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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 washingtonpost.com: What Makes Tehran Tick? The Sources of Iranian C
2 AFP: Defiant Iran scents world split on nuclear issue 
3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Azerbaijan rejects sanctions on Iran 
4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Enemies can't prevent IRI progress 
5 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI not polluting Persian Gulf 
6 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Talks best way to settle N-issue 
7 Guardian Unlimited: Gulf War Games Target Nuclear Smuggling
8 AFP: Iran confirms has stepped up uranium enrichment 
9 AFP: Iran unruffled by US-led Gulf naval manoeuvres 
10 AFP: Major powers set for hard bargaining on Iran sanctions 
11 Guardian Unlimited: Olmert Compares Iran With Nazi Germany 
12 UPI: Iran boasts of nuclear program advance
13 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Stepping Up Uranium Enrichment 
14 Guardian Unlimited: Movement Reportedly Seen at N.Korea Site
15 Guardian Unlimited: Reports: Seoul Eyes Suspected Nuke Site 
16 AFP: Japan lawmaker continues calls for nuclear debate 
17 Korea Herald: Seoul watches North Korea for signs of second test   
18 Korea Herald: U.S. envoy looks back on the year   
19 Korea Herald: Military works on nuclear defense plans   
20 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Spy chief quits, 4th vacancy in security line
21 Korea Times: N. Korea Beefs Up Counterintelligence 
22 Korea Times: EU Members to Visit Kaesong Complex 
23 Guardian Unlimited: Report: U.S. Mulls Defenses for Tokyo 
24 Korea Times: Foreign Investment Drops Sharply 
25 Korea Times: Nuclear Crisis Could Lower 
26 AFP: US ready to meet NKorea -- if it returns to six-way talks -
27 AFP: Ban returns to Seoul with warning from Beijing over NKorea -
28 Japan Times: Tokyo a bit clearer on nuke blast
29 Japan Times: Nakagawa again makes push for nuke debate
30 UPI: Suspicious 'movements' in N. Korea
31 SF Chron: New tools for a new world order / Nuclear forensics touted
32 AFP: Russia, France overtake US as top arms sellers 
33 Guardian Unlimited: Beckett calls for Trident debate 
34 Guardian Unlimited: At last - a map to lead us out of catastrophe | 
35 London Times: Beckett: we may not need nuclear missiles - 
36 ENS: INSIGHTS: Balochistan: Pakistan's Nuclear Wasteland Up in Arms 
37 BBC NEWS: Beckett calls for Trident debate
38 Independent Online:  So, minister, are we developing new nuclear wea
39 AFP: British minister calls for debate on nuclear deterrent 
40 Scotsman.com :Socialist MSP jailed for nuclear protest
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
41 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear Reactor Shut Down in Russia 
42 Interfax: Short circuit causes nuclear power plant unit shutdown
43 RIA Novosti: Nuclear power plant in North Russia reports 
44 RIA Novosti: Two units operational at Russian NPP after emergency sh
45 BBC NEWS: Bolivia agrees new energy deals
46 All Headline News: Egypt To Operate Nuclear Power Reactor Within Ten
47 US: Concord Monitor: Nuclear plant ever the lightning rod   
48 The Australian: Nuclear plan a drain on water supply
49 The Australian: Nuclear power will 'worsen drought' 
50 AFP: Egypt to seek Chinese aid on nuclear program 
51 US: APP.COM: Don't gamble with safety | 
52 US: Boston Globe: Vermont Yankee nuke plant's critics still at it, 3
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
53 globeandmail.com: Bill amendment would protect spy-service whistle-b
54 UPI: Israelis turn to nuclear shelters
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
55 [v911t] DU Death Toll Tops 11,000
56 AFP: High radiation levels said to be found after Israel's Lebanon b
57 AFP: UN unable to confirm radiation spike after Lebanon war 
58 UPI: Report: Israel used uranium-enriched bombs
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
59 Sunday Herald: Reactor waste is Jacks nuclear nightmare 
60 US: Salt Lake Tribune: With PFS dead, are Utahns safer?
61 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Company adheres to all regulatory requirement
62 US: Salt Lake Tribune: EnergySolutions bends the rules and breaks th
63 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP Records Archive relocates in city 
64 US: The Enquirer: Schmidt considers nuke waste
65 US: LawFuel: Lawyers' Comment on Radioactive Waste -
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
66 Pahrump Valley Times: Test range to close, work may be shifted to te
67 KnoxNews: Big deals landed by radiation-detector firms
68 Tri-City Herald: Addition of Vit plant stacks changes Hanford's skyl
69 Tri-City Herald: Hanford cleanup plan timeline may be stalled 
70 Stockton Record: Watchdog group wants to turn weapons lab green 
71 SF Chron: 3 teams vie to manage nuclear research at Lawrence Livermo
72 DenverPost.com: FEMA cuts terror team
73 Inside Bay Area: Three teams now bidding for lab
74 Inside Bay Area: Livermore lab's future is in limbo
75 Inside Bay Area: What will become of the lab?
76 KNDO/KNDU: Hanford Vitrification Plant Progress
77 KBCI 2: Another INL reactor complex targeted for removal 
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 washingtonpost.com: What Makes Tehran Tick? The Sources of Iranian Conduct -
                    
Sunday, October 29, 2006; Page BW06

Can Republicans and Democrats find common ground on Iran? In his
savvy and accessible Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the
Islamic Republic (Times, $25), Ray Takeyh of the Council on
Foreign Relations argues that administrations from both parties
have already managed to unite around something rather basic
about one of America's main foreign policy challenges: They all
get Iran wrong.

That consistent misreading of the country's behavior arises,
Takeyh argues, because a broad spectrum of U.S. leaders, from
Jimmy Carter to Dick Cheney, has seen Islamist Iran as a grim
totalitarian state with an arid political life akin to North
Korea's. But Iran's domestic politics are in a state of constant
churn, helping produce what Hidden Iran describes as a
reasonably pragmatic foreign policy prone to spasms of baffling
dogmatism and raving rhetoric. Tehran's national security
apparatus, Takeyh writes, is riven by feuds that make the
current U.S. splits between State Department and Pentagon
officials look mild; in Iran, the disputes are driven by "three
competing elements -- Islamic ideology, national interests, and
factional politics -- all constantly at battle."

In the 1990s, an odd array of reformist clerics and cranky
hard-liners -- with the blessings of the country's supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- coalesced reluctantly "around
the notion that Iran cannot remain isolated from the global
order" and began reaching out to China, Russia and other major
powers. But that overture is now under threat from a new
generation of ascetic, doctrinaire mullahs who feel that the
revolution has grown calcified and corrupt -- a cohort
exemplified by the current rightist president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who seems equally passionate about Islamist
puritanism, economic populism and Holocaust-denying
anti-Semitism.

Takeyh has written a shrewd, timely guide to Iran's schisms,
interests and ambitions, as well as offering a bracing and often
nicely acerbic look at U.S.-Iranian relations -- from the 1953
CIA-backed coup that overthrew Iran's popular, nationalist prime
minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, to the politics of the Persian Gulf
in the post-9/11, post-Saddam Hussein era.

So how can America get Iran right? Takeyh urges U.S.
policymakers to "to set aside the chimera of regime change,"
acknowledge the durability of the theocratic republic, resign
themselves to a mature U.S.-Iranian relationship that combines
competition and cooperation, and start direct talks on such
crucial issues as Iran's nuclear program, its sponsorship of
Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, its reported willingness
to harbor al-Qaeda fugitives and its drive for greater influence
over the Shiite majority of neighboring Iraq. Takeyh sees Iran
as "a problem to be managed," not solved. But, he warns,
Washington doesn't have much margin of error left.

-- Warren Bass

Copyright 1996- The Washington Post Company
*****************************************************************
 2 AFP: Defiant Iran scents world split on nuclear issue 

 Sunday October 29, 12:15 PM 

[Iranian technicians remove a container of radioactive uranium]   
    
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has remained defiant over its nuclear
programme despite the threat of sanctions, saying it was
detecting splits between world powers on whether to punish
Tehran for intensifying atomic work.

With world powers locked in talks in New York over a draft
resolution that would impose sanctions over Iran's failure to
halt uranium enrichment, Tehran has defiantly expanded work on
the process at a key nuclear plant.

But Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini
Advertisement
[ src=]  did not appear concerned that sanctions were imminent,
saying there was a split between the stances of China and Russia
on one hand and Europe and the US on the other.

"Splits between the parties are very visible, that is to say
between the United States and the Europeans on one side and
Russia and China on the other," foreign ministry spokesman told
reporters on Sunday.

"These two countries have completely different positions to the
Europeans. Russia does not want sanctions and does not want to
close the path of negotiations, and the Chinese have a similar
position," he added.

The United Nations Security Council's five veto-wielding members
-- Britain, China, France, Russia and the US -- as well as
Germany have been discussing a draft resolution on sanctions put
forward by European countries.

But in a sign of the difficulty in reaching an agreement,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected the proposed
sanctions, arguing that they did not advance objectives agreed
on by the six world powers.

The Chinese stance has yet to become clear, although Beijing --
like Moscow -- is an economic ally of Iran and traditionally
reluctant to use sanctions as diplomatic leverage.

Hosseini meanwhile played down Iran's move to start enriching
uranium from a second cascade of 164 centrifuges at its nuclear
plant at Natanz in the centre of the country, a decision greeted
with suspicion by the West.

"The second cascade is part of the research activities of the
country which are in line with the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty," he said.

"There is nothing new. It is the continuation of legal
activities under the control of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), and there is no deviation," Hosseini added.

Iran vehemently rejects US allegations that its nuclear
programme is aimed at making nuclear weapons, saying the drive
is solely aimed at providing energy for civilians.

Enriched uranium lies at the centre of the dispute over Iran's
nuclear programme, as it can be used both to make nuclear fuel
and, in highly refined form, the core of a nuclear bomb.

Iran would need thousands more such centrifuges to enrich
uranium on an industrial scale and its current uranium
enrichment work is on a research level only.

Officials have said that uranium was successfully enriched from
the second cascade of centrifuges to a level of 3-5 percent and
has now been put into storage.

To make a nuclear bomb, the uranium needs to be enriched to
around 90 percent, far above the level needed for nuclear fuel.

The text drafted by Britain, France and Germany in consultations
with Washington calls on UN member states to slap ballistic
missile-related and nuclear sanctions on Iran.

It provides for a freeze of assets related to Iran's nuclear and
missile programmes and travel bans on scientists involved. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Azerbaijan rejects sanctions on Iran 

  2006/10/27   
  
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev warned on Friday that any
western sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran would
escalate tension in the region. 

"We have good relations with America ... and good relations with
Iran, and in our foreign policy these two elements do not
contradict," Aliyev told a meeting with foreign media at his
presidential palace. 

He expressed misgivings about proposed UN sanctions against Iran
over the country's peaceful nuclear activities, under the
pressure of America and some alien European countries. 

"As far as sanctions against Iran are concerned, Azerbaijan does
not support them -- we think they are counter-productive,"
Aliyev said. 

"They (sanctions) will not lead to a resolution of this issue.
They will only make the situation more tense in the region," he
added. 

FK   

  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: Enemies can't prevent IRI progress 

  2006/10/29   

Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel said enemies can never
prevent Iranians from making progress by their threats and
pressure.
 
In the inauguration ceremony of Tabriz fourth international
booke xhibition on Saturday evening, Haddad Adel said, "if our
advancement in peaceful nuclear energy were not serious and
Iranian young people could not access the technology, there
would not be this huge amount of opposition by bullies."
 
He pointed out that enemies must understand Iranians will never
take a step back from the way they have chosen to go ahead.
 
The Speaker said, "books are the clearest symbol of culture in
acivilization."
 
Tabriz 4th international book exhibition started its work
Saturday evening October 28 and will last until November 6, 2006.
 
In the opening ceremony, the Majlis Speaker, Deputy Minister of
Culture and Islamic Guidance as well as provincial officials
were present.
 
1,000 domestic and foreign publishers, including 100 electronic
ones, have presented their works in the fair.
 
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: IRI not polluting Persian Gulf 

  2006/10/29   
  
Head of the Marine Environment Office of the country's
Environment Protection Organization (EPO) said on Friday that no
radioactive environment pollution enters the Persian Gulf waters
through Iran's soil.
 
Seyyed Mohammad-Baqer Nabavi said, "Some warships in Persian
Gulf waters are the source of radioactive pollution there, since
their engines run using radioactive fuel, and therefore they can
project radioactive rays, but Iran's naval fleet has none of
those ships.
 
Nabavi ruled out the possibility of radioactive pollution
through Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor, reiterating, "That
reactor functions under direct supervision of the IAEA, and its
environmental security standards are fully approved by that
agency."
 
He added, "Besides, Bushehr Nuclear Reactor is still not
activated, and our neighbors should have no fears regarding
environmental radioactive pollution through that plant even in
the long run."
 
The Iranian environmental protection official further explained,
"Radioactive pollutant agents fluctuate in the sea and it cannot
be so easily determined from which region, or which country they
have been originated."
 
He noted, "There are various types of marine species living in
northern regions of the Persian Gulf waters in Iranian
territories that migrate between there and Kuwait's coastal
regions.
 
Nabavi added, "Those species lay their eggs in one region in a
year and in another the following year, and it is therefore
impossible to decide their exact natural habitat."
 
mk   

  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: Talks best way to settle N-issue 

  2006/10/29   
  
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sayed Mohammad-Ali Hosseini on Sunday
urged all parties to the nuclear dispute to continue the path of
negotiations as the best way of resolving the problem.
 
Speaking to reporters at his weekly press conference, Hosseini
advised European states not to bring to naught previous efforts
of all sides to try to end the current nuclear standoff.
 
Pointing to the four rounds of talks held between Secretary of
Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani and
European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, he said
agreements reached by the two sides could be a "good base" for
continuation of talks.
 
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     
  
*****************************************************************
 7 Guardian Unlimited: Gulf War Games Target Nuclear Smuggling

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Sunday October 29, 2006 2:46 PM

By NASSER KARIMI and JIM KRANE 

Associated Press Writers 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP)- A naval training exercise led by the United
States and aimed at blocking smuggling of nuclear weapons began
Sunday in the Persian Gulf. 

The six-nation maneuvers off the coast of Iran are the first of
their kind since North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test and U.N.
sanctions that called on the international community to conduct
searches at sea to ensure the reclusive communist nation is not
secretly expanding its nuclear program. 

The practice interception also comes at a time when the U.S. is
seeking support for sanctions against Iran for its nuclear
program. On Friday, Iran stepped up its uranium enrichment
program, according to a semiofficial news agency. 

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, spokesman for the
Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet, said the exercise was not aimed
at a specific country and would not affect Iranian vessels or
ships heading to Iran. 

But Iran criticized the U.S. military presence. ``We do not
consider this exercise appropriate,'' Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a
spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said in Tehran. 

``We are watching their movements, very carefully,'' Hosseini
said. 

The maneuvers were taking place under the U.S.-led Proliferation
Security Initiative, aimed at blocking nuclear proliferation by
tracking and stopping ships believed to be carrying banned
weapons. 

South Korea, which has balked at joining the initiative, sent a
delegation to observe the Gulf exercises but declined to
participate. 

``We have not (fully) participated in the PSI because there is a
high possibility of armed clashes if the PSI is carried out in
waters around the Korean peninsula,'' Vice Foreign Minister Yu
Myung-hwan told Parliament Friday. 

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter is the only American ship among the
nine vessels taking part in the two-day maneuvers, Brown said. 

Participants in the training will track a ship suspected of
carrying outlawed weapons components, Brown said. A British navy
oiler ship is playing the role of the suspected weapons carrier. 

On Monday, navy forces on eight other vessels are expected to
stop, board and search the suspect ship, Brown said. 

The training came as Western naval officials warned that
coalition naval forces in the Gulf were on heightened watch for
possible threats to oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. 

Countries taking part include Italy, France, Australia, United
States and Britain, with one ship each, and Bahrain with three
naval vessels. 

Bahrain's participation marks the first time an Arab nation
joins an exercise under the three-year-old PSI. 

The maneuvers come in addition to normal U.S.-led coalition
naval patrols in the Gulf, with a pair of multinational task
forces patrolling the coastlines of Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, lined with the
world's busiest oil export terminals and offshore oil and gas
platforms. 

Two previous exercises have taken place in the region under the
75-nation Proliferation Security Initiative and two dozen have
been completed worldwide since such exercises began in 2003. 

--- 

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi reported from Iran and Jim
Krane from Qatar.	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: Iran confirms has stepped up uranium enrichment 

 Saturday October 28, 12:14 PM 

By Farhad Pouladi 

[Iranian technicians at the uranium conversion facilities in 
Isfahan]   
    
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has confirmed it had successfully enriched
uranium from a new cascade at a nuclear plant despite the threat
of sanctions, hailing the move as a step towards
industrial-scale enrichment.

The cascade of 164 centrifuges to enrich uranium is the second
to be installed at the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran,
joining an already established first cascade of the same number
of centrifuges.

"The new cascade at Natanz has started work in the last two
weeks," Iran's deputy Advertisement
[ src=]  atomic energy organisation head Mohammad Ghannad told
the Iran newspaper Saturday.

"The products of the two cascades of 164 centrifuges have been
obtained and have been successfully stocked," he added, saying
the uranium had been enriched to levels between 3-5 percent.

The comments, which confirm statements by an unnamed official to
the ISNA agency Friday, come amid mounting efforts by European
powers and the United States to take UN sanctions action against
Iran over its failure to halt enrichment.

"The results from the research in the last two weeks will
complete the path of research for Islamic Republic of Iran
experts and will pave the way for the industrial phase of
enrichment," Ghannad said.

Iran has repeatedly made clear its intention to enrich uranium
on an industrial scale that would make it self-sufficient in
making nuclear fuel for its atomic programme.

"We injected gas into the new cascade and now both 164
centrifuges are working together. Passing this phase is an
extraordinary and valuable experience for Iran," Ghannad said.

He told the newspaper that the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) had been informed of the intended move one month
ago and its inspectors visited the Natanz plant last week. 

Enriched uranium lies at the centre of the dispute over Iran's
nuclear programme, as it can be used both to make nuclear fuel
and, in highly refined form, the core of a nuclear bomb

Iran would need thousands more such centrifuges to enrich
uranium on an industrial scale and its current uranium
enrichment work is on a research level only.

To make a nuclear bomb, the uranium needs to be enriched to
around 90 percent, far above the level needed for nuclear fuel.

Iran vehemently rejects US allegations that its nuclear
programme is aimed at making nuclear weapons, saying the drive
is solely aimed at providing energy for civilians.

The UN Security Council's five veto-wielding members -- Britain,
China, France, Russia and the United States -- as well as from
Germany have been discussing a draft resolution on sanctions put
forward by European countries.

However in a sign of the difficulty of reaching an agreement,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected the proposed
sanctions, arguing that they did not advance objectives agreed
on by the six world powers.

French President Jacques Chirac said on Friday if a negotiated
solution is not found sanctions should "be imposed to show Iran
that the entire international community does not understand
their position and is hostile to it."

Iranian officials have consistently maintained that the threat
of sanctions will not hold back its nuclear programme, arguing
the country has every right to enrich uranium under
international law.

"The draft resolution on Iran is a politicised one, and is
caused by US pressure on Iran. It is illegitimate, illogical,
and contrary to international laws," seethed Alaeddin
Boroujerdi, head of parliament's foreign policy commission. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 9 AFP: Iran unruffled by US-led Gulf naval manoeuvres 

 Sunday October 29, 09:43 AM 

  [A US cruiser is seen in the northern Gulf waters]   

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has said it was unconcerned about naval
manoeuvres to be led by the United States off its coast this
week, saying it had the situation under control and was watching
the vessels closely.

"US warships move regularly in the Persian Gulf and in the Sea
of Oman, and we have them under surveillance," said the navy's
commander Sajad Kouchaki, quoted by the Iranian press on Sunday.

"The presence of two US warships shows the aggressive and
dominating character of the Americans," (Advertisement)
[Click Here!] [ src=]  he added.

"If they want to threaten the Islamic republic of Iran we are
capable of keeping them under control. The Iranian navy does not
believe in such a threat and has the enemy completely under
control," he said.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told
reporters that "Iran does not believe that these manoeuvres
constitute a threat".

From Monday the US will lead international naval manoeuvres in
the Gulf off Iran's west coast aimed at fighting weapons
proliferation, according to US State Department officials.

Warships from Australia, Bahrain, Britain, France, Italy and the
US will take part in the operation to simulate inspection of
ships carrying illicit weapons-related materials, the first time
such an exercise has been carried out in the Gulf.

Hosseini also urged Iran's Arab neighbours to "reinforce their
security cooperation instead of having foreign countries seeking
to reinforce their presence".

"We have asked many times Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members
to cooperate as part of the 6+2 group (GCC states along with
Iran and Iraq) to arrive at a common security accord," he added.

The manoeuvres come amid mounting tension over Iran's contested
nuclear programme as Tehran refuses to give up uranium
enrichment despite moves by the US and European powers to impose
sanctions on the country.

However, a US official insisted that the joint manoeuvres were
planned months ago and were not timed to coincide with the new
pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 10 AFP: Major powers set for hard bargaining on Iran sanctions 

 by Gerard Aziakou Sun Oct 29, 4:55 AM ET 		 	 

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Six major powers are set next week to 
resume what is expected to be tough and drawn-out bargaining on 
proposed sanctions against Iran" /> Iranwhich pressed ahead with 
uranium enrichment work in defiance of UN resolutions. 

Envoys from the UN Security

Council's five veto-wielding members -- Britain, China, France,
Russia and the US -- and Germany held a first private meeting
Thursday on a draft resolution urging nuclear and
missile-related sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to
halt sensitive nuclear fuel work.

US Ambassador John Bolton said the six would resume 
deliberations, probably Monday, for &quot;a chance to talk about 
specifics.&quot;

The text drafted by Britain, France and Germany in consultations 
with Washington calls on UN member states to slap nuclear and 
ballistic missile-related sanctions on Iran. It provides for a 
freeze of assets related to Iran's nuclear and missile programs 
and travel bans on scientists involved in those programs.

According to some diplomats, the US had pressed for a tougher 
draft resolution, including a call for an end to Moscow's help 
building Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station. 

But the draft put forward by the European trio specifically 
exempts Russian aid to Bushehr from the proposed sanctions. 

While one Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, 
said he was optimistic that the major powers would eventually be 
able to find common ground, others said agreement on an 
acceptable text was likely to take weeks. 

China and Russia, which have significant economic interests in 
Iran, are reluctant to slap tough measures on Tehran.

In a sign that tough negotiations lie ahead, Russian Foreign 
Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected the proposed sanctions, arguing 
that they do not advance objectives agreed earlier by the six 
powers. 

In Tehran, Iran confirmed Saturday it had successfully enriched 
uranium from a new cascade at a nuclear plant, hailing the move 
as a step towards industrial-scale enrichment. 

Enrichment, carried out in lines of centrifuges called cascades, 
is used to make fuel for civilian nuclear reactors. In highly 
refined form, however, the product can also serve as the raw 
material for atomic weapons. 

The Iranian announcement triggered strong reactions from the 
United States and France.

US President George W. Bush said Friday that the world community 
needed to work harder to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear 
weapon, and French President Jacques Chirac said the time may 
have come for sanctions."

Related information on President George W. Bush">President George 
W. Bush said Friday that the world community needed to work 
harder to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and French 
President Jacques Chirac" /> President Jacques Chiracsaid the 
time may have come for sanctions. 

Bush said the idea of a nuclear-armed Iran was "unacceptable"
while Chirac, on an official visit to China, said Friday that
Iran should face sanctions if a solution cannot be found through
dialogue. 

However Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said he was
unfazed by reports that Iran has taken a new step in uranium
enrichment, saying it was still a long way from building a
military capability. 

"I do not share these fears. Iran has started a second cascade
of centrifuges under total control of the IAEA ( International
Atomic Energy Agency" /> International Atomic Energy Agency) for
scientific purposes," he told journalists. 

"It is premature to speak of weapons-grade uranium," he said,
underlining the need for Iran's nuclear work to take place under
IAEA supervision. 

Western countries suspect that Iran's enrichment program is
designed to supply material for a nuclear weapon, while Tehran
insists its fuel processing is for peaceful purposes. 

Meanwhile the State department said Friday that Australia,
Bahrain, Britain, France, Italy and the United States would
Monday take part in naval maneuvers in the Gulf off Iran's west
coast to simulate inspection of ships carrying illicit
weapons-related materials. 

However, a US official insisted that the joint maneuvers were
planned months ago and not timed with the new pressure on Iran
over its nuclear program. 	 		 			

Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 11 Guardian Unlimited: Olmert Compares Iran With Nazi Germany 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday October 28, 2006 2:46 AM

AP Photo JRL110 

STEVEN STANEK 

Associated Press Writer 

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday
compared Iran's nuclear ambitions and threats against Israel
with the policies of Nazi Germany and criticized world leaders
who maintain relations with Iran's president. 

Olmert's speech during a ceremony at Israel's national Holocaust
memorial came after a new report that Iran has doubled its
capability to enrich uranium - a process that can produce
material for nuclear power reactors or weapons. 

Israel has identified Iran as the greatest threat to the Jewish
state. Israel's concerns have heightened since the election of
Iran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who frequently
calls for the destruction of Israel and has questioned whether
the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews took place. 

``We hear echoes of those very voices that started to spread
across the world in the 1930s,'' Olmert said in his speech at
the Yad Vashem memorial. 

In Tehran, a semiofficial news agency said Iran has expanded its
controversial nuclear program by injecting gas into a second
network of centrifuges and successfully enriching uranium. 

The report emerged as world powers are working on a draft
resolution in the U.N. Security Council to impose limited
sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to cease enrichment.
Israel and the United States believe Iran is pursuing nuclear
weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful. 

