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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 New York Times: Bush Adds Troops in Bid to Secure Iraq -
2 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI consulate in Iraq raided by US
3 AFP: US arrests five in Iran consulate raid in Iraq
4 IPS-English POLITICS-IRAN: Ratcheting up the Nuclear Ante
5 Guardian Unlimited: China Tells U.S. Its Iran Ties Private
6 Guardian Unlimited: 5 Iranians Detained at Iraqi Consulate
7 Guardian Unlimited: Israel Encouraged by a Stance on Iran
8 Guardian Unlimited: Neither sanctions nor bombs will end the Iran nu
9 AFP: Israel's Olmert urges China to back tougher sanctions on Iran -
10 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IAEA inspectors in Isfahan facility
11 Irna: UK revises mistaken plutonium figures for IAEA -
12 AFP: Controversy as US arrests six in raid on 'Iranian consulate' -
13 AFP: Controversy erupts as US arrests six in raid on 'Iranian consul
14 AFP: Rice warns Iran against aggression after US reportedly nabs mor
15 UPI: China tells U.S.: hands off Iran deal
16 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Detains 6 Iranians in Irbil Raid
17 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Nuke Work Seems Slow, Puzzling West
18 Korea Herald: Korea, China, Japan to hold summit in Cebu
19 YONHAP NEWS: S. Korea, China agree on early resumption of N. Korean
20 YONHAP NEWS: Major presidential hopeful criticizes S. Korea's policy
21 YONHAP NEWS: (LEAD) N.K. chemical weapons, WMD program pose gravest
22 AFP: Japan PM wins backing from EU's Barroso on NKorea nuclear stand
23 Korea Times: Roh, Bush Talk Over N. Korea
24 Korea Times: Why US Should Keep Sanctioning NK
25 AFP: China says unaware of plans for repeat NKorea nuke test
26 The Hindu: Saran to visit Japan on Saturday for N-support
27 Japan Times: Tokyo tells India to forsake nukes and join the NPT
NUCLEAR REACTORS
28 ENS: U.S., Japan Sign Nuclear Power Cooperation Plan
29 US: NRC: NRC Releases Most of Big Rock Point Nuclear Plant Site for
30 US: recordonline: NRC says Indian Point emergency plans OK
31 US: OCRegister.com: San Onofre reactor back at full production
32 Sofia Echo: NPP REACTORS IN BULGARIA TO REMAIN SHUT- KALFIN -
33 Sofa Echo: REACTOR CLOSURE BIGGEST COMPROMISE BULGARIA MADE- PURVANO
34 US: PE.com: Air leak found, fixed at San Onofre nuclear power plant
35 US: NRC: NRC to Review Entergy Request for Extension of Deadline for
36 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Activist touts VY benefits
37 UK HSE: Regulators publish guidance on new nuclear power station des
38 US: NRC: Atomic Safety and Licensing Board; In the Matter of Dominio
39 Baltic Times: Nuclear negotiations get off to rocky start
40 Japan Times: Reactor in '04 deadly steam accident is restarted
41 Japan Times: Japan to insure U.S. nuke plant builders
42 US: Vermont Guardian: NRC takes on dispute over VY water discharge
43 SNA: Bulgaria: Bulgaria Mulls Third Nuke Construction on Black Sea
44 FPN: Namibia opts for nuclear power
NUCLEAR SECURITY
45 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY drill deemed success
46 Japan Times: Creating new security system fraught with obstacles
NUCLEAR SAFETY
47 [DU List] Uranium still killing italian troops
48 Deseret News: Divine Strake session criticized
49 Guardian Unlimited: 120 test positive in spy probe | UK Latest |
50 US: reviewjournal.com: Utahns oppose 'Divine Strake'
51 US: Belleville News-Democrat: More radioactive contamination at SEMO
52 US: KCPW: Tourism Officials Worry Divine Strake Will Deter Visitors
53 The NewStandard: Depleted uranium ‘killing Italian troops’ from
54 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Divine Strake visitors frustrated
55 US: Yreka's Siskiyou Daily News: Atomic Veterans an elite fraternity
56 US: Boston Globe: Landfill cancer study finished -
57 US: The Spectrum: Discussing Divine Strake
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
58 Guardian Unlimited: Ceramic fails nuclear waste test
59 Las Vegas SUN: Second possible route for Yucca Mountain rail line to
60 Platts: Norway protests Thorp reprocessing plant reopening
61 US: West Australian: WA uranium ban puts pressure on Canberra
62 OnPoint: Reporters Roundtable: E Daily reporters talk climate change
63 US: New Scientist: Setback for safe storage of nuclear waste - tech
PEACE
64 Christian Science Monitor: A Middle East Nuclear Free Zone Proposal
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
65 Hemscott: Areva opens unit to manage DOE work
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 New York Times: Bush Adds Troops in Bid to Secure Iraq -
By Published: January 11, 2007
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 President Bush embraced a major tactical
shift on Wednesday evening in the war in when he declared that
the only way to quell sectarian violence there was to send more
than 20,000 additional American troops into combat. Skip to next
paragraph Enlarge This Image [ border=] Eric Draper/The White
House
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, back to camera,
held a teleconference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal
al-Maliki last Thursday.
Multimedia
The Reach of War
Go to Complete Coverage Past Plans for Baghdad President Bush
on Wednesday announced plans to send additional troops to Iraq,
acknowledging that earlier attempts to stabilize Baghdad have
failed. Click through a timeline of these earlier attempts.
Did President Bush in his speech to the nation on Wednesday
night make a convincing case for sending more U.S. troops to
Iraq?
President Bush said, "the situation in Iraq is unacceptable to
the American people and it is unacceptable to me."
Yet in defying mounting pressure to begin troop withdrawals, the
president reiterated his argument that the consequences of
failure in Iraq were so high that the United States could not
afford to lose.
In a speech to the nation, Mr. Bush conceded for the first time
that there had not been enough American or Iraqi troops in
Baghdad to halt the capitals descent over the past year into
chaos. In documents released just before the speech, the White
House acknowledged that his previous strategy was based on
fundamentally flawed assumptions about the power of the shaky
Iraqi government.
Mr. Bush gave no indication that the troop increase would be
short-lived, describing his new strategy as an effort to change
Americas course in Iraq, and he said that we must expect more
Iraqi and American casualties in the course of more intensive
round-the-clock patrols in some of Baghdads most dangerous
neighborhoods.
But Mr. Bush rekindled his argument that a withdrawal would doom
to failure the American experiment in Iraq, touch off chaos
throughout the Middle East, provide a launching pad for attacks
in the United States, and embolden to develop nuclear weapons.
In making that argument, the president rejected strategies
advocated by newly empowered , restive and the bipartisan Iraq
Study Group, describing them as a formula for deepening
disaster. To step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi
government, Mr. Bush said from the White House library, a room
that officials said had been chosen to create more of a sense of
a conversation with an anxious American public, rather than the
formal surroundings of the Oval Office.
Such a scenario would result in our troops being forced to
stay in Iraq even longer, and confront an enemy that is even
more lethal, Mr. Bush said. If we increase our support at this
crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of
violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home.
He also offered his most direct acknowledgment of error in an
American-led war that has lasted nearly four years and claimed
more than 3,000 American lives. Where mistakes have been made,
the responsibility lies with me, he said.
Yet for the first time, Mr. Bush faces what could become
considerable political opposition to pursuing a war in which
132,000 Americans are already committed, even before the
increases announced Wednesday.
Democrats in Congress are drawing up plans for what, at a
minimum, could be a nonbinding resolution expressing opposition
to the commitment of more forces to what many of them say they
now believe is a losing fight. They will be joined by some
Republicans, and may attempt other steps to block Mr. Bush from
deepening the American commitment.
Not since ordered American troops in Vietnam to invade Cambodia
in 1970 has a president taken such a risk with an increasingly
unpopular war. For the safety of our people, America must
succeed in Iraq, Mr. Bush said in repeating an argument that he
has used for nearly four years that a retreat from the country
before a decisive victory is won would provide terrorists a
place in which to conduct new attacks on the United States and
American targets.
As part of a campaign to market the new strategy, Mr. Bushs
aides insisted that the plan was largely created by the
government of Prime Minister .
Yet Mr. Bush sounded less than certain of his support for the
prime minister, who many in the White House and the military
fear may be intending to extend Shiite power over the Sunnis, or
could prove incapable of making good on his promises. If the
Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it
will lose the support of the American people and it will lose
the support of the Iraqi people, Mr. Bush declared.
He put it far more bluntly when leaders of Congress visited the
White House earlier on Wednesday. I said to Maliki this has to
work or youre out, the president told the Congressional
leaders, according to two officials who were in the room.
Pressed on why he thought this strategy would succeed where
previous efforts had failed, Mr. Bush shot back: Because it has
to.
In his 20-minute address to the nation, Mr. Bush said that for
the first time Iraq would take command-and-control authority
over all of its own forces, and that while more American ground
troops were being put into the field, they would take more of a
background role. He said the Iraqi government had committed to a
series of benchmarks which included another 8,000 Iraqi
troops and policemen in Baghdad, passage of long-delayed
legislation to share oil revenues among Iraqs sects and ethnic
groups, and a $10 billion jobs and reconstruction program,
financed by the Iraqis.
Until the summer, Mr. Bush had used the phrase "stay the course"
to describe his approach in Iraq, and his decision to describe
his new strategy as an effort to "change America's course"
appeared intended to distance himself from that old approach. An
earlier plan unveiled in November 2005 had been titled "Strategy
for Victory in Iraq," but Mr. Bush used the word "victory"
sparingly on Wednesday night, and then only to diminish
expectations.
President Bush said that Iraqi and American forces, operating
with fewer restrictions, would be able to reduce violence in
Baghdad.
President Bush on Wednesday announced plans to send additional
troops to Iraq, acknowledging that earlier attempts to stabilize
Baghdad have failed. Click through a timeline of these earlier
attempts.
Qaeda terrorists and Sunni insurgents blew up the Golden Mosque
of Samarra last year in a calculated effort to disrupt the
progress from Iraqi elections, Mr. Bush said.
John Moore/Getty Images
Maj. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer greeted delegates to the Ramadi
Reconstruction Conference in Iraq's Anbar province Wednesday.
"The question is whether our new strategy will bring us closer to
success," he said. "I believe that it will," saying that if it is
successful it would result in a "functioning democracy" that
"fights terrorists instead of harboring them."
In some of his sharpest words of warning to Iran, Mr. Bush
accused the Iranian government of "providing material support for
attacks on American troops" and vowed to "seek out and destroy
the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our
enemies."
He left deliberately vague the question of whether those
operations would be limited to Iraq or conducted elsewhere, and
said he had ordered the previously reported deployment of a new
aircraft carrier strike group to the region, where it is in easy
reach of Iranian territory.
Mr. Bush also announced that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
would leave Friday for the region to build diplomatic support for
the American effort in Iraq.
Robert M. Gates, who replaced Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense
secretary, is among the new members of the Iraq team whom Mr.
Bush has brought in to execute the new strategy.
In the past week, Mr. Bush has speeded up the removal of the
American commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who is to
become the Army chief of staff, and replaced him with a
counterinsurgency specialist, Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus , who
has embraced the new plan. A new American ambassador has been
nominated to Baghdad as well, to replace Zalmay Khalilzad, a
Sunni of Afghan heritage, who has been nominated to represent the
United States in the United Nations.
While Democrats and some Republicans who attacked Mr. Bush's plan
in advance of the speech have questioned sending more troops,
others question whether the Bush plan is too small - and falls
short of the numbers needed to make a difference in a violent
capital of six million.
Nonetheless, one of Mr. Bush's top advisers said at the White
House on Wednesday that he expected that Senator John McCain, who
has championed a significant, long-term increase in troops, would
embrace the plan.
The adviser cited a section of the Iraq Study Group's report that
had said the bipartisan commission could "support a short-term
redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize
Baghdad, or to speed up the training and equipping mission."
But on the same page, the report warned that "adding more
American troops could conceivably worsen those aspects of the
security problem that are fed by the view that the United States
presence is intended to be a long-term `occupation.' " Similarly,
the group urged direct engagement with Iran and Syria; Mr. Bush
rejected that approach.
Mr. Bush, one of his top aides said in an interview on Wednesday,
simply concluded that "the Iraqi government was running out of
time" and would collapse without additional help. Yet at the core
of Mr. Bush's new strategy, his own aides said, lies a tension
between two objectives: Mr. Bush's commitment to staying in Iraq
until the country is a stable, self-sustaining democracy, and his
vague threat to Mr. Maliki that the American presence would be
cut short if Americans believed that the effort was failing.
His aides hinted that the administration had already come up with
a "Plan B" in case the latest strategy failed, with one saying
"there are other ways to achieve our objective." But he would not
describe that strategy, or say if it involved withdrawal,
containment or the breakup of the country into sectarian
entities.
The five-brigade increase in American forces will be accomplished
by speeding up the deployment of four units already scheduled to
go to Iraq, and by sending one additional brigade that was not
scheduled to go. The total increase of American troops in Iraq
amounts to roughly 20,000, including 4,000 marines who will be
stationed in Anbar Province, the stronghold of elements of Al
Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the Sunni insurgency. The increase in
Iraqi troops and policemen amounts, officials said, to about
8,000.
The units heading into Iraq begin with a brigade of the 82nd
Airborne Division, now in Kuwait, expected in Iraq before the end
of the month, followed by a brigade of the First Infantry
Division, based at Fort Riley, Kan., probably next month.
The Army is also planning to announce that the Second Infantry
Division, Fourth Brigade, based in Fort Lewis, Wash., and the
Third Infantry Division's Second Brigade, based at Fort Stewart,
Ga., and the Third Brigade, based at Fort Benning, Ga., should
begin preparing to go to Iraq earlier than scheduled. Officials
said that the total increase in troops could take three or four
months.
The Bush plan also calls for delaying the departure from Iraq of
a Minnesota National Guard brigade by four months, an official
said. The unit had planned to leave in the spring and had not
been notified that it would be staying longer, Lt. Col. Kevin
Olson, a spokesman for the Minnesota Guard, said Wednesday.
The president is expected to submit a supplemental budget request
that will include $5.6 billion for the new troop commitment and
roughly $1.1 billion for new job commitments and aid.
Inside NYTimes.com
*****************************************************************
2 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI consulate in Iraq raided by US
2007/01/11
02:16:56 .
American forces, despite international conventions, attacked the
Islamic Republic of Iran's consulate in the northern Iraqi city
of Arbil on Thursday, backed by five helicopters.
According to IRIB, American forces disarmed and kidnapped the
local guards who were appointed by the Iraqi gonernment to
protect the consulate and then kidnapped five Iranian diplomats.
During the raid, American forces severely damaged the
fascilities and properties of the consulate.
The forces wanted to transfer the diplomats to Arbil airport but
the local government forces under the command of Masoud
Barezani, srrounded them and prevented any transfer.
Following the raid, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the
Iraqi Ambassador in Tehran and Swiss Ambassador that protects
American interests in Iran.
Meanwhile, the Iranian consulate launched an inquiry into the
case.
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir
*****************************************************************
3 AFP: US arrests five in Iran consulate raid in Iraq
Thu Jan 11, 8:06 AM ET
ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) - US troops have raided an Iranian consulate in
Iraq" /> and arrested five employees, officials said, as
Washington vowed to act against Iranian meddling in the war-torn
country.
Iranian officials said American troops swooped on the consulate
in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish
region, in a raid which followed US accusations that Iranian
agents are fomenting unrest in Iraq.
The US military confirmed only that its forces had made six
arrests in the Arbil area without confirming the suspects'
nationalities.
"We don't know the reason for this," an Iranian diplomat in
Baghdad told AFP on condition of anonymity Thursday. "The
Americans arrested five employees and took all the computers and
documentation."
The consulate building in Arbil was sealed off by Kurdish
security forces, and local officials confirmed that there had
been arrests by US forces.
Iran" /> 's semi-official Fars news agency confirmed that five
consulate staff were arrested by American troops in Abril,
reporting that troops confiscated some documents and properties
and broke the gate of the office.
The raid came just hours after US President George W. Bush" />
announced he had ordered 21,500 more troops to Iraq and promised
to take aggressive steps to curtail what he described as Iranian
and Syrian help for insurgents.
Speaking on American television, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice" /> warned Iran that Washington was determined
to "pursue" Iranians trying to disrupt US efforts to stabilise
Iraq.
"You will see that the United States is not going to simply
stand idly by and let these activities continue," she said on
Fox News television.
Tehran angrily condemned the operation and accused arch enemy
Washington of violating international law and stirring up
tension among Iraq's neighbours.
"This is a provocative US action and it is contrary to all
international laws, and it is condemned," foreign ministry
spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told state run radio.
"By doing this the Americans are following two aims, firstly to
continue their pressure on Iran and secondly to create tension
among Iraq's neighbours.
"These provocations and mischievous actions cannot tarnish the
ongoing friendly relations with Iraq," Hosseini added,
confirming that Iran has asked Iraqi officials to pursue the
case.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters that
Baghdad had asked the Americans to clarify who was arrested and
why, confirming that the foreign ministry in Baghdad was
investigating the matter.
"We need to identify who those people are and why they were
arrested. We have an office in Arbil and the foreign ministry in
Baghdad is working on this to find out exactly what happened,"
he said.
The US military in Iraq confirmed only that six people were
arrested in an operation in the greater Arbil area and refused
to provide any further details.
"Coalition forces conducted routine security operations in
northern Iraq and took six individuals into custody suspected of
being closely tied to activities targeting Iraqi and coalition
forces," it said.
"This operation was part of an ongoing effort by coalition
forces targeting individuals involved in activities aimed at the
killing of Iraqi citizens and coalition forces," it added.
The Americans said the six suspects surrendered without incident
in what was an ongoing operation, but provided no further
details.
Last month, US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell
said that US forces had detained two Iranian nationals among
eight people rounded up on suspicion of weapons smuggling in a
raid in Baghdad.
The two Iranians were later handed over to Iranian officials in
Baghdad.
Tension between Iran and the United States has soared after the
UN Security Council recently voted to impose sanctions on Iran's
nuclear programme and Tehran vowed to start immediately
expanding its capacity to enrich uranium.
Washington accuses Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon,
a charge vehemently denied by the oil-rich Islamic republic,
which says it only wants to provide atomic energy to a growing
population.
Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
4 IPS-English POLITICS-IRAN: Ratcheting up the Nuclear Ante
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:26:48 -0800
X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (192.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61]
X-Sender-Host-Address: 63.203.231.61
X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
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ROMAIPS AP MM DV IP NU=20
POLITICS-IRAN: Ratcheting up the Nuclear Ante
Analysis by Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Jan 11 (IPS) - The stunning story by the London =91Sunday Time=
s' alleging that Israel has drawn up plans to destroy Iran's nuclear faci=
lities with nuclear weapons has focused attention on the growing global n=
uclear danger and on the worsening situation in the Middle East.
It also raises many questions of critical importance. Is the Israeli plan=
credible, akin to its 1981 attack which destroyed an Iraqi nuclear react=
or? Does it have the tacit backing of the United States, and at least rep=
resent a common approach shared by Tel Aviv and neocons in the United Sta=
tes? What will be the impact of such an attack on the Middle East? And wh=
at does the possibility of a nuclear strike mean for the prospect of ridd=
ing the world of these terror weapons?
Expert opinion is divided on the first. Israel has trashed the =91Sunday =
Times' story that appeared Jan. 7. But =91The New Yorker' also carried a=
story last April by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, alleging that =
Washington was considering an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. =20
Such denial fits in cosily with Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity (it =
neither admits nor denies it has nuclear weapons), as well as the often-u=
sed tactic of deception.=20
The =91Sunday Times' in 1986 first published photographs of Israel's uran=
ium enrichment plant at Dimona, and revealed its substantial nuclear arse=
nal.=20
The paper's source was technician Mordechai Vannunu, who was soon abducte=
d by Israeli agents and tried and sentenced in Israel to 18 years in jail=
for disclosing state secrets.=20
Vannunu's punishment only confirmed what was long known: Israel has had a=
nuclear weapons programme since the 1950s. It is the sixth nation in the=
world, and the first in the Middle East, to acquire a nuclear-weapons ca=
pability -- as early as in 1966.=20
=94This leak-followed-by-denial is part of an Israeli pattern=94, says Qa=
mar Agha, an independent New Delhi-based expert associated with Jamia Mil=
lia Islamia University. =94Israel has repeatedly said it won't tolerate I=
ran's nuclear programme. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says it's =91an exist=
ential threat' and Israel will use any means to eliminate it.=94=20
=94It seems perfectly plausible, indeed likely,=94 adds Agha, =94that Isr=
ael, on its own, or jointly with the U.S., will use the military option a=
gainst Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear capability.=94=20
The =91Sunday Times' alleged that Israel has plans to attack three sites=
, Natanz, Arak, and Isfahan, possibly with tactical nuclear weapons. Thes=
e are the locations, respectively, of Iran's uranium enrichment plant, he=
avy water reactor, and a uranium gas-conversion facility.
The paper also says that Israeli Air Force pilots have flown to Gibraltar=
in recent weeks to train for the 2,000-mile round trip to the Iranian ta=
rgets. When asked whether the Air Force was training for an attack agains=
t Iranian facility, the Israeli Army declined comment.=20
But former Air Force Commander Eitan Ben Eliyahu is quoted as saying that=
=94the defence establishment is prepared for all possibilities=E0 It wou=
ld be an irresponsible, criminal neglect if a certain country presents a =
high-likelihood threat =E0 without us preparing for it.=94 Ben Eliyahu al=
so said that the Air Force has been preparing for long-range strikes for =
many years.
These reported preparations are backed at the policy level by statements =
of Israeli officials, including deputy defence minister Ephraim Sneh who =
said in November that he wouldn't rule out a military option against Iran=
as =94a last resort.=94=20
In other reports, Israeli General Oded Tira is quoted as saying: =94Presi=
dent Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran. As an American strike=
in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way=94=
=E0. Israel's part is to =94prepare an independent military strike by coo=
rdinating flights in Iraqi airspace with the U.S. =E0=94
There seems to be significant support for this approach in the U.S. The I=
sraeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that President George W Bush says h=
e would understand if Israel chose to attack Iran.=20
According to some commentators, the Neoconservatives (neocons)are =94long=
-time allies of Israel's Right-wing =E0 and the Israel Lobby in the U.S.=94=
Many neocons have called for an extended war against radical Islam, incl=
uding Islamic Iran.=20
Some analysts see Bush's recent cabinet reshuffle and his new war plans f=
or Iraq as signalling a hardline position on Iran.=20
They cite the removal of Director of National Intelligence John Negropont=
e. Negroponte was known for his sober assessment of Iran's nuclear enrich=
ment capacity and played down threats from it.=20
Last April, Negroponte said: =94Our assessment is that the prospects of a=
n Iranian weapon are still a number of years off, and probably into the n=
ext decade.=94 Many neocons, including leading figures in the Project for=
the New American Century, demanded he be sacked.=20
Bush has executed an operational shift in Iraq by inducting more troops a=
nd going on the offensive against hostile operations by Iran and Syria in=
Iraq. A key element in this is to =94counter Iranian and Syrian action t=
hat threatens the coalition forces.=94=20
=94Whether the Bush administration launches attacks on Iran's nuclear fac=
ilities or not, it's unlikely to restrain Israel from doing so,=94 says A=
chin Vanaik, professor of international relations at Delhi University. =94=
It is desperate, confused and without a strategy. It could easily drift t=
owards dangerously extending the war to Iran precisely because it's not w=
inning it in Iraq.=94=20
Adds Vanaik: =94Even if the Sunday Times story is untrue, all this ratche=
ts up pressure on Iran and lowers the threshold for military options. Tha=
t's playing with fire. Besides, it will further erode the resistance that=
Russia and China have offered to tough measures against Iran.=94
Early last year, Russia and China were reluctant to get the International=
Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran to the United Nations Security Counc=
il for an unclear case of non-compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferati=
on Treaty. But last month, they did not use their veto against a Western =
resolution (1737) calling for tough sanctions against Iran.
A military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities will have a devastating im=
pact. =94The attacks won't be confined to nuclear installations,=94 says =
Agha. =94They must target military facilities too to ensure that Iran can=
not retaliate with missiles and air strikes against Israel and U.S. troop=
s and installations in the Middle East. This will cause extensive destruc=
tion.=94
The Oxford Research Group estimates that even a non-nuclear strike will c=
ause 10,000 deaths, mainly of civilians. The number will shoot up if nucl=
ear weapons are used. Besides, historic heritage sites like Isfahan will =
be destroyed.
