Korea, took action on their own to choke
off an economic lifeline for the impoverished communist nation,
barring lucrative North Korean imports, most entries into the
country by North Koreans and the presence of North Korean ships
in Japanese ports.
South Korea, which fought a war with the North in the 1950s and
like Japan regards Pyongyang warily, checked its readiness for
nuclear warfare. The defense minister said Seoul could expand
its conventional arsenal and the Joint Chiefs of Staff
recommended improved defenses.
North Korea, in its first formal statement since Monday's test
announcement, warned that new sanctions would be considered an
act of war that would bring unspecified ``physical corresponding
measures.''
North Korea's No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam said more nuclear tests
are possible. And while the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two
Koreas remained calm, North Korean troops tried to provoke
guards on the southern side by spitting across the line, making
throat-slashing hand gestures and flashing middle fingers,
according to a U.S. military spokesman.
In Washington, Democrats contended that Bush has mishandled
North Korea by pursuing a strategy that led to a 400 percent
increase in the nation's nuclear capabilities under his watch.
``President Bush tries to talk tough, but he doesn't act
smart,'' said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. ``He
insists on stubbornly following policies that don't work, and it
is time for a change.''
William Perry, a defense secretary under former President
Clinton, said the U.S. government must abandon its desire for a
new government in Pyongyang and agree to direct, one-on-one
talks - even if on the sidelines of long-stalled six-party talks
that also include China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
``Until we make those two steps, we're in a lost cause trying to
deal with on North Korea,'' Perry said in a conference call with
reporters.
The call for bilateral negotiations was echoed Wednesday by U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan from New York. But Bush again
rebuffed the idea.
``One has a stronger hand when there's more people playing your
same cards,'' he said in an hourlong news conference that was
dominated by the North Korean crisis. ``It is much easier for a
nation to hear what I believe are legitimate demands if there's
more than one voice speaking.''
A day earlier, Republican Sen. John McCain had said Clinton was
at fault for failing to take adequate action in the 1990s to
stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
Bush gave scant attention to that domestic blame game,
repeatedly turning the spotlight back on what he called ``North
Korea's provocation.''
He said he learned North Korea can't be trusted from the
experience of the Clinton administration's 1994 pact with
Pyongyang, which offered energy help in return for a nuclear
freeze but which the North secretly defied nearly from the
start. He defended his decision to switch nearly immediately to
a policy of refusing to talk with North Korea except when other
regional players were also at the table.
``I appreciate the efforts of previous administrations. It just
didn't work,'' he said.
The president acknowledged the difficulty of persuading nations
such as China and South Korea to drop any resistance to a tough
crackdown on North Korea by the U.N. Security Council.
``We share the same goal, but sometimes the internal issues are
different from ours. And, therefore, it takes a while to get
people on the same page. And it takes awhile for people to get
used to consequences,'' he said. ``And so I wouldn't necessarily
characterize these countries' positions as, you know, locked-in
positions.''
The United States and Japan want the Security Council to impose
a partial trade embargo, including strict limits on Korea's
weapons exports, a freeze of related financial assets and
inspections of cargo to and from North Korea. They prefer that
the sanctions fall under the portion of the U.N. Charter that
gives the council the authority to back up its resolutions with
a range of measures that include military action.
China is considered to have the most leverage with North Korea
as its top provider of badly needed economic and energy aid. But
both Beijing and Seoul worry a hard-line approach could
destabilize the North and send refugees flooding over their
borders.
``Peace on the Korean Peninsula requires that these nations send
a clear message to Pyongyang that its actions will not be
tolerated,'' Bush said.
---
Associated Press writers Hans Greimel in Seoul, South Korea, and
Nick Wadhams at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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21 Guardian Unlimited: McCain Criticizes Clinton on N. Korea
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday October 11, 2006 3:31 AM
AP Photo MIPS103
By SARAH KARUSH
Associated Press Writer
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) - Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday
accused former President Clinton, the husband of his potential
2008 White House rival, of failing to act in the 1990s to stop
North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
``I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other Democrats
critical of the Bush administration's policies that the
framework agreement her husband's administration negotiated was
a failure,'' McCain said at a news conference after a campaign
appearance for Republican Senate candidate Mike Bouchard.
``The Koreans received millions and millions in energy
assistance. They've diverted millions of dollars of food
assistance to their military,'' he said.
Democrats have argued President Clinton presented his successor
with a framework for dealing with North Korea and the Republican
fumbled the opportunity. In October 2000, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright made a groundbreaking visit to Pyongyang to
explore a missile deal with Chairman Kim Jong Il. There was even
talk of a visit by President Clinton.
Reports this week suggesting North Korea tested a nuclear device
prompted a number of Democrats to criticize Bush, arguing that
he focused on Iraq, a country without weapons of mass
destruction, while ignoring legitimate threats from Pyongyang.
The criticism took a presidential campaign turn on Tuesday as
McCain, the Arizona senator considered the Republican
front-runner for the party nod, assailed Clinton's husband and
mentioned her by name. The New York senator is considered her
party's leading candidate in 2008.
Sen. Clinton's spokesman dismissed McCain's criticism and argued
that it was time for a new policy from the president.
``Now is not the time to play politics of the most dangerous
kind - with our policy on North Korea,'' Philippe Reines,
spokesman for Sen. Clinton, said in a statement. ``History is
clear that nothing the Bush administration has done has stopped
the North Koreans from openly testing a nuclear weapon and
presenting a new danger to the region of the world.''
Five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush ``has
allowed the 'axis of evil' to spin out of control. Our Iraq
policy is a failure. Iran is going nuclear and North Korea is
testing nuclear weapons,'' the statement said.
A spokesman for President Clinton, Ben Yarrow, said in a
statement that it was ``unfortunate that anyone would attempt to
rewrite history to score political points at a time when we need
to address this serious threat.''
``For eight years during the Clinton administration, there was
no new plutonium production, no nuclear weapons tests and
therefore no additional nuclear weapons developed on President
Clinton's watch,'' said Yarrow, who added that Colin Powell,
Bush's secretary of State, endorsed Clinton's policy toward
North Korea in 2001.
McCain's criticism also elicited a strong response from
Democratic Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 presidential nominee and a
potential 2008 candidate.
``He must be trying to burnish his credentials for the
nomination process,'' said Kerry, who labeled McCain's comments
``flat politics and incorrect.''
``The truth is the Clinton administration knew full well they
didn't have a perfect agreement. But at least they were talking.
At least we had inspectors going in and we knew where the
(nuclear fuel) rods were. This way, we don't know where the rods
are, the rods are gone. There are no inspectors. Ask any
American which way is better,'' Kerry said.
The Massachusetts senator made the remarks in Nevada during a
campaign appearance with Elizabeth Carter, wife of Democratic
Senate candidate Jack Carter.
In U.S.-North Korea relations, the initial breakthrough occurred
in October 1994 when U.S. negotiators persuaded North Korea to
freeze its nuclear program, with onsite monitoring by U.N.
inspectors. In exchange, the United States, with input from
South Korea and Japan, promised major steps to ease North
Korea's acute energy shortage.
These commitments were inherited by the Bush administration,
which made clear almost from the outset that it believed the
Clinton policy ignored key elements of North Korea's activities,
especially the threat posed by the hundreds of thousands of
troops on permanent duty along the Demilitarized Zone with South
Korea.
McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he
backed tough U.N. sanctions against North Korea in response to
the reported test. The measures, he said, should include a
military embargo, financial and trade sanctions and the right to
inspect all cargo in and out of North Korea.
McCain also called on China to ``step up to the plate'' and vote
for sanctions and rejected calls for one-on-one talks between
the United States and North Korea.
``The worst thing we could do is to accede to North Korea's
demand for bilateral talks,'' McCain said. ``When has rewarding
North Korea's bad behavior ever gotten us anything more than
worse behavior?''
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, speaking during a debate Tuesday with
his Republican rival for the Senate, accused the Bush
administration of walking away from relationships the Clinton
administration had developed.
``When the North Korean ambassador came to the United States, he
had to go to New Mexico to meet Bill Richardson, who had been at
the United Nations, because he didn't have anyone else to talk
to,'' Kennedy said. ``The United States is the heavy in this.
The United States has to engage. This administration has to have
direct contact with North Korea.''
^---
Associated Press Writer Kathleen Hennessey in Boulder City,
Nev., contributed to this report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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22 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Threatens War Against U.S.
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday October 11, 2006 2:16 PM
AP Photo XGB104
By HANS GREIMEL
Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea warned on Wednesday that
increased U.S. pressure over the regime's reported nuclear test
could be considered an act of war, and South Korea suggested it
would build up its conventional arsenal to deal with its
belligerent neighbor.
North Korea's No. 2 leader threatened to conduct more nuclear
tests if the United States continued what he called its
``hostile attitude.''
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would
not attack North Korea, rejecting a suggestion that Pyongyang
may feel it needs nuclear weapons to stave off an Iraq-style
U.S. invasion.
In its first formal statement since the test, North Korea said
it could respond to U.S. pressure with ``physical'' measures.
``If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will
regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of
physical corresponding measures,'' the North's Foreign Ministry
said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News
Agency. The statement didn't specify what those measures could
be.
Japan planned to impose a total ban on North Korean imports and
prohibit its ships from entering Japanese ports, a news report
said. The sanctions will also expand restrictions on North
Korean nationals entering Japan, the country's public
broadcaster NHK said.
The sanctions, which also expand restrictions on North Korean
nationals entering Japan, are to be announced following an
emergency security meeting headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
later Wednesday, according to NHK.
Cabinet spokesman Hiroshi Suzuki confirmed a security meeting
was scheduled, but refused to discuss its agenda. He said
sanctions, if approved, could take effect immediately.
Along the razor-wired no-man's-land separating the divided
Koreas, communist troops on the North's side were more boldly
trying to provoke their Southern counterparts: spitting across
the demarcation line, making throat-slashing hand gestures,
flashing their middle finger and trying to talk to the troops,
said U.S. Army Maj. Jose DeVarona of Fayetteville, N.C., adding
that the overall situation was calm.
It appeared to be business as usual on the streets of North
Korea's capital. Video by AP Television News showed people
milling about Kim II Sung square and rehearsing a performance
for the 80th anniversary of the ``Down with Imperialism Union.''
Kim Yong Nam, second to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, told
Japan's Kyodo News agency that further nuclear testing would
hinge on U.S. policy toward the communist government.
``The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to U.S. policy
toward our country,'' Kim was quoted as saying when asked
whether Pyongyang will conduct more nuclear tests.
``If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude and
apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice
but to take physical steps to deal with that,'' Kyodo quoted him
as saying.
South Korea's defense minister said that Seoul could enlarge its
conventional arsenal to deal with a potentially nuclear-armed
North Korea.
``If North Korea really has the (nuclear) capabilities, we will
improve and enlarge the number of conventional weapons as long
as it doesn't violate the principle of denuclearization,''
Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told parliament.
``We will supplement (our ability) to conduct precision strikes
against storage facilities and intercept delivery means, while
also improving the system of having military units and
individuals defend themselves,'' he said.
Scientists and other governments have said Monday's underground
test has yet to be confirmed, with some experts saying the blast
was significantly smaller than even the first nuclear bombs
dropped on Japan during World War II.
North Korea appeared to respond to that Wednesday, saying in its
statement that it ``successfully conducted an underground
nuclear test under secure conditions.''
In rare direct criticism of the communist regime from Seoul,
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said that the security
threat cited by North Korea is exaggerated or nonexistent.
``North Korea says the reason it is pursuing nuclear (weapons)
is for its security, but the security threat North Korea speaks
of either does not exist in reality, or is very exaggerated,''
Roh said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
He spoke even as South Korea's military was checking its
readiness for nuclear attack, Yonhap said. The Joint Chiefs of
Staff told Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung that the military
needed an improved ability to respond to such an attack,
including state-of-the-art weapons capable of destroying a
nuclear missile, the report said.
Rice said President Bush has told the North Koreans that ``there
is no intention to invade or attack them. So they have that
guarantee. ... I don't know what more they want.''
Rice told CNN Tuesday that Bush ``never takes any of his options
off the table. But is the United States, somehow, in a
provocative way, trying to invade North Korea? It's just not the
case.''
The top U.S. general in South Korea said that American forces
are fully capable of deterring an attack from the North despite
the communist nation's claim of a nuclear test.
``Be assured that the alliance has the forces necessary to deter
aggression, and should deterrence fail, decisively defeat any
North Korean attack against'' South Korea, U.S. Army Gen. B.B.
Bell said in a statement to troops. ``U.S. forces have been well
trained to confront nuclear, biological and chemical threats.''
About 29,500 U.S. troops are deployed in the South, a remnant of
the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a cease-fire that has never
been replaced by a peace treaty.
Bell said the seismic waves detected after the claimed test were
still being analyzed and that it had not been yet determined if
they indicated a successful nuclear test.
A media report that North Korea may have conducted a second
nuclear test rattled nerves Wednesday, but the Japanese
government said there was no indication that a test had taken
place.
NHK reported around 8:30 a.m. that unidentified government
sources were saying that ``tremors'' had been detected in North
Korea.
South Korean and U.S. seismic monitoring stations said that they
hadn't detected any activity indicating a second test, and White
House spokesman Blair Jones said the United States had detected
no evidence of additional North Korean testing.
At the United Nations, China agreed to punishment of North Korea
but not severe sanctions backed by the U.S., which it said would
be too crushing for its impoverished communist ally.
Beijing is seen as having the greatest outside leverage on North
Korea as a traditional ally and top provider of badly needed
economic and energy aid.
The United States asked the U.N. Security Council to impose a
partial trade embargo including strict limits on Korea's weapons
exports and freezing of related financial assets.
All imports would be inspected too, to filter materials that
could be made into nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
Pyongyang has demanded one-on-one talks with Washington and has
threatened to launch a nuclear-tipped missile if the U.S.
doesn't comply.
Washington insists on the so-called six-party format, where
Russia, China, South Korea and Japan have joined the United
States in talking to North Korea.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
23 Guardian Unlimited: Rice Says U.S. Will Not Invade N. Korea
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday October 11, 2006 2:01 PM
AP Photo WHCD113
By FOSTER KLUG
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the
United States would not attack North Korea, rejecting a
suggestion that Pyongyang may feel it needs nuclear weapons to
stave off an Iraq-style U.S. invasion.
Rice said that President Bush has told the North Koreans that
``there is no intention to invade or attack them. So they have
that guarantee. ... I don't know what more they want.''
Rice told CNN Tuesday that Bush ``never takes any of his options
off the table. But is the United States, somehow, in a
provocative way, trying to invade North Korea? It's just not the
case.''
But she also said that the decision by Pyongyang to go ahead
with its nuclear program means it likely will see
``international condemnation and international sanctions unlike
anything that they have faced before.''
Asked whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may have felt that
he needed to stage an apparent nuclear test this week to prevent
an invasion similar to the U.S.-led attack on Saddam Hussein,
Rice said Iraq ``was a very special situation.''
``Iraq was a desire to finally deal with a threat that had been
there for too long,'' she said.
North Korea's No. 2 leader threatened further nuclear tests if
the United States continues its ``hostile attitude.''
In an interview Wednesday with Japan's Kyodo News agency, Kim
Yong Nam, second to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as president
of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, threatened
further nuclear tests if the United States continues its
``hostile attitude.''
``The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to U.S. policy
toward our country,'' Kim was quoted as telling Kyodo when asked
whether Pyongyang will conduct any more nuclear tests.
Kim also suggested that Pyongyang was ready to return to stalled
six-party talks if sanctions against the reclusive regime are
lifted, Kyodo reported.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Wednesday there are plenty of
avenues for talks to resolve the issue.
``We have plenty of ways of talking with the North Koreans. The
problem is, they don't like what we say and we certainly don't
like what they do,'' he said on NBC's ``Today'' show.
McCain called the latest statements from Pyongyang ``one in an
unending series of threats and bullying and attempts to get aid
and assistance from the West.''
Rice rejected direct talks with North Korea, saying that if Kim
``wants a bilateral deal, it's because he doesn't want to face
the pressure of other states that have leverage,'' referring to
China, South Korea and the other members of stalled six-nation
nuclear negotiations.
``What Kim Jong Il should understand is that if he verifiably
gives up his nuclear weapons program, there is a better path,''
Rice said. ``There's a better path for his people, who are
oppressed and downtrodden, and hungry for that matter.''
Her comments came as John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, said the United States would not be intimidated by a
reported threat from Pyongyang that it could fire a
nuclear-tipped missile unless the U.S. acts to resolve the
standoff.
``This is the way North Korea typically negotiates by threat and
intimidation,'' Bolton said. ``It's worked for them before. It
won't work for them now.''
The White House said, meanwhile, there is a ``remote
possibility'' that the world never will be able to fully
determine whether North Korea succeeded in conducting a nuclear
test Monday. While acknowledging that the action was
provocative, White House press secretary Tony Snow suggested
that it's possible that the test was something less than it
appeared.
``You could have something that is very old and off-the-shelf
here, as well, in which case they've dusted off something that
is old and dormant,'' he said. The comment appeared to indicate
that the White House was attempting to play down the
significance of the test, but Snow said later that he was merely
posing a hypothetical question.
While opposition Democrats claimed the test was evidence of a
failed U.S. policy, Snow argued that the test has left the
nations involved in the six-party negotiations with the
communist regime more unified and determined to persuade
Pyongyang to accept incentives to give up its nuclear weapons
ambitions. He also denied that the demands of the war in Iraq
hampered the Bush administration's ability to dissuade North
Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
``The Chinese, the South Koreans, the Japanese - they all have
more direct leverage over the North Koreans than we do,'' Snow
said. ``The people who have the greatest ability to influence
behavior are now fully invested in equal partners in a process
to deal with the government of North Korea.''
In response to North Korea's purported nuclear test, the United
States is pressing at the United Nations for stringent sanctions
on Pyongyang, including a trade ban on military and luxury
items, the power to inspect all cargo entering or leaving the
country, and freezing assets connected with its weapons
programs.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
24 Guardian Unlimited: Japan bans all trade with North Korea
Ewen MacAskill and Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Thursday October 12, 2006
The Guardian
Japan unilaterally imposed fresh sanctions on North Korea
yesterday, including a ban on shipping, as Pyongyang warned it
would consider US pressure "a declaration of war".
Three days after North Korea claimed it had conducted its first
nuclear test, there was no sign of tension subsiding.
Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, unwilling to wait for the UN
security council, announced a total trade ban on North Korea. All
its ships will be denied entry to Japanese ports. As he spoke,
about two dozen North Korean ships lay idle in Japanese ports
yesterday with no dockers to unload them.
Other measures include a ban on the entry of North Koreans, other
than those with residential status. Tokyo imposed limited
sanctions in July after Pyongyang test-fired missiles over the
Sea of Japan.
Japan is pressing for tough sanctions, working alongside the US,
with French and British backing, but China and Russia are
proving hesitant.
George Bush, the US president, yesterday warned of "serious
repercussions" and promised increased military cooperation with
Washington's allies in the region, including bolstering their
ballistic missile defences. He said he supported efforts to work
toward a solution with more dialogue with North Korea.
"The United States remains committed to diplomacy," he said, but
added that it also reserved "all options to defend our friends
and our interests in the region."
But the North Korean foreign ministry warned: "If the US keeps
pestering us and increases the pressure, we will regard it as a
declaration of war and will take a series of physical
corresponding measures."
The second most powerful figure in North Korea, Kim Yong-nam,
threatened a second test unless the US softened its stance.
"The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to US policy
towards our country," Mr Kim told Japan's Kyodo news agency. "If
the US continues to take a hostile attitude and apply pressure
on us in various forms, we will have no choice but to take
physical steps to deal with that."
North Korea has issued bellicose statements in the past without
taking action. Within the past six months it has, however, fired
long-range ballistic missiles and conducted its first nuclear
test.
