***************************************************************** 10/22/06 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 14.250 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 IRNA: Iran calls on Europe to return to honest-to-goodness N-talks - 2 New York Times: Iran's President Warns Israels Allies - 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI responds to EU statement 4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI stays course of talks - Hosseini 5 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Hashemi: IRI renounces nuclear arms 6 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Iran, Belarus to expand mutual ties 7 Guardian Unlimited: Report: 2nd Nuke Test Not Scheduled 8 AFP: Iran sees no reason to halt enrichment, urges talks - 9 AFP: Iran vows retaliation for UN nuclear sanctions - Yahoo! News 10 UPI: Russia minister reaffirms support for Iran 11 UPI: Iran appeals to EU on uranium enrichment 12 Guardian Unlimited: Rice Confident of U.N. Action on Iran 13 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Suggests Talks With West 14 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Vows to Answer Western Sanctions 15 [NYTr] US upholds "nuclear umbrella" for South Korea 16 Guardian Unlimited: S. Koreans Protest U.S. Free Trade Deal 17 Guardian Unlimited: Seoul Hesitant to End N. Korea Projects 18 Asia Times: Korea News - A tell-tale little nuke 19 Korea Times: DJ Defends Sunshine Policy 20 Korea Times: US Doubts Kim Jong-il¡¯s Remark 21 Korea Times: Fear of Nuclear Domino Effect 22 AFP: US, China at odds over how to handle NKorea 23 AFP: NKorea said to be ready for nuclear compromise 24 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy to Focus on N. Korea Assets 25 US: [NYTr] US Plan for New Nuclear Weapons Advances 26 US: Chris Hedges: Bush's Nuclear Apocalypse 27 US: Daily Nexus: Conference Explores Nuclear Alternatives - 28 US: Houston Chronicle: Facilities have no joint plans — for now 29 OneWorld UK: U.S. Public at Risk from Radiation - Scientists 30 UPI: Rice criticizes Russia on several matters 31 [NYTr] Crashing the Party at the Nuclear Club 32 Guardian Unlimited: Report: Japan May Help With Cargo Probes 33 The Observer: Think-tank raps Blair over nuclear policies 34 Guardian Unlimited: Ahmadinejad warns Europe it will pay for backing 35 Gulfnews: Israel must open up nuke program to IAEA, says UAE 36 UPI: Putin won't sign EU energy pact NUCLEAR REACTORS 37 US: AZ Republic: Palo Verde unit expected to be running today after 38 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo part of national nuclear acciden 39 US: Houston Chronicle: Some welcome Andrews County nuclear projects 40 BBC NEWS: Putin firm on EU energy charter 41 Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Kewaunee nuclear plant plans to ask 42 US: Times Argus: Vermont Yankee evacuation blueprint facing late scr 43 US: GBPG: Kewaunee Co. nuclear plant needs new storage option for wa 44 US: BJ: N.C. opposes Duke on recovering nuclear plant costs - 45 Japan Times: India-American nuclear deal foundering 46 US: Napa Valley Register: Preparing for a safe nuclear future 47 US: Decatur Daily: TVA hoping to fuel Unit 1 in December NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 48 US: DailyBulletin.com: Link to Wyle missing in rare illness NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 49 reviewjournal.com: GETTING NUCLEAR WASTE TO YUCCA: More time urged t 50 Deseret News: Hold Yucca hearings in Salt Lake City? 51 US: USNews.com: Nuclear Power Is Trendy Again, but What About the Wa 52 US: MaineToday.com: Sorry saga of the waste we paid to get rid of 53 US: Mining Journal: Nuclear waste plan opposed 54 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP Records Archive relocates in city 55 The Day: The Costs Of Delaying Yucca Mountain PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 56 MercuryNews.com: U.S. plans to centralize its work with plutonium 57 The State: Nuclear waste burial plan at SRS under scrutiny 58 The State: Cuts gut ecology research at SRS 59 Pantex may have new role in nuclear weapons work 60 SF New Mexican: Contractor layoffs have town on its toes 61 Idaho Statesman: INL blows up old reactor building 62 Tri-City Herald: Biofuels summit offers look at alternative energy s 63 FresnoBee.com: Lab workers may get $150k payments 64 Tennessean: Union workers will return to Nuclear Fuel Services - 65 Cincinnati Post: Paducah plant ordered to do drug tests 66 Inside Bay Area: Lab scoops R&D awards ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 IRNA: Iran calls on Europe to return to honest-to-goodness N-talks - Tehran, Oct 21, IRNA Iran-Europe-Nuclear Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here Saturday called on the European side to return to nuclear negotiations honestly and in good faith. Mottaki's remarks came as he spoke to reporters during a joint press conference with his Belarussian counterpart. "Iran sees no reason to halt (uranium) enrichment. Iran's decision to enrich uranium is logical and based on the country's right as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," he said. "However, we are ready to discuss the reasons behind our enrichment through talks," he added. "The era and language of threats have passed. Those who are threatening Iran know how it is to implement threats in our region." 2327/2321/ ***************************************************************** 2 New York Times: Iran's President Warns Israels Allies - By NAZILA FATHI Published: October 20, 2006 TEHRAN, Oct. 20 — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadwarned today that Western countries, particularly in Europe, will be hurt by popular fury caused by their support of Israel. Skip to next paragraph [ border=] Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran during Friday prayers at a university in Tehran. Referring to European nations, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, “People in the region blame you for any crime or invasion against any country, and will take revenge on you.” “You should know that the rage of people is boiling and is like an ocean that is welling up,” he said in a speech broadcast nationally on radio. “Once its storm begins blowing, it will go beyond the borders of Lebanon and Palestine, and it will hurt European countries.” The occasion for the speech was Qods (Jerusalem) Day, which Iran marks on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan each year in support of Palestinian resistance against Israel. Mr. Ahmadinejad told tens of thousands of demonstrators in Tehran that Israel could not last long after its experience in fighting Hezbollahin southern Lebanon over the summer. “Hezbollah shattered the myth that Israel is undefeatable,” he said. “Now Israel has no reason to exist.” State-run television showed images of thousands of demonstrators around the country, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” People carried pictures of Sheik Hassan Nassrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and set fire to American and Israeli flags. In his Qods Day speech last year, Mr. Ahmadinejad provoked international outrage when he said that the Holocaust was a myth, and repeated a slogan from the leader of the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, saying “Israel should be wiped off the map.” He repeated his allegations about the Holocaust today, and said of the West, “Even if we assume that 6 million Jews were killed in World War II, how come you don’t sympathize for the other 54 million who were killed as well? It is not even clear who counted those you sympathize for.” He went on to say that Israel had held European countries hostage over what happened in the 1940’s. Television news programs today also showed images of demonstrators chanting in support of Iran’s nuclear program. Mr. Ahmadinejad repeated his position that Iran will not give in to international demands that it suspend its uranium enrichment program, and dismissed efforts by the United Nationsto impose sanctions on Iran. “They want to use the Security Council as an instrument to put pressure on our people,” he said. “But thank God, they will never succeed.” “Such decisions are illegitimate,” he added. A former president of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, also warned Western countries today that sanctions against Iran would have serious consequences for Europeans as well as Iranians. “I advise them not to implement the harmful decision they have made over Iran’s nuclear program,” he said at a rally in the capital. “The decision will have harmful consequences for the region, for them, as well as our country.” Mr. Rafsanjani is the first prominent official here to acknowledge publicly that sanctions would harm Iran. Though he has backed Iran’s nuclear program in public speeches, he is seen as a moderate who is thought to favor policies that would lessen the chance of a confrontation with the West. Mr. Ahmadinejad, by contrast, said last week that Iran would welcome sanctions because they would give local industries a chance to grow without competition from imported goods. Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations, Emyr Jones Parry, said European countries hoped to circulate a draft resolution calling for sanctions against Iran early next week, Reuters reported. The proposed sanctions are expected to be limited in scope, aimed mainly at curbing Iran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs. Iran’s foreign ministry responded said in a statement today that Iran will not “remain idle if sanctions are imposed.” “It is big miscalculation to think the policy of carrot and stick can be pursued at the same time,” the statement said, according to the ISNA student news agency. ***************************************************************** 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI responds to EU statement 2006/10/21 Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement in response to the European Union Council of Foreign Ministers' statement against the Islamic Republic. According to Foreign Ministry Media Department, the statement said the recent EU move, unfortunately, is against European and Iranian top negotiators' efforts on resolving the nuclear raw. The statement added that EU ministers have adopted a stance similar to the American extremists' objectives in dealing with Iran's nuclear issue. In the recent negotiation between Javier Solana and Ali Larijani, they tried to follow a logical path to remove concerns over Iranian nuclear activities and deviation from NPT as well as assuring Iranians' right to access peaceful nuclear technology which needed the council's support to end the worries, the statement read. "It seems that the EU Council has taken the measure due to a sort of mistake, because the council has not abided by its commitment to the agreements reached in the four-month negotiations and thus it has lost Iran's confidence." The statement said that the Islamic Republic of Iran abides by its agreements with the European side. If the EU has adopted the stance of certain powers such as the US, it should consider the aftermath of its behavior. Iran's detailed response to the EU package is more generous and serious than the Europeans' one over Tehran's nuclear program, and is still valid. "We invite the EU to adopt a stance based on negotiation and interaction between the two sides and affirm its real commitment in supporting regional and global peace and security." "Given the Islamic Republic of Iran's full commitment to the NPT and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulations, raising such allegations and comparing Iran with certain countries which are producing weapons of mass destruction is aimed at exacerbating political situation." "The improper measure is considered as punishment of a member of NPT which is abiding by its commitments, thus, it will create a big political mistake." "Certain countries, unfortunately, are making use of international communities and resolutions including IAEA and NPT as a lever to pursue their ambitions. They tarnish the image and legitimacy of such bodies." The statement added that Iran abides by its commitments in the international system, but if the other sides take another attitude to impose pressure, sanction and threat, "Iranians will respond to the double standards and will not permit any country to infringe its legitimate rights." Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that the EU and all other sides should know that Iran's referral to the UN Security Council is illegal and unlawful and contrary to the long-term negotiations between Iranian and European negotiators over the nuclear issue. The carrot and stick policy is a big mistake adopted by the world powers. Tehran will reply good-will or ill-will initiatives reciprocally and invites the European side to come back to the negotiation table, the statement concluded. 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 ***************************************************************** 4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI stays course of talks - Hosseini 2006/10/22 Foreign Ministry spokesman Sayed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Sunday any Security Council resolution on the Islamic Republic of Iran would speed up the current negotiations between IRI and the Group 5+1 (permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany) to a stalemate. He told reporters there are two directions, one is the Security Council and passing resolution and the other negotiations to reach an understanding. "The Islamic Republic of Iran advocates the second direction and has emphasized the need for negotiations so far." Asked to comment on the latest statement of Chairman of the System's Interest Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani advising the Europeans not to jeopardize the current process of negotiations, the spokesman said that any economic sanctions on IRI will have repercussions both at bilateral, regional and international scales. "If they opt for economic sanctions, IRI will reciprocate with proportionate decisions." M/D Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir ***************************************************************** 5 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Hashemi: IRI renounces nuclear arms 2006/10/22 Chairman of the System Interests Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Sunday that the Americans are well aware that Iran renounces nuclear arms in light of the ethical principles enshrined by Islam and their poisonous propaganda campaign against Iran has roots in their arrogant nature. "America which has brought Iranian nuclear program to the spotlight is the first country in the world that used nuclear weapon bringing eternal disgrace for itself. So, no other country would do so, because of subsequent disgrace," he said in reference to America's nuclear war on Nakasaki and Hiroshima, Japan. He reaffirmed Iran's commitment to the religious principles and said that the very existence of the Islamic Republic of Iran is on the basis of Islamic values which prohibits nuclear arms. "Victory of the Islamic Revolution took place in one of the most significant geographical location at a time when the enemies sought to isolate religion." underlining the need to safeguard the Islamic Revolution, he said "We should not let political and factional disputes overcome our national and Islamic interests and the people should be confident that their votes would be respected by the government." Peaceful application of nuclear energy is on Iran's national agenda at this historical juncture, he said adding that Iran is legitimate to use nuclear energy in line with the international conventions, a reference to Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and safeguards agreement of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). M.H.Z Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir ***************************************************************** 6 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Iran, Belarus to expand mutual ties 2006/10/22 Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov conferred Sunday with Iran's Minister of Commerce Seyed Masoud Mir-Kazemi on expansion of political and economic cooperation between the two countries. At the meeting, the two sides also called for implementation of joint projects. According to the Public Relations Department of the Commerce Ministry, Mir-Kazemi referred to the existing capabilities and called for increase in the level of trade exchange and ties between the two countries. Through implementation of a precise and concrete program, it would be possible to further bolster cooperation between the two countries, he said. He also called for swift implementation of agreements signed by the two sides and called for removal of existing barriers facing the private sectors. To further promote mutual economic cooperation, he called for establishment of banking cooperation, opening of letter of credits for rendering financial aid, establishment of standard institutes to supervise quality of products and removal of barriers to issuance of visas to businessmen. M.H.Z Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir ***************************************************************** 7 Guardian Unlimited: Report: 2nd Nuke Test Not Scheduled From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday October 22, 2006 12:16 PM AP Photo TOK111 TOKYO (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a Chinese envoy his regime has no immediate plans to carry out another nuclear test but whether it will do so in the future depends on U.S. policy toward his country, a news report said Sunday. Kim made the remarks to Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan during talks this past week in Pyongyang, Kyodo News agency reported from Beijing, citing unnamed officials. Tang met with Kim to discuss the North's nuclear test on Oct. 9. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 8 AFP: Iran sees no reason to halt enrichment, urges talks - Sat Oct 21, 7:33 AM ET TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran" /> Iranhas reaffirmed it has no intention to suspend uranium enrichment and invited Western powers to return to negotiations over its sensitive nuclear programme. "With regard to the issue of suspension of uranium enrichment, we have always said that we do not see any reason for it," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters Saturday. "This activity by the Islamic republic is legal and part of its rights under the (nuclear) Non-Proliferation Treaty" he added. "We advise them (western powers) to return to negotiations and not to try what they have already tried," Mottaki said, without elaborating. Iran ignored an August 31 deadline set by the Security Council to freeze uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce nuclear reactor fuel but also for bomb-making. Tehran rejects US-led charges that it is seeking a covert nuclear weapons capability, insisting that its atomic program is entirely peaceful and aims to generate electricity. Despite intensive talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency, the Islamic republic has flatly refused to halt its enrichment programme and the UN Security Council is now working on a resolution that would allow for economic sanctions against Tehran. French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Friday suggested that it was not too late for Iran to make concessions to avoid the Security Council sanctions. "If Iran really shows goodwill, France and its partners are prepared to suspend the (sanctions) procedure in the Security Council," Alliot-Marie told reporters. Mottaki said, however, he hoped the issue "returns to the International Atomic Energy Agency." "We hope the Security Council comes to its senses and deals with its responsibilities. Unfortunately, the Council has not had a good performance during the past year," he said. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 9 AFP: Iran vows retaliation for UN nuclear sanctions - Yahoo! News by Farhad Pouladi Sun Oct 22, 8:17 AM ET TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran" /> Iranhas admitted it was heading for UN sanctions over its nuclear programme, warning it would take "appropriate measures" in retaliation for any punitive action. "Imposing sanctions has repercussions on both sides, regionally and internationally. They already know this. If they impose sanctions we will take appropriate measures," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Sunday. His comments came as momentum picked up among world powers to find agreement on sanctions against Iran, after the UN Security Council rapidly secured agreement for action against North Korea" /> North Koreaover its announced nuclear test. Asked if such "regional repercussions" would have an effect on the Strait of Hormuz, a vitally important channel for transporting oil, Hosseini replied: "it depends on the kind of sanctions." Oil market participants have in the past expressed fears that Iran could block the strait in retaliation for sanctions and send the price of oil spiralling. But Iran's leaders have repeatedly vowed not to use oil as a weapon. Hosseini did not elaborate further and refused to say what measures Iran could take if sanctions were imposed, such as blocking inspections of its nuclear sites by the UN atomic watchdog. "When they approve it we will make an announcement," he said. Iran's parliament has proposed a bill -- already approved by its security commission -- that would automatically suspend International Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) inspections if sanctions were imposed. The foreign ministry spokesman admitted that Iran now appeared to be heading for sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a process the West fears could be diverted to making nuclear weapons. "The path they are taking is the Security Council, passing resolutions and imposing sanctions," he told reporters. "The stance they are taking is towards sanctions." Hosseini insisted that Iran still wanted to negotiate. "There is another path, the path of negotiation and understanding. This is the path that we have chosen." But he reaffirmed Iran's unequivocal rejection of Western calls for it to halt uranium enrichment before any full negotiations take place while also saying the issue could be discussed at such talks. "The suspension of uranium enrichment does not have any place in our policy." "If the conditions of the negotiations were fair this issue could be discussed," he added. "If suspension is the outcome of the negotiation we can decide on it. But as a precondition or during the negotiation -- no." Iran insists that its nuclear programme is solely aimed at generating energy and vehemently rejects US charges that it is seeking atomic weapons. Weeks of talks between Iran and the European Union" /> European Unionaimed at finding a deal stalled over uranium enrichment, with both sides refusing to budge from key demands. The EU was seeking an unconditional suspension before any negotiations could start. Hosseini blamed the influence of "certain countries or a certain country which is seeking adventure" for the collapse of the talks, in an allusion to Tehran's arch enemy the United States and its allies. Germany and permanent UN Security Council members Britain and France are now finalising a draft sanctions resolution that will be put to the world body, although officials have warned it may take time to find agreement. Russia and China -- which both have important ties to Iran and are traditionally reluctant to use sanctions as a diplomatic tool -- are likely to oppose a severe regime of sanctions against Tehran. A first set of punitive measures would focus on banning the supply of material and funding for Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programmes. Other steps could include asset freezes and travel bans on nuclear scientists. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 10 UPI: Russia minister reaffirms support for Iran United Press International - NewsTrack - 10/21/2006 11:38:00 AM -0400 MOSCOW, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Russia says it will back Iran when proposed sanctions over its nuclear program come up before the United Nations Security Council. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavroy Saturday told Kuwait's Kuna news agency that there was no conclusive evidence that Iran was planning to develop nuclear weapons with its uranium enrichment program, so Iran did not deserve international punishment. Russia and China are expected to veto the sanctions that are to be proposed to the Security Council next week. Lavrov said it appeared international concerns were likely caused by Iran's failure to keep the International Atomic Energy Agency apprised of its activities. However, Moscow would not support the use of those shortcomings as a pretext to sanctions or a regime change in Iran. The Russian news agency RIA Novosti said Lavrov has called on Tehran to fully cooperate with the IAEA in order to settle "all outstanding issues." © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 11 UPI: Iran appeals to EU on uranium enrichment United Press International - NewsTrack - 10/21/2006 3:09:00 PM -0400 TEHRAN, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Iran's foreign minister urged the European Union Saturday to explain why Tehran should stop its uranium enrichment. The U.N. Security Council is demanding Iran suspend uranium enrichment or face possible economic and diplomatic sanctions. "We see no reason for stopping (uranium) enrichment," Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki told the European Union, adding Iran was ready to negotiate on the issue and reach an agreement, Novosti reported. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Friday said the U.N. Security Council was being used as a political tool by Iran's enemies -- the United States and Britain. He also said Iran was ready to sell nuclear fuel to the West at a heavy discount. Russia said it would not let the Security Council punish Iran, Novosti reported Saturday. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was ready to discuss ways to pressure Iran into accepting a broader international oversight of its nuclear program, but added "any measures of influence should encourage creating conditions for talks." © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited: Rice Confident of U.N. Action on Iran From the Associated Press [UP] Saturday October 21, 2006 10:01 AM AP Photo BEJ102 By ANNE GEARAN AP Diplomatic Writer MOSCOW (AP) - The swift decision to impose international sanctions on North Korea for its rogue nuclear test could grease the skids for sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday. ``It really does help to create a momentum,'' Rice said after leaving four days of crisis talks in Asia in response to the North's test. Rice's last Asian stop was Beijing, the North's traditional ally. She met there with a Chinese government envoy who had just returned from a hastily arranged visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Rice said the envoy, State Council Tang Jiaxuan, told her nothing that confirms news reports about conciliatory moves from the North. ``Councilor Tang did not tell me that Kim Jong Il either apologized for the test or said that he would never test again,'' Rice said, adding that she does not know the source of widely circulated South Korean media reports to the contrary. ``I don't know whether or not Kim Jong Il said any such thing. But the Chinese, ... in a fairly thorough briefing to me about the talks, said nothing,'' that confirms it, Rice said. Yonhap news agency, citing an unnamed diplomatic source in Beijing, had reported Friday that Kim told Tang ``we have no plans for additional nuclear tests.'' The North Korean leader told the Chinese visitors ``he is sorry about the nuclear test,'' the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo daily had reported, also citing a diplomatic source in China. The North Korean test is a main topic for Rice's meeting Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but her underlying mission is to persuade Russia to approve U.N. sanctions on Iran. Last weekend's unanimous vote by the United Nations Security Council to rebuke North Korea came after only a few days of debate. North Korea exploded a nuclear device on Oct. 9, confirming its claim to have the bomb and forcing the world to reckon with nuclear weapons in the hands of an outlaw state. The Security Council has been mulling the less clear-cut case of Iran since February, and is expected to consider a draft sanctions resolution next week. Iran claims its nascent program to produce nuclear fuel is intended only to develop peaceful nuclear power, but the United States and some allies claim Iran is hiding plans to build a bomb. ``I don't think you'll have the kind of resolution on Iran that you have on North Korea,'' Rice said. ``After all this is a program that is much further along; there was a nuclear test.'' Rice expressed confidence the Security Council will pass a resolution on Iran, saying the body is now very engaged in nuclear nonproliferation efforts. ``That helps to create an atmosphere in which no one is going to want to have a successful resolution against North Korea and no action against Iran, which also at a different level is a threat to the nonproliferation regime,'' Rice said. Russia is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and can veto its actions. Russia voted for sanctions on North Korea despite reservations and only after the United States agreed to water them down. Russia, which along with China has lucrative trade ties with Iran, has resisted U.S.-led calls for punitive measures against Tehran. ``There is going to be a lot of bargaining to find a formula that is face-saving for both sides. Russia doesn't want to veto a resolution. It would leave a very bad impression,'' said Georgy Mirsky, chief researcher at the Institute for World Economics and International Relations in Moscow. Russian analysts say that Moscow remains opposed to punishing Tehran but, after the North Korea vote it may agree to token measures in return for assurances on its $800 million contract to build Iran's first nuclear power station. ``It isn't totally unfeasible that you could buy Russia off by allowing it to finish the Bushehr project,'' said Alexei Malashenko, a Middle East expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank. Russia has come under strong pressure from the United States to halt work on the nuclear reactor in the southern city of Bushehr, which is due to start work in September 2007. Fuel from the plant potentially could be diverted and used to produce bombs. Moscow has refused to cancel the contract or an order worth $700 million to supply 29 sophisticated Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran. Any U.N. measures against Iran are likely to be soft. Council diplomats indicated the draft to be circulated by Britain and France will seek to ban the import and export of material and equipment that could be used to produce nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. The United States has called for broad sanctions, such as a total ban on missile and nuclear technology sales, while the Russians and Chinese back prohibitions of selected items as a first step. Six nations including the U.S. offered Iran a package of economic incentives and political rewards in June if it agreed to consider a long-term moratorium on enrichment and commit to a freeze on uranium enrichment before talks to discuss details of their package. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly and defiantly said his country would continue enrichment, and is not intimidated by the possibility of sanctions. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 13 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Suggests Talks With West From the Associated Press [UP] Saturday October 21, 2006 8:31 PM AP Photo VAH101 By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran offered Saturday to talk with the West about its disputed nuclear program days before the U.S. and its partners are expected to circulate a draft resolution providing for limited sanctions against Tehran. But prospects for any U.N. action dimmed as Russia declared it will not support measures to punish Iran or ``promote ideas of regime change there.'' ``Any measures of influence should encourage creating conditions for talks,'' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Kuwait's news agency. A draft resolution on Iran is expected to be introduced in the U.N. Security Council within days, and diplomats have said they would seek limited sanctions against Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. ``We won't be able to support and will oppose any attempts to use the Security Council to punish Iran or use Iran's program in order to promote the ideas of regime change there,'' Lavrov said in the interview, which was posted Saturday on the Russian Foreign Ministry's Web site. Russia - along with the U.S., France, China and Britain - has veto power on the 15-nation Security Council and could block sanctions. French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie also indicated that support for sanctions was showing signs of ebbing, saying Friday that pressure could be lifted if Iran takes steps toward resolving questions over its nuclear program. Lavrov's Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, offered to hold discussions with the West during which his government would explain its nuclear ambitions. ``Dialogue is the best way to reach an understanding,'' Mottaki said. ``We are ready to hold talks about the reason for enrichment.'' Uranium enrichment is a key process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the material for a warhead. Tehran says its uranium enrichment program aims only to generate electricity, while the United States and others suspect it's a cover for building atomic weapons. Mottaki did not suggest a time or venue for the discussions, and Western capitals issued no response. The offer could complicate the U.S.-led drive for sanctions against Iran, but it was unlikely to halt it. Still, Motakki's invitation gave the Security Council - already saddled with the issue of North Korea's more-advanced nuclear program - a possible out. North Korea joined the elite club of nuclear-armed nations on Oct. 9, with its underground nuclear test. The Security Council imposed sanctions on Pyongyang days later. That rebuke followed only a few days of debate. The council has been considering Iran's case since February. Lavrov also prodded the U.S. on that front Saturday, urging Washington and Pyongyang to settle bilateral problems to pave the way for the resumption of six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear program. On Iran, he said international efforts should focus on forcing Tehran to cooperate more closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog. ``There is no proof that Iran is pursuing a military nuclear program. There are suspicions and questions that have not yet been answered,'' Lavrov said. Russia is constructing Iran's first nuclear reactor, at a power plant in Bushehr. The United States has long warned the reactor could aid Iran in developing nuclear weapons. Russia is to begin sending fuel to the plant by March. But depleted fuel rods from the plant are to be returned to Russia - an arrangement aimed at preventing Iran from potentially extracting plutonium from them. Lavrov met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Moscow Saturday, but neither official commented on the results of the talks, in which the Iranian nuclear controversy was certain to be a key issue. France, co-sponsor of a possible resolution against Iran, indicated Friday it might be willing to suspend the drive for sanctions if Iran takes steps toward resolving questions over its nuclear program. ``If Iran does display good will, France and France's partners are ready to suspend the procedure in front of the Security Council. The only condition is that there are indeed steps forward,'' Alliot-Marie said. Mottaki's comments at a news conference appeared aimed at taking advantage of France's position as one of the key nations spearheading efforts to force Iran to roll back its nuclear program. ``The time for language of force is over. The West has tested threats in our region. We invite them to sincerely return to talks,'' he said. On Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the U.N. Security Council and its decisions ``illegitimate,'' saying the world body was being used as a political tool by Iran's enemies - the United States and Britain. --- Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Moscow. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 14 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Vows to Answer Western Sanctions From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday October 22, 2006 4:31 PM AP Photo XHS103 By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian official warned Sunday that Tehran would not remain passive if the West imposes sanctions against it over its disputed nuclear program, but did not say how the country would respond. ``Sanctions will have an impact on both sides and will have regional and international repercussions. If they choose sanctions we will decide accordingly,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini told journalists in a weekly briefing. A draft resolution on Iran is expected to be introduced in the U.N. Security Council within days, and diplomats have said they would seek limited sanctions against Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. Hosseini did not elaborate on what actions Iran might take in response to sanctions. When asked, however, if Tehran could affect the movement of oil through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20 percent of the world's supply passes every day, he replied, that ``depends on the kind of sanctions.'' In June, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened to disrupt the world's oil supply if Tehran is punished over its nuclear program. He said at the time the United States and its allies would be unable to secure oil shipments passing out of the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to world markets. At its narrowest point, the strait separating Iran from the Arabian peninsula is 44 miles wide. On Saturday, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Manouchehr Mottaki, offered to hold new discussions with the West during which his government would explain its nuclear ambitions. ``Dialogue is the best way to reach an understanding,'' Mottaki said. ``We are ready to hold talks about the reason for enrichment.'' Mottaki did not suggest a time or venue for the discussions. The offer could complicate the U.S.-led drive for sanctions against Iran, but it was unlikely to halt it. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Sunday that dialogue with Iran over its nuclear program is ``always possible,'' but he stressed there must be firmness and unanimity among the international community. ``We must be firm. The Iranians must understand that they cannot isolate themselves from the international community,'' Douste-Blazy said. ``It's now or never.'' He made no reference to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement Saturday that his country will not support measures that punish Iran or ``promote ideas of regime change there.'' Measures ``should encourage creating conditions for talks,'' Lavrov told Kuwait's news agency. Russia - along with the U.S., France, China and Britain - has veto power on the 15-nation Security Council and could block sanctions. The international community fears that Iran wants to use its nuclear program to develop weapons. However, Tehran insists the program is only for civilian and that, to this end, it has an intrinsic right to nuclear fuel. Uranium enrichment is a key process to produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 15 [NYTr] US upholds "nuclear umbrella" for South Korea Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 14:43:02 -0400 (EDT) X-Sender-Host-Name: olm.blythe-systems.com X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Whitelisted"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Michael Givel (activ-l) Reuters India - Oct 21, 2006 http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=06-10-21T070722Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-273192-1.xml U.S. upholds nuclear umbrella for South Korea By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday reaffirmed its commitment to protect South Korea with nuclear weapons and sought Seoul's help in a U.S.-led multinational effort to curb weapons flows to North Korea. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hosted South Korean Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-ung for annual talks against the backdrop of a U.S.-led diplomatic campaign to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions in the wake of an Oct. 9 underground atomic test by the Communist state. "Secretary Rumsfeld offered assurances of firm U.S. commitment and immediate support to the (Republic of Korea), including continuation of the extended deterrence offered by the U.S. nuclear umbrella, consistent with the Mutual Defense Treaty," said a U.S. official, quoting a communique to be issued later on Friday. The official said the language on U.S. nuclear guarantees to South Korea was largely unchanged since 1978, when the assurances were extended under the defence pact, signed in 1953 at the end of the three-year Korean War. South Korean officials were quoted in their country's media as seeking more detailed nuclear guarantees. But the U.S. official said the current wording "says all we need to say." Rumsfeld told reporters that he had asked South Korea to join the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, a program launched in 2003 to interdict dangerous weapons from North Korea, Iran and other states of concern. "We've expressed the hope that they will decide to participate," Rumsfeld said, adding that recent nuclear moves by North Korea and Iran underscored the need to act. South Korea, in a bid to maintain its 6-year-old reconciliation process with North Korea, has declined so far to join the 70-nation initiative. Officials have said Seoul is studying some activities conducted under the initiative, and South Korea has pledged to observe U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed after the test. "If there wasn't a compelling reason for the Republic of Korea to be a (Proliferation Security Initiative) participant prior to the recent events in North Korea and the sanctions, there certainly is a compelling reason now," said the Pentagon official, paraphrasing Rumsfeld's request to Yoon. U.S. and South Korean officials were meeting Friday to try to close gaps over when South Korea will recover wartime command of its troops from the United States. The United States has proposed that South Korea take over wartime control of its troops in 2009, three years before Seoul's target of 2012. South Korea ceded wartime command to U.S-led U.N. forces during the 1950-1953 Korean War and assumed peacetime command over its troops in 1994. The United States has about 30,000 troops in South Korea to support the South's 650,000 soldiers, who face North Korea's 1.2-million-strong army. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the Korean War ended in truce instead of a peace treaty. (c) Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 16 Guardian Unlimited: S. Koreans Protest U.S. Free Trade Deal From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday October 22, 2006 5:46 PM AP Photo XAHN103 By KELLY OLSEN AP Business Writer SEOGWIPO, South Korea (AP) - Hundreds of demonstrators blocked traffic in South Korea's capital on Sunday to protest a U.S. free-trade agreement and farmers on a resort island called for the deal to be scrapped, a day before the start of a new round of negotiations in the stalled talks. Washington and Seoul have held three rounds of trade talks since June aimed at forging a deal to lower tariffs and open markets between the countries - the largest accord for the U.S. since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. The two sides have set a goal of reaching a basic agreement by the end of this year to submit to their respective legislatures. The first three rounds made slow progress after being hung up on such issues as market access and South Korean goods made in North Korea. The negotiations are scheduled to last through Friday in Seogwipo, a city on the resort island of Jeju, located about 60 miles south of the mainland. In the capital Seoul, about 1,300 anti-U.S. activists rallied Sunday against the free-trade talks and Washington's push for sanctions against the North for its recent nuclear weapon test. ``No resolution of nuclear issue unless the U.S. withdraws hostile policy'' toward North Korea, read one placard at the rally, which blocked six lanes of traffic. Some 7,000 police were mobilized, but no clashes were reported. Hundreds of people also gathered near the U.S. Embassy, demanding the U.S. lessen its pressure on the North. Washington pushed the U.N. to impose tough sanctions against Pyongyang, including searches of North Korean ships and cargo, after it announced the nuclear test blast on Oct. 9. At the Jeju airport, about 50 protesters, mostly farmers and their supporters, chanted peacefully against the free-trade deal, while more than 100 riot police stood nearby. The protesters wore red and white headbands and one had on a T-shirt that said ``No! FTA.'' The free-trade talks kicked off in Washington in June amid much fanfare, with the two governments touting it as a ``win-win'' deal which would open markets and boost economic growth. A second round in Seoul in July, met by large street protests, broke off early amid bickering over U.S. access to South Korea's pharmaceutical market. The third round was in Seattle last month. Washington is seeking more access for U.S. pharmaceuticals, automobiles, farm products and other goods, while Seoul wants South Korean products manufactured in North Korea to be included in the agreement. The U.S. has said it can't accept that. South Korean rice and beef farmers, in particular, have vehemently opposed a deal, saying cheaper U.S. products would jeopardize their livelihoods. President Bush's legal authority to ``fast track'' a deal expires in mid-2007. Fast-tracking allows U.S. envoys to negotiate an agreement that can be submitted to Congress for a yes-or-no vote without amendments. Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler, the chief U.S. negotiator, said in Seattle that Washington remains committed to reaching an accord by the end of this year. --- Associated Press Writer Kwang-Tae Kim in Seoul contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 17 Guardian Unlimited: Seoul Hesitant to End N. Korea Projects From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday October 22, 2006 9:16 AM AP Photo XKC108 By BURT HERMAN Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea is still sending tourists to a mountain resort in the North and maintaining a joint economic zone, despite pressure to cancel the projects after Pyongyang's nuclear test. The country has its reasons for refusing to shutter key projects that help keep Kim Jong Il's regime afloat, including competition with China for influence over the impoverished nation. South Korea and China together account for two-thirds of overseas trade for the communist North, and South Korea hopes to one day reunite the two Koreas. The U.S. has scoffed at the tourism venture at the North's majestic Diamond Mountain resort, saying the project simply hands money to the North Korean government. Washington also has questioned labor practices in a joint economic zone where North Korean workers provide cheap labor for South Korean firms. But Seoul has been reluctant to inflame North Korea as it pursues its policy of reconciliation that has led to unprecedented cooperation between the two countries that share a peninsula. Totally cutting off the joint projects also would mean Seoul would lose influence in the North, leaving the isolated nation wide open for China - the North's No. 1 trade partner and a key source of aid. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said she will not presume to tell South Korea or China how to enforce U.N. sanctions derground blast. But she has called on all nations to cooperate and pointedly noted in a South Korean TV interview Friday that the North ``set off a nuclear weapons test right here in South Korea's backyard.'' ``It is important to use whatever leverage a country feels that it can use to get the North Koreans to make the right choice'' to rejoin arms talks and disarm, Rice told KBS in Seoul. South Korea is keen to maintain stability and not let its unpredictable neighbor spoil its hard-won prosperity built from the ruins of the 1950-53 Korean War. Today's South Korea is a high-technology mecca and cultural trendsetter for Asia, proudly proclaiming itself as ``Dynamic Korea'' in its main tourism slogan. The inter-Korean projects are part of Seoul's strategy to use trade and exchanges to ensure that success is not wiped out by a war or a chaotic collapse of North Korea. The North has needed foreign assistance to feed its 23 million people since the mid-1990s, when its state-run farm system collapsed after the loss of Soviet subsidies. But in the wake of the North's first-ever nuclear test, Seoul has faced new calls to cancel the landmark reconciliation projects in line with the U.N. sanctions. On Tuesday, the U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights, Jay Lefkowitz, warned that unmonitored assistance to the North could prop up a ``criminal regime.'' China has made increasing economic inroads in the North in recent years, and South Korea has expressed concern that North Korea could become a de-facto Chinese province. Chinese goods are the dominant products in what passes for ``markets'' in North Korea, and Chinese tourists visit regularly. A state-supported Chinese think tank has claimed that two ancient Korean kingdoms were actually Chinese, including the Koguryo dynasty that reigned from 37 B.C. to A.D. 668 in an area that stretched from the Korean peninsula to Manchuria in northeast China. Koguryo is viewed by Koreans as the origin of their nation, and its name forms the root of today's ``Korea.'' China had its fingers in Korean politics going back centuries, under the tributary system in place across east Asia. The idea that China is staging a shadow campaign to maneuver for position after a North Korean collapse rattles intensely nationalistic Koreans, who have seen their tiny peninsula survive as a nation despite being surrounded by massive powers. They also keenly remember decades of Japanese occupation in the early 20th century, which ended with the heart-rending division of the peninsula. Despite appearing to vacillate in the face of U.S. demands to comply with U.N. sanctions, Seoul's reluctance to back out of its projects with North Korea could be a way of signaling strength - and ensuring that Koreans will have a land to call their own for centuries more. --- Burt Herman is chief of bureau in Korea for The Associated Press. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 18 Asia Times: Korea News - A tell-tale little nuke By James Gordon Prather Editor's note: The New York Times reported on Monday that US intelligence agencies had concluded that, according to atmospheric sampling, North Korea's test explosion was in fact powered by plutonium. The article fails to explain the overriding significance of the plutonium finding. The article below (published the same day as the NYT article) clearly describes what the implications of such a finding are for the foreign-policy record of President George W Bush and his predecessor, Bill Clinton. A critical question, easily answered by Bush, is this: was the uranium-235 or plutonium-239 device? That difference, though seemingly technical, is of considerable geopolitical (and just plain political) significance. The answer indicates whether Bush's decision to pull out of the Bill Clinton-era Agreed Framework directly resulted in North Korea producing nukes from its plutonium assets "frozen" under that framework or if North Korea indeed did have the uranium-enrichment, bomb-making capabilities that Bush has been claiming - a less likely scenario for all such a program would entail. Bush knows what kind of bomb was tested because the at-least partially successful nuke blast was not completely contained. The office of the National Intelligence director, John Negroponte, said that analysis of air samples gathered last week detected radioactive debris that confirmed North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion. A radiochemical analysis of that debris would quickly and accurately determine the type of nuke and its fission yield. In the past few months there has been both good news and bad news for Bush. North Korea conducted a test of not only a nuclear weapon, but also ballistic missiles that could reach the US's West Coast. The good news for Bush is that the tests will help him justify the zillion-dollar ballistic-missile defense boondoggle being constructed in Alaska. The bad news depends on whether North Korea tested a uranium nuke or a plutonium nuke; and whether the media elite chooses to explain the implications of the difference to voters. Flashback to 1994 First, let's briefly look at some recent history. In 1992, because of a dispute with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the analysis of certain materials and activities they were subject to under an IAEA Safeguards Agreement - as required by the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT)- the North Koreans threatened to withdraw from the NPT. In 1994, president Bill Clinton persuaded North Korea to sign the Agreed Framework, under which North Korea agreed not only to remain a signatory to the NPT, but also to shut down its 5-megawatt (MW), plutonium-239-producing reactor; close its spent-fuel reprocessing facilities; and place all its existing nuclear materials - including (you guessed it) the plutonium-239 contained in spent fuel elements - under the lock and seal of the IAEA; and to abandon construction of its 50-MW and 200-MW, plutonium-239-producing reactors. At the time, the NPT had to be extended every five years, and Clinton was hell-bent on getting the NPT extended indefinitely and to get all countries - especially Israel, India and Pakistan - to become NPT signatories, and to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. For Clinton, the Agreed Framework's principal benefit was North Korea's promise to remain a NPT signatory. What did the Koreans get in return? Well, Clinton promised to facilitate the replacement of their graphite-moderated plutonium-239 producing reactors with more modern light-water nuclear power plants and promised to provide millions of tons of fuel oil to tide them over until the plants came on line. But the principal benefit the Koreans got under the Agreed Framework was a promise by the president of the United States to never use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against them. And as denizens of the Hermit Kingdom well know, over the years several American presidents had threatened them with nukes. Bush aggrieved by the agreement Well, you can imagine how constraining Bush the Younger considered the Agreed Framework to be. He couldn't even threaten to nuke Kim Jong-il. Worse, Clinton had promised when getting the NPT extended indefinitely - and again at the 2000 NPT Review Conference - to never use or threaten to use nukes against any NPT signatory - including Iran. North Korea was on Bush's "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq because it had already supplied Iran ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel and was developing ballistic missiles that might one day be capable of reaching the US's West Coast and carry warheads weighing perhaps several hundred pounds. So, Bush apparently saw the Agreed Framework as constricting and welcomed a North Korean (and Iraqi and Iranian) withdrawal from the NPT. Although it has not been discussed much, Bush requested a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)in 2002 not just for Iraq but also for North Korea - and it was also highly controversial in the intelligence community. That document alleged that Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan had provided North Korea (circa 1997) a dozen or so gas-centrifuges similar to those someone (Khan, perhaps?) provided Iran at about the same time. The document also alleged that the Pakistanis trained North Korean engineers on how to operate them. The North Koreans were "assessed" to have produced a substantial amount of weapons-grade uranium. In September 2002, US officials privately confronted the North Koreas of having a secret uranium-235 nuke program, which the North Koreans then vehemently denied publicly, and have continued to deny to this day. The president - citing the uranium-235 nuke "intelligence" - stopped fuel oil shipments to North Korea in November 2002, thereby abrogating the Agreed Framework. As Bush may have intended, the North Koreans almost immediately announced they were withdrawing from the NPT. Hence, in January 2003, on the eve of Bush's invasion of Iraq, North Korea ejected IAEA inspectors, restarted its plutonium-239 producing reactor and began recovering plutonium-239 from their spent fuel, which had been under IAEA lock and seal since the Agreed Framework was established in 1994. By most estimates, they now have enough plutonium-239 to make six to 10 nukes and are busy producing more. Thus, if the nuke was a plutonium bomb (as it now appears to have been), then Bush can put a nuke-armed North Korea on his list of foreign-policy achievements. If it was a uranium bomb, then the 2002 NIE on North Korea was correct. James Gordon Prather's long association with US nuclear weapons programs includes active duty with the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, participation in nuclear weapons tests as a diagnostic physicist at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and as a technical director at Sandia National Laboratory. He was chief scientist for the army under the Ronald Reagan administration. Dr Prather has been actively involved since 1991 in the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Nuclear Threat Reduction programs. Copyright 1999 - 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. Head Office: Rm 202, Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau: 11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110 ***************************************************************** 19 Korea Times: DJ Defends Sunshine Policy Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Former President Kim Dae-jung Former President Kim Dae-jung called on U.S. President George W. Bush to engage North Korea in dialogue as the only way to resolve the nuclear crisis. In an interview with the Associated Press¡¯s Seoul bureau, Kim also warned that North Korea could parry the U.N. Security Council resolution against the communist state¡¯s nuclear test with military force. ``North Korea is making preparations of how to counter economic sanctions and it could repel them with military force,¡¯¡¯ Kim, 80, said. A former pro-democracy movement leader, Kim won a Nobel Peace Prize for his engagement policies, dubbed the ``sunshine policy,¡¯¡¯ with the impoverished Stalinist state and a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000. Kim stressed that sanctions would only push the North further into a corner, and bolster the regime¡¯s domestic support with claims that the United States and its allies are merely seeking to isolate and harm the North, the AP reported. Kim said stalled U.S.-North Korean relations were a major stumbling block to his engagement policy. He conceded that some changes could be made to the projects to ensure no money is diverted to weapons programs. ``The sunshine policy was a success but in implementing such details there can be changes along the way,¡¯¡¯ Kim said. He suggested North Korean workers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex could be paid directly, and payments for the Mount Kumgang tourism project in the North could be made with goods rather than cash in order to prevent the money from being spent for the North¡¯s nuclear weapons program. Kim argued that former U.S. presidents had sought engagement with their foes to stem tension, including Washington¡¯s recent restoration ties with Vietnam. ``Why can¡¯t Bush have dialogue with the North,¡¯¡¯ Kim asked. ``If the United States is to succeed, then it has to learn from the past failures and successes of history. It must not repeat the mistakes of history.