The consequences would be even graver once the civilian nuclear reactor b=
eing built at Bushehr with Russian assistance is loaded with fuel, schedu=
led for the end of 2007. Bombing it after it has gone critical would caus=
e another Chernobyl, with devastating global effects.
Even more important would be the breaching of a taboo against the use of =
nuclear weapons since 1945. =94It is frightening even to think that nucle=
ar weapons, whether tactical, or strategic arms which are 15 to 100 times=
more destructive, can be used in the 21st century,=94 says Vanaik.
The overall human consequences of an attack on Iran will be catastrophic.=
These are likely to invite a strong retaliation through an accelerated I=
ranian nuclear weapons programme and military attacks on Israeli and U.S.=
targets.
=94This will precipitate a conflagration in the Middle East,=94 argues A=
gha. =94That will tend to unite Muslims across the board. The only way th=
e US and Israeli can deal with this is by provoking a Shia-Sunni sectaria=
n divide, just as in Iraq. This will have further damaging global consequ=
ences and will make the fight against terrorism far more difficult. The =
world will become a far more dangerous place.=94
(The writer is a founder of the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament=
and a member of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists ag=
ainst Proliferation).
*****
+Nuclear Ambitions- The World's Deadly Arsenal=20
(http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/nuclear/index.asp)
(END/IPS/AP/MM/IP/NU/DV/PB/RDR/07)=20
=20
=3D 01112031 ORP008
NNNN
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5 Guardian Unlimited: China Tells U.S. Its Iran Ties Private
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday January 11, 2007 7:46 AM
BEIJING (AP) - China warned the United States on Thursday not to
meddle in its trade relations with Iran after Washington
expressed concern about a planned investment by a Chinese oil
company in an Iranian gas field.
``We think this kind of cooperation and relationship is
legitimate. Normal cooperation should not be interfered,'' said
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.
Asked whether that meant Beijing believed the U.S. was
interfering in its dealings with Iran, Liu said that ``this is
our position.''
The U.S. government expressed concern last month to Beijing
about a planned investment by state-owned Chinese oil company
CNOOC Ltd. in Iran's Northern Pars gas field. Washington said
major business dealings with Tehran were inappropriate at a time
when Iran was defying U.N. resolutions over its nuclear program.
The United States and its European allies suspect Iran's
civilian nuclear program is a cover for developing such a bomb.
IAEA inspectors regularly visit Iran, but the Islamic republic's
lack of transparency has increased suspicions it is conducting a
secret weapons program.
Iran has said it's nuclear program is for producing energies.
Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
6 Guardian Unlimited: 5 Iranians Detained at Iraqi Consulate
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday January 11, 2007 11:16 AM
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi officials said Thursday that the
U.S.-led multinational forces detained five Iranians in an
overnight raid on Tehran's diplomatic mission in the northern
city of Irbil.
The forces stormed the building at about 3 a.m., detaining the
five staffers and confiscating computers and documents, two
senior local Kurdish officials said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Irbil is a city in the Kurdish-controlled north, 220 miles from
Baghdad.
A resident living near the mission said troops used stun bombs
in the raid and brought down an Iranian flag that was on the
roof of the two-story yellow house. As the operation went on,
two helicopters flew overhead, said the resident on condition of
anonymity because he feared retribution.
``They took five Iranians with them and at about seven in the
morning they handed over the house to Kurdish peshmergas,'' he
said.
In the early afternoon, a number of Kurdish guerrillas could be
seen around the building preventing people from getting close to
the house and not allowing cameramen and photographers to take
pictures.
The report, which first appeared on Iraq state television, also
was confirmed by a Shiite official in the capital, who declined
to be named because of the sensitivity of the information.
The U.S. military issued a statement saying it had taken six
people into custody in the Irbil region but made no mention of a
raid on the Iranian consulate. It declined further comment on
the raid.
The motive for the raid was not known, but it came as tensions
are high between Iran and the United States. The Bush
administration has accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear
weapons and of helping fuel violence in Iraq. Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, is trying to expand Iran's role
in Iraq as a counter to U.S. influence in the Gulf region.
Late last month, U.S. troops elsewhere in Iraq detained at least
two Iranians and released two others who had diplomatic
immunity.
---
Associated Press writer Yahya Barzanji in Kirkuk contributed to
this report.
Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
7 Guardian Unlimited: Israel Encouraged by a Stance on Iran
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday January 11, 2007 12:46 PM
AP Photo XED105
By AUDRA ANG
Associated Press Writer
BEIJING (AP) - Israel's prime minister said Thursday that he was
surprised and encouraged by talks with Chinese leaders who told
him they were strongly opposed to Iran having nuclear weapons.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with President Hu Jintao and
Premier Wen Jiabao during a three-day visit to Beijing that
ended Thursday.
``Their comments on political matters were definitely
encouraging, including, and I say this explicitly, the Iranian
issue, sharply emphasizing Chinese opposition to a militarily
nuclearized Iran,'' Olmert told reporters.
The trip marked 15 years of diplomatic relations between the two
nations, ties that have been strained at times by political and
trade tensions.
Hu said Olmert's visit had ``a very important, facilitating role
in enhancing the growth of the China-Israel relationship.''
Olmert said the two sides agreed to open a third diplomatic
office in the southern province of Guangdong.
One of the major issues for Olmert was Iran's nuclear program
and sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council for Tehran's
refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
China, a permanent council member, has strong trade ties with
Iran and has been unwilling to impose punitive measures, but it
supported the U.N. resolution.
The resolution orders all countries to stop supplying Iran with
materials and technology that could contribute to its nuclear
and missile programs. It also freezes Iranian assets from 10 key
companies and 12 individuals related to those programs.
Wen, who met Olmert on Wednesday, reiterated Beijing's support
for the sanctions, saying they ``showed the international
concern over the Iran nuclear issue,'' according to state media.
The U.N. Security Council has warned it will adopt further
nonmilitary sanctions if Iran continues to refuse to suspend
uranium enrichment - a process that produces the material for
either nuclear reactors or bombs.
Iran denies that it seeks to build atomic weapons, saying its
nuclear program is limited to generating electricity.
Jerusalem sees Iran as a serious threat, a view strengthened by
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls to wipe
the Jewish state off the map. Olmert has not ruled out a
military strike against Tehran's nuclear program but has said he
hoped other ways could be found to keep Iran from becoming a
nuclear power.
Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
8 Guardian Unlimited: Neither sanctions nor bombs will end the Iran nuclear crisis
Comment is free |
If Bush really wants a safer Middle East, he should stop giving
Tehran compelling reasons to acquire nuclear weapons
Roger Howard
Thursday January 11, 2007
The Guardian
As if George Bush did not have enough to contend with, another
Middle East crisis is threatening to flare. In defiance of
international condemnation and last month's UN security council
resolution, Iran is pressing ahead with a programme of uranium
enrichment that it claims is only for civilian energy but is
widely suspected of concealing a bid to build a nuclear warhead.
Is there anything the world can do to stop it - if indeed there
is a pressing case for doing so?
According to recent leaks in the Israeli and British press,
Israel believes that military action is the only answer.
Officials in Tel Aviv argue that a nuclear bomb in Tehran's
hands poses an unacceptable risk, one that a massive onslaught
by warplanes - perhaps deploying Israel's own nuclear arsenal -
could pre-empt and smash.
The Israelis may have a number of motives for spinning this
story. They may be trying to intimidate Tehran, or soften up
world opinion in advance of a strike. They could also be
pressing Washington into taking a harder line with Iran. But
what is certain is that the use of military force against Tehran
would be an unmitigated disaster for everyone involved, not just
the civilians incinerated in such an attack.
Not only would military strikes be unlikely to knock out targets
that are well dispersed and defended, they would provoke deadly
retaliation by Tehran's proxies in Iraq and Afghanistan against
British and US servicemen; the price of oil would rocket,
particularly if Iranian commanders retaliated by disrupting
tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz; and throughout in
the Muslim world and beyond massive popular reaction could well
bring down pro-western regimes.
It is not as if Iran presents any immediate, compelling threat.
Israeli officials argue that a nuclear bomb in the hands of a
man who talks about Israel being "eliminated from the pages of
time" poses an unacceptable risk, but he wields no power in
foreign affairs. Moreover, Israel's nuclear deterrent would mean
mutually assured destruction.
Most of Iran's critics continue to regard economic sanctions as
an effective diplomatic tool, and last month the UN security
council finally passed a resolution that imposed very mild
sanctions on the Iranian regime for its nuclear non-compliance.
Washington will be pushing for more if, as seems likely, Iran's
enrichment programme goes on. But this would be more seriously
resisted by Iran's allies on the council, Russia and China.
That is not to say that the US has no way of hitting the Iranian
economy. It has put huge pressure on international banks not to
back Iranian ventures, forcing many foreign businesses to curb
their own trade and investment there. This has been particularly
hard on Iran's oil sector, which earns nearly all the economy's
foreign exchange. Yet such measures are unlikely to thwart
Tehran, which will offer foreign contractors better terms or
strike up closer relations with Chinese companies.
But even if sanctions did have any real economic impact, the
effect would be more likely to rally ordinary Iranians to their
country's nuclear cause. A civilian nuclear programme attracts
wide popular support and most Iranians can hardly fail to see
their nuclear cause as perfectly reasonable. Under the 1968
non-proliferation treaty, their country has an "inalienable
right" to produce nuclear energy "for peaceful purposes"; and
though their leaders have a track record of duplicity, most
Iranians point to glaring double standards. Many other countries
have been left free to pursue enrichment programmes, while
others, such as India and Israel, are nuclear powers but have
never signed the treaty.
Their history shows why Iranians are quick to sense injustice.
For 2,000 years they have been subjugated by invaders and
oppressors, from the Arabs to the Russian tsars. In the early
1950s the great Iranian nationalist Mohammed Mossadeq knew
better than most how his fellow countrymen resented such
iniquity. For two arduous years he rallied them to support his
nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, urging them to
resist devastating British sanctions with a Shia spirit of
self-sacrifice and martyrdom, until he was overthrown in a US
and British-backed coup.
The same historical experiences explain why Iran has good reason
to fear for its national security. How ironic, then, that its
critics spin rumours of military strikes or talk openly of
regime change in a way that would make any country want an
ultimate deterrent of its own.
Here lies the crux of the Iranian nuclear dilemma. Threats to
deny any country its inalienable rights, or the means to defend
itself against nuclear neighbours, are always likely to fall on
deaf ears. And to talk to Iranians in such terms is likely only
to inflame their worst fears. If Iranians are to change their
attitudes, America and its allies need to change theirs. They
need to accept that Iran has as much right as any country to
pursue a programme of civilian energy, and it cannot be blamed
for pursuing nuclear weapons when it is surrounded by countries
- Israel, Pakistan and the US - that have their own.
To dissuade the Iranians from pursuing either goal - nuclear
energy or warheads - Washington would have to make massive
concessions. It would need to fit the issue into a wider Middle
East picture and find ways of making Iran feel less threatened.
In return for cessation of uranium enrichment, or for more
effective guarantees that it would not be used for a weapons
programme, Washington could offer not only to lift all sanctions
but also to drop calls for regime change and undertake not to
meddle in Iran's domestic affairs; pull back its military
presence in the region; and pressure Israel into surrendering or
scaling down its nuclear arsenal. Israel talks about its defence
against annihilation, but it might be such wider consequences of
an Iranian nuclear programme that it really fears.
Unfortunately, Bush looks a long way from even considering such
moves. He has rejected the recommendations of last month's
Baker-Hamilton report, which called for dialogue with Tehran
after 26 years of estrangement, and of congressmen who have
called for a "grand bargain" to settle all the differences
between Iran and the US.
By doing so, he has dramatically raised the stakes in the Middle
East. In the coming months there is a real risk that Iran's
nuclear ambitions could spark conflicts that make Iraq and
Afghanistan look like small fry indeed.
Roger Howard is the author of Iran Oil: the New Middle East
Challenge and What's Wrong with Liberal Interventionism
howard1966@btinternet.com
Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and
Media Limited 2006.
Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396
*****************************************************************
9 AFP: Israel's Olmert urges China to back tougher sanctions on Iran -
January 12, 04:16 AM
BEIJING (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged China
to back tougher sanctions to halt Iran's nuclear programme, an
Israeli official said, as Olmert wrapped up a three-day visit to
Beijing.
Olmert told Chinese leaders that "although the solution is of a
diplomatic nature, at a certain moment we will have to apply
economic sanctions against Iran," if it flouts the international
community's demands, the senior Israeli official said.
"Israel will do anything in its power to prevent the Iranian
nuclear nightmare from becoming a reality," the official quoted
Olmert as saying.
Olmert met Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday after saying
that he was surprised and encouraged by the position expressed
by China on Iran's nuclear programme during his stay.
Olmert had headed into the meeting in an upbeat mood after
receiving assurances from Premier Wen Jiabao a day earlier that
China, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council,
opposed a nuclear-armed Iran.
In his meeting with Hu, Olmert said "the bond between our two
peoples is a major consideration in the strategy in the state of
Israel in our international affairs."
He also expressed hope of expanding trade between the two
countries and announced the creation of a third consulate in
southern China's Guangdong province, one of the country's
wealthiest trading zones.
Hu said Olmert's visit "is going to play a very important
facilitating role in enhancing the growth of the China-Israel
relationship in the 21st century."
The two leaders made no reference to the Iranian question in
their public statements.
However Olmert told reporters before his plane left China: "The
fact that the Chinese are saying that they do not want an Iran
with a nuclear bombs has great significance."
He repeated his feeling that the outcome of his talks with the
Chinese leadership was "beyond expectations".
Olmert and Wen discussed implementation of the December 23
resolution by the Security Council -- supported by China -- that
imposed limited sanctions on Iran, an Israeli official told AFP.
The Israeli leader stressed to Wen that the international
community "must prepare for the next round of sanctions against
Iran in the coming months," the official added.
Israeli officials had been expecting a cool response from China
to their call for tough sanctions to halt Iran's nuclear
ambitions.
As a permanent member of the Security Council, China is a
pivotal player. But many observers suspect its need for Iranian
oil and gas to power its booming economy could soften its
position.
Iran insists that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful,
and has refused to bow to a UN demand to halt uranium enrichment
work.
Chinese officials said Thursday that Wen had reassured Olmert of
his nation's support for the international nuclear
non-proliferation regime and the December resolution, but no
other details were released.
"Premier Wen Jiabao elaborated clearly our position on the
issue," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
"China is opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and
supports the non-proliferation system."
The state-run China Daily newspaper said Olmert and Wen had also
discussed Israel's troubles with the Palestinians and its other
neighbours in the Middle East, particularly Syria and Lebanon.
"Wen said China supports the peaceful co-existence of Israel and
Palestine and sees the Palestinian issue as the core of the
Middle East issue," the China Daily reported.
"It hopes Israel, Syria and Lebanon take substantive measures to
build mutual trust and create conditions for the restart of
peace talks."
Wen told Olmert that violence would never solve the disputes.
Copyright 2007 AFP. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
10 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IAEA inspectors in Isfahan facility
2007/01/11
Two inspectors from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
arrived in the Islamic Republic of Iran on Wednesday.
The inspectors are to inspect Iran's nuclear installations in
Isfahan and Natanz and also hold discussions with officials of
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.
The inspectors, who arrived on Wednesday, are currently
inspecting UCF installations in Isfahan. The IAEA inspectors
will remain in Iran for a week during which they will discuss
expansion of mutual cooperation between the two sides.
IAEA inspectors have conducted some 2,510 person/day of
inspectionon Iran's nuclear facilities and installations,
pointed out the source.
M.H.Z
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center.
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir
*****************************************************************
11 Irna: UK revises mistaken plutonium figures for IAEA -
London, Jan 11, IRNA
UK-Plutonium Stocks
The British government has admitted in making a mistake in
plutonium stock figures submitted to the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) that is designed to ensure civil nuclear
materials are not diverted for military use.
In a written statement to parliament published Thursday, Energy
Minister Malcolm Wicks said various material categories had been
adjusted following the detection of a clerical error in the
original data.
But he insisted that the total stocks of plutonium in the UK
are "unaffected by the revision and remain at 139 tons at the
end of 2005."
The revised figures were being sent to the director-general of
the IAEA, who will circulate them to other member states, the
energy minister told MPs.
The figures show that the total stocks of UK civil unirradiated
plutonium, which has been extracted from spent fuel rods but not
yet reintroduced into nuclear reactors, were 105.2 tons, up from
102.7 tons at the end of the previous year.
In addition, the extracted amounts of plutonium contained in
spent fuel at civil reactor sites and at reprocessing plants
were 34 tons, the same as at the end of 2004.
Wicks also listed that the UK held a further 26.5 tons of civil
unirradiated plutonium belonging to foreign bodies and that 0.9
tons of unirradiated plutonium was held at locations in other
countries, which was not included in the total.
Figures for holdings of civil high enriched uranium totaled
1,490 kg at the end of 2005, while the annual stock of civil
depleted, natural and low enriched uranium in the civil nuclear
fuel cycle was listed at 86,400 tons.
*****************************************************************
12 AFP: Controversy as US arrests six in raid on 'Iranian consulate' -
by Abdelhamid Zebari Thu Jan 11, 4:03 PM ET
ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) - A diplomatic row erupted after US forces
arrested six people described by Iraqi and Iranian officials as
the staff at an Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi city of
Arbil.
Tehran and the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan accused US
troops of raiding a diplomatic building -- which should have been
protected under international law -- and demanded that the
detainees be released.
But in Washington, a Pentagon" /> Pentagonspokesman denied that
the building was a consulate and insisted the captives are
"suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraq" />
Iraqand coalition forces."
"We don't know the reason for this," an Iranian diplomat in
Baghdad told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The Americans
arrested five employees and took all the computers and
documentation."
The building in Arbil was sealed off by Kurdish security forces,
and local officials confirmed that there had been arrests by US
forces.
The raid came just hours after US President George W. Bush" />
President George W. Bushannounced he had ordered 21,500 more
troops to Iraq and promised to take aggressive steps to curtail
what he described as Iranian and Syrian help for insurgents.
The White House declined to comment specifically on the
operation, but unapologetically defended it.
"If we get information that is actionable that the Iranians are
interfering with Iraq, with Iraqis, or in any way going to harm
Americans that we're going to take action," said national
security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
"The president made it clear last night that we will not
tolerate outside interference in Iraq. And that's what the
Iranians are up to."
Iran" /> Iranexpressed its "strong condemnation of the US
forces' action which was against all international regulations."
"We expect the Iraqi government to act quickly for the release
of these people and to condemn the US forces and not let them
disturb the two countries' relations with their illegal and
spontaneous action," a senior foreign ministry official told
Iraqi ambassador Mohammed Majid al-Sheikh.
The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq -- normally a
staunch supporter of US policy in the region -- also condemned
the raid and demanded the immediate release of all prisoners
taken.
"The presidency and the government of the Kurdish region of Iraq
express their disapproval of the operation against the Iranian
consulate," said a statement from regional president Massud
Barzani's office.
The statement recalled that diplomatic premises were protected
from attack under international protocols and accused US forces
of "damaging efforts to restore stability and security in Iraq."
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said: "I can confirm for you
through our forces there that this is not a consulate or a
government building."
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters that
Baghdad had asked the Americans to clarify who was arrested and
why, confirming that the foreign ministry in Baghdad was
investigating the matter.
"We need to identify who those people are and why they were
arrested. We have an office in Arbil and the foreign ministry in
Baghdad is working on this to find out exactly what happened,"
he said.
Washington has not confirmed that diplomats were targeted, but
has long accused Tehran's agents of fomenting unrest in Iraq and
smuggling weapons to militias involved in sectarian violence and
attacks on US forces.
"Coalition forces conducted routine security operations in
northern Iraq and took six individuals into custody suspected of
being closely tied to activities targeting Iraqi and coalition
forces," the US military in Iraq said.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak" /> Hosni Mubarak, who is
expected to meet Rice during an imminent tour of the Middle
East, stood shoulder to shoulder with his US ally, warning
Shiite Iran: "Don't touch Iraq," in a newspaper interview.
Last month, US forces detained two Iranians among eight people
rounded up on suspicion of weapons smuggling in Baghdad. They
were later released.
Tension between Iran and the United States has soared after the
UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions over Iran's
nuclear programme and Tehran vowed to start immediately
expanding its capacity to enrich uranium.
Washington accuses Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon,
a charge vehemently denied by the oil-rich Islamic republic,
which says it only wants to provide atomic energy to a growing
population.
Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
13 AFP: Controversy erupts as US arrests six in raid on 'Iranian consulate'
by Abdelhamid Zebari Thu Jan 11, 7:16 PM ET
ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) - A diplomatic row erupted after US forces
arrested six people described by Iraqi and Iranian officials as
the staff at an Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi city of
Arbil.
Tehran and the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan accused
US troops of raiding a diplomatic building -- which should have
been protected under international law -- and demanded that the
detainees be released.
In Washington, a US defense official who requested anonymity
said six Iranians were arrested in a search and cordon operation
in Arbil.
But a Pentagon" /> spokesman, Bryan Whitman, denied that US
forces raided an Iranian consulate. Although he did not know the
nationality of the six detainees, he said they were "suspected
of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraq" /> and
coalition forces."
The building in Arbil was sealed off by Kurdish security forces,
and local officials confirmed that there had been arrests by US
forces.
"We don't know the reason for this," an Iranian diplomat in
Baghdad told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The Americans
arrested five employees and took all the computers and
documentation."
The raid came just hours after US President George W. Bush" />
announced he had ordered 21,500 more troops to Iraq and promised
to take aggressive steps to curtail what he described as Iranian
and Syrian help for insurgents.
The White House declined to comment specifically on the
operation, but unapologetically defended it.
"If we get information that is actionable that the Iranians are
interfering with Iraq, with Iraqis, or in any way going to harm
Americans that we're going to take action," said national
security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
"The president made it clear last night that we will not
tolerate outside interference in Iraq. And that's what the
Iranians are up to."
Iran" /> expressed its "strong condemnation of the US forces'
action which was against all international regulations."
"We expect the Iraqi government to act quickly for the release
of these people and to condemn the US forces and not let them
disturb the two countries' relations with their illegal and
spontaneous action," a senior foreign ministry official
reportedly told Iraqi ambassador Mohammed Majid al-Sheikh.
The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq -- normally a
staunch supporter of US policy in the region -- also condemned
the raid and demanded the immediate release of all prisoners
taken.
"The presidency and the government of the Kurdish region of Iraq
express their disapproval of the operation against the Iranian
consulate," said a statement from regional president Massud
Barzani's office.
The statement recalled that diplomatic premises were protected
from attack under international protocols and accused US forces
of "damaging efforts to restore stability and security in Iraq."
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters that
Baghdad had asked the Americans to clarify who was arrested and
why, confirming that the foreign ministry in Baghdad was
investigating the matter.
"We need to identify who those people are and why they were
arrested. We have an office in Arbil and the foreign ministry in
Baghdad is working on this to find out exactly what happened,"
he said.
Washington has not confirmed that diplomats were targeted, but
has long accused Tehran's agents of fomenting unrest in Iraq and
smuggling weapons to militias involved in sectarian violence and
attacks on US forces.
"Coalition forces conducted routine security operations in
northern Iraq and took six individuals into custody suspected of
being closely tied to activities targeting Iraqi and coalition
forces," the US military in Iraq said.
Last month, US forces detained two Iranians among eight people
rounded up on suspicion of weapons smuggling in Baghdad. They
were later released.
Tension between Iran and the United States has soared after the
UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions over Iran's
nuclear programme and Tehran vowed to start immediately
expanding its capacity to enrich uranium.
Washington accuses Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon,
a charge vehemently denied by the oil-rich Islamic republic,
which says it only wants to provide atomic energy to a growing
population.
Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
14 AFP: Rice warns Iran against aggression after US reportedly nabs more
Iranians in Iraq -
Thu Jan 11, 2:00 PM
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned
Iran that the United States won't "stand idly by" if Tehran tries
to disrupt Washington's renewed effort to stabilize Iraq.
Speaking hours after US troops reportedly arrested five Iranians
in a raid in northern Iraq, Rice said Washington was determined
to crack down on Iran's "regional aggression."
Rice declined to comment specifically on the operation in the
northern city of Arbil, which came shortly after President
George W. Bush announced a new US strategy to end the violence
in Iraq that included stepped up moves to counter Iranian and
Syrian involvement in the country.