Olmert said Iran's nuclear program is designed to secure
``conventional weapons with delivery systems'' to annihilate
Israel. He also criticized world leaders for maintaining
relations with the Iranian president. 

``It is the first time that a leader of a very big and important
nation openly and publicly declares that an aim of his nation is
to wipe off the map ... a country which is a member of the
United Nations,'' Olmert said. ``And this nation continues to be
a legitimate member of the United Nations and leaders of many of
the countries in the world receive the leader. They hardly do
anything.'' 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 12 UPI: Iran boasts of nuclear program advance
     
 United Press International - NewsTrack - 

10/29/2006 12:47:00 PM -0500

TEHRAN, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Iran said Sunday it will press on with
its nuclear activities, adding it had activated a second network
of centrifuges that can be used for uranium enrichment. 

"A second cascade (of centrifuges) has been activated in
continuation of Iran's research activities and within the
framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. 

Iran insists it is enriching uranium to make electricity, but
the West says it believes Iran plans to make nuclear weapons. 

Hosseini also urged all parties concerned with the nuclear
dispute to continue the path of negotiations as the best way of
resolving the problem, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency
reported. 

A coalition at the United Nations led by the United States wants
to impose economic sanctions on Iran for its continued program,
but Russia and China have opposed the effort.

� Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 13 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Stepping Up Uranium Enrichment 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday October 28, 2006 9:31 AM

AP Photo NYOL701 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP)- Iran officially confirmed that it has stepped
up uranium enrichment by injecting gas into a second network of
centrifuges, a state-run newspaper reported on Saturday. 

The injection of the uranium gas into the second cascade marked
Iran's first known enrichment since February. 

``We have exploited products from both cascades,'' the Iran
Daily newspaper quoted Mohammad Ghannad, deputy head of Iran's
Atomic Energy Organization, as saying Saturday. ``The second one
was installed in the past two week.'' 

Ghannad said both cascades were enriching uranium to be between
3 to 5 percent of the uranium isotope needed for nuclear fission
- enough for industrial use but not for weapons. 

``This experience will help Iranian engineers get closer to
industrial uranium enrichment,'' he said. 

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy
Agency, has been aware of the second cascade for the five
months, Ghannad said. 

Injecting gas into centrifuges can either yield nuclear fuel or
material for a warhead, but doesn't represent a major
technological breakthrough and is unlikely to bring Iran within
grasp of a weapon. 

Tehran's announcement signaled the Islamic Republic's resolve to
expand its atomic program at a time of divisions within the U.N.
Security Council over a punishment for Iran's defiance. 

The Iranian Students News Agency first reported the development.
Iran's government sometimes uses the news agency to leak
information deemed too sensitive for official channels. 	 
		 	 	   

Guardian Unlimited � Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 14 Guardian Unlimited: Movement Reportedly Seen at N.Korea Site

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday October 28, 2006 10:16 AM

AP Photo SEL102 

By BO-MI LIM 

Associated Press Writer 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean and U.S. officials are
monitoring the construction of a new building and other
activities at a suspected North Korean nuclear site, trying to
determine if the communist country is planning a second test
detonation, news reports said Saturday. 

South Korea is keeping a close watch on the movement of trucks
and soldiers at the Punggye-ri site in the North Korea's remote
northeast, Yonhap news agency reported, citing several
unidentified military officials. One official, however, said a
second test was ``not believed to be imminent.'' 

``We are closely monitoring to see if these are preparations for
a second nuclear test,'' another official was quoted as saying. 

South Korea has also detected a new building being erected at
the site, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing
unidentified government officials. 

Separate U.S. and South Korean studies have detected abnormal
radiation in air samples, confirming the North has conducted a
nuclear test. The South Korean government has pointed to
Punggye-ri as a place where the North most likely have conducted
the underground blast. 

``Intelligence agencies from South Korea and the United States
are trying to confirm whether this new building is connected to
another nuclear test,'' an official was quoted as saying. 

It was not immediately clear how military officials first
spotted the activities at the site. However, the United States
and South Korea generally share intelligence information from
satellite images. 

South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the
reports. 

The U.S. State Department refused to comment. Pentagon spokesman
Air Force Maj. David Smith said, ``We don't discuss intelligence
issues as a matter of policy.'' 

There have been several reports of suspicious activity at
Punggye-ri since North Korea's Oct. 9 underground nuclear test.
But South Korean officials have said they have received no
intelligence reports suggesting another test is imminent. 

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon - the incoming U.N.
secretary-general - met with Chinese leaders Friday to discuss
sanctions against the North over the test. South Korea's Foreign
Ministry said it had no information about the outcome of the
talks. 

Seoul and Beijing have been reluctant to enforce a U.N. Security
Council resolution that calls for sanctions on the North,
fearing they might aggravate their volatile neighbor and
destabilize the region. 

China and South Korea are the North's main aid providers and
trade partners, and their participation is considered crucial
for the success of the U.N. resolution, which bans the sale of
major arms to the North and calls for the inspection of cargo
entering and leaving the country. 

In a report Friday, the World Food Program warned that the U.N.
resolution may deter countries from making food donations to
North Korea, where millions are believed to have died of hunger
in the past decade. 

South Korea suspended its regular humanitarian aid of rice and
fertilizer to its impoverished neighbor after the North
test-fired a barrage of missiles in July. Supplies from China
have also shrunk to one-third of last year's levels, the WFP has
said. 

The United States, meanwhile, reiterated its position that it
will not negotiate with the North until the reclusive state
returns to six-nation talks on its nuclear ambitions. 

North Korea has refused to return to negotiations unless
Washington lifts financial restrictions imposed on Pyongyang. It
has also been pushing for bilateral talks with Washington. 

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday that
Washington would be willing to hold one-on-one talks with North
Korea only if it returns to the six-party negotiations, which
also involve South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. 
		 	 	   
    Guardian Unlimited � Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 15 Guardian Unlimited: Reports: Seoul Eyes Suspected Nuke Site 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday October 28, 2006 10:01 PM

AP Photo XLEE109 

By BO-MI LIM 

Associated Press Writer 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean and U.S. officials are
trying to confirm whether recent movements at North Korea's
suspected nuclear testing site indicate the communist regime is
planning another test explosion, news reports said Saturday. 

Seoul is keeping a close watch on the movement of trucks and
soldiers at the Punggye-ri site in North Korea's remote
northeast, Yonhap news agency reported, citing several
unidentified military officials. One official, however, said a
second test was ``not believed to be imminent.'' 

``We are closely monitoring to see if these are preparations for
a second nuclear test,'' another official was quoted as saying. 

South Korea also has detected a new building being erected at
the site, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing
unidentified officials. 

``Intelligence agencies from South Korea and the United States
are trying to confirm whether this new building is connected to
another nuclear test,'' the official was quoted as saying. 

Separate U.S. and South Korean studies have detected abnormal
radiation in air samples, confirming the North conducted a
nuclear test blast. The South Korean government has pointed to
Punggye-ri as the most likely site of an underground test blast. 

South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the
reports. The U.S. State Department refused to comment, and a
Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Maj. David Smith, said, ``We don't
discuss intelligence issues as a matter of policy.'' 

There have been several reports of suspicious activity at
Punggye-ri since North Korea's Oct. 9 underground nuclear test.
But South Korean officials say they have received no
intelligence reports suggesting another test is imminent. 

The news came a day after the incoming U.N. secretary-general,
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, met with Chinese
leaders to discuss a U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution
against the North. 

The two sides ``agreed on the need to put pressure on North
Korea through U.N. sanctions so that it will give up its nuclear
programs and come back to the six-party talks,'' Lee Yong-joon,
head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's task force on the
North Korea nuclear issue, said Saturday on the news cable
channel YTN. 

The United States has been trying to muster support from South
Korea for the U.N. sanctions resolution, a move that North Korea
described as a ``sinister attempt'' to provoke a war between the
two Koreas. 

``This is an intolerable encroachment upon the dignity and
sovereignty of the Korean nation,'' the North's National
Reconciliation Council said in a statement carried by the
official Korea Central News Agency. ``It is a gangster-like act
which clearly reveals (the U.S.) scenario for a war of
aggression against'' the North. 

North Korea has refused to return to negotiations unless
Washington lifts financial restrictions imposed on Pyongyang. It
has also been pushing for bilateral talks with Washington. 

A retired State Department Korea specialist on Saturday
predicted that if President Bush refuses to engage in talks, the
North Koreans, buoyed by their nuclear test, are prepared to
stand firm. 

``They think they can sit tight and tough out the sanctions and
wait for a new (U.S.) administration to come in,'' said Kenneth
Quinones, who is now a professor at Akita International
University in Japan. 

Quinones said North Korea is likely to demand a security
guarantee that includes the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from
South Korea in return for dismantling its nuclear capability.
That would accompany existing demands for normalization of
diplomatic and commercial relations, economic concessions and
nuclear reactors for power generation, he said. 

--- 

Associated Press writers Meraiah Foley and Kelly Olsen
contributed to this report. 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 16 AFP: Japan lawmaker continues calls for nuclear debate 

October 28, 04:45 PM 

TOKYO (AFP) - The policy chief of the Japanese ruling party has
renewed his calls for a debate over whether Japan should acquire
nuclear weapons capability, in the face of nuclear threat from
North Korea. 

"The main goal is to stop North Korea's outrageous acts,"
Shoichi Nakagawa, policy chief of the Liberal Democratic Party,
told a press conference in Washington, where he was visiting. 

"As a form of deterrence, one can argue nuclear an option. We
must discuss all options to ensure that Japan would not come
under nuclear attacks," he said. 

Nakagawa, a close ally of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has argued
that Japan should not shy away from discussing the nuclear
option, long regarded as taboo in Japan, the world's only nation
to come under nuclear attack at the end of the World War II. 

Abe, known for his passionate support of a larger military role
for Japan, has ruled out developing nuclear weapons and promised
not to carry out such discussion in the government and in his
ruling party. 

But Nakagawa's remarks, originally made shortly after North
Korea's nuclear test this month, have triggered a debate on the
issue, with Foreign Minister Taro Aso echoing the sentiment. 

US officials, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
have said there is no need for Japan to arm itself with nuclear
weapons, with the long-standing US commitment to provide
security for Japan. 

   Copyright � 2006 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
*****************************************************************
 17 Korea Herald: Seoul watches North Korea for signs of second test   
        
South Korean officials are keeping a close watch for signs of a
possible second nuclear test in North Korea after fresh activity
was detected at the site of the first test detonation, news
reports said yesterday.

 The South has detected a new building being erected at
Punggyeri in northeast North Korea, but a follow-up test does
not appear "imminent," the reports said.

 There has been widespread speculation that North Korea would
conduct a second nuclear test following its defiant detonation
of a nuclear device on Oct. 9.

 Abnormal radiation in air samples confirmed the first
underground nuclear test and Punggyeri was determined as the
most likely location.

 Seoul is closely monitoring the movement of trucks and soldiers
in an attempt to verify whether the activities are genuine
preparations for a second test, or simply designed as a ruse to
trigger speculation. 

Both the South Korean Defense Ministry and U.S. State Department
refused to make any further comment.

 U.N. members are currently listing sanctions that will be
levied against the reclusive regime under resolution 1718
endorsed at the Security Council.

 In another blast against the communist regime, Washington told
the North there would be no one-on-one negotiations with the
regime in Pyongyang.

 The United States can have one-on-one talks with North Korea if
the communist country returns to nuclear disarmament talks, but
the talks will be "discussions," not "negotiations," U.S. State
Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. 

The North has been engaged in brinkmanship diplomacy to push for
direct bilateral negotiations with the United States since the
suspension of the six-party talks last November. Pyongyang
boycotted the talks in response to financial sanctions imposed
by the United States. 

"We have said from the very beginning that in the context of the
six-party talks, in and around the six-party talks, we're
willing to have discussions with North Korea," McCormack said in
a press briefing.

 His remarks came after U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas
Schieffer said that Washington was ready to have one-on-one
talks with the North if they returned to the nuclear negotiation.

 "You can have a bilateral discussion in the context of the
six-party talks. It doesn't mean you're negotiating bilaterally
with North Korea. It means that you are having a discussion,
just the two parties in the context of the six-party talks, and
you can also have a discussion in a multilateral forum,"
MacCormack said. 

The multilateral talks involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China,
Japan and Russia. 

While talking with the press, Schieffer had said, "We are happy
to discuss the issues with them in a bilateral way, or in a
multilateral system, if they would come back to those talks. So
if they want to resolve and defuse this crisis there's ample
opportunity to do that. And we hope they take advantage of that."

 The United States is working closely with Japan to bring a
broad and extensive sanctions package against North Korea's
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

 As part of the move, it is urging South Korea to join the
Proliferation Security Initiative - a commitment to join the
global network pledging sea interdiction against vessels
carrying suspect cargo to or from North Korea. 

South Korea is pondering ways to respond to Washington's calls,
such as by participating only in waters away from the Korean
peninsula in order to avoid any direct military conflict with
the North. Seoul currently maintains observer status during PSI
drills.

 As part of its role, the South Korean government said yesterday
it has dispatched a team of three officials to observe the first
international drill since North Korea's nuclear weapon test on
Oct. 9.

 South Korea will be one of the 25 countries to participate in
the exercise to be held this week off the coast of Bahrain in
the Persian Gulf.

 The Foreign Ministry explained the decision to observe the
drill slated for Oct. 30-31 was decided well ahead of the
North's nuclear test.

 In another response to the growing international pressure,
North Korea slammed the United States on Saturday for
"pressuring the South" to join U.N. sanctions, calling it a
"gangster-like act."

 "The U.S. is instructing South Korea to do this or that,
dictating specific items to be subject to sanctions against the
north," the North's Reconciliation Council said in a statement.

 "This behavior of the U.S. is nothing but a brazen-faced
outrage aimed to drive a wedge between the north and the south
of Korea, incite confrontation between fellow countrymen and
push the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the phase of war,"
the North's statement was quoted as saying.

 (angiely@heraldm.com)

By Lee Joo-hee

2006.10.30
 
*****************************************************************
 18 Korea Herald: U.S. envoy looks back on the year   
        
Following is the first in a two-part interview with U.S.
Ambassador Alexander Vershbow. - Ed.

 It's been a busy and heated year for U.S. Ambassador Alexander
Vershbow since clocking in as head envoy for his government.

 In the past year, Vershbow has dealt with everything from the
recent free trade talks to the North Korean nuclear problem to
visa issues at the embassy.

 Last week's FTA talks in Jeju sparked major demonstrations
against an agreement that the ambassador explained would benefit
both economies. 

"First of all, everyone in both countries needs to better
understand what will be the benefit of the FTA for our
economies," said Vershbow to The Korea Herald.

 He explained that past FTA agreements that the United States
and Korea have signed with other countries have proven to be
more beneficial than predicted in terms of boosting exports,
attracting new foreign investments, creating new jobs and making
the economy more competitive internationally.


    
  U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow. [The Korea Herald]  

"That is a key issue especially for a country like Korea who's
part of a very dynamic neighborhood, and getting a small leg up
on the competition, through preferred access to the U.S. market
can make a big difference to their growth rates," he said. An
FTA between both countries would help bring down prices and
increase the selection of goods for consumers.

 "Korean consumers now pay among the highest prices from
developed countries for their food because of the high tariffs,
so consumers stand to benefit."

 But the FTA talks have also opened up a can of worms with the
local agricultural sector, one of the most delicate issues in
these negotiations. "There's going to have to be a spirit of
mutual understanding if we have an outcome that satisfies both
sides," Vershbow said.

 To help resolve this issue, the Korean government has
implemented steps to assist local farmers become more
competitive. 

Vershbow said that the FTA would not bring instantaneous change
to the situation; any tariff reductions would be phased in
gradually giving the local farming sector time to adjust.

 "But that does benefit in terms of competitiveness and lower
consumer prices as well as all the other benefits such as more
jobs in the manufacturing and services sector."

 Negotiations like these are always very complicated - and
sometimes very emotional - but the ambassador said that progress
has been made.

 "Over time, even without an FTA, it becomes increasingly
difficult to sustain the more noncompetitive sectors of any
country's agricultural economy so I think that the Korean
government is showing the right way to ease the burden and
achieve an outcome that provides a balance of interest for all
sectors of the economy."

 He pointed out that the United States is doing the same with
its sensitive sectors. 

Screen quotas are another hot topic bringing heated debate
within and outside of the Korean film industry.

 Vershbow explained that the local film industry has taken
maximum advantage of the screen quota and in the process has
made itself competitive both locally and internationally. 

"We think that the Korean industry is ready for a little more
competition and won't suffer from greater competition. So we
were pleased that the Korean government, prior to the start of
the FTA talks, cut the screen quota in half and we're not
seeking a deeper cut."

 By cutting the quota, the Korean government has opened up the
market for foreign films.

 In the process, the Korean government has taken steps to
support artistic and documentary filmmakers.

 "The issue is pretty much resolved from our point of view," he
said. "I'm surprised by the pessimism of the Korean filmmakers
who make internationally acclaimed movies but who do not yet
have the self-confidence that their market share should dictate."

 The U.S. film industry is a major export and an issue that's
important to the overall U.S. economy.

 "Just as Korea fights for maximum access to foreign markets for
Hyundai cars, LG flat panel displays and cell phones so we try
to make sure that the market is open for competition. We don't
ask for preferential treatment but just the ability to compete
on a level playing field."

 Another important issue the ambassador has been dealing with,
but one that does bring in good revenue for the embassy, is the
question of visas for Korean visitors to the United States. 

On any given workday, there are queues outside the embassy of
people needing visas to visit the United States. It's not
uncommon to hear stories of a two-hour waiting period.

 "Unfortunately we are the victims of our own success; the
volume of our visa workload keeps growing which is a good thing
in terms of what it says about our relationship."

 Last year, the embassy set an all-time record, with 450,000
visas processed. 

"We've tried to do everything to make the process as efficient
as possible, but once people get through the door they are out
of there in less than an hour."

 The long wait is due to the embassy having to follow State
Department rules which require every applicant to be interviewed
- something the ambassador admits makes for a very burdensome
process. 

"I think that the lines sometimes reflect that people are trying
to get there earlier than invited and we just cannot process it
any faster than we do."

 The ultimate solution, the ambassador said, is to get Korea
into the visa waiver program, something that the embassy is
working on.

 One of the criteria for this is to bring down the refusal rate
to below 3 percent, which involves informing the public about
how the process works to minimize mistakes and avoid the
services of "disreputable visa brokers who give false documents
and bad advice."

 The embassy's fraud rate currently stands at about 3 percent.

 The ambassador's advice is that honesty is the best policy -
applicants need to be straightforward with the information they
provide. 

"So if we could fix that it would make visa waivers something
that could happen soon."

 Other steps that would make the visa waiver process happen more
quickly are the development of an e-passport with biometric
information and more information on law enforcement issues. 

"Korea is a very positive example of a country that is working
with us to fight human trafficking, organized crime and other
things that will weigh in the balance by the department of
Homeland Security when the moment of decision comes."

 The embassy has put up information on its website regarding the
do's and don'ts of getting an American visa.

 "We're going to be doing a lot of outreach to have more
face-to-face contacts in particular with young people."

 More students from Korea go to the United States than any other
country, the ambassador said. Right now, the number stands at
87,000 students. "That's more than we get from China and India."

 "I think if we can crack the fraud problem we will get over
that threshold," he said.

 The embassy is urging Korean law enforcement to share all their
information regarding cases they have investigated to avoid
problems in the future.

 (yoav@heraldm.com)

By Yoav Cerralbo 

2006.10.30
*****************************************************************
 19 Korea Herald: Military works on nuclear defense plans   
        
The South Korean military has embarked on a project to establish
a new defense plan to cope with North Korea's nuclear program,
informed sources said yesterday.

 Gen. Rhee Sang-hee, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has
ordered military officials to map out new operational plans in
light of the changed security landscape on the Korean Peninsula
following Pyongyang's nuclear test, they said.

 The JCS is now developing a three-stage nuclear defense concept
- deterrence, surgical strike and damage control.

 The deterrence strategy aims to deter North Korea's use or
threats of using its atomic arsenal against South Korea. For the
first stage defense, the South's military may rely on U.S.
pledges of an "extended deterrence" - in the form of a nuclear
umbrella - to South Korea.

 Washington vowed the "continuation of the extended deterrence
offered by the U.S. nuclear umbrella" to Seoul last week during
a defense ministers' talks.

 The sources said under the "extended deterrence" scenario, the
United States' tactical nuclear weapons and conventional
precision-guided missiles would function as a deterrent against
any North Korean nuclear attack.

 Surgical strike is considered as part of the second stage of
the plan. 

The JCS mulls the use of South Korea's conventional weapons to
destroy North Korea's nuclear arsenal when an attack becomes
imminent, according to the sources.

 In the event of such a preemptive strike, the JCS plans to use
F-15K fighter jets to drop satellite-guided JDAM bombs or fire
280-kilometer range SLAM-ER missiles at the North's nuclear
installations. Those weapons can hit the target with an error of
margin of 3 meters.

 In addition, the newly-developed 500-kilometer cruise missiles
code-named Cheonryong, ground-to-ground Hyunmoo missiles and the
Army Tactical Missile System could be mobilized to neutralize
operations.

 South Korea possesses Hyunmoo missiles with a range of only 180
kilometers, and have deployed a total of 110 ATACMS missiles,
with a strike range of 300 kilometers. 

South Korea has recently successfully tested a 1,000-kilometer
range precision-guided cruise missile that can hit any target in
North Korea, and is also developing an upgraded version with a
range of more than 1,500 kilometers.

 As for the third stage of the defense plan, the JCS is also
studying ways to minimize damages if a North Korean nuclear bomb
is dropped in South Korea. The South's military assesses that if
a 20-kiloton nuclear weapon was dropped on Yongsan, Seoul, there
would be more than 1.2 million casualties, including around
200,000 deaths. One kiloton is equivalent to 1,000 kilograms of
TNT in destructive power.

 The JCS is especially concerned with any possible radiological
contamination and electronic paralysis caused by a North Korean
nuclear bomb. It estimates that a 20-kiloton nuclear detonation
could result in widespread radiological contamination within 24
hours along a radius of some 28 kilometers from the detonation
site, disrupting military operations in the contaminated region. 

An explosion would also produce electronic pulses that can
paralyze electronic devices within 2-10 kilometers from ground
zero.

 The JCS is working on how to protect domestic communications
lines and electronic equipment from the attacks and secure
military personnel and civilians from radiological fallouts.

 About 10 military officers with doctoral degrees in the field
of nucleonics will be assigned for the tasks in addition to
operational planning personnel, the sources said.

 (davidpooh@heraldm.com)

By Jin Dae-woong 

2006.10.28
*****************************************************************
 20 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Spy chief quits, 4th vacancy in security lineup

  October 28, 2006 �� Kim Seung-kyu, the head of the National
Intelligence Service, handed in his resignation Thursday after
15 months at his post, the agency's publicity office announced
yesterday. 

The chief spy resigned to avoid "being a burden to the president
in shaping a new security and diplomacy cabinet," the agency
statement said. 

Yoon Tae-young, President Roh Moo-hyun's spokesman, suggested
that the resignation, the third evidently linked to criticism of
the administration's North Korea policies, would be accepted
quickly.

 Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said Monday that he was
quitting, as did Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok on
Wednesday. Separately, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will give up
his post in mid-November to become the United Nations secretary
general, giving Mr. Roh the opportunity to change almost his
entire security and foreign affairs team. That new team will
probably be in place by mid-November; Mr. Yoon said no
announcements of successors would be made until after the
National Assembly completes its annual hearings on cabinet
agency operations. The new appointees must then appear at the
Assembly for hearings. The Assembly cannot reject appointees for
the defense, unification and foreign ministries, but must vote
to confirm a new intelligence chief.

 Mr. Roh's spokesman also announced yesterday that the president
would name four of his political allies to posts as "special
advisers" for political affairs. The jobs, unpaid and honorary
according to Mr. Yoon, went to Lee Hae-chan, a former prime
minister whose unwise choice of golfing companions forced him to
resign in March; Moon Jae-in, who resigned as a Blue House civil
affairs aide in May; Oh Young-kyo, Mr. Roh's home minister who
resigned and ran unsuccessfully for a provincial governor's post
in May; and Cho Young-teck, formerly head of the Office for
Government Policy Coordination, who also lost his bid for office
in the local elections.

 Earlier this week, Mr. Roh named Kim Byong-joon as the head of
a policy planning advisory commission. He resigned from his
education portfolio last summer after being accused of academic
dishonesty. Mr. Yoon said the appointments were made to
strengthen the political links between the Blue House and Mr.
Roh's Uri Party. He denied, however, that the underlying intent
was to maintain the president's influence in the party during
the last year of his term.

 Despite Blue House dismissals, rumors continue to circulate
that the outgoing defense minister, Mr. Yoon, could be named to
either the spy agency post or to the senior security job in the
Blue House. The latter job would be vacant if, as rumor has it,
Song Min-soon were named foreign minister. 

by Chun Su-jin sujiney@joongang.co.kr>   
	  
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use 
*****************************************************************
 21 Korea Times: N. Korea Beefs Up Counterintelligence 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times   

North Korea has toughened surveillance of locals suspected of
gathering information about its nuclear and military activities
in the wake of its Oct. 9 atomic bomb test, the Yonhap News
Agency reported yesterday.

 Quoting an informed source, the report said the Ministry of
People's Security, Pyongyang's top police agency, issued a
directive to its security agencies on Oct. 15 that they should
closely monitor and report suspicious activities. 

Those subject to stronger surveillance include former North
Korean defectors, former convicts, smugglers, merchants and
those who have relatives in China, the source was quoted as
saying. "North Korea issued the order for increased
surveillance,believing that intelligence activities from the
outside will intensify after its underground nuclear test." 

The Security Ministry also decided to conduct a joint inspection
with a regional army unit every month and such inspections of
accommodation facilities twice every week, the

 report said.