¡¯¡¯ things@koreatimes.co.kr 10-22-2006 19:31 ***************************************************************** 20 Korea Times: US Doubts Kim Jong-il¡¯s Remark Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter The United States, Japan and South Korea cast doubts on reports that North Korea had pledged not to stage another nuclear test. The skeptical reaction came out after the Yonhap News Agency reported Friday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said that his country would return to the multilateral talks on its nuclear weapons program if the United States promised to lift financial sanctions on it. Kim also promised to abide by the 1992 agreement between South and North Korea to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula when he met with Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan in Pyongyang on Oct. 19. ``He suggested that North Korea first return to the negotiation table and then the U.S. lift its financial sanctions soon after that,¡¯¡¯ one of the sources said. ``He is also said to have vowed not to conduct a second nuclear test unless the U.S. harasses his country.¡¯¡¯ U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cast doubt on reports that North Korea had pledged not to stage another nuclear test. She said over the weekend in Moscow that she had not heard from China¡¯s special envoy to North Korea. Tang had not told her that Kim either apologized for the test or said that he would not ever test again. On Thursday Tang became the first foreign official to meet Kim since the Oct. 9 test. Rice has said it would be difficult to lift financial sanctions on North Korea. She said she got no clear message from China that North Korea would return to the six-party talks in the near future. A Seoul official said that Kim¡¯s remark should not be accepted at face value. Another official said China had sent positive remarks to Seoul but few such positive signals have been implemented. Japanese newspapers including Nihon Keizai quoted Japanese officials expressing concern over a second nuclear test. Since the nuclear problem erupted in late 2002, North Korea and the United States have held several rounds of talks with South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. But the talks have been stalled since September last year because Pyongyang protested the U.S. financial sanctions. While protesting what it calls a ``hostile¡¯¡¯ U.S. policy, North Korea has raised tension by test-firing short and long-range missiles in July and conducting a nuclear test on Oct. 9. Pyongyang has continuously called for a bilateral negotiation with Washington. Since the nuclear test, the international community has been increasing pressures on the Stalinist state based on a set of punitive measures adopted by the United Nations Security Council last week. South Korea and China, while supporting the U.N. sanctions, have also made active efforts to draw North Korea back to the talks. China, in particular, which controls some 70 percent of the North¡¯s fuel supplies, sent a high-profile envoy to Pyongyang last week. Tang Jiaxuan, who told reporters that he visited North Korea with both ``carrots and sticks¡¯¡¯ in his hand, said after returning home that his trip to Pyongyang was ``not fruitless.¡¯¡¯ China has briefed relevant nations, including the United States, South Korea and Japan, on the results of his visit, according to officials. But Rice said she heard ``nothing surprising¡¯¡¯ in her talks with Chinese leaders. Beijing has reportedly concluded on the basis of Kim¡¯s remarks that Pyongyang would not carry out a second nuclear test. But it is not clear whether he clearly expressed an intention to suspend another nuclear test, according to the sources. Officials in Seoul said the latest development could be regarded as a positive sign. But they added it has yet to be seen whether Pyongyang would return to the negotiation table since it has made similar ``conditional¡¯¡¯ suggestions before. ``Maybe the North has just left the doors a little bit open for talks in the face of a strong message from China this time,¡¯¡¯ an official said. ``We have a principle that it should come back to the talks without any conditions.¡¯¡¯ jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr 10-22-2006 19:04 ***************************************************************** 21 Korea Times: Fear of Nuclear Domino Effect Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion Time to Concentrate on Dismantling Pyongyang¡¯s Bid Talk of politicians emphasizing the need to go nuclear is being heard inside and outside the nation lately. Following the remarks by Japanese politicians suggesting discussion of whether Japan should arm itself with nuclear weapons, Lee Hoechang, former head of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP), called last week for consideration of whether South Korea should go nuclear in the face of North Korean nuclear bid. During a lecture last Thursday, Lee reportedly said South Korea will need to develop its own nuclear weapon when Pyongyang¡¯s possession of a nuclear weapon becomes an accomplished fact and Japan starts moving for nuclearization. Despite the presumption, the remarks of the former GNP presidential candidate were both careless and thoughtless at a time when the international community is focusing their efforts on eliminating nuclear weapons in North Korea. Such a remark could further jeopardize peace and stability in the region. However, it is undeniably true that Pyongyang¡¯s nuclear test was responsible for intensifying the debate among the nations in the region over whether they should go nuclear. The test has apparently activated the latent fear here that a nuclear domino effect might be translated into reality. The fear has long been cited as a major reason for the international community not to permit the North to be nuclear-armed. Particularly, the rising calls for nuclearization among our politicians and some conservative organizations here are feared to intensify or justify the mounting mood for nuclearization in Japan. The notion that the possession of nuclear weapons could lower or eliminate the possibility of being attacked is not relevant. They may think that a nuclear-armed South Korea could strike back if it is attacked, but this analysis is too simplistic. It is still too early to talk about our nuclear armament. Furthermore, our attempt to go nuclear would cause mistrust among neighboring nations and destabilize the region. It is illogical for Seoul to call on Pyongyang to return to denuclearization while discussing acquiring nuclear weapons. It is still not time to overtly talk about South Korea going nuclear. Instead, it is a time to solidify a cooperative relationship with the U.S. and other peace-loving nations to dismantle the North Korean nuclear weapon. 10-22-2006 18:21 ***************************************************************** 22 AFP: US, China at odds over how to handle NKorea by Francois Bougon Sun Oct 22, 7:30 AM ET BEIJING (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza Rice's visit to China illustrated a fundamental gap in how Washington and Beijing think the North Korean nuclear crisis can be resolved, observers say. While the United States sees China, Pyongyang's oldest ally, as the key to unlocking the standoff sparked by North Korea" /> North Korea's October 9 nuclear test, Beijing thinks Washington needs to soften its stance towards the regime of Kim Jong-Il. Rice, who on Sunday wrapped up a four-nation tour of Asia and Russia aimed at securing international support for UN sanctions against North Korea, hailed China's pledge to better monitor its border with the Stalinist state. "Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of this resolution," she told reporters here on Friday after meetings with China's top leaders, underscoring the importance of Chinese backing for the raft of measures against Pyongyang. A range of Chinese banks said last week they had suspended or restricted financial transactions with North Korea -- a sign of good intentions from Beijing, which approved the UN sanctions despite some reservations. But special Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan, who met with Kim in Pyongyang last week, called on Washington to be "flexible" in its approach to North Korea so that six-party disarmament talks boycotted by Kim for a year could resume. "This is in the interests of all sides and I hope the United States will take a more active and flexible attitude," Tang said. North Korea walked out of the talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States in November when Washington imposed sanctions to try to block the North's access to international banks. Highlighting the difference of opinion on how to handle the crisis, one Chinese diplomat said the onus now fell solely on the United States to lure Pyongyang away from the nuclear brink and back to the negotiating table. "Above all, it's a problem between the United States and North Korea," the diplomat, who asked not to be named told AFP. "We were able to see that during the six-party talks," he added, explaining Washington and Pyongyang still harbored "Cold War" attitudes toward each other. Marcus Noland, a North Korea expert at the Institute for International Economics in Washington, warned it would be difficult for the United States to backtrack on its financial sanctions. "First, there is no public sympathy in the US for North Korea's counterfeiting. No public official can appear to be weak on this," he said. "Second, now that there is a formal legal case in the US involving law enforcement and not just diplomatic agencies, the US government cannot simply drop the issue." Given the current impasse, critics of the administration of US President George W. Bush" /> President George W. Bushsay he should change tack and renew direct dialogue with Pyongyang, instead of leaving it to China to host the six-way negotiations. US Senator Hillary Clinton" /> Hillary Clinton, whose husband engaged Kim's regime while he served in the White House, said Bush had made a "mistake" by cutting off bilateral ties with Pyongyang, adding that all options should be kept open. For Leonid A. Petrov, a Korea expert at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris, any North Korea policy based on sanctions is one that is destined to fail. "Whatever Bush and the international community do against North Korea will only help the regime to survive," he told AFP. "Everyone is unhappy with North Korea, but this is actually what North Korea wants. The regime wants isolation and doesn't want to open up. Kim's family members and the elite can only survive in total isolation." Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 23 AFP: NKorea said to be ready for nuclear compromise Sun Oct 22, 9:04 AM ET SEOUL (AFP) - Fresh reports have emerged that nuclear-armed North Korea" /> North Koreamay be ready for compromise as the top US diplomat headed home from Moscow after a mission to increase pressure on the reclusive communist state. Talk of progress in the stand-off came as thousands of South Korean anti-war activists rallied in downtown Seoul, demanding US-North Korean direct talks to ease tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear test earlier this month. South Korea" /> South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North's leader Kim Jong-Il had promised not to stage a second nuclear test unless his nation was "harassed" by the United States. The report Sunday quoted diplomatic sources in Seoul as saying Kim gave the assurance during a meeting in Pyongyang last week with a high-level Chinese delegation led by State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan. "Kim said during a meeting with Tang that North Korea would not conduct an additional nuclear test unless the US harasses the North," Yonhap quoted one source as saying. "Kim also promised North Korea would return to the six-way (disarmament) talks in the near future as long as the US promises to lift financial sanctions after the talks reopen." South Korean officials said they had no information on the report. Yonhap on Friday quoted a diplomatic source in Beijing as saying Kim had told his Chinese visitors there would be no additional test. Tang was the first foreign official to meet Kim since North Korea sparked world outrage and strong UN sanctions with its first atomic test on October 9. After his return to Beijing, Tang on Friday said his trip had not been a waste of time but gave no details. "Fortunately my visit this time has not been in vain," he told visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" /> Condoleezza Rice. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing also reported some positive elements from the meeting, saying the prospect of quickly resuming stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear program had been discussed. North Korea agreed at the talks in September 2005 to scrap its nuclear programmes in exchange for energy aid, other economic inducements and security guarantees. But it boycotted the forum two months later in protest at US attempts to cut its access to overseas banks. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso was also quoted as saying Friday his country has information that Kim promised Tang there would not be another test. And a South Korean newspaper said Kim had expressed regret to the envoy from China, the North's most crucial source of aid and trade. In Moscow, Rice cast doubt Saturday on the reported apology and said the North wants an "escalation of tensions." "I don't know whether or not Kim Jong-Il said any such thing," Rice said. "But the Chinese, in a fairly thorough briefing about the talks, said nothing about such an apology for having launched a test," she added. Rice was headed home Sunday after a tour of the North's neighbours aimed at securing support for tough enforcement of the UN sanctions, and US officials said she seemed to have been successful. Rice visited Japan, South Korea and China before Moscow. The biggest surprise may have been in Beijing, where one of Rice's top aides said there had been a "sea change" in China's attitude since the test. A key stumbling block has concerned inspections of North Korean cargo shipments, which are provided for under the UN resolution but have been resisted by China and South Korea for fear of aggravating tensions. The United States says it wants to prevent the North from transferring weapons of mass destruction and nuclear know-how to hostile groups and governments. At a rally in Seoul many of the 4,500 participants expressed anger at the hardline US policy and blamed Washington for endangering the peninsula by ramping up the pressure on Pyongyang. The protestors, some carrying colored balloons, repeated slogans "No to war! No to the US!" throughout the rally guarded by riot police. Up to 500 protesters in Tokyo also rallied on Sunday urging the international community against imposing tough sanctions on the Stalinist state which they fear "could lead to a war". Meanwhile, Christopher Hill, the United States' lead negotiator on North Korea, was in Hong Kong for talks on the latest efforts to freeze the financing of the Pyongyang regime, officials said. Banco Delta Asia in nearby Macau has been pinpointed as a link in the laundering of millions of dollars to North Korea. The Treasury in September last year labelled the bank a "primary money laundering concern" and then blacklisted eight North Korean companies in connection with the bank that it said were involved in spreading weapons of mass destruction. Pyongyang denies the charges and has cited the sanctions in its refusal to rejoin talks. Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy to Focus on N. Korea Assets From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday October 22, 2006 4:46 PM AP Photo XHG107 By DIKKY SIN Associated Press Writer HONG KONG (AP) - The top U.S. nuclear negotiator arrived on Sunday for talks on frozen North Korean bank accounts in neighboring Macau, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Consulate General. The trip by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill followed a regional tour by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to rally support for a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions against the North for its Oct. 9 nuclear test. The U.S. banned transactions between Macau-based Banco Delta Asia and American financial institutions in September 2005, alleging that its clients were involved in smuggling and counterfeiting for North Korea. North Korea has denied the allegations and has made the lifting of the freeze a precondition for its return to the talks. Washington has said the financial restrictions are unrelated to the nuclear talks. Rice cast doubt on reports that Pyongyang promised not to conduct more nuclear tests, saying Chinese officials had told her no such thing. The rumors persisted, however, with Kyodo News agency reporting Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a Chinese envoy that he had no immediate plans to carry out another nuclear test, but would respond if the United States continued to pressure his country. Kim also complained about the U.S. financial sanctions, which have been in place since September 2005, Kyodo reported from Beijing, citing unnamed officials familiar with the discussions. Officials at the Chinese foreign ministry had no comment, and South Korea's nuclear envoy said he had been briefed on the meeting, but declined to provide details. Japanese foreign ministry officials were not available to discuss the issue on Sunday. Kyodo said in an earlier report Sunday that the Chinese government told countries involved in the six-way talks that based on Kim's comments to the Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan, Beijing concluded that North Korea currently does not intend to conduct a second nuclear test. Beijing had briefed Tokyo about Tang's Oct. 19 meeting with Kim, Kyodo said. Kim also told China the North would adhere to a 1992 treaty signed by South and North Korea to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons, Kyodo said. Kim said abiding by the agreement was the wish of his late father, Kim Il Sung, it said. The 1992 non-nuclear agreement specified that neither South nor North Korea were to make, possess, test, or deploy nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has refused since last November to return to the nuclear negotiations. It has sought to bolster its negotiating position by a series of provocative actions - test-firing a barrage of missiles in July and conducting its recent nuclear test. The North has long insisted its nuclear program is aimed at deterring a possible U.S. invasion, and that having the bomb enhances regional stability by putting it on equal terms with Washington. ``An important lesson the Korean people have drawn from confrontation with the U.S. is that they will emerge victors only when they wage a staunch struggle without concession and submission in showdown with the enemy,'' the North's official communist party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said Sunday. In South Korea, demonstrators gathered in Seoul to protest a proposed free-trade agreement with the United States also protested against the U.S. policy toward the North. ``The U.S. wants a war,'' Roh Hoe-chan, a member of the opposition Democratic Labor Party, told a crowd of about 800 people near the U.S. Embassy. ``No resolution of nuclear issue unless the U.S. withdraws hostile policy'' toward North Korea, read one placard at a separate rally of about 1,300 activists. --- Associated Press reporters Tanalee Smith in Seoul, Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo, and Audra Ang in Beijing contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 25 [NYTr] US Plan for New Nuclear Weapons Advances Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 12:08:09 -0500 (CDT) X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Whitelisted"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit The Washington Post via Truthout - Oct 20, 2006 http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102106C.shtml US Plan for New Nuclear Weapons Advances By Walter Pincus The Washington Post The United States took another step yesterday toward building a new stockpile of up to 2,200 deployed nuclear weapons that would last well into the 21st century, announcing the start of a multiyear process to repair and replace facilities where they would be developed and assembled and where older warheads could be more rapidly dismantled. Thomas P. D'Agostino, head of defense programs for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), told reporters that the "Complex 2030" program would repair or replace "inefficient, old and expensive [to maintain]" facilities at eight sites, including some buildings going back to the 1940s Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bombs. He said the sites - primarily in California, New Mexico, Texas and Tennessee - "are not sustainable for the long term." Yesterday's announcement comes as the Bush administration is pressing its allies to take harsh steps to halt nuclear weapons programs in both North Korea and Iran that it says are violations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That same treaty calls for the United States and other members of the nuclear club to eliminate their own stockpiles, but it gives no deadline by which that should take place. The Bush administration plan would replace the aging Cold War stockpile of about 6,000 warheads with a smaller, more reliable arsenal that would last for decades. It would also consolidate the handling of plutonium, the most dangerous of the nuclear materials, in one center that would be built at a site that already houses similar special materials. Another part of the plan would be to remove all highly enriched uranium from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, D'Agostino said. Key to the Bush plan is an expected decision in December by the NNSA on a design for the new "Reliable Replacement Warhead" (RRW). The nation's two nuclear weapons laboratories, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, are competing for the new warhead design. Before going ahead with any new warhead, however, the NNSA would have to get Congress's approval to move into actual engineering development. A requirement of the new design is that it must be based on nuclear packages tested in the past so that it will not require the United States to break the moratorium on underground tests to make certain the RRW will work. The process initiated yesterday will provide the public the first chance to give its views on the Bush nuclear program. To carry out the rebuilding of the complex, the agency must prepare updated environmental-impact statements for the eight sites, including public comments, and hold hearings at each location. Although the administration has decided to go ahead with the Complex 2030 plan and sees the RRW as a way to have a more reliable weapon, the public will also get a chance to comment on two alternative plans for handling the nuclear stockpile - plans that the administration has rejected. The Bush option, titled "Transform to a More Modern, Cost-Effective Nuclear Weapons Complex (Complex 2030)," would call for stepped-up dismantling of older warheads, a process that has been slowed by the aging of some facilities and by efforts to refurbish other deployed warheads. The second option to be placed before the public is called the "No Action Alternative," which is described as "the status quo as it exists today and is presently planned," according to yesterday's notice in the Federal Register about the upcoming environmental-impact hearings. That approach would keep the current programs going and defer decisions on the future of the nuclear stockpile. The third option, titled "Reduced Operations and Capability-Based Complex Alternative," could draw support from arms control and anti-nuclear activists. Under this approach, the NNSA would keep its current technologies for manufacturing weapons and its production facilities would not be upgraded. The production of plutonium triggers for current weapons, called pits, would remain limited at about 50 per year. Under the Bush plan, the new plutonium center could produce 125 pits a year, a number D'Agostino said would satisfy current planning for the 2,200 RRW stockpile of the future. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 26 Chris Hedges: Bush's Nuclear Apocalypse Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 12:16:05 -0500 (CDT) X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Whitelisted"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A X-Spam-Class: HAM http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601009_bushs_nuclear_apocalypse/ Chris Hedges: Bush's Nuclear Apocalypse Digg this item Digg Email this item Email Print this item Print Posted on Oct 9, 2006 Iran's nuclear missile AP Photo/Vahid Salemi Accompanied by armed forces commanders, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reviews Iran's Shahab-3 missile, a weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching Europe, Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East. By Chris Hedges Editor's Note: The former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times and author of the bestseller "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" reports on Bush's plan for Iran, and how a callous war, conceived by zealots, will lead to a disaster of biblical proportions. The aircraft carrier Eisenhower, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio, guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage, guided-missile destroyer USS Mason and the fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, is, as I write, making its way to the Straits of Hormuz off Iran. The ships will be in place to strike Iran by the end of the month. It may be a bluff. It may be a feint. It may be a simple show of American power. But I doubt it. War with Iran-a war that would unleash an apocalyptic scenario in the Middle East-is probable by the end of the Bush administration. It could begin in as little as three weeks. This administration, claiming to be anointed by a Christian God to reshape the world, and especially the Middle East, defined three states at the start of its reign as "the Axis of Evil." They were Iraq, now occupied; North Korea, which, because it has nuclear weapons, is untouchable; and Iran. Those who do not take this apocalyptic rhetoric seriously have ignored the twisted pathology of men like Elliott Abrams, who helped orchestrate the disastrous and illegal contra war in Nicaragua, and who now handles the Middle East for the National Security Council. He knew nothing about Central America. He knows nothing about the Middle East. He sees the world through the childish, binary lens of good and evil, us and them, the forces of darkness and the forces of light. And it is this strange, twilight mentality that now grips most of the civilian planners who are barreling us towards a crisis of epic proportions. These men advocate a doctrine of permanent war, a doctrine which, as William R. Polk points out, is a slight corruption of Leon Trotsky's doctrine of permanent revolution. These two revolutionary doctrines serve the same function, to intimidate and destroy all those classified as foreign opponents, to create permanent instability and fear and to silence domestic critics who challenge leaders in a time of national crisis. It works. The citizens of the United States, slowly being stripped of their civil liberties, are being herded sheep-like, once again, over a cliff. But this war will be different. It will be catastrophic. It will usher in the apocalyptic nightmares spun out in the dark, fantastic visions of the Christian right. And there are those around the president who see this vision as preordained by God; indeed, the president himself may hold such a vision. The hypocrisy of this vaunted moral crusade is not lost on those in the Middle East. Iran actually signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It has violated a codicil of that treaty written by European foreign ministers, but this codicil was never ratified by the Iranian parliament. I do not dispute Iran's intentions to acquire nuclear weapons nor do I minimize the danger should it acquire them in the estimated five to 10 years. But contrast Iran with Pakistan, India and Israel. These three countries refused to sign the treaty and developed nuclear weapons programs in secret. Israel now has an estimated 400 to 600 nuclear weapons. The word "Dimona," the name of the city where the nuclear facilities are located in Israel, is shorthand in the Muslim world for the deadly Israeli threat to Muslims' existence. What lessons did the Iranians learn from our Israeli, Pakistani and Indian allies? Given that we are actively engaged in an effort to destabilize the Iranian regime by recruiting tribal groups and ethnic minorities inside Iran to rebel, given that we use apocalyptic rhetoric to describe what must be done to the Iranian regime, given that other countries in the Middle East such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia are making noises about developing a nuclear capacity, and given that, with the touch of a button Israel could obliterate Iran, what do we expect from the Iranians? On top of this, the Iranian regime grasps that the doctrine of permanent war entails making "preemptive" and unprovoked strikes. Those in Washington who advocate this war, knowing as little about the limitations and chaos of war as they do about the Middle East, believe they can hit about 1,000 sites inside Iran to wipe out nuclear production and cripple the 850,000-man Iranian army. The disaster in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli air campaign not only failed to break Hezbollah but united most Lebanese behind the militant group, is dismissed. These ideologues, after all, do not live in a reality-based universe. The massive Israeli bombing of Lebanon failed to pacify 4 million Lebanese. What will happen when we begin to pound a country of 70 million people? As retired General Wesley K. Clark and others have pointed out, once you begin an air campaign it is only a matter of time before you have to put troops on the ground or accept defeat, as the Israelis had to do in Lebanon. And if we begin dropping bunker busters, cruise missiles and iron fragmentation bombs on Iran this is the choice that must be faced-either sending American forces into Iran to fight a protracted and futile guerrilla war or walking away in humiliation. "As a people we are enormously forgetful," Dr. Polk, one of the country's leading scholars on the Middle East, told an Oct. 13 gathering of the Foreign Policy Association in New York. "We should have learned from history that foreign powers can't win guerrilla wars. The British learned this from our ancestors in the American Revolution and re-learned it in Ireland. Napoleon learned it in Spain. The Germans learned it in Yugoslavia. We should have learned it in Vietnam and the Russians learned it in Afghanistan and are learning it all over again in Chechnya and we are learning it, of course, in Iraq. Guerrilla wars are almost unwinnable. As a