In a spate of television interviews and testimony in Congress to
defend the new Bush plan for Iraq, Rice declined repeatedly to
rule out US military action against Iran -- accused by the
administration of supporting anti-US insurgents and Shiite
radicals in Iraq and of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
"I don't want to speculate on what operations the United States
may be engaged in, but you will see that the United States is
not going to simply stand idly by and let these activities
continue," she said in one interview.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared since Bush in
2002 branded Iran part of an "axis of evil" alongside Saddam
Hussein's Iraq.
Last year, Washington pushed successfully for UN sanctions
against Iran in a bid to halt its uranium enrichment program,
which the US says is aimed at producing nuclear weapons while
Iranians say they only want to make atomic energy.
In Wednesday's speech, Bush fed fears of possible US military
strikes on Iran by announcing the deployment of an additional
aircraft carrier group to the Gulf and the supply of Patriot
anti-missile systems to nearby allies.
"We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And
we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced
weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq," he said.
Rice defended the Gulf military deployments as needed to assure
US allies they "have the defense capacity that they need against
a growing Iranian military buildup."
She also said Bush in his speech was referring to taking action
against Iranian and Syrian operatives inside Iraq.
"Obviously, the president isn't going to rule anything out to
protect our troops, but the plan is to take down these networks
in Iraq," she said.
Democratic Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee and a fierce critic of the Iraq war, warned
Rice that Congress -- controlled by the opposition since
November elections -- would intervene if Bush turned his sights
on Iran.
"I believe the present authorization granted the president to
use force in Iraq does not cover (Iran) and he does need
congressional authority" to order military strikes against that
country, he said.
In her testimony, Rice also reaffirmed the Bush administration's
refusal to open a dialogue with Iran on stabilizing Iraq, as
strongly recommended last year by the bipartisan Iraq Study
Group and many foreign policy experts.
She said the Iranians would seek in any such talks to obtain
concessions in the standoff over its nuclear program in exchange
for help in Iraq.
"That's not diplomacy, that's extortion," she said.
Bush critics jumped on the latest Iraq measures as signs of a
looming new conflict with Iran.
Bush "appears to be setting the stage for a wider war in the
region," said Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich. "Isn't one
war enough for this president?"
"The worst possible scenario in this crisis is the breakout of
an armed confrontation between Washington and Tehran, said
Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of the Dubai-based Gulf Research
Center, adding that such action would "have serious security
ramifications for the region".
Iran meanwhile condemned the arrest of five people it described
as staff from a consular office in Arbil.
US military officials in Iraq confirmed only that six people
were arrested in an operation in the Arbil area, but denied the
raid targeted an official diplomatic office.
Last month US forces detained two Iranian nationals on suspicion
of weapons smuggling in a raid in Baghdad, but the pair were
later released.
Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
15 UPI: China tells U.S.: hands off Iran deal
United Press International - NewsTrack -
1/11/2007 4:19:00 PM -0500
BEIJING, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- China reportedly told the United
States not to interfere in a possible multibillion-dollar
China-Iran offshore natural gas venture.
"We think this kind of cooperation and relationship is
legitimate," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao
said Thursday at a Beijing news conference. "Normal cooperation
should not be interfered with."
The United States expressed concern last month after Iranian
officials said China National Offshore Oil Corp. had reached
agreement to develop Iran's Northern Pars natural gas field, The
Wall Street Journal said.
Such a deal was seen as possibly undermining U.S. efforts to
isolate Iran as punishment for its insistence on a nuclear
program.
Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing,
called it "a particularly bad time to be initiating major new
commercial deals with Iran."
Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
16 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Detains 6 Iranians in Irbil Raid
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday January 11, 2007 9:46 PM
AP Photo BAG110
By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S.-led forces detained six Iranians
Thursday at a government office flying an Iranian flag, Iraqi
officials and witnesses said, as President Bush vowed to isolate
Iran and Syria as part of a new strategy to quell violence in
Iraq.
The arrests in the northern city of Irbil - the second targeting
Iranians in less than a month - drew condemnation from the
regional Kurdish government and concern from Iraqi officials in
Baghdad, who are trying to maintain close ties with both Iran
and the U.S. despite the hostility between the two.
Top U.S. officials repeated long-standing accusations that Iran
is encouraging the violence in Iraq by supplying money and
weapons.
``I think it's instructive that in the last couple of weeks two
of those raids that we conducted to go after these folks that
are providing these kinds of weapons - two of those raids had
policed up Iranians,'' Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington. ``So it is clear that the
Iranians are complicit in providing weapons.''
In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Iraqi
and Swiss ambassadors and ``demanded an explanation'' about the
incident. Switzerland represents American interests in Iran.
The multinational forces entered the building in Irbil
overnight, detained the Iranians and confiscated computers and
documents, two senior local Kurdish officials said, speaking on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
information. Irbil is in the Kurdish-controlled north, 220 miles
from Baghdad.
A resident near the Iranian office said foreign forces used
percussion grenades and brought down an Iranian flag from the
roof of the yellow, two-story building. As the operation went
on, two helicopters flew overhead, the resident said, speaking
on condition that his name not be used because he feared
retribution.
In the afternoon, several Kurdish militiamen could be seen
around the building preventing people from approaching. They did
not allow cameramen and photographers to take pictures.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the detained Iranians were
being questioned.
Tensions are high between Iran and the United States. The Bush
administration, which sent troops to Iraq in 2003 to oust Saddam
Hussein, has accused Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear
weapons and of helping fuel violence in Iraq. Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, is trying to expand Tehran's
role in Iraq to counter U.S. influence in the region.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the government
was seeking clarification from the Americans and the Iranians
about the detainees. He chided both sides, along with Syria, for
using Iraq to fight their political battles.
``Sometimes we pay the price for the tension in relations
between Iran and the United States and Syria, therefore it is in
our interest ... that these relations improve, but not at the
expense of Iraq,'' he said.
A bipartisan U.S. panel, the Iraq Study Group, in December
called for a new diplomatic drive to enlist Syria and Iran in
peace efforts. Instead, Bush accused both countries of aiding
terrorists and insurgents in Iraq in his speech Wednesday
outlining his new war strategy.
``We will disrupt the attacks on our forces,'' Bush said. ``We
will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria.''
Iraqis expressed skepticism that Bush's plan to send in 21,500
more troops will quell the violence in their country.
On Thursday, police reported at least 45 people were killed or
found dead from bombings and shootings, including a 10-year-old
struck in a mortar attack in the northern city of Mosul and 37
tortured bodies found in Baghdad.
Gunmen ambushed a minivan carrying Oil Ministry employees in a
predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad, kidnapping six of the
passengers and the driver after separating people according to
their IDs, police said.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced Saturday that his
government would implement a new security plan for Baghdad,
including neighborhood-by-neighborhood sweeps by Iraqi forces
backed by U.S. troops. Similar efforts have failed in the past.
The Bush proposal calls for up to 12,000 additional Iraqi troops
to secure Baghdad.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari welcomed both plans and promised
the ``strategy will be followed in order to bring increase
security and stability in the capital, Baghdad, and the other
provinces.''
``This plan did not come by itself but the Iraqi government
contributed to it and it came after close consultations between
the Iraqi government and the American administration,'' he
added.
But Sunni lawmaker Hussein al-Falluji opposed the deployment of
more U.S. troops in Iraq and called instead for a timetable for
U.S. withdrawal. And Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of parliament's
largest Sunni Arab bloc, urged the Americans and the Iraqi
government to disband Shiite militias.
Some Iraqis wearily welcomed any effort to stop the carnage.
``The security situation in Iraq is very bad, we are facing
death at any moment daily,'' said 35-year-old Awad Mukhtar. ``I
see the new Bush strategy as the last chance for Iraqis to save
their lives ... we have no other choice, only to wait and see
the results.''
Iraqi and Iranian officials initially said the Iranian office
raided in Irbil was a diplomatic mission. But Mohammad Ali
Hosseini, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, later changed the
description to an ``office of relations.''
``The office was waiting for permission from the Iraqi
authorities to operate as a consulate,'' Hosseini said,
according to Iranian state television.
He did not describe the Iranians who worked there as diplomats.
``The office was established in coordination with, and with the
agreement of, the Iraqi authorities,'' Hosseini said. ``It was
performing some consular affairs.''
At the Pentagon, a senior U.S. military official said the
building was not a consulate and did not have diplomatic status.
The six Iranians were taken in a ``cordon-and-knock'' operation,
said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he
was not authorized to release the information.
The regional Kurdish government condemned the arrest of the
Iranians and called for their release. Many Kurds, including
President Jalal Talabani, have close ties to Iran.
Last month, U.S. troops detained at least two Iranians and
released two others who had diplomatic immunity. Two of those
detained were visiting as guests of Talabani, his spokesman
said.
---
Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in
Baghdad; Nasser Karimi in Tehran; and Pauline Jelinek in
Washington contributed to this report.
Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
17 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Nuke Work Seems Slow, Puzzling West
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Thursday January 11, 2007 6:46 PM
AP Photo JRL121
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran's uranium enrichment program appears
stalled despite tough talk from the Tehran leadership, leaving
intelligence services guessing about why it has not made good on
plans to press ahead with activities that the West fears could
be used to make nuclear arms, diplomats said Thursday.
Outside monitoring of Iran's nuclear endeavors is restricted to
International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of declared sites
leaving significant blind spots for both the agency and
intelligence agencies of member countries trying to come up with
the full picture.
Still, Tehran's reluctance to crank up activities at its
declared enrichment site at Natanz when it seems to have the
technical know-how is puzzling the diplomatic and intelligence
communities - with some saying it was potentially worrisome.
Diplomats accredited or otherwise linked to the Vienna-based
IAEA, speaking on condition of anonymity in exchange for
discussing restricted information on the Iranian program, said
some intelligence services believed that the Natanz site was a
front.
While the world's attention is focused on Natanz, Iranian
scientists and military personnel could be working on a secret
enrichment program at one or more unknown sites that are much
more advanced than what is going on at the declared site, they
said.
At the same time, they said the lack of new activity at the two
pilot enrichment plants set up at Natanz could be good news.
The diplomats said they could suggest Iranian hesitancy to
provoke U.N. Security Council sanctions harsher than the
relatively mild penalties agreed last month in response to
Tehran's refusal to heed an August deadline to suspend
enrichment. Or, they said, the hesitation is a sign of headway
by relative moderates in the leadership unhappy with the
confrontational nuclear antics of Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
Anthony Cordesman, an Iran expert at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies, suggested an additional possibility
linked to theories that Tehran was forging ahead with its
enrichment program and undisclosed locations: fear that any
major progress at Natanz could provoke military action by Israel
or the United States.
``It's a known facility and more and more of the subject of
discussion as a possible Israeli or U.S. target,'' Cordesman
said from Washington. ``So, do you use this facility now or wait
to see what threat ... you face?''
IAEA inspectors arrived at Natanz on Wednesday for a routine
round of monitoring. But one of the diplomats said they were
unlikely to find anything but the status quo - two small pilot
plants assembled in 164-centrifuge ``cascades'' but working only
sporadically to produce small quantities of non-weapons grade
enriched uranium and other individual centrifuges undergoing
mechanical testing. That has essentially been the situation at
Natanz since late November, he said.
There have been no signs of any activity linked to Iranian plans
to assemble 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz and move them into an
underground facility as the start of an ambitious program
foreseeing 50,000 centrifuges producing enriched material, said
the diplomats.
Enrichment can result in either low-level nuclear fuel or the
highly processed fissile core for nuclear weapons. Tehran
insists it is interested only in generating power with the
program.
Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
18 Korea Herald: Korea, China, Japan to hold summit in Cebu
Foreign Minister Song Min-soon left for the Philippines
yesterday to prepare for a regional forum of Asian countries and
trilateral summit talks among the leaders of Korea, China and
Japan this weekend.
"At the three-way summit talks, the leaders will discuss
measures against yellow dust, cultural exchanges, investment
treaties, and North Korea's nuclear problem among others," Song
said in his weekly press briefing.
The foreign ministers of the three nations will meet on Friday
to prepare for the leaders' meeting.
President Roh is set to fly to Cebu for a four-day trip to
attend the ASEAN Plus Three summit forum and East Asia Summit
along with Korea-ASEAN summit talks that were all delayed from
last month due to storms that had hit the resort island.
Song is also set to talk exclusively with his counterparts from
such countries as China and Singapore.
Song also talked about the ongoing efforts to resurrect the
nuclear negotiations.
"The relevant countries have consensus that a productive outcome
must emerge from the next round of talks and for this we are
continuing contact with each other both directly and
indirectly," Song said.
Six-party talks between the two Koreas, the United States,
China, Japan and Russia recessed last month after failing to see
progress. North Korea remains committed to its nuclear weapons
development and tested a nuclear device in October.
Song said all the parties including North Korea believe the next
round of negotiations should open as soon as possible.
Regarding Washington's investigation into suspected money
laundering at a bank in Macau, Song said the United States was
determined to deal with the issue on a "technical level" as
opposed to political. North Korea believes the investigation
into its main foreign exchange channel is an example of
Washington's hostile policy.
When asked about International Atomic Energy Agency chief
Mohammed ElBaradei's comments which included North Korea as one
of the nuclear states, Song said, "None of the members of the
six-party talks admit North Korea is a nuclear state.
"I believe the IAEA secretary-general's remarks reflect his
emphasis that the number of nuclear countries should not
increase," Song said.
Speaking at a forum in Algeria yesterday, ElBaradei said: "We
have nine countries that possess nuclear weapons, we have 27,000
warheads in existence. We still have more than 30 countries that
are members of alliances that rely on nuclear weapons as part of
their security."
He did not name the nine countries. The United States, Russia,
China, France and Britain are official nuclear states. India,
Pakistan, Israel and North Korea are also known nuclear states.
"We are witnessing increasing concern regarding the
proliferation of nuclear weapons, and with it, the increased
danger of both the intentional or accidental use of nuclear
weapons that could end life as we know it," ElBaradei said.
(angiely@heraldm.com)
By Lee Joo-hee
2007.01.11
*****************************************************************
19 YONHAP NEWS: S. Korea, China agree on early resumption of N. Korean nuclear
talks
2007/01/11 18:46 KST
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Song
Min-soon and his Chinese counterpart agreed Thursday to work for
the resumption of six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear
weapons program at an early date, the Foreign Ministry said.
The agreement came at a one-hour meeting between Song and Li
Zhaoxing in Cebu, Philippines.
"The two ministers held in-depth discussions on ways to resume
the six-party negotiations at an early date and ways to draw out
productive outcomes from the negotiations when they resume," the
ministry said in a press release.
Song's meeting with the Chinese foreign minister followed his
trip to Washington last week, during which he and Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice expressed a strong hope for the talks to
resume before the end of the month or early next month.
The South Korean minister is on a six-day visit to the
Philippines since Wednesday for the annual summit of leaders of
10 Southeast Asian states, known as the Association of the
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the heads of South Korea,
Japan and China.
The ASEAN Plus Three summit is scheduled to start Saturday. It
lasts until Monday.
Taking the opportunity to speak directly to his Chinese
counterpart, Song also asked for China's cooperation in the safe
return of a South Korean fisherman who recently fled to China
from the communist North more than 31 years after his abduction.
"Minister Song strongly urged China's cooperation for an early
return of Choi Uk-il," the statement said.
Li said he would help "shorten the time required for legal
processes in China" to their minimum, according to the statement.
About 200,000 North Korean defectors, including many former
South Koreans abducted by the North decades ago, are believed to
be hiding in China, but the country, a close ally of the North,
treats them as illegal aliens and repatriates them to their
communist homeland.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
*****************************************************************
20 YONHAP NEWS: Major presidential hopeful criticizes S. Korea's policy toward
N. Korea
2007/01/11 18:53 KST
By Kim Young-gyo
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- Park Geun-hye, considered one of the
two front-runners in the race for president of South Korea,
criticized President Roh Moo-hyun's policy toward North Korea on
Thursday.
As a guest speaker at a forum in Seoul, Park, the former
chairwoman of the main opposition Grand National Party, said,
"The engagement policy, which should have aimed at stabilizing
peace on the Korean Peninsula, resulted in crisis."
Saying that "carrying out the policy without a principle"
rather than the policy itself was the problem, she said the
incumbent government crossed a line it should not have.
"The government has been covering North Korea from
international accusations even after its nuclear test," she
said. "North Korea's defiant acts resulted from South Korea's
unconditional patronage and unconditional assistance."
She also said South Korea was left out of the international
talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, where it should
have taken the initiative.
Emphasizing that economic assistance should be provided only
after the nuclear issue is resolved, she said South Korea will
be able to play a role in setting up diplomatic relationships
between North Korea and the United States and the North and
Japan.
"I think we do not have to adhere to the political and
territorial unification of the two Koreas. If people from the
Koreas meet freely and there are no military confrontations
between them, it can also be regarded as unification," she said.
ygkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
*****************************************************************
21 YONHAP NEWS: (LEAD) N.K. chemical weapons, WMD program pose gravest threat to
U.S.: Senate hearing
2007/01/12 09:33 KST
By Lee Dong-min
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's chemical weapons
stockpile and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program pose the
greatest threat to the United States along with that of Iran,
top U.S. intelligence leaders said Thursday.
"Iran and North Korea are the states of most concern to us
because their regimes disregard international opprobrium, flout
U.N. Security Council restrictions on their nuclear programs,
pervert the legitimate purposes of governance, and ignore the
needs and rights of their citizens," Director of National
Intelligence John Negroponte stated.
Pyongyang's threat to international security is grave, he said
in his testimony to the select intelligence committee.
"Last year, I highlighted that point. In the intervening twelve
months, Pyongyang substantiated our concerns."
North Korea was sanctioned in two Security Council resolutions
in 2006, once for its ballistic missile tests in July and then
for its nuclear test in October.
"By pressing forward with its nuclear weapon and missile
programs, North Korea threatens to destabilize a region that has
known several great power conflicts over the last hundred years
and now comprises some of the world's largest economies," Lt.
Gen. Michael Maples, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA), told the Senate.
Maples further testified that "the DIA believes North Korea has
had a longstanding chemical weapons stockpile of nerve, blister,
blood and choking agents."
"No immediate prospect of regime collapse is evident," he said,
noting that the country's ideological indoctrination fostering
extreme nationalism contributes to the strength of the regime.
In their annual threat assessment, all lead U.S. intelligence
agencies named North Korea and Iran as the two greatest danger
factors in combating the proliferation of WMD.
"We focus on North Korea and Iran, two states with WMD programs
that threaten regional balance, threaten U.S. interests, and
threaten nonproliferation regimes," Central Intelligence Agency
director Michael Hayden said.
Robert Mueller, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
told the committee, "The U.S. government has identified 21
countries, of which Iran, North Korea, and China are of greatest
concern."
These countries are capable of either developing WMD systems or
acquiring related items and sensitive technologies, he said.
Pyongyang is believed to have churned out up to half a dozen
nuclear weapons made from plutonium from its 5-megawatt
"research" reactor. In July it test launched a long-range
ballistic missile, known as Taepodong-2, that technically can
reach the U.S. West Coast. Maples noted that while Taepodong-2
had failed shortly after the launch, Pyongyang has demonstrated
its ability to target U.S. forces as well as South Korea and
Japan. Additionally, concerns exist that the communist regime
may someday be able to arm its missiles with biological,
chemical or nuclear warheads.
Negroponte pointed to the threat of proliferation originating
from Pyongyang.
"Indeed, it already has sold ballistic missiles to several
Middle Eastern countries," he said.
"Although sales have declined to most customers due to its
increasing international isolation, North Korea's relationship
with Iran and Syria remain strong and of principal concern.
Export of North Korean ballistic missiles will continue to be a
concern," he stressed.
The DIA chief argued that North Korea's missile and nuclear
tests were partly intended to improve its bargaining power at
the six-party talks, a multilateral forum aimed at convincing
Pyongyang to give up its atomic weapons and programs in return
for various incentives from other countries.
The talks have stalled as North Korea has demanded removal of
U.S. financial sanctions imposed on a Macau bank accused of
laundering money for Pyongyang.
ldm@yna.co.kr
(END)
*****************************************************************
22 AFP: Japan PM wins backing from EU's Barroso on NKorea nuclear standoff -
by Kyoko Hasegawa Thu Jan 11, 3:45 PM ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earned
European Commission" /> support for his call for a concerted
international effort to pressure North Korea" /> to abandon its
nuclear weapons program.
"The nuclear missile issues are a great challenge to the
non-proliferation regime and a concerted effort in solidarity of
the international community is needed to resolve these issues,"
he said after talks with commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.
"President Barroso expressed his support and we confirmed that
we shall cooperate with all these issues further in the days
ahead," he told reporters, during the third leg of a four-nation
European trip.
Barroso promised Abe that the commission was working on
necessary procedures to impose financial sanctions stipulated in
a UN Security Council resolution condemning Pyongyang's nuclear
test, Japanese officials said after the meeting.
The long-running six-party negotiations on North Korea's nuclear
program were suspended in late 2005 after Pyongyang walked out
in protest at US financial sanctions imposed on a Macau bank
accused of illicit dealings on its behalf.
The talks resumed in December -- following North Korea's October
nuclear weapons test -- but ended in deadlock after Pyongyang
insisted the financial sanctions be lifted before it would
discuss nuclear disarmament.
North Korea is reported to be preparing for a possible second
nuclear test.
The isolated communist country's nuclear ambitions have been
high on the agenda during Abe's trip, and he won the support of
British and German leaders for his stance before arriving in
Brussels.
Barroso, for his part, expressed hope that progress in the
six-party talks could be made.
Abe also raised the issue of North Korea's abduction of
foreigners.
"The abduction issue is a grave issue and not merely limited to
Japan, and so is international in scope, and as such needs to be
resolved early in the interest of the international community,"
he said.
In November, Japan and the European Union" /> submitted a
resolution at the United Nations" /> condemning North Korea for
grave human rights violations, particularly on the abduction of
foreigners.
Seventeen Japanese citizens have been officially recorded as
seized by North Korea but an official in Brussels said around
400 people may have been taken.
Abe also raised the issue of the arms embargo on China, which
some EU countries have urged be lifted.
"I stated Japan's position which is opposition to the lifting of
the arms embargo on China and I believe I gained President
Barroso's understanding on this point," the premier said.
On tackling global climate change, Abe and Barroso agreed on the
need to involve major greenhouse gas emitters such as China,
India and the United States in an international framework.
Barroso explained the commission's new energy policy unveiled on
Wednesday which sets an EU target for cutting gas emissions, of
20 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, to cover the period after
current Kyoto Protocol requirements run out in 2012.
The signatories to the Kyoto Protocol, the first international
treaty stipulating rules on environment, are now discussing the
post-Kyoto framework.
Under the protocol, most developed countries that have signed
and ratified the accord are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
by 2012 to levels five percent below their emissions in 1990.
On energy security, Abe and Barroso agreed that both sides
should closely cooperate, particularly in asking Russia for
stable energy supplies, Japanese officials said.
Abe also met with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and
gained assurance that Belgium, currently non-permanent member of
the UN Security Council, "will closely work with Japan in
activities in the UN," an aid to the Japanese premier said.
Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
23 Korea Times: Roh, Bush Talk Over N. Korea
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times
By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter
President Roh Moo-hyun held a telephone conversation with U.S.
President George W. Bush last night to discuss international
issues, such as the North Korea and Iraqi problems, Chong Wa Dae
said.
In what were their first telephone talks this year, they agreed
to exert joint efforts to address pending security concerns in
Northeast Asia and the Middle East, according to the
presidential office.
``President Roh and President Bush held a telephone
conversation from 9:30 p.m. and talked about issues such as the
bilateral alliance, the security situation in Iraq and the North
Korean nuclear standoff, Rohs spokesman Yoon Seong-yong
said.
Wednesdays talks, arranged at the request of the United
States, came at a time when the Bush administration faces a
difficult situation over its policies on Iraq after the
Democrats took over Congress in last Novembers mid-term
elections.
Chong Wa Dae said the Roh-Bush talks were held right before
Bushs public address to propose his plan to send at least
20,000 extra troops to Iraq. The Democrats are working on
legislation to reject the plan.
Seoul sent thousands of troops to the northern Iraqi town of
Irbil in 2004 at the request of the Bush administration to join
the U.S.-led rehabilitation efforts there. South Korea now keeps
2,300 soldiers and the number will be reduced to 1,200 by April.
The talks were also the first between Roh and Bush since the
last round of six-party talks on North Koreas nuclear weapons
program ended without progress last month.
