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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 [NYTr] Cuba: Peaceful Nuclear Energy Is a Right
2 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Criticizes U.S.-Led Nuke Exercise
3 AFP: Iran wants to step up uranium enrichment research - Mottaki -
4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Plans 'Firm Response' to Sanctions
5 AFP: Iran nuclear talks should continue, Putin tells Ahmadinejad -
6 AFP: Ahmadinejad warns of 'firm response' to sanctions
7 AFP: Meeting of major powers on Iran unlikely before Friday
8 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Warns of Response to Nuke Sanctions
9 UPI: Iran set on enrichment, Gulf maneuvers on
10 [NYTr] North Korea Condemns US Nuclear Threats
11 Guardian Unlimited: More N. Korea Nuke Tests Said Expected
12 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Reportedly Fired 5 Missiles
13 Korea Herald: 'N.K. ignored maritime agreement 22 times'
14 Korea Herald: Group may have revealed state secrets to N. Korea
15 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL] $600 million to North
16 Korea Herald: N.K. may rush ahead with more tests
17 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Party delegation heads to Pyongyang
18 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Majlis commission studies N-issue
19 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Germany favors talks on IRI N-issue
20 Korea Times: New Initiative to Hold Nukes in Check
21 Korea Times: Pyongyang Fortifies Combat Readiness After Nuclear Test
22 Korea Times: Wind Instead of Sunshine?
23 Korea Times: [Guest Column] Energy for New Century
24 AFP: US general predicts second NKorea nuclear test
25 AFP: Bush vows to stick by NKorea diplomacy
26 UPI: Analysis: N. Korea imperils its own people
27 UPI: S. Korean politicians visit North
28 US: Guardian Unlimited: Carter Helps Son in Longshot Senate Bid
29 US: UCS: Systematic Interference with Science at Interior Department
30 IPS-English JAPAN:Activists Plan to Nip Nuclear Ambitions
31 [progchat_action] UN investigates Israel's 'uranium weapons'
32 BBC: Nuclear bunker put up for auction
33 BBC: Climate costs: The global picture
34 AU ABC: Govt shifts focus to climate change
35 UPI: Walker's World: Stern's grim report
NUCLEAR REACTORS
36 [NukeNet] Scotland: New houses breaching energy laws
37 Sydney Morning Herald: Nuclear report to be released: Beattie -
38 AU ABC: Macfarlane unconvinced by Beattie's nuclear argument
39 US: KATV: Small fire at Arkansas Nuclear Plant Poses no Danger, Offi
40 US: Platts: EDF's 1,300-MW PWRs cleared for 30 years' operation
41 US: The Courier-Mail: North best for nuke plant
42 thewest.com.au: Switkowski paid $100k for nuclear review
43 IHT: Nuclear energy must for India to meet energy requirements, says
44 Czech Business Weekly: Slaughtering the cow of nuclear taboo
45 The Hindu: Saran: if deal fails, we have our own programme
46 Sofia Echo: BELENE NPP PROJECT WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED IN BULGARIA -
47 US: The Courier-Mail: Nuclear report released |
48 Telugu Portal - Belgium ready to consider India's nuclear energy que
49 AFP: EU chief backs nuclear energy to fight climate change
50 DNA: - Mumbai - BARC out to tap thorium power -
51 AU ABC: Nuclear inquiry to cost millions, committee told.
52 US: PRN: Alert Declared at ANO, Unit 2, Due to Electrical Fire
53 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Opposes Nukes for Allies
54 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Firm to Build Bulgaria Nuke Plant
NUCLEAR SECURITY
55 Guardian Unlimited: Meeting Held on Stopping Nuke Terrorism
NUCLEAR SAFETY
56 US: [NukeNet] U.S. PUBLIC IS AT RISK FROM RADIATION
57 [du-list] U in the News - 28/10/06 Israel used nuclear
58 [du-list] Israels secret bomb + Robert Fisks Uranium was used
59 US: [DU List] request made to all veterans of operation desert
60 The Camp Falcon Mushroom
61 [NYTr] Wealthy Israelis Building Nuclear Bunkers
62 TheStar.com: Saving troops from a deadly, invisible enemy
63 US: UPI: Technology detects plutonium, uranium
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
64 US: Centre Daily Times: Nuclear waste project represents true succes
65 US: AP Wire: State urged to adopt tougher perchlorate standard in wa
66 Deutsche Welle: German Nuclear Waste to Go Back to Mother Russia by
67 US: Platts: NDA responsible for geologic disposal of higher activity
68 US: Salt Lake Tribune: EnergySolutions was rude
69 US: AU ABC: Nuclear adviser pushes economic benefits of uranium enri
PEACE
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
70 [NukeNet] AP, Record on our GREEN Bid for Livermore lab
71 Rocky Mountain News: Rocky Flats museum could be open by 2009
72 DOE: Jeffrey Kupfer Named New DOE Chief of Staff
73 Tri-City Herald: 3 nominated to head up Hanford Advisory Board
74 Cincinnati Business Courier: Fernald site cleanup complete -
75 The Enquirer: $4.4 billion Fernald cleanup done
76 Albuquerque Tribune: Labs look to turn nukes into fuel
77 lamonitor.com: LANL admits environmental error in pile
78 UPI: Northrop team bids on Livermore Lab pact
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1 [NYTr] Cuba: Peaceful Nuclear Energy Is a Right
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 20:38:35 -0500 (EST)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com
Cuba: Peaceful Nuke Energy Is a Right
United Nations, Oct 30 (Prensa Latina/NYTr) Cuba stated Monday that all the
countries in the world have the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,
and rejected all attempts on the fringes of the International Atomic Energy
Agency to sanction those programs in some countries.
"IAEA is the only competent entity that can certify fulfillment of the
obligations under the respective agreements for security of the IAEA member
countries," declared Cuban Ambassador to the UN Rodrigo Malmierca.
Malmierca spoke before the 61st UN General Assembly's debate of a report
presented by IAEA General Director Mohamed El-Baradei.
The report noted a growing expectation in relation to the future role of
nuclear energy, particularly among many developing countries, because of
its efficiency, economic advantages, and lower risk to the environment.
Official UN statistics note 16 of the 28 new reactors now being built in
the world are in underdeveloped countries.
Stating that nuclear power should not be a monopoly, Malmierca called it
unacceptable that some countries are attempting to increase the relevance
of the IAEA's verification role instead of its encouragement of nuclear
technology.
The head of the Cuban diplomatic mission descried that, although the Cold
War was proclaimed at an end, there still exist some 32,000 nuclear weapons
in the world, 12,300 of them ready to be used immediately.
"The only secure and effective way to stop proliferation of these weapons
of mass destruction is to eliminate all of them," he said and added that
Cuba reaffirms the position of the Non-Aligned Movement that disarmament is
of the highest priority in the world.
NYTr/hr ccs tac tgj
PL-39
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2 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Criticizes U.S.-Led Nuke Exercise
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Sunday October 29, 2006 8:31 PM
By JIM KRANE
Associated Press Writer
DOHA, Qatar (AP) - A naval training exercise led by the U.S. and
aimed at blocking smuggling of nuclear weapons began Sunday in
the Persian Gulf, the first of its kind since North Korea's
atomic bomb test and the renewed U.S. drive for sanctions
against Iran's nuclear program.
Iran called the two-day maneuvers ``adventurist,'' but the
Foreign Ministry said the Islamic Republic's response would be
``rational and wise.''
``We are watching their movements very carefully,'' Foreign
Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in Tehran, adding
that the exercises would not improve security in the gulf,
through which about 20 percent of the world's oil transits.
The maneuvers were taking place under the U.S.-led Proliferation
Security Initiative, which is designed to counter trafficking in
weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related
materials, the U.S. Navy said.
Two previous exercises have taken place in this region under the
75-nation initiative, among two dozen held around the world
since such maneuvers began in 2003.
It is the first such drill since North Korea exploded a nuclear
device Oct. 9. Observers believe the PSI program could be used
to halt North Korean weapons traffic in accordance with U.N.
sanctions.
South Korea, which has balked at joining the initiative, sent an
observer delegation to the gulf 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,'' South Korean Vice Foreign
Minister Yu Myung-hwan told parliament Friday.
The exercise comes as the United States seeks support for U.N.
sanctions against Iran. On Friday, Iran stepped up its uranium
enrichment in defiance of a Security Council demand that for a
suspension in such work until Tehran eases suspicions it is
trying to develop atomic weapons.
Iran insists its program has peaceful aims, saying it is
intended only to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that will be
used to generate electricity. The Iranians contend Washington
seeks to punish them for opposing U.S. policies.
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter is the only American ship among the
nine vessels in the ``Leading Edge'' exercise. The ships are
being commanded at sea from an Italian frigate, said Lt. Cmdr.
Charlie Brown, spokesman for the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet.
The exercise was set in the crowded international waters off
Bahrain, an island kingdom and U.S. ally that lies across the
Persian Gulf about 120 miles from Iranian territorial waters.
Brown said the exercise was not openly aimed at any country and
would not affect Iranian vessels or ships heading to Iran.
Two U.S.-led multinational task forces already intercept and
search suspicious ships in the gulf and nearby waters but focus
on shipments headed to Iraq, not Iran.
But a U.S. State Department official speaking on condition of
anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the topic, said PSI
members can halt and board Iran-bound ships if they are
suspected of carrying banned shipments.
Washington has sought deeper cooperation from its Arab allies in
halting nuclear-related shipments to Iran, but many governments
are loath to be seen publicly backing the Americans.
Sunday's training scenario focused on surveillance, with teams
in 16 countries tracking a ship suspected of carrying outlawed
weapons components, Brown said. A tanker from Britain's Royal
Navy played the role of the suspicious vessel.
On Monday, sailors on eight other ships are expected to stop,
board and search the suspect ship, Brown said.
Countries taking part are Italy, France, Australia, United
States and Britain, with one ship each, and Bahrain with three
vessels.
Bahrain's participation marks the first time an Arab nation has
joined an exercise under the three-year-old PSI.
Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, three Arab countries
on the gulf, offered a measure of support as observers. Saudi
Arabia, the largest of the gulf countries, has not joined them.
---
Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran,
contributed to this report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
3 AFP: Iran wants to step up uranium enrichment research - Mottaki - Yahoo! News UK
Monday October 30, 11:15 AM
[Manouchehr Mottaki]
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has expressed hope that its scientists will
be able to further step up uranium enrichment research
activities, after successfully installing a second cascade of
centrifuges at a nuclear plant.
"I hope that the chain of research activities can be completed
in the most rapid way possible," Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki was quoted as saying Monday by the ISNA agency.
The second cascade was greeted with suspicion by world powers,
who are worried Iran's attempts to enrich uranium to make
nuclear fuel could be diverted to making nuclear weapons and are
discussing imposing UN sanctions against Tehran.
Iran now has two cascades of 164 centrifuges to enrich uranium
at a test plant in Natanz and Mottaki's comments appeared to
highlight Iran's desire to develop the pilot facility's capacity
further despite the threat of sanctions.
Iran wants to install six cascades of centrifuges at the test
plant and in the medium term Tehran is seeking to install a
total of 3,000 centrifuges at an industrial-scale enrichment
facility in Natanz.
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 of centrifuges to enrich uranium on an
industrial scale and, at present, its uranium enrichment work is
on a research level only.
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.
AFP
*****************************************************************
4 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Plans 'Firm Response' to Sanctions
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Monday October 30, 2006 3:01 PM
AP Photo NY118
By NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday
that Iran would make an ``appropriate and firm response'' to any
sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council because of the
country's nuclear program.
``The Iranian nation will respond to restrictive activities with
an appropriate and firm response,'' Ahmadinejad said without
elaboration. ``Efforts by the big powers will only incite anger
and hatred.''
Ahmadinejad made the comments to a large crowd on the southern
outskirts of Tehran as key Security Council members are
deliberating a draft European resolution that would impose
sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
Russia has indicated that the measure is too tough, while the
United States says it's not tough enough.
With the council divided, Ahmadinejad continued his defiance,
telling the crowd that Iran would prefer to endure sanctions
rather than bow to Western pressure.
``We want to stand on our own feet,'' he said. ``You should know
that our nation will not give in one iota in the nuclear case.''
He also mocked Britain as a ``follower of arrogance,'' adding
that the British ``have simply become the guide for a blind
U.S.''
``We do advise Britain not to squirm and not to do childish
activities concerning the resolution. Iran's nation has stood up
and will not let you achieve anything except humiliation,''
Ahmadinejad said.
The speech was delivered two days after Iran officially
confirmed it has doubled its uranium enrichment capacity.
President Bush has insisted that the Iranians must first halt
enrichment, a key step to produce both peaceful nuclear power or
an atomic bomb, before Washington will negotiate about Tehran's
nuclear program.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful production of
electricity. The U.S. and some other countries fear the Iranians
want to build a nuclear arsenal.
Also Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said
Tehran hopes that Russia and China will support Iran in the
Security Council deliberations.
``We are hopeful these countries would support Iran's reasonable
stances as much as possible,'' Mottaki told reporters on the
sidelines of an economic conference. ``However, we only count on
support by our nation.''
Mottaki also urged the U.N Security Council to avoid ``illegal
and incorrect decisions.''
``I repeat again here that threatening and imposing sanctions
could not keep the nation from achieving its inherent rights,''
he said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
5 AFP: Iran nuclear talks should continue, Putin tells Ahmadinejad -
Mon Oct 30, 3:23 PM ET
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin" /> Vladimir
Putintold his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Moscow
favours continued talks over Iran" /> Iran's nuclear programme
amid a continued split in the UN Security Council over possible
sanctions against Tehran.
In a telephone conversation, "Putin put forward the principled
position of Russia in favour of continuing the process of
negotiations during a discussion of the situation surrounding
Iran's nuclear programme," the Kremlin press service said in a
statement.
Western powers at the UN Security Council have been pushing for
sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium
enrichment, but Russia and China have been reluctant to vote for
a severe set of penalties against Tehran.
Iran has stepped up its research into the sensitive activity as
diplomats have warned it could take several weeks to reach an
agreement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week rejected the
proposed sanctions, arguing that they did not advance objectives
agreed on by six leading world powers concerned with the case.
The Chinese stance has yet to become clear, although Beijing --
like Moscow -- is an economic ally of Iran and traditionally
reluctant to use sanctions for diplomatic leverage.
A text drafted by Britain, France and Germany in consultations
with Washington provides for a freeze of assets related to
Iran's ballistic missile programme and nuclear industry as well
as travel bans on scientists.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini on
Sunday said it was clear that there was a split between the
stances of China and Russia on one hand and Europe and the US on
the other.
"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 said.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
6 AFP: Ahmadinejad warns of 'firm response' to sanctions
by Siavosh Ghazi Mon Oct 30, 7:36 AM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned Iran" />
Iranwill react firmly to any UN sanctions imposed on Tehran over
its contested nuclear programme.
"We are not looking for tension but any action that aims to
limit us will receive an appropriate and firm response from the
Iranian people," said Ahmadinejad during a gathering in Pishva
in Tehran province.
Iranian officials have already vowed the Islamic republic would
hit back against any eventual sanctions but have said the nature
of the retaliation would only be revealed if and when the
penalties are imposed.
Oil markets are rattled by the possibility of Iran blocking the
Strait of Hormuz -- a key conduit for transporting oil -- but
leaders from OPEC" /> OPEC's number two producer have vowed not
to use oil as a weapon in the standoff.
Despite an ongoing bid by Western powers at the UN Security
Council to impose sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to
halt uranium enrichment, Tehran has stepped up its research into
the sensitive activity.
It has enriched uranium on a research level from a second
cascade of 164 centrifuges at its nuclear plant in Natanz as
well as from an already installed cascade of a similar size.
"No one has the right to renounce the absolute rights of the
Iranian people," Ahmadinejad added.
"The Iranian people, with the help of God, have resisted and
despite sanctions have succeeded in reaching the nuclear
summits," referring to existing US sanctions that have been in
place for two-and-a-half decades.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki meanwhile said Iran still
wanted to expand its uranium enrichment research operations
despite the looming threat of sanctions action.
"I hope that the chain of research activities can be completed
in the most rapid way possible," he said, according to the ISNA
agency.
Iran wants to have six cascades of centrifuges at the test plant
in Natanz and is also seeking to install a total of 3,000
centrifuges at an industrial-scale enrichment facility at the
same atomic plant.
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.
Ahmadinejad also lashed out at key US ally Britain for its role
in efforts by European powers to draft a resolution for the UN
Security Council which if passed would impose sanctions against
Tehran.
"About the resolution, I say to the British government that it
will reap nothing other than humiliation and baseness.
"You can gesticulate and make immature actions but that will
bring you nothing," he said.
UN Security Council powers are still discussing the resolution
and diplomats have warned that it could take several weeks to
reach an agreement, with Russia and China unwilling to vote for
a severe set of penalties against Tehran.
The text drafted by Britain, France and Germany in consultations
with Washington provides for a freeze of assets related to
Iran's ballistic missile programme and nuclear industry as well
as travel bans on scientists.
Ahmadinejad appeared unconcerned by the prospect of sanctions,
saying Iran did not need outside help.
"They say that if Iran refuses to suspend enrichment they will
impose sanctions and no longer sell us parts used in ballistic
missiles and the nuclear industry," he said.
"I tell them even if all you gave us was a bolt, declare it! I
say that we do not need any help from your side," he said in a
second speech in Varamin, broadcast live on state television.
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.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
7 AFP: Meeting of major powers on Iran unlikely before Friday
Mon Oct 30, 4:32 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - A meeting of six major UN powers on
proposed Security Council sanctions against Iran" /> Iranover its
failure to halt uranium enrichment was unlikely to take place
before Friday at the earliest, diplomats said.
Last week, after a private huddle of envoys from the major
powers, US Ambassador John Bolton had said the six would resume
their deliberations probably on Monday.
But with Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin not due back here
until Thursday from Moscow where he is to attend talks there
with South Korean Foreign Minister and incoming UN secretary
general Ban Ki-Moon, the next round was unlikely to take place
before Friday, several diplomats said Monday.
"We are aiming at a meeting by the end of the week," a Western
diplomat said.
The six envoys from the UN Security Council's five veto-wielding
members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the US -- along
with 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.
The bargaining promises to be long and tough as Russia and China
signaled their reluctance to accept biting sanctions against
Iran, a major energy and trade partner.
Russian President Vladimir Putin" /> Vladimir Putintold his
Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday that Moscow
favored continued talks over Iran's nuclear program.
In a telephone conversation, "Putin put forward the principled
position of Russia in favour of continuing the process of
negotiations during a discussion of the situation surrounding
Iran's nuclear programme," the Kremlin press service said in a
statement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week rejected the
sanctions put forward by Britain, France and Germany in
consultations with Washington, arguing that they did not advance
objectives agreed on by six leading world powers concerned with
the case.
The Chinese stance has yet to be clarified, although Beijing --
like Moscow -- is an economic ally of Iran and traditionally
reluctant to use sanctions for diplomatic leverage.
Meanwhile Ahmadinejad on Monday warned Iran would react firmly
to any UN sanctions imposed on Tehran.
"We are not looking for tension but any action that aims to
limit us will receive an appropriate and firm response from the
Iranian people," he said during a gathering in Pishva in Tehran
province.
Iranian officials have already vowed the Islamic republic would
hit back against any eventual sanctions but have said the nature
of the retaliation would only be revealed if and when the
penalties are imposed.
Saturday, Tehran confirmed that 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.
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.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
8 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Warns of Response to Nuke Sanctions
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Monday October 30, 2006 10:16 PM
AP Photo VAH105
By NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's firebrand president warned on Monday
that his country would respond with an ``appropriate and firm
response'' to any U.N. sanction over its nuclear program.
The comments by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came as key United Nations
Security Council members were considering a draft European
resolution that would impose punishing measures on Iran over its
disputed nuclear program.
``Efforts by the big powers will only incite anger and hatred,''
the hard-line leader told a large crowd on the outskirts of
Tehran.
``The Iranian nation will respond to restrictive activities with
an appropriate and firm response,'' he said without elaborating.
Meanwhile, Mohamed ElBaradei, who heads the International Atomic
Energy Agency, said at the U.N. that his organization has not
been able to verify that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful.
Tehran insists its nuclear efforts are solely geared at
peacefully producing electricity. But the U.S. and its allies
fear Iranians want to build atomic weapons.
Russia and China, which wield veto power as permanent Security
Council members, have shied away from imposing punitive measures
on their trade partner Iran, saying they prefer a diplomatic
solution to the impasse. But the United States says the proposed
sanctions are not tough enough.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Ahmadinejad on Monday that
Moscow strongly favors further negotiations on Tehran's nuclear
program, the Kremlin said.
The brief Russian statement after a telephone conversation
between the two leaders was the latest indication that Russia
opposes sanctions against Iran and believes the international
community should try to defuse tension through talks.
With Iran waving threats of a firm response to any U.N.
sanction, it also appeared aimed at cooling Tehran's rhetoric
and casting Russia as a peacemaker.
In the Iranian-initiated conversation with Ahmadinejad, ``Putin
outlined the fundamental position of the Russian side in favor
of a continuation of the negotiation process,'' the Kremlin
said.
President Bush insists that Washington will only agree to
negotiate about Tehran's nuclear program if the Iranians first
halt uranium enrichment, a key step to produce either peaceful
nuclear power or an atomic bomb.
With the council divided, Ahmadinejad remained defiant, telling
the crowd that Iran would prefer to endure sanctions rather than
bow to Western pressure.
``We want to stand on our own feet,'' he said. ``You should know
that our nation will not give in one iota in the nuclear case.''
He also mocked Britain as a ``follower of arrogance,'' for
aligning itself with U.S. foreign policy, days after British
Prime Minister Tony Blair called on the Security Council to
achieve a ``proper, binding resolution'' on Iran's nuclear
activities.
The British ``have simply become the guide for a blind U.S,''
Ahmadinejad said.
``We do advise Britain not to squirm and not to do childish
activities concerning the resolution. Iran's nation has stood up
and will not let you achieve anything except humiliation,'' he
added.
His speech was delivered after Iran officially confirmed on
Friday that it has doubled its uranium enrichment capacity.
On Monday, ElBaradei said that the IAEA was ``unable at this
stage to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program
which, obviously, is a matter of serious concern.''
ElBaradei referred to his earlier report to the Security Council
verifying that Iran had ignored the Aug. 31 deadline to halt
uranium enrichment.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog had not been able to ``make progress
resolving the outstanding issues - issues that require certain
transparency measures on the part of Iran,'' ElBaradei said.
The Iranians have insisted on their right to pursue a peaceful
atomic energy program as a member of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty.
Iran's deputy U.N. Ambassador Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi criticized the
``dangerous trend'' where countries outside the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty face no pressure to join and acquire
large stockpiles of nuclear weapons. He singled out Israel,
accusing it of leading ``a masquerade of lies and deception
against Iran's peaceful nuclear program.''
Iran wants all nuclear weapons eliminated but in the interim the
international community should take ``all necessary steps to
ensure universality of the non-proliferation regime,'' he told
the U.N. General Assembly.
At the same time, Danesh-Yazdi said, Iran has a right under the
NPT to nuclear technology and is ready to resume negotiations
with the six key powers that proposed a package of incentives to
assure them of the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program.
But he made no mention of suspending uranium enrichment - a key
demand of Britain, France, Germany, the U.S., Russia and China
for resuming negotiations.
---
Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations
contributed to this report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
9 UPI: Iran set on enrichment, Gulf maneuvers on
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence -
10/30/2006 7:46:00 AM -0500
TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Iran reaffirmed its determination to
enrich uranium as the U.S. led a naval training exercise in Gulf
waters aimed at blocking the smuggling of nuclear weapons.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday the Iranian people
will respond firmly to any move aimed at tightening the noose
around its efforts to achieve nuclear and scientific
development.
"The Iranian people stood up unwavering despite all the
sanctions which have been imposed on Iran and was able to reach
summits in nuclear achievements," Ahmadinejad was quoted as
saying by Iranian news agency IRNA.
"If additional sanctions are imposed on the Iranians, they will
be able, nevertheless, to reach heights in progress and
advance," he added.
Ahmadinejad stressed that "imposing additional sanctions on Iran
will not affect the Iranians people because Iran has been
subject to isolation and sanctions for 27 years but that did not
stop it from progressing."
The hardline Iranian president was highly critical of European
countries, and directed some of his speech at them: "You know
very well that the sanctions will not affect us. ... So why
stain your reputation and belittle your stance before peoples of
the world in addition to provoking their hatred?"
Ahmadinejad lashed out Britain, which is seeking to impose
sanctions on Iran through the Security Council, saying "the
British government is weak at present and not even capable of
running its own internal affairs."
In the meantime, U.S.-led military maneuvers off the coast of
Iran continued for the second day Monday with the participation
of several Western and European countries.
The exercise comes at a time when the United States is seeking
support for sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program.
Iran criticized the maneuvers. "We do not consider this exercise
appropriate," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday. "We are
watching their movements, very carefully."
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
10 [NYTr] North Korea Condemns US Nuclear Threats
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:37:57 -0600 (CST)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
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http://www.plenglish.com
North Korea Condemns US Nuclear Threats
Pyongyang, Oct 30 (Prensa Latina) The People4s Democratic Republic of Korea
(PDRK) denounced the US-South Korea bellicose policy and threats to trigger
a nuclear war against it.