people we are also very vain. Our way of life is the only way. We should have learned that the rich and powerful can't always succeed against the poor and less powerful." An attack on Iran will ignite the Middle East. The loss of Iranian oil, coupled with Silkworm missile attacks by Iran on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, could send oil soaring to well over $110 a barrel. The effect on the domestic and world economy will be devastating, very possibly triggering a huge, global depression. The 2 million Shiites in Saudi Arabia, the Shiite majority in Iraq and the Shiite communities in Bahrain, Pakistan and Turkey will turn in rage on us and our dwindling allies. We will see a combination of increased terrorist attacks, including on American soil, and the widespread sabotage of oil production in the Gulf. Iraq, as bad as it looks now, will become a death pit for American troops as Shiites and Sunnis, for the first time, unite against their foreign occupiers. The country, however, that will pay the biggest price will be Israel. And the sad irony is that those planning this war think of themselves as allies of the Jewish state. A conflagration of this magnitude could see Israel drawn back in Lebanon and sucked into a regional war, one that would over time spell the final chapter in the Zionist experiment in the Middle East. The Israelis aptly call their nuclear program "the Samson option." The Biblical Samson ripped down the pillars of the temple and killed everyone around him, along with himself. If you are sure you will be raptured into heaven, your clothes left behind with the nonbelievers, then this news should cheer you up. If you are rational, however, these may be some of the last few weeks or months in which to enjoy what is left of our beleaguered, dying republic and way of life. ***************************************************************** 27 Daily Nexus: Conference Explores Nuclear Alternatives - At the second annual Think Outside the Bomb Conference this weekend, attendees might start worrying and stop loving the bomb in order to find alternatives to nuclear war and weapon production. The conference - which starts at 7 tonight at Corwin Pavilion and ends 5 p.m. on Sunday at the MultiCultural Center - includes a number of speakers, discussion panels and leadership workshops. Organizers said the conference allows young people nationwide to discuss and plan ways to abolish nuclear production and proliferation. Will Parrish, an event organizer and youth empowerment director, said 200 young people from various western states such as California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Oregon and Idaho are expected to attend the conference. Parrish said the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is sponsoring TOTBC. The foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1982 that supports and initiates efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons, waste and nuclear production. The major goal of the project is to get people to think outside the fact that nuclear weapons are not a past problem, and focus on the fact that young people can make an influence now, Parrish said. While the conference is open to the public, Parrish said most students who will attend the event were required to apply. Young people will come together and get educated on all the current issues about nuclear waste and energy, Parrish said. We will give people the tools and skills that they need to be more effective activists and leaders, including training and strategizing. Among the many speakers, Parrish said Shigeko Sasamori, who survived the bombing of Hiroshima when she was a teenager, will discuss how she endured injuries and health problems as a result of the 1945 bombing. Parrish said the conference concentrates on specific goals such as the UC Nuclear Free Campaign - an effort to end the UCs management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Laurence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California. The Los Alamos lab is 43 square miles that focuses on research, storing nuclear waste, designing nuclear weapons and producing parts, Parrish said. Parrish said the conference will cover other topics, including alternatives to nuclear power and nuclear waste. Nuclear power receives 20 billion of tax-payers dollars and subsidies to be economically feasible, Parrish said. That 20 billion could go towards developing alternative energy such as wind and solar. The goal of the Youth Empowerment Initiative, which organizes conferences such as Think Outside the Bomb, is to inform young people about the threat of nuclear war and to devise plans to end nuclear production. The goals are essential to the elimination of all nuclear weapons and foster world peace through international law, Parrish said. TOTBC originated in August 2005 when Parrish held a conference in New Mexico that brought together 60 young people from across the United States in addition to a few representatives from Kazakhstan and the Marshall Islands, he said. He said they exchanged ideas about nuclear disarmament. From that conference, a national network of youth was born who could work together on different projects focusing on nuclear issues such as nuclear power, nuclear disarmament, nuclear waste and the current wars, Parrish said. Parrish said nuclear energy is an environmental hazard. Nuclear energy pollutes radioactive waste thats active for 24,000 years, Parrish said. Its incredible [that] we create all this material thats active that long. The next conference is scheduled for Nov. 4 through 5 in New York City. We have people all over the country, Parrish said. If we do more and more conferences, we can build strong regions working on different issues. 2000-2006 Daily Nexus. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Houston Chronicle: Facilities have no joint plans — for now Oct. 21, 2006, 8:43PM Future uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico is set next door to Texas disposal site By MARK BABINECK Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle EUNICE, N.M. — "Synergy," a favorite piece of jargon in the corporate world, seems practically embodied on the Texas-New Mexico state line. On the New Mexico side is the future Louisiana Energy Services, where uranium ore will be processed into a form that can be turned into fuel rods for nuclear power plants, creating waste than can be "deconverted" into low-level radioactive waste. Next door, on the Texas side, is Waste Control Specialists' disposal site, which is angling for a permit to permanently impound low-level radioactive waste. The facilities share a boundary, and shipments from one to the other wouldn't even have to use the highway they share. No one involved denies the obvious business efficiencies, or synergy. However, neither company has formal plans to work with the other. "There's a great deal of logic there, but we just don't know where the WCS permit situation is," said Marshall Cohen, vice president of communications and government affairs for Louisiana Energy Services, which is building the enrichment plant. Likewise, Waste Control Specialists says it isn't banking on its neighbor. Yet. "There is ample land for expansion if there's a business need for it," said Rodney Baltzer, president of Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists. Karen Hadden of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, a liberal environmental group, said the placement on the desert between Andrews and Eunice, about 70 miles northwest of Odessa, screams collusion. "These plans are connected, and these operations are connected," she said. Despite the widespread assumption that one company's trash will be the other's treasure down the road, outrage has been isolated. One of the conditions for the enrichment plant to win state approval from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's administration was that its waste not be disposed of in the state. If it ends up at Waste Control Specialists, it could be entombed just a "chip shot" across the border, as described by Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock. Even though it would still be closer to Eunice than any other community, New Mexico Environment Department spokeswoman Marissa Stone said it would meet the standard. mark.babineck@chron.com ***************************************************************** 29 OneWorld UK: U.S. Public at Risk from Radiation - Scientists OneWorld.net Abid Aslam OneWorld US News --> 21 October 2006 WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (OneWorld) - The United States, in a twist on social Darwinism, maintains protection standards so low that they shield only the strongest people from cancer-causing radiation. So say scientists whose conclusions are propelling a new campaign to provide greater safety for women, children, and others at greatest risk. ''A central principle of environmental health protection--protecting those most at risk--is missing from much of the U.S. regulatory framework for radiation,'' said Arjun Makhijani, president of the Takoma Park, Maryland-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) and co-author of a study, released Thursday, that is driving the campaign. Many federal radiation protection standards, such as limits on how much residual radiation is allowed in contaminated soil, are designed to protect ''Reference Man,'' a hypothetical Caucasian male, says the report, Science for the Vulnerable: Setting Radiation and Multiple Exposure Environmental Health Standards to Protect Those Most at Risk. Not just any white man, the notional beneficiary of existing safety standards is 20-30 years old, weighs 154 pounds, stands five feet and seven inches tall, and is Western European or North American in habitat and custom. The trouble, according to campaigners for increased protection, is that women, children, and others often are more sensitive to the harmful effects of radiation or toxic materials. ''I've never known a woman to give birth to a full-grown, 154-pound 'Reference Man','' said Mary Brune, co-founder of Alameda, California-based MOMS, Making Our Milk Safe. The 105-page IEER report sets out to discuss the higher risks to women and girls of certain kinds of cancer, notably thyroid cancer. It finds that a female infant drinking contaminated milk is 100 times more at risk of thyroid cancer than an adult male. For the same dose of radiation, women have a 52 percent greater chance of getting cancer than do men. ''A considerable and growing body of evidence indicates that exposure to radiation and synthetic chemicals is contributing to increasing rates of breast cancer in the U.S. and other industrialized countries,'' said Jeanne Rizzo, a registered nurse and executive director of the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Fund. ''If we change our safety standards to specifically protect women and girls, we will spend less time, money and heartache treating diseases caused by environmental exposures,'' Rizzo added. There also is some evidence that the children of fathers exposed to radiation around the time they conceived their offspring face an increased risk of leukemia, a type of cancer that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of blood cells to be produced and enter the bloodstream, scientists say. The report cautions against conclusions about the number of Americans who might have been affected by this or other radiation risks, however, and notes that the specialized research needed to arrive at such conclusions is scant and difficult to conduct. Cancer is not the only specter causing worry among campaigners. The report cites research findings that radioactive tritium--already found in water used for drinking, irrigation, and recreation--crosses the placenta, affects the developing fetus, and can cause early failed pregnancies as well as birth defects. ''These health risks are not part of regulatory considerations currently despite the fact that tritium discharges are occurring from both nuclear power plants and some nuclear weapons facilities, such as the Savannah River Site'' in South Carolina, Makhijani and his colleagues said in a statement. Likewise overlooked in official standards is the interaction of radioactive and chemical pollution, which combine to multiply people's risk of disease, the scientists said. On Thursday, they joined a coalition of local and national health, environmental, and women's organizations; academics specialized in terrorism, medicine, and public health; and politicians in demanding that President George W. Bush order federal agencies to review their radiation exposure standards. Agencies at issue include the U.S. Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration. Officials there could not be reached for immediate comment. Existing standards fly in the face of presidential orders issued by Bill Clinton in 1997 and seconded by Bush, campaigners said in an open letter to the chief executive. ''The use of Reference Man is not in accord with Presidential Executive Order 13045 on the Protection of Children From Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks, which you endorsed with amendments in 2003,'' they wrote to Bush. The directive instructs federal agencies to address children's disproportionate vulnerability to environmental hazards, they added. Solutions appear already to be in hand, according to IEER, which provides scientific consulting services to official and private organizations. Useful concepts such as the ''maximally exposed individual'' and the ''critical group'' already exist and could help protect the most sensitive but have not been widely applied, the report says. Besides abandoning Reference Man and replacing him with the most vulnerable population subgroup, it recommends ratcheting up workplace radiation protection and notes that the U.S. standard for allowable exposure is ''five times more lax than that in Germany.'' Unlike Europe, it adds, the United States lacks and must adopt extra protection measures against bodily contamination for women who breastfeed and who work at radiation-controlled job sites. Likewise, it urges regulators to restrict the discharge of tritium so that every liter of surface water in areas surrounding nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons sites contains no more than 500 picocuries of tritium. Colorado already has adopted this standard for the environs of the now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear plant near Denver and the U.S. Department of Energy agreed to this limit as a site-specific standard in the cleanup of Rocky Flats, the report says. ''The present national drinking water maximum contaminant limit for tritium is 20,000 picocuries per liter,'' the report says, adding that drinking water standards have failed to take into account the non-cancer health risks of exposure to tritium. ***************************************************************** 30 UPI: Rice criticizes Russia on several matters United Press International - NewsTrack - 10/22/2006 8:04:00 AM -0400 MOSCOW, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Moscow to discuss U.N. sanctions against North Korea, criticized the Russian government on several issues. Rice's remarks to reporters on press freedoms, Russia's law for foreign private groups and tensions with neighboring Georgia came as she traveled to urge enforcement of the U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on North Korea a week ago in response to its Oct. 9 nuclear test, The New York Times said Sunday. Rice said the future of a free Russian press concerned the United States, particularly in light of the assassination of a Russian journalist who was critical of President Vladimir Putin's administration. She said she would ask Kremlin leaders to explain the enforcement of a new law requiring foreign nongovernmental organizations to register with the government, making it difficult for NGOs to operate, the Times said. Rice said she would urge Moscow to guard against increasing conflict with Georgia, which escalated after Georgia detained four Russian military personnel for suspected espionage. Regarding North Korea, Rice said she doubted reports that the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, expressed regret for ordering the nuclear test and pledged not to detonate another. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 31 [NYTr] Crashing the Party at the Nuclear Club Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 22:35:10 -0500 (CDT) X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Whitelisted"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A X-Spam-Class: HAM Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by mart - Oct 22, 2006 Forwarded and written by Tony Black for the upcoming November edition of 'Mayday' (Hamilton, Ontario) Crashing the Party: The Nuclear Club cries foul over the breach of its monopoly By Antony Black tal@interlynx.net Well, chalk up yet another catastrophic failure of Bush & Co. to make the world a safer place. Actually, given that Mordor has never evidenced the remotest intention to make the world a safer place, perhaps we should rephrase that sentiment to something like, 'well, chalk up yet another spectacular success of the Bush regime in making the world a more dangerous - if profitable - place.' Yes, that sounds about right. So, let's see how they did it this time. The Demonization of North Korea It is routine in the Western popular press to hear of the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong-Il, referred to as a 'madcap tyrant' or a 'delusional despot' or some such similar calumny. Now this is rich coming from nations that have, in the past decade alone, either directly instigated or otherwise supported bloody invasions of, or attacks upon, Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan, attempted a coup against the democratically elected government of Venezuela, and succeeded in overthrowing the democratically elected government of Haiti. (These being just the tip of the proverbial iceberg). Still, Kim Jong-Il has been a busy little bee of late building and testing various missile systems much to the alarm of the likes of Taiwan and Japan. The question is, 'Why?'. The answer is simple and straightforward: The DPRK feels itself to be under threat of attack by the US. In this they are not deluded. They have, in fact, been under continuous threat since the end of the Korean War in 1953. The United States has tens of thousands of troops stationed in South Korea - and the Seventh Fleet just offshore - to maintain what it considers a vital strategic foothold on the Asian mainland (part of its 'containment' of China), and it has done everything possible to undermine any potential movement towards the reunification of the two Koreas. Part of the tactics involved in the latter aim has been a constant provocation and demonization of the DPRK. As a result, the North Koreans have, for many decades, been forced to squander up to a quarter of their national income on their military forces, and this from a poor nation more or less cut off from world trade. The South Korean economy, it is worthy of note, has, by comparison, gone gangbusters due, in no small part, to American largesse and to the boom times of the Vietnam War which, the North Koreans might just have noticed, witnessed the cool annihilation by the US of 4 million or so Indo-Chinese (in order to save them from themselves, you understand); a conflict, moreover, in which Washington several times came close to employing nuclear weapons. None of this, of course, is ever mentioned let alone factored into any mainstream analysis of the current 'crisis', but then as they say, what else is new? Welshing on the Deal Superimposed on this broad contextual background there has played out, over the past decade and a half, a series of specific events leading up to the present imbroglio. Thus, beginning in the early to mid '90's the North Korean economy suffered a series of catastrophic blows. The first was the collapse of a major source of trade following the demise of the Soviet Union. The second was a spate of natural calamities leading to widespread crop failure and, thence, famine. In 1994, then, with its back against the wall, North Korea signed the so-called, "Framework Agreement" with the Clinton Administration by which the DPRK agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program in return for American supplied fuel, food and the construction of two light-water nuclear power reactors. The latter event was the 'good news'. The bad news was that the United States then failed to follow through on its obligations. In truth, there is substantial evidence that they never had any intention of following through on said obligations, which served, instead, merely as a welfare program for various US business concerns, much in the same way that the Iraqi 'oil for food program' saw the disappearance of vast sums into the secretive pockets of American contractors in that instance - and just as the 'rebuilding of Iraq' has become a black hole for taxpayer funds in the present instance. In any case, when the fuel and the food and the reactors failed to materialize the Agreed Framework began to unravel. It finally collapsed in 2002 shortly following the accession to power of Bush Jr. who then immediately, and successively, pushed for sanctions, placed North Korea on his moronic 'axis of evil' list, threatened regime change and, just to insure that tensions were brought to a fever pitch, publicly announced that he "loathed" Kim Jung-Il. Not surprisingly the North Koreans changed tactics and began making swashbuckling sounds with their own (potential) nuclear sabre. Their reasoning was not hard to fathom for it was crystal clear from the successive invasions of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and, especially, Iraq, that the chickenhawks at the White House only ever attacked countries that were defenceless. North Korea was not about to make the same mistake and allow itself to be disarmed in a fruitless attempt to placate what was, in essence, a global mafia don. Sham Negotiations Now, any half-way rational administration - meaning one that was truly concerned about world security and stability - would, on the heels of such open policy failures, have sat down one-on-one with Jung-Il and his negotiators and hammered out some sort of new (substantive) agreement. Indeed, it is evident that the Koreans' main concern under the original Agreed Framework was to receive from the Americans an formal non-aggression pact, i.e. an iron-clad promise that, if the DPRK gave up its nuclear ambitions, the US would renounce any notion of attack or regime change. These are nice thoughts. What in fact happened, of course, was that Bush & Co. refused to engage in bi-lateral talks and, instead, entered into a charade known as the Six Party Talks. The 'six' refers to the two Koreas, the US, Russia, China and Japan, the nations who were involved in this delightful little merry-go-round; a dog-and-pony show whose defining feature was, naturally, the complete absence (by Washington) of any intent, let alone motion, to negotiate. Meanwhile, with its economy reeling, the North Korean government was desperate for a deal and the only bargaining chip it had available was its nuclear program. It is in this sense that the corporate pundits have grasped a kernel of truth by insisting that North Korea was intent on 'blackmailing' the West into giving it what it wanted. What these same pundits fail to find worthy of mention, however, is that primarily what the DPRK wanted was the fundamental right to prosper as an independent nation without being annihilated or mauled by the global mafia don gone berserk. It's My Party and I'll Whine If I Want To Having substituted bullying and dim-witted bravado for honest negotiation, the Bush regime and its cohort of allied sycophants were then suddenly 'shocked, shocked I tell you' when the North Koreans, first, withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and, second, announced their intention to proceed with nuclear armament. Even at the 11th hour, that is in July of this year when Pyongyang ended its self-imposed missile moratorium by testing its Taepo-dong ICBM, Washington refused to engage in meaningful talks with the Koreans. The result: on October 9th - on the anniversary of Kim Jong-Il's accession to power following his father's death in 1994 - North Korea detonated its first atomic weapon. We think. In actual fact, no one (at the time of writing) is absolutely sure, as the yield was very small and could have been a ploy using a few hundred tons of TNT. Still, there is every reason to believe the Koreans have the materials and capability so, for the sake of argument, there is now a 9th nuclear player in the world. [The 8th is, of course, Israel which still refuses to acknowledge its nuclear arsenal, has repeatedly blackmailed the global community under its 'Samson option' (nuclear war against its neighbours), has just prosecuted a major war crime in Lebanon, and whose nuclear arsenal has, to date, remained completely under the moral radar of a deeply complicit Western audience]. The reaction of the 'international community' (code for the mafia don and its minions) has, per usual, been a spectacle of unmitigated hypocrisy. Thus, the ubiquitously pedaled notion that the 'world is now a more dangerous place', though of course true in some technical sense, is eerily vacuous given the likes of the new John Hopkins University study recently published in the Lancet which concludes that over 655,000 people (over 98% of them civilians) have been killed in the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. It is, then, rather hard to take seriously the protestations of major nuclear powers like Britain and the United States when they have consistently used not only their conventional weapons superiority, but their nuclear threat as a complement to their lawless invasions, global hegemonic strategies, and coercive tactics in the UN (past and present, a mere plaything of Washington). The Bankruptcy of Sanctions As for Russia and China, though they have, prima facie, agreed to US instigated sanctions on North Korea, there is little doubt that they have acquiesced under duress. The mafia don has, after all, said it publicly many times: 'You're either with us or against us'. Still, China is, in addition, likely playing the 'good cop / bad cop' routine hoping to mitigate the full fury of the US inspired sanctions. The sanctions themselves will, moreover, undoubtedly do little to impact the North Korean leadership (they never have before) and will, instead, merely make life even more miserable for the general population. One is reminded here of the murderous economic sanctions imposed for over a decade on Iraq which saw off from this good earth well over a million young lives. Or the vengeful sanctions taking by the US against post-war Vietnam as due punishment for its crime of defending itself. Sanctions are at bottom, then, rarely rational, and usually represent, instead, mere spite raised to the level of state policy. Finally, one can wax wise about solutions to the present 'crisis', about simply giving North Korea what it always wanted and, indeed, deserved, i.e. a non-aggression pact; about ending pointless and counterproductive sanctions; and about sitting down in bilateral, one-on-one negotiations to discuss helping rather than hindering the North Korean economy. We could - and should - do all this, but even so, to do so would be acting all the while as if the North Korean mouse is the real problem, whilst in our very midst sits the proverbial elephant under a lamp shade. For what we should be discussing is how we are the ones (following on the coat-tails of the US) who are engaged in a new global arms race, even unto the reaches of outer space. It is that elephant and its negative counterpart, global nuclear disarmament, that we should be about. Anything less is just the most incredible moral hypocrisy. More to the point, anything less is just spitting in the wind. ========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato To subscribe, send an e-mail to: stopnato-subscribe@yahoogroups.com * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 32 Guardian Unlimited: Report: Japan May Help With Cargo Probes From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday October 22, 2006 11:46 AM TOKYO (AP) - Japan may deploy naval destroyers and surveillance aircraft to cooperate with the United States and other countries in proposed inspections of cargo vessels moving to and from North Korea, a news report said Sunday. Tokyo was considering the deployment of several naval destroyers and P-3C patrol aircraft in the Tsushima Strait and waters northwest of Okinawa, Japan's largest daily, Yomiuri Shimbun, reported, citing an outline of a government plan. The Tsushima Strait lies between South Korea and Japan's western coast. Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force would provide information to the United States and other foreign forces deployed in the area if it spots a suspicious ship, the report said. An official from Japan's navy said he could not comment on the report. The U.N. Security Council approved sanctions against North Korea last week for its Oct. 9 nuclear test. The measures include trade bans and called for cargo inspections to halt weapons proliferation. The North has called the sanctions a declaration of war and warned of unspecified countermeasures if its sovereignty is violated. Tokyo and Washington agreed to begin talks about possible ship inspections following a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Ship inspections in international waters are a sensitive issue for Japan because of its pacifist constitution, which prohibits its armed forces from military operations abroad. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 33 The Observer: Think-tank raps Blair over nuclear policies [UP] Heather Stewart Sunday October 22, 2006 The Observer The Government's Energy Review was a messy political compromise which leaves Britain trapped in a 'poker game' with nuclear giants, according to a report by one of Britain's leading experts on energy policy. Dismissed by some campaigners as a smokescreen for introducing nuclear power, the Energy Review was launched in July with the personal backing of Tony Blair. But in a report published tomorrow by think-tank the Social Market Foundation, Dieter Helm, a specialist in energy economics at Oxford University, accuses the government of fudging the question of whether it supports nuclear power. 