Roh and Bush have had a total of seven rounds of face-to-face
summit talks and 14 telephone conversations since Rohs
election in late 2002, Chong Wa Dae said.
jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr01-10-2007 23:07
*****************************************************************
24 Korea Times: Why US Should Keep Sanctioning NK
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion
By Shin Chul-ho
Six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear arms program resumed
in Beijing on December 18, 2006, 13 months after North Korea
slammed the door of the negotiating room shut behind it. But
they were doomed to be fruitless. Haven't we seen North Korea
always reveal its salami tactics, not once showing a serious
approach? However often six-party delegates sit together at the
negotiating table, no tangible progress will be made.
What the so-called Great Leader Kim Jong-il and his associates
are anxious to do with its nuclear weapons program is hold South
Korea hostage to nuclear blackmail in the event of an attack
from the U.S. and eventually avoid the regime change caused by
the attack.
The U.S. experienced the deadliest act of terrorism within the
U.S. border twice, the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995
and a series of coordinated terrorist suicide attack on
September 11, 2001. So, it is unbearable for the U.S. that the
Kim Jong-il regime will have the ability to launch nuclear
attacks on the U.S. mainland and even more so that they will
hand over nuclear technology or nuclear bombs to the U.S enemies
such as Iran or al-Qaida.
The U.S. has another crucial reason why North Korea's nuclear
program must be scrapped. With North Korea's nuclear arms in
mind, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan will be easily involved in
the arms race, when they feel suspicious of nuclear umbrella
provided by the U.S.
Therefore, which way the U.S. should go is self-evident. The
U.S. has used carrots and sticks in an effort to freeze North
Korea's nuclear arms program. However, carrots are proven to
have been ineffective.
The former President Kim Dae-jung paid US$450 million to Kim
Jong-il to have summit talks with him in Pyongyang on May 13~15,
2000 and initiated the engagement policy towards North Korea,
the so-called sunshine policy, which has been succeeded by
President Roh Moo-hyun. Over the past nine years the two
administrations donated astronomical amount of cash and material
assistance to the North Korean regime. The Kaesong Industrail
Complex and Mt. Kumgang tourism projects in North Korea are
still being carried on, despite the fact that North Korea tested
its nuclear device on October 9, 2006. Furthermore, President
Roh Moo-hyun stated that the two projects would go on, making it
clear that they do not violate the U.N. resolution.
What on earth did the dilapidated communist regime do with the
money and the considerable amount of the revenues which have
accrued through the Kaesung Industrial Complex and Mt. Kumgang
tourist projects? Why are so many North Korean people starving
and defecting ceaselessly to neighboring countries while Kim
Jong-il and his close aides are enjoying all the luxuries?
No explanations will not be probable except that they converted
the money to their bomb-making effort and the food aid to their
military personnel. Any types of aid will only help strengthen
the North Korean regime and will never help alleviate mass
famine of North Korean people.
According to a report that appeared in The Dong-A Ilbo, a
leading Korean daily, on December 27, 2006, 7 out of 10 among
314 defectors from the reclusive regime foretell that North
Korea's political crisis has gone beyond critical limit and that
Kim Jong-il's power will last 10 years at most.
To shorten the demise of the immoral North Korean leadership,
to shatter its nuclear ambition and to save millions of people
there from starving to death, the international society should
beef up its sanctions against the Kim Jong-il regime,
particularly against its access to international finance. That
is the way a malignant tumor is killed by cutting off all the
blood vessels supplying nutrients connected to tumor.
In this sense, military alliance and economic cooperation
between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan should be consolidated
much more than before.
The writer is a freelance columnist.
01-11-2007 19:35
*****************************************************************
25 AFP: China says unaware of plans for repeat NKorea nuke test
Thu Jan 11, 5:10 AM ET
CEBU, Philippines (AFP) - China's foreign minister has said he
did not know of any North Korean plans to conduct a second
nuclear weapons test but reiterated Beijing's opposition to any
such move.
Asked Thursday about media reports of a preparations for a
possible repeat test, Li Zhaoxing told journalists: "Reports
should be based on fact, but I have not heard of it."
He added: "Our position is very clear."
"We are very firm about the safeguarding of the (nuclear)
Non-Proliferation Treaty and we hope that all countries will act
according to the spirit of the UN charter."
Li, visiting Cebu for a meeting of Southeast Asian ministers
with regional partner nations, did not elaborate.
China, North Korea" /> North Korea's main economic lifeline,
reacted angrily to the first test on October 9 and backed a UN
Security Council resolution that imposed sanctions on Pyongyang.
There have been recent reports that North Korea is preparing for
a possible second nuclear test at the same site. But most
analysts expect it to await the outcome of six-nation
negotiations on its nuclear programme, and of separate talks on
lifting US financial sanctions.
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said separately
there was no "imminent indication" of a planned second test.
The six-nation talks resumed in Beijing last month after a
13-month break but ended without apparent progress or a date to
meet again.
However Li said the resumption was significant in itself.
He said all sides "re-emphasised that they would stick to the
consensus reached on September 19, 2005, including that all
sides should have denuclearisation and the peace and stability
of the Korean peninsula as a goal, and that all sides should
solve problems through the six-party talks framework."
At a six-party session in September 2005, the North agreed in
principle to scrap its nuclear programmes in exchange for
economic and energy benefits and security guarantees.
But it boycotted the forum two months later in protest at the US
financial sanctions imposed for alleged money-laundering and
counterfeiting.
Song and Li later held talks on regional security and other
issues.
"We discussed in depth the North Korean nuclear issue, the way
to resume the next round of (six-party) talks and how to
approach the agenda to get productive results," Song told
reporters.
Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
26 The Hindu: Saran to visit Japan on Saturday for N-support
Thursday, January 11, 2007 : 1925 Hrs
New Delhi, Jan 11. (PTI): With Japan's reservations over India's
civil nuclear ambitions persisting, the Prime Minister's Special
Envoy Shyam Saran will travel there on Saturday to make an
effort to bring Tokyo around.
Saran will hold talks with Japanese leadership and lobby for
support of the key member of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers
Group (NSG), sources told PTI here today.
He is expected to explain in detail the reasons for India's
aspirations for civil nuclear energy and point out the
impeccable track record with regard to non-proliferation.
The special envoy is likely to underline that India needs civil
nuclear energy to meet its growing needs in view of its rapid
economic progress.
The recent enactment of law by the US to allow trade with India
in civil nuclear field despite its strategic programme is
expected to be cited to back New Delhi's case.
Significantly, the visit will take place three days after Japan
made it clear that it wanted India to join NPT regime as a
non-nuclear state.
"We will continue to seek the admission of India into the NPT as
a non-nuclear weapons state," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yasuhisa Shiozaki said yesterday and urged New Delhi to abandon
its atomic weapons programme.
Japan, the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack, had
about a month back indicated softening of stand when it agreed
to engage in discussions with India on the nuclear issue.
The willingness to discuss India's civil nuclear aspirations was
expressed after after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed
the matter with his counterpart Shinzo Abe during his visit to
Tokyo.
Singh, while emphasising India's unshaken commitment to
non-proliferation, told Abe that as the country's economy grows
there would be an increasing demand for energy and nuclear power
was a must to cope with it.
Saran, who has been the negotiator for Indo-US civil nuclear
deal, is currently engaged in lobbying with NSG members for
support for New Delhi's aspirations.
Much progress has been made in this regard but some countries
continue to have reservations, with Japan being one of them.
Copyright 2006, The Hindu.
*****************************************************************
27 Japan Times: Tokyo tells India to forsake nukes and join the NPT
Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007
Associated Press
Japan refused on Wednesday to acknowledge India as a legitimate
nuclear weapons state and demanded that it join the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki also urged India to
drop its nuclear arms, denying a newspaper report Wednesday that
Tokyo was thinking of accepting India's possession of such
weapons.
"Japan and the global community have valued the international
system of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation based on the
NPT," he said. "We'll continue to seek the admission of India
into the NPT as a nonnuclear weapons state." Indian External
Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna declined comment.
Shiozaki said Tokyo will carefully study details of the
U.S.-India nuclear pact signed in December, in which Washington
agreed to supply the Indian nuclear power industry with fuel and
technology, exempting it from a U.S. law that bans nuclear trade
with countries that have not submitted to full international
inspections of their atomic facilities.
The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
28 ENS: U.S., Japan Sign Nuclear Power Cooperation Plan
Environment News Service (ENS)
WASHINGTON, DC, January 10, 2007 (ENS) The United States and
Japan will collaborate on a plan to build new nuclear power
plants, top energy officials of the two countries said in
Washington Tuesday.
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Japanese Minister of
Economy Trade and Industry Akira Amari said their countries will
collaborate on various aspects of the civilian nuclear fuel
cycle.
[officials] Japanese Minister of Economy Trade and Industry
Akira Amari and U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman shake hands
for the cameras at their joint press conference Tuesday. (Photo
courtesy DOE) Bodman said that detailed plans will be developed
over the next three months but will include inviting Japanese
engineers to work on new nuclear power plants in the United
States.
He said that Japanese scientists and nuclear engineers would
offer technical expertise in advanced, fast reactors, which use
nuclear fuel more efficiently than current reactors. Fast
reactors yield more energy while producing less radioactive
waste.
Japan is in the process of developing such reactors to be
operational on a trial basis next year, Amari said.
"In Japan we have among the greatest scientists and engineers in
this field," Bodman said.
The officials said their joint civilian nuclear energy action
plan will be completed by April 2007.
The plan will build upon the civilian nuclear energy technical
cooperation already underway between the two countries and will
include regulatory and nonproliferation-related nuclear
exchanges.
[Shika] The Shika nuclear power plant in Ishikawa Prefecture on
Japan's west coast is one of the country's newest. The second
Shika reactor went commercial on March 15, 2006. (Photo courtesy
Hokuriku Electric Power Co) Japan has bilateral nuclear power
co-operation treaties with six nations - the United States,
Britain, France, Canada, Australia and China. Under these
agreements, the parties exchange expertise and information on
the peaceful use of nuclear power, and provide and receive
nuclear equipment, materials and services.
Bodman and Amari said the new plan will focus on research and
development activities under the Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership initiative, advanced by the United States.
Under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, GNEP, the United
States will build a nuclear fuel recycling facility and sell
fuel for nuclear power plants to other countries.
While Japan has a nuclear fuel recycling facility, it currently
ships much of the spent nuclear fuel from its 54 operating
nuclear power plants to France and Britain for reprocessing. The
reprocessed fuel is shipped back to Japan for further use.
While there has never been a disaster, the shipping of such
large amounts of radioactive material halfway around the world
has drawn objections from many countries along the shipping
routes as well as from environmentalists who point out that the
ships could be subject to accident or terrorist attack that
would release radioactivity into the environment.
If Japan has its spent nuclear fuel reprocessed in the United
States, the shipping distance would be roughly halved.
The GNEP, endorsed by President George W. Bush, is now
undergoing a programmatic environmental impact statement
process, which allows for public comment.
[Perry] Owned and operated by FirstEnergy, the Perry nuclear
power plant is near Cleveland, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie.
It began operating in 1987. (Photo courtesy FirstEnergy) In the
United States, 103 nuclear reactors supply nearly 20 percent of
the nation's electricity, but since the 1979 accident at Three
Mile Island and the 1986 fire and explosion at Chernobyl in
Ukraine, safety concerns have stalled U.S. nuclear development.
Only one U.S. plant has come on line recently, in 1996.
The Bush administration has encouraged the nuclear industry,
which now has 18 new nuclear power plants in various stages of
licensing and siting approval, according to the Nuclear Energy
Institute, an industry association.
To ensure mutual energy security and address global climate
change, Bodman and Amari said both sides recognize they must
improve energy efficiency and diversify their energy mix.
The two countries intend to make wider use of "clean and
alternative energy, such as clean use of coal, nuclear energy
and renewables," the officials said.
Bodman welcomed Japanese participation in the $1 billion
FutureGen Project, a United States sponsored initiative to
construct the worlds first emission-free coal fired electricity
generation plant to be constructed in the United States at a
site yet to be selected.
The project will employ coal gasification technology integrated
with combined cycle electricity generation and the sequestration
of carbon dioxide emissions.
Japan will contribute expertise, funding, and information
exchange on carbon capture and sequestration technology.
Both sides said they recognize that the engagement of emerging
economies, particularly China and India, is "crucial for
ensuring global energy security."
Integrating these growing energy consumers into the global
energy market and promoting responsible market-based policies
and energy use will be a priority for both countries, said
Bodman and Amari.
The officials agreed to strengthen their countries' cooperation
with China and India on energy efficiency and emergency
preparedness. They said the Five-Country Energy Ministers
meeting in December 2006, in which ministers from China, India,
Japan, Korea and the United States participated, was a good
example of a coordinated engagement effort.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2006. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
29 NRC: NRC Releases Most of Big Rock Point Nuclear Plant Site for Unrestricted Public Use
News Release - 2007-00 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: No. 07-004 January 11, 2007
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved Consumers Energys
request to release a majority of the Big Rock Point nuclear
power plant site near Charlevoix, Mich., for unrestricted public
use.
The land, approximately 435 acres, is below NRC regulatory
requirements that allow a maximum radiation dose of 25 millirem
per year from residual contamination. (The average person in the
United States receives about 300 millirem from background
radiation each year.) Release of this land for unrestricted use
poses no threat to public health and safety.
Big Rock Points licenses will still apply to the sites dry cask
storage facility, where the spent nuclear fuel from the plants
35 years of operation is stored, plus a parcel of land
surrounding this facility. The total land remaining under the
licenses is approximately 107 acres. Consumers Energy remains
responsible for the security and protection of this land and the
dry cask storage facility, and is required to maintain $44.4
million in nuclear liability insurance coverage for the
facility.
Big Rock Point began commercial operations March 29, 1963, and
ceased production Aug. 29, 1997. Consumers Energy initiated
decommissioning shortly thereafter. Dismantlement and
decommissioning were completed in August 2006. NRC surveys
verified that cleanup met the 25 millirem per year requirement.
The NRCs Safety Evaluation Report of Big Rock Points amendment
request will be available in the agencys online documents
database, ADAMS, at this address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html, using
accession number ML063410368 in the search field.
NRC news releases are available through a free list serve
subscription at the following Web address:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC
homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail
notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are
posted to NRC's Web site.
Last revised Thursday, January 11, 2007
*****************************************************************
30 recordonline: NRC says Indian Point emergency plans OK
The Times Herald-Record]
January 11, 2007
Buchanan - Despite critics claims to the contrary, federal
regulators have determined operators of the Indian Point nuclear
power plant are adequately prepared to respond to an emergency.
A one-day drill in November by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
reviewed the Westchester County-facilitys notification system
and other emergency response capabilities.
Critics from regional anti-nuclear groups had protested the
biennial review, claiming the plant is too old and too dangerous
to operate safely.
But in its findings released this week, the NRC found nothing of
significance to suggest Entergy Nuclear Northeasts emergency
plans were inadequate.
[recordonline.com - RSS Feeds] Record Online is brought to
you by the Times Herald-Record, serving New York"s Hudson Valley
and the Catskills. Phone: (845) 341-1100
*****************************************************************
31 OCRegister.com: San Onofre reactor back at full production
Thursday, January 11, 2007 ![]()
Copyright 2006 The Orange County Register
*****************************************************************
32 Sofia Echo: NPP REACTORS IN BULGARIA TO REMAIN SHUT- KALFIN -
06 Thu 11 Jan 2007
Hopes for the re-opening of the third and fourth units of
Kozloduy nuclear power plant could hardly ever come true,
Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said.
The two reactors were disconnected from the national energy
network on December 31 2006 as part of the EU entry requirements
Bulgaria accepted.
Kalfin told Bulgarian National Radio that the EU budget would be
examined in 2009 and by that time Bulgaria should have submitted
its request for reactor closure compensation.
Bulgaria could request additional compensation, said Kalfin.
Hopes for the re-opening of the reactors were revived after
former European integration minister and current European
Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kouneva said that
the closure terms could be re-negotiated.
European Parliament rapporteur for Bulgaria Geoffrey Van Orden
said that the closure might have been a mistake.
Before the closure Bulgaria featured as major electricity
exporter on the Balkans. Currently fears arise that energy
dependence on Russia will increase.
Web www.sofiaecho.com
*****************************************************************
33 Sofa Echo: REACTOR CLOSURE BIGGEST COMPROMISE BULGARIA MADE- PURVANOV -
Thu 11 Jan 2007
The closure of Kozloduy nuclear power plant reactors was among
the biggest compromises Bulgaria made on its way to EU
membership, President Georgi Purvanov said.
Accepting all energy-related terms and conditions failed taking
into consideration national interests, said Purvanov as quoted
by Focus news agency.
Bulgaria had to convince all parties involved that units three
and four should not become part of the past and should be part
of Bulgaria's European future, said Purvanov.
At the same time EU entry was going to aid Bulgaria and local
businesses, Purvanov said. Before it becomes able to enjoy the
benefits, Bulgaria would have to deal with a number of new
challenges and problems, said he.
EU had a system of strict rules, which Bulgaria had to stick to
in the future, said Purvanov. Union membership was going to give
the country stimulus for modernisation, said he.
[Printer friendly version]
Web www.sofiaecho.com
*****************************************************************
34 PE.com: Air leak found, fixed at San Onofre nuclear power plant
The Associated Press
SAN ONOFRE
A San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station reactor trimmed to 29
percent capacity because of an air leak the past few weeks is
back in full production.
Workers attempting to find the leak located and fixed the
problem, a Southern California Edison spokesman said. There was
no public health risk, the utility said.
"Unit 3 at San Onofre is at full power and has been for a week
or more," spokesman Ray Golden wrote in an e-mail on Tuesday.
"The source of the air 'in-leakage' was a section of pipe
associated with a pump,"
The repair involved painting a polymer type material on the
outside surface of the pipe, he said.
The leak was first noticed shortly after the reactor was shut
down for routine maintenance in October and brought back into
service in mid November.
Elevated levels of dissolved oxygen in routine sampling in the
secondary water system were discovered and generation output was
reduced to 29 percent, Golden said.
At full capacity, each San Onofre reactor produces 1,100
megawatts of electricity, enough for 1.1 million average
households.
The San Onofre nuclear plant, located on the coast in northern
San Diego County near the city of San Clemente, is jointly owned
by Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and the
cities of Riverside and Anaheim.
___
Information from: The Orange County Register,
http://www.ocregister.com
Published: Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:39 PST -->
2007 Press-Enterprise Company
*****************************************************************
35 NRC: NRC to Review Entergy Request for Extension of Deadline for Meeting Energy Policy Act Requirements
News Release - 2007-00 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 07-005 January 11,
2007
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received Entergy's
request for an extension of the Jan. 30, 2007, deadline imposed
by the NRC to meet requirements of the 2005 Energy Policy Act at
its Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, N.Y. Agency staff
will evaluate the request and provide a decision as rapidly as
possible.
The Energy Policy Act included a provision directing the NRC to
require nuclear power plants located within certain population
densities to have back-up power for their emergency notification
systems, including sirens. Indian Point is the only nuclear
plant that fell within the requirement.
In January 2006, the NRC issued a confirmatory Order requiring
Entergy to install back-up power for its entire alert and
notification system. The Order required completion by Jan. 30,
2007. The NRC Order allows Entergy to request relaxation of
specific aspects of the Order.
In its extension request, Entergy states that considerable
progress has been made toward completing the new siren system.
However, Entergy indicated that one tower is unable to support
the addition of the necessary antennae and will need
modifications to support the new equipment. Entergy also stated
that additional testing of the system and training of emergency
service workers will be needed once work is completed on the
final tower. In addition, Entergy said the need to obtain
additional local permits for the new-siren locations also
contributed to the delay. Entergy said these issues will prevent
the work from being completed by the Orders deadline. Entergy
has asked for an extension until April 15, 2007. Entergy noted
in the extension request that they had discussed the request
with surrounding counties.
Indian Points existing alert and notification system is
unaffected by the new system and remains in place to notify the
public, if necessary.
"We will carefully evaluate this request to ensure that Entergy
has taken reasonable steps to complete installation and has
provided good cause for any relaxation of the Order," said Jim
Dyer, Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
The Entergy extension request is posted on this page:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/plant-specific-items/indian-point-iss
ues.html.
NRC news releases are available through a free list serve
subscription at the following Web address:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC
homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail
notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are
posted to NRC's Web site.
Last revised Thursday, January 11, 2007
*****************************************************************
36 Brattleboro Reformer: Activist touts VY benefits
BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff
Thursday, January 11 BRATTLEBORO -- For the next three weeks,
legislators will hold a series of hearings as part of their
global climate change initiative.
They will be discussing various topics and listening to experts
with various backgrounds.
Those experts include environmental eminence grise Amory Lovins,
Middlebury College visiting scholar of environmental studies
Bill McKibben and Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore.
"We think that Vermont is a real trendsetter," said Moore.
"Vermont has the lowest carbon emissions in the country because
of nuclear and hydro power."
Moore and his company Greenspirit were hired by the Vermont
Energy Partnership. According to the partnership's Web site, it
advocates for "sensible solutions that ensure Vermont has
reliable, affordable, and clean energy, drawn from diverse
sources and competitively priced, now and in the future."
The partnership lists more than 70 organizations and individuals
as partners. They include the Brattleboro Development Credit
Corp., Central Vermont Public Service, Efficiency Vermont,
Entergy, Dart Everett, former Gov. Tom Salmon, IBM, the Vermont
Chamber of Commerce, the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association and the
Vermont Grocers Association.
Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. has been retained in a consulting
capacity.
"We are not lobbyists but rather strategists and communicators,"
wrote Moore, in an e-mail to the Reformer. "We believe that
nuclear energy is a clean and safe choice for electricity
production. That doesn't mean we won't have a conversation with
an elected official but we do not work behind closed doors and
we are transparent in our policies and our relationships."
Moore is a semi-controversial figure in his own right, moving
from the radical fringes as a founding member of Greenpeace to a
supporter of nuclear power, which he sees as a means of reducing
greenhouse gases.
"I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear
holocaust," wrote Moore, in an essay explaining his conversion.
"Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the
environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because
nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our
planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate
change."
Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. is a consulting firm that works in
forestry, biotechnology, aquaculture, plastics and mining,
developing sustainability messaging in the areas of natural
resources, biodiversity, energy and climate change.
"Nuclear energy is clean and safe compared to other energy
sources," he said, adding he helps develop strategies that lead
to "win-win solutions that are good for both the environment and
the economy."
"We have come more and more to the conclusion that nuclear
energy is a very important part of a sustainable energy
portfolio," said Tom Tevlin, president and CEO of Greenspirit.
Amanda Ibey, the program coordinator for the partnership, said
Moore, acting in an advisory capacity, would bring his
experience of "promoting sustainable solutions to some of the
world's most pressing environmental issues" to the debate in
Vermont.
"Vermont Yankee has played a vital role in providing Vermont
with electricity for the past 30 years," she said. "It has
provided clean, reliable and much-needed power to Vermont."
Ibey added that "Vermont is the lowest in greenhouse gas
emissions very much because of nuclear and hydro power."
But one local activist, Ed Anthes, of Nuclear-Free Vermont,
questioned Moore's motivation.
"Moore is making his money going and saying 'don't worry, be
happy,'" said Anthes, who said the Vermont Energy Partnership is
"a paid lobbying firm and not a grass roots group."
"Moore's background may be commendable but his argument is
invalid," said Anthes.
For Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, president of Vermont's Senate, the
debate over nuclear energy boils down to just one issue.
"There is no one who lives in Windham County who isn't concerned
about high-level radioactive waste on the banks of the
Connecticut River," said Shumlin. "Until that issue is
addressed, none of us will sleep well at night. You can't
convince us that nuclear power is clean power until you deal
with the waste."
But Moore argued that "it is incorrect to call it waste, because
95 percent of the potential energy is still contained in the
used fuel after the first cycle."
"Now that the United States has removed the ban on recycling
used fuel, it will be possible to use that energy and to greatly
reduce the amount of waste that needs treatment and disposal,"
wrote Moore.
Moore also believes that "dry cask is a perfectly safe and
secure way to store spent fuel," to which Shumlin replied, "I
don't believe in Santa Claus anymore."
Anthes said reprocessing can't be done without making a mess, as
in West Valley Reprocessing Plant in New York, Hanford in
Washington and Rocky Flats in Colorado.
Jason Gibbs, spokesman for Gov. James Douglas, said the governor
would be willing to listen to Moore and the Vermont Energy
Partnership because "the governor meets with all sorts of groups
and individuals. We will be interested in what he (Moore) has to
say in the context of the governor's desire to continue
Vermont's role as an environmental leader."
As far as dry cask storage, said Gibbs, "the governor's strong
preference is that the federal government live up to its promise
of getting the waste out of Vermont."
Moore has argued that nuclear energy is "the only large-scale,
cost-effective energy source that can reduce (greenhouse gas)
emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for
power."