The alliance is setting up an inexcusable provocation that could lead to
the worst confrontation on the Korean peninsula, noted the Rodong Sinmun
official newspaper on Monday.
The Labor Party newspaper considered it an error for South Korean
authorities to obtain a "nuclear umbrella" from Washington, similar to that
in Japan, as a reward for supporting its war hunger.
It is also a mistake for Seoul join the White House in the sanctions for
the October 9 nuclear test.
The so-called nuclear umbrella, far from protecting South Korea, becomes a
foundation for an eventual nuclear holocaust, noted the daily.
According to Rodong Sinmun, the South Korean government must be alert and
abstain from stupid acts with negative effect.
Meanwhile, the National Reconciliation Council asserted that US
manipulation is creating hostility between friendly countries and recalled
that the United States used similar maneuvers to promote the 1950-1953
conflict.
NYTr/ef ccs abo alc
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11 Guardian Unlimited: More N. Korea Nuke Tests Said Expected
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Monday October 30, 2006 12:01 PM
AP Photo SEL105
By BURT HERMAN
Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The top U.S. general in South Korea
said Monday that more nuclear tests can be expected by North
Korea as it develops its atomic weapons program, and stressed
that U.S. and South Korean forces could deter any aggression.
U.S. Army General B.B. Bell didn't cite specific intelligence
that another test was imminent, but said that could be expected
in the future as part of North Korea's weapons program.
``I can only surmise that since they tested one, we would see at
some time in the future yet another test of a nuclear device,''
Bell told a news conference, adding that missiles and other
weapons also could be tested.
A South Korean newspaper reported that the North fired five
short-range missiles during military training last week.
North Korea fired the ground-to-air and air-to-air missiles,
with ranges from 6 miles to 30 miles, as part of an annual
training session, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an
unidentified South Korean government official.
The North fired a series of longer-range missiles in July,
including an intercontinental ballistic missile that many
believe could potentially hit the United States.
Bell said that the U.S. and South Korean allied forces could
deter aggression from the North and defeat any possible attack.
He argued that the North's confirmed nuclear capability since
its Oct. 9 nuclear test didn't change the balance of force in
the region, because intelligence agencies had believed for
several years that Pyongyang had atomic weapons.
He called for a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
``I wish that North Korea would not only stop testing these
devices, but stop making them and come back to the bargaining
table,'' he said.
Bell added that the U.S. ``nuclear umbrella'' continues to
protect the South as part of the two countries' security
cooperation.
In a commentary in its main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, North Korea
said the United States' nuclear weapons won't be able to protect
the South but ``will be a source of disaster and trouble
bringing the holocaust of nuclear war.''
The U.S. and South Korea have been negotiating to transfer
wartime command of forces on the peninsula as part of Seoul's
efforts to assume more responsibility for its own defense.
South Korea transferred control of its forces to a U.S.-led
United Nations command during the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Peacetime control of the Korean military was given to the South
Koreans in 1994, but the United States retained control should
war break out again.
At negotiations earlier this month in Washington, both sides
agreed the South would assume wartime command of its own forces
sometime between 2009 and 2012.
Bell said details will be decided in the first half of next
year, adding that the change could take place within three
years, in the earlier part of the agreed time span.
Critics of the transfer deal have said the South lacks
intelligence and aerial support capabilities it needs to assume
the new role.
Bell said that as the transition occurs the U.S. would provide
``bridging'' capabilities to help the South in areas where it is
still developing its defenses - stressing that fighting
capability would in no way be diminished.
He said the United States would remain in South Korea as long as
it was ``welcome and wanted.''
Recent comments by the South's presidential security adviser
that have been perceived as anti-American have reportedly drawn
criticism from U.S. officials. But Bell said the ``vast
majority'' of South Koreans supported the country's alliance
with the United States.
About 29,500 U.S. troops remain in the South, a remnant of the
Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire that persists to this
day. Their numbers are set to decline by several thousand in
coming years.
-----
Associated Press Writer Jae-Soon Chang contributed this report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
12 Guardian Unlimited: N. Korea Reportedly Fired 5 Missiles
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Monday October 30, 2006 2:16 AM
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea fired five short-range
missiles during training exercises last week, a South Korean
newspaper reported Monday.
The ground-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, which have ranges
from 6 miles to 31 miles, were fired at a training ground in the
west of the country, South Korea's largest newspaper, Chosun
Ilbo, reported, citing an unidentified government official.
It was part of an annual training to test the combat readiness
of the North's military, but it is unusual for the North to fire
such a large number of missiles, the official was quoted as
saying.
South Korea was analyzing the North's intentions, the official
said.
The report came amid speculation that North Korea may be
preparing to conduct a second nuclear test following its
first-ever on Oct. 9.
On Saturday, South Korean media reported that authorities had
detected the movement of trucks and soldiers at a suspected test
site in northeastern North Korea.
North Korea fired a series of missiles in July, including a
long-range one that could potentially hit the United States.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
13 Korea Herald: 'N.K. ignored maritime agreement 22 times'
A conservative party lawmaker yesterday questioned the validity
of the inter-Korean maritime agreement aimed at preventing the
passage of vessels carrying weapons-related material, citing
North Korea's failure to oblige by the pact.
A report by Grand National Party Rep. Kim Hyung-o showed
yesterday that North Korean vessels ignored South Korean calls
22 times alone this year when passing though South Korean
waters. The report was based on data gathered from the Korea
Coast Guard.
He claimed that the case showed a lack of efficacy in the
inter-Korean agreement to fully prevent the proliferation of
North Korean weapons.
The coast guard, however, contends that the cited failures of
correspondence were more of a technical problem.
With the U.S. urging a fuller participation from South Korea in
the Proliferation Security Initiative, criticism from the
conservative camp over the inter-Korean maritime arrangement is
likely to continue.
The inter-Korean maritime agreement that went into effect in
August last year states that vessels of each Korea must respond
when receiving calls from the respective side's sentry posts.
If a vessel ignores the call, the coast guard can interdict and
search the vessel.
The agreement is being dubbed by the South Korean government as
an effective tool that serves the same purpose as the PSI
program against the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.
Since the North's nuclear test on Oct. 9, the United States has
been calling on South Korea to physically participate in the PSI
drills.
The GNP lawmaker in the report said that out of 303 successful
correspondences with North Korean vessels, the South Korean
authorities failed to locate 71 of those vessels.
Kim also said that while South Korean vessels constantly send
information regarding sailing conditions in South Korean waters,
North Korea never has.
"The coast guard, while fully aware of such violations did not
do anything about it," Kim claimed.
The maritime agreement was designed to prevent any collision
between the two Koreas due to ambiguous sea boundaries.
South Korea is also hesitating from fully joining the PSI out of
fear that an attempt to directly interdict a North Korean ship
may provoke a military collision with the North.
The South Korean coast guard explained that it made 898 attempts
to reach a total of 102 North Korean vessels this year and
failed to receive a response 22 times.
They explained that it was normal to miss transmissions even
with local vessels due to technical problems.
The South has often faced the threat of danger over the NLL.
Most significantly on June 29, 2003, two North Korean patrol
ships crossed the NLL and continued southward. They fired at two
South Korean vessels out of defense, prompting a sea battle.
After 25 minutes the North Korean ships retreated but left six
South Korean marines killed and 19 injured.
Under the inter-Korean maritime agreement signed in August 2005,
the two Koreas agreed to allow only commercial vessels to pass
through their waters. Fishing boats and warships are not
allowed.
The agreement also bans any military activity, submarines,
transportation of weapons, collection of information via
vessels, or fishing. In cases of violation, the two sides have
agreed to intercept and inspect suspicious vessels.
For now, the South Korean government is looking into how to
expand its participation in the PSI.
Physically supporting PSI activities in waters far away from the
Korean peninsula is considered one of the options.
The progressive ruling Uri Party objects to an expanded role in
PSI for fear of collision with the North while the GNP condemns
any hesitation in fully joining the PSI as being oblivious to a
security threat from the North.
(angiely@heraldm.com)
By Lee Joo-hee
2006.10.31
*****************************************************************
14 Korea Herald: Group may have revealed state secrets to N. Korea
A clandestine pro-North Korean group is under increased
suspicion of providing a significant amount of information,
including state secrets, to Pyongyang in recent years,
investigators said Monday.
Prosecutors and the nation's intelligence agency say that five
arrested members of the group known as "Ilsimhoe," which
includes members of the Democratic Labor Party, may have
provided confidential information such as the local political
reaction to the North's nuclear test on Oct. 9.
Investigators say they are also under suspicion of providing
Pyongyang with behind-the-scenes information regarding a move by
opposition parties to dismiss Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung in
2005, the DLP's strategy to defeat the main opposition Grand
National Party during elections for Seoul mayor in May, and
plans to spread anti-Americanism in the South via civic groups.
The group was formed by former student activists in the 1990s.
Ilsimhoe means an organization "with one mind" for North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il.
"I doubted at first whether the operations against the South
could really work, but we've found so much evidence of their
(Ilsimhoe) operations from scanning USB memory cards. There will
be more documents pouring out," a prosecutor said.
The details of suspected espionage operations were revealed
during Saturday's court hearings to decide whether to grant
arrest warrants for two members of Ilsimhoe.
Choi Ki-young, deputy secretary-general of the Democratic Labor
Party, and Lee Jin-gang, a 42-year-old former student activist,
were taken into custody on Saturday for violating nation's
anticommunist National Security Law.
Lee Jung-hun, former member of the DLP's central committee and
member of Ilsimhoe, was also arrested last week for reportedly
contacting a North Korean spy in China and engaging in
pro-Pyongyang activities.
Along with Lee, Chang Min-ho, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, and
Sohn Jung-muk, 42, are also in custody for allegedly arranging
and participating in the Beijing meeting in March.
Choi and Lee Jin-gang exercised the right of remaining silent
during the hearings, but said they have never heard of the group
known as Ilsimhoe.
"This is a case that involves regular spies, it is very
shocking," Kim Seung-kyu, the outgoing chief of the National
Intelligence Service, said during an interview with a leading
daily newspaper Chosun Ilbo.
However, the NIS said yesterday it cannot reveal any more
information of the case at this time as speculation in the media
is making the investigation even more difficult to investigate.
Meanwhile, DLP Chairman Moon Sung-hyun and another 12 members
of the party have departed Seoul for their scheduled visit to
Pyongyang to meet North Korean officials.
The party said the five-day trip to Pyongyang will provide them
with an opportunity to urge the communist country to give up its
nuclear ambitions. The members plan to meet the North's No. 2
leader Kim Young-nam, and perhaps Kim Jong-il.
"DLP delegation will strongly express its regret over the
North's nuclear test and deliver its position that there should
be no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula," Roh Hoe-chan
said before his departure.
(aibang@heraldm.com)
By Annie I. Bang
2006.10.31
*****************************************************************
15 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL] $600 million to North
Two opposition lawmakers have claimed that about $600 million
was remitted to North Korea by the Hyundai Asan Co. as the price
for the Mount Geumgang tourism business since the firm began the
project in 1998 and that the entire amount is suspected of being
funneled to the military and the ruling party of the North.
In particular, Reps. Kim Hak-song and Choe Kyung-hwan of the
Grand National Party said that of the $600 million, some $450
million was sent to the North via Banco Delta Asia until the
Macau-based bank came under U.S. sanctions for being used as a
conduit for circulating counterfeit U.S. currency. The remaining
$140 million-plus was given to North Korea as profits earned by
restaurants in the mountain resort, the two Assemblymen said.
The disclosure implies that the dollars North Korea bagged
through the Mount Geumgang project might have been the main
financial source for its nuclear armament program that
culminated with the Oct. 9 underground test. Hyundai's answer to
the GNP lawmakers' claim is that remittances were made to a
trading firm under the Culture Department of the North Korean
cabinet, not to any military-operated company.
The channel of delivery is hardly important as we know how the
system works in the North. Foreign exchange income whether from
Mount Geumgang or any illegal trade or counterfeiting as
suspected by the United States goes to Chairman Kim Jong-il's
safe and is then allotted for the purchase of luxury items, and
equipment and parts for weapons of mass destruction.
After Pyongyang's nuclear test, a change in the transfer of cash
to the North looks inevitable even if the tourism project may
continue. North Korea collects $30 to $80 from each South Korean
visitor to Mount Geumgang depending on the length of stay.
Hyundai has delivered the dollar equivalent of an average of 85
billion won to the North each year since 1998.
The GNP lawmakers claim that the total Hyundai remittance was
enough to meet the cost for the production of four nuclear
bombs. Regardless of the correctness of the calculation, it is
clear that the government cannot allow the provision of this
much money to the North any longer. Paying the price with goods
and materials may be an alternative but it is questionable
whether the North would accept them. The government and Hyundai
now face a big problem about what to do about this symbol of
inter-Korean economic cooperation.
2006.10.31
*****************************************************************
16 Korea Herald: N.K. may rush ahead with more tests
'Pyongyang regime could collapse under international isolation'
This is the last in a series of analytical articles about the
impact of North Korea's nuclear test. - Ed.
By Joel Wit
North Korea's nuclear test and the international community's
sanctions against Pyongyang have created a dangerous new
situation in Northeast Asia. While the North may be moving
towards renewing negotiations on the nuclear issue, renewed
tensions in the future are almost guaranteed unless the
six-party talks are abandoned and all countries demonstrate a
new willingness to engage in serious give-and-take.
From 1993 until 2001, I was an official in the U.S. Department
of State working on American policy towards Pyongyang trying to
end its nuclear weapons program. During that time, I worked
closely with North Korean diplomats, bureaucrats, nuclear
scientists, intelligence officials and military officers. I
traveled to North Korea many times, visited government offices,
nuclear facilities and military bases. Based on my experience, I
can say without a doubt that North Korea's nuclear test was not
inevitable.
Everyone knows that North Korea is a difficult country to deal
with, sometimes confrontational and often stubborn. But the fact
is Pyongyang's nuclear test represents a failure for all of the
countries at the six-party talks. First and foremost, it
represents the failure of a highly ideological American
approach, not based on problem solving but on an unwillingness
to seriously engage Pyongyang. China should also share the blame
since it engaged in wishful thinking that somehow indulging the
North Koreans would build up Beijing's leverage in Pyongyang.
South Korea is responsible because, in spite of the good
intentions behind the "sunshine policy" which I support, it
failed to set boundaries for the North's bad behavior, losing
respect in Pyongyang and in Washington. Finally Japanese policy
failed. Over the past few years, Japan had little interest in
either North Korea's nuclear weapons or missile programs. It was
fixated on the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang.
While there is enough blame to go around for all, the issue
facing us today is where do we go from here? Sanctions against
North Korea are certainly the appropriate response to its
nuclear test. They demonstrate the international community's
determination not to stand still while the North goes nuclear,
visibly defying the global norm against the spread of nuclear
weapons that has been in place for over three decades. But we
should not fool ourselves. Sanctions are unlikely to force the
North Koreans to change course. Pyongyang has certainly
anticipated the harsh international reaction and decided on a
strategy that can weather the storm.
How the North will move forward from this point is unclear. It
could rush headlong ahead with more nuclear and missile tests as
well as other steps to build a deterrent force. Or Pyongyang can
mix into its strategy a diplomatic offensive designed to diffuse
increasing international pressures. That seems to be the
approach that is emerging given recent news reports that the
North has expressed a willingness to resume the Beijing
six-party talks as long as Washington drops financial sanctions.
But we should also recognize that pledge is nothing new and that
Pyongyang understands there is little if no hope that the Bush
Administration will meet this precondition. Moreover, sometime
soon, the North Koreans are unlikely to unload fuel rods from
there operating reactor and to extract more plutonium to build
more bombs.
All of our governments must reevaluate our policies and put in
place a plan to deal with both the short-term dangers and
long-term challenges posed by this strategy. In the short term,
we must be prepared for two difficult contingencies. First,
while the North Koreans have probably calculated that they could
survive sanctions, they may be wrong. We should not rule out the
possibility that North Korea will collapse under the weight of
international isolation. Are we prepared for that possibility?
The answer is no. While Washington and all countries in the
region are deeply concerned about the political, security,
economic and humanitarian consequences of collapse little or
nothing has been done by anyone to prepare for such a dangerous
development.
But while there has been much talk about the possible use of
military force by the United States to destroy North Korea's
nuclear program, there has not been enough attention focused on
the possibility that Pyongyang could initiate military action.
During the last nuclear crisis in 1994, over a six month period
the United States took a series of steps to bolster its forces
on the peninsula and in the region. By the time the crisis
reached its height in June 1994 just before President Jimmy
Carter traveled to Pyongyang, American forces were ready to
effectively thwart any North Korean military moves. It is
unclear whether American forces or those of its allies are
prepared for such a possibility today.
Beyond these two contingencies, while sanctions may be the
proper immediate response to North Korea's test, they are
unlikely to convince Pyongyang to turn back from building a
nuclear deterrent. To have any chance of doing that, we will
need to provide North Korea with an escape route through
reinvigorating diplomacy and that will require moving away from
the Beijing six-party talks. While the Bush administration
asserts those talks have helped build a united front in opposing
Pyongyang's nuclear program-and that assertion remains open to
question - they have proved to be a failure in actually
negotiating a solution to the current crisis.
A new diplomatic strategy must combine multilateral coalition
building with serious, sustained and direct bilateral
negotiations between the United States and North Korea. Such a
process would demonstrate Washington's-and North Korea's -
seriousness in reaching a diplomatic solution. For example, the
first order of business for a reconvened six-party session could
be for all countries present to ask the United States and North
Korea to conduct separate talks while pledging to keep them
regularly informed.
There will also have to be real diplomatic give-and-take on
both sides. Pyongyang will have to agree to freeze, roll-back
and eventually dismantle its nuclear program. Washington,
supported by China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, will have to
take "irreversible and "simultaneous" steps in return such as
normalizing diplomatic relations and providing North Korea with
ironclad security guarantees.
That is easier said than done. Overcoming the bad blood built up
over the past six years between Washington and Pyongyang will be
difficult if not impossible in the near future. As a result, no
matter what process is established, until the leaders in both
capitols are willing to conduct serious discussions, there may
be more dangerous episodes in the days ahead.
Joel Wit is a senior fellow with the International Security
Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
the United States. He served for 15 years in the Department of
State in positions related to Northeast Asia, nuclear arms
control, and weapons proliferation. The views expressed here are
his own. He can be reached at joelwit@earthlink.net. - Ed.
2006.10.31
*****************************************************************
17 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: Party delegation heads to Pyongyang
Octorber 31, 2006 KST 14:21 (GMT+9)
October 31, 2006 ¤Ñ With its deputy leader jailed on espionage
charges, a Democratic Labor Party delegation left for Pyongyang
yesterday.
The 13-member delegation, including Moon Sung-hyun, the party's
chairman, stopped in Beijing and will arrive in Pyongyang today.
They will be visiting the North until Nov. 4 at the invitation
of the North Korean Social Democratic Party.
"Our footsteps are very heavy because we are heading to North
Korea while an espionage investigation is going on, targeting
our party," Mr. Moon told press at the airport.
Choi Gi-young, the party's deputy secretary general, was
detained Saturday in connection with the case.
"But we cannot give up the visit to deliver the message that
another nuclear test is not acceptable," Mr. Moon continued.
The party said it requested meetings with North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il and Kim Yong-nam, president of the Supreme People's
Assembly of North Korea. "A meeting with Kim Yong-nam was almost
confirmed and another with Kim Jong-il is also possible," a
party official said.
Critics did not welcome the visit. "It is regrettable that the
Democratic Labor Party left for North Korea, ignoring nationwide
criticism against the visit. The party should first reveal the
truth regarding the espionage investigation and conduct an
internal inspection," said Yoo Ki-june, a Grand National Party
spokesman.
The National Intelligence Service and the Justice Ministry are
also opposed to the visit.
"It is natural to think the visit is inappropriate considering
the circumstances," an official at the intelligence service
said.
But the Unification Ministry approved the visit, citing a lack
of legal grounds for rejecting the application for the trip.
by Lee Ka-young, Shin Eun-jin soejung@joongang.co.kr>
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc.
*****************************************************************
18 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Majlis commission studies N-issue
2006/10/30
Majlis Foreign Policy and National Security Commission Sunday
evening studied issues pertaining to Iran's nuclear issue and
the draft resolution placed before the UN Security Council.
The commission's rapporteur said that the UNSC draft is
completely 'political and without legal basis'.
Kazem Jalali added that the draft was formulated by America, and
the Americans are pursuing the case.
Rapporteur of Majlis Foreign Policy Commission stipulated that
the Americans are determined to deprive the Iranians of their
inalienable nuclear rights, thus, they try to achieve this goal
through every levers including UNSC sanctions against Iran.
Iran is also determined to resist world powers, including the
American expansionist ambitions, to access its nuclear rights,
he underlined.
He stipulated that the best way is negotiation under the
supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
but America has unfortunately derailed the sides from the true
path of discussion.
mk
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
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*****************************************************************
19 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Germany favors talks on IRI N-issue
2006/10/30
Chairman of the German parliamentary group and subcommittee on
disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation, Uta Zapf in a
meeting with the Head of Majlis National Security and Foreign
Policy Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi here Sunday said that the
European Union favors talks on Iran's nuclear issue.
She noted that German officials believe that talks should be
based on building mutual confidence.
In addition to Zapf, the five-member German parliamentary
delegation includes Andreas Weigel of the Social Democratic
Party, Karl-Theodor Freiherr Zur Guttenberg, Elke Hoff of the
Free Democratic Party and Paul Schaefer of the Left Party.
She welcomed Iran's initiative on securing a Middle East free of
nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction as a significant
proposal for the security of the region and the world.
At the meeting, the German member of parliament, submitted the
official written letter of invitation from the head of German
Parliament's Foreign Policy Commission to Boroujerdi, who
welcomed it and hoped to visit the country at a convenient
opportunity.
For his part, Boroujerdi expressed satisfaction with favorable
mutual ties and referred to the visit of German parliamentary
delegation as a measure towards further rational and
constructive talks on Iran's nuclear issue and regional
developments.
"Undoubtedly, an atmosphere based on mutual trust will
facilitate effective negotiation on the issue and seeking a
rational solution to it," he said.
The Iranian MP regretted that despite Iran's efforts to prove
its goodwill and transparency in its nuclear activities for
peaceful purposes by suspending uranium enrichment for two and a
half years, no reciprocal step was taken by the other party.
"Europe's disregard for our confidence building measures made
such efforts useless and exerted so much pressure on our
country," he added.
Boroujerdi noted that Director General of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei has repeatedly
declared that according to reports released after constant
inspections no deviation from peaceful path has been observed in
Iran's nuclear activities.
Turning to Iran's cooperation in establishment of stability in
the region and neighboring states, particularly in Afghanistan,
he said, "Ever since Bonn meeting was held, Iran has continued
cooperating with the international community in promotion of
stability and tranquility in the region."
The German delegation arrived in Tehran on Sunday on a two-day
visit to confer with Iranian officials on bilateral political
and economic issues as well as the ongoing dispute over Tehran's
nuclear program.
The visit by German lawmakers comes in response to last year's
Berlin trip by their Iranian counterparts.
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
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*****************************************************************
20 Korea Times: New Initiative to Hold Nukes in Check
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation
By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
A dozen countries began a two-day meeting in Morocco on Monday
to discuss efforts to prevent the illicit trafficking of nuclear
and biochemical materials to terrorist groups, as part of a
U.S.-Russia initiative launched in July.
The international move drew special attention in Seoul as it
came amid the rising tension in Northeast Asia over North
Korea's nuclear test on Oct. 9.
The new initiative is expected to gain power by joining forces
with the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a U.S.-led
effort to interdict cargo going to and from ``rogue states''
such as North Korea to prevent trafficking of weapons of mass
destruction (WMD)
But the South Korean government apparently considers the
terrorism initiative not related to the North's test of nuclear
devices, saying its main focus is to keep safe nuclear materials
and related facilities from acquisition and use by terrorist
groups such as al Qaeda.
It also appears that Seoul thinks the initiative is targeting
mainly those countries that pay extensive efforts to secure
their nuclear stockpiles but still remain susceptible to theft.
But the United States and many of its allies worry that atomic
materials from North Korea and Iran could be sold to terrorist
groups as the two states are intended to continue their nuclear
programs.
An unnamed U.S. official told the Associated Press that the
emphasis of the new initiative is ``on both detection and
interdiction of the material once detected.''
But how to implement the two initiatives are still in question
as they still need to gain more legal authority, given that the
naval interdiction scheme is conflicting with the spirit of
international maritime law.
After the North's atomic test, the U.N. Security Council passed
a punitive resolution on Oct. 14, calling on U.N. member states
to inspect cargo ships moving to and from North Korea ``as
necessary'' to prevent illicit trafficking of WMD.
Diplomats and lawyers think the resolution strengthened the
legality of PSI considerably.
U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir
Putin announced the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear
Terrorism at their summit in St. Petersburg on July 15.
The initiative is designed to build the capacity of willing
partner nations to combat the global threat of nuclear
terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department.
The cooperative measures include efforts to improve accounting,
control and physical protection of nuclear material and
radioactive substances, as well as security of nuclear
facilities.
Another important aspect of the initiative is to detect and
suppress illicit trafficking or other illicit activities,
involving such materials, especially measures to prevent their
acquisition and use by terrorists.