'The review provides little by way of concrete policy proposals and it is unclear as to whether it is pro-nuclear,' Helm said. While admitting that it is unlikely to meet its emissions targets unless new nuclear stations are built, the review failed to offer a definitive price for carbon - the main market mechanism it hopes will encourage the private sector to produce more nuclear generators. Helm says this lack of definitive targets exposes the government to brinkmanship by potential builders, who can wait for the government to get closer to missing emission targets, and demand more financial concessions. He also accuses ministers of being 'naive' in expecting energy markets to ensure security of supply, in the new world of expensive oil, declining UK reserves, and powerful gas companies, such as Russia's Gazprom. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 34 Guardian Unlimited: Ahmadinejad warns Europe it will pay for backing Israel Robert Tait in Tehran Saturday October 21, 2006 The Guardian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran added a threatening edge to his verbal onslaught on Israel yesterday by warning European governments to withdraw their support or face getting "hurt" in a storm of retaliation. He also called Britain and America "enemies of Iran" whose attempts to block the country's nuclear programme at the UN security council were "illegitimate". Mr Ahmadinejad was speaking in Tehran at the annual Qods [Jerusalem] day rally, staged by Iran's Islamic regime to propagate its ideological opposition to Israel. He repeated predictions that Israel would soon disappear but, in a fresh warning, said European countries could pay a much higher price than the US for their backing. "We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbours of the nations in this region," he said. "We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt. It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals ... this is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow." Mr Ahmadinejad, who last year called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and dismissed the holocaust as a "myth", has not previously made such a clear distinction between US and European support for Israel. The UN security council is poised to consider sanctions in response to Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. But Mr Ahmadinejad dismissed the security council because of the presence of America and Britain as permanent veto-wielding powers. "What sort of security council is this?" he asked. "You want to be the judge, the jury and the enforcer." Mr Ahmadinejad's outburst came amid a carnival atmosphere in which throngs of children carrying balloons milled among the crowds. Dozens swapped paintings depicting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for T-shirts donated by Tehran city council. A display of banners featured one bearing the phrase "Israel must be wiped off the map" in Hebrew. Others accused companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Nestlé and Marks and Spencer of being pro-Israel. A stall recruiting potential "martyrs" was selling CD-roms showing volunteers from the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas preparing suicide attacks against Israel. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006 ***************************************************************** 35 Gulfnews: Israel must open up nuke program to IAEA, says UAE Last updated: 12:38 (GMT+04) Sunday, October 22, 2006. New York: Israel must open up its nuclear arsenals for international inspection to restore security in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates has urged. Abdullah Hassan Obaid Al Shamsi told the United Nations on Friday evening that Israel's possession of weapons of mass destruction is "a great source of danger" to the Middle East. "The Middle East and the Arabian Gulf has become [two] of the most tense regions in the world not only because of the recurrent wars and the continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, but also because of Israel's possession of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons," he said. He urged the UN to force Israel to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and asked for more pressure on the Israeli government. He also urged Israel to "immediately desist" from producing or stockpiling fissile materials, cease nuclear testing and dismantle existing nuclear arsenals. Gulf News © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2006. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 36 UPI: Putin won't sign EU energy pact United Press International - NewsTrack - 10/21/2006 9:17:00 AM -0400 LAHTI, Finland, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Russian leader Vladimir Putin, during a European Union summit in Finland, defended his stance on Georgia and his reluctance to open Russian energy supplies. More than two dozen European officials met in Lahti, Finland, for a one-day summit on energy-related issues, The Times of London said Saturday. Several EU leaders said Europe should develop nuclear and coal-powered energy facilities to reduce the EU's reliance on Russia for energy needs, the Times said. Russia supplies more than one-fifth of the EU's oil and gas supply, the Times said. Putin would not sign an energy agreement with the EU but pledged to work toward a longer term policy he said would address the EU's concerns, the Times said. The Russian president told European heads of government that he was not responsible for problems in Georgia and that he hoped to avoid more bloodshed there, the Times said. Putin said rapidly developing Russian law was geared toward improving the country's internal conditions and encouraging foreign investment. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 37 AZ Republic: Palo Verde unit expected to be running today after repairs made [azcentral.com] Staff and wire reports Oct. 21, 2006 12:00 AM WINTERSBURG - A unit that was shut down Thursday at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station for an undetermined mechanical problem was expected to be working again today. The repair operation was going smoothly Friday, and Arizona Public Service Co. officials anticipated its completion by day's end. Spokesman Jim McDonald said it would take 24 hours for full power to be restored once repairs had been made. Unit 3 at Palo Verde was manually shut down shortly before noon Thursday after two condensate pumps shut down and operators noticed low feed-water pump pressure, said McDonald, a spokesman for plant operator APS. The problem area was in part of the reactor's electricity-generating system, not its reactor cooling or emergency systems. He did not know what steps plant engineers took to fix the problem. McDonald called the unplanned event "an uncomplicated shutdown." "No major components were involved, no safety systems were actuated. It was a simple straightforward shutdown," he said. Palo Verde has three reactors and is the largest nuclear plant in the nation. It has been plagued by outages and equipment problems for the past two years. Earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered a special inspection of the plant after a backup generator at Unit 3 did not activate during plant inspections July 25 and Sept. 22. Results of the inspection are due next month. Thursday's shutdown came just two days after the plant restarted its Unit 1 reactor. That unit was shut down for a month after repeated problems with five of its 36 pressurization heaters. The plant's Unit 2 reactor is down for refueling. Palo Verde, in Wintersburg about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, supplies electricity to about 4 million customers in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California. Republic reporter Lindsey Collom contributed to this article. Copyright © 2006, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo part of national nuclear accident study | 10/21/2006 | Research over three years will develop scenarios of off-site consequences of serious radiation leak By David Sneed dsneed@thetribunenews.com Diablo Canyon Power Plant is one of six nuclear facilities nationwide selected to be part of a study of the public effects of a serious radioactive leak. Called the State of the Art Reactor Consequence Analysis, the three-year study by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will look at how accidents might occur and how containment might fail. The study will be used to develop a series of scenarios of the off-site consequences of a nuclear accident, said NRC spokeswoman Holly Harrington. "Ultimately," she said, "we will use what we learn to update our computer methods and analysis." Local public meetings will be held to discuss the study. No dates have been set. The study will have minimal impact on the day-to-day operations of the plant because it will use existing data and concentrate on the effect a release would have on the public, said Diablo Canyon spokesman Jeff Lewis. Rochelle Becker, with the San Luis Obispo-based Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, said the study raises a number of questions about why Diablo Canyon was selected. She wants state regulators to require plant owners Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to postpone a planned $14 million study of the feasibility of renewing Diablo Canyon’s operating licenses until the NRC study is complete. The six plants included in the study were selected on the basis of their design, the type of containment structure used and population densities in the vicinity of the plant, Harrington said. The other plants in the study are in Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Reach David Sneed at 781-7930. ***************************************************************** 39 Houston Chronicle: Some welcome Andrews County nuclear projects Oct. 22, 2006, 11:15AM Nuclear not a dirty word in W. Texas In West Texas county, some say nuclear projects are welcome By MARK BABINECK Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle ANDREWS — The chat around Leland "Pops" Hamilton's kitchen table during a Christian men's group luncheon was exactly the kind of stuff you'd expect to hear — church, football and the local economy. Then talk shifted to nuclear waste. "Because of the gas and oil economy around here, the air stinks anyway," local halfway-house director James Robinson joked, explaining why he and others widely support a low-level radioactive waste landfill on Andrews County's western edge. "We're not necessarily brave or stupid. We're just more adaptable." Polling and public meetings that resemble pep rallies indicate Robinson's attitude is representative, which is why the county eagerly hosts the dump, has invited an experimental nuclear reactor and is just a few feet from a uranium enrichment complex under construction on the other side of the New Mexico line. That is in addition to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, about 45 miles west of the Texas state line, which last month accepted its 5,000th shipment of atomic bomb-related transuranic waste since opening in 1999. Welcome to the atomic prairie. The reactor The way Andrews County Judge Richard Dolgener sees it, his little slice of West Texas and the 13,000 people who live there are perfectly suited to serve the nation's nuclear needs. "We work in a dangerous county," Dolgener said. "You've got H2S (hydrogen sulfide), you've got a lot of things that can just drop you dead. The oil field itself is dangerous to work in." About 35 miles to the south in Odessa, Jim Wright sees the same signs warning of poisonous gas wells on the University of Texas of the Permian Basin campus "right over by the tennis courts, by the duck pond and by the soccer field." To him, those places are riskier than what he's busy planning for Andrews: the nation's first High-Temperature Teaching and Test Reactor, known locally as "the Heater." "The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality asked Andrews County to take a survey on our project. They just really, quite frankly, couldn't believe anyone could be this pro-nuclear," Wright said. "Really, these folks aren't pro-nuclear. They just see the technologies being used in nuclear now to be really good, safe economic engines." The survey came back about 3-to-1 in favor, and there has been no well-organized opposition, just as with the Waste Control Specialists dump and the Louisiana Energy Services National Enrichment Facility next door in Lea County, N.M. Unlike the other projects, Dolgener said, the reactor probably would be set near town. And that's fine with him. "I wish they'd build it across the street from the courthouse," he said. Andrews, Odessa and Midland have put up $500,000 each toward helping UTPB, along with industry partners and other institutions, get the Heater going. "It's their belief that, ultimately, the technology involved with this reactor will generate NASA-like (intellectual property) development," Wright said. Wright wants to see the $650 million reactor, along with three associated research laboratories, humming by October 2012. The plant The latest in a yearslong series of enthusiastic public meetings on nuclear matters took place earlier this month in Eunice, N.M., where speakers generally supported a state wastewater permit for the National Enrichment Facility five miles east of town. The plant, which aims to be enriching uranium ore for use in fuel rods by early 2009, already has federal approval and the blessing of state officials. Crews are preparing the site and expect to start pouring concrete by year's end. "We feel confident," said Marshall Cohen, the facility's vice president for communications and government affairs. "We don't anticipate any issues with those (permits)." If built, Cohen said, the facility will be the first in the United States using modern centrifuge technology to enrich uranium for power customers nationwide. Karen Hadden of Austin-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, a group that opposes nuclear power, would love to stop it but acknowledges grass-roots opposition is lacking. "There are voices of people not pleased with this action, but there hasn't been enough funding and enough help for those communities to support them," Hadden said. One of the few vocal anti-nuclear locals, a man in Hobbs, N.M., spices up his arguments with anti-Semitic rants. Through the years, state Sen. Robert Duncan has evolved into a legislative watchdog when it comes to Waste Control Specialists' facility on the state line. "My view is, if we're going to do this, we need to make sure it's economically feasible and to make sure it's done correctly," said the Lubbock Republican, who supports consolidating regulatory oversight under TCEQ. The dump But Waste Control Specialists wields mighty political muscle. Representatives of the company, whose parent company is controlled by Dallas billionaire and top Republican contributor Harold Simmons, have spread dollars to myriad elected officials in recent years. Rodney Baltzer, Waste Control Specialist's president, said not all the contributions are company-related. "But political support is very important. We couldn't have done it if we didn't have political support," Baltzer said. He added that good will in Austin would be useless without the "phenomenal" community support Andrews has offered over the years. "The community wants a project that brings good, high-paying jobs," Baltzer said. "When you say 'radiation,' it sounds a lot worse than oil and gas, but it's actually a lot safer place to work than a lot of oil and gas projects." Waste Control Specialists received its first hazardous waste in 1997. It stores low-level radioactive material from a defunct Ohio plant and is seeking a permit to dispose of that and similar waste from elsewhere in Texas and Vermont under an existing compact. To get that permit from the TCEQ, it must respond satisfactorily to a list of concerns brought by the state, including whether groundwater beneath the pits could spread radioactivity. "We have open questions about that," said Glenn Lewis, of the agency's Radioactive Material Licensing Team. Dolgener and Waste Control Specialists say the site, which sits on 800 feet of red clay, cannot pollute any useful aquifers. But Rose Gardner, one of the few local voices of opposition, complained at an Andrews meeting last year that the dump was placed as close to the state line as possible. "I've heard the term 'remote' used here tonight. Remote as compared to what? Remote as compared to Andrews? Remote ... as compared to Odessa? Houston? Dallas?" she said. "Remote, to me, means six miles from Eunice," she said. "Since I live in Eunice, it is not a remote site." If Waste Control Specialists satisfies the TCEQ's battery of technical questions, it could win the license by the end of next year. If it fails, Baltzer said, it would bode ill for others looking to get rid of radioactive refuse. "We think if we can't get it done in Andrews County, in that location," he said, "it'll never be done anywhere." mark.babineck@chron.com [chron.com] Copyright Notice &Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 40 BBC NEWS: Putin firm on EU energy charter Saturday, 21 October 2006, 02:22 GMT 03:22 [Vladimir Putin (photo: EU Presidency website)] Mr Putin said Russia had not started the tensions with Georgia Russian President Vladimir Putin has resisted EU calls to sign an existing international treaty on investment and trade in energy. But says he thinks Russia and the EU can agree binding rules. They begin talks on a new strategic partnership in the next few weeks, and Mr Putin says he is confident it would be possible to find common approaches. At an EU summit in Finland, Mr Putin also hit out at Georgian leaders, accusing them of building up forces. The EU has been trying for years to get Russia to sign the Energy Charter Treaty without success. It now wants to enshrine many of the treaty's principles into the new framework agreement with Russia. Trade partnership The aim is to make it easier for European companies to invest in the Russian energy sector, and to use Russian pipelines to export the oil and gas they produce. The pact would also be designed to ensure that Russia treated all European countries equally, and to lay the basis for a long-term trade partnership. Russia supplies a quarter of the oil and gas consumed in the EU, and the proportion is set to rise sharply in coming decades. I am quite confident that we will be in a position to develop common approaches [ src=] Vladimir Putin Mr Putin suggested that Russia could agree to most of the charter's principles when negotiations begin. "We are not against the principles that are included in the charter, but we believe that that certain provisions of the charter should be defined better," he said. "I am quite confident that we will be in a position to develop common approaches." Mr Putin echoed European leaders by saying that energy co-operation needed to be rooted in the principles of predictability of energy markets and the mutual interdependence of suppliers and consumers. 'Reciprocity' The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Lahti says Mr Putin was on a charm offensive, but there was no sign of progress on any of the really difficult issues. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the two sides needed to develop mutual trust. "That requires transparency, the rule of law, reciprocity, non-discrimination, market opening and market access," he said. The EU wants European investors to have the same access to the Russian energy market as Russian companies have to Europe's market, and the ability to use Russian pipelines to export any gas and oil they produce in Russia. European governments have recently raised concerns about the treatment of some European energy investors attempting to develop oil and gas resources in Russia. Energy security became a major priority for the EU after Russia briefly cut off gas to Ukraine in January, in a dispute over payment. A paper prepared for the summit by the European Commission stressed the importance of increasing energy imports from the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Caspian, Middle East and Gulf regions. 'Bloodshed' The EU leaders said before the summit that they would make clear their hopes that Russia would be able to find the killer of the murdered journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. On Georgia, Mr Putin said that Russia had not started the latest round of tensions between the two countries. "The issue does not lie between Russia and Georgia, the issue is between Georgia and South Ossetia and Abkhazia," he said, referring to Georgia's two Russian-backed breakaway territories. He accused Georgian leaders of seeking to take control of the regions by military force, and said a Georgian military build-up was the cause of the latest trouble. The Georgian government reacted angrily to Mr Putin's comments, calling an immediate press conference. ***************************************************************** 41 Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Kewaunee nuclear plant plans to ask for more storage Posted October 22, 2006 Associated Press CARLTON, Wis. — The Kewaunee nuclear plant plans next year to ask the local board to build dry storage bunkers for radioactive, spent nuclear fuel at its facility on Lake Michigan. The bunkers will be updated versions of those already used at Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant, just a few miles south. The dry storage would replace the current pool storage inside the plant, which is nearly full. “These will be standalone above-ground bunkers, not visible from the lake,” said Rick Zuercher, spokesman for Kewaunee Power Station owner Dominion Resources. The company doesn’t need a federal permit to add the bunkers, but it does need a local building permit. Those permits will be sought sometime in the next year, Zuercher said. The building permit would have to be discussed in public meetings. Carlton Town Chairman David Zeller said he would rather see the nuclear waste stored at a planned national facility in Yucca Mountain, Nev. “I don’t care for it, but I feel I would go along with it, as a temporary thing,” Zeller said of the storage plan. “But you know how government is, sometimes temporary things last longer than you’d expect.” The bunkers are pre-approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Jan Strasma, Region 3 spokesman in Chicago. The Kewaunee plant would simply have to notify the commission of its plans and specific bunker design. Zuercher said the company and the federal government consider the bunkers safe, but the intent is to eventually move the radioactive material to a permanent national facility. The dry casks are designed to handle transport to the planned site in Yucca Mountain, Nev., which is undergoing environmental studies and is scheduled to open in 2017. The Kewaunee plant and other nuclear producers in Wisconsin have contributed more than $320 million to help build a national storage facility. Contact us at 920-684-4433. htrnews.com is a Gannett Companywebsite. ***************************************************************** 42 Times Argus: Vermont Yankee evacuation blueprint facing late scrutiny Vermont News & Information October 21, 2006 Associated Press BRATTLEBORO — With a comment period about to close on the town's plan for responding to an emergency at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, new questions are being raised about whether infants and toddlers could be moved from child care centers in a hurry. The Select Board opened a public comment period on the plan last month, as part of the town's effort to prepare for signing off on a plan that is developed in conjunction with the state Division of Emergency Management. Dummerston, Halifax, Marlboro, Guilford and Marlboro also have local radiological emergency plans, as they are within or partially within an evacuation zone that extends out from Vermont Yankee for a 10-mile radius. The zone also extends into Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The town and the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union have been working to smooth out wrinkles in the schools' evacuation plan since a 2004 drill in which nearly 1,000 students couldn't be evacuated from schools because of a shortage of buses. The mishap was attributed to a miscommunication between New Hampshire and Vermont officials. Transportation is a big issue for the pre-schoolers as well, roughly 1,000 of whom are believed to be attending child care centers within the Vermont towns in the nuclear plant's evacuation zone. "We have been trying to get the town of Brattleboro to do an evacuation drill of child care programs for a long time," said Elizabeth Christie, executive director of the Windham Childcare Association. "They are a vulnerable population and the town has a responsibility to the well being of these children," she said. Christie said child care centers often lack vehicles sufficient to transport their children away from their sites in an emergency. "The schools have their buses, but where would the vehicles come from?" Christie asked. Town Manager Jerry Remillard said he'd met with Christie recently and agreed that the town should ask the state for $10,000 extra to incorporate child care centers into its emergency plan. "We've listened to their concerns and we are trying to address them," he said. "We've got work to do." Ed Anthes, of the group Nuclear Free Vermont, said the public needs to demand more certainty that evacuation plans will work. "The line is that (the plan) is a work in progress," said Anthes of Dummerston. "But I don't think there's been any demonstration that it will work. People aren't confident in the plan." Information from: Brattleboro Reformer © 2006 Times Argus ***************************************************************** 43 GBPG: Kewaunee Co. nuclear plant needs new storage option for waste Green Bay Press-Gazette - Workers make repairs this week on the steam generator equipment during a shutdown for refueling at the Kewaunee Power Station. H. Marc Larson/Press-Gazette Nuclear energy in Wisconsin + Wisconsin has three nuclear reactors on the shores of Lake Michigan: one at Kewaunee Power Station just south of Kewaunee and two at Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant in Two Creeks. + In recent years, Wisconsin's three nuclear reactors have accounted for about 20 percent of the state's total electricity generation. + Of 31 states with nuclear capacity, Wisconsin ranks 22nd. + Wisconsin's first commercial reactor, Point Beach 1, is one of the oldest reactors still in service, having started in 1970, one year after the two oldest reactors. + The Kewaunee plant is one of the smallest. Only one of the nation's 103 reactors — in Nebraska — is smaller in capacity. + Nuclear plants use radioactive uranium to produce heat through nuclear fission. The heat is used to produce steam, which turns electricity-generating turbines. Unlike coal-fired plants, the process results in no air pollution, but used uranium fuel presents a radioactive disposal problem for hundreds of years. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Posted October 22, 2006 Kewaunee Co. nuclear plant needs new storage option for waste Local board must approve above-ground bunkers By Paul Brinkmann pbrinkma@greenbaypressgazette.com CARLTON — The Kewaunee nuclear plant is preparing to add dry storage bunkers for radioactive, spent nuclear fuel at its facility on the Lake Michigan shoreline. "These will be standalone above-ground bunkers, not visible from the lake," Rick Zuercher, spokesman for Kewaunee Power Station owner Dominion Resources, said in a recent interview. The bunkers will be similar, but updated versions of those already used at Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant just a few miles farther south. The dry storage would replace the current pool storage inside the plant, which is almost full. New storage is needed soon, but the storage plans also fit with Dominion's long-range outlook to extend the plant's operating license 20 years beyond its original expiration date of 2013. The plant intends to file for license extension in mid-2008. The company doesn't need a federal permit to add the bunkers, but it does need a local building permit. Those permits will be sought sometime in the next year, Zuercher said. The Carlton Town Board is the political body that would approve the building permit, which will be discussed in public meetings. David Zeller, town chairman, said he would rather see the nuclear waste stored at a planned national facility in Yucca Mountain, Nev. "I don't care for it, but I feel I would go along with it, as a temporary thing," Zeller said of the storage plan. "But you know how government is, sometimes temporary things last longer than you'd expect." Dominion officials already approached the Town Board to inform them of their plans. The plant has produced a DVD showing how the storage system will work. Bunker safety The Kewaunee plant has been storing used nuclear fuel rods in the wet pool for more than 30 years. The oldest fuel has lost some radioactive heat. In adding dry storage, plant workers would extract the oldest spent fuel from the pool, insert it into sealed multi-layered containers, and move it on trucks to dry, horizontal storage bunkers. The bunkers are pre-approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Jan Strasma, Region 3 spokesman in Chicago. The Kewaunee plant would simply have to notify the commission of its plans and specific bunker design. "We have a list of dry storage equipment we have reviewed and certified for use at nuclear plants in this country," Strasma said. "If a utility chooses to use an already-certified cask, they do not have to seek additional permits to use dry cast storage." Safety during transfer to dry storage would be considered a routine operation and monitored by on-site commission inspectors, he said. Nevada option Zuercher said the company and the federal government consider the bunkers safe, but the intent is to eventually move the radioactive material to a permanent national facility. The dry casks are designed to handle transport to the proposed national storage site in Yucca Mountain, Nev., which is undergoing environmental studies and is scheduled to open in 2017. The Kewaunee plant and other nuclear producers in Wisconsin have contributed more than $320 million to help build a national storage facility. The state has more than 1,150 metric tons of uranium (mtu) from past nuclear operations, including a closed plant in La Crosse. A small fraction of that, about 200 mtu, is in dry storage, according to 2005 figures. The Kewaunee plant is currently coming out of a shutdown period to refuel, a $20 million process that replaces one-third of the fuel about every 18 months. Zuercher could not immediately say how much adding dry storage will cost, but he said it wouldn't be passed on to Wisconsin customers. "We will only add the storage as it is needed," he said. Contact us at 920-435-4411. greenbaypressgazette.com is a Gannett Companywebsite. ***************************************************************** 44 BJ: N.C. opposes Duke on recovering nuclear plant costs - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area: by John DowneyCharlotte Business Journal The N.C. Utilities Commission's Public Staff finds itself confused by Duke Energy Carolinas' request for authority to recover costs for a proposed nuclear plant before it is completed. But it thinks it's generally a bad idea. "Duke's application tilts the balance too far in its direction to the prejudice of its ratepayers," the staff stated in a filing this week. And the N.C. Attorney General's Office says Duke's request is unsupported by the facts and contrary to state law. The Carolina Utility Customers Association, an industrial group, doesn't like the proposal either, and it suggests the Utilities Commission either deny the request or delay action on it until Duke's expected rate case next year. A joint filing by seven public advocacy groups accuses Duke of trying to pass "unnecessary rate hikes to North Carolina consumers without first determining if the generating units are ... necessary and in the public interest." Duke plans to file its response next week. In a Sept. 20 filing, Duke asked the commission to allow it to recover $125 million in development costs it expects this year as it considers whether to build a $6 billion nuclear plant in Cherokee County, S.C., with The Southern Co.of Georgia. That would mark a significant change in rate making in North Carolina. By state statute, the commission can generally allow utilities to charge ratepayers only for equipment that is "used and useful." That has meant companies cannot charge the costs of construction to customers until a plant is operating. The company contends it cannot afford to commit large amounts of money to the nuclear-power project unless it can recover some of those costs as they are incurred. For now, Duke is seeking to recover only its development costs. But its filing says it will ask the commission for authority to recover construction costs in the same manner if it goes through with the plant. The commission asked for comments from interested parties, and so far they are all critical of Duke's request. The Public Staff, which represents the interests of ratepayers on utilities issues, says it is not even clear what Duke is asking for. The staff says the company appears to want the commission to say it can recover its costs without any kind of hearing. The attorney general and CUCA say the commission has no authority to grant the request. And the public-advocacy groups contend Duke is trying to get customers to pay the routine costs of its application for a nuclear plant. Duke has said it will go to the N.C. General Assembly with the request if necessary. John Downey is a senior reporter for the Charlotte Business Journal, a sister publication. He can be reached at (704) 973-1130 or jdowney@bizjournals.com © 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors. ***************************************************************** 45 Japan Times: India-American nuclear deal foundering japantimes.co.jp Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006 By B. GAUTAM Special to The Japan Times MADRAS -- The Indian-American nuclear deal signed in New Delhi in March seems to be foundering. The pact, which would give India access to American civil nuclear technology, must be approved by the U.S. Congress before it can become law. Although the accord -- signed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George W. Bush -- was opposed by many people, including some political parties and experts in India, two months ago it seemed set to sail smoothly through Congress. The hitch in the deal was India's ongoing nuclear-weapons program and New Delhi's refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Advocates of a world free of nuclear weapons question whether such a country should enjoy the benefits of America's civil nuclear technology. Washington's pact with New Delhi has inherent contradictions: Here is a nation that went to war with Iraq on a vague suspicion that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Here is also a nation that has been trying to stop, with threats, North Korea and Iran from going nuclear. Admittedly, India is a responsible democracy that cannot be placed in the same political category as North Korea, Iraq, Iran and even Pakistan. This is Bush's belief and he used this argument to try to push the Indian-American nuclear agreement through Congress. But North Korea's recent nuclear test may derail or delay the Indian-American nuclear deal. The North Korean test will certainly bring into sharp focus the deterrence theory, and the looming possibility of further nuclear proliferation. There are fears that Japan, South Korea and even Taiwan may be tempted to join the nuclear club. And if Iran builds a nuclear bomb, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey may follow suit. After all, Pakistan went nuclear immediately after India exploded its own nuclear bomb. Eager to see its pact with Washington pass through the U.S. Congress, New Delhi is now attempting to project itself as a responsible entity. One way of doing so is by turning the spotlight on Pakistan and its reported role in helping North Korea develop nuclear weapons. After talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Singh recently said, "I wish to state the . . . erosion of the nonproliferation regime is not in our interests, we do not support the emergence of another nuclear-weapons state. The North Korea test highlights the danger of clandestine proliferation. In fact, India's own security has suffered due to clandestine proliferation linkages." Yet, a marked nervousness can be felt in India's corridors of power about the nation being clumped together with countries such as Pakistan, North Korea and Iran. An Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson in New Delhi said the other day that "We have to stress the fact that there is a distinction between India and the rest -- Pakistan, North Korea and Iran." The world knows this distinction, but the North Korean test can make a lot of people -- even those sympathetic to India's cause -- uneasy. The timing of the North Korean blast was particularly bad for India. It suffered a major setback recently when the U.S. Senate recessed without voting on a bill that would have given Bush the powers to enable the pact to be implemented. This law would recognize India as a nuclear-weapons state and permit civilian nuclear commerce with it, even though New Delhi has not signed the NPT and has become a nuclear-weapons state in violation of NPT principles. "All this is bad news for the deal," said M. V. Ramana, an independent nuclear-affairs expert based at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development in Bangalore. "But it's not terrible news. There is still a good chance that the Senate resolution will eventually go through. But there is now a higher probability that more and more conditions will be imposed that will limit the degree of cooperation permitted under the deal or demand special assurances from India, which are not reciprocally sought from the U.S." If the pact cannot be approved by the present Congress, it will have to go through a trying process before it can be taken up by the new Congress that convenes in January 2007. It is then quite likely that the accord will differ significantly from the one that Singh and Bush signed early this year. B. Gautam writes for a leading Indian newspaper. The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 46 Napa Valley Register: Preparing for a safe nuclear future Online | CommentaryOpinion By JEFFERY P. SCHAFFER Saturday, October 21, 2006 8:19 PM PDT Jeremy Rifkin (a.k.a. "the most hated man in science" -- Scientific American, August 1997) is at it again with his Luddite views and latest pseudoscience book, "The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth." He advocates the hydrogen economy, which sounds great, yet currently the energy web he proposes is technically nonfeasible and to some physicists, it appears theoretically impossible. (Maybe we can violate some laws of physics?) That said, we just might get some kind of hydrogen economy in about 50 years, although only a fraction of what Rifkin ("Nuclear energy still a bad idea," Oct. 3) and others envision. And if we are equally lucky -- another far shot -- we might get hydrogen fusion. Don't hold your breath for either. In the meantime, we have to live with existing technologies, and state-of-the-art nuclear reactors are about as distant from Chernobyl as modern jetliners are from the Wright BrothersÂ’ flyer. The new pebble-bed nuclear reactors are fail-safe; they cannot melt down. Furthermore, reactors can be built that will produce less of the nuclear waste that current ones do. Where to put any waste? Perhaps Yucca Mountain, but as has been known by scientists for decades, we can encase the wastes and drop them in the middle of the North Pacific, since it is a biological desert at the surface and even more bleak at the bottom. The wastes would sink deep into the bottom's sediments some 20,000 feet below the surface. No terrorist could retrieve them. Current alternatives to the nuclear option include the following: We could drill for oil off all of our shores. So long as we are feeding our SUVs, we might as well do it with U.S. oil, not overseas oil. We can switch to biofuels, but in the near future, that can only support some of our petro-thirst. Wind energy is good when the wind is blowing, solar energy when the sun shines. Geothermal has great potential, but hot springs are sacred to many Native Americans, and so are off limits. That leaves hydropower. Should we build dams to create a few dozen more Hetch Hetchy Reservoirs? Of course, all of us could conserve our energy use, which would go a far way toward reducing our foreign-oil dependence, now at about 62 percent of our total consumption. Regardless of what we do, China and India each will eventually build two or three dozen nuclear power plants. They will need them to replace their dirty coal-burning power plants, and each country plans on rapidly building hundreds more of these to provide energy until nuclear power comes on line. China's coal pollution blows across to California and our air quality will worsen in the coming decades, and add to global warming. In the September issue of Scientific American, two MIT professors advocate the nuclear option (and address Rifkin's criticisms). Most important is the first sentence: "A threefold expansion of nuclear power could contribute significantly to staving off climate change by avoiding one billion to two billion tons of carbon emissions annually." (Schaffer lives in Napa.) ***************************************************************** 47 Decatur Daily: TVA hoping to fuel Unit 1 in December www.decaturdaily.com SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2006 ATHENS (AP)  The Tennessee Valley Authority hopes to fuel the Unit 1 reactor at its Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in early December, more than 20 years after it was shut down for safety reasons. TVA officials discussed the fuel schedule Friday at a meeting with Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. While TVA has made consistent progress, the NRC says, the federal utility still has "a lot of work to do" before fueling the reactor. TVA is rebuilding and refurbishing everything from the cooling systems to the radiation detectors to the fire protection system in the reactor. The NRC pledged to have enough inspectors to handle the review of each system that TVA declares is ready for operation. Several key tests and reviews for Unit 1 are planned next month to determine its readiness. The $1.8 billion restart effort began in May 2002. Unit 1 is scheduled to be returned to service in May. Copyright 2005 THE DECATUR DAILY. All rights reserved. Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This THE DECATUR DAILY 201 First Ave. S.E. P.O. Box 2213 Decatur, AL 35609 (256) 353-4612 webmaster@decaturdaily.com ***************************************************************** 48 DailyBulletin.com: Link to Wyle missing in rare illness Link to Wyle missing in rare illness We don't know what it is, but there's definitely a problem' By Andrea Bennett, Staff Writer Article Launched:10/21/2006 12:00:00 AM PDTNORCO - State officials and members of a community group concerned about cleanup efforts at a former munitions testing site have yet to find a definitive link between contaminants there and a second case of a rare disease. Elena Esparza, 21, a Norco High School graduate, was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML, which results from acquired genetic damage to the DNA. Even though health officials say it is unlikely that any contaminants from the Wyle Laboratories' site contribute to the leukemia - and such a relation would be impossible to prove - many are still skeptical. "There's a problem," said the group's chairwoman, Celeste Tittle, at Thursday's Community Advisory Group meeting. "We don't know what it is, but there's definitely a problem." Nicole Schultz, 15, a former Norco High School student who lived beside the Wyle property, underwent a bone marrow transplant after her AML diagnosis in December. She and her family have said they believe her illness was caused by contaminants from Wyle Labs. AML has been linked to exposure to benzene - a chemical found in gasoline and used to make products such as plastics, detergents and pesticides - but benzene was only detected during 2004 and at very low levels, said Department of Toxic Substances Control Geologist Theo Johnson. Since then, there have been no findings of the chemical, Johnson said. Medical experts and officials with the department, the state agency overseeing the Wyle Labs cleanup, said the contaminants found at the Wyle site - mainly trichloroethylene and vinyl chloride - would not cause AML. Though discussion of AML led off the meeting, concerns regarding other medical conditions were addressed. Among them, possible links between thyroid problems and perchlorate. At November's meeting, Johnson will give a presentation on perchlorate and nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA, found in groundwater, Tittle told those at the meeting. Johnson said Friday that, while the levels of perchlorate detected off-site have been minimal, findings have been sporadic. "It's a very random pattern we're seeing with the perchlorate," Johnson said. "With the TCE, we see high levels onsite and lower off, following the plume, but with the perchlorate, you can see 15 (parts per million) off-site and then nothing around it. It can't be traced back to a source, and there could be a number of sources of perchlorate." Perchlorate, a chemical used for explosives and rocket motors and found in fertilizers, has been linked to thyroid illnesses - something CAG members say is prevalent in town. Johnson said he ordered Wyle Labs consultants to refine their testing methods last month, which should help produce clearer readings of perchlorate levels in groundwater wells off-site. A newer method, called 331, eliminates interference from other chemicals when analyzing lab results, and tests for perchlorate should be conducted with the more sophisticated method by the end of the month, Johnson said. The highest level of NDMA has been detected on the Wyle site, and a small plume has migrated in groundwater just beneath Golden West Lane, he said. NDMA was once used to make rocket fuel and is used in some cosmetics products and cleansers. Less is known about the effects of NDMA on human health, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. As DTSC pushes Wyle to fork out money for more advanced testing procedures, CAG members Thursday pondered why the state agency has not shown more interest in witnesses such as Dennis Garcia, a technician for the Dynamics Department at Wyle Labs from 1987 to 1991. Garcia, 48, said he has been anxious to take investigators to locations on the 429-acre site where he believes testing should be done. He said he recalls the places where contaminants were dumped, a submarine battery was buried, and an area was once blocked with a sign stating: "Keep Out, Benzene" -which, Garcia said, is not far from the Norco High School football field. "The policies of Wyle Lab were pretty lax. It was a totally different world," Garcia said. "Wyle was classified as an abandoned testing site since 1984, so they didn't have any regulatory agencies coming around to see what they were doing there." His information, however, has fallen on deaf ears, said Garcia, who says he filed a complaint with the Riverside County Department of Health in 1994 after learning of plans to build homes on former Wyle land. A meeting he had scheduled with the DTSC last year was canceled by the agency and never rescheduled, Garcia said. "They never made any effort to talk to me, and I thought it was strange," Garcia said. "I'd like to tell them where the hell they should be looking. I wanted to give them information, and they blew me off." Sandy Friedman, public information officer for DTSC, said Friday that the agency could not comment on Garcia until there was a meeting and his claims have been evaluated. Tittle said she hopes the DTSC will take Garcia up on his offer soon, especially in light of the city's second AML diagnosis in only 10 months. "I think Dennis Garcia is our smoking gun," she said. Andrea Bennett can be reached at (909) 483-9347 or by e-mail at andrea.bennett@dailybulletin.com. Los Angeles Newspaper Group ***************************************************************** 49 reviewjournal.com: GETTING NUCLEAR WASTE TO YUCCA: More time urged to examine route Oct. 21, 2006 Loux asks DOE to extend comment period By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department was urged Friday to grant more time and more public meetings for Nevadans to examine plans for a new nuclear waste railroad corridor to Yucca Mountain. A state official said the transportation plan, and another proposal dealing with surface designs for the radioactive waste repository, were "significant potential changes" that merit additional input. Notices that DOE issued last week on both matters provided only minimal information, said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. Loux sent a letter Friday requesting Yucca Mountain Project Director Ward Sproat withdraw the public notices and issue new ones that would double public comment periods on the studies to 90 days. The state official also called for broader public meetings on the plan to characterize the Mina rail corridor that would carry nuclear waste through western Nevada to the Yucca site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "There is no good way to get nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain," Loux said, "That being said, DOE's latest plan to transport waste through the so-called Mina corridor actually impacts more Nevada cities and towns than any other route they could have selected." Scoping meetings should be added in Reno, Elko, Battle Mountain, Winnemucca, Lovelock and Yerington, Loux said. Additionally, DOE should make maps public in advance of the sessions, he said. Since nuclear waste would enter Nevada from the east and the west under the Mina scenario, the state requested DOE also have meetings in Sacramento, Calif., and Salt Lake City. Meetings have been scheduled during the first two weeks of November in Amargosa Valley, Caliente, Goldfield, Hawthorne and Fallon. DOE officials said maps will be displayed and residents will have the chance to comment on the proposal. The public comment period closes Nov. 27. DOE spokesman Allen Benson said the department will review the state's request and respond to it. State officials, who oppose the Yucca repository, are aiming to draw attention to DOE's consideration of the Mina route, which has generated little public reaction so far. From the east, nuclear waste would enter Nevada on Union Pacific tracks that run parallel with Interstate 80, turning southeast near Fernley, crossing west of Fallon, then across the Walker River Indian Reservation to Hawthorne. At that point, DOE would build a rail line or rebuild on old mining rail beds near the town of Mina and running south toward Tonopah and Goldfield, and on to Yucca Mountain. Nuclear waste from the west would travel through downtown Reno including a new below-grade railroad "trench," Loux said. The Energy Department has focused so far on the corridor segments south of Hawthorne. Benson said DOE will consider suggestions that the impact of nuclear waste shipments on segments to the north be studied as well. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., believes DOE should perform environmental studies of the entire Interstate 80 corridor, spokesman Jon Summers said this week. Mike Baughman, a nuclear waste and environmental consultant in Carson City, said the northern route was troubling. "The (Mina) route follows the Humboldt River for over 250 miles, the Truckee River for 65 miles, the Walker River for 12 miles and the Carson River for 2 miles," Baughman said in a letter to the Nevada Appeal published Sunday. "Nuclear waste would also be shipped through or adjacent to several state and federal wildlife management areas, the Rye Patch State Recreation Area and Ft. Churchill State Historic Park," Baughman wrote. "Thousands of acres of private land, a scarce commodity in a state whose land area is 87 percent federally-controlled, would be crossed by the Mina Route." Baughman is executive director of the Humboldt River Basin Water Authority. His clients have included Lincoln County, where leaders have lobbied DOE to run a nuclear waste railroad near Caliente in eastern Nevada. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2006 ***************************************************************** 50 Deseret News: Hold Yucca hearings in Salt Lake City? [deseretnews.com] Saturday, October 21, 2006 Nevada says residents of Utah and other states need say on rail By Suzanne Struglinski Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON — The Energy Department should hold public meetings in Salt Lake City and other Western cities on its latest transportation plan to move nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, the state of Nevada argued in a letter sent Friday to the department's radioactive-waste management director. Shipments of nuclear waste moving from Eastern states to Nevada would go through Utah if the government approves the federal storage site planned at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The department opened a 45-day public comment period on Oct. 13 for a new environmental study on a potential rail route that would take loads of nuclear waste to the mountain. It also planned several public meetings in Nevada to discuss the new rail route and plans to develop new storage options at the federal repository. But Bob Loux, executive director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said most of the waste would go into Nevada via Salt Lake City and Sacramento, Calif., so residents of those states need public scoping meetings and more time to evaluate the proposal. Loux said the latest route moves waste on existing railroad lines running parallel with I-80 from the California border on the west and the Utah border on the east. "The notices of Oct. 13, 2006, are yet another example of DOE burdening Nevadans with short time limits and inadequate information for meaningful participation," Loux wrote in a letter to Edward Sproat, director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. Loux noted that the time frame is too short for local governments to meet and approve what comments they would submit based on county commission and city council meetings. He wants the department to extend the comment period to at least 90 days and to have detailed maps ready to show the public on the new route. He wants public meetings in Salt Lake City, Sacramento and other cities. The department had favored a route known as the Caliente Corridor, which would have taken waste along a specific rail line that the department would build to bring waste to Yucca. Another potential route, known as the Mina route, was off the table because the Walker River Paiute Tribe Reservation, northwest of Hawthorne, Nev., had refused to allow the department to move waste through the reservation. But in May, the tribe said it would allow the department to finish the environmental study it needed to see how it would transport waste across the reservation. A preliminary study showed the route could be better for the department, but the tribe was to know the results before it would decide whether to allow shipments. So the department opted to create a federal environmental study to formally evaluate the route, which required the public comment period and scoping meetings. Meanwhile, the department issued a separate announcement saying it planned to redesign a surface building at Yucca where waste would be handled before going into the mountain. This also has 45-day public comment period going on at the same time. Loux said it is too much at once for anyone to get through the information involved and make a proper comment. E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com © 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 51 USNews.com: Nuclear Power Is Trendy Again, but What About the Waste? The cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant By Bret Schulte Posted Sunday, October 22, 2006 Until just recently, no American president had toured a nuclear plant since Jimmy Carter-fitting for a country that's been spooked by atomic power since the partial, albeit contained, meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant in 1979. But President Bush has ended the freeze and taken tours of two nuclear plants. In May, he stood under twin cooling towers in Limerick, Pa., announcing that nuclear power is vital to energy independence and fighting global warming. "And," he noted, "nuclear power is safe." Beleaguered nuclear supporters have waited decades to hear such full-throated support. No new nuclear plant has been licensed since 1978-in part because of public backlash, but also because of basic economics. Cheap natural gas became the standard for the power industry. But the calculus is changing as natural gas prices have skyrocketed, energy independence has become a political mantra, and pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions-nuclear is virtually emission free-has increased. Some believe a "nuclear renaissance" is at hand. The industry got a boost when Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which gave federal risk insurance to new nuclear plants, along with generous tax breaks and loan guarantees. Since then, at least a dozen utilities have filed plans to apply for new nuclear licenses. Still, major obstacles remain-chief among them what to do with nuclear waste. Solving the waste problem is the "linchpin" to expanding nuclear power, says John Rowe, CEO of Exelon, the largest nuclear operator in the country. The answer was supposed to be the Yucca Mountain Repository, to be built inside a mountain 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Yucca Mountain, says Rowe, is essential to the industry's future. But eight years after Yucca was scheduled to start accepting waste, even optimists say the earliest the controversial repository could open is 2017. So Washington is wrangling anew over what to do with the 54,000 metric tons of accumulated nuclear waste that has been produced by the country's 103 reactors. Most of it sits in temporary concrete and steel casks on the plant sites-waiting for a permanent home whose future is very much in doubt. Whose backyard? It wasn't supposed to be this way. In 1982, Congress directed the Department of Energy to build a secure place to hold nuclear waste by 1998. Five years later, Congress narrowed the list of studied sites to one: Yucca Mountain. Nevadans cried foul, noting that the state lacked a single nuclear plant and that it was selected only because it had little political clout. Authorities say Yucca Mountain, on federal land that had already hosted nuclear tests, is an ideal location; indeed, a law passed by Congress in 2002 reaffirmed that Yucca is the official site of the federal nuclear repository. Authorities say it's isolated, dry, and has a low water table, decreasing the chance of rainwater carrying contaminants into the environment. "Scientists tell us this is the right place to store this fuel," says Sen. Pete Domenici, chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Right or not, the site has been bedeviled by problems. In 1986, the DOE issued a stop-work order to the U.S. Geological Survey because of "quality assurance" issues, said a federal report. In the 1990s, audits found recurring problems with accuracy of scientific data, software, and computer models simulating possible geological events. And in 2004, a federal court ruled that the EPA must increase its study of the possible effects of radiation at the site from 10,000 years out to 1 million years out. That, of course, takes time. Meanwhile, the Nevada delegation, led by now powerful Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who has denigrated Yucca as "a dying beast," has had some success fulfilling that prophecy by slowing money to the project. Nine billion dollars and 24 years later, what's been produced at Yucca Mountain are two tunnels, a temporary research facility, and a heap of geological science, much of which aims to refute Nevadans' claims that Yucca is unfit because of fault lines in the area. "It's not a boondoggle," says Edward Sproat, who directs the program for the DOE. "But, yes, people should be upset about how long it's taken and how much money's been spent." Sproat, a former nuclear industry executive, took early retirement to head up Yucca a few months ago. "The reason I'm here is my own frustration," he says. Sproat says Yucca will file for a nuclear license in 2008. That's a huge step, but he and others say Yucca already needs a massive overhaul before real construction begins. When the idea of a repository was conceived in the 1980s, policymakers assumed a cap of 70,000 metric tons of waste would suffice. "That's all changed," says Bill Greene, a DOE spokesman. "Now everything with Yucca Mountain is through the lens of expanding nuclear energy." Indeed, by the time Yucca is complete, under any projected timetable, enough waste will be waiting to fill it