Moore said the 103 nuclear reactors delivering 20 percent of
America's electricity "effectively avoid the release of 700
million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually -- the
equivalent of the exhaust from more than 100 million
automobiles."
Bob Audette can be reached at or (802) 254-2311, ext. 271.
(802) 254-2311
62 Black Mountain Road
Brattleboro, VT 05301-9242
*****************************************************************
37 UK HSE: Regulators publish guidance on new nuclear power station designs
E002:07 11 January 2007
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) with the other principal
nuclear regulators today published new guidance on the
arrangements that have been developed to assess generic designs
for any new nuclear power stations that may potentially be built
in the UK. The coordinated guidance can be found at:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/reactors/index.htm
The guidance provides advice on the processes needed to be
followed and information that will be required by the regulators
– HSE, the Environment Agency (EA), the Scottish Environment
Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Office for Civil Nuclear
Security (OCNS) – during the generic design assessment
process.
The publication of the guidance is in response to the
Government’s report, “The Energy Challenge” published
early this year as part of its Energy Review in which the
regulators were asked to take forward this work.
The new process will ensure that generic reactor design
assessments are not only rigorous and robust but also conducted
in an open and transparent manner involving stakeholders, and
the public.
At the end of the generic assessment, HSE will provide a view on
the acceptability of a new nuclear power station design. If an
application is made to build this design of reactor at a
specific site, HSE will follow its existing licensing process
but, in addition, would take full account of the generic
assessment work that has been carried out. This again would be
done in close partnership with other regulators.
Notes to Editors
1. HSE grants site licences to allow the operation of nuclear
power stations. Before granting a licence, HSE looks at three
areas: the proposed reactor design, the site location and the
licensee's organisation. All licences have conditions attached
which require safety cases and the licensee to obtain HSE's
permission before constructing a reactor.
2. The EA (England and Wales) and SEPA (Scotland) regulate:
+ Radioactive waste disposals, including discharges;
+ Abstraction from, and discharges to, controlled waters,
including rivers, estuaries, the sea and groundwaters;
+ Operation of specific “conventional” plant;
+ Assessment and where necessary, clean-up of contaminated
land;
+ Disposal of conventional waste; and
+ Certain flood risk management matters (Environment Agency
only, not SEPA).
3. OCNS is the regulator for security at all civil nuclear
sites. It is concerned with physical security of nuclear
material, IT security, security of nuclear material in transit,
and the vetting of people who access nuclear sites. OCNS require
the holder of the nuclear site licence to submit a site security
plan to be approved before nuclear material arrives on site.
4. The HSE and the EA submitted expert reports, as a
contribution to the Government’s Energy Review, and these
considered the potential role for pre-licensing and
pre-authorisation assessments of candidate reactor designs; both
processes can be described as “generic design assessment”.
In July 2006, the Government asked HSE and the Environment
Agency to take forward these proposals. As a result, HSE’s
Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), the EA, OCNS and SEPA
have prepared guidance on generic design assessment of nuclear
power stations.
5. In “the Energy Challenge” the Government expressed the
view that nuclear has a role to play in the future UK generating
mix. The Government has consulted on this view, and expects to
finalise its position on this in the Energy White Paper this
spring. This guidance sets out how the formal process for
generic designs would operate, in the event that Government
confirms its view that nuclear has a role to play.
6. The guidance material being published on 11 January
comprises:
+ Guidance on the overall assessment process issued by the
nuclear regulators jointly, Guide to regulatory Processes for
Generic Design Assessment of New Nuclear Power Stations.
+ Guidance from HSE on how it will assess the safety of new
nuclear power station design, Nuclear Power Station Generic
Design Assessment – Guidance to Requesting Parties.
+ Guidance from the Environment Agency setting out how they
will assess environmental issues, Process and Information
Document for Generic Assessment of Candidate Nuclear Power
Plants.
7. Guidance from OCNS on how security issues will be covered
during design assessment.
+ This guidance is aimed primarily towards those companies
that may wish to design and construct new nuclear power stations
in the UK. They are working documents and may well be revised in
due course in the light of experience. If anyone wishes to
comment on the guidance, they should do so by e-mail to
newreactorbuild@hse.gsi.gov.uk or by post to New Reactor Build,
4S.1, Health & Safety Executive, Redgrave Court, Merton Road,
Bootle, L20 7HS.
Press enquiries
Oliver Glackin 020 7717 6016
Out of hours 020 7928 8382
Public enquiries
HSE's InfoLine 0845 3450055
Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly CF83 3GG
HSE information and news releases can be accessed on the
Internet www.hse.gov.uk/
*****************************************************************
38 NRC: Atomic Safety and Licensing Board; In the Matter of Dominion
FR Doc E7-258
[Federal Register: January 11, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 7)]
[Notices] [Page 1344-1346] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr11ja07-67]
Nuclear North Anna, LLC (Early Site Permit for North Anna ESP
Site); Order (Notice of Opportunity To Make Oral or Written
Limited Appearance Statements) January 5, 2007.
Before Administrative Judges: Alex S. Karlin, Chairman, Dr.
Thomas S. Elleman, Dr. Richard F. Cole. This proceeding concerns
the September 25, 2003 application of Dominion Nuclear North Anna
LLC for an early site permit (ESP) for the possible construction
of two nuclear power reactors on the site of two existing nuclear
reactors in Mineral, Virginia.
This Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hereby gives notice that,
pursuant to 10 CFR 2.315(a), the Board will entertain oral
limited appearance statements from members of the public
regarding the North Anna ESP application. The limited appearance
statement session will be held on February 8, 2007 from 6 p.m. to
11 p.m. EST at the Louisa County High School auditorium, 757
Davis Highway, Mineral, Virginia 23117.
I. Background and Scope of Proceeding The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (Commission) has defined an ESP as ``Commission
approval * * * for a site or sites for one or more nuclear power
facilities.'' 10 CFR 52.3(b). If an ESP application is approved,
then, if the holder applies for a later construction permit,
``the Commission shall treat as resolved those matters resolved
in the proceeding on the application for issuance or renewal of
the early site permit.'' 10 CFR 52.39(a)(2). The North Anna ESP
application also includes a site redress plan, which, if
approved, would allow the ESP holder to prepare the site for
construction of the plant, as long as the activities will not
result in any significant adverse environmental impact which
cannot be redressed, and the applicant commits to redress the
site if a construction permit is not issued. 10 CFR 52.25. See
North Anna ESP Application, Revision 9, 4-1-1 (September 2006).
The applicant may not undertake any other construction activities
on the site, however, without having applied for and received a
construction or combined operating license from the NRC. 10 CFR
52.3. On December 2, 2003, the Commission published a notice of
hearing with regard to Dominion's North Anna ESP application,
notifying the public of the mandatory hearing on certain
uncontested safety and environmental issues, and of the right to
petition for leave to intervene to contest the application. 68 FR
67489 (Dec. 2, 2003). On January 2, 2004, Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League, Nuclear Information and Resource
Service, and Public Citizen filed a petition to intervene. The
predecessor Board admitted two of the Intervenors' contentions.
See Dominion Nuclear North Anna LLC (North Anna ESP), LBP-04-18,
60 NRC 253, 274 (2004).
On January 13, 2006, Dominion submitted a supplement to its
application, proposing to change the cooling system for proposed
Unit 3 and to increase the power level of each proposed unit
(Units 3 and 4) from 4300 MWt to 4500 MWt. As a consequence, the
application process was delayed by a year. The Staff issued a
supplemental Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER) on November
15, 2006, and a supplemental Final Environmental Impact Statement
(FEIS) on December 14, 2006, addressing the changed application.
Both of the admitted contentions were resolved, one by a
settlement and the
[[Page 1345]] other by summary disposition. Licensing Board Order
(Approving Settlement and Dismissal of Contention EC 3.3.4) (Jan.
6, 2005) (unpublished); Dominion Nuclear North Anna LLC (North
Anna ESP), LBP- 06-24, 64 NRC (2006). This is now an uncontested
proceeding mandated by Section 189a(1)(A) of the Atomic Energy
Act, 42 U.S.C. 2239(a)(1)(A), and 10 CFR 52.21. In an uncontested
proceeding for an ESP, the Board must make findings on six
issues. See 68 FR 67489, 67489 (December 2, 2003). They are as
follows: 1. Safety Issue 1: The Director of the Office of New
Reactors (NRR) is obligated to propose a finding as to whether
issuance of the ESP will be inimical to the common defense and
security or to the health and safety of the public. The Board
must decide whether the application and the record of the
proceeding contain sufficient information, and the review of
application by the NRC Staff has been adequate to support a
finding that the issuance of the ESP will NOT be inimical to the
common defense and security or to the health and safety of the
public.
2. Safety Issue 2: The Director of NRR is obligated to propose a
finding as to whether, taking into consideration the site
criteria contained in 10 CFR Part 100, a reactor, or reactors,
having the characteristics that fall within the parameters for
the site, can be constructed without undue risk to the health and
safety of the public. The Board must decide whether the
application and the record of the proceeding contain sufficient
information, and the review of application by the NRC Staff has
been adequate to support a finding that, taking into
consideration the site criteria contained in 10 CFR Part 100, a
reactor, or reactors, having the characteristics that fall within
the parameters for the site, can be constructed without undue
risk to the health and safety of the public.
3. NEPA Issue: The Director of NRR is obligated to propose a
finding as to whether, in accordance with the requirements of
subpart A of 10 CFR Part 51, the ESP should be issued as
proposed. The Board must decide whether the review conducted by
the Commission pursuant to NEPA has been adequate.
4. NEPA Baseline Issue 1: The Board must decide whether the
requirements of Section 102(2)(A), (C) and (E) of NEPA and
Subpart A of 10 CFR Part 51 have been complied with in the
proceeding.
5. NEPA Baseline Issue 2: The Board must independently consider
the final balance among the conflicting factors contained in the
record of the proceeding and must determine the appropriate
action to be taken.
6. NEPA Baseline Issue 3: The Board must determine, after
considering reasonable alternatives, whether the ESP should be
issued, denied, or appropriately conditioned to protect
environmental values.
II. Notice of Limited Appearance Statement Session A. Date, Time,
and Location of Oral Limited Appearance Statement Session The
oral limited appearance statement session will be from 6:00 PM to
11:00 PM EST on February 8, 2007, at the Louisa County High
School auditorium, 757 Davis Highway, Mineral, Virginia 23117.
B. Participation Guidelines for Oral Limited Appearance
Statements Any person who is not currently a party will be
permitted to make an oral statement setting forth his or her
position on matters of concern related to this ESP application.
The jurisdiction of this Board and the scope of this proceeding
is limited to the six issues, listed above, that the Board must
decide regarding the ESP application. Limited appearance
statements will be transcribed, but are not under oath or
affirmation and do not constitute testimony or evidence.
The purpose of limited appearance statements is to allow members
of the public to alert the Board and the parties to areas of
concern relating to the ESP application and to assist the Board
in its consideration of the six issues.
Members of the public who plan to attend the limited appearance
session are advised that security measures may be employed at the
entrance to the hearing facility, including searches of
hand-carried items such as briefcases or backpacks. Signs can be
no larger than 18 inches by 18 inches and may not be attached to
sticks, held up, or moved about in the rooms. Policy Statement on
Enhancing Public Participation in NRC Meetings, 67 FR 36920,
36923 (May 28, 2002).
In order to allow the maximum number of interested persons an
opportunity to address the Board, the time allotted for each oral
limited appearance statement normally will be no more than five
minutes, and the allocated time may be further limited, depending
on the number of written requests to make an oral statement that
are submitted in accordance with section C below and/or the
number of persons present at the designated time. At the outset
of each statement, the speaker should identify himself or herself
and specify any affiliation (such as employment, consultancy, or
membership) with any of the parties.
C. Submitting a Request To Make an Oral Limited Appearance
Statement Persons who have submitted a timely written request to
make an oral limited appearance statement will be given priority
over those who have not filed such a request or who sign up to
speak on the date of the session. To be considered timely, a
written request to make an oral statement must either be mailed,
faxed, or sent by e-mail so as to be received by 5 p.m. Eastern
Daylight Time on Monday, February 5, 2007. Written requests to
make an oral statement should be submitted to: Mail: Office of
the Secretary, Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Fax: (301)
415-1101 (verification (301) 415-1966).
E-mail: hearingdocket@nrc.gov. In addition, using the same method
of service, a copy of the written request to make an oral
statement should be sent to the Chairman of this Licensing Board
as follows: Mail: Alex S. Karlin, Chairman, c/o: Margaret Parish,
Esq., Law Clerk, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, Mail
Stop T-3 E2C, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001.
Fax: (301) 415-5599 (verification (301) 415-6094).
E-mail: ksv@nrc.gov and map4@nrc.gov. D. Written Limited
Appearance Statements (In Lieu of Oral Statements) A written
limited appearance statement may be submitted to the Board
regarding this proceeding. Such statements should be submitted by
April 19, 2007, and should be sent to the Office of the Secretary
using the methods prescribed above, with a copy to the Licensing
Board Chairman.
III. Availability of Documentary Information Regarding the
Proceeding Documents relating to this proceeding are available
for public inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room
(One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland
20852) or electronically from the publicly available records
component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management
System (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic
[[Page 1346]] Reading Room). Persons who do not have access to
ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents
located in ADAMS should contact the NRC public document room
reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737,
or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. IV. Scheduling Information Updates
Any updated/revised scheduling information regarding the limited
appearance session can be found by calling (800) 368-5642 or
(301) 415- 8200 or on the NRC Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm .
It is so ordered.
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, on January 5, 2007.
Alex S. Karlin, Chairman, Administrative Judge.
[FR Doc. E7-258 Filed 1-10-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
39 Baltic Times: Nuclear negotiations get off to rocky start
Jan 10, 2007
By TBT staff
VILNIUS - The first series of negotiations on a new nuclear power
plant started this week in Warsaw in a strained atmosphere as
officials from Lithuania stated that the Baltic state should be
granted a larger equity stake in the project.
Previously the four sides to the $2.5 - $4 billion plant –
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – agreed to share equal
stakes, but now Lithuanian energy officials and politicians are
of the opinion that Lithuania, where the new plant will be
built, deserves a larger stake due to the extra responsibilities
it will shoulder – safety, waste storage and infrastructure
maintenance.
Lithuania’s Baltic neighbors reacted skeptically to the idea.
Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks said on Jan. 5 that all
three countries should have equal stakes in the new nuclear
power plant. However, he did not rule out a change of position
based on Latvenergo’s analysis of the many proposals
surrounding the project.
Latvenergo, Latvia’s energy utility, is one of the four power
companies that have agreed to implement the massive engineering
project. The others are Estonian Energy, Lithuanian Energy, and
Polish Power Grid (PSE).
Estonians also criticized the notion of a larger Lithuanian
stake. An Eesti Energia (Estonian Energy) official told the
Lietuvos Zinios paper that such talk was destabilizing and that
Lithuanian politicians should not interfere in the project.
At the same time, Urmas Soorumaa, chairman of the company’s
supervisory board, said on Jan. 3 that the Lithuanians’ wish
was understandable, but their timing questionable. “It is
strange of them to wake up midway in the game,” he told the
Baltic News Service.
Soorumaa added that Lithuanians’ behavior was not surprising
in that they “have made decisions in the past not keeping with
good business practices.”
The chairman seemed to allude to an incident several years ago
when Estonian Energy’s participation in the privatization of
part of Lithuania’s power grid was suddenly cancelled despite
a favorable bid.
At the time, the then Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas said
that lack of clarity surrounding Estonian Energy’s “future
ownership structure” disqualified it from the high-profile
privatization, though the Lithuanians failed to tell the
Estonians this from the get-go. As a result, Estonian Energy
lost tens of thousands of dollars participating in the sell-off,
and a firm related to Lithuania’s VP Market went on to acquire
the electricity grid.
Speaking on the eve of the talks in Warsaw, Lithuanian Prime
Minister Gediminas Kirkilas defended the proposal and warned
that negotiations would be tough.
“It is natural that specialists and politicians raise the
issue of a larger share for Lithuania,” he told Ziniu Radio on
Jan. 4.
“It will be a subject of negotiations, which, I believe, will
not be easy,” Kirkilas said, adding that the inclusion of
Poland in the project was in itself a major hurdle in
negotiations.
Originally the three Baltic states agreed last year in Trakai,
Lithuania, to build a new atomic power plant that would replace
Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant when the latter’s second reactor
is shut down in 2009. Each country would have a one-third stake
in the venture.
But once Poland hopped on board in December, the four sides came
to a preliminary agreement for an equal, four-way split.
The Baltic region relies heavily on Lithuanian-produced power,
and when Ignalina is dismantled the country will have to import
kilowatts. And with EU member countries increasingly jittery
about continued dependence on Russian energy, there is a
movement to build up production capabilities.
Already the Estlink power cable that connects Finland and
Estonia under the Gulf of Finland has been set up and is now
online, and Poland and Lithuania have agreed to connect their
energy grids over the next few years.
But while distribution is key, production is crucial. The Baltic
states are confident that they could handle financing of a
single new reactor, but with Poland on board, there is now talk
of building a two reactor, 1,600 megawatt facility for
approximately $4 billion.
Construction will take at least seven years.
(c) Copyright 2006 Baltic News Ltd. [Hosted
by DEAC]
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40 Japan Times: Reactor in '04 deadly steam accident is restarted
Web japantimes.co.jp
Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007
FUKUI (Kyodo) Kansai Electric Power Co. restarted a nuclear
reactor Wednesday in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture, 2 1/2 years after
it was shut down by a steam pipe rupture that killed five people
and injured six others in the nation's deadliest atomic plant
accident.
Kepco conducted a two-week test run in September, but
Wednesday's restart marks the first time the No. 3 reactor has
been in full-scale operation since the fatal accident in Aug. 9,
2004.
The pressurized water reactor will start generating electricity
starting Thursday. After about a month of fine-tuning,
commercial operations are expected to resume in early February.
The deadly accident happened when a corroded pipe in the
reactor's turbine building ruptured and sprayed plant workers
with superheated steam and boiling water, killing four and
injuring seven others. One worker died 16 days later. The steam
that burst from the pipe was not radioactive.
The accident was blamed on pipes that had not been inspected
since the reactor went online 28 years earlier.
Some of the victims' kin remain opposed to the restart and many
experts are concerned that the aging reactor may suffer more
accidents.
Fukui Prefectural Police are about to complete their
investigation into the accident, but critics say the utility
should not restart the reactor until the question of Kepco's
criminal responsibility has been resolved.
Earlier in the week, investigative sources said police plan to
seek charges against some 10 Kepco employees, including a former
local branch manager, for professional negligence over the
accident.
The utility plans to shut down the reactor again in April ahead
of routine maintenance inspections to coincide with checks on
air conditioning units that have been running since the
accident, and checks on other reactors.
After the accident, Kansai Electric came up with 29 specific
measures to prevent similar accidents, including enhanced
maintenance of pipes. Other safety steps include moving Kepco's
nuclear operations headquarters from Osaka to Mihama, where it
operates three reactors.
The prefecture and town authorities approved Kepco's request to
restart the reactor after reviewing the safety procedures.
During the September test run, rust particles were removed that
had accumulated inside pipes during the long shutdown, and other
equipment was checked, including parts of the reactor that had
suffered wear during its operation.
Kansai Electric had hoped to resume operation at the reactor by
the end of the year.
Following the accident, Kepco had several briefings for families
of the victims and promised support for education and employment
of children who lost a parent.
Most of the victims' families are opposed to the reopening, but
the utility brushed aside their objections, arguing operations
should restart soon because of the plant's maintenance schedule.
"I kept asking (Kepco) to wait until its criminal liabilities
are made clear, but I was not heard," said Akira Kameiwa, 56,
whose son, Masaru, was killed in the accident.
All six injured workers were out of the hospital by last March,
but two are still recovering at home.
"I think it's my duty to ensure the safe operation of the
reactor for the sake of my deceased colleagues," said a
49-year-old employee who recently returned to work.
The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved
in japantimes.co.jp.
*****************************************************************
41 Japan Times: Japan to insure U.S. nuke plant builders
Web japantimes.co.jp
Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007
AP
WASHINGTON -- Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari
and U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman reached an agreement
Tuesday that will enable Japan to help finance the construction
of U.S. civilian nuclear plants.
Trade Minister Akira Amari speaks Tuesday during a news
conference at the Energy Department in Washington as U.S. Energy
Secretary Samuel Bodman looks on. AP PHOTO
The landmark deal, which is part of a larger U.S.-Japan energy
cooperation effort, allows Japan to offer trade insurance to
Japanese companies investing in the construction of nuclear
power plants in the United States.
The two governments are expected to come up with a civil nuclear
energy action plan that will include concrete measures by April.
U.S.-Japanese cooperation is "an important turning point in the
global history of energy policy," Amari told reporters after his
meeting with Bodman.
"Japan and the United States have a very important
responsibility for the stability of global energy supply and
demand as the two largest economies in the world and large
energy consumers."
Japan has included money in its fiscal 2007 budget to
participate in a U.S.-led project to construct an emission-free,
coal-fired electricity plant, Amari said. He did not say how
much money had been earmarked, but a spokesman for Bodman said $
10 million was the standard amount countries have contributed to
the U.S. program.
U.S. power utilities have plans to build a number of nuclear
plants as higher crude oil prices are putting upward pressure on
electricity generation costs based on oil-based thermal power
plants.
The pact will help Japanese reactor manufacturers, including
Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., participate in U.S. nuclear
plant projects by offering the government-backed trade insurance
to cover some of the massive costs.
The insurance compensates Japanese companies for losses in the
event that problems arise over exports or direct investments
overseas.
In addition to the planned insurance-based Japanese support, the
U.S. government plans to encourage companies to take part in
nuclear plant projects by providing repayment guarantees for
loans they may take out to finance construction costs.
Constructing a nuclear plant costs hundreds of billions of yen.
U.S. financial institutions appear reluctant to give loans to
U.S. firms to build the facilities because the companies lack
experience.
The U.S. government suspended all construction of nuclear plants
after the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.
The Bush administration last February announced the Global
Nuclear Energy Partnership initiative, which includes resuming a
nuclear fuel recycling program.
The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
42 Vermont Guardian: NRC takes on dispute over VY water discharge
By Shay Totten | Vermont Guardian
Posted January 11, 2007
ROCKVILLE, MD The five-member board that oversees the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) will review a dispute over the
impact of warmer water discharges by Vermont Yankee if its
license to operate beyond 2012 is extended, according to a
ruling issued today.
In a 3-2 decision, commissioners argued that the normal avenue
for such a review the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB)
would be bypassed because they believe the question of thermal
discharge has broader implications across the industry, and
could come up in other license renewal cases.
The contention was one of several raised by the New England
Coalition, and scheduled to be heard by the ASLB. Vermont Yankee
appealed the decision to review the contention.
The group believes Entergy has not adequately answered questions
about the long-term impact on the Connecticut River that a rise
in water temperature by one degree over what is currently
allowed in its permit will have on various aquatic species.
In its appeal, Vermont Yankee claimed there would be no adverse
impact due to the change.
The sharply differing views of the majority and dissenting
member of the board on the regulatory requirements for
environmental assessment of the impact of thermal discharge from
a once-through cooling system raise significant issues of
potentially broad impact and may well recur in the likely
license renewal proceedings for other plants that use such a
cooling system but whose operating licenses have not been
renewed, wrote the majority in its decision.
Agreeing with the decision were commissioners Dale E. Klein,
chairman Edward McGaffigan, Jr., and Jeffrey S. Merrifield.
In their dissent, board members Peter Lyons and Gregory Jaczko,
said the majoritys decision overlooks one important fact the
NRC has already reviewed nearly two dozen license renewals.
The majority decision implies that the issue of the impact of
thermal discharge from a once-through cooling system is a new
issue before the commission and suggests that since industry
expects all plants will seek license renewal, this issue may
well recur in the likely license renewal proceeding, the pair
writes. First, according to the NRC license renewal website, the
NRC has completed its review on no less than 23 plant
applications. Had this matter been indeed of substantial
significance, it likely would have surfaced before. It hardly
seems a worthwhile exercise of the commissions supervisory
authority to resolve a routine contention admissibility dispute.
The ruling did not fall along party lines, said an NRC
spokesman.
Ray Shadis, a technical advisor to NEC, said he is looking
forward to litigating the issue before the commission, as it
remains a critical question, however he questioned why the NRC
would take it on.
He hopes the commission will provide guidance to the ASLB and
give it back to them for a full judicial review rather than
adjudicate it.
Vermont Yankee officials were not immediately available for
comment.