 As China joined the United Nations' punitive sanctions against
North Korea for its nuclear test, Pyongyang increased guard
patrols in its region bordering China out of fear of mass
defections by its people, it said. 

The source said the value of Chinese currency and rice prices in
the North Korean market have

 risen, according to the report.

 "In the face of international sanctions, and concerned
overpossible mass defections, North Korea has posted a guard
officer every 20 meters along its border region," the source was
quoted as saying by Yonhap. 

10-29-2006 19:52         
*****************************************************************
 22 Korea Times: EU Members to Visit Kaesong Complex 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times   

By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter

 Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Union
(EU) will visit the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong,
North Korea, today.

 The delegation consists of French politician Gerard Onesta, a
vice president of the legislature, and seven others, including
Austrian Hubert Pirker, the Ministry of Unification said
yesterday. 

It is the first visit by a delegation of the EU parliament to
the complex. 

The complex is a major inter-Korean cooperation project, but it
has become a target of criticism by local people as well as the
international community since the Stalinist state��s nuclear
test on Oct. 9. 

During the visit, the EU delegates will meet with Kim Dong-keun,
president of the complex's Industrial Management Committee, and
make an on-site inspection of corporations in the complex, the
ministry said. 

On Nov. 1, they will meet South Korean Vice Unification Minister
Shin Un-sang after returning from the trip. 

The EU delegates and South Korean officials will discuss levying
a preferential tariff on Kaesong products for a South Korea-EU
free trade agreement (FTA). 

South Korea and the EU had two rounds of preliminary discussions
for the FTA after agreeing to study the possibility of signing
the trade pact during a meeting of trade ministers in May last
year. 

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr 10-29-2006 20:10         
*****************************************************************
 23 Guardian Unlimited: Report: U.S. Mulls Defenses for Tokyo 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Sunday October 29, 2006 2:31 AM

By HANS GREIMEL 

Associated Press Writer 

TOKYO (AP) - The U.S. is considering deploying its advanced
Patriot missile defense system near Tokyo after North Korea's
recent missile and nuclear tests, a newspaper reported Sunday. 

Washington unofficially informed the Japanese government it is
considering putting Patriot Advanced Capability 3 surface-to-air
interceptor missiles around Yokota Air Base in Tokyo's western
suburbs and around Yokosuka Naval Base, south of the capital,
the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported without saying how it got
the information. 

The added defenses would cover critical U.S. military
installations on the outskirts of Tokyo. 

The move would be part of a previously announced U.S.-Japanese
effort to deploy PAC-3 missile defense systems around the
country as the two allies look for ways to counter what is seen
as a growing threat from neighboring North Korea. 

North Korea alarmed the region in July by test firing several
missiles, including a long-range model believed capable of
striking the western U.S. Earlier this month, the isolated
communist country sparked global outrage by its first-ever test
of a nuclear bomb. 

Analysts doubt North Korea's ability to accurately deliver
atomic weapons atop its missiles. But after the missile test,
the U.S. and Japan announced plans to deploy the Patriots, which
are designed to destroy ballistic or cruise missiles and
aircraft. 

U.S. military officials have already confirmed that the first
batch of equipment for the PAC-3 missiles arrived in Okinawa in
southern Japan, where the bulk of U.S. forces in the nation are
stationed. 

The Patriots would be used as a last resort if Standard
Missile-3 interceptors fired from U.S. and Japanese ships fail
to knock out incoming missiles, the report said. 	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 24 Korea Times: Foreign Investment Drops Sharply 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation   

SEOUL (Yonhap) _ Foreign investors' exit from South Korea is
accelerating amid worries over a worsening business climate here
and the economy's falling growth potential, the central bank
said Sunday.

 According to the Bank of Korea, foreign direct investment in
Asia's fourth-largest economy reached a mere $790 million in the
first nine months of this year, about one-fourth of the $3.42
billion during the same period a year earlier.

 Foreign direct investment tumbled to $4.34 billion in 2005 from
$9.25 billion the previous year.

 ``It is true that foreigners are withdrawing their investments
in South Korea,���� a central bank official said. ``They seem to
be worried about the worsening of the domestic business climate
and the weakening potential of economic growth.����

 The South Korean economy is expected to grow around 5 percent
this year, but its growth rate is widely forecast to be in the
low 4 percent range next year due to sluggish private spending
and a global economic slowdown.

 In contrast to a tumble in foreign direct investment, overseas
direct investment by South Korean companies reached $4.97
billion in the January-September period, up sharply from $3.32
billion a year earlier, the central bank said.

 In the nine-month period, foreign investments in South Korean
securities posted a net outflow of $2.96 billion, while South
Korean investments in overseas securities soared to $17.2
billion from $3.45 billion a year ago, it said. 

Oil Prices Forecast to Turn Higher 

SEOUL (Yonhap) _ International oil prices, which have recently
remained stable, are likely to swing to an upturn in 2007,
putting a crimp in the South Korean economy, a private think
tank said Sunday.

 The prediction is bad news for South Korea, which is the
world's fourth-largest crude buyer and depends entirely on
imports for its oil needs.

 ``Crude prices may turn higher next year, given uncertainties
such as a long-term imbalance in supply and demand, a rise in
demand from China and other developing countries, and political
unrest in the Middle East,���� Hyundai Research Institute said. 

If the price of South Korea's benchmark Dubai crude reaches $85
a barrel, the possibility of a third oil shock cannot be ruled
out, the think tank said.

 In that case, the global economy will likely face stagflation,
a noxious blend of stagnant growth and rising inflation, it
warned. 

If oil prices rise by $10 a barrel, South Korea's current
account surplus will likely drop by 8.4 percent, the institute
predicted.

 Estimating the average price of Dubai crude at $60 a barrel, it
recently forecast that the South Korean economy will grow 4.2
percent next year, with its current account deficit reaching $3
billion.

 The think tank said OPEC's reserve production capacity has
dropped to one million barrels from the past five million
barrels, destabilizing the global supply-demand situation.

 In addition, demand from China, Brazil, Russia and India is
expected to rise sharply next year due to their high economic
growth on top of lingering uncertainties in the Middle East,
including the Iranian nuclear issue, it said. 

10-29-2006 19:43         
*****************************************************************
 25 Korea Times: Nuclear Crisis Could Lower 

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation   

Nuclear Crisis Could Lower Growth to Below 2% in 2007
   
By Na Jeong-ju Staff Reporter

 South Korea��s economic growth for next year may drop to below
2 percent in the worst-case scenario involving a confrontation
between North Korea and the international community, a private
research institute said yesterday.

 In a report, the Korea Economic Research Institute, which is
affiliated with the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI),
predicted that if the North Korean nuclear issue is not promptly
dealt with, it would trigger an ebb in national confidence and
cause an outflow of foreign investments, reducing growth to 1.9
percent. 

In the best-case scenario, the institute said that the growth
would settle at 3.9 percent. Last month, the institute predicted
a 4.1 percent growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) next
year. 

Meanwhile, the current account and the capital account, which
show the country��s trade and cross-border investments, are
expected to post deficits next year on diverse negative factors,
such as a weak dollar and dwindling foreign direct investment.

 According to Lee Kyu-bok, a researcher at the state-run Korea
Institute of Finance (KIF), the deficits of the current and
capital accounts reflect weakening global competitiveness of
Korean products and worsening investment flows into and out of
the country.

 ``The current account may record a deficit next year because of
the won��s appreciation against the dollar, while the capital
account may record a net outflow because of worsening investment
conditions surrounding the Korean financial market,���� Lee said
in an article for the Financial Brief weekly published by the
KIF. ``The size of the deficits depends on how long the
country��s trade will be affected by a weak dollar.����

 Lee said the country has seen little growth in foreign direct
investment while overseas investment by South Koreans has grown
steadily, negatively affecting the balance of the capital
account.

 For the first nine months of this year, the current account
recorded a cumulative deficit of $83 million. The Bank of Korea
(BOK) has cut its estimate for this year��s current account
surplus from $16 billion to $4 billion. The current account is
the broadest measure of trade, service and investment flows into
and out of the country.

 The capital account, which tracks cross-border investments,
recorded a net outflow of $1.5 billion during the
January-September period.

 According to the Hyundai Economic Research Institute, the
global oil price is expected to regain its upward momentum next
year, dealing a severe setback to the Korean economy. If the oil
price rises $10 per barrel, the current account balance will
fall $8.4 billion.

 The institute predicted the country��s annual economic growth
at 4.2 percent next year. It also forecast that the current
account may record a deficit of $3 billion next year based on
its prediction that the global oil price will remain at $60 per
barrel.

 ``If oil prices surge again next year, the current account
deficit may surpass $10 billion,���� the institute said in a
report.

 KIF��s Lee proposed that the government reduce taxes and
provide better administrative support for foreign companies to
attract more foreign direct investment. Also, it needs to make
efforts to meet the global standard for the bond market to make
it more attractive for investment, he said. 

jj@koreatimes.co.kr 10-29-2006 18:04         
*****************************************************************
 26 AFP: US ready to meet NKorea -- if it returns to six-way talks -

 Sat Oct 28, 12:13 AM ET 		 	 

TOKYO (AFP) - The United States is willing to hold bilateral 
talks with North Korea" /> on the condition it returns to the 
six-nation dialogue on ending its nuclear program, the US 
ambassador to Japan said. 

 North Korea, which declared on October 9 it had tested its
first atomic bomb, has long sought one-on-one talks with US
President George W. Bush" /> 's administration. 

Bush administration officials have repeatedly met one-on-one
with North Korea, but only on the sidelines of six-nation talks,
which started in 2003. 

"We ask them to come back to the six-party talks to engage in
discussion," Thomas Schieffer, the US ambassador to Japan, told
reporters. 

"We are happy to discuss the issues with them in a bilateral
way, or in a multilateral system, if they would come back to
those talks. So if they want to resolve and defuse this crisis
there's ample opportunity to do that. And we hope they take
advantage of that," he said. 

North Korea stormed out of the talks -- which also included
China, Japan, Russia and South Korea" /> -- in November last
year, to protest US sanctions on a Macau bank accused of
laundering and counterfeiting money for Pyongyang. 

Just two months before the boycott, North Korea agreed in
general terms, at the fifth and last round of six-way talks, to
give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid and
security guarantees. 

Schieffer appealed to North Korea not to test another nuclear
bomb, saying it would be "another provocative step." 

Chinese officials said Tuesday North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il
had told a Chinese envoy he had no plans for a second nuclear
explosion. But Schieffer said North Korea's intentions remained
unclear. 

"I don't think any of us knows whether North Korea is about to
explode another nuclear device and I suspect that, if indeed
they did, we would not know about it until pretty shortly before
they did it, because so much of this sort of stuff is done
underground," Schieffer said. 

Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 27 AFP: Ban returns to Seoul with warning from Beijing over NKorea -
     
 Sat Oct 28, 2:37 AM ET 		 	 

BEIJING (AFP) - South Korean Foreign Minister and incoming UN 
secretary general Ban Ki-Moon has departed Beijing after China's 
top leaders warned of increased tensions over North Korean 
nuclear tests, officials and press reports said. 

 On Friday, Ban met with President Hu Jintao" /> , Hu's top
diplomat and special envoy Tang Jiaxuan, and Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing 

In meetings with Tang, who last week was the first foreign
official to meet with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il
following Pyongyang's October 9 nuclear test, Ban was told that
the issue on the Korean peninsula was at a "crucial stage," the
China Daily reported. 

"Related parties should keep calm and restrained in dealing with
the issue to prevent the conflict from escalating," the paper
quoted Tang as saying. 

"They should safeguard and promote the process of the
six-party-talks and guide the situation towards the peaceful
settlement of the issue through dialogue and making the
peninsula nuclear free." 

North Korea" /> staged its test on the same day the Security
Council voted to elect Ban as Kofi Annan" /> 's successor. 

Pyongyang had announced its intention to test a nuclear device
on October 3, the day after Ban was approved by Britain, China,
France, Russia and the United States -- the five permanent
members of the council -- as the next UN chief. 

The test was widely condemned internationally and led to a UN
Security Council resolution calling for sanctions against the
North Korean regime. 

"His visit was very successful," a South Korean embassy
spokeswoman said of Ban's trip, adding that the diplomat had
departed Beijing and returned to Seoul. 

"He came to China both as foreign minister and as the next
secretary general of the United Nations" /> , so they exchanged
views on a lot of issues." 

Ban said in Seoul earlier this week, he intended to play an
active part in finding a peaceful settlement to the North Korean
crisis and pledged to appoint a special UN envoy on North Korea
when he takes over in January. 

Ban's visit comes as suspicious activities have been continuing
in a rugged area of North Korea where the communist state
carried out its first nuclear test, South Korean news reports
said Saturday. 

A new structure for an unknown purpose also sprang up in
Punggyeri in the northeastern county of Kilju, the Joongang
daily and Yonhap news agency said, quoting military sources. 

"There have been continuous activities in Punggyeri since the
nuclear test on October 9," a military source was quoted as
saying by Yonhap. 

"However, it remains unclear whether these activities are
related with a second nuclear test or North Koreans are just
faking it," the source said. 

Beijing said Tuesday that in talks with Tang, North Korean
leader Kim Jong-Il said he had no plan to test a second atom
bomb test. 

"He expressed that North Korea does not have a plan for a second
nuclear test," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told
journalists. 

China is hoping to get North Korea to return to six party talks
on the nuclear issue that also include South Korea" /> , the
United States, Japan and Russia. 	 		 			

Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 28 Japan Times: Tokyo a bit clearer on nuke blast
 
japantimes.co.jp               

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006

 Tokyo a bit clearer on nuke blast Staff report 

The government made its strongest announcement yet Friday on
whether a nuclear test took place in North Korea on Oct. 9, but
still only cautiously stated there was a high probability that
it was an atomic detonation. 

"The Japanese government has come to the conclusion that it is
highly likely that North Korea carried out a nuclear test,"
based on data collected by the U.S. and South Korea, Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference. 

Washington and Seoul have said they believe North Korea
conducted a nuclear test, but Tokyo has been cautious as it
believes it has received insufficient information. 

The government made the conclusion after analyzing South Korean
and American measurements of radioactivity in the air in the
region and its own seismic data from different locations in
Japan at the time of the explosion, government officials said.

The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 29 Japan Times: Nakagawa again makes push for nuke debate
 
Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The policy chief of the Liberal Democratic
Party has called again for debate on whether Japan should
possess nuclear weapons in the wake of North Korea's first
nuclear test Oct. 9. 

"My proposal is to have a nuclear debate. Much debating should
be done," LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Shoichi Nakagawa
told a news conference Friday in Washington. 

He made similar controversial remarks Oct. 15, leading Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe to rule out such a discussion in the
government and even in his ruling party. 

His remarks also hit headlines abroad, especially in the United
States. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has repeatedly
dismissed the possibility of Japan moving to develop nuclear
weapons while reassuring both Japan and South Korea that the
"full range of our security and deterrent commitments" is in
place. 

Nakagawa said he is not making the proposal as the LDP's policy
chief, and stressed he is doing so as "one Japanese and one
lawmaker" concerned about the tense situation he has likened to
the Cuban nuclear crisis more than 40 years ago. 

"It's not about creating a group within the party (to carry out
the debate) and it's not about dealing with the issue as an
emergency case," he said. 

Nakagawa declined to clarify his position when asked whether he
personally supports Japan going nuclear, stressing that he is
"not talking about determining whether we should or not." 

"I mean to say a start from zero," he said. 

Nakagawa said the debate should cover all aspects of national
security, including the alliance with the U.S., the
Constitution, Japan's three nonnuclear principles and membership
in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 

"There are some people who say that we will move straight to
possessing our own nuclear arms if the debate begins, but that's
not true," he said. "Debating is one of the options to prevent
the situation (of a nuclear attack)." 

Nakagawa said that an answer should be found through "such
comprehensive assessments." 

Referring to his meetings with current and former U.S.
officials, Nakagawa said, "Nobody told me that debate should not
be carried out." The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved 

*****************************************************************
 30 UPI: Suspicious 'movements' in N. Korea
     
 United Press International - NewsTrack - 

10/28/2006 9:00:00 AM -0400

PUNGGYE-RI, North Korea, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- South Korea's military
Saturday observed activity where North Korea reportedly
conducted its first nuclear test, the Yonhap news agency said. 

South Korean authorities could not verify if the site in
Punggye-ri in northeastern North Korea was being prepared for a
second atomic test or just being camouflaged, the agency said. 

"It is clear that there have been movements in Punggye-ri since
the Oct. 9 nuclear device test," an unidentified military
official was quoted as saying. 

Other sources said North Korea was building a structure at the
site. 

"South Korean military and intelligence authorities are keeping
tabs on the movements to check whether the North is gearing up
for a second nuclear test," the official said. 

Another official confirmed activities at the North Korean site
but said another test "is not believed to be imminent."

� Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 31 SF Chron: New tools for a new world order / Nuclear forensics touted as
method to trace bomb materials, deterrent for rogue nations

[San Francisco Chronicle] 
				 
Sunday, October 29, 2006

Amid all the frightening uncertainties of the decades-long Cold
War, one thing was reassuringly clear: If a nuclear bomb ever
fell on America, everybody would know where it originated, and
retribution would be swift and sure. 

That guarantee was called "mutually assured destruction." The
promise that a nuclear attack, however devastating, would
trigger an equally devastating response was a critical component
of Cold War deterrence. 

And it worked. 

"Deterrence ... as a matter of practice, was successful," said
Allen Weiner, a professor at Stanford's Institute for
International Studies and a State Department attorney from 1990
to 2001. "It was even successful more ambitiously -- not only
was the development of nuclear arsenals on both sides sufficient
to deter a nuclear attack by the adversary, but (it) was
essentially successful in deterring conventional attacks." 

At a time when nuclear devices are increasingly the weapons of
choice for weaker nations rather than superpowers, can
deterrence still work? Can it restrain emerging nuclear powers
such as North Korea and Iran, or even smugglers and thieves and
rogue scientists who sell plutonium to the highest bidder? 

A growing number of respected nuclear scientists want more
attention focused on the esoteric field of nuclear forensics as
a means of keeping track of fissionable material and -- they
hope -- enhance deterrence in an era of international terrorism
and defiant nationalism. 

"We need our government to develop an effective policy around
that ... technical tool," said Charles Ferguson, a science and
technology fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "I think
people maybe could sleep more rested at night knowing we have a
better capability to deal with this extreme act of terrorism." 

The science of nuclear forensics is capable of revealing a great
deal about the fissile material at the heart of a nuclear
device, even if scientists arrive only after the explosion, said
Michael May, the former director of the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, which was a pioneer in the science in the
1980s. 

"The atoms all survive. They get transmuted, but they don't
suddenly disappear," May said. "You only need micrograms,
milligrams. You need very small amounts, and there's going to be
kilograms of it spread around." 

From those tiny samples, May said, nuclear detectives can
extract a wealth of data in a few days or weeks. 

Ratios of certain isotopes of plutonium can show how long the
material was in a reactor, and how long since it was removed.
Ratios of isotopes in uranium can suggest where the element was
mined. Other clues, such as the presence of impurities like
gadolinium, a rare-earth metal used in some reactors, can tell
what kind of reactor was used to produce the fissile material or
give hints of how the bomb was constructed. 

The science has already had successes. Early nuclear forensic
analysis of airborne debris collected near China in 1949
confirmed the Soviet Union's first nuclear test, just as air
samples taken over North Korea this month confirmed its entry
into the nuclear club. 

In 1999, Bulgarian customs officials detained a man in
possession of a lead container and documents suggesting the
container was filled with uranium-235. Livermore scientists were
able to identify the material -- sealed inside a glass tube and
cushioned with wax -- as highly enriched uranium oxide
originating in Eastern Europe. 

But even modern forensics only takes you so far, May said. 

"If you want to identify (material) uniquely, then you need some
samples to compare it with," he said. "Otherwise, you're like
someone with a DNA sample and no DNA bank." 

That limitation has led scientists to call for an international
database of nuclear material from around the world, a resource
that could help them quickly and accurately identify -- to the
limits of the science -- where the fissile material in a
smuggler's pouch or a terrorist nuclear device originated. 

"There is an important linkage between our technical
capabilities and what is ultimately some sort of deterrence or,
more precisely, a dissuasion policy," said Page Stoutland,
radiological and nuclear countermeasures division leader for the
Livermore lab's Nonproliferation, Homeland and International
Security Directorate. 

Some contend that the Cold War model of mutually assured
destruction still has validity. 

"If Iran is bound and determined to have nuclear weapons, let
it," journalist Ted Koppel wrote in a recent New York Times
op-ed. "But this should also be made clear to Tehran: If a dirty
bomb explodes in Milwaukee ... the return address will be
predetermined, and it will be somewhere in Iran." 

Scott Sagan, director of the Center for International Security
and Cooperation at Stanford, said he found Koppel's premise
"very disturbing." 

The problem, he and other experts say, is that a future nuclear
attack on America may not come in the form of easily traceable
intercontinental ballistic missiles, but more likely as a
jury-rigged bomb smuggled into port inside a cargo container or
across the border in a backpack. 

"People too easily jump to the conclusion that if a terrorist
organization used a dirty bomb and/or a nuclear weapon, that we
would know where it came from," he said. "The question is: Would
we be able to identify that material and say, 'This came from
X'?" 

The answer to that is: Maybe. 

Forensic identification has its limits -- the science is much
better at ruling out a possible origin than in positively
identifying that point of origin with 100 percent certainty, May
said. 

What's more, Ferguson noted, the presence of a specific
country's fissile material in the hands of a terrorist group
doesn't guarantee that the material was handed over
intentionally -- or even knowingly. 

"What if," he said, "terrorists got highly enriched uranium from
reactors that were supplied by the United States?" -- perhaps
reactors in the United States, or reactors sold for peaceful
energy production to nations that are U.S. allies, but not so
good at security. 

"You can imagine a terrorist group conceivably could go around
to several of these research reactors, getting bits and pieces
of highly enriched uranium, and finally get enough to make a
gun-type bomb," Ferguson said. "The bomb goes off, and who do we
blame? ... Do we retaliate against ourselves?" 

Nevertheless, Ferguson and other experts believe that even if a
nuclear forensic database can't form the backbone of a modern
form of mutually assured destruction, it still helps close
enough nuclear proliferation gaps to make it worthwhile. 

At a minimum, such a system could help in cases of nuclear
smuggling, said Sagan, who served as a consultant to the office
of the secretary of defense and at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory. Increasing the ability to trace material to its
source could encourage nuclear nations to be a little more
careful about security, May said. 

"The clearer it is that there is an attribution capability that
is accepted internationally, the stronger the incentive for
people in Pakistan, for instance -- which is a major place of
worry -- or for some of the republics in Central Asia to make
sure that nothing happens there that can be traced back to
them," he said. 

"That's one of the principal positive effects. Compared to
biological and chemical agents, these (nuclear) things exist in
comparatively few places -- too many, but probably a hundred or
fewer instead of hundreds of thousands. The bulk of them should
be under pretty thorough security -- lock and key. I mean, we
have not seen any theft of gold from Fort Knox, and it should be
that kind of security." 

Even if the forensics can't prove that a country intentionally
sold or gave fissile material to smugglers or terrorists, it
still gives the United States or United Nations a powerful
weapon to discourage rogue states from letting fissile material
fall into the wrong hands, Weiner said. 

"The most important thing is to enable us to go in and say, 'We
know it's you. You no longer have plausible deniability. We're
not going to nuke you, but this is now a very, very serious
foreign policy issue between us,' " Weiner said. "This
fundamentally changes the calculation, where we can say, 'There
is proof. So stop it. Now.' " 

Policymakers see the value of nuclear forensics. Both the U.S.
Department of Defense and the International Atomic Energy
Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, have written plans
to collect forensic evidence after a nuclear event, and the
Department of Homeland Security has created a domestic nuclear
detection office, whose budget in fiscal year 2007 includes
$17.7 million for nuclear attribution and forensics at Livermore
and other research labs. 

Significant obstacles remain to assembling the kind of database
that experts say would be most useful. Perhaps the greatest is
convincing the nuclear powers to give up information about their
programs -- which most nations hold among their highest secrets. 

"The question is: Does the threat of global nuclear terrorism
pose such a high threat to these countries that they'd be
willing to open up some of their nuclear facilities in order to
reduce that threat? Because if it's just a matter of reducing
the threat to the United States, that might not be enough of an
incentive," Sagan said. 

It might be preferable for the United Nations, not the United
States, to take the lead in creating a response team and
forensic database, experts said. 

One possibility would be for the Security Council to follow up
on its 2004 resolution calling on member states to prevent
nonstate actors from obtaining weapons of mass destruction with
a new or expanded resolution. 

"As part of some kind of nonproliferation protocol, one could
ultimately say that if you intend to possess highly enriched
uranium, the international community believes that a sample
should be placed in such-and-such a database to aid in forensics
and attribution, should there be a loss of control of the
material," Stoutland said. "Doing that kind of thing could lead
to people better controlling the material; it could lead to
people not having (highly enriched uranium)." 

The permanent five members of the U.N. Security Council, all
nuclear powers, could take the lead in providing material for
the database as a form of mutual self-defense, suggested Harold
Smith, professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC
Berkeley, who oversaw nuclear, chemical and biological defense
programs during the Clinton administration. 

"This is to our mutual benefit -- to at least have samples of
the P-5 material if for no other reason than to show it did not
come from a Russian arsenal, a U.S. arsenal, etc. At least
there's the process of elimination," Smith said. "Let's at least
take the small step." 

Atoms of interest 

In the event of a nuclear explosion, radiochemists would try to
obtain tiny quantities of debris from the nuclear device on the
ground near the point of impact and/or in the atmosphere. They
would first separate the atoms into groups of chemically similar
elements and then measure the radioactivity of each group. Three
types of atoms are of particular interest in a forensic
analysis: 

-- Atoms of fissile material that did not undergo fission.
Examining them allows scientists to identify the material used
to make the device and, when compared to the number of fission
fragments, to measure the efficiency or sophistication of the
weapon. 