In the Moroccan capital, Rabat, the 12 participants, including
the five major nuclear weapons states, will try to make progress
on the statement of principles on the global initiative signed
by Bush and Putin.
im@koreatimes.co.kr 10-30-2006 17:43
*****************************************************************
21 Korea Times: Pyongyang Fortifies Combat Readiness After Nuclear Test
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times
By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter
North Korea has beefed up its combat readiness by test-firing
five surface-to-air missiles during military exercises, in a
move to prepare for possible military action by the United
States, reports said yesterday.
Pyongyang fired short-range missiles with ranges from 10 to 50
kilometers as part of an annual exercise at a camp in the
western North Korea last week, the Chosun Ilbo reported, quoting
an unidentified government official.
``It's an unusual move to fire as many as five ground-to-air
missiles. The intelligence authorities are analyzing an ulterior
motive behind the activity. We are paying attention to the fact
that the move came amid Pyongyang's strong protest against the
U.N. resolution sanctioning it,'' the official was quoted as
saying.
The missiles launched include SA-2 GUIDELINE missiles with a
range of 35 to 50 kilometers and SA-3 GOA missiles with a range
of 25 kilometers, according to the report.
The report comes amid speculation that North Korea may be
preparing for a second nuclear test following its first on Oct.
9.
South Korean intelligence authorities said over the weekend that
they had detected the movement of trucks and soldiers at a
suspected test site in North Hamkyong Province, where the first
nuclear bomb test was conducted.
During a news conference yesterday, Gen. B. B. Bell said a
second test is possible in the near future.
``I can only surmise that since they tested one, we would see at
some time in the future yet another nuclear test. I hopes that's
not the case, but there will be another test of some kind,
either nuclear or missile or whatever,'' said Bell.
Bell stressed that the United States and South Korea maintain a
strong defense posture against the nuclear-armed North and, if
deterrence fails, they will ``quickly and decisively defeat''
the enemy.
``I wish that North Korea would not only stop testing these
devices, but stop making them and come back to the bargaining
table,'' he added.
The six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program
have been stalled since last November as Pyongyang refused to
rejoin, protesting the U.S. government's crackdown on the
reclusive regime's alleged illicit financial activities,
including money laundering and counterfeiting of U.S. bills.
The U.N. Security Council on Oct. 14 unanimously adopted a
resolution calling for a ban on weapon sales to the North and
the inspection of cargo to and from the North.
It also calls for freezing the assets of businesses supplying
North Korea's nuclear and ballistic weapons programs, as well as
restricting sales of luxury goods and overseas travel by North
Korean officials.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr 10-30-2006 17:37
*****************************************************************
22 Korea Times: Wind Instead of Sunshine?
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion
Washington¡¯s Pressure on Seoul for NK Sanctions Excessive
The government will dispatch officials to observe the inspection
of cargo ships suspected of smuggling weapons of mass
destruction off Bahrain. This is the first time that the nation
has taken part, albeit on a low level, in the U.S.-led
Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) since North Korea¡¯s
nuclear test on Oct. 8. Would this satisfy the United States?
Not really. Washington wants Seoul to expand its participation
to punish North Korea, but Seoul is not eager to do so.
Ranking Korean security officials made it clear recently. Vice
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said, ``It is our position that
we can never allow PSI activities around the Korean
Peninsula.¡¯¡¯ Song Min-soon, President Roh Moo-hyun¡¯s chief
security aide and a top candidate to replace Foreign Minister
Ban Ki-moon who will take over the U.N. secretary-generalship
soon, also ruled out the possibility of a naval blockade against
the North. Little wonder Washington thinks Seoul is the least
cooperative ally.
This is only natural, however. China is North Korea¡¯s biggest
ally, but the two Koreas are still at war with each other
technically. Seoul cannot withstand the enormous fallout of
Pyongyang¡¯s abrupt collapse, whether it is an explosion from
external military attacks or an implosion from internal economic
difficulties. The burdens on China and South Korea can hardly be
compared. Not sentimental nationalism but realistic calculation
forbids Seoul from taking even the slightest risks in
foreigners¡¯ eyes.
U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow recently advised Seoul to
take appropriate actions through ``sound and democratic¡¯¡¯
debates. The latest opinion poll that showed a majority of South
Koreans oppose strengthened punishment of North Korea suggests
much in this regard. The ranking officials¡¯ comments can be
said to reflect the dominant sentiments of the people. This
means Washington is making a demand regardless of its ally¡¯s
ultimate goal _ peace and denuclearization.
Some Korean hawks¡¯ way of thinking is dangerous, too. Sohn
Hak-kyu, a presidential hopeful of the opposition Grand National
Party, recently said the most probable target of North Korea¡¯s
nuclear bombs is South Korea. This may be right, if Washington
drives the situation to extremes here. But Sohn was wrong when
he said the PSI would never lead to military conflicts here.
Pyongyang has long maintained any interdiction of North Korean
vessels would be violation of the armistice.
The ``sunshine policy¡¯¡¯ is all but an inevitable option for
South Korea. Yes, the North has yet to take off its coat
self-imposed isolation and military buildup _ despite lots of
sunshine. But a reversal to strong winds would not make
Pyongyang shed its coat, either. If driven to a dead end, it
will likely attempt to sell the coat to others instead of
abandoning it. Engagement may not be the best policy, but is
better than containment.
10-30-2006 17:32
*****************************************************************
23 Korea Times: [Guest Column] Energy for New Century
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion
By Park Kyu-tae
We are now in the midst of an unprecedented nuclear turmoil in
the Korea peninsular. In fact, the nuclear bombs are a
brainchild of scientists. The bombs have great explosive power,
resulting from the domino effects of the sudden release of
energy leading the fission of the nuclei of heavy elements such
as plutonium or uranium. As it happened, two relatively small
atomic bombs touched off in Japan August 1945 and World War II
was over. Theoretically, the making of an atomic bomb is rather
straightforward.
Yet, this is not the end of the world. Moreover, we must live
on, prepare for better next ages, and think about better use of
the nuclear power. Albert Einstein, one of atomic scholars who
led bomb theories, was quoted as saying ``inquisitiveness after
everything we see and feel.
It is sure that sooner or later, fossil energy will be running
out and we might fall into poverty forever as Arnold J. Toynbee
said on one occasion. Nevertheless, time has changed to harness
deadly nuclear fission to risk-free fusion power. A tokamak
invented in the 1950s in Russia is a device to confine plasma
with magnetic fields. It is one of the leading candidates for
producing nuclear fusion energy.
It is the right time to look at the source of clean nuclear
fusion energy. Recently The Korea Academy of Science and
Technology (KAST, President Chung Kun-mo) held an International
Symposium on Status and Prospect of Fusion Energy Research. The
research leaders from the members of ITER (International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) consortium joined the
meeting and discussed the activities. ITER consortuum is
planning to build in France next year and to show the scientific
and technological feasibility of a full-scale fusion
powerreactor.
On the contrary, Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research
(KSTAR) device is under construction at National Fusion Research
Center (President Shin Jae-in). The project has been working
since 1995 and is collaborating with other countries. Currently
there are seven national and supranational parties participating
in the ITER program: the EU, USA, Japan, Russia, India, China
and South Korea.
With reference to the fusion energy, the sun is giving us all
the source of energy generated by nuclear fusion in it. The
surface temperature of the sun is about 6000¡ÆC (10,000¡ÆF) and
in the order of 100 million-degree Celsius in the core. The sun
is totally in atomic form of plasma or the ionized gaseous
state, upheld by its huge gravity and radiates almost unlimited
energy. Actually, ITER consortium is making a small size of
artificial sun aiming plasma of 300 to 500 million-degree
Celsius to obtain fusion energy. To our surprise, the heat would
be three to five times higher than the sun. Confinement of the
plasma in the suppression vessel using strong magnetic field is
the innovative technologies. Some of the ITER member countries
are already successful in small and experimental scales.
Deuterium or heavy hydrogen is used for fuel of the fusion and
abundant in the ocean water. About 30g from a ton of seawater
can be extracted by electrolysis. Seawater an amount of the
Paldang Lake alone, for example, contains enough deuterium to
supply all the primary energy needed by the world for several
thousand years.
The project is long term and we have to go on for more than 20
years to get sizeable outcomes. The goals for a commercial
fusion power station design are that the amount of radioactive
waste produced will be hundreds of times less than that of a
fission reactor. This is because the amount of fuel planned to
be contained in a fusion reactor chamber half a gram of
deuterium/tritium fuel is only enough to sustain the reaction
for about a minute and then recycled, whereas a fission reactor
contains about a year's supply of fuel 100 tons of uranium and
plutonium. Advocates claim that reliable large-scale fusion
power will produce reliable electricity on demand with virtually
zero pollution.
When it is realizable then the fusion power plants could be
constructed in just the outskirts of urban sites or at
underground bunkers at city centers. It minimizes the loss due
to the present long distance transmission lines. On top of that,
the production cost of power is lower than that of fission
energy.
Those are goals to tackle for fusion research. Then we may
achieve lives with more comfort and value.
The writer is professor emeritus at Yonsei University.
ktpark@yonsei.ac.kr 10-30-2006 17:52
*****************************************************************
24 AFP: US general predicts second NKorea nuclear test
Mon Oct 30, 3:55 AM ET
SEOUL (AFP) - The head of US forces in South Korea" /> South
Koreapredicted North Korea" /> North Koreawill stage a second
nuclear test, as experts said the Stalinist regime's security
threat should not overshadow "crimes against humanity" by its
rulers.
"I can only surmise that since they've tested one, that some
time in the future we're going to get another test of a nuclear
device," General B.B. Bell said.
Referring to the North's nuclear and missile programmes, he
added: "I think we can expect future tests as part of their
programme to develop these kinds of very provocative weapons."
The first test on October 9 triggered worldwide shock and UN
Security Council sanctions. But Bell told a press conference it
had not changed the balance of power on the Korean peninsula.
The general, who would head the South's 650,000-strong military
as well as the 29,500 US troops on the peninsula in case of war,
warned the North to give "long and deliberate thought" to what
he called the enormous capacity of US air and naval forces in
the region.
If North Korea attacked the South "we would quickly and
decisively defeat aggression," he said.
Despite what some arms experts see as the need for a second test
to validate the results of the first, China said last week it
had received assurances from North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il
that his country has no plans for a second test.
But Kim reportedly added that if others put pressure on
Pyongyang, it may take unspecified "further measures."
Weekend news reports said suspicious activities had continued in
the northeastern area where the first test was staged.
Military sources said there had been continuous activity at
Punggyeri in Kilju county.
"However, it remains unclear whether these activities are
related to a second nuclear test or North Koreans are just
faking it," one source said.
Experts say any second test would attract much tougher
sanctions.
A report prepared by DLA Piper LLP, a global legal firm, and the
US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said the North's
rights record should also prompt UN action.
The report, commissioned by former Czech president Vaclav Havel,
ex-Norwegian prime minister Kjell Bondevik and US Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, said the rights issue should be
treated on a parallel track with the security threat.
In a foreword, they said Kim Jong-Il and the North Korean
government "are actively committing crimes against humanity."
It allowed as many as one million, and possibly many more, of
its own people to die during the famine in the 1990s, they said,
and 37 percent of children remain chronically malnourished.
Furthermore, North Korea imprisons more than 200,000 people in
its modern-day gulag, and it is estimated that more than 400,000
have died in that system over 30 years, the trio said.
In written remarks to AFP, Bondevik said: "Nowhere else in the
world today is the abuse of rights so comprehensive and
institutionalised as it is in North Korea."
It was time for the UN Security Council to intervene in North
Korea on the basis of the government's failure in its
responsibility to protect its own people.
The report suggests that the council first adopt a non-punitive
resolution under Chapter Six of the UN Charter, seeking UN and
other international access to provide humanitarian aid to
vulnerable groups and calling for the release of all political
prisoners.
Should North Korea fail to comply, the council should consider
adopting a binding resolution under Chapter Seven, which can
authorise military action to enforce compliance.
Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest-circulation newspaper, said
North Korea launched five short-range missiles during military
exercises last week.
They presumably had ranges between 10 and 50 kilometers (six and
30 miles), it said, quoting an unnamed official.
The official said the launch seemed part of annual military
training but it was rare for the North to fire off as many as
five missiles.
Bell urged Pyongyang to end its drive for weapons and "attend to
the needs of its people instead of the needs of its military."
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
25 AFP: Bush vows to stick by NKorea diplomacy
Mon Oct 30, 5:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush" /> President
George W. Bushsaid he expected terrorists to attack the United
States again and acknowledged that the slow pace of nuclear
diplomacy with North Korea" /> North Koreacan seem "frustrating."
In a two-part interview with Fox New Channel one week before
key November 7 legislative elections, Bush said it was "a
constant effort" to keep the United States and its partners
united on Pyongyang's atomic weapons programs.
"We're making progress," he said in excerpts released by the
network. "The problem is it's a little frustrating for people --
diplomacy is a little frustrating for people -- because things
don't happen overnight."
"It's a constant effort to keep people bound together and the
best way to do it is to remind them of what the dangers will be
to the stability in the Far East if there is either a nuclear
arms race, or somebody, you know, uses a nuclear weapon," said
Bush.
Asked whether the United States would be struck by terrorists
like those who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bush
replied: "I think so, and we've got to do everything we can to
stop them."
With many in his Republican party worried that the unpopular
Iraq" /> Iraqwar may cost them control of the Senate or House of
Representatives, or both, Bush signalled that he would pursue
his agenda aggressively through the rest of his term.
"What I want people to know in Congress, and more particularly
at home and around the world, is that I'm going to be president
up until the very last day, and I've got a lot to do," he said.
Bush said he would work to "create the conditions so that a
future president will be able to help fight this war on terror,
will be able to fight this war on terror successfully."
"I've got a lot of work to do to keep our allies bound together
to deal with these problems that you've just mentioned, like
North Korea and Iran" /> Iran," he said.
"And we got a lot of work to do at home to bring -- to make sure
our budgets are sane so that the deficit continues to shrink, to
keep taxes low to keep the economy growing," said Bush.
"I promise you I'm going to sprint to the finish," he told Fox.
"I've got a lot to do."
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
26 UPI: Analysis: N. Korea imperils its own people
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence -
10/30/2006 11:31:00 AM -0500
By CLAUDE SALHANI UPI International Editor
VICTORIA, British Columbia, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The reclusive
communist regime of North Korea is believed to have test fired
an underground nuclear device a few weeks ago, worrying many of
the countries in its immediate vicinity that a nuclear arms race
might ensue. But a new report accusing Pyongyang of imperiling
its own people has led a human rights group to request action be
taken by the United Nations Security Council.
A highly detailed report was prepared by the law firm DLA Piper
US LLP in cooperation with the U.S. Committee for Human Rights
in North Korea. The report was commissioned by Václav Havel,
former president of the Czech Republic, Kjell Magne Bondevik,
former prime minister of Norway, and Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace
Prize laureate. It was based on a careful review of available
information.
The group cites a new U.N. doctrine which states that each
country has "a responsibility to protect" its own citizens from
the most severe human rights abuses. The report points to
"egregious violations of rights by North Korea" and calls for
immediate action by the U.N. Security Council.
The authors of the report fear that possible U.N. sanctions
against North Korea over its nuclear test "may inadvertently
worsen the abysmal human rights situation."
"Failure to Protect: A Call for the U.N. Security Council to Act
in North Korea" affirms that "the Security Council has
independent justification for intervening in North Korea either
because of the government's failure in its responsibility to
protect or because North Korea is a nontraditional threat to the
peace."
Failure to Protect focuses primarily on the active involvement
of the government in crimes against humanity through:
-- Food Policy and Famine: North Korea allowed as many as 1
million of its citizens to die of starvation. "Hunger and
starvation remain a persistent problem, with over 37 percent of
children chronically malnourished," says the report. North Korea
still denies the World Food Program access to 42 of 203 counties
in the country.
-- Treatment of Political Prisoners: Some 200,000 people are
imprisoned in North Korean prison camps without due process of
law and in near-starvation conditions. More than 400,000 are
estimated to have died in the prison system over 30 years. That
amounts to more than 36 people executed every day over the last
three decades.
The report also describes North Korea's gross misallocations of
resources, diverting funds away from essential services to step
up production of nuclear, chemical and biological weapon
systems, presenting this information as a context for the way
North Korea misallocates its resources.
"For more than a decade, human rights concerns have been
relegated to a second-class status for fear of driving North
Korea from the nuclear talks," said Jared Genser, a
Washington-based attorney with DLA Piper. "Now that its
government has gone ahead with a nuclear test anyway, it is time
to have a parallel-track strategy for alleviating the suffering
of the North Korea people through Security Council action."
"The nuclear threat posed by the North Korean government has
raised concerns all over the world," added Debra Liang-Fenton,
executive director of the U.S. Committee. "But no less alarming
is the active involvement of the North Korean government in
committing crimes against humanity. Now, with sanctions, the
people may inadvertently suffer more."
The U.N. defines "nontraditional threats to peace" as
non-military threats with serious cross-border ramifications,
the report said. North Korea's blatant violations of human
rights have added a number of nontraditional threats,
contributing to creating a refugee crisis of humongous
proportions, with as many as 400,000 North Korean fleeing the
country in recent years.
Furthermore, the North Korean government is believed to partake
in criminal enterprises, such as drug production and trafficking
and money counterfeiting and laundering, according to the
report.
"Security Council intervention is a necessary international and
multilateral vehicle to alleviate the suffering of the North
Korean people," the report concluded.
"The situation in North Korea is one of the most egregious human
rights and humanitarian disasters in the world today," said
Havel, Bondevik, and Wiesel in a joint statement. "Yet sadly,
because North Korea is also one of the most closed societies on
Earth, information about the situation there has only trickled
out over time."
The report recommends the U.N. Security Council adopt a
non-punitive resolution urging the North Korean government to
allow open access for international humanitarian organizations
to feed its people, calling for the release of political
prisoners, as well as insisting that the government allow the
U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea to visit
the country.
But coming at a time when a South Korean diplomat -- Ban Ki Moon
-- has just been named to replace Kofi Annan as
secretary-general of the world body that is unlikely to be high
on Ban's agenda.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
27 UPI: S. Korean politicians visit North
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence -
10/30/2006 8:07:00 AM -0500
SEOUL, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Leaders from South Korea's left-leaning
labor party departed for North Korea Monday amid a probe of some
of its members on spy charges.
During its five-day trip the 13-member delegation, headed by
chairman Moon Sung-hyun of the Democratic Labor Party and
several lawmakers, plans to meet the North's No. 2 leader, Kim
Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the legislative Supreme
People's Assembly, party officials said.
The visit marks the first time South Korean politicians have met
with North Korean leaders since the communist neighbor carried
out a nuclear test on Oct. 9.
Moon said he would use the trip to call on North Korea to
abandon its nuclear drive and restore inter-Korean ties soured
by the North's nuclear and missile tests.
But the party is accused of involvement in a spy case. The
party's Vice Secretary-General Choi Ki-young and four others,
including a former member of the DLP's standing committee, are
being investigated following suspicions of their involvement in
a ring spying for the communist North and making unauthorized
contacts with alleged North Korean agents.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
28 Guardian Unlimited: Carter Helps Son in Longshot Senate Bid
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Monday October 30, 2006 8:31 AM
AP Photo NVIB104
By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY
Associated Press Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Jimmy Carter stepped out of a restaurant on a
recent afternoon to find a dozen or so people waiting to greet
him. The 82-year-old former president flashed his famous grin
and smoothly worked the crowd.
Following in his footsteps, a man with the same grin struggled
for the same reception. He reached at the hand of a distracted
potential voter.
``I'm Jack Carter. I'm the one who's running,'' he said.
Such is the blessing and the curse of the Jack Carter for Senate
campaign.
The eldest son of the 39th president is in the final push of an
underdog campaign for the Senate in Nevada. Carter, a
millionaire investment consultant, says outrage moved him to
make his first bid for public office and run against a
well-funded incumbent Republican, Sen. John Ensign.
Carter's top campaign targets have been the Bush
administration's policies on war and security. His pitch to
voters has been a promise of change and an independent voice.
His greatest political asset is a famous father who sometimes
steals the spotlight.
``I've got a very good name.'' Carter, 59, said while lunching
with his father. ``I'll admit it. I don't have any problem with
that.''
Experts agree the perks of presidential lineage are undeniable.
Name recognition and access to a national network of
contributors set Carter's campaign apart. No Democrat challenged
Carter in the primary - even though he'd never run for office
and had lived in the state less than four years.
``Anybody who was president of the United States by definition
has coattails,'' said Dan Hart, a Las Vegas Democratic
operative. ``Jack Carter is getting more attention than anybody
else would have.''
In Nevada, riding Jimmy Carter's coattails wouldn't necessarily
take you far. In Carter's presidential races, he lost the state
by 5 percentage points in 1976 and 36 percentage points in 1980.
Nevadans twice voted for another former first son, President
George W. Bush. Still, only 39 percent now approve of the
president's job performance, according to a September newspaper
poll. The same poll found Jack Carter trailing Ensign by about
23 percentage points, but more recent surveys have found Carter
behind by about 10 percentage points.
Carter has leaned heavily on his father, who draws media
coverage like a magnet, to make up for a campaign fund that's
dwarfed by his opponent's. Ensign has outraised Carter by more
than $4 million, at last reporting.
Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, attended the campaign
launch, and have been regular visitors since. When Jack Carter
was hospitalized with colitis, his dad handled campaign events
in his stead. Commercials for the low-income housing project
supported by the former president, Habitat for Humanity, run
during local political talk shows.
Hart says there are few negatives associated with Jimmy Carter.
But others note potential pitfalls.
``There are limits on the value of campaigning with the famous
father,'' said Andrew Polsky, a political science professor at
Hunter College in New York who has studied political families.
``The next generation has to step out of the shadows at some
point and be his own man or her own woman. They don't want to be
overshadowed by the better known, more famous parent.''
Jack said he never sought his father's advice before getting
into the race. Since then, he said, he hasn't sought much
counsel from the local political establishment.
``I never did see Jack as a future political candidate,'' his
father said. ``I don't think Jack is naturally fascinated with
politics as a subject. But neither am I, by the way.''
Jack Carter has tried to reach out to Nevada voters who the
Carters say 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry
ignored. He talks openly about his Baptist faith, and appeared
last weekend with his father at a black church in Las Vegas.
Jack, who grew up in Plains, Ga., claims a shared heritage with
rural Nevadans. ``I am one of them because I'm from a small
town,'' he said. ``And when I do go out into those small towns
out there those people are the same I grew up with.''
Ensign disagrees, and his ads zoom in on a picture of a carpet
bag to underscore the point. Ensign, a veterinarian and the son
of a casino executive, grew up in Nevada and served two terms in
the House before being elected to the Senate in 2000.
In debates, he has noted Carter relies on substantial financial
support from outside Nevada - 84 percent, by the senator's
count.
``How can you say you want to be Nevada's voice in Washington
when almost all of your supporters are from out of state?''
Ensign said.
At times, Carter has appeared out of his element on Nevada turf.
On the stump, he has little to say about water issues and the
fight against a proposed nuclear waste storage dump at Yucca
Mountain, northwest of Las Vegas.
His preferred approach is to pound the president, and by
association Ensign, on the war in Iraq. Ensign, like many
Republicans, has begun drawing distinctions between himself and
the administration.
Hart said Carter's chances of winning depend on whether the
predicted Democratic surge materializes on Election Day.
``Carter would need to benefit from that,'' Hart said.
Anything is possible, the former president said, recalling his
own days as a political unknown.
``Remember, Rosalynn would go out and tell people to 'Vote for
Jimmy,' and they'd come back and say, 'Jimmy who?'''
^---
On the Net:
Jack Carter: http://www.carterfornevada.com/
Sen. John Ensign: http://www.johnensign.org/
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
29 UCS: Systematic Interference with Science at Interior Department Exposed
October 30, 2006
Emails and Edited Documents Show Evidence of Inappropriate
Manipulation
UCS Scientific Integrity Program
WASHINGTON, DC High-ranking political appointees within the
Department of the Interior have rewritten numerous scientific
documents to prevent the protection of several highly imperiled
species under the Endangered Species Act. Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald
personally reversed scientific findings, changed scientific
conclusions to prevent endangered species from receiving
protection, removed relevant information from a scientific
document, and ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to
adopt her edits. All of these actions show a blatant disregard
for the Endangered Species Act provision which requires species
protection decisions to be based on the best available science.
"It's crucial that our new Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne
create explicit policies that promote scientific openness, allow
scientists to do their jobs, and punish those who
inappropriately interfere with the scientific process," said Dr.
Francesca Grifo, Senior Scientist and Director of the Union of
Concerned Scientists' (UCS) Scientific Integrity Program.
"Secretary Kempthorne should ensure that previous and future
Endangered Species Act decisions are based on the best available
science. And he should make adequate resources available to
allow appropriate, science-based protection decisions under the
Endangered Species Act."
Documents recently obtained by several conservation
organizations show that MacDonald, an engineer with no training
in biology, and other Interior officials personally edited
scientific documents to change the conclusions of wildlife
biologists with FWS regarding what species are eligible for
Endangered Species Act protection. Affected species include the
greater sage grouse, the Gunnison sage grouse, the white-tailed
prairie dog, the Gunnison's prairie dog, a fish known as the
roundtail chub, and a tree found in the Mariana Islands.