In September, the ASLB agreed to hear contentions filed by the
state of Vermont and a citizen watchdog group as part of its
review of Vermont Yankees bid to operate beyond 2012. Vermont
Yankee appealed their ruling to the full NRC.
The ASLB ruling allowed one of the state Department of Public
Services three contentions, and four of the six contentions
filed by the New England Coalition. It denied outright
contentions from two other interested groups the Massachusetts
Attorney General and the Town of Marlboro.
The Massachusetts attorney generals office appealed the ruling,
and the full NRC will examine it, today's ruling also noted.
Of these five allowed contentions, four relate to various safety
aspects of operating the plant beyond its original 40-year
license, while the fifth relates to the environmental impact its
water discharges have on the Connecticut River.
The ASLB, which is a quasi-judicial panel of judges within the
NRC, has only allowed several outside groups to contest license
extensions.
Vermont Yankee's 40-year license expires on March 21, 2012.
Entergy, the plants owner, has formally asked to extend that
term for 20 years. If approved, the extension coupled with a 20
percent uprate that has been implemented at the plant would
increase the output of radioactive waste, and it may also add
stress to the plant beyond its original design, critics contend.
The ASLB agreed to hear NECs concerns about Entergys plans to
monitor key components as the plant ages and produces power at a
higher rate than originally licensed.
The group contends that Entergys proposed plan to monitor for
overall metal fatigue at the aging plant is inadequate, and
specifically falls short in relation to two key components the
steam dryer and the pipes that carry the steam.
The ASLB agreed to hear one contention by Vermont officials.
They are questioning Entergys plan to monitor and manage the
aging concrete that surrounds most of the reactor containment
vessel, called a drywell.
Send us your news tips, a letter to the editor or general
comments.
Northern Vermont: PO Box 335, Winooski, VT 05404 Southern
Vermont: 139 Main Street, Suite 702, Brattleboro, VT 05301
Contact: 802.861.4880 (ph) | 802.861.6388 (fax) | 877.231.5382
(toll-free)
2005 Vermont Guardian |
Visit us: www.vermontguardian.com
This document can be located online:
www.vermontguardian.com/local/012007/NRCRuling.shtml
*****************************************************************
43 SNA: Bulgaria: Bulgaria Mulls Third Nuke Construction on Black Sea
www.novinite.com Sofia Morning News
Business: 11 January 2007, Thursday.
Bulgaria's government plans to start construction of a third
nuclear power plant, on the Black Sea, to replace four
decommissioned units at Kozloduy.
The new facilities, to be built up probably close to the
Bulgarian-Turkish border, will add to the electricity output of
the Belene plant, which is expected to work as of 2010-2011.
Thus Bulgaria will regain its positions as a key energy exporter
to the Balkan countries and contribute to the efforts of the
European Union to coin a sustainable energy policy.
Several locations have been proposed to construct the third
nuclear power plant, including the beaches of Arapia and
Nestinarka, near Tsarevo, and the beach of Silistar, near
Sinemoretz.
The draft proposal, already approved by energy experts and the
Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency, has been submitted for
coordination by the various ministries, official sources told
Novinite.com on conditions of anonymity.
The leaders of the ruling coalition will also have to
green-light the project, which will then line for an ok by the
International Agency for Atomic Energy (IAAE).
The preference of the Black Sea to locate the plant, instead of
the Danube River banks as are Kozloduy and Belene, is grounded
mainly on environmental, transport and social reasons. The
production of atomic energy is friendly to the environment,
experts say.
From a transport point of view, the plant will have direct fuel
loading facilities on the Black Sea sparing millions of euros
for transportation on land.
The nuclear establishment will also revive the local economy,
which has traditionally appeared on the bottom of employment and
growth statistics. It will create permanent job places and
attract many energy professionals, who will probably settle in
the region.
The third nuclear power plant of Bulgaria will solve the
aggravating energy demands along the Black Sea coast, deriving
from the dynamic tourism construction.
The EU budget has already allotted EUR 550 M to support
Bulgaria's nuclear decommissioning programme at Kozloduy for the
period 2000-2009.
Dismantling nuclear plants inherited from the Soviet era was one
of the main issues that the EU insisted upon during accession
talks, leading to unit closures in many cases. Bulgaria had to
sacrifice four out of six units at Kozloduy to be allowed to
become an EU member.
However, governments and public opinions in the "nuclear
countries" of central Europe are generally supportive of this
source of energy and some, including Slovakia and Bulgaria, are
making plans to resume their nuclear programmes - in compliance
with strict EU standards.
novinite.com Forum Google Tourism Business
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&Disclaimer - Privacy Policy
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Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency -
www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news
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Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish
*****************************************************************
44 FPN: Namibia opts for nuclear power
Free Press of Namibia
Thursday, January 11, 2007 - Web posted at 7:04:51 GMT
BRIGITTE WEIDLICH
GOVERNMENT has taken a decision to utilise nuclear power in order
to avoid a looming power supply crunch in southern Africa and
will use its own uranium resources.
"Government made a policy decision to that effect," the
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Joseph
Iita, told The Namibian yesterday.
"This decision was reinforced last year."
Iita would not disclose when exactly Cabinet had taken the
decision but said he had been instructed by his Ministry to look
into the option of nuclear power generation.
Iita was approached for comment after the panapress agency
reported yesterday that Namibia was seeking regional and
international help to build a nuclear power generation plant.
Namibia imports about 50 per cent of its electricity needs,
mainly from South Africa.
Energy experts predict shortages of electricity supply in the
region as South Africa's surplus is diminishing because of
increasing local demand within its borders and also because of a
lack of investment in new power plants in neighbouring countries
over the past two decades.
"Nuclear energy is one of the options we are considering, it is
not the option, but one of many options.
We are also looking into renewables like wind and solar power,
gas like the Kudu gas field or hydropower from the Baynes
Mountains on the Kunene River," Iita added.
"It will not be in the immediate future, but rather a long-term
project, because we will have to co-operate with several
countries, especially those which have experience with that
technology, since our people need to be trained in this field."
Another issue to be considered is the management and storage of
nuclear waste coming from such a power plant.
"We look at all aspects," the Permanent Secretary said.
He told The Namibian that electricity could also be generated
from the power of ocean waves along the Namibian coast.
"This technology will be even cheaper than a coal-fired power
plant and we are looking into that as well."
However, Namibia's energy needs might be partially met within
24 months through wind power.
A Dutch investor intends to inject nearly one billion Namibia
dollars into the country's economy with the establishment of a
large wind park which will generate 92 megawatt (MW) of
electricity, roughly 25 per cent of the country's energy needs
of approximately 400 MW.
The company Aeolus Associated and its proprietor, Leo van
Gastel, have applied for an electricity generation licence at
the Electricity Control Board (ECB).
The proposed investment of 99 million euros (about N$1 billion)
provides for 102 wind turbines of 900 and 600 kilowatt (KW)
capacity.
The majority of them, 70 turbines, are to be erected at Grosse
Bucht outside Luederitz, while 16 turbines each are intended for
Oranjemund and Walvis Bay.
About 84 million euros of the funding will be secured through
export subsidies of the Dutch government and subsidies for
renewable energies from EU and UN agencies.
The intention is to sell the electricity generated to NamPower
to be fed into the national power grid.
The cost of generation is estimated to be N$0,24 per kilowatt
hour (KWh) and Aeolus wants to sell electricity to NamPower at
N$0,35 per KWh.
In its licence application, which was advertised last week,
investor Van Gastel maintains that a net profit of about N$5
million a year can be made from the envisaged wind park.
Official measurements show that Namibia's coastal areas have a
wind speed of 6,5 to 7,5 metres per second, which is a
prerequisite to move the large propellers of the turbines to
generate electricity.
EYE ON THE FUTURE According to the documents at the ECB, which
are available for public scrutiny until February 5, the Aeolus
Green Energy Namibia company plans to erect the first turbines
by October this year, which can start supplying electricity
immediately after installation.
Full production with all 102 turbines installed is envisaged by
2009, one year before the 400 MW Kudu gas-to-power plant is
supposed to come on stream.
Van Gastel's Namibian project partner, local businessman and
energy expert Martin Heita, said it was important that Namibia
developed its natural resources and renewable energies.
"Solar and wind power are part of these resources," he told The
Namibian yesterday.
"A feasibility study for the wind farm is underway and will be
completed soon."
Heita said negotiations with NamPower about the purchase price
of electricity from the future independent power provider (IPP)
have also started.
"These might take some time, as this is new ground we tread on.
If we get the green light for this wind park, it will be the
first of its kind in Africa and Namibia will be a leader in this
technology and the expertise can be exported to other African
countries."
Heita added that the Aeolus Green Energy company also planned to
establish a centre of excellence in wind generation technology,
where technicians will be trained.
Material on this site copyright The Free Press Of Namibia (Pty)
Ltd
PO Box 20783 - Windhoek - 42 John Meinert Street
Tel: +264 (61) 279600 - Fax: +264 (61) 279602
*****************************************************************
45 Brattleboro Reformer: VY drill deemed success
AUDETTE, Reformer Staff
Thursday, January 11 BRATTLEBORO -- Besides some minor
communications problems, a scheduled drill conducted at Vermont
Yankee nuclear power plant Wednesday morning was a success.
"Everything went well," said John Angil, Vermont's radiological
emergency response program manager in Brattleboro.
Still, said Angil, with the number of agencies and towns
involved "communications can always use some tweaking."
The drill, which started at 8:30 a.m., at was designed to test
the plant's response and notification plans and procedures and
the communications network linking emergency responders around
the state.
"We are getting ready for the evaluated exercise on Oct. 17,"
said Angil, a test that is conducted every two years, required
by Federal Emergency Management Agency.
During Wednesday's drill, new communication and monitoring
software was tested. Using Web-based management software, he and
others in state emergency management were able to monitor plant
operations.
Towns participate in these scheduled drills on a voluntary
basis, receiving a notification tone, said Angil, adding New
Hampshire and Massachusetts didn't participate in this drill.
He said it's up to each town to determine its participation
level.
"If they want to test their procedures, they can activate
people," he said.
Lewis Stowell, an emergency planner for the state, said during
the drill on Oct. 17, all concerned agencies and towns will
participate, as will agencies from the two neighboring states.
Though folks in Brattleboro and the surrounding towns won't see
evacuations or anything on that order, there will be more
activity at emergency response centers, with several hundred
people having a role in the fall drill, said Stowell.
"The purpose of having drills like this is to discover little
things that you would like to fix," said Stowell, who added
Wednesday's test was about "how the plant responds and our
response to the plant's notifications."
"There is a lot of technology we are trying to integrate," he
said, about the new software.
"This will be a never-ending process and anytime you are dealing
with new technology, there is always the chance that something
won't work as promised."
Stowell said the state takes advantage of every opportunity to
test its emergency response in relation to Yankee. He said
running drills such as this is "pretty close to the real thing."
Another drill is scheduled for April 18.
Bob Audette can be reached at or (802) 254-2311, ext. 271.
(802) 254-2311
62 Black Mountain Road
Brattleboro, VT 05301-9242
*****************************************************************
46 Japan Times: Creating new security system fraught with obstacles
Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007
YEARS OF WORK AHEAD
By HIROKO NAKATAStaff writer
Attempting to shore up its poor handling of security matters, the
government has set its sights on building a new system to
centralize information channels and creating a security body that
can deal quickly with fluid international situations.
Creating a body like the U.S. National Security Council is a key
component of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive to take
policymaking out of the hands of the bureaucrats and put it in
the prime minister's office.
The government has come up with two panels. One, made up of
defense and diplomacy experts, will create a framework for a new
national security body. The other, made up of current government
officials and holding its first meeting later this month, will
come up with ways to enhance the country's ability to obtain
security information, including possible creation of an
intelligence-gathering agency.
The panels are to have proposals ready by the end of February.
It remains to be seen, however, whether these two envisaged
bodies will ever actually work. Obstacles range from conflicts
of interest within various ministries and agencies to the lack
of flexibility in the decision-making process under the Diet
system.
A concrete picture of the new framework is nowhere near in
sight. It would take years, maybe even decades, to train
professional intelligence agents who can carry out field
operations overseas, experts say.
"It's likely to take almost 20 years to train intelligence
officers from scratch," said Yoshio Omori, who headed the
Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office in the 1990s and is now
an executive adviser to NEC Corp.
It is often the case with Japan that people involved in
gathering intelligence do not even have the most basic of
skills, according to Omori.
"There must be many Japanese who can drive a car in China. But
how about Japanese who can drive a car and shake off their
shadows there?" he asked.
Japan has no intelligence agency like the CIA or Britain's
Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6. The closest it gets is
the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, which is under the
Cabinet secretariat, Omori said.
Although the office has a staff of about 170, they do not carry
out field operations and many are on loan from various
ministries. Their major task is gathering media reports, Omori
said.
Experts say bitter public memories of the early-20th century
nationalist regime and secret police -- under which numerous
people were tortured or otherwise persecuted for alleged treason
-- have prevented the government from creating an intelligence
agency to deal with postwar realities.
Lacking its own capabilities, Japan relies on the United States
for national security and intelligence-gathering.
There is a growing feeling that Japan must become less reliant
on the U.S. and bolster its own intelligence capabilities, in
part due to the North Korean nuclear threat, which puts Japan's
security directly at risk, said Nobuo Ishihara, who chairs the
panel on creating a national security body. Fear is also growing
that Japan will become a terrorist target, he said.
"We are talking about what kind of organization would be helpful
for the prime minister to make prudent decisions," Ishihara
said.
A former bureaucrat who currently heads the nonprofit Research
Institute for Local Government, Ishihara served as deputy chief
Cabinet secretary from 1987 to 1995 under seven prime ministers,
from Noboru Takeshita to Tomiichi Murayama.
Nothing specific -- from the size of a national security body to
who would be a member -- has been decided yet.
"What we are aiming at is to link the present information
channels to the Cabinet effectively," Ishihara said.
As for the panel on gathering intelligence, Takahisa Ishida, a
counselor at the Cabinet secretariat, said members will likely
discuss "all possible measures" to improve Japan's abilities.
However, a framework for an intelligence agency also does not
yet exist, Ishida said.
While the two security-related bodies are being considered,
experts warn that a strong sense of bureaucratic turf is likely
to get in the way of any new organization's ability to work
effectively.
Abe's national security adviser, Yuriko Koike, said the biggest
obstacle in creating a national security council will be "the
walls surrounding each ministry."
Currently, security information is gathered separately by bodies
with a wide range of interests, including the Foreign Ministry,
the Defense Ministry, the National Police Agency, the National
Public Safety Commission, and Cabinet ministers via their posts.
These parties do not share their intelligence partly because of
sectionalism but also out of fear that important security
information could be leaked by politicians, who face no legal
constraints from doing so, unlike bureaucrats who are barred by
law from leaking information obtained in the course of their
duties.
The envisaged national security council's task would include
formulating short- and long-term security strategies, but this
could cause another form of conflict between ministries over
which one takes the initiative, said Yuichiro Hitoshi, chief of
foreign affairs and national defense in the National Diet
Library's research bureau.
The current Security Council of Japan, which holds meetings
among key figures such as the defense, foreign and finance
ministers to discuss important security matters, approves policy
but does not formulate strategy.
The lack of flexibility in Japan's decision-making process poses
another hurdle. Under the parliamentary system, any important
policy matter requiring Cabinet approval must have unanimous
support among the ministers.
In the United States, the president convenes a meeting of the
NSC, which consists primarily of the president, the vice
president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and
the secretary of the Treasury. The participants vary depending
on the situation.
While the NSC has a staff of about 200 and those five top
officials meet whenever necessary, the president always makes
the final decision.
Japan's new security body might be more like Britain's Defense
and Overseas Policy Committee, one of the Cabinet's standing
committees.
It usually includes the prime minister and ministers dealing
with foreign policy, defense and finance. But such committees
vary in scale and makeup with each Cabinet.
Whatever form Japan's new security council takes, Ishihara of
the panel on national security says it must have the ability to
gather intelligence and develop security strategies on its own
to confront crises.
"It is like locking the doors and windows when thieves are out
and about," he said. The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
47 [DU List] Uranium still killing italian troops
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:34:30 -0800
X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (192.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61]
X-Sender-Host-Address: 63.203.231.61
X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6247401.stm
Uranium 'killing Italian troops'
By Christian Fraser
BBC News, Rome
Italian soldiers are still dying following exposure to depleted
uranium in the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, their relatives say.
Troops who served during the wars in the 1990s believe they have
contracted cancer and other serious illnesses from extended exposure
to the munitions.
The US says it fired around 40,000 depleted uranium rounds during the
Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts.
A pressure group says 50 veterans have died and another 200 are
seriously ill.
Depleted uranium is used on the tips of bullets and shells. Because
of its density it can pierce the armour plating on tanks.
But when it explodes it often leaves a footprint of chemically
poisonous and radioactive dust.
The Italians who
served in Bosnia and Kosovo were involved in the
clear-up of battlefields and came into close contact with exploded
ammunition.
Children with disabilities
The association representing the soldiers, known as Anavafaf, says
many of those who have died or are ill have contracted cancer.
In 2002 the Italian defence ministry published a report compiled by
independent scientists which found a higher than average number of
servicemen were suffering from cancer.
It said there was an excessive number of Hodgkin's disease victims
among Italian Balkan peacekeepers.
A number of children fathered by the soldiers have been born with
disabilities.
There are similar reports from soldiers' associations in Belgium,
Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Both the US and Britain acknowledge the dust from depleted uranium
can be dangerous if inhaled but they insist the danger is short-lived
and
localised.
All
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48 Deseret News: Divine Strake session criticized
[deseretnews.com]
Thursday, January 11, 2007
By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News
Toward the end of the second hour of a public information session
Wednesday night on the planned Divine Strake explosion, a man
shouted that anyone who was against the test should say aye.
[Thomas Enyeard with the National Nuclear Security Administration
speaks at a Divine Strake session. (Tom Smart, Deseret Morning
News)] Tom Smart, Deseret Morning NewsThomas Enyeard with the
National Nuclear Security Administration speaks at a Divine
Strake session.
"Aye" roared from the several hundred Utahns gathered in a
ballroom of the Grand America Hotel, 55 S. State.
As officers were hustling the man out of the room, shouts
came that this was a public meeting. That was followed by a
response, apparently from an officer, "It's not a public forum."
And that description of the meeting is one of the many
concerns of those who attended the Salt Lake gathering sponsored
by the government agencies that plan to detonate 700 tons of
explosive material that opponents fear will stir up radioactive
dust from the same area when nuclear bombs were tested decades
earlier. Another gathering is scheduled for tonight in St.
George.
"They are so afraid of the public," said Mary Dickson, a
member of Downwinders United and an anti-nuclear activist.
The man who was escorted out of the hotel refused to give
his name but said he would be present at a public hearing next
week sponsored by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. A plainclothes officer
who had escorted the man told the Deseret Morning News he was
Sgt. Andrew Oblad of the Salt Lake City Police.
"Yes, I asked him to leave," he said. Oblad added, "I'm
done talking to you. Have a nice night."
Instead of a public hearing format, the government set up
information stations around the ballroom where 23 public affairs
officers and others from the test's sponsors were ready to
answer questions about the blast. The Defense Threat Reduction
Agency and National Nuclear Security Administration plan to
detonate 700 tons of fuel oil and ammonium nitrate at the Nevada
Test Site.
NNSA posters lining a side of the large ballroom showed
tunnels with aircraft and machinery, with the slogan, "Foreign
underground facilities are a growing threat." DTRA officials
with posters about the experiment itself were on the other side
of the room.
A stenographer was ready to take verbatim statements from
the public, a new wrinkle after heavy criticism that the meeting
would not be a public hearing. Asked how many people had spoken
to her, she said she was instructed to say nothing.
Asked why the agencies had not said earlier that oral
comments would be taken as well as written statements, Kevin
Rohrer of NNSA at the Nevada Test Site said, "You can't get
every detail in every press release," but any comments would be
considered part of the record.
The agencies have also been criticized for changing the
location of the meeting the day before it was to take place.
Asked his opinion about the safety of the test, Rohrer
said, "My personal feeling is that I would have no reservations
to stand downwind from this experiment, on the border of this
site, with my children and watch the explosion go off."
Dickson said, "When we came in tonight we were told that
this is not a public forum, they repeated that several times.
... They don't want any other viewpoints here."
Danielle Endres, assistant professor, department of
communications at the University of Utah, who studies the public
meeting process, said the process generally is flawed.
"It's a stacked deck, exactly, stacked against public
participation. And in general it's a stacked deck for a decision
that's already been decided," she said.
"My primary concern is for the well-being of life on this
planet," said Tom King, Salt Lake City. Besides damage from
radioactive isotopes at the test site, he said, he is worried
about the government's intentions.
"They want to see what a little nuke will do to
underground facilities," King said.
"I came to this public forum hoping that I would hear a
clear and concise, comprehensive presentation," said Julie Mack,
Salt Lake City. "And what I found were stations set up where
there's 10 people waiting at each station. I can't hear, I can't
make sense of the progress of explanation, I am walking away
feeling disappointed and frustrated."
Jim Brentz, Draper, had a view that was different from the
majority attitude: "I don't think Divine Strake is anything to
be concerned about," he said. He was "exposed and saturated with
nuclear fallout" while a soldier at the test site during 1955
explosions, he said.
He said he was pleased by the public information session.
However, spokeswomen for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, expressed disappointment about the
forum.
E-mail: bau@desnews.com
2007 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
49 Guardian Unlimited: 120 test positive in spy probe | UK Latest |
From Press Association [UP]
Thursday January 11, 2007 6:18 PM
Nearly one in five people tested for the radioactive substance
which killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko showed
signs of contamination, public health officials have said.
The Health Protection Agency examined urine samples from 596
people in the UK who feared they may have inadvertently got
caught up in the poison bid.
Of those, 120 tested positive but only 13 were deemed to have
any type of risk to their health.
The HPA described the levels found as not significant enough to
result in any short-term illness and said any increased risk in
the long term was likely to be very small.
Professor Pat Troop, chief executive of the agency, said: "There
are just over 100 people who had evidence that they were in
contact - most probably in contact - with this radiation
polonium-210."
She said tests were still being carried out on a number of
foreign nationals who may also have been contaminated.
The HPA is working with 48 different countries and has
identified 450 people who may have been affected worldwide.
Mr Litvinenko visited a number of venues in central London on
the day that he fell ill. Among them was the Millennium Hotel in
Mayfair, the Itsu sushi bar in Piccadilly and an Italian
restaurant, also in Mayfair.
Mr Litvinenko, 43, died in London's University College Hospital
in November.
Prof Troop said the amount of contamination in his body was
"many thousands of times greater" than anyone else who had
tested positive for polonium-210.
Copyright Press Association Ltd 2007, All Rights Reserved.
Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
50 reviewjournal.com: Utahns oppose 'Divine Strake'
Jan. 11, 2007
Meeting crowd small but vocal
SALT LAKE CITY -- A small but vocal crowd of people gathered
Wednesday night for an open house on federal plans for a weapons
test that U.S. officials say will generate the first
mushroom-shaped dust cloud in decades at the Nevada Test Site.
The event was billed as a "public information session" where
those interested could view 12 poster board displays of
information about the proposed "Divine Strake" weapons test. Each
display was manned by an official for the National Nuclear
Security Administration or the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
"They have not been able to tell me what the displacement will
be," said Claudia Crosland, a Salt Lake City resident who
attended the session.
Crosland said she would ask a question at one display and they
would send her to talk with an official at another.
"It's like pingpong ball. I'm frustrated," she said.
Small groups gathered around the displays spaced out in a
meeting room of the Grand America Hotel, asking questions
ranging from how high the blast cloud could rise to where the
odd name of the test comes from.
Others gathered in the center of the room and discussed the plan
among themselves. The din of conversation was enough that when
Darwin Morgan, spokesman for the NNSA gave information about the
set up of the meeting by microphone he could hardly be heard.
Trent Alvey and Jean Arnold met at the meeting and said both of
their fathers died of cancer due to exposure to radiation tests
in the 1950s. Both of the women said they share a host of
adrenal and autoimmune disorders that they blame on that
exposure.
"I'm concerned on all levels. From my personal health all the
way up to the U.S. is becoming the world's bully," Alvey said.
Arnold said she felt like the issue had already been decided.
"This is not a public input process that's going on tonight,"
Arnold said.
When a man shouted for all opposed to the project to say "aye,"
nearly all in the room responded "aye."
Kevin Donahue was quickly approached by men in plain clothes who
identified themselves as officers with the Salt Lake City Police
Department. Donahue was escorted out of the hotel but was not
arrested.
"I just want the voices of Utah to be heard," Donahue said.