-- New atoms created by fission and by other nuclear reactions
within the fissile material. When scientists compare these, they
can obtain considerable insight into the nuclear processes that
were involved during the explosion. 

-- Atoms of material near the fissioning core that were
subjected to an intense bombardment of neutrons during the
explosion and became radioactive as a consequence. These atoms
provide insight into the components of the weapon and the energy
of the neutrons that activated the components. 

Source: Arms Control Today, October 2006: Who Did It? Using
International Forensics to Detect and Deter Nuclear Terrorism
(William Dunlop and Harold Smith) 

E-mail Matthew B. Stannard at . 				
Page A - 19 			

The San Francisco Chronicle] 
*****************************************************************
 32 AFP: Russia, France overtake US as top arms sellers 

 Sunday October 29, 10:32 AM 

 By Maxim Kniazkov 

  [A model of the French Rafale fighter]   
    
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has ceded to Russia and
France last year its role of the top arms supplier to the
developing world as it failed to take full advantage of emerging
markets and opportunities created by booming oil prices,
according to a new congressional study. 

The annual report by the Congressional Research Service showed
the US share of the arms transfer market dropped from 35.4
percent to 20.5 percent between 2004 and 2005. 

In monetary terms, the value of these (Advertisement)
[Click Here!] [ src=]  deals fell from 9.4 billion dollars to
about 6.2 billion. 

By contrast, Russia made last year seven billion dollars selling
weaponry to Asia, Africa and Latin America, a notable increase
from 5.4 billion the year before. 

This successful deal making has propelled Russia to the position
of the top arms supplier to the developing world, the report
said on Sunday. 

France rose to second place, inking last year 6.3 billion
dollars worth of deals for delivery of military hardware, up
from just one billion dollars in agreements in 2004. 

Frances success, the study said, was attributable to a
3.5-billion-dollar agreement with India for the sale of six
Scorpene diesel attack submarines.

US congressional experts also predicted that an aggressive sales
pitch by Paris could eventually collide with key interests of
the United States and its allies as France usually pursued its
national interests rather than NATO alliance considerations. 

"So the potential exists for policy differences between the
United States and major West European supplying states over
conventional weapons transfers to specific countries," warned
Richard Grimmett, the main author of the report. 

Russia's rise to the pinnacle of the world arms business was
fueled by its booming trade with two emerging Asian giants --
Indian and China -- as well as Iran, a controversial client
whose buying power was nonetheless greatly enhanced by high oil
prices. 

Last year, Russia agreed to sell India 24 SA-19 air defense
systems for 400 million dollars as well as Smerch
multiple-launch rocket systems for about 500 million, according
to the report. 

Moscow will also overhaul an Indian diesel submarine for about
100 million, and to provide India with BrahMos anti-ship
missiles. 

In addition to fulfilling its long-term sales agreement with
China for Su-27 fighter jets, destroyers and submarines, Russia
also agreed last year to sell China 30 IL-76TD military
transport aircraft and eight aerial refueling tankers for more
than one billion dollars, the document said. 

New arms deals between Moscow and Beijing also include sales of
various military aircraft engines worth more than 1.2 billion
dollars. 

"These arms acquisitions by China are apparently aimed at
enhancing its military projection capabilities in Asia, and its
ability to influence events throughout the region," Grimmett
noted. 

Meanwhile, Iran, fearing airstrikes against its nuclear
facilities, is buying from Russia 29 SA-15 Gauntlet air defense
systems for over 700 million.

Moscow, the report said, also agreed last year to upgrade Irans
Su-24 and Mig-29 aircraft as well as their T-72 main battle
tanks.

The US fall to third place was explained by a scarcity of new
expensive contracts.

The largest US 2005 deal involved upgrading AH-64A Apache
helicopters for the United Arab Emirates for a total of over 740
million dollars.

While noting that China's 2005 arms sales total was a modest 2.1
billion dollars, the report pointed out that Iran and North
Korea were reportedly among clients receiving Chinese missile
technology. 

The document, therefore, warned that "China can present an
obstacle to efforts to stem proliferation of advanced missile
systems." 

The CRS usually delivers its reports to interested lawmakers
rather than the public.

The arms trade study was sent to legislators last week and
obtained by AFP late Saturday. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 33 Guardian Unlimited: Beckett calls for Trident debate 

[UP] 

Press Association 

Saturday October 28, 2006 7:18 PM

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has called for a national
debate on the future of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent. 

In an interview with The Sunday Times, she said controversial
moves to replace Trident would be considered from "first
principles". 

Her comments follow anger among Labour left-wingers who have
accused ministers of trying to shut debate about the plans which
could cost up to �25 billion. 

Tony Blair has indicated that there will be a decision by the
end of this year, but appeared to pre-empt any debate by saying
a nuclear deterrent was "essential". 

Gordon Brown, his likeliest successor, has also expressed his
commitment to replacing Trident while a series of motions on the
issue were blocked at the Labour Party conference last month. 

Mrs Beckett said that a white paper would be published shortly
to lay the ground for a debate. 

She said: "Obviously whenever you look at these issues the
question is 'do we go on with this?' And, if we do, in what way?
And why? And what are the issues the Government is taking into
account when they are considering what their decision should
be?" 

Mrs Beckett stopped short of promising a Commons vote as
demanded by more than 120 MPs who have signed a motion tabled by
former environment minister Michael Meacher. 

But she maintained: "I do think there is real merit in
publishing the white paper because I think it would be a very
good thing for all of us as a country to think carefully about
what the situation of today is. 

"The nature and shape of the nuclear deterrent we have, and are
maintaining and keeping up to date, was dictated in the Cold War
circumstances of decades ago. The security situation today
across the world is very, very different. But whether it is less
dangerous, and what decisions that leads you to, is quite
another matter." 

� Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved. 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 34 Guardian Unlimited: At last - a map to lead us out of catastrophe | Comment |
                   
Nick Stern's groundbreaking report on global warming could save
the planet from meltdown 

Will Hutton

Sunday October 29, 2006 The Observer             

Over the last 12 months, there has been a cultural transformation 
in attitudes towards climate change. Suddenly, it has become 
accepted that it's both happening and dangerous, that we are 
approaching a catastrophic tipping point and that it is 
disastrous that the Kyoto agreement to lower global greenhouse 
gas emissions by 12.5 per cent by 2012 compared with 1990 will be 
missed. Something must be done. The question is what.

Tomorrow, Nick Stern, the government's chief economist, delivers
his 700 page report, commissioned by Chancellor Gordon Brown,
setting out how economics can come to the rescue. Formerly chief
economist at the World Bank, Stern is one of the best in the
business and the report is an intellectual and political
landmark. After tomorrow, we will have the best thought-through
route map out of the crisis yet.

The report's originality is that it connects the economics of 
uncertainty and risk to the global economic impact of climate 
change. Nobody can be certain about the exact trajectory of the 
growth of carbon particles in the atmosphere or their 
relationship with global warming. It is an uncertainty that the 
Bush administration has seized on as an excuse to do nothing 
'because it might damage the economy'. Nobody, especially 
Americans, should be asked to make any sacrifice until the facts 
become clearer.

This might make sense if the risk was analogous to insuring
oneself against the infinitesimally small chance of a meteorite
hitting you as you cross the road. However, carbon levels are
already dangerous. If we are really lucky, the report warns, the
world might get away with as little as a 5 per cent fall in
global GDP, mass and protracted unemployment and tens of
millions of deaths, including Americans, from the economic
impact of rising sea levels, floods and droughts. If we are
unlucky, there could be a calamitous 20 per cent drop in global
GDP, mass starvation and hundreds of millions of deaths.

The key is water. A rise in temperature of, for example, 3
degrees centigrade, within the range of respected projections
for the year 2100, would melt the already destabilised Greenland
icecap and raise global sea levels by seven metres. Low-lying
urban areas, from Shanghai to Florida, would become
uninhabitable.

The world's governments have to find a way of acting
collectively - and fast. Action by Britain alone would be a
pinprick. If we became carbon-neutral tomorrow, it would reduce
the world's annual carbon emissions of 33,000 million tonnes by
just 2 per cent. If the EU acts together, on the other hand,
there could be a dramatic impact on the 4,500 million tonnes of
carbon it produces annually. If the EU, California and the nine
states in the north east of the US pledged to do something, that
could address an estimated 1,500 million tonnes of carbon those
states produce. That, in turn, could stimulate change in India
and China and the 7,000 million tonnes they produce. Suddenly,
the world would have reached a critical mass of change.

There are three main ways to effect change: taxation, regulation
and finding a way to persuade business to take the issue
seriously. The problem with taxation and regulation is getting
states to reach agreement quickly for fear that others might
cheat. And as Stern and the scientists warn, we have only 10
years.

His preferred option is the third. The fastest method would be
to set a world cap on carbon dioxide emissions, parcel out
demanding targets for their reduction between countries and then
organise a world trading system of carbon credits which rewards
companies, airlines and power generators that lower their carbon
emissions below their allocated targets and which penalises
those that do not. The greener the company, the more advantage
it will gain compared with its competitors.

The inclusion of airlines and nuclear and renewable power in the
scheme is crucial. Carbon-emitting air travel would instantly
become expensive - perhaps doubling fares - as airlines
everywhere had to buy carbon allowances. Non-carbon-emitting
nuclear and renewable power, on the other hand, would become
very cheap. Less-developed countries could sell their carbon
allocations to rich countries and with the proceeds invest in
new, clean technologies. Thus the scheme gives global incentives
to green economic activity everywhere while simultaneously
enlisting the market to handle the uncertainties. If it becomes
clear that the risk of climate change is overstated, the price
of carbon will sink, but if it is as bad as some fear, the price
will rocket. Markets will signal the risks.

Last year, the EU established precisely such a scheme. It has
had a wobbly first 12 months. Too many EU governments set
lenient targets and excluded too many industries, notably
airlines. As a result, the price of carbon is a derisory 5 (�3)
per tonne. But the scheme is up and running. With sufficient
political will, it could be made better. For example, every
aircraft in EU airspace could be required to buy a carbon
allowance. EU governments could start to get serious about
target-setting.

Indeed, making it work is now an economic and environmental
imperative. Yes, carbon-emitting industries will have to buy
carbon allowances, raising their costs. Stern reckons that if
the world collectively spends 1 per cent of GDP on clean
technologies and taxing environmental 'bads', we can avert
disaster. If individual green American states join in an
improved EU scheme, there could be immediate progress.

It is a remarkable and potentially optimistic prospect and the
EU will have proved to have worth beyond measure. Even
Eurosceptics do not deserve a grizzly end.

will.hutton@observer.co.uk #comments 

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited � Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 35 London Times: Beckett: we may not need nuclear missiles - 

Sunday Times -

October 29, 2006                     

David Cracknell, Political Editor
 		 
Foreign secretary demands Trident debate and becomes first 
minister to express regret on Iraq 
  		 		
MARGARET BECKETT, the foreign secretary, has reopened the 
controversy over Britain�s nuclear deterrent by calling for a 
public debate on whether the country still needs Trident 
missiles. 

In an interview with The Sunday Times she points out that the 
�security situation today is very, very different� from the end 
of the cold war. She says that �all of us as a country�, not just 
the government, should be able to question the policy. 

Tony Blair has been committed to the independent nuclear
deterrent, saying it is �an essential part� of defending the
country. In addition Gordon Brown, whom Beckett today publicly
backs as his successor, has signalled his commitment to
replacing Trident. 

In the interview, Beckett also becomes the first member of the
government to express �regrets� over the Iraq war, despite
Blair�s explicit refusal to do the same. 

The foreign secretary would not contradict comments by General
Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, who argued that the
presence of British troops in parts of Iraq was jeopardising
security. Beckett admits there are �particular difficulties and
problems�. 

Her call for a widespread debate on the nuclear issue, which
split Labour in the 1980s, may have wider political
reverberations. Beckett says that the government will publish a
white paper shortly. �I do think there is real merit in
publishing the white paper because I think it would be a very
good thing for all of us as a country to think carefully about
what the situation of today is,� she says. 

�The nature and shape of the nuclear deterrent we have and are
maintaining and keeping up to date was dictated in the cold war
circumstances of decades ago. The security situation today
across the world is very, very different. 

�But whether it is less dangerous, and what decisions that leads
you to, is quite another matter. And I think that is something
people deserve to have laid out before them and to be able to
think about it for themselves.� 

Referring to the need for a public debate on the nuclear
deterrent, the foreign secretary says, �I�m sure people will
question whether we need one or not�, adding: �Obviously
whenever you look at these issues the question is: do we go on
with this? And, if we do, in what way? And why? And what are the
issues the government is taking into account when they are
considering what their decision should be?� 

Her comments are likely to be welcomed by Labour MPs who have
been demanding a vote on the issue. Sceptics argue that nuclear
weapons are useless against international terrorism and bemoan
the estimated �20 billion replacement costs. 

Beckett acknowledges that Labour�s general election manifesto
pledged to retain the deterrent. But few MPs doubted there was
ever a question of the Trident submarine system not continuing
to the end of its expected lifespan of another 20 years, and the
issue the government now faces is what will happen beyond that. 

The issue is set to return to the agenda in the coming weeks
after the prime minister told parliament in the summer that a
decision would be taken �this year�. 

A cabinet discussion is expected soon, followed by the
publication of the white paper. The prime minister is under
pressure from Labour MPs to spell out the options in his final
months in office. 

Many were dismayed that motions on the issue were blocked at the
party conference last month. More than 120 MPs have already
signed a motion tabled by Michael Meacher, the former
environment minister, demanding a vote on Trident. Some fear
that Blair will renege on his pledge to have a parliamentary
debate. He has refused to commit himself to giving MPs the final
say with a vote on the issue. 

Clare Short, the former international development secretary,
cited the lack of debate over Trident as one of the reasons that
led her to leave the Labour party this month.   	 		

Any replacement of Trident would need years of development. Blair 
recognises the need to make key decisions before he leaves 
office.

Beckett, who will shortly mark six months as foreign secretary, 
says she backs Brown in the leadership race and urges cabinet 
colleagues not to stand in his way: "The people who would benefit 
most from a good old humdinger of a contest are people who do not 
wish the party well."

Her comments on Iraq come at the end of a week in which she 
risked accusations of being at odds with Blair by conceding that 
historians may see Iraq as a "foreign policy disaster".

"There are always regrets whenever military action has to be 
taken because military action always carries with it problems," 
she said.

"But there are times when military action seems to be the least 
worst option and this was one of them."

Earlier this month Dannatt, chief of the general staff, said the 
presence of British forces in Iraq might be "exacerbating" 
security problems.

Beckett would not repudiate his words, but said: "What he said 
was that there were particular areas of difficulty where he 
believes that perhaps it is not helping that our troops are 
there.

"What I would say is that there are areas where there are 
particular difficulties and problems which we are all 
endeavouring to overcome. It is arguable whether in some of those 
cases it would be better." 


Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 36 ENS: INSIGHTS: Balochistan: Pakistan's Nuclear Wasteland Up in Arms 
                 
Environment News Service (ENS)
 
By Ahmar Mustikhan 

LEXINGTON PARK, Maryland, October 27, 2006 (ENS) - As a Buddhist
who believes in Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence - an eye for
an eye will make the whole world blind - I am at a loss to
understand how to get peace, freedom and environmental justice
without bloodshed for my ancestral land - Balochistan. 

My people are extremely poor, they have one of the highest
levels of illiteracy anywhere in the world and as a nation they
are stateless, with a significant chunk of the population still
nomadic. In their psyche and political outlook, they resemble
the Kurds further to the West, who also are stateless. 

Living in the opulence of the United States, I shudder to think
about the abject poverty of the people of Balochistan despite
the richness of their land in southwestern Pakistan. The
majority is suffering from malnutrition, and many of the Baloch
folks in the countryside have never watched television. 

Yet the land is rich in mineral resources. Just last week the
Voice of America announced the world's fifth largest gold and
copper reserves were discovered in the Chagai District, on the
Afghan border. 

Chagai is the nation's nuclear testing ground. On May 28, 1998,
Pakistan conducted five nuclear tests at Chagai. Generals of the
Pakistan Army used Chagai though they very well understand the
sentiments of the local Baloch population against Pakistan. 

[Chagai] Residents of the arid Chagai District lack electricity
and other basic services. (Photo courtesy ) Though no scientific
evaluation was ever carried out on the specific effects of the
nuclear tests on the local populace, there were news reports of
an unusually high number of deaths of both camels and nomads. 

Baloch locals allege that the nuclear tests have devastated the
ecology of the area and their fruits do not taste as sweet as
they used to prior to the nuclear tests. Water has been
contaminated by radiation caused by the nuclear tests, press
reports have suggested, saying that skin diseases, and mental
and physical disorders have been recorded in Chagai and
surrounding areas. 

Most Americans seem never to have heard the name Balochistan, a
Texas sized region divided among Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.
Some who have heard the name mispronounce the "ch" in
Balochistan as "k," though it should be pronounced like the "ch"
in the word China. 

Still, Balochistan is a vast territory - 43 percent of
Pakistan's land mass - and it is very rich in oil and gas.
According to Frederic Grare, a Balochistan expert at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Balochistan has an
estimated 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and six
trillion barrels of oil reserves both on-shore and off-shore. 

The area under Pakistani army occupation is slightly bigger than
New Mexico. The area under Iranian mullahs is the size of
Nevada, and that under Afghan control is the size of West
Virginia. The total Baloch population in these areas is eight
million, and seven million Baloch live elsewhere in the world. 

Since 1980s, several hundred Baloch have made North America
their home. 

[leaders] Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and U.S. President
George W. Bush shake hands for the cameras September 22, 2006 in
the East Room of the White House. (Photo by Eric Draper courtesy
The White House) On September 22 when Pakistani
dictator-turned-president Pervez Musharraf was visiting
President George W. Bush at the White House for promotion of his
book, "In the Line of Fire," I stood outside the building and
showed my five fingers as his black limo entered the president's
official residence. I showed him five fingers, which means "Get
Lost," for the harm that the Pakistan Army had done at Chagai. 

A severe drought descended on the region after the May 28, 1998
nuclear tests, sending tribesmen to relief camps. Sardar Akhtar
Mengal, a former chief minister, insisted the drought had a
connection to the nuclear explosions. 

"Even in the world's top industrialized countries, any atomic
blast is never entirely safe," Mengal told this correspondent at
the time. "How can these blasts be safe in Pakistan or India?" 

With most of the world and the U.S. media focused on the
disaster in Iraq, a war that has claimed thousands of lives in
Balochistan has been ignored. The Baloch call it the Fifth War
of Independence. For almost six decades, the cries of anguish of
the Baloch people as they struggle to become masters of their
own destiny have gone unheard. Over the years, 10,000 Baloch
tribesmen and 3,000 Pakistani soldiers have been killed. 

In fact, when the British granted independence to India and
Pakistan on August 14, 1947 Balochistan got its independence as
a separate entity from Pakistan as it was never a part of the
British Indian Empire. Both houses of the Balochistan Parliament
unanimously rejected the idea of joining Pakistan. 

Still, under threat of being arrested by Pakistan Army as some
of his ancestors had been arrested during the British era,
Balochistan ruler Mir Ahmedyar Khan signed an Instrument of
Accession on March 27, 1948 with Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali
Jinnah. Under that agreement, Balochistan did exist as an
independent nation on the map of the world for seven-and-half
months. Even that controversial accession document promised
semi-sovereignty to Balochistan, now governed as a province of
Pakistan. 

A grand Baloch jirga, or assembly, decided last month to
approach the International Court of Justice at The Hague to
force Pakistan to honor its commitments under the 1948
Instruments of Accession. 

Against the backdrop of this forced annexation, Pakistan's
nuclear testing in Balochistan appears even more sinister. 

[Baloch] A Baloch tribesman (Photo courtesy Government of
Pakistan) The Baloch complain they are being "Red Indianized." 

They compare their situation to what happened when the United
States broke the Treaty of Ruby Valley and took a huge chunk of
Western Shoshone Indian land to turn it into the Nevada Nuclear
Test Site. The Shoshone now call themselves "the most bombed
nation on earth." 

Numbering less than five million in Pakistan-controlled
Balochistan, the Baloch fear if Islamabad's plans of
transferring the ethnic Punjabi population from the north are
not checked, the demography of their land would be altered for
good in no time and they would be marginalized much like the
Native Americans in the United States. 

[girl] The next generation of Baloch people in the Chagai
District, like this little girl, will grow up with a nuclear
test site in their back yard. (Photo courtesy Islamic Relief)
The Baloch feel the "trail of tears," a phrase used by the
Cherokee people to describe their forcible relocation from
western Georgia to Oklahoma in 1838, is being re-enacted today
in Balochistan. 

J. Robert Oppenheimer, the key scientist who ran the Manhattan
Project which created the first atomic bomb, said after the
first explosion, "We knew the world not be the same... a few
people cried, most people were silent." 

In the same way on May 28, 1998, I cried my heart out on
learning about the nuclear blasts in Chagai. I mean the forcible
and illegal annexation of Balochistan, the looting of Baloch
resources at the point of gun, the killing of the people and
finally the destruction of their land. 

For international expediencies, these injustices and the
environmental rape perpetrated on Balochistan have been
forgotten. Even the danger Pakistan's armaments pose to the
world, and to the United States in particular, has been glossed
over. 

[map] Map showing the location of Pakistan's nuclear test site
in the Chagai District of Balochistan. J. George Pikas, recently
wrote in a letter to the "Wall Street Journal" that, "Pakistan
is for sale to the highest bidder and is cleverly walking the
line between the Taliban, Osama, China, Iran, the U.S. and India
- quite a mix." 

Pikas wrote, "One can agree that the general [Musharraf] is the
only thing standing in the way of an Islamic takeover of
Pakistan but he won't be there very long, and Pakistan's nuclear
arsenal may then fall into the hands of 'raving Islamic
fanatics.'" 

To make the American public aware of this ongoing conflict in a
strategic area at the hub of South Asia and Middle East, Baloch
activists have joined hands with concerned Americans to form the
American Friends of Balochistan. 

I helped form the organization and two of its points are of
particular interest to me. One calls for winding up of
Pakistan's nuclear program. As the mission statement of the
American Friends of Balochistan says, "Nuclear testing on the
soil of Balochistan as practiced by Pakistan is against the
wishes of its people and must stop." 

The second point calls for making Pakistan's nuclear facilities
compliant with International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
"At the least, the Chagai nuclear test range should be opened
for international inspections," the American Friends of
Balochistan urges in its mission statement. 

The Baloch deplore lack of Western interest in their plight.
Said Professor Dr. Sabir Badalkhan, a Baloch expert on folklore
who now lives in Naples, Italy, "The West has no idea of what it
means to be occupied by others, not being able to speak in your
language, wear your national dress, celebrate your national
days, commemorate the days of your national heroes, read and
learn about your national land and feel proud, or sometimes be
ashamed, of your forerunners." 

{Ahmar Mustikhan can be contacted at }   

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2006. All Rights
Reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 37 BBC NEWS: Beckett calls for Trident debate
 
Last Updated: Sunday, 29 October 2006, 15:27 GMT 

[Trident nuclear submarine]                             

Trident will be decommissioned in about 20 years' time                                                          

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has called for a public debate 
on renewing the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent. 

Mrs Beckett said in an interview with the Sunday Times it was 
important to ask "do we go on with this?" 

Some Labour MPs have accused ministers of trying to stifle 
discussion about plans to replace Trident - which are estimated 
to cost up to �25bn. 

An announcement on Trident, set to be decommissioned in about 20 
years' time, is expected before the next election. 

'Considering decision' 

Mrs Beckett told the newspaper proposals to replace Trident would 
be considered from "first principles". 

Tony Blair has said a nuclear deterrent is "essential" and his 
would-be successor as Labour leader, Gordon Brown, has expressed 
his commitment to replacing Trident. 

The foreign secretary said a White Paper would be published soon 
as the basis for a debate. 

"Obviously whenever you look at these issues the question is 'do 
we go on with this?'," she said. 

"And, if we do, in what way? And why? And what are the issues the 
government is taking into account when they are considering what 
their decision should be?" 

However Mrs Beckett did not commit to a Commons vote, which is 
being sought by some MPs. 

'Waste of resources' 

Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton said he favoured both 
Trident and a debate. 

"There is no case at all for Britain to take a unilateral act to 
disarm ourselves," he said. 

Labour MP John McDonnell, who has said he will run for the Labour 
leadership, told BBC One's Sunday AM programme the cost of 
replacing Trident could be up to �76bn. 

"I think that is a waste of resources on a weapon we would never 
use and wouldn't defend us even," he said. 

Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox said an urgent debate in the 
Commons was needed. 

"We are committed to retaining a nuclear deterrent as long as a 
nuclear threat remains," he said. 

"At a time when rogue states are developing nuclear weapons it is 
not the time to drop our guard."                                                      

*****************************************************************
 38 Independent Online:  So, minister, are we developing new nuclear weapons or not? - 

Scientists say they are designing a new warhead design, despite
government denials 

By Marie Woolf 

Published: 29 October 2006 

The Government was accused last night of covertly beginning work
on a new nuclear warhead, despite ministers' assurances that no
decision on replacing the Trident nuclear deterrent had been
made. 

The chief scientist at Aldermaston, the UK's top-secret atomic
weapons facility, has told potential recruits that "most of our
research" is devoted to "the ability to provide a new warhead".
In a video link, aimed at recruiting top scientists, Dr Clive
Marsh lets slip that scientists at Aldermaston are busy working
on the development of "our overall warhead design and assurance
capabilities". 

His remarks were yesterday seized on by anti-nuclear
campaigners, who claim that Tony Blair's promise to have a
debate on whether to replace Trident is a "sham". They say
ministers have misled Parliament by claiming that no work on a
new nuclear warhead is being done and have accused them of
breaking and the Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear weapons. 

