***************************************************************** 02/19/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.41 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Guardian Unlimited: Launch of Iranian Reactor May Be Delayed 2 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Rice's recent remarks "positive" - FM 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: US behind terrorist acts in Zahedan 4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IAEA to give report on IRI's N-issue 5 Reuters: Iran's Larijani to meet IAEA head before key report 6 Reuters: IAEA says sanctions alone won't resolve Iran dispute 7 UPI: Russia delays Iran nuke work over payments 8 AFP: Iran's Larijani to meet UN nuclear chief on February 20 - 9 AFP: Iran's nuclear power station to be delayed 10 Guardian Unlimited: Comment is free: Iran's troubled rise 11 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Denies Delaying Payment for Reactor 12 Salt Lake Tribune: Dyer: North Korea: The deals keep getting worse 13 Korea Times: Impact of Nuclear Accord Marginal on Economy 14 Korea Herald: IAEA officials may visit N.K. in weeks 15 US: SF Chronicle: Top scientists offer stark climate analysis / AAAS 16 Guardian Unlimited: Russia: U.S. Base Hosts May Be Targets 17 IAEA: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the IAEA 18 Xinhua: Kazakhstan denies having any nuclear facilities 19 IAEA: Dr. ElBaradei Focuses on Global Security Challenges, Opportuni 20 Guardian Unlimited: Russian Gen. Warns on Missile Defense 21 Guardian Unlimited: Stars join Trident protest NUCLEAR REACTORS 22 US: Tillsonburg News: Public input wanted on nuke plant 23 US: Idaho Business Review: Company has big plans for nuclear power p 24 World Nuclear News: Fuel loading at Cernavoda 2 NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 25 Cumberland Times-News: Depleted Uranium weapons threaten health of v NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 26 US: The Mercury: Adviser: Fuel rod storage may not be 'temporary' 27 US: Press Enterprise: Cities sue San Bernardino County over cleanup PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 28 KnoxNews: Munger: ORNL helps organize region for Homeland Security w 29 Tri-City Herald: CH2M Hill mapping underground contaminants 30 OregonLive.com: Senate to feds: Clean up Hanford 31 ContraCostaTimes.com: Nuclear agency rebukes Bush weapons redesign ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Guardian Unlimited: Launch of Iranian Reactor May Be Delayed From the Associated Press Monday February 19, 2007 9:46 AM By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - Uranium fuel deliveries for a Russian-built nuclear reactor in Iran and its launch could be delayed because of the Iranian government dragging its feet on payments, officials said Monday. Iran broke the schedule of payments this year under a $1 billion plan to build the Bushehr nuclear plant, said a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the Iranians cited technical reasons for the delay in payments. Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency spokesman Sergei Novikov said the delay could derail the launch schedule. Last year, Russia agreed to ship fuel to the Bushehr nuclear plant in southern Iran by March 2007 and launch the facility in September, with electricity generation to start by November. ``The launch schedule definitely could be affected,'' Novikov told The Associated Press. In December, Russia supported a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing limited sanctions against Iran over Iran's refusal to stop uranium enrichment. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 2 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: Rice's recent remarks "positive" - FM 2007/02/19 Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday that remarks made recently by American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the importance of a 180-degree change in America's policies towards the Islamic Republic of Iran were "positive" and were being studied by Tehran. Mottaki was speaking to reporters at a joint press conference with the visiting Omani Foreign Minister Yousuf Bin Alawi Abdullah. "Remarks made by Rice in recent days as reported by the media represents a new stance and differs from previous statements of America," the Iranian Minister said. He added that IRI would announce its conclusions on Rice's remarks after it received the necessary details. M/D Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir ***************************************************************** 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: US behind terrorist acts in Zahedan 2007/02/19 Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said on Monday that the American intelligence organizations were involved in the recent terrorist acts in Zahedan, the capital of the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. He said that according to the information gathered by Iran's security Organizations, over the past years, America, Britain and Zionist regime have been behind the unrest in various areas of the Islamic Republic of Iran including Khuzestan, Kurdestan an d Azarbaijan provinces. Pour-Mohammadi said that the terrorists had plotted to sow seed of discord and launch sectarian war in Iran and assassinate Shiite and Sunni Ulammas. The Minister dismissed the enemies' claims that `Iran is the origin of instability in the Middle East', saying that through such a claim they attempt to spread insurgencies to Iran. 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 ***************************************************************** 4 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IAEA to give report on IRI's N-issue 2007/02/19 A report by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed Elbaradei on the Islamic republic of Iran's nuclear program could probably be released on Wednesday, an informed source said on Monday. A source at the IAEA press section who talked on condition of anonymity told IRNA that efforts were being made to have the report submitted by Wednesday. If the report is not ready by Wednesday, it may be submitted on Friday, the source added. The report will be simultaneously presented to the IAEA board of governors and the United Nations Security Council. M/D Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir ***************************************************************** 5 Reuters: Iran's Larijani to meet IAEA head before key report Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:18AM EST VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani will meet International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei on Tuesday, shortly before a critical IAEA report on Tehran's disputed nuclear activity, officials said. "I can confirm a meeting has been requested by Iran and the meeting will go ahead Tuesday afternoon in Vienna," an official with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said. Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) earlier reported the talks were planned but did not say what would be discussed. IAEA officials also declined to elaborate. ElBaradei was due to report later this week on whether Iran has met a 60-day deadline set by the U.N. Security Council to stop enriching uranium for nuclear fuel or risk a widening of sanctions the Council imposed on Tehran two months ago. Tehran has said it will not heed the deadline, vowing to press ahead with enrichment activity the West suspects is geared to assembling atomic bombs in secret. Iran insists it is a legal program to generate electricity. Iran has often sought last-minute talks with top IAEA officials to try and soften the impact of imminent reports on investigations into its nuclear activity. The two men could also address ElBaradei's proposal for Iran and the West to take a mutual "timeout" from an escalating confrontation that has raised fears of a U.S.-Iran war. This would entail simultaneous suspensions of enrichment activity and sanctions in order to rekindle talks on a diplomatic solution. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 Reuters: IAEA says sanctions alone won't resolve Iran dispute Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:18AM EST LONDON (Reuters) - Western powers need to reassure Iran over its security rather than just ratchet up sanctions if they want to resolve a nuclear standoff, International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday. "The Iran issue is not going to be resolved through sanctions alone. You need to reach out to the country and bring them to engagement. You need to get that process going," he told a conference in London. ElBaradei was due to meet Iran's nuclear negotiator in Vienna on Tuesday and will report later this week on whether Iran has met a 60-day deadline set by the U.N. Security Council to stop enriching uranium for nuclear fuel. He said he expected the West to tighten sanctions imposed by the Security Council in December. "We will probably go even further with sanctions if Iran will not comply (but) the nuclear issue is really the tip of the iceberg," he said. "Iran feels insecure. They live in a neighborhood which is not the most friendly," he said, pointing out that Pakistan and Russia both have nuclear weapons. "There are grievances between Iran and the West. You have got to address the security issue." Tehran has vowed to press ahead with enrichment which the West believes is a secret program to build atomic bombs. Iran insists it is geared at generating electricity. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 UPI: Russia delays Iran nuke work over payments United Press International - Published: Feb. 19, 2007 at 9:00 AM MOSCOW, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Sources at the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom say work has stopped on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor because Tehran owes Russia money. Russia has been building the plant since the early 1990s but Tehran has fallen behind on payments, Deutsche Welle reported Monday. There have been several delays through the years, mostly because of technical problems. Russia was to have started delivering nuclear fuel in March with a start-up eyed for September, but the schedule is up in the air now, the sources said. The U.N. Security Council has set a Feb. 21 deadline for Iran to suspend its nuclear program or face sanctions. Iran has refused to stop enriching uranium, insisting its nuclear aspirations are to provide power to residents, not to create a nuclear arsenal. © Copyright 2007United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 AFP: Iran's Larijani to meet UN nuclear chief on February 20 - Monday February 19, 12:37 PM By Stuart Williams TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator will on Tuesday meet the head of the UN nuclear watchdog for their first encounter this year, amid spiralling tensions over the Iranian nuclear programme. The meeting between Ali Larijani and International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna comes ahead of the expiry this week of the latest UN Security Council deadline for Iran to halt sensitive nuclear work. It also coincides with a surprise announcement by Russia, which is building Iran's first atomic power plant, that the much-delayed project could be put off again due to financing problems. "Ali