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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 [NYTr] PSR: Time to Prevent War on Iran is NOW
2 Guardian Unlimited: From softly-softly to sanctions - how pressure o
3 Guardian Unlimited: Robert Tait on Iran's views on Britain 
4 washingtonpost.com: The Results of Diplomacy - 
5 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRGC rejects claims over US wargames
6 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: British troops raid IRI consulate
7 Reuters: UK rules out negotiation, Tehran puts off release 
8 AFP: Britain takes Iran case to UN 
9 UPI Poll: Against U.S. troops in Iran
10 UPI: Russia uranium plans may include N. Korea
11 Korea Times: WFP Official Warns of NK Food Crisis
12 US: UPI: U.S. still needs nuclear weapons
13 Guardian Unlimited: Monarch's Remarks Provoke Rare US Retort 
14 Guardian Unlimited: Orders for £3bn warships signal a new era for na
15 AFP: Chinese envoy warns US over Taiwan - 
16 Reuters: Arab leaders urge Israel, world to take peace offer
17 UPI: Outside View: New nuclear fears-2
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
18 US: Lancaster news: TMI Alert Turns 30 
19 US: Patriot News: TMI Alert turns 30
20 Helsingin Sanomat: Electric utilities make preparations for sixth nu
21 Times of India: Pak to set up 2 N-power plants near Karachi-Pakistan
22 The Hindu: Nuke deal: India, US resolve differences
23 allAfrica.com: Namibia: Opposition MP Queries Nuke Deal 
24 US: POAC: Low water levels cause shutdown signal at Salem N-plant
25 US: Times Record News: State's Maine Yankee report delayed
26 JOURNAL NEWS: Indian Point's new siren system getting closer to full
27 US: Rutland Herald: Mass. AG takes nuke plants to court
28 US: Rutland Herald: NRC: nuclear bill faces battle
29 US: BBC: The Future of Nuclear Energy in Illinois
30 THERECORD.COM: Nuclear future is scary
31 The News: PAEC selects six sites for nuclear power plants
32 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Browns Ferry Nuclear Pla
33 Daily Times: Karachi to have more nuclear plants
34 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Farley Nuclear Plant
35 Reuters: Sumitomo to buy Westinghouse stake by June - paper 
36 Norway Post: Plans for nuclear power plants in Norway
37 US: UPI: Bill would give states nuke safety rights
38 US: FR NRC: Project on Government Oversight and Union of Concerned 
39 US: Public Citizen: Public Interest Groups Support Sen. Sanders Bill
40 AU: ABC: Howard discusses climate change response
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
41 US: Wisconsin Radio Network: Bill protects GIs from effects of deple
42 US: OpEd News: Death Registries: A Thoughtful Touch for DU-Poisoned 
43 US: Center for Public Integrity: Radiation Panel Fairness Questioned
44 AU ABC: Canberra urged to investigate depleted uranium
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
45 Guardian Unlimited: Yucca Mountain Opening Date Could Slip 
46 reviewjournal.com: Nuke dump dead? Not to Nye County
47 reviewjournal.com: Yucca Mountain workers laid off; more cuts ahead
48 US: AU ABC: Campaigner warns against uranium mining
49 US: Herald News: Don't recycle nukes here, residents say
50 US: The NewStandard: Govt. Pushes Nuke-Waste Proposal through Public
51 US: POAC: NRC grants hearing about Shieldalloy slag
52 US: thewest.com.au: India hoping to buy Aussie uranium
53 Scotsman.com: Professor raises alarm over 'radioactive beach'
54 US: Independent: Attorney energizes cleanup campaign
55 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Utah nuclear waste company EnergySolutions pl
56 US: Sequoyahcountytimes.com: Sequoyah Fuels dumps uranium
57 US: Reuters: EnergySolutions files with SEC for $500 million IPO 
58 UPI: Shell defends operations against Nigeria
59 Japan Times: State to seek Kochi nuke-waste sites | 
60 US: Newsday.com: Risks found at Sylvania nuclear site - 
61 US: AU ABC: ALP resolution may allow Beattie to keep uranium mines o
62 US: PRN: Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. Joins U.S. Nuclear Industry Recycli
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
63 Tri-City Herald: Broken pump slows progress on emptying tank at Hanf
64 DenverPost.com: A sad final note for Flats whistleblower
65 Inside Bay Area: Audit questions job shifts at labs
66 lamonitor.com: Region works together on emergency plans
67 lamonitor.com: LANL wants use of bio building
68 KNDO/KNDU: EPA says Record Fine Due to False Records and Lack of Ove
69 KnoxNews: Ill nuclear workers get a boost
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 1 [NYTr] PSR: Time to Prevent War on Iran is NOW
 
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:19:55 -0400 (EDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Ed Pearl

The time to prevent the next war is NOW.

by Physicians for Social Responsibility

Please tell your Senators "I urge you to help prevent
another war in the Middle East by supporting Senator
Jim Webb's amendment to the FY07 supplemental
appropriations bill that prohibits use of funds for
military operations in Iran without Congressional
authorization."

Easy email action below.

But it would be best to also call them at the
Congressional Switchboard toll-free:

888-851-1879 (ask the operator to connect you to your
Senator's office).

TAKE ACTION

https://secure2.convio.net/psr/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=179&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=5o1vdqsdf1.app13b

As Congress debates Iraq War funding this week, a
critical vote will take place that can help prevent
another war. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) is offering an
amendment to the FY07 supplemental appropriations bill
prohibiting use of funds for military operations in
Iran without Congressional authorization.

The vote on this important piece of legislation could
come up at any time. It's critical that Congress not
give the Administration a blank check for another
military misadventure. The Administration misled
Congress and the American people before the war on
Iraq--they must not allow the same thing to happen in
Iran.

Please contact your Senators as soon as
possible and tell them to support Sen. Webb's
amendment to the FY07 supplemental appropriations bill
prohibiting use of funds for military operations in
Iran without Congressional authorization. Tell them war
is not the answer and the US must engage directly with
Iran on nuclear and other critical security issues.

Click here to send a message on Iran

https://secure2.convio.net/psr/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=179&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=5o1vdqsdf1.app13b

Sincerely,

Physicians for Social Responsibility
       
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*****************************************************************
 2 Guardian Unlimited: From softly-softly to sanctions - how pressure on Iran may be
increased 

Julian Borger

Thursday March 29, 2007

Gentle diplomacy

This was the approach taken in the first six days. Naval officers
and diplomats suggested the issue of maritime boundaries was
complicated and the whole affair could be a mistake. It was the line
taken by foreign secretary Margaret Beckett in her first
conversation with her Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, on
Sunday. It had the advantage of not pushing Tehran into a corner and
allowing a face-saving way out, in the hope that the incident would
play out like its precursor in 2004, when British captives were
released after three days. This time, the circumstances seem to be
different. The Revolutionary Guards are more entrenched in power,
and are close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The reformers in
Tehran are cowed. Approaches were made to Russia, Turkey and Arab
states in the hope they had more direct lines of communication with
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei but to no avail.

To some extent the lack of response was predictable. The Iranian New
Year holidays are observed by almost everyone including the
political and clerical elite. The holiday ends in early April but
Tony Blair decided Britain was not prepared to wait that long.

Mr Blair's announcement that the British response was entering a
"different phase" and Mrs Beckett's announcement of the diplomatic
sanctions yesterday reflects a decision that the softly-softly
approach has not worked, and rising concern that time is not on
Britain's side.

The new phase

This began yesterday with a concerted offensive by the Ministry of
Defence and the Foreign Office. It opened with a far more assertive
and detailed presentation of Britain's legal position, complete with
charts and map coordinates, and the sequence of events. It was
accompanied by the first concrete sanction - the severing of
government contacts. That includes a refusal to issue any visas to
Iranian officials and a suspension of any meetings between diplomats
from either government. It falls short of a full break in diplomatic
relations, but that would clearly be counter-productive as Britain
needs to keep talking to Tehran.

Mrs Beckett also introduced another, perhaps riskier, element into
the strategy in her announcement - her note of ridicule will not
have been missed in Tehran. By recounting an apparent comedy of
errors in the Iranian foreign ministry's handling of the affair -
with the Iranian ambassador to London initially presenting map
coordinates for the incident that bolstered Britain's argument that
it happened in Iraqi waters - she made Iran's diplomats look inept.

Further sanctions

The new phase runs the risk of entrenching Iranian positions, and
blocking off the easy face-saving exit. Yet if this initial
diplomatic rebuke fails, the government is committed to ratchet up
its response still further or lose credibility with Tehran, and
other adversaries. The next step could be to start slowing down or
stopping visas issued to ordinary Iranians, including students and
businessmen, which would upset Tehran's middle classes. After that,
the usual logic of international sanctions suggest targeted
financial measures, freezing accounts of Iranian leaders and any
organisations they may be linked to. Then comes trade sanctions:
prohibition on British companies from doing business with Iran, and
a ban on Iranian imports. But such measures are likely to damage
Britain at least as much as Iran if carried out unilaterally.
Students and businessmen could just take their money elsewhere in
Europe or to the United States.

Multilateral measures

The timing for Britain is terrible. It has just led a push for UN
sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, persuading Russia
and its allies to sign on reluctantly to freezing the assets of
prominent Iranians including Revolutionary Guard leaders. It has
therefore already used much of its credit at the UN. Meanwhile, the
White House has let it be known that while it supports Britain's
position, "there is no escalation of tensions on our part". That may
be welcomed in London. US support is a mixed blessing in a country
where America is known as the "Great Satan" and Britain its "Little
Satan" sidekick. The most promising route then, could be common
European action. Germany, in its role as EU president has been
supportive, calling the Iranian action "unacceptable".

Military rescue

The precedents for daring raids to rescue hostages from Iran are not
encouraging. President Jimmy Carter tried it in 1980, but the
special forces raid, Operation Eagle Claw, ended in disaster when a
helicopter collided with a US plane in a sandstorm in the Iranian
desert. Eight Americans were killed. Britain is in an even weaker
position militarily, as the Iranians could easily take reprisals
against British troops in Basra.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
 3 Guardian Unlimited: Robert Tait on Iran's views on Britain 

A bitter legacy

The seizure of 15 British sailors by Iran is only the latest
incident in a long and troubled history between the two countries.
As Robert Tait reports from Tehran, most Iranians see Britain as an
old colonial power that's still meddling in their affairs

Friday March 30, 2007

If the 15 British sailors currently held by Iran's revolutionary
guards are shocked by the hostility to Britain shown by their
captors, it will be less surprising to British diplomats engaged in
the delicate process of securing their release. Hostility to all
things British is, as every foreign office mandarin knows, the
default mode of Iran's staunchly anti-western political leadership.
From its perspective, Britain - along with America - is in the
vanguard of "global arrogance", Iranian political shorthand for the
contemporary western interventionism whose alleged goal is to
dominate and control the resources of developing nations such as
Iran.

But this is not just President Ahmadinejad. The antipathy goes back
to colonial times, and the long and tortured history of British
intervention in Iran.

This anti-British sentiment is shared by ordinary Iranians. Its
resonance defies boundaries of age, education, social class or
political affiliation. In the eyes of a broad cross-section of the
population, Britain - as much, or even more than, the US - is the
real enemy. Four decades after the sun set on its imperial might,
the Machiavellian instincts of the "old coloniser" are believed to
be alive, well and still acting against the interests of Iran. For
every mishap - whether a bombing, rising living costs or simply the
advent of an unpopular government - a hidden British hand is often
thought to be at work.

I first became aware of this conviction 18 months ago on a visit to
Ahvaz, capital of the south-western province of Khuzestan. A bomb
attack - the latest in a series - had killed six people in the
city's main street. The incident seemed to be linked to Arab
separatists in the mainly Arabic-speaking province, but the Iranian
authorities blamed Britain, pointing to the British military
presence across the border in southern Iraq. Eulogists at public
mourning ceremonies organised by the revolutionary guards railed
against "criminal England".

When I visited Ali Narimousayi, whose 20-year-old daughter,
Ghazaleh, had been blown up in the blast, it became clear that the
message carried a wider currency. "We know they want to come here
and take our oil for free and we won't let them," he said. "Why is
Britain so against our nuclear programme? Have we ever mistreated
their ambassador or their people? What have we ever done to them? Go
back to Britain and tell [the politicians] to be in good relations
with Iran."

This was not just grief talking. When I expressed amazement to my
Iranian mother-in-law at the belief in the existence of an
omnipotent Britain, she smiled knowingly and said: "You are the
masters and we are the servants."

The view was evident in Tehran this week, despite low public
awareness of the sailors' plight (partly because of the current no
rouz ((new year)) holiday). Shahim Nouri, 24, working in an
optician's across from the British Council in Shariati Street,
summed up the views of many affluent anti-regime Iranians. "I'm not
old enough to know the history but everybody says Britain is behind
the clerical regime. If it is not behind the mullahs, it is
definitely in a relationship with them," he said.

Iranians' belief in the power of the British is "psychological and
cultural", according to Issa Sakharhiz, a political analyst. "Much
of it stems from historical matters and the British role in
third-world countries, especially Iran, over the past 100 years," he
says. "It's been reinforced by the closeness of Britain's
relationship with the US in the past two decades, particularly its
involvement in the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
There are also lingering feelings over the western-backed war Saddam
Hussein waged against Iran in the 1980s - the British were heavily
involved in that. In the past 20 years, these suspicions have been
exaggerated because everybody knows the US is in the frontline
working against the benefits of the third world countries and that
Britain doesn't have its previous power. But that psychological and
cultural relationship that Iranians have towards Britain and the
belief that it is behind everything is very important. It will take
decades of quiet (Anglo-Iranian) relations to change it."

Quiet has seldom been an apt description of the British relationship
with Iran in modern times. It started during the 19th century as
Iran - along with Afghanistan - became a pawn in the imperial Great
Game between Britain and Tsarist Russia. The British sought
successfully to use Iran as a buffer to bolster its position in
India against the tsarist empire.

In doing so, however, they created an enmity supplanting the
traditional Iranian fear and loathing of Russia. Fuelling it was a
quickly acquired habit of meddling in Iranian politics and a pattern
of monopolising the country's vital natural resources.

Relations quickly soured after a succession of monarchs - wanting to
finance lavish courts - granted economic concessions to British
entrepreneurs. In 1872, Nasser Al-din Shah granted Baron Paul Julius
de Reuter - the founder of the Reuters news agency - exclusive
rights over extensive parts of the economy, including railways,
roads, tramways, irrigation works and all minerals except gold and
silver. In 1896, the shah granted the forerunner of British Imperial
Tobacco rights over the production, sale and export of Iranian
tobacco. The move triggered mass protests led by Iran's Shia clergy
and was supported by merchants in the bazaars. Police fired on one
demonstration in Tehran, killing several unarmed protesters. Amid
the outcry, the concession was cancelled, leaving Iran with its
first foreign debt - £500,000 borrowed to compensate the British
tobacco company - and a deep reservoir of anti-British feeling.

But the most important concession concerned a substance whose
importance was lost on Iran's rulers - oil. In 1901, William Knox
D'Arcy, a London-based lawyer and businessman, was granted
exploration rights in most of Iran's oil fields for the princely sum
of £20,000. It took several years for D'Arcy's investment to bear
fruit but when it did - after he struck oil in Masjid-e Suleiman in
1908 - its effect was enduring and fateful.

It turned out to be the world's largest oil field to date and a year
later, D'Arcy's concession was merged into the Anglo-Persian Oil
Company (APOC). In 1913, with war clouds gathering in Europe, the
British admiralty - under Winston Churchill - discarded coal in
favour of oil to power its battleships. To safeguard the decision,
the government bought a 51% stake in APOC. The importance of oil -
and Iran - in British imperial expansion was now explicit. It was a
priority of which Churchill, for one, would never lose sight.

For the next four decades, the oil company and Britain remained
close to the heart of Iranian political and economic life and became
twin sources of burning national resentment.

In 1921, the British - seeking a strongman ruler to replace the
teetering Qajar dynasty - threw its weight behind a charismatic
colonel, Reza Khan, commander of the powerful Cossack brigades.
Within four years, Khan had seized power, anointed himself Reza Shah
and instituted the Pahlavi monarchy. With British acquiescence, he
ushered in a reign of repressive modernisation which, among other
things, outlawed women's Islamic hijab and repressed the clergy. He
thus gave the religious establishment reason to suspect and detest
Britain.

He did not, however, do Britain's bidding. During the 1930s, Reza
Shah developed an admiration for Hitler and turned towards Germany,
who had offered to build modern railways - an idea the British
feared as a potential invasion route of India. As a result, Britain
invaded Iran in 1941 and occupied the southern half of its
territory. At the same time, it deposed Reza Shah and replaced him
with his 21-year-old son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Despite his
accession to the Peacock Throne, the young monarch never forgave his
benefactors for their treatment of his father. Neither did the
monarchists loyal to Reza Shah. Britain had alienated yet another
sector of Iranian society.

Meanwhile, anger over the arrogant behaviour of the now-renamed
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company - it later became BP - was leading
inevitably to a fateful confrontation between Britain and Iran.
Resentment over Iran's paltry share of company profits had festered
for years. In 1947, out of an annual profit of £40m, Iran received
just £7m. Iranian anger was further fuelled by the treatment of
oil-company workers who were restricted to low-paid menial jobs and
kept in squalid living conditions, in contrast to the luxury in
which their British masters lived. Attempts at persuading the oil
company to give Iran a bigger share of the profits and its workers a
fairer deal proved fruitless. The result was a standoff that created
conditions ripe for a nationalist revolt.

Into this ferment walked Mohammad Mossadegh, a lawyer and leftwing
secular nationalist politician fated to go down as perhaps Iranian
history's biggest martyr before British perfidy. Mossadegh was
elected prime minister in 1951 advocating a straightforward solution
to the oil question - nationalisation. It was a goal he carried out
with single-minded zeal while lambasting the British imperialists in
tones redolent of a later Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Within months, he had ordered the Iranian state to take over the oil
company and expelled its British management and workers.

The company and the British government reacted furiously. The Labour
government of Clement Attlee imposed a naval blockade in the Gulf
and asked the UN security council to condemn Iran. Instead, the
council embarrassingly came out in Iran's favour. Meanwhile,
Mossadegh - who often did business in his pyjamas - embarked on an
American tour in the naive belief that the US would back him against
the British "colonisers".

It was a serious misjudgment. The oil company's executives were
clamouring for a coup to overthrow Mossadegh. Attlee rebuffed the
idea but when a Conservative government took office in October 1951,
led by Churchill, it fell on more sympathetic ears.

With British power in decline, however, Churchill was unable to
mount such a venture alone. American help would be needed. The
result was Operation Ajax, a CIA-MI6 putsch that co-opted a loose
coalition of monarchists, nationalist generals, conservative mullahs
and street thugs to overthrow Mossadegh. With the economy teetering
in the face of the British blockade, Mossadegh was ousted after
several days of violent street clashes.

The shah, at that time a weak figure, had fled to Rome fearing the
coup would fail. When he heard the news of Mossadegh's demise, he
responded: "I knew they loved me." He subsequently returned to
install a brutally repressive regime - maintained in power by the
notorious Savak secret police -backed to the hilt by both America
and Britain for the next 25 years.

The British remained loyal to the shah throughout the violent
upheavals that presaged his own overthrow in January 1979. The
Labour foreign secretary of the time, David Owen, gave the monarch
vocal support even as millions took to the streets in Tehran to
demand an end to the dictatorship. Britain's stance provoked a brief
takeover of its Tehran embassy by opposition protesters in November
1978. The shah, however, was unconvinced. In the final days of his
reign, beleaguered and bewildered at the forces ranged against him,
he told the US ambassador, William Sullivan, that he "detected the
hand of the English" behind the demonstrations. Sullivan couldn't
believe his ears but it is a view still held by royalists a
generation later.

After the revolution, the Islamic authorities continued to draw on
national resentment at more than a century of British interference,
damning Britain as the "little Satan" (the US was the "Great
Satan"). Such feelings were further fed by London's support for
Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, despite Baghdad
having started the war and subsequently resorting to chemical
weapons. London and Tehran were at loggerheads again in 1989 after
the revolution's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
issued a fatwa (religious edict) sentencing the British author,
Salman Rushdie, to death for blasphemy over his novel, The Satanic
Verses.

The antipathy resurfaced most recently in June 2004 in an incident
with uncanny parallels to the current stand-off. Then, eight British
sailors were seized and paraded blindfold on state TV after
allegedly straying into Iranian waters in the Shatt al-Arab
waterway, where the 15 currently in detention were intercepted and
arrested last Friday. On the previous occasion, the Britons were
released following an apology from the foreign secretary at the
time, Jack Straw.

The Anglo-American invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan have once
again brought British troops to Iran's borders. Although Iran
opposed the invasion of Iraq, it gave the occupation forces few
problems in the early years, as it built up its influence in the
Shia areas controlled by Britain in the south. That has all changed
in the past year or so, as Iranian-backed militias have increasingly
challenged the British occupation forces, both politically and
militarily.

The British RAF personnel and marines in Iran's captivity may well
be oblivious to the long-accumulated resentments that have provided
the backdrop to their detentions. Perhaps they are learning
something of this tortured history from their captors.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
 4 washingtonpost.com: The Results of Diplomacy - 

In Iran's case, they've been pretty thin.

Thursday, March 29, 2007; Page A18

IRAN'S SEIZURE of 15 British sailors and marines on the day before
the U.N. Security Council approved another resolution imposing
sanctions on Tehran for its nuclear program may have been a
coincidence. But the seizure illustrated a stubborn reality about
the diplomatic campaign the Bush administration embraced two years
ago: While successful on its own terms, the campaign has yet to
produce any significant change in Iranian behavior.

Administration officials were encouraged by signs of dissension in
the Iranian leadership after the first of two unanimous sanctions
resolutions passed the Security Council in late December. Before the
second resolution was introduced, there were talks between Iranian
and European officials about ways to renew negotiations. Yet the
Iranian work on uranium enrichment has continued; there are signs
the regime is racing to complete an industrial installation with
thousands of centrifuges that it can present to the world as an
accomplished fact.

 
Now Iran is parading captured British sailors before cameras and
using their purported confessions of trespassing in Iranian waters
as propaganda in a way that suggests an eagerness to escalate rather
than defuse confrontation with the West. Yesterday, Britain offered
evidence that its service members were captured in international
waters and rightly called their treatment "completely unacceptable."
Though Iran's foreign minister said a female sailor would be
released "very soon," the television broadcast suggested the
prisoners had been coerced.

It's widely believed that power in Iran is divided among competing
factions, and it could be that hard-liners are seeking to preempt
any steps by the regime to comply with the Security Council. It's
impossible to predict what might come out of Tehran before the next
U.N. deadline in late May. Yet what has happened so far is sobering.

Bush administration officials have been congratulating themselves on
the relative speed and deftness with which the latest sanctions
resolution was pushed through the Security Council. They are right,
in a way: The diplomatic campaign against Iran has been pretty
successful by the usual diplomatic measures. Not only has the United
States worked relatively smoothly with European partners with which
it differed bitterly over Iraq, but it has also been effective
lately in winning support from Russia, China and nonaligned states
such as South Africa.

Critics who lambasted the administration's unilateral campaign
against an "axis of evil" a few years ago ought to be applauding the
return to conventional diplomacy. We, too, think it's worth
pursuing, especially when combined with steps short of a military
attack to push back against Iranian aggression in the region. Still,
two years after President Bush embraced the effort, it has to be
noted: The diplomatic strategy so far has been no more successful
than the previous "regime change" policy in stopping Iran's drive
for a nuclear weapon.

; Copyright 1996- The Washington Post Company | User Agreement
*****************************************************************
 5 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRGC rejects claims over US wargames

2007/03/29

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps on Wednesday dismissed rumours
that America had staged wargames in the Persian Gulf.

"Based on the IRGC observations in the region over recent days,
American forces have not staged any military exercise," said IRGC
Navy Commander Rear Admiral Tangsiri while denying an American navy
commander's claim that America had launched an unusual a nd
unprecedented wargame in Persian Gulf, involving 100 navy aircraft.

American officials have also claimed that America's unusual exercise
over recent days involved two American aircraft carrier strike
groups in the Persian Gulf.

"Our navy forces, stationed in the Persian Gulf and Hormuz Strait,
keep a close eye on the region and fully control any movement by
foreign forces," added Tangsiri.

Also ruling out claims about Iran's missile test, Tangsiri said
,"Americans want to tarnish the image of Iran in the region. Such
statements are in line with the extensive psychological warfare
launched by America."

SM

Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir 
*****************************************************************
 6 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: British troops raid IRI consulate

2007/03/29

British forces stormed Iranian consulate in Iraq's southern city of
Basra and surrounded the office during a shootout with unknown
gunmen in Iraq on Thursday, Islamic Republic of Iran's consulate
announced.

"British forces sealed off the Iranian consulate in Basra. They went
inside for 10 minutes and after that there was intense gunfire on
them," Iranian Consul Mohammed Reva Nasir told reporters in Basra.