These examples of the manipulation and distortion of scientific
information are the tip of the iceberg. The abuse of science at
Interior has been reported previously on issues as diverse as
mountaintop removal mining, cattle grazing, and the protection
of rare trumpeter swans. In a survey of FWS scientists published
just last year, 84 scientists reported having been directed to
inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from FWS
scientific documents. Furthermore, 303 scientists, or two thirds
of those who responded to the survey, knew of cases where
Interior Department political appointees had interfered with
scientific determinations.
"This is not business as usual. When hundreds of scientists
report political interference in government science, our
nation's biological diversity is at risk," said Dr. Grifo.
"Species diversity has provided humankind with food, fiber,
medicines, clean water, and numerous other services that many of
us take for granted. When we lose species, we lose the potential
to solve critical problems."
The documents were obtained by several conservation groups,
including Forest Guardians, the Center for Native Ecosystems,
the Center for Biological Diversity, and Sagebrush Sea.
Contacts
Reporters: Join our notification listto receive breaking news
from UCS.
For general media inquiries, please call our press office at
202-331-5420.
Press Contacts:
EMILY ROBINSON Press Secretary 202-331-5427 erobinson@ucsusa.org
RICH HAYES Media Director 202-331-5437 rhayes@ucsusa.org
© Union of Concerned Scientists
Page Last Revised: 10/30/06
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30 IPS-English JAPAN:Activists Plan to Nip Nuclear Ambitions
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:57:00 -0800
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ROMAIPS AP HD IP CS CV NU
JAPAN:Activists Plan to Nip Nuclear Ambitions
Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Oct 30 (IPS) - Recent remarks by top level politicians and military
strategists while discussing the once taboo topic of Japan becoming a
nuclear weapons power has raised bitter memories for Shoji Kihara, 57, a
peace activist living in Hiroshima.
''The spectacle of Japan even considering nuclear weapons is a terrible
prospect for peace activists after all the hardship we underwent and still
face after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima,'' Kihara told IPS in
an interview.
Kihara was born after Japan was defeated, ending World War II in 1945.
Japan surrendered after the United States dropped the world's first atomic
bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, killing more than 140,000 people, followed by
another one that destroyed Nagasaki city two days later.
Among those who died in Hiroshima, says Kihara, were his two sisters. His
father passed away when Kihara was four years old from an exhausting
illness related to the radiation that lingered in the city and continues to
account for civilian deaths.
''After such horrific experiences, we shiver with fright and anger when
Japanese politicians even refer to the prospect of our country having
nuclear weapons. I will fight against this to my death to stop a nuclear
arms race in this region,'' said Kihara who represents the citizens' 'Group
for No-Nukes'.
Japan, the only country in the world to suffer nuclear bombing, has in the
postwar era becoming a leading advocate of pacifism and thrown its support
behind the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
But that stance, supported by the public, seems to be waning these days,
say activists and military experts.
They point to the recent signs of this change of heart, the latest being
remarks by foreign minister Taro Aso who suggested that Japan should openly
discuss acquiring nuclear weapons following North Korea's nuclear weapons
test in October.
''At a time when the country next to us comes to have nuclear weapons, it
is time for various discussions on the issue,'' Aso, a conservative, told a
foreign policy committee.
The comments followed earlier remarks made by another influential minister,
Shoichi Nakagawa, who stated that ''countries with nuclear weapons do not
get attacked'' and caused a stir in Japan.
While the conservative 'Yomiuri' newspaper, Japan's leading daily, called
for a public debate in support of Aso, the liberal 'Asahi' newspaper was
critical saying, in an editorial on Oct. 22 that the foreign minister has
sent out an ''erroneous message to the world.''
To defuse the issue, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acted quickly by stating
that Japan will never turn away from its anti-nuke policy despite North
Korea's possession of nuclear bombs.
Defence writer Shunji Taoka, who is a close observer of East Asian
security, agrees with Abe though pointing out that this is not necessarily
for pacifist reasons.
''Indeed, the growing nuclear nightmare in East Asia has turned the
spotlight on the military vulnerability of Japan that is surrounded by
countries with nuclear weapons -- China and Russia -- and cannot protect
itself from a nuclear attack,'' he explained.
But, according to Taoka, the biggest deterrent to a nuclear Japan is
opposition from the United States. ''An attempt by Japan to review its
anti-nuclear stance even for the sake of self-protection is a highly risky
venture. Tokyo will face economic collapse in the wake of anger in
Washington and that could also trigger a global breakdown given the
globalised trade system,'' he recently told the media.
Still, according to experts, Japan's vulnerability, in case of a nuclear
attack by North Korea, is turning into an opportunity to take a second
look at what was till recently a taboo topic.
Hideaki Ban, a respected anti-nuclear activist, pointed out that there is
less opposition now to the prospect of developing nuclear weapons compared
to a few decades ago and the change of public heart is gaining strength as
the media focuses on Japan's weak defence capabilities in the event of a
nuclear attack.
''While the government is acutely aware of not pursuing nuclear weapons,
comments by Aso and other politicians are geared at putting the prospect on
the table, a move that can influence the public as the North Korean threat
begins to grow,'' he explained to IPS.
Ban also holds Japan's postwar education that focused on economic growth
rather than war, responsible for softening public opposition to nuclear
weapons.
''The young generation has not been educated about the horrors of nuclear
weapons and therefore do not have strong feelings like the older people
against war,'' he said.
Taoka, on the other hand, contends that Japan will have to make do, for the
moment, with boosting its defence capabilities along with the U.S. to meet
the North Korean threat.
(END/IPS/AP/IP/NU/HD/CS/CV/SK/RDR/06)
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31 [progchat_action] UN investigates Israel's 'uranium weapons'
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 01:23:19 -0600 (CST)
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UN investigates Israel's 'uranium weapons'
The Belfast Telegraph
30 October 2006
The United Nations Environment Programme is investigating allegations, first
published in The Independent, that Israel may have used uranium-based
weapons during this summer's war in Lebanon. Twenty UN experts, working with
Lebanese environmentalists, have spent two weeks assessing various samples.
They are planning to report their findings in December.
Butros al-Harb, Unep's Middle East director, told a Lebanese radio
interviewer at the weekend: "If uranium was used, we will find out and we
will announce it. We cannot confirm anything now, but we will wait for
results."
Yesterday Israel issued its most explicit denial yet. Major Avital
Leibovitz, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defence Forces, said: "We deny using
any weapons containing uranium." One official suggested that if the
environmentalists had indeed found traces of uranium, they would have to
look for a different explanation.
Chris Busby, the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation
Risk, based in Brussels, reported last week that two soil samples thrown up
by Israeli bombs in the south Lebanese villages of Khiam and At Tiri,
centres of fierce fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, showed "elevated
radiation signatures". Dr Busby warned that particles from the explosions
were long-lived in the environment and could be inhaled into the lungs,
causing "significant" health effects on civilians.
The Harwell laboratory for mass spectrometry in Oxfordshire confirmed the
concentration of uranium isotopes in the samples, but the European experts
were puzzled about what weapons Israel might have been using and why. Chris
Bellamy, a professor of military science and doctrine at Cranfield
University, said the initial tests "present an enigma". But he dismissed
speculation that Israel was using a "dirty bomb" or micro-yield nuclear
weapon.
Government officials said Israel had received no approaches from either the
Unep or the European committee. Mark Regev, the Foreign Ministry spokesman,
said: "If someone comes with a complaint, comes with a charge, we will
review it." But he protested that Israel was being singled out when nobody
had accused it of deploying weapons banned under international law or
practice. "The sort of munitions we used in the Lebanon campaign," he said,
"were almost identical to the sort of weaponry used in conflicts over the
past decade by Nato countries, by Western countries. Sometimes there's a
feeling that the Jewish state is being singled out for special treatment.
One really has to ask why it is that the finger is being pointed at Israel."
Palestinian officials have frequently accused the IDF of firing shells
tipped with depleted uranium, a hard metal byproduct of uranium enrichment,
in the Gaza Strip. But Israel has denied it and no conclusive evidence has
been produced.
* Israel's Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, called for President Moshe
Katzav to stand down for the duration of any judicial proceedings after
police recommended indicting him for alleged sexual offences against women
employees.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=712118
This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from
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32 BBC: Nuclear bunker put up for auction
Last Updated: Monday, 30 October 2006
[Templeton nuclear bunker]
The bunker could withstand a missile attack, but not a direct hit
A nuclear bunker is up for sale at a disused airfield in
Pembrokeshire.
The concrete building with metre-thick walls and steel shutters
was built as an RAF communication base in the early 1990s at
Templeton, near Tenby.
Auctioneers have put a guide price of £50,000 to £75,000 on the
bunker, which will go under the hammer in December.
But they believe the above-ground building will be of interest
to someone looking for secure storage, rather than as a home or
office.
London-based auctioneers Andrews Robertson are selling the
bunker on behalf of the Defence Estates, which is responsible
for Ministry of Defence property and land.
Auctioneer Jeremy Lamb said: "There were around 10 to 15 built
in the early 1990s by the RAF as communication centres.
"They have been selling them off over a number of years. We have
sold some before - most recently south of Oxford - but they are
quite unusual.
Nuclear bunker details
Freehold with ful vacant possession Gross internal area approx
600m sq Set on approx 1.26 acres Guide price £50,00-£75,000
Auction on 13 December at Covent Garden, London
"They are very difficult to price because of the limitations
with what you can do with them."
He said the owner of the last one he sold had recently gained B1
planning use - which meant it could be used as an office or for
light industry - but there were usually very strict rules on
their use.
"The most useful thing is the secure storage it offers - there
is a very high level of security as it is nuclear-proof.
"They are designed to survive a missile attack and the fall-out,
but not a direct hit.
"They don't tend to lend themselves to offices because of the
lack of natural light."
He also said they were much smaller inside than they appeared
from the outside because of the thickness of the walls.
Internally it is divided into several small rooms with an open
plan space that was used for offices.
The building is on more than an acre of land on the edge of the
disused airfield, which was used by the Army for a variety of
training tasks, including helicopter and air defence exercises,
low-level infantry tactics, and driver training.
*****************************************************************
33 BBC: Climate costs: The global picture
Last Updated: Monday, 30 October 2006
[Power stations in England]
Cutting the use of fossil fuels could slow the rate of climate
change
A British government report says global warming could have a
disastrous effect on the world's economy, shrinking it by 20%.
Tackling the problem now would require 1% of global gross
domestic product, the report by the economist, Sir Nicholas
Stern, says.
BBC correspondents give the view on climate change from around
the world.
NICK MILES, WASHINGTON
The latest global warming report is a huge contrast to
Washington's current approach to global warming.
The Bush administration decided not to ratify the Kyoto protocol
and that called for far more moderate cuts in carbon dioxide
emissions than those suggested by the Stern report.
But recently there has been a subtle shift in public opinion
about the environment.
Prominent public figures from both sides of the political divide
have been taking a stand.
A film by former Democratic Party Vice-President, Al Gore,
warned of the need for the US to address global warming.
An Inconvenient Truth was widely acclaimed and the Republican
governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has recently
introduced initiatives that will put a cap on carbon-dioxide
emissions from the manufacturing plants and set targets for
greener cars.
Those strategies were singled out for praise in Nicholas Stern's
report.
There has been a parallel shift in public attitudes as well.
Polls suggest that three-quarters of Americans feel that global
warming is a serious problem and a majority of citizens feel
environmental protection should take priority over economic
growth.
But when the time comes to pay higher taxes to mitigate the
problem, those lofty ideals may change and environmentalists
point out that there is still considerable opposition within
Congress to nationwide caps on greenhouse gases.
The car and energy lobbies are some of the most powerful in
Washington.
DAMIAN GRAMMATICAS, DELHI
It is developing nations like India that are likely to be hit
hardest by climate change. As global temperatures rise, so will
sea levels.
Flooding will be a major problem. Glaciers in the Himalayas will
melt, releasing more flood waters onto the Indian plains.
Then, as rivers shrink, there will be droughts. But while
climate change is seen as a real threat to India, an even more
pressing priority is driving forward economic development.
First, that means tackling poverty, improving life for some of
the tens of millions who still live without access to
electricity, to healthcare and education.
Second, there are growing numbers of Indians who want the
luxuries of a developed lifestyle - cars, fridges, televisions.
They will be the polluters of the future.
For now, the view from here is that it is developed countries
that must help foot the bill if they want Indians to tackle
climate change.
DAN GRIFFITHS, BEIJING
A hazy layer of smog often hangs over Beijing, a noxious mixture
of emissions from cars, factories and power stations in the
capital of the world's most populous nation.
And it is not just Beijing. China has some of the most polluted
cities on the earth.
It is already the world's second largest producer of greenhouse
gases. China produces more coal than any other nation, and oil
consumption here has doubled in recent years.
The country's wealthy middle classes are buying cars in record
numbers, adding to the problem.
And with the economy still booming, many analysts expect China's
total emissions to overtake the US within a few decades.
The country's leaders say they are aware of the challenges
presented by greenhouse gas emissions.
They have announced plans for China to generate 10% of its power
from renewable sources and have promised to build more nuclear
power reactors.
They ratified the Kyoto Protocol, but as a developing nation
China is not required to reduce its emissions.
And there's the rub. China believes that emissions restrictions
could slow economic growth.
The government is promising to do more for the environment, but
so far the economy has always come first.
PETER BILES, JOHANNESBURG
Even before the publication of the Stern report, environmental
groups had been warning of the dangers of climate change across
Africa.
Global warming is said to be having a serious impact on the
continent and research from an umbrella group of campaigners had
predicted an "unprecedented" threat to food security.
In some parts of Africa - particularly in the countries of the
Horn and the Sahel - food production is always at the mercy of
the climate.
These arid and semi-arid regions are at risk of becoming even
drier as a result of global warming.
Africa is, on average, 0.5C warmer than it was a century ago,
but the latest research suggests that some places are more than
3C warmer than just 20 years ago.
In response to Nicholas Stern's findings, Oxfam says that for
hundreds of millions of people living under the constant threat
of drought or flood, urgent action on climate change is vital.
The agency says not only will this save money in the future but
it will also save lives in the poorest countries today.
There is plenty of agreement on the fact that global warming and
greenhouse emissions are caused by the rich industrial nations -
but Africa is bearing the brunt of the problem and therefore
needs help.
*****************************************************************
34 AU ABC: Govt shifts focus to climate change
7.30 Report - 30/10/2006:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation 7.30 Report
Reporter: Kerry O'Brien
KERRY O’BRIEN: The Government hasn't missed the political
implications of the growing crisis on climate change. Last week
the Treasurer, Peter Costello, announced Commonwealth seed
funding for two experimental low emission energy projects in
Victoria and today, in Queensland, Energy Minister Ian
Macfarlane announced another two, worth another $125 million. Mr
MacFarlane describes himself as a sceptic on the link between
climate change and carbon emissions and is strongly supporting a
debate on nuclear power for Australia. He joins me now from
Canberra.
KERRY O’BRIEN: Ian Macfarlane, the British Prime Minister Tony
Blair has today quoted the Stern report to emphasise that the
world is "heading towards catastrophic tipping points in our
climate unless we act". By comparison, you continue to describe
yourself as a sceptic on links between carbon emissions and
global warming. If you're a sceptic, why should we take you
seriously? Why should we believe that you're serious about
genuinely wanting to reduce the emissions that you're sceptical
about?
IAN MACFARLANE: Well, let's get a few things on the table to
start with, Kerry. Firstly, in terms of climate change, I agree
that climate change is happening and that global warming is
happening. I also agree that CO2 emissions and greenhouse gas
emissions are too high and have to be lowered. Where I'm
sceptical is some of the extreme claims being made, for
instance, that sea levels will rise 25 metres when the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, its own figures are
saying that the predictions are really less than half a metre.
So I think what we need to say on this debate is, how are we
going to have an impact on emissions? And the way we're going to
have an impact on emissions is to use technology to lower our
greenhouse gas signature.
KERRY O’BRIEN: So you're no longer saying, as you said on the
'Sunday' program in August, that you're a sceptic about the
link, as you put it, between emissions and global warming?
IAN MACFARLANE: There is a link between human habitation and
global warming. How big that link is and how directly correlated
it is is still the subject of fierce debate and the impact of
emissions in terms of, for instance, the increases in sea levels
are yet to be established. There are figures currently being
debated that in the end
KERRY O’BRIEN: But you don't argue the big issues. What you've
partly funded today are two experimental projects that won't be
completed until 2015, which may or may not then be taken up by
the coal-powered energy industry. These are a drop in the
bucket, aren't they, in responding to what Tony Blair has called
catastrophic tipping points in our climate?
IAN MACFARLANE: I think we need to go back to what Sir Nicholas
Stern is saying; what he is saying is that there needs to be
public-private partnerships between companies and governments,
between industry and government to lower greenhouse gas
emissions. On the basis of what we announced last week, which is
the world's biggest solar electricity generator and a brown coal
de-watering project, today's projects related to both gas and to
black coal, the Government has invested some $250 million. In
return for that, industry will invest $1.5 billion and carbon
emissions will be lowered by millions of tonnes per annum.
KERRY O’BRIEN: The Prime Minister says that solar power can
never be a mainstream energy provider in Australia, but by
comparison Republican governor Arnie Schwarzenegger in
California is aiming to have one million solar rooftops in his
State in the next decade or so, providing the same energy as
five modern electric power plants. Doesn't that sound mainstream
to you?
IAN MACFARLANE: Well, the Prime Minister said today that solar
won't be able to provide baseload power supply, and that is
true. The sun doesn't shine for 24 hours a day and without some
major breakthrough in terms of storage of electricity
technology, solar at best will only supply us with electricity
through the daylight hours. The reality is that 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, the electricity that consumers need will come
from baseload power predominated around the world by fossil
fuels. The challenge for us is to make sure we do everything we
can to lower the emissions from fossil fuel, whether it's black
coal, brown coal or gas. Those fuels are playing a major part in
supplying the baseload electricity of countries like the UK,
Europe, countries like North America and Australia and, of
course, our Asian neighbours to the north and north west in
India and China.
KERRY O’BRIEN: Energy utilities in California, to keep using
that example, will have to acquire 20% of power from renewable
sources. The State has a renewable energy target of 33% by 2020.
By comparison, Australia's renewable energy target sounds
pathetic, doesn't it? Why can't we have targets similar to those
in California where you have a Conservative governor?
IAN MACFARLANE: Targets are one thing, actually doing something
is the other and, of course, we have set in place the mandatory
renewable energies target.
KERRY O’BRIEN: What is that?
IAN MACFARLANE: It's 9,500 kilowatt hours.
KERRY O’BRIEN: In percentage terms?
IAN MACFARLANE: Australia has about 10% of its power coming from
renewables. If I can correct the ACF, their figures on coal are
also wrong. But in terms of renewable fuel, there are obviously
opportunities that need to be developed. That's why we invested
$75 million in the solar power generation plant that's going to
be built in northern Victoria. But we have to be realistic here.
It's one thing to set targets. It's another thing to do things.
KERRY O’BRIEN: Well, surely if you've got the will you can do
both. You can set targets and then put your money where your
mouth is and set out to meet those targets. Hasn't all the
evidence thus far in fighting pollution in the past been that
polluters need either incentives or penalties to reduce or to
stop polluting? Isn't it also true that the coal industry is
going to need incentives like carbon trading to actually come to
the party in a serious enough way to meet the challenges
outlined by the Stern report?
IAN MACFARLANE: Well, let's go back to Stern and let's start
there. What Sir Nicholas Stern has said and what we understand
he released in his report tonight is this that to solve the
emissions problem that we're facing, we are going to need
technology. And that technology will be across the board in
terms of energy. And Sir Nicholas Stern in my presence said that
carbon capture and storage of fossil fuels will be crucial as
part of that result. The reality is that what we are doing is
setting in place a suite of energy alternatives as we work
forward, lowering emissions. Remember, Australia is one let me
finish. Remember that Australia is one of the few countries in
the world that will reach its Kyoto target or come very close to
it. The reality is that most of Europe will miss their target
and, in fact, in terms of global emissions, emissions will grow
during the period of Kyoto by 40%. The second point that Sir
Nicholas Stern made is that we need a global carbon trading
arrangement. Kyoto is not a global trading arrangement. It is
around about or even less than 45% of the global emitters and
most of the member countries are not going to reach their
targets.
KERRY O’BRIEN: We're close to time. You mention Kyoto. When you
talk about Australia meeting Kyoto targets even though it
refuses to sign the Kyoto agreement, isn't it fair to say
reducing tree clearing in Queensland has been instrumental in
meeting Kyoto targets and, in fact, has masked that carbon
emissions from both the energy industry and the transport sector
are continuing to increase at a worrying rate? Energy industry,
43% above 1990 levels in 2004 and still growing. Transport
emissions, 23% above '90 levels in 2004 and also still growing.
What are you doing about reducing those levels?
IAN MACFARLANE: Well, the tree clearing issue was only a 20%
part of the overall strategy in terms of reducing emissions.
What we're doing is we're spending $12 billion on lowering
greenhouse gas emissions. Two and a half years ago we announced
in the white paper almost $700 million worth of policies which
will see Australia reduce its emissions per GDP by about 35%.
There will be some areas that will be tougher than others. One
of the areas which the world is looking at for a solution is the
area of carbon capture and storage, but we're also funding
solar. We're also funding drying of coal. We're also funding the
use of the latest technology and we are asking for the community
and the business community to be involved in energy
efficiencies. Those are the things that Stern outlined to me and
those are the things that Australia is doing.
KERRY O’BRIEN: Ian Macfarlane, thanks for talking with us.
IAN MACFARLANE: Pleasure.
*****************************************************************
35 UPI: Walker's World: Stern's grim report
United Press International - Intl. Intelligence -
10/30/2006 10:09:00 AM -0500
By MARTIN WALKER UPI Editor Emeritus
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Britain's Stern report may be the
most influential piece of work on a global scale since the
United Nations charter. This detailed 700-page survey on the
implications for governments of global warming from one of the
high priests of the British policy establishment has the
potential to change almost everything.
Published Monday with its grim warning that climate change is
likely to hit the global economy as hard as the Great
Depression, the report from Sir Nicholas Stern comes hard on the
heels of former Vice President Al Gore's film on the same theme,
"An Inconvenient Truth." But whereas Gore was speaking to a
global public (and from the Cannes film festival to the U.S. box
office and the next Oscars and across the world it is clear that
people are listening), Stern speaks to statesman and officials,
policy-makers and this with the power to do something about it.
"The scientific evidence of global warming is overwhelming and
it is clear that the consequences will literally be disastrous,"
Prime Minister Tony Blair commented Monday. "We cannot afford to
wait. This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction
future many years ahead, but in our lifetime."
There is not much hard environmental science in the report, but
a great deal of economic and political science about the
real-world effects, bringing great intellectual rigor to the
uncertainties of forecasting. This helps explain why Blair's
government has already accepted its findings, and is now pledged
to carry the message to its partners in the European Union and
its allies like the United States. That is why Blair has hired
Gore as a consultant to help promote the report's message in the
United States.
"Our actions over the coming few decades could create risks of
major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this
century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated
with the great wars and the economic depression of the first
half of the 20th century," Stern concludes.
"We have the time and knowledge to act. But only if we act
internationally, strongly and urgently," he added.
But this former chief economist at the World Bank and senior
British civil servant also looks on the bright side. Global
warming can be tackled, and by investing now, its challenge can
be met at a reasonable price, perhaps as little as one percent
of global GDP over the next 45 years. The alternative would be
an environmental crisis several orders of magnitude more costly,
in both human and economic terms.
It is already very late in the game, Stern stresses, and some
grim consequences are already inevitable, notably in Africa and
other parts of the developing world that have few resources to
cope with the threat of droughts, storms, floods and
crop-destroying climate change. The best we can hope for is not
to reverse the build-up of greenhouse gases (measured as
equivalent of units of carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere, but to
stabilize it at a far higher level than today. Before the
industrial revolution, that level was around 250 parts per
million. Today it stands at 430 parts per million. Stern's
target is to level it off at 500-550 parts per million by 2050.
The goal is to cut the emissions of greenhouse gases per unit of
GDP by 75 percent or more; the fuel systems and power trains of
the global economy have to be completely re-invented, even as we
try and keep the overall system functioning. What that means,
Stern says, starts with the need to cut the use of carbon in
power generation by two-thirds -- which almost certainly means a
large investment in nuclear power.
Stern has studied other economic models on global warming that
suggest that a rise of 2-3 degrees in temperature would mean a
fall in global GDP of 3 percent or more. Stern goes further,
suggesting that a temperature rise in the coming century of 5-6
degrees is "a real possibility." Looking at other impacts,
including health costs and famines and epidemics, Stern says
that without real action to moderate climate change, we could
see a 20 percent drop in living standards across the globe.
Given that choice, between a world that is 20 percent poorer and
with climate change still continuing, and a world that has
invested one percent of its wealth but avoided the worst, Stern
says the argument for massive investment now is unanswerable,
and that governments, officials and policy-makers across the
world will have to act.
His paper is written essentially for them, in arguments and
language that are likely to convince and to resonate. But this
does not mean Stern's arguments will win, or will escape
controversy. It will not be easy to get politicians to accept
that the rich countries should be responsible for the lions'
share -- as much as 80 percent -- of the cost of cutting
emissions.