Australia said it had received information that North Korea was
preparing a second test. "We have very real concerns that they
may conduct another nuclear test and that they may do so very
soon," the foreign minister, Alexander Downer, said.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, urged Pyongyang not to
escalate an already "extremely difficult situation".
He urged the US to enter direct talks with North Korea,
something which Washington consistently refuses to do. "I have
always argued that we should talk to parties whose behaviour we
want to change," Mr Annan said.
Mr Bush rejected criticism from Democrats that he had failed to
build on a 1994 deal with North Korea agreed by then president,
Bill Clinton."It is the intransigence of the North Korean
leader, Kim Jong-il, that led to the current situation," said Mr
Bush.
Useful sites
North Korea virtual library
CIA factbook: North Korea
UN security council
UN nuclear non-proliferation treaty
NK news - database of North Korean propaganda
North Korea Database
North Korea Zone
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
25 AFP: Japan slaps new sanctions on NKorea over nuclear test -
October 12, 01:37 AM
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan has approved new bilateral sanctions on
North Korea including a complete ban on North Korean imports in
response to its declared nuclear test.
Japan will also prohibit all North Korean ships from Japanese
waters and will bar the entry of almost all North Korean
nationals.
"To protect lives and the assets of the Japanese people, we
cannot tolerate the actions taken by North Korea," Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters, after a meeting of the
government's security council.
"Considering the improving capability of North Korea's missiles
and its nuclear capability, Japan is the country that is most
affected by the actions of North Korea in terms of security," he
said.
"Additional measures will be considered", if the United Nations
approves a sanction resolution, Abe added.
Japan hoped other nations would "act in concert" with the
Japanese sanctions, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa
Shiozaki, adding the import ban would be effective as it should
cut a source of foreign currency for North Korea.
Abe's cabinet is expected to approve the measures on Friday,
which will be put in force for six months for the time being.
Abe, who rose to prominence as a hardliner on North Korea, has
vowed to make the communist state pay dearly for the nuclear
test.
The sanctions would bar the import of North Korean money-makers
such as clams, crabs and high-end matsutake mushrooms.
Japan imported 17.6 billion yen (148 million dollars) worth of
goods from the cash-strapped regime in 2004, mainly seafood and
textile products.
North Korea in turn imported 9.6 billion yen (80 million
dollars) from the world's second largest economy, largely
transport equipment.
But Japan has already slapped most of the sanctions at its
disposal against North Korea, which conducts the bulk of its
limited trade with China and South Korea.
Japan banned the main boat between the countries, visits by
diplomats and charter flights in response to Pyongyang's missile
tests in early July.
Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's number two leader, said Wednesday
that the regime could easily live with further Japanese
sanctions.
"We have lived our lives without Japanese help up until now, and
we will continue to do so," Kim told Kyodo News in an interview
in Pyongyang.
Japan has also backed US calls for the UN Security Council to
slap far-reaching sanctions on North Korea.
"No one wants to have a military conflict, and we need to make
efforts not to let it happen," Abe said earlier in the day.
"Japan needs to solve this problem peacefully and
diplomatically. Therefore, the international community needs to
unite at the United Nations to send a strong message to the
North."
Japan is particularly sensitive as North Korea fired a missile
over its main island in 1998, leading Japan and the United
States to step up work on a missile defense system.
In a sign of the jitters in Japan, television networks on
Wednesday reported that North Korea may have tested a second
atom bomb.
But US, Japanese and South Korean officials swiftly denied the
report and one of the networks, Nippon Television, later
retracted it.
Japan, the United States and South Korea were still trying to
verify that Monday's test by the secretive communist state was
genuine.
Abe, however, said it made no difference for his response
whether the test was successful.
"Even if it's a failure, that means they attempted to conduct a
nuclear test," Abe said. "There is no difference in the weight
of guilt."
A poll by the Asahi Shimbun showed support for his stance.
Sixty-two percent of respondents said the international
community should slap more sanctions on North Korea, with only
26 percent saying diplomacy was the best approach, it said. The
remaining 12 percent gave other responses.
The poll also showed overwhelming support for Abe's visit this
week to China and South Korea, which was meant to boost Japan's
low standing in the region but wound up focusing on the nuclear
crisis.
Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
*****************************************************************
26 Korea Herald: Roh downplays threat on N.K.
President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday said North Korea is
exaggerating the security threat it cites for trying to become a
nuclear weapons state.
"North Korea says the reason it wants nuclear prowess is
because of security concerns, but that security threat is either
exaggerated or nonexistent," Roh said in a meeting with members
of the National Unification Advisory Council.
The president has been convening a series of meetings with
experts and advisers to discuss ensuing policies to North
Korea's purported nuclear test.
Roh said by focusing too much on the arms race, North Korea has
risked the peace and the trust of its neighbors.
"If the North is seeking true peace and stability, it should
know that along with a certain level of military security, it
must also behave in a peaceful and trustworthy manner," the
president said.
There are two viable methods for resolving the North Korean
nuclear crisis, according to Roh; pressure and dialogue.
Until now, South Korea has favored dialogue, a policy that has
attracted severe criticism in the wake of Pyongyang's atomic
test.
As it would be impractical to select just one, Roh said the two
methods must be strategically combined and coordinated.
"There will be times when peaceful dialogue will be necessary,
and also times when pressure must be applied," he said. "The
important thing is that both methods are valid and that we
cannot afford to give up either. Whatever we do, it's best we
resolve this matter in a nonviolent manner."
The president said earlier in a meeting with participants of key
inter-Korean projects that the latest North Korean crisis is
likely to be a drawn-out affair.
Conservatives say the president's "revelation" came too late.
"Combining the carrot and the stick. Isn't that what we all
have been saying?" said one researcher at a state-run think tank
who declined to be identified.
Former President Kim Young-sam on Tuesday blasted the Roh
administration for feeding the North Korean army with endless
concessions that ultimately led to Pyongyang's nuclear bomb.
On Monday, North Korea announced it successfully conducted its
first nuclear bomb test.
Roh conceded the disappointing results of his engagement policy
but defended the logic all the same, saying the policy helped
alleviate inter-Korean tension.
Yesterday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry pledged further
"physical action" unless the United States lets up pressure. Led
by Washington, the United Nations Security Council is poised to
draft a tough new resolution against the North.
Alexander Vershbow, U.S. ambassador to South Korea, has advised
South Korea and China to suspend money flow to North Korea.
(jemmie@heraldm.com)
By Kim Ji-hyun
2006.10.12
*****************************************************************
27 IJD: After nuclear test, stimulus' is no longer a dirty fiscal word
INSIDE JoongAng Daily
Octorber 12, 2006 KST 13:39 (GMT+9)
October 12, 2006 ¤Ń Although it was expressed in highly hedged
terms, the Finance Ministry appears to be signalling a greater
willingness to give the economy a boost of stimulus.
In the wake of North Korea's announced nuclear test and the
market jitters that it induced here, a senior ministry official
spoke of a willingness to shift from its avowed neutral stance
to a more aggressive policy.
Cho Won-dong, the director general of the ministry's economic
policy division, told a radio interviewer at the Buddhist
Broadcasting System yesterday, "The government may change the
course of its macroeconomic policy because of this [nuclear]
issue. We will consider taking measures to boost the economy if
needed."
While that sounded less than startling, Mr. Cho's remarks went
further than anyone in the Roh administration has been willing
to go before. Last month, for example, the finance minister,
Kwon O-kyu, commented that the ministry might "rebalance
economic policies next year." After those reports appeared, the
ministry railed at the nearly universal assumption by the media
that he was referring to economic stimulus. Ministry officials
indignantly denied that interpretation, but refused to say what
"rebalancing" was.
Things are different, however, after North Korea's latest
adventure, which has stirred fears here both of what North Korea
might do next and what the United States might do to stop it.
Mr. Kwon said Tuesday that the bad effects of the North's action
might be more than limited and short-lived.
Mr. Cho was evidently the ministry's designated emissary to
spread the word about a new willingness to act to keep the
economy from sagging. The same day, he told the Munhwa
Broadcasting Corp. that the government would watch closely
developments in North Korea, in the world economy and in oil
prices. He hinted at an adjustment in the government's forecast
for next year's economic growth, which now predicts a
4.6-percent increase in gross domestic product. He added that a
second North Korean nuclear test could affect South Korea's
sovereign credit rating.
Mr. Cho appealed for calm. "People should pay attention to the
fact that foreign investors are calmer than local investors," he
said.
Analysts generally saw the latest comments as the beginning of
preparations for an increase in budget allocations next year,
and also predicted that the North's presumed test would trigger
some major shifts in budget priorities.
One budget sector that could face large cuts is the
1.1-trillion-won ($1.2 billion) funding for cooperative economic
programs involving North Korea. Conservative politicians and,
increasingly, the general public believe that those programs
should be cut back, and such calls may be difficult for the
Assembly to resist. In addition, analysts said, the defense
budget allocations for next year will be looked at carefully
with an eye to increasing them.
by Moon So-young symoon@joongang.co.kr>
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use |
*****************************************************************
28 Daily Yomiuri: NUCLEAR FALLOUT / Japan's diplomacy tested by N. Korea
The Yomiuri Shimbun
This is the first installment of a three-part series on global
response to North Korea's nuclear test.
About six hours after Pyongyang's announcement that it had
conducted a nuclear test Monday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said:
"North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons drastically changes
the security circumstances in Northeast Asia. We're going to
enter a new, more dangerous nuclear era."
Abe made the remark at a press conference of Japanese and
foreign media in Seoul during his visit to South Korea. He
appealed to the world to recognize the seriousness of the crisis
caused by Pyongyang's nuclear test.
The emergence of the new crisis is also "a situation that
affects Japan most seriously," Abe said.
North Korea already possesses ballistic missiles that can reach
all areas of Japan. A missile with a conventional warhead can
cause damage within a radius of hundreds of meters at most, but
one with a nuclear warhead could cause incomparable damage if it
hits Japanese soil.
North Korea's test-launches of ballistic missiles and its
development of nuclear technologies in the past were mainly
viewed as political bargaining chips.
But this nuclear test was a practical step in a military
strategy for possessing nuclear weapons. A nuclear attack by
North Korea is no longer a hypothetical matter.
However, many military experts pointed out that a nuclear attack
on Japan is unlikely anytime soon.
Hideaki Kaneda, director of the Okazaki Institute, said, "To
load nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles, many steps are
necessary, in addition to a nuclear test."
"We're not in a situation now in which nuclear bombs could
immediately fall on Japan," said Kaneda, a former commander of
the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Fleet Escort Force.
The experts agreed that it will take more time before a North
Korean nuclear attack on Japan becomes an immediate threat.
However, the government and the public have wasted precious time
in the past because of a lack of sensitivity about such crises.
Eight years have passed since a North Korean ballistic missile
flew over the Japanese archipelago. Yet the deployment of the
PAC-3 system to intercept ballistic missiles is only going to
begin this fiscal year.
But as the PAC-3 units can only intercept missiles near the
ground, damage is unavoidable if missiles have nuclear,
biological or chemical warheads.
Japan plans to fit its four Aegis warships with the Standard
Missile-3 antimissile system starting from fiscal 2007, but they
will not be operational until fiscal 2011 under the current
plan.
Accelerating the deployment plan needs to be considered,
especially in light of the urgent nature of the crisis that the
nation faces.
In the wake of a series of missile launches by North Korea in
July, then Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga made
a controversial proposal that Japan should develop the
capability to attack missile bases in enemy countries. Such
suggestions also warrant further debate.
Of course, upgrading defense capabilities has budgetary limits
and may be unwise from a diplomatic viewpoint in that it could
draw concern from friendly neighbor countries.
At a session of the House of Representatives Budget Committee
Tuesday, New Komeito Vice Representative Junji Higashi said,
"This case may stir up debates that Japan also should have
nuclear weapons."
An effective measure to counter North Korea's threat cannot be
established without discussing realistic and strategic national
security measures.
The government, which has been diplomatic toward North Korea
through both dialogue and pressure, now plans to increase
pressure with additional sanctions, while keeping the channels
of dialogue open.
For the policy, close cooperation with China, South Korea and
Russia is essential while taking action based on the security
alliance with the United States.
Abe's choosing China and South Korea as the destinations for his
first overseas visits as prime minister was significant in that
it started a path to rebuild diplomatic ties with China and
South Korea, which had soured over a long period.
Diplomacy is said to indicate a nation's comprehensive power.
Japan's comprehensive power is now being tested as the
government strives to cope with the dramatic change in security
circumstances. (Oct. 12, 2006)
© The Yomiuri Shimbun.
*****************************************************************
29 BBC: Japan announces N Korea sanctions
Last Updated: Wednesday, 11 October 2006
[South Koreans watch television in the wake of North Korea's
reported nuclear test]
Monday's news of the claimed test has sparked global concern
Japan is to impose tough new sanctions against North Korea in
response to its claimed nuclear test.
The new measures will include banning all North Korean imports
and stopping its ships entering Japanese waters, a government
spokesman said.
Japan is also backing US-led efforts to get the UN to impose
separate sanctions against the North.
The moves came as the North's second most powerful leader
threatened more tests if the US remained "hostile".
Precious cash
The Japanese measures, announced by Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, will come into effect following a formal
cabinet meeting on Friday.
They include new restrictions which will prevent almost all North
Koreans from entering Japan.
"We cannot tolerate North Korea's actions if we are to protect
Japanese lives and property," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told
reporters.
"These measures were taken to protect the peace."
The sanctions will be in addition to measures Japan announced in
July, in response to North Korea's testing of missiles.
The BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says the sanctions will hit North
Korea's export of produce like clams and mushrooms, which earns
precious foreign currency in Japanese markets.
Trade between the two countries was worth $180m (Ł97m) last year,
although it has been falling for several years as political
relations between the two countries deteriorated.
'Failed' test?
The moves came as North Korea's second most powerful leader
threatened more tests, in the first comments from a senior North
Korean official since the claimed nuclear test on Monday.
"If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude and
apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice but
to take physical steps to deal with that," Kim Yong-nam told
Japan's Kyodo news agency.
He also said North Korea would be willing to return to stalled
six-party talks on its nuclear programme if existing sanctions
were lifted.
France's defence minister, meanwhile, said the claimed test may
have failed or was a fake.
"Given its weak power, it is hard to say if it was a very large,
but traditional, type of explosion or else a nuclear explosion...
If it was a nuclear explosion, it was a failed explosion,"
Michele Alliot-Marie said.
Punitive measures
The UN Security Council is debating what multilateral sanctions
North Korea is to face in response to the claimed nuclear test.
It is due to continue discussing a draft resolution of punitive
sanctions proposed by the US.
The US proposal includes halting trade in material that could be
used to make weapons of mass destruction; inspections of cargo
going in and out of North Korea; a ban on imports of luxury
goods; and a ban on financial transactions used to support
nuclear proliferation.
There is agreement in the Security Council that North Korea
should face punitive measures.
The US wants the sanctions to be brought under Chapter Seven of
the UN Charter, which means they would be mandatory and
ultimately enforceable by military means.
But China, Russia and South Korea have expressed varying degrees
of opposition to such a resolution.
The underground test reportedly took place in Gilju in Hamgyong
province at 1036 (0136 GMT) on Monday morning.
Russia is the only country to have confirmed that it was a
nuclear explosion.
*****************************************************************
30 BBC: N Korea to face 'repercussions'
Last Updated: Wednesday, 11 October 2006
[US President George W Bush ]
Presiden Bush said the US was still seeking a peaceful solution
Bush statement
US President George W Bush has said North Korea will face
"serious repercussions" over its claim to have carried out a
nuclear test.
Mr Bush said Washington was working to confirm the claim, but
would increase its co-operation with allies on ballistic weapons
defence systems.
The comments came as Japan imposed tough new sanctions on North
Korea in response to its claim.
The US is leading efforts to get the UN to impose separate
measures.
Earlier, North Korea's second most powerful leader threatened
more tests if the US remained "hostile", in the first comments
from a senior North Korean official since the claimed nuclear
test on Monday.
The underground test reportedly took place in Gilju in Hamgyong
province at 1036 (0136 GMT). Russia is the only country to have
confirmed that it was a nuclear explosion.
'Threat to peace'
President Bush told reporters that Washington remained committed
to diplomacy, and had no intention of attacking.
But he said the US "reserves all options to defend our friends in
the region".
Pyongyang's claim "constitutes a threat to international peace
and stability", he said.
"In response to North Korea's actions, we're working with our
partners in the region and the United Nations Security Council
to ensure there are serious repercussions for the regime in
Pyongyang."
As Mr Bush spoke, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the US
to hold one-on-one talks with North Korea, which Washington has
refused to do.
The UN Security Council is debating what multilateral sanctions
North Korea should face in response to the claimed test.
It is due to continue discussing a draft resolution of punitive
sanctions proposed by the US.
There is agreement in the Security Council that North Korea
should face punitive measures.
The US wants the sanctions to be brought under Chapter Seven of
the UN Charter, which means they would be mandatory and
ultimately enforceable by military means.
But China, Russia and South Korea have expressed varying degrees
of opposition to such a resolution.
The Japanese sanctions, announced by Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, will come into effect following a formal
cabinet meeting on Friday.
They include banning all North Korean imports, stopping its
ships entering Japanese waters and new restrictions which will
prevent almost all North Koreans from entering Japan.
Trade between the two countries was worth $180m (Ł97m) last
year, although it has been falling for several years as
political relations between the two countries deteriorated.
*****************************************************************
31 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Seoul rethinks joining proliferation pact
Octorber 12, 2006 KST 13:39 (GMT+9)
October 12, 2006 ¤Ń Seoul is weighing whether to increase its
participation in a multinational program to curb international
trade in mass weapons and missile components as negotiations on
a resolution to sanction North Korea continued at the United
Nations.
"It is inevitable to broaden our participation in the
Proliferation Security Initiative. I think we have to be more
active," a Korean official said, refusing to be quoted by name.
Until now, Seoul has been only an observer in the program.
But the North's claim of a nuclear test, a claim that is still
in some doubt, prompted the re-examination. The official's
comments came a day after U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow
told the press that Seoul should participate more fully in the
program, which has more than 70 national members.
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, before leaving for New York
yesterday, told reporters that Seoul would watch the
consultations now under way at the United Nations Security
Council to draft a sanctions resolution aimed at North Korea
before deciding on a course of action.
Participation in the interdiction initiative, which North Korea
has condemned loudly and roundly, could add another issue to the
volatile domestic political situation here. Kim Geun-tae, the
chairman of President Roh Moo-hyun's Uri Party, yesterday came
out strongly against Korea's participation in the program,
saying that to do so would only add fuel to the flames on the
peninsula.
He was reacting, in part, to comments by Yu Myung-hwan, the
vice foreign minister, to the National Assembly. Mr. Yu said the
administration was weighing a "partial" participation in the
initiative.
But that internal debate in the administration appears to be a
heated one. Also yesterday, another government official said
that if a UN sanctions resolution included references to the
possibility of the use of force, Seoul would adhere to the
letter of the resolution but no more.
The 15 Security Council members hope to have a draft resolution
agreed upon within the next few days. It appears that China,
with its veto power in the council and its close ties to North
Korea, is the key player in the deliberations. China's
ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, told reporters Tuesday,
"There have to be some punitive actions, but also I think these
actions have to be appropriate."
Chapter 7 of the UN Charter deals with "threats to the peace."
It includes 13 articles, one of which, Article 42, specifically
allows military action to enforce the terms of a resolution if
non-military measures fail. But there are precedents, such as in
1990 in a resolution on Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, in which that
article was not specifically cited even when the resolution
itself was clearly endorsing the use of force.
"There is always room for maneuver depending on the results of
consultations," a government official said yesterday.