"This is a provocative act against the Iranian consulate in Basra. I
believe it has something to do with the British detainees in Iran,"
he said.

SM


Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir 
*****************************************************************
 7 Reuters: UK rules out negotiation, Tehran puts off release 

Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:48PM EDT

By Sophie Walker and Peter Graff

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain ruled out negotiating with Iran over the
release of 15 military personnel seized in the Gulf after Tehran put
off freeing a female captive on Thursday because of London's "wrong
behavior".

In an escalating row which pushed oil prices sharply higher, the
U.N. Security Council agreed a watered down statement expressing
"grave concern" and calling "for an early resolution of this
problem, including the release of the 15 personnel."

Britain had wanted a tougher stance, but after hours of
negotiations, Russia blocked a statement that would have demanded an
immediate release of the British crew.

Britain is also pushing for European Union members to join it in
cutting back diplomatic relations with Tehran.

The British government reacted angrily when Tehran distributed a
second letter purportedly from the only female captive, Faye Turney,
confessing to entering Iranian waters. Calling the move blatant
propaganda, the government labeled the letter's release "outrageous
and cruel".

The spiraling six-day-old dispute pushed oil prices up more than 3
percent to $66 a barrel on worries oil supplies could be affected,
and stoked Middle East tensions, already heightened over concerns
about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The two countries are at odds over whether the 15 Britons had been
in Iranian or Iraqi waters when captured carrying out patrols
authorized by the United Nations and Iraq's government.  Continued...

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 8 AFP: Britain takes Iran case to UN 

Thu Mar 29, 4:51 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) - Britain took the escalating crisis with Iran over 
15 captured naval personnel to the UN Security Council Thursday, 
as Tehran withdrew an offer to free the only female detainee.

The Iranians also released a second letter apparently written by the
captured woman, 26-year-old Faye Turney, in which she suggested it
was time for Britain to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

As world oil prices soared to six month highs on the spike in
tension, United Nations Security Council members debated a draft
British statement calling for the group's "immediate release."

The draft "deplored" the continued detention of the British
personnel and noted that they were in Iraqi waters when they were
seized at gunpoint last Friday by the Iranian navy.

The position of the 15 has become a key part of the dispute. Iran
has insisted the British naval personnel entered its waters at six
different points before they were arrested.

In footage on state TV, an Iranian military commander showed charts
and a Global Positioning Service (GPS) monitor that he said had been
seized from the British sailors and that showed the sailors were
detained in Iranian waters.

A British military official had put together a similar presentation
on Wednesday when Britain insisted its 15 personnel were in Iraqi
waters patrolling legally with a UN mandate.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki demanded on Thursday
that Britain accept a "violation" took place, saying if they did it
would "help to resolve this affair."

The head of Iran's supreme national security council, Ali Larijani,
earlier said Turney would not be released because of Britain's
"incorrect" attitude.

Iran did say it would consider a Turkish request to free Turney and
to allow the Turkish ambassador to visit the eight detained British
sailors and seven marines.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "while saying that because of the bad
attitude of the British government this dossier has taken a judicial
path, has given the order for the Turkish request to be examined in
a positive way," Iranian state television said.

The channel ran footage of Turney and her 14 male colleagues on
Wednesday, in which she said they had strayed into Iranian waters.

The film provoked a furious reaction in London. Prime Minister Tony
Blair called the Iranian tactics "a disgrace" while his government
said it suspected Turney had spoken under duress.

Britain's ambassador in Tehran had lodged a formal protest to Iran
over the television footage, the Foreign Office said.

Blair also warned that there were a "whole series of measures" that
could be taken to pressure the Islamic republic to hand over the
sailors.

"What we have to do in a very firm way, is step up the pressure,"
Blair told ITV television.

The release of a second letter by Turney -- a first in which she
apologised for trespassing was released on Wednesday -- was strongly
condemned by both Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and
Blair's office.

"We have not seen this letter, but we have grave concerns about the
circumstances in which it was prepared and issued. This blatant
attempt to use leading seaman Turney for propaganda purposes is
outrageous and cruel," Beckett said.

Larijani, who is also Iran's chief negotiator in its nuclear dispute
with western powers, threatened to pursue a "legal path" in the
crisis which could delay any solution.

"Instead of sending a technical team to examine the problem, they
kicked up a media storm, announced a freeze in relations and spoke
about the Security Council. That will not resolve the problem. They
have miscalculated," said Larijani.

London announced on Wednesday that it was freezing official contacts
with Tehran because of the detentions.

In mounting diplomatic activity, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
spoke to Mottaki about the crisis at an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.
France summoned Iran's ambassador to Paris to express support for
Britain's case.

But the United States sought to downplay the sense of crisis.

"There is no reason for us to choose a confrontational path now," US
Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told Congress. "We believe
diplomacy can succeed and we do not believe that conflict with Iran
is inevitable."

The crisis is unfolding against the backdrop of already tense
relations between Tehran and the West over Tehran's nuclear
programme, with the United States claims is a cover for building
atomic weapons.

Two US carrier groups are staging war games in the Gulf near Iran.

The crisis has had a significant impact on oil prices, which
rebounded above 67 dollars a barrel in London to six-month highs
after Larijani's comments.

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 9 UPI Poll: Against U.S. troops in Iran

United Press International - NewsTrack - 

3/29/2007 12:01:00 PM -0400

WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) -- More than half of participants in a
UPI-Zogby International poll said they were "strongly opposed" to
U.S. troops being sent into Iran.

The possibility of military action against Iran has been raised in
response to alleged Iranian aid to insurgents in Iraq and its
continued development of a nuclear program. But 52.9 percent of
respondents to a March 14-16 Zogby interactive poll "strongly
opposed" U.S. forces being used overtly against Iraq, and another
15.4 percent said they "somewhat opposed" the idea.

Some 17.2 percent were in "somewhat support" and 8.2 percent said
they "strongly supported" such a concept.

Support was higher for the use of air strikes -- 19.7 percent
"strongly support" and 18.3 percent "somewhat support" versus 39.4
percent "strongly oppose" and 16.1 percent "somewhat oppose" -- and
higher yet for the insertion of U.S. Special Forces to intelligence
gathering and sabotage -- 42.3 percent "strongly support" and 23.4
percent "somewhat support" while 15.3 percent "strongly opposed" and
14.9 percent "somewhat opposed."

If military action is called for, 59.5 percent of participants said
congressional authorization must be given first.

There were 4,824 U.S. participants in the poll, which has a margin
of error or 1.4 percentage points.

© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 10 UPI: Russia uranium plans may include N. Korea

United Press International - Energy - 

3/29/2007 2:33:00 PM -0400

MOSCOW, March 29 (UPI) -- Russia's move for a larger footprint in
the global uranium mining market includes an offer for all North
Korea's uranium in exchange for diplomatic backing.

The Tokyo Shimbun reports Pyongyang said Russia can have all its
uranium reserves if Moscow backs it in six-party talks over its
disputed nuclear program.

The talks bring together China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and
the United States.

Russia has been talking to North Korea about getting exclusive
access to its uranium reserves since 2002, unnamed Russian officials
told the newspaper.

Russia also will be involved in new Ukrainian and Mongolian uranium
mining via the Uranium Mining Co., a new joint venture between the
state-run fuel producer TVEL and Techsnabexport, the state-run
uranium trader.

UGRK wants to enter the Novokonstantinovsk field in Ukraine, with an
expected 2020 output of 2,500 tons of uranium a year. It also wants
access to the Erdes field in Mongolia, with an expected 500 tons per
year output.

The company wants to produce 29,000 tons of uranium a year by 2020,
RIA Novosti reports.

UGRK, formee in November, will finalize its domestic and foreign
production strategy, then take over TVEL and Techsnabexport mining
assets.

© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 11 Korea Times: WFP Official Warns of NK Food Crisis

Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation

By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter

A U.N. World Food Program (WFP) official responsible for the
agency¡¯s operations in North Korea warned yesterday of a severe
food crisis in the communist country.

Confirming that the North had made a plea for help through the
agency, Jean-Pierre de Margerie, WFP¡¯s country director for the
North, said that the situation is not as bad as it was in the 1990s,
when about one million North Koreans are estimated to have died of
hunger.

But the food situation has again started to deteriorate because of
the June and August flooding of critical cropland and major
reductions in WFP and bilateral food assistance, he said.

He also discussed with South Korean government officials urgent food
assistance needs in the North. He is scheduled to meet with members
of the National Assembly¡¯s unification, foreign affairs and trade
committee today.

``Officials of the North had indicated that the country faced a
shortfall of one million metric tons of food and had expressed a new
openness to receiving increased food assistance from the WFP,¡¯¡¯ he
said in a press conference in Seoul.

To increase help to North Koreans, the WFP urgently needs
significant donor contributions, he said.

``Without immediate funding, WFP may be required to suspend food
deliveries in two months time, reducing food assistance for the most
vulnerable beneficiaries _ children, pregnant women and nursing
mothers _ during the North¡¯s lean season,¡¯¡¯ he added.

He explained the WFP is already able to feed 700,000 of the 1.9
million most vulnerable North Koreans targeted for food aid.

On Wednesday, Anthony Banbury, the Asian regional director for the
WFP, who just returned from a six-day trip to North Korea, also
mentioned the shortage of 1 million tons of food.

``A lot of effort was made in the last decade to improve the
situation, and many gains were achieved,¡¯¡¯ Banbury said. ``Now,
unfortunately, we face a situation where those gains may be
reversed.¡¯¡¯

The weak harvest in 2006, disastrous summer flooding and a
75-percent fall in donor assistance dealt severe blows to the
impoverished nation, he added.

According to a think tank, North Korea could run short of up to one
third of the food it needs this year if South Korea and other
countries withhold humanitarian aid.

South Korea recently resumed shipments of fertilizer and emergency
aid to the North, but it plans to withhold rice aid until after
mid-April as an inducement for North Korea¡¯s fulfillment of its
promise to shut down its main nuclear reactor.

South Korea suspended its food and fertilizer aid to North Korea
after it conducted missile tests last July. A possible resumption of
the aid was blocked due to the North¡¯s underground nuclear test in
October.

Data from the WFP and South Korea¡¯s Unification Ministry show that
the North will need between 5.24 million tons and 6.47 million tons
of food this year.

Depending on climate conditions, the availability of fertilizer and
other factors, the communist state may only be able to produce 4.3
million tons by itself, the reports said.

things@koreatimes.co.kr 03-29-2007 21:02
  
*****************************************************************
 12 UPI: U.S. still needs nuclear weapons

United Press International - Security & Terrorism - 

3/29/2007 9:42:00 AM -0400

WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) -- The United States still needs to
retain its nuclear deterrent against serious threats, the head of
the NNSA said Wednesday.

"Several nations currently possess nuclear, chemical, and/or
biological weapons, and the means to deliver these weapons, and have
given no indication they are willing to give them up," Thomas P.
D'Agostino, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security
Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, told the
Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the Senate Armed Services
Committee.

D'Agostino said U.S. nuclear weapons also served to "deter nuclear
and other weapons of mass destruction threats against the United
States, its forces, and its allies.

"This implies an ability to hold at risk those elements of power
that a potential adversary values," he said. "While we should not
expect that our nuclear weapons will deter terrorist WMD threats,
they can deter transfer of nuclear weapons and other WMD from rogue
states to terrorist groups."

The United States' continued possession of nuclear weapons also
served to "deter large-scale wars of aggression against the U.S. or
its allies," D'Agostino said. It also reminded U.S. allies "of our
continuing commitment to them and of our ability to make good on
that commitment -- the implication is that nuclear forces must be
effective and reliable. This strengthens our ties with allies and
also serves our non-proliferation objectives because those allies
with the capability to develop nuclear weapons can continue to
forego doing so, safe in the knowledge of the reliability of the
U.S. nuclear umbrella," he said.

"Nuclear forces are the nation's 'insurance policy' for an uncertain
future and remain a key element of U.S. national security strategy,"
the NNSA chief said.


© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 13 Guardian Unlimited: Monarch's Remarks Provoke Rare US Retort 

From the Associated Press

Friday March 30, 2007 12:16 AM

By LEE KEATH and DONNA ABU-NASR Associated Press Writers

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - King Abdullah's harsh - and unexpected -
attack on the U.S. military presence in Iraq could be a Saudi
attempt to signal to Washington its anger over the situation in Iraq
and build credibility among fellow Arabs.

The kingdom has taken an aggressive leadership role to quiet Mideast
troubles, and wanted to show other Arabs it was willing to put their
interests above its close ties to the United States.

The White House, in a rare public retort Thursday, rejected the
king's characterization of U.S. troops in Iraq as an ``illegitimate
foreign occupation,'' saying the United States was not in Iraq
illegally.

``The United States and Saudi Arabia have a close and cooperative
relationship on a wide range of issues,'' White House spokeswoman
Dana Perino said. ``And when it comes to the coalition forces being
in Iraq, we are there under the U.N. Security Council resolutions
and at the invitation of the Iraqi people.''

``We disagree with them,'' Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns
told senators. ``We were a little surprised to see those remarks.''

The king made his remarks Wednesday at the opening session of the
two-day Arab summit his country hosted in Riyadh. It was believed to
be the first time the king publicly expressed that opinion.

``In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow
of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism
threatens a civil war,'' said Abdullah, whose country is a U.S. ally
that quietly aided the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The next day, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani bristled at the comment
in his speech to the summit, saying the term occupation has
``negative implications'' and is ``in contradiction'' to the vision
of ``Iraqi patriotic and national forces.''

A Saudi official said the king was speaking as the president of the
summit and his remarks reflected general frustration with the
``patchwork'' job the Americans were doing to end violence in Iraq.

The king also wanted to send a message that Iraq is an issue that
Arabs cannot turn their back on, the official said. He spoke on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

It was not clear what kind of diplomatic fallout could result - but
the comments did nothing to help bring Arab nations closer to the
government of Iraq's Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

The summit has taken a tough line on Iraq, demanding it change its
constitution and military to include more Sunnis and end a program
of uprooting former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party.

The Sunni-led governments of the Arab world have long been
suspicious of Iraq's Shiite leadership, blaming it for fueling
violence by discriminating against Sunni Arabs and accusing it of
helping mainly Shiite Iran extend its influence in the region.

Abdullah's remarks came at a time when the kingdom is taking a more
public role in efforts to defuse crises threatening to engulf the
Middle East.

Saudi Arabia sponsored a reconciliation accord between Palestinian
factions, has engaged Iran about its nuclear program, and has tried
to settle simmering tensions in Lebanon. And the kingdom has been
talking to various factions in Iraq.

Writers in some Arab media suggested before the summit that Saudi
Arabia would seek solutions that would cater to U.S. interests.

``The king's remarks are the biggest proof that those accusations
were false,'' said Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi analyst. ``In the
issue of Iraq, Saudi Arabia went far beyond most other Arab
countries. It went beyond the details and right to the cause.''

Al-Shirian said he expected other Arab countries to take Saudi
Arabia's lead in considering the presence of U.S. troops an illegal
occupation.

``If Saudi Arabia didn't blame the occupation, the blame would fall
on the Iraqis, who are victims. How can you blame the victim?'' he
asked.

The U.S. called its presence in Iraq an occupation until the June
2004 handover of sovereignty to the Iraqis. U.S. troops remained in
Iraq with permission from the Iraqi government and a mandate from
the United Nations.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal stood by the king's remarks
Thursday - and his defense had hints of the Arab nation's attitude
that the Shiite-led government doesn't have the legitimacy to
approve the U.S. presence.

``If that country had chosen to have those troops, then it's
something else. But any military action that is not requested by a
specific country - that is the definition of occupation,'' al-Faisal
told reporters.

----

Donna Abu Nasr reported from Beirut, Lebanon.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
 14 Guardian Unlimited: Orders for £3bn warships signal a new era for naval defence industry

MoD says it is hoping to shift companies out of the pattern of boom
and bust

Mark Milner
Thursday March 29, 2007

Britain's naval defence industry is at the threshold of its 
biggest changes for decades. The industry is set to receive the 
go-ahead from the government for two 65,000 tonne aircraft 
carriers worth more than £3bn - the largest warships ever built 
in the UK. This follows orders for destroyers and Astute 
submarines.

But the orders are tied to increased consolidation and a new 
approach to defence work as part of the government's Defence 
Industrial Strategy.

Lord Drayson, defence procurement minister, and the industry have 
agreed to make the defence business more efficient. This could 
lead to a reduction in the number of operators in defence work as 
well as increasing cooperation with other countries.

The new approach allows the companies to shift the shipbuilding
industry out of the era of boom and bust. Executives have said in
the past that companies would gear up to meet an order in terms of
skills and other resources, only to have to lay off personnel with
key skills once the contract was over.

Consolidation is under way among Britain's leading defence
contractors. BAE Systems and VT Group, which have a joint venture in
support services, are working on a similar venture within the
shipbuilding and naval support sector.

Meanwhile, bidding is under way for control of the Devonport
Management Services business (DML) in Plymouth. KBR which was spun
out of Halliburton, the US oil services firm last year, is under
pressure to sell its 51% stake in DML after falling out with the
Ministry of Defence. This followed the company's failure to comply
with a UK request for financial data ahead of its initial public
offering. BAE is said to be among the bidders and if it wins, would
command an even more dominant position within the shipbuilding and
support industry.

The Ministry of Defence is undertaking a review of its three naval
bases, at Rosyth, Plymouth and Portsmouth. All options are on the
table, though the industry is betting the MoD will make cuts at all
three, rather than close one.

Both the carrier go-ahead and the BAE/VT tie-up are said to have
made progress and events could even move forward before parliament
rises later today. But the carrier decision could be delayed by
elections to the Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly and local
elections in England on May 3.

If BAE does clinch the deal with VT and becomes, de facto, the
dominant partner and if it acquires KBR's stake in DML, the company
would have an unrivalled position. But both are big ifs. Though
shipbuilding accounts for only around 20% of its business, VT group
is unlikely to simply stand aside to allow BAE free rein. BAE has
not confirmed it has made a bid to win control of DML and is likely
to face stiff competition from companies such as Babcock
International and General Dynamics from the US. Yet its ambitions
constitute a sea change of opinion within Britain's biggest defence
company. It is only a few years ago that BAE was wondering privately
about the possibility of quitting the sector entirely.

BAE owns the Scotstoun and Govan shipyards on the Clyde, the nuclear
submarine building yard at Barrow, as well as the existing joint
venture with VT Group, Fleet Support Ltd (FLS), which operates an
MoD site at Portsmouth.

If it secures a deal with VT on shipbuilding and acquires control of
DML, Babcock, which owns the Rosyth dockyard and runs the Faslane
submarine base for the MoD, would be its only rival.

The government's Defence Industrial Strategy aims to ensure Britain
retains the capability to meet its own defence needs. It has been
pushing the concept of "through-life capability" where companies not
only build equipment but maintain, repair and upgrade it through its
operational life. Within the shipbuilding and support sector, it
appears to accept that is likely to mean fewer bidders for its
orders, though how the industry restructures itself is regarded as a
matter for the companies themselves.

The carrier order is an example of the way the industry is
cooperating: it is being built by an alliance of BAE, VT, Babcock
and the defence electronics company, Thales but just one supplier.
The flexible approach has allowed the UK to sign a memorandum of
understanding with France, under which the French will use the UK
design, with modifications, and the two countries are looking at
possible economies of scale.

It is, however, a moot question whether the MoD would be entirely
happy if BAE achieves the naval pre-eminence, both in submarine and
surface vessels, it threatens to acquire.

Useful links
Ministry of Defence
BAE Systems
Thales

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
 15 AFP: Chinese envoy warns US over Taiwan - 

Thursday March 29, 04:13 AM

By P. Parameswaran

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Chinese envoy in Washington on Wednesday
called on the United States to stop selling advanced weapons and
sending "the wrong signals" to Taiwan, warning that bilateral ties
could suffer if the Taiwan issue was not handled properly.

China "will never tolerate Taiwan's independence or allow anyone to
separate Taiwan from the motherland ... through any means," Chinese
ambassador Zhou Wenzhong said in a rare speech in Washington.

Addressing a forum of the Johns Hopkins

University's School of Advanced International Studies, Zhou said
that the Taiwan issue was "the most important and sensitive issue at
the core of China-US relations" and was "crucial" to the stability
and development of bilateral ties and cooperation.

He attacked Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, charging that he was
becoming "more reckless and dangerous" by pursuing independence.

Zhou urged the United States to "honor and adhere" to its one-China
policy and "stop selling advanced weapons to Taiwan and stop sending
wrong signals to the Taiwan independence forces."

"We hope that the US side will work with China to oppose and repulse
any form of Taiwan independence activities by the Chen Shui-bian
authorities to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan strait and
safeguard the shared strategic interests of both our countries,"
Zhou said.

China considers Taiwan a part of its territory and has repeatedly
threatened to invade the island should it declare formal
independence.

Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979, but
remains the leading arms supplier to Taiwan and is legally obliged
to offer the island a means of self-defense if its security is
threatened.

Earlier this month, the United States called Chen's pledge to push
for independence "unhelpful" and reiterated its stance against
independence for the island.

"The Taiwan questions bears on the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of China, involves China's core national interest and
touches upon the national sentiments of the Chinese people," Zhou
said.

He cited a 1995 visit by then Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to the
United States which angered Beijing and led to the recall of its US
ambassador for four months.

"If we take a look at the history of our relations since
normalization, I think the conclusion is that whenever the question
of Taiwan is handled appropriately, the relations betwen us made
steady progress and whenever ... not handled appropriately, the
relations suffered setbacks," he said.

"So what I am trying to say is that the question needs to be handled
with great care, great caution and the United States has a
commitment to China ... and the essence of that is one China," he
said.

"And we hope the United States government will honor its commitment
to China, not only in words but also in deeds," he said.

Zhou fielded a range of questions, including China's military build
up and Beijing-led efforts to end North Korea nuclear weapons drive.

He said the world had nothing to fear about the build up as China
maintained a strategy of "peaceful development" and "peaceful
coexistence" while beefing up its forces only to face any "possible
threats."

Furthermore, he said any additional defense spending was aimed at
making up for military cutbacks mostly in the 1980's, when China
concentrated on economic growth.

AFP
*****************************************************************
 16 Reuters: Arab leaders urge Israel, world to take peace offer

Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:45PM EDT

By Wafa Amr and Andrew Hammond

RIYADH (Reuters) - Arab leaders urged Israel and the world on
Thursday to take up a 5-year-old peace plan to end the conflict with
Israel, and the Palestinian president warned of more violence if the
"hand of peace" was rejected.

The endorsement at a two-day Arab summit came amid a U.S. push to
restart the Middle East peace process, and Washington welcomed the
endorsement as "very positive", but Israel stopped short of
welcoming the plan it rejected in 2002.

Speaking at the end of the summit in Riyadh, Mahmoud Abbas urged
Israel not to waste the chance for peace, saying the region would be
face the threat of more war without a solution.

"I reiterate the sincerity of the Palestinian will in extending the
hand of peace to the Israeli people ... We should not waste more
chances in the history of this long and painful cause," the
Palestinian president told the closing ceremony.

The plan offers Israel normal ties with Arab states in return for
withdrawal from land seized in the 1967 war and the creation of a
Palestinian state.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said on Thursday that
Arabs and Israel should have direct talks on peace rather than
setting pre-conditions.

"It is time now to start negotiating and not only to make
announcements," he told Al Jazeera television.  Continued...

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 17 UPI: Outside View: New nuclear fears-2

United Press International - Security & Terrorism - 

3/29/2007 2:44:00 PM -0400

By VIKTOR LITOVKIN UPI Outside View Commentator

MOSCOW, March 29 (UPI) -- Second of two parts.

Frankly speaking, it is pointless to calculate the size of the
Russian and U.S. strategic arsenals because our two countries have
the ability to destroy each other several times over. President John
Fitzgerald Kennedy once said that it did not matter whether the
United States could destroy the Soviet Union 20 times and the Soviet
Union could do the same only three times because once was quite
enough.

Russia and the United States, which are no longer divided by any
principled and irreconcilable ideological differences, should not
revert to the Cold War-era concept of Mutual Assured Destruction
(MAD). On the contrary, they should opt for a reasonable approach
and jointly deal with high-priority threats, such as international
terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and missile
technologies, religious and ethnic intolerance, separatism and
extremism, as well as poverty, which fuels terrorism and religious
extremism.

The latter is particularly true of Afghanistan. The American-led
NATO coalition has been trying to prop up the government of Hamid
Karzai for several years, stabilize the country, introduce
democratic institutions there and help get rid of the Taliban and
Al-Qaeda extremist organizations.

But it turns out that a 35,000-strong NATO force comprising elements
of the world's most powerful armies cannot accomplish these
objectives. Consequently, the Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2006, London
Conference on Afghanistan and the November 28-29, 2006, NATO summit
in Riga decided to continue the peacekeeping operation and said the
industrialized world would provide $10.5 billion for Afghan economic
development over the next five years. The United Nations, World
Bank, European Union, Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe and some non-governmental organizations will also contribute
greatly to this social and humanitarian relief package.

