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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
1 US: [NYTr] TVA Nuke: We Didn't Need It The First Time
2 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Robinson Nuclear Plant
3 TorontoSun.com: 'Green' plan? Build nukes, cut coal
4 edmontonsun.com: Nuclear future for oilsands?
5 BBC NEWS: Cooking in the Danger Zone | The Chernobyl diet
6 BBC NEWS: Bats halt nuclear site demolition
7 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Harris Nuclear Plant
8 EurActiv.com: Parliament wants more power in nuclear policy | EU 
9 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Indian Point to expand sewer testing for radioacti
10 Slovak news: Slovakia committed to nuclear energy
11 Hamilton Spectator: Seeing the bright side of nuclear energy
12 US: BusinessWeek: Debate swells over nuke plants near NYC
13 UPI: British energy paper delayed again
14 UPI: U.S., Czech Republic push missile shield
15 Herald Sun: Nuclear power in 20 years | 
16 US: Political Affairs Magazine: Global warming, nuclear power - doub
17 Hemscott: British Energy wins permission to restart Hinkley Point B
18 Scotsman.com Business: Go nuclear, avoid UK water-ABN AMRO
19 US: New Haven Register: State may use Haddam Neck site for park, onc
20 US: The News-Herald: Nuclear plants prove to be powerful issue
21 Cumberland News: Nuclear towers to be demolished
22 US: WGP: Lifting moratorium on building nuclear plants is an idea th
23 US: SocialFunds.com: Risky Business: The Outlook for Investing in Nu
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
24 US: UPI: Officials work on 'Day After' nuclear plan
25 US: Esquire.com: Mercenary - 
26 US: Journal Gazette: This is only a nuclear drill
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
27 US: [NukeNet] You are invited to NE Tennessee to GET IN THE WAY of t
28 BBC NEWS: Denmark challenged over B52 crash
29 US: SF Examiner: Lawmakers cite compensation progress for ill nuclea
30 US: washingtonpost.com: Bomb Part Storage at Ky. Plant Disclosed - 
31 US: Honolulu Advertiser: Depleted uranium a Cold War leftover - 
32 US: DaytonDailyNews.com: Nuclear worker Ray dies
33 US: NAS Project: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of D
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
34 US: SF New Mexican: Federal court denies injunction in WIPP case
35 Lincoln County Record: Editorial: Municipal Welfare (Yucca)
36 US: WNN: Funding for GNEP studies announced
37 Barrow in Furness: Japan launches nuclear ship for Barrow
38 US: Aiken Today: Locals visit Washington with local concerns
 
                           PEACE
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
39 Hanford News: Regulators say target budgets too small
40 Hanford News: Outage planned at nuclear plant
41 Hanford News: DOE seeks to work off EPA fine
42 Hanford News: Fluctuating funding leads to layoffs at PNNL
43 Hanford News: Vit plant funding is in bill: House committee OKs $690
44 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Appeals court supports DOE in decision
45 KnoxNews: Planning for a catastrophic attack
46 lamonitor.com: LANL bestows top tech awards
47 KFDA: Pantex Security Concerns
48 KFDA: New Proposal for Pantex Guards
*****************************************************************
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
*****************************************************************
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 1 [NYTr] TVA Nuke: We Didn't Need It The First Time
 
Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 21:39:51 -0400


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 


May 10, 2007

Tell the Tennessee Valley Authority: No New Nuclear Reactor

Act Now: 
http://action.citizen.org/dia/organizationsORG/publiccitizen/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11319

Dear Energy Activists,

As you know, the nuclear power industry with a boost from the Bush
administration is pushing for a nuclear rival.  Nuclear power poses
tremendous safety and environmental risks.  And its resuscitation
depends on taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies.  In return, we inherent
more deadly radioactive waste and put less investment in truly clean
sources of renewable energy.  

Tell the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) not to pursue building an
unnecessary reactor.  TVA is currently reviewing impacts of a new
reactor on the environment and people.  This is our opportunity to
voice our concerns and participate in the process that determines where
our energy comes from.

Sending our comments to TVA will alert the entire nuclear power
industry to the fact that we do not want our energy generated from
dangerous and polluting nuclear power.  

Thank you for you time and commitment to clean and safe energy.

Sincerely,

Allison Fisher
Organizer
Public Citizen's Energy Program
       
                                *
================================================================
.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 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Robinson Nuclear Plant

News Release - Region II - 2007-030 - 

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, May 21, to discuss the 
agency’s assessment of safety performance last year at the 
Robinson nuclear power plant, located near Hartsville, S.C.

  The meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled to begin 
at 2:00 p.m. in the Hartsville Memorial Library, 147 W. College 
Avenue in Hartsville. 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 
Robinson 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/rob_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 Robinson plant operated safely during 2006 with 
all inspection findings being “green,” or of very low 
safety significance, and all performance indicators also 
indicating performance at levels requiring no additional NRC 
oversight.

     As a result, the NRC plans to conduct only routine baseline 
inspections at the plant for the rest of 2006. The NRC staff will 
also conduct several non-routine inspections, including the 
independent spent fuel storage facility and the containment 
emergency re-circulation sump temporary instruction. Current 
information for the Robinson plant is available on the NRC web 
site at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/ROB2/rob2_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.

, May 11, 2007

*****************************************************************
 3 TorontoSun.com: 'Green' plan? Build nukes, cut coal

Commentary - 

torsun.editor@sunmedia.ca

Fri, May 11, 2007

By Lorrie Goldstein

Contrary to media hype elsewhere, you don't have to wait until next
month to learn about Premier Dalton McGuinty's so-called "green"
energy plan.

Here it is: Ontario is going to go nuclear in a bid to close down
its four remaining coal-fired electricity-generating plants. That's
it.

Everything else is hype. Liberal promises to build a solar farm, ban
incandescent light bulbs, reduce plastic bags, etc., are mainly
designed to give voters a warm and fuzzy feeling about McGuinty's
"green" credentials heading into October's election.

But their impact on Ontario's power needs -- the root cause of much
of our air pollution and greenhouse gases -- is insignificant. They
are baby steps to prepare the public for what's coming in terms of
lifestyle changes if politicians are serious about fighting global
warming and smog.

To keep track of reality as opposed to political spin, here are the
important numbers you need to know:

Of Ontario's total capacity for generating electricity, 50% comes
from nuclear, 22% from hydroelectric, 16% from coal and 7% from
natural gas. The rest comes from relatively minor sources, including
renewable energy.

From the point of view of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution --
separate issues -- the worst of the big power sources is coal.

McGuinty has called for a major refurbishing of Ontario's wonky
nuclear reactors, plus building new ones (meaning mega-billions of
spending), in order to reduce our reliance on coal, since nukes
don't emit greenhouse gases or much air pollution.

Still, exactly when Ontario's coal-fired plants will be closed is
anybody's guess.

McGuinty's election promise in 2003 was that it would happen this
year. That's now been pushed back to 2014 -- maybe. Plus, McGuinty's
emphasis on nukes doesn't make environmentalists happy.

They argue the construction of nuclear plants and reactors emits a
large amount of greenhouse gases and pollution, that there's no
technology to dispose of nuclear waste and there's always the danger
of a nuclear accident.


Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 4 edmontonsun.com: Nuclear future for oilsands?

Commentary - 

Fri, May 11, 2007

By Neil Waugh

The Nuke of the North is back on the hot seat with Energy Alberta's
proposal to site a CANDU reactor somewhere in the province.

And while Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has been trying to convince
somebody - anybody - to build a nuclear power plant in the oilsands
for decades, EA president Wayne Henuset brings a new sense of
urgency to the project. He will soon be filing a preliminary
application with federal regulators.

Henuset has exposed yet another fault in the Alberta Tories'
oilsands strategy, which can best be summarized as cut the royalty
and let 'er rip.

"They're in a gas crisis now," Henuset told the Edmonton Sun's
editorial board recently. "Every oil company in the tar- sands is
looking for energy alternatives."

It looks like somebody forgot that you have to burn a lot of energy
to make synthetic crude. And with the development of deeper "in
situ" technology - where the bitumen is literally steamed to the
surface - natural gas consumption is going to soar.

Henuset proposes to use power production from the proposed
2,200-megawatt nuclear plant to replace the gas needed for bitumen
extraction. Whitecourt and Peace River have already shown an
interest in hosting the project, which could create 1,000 jobs.

The feds are obviously on board. They own AECL. And Henuset claims
the provincial PCs have also changed their tune. The Tories once
favoured nuclear power in the oilsands, but only if the plant was
built in Saskatchewan, where the uranium comes from.

Certainly, with the impending gas "crisis," the Nuke of the North
clearly has its attractions if you ignore Chernobyl and Three Mile
Island and focus on the CANDU reactor's exemplary safety record.

With the Alberta government now joining the crusade against
hydrocarbons and greenhouse gases, going nuclear offers politically
correct power without emissions.

The myopic Tories have clearly backed Albertans into a corner when
it comes to gas in the oilsands. Nuclear power is back in town with
a new purpose.

Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. Test
*****************************************************************
 5 BBC NEWS: Cooking in the Danger Zone | The Chernobyl diet

  Last Updated: Friday, 11 May 2007, 11:27 GMT 12:27 UK

  By Stefan Gates BBC presenter, Cooking in the Danger Zone

  For the BBC Two series Cooking in the Danger Zone, food writer 
Stefan Gates travels to Chernobyl in Ukraine and meets people who 
live and eat in the "radioactive zone".

  "Niet! Niet!" screamed the cook.

  It is very dangerous - and illegal - to live in the radioactive 
zone

  I had asked her if it was possible to eat any of the local food,
  to which she replied: "Good God, no. We don't eat fish, meat,
  fruit. We don't eat anything. It's all contaminated. You can't.
  You can't."

  In 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident took place at
  Chernobyl Power Plant here in northern Ukraine when an explosion
  blew the top off reactor number four and a fire sent plumes of
  radioactive material into the air, contaminating much of Europe.

  Today a vast exclusion zone, the size of Lancashire, encircles
  Chernobyl and much of the land is still radioactive.

  Despite this, several thousand people still work here
  decommissioning the plant, so the Chernobyl canteen cook has to
  import food from the farthest reaches of Ukraine.

  'Zone of Alienation'

  It turns out that the Chernobyl "Zone of Alienation" is home to
  several hundred mainly elderly people living illegally in the
  area, and their attitude to the risks of radiation is very
  different.


  Anna has stubbornly refused to leave her home


  They returned to their homes soon after the disaster and are now
  growing vegetables and raising livestock again, despite the fact
  that the entire region is now an empty, isolated and
  post-apocalyptic vision of abandoned villages and rampant wildlife.

  Anna is a wonderful, garrulous 83-year-old babushka who has
  returned to the Zone of Alienation.

  She was outraged to hear that the BBC had instructed me not to eat
  any of her food and she began a sustained bullying campaign,
  saying: "What's wrong with you? There's nothing to fear from my
  food - God will protect you."

  Her reasoning was pretty simple: "If it were contaminated we would
  have died a long time ago, but we've been eating it for 20 years
  already!"

  The ultimate test

  It did seem odd that we were filming a fabulous cook making food
  but could not eat it.

  Anna kept chipping away at my resolve, saying: "Just eat it! You
  won't die. God will protect you. We eat it and we're alive and
  you'll be alright too!"

  I felt much more comfortable with the idea after Anna forced
  several glasses of her plum moonshine down my throat


  My producer Marc Perkins was hissing: "You're NOT allowed to eat
  it," but when she produced her homemade butter and our local
  guides made me more confident by tucking in, my resolve crumbled.

  I fell upon the food, much to her admiration.

  It was just pork fat soup, but it tasted deep, smoky and very,
  very Ukrainian.

  Admittedly, the fear of radiation had made my taste buds extra
  sensitive, but I felt much more comfortable with the idea after
  Anna forced several glasses of her plum moonshine down my throat.

  Standard of living

  The nearest functioning town to the Zone of Alienation is
  Slavutych, a town built to re-house workers who continued to work
  at the nuclear plant after the accident (strange though it may
  seem, the other three nuclear reactors at Chernobyl were restarted
  six months later and continued to operate until 2000).


  Slavutych is only 50km (31 miles) from Chernobyl and land around
  here was also contaminated by the accident.

  The local market even has a radiation testing lab and stallholders
  have to have their produce tested regularly.

  Despite this, the residents are remarkably sanguine about
  radiation.

  Lena Vasilenko, an English teacher, explained to me that radiation
  effectively provides Slavutych with employment and a higher
  standard of living than the rest of Ukraine, and the construction
  of the town was 85% funded by the company running Chernobyl.

  Conditions here are better than in the rest of Ukraine, which is
  still recovering from the post-Soviet reform.

  Death toll

  We ate lunch with Lena's friends Yuri, Denis, Natasha and Anatoly,
  who seemed to be in denial about radiation.

  A lot of people are eager to come here to work and we pay this
  price of not paying attention to radiation

  English teacher Lena Vasilenko


  "Nothing's happened yet," they say.

  Yuri echoes a widely-held belief that vodka absorbs and flushes
  radiation out of the system, a dangerous attitude in a country so
  fond of hard liquor that 38% of men are classified as "heavy
  alcohol users".

  The real toll of the disaster is highly disputed, with the
  authorities - represented by the Chernobyl Forum - predicting the
  total final number of deaths at 4,000.

  Greenpeace, however, suggest 270,000 cases of cancer attributable
  to Chernobyl fallout with around 93,000 of these fatal.

  If these numbers are right, it seems highly dangerous to turn a
  blind eye to radiation.

  'National character'

  The future for the Slavutych now looks bleak as jobs at Chernobyl
  begin to disappear.


  We were shocked to see that the mushrooms were eight times over
  the safe levels


  We met up with the town mayor, who was keen to put a glossy spin
  on the situation and took us mushroom-picking to prove his point.

  Mushrooms are one of the foods most susceptible to radioactive
  contamination but Ukrainians love them, and in the forest next to
  the town, we found a carpet of fine ceps.

  "None of the land around here is dangerous," he enthuses, "it's
  not a problem we have."

  Just to be sure, we took the mayor's mushrooms to the market
  testing-station and had them checked for radiation poisoning.

  Both the inspector and myself were shocked to see that they were
  eight times over the safe levels.

  I called the mayor to warn him but he just said: "It doesn't
  matter."

  I asked if he was really going to eat them and he said: "Yes. No
  problem."

  I was shocked, but Lena said: "A lot of people are eager to come
  here to work and we pay this price of not paying attention to
  radiation."

  Ukraine has a history of suffering. The country was on the
  frontline of world wars, faced appalling famines under Stalin and
  has been trying to rebuild itself since the fall of communism.

  I ask if this attitude to radiation is part of the Ukrainian
  national character and Lena sighs. "Ah, yes, we are used to
  suffering."

  On our last day in Ukraine I had a full body radiation check,
  which discovered unusually high radiation in my stomach.

  The doctor told me that the levels were reasonable for someone who
  was just visiting the area briefly, and that I would return to
  normal pretty soon, but I realised that Lena and her friends were
  almost certainly being affected by the foods they ate.

  They were gambling with their health.

  The Chernobyl canteen cook was right. Just say "niet". But the
  people of Slavutych feel as though they have little choice.

  Lena's friend Natasha put it very simply: "Why are we so tolerant?
  Radiation feeds us."

  Cooking in the Danger Zone will be broadcast on Sunday, 13 May,
  2007 at 1900 BST.


*****************************************************************
 6 BBC NEWS: Bats halt nuclear site demolition

Last Updated: Friday, 11 May 2007, 09:14 GMT 10:14 UK

The bats may delay demolition work for months

Demolition work on a nuclear clean-up site in Cheshire has been
brought to a halt because of roosting bats.

Delays of up to four months are predicted at the former uranium
enrichment facility at Capenhurst after a colony of pipistrelle bats
was found.

The bats have been hibernating over the winter but in recent weeks
they have woken up and may start breeding.

Ian Thomas, of British Nuclear Group, said: "During this project we
became aware that we had a colony of bats roosting in the structures
that were earmarked for demolition.


The pipistrelle is the smallest bat in the UK

"Given the protected status of bats, we took immediate action to
prevent any further disturbance of the colony by stopping all
demolition works and hiring a local ecological consultant to
determine the best course of action to protect the bat colony.