Tremors, real and psychological, rattled Japan yesterday morning
as a broadcaster announced that North Korea had detonated a
second nuclear device. The reports were retracted later in the
morning. Ironically, a moderate offshore earthquake rattled
Japan shortly after the erroneous reports.
But North Korea yesterday threatened to test another device. Kim
Yong-nam, the communist nation's titular head of state, told
Kyodo News Agency that the decision on whether to conduct
another test depended on "the U.S. policy directions toward our
country." He also linked a return to the six-party nuclear talks
to U.S. actions.
by Brian Lee africanu@joongang.co.kr>
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use |
*****************************************************************
32 WP: U.S. Waits for Firm Information On Nature and Success of Device
- washingtonpost.com
Find a Job Post a Job
By Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. RicksWashington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A14
The White House yesterday played down North Korea'snuclear
capability as government scientists and intelligence analysts
waited for additional data to confirm whether Pyongyang had
conducted a successful nuclear test.
Intelligence and administration officials said they were still
working under the assumption that North Korea had managed to
detonate an atomic device, but they said they needed additional
environmental sampling before they could formally rule out other
possibilities, such as the blast being caused solely by
conventional explosives. Intelligence officials were concerned
that North Korea could conduct another test, either to improve
upon the first test or to prove its capabilities.
In Depth
North Korea's Big Test
Details on North Korea's latest nuclear claims and an overview
of the world's nuclear weapons arsenal.
Photos
[North Korea declared Monday, Oct. 9, that it had conducted its
first nuclear test, asserting a claim to be the world's newest
nuclear power and drawing strong international condemnation.]
Nuclear Test Condemned
North Korea's claim of first nuclear test draws condemnation
worldwide. VIDEO | The latest on North Korea's nuclear
development program.
+
A U.S. military RC-135, an electronic monitoring aircraft, flew
around the Sea of Japanyesterday in an effort to detect nuclear
radiation, two intelligence sources said. The same aircraft,
based in Okinawa, Japan, was used in July after North Korea
carried out a set of ballistic missile tests. The sources
cautioned that it could take several days before winds push
radioactive particles toward an area where they can be clearly
detected.
"Over time, whenever the prevailing winds blow out over the Gulf
of Japan, it will be more likely that we get some detection,"
one intelligence official said yesterday, requesting anonymity
because the effort involves classified information.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said officials would use a
variety of means besides seismic data to try to draw a
conclusion about the explosion, including some he would not
discuss. "There is a possibility that particulate fallout is
detectable, and then there's a variety of other intelligence
means to determine the veracity of the allegation of the tests
that they conducted," he said.
North Korea announced Monday that it had carried out its first
nuclear test, and seismic readings suggested a blast inside a
mountain in the country's north from the equivalent of 500 tons
of explosives.
"We ourselves are operating under the assumption that, yes, in
fact it was" a nuclear test, State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack said yesterday. "But I can't confirm that."
The aircraft and monitoring stations on the ground are seeking
to detect particulate data that would indicate that a nuclear
explosion had taken place. But those efforts will not
necessarily determine the nature of the blast, a Defense
Department official noted, because the explosion was relatively
small and the North Korean government said it was contained.
"There are multiple ways" the U.S. government will seek to
verify North Korea's claim that it detonated a nuclear device,
the official said. But there is no hard information yet, the
official said. Intelligence analysts are also reviewing
intercepted communications and other data.
The official declined to be quoted by name, saying that the
Pentagon is not playing a lead role in the U.S. response and
that he wanted to defer to the White House.
White House press secretary Tony Snow said there is a "remote
possibility" that U.S. intelligence will be unable to fully
determine whether the test succeeded. Several nuclear tests
conducted by other countries, including a number of Pakistani
tests in 1998, have never been fully understood by U.S.
intelligence. Many intelligence analysts believe a 1979 flash in
the waters off the southern tip of Africa was caused by a
nuclear test carried out by Israel, with South African help. But
it has never been confirmed and remains a mystery.
Snow suggested yesterday that it is possible that the test was
conducted with an older weapon from before President Bush's time
in office.
"You could have something that is very old and off the shelf
here, as well, in which case they've dusted off something that is
old and dormant," he said.
North Korea's arsenal is estimated by U.S. intelligence to have
grown substantially during Bush's presidency.
At the end of George H.W. Bush's time in office in January 1993,
North Korea was presumed to have enough plutonium for one to two
nuclear devices. But in 2002, Pyongyang announced that it had
begun to reprocess additional plutonium for weapons. It could now
have plutonium for as many as a dozen devices, depending on their
size and sophistication.
Nuclear experts said there was little possibility that the
explosion could have been the result of a chemical blast or a
radioactive "dirty" bomb masked as a nuclear explosion.
"It would be much more difficult to mimic the radioactive
isotopes you get from a nuclear blast" than to conduct an actual
nuclear test, said Charles D. Ferguson, a nuclear expert at the
Council on Foreign Relations. "A dirty bomb uses one type of
radioactive isotope, whereas a nuclear explosion would give off
dozens of different ones," he said.
Ferguson agreed with government nuclear scientists that the most
likely reason North Korea's blast was relatively small was that
only a fraction of the plutonium detonated during the test.
Officials believe the low yield probably resulted from the poor
design of the device. To create the kind of plutonium-based blast
that North Korea claims, it would have needed to simultaneously
set off a series of conventional explosives around a plutonium
core. The force of the
simultaneous blast produces a shock wave that causes the material
to compress into the center and implode.
If any of those steps is imperfect and only part of the plutonium
is imploded, the result is a low yield, such as the one produced
by the North Korean test Monday. A low yield, deep underground,
is more difficult to detect.
A government scientist who was not authorized to speak publicly
said that in addition to radiation in the air, ground sensors may
be able to pick up seepage that emerges through the soil,
sometimes months after a test.
Michael Green, who was the senior director for Asia at the
National Security Council during President Bush's first term,
said the North Koreans have always made good on nuclear and
missile plans they announced ahead of time, leaving him confident
that they had in fact conducted a nuclear test.
"They have always telegraphed what they were up to on the
plutonium side," he said.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Copyright 1996- The Washington Post Company
*****************************************************************
33 Japan Times: Sanctions seen having little impact
Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006
Sanctions seen having little impact Japan-North Korea trade
already at a low level, experts say
By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer
OSAKA -- Although calls in Japan for tough economic sanctions
against North Korea will no doubt grow following Monday's nuclear
test, economists say stopping the flow of goods between the two
countries would have more political meaning than economic.
[News photo]
Television sets on display in Tokyo's Akihabara district give
the news Monday afternoon about North Korea's nuclear test.
"Trade between Japan and North Korea has been in decline for
many years. Money continues to reach North Korea from Japan
through accounts in other countries," said Mitsuhiro Mimura of
the Niigata-based Economic Research Institute for Northeast
Asia.
"The number of North Korean ships visiting Japan has fallen way
off in recent years. Banning all North Korean ships to Japan
wouldn't have much of an economic impact, although it would send
a strong political message," Mimura said.
As North Korea's trade with Japan has declined, its trade with
other countries, particularly China and Russia, has shot up.
Japan's trade with the communist nation has been dropping
steadily since 1985, when it stood at more than 115 billion yen,
of which direct exports accounted for 59 billion yen, according
to a report compiled by Mimura based on trade statistics from
the Finance Ministry.
By 2005, direct trade with North Korea came to about 21.4
billion yen, with exports accounting for about 6.8 billion yen
and imports amounting to about 14.5 billion yen, the report
says.
As the total value of Japan's international trade in 2005 was
better than 122 trillion yen, North Korea's piece of the pie was
less than a tenth of 1 percent.
Of the 6.8 billion yen in exports to North Korea last year,
large and small trucks, cars, and buses accounted for nearly 2.8
billion yen, or 40 percent of the total. But many of those
pushing for sanctions are more worried about smaller items.
"Certainly, trucks can be converted to military use, but Japan
is also exporting items like high-quality electronic cables and
basic electronic devices that can diverted to the military,"
said Shiro Mizugi, a member of the Fukuoka Municipal Assembly
who has lobbied hard to ban North Korean ships from entering his
city.
In 2005, exports of cables and basic electronic devices
accounted for roughly 350 million yen, or about 4.5 percent, of
the total.
Of North Korea's exports to Japan, seafood products totaled
roughly 4 billion yen in 2005, or 26 percent of the total,
making this category the largest and most important for
Pyongyang.
In recent years, such products have been targeted by Japanese
citizen groups for boycott. But fisherman's unions have noted
that it is nearly impossible to impose a total ban on North
Korean products from the Sea of Japan because it is relatively
easy for North Korean seafood to be passed off as Chinese or
South Korean in origin.
Smokeless coal was the largest single imported item from North
Korea in 2005, accounting for nearly 2 billion yen, or 13
percent, of the total. "Matsutake" mushrooms were in second
place, accounting for about 1.7 billion yen, or 11 percent of
the total.
Although Japan is more important to North Korea than vice versa,
China remains North Korea's main trading partner.
The Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency in Seoul estimated
earlier this year that North Korean trade with China amounted to
nearly 1.8 trillion yen last year.
Without active Chinese participation, most experts warn,
Japanese economic sanctions will be highly limited in reducing
the flow of goods and money to North Korea.
The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
34 AFP: International pressure key to pressure North Korea - Rumsfeld -
Wed Oct 11, 6:23 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it
was "probably" possible to pressure North Korea" /> to get off
its current nuclear path without the threat of military action.
"I guess time will tell. I think the answer is: Probably yes,
but one can't be certain," he said at a news conference here.
While it was possible to marshall sufficient pressure to deal
with the North Korean threat by "non-kinetic" means, it would
require international action, he said.
The international community would have to decided that "action
during this period, when the threat is not immediate, is the
time to do it; rather than when the threat becomes more
immediate in whatever number of years that may be," he said.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
35 AFP: Bush waves sticks and carrots at North Korea in nuclear standoff
by David Millikin Wed Oct 11, 6:31 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush" /> President
George W. Bushvowed that North Korea" /> North Koreawould face
"serious repercussions" over its claim to have tested a nuclear
bomb for the first time.
But Bush also committed his government to seeking a diplomatic
rather than military solution to the standoff, and offered
Pyongyang a promise of economic help if it backed away from the
nuclear brink.
The crisis sparked by North Korea's purported test of a nuclear
device on Monday dominated a 70-minute press conference Bush
held in the White House Rose Garden.
His appearance coincided with continued negotiations at UN
headquarters in New York on a draft sanctions resolution
targetting the isolated communist regime of Kim Jong-Il.
Bush said it had yet to be confirmed that Monday's blast was in
fact a nuclear detonation. "But this claim itself constitutes a
threat to international peace and stability," he said.
"We are working with partners in the region and in the United
Nations" /> United NationsSecurity Council to ensure there are
serious repercussions for the regime in Pyongyang" as a result
of the test, Bush said.
Bush said he had spoken with the leaders of the four other
governments leading efforts to halt North Korea's nuclear effort
-- Japan, China, South Korea" /> South Koreaand Russia, and had
found unanimous agreement on the need for "a strong Security
Council resolution that will require North Korea to abide by its
international commitments to dismantle its nuclear programs".
He said the resolution "should specify a series of measures to
prevent North Korea from exporting nuclear or missile
technologies."
Washington also wants sanctions that would prevent "financial
transactions or asset transfers that would help North Korea
develop its nuclear missile capabilities," he said.
At the UN, US and Japanese diplomats were pressing a tough
sanctions resolution while China, North Korea's closest ally and
neighbor, sought to limit punitive measures for fear of bringing
about the collapse of the fragile and poverty-stricken Pyongyang
regime.
Acknowledging that his administration had often been criticised
in the past for taking a "go it alone" approach to foreign
policy, Bush said he was today fully committed to working
diplomatically through the United Nations.
"That strategy did not work," he said of previous unilateral
dealings with North Korea.
"I learned a lesson from that and decided that the best way to
convince Kim Jong-Il to change his mind on the nuclear weapons
program is to have others send the same message," Bush said.
"Our goals remain clear: peace and security in northeast Asia
and a nuclear-free Korean peninsula," he said.
"We will work with the United Nations, we will support our
allies in the region, and together we will ensure that North
Korea understands the consequences if it continues down its
current path," he said.
Bush went on to reiterate offers made in the context of
six-nation negotiations last year to help North Korea with
economic cooperation, trade and investment in exchange for it
giving up nuclear weapons.
"I am saying as loud as I can and as clear as I can that there
is a better way forward for North Korea," he said.
North Korea has asserted it needs nuclear weapons to defend
itself from aggression by the United States, a possibility
Pyongyang has repeatedly raised since the 2003 US-led invasion
to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein" /> Saddam Hussein.
But Bush insisted in his press conference that Iraq" /> Iraqwas
an entirely different situation and that his government had no
plans for military action.
"I believe the commander-in-chief must try all diplomatic
efforts before we commit our military," Bush said.
"Diplomacy hasn't run its course, and we'll continue working to
give diplomacy a full opportunity to succeed," he said.
But the US president also said that in response to North Korea's
"provocation, we will increase defense cooperation with our
allies, including cooperation with ballistic missile defense to
protect against North Korean aggression".
And he refused to rule out eventual military action if North
Korea persists with its nuclear threat.
"I obviously look at all the options, all the time," he said.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
36 AFP: NKorea says tough sanctions would be 'declaration of war' -
by Simon Martin Wed Oct 11, 5:59 PM ET
SEOUL (AFP) - A defiant North Korea warned that it would
regard harsh sanctions over its nuclear test as a declaration of
war, while US President George W. Bush vowed the Stalinist
regime would now face "serious repercussions".
As the UN Security Council weighed what action to take against
the regime, Pyongyang's number two and its foreign ministry
warned of "physical" measures if it was hit with the kind of
sanctions proposed by Washington and Japan, and threatened
further tests.
Bush committed his government to seeking a diplomatic rather
than military solution to the standoff, while at the same time
boosting defense cooperation with Asian allies on the front line
against the erratic communist regime.
He added it had yet to be confirmed that Monday's blast,
announced by Pyongyang, was in fact a nuclear detonation.
"But this claim itself constitutes a threat to international
peace and stability," he said.
"We are working with partners in the region and in the United
Nations Security Council to ensure there are serious
repercussions for the regime in Pyongyang" as a result of the
test, Bush said.
The chance of sanctions grew after the North's main ally China
said it would support punitive action.
"If the US continues to harass and put pressure on us, we will
regard this as a declaration of war and will take a series of
physical countermeasures," said a foreign ministry statement
carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
It did not elaborate on the measures, but insisted it was still
ready for talks to improve security and stability on the Korean
peninsula. "We are ready for both dialogue and confrontation."
Bush said he had spoken with the leaders of the four other
governments leading efforts to halt North Korea's nuclear effort
-- Japan, China, South Korea and Russia -- and had found
unanimous agreement on the need for "a strong Security Council
resolution that will require North Korea to abide by its
international commitments to dismantle its nuclear programs".
He said the resolution, being debated Wednesday at UN
headquarters in New York, "should specify a series of measures
to prevent North Korea from exporting nuclear or missile
technologies."
Washington also wants sanctions that would prevent "financial
transactions or asset transfers that would help North Korea
develop its nuclear missile capabilities," he said.
The Security Council meeting would follow private talks
Wednesday morning among envoys of the Council's five
veto-wielding members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the
United States -- and Japan on harsh sanctions against Pyongyang,
including inspection of all seaborne cargo to and from North
Korea as well as financial restrictions.
UN chief Kofi Annan on Wednesday urged North Korea not "to
escalate the situation any further" in reference to rumors that
Pyongyang was planning a second nuclear test.
North Korea's message was reinforced by Kim Yong-Nam, who as
head of the North Korean Supreme People's Assembly is
effectively the regime's number two.
"If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude and
apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice
but to take physical steps to deal with that," he said in an
interview with Japan's Kyodo News.
He added: "The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to US
policy toward our country."
Japan meanwhile ramped up its bilateral sanctions on North
Korea, slapping a complete ban on imports and shipping and
barring almost all the communist country's nationals.
"Considering the improving capability of North Korea's missiles
and its nuclear capability, Japan is the country that is most
affected by the actions of North Korea in terms of security,"
said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
It was not certain if China and Russia -- which both have veto
power, tend to oppose international sanctions and have close
ties with Pyongyang -- would back harsh sanctions.
"I think there have to be some punitive actions but also these
actions have to be appropriate," China's UN ambassador, Wang
Guangya, told reporters.
In North Korea itself little has emerged of the atmosphere since
Monday's announcement, which was played down by state media,
according to some of the few foreigners allowed to live in the
hermit nation.
"It really has been a bit quiet," said one foreigner working for
a UN aid organization.
North Korea has repeatedly insisted its nuclear programme is
essential to deterring an attack from the United States.
At six-nation talks in September 2005 it appeared to have agreed
to abandon its nuclear programme in exchange for energy and
security guarantees, in what was seen as a major breakthrough.
But the North gave up and began boycotting the talks just two
months later after the United States imposed its own sanctions
on a Macau bank it said was laundering money for the Pyongyang
regime.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
37 Japan Times: Japan may not want to go nuclear but it's no
technical hurdle - analysts
japantimes.co.jp
Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006
By ERIC PRIDEAUX and AKEMI NAKAMURA Staff writers
Japan will not respond to North Korea's nuclear test by
developing its own atomic weapons, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
said Tuesday, although analysts said the nation has the
technology to quickly pursue such a path.
Abe told an audience at Waseda University in May 2002 that it
was not a violation of the Constitution for Japan to possess
atomic bombs.
However, in Abe's declaration during a question-and-answer
period at a House of Representatives Budget Committee, he
referred to Japan's three nonnuclear principles of, according to
the Foreign Ministry, "not possessing,not producing and not
permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan."
"I would like to clearly state that there will be no change
regarding the three nonnuclear principles," Abe said.
Experts were quick to point out that Japan does possess the
knowledge and resources to go nuclear should it decide to.
"The country has enough plutonium and uranium," said Yasuhiko
Yoshida, an international politics professor at Osaka University
of Economics and Law who is a former director of public
information at the International Atomic Energy Agency. "It could
make an atomic weapon in six months."
That estimate may even be generous. Military-affairs expert
Tetsuya Ozeki, as director at private foreign-affairs think tank
ATWI Research Institute, believes the country could develop a
nuclear weapon in as little as a week. But he thinks to create
one would be foolish.
"It would be just too giant a blunder for humanity," Ozeki said.
"Japan is the only country in the world to have experienced the
horrendous consequences of nuclear weapons. It wouldn't make
sense for it to imitate the insane acts of North Korea."
Japan is a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,
which it ratified in 1976. It also has the Atomic Energy Basic
Law, which states that nuclear activities are to be conducted
for peaceful purposes only.
Now is no time to shift direction, said Michiaki Furukawa, a
director at the Citizens Nuclear Information Center, a nonprofit
organization that informs the public on nuclear-related issues.
"We don't really know what happened (with North Korea's nuclear
test), so we shouldn't overreact," Furukawa said. "The media
should not fuel the public's sense of crisis."
Osaka professor Yoshida said Japan needs to go nuclear and not
rely on U.S. protection. He reckoned the public was increasingly
receptive to the idea, but legal hurdles would put off their
weapons indefinitely.
Even with the central government rejecting the nuclear option,
few doubt that North Korea's Monday morning atomic test, about
385 km northeast of Pyongyang, will have far-reaching
consequences on foreign policy and defense.
Hideshi Takesada, an expert on North Korean issues at the
National Institute for Defense Studies, said that once
officially confirmed, the test will increase Japan's military
reliance on the United States.
"The nuclear-deterrence umbrella has not been broken, so the
security system between Japan and the U.S. will be reinforced,"
Takesada said.
He said the test could also give China a greater role in
encouraging North Korea to disarm. The expert said he thinks it
is the only country that can persuade Pyongyang to scrap its
nuclear-weapons program.