Des Browne, the Secretary of State for Defence, told the House
of Commons in reply to a question from an MP in May that "the
Atomic Weapons Establishment [AWE] is not engaged in the
development of any new warheads". 

However, according to Blake Lee Harwood, Greenpeace's campaign
director: "These revelations from Aldermaston's top scientist
prove that Tony Blair's promised debate was a sham. The
Government is pretending to consult but it has already given the
nod to a new weapons system costing billions of pounds. In a
single move, Tony Blair has broken the Non-Proliferation Treaty
and his promise to the country." 

In a webcast on the Aldermaston internet site, Dr Marsh says
that Aldermaston's hi-tech research "splits into two main but
inter-related areas". 

"The first is the requirement to maintain the existing Trident
nuclear stockpile," he says. The second, which accounts for most
of Aldermaston's research, is related to maintaining the ability
to carry out warhead design. He says research is ongoing on "our
overall warhead design and assurance capabilities, including the
ability to provide a new warhead lest our Government should ever
need it as a successor to Trident. He adds: "Most of our
research is conducted in this area." 

The scientist goes on to explain that research is also being
conducted on developing sophisticated computer modelling to test
the safety of models and designs. He said that the ban on
nuclear testing means that computers now have to be used "to
validate those aspects of the models that are accessible in the
laboratory" and "to consolidate the accuracy of our predictive
capabilities". 

His remarks appear to conflict with those of ministers, who have
said that there will be a debate on whether to replace Trident
before any work proceeds. The Ministry of Defence denied that
the Atomic Weapons Establishment was working on designing new
warheads, but said it was maintaining the capacity to do so and
to test them. 

"There is no programme to design or develop a new warhead. The
explanation for this is reiterating the ability to be ready to
design something if needed . . . They are up to date but are not
designing or developing a new warhead. No decision has been
taken in principle or in detail," an MoD spokesman said. 

Many MPs believe that Mr Blair has already made up his mind to
replace the Trident nuclear weapons system with a more advanced
nuclear deterrent. The Government is expected to indicate by the
end of this year whether the warhead will be replaced. 

Labour MPs were furious that motions on the future of Britain's
nuclear deterrent were blocked at their party conference in
Manchester last month. Suspicions that Aldermaston has already
been given the green light by Downing Street to begin work on a
new warhead have been fuelled by a huge expansion at the site. 

The secret research centre is spending millions of pounds on
powerful lasers capable of testing new nuclear technology. The
site is also being expanded in a massive construction project.
Aldermaston's recruitment drive has already created jobs for
physicists, engineers and technicians. It has plans to recruit
hundreds more staff. 

The Government has insisted the extra staff are being hired to
maintain the current Trident system. Aldermaston declined to
comment. 

� 2006 Independent News and Media Limited 
*****************************************************************
 39 AFP: British minister calls for debate on nuclear deterrent 

 Sat Oct 28, 5:18 PM ET 		 	 

LONDON (AFP) - British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett 
reportedly called for a nationwide debate on the future of 
Britain's independent nuclear deterrent. 

 In an interview with The Sunday Times, Beckett said the
government would soon publish guidelines for a debate over the
US-built Trident missiles deployed on four British submarines
which will become obsolete in the 2020s. 

However, Beckett stopped short of promising a House of Commons
vote, which has been demanded by more than 120 members of
parliament who have signed a motion tabled by former environment
minister Michael Meacher. 

"I do think there is real merit in publishing the white paper
(for debate) because I think it would be a very good thing for
all of us as a country to think carefully about what the
situation of today is," she said. 

"The nature and shape of the nuclear deterrent we have, and are
maintaining and keeping up to date, was dictated in the Cold War
circumstances of decades ago," Beckett said in the interview. 

"The security situation today across the world is very, very
different. But whether it is less dangerous, and what decisions
that leads you to, is quite another matter," she said. 

"And I think that is something people deserve to have laid out
before them and to be able to think about it for themselves,"
Beckett said. 

Her comments follow anger among left-wingers in the governing
Labour Party who have accused the government of trying to shut
off debate about the costly plans. 

With the next generation of missiles requiring many years of
development, Prime Minister Tony Blair" /> Tony Blairhas
signaled his intention to set the process in motion before he
leaves office next year. 

Blair has said a decision will come by the end of this year,
while deeming a nuclear deterrent "essential." 

Gordon Brown, the finance minister tipped to replace Blair in
the runup to the next general elections in 2009 or 2010, has
also pledged to replace Trident, while motions on the issue were
blocked at the Labour conference last month. 

Britain's current nuclear deterrent was set up in the 1980s by
then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, when the Soviet Union --
not global terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda -- was seen as the
primary threat. 

It is based on four Royal Navy submarines fitted with US-built
Trident missiles. One of the submarines is always on patrol, but
the missiles are no longer pre-targeted. 

Replacing the deterrent is likely to cost anywhere from 10
billion to 25 billion pounds (15 billion to 37 billion euros, 19
billion to 46 billion dollars), observers say. 

Copyright � 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 40 Scotsman.com :Socialist MSP jailed for nuclear protest

Sat 28 Oct 2006        

PETER MACMAHON 

ROSIE Kane, the Scottish Socialist MSP, was jailed for two weeks
yesterday after refusing to pay a fine imposed for breaking the
law during a nuclear demonstration. 

She was among ten people arrested last March as they protested
in a 25ft model submarine outside the Scottish parliament. 

Ms Kane, 45, was convicted of blocking the road and obstructing
police and fined £300 in December, but refused to pay the sum. 

At a hearing yesterday at Glasgow Sheriff Court, she was jailed
by Sheriff Nigel Ross. It is the first time the mother-of-two
has been given a prison term after several court appearances for
anti-nuclear activities. She has been in court for at least five
separate arrests during protests since 2001. 

During the hearing, Sheriff Ross warned Ms Kane that he had two
options. One was to give her an opportunity to do some community
work, with the other being custody. Referring to the community
work offer, Ms Kane said: "I thank you for that, but I do not
feel I have committed a crime and cannot accept that." 

Sheriff Ross then said he had no option but to impose the 14
days in custody. 

Colin Fox, the SSP leader, said the prison term was "savage".
But Bill Aitken, the Conservative's chief whip at Holyrood said:
"Once again, the taxpayer has to fork out for immature political
posturing. What a waste of time. 

"Why should we all have to pay for a pathetic piece of
ego-tripping from one of a group of politicians whose
credibility is in tatters?" 

• The SSP was dealt a new blow yesterday as the RMT union
withdrew financial support of up to £10,000 a year from the
party, which is still suffering from the split with Tommy
Sheridan, its former leader. 

*****************************************************************
 41 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear Reactor Shut Down in Russia 

From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Saturday October 28, 2006 11:46 AM

MOSCOW (AP) - An automatic safety system shut down a reactor at
a nuclear power plant near St. Petersburg Saturday after a short
circuit, the state-run company overseeing Russia's nuclear power
plants said. 

Rosenergoatom said there was no radiation leak from the
unplanned shutdown at the Leningrad nuclear power plant's No. 2
unit - the second shutdown to hit the plant in a week. 

The company did not say what caused the short circuit. Severe
weather in the St. Petersburg area has caused some flooding in
the city, and there have been reported power outages throughout
the region. 

The emergency system stopped two turbine generators due to
sludge coming into the condenser's pipes, before shutting down
the reactor altogether, the company said. 

Radiation levels around the plant were normal, it said. 

Last Friday, the automatic safety system shut down the same
reactor for unknown reasons. 

The Leningrad plant on the Gulf of Finland has four
1,000-megawatt graphite RBMK reactors - the same as the
Chernobyl nuclear plant, whose explosion 20 years ago sent
radioactive fallout across northern Europe in the world's worst
civilian nuclear accident. 

Russia has 10 nuclear power plants with a total of 31 nuclear
reactors.	 
		 	 	   
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
 42 Interfax: Short circuit causes nuclear power plant unit shutdown

Interfax.com    Site map   

Oct 28 2006 12:32PM
 
MOSCOW. Oct 28 (Interfax) - The automatic emergency shutdown
system stopped power unit 2 at the Leningrad nuclear power plant
because of a short circuit on Saturday morning, the
Rosenergoatom concern press service told Interfax. 

The shutdown system first stopped turbine generator No. 4 at
power unit 2. Later it also stopped turbine generator No. 3
because of the large amount of sludge coming into the
condenser's pipes, after which the system shut down the reactor,
the press service said. 

Power unit 2 is currently operating in a test mode following
modernization, which was completed in mid-October this year. 
The incident, however, has no relation to the work and was
caused by a storm, Rosenergoatom said. 

Power units 1 and 3 are currently operating normally. 
Radiation levels in the area surrounding the plant are normal,
it said. va la 

� 1991-2006 Interfax
 All rights reserved
 
*****************************************************************
 43 RIA Novosti: Nuclear power plant in North Russia reports 
generating unit's emergency shutdown
 
28/ 10/ 2006                                  

MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - The second generating unit of
the Leningradskaya nuclear power plant near Russia's second
largest city of St. Petersburg was shut down Saturday by an
emergency protection system due to heavy winds, a Rosenergoatom
spokesman said.

 "An emergency situation was caused by a storm which hit the
region," the spokesman for the state-run nuclear power
generating monopoly said.

 He said emergency shutdown of the unit's turbo generator No.3
took place at 6.58 Moscow time (2.58 a.m. GMT) after a 350-KV
high-voltage cable short circuit. The turbine No.4 was shut at
7.15 Moscow time (3.15 a.m. GMT).

 Background radiation at the plant and surrounding areas does
not exceed the permitted level, he said.

� 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 44 RIA Novosti: Two units operational at Russian NPP after emergency shutdown
 
28/ 10/ 2006                                  

MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - Two of the three power units
remain operational at the Leningradskaya nuclear power plant
near Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg after
Saturday's emergency shutdown, the Russian nuclear power
generating monopoly said.

 NPP reactor No.2 was stopped after an emergency shutdown of its
two turbo generators due to a 350-KV high-voltage cable short
circuit, which the company said was caused by heavy winds.

 Rosenergoatom said the reactor was working in a test mode after
an overhaul in mid-October, but an emergency by no means was
linked to this.

 "An emergency situation was caused by a storm which hit the
region," the spokesman said.

 Rosenergoatom spokesman Ashot Nasibov hailed the NPP's
emergency protection system, saying it managed the situation
properly.

 The company said in a statement that background radiation at
the plant and surrounding areas is normal.

 "There were no violations of secure usage of the Leningradskaya
NPP. Background radiation at the plant and surrounding areas
does not exceed the permitted level and corresponds to usage
norms of the [plant's] reactors," the statement said.

� 2005 RIA Novosti   
*****************************************************************
 45 BBC NEWS: Bolivia agrees new energy deals
 
Last Updated: Sunday, 29 October 2006, 06:31 GMT [ src=] [
		 		
[Bolivian President Evo Morales (R) greets Jorge Martinoni of US 
Vintage petrol company]                                 

Some deals were signed with only minutes to go before the 
deadline                                                              

Bolivia has agreed energy deals with 10 foreign gas and oil 
firms, just before a deadline for foreign firms to agree new 
contracts or leave the country. 

Brazil's Petrobras and Spain's Repsol were among eight to reach 
agreement on Saturday, after two deals on Friday. 

The contracts come after President Evo Morales nationalised the 
oil and gas industry in May to give the state more control and a 
larger slice of profits. 

He said that now Bolivia would no longer be "a beggar state". 

"We will continue in this path of recovering our natural 
resources," said Mr Morales, " not only the hydrocarbons but... 
all non-renewable natural resources that belong to the Bolivian 
people." 

Under the terms of the president's 1 May decree, foreign 
companies had six months to sign contracts giving up majority 
control of their Bolivian operations. 

The companies will also have to work in partnership with the 
re-founded Bolivian state energy firm, Yacimientos Petroliferos 
Fiscales Bolivianos (YPBF). 

COMPANIES SIGNED UP               
[Worker at Bolivian state oil and gas firm YPFB]           
Andina BG Group Chaco Matpetrol Repsol Petrobras (two branches) 
Pluspetrol Total SA Vintage Petroleum  

The BBC's Damian Kahya in La Paz says a deal with Petrobras - the 
largest foreign investor in the industry - came as a significant 
boost for Mr Morales as the Brazilians have invested more than 
$1bn in Bolivian gas. 

However, Petrobras and the Brazilian government had been angered 
by the way the Bolivians conducted negotiations, accusing them of 
bullying, our correspondent says. 

Deals with seven more firms, including the second largest 
investor Spain's Repsol and the UK's BG Group, were announced a 
few hours' before the deadline expired. 

Details of the contracts signed on Friday are not yet available, 
but the president of YPBF, said they would bring Bolivia $120m 
(�63m) in annual gas revenues. 

'Rocky' negotiations 

The negotiation process has not been simple. Talks were dealt a 
blow in September when Andres Soliz Rada, a main player in the 
nationalisation process, resigned as energy minister. 

Mr Soliz had clashed with state-owned Petrobras, the biggest 
investor in Bolivia's energy industry. 

However, Mr Rada was replaced by Carlos Villegas, and talks 
proved to be more fruitful. 

There were other problems including a lack of money that hampered 
Bolivia's YPBF, in its plans to buy control of the assets like 
refineries and pipelines. 

YPBF also missed a 1 July deadline to restructure itself so it 
would be better able to handle its more dominant position in the 
oil and gas industry. 

[With global demand for oil showing no sign of abating, the 
industry is going to greater lengths to secure supplies, as 
Juliana Liu reports. ] Deepwater profits Singapore companies lead 
probing search for fresh oil supplies
			 		 		
[Workers prepare for the annual Water Festival in Phnom Penh 
(file picture)] The week ahead What could be grabbing the 
headlines in the next seven days                     
		 		
[Taleban fighter] Visiting the Taleban David Loyn answers your 
questions on his trip to Afghanistan                    
*****************************************************************
 46 All Headline News: Egypt To Operate Nuclear Power Reactor Within Ten Years - 

October 28, 2006 4:39 a.m. EST

Som Patidar - All Headline News Staff Writer 

Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit 
said Friday that Egypt plans to operate a nuclear power station 
within ten years. 

Citing his country's increasing energy demand, he said, "Egypt 
needs to find alternative energy sources, like nuclear energy, to 
generate electricity due to rising prices of oil and natural 
gas."

Abul-Gheit made the statement as he left for the Spanish port 
city of Alicante to participate in a Middle East forum. 

Egypt has supported very limited scientific research to develop 
peaceful nuclear capabilities from 1957 to 1986. Research halted 
following the USSR's Chernobyl accident. 

Egypt signed the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968 
and officially supports the elimination of nuclear weapons in the 
region. 
  
  Copyright � All Headline News - All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 47 Concord Monitor: Nuclear plant ever the lightning rod   

October 29, 2006   

Copyright 1997-2006 Concord Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot 
P.O. Box 1177 Concord NH 03302 603-224-5301 Privacy policy           

Vermont Yankee
   		      		 
Activists keep up the fight, 3 decades later     
  
By DAVID GRAM The Associated Press
 			 		 
Her bearing erect, her diction flawless, her arguments honed by 
decades of practice, Diana Sidebotham would be a tough foe in any 
debate. 

And she hasn't been shy about bringing it on. 

A founder of the anti-nuclear New England Coalition citizens
group, Sidebotham, 74, has been a thorn in the side of Vermont
Yankee nuclear plant near Brattleboro, Vt., "since it was a hole
in the ground," she said. 

Victory - a permanent shutdown at Vermont Yankee - has been
elusive. The 34-year-old plant recently won permission to boost
its power output by 20 percent and appears poised to get the
okay to stay open past the scheduled 2012 expiration of its
existing license. 

But Sidebotham said she'll stay on the plant's case as long as
she can. 

"I don't discourage easily," she said. "The issue is so
important, it must be pursued." 

It's been pursued, all right: Since opening in 1972, Vermont
Yankee has been a lightning rod for anti-nuke protesters.
They've chained themselves to its fences, staged die-ins outside
and blocked entrances to the plant, which is located in the
southeastern Vermont town of Vernon. 

On Oct. 16, 26 people were arrested outside the Brattleboro
offices of owner Entergy Nuclear in the latest demonstration,
which drew about 200 people. 

The duration of the movement has been remarkable for its
consistency, according to Richard Sedano, a former Vermont
utility regulator who now works with an international consulting
group. 

Other plants around the country see bursts of activism come and
go, but they are smaller and less consistent, he said. 

"I don't know if on a routine basis, issues relating to the
nuclear power plant in a locality can regularly bring out the
general public interest quite as consistently as Vermont Yankee
has always seemed able to do," Sedano said. 

David Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety program with the
Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said the plant
critics' persistence is something of a Yankee tradition. 

"Plants in New England tend to have a higher level of citizen
engagement than plants elsewhere," he said. "I'm not sure
Vermont Yankee has more (activism) than plants in its general
area" of the Northeast. "But all those plants have more (public
engagement) than plants in Kansas or the Southeast." 

The movement's tenacity is also somewhat at odds with the
generally clean history of the 650-megawatt plant, which has one
of the top performance records in the U.S. nuclear industry,
according to regulators. 

But they, too, have kept close tabs on it. 

A judicial arm of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission last
month agreed to hear five "contentions" - or formal criticisms -
of Vermont Yankee's request for a 20-year license extension, one
from the state of Vermont and four from Sidebotham's group. 

That's more than have been heard on any other of the 54 U.S.
reactors whose owners have sought to run beyond their scheduled
shutdown dates, said NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci. 

Two years ago, Vermont Yankee became the first plant in the
country to be subjected to a new and more in-depth review of its
operations as part of regulators' evaluation of its request to
boost its power output by 20 percent. 

But critics like Frances Crowe keep after it, calling for a
shutdown. 

Crowe, 87, of Northampton, Mass., was arrested at Vermont Yankee
last year after she and other protesters put effigies of
themselves outside the plant gate and then marched on the
corporate offices of Entergy Nuclear. 

Crowe, whose anti-nuke activism dates to the 1950s, lives about
40 minutes away from the plant. 

Her late husband was a radiologist who had a keen professional
interest in the effects of radiation. 

"What keeps me at it? It's there. It doesn't go away, so that's
what we need to do," Crowe said. 

Rob Williams, spokesman for Vermont Yankee owner Entergy, said
he had seen an uptick in anti-nuclear activism in recent years
in part because the plant has been busy with new projects. 

Formerly owned by a group of New England utilities, Vermont
Yankee was sold to Entergy in 2002. Following that came the
plant's request to increase power, a move to address a spent
fuel pool running out of room by installing new
concrete-and-steel "dry casks" to store radioactive waste and
now the request for the license extension. 

"In just four years, we've undertaken four major initiatives,"
Williams said. "Interest in the sale readily transferred to
interest in each of the subsequent initiatives - all of that in
a regulatory process that is very open and very fair and that
certainly generated a lot of healthy discussion." 

Sedano says all the criticism is healthy. State officials have
"felt very strongly that these are important safety issues and
that it's important to ask a lot of questions." 

By DAVID GRAM 
The Associated Press

 Concord Monitor Online, P.O. Box 1177,
Concord NH 03302
 Phone: 603-224-5301 | E-mail:
*****************************************************************
 48 The Australian: Nuclear plan a drain on water supply

 Kevin Meade October 30, 2006 

NUCLEAR power plants could worsen the effects of drought by
placing increased pressure on the nation's water resources.

 An independent study commissioned by the Queensland Government
found that a nuclear power station would use 25 per cent more
water than a coal-fired plant. 

Addressing the New Zealand Labour Party conference in Rotorua
yesterday, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie used the study's
findings to attack John Howard's push to investigate the use of
nuclear power in the future. 

Mr Beattie said smarter and more environmentally friendly
options were needed around the world to combat the effects of
drought and climate change. 

"At a time when our farming communities are hurting badly, it is
folly for Mr Howard to be entertaining the thought of nuclear
power stations in Queensland or anywhere else," he said. 

"Many towns and shires in our state are struggling to get enough
drinking water, let alone enough to satisfy the amount a nuclear
station would need to guzzle." 

The study focused on the coal-fired Stanwell power station in
central Queensland. The plant produces up to 1400 megawatts of
electricity a year and uses about 19,500 megalitres of water. 

A nuclear power station producing the same output would need
about 25,000 megalitres of water. 

"That is the equivalent of at least an additional 5000
Olympic-sized swimming pools a year," Mr Beattie said. "It is
water that we simply cannot afford when drought and climate
change are drying up water supplies." 

The study's findings fit neatly into the Premier's push for
clean coal technology -- rather than nuclear power -- as a
solution to global warming. 

Queensland is enjoying a coal boom amid huge demand for the
mineral to fire new power stations in China and steel plants in
India. 

Mr Howard established a review headed by former Telstra chief
Ziggy Switkowski in June to investigate the future use of
nuclear power. 

Mr Beattie said a nuclear power station would need to have a
strong connection to the electricity grid to address safety
concerns with reliable transmission. The water supply would also
have to be guaranteed. 

"To meet these requirements, a nuclear power plant would have to
be located close to the eastern seaboard," he said. "Where is Mr
Howard planning to put it? Is it Townsville or Mackay or perhaps
further down along the coastline on the Sunshine Coast or Gold
Coast? 

"We need to be smarter about the way we use our available
resources. We need to be looking at less energy-dependent
resources such as clean coal technology, geothermal energy and
coal seam gas." 

Privacy Terms � The Australian 	 	 
*****************************************************************
 49 The Australian: Nuclear power will 'worsen drought' 

This story is from our network Source: AAP 

 October 29, 2006 

AUSTRALIA'S crippling drought will worsen if the Howard
government succeeds in its push for nuclear power, Queensland
Premier Peter Beattie has told a conference.
 
Addressing the New Zealand Labour Party conference in Rotorua
today, Mr Beattie said an independent study commissioned by the
Queensland government showed a nuclear power station would use
25 per cent more water than a coal-fired power station. 

"At a time when our farming communities are hurting badly, it is
a folly for (Prime Minister John) Howard to be entertaining the
thought of nuclear power stations in Queensland or anywhere
else," he said. 

"Many towns and shires in our state are struggling to get enough
drinking water, let alone enough to satisfy the amount a nuclear
station would need to guzzle." 

Mr Howard established a review, headed by former Telstra boss
Ziggy Switkowski, in June as part of his push for nuclear power
to be considered in the nation's future energy mix. 

Mr Beattie said a coal-fired power station produced up to 1,400
megawatts of electricity a year and used around 19,500
megalitres of water to condense and recycle steam. 

He said a nuclear power station producing the same output would
need about 25,000 megalitres. 

"That is the equivalent of at least an additional 5,000
Olympic-size swimming pools a year," Mr Beattie said. 

"It is water that we simply cannot afford when drought and
climate change are drying up water supplies." 

He said nuclear power stations needed a guaranteed water supply
and a strong connection to an electricity grid, implying a
nuclear power plant would need to be close to the eastern
seaboard. 

"Where is Mr Howard planning to put it? Is it Townsville or
Mackay or perhaps further down along the coastline on the
Sunshine Coast or Gold Coast? 

"Even then a guaranteed water supply to meet minimum safety
concerns would be a tall order. 

"A guarantee like that is tough at the best of times, let alone
in the middle of the worst drought on record." 

Mr Beattie is on a three-day trip to New Zealand to boost trade
and economic ties. 

Privacy Terms � The Australian
*****************************************************************
 50 AFP: Egypt to seek Chinese aid on nuclear program 

 Saturday October 28, 08:27 PM 

  [Hosni Mubarak]   
    
CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will seek Chinese
help for Cairo's planned civil nuclear program during a visit to
Beijing next month, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit reportedly
said.

"The possible aid which China could give to Egypt over its civil
nuclear program to generate electricity will be one of the
subjects of talks," Gheit told the government newspaper Akhbar
al-Yom.

Mubarak heads for China after a November 1 to 3 visit to Russia.
He will be in Beijing for a summit on Sino-African cooperation
after which his visit will become an official one to the country
on November 6 and 7.

During the visit, the two countries will sign several agreements
covering economic and technological fields, said the Egyptian
minister.

In late September, Cairo announced it was relaunching its civil
nuclear programme after a halt of 20 years following the
Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.

The announcement coincided with increasing Western pressure,
spearheaded by the United States, against Iran for allegedly
wanting to produce nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian
program. Tehran vehemently denies the charge. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 51 APP.COM: Don't gamble with safety | 

Asbury Park Press Online
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Saturday, October 28, 2006

The more closely people scrutinize the Oyster Creek nuclear 
generating plant in Lacey, the more obvious it becomes what a 
liability it is from a public safety and environmental 
standpoint.

While Oyster Creek officials continue to tout the facility as a 
safe, clean source of energy in their bid for a 20-year license 
renewal, one group after another pokes holes in their arguments.

Last week, reports from the National Marine Fisheries Service and 
the federal Environmental Protection Agency both took strong 
exception to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's preliminary 
conclusion that the plant would have a minimal adverse impact on 
fish and shellfish. Both recommended that Oyster Creek build 
cooling towers, which would reduce the water intake required to 
cool the plant by 70 percent and the amount of fish and shellfish 
species that are killed by a like amount.

The EPA rightly criticized the NRC's reliance on fish mortality
studies that were more than 20 years old, and questioned how the
agency could conclude the plant's impact on fish habitat would
be minimal when its report acknowledged that 13 of the 14
species considered could be adversely affected by Oyster Creek's
existing "once-through" water cooling system. The EPA also
debunked the myth perpetuated by Oyster Creek that cooling
towers would pollute the atmosphere.

The concerns raised by the EPA and marine fisheries service may
not be enough to make the NRC change its mind about Oyster
Creek's environmental impact. But it will surely provide the
state Department of Environmental Protection with further
justification for insisting plant operator AmerGen Energy Co.
install a cooling tower as a condition of being granted a water
discharge permit. The DEP, which has been considering mandating
such a step for months, should waste no more time following
through on it.