The public was encouraged to offer comments at the meeting by
filling out a comment sheet, sending their comments in by e-mail
or giving them to a stenographer set up at the back of the room.
Wednesday's was the second of the open houses for the proposed
weapons test. A similar session was held Tuesday in Las Vegas
another is planned today in St. George, Utah.
The Divine Strake test would explode 700 tons of a fuel oil and
fertilizer mixture over a tunnel at the Nevada Test Site, about
85 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Officials say the blast will provide crucial data on the kind of
shock needed to destroy deeply buried or hardened targets.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007
*****************************************************************
51 Belleville News-Democrat: More radioactive contamination at SEMO science building
01/11/2007 |
Associated Press
More radioactive contamination has been found at the science
building at Southeast Missouri State University, prompting
criticism from at least one professor who wonders why the
problem wasn't resolved long ago.
An environmental crew is decontaminating interior surfaces of
Magill Hall of Science, the site of previous contamination. Once
again, the culprit is radioactive americium-241, a man-made
chemical found commonly in household smoke detectors. When
inhaled, the chemical is largely deposited in a person's bones.
Chemistry faculty member David Ritter said the university should
have rid the building of all contamination years ago.
"It's just pathetic," Ritter said as a crew from Science
Applications International Organization handled radiation
cleanup on Wednesday.
The university has spent about $1.3 million over the past six
years cleaning up portions of the building. A spill happened in
the mid-1990s in a basement storage room involving
americium-241, which had likely been on campus since the 1960s.
Officials thought it had been removed in 1991. The spill went
unnoticed for years.
In September 2001, the university agreed to pay an $11,000 fine
from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission because of radiation
overexposure to a contract worker hired to remove the
radioactive material, stored in a safe in the basement.
The university no longer possesses americium-241. But over the
years, the university has found and cleaned up more contaminated
areas and removed contaminated chemistry equipment.
The latest cleanup, taking place before students return Tuesday
from winter break, involves the decontamination of the concrete
block walls in the second-floor hallways that lead to the
chemistry labs. Biology professor Walt Lilly, who is overseeing
the cleanup, said another chemistry lab is also being checked
for possible contamination prior to remodeling the room.
The hallways weren't checked for radiation during previous
cleanup efforts, he said.
Ritter said the university should have kept better track of
americium decades ago, and should have checked for radiation
contamination throughout the building when the problem was
discovered.
"They ignored it for 30 years," Ritter said.
From about 1990 to 1995, Ritter said, the university auctioned
off chemistry equipment that it no longer needed. Some of that
equipment may have been contaminated, he said, and the new
owners were never notified of the possible problem.
Chris McGowan, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics,
said school officials determined that any such contamination
would pose little health risk.
The latest radiation problem concerns Ritter, who teaches
chemistry classes on the second floor. He said students for
decades have leaned up against hallway walls now found to be
contaminated.
But Lilly and McGowan said the contamination on the walls posed
little danger.
"You would have to breathe it in or eat it," McGowan said. "The
radiation doesn't penetrate your skin."
*****************************************************************
52 KCPW: Tourism Officials Worry Divine Strake Will Deter Visitors -
Jan 10, 2007
by Julie Rose (KCPW News)
A proposed explosives test in Nevada could hurt tourism in
Southern Utah. Kane County Tourism executive director Ted
Hallisey says he'll feel obligated to tell tourists about the
potential risks - and that could cause a down-turn in visitors.
He's asking the Utah Office of Tourism to get involved in
opposing the so-called "Divine Strake" test being planned by
federal authorities.
"We don't want to chase tourism away, so basically we're saying
'Don't do the test,'" says Hallisey.
Officials say the explosion will not release significant amounts
of radiation into the atmosphere. Hallisey is leery, given the
number of so-called downwinders in Southern Utah who became ill
after nuclear testing in the 1950s. Tourism tax collections in
Kane County were up six percent last year, mainly because of
visits to national parks like the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce.
Federal authorities will hold an open house on Divine Strake
tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Grand America Hotel.
Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2007 KCPW
*****************************************************************
53 The NewStandard: Depleted uranium ‘killing Italian troops’ from NATO wars
Italian soldiers are still dying following exposure to depleted
uranium in the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, their relatives say.
Troops who served during the wars in the 1990s believe they have
contracted cancer and other serious illnesses from extended
exposure to the munitions. The US says it fired around 40,000
depleted uranium rounds during the Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts.
An Italian advocacy group says 50 veterans have died and another
200 are seriously ill.
Main Source: BBC
Remarks: No mention in this BBC article about any health affects
experienced by people living in Bosnia and Kosovo. –BD
Wednesday, January 10
*****************************************************************
54 Salt Lake Tribune: Divine Strake visitors frustrated
By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/11/2007 06:46:51 AM MST
+ Downwinders call for additional Divine Strake public meetings
A Pentagon agency took pains Wednesday to give Utahns a
say on a test explosion proposed for the Nevada desert.
But many visitors complained instead they were frustrated,
angry and as suspicious as ever about the Defense Threat
Reduction Agency's (DTRA) so-called "Divine Strake" test, the
detonation of 700 tons of conventional explosives to study the
destruction of underground bunkers, like those used by the
nation's foreign enemies.
More than 200 people toured displays providing data on the
blast in a Grand America Hotel ballroom in Salt Lake City, one
of three locations for "public information sessions" on the
controversial explosion.
They were invited to question agency staff, fill in comment
sheets, declare their thoughts to a court reporter or e-mail
their comments later.
But they wanted more public input. Tension between the
visitors and their government hosts bubbled over when Divine
Strake opponent Kevin Donahue grabbed the attention of the whole
room and asked opponents to speak up. And they did, whistling
and cheering.
"This is not a public forum," called out one of the security
guards who surrounded Donahue.
Just about everyone wished it had been - including U.S. Sen.
Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-2nd District, and
Republican Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. - all of whom sent
representatives to the meeting.
Huntsman, in fact, has scheduled two state-sponsored public
hearings later this month.
DTRA's David Rigby pointed out the strong attendance at the
open house, itself an added effort to engage the public on the
environmental assessment for Divine Strake.
"I think it went very well," he said. "I'm pleased with the
turnout."
Disappointed Holladay resident Kathleen Bourne had hoped for
an exchange of ideas as in a public hearing.
"They have diluted any group dynamics," said Bourne, who is
worried about the possible health impacts of the
radiation-tainted debris cloud. "But I think that might be what
they intended."
Anna Bowman, a Salt Lake Valley eighth-grader, said the test
frightens her, considering what happened after atomic weapons
explosions conducted previously at the test site.
"We can't really be sure if these so-called safe tests are
going to have any long-term effects that we don't know about,"
she said.
Donahue phoned in an assault report against the security
guards who tried to hustle him from the room. As he waited for
police, he said: "I don't know if there is anything wrong about
speaking out and saying what you think. Do they really want to
hear?"
In the month remaining for public comment on Divine Strake,
many Utahns are expected to ask for more detailed environmental
study and in-depth public hearings.
fahys@sltrib.com
Utah's own meetings
There are two public hearings on Divine Strake held by the
state.
* ST. GEORGE:
Jan. 18, 5-8 p.m., Dixie State College, Dunford Auditorium,
Browning Building, 225 S. 700 East
* SALT LAKE CITY:
Jan. 24, 5:30-8:30 p.m., state Capitol, West Building, Room
135, 450 N. State St.
*****************************************************************
55 Yreka's Siskiyou Daily News: Atomic Veterans an elite fraternity
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Veteran’s Column
By Undersheriff Mike Murphy
I know….this term sounds like something out of a science
fiction movie. Unfortunately, this is not fiction and there are
veterans suffering from many disabling diseases associated with
their service as “Atomic Veterans”.
Atomic Veterans are an elite fraternity of veterans of our armed
forces. They were exposed to ionizing radiation from atomic and
nuclear weapons testing during the Cold War Era.
Beginning with “Trinity Blast” in New Mexico in 1945 and
ending after the Nuclear Test Ban in 1963, thousands of military
personnel were exposed to atmospheric tests in the Pacific and
in Nevada at test sites…..kind of like military guinea pigs.
Many service personnel and civilians took part in a variety of
tests. It has been reported that the Atomic Energy Commission
worked in concert with the Department of Defense by having
troops witness and participate in the nuclear detonations.
As crazy as this sounds, military personnel were placed in harms
way without benefit of protective clothing or respiratory
devices. This created many adverse health conditions in the
servicemen.
Based perhaps on their exposure, nearly three quarters of those
exposed ultimately died from a variety of illnesses.
Many died from cancer and it is believed that the cancers are
related to the nuclear exposures. Unfortunately, most of the
tests were considered “Top Secret”, so secret in fact that
many veterans did not have any documentation placed in their
service or medical records. Obviously this creates a dilemma for
the veterans when trying to prove their exposure to obtain
benefits. Claims for exposure are approved when the veteran can
show a disabling illness or injury caused by military service.
Sometimes proving this can be difficult, but it can be done in
spite of the difficulties.
Recently, there has been a register developed for these
veterans. They can sign up with the Veterans Administration’s
Ionizing Radiation Register just in case any additional benefits
are granted. You can find the register by accessing the
Department of Veterans Affairs website. If you are a veteran of
these tests or know someone who was involved I would recommend
you receive an examination from the Veterans Administration.
Your life may depend on it.
Copyright 2006 Some Rights Reserved.
Siskiyou Daily News DAILY :: 309 SOUTH BROADWAY, Yreka, CA 96097
Phone: (530) 842-5777
*****************************************************************
56 Boston Globe: Landfill cancer study finished -
Christine Wallgren January 11, 2007 --> NORTON
Results withheld until Tuesday
By Christine Wallgren, Globe Correspondent | January 11, 2007
People who live near the old Shpack landfill, a Superfund
cleanup site, have long wondered whether they suffer a higher
rate of cancer than others in Norton. A just-completed state
study has the answer -- but residents must wait until later this
month to hear it.
State health officials from the Department of Health's Bureau of
Environmental Health Management will present their findings at 7
p.m. Tuesday in the Norton Public Library. Town officials will
be briefed on the study just an hour before the public meeting
begins.
The Shpack landfill, a private site that operated from 1946 to
1965, contains radium and uranium, two radioactive compounds
left over from the early years of the nation's atomic energy
program. It is one of only two federal Superfund sites in New
England that contain radioactive material.
The state's study tracked census information for people living
near the old landfill from 1982 to 2002 and compared it with
data in the Massachusetts Cancer Registry, which is a record of
all cancers diagnosed in the state since 1982. The study looks
specifically at the incidence of 13 cancers that could be
related to the radioactive waste and toxic chemicals buried in
the area.
Residents say that for many years they walked and played around
the landfill, unaware of any danger. Some still drink water from
area wells. State officials have conceded there was opportunity
for contamination through the surface water run off,
groundwater, skin contact , and airborne exposure.
Heather Graf, founder of the Citizens Advisory Shpack Team --
known as CAST -- has been pushing for a study of the 1- mile
radius around the Shpack site for several years. She said she
believes there is a cluster of cancer cases around the landfi
ll. Political pressure from US Representative Barney Frank got
the state Department of Public Health to take a look at health
issues, Graf said.
Graf hopes the findings will reveal more than an earlier,
less-targeted study, done in 2002. When state health officials
presented results of that initial study, Norton residents
attending that meeting left disappointed and frustrated.
"What they came back with was a five-year report, based on 1994
to 1998 for all of Norton and Attleboro," Graf said. "When I
found out what they had for us, I wasn't happy. It didn't tell
us anything we wanted to know."
The earlier study looked at 23 cancers. The results showed
levels for most cancers were not essentially different from what
was expected. A few did exceed expected standards for both towns
as a whole, but that did not establish any direct link to the
Shpack site.
A short time after that meeting, state health officials said
they planned to scrutinize more closely the area directly around
the landfill, which lies predominantly in Norton, near Union and
Worcester streets, but extends into Attleboro.
For this second study, the Department of Public Health agreed to
narrow the study area to the mile surrounding the landfill and
focus on 13 cancers that are known to be environmentally linked.
Graf said she is worried the new study, while more focused,
overlooked the earlier years of the landfill's operation.
"Based on the data they used, it can't be very complete. The
landfill was open in the 1940s through the 1960s. The study
won't take into consideration anyone diagnosed with cancer
before 1982 or anyone who moved out of state. I hate to say it,
but I don't want people to think there's going to be some big
revelation here."
Suzanne Condon, state director for environmental health, said it
is true that information on cancers diagnosed prior to 1982
would be considered "anecdotal" and therefore not included in a
formal study. But she added that most of the cancers that are
environmentally related have a latency period of 20 to 40 years,
making more recent cases of more interest than those diagnosed a
few decades ago.
Condon said those who attend the meeting Tuesday will be given
considerable information about health issues that could be
related to Shpack.
"There will be a full discussion and a presentation of our
analysis of the activity of several different cancer types,"
Condon said. Possible current and future dangers will be
covered, she said.
Radioactive waste is still being removed by the Army Corps of
Engineers. To date, about 1,850 cubic yards of contaminated soil
have been sent to Utah for disposal. Work halted last June when
money for the clean up ran out, but will continue next summer
when more funding is available.
The process, which federal officials have estimated will
ultimately cost about $35 million, is expected to be completed
by some time in 2008.
The Environmental Protection Agency will then begin cleaning out
all the chemical and heavy metal contaminants in the soil and
sediment there, a process they believe could take two years. The
site will therefore not be fully cleaned up until 2010.
Among the chemical contaminants known to be there are barium,
chromium, zinc, lead, nickel, cadmium, arsenic, iron, and
manganese, officials say. Those substances were deposited there
by a number of industries that operated in the area half a
century ag o, officials say.
Graf said landfill neighbors for years walked the site, ignorant
of the health risks. "That site used to be wide open," Graf
said. "People went sledding on it and hunted, hiked, and fished
there." The landfill is near Chartley Pond. The area has since
been fenced off.
Tuesday's public forum is expected to run from 7 to 9 p.m. Jan
Sullivan, director of the state's community assessment program,
will present the study results and field questions from the
audience.
Graf said she wishes the state would release the report before
the meeting so people would be given a little time to digest the
information. "If you don't see the report ahead, you don't have
much time to prepare your questions or have a reaction," she
said.
Condon said the state will allow a comment period to gather
public reaction to the report for several days after Tuesday's
presentation.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the new study,"
said Robert Kimball, selectmen chairman. "My experience with
these meetings is that a lot of other information seems to come
out.... I plan to listen to the presentation and then create a
list of questions that aren't answered. I will then write and
expect a response."
He said selectmen may simply tell residents they may submit
their questions to the selectmen's office and a single letter,
asking for further information, can then be forwarded to the
state.
Christine Wallgren can be reached at . [ /] Copyright 2007
Globe Newspaper Company.
*****************************************************************
57 The Spectrum: Discussing Divine Strake
www.thespectrum.com -
The Spectrum, St. George, UT thespectrum.com
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
[ width=] News
By PATRICE ST. GERMAIN patrices@thespectrum.com
SPRINGDALE Its not like the Springdale Town Council has never
made a political statement before.
Generally, the representatives of this small community are the
first to speak their mind on issues, even if their opinion is
sometimes unpopular.
Once again, the Springdale Town Council may end up deciding to
give someone a piece of their collective mind, this time to the
Department of Energy concerning the Divine Strake weapons test.
The test is the detonation of a 700-ton fuel oil and ammonium
nitrate bomb.
The bomb, which is not nuclear, is proposed to be detonated only
a mile away from where nuclear testing was conducted at the
Nevada Test Site. Those opposed to the test say it could raise
radioactive dust particles that could not be contained at the
test site.
Tonight the council wants to make a comment about the test, only
a day before an open house is scheduled in St. George sponsored
by the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site
Office and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
Mayor Pat Cluff asked for the item to be placed on the agenda.
I think it carries a little more weight, Cluff said of a
comment coming from the council rather than from individual
council members. I want to hear what the rest of my council
says and see where they are with this. Many people are concerned
about stirring up radioactive dust and we dont want to go where
we went before with all this fallout.
While the St. George City Council has a work meeting scheduled
for Thursday night, nothing is on the agenda for the following
week concerning making a council-wide comment about Divine
Strake.
Yet Mayor Dan McArthur said he is talking to his council about
the proposed test and it could be put on the agenda for the
regular meeting on Jan. 18.
McArthur said all of the council members are very concerned. He
said they have made personal contacts with representatives and
have spoken up in the past about the proposed test.
Many of us lived through the testing, which caused a lot of
grief and we have been very vocal about it, McArthur said.
Personally, I am concerned. We were not told the truth the
first time in the 50s.
Having grown up in the area, McArthur said he remembers being in
school underneath a desk as clouds from the Nevada Test Site
drifted overhead. He also saw the aftermath as many of his
classmates developed thyroid problems.
In an interview last week, Kevin Rohrer, spokesman with National
Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office said that
although the meeting is not a public hearing, public comment
concerning the revised environmental assessment released in
December is being accepted.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency had scheduled the test for
last June, but postponed it following questions from Rep. Jim
Matheson, D-Utah, and others over health and safety concerns.
Because of the lack of public hearings, and in response to
overwhelming requests to allow the public to speak on the Divine
Strake proposal, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. requested the Utah
Department of Environmental Quality host public hearings.
The hearings are scheduled for Jan. 18 in St. George and Jan. 24
in Salt Lake City. In addition, the public comment period on the
environmental assessment for the Divine Stake proposal has been
extended from Jan. 24 to Feb. 7.
Cluff said she doesnt believe weapons such as Divine Strake are
necessary and that testing would lead to the use of such
weapons.
As for the council possibly taking a stand on the issue, Cluff
said of all the towns in Washington County to make a public
stand, Springdale usually will, even if no other community
decided to join them.
We will speak up if we think things arent right, Cluff said.
Originally published January 10, 2007
The Meetings
+ Today: Springdale Town Council, 5 p.m. at the town hall, 118
Lion Boulevard.
+ Thursday: DTRA and NNSA/NSO public information sessions,
6:30-9 p.m., Dixie Center.
+ Jan. 18: State of Utah public hearing, 5-8 p.m., Dunford
Auditorium, Browning Building, Dixie State College.
+ The NNSA/NSO will accept comments on the revised Environmental
Assessment by mail, NNSA/NSO, Divine Strake EA Comments, P.O.
Box 98518, Las Vegas, NV 89193-8518; by
e-mail, divinestrake@nv.doe.gov; and fax, (702) 295-0625.
Comments must be received by Feb. 7.
Past Springdale Resolutions
+ April 2001 The Springdale Town Council passed a resolution
recognizing the towns dependence on the long-term protection of
natural features in Zion National Park. Natural quiet and
solitude are two important resources of Zion National Park and
the neighboring communities.
+ Feb. 2003 The Springdale Town Council unanimously passed a
resolution on War With Iraq to give peace a chance. The
resolution was authored by council member Louise Excell.
+ May 2004 The Springdale Town Council unanimously passed a
resolution to support Rep. Jim Mathesons, D-Utah, bill HR3921,
Safety for Americans from Nuclear Weapons Testing act.
+ July 2006 At a special meeting the Springdale Town Council
voted for a resolution opposing the Bennett-Matheson Washington
County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006.
*****************************************************************
58 Guardian Unlimited: Ceramic fails nuclear waste test
David Adam, environment correspondent
Thursday January 11, 2007
The Guardian
Scientists developing ways to dump Britain's nuclear waste
underground may have to think again after new research revealed
that radioactivity could leak out much earlier than expected.
Experts at Cambridge University and the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory in the US have discovered that ceramic
materials proposed to seal high-level waste break down much
faster than expected when exposed to radiation.
The team scanned the atomic structure of chunks of zircon, a
durable natural ceramic, before and after they were mixed with
plutonium, uranium and thorium. Mixing nuclear waste with zircon
has been suggested as a way to store it safely for thousands of
years.
Writing in Nature, the scientists say the resulting radiation
disrupted the atomic structure of the material some five times
more than expected. Zircon canisters used to store waste, the
scientists say, might start leaking after only 1,400 years. The
most radioactive wastes will remain dangerous for up to 250,000
years.
Ian Farnan, who led the research, said the results in effect
ruled out zircon. "It wasn't at the top of the list anyway, but
this pushes it further down," he said.
Useful link
Government's report on the energy review
Email your comments for publication to:
politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
59 Las Vegas SUN: Second possible route for Yucca Mountain rail line to get study
Today: January 11, 2007 at 13:35:12 PST
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The government has set aside a 130-mile stretch
of land through central Nevada so the Energy Department can
study whether it wants to use it to build a rail line to the
proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, officials said.
The federal Bureau of Land Management withdrew the mile-wide
corridor from Hawthorne to Goldfield from public use and
withdrew an additional 107 square miles of property along
portions of a previously designated study route from Caliente to
the Yucca Mountain site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The moves became official with a Wednesday posting in the
Federal Register in Washington, D.C.
Setting aside 140,000 acres along the so-called 130-mile Mina
corridor means no new mining or property claims can be made,
said Dennis Samuelson, a BLM realty specialist in Reno. It
forbids the government from selling or trading the land. Grazing
and other public access are not restricted.
The land withdrawals will allow the Energy Department to conduct
environmental studies of the rail routes to the proposed
national nuclear repository.
The Mina route would run north-to-south, and could cost less
than a 319-mile east-west rail line proposed from Caliente, near
the Utah border, across rural Nevada to the nuclear dump site.
The Energy Department had said it favored the Caliente route,
but the cost has been estimated at $2 billion.
There is no rail line to the Yucca Mountain site, which Congress
and the Bush administration picked in 2002 as the place to
entomb 77,000 tons of radioactive waste now being stored at
nuclear reactors in 39 states. The project has been stalled by
funding shortfalls and questions about quality control during
site selection.
All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
60 Platts: Norway protests Thorp reprocessing plant reopening
Stockholm (Platts)--10Jan2007
The Norwegian government January 10 strongly protested reopening
of the Thorp reprocessing facility.
The UK Nuclear Installations Inspectorate said January 10 it has
given restart permission to Thorp's manager, British Nuclear
Group.
The plant has been shut for the past 21 months following the
discovery of leakage of highly active liquid into a concrete
processing cell.
Norwegian Environment Minister Helen Bjoernoey said in a
statement that "Thorp should be closed for good."
She said that Thorp has been plagued by technical problems and
poor management, adding that the risk of highly radioactive waste
from reprocessing of spent fuel at Thorp "can have serious
consequences for Norway."
Led by the Norwegians and the Icelandics, the Nordic countries
have long protested Thorp's operations.
They say that fears about radioactivity in fish caught in the
North Atlantic can hurt commercial fisheries' business.
Copyright 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
61 West Australian: WA uranium ban puts pressure on Canberra
thewest.com.au
11th January 2007, 10:20 WST
Western Australia's resolve is set to be tested in coming
months as pressure mounts on it to overturn its uranium mining
ban.
Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell this week said he
wants the WA Labor government to overturn its "obscene" ban
because the world needs uranium and nuclear power can help in
the fight against climate change.
But WA Premier Alan Carpenter has been emphatic that uranium
mining will never happen in WA under his government. The ban was
one of Labor's central policies at the 2005 state election.
With climate change an increasingly pressing issue, Prime
Minister John Howard has been pushing the nuclear option hard,
and the federal government appears to be in a strong position.
Federal Labor is expected to abandon its three uranium mines
policy at the ALP National Conference in April, placing intense
pressure on the WA government to overturn its uranium ban.
The Howard government has the option of using its commonwealth
powers to force WA to overturn its ban, even though Senator
Campbell is playing down the option, according to constitutional
experts.
These powers were underlined late last year after the High Court
ruled against state Labor governments and unions when they
challenged the new federal workplace laws as being
unconstitutional.
The federal government also has the weight and momentum of the
government-commissioned report into nuclear energy headed by
former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski.
The report said 25 reactors could supply up to a third of
Australia's electricity by 2050, although this was so expensive
it would not be viable unless a price was placed on carbon
pollution from fossil fuel power.
And, putting even greater focus on Australia's uranium supplies,
Canberra last week signed an agreement to sell uranium to China.
Senator Campbell's argument for overturning WA's uranium mining
ban rests chiefly on a study by Princeton University's Robert
Socolow.
The senator said nuclear energy was one of seven measures
identified by Professor Socolow, including renewable energies
and energy efficiencies, that could stabilise greenhouse gas
emissions.
"By denying one of those technologies ... you are deciding that
you want to cook the planet, Senator Campbell said.
"If you say no to exporting uranium, you are not serious about
climate change."
But WA Environment Minister Tony McRae says nuclear energy is a
redundant technology.