"I don't think China will change its policy on North Korea just
because of the nuclear test. It will likely continue to oppose
economic and military sanctions against that country" by the
United Nations, he said, noting China must seek "more
constructive" diplomatic solutions to prevent a military
conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
Japan is unlikely to launch its own nuclear-weapons program, but
Toshiyuki Shikata, a Teikyo University law professor and former
senior official at the Defense Agency, said the government might
now speed up its implementation of defenses against
ballistic-missile attacks. Staff writers Jun Hongo and Shinichi
Terada also contributed to this report Koreans here worried
Kyodo News Korean residents in Japan on Tuesday condemned North
Korea's nuclear test and worried it might cause them to be
treated badly here, particularly their children.
"I'm worried that our children might feel stigmatized," said Ko
Chong Ja, a 59-year-old manager of a Korean beef barbecue
restaurant in Ikuno Ward, Osaka, home to many Korean permanent
residents.
Ko said people should oppose all nuclear tests, not just those
by Pyongyang.
"An excessive focus on North Korea, while other countries also
conduct such tests, could incite hostility" toward North Korea
in Japan, she said.
A Korean school in Japan told parents to make sure their
children walk to and from school in groups to ensure their
safety, according to one father, who was upset that his kids
could become targets.
"We have had enough of it," he said.
Korean kids here have already been the target of people angry at
Pyongyang's actions. After North Korea test-launched seven
missiles on July 5 into the Sea of Japan, Korean schools
received threatening letters and students were harassed.
The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
38 AFP: Security Council seek to narrow differences over North Korea sanctions -
Wednesday October 11
[North Korean soldiers march at the border village of
Panmunjom]
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The 15-member UN Security Council was set
to meet to discuss an amended draft resolution calling for tough
punitive actions against North Korea over its reported nuclear
test, diplomats said.
The meeting would follow private talks Wednesday morning among
envoys of the Council's five veto-wielding members -- Britain,
China, France, Russia and the United States -- and Japan on
harsh sanctions against Pyongyang, including inspection of all
seaborne cargo to and from North (Advertisement)
[ src=] Korea as well as financial
restrictions.
"We will try to circulate a revised text later this afternoon,"
US Ambassador John Bolton told reporters after the meeting.
"There are still areas of disagreement."
Council experts have been trying to narrow differences over the
draft which is based on proposals submitted by the United States
and Japan after Pyongyang rocked the world Monday with the
announcement that it had carried out its first-ever test of a
nuclear device.
It was not certain if China and Russia, which tend to oppose
international sanctions and have close ties with Pyongyang,
would back tough measures.
China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, expounding on remarks he
made a day earlier, said Wednesday: "Article 41 (of the UN
Charter) serves our purpose."
Article 41 authorizes sanctions not involving the use of force
such as economic and diplomatic sanctions.
Tuesday Wang said: "I think there have to be some punitive
actions but also these actions have to be appropriate."
He then added that Beijing wanted a resolution that included
"some elements" of the UN charter's Chapter VII, which legally
opens the door to mandatory sanctions to face down threats to
international peace and security.
Analysts said that Beijing would agree to symbolic action but
nothing that might cause regime collapse.
Meanwhile UN chief Kofi Annan on Wednesday urged North Korea not
"to escalate the situation any further" in reference to rumors
that Pyongyang was planning a second nuclear test.
Japanese television said Wednesday that North Korea had tested a
second nuclear device, sparking fresh jitters across Northeast
Asia, but officials quickly denied the reports.
"I would urge the North Korean authorities not to escalate the
situation any further," Annan told reporters. "We already have
an extremely difficult situation."
Annan stressed that the UN Security Council should "speak with
one voice" in responding to the North Korean action.
"It will have a greater impact if they do," he noted.
Annan also reiterated his call for direct talks between
Washington and Pyongyang to find a way out of the nuclear
standoff.
"I have always argued we should talk to parties whose behavior
we want to change, whose behavior we want to influence. From
that point view, the US and North Korea should talk," he added.
But at a press conference in Washington, US President George W.
Bush repeated his refusal to talk directly to the Stalinist
state.
"I firmly believe that with North Korea and with Iran that it is
best to deal with these regimes with more than one voice," he
said.
The UN secretary general also said stalled six-party -- China,
Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States -- talks on
ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program should resume.
At the talks in September 2005, Pyongyang apparently agreed to
abandon its nuclear program in exchange for energy and security
guarantees, in what was seen as a major breakthrough.
But the Stalinist state gave up and began boycotting the talks
just two months later after the United States imposed its own
sanctions on a Macau bank it said was laundering money for the
Pyongyang regime.
*****************************************************************
39 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. to Unveil New N. Korea Resolution
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday October 11, 2006 11:01 PM
AP Photo NYOH101
By NICK WADHAMS
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States will formally introduce
a new draft U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea on
Thursday with the hope that it would be adopted 24 hours later,
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.
The measure comes as the United States and Japan have said they
want the council to pass a resolution imposing sanctions on
North Korea over its claimed nuclear test by the end of the
week. Both countries have sought to overcome China's reluctance
to punish its impoverished ally too severely.
``There are still a lot of comments that have been made, and
areas of disagreement, but as we've said repeatedly, we think
this requires a strong and swift response,'' Bolton said.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the United States on
Wednesday to hold bilateral talks with North Korea and called on
the communist nation not to escalate an ``extremely difficult''
situation.
Annan expressed concern at the reported nuclear test Monday as
well as the North's threat to conduct another test and its
warning that U.N. sanctions would be tantamount to a declaration
of war. Those statements have further heightened tensions
especially in Japan and South Korea.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
40 [NYTr] Cold War Missile Numbers "De-re-classified"
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:03:11 -0400 (EDT)
X-Sender-Host-Name: olm.blythe-systems.com
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
National Security Archive - Oct 11, 2996
http://www.nsarchive.org/NSAEBB/NSAEBB197
UPDATE: Cold War Missile Numbers "De-re-classified"
For more information contact:
William Burr/Thomas Blanton - 202/994-7000
Washington, DC, October 11, 2006 - On September 26, 2006, the
Department of Defense's Washington Headquarters Services duly
released, as a result of an administrative appeal, unredacted
versions of 1971 charts depicting U.S. strategic force levels first
published in a public report by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird.
This was, as it should have been, a routine decision to correct a
mistake. Pentagon reviewers had previously treated the charts, which
included numbers of U.S. strategic missiles and bombers, among other
weapons systems, as classified documents. Whether officials at the
Defense Department and the Department of Energy will respond to
pending appeals by releasing comparable non-classified information
from other excised documents remains to be seen.
"We've always known about overclassification, since even the Bush
administration admits that 50% of what is classified should not
be," commented Archive director Thomas Blanton. "But reclassification
of previously public data crossed the line into absurdity, and now
our protests have established a whole new feature of the secrecy
system: de-re-classification!"
The unredacted charts are now available on the Web site of the
National Security Archive:
http://www.nsarchive.org/NSAEBB/NSAEBB197
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental
research institute and library located at The George Washington
University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes
declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no
U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication
royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.
*
================================================================
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. Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us .
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41 Will the Nuclear Powers Please Stand Up?
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 06:45:21 -0500 (CDT)
X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-Spam-Class: HAM
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Will the Nuclear Powers Please Stand Up?
This week, U.S. political statements and media reports about which
countries possess nuclear weapons have commonly ignored or downplayed
Israel's nuclear weapons capacity. But exclusion of Israel from the
list of countries with nuclear weaponry is inaccurate.
In the interest of accuracy, asking the Israeli and U.S. governments
about the existence of an Israeli nuclear arsenal would be
appropriate for diplomats and journalists.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire told the Institute
for Public Accuracy today that it was crucial for Israel and the U.S.
to come clean about Israel's nuclear weapons capacity. She referred
to the Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who in 1986 made
public detailed information on Israel's nuclear weapons capacity via
the Sunday Times of London and was then imprisoned by the Israeli
government for 18 years for doing so. See: .
MAIREAD CORRIGAN MAGUIRE, mairead.home@btinternet.com,
http://www.peacepeople.com
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maguire said today: "I went to Israel
in September and attended the hearings on the continuing restrictions
on Mordechai. One of the arguments put forward was that he has
secrets on nuclear weapons which impact the national security of
Israel. Mordechai is not allowed to speak to foreigners or the media
and is restricted to a small area. He has no secrets after 20 years
because the whole world knows that Israel has nuclear weapons.
"The debate about Israel having nuclear weapons needs to be
brought into the Israeli and international arena -- Israel and the
U.S. should acknowledge that Israel has nuclear weapons and it should
sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. And of course, we should come
clean that the arms race is being led by the U.S. and U.K. The U.S.
should ratify the comprehensive test ban treaty so we can get out of
this nuclear depravity." Maguire founded the Northern Ireland Peace
Movement, which is now known as Community of Peace People.
JOSEPH GERSON, Jgerson@afsc.org, http://www.afsc.org/newengland/nepeace.htm
Author of the forthcoming book "Empire and the Bomb: How the
United States Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World" and "With
Hiroshima Eyes: Atomic War, Nuclear Extortion, and Moral
Imagination," Gerson said today: "The U.S. government is threatening
nuclear attacks -- against seven countries as per the Bush Nuclear
Posture Review -- while providing military support to Israel, India,
and Pakistan -- all of which developed nuclear weapons outside of the
NPT framework.
"As is now widely known, with French assistance following their
disastrous 1956 invasion of Egypt, Israel has developed a nuclear
arsenal which is estimated to contain between 200 and 400 of these
weapons. Although President Kennedy attempted to challenge Israel's
efforts to build the A-bomb, since the Johnson years successive U.S.
presidents have turned blind eyes to the arsenal whose existence the
Israeli government refuses to confirm or deny. ...
"In addition to addressing the underlying causes of conflict and
tension in the Middle East, the surest ways to ensure that these
conflicts do not spark nuclear catastrophe is to build on diplomatic
proposals to create a Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. Such
zones exist in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, the South
Pacific and now Central Asia. The refusal of the U.S. and other
nuclear weapons states to honor their Article VI commitment under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to negotiate the elimination of
their nuclear arsenals and the legacies of U.S. nuclear blackmail
remain the two greatest forces driving nuclear weapons proliferation
today." Gerson is Director of Programs of the American Friends
Service Committee in New England.
Background:
The U.S. government has apparently never acknowledged Israel's arsenal.
The Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, was
recently asked by Sam Husseini of the Institute for Public Accuracy,
"Do you know that Israel has nuclear weapons?" Negroponte replied "I
don't want to get into a discussion about Israel's nuclear powers."
For video see: .
When he was White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer was asked
"Does Israel have nuclear weapons?" He replied: "That's a question
you need to ask to Israel." See:
.
AP reported on Sept. 22: "More than a dozen Arab countries were
blocked by a Canadian motion in their bid to have a vote on a
resolution labelling Israel's nuclear capabilities a threat on the
final day of the International Atomic Energy Agency's annual
meeting." See:
.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
_________________________________________________________________
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42 washingtonpost.com: We Need a New Deterrent -
By David Ignatius
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A19
"Present at the Creation" was the title Dean Acheson gave to his
memoir about the founding of the post-World War II order. Now,
with North Korea claiming to have tested a nuclear weapon in
defiance of the international community, and Iran seemingly on
the way, Harvard professor Graham Allison argues that we are
present at the unraveling.
The North Korean bomb test is a seismic event for the world
community. It tells us that the structure created to maintain
global security is failing. The five permanent members of the
U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China,
Britain and France -- all warned North Korea against taking this
step. Yet the leaders in Pyongyang ignored these signals and in
the process blew open the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
William J. Perry The administration's policy on North Korea has
been a total failure -- but serious attention can still prevent
an arms race in the Asia-Pacific region. Hope Beyond the Muslim
Rage?» David Ignatius | Non-Muslims who wonder how cartoons
could give such offense should think how Americans react to the
"N-word." -->
The North Korean leadership, puny in everything but weapons
technology, has been marching toward this moment since the
1950s. It's unrealistic to think that, having brazened their way
to detonating what they say is a nuclear bomb, the North Koreans
will now give it up. The proliferation machine isn't going to
run in reverse. In that sense, the question is less how to
repair the old architecture of nonproliferation -- practically
speaking, it's a wreck -- and more how to build a new structure
that can stop the worst threats.
What are the right cornerstones of this new security structure?
I put that question to Allison, who is a national resource when
it comes to matters of nuclear proliferation and deterrence. He
wrote the definitive book, "Essence of Decision," on the Cuban
missile crisis, the world's closest brush with all-out nuclear
war. In recent years he has been studying the danger of nuclear
terrorism, and he edited a prescient discussionof the
implications of a North Korean breakout that appears in the
September issue of the Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science.
Allison believes that the world must focus on what he calls "the
principle of nuclear accountability." The biggest danger posed
by North Korea isn't that it would launch a nuclear missile but
that this desperately poor country would sell a bomb to al-Qaeda
or another terrorist group. Accountability, in Allison's terms,
means that if a bomb explodes in Manhattan that contains North
Korean fissile material, the United States will act as if the
strike came from North Korea itself -- and retaliate
accordingly, with devastating force. To make this accountability
principle work, the United States needs a crash program to
create the "nuclear forensics" that can identify the signature
of fissile material of every potential nuclear state. Arms
control expert Robert Gallucci describes this approach as
"expanded deterrence" in his articlein the September Annals.
President Bush seemed to be drawing this red line of
accountability when he warned Monday: "The transfer of nuclear
weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state
entities would be considered a grave threat to the United
States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable for the
consequences of such action."
Tough words, but are they credible? That's why the second
essential pillar of a new security regime is a restoration of
deterrence. The Bush administration warned North Korea over and
over that it would face severe consequences if it tested a
nuclear weapon. So did China and Russia, but Kim Jong Il went
ahead anyway. Iranian leaders are similarly unimpressed by
Bush's saber rattling, viewing America as a weakened nation
bogged down by an unwinnable war in Iraq. To restore deterrence,
the West needs to stop making threats it can't carry out. And
the United States must salvage its strategic position in Iraq --
either by winning or organizing the most stable plan for
withdrawal.
After the Cuban missile crisis, President John F. Kennedy got
serious about preventing nuclear war. He installed a "hotline"
so the White House and the Kremlin could talk when crises arose;
he negotiated the 1963 test ban treaty; and he began the
discussions that led to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty. That
treaty worked adequately for almost four decades. Instead of the
20 nuclear states that Kennedy feared would exist by 1975, we
had just eight, until last weekend. But the North Korean test
threatens to begin what a 2004 U.N. commission warned would be
"a cascade of proliferation" that could spread to Japan, South
Korea, Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
We are present at the unraveling. We must "think about the
unthinkable" with new urgency. The United States and its allies
must begin constructing a system that can succeed where the
Non-Proliferation Treaty has failed. A terrorist nuclear bomb in
Manhattan or Washington isn't a thriller writer's fantasy; it's
a probability, unless America and its allies establish new rules
for nuclear accountability that are clear and credible.
The writer co-hosts, with Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, PostGlobal,
an online discussion of international issues
athttp://www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail address
isdavidignatius@washpost.com.
*****************************************************************
43 AFP: Bush rules out bilateral talks with NKorea, Iran over nuclear crises -
Wed Oct 11, 12:21 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush" /> President
George W. Bushagain ruled out holding bilateral talks with either
North Korea" /> North Koreaor Iran" /> Iran, despite the
escalating crises with both nations over their nuclear programs.
But he also insisted his administration remained committed to
using diplomacy and not military action to resolve both issues.
"I firmly believe that, with North Korea and with Iran, that it
is best to deal with these regimes with more than one voice,"
Bush said during a White House press conference, arguing in
favor of multilateral negotiations with the two governments.
"But the United States' message to North Korea and Iran and the
people in both countries is that we want to solve issues
peacefully," Bush said.
Focusing on North Korea and its claim to have carried out its
first nuclear test explosion on Monday, Bush said an attempt by
the previous US administration of president Bill Clinton" />
Bill Clintonto negotiate directly with Pyongyang to end its
nuclear weapons program "didn't work."
"And therefore, I thought it was important to change how we
approach the problem so that we could solve it diplomatically,"
he said.
Bush said he had discussed the North Korean test with the
leaders of China, Russia, South Korea" /> South Koreaand Japan,
the nations working with Washington over the past 13 months to
convince North Korea to give up its weapons program in return
for an array of economic and political rewards.
Washington and its major power allies have made a similar offer
to Iran, which is pursuing a program to enrich uranium, which
can be subverted to produce nuclear weapons, in defiance of UN
resolutions demanding the program be suspended.
"We said 'there's a better way forward for you,'" Bush said of
the new multilateral approach.
"'Here is a chance, for example, to help your country
economically and all you have to do is verifiably show'" that
the nuclear programs have been suspended, he said.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
44 [NukeNet] New Nuclear Power Plant COL Application Processes,
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:11:50 -0700
X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (borg.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61]
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NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Dear All,
Scroll to the bottom and find the dates and places of other conferences
for the one nearest you. Now if we were only this well organized!
J.
From: "EUCI"
To: johnsrud@uplink.net
Subject: New Nuclear Power Plant COL Application Processes, Nov.
6-7
Best Practices for the New Nuclear Power Plant Certification and
Combined Operating License (COL) Application Processes
November 6-7, 2006 :: Atlanta, GA
Conference
Brochure
Register
Now
OVERVIEW
This conference has been organized with cooperation from Dave
Schowalter, Lead Consulting Engineer, Energy, ANSYS-Fluent and
Zoran Stosic, Special Activities, R&D
Management, AREVA NP GmbH.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 has streamlined the application
process for new nuclear construction and the Federal Government has
offered financial support for new nuclear power generation.
The conference will cover:
* New regulatory processes
* Facilitation of new nuclear development
* Avoiding costly overruns
* Ensuring application timeliness
* Complete analysis and construction
* Implementation of safety features for Generation III/III+
Reactors
* Successfully meeting application deadlines
* Recovering costs and structuring financial deals
Additionally, one of the breakout sessions on the second day of the
conference will be a continuation of the recent ICONE14 Session in
Miami.
AGENDA
* Day 1
* Government Plenary
* DOE Programs
* The NRC and New Nuclear Construction
* Development of the DG-1145 Regulatory Guide
* Industry Plenary
* COL - Utility Perspective
* Nuclear Power in Competitive Energy Markets
* The Need for State and Federal Regulation Continuity
* Approved Advanced Reactor Designs
* Deploying the evolutionary power reactor (EPR) in
North America
* SWR-1000 GenIII+ Boiling Water Reactor Combining
Active and Passive Safety Systems
* ACR-1000 Design and Development Program
* Day 2
* Keynote Address: Advances in Engineering Simulation: A 20
Year Update
* Approved Advanced Reactor Designs II
* AP1000
* Site Considerations in Completing Permit with ESBWR
and ABWR Vendors
* Computational Engineering Tools for Generation III/III+
Reactor Design
* Advanced Thermal Hydraulics
* Computational Fluid Dynamics for GenIII and GenIII+
Nuclear Power Plants
* Breakout Session I - Afternoon Track A
* Computational Engineering Tools for Generation III/III+
Reactor Design II
* Structural Analysis and Software Quality Assurance
for Next Generation Nuclear Power Plants
* Structural Analysis and Design of the U.S. EPR
* Seismic Analysis
* Hydrology Analysis
* Atmospheric Dispersion Analysis
* Breakout Session II - Afternoon Track B
* Forum on Advanced Thermal Hydraulics and Computational
Fluid Dynamics for GEN III/III+ Reactors (Continuation of ICONE14
Session in Miami)
* CFD & TH Code verification and validation for
Advanced Nuclear Reactors
* Development and Quantification of Numerical
Uncertainties in CFD and Thermal Hydraulic Codes for Advanced
Nuclear Reactors
* CFD and GenIII/GenIII+ --CFD Codes, Capabilities, and
Standard Problems
* Codes and Tools Used for Design and Analysis of
SWR1000 and Performed Experimental Validation Program
* Round Table Discusison
more information
For a complete program agenda please go to our
Best
Practices for the New Nuclear Power Plant COL Application Process
web page.