Dead fish is hardly the only issue. At an NRC hearing earlier
this month, a panel of technical experts expressed serious
concern about possible buckling of the plant's drywell, a
protective barrier around the reactor designed to contain highly
radioactive steam, in the event of a serious accident. Gov.
Corzine and the state's federal legislators � including Sen.
Robert Menendez � should demand that Oyster Creek, which is now
shut down for refueling and inspections related to the license
renewal process, remain closed until the inspection reports have
been completed, released to the public and independently
analyzed to determine whether the plant is safe.

The safety concerns need to be taken seriously. Until all doubts
about Oyster Creek's structural integrity are removed, the plant
should stay off-line.   

  Copyright � 2006 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 52 Boston Globe: Vermont Yankee nuke plant's critics still at it, 34 years later
             
- Boston.com
 
By David Gram, Associated Press Writer  |  October 28, 2006 

PUTNEY, Vt. --Her bearing erect, her diction flawless, her
arguments honed by decades of practice, Diana Sidebotham would
be a tough foe in any debate.

And she hasn't been shy about bringing it on.

A founder of the anti-nuclear New England Coalition citizens
group, Sidebotham, 74, has been a thorn in the side of Vermont
Yankee nuclear plant "since it was a hole in the ground," she
said.

Victory -- a permanent shutdown at Vermont Yankee -- has been
elusive. The 34-year-old plant recently won permission to boost
its power output by 20 percent and appears poised to get the OK
to stay open past the scheduled 2012 expiration of its existing
license.

But Sidebotham said she'll stay on the plant's case as long as
she can.

"I don't discourage easily," she said. "The issue is so
important, it must be pursued."

It's been pursued, alright: Since opening in 1972, Vermont
Yankee has been a lightning rod for anti-nuke protesters.
They've chained themselves to its fences, staged die-ins outside
and blocked entrances to the plant, which is located in the
southeastern Vermont town of Vernon.

On Oct. 16, 26 people were arrested outside the Brattleboro
offices of owner Entergy Nuclear in the latest demonstration,
which drew about 200 people.

The duration of the movement has been remarkable for its
consistency, according to Richard Sedano, a former Vermont
utility regulator who now works with an international consulting
group.

Other plants around the country see bursts of activism come and
go, but they are smaller and less consistent, he said.

"I don't know if on a routine basis, issues relating to the
nuclear power plant in a locality can regularly bring out the
general public interest quite as consistently as Vermont Yankee
has always seemed able to do," Sedano said.

David Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety program with the
Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said the plant
critics' persistence is something of a Yankee tradition.

"Plants in New England tend to have a higher level of citizen
engagement than plants elsewhere," he said. "I'm not sure
Vermont Yankee has more (activism) than plants in its general
area" of the Northeast. "But all those plants have more (public
engagement) than plants in Kansas or the Southeast."

The movement's tenacity is also somewhat at odds with the
generally clean history of the 650-megawatt plant, which has one
of the top performance records in the U.S. nuclear industry,
according to regulators.

But they, too, have kept close tabs on it.

A judicial arm of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission last
month agreed to hear five "contentions" -- or formal criticisms
-- of Vermont Yankee's request for a 20-year license extension,
one from the state of Vermont and four from Sidebotham's group.

That's more than have been heard on any other of the 54 U.S.
reactors whose owners have sought to run beyond their scheduled
shutdown dates, said NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci.

Two years ago, Vermont Yankee became the first plant in the
country to be subjected to a new and more in-depth review of its
operations as part of regulators' evaluation of its request to
boost its power output by 20 percent.

But critics like Frances Crowe keep after it, calling for a
shutdown.

Crowe, 87, of Northampton, Mass., was arrested at Vermont Yankee
last year after she and other protesters put effigies of
themselves outside the plant gate and then marched on the
corporate offices of Entergy Nuclear.

Crowe, whose anti-nuke activism dates to the 1950s, lives about
40 minutes away from the plant.

Her late husband was a radiologist who had a keen professional
interest in the effects of radiation.

"What keeps me at it? It's there. It doesn't go away, so that's
what we need to do," Crowe said.

Rob Williams, spokesman for Vermont Yankee owner Entergy, said
he had seen an uptick in anti-nuclear activism in recent years
in part because the plant has been busy with new projects.

Formerly owned by a group of New England utilities, Vermont
Yankee was sold to Entergy in 2002. Following that came the
plant's request to increase power, a move to address a spent
fuel pool running out of room by installing new
concrete-and-steel "dry casks" to store radioactive waste and
now the request for the license extension.

"In just four years we've undertaken four major initiatives,"
Williams said. "Interest in the sale readily transferred to
interest in each of the subsequent initiatives -- all of that in
a regulatory process that is very open and very fair and that
certainly generated a lot of healthy discussion."

Sedano says all the criticism is healthy. State officials have
"felt very strongly that these are important safety issues and
that it's important to ask a lot of questions."

--------

On the Net:

Vermont Yankee: 

New England Coalition: [ /] � Copyright 2006 Associated Press.
All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. More: 

*****************************************************************
 53 globeandmail.com: Bill amendment would protect spy-service whistle-blowers
 	
POSTED ON 28/10/06

BILL CURRY

OTTAWA -- Canadian spies who blow the whistle on wrongdoing at
Canada's spy agency and the secretive Canadian Security
Establishment would be extended legal protections through a
recent Senate amendment to the government's ethics legislation. 

The Liberal-dominated Senate is under fire from the
Conservatives for introducing numerous amendments to the Federal
Accountability Act this week, but the potential impact of some
of those amendments have so far been overlooked. 

In its report, the Senate legal and constitutional affairs
committee notes that contrary to Treasury Board President John
Baird's claim that the ethics bill offers whistle-blower
protection to employees in "all federal bodies," it found that
not to be the case. 

"This is false," the Senate report states. "The Communications
Security Establishment and the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service would not be covered. Your Committee believes this is
wrong. . . . In the post-9/11 world, particularly in light of
the significant additional expenditures on defence and security,
we want assurance that our counter-terrorism agencies are
operating scrupulously within the law. We want members of CSIS
and CSE to feel confident in coming forward to report any
wrongdoing."	 	 			 			 			 			 			 			 	 		 	 	 	 	 	 		 				
			 			 	 	 	 						 		 	 	 	 	 	 		 	 	 		 		 		 					 							
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's domestic
and international spy agency; the Canadian Security
Establishment is an Ottawa-based organization that intercepts
phone calls and computer messages as part of national security
exercises. 

CSIS spokeswoman Barbara Campion said the agency is declining
comment on the amendment until it is known whether the House of
Commons will support the change. A call to CSE was not returned. 

Mr. Baird continued his attack on the Senate yesterday, accusing
Liberal senators of holding up the bill with a host of
amendments aimed at watering it down. 

However, after Question Period, Mr. Baird opened the door to
supporting at least some of the Senate's amendments. 

"We'll look at each of them on a case-by-case basis. Virtually
all of the Liberal amendments are weakening the bill and that's
not us, we're not going to weaken the bill. So we'll take the
weekend to review them and we'll come back for more work," Mr.
Baird told reporters. "Most of the changes that I've seen are
quite outrageous." 

Liberal Senator Joseph Day said Mr. Baird's comments were an
improvement from his earlier stand. 

"I find that very encouraging because all they've said thus far
is that the Senate has no authority to be making any
amendments," he said. "If they look at this on a case-by-case
basis, he will know that not one of these amendments is
frivolous." 

Other amendments proposed by the Senate include allowing draft
internal audits to continue to be accessible through Access to
Information. It was a draft audit that originally exposed key
parts of the sponsorship scandal and the Liberal report says
such documents would have been blocked from release under the
new ethics bill. 

The amendment would also allow the release of draft audits from
the Auditor-General's office, in spite of concerns from
Auditor-General Sheila Fraser. 

Mr. Day, who is the lead critic of the bill, said the Senate
will spend all of next week debating the amendments and will not
send the bill back to the House until the week of Nov. 6. 	 	

*****************************************************************
 54 UPI: Israelis turn to nuclear shelters
     
United Press International - NewsTrack - 

10/29/2006 4:50:00 PM -0500

TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Rich Israelis, scared by the
missiles that fell on their country during the war in Lebanon
and by Iran's nuclear ambitions, are investing in shelters. 

Prices for underground shelters that can produce their own
electricity and decontaminated air start at more than $110,000,
The Times of London reported. 

Businessman Zaki Rakab spent more than half a million dollars on
a 2,000-square-foot shelter that can provide a home for as many
as 25 people for two weeks. 

"The difference between an atomic shelter and a regular one is
in the technical components: the thickness of the walls and a
special system to block radioactive fallout," he said. 

Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman, has two shelters, one in
Tel Aviv where she lives and one at her vacation home. 

The government suggests that those with shelters are being
"panicky." But the government is also building a shelter for the
war cabinet that would allow the government to continue to
function after a nuclear strike.

� Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 55 [v911t] DU Death Toll Tops 11,000
 
Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 14:33:43 -0500 (CDT)

X-Sender-Host-Name: chumbly.math.missouri.edu
X-DSPAM-Result: mail; result="Innocent"; class="Innocent"; probability=0.0000; confidence=1.00; signature=N/A
X-Spam-Class: HAM

Nationwide Media Blackout Keeps U.S. Public Ignorant About This 
Important Story

  

By James P. Tucker Jr.

The death toll from the highly toxic weapons component known as 
depleted
uranium (DU) has reached 11,000 soldiers and the growing scandal may 
be the reason behind Anthony Principi's departure as secretary of the 
Veterans
Affairs Department.

This view was expressed by Arthur Bernklau, executive director of 
Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, writing in Preventive 
Psychiatry E-Newsletter.

"The real reason for Mr. Principi's departure was really never 
given," Bernklau said. "However, a special report published by 
eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the 
definitive cause of `Gulf War Syndrome' has fed a growing scandal 
about the continued use of uranium
munitions by the U.S. military."

The "malady [from DU] that thousands of our military have suffered 
and died from has finally been identified as the cause of this 
sickness, eliminating the guessing. . . . The terrible truth is now 
being revealed," Bernklau said.

Of the 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are now 
dead, he said. By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on permanent 
medical disability. More than a decade later, more than half (56 
percent) who served in Gulf War I have permanent medical problems. 
The disability rate for veterans of the world wars of the last 
century was 5 percent, rising to 10 percent in Vietnam.

"The VA secretary was aware of this fact as far back as 2000," 
Bernklau said. "He and the Bush administration have been hiding these 
facts, but now, thanks to Moret's report, it is far too big to hide 
or to cover up."

Terry Johnson, public affairs specialist at the VA, recently reported 
that veterans of both Persian Gulf wars now on disability total 
518,739, Bernklau said.

"The long-term effect of DU is a virtual death sentence," Bernklau 
said. "Marion Fulk, a nuclear chemist, who retired from the Lawrence 
Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, and was also involved in the Manhattan 
Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in the soldiers 
[from the second war] as `spectacular'and a matter of concern.' "

While this important story appeared in a Washington newspaper and the 
wire services, it did not receive national exposurea compelling sign 
that the American public is being kept in the dark about the terrible 
effects of this toxic weapon. (Veterans for Constitutional Law can be 
reached at (516) 474-4261.)
 
  
 
 Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - 
as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 
Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
  

 
*****************************************************************
 56 AFP: High radiation levels said to be found after Israel's Lebanon bombing - 

October 28, 01:45 PM 

LONDON (AFP) - Scientists studying samples of soil thrown up by
Israeli bombing in Lebanon have shown high radiation levels,
suggesting uranium-based munitions were used, a British
newspaper reports. 

The samples were taken from two bomb craters in Khiam and
At-Tiri and have been sent for further analysis to the Harwell
laboratory in Oxfordshire, southern England, for mass
spectrometry used by the Ministry of Defence, The Independent
said. 

The samples thrown up by Israeli heavy or guided bombs showed
"elevated radiation signatures," Chris Busby, the British
scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation
Risk, was quoted as saying. 

Britain's Ministry of Defence has confirmed the concentration of
uranium isotopes in the samples, the newspaper said. 

In his initial report, Busby said there were two possible
reasons for the contamination. 

"The first is that the weapon was some novel small experimental
nuclear fission device or experimental weapon (eg. a thermobaric
weapon) based on the high temperature of a uranium oxidation
flash," it said. 

"The second is that the weapon was a bunker-busting conventional
uranium penetrator weapon employing enriched uranium rather than
depleted uranium," Busby was quoted as saying. 

A photograph of the explosion of the first bomb shows large
clouds of black smoke that might result from burning uranium,
the newspaper said. 

The 34-day Israeli offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas in
Lebanon left at least 1,287 people, nearly all civilians, dead
and 4,054 wounded, according to an AFP count based on official
Lebanese figures. 

At least 1,140 civilians -- 30 percent of them children under 12
-- have been killed along with 43 Lebanese army and police
troops in the offensive, the state High Relief Committee said. 

Copyright � 2006 AFP. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 57 AFP: UN unable to confirm radiation spike after Lebanon war 

  [Belgian soldiers patrol an area near the Lebanese-Israeli
border]   

BEIRUT (AFP) - The UN, which has been studying the ecological 
damage in Lebanon caused by the war between Israel and Hezbollah, 
said it would soon be able to say whether uranium-based munitions 
were used.

"If there is uranium we will find it," said Boutros al-Harb, 
director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for 
Asia and the Middle East, based in Bahrain.

The Independent newspaper said scientists studying samples of 
soil after Israeli bombing in Lebanon have shown high radiation 
levels, suggesting that uranium-based munitions were used.

It said Saturday samples taken from two bomb craters in Khiam and 
At-Tiri have been sent for further analysis to the Harwell 
laboratory in Oxfordshire, southern England, for mass 
spectrometry.

The samples thrown up by Israeli heavy or guided bombs showed
"elevated radiation signatures", Chris Busby, the British
scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation
Risk, was quoted as saying.

Britain's Ministry of Defence has confirmed the concentration of
uranium isotopes in the samples, the report added.

An Israeli army spokesman denied Saturday the use of illegal
munitions.

"All the arms and ammunition that we use are legal and conform
to international laws," he told AFP.

UNEP director Harb said he could not immediately confirm the
claims of high radiation levels.

"The analysis of samples taken by our munitions experts is being
done in a laboratory at Spitz in Switzerland. I am not able
today to confirm nor rule out the presence of uranium," Harb
told AFP by telephone from Bahrain.

"The results should be sent to us by mid-November."

Around 20 UNEP experts spent two weeks, with Lebanese
environmentalists, from the beginning of October evaluating the
impact on the environment of the July 12 to August 14 war
between Israel and Shiite militia Hezbollah, Harb said.

They tested air, water and soil samples at some 75 heavily
bombarded sites in southern Lebanon and the mainly Shiite
suburbs of south Beirut, he added.

Their report will be made public mid-December in Beirut. 

AFP
*****************************************************************
 58 UPI: Report: Israel used uranium-enriched bombs
     
United Press International - NewsTrack - 

10/28/2006 7:57:00 AM -0400

KHIAM, Lebanon, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Israel has reportedly confirmed
dropping uranium-enriched phosphorous bombs on Lebanon during
its war with Hezbollah, the Independent reported Saturday. 

Israel made the acknowledgement after the European Committee on
Radiation Risk and a laboratory used by the British Defense
Ministry found soil samples at bomb craters in the southern
Lebanese towns of Khiam and At-Tiri, near Nabatiye, showed
"elevated radiation signatures," the British newspaper reported. 

Israel first denied the European Committee and laboratory
findings. When it later acknowledged them, Minister Jacob Edery
said Israel "keeps to the rules of international norms." 

But much international law does not cover modern uranium weapons
because they were not invented when humanitarian rules such as
the Geneva Conventions were drawn up, the Independent said.
Neither Israel nor the United States have signed onto the third
protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which restricts the use of
phosphorous weapons, the newspaper noted. 

Israel's military was investigating the matter, Israeli Army
Radio reported Saturday.

� Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
 59 Sunday Herald: Reactor waste is Jacks nuclear nightmare 

Iain Macwhirter 
 
 Its Scotlands Waste. Labour think they have scored a direct hit
on the SNPs nuclear policy, and they may be right. But Jack
McConnell may also have deepened Labours own divisions over
energy policy.

Last week, SNP parliamentary leader Nicola Sturgeon insisted
that an SNP government would not use the national deep waste
repository in England to store Scotlands nuclear waste, but keep
the stuff above ground in Scotland. Jack McConnell says he was
genuinely surprised to learn this.

When he raised the nuclear waste issue after his John P
MacIntosh lecture last week, McConnell was trying to make the
case for maintaining the union on the grounds that, if Scotland
went its own way, England might no longer be prepared to accept
Scottish nuclear waste. A kind of Waste Lothian Question, you
might say. But it seems the SNP dont trust England to look after
Scotlands nuclear trash anyway.

Nicola Sturgeon isnt opposed to English deep storage on racial
grounds. SNP policy is that it is irresponsible to bury nuclear
waste anywhere. This is partly because of the dangers involved
in transporting the waste to the repository  imagine Dounreay
nuclear convoys on the A9, held up by caravans  and partly
because of the risk of underground leaks.

Strictly speaking, deep storage isnt a solution at all, as the
Committee on Rad ioactive Waste Management (CORWM) conceded in
July when it proposed digging a half-mile hole for Britains
nuclear residue. This is containment rather than
decontamination. And because the spent fuel rods and
contaminated equipment will stay radioactive for 24,000 years,
we could be handing a huge problem on to future generations:
10,000 years ago, Scotland was covered by half a mile of ice.

However, while the SNP are right to say that out of sight, out
of mind is no solution to the nuclear problem, Im not sure
voters will agree with them that nothing should be done in the
here and now. Many Scots will find the idea of burying the waste
500 metres under the Cumbrian coastline a more attractive
proposition than leaving it on the ground at Hunterston or
Torness.

There may be a theoretical risk of the deep nuclear storage site
leaking because of geological disturbance. But there is clearly
an even greater risk of leakage or accident from leaving the
stuff lying around indefinitely in various rusty containers.

Then there is security. It is much more difficult to guard a
multiplicity of temporary sites than one deep store, where it is
more difficult for terrorists to gain access and where planes or
truck bombs cannot penetrate. The terrorist risk is one of the
main reasons CORWM argues that action needs to be taken
urgently. 

Now, you could say that nuclear power stations shouldnt be there
in the first place. That, given the lack of any proper long-term
solution to the waste problem, we shouldnt be contemplating
building any more of them. But the reality is that we already
have five reactors in Scotland, three of them shut. Even if no
new ones are built, there will be a mass of new radioactive
waste as the existing plants are decommissioned.

Would England block Scotlands waste, as McConnell claims? Well,
assuming the national deep waste repository is sited in Cumbria
(which is by no means certain, since Dounreay is also a
candidate), it seems inconceivable that England would prefer to
have Scottish waste kicking around rather than have it
underground, even if Scotland were independent. Quite apart from
the safety issue, there is history. It would be an act of
stupendous pettiness for England to reject Scottish nuclear
waste when nuclear power has been a common UK project for five
decades.

This is a joint responsibility. Britains experimental
fast-breeder reactor was sited at Dounreay, and has caused
untold environmental damage there. Scotland exports much of its
Torness-generated electricity to England. Jack McConnell may be
right that there is a union dividend, but this is no way to
argue it.

Moreover, in raising the nuclear waste issue, McConnell has
exposed his vulnerability on nuclear renewal. He has repeatedly
assured the Scottish parliament that he would block any new
nuclear power stations on planning grounds if there was no
solution to the waste problem. Well, now we know from CORWM that
there is no final solution  other than guarding the stuff
underground. So what is his position now? He will not say.

McConnell is no lover of nuclear power, and favours developing
Scotlands ample renewable energy sources. But many in the Labour
Party are enthusiasts, not least the chancellor, Gordon Brown,
who supports a new generation of nuclear stations. The trades
union Amicus intends to make renewal a key issue at the
forthcoming Labour conference in Oban. McConnell cannot remain
silent indefinitely.

The latest cracks in the graphite core of Hunterston B mean that
a decision may have to be taken on renewal in Scotland sooner
rather than later. The SNP will say McConnell cannot rule out
any new nuclear power stations, nor can he rule out a deep
storage site in Scotland for Englands nuclear waste. For there
may be more than one: the environment secretary, David Miliband,
made that clear last week. Nirex has identified at least five
suitable sites in Scotland.

So this could be Jacks nuclear nightmare, too. Both the major
parties in Scotland have got themselves in a bit of a nuclear
muddle, and while the SNP have a presentational problem of major
proportions, the first minister may regret having raised the
issue at all. 

29 October 2006 

 � newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved 			 		
*****************************************************************
 60 Salt Lake Tribune: With PFS dead, are Utahns safer?

  Editorials  
      
Public Forum Letter

Article Last Updated:10/28/2006 03:55:07 PM MDT

With the recent rejection of the PFS application for storing
spent nuclear fuel at Skull Valley, PFS opponents declared that
Utahns are safer now, but are they? 

   The state claimed that F-16 aircraft from Hill Air Force Base
transiting Skull Valley posed unacceptable risks from ground
crashes that were greater than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
risk criterion of one chance in a million or less. 

   It is revealing to examine this claim and compare the ratio
of risk from possible F-16 aircraft crashes at PFS in Skull
Valley with the related risk of similar crashes in Clearfield
surrounding HAFB, using the standard NRC risk model. 

   Using the NRC formula, the risk ratio for Clearfield compared
to PFS is 8,640 to 1. In other words whatever risk is assigned
to F-16 flights over Skull Valley, the comparative risk to
Clearfield residents is more than 8,000 times greater using NRC
risk evaluation. 

    This raises the important, unanswered question: Should HAFB
aircraft flights be allowed to pose such risks to the residents
of Clearfield? 

   It is uncertain whether a 20-ton F-16 would breach even a
single, 40-ton reinforced concrete and steel liner PFS cask,
releasing any radioactive materials in the vicinity of the
storage site. However, the consequences of a similar crash in
Clearfield are obvious. 

   The skid distance of a crashing F-16 is estimated to be about 
a half-mile. Within this destructive path, hundreds of people 
could be injured and killed from the impact, jet fuel-fed fires 
and possible detonation of aircraft weapons. Again, are Utahns 
now safer with PFS gone? 
    
   Gary M. Sandquist 
   Nuclear engineer 
   Salt Lake City 
   
© Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 61 Salt Lake Tribune: Company adheres to all regulatory requirements 
of the state of Utah

Stacking the waste

By Gregory Hopkins

Article Last Updated:10/28/2006 03:55:06 PM MDT

It's Halloween time, and the ghosts and goblins of HEAL Utah are
out to scare people once again. HEAL has suggested that
EnergySolutions is out to sidestep the law by seeking a license
amendment that allows for greater disposal capacity at its Clive
facility. The truth is that EnergySolutions has always followed
the legal and regulatory path prescribed by the state of Utah
and will continue to do so in the future. 

    Here's the issue. EnergySolutions would like to combine two
disposal cells into one cell on its licensed facility, known as
Section 32. The engineering and design for the new cell has
already been evaluated by a third party consultant and approved
by the State of Utah Division of Radiation Control. 

    This new cell would end up being 85 feet in total height,
compared to the Salt Lake County landfill, which has a design
height of 110 feet. This request does not increase the total
licensed capacity of the site. It merely provides the design
basis to allow EnergySolutions to utilize the capacity already
licensed. 

    HEAL argues that EnergySolutions must seek legislative and
gubernatorial approval for this request. But they are wrong. The
Division of Radiation Control has previously evaluated that
argument. In a letter dated Feb. 27, 2006, the DRC stated: 

    "There are not restrictions as to the nature, sequence or 
timing of the development of Section 32, just that it be used for 
low-level radioactive waste disposal. Thus, the entire 
development of Section 32 constitutes 'the facility.'" 

    This is the position of the state of Utah. The DRC has
consistently held this position over many years. And on this
point, we will not compromise. We will vigorously defend our
right to perform our business under the license granted by the
state of Utah, which is the disposal of Class A low-level
radioactive waste on our existing facility (Section 32). 

    Today, 20 percent of America's electricity is generated by
nuclear power. That number is sure to grow as America looks for
clean energy alternatives that don¹t emit greenhouse gases and
harm the environment. EnergySolutions plays a vital role in
providing waste management solutions for the utilities that
provide electricity. 

    We will continue to service these customers and fully
utilize the space granted us under our existing license, just as
any other business would. 

    The disposal facility at Clive is one of several sites
across the country where EnergySolutions manages radioactive
material. It is monitored on a daily basis by state regulators.
It has operated responsibly and safely for 18 years. Those who
say otherwise are simply not telling the truth. 

    But in the murky world of ghosts and goblins, fact and
fiction sometimes get distorted. 

   --- 
   GREGORY L. HOPKINS is senior vice president of
EnergySolutions. 
   
© Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 62 Salt Lake Tribune: EnergySolutions bends the rules and breaks the promises 
it makes

EnergySolutions' growing pains

By Christopher Thomas

Article Last Updated:10/28/2006 03:55:07 PM MDT

Like a teenager running from accountability, EnergySolutions is
pulling out every adolescent trick in the book to expand its
nuclear waste dump by stacking waste nearly eight stories high
while avoiding the legislative and gubernatorial scrutiny the
law seems to require. Here¹s how: 

    Breaking promises. When Envirocare changed ownership last
year, new CEO Steve Creamer announced that the company was
abandoning its push for hotter nuclear waste and wouldn¹t ask
for anything in return. But just two weeks later, the company
quietly submitted a proposal to geographically double in size. 

    Asking the other parent. Gov. Jon Huntsman said ³no² to
that boundary expansion. So, like a stubborn adolescent,
EnergySolutions came up with a new way to expand by stacking
nuclear waste 83 feet above ground. With tentative approval from
state regulators, they argue, the Legislature and the governor
won¹t have the option to say ³no² this time. 