Unfortunately, donor aid is often stolen before it can reach Kabul.
Moreover, many Afghan companies do not get regular allocations for
humanitarian and social projects in Kabul and its environs and are
therefore unable to create jobs and raise the living standards of
the country's neediest.

Nonetheless, the Bush administration plans to ask Congress to set
aside another $10.6 billion for Afghanistan. British Prime Minister
Tony Blair has promised to allocate 500 million pounds over the next
three years. France, Germany, Japan, China, India, Turkey, Iran and
Russia are all ready to provide support.

The Kremlin has pledged to write off Kabul's $10 billion debt to
Moscow and to furnish the Afghan army with weapons and equipment for
fighting terrorists and extremists. Moscow also trains Afghan police
officers to combat trafficking in illegal drugs, which fuels
terrorism.

As I see it, reasonable cooperation involving Russia, the United
States, NATO and other countries on the Afghan problem and other
pressing issues, the Middle East settlement in particular, would
prove far more useful than nuclear confrontation and brinkmanship
policies. Each country has the right to provide for its self-defense
and national security. This, however, should never be accomplished
at the expense of other nations.

U.S. efforts to "contain" Russia will not bring calm to Washington
because, as President Vladimir Putin has said, Moscow will find a
sufficiently cheap, adequate and asymmetrical response to the NMD
program. But this does not seem to be a good idea, either, because
an arms race cannot help overcome poverty. Russia, the United States
and the rest of the world would benefit if the MAD concept were
replaced with reason and cooperation.

(Viktor Litovkin is a military correspondent for the RIA Novosti
news agency. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and
do not necessarily represent the opinions of the RIA Novosti
editorial board.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are
written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of
important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect
those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an
open forum, original submissions are invited.)

© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
*****************************************************************
 18 Lancaster news: TMI Alert Turns 30 
 
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:58:23 -0800


<x-flowed>

Subject: 	 TMI Turns 30 (Lancaster News")
Date: 	Thu, 29 Mar 2007 09:08:11 -0400


> *TMI watchdog group marks 30th year with banquet in Harrisburg
> * By Staff Report
> Lancaster New Era
>
> Published: Mar 27, 2007 12:42 PM EST
>
> *HARRISBURG - *TMI watchdog group marks 30th year with banquet in 
> Harrisburg
>
> Three Mile Island nuclear plant watchdog group Three Mile Island Alert 
> will mark its 30th anniversary tonight with a banquet in Harrisburg.
>
> The group of activists formed in 1977 to oppose the licensing and 
> construction of TMI Generating Station's Unit 2 nuclear reactor.
>
> The unit was built and two years later was the scene of the worst 
> nuclear accident in U.S. history.
>
> "After almost 30 years, it's easy to forget what happened at TMI," 
> Eric Epstein, who heads the group, said. "But we are still dealing 
> with some of the same issues we had back then."
>
> To commemorate its 30th anniversary, TMI Alert will hold a recognition 
> banquet tonight at the Jewish Community Center, 3301 N. Front St., 
> Harrisburg.
>
> Epstein said the event will honor two "friends for their exceptional 
> contributions" to keeping the plant safe and ensuring future 
> generations do not forget the seriousness of the partial meltdown that 
> happened there.
>
> One of tonight's honorees is Larry Christian, who, in the days 
> following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, concluded the state's emergency 
> plan &tstr; as it related to TMI &tstr; failed to protect preschool 
> children and other vulnerable populations, such as the elderly. 
> Working with TMI Alert and Gov. Ed Rendell, he is seeking new 
> evacuation rules through the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
>
> Also being recognized is Jim Gerencser, a senior archivist at 
> Dickinson College in Carlisle. As head of the school's Archives and 
> Special Collections, he manages the extensive Three Mile Island Alert 
> Collection. The collection includes 128 boxes of TMI-related 
> documents, artifacts and oral histories about the 1979 accident.
>
> Keynote speaker for the event is veteran Ottaway News Service 
> correspondent Robert B. Swift, who covered the story as it unfolded 28 
> years ago.
>
> In the years since, Epstein said, TMI Alert has "played a constructive 
> role in making the power plant safer."
>
> The group suggested ways to improve security at the plant and has 
> assisted in emergency planning and provided "real-time radiation 
> monitoring," Epstein said.
>
> * *
>


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 19 Patriot News: TMI Alert turns 30
 
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:56:23 -0800


<x-flowed>

Subject: 	TMIA Turns 30 ("Patriot News")
Date: 	Thu, 29 Mar 2007 09:08:19 -0400


    *TMI watchdog group marks 30th anniversary*
    *Nuclear watchdog celebrates 30th anniversary*
    Tuesday, March 27, 2007
    *BY GARRY LENTON*
    *Of The Patriot-News*

    The Harrisburg-based watchdog group Three Mile Island Alert turns 30
    this year.

    Though it no longer boasts the thousands of members it had following
    the March 28, 1979, accident that destroyed TMI's Unit 2 reactor,
    Chairman Eric Epstein said the group's reputation has grown.

    Epstein credited the organization with improving nuclear plant
    security, upgrading emergency planning, and aiding industry workers.

    But the group's most enduring legacy might be its archives. TMIA
    maintains all of its historical documents, from NRC records to
    banners used at its first protest, at Dickinson College.

    The cache is managed by Jim Gerencser, a senior archivist at the
    college, and includes 128 boxes of records, including nine personal
    collections.

    "People can make their own determinations," Epstein said. "It's
    important that we don't politicize the memory of the accident."

    Kay Pickering, a founder and member of the group's board of
    directors, said TMIA began slowly in the mid 1970s as concerns about
    nuclear energy grew.

    Formed to challenge the construction of the Unit 2 reactor at TMI,
    the group has broadened its scope beyond nuclear energy, she said.

    Over the years it has had a dramatic influence on the energy debate,
    especially in the Harrisburg region, she said.

    GARRY LENTON: 255-8264 or glenton@patriot-news.com
    <ailto:glenton@patriot-news.com%22>

    *IF YOU GO*

    Three Mile Island Alert's 30th Anniversary Dinner is open to the
    public and starts at 6 tonight at the Jewish Community Center, 3301
    N. Front Street.
    The dinner is $25. For reservations, call 233-7897.
    Robert B. Swift, an Ottaway News Service capitol correspondent who
    covered the TMI accident, will be the guest speaker.



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 20 Helsingin Sanomat: Electric utilities make preparations for sixth nuclear reactor

Clear majority of new MPs want more nuclear power

Both of Finland’s electric utilities that operate commercial
nuclear power plants said on Wednesday that they plan to begin
preparations for the construction of a sixth facility in Finland. A
fifth commercial reactor is being built in Olkiluoto on the west
coast of Finland, the location of two of Finland’s four existing
reactors.

      Fortum is looking into the environmental impact of building a
third reactor at the Loviisa plant on the south coast, and TVO is
examining the impact of a fourth reactor in Olkiluoto.

      Under the quickest scenarios, construction could begin early
in the next decade, and the sixth reactor could be operational in
2017 or 2018.
      The companies say that the planning of a new reactor is
necessary now, because the need for more energy generating capacity
will reach a peak in ten years.
     
The new nuclear power project does not come as much of a surprise;
TVO was said to be planning an environmental impact study already in
January.

      Business interests have also been calling for more nuclear
power, and in the runup to the recent Parliamentary elections, all
large parties said that they were taking at least a cautiously
positive view of a new plant.

      Supporters of more nuclear energy cite the increased demand
for energy and the need to reduce emissions of gases that contribute
to global warming.
     
On the basis of responses to the on-line candidate selection engine
of Helsingin Sanomat during the Parliamentary election campaign, a
clear majority of those who were later elected to the new Parliament
felt that Finland should build a sixth nuclear reactor.

      Before the election, 55.5 per cent of those elected to
Parliament indicated in their answers to the engine that they are
either completely, or somewhat in favour of more nuclear
construction, while 38.5 per cent were completely, or somewhat
opposed. Six per cent did not give responses to the selection engine.

      Of the likely government parties, all 50 National Coalition
Party Parliamentarians support more nuclear energy. Among Centre
Party MPs supporters of nuclear energy outnumber opponents 25 to 20;
six successful Centre Party candidates did not respond to the
selection engine.

      Centre Party Chairman Matti Vanhanen disagrees somewhat with
the idea of building a sixth reactor, while National Coalition Party
chairman Jyrki Katainen is fully in favour. Swedish People’s Party
leader Stefan Wallin agrees somewhat.

      Green MPs are opposed to more nuclear energy. Party leader
Tarja Cronberg said that the energy companies’ Wednesday
announcement will not affect the Greens’ position on the
government talks, because the plans were known.

      Cronberg said that the timing of the announcement was a clear
message, and an attempt to influence government formation talks. She
said that she could not say if the aim was to weaken the Greens’
position in the talks. "Naturally, one might suspect that", she
pointed out.
     
Anneli Nikula, manager of issues of social responsibility for TVO,
admitted that launching the projects while government formation
talks are going on is meant to be a message to the future government.

      "Already the previous Parliament drew up an energy strategy,
which noted that no emission-free alternative should be ruled out.
It is unlikely that the future government will disagree, but this is
nevertheless a powerful signal of hope for the industry", Nikula
said.

      Environmental organisations opposed to more nuclear energy
found the timing of the announcement to be suspicious. Greenpeace
said that TVO and Fortum are trying to dictate the contents of the
upcoming government’s policy programme, and to downplay the
importance of Parliament in energy policy.
     
TVO is currently building a fifth commercial reactor in Olkiluoto.
The project has been plagued by construction delays. Currently the
installation is expected to be ready in 2011.

      The state-owned Fortum holds over a quarter of TVO’s shares.
The largest holder of TVO stock is Pohjolan Voima, which is in the
hands of large Finnish forest companies.

      The assessment of a new reactor’s likely environmental
impact involves a round of comments in which the views of various
ministries, officials, and organisations are assessed. Ordinary
citizens will also be given the opportunity to express their views
to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

*****************************************************************
 21 Times of India: Pak to set up 2 N-power plants near Karachi-Pakistan

[ 29 Mar, 2007 1447hrs ISTPTI ]

KARACHI: Pakistan is in the process of setting up two nuclear power
plants on the outskirts of the country's business Capital Karachi.

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has already identified
the sites for the proposed nuclear power plants.

"A piece of land measuring over 585 acres is being acquired next to
the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp). The nuclear power plants
will be able to do away with power shortages that the city has
lately been facing," said Zia-ul-Hasan Siddiqui, a senior official
of the PAEC.

Siddiqui, who previously ran the Chashma nuclear power plant, said
the PAEC had been tasked to generate 8,800 megawatts through nuclear
power plants by 2030.

"The two nuclear power plants on the outskirts of Karachi are part
of the same plan, he said without specifying any external assistance
that Pakistan plans to take in the project."

Pakistan currently has a small reactor at Kanupp which produced
about 137 mw of power since it was installed in 1972.

Besides Kanupp, which was built with Canadian assistance, Pakistan
has two more nuclear power plants, Chashma one and Chasma two, both
built with Chinese assistance.

Chashma has capacity of 325 mw while Chashma two which was yet to be
operational has the capacity to build 300 mw. Both the plants were
built with Chinese assistance.

Siddiqui, however, said no timeline had been drawn up for setting up
the nuclear plants. He also said that Kanupp had been given a new
lease of life for another 15 years.

The electricity demand of energy-starved Karachi has been growing at
around seven per cent. It peaked at 2,350 megawatts in the summer of
2006, according to a report.

Copyright ©2007Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 22 The Hindu: Nuke deal: India, US resolve differences

Friday, March 30, 2007 : 0100 Hrs

New Delhi, March 30 (PTI): Making a forward movement, India and the
US have resolved differences on some of the contentious issues
during the two-day talks on an agreement to operationalise the civil
nuclear deal.

"There was progress in the talks," an official said here referring
to the official-level discussions on the bilateral agreement, called
123 Agreement, held on March 26-27.

"Some of the issues were solved," the official said, without giving
details.

Among the contentious issues deliberated upon by the officials of
the two countries were fuel supply assurances, reprocessing of spent
fuel and future nuclear testing by India.

These differences arose from the Henry Hyde Act which was passed by
the US Congress to allow civil nuclear trade with India after 32
years.

Further rounds of discussions will be held in due course of time to
firm up the bilateral agreement, the official said. Dates for the
next meeting will be decided later.

The two sides are hoping to conclude the agreement by the end of
this year.

At the meeting, the two sides understood each other's position and
agreed to reconcile their positions.

New Delhi has alleged that the Hyde Act "significantly deviates"
from the understandings of July 18, 2005, and March 2006, which was
unacceptable to it.

India has made it clear that it will accept no deviation from the
understanding reached between the two sides last year. New Delhi has
already conveyed its concerns to Washington and handed over a draft
text of the agreement suggesting the clauses it wants to be
incorporated.

India wants a commitment from the US on assured fuel supplies to the
nuclear reactors that will be opened for international supervision.

It is also peeved at denial by the US to transfer technology to
reprocess spent fuel and maintains that it cannot give any
legally-binding undertaking on future nuclear testing by it.

"We want reprocessing rights upfront... Reprocessing is a
non-negotiable right," Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Anil
Kakodkar said last week.

New Delhi wants to retain full privileges as laid out in joint
statement issued by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President
George W Bush on July 18, 2005 and the separation plan of March 2006
and "wants all these to be explicitly addressed", he said.

Kakodkar said that India's position was always guided by the July
18, 2005 statement and March 2006 understanding, "but the Hyde Act
deviates significantly from that."

At the talks, the Indian side was led by S Jai Shankar, India's High
Commissioner to Singapore who had been involved in the talks earlier
as Joint Secretary (Americas). His successor Gayatri Kumar and
officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) also attended the
parleys.

Richard Stratford, director of Nuclear Division in the State
Department, headed the US side.

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the
*****************************************************************
 23 allAfrica.com: Namibia: Opposition MP Queries Nuke Deal 

The Namibian (Windhoek)

March 29, 2007

Brigitte Weidlich

AN opposition MP has charged that a meeting between a Russian 
cabinet minister and the Namibian Government last month was 
"secret", as it dealt with an offer of the Russian government to 
build several nuclear power plants in Namibia.

DTA politician McHenry Venaani wanted to know from Prime Minister 
Nahas Angula, who held talks with the Russian delegation a month 
ago, if it was indeed a "secret meeting", since that official 
item on the Prime Minister's calendar was not conveyed to the 
local media and as a result not reported on.

"Is it true you met the Russian Energy Minister secretly ?" Venaani
questioned the Prime Minister in the National Assembly on Tuesday
and asked him to inform the House on details of that meeting.

Venaani also wanted to know if international media reports were true
that Russia wanted to construct 60 nuclear power plants around the
world, including in Namibia.

"Has the Russian delegation expressed its intention, either
literally or in passing, about putting up such plants, including a
nuclear floating plant in Namibia?" Venaani wanted to know from
Angula.

"What happens to the atomic waste of such plants and is Government
aware of the constitutional prohibition of atomic and toxic waste
storage? Has Government signed any bilateral agreements with Russia
for nuclear cooperation?" he asked.

The Prime Minister is expected to reply today.

Chapter 11 (l) of the Namibian Constitution stipulates that "the
State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people
by adopting inter alia policies aimed at the maintenance of
eco-systems, essential ecological processes and biological diversity
of Namibia; in particular Government shall provide measures against
the dumping or recycling of foreign nuclear and toxic waste on
Namibian territory."

Copyright © 2007 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by
*****************************************************************
 24 POAC: Low water levels cause shutdown signal at Salem N-plant

Press of Atlantic City

By DAVID BENSON Staff Writer, (609) 272-7206

Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007

As the Salem 1 nuclear power plant shut down Tuesday night for a
planned refueling outage, low water levels in three of the four
steam generators forced a reactor trip signal. Had the reactor not
already been shut down, that signal would have shut it down
automatically, said a spokesman for the plant.

“That's something we're still looking at,� said Diane Screnci, a
spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “The low water
levels are something that shouldn't have happened.�

Chic Cannon, a spokesman for the Salem facility, said that trip
signal is a safety feature built into the nuclear power plant.

“We are doing an investigation and evaluation of the conditions
that got us to that point,� Cannon said.

Screnci said that since the plant was already shut down for
refueling, the trip signal had no further effect on the facility.

“The plant is safe,� she said. “But we will look into it
further and get a better understanding.�

Screnci said the event was listed as a non-emergency at the NRC Web
site. There are five classifications of events. Non-emergency is the
lowest.

The NRC spokeswoman said this event is unlikely to have any effect
on how long Salem will be down for refueling. While Public Service
Enterprise Group, owner of the plant, would not say how long the
facility will be offline, the industry standard is 25 to 30 days.
Salem 1's last refueling outage lasted 25 days. The unit is shut
down every 18 months to replace about one-third of the nuclear fuel
in the reactor.

While the plant is offline, the energy company and the NRC will take
a close look at plant operations and maintenance. Cannon said about
800 supplemental workers will be brought in during the refueling.
One task scheduled is the replacement of the rotor in the main
electrical turbine generator.

The NRC also plans to monitor and inspect a modification planned for
a sump strainer at Salem 1. Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC,
said the same modification was done on the Unit 2 sump strainer in
October 2006.

“A Region I inspector has been assigned this inspection, which
lasts approximately one week,� Sheehan said. “The steam
generator tubes will have eddy current tests performed on all four
steam generators. This is a routine inspection with routine
reporting.�

PSEG Nuclear operates Salem 1 and 2, two 1,150-megawatt pressurized
water reactors, and Hope Creek, a 1,050-megawatt boiling water
reactor. The three units are located on one site in Salem County and
together comprise the second-largest nuclear site in the country.

To e-mail David Benson at The Press:

DBenson@pressofac.com
 
*****************************************************************
 25 Times Record News: State's Maine Yankee report delayed

timesrecord.com Bob_Kalish@TimesRecord.Com

03/29/2007

WISCASSET — Unavoidable delays have pushed back the expected 
completion of the final state decommissioning report on the Maine 
Yankee nuclear power plant from December of this year until June 
2008, according to the state nuclear safety inspector charged 
with the project.

======================================================================
   State nuclear safety inspector Pat Dostie cited the loss of his
  assistant, weather delays and slowness in getting back laboratory
                  reports as reasons for the delay.
======================================================================

Inspector Pat Dostie an-nounced the delay Wednesday night during 
the annual meeting of the Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel 
on Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Removal.

The decommissioning re-port is the final stage in the 
decommissioning process, worked out eight years ago by state 
officials and representatives of Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co. 
The agreement between the two parties aligned the standards of 
cleanup between the state, Maine Yankee and the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission. The agreement stipulates that the state 
would do its own inspection for radiation, using the same 
criteria as the NRC.

Eric Howes, spokesman for Maine Yankee, said the delay has no 
bearing on federal regulations.

  "The NRC has already signed off on our inspection," he said. 
"This delay means nothing from a regulatory standpoint."

 Dostie cited the loss of his assistant, weather delays and 
slowness in getting back laboratory reports as reasons for the 
delay. In addition to monitoring the site of the former nuclear 
power plant for radiation, Dostie is mandated to provide written 
reports of his findings.

 The cost of Dostie's work is borne by Maine Yankee, which this 
year is paying $360,000, according to Howes.

   The state is monitoring groundwater wells and roadside 
shoulders throughout the former plant, at sites monitored 
previously by Maine Yankee as part of its decommissioning 
process.

  Maine Yankee is the first nuclear power plant in the country to 
be decommissioned. Currently, it is the site of more than 600 
tons of spent nuclear fuel stored in an Independent Spent Fuel 
Storage Installation awaiting resolution by the U.S. Department 
of Energy of a final resting place.

 At Wednesday's meeting, Howes updated the CAP on what has 
transpired since its last meeting. The most pressing issue 
centers on Yucca Mountain, the proposed federal repository for 
spent nuclear fuel. Howes said the Department of Energy has 
revised its schedule with 2017 as the "best achievable" date for 
opening the repository.

 Last September, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled favorably 
in Maine Yankee's litigation with the federal government over its 
failure to remove spent nuclear fuel from the Maine Yankee site. 
The government appealed the ruling in December.

  As a member of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, Maine 
Yankee continues to monitor the progress or lack of progress for 
the Yucca Mountain proposal.

 In January, Maine Yankee's board of directors appointed Wayne 
Norton to be chief nuclear officer and Jim Connell vice president 
and Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation manager. Norton 
also serves as president and CEO of Connecticut Yankee and Yankee 
Atomic in Massachusetts, both being decommissioned.

  The spent fuel storage site is monitored by the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission and during the past year has been 
trouble-free, according to Howes.

  The CAP voted to extend its charter for another two years, 
during which it will meet at least annually.

(C) 2007 All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
 26 JOURNAL NEWS: Indian Point's new siren system getting closer to full operation

Thursday, March 29, 2007

By GREG CLARY

BUCHANAN - Yesterday's tests of Indian Point's new siren system
found fewer problems than last week's, but some trouble spots remain.

The old system of 156 sirens throughout the four-county evacuation
zone will stay in place to warn residents within 10 miles of the
nuclear plant in case of a real emergency until the new system is
ready.

In three tests yesterday starting at 10 a.m. and spaced about 30
minutes apart, there were 12, 19 and 20 sirens that didn't work,
respectively, according to company and county public safety
officials.

The problem areas were spread across Westchester, Rockland, Putnam
and Orange counties, though Putnam had the fewest number.

"I think we took another step forward," said Jim Steets, a spokesman
for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the owner and operator of Indian
Point. "We're still working the kinks out of the system."

Steets said company officials are confident the new $10 million
system will be ready by April 15, the deadline set by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for installation.

The company was granted a 75-day extension from its Jan. 30 deadline
after encountering permit and other problems for the new sirens that
the agency said were beyond Entergy's control.

Entergy opted to install the new 150-siren emergency alert system
after the current system ran into repeated failures in the past two
years.

David Novich, a spokesman for Westchester County's Office of
Emergency Services, said yesterday the trend continues in the right
direction.

"There are signs of improvement that are encouraging," Novich said.
"We'll continue to work with Entergy to make sure the system works
properly."

Novich said the company expects to test two sites today, in
Verplanck and Croton Point Park, and there will be several more
systemwide tests before April 15.

Reach Greg Clary at 914-696-8566 or gclary@lohud.com.

Copyright © 2006 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper
serving Westchester, Rockland and
Putnam Counties in New York.
*****************************************************************
 27 Rutland Herald: Mass. AG takes nuke plants to court

Rutland Vermont News & Information
 
March 29, 2007

Staff Report
The Associated Press

BOSTON — Attorney General Martha Coakley is trying to force two
nuclear power plants to address the danger of storing used fuel rods
in pools at the facilities.

Coakley argues that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is
violating its own regulations by refusing to consider the potential
environmental impact of accidents involving spent fuel rod pools.

Coakley has petitioned the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston
to make the issue part of relicensing procedures for the Pilgrim
Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth and the Vermont Yankee Nuclear
Power Station in Vernon, Vt.

Both plants are seeking 20-year license extensions. Their licenses
expire in 2012.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan told The Cape Cod Times the commission
would respond after reviewing the lawsuit.

Coakley also has filed a "rule-making" petition with the NRC to try
to make potential spent fuel pool hazards the subject of review for
every plant's relicensing.


   © 2007 Rutland Herald
*****************************************************************
 28 Rutland Herald: NRC: nuclear bill faces battle

Rutland Vermont News & Information

March 29, 2007

By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says similar bills to the one
introduced Wednesday by Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., have failed in
the past because federal regulators have already incorporated
changes to its inspection system that were revealed by the Maine
Yankee independent safety assessment in 1996. Meanwhile, the Douglas
administration said Sanders' bill at first blush was interesting, as
it gave the state another tool to ensure safety at Vermont Yankee.

But David O'Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service,
which acts as the public advocate in utility matters, said the state
might have some concerns about other states having the power to
launch such an inspection.

Under Sanders' bill, the governor of a state where a reactor is
located or the governor of any state with land in the emergency
evacuation zone can ask for the special inspection. State utility
commissions like Vermont's Public Service Board, are also given the
right to request the inspections.

O'Brien said that under Sanders' bill, Massachusetts and New
Hampshire's governors would have the same power as the Vermont
governor to request such an in-depth inspection.

Vermont has concerns that go beyond safety, he said, including the
state's power portfolio and the jobs created at Vermont Yankee.

"In principle it's an important consideration. We have to take a
little time to look at it," O'Brien said, noting that Sanders' bill
also asks for just one type of inspection, what O'Brien called
"one-size-fits-all."

"Things now in place are a lot different than in Maine in 1996," he
said.

"In principle, what Sen. Sanders is talking about, state input, that
makes a tremendous amount of sense," O'Brien said.

O'Brien said giving other governors the "right to weigh in" made
sense too, on one level.