The battle against climate change will have to be funded, either
through general taxation, or preferably for Stern, through a
carbon tax, along with government regulations limiting the
amount of carbon any enterprise may produce. If a company must
produce more emissions, it will have to buy the right to do so
in a global emissions market, in which efficient producers may
sell their unused emission rights (one such market already
exists in Europe). One way or another, Stern says, governments
will have to force "behavioral change" on their economies.
The British government is already responding, with new plans for
taxes on air travel, new "pay as your drive" road taxes combined
with incentives to curb car use and ownership, and more
incentives for energy-efficient appliances and the use of
renewable energy.
Some of the implications of this kind of massive shift in the
global fuel system are just beginning to be understood.
Countries rich in fossil fuels like Saudi Arabia, Russia and
Iran, could be facing sharp falls in income if Stern's
recommendations go into force. Car manufacturers, expecting a
new global bonanza as the millions of newly prosperous Indians
and Chinese start buying personal transport, may see the real
growth come instead in buses and public transport.
Of course, the Stern report may be a one-week wonder, with big
headlines for a few days, and then filed away and forgotten,
rather in the way that Kyoto was virtually forgotten in the
United States and the way that Europe set Kyoto targets to cut
emissions but does not look on track to meet them.
"We can't wait the five years it took to negotiate Kyoto -- we
simply don't have the time," Blair concluded Monday. "We accept
we have to go further (than Kyoto)."
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
36 [NukeNet] Scotland: New houses breaching energy laws
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:08:14 -0800
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NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
http://www.sundayherald.com/58741
Sunday Herald - 29 October 2006
New houses breaching energy laws
By Rob Edwards
----------
As many as half of all new houses built in Scotland could breach
energy-saving rules, blowing a gaping hole in government attempts to combat
climate chaos.
An investigation by the Sunday Herald has uncovered evidence that
insulation and draught-proofing in new homes is often so poor that they
fail to comply with building regulations. As a result they cause more of
the pollution that is warming the globe.
The revelation has triggered calls for the Scottish communities minister,
Malcolm Chisholm, to crack down on the “cowboy builders” blamed for
breaking the rules. Energy campaigners want better checks on the insulation
in new houses.
Ministers in Edinburgh and London face growing criticism for failing to do
enough to tackle climate change. A report due out tomorrow by the World
Bank’s former chief economist, Nicholas Stern, is expected to warn that, if
unchecked, it could trigger a global economic catastrophe.
According to experts from local authorities and building research groups,
breaches of the rules for insulation in new houses were “widespread”.
Insulation in lofts, walls and around fittings was missing and improperly
installed, they said.
“It’s down to shoddy workman ship,” said Janice Lyon, Aberdeen City
Council’s home energy co-ordinator.
Surveys uncovered manifold examples of poor insulation in Kingswell, an
estate built on the outskirts of Aberdeen in the late 1990s. “They were not
up to the building standards of the time,” Lyon stated. But the problem was
not limited to Aberdeen, she argued. “We know this happens with 40% to 50%
of new build in Scotland,” she said.
Thermal imaging surveys conducted by the Building Research Establishment
(BRE) in East Kilbride have shown that up to 30% more heat escapes from new
houses than expected. Inspections have uncovered instances where the wrong
insulating materials have been installed.
In a study this year, the BRE’s Sean Doran pointed out that the insulation
in floors and walls of new homes was not usually examined properly by
building inspectors. Inspectors were “unsure of the levels of standards
that should be demanded”, he said.
Further evidence comes from glass manufacturer Pilkington, which said that
less than half of replacement windows in Scotland use the energy- saving
glass required by regulations, compared with 90% in England and Wales.
The widespread breaches of building insulation rules were a “scandal”, said
Chas Booth, of the Association for the Conservation of Energy in Scotland.
“Setting tighter building standards for energy efficiency is pointless
unless they are enforced,” he said.
“This new evidence shows that, far from the Executive’s claimed 25%
reduction in carbon emissions under new building regulations, our buildings
will continue to be a major cause of climate change unless action is taken.”
Booth urged ministers to include compulsory insulation tests in its current
review of building regulations and to increase training and resources for
building inspectors.
Last week, SNP MSP Maureen Watt tabled a motion in parliament suggesting
that insulation regulations were being widely breached. The Scottish
Executive pointed out that its revised building standards did give
“guidance” on the frequency of insulation tests.
“The proposed standards on energy efficiency will mean that in about five
years, Scotland will have reduced carbon dioxide emissions from new
buildings by 40%,” said an Executive spokeswoman.
Evidence of widespread breaches of the rules was “anecdotal”, said Michael
Levack, of Scottish Building, which represents 700 building contractors.
“I don’t think it reflects reality,” he said. “The industry has raised
standards significantly in the past 10 years.”
----------
Copyright © 2006 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088
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37 Sydney Morning Herald: Nuclear report to be released: Beattie -
www.smh.com.au
October 30, 2006 - 4:16PM
A Queensland government commissioned report into nuclear power
will be made public, Premier Peter Beattie says.
Mr Beattie has used the report to argue that nuclear power was
not a viable option while climate change continued to
dramatically alter Australia's weather patterns.
He said the independent study showed a nuclear power station
would use 25 per cent more water than a coal-fired plant, making
nuclear power unworkable in the current drought.
State Liberal leader Bruce Flegg has accused Mr Beattie of
"selectively quoting" from the report, saying it could have been
written by the premier's "mates".
He called for the report's release so it could be properly
assessed.
But Mr Beattie said Dr Flegg was "playing silly games" and that
he had always intended to table the report in parliament on
Tuesday.
He said it would now be available on the Queensland government
website from Monday afternoon, adding he hoped it would fuel
debate on the topic.
Mr Beattie says Australia should look to less energy dependent
resources such as clean coal technology, geothermal energy and
coal seam gas.
His comments come after Prime Minister John Howard in June set
up a review, to be headed by former Telstra boss Ziggy
Switkowski, as part of a push for nuclear power to be considered
in the nation's future energy mix.
Mr Beattie says that at a time when farming communities are
hurting, and many towns are struggling for drinking water, it is
"folly" for Mr Howard to entertain the thought of nuclear power
stations.
The premier says a coal-fired power station produces up to 1,400
megawatts of electricity a year and uses around 19,500
megalitres of water to condense and recycle steam.
A nuclear power station producing the same output would need
about 25,000 megalitres, he says.
The federal government has accused Mr Beattie of using scare
tactics and of misrepresenting the truth to stall debate on
nuclear energy.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane, in Queensland has to announce
$125 million in funding for two projects designed to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, said new-generation nuclear technology
used much less water than Mr Beattie claimed.
"And, I'm quite happy to debate Peter Beattie about the issue of
nuclear power," he said.
© 2006 AAP
Brought to you by [aap]
*****************************************************************
38 AU ABC: Macfarlane unconvinced by Beattie's nuclear argument
ABC Queensland | Local News | Story
Monday, 30 October 2006. 16:23 (AEDT)Monday, 30 October 2006.
The federal Industry Minister, Ian Macfarlane, says he is
unconvinced by the Queensland Premier's argument that nuclear
power is not a viable option during the drought.
Peter Beattie says State Government-commissioned research shows
nuclear plants would use 25 per cent more water than coal-fired
power stations.
Mr Macfarlane says Labor is running a fear campaign and he would
like to see what that figure is based on.
"The new generation nuclear technology uses much less water and
I'm quite happy to debate Peter Beattie out on the issue of
nuclear power," he said.
"But we need to have the agreement by Labor that they will
participate in a public debate that the community wants to have,
because nuclear may be part of the solution on lower greenhouse
gas emissions."
*****************************************************************
39 KATV: Small fire at Arkansas Nuclear Plant Poses no Danger, Officials say
Channel 7 -
Monday October 30, 2006 5:19pm
Russellville (AP) -
A small fire broke out at the Entergy nuclear power plant near
Russellville today. But officials’ say the brief blaze posed no
danger to the community.
Entergy says the fire at Arkansas Nuclear One, west of
Russellville, began at 1:04 p.m. The fire broke out in an
auxiliary building that did not contain any radioactive material.
Entergy Nuclear spokesman Phil Fisher says an employee with a
hand-held fire extinguisher put out the fire within ten minutes
of its start. No one was injured.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials are on the scene and are
working with Entergy officials to determine the cause of the
fire.
Fisher says the fire, which began in an electrical panel,
affected the plant's backup for its primary safety system. One
of the two units at the steam electric plant continues to
operate at 100 percent power. The other continues to run at 60
percent, after coming back on line Saturday after being shut
down for 38-days for refueling.
Entergy Arkansas is the state's largest electrical service
provider. The nuclear plant produces about 56 percent of the
power used by Entergy Arkansas' 650-thousand customers in the
state.
TM &© KATV, LLC
*****************************************************************
40 Platts: EDF's 1,300-MW PWRs cleared for 30 years' operation
Paris (Platts)--27Oct2006
French regulators cleared Electricite de France's 1,300-MW PWRs
for 30 years' operation, based on results of a safety review that
began in 1997, the authority announced October 27.
The generic authorization covers reactors at Belleville,
Cattenom, Flamanville, Golfech, Nogent, Paluel, Penly and Saint
Alban.
In all, there are 20 of the standardized Framatome (now Areva NP)
1,300-MW units in two major models, P4 and P'4.
The approval is conditioned on implementation of a list of
safety-related backfits during the units' 20th-year outages,
which began last year at Paluel-2 and will continue until 2014.
With the backfits, the reactors will operate under an updated
reference safety status that is valid through their third decade.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
41 The Courier-Mail: North best for nuke plant
By Steven Wardill
October 30, 2006 11:00pm
THE state's north would be the best site for a nuclear power
plant in Queensland, a report commissioned by Premier Peter
Beattie has found.
The seven-page report found the region had abundant water
supplies of either natural rainfall or seawater which could be
used in a nuclear power plant.
On Sunday, Mr Beattie used the report to reject nuclear power,
saying it found coal-fired power stations used 25 per cent less
water to produce the same amount of electricity.
He said at the time that Australia was in the grip of one of the
worst droughts on record and there could not be a worse time to
consider nuclear power.
However, the report, by energy experts Roam Consulting, found
sites in north Queensland such as Townsville, Collinsville and
Mackay as well as central Queensland's Rockhampton were "strong
points for connection of a nuclear power station".
"Other points further south would be appropriate from a
(electricity) grid perspective but may be problematic from a
water supply perspective," the report said.
The report said seawater cooling was used in nuclear plants
around the world, including California, but a suitable site near
the electricity transmission grid might be difficult to find.
It said using an evaporative cooling system from a reliable
fresh water source was the best option, regardless of whether
the power plant was nuclear or coal-fired.
Mr Beattie yesterday said north Queensland's proximity to the
Great Barrier Reef meant there was no suitable site for a
nuclear power plant, regardless of the water supply.
"If you put it back into the sea you kill sea life, you kill
fish, you damage the environment," he said.
However, federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane questioned the
research and accused Mr Beattie of running a fear campaign
against nuclear power.
"The new generation nuclear technology uses much less water and
I'm quite happy to debate Peter Beattie out on the issue of
nuclear power," Mr Macfarlane said.
"But we need to have the agreement by Labor that they will
participate in a public debate that the community wants to have,
because nuclear may be part of the solution on lower greenhouse
gas emissions."
Meanwhile the Federal Government has been accused of not having
a battle plan to deal with climate change after announcing a
$125 million funding deal for two clean coal projects in
Queensland.
Labor's environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said while the
federal money was welcome, it was not a solution to global
warming.
"These one-off announcements are no substitute for the
systematic response to climate change that is required," Mr
Albanese said.
Nuclear power
© Queensland Newspapers. All times AEDT (GMT + 10).
*****************************************************************
42 thewest.com.au: Switkowski paid $100k for nuclear review
[thewest.com.au] -->
30th October 2006, 16:23 WST
Former Telstra head Ziggy Switkowski is being paid more than
$100,000 for six months' work on the prime ministerial task
force on nuclear energy.
The nuclear scientist is being paid $1,450 a day for 69 days -
plus travel - to investigate the feasibility of a nuclear
industry in Australia, a Senate estimates committee has been
told.
His five panel members are being paid $1,000 a day for 40 days
work on the inquiry, which is due to make its preliminary report
next month and its final report by the end of the year.
If they need more time, their contracts will be extended.
But the task force is running on schedule, officials from the
department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) told the hearing.
Prime Minister John Howard handpicked the members of his task
force after announcing the review of Australia's nuclear
industry on June 6 this year.
At the time, Dr Switkowski was a member of the board of the
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO),
which runs Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.
But PM&C official Jenny Goddard said she could not say whether
any departmental officials had suggested to Dr Switkowski that
his ANSTO position could constitute a conflict of interest.
"We just would need to check our records, senator. The relevant
officer who was mainly working on this is on leave overseas at
present," Ms Goddard said in response to questions from Labor
senator Chris Evans.
She said PM&C was seeking additional funding for the costs of
administering the task force - salaries for staff, money for
consultancies, and some overseas and domestic travel.
Task force members and some staff had already travelled to the
United States, Europe and north Asia, PM&C official Rhonda
Dickinson said.
The cost of that travel was not immediately available. AAP
Australian' is a trademark of West Australian Newspapers Pty Ltd
2006. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
43 IHT: Nuclear energy must for India to meet energy requirements, says
government adviser.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2006
NEW DELHI Nuclear
energy is the best option to meet India's growing energy needs,
a top official said Monday, noting that the country is dependent
on oil and gas imports and its coal supplies are limited. The
government's top scientific adviser, R. Chidambaram,
acknowledged that hydroelectric dams provide cleaner and safer
energy than any other options — including nuclear — but
building new ones means displacing hundreds of thousands of
people and potentially destroying habitats.
"Nuclear energy is an inevitable option for India," Chidambaram
said.
"In future, the importance of nuclear energy will go on
increasing. We are quite competent in this field." There are
widespread concerns that energy shortages could eventually hamper
further growth of India's booming economy, currently expanding at
more than 8 percent a year.
India's total commercial energy consumption is expected by 2030
to increase by 7.5 times 2001 levels, according to New Delhi's
The Energy and Resources Institute, or TERI. If India remains
dependent on oil and coal for its power, it would by 2030 be
importing nearly 80 percent of the oil and coal it needs, TERI
estimates. More nuclear power would help India cut it oil and
coal imports, Chidambaram said. New Delhi, however, needs to
import uranium for its reactors and is currently waiting for the
U.S. Senate to approve a U.S.-India civilian nuclear cooperation
deal that would allow America to provide atomic fuel and
technology to India.
Over the longer term, India is hoping to develop so-called fast
breeder reactors to allow the use of thorium, which is in
plentiful supply, to fuel reactors. If such technology is
developed, "India would then become a supplier of nuclear
energy," Chidambaram said.
IHT
Copyright © 2006 the International
Herald Tribune All rights reserved [IHT]
*****************************************************************
44 Czech Business Weekly: Slaughtering the cow of nuclear taboo
Opinion
By: Daniel Kaiser, 30. 10. 2006, More by this author
Czech President Václav Klaus said at the Oct. 20 EU summit in
Finland that opting out of nuclear power would be a great
mistake. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek said the basically the
same at the Prague Energy Forum a few days later.
As for the president, it would be surprising if he didn’t use
such a golden opportunity to taunt ecologists. The prime
minister showed more courage. Recently, he has formed an
informal coalition with the Green Party (ZS), which is adamantly
opposed to nuclear power — and this alliance is supposed to last
beyond the next election.
For the Greens, nuclear energy must be the hardest dilemma.
Almost all of them support the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges
signatories to significantly cut harmful emissions. But if
people don’t reduce energy usage, the only efficient way to
stick to Kyoto is to go nuclear. Renewable wind or solar energy
is, particularly in the Czech Republic, just a noble dream.
Nuclear reactors, on the other hand, meet 40 percent of Czech
electric demand. So the sound of mind would probably think that
ecologists would embrace, or at least discuss, the atom. But
this isn’t the case.
Some observers have noted that the majority of the green
movement treats their own opinions like religious dogma. This
green fervor can be damaging, however. The pesticide DDT was
banned for about 30 years because environmental author Rachel
Carson criticized the chemical’s effects on the environment in
the 1960s, and also linked it to cancer, which has never been
proven. But using DDT to fight malaria could save millions of
lives in Africa, according a statement by the World Health
Organization.
No consensus
True, governments in many EU countries had decided to let the
existing reactors “run out,” most famously Germany in 1999. But
there’s no unanimity in it: France, the best-known example, has
never wavered and generates about 90 percent of its fixed energy
needs from nuclear sources; Finland opted for new reactors in
the late 1990s; Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair changed his
mind last year, and now openly favors nuclear power. But even
Germany has the option to revive its nuclear program under a new
government in the future when its other energy plants reach the
end of their lifespan.
There isn’t much talk now about this possibility because the
conservatives have their hands tied in a grand coalition. And
because we in the Czech Republic often confuse developments in
Germany with developments in “the West,” many haven’t noticed
yet that times are changing. It’s not to say that we shouldn’t
be suspicious of the nuclear industry, which as an oligopoly
would probably be tempted to milk the state on every
opportunity. But we can’t allow ourselves to be suspicious of
nuclear energy in principle. We have to face the fact that we’re
increasingly dependent on Russian gas and oil, and that with
every passing year our concern with Russia’s muscle flexing on
the international scene grows.
That’s why we should applaud Klaus for breaching this topic and
shooting at the “consensus” made up by the half-educated
chattering classes. This iconoclastic position suits him much
better than interfering into executive politics. Klaus has no
right to decide how big a majority a prime minister must have in
Parliament; he lost his instinct for politics about 10 years
ago. But he’s a good provocateur; and no sacred cow of our
public debate needs to be slaughtered more urgently than the
nuclear taboo.
Daniel Kaiser is a journalist
specializing in politics.
©2004 Stanford, a. s. with all rights reserved.
webmaster@cbw.cz -->
*****************************************************************
45 The Hindu: Saran: if deal fails, we have our own programme
Tuesday, Oct 31, 2006
Saran: if deal fails, we have our own programme
Amit Baruah
Also, it would imply loosening of international nuclear market
for India
NEW DELHI: If the civilian nuclear deal with the United States
fails, India will still have its own programme, including
fast-breeder reactors, according to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's special envoy on the deal Shyam Saran.
Mr. Saran was speaking at a conference, organised by Women in
Security, Conflict Management and Peace, on Monday.
He said if the deal did do through, it would imply the loosening
of the international nuclear market for India.
Mr. Saran's remarks constitute, perhaps, one of the first public
statements from the Government that the July 2005 understanding
may not clear the legislative hurdles in the U.S. Congress.
Mulford's statement
The U.S. Ambassador, David Mulford, said recently that the
Senate may or may not take up the deal in its coming "lame duck
session."
Mr. Saran said the understanding had little to do with nuclear
weapons. It was not an arms control measure. It would not impact
the regional security situation.
New Delhi stood for total elimination of nuclear weapons. At a
later stage, it was possible that India and Pakistan could
together put the disarmament issue on the global agenda.
Nuclear weapon states
India and Pakistan were nuclear weapons states and this reality
could not be wished away. Both should behave responsibly. They
were in the process of agreeing to confidence-building measures
in the nuclear arena.
Besides the agreement on non-attack on each other's nuclear
installations, both had entered into an accord on prior
notification of ballistic missile tests.
Mr. Saran said the two sides were close to an agreement on
reducing the risks of a nuclear war. The issue would figure in
the coming meeting of Foreign Secretaries in New Delhi.
"When India's case is taken up with the Nuclear Suppliers'
Group, it will have to be recognised that New Delhi has a
strategic weapons' programme."
Ruling out adherence to full-scope safeguards, Mr. Saran said
the India-specific safeguards would be limited to the facilities
declared civilian by New Delhi as well as whatever was obtained
through international cooperation.
Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer and Major General (retd.) Dipankar
Bannerjee also spoke.
The session was presided over by the former Pakistani
Information Minister, Javed Jabbar.
Copyright © 2006, The Hindu.
*****************************************************************
46 Sofia Echo: BELENE NPP PROJECT WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED IN BULGARIA -
www.sofiaecho.com
Business BELENE NPP
PROJECT WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED IN BULGARIA 13:22 Mon 30 Oct 2006
The winner of the tender for the construction of Belene Nuclear
Power Plant (NPP) would be announced on October 31, Economy and
Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov said.
The tender was launched in May 2005. Two offers were submitted,
mediapool.bg reported.
Russian company Atomstroyexport and the Czech consortium Skoda
Allianz submitted their offers for the construction of the power
plant.
Representatives of the National Electric Company (NEC) said that
the Russian company was most probably selected as the tender
winner.
Once such information was made public Skoda Allianz took down
the initially announced terms for the completion of the project.
According to the new company plans the first power plant block
could be constructed in four years.
Such decrease in the completion period would take down the price
that Skoda Allianz initially presented but it was unclear if the
new offer would be taken into consideration, mediapool.bg
reported. [Printer friendly
Web www.sofiaecho.com
*****************************************************************
47 The Courier-Mail: Nuclear report released |
Jessica Marszalek
October 29, 2006 11:00pm Article from:
THE state government says a nuclear power report it released this
afternoon shows the energy source is not workable in the current
drought.
Premier Peter Beattie used the Government-commissioned report
yesterday to argue that nuclear power was not a viable option
while climate change continued to dramatically alter Australia's
weather patterns.
He said the independent study showed a nuclear power station
would use 25 per cent more water than a coal-fired plant, making
nuclear power unworkable in the current drought.
Mr Beattie said he hoped the report would fuel debate on the
topic.
Mr Beattie says Australia should look to less energy dependent
resources such as clean coal technology, geothermal energy and
coal seam gas.
His comments come after Prime Minister John Howard in June set
up a review, to be headed by former Telstra boss Ziggy
Switkowski, as part of a push for nuclear power to be considered
in the nation's future energy mix.
Mr Beattie says that at a time when farming communities are
hurting, and many towns are struggling for drinking water, it is
"folly" for Mr Howard to entertain the thought of nuclear power
stations.
The premier says a coal-fired power station produces up to 1,400
megawatts of electricity a year and uses around 19,500
megalitres of water to condense and recycle steam.
A nuclear power station producing the same output would need
about 25,000 megalitres, he says.
The federal government today accused Mr Beattie of using scare
tactics and of misrepresenting the truth to stall debate on
nuclear energy.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane, in Queensland today to
announce $125 million in funding for two projects designed to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said new-generation nuclear
technology used much less water than Mr Beattie claimed.
"And, I'm quite happy to debate Peter Beattie about the issue of
nuclear power," he said.
© Queensland Newspapers. All times AEDT (GMT + 10).
*****************************************************************
48 Telugu Portal - Belgium ready to consider India's nuclear energy quest -
Posted by adminon 2006/10/30 17:08:54
New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) Belgium, a member of the 45-nation
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Monday indicated it was ready to
take a "constructive" approach to India's quest for global civil
nuclear cooperation.
"India has not made any official request to us for our support
(on the India-US civil nuclear deal) in the NSG," Patrick De
Beyter, the Belgian ambassador to India, told reporters here
ahead of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's six-day visit
beginning Thursday.
"But if the request is made, we are ready to consider it
constructively," he stressed. He, however, clarified Belgium
doesn't have any official position on the issue.
"But if the issue comes up for discussions between our prime
minister and the Indian prime minister, we are ready to consider
India's request," the Belgian envoy said.
The focus of the visit, however, will be economic. Verhofstadt
will project Belgium as the gateway to Europe and invite more
Indian companies to invest in his country.
Web Telugu Portal
© 2006 TeluguPortal.Net
*****************************************************************
49 AFP: EU chief backs nuclear energy to fight climate change
Mon Oct 30, 12:59 PM ET
LISBON (AFP) - Wider use of nuclear energy must be considered
among reforms of Europe's energy sector aimed at cutting carbon
emissions and fighting climate change, European Commission" />
European CommissionPresident Jose Manuel Barroso said.
Barroso said the commission would present a road map for the
energy sector in January that included recommended measures to
increase energy efficiency and broaden the use of renewable
energy sources, clean hydrocarbons and, "for those who want it",
nuclear energy.
"It is for the member states, not the commission, to decide on
whether they use nuclear energy. But the community can make a
contribution to those that want it, for example on research and
on safety," he told an energy conference in Lisbon.
"We cannot hide from the issue. A debate on nuclear energy
should not be taboo," the former Portuguese prime minister
added.
Under European Union" /> European Unionnuclear rules the
European Commission, the executive arm of the 25-member bloc,
must clear investments for building or renovating nuclear power
plants.
The aim of the measures is to speed up the tranformation of
Europe to a low carbon economy, said Barroso, adding he hoped
they would be adopted by member states at a summit next year.
The EU, the world's largest importer and second-largest consumer
of energy, is unlikely to meet a self-imposed target to cut
emissions of greenhouse gases which are blamed for climate
change, he said.
"We are facing a serious and urgent issue. On current trends,
climate change will have widespread consequences, on both
developed and developing countries," said Barroso.
Under the 1997 Kyoto climate change pact, each member of the EU
agreed to cut their carbon emissions by eight percent from 1990
levels by 2012.