    Bending the rules. Three scenarios enacted into state law in
1990 require legislative and gubernatorial approval of nuclear
dump expansions: going beyond existing boundaries, new
construction costing more than 50 percent of original
construction and increasing capacity 50 percent over the Jan. 1,
1990, capacity. Incredibly, state regulators failed to apply 
these rules to previous expansions. EnergySolutions and state 
regulators say the law doesn¹t limit how much waste the company 
can dump on its property as long as it doesn¹t spill over 
existing boundaries and elected leaders can¹t do a thing about 
it. 

    Getting defensive. EnergySolutions charges that critics of
the expansion just don¹t get it and that we wrongly accuse them
of breaking the law that we pick on them. They want to frame
this debate in the most technical terms where EnergySolutions
has the advantage of using hired experts and lawyers to limit
citizen participation and shift attention away from the
underlying question: Are the standards that allow expansion too
low and their interpretation too loose? 

    Current radiation chief Dane Finerfrock can¹t be blamed
entirely for bizarre interpretations he inherited and that the
company now expects him to follow. But the initial
interpretations and even the original license itself were
conceived in an era of corruption. Former radiation chief Larry
Anderson took $600,000 in gifts and cash from the dump¹s former
owner. EnergySolutions says the rules need to be applied
consistently, even if they¹re applied consistently wrong. 

    Before EnergySolutions makes its dump into a giant hump, the
critical rules, standards and baselines that govern expansion,
now and in the future, need to be clarified and written into
EnergySolutions¹ license. Firm guidance is needed. 

    Until then, like an ornery adolescent, EnergySolutions will
continue to break promises, bend the rules and change the
subject to avoid accountability. 
   --- 
    
   Christopher Thomas is policy director at HEAL Utah, a
nonprofit organization engaging citizens in an effort to protect
public health from nuclear and toxic waste. 
   

© Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 63 Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP Records Archive relocates in city 

By Kyle Mark steiner

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.
*****************************************************************
 64 The Enquirer: Schmidt considers nuke waste
 	 
Last Updated: 6:44 pm | Sunday, October 29, 2006

BY HOWARD WILKINSON | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

This doesn't happen every day: An incumbent member of Congress, 
in the middle of a re-election battle, says that storing nuclear 
waste shipments from around the world in her district may be a 
good idea.

U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt does say that, and her support for 
studying the idea has become an issue in her re-election 
campaign, especially in rural Pike County, in the far eastern end 
of her sprawling Southern Ohio District, where the nuclear wastes 
would be stored.

"I'm not advocating for it one way or the other," Schmidt told 
The Enquirer. "I'm saying it is something we need to look 
at."

Schmidt said she sees potential to create "hundreds, maybe 
thousands of jobs" in an economically distressed part of the 
state, where double-digit unemployment rates are the norm.

Schmidt has signed on to an effort by the Southern Ohio 
Diversification Initiative (SODI) and a Cleveland-based company 
called SONIC to seek a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant of 
up to $5 million for a study of whether the former Portsmouth 
Gaseous Diffusion plant should be a site for temporary storage 
and recycling of spent nuclear fuel rods. The 3,400-acre site 
near Piketon produced highly enriched uranium through the Cold 
War years for military purposes and for civilian reactors until 
2001, when that activity was consolidated at the similar Paducah 
plant.

A decision on the grant could come this week.

The idea of nuclear waste storage on a site that is still being 
cleaned up from its previous use has infuriated environmentalists 
and neighbors of the plant in Pike County and nearby Scioto 
County, prompting a communitywide petition drive and vows to 
fight the storage plan to the bitter end.

That and the fact that Schmidt's Democratic opponent, Victoria 
Wulsin of Indian Hill, has come out against the idea, mean that 
the issue could have an impact on Schmidt's re-election - meaning 
it could help determine who represents 650,000 constituents from 
Greater Cincinnati to Portsmouth.

"All I can tell you is that when it became known that she 
supports this, every Jean Schmidt yard sign in the county went 
down overnight," said Geoffrey Sea, a writer whose home abuts the 
Piketon plant. '

STUCK WITH IT FOREVER' 

Sea is one of the organizers of Southern Ohio Neighbors Group
(SONG), an organization of Piketon neighbors who are trying to
convince local leaders to stop the possible import of nuclear
wastes.

"They say this is just temporary storage, but the fear is that
there is going to be nowhere else for the wastes to go and we
will be stuck with it forever," said Sea, who is writing a book
about the 50-plus-year history of the Piketon plant.

Opponents of the idea fear leaks of the kind they saw in the
days of the old gaseous diffusion plant, which some say affected
the local aquifer, caused health problems for workers and are
still being cleaned up. The plan, they say, is too much risk for
too little gain.

SONG has found an ally in Wulsin, who toured the Piketon
facility this month. She said she came away as a supporter of
the plan that the former 2nd District congressman, Rob Portman,
helped put in place - to turn the old facility into a new
operation called the American Centrifuge Plant, which most
experts believe would be a much cleaner and more efficient way
of enriching uranium.

But the plan for importing nuclear wastes, Wulsin said, is "a
bad idea."

"I can't support just dumping wastes in that place," Wulsin
said. "It makes no sense."

Schmidt said the only reason she is backing the study is that it
seems to not only have the overwhelming support of business
leaders and public officials in Pike County, but also in
surrounding counties whose residents have worked at the Piketon
plant for decades.

"All I'm saying is let's get the money to study it because, in
the end, it is going to be up to the folks down there to
determine whether they want this or not," Schmidt said.

At the urging of SODI and SONIC, Schmidt wrote a letter last
month to U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman urging DOE to
consider Piketon for the nuclear waste storage and recycling
program.

"An ideal site with a skilled work force and significant
community support, the (Piketon) site is an outstanding choice
for hosting new technologies supporting our nation's energy
programs," Schmidt wrote.

Similar letters have gone to the DOE from elected officials and
business leaders from four southern Ohio counties - Pike,
Jackson, Ross and Scioto. 					 					 					
 					 					[E-mail this] E-mail this   |   [Printer-Friendly]
The site near the Pike County village of Piketon - just off
State Route 32 in the rolling Appalachian foothills - started in
1954 at the height of the Cold War. 

It was built to produce highly enriched uranium for the U.S.
military's nuclear weapons program. As the Cold War wound down,
the plant switched to producing less highly enriched uranium for
nuclear power plants. 

By the time it was shut down in 2001, there were reports of
massive leaks and spills from the plant and the federal
government ended up paying more than 2,000 death and illness
claims to workers and their families. 

The Piketon site is undergoing a decontamination and
decommissioning process, similar to what the Department of
Energy did at the former Fernald nuclear weapons facility in
Hamilton County and the Miamisburg Mound nuclear site in
Montgomery County. 

The cleanup is necessary so it can be converted to a
"centrifuge" uranium enrichment center, where a cleaner process
will be used. 

More information on the plant's history and its future is
available at .					  							

[The Piketon Gaseous  Diffusion facility closed in 2001 after 
enriching uranium since 1954. Rep. Jean Schmidt wants to see if 
the site could be converted into storage for nuclear waste from 
around the world.] 
					  			 			 
RIDDELL
			   			 			 
2001 after enriching uranium since 1954. Rep. Jean Schmidt wants
to see if the site could be converted into storage for nuclear
waste from around the world.
					  			 			
Copyright � 1995-2006
*****************************************************************
 65 LawFuel: Lawyers' Comment on Radioactive Waste -

The Law News Network
 
Environment Law UK - 

Government avoids 'burying' bad news 
  
Posted on Friday, October 27, 2006

LAWFUEL - Law News, Law Jobs - Nigel Robson, head of energy at
law firm Eversheds, comments on Environment Secretary David
Miliband's plans for the disposal of radioactive waste.

"The Government has a difficult path to tread. It must sort out
the problems of legacy nuclear waste and, as those in the
industry have known for some time, the only real answer is for
it to be buried. The need for decisions arises both from the
requirement to progress de-commissioning, but also to allow the
'new build' debate to move forward.
 
"However, the Government has been reluctant to inflame
opposition to nuclear power by selecting or imposing sites for
repositories. This is particularly sensitive at a time when the
debate on nuclear new build and the associated planning and
licensing processes are about to get underway within the next
few months. The Government has stated that anyone bidding to
build a new nuclear power station must include the cost of
de-commissioning and disposal of the associated nuclear waste.
Without decisions on disposal there is no way that the market
can cost out a new nuclear power station. The suggested solution
where local councils volunteer to accept a repository within
their area is a novel and perhaps surprising approach. 

"That said, there are a number of benefits which will flow to
those councils who opt for a repository. It would provide a
major source of quality long term local employment as well as
tax and revenue benefits. No doubt the Government has drawn upon
similar schemes across Europe, and the rest of the world, where
municipal authorities have been willing to embrace potentially
controversial schemes largely due to the investment and economic
benefits brought to their municipality. 

"It will remain to be seen whether the Government's strategy
will produce the result it needs."
 
Eversheds law firm has a specialist team of experts focusing on
the nuclear energy sector.
 
� LawFuel.com     |     Site by Customers.co.nz  
*****************************************************************
 66 Pahrump Valley Times: Test range to close, work may be shifted to test site   

e-mailed to: dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
 
Oct. 27, 2006 

By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU       

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A vestige of the Cold War may fade into
history as the government moves forward with plans to close the
Tonopah Test Range, a central Nevada proving ground for
ballistics and bombing experiments performed for the military
and nuclear weapons managers, before the end of 2010. 

Since the mid-1950s, the site about 30 miles south of Tonopah
has been a test facility for weapons components developed by the
Department of Energy and its predecessors, and artillery
experiments conducted for the Pentagon. 

Stealth technology that resulted in the F-117 fighter-bomber and
the B-2 bomber was developed at the range in the 1970s. A crash
program tested "bunker busters" for Operation Desert Storm in
the early 1990s. 

But the federal agency that manages the nation's nuclear weapons
complex is pursuing a reorganization and downsizing that
includes ceasing operations at the highly instrumented,
280-square mile site adjacent to the Nellis Test and Training
Range, according to officials and government documents. 

A shutdown "is significant, but there are other places where one
can do the kinds of things that we have done at Tonopah for so
many years," Troy Wade of Las Vegas said. The former head of
defense programs for the Department of Energy said the range was
as much a part of Cold War history as the Nevada Test Site. 

Officials with the National Nuclear Security Adminstration cited
budget costs. Figures were not immediately available. 

Thomas D'Agostino, deputy administrator for defense programs for
the National Nuclear Security Administration, said much data has
been compiled from bomb drops and other Tonopah experiments. 

Now, he said, "We don't believe it is necessary to fund a
special range for that activity." The NNSA will study whether
the flight-testing mission can be transferrred to White Sands
Missile Range in New Mexico, or to the Nevada Test Site. 

The plan surprised Nye County leaders. 

"This is pretty dismaying to me," County Commissioner Joni
Eastley said. "It could have a profound impact on the Tonopah
community. There are quite a number of people from Tonopah who
work there." 

The NNSA on Thursday announced scoping meetings as it begins
environmental studies for a sprawling reorganization also
affecting weapons labs and factories in Tennessee, New Mexico,
California, Texas, Missouri and South Carolina. 

The reorganization could have other ramifications for Nevada.
Over time, more plutonium and enriched uranium will likely be
shipped for safekeeping at the Device Assembly Facility, the
secured bunker in the interior of the Nevada Test Site. 

The NNSA earlier this year completed the movement of roughly two
tons of special nuclear materials to the test site bunker from
the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. 

Studies also will examine the possible expansion of large scale
non-nuclear hydrodynamic and high explosives testing, according
to testimony D'Agostino gave to Congress earlier this year. 

Officials have declined to comment whether that might mean more
projects like the Divine Strake non-nuclear explosion that was
shelved earlier this year in the wake of pressure from Nevada
and Utah leaders and environmental groups. 

A meeting on the NNSA reorganization will be held Nov. 28 in Las
Vegas, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and again from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
at the Cashman Center. 

Under the NNSA's preferred plan, the Tonopah site would close by
the end of September 2010. 	
 
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright � Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2006 
*****************************************************************
 67 KnoxNews: Big deals landed by radiation-detector firms

Two Oak Ridge companies earn initial contracts

By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com 

October 28, 2006

OAK RIDGE - A couple of radiation-detector companies in Oak Ridge 
came up big in the latest round of awards from the U.S. 
Department of Homeland Security. 

ICx Target Instruments and ORTEC were among the companies 
receiving early-stage contracts for development of "human 
portable radiation detection systems" to be used at the nation's 
ports of entry. The federal agency's Domestic Nuclear Protection 
Office announced the awards. 

Target Instruments, 100 Midland Road, received an initial 
contract valued at about $1.3 million, but there are options for 
bigger contracts in future competitions - up to $123 million. 

The Department of Homeland Security plans to purchase about 1,000 
of the advanced hand-held systems in the next few years and about 
200 back-up systems. 

"Whatever happens, it's going to be pretty substantial for us," 
Barry Stanner, Target Instruments' general manager, said 
Thursday. 

The company, a subsidiary of ICx Technologies, employs 34 workers 
in Oak Ridge, Stanner said. "We're looking to just about double 
the number of people we've got in the next few years," he said. 

According to the Department of Homeland Security, ORTEC's initial 
contract is for $2.4 million. ORTEC, a division of Ametec AMT, is 
located at 801 S. Illinois Ave. 

William Burke, a vice president at Ametec's corporate 
headquarters in Pennsylvania, said there are options for 
additional work valued at $5 million to $50 million. The Oak 
Ridge facilities have won more than $12 million in 
radiation-detector contracts in the past few months, Burke said. 

The company is hiring additional workers in Oak Ridge, but Burke 
said he didn't have any specific numbers. 

Science Applications International Corp., which is based in San 
Diego, also was a major winner in the radiation-detector program, 
and SAIC has offices in Oak Ridge. 

"This is an exceptional opportunity for East Tennessee to enhance 
our national security," U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said in a 
statement released by his office in Washington. "These vital 
security programs will also strengthen our reputation as a region 
with the expertise to solve tough technology problems and bring 
family-wage jobs to East Tennessee." 

Senior Writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.

 2006 - Knoxville News Sentinel
*****************************************************************
 68 Tri-City Herald: Addition of Vit plant stacks changes Hanford's skyline 

Published Saturday, October 28th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

The skyline at Hanford's vitrification plant changed Friday. 

Bechtel National spent about four hours slowing lifting 125 tons 
of emission stacks 70 feet into the air to place them on top of 
the plant's Low Activity Waste Facility. 

"This is the first time we'll see LAW looking like it will always 
look," said Mike Lewis, manager of construction for Department of 
Energy contractor Bechtel National. 

The building stands 70 feet tall and the 130-foot emission stacks 
bring the structure to 200 feet tall, about the height of a 
17-story building. 

The $12.2 billion vitrification plant is being built to
immobilize Hanford's worst radioactive waste inside glass logs
for permanent disposal. The Low Activity Waste Facility will be
the third-largest of the four large buildings at the plant,
which will be surrounded by 25 support buildings. 

The plant is planned to treat much of the 53 million gallons of
radioactive and hazardous chemical waste now stored in
underground tanks. It's left from separating plutonium from
irradiated fuel rods to produce plutonium for the nation's
nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War. 

Wastes will be separated at the Pretreatment Facility into
low-activity radiation and high-level radiation components. The
low-activity radiation waste will contain mostly hazardous
chemicals with as much of the radioactive constituents removed
as possible. 

High-level radiation wastes can emit up to 5,000 rems of
radiation an hour as measured on contact with the outside of a
stainless steel container. The low-activity waste can have 0.4
rems per hour. That's roughly the amount of natural background
radiation a person would receive annually just by living in
Washington state. 

Silica and other glass-forming materials will be added to the
waste and then the mixture will be melted to form glass. 

That's part of the need for the stacks raised Friday. 

Gas from the two melters in the Low Activity Waste Facility will
be cleaned and then released from the stacks, along with other
air from the building's ventilation system. 

There's no comparison to what was released from Hanford's stacks
during the plutonium production years, said Roy Schepens,
manager of DOE's Hanford Office of River Protection. 

Emissions from the Low Activity Waste Facility will be filtered
to remove small particles and sent through a scrubber that will
use steam to settle out heavier particles before the air is
released from the stacks. 

The air emissions will have to meet standards of the Washington
State Department of Ecology, the State Department of Health and
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Regulatory permits
have been approved for the design of the stacks, but they still
must receive operating permits. 

The stacks will handle more than 110,000 cubic feet of air per
minute that will be monitored and sampled before leaving the
facility once operations begin. 

The stack assembly that was lifted Friday includes three
individual emission stacks, each between 4 and 5 feet in
diameter, encased in an open steel framework. 

Bechtel National used two cranes to lift the stack assembly to a
standing position. The smaller crane slowly crawled toward the
larger one holding the bottom end of the stacks as the larger
crane lifted from the top of the stacks until the assembly was
suspended. 

"Slow and easy," Lewis said as work began. 

Then the 270-foot-tall crane lifted the stack assembly high
enough to clear the building and swung it into place on the
roof. 

Bechtel National chose Friday for the lift because workers build
at the site on 10-day shifts from Monday through Thursday. That
cleared the area of all but 50 of the approximately 700 people
usually at the construction site. 

The contractor also carefully planned the lift with detailed
drawings, computer calculations of the weight on both cranes,
load tests of the components in the slings and a check of the
credentials of those working on the project. 

This week workers also finished the roofing and siding on the
building. It's "dried in," as they say. 

Now they'll continue work inside where it's warm and dry on
electrical, heating and other systems, working toward a
construction finish date for that building in 2012. 

"If you go inside, it's starting to look like a plant," Schepens
said. 

Every day the look of the vitrification plant seems to change,
said Dave Smith, president of the Central Washington Building
and Construction Trades Council. 

But "major milestones like today's add emphasis to the
accomplishments," he said. 

� 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 69 Tri-City Herald: Hanford cleanup plan timeline may be stalled 

Published Sunday, October 29th, 2006 

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer 

Major deadlines for coming up with a cleanup plan for
contaminated soil and ground water protection in the center of
Hanford would be delayed three years under proposed changes to
the legally binding Tri-Party Agreement. 

But that's a good thing, say Hanford clean-up advocates. 

The changes are being proposed because of public and regulator
comments that more should be known about what chemicals and
radioactive constituents contaminating central Hanford before
clean up is done. 

"Basically it will allow more time to characterize some of the
more complex waste sites to support clean up decisions," said
Craig Cameron, an Environmental Protection Agency scientist. 

Proposed changes call for extending deadlines to gather data,
analyze it and make cleanup recommendations from the end of 2008
to the end of 2011. 

It also calls for developing a plan to tackle a problem that
doesn't appear to have a good solution now: Cleaning up
contamination that's in soil 40 to 300 feet below the surface of
the ground. The milestone would require that potential
technologies for doing the work be investigated. 

Clean up of contamination already is well under way along
Hanford's Columbia River Corridor, where reactors produced
plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program and uranium
fuel was made for the reactors. 

There the plan has been to "keep digging until it's clean," said
Todd Martin, chairman of the Hanford Advisory Board. The board
has supported that approach. 

But central Hanford is going to be more risky, more complex and
has the potential to have more contamination very deep in the
ground, he said. 

In central Hanford, huge production factories used chemical
methods to extract plutonium from irradiated fuel for more than
40 years. The work left 884 sites contaminated with radioactive
and hazardous chemicals. 

Many of the waste sites are areas where liquids from processing
operations were poured into the ground. The sites also include
landfills and dumps, septic tanks, drain fields, pits and
pipelines. 

The Tri-Party Agreement agencies -- the Department of Energy and
its regulators, EPA and the Washington State Department of
Ecology -- have agreed under the proposed changes that some of
the 884 waste sites do not need any more work to find out the
extent of contamination. 

About 350, or 40 percent, are small or shallow, said John Price,
Department of Ecology manager for environmental restoration. 

"We don't need to spend money sampling up front," he said. "We
can go straight to the field." 

The contaminated soil will be dug up, treated as needed and
disposed of in a lined landfill. 

But on the remainder of the central Hanford waste sites, more
characterization will be done before plans are made on how to
clean them up or otherwise contain the spread of contaminants
toward the ground water. In some cases, waste sites are being
capped with an earthen barrier to prevent rain water from
penetrating down to contaminants and carrying them toward the
ground water. 

Under the current plan, the 884 waste sites were assigned to
groups with similar sites. Then what were believed to be the
worst sites in those groups were sampled and studied to make
plans for all the sites in the groups. 

A clean up plan would have been then been made, with sampling to
confirm what was in the waste site would have been done before
clean up work started. 

But comments from regulators, the Hanford Advisory Board, the
tribes and others showed that people "were really uncomfortable
with making decision on limited or focused data," said Larry
Romine, DOE project director for much of central Hanford clean
up. 

"The historical process data is not reliable," Martin said.
Surprises likely would have been found after the clean up
decisions had been made, he said. 

Methods to learn more about the extent, type and location of
contamination will include taking samples from wells or bore
holes. In addition, measurements of the resistance of
electricity as it moves through the soil will be use. 

The new deadline for identifying technologies that can then be
used to clean up contamination deep in the soil would be Dec.
31, 2007, under the proposed new milestones. 

The new milestones also further integrate the schedule for
decisions on soil cleanup and ground water cleanup, allowing
them to be made at the same time. 

Public comment will be accepted on the proposed Tri-Party
Agreement changes through Dec. 7. Send comments to Briant
Charboneau, DOE, Richland Operations Office, P.O. Box 550
(A-6-33), Richland, WA 99352, or e-mail
Briant_L_Charboneau@rl.gov. For a copy of the proposed changes,
call 1-800-321-2008. 

� 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 70 Stockton Record: Watchdog group wants to turn weapons lab green 

Michael Fitzgerald
 			
Environmental group bids to run Livermore site 				 				 Alex
Breitler Record Staff Writer                             

Published Saturday, Oct 28, 2006 

LIVERMORE - It has filed more than 20 lawsuits, testified at 
dozens of hearings and hosted at least 200 community meetings.

Now a group of environmentalists that has long focused its fury 
on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is taking that 
watchdog role to a new level by filing a bid Friday to take over 
the lab entirely.

Lawrence Livermore, which employs about 2,000 San Joaquin County 
residents, has been managed for the past 50-plus years by the 
University of California. But for the first time ever, a 
competitive bidding process is under way to determine who manages 
the national security-oriented lab in the future.
 
Even the environmental group, Livermore-based Tri-Valley 
Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, admits its bid is 
a long shot.

"We don't expect they will choose us," said Executive Director 
Marylia Kelley. "But we're extremely happy with our proposal. We 
believe it's technically feasible and fiscally sound."

The group's goal is to convert the lab from nuclear weapons work 
to more "socially beneficial" science: the study of sustainable 
energy, global warming and other environmental issues. Tri-Valley 
CAREs in its proposal has partnered with another nuclear watchdog 
group, a small wind energy company and the San Francisco-based 
New College of California.

Congress three years ago voted to require competitive bidding for 
the management of laboratories whose previous contracts had 
spanned at least a half-century. UC has already won its bid to 
continue running the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New 
Mexico.

The university and one of its partners, San Francisco-based 
engineering company Bechtel, filed a bid for Lawrence Livermore 
earlier this week, said Mike Kidder, a Bechtel spokesman. The old 
contract ends in September.

"We are officially in," Kidder said. "We'll await the process."

Under its watch, UC officials say Lawrence Livermore has become 
one of the world's "premiere scientific centers," examining not 
only national security but making other technological 
contributions, such as a laser that can break up blood clots 
before they cause a stroke. The lab employs 8,500 people and 
receives an annual budget of $1.6 billion from the federal 
government.

Tri-Valley CAREs says the lab dedicates too much time to nuclear 
weapons study and does so behind a veil of secrecy that does not 
encourage accountability.

The group also questions laboratory safety; Lawrence Livermore 
officials were scolded by the federal Department of Energy 
earlier this year for violations that occurred in 2004 and 2005.

If awarded the bid, Tri-Valley CAREs would open an office for 
whistle-blower protection and promises more transparency for an 
inquiring public.

"We're challenging the other bidders to show how they would 
handle these same goals," Kelley said.

The National Nuclear Security Administration - an office within 
the Department of Energy - is expected to pick a lab manager by 
spring 2007, said spokesman Al Stotts. He did not know Friday how 
many bids have been filed.

But all of them will be considered, Stotts said.

Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or 
				
  Livermore lab   
  	
� The 1-square-mile lab opened in 1952 and is managed by the 
University of California. � The lab has a $1.6 billion budget and 
employs 8,500 people. � UC's contract to manage the lab expires 
in September; Friday was the deadline for groups to submit new 
contract proposals. 
 	   
   Sunday, October 29, 2006 --> 

Copyright � 1998-2006 ONI Stockton, Inc., All Rights Reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 71 SF Chron: 3 teams vie to manage nuclear research at Lawrence Livermore

By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer 

Saturday, October 28, 2006

(10-28) 00:00 PDT San Francisco (AP) -- 

Three teams have submitted bids for the right to manage Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory, including one consisting of 
nuclear watchdogs, academics and a "green" energy firm, the 
groups said Friday. 

Livermore Lab GREEN, as the team calls itself, would halt the
nuclear weapons research that has been the lab's primary mission
since its inception in 1952. 

For the first time in its history, the federal government opened 
up the process for securing the management contract for Lawrence 
Livermore to competitive bidding. 

Lawrence Livermore, one of the nation's nuclear-weapons research
sites, is currently overseen by the University of California,
but its contract ends in September 2007. UC and Bechtel National
Inc. submitted one of the three bids ahead of this week's
deadline. Their proposed team also includes BWX Technologies
Inc.; Texas A University; Washington Group International; and
Battelle. 

A UC-Bechtel partnership last year won the government contract to 
continue managing the Los Alamos National Laboratory that built 
the atomic bomb. That management team also includes Washington 
Group and BWX. 