"I'd like to think the states in the emergency planning area could
come together. … I can understand where the other states should have
an ability to raise their concerns," he said.

The Massachusetts attorney general has recently shown interest in
the relicensing of both Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim, its sister
reactor in Massachusetts, also owned by Entergy Nuclear.

Neil Sheehan, spokesman for Region I of the NRC, said Wednesday that
New York Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer,
congressmen from New York state and Sen. John Corzine of New Jersey
have all asked for similar "independent safety assessments" in the
past.

All of those bills have died in committee, Sheehan said.

Sanders said his bill faces tough sledding, given the nuclear lobby
and the fact that President Bush is a big supporter of nuclear power.

Sheehan also said such an inspection would be "redundant," and that
the NRC had made numerous changes in inspections since the problems
were uncovered at Maine Yankee in 1996. The plant's owners, a group
of New England utilities that included Central Vermont Public
Service, opted to dismantle the plant, rather than fix the problems.

Sarah Hofmann, director of public advocacy for the Vermont
Department of Public Service, said Sanders' office had given the
office an advance copy of the bill and that she was preparing a
response to it.

"They want to know what we think," she said.

O'Brien noted that Vermont Yankee had a special engineering
inspection in 2004 at the request of the Public Service Board as
part of the state's review of Entergy Nuclear's request to boost
power production by 20 percent. Such inspections have now become a
routine part of the NRC's annual inspection process.

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.

   © 2007 Rutland Herald
*****************************************************************
 29 BBC: The Future of Nuclear Energy in Illinois

3.29.2007 Joe Goode Performance Group
 
Illinois has more nuclear reactors than any other state in the
union, and as concerns about global warming grow, governments and
energy companies are investing more and more in nuclear power.

Today on Eight Forty-Eight, we examine the future of nuclear energy
in Illinois and beyond and ask experts on both sides whether nuclear
power is a safe and viable source of energy. First we speak with
Nuclear Policy Research Institute founder Dr. Helen Caldicott, who
recently stopped by our studios on tour for her new book Nuclear
Power Is Not the Answer.

Today at 9 a.m. host Steve Edwards sits down with Argonne National
Laboratory scientist Dr. Mark Peters.

Producer: Moo, Kristin

Release date: 3/29/2007


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| Site Map

*****************************************************************
 30 THERECORD.COM: Nuclear future is scary

ROBERT MILLIGAN

(Mar 29, 2007)

For years I've been advocating a decrease in our population as a way
to lighten our environmental footprint. I have also been suggesting
we need new measures to decrease the demand on the health care
system.

After failing miserably in these regards, the nuclear industry in
southern and eastern Ontario has come to the rescue. Their "good
works" could result in -- after buried radioactive waste leaks into
our water, food, air, bodies -- a significant decrease in our
population due to radiation poisoning and the undesirability of
southern and eastern Ontario as a place to live. While there might
be an initial increase in health-care demand, in the longer term --
as long as 10,000 years -- the population of this part of Ontario
would remain very low with a resulting much lower overall
health-care demand (though a much higher per capita demand).

Our new motto might be, "A place to lie, a place to die, Ontari,
scari, ari, io."

After major investments in nuclear plants, followed by their
rejection for quality of life despoliation, good news might result.
The far-too-late significant investments in conservation and
renewables, will help insure a warmer but soil-poor northern Ontario
where our surviving children could "live" with all sorts of
opportunities to grow food hydroponically while refrigerating the
melting permafrost with solar energy.

Bury the waste in this densely populated area in "safe" locations?
What a pile of hooey.

I suspect some major decision makers are suffering from a high
degree of nuclear misunderstanding. This nuclear madness will surely
provoke a nuclear acceptance tipping point.

Robert Milligan

New Dundee

 
160 King Street East, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, N2G 4E5 
519-894-2231
*****************************************************************
 31 The News: PAEC selects six sites for nuclear power plants

Friday, March 30, 2007, Rabi-ul-Awal 10, 1428 A.H.  

Editor-in-Chief : Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman 


Says no plan to retire Kanupp for another 15 years

By Muhammad Anis

KARACHI: The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was examining
six sites for installation of new nuclear power plants, each of
minimum 1000 Mega Watts, to meet the future energy needs.

"Initially, we have identified six sites in different parts of the
country and are looking into suitability of these sites for setting
up nuclear power plants," said PAEC Chairman Anwar Ali, while
talking to mediapersons at ninth convocation of Kanupp Institute of
Nuclear Power Engineering (KINPOE) here on Thursday.

Vice-Chancellor of NED University Abul Kalam conferred degrees on 82
successful graduates of 11th and 12th batch Masters of engineering
degree holders of nuclear power.

The PAEC chairman said the government had given agency a target to
produce 8,800 MWs through nuclear power by the year 2030.

"We still have another over 20 years and hopefully, this target will
be met," he said.

Anwar said keeping in view the big target, it would be required to
install nuclear power plants each of 1000 MW. Presently, Chasma
Nuclear Power Plant-I (C-I) have a power generation capacity of 325
MWs, while C-2 with a capacity of 325 MW was being installed
adjacent to C-1 and would be commissioned by the year 2011.

Responding to a question, the PAEC chairman said they were in touch
with some friendly countries for installation of new nuclear power
plants but it would be premature to say which country would be
chosen for this purpose.

Responding to another question, head of PAEC said it would take
another three to four years to start work on the next plant in
Karachi.

"The cost of each nuclear power plant of 1,000 MWs, according to
international market is around $2 billion," he said.

Earlier, addressing the convocation, the PAEC chairman said the
commission has also taken a lead in the generation of electricity
from nuclear power plants.

Countries with scarce fossil fuel reserves have to explore alternate
energy resources as no viable progress can be made without
sufficient energy resources.

"There is renaissance of nuclear power today because of the good
performance of the more than 400 operating nuclear power plants,
rising and uncertain oil prices," he said.

He said at present, the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp) is
operating at about 60 megawatts and regulating authority has allowed
the power increase in small steps and very soon would be operating
at around 100 megawatts.

"The PAEC has no plans to retire the plant for another 15 years. He
said another plant Kanupp-II is planned adjacent to KANUPP-1, and
negotiations for that are in progress with China," he said.

He said the PAEC has been contributing to the socio-economic sector
as well.

It has 13 nuclear medical centers which have been set up throughout
the country, and six more are under construction.

In these centers, state-of-the-art nuclear techniques are used for
diagnostics and treatment of cancer. Last year, the patients visit
and follow-up exceeded 350,000.

He said the PAEC has also taken a lead in demonstrating a drip
irrigation system as opposed to flood irrigation.

This also conserves water. The prime minister has already announced
a Rs 15 billion programme for drip irrigation and the PAEC will take
the lead in setting the course.

PAEC Member Power Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui read out the speech of Sindh
Governor Ishratul Ebad Khan.

"The government was happy to know that another plant in Karachi
Kanupp-II is being planned to be built adjacent to Kanupp. " I
assure you the fullest cooperation of the Government of Sindh in the
implementation of this project," Sindh Governor said.

Giving a brief introduction to the history of Kinpoe, Director
Kinope Dr Khalid Mahmood Bokhari said in 1973, a training centre was
established in the vicinity of Kanupp to train engineers and
technicians in the field of nuclear technology to run the nuclear
installations of the country safely and efficiently.

In 1993, the one-year engineer's training program was upgraded to a
two-year degree program in Nuclear Power Engineering, for which the
Centre was affiliated with the NED University of Engineering &
Technology.

*****************************************************************
 32 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant

News Release - Region II - 2007-07-005 - 

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, 
Region II 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30303 www.nrc.gov

CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416 Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 
E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is scheduled to meet with
Tennessee Valley Authority officials on Monday, April 2, to discuss
the NRC&rsquo;s annual assessment of safety performance for 2006 at
the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant, located near Athens, Ala.

The meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled to begin at
1:00 p.m. (CDT) at the plant&rsquo;s Training Center is open to
public observation. The NRC staff will present the results of the
assessment and be available to respond to questions or comments from
the public before the close of the meeting.

&ldquo;The NRC continually reviews the performance of the Browns
Ferry plant and the nation&rsquo;s other commercial nuclear power
facilities,&rdquo; NRC Region II Administrator William Travers said.
&ldquo;This meeting is a chance for us to discuss that safety
performance with the company, with local officials and with people
living near the plant.&rdquo;

A letter sent from the NRC Region II Office to plant officials
addresses the performance of Units 2 and 3 during the period and
will serve as the basis for that meeting&rsquo;s discussion. It is
available on the NRC web site at
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/bf_2006q4.pdf.
The NRC uses color-coded inspection findings and performance
indicators to assess nuclear plant performance. The colors start
with &ldquo;green&rdquo; and then increase to &ldquo;white,&rdquo;
&ldquo;yellow&rdquo; or &ldquo;red,&rdquo; depending on the safety
significance of the issues involved.

The NRC said the Browns Ferry plant operated safely during 2006 with
all inspection findings being &ldquo;green,&rdquo; or very low
safety significance, and all performance indicators also indicating
performance at levels requiring no additional NRC oversight.

As a result, the NRC plans to conduct only routine baseline
inspections for Units 2 and 3 for the rest of 2007. The NRC staff
will also conduct several other inspections, including the
independent spent fuel storage installation and extended power
uprate modifications.

Current information for Browns Ferry Units 2 and 3 is available on
the NRC web site at:
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BF2/bf2_chart.html and
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BF3/bf3_chart.html.


NRC news releases are available through a free list server 
subscription at the following Web address: 
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home 
Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the 
News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to 
subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site.

Thursday, March 29, 2007
*****************************************************************
 33 Daily Times: Karachi to have more nuclear plants

Leading News Resource of Pakistan

Friday, March 30, 2007 

* 8,800 MW nuclear power target achievable by 2030

KARACHI: The 8,800 MW nuclear power target assigned to the Pakistan
Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) will be achieved by the year 2030.
Six sites throughout the country are being studied for the location
of these plants, PAEC Chairman, Anwer Ali, said Thursday. He was
talking to the media after the convocation of the KANUPP Institute
of Nuclear Power Engineering (KINPOE).

Ali said that the estimated capacity of each plant would be 1,000
MW, and the joint maintenance and operation of the plants will be
easy and economical if they are of similar size. Moreover, Karachi
will probably get more nuclear power plants in the neighbourhood of
the existing KANUPP.

Work on the sites will commence within a few years, Ali said.
Replying to a question about Pakistan’s own resources for the
construction and installation of nuclear power plants, the PAEC
chairman said that the country’s self-reliance programme was “moving
forward”.

Ali also spoke about the socio-economic contributions made by the
atomic energy commission. “The PAEC is operating 13 cancer hospitals
across the country. More than 350,000 patients are treated there
annually. The construction of six more units would ensure the
provision of medical facilities to people in remote areas.”

Moreover, the commission has “evolved more than 58 high-yield crop
varieties through research and development. Efforts are being made
to further increase farm productivity,” Ali said.

The PAEC has developed a model Drip Irrigation System (DIS) which
saves precious irrigation water in addition to enhancing production
by delivering water to crops and plants on time. This programme, Ali
said, will be extended in the future. Moreover, the prime minister
has already announced a Rs 15 billion programme for the DIS.

A message by Sindh Governor, Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan, was also read
out on by Member Power PAEC, Zia-ul-Hassan Siddiqi.

“Nuclear Power is of vital importance to Pakistan to alleviate the
energy problems. It is an attractive source of electricity because
of its environmentally benign nature. I fully appreciate and support
your commitment to develop nuclear power and achieve target of 8800
MW. I am also very happy to know that another plant in Karachi is
being planned to be built adjacent to KANUPP,” the governor’s
message read. “I assure you the fullest cooperation of the
government of Sindh in the implementation of this project.”

NED University of Engineering and Technology Vice Chancellor,
Engineer Abul Kalam, conferred degrees of Master of Nuclear Power
Engineering on 82 KINPE graduates, while the PAEC Chairman awarded
medals and merit certificates to the first three position holders of
batches XI and XII.

In his introductory address, KINPE Director, Khalid Mahmood Bukhari,
said that the institute dates back to 1973. The Karachi Nuclear
Power Training Centre (KNPTC) was offering a one-year training
course in Nuclear Power Engineering. A two-year MSc Nuclear Power
Engineering Degree programme was also started in 1993.

‘Atomic Energy Commission to set up two more power generation
units’: The PAEC is planning on establishing two additional nuclear
power plants to achieve the targets given by the government for
meeting the future energy requirements of the country, PAEC Member
Power, Zia H. Siddiqui, said during a KANUPP press conference on
Wednesday.

About 585 acres are being acquired for the purpose.

Earlier, while giving a presentation in connection with the life
extension of KANUPP, Karachi Nuclear Power Complex (KNPC) Director
General, Waqar M. Butt, said that the installation of a major
desalination plant of one million gallons per day was underway and
will be completed towards the end of 2007.

The plant will cater to the water needs of the nuclear power plants
being planned for the future. This desalination plant will be in
addition to KANUPP’s existing water plant which has a capacity of
processing 100,000 gallons of sea water per day.

As a result of these plans, KANUPP’s lifespan had been successfully
extended for 15 years (up to 2017).

Butt said that KANUPP was operating at a capacity of 60 MWe at
present. This will be increased to 70 MWe within the next couple of
days. The plant’s full capacity is expected to be 100 MWe. app

Daily Times - All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
 34 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Farley Nuclear Plant

News Release - Region II - 2007-07-006 - 

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, 
Region II 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30303 www.nrc.gov

CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416
Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is scheduled to meet with
Southern Nuclear Operating Company officials on Tuesday, April 3, to
discuss the NRC&rsquo;s annual assessment of safety performance for
2006 at the Farley nuclear power plant, located near Columbia, Ala.

The meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled to begin at
5:00 p.m. in the Houston County Administration Building in Dothan.
The NRC staff will present the results of the assessment and be
available to respond to questions or comments from the public before
the close of the meeting.

&ldquo;The NRC continually reviews the performance of the Farley
plant and the nation&rsquo;s other commercial nuclear power
facilities,&rdquo; NRC Region II Administrator William Travers said.
&ldquo;This meeting is a chance for us to discuss that safety
performance with the company, with local officials and with people
living near the plant.&rdquo;

A letter sent from the NRC Region II Office to plant officials
addresses the performance of the plant during the period and will
serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on
the NRC web site at
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/far_2006q4.pdf.

The NRC uses color-coded inspection findings and performance
indicators to assess nuclear plant performance. The colors start
with &ldquo;green&rdquo; and then increase to &ldquo;white,&rdquo;
&ldquo;yellow&rdquo; or &ldquo;red,&rdquo; depending on the safety
significance of the issues involved.

The NRC said the Farley plant operated safely during 2006 with
inspection findings being &ldquo;green,&rdquo; or very low safety
significance, and performance indicators also indicating performance
at levels requiring no additional NRC oversight during the first,
second and fourth quarters of the year. However, during the third
quarter, the Mitigating Systems Performance Indicator for Cooling
Water crossed the white threshold. The performance indicator did
return to green in the fourth quarter as the plant staff took
several steps to address the concern, and a supplemental NRC
inspection is further evaluating the issue.

As a result of the plant&rsquo;s overall performance, the NRC plans
to conduct only routine baseline inspections at the plant for the
rest of 2007. The NRC staff will also conduct several non-routine
inspections, including the independent spent fuel storage
installation, containment emergency recirculation sump modifications
and initial reactor operator licensing exams.

Routine inspections are performed by NRC Resident Inspectors
assigned to the plant and by specialists from the Region II Office
in Atlanta, and the agency&rsquo;s headquarters in Rockville, Md.
Current information for the Farley plant is available on the NRC web
site at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/FAR1/far1_chart.html and
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/FAR2/far2_chart.html.

NRC news releases are available through a free list server
subscription at the following Web address:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page
at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News &
Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when
news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site.

Thursday, March 29, 2007
*****************************************************************
 35 Reuters: Sumitomo to buy Westinghouse stake by June - paper 

Thu Mar 29, 2007 8:34PM EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp. (8053.T:
Quote, Profile, Research) will spend 30 billion yen ($254 million)
to buy a 5 percent stake in U.S. nuclear power company Westinghouse
from Toshiba Corp. (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) by June, the
Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

Sumitomo said in January that it may buy a stake in Westinghouse
from Toshiba but did not give details on the size or timing of the
investment.

The Nikkei said Sumitomo made the decision to buy the stake at a
board meeting on Thursday. It will sign an agreement next month and
purchase the shares by June, the paper said.

Late last year Toshiba took a 77 percent stake in Westinghouse, the
U.S. power plant unit of British Nuclear Fuels, for $4.16 billion.

The stake was much larger than initially planned, after Japanese
trading house Marubeni Corp. (8002.T: Quote, Profile, Research)
decided not to invest in the project. Toshiba has since been looking
for new investors to share the financial burden.


© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 36 Norway Post: Plans for nuclear power plants in Norway

 29.03.2007 08:25

The plans have been presented by Thor Energi. CEO Alf Bjoerseth says
reactors driven with thorium will never be exposed to a melt-down.

In addition, the problem with nuclear waste is minimal, and cannot
be used to develop nuclear arms.

He says the two thorium plants clould supply 15 per cent of Norway's
energy needs, and could be ready by 2017.

Norway has some of the largest thorium deposits in the world.

(NRK)

Rolleiv Solholm





Imaker Content Management Systems - © 1996 - 2005 Imaker as
*****************************************************************
 37 UPI: Bill would give states nuke safety rights

United Press International - Energy - 


3/29/2007 2:34:00 PM -0400

WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced
a bill allowing states to require safety reviews of nuclear plants
before power is increased or a license extended.

"In an era of aging reactors being pushed past old limits to produce
more and more power, the public deserves to know that safety is the
single most important priority at nuclear power plants," Sanders
said Wednesday in a statement.

His bill would give states the ability to request the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission conduct an independent safety assessment of
the plant as part of weighing a power uprate or license extension or
if the NRC decreases its safety rating of the plant.

Currently, the NRC can order such a review. The NRC usually relies
on the extensive Reactor Oversight Process to conduct inquiries into
safety.

The independent safety assessment led to the closure of the Maine
Yankee plant in 1996.

The New England Coalition, Nuclear Information and Resource Service,
Public Citizen and the Union of Concerned Citizens all backed
Sanders' bill.

© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 38 FR NRC: Project on Government Oversight and Union of Concerned 
Scientists; Receipt of Petition for Rulemaking

Doc 07-1543

[Federal Register: March 29, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 60)] 
[Proposed Rules] [Page 14713-14715] From the Federal Register 
Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr29mr07-18]                         

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50

[Docket No. PRM-50-83]
 

AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

[[Page 14714]]

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; notice of receipt.

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing for 
public comment a notice of receipt of a petition for rulemaking, dated 
February 23, 2007, which was filed with the Commission by David 
Lochbaum, on behalf of the Project On Government Oversight and the 
Union of Concerned Scientists. The petition was docketed by the NRC on 
March 5, 2007, and has been assigned Docket No. PRM-50-83. The 
petitioners request that the NRC amend its regulations to require 
periodic demonstrations by applicable local, State and Federal entities 
to ensure that nuclear power plants can be adequately protected against 
radiological sabotage greater than the design basis threat.

DATES: Submit comments by June 12, 2007. Comments received after this 
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission 
is able to assure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods. 
Please include PRM-50-83 in the subject line of your comments. Comments 
on petitions submitted in writing or in electronic form will be made 
available for public inspection. Because your comments will not be 
edited to remove any identifying or contact information, the NRC 
cautions you against including any information in your submission that 
you do not want to be publicly disclosed.
    Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff.
    E-mail comments to: SECY@nrc.gov If you do not receive a reply e-
mail confirming that we have received your comments, contact us 
directly at (301) 415-1966. You may also submit comments via the NRC's 
rulemaking Web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. Address questions 

about our rulemaking Web site to Carol Gallagher (301) 415-5905; e-mail 
cag@nrc.gov. Comments can also be submitted via the Federal e-

Rulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov.

    Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 
20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., Federal workdays. (Telephone 
(301) 415-1966).
    Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at 
(301) 415-1101.
    Publicly available documents related to this petition may be viewed 
electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's Public 
Document Room (PDR), Room 01 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The PDR reproduction contractor 
will copy documents for a fee. Selected documents, including comments, 
may be viewed and downloaded electronically via the NRC rulemaking Web 
site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov.

    Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC after 
November 1, 1999, are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic 
Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this 

site, the public can gain entry into the NRC's Agencywide Document 
Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image 
files of NRC's public documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or 
if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, 
contact the PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by 
e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rulemaking, 
Directives and Editing Branch, Division of Administrative Services, 
Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, Telephone: 301-415-7163 or Toll Free: 1-800-
368-5642.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Petitioners

    The petitioners are the Project On Government Oversight and the 
Union of Concerned Scientists. The petitioners state that the Project 
On Government Oversight, formerly the Project on Military Procurement, 
previously worked to reform military spending. After experiencing 
success, the petitioner expanded its mission to include the 
investigation of systemic waste, fraud and abuse in all Federal 
agencies, including the important topic of nuclear plant security.
    The petitioners state that the Union of Concerned Scientists is a 
nonprofit partnership of scientists and citizens that combines 
scientific analysis, policy development, and citizen advocacy to 
achieve practical environmental solutions. In 2002, the Union of 
Concerned Scientists had 61,300 members. The petitioners state that the 
Union of Concerned Scientists has been an active participant in the 
past in public meetings conducted by NRC regarding security 
regulations, and the petitioner continues to articulate potential 
problems and recommended solutions in various public arenas.

Background

    Current regulations at 10 CFR part 73 contain requirements for the 
physical protection of nuclear power plants and materials. On January 
29, 2007, the Commission approved the issuance of a final rule which 
revises Sec.  73.1 to establish a new design basis threat (DBT) level. 
The final DBT rule was published in the Federal Register on March 19, 
2007. (72 FR 12705)
    The petitioners observe that the final DBT rule reflects the 
Commission's determination of the most likely composite set of 
adversary features against which private security forces should 
reasonably have to defend. The petitioners believes that the DBT level 
set forth in the final rule is less what is determined to be the 
maximum level deemed credible by the national intelligence community, 
and that the potential exists for radiological sabotage at a level 
greater than the new DBT level. The petitioners therefore state that 
the defense of a nuclear power plant against a threat greater than the 
DBT would depend on the supplementation by local, State and Federal 
entities.

The Proposed Amendment

    The petitioners request that the NRC amend its regulations at 10 
CFR part 50 to require periodic demonstrations that nuclear power 
plants can be adequately protected against radiological sabotage above 
the DBT level. Current regulations in Appendix E to 10 CFR part 50 
require periodic demonstrations that plant owners and external 
authorities can successfully meet their responsibilities during nuclear 
power plant emergencies. The petitioners point out, however, that the 
Commission's regulations do not provide for periodic demonstration by 
applicable local, State and Federal entities to ensure that nuclear 
power plants are protected against radiological sabotage above the DBT 
level. The petitioners state that their requested amendment would 
provide reasonable assurance that external authorities could 
demonstrate that adequate protection is also available against 
radiological sabotage greater than the DBT level.
    The petitioners believe that in order for Americans to be 
adequately protected, nuclear power plants must be defended against 
both DBT and beyond-DBT attacks. Therefore, the petitioners request 
that 10 CFR part 50 be amended in a way similar to current Appendix E 
to require periodic exercises involving licensees and applicable local, 
State and Federal entities to demonstrate their capabilities to protect 
from radiological sabotage greater than the DBT level.

Conclusion

    The petitioners believe that the proposed amendment to 10 CFR part 
50

[[Page 14715]]

will complement current regulations by requiring periodic 
demonstrations by applicable local, State and Federal entities to 
ensure that nuclear power plants can be adequately protected against 
radiological sabotage greater than the DBT level. Accordingly, the 
petitioners request that the NCR amend its regulations related to 
emergency preparedness as described previously in the section titled, 
``The Proposed Amendment.''

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 23rd day of March 2007.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 07-1543 Filed 3-28-07; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7590-01-M


*****************************************************************
 39 Public Citizen: Public Interest Groups Support Sen. Sanders Bill For Independent 
Safety Reviews of Nuclear Reactors

March 28, 2007

Legislation Would Enable States to Assess Safety of Aging Nuclear
Power Plants

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Public interest groups concerned about the safety
of the country’s 103 operating nuclear power reactors announced
their support for legislation introduced today by Senator Bernard
Sanders (I-Vt.) that would enable states to request independent
safety assessments by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at
nuclear power plants. Sanders announced the safety legislation on
the anniversary of the U.S.’s worst nuclear accident, the 1979
partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island near Middletown, Pa.  

Under the bill, states could request reviews when plant owners seek
to increase the maximum power output or extend the operating
lifetime of their facilities, or when the NRC’s performance ratings
for the plants decline. It would require any safety problems that
are identified by the independent assessments to be corrected
before the NRC approves the power level increase or the 20-year
license renewal of the reactor.