The world's reserves of high grade uranium will be depleted in
30 years, nuclear plants need massive subsidies to operate and
nuclear energy leaves a legacy of at least 25,000 years nuclear
waste, Mr McRae argued.
"Were not going to be involved in a dirty and dangerous fuel
cycle. Ultimately, this is 'Please sell uranium to the world
because they need it' and next year it will be 'Please take your
waste back because the world needs it'," Mr McRae said.
The science put forward by the ministers appears as conflicting
as their political positions.
Prof Socolow does not say nuclear energy must be one of his
seven measures, or "wedges" as he calls them, that could
stabilise carbon dioxide emissions.
In a 2006 paper, he said many combinations of 15 different
technologies, including nuclear, could fill the seven wedges.
"I wouldn't agree with an argument that you need nuclear power
to achieve the kind of reductions we need," Dr Chris Riedy, an
energy researcher at the University of Technology, Sydney, told
AAP this week.
But according to Professor Leslie Kemeny, a retired academic and
now consulting nuclear engineer and physicist, nuclear energy is
the best defence against climate change because nuclear plants
essentially create zero greenhouse gas emissions.
"Nuclear is the only one that could take over three or four of
the seven wedges with no trouble at all," Prof Kemeny said.
Prof Kemeny rejects Mr McRae's assertions as well, saying there
is enough uranium to create energy for 700 years and that fourth
generation nuclear reactors will be as cheap as coal-fired power
stations.
And after 300 years of storage, nuclear waste is no more
dangerous than uranium in the ground, he said.
While there is debate over the science, the politics of the
issue seems to strongly favour the federal government.
With a federal election looming, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd
will put huge pressure on WA to overturn its ban at the ALP
National Conference, said Edith Cowan University politics
lecturer Peter Van Onselen.
"The new Labor leader is not going to want, as one of his first
major acts as leader, to be rolled on changing their three mines
policy. He's going to put pressure on WA to lift the ban."
Despite the pressure, WA will probably not yield because of
state electoral dangers, Dr Van Onselen said.
"They will rather stay with their commitment during this
election cycle, but they may give an indication that they will
look to review that in their next term of government."
If that did not satisfy the federal government it could use its
commonwealth powers to overturn the ban, said Curtin University
constitutional law expert Professor Greg Craven.
He has dismissed Senator Campbell's claim that talk of using the
corporations power was a "distraction".
"That's nonsense. The reality is after the Work Choices case the
commonwealth has a very strong argument that it can regulate
anything done by a trading corporation," Professor Craven said.
However, the federal government was unlikely to do this on such
a controversial issue in an election year, Dr Van Onselen said.
"They would rather use this as a wedge issue for the Labor Party
between its federal and state spheres, rather than push it
through by violating a state's rights and perhaps incurring the
backlash themselves.
"The federal government are in a strong position because they
believe in lifting the ban but there's no rush to exert that
pressure, so it's all on the Labor Party to jump first." AAP
with 'thewest.com.au' 'The West Australian' is a
*****************************************************************
62 OnPoint: Reporters Roundtable: E Daily reporters talk climate change, oil
tax, royalty relief, Yucca, and investigations
01/08/2007 --
About This Episode
As the Democrats take control over both houses of Congress, the
future of energy and environmental legislation remains to be
seen. During today's OnPoint, E Daily senior reporters Mary
O'Driscoll, Ben Geman and Darren Samuelsohn discuss key issues
that will be taken up by both the House and the Senate this
year. Reporters discuss Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.)
influence on climate change legislation, Sen. Harry Reid's
(D-Nev.) affect on the future of Yucca Mountain, the possibility
of an overall energy package, oil tax and royalty relief, and
what to expect from the president's upcoming State of the Union
address.
Monica Trauzzi: Welcome to OnPoint. I'm Monica Trauzzi. Joining
me today for a reporter's roundtable are E Daily senior
reporters Mary O'Driscoll, Ben Geman and Darren Samuelsohn.
Thanks for joining me guys.
Ben Geman: Sure.
Darren Samuelsohn: Glad to be here.
Mary O'Driscoll: As the Democrats take control of Congress they
are talking a lot about oversight investigations and basically
making an overall change to the way that Congress works. Will
these reforms actually happen and if they do, how much of a
change can we expect from the previous Congress?
Mary O'Driscoll: I think you'll see a lot of activity just out
of the gate, just to get some things moving, but I think things
will, they inevitably slow down, the whole process. And then
you're going to have been working on legislation and
investigations at the same time. The investigations are going to
take a little while to kind of get going too because they have a
lot of groundwork to lay and questioning and depositions and all
that kind of stuff in the investigations to do. So I think that
that will start happening probably the latter part of the spring
or summer or something like that, maybe even the fall, when we
really start seeing a lot of activity, a lot of hearing activity
and that kind of thing. But I think a lot of the investigations
will be behind the scenes for a while. But the legislation, you
know the House is going to come out with both guns blazing and
come out and do a lot of the energy stuff. But once you get to
the Senate things are going to definitely slowed down, as
Senator Bingaman and other senators have said first thing last
week.
Ben Geman: Yeah, I think on the oversight piece one thing I do
think that a lot of Democrats see is really ripe for the
picking, and will do somewhat quickly, is oversight hearings on
the Interior Department's royalty collection program. I mean
there's a lot of problems with that that's been widely reported
on. And I think we're going to see some action on that
relatively soon. Now there were some looks at this end of the
Republicans to be fair, but I think the Democrats are eager to
sort of take it up a notch so to speak. I mean, look, you've got
a lot of sort of things that they want to go after. You've got
big oil, which is always sort of a target that they're going to
look for. You've got the industry's relationship with the
administration. I mean I think we're going to see a burst of
activity on that issue as well.
Monica Trauzzi: Darren, a major focus, among the Democrats, has
been climate change legislation. And with Senator Boxer as the
chair of the Senate EPW Committee, how much she influenced the
legislation for climate change. She's a senator from California.
They just passed an aggressive cap on greenhouse gas emissions,
so how is she going to play into this?
Darren Samuelsohn: This is going to be an interesting time for
Senator Boxer. She will now be in charge of the committee as
opposed to just being a senator from California where she could
previously talk about her issues, talk about her concerns,
whether it be children's health, environmental issues. Now she's
talking for the entire Democratic Party as the chairman of the
Environment and Public Works Committee. So right away, right
after the election for example, she came out and said that she
wanted to move legislation that was as strong as California.
Will there was pretty quickly some push back that that's not
going to happen. Not going to happen for the entire United
States, not with senators from coal states, from oil states that
would have to be participating in this process. And she has said
that, so you can see that she has already transitioned, that she
is now aware that she has to reach out to other senators. One of
the first hearings I think she's going to hold is she's going to
invite senators in, congressmen in, and I think that just you're
going to get the lawmakers testifying before Senator Boxer's
committee offering their ideas. So while she might want and she
might set down the benchmark from the left, I think that she is
going to definitely be listening to what the senators from the
center have to say.
Monica Trauzzi: And how likely is passage of climate change
legislation? Will we see the Republicans and the Democrats
finding common ground or are the Democrats going to have to
water down their proposals?
Darren Samuelsohn: Well, before we even knew the Democrats were
in charge most people were saying 2008, 2009, 2010, were the
likely years. Now the Democrats are in control. We know that
Senator Reid, for example, is saying that climate change is
going to come to the floor in the springtime period. So that
means that Senator Boxer has been given instructions and I think
Senator Bingaman as well has been given instructions to try and
figure out what kind of climate bill they might be able to get
through their committee in the first couple of months. Now the
important thing to keep in mind is will it be a cap on emissions
or will it be some other climate related sorts of things?
Whether it be CAFE, whether it be renewable portfolios,
standards, whether it be energy efficiency green buildings, you
know, there's a whole host of things. Senator Boxer said in an
interview on NPR that there are like 14, 15 things that
scientists recommend that we can do to deal with climate change.
She doesn't think she's going to be able to get all 14. She
might have to get seven, eight, nine or 10 of them. So that's
probably where things are headed.
Monica Trauzzi: Ben, several key energy and environmental issues
are coming into play early on this time around. The Democrats
have plans to take up oil taxes and royalty relief. Talk
specifically about how they may change things for the oil
companies.
Ben Geman: Yeah, this is something that's going to happen fairly
quickly in the House. Now, of course, as Mary mentioned, things
work much more slowly in the Senate, but right out of the gate
the House Democrats have made an oil tax and royalty relief
package part of their sort of first hundred hour showcase. Right
now they're planning a vote on January 18. And what that package
would do would repeal certain tax breaks for the large
integrated oil companies, or what people tend to refer to as big
oil. Those include certain favorable tax treatment for the cost
of oil exploration as well as some deductions on income for
domestic manufacturing. Now right now the manufacturing
deduction applies to oil and gas. And I think what House
Democrats want to do is sort of remove that industry's
eligibility for that. And then of course there's been this huge
controversy over these deepwater Gulf of Mexico leases. And
there's going to be an effort to sort of address some of the
problems with those to ensure that royalties are paid. And what
they want to do with all this, and I think we're going to see a
lot of coupling of these two ideas, both in the House and the
Senate, is take these revenues that come in, somewhere in the
billions of dollars they hope, and steer it into alternative
energy. You know, again, we're going to see a quick burst of
that in the House even though, and I think industry is resigned
to sort of something clearing that chamber. But the Senate is a
real different body. I was speaking with Senator Baucus, who's
the chair of the Finance Committee, which addresses tax policy,
and he agreed that Democrats are also going to want to go after
industry tax breaks. And that's something Harry Reid has said,
that's something Jeff Bingaman has said. But he also said I want
to, you know, he injected in a precaution; he said I want to get
the facts out. I want to go slowly. So look for the Senate to be
the place where this sort of receives a much, I think,
longer-term consideration.
Monica Trauzzi: And what have you all heard about an overall
energy package? Is it likely? Can we expect it all in one piece?
And what might be included in it?
Darren Samuelsohn: It's going to be dribs and drab. Pieces are
going to come to the floor when they're ready, that's what I'm
hearing.
Mary O'Driscoll: Right, and there's also a school of thought out
there that, kind of bear with me on this, that you've got the
2005 energy bill. You know, love it or hate it, whatever you
think of it, it passed in 2005 and those kinds of bills come
along very rarely. And a lot of the elements that you're talking
about with energy right now are ideas that largely were
discarded at that time. That lawmakers knew they were never
going to get that through Congress. And now they're coming back
again. I think it's going to be very difficult for them to
really kind of put one big bill out there. So as you said it's
going to be the dribs and drabs. These are a lot of ideas that
were discarded in 2005. Congress has changed. You know there's a
new way of looking at things, but you need to keep that in mind,
that these things were tried and abandoned at that time and so
they're coming back. Things are little bit different now, but
it's still going to be a real, it's going to be a hard job for
them to get any of this done.
Ben Geman: Yeah, I completely agree. I mean there's a lot of
indications that it's going to be sort of, that there's not an
inclination to do this one big package. I think one area where
you will see some potential for bipartisan cooperation is
something that's quite popular in both parties, which is
biofuels. We've already had some legislation in the Senate,
bipartisan legislation introduced right out of the gate. And
we're also going to see a quick hearing, I believe, it's on
January 10 in the Senate Agriculture Committee, devoted to
biofuels as they get ready to sort of do the farm bill. So there
is going to be some focus on that issue and within that I think
there's a lot of different issues in play. I mean there's talk
of the outright boosting of the renewable fuel standard, but
there's a lot of other issues that I think lawmakers are going
to be sort of keen to address as well.
Mary O'Driscoll: Don't forget things like CAFE.
Monica Trauzzi: Yeah, what about CAFE?
Mary O'Driscoll: Don't forget things like renewable portfolio
standards and that kind of thing.
Monica Trauzzi: Can we expect a change in CAFE?
Ben Geman: Well, yes and no. I mean it's very difficult to just
do a straight up sort of clean increase in the mileage
standards. I mean there's resistance to that by the
administration and, frankly, among some Democrats as well. John
Dingell is an obvious example. But, you know, there's a lot of
ways to address the issue. I mean I think there is support for
doing something on vehicle fuel efficiency. You know, that can
sort of bring in ways to factor in proliferation of hybrid
vehicles, flex fuel vehicles. Of course for hybrid vehicles as
well as, you know, the administration does support raising CAFE,
but sort of segmented by different sort of classes of vehicles.
So somewhere within that soup, I think, that there's going to be
sort of an effort to do something. But it's a notoriously
difficult thing to pass and of course there's resistance in
Detroit.
Mary O'Driscoll: And also you can't discount the fact that if
you've got lawmakers looking at renewable portfolio standards
you're going to have a lot of Republicans coming back and
saying, yeah, but what about nuclear? Don't we include nuclear
with that? Well, then you're going to have this fight about
what's going to be included and what isn't and you're kind of
back at square one.
Monica Trauzzi: And let's talk about Yucca Mountain for a
moment.
Mary O'Driscoll: Speaking of nuclear.
Monica Trauzzi: Speaking of nuclear. Senator Craig has said that
he plans to reintroduce Yucca Mountain legislation with Senator
Pete Domenici. At the same time, incoming Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid is strongly opposed to Yucca Mountain and he's going
to be controlling the floor debate on this issue.
Mary O'Driscoll: Right.
Monica Trauzzi: How is this going to play out? And is Harry Reid
going to have influence in this debate?
Mary O'Driscoll: Oh, certainly, nothing is going to come to the
Senate floor. They can talk about it in committee all they want.
You know, a lot of people are going to be talking about the
problem with nuclear waste storage. What are we going to do
about disposal? But it's never going to see the light of day on
the Senate floor. Harry Reid will make sure of that. To Harry
Reid's way of thinking, and to a lot of people, is that there's
already nuclear waste storage now. It's all been done on-site at
the nuclear power plants. And so he has no problem with that.
Well, the industry and a lot of other people do have a problem
with that. You know Harry Reid, it's not going to get past him
and for him to do or say anything different would be a huge
change of policy on his part it's just not politically palatable
in Nevada.
Monica Trauzzi: But several Democrats are pro-nuclear.
Mary O'Driscoll: Right.
Monica Trauzzi: Is this going to cause a battle among Democrats?
Can they pressure him in a way to get this to the floor?
Mary O'Driscoll: Not when you've got people in Nevada fighting
the Yucca Mountain repository. That's the one thing that, he's
been on this for decades now and I really don't see any change
in that at all. There's no change in attitude in Nevada, and so
it's going to stay the same. But one thing, you know, he has
been careful also to say that he does support the nuclear
industry. He wants to see more nuclear power plants. And so the
big divide is on the waste issue itself. So it's pretty much
going to be a stalemate when it comes to that.
Monica Trauzzi: White House Energy Policy Coordinator, Al
Hubbard, announced recently that there would be a big focus on
energy independence in the upcoming State of Union speech. What
is the President likely to focus on? What are you hearing? And
how is this going to change Congress's overall agenda?
Darren Samuelsohn: Well, I've covered every single George Bush
State of the Union speech. Every single one of them has gotten a
mention on energy. Last year obviously was the most famous, I
guess you could say, when he said that America's addicted to
oil. But it's always usually one piece to a much broader speech.
This year I think you might see Bush trying to look ahead to his
legacy maybe on energy policy and get people talking about it,
but ultimately I think it's probably going to be a repackaging
of the ideas that we've heard from them before. There could be
something new and they're not going to tell us exactly what that
is until President Bush gives his speech. They're notoriously
good at keeping things secret. I would say though that whatever
Bush comes out with, you know, it lands at the feet of Democrats
on the Hill and they're going to have their own priorities that
we're talking about here and whatever Bush offers the Democrats
have their say.
Mary O'Driscoll: You have to remember, this is the first time in
quite a long time since we've had a Democratic Congress and a
Republican President. And just to tell you how old I am, I was
here the last time that that was and I was around the Hill. And
I think you're going to start seeing a lot of the things they
said that in those times, way back in the 80s, which is when the
President, the Republican President comes out and makes a
statement, the Democratic members of Congress say DOA, its dead
on arrival, not going to happen. And so they're pretty much set
in the direction they're going and the president is set in the
direction he's going. And as we all know, these things don't
ever come around and meet until the very last minute.
Ben Geman: I haven't the slightest idea what he's going to
propose, to be honest, But one thing that I'm a little bit
curious about, and I think this is going to have a lot to do
with how Congress reacts, is it would be one thing if there was
a sort of major new policy shift, akin to supporting mandatory
caps on greenhouse gas.
Darren Samuelsohn: Not going to happen.
Ben Geman: Which it seems like is not going to happen, that
would be one thing. On the other hand, but say he comes forth
and says, look, I'm announcing a major new monetary commitment,
of course tough in a tough budget climate, but a major new
monetary commitment to some of the priorities they've laid out
already, cellulosic ethanol and such. So I think the way that
the Hill will react will depend on whether, you know, on the one
hand it's a policy shift or on the other hand it's sort of just
a boosting of commitments to priorities that they've already
sort of established.
Mary O'Driscoll: Yeah, but then it also depends on where the
money is coming from ...
Ben Geman: Right.
Mary O'Driscoll: ... for that. If you rob Peter to pay Paul
you're going to run into some real problems. And with the budget
climate, who knows where that money is going to come from if you
can ever find it.
Monica Trauzzi: All right. We're going to have to end it on that
note. Thanks for joining me.
Darren Samuelsohn: Thank you.
Mary O'Driscoll: Thank you.
Monica Trauzzi: This is OnPoint. I'm Monica Trauzzi. Thanks for
watching.
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63 New Scientist: Setback for safe storage of nuclear waste - tech -
10 January 2007 -
[NewScientist.com]
+ Rob Edwards
A bad match, fuel rods and ceramics (Image: Roger
Ressmeyer/Corbis)
A material that promised to lock up nuclear waste for hundreds
of thousands of years may not be up to the job.
At present high-level waste is "vitrified" by combining it with
liquid borosilicate glass and solidifying the mixture. This
makes the waste safer as it delays leakage of the radioactive
material. The glass is not ideal, though, because geological
activity can break it up, so researchers are on the lookout for
more robust "immobilisation" materials.
Minerals such as zircon (ZrSiO4) are believed to have kept
naturally occurring radioactive uranium and thorium locked in
the Earth's crust for up to 4.4 billion years, surviving
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. As a result researchers have
argued that zircon, or similar synthetic ceramics, could trap
nuclear waste within their crystalline structures for at least
241,000 years, the time plutonium-239 takes to become relatively
safe.
Now a study shows that this is unlikely. It turns out that alpha
particles released as plutonium decays knock the atoms in zircon
out of position faster than originally predicted, impairing the
material's ability to immobilise waste (Nature, vol 445, p 190).
Ian Farnan of the University of Cambridge and colleagues at the
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington,
added plutonium to zircon and used nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy to distinguish between crystalline zircon and its
leaky, damaged form.
The researchers found five times as many damaged zircon atoms as
estimated by computer simulations. They conclude that
radioactive plutonium trapped in zircon would start leaching out
after just 210 years and lose its crystal structure entirely
after 1400 years.
The result could dash hopes for ceramics similar to zircon under
consideration in Australia, Russia and the US. Farnan believes,
however, that it is still possible to develop synthetic ceramics
that don't lose their crystalline structure as quickly as
zircon. "We have demonstrated a method that will allow us to be
more confident about the storage of waste in the future," he
says.
From issue 2586 of New Scientist magazine, 10 January
2007, page 26 [Printable version] [Email to a friend] [RSS
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64 Christian Science Monitor: A Middle East Nuclear Free Zone Proposal
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:42:17 EST
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Christian Science Monitor
from the January 10, 2007 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0110/p09s02-coop.html
A Middle East free of nuclear weapons
Such an agreement could not only head off an arms race, but might also help
in addressing fundamental political issues as well.
By Bennett Ramberg
LOS ANGELES
The recent announcement by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to explore
development of nuclear energy sent a shudder through the nonproliferation
community. The concern? Like Iran, these countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates - could some- day use the
peaceful atom to mount a nuclear weapons program.
As regional nuclear ambition - and apprehension - grows, it is none too soon
to start thinking seriously about the merits of a bold, old idea: a Middle
East nuclear weapons-free zone (MENFZ). Participating nations could use this
agreement not only to head off a nuclear arms race, but to address more
fundamental political issues as well. Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's
advocacy for such a zone in his visit last year to the United States may have been a
trial balloon or mere propaganda, but Arab states increasingly find the
principle attractive.
Given current concerns about Iran, it is not without irony that it initiated
the first MENFZ proposal, albeit in the different era of the US-backed shah.
Iran and Egypt cosponsored a resolution that appeared on the UN General
Assembly agenda on Dec. 9, 1974. It invited all nations in the Middle East to
reciprocally agree not to produce or acquire nuclear weapons.
In the decades that followed, Cairo led the drumbeat for the MENFZ in the UN.
Israel viewed it as an Arab ploy to embarrass the Jewish state. Initially,
Jerusalem tried to use the initiative to garner Arab recognition. It asked its
neighbors to sit down and negotiate. Arab states declined, arguing that
Israel's political legitimacy had to be resolved first. In subsequent years,
Jerusalem turned the tables. It said that denuclearization could not advance apart
from the "peace process" and the end of the "active state of war."
What would it take to initiate such a zone today? The MENFZ requires
resolution of at least four critical issues: geography, prohibitions, verification,
and enforcement.
The zone would include the 22-nation Arab League plus Iran and Israel. The
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would eliminate all nuclear weapons,
weapons-usable material, and weapons technology. Libya's denuclearization
provides a template. The MENFZ would not bar nuclear power or other peaceful atomic
activities - including fuel production.
However, a "joint" IAEA/host country team would bear managerial
responsibility. Additional resident agency inspectors would oversee safety protocols while
reserving the right to uncover all undeclared nuclear sites that they could
terminate on proliferation grounds, or subject to safeguards. International
inspectors also would safeguard dual-use technology. Violations, which the host
country failed to promptly rectify, would result in meaningful sanctions -
including military force if necessary - embodied in the zone treaty and endorsed by
the UN Security Council. This would tether Tehran's nuclear ambition to a
tripwire linked to material consequences.
Under the MENFZ, Israel would bear the largest sacrifice - the surrender of
its nuclear weapons capacity. In the 1950s, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion
initiated the program to compensate for the fledgling state's fragile
conventional forces and the unwillingness of the West to forge a military alliance.
Today, a different military balance characterizes the Middle East. Israel is the
dominant regional conventional military power. Nuclear proliferation will put
this superiority at risk. Then there is the possibility of Middle East terrorist
access to poorly secured weapons materials or bombs.
Clearly, no Israeli nuclear deterrent will dissuade the suicidal nuclear
terrorist.
To be sure, the zone must include compensatory measures for Israel's nuclear
disarmament. The solution: Israel's admission into NATO with a substantial
alliance troop presence on Israeli soil, coupled to a separate US guarantee.
Turkey provides precedent for non-European or North American membership in
the alliance. NATO's involvement in Afghanistan marks the body's growing
recognition that its vital security interests extend beyond the European theater. The
risk that nuclear terror could hatch in the Middle East marks NATO's
strategic interest to make the region nuclear-free.
Placing Israel under America's strategic nuclear retaliatory umbrella would
provide it with necessary reassurance. NATO membership would offer it multiple
advantages. For the first time in its history, Israel would be linked to a
family of nations dedicated to its survival, an ambition that goes back to its
earliest years. This alliance and American reassurance would ease the way for
Israel to make the territorial concessions with Palestinians and Syrians that
might help bring peace. And, for Iran and other regional nuclear aspirants, a
nuclear-free zone would eliminate the prospect of a preemptive conventional or
nuclear attack by a Jewish state that believes its very existence is at stake.
Bennett Ramberg served in the State Department during President Geeorge H.W.
Bush's administration. He is the author of three books on international
security.
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. All
rights reserved.
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65 Hemscott: Areva opens unit to manage DOE work
BETHESDA, Md. (AFX) - French state-owned nuclear power company
Areva on Thursday announced the launch of a new organization
responsible for managing contracts with the U.S. Department of
Energy.
Bill Gallo, who most recently served as senior vice president of
Areva unit Transnuclear Inc., was named president of Areva
Federal Services LLC.
'Our organization reflects the structure of the DOE along the
principal program areas of interest to Areva,' including the
National Nuclear Security Administration and the Office of
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Gallo said in a release.
Areva Federal Services will be staffed by employees who are
currently performing work for the Energy Department.
Areva, through its UniStar Nuclear joint venture with
Constellation Energy Group Inc., is competing with General
Electric Co., Westinghouse -- now owned by Toshiba Corp. -- and
others to develop new nuclear reactors in the U.S.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
Copyright 2006 Hemscott Group Limited.
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