Pipistrelles are the smallest and commonest bat in the UK and can
live for up to 16 years.


* BBC Copyright Notice
*****************************************************************
 7 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance at Harris Nuclear Plant

News Release - Region II - 2007-07-031 - 

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 and the public on Wednesday, May 23, to 
discuss the agency’s assessment of safety performance last 
year and other issues at the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant, 
located southwest of Raleigh, N.C.

 The meeting, which begins with an open house and poster session 
from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., will be at New Horizons Fellowship, 820 
E. Williams Street (Highway 55), in Apex. During the open house, 
NRC staff will be available to answer questions and provide 
information about the Harris plant. There will also be displays 
discussing various aspects of NRC regulations and activities.

 At 7:15, the NRC staff will present an overview of the 
plant’s performance during 2006 and allow Progress Energy 
officials to comment. After that presentation, the NRC staff will 
answer written questions, and that question and answer session is 
scheduled to end at about 9:00 p.m.

   “The NRC continually reviews the performance of the 
Harris plant and other commercial nuclear power 
facilities,” NRC Region II Administrator William Travers 
said. “This meeting allows us to discuss that performance 
with the company, local officials and 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/har_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 Harris plant operated safely during 2006 with 
all inspection findings being “green,” or of very low 
safety significance, and all performance indicators also 
indicating performance at levels requiring no additional NRC 
oversight.

     As a result, the NRC plans to conduct only routine baseline 
inspections at the plant for the rest of 2006. The NRC staff will 
also conduct several non-routine inspections, including license 
renewal and the containment emergency re-circulation sump 
temporary instruction. Current information for the Harris plant 
is available on the NRC web site at: 
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/HAR1/har1_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.


Friday, May 11, 2007
*****************************************************************
 8 EurActiv.com: Parliament wants more power in nuclear policy | EU 
- European Information on Energy

Published: Friday 11 May 2007

On 10 May, MEPs voted by a large majority in favour of 
revising the Euratom treaty and extending Parliamentary powers to 
nuclear energy policy.

One of the two Rome Treaties, the Euratom Treaty came into force 
in 1958 alongside the treaty establishing the European Economic 
Community (EEC).

The purpose of Euratom was to assist member states in financing 
nuclear energy installations, to ensure the supply of  materials, 
to ensure common safety standards, in particular protection from 
radiation, and to prevent any military uses of nuclear 
installations. The Commission was authorised to regulate on these 
matters.


The Commission agrees with the Parliament's view that Euratom, which
has not been significantly reformed since its entry into force, is
limited in that it does not provide the EU with competences in
several crucial areas: operational safety of nuclear power
plants, management of radioactive waste storage or disposal
facilities and decommissioning of facilities. These issues remain
the responsibility of national authorities, and are influenced by a
set of standards adopted at international level, for example by the
International Atomic Energy Agency ( ).

The EP's report, presented by Lithuanian MEP Rapporteur  Eugenijus
Maldeikis of the Union of Europe of the Nations Group (UEN),
acknowledges that Euratom remains an important and reasonably
flexible framework for managing nuclear-energy policy in the EU.
However, given the growing importance of nuclear energy as part of
the EU's overall energy and climate change policies,
Parliament regrets that "the growth in Parliament’s powers, and
particularly their extension to include codecision procedure on the
majority of European legislation, has not been taken into account in
the Euratom Treaty". 

In order to address this "unacceptable democratic deficit", the
report calls for a future intergovernmental conference (ICG) in
order to "repeal the outdated provisions of that Treaty, to maintain
the regulatory regime of the nuclear industry at EU level, to revise
the remaining provisions in the light of a modern and sustainable
energy policy and to incorporate the relevant ones in a separate
energy chapter". 


Positions:


The Greens Group in Parliament took a more critical view of Euratom,
calling it an "obsolete treaty" that is "in need of wholesale
reform." The Greens are in favor of launching an intergovernmental
conference, and believe that there is a need for "much greater
transparency with regard to nucear power and strengthening the role
of the EP would go some way towards achieving this".

In co-ordination with the vote on the Euratom report, the Greens
also presented  Parliament the results of a study which warns that,
despite measures taken since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, every
day "a major nuclear accident has been lurking around the corner."



Links

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*****************************************************************
 9 JOURNAL NEWS: Indian Point to expand sewer testing for radioactive isotopes

Friday, May 11, 2007

By GREG CLARY

BUCHANAN - Indian Point officials plan to search for traces of
tritium and the more dangerous strontium 90 in the village's sewer
system until they can determine how far the radioactive isotopes
have traveled.

The first set of test results from the most recent sampling at the
Buchanan sewage treatment plant is expected next week.

"Tritium results will come back first," said Jim Steets, a spokesman
for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates Indian Point.
"The strontium 90 results will take longer, so a few weeks after
that."

On Wednesday, the company confirmed that an April 30 sample had
turned up low levels of tritium in the sewage effluent at an on-site
pumping station near the southwest corner of the 230-acre site.

That test showed tritium in the sewage at a radiation concentration
of 8,000 picocuries per liter - a fraction of the 10 million
picocuries per liter allowed in sewage - and below the 20,000 level
allowed for safe drinking water. The first sewage samples to be
tested for strontium were taken this week, and results are not
expected until later this month.

County, state and federal regulators said there was no threat to
public or worker safety because of the small amounts of tritium
found.

But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and local officials want to
know how radioactive material is making its way into a supposedly
closed system.

"This is another issue for their groundwater contamination and
remediation program," said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan.

Steets said an Entergy laboratory on-site - in a preliminary
evaluation of sewage samples taken Tuesday - showed tritium amounts
barely above detectible levels. Sheehan confirmed that those
readings were more on the order of 1,000 picocuries per liter.

The tritium that has shown up in Indian Point's sewer lines was
discovered because nuclear plant employees began monthly testing of
the facility's sewage in October.

Through the fall there were no signs that tritium had made its way
into the closed piping system, but in January officials started
seeing trace amounts that had them paying closer attention to
further tests.

Entergy scientists wanted to make sure the results were accurate,
and not an anomaly, before contacting the NRC and local officials.
Follow-up tests showed varying levels of tritium, all below what the
company is required to report.

Company officials have said tritium is probably the safest thing in
the effluent that is pumped from the nuclear complex to the village
sewage treatment plant, but they opted to let local officials and
the NRC know about the radiation because of the continuing radiation
leaks under Indian Point 1 and Indian Point 2.

"The 8,000 (picocuries) is what caused us to say something must be
going on here," said Donald Mayer, who is in charge of the tritium
and strontium 90 leak investigations for Entergy. "Even though we
were well below the levels we agreed to with the village, because of
all the interest from the general public, we made a decision to give
a courtesy notification to the village."

There's likely to be more interest with this latest development.

In response to news reports about the tritium discovery in Indian
Point's sewer pipes, the five regional congressional representatives
who have pushed for more oversight at the plants yesterday asked the
Environmental Protection Agency "to investigate and remedy this
potential health and environmental disaster."

In a letter sent yesterday, Reps. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison; Eliot
Engel, D-Bronx; John Hall, D-Dover Plains; Maurice Hinchey,
D-Hurley; and Christopher Shays, R-Conn., called on EPA
Administrator Stephen Johnson to step in.

"It is essential that the agency immediately investigate this danger
and determine the extent of the contamination and the potential
health impacts of these leaks," the group wrote. "Further delay is
not an option."

The environmental group Riverkeeper agreed with the request.

"This latest development is yet another indication that Indian Point
is contaminating the environment," said Lisa Rainwater,
Riverkeeper's Indian Point campaign director. "EPA is the federal
agency entrusted with protecting the public and our environment from
industrial pollution like this, yet the agency has repeatedly
refused to get involved, for fear of igniting a 'turf war' with the
NRC."


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

Copyright © 2007 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper
*****************************************************************
 10 Slovak news: Slovakia committed to nuclear energy

Volume 13, Number 18 May 07 - May 13, 2007

The completion of the third and fourth reactors at the Mochovce
nuclear power plant (Nitra Region) is a priority not only for Slovak
electricity producer Slovenské Elektrárne (SE), but also for the
whole Slovakia, said SE general director Paolo Ruzzini at a press
conference that was held in Bratislava on May 10 to mark the 50th
anniversary of nuclear energy in Slovakia.

Ruzzini said the work on the reactors will create around 3,500 new
jobs. SE currently employs 3,200 people. The Italian energy company
Enel, which owns a 66-percent stake in SE, is committed to investing
Sk110 billion (€3.275 billion) in Slovakia, with most of the money
going towards the completion of the Mochovce plant.

Ruzzini also said that SE wants to maintain an "energy mix" in
Slovakia, and will support other energy sources.

In 2006, SE produced 57 percent of its energy from nuclear sources,
while fossil-fuel and hydro-electric power plants each produced 21
percent.

Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports

The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the
information presented in its Flash News postings.

[5/11/2007 1:24:37 PM]

 Copyright © 1998-2007 The Rock spol. s r.o. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 11 Hamilton Spectator: Seeing the bright side of nuclear energy

David Cooper, Toronto Star

The Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, seen from the air, is by
Lake Ontario.

City council should rethink its idea of a ban on building nuclear
power plants

By Patrick Moore
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 11, 2007)

I recently had the privilege of addressing the faculty and students
of McMaster University's nuclear engineering department, the
pre-eminent nuclear engineering program in Canada.

McMaster is producing specialists dedicated to researching,
building, operating and maintaining the country's nuclear energy
facilities. At a time when Canada is desperately seeking ways to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from coal-fired power
plants, these future engineers will contribute enormously to the
country's greenhouse gas emissions reductions and to a safe,
reliable and cost-effective nuclear energy infrastructure.

Canadians are leaders in nuclear energy innovation such as CANDU
reactor technology, and are poised to benefit enormously from the
world's nuclear energy renaissance. That's why I was alarmed to hear
Hamilton city council is contemplating passing a resolution that
would ban the construction of any new nuclear power plants within
the city's limits.

I don't know if any new nuclear plants will ever come to Hamilton.
That's not the point. A ban, while legally non-binding, would send a
very negative message to McMaster's nuclear engineers and
potentially could cost Hamilton thousands of high-paying jobs, this
in a city where a nuclear research reactor has been operating safely
for almost 50 years.

Nuclear power plants bring a lot of wealth to the communities in
which they operate.

There are 18 nuclear reactors in Canada and 443 worldwide, quietly
and safely producing electricity every day while drawing in a
talented, highly educated workforce earning 40 per cent more than
the average wage.

When I helped found Greenpeace in Vancouver in the 1970s, my
colleagues and I were firmly opposed to nuclear energy. But times
have changed. I now realize nuclear energy is the only
non-greenhouse gas-emitting power source that can effectively
replace fossil fuels and satisfy Canada's growing demand for energy.

Unfortunately, environmental activists have become so influenced by
their own misinformation that they fail to consider the enormous and
clear benefits of harnessing nuclear energy to meet Canada's goals
for clean air and reduced greenhouse-gas emissions.

Hamilton's city council must not make this mistake.

Cost-effective wind energy, hydroelectric power and geothermal heat
pumps are all part of the solution to Ontario's energy challenge.
Yet, it is completely unrealistic to argue as some activists do that
we can replace existing nuclear and coal-fired plants, which
currently make up 70 per cent of Ontario's electricity production,
with renewables and conservation measures alone.

Natural gas is not a solution either because of its volatile prices
and carbon emissions.

Prominent international environmentalists such as Stewart Brand,
founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, Gaia theorist James Lovelock,
and the late Bishop Hugh Montefiore, former Friends of the Earth
leader, all came to realize that nuclear energy represents the only
practical means of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions while meeting
increasing global energy demand.

Since the establishment of the industry more than 40 years ago,
there has never been a single serious accident at any Canadian
nuclear facility. There has never been a single radiation-related
death in the history of the Canadian nuclear energy sector. This
history clearly shows nuclear energy poses no danger whatsoever to
Canada's environment.

Chernobyl is often raised as an argument against the further
development of nuclear energy. But Chernobyl was an accident waiting
to happen. This early Russian design had no containment structure,
unlike all reactors in the West. It was a bad design with shoddy
construction and unprofessional operating procedures.

Compare this to Three Mile Island, where safety features averted a
catastrophe and radiation was contained inside the plant. Three Mile
Island was the only serious nuclear accident in North America and no
one was killed or injured. To put Chernobyl in perspective, the
accident stands as the exception that proves the rule that the
nuclear energy industry is safe, among the safest industrial sectors
in the world.

Let's also remember, contrary to claims of activists, that spent
nuclear fuel is not waste. Recycling spent fuel, which still
contains 90 per cent of its original energy, will greatly reduce the
need for treatment and disposal.

There is simply no environmental, economic or social justification
for council's proposed resolution.

From the first hydro electricity delivered to Hamilton in 1896 to
power its steel mills, the city has always embraced technological
advancements that have brought it prosperity.

Nuclear energy has enormous potential to brighten Hamilton's future
and to do so in an environmentally beneficial manner. The proposed
ban goes against Hamilton's long tradition of embracing this sort of
technological progress.

If council is serious about protecting the environment and
encouraging innovation and job growth, they should scrap the
proposed resolution and support sustainable nuclear energy.

Dr. Patrick Moore is an adviser to government and industry, a
co-founder of Greenpeace and chairman and chief scientist of
Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. in Vancouver.

Hamilton Spectator.
*****************************************************************
 12 BusinessWeek: Debate swells over nuke plants near NYC

The Associated Press May 11, 2007, 12:08AM EST

By JIM FITZGERALD

BUCHANAN, N.Y.

On a recent day at the Indian Point nuclear power station, a
truck-sized transformer, destroyed by fire, sat discarded on the
edge of the property.

Nearby, a young scientist headed for the Hudson River with
dye-detection equipment to search for the source of a leak of
radioactive isotopes.

And in another part of the facility, separate computers were devoted
to two problem-plagued emergency siren systems.

Located 35 miles north of New York City, Indian Point is the
nation's most scrutinized and least popular nuclear installation.
Opponents wish that it would just go away.

But the owner of the facility has a much different plan. Entergy
Nuclear applied last month for new licenses that would keep one
reactor running until 2033 and the other until 2035.

The 2,500-page application, and what could be a two-year relicensing
process, has become the focus of Indian Point's many critics. It
seems likely to spur the sharpest debate about the reactors since
2003, when a bid to shut down the reactors failed.

"When Entergy declared the intention to extend for 20 years, the
idea sort of came together that at least we can assure our children
and our children's children that these plants aren't going to
continue to operate beyond 2013 and 2015," when the current licenses
expire, said Lisa Rainwater, spokeswoman for the environmental
organization Riverkeeper.

She said she expects the relicensing battle to become "one of the
largest legal cases we have seen in a very long time."

Entergy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have stressed that
none of the problems are significant safety dangers, and Entergy
said in its application that "we are extremely proud of these two
great facilities."

But the application prompted a bipartisan group in Congress to
express concern, saying, "As a result of its proximity to New York
City, there is no doubt that a safety failure at the plant could
have catastrophic consequences for the entire nation."

Expecting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny a license -- it
would be a first -- may be far-fetched, however. At a recent Senate
hearing, NRC commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr. said, "The people of
New York should thank God every day" that Entergy is running Indian
Point. And when the commission's regional administrator, Samuel
Collins, was asked if Indian Point's performance problems could
result in a denial of the license, he said, "I think the direct
answer to that is no."

Indian Point, at about 2,000 megawatts, produces a quarter of the
electricity used in New York City and adjoining Westchester County.
Arthur Kremer of the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity
Alliance said relicensing is necessary because of several reasons:
Electricity demand is soaring, few new plants are being built, and
non-emitting facilities are needed to improve the air quality.

But criticism has been building as the plants' problems persist. As
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton recently told the NRC, "Just about every
week we pick up the local newspaper and find some other problem at
Indian Point."

Over the past two years, those problems have included:

-- Leaks of radioactive tritium and strontium-90, possibly from the
pools that protect spent nuclear fuel, into the groundwater beneath
Indian Point and then, in tiny concentrations, into the Hudson. The
source is still being sought.