The NRC has granted 20-year license extensions to 48 reactors thus
far, based largely on paper reviews of the aging components, rather
than on-the-ground inspections. The reviews also exclude some safety
components, such as emergency core cooling pumps, which the NRC
assumes the plant operator is keeping in good condition. Conducting
an independent safety assessment could identify problems before
public safety is put at risk.

Experience, such as at the Quad Cities nuclear plant in Illinois,
has shown that increasing power output can lead to vibration that
causes leaks, damage to critical components and other events that
increase the likelihood of an accident. 

The NRC contends that its existing regulatory processes ensure
adequate protection of public health and safety. But few outside of
the NRC and the industry it attempts to regulate share that belief.
Sanders’ bill would satisfy the widening public demand for credible
assurance that nuclear plant safety margins are not being
compromised.

###

*****************************************************************
 40 AU: ABC: Howard discusses climate change response

AM - Thursday, 29 March , 2007  08:00:00

Reporter: Chris Uhlmann

TONY EASTLEY: Climate change has become one of those political
issues that the Prime Minister likes to describe as a barbecue
stopper.

It was already slotted in as a major issue in this year's federal
election but the Australian tour by economist and climate change
expert, Sir Nicholas Stern has re-energised the debate this week.

Sir Nicholas says developed countries like Australia should slash
greenhouse gas emissions 60 per cent by 2050.

That's something John Howard believes will do great damage to
Australia's economy.

The Government is working on its own response to climate change and
plans to spend $200 million to help developing nations preserve
their forests.

The Prime Minister is speaking here with chief political
correspondent Chris Uhlmann.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Prime Minister good morning.

JOHN HOWARD: Good morning.

CHRIS UHLMANN: How is this $200 million over five years going to
address climate change?

JOHN HOWARD: Well it's going to slow the rate in cooperation with
other countries of trees being cut down. As everybody knows if you
can do that, you will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In fact 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from
clearing the world's forests and that second only to emissions from
burning fossil fuels to produce electricity and its more than all of
the world's emissions from transport, more than all of the world's
emissions from transport.

And what this initiative will do in a shorter period of time is make
a greater contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than in
fact the Kyoto protocol.

CHRIS UHLMANN: If we could look at what happens here though Prime
Minister, should Australia have a target for reducing carbon
emissions?

JOHN HOWARD: Well we have to be very careful in setting targets that
we don't do greater damage to our economy and our lifestyle than
will be done by other things.

Now we've heard suggestions that we should have a target of 30 per
cent reductions by the year 2020. That's what Sir Nicholas Stern was
advocating and that's what apparently the Labor party supports
because they've been walking beside Sir Nicholas Stern on all of
these things.

Now I agree with a lot of what he says. He's a very respected
economist, he should be listened to, but his views aren't holy rit
and common sense tell us that 2020 is what, 13 years from now to
achieve a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the
year 2020 and it's no good setting these targets in some kind of
rhetorical flourish.

If you set a target, you ought to try and meet that target and if we
were to set that target and meet it, that would throw thousands of
people out of work in the coal industry and it would do enormous
damage to the Australian economy in…

CHRIS UHLMANN: All right, if we could…

JOHN HOWARD: …constitution for that, we should embrace practical,
immediate measures, such as our initiative on reforestation, which
will reduce greenhouse gas emissions but won't do such dramatic
damage to the Australian economy.

CHRIS UHLMANN: All right, though could we discuss it as a principle
though? In principle, do you believe that industry now needs some
kind of signal from government? Do we need to signal for industry
that there will be a target for reducing emissions and perhaps
you'll set that target, exactly what's that target going to be and
the timeframe over time?

JOHN HOWARD: Well Chris I think the first signal industry needs is a
price on carbon. That is why the government is sensibly sitting down
with all the major resource companies and power generation companies
and…

CHRIS UHLMANN: So the price on carbon is inevitable now?

JOHN HOWARD: Well I think a price on carbon is an important element
of getting a grip on this thing. Unless you have some kind of carbon
pricing signal, you can't begin to see the sensible introduction of
clean coal technology.

Now it's a very simple situation. We have this great abundance of
fossil fuel. Coal is a very cheap source of electricity generation,
but it contributes a lot of CO2 emissions, so the way in which you
reduce them is to clean up the technology associated with coal.

The way you do that in part is to have a price placed on carbon. Of
course, once you do that and you make clean coal technology more
prevalent, and therefore the use of coal more expensive, that is
when nuclear power begins to come into the equation.

Now I'm very happy and my government is very happy to contemplate
that, but of course our political opponents have set their minds
totally against that, but I think the practical, sensible thing to
do is to create a market environment and you do that by having some
kind of emissions trading system and we are looking at the form that
might take but it's got to be a form that doesn't do damage to
Australia's international competitiveness.

But we're doing this, but in the meantime, there are other practical
immediate things we can do and the reforestation proposal is a
glaring example of that.

CHRIS UHLMANN: One of the things your government also says a lot is
that you are looking at clean coal technology, something with which
you agree with Sir Nicholas Stern.

He was talking about that being if you like, Australia's gift to the
world. If you can clean up coal, then why isn't a target of 30 per
cent by 2020, or 60 per cent by 2050 possible if you manage to clean
up that most polluting of industries?

Perhaps that target if achievable without damaging Australian
industry?

JOHN HOWARD: I am a great believer in putting in place market
mechanisms which over time are going to bring about desired results,
rather than committing to targets, which in the short term, you
know, can I just say again, to say to the Australian community that
in 13 years we must cut by 30 per cent our greenhouse gas emissions
- and that is what Labor is advocating, apparently - that is what
Sir Nicholas Stern has certainly advocated, that would do very great
damage to the Australian economy.

It would do particularly great damage to the coal industry. We need
a balanced approach and I accept that climate change is a big issue,
I'm not walking away from it, but I'm not going to compromise the
economic strength of our country and put at risk thousands of jobs
by commitment to a target that is unreasonably short, unreasonably
harsh and not properly thought through.

And Sir Nicholas Stern himself last night admitted on Lateline that
circumstances will vary from country to country and Australia is
very different from Great Britain.

Australia relies very heavily on fossil fuels.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But are you in danger of looking out of step with the
community on this?

JOHN HOWARD: I think the community wants a balanced approach. I
think the community wants a response to climate change, but the
community doesn't want the competitive advantage of this country
undermined and it doesn't want governments enthralled to what I
might call a narrow point of view in relation to climate change.

I think they want a government that says yes, it's a problem, but a
government tackles that problem by playing to the economic strengths
of this country.

We are unusual, we are a developed country with a small population
and a very large amount of fossil fuels; we've been very fortunate.
Providence has given us all these resources and we have a small
population and we have to use our resources wisely and we have to
contribute leadership in areas where we have the expertise and clean
coal technology is one.

We have to be open minded about nuclear power, we have 38 per cent
of the world's uranium reserves, we're crazy to ignore that. I mean,
we say to the world, you can buy our uranium and use it but we're
not going to generate nuclear power in this country; we're going to
close our minds against it. I think that's very short sighted.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Speaking of leadership though Prime Minister, the
Kyoto protocol, many people keep proposing that of course, as
something that the Australian government didn't do.

And Sir Nicholas Stern says that when he travels around the world
that is offered up to him as reasons why other countries shouldn't
do that.

At the same time you say we're going to meet our targets. If we're
going to meet our targets, why don't we sign the Kyoto protocol?

JOHN HOWARD: Well many of the countries that signed the protocol and
criticise under their breath Australia for not signing, are not
going to meet their targets. It's one of the great ironies of Kyoto.

We're one of a small number of countries that will meet the target.
The reason we didn't sign was that we would have assumed obligations
that other countries didn't have to assume, which would have put our
industries including for example, the aluminium industry at a
competitive disadvantage.

I will enter into an international agreement that fairly shares the
burden of these things, but I'm not going to sign up to something
that puts Australian jobs at risk.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Prime Minister thank you.

JOHN HOWARD: Thank you.

TONY EASTLEY: And the Prime Minister there speaking with our Chief
Political Correspondent Chris Uhlmann.

*****************************************************************
 41 Wisconsin Radio Network: Bill protects GIs from effects of depleted uranium

WRN News

Wednesday, March 28, 2007, 10:55 PM

By Jackie Johnson

One state lawmaker aims to protect soldiers from the effects of
depleted uranium exposure.

State Representative Tom Nelson (D-Kaukauna) continues to push his
legislation geared toward National Guard members and veterans who
may have been exposed to depleted uranium. "This bill simply directs
the Veterans Affairs Department to provide screening, testing,
treatment and awareness information to returning National Guard
members from Iraq and Afghanistan who may or may not have been
exposed to depleted uranium."

The Kaukauna Democrat renews his push for this measure, saying
depleted uranium is being used more often as a component of
munitions in military conflicts. More specifically, shells fired
from tanks are made with uranium. "There's a lot of tests that show
that it's been having harmful health effects on soldiers."

Nelson says providing testing, treatment and information on depleted
uranium exposure is important, but first soldiers need to be
contacted. That's why, Nelson says, the new proposal for a volunteer
statewide veterans registry would work hand in hand with his bill. A
database would allow officials to track the effects of depleted
uranium on returning soldiers. Both bills are included in a huge new
Veterans Care Package of bills, announced this week, along with
family military leave and veterans health insurance.

AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report (1:28 MP3)

Tel: 608.251.3900; Fax: 608.251.7233; Email - ©2006 Learfield
Communications, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 42 OpEd News: Death Registries: A Thoughtful Touch for DU-Poisoned Veterans?

March 28, 2007 at 22:00:33

by Cathy Garger  

http://www.opednews.com 

As many of us already realize, it has not been uh, exactly the
interest of Congress to care about the health and well-being of our
veterans. Oh sure, there have been some efforts to throw vets a
crumb here and there. But, by and large, you do not *use* a weapon
with indiscriminate health effects, considered illegal by the United
Nations and Hague and Geneva conventions, and *not* know what you
are doing.

Plenty of research was done before 1991 (the start of the US use of
Depleted Uranium weapons in combat) that proves - beyond a shadow of
a doubt -that its use in combat harms our very own soldiers, too.
So, regarding the work of this State Senator Jim Sullivan from
Wisconsin&hellip;well, let's just say, we need to do more than
merely watch this measure.

We must ask ourselves, is this proposal a registry to actually
*help* our veterans? Or rather, is this an effort to study what
happens to America&rsquo;s ex-soldiers along the way as they weaken,
sicken and die? According to Sullivan, they are "not sure of the
long term effect of that exposure".

Um, dear State Senator Sullivan, maybe you and your colleagues in
Wisconsin are none too sure about the health effects of Depleted
Uranium upon our soldiers. But of this one fact, you can be certain:
Uncle Sam is sure. In fact, he is very&hellip; Heck, you could even
say, in effect, that he is indeed &ldquo;dead&rdquo; sure.

Make no mistake about the role played by America&rsquo;s men and
women in combat today. Our men and women, in all certainty, are
&ldquo;disposable soldiers&rdquo; in Kiss The Boys Goodbye and what
Kissinger called "dumb, stupid animals to be used", mere cannon
fodder for the appetite of the corporations that handsomely profit
from these US Wars Everlasting. The Congressional whores &ndash;
Dems and GOP both - merely do the dirty work for the fascist regime
in power by *keeping* us permanently enmeshed in these wars -
through such measures as proposing that we keep data base registries
on our poisoned vets who have served in the Middle East.

The truth of the matter is, poisoning of our soldiers by
radioactivity in Uranium weapons is not curable. Yes, you can treat
some of the symptoms, but you can not eliminate the worsening
radioactivity decay and destructive somatic damage that it causes
over time once even a single microscopic DU particle begins its
process of devastation and destruction inside the veteran's body.

The Wisconsin Senate Committee on Veterans and Foreign Affairs may
actually already know this as well as - or perhaps even better -
than we do. They say there are no studies, but the feds in the US
Military have indeed done studies - many, many studies &ndash; since
the 1940s that any Wisconsin State Senator could examine regarding
the effect of Uranium aerosols inhaled, ingested, and even implanted
within the body.

Fully aware of the deleterious health effects of DU, the US Military
started using this poison dust and gas in Iraq back in 1991. They
knew exactly what they were doing with this toxic chemical and
radioactive poison before they ever entered Iraq the first time
around. Sullivan undoubtedly knows quite well, in fact, that DU is
harming Wisconsin&rsquo;s veterans and all US veterans, to boot.

So rather than scream out to his fellow members of the Wisconsin
State Senate, "Let us, right now, all converge upon that five-sided
building over the Potomac in Washington, DC&rsquo;s evil shadow, en
masse, in order to force them to STOP this radioactive, poison from
being used in our weapons &ndash; and upon our soldiers - RIGHT
NOW!&rdquo; Instead, he says, in effect, &ldquo;Let's keep a data
base registry and collect information on our Wisconsin vets, so we
can slowly, carefully, painstakingly WATCH... THEM... DIE.&rdquo;

Are we going to continue to allow our tax dollars to be used to put
innocent civilians of Afghanistan and Iraq to death-by-poisoning
&ndash; as well as our own soldiers, too? Or, will our vets, our
soldiers, their families, and all of us who know the truth about
what is going on with Radioactive Uranium Weaponry get together and
start to scream bloody murder?

This is not likely to happen as a result of any currently
established, large, organized veterans or military families group.
Hint: This is going to take an actual grassroots effort &ndash;
comprised of just ordinary citizens and families - to lead the way.
So far, I have not seen any large vets' group or military families'
group take this up as their main, primary, dedicated focus.

I strongly suspect that it is now past time that this happens. This
war-loving Empire is not going to stop the use of Uranium Weapons on
its own. It&rsquo;s main component, U-238, is far too cheap and
plentiful to stop its use. Plus, it has the extra little added side
'benefit" of killing mass numbers of all those (including our vets,
the so-called enemy, and innocent civilians, too) who breathe in
these toxic, radioactive, poisonous Uranium aerosols.

These Uranium weapons were used in Iraq starting in 1991 and their
use continued until we could finish up the job again - this time,
against a weakened, sickened Iraq, when we merely escalated the
Uranium poison gassing of Iraq in 2003. And so, too, we weaken and
sicken our very own soldiers. Many of them never will make it to the
age of 77, when the rest of us, non-veterans, can be reasonably
expected to die. The cost savings in terms of veterans' health care
payments and pensions of a very thoughtfully-abbreviated life span
on the part of our veterans, no doubt, must be astronomical for the
federal military budget.

So predictably more and more over time, we will continue to see
state legislators who, pressured by their outraged constituents,
propose and pass pointless state legislative measures that do
nothing but &ldquo;watch&rdquo; and &ldquo;study&rdquo; our veterans
&ndash; instead of trying to work to stop the federally sanctioned
Uranium weaponry that is illegal and considered a War Crime under
international humanitarian and human rights laws.

These state bills, while on the surface appearing to be well-meaning
efforts on behalf of our veterans, actually do little more than
merely buy the federal war-makers (and the lucrative weapons
industry) more time.

Indeed, one can be quite certain that on the Army enlistment forms
there is no fine print that tells prospective soldiers that they are
participating in an Early Death Study Program when they sign on the
bottom line to fight in an uninhabitable, Uranium-contaminated war
&ldquo;theater&rdquo;. Unfortunately, however, unlike death scenes
we can watch on the silver screen? Our soldiers come home to die,
hidden away at home or in substandard veterans&rsquo; hospitals -
completely removed from the awareness of an &ldquo;audience&rdquo;
of an enlightened citizenry who can actually watch and observe their
slow and painful death-by-radiation process.

 
Cathy Garger is a freelance writer, antiwar and anti-radiation
weapons activist, and a certified personal coach. Living in the
shadow of the national District of Crime, Cathy is constantly
nauseated by the stench emanating from the nation's capital during
the Washington, DC, federal work week.


Now. Roger Helbig, here's the deal. If you want to discuss in a
civil manner, you are welcome If you call names. You are not
welcome. It's that simple. Act like a troll and you'll be banned
from the site. Calling names is trollish. Consider yourself warned. 

by RobKall (386 articles, 570 comments) on Thursday, March 29, 2007
at 10:08:10 PM

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/index.htm

Thanks Panurg and yes it did

Thanks Panurg. Yes, it did help. And there are many other sources of
research on the Net about the harmful effects of uranium oxide on
the human body.

This one, for example, is a gem because it is from the military
itself. So if they are willing to reveal that these are the health
hazards of this toxic and radiological poison gas? Then one has to
wonder how bad it actually is.

PS - I am many things, but actually liar is not one of them.

2.3 Health Risks of Depleted Uranium starts at page 2.5

http://preview.tinyurl.com/29dg6m or here


Slander

This is slander.  Mr. Helbig, who used to work for the Pentagon's
Depleted Uranium unit, has been banned from my Yahoo! group, so how
can he know what I said?  But, for the record, I did not admit that
I don't know the difference between a neutron and a cyclotron.  I
said that some of our members may not, which is true.  We are open
to anyone who cares to learn the truth about the weapons that our
government is using to commit genocide and war crimes in the Middle
East.   We welcome sincere interest, but Mr. Helbig has used our
Membership list to privately approach and harass our members and
spread his point of view.  He has to right to abuse us in the way he
does, and you will find articles on the net about him and his
tactics.

Mr. Helbig has also been blocked from my personal email for sending
me ugly slanders and harassments.

by bluesapphire (0 articles, 4 comments) on Thursday, March 29, 2007
at 4:55:54 PM

Copyright © OpEdNews, 2002-2007
*****************************************************************
 43 Center for Public Integrity: Radiation Panel Fairness Questioned

Overview Radiation Panel Story

The Shadow Government - 

Ailing Cold War veterans say compensation program biased

By Jim Morris, Brendan McGarry and Marina Walker Guevara

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2007 ? Fourteen months after the fact, Dr. 
Henry Anderson and Richard Espinosa say they still aren't sure 
why they were removed from the Advisory Board on Radiation and 
Worker Health, a presidential panel that helps the government 
weigh claims for compensation by current and former nuclear 
weapons workers.

Operation "Big Shot," a 31-kiloton, above ground atmospheric test
detonated at the Nevada Test Site at Yucca Flat on April 22, 1952.
(Sandia National Laboratory)

Anderson and Espinosa say they were told only that their terms on
the board had expired, and that they would not be reappointed by
President Bush. They found this odd, since there was no mention of
term limits when they joined the board in 2001.

"I don't really know what happened," Anderson, chief medical officer
with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, told the Center for
Public Integrity in a recent interview. "I know at the time there
was a feeling that the board was being activist … very worker
supportive. [The Department of Labor] was supposedly unhappy that
they were having to pay out too much money, and felt we were
responsible."

"We got the boot," said Espinosa, business representative for Sheet
Metal Workers Local Union No. 49 in Albuquerque, N.M., and a former
employee of Los Alamos National Laboratory. "It wasn't a random act."

Whether Anderson and Espinosa were ousted for political reasons by a
cost-conscious administration or merely rotated off the board as
part of a routine cycle may never be known. The White House won't
comment.

But the comings and goings on the 12-member panel have heightened
suspicion among members of Congress and claimants who believe the
compensation program, administered by the Labor Department, is
biased against ailing Cold War veterans and their survivors.

"You have to wonder what they [White House officials] were trying to
do," said Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M. "They seemed to be removing members
of the board without any real justification."

For tens of thousands of people, the compensation program has become
a symbol of government indifference. As of late February 2007, the
Labor Department had rendered final decisions on more than 90,000
claims filed by victims of cancer or other illnesses, and had denied
nearly 56,000, or 62 percent.

Among those rejected was William Cleghorn, 75, who worked as a
security guard at the Nevada Test Site from 1961 to 1986.

After retiring, Cleghorn developed skin and prostate cancer and had
polyps removed from his colon. But federal officials concluded that
his cancers and the polyps could not have been caused by radiation
exposure, even though Cleghorn was present for several small,
aboveground nuclear tests at the site and many underground tests,
some of which vented radiation. During the underground tests, he
said, guards would be among the last to emerge from a tunnel before
a blast and among the first to reenter afterward.


See more details on how claimants' cancers are evaluated in this
NIOSH video.

How the Government Calculates Radiation Doses

When a cancer claim is filed under a Department of Labor program
designed to compensate Cold War veterans and their survivors, the
government attempts to calculate how much radiation the claimant
might have absorbed, and whether it's likely the cancer was caused
by workplace exposure.


In brief, here's how the process works:

* The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
  (NIOSH) uses information obtained from radiation badge readings,
  X-rays, incident reports and other sources to reconstruct a
  radiation dose.
* Once it has completed the dose reconstruction, NIOSH sends the
  results to the Department of Labor.
* The department then feeds the NIOSH data into a software program
  that calculates a probability of causation — an estimate of the
  odds that a particular cancer was caused by radiation.
* Anyone with a probability of 50 percent or greater is eligible
  for compensation.

Source: NIOSH

"I'm in touch with numerous people who worked out there and [the
government is] treating all of us exactly the same," Cleghorn said.
"They have spent more damned money on denying claims than if they'd
have went ahead and paid everybody." Like other claimants, he is
seeking a lump-sum payment of $150,000, plus lifetime medical
benefits.

The radiation board — one of at least 900 federal advisory panels
— serves as the public face of the compensation program, through
which nearly $2.5 billion has been paid out. Attached to the
Department of Health and Human Services, it holds meetings around
the country and hears regularly from angry claimants who have been
denied benefits. Several board members interviewed by the Center
said that they bend over backwards to make claimant-friendly
recommendations, and that the board is balanced.

According to the board's charter, "Members shall include affected
workers and their representatives, and representatives from
scientific and medical communities." But the precise mix is not
spelled out, and this has proved troublesome. The removals of
Anderson and Espinosa last year fueled conjecture that the makeup of
the board was being adjusted by an administration eager to clamp
down on the number of successful claims.

Even today, the board's chairman says, there is confusion about the
length of members' terms. "Basically," said Paul Ziemer, professor
emeritus at Purdue University, "you serve at the pleasure of the
president."

The compensation program began in 2001, a year after Congress passed
the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.
The act — a response to a torrent of litigation against the
Department of Energy and its contractors, which ran the nuclear
weapons sites — instructed the Labor Department to begin accepting
claims from current and former workers at hundreds of installations,
from the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky to the Amchitka
Island Nuclear Explosion Site in Alaska. The aim was to make
retribution for those who had fallen ill or died as a result of
work-related exposures to radiation or toxic chemicals.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of
HHS, was charged with giving scientific advice to the Labor
Department on cancer claims. The radiation board, in turn, would
serve as a check on NIOSH, making sure that the agency appraised
cases fairly.

As of late January 2007, NIOSH had done dose reconstructions —
attempts to calculate how much radiation a worker might have
absorbed at a weapons facility — for nearly 17,000 claimants with
cancer and sent the results to the Labor Department. After feeding
the NIOSH numbers into a software program designed to calculate the
likelihood that a particular cancer is work-related, the department
denied 72 percent of these claims even though exposure records from
the weapons sites are notoriously unreliable. Claimants speak of
glaring omissions: the government's failure to note, for example,
that some welders' radiation-measuring badges, called dosimeters,
registered zero because the welders had been instructed not to wear
them. Their bosses, it seemed, didn't want the dosimeters to be
damaged by sparks.

Fix for 'Fuzzy' Standards

The high rejection rates have spawned allegations that NIOSH and the
Labor Department have used flawed information and scientific
uncertainty to deny claims and avoid massive outlays of federal
funds.

In October 2005, not long after Anderson and Espinosa learned that
their terms on the advisory board were about to expire, Shelby
Hallmark, director of the Labor Department's Office of Workers'
Compensation Programs, wrote in a memorandum that the board had been
using "fuzzy" criteria to recommend that certain groups of workers
be admitted to the Special Exposure Cohort — making them eligible
for benefits — and offered ideas on how the problem could be fixed.

Among them: "Refresh" the board and "bring significantly more
balance" to it.

A month later, a White House Office of Management and Budget memo
essentially repeated Hallmark's suggestions, stating that one way to
"contain growth" in the program's costs would be to "address any
imbalance in membership of [the] President's Advisory Board on
Radiation and Worker Health."

In an e-mailed statement to the Center, Hallmark wrote, "Our efforts
have been to achieve consistency and fairness in applying the
eligibility requirements established by Congress, not to curtail
benefits to any eligible claimants." The suggestions in his and the
OMB's memos "were raised as options, and they were subsequently
disavowed without caveat or equivocation, by both OMB and DOL," he
wrote.

The White House did not respond directly to the Center's inquiry
about program expenditures, instead offering a June 2006 letter in
which OMB Director Rob Portman asserted, "The Administration is not
pursuing any program changes to modify benefit costs."

Still, skepticism lingers. A number of executive branch e-mails and
memos addressing program costs and the behavior of the board came
out during congressional hearings last year.

In an e-mail dated November 16, 2004, Hallmark wrote, "Apparently,
OMB has noticed there's a deficit, and would like to do something
about it, starting with the cost of administering [the program]."