SPEAKERS
Conference Chairperson: David Schowalter, Ph.D.,
ANSYS/Fluent
Bill Bryan, ANSYS
Ismail Celik, Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering,
University of West Virginia
George A. Davis, Director, Government Programs, Westinghouse
Raymond Ganthner, SVP New Plants Deployment, AREVA NP
Ronald Green, Southwest Research Institute
Joseph Colaccino, Acting Chief ESBWR/ABWR Projects, US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission
Gary Johnsen, Idaho National Laboratories, U.S. Department of
Energy
Marilyn Kray, President, NuStart Energy Development
Dale Lloyd, Vogtle Deployment Director, Southern Nuclear Operating
Company
Todd Oswald, Areva NP, Inc.
Loren Plisco, Deputy Administrator Region II (Southeast), U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Dr. Nik Popov, Manager, ACR Licensing and Safety
Assurance, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
Mike Wheeler, VP and General Manager, Mechanical Business Unit,
ANSYS
Dennis Spurgeon, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, U.S.
Department of Energy (Invited)
Ping Wan, Bechtel Fellow, Environmental Technology Mgr., Bechtel
Power Corporation
Stan Wise, Chairman, Georgia Public Service Commission
Bob Young, Geomatrix Consultants, Inc.
REGISTER
To register, please call 303.770.8800 or visit our website
www.euci.com
about euci
Electric Utility Consultants, Inc. (EUCI) is a leading provider of
conferences, seminars, workshops and courses designed exclusively
for the energy industry. We seek to create a forum for professional
communication and exchange of knowledge and ideas among the energy
industry professionals and others interested in the industry.
Whether you are interested in increasing revenues, cutting costs,
understanding changing market rules, managing your enterprise-wide
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don't miss
EMS101:
>>Fundamentals of Operator Tools for Grid Reliability
>>November 2-3, 2006
>>Atlanta, GA
>>UPCOMING CONFERENCES
>>Fossil
>>Power Plant Fundamentals
>>October 16-17, 2006
>>Arlington, VA
>>Transmission
>>Reliability: Determining Appropriate Standards and Metrics
>>October 17-18,2006
>>Arlington, VA
>>Performance
>>Benchmarking for Energy Utilities
>>October 17-18,2006
>>Arlington, VA
>>Transmission
>>Investment At Risk
>>October 19-20, 2006
>>Arlington, VA
>>Business
>>Intelligence for Utilities
>>October 23-24, 2006
>>Austin, TX
>>Power
>>System Voltage Stability
>>October 23-24, 2006
>>Austin, TX
>>Rate
>>Case 101 – How to Produce a Successful Case
>>October 25-26, 2006
>>Phoenix, AZ
>>8th
>>Wind Energy & Power Markets
>>October 30-31, 2006
>>Denver, CO
>>Performance-Based
>>Regulation (PBR) for Electric and Gas Utilities
>>November 2-3, 2006
>>Fort Lauderdale, FL
>>Getting
>>Enough Coal: More Than a Three Legged Stool
>>November 2-3, 2006
>>Fort Lauderdale, FL
>>Electric
>>Safety in Utilities
>>November 6-7, 2006
>>Atlanta, GA
>>Credit
>>and Clearing in the Power Industry
>>November 13, 2006
>>Austin, TX
>>Strategies
>>for Bidding Ancillary Services in LMP Markets
>>November 13-14, 2006
>>Indianapolis, IN
>>Implementation
>>of Nodal Pricing in ERCOT
>>November 13-14, 2006
>>Austin, TX
>>Overcoming
>>Market Settlement Challenges
>>November 14, 2006
>>Austin, TX
>>Introduction
>>to Electric Utilitiy Systems for Non Engineers
>>December 4-5, 2006
>>Fort Lauderdale, FL
>>Voice
>>of the Customer
>>December 4-5, 2006
>>Fort Lauderdale, FL
>>Recognizing
>>and Recovering Energy Theft
>>December 11-12, 2006
>>Phoenix, AZ
>>SOX-101
>>for Electric, Gas and Water Utilities ..An Introduction to
>>Sarbanes-Oxley
>>December 11-12, 2006
>>Lake Buena Vista, FL
>>Pandemic
>>Influenza: Maintaining Utility Operations and Business Continuity
>>December 12-13, 2006
>>Memphis, TN
>>View
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45 NRC: Sunshine Act Federal Register Notice
FR Doc 06-8623
[Federal Register: October 11, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 196)]
[Notices] [Page 59842-59843] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr11oc06-154]
Agency Holding the Meetings: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Date: Weeks of October 9, 16, 23, 30, November 6, 13, 2006.
Place: Commissioner' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
Status: Public and Closed.
Matters to be Considered: Week of October 9, 2006 Tuesday,
October 10, 2006 12:55 p.m. Affirmation Sessions (Public Meeting)
(Tentative), a.
Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear
Operations, Inc., (Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station and Vermont
Yankee Nuclear Power Station), Massachusetts Attorney General's
Petition for Backfit Order (Tentative).
Week of October 16, 2006--Tentative Monday, October 16, 2006 9:30
a.m. Briefing on Status of New Reactor Issues--Combined Operating
Licenses (COLS) (morning session).
1:30 p.m. Briefing on Status of New Reactor Issues--Combined
Operating Licenses (COLS) (afternoon session). (Public Meetings)
(Contact: Dave Matthews, 301-415-1199).
These meetings will be Webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Friday, October 20, 2006 2:30 p.m. Meeting with Advisory
Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) (Public Meeting) (Contact:
John Larkins, 301-415-7360).
This meeting will be Webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Week of October 23, 2006--Tentative Tuesday, October 24, 2006
9:30 a.m. Briefing on Transshipment and Domestic Shipment
Security of Radioactive Material Quantities of Concern (RAMQC)
(Closed--Ex.
3) (morning session).
1:30 p.m. Briefing on transshipment and Domestic Shipment
Security of Radioactive Material Quantities of Concern (RAMQC)
(Closed--Ex.
3 & 9) (afternoon session).
Wednesday, October 25, 2006 9:30 a.m. Briefing on
Institutionalization and Integration of Agency Lessons Learned
(Public Meeting) (Contact: John Lamb, 301-415-1727).
This meeting will be Webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
1:30 p.m. Briefing on Resolution of GSI-191, Assessment of Debris
Accumulation on PWR Sump Performance (Public Meeting) (Contact:
Michael L. Scott, 301-415-0565). This meeting will be Webcast
live at the Web address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Week of October 30, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings
scheduled for the week of October 30, 2006.
Week of November 6, 2006--Tentative Wednesday, November 8, 2006
9:30 a.m. Briefing on Digital Instrumentation and Control (Public
Meeting) (Contact: Paul Rebstock, 301-415-3295).
This meeting will be Webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Thursday, November 9, 2006 9:30 a.m.
[[Page 59843]] Briefing on Draft Final Rule--Part 52 (Early Site
permits/Standard Design Certification/Combined Licenses) (Public
Meeting) (Contact: Dave Matthews, 301-415-1199).
This meeting will be Webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Week of November 13, 2006--Tentative There are no meetings
scheduled for the week of November 13, 2006.
* 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 5, 2006.
R. Michelle Schroll, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 06-8623 Filed 10-6-06; 10:00 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M
*****************************************************************
46 Platts: NRC issues order to establish fingerprinting program
Washington (Platts)--10Oct2006
NRC issued orders requiring fingerprinting and criminal history
record checks for all NRC licensees and individuals seeking
access to safeguards information, or SGI.
Although it is working on an SGI rulemaking that includes
fingerprinting and FBI background check requirements, NRC said it
had to issue the order before completing the SGI rule because of
a mandate in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
The order (EA-06-203) was issued September 29 and was publicly
released October 10. NRC said the current processing fee is $27
per submission, which includes charges by the FBI for each
fingerprint card or record. The agency said licensees will have
20 days from the orders' date to establish a fingerprinting
program, or notify NRC that they are unable to comply with the
requirements.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
47 APP.COM: Nuclear plant critics win NRC hearing |
Asbury Park Press Online
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Environmentalists' questions about reactor deemed valid
BY NICHOLAS CLUNN STAFF WRITER
A coalition of six environmental and anti-nuclear groups opposed
to the renewal of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant's
operating license won a federal hearing Tuesday based on
contentions raised about the safety of a steel vessel meant to
contain radiation.
The hearing was granted by a three-judge panel within the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will decide whether to issue
the Lacey plant a 20-year renewal.
Without the renewal, the plant would close in 2009. Oyster Creek
employs about 420 workers and provides enough electricity to
power about 600,000 homes.
Lawyers for plant operator AmerGen Energy Co. opposed the
coalition's request for a hearing. In their own brief, NRC
staffers supported it.
No date has been set for the hearing. Whether it will actually
happen will depend on whether AmerGen will accept the panel's
decision.
"It's more than likely that AmerGen will appeal," NRC spokesman
Neil Sheehan said.
AmerGen spokeswoman Rachelle Benson said the plant's legal team
will decide whether an appeal is appropriate after the lawyers
have had time to review the 37-page order.
According to the panel, the coalition raised a valid concern in
questioning the frequency in which AmerGen plans to measure the
thickness of the vessel beyond 2009.
The vessel, called the drywell liner, is 100 feet tall and
sur-rounds the chamber in which atoms are split to make heat.
During a serious accident, the liner would contain highly
radioactive steam and push it down into a water-filled cooling
pool.
Coalition members are more worried about the liner collapsing
than its performance during an emergency. They're concerned
because rust on a lower portion of the liner — called the sand
bed region — had caused it to become thinner during the early
1980s.
The coalition members are Sierra Club New Jersey; the New Jersey
Environmental Federation; the New Jersey Public Interest
Research Group; Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy
Safety; Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch and the Nuclear Information
and Resource Service.
According to Benson, Tuesday's decision meant the coalition met
the threshold for a hearing. It doesn't mean the liner, or
AmerGen's plan to monitor it, is deficient, she said.
The liner is now under scrutiny by three different sections of
the NRC. Staff members have yet to decide whether to approve
AmerGen's plan to monitor the liner for aging. A committee that
reviews NRC staff decisions also is undecided. That committee
met last week and asked AmerGen to provide more information to
back up the company's plan.
ON THE WEB: Visit our Web site, www.app.com, and look on our
home page under Special Reports for a link to Relicensing Oyster
Creek: Is It Worth It? for past editorials and stories, related
links, an interactive graphic that shows how the plant works,
and more.
Nicholas Clunn: (732) 643-4072 or nclunn@app.com [E-mail]
Copyright © 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
48 baltimoresun.com: Energy merger would benefit Maryland -
Opinion > op/ed
By Anirban Basu
Originally published October 11, 2006
State lawmakers concerned about protecting consumers should be
supporting, rather than impeding, the proposed merger of
Constellation Energy Group with Florida's FPL Group.
Faced with significant electricity rate increases this year,
legislators worked with local utilities to fashion a phase-in
plan that provides lower initial rate increases for customers of
Baltimore Gas and Electric, Pepco and Delmarva Power.
Though that solution wasn't perfect, it provides a fair amount
of relief and time to Maryland's consumers, who have had to deal
with substantial price increases in recent years, including from
housing, property taxes, health care, groceries and gasoline.
These same consumers have been seduced by low interest rates in
recent years, prompting them to take on substantial amounts of
debt related to mortgages, autos and consumer electronics.
Hitting them with a 72 percent electricity price increase during
a period of fragile household finances would have sown great
unhappiness, and the legislature was rightly concerned.
That's why the General Assembly's attitude toward the proposed
merger of Constellation and FPL is so puzzling. If a goal of
public policy is to provide rate relief to consumers, what
better way to accomplish this than to generate hundreds of
millions of dollars in operational efficiency? Gross estimated
savings from 13 proposed mergers of major utilities across the
nation averaged more than $1 billion and ranged from $400
million to $2.2 billion.
A Constellation-FPL merger would unleash similar operational
efficiencies. Leaders from the two companies are so confident of
post-merger productivity enhancements that Constellation has
offered $600 million in credits over 10 years to BGE customers.
Can Maryland's legislature simply turn its back on more than
half a billion dollars? Is this consistent with earlier efforts
to restrain rate increases? The answer is obvious.
But that's not where the issue ends. In a recent study authored
by Sage Policy Group, we concluded that the $600 million in
credits represents only the first set of benefits to Maryland's
consumers. That's because the operational efficiencies unleashed
by the proposed merger are far more meaningful in the context of
deregulation and competitive markets. Thus far, residential
customers in Central Maryland have not benefited from the
emergence of competitive bidding for electricity in the way that
institutional customers have. This is not altogether surprising,
because the freezing of BGE's rates from 1999 until July
represented a major barrier to other suppliers entering Central
Maryland's residential market.
With the lifting of rate caps this summer, these barriers began
to disappear. Competition for Central Maryland residential
customers has emerged, and as rate increases are phased in,
additional entrants into the market are likely.
That's what makes the proposed merger so intriguing. The
post-merger Constellation would be the nation's leader in
electricity generation capacity, in capacity derived from wind,
and in supplying electrical energy to wholesale markets. It
would also be second in the number of regulated energy power
customers and third in U.S. electrical generating capacity
derived from nuclear energy.
In short, the Constellation-FPL combination would create an
energy marketing and supply behemoth positioned to provide
energy to Maryland's customers as efficiently as possible, given
available technologies. Constellation would provide energy more
efficiently because of improved operations and because the
post-merger entity would be a highly effective and potent bidder
for electricity, capable of supplying Central Maryland in a way
that a smaller utility could not.
There is also potential for Baltimore to gain headquarters jobs
through the merger. The combined company's post-merger expansion
would be disproportionately driven by its merchant energy
operations, which will remain in downtown Baltimore. The
post-merger entity would be in a better position to expand
because of enhanced purchasing power, financial stability and
market share.
If we play our cards right as a community, Baltimore could come
out of this process as a leading corporate center in the
emerging merchant energy marketplace. Given the lack of
corporate headquarters in downtown Baltimore, one would think
that policymakers would leap at the opportunity to position the
city for major corporate expansion and associated prestige and
income.
All of this suggests that rather than fighting the merger,
legislators should seek to ensure its success and to induce the
new corporate entity to locate a greater share of headquarters
jobs here rather than in Florida through incentives, good will
and other mechanisms. In the final analysis, constructive
engagement with the merged entity will improve conditions for
Maryland's residential consumers and its business base.
Anirban Basu is an economist and chairman and CEO of Sage Policy
Group in Baltimore. His e-mail is abasu@sagepolicy.com.
Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun
*****************************************************************
49 JOURNAL NEWS: Higher nuclear security pushed NRC aiming for better security
By GREG CLARY
Do you think the emergency planning recommendations would work in
the Lower Hudson Valley? Visit the "Issues in the Lower Hudson
Valley" forum at LoHud.com.
(Original publication: October 11, 2006)
Federal regulators are looking at a host of changes to emergency
planning at the nation's nuclear plants that local and industry
officials say will keep sites more secure and provide the public
with better response plans.
"We were looking for a sense of reality," said Anthony Sutton,
Westchester's commissioner of emergency services. "I think the
NRC is hearing us loud and clear."
Many of the recommendations by staff at the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission have already been put into place at Indian Point and
many of the nation's 103 working nuclear plants, according to
emergency officials, primarily as a response to the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The recommendations include the following:
- changing drills and exercises to meet overall performance
standards rather than evaluating how closely an emergency plan
was followed
- combining radiological emergencies with terrorist-attack
events, so that responders are prepared for both
- updating evacuation data as needed, rather than with each new
U.S. census
In December 2004, the NRC began a comprehensive review of
emergency planning at the reactor sites it oversees, soliciting
industry comment and holding two-day public hearings to help
refine its regulations.
The recommendations will hardly become regulations anytime soon,
however, unless the five-member commission opts to fast-track
the program and get it in place in a year or less.
The list was presented to NRC board members Sept. 20 and
released on the agency's Web site yesterday.
A similar set of changes on reactor oversight took years before
it was codified in 2000.
NRC Commissioner Gregory Jaczko yesterday told The Journal News
in a telephone interview that the list of recommendations, which
has yet to be voted on, "starts us in the right direction."
He said he'd like to see the agency make better use of
technology, not only in guiding the industry, but also in
assessing its effectiveness at emergency planning.
"I think our regulations need to provide a framework so that
resources are used where they can have the most impact," Jaczko
said.
Indian Point's top emergency planning official, Michael
Slobedien, said most of the changes are already in place at the
plant, including the move to more sophisticated notification of
the public in the event of an emergency.
The company is replacing the decades-old siren system that has
been used to tell residents to turn on their televisions and
radios for more information.
Not only will the new system include low-maintenance sirens, but
also the ability to notify residents via telephone and local
media and give specifics on what people should do in an
emergency.
"What the NRC is proposing to do is put into regulation things
the nuclear industry is doing voluntarily, such as integrated
security and radiological exercises, that are not currently
codified," Slobedien said.
Sutton, who participated in an NRC public forum a year ago on
emergency planning, said creating performance standards that
companies must meet as part of their license is a more effective
way of keeping a plan viable than an oversight strategy that
focuses on completion of every step in a plan.
"I would much rather deal in reality than be able to check
boxes," Sutton said. "We're proponents of planning it the way it
would really happen. You need a script to sing from, but
improvising during an emergency is the intangible you can't
quantify beforehand."
Copyright 2006 The Journal News, a Gannett Co.Inc. newspaper
serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York.
*****************************************************************
50 Xinhua: China mulls major reform on power generating system
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-11 21:24:39
BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- China is considering a major
reform of its power generating system that will prioritize the
operation of power plants based on their efficiency and
environmental friendliness.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC), the
National Development and Reform Commission and several other
authorities are currently conducting a feasibility study on the
proposed reform.
Currently, all the power plants -- thermal, nuclear,
hydropower and wind, run at the same capacity regulated only by
demand.
Under the new system, they will be activated in a
pre-arranged sequence. Hydropower plants, wind mills,
rubbish-burning plants will first operate at their full
capacity.
When power demand rises nuclear and natural gas power plants
will be activated.
Coal and oil-burning plants, particularly smaller ones, will
be the last to add to the grid.
"This is a major reform in the electricity supply system. It
will revolutionize the old power management system," the China
Business News quoted an official with the SERC as saying.
Preliminary finding show that if the reform works it could
save100 million tons of coal from being burned.
The study indicates this reform alone would allow China to
meet its goal of reducing energy consumption by 20 percent per
unit gross domestic product (GDP) by 2010, an expert close to
the study said.
The 20 percent drop in energy consumption per unit of GDP is
a major goal in China's current five year plan as government
seeks to reduce the country's increasing dependence on imported
oil to fuel its dynamic economy.
To reach the goal the government had planned to reduce
energy consumption per unit of GDP by 4 percent in 2006.
Official statistics, however, indicate that the country's
energy consumption in the first half of the year actually
outpaced the growth of its economy. Enditem
Editor: Ling Zhu
*****************************************************************
51 Washington Business Journal: USEC wins $200M contract with Taiwan Power -
Washington Business Journal - 12:19 PM EDT Wednesdayby Staff
Reporter
USEC has signed a contract valued at more than $200 million with
to supply enriched uranium fuel to the utility's eight nuclear
power reactors.
Bethesda-based energy company USEC says the new contract to
supply Taipei-based Taiwan Power with enrinched uranium fuel runs
from 2009 through 2013.
"This new contract enhances USEC's longstanding relationship
with [Taiwan Power] and underscores our commitment to provide
utilities with a reliable, competitive source of enriched
uranium fuel for years to come," says John Donelson, USEC's vice
president of marketing and sales, in a statement. "This strong
commercial agreement is also a great example of the industry's
support for USEC's next-generation American Centrifuge uranium
enrichment plant to be built in Piketon, Ohio."