-- Several failures of the siren system that's designed to alert
people within 10 miles of the Buchanan plants to any emergency. In
July 2005, the sirens stood useless for nearly six hours when power
was lost and no one noticed. In March 2006, the system locked up for
several hours during a test.

-- A missed deadline for the installation of a new siren system.
Entergy Nuclear, a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp.,
was fined $130,000 by the NRC, which said the failure "reflects
insufficient management attention at senior levels."

-- Nine unplanned shutdowns of the reactors since 2005, including
two last month, the latest due to the fire in the transformer.

-- A finding by the NRC that some Indian Point workers were
reluctant to raise safety concerns because they fear retribution.

"These problems have eroded the confidence of many New Yorkers in
the plant, its operators and the NRC's oversight," Clinton said.
"Indian Point faces a very critical time with their upcoming
relicensing and the NRC and Entergy need to prove to the community
that their facility is safe and will remain so into the future."

Clinton, who lives 15 miles from the plants, has been among the
leading critics of Entergy and the commission. It was her
legislation that imposed the new siren system, and she is sponsoring
a bill that would make relicensing conditional on what is known as
an Independent Safety Assessment. The ISA is a rare, expensive and
time-consuming inspection conducted in part by engineers with no
connection to the NRC or Indian Point.

The NRC acknowledges that Indian Point has more than its share of
problems. NRC Chairman Dale Klein said the plants seem "snakebit."
But the commission maintains its current oversight process is
superior to the Independent Safety Assessment.

Collins said the NRC understands that Indian Point is important
because it is located in such a heavily populated area. He said the
commission has responded by having four resident inspectors --
double the standard number -- on the site and by increasing its
scrutiny in response to plant problems.

Nevertheless, Clinton's legislation, and a similar bill in the
House, have drawn support from Sen. Charles Schumer, Gov. Eliot
Spitzer and almost all the area's Congressional delegation. The
House bill is sponsored by freshman Rep. John Hall, the former rock
'n' roll star who is opposed to nuclear power anywhere and now
represents the district that includes Indian Point.

Citing the dangers of nuclear waste and the difficulty of
evacuation, Hall said last week that he would like to see the plants
closed immediately and converted into a renewable energy research
and development center. But he said he understands that "the most
likely process economically and politically is that it runs out the
end of its original license."

He said he recently told an NRC commissioner who was proclaiming his
objectivity, "One way you could burnish your reputation as a
regulator is by once, somewhere in the country, refusing an
application for a license."

------

On the Net:

Entergy's application: http://tinyurl.com/2bsjs4

Riverkeeper: http://www.riverkeeper.org


Copyright 2000-2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights
reserved.
*****************************************************************
 13 UPI: British energy paper delayed again

United Press International - Energy - Briefing

Published: May. 11, 2007 at 8:43 PM

LONDON, May. 11 (UPI) -- A new white paper setting the course for
Britain's energy sector, including a controversial push toward
nuclear energy, will be delayed again.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, the most-likely candidate to replace Prime
Minister Tony Blair, has ensured the report will wait a week before
publication, possibly until June, The Independent reports.

The white paper will propose energy-efficiency and renewable-energy
goals for the country and a highly controversial move toward new
nuclear power.

Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling was to publish it next
Thursday.

Brown favors a new nuclear program in Britain, but The Independent
reports Darling and David Miliband, the environment secretary, are
trying to influence his positions on certain key aspects of the
country's future energy policy, especially between business and
environmental interests on regulating emissions.

The U.K. High Court quashed the March release of the white paper
after it ruled that the government's consultation with the public
regarding new nuclear power was "inadequate, misleading and
procedurally unfair."

© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 14 UPI: U.S., Czech Republic push missile shield

United Press International - International Intelligence - Briefing

Published: May. 11, 2007 at 1:39 PM

BERLIN, May. 11 (UPI) -- The United States and the Czech Republic
are pushing for a missile shield in Eastern Europe, despite domestic
and international resistance.

On Thursday, official talks between Washington and Prague over the
future of some 120 U.S. soldiers still stationed in the Czech
Republic began yesterday near the Czech capital. Talks about the
missile shield are to be finalized by the end of the year, despite
significant opposition from the Czech public.

Prague continues to back the U.S. plan, which foresees 10
bunker-protected rockets to be station in Poland and a radar unit in
the Czech Republic by 2013 to defend America and its allies in
Europe against nuclear attacks from rogue states.

In a recent interview with the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, Czech
Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg defended the controversial
system.

"We think the anti-missile shield is a useful idea because we know
how fast the development in Iran and other states can be," he said.

Russia has previously protested the plan, claiming it was a threat
against its territory and provoking a new arms race in Europe.

European Union presidency holder Germany has generally supported the
missile shield but would like to see it discussed in a bilateral
framework.

On Friday, Schwarzenberg met German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier for talks in Berlin aimed at diffusing the conflict over
the missiles.

© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 15 Herald Sun: Nuclear power in 20 years | 

NEWS.com.au |

Norrie Ross

May 12, 2007 12:00am

VICTORIA will have its first nuclear power station in 20 years, the
head of the Federal Government's nuclear taskforce has predicted.

Dr Ziggy Switkowski said eight nuclear power stations would be built
in the state by the middle of the century.

But Dr Switkowski said he believed a framework for carbon emissions
trading would come first from the debate over climate change.

"I think the decision to go nuclear can be made in the next few
years and then you add 15 before you see the first reactors," he
said yesterday.

"We'll have eight in Victoria by 2050."

Speaking to Rotarians at Sandown Racecourse Dr Switkowski said he
could not predict the outcome of the Government's emissions trading
taskforce. But he said carbon trading was a more pressing problem if
deciding to go nuclear.

"I know from an industry point of view that they are encouraging the
development of a framework (carbon trading) in order to establish
certainty in the rules," he said.

Dr Switkowski told his audience Australia was such a small
contributor to global warming that nothing we did would affect
climate change.

And the nuclear move would become viable only when a price was put
on carbon emissions.

He said putting a cost on emissions would also make alternative
energy sources such as solar and wind power more viable.

I think ist only a matter of time before solutions that are both
viable and safe are found for nuclear energy. As a consequence let
us as a country, not lock ourselves out of a important and growing
industry. Posted by: Brett Eden of 9:22am today

© Herald and Weekly Times. All times AEST (GMT + 10).
*****************************************************************
 16 Political Affairs Magazine: Global warming, nuclear power - double trouble

By Peter Mac 

 5-11-07, 1:40 pm

As a twelve year old I visited a new engineering exhibition which
included a model of a nuclear power station. That model promised a
future in which electrical energy would be produced without
atmospheric pollution, at a minute cost, and safely.

That promise is long gone. In the 1960s radioactive gas emissions
from nuclear plants caused public alarm. In 1973 the Three Mile
Island plant in Pennsylvania, USA, suffered an extremely dangerous
accident, and in 1982 the nuclear power station at Chernobyl in the
Ukraine suffered a catastrophic "meltdown," surely the worst
environmental accident in human history.

Moreover, we now face major changes in the world's climate and
ecosystems. These changes arise from "global warming," a phenomenon
in which certain gases in the atmosphere prevent much of the earth's
reflected solar radiation from escaping back into space. Carbon
dioxide CO2 comprises about 50 percent of these gases, and is mostly
produced by the combustion of coal or oil in power stations,
vehicles and industrial engines.

Global warming will cause rising sea levels, ocean current
variations, an overall increase in global temperatures, increasing
incidence and severity of forest fires and major storms, prolonged
drought and intermittent flooding, increasing serious disease
outbreaks, massive biodiversity losses, sea water acidification and
deteriorating air quality.

The historical coincidence of global warming and a revived nuclear
industry magnifies the hazard. For example, resource depletion in
some countries because of global warming will jeopardize their
nuclear plants' maintenance and health and safety programs. Climate
change will also reduce water supplies, which are crucial to avert
reactor meltdowns [1].

Global warming is likely to result in international struggles over
water and other resources. Some individuals and national governments
will also be tempted to use radioactive waste from nuclear plants to
fashion nuclear weapons [2].

Acquisition of nuclear power facilitates acquisition of nuclear
weapons. It provides technical expertise and fissile materials and
companies that are involved in nuclear power generation are also
involved in nuclear weapons manufacture.

It could happen here. Robert Menzies, John Howard's mentor and idol,
took the first steps to establish a nuclear power industry and
wanted Australia to acquire nuclear weapons [3]. Howard's
recently-released Zwitkowski report [4] concluded that Australia
could develop uranium enrichment capabilities, and enriched uranium
may be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.

The global warming spin

Energy corporations and their parliamentary representatives have
lied or dissembled about global warming for years. In 1989 fifty US
automotive, oil, gas, coal and chemical corporations formed a lobby
group, the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), which argued that global
warming was a fiction. Some coal corporations admitted that global
warming was a reality, but claimed it would bring an "eternal
summer" and eliminate malnutrition [5]. GCC is now disbanded, but
some US organizations are still describing global warming as a myth
[6].

It now appears that the US Government itself has deliberately
altered, dismissed or suppressed scientific reports which were
likely to raise concern over global warming [7].

The predictions of global warming have given a new lease of life to
the commercial nuclear power industry, which is enthusiastically
promoting the supposed lack of atmospheric emissions, particularly
CO2 from nuclear power generation. The "Chernobyl Forum" group
argues that the Chernobyl hazard has been greatly exaggerated [8].

Howard has only acknowledged the threat from global warming in order
to promote the introduction of nuclear power in Australia. The
uranium mining industry stands to make a vast fortune out of
Australia's huge share (40 percent) of the world's uranium [9].
However, Howard has never acknowledged that at the current rate of
use, the existing reserves of usable grade uranium will only last
fifty years [10].

Green and cheap?

Nuclear plants emit virtually no C02 during operation, but they
frequently release radioactive gases and fluids. Uranium enrichment,
advocated in the Zwitkowski report, also produces emissions of
chlorofluorocarbons, banned greenhouse gases, which are 10,000 to
20,000 times more damaging than CO2 and which destroy the ozone
layer [11].

Moreover, building a nuclear power station results in huge CO2
emissions. So does mining uranium ore, milling it, remediating the
tailings, converting the ore, enriching the uranium, fabricating the
reactor elements, cooling and disposing of the reactor water,
storing, cooling and guarding the waste for 60 years, and
transporting it to safe and secure storage [12].

One scientist has calculated that reducing global temperatures by
half a percent through use of nuclear power would require
construction of 1200 nuclear power plants and 15 uranium enrichment
plants. This would produce a million tons of highly radioactive
waste, containing sufficient plutonium for thousands of nuclear
weapons, and would cost between one and two trillion US dollars [13].

The cost of milling US ore is met by the government, which also
provides huge industry subsidies [14] and nuclear plant insurance
[15]. The cost of mining and processing the ore rises over time
because the highest-grade ore is mined first, and the energy
required for mining increases in inverse proportion to the grade of
the remaining ore, until the process becomes uneconomical [16].

The cost of storing and guarding nuclear waste during its
radioactive life is incalculable. To date, attempts to dispose of
waste without hazard or leakage, including the $10 billion Yucca
Mountain experiment in California, have failed. Our descendants will
have to pay for further experiments or, if they're not successful,
to guard the waste for up to 500,000 years [17].

How safe is nuclear power?

Nuclear power generation is extremely dangerous, despite Howard's
reassurances. The 1976 Three Mile Island explosion caused major
radioactive emissions, mass evacuation, and an increasing incidence
of birth deformities and radiation-related diseases [18].

The Soviet Union's worst environmental accident was the 1986
Chernobyl explosion, which caused a nationwide drop in Soviet
morale, and contributed to the eventual defeat of socialism in that
country and in the Eastern European states.

Part of the Chernobyl radioactive plume reached the US. European
farms limited or ceased production [19]. Some 400,000 people were
evacuated from the worst-affected portion; 150,000 sq. kilometers of
the Ukraine, Russia and Byelorussia were contaminated, of which
52,000 sq. kilometers are ruined [20]. The protective cover over the
crippled Chernobyl reactor is said to be fracturing and the reactor
may even erupt again [21].

The incidence of thyroid cancer has soared. In Belarus between 1986
and 2001 there were 8358 cases, including 716 in children [22]. The
number of birth defects and other diseases are increasing. Between
5,000 and 10,000 of the 650,000 workers involved in the clean-up
died prematurely [23]. The full medical and biological effects will
not be known for decades.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) blocked the release of
a 1998 World Health Organization (WHO) report on Chernobyl [24]. The
WHO is forbidden by a 1959 agreement with the IAEA from
investigating the impacts of nuclear technology on public health and
even from warning endangered communities [25].

Nuclear plants are highly susceptible to terrorist attacks [26] the
probability of which has increased enormously in Australia because
of the Howard Government's policies. In the US the security of
nuclear plants is precarious. An eruption at the Indian Point
reactor could effectively incapacitate New York, 35 miles away, and
there are thirteen nuclear plants located around Chicago [27].

Many US plants are also susceptible to natural disasters, such as
earthquakes, tsunamis and rising sea levels [28] and their operation
requires huge amounts of water, a major deficiency in Australia.
Leakages of gas or fluids from nuclear plants is a major hazard,
because nuclear reactor fluids are extremely corrosive.

Emissions trading

Emissions trading schemes aim to limit annual greenhouse gas
emissions within a country or group of countries [29]. The limit
amount is represented by a certain number of permits, granted to
organizations or countries whose industries emit greenhouse gases.
Those whose industries exceed the limit can purchase extra permits
from those with a better performance, e.g. those which produce or
use renewable source energy, or effectively capture carbon from the
air, as in forestation.

Emissions trading is sometimes described as a tax. This is
incorrect, because extra credits accrued by emission-conforming
enterprises are sold to defaulting industries, rather than entering
consolidated revenue.

The European Economic Union (EEU) has introduced a trading scheme,
in which India and China are participating. Australia has the
potential to benefit from such a scheme, but at the moment our level
of combustion of coal and oil give us the world's highest per capita
emission rate [30]. Moreover, under Howard's "nuclear vision" we
would accept uranium waste from many countries and would probably
also process the uranium ore, as in the US. In short, we would
increase our emission rate by carrying out all the CO2 activities in
the nuclear cycle.

The constraints of time

Construction of facilities for nuclear power or coal
geosequestration (burying liquified C02) in Australia would take far
longer than is permitted by the climate crisis. Completion of a
pilot geosequestration plant (for burying massive amounts of CO2,)
could not be completed until 2026 [31], while target dates for
constructing nuclear plants are notoriously unreliable [32].
However, the Stem Report [33] concluded that major reductions in
emissions should be achieved before 2016.

Some of the world's energy needs may eventually be met by nuclear
fusion rather than fission. Fusion technology promises abundant
energy with little radiation hazard, but involves difficulties in
achieving continuous operation and dealing with emitted helium. The
first experimental fusion plant will probably not be operational for
decades.

Renewable and political

Renewable energy options particularly wind and solar power, are
clean and green, and provide the best means of avoiding the worst
impacts of climate change within the global warming time frame.
Reserves of oil will probably reach the critical "peak-oil" point by
2010 [34]; reserves of natural gas will reach "peak-gas" point
between 2030 and 2035 [35].

Difficulties which have inhibited renewable technologies have been
solved or are being rapidly overcome [36]. However, the development
of renewable energy sources is opposed by the petroleum, coal and
uranium mining companies. Their profits are threatened by renewable
technologies, which offer the most efficient form of energy
generation, because natural energy is not a commodity but is
supplied by nature, free of charge.

The US also opposes the development of renewable energy technology
and the introduction of emissions trading, because the US economy
has benefited for decades from use of the dollar as the
international oil trading currency. This convention underpins the
value of the dollar and provides the US with highly lucrative
commissions on oil transactions [37].

This is undoubtedly one of the primary reason why General Motors
terminated the leases on their astonishing electric cars and
destroyed them in 2005, after Californian anti-pollution legislation
was overturned [38]. (The electric cars were leased rather than
being sold).