In a memo dated March 3, 2005, Hallmark complained that the advisory
board was operating "as essentially a worker advocacy organization."

And in an e-mail dated April 15, 2005, Hallmark wrote that "the
current make-up of the Board could result in recommendations that
are not wise. Such recommendations will be extremely
difficult/painful for the HHS Secretary to override."

By January 2006 Anderson and Espinosa were off the board. Two months
later, the first of five hearings was convened by John Hostettler, a
Republican congressman from Indiana and chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security
and Claims.

A self-described "budget hawk" who keenly scrutinized government
expenditures, Hostettler nonetheless grew troubled by what he heard
about the entitlement program — namely, that the administration
seemed preoccupied with payouts, which are not capped — and that
"we were losing people who were proponents of the workers" on the
advisory board.

"It was never suggested by Congress that somehow we were going to
allow budget to be any sort of factor whatsoever in meeting the
needs of these individuals who served their country," Hostettler,
who was defeated in November 2006, said in a recent interview from
his home in Blairsville, Ind.

The compensation program applies to those who work or worked at any
of 317 sites in 37 states. For cancer victims or their survivors
there are two ways to secure benefits.

Claims may be approved on an individual basis, after NIOSH, the
advisory board and the Labor Department mull the evidence. Or, a
group of claimants from a site may be allowed to join the Special
Exposure Cohort, meaning the secretary of HHS has determined that
individual dose reconstructions are impossible and everyone in that
group — assuming he or she has one of 22 types of cancer linked to
radiation — qualifies for remuneration.

Both NIOSH and the advisory board help the HHS secretary make
decisions on SEC petitions. Twenty-one groups have been admitted to
the cohort, and petitions from another 23 are pending. The SEC
process is extremely contentious; many see admission to the cohort
as their only hope for compensation, given the sloppy recordkeeping
and pervasive secrecy during the Cold War.

NIOSH and the board have nothing to do with claims filed by workers
with diseases other than cancer — say, neurological damage that
may have been caused by exposure to solvents or heavy metals. Those
cases are judged exclusively by the Labor Department.

Chasing the Claim

Winning a claim, as many have learned, isn't easy.

Pedro Romero, 60, worked as a machinist at Los Alamos for 31 years
and developed colon cancer, which metastasized to his lymphatic
system.

"After a long career, which I felt was a good career, I have to live
from [disability] check to check, and I have a lot of difficulty
just being able to afford my medications," he said. "There's times
when I just skip them because I don't have enough money."


"The compensation is just something that you hear about. You
continually try to acquire it because it's yours, but there's just
too many obstructions being created."
— Pedro Romero, former Los Alamos machinist and Labor Department
claimant


Romero plied his trade in the lab's old plutonium processing
facility, known as Technical Area 21, and its successor, Technical
Area 55. He used toxic chemicals, such as trichloroethylene, to
clean fixtures in poorly ventilated areas. He estimates that "at
least 90 percent of the people I worked with at the plutonium plant
have died of cancer."

In June 2006, the Labor Department's Denver District Office
recommended denial of Romero's claim. He took the rare step of
asking for an oral hearing, which was held in December, and is
awaiting a final decision.

But Romero is not optimistic. He knows that most preliminary
decisions are upheld.

"The compensation is just something that you hear about," Romero
said. "You continually try to acquire it because it's yours, but
there's just too many obstructions being created. We get ignored
when we talk to NIOSH or the Department of Labor. They try to
discourage you, they treat you rudely, they make you feel like
you're asking for a handout in hopes that you'll go away."

When the Labor Department renders a final decision, it assigns to
the claimant a "probability of causation" — an estimate, based on
the NIOSH dose reconstruction and its own calculations, of the
likelihood that the claimant's cancer was work-related. The
threshold for compensation is 50 percent or greater; many, like
Cleghorn, the retired Nevada Test Site security guard, miss the mark.

Cleghorn's number was 39.09 percent. "When they give these scores
out," he said, "it's just underneath what they claim is the breaking
point for you to get compensation."

Cleghorn can describe, in remarkable detail, his encounters with
radiation and other toxic substances. The underground tests, for
example, required the construction of roads, which were cut through
radiation-contaminated wind rows of dirt. "There would be hundreds
and hundreds of cars driving in and out, going to and from ground
zero," he said. "We would stand for 12 hours a day in the road in
that damned dust, trying to make sure no one went in there who
wasn't allowed. They were supposed to come in with water trucks to
keep the dust down, but most of the time they didn't do it. We had
no protection from the dust. We just wore our regular uniforms —
that's all."

Another former security guard at the site, 80-year-old Harry Jensen,
had two malignant melanomas removed from his back in 1977. His claim
for compensation was denied after the Labor Department determined
that his probability of causation was 43.48 percent.

Jensen, who started work in 1957, finds this ludicrous, given that
he was present for dozens of aboveground nuclear tests and many
underground ones. The claims process has drained and infuriated him.
"Last time I checked, I had 276 pages of correspondence [with the
government]," Jensen said. "I think it's getting up around 400 now."

Larry Elliott, director of the NIOSH Office of Compensation Analysis
and Support, said he understands the claimants' frustration, but
defended the agency's performance.

"This has just been a huge challenge for everybody involved,"
Elliott said. "We have made what I consider to be our best effort at
providing a scientific basis for a decision on a person's claim. We
are to give the benefit of the doubt to the claimant. Where science
fails us, we make an assumption that a sick claimant be treated
favorably, though [the claim] has to be plausible."

Looking for Bias

While NIOSH does the dose reconstructions that influence the
approval or denial of cancer claims, the advisory board has a major
role in the process, auditing selected claims with the help of a
contractor and offering scientific input. For this reason, some
lawmakers and claimants have closely monitored the board's
composition in recent years, looking for signs of anti-worker bias.

"We did have issues with [the White House] rotating individuals off
the board who had a particular bent," said former congressman
Hostettler, referring to Anderson and Espinosa. "We had concerns
about the board being shifted from what we considered to be a
balanced approach to one that wasn't as worker-focused as it could
have been. Those were all decisions made by the administration."

Several board members told the Center that the panel has never been
stacked against claimants.

"I think all of us are trying to be worker-friendly," said chairman
Ziemer, a former health physicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

"All of us who have had cancer in our families are emotional about
the suffering that is involved," said Wanda Munn, a retired nuclear
engineer who worked for the Westinghouse Hanford Co. in Richland,
Wash. "But to say that we cannot be fully scientific in our approach
to this is to be unfair to our claimants and to the public at large.
The determination of how likely a cancer was to have been caused by
[workplace] exposure is a very difficult one to make. My point is, I
am a 60-year-old woman and I get breast cancer. The probability that
I get breast cancer is going to be 1 in 3 anyway. If I were an
employee who had been working for the DOE, would I or would I not
expect to be compensated for my breast cancer when, perhaps, I had
very little actual exposure?"

Board member John Poston Sr., a professor of nuclear engineering at
Texas A&M University, recalled a recent case in which NIOSH "assumed
that the worker had been exposed to radioactivity 40 hours a week
for the entire employment period at some maximum concentration. And
that's not a realistic kind of assumption, but that does bias the
dose. The worker is being treated more than fairly."

Critics say, however, that board members like Munn, who spent their
careers supporting the weapons production effort, may be disinclined
to give sick workers the benefit of the doubt. And most members have
acknowledged potential conflicts of interest — notably Poston, who
must recuse himself from matters involving Los Alamos and five other
companies or laboratories for which he worked.

It's still unclear why Anderson and Espinosa were removed from the
board. Ostensibly, it was because they had served the maximum term
of four years. But other members — such as Ziemer and Genevieve
Roessler, a radiation consultant and professor emeritus at the
University of Florida — have served continuously for more than
five years, with no signal that their terms will end.

In August 2006, two board members perceived by some to be less
sympathetic to claimants — Munn and Dr. Roy DeHart, a Nashville
physician who, in the 1990s, served on the board of Oak Ridge
Associated Universities, a consortium that helps NIOSH with the
much-criticized dose reconstructions — were informed by the White
House that their services were no longer required. Munn, in her
words, "complained to everyone I could," and she and DeHart were
offered reinstatement. Munn accepted; DeHart declined.

Cindy Blackston, a former staff member on the Hostettler
subcommittee, said she believes the administration sought to
discharge the two because of mounting pressure from Congress. Three
hearings already had been held, and Hostettler had made it clear
that he would not relent.

"I think they were feeling pressure from all sides about having a
cohesive, understandable removal and appointment process for board
members," Blackston said. "They made an attempt to do that, which
was thwarted by Wanda Munn knowing the right people." In an e-mail,
the White House said, "As a general practice, we do not comment on
personnel matters. The Administration will continue to meet the
statutory requirements that the Advisory Board reflect a balance of
scientific, medical, and worker perspectives."

Anderson said he has served on more than a dozen federal advisory
committees since the 1980s, and has sensed outside interference on
only one: the radiation board. "This one was far more political," he
said. "NIOSH had a hard time disagreeing with what the board
decided, so what they really wanted to do was to have the board say,
'You got it right. We agree with you.' They wanted a rubber stamp to
provide them cover [for decisions that went against claimants]."

Most seem to believe that the board is more balanced today than it
was when the congressional hearings began early last year. NIOSH
classifies six of the 12 members as "scientific" representatives,
four as "worker" representatives and two as "medical"
representatives. Five people have been added to the board since
Hostettler's hearings began in March 2006, including Phillip
Schofield, a former Los Alamos technician who joined in February of
this year and was seen as a replacement for Espinosa.

"It's somewhat more balanced," Rep. Udall said of the board. "I want
to see how they actually perform."

Leery of administration interference, Udall is co-sponsoring
legislation that would take appointment power for the panel away
from the White House and give it to Congress. The bill also would
set fixed terms for board members — no more than two three-year
terms — and require that the worker, medical and scientific
communities be equally represented, with four members apiece.

"The constituents of mine who are going through the program are
very, very frustrated," said Udall, who is trying to help a group of
former Los Alamos workers join the Special Exposure Cohort. "This
program has been troubled since its inception."

Alejandra Fernández Morera contributed to this story.


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 44 AU ABC: Canberra urged to investigate depleted uranium

Last Updated 29/03/2007, 15:02:43

Australia's federal opposition Labor Party has called on the
government to move quickly to determine if there is a link between
the poor health of a number of Gulf War veterans and exposure to
depleted uranium.

Two veterans from the eastern Australian state of Queensland, one of
whom served in the navy, the other in the army, both say they have
had tests oversease confirming their exposure to depleted uranium in
the Gulf 15 years ago.

Veteran Affairs Minister Bruce Bilson says the mens' claims are
being investigated, but says he feels it is unlikely that any
Australian defence force personnel were significantly exposed to
depleted uranium in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Labor's defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon says the mens' claims need
to be taken seriously.

"There may not be any cause or relationship between their service
and their illness, but surely it's the responsibility of the
government to move quickly to determine whether there is a
connection or there isn't," he said.

"The problem with bureaucracy is too often if they can't find a box
to tick they discount the claim."

*****************************************************************
 45 Guardian Unlimited: Yucca Mountain Opening Date Could Slip 

From the Associated Press

Thursday March 29, 2007 2:01 AM

By ERICA WERNER Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The head of the Yucca Mountain project said
Wednesday that although 2017 is the goal for opening the Nevada
nuclear waste dump, it will likely happen three or four years after
that.

There could be more litigation and delays in getting construction
authority from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Edward F.
``Ward'' Sproat, director of the Energy Department's Office of
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

The program is already long delayed and the Energy Department keeps
revising the opening date. The 2017 date was announced last summer;
Sproat said he still hopes to make it.

Sproat warned lawmakers at a hearing that annual funding for Yucca
must rise above the level it's been at for recent years - around
$500 million - for the program to happen at all.

``If all we can do is continue to fund the repository at that level
the repository will never be built, it will never happen,'' he told
the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee.

Project managers already have had to adjust to getting $100 million
less in the 2007 fiscal year than President Bush requested. The
final 2007 figure was $444 million.

Once construction starts on the repository in the desert 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas costs will soar past $1 billion per year,
according to Energy Department projections.

With Yucca Mountain's toughest foe, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of
Nevada, running the Senate as majority leader, Sproat has been
working hard to convince other lawmakers of the need to push the
dump forward.

Yucca Mountain would be the first national repository for
radioactive waste. It is meant to store at least 77,000 tons, but
there are already roughly 50,000 tons waiting at reactor sites in
dozens of states.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
 46 reviewjournal.com: Nuke dump dead? Not to Nye County

Opinion - ERIN NEFF : 

Mar. 29, 2007

When you say the word "oversight" after the phrase "Yucca 
Mountain," most Nevadans think of the state's fight against the 
proposed nuclear waste dump. But in Nye County, home of Yucca 
Mountain, "oversight" clearly has a different meaning.

Nye is advertising for a new planner in its Nuclear Waste 
Repository Project Office. And both a look at the job description 
and interviews with county officials make it clear that the bulk 
of the planner's work will be planning for the repository to 
open.

"Incumbent will assist in coordinating Yucca Mountain nuclear 
waste repository design, implementation, construction, operation, 
and closure impact assessment/impact mitigation with the local 
communities, county, state and federal agencies," the county's 
job description reads.

So much for Yucca Mountain being dead.

"Our responsibility is to assume that the repository is going
forward," said David Swanson, interim acting director of Nye
County's nuclear waste project office. "We'd be neglecting our
duties if we didn't."

Fair enough. If I lived in the shadow of the mountain, I'd want my
government to make sure the water is safe to drink and my family
isn't exposed to radiation.

But the new planner, who will be focusing attention on Beatty and
the Amargosa Valley, isn't being sought to protect the public's
health and safety. In Beatty, the big question about water will be
whether the water system in the small Death Valley gateway can
handle an influx of residential growth as a result of the new jobs
at the dump. In Amargosa Valley, the big question isn't about the
safety of the children, but whether a high school will be needed as
a result of the people who move there to work at the site.

"The job is basically to identify the potential impacts and to
identify the resources the community has to deal with it," Swanson
said.

The pay ain't shabby either. The position, which requires a master's
degree in a planning field, will pay between $70,500 and $91,000 a
year depending on the candidate's level of expertise.

Carl Torelli, a fiscal analyst in the county's nuclear waste office,
said Nye County requested the position as an expansion of its
oversight. The Department of Energy approved federal funding for the
position on Feb. 20.

DOE already funds about a dozen positions in Nye County and the
county also uses federal money to pay for about a dozen contractors.

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid's recent message that the dump is
dead isn't getting through in Nye County.

"We never call it a dump here," Swanson said. "We can't make that
assumption (that the project is dead). We deal really closely with
the DOE on that issue and we never get the feeling from DOE or the
Nuclear Energy Institute that it's dead."

Then Swanson channeled the NEI lobbyists.

"What Harry Reid is proposing is to store this nuclear waste at 126
facilities that were never intended for storage, versus putting that
waste in an engineered facility," Swanson said. "There is no
technical issue here, the issues are political."

Bob Loux is the manager of the state's Nuclear Waste Project Office,
whose Web site has an entire section devoted to technical issues.
"They're spending time and money getting ready for the repository
instead of opposing it," Loux said of Nye County's office.

Loux said Nye County is also under contract with the DOE to conduct
certain hydrology projects and has cooperative agreements to
coordinate certain regional plans. "Obviously when they're doing
oversight, they are not in a position of formally opposing, and more
and more they're leaning to support," Loux said. "That's their mode.
It would certainly be more helpful if they would be more along the
lines of Clark County."

Clark County, which is formally opposed to the repository, has
conducted an economic impact study suggesting an accident at Yucca
Mountain that releases radiation would have a devastating effect on
the Southern Nevada economy.

The study suggests Southern Nevada would lose 54,000 jobs and that
90,000 residents would move.

The 2002 report also analyzed the impact to residential home values
and threats to school children from the transportation of waste by
rail and road.

Loux's office also receives federal oversight money from the DOE.
The state currently has two active lawsuits against the DOE, both in
Nevada courts. It is also preparing a response in the event DOE
submits a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
next June.

"While we agree that it's dying," Loux said, "as long as Congress
appropriates money for it, it's alive."

And as long as DOE funds high-paying jobs in rural Nevada to prepare
for the dump, it would wrong to write Yucca Mountain's obituary.
Especially with Nye County being such an adept Equal Opportunity
Employer.

Erin Neff's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be
reached at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.

Stephens Media | Privacy Statement
*****************************************************************
 47 reviewjournal.com: Yucca Mountain workers laid off; more cuts ahead

Mar. 29, 2007

Panel hears $494.5 million budget plea

STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Three dozen Yucca Mountain workers lost their jobs 
last week, and a Department of Energy official warned Wednesday 
that several hundred others may face layoffs in the months ahead.

The disclosure by Ward Sproat, director of the Office of Civilian 
Radioactive Waste Management, signaled that budget problems 
continue to face the nuclear waste program as department 
officials seek to assure Congress that the project is on a new 
track following setbacks and long delays.

Sproat delivered the program's latest budget request to a House
appropriations energy and water subcommittee. Lawmakers will soon
begin writing an Energy Department spending bill for the fiscal year
that begins Oct. 1.

Sproat told lawmakers it was "absolutely vital" for Congress to
allocate $494.5 million to carry out the latest schedule that calls
for filing a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in June 2008 and a repository opening later in the next
decade.

"We need all of it," Sproat said.

But even with full funding, it will be difficult to avoid job cuts
later this year, Sproat said.

"If we get the full $494.5 million, that is still $50 million less
than we are spending this year; so you are talking several hundred
people" facing layoffs, he said after the meeting.

The project this year is spending $444.5 million plus is exhausting
another $100 million in carryover funds from last year, he said.

Sproat told lawmakers his focus is meeting deadlines for the license
application, and other parts of the project may be set aside.

"There will be substantial reductions, but we will get the license
application completed on time," he said.

The Yucca Mountain program has been one of the larger employers of
technical and white collar workers in the Las Vegas Valley, with a
current workforce of 2,550 people.

The latest job losses hit employees at Bechtel-SAIC Corp., the
program's chief operations contractor.

Spokesman Jason Bohne confirmed about 60 layoff warnings were issued
several weeks ago to administrative and clerical workers in
accounting, public relations and other departments, and to technical
writers who are not working on the license application.

Ultimately, 35 people were laid off, and their final day was last
Thursday.

"We worked to keep as many people on board as we could," Bohne said.

Two years ago, Bechtel laid off about 150 people.

Last summer, as many as 500 workers were issued job warnings,
although many ended up transferring to the payroll of Sandia
National Laboratories, which was assigned a larger role at Yucca
Mountain.

Members of the House panel on Wednesday gave no clue about their
intentions, although traditionally they have supported full funding
for Yucca Mountain.

The project runs into tougher sledding in the Senate, where Sen.
Harry Reid, D-Nev., its most powerful critic, has exercised control
over its budget.

If anything, House lawmakers expressed impatience with the slow pace
of Yucca Mountain and urged Sproat to speed it up if possible.

"I don't understand why it is taking so long," said Rep. John
Doolittle, R-Calif. "It is disturbing. I recall Hoover Dam was built
working seven days a week around the clock in around three years. We
are so tied down by our bureaucratic systems."

Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007
*****************************************************************
 48 AU ABC: Campaigner warns against uranium mining

ABC Darwin | Local News

15:22 (ACDT)Thursday, 29 March 2007. 13:22 (AWDT)

An international anti-nuclear campaigner visiting Canberra this week
has warned Australia about the impact of the waste produced by
uranium mining.

The advice comes ahead of next month's national Labor Party
conference, where the ALP will consider lifting its ban on new mines.

Kevin Kamps, from the United States-based Nuclear Information and
Resource Service, says the waste produced by uranium mines in the US
has had a great impact on the community.

"It's having some of the greatest public health and environmental
impacts because of the carelessness with which it's disposed of," he
said.

"So it's just dumped on the surface and it blows with the wind and
it flows with the water and that is unfortunately the state of
practice with uranium mining."

Mr Kamps also says the search for storage sites for nuclear waste
often targets the living areas of traditional inhabitants.

Last year the Federal Government passed legislation that could mean
a nuclear waste facility will go ahead at Muckaty Station in the
Northern Territory, even though only some of the traditional owners
agreed.

Mr Kamps says a similar situation occurred in the US state of Nevada.

"One of the parallels that is very apparent is that often times it's
politically vulnerable locations and even Indigenous people's lands
that are targeted for these waste dumps," he said.

"So that same environmental injustice seems to be at play here in
Australia with the proposed Commonwealth dump in the Northern
Territory, again on the land of traditional owners."

*****************************************************************
 49 Herald News: Don't recycle nukes here, residents say

HeraldNewsOnline.com Member of the Sun-Times News Group

DOZENS ATTEND A MEETING TO HEARPLANS TO DESTROY NUCLEAR WASTE

March 29, 2007

By CHRISTINA CHAPMAN Staff Writer

MORRIS -- Doug Kelty is obviously concerned for his health and
safety if a recycling center for spent fuel rods is built across the
street from his house. But he is more concerned with its effect on
his ability to make a living.

Kelty is a local builder who has been building houses for 34 years.
Currently he has four spec homes in Braidwood that he says he hasn't
been able to sell in two years because of the tritium leaks in
Braidwood.

"Not a person comes through where their first question is not,'Is
there a water problem here with tritium?'" Kelty said.

If another nuclear project comes into the area, he said he is
worried he will have to take his work north.

"It is my living that is being blocked," Kelty said.

Kelty and more than 100 other people, attended Wednesday's meeting
on the environmental impact of a proposed nuclear fuel recycling
operation at General Electric Co.'s Morris-area facility. A similar
meeting was held in February in Joliet by the Department of Energy,
but this meeting was hosted by a group of residents.

April Gerstung, Frank Barber and Ken Daggett put together the public
meeting because they said the officials should come to the people
who are directly affected by the proposed plant. The meeting was
held at Goose Lake Hall in Morris, just down the road from Dresden
Generating Station.

Representatives from GE, the DOE and Argonne National Laboratory
presented the proposal to the public and then took questions.
President's partnership
The proposal is part of President Bush's Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership, which seeks to build facilities that will recycle spent
nuclear fuel and destroy their long-lived radioactive components.
The facilities would recover about 95 percent of the energy
available in spent fuel and reduce radioactive half-lives.

The proposed plan is to design, build and operate three facilities:
an advanced fuel cycle research facility, a nuclear fuel recycling
center and an advanced recycling reactor, which would destroy
long-lived radioactive elements in the new fuel, while generating
electricity.

One Morris resident believes DOE's description of the process is
inaccurate.

"They call it recycling, but it is actually restoring," said Geri
Bilecki of Goose Lake.

In the 1970s, when research in this technology was stopped, it was
because of the fear of terrorists getting the plutonium left over
from processing. Plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons. The
new procedure no longer isolates plutonium, but turns it into a
material that can be disposed of in a geologic repository, such as
Yucca Mountain. The difference is that instead of storing it in the
mountain for thousands of years until the waste becomes less
hazardous, it will only take hundreds of years, said Brian Quirke of
the DOE.

Kathy Gere of Naperville said the reprocessing procedure has yet to
be successful elsewhere and therefore should not be brought to
Illinois. In New York, a demonstration unit was open for six years
and only processed a year's worth of spent fuel, she said. In that
six years, the site and surrounding waters were contaminated and
have still not been cleaned up, she said.

"With this track record I don't see how we could have a reprocessing
plant here and be successful. I want to know what they have learned
from this and prevent the same disaster here," Gere said.
GE and Argonne's role
GE would combine with research facilities at Argonne National
Laboratory. The two facilities are among 13 sites in eight states
under consideration for the project. GE was given $1.5 million from
the DOE to conduct a study on the Morris location. A more specific
economic study will be done later.

The DOE is expected to choose one or more sites for the new
technology by June 2008.

GE currently stores spent nuclear fuel rods in on-site pools. If the
GE site is chosen, the site's current rods would be put through the
recycling process, which after construction, could take 15 years to
complete.

GE is just southwest of Exelon Nuclear's Dresden Station, also
outside of Morris, where nuclear spent rods are also stored. GE has
said it will state in its application that it would only reprocess
spent fuel from Illinois.

Even if the GE site is selected, it will only participate using
Argonne's technology. Argonne is one of two companies that has come
up with technology to reprocess the spent fuel. Argonne proposes to
electronically drive the reprocessing procedure with the waste
ending as a solid. The other method DOE is considering recycles the
fuel chemically and turns the waste into a liquid.

The comment period with the DOE ends April 4. To send your comments,
e-mail GNEP-PEIS@nuclear.energy.gov, call (866) 645-7803 or mail a
letter to Timothy Frazier, Office of Nuclear Energy/U.S. DOE, 1000
Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C. 20585.