immediately. This year, the White House submitted legislation to prod the slow-moving project. It would raise the cap to as high as 120,000 metric tons, increase the DOE's access to a Nuclear Waste Fund financed by utilities-which pays for Yucca Mountain-and claim adjacent federal land for Yucca use. Domenici has introduced two bills of his own. One resembles the administration bill but with a major distinction; it would create ground-level storage on Yucca land until the repository is complete. Domenici's other bill takes a different approach; it would facilitate a fledgling, but crucial, nuclear fuel recycling program that might limit the amount of waste and-in the near term-consolidate nuclear waste at interim storage sites (likely existing nuclear plants) across the country. That would theoretically reduce government payments to utilities storing waste at plant sites-payments that resulted from litigation over Yucca delays. Both face uncertain prospects. Some House members fear that directing resources to interim storage will undercut Yucca Mountain. Rep. Gene Green, a Texas Democrat, suggested that it's a "creative way" of killing Yucca, noting that Reid supports that measure; none of those interim sites would be in Nevada. Reid, who has pledged Yucca "is never going to open," supports interim storage in states that have plants but does not support interim storage in Nevada, fearing that once the waste is in Nevada, it will stay there. Nuclear power enjoys increasingly bipartisan support-though plenty of Democrats, public interest groups, and environmentalists say the risk of radioactive fallout is still too great. Reid's stature as ranking member complicates Democratic attempts to advance an energy source they see as vital to the fight against global warming. If Democrats win the House or Senate in November, analysts say, the prospects for passing those bills-and accelerating Yucca's development-will dwindle, which they say could spell disaster for nuclear power. "You can't afford to kill Yucca Mountain," says Scott Peterson of the Nuclear Energy Institute. "It's the only long-term solution we have on our books." Copyright © 2006 U.S.News & World Report, L.P. All ***************************************************************** 52 MaineToday.com: Sorry saga of the waste we paid to get rid of -- but $38 million later, still haven't Nuclear waste continues to sit at Maine Yankee. --> + + + [Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel] Sunday, October 22, 2006 COLUMN: Stephen Ward Not long ago a Washington think tank was assembling a panel of conflicting viewpoints to debate the merits of building new nuclear units as part of the nation's response to global warming. They asked me to join. As Maine's public advocate for utility consumers since 1987, I accepted -- joining environmentalists, academics and industry representatives. I remembered that an old friend had participated in a similar effort back in 1999 and contacted him to compare notes about the questions that his working group confronted in 1999, compared with the issues on the table for nuclear power today. What I learned to my surprise was that the topic list in 1999 was identical in all respects to the agenda for the 2006 working group. There has been no progress whatever in three major areas: permanent disposal of spent fuel from nuclear plants; a coherent policy for the storage of spent nuclear fuel at locations other than the power plants themselves; consistent and uniform requirements for the concrete-encased and-steel canisters used for storage, transportation and pre-disposal "aging" of spent nuclear fuel. These topics may seem arcane but, taken together, they explain why the nuclear industry is crippled in the United States, with no new plants built since the 1980s. These policy failures are the direct result of budget-cutting or inattention by Congress and the federal agencies responsible for the safe disposal of nuclear waste -- the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy. These failures date back to 1982, when Congress authorized the Department of Energy to start collecting a tenth of a cent from retail customers on every kilowatt-hour of electricity generated at a nuclear plant in the U.S., ostensibly to fund the construction of a permanent repository for spent fuel. In exchange, the federal government agreed to accept spent fuel rods from power plants to be transported to a disposal facility, as of February 1998. In fact, the $ .001 collections for energy kilowatt-hours have simply disappeared into the federal budget. The February 1998 date came and went -- with no material progress in opening a waste repository, at the congressionally-designated Yucca Mountain site in Nevada or anywhere else. The most optimistic federal bureaucrats now envision the opening of the Yucca Mountain facility no sooner than 2017. Meanwhile, all the high-level waste generated during Maine Yankee's 25 year life sits in 64 steel-and-concrete canisters on a concrete slab in Wiscasset, going nowhere. With no observable progress at Yucca Mountain, we confront a grave risk that the Maine Yankee site will be a de facto disposal facility located in a seriously inappropriate location: 21 feet above sea level, protected only by fencing, electronic sensors and a guard house. This unacceptable outcome represents a professional challenge for Maine's state nuclear safety adviser, Charles Pray, who works fulltime at the Public Advocate Office on finding out-of-state solutions for Maine Yankee's high-level radioactive waste problem. Pray works closely with the multi-state Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, a national transportation task force and other groups. It truly is unfortunate that Mr. Pray's job remains an essential one, both for Maine's electric ratepayers and for local Midcoast Maine's environment and economic development prospects. Last month, finally there was some good news in this sorry saga. The Court of Federal Claims in Washington responded to a lawsuit brought by Maine Yankee, Connecticut Yankee and Yankee Atomic in Rowe, Mass. by awarding almost to the dollar the full measure of damages requested due to the federal government's failure to accept spent fuel in 1998. The full damage award came to $142,795,501 for all three nuclear plants and that was only for actual costs incurred through 2002 by the plaintiffs for their own on-site storage of spent fuel. Future damage awards for all costs incurred since 2002 are now all but certain and will come from a source supported by federal taxes, not from electric ratepayers. The good news is that ratepayers of Bangor Hydro, Maine Public Service and CMP will be receiving a bill credit for their 50 percent share of Maine Yankee's damage award, in the tidy sum of $37,887,277. But the Department of Energy's payment of damages does not -- by itself -- lead to any change in the status quo: for Maine Yankee, 64 canisters of nuclear waste remain stranded for the indefinite future on a grassy knoll above the Sheepscot River. Stephen Ward is the state public advocate. MaineToday.com reader comments are occasionally printed in the Copyright © 2006, Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc. ***************************************************************** 53 Mining Journal: Nuclear waste plan opposed Published: Saturday, October 21, 2006 The Alpena News WASHINGTON (AP) — A Canadian energy company’s proposal to bury waste from nuclear power plants near the Lake Huron shore in Ontario is drawing protests from a member of the U.S. Congress and environmental activists on both sides of the border. STUPAK Ontario Power Generation Inc. wants to develop an underground storage facility at the Bruce Nuclear Site in Kincardine, about 140 miles northwest of Toronto and about 50 miles east of the tip of Michigan’s Thumb area. The waste wouldn’t be the most potent, or ‘‘high-level’’ variety — spent nuclear fuel. Instead, it would consist of ‘‘low-level’’ waste — slightly tainted rags, mops, clothing and bits of trash swept from floors — and ‘‘intermediate-level’’ waste, which typically means used reactor parts and resins and filters that purify reactor water systems. The waste would come from the company’s three nuclear power plants, including the Bruce station. Ontario Power Generation, owned by the provincial government, says the waste would be housed in sedimentary rock 550 to 700 yards below the surface. The company says it’s a safer long-term option than above-ground storage, the temporary method now used by Ontario’s nuclear stations. ‘‘Deep geological repositories have been operating safely internationally for many years,’’ a company statement said. But critics say the location — less than a mile from Lake Huron — is a poor choice for waste that will stay radioactive for thousands of years. U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, said his staff was asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the International Joint Commission, a binational agency that deals with Great Lakes issues, to investigate the plan. ‘‘You don’t put any kind of dump, let alone a radioactive dump, less than a mile from the Great Lakes,’’ Stupak said Friday. Michael Keegan, chairman of the Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes, said he feared the facility wouldn’t always be limited to low- or intermediate-level waste. ‘‘I think this is the camel’s nose under the tent,’’ said Keegan, of Monroe. ‘‘Once they get this deed done, look for the high-level waste.’’ Company spokesman John Earl said the project is still in the planning stages and the public will have ample opportunity to voice concerns. It won’t be approved unless Ontario Power Generation can convince the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission it will be safe, he said. The commission is a federal agency that oversees Canada’s nuclear industry. ‘‘We need to show there will be no effect, or negligible effect (on the environment), to the satisfaction of the regulator,’’ Earl said. Dave Martin, energy coordinator for Greenpeace Canada, said many environmentalists consider the commission too cozy with the nuclear industry. [The Mining Journal - Healthy Weight Journal] Ishpeming Office: 118 E. Division, Ishpeming, MI 49849 906-486-4401 FAX: 906-486-8992 Marquette Office: 249 W. Washington, Marquette, MI 49855 906-228-2500 FAX: 906-228-3273 Munising Office: Room 109, 411 Elm Ave., Munising, MI 49862 News:(906) 387-3010 / Circulation:(906) 387-5424 FAX: (906) 387-4944 Toll Free: 1-800-562-7811 ***************************************************************** 54 Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP Records Archive relocates in city By Kyle Marksteiner Article Launched:10/21/2006 10:21:33 PM MDT CARLSBAD — Employees started to set up shop at the new WIPP Records Archive, located at 2101 "A" South Canal St., next to Sutherlands. During the summer, a partnership headed by SM Stoller Corp. was awarded a contract worth more than $9.1 million to provide records management technical services to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Triumph Technologies Inc. and Source One Management Inc. are also involved in the partnership. "We started moving furniture and equipment in Monday," said Don George, deputy manager of the WIPP Records Archive and assistant vice president of Stoller in an interview Friday. "We should have the building completely turned over to us today." By Friday, desks and counters in the administrative area of the archive were in place. The Information Technology people in the back of the building already seemed to have most of their equipment set up. Shelves, which will eventually hold an abundance of paperwork related to the radioactive waste repository near Carlsbad, were being unloaded in the storage portion of the building. The archive currently employs a staff of 16. Another 15 employees will start within the next few weeks. The archive should reach a staff of around 50 some time between November and January. The archive held a job fair recently, and George said turnout was huge. "That's one of the good things and one of the bad things I have here," he said. "We had such a huge turnout at the job fair, it's locked down our H.R. process." The archive received 600 contacts for information about potential employment and more than 300 actual applications, George said. "Our three companies were geared up for about 100 applications," George said. "The bad news is that we'll have to send a lot of denial letters, but the good thing about this is that as we grow this correctly we'll have all these folks in the data base." George said he believes a number of former employees of the Valor Call Center were involved in the application process. The vast majority of employees hired were Carlsbad residents. Employees are divided between Stoller, Triumph and Source One. Division between the companies is not duty-specific. "The people who are out there, I'll know who (which of the three companies) they work for, but it doesn't really matter," George noted. The high level of job competition also means that some extremely qualified individuals have been hired. "They had the opportunity to truly pick the cream of the crop," said Bertha Cassingham, WTS project lead of development on the proposal. Currently, employees are busy installing software and setting up equipment. The archive will undergo facility verification with Washington TRU Solutions. George estimates that the actual archiving process will begin in late November or early December. The contract is to handle 10,000 boxes of WIPP records a year, with an average of around 50 boxes each work day. There will likely be a fairly high level of job security in the archiving industry, as records have to be kept for as long as WIPP remains open plus 70 additional years. Stoller and its partners currently have a two-year contract to operate the archive. The record center is located in what had previously been a Wal-Mart, but was most recently a furniture store. The building is divided into an administrative, IT and record area. The record area required the most renovation. "It's been quite a transformation," George said. "Back where the records are is where regulations for NARA (the National Association of Records Archive) come into play." Strict NARA regulations prohibit almost anything that could damage records. Overall changes including carpet removal, paint removal, office additions and new fluorescent lights. "The leopard carpet even went out," George smiled. "Even painted ceiling tiles had to be removed." Extra renovations had to be made in terms of fire prevention, Cassingham said. A security system is also in place. A grand opening is planned once the archiving process has started. The records consist of unclassified documentation associated with the radioactive waste at WIPP. Many of the documents are presently at generator sites, including sites that have already closed. Pallets of boxes will arrive at the archive at the building's loading dock. A staging area has been set up where individual boxes will be coded and identified. Pallets will also be decontaminated to remove insects. Marked boxes are then placed on shelves in the storage area at the back of the facility. From there, boxes are taken to the administrative area of the archive. Staff members open the boxes to inspect, sort and organize the documents inside. This includes even mundane tasks like removing staples and straightening folded paperwork. The archive has three ultra-high tech scanners that can scan 100 pages per minute. All documents are scanned and digitally stored. IT director Cecil Thomas and his staff already have a vast digital storage system in place. A backup of the digital copy is also made. Staff members verify that the copies were clearly and correctly made. The digital version of the documents is then sent to a microfilm writer, which makes another copy — this version in microfilm. Documents then return to the administrative area, where they are placed back in their original boxes. Boxes are returned to the NARA-approved storage portion of the building. The digital version of the materials, with some exceptions such as social security numbers, are public record. "With this great software program, one of the wonderful things about this will be access," Cassingham said. Copyright © 2005 Carlsbad Current Argus, a MediaNews Group Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 55 The Day: The Costs Of Delaying Yucca Mountain - theday.com By K. Steinmeyer Published on 10/22/2006 in Editorial » Perspective The Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant is located on the bank of the Connecticut River in Haddam Neck. It stopped generating electricity in 1996, but 412 metric tons of spent fuel remain at the site. To understand why we need a central repository for the radioactive waste that's stored at more than 100 nuclear power plants around the United States, look no further than the site of the decommissioned Connecticut Yankee nuclear plant at Haddam Neck. In 1996, after nearly three decades of service, Connecticut Yankee stopped generating electricity. But all 412 metric tons of spent fuel, which is what is typically called radioactive waste, is still at the nuclear plant, stored in concrete-and-steel casks. The spent fuel is not at Yucca Mountain, the federal government's waste repository in Nevada, where it was supposed to be shipped beginning eight years ago. The reason is simple. Billions of dollars paid into the government's Nuclear Waste Fund have not been used for its intended purpose, but instead winds up in the General Treasury to pay for other programs. This diversion of funds  nearly $20 billion since the program's inception in the 1970s  is delaying the repository's licensing and construction. Congress needs to address this in legislation that removes the Yucca Mountain project from the annual appropriations process and gets it back on track. Connecticut Yankee's spent fuel is being stored safely and securely a short distance from the plant. But it's being done at considerable expense to utility customers. Connecticut Yankee is not the only decommissioned nuclear plant with spent fuel left behind. Seven other plants are in the same situation, including Yankee Rowe in Massachusetts and Maine Yankee. Instead of permitting the spent fuel to remain indefinitely at the plant sites, Congress should direct the Energy Department to take possession of the spent fuel and transport it to an interim above-ground facility in the Nevada desert for storage until the permanent repository opens. In addition, there are 103 U.S. operating power reactors  including the Millstone units  that store their spent fuel in water pools and increasingly in concrete-and-steel casks. Nearly all will need additional storage capacity within five years. It stands to reason that consolidating the 52,000 tons of spent fuel, and additional tons of nuclear waste from the defense program, in one repository at Yucca Mountain will make it much easier to maintain and protect over the long term. Certainly that makes more sense than continuing to keep the spent fuel at 131 different sites in 39 states around the country. Endangers rivers Some of the spent fuel is stored adjacent to rivers or above water tables. It's estimated that 161 million Americans live within 75 miles of one of these sites. Nuclear power's opponents want the government to abandon the Yucca Mountain project and leave the spent fuel where it is. But deep geologic disposal in a stable rock formation  the approach recommended by scientific organizations around the world, including our own National Academy of Sciences, is the best option. And Yucca Mountain is the right place. After $7 billion and 20 years of research, Yucca Mountain  which sits on federal land, in a remote stretch of desert, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas  is the most studied piece of real estate in the world. Critics who oppose the Yucca Mountain site would most likely oppose any location in the country, because their real goal seems to be blocking the growth of nuclear power by arguing that there is no plan for disposing of the spent fuel. Because managing spent fuel is a very long-range process, the Energy Department understandably wants to keep its options open. It does not need to make decisions now that cannot be revisited in the future, as we learn more about managing radioactive materials. The current plan is to keep the repository open and accessible for 300 years so that scientists and engineers can make sure the waste containers perform as designed and do not later cause problems. If the storage plan isn't working as it should at any time over the next three centuries, the government will be able to make corrections or even retrieve the spent fuel. America has the know-how to make this work. New advances in technology in the years to come may result in the development of even more robust containers  and even ways to harness the significant energy remaining in spent fuel. With the right technology, spent fuel could be economically recycled to extract valuable uranium and plutonium for use again in power reactors to produce electricity. Known as reprocessing, this approach would capitalize on the 95 percent of the energy remaining in spent fuel, while significantly reducing the amount and the hazard of radioactive waste requiring disposal in the repository. Several other countries, including France and Great Britain, are already recycling their usable fuel materials and, as a result, cutting back considerably on the amount of waste they must dispose of. Inevitably, the need for a U.S. repository will grow, as there will likely be more nuclear power plants built, to meet our demand for electricity that's projected to climb 45 percent by 2030. Nuclear power is an especially important component of our power supply because it provides large amounts of electricity at industrial strength that don't pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gases that might cause global warming. Storing the spent fuel at Yucca Mountain is clearly in the public interest. Leaving it at dozens of sites around the country, some where decommissioned nuclear plants stand, is not a credible long-term solution. The repository needs to be completed and made operational as soon as possible. K. Paul Steinmeyer is a senior health physicist and president of Radiation Safety Associates, Inc., a consulting company to commercial users of radioactive materials, located in Hebron. The Day Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200 | New London, CT | © 1998-2006 The Day Publishing Co. [Beacon Locator] ~ EL ~ ***************************************************************** 56 MercuryNews.com: U.S. plans to centralize its work with plutonium 10/21/2006 | PLAN TO SHIFT WORK ON WEAPONS-GRADE FUEL TIED TO NUCLEAR ARSENAL OVERHAUL By Ian Hoffman MediaNews LIVERMORE - Federal officials have announced plans to centralize work on weapons-grade plutonium -- including dozens of atom bombs' worth now at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory -- into one remote, heavily guarded facility. The plan, called Complex 2030, is tied to a proposal that would swap out the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal for new nuclear warheads designed to be more durable and easier to maintain. Because they could be manufactured more quickly, federal officials argue, fewer weapons would have to be stockpiled. ``I believe the complex is too big now,'' said Thomas D'Agostino, head of weapons work for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, in announcing the plan on Thursday. ``It's not efficient. It's too expensive. I feel a sense of urgency here.'' In theory, building a new, longer-lasting nuclear arsenal might cost more in the immediate future but save money in the long run while keeping weapon experts' skills up to par. However, the idea is controversial for several reasons, not least being that the new bombs and warheads would never be exploded except in war. It would mean exchanging H-bombs verified in more than 1,000 nuclear tests for bombs that are untested. In addition, federal weapons officials have not yet decided whether this new generation of weapons, known as ``reliable replacement warheads'' or RRWs, is technically and economically feasible. The impact on global security must also be taken into account, said Burton Richter, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and former director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center who had served on the Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board. ``I am highly skeptical about the need for RRWs,'' Richter said, ``and I have never seen the analysis about the impact of us building a new generation of nuclear weapons on the people who are already nuclear weapons states or who want to have them.'' But the bigger hurdle may be yet unpublished studies, one of them classified, that undermine a leading argument for the new bombs -- namely that the existing weapons are getting old enough to doubt their reliability. The new studies draw on four years of intensive work at Livermore and Los Alamos weapons labs and the Nevada Test Site. Scientists familiar with the findings say they conclude that the most sensitive nuclear components in the existing arsenal -- hollow plutonium fission triggers called ``pits'' -- are remarkably healthy and long-lived, adding 40 or more years to the reliable operating lifetimes of the oldest bombs in the arsenal. Livermore scientists already are talking in amazement about weapons lifetimes out to 100 years. The plan for shrinking the archipelago of federal weapons labs and factories is hardly the first since the Cold War. ``There have been quite a few,'' said Robert S. Norris, a senior weapons analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council. ``This one's quite grand. The question is, is it going to be sustained in the next Congress?'' The nation's nuclear enterprise has shrunk from 14 sites to today's eight, while federal spending on nuclear weapons work has soared from less than $4 billion in the early 1990s to almost $7 billion today. To pack as many warheads on missiles as possible, Cold War nuclear explosives were designed like Ferraris -- finely tuned, high-performance devices made of exotic materials. At least two types of explosives have been kept on hand for each method of delivery -- bombers, silo-based missiles and submarine-launched missiles. Thousands more are kept in reserve in case a design fails. For the same bang, the new RRWs would be bigger and heavier -- Buicks or Ford pickups made of materials that are less toxic. And because they could be fashioned easily, federal officials say, fewer of them would have to be stockpiled. ***************************************************************** 57 The State: Nuclear waste burial plan at SRS under scrutiny 10/22/2006 Reported leak prompts calls for more analysis of potential dangers By SAMMY FRETWELL sfretwell@thestate.com + How to comment The U.S. Department of Energy wants to dump more potent nuclear waste in a Savannah River Site burial ground than the agency had proposed. But a reported leak from the burial site is prompting calls for more analysis before the waste is buried at the federal nuclear weapons complex near Aiken. Whats the hurry? asked Leslie Minerd, who tracks nuclear issues for Environmentalists Inc., a Columbia activist group. They should study this plan more thoroughly. The Savannah River Site lies above a water table that could be contaminated by leaks of atomic waste for thousands of years, said Geoff Fettus, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. Long-term exposure to radioactive pollutants can cause health problems, including cancer. The Energy Department wants to bury material that is about 20 times more radioactive than first proposed in the 1990s. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently notified state environmental regulators about an anonymous letter it received reporting leaks at the SRS burial site, known as the Saltstone Disposal Facility. The letter was postmarked from Augusta, and the writer told of seeing signs of contamination and cracks in cement burial vaults. Waste buried at the site is being leached out and running into the ground, the writer said. The Energy Department confirmed that vaults in the burial facility cracked 18 years ago, but officials said the cracks had been fixed and improvements made to prevent further cracking. SRS has installed a roof over the burial site to keep water out and to reduce chances that vaults could crack, SRS liquid-waste operations manager Ginger Dickert said. Is this a concern to the environment today or long term? No, she said. There is nothing leaking today. The site is checked weekly for signs of leaks or cracks, according to WSRC Inc., the governments chief contractor at SRS. A statement from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said the leakage presented no threat to public health or the environment. Although we believe the concerns have been addressed through improved design and operational parameters, the statement said, we will continue to evaluate this issue. Fettus said he is investigating the reported leaks and will raise questions about the burial sites suitability with DHEC. You would think they would want a discussion about the leaks when they are about to put an astronomical amount of radioactivity in all these stone vaults, he said. DHEC, which regulates industrial waste burial sites at SRS, has issued a draft permit to allow the dumping at the Saltstone Disposal Facility. The public has until Nov. 17 to comment on the permit before a final decision is made; a public hearing is planned for Nov. 8 at the Aiken Municipal Building conference center. The Energy Department had planned to leave about 75,000 curies of radioactivity in waste at the Saltstone Disposal Facility. But the plan, which relied on a processing factory to reduce radioactivity in the waste, did not work as expected and was abandoned in 1998. Under the agencys new plan, up to 1.7 million curies of radioactivity would be left in the waste. The plan relies on an interim, less-effective process until a permanent salt-waste processing facility can be cranked up. The Salt Waste Processing Facility will not start operations until at least 2011. The waste comes from about 50 aging underground tanks kept in two sections of SRS. Sludge contained in the 40-foot-high tanks is being turned into glass for disposal in Nevada. The rest of the tank refuse, known as salt, is waiting to be processed. Some of the processed salt would be buried at SRS. Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537. ***************************************************************** 58 The State: Cuts gut ecology research at SRS 10/22/2006 Lack of money threatens to end studies of animals and environment By SAMMY FRETWELL sfretwell@thestate.com + Studying wildlife at the Savannah River Ecology Lab NEW ELLENTON  A pair of ferocious alligators live in a fenced pond behind the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, waiting each day for a technician to toss them dead animals for dinner. For years, scientists have studied the big gators at the ecology lab, a federal research facility widely regarded for its biology work. But after five decades of examining how a nuclear weapons site affects animals, plants and the landscape, scientists are ending scores of research projects at the ecology lab. Budget cuts last year forced the labs director to lay off more than 40 scientists and technicians who conducted studies at the Savannah River Site. The cuts have affected an array of wildlife research projects. The U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday announced further cuts that threaten to eliminate most, if not all, of the agencys funding for environmental research at SRS. The Energy Department has cut the labs budget from nearly $8 million two years ago to about $1 million for the next fiscal year. Staff has been cut by a third to about 100. Scientists say its a financial crisis and question whether the ecology lab will serve any useful purpose after years of national acclaim. This is an enormous mistake, said 16-year ecology lab veteran Chuck Jagoe, who quit his research on mercury contamination last year because the money dried up. The amount of environmental knowledge we obtained for the amount of money spent was a very good investment. Jim Giusti, a spokesman for the Energy Department, said his agency cant afford to fund the ecology lab at previous levels. He said that doesnt preclude continuing research, but scientists will have to find other funding sources to keep that research going. The Energy Department was the labs major underwriter, although the University of Georgia provided a small percentage of its budget. We are working now to find other sources from other agencies and non-federal sources for their funding, Giusti said. Paul Bertsch, director of the Savannah River Ecology Lab, confirmed the Energy Department said it would provide about $4 million next year for the lab. But as an agreement appeared imminent, the agency changed direction and cut that to $1 million, said Laura Janacek, the labs administrative finance director. Bertsch said he did not know why department officials changed their minds, but said the latest round of budget reductions are severe. It takes more than $1 million just to maintain the research lab each year, not including money for research, according to the University of Georgia, which operates the lab. Weve had to reduce a lot of things, he said. Since its founding in 1951, the Savannah River Ecology Lab has found examples of how pollution from SRS hurt wildlife on its 300-square-mile site, including amphibians with deformities traced to contamination. Even so, many species remained healthy and thrived as forests grew and disturbance from people was limited. In effect, the site has become a wildlife preserve big enough to conduct many studies that would be difficult elsewhere. Scientists at the ecology lab have published about 3,000 research studies and more than 50 books. They have become some of the worlds leading authorities on isolated wetlands, amphibians and reptiles, and soil contamination. Some recent research projects, however, have been abandoned. Since 2005, scientists say they have halted or failed to start research that: • Examines the continued effect that polluted coal ponds have on amphibians. The research could have guided power companies on whether to use ponds as disposal sites for coal ash waste. Past research found frog tadpoles with deformed mouths in coal ash ponds. • Studies how the invasion of coyotes from the West is affecting bobcats native to South Carolina and Georgia. If coyotes are out-competing bobcats for food, that could tell the state whether it needs to improve habitat to help bobcats. • Looks at whether mercury pollution affects wetlands, streams or ponds differently. Some evidence suggests organisms in swamps are more prone to mercury contamination than those in flowing creeks. This could guide regulators and consultants on how to build artificial wetlands. More knowledge about mercury also could tell environmental regulators how strictly to control mercury emissions from industrial plants. Those emissions are believed to be a source of mercury contamination in fish throughout South Carolinas coastal plain. Jagoe, a mercury researcher, said last years budget cuts cost him his research job at the ecology lab. The cuts also curtailed studies that were making the lab the worlds foremost authority on toxins in reptiles. The lab was poised to become a major center for knowledge about the pollutant effects in reptiles, he said. That expertise is basically gone. Jagoe and I. Lehr Brisbin, a wildlife ecologist who retired from the lab last year, blamed the Bush administration for failing to recognize the importance of scientific research the lab provides. This will no longer be an ecological research place for things like bobcats, foxes, deer and waterfowl, Brisbin said. What we lose is one of the most magnificent pieces of research wildlife habitat in the East, if not the nation. Some members of the South Carolina and Georgia congressional delegations are concerned about cutting funding too drastically at SRS. Last year, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., helped secure $4.3 million to continue the Ecology Laboratorys work after the Energy Department proposed cutting all money. The ecology lab is a national treasure and an important piece of the SRS community, he said. Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537. FEATS Of note about the Savannah River Ecology Lab staff and their projects: • Reptile expert Whit Gibbons has been quoted in national publications and featured on the National Geographic Channel. • Geologist Chris Romanek was among a team of scientists who found evidence of life on Mars by tracing it to a rock found in Antarctica. Researchers at the ecology lab: • Have discovered higher mercury levels in some alligators at the Savannah River Site than in alligators anywhere else in the world • Learned that some of the nations highest diversity of plants and animals exists at Savannah River • Verified the importance of seasonal wetlands to thriving populations of amphibians ***************************************************************** 59 Pantex may have new role in nuclear weapons work Plant could become center for plutonium research. ASSOCIATED PRESS Saturday, October 21, 2006 AMARILLO The nuclear arms plant near Amarillo would have an enhanced role in dismantling weapons and compete to become a center for plutonium research under a National Nuclear Security Administration proposal. The Pantex Plant would continue assembly of nuclear weapons and fabrication of high explosives, according to the plan, but would reduce the amount of such work. The plant is operated by BWXT Pantex LLC for the Energy Department's nuclear security administration. The administration wants to make changes to the nuclear weapons complex to enhance national security and keep nuclear materials away from larger urban areas, officials said. The United States plans to scale back its inventory to between 1,700 and 2,200 operational nuclear weapons by 2012. Copyright 2001-2006 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved. [Cox Newspapers, Inc.] ***************************************************************** 60 SF New Mexican: Contractor layoffs have town on its toes Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:41 am eNewMexican By DEBORAH BAKER | Associated Press LOS ALAMOS -- With job cuts looming at the nuclear weapons lab that is this town's bread and butter, even the German shepherd on a flier tacked to a bulletin board is looking anxious. "Due to cutbacks at the LANS, my family has to move. ... As much as they want to, they can't take me with them," it says. The pooch's plea: A loving family willing to play fetch. The recent announcement by Los Alamos National Security LLC, the lab's new operator, that hundreds of contractors' positions must be cut because of budget problems has the town on edge. "We've all been on a bit of a roller coaster here," motel owner John Smallwood told the lab's deputy director, John Mitchell, at a Chamber of Commerce business breakfast last week. "Los Alamos is a company town, and whether we like it or not, this company, this board of directors, is making decisions for us," said Smallwood, who relies on contractors to fill his motel rooms. The number of cuts is not yet clear. Los Alamos National Laboratory officials say it's likely to be at least 350 over the next year -- 10 percent of the contractor work force -- and could reach 600. Business owners say layoffs already have started, fueled by lab edict and by the uncertainties surrounding the switch in management in June from the University of California to a for-profit group that includes Bechtel Corp. and UC. "It's not just a California college any more. That changes everything," said a consultant who just lost his contracting job and asked not to be identified. "The lab is now run on a for-profit basis by a company that knows how to do big business." A handful of contractors contacted by The Associated Press said they feared retaliation if they complained publicly about the cuts. One of them, who does safety-related work, said when LANS took over in June, he had 26 employees; now there are 10. As of the end of December, he won't have any work from the lab, he said. In late June, at a regular weekly meeting with the lab to discuss a contract that employed five people, the firm was told it had been canceled, he said. "They sent five people home that day ... with absolutely zero warning," the contractor complained. The lab has about 600 contracts to provide everything from paper clips to engineering services. There are roughly 3,000 contract workers; another 8,300 full-time employees work directly for the lab, and the new management says it doesn't plan to cut any of those jobs. LANL is a huge economic force in largely rural Northern New Mexico. About half its work force lives in Los Alamos, while the others commute from the scattered communities at the bottom of "the hill," as the mesa-top lab site is called. While rumors had been swirling around for months, some business owners said they were taken aback by the sudden announcement in late September that 600 jobs could be at stake. LANS should have warned the community such cuts were coming, even if the numbers weren't yet firm, critics say. "I think it's gotten off on a bad foot," said U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, a Democrat who represents Northern New Mexico. He says the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration should have planned better and created more of a budget cushion for the lab's new operator. LANS faces a shortfall for the budget year that began Oct. 1 of about $176 million. That's because it's more expensive for the new operator to run the lab, while the facility's roughly $2 billion budget -- not yet finalized by Congress -- is expected to remain flat. The new costs: $55 million in state gross receipts taxes, because of its for-profit status; $71 million in new labor costs, including pension benefit changes mandated by the new contract; and a $50 million management fee. Mitchell, the deputy director, said in a memo that 350 contractor cuts would save $75 million to $85 million, and another $75 million could be saved by other belt-tightening. The need for further contractor cuts would be clearer once the new budget is finalized. Virtually every aspect of the lab's operation is under scrutiny, he said. "We have some things we have to do to change the laboratory, to provide what we believe is the right structure for its long-term success," Mitchell told the crowd at the chamber breakfast. That will happen this year, and "our intent is by '08 to be over with that," he said. "It will get better as time goes on," he promised. Udall said last week it appeared LANS would try to renegotiate the part of its contract with the federal government that requires the lab to spend $625 million with small businesses. Mitchell said there were no such negotiations under way. "Nobody's doing anything about that right now. I wouldn't be surprised if over the next month or two we have to have a conversation ... but nothing's happening (now)," he said. Carla Jaramillo, who has been cutting hair in a Los Alamos beauty parlor for 22 years, says a lot of her clients are moving away. "They're not sure what's going on here, or they've gotten jobs elsewhere," she said. But her experience with the lab's big reduction in force 11 years ago, when about 1,000 staff and contractors were laid off or took voluntary retirement, makes her optimistic. "Back in '95, when they had that RIF here, we survived it," she said. "We survived it very well." Privacy Policy / Terms of Use | ©2006, Santa Fe New Mexican, ***************************************************************** 61 Idaho Statesman: INL blows up old reactor building The Associated Press Idaho Statesman | Edition Date: 10/22/06 ARCO An icon of Idahos contribution to the nuclear age is no longer. The dome-shaped "Loss-of-Fluid" test reactor building at the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho was demolished last week by workers using explosives and heavy equipment. Destruction of the 1/60th scale version of a commercial nuclear power plant comes as part of a seven-year, $7.9 billion project to clean up material and equipment left over from decades of tests at the 890-square-mile federal nuclear research area. In the 1950s, the reactor was erected to support Americas race to be the first country to build a nuclear-powered airplane. Though that ill-fated program was abandoned by President Kennedy, the dome remained, helping scientists eventually conduct 38 reactor experiments including replications of the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania. When the dome didnt completely collapse during Thursdays detonation, workers had to attack the structure with torches. Decades ago, authorities at federal nuclear regulatory agencies had a spectacular plan for the LOFT reactor: To stage a meltdown of its nuclear core by making breaks in the pipes that delivered coolant. But nuclear regulatory agencies eventually decided the reactor was more useful as a safety testing facility. On March 28, 1979, at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pa., an open valve that interrupted coolant flow caused about half of that reactors core to melt. Following Three Mile Island, tests at the LOFT reactor helped explain what happened there. LOFT operations ceased in 1985. ***************************************************************** 62 Tri-City Herald: Biofuels summit offers look at alternative energy sources Published Sunday, October 22nd, 2006 By Anna King, Herald staff writer Whether Mid-Columbia farmers should plant biofuel crops into their fields or stick to more traditional crops is the subject of a summit next month at Columbia Basin College in Pasco. The summit is scheduled for Nov. 2-3 and will feature talks by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash, state Department of Agriculture Director Valoria Loveland, farmers and biofuel scientists. Biofuels have created a buzz in agriculture, but farmers need to know the facts like yields, plant diseases and where to market their crops before planting it in their fields, said Lisa Toomey, CBC's Agriculture Outreach program manager. Those who attend can learn more about Washington State University's research on biofuels, how farmers can calculate if biofuels would help their farm's economics and what government grants and loans are available for Washington growers. Ed Baker, Richland-based division director for process science and engineering at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will present some of his research on Washington's biofuels industry at the summit. PNNL and WSU scientists are working together to research what types of crops, processing plants and products might be the most profitable in Washington. Most biofuels research is centered on Midwest corn and soybeans, but Baker hopes his study will attract federal grants to study Washington crops. "Everyone is trying to get their hands around this industry and find out more," Baker said. Crops that grow well in the Northwest could be made into various types of fuels, chemicals and plastics, he said. The study will be released this winter and help direct future research by PNNL and WSU scientists. Kent Madison, one of the farmers scheduled to speak at the summit, said he plans to fill up his tractors with biofuel in just a few weeks for the first time. Madison said his family watched ca-nola prices decline for several years, before deciding to research biofuels. Now Madison has invested in a crop oil processing faci-lity to make about 200,000 gallons of crude seed oil for other companies and about 100,000 gallons of refined biofuels for his own farm equipment. The process was cost prohibitive for his Echo, Ore., farm until recently, he said. "It costs us about $2.30 to make biodiesel out of 12-cent canola," he said. "But with the diesel price so high, it was economical." Making biofuels should save him about $80,000 to $100,000 on his farm's fuel bill, he said. Madison said he doesn't mind sharing his knowledge with other farmers. He wants more growers to join him in producing biofuels so Northwest consumers will have access to more product and demand more, he said. © 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 63 FresnoBee.com: Lab workers may get $150k payments Contact The Bee + Call (559) 441-6228 residents petition for compensation. By Michael Doyle / Bee Washington Bureau 10/21/06 03:58:12 WASHINGTON — Some ailing San Joaquin Valley residents who have worked at a top-secret Livermore Valley facility might receive $150,000 payments. First, though, the X-ray technicians and scientists from Sandia National Laboratory need a green light from federal officials. If they get it, they will become the first batch of Californians deemed eligible for a special compensation program born from politics and pain. On Friday, the Sandia workers moved an important step closer to their goal. Bush administration officials announced they would consider a Sandia petition for assistance. The petition covers a relative handful of employees who had worked in three particular rooms at the Sandia site, next to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "Radiation exposures were inevitable and pretty much an everyday occurrence," one Sandia worker reported on the petition. The workers, whose names are blacked out, added that "years of exposure and dose records are apparently missing." This complicates efforts to prove exposure to cancer-causing radiation. Only a few workers from Sandia's X-Ray Diffraction and Fluorescence Laboratory are on the petition, though their efforts could have broader consequences if successful. Government-owned, but managed by the corporate giant Lockheed Martin, Sandia helps turn Lawrence Livermore research into nuclear weapons. Currently, Sandia employs some 900 workers. A Sandia spokeswoman said Friday that the company will assist the employees. "Sandia cooperates fully when we receive requests for employment and medical records of former employees who make claims under this program," spokeswoman Jennifer Hallstrom said. As with the larger Lawrence Livermore lab, most Sandia workers in California have historically lived in Alameda, Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties. Their work has boosted the nation's nuclear defense. Sometimes, it has also been dangerous. "They did what their country asked of them," Republican Rep. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — who is now a senator — said of nuclear weapons workers during congressional debate in 2001. "Unfortunately, the government was not always aware or up front about what they were being exposed to and the dangers it presented to their health." Prompted by horror stories from other facilities, Congress began a special compensation program in 2001. It provides lump-sum $150,000 payments and covers medical expenses for nuclear complex workers who developed radiation-induced cancer. Several types of workers can seek help. Energy Department employees who have cancer determined to be "at least as likely as not" to be caused by their work exposure can get aid. This is not a sure thing. A total of 4,680 claims have been filed in California. Of these, 472 claims have been paid, providing a total of $38.2 million. The California claims include 123 for Lawrence Livermore workers, three paid to Stanford Linear Accelerator Center staffers and two paid to Sandia workers. Most applicants fail. The 123 Lawrence Livermore petitions granted, for instance, are a small fraction of the 2,011 petitions filed by lab workers. "This petition is filed by individuals who have been frustrated by the individual claim process," said Loulena Miles, attorney with the Livermore-based Tri-Valley CARES. "It's like banging your head against the wall." Alternatively, the petition allows workers to seek assistance as a "special exposure cohort." Once recognized, these groups of workers have an easier burden of proof. If they have radiation-based cancer, it is automatically attributed to their work exposure. So far, officials have granted such "special exposure cohort" status to workers from the Nevada Test Site, among other locations. No California site has yet been recognized. It will take six months or more for a decision. "It depends on the complexity of the site and the complexity of the [radiation] exposures," said Larry Elliot, director of the Office of Compensation Analysis and Support. The reporter can be reached at or (202) 383-0006. + © Copyright 2006 The Fresno Bee ***************************************************************** 64 Tennessean: Union workers will return to Nuclear Fuel Services - Nashville, Tennessee - Sunday, 10/22/06 - Tennessean.com Associated Press ERWIN, Tenn. — Nuclear Fuel Services has accepted an offer from union employees to return to work unconditionally. NFS spokesman Tony Treadway said the company made the decision Friday, and company officials will meet with workers Wednesday to discuss details about their return. The agreement ends a week of anticipation by United Steelworkers Local 9-677, which voted last Sunday to return to work unconditionally in hopes of forcing the company back to the bargaining table. When the company did not give an answer by Wednesday, the union filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board that NFS was engaging in an illegal lockout. The company denied the charge. Nearly 370 union workers walked out May 15 at the end of a four-year contract after rejecting a six-year pact that would have changed workers' retirement and health insurance plans and work rules. The company did not comment Friday on the negotiations aspect of the return to work. Union President Roger Birchfield said he was pleased that NFS has accepted the offer and that the union will be allowed to return to work. "The best option is that we sit down and get an agreement that we both can live with," Birchfield said. "The second best option, I guess, is we get the people back on the jobs and we continue negotiating the contract until we can come to an agreement." Nuclear Fuel Services makes fuel for the U.S. Navy and converts highly enriched uranium into fuel for the Tennessee Valley Authority's commercial nuclear reactors. The Tennessean ***************************************************************** 65 Cincinnati Post: Paducah plant ordered to do drug tests By Brett Barrouquere Associated Press LOUISVILLE - Nuclear plants in Kentucky and Ohio must put random drug testing programs in place for some employees in order comply with Department of Energy contracts, the agency's Inspector General said Friday. The inspector general's office, in a two-page memorandum, said the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, need to begin randomly drug testing selected employees. The report comes five months after an employee at the Paducah plant tested positive for methamphetamine and five months after a bag of methamphetamine and pipes were found outside a building in a limited security area of the compound. Two dozen employees were tested and one was barred from the plant after testing positive. Investigators looked at the drug testing policies at both plants and whether either had a random drug testing policy for employees, according to the memorandum. "The inspectors determined they didn't have one," said Denise Smith, a spokeswoman for the Inspector General's Office said. Federal regulations require that a random employee drug testing policy be in place at any company with a contract valued at $25,000 or more with the Department of Energy, operating under the authority of the Atomic Energy Act, and involving access or handling of classified information or special nuclear materials. The random drug testing policy applies to a variety of employees, including protective force personnel who carry firearms and may have contact with the public, the Inspector General said. Workers entering through the plants' security fences are screened for weapons and explosives with a metal detector and a sniffing device, but are not routinely searched for drugs. Smith said the plants didn't intentionally violate the federal regulations. "When they got into the review, management was unsure they were subject to the random drug testing requirement," Smith said. Georgann Lookofsky, spokeswoman for the Paducah plant, said the United States Enrichment Corporation, which runs the plant for the Department of Energy, is in discussions with the government about starting a random drug testing policy, but hasn't done so yet. "They have started talking with our security leadership," Lookofsky said. "At this point, nothing has been formalized." A message left at the Portsmouth plant in Ohio was not immediately returned Friday. Both plants agreed to start random drug tests by the end of the year, the Inspector General's memorandum said. The Paducah plant is the only operating uranium enrichment facility in the United States. It is owned by the Department of Energy, but leased and operated by the United States Enrichment Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of USEC Inc. The plant employs about 1,400 people and produces low-enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants in the United States and around the world. In May 2001, USEC completed a plan to consolidate its uranium enrichment operations at Paducah. In June 2002, transfer and shipping operations at the Piketon plant were also consolidated at Paducah. Publication date: 10-21-2006 Copyright1995-2006. The Cincinnati Post, a Scripps Howardnewspaper. ***************************************************************** 66 Inside Bay Area: Lab scoops R&D awards Livermore facility leads in industrial innovatons By Betsy Mason, MEDIANEWS Article Last Updated:10/21/2006 02:56:36 AM PDT LIVERMORE — Lawrence Livermore Laboratory scooped up more R 100 awards this year for new technologies with commercial potential, including a pocket-size explosives detector and a city-scale motion detector, bringing the lab's total to 113 awards since 1978. The research and development awards, sometimes called the "Oscars of Invention," are given by the trade journal R Magazine for the world's top 100 industrial innovations each year. "We're very pleased that Livermore Lab won more R 100 awards this year than any other institution in the country," said Lee Younker, deputy director for Science and Technology. "We are also happy that our technologies have relevance for assisting U.S. industry and for helping in homeland security to protect the country." Livermore tied its record of seven awards this year, a feat it also accomplished in 1987, 1988, 1997 and 1998. Department of Energy labs won a total of 41 awards this year, including four for Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Three of Livermore Lab's award-winning projects could potentially help with homeland security, including a pocket-size explosives detector. Called the Easy Livermore Inspection Test for Explosives, the single-use, disposable test can detect more than 30 different explosives. The 2-by-3-inch cards cost $25 or less, making them practical for airport screeners as well as military personnel hunting for bomb makers. A new high-resolution radiation detector that can sense both gamma rays and neutrons could prove instrumental in finding even small amounts of illicit nuclear materials. It could also help monitor the safety of stored nuclear material. Lab scientists have also engineered a real-time motion imagery system that can track up to 8,000 moving objects in a city-size field of view for about 10 percent of the cost of other systems of this scale. The lab teamed up with the University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory to develop a planet-detection technique that has already been used to spot at least one new planet far from our solar system. The technique relies on a $14,000 optical tool that can do the same job as conventional devices that run about $4 million. Lab physicist David Erskine who helped develop the technique is currently using it to hunt for planets at Mount Palo Observatory near San Diego. Another new award-winning device can change the color, or wavelength, of light. This could be useful for converting common infrared laser light into ultraviolet light, which is better at cutting ceramics and plastics, or green light for cutting copper. Data mining will get a boost from another new advance from scientists at the labs computing center. With data often coming in terabyte-sized packages, scientists will benefit from this new technology, which can handle enormous and complex data sets to fully extract all the useful information needed for a given experiment. The lab has six patents on this technology. A new speedy computer language translator called Babel (pronounced babble) can cheaply break down the barrier between different software libraries. In the past, scientists had to create a translation code for each application. The Berkeley lab won awards for a free-floating submersible ocean carbon sensor, a new solar-cell semiconductor material, an ultrasonic sensor to ensure paper quality and a neutron generator. © 2000-2006 ANG Newspapers | Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************