***************************************************************** 04/18/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.91 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 [NYTr] State of Denial: Diplomacy with Iran Is 'Working' 2 AFP: US commander accuses Iran of destabilizing actions in Iraq, Afg 3 AFP: US warns Russia in line of fire of 'Iranian missile threat' 4 AFP: Probe cleared Macau bank of counterfeiting - report - 5 US: ajc.com: Seal out secret deals | 6 [NYTr] Nagasaki Mayor's Assassination Shakes Japan NUCLEAR REACTORS 7 US: [NYTr] FAIR Alert: CBS's Nuclear Revival 8 US: KnoxNews: TVA open to views from both sides on Watts Bar 9 Manchester Evening News: Welcome for Chernobyl kids 10 Helsingin Sanomat: German energy giant wants to build nuclear facili 11 EUbusiness.com: France's Alstom and Areva appeal EU fines 12 WNA: AtomEnergoProm decree approved 13 WNA: EOn buying possible nuclear site in Finland 14 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Assessment for Susquehanna Nuclear Plan 15 Times of India: Finland to support India's N-commerce-Rest of World- 16 Ghana News: German legislator cautions on nuclear power 17 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Assessment for Beaver Valley Nuclear Pl 18 BBC NEWS: Views sought over n-plant closure 19 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Assessment for R.e. Ginna Nuclear Plant 20 US: FayObserver.com: Nation's nuclear plumbing still isn?t connected 21 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Brunswick Nuclear Plant 22 IHT: Business of Green: Is nuclear power worth the risk? - 23 Prague Daily Monitor: Czech-Austrian Temelin parliamentary watchdog 24 US: NRC: NRC Denies Entergy's Request for a Second Deadline Extensio 25 US: Reporter online.com: Meeting set tonight on Limerick 26 Buenos Aires Herald: Chavez hints at buying Argentine nuclear plant 27 US: New London Day: DEP, Dominion Ask Court To Dismiss Suit Against 28 Hindustan Times: Bush defends Indo-US nuclear arrangement- 29 Comment is free: A bad nuclear reaction NUCLEAR SECURITY 30 Ynetnews: Egypt: Nuclear engineer admitted he spied for Israel - 31 Guardian Unlimited: There is now no doubt that global warming is a s NUCLEAR SAFETY 32 Daily Yomiuri: A-bomb victims' groups shocked 33 BBC NEWS: Space shield to block radiation 34 US: UPI: Uranium groundwater study announced 35 US: cbs4denver.com: Radium Removal To Close Denver Streets For Weeks 36 AFP: Pacific nuclear victims awarded one billion dollars - 37 IAEA: IAEA Nobel Prize Money Fights Cancer Crisis in Latin America 38 US: NAS: Project: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of 39 Whitehaven News: Minister launches inquiry into Sellafield 'body par 40 Whitehaven News: BNG hold fire on beach monitoring NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 41 US: Indigestion in the Belly of the Beast! 42 Las Vegas SUN: Walker River tribe pulls permission for Yucca Mountai 43 Guardian Unlimited: Inquiry into body parts test claim 44 Guardian Unlimited: QC will probe body parts removal 45 Guardian Unlimited: Inquiry into autopsies on Sellafield workers 46 Guardian Unlimited: From Windscale to Sellafield: a history of contr 47 Guardian Unlimited: Sellafield worker's daughter condemns nuclear in 48 Guardian Unlimited: Q&A: Sellafield body part claims 49 Guardian Unlimited: Alder Hey QC to investigate Sellafield bodies ca 50 Sparks Tribune: Proposed nuke waste route presents potential hazards 51 US: OMB Watch: EPA Issues another Delay in Contaminant Regulation - 52 YONHAP NEWS: Gov't finalizes support for nuclear repository in Gyeon 53 Las Vegas SUN: Q+A: Chris Dodd 54 BBC NEWS: Dounreay in human tissue checks 55 BBC NEWS: Sellafield inquiry to be launched 56 ReviewJournal.com: Yucca passage dealt setback 57 KOLO: Walker River Tribe Pulls Permission for Yucca Mountain Rail Li 58 London Tims: Nuclear Reaction-Comment- 59 London Times: Post mortem on Sellafield: don't panic-Comment- 60 US: CP: Uranium miners, explorers radiate optimism over northern dep 61 AFP: British government holds inquiry into body parts claims - 62 AFP: Sellafield nuclear plant 'retained workers' organs' - 63 IHT: Britain launches inquiry into alleged removal of organs from de 64 UPI: Inquiry aimed at Sellafield organ removal 65 Telegraph: Sellafield organ removal inquiry launched 66 Community Commons: USEC Receives Centrifuge License 67 Telegraph: Sellafield is not another Alder Hey | 68 US: PE: State water board postpones hearing on perchlorate plume 69 Reid: Reid Statement on Walker River Paiute Tribe Decision to 70 Whitehaven News: Widow hopes organ parts did some good 71 NGN: Chernobyl Birds' Defects Link Radiation, Not Stress, to Human A PEACE 72 Secretary-general Ban Expresses Shock And Regret At Assassination Of US DEPT. OF ENERGY 73 KnoxNews: Nuclear city begins Earth Day festivities 74 KnoxNews: Guard situation in Oak Ridge similar, different than Pante 75 DOE: DOE to Issue Second Solicitation for Purchase of Crude Oil 76 SF New Mexican: Los Alamos cybersecurity focus of congressional hear 77 Hanford News: Research park utility project to start today 78 Hanford News: Divers could get sent into K Basins 79 UPI: Guards strike at nuclear weapons plant 80 lamonitor.com: House panel schedules 13th hearing ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 [NYTr] State of Denial: Diplomacy with Iran Is 'Working' Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:06:06 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit AP - Apr 18, 2007 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ISRAEL_GATES?SITE=PASTR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Gates: Diplomacy With Iran Is 'Working' TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff with Iran over its disputed nuclear program are "working" and should be given a chance to succeed. Both the U.S. and Israel accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons - a charge Iran denies. Gates said the international community "is united in telling Iran what it needs to do with respect to its nuclear program." The U.S. and its allies have led efforts to pass two U.N. Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to develop nuclear weapons. "We agreed it was important to deal with the Iranian nuclear problem through diplomacy, which appears to be working," Gates said at a news conference with his Israeli counterpart, Amir Peretz. "These things don't work overnight, but it seems to me clearly the preferable course to keep our focus on the diplomatic initiatives, and particularly because of the united front of the international community at this point," he added. ) 2007 The Associated Press. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 2 AFP: US commander accuses Iran of destabilizing actions in Iraq, Afghanistan - Wed Apr 18, 4:51 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The top US commander in the Middle East accused Iran of taking destabilizing actions in Iraq and Afghanistan on Wednesday, but he also left open the door to talks with Tehran. Admiral William Fallon pointed to Iran's nuclear weapons program, boasts about its uranium enrichment program, and the recent capture of British sailors and marines in the Gulf as examples of Tehran's bad behavior. "They are ... tripping over themselves, it seems to me, to make breast-beating proclamations that are unhelpful," Fallon said at a congressional hearing here. "And there is no doubt they are taking actions particularly destabilizing in both Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "So the behavior is not very good -- this recent caper with the British, the kind of cowboy-type activity that is certainly not representative of what they claim to be trying to do, which is become a major player in the region," he said. Fallon's comments came a day after General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Iranian-made mortars and explosives destined for the Taliban were intercepted by coalition forces in Afghanistan. Pace stopped short of accusing the Iranian regime of involvement, but it suggested high-level US concern that Iran is expanding its challenges to the US military presence in the region. The United States has long charged that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force has been supplying bomb-making components and training to Iraqi extremist groups for attacks on US forces. Pace said the United States would deal with Iran through diplomacy and that direct military action was a tool of last resort. Echoing that, Fallon told lawmakers he was looking forward to a regional conference on Iraq in Egypt in May to enlist the help of Iraq's neighbors. The first such meeting in Baghdad last month included a brief one-on-one exchange between then US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzhad and his Iranian counterpart. "You're aware there was an inaugural discussion and I would look forward to the discussion that might ensue in this meeting, particularly in the context of what role Iran may play in a helpful venue towards Iraq," Fallon said. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 3 AFP: US warns Russia in line of fire of 'Iranian missile threat' by Karin Zeitvogel Wed Apr 18, 4:30 PM ET WARSAW (AFP) - US officials on Wednesday warned Moscow that it was in the line of fire of "the missile threat from Iran" and urged it to cooperate with plans to base a US missile defence system on Russia's doorstep. "We believe Russia has an interest in cooperating with us and NATO because the missile threat from Iran comes to Russia first," US Under-Secretary of Defence for Policy, Eric Edelman, told reporters in Warsaw. He was speaking on the eve of a meeting in Brussels on the missile shield between the Russians, United States and NATO members. Russia was riled when Washington announced in January that it wants to install 10 Interceptor missiles in Poland and a powerful radar in the Czech Republic, as it extends the cloak of missile defence already in place in the United States to its European allies. Washington maintains that the system is aimed at protecting the United States and parts of Europe from long-range missile attacks from the Middle East, and Iran in particular. But Russia is nervous about the idea that its old Cold War foe would set this up on its doorstep, and has accused Washington of targeting it with the facility. "Russia comes within range first, the flight paths of these missiles traverse Russia first, before they fly over central Europe," Edelman said after he and Lieutenant-General Henry A. Obering, head of the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency, met with Polish officials on the defence system. Edelman dismissed Moscow's claims that the missiles were a threat to Russia. "How 10 Interceptors which don't have explosive warheads -- they're purely kinetic vehicles that destroy the incoming missile by virtue of the high speed of the intercept -- could possibly threaten Russia's nuclear deterrent, which is made up of hundreds of missiles and thousands of warheads, is a little hard to see," he said. Obering said Washington has been wholly transparent in its dealings with its allies and Russia on the missile shield, even inviting them to visit sites already installed in Alaska and California. "We have invited many of our allies to visit missile defence sites in the United States. We have also invited the Russians to visit those sites. We have nothing to hide," he said. But he stressed that Poland would be responsible for choosing who would be invited to visit any site set up on its soil. "This is not US territory. Poland would be responsible for inviting in anyone to visit a facility set up in Poland," he said. Edelman and Obering traveled Wednesday evening to Brussels for the meeting with NATO members and Russia on the missile shield. Developing the defense shield must begin in the short-term, said Obering, to avoid "finding ourselves in a situation where we begin to see a threat and can't do anything about it because we have no system to turn on." If formal negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic are begun this year, installation of the system could begin "in the latter part of 2008", and the facility could be operational by 2013, the US general said. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 4 AFP: Probe cleared Macau bank of counterfeiting - report - Wednesday April 18, 01:23 PM HONG KONG (AFP) - An accountancy firm has cleared a Macau bank of handling counterfeit US currency for North Korea, a report said Wednesday, adding a new twist to Pyongyang's disarmament saga. Some 24 million US dollars of North Korean assets were frozen in the accounts of Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in 2005 after the US Treasury department linked the bank with the counterfeiting of American currency. But an independent study by accountants Ernst and Young of the transactions of 50 of BDA's North Korea-linked accounts could not draw such conclusions. "From our investigations it is apparent that ... the bank did not introduce counterfeit US currency notes into circulation," Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper cited the probe as saying. The study, commissioned by Macau authorities in 2005 soon after the United States froze the bank's assets, has not been publicly released, but the paper said it had seen a copy. In its report, the Post said Ernst and Young uncovered decades of multi-billion dollar transactions in cash, trades, term deposits and gold bullion sales, all of which appeared above board. Much of the bank's transactions went through a third-party bank in Hong Kong, which the report said had been revealed by other sources as HSBC. It said the probe found that bank staff justified the large cash and bullion transactions as essential for dealing in North Korea's antiquated cash-based economy. Pyongyang missed an April 14 deadline to start shutting down a nuclear reactor as part of an international disarmament deal, saying it would not do so until it had received the money frozen in BDA. The US Treasury and the Macau Monetary Authority said last week North Korea was free to access the funds and Washington hoped that it would meet a deadline to shut down its nuclear weapons program in exchange for foreign aid. The report said BDA cited the Ernst and Young probe in a challenge it launched this week against by a move by the US Treasury Department to keep the bank out of the international financial system. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Australia & NZ Pty Limited. All rights ***************************************************************** 5 ajc.com: Seal out secret deals | ajc.com > Opinion Take 2: Roll with outpouring of calls, e-mails for ban. Utilities already scrambling to win over commission Published on: 04/18/07 If you want to see human beings twisting themselves into strange positions, you could always buy a ticket to see Cirque du Soleil. But it would be cheaper to attend today's meeting of the Georgia Public Service Commission, where utility company lobbyists will contort both themselves and common sense trying to kill a proposed ban on backroom lobbying of commission members. SPEAK OUT Call or e-mail the PSC to let them know how you feel about rules that would require commissioners to share information they've gleaned in private meetings. Doug Everett, District 1: deverett@psc.state.ga.us or 404-463-6745 Chairman Robert "Bobby" Baker, District 2: bbaker@psc.state.ga.us or 404-656-4514 Vice Chairman Chuck Eaton, District 3: ceaton@psc.state.ga.us or 404-657-2020 Angela Speir, District 4: aspeir@psc.state.ga.us or 404-656-4512 Stan Wise, District 5: stanwise@psc.state.ga.us 404-657-4574 Secret meetings on such important topics fly in the face of open and transparent government. The five commissioners, who are elected statewide but represent separate districts, perform almost like judges, trying to balance the right of regulated utilities to make a profit against the interests of Georgia consumers trying to protect their pocketbooks. That's why it's important that the commission adopt a rule expressly prohibiting commissioners from private meetings with individuals or parties involved in a pending case. If they do so, they would be required to report it. Without that ban, utilities usually have the upper hand in proceedings before the PSC because they have the time, money and resources to curry favor with commissioners, important advantages most members of the general public simply don't have. The new rule, proposed by Commissioner Angela Speir, makes a few reasonable exceptions by allowing ex parte communications in an emergency or in situations where a company doesn't want to divulge trade secrets in public session. However, those exemptions apparently don't provide enough wiggle room for the proposed rule's opponents — a list that includes Georgia Power, Atlanta Gas Light and AT&T. All three have submitted written comments prior to the hearing in hopes of convincing a majority of commissioners there's no need to adopt ex parte rules. Unlike the Flying Wallendas, the famous troupe that seemed to defy gravity with its high-wire exploits, the utility companies' recent arguments merely defy credulity. Georgia Power, for example, expresses truly touching concern that an ex parte rule would harm individual citizens and grassroots consumer groups by unfairly limiting their ability to speak freely with commissioners. That's such a heartwarming sight — the state's largest provider of electricity, looking out for the little guy like that. Meanwhile, groups with a long and well-established history of looking out for the little guy, such as Common Cause Georgia, AARP and the Consumers Utility Counsel, which represent workaday Georgians before the PSC, have expressed support for the proposed rule. Other arguments against the rule are similarly lame. Atlanta Gas Light claims that because the PSC is a creature of the state constitution, any ban on private or secret meetings can come only from the state Legislature. AGL also contends that since neither the public nor regulated companies have specifically requested an ex parte rule, it's unnecessary. Both arguments are absurd. The PSC is statutorily empowered to adopt its own rules and operating standards and it does so routinely on the initiative of individual commissioners. An informal attorney general's opinion has confirmed that interpretation. AT&T claims the proposed rule is too vague in some respects because it fails to define what constitutes a "properly noticed meeting, hearing or workshop. ..." The company has a point — the commission needs to clarify the language of the ex parte rule before adopting it. Such minor and easily corrected problems are hardly an excuse for doing nothing, which is what AT&T would prefer. Some of the fiercest opposition to the rule comes from within the PSC itself. While commissioners Speir and Robert Baker favor the proposed rule, their colleagues Stan Wise and Doug Everett have expressed varying levels of dissent. Newcomer Chuck Eaton says he's undecided, but suggested he may cast the deciding vote against it. If Georgians believe that the business of Georgia ought to be conducted in public, now's the time to say so. When the ex parte rule was first proposed, vigilant consumers across the state sent scores of e-mails, letters and faxes in support of the idea, pressure that forced commissioners to at least make a show of giving the proposal consideration. Only a similar outpouring of support is likely to keep the idea alive. If you don't make your voice heard, you can't blame commissioners for not listening. Lyle V. Harris © 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Customer care | Advertise ***************************************************************** 6 [NYTr] Nagasaki Mayor's Assassination Shakes Japan Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:07:54 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Assassination of Nagasaki anti-War Mayor Shakes Japan Tokyo, Apr 18 (Prensa Latina) The Japanese people remained traumatized Wednesday at yesterday4s mafia assassination of the Nagasaki mayor, a symbol of pacifism and the struggle against nuclear weapons. Itcho Ito, 61 years old and married with three children, was mortally wounded after being shot at the central train station while participating in his election campaign for a fourth term. The mayor underwent a four-hour surgery, but died from the heavy bleeding caused by the wounds in his back and near his heart. Police reported the assassin was identified as Ttsuya Shiroo, 59, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the major organized crime gang in Japan. Local authorities opened an investigation which, according to the press, is linked to a conflict over a public works bid involving the Yamaguchi-gumi, notorious for corruption in property enterprises. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon expressed his consternation at the murder and sent his deep condolences to the mayor4s family and friends. In a UN declaration, the diplomat recalled that Ito was one of the leaders of the Mayors Campaign for Peace. ef ccs abo dor PL-33 sent by Dave Muller (southnews) AFP - Apr 18, 2007 Mayor's assassination stuns Japan Stunned Japanese placed flowers at the spot here where the mayor of Nagasaki was gunned down as police probed the killer's links to the nation's largest crime syndicate. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe branded the slaying as a challenge to democracy, and authorities pledged to tighten security around political leaders ahead of local polls Sunday in which the mayor was campaigning for re-election. The mayor, 61-year-old Iccho Ito, died early Wednesday due to massive blood loss, hours after being shot outside his campaign offices in Nagasaki, a city forever linked to the August 9, 1945 atomic bomb that devastated it. Police immediately arrested a gunman who is said to be connected to Japan's largest underworld syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi. "This is not an act by a human being. If he had grievances, he should have said them to the mayor instead of shooting him," said Yoshinori Hirano, 57, a worker for a gas company who was near the site of the shooting. "To see an ordinary citizen -- an important person -- get killed violently is very shocking because Nagasaki is the city of peace," he said as he started to weep in public. Ito, a political independent, was an outspoken pacifist born a month after the atomic bomb which helped bring World War II to an end. Nagasaki is to press ahead with its mayoral race, accepting new candidates until Thursday. "This criminal act during the election campaign is a challenge to democracy. It cannot be forgiven no matter what," Abe told reporters in Tokyo. Police said the assailant, 59-year-old Tetsuya Shiroo, who was taken into custody immediately after the incident, "fired several bullets at the back of the victim with an intent to kill him." They said he was an executive member of a local group affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate. Shiroo had grievances with the city after his vehicle fell into a hole and was damaged at a construction site four years ago, police said. But officials said they were questioning Shiroo to see if there were other motives too. "An official who dealt with Shiroo's complaint at the time said it was unlikely that the accident was the real motive for his act," a city spokesman said. Media reports said Shiroo had had a dispute with the city over bidding for public works and had attempted to blackmail a previous mayor seeking money. TV Asahi said Shiroo demanded up to 2.7 million yen (22,500 dollars) over the traffic accident but was turned down. Japanese gangs, known as "yakuza," have interests in underworld businesses such as showbusiness and prostitution and are also known to engage in kickback schemes for construction projects. Yamaguchi-gumi, headquartered in the western city of Kobe, has about 40,000 members and accounted for some 50 percent of Japan's underworld, according to the National Police Agency. It has reportedly been trying to branch out from its home patch, notably in Tokyo, leading to a turf war earlier this year that resulted in rare shootings in the capital. Ito's killing was the second assault on a mayor of Nagasaki. In January 1990, a right-wing extremist shot and wounded then mayor Hitoshi Motoshima for saying he believed the late emperor Hirohito bore responsibility for World War II. "I felt even more angry than when it happened to me," Motoshima told Jiji Press, referring to the latest incident. "Have we not committed ourselves to refuse violence no matter how right and noble reason it is?" said Motoshima, who lost his seat to Ito in 1995. At the United Nations, disarmament official Randy Rydell remembered Ito's activism against nuclear weapons. "The world has lost a truly great leader and a champion of a wonderful cause," Rydell told Japan's public broadcaster NHK. *** THE ASAHI SHIMBUN - Apr 18, 2007 http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200704180037.html Nagasaki Mayor Itoh dies after being shot by gang member NAGASAKI--Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh died early Wednesday after being shot in the back twice Tuesday night in front of his campaign office where he had just returned after stumping for Sunday's election. The 61-year-old mayor was unconscious and in critical condition, and he was pronounced dead at a hospital at 2:28 a.m. Wednesday, officials said. He was treated in the intensive care unit at the Nagasaki University Hospital. The suspected gunman was overpowered by people at the scene near JR Nagasaki Station. Police arrested the man, Tetsuya Shiroo, 59, a senior member of a yakuza gang affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, on suspicion of murder. Shiroo told police he shot Itoh, but he has not explained the motive for the attack, police said, adding that they had confiscated a firearm. The attack occurred at around 7:50 p.m. Tuesday. A witness said he heard two shots and a woman scream. "I was working when a colleague said there might have been a shooting," the witness said. "And when I went out, I saw a guy and a woman holding down a man in black clothes on his stomach at a pedestrian crossing." The witness said the man was holding a gun. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo after the shooting, "I want investigative authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and reveal the truth." Itoh, mayor of the second city hit by an atomic bomb, has won international recognition for his promotion of nuclear disarmament. He is running in the mayoral election Sunday for a fourth term. Itoh won a seat on the Nagasaki city assembly for the first time in 1975. He later served as a prefectural assembly member before running and winning the mayoral election in April 1995. He has since been re-elected twice, in 1999 and in 2003. In January 1990, Itoh's predecessor, Hitoshi Motoshima, was shot by a member of a right-wing organization in front of Nagasaki city hall, a year after the death of Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa. The shooter told police he was unhappy with Motoshima for saying that the emperor was responsible for the war. Motoshima, who recovered from the attack, ran for his fifth term and lost to Itoh in 1995. "I am shocked," Motoshima, 85, said Tuesday night about the latest shooting. "I wonder why Itoh was targeted. "Above all, violence should never be allowed," he said. (IHT/Asahi: April 18,2007) * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 7 [NYTr] FAIR Alert: CBS's Nuclear Revival Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:03:37 -0400 (EDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit FAIR - Apr 18, 2007 http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3086 Action Alert CBS's Nuclear Revival: 60 Minutes' critic-free boosterism 4/18/07 On April 8, the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes aired a segment about the "resounding success" of the French nuclear power program, suggesting that "emission-free" nuclear power might offer an easy solution to the problem of climate change. The report protected this dubious assertion from skeptical scrutiny by failing to quote a single bona fide critic of the nuclear industry. The segment was titled "Vive Les Nukes," which gave a good indication of the slant it took. Describing it as "an efficient means of producing large amounts of carbon-free energy," correspondent Steve Kroft announced at the top of the segment that nuclear power is "a technology whose time seemed to come and go, and may now be coming again." The notion of a nuclear power renaissance was bolstered by CBS's choice of interview gueststhe program spoke only to nuclear power supporters (in France and elsewhere), thereby allowing their rhetoric to go unchallenged. Guests on the segment were French energy official Pierre Gadonniex, French nuclear industry executive Bertrande Durrande, White House deputy secretary of energy Clay Sell (Bush's "point man on nuclear power"), French nuclear executive Anne Lauvergeon, MIT nuclear researcher Andrew Kadak and David Jhirhad of the World Resources Institute, described as "an environmental think tank in Washington." Jhirhad was the only potentially balancing source, but he is quoted only to make Kroft's point that "even some environmental groups are taking a second look at nuclear power." This is an emerging line in much of the corporate media (e.g., Washington Post, 4/16/06; New York Times, 2/27/07), though the actual number of green groups embracing nuclear power is quite small. The World Resources Institute receives contributions from several energy companies and other major polluters, information that would have been useful for CBS viewers in evaluating Jhirad's claim that the nuclear industry's "safety record has been pretty good." The segment's one-sided sourcing was made all the more problematic when the White House's Sell claimed that "no serious person can look at the challenge of greenhouse gases and climate change and not come to the conclusion that nuclear power has to play a significant and growing role in meeting that challenge worldwide." Of course, "serious people" do question precisely that--and CBS should have interviewed them. Excluding such sources meant excluding important information. While France's nuclear power is portrayed as widely popular, CBS failed to mention large protests held across the country on March 17 (Agence France Presse, 3/17/07) against construction of a new nuclear plant. Nor, in touting the massive nuclear reprocessing plant France has built in Normandy, did the show refer to the radiation it releases into the English Channel (NIRS Nuclear Monitor, 3-4/00) or the cluster of leukemia cases occurring around the plant (British Medical Journal, 1/11/97). Kroft even adopts industry-friendly language in describing the push to revive U.S. nuclear power, discussing the "financial incentives" and "streamlined regulatory system" intended to encourage nuclear energy development. Such "incentives" might better be described as government subsides, which have long been criticized by nuclear industry critics as a waste of taxpayers' money. Unmentioned in the CBS report were similar subsidies in France; according to the U.S.