Larijani, secretary of the supreme national security council, will meet Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna on Tuesday," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA, told the state news agency IRNA. The IAEA is also due to issue a report on Friday on Iran's compliance with Security Council demands that it halts uranium enrichment, and is likely to confirm that the work is continuing in defiance of the council. Iran has steadfastly refused to cave in to Western demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, a process that the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons rather than atomic fuel. Instead, Larijani and other Iranian officials have been suggesting that Iran places a formal limit on the degree of its enrichment as a guarantee that it is not seeking an atomic bomb. It is not clear what ElBaradei and Larijani will discuss. Their meeting comes just over a week after Larijani met EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana for the first time in months at a security conference in Munich. Solana had been spearheading EU efforts to find a compromise solution to the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme but the talks with Iran collapsed in September when Tehran refused to suspend enrichment. Iranian officials have said that contacts between Solana and Larijani will continue, although this has yet to be confirmed by the European Union. "During the meeting last week between Mr Larijani and Mr Solana, they agreed that talks would resume where they left off," said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, according to IRNA. Larijani was expected to meet ElBaradei just before he attended the Munich conference but the talks were called off at the last minute amid reports that the chief Iranian negotiator was ill. The new deadline for Iran to suspend enrichment came in the same UN resolution that imposed targeted sanctions against Iran's nuclear industry and ballistic missile sectors. The United States, Iran's arch enemy, has threatened to crank up sanctions and impose unilateral measures of its own if Tehran does not fall into line. The United States accuses Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a charge denied by Tehran which insists its atomic programme is peaceful in nature. Russia has been building Iran's first atomic power station in the southern city of Bushehr, a much delayed project that until now had been finally scheduled for launch in September. But a spokeswoman for the station's Russian builder said Monday the launch of the facility was likely to be delayed yet again due to late payments by the Iranian side. "The difficult situation with financing construction of Bushehr by the Iranian side could cause changes in the timetable for completing the project," Irina Yesipova, spokeswoman for Atomstroiexport, told AFP. Meanwhile, Iran's ideological army, the Revolutionary Guards, on Monday launched three days of country-wide war games aimed at readying the defensive capabilities of the armed forces. Although Washington has said it wants the nuclear standoff resolved through diplomacy, it has never ruled out military action to thwart Iran's atomic drive. AFP ***************************************************************** 9 AFP: Iran's nuclear power station to be delayed Monday February 19, 01:27 PM MOSCOW (AFP) - Late payments by Iran and problems obtaining equipment are likely to delay the launch of the Islamic republic's first nuclear power station at Bushehr, Russian officials have said. "Financing of the project by the Iranian side has practically been frozen since mid-January," Irina Yesipova, a spokeswoman for lead contractor Atomstroiexport, told AFP. That meant that the timetable for completion of the project might be changed. Problems had also arisen with delivery of equipment by other countries, she added Monday. "We will soon analyse with the Iranian side the current state of the project and its calendar," she said. Andrei Cherkasenko, chief executive of the Atompromresurs company, told RIA Novosti that vital cooling equipment had not been received from third-country suppliers. The equipment was only expected to arrive at the end of 2007 or the start of next year, he added. "Deliveries from third countries of cooling equipment for the security systems are a serious problem," Cherkasenko said, adding that commissioning could only take place several months after the receipt of such equipment. A source in the nuclear energy industry said an Iranian delegation would visit Moscow for talks by the end of February. The nuclear power station project at Bushehr in southern Iran has long been a symbol of friendship between Iran and Russia. Russia has insisted on pressing ahead despite calls by the United States for it to suspend construction. The United States believes Iran is developing nuclear weapons under cover of its civilian nuclear programme, a charge that the Islamic republic denies. Russia supported UN sanctions imposed on Iran at the end of last year, after successfully lobbying to have the measures watered down from an original proposal by Washington. Bushehr construction has been subject to repeated delays, which some analysts have attributed to US pressure on Moscow and which have prompted periodic complaints by Tehran. Last September the two sides agreed a new timetable under which Russia would deliver fuel to the power station this March, which would begin working in September and producing energy in November. On Monday Russian news agencies quoted an unnamed state official as saying that payments by Iran had been held up for more than a month due to an Iranian ban on making payments in US dollars. AFP ***************************************************************** 10 Guardian Unlimited: Comment is free: Iran's troubled rise Iran's troubled rise All players in the Middle East have a shared interest in stability but Iran's growing influence could catapult the region into conflict. Paul Salem February 19, 2007 9:43 AM | Printable version America's decision to target Iranian agents in Iraq who may be involved in supporting violent militias is but another sign of the massive influence Iran is exercising in that troubled country. But the United States in fact facilitated Iran's growing influence by toppling Saddam Hussein's regime and that of the Taliban in Afghanistan, thus removing two factors that had kept the Iranian regime hemmed in for the last two decades. Moreover, high oil prices have filled the national treasury, and Iran is benefiting from the opportunity created by America's being bogged down in Iraq and the growing international weight of Russia and China. Iran is also reaping the returns of long-term investments. It has supported Iraqi Shia groups since the early 1980s and has an equally long-standing alliance with Syria. In Lebanon, Iran helped create Hizbullah, which recently survived a head-on war with Israel and is the leading opponent of the anti-Syrian, western-backed government. Iran's investment in Palestine is more recent, but its backing for the Hamas-led government, which has been frustrated elsewhere, is no less significant. A country of 70 million, Iran also has potential influence with Shia communities in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Iran's rise is causing alarm in the Arab Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, but also in Egypt. Though a Shia country in an overwhelmingly Sunni region, Iran's radical Islamism resonates with the politicised Islamism that is energising most Arab opposition movements, and its militant opposition to the US and support for groups that engage Israel in battle is very popular on the Arab street and in the Arab media. At another level, Iran's rise, reinforced by its suspected bid for nuclear weapons threatens to awaken historical hostilities, between Sunni and Shia Muslims and between Persians and Arabs. Both Iran and the Arab countries are struggling to come to terms with the consequences of Iran's newfound assertiveness. To be sure, Iran's longstanding support for regional Shia groups is paying off. But its successes in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine are creating great anxiety, and even hostility, in some quarters. The rapid Shia rise has already turned into a sectarian civil war in Iraq and recently has threatened to generate the same outcome in Lebanon. If Iran does not properly manage its growing power, it could unwittingly trigger a drawn out sectarian war throughout the region, a nuclear arms race with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and war with Israel, the US, or both. It could also draw in major Sunni powers, such as Egypt and Turkey, which have at times been dominant in the region, but lately have been disengaged. Too many Iranian successes, and too many Sunni debacles, could also lead to immense pressure in Syria, where a minority Alawi regime dominates a Sunni majority. The loss of Damascus would cost Iran its influence in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine in one fell swoop. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's administration is maintaining its radical rhetoric, perhaps looking ahead to a post-Bush era, when the US has withdrawn from Iraq and Iran has developed nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, Iran also feels the need for accommodation with its adversaries. For example, while Iran may not be happy with the American presence in Iraq, it realises how close the country is to full-scale civil war. As a result, it has expressed a willingness to cooperate with the US on finding a soft landing for Iraq. Likewise, while Iran supports Hizbullah, it has also held Hizbullah back from outright rebellion, which might trigger a further Sunni backlash in the region. In the Gulf, Iran has tried to reassure its Arab neighbours that Iranian power is not aimed at them and can in fact be a pillar of gulf security. But the Arab world is divided about how to deal with the sudden rise in Iranian power. The tension is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, which has warned the US about the dangers of Iraq's possible collapse and now finds itself in an unequal face-off with Iran. Some in the kingdom argue that Saudi Arabia must confront Iran, stand up for Sunni Arab interests, and become a hands-on regional power. Other Saudis believe that confrontation will only lead to wider wars and are urging dialogue and accommodation. In this view, the US, not Iran, produced the region's current problems. Iran's regional foreign policy has not yet caught up with its new pre-eminence; it is making as many enemies as it is gaining friends, and it might squander the windfall gains that it made in the past three years. If Iran and the Arab countries - and alongside them the US and the international community - do not manage today's tensions wisely, the region could enter a period of protracted warfare. But there is a way forward, because all players in the region share an interest in security and stability. Leaders in Tehran, Riyadh, Washington, and other key capitals must realise the costs of further mismanagement, step back from the brink, and work toward cooperative solutions before it is too late. © Project Syndicate, 2007. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007. Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396 Registered office: Number 1 Scott Place, Manchester M3 3GG ***************************************************************** 11 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Denies Delaying Payment for Reactor From the Associated Press Monday February 19, 2007 8:16 PM AP Photo NY191 By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - The launch of a Russian-built nuclear power plant in Iran could be delayed because Iran has fallen behind in payments, Russian officials said Monday. Top Iranian officials swiftly denied that payments had been disrupted, in the latest dispute surrounding the deal at the heart of the two countries' nuclear cooperation. Last year, Russia agreed to ship nuclear fuel to Bushehr - Iran's first nuclear plant - by March 2007 and launch the facility in September, with electricity generation to start by November. Under a separate deal, Iran agreed to return to Russia all spent fuel from the plant in southern Iran for reprocessing - a move intended to assuage global concerns that the fuel could be diverted to make nuclear weapons. Iran broke the schedule of payments this year under the $1 billion contract, said a Russian official, who asked not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the Iranians blamed the delay on the need to switch payments from dollars to euros. ``The launch schedule definitely could be affected,'' Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Russia's nuclear power agency, told The Associated Press. But Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, denied that Iran had been late in making payments. ``Iran has had no delay whatsoever in making payments for the Bushehr nuclear power plant to the Russian ... company,'' Saeedi was quoted as saying by the news agency, IRNA. Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president who now heads a powerful clerical body called the Expediency Council, hinted that Russia was buckling under international pressure. ``We expect our friends (Russia) to prevent such attempts,'' IRNA quoted Rafsanjani as saying. The dispute came amid persistent diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment in order to allay international fears that it could be seeking nuclear weapons. But while a delay in launching Bushehr is likely to anger Iran, there was no indication that Russia could be maneuvering to scrap the deal, which has provoked Western criticism. Russia emphasizes that Iran has the right to a peaceful nuclear energy program, and President Vladimir Putin and other officials have said repeatedly the Bushehr contract would be honored. Putin's increasingly defiant posture toward the United States would make it highly unlikely that the Kremlin would opt out of the agreement. ``Russia remains firmly committed to the Bushehr deal, and Putin's recent statements make a change in attitude highly improbable,'' said Yevgeny Volk, head of the Heritage Foundation's Moscow office. In December, Russia supported a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing limited sanctions against Iran over its refusal to stop uranium enrichment, but the support came only after a proposal imposing restrictions on the Bushehr plant was dropped. The United States and some allies claim Iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons; Iran maintains it is only intended to generate electricity. Iran has been eager to get the nuclear fuel from Russia, but Russian officials said it would only be delivered six months before the plant's launch. Prodded by the Iranians about the delivery, Igor Ivanov, secretary of Russia's Security Council, said on a recent trip to Tehran that it would be delivered ``when the need comes.'' Russian nuclear officials have complained before about payment delays for Bushehr. Sergei Shmatko, the chief of the state Atomstroiexport company building the plant, said in December that Iran already had paid Russia $900 million for the plant's construction. He added, however, that his company had provided a $140 million loan to Iran to finance construction because the Iranians had been slow about payments recently. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 12 Salt Lake Tribune: Dyer: North Korea: The deals keep getting worse By Gwynne Dyer Article Last Updated: 02/18/2007 10:58:34 PM MST The tentative deal on North Korea's nuclear weapons program made Feb. 13 is worse than the deal that the Bush administration wrecked in 2005, and considerably worse than the one the Clinton administration made but did not abide by in 1994. This deal lets North Korea keep whatever nuclear weapons it has already built, plus whatever others it can build with fissile material that it has already produced. But it's probably the best deal left. The pattern of bargaining by nuclear blackmail that is now so closely identified with Kim Jong-il's regime actually began in the final full year of his father's rule. In 1993, Kim Il-sung's regime refused an inspection of North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon by the International Atomic Energy Authority. Instead, he announced, Pyongyang would withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and reprocess 8,000 spent fuel rods from Yongbyon to extract plutonium suitable for nuclear weapons. By June 1994, the Clinton administration was seriously discussing air strikes against Yongbyon, but former president Jimmy Carter sensed that this was actually a bargaining ploy by a regime that was in desperate economic trouble. (Like Cuba, North Korea had depended heavily on Soviet economic subsidies that ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991.) Carter went to Pyongyang and substituted bribery for threats. Within days, North Korea agreed to remain under NPT safeguards, admit IAEA inspectors, and stop trying to reprocess plutonium. In return, under the "agreed framework," the United States, South Korea and Japan promised to supply Pyongyang with two pressurized-water reactors (whose spent fuel would not yield fissile material), after which North Korea would shut down its plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon. They would also provide North Korea with 500,000 tons of fuel oil annually for free and facilitate shipment of a large volume of food by various international aid agencies. Pyongyang obeyed this agreement for the next eight years, although it soon discovered a loophole: The deal did not explicitly ban North Korea from pursuing nuclear weapons by the alternative means of mining uranium ore and enriching it. And although the free oil arrived faithfully each year through the later 1990s, enabling the North Korean economy to stagger on, the United States never kept its commitment to build two pressurized-water reactors for North Korea. Then the Bush administration took office in 2001 and disavowed the deal entirely. President Bush denounced Kim Jong-il as a monstrous tyrant (perfectly true) and formally abandoned the U.S. commitment to build two pressurized-water reactors for North Korea. Shortly afterward he ended free oil shipments to the country - and a year later, after 9 /11, Bush declared the North Korean regime a member of the "axis of evil" that the United States was going to dismantle. Pyongyang panicked, and Kim Jong-Il did exactly what his father had done in 1993. In October 2002, North Korea openly acknowledged its secret uranium enrichment program, and in January 2003 it withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Soon afterward it began reprocessing the 8,000 spent fuel rods from Yongbyon that had been in storage since 1994. North Korea just wanted the "agreed framework" back - but this was the time when the neoconservative tide was in full flood in Washington, and the Bush administration was in no mood for shabby bargains with a regime from the Dark Side. Pyongyang was told that it had to renounce its nuclear program before the United States would deign to negotiate with it. The so-called "six-party talks," including North Korea, the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, finally got under way in August 2003. Everybody else involved was well aware that any agreement would have to resemble the 1994 deal, but the Bush administration desperately resisted that conclusion. On several occasions North Korea flounced out of the talks, and eventually an agreement was reached along the predictable lines. In September 2005, North Korea agreed to rejoin the NPT, end its efforts to produce nuclear weapons and readmit IAEA inspectors. In return, the other parties agreed to resume oil shipments to North Korea and to build the promised pressurized-water reactors, and the United States promised not to attack North Korea or try to overthrow its regime. Then, quite unexpectedly, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on North Korea on the (unproven) grounds that Pyongyang was counterfeiting U.S. dollars. It's still not clear whether this was a deliberate spoiling move by hard-liners within the administration or just poor policy coordination, but the deal fell apart. A year later, North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon. Now, inevitably, there is a new deal along much the same lines: North Korea shuts down the Yongbyon reactor and gets a million tons of fuel in return. But now it has at least a couple of nuclear weapons (though they may not work very well), and it looks like it gets to keep them. --- * GWYNNE DYER is a London-based independent journalist. ***************************************************************** 13 Korea Times: Impact of Nuclear Accord Marginal on Economy Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Biz/Finance By Na Jeong-ju Staff Reporter The six-party nuclear agreement last week represents the first tentative step toward a comprehensive settlement of the conflict, but the impact the agreement will have on the country¡¯s politics and economy will be limited, says a report from HSBC, one of the world¡¯s largest banking groups. In a report on the implications of the nuclear agreement, the bank said an inter-Korean summit might occur before year-end, which should provide a boost to President Roh Moo-hyun and his allies, if progress is made in the nuke talks. However, even such a summit whould have only a marginal impact on the presidential elections due in December, it said. ``Actual differences between rival political factions in South Korea over North Korean policy remain fairly limited so that further reconciliation, and even a summit, are unlikely to swing the vote decisively,¡¯¡¯ the report said. The latest agreement should provide sufficient momentum for a positive news flow over the next several weeks, and another round of six-party talks, scheduled for March 19 March should provide more guidance on the precise steps to be implemented by all sides. However, the bank said it continues to believe that developments within the six-party talks will have a limited impact on the South Korean economy. ``Last October¡¯s nuclear test provided further evidence that the sensitivity of South Korean consumer and investor sentiment to geo-strategic uncertainties have diminished,¡¯¡¯ HSBC said. ``Barring the risk of an outbreak of outright hostilities, the six-party process should therefore have little impact on the South Korean economy this year.