Vehicles such as these would greatly reduce overall emissions even
if recharged by power from coal-fired power plants, and would
eliminate emissions altogether if recharged by power from renewable
energy sources. However, they also have the potential to render use
of petroleum largely obsolete. The contribution such vehicles offer
in the battle against global warming is, therefore, equal in
magnitude to the threat they pose to the "petrodollar" and to the
future of the oil corporations.

A choice of systems

In the 21st Century, nations and political systems will be judged by
their relative contribution to the struggle against global warming.
Particular issues will include the rapid and extensive utilization
of renewable energy, support for other areas of research, public
health and safe, government control of private firms involved in
research, investment and implementation, and the prevention of
nuclear proliferation and armed conflicts over resources.

Among the western nations, the EEC nations have performed well. The
worst were the United States and Australia, (which has the world's
worst per capita emission rate), whose governments have refused to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina provided a foretaste of coming climatic
crises, and also the level of readiness of affected nations. Again,
the US was the worst performer, as demonstrated by the entirely
avoidable devastation of New Orleans.

In comparison, Cuba endured Katrina with admirable preparation and
few casualties. Moreover, Cuba had successfully managed a major drop
in access to petroleum in the early 1990s [39]. This is of major
importance, because international reserves of oil are beginning to
run out, and because vehicle emissions and the global consumption of
resources must be cut, to avert climate change. (This means that in
order for the developing nations to reach the same standard of
living as the developed nations without bankrupting the earth's
resources, that standard will have to be lower than at present.)

China intends to build 35 more nuclear power stations [40] but
that's a small part of its future energy requirement. It is planning
a series of ecologically-sustainable new cities, and intends to
reduce its power consumption by 20 percent by 2010 [41].

Society's judgment of each nation's global warming performance will
be influenced by a propaganda struggle. Cuba's achievements are
virtually ignored in mainstream western media. The powerful
environmental laws which the USSR introduced to prevent
environmental disasters from its rapidly developing industries [42]
are also ignored. (Western nations also enacted environmental laws,
but these were frequently challenged, often successfully, by
affected corporations [43].)

The Howard Government's proposal to introduce nuclear power is
extremely unpopular. The situation provides excellent opportunities
for united joint action regarding global warming and nuclear power.
However, such action should include support for employees, for
example coal miners and timber workers, some of whom will be
adversely affected by initiatives to avert global warming, despite
new employment opportunities offered by those initiatives.

Conclusion

Nuclear power generation would be too slow and too expensive to
implement, and would pose appalling difficulties for future
generations in dealing with nuclear waste. It would also create
enormous security problems, constitute a potential danger for
communities living near reactors, and provide a negligible
contribution, if any, to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,
before uranium of usable grades begins to be worked out. It is
certainly no solution to global warming.

The current US and Australian governments are procrastinating over
the development of alternative energy systems. Immediate and
draconian measures to reduce emissions, for example, government
closure of high-emission power plants and industries, would be
economically disastrous, and should not be contemplated now.
However, the longer it takes for emissions to be reduced, the
greater will be the future impact of climate change, and the greater
the likelihood of passing one of the "tipping points" of qualitative
change, beyond which horrific natural changes will become
irreversible.

The best criteria for dealing with global warming is to support
those initiatives which will contribute as rapidly as possible to
the health and safety of Planet Earth. In Australian conditions this
must mean giving priority to the development of solar energy, wind
power and other means of using renewable energy sources.

Acknowledgements: Sincere thanks to Peter Symon for comments. Most
of the references below are derived from Dr. Helen Caldicott's
Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming or Anything Else
(Melbourne University Press, 2006) and from Professor Tim Flannery's
The Weather Maker; The Text Publishing Company, 2005.

Endnotes:

1. Schwarz, Paul, For Nuclear Power, the Heat is on, WBAI Pacifica
Radio, 11.11.2003 (Caldicott, Helen, Nuclear Power is Not the Answer
to Global Warming or Anything Else, Melbourne University Press,
2006, p.86).
2. Caldicott, op. cit., p.xv.
3. Butt, Peter, (Dir.), Fortress Australia, Film Australia, 2002.
Broadcast on ABC TV 27.8.2002.
4. Zwitkowski, Ziggy, Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy:
Opportunities for Australia? Commonwealth of Australia, 2006.
5. Freeze, B., Coal, a Human History, Perseus Publishing, 2003
(Flannery, Timothy, The Weather Maker; The Text Publishing Company,
2005, p.240.
6. Monbiot, George, The Denial Industry, Guardian Weekly; 29.9.2006
to 5.10.2006.
7. Anon., How Bush Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global
Warming, New York Times, 8.6.2005, also Kennedy, R.F., Crimes
Against Nature, How George Bush and His Corporate Pals are
Plundering the Country and Hijacking our Democracy, Harper Collins,
New York 2004. Caldicott, Helen, Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to
Global Warming or Anything Else, Melbourne University Press, 2006,
p.24
8. Chernobyl: Nuclear Nightmares, BBC Horizon TV. Director unknown,
broadcast on SBS TV, 7.1.07.
9. Caldicott, op. cit., pvii.
10. NEA-IAEA, Uranium 2003, Resources, Production and Demand, OECD,
Paris, 2004 (Caldicott, op. cit., p.8).
11. Caldicott, op. cit., p.xiii.
12. Ibid., p.4.
13. Cochran, Thomas, title and date of report unknown, quoted in
Caldicott, op. cit., p.180.
14. Caldicott, op. cit., pp.21-24
15. Ibid., p.30.
16. Ibid., p.8.
17. Ibid., 107 - 114.
18. Ibid., 68, 69.
19. Ibid., 76 -78
20. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs,
"Chernobyl Needs Great 18 Years After Nuclear Accident", UNOCHA
press release, New York, 26.4.2004 (Caldicott, op. cit., pp.78, 79)
21. Marples, David R., Chernobyl, Ten Years Later " The Facts,
University of Alberta, 21.3.1996 (Ca op. cit., p.80)
22. Report of the Government of Ukraine, Optimizing the
International Effort to Study, Mitigate and Minimize the
Consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, Annex III of the Report of
the Secretary General, UN General Assembly, 29.8.2003. (Caldicott,
op. cit., p.77). This report notes that the number of people who had
"disabilities connected with the Chernobyl disaster" increased from
2000 in 1991 to almost 100,000 by 1.1.2003.
23. Medvedev, The Truth about Chernobyl, date and publisher unknown
(Caldicott, op. cit., p.
24. Bramhall, Richard, Busby, Christopher and Dorfman, Paul, CERRIE
Minority Report 2004, UK Dept. of Health/Dept. of Environment
Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters,
Aberstwyth, Sosiumi Press, 2004 (Caldicott, op. cit., p.75).
25. Caldicott, op. cit., p.7S.
26. Ibid., p.89-92.
27. Ibid., p.xiv.
28. Ibid., p.87.
29. Mullins, F., and Barron, R., Questions and Answers on Emission
Trading Among Annex 1 Parties, Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, and the International Energy Agency,
December 1997.
30. Flannery, op. cit., p.
31. Bradbury, John, for Geoscience Australia, "Catalyst", ABC TV,
10.7.2006.
32. Vedantum, Shankar, "Uncertainties Slow Push for Plants, Cost of
Building New Facilities, Concerns about Waste Disposal Are Cited",
Washington Post, 24.7.2005. (Caldicott, op. cit., p.
33. Stern, Nicholas, (Chairperson, the "Stern Review") The Economics
of Climate Change, SN, SI, 2006.
34. "Four Corners", ABC TV, 10.7.06. Professor Ian Lowe claims the
"peak oil" stage may already have been reached. (National Press Club
luncheon lecture, 30.8.06).
35. Fournier, Donald S., and Westervelt, Eileen T., Energy Trends
and their Implications for US Army Installations, US Army Corps of
Engineers: Engineers Research and Development Centre, September
2005, pp. 53-57. (Clark, William, Peak Oil Petrocurrencies and the
Emerging Multi-Polar World publisher, place and date unknown)
36. ""Catalyst", ABC TV, 1.8.06; also "7.30 Report", ABC TV, 24.7.06.
37. Clark, op. cit.
38. Paine, Christopher, (Dir.) Who Killed the Electric Car? Warner
Bros. (?), 2005.
39. The Power of Community (DVD), 2006.
40. Caldicott, op. cit., p.xxi.
41. Anonymous, "China Voices Fears Over Global Warming", Sydney
Morning Herald, 28.1.06.
42. Ryabchikov, A., The Changing Face of the Earth, pp.139, 152,
164, 165
43. Ibid., 165. Ryabchikov noted that in the 1970s some US
enterprises set aside funds to pay for pollution fines, because this
was cheaper than paying for new equipment to deal with the problem.

From Australian Marxist Review

newcatcher@cpusa.org
*****************************************************************
 17 Hemscott: British Energy wins permission to restart Hinkley Point B

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Nuclear power station operator 
British Energy Group PLC said it has received permission from the 
Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) to restart its Hinkley 
Point B unit.

The company said it expects to receive approval from the NII to 
restart the second unit at Hinkley Point B and two units at 
Hunterston B in sequence, as anticipated, during the next few 
weeks.

The four units had been shut down to allow for inspection, repair 
and the preparation of safety cases related to boiler tube 
cracking issues. philip.waller@thomson.com paw/tc

COPYRIGHT

Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying,

Hemscott PLC - Serious Investment Research



*****************************************************************
 18 Scotsman.com Business: Go nuclear, avoid UK water-ABN AMRO

Saturday, 12th May 2007

By Jeffrey Hodgson

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Nuclear power producers offer some of the 
best value among global utility stocks, as they can profit from 
rising power demand amid global efforts to cut carbon dioxide 
emissions, an ABN AMRO fund manager said on Friday.

But UK water companies should be avoided because speculation about
takeovers by cashed-up private equity firms have made their stocks
overpriced, added Corne Zandbergen, manager of the 465.6 million
euro (317 million pound) ABN AMRO Utilities Fund.

"Nuclear is clearly coming back on the agenda. We have now a choice
between two evils. That is on the one hand carbon and on the other
hand nuclear waste," he told Reuters.

"What I expect is that in the next few years we'll see quite a lot
of new investments in nuclear facilities."

Exelon Corp., the No. 1 U.S. nuclear power producer, was the
second-largest holding in the fund's portfolio at the end of March
after Germany's E.ON AG, the world's largest utility.

U.S. nuclear power producers Entergy Corp. and Public Service
Enterprise Group Inc. were also among the fund's top 10 holdings and
together accounted for more than 7 percent of the portfolio.

ABN AMRO said euro-denominated class A units of the Utilities Fund
had a 4.5 percent cumulative return in the year to March 30. The
class A units also come in a dollar denominated version.

Zandbergen said the fund had returned 107 percent after fees to the
end of March since its inception as a Dutch-registered vehicle in
June, 2003, compared with a 104.7 percent rise in the MSCI World
Utilities Index during the same period.

UK WATER PLAYS PRICEY

The index rose 31.5 percent last year and hit a lifetime high on May
7, leaving some investors sceptical about the prospect of further
gains in utility shares.

But Zandbergen, a former equities analyst, said a recent increase in
valuations is warranted given reduced regulation, lower interest
rates and high oil and gas prices, which increase the general price
of electricity.

"With all those elements, the long-term expectations for profit
growth are now around 10 percent on an annual basis ... there's a
very good reason why you should pay a higher price for utilities
these days than in the past," he said.

At the same time, he said valuations were unlikely to rise from
current levels around 17.5 times forward earnings, but that
investors would benefit from profit growth, dividend increases and
share buybacks.

The fund is currently overweight European utility companies relative
to the benchmark. Zandbergen said his bottom-up investment style has
turned up more opportunities in the region, which he sees as more
liberalised and developed than the rest of the world, particularly
in the area of emissions trading.

But the Amsterdam-based manager is underweight UK water companies,
where prices rose on takeover speculation. Last year a group led by
Australian investment bank Macquarie Bank Ltd. bought UK utility
Thames Water in an 8 billion pound ($15.85 billion) deal.

"They are more or less already reflecting the share price that is
equal to a takeout price ... the only driver for further price
appreciation is not there anymore. So I think that the UK water
stocks are highly overvalued," he said.

Zandbergen holds water-linked "multi-utilities" Veolia Environnement
and Suez in his portfolio, but is underweight pure-play water
utilities. He said recent investor excitement about the water theme
is overdone, partly because of political difficulties involved in
profiting from the sector.

(c) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or
redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or
similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written
consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are
registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of
companies around the world.

This article: http://business.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=730422007

Last updated: 11-May-07 08:39 BST

©2007 Scotsman.com | contact | terms & conditions
*****************************************************************
 19 New Haven Register: State may use Haddam Neck site for park, once it's safe

Luther Turmelle and Abbe Smith, Register Staff

05/11/2007

 The road leading to the decommissioned Connecticut Yankee power 
plant remains blocked with strict warnings of armed security 
personnel patrols. Arnold Gold/Register The road leading to the 
decommissioned Connecticut Yankee power plant remains blocked 
with strict warnings of armed security personnel patrols. Arnold 
Gold/Register <a href= 

-HADDAM ? It has been closed for more than a decade, but the end 
is near for the Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant, at least 
as a federally licensed facility.

Sometime this summer, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission is
expected to terminate the license for the 550-acre plant, said Bob
Capstick, a spokesman for the consortium that owns the plant.

Then, all that will remain on the property on the eastern bank of
the Connecticut River is a storage facility, where 43 dry cask
storage units of spent nuclear fuel are being kept until a national
repository for nuclear waste is developed.

Some in Haddam view the plant?s slow fade into history with some
nostalgia.

Seamus Danaher, who grew up in Haddam Neck, remembers hanging out
near the power plant with friends as a kid.

He said Connecticut Yankee was always a good neighbor to residents,
even donating money and equipment to the Haddam Neck Volunteer Fire
Department, where Danaher used to be a firefighter.

He said the power plant, which began operating in 1968, kept taxes
low in town and maintained a quiet, unobtrusive presence in Haddam
Neck, which changed as the plant came tumbling down and the
debris-filled dirt was carted away.

"It?s louder now with all the construction trucks going in and out,"
Danaher said.

The trucks are involved in grading projects on the site, one of the
final steps before decommissioning becomes official.

A contractor working for the NRC, the Oak Ridge Institute for
Science and Education, visited the Connecticut Yankee site late last
month, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC Northeast office
in Philadelphia.

ORISE performed surveys and took soil samples to verify that any
radioactivity left at the site is within allowable levels, Sheehan
said.

In order for the NRC to give clearance for the Connecticut Yankee
land to be used for any type of activity ? called "unrestricted
release" ? radioactivity must be below 25 millirems per year, he
said.

"That is, a member of the public who stayed on the site for an
entire year should not receive more than 25 millirems," Sheehan
said. "The average American is exposed to about 360 millirems of
radiation each year from natural and man-made sources."

Connecticut?s limit is 19 millirems, he said.

Until the NRC determines whether the Connecticut Yankee site can be
released for unrestricted use, exactly what its future holds remains
unclear.

Connecticut Yankee has hired a consultant to determine the best
possible use for the majority of the land, Capstick said. And Dennis
Schain, a Department of Environmental Protection spokesman, said
this week that the state agency has had preliminary discussions
about purchasing the property.

"It is so close to several state parks in the area," he said,
adding: "It would be safe and suitable for recreational use once the
decommissioning of the plant is completed."

Connecticut is not alone in considering a former nuclear plant site
for park land.

Michigan officials announced last July that they were considering
buying the 500-acre site that was formerly home to the Big Rock
Point Nuclear Power Plant. The plant, which has a mile of shoreline
on Lake Michigan, is located in the northernmost reaches of
Michigan?s Lower Peninsula.

Haddam First Selectman Tony Bondi said residents are split over what
they would like to see happen with the land. He said open space or
another generating plant ? or both ? would be welcome.

One thing state and local officials don?t want to see the site
become is a permanent storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.

For the past year, Gov. M. Jodi Rell has been waging a campaign,
along with other governors of states with nuclear plants, to
persuade the federal government to honor its commitment to build a
permanent waste storage facility in Nevada.

The U.S. government established a fund in the early 1980s to build a
centralized, permanent storage facility at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles
north of Las Vegas. But the project has seen numerous construction
delays and isn?t expected to be completed until 2017.