Another team that bid for Lawrence Livermore this week is led by 
Northrop Grumman Corp. Northrop earlier this year beat out 
incumbent Bechtel for the contract to manage the Nevada Test 
site, the area where nuclear weapons were once tested  now used 
for testing conventional weapons, emergency response training and 
other purposes. 

The Northrop Grumman team also includes Nuclear Fuel Services; 
CH2M Hill; AECOM; and Wackenhut. 

The three teams submitted their bids to the National Nuclear 
Security Administration, a semi-autonomous branch of the 
Department of Energy. A panel of government experts will make 
their decision by March 31, 2007. 

The consortiums led by UC-Bechtel and Northrop Grumman declined 
to discuss specifics of their proposals, citing the ongoing 
competition. 

But Livermore Lab GREEN provided a detailed overview of its bid, 
and pledged to place the full text on its Web site by Saturday. 

Its management team would consist of Tri-Valley CARES and Nuclear 
Watch of New Mexico, two watchdog groups that have been critical 
of practices at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos respectively. 

The team also would include New College of California and 
WindMiller Energy. 

"Our management proposal is both innovative and complete," said 
Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs. "I expect 
that NNSA will be reluctant to consider genuine change. However, 
in our view, that is exactly what is required. The country 
deserves more than it is presently getting from its national 
labs." 

An array of highly classified research is currently conducted at 
Lawrence Livermore, including work for the Department of Homeland 
Security, which is attempting to open a biodefense campus where 
lethal agents would be tested. 

The Livermore Lab GREEN bid would transform Lawrence Livermore 
into an unclassified "World Class Center for Civilian Science" 
within five years. Plutonium and highly enriched uranium would be 
removed in four years. 
___ 

On the Net: 

NNSA's overview of the Lawrence Livermore competition: 

Tri-Valley CARES: 
Bechtel: 
Northrop Grumman: 

<A
HREF="http://www.doeal.gov/llnlCompetition">www.doeal.gov/llnlCom
petition/ 

<A HREF="http://www.trivalleycares.org">www.trivalleycares.org/ 

<A HREF="http://www.bechtel.com">www.bechtel.com/ 

<A
HREF="http://www.northropgrumman.com">www.northropgrumman.com/
				
The San Francisco Chronicle
*****************************************************************
 72 DenverPost.com: FEMA cuts terror team
 
denver & the west

FEMA cuts terror teamA counterterror medical team based in
Denver is supposed to be able to launch in hours after an
attack. But FEMA cuts may curb that capability.

By Bruce Finley Denver Post Staff Writer

Article Last Updated:10/29/2006 10:26:28 AM MST

A Denver-based federal counterterrorism team charged with saving
lives after nerve gas, nuclear or dirty-bomb attacks is facing
its own challenges that threaten its ability to quickly respond. 

"If getting there early is going to save lives, we are not going
to save as many lives," said Dr. Charles Goldstein, commander of
the 90-member unit. 

The team of doctors, nurses and paramedics - a unique unit in
the 107-team National Disaster Medical System - is supposed to
be able to mobilize within hours, then fly into chaos and work
through the crucial first few days after an attack to contain
casualties. 

But overspending has mired the system in debt, forcing the
suspension of funding for such teams while Federal Emergency
Management Agency supervisors scramble to sort out
irregularities. 

Team members say the problems threaten to compromise their work
in a disaster by impeding maintenance of equipment, limiting
paid training and increasing the time it takes to prepare to go. 

The Denver team now requires eight hours to mobilize, two hours
more than the FEMA standard, for lack of a functioning
centralized pager-notification system, Goldstein said. He blames
poor FEMA oversight. 

More than a year after Hurricane Katrina called FEMA's
management into question, the agency's stewardship of the
disaster medical system "is dysfunctional and complex,"
Goldstein said. 

The problems have shaken the entire National Disaster Medical
System, which was formed during the Cold War as a prized asset
of the Public Health Service. 

FEMA took over the system after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks amid
concerns that terrorists would launch more attacks inside the
United States. Congress gave it $34 million a year. It includes
teams with specialized capabilities ranging from handling heaps
of dead bodies to helping distressed animals. 

Now - on orders from the White House - the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services is poised to take back the system as
part of a post-Katrina reorganization. 

Three teams in nation 

Goldstein's team operates out of a beige warehouse in north
Denver holding millions of dollars' worth of equipment and
vehicles. It is one of three elite medical teams in the system.
Others are positioned in Los Angeles and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. 

It is the nation's only team configured to travel on short
notice by air using collapsible gear that fits into easily
transportable containers. 

Its mission is responding to terrorist attacks involving weapons
of mass destruction, though all teams in the system can work
after natural disasters and other crises as well. The Denver
team worked in Houston for two weeks after Katrina. 

But team spending on training and maintenance so exceeded the
system's budget that FEMA supervisors shut down funding in
September. The deficit amount "is still being reviewed," said
Jack Beall, chief of the system at FEMA, in response to written
questions from The Denver Post. 

Goldstein said that he couldn't say how much he spent this year
but that the total doesn't exceed his roughly $800,000 annual
budget from 2005. 

"They've never told me how much money I'm allowed to spend" in
2006, he said. 

Team members are classified as "intermittent federal employees"
and until recently received from $13 to $50 an hour, depending
on their skill level, for work devoted to the team. As a doctor,
Goldstein, 59, said he has collected $50 an hour for 24 hours a
week of work outside his private medical practice to run the
team - about $57,600 a year. 

If FEMA officials "tell me what the rules are, I'm going to play
by them," he said. "But they are not telling us what the rules
are. And then they keep changing them midstream. 

"We are doing things, utilizing our best judgment, to accomplish
the mission and keep our teams in a state of appropriate
readiness and alertness." 

Outside work questioned 

Some units of the National Disaster Medical System, including
the Denver-based team, solicit additional outside funding.
Goldstein arranged a $75,000- a-year sponsorship from the
Hospital Corporation of America. At FEMA headquarters, Beall
said the sponsorship is illegal under federal rules to guard
against conflicts of interest. 

Said Goldstein: "We weren't told we can't do that. We were told
there were potential conflicts of interest. They said they were
going to investigate teams individually. That never went
anyplace." 

The Denver team formed a nonprofit foundation after the Sept. 11
attacks to raise money and do outside work. This nonprofit
sought and won a $600,000 state government contract to run a
database and train local medical volunteers. 

FEMA officials said teams can do outside work like this and
accept payment as long as they are not acting in their federal
capacity. It's unclear whether that means team members can work
together and use federally funded equipment. 

Now the interruption of funding threatens response capabilities.
For example, Goldstein said, his 13 vehicles no longer are fully
maintained, and crews are hard-pressed to handle tedious but
crucial tasks such as charging more than 425 batteries that run
respirators, air-monitoring devices and other tools. 

Limited funding resumed this month, but the Denver team now
operates at "a sub-optimal level," Goldstein announced in a
recent memo to team members. 

At FEMA headquarters in Washington, new managers hired after the
Hurricane Katrina debacle acknowledged problems with the
disaster medical teams. They say they're investigating and
scrambling to put in order a system the nation could need any
day. 

Supervisors cut off funds in September because "a number of
teams had overspent their budgets," said Glenn Cannon, director
of FEMA's response division. 

Team leaders "got in trouble because they tried to make it like
there were full-time positions when in fact there weren't,"
Cannon said, declining to single out specific teams. 

"Now," Cannon said, "we will watch, much more closely, the
spending rates of the teams." 

U.S. Health and Human Services officials who will take over the
disaster-response system in January said they'll have lawyers
review all FEMA decisions. 

The system "needs strengthening," said Public Health Service
Rear Adm. Dr. Craig VanDerwagen, an assistant secretary for
public health emergency preparedness. 

Maintaining an elite team that can fly into a crisis within four
hours is essential, VanDerwagen said. 

Team members around the country "are appropriately anxious,
perhaps frustrated, and somewhat angry because of the movement
back and forth (between agencies) over the past two years," he
said. 

Where the cuts will hurt 

Now, after the sudden suspension of funding, Denver team members
train on a volunteer basis. This month, managers were allotted a
combined total of 48 paid hours a week to coordinate training
and keep equipment ready, Goldstein said. 

"There are things that are going to suffer," he said. "I have 13
vehicles that are supposed to be driven 50 miles a month. I
can't pay people to do that anymore. ... Is fuel going to start
leaking from one of my trucks because it hasn't been
lubricated?" 

Last Sunday, a dozen or so nurses, doctors and paramedics
gathered for training in their rented 16,600-square-foot
warehouse, east of Interstate 25, amid millions of dollars'
worth of gear, from drug supplies to nerve gas detectors. 

Clad in chocolate-colored protective overalls, lime-green rubber
boots and double gloves, they practiced inserting breathing
tubes into a mannequin while wearing gas masks that made their
voices sound pinched and faraway. 

"Like working underwater," said team member Dr. David Levine,
57. "Cumbersome." 

Team members set up collapsible stretchers. They set up a
collapsible decontamination tent and an accordion-like apparatus
for moving unconscious victims on backboards through a scrubbing
zone. They reviewed procedures for jamming injectors filled with
atropine, a nerve gas antidote, into their thighs. 

Now, with federal funding reduced and seemingly uncertain, some
team leaders seek new jobs to make up lost income. 

"I can do this for a couple months, but then it will start
getting tight," said team administrator Wendy Colon, whose paid
hours were cut from 40 a week to 24. "And there are some things
that aren't being done." 

Yet despite uncertainties, every terrorism-related news
bulletin, such as the recent one about possible radiological
bombs in football stadiums, sends team member Edie Lindeburg,
40, bolting to a spare room in her house, where her black duffel
bag sits ready to go. 

"I run and check my equipment. I think: 'Did I do the battery
check? Who do I have to notify if I go?"' said Lindeburg, an
18-year-veteran hospital and emergency room nurse. 

"I'd be scared to death" to walk into the scene of a nuclear or
chemical attack, she said. "But I still am ready to do that." 

Staff writer Bruce Finley can be reached at 303-954-1700 or

 All contents Copyright 2006 The Denver Post or other copyright
*****************************************************************
 73 Inside Bay Area: Three teams now bidding for lab

Each group has a different plan in mind for the facility leaving 
its future up in the air

By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

Article Last Updated:10/28/2006 02:44:04 AM PDT

As federal contractors delivered boxes of proposals this week to
the U.S. Energy Department, the competition to run Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory looked like it might answer a
larger question: 

Will Livermore remain a full-fledged nuclear weapons laboratory
or reinvent itself as something else? 

Short of closing down the lab, three teams bidding for
management of the $1.7 billion-a-year lab hardly could be
farther apart in imagining a new future for its 8,000 workers
and battery of scientific tools that includes the world's most
powerful laser and two fastest supercomputers. 

On Friday, the deadline set by the National Nuclear Security
Administration to submit bids, the two top contenders � a team
led by the University of California and Bechtel National and
another led by defense contractor Northrop Grumman � were saying
next to nothing about their plans. The third team, GREEN LLC, is
made up of activists who want to get out of weapons research
entirely. 

But it's clear that the lab run solely by the university for
more than 50 years soon will face a pinch of higher operating
costs and the likelihood of losing bread-and-butter weapons work
with plutonium and possibly high explosives. 

The federal government plans on moving weapons plutonium and
uranium out of the Livermore Valley by 2014 for security
reasons, and weapons officials also have talked of shutting down
Site 300, the lab's remote testing area for high explosives. The 
moves are part of a broader shrinkage and upgrade in the Cold 
War-era nuclear weapons complex. 

The UC/Bechtel team is likely to promote itself as the improved
status quo manager, more experienced and better able to
orchestrate the new division of weapons work between Livermore
and Los Alamos, its sister lab in New Mexico, also run by the
UC/Bechtel team. 

The team also will sell its experience in homeland security,
conventional defense research and basic science, all areas of
specialty for Battelle Memorial Institute and the university.
The team's proposed director is George Miller, a weapons
designer whose imprint is on more than a half-dozen U.S. nuclear
bombs and warheads. 

Northrop Grumman is expected to pitch itself as a game changer. 

If as federal weapons officials suggest in their new Complex
2030 plan, the government wants a leaner, meaner, more secure
nuclear weapons complex, Northrop Grumman intends to deliver it. 

"It's a matter of how you embrace that, what you can do for the
customer," said Northrop Grumman spokesman David Apt. "It's
interpreting that vision and how you can bring it to fruition." 

Northrop executives tried teaming up with lots of universities,
including some in California, Nevada and Colorado. But none
stepped up to run a bomb lab, and Northrop is proposing to run
Lawrence Livermore more or less with the team that it has
running the Nevada Test Site. 

Other partners include AECOM, a government services and
environmental management contractor; Nuclear Fuel Services and
CH2M Hill, both expert firms in handling high hazard materials
such as plutonium; and the security firm Wackenhut Services. 

The president of that team is Stephen Younger, a physicist who
cut his teeth as a Livermore weapons designer before a falling
out with senior managers sent him to Los Alamos, where he led
the weapons program in the late 1990s. 

That team beat most of the contractors on the UC/Bechtel team to
win management of the test site earlier this year. 

GREEN LLC, a collection of disarmament activists and
renewable-energy enthusiasts, would get Livermore entirely out
of the weapons business and steer the lab into unclassified,
civilian research in renewable energy and climate change. The
team also put in a bid to manage Los Alamos lab but its bid was
rejected as technically insufficient. 

"We don't expect the Department of Energy's going to choose our
bid, but it's a good bid," said Marylia Kelley, head of a
Livermore-based lab watchdog group, Tri-Valley CAREs. "It's
technically feasible and morally correct. It would put Lawrence
Livermore lab in the forefront of developing new energy
technologies and be a world-class center for civilian science." 

Rather than use Livermore giant 192-beam laser for weapons
research, the team would open it up to astrophysicists,
materials scientists and planetary scientists. 

Instead of explosives testing, Site 300 would become a "perfect
testbed" for new solar cells and wind turbines. The leader of
the team would be physicist Robert Civiak, a former nuclear
weapons analyst for Congress. 

Insidebayarea.com | Subscriber Services | Contact Us

 � 2000-2006 ANG Newspapers
*****************************************************************
 74 Inside Bay Area: Livermore lab's future is in limbo

Bidders reveal little about plans as proposals are submitted Friday

By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

Article Last Updated:10/28/2006 02:58:07 AM PDT

As federal contractors delivered boxes of proposals this week to 
the U.S. Energy Department, the competition to run Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory looked like it might answer a 
larger question: 

Will Livermore remain a full-fledged nuclear weapons laboratory 
or reinvent itself? 

Short of closing down the lab, three teams bidding for management 
of the $1.7 billion-a-year lab hardly could be farther apart in 
imagining a new future for its 8,000 workers and battery of 
scientific tools that includes the world's most powerful laser 
and two fastest supercomputers. 

On Friday, the deadline set by the National Nuclear Security 
Administration to submit bids, the two top contenders � a team 
led by the University of California and Bechtel National and 
another led by defense contractor Northrop Grumman � were saying 
next to nothing about their plans. The third team, GREEN LLC, is 
made up of activists who want to get out of weapons research 
entirely. 

But it's clear that the lab run solely by the university for
more than 50 years soon will face a pinch of higher operating
costs and the likelihood of losing bread-and-butter weapons work
with plutonium and possibly high explosives. 

The federal government plans on moving weapons plutonium and
uranium out of the Livermore Valley by 2014 for security
reasons, and weapons officials also have talked of shutting down
Site 300, the lab's remote testing area for high explosives. The
moves are part of a broader shrinkage and upgrade in the Cold 
War-era nuclear weapons complex. 

The UC/Bechtel team is likely to promote itself as the improved
status quo manager, more experienced and better able to
orchestrate the new division of weapons work betweenLivermore
and Los Alamos, its sister lab in New Mexico, also run by the
UC/Bechtel team. 

The team also will sell its experience in homeland security,
conventional defense research and basic science, all areas of
specialty for Battelle Memorial Institute and the university.
The team's proposed director is George Miller, a weapons
designer whose imprint is on more than a half-dozen U.S. nuclear
bombs and warheads. 

Northrop Grumman is expected to pitch itself as a game changer. 

If as federal weapons officials suggest in their new Complex
2030 plan, the government wants a leaner, meaner, more secure
nuclear weapons complex, Northrop Grumman intends to deliver it. 

"It's a matter of how you embrace that, what you can do for the
customer," said Northrop Grumman spokesman David Apt. "It's
interpreting that vision and how you can bring it to fruition." 

Northrop executives tried teaming up with lots of universities,
including some in California, Nevada and Colorado. But none
stepped up to run a bomb lab, and Northrop is proposing to run
Lawrence Livermore more or less with the team that it has
running the Nevada Test Site. 

Other partners include AECOM, a government services and
environmental management contractor; Nuclear Fuel Services and
CH2M Hill, both expert firms in handling highly hazardous
materials such as plutonium; and the security firm Wackenhut
Services. 

The president of that team is Stephen Younger, a physicist who
cut his teeth as a Livermore weapons designer before a falling
out with senior managers sent him to Los Alamos, where he led
the weapons program in the late 1990s. 

Northrop's Apt declined to confirm widespread speculation that
Younger will lead the Livermore bid. 

That team beat most of the contractors on the UC/Bechtel team to
win management of the test site earlier this year. The desert
test site for decades has been the proving range for the weapons
labs, their bombs, nuclear rocket engines and wilder, classified
experiments. 

Now houses are crowding around once-remote weapons labs and
factories in California, New Mexico and elsewhere, and the sandy
expanses beyond Mercury, Nev., are being eyed as the last safe,
secure place for hands-on weapons research. 

As for exactly what Livermore would do, Northrop isn't saying,
but the suggestion is something rather different than what the
lab does today. 

"We'll see what the willingness is," Apt said. "We think there's
a great opportunity here for the future of the facility and the
joint venture." 

GREEN LLC, a collection of disarmament activists and
renewable-energy enthusiasts, would get Livermore entirely out
of the weapons business and steer the lab into unclassified,
civilian research in renewable energy and climate change. The
team also put in a bid to manage Los Alamos lab but its bid was
rejected as technically insufficient. 

"We don't expect the Department of Energy's going to choose our
bid, but it's a good bid," said Marylia Kelley, head of a
Livermore-based lab watchdog group, Tri-Valley CAREs. "It's
technically feasible and morally correct. It would put Lawrence
Livermore lab in the forefront of developing new energy
technologies and be a world-class center for civilian science." 

Rather than use Livermore's giant 192-beam laser for weapons
research, the team would open it up to astrophysicists,
materials scientists and planetary scientists. 

Instead of explosives testing, Site 300 would become a "perfect
testbed" for new solar cells and wind turbines. The leader of
the team would be physicist Robert Civiak, a former nuclear
weapons analyst for Congress. 

 � 2000-2006 ANG Newspapers 
*****************************************************************
 75 Inside Bay Area: What will become of the lab?

Two bidders stay mum on plans;
third wants out of weapons development

By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

Article Last Updated:10/28/2006 02:56:26 AM PDT

As federal contractors delivered boxes of proposals this week to 
the U.S. Energy Department, the competition to run Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory looked like it might answer a 
larger question: 

Will Livermore remain a full-fledged nuclear weapons laboratory 
or reinvent itself as something else? 

Short of closing down the lab, three teams bidding for
management of the $1.7 billion-a-year lab hardly could be
farther apart in imagining a new future for its 8,000 workers
and battery of scientific tools that includes the worlds most
powerful laser and two fastest supercomputers. 

On Friday, the deadline set by the National Nuclear Security
Administration to submit bids, the two top contenders � a team
led by the University of California and Bechtel National and
another led by defense contractor Northrop Grumman � were saying
next to nothing about their plans. The third team, GREEN LLC, is
made up of activists who want to get out of weapons research
entirely. 

But its clear that the lab, run solely by the university for
more than 50 years, soon will face a pinch of higher operating
costs and the likelihood of losing bread-and-butter weapons work
with plutonium and possibly with high explosives. 

The federal government plans on moving weapons, plutonium and
uranium out of the Livermore Valley by 2014 for security
reasons, and weapons officials also have talked of shutting down
Site 300, the labs remote testing area for high explosives. The 
moves are part of a broader shrinkage and upgrade in the Cold 
War-era nuclear weapons complex. 

The UC/Bechtel team is likely to promote itself as the improved
status quo manager, more experienced and better able to
orchestrate the new division of weapons work between Livermore
and Los Alamos, its sister lab in New Mexico, also run by the 
UC/Bechtel team. 

The team also will sell its experience in homeland security, 
conventional defense research and basic science, all areas of 
specialty for Battelle Memorial Institute and the university. The 
teams proposed director is George Miller, a weapons designer 
whose imprint is on more than a half-dozen U.S. nuclear bombs and 
warheads. 

Northrop Grumman is expected to pitch itself as a game changer. 

If, as federal weapons officials suggest in their new Complex 
2030 plan, the government wants a leaner, meaner, more secure 
nuclear weapons complex, Northrop Grumman intends to deliver it. 

Its a matter of how you embrace that, what you can do for the
customer, said Northrop Grumman spokesman David Apt. Its
interpreting that vision and how you can bring it to fruition. 

Northrop executives tried teaming up with lots of universities,
including some in California, Nevada and Colorado. But none
stepped up to run a bomb lab, and Northrop is proposing to run
Lawrence Livermore more or less with the team that it has
running the Nevada Test Site. 

Other partners include AECOM, a government services and
environmental management contractor; Nuclear Fuel Services and
CH2M Hill, both expert firms in handling high-hazard materials
such as plutonium; and the security firm Wackenhut Services. 

The president of that team is Stephen Younger, a physicist who
cut his teeth as a Livermore weapons designer before a falling
out with senior managers sent him to Los Alamos, where he led
the weapons program in the late 1990s. 

Northrops Apt declined to confirm widespread speculation that
Younger will lead the Livermore bid. 

That team beat most of the contractors on the UC/Bechtel team to
win management of the test site earlier this year. The desert
test site for decades has been the proving range for the weapons
labs, their bombs, nuclear rocket engines and wilder, classified
experiments. 

Now, houses are crowding around once-remote weapons labs and
factories in California, New Mexico and elsewhere, and the sandy
expanses beyond Mercury, Nev., are being eyed as the last safe,
secure place for hands-on weapons research. 

As for exactly what Livermore would do, Northrop isnt saying,
but the suggestion is something rather different than what the
lab does today. 

Well see what the willingness is, Apt said. We think theres a
great opportunity here for the future of the facility and the
joint venture. 

GREEN LLC, a collection of disarmament activists and
renewable-energy enthusiasts, would get Livermore entirely out
of the weapons business and steer the lab into unclassified,
civilian research in renewable energy and climate change. The
team also put in a bid to manage Los Alamos lab, but its bid was
rejected as technically insufficient. 

We dont expect the Department of Energys going to choose our
bid, but its a good bid, said Marylia Kelley, head of a
Livermore-based lab watchdog group, Tri-Valley CAREs. 

Its technically feasible and morally correct. It would put
Lawrence Livermore lab in the forefront of developing new energy
technologies and be a world-class center for civilian science. 

Rather than use Livermore giant 192-beam laser for weapons
research, the team would open it up to astrophysicists,
materials scientists and planetary scientists. 

Instead of explosives testing, Site 300 would become a perfect
testbed for new solar cells and wind turbines. The leader of the
team would be physicist Robert Civiak, a former nuclear weapons
analyst for Congress. 

Contact Ian Hoffman at ihoffman@angnewspapers.com. 

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 76 KNDO/KNDU: Hanford Vitrification Plant Progress

Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA | 

HANFORD, Wash. - Bechtel National, Inc. boasts a big
accomplishment in Hanford clean up. Construction crews installed
the exhaust stacks, Friday, for one of the Vitrification Plant's
key buildings. 

After crews finished lining up the stacks, the vit plant project
is now nearly one third complete. It's still a long way to go,
but the stacks mark a major milestone. 

Watching the construction, you could barely notice the exhaust
stacks moving, but little by little they're on their way to
standing 200 feet tall. And vit plant workers consider them this
year's crowning achievement. 

"This is a great day for Hanford site. This is going to actually
treat the waste one day, and this plant is needed to treat the
waste," said Roy Schepens, Dept. of Energy Manager.    

Building the Vit Plant complex is the country's largest and most
expensive construction project. The latest estimate is about 12
billion dollars. But once done the two waste treatment buildings
will turn Hanford's radioactive waste into solid glass. 

The project hasn't moved as fast as workers would like, but they
said it's just a massive job. 

"On this project, at one time we had about 1,100 engineers who
were designing everything for the structure, to mechanical
systems, to electrical systems, the drainage systems," said John
Eschenberg, Waste Treatment Plant Project Manager.  

Each step of the way requires a lot of planning. Even something
seemingly simple like lifting stacks off the ground and putting
them on the roof. 

"There's been probably well over 400 man hours or job hours
expanded to plan this pig." 

And workers said the pig plays an important role. The stacks
will remove 99.99 % of hazardous toxins before they get into the
air. 

Crews plan to complete construction of the Vit Plant in 2012 and
plan to start cleaning up waste in 2019.   

  
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 77 KBCI 2: Another INL reactor complex targeted for removal 

Boise, Idaho

October 29, 2006 2:31 PM

 The Associated Press 

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho Scientists at the Idaho National Laboratory
in Idaho Falls are gearing up for workers to remove a
49-year-old nuclear reactor complex as part of its continuing
plan to dismantle much of the site's atomic legacy. 

The Engineering Test Reactor operated from 1957 to 1981, when
all of its fuel was removed shortly after it was shut down. 

While it was operating, it was used to test radiation on
materials, fuels and equipment. 

The vessel to be removed from the site is an 82-ton,
36-foot-long steel containment structure that houses all the
E-T-R's structural components and compartments where experiments
were performed. 

The U-S Department of Energy wants to dispose of the vessel on
the 980-square-mile nuclear reservation, rather than carting it
off somewhere else. 

It's taking public comment on the matter through November 26th.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.   

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 Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
    
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