¡¯¡¯ Hopes are high here for sovereign rating upgrade after South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan reached an agreement, in which Pyongyang committed itself to shutting down its key nuclear facilities in return for energy aid. The accord promises that if North Korea dismantles all of its nuclear weapons and programs, it will receive diplomatic normalization and other corresponding political and economic benefits. HSBC said the deal essentially sets the clock back to 2002. In essence, the agreement represents a return to the Agreed Framework, effectively abandoned in 2002, in which Pyongyang promised to give up its plutonium program in return for energy aid, it said. ``That year the United States walked away from the Agreed Framework negotiated in 1994, which offered Pyongyang two atomic power reactors in return for a freeze of its plutonium-based nuclear weapons program,¡¯¡¯ the bank said. ``What triggered America¡¯s refusal to stick to the Agreed Framework were suspicions that North Korea had developed a parallel nuclear weapons program based on uranium enrichment.¡¯¡¯ The prospect on the Korean Peninsula look brighter given the apparent willingness by the United States to negotiate with the regime over the frozen Macau accounts and contemplate the removal of North Korea from its list of terrorism sponsors. At the very least, the agreement is expected to lead to a series of follow-up actions, which should provide scope for further engagement and talks for compromise on more specific issues. ``Nevertheless, we remain cautious on the outlook for lasting geo-strategic stability on the Korean Peninsula,¡¯¡¯ HSBC said. ``While the agreement in itself potentially represents an important step towards a comprehensive settlement of the conflict, several important issues remained unaddressed and therefore raise the risk that tension might suddenly flare up.¡¯¡¯ jj@koreatimes.co.kr 02-19-2007 17:55 ***************************************************************** 14 Korea Herald: IAEA officials may visit N.K. in weeks From news reports Officials from the U.N. atomic agency may visit North Korea within weeks to plan for inspections that are part of the country's agreement to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons, agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said. The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency will inspect and monitor the Yongbyon nuclear reactor as part of the Feb. 13 accord under which North Korea pledged to shut down the facility within 60 days in exchange for energy aid and steps to normalize relations with the United States and Japan. "We are in the process of establishing contact with Pyongyang," ElBaradei told reporters Friday in Dublin, where he received an award at Trinity College. "I would hope our people would go there in a few weeks to try to establish the technical parameters of how we do the inspections, monitoring, and verification." A Japanese newspaper reported Saturday that a senior IAEA official is expected to visit North Korea within two weeks. A delegation headed by International Atomic Energy Agency Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen will hold talks with North Korean officials to decide details such as inspection procedures and the North's schedule to the eventual dismantlement of its entire nuclear program, the Asahi Shimbun said, quoting unidentified IAEA sources. The trip to North Korea is scheduled to take place before the 35-nation IAEA's planned meeting in early March, allowing the participants to discuss the results of Heinonen's visit, the Asahi said. Heinonen led inspections at the North's facility in Yongbyon, north of the North Korean capital Pyongyang, in 1994 and 2002, the report said. North Korea kicked out IAEA inspectors in December 2002 and said it had restarted its sole operating nuclear reactor in February 2003. 2007.02.20 ***************************************************************** 15 SF Chronicle: Top scientists offer stark climate analysis / AAAS meeting Students, teachers eager for latest assessment of global warming AAAS meeting: Students, teachers eager for latest assessment of global warming Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer Monday, February 19, 2007 Nearly 1,000 people met in downtown San Francisco on Sunday for a lesson on global warming from some of the world's foremost experts. Teachers with their students, parents with their children and others wanting to learn more about what causes global warming lined up at the Hilton San Francisco and Towers to attend a free public meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The association, the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, announced Sunday a consensus on climate change that was adopted by its board of directors. "The evidence is clear," the statement says in part. "Global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now and is a growing threat to society.'' Sunday's four-hour event was organized in collaboration with three teacher groups, including the National Science Teachers Association. Yusef Zaka, a student at Albany Middle School, said he came because he's doing a research project on global warming. "I wanted to learn more about the causes, the effects and the solutions,'' he said. He heard about the event through a friend. Norman Howell, a teacher at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, brought several of his Advanced Placement biology students, including Denise Wang, Victor Lin and Cynthia Gaw. Howell tells his students they are the ones who are going to have to live with the consequences. "I'm hoping some of these students will be movers and shakers in helping solve this problem,'' he said. Berkeley residents Jessica Bray, a teacher, and her friend Sean Baumgarten were there to learn more, they said. They both want to teach biology at the high school level and cover global climate change in the classroom. Tracy Bertram, an engineer from Rescue (Eldorado County), said he's been reading about global warming. "I'm a little concerned that so many people take this lightly,'' Bertram said. Susan Bertram, his wife, teaches at the Rancho Cordova Middle School and wanted to get some information to relay to her students. "It's a very controversial topic," she said. "Students need to be aware of what's going on. So teachers need to be informed.'' Rachel Falk, who teaches chemistry to ninth- to 12th-graders at Mercy High School in San Francisco, came with her husband, Mark Falk, to get ideas for lesson plans for a unit on atmosphere and air. "I think it's important for the students to understand that it's their generation that's going to solve the problem.'' The event kicked off with a film that included interviews with people from Shishmaref, the Alaskan town inundated by rising seas. They are beginning to relocate and fear they will lose their way of life and culture. The mayor of Shishmaref attended Sunday's talk, as did three Shishmaref students who had written winning essays. They got big applause. A physicist, a paleoclimatologist-glaciologist and a Princeton University aerospace engineer delivered lectures. The audience played Princeton's Wedge game, an interactive hands-on method for illustrating the effectiveness of various ways to curb greenhouse gases such as efficiency and conservation or renewables or nuclear energy. There were lots of questions. "How do we know the melting of the glaciers is caused by global warming?'' "How late before it's too late?'' "How does rising carbon dioxide relate to warming temperatures?'' Lonnie Thompson, the paleoclimatologist-glaciologist -- who has led more than 50 expeditions to measure ice fields, including to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, to the Himalayas of Nepal and to the Andes in Peru -- presented some of the latest physical evidence on global climate change. He spoke of the worldwide retreat of glaciers, influenced by the factors of temperature, precipitation, cloudiness and radiation. Once there were 150 glaciers in Glacier National Park in Montana. Now there are 26, Thompson said. Within in 30 years, there may be none, he said. Two weeks ago, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a summary of its most recent scientific assessment, concluding that it is "very likely'' that global warming is caused by human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The summary report said the warming of the climate "is unequivocal," now evident from rising temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising sea levels. These conditions support the scientific conclusion that climate change is "very likely" not due to known natural causes alone, the report said. This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle ***************************************************************** 16 Guardian Unlimited: Russia: U.S. Base Hosts May Be Targets From the Associated Press Monday February 19, 2007 4:31 PM By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - Poland and the Czech Republic risk being targeted by Russian missiles if they agree to host a proposed U.S. missile defense system, a top Russian general warned Monday. Russia has been increasingly bellicose in its response to the U.S. proposal to build the missile defense system in Eastern Europe. President Vladimir Putin has said he does not trust U.S. claims that the system would be to guard the American East Coast and Europe from missiles launched from ``rogue nations'' in the Middle East. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, head of Russia's missile forces, said the system would upset strategic stability. It would be the first such site in Europe. ``If the governments of Poland and the Czech Republic take such a step ... the Strategic Missile Forces will be capable of targeting these facilities if a relevant decision is made,'' he said. On Monday, Czech Premier Mirek Topolanek said his country and Poland were in favor of the U.S. missile defense proposal. ``I think it is in our joint interest to negotiate this initiative and to build in our area the missile defense,'' Topolanek said after talks in Warsaw with Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The bases in Poland and the Czech Republic would be designed to intercept missiles being developed by Iran, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said last month. Two other bases in Alaska and California would protect the U.S. from threats from North Korea, Obering said. Kaczynski brushed aside Russia's fears, saying ``the missile defense is not directed against any normal state.'' ``Any statement suggesting that the missile defense would change the alignment of forces in Europe is a misunderstanding,'' he said. ``This truth is being conveyed to our partners in the west and the east.'' State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez said Monday the United States has worked closely with the Czech and Polish governments to develop the missile defense system and that it was in no way directed at Russia. ``We have offered to cooperate with Russia on missile defense because we believe we face a common threat emanating from the Middle East as well as other areas,'' Vasquez said. Solovtsov said he was concerned that the United States, which plans to deploy 10 interceptors in Poland, could boost those numbers in the future. The general also said it would take Russia less than six years to build upgraded versions of medium range missiles if Moscow decided to pull out of a 1987 agreement with the U.S. that banned their deployment. ``It is not difficult to restore their production,'' Solovtsov told a news conference. ``The missiles were dismantled, but the production technology has remained.'' Russian military officials have said Moscow's decision to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty would depend on whether the United States goes ahead with the missile defense plan. The key arms control agreement was negotiated between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former President Ronald Reagan. At a European security conference earlier this month, Putin said the treaty was outdated, and that many nations had since developed the medium-range missiles eliminated by Russia and the United States. Putin has warned that Russia could respond to the deployment of U.S. missile defense in Europe by building new, more efficient weapons. He had previously boasted that Russia was developing new missiles that would be impossible to intercept. Solovtsov said Russia would continue gradually replacing Soviet-built intercontinental ballistic missiles with new Topol-M missiles and would fully rearm around 2016 while maintaining levels under a 2002 arms control treaty signed by Putin and President Bush. That treaty obliges both sides to cut their strategic nuclear weapons by about two-thirds by 2012. ``It's possible to deploy such weapons shortly if the situation requires that,'' Solovtsov said. --- Associated Press Writers Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland contributed to this story. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 17 IAEA: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the IAEA Web IAEA.org SG Meeting with Dr. ElBaradei, Others During Official Visit to Vienna Staff Report 19 February 2007 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit the IAEA during his official visit to Vienna 22-24 February. (Photo: Reuters/Antony Njuguna (Ethiopia)) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to meet IAEA Director General ElBaradei during his official visit to Vienna 22-24 February. The visit is at the invitation of the Austrian government. During the visit, the Secretary-General will meet with Austrian President Heinz Fischer, Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer and Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik. At the Vienna International Centre, he will meet with Antonio Maria Costa, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna; Dr. ElBaradei; and other heads of Vienna-based organizations and staff. More information is available from the UN Office at Vienna. See Story Resources. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 18 Xinhua: Kazakhstan denies having any nuclear facilities www.chinaview.cn 2007-02-20 01:20:49 ALMATY, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Kazakhstan's foreign ministry on Monday denied there were any nuclear facilities within its borders, saying the nuclear facilities reported by some media to be located at nuclear test sites that were used by the former Soviet Union do not exist. Kazakhstan has volunteered to give up the world's fourth largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, shut down nuclear test sites inside its territory and become one of the initiators for the establishment of a non-nuclear region of Central Asia, said the statement. As a non-nuclear country, Kazakhstan will unconditionally honor its commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive (nuclear) Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), it added. Kazakhstan will never develop, store or use nuclear weapons, said the statement. Editor: Mu Xuequan ***************************************************************** 19 IAEA: Dr. ElBaradei Focuses on Global Security Challenges, Opportunities Web IAEA.org Staff Report 14 February 2007 King Albert II of Belgium and Dr. ElBaradei in Brussels in February 2007. Dr. ElBaradei´s official visit included Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland, and Great Britain. (Photo: Yves Herman/Reuters) IAEA Director General ElBaradei is speaking to university students, leaders, and other guests in Basel, Dublin, and London this month on the challenges of global security. * On 14 February in Switzerland, Dr. ElBaradei is scheduled to deliver the Nobel Lecture at the University Basel on security challenges and opportunities. The university´s "Lectures of Nobel Prize Winners" is a series jointly organised by the university´s Biozentrum and Novartis International. * On 15 February in Dublin, Dr. ElBaradei speaks at Trinity College, University Philosophical Society, a student reading and debating society. He will be presented with the award of Honorary Patron of the Society. * On 19 February in London, Dr. ElBaradei addresses students, faculty, and distinguished guests at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The event is hosted jointly by LSE´s Centre for the Study of Global Governance, Development Studies Institute, Department of International Relations and the Ralph Miliband Programme and supported by LSE´s Annual Fund. In his remarks on security, Dr. ElBaradei addresses issues in a broad global context, one that adds energy security and human security to traditional concepts of security based on military confrontation or economic superiority. He will review nuclear issues relevant to the IAEA´s mandate, among them preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, reducing existing nuclear stockpiles, and making the humanitarian benefits of nuclear technology more widely available. See Story Resources for more information about Dr. ElBaradei´s lectures and statements. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 20 Guardian Unlimited: Russian Gen. Warns on Missile Defense From the Associated Press Monday February 19, 2007 10:01 PM AP Photo MOSB126 By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - In a statement reflecting the growing distrust between Moscow and the West, a top Russian general on Monday warned that Poland and the Czech Republic risk being targeted by Russian missiles if they agree to host U.S. missile defense bases. The stark threat, by missile forces chief Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, was one of the most bellicose comments yet by Russian officials on the issue, which 10 days ago led President Vladimir Putin to warn of a ``new Cold War'' in a speech in Munich that shocked Western governments. ``If the governments of Poland and the Czech Republic take such a step ... the Strategic Missile Forces will be capable of targeting these facilities if a relevant decision is made,'' Solovtsov told reporters in Moscow, asserting the U.S. plan could upset strategic balance of power in the region. Solovtsov spoke as Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and his Polish counterpart, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, both in Warsaw, suggested they were ready to move forward with a plan by Washington to put 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic. Topolanek said both countries will probably agree to the basic U.S. proposal, though they must still work out the details. ``I think it is in our joint interest to negotiate this initiative and to build ... the missile defense,'' he said. U.S. officials say that the 10 proposed interceptors - which they say are designed to stop a launch from e Middle East - are not aimed at Russia. Moscow, with its huge and sophisticated nuclear arsenal, could easily overwhelm such a small system simply by launching more than 10 missiles. Putin has said he does not trust U.S. claims that the missile defense system was intended to counter threats from Iran. He has warned that Russia could take retaliatory action. Solovtsov, speaking before the announcement in Warsaw, voiced concern that Washington could in the future expand and upgrade the anti-missile system. That could, at least in theory, limit Russia's ability to retaliate to a nuclear missile strike against its territory. Solovtsov also said Russia could easily make new, upgraded versions of Russian intermediate-range missiles scrapped under the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, negotiated between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan in 1987. Kaczynski, the Polish prime minister, brushed aside Moscow's fears, saying ``the missile defense is not directed against any normal state.'' ``Any statement suggesting that the missile defense would change the alignment of forces in Europe is a misunderstanding,'' he said. ``This truth is being conveyed to our partners in the West and the East.'' Analysts said the angry words reflect the growing climate of suspicion between Moscow and the West. Slawomir Debski, at the Warsaw-based of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, said Moscow's reaction ``means that the Russian Federation see the U.S., Poland and the Czech Republic as enemy nations.'' ``The reaction shows that the rationale behind Poland's and Czech Republic's ties with the U.S. are correct,'' Debski said. ``It proves this is the right alliance and that we need it because Russia is threatening us with nuclear weapons.'' Alexander Rahr, a Russia expert at the German Council of Foreign Relations, said Russia is irritated because it feels that it is being ignored by Washington. ``It shows there is a new Cold War, in their heads.'' Washington should have tried harder to persuade Moscow to accept the new anti-missile system before proceeding with efforts to deploy it, he said. ``We humiliate Russia on these issues. We could have proposed cooperation to Russia, and if they said no, then we do it,'' he said. ``But we say first, you Russians ... don't matter.'' Rahr said Russia sees the missile system as payback for its sales of air defense missiles to Iran and Syria. Russia also views the move, he said, as an attempt to bind NATO members Poland and the Czech Republic, which Moscow dominated during the Soviet period, more tightly into the Western military alliance - whose expansion Russia has long opposed. Alexander Pikayev, a senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations, said the missile defenses will have ``a negative effect on the whole system of Russian-U.S. relations.'' Because of their limited speed and range, the European anti-missile system could not stop Russia's strategic missiles, he said. But Russian leaders are concerned that once the system is in place, it could be expanded and upgraded to create such a threat. He said the move could prompt Moscow to question its commitment to arms control treaties - something at which top Russia officials have already hinted. He predicted Russia would escalate its efforts to block the expansion of NATO to the former Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine. Last month, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the bases in Poland and the Czech Republic would be designed to intercept missiles being developed by Iran. Two other bases - at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California - would protect the U.S. from threats from North Korea, Obering said. Critics of the anti-missile system say it has not adequately been tested to prove it works. The interceptor missiles launch a small EKV, or exoatmospheric kill vehicle, designed to collide with an incoming warhead at high speed. Obering has said that there was no way the limited number of interceptors could neutralize the hundreds of missiles at Russia's disposal. --- Associated Press writers Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Ryan Lucas in Warsaw, David McHugh in Berlin and Steve Gutterman in Moscow contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 21 Guardian Unlimited: Stars join Trident protest Press Association Monday February 19, 2007 Dozens of top British bands and musicians today joined forces to oppose the multi-billion pound replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system. A statement was issued on their behalf, warning that ordering a new generation of nuclear weapons would make the world a more dangerous place. Signatories included Thom Yorke, Damon Albarn, Razorlight, Snow Patrol, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Super Furry Animals and Supergrass. The statement said: "If Britain says it needs nuclear weapons for its security, other countries are likely to follow suit. To replace Trident, when we face no nuclear threat, could start a nuclear arms race. "The £76bn cost to replace and maintain Trident would be better spent on healthcare, education, alleviating global poverty or tackling the problems of climate change. "Let's choose peace and justice, not nuclear weapons and war." An anti-Trident demonstration will be held in London on Saturday organised by CND, the Stop The War Coalition and the British Muslim Initiative. The groups said the protest was expected to be the biggest anti-nuclear demonstration in Britain in decades. MPs are expected to vote next month on whether to order a Trident replacement. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 22 Tillsonburg News: Public input wanted on nuke plant Tillsonburg, ON Haldimand endorses $2-billion proposal for nuclear plant in Nanticoke Monte Sonnenberg SUN MEDIA Monday February 19, 2007 Norfolk and Haldimand are preparing for the possibility of a nuclear generating station coming to the Nanticoke Industrial Park. Last week, Norfolk Mayor Dennis Travale said plans are underway to host public information meetings across the county for people wanting to learn more. During his speech to the Simcoe & District Chamber of Commerce, Travale suggested these forums will be staged over two weeks in mid-March. Panels would be brought together featuring representatives of the Bruce nuclear generating station on Lake Huron, nuclear critics from Green Peace and politicians from Grey-Bruce who will speak about the Bruce plant’s impact on their community. “You’ll have your technical questions answered as well as your social questions,” Travale said. A similar dialogue was expected in Haldimand. However, in a surprise move Monday night, Haldimand council passed a resolution saying the county is interested in hosting a nuclear plant. Hagersville Coun. Tony Dalimonte tabled the motion without warning. It passed 5-2. Mayor Marie Trainer and Dunnville Coun. Lorne Boyko voted against. The pair felt the vote was premature because the public has not had an opportunity to comment. “We said the public should be educated first,” Trainer said. “They have a lot of questions. Once they have their answers, then ask the public if they want this plant. I feel council was making a decision without consulting the people.” During a recent meeting to discuss the proposed closure of the Nanticoke Generating Station, Ontario energy minister Dwight Duncan asked Trainer what she thought of the industrial park playing host to a nuclear plant. Haldimand council hopes to present Duncan with a copy of Monday’s resolution during the annual joint meeting of the Rural Ontario Municipal Association and the Ontario Good Roads Association in Toronto at the end of the month. The possibility of a nuclear facility in Nanticoke was the subject of a private meeting in Simcoe last Saturday at the constituency office of MP Diane Finley. Attending was Duncan Hawethorne, chair of the Canadian Nuclear Association, the World Association of Nuclear Operators and president and CEO of Bruce Power, Finley, Trainer, Travale and local MPP Toby Barrett. Travale has asked Norfolk council to delay a debate and resolution of its own until residents have an opportunity to think about a plant and have their questions answered. Travale said the construction of a nuclear plant in Nanticoke would coincide with the closure of four of six boiler units at the giant coal-fired station. A reactor would take about eight years to build and cost nearly $2 billion. The plant would create 1,200 full-time jobs. This is double the number of people working at NGS. Due to air-quality issues, the McGuinty government wants to close all coal-fired generating stations in Ontario by 2014. The Nanticoke Industrial Park is a prime candidate for a reactor because it is remote from populated areas, is located beside a large body of water and has a massive transmission corridor extending north from NGS into the provincial heartland. Publisher: Cam McKnight Proprietor and published by Bowes Publishers Limited at P.O. Box 190, 25 Townline Road, Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada N4G 4H6 © 2007 Tillsonburg News ***************************************************************** 23 Idaho Business Review: Company has big plans for nuclear power plant in Idaho Monday, February 19, 2007 22:25 MST by John M. Foster Some people say things to their local paper they would never say to a different audience. Take a recent story in the Lynchburg, Virginia, News & Advance about a company called Alternate Energy Holdings. The Virginia company wants to build a nuclear power plant here in Idaho. The Associated Press spoke to CEO Don Gillespie earlier this month when the company first spread word of their plan. He offered little more than what was already included in press releases. However, he offered a lot more to readers in Virginia, including some details about the kind of plant it wants to build: Gillispie said AREVA’s design, which has not yet been approved for use in the United States, is its top choice for the reactor; he hopes Idaho-based Washington Group, which is currently working on a Wisconsin gas power plant, agrees to build the facility. He plans to meet with officials there on March 6. Interesting. Finally, I have to take this chance to point you to this video from Jib Jab, which has a cartoon John Kerry singing to President Bush (to the strains of 'This Land is Your Land': "You can't say 'nuclear.' That really scares me." Our History | Our Staff | Idaho Business Review 855 W. Broad Street, Suite 103 Boise, ID 83702 | Phone 208.336.3768 | Fax 208.336.5534 ***************************************************************** 24 World Nuclear News: Fuel loading at Cernavoda 2 19 February 2007 The first bundle of nuclear fuel has been loaded into Cernavoda 2. This first stage in active commissioning makes the Romanian unit an official nuclear site and paves the way for commercial operation this September. The plant's owner, Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica, has announced that the process of fuel loading started on 15 February. The manual loading of 4560 fuel bundles, amounting to 100 tonnes of uranium would be take a period of ten days. The reactor's heavy water moderator would then be added to the primary circuit at the end of February, with first criticality planned for 25 April, according to Minister of Economy and Trade, Varujan Vosganian. Both the plant's natural uranium fuel and heavy water were manufactured in Romania, at the Pitesti and Drobeta-Turnu Severin plants respectively. Construction work at Cernavoda, on the river Danube Cernavoda 2 is a 655 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor of AECL's Candu 6 design. It is one of five similar units begun at Cernavoda under the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu during the 1970s and early 1980s. Their construction was halted in the years following his overthrow and has subsequently been recommenced by Nuclearelectrica. * Unit 1 has been in commercial operation since December 1997. It produces about 10% of Romania's electricity and 60% of its heat consumption. * Unit 2 is in the commissioning stage. ***************************************************************** 25 Cumberland Times-News: Depleted Uranium weapons threaten health of vets, civilians Published: February 19, 2007 10:27 am To the Editor: Shortly after Gulf War I, soldiers and civilians began questioning the safety of munitions made of radioactive depleted uranium (DU). The more questions, the more the military-industrial complex hauled out studies showing DU munitions to be safe. One CEO of a defense contractor called DU the "skim milk" of uranium in an article penned for the Times-News. An Air Force officer is even stalking the Internet, trying to intimidate anyone who suggests DU is not benign. Why? Numbers suggest something insidious happens when DU munitions are used. How to explain the exploding cancer rates, birth defects, and radiation poisoning among Iraqis in the Basra region? How to explain a Department of Veterans Affairs study of 21,000 veterans of Gulf War I that found birth defects in offspring were twice as great for male vets and three times as great for female vets who served in the Gulf War? How to explain a 2006 Washington Post report that 518,000 of 580,000 Gulf War vets were on disability, over half on permanent disability? How to explain over 13,000 dead Gulf War vets? When a DU shell hits a hardened target, it bursts into flame and creates an invisible metal fume of nano-sized ceramic particles that are insoluble in body fluids. If these nano particles are inhaled, they provide contact radiation-half-life 4.5 billion years-and a source of heavy metal poisoning for the lymph nodes, spleen, heart, and central nervous system. A major problem with most DU assessment is that many effects of the alpha radiation of DU on cell structure-including DNA, proteins that release biochemical signals, and important cell metabolic enzymes-are ignored by nuclear physicists who use dose estimates inappropriate for a battlefield aerosol. Scientists have also found that tiny amounts of DU too small to be toxic and only mildly radioactive strongly reinforce each other in causing cancers and birth defects. We have enough scientific evidence to suggest with considerable certainty that DU munitions break the four basic laws and customs that govern modern war-that DU is not confined to the battlefield, that DU continues to kill long after any battle is over, that DU causes inhumane suffering, and that DU has a negative effect on the natural environment. And yet we continue to produce, sell, and use DU munitions. How can we justify this? If the government ever admitted what it has done in Iraq-between 1,000 and 2,000 tons of DU ordnance according to most estimates-the financial consequences, not to mention the moral consequences, are almost beyond calculation. Cleaning up the DU blanketing Iraq would entail enormous costs. In a few years-DU works slowly-soldiers who served in Iraq will start coming down with the same diseases that have struck Gulf War I vets. Some who inhaled heavy doses of DU have already seen their lives ruined by multiple physical problems. I suspect the government-military-industrial complex will stonewall any attempt to hold them accountable for the effects of DU. Liability questions connected to a reckless policy are enormous. So the stonewalling will continue, even as cancers rage among our soldiers and