Earlier on Monday a British government report by World Bank" />
World Bankchief economist Sir Nicolas Stern warned that failure
to act on climate change could devastate the world economy on
the scale of the world wars and the Great Depression.
Barroso welcomed the report, saying it made an "important
contribution", but he added the EU also needed to reform its
energy sector to reduce its growing reliance on oil and gas
imports.
"We are currently dependent on external sources for 50 percent
of our energy needs. this could rise to 70 percent by 2030," he
said.
"So Europe is being exposed to increasingly intense competition
for global energy resources from other countries, and is
becoming ever more dependent on oil and gas imports from
geopolitically uncertain regions," said Barroso.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
50 DNA: - Mumbai - BARC out to tap thorium power -
Daily News &Analysis
Monday, October 30, 2006 21:43 IST
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) will launch the
construction of 300 Megawatt electrical (MWe) Advanced Heavy
Water Reactor, an innovative next generation technology
demonstrator for energy from thorium, sometime next year,
chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Dr Anil Kakodkar has
said.
Speaking at a function marking the 50th year of Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre (BARC) and 97th birth anniversary of its founder
Homi Bhabha, Kakodkar said, “The capacity of new Pressured Heavy
Water Reactor (PHWR) units has further been enhanced to 700 MWe.
This will help to reduce the unit capital cost further.”
The 50th year of BARC also marked the successful completion of
the Tarapur 3 and 4 projects six to seven months ahead of
schedule with substantial savings in terms of project capital
cost.
“That this has been achieved for the first of its kind system
developed indigenously is indeed remarkable,” Kakodkar said.
The 540 MWe units at Tarapur are among the largest units now
operating in India. With 16 units with a total capacity of 3,900
MWe already functional, BARC is constructing seven more nuclear
power units.
“Unit-3 of Kaigal is expected to get operational this year. With
the government having agreed in principle, to construct 8 more
units, it would take the total nuclear power-generation capacity
to around 14,000 MWe,”
Kakodkar said, urging the need to look at nuclear energy as a
primary energy source.
COPYRIGHT © 2006 DILIGENT MEDIA CORPORATION LTD.
*****************************************************************
51 AU ABC: Nuclear inquiry to cost millions, committee told.
31/10/2006. ABC News Online
Officials from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet have
told a parliamentary estimates committee that the Government's
nuclear inquiry will cost "a few million dollars".
Former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski is leading the inquiry,
and is expected to report by the end of the year.
Labor senators questioned officials on how much the study will
cost.
Officials told the hearing that the inquiry members took an
overseas study trip costing $200,000, and that the total cost
would be a few million dollars.
*****************************************************************
52 PRN: Alert Declared at ANO, Unit 2, Due to Electrical Fire
PR Newswire
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- An
alert was declared for Unit 2, Arkansas Nuclear One at 1:04 p.m.
today by Entergy Operations Inc. officials, operators of the
two-unit, steam electric plant owned by Entergy Arkansas.
The alert, the second lowest of four emergency classes, was
required due to an electrical fire in the Unit 2 Auxiliary
Extension Building. The fire lasted less than ten minutes and has
been extinguished.
Operations personnel are currently assessing plant conditions.
Unit 2 remains on line at approximately 60 percent power.
Recovery plans are being developed to make necessary repairs and
restore electrical systems to full capabilities. Overall plant
conditions remain stable. There is no potential for a
radiological release due to this fire. There were no personnel
injuries associated with this event.
Unit 1 is currently operating at 100 percent power.
Area residents are requested not to call the plant. Local
radio stations are the best source of up-to-date information and
are being provided with the latest information by plant, federal,
state and local officials.
http://www.entergy-nuclear.com SOURCE
Entergy Operations Inc.
+ http://www.entergy-nuclear.com/
Copyright © 1996- PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights
Reserved. A United Business Mediacompany.
*****************************************************************
53 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Opposes Nukes for Allies
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Monday October 30, 2006 11:01 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Monday he would oppose
helping Japan, South Korea and Taiwan develop nuclear weapons to
guard against any threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.
``I think the less nuclear armament in the Far East, the better
off the world will be,'' the president said in an interview.
Bush said the United States should work closely with its allies
in Asia on a missile defense system. ``Our missile defense
systems are getting better and better because of the money that
we have been spending over the past five years,'' he said.
The president said the U.S. has convinced its partners in talks
with North Korea that Pyongyang should not have nuclear arms.
``The problem is, it's a little frustrating for people;
diplomacy is a little frustrating for people because things
don't happen overnight.
``So, it's a constant effort to keep people bound together and
the best way to do it is to remind them of what the dangers will
be to the stability in the Far East if there is either a nuclear
arms race, or somebody, you know, uses a nuclear weapon.''
Nuclear tensions in Asia were heightened by North Korea's
underground nuclear test Oct. 9.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution
sanctioning the North for its test, but South Korea - a major
aid provider to the impoverished North - has been reluctant to
adopt stern measures against its volatile neighbor.
Bush spoke in an interview for broadcast on Fox News Channel's
``Hannity &Colmes.''
On the Net:
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
54 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Firm to Build Bulgaria Nuke Plant
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Monday October 30, 2006 11:16 PM
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - A Russian company won a bid to construct
a second nuclear plant in Bulgaria, officials announced Monday.
In a statement, the state-owned National Electricity Company
said the main reasons for picking the Russian offer were ``the
higher safety and the longer term of operation of the
reactors.''
AtomStroyExport won the contract after beating out Czech
consortium Skoda Alliance.
The companies filed their initial bids for the construction of
two nuclear reactors in February, but the Ministry of Economy
and Energy declared both offers unsatisfactory and urged the
bidders to consider improving them.
In their modified offers, both companies said they were ready to
build the first unit of the plant in six years, and the second a
year later. Their previous bids offered to build the plant in
eight to 10 years.
Both companies refused to disclose details of their price
offers.
The Bulgarian government had invested more than $1 billion in
the project for the construction of two 1,000 megawatt nuclear
units at the Danube port of Belene, 155 miles northeast of
Sofia, but froze it in 1990 after environmentalists said it
could pose a safety risk.
Bulgaria has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but the
issue of proliferation in connection to its drive for more
nuclear power has not been raised. Radioactive waste produced by
nuclear reactors can be enriched to produce a nuclear weapon.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
55 Guardian Unlimited: Meeting Held on Stopping Nuke Terrorism
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Monday October 30, 2006 11:16 PM
By JOHN THORNE
Associated Press Writer
RABAT, Morocco (AP) - The world's five leading nuclear powers
and seven other nations kicked off a new program Monday aimed at
keeping nuclear weapons beyond the reach of terrorists.
Amid the global concerns over North Korea's test of an atomic
bomb and suspicions Iran is trying to develop such weapons,
delegations from the United States and the other states said it
was paramount for the world to guard against terrorist groups
joining the hunt.
``The concern is fundamental - we must stop terrorists from
acquiring'' nuclear weapons, said Robert Joseph, U.S.
undersecretary of state for arms control and international
security.
The world's five leading nuclear powers - the United States,
Russia, China, Britain and France - form the core of the new
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.
Those five plus Italy, Japan, Canada, China, Turkey, Kazakhstan,
Australia and Morocco signed two agreements on common principles
and ``terms of reference'' that were not immediately made public
after the start of the two-day meeting in Rabat.
The initiative aims to provide guidelines for keeping track of
radioactive materials, ensuring the safety of nuclear
facilities, and combating illicit trafficking that could deliver
nuclear materials into the hands of terrorists.
While Russia and the United States have been at odds on how to
rein in Iran's suspect nuclear program, the two countries
combined to provide the impetus for this international effort to
keep atomic arms from terrorist groups.
They hope the initiative will lead to better security for the
world's nuclear materials and knowledge.
``It's about galvanizing the elements in the world to protect
... people from one of the most dangerous threats we face,''
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said.
``We do agree on some things. We have disagreements and nuances
on others,'' he added, referring to the United States and
dealing with North Korea and Iran. ``I think we will work
together, but we might disagree on the technique.''
A senior Western diplomat said the meeting was an important sign
of cooperation between Americans and Russians in an area where
they haven't always seen eye-to-eye, particularly over whether
to impose sanctions on Iran.
The U.S. and its allies are seeking to force the Iranians to
halt uranium enrichment, which can produce material for fueling
nuclear reactors but also for nuclear warheads.
Russia and China, which have economic links to Iran, have shied
away from imposing punitive measures. Iran insists its nuclear
effort is solely aimed at using reactors to generate
electricity.
The diplomat, who agreed to discuss the meeting only on
condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said
the initiative's sponsors hope to prevent nuclear terrorism by
doing more to curtail terrorist financing and improving
safeguards for radioactive materials, from naturally occurring
sources to hospital equipment.
President Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin,
announced the initiative July 15 at the Group of Eight summit in
St. Petersburg, Russia.
In a statement, the two leaders urged like-minded countries to
expand joint efforts to ``combat nuclear terrorism on a
determined and systematic basis.''
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
*****************************************************************
56 [NukeNet] U.S. PUBLIC IS AT RISK FROM RADIATION
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:06:49 -0800
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OneWorld
US, October 21, 2006
U.S. PUBLIC IS AT RISK FROM RADIATION
[Rachel's introduction: Many of the assumptions underpinning U.S. radiation
safety standards are dangerously false, a new report says.]
By Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON -- The United States, in a twist on social Darwinism, maintains
protection standards so low that they shield only the strongest people from
cancer-causing radiation. So say scientists whose conclusions are
propelling a new campaign to
provide greater safety for women, children, and others at greatest risk.
"A central principle of environmental health protection--protecting those
most at risk--is missing from much of the U.S. regulatory framework for
radiation," said Arjun Makhijani,
president of the Takoma Park, Maryland-based Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research (IEER) and co-author of
a new study, released Thursday,
that is driving the campaign.
Many federal radiation protection standards, such as limits on how much
residual radiation is allowed in contaminated soil, are designed to protect
"Reference Man," a hypothetical Caucasian male, says the report,
Science for the Vulnerable:
Setting Radiation and Multiple Exposure Environmental Health Standards to
Protect Those Most at Risk.
Not just any white man, the notional beneficiary of existing safety
standards is 20-30 years old, weighs 154 pounds, stands five feet and seven
inches tall, and is Western European or North American in habitat and custom.
The trouble, according to campaigners for increased protection, is that
women, children, and others often are more sensitive to the harmful effects
of radiation or toxic materials.
"I've never known a woman to give birth to a full-grown, 154-pound
'Reference Man'," said Mary Brune, co-founder of Alameda, California- based
MOMS, Making Our Milk Safe.
The 105-page IEER report sets out to discuss the higher risks to women and
girls of certain kinds of cancer, notably thyroid cancer. It finds that a
female infant drinking contaminated milk is 100 times more at risk of
thyroid cancer than an adult male. For the same dose of radiation, women
have a 52 percent greater chance of getting cancer than do men.
"A considerable and growing body of evidence indicates that exposure to
radiation and synthetic chemicals is contributing to increasing rates of
breast cancer in the U.S. and other industrialized countries," said Jeanne
Rizzo, a registered nurse and executive director of the San Francisco-based
Breast
Cancer Fund.
"If we change our safety standards to specifically protect women and girls,
we will spend less time, money and heartache treating diseases caused by
environmental exposures," Rizzo added.
There also is some evidence that the children of fathers exposed to
radiation around the time they conceived their offspring face an increased
risk of leukemia, a type of cancer that starts in blood- forming tissue
such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of blood cells to be
produced and enter the bloodstream, scientists say.
The report cautions against conclusions about the number of Americans who
might have been affected by this or other radiation risks, however, and
notes that the specialized research needed to arrive at such conclusions is
scant and difficult to conduct.
Cancer is not the only specter causing worry among campaigners. The report
cites research findings that radioactive tritium--already found in water
used for drinking, irrigation, and recreation--crosses the placenta,
affects the developing fetus, and can cause early failed pregnancies as
well as birth defects.
"These health risks are not part of regulatory considerations currently
despite the fact that tritium discharges are occurring from both nuclear
power plants and some nuclear weapons facilities, such as the Savannah
River Site" in South Carolina, Makhijani and his colleagues said in a
statement.
Likewise overlooked in official standards is the interaction of radioactive
and chemical pollution, which combine to multiply people's risk of disease,
the scientists said.
On Thursday, they joined a coalition of local and national health,
environmental, and women's organizations; academics specialized in
terrorism, medicine, and public health; and politicians in demanding that
President George W. Bush order federal agencies to review their radiation
exposure standards. Agencies at issue include the U.S. Department of
Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection
Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration. Officials there could not be
reached for immediate comment.
Existing standards fly in the face of presidential orders issued by Bill
Clinton in 1997 and seconded by Bush, campaigners said in an open letter to
the chief executive.
"The use of Reference Man is not in accord with Presidential Executive
Order 13045 on the Protection of Children From Environmental Health Risks
and Safety Risks, which you endorsed with amendments in 2003," they wrote
to Bush. The directive instructs federal agencies to address children's
disproportionate vulnerability to environmental hazards, they added.
Solutions appear already to be in hand, according to IEER, which provides
scientific consulting services to official and private organizations.
Useful concepts such as the "maximally exposed individual" and the
"critical group" already exist and could help protect the most sensitive
but have not been widely applied, the report says.
Besides abandoning Reference Man and replacing him with the most vulnerable
population subgroup, it recommends ratcheting up workplace radiation
protection and notes that the U.S. standard for allowable exposure is "five
times more lax than that in Germany."
Unlike Europe, it adds, the United States lacks and must adopt extra
protection measures against bodily contamination for women who breastfeed
and who work at radiation-controlled job sites.
Likewise, it urges regulators to restrict the discharge of tritium so that
every liter of surface water in areas surrounding nuclear power plants and
nuclear weapons sites contains no more than 500 picocuries of tritium.
Colorado already has adopted this standard for the environs of the
now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear plant near Denver and the U.S. Department
of Energy agreed to this limit as a site-specific standard in the cleanup
of Rocky Flats, the report says.
"The present national drinking water maximum contaminant limit for tritium
is 20,000 picocuries per liter," the report says, adding that drinking
water standards have failed to take into account the non- cancer health
risks of exposure to tritium.
*****************************************************************
57 [du-list] U in the News - 28/10/06 Israel used nuclear
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:07:27 -0800
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High radiation levels said to be found after Israel's Lebanon
bombing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061028/wl_afp/mideastconflictmunitions_061028034116
AFP via Yahoo! News Fri, 27 Oct 2006 8:45 PM PDT
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.
High radiation level samples found after Israeli bombing in
Lebanon
Above wire used at....
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/October/middleeast_October453.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
Khaleej Times Fri, 27 Oct 2006 8:39 PM PDT
LONDON - 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 reported on Saturday.
Chris Bellamy: An enigma that only the Israelis can fully explain
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1935931.ece
Independent Fri, 27 Oct 2006 4:04 PM PDT
The initial tests on samples taken from the site of the
Israeli strike on Khiam present an enigma which will only be solved when
the people who produced and deployed the weapon explain themselves.
Speculation that the device was some form of "dirty bomb" or micro-yield
nuclear weapon can probably be dismissed. The radiation levels and the
amount of Uranium-235 in the sample clearly indicate that
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58 [du-list] Israels secret bomb + Robert Fisks Uranium was used
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:07:44 -0800
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This possibly gives the best evidence yet that israel was using uranium
based weapons and not some local anomaly that has been pushed by some
"anti-Du" activists. Good sources here to further Chris busby report plus
of course the article by Robert fisk
Israel's Secret Bomb
The front page of The Independent today (28th October 2006) confirms
that enriched Uranium was used in bombs in the recent Lebanon conflict.
The main article is
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1935945.ece
A comment from Chris Bellamy, professor of military science and doctrine
at Cranfield University is at
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1935931.ece
The report follows research by Dr. Chris Busby of LLRC (also of
environmental consultancy Green Audit and the European Committee on
Radiation Risk) using samples recovered from the Lebanon by Dai Williams
of Eos.
The immediate question (Robert Fisk and Professor Bellamy both pose it)
is Why? What is the point of putting enriched Uranium in bombs? The
Independent report addresses a couple of possibilities but to the Low
Level Radiation Campaign it seems far more likely that the enriched
Uranium is meant to mask the use of Depleted Uranium, especially bearing
in mind the provenance of much of Israel's arsenal. The American military
has been concerned about bad publicity since at least 1991 — DU rounds may
become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the arsenal. (see
this link for the full 1991 memorandum from a high-ranking US army
officer: http://www.llrc.org/du/subtopic/rosalie.htm#ziehm, also cited in
http://www.llrc.org/du/subtopic/faheyquotes.htm#ziehm).
Following the use of Depleted Uranium armour piercing rounds in the
first Gulf War and in the Balkans conflict it was relatively easy to
detect DU in environmental samples. This is because of the tell-tale ratio
of U-238 to U-235. The link to subsequent increases in cancer and birth
defects is intuitively obvious and scientifically credible, given that it
is now generally acknowledged that "dose" from internal exposure to
sources such as DU is a virtually meaningless concept.
There have been suggestions that confusion about DU in subsequent
campaigns may have been caused by the use of Uranium metal (in e.g. bunker
busters) in its naturally occurring proportions — i.e. undepleted. We may
now have an explanation. A relatively small number of rounds or bombs made
with slightly enriched Uranium — as we now see in the Lebanon — would mask
a much larger number of DU weapons by increasing the amount of U-235 in
the environment towards its natural abundance relative to U-238.
(The natural proportions of these isotopes are U-235 0.7 percent; U-238
99.3 percent.) The military will then claim that the Uranium found after a
conflict is the result of high explosives and soil disturbance unless,
that is, someone with Dai Williams' courage gets samples from the conflict
area before reconstruction work buries and redistributes the evidence.
Green Audit's report is at http://www.llrc.org/du/subtopic/lebanrept.pdf
We conclude by repeating, as we have for the last ten years, that
Depleted Uranium weaponry is illegal because the radioactive aerosols
produced by the impacting rounds have indiscriminate health effects. This
contravenes the UN Convention on prohibitions or restrictions on the use
of certain conventional weapons which may be deemed to be excessively
injurious or to have indiscriminate effects (1980). (see
http://www.llrc.org/du/subtopic/medact#illegal). The same must apply to
enriched Uranium and the health effects must be assumed to be greater, in
proportion to its mass, because particles of U-235 will deliver more
energy to body tissue than similar sized particles of U-238. LLRC has
photographed multiple radiation tracks from particles in an air
filter recently recovered from a Lebanese ambulance. They indicate that
the source is far more active than (depleted) U-238. The area of filter so
far examined is small, suggesting that such particles are fairly
common in that environment. We shall produce further briefings on this
issue.
Robert Fisk: Mystery of Israel's secret uranium
bomb
Alarm over radioactive legacy left by attack on
Lebanon Published: 28 October
2006
Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based
weapon in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more
than 1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians?
We know that the Israelis
used American "bunker-buster" bombs on Hizbollah's Beirut headquarters. We
know that they drenched southern Lebanon with cluster bombs in the last 72
hours of the war, leaving tens of thousands of bomblets which are still
killing Lebanese civilians every week. And we now know - after it first
categorically denied using such munitions - that the Israeli army also used
phosphorous bombs, weapons which are supposed to be restricted under the
third protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which neither Israel nor the
United States have signed.
But scientific evidence gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam
and At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and
Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions
may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used
against targets in Lebanon. According to Dr Chris Busby, the British
Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, two soil
samples thrown up by Israeli heavy or guided bombs showed "elevated
radiation signatures". Both have been forwarded for further examination to
the Harwell laboratory in Oxfordshire for mass spectrometry - used by the
Ministry of Defence - which has confirmed the concentration of uranium
isotopes in the samples.
Dr Busby's initial report states that there are two possible reasons for
the contamination. "The first is that the weapon was some novel small
experimental nuclear fission device or other experimental weapon (eg, a
thermobaric weapon) based on the high temperature of a uranium oxidation
flash ... The second is that the weapon was a bunker-busting conventional
uranium penetrator weapon employing enriched uranium rather than depleted
uranium." A photograph of the explosion of the first bomb shows large
clouds of black smoke that might result from burning uranium.
Enriched uranium is produced from natural uranium ore and is used as fuel
for nuclear reactors. A waste productof the enrichment process is depleted
uranium, it is an extremely hard metal used in anti-tank missiles for
penetrating armour. Depleted uranium is less radioactive than natural
uranium, which is less radioactive than enriched uranium.
Israel has a poor reputation for telling the truth about its use of
weapons in Lebanon. In 1982, it denied using phosphorous munitions on
civilian areas - until journalists discovered dying and dead civilians
whose wounds caught fire when exposed to air.
I saw two dead babies who, when taken from a mortuary drawer in West
Beirut during the Israeli siege of the city, suddenly burst back into
flames. Israel officially denied using phosphorous again in Lebanon during
the summer - except for "marking" targets - even after civilians were
photographed in Lebanese hospitals with burn wounds consistent with
phosphorous munitions.
Then on Sunday, Israel suddenly admitted that it had not been telling the
truth. Jacob Edery, the Israeli minister in charge of government-parliament
relations, confirmed that phosphorous shells were used in direct attacks
against Hizbollah, adding that "according to international law, the use of
phosphorous munitions is authorised and the (Israeli) army keeps to the
rules of international norms".
Asked by The Independent if the Israeli army had been using uranium-based
munitions in Lebanon this summer, Mark Regev, the Israeli Foreign Ministry
spokesman, said: "Israel does not use any weaponry which is not authorised
by international law or international conventions." This, however, begs
more questions than it answers. 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 and because Western
governments still refuse to believe that their use can cause long-term
damage to the health of thousands of civilians living in the area of the
explosions.
American and British forces used hundreds of tons of depleted uranium
(DU) shells in Iraq in 1991 - their hardened penetrator warheads
manufactured from the waste products of the nuclear industry - and five
years later, a plague of cancers emerged across the south of Iraq.
Initial US military assessments warned of grave consequences for public
health if such weapons were used against armoured vehicles. But the US
administration and the British government later went out of their way to
belittle these claims. Yet the cancers continued to spread amid reports
that civilians in Bosnia - where DU was also used by Nato aircraft - were
suffering new forms of cancer. DU shells were again used in the 2003
Anglo-American invasion of Iraq but it is too early to register any health
effects.
"When a uranium penetrator hits a hard target, the particles of the
explosion are very long-lived in the environment," Dr Busby said yesterday.
"They spread over long distances. They can be inhaled into the lungs. The
military really seem to believe that this stuff is not as dangerous as it
is." Yet why would Israel use such a weapon when its targets - in the case
of Khiam, for example - were only two miles from the Israeli border? The
dust ignited by DU munitions can be blown across international borders,
just as the chlorine gas used in attacks by both sides in the First World
War often blew back on its perpetrators.
Chris Bellamy, the professor of military science and doctrine at
Cranfield University, who has reviewed the Busby report, said: "At worst
it's some sort of experimental weapon with an enriched uranium component
the purpose of which we don't yet know. At best - if you can say that - it
shows a remarkably cavalier attitude to the use of nuclear waste products."
The soil sample from Khiam - site of a notorious torture prison when
Israel occupied southern Lebanon between 1978 and 2000, and a frontline
Hizbollah stronghold in the summer war - was a piece of impacted red earth
from an explosion; the isotope ratio was 108, indicative of the presence of
enriched uranium. "The health effects on local civilian populations
following the use of large uranium penetrators and the large amounts of
respirable uranium oxide particles in the atmosphere," the Busby report
says, "are likely to be significant ... we recommend that the area is
examined for further traces of these weapons with a view to clean up."
This summer's Lebanon war began after Hizbollah guerrillas crossed the
Lebanese frontier into Israel, captured two Israeli soldiers and killed
three others, prompting Israel to unleash a massive bombardment of
Lebanon's villages, cities, bridges and civilian infrastructure. Human
rights groups have said that Israel committed war crimes when it attacked
civilians, but that Hizbollah was also guilty of such crimes because it
fired missiles into Israel which were also filled with ball-bearings,
turning their rockets into primitive one-time-only cluster bombs.
Many Lebanese, however, long ago concluded that the latest Lebanon war
was a weapons testing ground for the Americans and Iranians, who
respectively supply Israel and Hizbollah with munitions. Just as Israel
used hitherto-unproven US missiles in its attacks, so the Iranians were
able to test-fire a rocket which hit an Israeli corvette off the Lebanese
coast, killing four Israeli sailors and almost sinking the vessel after it
suffered a 15-hour on-board fire.
What the weapons manufacturers make of the latest scientific findings of
potential uranium weapons use in southern Lebanon is not yet known. Nor is
their effect on civilians.
Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon
in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than
1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians?
We know that the Israelis
used American "bunker-buster" bombs on Hizbollah's Beirut headquarters. We
know that they drenched southern Lebanon with cluster bombs in the last 72
hours of the war, leaving tens of thousands of bomblets which are still
killing Lebanese civilians every week. And we now know - after it first
categorically denied using such munitions - that the Israeli army also used
phosphorous bombs, weapons which are supposed to be restricted under the
third protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which neither Israel nor the
United States have signed.
But scientific evidence gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam
and At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and
Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions
may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used
against targets in Lebanon. According to Dr Chris Busby, the British
Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, two soil
samples thrown up by Israeli heavy or guided bombs showed "elevated
radiation signatures". Both have been forwarded for further examination to
the Harwell laboratory in Oxfordshire for mass spectrometry - used by the
Ministry of Defence - which has confirmed the concentration of uranium
isotopes in the samples.