USEC is in the process of demonstrating and deploying the
American Centrifuge, which will replace its existing gaseous
diffusion technology and is expected to be a much more efficient
uranium enrichment technology. The American Centrifuge Plant
will use modular architecture that allows capacity to be added,
enabling USEC to meet the growing demand for nuclear fuel.
USEC (NYSE: USU) is a supplier of enriched uranium fuel for
commercial nuclear power plants.
© 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors.
*****************************************************************
52 MercoPress: Chile admits energy shortages to British investors
Falklands-Malvinas & South Atlantic News
[MercoPress - www.mercopress.com]
- Wednesday, 11 October
Minister Karen Poniachik
During a presentation this week in Canning House, London, before
bankers and businessmen Ms Poniachik explained the advantages of
investing in Chile with a government that “has made the energy
sector its top priority”.
As to the electricity sector, currently in full expansion, Ms
Poniachik said the Chilean government policy has three main
objectives: diversification of energy sources; a greater
provision autonomy, and promotion of the efficient use of energy.
Chile imports three fourths of its energy consumption which makes
the country “dependent” and “vulnerable” to price turbulences and
supply interruptions.
Since 2004, Chile has suffered constant natural gas provision
restrictions from Argentina which has had an impact mainly on
manufacturing, since there’s an agreement to ensure the supply
of gas to homes.
To cut that dependency Chile is building a liquid natural gas
processing plant in Quintero and is considering a second plant
further north in the country where most of the copper industry
is located.
Ms Poniachik also mentioned the “big opportunities” for
investors in the Region of Magallanes where the government is
developing a natural gas production pole.
The Chilean minister told the British audience that recently
approved legislation offers incentives to investors regarding
“price stability”, which ensures benefits during several years
for the initial investment.
Poniachik underlined investment requests also have a “quick and
transparent” process since Chile’s goal is to double the current
energy supply of 12.000 Megawatts by 2020.
Further more since most of the projects approved so far are
scheduled to begin producing by 2010, a transition period until
then exists and Poniachik invited investors to participate in
the setting up of turbines to support the current energy supply.
Chile has to basic grids, one central (covering metropolitan
Santiago) which runs mainly on hydroelectricity and the North
one which is powered with natural gas, and according to minister
Poniachik, “preferential conditions” are to be granted to those
companies involved in renewable energy projects.
As to nuclear energy, Poniachik said it was not an option for
the current administration since Chilean president Michelle
Bachelet made it one of her electoral promises.
Finally as to mining, Eduardo Titelman from the Chilean Copper
Committee said that what is lacking is “research and
exploration” of new deposits.
“Chile has Latinamerica’s most consolidated mining sector and
ample advantages for investors”, added Titelman.
Among the advantages he mentioned Chile excellent mining
potential (38% of the world’s known and proven copper reserves);
qualified manpower and a favourable legal framework which
respects private property, contracts and the property of mines
is guaranteed by the country’s Constitution.
Fin del Texto - Mercosur - Wednesday, 11 October
MERCOPRESS is a news agency concentrating in Mercosur countries
which operates from Montevideo, Uruguay, and includes in its area
of influence the South Atlantic and insular territories. ©
1997-2001 Mercopress - E-mail: admin@mercopress.com- Web
technical help: webmaster@mercopress.com
E-mail: merco@mercopress.com- Web technical help:
webmaster@mercopress.com
*****************************************************************
53 Lincoln County News: Maine Yankee Awarded Damages in Federal Lawsuit Story date:
10/11/2006
Greg Foster
Maine Yankee has been awarded $75.8 million in damages in its
legal battle with the federal government over its failure to
remove used nuclear fuel from the Wiscasset plant site as
promised by 1998.
“While the court’s decision will need to be reviewed and
evaluated, the Yankee companies’ initial reaction to the monetary
award is very positive,” said Michael Thomas, company vice
president and chief financial officer.
Judge James Merow of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims made the
favorable decision Sept. 30 for Maine Yankee as well as two other
Yankee nuclear power plants, Connecticut Yankee and Yankee Atomic
Electric Co. in Rowe, Mass. for a total $142.8 million in claims
against the federal government.
Two federal courts, including the Court of Federal Claims, found
that the government did breach its contract with the three
companies and other utilities. Thus in 2004, a trial was
conducted in the Court of Federal Claims to determine the amount
of damages owed each company.
“However, the ruling does not solve the problem of use nuclear
fuel remaining at the plant sites, and the federal government is
urged to remove the material promptly,” Thomas said. “We hope
this ruling will spur the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) to begin
fulfilling its obligation.”
Currently there are 64 concrete storage containers at a storage
facility on the former plant site holding spent nuclear fuel and
high-level nuclear waste in steel canisters. The storage
installation is the only physical part of Maine Yankee left on
the site since it completed its decommissioning work last year
and has been there since its construction two or three years ago.
“The monetary award does not eliminate the government’s
contractual obligation to remove used nuclear fuel from the
three sites,” Thomas said. “And the real solution is for the
government to permanently remove the used fuel and high-level
waste.”
The award means that electric customers will benefit eventually
from the award, and could affect rates, which the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission determines, according to Maine Yankee
spokesman Eric Howes. “It is up to FERC to decide on how it is
to be applied, but it can only be good news for ratepayers it we
get it.”
The final figure falls short of the total $176.5 million in
damages sought for all three Yankee plants and the $78.1 million
for Maine Yankee specifically.
However, Maine Yankee will have the opportunity in the future to
file other suits for damages after 2002 and until the spent fuel
and waste is removed, since the decision is only for cost
damages from 1998 through 2002.
Maine Yankee and the other Yankee companies will not be able to
have the awards credited anytime soon to the companies
respective electric ratepayer funded decommissioning or spent
fuel funds because the federal government is expected to appeal
the Sept. 30 decision. Ratepayers have been paying one-tenth of
every cent of rates charged them for the decommissioning and
storage of the fuel and waste, Howes said.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act stipulates that people who benefit
from electricity produced by nuclear power plants have to pay
for the disposal of the fuel the plants generate through
payments to the federal Nuclear Waste Fund.
In return, the federal government has the obligation to remove
it from plant sites and dispose of it in a federal repository.
Although electric customers have met their obligation to pay for
the removal and disposal of the fuel, the federal government has
failed to remove the fuel or open a facility for its storage,
Maine Yankee officials pointed out.
Howes said that Maine Yankee plans to continue to working with
the State of Maine and the Congressional delegation to pressure
the DOE to follow through on its promises of providing a
national repository for its spent nuclear fuel and high level
nuclear waste.
There have been plans for a repository at Yucca Mountain in
Nevada, but the DOE continues to set the deadline for beginning
storage there. It is unknown when the federal government will
fulfill its obligations.
Vol. 131 - No. 41
Lincoln County News © 2002
*****************************************************************
54 UPI: China seeks overhaul of power system
United Press International - NewsTrack -
10/11/2006 3:52:00 PM -0400
BEIJING, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Efficiency and environmental
friendliness would be priorities under major reforms China is
considering for its power generating system.
Several Chinese agencies are jointly conducting a feasibility
study on the proposed reform, Xinhua said Wednesday.
Under the proposal, the power plants -- thermal, nuclear,
hydropower and wind -- would be activated in a preset sequence,
Xinhua said. Hydropower plants, windmill facilities and
garbage-burning plants would first operate at full capacity. As
demand increases, nuclear- and natural gas-powered plants would
be activated, followed by coal- and oil-burning plants, Xinhua
said.
Officials said preliminary findings indicate 100 million tons of
coal would not be burned under the proposal, Xinhua said. This
study also said this reform would help China to meet its goal of
achieving a 20-percent reduction in energy consumption per unit
of the country's gross domestic product by 2010.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
55 SNA: Bulgaria: Bulgaria's N-Plant Accident "Due to Aged Equipment"
www.novinite.com Sofia News Agency
Politics: 11 October 2006, Wednesday.
The radioactive leak that was detected in Bulgaria's only
Nuclear Power Plant in Kozloduy on Saturday, has been caused by
the aged equipment, which is some 19 years old.
There is no risk to anyone whatsoever, the plant's manager Ivan
Genov told bTV channel.
Nothing has been contaminated and the radioactive emission has
been minimal - less than what a person gets when getting their
tooth x-rayed, Mitko Yankov, chief of the plant's Safety
Department has said.
Genov explained that the plant didn't hide the information from
the media but preferred to know the scope and nature of the
accident before they release any statements. He also pointed out
that since the leak took place on Saturday, they were well in
line with the regulations reporting it on Monday, as the law
stated that they had to announce of the accident within the
following workday.
When asked how many steps the plant was from a serious
breakdown, Genov answered - as many as it takes to walk from the
Earth to the Sun. He also dissuaded any fears that the leakage
had anything to do with the oil spill that has been travelling
along the Danube, adding that the spill had nothing to do with
the plant.
All Rights Reserved © Novinite Ltd., 2001-2006 - Copyright
&Disclaimer - Privacy Policy
ISO 9001:2000 Certified
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency -
www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news
provider in English that informs its readers about the latest
Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily
online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News
Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish
*****************************************************************
56 Sydney Morning Herald: Radioactive snails found in Spain -
www.smh.com.au
October 12, 2006 - 12:35AM
The discovery of radioactive snails at a site in south-eastern
Spain where three US hydrogen bombs fell by accident 40 years
ago may trigger a new joint US-Spanish clean-up operation,
officials said.
The hydrogen bombs fell near the fishing village of Palomares in
1966 after a mid-air collision between a bomber and a refuelling
craft, in which seven of 11 crewmen died.
Hundreds of tons of soil were removed from the Palomares area
and shipped to the US after high explosive igniters on two bombs
detonated on impact, spreading plutonium dust-bearing clouds
across nearby fields.
Spanish authorities say the appearance of higher than normal
levels of radiation in snails and other creatures shows there
may be dangerous levels of plutonium and uranium below ground,
and a further clean-up could be necessary.
"We have to study the dirt, we have to look underground," said
Juan Antonio Rubio, director general of Spain's energy research
agency CIEMAT, which is carrying out an investigation with the
US Department of Energy.
"We don't know what's down there."
The US and Spain have agreed to share the cost of the initial
investigation, which is set to begin in November.
The governments have yet to agree on who would pay for a clean
up, according to a US embassy spokesman in Spain.
Spain's government has bought a 10-hectare area near Palomares
where the bombs fell.
Since 1966, the US has helped pay for Palomares residents to be
checked for signs of radiation poisoning. Spain says there is no
danger from surface radiation.
But it still advises local children not to work in fields at the
explosion site, nor eat their snails - which are a local
delicacy.
© 2006 Reuters, Click for Restrictions
send photos, videos &tip-offs to 0424 SMS SMH (+61 424 767 764),
or us.
Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald.
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57 LA Daily News: Questions remain over just how big accident was
BY KERRY CAVANAUGH and BETH BARRETT, Staff Writers
Updated:10/10/2006 10:04:36 PM PDT
Nearly a half-century after the meltdown of a nuclear reactor at
the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, serious questions remain
about the scope of the accident and its impact on thousands of
nearby residents.
Using computer modeling, a state-funded study released last week
estimated the meltdown released 300 times more radiation than
the infamous accident at Three-Mile Island - considered the
worst in the nation's history - and may have triggered at least
260 cancer cases.
Boeing Co., which now owns the lab, and the Department of
Energy, which contracted for its work, dispute the study's key
findings.
Yet the mystery around the accident remains, tangled by missing
data and what some say has been bureaucratic foot-dragging and
cover-ups. And the new studies have only reignited debate over
what happened on the hill in July 1959.
"I feel we've been strung along for 17 years," said Barbara
Johnson, a cancer survivor and one of several citizen watchdogs
dedicated to getting more information about what went on at the
field lab.
"Now that the evidence is coming out, they should take
responsibility and they aren't doing it.
"I'm angry and I've been angry for a long time. I'm angry,
because not only was our health exposed, but our time has been
compromised trying to fight this and to get answers that should
have been forthcoming a long time ago."
The latest study took seven years to complete. Researchers admit
their findings still had to be based on some speculation and
technical modeling to fill in information gaps.
"The true story of a partial meltdown of a reactor, without
containment structure, in the Los Angeles area - what should
have been one of the biggest stories of the period - was
buried," the study concluded.
Boeing and DOE officials say they have cooperated in numerous
health and environmental studies over the years and have worked
hard to provide information on the meltdown.
"There's an immense amount of information out there. When there
is a question or concern, we make an effort to find an answer
and get it out," said Blythe Jameson, spokeswoman for Boeing.
But community members say the story of the meltdown has been one
of the secrets and cover-ups that started the day the accident
occurred.
Remote test site
The Santa Susana Field Laboratory, located on 2,900 acres in the
hills between Chatsworth and Simi Valley, was developed as a
remote site to test rocket engines and conduct nuclear research.
The Atomic Energy Commission built the nation's first nuclear
power plant to deliver energy to the commercial grid at the lab.
Called the Sodium Reactor Experiment, the plant was featured on
Edward R. Murrow's television documentary show "See It Now" as
it delivered electricity to the then-tiny town of Moorpark.
But during a run from July 14 through July 26, 1959, workers
experienced problems with the reactor overheating. On July 26,
they shut it down and discovered that 13 of its 43 fuel rods had
partially melted, releasing unknown levels of radiation into the
reactor and the building that housed it.
Workers and the community remained unaware there was a problem.
"I never heard anything about a meltdown when I worked for the
company. It was never talked about and it was never in the
company paper," said Robert Perock, 75, who worked on rocket
engines at the field lab at the time.
He learned of the meltdown 40 years later when he was diagnosed
with a kind of leukemia linked to radiation exposure.
The only news of the incident came about a month after the
meltdown, when the Valley Green Sheet, a forerunner of the Daily
News, reported that a press release issued by Atomics
International said there had been an accident with its reactor,
but no radiation had escaped.
"No release of radioactive materials to the plant or its
environs occurred and operating personnel were not exposed to
harmful conditions," said the press release issued on Aug. 29,
1959.
Twenty years later, students and reporters were researching
Three-Mile Island, a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant that
suffered a partial meltdown that was the largest U.S. nuclear
accident ever.
It was they who discovered the Santa Susana lab meltdown. Then
in 1989, The Daily News revealed that the field lab contained
extensive radioactive and toxic contamination.
Boeing and DOE officials have conceded that the press release
didn't tell the whole truth. But to this day, nobody has been
able to say definitively what was released into the air because
the company has not provided monitoring reports detailing
specific radioactive materials that were released from the
reactor stack.
Released slowly
In 2004, Boeing and the DOE held a public meeting in Simi Valley
to detail what happened during and after the meltdown. They said
most of the radioactive material from the melted fuel rods was
trapped in the sodium coolant and never left the
concrete-encased reactor.
But according to an internal quarterly memo issued in 1959 by
Atomics International, radioactive gas from the accident was
transferred to a storage tank and slowly released through the
reactor's stack over several weeks.
The memo does not say what type of radiation or isotopes were in
the gas - whether they were relatively harmless or more
dangerous.
By comparison, quarterly memos issued before and after the
meltdown specify the kinds of isotopes released from the storage
tanks during their respective periods.
Nevertheless, Boeing and the DOE have repeatedly said the
radioactive gases released from the reactor were largely
harmless.
They estimate the closest resident living in the Santa Susana
Knolls in July 1959 would have been exposed to 0.018 millirem -
one-fifth the amount of radiation a person receives in a chest
X-ray.
"The off-site release was trivially small," said Phil
Rutherford, who heads health, safety and radiation oversight at
Boeing.
"We monitored all the radiation workers (after the meltdown).
Nobody exceeded their allowable regulatory exposures. We don't
see any contamination off-site."
But nuclear expert David Lochbaum believes more dangerous
radiation was released than Boeing or the DOE have acknowledged.
In the study released last week, Lochbaum analyzed technical
studies by the company immediately after the accident.
He said workers in that study said they couldn't locate all of
the dangerous radioactive materials that should have been in the
reactor. Therefore, Lochbaum said the materials must have
escaped.
He also studied a similar nuclear reactor meltdown, to gauge how
much radiation could have been released. He said those two
reviews supported his conclusions that at least some dangerous
radioactive material escaped from the reactor.
But the company report's executive summary - and the company's
subsequent position - were that no radiation was released.
"I can't explain how that happened," said Lochbaum, director of
the Union of Concerned Scientists' Nuclear Safety Project. "I
don't see how you can write a summary statement that contradicts
everything that precedes it."
More accusations
The independent Santa Susana Field Laboratory Advisory Panel,
which released last week's report, isn't the first to accuse
Boeing of withholding crucial information.
"Throughout its history, the facility has shrouded its
environmental problems behind a wall of secrecy. Revelations
about accidents, spills and releases have come reluctantly,
often involuntarily and frequently decades after the fact," its
report said.
For example, scientists have tried to find out which way the
wind was blowing on the day of the meltdown in order to track
where radiation could have moved.
Dan Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, which
has been acting as an environmental watchdog on the lab for more
than 25 years, said there was an Atomics International weather
station on the reactor at the time of the meltdown.
But the DOE and Boeing have denied requests for that
information.
DOE's Mike Lopez said he was not aware of such a request but
speculated his agency may have denied one if the weather data
came from Boeing.
"I know DOE doesn't have anything," Lopez said, when asked if
the agency has weather information from July 1959.
"Some data may exist. It may be an issue of what is government
data and what is private data."
Rutherford, the Boeing executive, said the company has weather
data from the 1960s - which has been released publicly - but
that he has never seen comparable information from July 1959.
Deflected oversight
Critics also say reassurances by the lab's owners have been used
over the years to deflect oversight by public agencies and delay
cleanups and health studies.
In the early 1980s, for instance, Ventura County officials
decided not to oversee operations at the site after being told
by company officials that no one had been hurt and no
radioactivity had leaked off-site.
But despite the denials and obstacles, every year more
information about the accident trickles out and public agencies
discover more contamination at the field lab.
By the summer of 1990, a consultant's report identified the
partial meltdown - as well as rocket-engine testing at the site
- as sources of possible radioactive and chemical exposure in
the area.
Shortly after that, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
radiation expert found that lab owners didn't have a good handle
on where radioactive materials had been dumped - inadvertently
or intentionally - on site.
The EPA recommended doing an independent survey analyzing
radiation in the soil, but the DOE decided the work was
unnecessary.
And while the hulking concrete reactor has since been dug up and
removed, there are still signs of it on site.
In recent years, the DOE has found high levels of radioactive
tritium in the groundwater at the lab. And off-site, some
radioactive materials have been found at a planned housing
development in Simi Valley - though regulatory agencies retested
and decided the radiation was below background levels.
The mystery surrounding the meltdown and what may be left behind
is now being fought in court. Last year, the Committee to Bridge
the Gap, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the city of
Los Angeles sued the Department of Energy over cleanup of the
lab.
And each year, neighbors around the field lab said they lose
more confidence in Boeing and the DOE.
"I think it's terrible that they deny that this happened," said
Holly Huff, who lives directly downhill from the lab.
"Everyone knows things happen and it was an experiment, so just
admit it and say, `Now what do we do about it; we're really
sorry.' They have to take responsibility for it."
kerry.cavanaugh@dailynews.com
(213) 978-0390
Los Angeles Newspaper Group
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58 Ventura County Star: Cancer isn't trivial
Opinion
October 10, 2006
As I watch the stories unfold about the test lab in Simi Valley,
formerly known as Rocketdyne and now owned by Boeing, I am struck
with awe that Phil Rutherford, who is the manager of health,
safety and radiation for Boeing, stated, "Off-site exposure was
trivially small."
My family moved to Simi Valley in January 1963. We drank and
bathed in well water that was tainted with perchlorate, a
chemical used in the washing of rocket engines at Rocketdyne.