-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (5/4/06), $1 billion a year in government subsidies go to plutonium production alone. Excluding critical voices allowed grossly misleading information to go unchallenged, as when nuclear executive Lauvergeon claimed, in the segment's conclusion, that "wind and solar are, you know, temporary sources of energy. It works when you have wind, it works when you have sun. No sun, no wind, no energy. You don't want to watch TV only when you have wind." Of course, wind and solar energy are not "temporary" sources of energy; power generated by both can be stored. Airing this sort of misinformation eliminates any real consideration of viable alternatives to nuclear energy. At one point, Kroft says that "the Bush administration is pushing a nuclear revival." The same could be said for CBS. ACTION: Contact 60 Minutes to ask why its report on nuclear energy excluded the views of the industry's numerous critics. CONTACT: CBS 60 Minutes 60m@cbsnews.com (212) 975-3247 ****** FAIR (212) 633-6700 http://www.fair.org/ E-mail: fair@fair.org * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 8 KnoxNews: TVA open to views from both sides on Watts Bar By ANDREW EDER, edera@knews.com April 18, 2007 EVENSVILLE, Tenn. - Both poles of the debate over nuclear power were represented at a public meeting Tuesday on the potential completion of the Unit 2 reactor at TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. Tom Markham and M.B. Daniell drove up from Chattanooga to ask questions and register their support for the project. "We're two old friends who feel like nuclear power is the way of the future," Markham said. "It seems to me like almost anything you read is negative, and we feel positive about it," Daniell said. On the other side of the nuclear divide, a former TVA whistleblower and a representative from the Sierra Club came to the gymnasium at Rhea County High School to express their dismay over the resurgence in TVA's nuclear program. About 30 area residents attended the public meeting. "It looks like a nuclear power fair to me instead of a public comment period," said Ann Harris, a former worker at Watts Bar who fought numerous legal battles with TVA after raising safety concerns at the nuclear plant. TVA is considering finishing Watts Bar 2 to help meet the expected growth in demand for power in the Tennessee Valley. Tuesday's meeting was an "open house" where the public could ask questions of TVA staffers and submit comments about an environmental report that TVA drafted as part of a federal requirement. TVA and its contractors are conducting a separate study to determine the cost and scheduling of finishing Watts Bar 2. Jack Bailey, TVA's vice president of nuclear generation development, said the study is about 60 percent complete and should be ready for the TVA board to review at its August meeting. "In general, we have not seen any big issues that we had not anticipated," Bailey said. TVA is waiting for the results of the cost and scheduling study to make a recommendation on Watts Bar 2, although the environmental report states that completing the reactor is TVA's preferred course of action. The federal utility has an existing license to build the reactor, but it would need to apply for another license to operate it. Bailey said TVA has been working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees TVA's three nuclear plants, to develop a "successful path to licensing." The Unit 1 reactor at TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama is scheduled to come online next month after a five-year, $1.8 billion restart effort. Bailey said the completion of Watts Bar 2 would be a comparable process to Browns Ferry 1, although the cost would likely be higher because of escalating prices. Construction began on Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in 1973, but Watts Bar 1 wasn't completed until 1996 at a cost of $6.9 billion. In 2001, TVA wrote off $1.7 billion in costs related to Watts Bar 2. Business writer Andrew Eder may be reached at 865-342-6318. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 9 Manchester Evening News: Welcome for Chernobyl kids Ben Rooth 18/ 4/2007 FAMILIES across Salford are making final preparations before welcoming child victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The 12 youngsters, all aged eight, arrive this Friday and will spend a month living with local families. It will be the second consecutive year the children have visited the area. And again, a carefully-tailored schedule of activities aims to boost their damaged immune systems and help them enjoy a healthier, fuller and longer life. All the youngsters come from Mogilev, in Belarus, which was one of the regions worst affected by the nuclear fall-out - and the M.E.N. is supporting fund-raising by the Salford branch of the Friends of Chernobyl's Children charity. John Ogden, the minister from Mount Chapel, on Eccles Old Road, Salford, who is helping co-ordinate the visit, said he had been amazed by the reaction of the public after the M.E.N. announced the visit earlier this month. He said: "I've been overwhelmed by the messages of goodwill and offers of help that have come in from the public. "We've received some fantastic donations so far, including some wonderful sports equipment, for which we are incredibly grateful. Swimming costumes "But the things we still need at this time are money and six swimming costumes for the girls and another six pairs of swimming trunks for the boys. "We are also hoping that someone might be kind enough to donate enough multi-vitamins for the children for a year. "Until you have met these youngsters, it's impossible to understand the impoverished conditions they've left behind in Belarus - and many of them arrive with literally nothing but a carrier bag. "But by the time they leave, they all look so much more healthy and that gives the 12 families across Salford who host them a great sense of achievement." The youngsters will visit the Science and Industry Museum, Knowsley Safari Park, Gulliver's World and Formby Beach during their visit, as well as undergoing dental and eye checks. The Friends of Chernobyl's Children charity has 30 branches nationwide and brings more than 600 children to Britain each year. Friends of Chernobyl's Children Salford can be contacted through John Ogden at 65 Moorfield Road, Salford M6 7EY. Submit your comments © M.E.N media 2007 ***************************************************************** 10 Helsingin Sanomat: German energy giant wants to build nuclear facility in Finland Radio Helsinki Finnish subsidiary looking at 100-hectare property in Loviisa Competition is heating up over the construction of a sixth commercial nuclear reactor for Finland. E.ON Suomi, the Finnish subsidiary of the German E.ON energy concern, wants to buy a plot of land in Loviisa next to the island of Hästholmen, where Fortum currently has two of Finland's four operating commercial nuclear reactors. The sale of the property of about 100 hectares was given initial approval by the Loviisa City Board on Monday. The sale still needs to be passed by the City Council. Matti Manninen, managing director of E.ON Suomi, confirms that if and when the company gets the property, it will begin preparations for the construction of a sixth nuclear reactor. The owners of Finland's existing nuclear plants, TVO and Fortum, said recently that they will be conducting environmental studies for a new nuclear facility. TVO says that it could build a fourth reactor in Olkiluoto, in addition to the two units that are already operating there, and the third that is being built. Meanwhile, Fortum would like to build a third at Hästholmen in Loviisa. The construction of a nuclear reactor in Finland requires Parliamentary approval. E.ON does not plan to go it alone. Instead, it hopes to gather a strong grouping of Finnish companies and municipalities interested in getting a share of electricity production. Manninen does not believe that this will be a difficult task. Many large consumers of electricity, who are not shareholders of TVO, have expressed a desire to become involved in the nuclear project. When TVO began to plan Finland's fifth nuclear reactor, which is now under construction, there were more companies and municipalities who wanted in on the project than the utility could accommodate. The situation will be similar when TVO begins to prepare an application for a sixth reactor. The present shareholders will certainly use their option to invest, because electricity production is very lucrative at today's prices. TVO's biggest owners are the paper manufacturer UPM, the City of Helsinki, and Fortum. Fortum therefore, is a major player in Finnish nuclear energy production. In addition to the Loviisa reactors, it has a 26 per cent holding in TVO, E.ON's Manninen believes that larger cities such as Tampere, Turku, Oulu, and Lahti will want to have production of their own, and will therefore be interested in joining the E.ON project. They have also publicly expressed willingness to be involved in electricity production. There will also undoubtedly be interest among the grouping of about 20 companies, which set up a company called Elfi to help secure their electricity supply. Elfi's shareholders include some of Finland's largest companies as well as the retail concerns Kesko and SOK. Manninen says that it is important to construct a new nuclear facility near existing reactors. In this way, much of the necessary infrastructure is already nearby. The mandatory environmental assessment would also be easier, because such a study has already been made in the area. Manninen feels that the involvement of E.ON as a major factor on the Finnish electricity market would be good for competition, and have a beneficial effect on both wholesale and retail prices. ***************************************************************** 11 EUbusiness.com: France's Alstom and Areva appeal EU fines 18 April 2007, 16:03 CET (PARIS) - French engineering giant Alstom and nuclear group Areva on Wednesday said they had appealed against fines imposed by the European Union in January for allegedly taking part in a price fixing cartel. Spokesmen for the two companies said separately the two groups were lodging "an appeal before the EU's court of first instance against the Brussels sanctions." They declined further comment. Japan's Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi and Toshiba and Germany's Siemens have also said they are appealing the fines, which were imposed as part of a wider crackdown on European and Japanese firms accused of colluding in the power-generation equipment market. EU regulators charge that between 1988 and 2004 the companies rigged bids for procurement contracts, fixed prices, divided up projects among each other and shared sensitive information in the market for equipment called gas insulated switchgear (GIS). The EU competition watchdog imposed a total fine of 750 million euros (one billion euros) -- its second-biggest to date -- on the firms, which also included ABB, Fuji, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Schneider, Siemens and VA Tech. Alstom was fined 11.5 million euros (15.6 million dollars), plus 53.5 million euros jointly with Areva. Text and Picture Copyright 2007 AFP. All other Copyright 2007 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable. EUbusiness © Copyright EUbusiness Ltd 2007 ***************************************************************** 12 WNA: AtomEnergoProm decree approved 18 April 2007 On 17 April a decree to create the vertically integrated giant AtomEnergoProm (AEP) was approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a gathering of senior nuclear industry figures at his Novo-Ogarevo residence. The new firm could operate by the end of this year. As Russia gains acceptance as a market economy, its nuclear industry remains a significant resource not yet fully market oriented. Putin seeks to solve this through the creation of AEP as the amalgamation of the country's most significant nuclear enterprises, principally: * AtomEnergoMash (AEM), nuclear power plant construction. * AtomStroyExport (ASE), nuclear power plant construction abroad. * Rosenergoatom, nuclear power operations. * Technabsexport (Tenex), uranium extraction and enrichment. * TVEL, uranium extraction and nuclear fuel production. Apart from Rosenergoatom, all the above are Joint Stock Companies (JSCs), which means they operate as a market oriented company. The state owns 100% of the shares of all but ASE, of which it owns over 50% through various means. Before inclusion in AEP, Rosenergoatom will be corporatized. Alexey Grigoriev of Tenex explained to World Nuclear News that AEP will be an integrated vertical holding company for the various 'daughters', the top level of which would be the companies listed above. At the level below would be the daughters' individual subsidiaries, which over time will also be converted to JSC status. AEP would also be a JSC rather than a traditional state-owned enterprise. This distinction, Grigoriev said, would be very strongly written in the decree. Under this arrangement investment should be more attractive to other Russian businesses as well as those abroad, and officials hope this will help spur AEP to achieve Putin's targets for nuclear's share of electricity to grow to 25% or 30% by 2030. The head company will fully belong to the state, as well as its 'daughters' and 'grand-daughters'. "For example, private investors may well be involved in uranium extraction," said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom). He added that the first example of a private company cooperating profitably with an AEP daughter is the joint venture deal between AEM and Alstom to supply the non-nuclear turbine generator part of future nuclear plants. Legislation was changed in February to allow certain entities other that the Russian state to own nuclear materials. One of the next steps in the development of AEP will be the compilation of a list of companies able to own those materials for civilian nuclear power purposes. Another thing very strongly written in the decree is that the President would have control over the list. Much work lies ahead for officials in checking the completeness, fairness and necessity of companies listed, as this list will be a major part of a simultaneous change occurring in the Russian nuclear industry: the clear separation of the civilian nuclear power sector and the military defence complex. Within a few days, Grigoriev said, executives could be named for the top positions in AEP and by the end of the year, or early in 2008, the state should have completed paperwork to allow AEP to "work in full swing." The creation of such a giant will certainly mean changes in the global market balance. AEP will have the distinction of encompassing the full nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear design and construction and engineering, and the key business of power generation itself. Grigoriev concluded that AEP would not have the pretense of ambitions for a very big share of the world's competitive nuclear market, simply an equal position - in line with the other main market players. ***************************************************************** 13 WNA: EOn buying possible nuclear site in Finland 18 April 2007 German utility EOn is considering building a new nuclear plant in southern Finland and has agreed to buy land for a possible site. The company has agreed to buy land in Loviisa for an undisclosed price with an option that could include building the plant. Loviisa, 55 miles east of Helsinki, is already home to two pressurized water reactors, owned by Finnish utility Fortum. Land ownership is a precondition for securing Finnish approval for the project. EOn said it would examine the technological, economic and ecological requirements for building a reactor before seeking approval. The company's Finnish unit, EOn Suomi, has invited other interested Finnish companies to join the project. Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen underlined that while power companies were free to submit applications, the government would consider issues including the competitive situation of utilities, the schedule of projects and the number of stations to be built when assessing those applications. Finland currently has four operating nuclear units with a fifth under construction. Finnish utilities TVO and Fortum recently launched environmental impact assessment processes for the construction of a sixth plant. ***************************************************************** 14 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Assessment for Susquehanna Nuclear Plant At Public Meeting Scheduled for April 24 News Release - Region I - 2007-020 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 www.nrc.gov CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual assessment of safety performance at the Susquehanna nuclear power plant, in Salem Township (Luzerne County), Pa., will be the subject of a public meeting on Tuesday, April 24. NRC staff will meet with representatives of plant owner PPL Susquehanna, LLC, at 2:30 p.m. to discuss the assessment, which covers the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2006, and was documented in a March 2nd letter to the company. The session will take place at the Susquehanna Energy Information Center, 634 Salem Blvd., Salem Township, about 7 miles northeast of Berwick, Pa. Before the meeting is adjourned, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the performance of the twin-reactor Susquehanna plant, as well as the role of the NRC in providing oversight of plant safety. “Each year we take a step back to size up plant performance during the previous calendar year, with the overarching goal of ensuring that facilities are achieving the levels of safety that are essential to protecting the public and the environment,” said NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins, who noted the agency also conducts mid-year assessments of performance. “At the meeting on April 24th, members of the public will receive information about how we go about that review process for Susquehanna and other nuclear power plants across the nation. The NRC staff will also be prepared to answer questions from attendees.” The annual assessment letter for Susquehanna is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/susq_2006q4.pdf . The notice for the meeting, with agenda attached, is available in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML071000363. ADAMS is accessible at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html . Help in using ADAMS is available via the NRC’s Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR@NRC.GOV . Overall, the Susquehanna plant operated safely during 2006. The NRC utilizes color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear power plant performance. The colors start with “green” and then increase to “white,” “yellow” or “red,” commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. Because all of the performance indicators for the Susquehanna plant were determined to be “green” and there were no inspection findings greater than “green” at the end of 2006, the plant will receive the baseline, or routine, level of inspections in 2007. Routine inspections are performed by two NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa. Among the areas of plant performance to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are activities associated with radiological safety, control room operator requalification testing and component design bases. In addition, there will be inspections conducted in conjunction with the agency’s review of license renewal and power uprate applications for the plant. Current performance information for Susquehanna 1 is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/SUSQ1/susq1_chart.html . Current performance information for Susquehanna 2 is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/SUSQ2/susq2_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. April 18, 2007 ***************************************************************** 15 Times of India: Finland to support India's N-commerce-Rest of World- [ 18 Apr, 2007 1255hrs ISTPTI ] OLKILUOTO (Finland): Reflecting Europe's willingness to do civil nuclear commerce with India, Finland is keen to demonstrate its largest atomic power plant under construction as a proven design for future trade in this energy segment. The 1600MW plant is coming up in the south-western part of this country near Pori after a gap of over 20 years and it could be a proven design for India's proposed European Pressurised Light water reactors (EPR) in Jaitapur island in Maharashtra. A truly multinational effort, the three billion Euro nuclear power plant construction involves 1,400 direct subcontractor companies in 27 countries and more than 1,000 designers including a few Indian consultants, Anneli Nikula, Senior Vice-President CSR and Communications of TVO, a Finnish company told a group of visiting Indian journalists. Financing with a 20 per cent equity and 80 per cent open market fund, the plant is expected to be commissioned in 2010-11 after an 18-month delay, said Nikula. India is planning six large EPR type reactors in Jaitapur at a cost of Rs 50,000 crore. The construction delays of Olkiluoto's third unit by 18 months due to several factors, including quality control, would help Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) as well as France which will soon begin the construction of EPR plants. Strongly lobbying for nuclear energy as Finland's future – 24 per cent of Finland's energy is met by nuclear power – and to cut carbon dioxide emissions, the Teollisuunden Voima Oy (TVO) has taken up the challenge of setting up Finland's fifth nuclear plant which is also the largest in the world. After a lot of negotiations, the cost of the plant was drastically kept at Euro three billion even though the company may have suffered huge losses due to the 18-month delay, said Nikula. Although the plant was due by 2009, it may be commissioned only in 2010-11, said Nikula. The power plant will be using 3.3 per cent enriched uranium and sea water as coolant and is first of its kind in the world being constructed near the existing two upgraded Boiling water reactors here of Westinghouse Atom of US run by TVO, said Nikula. The plant is being built as a total delivery by a consortium formed by AREVA NP and Siemens. AREVA NP is responsible for the delivery of the reactor island and Siemens for the delivery of the turbine island, Nikula said. The plant designed by AREVA NP is based on the experience gained from the pressurised water reactors most recently commissioned in France (N-4) and in Germany (Konvoi), Nikula said. OL-3 is of the so-called evolutionary type and in this line of development the basic solutions are derived from technology already proven in practice. "New solutions have been applied sensibly without compromising the production capacity and reliability of the plant," Nikula added. To facilitate manpower training to run the new plant, TVO is also constructing a simulator delivered from Canada, Kathe Sarparanta, Communication Manager OL-3 project Department, said. "We are also recruiting personnel and training them in Germany," she said. Asked about the reasons for the 18-month delay, she said since Finland was building its nuclear reactors after more than 20 years, the quality control protocols were to be evolved to cater to the modern plants in addition to putting the safety culture in proper perspective. Copyright ©2007Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For ***************************************************************** 16 Ghana News: German legislator cautions on nuclear power Myjoyonline.com Posted on: 18-Apr-2007 Previous Page A German legislator, Dr Axel Berg, has advised the Kufuor government to be cautious in considering nuclear energy as an option in view of environmental, cost and accessibility implications. He said maintaining and operating a nuclear grid can be very dear especially considering extending its facility to a vast span of communities in the country. Additionally, disposing of its waste has environmental implications, he cautioned. Dr Berg, a member of the ‘Bunderstag’ or German Parliament, noted that after the second world war, the thinking in Europe was the use of nuclear energy for power needs but that has had its own implications, and the new thinking is towards renewable energies. He has since 2003 been the deputy spokesman on energy policy for the SPD parliamentary group within the governing coalition, Dr. Berg who paid a brief visit to the country last week was hosted by the Ghanaian-German Economic Association (GGEA) was involved in drafting the Renewable Energy Source Act (EEG) in 2004 which is one of the most successful functioning instruments for renewable energies. At an informal roundtable discussion at the GGEA office involving a number of energy related stakeholders, the discussion centered on renewable or alternative sources of energy in light of Ghana’s current energy crisis. The Chief Executive Officer of DENG Limited, Mr Christopher Munteanu urged Dr Berg to lobby the Bundestag to support Ghana’s power supply, especially with the partnership of private power suppliers to feed into the national grid. Myjoyonline.com ***************************************************************** 17 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Assessment for Beaver Valley Nuclear Plant at Public Meeting Scheduled for April 25 News Release - Region I - 2007-021 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 www.nrc.gov CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual assessment of safety performance at the Beaver Valley nuclear power plant, in Shippingport (Beaver County), Pa., will be the subject of a public meeting on Wednesday, April 25. NRC staff will meet with representatives of plant owner FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. at 2:30 p.m. to discuss the assessment, which covers the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2006, and was documented in a March 2nd letter to the company. The session will take place in Conference Room A at the Site Emergency Response Facility for the plant, which is located on Shippingport Road in Shippingport, Pa. Before the meeting is adjourned, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the performance of the twin-reactor Beaver Valley plant, as well as the role of the NRC in providing oversight of plant safety. “Each year we take a step back to size up plant performance during the previous calendar year, with the overarching goal of ensuring that facilities are achieving the levels of safety that are essential to protecting the public and the environment,” said NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins, who noted the agency also conducts mid-year assessments of performance. “At the meeting on April 25th, members of the public will receive information about how we go about that review process for Beaver Valley and other nuclear power plants across the nation. The NRC staff will also be prepared to answer questions from attendees.” The annual assessment letter for Beaver Valley is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/bv_2006q4.pdf. The notice for the meeting, with agenda attached, is available in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML070851215. ADAMS is accessible at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in using ADAMS is available via the NRC’s Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR@NRC.GOV. Overall, the Beaver Valley plant operated safely during 2006. The NRC utilizes color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear power plant performance. The colors start with “green” and then increase to “white,” “yellow” or “red,” commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. At the conclusion of last year, all of the performance indicators for Beaver Valley were determined to be “green.” With one exception, there were no inspection findings for the plant that were identified as greater than “green” at that time. There was a “white” (low to moderate safety significance) inspection finding in the area of emergency preparedness that was finalized on Dec. 12, 2006 and that remains open. That finding involves an inadequacy in the way radioactive releases from the plant would be calculated, potentially resulting in untimely recommendations on protective actions for the public. In response, the NRC will conduct a supplemental inspection at the plant sometime in 2007 to determine if the problem has been properly addressed. In addition, the NRC issued a Severity Level III Notice of Violation to FirstEnergy on Dec. 19, 2006 associated with the preparation of a work package that was to be used for the replacement of the Beaver Valley Unit 1 reactor vessel head last year. Specifically, a contract engineer did not attach all of the necessary evaluations for the project but signed a document indicating the package was complete. The Notice of Violation was part of an agreement reached with the company during an Alternate Dispute Resolution session that also led to an order confirming actions FirstEnergy had taken to prevent a recurrence. All documents involved have been corrected. The NRC now considers the issue resolved. Routine inspections are performed by two NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa. Among the areas of performance at Beaver Valley to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are activities associated with Extended Power Uprates for both reactors at the site, Unit 1 containment sump modifications, radiological safety and the plant’s problem identification and resolution program. Current performance information for Beaver Valley Unit 1 is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BV1/bv1_chart.html. Current performance information for Beaver Valley Unit 2 is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BV2/bv2_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. April 18, 2007 ***************************************************************** 18 BBC NEWS: Views sought over n-plant closure Last Updated: Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 11:30 GMT 12:30 UK Most of the buildings will be removed in the early stages People are to get the chance to comment on proposals to decommission the Oldbury nuclear power station. The station is due to cease generating electricity at the end of 2008, and the statement looks at the plans and impact of the site's clearance. The document examines the consequences for the site for more than 100 years. Information sessions Thornbury, St Mary Centre, 12 May 0900 - 1700 BST Lydney library, 17 May, 1200 - 1900 BST Coleford Music Festival, 27-28 May, all day Chepstow library, 31 May, 1200 - 1900 BST Oldbury Fun Run, 17 June, all day The project includes the removal of most of the buildings at the South Gloucestershire site, storage of intermediate level waste in a new, purpose-built complex until it can be safely removed and alterations to the existing reactor building prior to its total removal. The statement examines the environmental impacts of decommissioning Oldbury, and covers everything from traffic movements and the visual impact on the local community to the potential socio-economic impacts and the effect on air quality, surface waters and geology. Also included are efforts to protect wildlife, including badgers, great crested newts, slowworms and sea clover. Copies of the document are available for inspection at libraries in the area or can be downloaded from the website. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 19 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Assessment for R.e. Ginna Nuclear Plant At Public Meeting Scheduled for April 25 News Release - Region I - 2007-022 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 www.nrc.gov CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's annual assessment of safety performance at the R.E. Ginna nuclear power plant, in Ontario, N.Y., will be the subject of a public meeting on Wednesday, April 25. NRC staff will meet with representatives of plant owner Constellation Energy, LLC, at 7 p.m. to discuss the assessment, which covers the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2006, and was documented in a March 2nd letter to the company. The session will take place at Ontario Town Hall, 1850 Ridge Road, Ontario. Before the meeting is adjourned, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the performance of the Ginna plant, as well as the role of the NRC in providing oversight of plant safety. "Each year we take a step back to size up plant performance during the previous calendar year, with the overarching goal of ensuring that facilities are achieving the levels of safety that are essential to protecting the public and the environment," said NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins, who noted the agency also conducts mid-year assessments of performance. "At the meeting on April 25th, members of the public will receive information about how we go about that review process for Ginna and other nuclear power plants across the nation. The NRC staff will also be prepared to answer questions from attendees." The annual assessment letter for Ginna is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/ginn_2006q4.pdf . The notice for the meeting, with agenda attached, is available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML071010234. The meeting slides are available under accession number ML071010226. ADAMS is accessible at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html . Help in using ADAMS is available via the NRC's Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR@NRC.GOV . Overall, the Ginna plant operated safely during 2006. The NRC utilizes color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear power plant performance. The colors start with "green" and then increase to "white," "yellow" or "red," commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. At the conclusion of last year, all of the performance indicators for Ginna were determined to be "green." Because all of the performance indicators for the plant were determined to be "green" and there were no inspection findings greater than "green" at the end of 2006, the facility will receive the baseline, or routine, level of inspections in 2007. Routine inspections are performed by two NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa. Among the areas of performance at Ginna to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are activities associated with containment sump modifications, radiological safety, emergency preparedness and component design bases. Current performance information for the Ginna plant is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/GINN/ginn_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. April 18, 2007 ***************************************************************** 20 FayObserver.com: Nation's nuclear plumbing still isn?t connected to anything Published on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Our View: Critics of commercial nuclear power have a couple of valid points to make about spent-fuel storage at Progress Energy’s Shearon Harris plant near Raleigh. Hear them out. * Spent-fuel storage pools are not as extensively protected as the containment buildings in which nuclear reactors do their work. That could make them more attractive terrorist targets. * Large concentrations of spent fuel represent a greater potential for harm than small ones. Harris, which was designed with excess storage capacity even before the utility reduced the number of reactors to be installed, is a big concentration. A reactor containment is a hard target, but there’s nothing soft about a spent-storage facility, either. The buildings are designed to withstand anything nature can throw at them, including earthquakes; and every licensed pilot knows how small a digression it takes to get yourself a fighter escort these days. Yes, both can be breached, with disastrous results. But they are not choice targets. The proposal to disperse the waste to a larger number of sites misses the point entirely: That’s exactly what we’re doing now. Both of the criticisms cited above could be leveled at most other commercial nuclear power plant. What’s happening at Harris and at those other plants is a direct consequence of something that is not happening in Washington, D.C. Four successive presidents and half a dozen Congresses have steadily moved away from what the best minds and the best science long ago found to be the most responsible (not perfect; just responsible) course of action: deep burial in stable geological formations. Politicians caved in to various kinds of pressure and effectively handed the problem off to future generations, to be solved, if it can be solved, in crisis and in haste. The balloon was squeezed in Nevada, at a place called Yucca Mountain, and there the discussion trailed off. The Harris plant is just one of scores of places in which the balloon is now bulging. Of course Raleigh would like to host less spent fuel. So would Rock Hill and Charlotte. So would any other metropolitan area with a lick of sense. But the question, decades old and still awaiting an answer, is simple: Where are we — all of us, working together to build a consensus — willing to have the stuff sent? Copyright 2007 - The Fayetteville Observer ***************************************************************** 21 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Brunswick Nuclear Plant News Release - Region II - 2007-022 - 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 Progress Energy officials on Monday, April 23, to discuss the agency's assessment of safety performance last year at the two-unit Brunswick nuclear power plant, located near Southport in southeastern North Carolina. The meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. in the Brunswick Media Center Auditorium near the entrance to the plant site. 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. "The NRC continually reviews the performance of the Brunswick plant and the nation's other commercial nuclear power facilities," NRC Region II Administrator William Travers said. "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." 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/bru_2006q4.pdf . The NRC uses color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear plant performance. The colors start with "green" and then increase to "white," "yellow" or "red," depending on the safety significance of the issues involved. The NRC said the Brunswick plant operated safely during 2006, but performance during the second, third and fourth quarters was in the NRC's regulatory response column, based on a "white" performance indicator related to the Mitigating Systems Performance Index, Emergency AC Power System. This performance indicator crossed the green (very low safety significance) to white (low to moderate safety significance)threshold in the second quarter of 2006 due to issues associated with availability and reliability of emergency diesel generators. The details are available in the letter mentioned above. The NRC has completed a supplemental inspection related to this performance indicator. Currently, the NRC is reviewing another concern related to the emergency diesel generators that might impact the NRC assessment for the first quarter of 2007. This concern was discussed with Progress Energy at a regulatory conference held in Atlanta earlier this month. The NRC will discuss the status of this concern and the NRC's overall assessment of Brunswick at this performance meeting. Routine inspections are performed by NRC resident inspectors assigned to the Brunswick plant and by inspection specialists from the Region II office in Atlanta and the agency's headquarters in Rockville, Md. Current information for the Brunswick plant is available on the NRC web site at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BRU1/bru1_chart.html and www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/BRU2/bru2_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. April 18, 2007 ***************************************************************** 22 IHT: Business of Green: Is nuclear power worth the risk? - International Herald Tribune By James Kanter and Elisabeth Rosenthal Published: April 18, 2007 The International Herald Tribune is leading a global dialogue on how businesses and consumers are responding to climate change at our Business of Green blog. I've been seeing a lot of commentary lately about how nuclear power could help to solve the climate change problem. These articles usually mention how nuclear power yields virtually zero greenhouse gas emissions and how - unlike wind or solar - nuclear is ready to go and creates the same vast and steady supplies of power as traditional power stations fired by fossils fuels like gas and coal. Yet green groups like Friends of the Earth remain hugely skeptical. They say the industry has long relied on subsidies to be affordable, and they warn of lethal accidents and a growing stockpile of materials that could be turned into nuclear weapons. Is curbing the heating of the planet more important than, say, finding long-term answers to nuclear's drawbacks? Here are some recent, edited entries and responses from readers. The Business of Green Blog: Join the most global green discussion on the Web. » View Harry Toll,Wilton, Connecticut How many people have been killed by nuclear accidents? Then ask how many people have been killed already by fossil fuel-fired plants through increased rates of asthma and associated respiratory diseases. And how many more will be killed by rapidly accelerating global warming from flooding, heat waves and so on? Nuclear power offers a medium-term solution today. David Shaproski, Leiden, Netherlands There is still the problem of disposal of nuclear waste; surely funds should be available and/or taxes on nuclear power to further the research on making it less toxic for our grandchildren. Ann Rawson (No country given) Putting a ceiling on our never-ending desires, and utilizing thus- saved resources for global good - this is the only way to solve the issues we facing. Ajith Sankar, Coimbatore, India We need to look at nuclear power not as a permanent solution, but as a holding position to meet the demands of countries like the United States, China and India, until we have developed other technologies and reduced our appetite for power consumption. Perhaps Australia, which has not signed up to Kyoto, might like to step up to the plate and provide a recycling and waste storage capacity. Australia is awash with money made from exporting obscene amounts of uranium and coal to China, and as a nation they need to take some responsibility for all the coal they export. Ian Walthew, France Paying a fee to drive car into central city For the past several years, people wanting to drive into Central London during business hours have had to pay a daily fee of Ł8, or about $16. The zone was expanded to include west London in February; the city government says that traffic in west London has decreased by more than 10 percent. Hybrid cars and cars that run on biofuels are exempt from the hefty fees. Everyone in London is affected and has had to adjust to the regulations, though grumbling is widespread. Though traffic moves better in the congestion-charge zone itself, people tend to complain it is often worse around the edges. Many other cities have contemplated following London's lead, from Milan to New York. Stockholm has already done so. What do you think about the concept of a congestion charge? How much would you be willing to pay for the convenience of driving your vehicle? The congestion charge does not put a price on the pollution, it puts a price on congestion. You pay for your car to be there, and the price is the same whether you drive a tiny car one mile from your home outside the zone to your office inside the zone, or whether you spend the whole day having fun in your Hummer. In essence, the congestion charge removes poor drivers from the road to make way for the rich. Jorn Madslien, London Werner Patels, Calgary, Alberta Traffic congestion charges would probably activate the use of public transportation. But would this only have a positive effect? You cannot promise the safety and security of the public transportation, as there will be tons of people in the rush hour, trying to squeeze in the subway. So I say the fee has to become cheaper, or they should give some special benefit for people under a certain amount of income who cannot afford to pay the expensive charges. But the best idea would be the government improving public transportation, such as making more direct routes. DoKyung Kim, Dhaka, Bangladesh E-mail: green@iht.com Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 23 Prague Daily Monitor: Czech-Austrian Temelin parliamentary watchdog taking shape - By Prague Daily Monitor/CTK / Published 18 April 2007 Prague, April 17 (CTK) - The Czech-Austrian parliamentary commission that is to monitor safety in the nuclear power plant in Temelin, south Bohemia, starts to take shape, it ensues from information representatives of the two countries' parliaments gave CTK today. The lineup of the commission that is to comprise representatives of both houses of the two parliaments was discussed in Prague by Anna Elisabeth Haselbach, Austrian Federal Council deputy chairwoman, Czech Senate chairman Premysl Sobotka and Chamber of Deputies chairman Miloslav Vlcek. Barbara Prammer, chairwoman of the Austrian National Council could not arrive because of illness. Some Czech and Austrian NGOs and Austrian politicians say Temelin, situated some 60km away from the border, is not safe. They also say that the Czech Republic issued an approval of use for Temelin last year without necessary improvements having been done. The Czech Republic is to be represented in the commission by 10 deputies, with two from each of the five parties in the lower house, and three senators. Haselbach said that the Austrian commission will be "proportionally very close to the Czech." The Federal Council will be represented by two members, representatives of Social Democrats and the People's Party. The National Council (lower house) will be represented by deputies for each of the five parties, she said. Haselbach said the two parliaments will nominate their representatives to the commission as soon as possible. The first meeting of the commission could be held in Prague, the second in Temelin and the third in Austria, Vlcek said, adding that it could start working in June. Sobotka said the commission would invite nuclear energy experts to its meetings. The meeting in Prague today was held on the eve of a meeting of representatives of parliaments of the Regional Partnership countries that also comprise Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. The decision to form a joint Austrian-Czech commission on Temelin was made by Czech PM Mirek Topolanek and Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer in end-February. Topolanek said that the commission should among others contribute to Austria's rafification of the information agreement on Temelin, and thus formally end the dispute over the power plant. Austrian anti-Temelin activists are against the commission which, they say, will only politicise the negotiations about Temelin. This story copyright 2007 CTK Czech News Agency The Prague Daily Monitor and Monitor CE are not responsible for its content. copyright 2007 monitor ce media services s.r.o. | all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 24 NRC: NRC Denies Entergy's Request for a Second Deadline Extension For an Order Requiring Siren Back-up Power News Release - 2007-049 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the issuance of amended regulations regarding the issuance of limited work authorizations (LWA) for construction related to new nuclear power plants. The Commission also approved the issuance of updated “fitness-for-duty” requirements, such as work hour limits and drug and alcohol testing, at nuclear power plants. The rules will become effective following publication in the Federal Register later this year. The new work authorization regulation defines “construction” that requires either an LWA, a Part 50 construction permit or a combined license. Under the final rule, no LWA, permit or license is required for activities such as site clearing, transmission line routing, excavation, road building and erecting construction-related support buildings or service facilities. An LWA, construction permit or license is required, however, for activities including pile-driving and foundation work for structures, systems or components with high importance to safe operation and security at a nuclear power plant. Activities beyond these, however, would require a full construction permit or combined license. The new work authorization regulation allows applications for an authorization to be submitted in advance of a complete application for a construction permit or combined license. For a site where a construction permit was issued but no plant was built, the LWA application could reference an existing environmental impact statement for the site, taking into account the possible need for updated information. A draft version of this rule was published for public comment in the Federal Register in October 2006. 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. April 18, 2007 ***************************************************************** 25 Reporter online.com: Meeting set tonight on Limerick By: EVAN BRANDT, For THe Reporter 04/18/2007 LIMERICK - The public will get a chance to discuss the report card issued to Exelon Nuclear's Limerick Generating Station during a special meeting tonight. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will discuss the annual assessment of safety performance for the plant at 6:30 p.m. at the Limerick Energy Information Center, 298 Longview Road in Limerick. NRC staff will meet with plant staff and discuss the matters addressed in the plant's annual assessment letter, issued March 2. In the letter, Mel Gray, chief of Reactor Projects Branch 4, wrote that the annual inspections during 2006 found no problems above a "very low safety significance." Overall, units 1 and 2 of the plant "operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives," Gray wrote. Because all the plant's "performance indicators" fell within the "green" category, the plant will require "no additional NRC oversight" in 2007, Gray wrote. He noted that the results of the safety inspection, as they relate to security matters, are not made public, as required by federal law. After discussing the 2006 performance with Exelon officials, "NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the performance of the twin-reactor Limerick plant, as well as the role of the NRC in providing oversight of public plant safety," according to a release issued by the NRC. On tap for the 2007 inspections will be the "activities associated with the construction of a dry cask storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at the site, fire protection, component design bases and emergency preparedness," the release noted. ©Reporter online.com 2007 ©2006 The Reporter - a Journal Register Property. All Rights ***************************************************************** 26 Buenos Aires Herald: Chavez hints at buying Argentine nuclear plant Founded in 1876 Thursday, April 19, 2007 Edition Nş 1608 Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez raised the idea of buying a nuclear power plant from Argentina yesterday and playfully suggested to his Colombian colleague Alvaro Uribe that it could be set up near Venezuela’s border with Colombia. President Néstor Kirchner, who was seated with other presidents during Chávez’s speeches, did not immediately respond to the idea and nor did he have much to contribute verbally in general in a short and silent stay on the Venezuelan island of Margarita, even skipping lunch to head home at 1.40pm. What Kirchner did do was sign various general energy integration agreements with his South American peers in the context of the First South American Energy Summit on Margarita island. But the summit also looked beyond the energy sphere towards the creation of a Union of Southern Nations (UNASUR), replacing the South American Community of Nations which was the pet project of Kirchner’s predecessor Eduardo Duhalde. Ex-president Rodrigo Borja of Ecuador has been proposed as the executive secretary of the future union whose headquarters are to be in Quito. Beyond multilateral issues and integration, the summit also found time to declare its unanimous support for Argentine sovereignty claims over the Malvinas, calling on Argentina and Britain to resume negotiations as soon as possible in accordance with United Nations resolutions. All 12 countries also congratulated Argentina on its decision to scrap 1995 Anglo-Argentine co-operation on the joint exploration of South Atlantic (a move made in the week preceding the 25th anniversary of the Ma-lvinas War), the Foreign Ministry also announced. © Copyright 2000 - 2007 © S.A. The Buenos Aires Herald Ltd. All rights reserved Política de Privacidad ***************************************************************** 27 New London Day: DEP, Dominion Ask Court To Dismiss Suit Against Millstone [ Welcome to theday.com ] By Patricia Daddona Published on 4/17/2007 in Home »Region »Region News The state Department of Environmental Protection asked a Hartford Superior Court judge Monday to dismiss an activist's call for the court to oversee the renewal of a water discharge permit for Millstone Power Station in Waterford. Attorneys from Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's office argued on behalf of the DEP, saying anti-nuclear activist Nancy Burton of Redding lacked standing to proceed with the case. Burton, who belongs to the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, has failed to show she's part of a group “that's protected and suffered some specific harm,” Blumenthal said. Burton has asked the court to intervene in the renewal process in place of the DEP, which is planning to conduct public hearings on whether Millstone's permit should be renewed. The permit expired 10 years ago but is still in place pending the outcome of the hearings, which have not yet been scheduled. Former DEP Commissioner Arthur J. Rocque Jr. granted Millstone emergency authorization to operate until the permit is renewed. Burton is also asking the court to shut down Millstone's reactors during the spawning season to prevent marine life from being destroyed when sucked with water from Long Island Sound into Millstone's intake structures and grates. The water is used to cool the reactors as they generate electricity. Dominion, owner of the nuclear reactors, mounted an argument similar to the one put forth by the state's attorney's office, according to court filings. The company maintains that Burton lacks standing, and that she has not exhausted administrative remedies, namely, the state public meetings planned as the permit is considered. Judge Lois Tanzer heard the arguments Monday, taking over for Judge Vanessa L. Bryant who heard the arguments originally but has since been reassigned to the federal bench. At the hearing, Burton countered that she has standing as a citizen trying to “avail herself of remedies to protect and uphold the public trust in the environment.” Regional Privacy Policy | Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200 | New London, CT | © 1998-2007 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 28 Hindustan Times: Bush defends Indo-US nuclear arrangement- April 18, 2007 US President George W Bush has defended the civilian nuclear energy arrangement with India. Referring to India Bush said it is "good policy" for America to encourage emerging economies to use clean energy like nuclear power. "I believe that it's good policy for the United States to encourage these emerging economies to use clean energy, nuclear power, so as to help reduce demand for kind of non-renewables. And so I'm going to talk to them about development of a civilian nuclear power industry", Bush said. Bush was answering a question from the audience during a meeting at Tampa in Florida on Friday. The President, who said he would be visiting India "on March the 1st", said the deal was in the interests of the United States. "But this expansion of nuclear power -- ..It's in our interests," Bush said, adding "..We've got to get off of hydrocarbons. We just do. And I'm a believer in nuclear power". Speaking on the issues concerning spent fuel, Bush said he was "convinced we can work internationally to address those issues". The White House also indicated yesterday that Bush would be talking about energy, especially nuclear energy, in his radio address on Saturday. ***************************************************************** 29 Comment is free: A bad nuclear reaction guardian.co.uk/commentisfree > John Harris Let's put today's stories about Sellafield in context: the key issue is the nuclear industry's future, not its past. John Harris April 18, 2007 2:30 PM | Printable version Another year, another Sellafield story. Through 2005 and 2006, Britain's sole nuclear reprocessing plant periodically crash-landed in the headlines thanks to a ruptured pipe, the spilling of plutonium and uranium dissolved in nitric acid, and the closure of its Thorp (Thermal Oxide reprocessing) plant, widely reported as a "leak", though everything was actually safely contained. Now, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the legendary accident of 1957 - when the plant was at the centre of the UK's nuclear weapons programme, and known as Windscale - the Times has broken a story that crystallises some of the nuclear industry's most malign stereotypes - chiefly, its old fondness for secrecy. Just to recap, then. For around 30 years, it is alleged, staff at Sellafield stored and tested the organs of some of the plant's former workers. According to the management, they did so with the authority of a coroner, though not - so the Times claims - with the say-so of their families. According to the report, "the scandal will hit families hardest in the close-knit community of Whitehaven, where most workers have traditionally lived since the plant became a big employer in the 1960s" - which is true, though Whitehaven is a dyed-in-the-wool company town, where the kind of nuclear jitters that periodically grip the national media are usually greeted with indifferent shrugs. No matter, though: the reports also contain predictably negative quotes from the local(ish) pressure group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment, as well as - seemingly by way of filling space - the potted story of the 1957 fire. What is it with Sellafield? The next couple of sentences will doubtless prompt the odd angry response, but what the hell: over the last couple of decades, the plant has cleaned up its act, engaged with its critics, and arrived at a point where cries of alarm from the usual suspects can usually be confidently dealt with (Greenpeace, for example, has drawn attention to traces of Sellafield fission products detectable in Scottish salmon - though the Food Standards Agency says that, even at the highest concentrations they've found, you would have to eat 700 portions of salmon a day for a year to reach the annual permitted EU radiation dose). Since the days when it was somewhat hysterically branded "the world's nuclear dustbin", it has accordingly managed to cut down on its appearances in high-profile news reports and anxious documentaries. But still the stories come, tapping into that part of the public psyche that will forever hear the word "nuclear" and shiver. I visited Sellafield for a Guardian Weekend feature published in October 2005, partly based on the fact my father and grandfather had both worked there. I heard one word more than most: "legacy", chiefly used in conjunction with "waste", and used to describe the grisly inheritance from the period in which Sellafield's technicians were desperately working on the first British bomb. Back then, safety concerns were blithely put to one side, and secrecy ruled - and on the latter score, a tight-lipped, defensive culture prevailed at Sellafield long after the military people had gone on their way. Today's reports are of a piece with all that, pointing up not so much an innate aspect of the nuclear industry as that part of British life, running between private industry, the military and the state, that for too long kept itself hidden, and assumed that its wrongdoing would always be covered up. The reports draw parallels between Sellafield and the Alder Hey hospital scandal of 1999, though one could equally easily make comparisons with any number of other non-nuclear stories. What's different in this case is the way that any intrigue can be glued to stuff that reawakens public fears about nuclear energy, and thereby given that bit more room in the press. If you understand the difference between Sellafield's past and present - and that the plant is now a wholly more transparent, eco-conscious operation than it was in the 50s, 60s, and 70s - you may be able to put everything in context. There again, if you're an opponent of the nuclear industry, that isn't something that will necessarily come easy - better by far to keep things vague and mixed-up, and stoke an anti-nuclear hostility that increasingly seems to verge on the irresponsible. For what it's worth, I cleave to the view of that green icon James Lovelock: "We have no time to experiment with visionary energy sources. Civilisation is in imminent danger and has to use nuclear - the one safe available energy source - now, or suffer the pain soon to be inflicted by our outraged planet." In other words: the issue is the future rather than the past, and whether we let Sellafield's old transgressions skew our understanding of the modern nuclear industry is up to us. Now, commence the shouting ... del.icio.us | Digg it | Tailrank | Reddit | Newsvine | Now Public | Technorati Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007. Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396 Registered office: Number 1 Scott Place, Manchester M3 3GG ***************************************************************** 30 Ynetnews: Egypt: Nuclear engineer admitted he spied for Israel - Israel News, Saber. 'Gave a full confession' Photo: Reuters Egyptian state-owned paper reports engineer arrested for spying for Israel admitted he provided information about nuclear reactor to two Mossad agents Roee Nahmias Published: 04.18.07, 15:07 / Israel News Egyptian engineer Mohammed Sayed Saber, who was arrested about two months ago by the Egyptian police, has admitted he had spied for Israel, state-run Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram reported. According to the report, Saber gave a full confession of his alleged contacts with two Mossad agents who were his alleged operators, and with whom he met in Hong Kong. The two agents, an Irish citizen named Brian Peter and a Japanese citizen named Shiru Itzu, who had not been located yet, work for a company which specializes in space research, the paper said. The two reportedly gave Saber a computer program to use for breaking into the nuclear energy agency's central computer. Al-Ahram said that Saber, who used to work as an engineer for Egypt's nuclear energy agency, later transferred to the nuclear reactor in Inshas following his recruitment by the Mossad. Saber was provided with details on the nuclear fuel facility at the reactor, and gave his operators information, which according to the indictment against him "could compromise the state's highest interests," in exchange for money. The paper also reported that Saber supplied the Mossad agents with information on the production process, quantities of uranium, security and safety procedures and chemical compounds. Copyright © Yedioth Internet. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Guardian Unlimited: There is now no doubt that global warming is a security threat to us all Comment The debate on climate change at the UN top table is a sign that the big powers are at last beginning to see sense Jonathan Freedland Wednesday April 18, 2007 If British politics were a dinner party then Tony Blair would be that guest who got up to say goodbye an hour ago, insisting he had to be off - only to hang around by the front door, his coat on and car keys jangling, chatting about this and that and never actually leaving. The result is a strange sense of limbo, where the old period has not quite ended and the new one has not yet begun. A sense of drift has hovered over the government since the attempt to push the prime minister from office last September. Ministers insist they are as busy as ever, but they admit to an absence of leadership. It feels like nothing is happening. So it's heartening to hear of one area, at least, where the British government has taken a lead. Yesterday the security council of the United Nations discussed climate change for the very first time. Not some environmental subcommittee, not a platitudinous exchange of slogans in the general assembly, nor even the intergovernmental panel on climate change, but the security council. The same security council that usually grapples with border disputes, sanctions or weapons of mass destruction - that security council was yesterday debating carbon emissions and the danger they pose to the Earth. That may seem sensible and obvious: after all, if the council's job is to fret about threats to global security then the threats don't come much bigger than the risk that we might be boiling the planet. But, incredibly, the body had never talked about global warming before - and they were not keen to start yesterday. Of the permanent members, the United States, Russia and China had all objected, Moscow's ambassador to the UN admitting he was "lukewarm because of where it is discussed". Translation: the security council is meant for grown-up stuff involving bombs and bullets, not airy-fairy talk about trees and polar bears. Unluckily for Washington, Beijing and Moscow, the presidency of the security council rotates, and this month it's Britain's turn. Foreign secretary Margaret Beckett insisted that this is what she wanted the council to discuss, and yesterday they did. She was right to insist. Right, too, not to bother with passing a resolution - where the argument would have rapidly descended into a long row about the semicolon in line five - but to have what UN-speak calls a "thematic debate", one that seeks solely to force an issue into people's minds. Despite the misgivings of those big three, it turned out to be quite an event: a record turnout for a debate of this kind, not confined to the 15 members of the council but with speeches from 52 different countries. By the end, a strong majority agreed that climate change posed a clear threat to international security. That was the entire point of the exercise, to reframe the way people think about this problem. There's good, pragmatic reasoning behind that. The glum reality is that governments tend to take security threats more seriously than any other kind. Just think of what Washington has spent on the "war on terror". If George Bush gets his latest budget through Congress, he will have spent $750bn of American taxpayers' money on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in a little over five years. Environmentalists drool when they imagine what they could have done with a fraction of that money. Even a quarter of the total, say a meagre $200bn, could have paid for enormous strides towards a low carbon economy. It could, for instance, have paid to transform the way we generate electricity, by capturing carbon and storing it in the ground, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. That, when it happens, will be a massive, international infrastructural project. But if governments approached it with the degree of urgency, will and wherewithal they apply to traditional national security threats - with the seriousness and money-no-object commitment Bush and Blair showed to the "war on terror" - then suddenly it would look eminently possible. So this makes political sense: cast global warming as an environmental or science issue, and it will be given a budget to match. Cast it as a problem for the big boys, on a par with nuclear proliferation or international terror, and then it should get a big-boy budget and attention. Not that that requires any stretching of the facts. Professor Bill McGuire of University College London's Hazard Research Centre says climate change compares to terrorism in the way a "huge festering sore compares to a pimple". To call it a threat to our safety is not a PR trick, it is a statement of the truth. In the most direct way, the overheating of the Earth promises danger - including threats the security council would immediately recognise. If land becomes uninhabitable through flooding as glaciers melt and sea levels rise, or through drought as things get hotter, the people now living on that land will move. Credible forecasts speak of 200m people displaced by the middle of the century. Some of that movement will be within countries, but some will be across international borders - and we all know the strains that can produce. There will be clashes over limited resources as people compete over fertile land and drinkable water. Darfur, where conflict has been caused in part by a shift in rainfall and the resulting clash between nomadic herders and settled pastoralists, could be a glimpse of the shape of things to come. It might be scarce crops or reduced fish stocks, it could be a humanitarian disaster caused by a hurricane or flooding, or it could be a fight over energy itself, over oil or gas. There is no shortage of threats our changing climate could pose, either sparking conflict directly or taking an existing area of tension and pushing it over the edge into outright war. That's not entirely in the future. Already the issue is acquiring the more familiar shape of an international relations problem. Note the description by Uganda's President Museveni of rising emissions as "an act of aggression" by the rich nations against the poor. We pollute for decades; they pay the price in lost landscapes and lost lives. (Uganda derives 80% of its energy from hydro-electric power: drought means there's now no water behind the dams and a massive energy crisis in the country.) As the consequences of global warming become more visible, and more felt, that sentiment will grow - along with the conflict, or even international terrorism, that it might bring. Yesterday's debate is a sign that this penny is beginning to drop. Maybe not in Russia, whose UN ambassador warned against overdramatisating the problem of global warming, nor in the White House, which offered the security council an empty statement yesterday, in keeping with the Bush administration's shaming record of denial. Still, and in defiance of all that, two US senators, Republican Chuck Hagel and Democrat Dick Durbin, have tabled a bill that would demand all US agencies come together to produce a national intelligence estimate of the threat of climate change. Such exercises were once reserved for the Soviet nuclear arsenal or the state of the Middle East. These changes matter. The big powers know how to put out fires when they want to. Now they just have to realise they are facing a blaze larger than any of us have ever seen - and one that could engulf us all. freedland@guardian.co.uk Useful link Green party of England and Wales Email your comments for publication to politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 32 Daily Yomiuri: A-bomb victims' groups shocked People in Nagasaki and Hiroshima prefectures, on whose capitals nuclear bombs were dropped in the closing days of World War II, on Wednesday deplored the murder of Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito. "I was astonished to see that two mayors of Nagasaki, which is playing a leading role in promoting the elimination of nuclear weapons and in calling for world peace, were shot. Ito was a mayor we could count on," said Koichi Kawano, the chairman of Nagasaki Peace Action Center's Local Industrial Unions A-Bomb Victim Liaison Conference. "I was impressed by Ito's conviction that nuclear weapons should be abolished by every means possible. I would like to convey my condolences to Ito, who was killed before his dream of nuclear disarmament came true," Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said in a statement. Sunao Tsuboi, the head of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations, drank with Ito on the night of the anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki last year. "Nothing makes me angrier than seeing someone who wished for peace being violently killed...Ito was such a kind man," Tsuboi said. ) The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 33 BBC NEWS: Space shield to block radiation Last Updated: Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 15:29 GMT 16:29 UK By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News, Preston The plasma-filled shield would offer protection from harmful particles British scientists are planning to see whether a Star Trek-style deflector shield could be built to protect astronauts from radiation. They argue that magnetic shields could be deployed around spacecraft and on the surfaces of planets to deflect harmful energised particles. Several countries' space agencies have announced their intentions to resume human exploration of the Solar System. Details have been presented at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Preston, UK. There are a variety of risks facing future space explorers, not least of which is the cancer-causing radiation encountered when missions venture beyond the protective magnetic envelope, or magnetosphere, which shields the Earth against these energetic particles. The nice thing is that magnet technology is really quite evolved here on Earth. The question is can you take it into space? Mike Hapgood, Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory The Earth's magnetosphere deflects many of these particles; others are largely absorbed by the atmosphere. Between 1968 and 1973, the Apollo astronauts were only in space for about 10 days at a time. They were simply lucky not to have been in space during a major eruption on the Sun that would have flooded their spacecraft with deadly radiation. Crew members on the International Space Station can retreat to a thick-walled room during times of increased solar radiation. Stable field But these protective shelters would not be practical on long-duration space journeys, since the "drip-drip" of energised particles is thought to be as harmful to the health of astronauts as large solar storms. Potentially damaging solar activity is hard to predict The harmful particles come from the Sun, in the form of the solar wind, and from sources outside our Solar System. To create the deflector shield around a spacecraft or on the surface of a planet or moon, scientists need to generate a magnetic field and then fill it with ionised gas called plasma. The plasma would held in place by a stable magnetic field (without the magnetic field, the plasma would simply drift away). This shield could be deployed around a spacecraft or around astronauts on the surface of a planetary body such as the Moon. As energetic particles interact with the plasma, energy is sapped away from them and they slow down. "You don't need much of a magnetic field to hold off the solar wind. You could produce the shield 20-30 kilometres away from the spacecraft," explained Dr Ruth Bamford, from the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, UK, one of the scientists on the team. Dr Mike Hapgood, from the Didcot-based research centre, told BBC News: "The nice thing is that magnet technology is really quite evolved here on Earth. The question is can you take it into space?'" The team from Rutherford-Appleton plans to build an artificial magnetosphere in the laboratory. They would eventually like to fly a test satellite which would test the technology in space. 'Shields on' The idea has been likened to the deflector shields which protect the USS Enterprise and other spacecraft in Star Trek. Like their fictional counterparts, these shields could also be switched on and off. The planned moon base will be exposed to solar radiation An artificial magnetosphere could come in handy anywhere in the Solar System where humans would need to be for long durations. A permanent Moon base, of the type Nasa plans to build, could be buried under lunar soil to protect the occupants and equipment from space radiation. But inhabitants will still be vulnerable when venturing outside in their spacesuits. "Our warning systems aren't very good [for solar flares]. You might be able to say: 'this is a dangerous period in terms of solar activity', but you might be on red alert for weeks," said Dr Hapgood. "If you've got a problem, you might not want to wait a week to fix it. You might want a device to deploy on the surface as a shield that would blunt the effect of a flare at ten minutes' notice, it adds an extra level of safety." The idea for the shields draws on technology pioneered in experimental nuclear fusion reactors. Nuclear fusion is not yet a mature technology. It works on the principle that energy can be released by forcing together atomic nuclei rather than by splitting them, as in the case of the fission reactions that drive existing nuclear power stations. At the Jet experimental fusion facility at Culham in the UK, magnetic fields were used to keep plasma away from the interior wall of the reactor. This represents a reversal of that technology: "We want to use the same technique to keep an object in the middle away from plasma that's on the outside," said Dr Bamford. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 34 UPI: Uranium groundwater study announced United Press International - NewsTrack - Science - Published: April 18, 2007 at 1:59 PM WASHINGTON April 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy is funding a $27.5 million, five-year study of contaminated groundwater at two former uranium processing sites. The study by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is designed to identify new approaches and strategies to help resolve questions about the movement of subsurface contaminants. The research will be conducted at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. -- the nation's most contaminated nuclear site -- and at a uranium mill tailings site in Rifle, Colo. A team of PNNL scientists and researchers from three other Energy Department laboratories, four universities and the U.S. Geological Survey are involved in the study. "We hope to understand the microbial factors and the associated geochemistry that is controlling uranium movement, so that (the Department of Energy) can confidently remediate the uranium plumes," PNNL geohydrologist Phil Long said. "Our approach should lead to new knowledge that can then be used to develop effective flow and reactive transport models." © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 cbs4denver.com: Radium Removal To Close Denver Streets For Weeks Apr 18, 2007 6:25 am US/Mountain Crews Will Tear Up Several Streets In Capitol Hill Katherine Blake Reporting (CBS4) DENVER Some business owners and residents in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood are preparing for a frustrating summer as several streets in the area of 9th Ave. and Corona St. will be shut down. Crews will be resuming a project to remove radium from the old asphalt. The radioactive material has been buried in the streets for decades. It was used as asphalt filler in the early 1900s. Contractors removed some of the radioactive material from several streets between 2003 and 2005. The project resumes again in May. Stretches of the streets will be closed for several weeks. Small business owners who rely on street parking for customers are concerned. "When we get people from the suburbs and other parts of the city and they can't park, they leave," said Steven Bonnett of Parkway Group Real Estate. When work is complete around 9th Ave. and Corona St., crews will move onto York St. between 13th and 6th avenues. That phase of the project is expected to begin in early August. "When we get people from the suburbs and other parts of the city and they can't park, they leave." Contractors removed some of the radioactive material from several streets between 2003 and 2005. The project resumes again in May. Stretches of the streets will be closed for several weeks. CBS © MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 36 AFP: Pacific nuclear victims awarded one billion dollars - by Giff Johnson Wed Apr 18, 3:49 AM ET MAJURO (AFP) - Residents from a Marshall Islands atoll exposed to fallout from US nuclear tests have been awarded more than one billion dollars of compensation, but may never receive a cent of it. The Marshall Islands-based Nuclear Claims Tribunal, which issued the ruling Tuesday, has virtually no money to pay the award and has labeled United States-provided compensation "manifestly inadequate." The ruling was issued more than 15 years after the claim was first filed by leaders from Rongelap, a low-lying western Pacific coral atoll engulfed in snow-like nuclear fallout from the 1954 Bravo test at nearby Bikini atoll. Bravo was the biggest ever US nuclear test and was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs which devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The tribunal was set up in 1988 under an agreement with the US when the Marshall Islands gained independence from its former colonial master. Since 1991 it has paid personal injury claims of Marshall Islanders affected by 67 US atmospheric nuclear tests conducted in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958. But the tribunal halted payments in 2006 for lack of money. A Tribunal official said the compensation trust fund provided by the US has dropped from its original 1986 amount of 150 million dollars to just one million dollars, which is expected to be exhausted by next year. Rongelap mayor James Matayoshi said that the islanders plan to file suit against the United States in the US Court of Claims to seek enforcement of the tribunal's 1.03 billion dollar award. The award is the largest of the four "class action" awards made by the tribunal, none of which have been paid because of the lack of funds. Bikini and Enewetak islanders filed suit last year against the US government in the Court of Claims to get enforcement of their tribunal awards. A hearing is expected to take place on April 23 in Washington. The tribunal has already issued awards totaling over one billion dollars for claims filed by Enewetak and Bikini atolls, which were the sites of the 67 nuclear tests, and for Utrik, another atoll that was hit by fallout from the Bravo test. Rongelap islanders were evacuated from their island home for three years after the Bravo test but were exposed to more radiation when repatriated to their island by the US in 1957, the tribunal said. "Although the people were assured that it was safe to return to Rongelap in 1957, it was evident that the US knew Rongelap was still contaminated at that time," tribunal judges James Plasman and Gregory Danz, both Americans, said in their ruling. The judges said that the people "came to feel like guinea pigs, used for experimentation by the US." Rongelap Islanders evacuated themselves from the atoll in 1985, fearing continued radiation exposure. The islanders "suffered emotional distress and a degraded quality of life as a consequence of the contamination of their property," the ruling said. The award covers loss of property value from radiation contamination, the costs of a clean-up to allow future resettlement, and hardship and suffering. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 37 IAEA: IAEA Nobel Prize Money Fights Cancer Crisis in Latin America 18 April 2007 | More than 60 of the world´s leading cancer experts are being brought together in Buenos Aires, 23-27 April 2007, by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assess Latin America´s growing cancer burden. Poor medical facilities and lack of trained personnel and funding are limiting countries´ ability to expand cancer care services and treat patients, while cancer rates are expected to double by 2020. More than 70 per cent of all cancer deaths occur in low and middle income countries and globally cancer kills more people than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Through its Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) the IAEA is using funds, awarded for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, to sponsor training workshops, such as the Buenos Aires event, that alert policy makers and health experts to the pressing need for national cancer control plans and programmes. "I hope that this event in Latin America is the first of many that will enable us to work together to help combat this dreadful disease and provide quality of life to our fellow human beings," said Director General of the IAEA, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei. "Cancer is a disease that is spreading very fast in the developing world and we have come to realise that we have to do much more to combat it in this part of the world." In Latin America, there are an estimated 450,000 cancer deaths annually. The most commonly occurring cancers in men are prostate, stomach, lung, and colorectal and in women the most commonly occurring cancers are breast, cervix, stomach and colorectal. Breast and cervical cancer can be prevented through screening and early detection and can be cured in the early stages with effective treatment. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that cancer will soon reach epidemic proportions, causing up to 10 million deaths a year by 2020. Yet at least one third of all cancers are preventable. A further one third of cases can be effectively treated if detected early. PACT was established in 2004 to help developing nations combat the growing cancer crisis. Building on the IAEA´s 30 years of expertise in promoting radiotherapy, PACT´s goal is to help develop more cancer treatment facilities and provide the trained personnel who can operate them in the world´s developing regions and ensure that they are integrated into comprehensive cancer control programmes. "PACT is building partnerships with the WHO and other international cancer-control organisations so that the battle against cancer can be waged at country level," says the Head of PACT, Massoud Samiei. "This entails a broad multi-disciplinary approach that includes cancer prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment and palliation and, more importantly, education and training of professionals." The IAEA´s share of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize award is also being devoted to training personnel from developing countries in the fight against cancer and malnutrition. Current estimates suggest that several billion US$ are needed if the cancer crisis in low and middle-income nations is to be contained effectively. Initial funding for PACT comes from the IAEA and several non-traditional donors. PACT seeks to raise donor awareness of the cancer problem to mobilize new resources and enable developing countries to introduce, expand or improve their cancer control planning and programming, to provide services in a sustainable manner. The meeting opens at 09.00 on Monday, 23 April, at Roffo Hospital. At 10.45, there will be a press conference/panel discussion with opening session speakers. These include: * G. Gonzales Garcia, Minister of Public Health, Argentina * Juan Antonio Casas-Zamora, Director, Division for Latin America, Department of Technical Cooperation, IAEA * Massoud Samiei, Head, PACT Programme Office, Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT), IAEA * José Antonio Pagés, PAHO/WHO Representative, Argentina * R. Sankaranarayanan, Head, Screening Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) * Elmer Huerta, President-elect, American Cancer Society (ACS) * Eduardo Cazap, President, Sociedad Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Oncología Médica (SLACOM), International Union Against Cancer (UICC)/ International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR) Sessions will focus on comprehensive cancer control, evidence-based radiation oncology and emerging techniques in radiotherapy planning and delivery. All sessions of the five-day meeting are open to journalists. Please note that only the first two days will be conducted in English and Spanish while days 3-5 will be conducted only in Spanish. Related Resources: » Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) » PACT Brochure: English | Spanish [pdf] » Nobel Peace Prize Danielle Dahlstrom Public Information Officer Media and Outreach Section Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-26523 [43] 699-165-26523 (mobile) About the IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) serves as the world's foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Established as an autonomous organization under the United Nations (UN) in 1957, the IAEA carries out programmes to maximize the useful contribution of nuclear technology to society while verifying its peaceful use. NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit the Press Section of the IAEA's website (http://www.iaea.org/Resources/Journalists/), or call the IAEA's Division of Public Information at (431) 2600-21270. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 38 NAS: Project: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of Depleted Uranium Project Title: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of Depleted Uranium PIN: PHPH-H-06-01-A Major Unit: Institute of Medicine Sub Unit: Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice RSO: Mitchell, Abigail Subject/Focus Area: Project Scope A committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will review, evaluate, and summarize scientific and medical literature regarding the association between exposure to depleted uranium and chronic human health effects. The study committee will focus on literature published since the IOM's 2000 report, Gulf War and Health, Volume 1: Depleted Uranium, Pyridostigmine Bromide, Sarin, and Vaccines was written. The committee will make determinations on the strength of the evidence for associations between exposure to depleted uranium and human health effects. The report might include recommendations for additional scientific studies to resolve areas of continued scientific uncertainty. The findings will not be limited to veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. They also will be applicable to veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. This project is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The start date for the project is September 18, 2006. A report will be issued at the end of the project in approximately 15 months. Project Duration: 15 months Provide FEEDBACK on this project. Contact the Public Access Records Office to make an inquiry or to schedule an appointment to view project materials available to the public. Committee Membership Meetings Meeting 1 - 03/22/2007 Reports Reports having no URL can be seen at the Public Access Records Office Email: info@nas.edu ***************************************************************** 39 Whitehaven News: Minister launches inquiry into Sellafield 'body parts' tests Published on 18/04/2007 THE GOVERENMENT is to investigate union claims that nuclear workers who died in the 1960s and 70s may have had body parts removed without consent. The GMB said that samples were taken from up to 70 former Sellafield employees. British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), which owns Sellafield, confirmed autopsy material had been used for "legally correct" purposes such as inquests. The firm said it can prove instruction or consent for 61 out of 65 cases. A government spokesman said Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling would appoint a leading QC to lead a "full, proper and independent investigation" into the matter. Mr Darling is due to make a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday. Radiological analysis sampling began in the 1960s and stopped in 1992, according to BNFL. The GMB claims tissue, bones and body parts may have been removed without permission during the tests. National officer Gary Smith said: "Our chief concern is for the families of those who died during this period and the anguish they face. "We need information from the company and we expect a quick reply to clarify what has happened." The subject came to light because of a request by the Westlakes Research Institute to examine data for a new study, said a BNFL spokesman. He said: "This is an historic issue not a current one, however our prime concern is the feelings of the families of those involved." All tissue samples taken were destroyed by the process of analysis and no tissue is stored on site today, he explained. The Prospect union's general secretary, Paul Noon, said the issue must be treated in an open and transparent way to protect the interests of the affected families and employees across the nuclear industry. View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/digitalcopy ***************************************************************** 40 Whitehaven News: BNG hold fire on beach monitoring Published on 12/04/2007 Frightening the tourists?: The monitoring has now been put on hold until the summer holiday season is over By Alan Irving PROBES for radioactive materials will take place on Copeland’s beaches between Drigg and St Bees, this summer, but locals and holidaymakers are being advised not to worry. More sensitive but costly monitoring equipment will be used to look for items contaminated by radioactivity from Sellafield’s operations. Radioactive items have turned up occasionally, over the years, but the new equipment will be able to trace radioactive particles at deeper levels under the sand than ever before. The monitoring comes at a time when Seascale residents say they have started to recover from the “Sellafield radiation stigma” after the 1983 leak from the nuclear plant. It resulted in many people refusing to swim in the sea and had an adverse effect on tourism. But this week Sellafield’s operators, British Nuclear Group, reacted quickly to concerns. BNG has agreed not to monitor the bathing areas until later in the year when there are fewer people about and also not to send the eight-wheeled vehicle out during the summer school holidays. Parish and district councillor, David Moore, said: “As far as Seascale is concerned, we’ve agreed that, during the peak of the summer, monitoring will be done between the rock poles and the Sellafield discharge pipeline and the popular bathing areas are left until later in the year, when most of the tourists have gone. “This makes good sense but at the same time it’s reasonable that we should make use of this more sensitive equipment which can trace things at deeper levels. “It’s a double-edged sword in a way, but I would call it reassuring monitoring, to give us further confidence that there is no risk from any radioactive particles that might be uncovered. Our concern now is to ensure that BNG continues to carry it out as discreetly as possible.” Coun Moore, who is also chairman of the West Cumbria Stakeholders Group, which is the independent health and safety watchdog for Sellafield, said that the new equipment had already been used in trials on Braystones beach. Nine radioactive particles were traced but all were at very low levels and caused no health risks. John Tucker, who runs Beach Stores on Seascale’s seafront, said: “If this was happening five or 10 years ago we might be anxious, but in a way it’s encouraging they are taking advantage of the new equipment, hopefully to give us more assurance that everything is safe on the beaches.” Mark Richardson, of Hartley’s Ice Cream, which has a cafe on St Bees foreshore, said: “It would have been better to leave this work to the winter; we have just had a very busy Easter at St Bees and I hope it won’t affect us much.” BNG says it is carrying out the summer programme to meet new Environment Agency radiation monitoring requirements which means that most of the checks have to be completed by July 31 and the remainder by the end of March next year. See Leader on page 10 View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/digitalcopy ***************************************************************** 41 Indigestion in the Belly of the Beast! Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:58:12 -0500 (CDT) From another listserve Indigestion in the Belly of the Beast Last Tuesday was a pleasant Spring day in the clean, quiet little city of Pasco, Washington. Fruit trees were blooming and all, on the surface, seemed well. Alerted to expect a caravan of anti-nuclear protesters from Eugene for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hearing that evening, the local press and a county commissioner greeted the arrival of our blue-and-white Veterans for Peace bus at the Red Lion Inn. The commissioner shook hands all around and disingenuously declared, "Glad you could be here." The young people staffing Pasco's cafes and fast food outlets were exceptionally well-mannered, accommodating representatives of their town. But interviewed on the street by our media crew, away from their parents and employers, they were less than sanguine about their community. They said they couldn't swim in the river or eat the fish they caught or they would get very sick. "Low level" nuclear waste from the nine reactors along the 50-mile "Hanford reach" of the Columbia River, dumped for decades in unlined pits, has been leaching in underground "plumes" toward the river, eventually contaminating the salmon spawning grounds. Local residents with whom we spoke consistently recited a delusional belief that the contamination would be washed away by the river and the sea and pose no threat to us downstream consumers. They were far more conversant with nuclear technology than with DNA. In fact, their testimony at the hearing made clear that nuclear science was the only science worthy of the name. Despite years of cleanup research and billions of dollars spent, the sources of ground water contamination still haven't been identified or cleaned up. "We know we're at least close to one major source," a DOE ground water geologist stated in last Thursday's Tri-Cities Herald. "If we can find the source, we can clean it up." A Herald story the following day reported that "Hanford workers have moved enough radioactive waste through two- and three-inch underground pipes in recent months at the tank farms to fill six Olympic-size swimming pools." These "fields of underground tanks," the story continued, "hold 53 million gallons of some of Hanford's worst waste contaminated with high-level radiation and hazardous chemicals." But everything in the Tri-Cities looked fine at ground level. And the DOE snuck this hearing in so quietly that very few anti-nuclear voices were in attendance. Without our contingent of nine Oregon imports, they would have been hopelessly outnumbered. The hearing began with a DOE presentation of a proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) The Global aspect of this program is that America will become the nuclear sewage pit of the planet, taking highly-toxic, highly-radioactive, extremely-difficult-to-handle nuclear waste from any and all countries -- anyone we can bargain with -- and then we will ship it, truck it, train it to one or two American sites and finally enrich it. Pull out what we like, and pile up (or disperse to the winds and waters) what we don't. And get this, the startup will cost taxpayers hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars! And there's no mention of ALL the deaths along the way! And then, we'll make nuclear bombs and nuclear reactor fuel with it. They'll use it to make Depleted Uranium bunker busters and they'll even recycle used radioactive steel and DU into mainstream manufacturing! The DOE furnished handouts with brief and carefully worded descriptions, touting nuclear as an energy source that doesn't pollute the air (they didn't mention the earth or its water, of course). Their proposed system will allegedly be "proliferation-resistant" (not proliferation-secure), making nuclear materials "nearly impossible" (not impossible) to divert without detection. They were clearly hedging their pledges, and it wasn't reassuring. Hanford is one of 11 U.S. nuclear installations in the running for two or three selected sites, and its citizenry was bidding hard for the very lucrative contracts. They testified about their expertise, experienced personnel, established facilities, and distinguished history of nuclear productivity. One woman declared her pride that the plutonium bomb that incinerated 70,000 people at Nagasaki "won the war," apparently unaware that Japan had been negotiating surrender all summer in 1945 and the Hanford bomb was used not to defeat Japan but to intimidate and deny bargaining position to Russia which had entered the war the day before. Our testimony reminded them that others around the country including Oregon were concerned with this decision. We expressed our distrust of nuclear energy production and our preference for solar, wind, tidal and geothermal sources that produce no hazardous waste or byproducts to increase the U.S. arsenal of WMDs. Depleted uranium had remained discretely unmentioned until our two veterans broached the indelicate issue of its genocidal use in Iraq in armor-piercing shells that shatter into DNA-altering microscopic particles producing vastly increased rates of cancer and birth defects, adding that 99.3% of nuclear material is the "depleted" U238 after fissionable U235 is extracted, and this is provided freely to weapons manufacturers. DU was declared an illegal weapon in 1996 by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, making its use a war crime and crime against humanity with which, we suggested, those in the nuclear industry are unwittingly complicit. Our bus had been parked that afternoon near the Museum of History, Science and Technology in Richland. While some of us toured the museum, others stayed with the bus which visually broadcast our presence. Two visitors came by and climbed aboard. Both men had testified to the DOE in a closed meeting earlier that day. One man is Program Manager of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management for the Yakama Nation. He explained that the entire Hanford reservation violates an 1855 treaty, reaffirmed in 1974, that guaranteed use of this land to his people for hunting and fishing. His companion was a hydrogeologist who explained that the nuclear reprocessing technology proposed for development by the DOE was undeveloped, with questionably functional and uncoordinated components, and had been attempted unsuccessfully before, costing the taxpayers $1.6 billion before it was given up. If Hanford is selected as a reprocessing site, much of the projected 63 million metric tons of nuclear waste, radioactive for 10-20,000 years, would be imported by trucks and boxcars through Oregon. Yet we nine were the only Oregonians represented at this underpublicized hearing. A hastily arranged Oregon follow-up hearing has been scheduled for Monday, March 26th Hood River Best Western 6PM. That's just one hour away from Portland. The Hotel is visible from I-84 at the 2nd Hood River exit (heading east). The Hotel is visible from I-84 at the 2nd Hood River exit (heading east). Talking points and detailed fact sheets on the wastes that would be imported and produced from GNEP are available at www.hoanw.org . Can't attend? The DOE is continuing to take comments on its environmental study of the project. They may be sent until April 4 to Timothy Frazier, GNEP PEIS Document Manager, Office of Nuclear Energy, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave. S.W., Washington, DC 20585-0119, or e-mailed to GNEP-PEIS@nuclear. energy .gov. Mark envelopes and e-mails as "GNEP PEIS Comments" (and be sure to ask USDOE to send you a response and to add you to mailing list)! Oregonians decided 15 years ago to close Trojan and no longer produce nuclear material in our state. We doubt our citizens will be any friendlier to the prospect of its transport across Oregon on I-5, I-84 and our rail lines. We hope you will pack the Hood River hearing and make your Oregonian views known. We'll be there in our big blue-and-white bus, hopefully loaded to capacity. Y'all come too! Rick Gold/Nan Cohen/Louisa Hamachek - nukeinfo.org Jack Dresser/Gordon Sturrock - squadron13.com - Veterans for Peace Matt Laubach/Larry Dobberstein - Community Access TV Videographers EugenePeaceWorks.org 454 Willamette Eugene, OR 97401 343-8548 p.s. Our weekly Cut_the_Funding Group is Tuesday 5:15pm at PeaceWorks ***************************************************************** 42 Las Vegas SUN: Walker River tribe pulls permission for Yucca Mountain rail line Today: April 18, 2007 at 8:30:8 PDT LAS VEGAS (AP) - A federal proposal to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain along a western Nevada rail corridor has been dealt a blow, after the Walker River Paiute Tribe withdrew its permission to use a route through its reservation. The tribal council passed a resolution Tuesday removing the tribe from a federal environmental impact study that included a rail segment for shipments of spent nuclear fuel along the outskirts of tribal lands north of Walker Lake. "After considering the information we had gathered to date and discussions with our membership, the tribal council made the decision not to continue with the Department of Energy's process," tribal Chairwoman Genia Williams said in a statement. "The tribe will not allow nuclear waste to be transported on rail through our reservation," Williams said. The Walker River Paiutes had faced pressure from tribe members and from nearby communities worried about the possibility of nuclear waste traveling through northern Nevada. Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said following a presentation Monday by the head of Nevada's anti-Yucca Nuclear Projects Agency that he would ask the tribe to rescind its invitation for the U.S. government to study the rail line. Energy Department officials had considered the route, dubbed the Mina corridor, as a possibly cheaper and easier route to transport nuclear waste from around the nation to a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Allen Benson, an Energy Department and Yucca Mountain spokesman in Las Vegas, said the tribe's decision means the Mina corridor will be dropped from the department's choices of potential rail lines to Yucca Mountain. But Benson said the Energy Department would still include the Mina route in an impact statement expected to be released in October. Elimination of the Mina corridor "certainly simplifies DOE's options," said David Blee, executive director of the U.S. Transport Council, a coalition of nuclear waste shippers. The Energy Department has said it favored a 319-mile rail corridor to Yucca that originates at Caliente in eastern Nevada. But some analysts have said the so-called Caliente corridor would be more expensive and more challenging to build than the 209-mile north-south Mina route, which could use old rail beds in some areas. Nevada officials fighting the Yucca repository said nuclear waste from California likely would travel through Reno and Sparks, which sparked local opposition. Bob Loux, Nuclear Projects Agency director, welcomed the tribe's announcement. "This essentially would cut off use of the whole Mina corridor. I guess they're back to Caliente," Loux said. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a staunch opponent of the federal plan to entomb the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada,hailed the tribe's decision as another blow to the Yucca Mountain project, which he said was "on its last legs." --- Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 43 Guardian Unlimited: Inquiry into body parts test claim From Press Association Wednesday April 18, 2007 3:48 AM Alistair Darling is due to announce an inquiry into claims that nuclear workers who died in the 1960s and 70s had body parts removed without their families' knowledge. The Trade and Industry Secretary will tell the Commons of plans to appoint a leading QC to head up an independent investigation into the issue. It follows calls for an inquiry by the GMB union, which said it had learned that the workers' body parts had been removed for medical examination. GMB national officer Gary Smith said up to 70 people who worked at the Sellafield plant in Cumbria may have had tissue, bones and body parts removed without permission. He added: "Our chief concern is for the families of those who died during this period and the anguish they face. We need information from the company and we expect a quick reply to clarify what has happened." A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said: "The prime concern is the feelings of the families. There are clearly a number of matters that need investigating dating back to the 1960s." A spokesman for BNFL said: "This is an historic issue not a current one. However, our prime concern is the feelings of the families of those involved. "The sampling of autopsy material began in the 1960s and ceased in the early 1990s. Files exist at Sellafield for 65 cases. An examination of the data has shown that in 56 of those cases the sampling was done associated with coroners' post-mortems or inquests. "In five other cases it was done under instruction from other legally correct bases, such as family solicitors. "For the remaining four cases there is no record of instruction or consent on file although this does not mean that appropriate requests were not made. "We will consider with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority any information we have and will discuss with other interested parties in order to agree a way forward." © Copyright Press Association Ltd 2007, All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 44 Guardian Unlimited: QC will probe body parts removal From Press Association Wednesday April 18, 2007 1:08 PM The QC who conducted an inquiry into the removal of organs from children is to investigate claims that nuclear workers had body parts removed, the Government has announced. Michael Redfern, who led the Alder Hey Children's Hospital inquiry in Liverpool, has been asked to establish the facts and report to ministers. Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling, who announced the move in an emergency statement to the Commons, said families of workers at the Sellafield site in Cumbria, as well as the public, wanted answers to questions raised by the latest disclosure. Mr Darling said most of the workers covered by the revelation worked at Sellafield, but he added that one individual worked at the Capenhurst nuclear site in Cheshire after transferring from Sellafield. There was also data at Sellafield relating to an employee at the Springfields nuclear site in Lancashire and six at Aldermaston. BNFL, which operates the Sellafield site, identified 65 cases in which tissue was taken from individuals which was then analysed for the radionuclide content of organs, said the minister. "It's important to tell the House the limited nature of the records that are held by BNFL. These are medical records which show what analysis was done on organs removed following post mortem examination. "Because they are medical records which dealt with the analysis carried out at Sellafield, they do not provide an audit trail which would show in every case who asked for such an examination under what authority and for what purpose. Nor do they disclose whether or not the appropriate consent from next of kin was received. "Some records have more information than others but at this stage it is simply not clear what procedures were followed in every case. "From the information I have, I can tell the House that 23 such requests for further examination and analysis were made following a coroner's inquest. "A further 33 requests appear to follow a coroner's post mortem. Three requests were made associated with legal proceedings and there was one request made by an individual prior to death," said Mr Darling. © Copyright Press Association Ltd 2007, All Rights Reserved. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 45 Guardian Unlimited: Inquiry into autopsies on Sellafield workers Sellafield kept body parts of dead workers Michael White Wednesday April 18, 2007 The government will announce an independent inquiry today into claims that body parts of workers who died in suspicious circumstances at Sellafield and other nuclear plants were secretly taken for medical examination without their families' consent for more than 30 years. It was not immediately clear whether skin samples only or limbs and tissues were taken for laboratory examination from the 1960s until the practice was stopped in the early 90s but there are suggestions that almost 70 bodies may have been affected. Mindful of Liverpool's Alder Hey hospital scandal and other cases involving children's body parts being retained without consent for research, the government moved quickly to investigate the claims. Alistair Darling, the trade and industry secretary, will make a Commons statement today promising to appoint a leading QC to establish the facts and issue a report. "The prime concern is the feelings of the families. There are clearly a number of matters that need investigating dating back to the 1960s," said the Department for Trade and Industry. The GMB union went public with its call for an inquiry yesterday, four days after the area's two Labour MPs, Tony Cunningham and Jamie Reed, first heard the allegations and demanded an investigation from the chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Ian Roxborough. Between them the MPs represent most of the 13,000 staff at Sellafield, Britain's oldest nuclear facility. Mr Cunningham said last night: "This is very disturbing and we have already demanded a full and thorough investigation. The relatives have a right to know exactly what happened even many years ago." What is suspected is that when an unusual death occurred at Sellafield, a heart attack in a young man for instance, a specialist doctor would examine the body and take samples of an unspecified character. It is claimed that other UK nuclear plants, Aldermaston and Harwell among them, were also involved in the procedure. But the doctor and two coroners said to have been used have died. The issue came to light when a scientist sought to review the accumulated data to support new studies and asked how it had been obtained. "Grotesque as it sounds we do not know which body parts or where they ended up," said one MP involved. British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) said the tissue was "stored appropriately" until destroyed during research. Stressing the issue was "historic not current", a BNFL spokesman said: "The sampling of autopsy material began in the 1960s and ceased in the early 1990s. Files exist at Sellafield for 65 cases. An examination of the data has shown that in 56 of those cases the sampling was done associated with coroners' post mortems or inquests. "In five other cases it was done under instruction from other legally correct bases, such as family solicitors. For the remaining four cases there is no record of instruction or consent on file although this does not mean that appropriate requests were not made. "The subject of sampling autopsy material came about now because of a request to re-examine the historic research data to support new studies. "That request was made by the Westlakes Research Institute to the Westlakes/NDA Research Governance Group and this is being considered by that group, the company and the unions. "Tissue samples waiting to be analysed were stored appropriately, on occasions for several months, however the samples were destroyed by the actual analysis process. There is no tissue stored on site today and the practice of taking samples for radiological analysis ceased in 1992." The GMB's national officer, Gary Smith, said: "Our chief concern is for the families of those who died during this period and the anguish they face. We need information from the company and we expect a quick reply to clarify what has happened." Useful links British Energy Department of Trade and Industry British Nuclear Fuels Ltd Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Greenpeace Come Clean WMD awareness programme UK atomic energy authority National Radiological Protection Board Friends of the Earth World Nuclear Association World Nuclear Transport Institute Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 46 Guardian Unlimited: From Windscale to Sellafield: a history of controversy Peter Walker Wednesday April 18, 2007 Sellafield nuclear processing plant. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Today's news that body parts were taken from dead workers at the Sellafield nuclear facility is grisly, but not entirely unexpected when considered within the history of what is possibly Britain's longest-running public relations disaster. Over its half-century of nuclear work, the Sellafield complex, by the village of Seascale on the west Cumbria coast, has attracted the ire of everyone from environmentalists to governments of every political hue in Ireland and Scandinavia. Sellafield's long lifespan has been due to two factors: firstly, the economic importance of the thousands of jobs it generates, and secondly the sheer complexity and expense of decommissioning the nuclear waste-ridden facility. The one and a half square mile site's dubious public reputation began almost immediately, when it was still known as Windscale. A former second world war munitions factory, it became Britain's first nuclear complex in the late 1940s, and its Calder Hall reactors began generating electricity in 1956. However, a major fire broke out in a reactor chimney a year later, spreading radioactivity across the surrounding countryside in what is generally thought to have been the world's worst nuclear accident before that at Three Mile Island in the US in 1979. This, more than anything, made Windscale a symbol of hate for environmentalists and opponents of nuclear energy, something that barely changed even when British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) decided to try and banish the bad memories by changing the plant's name to Sellafield in 1981. The reactor involved in the fire had to be shut down and sealed, but Windscale continued to generate power using its other Magnox reactors and a later, more advanced, gas-cooled reactor housed in the site's distinctive spherical "golfball" building. From the 1960s, Windscale also began reprocessing nuclear fuel, an operation later expanded to take in spent fuel from other countries. It was this activity that enraged Ireland and Scandinavian nations including Norway and Denmark, which bitterly oppose the practice of discharging water contaminated with radioactive waste substances such as Technetium-99 into the Irish sea. The Irish government took its complaints to the UN in 2001, saying pollution from the site broke the UN convention on the law of the sea. In 2003, UK government tests also found traces of Technetium-99 in salmon bred in farms near the plant. Electricity production finished in 2003 when the last of the elderly Calder Hall reactors were closed after almost 50 years of generation. However, bad publicity has dogged the waste reprocessing work, including a lengthy saga in 2002 when containers of spent fuel were sent back to Japan only to be rejected and returned to Sellafield. In April 2005, Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing facility had to be shut down after acid containing 20 tonnes of uranium and 160kg of plutonium spilled from a broken pipe. The accident caused no injuries and no radioactive material escaped, but a Health and Safety Executive report highlighted serious failings, including staff ignoring alarms. Just three months earlier, the UK Atomic Energy Authority had announced that nearly 27kg of plutonium - enough for seven nuclear weapons - was "unaccounted for", although it stressed this appeared merely to be an auditing error. These days, however, opposition to Sellafield is largely academic because the complex is being gradually shut down, meaning around three-quarters of its 10,000-strong workforce will lose their jobs by 2011. While BNFL still manages Sellafield, the complex has been owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which is overseeing the closure process, since 2005. But there is still plenty of time for more PR trouble ahead- with some waste remaining dangerous for 250,000 years, the authority warns that the closure process could take up to a century. Useful links British Energy Department of Trade and Industry British Nuclear Fuels Ltd Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Greenpeace Come Clean WMD awareness programme UK atomic energy authority National Radiological Protection Board Friends of the Earth World Nuclear Association World Nuclear Transport Institute Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 47 Guardian Unlimited: Sellafield worker's daughter condemns nuclear industry Matthew Weaver Wednesday April 18, 2007 Sellafield nuclear processing plant. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty The daughter of a man who died at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in the 1960s condemned the secretive nature of the nuclear industry today. Jean McSorley's comments came as the government announced an inquiry into claims that body parts of dead workers at the Cumbria site were secretly stored for medical tests. Her father, Patrick, died from a heart attack at the nuclear plant at the age of 39 in 1962. She says his body was taken for an autopsy without his family's consent. It is unclear whether his case is among those of 65 workers who died at the plant between the 1962 and 1991 and whose body parts appeared to have been secretly examined for radiation. The trade and industry secretary, Alistair Darling, announced an inquiry into the cases, which will be headed by Michael Redfern, the QC who conducted an inquiry into the children's organ scandal at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool. Ms McSorley - now a Greenpeace nuclear advisor - said the inquiry should cover hundreds of deaths in the industry. "My father worked as a construction worker at Sellafield in the 1950s," she told Guardian Unlimited. "When he died, we never gave permission for an autopsy. We weren't sure who took the decision. "What they were doing was trying to investigate whether contamination was having a impact on workers while at the same time denying that it was to the public." In 1977, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, McSorley's employer, said there was no health risk involved in working at Sellafield. Ms McSorley said families of workers who had died at nuclear plants had been put in an "incredibly invidious position" by the industry's conduct. "Families were trying to claim compensation from the companies that were taking the medical evidence," she added. She claimed the scandal would damage the government's bid to build a new generation of nuclear power plants. "It is going to raise an issue in the public mind about how this industry works," she added. "It shows that, as late as the 1990s, it was operating without due process. "Openness and transparency and the nuclear industry are mutually exclusive. They are always looking for reason not to be fully open with the public." Ms McSorley also challenged British Nuclear Fuels' claim that the issue was "historic", saying it was "still having an impact" on the lives of the families who had lost loved ones. BNFL said it could not comment on individual cases. In a statement on the issue, it said: "The sampling of autopsy material began in the 1960s and ceased in the early 1990s. "Files exist at Sellafield for 65 cases. An examination of the data has shown that, in 56 of those cases, the sampling was done associated with coroners' post mortems or inquests. "In five other cases, it was done under instruction from other legally correct bases, such as family solicitors." The statement said there was no record of instruction or consent on file for the remaining four cases, "although this does not mean that appropriate requests were not made". It added: "Tissue samples waiting to be analysed were stored appropriately, on occasions for several months. "However, the samples were destroyed by the actual analysis process. There is no tissue stored on site today and the practice of taking samples for radiological analysis ceased in 1992." Announcing the inquiry, Mr Darling said he believed it was "necessary to establish why these examinations were carried out and whether or not the next of kin were informed and consented to this analysis". Martin Fulwood, of the pressure group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment, welcomed the inquiry. "We are not fully aware exactly what was being done with body parts ... at the time, it [the nuclear industry] was very, very secretive," he said. "If they had admitted to any health problems, that would have been the equivalent of committing industrial suicide. So they kept the lid on it." A helpline has been set up for those who feel they may be affected. The number is: 01946 774017 Useful links British Energy Department of Trade and Industry British Nuclear Fuels Ltd Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Greenpeace Come Clean WMD awareness programme UK atomic energy authority National Radiological Protection Board Friends of the Earth World Nuclear Association World Nuclear Transport Institute Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 48 Guardian Unlimited: Q&A: Sellafield body part claims James Randerson, science correspondent Wednesday April 18, 2007 Why remove body parts? So far, British Nuclear Fuels, which now owns the Sellafield nuclear power station, have not released specific information about why organs - reportedly including hearts and lungs - were retained from workers at the site who died. However, it seems likely that those who kept the organs for testing wanted to investigate whether small doses of radiation might cause long-term health effects, and that workers at nuclear sites were exposed to doses that would be unsafe. "Under such circumstances, one might expect that measuring the level of contamination by radioactive material of the body of a Sellafield worker could be regarded as a routine part of a post-mortem examination in such a case," the Royal College of Pathologists said today in a statement. "If significant contamination had been found, it would have justified a review of practice in the nuclear industry. It might also have justified a claim for compensation by the relatives. Indeed, if the possibility of radioactive contamination was not investigated, a pathologist might even have risked allegations of not performing a proper investigation," the statement added. The Royal College said it had no specific information about the case, which was not in the public domain. What rules currently exist governing removal of body parts? Regulations have changed radically since the scandal surrounding the retention of children's body parts at the Alder Hey hospital in 1999. The Human Tissue Act of 2004 has made it a criminal offence to remove tissue after death unless appropriate consent from relatives is given or it is done under the authority of a Coroner or the courts. The act also set up the Human Tissue authority to regulate the removal, storage, use and disposal of human bodies, organs and tissue for approved reasons, such as research, transplantation and education. What rules were in place? The regulations in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, when most of the organ removals at Sellafield happened, were much less stringent. "The standard of consent required for such work has since changed dramatically," said the Royal College of Pathologists' statement. "The activities of those working many years ago should be judged against what was regarded as acceptable practice at that time," the statement added. Prior to 2000, consent procedures were brief and routinely included consent for the removal of 'tissue' without specifying exactly what or how much. Also, there was a perception amongst pathologists that if a post-mortem was done on the instruction of the coroner that included a wider authority to take samples than was actually the case. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 49 Guardian Unlimited: Alder Hey QC to investigate Sellafield bodies case Matthew Tempest and agencies Wednesday April 18, 2007 Sellafield nuclear processing plant. Photograph: AP. The QC who led the inquiry into the "baby-harvesting" scandal at Alder Hey hospital is to investigate the unauthorised use of body tissue from Sellafield nuclear workers, the government announced today. Reacting swiftly to the overnight revelation that 65 deceased workers had had body parts taken without permission, the trade and industry secretary, Alistair Darling, announced a formal inquiry under Michael Redfern QC to MPs today. Mr Darling warned that there was a great deal of confusion around the 65 cases, saying there was "no audit trail" in most cases, and it was "not clear what procedures were followed." The minister announced that the inquiry would look at why tissue was taken, if next of kin were informed, if proper procedures were followed and how the subsequent data was used. Mr Darling said that BNFL had so far identified 65 cases - all dealing with people who had worked at Sellafield, although one had subsequently transferred to the Capenhurst nuclear plant in Cheshire. Although reports today talked of body parts such as hearts, lungs and organs, Mr Darling referred mainly throughout his statement to "tissue", although he also confirmed that organs had been taken. But he warned that examination of the records so far did not provide information showing who asked for the body parts, or for what purpose they were used, or who - if anyone - consented to their use. The minister suggested that since some of the samples were requested after coroners' inquiries or post mortems, it was possible that the families knew of the analyses - but the inquiry would need to establish that. Mr Darling told MPs that the tissue involved would have been destroyed during testing. Charles Hendry, the shadow trade and industry secretary, welcomed the inquiry, saying that Mr Redfern had "exceptional expertise and authority". Mr Darling informed the House of Commons that 23 of the 65 cases had come about after requests following a coroner's inquiry, and a further 33 requests for tissues were made following post mortems. One biopsy had also been made on a living patient, he added, while in four cases there was no record of why the analysis was made. Mr Darling told MPs: "It's important to tell the house the limited nature of the records that are held by BNFL. "These are medical records that show what analysis was done on organs removed following post-mortem examination. "Because they are medical records which dealt with the analysis carried out at Sellafield, they do not provide an audit trail which would show in every case who asked for such an examination under what authority and for what purpose. "Nor do they disclose whether or not the appropriate consent from next of kin was received. "Some records have more information than others but at this stage it is simply not clear what procedures were followed in every case. "From the information I have, I can tell the house that 23 such requests for further examination and analysis were made following a coroner's inquest. "A further 33 requests appear to follow a coroner's post mortem. Three requests were made associated with legal proceedings and there was one request made by an individual prior to death," said Mr Darling. The total number could still go higher as the investigation proceeds; the GMB union claims samples were taken from up to 70 former employees. British Nuclear Group, which owns Sellafield, confirmed autopsy material had been used for "legally correct" purposes such as inquests. The GMB's national officer, Gary Smith, said this morning: "Our chief concern is for the families of those who died during this period and the anguish they face. "We need information from the company and we expect a quick reply to clarify what has happened." The cases date from the early 1960s to the early 1990s. MPs demanded to know whether samples had been taken from workers from other nuclear plants, or from nuclear submarines. The independent MP, Richard Taylor, a GP, said from his own experience that procedures for requesting body tissue from next of kin were "abysmally low" as recently as the 1970s. Email your comments for publication to politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 50 Sparks Tribune: Proposed nuke waste route presents potential hazards By Jessica Mosebach jmosebach@sparkstribune.net The proposed rail route to ship nuclear waste through Nevada to Yucca Mountain would present a variety of transportation and safety hazards and impact commercial and residential property values, the Sparks City Council heard at Monday's meeting. Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, has been studying this issue for 25 years. Loux gave a presentation on the potential effects of allowing repository cask-shipments. "In the early '90s we approached the (Walker River Paiute) tribe, which thought a more direct route now, called Mina, would be cheaper with less difficulty, engineering-wise," Loux said. However, the tribe then purchased the rail line that runs from Wabuska to Hawthorne from Southern Pacific and sought the Department of Energy's aid in seeking out a better route, now the proposed Mina/Schurz corridor. They have invited the Department of Energy (DOE) to study the rail line. Loux said this northern route through Nevada would have a deeper impact on rural communities in terms of water and traffic. The councilmen heard two potential scenarios for the shipment of nuclear waste for the years 2010 through 2033. In other council news: • Martini proclaimed April 23 to 27 as Arbor Week, which recognizes local foresters' efforts to care for trees and woodlands. • The council approved the appointment of Gary Dunn, the city emergency management administrator, as the principal National Incident Management System coordinator. • A donation in the amount of $3,656 from Hot August Nights to the Sparks Police Department was accepted. • Ward 4 Councilman Ron Schmitt praised and thanked city employees for their efforts in Friday's Media Day for their efforts in educating local 7th and 8th graders about city government and agencies. A railway method would produce about 10,725 cask-shipments by train – two or three daily, or eight rail casks – and one truck cask per week. A trucking method would involve 53,086 cask-shipments, about six per day, plus 300 rail casks of spent nuclear fuel shipped from Idaho. These numbers concern Loux, who stated that the track record of successful shipments of nuclear waste has been positive in the nation. With the increase of such loads being carried into Nevada, however, the potential for accidents in the handling of these materials would significantly increase. "We're concerned that the magnitude of these shipments would lead to human error," he said. "If one of these transportation casks were to be breached, if 1 percent of this cargo got out, it would contaminate up to a 42-square-mile area." Councilmen and citizens agreed that transporting nuclear waste materials could cause substantial harm to the land and personal health. Joan Holbert, a resident in Wabuska, commented on how this route would affect her geothermal property. "The contamination would affect our water, which is the fountain of life. It would destroy our gold, uranium, and other valuable resources," Holbert said. Loux said citizens are urged to write to Ginia Williams, chairperson of the Walker River Paiute Tribe at P.O. Box 220, Schurz, Nev. 89427, or call 773-2306 to express their concerns about this decision. Ward 1 Councilman John Mayer lamented that until now, Sparks has not been afforded the opportunity to have a meeting about the route. "We have not been respected or privileged to have a meeting so that the citizens of Sparks can make their wishes known. My family has worked in railroads ... and I know it is not a secured area behind (John Ascuaga's) Nugget," Mayer said. "It'll be a matter of months when it will be robotic switching and it will be catastrophic (if there's an accident)." Mayor Geno Martini then informed the council that the DOE will hold a forum on the issue, although the venue has not yet been determined. After Loux's presentation, Rob Joiner, government affairs manager, updated the council on the Legislature. Four bills regarding eminent domain and affordable housing were passed this week. Also, councilmembers unanimously voted to approve an award of $380,000 for a contract to HNTB for Community Visioning and Master Planning Services to the City of Sparks. City staff discussed various phases in which to complete the master plan, including population planning, conservation management, and housing. © 2007 Sparks Tribune ***************************************************************** 51 OMB Watch: EPA Issues another Delay in Contaminant Regulation - Regulatory Matters - Published: 04/17/2007 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently called for further study of a substance found in rocket fuel before regulation of the contaminant can occur. A Senate champion of environmental protections criticized the decision, which is the latest delay in a regulatory policy EPA has been developing since 1998. On April 12, EPA stated the agency will not regulate the drinking water contaminant perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel and fireworks. The National Academies of Science (NAS) found perchlorate commonly present in public drinking water supplies and found ingestion to inhibit human thyroid function. The EPA cited the need for further investigation in its decision not to regulate perchlorate. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) issued a statement chiding EPA for its decision. Boxer is a supporter of perchlorate regulation and has introduced two bills during the current Senate. One bill (S. 150) would mandate EPA to set a standard for perchlorate exposure, and the other (S. 24) would improve drinking water testing. Boxer said, "I am outraged that EPA has yet again refused to do its duty to protect the health of our families and communities from perchlorate pollution." Much of Boxer's displeasure stems from the amount of time EPA has spent developing perchlorate regulations. EPA first addressed the issue of perchlorate contamination in 1998 but has shown little progress in advancing regulations. During the Clinton administration, EPA began studying perchlorate with the intent of promulgating regulations to improve public health related to exposure. In 1998, the agency released its first assessment, which was then peer reviewed. In 1999, EPA issued interim guidance on perchlorate. The interim guidance intended to provide information on exposure levels for both EPA and non-EPA researchers. In 2002, EPA released a revised assessment of perchlorate based on the initial 1998 assessment. The White House then asked NAS to peer review that document and make recommendations. NAS issued its report in January 2005. In 2006, EPA replaced the 1999 interim guidance with new interim guidance, which adopted the recommendations of the NAS report. The new interim guidance, the current framework for assessing perchlorate, suggests a more definitive exposure level for research purposes. However, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found the White House and Pentagon had exerted political influence over the formation of the NAS study group, as well as the study itself. Because of the potential liability for defense contractors, political appointees urged NAS to downplay the danger of perchlorate, according to NRDC. It is unclear to what extent the political pressure altered the study's findings because, according to NRDC, "the White House, DOD and EPA have attempted to cover up their campaign to pressure NAS and to undermine efforts to address perchlorate pollution by unlawfully withholding or redacting an unprecedented number of documents." Public skepticism over the commitment of the Bush administration to promulgate perchlorate regulations increased in December 2006 when EPA finalized a rule for monitoring drinking water contaminants. The proposed rule included perchlorate as one of the contaminants, but EPA removed it from the list in the final rule. Critics accused EPA of bowing to industry's wishes. Now, EPA has missed yet another opportunity to begin regulating drinking water for perchlorate contamination. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA must propose candidate contaminants every five years and, after a review period, begin regulating those it deems necessary. In 2005, EPA issued a contaminant candidate list of 51 chemicals, of which perchlorate was one. However, EPA's April 12 statement proposes to exclude perchlorate, along with 12 other chemicals, from the final list of regulated contaminants. In the statement, EPA claims perchlorate "require[s] additional investigation to ascertain total human exposure and health risks." EPA's decision will be open for public comment for 60 days following its publication in the Federal Register. © 2007 OMB Watch 1742 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009 202-234-8494 (phone) 202-234-8584 (fax) ***************************************************************** 52 YONHAP NEWS: Gov't finalizes support for nuclear repository in Gyeongju 2007/04/18 19:13 KST SEOUL, April 18 (Yonhap) -- The government on Wednesday finalized a comprehensive support plan for the South Korean city of Gyeongju, which will be the the site of the country's first nuclear waste repository. In a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the central government agreed to provide assistance on 55 projects to facilitate the growth of the city, which was the ancient capital of the Silla Kingdom (B.C. 57-935 A.D.). ***************************************************************** 53 Las Vegas SUN: Q+A: Chris Dodd Today: April 18, 2007 at 7:10:21 PDT Presidential hopeful not willing to gamble on Yucca Mountain By Michael J. Mishak Las Vegas Sun ( Editor's note: This is one in an occasional series of interviews with presidential candidates about issues of importance in the West.) After 33 years in Congress, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut has decided to get out of the bleachers and into the presidential game. One of eight Democrats running for president, Dodd hopes his foreign policy experience and authorship of influential legislation such as the Family and Medical Leave Act will distinguish him in a crowded field. Last week, on his third trip to Nevada, Dodd met small groups of voters across the Las Vegas Valley. The Sun caught up with Dodd after a town hall meeting in Pahrump. Q: You voted for Yucca Mountain. What's your stance on the issue now? I voted in favor of having a permanent storage site. And that was before they had developed a dry cask system, which really made this material a lot safer than before , when it was sitting in these pools. At some point we're going to have to deal with this waste question, but it needs to be stored in a place that is safe. Certainly, after the number of years looking at Yucca Mountain, the conclusion has been that this is not a safe place. It's the wrong site for many reasons, and because of the geology and transportation issues. So you're in favor of expanding the use of nuclear power? I grew up less than a mile away from the oldest nuclear power plant in the country on the Connecticut River. I don't rule out nuclear power, particularly if you're serious about global warming. Coal is not an answer. And you can't do it with wind and solar power alone. So we're going to have to rely on a technology that offers us some real alternatives that don't run the risk of being a polluting energy source. Some day we'll still need to find a storage site, but in my view it ought to be a retrievable place , too. The technology may get good enough where we extract the material and defang it so that it poses no threat no matter where it's stored. And if we harness this correctly, it's what we ought to be offering some of these smaller, developing countries so they can have more of an independent energy source and not have to be bribed by Hugo Chavez or some of the Persian Gulf countries that control their destiny. You've said if elected, the country would be free of Persian Gulf oil in a decade. What would the Dodd energy policy look like? The technology's there. We need to start acting like we care. We need to set an example. Oil is used for just 1 or 2 percent of electrical generating power on the grids. So we need to get our cars right. This is inexcusable. Even today in Michigan, a majority of people believe that fuel-efficiency standards ought to be adopted. Had they been adopted 10 or 15 years ago, Detroit might still have a bright future. Do you support the Employee Free Choice Act, and if so, does it have a chance of passing the Senate? I do support the bill, and I hope it has a chance. Even the Republican chairman of the Federal Reserve Board has pointed out that one of the reasons the country has such an income disparity is the decline in union households. We need to recognize that we're losing our middle class. The reason we were able to build one is because there were people out there with the right to collectively bargain and to argue for better working conditions and better wages. People were able to own homes, raise their kids and send them to college. That did not happen miraculously. You've suggested that America needs tougher trade agreements to compete in the global economy. These are not trading agreements. I call them enterprise agreements. All we're doing now is giving companies the right to create a platform in some developing country with no commensurate obligations to the people in those countries to improve the conditions of the people who are going to work there. This is very harmful to us in the long run. Our trading agreements ought to be demanding of these nations who want to be able to sell their goods and services here. We need to insist that these countries commit to improving wages and conditions so that people can start to grow out of poverty and afford America's goods and services as well. At the same time we need to incentivize people to stay here. Our tax code, the Export-Import Bank (of the United States), the Overseas Private Investment Corp. are all built-in incentives to leave the country. I'm not opposed to providing alternatives to help people in developing countries, but I want to see us do at least as much for people here. You're in Nevada. Are you a gambler? I'm running for president. (Laughs.) Any plans to hit the tables? Well, the best table is the craps table, and I know that in terms of odds for the consumer, but I'm not a gambler. Michael J. Mishak can be reached at 259-2347 or at michael.mishak@lasvegassun.com. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 54 BBC NEWS: Dounreay in human tissue checks Last Updated: Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 17:48 GMT 18:48 UK Dounreay is a former experimental reactor site The operator of a Scottish nuclear site has begun checks on whether body tissue was removed from deceased ex-workers without the consent of their families. It follows claims that samples were taken from former Sellafield employees who died in the 1960s. The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) said it was looking into whether there was any connection to Dounreay. He told the Commons he had asked Michael Redfern, QC, who conducted the Alder Hey inquiry into the removal of organs from children, to investigate the claims. British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), which owns Sellafield, confirmed that autopsy material had been used for "legally correct" purposes such as inquests. Experimental reactor Responding to a call from John Thurso, Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, for the inquiry to investigate other nuclear installations, Mr Darling said he had no record that any of the cases were connected to Dounreay. However, the Prospect union has called for that inquiry to be extended to the site. It said it was unclear whether a similar practice had taken place at Dounreay, a former experimental reactor facility, in Caithness. Asked if the practice at Sellafield happened at Dounreay, a Prospect spokesman said: "We are equally as concerned to establish that ourselves." He said body tissue may have been transported from other sites to be stored at Sellafield. Tests were carried out between the 1960s and 1990s, said BNFL The GMB union, which had claimed that samples were taken from up to 70 former Sellafield employees who died in the 1960s, said Dounreay had not been brought to its attention. However, a spokesman said an inquiry would "double check" if the site was involved. John Walford, who worked at Dounreay in the 1950s and was head of its health and safety division for 10 years until he retired in 1990, said he was not aware of body tissue being removed from former workers without consent, or being stored at the facility. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 55 BBC NEWS: Sellafield inquiry to be launched Last Updated: Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 09:56 GMT 10:56 UK Tests were carried out between the 1960s and 1990s, said BNFL An official inquiry is to be launched into claims nuclear workers who died in the 1960s and 1970s had body parts removed without consent. The GMB union says samples were taken from up to 70 former employees at Sellafield in Cumbria. British Nuclear Group, which owns Sellafield, confirmed autopsy material had been used for "legally correct" purposes such as inquests. He is expected to appoint a lawyer to lead an independent investigation into the claims. The prime concern is the feelings of the families DTI spokesman The GMB claims workers' body parts were removed for medical examination without the knowledge of families. These included tissue, bones and body parts removed without permission, it is claimed. GMB National officer Gary Smith said: "Our chief concern is for the families of those who died during this period and the anguish they face. "We need information from the company and we expect a quick reply to clarify what has happened." Inquiry call A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said: "The prime concern is the feelings of the families. "There are clearly a number of matters that need investigating dating back to the 1960s." Prospect, which represents workers at Sellafield, also called for a public inquiry after claiming that from the early 1960s until the early 1990s vital organs were removed from the bodies of former workers who had died from cancer. The union said organs were removed from more than 60 workers at several BNFL sites, as well as workers at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. In a letter to BNFL it said the only way to counter concerns was for the company to clarify its policies and actions at an independent public inquiry. 'Historic issue' General secretary Paul Noon said: "We don't want to rush to judgment but we do want the facts. "Removal of organs from deceased radiation workers without consent would be ethically, morally and possibly legally wrong. Whatever the motives it should not have happened." A spokesman for BNFL said: "This is an historic issue not a current one, however our prime concern is the feelings of the families of those involved. "The sampling of autopsy material began in the 1960s and ceased in the early 1990s. "Files exist at Sellafield for 65 cases. An examination of the data has shown that in 56 of those cases the sampling was done associated with coroners' post-mortems or inquests. "In five other cases it was done under instruction from other legally correct bases, such as family solicitors. "For the remaining four cases there is no record of instruction or consent on file although this does not mean that appropriate requests were not made." Have you worked at the Sellafield nuclear plant? Have you, or anyone you know, been affected by the issues raised in this story? * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 56 ReviewJournal.com: Yucca passage dealt setback Apr. 18, 2007 Paiute tribe blocks one railroad route By STEVE TETREAULT and KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- Energy Department hopes to transport nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain down a western Nevada corridor were dealt a possibly fatal blow on Tuesday when the Walker River Paiute Tribe withdrew its cooperation on a railroad route through its reservation. The tribal council passed a resolution removing the tribe from a federal environmental impact study that included a rail segment for shipments of spent nuclear fuel along the outskirts of its sovereign lands north of Walker Lake. The Walker River Paiutes faced growing pressures from their membership and from neighboring communities that were becoming increasingly vocal against the possibility of nuclear waste traveling through Northern Nevada. "After considering the information we had gathered to date and discussions with our membership, the tribal council made the decision not to continue with the Department of Energy's process," tribal Chairwoman Genia Williams said in a statement. "The tribe will not allow nuclear waste to be transported on rail through our reservation," Williams said. Energy Department officials have considered a Northern Nevada route, known as the Mina corridor, as a promising path to the nuclear waste repository they want to build at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Allen Benson, a Department of Energy spokesman for the Office of Repository Development in Las Vegas, said the tribe's decision means the Mina corridor will be nixed from the department's choices of potential rail lines to Yucca Mountain. "Selecting Mina would appear to be academic at this time," Benson said late Tuesday. He said DOE will continue to include the Mina route in the impact statement expected to be released in October. Elimination of the Mina corridor "certainly simplifies DOE's options," said David Blee, executive director of the U.S. Transport Council, a coalition of nuclear waste shippers. It appeared that DOE's attention will be refocused on a 319-mile rail corridor to Yucca that originates at Caliente in Eastern Nevada. To many analysts, the east-west Caliente corridor figures to be more expensive and more challenging from an engineering and construction standpoint than the 209-mile north-south Mina route that would run along old mining town rail beds at spots. Under the Mina proposal, a base route would cross Northern Nevada on a Union Pacific rail, turn south at Winnemucca, pass east of Fernley, through the growing communities of Silver Springs and Wabuska, through the Walker River reservation and to Hawthorne. Rail improvements and construction would proceed to Mina and near or through Tonopah and Goldfield, and south to the repository site near Amargosa Valley. But Nevada officials who have fought against the Yucca repository stressed that nuclear waste from California likely would travel through Reno and Sparks, which sparked growing opposition locally. Bob Loux, executive director of Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency and a chief critic of the planned repository, said he was "actually pretty pleased" with the tribe's announcement. "I know the Northern Nevada communities are relieved with the decision as well," Loux said in a telephone interview. "This essentially would cut off use of the whole Mina corridor. I guess they're back to Caliente," Loux said. Despite nuclear industry groups trying to persuade the tribe to participate in federal studies of the Mina corridor, Loux said the tribe probably "came to the conclusion there is no mileage with DOE, and nuclear waste transportation isn't as safe as everybody thinks." Loux estimated the Energy Department spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in its effort to consider the Mina corridor as an option, including money spent on meetings, surveying and soil sampling. The Walker River Paiutes for years had refused to allow the Energy Department to study a rail route through their reservation. But the tribe reconsidered its position a year ago. It began cooperating in DOE environmental studies that included relocating a portion of rail track away from the tribal community of Schurz. Moving the rail line was a Paiute goal as a way to redirect U.S. Army shipments of high explosives headed to the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Depot. Tribal chairman Williams said the Walker River Paiutes grew increasingly uncomfortable. "The big factor was input from tribal members," she said. "There has been a lot of opposition and not a lot of education in the Northern Nevada area. It was an issue that none of our tribal members were comfortable with. That was the biggest factor." At the same time, the tribe in a statement said it has been approached by unidentified "business entities" with possible economic development ideas as alternatives to nuclear waste transport. Williams declined to offer details of any proposals. She said tribal leaders plan to work with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to investigate its options. Reid applauded the tribe's decision. "I am so pleased that the Walker River Paiute Tribe has made the decision not to allow nuclear waste to be transported through their Reservation," he said in a statement. "There are better ways to strengthen the economy in Nevada's rural and tribal communities, like investing in renewable energy sources, which alone could create more than 3,300 Nevada jobs," he said. "The Tribe's decision is yet another blow to this (Yucca) project, which is on its last legs." Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 57 KOLO: Walker River Tribe Pulls Permission for Yucca Mountain Rail Line Apr 18, 2007 Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Rail Line A federal proposal to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain along a western Nevada rail corridor has been dealt a blow, after the Walker River Paiute Tribe withdrew its permission to use a route through its reservation. The tribal council passed a resolution Tuesday removing the tribe from a federal environmental impact study that included a rail segment for shipments of spent nuclear fuel along the outskirts of tribal lands north of Walker Lake. "After considering the information we had gathered to date and discussions with our membership, the tribal council made the decision not to continue with the Department of Energy's process," tribal Chairwoman Genia Williams said in a statement. "The tribe will not allow nuclear waste to be transported on rail through our reservation," Williams said. The Walker River Paiutes had faced pressure from tribe members and from nearby communities worried about the possibility of nuclear waste traveling through northern Nevada. Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said following a presentation Monday by the head of Nevada's anti-Yucca Nuclear Projects Agency that he would ask the tribe to rescind its invitation for the U.S. government to study the rail line. Energy Department officials had considered the route, dubbed the Mina corridor, as a possibly cheaper and easier route to transport nuclear waste from around the nation to a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Allen Benson, an Energy Department and Yucca Mountain spokesman in Las Vegas, said the tribe's decision means the Mina corridor will be dropped from the department's choices of potential rail lines to Yucca Mountain. But Benson said the Energy Department would still include the Mina route in an impact statement expected to be released in October. Elimination of the Mina corridor "certainly simplifies DOE's options," said David Blee, executive director of the U.S. Transport Council, a coalition of nuclear waste shippers. The Energy Department has said it favored a 319-mile rail corridor to Yucca that originates at Caliente in eastern Nevada. But some analysts have said the so-called Caliente corridor would be more expensive and more challenging to build than the 209-mile north-south Mina route, which could use old rail beds in some areas. Nevada officials fighting the Yucca repository said nuclear waste from California likely would travel through Reno and Sparks, which sparked local opposition. Bob Loux, Nuclear Projects Agency director, welcomed the tribe's announcement. "This essentially would cut off use of the whole Mina corridor. I guess they're back to Caliente," Loux said. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a staunch opponent of the federal plan to entomb the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada,hailed the tribe's decision as another blow to the Yucca Mountain project, which he said was "on its last legs." --- Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) ***************************************************************** 58 London Tims: Nuclear Reaction-Comment- Mark Henderson April 19, 2007 The Sellafield post mortems must be a lesson for the future A deceptively neutral piece of jargon surfaced at least three times in Alistair Darling’s remarks to the House of Commons on postmortem examinations of former workers at the Sellafield nuclear power station. The term was “audit trail”. There was no audit trail, Mr Darling acknowledged, in the available documents on 65 deceased Sellafield employees to indicate whether organs taken from their bodies were removed with their families’ consent. Stripped of euphemism, this means that key records on post mortems carried out on dozens of people who had worked for a highly secretive nuclear power utility at a time of intense controversy over the effects of radiation on the human body, have been lost, hidden, or were never made at all. As a result, potentially thousands of relatives have been left wondering today if organs were removed from their loved ones’ bodies before burial or cremation. For many, longstanding suspicions have been rekindled. For one, the distressing memory of her dead husband’s chest collapsing as if empty never went away. Meanwhile, mutual mistrust between the nuclear industry and the general public is at risk of slumping once again, just as a new generation of nuclear power stations is being planned. This is why the Trade and Industry Secretary was right to respond quickly to MPs’ requests for more information about the post mortems, promising a full inquiry into why they were performed, with whose consent and on what authority. But he was too quick to rule out expanding the inquiry to include a review of Britain’s other nuclear sites. The suggestion by one MP that the Sellafield post mortems may have been the tip of an iceberg is not, alas, melodramatic. The British nuclear industry’s crippling fear of openness makes it all too plausible. emailed to letters@thetimes.co.uk Times Online, The Times and The Sunday Times. ***************************************************************** 59 London Times: Post mortem on Sellafield: don't panic-Comment- April 19, 2007 Our squeamish attitudes impede progress Theodore Dalrymple As far as we know, Man is the only creature capable of contemplating his future nonexistence, which is to say his death. That is why funeral rites, and the disposal of human remains, have always been very important to him. We all view mass burials with peculiar horror, not only because they imply the death of many people at more or less the same time, but also because they deny the special status of human bodies. By so doing, they cast doubt on the value of human life itself. In past times, the desecration of one’s body after death was regarded as the worst of all possible fates. It is said that in the 18th century murderers feared their subsequent anatomisation — their dissection — in Surgeons’ Hall more than they feared their actual execution by hanging. I rather doubt this, though Hogarth’s print of the Last Stage of Cruelty, in which an habitual criminal undergoes dissection in Surgeons’ Hall as the final indignity, suggests that it might have been true. The revelation that British Nuclear Fuels performed tests on body parts of some of their employees who died while working at Sellafield Nuclear Power Station (and one or two other power stations) has awakened fears of Frankenstein activity on the part of scientists, who were supposedly more interested in the pursuit of knowledge than in due respect to the dead. It would have made perfect sense for the tissues in question to have been kept for investigation another day, though to have done so would no doubt have stirred up a hornets’ nest of simulated public outrage. It would have been a good idea because it is always possible that new scientific techniques will reveal scientifically important information from old material: for example, 40-year-old frozen blood serums have been very important in tracing the origins of the Aids virus, and it is absurd to think that anyone was harmed by their storage even if no donor gave consent to it. Our sensitivity about body parts, stirred up by the events at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool, has already had harmful consequences. Hospital post mortems are now rarely performed: doctors are wary of asking relatives for permission to perform a post mortem even when they think it necessary to elucidate the cause of death. A request for a post mortem is now often received by relatives as if it were a manifestation of some nefarious and illicit purpose. Traditionally, the post mortem, the final appeal in the court of diagnosis, was used to sharpen a physician’s or a surgeon’s diagnostic skills. The whole development of Western medicine would have been retarded, perhaps even prevented, had our Victorian forebears been as sensitive on the issue of body parts as we claim to be now. They would have laughed at the very concept of “respectful” disposal of slices of tissue a tenth the thickness of a hair. They were far more religious than we, but much less squeamish. Legitimate research using pathology specimens is very much more difficult now that even tiny fractions of human bodies are treated as if they were the inviolable relics of saints. Bureaucratic procedures have to be gone through (they make canonisation seem like a mere formality) in order to obtain permission to use small fragments of tissue for research. Even anonymous specimens in pathological museums can no longer be used for research, on the ground that no one ever gave consent for them to be so used. It is a rule of modern life in Britain that every crisis is also an opportunity — a bureaucratic opportunity, that is, or an opportunity for government to spend ever more of the taxpayers’ money on the obstruction of useful activity. The Human Tissue Authority, set up after the Alder Hey affair, now employs 40-45 people, with a board of 15 part-timers. Many hospital doctors remember, half-amused and half-despairing, the heady days after Alder Hey, when men in suits arrived in hospitals and searched every cupboard, and every drawer of every desk, looking for illicit parts of dead babies. An inquiry is to be held into the Sellafield affair, a further contribution to pointless public expenditure. One of the effects of public inquiries is not to quieten public concern, but to inflame it further. After all, there is no smoke without fire. What is really a very minor matter is blown out of all proportion, and people become hypersensitive about things to which they had previously not given a moment’s thought. So it is with the use by pathologists of human tissue. Before Alder Hey and the inquiry, no one grieved over microtomic slices of human liver or kidney. Bismarck, the great German Chancellor, once wisely remarked that one should inquire neither how sausages nor politics are made. Most people seem to think that transparency is always desirable (except, that is, in those things that they themselves want to conceal from public view). They would like every human activity to be codified, preferably by means of filling in long forms. They think that, if all activity were sufficiently regulated, all abuses would cease. This is not so: not only would abuses continue, but also real work would decline. Let us, then, be less sensitive and more robust about body parts. For when primitive irrationalism allies itself to excessive legalism, we turn ourselves into wards of the state. Theodore Dalrymple is a retired doctor Times Online, The Times and The Sunday Times. ***************************************************************** 60 CP: Uranium miners, explorers radiate optimism over northern deposit potential Published: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 | 3:32 PM ET Canadian Press: -BOB WEBER IN EDMONTON IQALUIT, Nunavut (CP) - Uranium miners and explorers radiated optimism this week at a Nunavut mining symposium where the silvery metal took the spotlight away from Arctic gold and diamonds. New scientific research presented to delegates suggests areas of Nunavut are tantalizingly similar to parts of Saskatchewan that are sometimes referred to as uranium's Saudi Arabia. "It just gets more and more interesting," said Charlie Jefferson of the Canadian Geological Survey, which is in charge of assessing Canada's uranium reserves for Natural Resources Canada. Northern Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin contains by far the globe's purest uranium deposits and is the main reason why Canada is the biggest exporter of the mineral in the world. Miners have known for decades about further deposits in the Thelon Basin south of Baker Lake in Nunavut. But Jefferson's research is beginning to suggest the Eastern Arctic could be another Athabasca. "They're amazingly similar in general ways." The basins share the same age, geologic history and structure. They contain similar minerals and seem to have been shaped by the same processes. In Saskatchewan's Athabasca area, an underground sandstone basin was filled with 200 million years worth of crushed granite and shale rubble. That rubble was originally rich in uranium, but it has since separated out and concentrated in underground fault lines. Jefferson said the same thing seems to have occurred in the Thelon. "The Thelon has the same evidence. There's no uranium in the sandstone (but) there's uranium-rich rocks around (the basin). "The uranium's gone somewhere." Maybe to the Kiggavik deposit, hopes Barry McCallum of Areva Resources Canada. The subsidiary of the French-based Areva Group plans to spend $10 million this year on some final drilling before deciding whether to go ahead with a mine. "The potential is quite significant," he said from Baker Lake. "We hope to be the first mine." McCallum said Areva expects to be able to make a decision by October about whether Kiggavik would be economic. It would be another eight years before the mine would produce uranium, he said, but even that would probably be "a fairly aggressive schedule." The market appears to be encouraging. From a low of $7 a pound in 2001, uranium has soared to more than $110. Some analysts predict prices will continue to rise to $140 later this year and $160 in 2008. Dozens of new nuclear plants are on the books around the world as utilities seek alternatives to greenhouse-gas-emitting coal-fired plants. Mine production only supplies about two-thirds of current demand. The rest comes from sources such as decommissioned Russian nuclear warheads, a program that Russia has said it will end in 2013. "They're going to need uranium," said Michael Hine of the Nunavut Chamber of Mines. Hine points out this year's mining symposium was the largest yet - even bigger than during the height of the diamond-and gold-staking rushes. About 10 uranium companies are at the symposium; there are about 40 prodding the tundra for it. "We think the Thelon . . . certainly has the potential to be trapping uranium in very large quantities," said Philip Olson of Titan Uranium Inc. (TSXV:TUE), based in Saskatoon, which will spend about $2.5 million this summer on leases, permits and claims. Both Olson and Hine say a new openness toward uranium among Inuit leadership has also opened the door to exploration. "There's still opposition out there," said Hine. "(But) people are becoming less opposed to the idea. "The uranium guys have worked really hard to try to (convey) some understanding of what the industry's all about. Right now, uranium's on the verge of an era of positive mining experiences." © The Canadian Press, 2007 Copyright © CBC 2007 ***************************************************************** 61 AFP: British government holds inquiry into body parts claims - Wed Apr 18, 2:45 PM ET LONDON (AFP) - The British government announced an inquiry Wednesday into claims that body parts from nuclear power plant workers who died of cancer were removed and tested for radiation without their families' consent. Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling announced the move in an emergency statement to parliament, saying there were 65 cases between 1962 and 1991 where tissue and organs had been extracted for analysis. He appointed Michael Redfern, a top lawyer who led a 2001 inquiry into an organ retention scandal at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool to investigate. There, hearts and other organs were harvested from the bodies of more than 850 babies who died between 1988 and 1996 without the knowledge or consent of families. Darling's announcement came after trades unions flagged concerns that organs had been removed without next of kin giving permission -- a practice banned last year amid widespread concern about the Alder Hey case. Most of the cases relate to workers at one of the world's biggest nuclear sites, Sellafield. A handful came from other English plants, including Aldermaston in the south. The minister said that the probe was necessary because medical records do not reveal whether families gave consent or why the examinations were carried out. The records are held by British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), the partly state-owned holding company for British Nuclear Group, which manages the country's nuclear sites. "Some of these cases date back 45 years. It is simply not possible therefore today to be sure whether or not the procedures were carried out properly," Darling told lawmakers. "The information held by BNFL is necessarily limited and a fuller investigation is therefore necessary. "I believe that it is necessary to establish why these examinations were carried out and whether or not the next of kin were informed and consented to this analysis." Darling said that, in 56 of the 65 cases, tests were done under the aegis of post-mortem examinations or inquests by coroners. Five were made under instruction from proper authorities, such as family solicitors, while in four other cases, there is no record of instruction or consent on file. The body parts were destroyed in the testing process and none remain in existence. In a statement, BNFL said it would give its "full support and cooperation" to the investigation, adding it had set up a helpline for those affected by the claims. It is believed that none of the workers had died from radiation poisoning and the body parts were tested for the effects of long-term radiation exposure, the Times newspaper reported. The revelations provoked a horrified reaction from unions and opposition politicians. Paul Noon, general secretary of Prospect, which represents scientists and engineers, said organ removal without consent "should not have happened" whatever the motives. "Removal of organs from deceased radiation workers without consent would be ethically, morally and possibly legally wrong," he added. Responding to Darling's comments, Charles Hendry, energy spokesman for the main opposition Conservatives, said he was "shocked and incredulous" at the news. Sellafield is no stranger to controversy -- some locals have long claimed a link between the plant and clusters of leukaemia nearby, although scientists disagree on whether there is a connection. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace said that there have been some 21 incidents of radiological releases at Sellafield, which employs 10,000 people, since 1950. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 62 AFP: Sellafield nuclear plant 'retained workers' organs' - by Katherine Haddon Wed Apr 18, 4:29 AM ET LONDON (AFP) - The British government is expected Wednesday to announce an inquiry into claims that the body parts of dead nuclear power plant workers were stored and tested without their families' consent. Between the 1960s and 1990s, organs from up to 70 employees at Britain's biggest nuclear site, Sellafield in north-west England, who died of cancer were tested for radiation, apparently in secret, trades unions said. Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling is to make an emergency statement to parliament and is expected to appoint a top lawyer to lead an independent investigation. Paul Noon, general secretary of the Prospect union, which represents scientists and engineers, said organ removal without consent "should not have happened" whatever the motives. "Removal of organs from deceased radiation workers without consent would be ethically, morally and possibly legally wrong," he added. A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry confirmed that there were "a number of matters that need investigating dating back to the 1960s." British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), the holding company for British Nuclear Group, which manages Sellafield, said files exist at the plant for 65 cases. In 56 of these, tests on organs were done under the aegis of post-mortem examinations or inquests conducted by coroners, it added. "In five other cases, it was done under instruction from other legally correct bases, such as family solicitors. "For the remaining four cases, there is no record of instruction or consent on file, although this does not mean that appropriate requests were not made," a spokesman said. "There is no tissue stored on site today and the practice of taking samples for radiological analysis ceased in 1992." The claims raise the spectre of a scandal at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, north-west England. There, hearts and other organs were harvested from the bodies of more than 850 babies who died between 1988 and 1996 without the knowledge or consent of families. Following an inquiry into this case, it became illegal in Britain to take body organs without consent last year. Organs, plus tissue and bones, were taken to Sellafield -- formerly known as Windscale -- after post-mortem examinations for radiation and were kept in freezers, the Times newspaper reported. It said that the parts were destroyed by the testing process. Although the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency, which controlled Sellafield, declared there was no risk attached to working there in 1977, the tests continued for a further 15 years afterwards, the daily added. It is believed that none of the workers had died from radiation poisoning and the body parts were tested for the effects of long-term radiation exposure, the paper said. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 63 IHT: Britain launches inquiry into alleged removal of organs from dead nuclear workers - International Herald Tribune The Associated Press Published: April 18, 2007 LONDON: Britain's government is investigating allegations that body parts were removed from nuclear workers after their deaths and tested for radiation over several decades, the trade minister said Wednesday. Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling said he authorized the investigation after unions alleged that vital organs were removed from bodies from the 1960s to the 1990s and secretly tested for radiation. The trade union Prospect claims tissue, bones and other organs were taken without permission from the bodies of 65 employees who had died from cancer, most after working at the Sellafield nuclear plant in northwestern England. "Removal of organs from deceased radiation workers without consent would be ethically, morally and possibly legally wrong," Paul Noon, general secretary of Prospect, wrote in a letter to the company released to the media. "Whatever the motives, it should not have happened." Darling said medical records documented 65 cases in which the company had removed tissue for radiological analysis. He said an investigation led by lawyer Michael Redfern will focus on why the body parts were taken, who authorized their removal, and whether they had the families' permission. In 55 of the cases, requests for body parts were made following a coroner's inquest or autopsy, Darling said, suggesting that in most cases, the tissues were removed to help establish the cause of death. He also said all the parts have since been destroyed. "This is clearly a difficult situation covering events that took place 45 years ago," Darling said in a statement before the House of Commons. "Nonetheless, we owe it to families and to the general public to find out what happened and why." British Nuclear Fuels said the practice of taking samples for radiological analysis ended in 1992. "The issue of tissue sampling is an historic issue not a current one," it said. In 1999, hundreds of hearts, brains, lungs and other body parts taken from dead children without their parents' permission were found stored in containers at a British hospital. Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights ***************************************************************** 64 UPI: Inquiry aimed at Sellafield organ removal United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: April 18, 2007 at 5:08 PM CARLISLE, England April 18 (UPI) -- The British government has launched an inquiry into the removal of organs from 65 people who had worked at the nation's Sellafield nuclear site. British Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling launched the inquiry into the organ removals from employees of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority-owned site, to determine whether proper consent was obtained beforehand, The (London) Telegraph said. Site manager British Nuclear Fuels said authorization for the procedures on the 65 employees, who had all died from cancer, had been documented in 61 of the cases. "An examination of the data has shown that in 56 of those cases the sampling was done associated with coroners' post mortems or inquests," a BNFL spokesman said. "In five other cases it was done under instruction from other legally correct bases, such as family solicitors," he added. "For the remaining four cases there is no record of instruction or consent on file although this does not mean that appropriate requests were not made." The newspaper said Darling tabbed Michael Redfern -- who previously investigated organ harvesting from babies at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool -- to lead the inquiry. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 65 Telegraph: Sellafield organ removal inquiry launched By Sally Peck and Paula Sheppard Last Updated: 2:23am BST 19/04/2007 An official inquiry has been launched to investigate claims that body parts were removed from 65 deceased Sellafield workers, Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, announced. Mr Darling announced the inquiry in the Commons The Prospect union claims vital organs of nuclear workers who had died of cancer were removed without their families’ knowledge. British Nuclear Fuels, which manages the site, said there were 65 known cases of samples being taken from deceased workers at Sellafield for “legally correct” purposes between the 1960s and the early 1990s. Although it can prove consent or instruction for 61, the company said that in four remaining cases there was no record of either, but that did not necessarily mean that permission had not been sought. A spokesman for BNFL said: “This is an historic issue, not a current one. However, our prime concern is the feelings of the families of those involved. "An examination of the data has shown that in 56 of those cases the sampling was done associated with coroners’ post mortems or inquests. “In five other cases it was done under instruction from other legally correct bases, such as family solicitors. For the remaining four cases there is no record of instruction or consent on file although this does not mean that appropriate requests were not made.” Probe to centre on Sellafield power plant Mr Darling told MPs he had asked Michael Redfern, QC, who conducted the Alder Hey Children's Hospital inquiry in Liverpool, to establish the facts. In Alder Hey, organs were harvested from the bodies of more than 850 babies who died between 1988 and 1996 without the knowledge or consent of families. He said that BNFL had so far identified 65 cases in which tissue was taken from individuals and then analysed for "the radionuclide content of organs". Mr Darling said because of the "limited nature" of the records held by BNFL, it was "not clear" what procedures were followed with regard to gaining consent from relatives in every case. BNFL, which acts on behalf of the site owner, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, said that details came to light after the Westlakes Research Institute, an organisation involved in the regeneration of West Cumbria, asked for historic research data to be re-examined by the Westlakes/NDA Research Governance Group for a new study. A BNFL spokesman added: “Tissue samples waiting to be analysed were stored appropriately, on occasions for several months, however the samples were destroyed by the actual analysis process. There is no tissue stored on site today and the practice of taking samples for radiological analysis ceased in 1992.” In a letter to BNFL, Paul Noon, the general secretary of Prospect union, said “We don’t want to rush to judgment but we do want the facts. Removal of organs from deceased radiation workers without consent would be ethically, morally and possibly legally wrong. Whatever the motives it should not have happened. “The Government should organise an independent inquiry into these events, overseen by an outside, independent figure. The issue must be treated in an open and transparent way to protect the interests of the affected families and employees across the nuclear industry.” Mike Graham, the union’s official in the North West, said: “This is a traumatic time for all concerned and the families need to have certainty and closure.”Claims that body parts of nuclear workers were removed without their families' knowledge are to be investigated." Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2007. | Terms ***************************************************************** 66 Community Commons: USEC Receives Centrifuge License April 19, 2007 Gary Janosko (L), Deputy Director, Fuel Cycle Licensing Directorate of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission presents a construction and operating license for the American Centrifuge Plant to Philip G. Sewell, USEC Senior Vice President, American Centrifuge and Russian HEU on Friday at NRC Headquarters in Rockville, Md. Submitted Photo Jennifer Slater and Bob Lykowski check on the progress of a centrifuge being assembled in Piketon. Submitted Photo Wayne Allen Late Friday afternoon, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it has issued a construction and operating license for USEC Inc's American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon. The license was awarded after a culmination of a two-and-a-half year process that included a comprehensive environmental and safety review. "Americans are beginning to fully appreciate the benefits of nuclear power, which safely and clearly generates about 20 percent of our electricity with no greenhouse gas emissions. With plans underway for more than 30 new reactors around the country, a stable, domestic source of enriched uranium is vital," said John Welch, USEC President and chief executive officer. The demand for electricity is expected to increase by 19% or 141,000 megawatts over the next decade. More than 100 new advanced reactors would be required to meet this growing demand. Nuclear energy provides electricity for one in five homes and businesses in the United States, and is the largest source of emission-free electricity. Worldwide, 16-percent of electricity is generated with nuclear energy. "Simply put, the successful deployment of the American Centrifuge technology will determine the future of USEC. Based on our thorough review, we've set a target cost estimate of $2.3 billion to complete the commercial plant in Piketon," Welch, said. "We expect to spend approximately $340 million on the American Centrifuge in 2007. The portion of the spending we expect to expense in 2007 will have the effect of reducing net income by $85 million. We've spent $371 million on the project through the end of 2006, which we funded through internally generated cash flow, and we have sufficient cash or access to capital through our bank credit facility to fund the work in 2007. The challenge before us is financing construction in 2008 and beyond," Welch commented. "We have approached the U.S. government to propose assistance that would improve the picture for financing the plant," he added. "This is a great accomplishment a key step towards nuclear renaissance, we are very proud of USEC team hard work to make this a reality," Angela Duduit, Manager of Public Affairs at Piketon, said. USEC expects to begin commercial plant operations in late 2009 and have the full initial contingent of 11,500 centrifuge machines deployed in 2012. The design for the lead Cascade machines was frozen at the end of 2006. During the next several months, USEC project team will be building the centrifuges making up this first cascade of machines, which are expected to be operating by mid-2007. USEC performs contract work for The Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE contractors at the Portsmouth plant including the maintaining the Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant in a state of readiness or "cold standby", processing out-of-specification uranium, and providing infrasture support services. The Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant, located in Piketon, is maintained in cold standby under a contract with DOE. Uranium enrichment operations ceased at the Portsmouth plant in 2001. Cold standby is a condition where the plant could be returned to production of 3 million Separate Work Units (SWU) within 18 to 24 months if the U.S. government determined that additional domestic enrichment capacity was necessary. DOE and USEC have periodically extended the cold standby program, most recently through the end of 2007. The program was modified beginning in 2006 to include actions necessary to transition to a preliminary decontamination and decommissing program ("cold shutdown"). USEC at the Piketon plant employees approximately 1,200 people and the CY06 Gross Wages (excluding benefits) 101.5 million with the average annual salary, excluding benefits of $63,700 and contributions during CY06 $200,000 "Yogi Berra once said: 'When you come to a fork in the road, take it." In 2007, USEC is at a fork in the road and we believe it is essential to the long-term interest of our company, its investors and the energy security of the United State that we take the road American Centrifuge. We are very excited about the potential we see in the American Centrifuge technology and we are focusing all of our energy on making this project a success," Welch added. The Brown Publishing Company." ***************************************************************** 67 Telegraph: Sellafield is not another Alder Hey | Dt Opinion | Opinion | Thursday 19 April 2007 By Liz Hunt In the frame Imagine the joy of lawyers who woke yesterday morning and switched on the radio to hear that they'd hit paydirt again. Another Alder Hey! Another Bristol! Body parts "stolen" from their deceased owners by Burke and Hare-style doctors and scientists, experimented on, stored in freezers and then the evidence destroyed. OK, it didn't involve children this time but workers in the nuclear industry must be the next best thing. Despite attempts to rehabilitate nuclear power as a source of clean energy in an over-heated world, Sellafield in a headline is still an emotional trigger for the public. Cue outraged unions, and bring on the grieving relatives, lamenting the fact that they didn't get to bury all of Uncle Fred, that a lung or liver lobe was missing, and nobody had asked them if they could take it (although legal approval had been given in 61 of the 65 Sellafield cases). The Government has, of course, jumped to and ordered another costly inquiry, while the UK Atomic Energy Authority is to review its records of what, in ethical terms, was another era. I wonder what the grieving relatives would have said if they had been asked; if it had been explained to them that, as a worker in a nuclear plant, Uncle Fred was at risk of exposure to radiation, and that post-mortem examination of his tissues for radionuclides might confirm this. If it proved to be the case, then action could be taken to protect Uncle Fred's fellow workers. Who wouldn't want that? Uncle Fred certainly would. So his relatives' answer would have been "yes". The requirement for consent to the removal of tissue or organs after death as enshrined in the Human Tissue Act 2004, drawn up after Alder Hey and Bristol, is a welcome advance, although licence fees for tissue storage and the extra layers of bureaucracy that have resulted are, according to pathologists, hindering research. The fact that doctors are no longer paternalistic demi-gods who dictate what can and can't be done with the remains of lesser mortals is also to be welcomed. But shroud-waving lawyers, relatives weeping very public tears and ministers intent on sharing their pain are at least as grotesque as anything that the medical establishment was ever guilty of in retaining tissue from the dead. The human body, in death, deserves respect. The condemnation that followed the dumping of several sheet-wrapped corpses, in an unrefrigerated room at a Bedford hospital in 2001 because the mortuary was full, was entirely justified. Ancient burial mounds are proof that from the beginning of civilisation man has known instinctively that the deceased should be honoured. But serial burials for bits of bodies, as took place in the aftermath of the Alder Hey and Bristol controversy, were an excuse for wallowing in grief. It was little different from what the public was accused of in the days after the Princess of Wales's death, but few critical voices were ever raised. Sensitivity and sympathy for their loss - of the person who died rather than the organs they were buried without - demanded that