Iraqi civilians, even as birth defects proliferate across Iraq and among our veterans. But what of that? DU is a moneymaker for corporations like ATK. And turning DU into munitions helps the government solve a big problem-what to do with mountains of DU it must store and, by law, keep out of the environment. What better solution than giving it free to the munitions makers, who then sell the munitions back to Uncle Sam at a handsome profit. Everyone wins. Unless you're a vet or an Iraqi civilian. Estimates of how many may die in Iraq from DU are staggering-up to 11 percent of the 27 million population. We must stop the use of this insidious weapon that kills without discrimination-soldiers and civilians alike-a will keep on killing for 4.5 billion years. Craig Etchison Center for Nonviolent Alternatives Fort Ashby, W.Va. © 2007, The Cumberland Times-News 19 Baltimore Street, Cumberland, MD 21502 Phone: 301.722.4600 Associated Press content © 2007. All rights reserved. AP content ***************************************************************** 26 The Mercury: Adviser: Fuel rod storage may not be 'temporary' By Evan Brandt, ebrandt@pottsmerc.com 02/19/2007 He told the Borough Council Monday that a change in language by Exelon Nuclear - from calling its project to store spent nuclear fuel in dry casks outside the reactor building in Limerick an "interim solution" to a "temporary solution" - is something to watch. Had the project been permanent, it might have drawn more scrutiny from local officials and residents, Read said. But calling it a "temporary solution" probably convinced many people that it was not something they needed to worry about, said Read. The recent change in the party controlling Congress has led to a new Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has long opposed the federal government's plan to permanently store the nation's spent nuclear fuel beneath Yucca Mountain in his home state. That combined with the cost overruns, scientific conflicts and delays associated with the project have led many to theorize that the repository at Yucca Mountain will never open. When these elements are considered in light of the fact that "Exelon has changed the official designation of this project to an 'interim solution,'" the project deserves new scrutiny, Read argued. "Let's face facts, council. For all intents and purposes, at least for our lifetimes, this is going to be a permanent storage facility," Read said of the project, approved in July by the Limerick Board of Supervisors. "If we can't ship this fuel to Nevada, where is it likely to end up?" Borough Council President Jack Wolf asked Read. "Most likely we'll end up with regional depositories around the country; hopefully Limerick doesn't end up as one of those," Read said. Beth Rapczynski, a spokeswoman for Exelon, disputed that conclusion. "Our ultimate goal is to have all our spent fuel taken to the federal repository at Yucca Mountain," she said. "Our (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) permit does not allow us to take fuel from other facilities," Rapczynski added. Those permits, one for each of the two nuclear reactors, expire in 2024 and 2029. Also important to consider, Read said, "if this project has been designed as a 'temporary solution,' what happens when it becomes the permanent solution? "Nothing man has ever built is 100 percent reliable, particularly not something that was designed to be temporary. What we should be doing now is prepare for the time when it fails," Read said. Which is why Read said his committee is so disappointed Exelon rebuffed Pottstown's request for additional radiation and temperature monitoring outside the casks. The fuel inside them will remain radioactive for thousands of years. Read said his group is also "disappointed other municipalities near the plant didn't have some concerns. You know, it seems that until someone bangs the gong, there isn't always a lot of support for people who are trying to make a difference." In an effort to generate some of that support, Read asked the Borough Council for permission for the environmental advisory commission to "send a letter to each municipality in the nuclear plant's evacuation zone and hopefully solicit some support." ©The Mercury 2007 ©2006 Pottstown Mercury - a Journal Register Property. All Rights ***************************************************************** 27 Press Enterprise: Cities sue San Bernardino County over cleanup fee Southern California Download story podcast 10:00 PM PST on Sunday, February 18, 2007 By DUANE W. GANG The Press-Enterprise Add another round of legal wrangling for local officials over the rocket-fuel chemical perchlorate. San Bernardino County is facing a legal challenge from 11 cities over a fee it began collecting last year to generate at least $1 million to help fund cleanup of the chemical at its Mid-Valley Landfill in Rialto. The new fee -- 69 cents per ton of trash -- doesn't sit well with city officials, who say the fee violates a 1998 agreement they signed to send trash to the county's landfills. "It is not about the 69 cents," Grand Terrace City Manager Thomas Schwab said. Had the county approached the cities first about perchlorate cleanup as a regional issue, local officials might have signed off, Schwab said. Instead, Grand Terrace officials are worried that the county could later impose other fees, defeating the purpose of the original agreement, Schwab said. "We are all basically in a coalition of cities that decided to support San Bernardino County by entering into a contract guaranteeing we would direct all our waste to San Bernardino in exchange for rate stability," Schwab said. "We feel our contract does not allow them to add this." The cities of Barstow, Big Bear Lake, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Highland, Loma Linda, San Bernardino, Victorville and Yucaipa, plus the towns of Apple Valley and Yucca Valley, filed the lawsuit in August. The county last month disputed the cities' arguments that the fee is illegal. Both sides are due back in a Los Angeles County court in Pomona in March. "The effect on the average household is less than a buck a year," said San Bernardino County Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, whose district includes six of the cities challenging the fee. "But the overall need to clean up perchlorate is enormous." Perchlorate, linked to thyroid damage, has tainted more than a dozen drinking wells in Rialto and Colton. The cities' lawsuit adds to cases already under way over the chemical. This month, the state's top water-regulating agency took over a case to determine the companies responsible for the miles-long plume of perchlorate. Rialto and that city's utility also have sued San Bernardino County and 41 other agencies and companies in 2004 over the groundwater contamination. The city filed a second lawsuit in September. In the lawsuit over the new fee, the cities want the court to stop the county from collecting the revenue. The county can only raise the per-ton fee charged to cities and haulers dumping trash into landfills for "uncontrollable circumstances," such as a change in law, landslides, earthquakes or sabotage, the cities contend in court documents. Perchlorate doesn't fall into that category, because the county failed to do its research when it bought the contaminated land near the Mid-Valley Landfill in the early 1990s, the cities argue. The county's lawyers in a Jan. 17 response disputed the cities' contention that the county didn't properly look into environmental issues at the landfill site. Hansberger said the county didn't create the perchlorate problem but is providing a cost-effective service for the cities, which don't have resources to run individual landfills, he said. "If we didn't process their trash, we wouldn't need the place," Hansberger said. "It really goes to the user we serve, and the user really needs to pay for it." Reach Duane W. Gang at 909-806-3062 or dgang@PE.com © 2007 Press-Enterprise Company ***************************************************************** 28 KnoxNews: Munger: ORNL helps organize region for Homeland Security work By FRANK MUNGER, news@knoxbusinessjournal.com February 19, 2007 Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the only national laboratory in the Southeast, and so it makes sense for the lab to take a leadership role on some regional projects. One of those is the Southeast Regional Research Initiative, a broad partnership put together under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The idea is to improve the readiness and response to big-time emergencies, including deadly acts of terrorism as well as natural disasters - such as tornadoes, floods and hurricanes. It's still early in the game, but local, state and federal organizations are reportedly cooperating to improve systems, share tools and generally make things better. On Jan. 29, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp's staff and ORNL hosted the Tennessee Valley Corridor board and the Chattanooga Enterprise board to familiarize folks with the lab's capabilities and resources and talk about SERRI. (Wamp, who serves on the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, was a no-show because of illness.) Among the stops was the National Center for Computational Sciences, which houses some of the fastest computers in the nation and a terrific visualization center. ORNL's LandScan software technology has provided high-resolution mapping of U.S. population centers, showing where people are day and night. The predictive information would be essential for evacuating urban areas or orchestrating other emergency actions. Frank Akers, ORNL's national security director, said SERRI was an outgrowth of long-standing partnerships in the region. "We received some congressional funding and DHS asked us to expand that and look at capabilities that existed within the region," Akers said. But SERRI itself is just getting started, he said. "Oh, boy, four months along. So we're really in the nascent stage of all that." Akers said the main focus is "resiliency" - capabilities that would help the region recover from disasters. One of the early research projects is a joint effort of ORNL and Mississippi State University to improve the tracking of barges carrying hazardous chemicals. Similar efforts are in the works. But Akers said SERRI is not just about research. A lot of the possibilities are operational, such as identifying best practices and lessons learned and then sharing them, he said. He cited the fusion centers (where law enforcement and intelligence are blended to thwart terrorist threats), which are required in each state by Homeland Security. "Some states have them. Some are building them. Some of them don't yet have them on the books," Akers said. "But some states have already done a pretty good job of that. For example, Georgia probably leads the region. Well, why don't we take that template and give it to those states who haven't started yet or even those who have and maybe improve what they've got?" Asked about ORNL's role with SERRI, Akers replied, "We're the executive agent for DHS to make this happen." Gordon pushes nano For those unaware, there is a Congressional Nanotechnology Caucus, and U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., is one of the leaders. Gordon was among those who recently announced a lecture series for congressional