Further complicating efforts to keep the Yucca Mountain plan moving
forward is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has vowed
to block the multibillion-dollar project?s completion.

All the gamesmanship between the state and federal governments has
Bondi worried.

"From the ?smell? we get, I?m going to have nuclear spent fuel over
here in Haddam Neck for the next 20 to 30 years," he said.

©New Haven Register 2007

  ©2007 New Haven Register - a Journal Register Property. All Rights
*****************************************************************
 20 The News-Herald: Nuclear plants prove to be powerful issue

Jeffrey L. Frischkorn/JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com

05/11/2007

Nothing about the nuclear power industry is small - not its
generating plants, not its equipment, not the number of personnel
required to monitor and maintain it all.

And certainly not the controversy.

As the nation again looks at using nuclear energy as a source of
electrical generation, many of the old questions about its safety,
reliability, environmental footprint and economics are surfacing.
New ones are joined as well. There is heightened fear about
terrorist attacks, including a hijacked airliner crashing into a
plant.

Yet the industry is throttling up with the idea of adding to the
nation's existing 103 nuclear power plants.
Various utilities are preparing licenses for at least 30 new plants.
In the meantime, nuclear power generating firms like Akron-based
FirstEnergy Corp. are continually upgrading decades-old plants and
seeking federal licensing extensions to operate these huge complexes.
It's a debate that began just after the nuclear genie was let out of
the bottle and shows no sign of abating.

Industry flexes muscles

Hard hats and protective gear, along with radiation monitoring
systems and a background check, are required for entry into
FirstEnergy's Perry Nuclear Power Plant in North Perry Village.
That's just the beginning, though.

Sprawled across 1,100 acres, the plant complex contains various
buildings, each dedicated to a particular need to operate the system.
With the bustle of worker bees, Perry's engineers, machinists,
electricians and other technicians and professionals rub elbows with
armed guards patrolling it all with M-16 rifles.


This complex has two hearts.
The first is the nuclear reactor and everything associated with its
operation and upkeep.

There are the three massive steam-driven turbines that actually
produce the electricity and send it on its way to the equivalent of
750,000 homes.

Both systems are dovetailed and are watched over collectively in a
control room that would do justice to a "Star Trek" soundstage.
Each operator must undergo 1 to 11/2 years of training with an exact
simulator before being allowed to take Perry's helm.

Their work is vital for monitoring the nuclear side of things and
for sending the raw electricity to the grid.

In 2006, Perry produced 10.5 million megawatts of electricity.
Officials at Perry also say it would take two coal-fired power
plants or three natural gas-fired power plants to match what the
nuclear plant produces.

The Perry plant is so large it can set the price of energy on the
electric grid, FirstEnergy officials say.
Ground was broken to build the plant in 1974, with Perry's start-up
beginning in 1987.

The one working reactor is licensed to operate through 2026, with
the company all but certain to apply for a renewal in 2013. If
granted, Perry would operate through 2046.

A second reactor was never completed due to regulatory delays and
the uncertainty of obtaining an operating license, company officials
say.

Many of the second reactor's components were cannibalized for use in
the working version.

FirstEnergy does not envision, at this time, building another
nuclear power plant.

The firm currently has two nuclear power plants besides Perry.
Today, the Perry plant employs 870 people, along with 1,200
supplemental workers when the plant shuts down about every two years
for nuclear refueling.

That is when the facility goes into overdrive, as not only routine
maintenance is performed but updates and modifications are also
made, says Barry S. Allen, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's
vice president - nuclear.

"We feel very good about the plant, and the (Nuclear Regulatory
Commission) has placed Perry in its best category," Allen said.
Once employed in the petrochemical industry, Allen says the
nuclear-generating industry is far more regulated and has a much
better track record of safety.

For example, Allen said, all Perry workers get a pre-job briefing
before beginning any activity.

Such briefings might be conducted several times daily if a person is
to perform more than one task, Allen said.

These procedures and work orders are followed to the letter time and
again, making the process seamless and secure, Allen said.
"My belief is that this is a very safe industry with multiple
safeguards in place," Allen said.

Those safeguards, precautions, retrofits, improvements and
continuing training do not come inexpensively, though.
Even so, says Allen, "we are making money for the company."

And some of that money goes back into the local community.
Besides generating electricity, the Perry plant also annually
produces around $16 million in local payroll, property and
miscellaneous taxes, Allen said.

"Our strategy is to make sure that our plants are in good material
condition, and we're taking care of what we have now to ensure they
are reliable and dependable," Allen said.

Local planning a must

While the Perry Nuclear Power Plant is a city unto itself, it also
is a component of a larger community.

And that attachment requires a commitment of resources, along with
cooperation with local emergency management officials.

Even so, the power plant is just one of the area's critical
infrastructures "and we have a number of them in Lake County," said
Larry D. Greene, director of the Lake County Emergency Management
Agency.

"The only special treatment the plant gets is that it is under NRC
regulations, which puts it into a two-year exercise cycle that the
county's other industries are not subject to," Greene said.
At Perry there are four levels of emergency designations. In the
plant's existence, nothing has ever gone above the alert level,
Greene said.

Credit part of this record to continuous review and evaluation of
protocols and planning, he said.

FirstEnergy is likewise required to have a liaison with each of the
emergency management agencies operating in Lake, Geauga and
Ashtabula counties.

These officials work side-by-side on a daily basis with the affected
counties, Greene said.

"They are our contact with the plant," Greene said.

To keep everyone's perspective fresh, the agency's Radiological
Emergency Response Plan, (RERP) is examined annually along with a
full-scale Department of Homeland Security exercise drill conducted
every two years.

Following the Oct. 24, 2006, exercise, the federal government said
the county met and exceeded every evaluation area of its RERP,
Greene said.

Saturday: Part 2 of the series looks at the pros and cons of nuclear
power.

©The News-Herald 2007

 ©2006 News-Herald- a Journal Register Property. All Rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 21 Cumberland News: Nuclear towers to be demolished

Published on 11/05/2007

Skyline: Chapelcross is visible across the Solway


THE iconic cooling towers of the former Chapelcross nuclear power
plant will be demolished on Sunday, May 20.

British Nuclear Group chiefs have confirmed that the four giant
chimneys, which have stood for nearly 50 years, will be brought down
within 10 seconds by controlled explosions.

Residents in nearby Annan heard about the proposals at an exhibition
and public meeting on Monday .

There will be an exclusion zone around the atomic plant during the
explosion, which will take place at 9am.

The towers – which are visible across the Solway Firth from west
Cumbria and the Cumbria-Northumbria border – are being knocked
down as part of the work to decommission the station.

The demolition will be broadcast live on the internet with a webcam
to allow people worldwide to watch the event from home. That
decision was taken for safety reasons to discourage people from
going too close to the station to watch the explosion.

Chapelcross, which was built as the sister plant to Calder Hall in
west Cumbria, opened in May 1959. It stopped producing power in 2004.




View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital
reproduction, just like the printed copy at
www.cumberland-news.co.uk/digitalcopy

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*****************************************************************
 22 WGP: Lifting moratorium on building nuclear plants is an idea that should
be buried and stored for 10,000 years

Wisconsin Green Party
www.wisconsingreenparty.org

May 10, 2007

Ruth Weill Co-Chair, Wisconsin Green Party,
spokesperson@wisconsingreenparty.org 414-350-2107
Ron Hardy, Co-chair, Wisconsin Green Party,
spokesperson@wisconsingreenparty.org 920-292-8129

WISCONSIN -- Today the Wisconsin Green Party stated its opposition
to lifting the state moratorium on building additional nuclear power
plants in Wisconsin.

"We disagree with the Special Legislative Committee on Nuclear
Power's decision to recommend to the Wisconsin legislature that the
moratorium be lifted," said Ron Hardy, Co-chair of the Wisconsin
Green Party. "All of our energy needs must be evaluated within a
sustainable framework. Nuclear energy is neither economically nor
environmentally sustainable. Our current Wisconsin moratorium has
basic reasonable criteria with which to evaluate whether to build
more nuclear power plants - that the nuclear plant must be a better
deal for the ratepayer when all alternatives are considered, and
that a federal facility is available to accept all nuclear waste
generated. Clearly no proposed nuclear power plant could currently
meet those criteria." 

"It seems the Committee has asked the question - 'How can we get rid
of consumer and environmental protections so that we can produce
more energy to support our unsustainable way of life?'" said Ruth
Weill, Co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party. "The question we
should be asking is, 'How can we live in a way that enables all in
Wisconsin to meet basic needs without compromising the well-being of
those generations that come after us?' Nuclear power may be the
answer to the first question, but it isn't the answer to the
second." 

The United States has the largest ecological footprint of any
nation, meaning that residents consume the largest amount of the
earth's resources. Worldwide, there are 4.5 productive acres per
person. The average U.S. citizen uses 24 acres. If everyone lived at
United States levels of consumption, 5.3 earths would be needed.  

"Greens advocate for a seventh generation mindset," said Hardy. "The
reason we are in a crisis situation today is because we and those
before us have not considered the consequences of our actions.
Nuclear waste will need to be stored far longer than seven
generations - in fact, it will need to be stored for longer than the
duration of any civilization so far. We believe in true cost
pricing. The cost of 10,000 years of storage needs to be figured
into the price tag for nuclear power." 

The National Academy of Sciences has called for a nuclear storage
system that would protect against radiation releases beyond the next
10,000 years. 

More than 1,100 metric tons of used fuel is in temporary storage in
Wisconsin in water-filled vaults. Nuclear Management Company also
operates a dry cask storage facility at the Point Beach site. 

The Yucca Mountain federal nuclear waste storage facility is slated
to open to receive waste in 2017. However, Harry Reid, Speaker of
the House of Representatives, has expressed his commitment to
preventing that from happening. The citizens of Nevada are opposed
to opening a national nuclear waste storage facility in their state.
 

Wisconsin is one of the states near the top of the list of
perspective national sites for radioactive waste. 

Greens support conservation as the most important step in addressing
energy needs, followed by developing renewable energies. According
to the Wisconsin Clean Energy Plan, greater energy efficiency,
conservation, and clean energy generation would greatly reduce the
need for new nuclear power plants, or polluting coal-fired power
plants. In studies conducted by the University of Wisconsin and the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, renewable energy, cleaner
fuels, and greater energy efficiency could save Wisconsin consumers
$490 million, create 8,500 new jobs, and reduce air pollution by 70
billion pounds. 

Nuclear power currently provides approximately 20% of Wisconsin's
power.

For more information about the Wisconsin Green Party visit:
http://wisconsingreenparty.org

For more information about ecological footprints visit:
http://ecofoot.org/ 

 
Office: PO Box 57065 Washington, D.C. 20037 
Email: office@gp.org 202-319-7191 or toll-free (US): 866-41GREEN
*****************************************************************
 23 SocialFunds.com: Risky Business: The Outlook for Investing in Nuclear Power

May 10, 2007

by Anne Moore Odell

A new report scrutinizes the nuclear industry from an investor’s
perspective and finds a rotting fantasy of cheap energy and huge
returns.

SocialFunds.com -- The question is no longer if humans have
contributed to global warming by releasing CO2 into the atmosphere,
but what we can do to stop more damage from occurring. As
governments, businesses and concerned citizens from every corner of
the planet think about global warming and growing demand for energy,
solutions to these problems abound. As people consider currently
available energy sources, the role nuclear power should play is
being hotly debated.

An influential coalition of socially responsible investors and
environmental, health, and public interest organizations recently
released the report “Why a Future for the Nuclear Industry is Risky”
that strongly comes down against the inclusion of nuclear power in
the future energy equation. The report argues that nuclear power is
not a good investment for people interested either in a healthy
return or a healthy planet.

The report is based on presentations by Peter Bradford and David
Schlissel, both of whom have extensive experience in the technical
and governmental aspects of the nuclear power industry. Report
sponsors include Friends of the Earth,, Interfaith Center on
Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), North Carolina Waste Awareness and
Reduction Network (NC WARN), Nuclear Information and Resource
Service (NIRS), Public Citizen, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
(SACE), and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).

According to the report, new nuclear power plants would be bad
investments: “New nuclear power plants will not be cost competitive
with other electricity generating alternatives.” Instead, pointing
to renewable energy sources such as wind, the report states that in
2005 investment in renewable energy capacity was almost $40 billion
and is continuing to grow.

US nuclear power plants will likely be phased out by mid-century,
said Leslie H. Lowe, Program Director at ICCR. US nuclear power
plants are part of an aging infrastructure and although the
government has re-licensed many nuclear plants for the next twenty
years, at the end of these twenty years, the plants will not be
operational.

Not all investors agree with the report’s conclusions on the role of
nuclear power. Bill Page, Vice President of State Street Global
Advisors (SSGA) and Head of SSGA’s environmental, social and
governance team, sees nuclear energy as one of the pieces of the
energy solution pie.

The findings of the UK’s Stern Report, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC), and the “Wedge” theory from Princeton,
authored by Robert Socolow and others as described in the paperp,
“Solving the Climate Problem: Technologies Available to Curb CO2
emissions” all point out the need for a change in the way energy is
currently being produced. Page thinks that new nuclear research and
construction could definitely help the CO2 crisis.

“Carbon legislation is forthcoming and this legislation is going to
create opportunities for forward looking companies. The companies
that have been preparing for climate changes, not just preaching,
but actually preparing, are going to do very well,” Page said. “We
can either spend a little money now, or a lot of money later. With
carbon, there is mitigation and adaptation. The bottom line is we
can’t do those things with renewables alone. If we are going to
mitigate carbon, we need to sustain a wide portfolio,” Page added.

According to Lowe, “SRI investors for years have known there is huge
risk in new nuclear power. There have been utility companies that
have been running nuclear plants successfully, but there have been
issues as well, like releases of hot water and faulty alarms.”

One reason why nuclear power is considered cost prohibitive,
according to the report, is the expense of building new nuclear
power plants, despite the large subsidies provided in the Energy
Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005). Building new nuclear power plants
also takes a long time, and no new nuclear power plants have been
built in the US for almost thirty years. The report suggests that
future plants could run into some of the same difficulties that
previously built plants did, such as running over initial cost
estimates by more than 200%.

“Nuclear power is not a market solution,” Lowe said. “We could not
have nuclear power without government subsidies. Plant liability is
capped by the government and with the Price-Anderson Act, the public
is on the hook.” The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act
was first passed in 1957 and renewed several times since then. It
installed a no fault insurance system for nuclear power plants with
any claims above $10 billion to be picked up by the federal
government.

The report states, “in the last 50 years, nuclear energy subsidies
have totaled close to $145 billion and amount to more taxpayer
dollars for R&D than for all other energy sectors combined.”

Page thinks that it is not construction cost alone that has keep new
nuclear plants from being built in the US. He names other factors
including a long permitting process and organizations that work to
keep reactors out of their back yards. He points to France and other
European countries that are successfully building plants and
embracing new technologies.

To meet projected global energy needs, there would have to be
between 1000-2000 new nuclear reactors built, Lowe told
Socialfunds.com. However, if these plants were constructed, the
supply of fuel grade uranium would be exhausted within five years.

“When you look at the full life cycle of a nuclear power plant,
nuclear power is not a ‘nimble solution,’” Lowe said.

The inherent danger of a radioactive event is also important for
investors to consider. Negative public opinion in the wake of an
accident or attack would likely hamper new plant construction. The
report quotes the S&P rating service’s findings that “an electric
utility with a nuclear exposure has weaker credit than one without
and can expect to pay more on the margin for credit. Federal support
of construction costs will do little to change that reality.
Therefore, were a utility to embark on a new or expanded nuclear
endeavor, Standard & Poor’s would likely revisit its rating on the
utility.”

Another argument that this report debunks is that nuclear power will
reduce US dependence on energy supplies from abroad. Nuclear power
cannot replace importing of oil by the US the report states because
only 3% of electricity in the US comes from petroleum.

The report identifies spent nuclear waste as another problem that
needs to be addressed before more power plants are built. Yucca
Mountain storage faculties are 20 years behind schedule with a
target opening date of 2017. The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership
(GNEP), the Bush administration’s plan to allow the reprocessing of
spent nuclear fuel, still faces technical and political hurdles. The
report says that reprocessing would increase the opportunity for
fissile materials to land in the wrong hands and be used in building
a nuclear bomb.