we keep our thoughts to ourselves. Yet what happened at Alder Hey, Bristol, and now at Sellafield and perhaps other nuclear installations, was driven by an attempt to learn things that would benefit us all in the future. Mourning and honouring the dead is very different from the hue and cry now being stoked up over a few of their component parts. And surely the greater scandal would have been if the nuclear industry had not bothered to investigate the risks of radiation exposure in its workers. Have your say © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2007. | Terms ***************************************************************** 68 PE: State water board postpones hearing on perchlorate plume California 10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 By JENNIFER BOWLES The Press-Enterprise A hearing to determine those responsible for the Inland region's most significant water pollution problem has been delayed once again. Tam Doduc, chairman of the State Water Resources Control Board, postponed the hearing for two months to give attorneys more time to file rebuttals. The hearing's aim is to assign blame and cleanup responsibility for a massive underground plume of perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient linked to thyroid ailments, that has tainted 16 wells in Rialto and Colton. The hearing, which was set to begin May 8, will now start July 9 and run an additional five days through the month, said William L. Rukeyser, a spokesman for the state water board. The hearing will be held in the Rialto area, Rukeyser said. Regional water-quality officials, who have been investigating the case, say they believe the lengthy plume was mainly caused by three companies that have used a 160-acre industrial lot in northern Rialto. Pyro Spectaculars Inc., a fireworks company, currently uses the site. Two defense contractors -- Goodrich Corp. and Emhart, which is a subsidiary of Black and Decker -- used the site in the 1950s and 1960s. All three companies have denied any role in the pollution. Community activists said they were disappointed to see another delay. "As long as there is no cleanup plan, the water supply to the residents is in danger," said Davin Diaz, who is with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. "We were all looking forward to some type of closure, and it just keeps feeling like it's dragging on." Rukeyser said the agency wants all parties to have a chance to present and defend their case so there will be no grounds to appeal any decision reached by the state board. "We as well want an expeditious conclusion to this process," he said. "But, we also want to make sure that there are no arguments or claims that anybody was in any way deprived of due process." Reach Jennifer Bowles at 951-368-9548 or jbowles@PE.com © 2007 Press-Enterprise Company ***************************************************************** 69 Reid: Reid Statement on Walker River Paiute Tribe Decision to Prohibit the Transportation of Nuclear Waste Through its Reservation: 04/17/2007 Tuesday, April 17, 2007 Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada issued the following statement in response to the Walker River Paiute Tribe's decision to prohibit the transportation of nuclear waste through its Reservation: "I am so pleased that the Walker River Paiute Tribe has made the decision not to allow nuclear waste to be transported through their Reservation. With this decision the Tribe has made the determination that the risks associated with transporting thousands of tons of nuclear waste through Nevada communities far outweigh any potential benefits being touted by those looking to turn Nevada into the nation's nuclear dumping ground. There are better ways to strengthen the economy in Nevada's rural and tribal communities, like investing in renewable energy sources, which alone could create more than 3,300 Nevada jobs. "Further, what is true for Nevada is true for the nation. It is not safe to haul 77,000 tons of the most dangerous substance known to man through this nation's cities and towns so it can be buried 90 miles outside of Las Vegas. The Tribe's decision is yet another blow to this project, which is on its last legs. It is time for the federal government to come to the realization that on-site storage is the answer to America's nuclear waste challenges." ### Reno Bruce R. Thompson Courthouse & Federal Bldg 400 S. Virginia St, Site 902 Reno, NV 89501 Phone: 775-686-5750 Fax: 775-686-5757 Las Vegas Lloyd D. George Building 333 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Suite 8016 Las Vegas, NV 89101 Phone: 702-388-5020 Fax: 702-388-5030 Carson City 600 East William St, #302 Carson City, NV 89701 Phone: 775-882-REID (7343) Fax: 775-883-1980 Washington, DC 528 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 Phone: 202-224-3542 Fax: 202-224-7327 Toll Free for Nevadans: 1-866-SEN-REID (736-7343) ***************************************************************** 70 Whitehaven News: Widow hopes organ parts did some good Published on 18/04/2007 A PENSIONER whose husband died of leukaemia in 1986 after working at the Sellafield plant from its opening in the 50s has said she would rather not know if her husband's organs were removed. Susan Adair, of Hensingham, said that her husband John's post mortem had been carried out at her request, in keeping with his wishes. Mrs Adair, now 86, said: "I never signed anything to say that they could take any body parts or any tissues. "However if they did, and it has done some good in terms of research, then while I might find it a bit sickening I think it has been for the best. "John would have wanted to help others, that's the kind of guy he was. "He said when he was dying that he knew what had caused it, and that we could sue Sellafield. He was a keen union member and and both John and the union said that I had to insist on a post mortem and, even though the doctor at the time said there was no need for one, I insisted. "They did their tests and a verdict of industrial death was recorded. I sued the site but I am not prepared to reveal how much for." A Whitehaven News report into Mr Adair's inquest in October, 1987, said that then BNFL Chief Medical Officer Dr Adam Lawson told the jury that he had tested small pieces of Mr Adair's liver, lungs and bone. He said at the time: "The quantities of plutonium and americium present in the small bones was exceptionally small. "In my opinion it did not contribute to the causation of the disease for which Mr Adair succumbed. "We are all subject to background radiation and the amount in Mr Adair's body was assessed to be only five per cent of what would accrue from background radiation in West Cumbria." View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/digitalcopy ***************************************************************** 71 NGN: Chernobyl Birds' Defects Link Radiation, Not Stress, to Human Ailments Kate Ravilious for National Geographic News April 18, 2007 Twenty years after the infamous catastrophe at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, scientists were cheered by the explosion of wildlife that seemed to be thriving in the 19-mile (30-kilometer) "exclusion zone" around the disaster site. Healthy-looking deer, boar, lynx, and eagle owls were among the animals found throughout the zone, despite the blast that had showered radioactive material over huge swaths of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia (see a map of Europe * Photos: Chernobyl, 20 Years Later But a new study shows that barn swallows living near Chernobyl, which is in the Ukraine, suffer from many more birth defects and abnormalities than would ordinarily be expected. In addition, the swallows are not living as long and are not breeding as successfully as their distant counterparts. By studying birds rather than humans, the researchers have been able to separate the physiological effects of the radiation from sociological and psychological ones. "Birds don't drink, birds don't smoke, and they don't suffer the same kind of stresses as humans" that can cause diseases such as cancers, said study co-author Tim Mousseau, a biology professor at the University of South Carolina and a National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration grantee. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.) The findings therefore suggest that people living near the affected zone could still be at risk even though radiation levels have declined. Human Factor Anders Mřller, from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, led the team that has been monitoring the barn swallows since 1991 for signs of abnormalities such as deformed beaks, toes, and feathers and unusual coloring. More than 7,700 birds have been examined, some from Chernobyl and others from control areas including Spain, Italy, and Denmark—far away from the explosion site. The team's results, published online today in the journal Biology Letters, show that abnormalities are much higher in birds from the Chernobyl population. For example, more than 13 percent of the Chernobyl birds had partial albinism-tufts of white feathers-compared to levels of around 4 percent in the control birds. "Abnormal features [like albinism] are extremely rare in nature," Moller said. Recapturing the same birds year after year showed that birds with abnormalities were four times less likely to survive and that breeding success was reduced by over 50 percent. The findings support the team's theory that even the low levels of radiation around Chernobyl are enough to cause the higher than average rates of abnormalities and birth defects reported in humans living in the region. "Based on the bird data, we think there is likely to be a plethora of human ailments associated with the Chernobyl radiation," said Mousseau, who is also carrying out a health study on children living in the Chernobyl region. Radiation vs. Stress The team's theory directly contradicts a 2005 report prepared by the Chernobyl Forum, which is led by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The forum had concluded that social stress and the collapse of agriculture after communism was overthrown in 1990 were the most significant causes of poor health in the region. "We found that there was a lot of anxiety amongst the population," said Burton Bennett, a retired radiation specialist who chaired the Chernobyl Forum. "In general the doses of radiation that people were exposed to were low-comparable to background levels over the course of ten years or so." Bennett is unconvinced by Moller and colleague's findings. "It takes very high levels of radiation to cause abnormalities, and I really doubt that this study can be substantiated," he said. According to the Chernobyl Forum report, about 6.6 million people were exposed to high doses of radiation and 56 people were directly killed by the disaster. The report estimated that as many as 5,000 people may die from some form of cancer related to the radiation. Moller and colleagues think that the health impact could be much worse. Keith Baverstock, an environmental scientist at the University of Kuopio in Finland and co-author of a 2001 United Nations report on human health around Chernobyl, agrees that the results of the bird study are worrying. "It confirms that even relatively low levels of exposure to radioactive fallout can result in genetic effects," he said. If Moller and colleagues are right, then millions of people living in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia are still at risk. "With proposals to increase the use of nuclear energy," Baverstock said, "this is a matter that needs urgent attention." © 1996-2007 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 72 Secretary-general Ban Expresses Shock And Regret At Assassination Of Nagasaki Mayor Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:00:24 -0400 SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN EXPRESSES SHOCK AND REGRET AT ASSASSINATION OF NAGASAKI MAYOR New York, Apr 18 2007 11:00AM Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today expressed shock and regret at the assassination of Mayor Iccho Itoh of the Japanese city of Nagasaki, describing him as a “champion of peace” for his efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons. “As Mayor of the second city that had been destroyed by atomic weapons in 1945, Mayor Itoh was a champion of peace for a world where nuclear war would never happen again,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said in a <"http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=2525">statement. “He was a leader in the international campaign of more than 1,600 Mayors for Peace, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons by the year 2020. The Secretary-General expresses his deepest condolences to his family and friends, to the citizens of Nagasaki and Japan, to the many who work for a world without nuclear weapons.” 2007-04-18 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 73 KnoxNews: Nuclear city begins Earth Day festivities By News Sentinel staff April 18, 2007 OAK RIDGE - A formerly secret city with a lingering nuclear legacy goes green this week in observance of Earth Day. April 22 marks the 37th annual Earth Day, which has evolved into a global observance. Events in Oak Ridge have already included activities Tuesday at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a festival tonight on a church's front lawn and a wrap up Sunday - Earth Day - at the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge. Today's Earth Day Festival in front of First United Methodist Church, 1350 Oak Ridge Turnpike, will be 5-7:30 p.m. Environmental exhibits from eight organizations will be on display, along with the works of nature photographers and artists. Two local bands will perform, and the event is free. Proceeds from refreshments and donations will go toward the Rain Garden project at the Oak Ridge Children's Museum. That museum, located at 461 W. Outer Drive, will celebrate Earth Day 1-4 p.m. Sunday. University of Tennessee scientists and husband and wife Lee Cooper and Jackie Grebmeier will speak at 1 p.m. in the museum's auditorium. They'll talk about their research on climate-driven changes in the Arctic. There will also be musical entertainment following the discussions. Because of limited seating for the talks, advance reservations are requested and may be made by calling 865-482-1074. Museum admission is $6 for adults and $4 for children ages 3-18. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 74 KnoxNews: Guard situation in Oak Ridge similar, different than Pantex By Frank Munger, munger@knews.com April 18, 2007 Hundreds of security guards went on strike this week at the government's warhead assembly plant near Amarillo, Texas, apparently because of fallout from a Department of Energy order that placed additional requirements on some guards at nuclear weapons installations. About 15 supervisory personnel from the Oak Ridge security team were sent to Texas to be part of the contingency force that will guard the Pantex Plant until the strike is over, according to Lee Brooks of Wackenhut Services, the security contractor in Oak Ridge. The issues at Pantex, of course, are the same ones faced in Oak Ridge, home of the Y-12 National Security Complex. Y-12 and Pantex are closely linked in the weapons world. Y-12 builds warhead parts that are then sent to Pantex for assembly. When weapon systems are retired from the arsenal, warheads are sent to Pantex for the initial disassembly. Pantex then sends the Y-12 parts - so-called secondaries - back to Oak Ridge for dismantlement. Each of the plants has hundreds of highly trained, highly armed guards. An obvious question is whether a strike is forthcoming at Oak Ridge, and it appears unlikely. There have only been two guard strikes in Oak Ridge history, the last one coming in November 1983, less than a month after the suicide truck bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon - a forewarning of terrorism to come. Two weeks after that strike began, the Oak Ridge guards were ordered back to work by their international union, citing national security concerns at Y-12. The Oak Ridge union last year agreed to a nine-month contract extension to postpone contract negotiations until DOE decides whether to keep Wackenhut or hire one of the other companies that bid on the Oak Ridge security work. The International Guards Union of America, which represents the security police at Y-12 and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, met last summer with Wackenhut to try to work out some of the issues associated with DOE Order 470. Randy Lawson, president of IGUA Local No. 3 in Oak Ridge, said the two sides were able to agree on what positions would be changed as DOE increases the physical requirements for some guards - moving most of the personnel into the "offensive" categories with tougher standards for running and shooting. Under the new status quo, some of the older guards reportedly will be assigned to a new Security Police Officer-1 (SPO-1) position, which is considered a "defensive" position with slightly lower fitness and firearms requirements. "We should be a role model for other sites," Lawson said. "If Pantex had done what Oak Ridge has done between the company and the union, they might still be negotiating or have a collective bargaining agreement." The Oak Ridge union leader said he was among those who went to Washington a couple of weeks ago to warn top DOE officials and others that a strike at Pantex and problems at other sites could be forthcoming if there weren't some accommodations made when implementing Order 470. Brooks said he couldn't comment specifically on any agreement reached between the IGUA in Oak Ridge and Wackenhut because it's still subject to contract negotiations. But, he noted, "We believe we have a process for going forward to determine what will be comfortable to both sides." The extension of the union contract is due to expire in mid-August, with negotiations scheduled to begin a month before that. Of course, DOE has not yet named the winner of the security contract competition in Oak Ridge, and so it's not for sure that Wackenhut will even be the government's contractor when negotiations roll around. Stay tuned. Senior writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6329 or at munger@knews.com. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 75 DOE: DOE to Issue Second Solicitation for Purchase of Crude Oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve April 18, 2007 Solicitation Issued for Up to Four Million Barrels WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced that it has issued the second of several solicitations planned to purchase up to four million barrels of crude oil for the United States’ crude oil reserve. The first solicitation, issued March 16, 2007, resulted in no awards because the Office of Fossil Energy determined that the bids were too high and not a reasonable value for taxpayers. This series of solicitations for the purchase of crude oil are planned to replace the 11 million barrels of oil sold after Hurricane Katrina. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve will use the proceeds from the emergency sale for the direct purchases. The solicitation requests offers for up to four million barrels in the following quantities: two million barrels of sweet crude to be delivered to the West Hackberry, Louisiana site, and/or two million barrels of sour crude to the delivered to the Bryan Mound, Texas site. Bids are due by May 1, 2007, and an announcement on contract awards will be made within one week. The delivery period for the crude oil is June 1-30, 2007. Through the terms of contracts to be issued from the planned series of solicitations, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve seeks to achieve a moderate fill rate of approximately 100,000 barrels per day beginning in June. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has a capacity of 727 million barrels and currently holds 689 million barrels in inventory. Contract awards made as a result of this solicitation will be the first direct purchase of crude oil for the Reserve since 1994. Media contact(s): Aimee Whitelaw, (202) 586-4940 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 76 SF New Mexican: Los Alamos cybersecurity focus of congressional hearing Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:02 pm By SUE MAJOR HOLMES | Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The names and Social Security numbers of 550 Los Alamos National Laboratory workers were posted on a Web site run by a subcontractor working on a security system for the lab. The information was listed nine years ago as part of software development for a badge reader system that ultimately was not used, Kevin Roark, a lab spokesman, said Wednesday. The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee called Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman before it to discuss security issues at Los Alamos and the Department of Energy's Pantex plant at Amarillo, Texas. Officials learned last month that a former Los Alamos subcontractor, Lujan Software Services, posted the information about the current and former lab workers on a demonstration Web site the company created. The subcommittee, in announcing the hearing, said it wasn't clear how long the information was posted, who accessed it and whether it's being used improperly. Roark said the lab had the site removed immediately after discovering the posted information during the term of the software contract, which ended several years ago. The lab notified the employees, and there's been no indication anyone's identity was stolen, he said. Roark did not know how long the information had been posted. The Associated Press left a message Wednesday seeking comment from the Albuquerque-based subcontractor. "This issue is related to a demonstration program available on the Web that included some of our employees information on a database," Roark said. "It was widely inappropriate to use actual people's names and actual people's information." However, the lab found the Web site was not widely used and that the personal information was not easy to find on it, "so the potential for serious compromise of people's information was extremely low," he said. The University of California ran the lab for more than 60 years, but a series of security breaches led the DOE to put the contract out for bid. Last June, a new management team, which includes Bechtel Corp. and the university, took over. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., said Friday's hearing will try to determine how to prevent further problems "and hold LANL's new contractor team accountable for ensuring sound management." Lab Director Michael Anastasio will testify about progress on improving cybersecurity, Roark said. Anastasio is ready to respond to questions about the personal information issue, but the focus of his remarks will be on "our demonstrable progress in making cybersecurity improvements over the past few months," Roark said. "He's got real result to give them," he said. Bart Stupak, chairman of the oversight subcommittee, said the panel has already held a dozen hearings on problems at the lab "and our patience has grown thin. Absent significant improvements, we will be seeking alternative locations in the DOE complex for having this classified work performed." Los Alamos has a history of security problems, the most notable the case of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, who was charged with 59 counts of mishandling sensitive information. He pleaded guilty in 2000 to a single count of mishandling computer files and a federal judge apologized for how the government treated him. In 2004, the lab essentially shut down for seven months after an inventory showed two computer disks of nuclear information were missing. A year later, the lab concluded the disks never existed. Last October, police found classified information during a drug raid aimed at the roommate of a former archivist for lab contractor. Privacy Policy / Terms of Use | ©2007, Santa Fe New Mexican, all ***************************************************************** 77 Hanford News: Research park utility project to start today This story was published Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 By the Herald staff Construction will start today in north Richland on a $5 million utility project in support of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's replacement facilities as well as the expansion of private technology research within the North Richland Research District, officials said. Kennewick-based Watts Construction Co. will extend water, sewer and power to land located north of Horn Rapids Road. The district is made up of about 1,600 acres and is home to more than 90 businesses and organizations, including PNNL, various federal and state agencies, and Washington State University Tri-Cities. The utility project is expected to be done by July 1, followed by road improvements on Horn Rapids Road and Stevens Drive to be finished in November. PNNL is expected to break ground on its $224 million, 200,000-square-foot Physical Sciences Facility later this year, according to a news release. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 78 Hanford News: Divers could get sent into K Basins This story was published Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Fluor Hanford has hired a subcontractor to possibly send divers into the radioactive water of Hanford's K Basins this spring. Underwater Construction Corp., of Essex, Conn., has been retained initially to work on a project assessment. "We have to go through that process to decide whether to use divers at all," said Geoff Tyree, spokesman for Fluor Hanford. The first phase of the project will include a look by Underwater Construction at the work environment, work plan, potential hazards and safety plan. If Fluor concludes the work can be done safely and is technically possible, divers will be sent into the K East Basin to help with some of the final cleanup. The K East and K West basins were used to hold irradiated fuel underwater until it was processed to remove plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. When fuel processing stopped at the Hanford nuclear reservation, 2,300 tons of fuel were stranded there. Although the last of the fuel was removed in 2004, left behind was about 70 cubic yards of radioactive sludge from decayed fuel, desert dust and concrete that sloughed off the sides of the pools. Fluor has vacuumed all but some residual sludge into containers in the leak-prone K East Basin and is transferring the sludge to the K West Basin to await treatment. Cleanup so far has been done by workers who stand on grating above the pools and use long-handled tools to reach 20 feet to the basins' floors. The divers would go into the water to remove some of the smaller debris that remains on the floor and vacuum up residual sludge in areas that are difficult to reach, Tyree said. They also might help with tasks such as hooking up hoses and changing strainers. "We have a lot of questions to answer," Chris Lucas, Fluor's K East Basin director, said in a statement. But divers have been used in radioactive environments in the nuclear industry, including for Department of Energy cleanup of fuel pools at the Idaho National Laboratory. Underwater Construction performed that work, completing more than 300 dives without skin contamination, according to Fluor. It also was the first commercial diving company worldwide to provide nuclear diving services, according to Underwater Construction's Web site. It has a staff of 200 divers and supervisors. The water in the K Basins has somewhat higher radioactive contamination than might be typical for nuclear diving at commercial nuclear facilities, according to Fluor. However, the radiation level is comparable to that in the Idaho National Laboratory fuel pools, according to Fluor. A major concern is whether divers will be able to remove their suits when they come out of the water without getting radioactive contamination on their skin, Tyree said. Divers should arrive at Hanford next week and plan practice dives in an uncontaminated sedimentation basin near the K East Reactor. If Fluor goes forward with the plan, it will not be the first time divers are used at Hanford. In 1983, divers went into the discharge basin at N Reactor to do maintenance, said Norman Miller, the former technical vice president for UNC Nuclear Industries at Hanford. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 79 UPI: Guards strike at nuclear weapons plant United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: April 18, 2007 at 12:35 AM AMARILLO, Texas, April 17 (UPI) -- Security guards at a nuclear weapons plant in Texas went on strike this week over new fitness requirements that could cost many their jobs. BWXT Pantex in Carson County outside Amarillo is the only nuclear weapons assembly plant in the United States. The contractor responsible for the plant says the strikers were replaced when the walkout began Monday with a temporary force and there are no gaps in security, The Washington Post reported. While the security guards do not work for the federal government, they will soon be required to meet federally mandated fitness standards, including running a mile in 8.5 minutes. They also must meet new standards for shooting and wear bulletproof vests on the job. The goal is to create "a combat-effective protective force designed to defeat a well-armed and dedicated terrorist adversary." The strikers say they understand the need to upgrade security at the plant. But they say that like law enforcement officers they should be allowed to move into less demanding jobs as they age so they can keep pay and health insurance. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 80 lamonitor.com: House panel schedules 13th hearing The Online News Source for Los Alamos ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio will return to Washington for a return engagement with a House oversight subcommittee on Friday. The committee has invited Anastasio, along with Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and the Department of Energy Inspector General, to provide testimony on an ongoing investigation into "Mismanagement at Los Alamos National Labs." A press announcement by the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee release on Tuesday said Bodman would be asked to account for security information leaks and inadequate background investigations, and what would be done to correct a history of security problems. Bodman will also be asked about issues related to a strike that began Monday at the Pantex Plant in Texas. A contingent of Los Alamos security managers was dispatched to Amarillo to replace striking guards. The press release raised a new issue that came to light in March when it was discovered that a defunct LANL subcontractor, Lujan Software Services, posted lab-related personal information on a website. The information was said to have included the names and social security numbers of approximately 550 individuals, including former and current employees. Kevin Roark, a laboratory spokesperson, said this morning that the "personally identifiable information" was discovered by the laboratory in a legacy website that was nine years old. "This was not a security infraction, but rather a legacy issue," he said. The company had used the lab's information as "dummy data" to demonstrate how the company's software worked, he said. "We took immediate action to make certain this website came down, then immediately notified the 550 people whose information was compromised," Roark said. "It was not an active web site and it was difficult to find. If you did find it, the personal information was buried and that led us to believe the potential for compromise was very low." The software company has not been in business for the last two years. Anastasio last testified before the committee on Jan. 30. He returned to Los Alamos and embarked on a round of meetings with managers, employees and the community to underline the seriousness of the issues under consideration by the subcommittee. Concerning Anastasio's testimony in Washington, Roark said, "He intends to update the subcommittee to bring them up to speed on all that we have accomplished in cybersecurity improvement in the last few months." © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************