The chemical has since been proved to have leached into the
groundwater. We played in the hills surrounding Simi Valley. My
father since has passed away from cancer. My identical twin
brother and I have had, and continue to deal with, thyroid
cancer, which has a direct relation to radiation exposure.
Recently, during our Simi Valley High School class reunion, my
brother and I discovered that many of our classmates had some
issues with cancer.
I have never found cancer to be trivial. Boeing has done its
best to conceal all of the mishaps that have jeopardized and
ended others' lives. I am not sure what impact this study will
have, but I personally know that we, as cancer survivors and
family members of those deceased, have no recourse. The
class-action suit that was settled was a payoff by Boeing and
was no admittance of guilt on its part. It obviously appears
that it continues to conceal its guilt. It cannot even release
the wind data for days on which events happened that compromised
the health of surrounding communities.
I guess all I can say to Rutherford is that if he unfortunately
ends up with cancer, it probably won't be too trivial to him and
his loved ones.
— Power Johnson,Santa Rosa Valley
Legacy of Rocketdyne
What's going on up at the old Rocketdyne site? It's hard to say.
Federal officials and Boeing public relations men say
everything's fine, so let's put the past behind us and just
cover everything up with new homes and playgrounds and schools.
State leaders and independent researchers say everything's a
mess and the risk to our families now and in the future from the
remaining poisons is too great.
Our present supervisor agrees with Boeing's public relations
men. Candidate Jim Dantona agrees that the risk to our families
is too great and that there should be no development on the
Rocketdyne site until it's cleaned up to Environmental
Protection Agency standards.
Who do we believe and what should we do about this problem? It's
not really a hard decision. As a Christian who openly advocates
for the health and safety of our communities, I need only ask
myself what argument Christ would take on this issue and vote
accordingly Nov. 7. God bless all those families who have
suffered, all those who suffer now and all those who will suffer
into the future because of the hardness of others.
— Gary Selvaggio,Simi Valley
2006 © The E.W. Scripps Co. Ventura County Star
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59 NRC: PA Site decon proposal
Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding
FR Doc E6-16738
[Federal Register: October 11, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 196)]
[Notices] [Page 59839-59842] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr11oc06-153]
of No Significant Impact for License Amendment to Byproduct
Materials License No. 37-17860-02, to Incorporate Revision Four
of the Decommissioning Plan for the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection, Bureau of Radiation Protection's
Quehanna Facility in Karthaus, PA AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
ACTION: Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No
Significant Impact for License Amendment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------ FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Kottan, Senior
Health Physicist, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear
Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia,
PA 19406; telephone (610) 337- 5214; fax number (610) 337-5269;
or by e-mail: jjk@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of a
license amendment to Byproduct Materials License No. 37-
17860-02. This license is held by the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection, Bureau of Radiation Protection (PADEP,
BRP) (the Licensee), for its Quehanna Facility (the Facility),
located in Karthaus, Pennsylvania. Issuance of the amendment
would incorporate revision four of the Decommissioning Plan (DP)
into the license to allow completion of decommissioning
activities at the site and eventual unrestricted release of the
Facility.
The Quehanna Facility is located near Karthaus, Clearfield
County, Pennsylvania, in the Quehanna Wild Area of the Moshannon
State Forest. The site is approximately seven acres in size, and
the area is heavily wooded and sparsely populated. The land in
the vicinity of the Facility is used for recreational activities,
including hiking, camping, and hunting. The site contains one
large building, several smaller buildings, asphalt parking lots
and driveways, a septic system leach field used for sanitary
sewer waste, and an approximately one acre pond. The main
building was constructed to house a pool reactor and associated
laboratories,
[[Page 59840]] hot cells, and offices. Auxiliary buildings
included the waste water treatment building with associated
underground tanks and piping and the water storage building.
The Facility was constructed in 1957 after the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania enacted legislation for the location of a research
facility at the Quehanna site. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
anticipated that the project would be a contributor to the
economy in the area. The facility was to be operated by
Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Plans for the facility included
development of nuclear jet engines, and research in nucleonics,
metallurgy, and other areas. In 1958, the AEC issued a license to
the Curtiss-Wright Corporation to operate a pool reactor at the
facility. The license also included use of the hot cells and
laboratories.
In September 1960, Curtiss-Wright Corporation donated the
Facility to the Pennsylvania State University (PSU). PSU planned
to use the reactor for training and research and leased the hot
cells to Martin- Marietta Corporation. Beginning in 1962
Martin-Marietta Corporation used the hot cells to manufacture
thermoelectric generators, known as SNAP generators. The SNAP
generators contained Sr-90, with as much as 80,000 Curies per
generator. In 1967, Martin-Marietta Corporation terminated its
lease for use of the hot cells after performing a partial
decontamination. However, licensable quantities of Sr-90
contamination remained in the hot cells and associated
facilities. Martin-Marietta Corporation was the last user of
Sr-90 at the facility.
Also in 1967, PSU returned the site back to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth then leased the site to NUMEC, a
subsidiary of the Atlantic-Richfield Corporation. NUMEC used the
reactor pool, after removal and shipment of the reactor
components and nuclear fuel, as a storage pool for a large
(approximately one million Curies) Co-60 irradiator. The
irradiator was used for various projects, including food
irradiation, sterilization, and irradiation of polymer-
impregnated hardwood.
In 1978, a group of Atlantic-Richfield Corporation employees
purchased the wood irradiation process, including the Co-60 pool
irradiator. The new company was named Permagrain Products
Corporation (Permagrain), and this company was issued NRC
Byproduct Materials License No. 37-17860-01. Permagrain also
assumed responsibility for the radioactive material left on site
by the previous tenants. In 1998 NRC Byproduct Materials License
No. 37-17860-02 was issued to Permagrain for the radioactive
material remaining on site from past operations. In December
2002, Permagrain initiated bankruptcy proceedings, and NRC
Byproduct Materials License No. 37-17860-02 was transferred to
PADEP, BRP. In 2003, the Co-60 in the irradiator was removed from
the pool and shipped to a licensed disposal site, and in 2004
Permagrain's NRC Byproduct Materials License No. 37-17860-01 was
terminated. No information is available regarding decontamination
of the site by previous tenants, Martin-Marietta Corporation, and
Atlantic- Richfield Corporation. In the early 1990s, the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania contracted with Canberra, Inc. to
perform a site characterization. The characterization determined
that the radioactive contaminants of concern were Co-60 and
Sr-90. In 1998, a DP for the site was submitted to the NRC, and
decommissioning of the site began. A revision to the DP was
submitted to the NRC in 2003, and decommissioning of the site
continued under this revision to the DP. In February 2005 a Final
Status Survey Report (FSSR) was submitted to the NRC for review.
The FSSR indicated that the site met the release criteria
specified in the NRC approved DP.
A subsequent confirmatory survey by the NRC in May 2005 indicated
that the site did not meet the release criteria specified in the
NRC approved DP. An investigation by the licensee determined that
the site failed to meet the release criteria, because Sr-90 had
leached to the surface of the concrete resulting in contamination
levels in excess of the release limits. This finding indicated
that concrete thought to contain only surface contamination was
volumetrically contaminated. Therefore, the previous criteria for
release of the site for unrestricted use, which were based on
surface contamination only, were no longer applicable.
In a letter dated March 9, 2006, the Licensee submitted revision
four of the DP which included dose based criteria for
unrestricted release of the site in accordance with 10 CFR 20,
Subpart E, taking into account the volumetrically contaminated
concrete. The Licensee's March 9, 2006 license amendment request
was noticed in the Federal Register on May 22, 2006 (71 FR
29357). This Federal Register notice also provided an opportunity
for a hearing on this licensing action. No hearing requests were
received. The NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA)
in support of this proposed action in accordance with the
requirements of Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part
51 (10 CFR Part 51). Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that
a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate with
respect to the proposed action. The amendment will be issued to
the Licensee following the publication of this FONSI and EA in
the Federal Register.
II. Environmental Assessment Identification of Proposed Action
The proposed action would approve the Licensee's March 9, 2006
license amendment request to incorporate revision four of the DP
into the license resulting in final decommissioning of the
Facility and subsequent release of the Facility and surrounding
site for unrestricted use. In addition to granting the licensee's
license amendment request, the proposed action would also grant,
pursuant to 10 CFR 30.11(a), an exemption to the Onyx Greentree
Landfill, LLC (located in Kersey, Pennsylvania) from 10 CFR Part
30 licensing requirements. This disposal facility will receive
the low-contaminated above-grade demolition material generated
during the Facility and site remediation activities. 10 CFR
30.11(a) provides that the Commission may, upon application by an
interested person, ``or upon its own initiative, grant such
exemptions'' from the 10 CFR Part 30 requirements ``as it
determines are authorized by law and will not endanger life or
property or the common defense and security and are otherwise in
the public interest.'' Under the exemption granted to the Onyx
Greentree Landfill, any low-contaminated demolition material from
the Facility and site would, upon its receipt at the Onyx
Greentree Landfill, no longer be subject to NRC regulation and
would no longer be NRC licensed material.
Need for the Proposed Action The proposed action is to approve
revision four of the DP so that the Licensee may complete
Facility decommissioning activities. Completion of
decommissioning activities will reduce residual radioactivity at
the Quehanna site and Facility. NRC regulations require licensees
to begin timely decommissioning of their sites, or any separate
buildings that contain residual radioactivity, upon cessation of
licensed operational activities, in accordance with 10 CFR
30.36(d). Additionally, due to the fact that the site is located
in the Quehanna Wild Area of the Moshannon State Forest, the
Licensee plans to eventually restore and return the land to
beneficial unrestricted use. The proposed licensing action will
support such an ultimate goal. NRC is fulfilling its
responsibilities under the
[[Page 59841]] Atomic Energy Act and the National Environmental
Policy Act to make a decision on a proposed license amendment for
decommissioning that ensures protection of the public health and
safety and the environment.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action The affected
environment was described in the Introduction section of this EA.
The NRC staff has reviewed the license amendment request for the
PADEP, BRP Quehanna site in Karthaus, Pennsylvania and examined
the impacts of this license amendment request. Potential impacts
include water resource impact (e.g., water may be used for dust
control) , air quality impacts from dust emissions, temporary
local traffic impacts resulting from transporting demolition
debris to a landfill, beneficial local economic effects due to
the creation of jobs to perform the decommissioning, human health
impacts, noise impacts from equipment operation, scenic quality
impacts, and waste management impacts. The resultant dose arising
from granting the related exemption would be less than one mrem
per year.
Based on its review, the staff has determined that no surface
water or ground water impacts are expected from the
dismantlement, deconstruction, and decontamination activities.
Additionally, the staff has determined that significant air
quality, noise, land use, and off- site radiation exposure
impacts are also not expected. No significant air quality impacts
are anticipated because of the contamination controls that will
be implemented by PADEP, BRP during dismantlement and
deconstruction. In addition, the environmental impacts associated
with dismantlement and deconstruction and the decontamination
activities are bounded by impacts evaluated by NUREG-0586,
``Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the
Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities,'' (GEIS). Generic impacts
for this type of dismantlement and deconstruction and
decontamination process were previously evaluated and described
in the GEIS, which concludes that the environmental consequences
are small. The risk to human health from the transportation of
all radioactive material in the U.S. was evaluated in NUREG-0170,
``Final Environmental Statement on the Transportation of
Radioactive Materials by Air and Other Modes.'' The principal
radiological environmental impact during normal transportation is
direct radiation exposure to nearby persons from radioactive
material in the package. The average annual individual dose from
all radioactive material transportation in the U.S. was
calculated to be approximately 0.5 mrem, well below the 10 CFR
20.1301 limit of 100 mrem for a member of the public.
Additionally, PADEP, BRP estimates that approximately 2,800 cubic
yards of low-contaminated demolition material waste will leave
the site over the course of the decommissioning project for
disposal at Onyx Greentree Landfill (a non- NRC licensed
landfill). The trucks will travel on local roads then on
Commonwealth highways to their intended destinations. This
proposed action will not significantly increase the probability
or consequences of accidents, no changes are being made in the
types of any effluents that may be released off site, and there
is no significant increase in occupational or public radiation
exposure. Thus, waste management and transportation impacts from
the building dismantlement and deconstruction will not be
significant.
Occupational health was also considered in the ``Final
Environmental Impact Statement on the Transportation of
Radioactive Material by Air and Other Modes.'' The Department of
Transportation (DOT) regulations in 49 CFR 177.842(g) require
that the radiation dose may not exceed 0.02 mSv (2 mrem) per hour
in any position normally occupied by an individual in a motor
vehicle. Shipment of these materials would not affect the
assessment of environmental impacts or the conclusions in the
``Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Transportation of
Radioactive Material by Air and Other Modes.'' The Staff also
finds that the proposed license amendment will meet the
radiological criteria for unrestricted release as specified in 10
CFR 20.1402. The Licensee demonstrated this through the
development of derived concentration guideline limits (DCGLs) for
its Facility.
The Licensee conducted site specific dose modeling using
parameters specific to the Facility that adequately bounded the
potential dose. This included dose modeling for three scenarios:
building surfaces, remaining concrete, and soil. The building
surface scenario was based on the disposal of the above-grade
structure demolition debris in an industrial landfill, and the
concrete and soil dose modeling were based on a hunting camp
scenario.
PADEP, BRP will maintain an appropriate level of radiation
protection staff, procedures, and capabilities, and, through its
Radiation Safety Officer, will implement an acceptable program to
keep exposure to radioactive materials as low as reasonably
achievable (ALARA). Work activities are not anticipated to result
in radiation exposures to the public in excess of 10 percent of
the 10 CFR 20.1301 limits.
The NRC also evaluated whether cumulative environmental impacts
could result from an incremental impact of the proposed action
when added to other past, present, or reasonably foreseeable
future actions in the area. The proposed NRC approval of the
license amendment request, when combined with known effects on
resource areas at the site, including further site remediation,
are not anticipated to result in any cumulative impacts at the
site.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
The only alternative to the proposed action of decommissioning
the Facility is no action. The no action alternative is not
acceptable because it conflicts with 10 CFR 30.36(d) which
requires that decommissioning of byproduct material facilities be
completed and approved by the NRC after licensed activities
cease. The no action alternative would keep radioactive material
on site without disposal. Maintaining the buildings on site would
provide negligible, if any, environmental benefit, but would
greatly reduce options for future use of the site, including
restoring the site to its wild state.
Conclusion The NRC staff has concluded that the proposed action
is consistent with NRC guidance and regulations. Because the
proposed action will not significantly impact the quality of the
human environment, the NRC staff concludes that the proposed
action is the preferred alternative.
Agencies and Persons Consulted The NRC staff prepared this EA
with input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in its letter
dated August 22, 2006. The Fish and Wildlife Service indicated,
in its letter, that on the basis of current information, no
current Federally identified or proposed threatened or endangered
species under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service jurisdiction are
known to occur in the site project area. Additionally, NRC had
contacted the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission,
Bureau for Historical Preservation, in June 2003 regarding
preparation of an EA for a previous licensing action for this
Facility. At that time the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission, Bureau for Historical Preservation stated
[[Page 59842]] that ``there are no National Register eligible or
listed historical or archaeological properties in the area of the
proposed project and your responsibility for consultation with
the State Historic Preservation Office for this project, under
Section 106, is complete.'' Therefore, no further consultation is
required under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation
Act for this EA.
NRC provided a draft of this EA to PADEP, BRP for review. On July
27, 2006, PADEP, BRP responded by e-mail. PADEP, BRP agreed with
the conclusions of the EA, and otherwise had no substantive
comments.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact The NRC staff has prepared
this EA in support of the proposed action. On the basis of this
EA, the NRC finds that there are no significant environmental
impacts from the proposed action, and that preparation of an
environmental impact statement is not warranted. Accordingly, the
NRC has determined that a FONSI is appropriate.
IV. Further Information Documents related to this action,
including the application for license amendment and supporting
documentation, are available electronically at the NRC's
Electronic Reading Room at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can
access the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System
(ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public
documents. The documents related to this action are listed below,
along with their ADAMS accession numbers.
1. Amendment request with revision four of the DP (ML060790152);
2. The Licensee's March 9, 2006, license amendment request was
noticed in the Federal Register on May 22, 2006 (71 FR 29357).
This Federal Register notice also provided an opportunity for a
hearing on this licensing action; 3. NUREG-0170, ``Final
Environmental Impact Statement on the Transportation of
Radioactive Material by Air and Other Modes;'' 4. NUREG-0586,
``Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the
Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities;'' 5. NUREG-1748,
``Environmental Review Guidance for Licensing Actions Associated
with NMSS Programs;'' 6. NUREG-1757, ``Consolidated NMSS
Decommissioning Guidance;'' 7. Title 10 Code of Federal
Regulations, Part 20, Subpart E, ``Radiological Criteria for
License Termination;'' 8. Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations,
Part 51, ``Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic
Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions;'' 9. NUREG-1496,
``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking
on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC- Licensed
Nuclear Facilities'' If you do not have access to ADAMS, or if
there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS,
contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at
1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. These
documents may also be viewed electronically on the public
computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 F21, One White Flint
North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR
reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee.
Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 29th day of September
2006.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
James Kottan, Acting Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of
Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I.
[FR Doc. E6-16738 Filed 10-10-06; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
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60 Ventura County Star: Boeing still analyzing study of lab accident
Officials say cancer claims without merit
By Teresa Rochester, trochester@VenturaCountyStar.com
October 11, 2006
A study released late last week linking a 1959 nuclear reactor
partial meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to hundreds
of cases of cancer is still being analyzed by the site's owner,
Boeing Co.
While their analysis is incomplete, Boeing officials are firm in
their initial assessment that the study is without scientific
merit.
Boeing spokeswoman Blythe Jameson described the panel's study
as baseless and "a great disservice to employees and the
public."
After reviewing a summary of the study last week, Boeing
officials said it was based on erroneous assumptions. The
company will release its take on the study's findings once its
analysis is completed.
The five-year study was conducted by the Santa Susana Field
Laboratory Advisory Panel, which is made up of 17 scientists
from around the country. It found the partial meltdown caused
between 260 and 1,800 cancer cases within 60 square miles of the
reactor.
Some of the findings were based on modeling rather than specific
data because requests for information made to the site's
previous owner, Rocketdyne, were declined. Among the information
requested and not received was data regarding weather conditions
and wind patterns on the day of the 1959 accident.
On Monday, Jameson said Boeing had supplied the information to
regulatory agencies and to the public at a meeting two years
ago.
Last week, Phil Rutherford, manager of health, safety and
radiation services for Boeing, said the advisory panel had never
asked the company for any information.
Panel member Dan Hirsch, co-chairman of Committee to Bridge the
Gap, said the nuclear-watchdog group made several attempts to
get the information.
Hirsch pointed to a 2001 letter to the Santa Susana Field
Laboratory InterAgency Workgroup from a Ventura County Air
Pollution Control District employee who tried to get
meteorological data for the lab but was rebuffed by Boeing.
Extensive environmental investigations have been going on for
years at the lab, in the hills south of Simi Valley, Boeing
officials said. State and federal agencies have concluded there
is no increase in cancer rates surrounding the field laboratory.
Jameson said a 1999 study by the Agency for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry did not "identify an apparent public health
hazard to surrounding communities."
The registry's study was preliminary, and it commissioned two
follow-up studies by UCLA researchers, whose findings were
released earlier this year. The studies found areas surrounding
the field lab might have been exposed to contaminants in the
air, soil and water, and people living closest to the laboratory
had slightly higher incidents of cancer.
Boeing submitted its response to those studies last month and
challenged the results of the studies.
"One of our questions for UCLA is how they came up with some
different conclusions by using the same data" as the Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Jameson said.
The panel's report has sparked calls by public officials for a
full accounting of the site's history.