Investment in US solar-based companies doubled between 2004 and 2005
to $150 million, the report notes. In 2005, it was largely private
risk capital that financed micro-power that provided 32% of
additional global output. The report concludes that “investors
focusing on actual market behavior must conclude that nuclear power
is not preferred.”

Lowe told Socialfunds.com that we are living in a time of
transition, with people asking for more energy-efficient appliances
and cleaner energy. Electricity sources are becoming decentralized
compared to centralized power sources like nuclear power reactors.
Lowe is hopeful that people today faced with rising energy costs and
rising temperatures will modify their behaviors, as they did the
1970s when concern over peak oil and rising fuel prices led to many
changes in power consumption.

© 1998-2007 SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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 24 UPI: Officials work on 'Day After' nuclear plan

United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - 

Published: May. 11, 2007 at 7:43 PM

WASHINGTON, May. 11 (UPI) -- A group of current and former senior
officials met in Washington recently to consider the effect of a
terrorist nuclear attack on a large U.S. city.

The day-long conference was called "The Day After," the San
Francisco Chronicle reported. Participants discussed what would
happen if terrorists used a bomb about the size of the one dropped
on Hiroshima during World War II.

The conference was organized by William Perry of Stanford
University, who served as secretary of defense in the Clinton
administration, and Ashton Carter of Harvard, a senior Defense
Department official under Clinton. Another participant, retired Vice
Adm. Roger Rufe, is now in charge of designing a nuclear response
plan for the Department of Homeland Security.

"The public at large will expect that their government had thought
through this possibility and to have planned for it," Carter told
the Chronicle. "This kind of an event would be unprecedented. We
have had glimpses of something like this with Hiroshima, and
glimpses with 9/11 and with Katrina. But those are only glimpses."

© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 25 Esquire.com: Mercenary - 

If you learned that the man in this photo -- a professional assassin
-- was the head of security at one of our nation’s most vulnerable
nuclear facilities, would it trouble you? Or would it sound like one
hell of a story?

By Tom Junod

5/10/2007, 3:30 PM

Steve Raymer/National Geographic Image Collection

The Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert, Michigan, is real. It
produces 778 megawatts of electricity, and the electricity keeps the
lights burning for about half a million residents. The nuclear
reactor inside the nuclear plant is also real. It gets really hot,
and anyone driving on Interstate 196 on his way to Grand Rapids or
St. Joe can see thin clouds of steam rising from its cooling towers,
as constant a presence as the weather. The steam is real; it?s water
from Lake Michigan, pumped in to keep the reactor cool. The nuclear
power plant is on the shore of Lake Michigan, right next to the
tourist town of South Haven and about eighty miles from Chicago as
the crow flies. Lake Michigan is real, definitely, though it comes
off as an illusory ocean, offering the horizon as its only boundary.
South Haven is real, too, although it empties out in the cold of
winter. And Chicago? As real as the millions of people who live
there, and the strange American fervor they generate. Chicago is so
damned real, and so damned American, that it?s hard to imagine an
American reality without it -- it?s hard to imagine an American
reality if, say, a terrorist attack on Palisades Nuclear
contaminated the big lake for the next thousand years or so and
emptied out Chicago, not to mention St. Joe and South Haven and
Covert.

Which is why it?s a good thing that the security manager at
Palisades Nuclear for the last year and a half is real, too, with
real qualifications for the job. His name is William E. Clark, and
he has been in the Army, he?s been a cop, he?s done some contracting
work for the Department of Energy, he?s gone to Kosovo on a
diplomatic mission, and after Katrina, he worked for Blackwater, the
security company, outside New Orleans. He started at Palisades in
early 2006. He has a new house and a new wife and has told people,
?I would shed blood to keep this job.? As a statement of
determination, this is reassuring...but what if he means it as a
statement of fact? What if William E. Clark has told people -- told
me -- that he has in fact shed blood many times, in many places,
over the course of many years? What if William E. Clark says that he
worked for Blackwater in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as in New
Orleans and killed so many people that he considers himself a
cold-blooded murderer? What if he says that his job as the security
manager of a nuclear plant on Lake Michigan is both a reward for all
the killing he?s done and a means for keeping him quiet about it?

The guilt is real. The shame is real. He is not proud of the things
he?s done, although that doesn?t stop him from talking about them.
He?s not proud of what he had to do in Vietnam, his son says. He?s
not proud of having to kill someone in New Orleans, his ex-wife
says. He wakes up with nightmares, his new wife says, because he?s
starting to see the faces of the human beings he once saw through
the rifle scope. And so this story represents his attempt to come
clean. He is a bad person, he says, but he wants to be a good person
-- he wants to be thought of as a good person. He wants to be
purified, shriven. He is telling his story because he knows it will
destroy him. He is telling his story because he knows it will set
him free.

He has kept stuff, over the years, because he knows that nobody will
believe him. He has kept the stubs from all the boarding passes, the
keys from all the hotel rooms. There are hundreds of them, and he
keeps them in thick wads and piles. He has kept a business card for
one of his aliases, Zeke Senega, a reporter for The Irish Times in
Dublin. He has kept his passports, including the diplomatic one that
was required for the work he did for the State Department. And he
has photographs. He has a folder full of photographs from what he
calls an ?operation? in Iraq -- an operation that ended with two
jihadists slumped dead in the front seat of an Opel, their car
windows spiderwebbed with the ghosts of two precision gunshots. He
also has a photo album, which he calls the Book. The Book is not
very different from a lot of photo albums -- it is a record, in
snapshots, of the places he?s been and the people he?s met -- except
that the mostly unsmiling men staring at the camera are usually
wearing camouflage and armed to the teeth. And in the middle of the
Book, there is one photo, black-and-white and larger than the rest,
of William E. Clark cradling a rifle to his chest in what appears to
be a jungle. He does not seem to be posing, and indeed he looks a
little sick -- his mouth slightly slack and his long face droopy
with exhaustion. And yet when he remembers the circumstances of the
photo, he relishes them: ?That picture was taken in El Salvador in
1996. I wasn?t supposed to be there. Nobody was. Suddenly this UPI
photographer shows up, taking pictures. I said, ?If you don?t put
that camera down and give me the film, I?ll shoot you. I?ll kill you
and get away with it. Because I don?t exist.???

Somewhere along the line, Bill Clark from Tulare, California, became
Zeke, the "shooter" in his prized photograph, above.

The volunteer is real -- so real that her name cannot be disclosed,
nor any identifying details. She is one of the Americans who
volunteered their time after Hurricane Katrina flooded the Gulf
Coast in 2005. She worked at a makeshift shelter where people were
very sick and couldn?t be evacuated. There were drugs at the
shelter, a store of narcotics, to keep the sick people comfortable.
There had to be protection, and Blackwater USA supplied it, through
a government contract. The volunteer was happy that Blackwater was
there, because she kept hearing stories of what was happening in New
Orleans -- its descent into lawlessness. It was a very scary time.
In fact, one night one of the Blackwater contractors at the shelter
said he had received intelligence to the effect that a New Orleans
gang had found out about the drugs at the shelter and was on its
way. He assured her that she would be safe, because he had just come
from Iraq, and after what he?d been through there with the
jihadists, he wasn?t about to be scared by American lowlifes. He was
a senior member of the Blackwater team, and he made sure that if
anyone so much as even parked around the block from the shelter,
there was a Blackwater contractor in his face. Nothing happened that
night, and nothing ever happened, for she had her own personal
protector.

His name was William E. Clark, but he told her to call him what
everyone called him -- Zeke. She was struck by the apparent
contradictions in him. He made her feel secure, but he seemed so
terribly wounded, both literally and metaphorically. He had a
problem with his neck, an injury that occasionally caused him to
pass out. When she asked him how he got it, he told her that he
couldn?t say, that he was prohibited from saying. Little by little,
though, it came out, because secrets come to light during the night
shift, and stories get told in the dark. He?d done terrible things
for his country. He?d had to do terrible things, but that was
because of his willingness to do them. He wasn?t so willing anymore.
He was doing the worst thing someone like him could do: He was
growing a conscience. No, worse than that: He was talking about it.
He was talking to her. He had never talked to anyone about the
terrible things he?d done, not even his wife of thirty years. He
felt safe with the volunteer, as she felt safe with him.

He scared her a little, of course. She had never met anyone like
him. He showed her how to use one of his guns. She had never fired a
gun before and was surprised how much she liked it. But she also
felt that he was watching her. He even said that he was. He would
call her on her cell phone, in the middle of the night, when she
couldn?t see him. ?I?m sick of just watching you,? he would say and
describe everything she was doing, so that she knew she was being
watched. It was obsessive, and once they came together, they came
together obsessively. She was in thrall to him, as he was in thrall
to his stories and his terrible past. She didn?t know whether to
believe his stories, but when she got home, he sent her videotaped
footage of people being executed in what he said was Iraq. There
were voices on the video, and one of them sounded exactly like
Zeke?s.

Death is real. Its reality is unsurpassed, and the people at the
disaster-relief conference in Houston last July were on intimate
terms with it. They were morticians, they were forensic
anthropologists and forensic dentists, they worked suicide hotlines,
and they handled the public relations when airplanes went down. Now
they were all standing up and saying who they were and where they
came from and why they were interested in doing work that few people
wanted to do -- why they wanted to take care of the dead left behind
by mass disasters. As the attendees were introducing themselves to
one another by both name and profession, a man stood up and said,
?My name is William Clark, and I?m a designated marksman for
Blackwater.?

He stood out as soon as he stood up. He was lean and he was lanky,
with his face and everything else about him aligned on a vertical
axis -- he had a full head of springy hair rising straight up off
his scalp in a kind of modified brush cut and a Fu Manchu mustache
bracketing his rabbity front teeth. There was an arrogance in his
military bearing and a desire to shock secreted in the monotonal
nonchalance of his voice. I was one of the people who gave him the
reaction he was looking for, and when I asked him if I could speak
with him, he seemed as though he?d been waiting for me to ask the
question.

We met in a small room away from the main auditorium and away from
the other attendees of the conference. I was well aware of
Blackwater and its reputation as a private security company whose
armed contractors had changed the rules of engagement in Iraq and
elsewhere, even in New Orleans. I was also well aware of the
reputation its contractors had for not talking, and so I was
surprised when William Clark sat down and, in the same manner he
used when he was introducing himself in the auditorium -- a manner
at once matter-of-fact and challenging -- he started not only
talking but confessing. Yes, he said, he was one of them -- a
?merc,? or mercenary, for Blackwater. He was a sniper. He had been a
countersniper for the security details assigned to protect Hamid
Karzai in Afghanistan and Paul Bremer, the former American
proconsul, in Iraq. He did overwatch, which meant he sat up on
rooftops and shot people who looked dangerous. ?Hey,? he said,
?thirty-seven Al Qaeda and twenty-one Baathists can?t be wrong.? At
first, he was blithe on the subject of killing, saying that the
Blackwater contract was ?perfect for a guy like me -- a thousand
bucks a day, and you get to kill people legally.? Then he said that
he must be ?missing a chromosome or something -- I don?t have the
moral firewall that keeps normal people from killing.? He had met
people doing body-retrieval work when he was in New Orleans for
Blackwater, and when they told him what they did, he said, ?You?re a
taker-outer? That?s funny -- I?m a putter-inner. Maybe we can work
together.? It was a joke, of course -- the kind of bitterly
defensive joke he liked to make -- but then he?d started giving the
matter some thought. He was fifty-three years old. He was old for
the kind of life he led, the life, in his words, of ?an operator,?
?a shooter,? ?a trigger puller.? In effect, he had given his life to
take lives, and it had cost him almost everything, including, he
said, as he held up his left hand and displayed a denuded ring
finger, his thirty-year marriage. He was trying desperately to
adjust to civilian life, but a lifetime habit of chasing headlines
didn?t die easily. He was at the conference because he was hoping
that maybe there was a way to chase headlines without having to kill
anybody.

?Who is this??

I told him I was the reporter he met at the disaster-relief
conference. ?Oh, yeah,? he said. ?I remember. You just threw me off,
asking for William.?

?Your name isn?t William??

?It is. But everybody calls me Zeke. The only person who doesn?t is
my mother, and she calls me Billy.?

There was a story he told about his first day at Palisades. He was
already at his desk when his boss came in. His boss said, ?I just
want you to know you?re not my first choice for the job, so if
you?re in over your head, please tell me.? Zeke couldn?t help
himself. He answered, ?Well, you?re my first choice to throw out the
window.? The boss beat an immediate retreat, and later, it had to be
explained to Zeke that threats are taken very seriously in the
modern corporate workplace. ?But yeah, he knew who he was hiring,?
Zeke said when I asked him if his boss at Palisades knew what he had
done for a living. ?He knew he hired an assassin.?

He had been screened, and the screening was real. He had been
checked and vetted. The screening was standard but rigorous -- it
was the same screening everyone got when they were applying for a
job that gave them complete freedom of movement and access at a
nuclear power plant. His piss was checked, and so were his finances.
He was given a psychological test and a polygraph. His references
were called. Zeke claimed to have extremely high-level security
clearances -- a TS/SCI with the Department of Defense and a Q
clearance with the Department of Energy -- but Randy Cleveland,
who?s in charge of employee screening for the company that operates
Palisades, said that he doesn?t generally check security clearances,
because he?s in the business of granting security clearances of his
own. Besides, he said, ?I don?t know how much work Zeke did that by
its nature you wouldn?t be able to validate. Some of these
operations, he tells us, were of such a covert nature that you have
to do an extreme amount of digging to find out about them, if you
can find out at all.?

So they knew. What?s more, they all seemed to know. On the first day
I visited Zeke at Palisades, some of his security guards were
receiving special-operations training at the plant?s practice range,
and all day long the people who came to observe the training seemed
to know not only Zeke but also his history. The idea for the
training was based on his history -- based on his certainty that the
jihadists he?d fought against in Afghanistan and Iraq would be able
to take Palisades without much of a fight if the security guards
weren?t given the proper training. He wound up convincing the owners
of Palisades to pay $50,000, he said, for the creation of an elite
strike force from the ranks of his security guards, which he would
call the Viper team. He wound up inviting Aaron Cohen, a former
Israeli commando Zeke had seen giving commentary on Fox News, to
come to Michigan and provide Viper training. He wound up convincing
a local agent from the FBI and a local agent from the Department of
Homeland Security to participate in the training and become members
of the Viper team. He wound up convincing representatives from the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to come and observe the training,
which he called the first-ever partnership between a private
security team and federal law-enforcement agents for the purpose of
critical-infrastructure protection. And so they all came to the
practice range, and they all gave Zeke credit for making Viper
training happen, although a senior manager at Palisades confided
that Zeke was far better at creating elite strike forces than he was
at doing paperwork and dealing with corporate politics. But this was
not surprising, the manager said, given who Zeke was and where he?d
been -- given that Zeke had gone to Afghanistan and Iraq looking to
die and had instead wound up a security manager at Palisades.

He was still new to his house. On his refrigerator door, he still
had a drawing a little boy down the block had sent him, a stick
figure emblazoned with the words mr. zeke, welcome to the
neighborhood. He hadn?t met the little boy yet, nor any of his other
neighbors. After all, he had not bought the house because he wanted
to make friends but rather, he said, because it was at the end of a
dead-end street and offered an advantageous line of fire. The house
was two stories, with dormer windows, and contained a small arsenal.
There were bullets everywhere -- in boxes, in the bathroom, on
bookshelves, a few scattered on the floor -- like candy in the home
of a fat man. There were a lot of knives, too, the fighting kind,
with handles like brass knuckles. There was a handgun secreted away
in the couch that faced the forty-three-inch TV screen, another next
to the computer keyboard, and another on top of the refrigerator. In
Zeke?s bedroom, there were two handguns on his nightstand and a
black pump-action shotgun propped in the corner. In one of the spare
bedrooms, there was an empty black case, very long and designed to
carry the long rifle -- Zeke said he preferred a Remington 700 --
that snipers use. There was a Ruger .22-caliber Mark II long-rifle
target pistol. There was a scope next to a pair of black gloves.
There were a dozen empty magazines, a magazine half filled with
bullets, and three magazines that were fully loaded. There were a
couple of holsters, a stock, a shooting brace, and a metal case
filled with 7.62mm shells. On the floor, there was a pair of
handcuffs and a big box filled with smaller boxes of bullets. On the
shelf bracketing another wall, there were two Kevlar helmets, a set
of pads for a shooter?s knees and elbows, and a long coiled rope. In
the corner, there was a backpack, ready to go, and then a duffel
bag, olive-green and already packed with clothing and gear, so that
if Zeke ever got called on a mission, he would be able to leave --
and leave everything behind, including his new house and his new
wife and his very real job at the nuclear plant -- at a moment?s
notice.