Christina Chapman can be reached at (815) 729-6172 or
cchapman@scn1.com

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material

  heraldnewsonline.com: Feedback | Contact Us | About Us | Advertise
© Copyright 2007 Sun-Times News Group | Terms of Use and Privacy
*****************************************************************
 50 The NewStandard: Govt. Pushes Nuke-Waste Proposal through Public Gauntlet - 

by Megan Tady

Mar. 29 &ndash; As the Department of Energy wraps up a nationwide 
tour to collect public feedback on a nuclear energy program, 
environmentalists are urging the government to abandon the plan.

The DOE’s proposal, part of the Bush administration’s Global
Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), calls for the "expansion of
domestic and international nuclear energy production" through
"reprocessing" spent nuclear fuel. The plan would require the
construction of three new nuclear-fuel recycling facilities in the
United States.

Commercial reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel – the act of
separating usable elements such as plutonium from nuclear waste –
has been banned or discouraged in the United States for the last 30
years because reprocessed fuel could be used to create nuclear
weapons.

The DOE is in the process of preparing an environmental-impact
statement on GNEP. The agency has held meetings in thirteen cities
to survey public opinion about the project. The DOE is accepting
public comments about GNEP until April 4.

The Bush Administration has touted GNEP as a way to meet energy
demands without emitting greenhouse gases. GNEP also includes
international initiatives to supply other countries with
"nuclear-fuel services" if they refrain from building their own
atomic facilities, and to promote nuclear reactors in other
countries.

But critics to the plan, including the groups like Union of
Concerned Scientists, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
and Public Citizen, say that reprocessing spent nuclear fuel
contributes to other environmental dangers: non-disposable, highly
dangerous radioactive waste and the potential for catastrophic
nuclear accidents.

The NRDC also cautioned in a 2006 report that reprocessing spent
nuclear fuel would undermine the government’s credibility on
nuclear nonproliferation. The Bush administration, however,
maintains that GNEP is using "proliferation-resistant technologies"
to reprocess the fuel.

The grassroots organization Progressive Democrats of America also
criticized GNEP, saying on its website that it prefers other,
cleaner sources of energy. "We don’t need nuclear power," the
group said. "With political will we could harvest enough energy from
the sun, the wind, the tides and geothermal to provide all our
energy needs."

© 2007 The NewStandard. All rights reserved. The NewStandard is a
*****************************************************************
 51 POAC: NRC grants hearing about Shieldalloy slag

Press of Atlantic City

By DANIEL WALSH Staff Writer, (856) 794-5111

Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted a formal hearing
on a controversial plan to bury radioactive slag in Newfield,
Gloucester County.

The NRC acknowledged state environmental regulators' concerns about
effects on groundwater around the site where Shieldalloy wants to
bury the slag that accrued over the company's 40 years of operation.
Department of Environmental Protection officials expressed fears
that the buried slag would leach into groundwater supplies.

The DEP also has called for the hearing to address 16 other
environmental issues, but the NRC has not reviewed them yet. Until
the federal agency does, a date won't be set, NRC spokesman Neil
Sheehan said.

Shieldalloy began decommissioning its plant more than five years
ago, but the fate of the slag pile on its property has drawn the
most scrutiny.

The company says burying the radioactive slag on-site is the best
solution, estimating it to cost $30 million. The company claims the
radioactivity exposure to people would be minimal, less than a third
of a percent of what the average person takes in during a full year.

State and federal regulators have pushed Shieldalloy to transport
the slag to a facility in Utah. Shieldalloy claims the plan will
cost $55 million, but a representative for the Utah facility puts
the figure at less than $40 million.

For more than 40 years, Shieldalloy processed metal at its Newfield
plant, leaving its byproducts — a 20-foot-high pile of low-grade
radioactive uranium and thorium slag — on six acres.

A Shieldalloy spokesman indicated as early as last month that the
company expected a hearing, so Wednesday's announcement by the NRC
was no surprise.

Still, state and federal officials welcomed the announcement. A
state Attorney General's Office spokesman called it “a validation
of our concerns about the scientific inadequacies�, while U.S.
Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, both D-N.J., also lauded
the move.

“It is my belief that when the administrative panel and the
federal government take a good look at the company's plan, their
idea to skip town without cleaning up after themselves will be fully
exposed,� Menendez said. “A company should never be allowed to
get out of town and leave behind radioactive waste as a parting
gift. Polluters should be responsible for cleaning up their messes.
It's just common sense, especially when the health and well-being of
New Jersey citizens are involved. The nearby residents still have
many unresolved concerns, but today at least we have some
progress.�

In granting the hearing, however, the NRC rejected requests for
hearings by many residents and county governments. Sheehan noted
that NRC officials had sought additional information from all the
complainants, but only the DEP provided it. Cumberland and
Gloucester counties will be able to take part in the hearings as
“non-parties,� but others will not.


DWalsh@pressofac.com
 
*****************************************************************
 52 thewest.com.au: India hoping to buy Aussie uranium

29th March 2007, 17:52 WST

India appears to be making progress, albeit slowly, on getting
Canberra to agree to its demands to buy Australian uranium.

And if Labor were to win power, it could get a leg up in its
attempts to become a member of an exclusive Asia Pacific club.

Prime Minister John Howard on Thursday met former Indian foreign
secretary Shyum Saran, India's chief negotiator lobbying to get
support for a deal the subcontinent has struck with America.

The backing of the Nuclear Suppliers Group is crucial to the
historic deal between India and the US, struck last year and paving
the way for a potential turnaround in Australia's nuclear supply
policy.

Mr Howard expects the powerful group will back the deal when it
meets next month.

"It's likely we will support that agreement in the suppliers group,"
he told reporters.

"I'll have a discussion around that but so far as a change of policy
is concerned, we haven't changed our policy.

"But I think I've indicated in the past that I wouldn't rule out a
change."

India has also been lobbying Australia to change its policy which
prevents the sale of uranium to the subcontinent because it's not a
member of the nuclear non proliferation treaty (NPT).

Australia has faced pressure from Washington and New Delhi to alter
its line after the US struck a deal with India that fell outside the
NPT.

In a landmark deal, the US agreed to share its technology and
uranium in return for India agreeing to let 14 of its 22 reactors -
those used for its civilian needs - to be opened to international
inspections.

Mr Howard said the government would only change its policy on the
NPT if it was completely satisfied that appropriate safeguards were
in place when it was supplying uranium to another country.

"But that is a little premature because there are still aspects of
the agreement between the Indians and the United States that need to
be nailed down and I don't think we should run ahead of ourselves,"
he said.

"There's no pressing urgency in relation to this issue.

"We see India as a very responsible country. The relationship
between India and Australia is growing. It's a very important
relationship. They will be considerations that we will bear in mind
but other considerations, of course, are safeguards.

"We would never agree to supply uranium to a country unless we were
completely satisfied that appropriate and enforceable and effective
safeguards existed."

India was also Thursday given a boost in its efforts to join the
regional Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group.

Australia will host the APEC leaders' summit in Sydney in September.

Labor added its voice to calls for India to be allowed to join APEC,
which will this year decide whether to open up its club to new
members.

"John Howard should use Australia hosting APEC this year to lobby
other members to bring India into APEC," opposition trade spokesman
Simon Crean said.

"The inclusion of India will make APEC stronger by including the
world's fourth largest economy in the forum ensuring it remains the
premier economic grouping in the region." AAP

West Australian Newspapers Limited 2007. All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
 53 Scotsman.com: Professor raises alarm over 'radioactive beach'

Scotland - Aberdeen

Thu 29 Mar 2007

A POPULAR Scottish beach is 100 times more radioactive than is
normally permitted, an expert claimed yesterday.

Professor Stuart Haszeldene, from Edinburgh University, said new
tests suggest that officials have dramatically underestimated
radiation levels on a 100-yard section of Aberdeen Beach.

He called for warning signs to be put up at the public site.

The stretch was closed for a week in 2005 after traces of
radioactive material were found in the sand.

But officials at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
gave the all-clear, saying there was negligible risk.

Prof Haszeldene, a professor of sedimentary geology, said that while
the waste was low-level and presented little danger to walkers,
young children or people who ate any sand particles could be at risk.

"I think SEPA should be strongly encouraged by the public and
Aberdeen City Council to erect warning signs here."

He also said he would not let his children play on the beach now
that he had completed his studies.

Byron Tilly, SEPA's radioactive substances unit manager, said:

"There is no evidence presented in this report which changes our
professional view that the contamination at Aberdeen Beach poses
little risk to users."

A spokesman for Aberdeen City Council said it was advised that there
was no public-health risk at the beach, but would monitor the
situation.

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/aberdeen.cfm?id=486472007

Last updated: 29-Mar-07 01:44 BST

Comments Add your comment


1. weeshooie1, Australia / 5:15am 29 Mar 2007


        This one is bound to drag the 'Greenies' and Trident
        protesters out of the woodwork but it sounds as tho' it is
        still ok to eat. Ah still prefer ma chips. Report as
        unsuitable
2. Tatties ower the side, Johannesburg / 5:29am 29 Mar 2007


        Its because they were pouring out banned cans of Irn Bru on
        the beach!!! Report as unsuitable
3. Conan, Here / 7:53am 29 Mar 2007


        Well, it looks like the 1964 case of the missing nuclear
        depth bomb from HMS EAGLE may have been solved after all
        these years. Report as unsuitable

*****************************************************************
 54 Independent: Attorney energizes cleanup campaign

March 28, 2007: 

By Zsombor Peter Staff Writer

GALLUP ? Natives have learned how to get a slow-moving federal
agency to pay more attention to the hundreds of abandoned uranium
mines still poisoning their reservation: Hire a high-powered
attorney.

It seems to be working for the Navajo Nation. Just weeks after
retaining the services of the former federal prosecutor credited
with sealing the government's case against Enron executives Kenneth
Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, and one of Fortune Magazine's 25 people
who shaped the business world in 2006, the tribe is already
reporting gains with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

John Hueston, now a partner with the southern California law firm
Irell & Manella, read about the Navajo Nation's tragic history with
uranium mining in a series of articles the L.A. Times published last
November. Having married a Navajo from the Navajo Mountain area,
Hueston took particular interest.

Hueston called the tribe to offer his assistance. The tribe
accepted, hiring him late last month to help it finish clean up the
mess the mining industry left behind after removing millions of tons
of uranium to fuel the country's nuclear arms race during the Cold
War.

While the tribe has made progress, the going has been slow.

It wasn't until 1998, for example, that the Environmental Protection
Agency got started on a comprehensive inventory of the all the
mining activity that took place across the reservation's 27,000
square miles, according to Stephen Etsitty, executive director of
the tribe's own Environmental Protection Agency. Slowed down by
confidentiality disputes the tribe, said Etsitty, was worried about
how much access third parties would have to the information the
federal government collected the EPA hasn't even started evaluating
the full environmental impact of that activity.

"That's the next step," Etsitty said.

And while the tribe has reclaimed 913 of the 1,032 uranium mines on
the reservation with some of the fees its collected from coal mines
operating on its land, there's only so much it can do with the money.

"The law that we're being funded under, we're not allowed to address
chemical or radiation problems," said Gilbert Dayzie, a civil
engineer with the tribe's Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation program.
"It allows us to address physical hazards ... things that will
affect people immediately."

While that keeps people and livestock from wandering into abandoned
mines or falling into old pits, it's done little to address
environmental contaminants that can take years, even decades, to
affect people. It was just last week that the Arizona Daily Sun out
of Flagstaff reported a plume of radioactive water moving toward a
pair of Hopi communities. In Crownpoint, the United Nuclear
Corporation has been working at cleaning up another underground
plume for over a decade and has only recently started studying
contamination on the surface.

Even the sites the tribe has reclaimed using coal fees continue to
pose a risk as heavy rains wear away the topsoil used to cover many
of them up, according to Dayzie. While the damage gets repaired, the
tribe is looking for a permanent solution.

"Just because they have been reclaimed doesn't mean they are
necessarily complete in regard to human aspects," said David Taylor,
a tribal attorney.

It's Hueston's job to push the EPA toward assessing all the sites on
the reservation and where the companies who left the mess behind
can't be tracked down or don't have the financial resources pay to
clean them up for good.

Taylor believes Hueston is the right man for the job.

"He is an incredible energizer for situations just because of his
reputation and his experience," he said. "I've seen it myself."

And it can't hurt that Hueston has never lost a case, or even a
single count in any his trials.

The EPA seems to be paying attention. After a series of day-long
meetings with agency representatives last week, Hueston said, the
EPA has already agreed that some sites on the reservation pose a
greater risk than it thought.

Taylor said it's now also seriously considering adding a site in the
reservation's Western Agency to its Superfund list, an important
step toward finding the funds for a thorough cleanup.
 

Wednesday
March 28, 2007
Selected Stories:

Harry hits a high note; Mendoza takes mayor's race by almost 300
votes

Attorney energizes cleanup campaign

Humane Society forms in Grants

Man accused of attempted kidnapping

Deaths


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*****************************************************************
 55 Salt Lake Tribune: Utah nuclear waste company EnergySolutions plans to go public

The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 03/29/2007 05:19:47 PM MDT

Posted: 4:02 PM- Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions LLC filed
papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announcing
it plans to sell $500 million in stock.

    Perhaps the nation's largest nuclear waste company,
EnergySolutions is following through with promises made just over
two years ago, when Company President Steve Creamer said he planned
to take the company public.

    Company officials did not respond to calls seeking comments, but
the papers filed in Washington today provide an eye-opening glimpse
into a business that has been highly influential in Utah politics
over the past 19 years and that has grown exponentially since only
last year.

    The company holds key contracts in the U.S. Energy Department
weapons cleanup program and it is hoping to play a major role in the
federal government's next-generation nuclear-waste reprocessing
program as part of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. The
company has promoted what some call a nuclear renaissance as a
solution to global warming and, in turn, to its own business problem
of declining nuclear waste streams.

    Formerly called Envirocare of Utah, EnergySolutions operates a
low-level radioactive and hazardous waste landfill in Tooele County,
about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. It also operates one of
nation's two other commercial disposal sites for low-level waste, a
landfill in Barnwell, N.C.

    The company plans to adopt the ticker "ES." For last year,
EnergySolutions reported profits of $34 million on revenue of $427
million.

    fahys@sltrib.com


Privacy Policy  |  MNG Corporate Site Map  |  Copyright
*****************************************************************
 56 Sequoyahcountytimes.com: Sequoyah Fuels dumps uranium

111 N. Oak St. Sallisaw, OK 74955 (918)-775-4433 or 
1-800-495-4433

  BY MONICA KEEN, STAFF WRITER Wednesday, March 28, 2007 4:01 PM CDT

The last truckloads of depleted uranium left Sequoyah Fuels of 
Gore Monday headed for disposal at a former atomic bomb testing 
site in Nevada - an effort that was delayed because of a 
container leak several weeks ago.

John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president, said they shipped three 
loads on Friday and the last five truckloads went out Monday. The 
truckloads went out at about 2 p.m. Monday and are expected to 
arrive at the site in Nevada on Wednesday.

"It's done," Ellis said Monday of the disposal.

In February, the U.S. Army began removing the government-owned 
depleted uranium, which amounted to about one million pounds, 
that was stored at Sequoyah Fuels.

Sequoyah Fuels originally processed uranium for fuel rods for 
nuclear power generators, and then sold the depleted uranium to 
the U.S. Army for armor-piercing bullets.

Sequoyah Fuels has been closed since 1993 and the removal of the 
uranium is just one of the many steps in the plant's long-awaited 
closing.


"This plant is the first of its kind to be decommissioned," Ellis 
said.

Ellis said the government finally took responsibility for the 
uranium last fall.

The Defense Authorization Act signed by President George W. Bush 
last year made the removal of uranium, which is a low-radiation 
product, possible, Ellis told Your TIMES last month. Oklahoma 
legislators are also credited with helping to remove the depleted 
uranium by working on getting the language that required the 
removal of the depleted uranium by the U.S. Army in the act.

While Ellis originally expected that it would take only a week to 
remove the entire million pounds of uranium, that plan was 
delayed after they learned one of the containers had leaked.

The uranium is stored in sealed 55-gallon drums. The drums are 
then placed in steel boxes, which have plywood floors, and placed 
on truck trailers.

Ellis said the leak was discovered when the steel shipping box 
was being taken off the flatbed trailer in Nevada, where the 
drums were to be buried. After the discovery, the shipping box 
was never opened, he noted.

He said there was a "little bit of contamination" on the deck of 
the flatbed trailer, but it was confined to a limited area.

"It wasn't much," he said.

He said the one drum that leaked - out of 1,030 drums - had some
water in it that leaked out. The rest of the drums contained dry
material.

Ellis said that the drum that had leaked had been overpacked. He
explained that the original drum started to deteriorate and was put
in a new drum. One drum had water in it and leaked through the
primary drum to the secondary drum.

As a precaution, the last eight shipments were halted for two or
three weeks until they went through an evaluation and were
repackaged, Ellis said.

The remaining drums for the last eight trucks were taken out of the
steel boxes and put into another container.

"Three more layers of protection were added as a precaution," Ellis
said.

Now that the uranium is gone, the plant is awaiting final approval
on its reclamation plan from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
in order to start tearing down the plant. The company submitted
their first plan in 1995, Ellis said.



When the site is finally closed, the U.S. Department of Energy has
agreed to take possession of the plant and between 100 and 300 acres
of land surrounding the building.

Ellis said last month that it will take about five more years to
completely close the site and transfer ownership.
E-mail this story Back to Index Printer Friendly Version



© Cookson Hills Publishers, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 57 Reuters: EnergySolutions files with SEC for $500 million IPO 

Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:04PM EDT

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - EnergySolutions Inc. filed with
regulators on Thursday to raise up to $500 million in an initial
public offering of common stock.

The Salt Lake City-based company, which provides technology-based
nuclear services, said Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley
are the lead underwriters, according to a filing with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission.

The preliminary filing did not reveal how many shares the company or
selling stockholder plan to sell, or the expected price of the
shares.

EnergySolutions said it will sell the shares in the IPO in the form
of depositary shares, with each depositary share representing an
ownership interest in one share of common stock.

It intends to use the net proceeds from the IPO to pay $6.9 million
to management according to employment agreements, to repay
outstanding debt, and for general corporate purposes.

For the year ended Dec. 31, the company earned $34.4 million on
$427.1 million of revenues.

It plans to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol "ES" (ES.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 58 UPI: Shell defends operations against Nigeria

United Press International - Energy - 

3/28/2007 10:02:00 PM -0400

By CARMEN J. GENTILE UPI Energy Correspondent

LAGOS, Nigeria, March 28 (UPI) -- Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria
defended its operations Wednesday amid a bevy of government
allegations that the company illegally transported and dumped
radioactive material in the Niger Delta.

In a statement sent to United Press International Wednesday, Shell
officials denied the allegations of any misbehavior on the part of
Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria Ltd., known locally as
SPDC, put forth by the Nigerian government earlier this week.

"We wish to state for the avoidance of doubt, SPDC has not been
involved or charged in connection with any dumping of toxic waste
anywhere in Nigeria as alleged," read the statement.

On Monday, federal officials announced that the firms allegedly
violated Nigeria's Nuclear Safety and Radiation Law by transporting
radioactive material from Port Harcourt in the southern state of
River, home of Nigeria's multibillion-dollar oil and gas industry,
to a neighboring state without federal authorization. Since then,
allegations of illegal dumping of the material has also surfaced.

Shell officials have denied all counts against them, though they did
acknowledge that some equipment for drilling being transported
through the region using radioactive material has gone missing and
that the company was making a "concerted effort to trace the alleged
missing tools."

Shell is the most prominent foreign firm among four in total being
investigated by the Nigerian government for its alleged misconduct
concerning the radioactive material used in oil and gas exploration.

Among those being investigated in addition to high-ranking officials
at Shell are employees at C and E Global Limited, Western Atlas and
ED Wales. In all, 21 employees of the forms -- including a handful
of executives - are now under strict state surveillance.

The federal government has reportedly directed the police to keep a
close eye on those officials from firms under investigation until a
hearing can be scheduled. Those being monitored by authorities
include Shell Managing Director in Nigeria Basil Efoise Omiyi.

An excerpt of the charges made public earlier this week states that
the accused companies allegedly conspired between Sept. 9 and Oct. 9
to "carry, transport, handle, store and transfer radioactive sources
to an unauthorized person."

The charges did not specify who the "unauthorized person" was, nor
was the intent of the transfer made public.

However, an official with the International Atomic Energy Agency --
the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog for the United Nations --
speculated that the radioactive material transported by the
companies was being used for well logging, a process whereby
radioactive material is lowered into an exploratory well to test for
hydrocarbons.

Nigeria is Africa's largest producer of oil and a major supplier to
the United States, producing some 2 million barrels a day.

Well logging is a common practice the world over and the radioactive
material used is not considered dangerous in comparison to the
weapons-grade nuclear material used for creating atomic weapons.

"Radioactive sources are routinely and widely used globally to
differentiate oil from gas in well formations and SPDC, like other
operators, has contracts with technical companies who are licensed
to own and operate such tools," said Shell on Wednesday.

The incident has, however, sparked renewed debate among some experts
as to whether the foreign petroleum firms operating in Nigeria are
doing so with too much autonomy and not enough federal regulation.

Yussef Tuggar, an oil and gas consultant running for a congressional
seat in Nigeria's upcoming elections next month, opined that perhaps
new regulatory laws governing the use and transport of radioactive
material in the delta would have to be part of future legislation.

Tuggar -- a member of the same party as presidential hopeful retired
Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari -- told UPI that the "major oils
[companies] have been independent for too long" and were due for a
crackdown.

(Comments to energy@upi.com)

© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 59 Japan Times: State to seek Kochi nuke-waste sites | 

japantimes.co.jp    Web
 
Friday, March 30, 2007

Kyodo News

The government has approved plans to conduct preliminary tests in
and around the town of Toyo, Kochi Prefecture, for burying
high-level radioactive waste, a move the governor strongly opposes,
2 billion yen state subsidy or not.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Natural Resources and
Energy Agency endorsed the plans Wednesday on the location chosen by
the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, the entity
tasked with selecting a nuclear waste disposal site for long-term,
deep underground storage of the radioactive waste now being
tentatively stored at Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture.

The organization said it expects to begin the examination in May or
June after offering explanations to local residents, and the exam is
expected to take about two years.

Now that the exam will be conducted in Toyo, the state will provide
a subsidy of up to 2 billion yen to the town and nearby
municipalities.

To conduct a followup stage of tests, including drilling, approval
would be needed by the prefecture, but Kochi Gov. Daijiro Hashimoto
has objected strongly to the project.

The Japan Times

*****************************************************************
 60 Newsday.com: Risks found at Sylvania nuclear site - 

BY MARK HARRINGTON mark.harrington@newsday.com

March 28, 2007, 9:57 PM EDT

Radiological and chemical contaminants at the former Sylvania
nuclear products facility in Hicksville could pose health and
environmental risks to those at or near the site, according to a
study by the Army Corps of Engineers, which concluded further study
is needed.

The report, dated May 2005 but not released to the public until this
week, appears to contradict prior assurances by state agencies and
the site's current owner that the site posed no health risks
"whatsoever."

"Although data gaps limit assessment of exposures, a potential
exists for exposure to current and future occupants of the site and
persons off-site to site contaminants," the report said. "Completion
of ground-water, soil and/or air exposure pathways could present a
hazard to human health and the environment."

But a state Health Department spokeswoman took issue with the
conclusion.

"The public is not being exposed to site-related contaminants in
soil or soil vapor from the Hicksville Sylvania Site," said
spokeswoman Claire Pospisil. "This is based on information about
soil contamination and from soil vapor intrusion investigation
conducted in 2005. The characterization from the 2-year-old
report... is based on older data."

State investigators are continuing to probe deep underground
contamination at the site, which may have contributed to recent
chlorinated solvent contamination at two Hicksville public water
supply wells, the Health Department said. The water is monitored and
treated and, Pospisil said, "Right now, health risks from the site
are not expected."

Jim Moore, a project manager at the Army Corps, said it was his
understanding that much of the potential exposure mentioned in his
agency's report "is related to groundwater." He said golfers
practicing at the nearby Cantiague Park driving range, for instance,
likely were not in danger.

"Obviously, if there was an immediate health risk we'd take action,"
he said.

Asked if people who worked at buildings on site, including as
recently as 2005, may have been exposed to hazardous material, Moore
said, "That's a question I can't answer."

Last week, Newsday reported that a former worker at a facility at
the site contracted an extremely rare form of cancer that a workers'
compensation judge ruled was related to radiological exposure at his
workplace.

On Wednesday, about 50 workers from that company, Magazine
Distributors Inc., met with an attorney to discuss findings in the
case. The attorney, Troy Rosasco of Hauppauge, said 10 of the
workers reported thyroid problems, an affliction common to
radiological exposure.

One of them, Mike Coakley, 42, of Farmingdale, said he was diagnosed
with hyperthyroid two years ago and requires medication for the rest
of his life. A co-worker, Robert Matteo of Lindenhurst, said he
believes all people who worked at facilities near the site should be
tested.

"We have a right as employees to work in a safe environment," he
said.