A letter to California's Attorney General's Office from Ventura
County Supervisor Linda Parks has not yet been received, a
spokeswoman said Tuesday.
State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, will also send a letter
to the Attorney General's Office and one to Boeing.
"I will certainly be sending Boeing a letter to reconsider their
state of denial and be more forthcoming about the data they have
been withholding," Kuehl said. "I do not have great hopes that
they will have a turn of conscience."
Kuehl said the problem is jurisdiction over cleanup standards.
Because they fall into the federal government's purview, the
state has a hard time setting up standards. Kuehl wants to
propose legislation that would set a cleanup standard that would
be required when properties like the field lab are released or
transferred for residential use.
Spokeswoman Teresa Schilling said the attorney general does look
into situations where environmental laws may have been broken
and there may be an impact on public health.
2006 © The E.W. Scripps Co. Ventura County Star
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61 Helsingin Sanomat: Farmers and summer residents unite against uranium prospecting
12.10.2006
Ministry gives go-ahead for claim in North Karelia
An application for a uranium mining claim by the French mining
company Areva has sparked strong protests among farmers and
summer cottage owners in Nummi-Pusula and Somero in the south of
Finland. Areva wants to explore for uranium in an area covering
about 50 square kilometres, and to assess the viability of
opening a mine in the area.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Trade and Industry granted
Areva a claim in Eno and Kontiolahti in North Karelia.
Possible commercial mining might begin 20 to 30 years from
now.
In Nummi-Pusula, in the West Uusimaa region, opposition to
Areva’s plans for prospecting for uranium was apparent to
anyone driving along the main road in the area. Every other
utility pole had a sign saying no to uranium mining, and some
land owners expressed similar sentiments on their fence posts,
indicating that a mine would be unwelcome in their back yards.
Areva submitted its application for exploration on
Tuesday. In the application, 35 of the proposed 50 square
kilometres would be in Nummi-Pusula, and the remaining 15 in
neighbouring Somero. There are a total of nearly 400 farms in
the area.
The plans came as a surprise to at least some of the summer
residents.
"We have been kept in the dark. There has been hardly any
information. However, a big issue is at stake. Companies can
change owners, or disappear, but excavated mines stay there for
thousands or hundreds of thousands of years", said mining
opponent Riikka Levonen.
On the other hand, Areva had actually made a public
announcement of the plan last year, and the municipality of
Nummi-Pusula had taken a negative stand on the matter.
However, the information had not filtered through to the
thousands of summer residents of Numi-Pusula, who mainly come
from the Helsinki region.
On Tuesday, information on the matter was offered at three
events. First, Areva briefed the press on the matter. The press
conference was a closed event: MP Heidi Hautala (Green) and Eero
Soinio, the municipal mayor of Nummi-Pusula, were not allowed
inside.
"We had an event organised by a private company. We did
not want any outsiders there", said Osmo Kaipainen, managing
director of Areva Resources Finland.
The opponents of the project later held an event of their
own, and in the evening there was a meeting at which villagers
and Areva met each other.
Opponents of the project said that Areva had said that it would
not promote the project if residents objected.
Kaipainen says that the company’s words had been
misconstrued. "Our management has used the expression 'people of
Finland', which is a broader concept."
Also on Tuesday, the Ministry of Trade and Industry granted
Areva permission to prospect for uranium and other ores in Eno
and Kontiolahti in North Karelia.
The decision requires the use of methods that cause little
permanent damage to the environment. The permission does not
extend to test excavation or experimental refining of the ore.
The claim rights are valid for five years, and apply to 18
areas with a combined surface area of about 1,500 hectares. The
company believes that there are deposits of uranium and thorium
in the area.
If there are no appeals, the decision will take effect on
December 4th, after which the work can begin. However, Osmo
Kaipainen notes that it may take until the spring, when the snow
melts, before the prospecting can begin.
The initial goal is to collect information from the area over a
period of a few years.
"First are the geophysical studies, which will be
conducted by plane or helicopter. The aim is to get more
detailed information to make it easier to mark it", Kaipainen
explains.
"After a few years, the areas will be narrowed down to one
or two square kilometres, and they will be studied more closely.
If the deposits are promising, we might start drilling in a year
or two.
It could take 10 to 15 years beofre planning for the mine
can start, and the planning itself could take as long.
Helsingin Sanomat
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62 Ventura County Star: Editorial: Time for truth at Rocketdyne
October 11, 2006
It is time for the truth to come out about Rocketdyne's
2,850-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley, now
owned by Boeing Co.
It is unacceptable that any information was, or will continue to
be, withheld from the public about the lab. It is unacceptable
that information was withheld from an independent team of 17
scientists that, for five years, has been investigating the
health effects of a partial nuclear meltdown at the lab in 1959.
The state-commissioned panel's study was released Thursday, with
much new disturbing information.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has been asked by
county Supervisor Linda Parks to "demand full documentation of
operations at the lab since its opening in 1948"; and state Sen.
Sheila Kuehl told The Star she will press Boeing Co. to "give us
the full and accurate picture of everything that has gone on
there, in secret, that may have put the community at risk."
Certainly, we expect Rep. Elton Gallegly, who lives in Simi
Valley, to demand full disclosure from Boeing and the federal
government. The Department of Energy was also cited by the panel
as withholding key information. All elected officials
representing Ventura County must bring the power of local, state
and national governments to bear on Boeing Co. and any other
agency or company with ties to the lab to provide all
information related to the lab's operations, from the time it
was started to the present day.
Many Americans remember the partial nuclear meltdown at
Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in
Pennsylvania in 1979, which led to reforms in nuclear-reactor
safety. Rocketdyne's partial meltdown, according to the panel of
scientists, released nearly 459 times more radiation than the
partial nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island.
The panel's study also describes fires involving radioactive
materials at Rocketdyne — the largest "hot lab" in the country —
which took in large amounts of irradiated nuclear fuel from all
over the country. Those fires, the study states, caused massive
contamination.
In addition, in violation of restrictions on doing so,
radioactive and chemical substances were burned for years in an
open-air sodium burn pit. Those practices further polluted soil
and groundwater at the field lab.
Remarkably, the partial nuclear meltdown in 1959 was virtually
unknown to the public until 1979 when UCLA graduate students
unearthed the information through the Freedom of Information
Act.
The obfuscation and what look to be out and out lies by lab
officials continue today. In just one example, the panel
requested weather data from 1959 to determine which way the
contaminants were dispersed. The report states: "Rocketdyne
declined, asserting that the information was proprietary — a
trade secret. Which way the wind blowing nearly 50 years ago
obviously is not a business secret ?. Withholding of weather
data suggests the possibility that Boeing has something to hide
regarding the implication for environmental releases and
exposure of off-site populations."
Boeing officials didn't recall the request, but the Ventura
County Air Pollution Control District has a record of its
unsuccessful efforts to get that information in 2001. It is
galling that Boeing would attack the panel's study by saying it
is based on faulty assumptions and bad information when it
refused to supply even the most basic information to the panel,
such as which way the wind was blowing in 1959.
What are the odds that 17 scientists from around the country
would work for five years to produce a study that is, in the
words of Boeing spokeswoman Blythe Jameson, "baseless and
without scientific merit"?
No one is talking ancient history here or trying to right a past
wrong. We are talking about the public's health today. Steven
Wing, an epidemiologist and co-chairman of the panel, said:
"Several hundred cancers have been caused and will be caused in
the future from that one accident at the site in 1959. That
incident led to off-site dispersion of radioactive materials
that continue to expose people to this day."
He continued: "This is a serious situation ?. We still don't
have a lot of information that would be important for estimating
the health impacts of releases from the site."
Despite the study noting the 1959 incident released 459 times
more radiation than Three Mile Island and documenting at least
four other accidents at the site, Phil Rutherford, manager of
health, safety and radiation services for Boeing, said Thursday,
"Off-site exposure was trivially small."
In 1959, lab officials told the media there was no release of
radioactive materials.
The Star and citizens whose very lives are likely at stake
demand full disclosure to determine the truth.
2006 © The E.W. Scripps Co. Ventura County Star
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63 LA Daily News: Santa Susana cover-up
We have a right to know whole truth about reactor meltdown
Updated:10/08/2006 05:25:37 PM PDT
THE cover-up of what happened at the Santa Susana Field
Laboratory in the Simi Hills above Chatsworth must end.
Evidence is compelling that the legacy of the field lab where
nuclear and rocket research was conducted for decades is
contaminated ground - and the likelihood that hundreds of people
in the San Fernando Valley area were exposed to radiation from
the worst nuclear reactor accident in U.S. history.
The results of a seven-year state-funded study released last
week indicate that the partial meltdown of the nuclear reactor
at the lab in 1959 released more radiation than even the Three
Mile Island incident. It may be responsible for hundreds of
cancer cases in the area since, maybe as many as 1,800.
At the time of the incident half a century ago, the government's
reaction was to cover up the meltdown. It wasn't until 1989 that
the contamination of the lab was exposed at all, and only when
the Daily News got hold of secret government reports.
At the same time, it was exposed that the lab site was also
contaminated by extremely toxic dioxins, mercury and other heavy
metals.
In the face of this new report that the radiation was even more
widespread, the government and Boeing - the company that's taken
ownership of the contaminated site - continue to stonewall.
Officials brushed off this report as based on false presumptions,
even though they withheld key information from researchers.
It's way beyond the point that a cover-up can work. We know that
the site is tainted, and the government and the site's owners
have a responsibility to neighboring communities to offer a full
accounting of all the hazards at the lab site.
If ever there was a time for a complete debriefing of the toxic
history of this hilltop site, this is it.
The truth, the whole truth, must come out.
Los Angeles Newspaper Group
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64 Salt Lake Tribune: Utah regulators hold hearings on expansion of waste dump
The Associated Press
Updated:10/11/2006
EnergySolutions is seeking state approval to merge two low-level
radioactive waste cells into one supercell on a square-mile patch
of land in Utah's west desert.
The new cell would pile waste 83 feet high, up from about 53
feet under terms of the company's operating license.
The Utah Division of Radiation Control will hold public
hearings Wednesday in Salt Lake City and Tooele on the proposal
that would expand the capacity of the waste site by nearly 50
percent.
The division will continue to gather public comment until
Nov. 10, then decide whether to amend EnergySolutions' license
for the supercell, said Greg Hopkins, EnergySolutions vice
president of communications.
Hopkins said the division's Radiation Control Board gave
tentative approval for the expansion last spring, with final
approval awaiting a public airing of the company's plans.
EnergySolutions, formerly Envirocare, has been in business
since 1988 near Clive, a rail spur 80 miles west of Salt Lake
City, taking medical waste, contaminated soil and assorted
debris from nuclear power plants and decommissioned defense
depots.
In a separate proposal, Radiation Control Director Dane
Finerfrock has given permission for EnergySolutions to increase
its waste site from 543 acres to 1,079 acres.
That plan remains on hold, however, as a public-health group
challenges Finerfrock's authority. The Healthy Environment
Alliance of Utah says that decision belongs to Gov. Jon Huntsman
and the Legislature and has filed a lawsuit now before the Utah
Supreme Court.
Envirocare was founded by Khosrow Semnani, who sold it last
year to a private equity group led by New York City-based Lindsay
Goldberg & Bessemer, Peterson Partners and Creamer Investments.
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65 AdelaideNow: Uranium to heat up Labor debate
GREG KELTON, STATE POLITICAL REPORTER
October 12, 2006 12:15am Article from: ![]()
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
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70 KnoxNews: Small fire confirmed at uranium warehouse
Official says Sept. 22 incident at Y-12 over in a 'matter of
minutes'
By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com
October 11, 2006
OAK RIDGE - A small fire occurred Sept. 22 in a warehouse where
highly enriched uranium and other materials are stored at the
Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, a spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
But the uranium itself did not catch on fire, and the entire
incident was over in a "matter of minutes," said Bill Wilburn of
BWXT, the company that manages Y-12 for the federal government.
The Project On Government Oversight, a Washington-based watchdog
group, was the first to report on the incident. Peter Stockton,
an investigator with POGO, said the group has long been concerned
about the Y-12 warehouse, Building 9720-5, because it is
constructed of wood and is considered vulnerable to fire.
The incident occurred while workers were using a protective
"glove bag" to examine a package of highly enriched uranium that
was wrapped in plastic and masking tape, Wilburn said. A glove
bag allows workers to examine uranium without the possible
release of contaminants or direct exposure to the radioactive
material, he said.
During the procedure, a small piece of the uranium apparently
oxidized upon exposure to air and caused some combustion of the
plastic packaging and masking tape, he said.
Neither the uranium nor the glove bag caught fire, Wilburn said.
Workers immediately put out the fire using powdered graphite,
known as coke, he said.
"There were no injuries and no release of contamination," the
Y-12 spokesman said. "They responded quickly, and the other
folks evacuated the building. The whole incident only lasted a
matter of minutes."
Wilburn said an investigation of the incident was being
conducted, but he said he did not know the status of it. He said
he could not comment on POGO's remarks about the building being
constructed of wood.
"I can't discuss the building or what it's made out of," he
said.
Steven Wyatt, a federal spokesman with the National Nuclear
Security Administration, said Y-12 workers reacted properly to
an unexpected event.
"It's certainly something you don't want to happen, but their
response was very swift," Wyatt said.
The workers were handling a "legacy" material that has been in
storage at the Oak Ridge nuclear facility since the 1970s,
Wilburn said.
Y-12 employees are "de-inventorying" Building 9720-5, as part of
the preparations for moving into a new storage facility for
highly enriched uranium. The new $500 million storage center is
under construction and about 35 percent completed.
Oak Ridge officials typically do not discuss their storage
facilities in depth for safety and security reasons.
According to a study guide for workers published in 1997,
Building 9720-5 is used for storage and shipping of safeguarded
nuclear materials.
"The materials handled in the warehouse include uranium,
lithium, beryllium, and thorium and come in the form of canned
subassemblies, fuel assemblies, oxides, metals and alloys," the
document states.
Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
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71 Oak Ridger: Small fire in Y-12 Plants uranium warehouse verified
Story last updated at 1:42 pm on 10/11/2006
By: Duncan Mansfield | The Oak Ridger
KNOXVILLE A small fire occurred when workers inspected highly
enriched uranium stored in a huge aging warehouse at the Y-12
nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, officials confirmed Tuesday.
You are dealing with a material that you have to handle carefully
and they were handling it carefully, said Bill Wilburn, a
spokesman for the plants managing contractor BWX Technologies.
No one was injured and there was no release of radiation, Wilburn
said.
The Y-12 plant, located about 20 miles west of Knoxville, makes
parts for every warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It also is
the nations primary storehouse for bomb-grade uranium.
The incident occurred in late September, according to the
Washington-based watchdog group Project On Government Oversight
or POGO, which disclosed it Tuesday.
Our understanding was that the (radioactive) material actually
burned, said Peter Stockton, a former Department of Energy
official who is now POGOs lead investigator.
But Wilburn said only the plastic bag and masking tape in which
the uranium was packed ignited, apparently when the material was
exposed to air. The fire was quickly extinguished with powdered
graphite, known as coke.
Workers had placed the uranium package in a glove bag before
examining it, Wilburn said. That prevented any release of
contamination.
Wilburn said an internal review was under way.
Stockton said the 54,000-square-foot structure where this
occurred, known as Building 9720-5, has long been considered
vulnerable to fire because it is wooden. The warehouse dates to
Y-12s creation in 1945 as part of the Manhattan Project.
The building is one of five uranium warehouses within the Y-12
complex. A modern concrete storehouse is now being built to
consolidate the uranium stockpile. But construction delays have
pushed back its opening to 2008 or 2009.
They were inspecting the material in preparation for
de-inventorying the building, which means moving all the stuff
out, Wilburn said.
The material that ignited was created in the 1960s or 1970s, he
said.
The problem is that they have all kinds of barrels and stuff
down there that they havent opened in two, three or four decades
and they dont know what is in them, Stockton said. And that is
kind of what they were afraid of, that this kind of thing could
happen and it could get out of control.
DOE officials will not say exactly what or how much material is
stored in 9720-5.
A 1997 DOE-Oak Ridge Operations study guide said the building
held uranium, lithium, beryllium and thorium in various forms in
storage vaults, storage cages and weighing stations.
On the Net:
Y-12 Plant: http://www.y12.doe.gov
Project On Government Oversight: http://www.pogo.org
The Oak Ridger |
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72 KnoxNews: Newcomer to the area conducts monumental study of Oak Ridge
By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com
October 10, 2006
Oak Ridge is spectacularly abnormal, and Oak Ridgers are pretty
proud of that.
Heck, even outsiders can become absorbed with the Tennessee town
that gave birth to the atomic bomb during World War II and never
relinquished its spirit of innovation.
Take 68-year-old Edward Lollis, for instance.
He moved to the area in 2002 after a career in the U.S. foreign
service and living around the world. He soon became intrigued -
maybe fixated is a better word - with Oak Ridge. Now he's
teaching a course on Oak Ridge monuments.
"I'm really in love with Oak Ridge," Lollis said.
Lollis said he and his wife moved to Knoxville four years ago -
just chose it off the map without knowing a soul. While waiting
for their house to be built in West Knox, they needed a cheap
place to live for a short while and ended up in a 1943-era
apartment building in Oak Ridge not far from the town's historic
Jackson Square.
That fueled his fire, but his first experience with Oak Ridge
came decades earlier.
Growing up as a kid during World War II in Indianapolis, Lollis
and his family used to take car trips, especially after the
wartime gas rationing passed and peacetime prosperity emerged.
The vacation favorite was an annual two-week trip to Florida,
with lots of stops along the way. When his father learned that
the government had opened the gates to Oak Ridge, making the
mysterious Atomic City accessible to visitors, the Lollis family
stopped by on the way to the Sunshine State.
Lollis still has his souvenir - an irradiated dime - from that
childhood vacation.
He still has a curiosity as big as can be, and when he
rediscovered Oak Ridge in his 60s, he used the Internet to learn
about the town and its history and many of the quirky things
that exist there. If he saw something, he Googled it. If he
heard about something, he Googled it. He took advantage of every
tour, used every map, drove every road, and generally took every
opportunity to see things in Oak Ridge he might otherwise not
know about.
He has assembled a collection of loosely defined monuments,
which range from street signs and fence postings to some of the
important facilities of the A-bomb Manhattan Project. It's
eclectic and awfully interesting.
He includes both "intentional" and "unintentional" monuments,
which total more than 320 and collectively contribute to the
city's interest and vitality.
His favorite is a little sign on a gate leading to the site of
the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project, the ill-fated nuke
project that was killed by Congress after more than a $1 billion
was spent in development.
Lollis is teaching a five-session course on the monuments for
the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning, a nonprofit
institute that's sponsored by Roane State Community College.
The classes are scheduled for Oct. 31, Nov. 7, Nov. 14, Nov. 21
and Nov. 28, and the third class will feature a presentation by
Oak Ridge historian Bill Wilcox on the Secret City Commemorative
Walk. Another session will be dedicated to the background of the
International Friendship Bell.
Lollis said he is really just starting to know Oak Ridge, and he
said he realizes there are plenty of people around who know more
than he does. He expects to learn more from those enrolled in
the classes.
The Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning is a perfect
forum for these classes. ORICL is sort of a monument to Oak
Ridge itself, personifying what makes the place special.
The institute is all about fun and keeping bright minds alive,
learning and sharing and enjoying the journey.
It's already past the August registration deadline for the fall
semester, but Sandy Pfeiler, the institute's assistant
administrator, said there are still openings for the classes on
Oak Ridge monuments.
The registration fee for ORICL is $90, which allows members to
participate in multiple classes and trips sponsored by the group
for a year.
For more information, contact the institute at 865-481-8222 or
visit the Web site at: http://discoveret.org/oricl.
Senior writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for
the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6329 or at .
This column is also available in the opinion section of
knoxnews.com.
© 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
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