Dr Busby's initial report states that there are two possible reasons for
the contamination. "The first is that the weapon was some novel small
experimental nuclear fission device or other experimental weapon (eg, a
thermobaric weapon) based on the high temperature of a uranium oxidation
flash ... The second is that the weapon was a bunker-busting conventional
uranium penetrator weapon employing enriched uranium rather than depleted
uranium." A photograph of the explosion of the first bomb shows large
clouds of black smoke that might result from burning uranium.
Enriched uranium is produced from natural uranium ore and is used as fuel
for nuclear reactors. A waste productof the enrichment process is depleted
uranium, it is an extremely hard metal used in anti-tank missiles for
penetrating armour. Depleted uranium is less radioactive than natural
uranium, which is less radioactive than enriched uranium.
Israel has a poor reputation for telling the truth about its use of
weapons in Lebanon. In 1982, it denied using phosphorous munitions on
civilian areas - until journalists discovered dying and dead civilians
whose wounds caught fire when exposed to air.
I saw two dead babies who, when taken from a mortuary drawer in West
Beirut during the Israeli siege of the city, suddenly burst back into
flames. Israel officially denied using phosphorous again in Lebanon during
the summer - except for "marking" targets - even after civilians were
photographed in Lebanese hospitals with burn wounds consistent with
phosphorous munitions.
Then on Sunday, Israel suddenly admitted that it had not been telling the
truth. Jacob Edery, the Israeli minister in charge of government-parliament
relations, confirmed that phosphorous shells were used in direct attacks
against Hizbollah, adding that "according to international law, the use of
phosphorous munitions is authorised and the (Israeli) army keeps to the
rules of international norms".
Asked by The Independent if the Israeli army had been using uranium-based
munitions in Lebanon this summer, Mark Regev, the Israeli Foreign Ministry
spokesman, said: "Israel does not use any weaponry which is not authorised
by international law or international conventions." This, however, begs
more questions than it answers. 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 and because Western
governments still refuse to believe that their use can cause long-term
damage to the health of thousands of civilians living in the area of the
explosions.
American and British forces used hundreds of tons of depleted uranium
(DU) shells in Iraq in 1991 - their hardened penetrator warheads
manufactured from the waste products of the nuclear industry - and five
years later, a plague of cancers emerged across the south of Iraq.
Initial US military assessments warned of grave consequences for public
health if such weapons were used against armoured vehicles. But the US
administration and the British government later went out of their way to
belittle these claims. Yet the cancers continued to spread amid reports
that civilians in Bosnia - where DU was also used by Nato aircraft - were
suffering new forms of cancer. DU shells were again used in the 2003
Anglo-American invasion of Iraq but it is too early to register any health
effects.
"When a uranium penetrator hits a hard target, the particles of the
explosion are very long-lived in the environment," Dr Busby said yesterday.
"They spread over long distances. They can be inhaled into the lungs. The
military really seem to believe that this stuff is not as dangerous as it
is." Yet why would Israel use such a weapon when its targets - in the case
of Khiam, for example - were only two miles from the Israeli border? The
dust ignited by DU munitions can be blown across international borders,
just as the chlorine gas used in attacks by both sides in the First World
War often blew back on its perpetrators.
Chris Bellamy, the professor of military science and doctrine at
Cranfield University, who has reviewed the Busby report, said: "At worst
it's some sort of experimental weapon with an enriched uranium component
the purpose of which we don't yet know. At best - if you can say that - it
shows a remarkably cavalier attitude to the use of nuclear waste products."
The soil sample from Khiam - site of a notorious torture prison when
Israel occupied southern Lebanon between 1978 and 2000, and a frontline
Hizbollah stronghold in the summer war - was a piece of impacted red earth
from an explosion; the isotope ratio was 108, indicative of the presence of
enriched uranium. "The health effects on local civilian populations
following the use of large uranium penetrators and the large amounts of
respirable uranium oxide particles in the atmosphere," the Busby report
says, "are likely to be significant ... we recommend that the area is
examined for further traces of these weapons with a view to clean up."
This summer's Lebanon war began after Hizbollah guerrillas crossed the
Lebanese frontier into Israel, captured two Israeli soldiers and killed
three others, prompting Israel to unleash a massive bombardment of
Lebanon's villages, cities, bridges and civilian infrastructure. Human
rights groups have said that Israel committed war crimes when it attacked
civilians, but that Hizbollah was also guilty of such crimes because it
fired missiles into Israel which were also filled with ball-bearings,
turning their rockets into primitive one-time-only cluster bombs.
Many Lebanese, however, long ago concluded that the latest Lebanon war
was a weapons testing ground for the Americans and Iranians, who
respectively supply Israel and Hizbollah with munitions. Just as Israel
used hitherto-unproven US missiles in its attacks, so the Iranians were
able to test-fire a rocket which hit an Israeli corvette off the Lebanese
coast, killing four Israeli sailors and almost sinking the vessel after it
suffered a 15-hour on-board fire.
What the weapons manufacturers make of the latest scientific findings of
potential uranium weapons use in southern Lebanon is not yet known. Nor is
their effect on c
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59 [DU List] request made to all veterans of operation desert
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:07:59 -0800
X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (borg.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61]
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The request is made ANY GULF WAR VETERANS OF OPERATION DESERT STORM THAT
HAVE EXPERIENCED VISION PROBLEMS PLEASE EMAIL
: DSNurse@aol.com
Vision problems with gulf war vets with CFS needs to be investigated!
1: Vestn Oftalmol. 2003 Mar-Apr;119(2):45-7. Links
[Pathology of the organ of vision in chronic fatigue syndrome]
[Article in Russian]
*
Frolov
VM,
*
Petrunia
AM.
218 patients were examined and the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) was
diagnosed in them on the basis of clinical-and-immunologic data. 126
somatically healthy persons of the same age and sex were in the control
group. Vascular pathology of the vision organ was found in 153 (70.2%)
persons, and dystrophic pathology was found in 115 (52.8%) persons. A
combination of vascular and dystrophic pathologies of the vision organ was
diagnosed in 46 (21.1%) patients. The detection of vision pathology in the
CFS patients essentially exceeded the morbidity of similar pathology in the
controls. No reliable differences of refraction anomalies were found
between the CFS patients and the controls.
PMID: 13678013 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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60 The Camp Falcon Mushroom
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:38:20 -0600 (CST)
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What follows implies that while we aren't dealing with nuclear
devices per se, that depleted uranium munitions can give the same
visual effect.
Personally, I wonder about more than the white light. The bright
white light must be seen in the context of the mushroom cloud.
Still, this is the only thing I have found advocating the opinion
that tactical nukes did not go off at Camp Falcon that has any
credibility when critically appraised. If indeed we are dealing
with DU rounds then we can throw out any claims by the DOD or anyone
that the radioactive capacity of depleted uranium is minute. Whatever
went off at Camp Falcon emitted electromagnetic radiation that was
visible en masse in the white light spectrum. This was sent to me
by one of this piece's contributors, Allen L. Roland.
Please see:
The Camp Falcon Mushroom
http://justanotherblowback.blogspot.com/2006/10/camp-falcon-mushroom.html
Big Medicine http://justanotherblowback.blogspot.com/
"If you give a man the correct information for seven years, he may
believe the incorrect information on the first day of the eighth
year when it is necessary, from your point of view, that he should
do so. Your first job is to build the credibility and the authenticity
of your propaganda, and persuade the enemy to trust you although
you are his enemy."
A Psychological Warfare Casebook - Operations Research Office -
Johns Hopkins University (1958)
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61 [NYTr] Wealthy Israelis Building Nuclear Bunkers
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:30:28 -0600 (CST)
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[There's never been a better living example of Freud's concept
of projection than this. -NY Transfer]
excerpted from Abunimah News - Oct 30, 2006
The Sunday Times (London) - Oct 29, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2426886,00.html
Israelis put nuclear bunkers in gardens
By Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
AMID mounting fears that Iran is planning to obliterate their country,
wealthy Israelis are shelling out on underground nuclear shelters in the
gardens of their luxury homes. The shelters, which cost at least #60,000 for
a bargain-basement version, are built to withstand radioactive fallout, have
fortified walls and doors and generate their own electricity and
decontaminated air. Defence experts estimate that hundreds of such bunkers,
many fitted with all modern conveniences such as bedrooms, kitchens and
bathrooms, have already been built in private homes across the country and
demand is soaring.
Zaki Rakib, a wealthy businessman, built a shelter for himself and his
family under his large villa overlooking the Mediterranean in Herzliya, an
exclusive garden suburb north of Tel Aviv.
"The shelter looks like a regular flat," he said. "It is 2,000 square feet,
with a living room, two bedrooms, kitchen, self-powered electricity."
Rakib's post-nuclear pad, which can accommodate more than 25 people for two
weeks, cost about #250,000. "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.
Leading the stampede to the nuclear bunker is Shari Arison, the country's
wealthiest woman, estimated to be worth about #2.7 billion. The Israeli
media have reported that she has already made preparations for Armageddon by
building two sophisticated underground structures. One is at her home in Tel
Aviv, the other in the garden of her holiday villa in Bnei Zion village.
Firms specialising in the manufacture of such shelters are booming. Ahim
Torati is a company producing parts for atomic shelters. "We supply
components for decontaminated air, fortified doors and walls," said Menahem
Torati, its owner.
"If in a regular shelter the door should withstand a five-ton blast, the
door of an atomic shelter should absorb 250-270 tons."
Seeking to allay public fears, the government insists that the population
has little to fear. "We are aware of all these panicky people building
atomic shelters. They're wasting their money," said a security source.
"Israel will not allow Iran to build an atomic bomb, and even if it did, the
Iranians know very well that we'll bomb them back to the Stone Age before
they've launched a single missile."
However, the government is quietly updating its preparations for a possible
nuclear strike. Ephraim Sneh, the deputy defence minister, confirmed that a
#300m nuclear shelter is being constructed in the Jerusalem hills for the
Israeli war cabinet. "This will be a command and control centre that will be
able to run the state of Israel during a war, even after a nuclear strike,"
he said.
Israelis are used to coping with the threat of war, but until recently the
civilian population has been largely unaffected by conflicts beyond the
country's borders. The 34-day invasion of Lebanon last summer, however,
brought war closer to home. Up to 250 Hezbollah missiles rained down on
Israel every day. Millions of terrified Israelis spent the hottest weeks of
the summer in shelters.
Iran's increasingly bellicose rhetoric is fuelling fears that the next war
could bring even more devastation. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated
that Israel should be "wiped off the map". As well as developing nuclear
technology, Tehran boasts long-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting
any target in Israel.
Many Israelis no longer trust their government to protect them. One man
building a #60,000 nuclear shelter in his Tel Aviv garden said: "After the
Lebanon war, I concluded that I have to protect my family, as I'm not sure
the state will be able to do it."
While the well-off are calling in the builders, nearly one third of the
country's population have no protection even against conventional weapons.
"If Tel Aviv were attacked today, you can expect thousands of casualties,"
predicted one security expert. AMID mounting fears that Iran is planning to
obliterate their country, wealthy Israelis are shelling out on underground
nuclear shelters in the gardens of their luxury homes.
*
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62 TheStar.com: Saving troops from a deadly, invisible enemy
Mon. Oct. 30, 2006. | Updated at 04:46 PM
Plastic instruments worn around neck warn of radiation
BRUCE CAMPION-SMITHOTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWAIn addition to their flak jackets, rifles and helmets,
Canada's troops in Afghanistan are carrying another little known
piece of protective equipment: radiation meters.
It's a reminder that amid the threat of suicide bombers and
rocket-propelled grenades, the soldiers face a more insidious,
and invisible, concern on the battlefield.
For their six-month tours of duty, soldiers wear the plastic
dosimeters around their necks next to their dog tags to measure
any "chance encounter" with gamma and X-ray radiation during
patrols outside the base.
"It's a protective measure to ensure the safety and the health
of the troops," said Chris Knowlton, the environmental health
and safety officer for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the
military branch that looks after overseas operations.
Knowlton says the dosimeters are worn to protect troops against
a threat that first arrived in the war-torn country a
quarter-century ago.
Old Soviet military gear now litters the landscape in
Afghanistan, remnants of that country's invasion and occupation.
And some of that equipment contains radium, a radioactive
substance once used for the glow-in-the-dark dials.
"The one consideration that we looked at was the fact there
could be ex-Soviet dials floating around," Knowlton said.
"Nothing sits around for very long so any of the damaged or
destroyed vehicles get scavenged.
"There have been examples out there where people have dispersed
radioactive and contaminated things not knowing what they're
doing."
But some question whether there's a more recent radiation worry
lingering on the Afghan battlefield depleted uranium found in
modern-day weapons and armour.
Depleted uranium is what is left over after the more radioactive
elements have been removed to make enriched uranium. This heavy,
dense metal is prized by the military.
`There could be ex-Soviet dials floating around'
Chris Knowlton, Canadian Expeditionary Force
The U.S. says it uses depleted uranium for some of its
munitions, armour and armour-piercing projectiles.
"DU's high density, self-sharpening qualities and the fact that
it is easily combustible make its projectiles capable of readily
penetrating armour," according to one U.S. Army fact sheet.
While military fact sheets downplay the risks of depleted
uranium because of its low radioactivity, excessive exposures
can damage the kidneys.
"Depleted uranium is only one of many potentially hazardous
substances that soldiers may be exposed to during deployment and
combat operations," the U.S. fact sheet said.
Depleted uranium saw large-scale use during the 1991 Persian
Gulf War, sparking some worries that it was responsible for the
mysterious illnesses suffered by some U.S. veterans.
It was used again during NATO's bombing of the Balkans in the
mid-1990s. That's when Canadians who served an extended tour
there were first equipped with dosimeters.
"For the Balkans and as well Afghanistan, it's more the chance
encounter ... like a rogue source or a device that contains
radiation," Knowlton said, adding dosimeters are now a "routine
force protection measure."
NATO was put on the offensive in 2001 after media reports linked
the use of depleted uranium ammunition in Kosovo and Bosnia with
the possibility of a higher incidence of leukemia and other
cancers among some allied troops and local residents.
"To date, the scientific and medical research continues to
disprove any link between depleted uranium and the reported
negative health effects," according to a NATO statement.
The Americans and British have denied using depleted uranium
weapons in Afghanistan. Canada says it eliminated depleted
uranium munitions from its stockpile in 1998, in part because of
the logistical challenges of storing the material, since it
required special precautions.
Knowlton said he doesn't see a significant radiation risk for
the 2,500 Canadian troops now serving in southern Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, the dosimeters have all come back with no
excessive exposure measured except for two, he said.
"We followed up and it was because it was accidentally passed
through a baggage X-ray."
Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.
*****************************************************************
63 UPI: Technology detects plutonium, uranium
United Press International - NewsTrack -
10/30/2006 9:15:00 AM -0500
BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they can
cheaply, quickly and accurately identify even subnanogram
amounts of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium.
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
in Boulder, Colo., and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in
Tennessee report developing a highly sensitive technique called
delayed neutron activation analysis to detect such dangerous
substances. The analysis includes a specially designed research
neutron source, which bathes material samples with low-energy
neutrons.
The samples are then placed into a barrel-shaped instrument,
embedded with neutron detectors that precisely count the
neutrons emitted over a short period of time. The neutron count
acts as a unique signature of special nuclear material.
In the study, the scientists say they used the technique to
successfully identify trace amounts of uranium-235 and
plutonium-239 in less than 3 minutes.
"We're emphasizing the technique now because world events have
made it more critical to detect traces of nuclear materials,
which is technically very challenging," said analytical chemist
Richard Lindstrom.
The technique was described last month during the national
meeting of the American Chemical Society.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
*****************************************************************
64 Centre Daily Times: Nuclear waste project represents true success story
10/30/2006 |
Despite fears of the unknown, a deep underground repository in
southeastern New Mexico being used for the disposal of
plutonium-contaminated nuclear waste from the defense program
has been up and running for almost a decade and is demonstrating
great benefits -- short-term and possibly long-term -- to the
public.
Completed seven years ago, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
(WIPP) is the world's first underground repository for the
permanent disposal of nuclear waste. So far, more than 81,000
containers of long-lived transuranic waste have been placed in
the facility.
Some of the waste has been shipped more than 1,000 miles by
truck from government defense installations in South Carolina,
Idaho and Washington state, demonstrating that highly
radioactive materials can be transported long distances safely
and placed in an underground facility without harm to the
public.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) manages WIPP, and its
successful operation after years of litigation by anti-nuclear
groups and efforts by the state government of New Mexico to halt
construction of the repository, show that DOE is perfectly
capable of handling another controversial project -- the storage
of spent fuel from nuclear power plants at the Yucca Mountain
geologic repository in Nevada.
DOE's experience with WIPP is not unlike the one it is having
with the Yucca Mountain project.
Back in the 1980s, anti-nuclear groups claimed that shipping
containers of plutonium-contaminated waste along interstate
highways was unsafe. But so far there have been more than 5,000
shipments to WIPP without a radioactive incident, and they are
proceeding at the rate of about 25 a week.
It's a record that matches the safe shipment of spent fuel in
the United States -- about 3,000 shipments by truck and railroad
without a single release of radiation.
The WIPP repository is a network of tunnels and chambers carved
out of a salt cavern deep beneath the New Mexico desert about 25
miles from Carlsbad. The last shipments of transuranic waste to
WIPP are scheduled to be completed in about 30 years, and then
the repository will be closed.
The Yucca Mountain repository, on the other hand, won't be
sealed for many years. Plans call for the Nevada facility to
remain open for at least 300 years, so that scientists and
engineers can study the environmental effects of the heat
emanating from spent-fuel canisters to make certain the facility
operates safely.
Another reason to keep the repository open for storage -- and
not immediate disposal -- is that someday we will want to
retrieve the spent fuel for recycling.
It contains valuable nuclear materials that can be reprocessed
into new fuel for use at nuclear power plants to produce
electricity. Such reprocessing is currently being done by
France, Great Britain and several other countries.
Another of its major benefits is to greatly reduce the amount of
high-level radioactive waste that must be placed in a repository
for permanent disposal.
It is estimated there will be 70,000 metric tons of spent fuel
from nuclear power plants when the Yucca Mountain repository
opens in 2017, which is the maximum amount of spent fuel that
Congress designated to be stored in the facility when it passed
the Nuclear Waste Policy Act more than a decade ago.
Congress needs to raise the ceiling to 120,000 metric tons, so
there will be additional space for spent fuel resulting from the
continued operation of today's nuclear plants and any more
plants that might be built.
Congress also should authorize construction of an interim
storage facility to hold spent fuel near the Yucca Mountain site
until construction of the repository is completed.
The nuclear waste program needs to be removed from the annual
appropriations process so that money collected from utility
ratepayers and going into the Nuclear Waste Fund is used for its
intended purpose and not be diverted to pay for other government
programs.
The safe storage of spent fuel in an underground repository at
Yucca Mountain could have a major impact on facilitating the use
of nuclear power to meet the growing need for electricity in the
world.
That could be the real legacy of the experience gained from the
WIPP project.
Forrest Remick is professor of nuclear engineering emeritus at
Penn State and retired member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. The opinion of the columnist does not necessarily
reflect the viewpoint of the university.
*****************************************************************
65 AP Wire: State urged to adopt tougher perchlorate standard in water
10/30/2006 |
SAMANTHA YOUNG Associated Press
SACRAMENTO - More than a dozen people demanded Monday that state
health officials impose the nation's strictest limits for
perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient that is contaminating
drinking water supplies throughout the state.
The requests came during a 90-minute public comment session
hosted by the state Department of Health Services, which is
weighing a proposal to require water providers clean up
perchlorate contamination.
"There shouldn't be any rocket fuel in our drinking water," said
Jan Misquez, a policy director at the Center for Community
Action and Environmental Justice, a nonprofit organization based
in Riverside.
At the heart of the debate is a proposed perchlorate regulation
that would require clean up if the chemical is found in water
supplies at 6 parts per billion or higher - a much more
stringent level than suggested by the federal government but
weaker than the 2 parts per billion standard imposed this summer
by Massachusetts.
Supporters of a tougher limit said California should allow no
more than 1 part per billion.
A component of rocket fuel and pyrotechnics, perchlorate has
been detected in milk, vegetables, fruit, grains and drinking
water supplies in as many as 40 states. Much of the
contamination stems from military bases and aerospace plants.
In California, more than 450 wells and other water sources
operated by more than 100 water agencies - primarily in Los
Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Sacramento
counties - have been contaminated by perchlorate, according to
the state health department.
Environmental groups for years have sought state regulation in
the absence of a national federal drinking water standard for
perchlorate, but those blamed for polluting water supplies have
offered their own scientific studies that contend that
perchlorate at low levels does not threaten public health.
James Strock of the Council on Water Quality, which is funded by
Lockheed Martin, Aerojet and other aerospace companies, said
state health officials should factor in economic costs, not just
health risks, when setting a final standard for drinking water.
"If the same health benefits can be achieved at lower costs,
they should be," said Strock, a former head of the California
Environmental Protection Agency under Republican Gov. Pete
Wilson.
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in
2004 issued a public health goal for perchlorate at 6 parts per
billion. The Department of Health Services then adopted the goal
as its proposed perchlorate drinking water standard this summer.
But in the two and a half years since the public health goal was
announced, numerous studies have been released showing
perchlorate exposure might threaten thyroid functions in women
at lower levels than previously thought.
Renee Sharp, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working
Group, said a limit of 6 parts per billion would "profoundly
fail" as many as 272,000 women vulnerable to low exposures of
perchlorate.
Specifically, Sharp and others urged the department to review a
federal study released earlier this month by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. It found that perchlorate might
prevent some women's thyroid glands from functioning properly at
low levels.
"We believe it would be much wiser for DHS to wait and get the
right standard than to move ahead with an inappropriate
standard," Sharp said.
However, the department's hands may be tied. State law requires
the department to establish a drinking water standard as close
to the public health goal as technically and economically
feasible, said department spokeswoman Patti Roberts.
"It's important for DHS to continue to move forward in adopting
a drinking water standard as soon as possible to assure the
public all local water districts are adhering to adopted
drinking water standards," Roberts said.
A spokesman for the Office of Environmental Health Hazard
Assessment, which has the ability to lower the public health
goal and thus allow the department to adopt a tougher standard
than 6 parts per billion, said Monday that officials were
reviewing the data released this month by the Centers for
Disease Control.
The federal EPA issued its first safety standard for perchlorate
last year, following a National Academy of Sciences
recommendation that it not exceed 24.5 parts per billion in
drinking water. One part per billion amounts to about one drop
in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
Public comment on the California perchlorate regulation ends
Friday.
*****************************************************************
66 Deutsche Welle: German Nuclear Waste to Go Back to Mother Russia by Air
Germany |
30.10.2006
DW-World.de Deutsche Welle
German Nuclear Waste to Go Back to Mother Russia by Air [Nuclear
waste is usually transported by train rather than by plane]
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Nuclear waste
is usually transported by train rather than by plane The state of
Saxony has applied for 200 kilos (440 pounds) of nuclear waste
enriched by uranium to be flown, instead of transported by train,
from the former East Germany back to Russia.
Saxony is seeking permission to fly nuclear waste back to Russia
for reprocessing before the end of the year, the German
environment ministry confirmed on Sunday. The federal office for
radiation protection must first approve the transport.
Safety experts and environmentalists have expressed concerns
about the plans. They said the risks involved in transporting
radioactive materials by air instead of by train, the most
common means of transportation, could be higher.
"We have always stood against transporting nuclear waste by
air," said Heinz Smital, a Greenpeace nuclear expert based in
Hamburg. "The consequences of an air attack or accident on a
plane carrying radioactive material are unpredictable. Uranium,
which has been 80 percent enriched, can be weapons grade," he
added.
Although the nuclear material to be transported on Dec. 1
contains only 36 percent uranium, it could easily become a
"dirty bomb" in the wrong hands, Smital told Die Welt daily.
Air transport more vulnerable
Security experts say that air transport is particularly
vulnerable to an international terrorist attack.
[Nuclear waste transports in Germany are usually accompanied by
protests] Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der
Bildunterschrift: Nuclear waste transports in Germany are
usually accompanied by protests "Arrangements for transporting
material and security procedures are outlined in great detail in
agreements with contractors. If such information is ever leaked
to outsiders, potential terrorists could easily get their hands
on radioactive materials," said a high level national security
official.
The 200-kilogram load of nuclear waste was produced by a former
Soviet reactor in Rossendorf, on the outskirts of Dresden, and
was shut down after German reunification in 1991. Under a Cold
War agreement by the International Atomic Energy Agency, nuclear
material is supposed to be returned to its country of origin.
Special plane to transport uranium
Other experts say that a specially adapted plane for
transporting uranium enriched material is safer than by train.
"That way less can happen to it than on the road or on train
tracks," Udo Helwig, the director of the German association for
nuclear technology and analysis (VKTA), told the Berliner
Zeitung newspaper.
Using aircraft was an economical means of transport, an
environmental ministry spokesman Thomas Hagbeck suggested.
"Considering the length of the trip, it makes sense to use air
transport," he said.
Since 2003, there have been four air shipments of German nuclear
waste to Russia.