Rosasco said he requested copies of the Army Corps report as
recently as two months ago. "They said, 'No. It's preliminary. We're
not ready." An Army Corps spokeswoman said copies had been released
only to the DEC and Verizon Communications, the current owner of the
site.

From 1952 to 1967, the Sylvania site processed uranium and thorium
for use in fuel rods for nuclear power plants. In addition to
dumping toxic solvents mixed with uranium into the ground, the plant
also incinerated large amounts of uranium shavings into the open
air. Samples taken at sumps at the site in the 1990s had uranium
concentrations 3,000 to 25,000 times greater than that which occurs
naturally, documents show.

An underground tank unearthed at the site in the most recent cleanup
had 875 gallons of liquid sludge, some of which contained uranium at
concentrations of 77,000 parts per million. Daniel Strom, an expert
in radiological science at the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory, said normally occurring uranium levels in soil are from
1 to 20 parts per million.

The site has been the subject of varying levels of scrutiny,
oversight and cleanup since its decommissioning in 1967. It
underwent a partial remediation by Verizon beginning in 2003, but
the work addressed "relatively readily accessible" contamination,
the Army Corps said in its report. "Not all contamination was
removed from remediation areas due to various construction and
engineering limitations." About 56,000 cubic yards of contaminated
soil was bagged and taken to a nuclear waste site in Utah.

The report concluded that additional investigation is required to
determine just how much more of a cleanup is needed and how it will
be paid for. Verizon has recorded an environmental remediation
expense of $240 million for the work, which is not finished.

Verizon said it "continues to believe that the site does not pose a
current health concern." In addition, Verizon spokesman John Bonomo
pointed to a paragraph in the report saying "the possibility exists
that further migration of the contaminants... could occur," as more
representative of the study's conclusions.

That paragraph concludes, "This migration may occur due to
groundwater movement and/or the completion of groundwater, soil or
air exposure pathways, and may present a hazard to human health and
the environment in the future."

It's still not fully known how deep the contamination goes under
buildings on site, and whether there is a potential for exposure
inside the buildings.

"The data that are available, however, indicate that contamination
remains in these areas," the Army Corps report said. "Completion of
the soil and air pathway by such activities as removal of structures
or other construction activities at the site is possible. This
presents a potential for a hazard to human health and the
environment."

In the past, officials from the departments of Health and
Environmental Conservation have said there were no health risks
posed by the site.

On Tuesday, DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren declined to characterize
health risks at the site, saying they were the Health Department's
purview. But she noted that "pavement and structures on site do help
prevent individuals from coming into contact with the contamination
and other potentially harmful materials. Also, it is my
understanding that the buildings on site are no longer in use."

Wren added, "Additional DEC investigation of groundwater at the site
is ongoing to determine the full extent of the environmental and
health impacts that the contamination may have caused."

Privacy Policy. Copyright Newsday Inc.
*****************************************************************
 61 AU ABC: ALP resolution may allow Beattie to keep uranium mines out.

30/03/2007. ABC News Online

Last Update: Friday, March 30, 2007. 9:36am (AEST)

The Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, says a national resolution
may allow him to keep uranium mining out of his state.

Labor's 'no new mines policy' will be debated next month at the
party's national conference and is looking increasingly likely to be
scrapped.

Mr Beattie backflipped last week and announced he would support
uranium mining, citing research which showed it would not damage the
state's coal industry.

In recent days, 12 union bosses have written to Mr Beattie calling
on him to reverse his decision and yesterday the Environment
Minister and Member for Mundingburra, Lindy Nelson-Carr, spoke out
against it.

But speaking from London, Mr Beattie says depending on the wording,
a national resolution could give him the flexibility to keep uranium
mines out of Queensland.

"We are all subject to the national rules of the party, that
includes the unions, that includes Lindy Nelson-Carr, that includes
everybody," he said.

"But if the resolution gives us flexibility, and I will be
clarifying this with [federal Opposition Leader] Kevin Rudd when I
return, then we will maintain the current position."

*****************************************************************
 62 PRN: Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. Joins U.S. Nuclear Industry Recycling Team

BETHESDA, Md., March 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A U.S. industry team
formed by AREVA Inc., Washington Group International (NYSE: WNG), and BWX
Technologies, Inc. today announced the addition of a new team member, Japan
Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL), as it prepares to respond to upcoming
opportunities with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

    The four-member collaboration fully endorses the DOE's Global Nuclear
Partnership (GNEP) vision and brings unparalleled domestic and
international expertise to support the program. Under GNEP, the DOE is
seeking industry's interest in a Nuclear Fuel Recycling Center and an
Advanced Recycling Reactor to close the nuclear fuel cycle in the United
States. This recycling initiative will make nuclear energy a truly
sustainable energy resource.

    "Our integrated team brings years of experience working together
globally, with the DOE and the national laboratories," said Michael
McMurphy, president of Maryland-based AREVA Inc. "We believe our team
reflects the 'Global' and 'Partnership' aspects of GNEP. We're ready to
support the DOE and the nuclear energy industry by establishing the U.S. as
a key player in fuel cycle technology and by providing confidence in our
nation's ability to meet its nuclear waste management responsibilities."

    With the addition of JNFL's vast expertise in developing and operating
its Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Japan, the industry group brings
together state-of-the-art technical capability, advanced safeguards and
international regulatory experience, and unmatched industry know-how in the
design, construction, and operation of the Nuclear Fuel Recycling Center
proposed in GNEP.

    The companies fully support DOE's vision to develop advanced
technologies to recycle used light-water reactor nuclear fuel, reduce
waste, and further limit the risk of nuclear proliferation while developing
a sustainable business plan with public and private participation.

    More about the partners:

    Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL) is Japan's pioneer company in the field
of commercial used nuclear fuel reprocessing as well as uranium enrichment,
storage, and disposal of nuclear waste and Mixed-Oxide fuel fabrication. In
Rokkasho-mura, Aomori Prefecture, the test operation of the world's newest
commercial reprocessing plant, for which JNFL applied state-of-the-art
reprocessing technology and implemented IAEA's full scope safeguards
capability, is successfully in progress. The mission of JNFL is to
establish nuclear fuel cycle technologies for the peaceful use of nuclear
energy.

    AREVA Inc. is the largest U.S. nuclear energy vendor and the world's
largest fuel cycle company. AREVA has been at the forefront of development,
deployment, and operations of treatment and recycling facilities as well as
sodium-cooled reactors. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., AREVA's 5,000 U.S.
energy employees are committed to serve the nation and pave the way for the
future of the electricity market. With 40 locations across the nation and
nearly $2 billion in energy revenues in 2006, AREVA, through its
subsidiaries, combines homegrown leadership, access to worldwide expertise
and a proven track record of performance. In the U.S. and in over 100
countries around the world, AREVA is engaged in the 21st century's greatest
challenges: making energy available to all, protecting the planet, and
acting responsibly towards future generations.

    A primary contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy and its
predecessor agencies since 1942, Washington Group International is a global
leader in engineering, procurement, construction, pre-operational testing,
start-up and safe and efficient operation of complex nuclear and
non-nuclear facilities. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with more than $3
billion in annual revenue, the company has approximately 25,000 people at
work around the world providing solutions in power, environmental
management, defense, oil and gas processing, mining, industrial facilities,
transportation, and water resources. For more information, visit
http://www.wgint.com.

    BWX Technologies, Inc. has a 50-year history of owning and operating
nuclear and national security production facilities both commercially and
for the DOE. BWXT is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
fabricate, process, use and store highly enriched uranium. BWXT currently
has a contract with the DOE at its Lynchburg Technology Center where it has
demonstrated that spent nuclear fuel can be temporarily stored, transferred
and repackaged safely and securely. BWXT is a wholly owned subsidiary of
McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE: MDR

SOURCE Washington Group International

http://www.wgint.com

Copyright © 1996- PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved.
A United Business Media company.
*****************************************************************
 63 Tri-City Herald: Broken pump slows progress on emptying tank at Hanford

Published Thursday, March 29th, 2007

ANNETTE CARY, HERALD STAFF WRITER

A broken pump means Hanford workers will not be able to meet a legal
deadline to empty Tank S-102 of radioactive waste by the end of this
week.

However, they'll come closer than might have been expected, based on
their early struggles with the tank. Work began to empty the tank of
464,000 gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste in
December 2004.

"S-102 was thought by many to be the hardest in the tank farm," said
Victor Pizzuto, vice president of closure operations for CH2M Hill
Hanford Group.

Tank S-102's waste contains phosphates, which when heated and cooled
turn into a gel that plugs waste retrieval equipment.

The tank is one of 149 single-shell tanks that have been used to
hold waste produced in the chemical separation of plutonium from
fuel irradiated in Hanford reactors. The plutonium was used in the
nation's nuclear weapons program.

Now waste is being emptied from older, leak-prone tanks into newer
double-shell tanks to await processing and disposal.

The challenge on Tank S-102 has not only been unclogging pumps, but
also finding and mastering new technologies to retrieve the waste
through narrow openings in the closed, underground tank.

On the more complex waste tanks, CH2M Hill has learned that one
technology often is not enough.

At Tank S-102, the contractor started with a high-pressure spray of
water to dissolve the waste so it can be removed from a pump in the
center of the tank. But that soon formed a cavity with little waste
reaching the pump.

Workers next tried what they called a "pump on a string" that uses a
flexible hose and a cable and winch system to raise and lower the
pump. It can be suspended in the liquids above the thick layer of
sludge to prevent it from clogging.

Those technologies allowed 50 percent of the waste to be removed.

Then, CH2M Hill tried using a new tool, the viper, a high-pressure
mixing tool. It has a rotating spray system mounted on a long shaft
that is inserted directly into the waste inside the tank. It slowly
spins as it injects water at 32,000 pounds per square inch pressure
at a flow rate of just six to 12 gallons per minute, and delivers
about 300 horse- power of mixing force.

With it, workers were able to thin out and move more than 90,000
gallons of waste toward the pump to bring the total retrieved to 71
percent.

Work began to progress quickly when two more vipers were added to
break up the hardened heel of the tank. In just two weeks, more than
90,000 gallons of waste again were removed.

But then, with just 9 percent of the waste remaining in the tank,
the central pump broke.

CH2M Hill Hanford Group and the Department of Energy still are
considering what to do next. They're considering whether to put a
new pump in or try yet another new technology to break up more
waste, said Ken Wade, the DOE project director for single-shell tank
retrievals.

But neither will be done by the Tri-Party Agreement deadline
Saturday to have at least 99 percent of the waste out of the tank.

"We're really glad they are making progress," said Cheryl Whalen,
cleanup section manager for the regulator on the project, the
Washington Department of Ecology. However, Ecology also believes
that on such a complex project there should have been plans to cover
problems such as equipment failures, she said.

While work temporarily is stalled on Tank S-102, Hanford workers
have had more success on the nearby Tank S-112. They're waiting to
see if enough waste has been emptied from the tank for the state to
consider retrieval complete. Tank S-112 was used for technology
demonstrations and no legal deadline for waste retrieval was set. It
would be the seventh of the 149 tanks to be emptied.


&copy 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 64 DenverPost.com: A sad final note for Flats whistleblower

editorial

An engineer who helped expose problems at the former nuclear plant
deserves thanks, even if the Supreme Court denied his monetary
claims.

By The Denver Post Editorial Board

Article Last Updated: 03/28/2007 08:07:37 PM MDT

James Stone was disturbed by the things he had seen while working at
the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, including overflowing
hazardous waste "lagoons" and a plan to stabilize toxic wastes by
mixing them with cement.

The engineer took 2,300 pages of documents to the FBI in 1987 and
was a driving force behind the agency's raid of the plant, which
ultimately resulted in defense contractor Rockwell International
pleading guilty to 10 environmental crimes and paying $18.5 million
in fines.

A 6-2 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday that cut him out of
sharing in $4.2 million in civil penalties assessed against Rockwell
is an affront to the legacy of the 82-year-old, now suffering from
Alzheimer's, whose career was ruined by his decision to step
forward. But more than that, the court's strict definition of who is
an "original source," a prerequisite to bringing a federal
whistleblower lawsuit, could discourage others from calling
attention to government waste and fraud.

"Fewer whistleblowers are going to come forward to take action,"
predicted James Moorman, president of Taxpayers Against Fraud, a
non-profit that guides whistleblowers and lawyers.

The False Claims Act is a tool that has been used to recover
billions stolen by government contractors. It includes a provision
that allows citizens who know of fraud to sue contractors on behalf
of the government. The citizen, who must have original knowledge of
fraud, as opposed to, say, reading about it in the newspaper, can
share in any funds recovered.

In 1999, Stone won a $4.2 million judgment against the contractor.
He had sued along with the federal government to recover
environmental cleanup costs and bonuses paid to Rockwell. As part of
the lawsuit, he produced a 1982 order he had written in which he
explained how mixing toxins in cement to create solid blocks "would
result in an unstable mixture that would later deteriorate and cause
unwanted release of toxic wastes to the environment." The so-called
pondcrete blocks ultimately caused significant pollution at the site
northwest of Denver.

After 18 years of legal wrangling in several different courts, the
Supreme Court decided that Stone's prediction that the plan to mix
toxins with cement would fail wasn't the same as knowing it had. The
justices also took issue with Stone's explanation of how the failure
would occur, which wasn't exact.

The decision is a sad final note to what was, by all accounts, an
honorable course of action by a man with the best intentions.
Congress should revisit this law to ensure that whistleblowers like
Stone are treated more fairly in the future.

All contents Copyright 2007 The Denver Post or other copyright
*****************************************************************
 65 Inside Bay Area: Audit questions job shifts at labs

Livermore has largest share of $11 million in expenses for
reassigned employees

By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

Article Last Updated: 03/29/2007 04:59:18 AM PDT

A scientist from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory went to work in a
French research facility, as a U.S. liaison. That was back in 1998,
yet the scientist is still collecting salary and "dislocation
allowances" of about $300,000 a year for housing, furniture rental,
private school for his daughter and, in the past, foreign language
lessons for his wife. So far the total bill is more than $2.7
million, according to an audit released Wednesday by the Energy
Department's inspector general.

Winning an off-site assignment from the nation's nuclear weapons
labs can be a career plum, a brief but valuable chance to work
inside the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security or the CIA.

But one of the secrets inside the labs is that reassignments
elsewhere also can offer a handy way of finessing senior management
problems, such as an incompetent manager or one angered at being
passed over for a promotion.

Either way, the practice of reassignments is largely unregulated
inside the Department of Energy, and while auditors found it hasn't
resulted in dubious or wasteful spending at basic science labs such
as Lawrence Berkeley Lab, they found millions of dollars in
questionable expenses for reassignments from the nation's three
nuclear weapons labs.

Overall, in 2004 and 2005 the inspector general found $11.3 million
in weapons lab reassignments that "were either too long, resulted in
excess costs, or were not appropriately cost-shared with host
entities."

At Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico, the University of California in
years past hasprovided lab-salaried scientists as staff to Sen. Pete
Domenici, the top Republican on a key appropriations committee
holding purse strings on nuclear weapons work. More recently, the
university has resolved problems with unpopular lab managers by
finding them jobs at the Defense Department, while still paying them
Los Alamos salaries and entitlement to UC's richly funded pension
plan.

That was the case with retired Vice Adm. G. Pete Nanos, who left Los
Alamos after a tumultuous period as director in which he derided
staff as "buttheads" and shut down the lab for months of retraining.
The university secured a job for Nanos planning strategy for
scientific research at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and paid
him a Los Alamos salary of $289,000. When an internal audit
questioned the payment, the university itself took over Nanos'
salary, now at $235,000.

"He has knowledge of Los Alamos and knowledge of (the Defense
Department) and he's been able to apply that at DTRA," said
university spokesman Chris Harrington. "Being able at times to
present the perspective of the laboratory, having a liaison at
times, is valuable for the laboratory."

Of the three labs, Livermore had the largest share of questionable
expenses noted by the inspector general ? more than $5 million for
2004 and 2005.

Auditors found the lab's payment of 100 percent of the $3.7million
costs for four employee reassignments "especially troubling" because
the reasons for the assignments were not documented and because lab
officials acknowledged other agen-

cies were getting some benefit and should have been charged.

"We use these because we really feel there are benefits to the
laboratory and the agency that the employee is being transferred
to," said lab spokeswoman Lynda Seaver. "We agree we can improve our
documentation."


Auditors also found that in several cases Livermore employees were
kept on assignment for the more than the maximum of four years and
that the lab had no plans on file to take the employees back.

In one case auditors found a Livermore scientist took a six-month
assignment and still hasn't come back after 15 years and $1.2
million in lab expenses.


Contact Ian Hoffman at ihoffman@angnewspapers.com or (510) 208-6458.

© 2000-2006 ANG Newspapers | Privacy Policy 
*****************************************************************
 66 lamonitor.com: Region works together on emergency plans

The Online News Source for Los Alamos

CAROL A. CLARK Monitor Senior Reporter

POJOAQUE-Regional preparedness was the focus on Wednesday for
participants attending the final planning conference of the New
Mexico North Central Region Multi-Year Training and Exercise Project.

"We're in the early stages of a three-year project," said Philmont
Taylor, Los Alamos County Emergency Management coordinator. "The
fact that we're all here under one roof and everyone is being
progressively channeled into an intra-regional collaboration is a
good thing. And it's good to get representatives here from the
tribes."

He explained that the New Mexico North Central Region is comprised
of what is called Preparedness Area 3, which consists of Los Alamos,
Taos, Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties and the tribes and pueblos
that reside in those counties.

"This is a big deal," Taylor said. "Dennis Pepe has taken on a
monstrous task of not only coming up with the idea but of
shepherding it. We've got local, state, regional and federal
entities, organizations, agencies and jurisdictions here."

Pepe is from the New Mexico Environment Department and is the
exercise project manager who headed up the daylong event held at the
Cities of Gold Hotel in Pojoaque.

"Part of the success factor for this exercise is the participation,"
Pepe said. "We have emergency managers from all four counties,
emergency personnel from Los Alamos Laboratory, representation from
the Eight Northern Pueblos and the Jicarilla Apache Nation,
employees from the Department of Public Safety and the New Mexico
Department of Health and community representatives."

Sheri Kotowski represents the Embudo Valley Environmental Monitoring
Group.

"We're participating in this exercise project because we want to
ensure that it more accurately reflects the rural communities in
northern New Mexico and what their needs are," Kotowski said. "We're
there to ensure that this type of exercise addresses what it's
supposed to, which is public and environmental health protection."

The Department of Homeland Security is supposed to incorporate the
community in any of their exercises, Kotowski said, adding that her
group wants to make sure the communities in northern New Mexico that
many people count on for their food and water are protected.

"It's time for Homeland Security to be more accountable for the huge
funds they are being allocated," she said. "They need to show more
results for the money they're spending. Protecting the people and
the environment is the crux of what they should be doing."

Pepe explained that the idea for the regional exercise project
evolved out of discussions with members of the Embudo Valley
Environmental Monitoring Group and the Concerned Citizens for
Nuclear Safety.

"This is a centerpiece project - the first of its kind in the state,
a prototype that's never been done before," he said. "Normally this
type of training is just done by individual counties or by one or
two organizations but it has never been done on this large of a
scale before."

The group will meet again May 17 to participate in an actual
workshop, Pepe said. They will separate into six groups that include
members from the four counties, the state and federal entities.

"We will exercise elements of the plan to assure that everybody is
coordinated and that we are responding properly to ensure public
safety," Pepe said.

All of their training and the testing of the various elements of the
workshops is leading up to a full-blown exercise scheduled for
September 2009. That's when each of the entities roll out their
emergency equipment and respond to a major emergency scenario, which
Pepe said will focus on a radiation incident.

© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 67 lamonitor.com: LANL wants use of bio building

The Online News Source for Los Alamos


ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor

Los Alamos National Laboratory is trying to do some preliminary work
in an empty building, but a watchdog group says they are jumping the
gun.

Bernie Pleau, a spokesperson for the Local Area Office of the
National Nuclear Security Administration, said this morning that
LANL submitted a request in early March to make use of the facility
in ways that are permissible as interim activities under the
National Environmental Policy Act. That request has been forwarded
to NNSA headquarters in Washington, where it must be approved at the
top, Pleau said.

A lawyer for Nuclear Watch New Mexico wrote federal officials
Wednesday, opposing what the group regards as an attempt by LANL to
skirt the environmental policy requirements.

The request and the objection concern the lab's Biosafety Level 3
facility that was built in 2003. The 3200-square-foot building began
a commissioning process that year, but has gone unused since then
because of legal challenges, court opinions and compliance decisions
by the Department of Energy.

The BSL-3 classification of the laboratory in which deadly pathogens
like those that cause anthrax and plague can be studied, is
currently the subject of an environmental impact review, a draft
statement of which has been delayed but is expected within a few
months, according to Pleau.

"LANL is trying to circumvent federal law by beginning operation at
the biolab now," said Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear
Watch New Mexico in a press release about the disagreement.

On Wednesday, Alletta Belen, attorney for Nuclear Watch, wrote to
Thomas D'Agostino, Acting Administrator of the National Nuclear
Security Administration and Daniel Glenn, the Acting Manager of the
NNSA Los Alamos Site Office and others, cautioning against any
attempt to begin "interim operations" in the building before the
environmental impact statement has been drafted, reviewed or
finalized and a record of decision has been made.

The letter claimed that any biological use of the building would
prejudice the ultimate decision.

Kevin Roark, a laboratory spokesperson, said Nuclear Watch New
Mexico's position was a "gross misrepresentation of the intent of
this request."

He said, "What we've got is a finished facility that's sitting cold
and dark and that we would like to utilize but not as a BSL-3."

The laboratory biology division currently operates at a BSL-2 level,
suitable for activities that are considered of moderate potential
risk to the public or the environment. If authorized, two of the
rooms in the building would permit biological research at the BSL-3
level.

NNSA has pointed to increasing demand for research and development
activities involving biological weapons. LANL has a long history of
research in genomics and has more recently specialized in biological
forensics, tracking pathogens to their sources. The laboratory
maintains databases for HIV and flu viruses and has modeled avian
flu pandemics for national preparedness programs.

NNSA has said that a number of entities besides the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) have expressed interest in working with
LANL, including agencies in the intelligence and security
communities.

Critics believe the potential "dual use" capability of the research
- for offensive as well as defensive purposes - is inappropriate for
a weapons laboratory. Their legal efforts have succeeded in delaying
the program and influenced DOE's decision to prepare a detailed
Environmental Impact Statement before proceeding with the BSL-3.

"We are still on a path forward to go through the EIS process to get
the facility up and running," Pleau said.

            © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 68 KNDO/KNDU: EPA says Record Fine Due to False Records and Lack of Oversight

Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA 

 Video Now

 DOE Fine Affecting Hanford Cleanup

RICHLAND, Wash.- The Department of Energy faces a record fine after
falsifying cleanup records and breaking part of the Tri-Party
Agreement.

The Environmental Protection Agency is being very strict and
limiting the amount of waste that can go in Hanford's low-level
waste landfill, and now DOE faces more than a million dollars in
fines because of the violations.

It's the biggest fine in the history of Hanford; $1.14 million.

The EPA says an employee falsified data at the low-level waste
landfill and broken drain pumps also went unnoticed for months.

A review of the area showed no damage to the landfill and no leaks,
but the Department of Energy still says they're treating it
seriously and making the appropriate changes.

Both of the oversights are serious violations of the Tri-Party
Agreement, that's why the fine is so big, and it's catching the eye
of DOE, said Nick Ceto with the EPA. 

The landfill is used to get rid of contaminated soil and equipment,
even plants that may have been contaminated.

Just days ago, DOE announced plans to expand the landfill to nearly
double it's current size.

More than 6.5 million tons of waste have already been dumped in the
landfill, now though, that pace will be slowed until these issues
are worked out.

The Department of Energy has 30 days to appeal or pay the fine.

 It's a record amount, but still, it's only $1 million dollars
versus the nearly $2 billion annual cleanup budget at the site.

 All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KNDO/KNDU. All
Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 69 KnoxNews: Ill nuclear workers get a boost

By News Sentinel staff
March 29, 2007

OAK RIDGE - The Coalition for a Healthy Environment is asking 
people to contact their elected officials in Washington today to 
complain about the failures of the program set up to compensate 
sick nuclear workers.

The group said the program, established in 2000 by the Energy 
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, has 
"strayed" from the original intent of Congress and makes it 
difficult for people to collect their due benefits.

"Instead of timely and compassionate compensation for the Cold War
veterans, there exists a bureaucratic monstrosity," the Coalition
for a Healthy Environment said in a press statement.

The group said more than $437 million has been spent in
administrative costs, while about 20,000 claimants have collected
for their illnesses or their relatives' deaths. Many thousands of
claims are still pending.

The Coalition for a Healthy Environment is among advocacy groups
around the nation trying to put pressure on Congress to fix the
problems.

 Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
    
*****************************************************************

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 
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information go to: 
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