He lived in fear, because he was not in control of his life. He had
a handler, he said. Did I know what a handler was? A handler was a
person who handled him and who handled things for him. He?d had a
handler since 1984. He?d been in the Army, been in Vietnam, been a
Ranger, with marksman as his particular skill set. He?d gotten into
some trouble, so he?d gotten out in 1977. He?d become a cop, outside
of L.?A. He was SWAT. He was, by his own description, ?hard
charging,? maybe too aggressive. He made a lot of arrests. He also
spent a lot of time at the range. One night, he said, the phone rang
at his house. ?Friend of a friend. ?We hear you?re a hell of a shot.
Why don?t you come and talk to us???I told him I had a job. He said,
?Don?t worry, we?ll pave the way.? The next day I got to work and
was told to take a leave of absence. I went for training in northern
Virginia, and six months later I was in Honduras. ?There?s your
target. Handle it.???

He handled it, and from then on he had a handler. It wasn?t always
the same guy, and one time, about five years ago, it was a woman.
But the handler always did the same thing. Made sure he was current
on his piss test. Made sure he was current on his polygraph. Made
sure he could get insurance and a mortgage. Made sure that Zeke had
a reference when he went for a job and had to explain the gaps in
his résumé. Made sure that Zeke knew where to go and knew what to do
once he got there. Made sure that Zeke followed orders. Made sure
that Zeke was still handling it, which meant that he wasn?t talking
to anyone -- whether wife or friend or shrink or reporter. Handling
it was what Zeke was good at, until he wasn?t. Now, for the first
time in his life, he was scared. He couldn?t sleep at night. He had
nightmares. He was afraid that he was too old. He was afraid that no
one was going to call him with another mission. He was afraid that
he was going to get called on another mission tomorrow. He was
afraid that he was never going to go back to Afghanistan or Iraq. He
was afraid that he was going to go back to Afghanistan or Iraq and
die there. He was afraid of losing his job at the nuclear plant and
winding up on a park bench. He was afraid that he was going to spend
the rest of his life at the nuclear plant, a washed-up old operator
?with a lot of stories that no one believes till they see the
scars.? He was afraid of being betrayed, afraid of disappearing,
afraid of being afraid forever. ?I?ve hurt a lot of people, Tom,? he
said. And he knew he would hurt a lot of people again if he didn?t
burn his bridges to the handler who ordered him to hurt them. ?And
there?s only one way I?m going to burn my bridges, and that?s by
talking to someone like you.?

He had the most amazing things to say about hurting people, about
the reality of sitting up on high and hunting them, about the quiet
deliberation of it, about the stillness of it, about watching a man
?through the glass? -- the scope -- about watching him smoke and
drink coffee and talk to friends even as you know the order is in
and he?s already dead, about taking aim at his lip or his teeth --
?teeth are always good, because you can always see them? -- or
between his buttons and concentrating only on the shot, on the
tumbling piece of paper that helps you determine which way the wind
is blowing, and then on the soft squeeze of the trigger, only that,
before the kick of the rifle brings you back to life with almost
more adrenaline than you can bear.

He?s always lived for the adrenaline. We were watching an NFL game
one night at his house, and he got up and assumed the stance of a
defensive back, but with his elbow up high, as if ready to drop the
hammer. He said that he?d been a cornerback in high school, all
county, and that he still remembered what it was like, watching a
play develop, watching the whole field, the movement of the ball
both chaotic and marked by a sense of inevitability, because it had
to come to an end, and it came to an end when he made the hit. He
was the end. He was a hitter, and nothing could match that feeling
of intervention -- that feeling of being the instrument of
inevitability -- until later in his life, when he felt the kick of
the Remington 700 and heard his spotter say, ?Man down.?

One night his mother called his cell phone. She called him almost
every day. He was closer to his mother than he was to anybody, and
once, when I asked him if he had any code of conduct, he said, ?No
women. No children. And I don?t lie to my mother.? Now he talked to
her for a few minutes and handed me the phone. ?Well, I?m glad
someone?s finally writing about Billy, because he?s an American
hero,? she said, in a strong old-woman?s voice. Then I handed the
phone back to Zeke, but he was sitting on the couch, looking sick to
the soul. ?She?s so happy that I have this job at the plant,? he
said. ?I don?t have the heart to tell her that I hate it. So I lie
to her, like I lie to everyone else.?

I stayed at his house three times. The first time, last August, I
stayed with him for two nights. I stayed with him for two nights
again in September. When I visited in December, I cut my trip short
-- I stayed one night instead of two -- but by that time the process
of revelation that he?d started in the summer threatened to go out
of control. He had revealed secrets about himself from the moment I
introduced myself to him, and yet over the course of four months he
had always managed to up the ante, to suggest that behind every
secret there loomed another whose revelation would prove dangerous
not only to him but to me.

In August, he told me about his handler and about the
remorselessness his handler expected of him. He detailed his methods
as a sniper and called himself an assassin. And he told me that he
lived in fear of being arrested for what he?d done for Blackwater --
and, by extension, his country -- in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In September, he said that it was in Iraq where he had crossed the
line that had made him lose ?the stomach? for killing. ?In all my
years as a professional, I?ve seen a lot of conflicts,? he said. ?I
never committed murder until I went to Iraq.? When I pressed him
about what he meant, he said, ?You?re going to get me indicted,
Tom.? And when I asked him why, he replied, ?War crimes, man. War
crimes.?

And yet he kept talking, driven by his guilt and his compulsive need
to tell me that he was not like mere contractors -- that he was both
better and far worse. In November, I sent him a book about
Blackwater and asked him to read it. When I called for his comments,
he said that it was accurate, but only so far as it went. ?The guys
in that book are really sort of knuckle draggers,? he said. ?I
operate on a much higher level.?

?What do you mean?? I said.

?I?ll tell you the next time you come up.?

And so I visited him again, one last time, in December. It was 12
degrees in Michigan, and the phone books and old cardboard boxes
that had littered his driveway in the summer were now stuck there,
frozen solid. He was wearing all black, black jeans and a black
ribbed mercenary sweater, and he told me that something had changed
since the last time I spoke to him. He told me that he had gotten
married.

The people who love him are real. He has a mother and father, still
alive. He has two brothers. He has an ex-wife, Linda, to whom he was
married for thirty years. He has a son, Rick-- -- Linda?s son, whom
Zeke adopted when he was four years old. And he has a new wife, a
woman he calls Baby Doll. They all love him, but he is afraid they
wouldn?t if they knew who he really was and what he had really done.

Does he love them in return? He said he did, while acknowledging
that a man who couldn?t tell the truth about himself to those
closest to him was going to have trouble with his relationships. He
had, for instance, a photograph of one of his brothers on his
bookshelf, but he said that he hadn?t seen or spoken to him in
years. And he hadn?t spoken to his son, Rick, since the divorce, and
although Rick lived on an Air Force base not five hours away, Zeke
had never met his grandchildren. And although he still spoke to
Linda as often as twice a day -- as often as he spoke to his mother
and Baby Doll -- he viewed his divorce from her as the ultimate cost
of his lifestyle and its necessary secrets. In his darkest moments,
he even intimated that his handler had gotten to her, had called her
and told her, well, everything, for why else would he have come home
from the hell of New Orleans and heard from his wife that she wanted
out after thirty years?

He had met her in high school, in Tulare, California, in the Central
Valley, south of Fresno. She was his English teacher his senior
year. She was eleven years older than he was. They got married in
1975, when he was still in the Army. They did not live together at
first -- he was at Fort Stewart, in Georgia, and she remained in
Tulare, teaching -- but she was always available to him, as she had
to be, for even as a young man he was haunted by his past, he said,
and in this case his recent past was Vietnam. These were the last
shadowy years of the war. There was a period when he just
disappeared -- when neither his mother nor Linda knew where he was
-- and when he resurfaced, he had a story to tell, except that he
couldn?t tell it. He was bound not to tell it, though of course it
leaked out over the years, both to Linda and to Rick, as did all the
others. It was hard on Linda, Zeke said, because she had to guard
his secrets as closely as he did. She was even liable to be
polygraphed, as he was, and so after a while he made it easy for her
-- he stopped telling her things, and she stopped asking questions.
She just knew -- and it was her unspoken knowledge of who he really
was that led him to say that she was his ?real wife,? no matter
what, and to keep the gold band from his wedding with Linda up on
his bookshelf, right next to the picture of Baby Doll.

Baby Doll was his nickname for a woman he met on eHarmony in 2006.
Her real name was Terri, but she had a small, breathy voice, so he
called her Baby Doll. She was divorced, living with two teenaged
sons, and she described herself as a ?wounded soul,? for she had
multiple sclerosis. Zeke was a wounded soul, too, she said, and
their relationship seemed to enter a new stage with each visit: In
August, they met; in September, she?d just visited him in Michigan
for the first time, and he was deciding whether to ?take on? a woman
with such a debilitating illness; in December, he?d just married
her, because she?d saved his life. He?d been all alone on
Thanksgiving 2006, eating a frozen pizza, waiting for the phone to
ring and determined to ?eat the barrel? of one of his handguns if it
didn?t. It did, and it was Baby Doll. Her voice gave him something
to live for, and he married her a week later. She wasn?t living with
him, but she called his cell phone all day long, and one night, when
we were out to dinner, he passed the phone to me. Terri?s voice was
just as Zeke said it was, and in answer to my question, she
confirmed that she had met Zeke on eHarmony. Then she said that she
had a question of her own: ?Is he wearing his ring?? I told her that
he was, although as soon as she hung up, he said he was going to
take it off when he got home and put it on the bookshelf next to the
ring from his marriage to Linda.

Zeke tried to continue the affair with the volunteer he met in New
Orleans after they both returned home. One day, she even received an
e-mail from Zeke?s wife, Linda, while Linda and Zeke were still
married. It was an admission of failure -- an admission that Linda
had never been up to the adventure of living with someone like Zeke,
an admission that she simply wasn?t as passionate as he was. Linda
wished the volunteer luck and expressed hope that Zeke had finally
met a woman who was his equal. How extremely gracious, the volunteer
thought, and how extremely odd, for the e-mail was marred by
elementary misspellings and grammatical errors. Wasn?t Linda Clark
an English teacher? Then she realized something, in a flash of
alarm: The letter had been written by Zeke, from his wife?s account
and in his wife?s name.

She began trying to extricate herself from the relationship, but
there was a problem: He threatened her and he threatened her
husband. He said that he had no qualms about killing women -- that
when he was in Iraq, the locals had been prohibited from doing so by
their religious scruples, and that the dirty business had fallen to
him and had become a specialty. He even told her exactly how he?d
kill her, sticking the knife above her collarbone and flicking it
toward her feet, so that, with just the barest nick, her jugular and
carotid would bleed out.

And then, when threats failed, he said he was going to kill himself.
He told her he was spending Thanksgiving 2005 alone, eating frozen
pizza, and that he was going to eat the barrel of one of his
handguns if he didn?t get a call from the volunteer, whom he called
his Baby Doll.

He made a lot of threats. Some of them were just avowals of lethal
capacity -- ?Hey, I?m a trigger puller,? he said when I first met
him. ?I?ll put a round in your eye.? Others were the result of him
playing around, as when I was watching TV in his living room in
August and the red dot of a laser pointer started dancing around the
walls. He was standing behind me, in the kitchen, pointer in hand,
and when I said, ?Um, Zeke?? he answered, ?Oh, sorry. But don?t
worry -- if I ever wanted to kill you, you?d never see the red dot.?
Others were more specific. When he first told me about his handler,
he said that he?d told his handler about me -- with the assurance
that if I revealed information he didn?t want revealed, ?I?ll hunt
you down and kill you.? Another time, on the subject of journalistic
betrayal, he said, ?Never betray someone who can kill you from a
thousand yards away.?

And yet for a long time I was not scared of him, because on some
level he was not a scary guy. He was a lonely guy. He was a pathetic
guy. He was a recently divorced guy who, like every other recently
divorced guy in America, had a George Foreman grill in his kitchen
and a stack of DiGiorno pizzas in his freezer. He was too hangdog to
be threatening, and when he finally did scare me, it was not because
he threatened me. It was because I thought he was going crazy.

He had a photograph of a sniper on his living-room wall. It was
poster sized, and it was framed, and the man it portrayed was
carrying a gauze-wrapped long rifle and wearing a hood that hid
everything but his eyes and the bridge of his nose. He looked like a
primordial executioner, rising out of the swamp, and as soon as I
saw the photo, I thought it was Zeke. He had always said that I
would never be able to trace him to Afghanistan or Iraq -- that his
participation there, though ostensibly part of a Blackwater
contract, was a ?black op,? with no paper trail. Now there was a
poster in his living room whose copyright line -- ?Steve Raymer,
National Geographic Image Collection, 2005? -- made me think that I
had found an image linking Zeke to Iraq, right there on his wall.

He was cagey when, during my September visit, I asked who it was. ?A
friend,? he?d said. ?Misunderstood. You?d like him if you got to
know him, but not too many people get to know him.? And so I went
home and did a search for Steve Raymer. His name came up right away,
and so did the photograph, which was available for sale, tagged with
the following information: ?French Soldier, 13th Demi-Brigade of the
French Foreign Legion, Djibouti, Horn of Africa, 1988.? I called
Steve Raymer, and he said yes, he was sure of the photo?s provenance
-- that he remembered being out in the desert on a Foreign Legion
training exercise and all these snipers rose up all around him, in
terrifying silence. Raymer didn?t say a word to the sniper, and the
sniper didn?t say a word to him -- he just took his picture, and
eventually National Geographic put it up for sale.

It was the first thing I asked Zeke about when I visited him in
December, because -- even though he?d made no claims for the photo
-- now I thought I?d somehow caught him in a lie. ?Tell me about the
guy in the poster,? I said.

?You don?t want to know that guy,? he answered. ?He?s a guy going
through a very bad time.?

?Zeke, I know who it is.?

?You do??

?It?s a soldier with the French Foreign Legion in the Horn of
Africa.?

He didn?t miss a beat. Standing in front of the poster, he said,
?Second Para, out of Corsica,? meaning the Legion?s Second Paratroop
Regiment, which is indeed out of Corsica. ?That?s where we mobilized
out of.?

?You were in the French Foreign Legion??

?Among other things,? he said.

?So that?s you??

?That?s me.?

?I don?t get it. I don?t get why you?re so coy about it.?

?I don?t like talking about Africa. Those were the bad years.?

?Zeke, what are you afraid of??

?I?m afraid of going to jail, man. Have you ever been arrested??

?No.?

?Well, I have. I was arrested for attempted murder when I was a
Ranger. McIntosh County, Georgia. You can look it up if you want to.
It?s a matter of public record.?

He was defending a friend, he said. The friend had gotten beaten up
at a notorious brothel called the S&S Truck Stop. With a few other
soldiers, Zeke had gone back and put an incendiary device on the
roof, with the intention of ?burning up everyone inside, including
the whores.? The bomb didn?t go off, he said, but he and the others
were arrested anyway and spent nine days in jail before an FBI agent
investigating the S&S for drug trafficking set them free. The
incident ended his career as a Ranger, but he said it also might
have played a role in the call he received a few years later: for he
had demonstrated a willingness not only to kill but to incinerate a
room full of undesirables.