Preparations to take weeks
Since mainly non-reactive uranium is being sent back, the
dangers from radioactivity should be minimal, according to
Helwig. The waste will be brought to the Dresden airport in a
secure container truck, with the flight being organized by the
Russians themselves.
[Russian activists protest nuclear waste dumping]
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der
Bildunterschrift: Russian activists protest nuclear waste
dumping
Preparations for flying the waste will take four weeks and would
need to undergo vigorous international safety criteria. The
waste will be returned to the Russian atomic reactor in Podolsk,
which is about 30 kilometers (around 19 miles) south of Moscow,
where it will be reprocessed for further use.
Environmental activists in Moscow staged protests against
nuclear dumping earlier this month.
DW staff (df)
DW-WORLD: Green Light for German Atomic Waste Facility
A German court on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for the
construction of a storage facility for low- and medium-level
radioactive nuclear waste, putting an end to a two-decade-long
campaign to block the project. (08.03.2006)
DW-WORLD: Germany's RWE Keen on Prolonging Life of Nuclear Plant
German energy giant RWE has suggested one of its nuclear plants
should stay online beyond its scheduled shutdown in 2008. Is
Germany getting ready to play with nuclear fire again?
(24.02.2006)
DW-WORLD: Protestors Halt Nuclear Convoy en Route to Storage
Site
Anti-nuclear protestors repeatedly halted a controversial
shipment of highly radioactive nuclear waste from France Monday
bound for a temporary storage facility in northern Germany.
(21.11.2005) Your Comments
+
Feedback: Do you agree that nuclear waste should be returned to
the country of origin? Send us an e-mail. Please include your
name and country in your reply.
*****************************************************************
67 Platts: NDA responsible for geologic disposal of higher activity wastes
London (Platts)--27Oct2006
UK's NDA will be responsible for the geologic disposal of higher
activity wastes, and Nirex will be subsumed into the NDA, the
UK's Environment Secretary David Miliband announced October 25.
The state-run cleanup body Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will
replace Nirex, which has played an important role in developing
the UK's knowledge on geological disposal, he said. Nirex would
be allowed a short period to comment on the proposed ownership
transfer "and how it could best be brought about," he said.
Miliband said the key recommendations of the Committee on
Radioactive Waste Management, or Corwm, published in July, had
been accepted by the government.
A new committee--with the same Corwm name but with a
reconstituted membership--will be appointed to give advice on
long-term radioactive waste management plans, he said. This would
include considering the strategy and delivery plans and the site
selection process. He said government was strongly supportive of
Corwm's concept of "voluntarism" by local communities taking on
the project.
Copyright © 2006 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
68 Salt Lake Tribune: EnergySolutions was rude
Article Last Updated:10/29/2006 11:13:25 PM MST
I recently attended a public hearing for the expansion of the
EnergySolutions radioactive waste facility. It was conducted by
the Utah Division of Radiation Control in a very professional
manner. I respect the state representatives for allowing the
public to express their feelings about the proposal.
I spoke out against the proposal for a variety of reasons. I
was extremely displeased with the behavior of EnergySolutions'
staff that was in attendance. While members of the public were
giving their comments, three or four of the EnergySolutions
staff laughed, giggled and poked fun at the individuals as they
spoke. When the speakers would walk from the microphone, the
EnergySolutions staff even heckled them and called them names.
I am sure that those who witnessed this childish behavior
were not amused. I hope that at future meetings the public will
feel free to voice their personal opinions without being laughed
at and called names.
If EnergySolutions is looking to improve upon its public
acceptance in this state, I would suggest it try being more
considerate to those who attend public comment meetings.
Charles Judd
Salt Lake City
© Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
69 AU ABC: Nuclear adviser pushes economic benefits of uranium enrichment.
30/10/2006. ABC News Online
One of the Federal Government's key nuclear advisers says there
are strong reasons for Australia to consider uranium enrichment.
The Prime Minister's task force into uranium and nuclear energy
is due to release its draft report next month.
The director-general of the Australian Safeguards and
Non-proliferation Office, John Carlson, says Australia could set
up an enrichment facility involving some of its South-East Asian
neighbours.
He says the financial benefits alone are worth considering.
"From the domestic point of view, I think the issue is pretty
clear," he said.
"The Prime Minister has said we have a third of the world's
uranium reserves and clearly we need to look at whether we can
value-add rather than have the economic advantage of upgrading
falling only to other countries."
Mr Carlson says developing a uranium processing plant with
Australia's neighbours would help placate fears of a nuclear
arms race.
He says the international community would want guarantees from
Australia that uranium was being enriched to produce nuclear
power, not weapons.
"We would have the capacity to produce the basic fissile
material, so obviously we would be anxious to demonstrate to our
neighbours and the international community at large that our
intentions were exclusively peaceful," he said.
*****************************************************************
70 [NukeNet] AP, Record on our GREEN Bid for Livermore lab
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:08:10 -0800
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NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
Tri-Valley CAREs and its partners are pleased to announce the official
submittal of an innovative bid to manage the Livermore Lab and transition
it from nuclear weapons to civilian science within 5 years. The bid was
submitted to the Dept. of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration
in advance of the Friday afternoon deadline.
Read all about it in the Associated Press wire story and Stockton Record
article, both reproduced below. Additional articles available on request.
Peace,
Marylia
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Scott Lindlaw
Oct. 27, 2006
3 teams vie to manage research at Lawrence Livermore Lab
SAN FRANCISCO - 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&M 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:
http://www.doeal.gov/llnlCompetition/
Tri-Valley CARES: http://www.trivalleycares.org/
Bechtel: http://www.bechtel.com/
Northrop Grumman: http://www.northropgrumman.com/
***********
STOCKTON RECORD
Alex Breitler
Oct 28, 2006
Watchdog group wants to turn weapons lab green
Environmental group bids to run Livermore site
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 abreitler@recordnet.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marylia Kelley,
Executive Director
Tri-Valley CAREs
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA 94551
Ph: (925) 443-7148
Fx: (925) 443-0177
Web: www.trivalleycares.org
Email: marylia@trivalleycares.org or marylia@earthlink.net
_______________________________________________________________________
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71 Rocky Mountain News: Rocky Flats museum could be open by 2009
By Associated Press
October 29, 2006
GOLDEN — Backers of a proposed museum on the site of the former
Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have begun collecting artifacts
to fill the space, including a ''resistance'' teepee erected in
1978 over railroad tracks at the site.
The teepee, which could become a centerpiece of the Rocky Flats
Cold War Museum, was presented Saturday to about 75 people who
gathered to discuss plans for the 15,000-square-foot building.
Construction could begin in 2008, and the museum could open by
2009.
Museum board members said they hope to raise up to $4 million for
the interactive archive to document the history of Rocky Flats,
which made plutonium cores for hydrogen bombs from 1952 to 1989.
The plant was shut down in 1989, after the FBI raided offices for
evidence of alleged environmental crimes. Plant operators
eventually reached an $18.5 million plea deal with the
government. A $7 billion, decade-long cleanup effort was declared
complete a year ago, and much of the site's 6,200 acres is to
become a national wildlife refuge.
Activists who pushed for the plant's closure and cleanup believe
it is important to preserve its history to educate people about
its role in the Cold War.
''We have new players in a nuclear age, and it's important to
preserve the message that we have learned,'' said Jan Pilcher,
who organized an effort to stop incineration of plutonium-laced
waste.
Patrick Malone of the Rocky Flats Truth Force, which presented
the teepee to the museum board, said displaying the artifacts
will show the importance of taking a strong stand for one's
beliefs.
Malone said his group will give $1,000 to the project and work to
help raise more funds.
''This will be a local museum where we can show our children how
to live in a place that they're not scared to death,'' Malone
said.
Information from: Daily Camera, www.thedailycamera.com
2006 © The E.W. Scripps Co.
*****************************************************************
72 DOE: Jeffrey Kupfer Named New DOE Chief of Staff
October 30, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC Department of Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman
announced Jeffrey Kupfer as his new Chief of Staff today.
I welcome Jeff to the Energy Department. I had the opportunity
to work with him while we were both at the Department of the
Treasury and I look forward to working with him again,
Secretary Bodman said. Jeff is an experienced, intelligent,
and capable leader and policy expert. He will be a welcome
addition to our senior leadership team and will lead the
Departments staff as we move forward to implement the
Presidents energy policy goals.
The Energy Department is filled with top caliber people and I
look forward to working with them, under Secretary Bodman's
leadership, to fulfill the Department's diverse and important
missions, Mr. Kupfer said.
Before becoming the Departments Chief of Staff, Mr. Kupfer
served for nearly a year as a Special Assistant to the President
for Economic Policy at the White House, and prior to that he was
the Executive Director of the Presidents Advisory Panel on
Federal Tax Reform. From 2001 2005, he held a number of
positions at the Treasury Department, including Executive
Secretary and Deputy Chief of Staff. In 2003, Mr. Kupfer served
as a Special Assistant to President Bushs Chief of Staff.
Mr. Kupfer was previously a tax counsel for the U.S. Senate
Finance Committee; a counsel for U.S. Senate Committee on
Governmental Affairs; and a trial attorney in the U.S.
Department of Justices Tax Division. Mr. Kupfer also clerked
for Chief Judge Thomas P. Griesa in the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Kupfer holds a B.A from Yale College and a J.D. from Harvard
Law School.
Media contact(s): Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940 [ ]
U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW |
Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403
*****************************************************************
73 Tri-City Herald: 3 nominated to head up Hanford Advisory Board
Published Monday, October 30th, 2006
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
The Hanford Advisory Board is scheduled to choose a new leader
at its November meeting next week as the current chairman
reaches the term limit set by the board's charter.
Todd Martin has served as chairman for three two-year terms,
leading a board that's known for being able to bring members
with widely different interests to consensus to offer advice on
clean up of the Hanford nuclear reservation.
Three board members have been nominated as chairman: Rick
Jansons, who represents Benton County on the board; Susan
Leckband, who represents nonunion and nonmanagement Hanford
employees, and Jerry Peltier, who represents the city of West
Richland.
Jansons is a home builder who worked at Hanford until recently.
Among his jobs at the site during the last 15 years has been
serving as a a technical instructor and the Plutonium Finishing
Plant radiological control manager. He's also the president of
the Richland School Board.
"I value an open, transparent process where we can discuss our
differences and seek common ground," he said in his letter of
interest to the board. "The power of the board is our ability to
solve problems in such a way that all board members can stand
behind the final advice."
Leckband is co-vice chairwoman of the board and has worked at
Hanford since 1988, most recently as a senior administrative
specialist for Fluor Hanford.
The board is a collaboration between board members, the
Department of Energy, the regulators, other interested groups
and the public, she said in her letter of interest.
"I believe the most important job of the chair of the HAB is to
guard and maintain the balance of interests and to ensure that
all who wish to speak are provided with equal opportunity," she
said.
She assured members that her employer had never asked her to
behave in a way that would compromise her ability to make
independent decisions as a board member.
Peltier was the mayor of West Richland for 12 years, serving
essentially as the city manager. He also served as a councilman
for 12 year.
He is retired from a career as a quality control project manager
at Hanford and elsewhere. His last assignment was serving as the
project quality control manager on the Ballistic Missile Defense
System Test Bed Facilities in Alaska.
DOE money administered through a Washington State Department of
Ecology grant is available to pay for the time of the board
chairman. Peltier said he believes the position should be paid,
Jansons said he would have to cut back on his business
activities and would need partial compensation and Leckband said
Fluor Hanford would allow her to devote 50 percent of her work
time to board business.
© 2006 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
74 Cincinnati Business Courier: Fernald site cleanup complete -
Cincinnati Business Courier - 11:44 AM EST Monday
The site of the former Fernald uranium processing plant in
Crosby Township is now an undeveloped park, and the cleanup is
complete, Fluor Fernaldannounced Monday.
The contractor said it presented its declaration of physical
completion to the U.S. Department of Energy Sunday, and is
awaiting its concurrence.
Fluor Fernald began cleaning the site, which was contaminated
with nuclear wastes, in 1992. Fourteen years and $4.4 billion
later, the area boasts 400 acres of woodlots, more than 140
acres of open water and wetlands, 327 acres of prairie and 33
acres of savanna, Fluor Fernald said in a news release.
The project involved treating and shipping radioactive waste in
three concrete silos, dismantling 323 buildings, excavating and
shipping 1 million tons of waste from six waste pits, and
treating a 225-acre plume of uranium contamination in the Great
Miami Aquifer, Fluor Fernald said.
"Fernald is unique compared to other DOE cleanup sites because
we had to design and build huge radioactive waste-handling and
processing facilities and greatly expand site infrastructure
before clearing the way for plant demolition," said Con Murphy,
Fluor Fernald project director.
A water treatment plant to pump and treat remaining levels of
radiation in the aquifer, and a 110-acre disposal facility
holding building debris and contaminated soil will remain on the
site, as well as an education center that the DOE will build
close to where the silos once stood.
Contact the Editor Need Assistance? More Latest News
© 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc.
*****************************************************************
75 The Enquirer: $4.4 billion Fernald cleanup done
Last Updated: 11:52 am | Monday, October 30, 2006
CROSBY TWP. – Fluor Fernald, the contractor in charge of
cleaning up a Cold War-era uranium foundry, said today its $4.4
billion project to clean up the site west of Cincinnati is done.
The contractor is now waiting for the sign-off from the U.S.
Department of Energy, which owns the site.
Jeff Wagner, a spokesman for the site, said that work finished
Sunday brought the site up to standards set by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency for declaring the cleanup
complete.
Department of Energy officials will now go over the site and
create a “punchlist” of mostly minor work to be complete.
Fluor Fernald will have 60 days to complete that work, Wagner
said. “It’s pretty much like when you buy a house and go over
everything,” he said.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management will be
responsible for continuing to treat water from the Great Miami
Aquifer that was contaminated by uranium runoff from the foundry.
Water treatment could take another 10 years, Wagner said.
The goal of the project was to turn the foundry from a nuclear
waste site to an undeveloped nature site, with wetlands, forest
and prairie areas.
Wildlife, including some endangered species, have already made
themselves at home on the site.
Workers at the site are “very emotional,” Wagner said.
For employees who began working at the site when it was still a
uranium foundry, the completion is especially poignant, he said.
“If you got let go from another plant, you’d walk out and you’d
see everything still there, all the buildings and everything.
Here when these people leave, the last thing they’ll see in the
rearview mirror will be a park.”
Lisa Crawford, president of FRESH (Fernald Residents for
Environmental Safety and Health), was relieved when heaved the
project announcement was made.
“It’s a good feeling. We fought the fight and we fought it hard.
We won. In my opinion, we won. It’s going to be really cool to
see it morph into what it needs to turn into in the next few
years,” she said.
Crawford and her husband, Ken, lived across from the foundry.
Like many families in Crosby Township, they had no idea what
went on at the site.
Production at the site began in 1951 and ended in 1989. In 1984,
residents living around the foundry were outraged to learn that
uranium runoff had contaminated drinking water wells at three
houses.
The Crawfords lived in one of those houses, and were among the
homeowners who sued the Department of Energy and National Lead
of Ohio, who operated the foundry, for cleanup.
The project took 10 years to complete.
During the course of the cleanup, Fluor and its partners
removed, treated and shipped off-site radioactive waste and
other hazardous materials from the foundry, which refined
uranium into ingots and other forms to be used for nuclear
weapons and atomic energy.
*****************************************************************
76 Albuquerque Tribune: Labs look to turn nukes into fuel
By Sue Vorenberg (Contact)
Monday, October 30, 2006
Smart Box
The problem: How do the United States and Russia get rid of 34
tons each of weapons-grade plutonium, something they're
obligated to do under arms reduction treaties?
A solution: Transform it, through recycling, into fuel for
commercial power plants.
Another solution: Bury it in a nuclear waste dump site like
Yucca Mountain, which is so tied up in legal red tape it might
never open.
Local angle: Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories are
trying to figure out how to make recycling work.
At Issue
What: Using recycled nuclear fuel to power commercial reactors.
Who does it: France, Britain and Japan have used recycled
nuclear fuel called mixed oxide, or MOX, in reactors for years.
Plutonium is also a byproduct from conventional nuclear power
production, and they recycle it into mixed oxide to get rid of
it.
At home: In the 1970s, the United States banned the concept
because of the threat that plutonium would be less secure during
the process. That ban holds for commercial recycling of used
nuclear fuel rods, but not for government recycling of bomb
parts into fuel rods.
Opponents say: Recycled plutonium isn't stable and could lead to
accidents in commercial reactors, as well as pose a security
risk from unsavory people who might try to steal it.
To make recycled nuclear fuel called MOX, or mixed oxide:
First: Scientists turn plutonium into a powder.
Second: That is mixed with conventional uranium power-plant
fuel.
Then: They turn the mix into pellets, which are placed in fuel
rods that are burned in nuclear power plants.
Sources: Randall Erickson, Los Alamos National Laboratory;
Dianna Blair, Sandia National Laboratories; Edwin Lyman,
Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists
Finding a way to get rid of 34 tons of extra weapons-grade
plutonium poses an interesting challenge.
The United States and Russia - under an arms reduction treaty -
can't just drop it off at the dump or toss it in the garbage.
And the people who might want to take it off their hands - say,
North Korea and Iran - probably wouldn't do anything nice with
it.
One option in the United States is to carefully treat it, then
store it at the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada,
if it ever opens.
Or, if you're one of New Mexico's national laboratories, you can
look at doing something even stranger with it - recycling it
into commercial power.
The United States and Russia cleared a major diplomatic hurdle
in September that gets both closer to getting rid of the deadly
material through recycling. The two countries agreed on
liability protection for the United States so it can help Russia
with its part of the equation.
Both countries have been working on efforts to use plutonium to
create a recycled nuclear fuel called MOX, or mixed oxide, which
can power commercial nuclear plants. But the programs have been
stalled for the past several years because there are risks
involved and there was no liability agreement to protect either
country in case something went wrong with the recycled product,
said Randall Erickson, former program manager at the nuclear
nonproliferation program office at Los Alamos National
Laboratory.
Since the early 1990s, Los Alamos and Sandia national
laboratories have been working on various aspects of making MOX
a reality in the United States.
It's tricky, because you have to keep the material out of the
wrong hands and you have to tweak it before it can be used in
commercial power reactors.
Still, Erickson said he appreciates the ironic twist of turning
material for nuclear bombs into something more positive.
"Somebody coined the term that we're taking megatons of nuclear
weapons materials and turning it into megawatts to light the
cities," Erickson said.
The 34 tons could power a nuclear plant for more than 34 years,
he said.
Not everyone agrees that turning bomb materials into fuel is a
good idea, including the Washington-based Union of Concerned
Scientists, said Edwin Lyman, a senior staff member.
"On the surface, it sounds like a good idea, but if you start
looking at it in any detail, you realize it can't fulfill that
promise," Lyman said. "When you use plutonium in a light-water
(power) reactor, there are characteristics that increase the
likelihood of certain accidents."
That could include uncontrollable chain reactions leading to a
Chernobyl-like accident, Lyman said.
Los Alamos scientists, however, say they've found a mixture of
one-third plutonium and two-thirds uranium will work in
conventional power plants without damaging them, Erickson said.
Los Alamos has been testing recycled fuel in France as a first
step in the U.S. program. The French purified the unclassified
combination of plutonium and uranium in 2004 and 2005 and turned
it into fuel for a reactor in South Carolina.
That reactor has been test-burning the fuel since summer 2005,
Erickson said.
"Everything is performing as they anticipated," he said. "In
truth, this technology was not a major leap."
That doesn't mean the plutonium is completely secure, Lyman
argued.
"There's an issue about whether reactor sites will have to
increase security because of the threat of fuel being stolen,"
Lyman said.
Also, plutonium fuel creates different nuclear byproducts as it
breaks down and it burns hotter than uranium, so it will put
more stress on a conventional power plant system, Lyman said.
"You just don't want to do anything to increase the risks,"
Lyman said. "The MOX program has always been the more dangerous,
riskier option."
Lyman would prefer the U.S. surplus plutonium be treated and
buried in Yucca Mountain.
Besides, there's no world uranium shortage looming at this
point, he said.
"Uranium resources, according to the International Atomic Energy
Agency, are going to remain ample for quite some time - 75 years
to a century," Lyman said. "The thing is that none of these
recycling schemes will make a significant dent in the amount of
uranium we use anyway."
Either way, the United States and Russia are years away from
actually burning the 34 tons of plutonium in commercial
reactors, Erickson said.
After the test is finished, the United States will have to build
its own MOX fuel fabrication facility and a facility to take the
weapons-grade plutonium and break it down into a powder. Those
facilities are slated for the Savannah River Site in South
Carolina, Erickson said.
The United States will also have to help Russia create similar
facilities in the same time frame, because the two countries'
programs must run parallel, Erickson said.
"It's early in the process," Erickson said. "It will probably be
in the 2014 to 2015 time frame before they're ready. It's not a
short-term program." Comments
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© 2006 The Albuquerque Tribune
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77 lamonitor.com: LANL admits environmental error in pile
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
ROGER SNODGRASS roger@lamonitor.comMonitor Assistant Editor
Los Alamos National Laboratory faces a maximum $2.3 million fine
for breaking environmental laws and permissions.
It is the fourth violation issued in four months by state
regulators and potentially the most costly.
The state's Hazardous Waste Bureau cited the laboratory
Wednesday for inappropriately mixing hazardous waste in a
temporary staging pile during the demolition of buildings and
infrastructure at Technical Area 16. Later, some of the
hazardous waste was transferred to a waste pile on Sigma Mesa.
Laboratory spokesman James Rickman said the laboratory
acknowledged the error.
"The rubble pile does not constitute any immediate threat to
human health or the environment," he said. "The lab put berms
around the pile to make sure nothing would migrate off site and
has sampled to confirm that nothing harmful was released. We're
now waiting for instructions for an appropriate disposal option
for the pile."
TA-16 is located in the westernmost bulge of laboratory
property, with the National Forest across Jemez Road to the west
and Bandelier National Monument across SR4 to the south. Sigma
Mesa is south of East Jemez Road, not far from the main
administrative area.
"Lab managers seemed to ignore clear permitting and monitoring
requirements in this case," said NMED Secretary Ron Curry in an
announcement on Friday. "Violations such as these seem to reveal
a lack of respect for state laws written to protect the health
of New Mexicans and their environment. In addition, it's not the
lab's prerogative to make the determination of whether the waste
is endangering the health of citizens or the environment."
NMED Communication Director Melissa Stone said Friday,
"Obviously, the laboratory will have the opportunity to
negotiate a settlement with the state."
NMED dated the violation to Feb. 15, 2005, and said they learned
about it when the LANL and the Department of Energy notified
them at the end of August 2005.
The violations occurred in relation to the demolition of Complex
340. The cleanup at Complex 340 of TA-16 was described in a
public meeting in January 2005 as one of the most difficult
remediation projects at the laboratory. Hundreds of millions of
pounds of high explosives were processed and machined parts were
cooled by water over a 50-year time span.
A open drainpipe dumped effluents with barium and RDX, an
explosive chemical used in nuclear weapons, into nearby Canyon
de Valle.
Environmental investigations early this decade found RDX from
the outfall in test wells downstream and below the site in the
regional aquifer.
During the demolition of the complex, according to NMED's formal
notice, the remains of six sumps and the outfall pipe were mixed
with hazardous remediation waste. That pile was later
transported to Sigma Mesa, "where it was placed on the ground."
Only about 20 cubic yards of the 8,000 cubic yards of waste in
the rubble pile are considered hazardous, by NMED's account, but
because they were mixed together, the whole pile is now
considered hazardous.
The $2.3 million maximum fine stems from violations of federal
and state laws, unlike three other recent citations, which fell
under a consent order between the laboratory and the state that
governs the lab's comprehensive cleanup.
LANL has been cited twice for failure to perform remediation
work at the airport, including a maximum $89,000 fine for
improper disposal of hazardous debris and a $30,000 fine, plus
$3,000 a day for an overdue clean-up at an old ashpile.
That fine may grow to as much as $200,000, according to the
schedule. The largest previous maximum fine was $795,620, issued
last month, for delinquency in reporting chromium contamination
in a groundwater monitoring well.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
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78 UPI: Northrop team bids on Livermore Lab pact
United Press International - Security &Terrorism -
10/30/2006 7:38:00 AM -0500
LIVERMORE, Calif., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- A team led by Northrop
Grumman has submitted a bid to become the new managers of the
U.S. nuclear weapons lab in Livermore, Calif.
Advanced Science and Engineering Technologies, LLC (ASET) is
challenging the incumbent management team that includes Bechtel
and the University of California system.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco is
charged with maintaining the reliability of the U.S. nuclear
weapons, but is also involved in basic scientific research
involving physics as well as the development of cutting-edge
technology involving energy and homeland security. The UC system
has managed the lab for more than 50 years.
The bid was presented to the U.S. Department of Energy's
National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) ahead of Friday's
proposal deadline.
"The NNSA and the public expect a high degree of accountability,
performance, and safety from the national laboratories,
especially those entrusted to maintain and certify our nation's
nuclear stockpile," said Northrop Chairman and CEO Ronald Sugar.
"Our team has an established track record of successfully
working with complex science and technology."
The ASET team includes Northrop as well as AECOM Government
Services, CH2M Hill Constructors, Nuclear Fuel Services and
Wackenhut Services. It recently won the $2.5 billion contract to
manage the Nevada Test Range.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
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