staffers to educate them on issues about nanotechnology, its potential and challenges. ORNL, of course, is one of the nation's leading centers for nanoscience research. In a statement released to the media, Gordon said, "In just 20 years, nanotechnology has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry successfully addressing technological challenges in materials, medicine and electronics. It is a great success story, and it presents many opportunities. To stay competitive in nanotech, the U.S. needs to invest in an infrastructure that facilitates innovation and commercialization." That means improvements in math and science education, he said, "so that our young people are prepared to become the next generation of nanotechnologists." Toohey heads rad specialists Richard Toohey of Oak Ridge Associated Universities has been named president-elect of the National Health Physics Society, a group of professionals specializing in radiation safety. He will become president in July 2008. Toohey is ORAU's leader on a federal compensation project that evaluates applications from sick workers and determines the likelihood that radiation exposures may have caused their cancer. Oak Ridge workers or their surviving family members have collected more than half a billion dollars from the fund during the past six years. Toohey holds a doctoral degree in physics from the University of Cincinnati and has worked at ORAU since 1994. Another role for Wadsworth Jeff Wadsworth, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Tennessee's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Wadsworth's background is in metallurgy, specializing in ancient steels, superplasticity and high-temperature materials. Senior writer Frank Munger covers Department of Energy facilities in Oak Ridge for the News Sentinel. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 29 Tri-City Herald: CH2M Hill mapping underground contaminants Published Monday, February 19th, 2007 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Hanford workers are trying a technology more often employed by archaeologists to look beneath the surface of the ground where contamination from leaks of radioactive or hazard chemical waste is suspected. In a demonstration project, CH2M Hill Hanford Group is showing that electricity can be used to map contamination at the nuclear reservation's tank farms. "If we can get a picture of where it may or may not be, we can go out and take a physical sample," said John Kristofzski, CH2M Hill's vadose zone program director. As many as 67 of Hanford's 149 older, single-shell tanks have leaked up to a million gallons of liquid waste into the soil. Although none is known to be leaking now, some have held waste since World War II from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. Central Hanford also has contamination from intentional discharges of contaminated liquid into the ground. Some of the contamination has moved down through the soil and reached the water table. Hanford officials have some idea from historical documents of what wastes may be in the soil and where they are. But they need to know more to come up with a plan to clean up the contamination before more of it reaches the ground water. Sending electrical current through the ground shows promise for providing a map of contamination without excavation or drilling holes that can expose workers to hazardous chemicals or radiation. Working with Columbia Energy and Environmental Services of Richland and HydroGeophysics of Tucson, Ariz., CH2M Hill is looking for places in the soil where electricity moves with less resistance. Soil moistened with waste conducts electrical current better than dry, uncontaminated soil. In addition, the tank waste often has heavy chemical salt concentrations that increase conductivity just as salts in a car battery do. CH2M Hill now is working on a 26-week effort to map the B, BX and BY tank farms, which have 40 tanks with capacities up to 758,000 gallons each. Workers are inserting 11.5-inch stainless steel probes into the soil 18 feet apart to form a grid pattern with 36 lines, the longest of them two-thirds of a mile. Two car batteries will be used to send an electric current through wires attached to the probes. As the electricity travels between probes farther and farther apart, it creates a triangular picture of soil resistivity as far down as the ground water. The resistivity then will be mapped on a computer to come up with a picture of where waste lies beneath the soil. Although the grid of probes creates just a two-dimensional picture, probes also can be inserted down wells already drilled to expand the picture to three dimensions to provide more information about the depth at which waste lies. "We want to understand what's out there and where it's moving," Kristofzski said. By doing more resistivity checks in the future, a picture of where the waste is moving also may be developed. Long term, the technology also might prove useful in determining concentrations of waste in the ground, he said. The technology, called high-resolution resistivity, already has been tested as a way to show real-time leak detection when work is under way, such as emptying single-shell tanks into newer double-shell tanks. To determine the location of previous leaks, the technology already has been tested to map waste at the S, T and U tank farms. Data collected at the U Tank Farm has been used to help select sites to collect samples of waste beneath the ground's surface. 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 30 OregonLive.com: Senate to feds: Clean up Hanford Posted by The Oregonian Politics Team February 19, 2007 12:30 It's rare to see Republicans and Democrats serving in the Oregon Legislature get unanimously behind an environmental measure. But it happened Monday when the Senate voted 29-0 in support of Senate Joint Memorial 1, a call for Congress to fund cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The memorial is non-binding, of course. But for state senators, it's the message that counts. During the brief floor debate Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democrat, cited the high proportion of Oregon and Washington residents who suffer from Multiple Scelorisis --or MS. "There are many unanswered questions," she said. Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, a Republican from John Day, said the Hanford site is "without question the most contaminated site in North America." "This is an issue that should be of concern to every Oregonian," he said. "This is a very important message we send to Washington, D.C." --michellecole@news.oregonian.com ©2006 OregonLive.com. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 31 ContraCostaTimes.com: Nuclear agency rebukes Bush weapons redesign 02/19/2007 | One panelist says weapons are fine, but a military leader says not remaking arms is 'irresponsible' By Ian Hoffman MEDIANEWS STAFF SAN FRANCISCO - Experts assembled by the world's largest scientific organization declined in a report Sunday to endorse a Bush administration plan for redesigning all U.S. nuclear weapons, citing a lack of reliable cost estimates and of proven methods for verifying whether the new H-bombs will work without test explosions. The new weapons could lead to hardier bombs that are easier to make and harder for terrorists to detonate, but the cost benefits "are less certain and would only be established in the long term," a panel of nuclear weapons experts said. In presentations here before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, weapons officials and military leaders pressed the case for remaking the U.S. arsenal with more durable nuclear explosives, as well as more modern safety and security features than are present in existing weapons built in the 1970s and '80s. "If the policy is to have nuclear weapons, the policy ought to be to make them as secure as possible, as safe as possible. Anything less is irresponsible," said Gen. James Cartwright, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, the military branch over all U.S. nuclear forces. Every year, directors of the nation's three nuclear weapons labs and top Energy and Defense department officials certify the safety, security and reliable operation of the nuclear arsenal without nuclear testing -- and they have done so since 1996. An official of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the weapons arm of the U.S. Energy Department, stressed Sunday that the existing bombs and warheads remain fine, but he suggested that senior scientists have uncertainty about what may happen to the weapons in the future as they age and components are replaced. "We see increased risks absent nuclear testing in ensuring the safety, security and reliability of today's stockpile (of nuclear arms)," said John Harvey, the nuclear agency's director of policy planning. With the new "reliable, replacement warheads," or RRWs, he said, the United States could move more easily to a leaner, less costly complex of labs and factories that could make the bombs on demand, reducing the need to keep thousands of redundant warheads in storage as insurance against problems, as is the case today. Under a deal with Congress, the new weapons would have the same military missions as the bombs and warheads that they replace. But the factory to make them would give the United States more agility to manufacture new types of weapons, if needed, Cartwright said. But an early report from a panel assembled by the AAAS -- most of them former Energy Department or nuclear-weapons lab executives -- found many of the benefits of the new warheads distant in time and uncertain, and said there is no clear evidence of future breakdown in the existing nuclear arsenal. "I think the uncertainty is serious and it's legitimate, but it's not yet empirical," said panel chairman and physicist C. Bruce Tarter, former director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is competing to lead development of the first of the new warheads. The panel also said it was impossible based on information available now to judge the administration's new RRWs against the current course of simply maintaining the bombs and warheads designed, tested and fielded during the Cold War. The experts did agree, however, that existing U.S. weapons are changing from their original designs by aging and gradual component replacement with parts designed to be as close as possible to the original. "It's a hard problem, and there's no panacea. And it's going to be with us as long as we have nuclear weapons," Tarter said. The question then becomes whether it is better to stick with maintaining existing, well-tested designs or rely on the new, untested but more generously designed and more secure warheads. "We would say there isn't enough information to say," Tarter concluded. Administration proponents for the new warheads and a new bomb factory coupled with them argued that the plan should allow for more cuts in U.S. weapons held in reserve and make a return to nuclear testing less likely. But some critics say other nations will read the policy as signaling U.S. intent to keep a nuclear arsenal forever, contrary to promises 30 years ago under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to work toward disarmament. Reach Ian Hoffman at 510-208-6458 or ihoffman@angnewspapers.com ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************