?Do you have things in your life that you?re ashamed of?? Zeke
asked. He had gone from the photo of the sniper to the couch and was
stretched out on it, with his hands covering his face. I told him I
did; of course I did. He said, ?Well, you probably don?t do them
anymore. But I do. I keep doing them. I seek them out.? He was
finally paying the price; he?d had a mild heart attack the month
before, on account of the stress of living with his secrets. I told
him that maybe he had received a sign that he should begin talking,
starting with Africa. He said, ?You might not like me very much
after I do,? and asked if I thought he was a bad person. ?I think
you?re trying to be a good person,? I said, ?or else I wouldn?t be
here.? He got up and told me to follow him. He opened the door to
his basement and turned on the light. He went halfway down the
stairs and then stopped and looked at me over his shoulder. ?Have
you ever been around pure evil?? he asked. I paused. I?d been around
pure evil before. I had just never followed pure evil down to the
basement, and when I got there, I expected to be greeted by the
grinning ricti of other journalists who?d pursued Zeke?s story and
wound up preserved in pickle jars. But no: It was just a basement,
and Zeke couldn?t find the photographs of the evil he had done in
Africa. He did find, however, a big cardboard box full of the plays
and screenplays he?d been writing since he got out of the Army, some
of them faded with the passage of time.

The wind was making noises. The noises were making Zeke jumpy. He
was sitting up on the couch, doing what he was always doing --
watching Fox News on the big-screen TV and revealing his secrets. On
this night, however, he was saying that everything had changed since
he?d married Baby Doll. ?I have something to lose now, man,? he
said, by which he meant Baby Doll, by which he also meant his house,
his job, his life. He had told me about everything. He had told me
about Africa, about Afghanistan and Iraq. He?d also told me about
the Philippines, about Indonesia, about Somalia, about Yemen, about
Angola, about Nigeria, about Guatemala, about Haiti and El Salvador
and Honduras. He had continued raising the stakes on his secrets
until they all bled together. Indeed, he really had only one secret,
because over the last twenty years he?d had only one job. He did not
really work for Blackwater, and he did not really serve in the
French Foreign Legion, and he wasn?t a missionary for World Vision,
and he wasn?t a diplomatic observer for the State Department. Those
jobs were just covers for his real job, which was something he
called ?direct sanction.? No matter where he was, he worked for his
handler, and his handler paid him to kill people. He was, in his
words, ?a national-security asset,? ?one of the best in the world at
what I do? -- a one-man death squad.

He had revealed his secrets in order to survive them, but now he
thought he had made a mistake. He wondered if I had endangered him,
and if it was the revelation, not the secrets, that would be
impossible to survive. I told him that he had no choice now but to
go all the way -- that going public was the only way he could
protect himself. ?Do you mean testify?? he said, like a snake
handler who had fallen from his trance and realized what he had been
holding. ?No way, man. I have nightmares about Charles Schumer
asking me questions. You ever raise your right hand? I have, and
it?s a life-altering experience. My mother couldn?t stand it....?

Suddenly he stood up. The wind had gusted, and there was a noise. He
went to the refrigerator and came back with a handgun. He cocked it
and went to the garage door, peeking outside while standing next to
the jamb, his back pressed against the wall. When he returned to the
couch, he did not uncock his gun. Instead, he started transferring
it from hand to hand and told me that I didn?t know who I was
dealing with: ?If they want to get you, they get you. Or they don?t
get me. They get Baby Doll. They rape her, they sodomize her. It?s
called a break-in. Random violence. But it?s not, and I know it?s
not. So no fucking way. I?m not going to get my Baby Doll raped and
sodomized so Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton can make political
hay!?

His handlers were real. Zeke was talking to them on the phone. I was
sitting across the table from him. It was the next day, and we were
having breakfast at a restaurant in South Haven. At 9:30, he picked
up the cell phone and dialed. He said, ?Clark, William,? and then a
number, 553. Then he said what sounded like a last name. And then he
was talking to his handler, whom he called Larry. He was telling
Larry that he was sitting with the writer from Esquire. He cringed
at his handler?s response. Then, as he explained later, he was
transferred immediately to his handler?s subordinate, who read him
his secrecy oath and threatened him with the penitentiary. The
subordinate?s name was Kyle. Zeke complained about the way he was
being treated by Kyle, then he began complaining about the way he
was being treated by Larry. When he was finally transferred back to
Larry, he said this: ?Hey, Larry, thanks for the kick in the balls.?
He said that if he ever saw Kyle in the street, he?d ?take him out,?
and then he promptly apologized for the threat. He hung up, and when
he called back, a secretary answered and told him that Larry was at
a meeting. ?I just talked to him two minutes ago,? he said, and she
put him through. ?Larry, how much longer do I have to be in
purgatory?? he said, and accused Kyle of selling him out years
earlier. His tone softened after that; he said, ?Hey, I?ll do it,
I?m a good soldier,? and hung up. He finished his coffee but not his
eggs, and when we got back to the car, he said, ?I fucked myself. I
stayed in too long, now they have their hooks in me. I have a new
house, a new wife, a new job, and it?s all fake. They can punch
through it whenever they want to, and they just did. The thing is,
you don?t know what they can do -- so they can do anything. If you
ever hear that I?ve committed suicide, investigate the hell out of
it.?

A few days later, the phone in my home office rang at eight o?clock
in the morning. I didn?t run to get it, though I knew it was Zeke.
All that week I?d been on the phone with him, trying to get him to
go public with his story, trying to convince him to allow me to use
his name. He kept saying that he was going away. He was going back
to Afghanistan. He was taking a job with a company that provided
security for firms trying to do business in Kabul. He was leaving in
January and didn?t know when or if he was going to be back. He
hadn?t told Baby Doll, he said, then asked: ?Do you think she?s
going to be mad??

When the phone rang, I knew I?d lost him. And sure enough, when I
checked the message, this is what it said: ?Hi, Tom, this is Zeke.
Hey man, I couldn?t sleep at all last night, thinking about this
story and stuff. And I gotta tell you, man, I have nothing to do
with Iraq or Afghanistan, I have no operational knowledge of Iraq
and Afghanistan, I have no knowledge of any operational plans that
have taken place in Iraq or Afghanistan, there?s no record of me
ever being in Afghanistan or Iraq, I?m a nonentity, I just don?t
exist in any of that kind of thing, I have nothing to do with Iraq
or Afghanistan. Anything else is fine, but I have no knowledge of,
there?s no witnesses, there?s nothing that ties me to Iraq or
Afghanistan, never been to Iraq or Afghanistan, I just don?t have
anything to do with that, I can?t have anything to do with that, and
I?m sorry, I don?t want to have anything to do with my name at all
with Iraq or Afghanistan, I don?t exist in that arena, never have,
never will, and I just had a sleepless night last night, so I wanted
to call and tell you that I don?t know anything about Iraq or
Afghanistan and never have been and never will. I hope you?re okay,
your family?s okay. I just had to tell you that. So. Thanks, Tom.
Bye-bye.?

Was it a denial or a confirmation? Was it the lie that told the
truth or the truth that told the lie? I called Blackwater, and it
was exactly as Zeke had foretold: A spokeswoman said there was no
such thing as a ?designated marksman? for Blackwater: ?It?s not a
term we would use, because all our missions are defensive.? She
confirmed that a William E. Clark had worked for Blackwater in
Louisiana in the wake of Katrina, but that he was ?never, ever, ever
in Iraq or Afghanistan for us. He was never there on a Blackwater
contract.? And then she said, ?My understanding is also that he is
prone to give false information and is not to be considered a
trustworthy source.?

Blackwater, of course, had an interest in proving him a liar, since
he?d come home from Louisiana and told his wife and son that he?d
killed someone there. Zeke was still married to Linda then. He was
still talking to Rick. He pulled both of them aside and told them
that some dope addict made a play for the narcotics in storage, and
he?d shot him. It wasn?t something he was proud of, because it
wasn?t clean. It wasn?t precise. He?d shot him in the dark, and he?d
hit him without killing him. The addict died eventually, but still.
He was pretty shaken up about it, Rick said -- and that?s what gave
the story its legitimacy. Rick had grown up with his father?s
stories. He?d come to doubt a lot of them, but there were certain
ones he believed, because his father wasn?t playing the hero. Ever
since Rick was a little boy, his father had told him stories about
Vietnam -- but the story he believed was the one where the
Vietnamese captured and broke him. Why, Rick thought, would someone
tell a story like that if it wasn?t true? What kind of man would try
to make you believe what he was ashamed of?

Dennis Collins met William Clark in El Salvador in the mid-nineties.
He will not say what he was doing there; he is, he says, prohibited
from saying what he was doing there. All he will say is that he was
there, and that when he was there, he met William Clark, who called
himself Zeke. They were in El Salvador for different reasons, he
says, but they became friends, and when they came home, Collins
started getting Zeke work. Collins was associated with Nuclear
Security Services Corporation, or NSSC. It provided security
training for nuclear facilities, and it employed a lot of former
operators. Zeke was a perfect fit, because he was so enthusiastic,
such a great motivator and storyteller -- when clients gave their
evaluations, ?the number-one guy they talk about is Zeke,? Collins
said. Zeke?s success with NSSC led him to find work with DynCorp,
the security company that provided manpower for the Kosovo
Diplomatic Observer Mission in 1998. And his success with DynCorp
led him to find work with a company that contracted with the
Department of Energy to provide assault teams -- adversary teams, as
they?re known -- that would stage mock attacks on nuclear facilities
for the purpose of exposing their vulnerabilities. Zeke never would
have gotten any of these jobs without Dennis Collins -- Collins was
a critical reference -- nor would he have gotten the
security-manager job at Palisades, for it was one of Collins?s
associates who recommended Zeke for the position.

Zeke called Collins ?my best friend in the business,? and Collins
knew that Zeke was struggling at Palisades. Zeke was a ?shooter and
operator,? he said, and like a lot of shooters and operators, he was
having trouble accepting that he had become ?a desk jockey.? That
was why Zeke was so desperate to get to Iraq. He and Collins had
gone to Camp Pendleton, California, for counterterrorism training
about five or six years ago, and Collins had seen how some of the
young marines had responded to Zeke?s stories -- they were
enthralled. A few years later, when they went back, everything had
changed. There was a war on. Now there were young marines who had
been to Fallujah, and when Zeke told his stories, they were like,
You don?t know what you?re talking about, old man. Zeke couldn?t
take it. He became obsessed with getting to Iraq, but then, during
one of the training exercises, he hit his head against a wall and
passed out. People thought he was playing around, but he wasn?t. He
had a neck injury that occasionally cut the flow of blood to his
brain. And so he washed out. Nobody?s going to hire a guy with an
injury like that. ?Believe me, he?s not going to Iraq,? Collins
said. ?Because if he does go, he?s either going to get killed or get
somebody else killed. But it?s tough, because he?s having a real
hard time. If you ask me, what happened at Camp Pendleton cracked
him.?

Last October, Zeke ?ew to Washington, D.?C., and gave a presentation
to the Department of Homeland Security. He went with one of his
superiors from Palisades, and with Al DiBrito and Mike Moll, the
agents from the FBI and the DHS who had become part of Zeke?s Viper
team. That?s what the presentation was about: Viper. It was Zeke?s
brainchild, and now he was proposing to create Viper teams at every
nuclear power plant in the United States. The presentation was
attended by Craig Conklin, the head of the DHS?s nuclear-hazards
branch, as well as by other representatives from the FBI and the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- ?about ten people in all,? Conklin
says. Zeke did most of the talking and was impressive enough for
some of the participants to consider Viper training as a ?best
practice,? in which case Zeke would be able to take his program
nationwide.

Zeke got shot in Kosovo. Everybody knew about it: He told some of
the shooters and operators he?d met when he was staging the mock
assaults on nuclear plants. It was part of Zeke?s legend. He?d gone
to Kosovo for DynCorp, which had contracted to provide personnel for
the State Department?s Diplomatic Observer Mission. He had a
diplomatic passport. But he says he was also there as a cover. He
was an operative whose mission was to determine the war-fighting
capacity of the Kosovo Liberation Army. He would hike into KLA camps
with not much more than a box of Marlboros and a medical kit. He
should have been shot, but people would line up as soon as they saw
him. He would spend all day stitching wounds and get the information
he needed. Then he did get shot, and the only thing that saved him
was his flak jacket. When he got home, he showed Linda the sweater
with the hole in it. Did she believe him? Well, she loved him, she
said. And besides, she?d seen the sweater; she?d put her finger in
the hole.

That was the first thing Linda Clark said to me, the first thing she
wanted me to know. They were divorced, but she still loved him. She
had known him for so long that being married to him ?was almost like
raising another child.? He used to ride motorcycles with her first
husband, and when she was divorced and became a single mother, he
protected her. ?He always made me feel secure,? she said. They were
baptized together before they were married. But around 1984, he lost
his job as a policeman in Visalia, California, for having an affair
with another officer?s wife, and they struggled. They struggled
financially, as he wrote the six novels that never got published and
wrote the stack of plays and screenplays that never got produced --
well, one did, at a community theater. And he did make a movie. Did
I know that he made a movie? He did, he really did, in the early
nineties, with a friend?s workmen?s-compensation check. But of
course it never went anywhere, and what kept Bill and Linda afloat,
she said, was Bill?s job as a chimney sweep. For twelve years, from
?84 to ?96, he worked as a chimney sweep in his hometown of Tulare,
down the road from Visalia. ?I?ll bet Bill didn?t tell you about
that, did he??

No, I said, he didn?t. It?s not on his résumé, either, those twelve
years representing the gap only his handler could explain. But wait
a second -- didn?t he go by Zeke?

?Oh, I don?t know where he got that,? she said. ?Everybody I know
calls him Bill. But then he went on that trip to El Salvador and
everything changed. He was always big into skydiving, and though we
didn?t have a lot of money, he wanted to go skydiving with the El
Salvadoran army. I let him go, because it was so important to him,
and that?s where he met Dennis Collins. And when he came home, he
wanted me to call him Zeke. I couldn?t do it. He?s still Billy to
me.?

Their finances got better after that, Linda said, because Bill
started doing work for Dennis, and the work for Dennis led to work
for the DOE, and the work for the DOE led to work for security
companies like Vance and Blackwater. What got worse was
Bill?s...well, his problem, Linda said. He has to make himself more
interesting than he is. He can?t bear to be just plain old Bill
Clark from Tulare, California, because plain old Bill Clark had
dyslexia, and really suffered in school....

?Did he ever play football?? I asked.

?Junior varsity,? she said. ?He was too small for varsity.?

Well, was he ever in Afghanistan or Iraq? I asked.

?Oh, heavens no,? Linda said. ?He told you that??

?He also told me that he was in the Horn of Africa with the French
Foreign Legion.?

?Well, he did go to Nigeria, back in the early eighties. A Nigerian
minister came to Tulare, and Bill went to Nigeria with him as a
missionary. He didn?t like it very much, though. He came back in
about two or three weeks.?

She said this without malice. Indeed, she was praying for him to see
the error of his ways, so that their marriage could be repaired and
they could reconcile. She still loved the man. She still spoke to
him. As a matter of fact, she had spoken to him just the day before,
and he was saying that he wanted to break off his engagement with
Terri so that he could remarry Linda.

?Linda, I hate being the one to tell you this, but he and Terri
aren?t engaged. They?re married.?

?Oh, my God,? Linda Clark said.

An official at one of Zeke?s former employers confirmed that he did
have a Q clearance with the DOE, which gave him access to top-secret
information at nuclear plants. But when two officials with access to
Department of Defense databases -- one in the DOD, the other a
screener for a private security company -- checked Zeke?s TS/SCI
clearance, they found no record of William E. Clark having DOD
?eligibility or access.? That is, they found no record of William E.
Clark holding the high-level DOD security clearance he included on
his résumé at Palisades Nuclear.

He had never talked about his life before, Zeke said, and he was
always disdainful of people who did. He was always disdainful of
both the ?cowboys? who liked to brag and the ?wannabes? who were
endemic to the world of covert operations. Real operators, he said,
never talked about their exploits when they got together. They
talked about their wives, they talked about their families, they
talked about how much they missed home. It was strange, then, that
about seven years ago he held the ultimate wannabe job -- he was an
auxiliary cop in Kingsburg, California, an unpaid position that
called on him only to ?assist officers on duty.? And it was even
stranger when, last year, he called a cop he knew from Kingsburg
named Kevin Pendley. ?He tried to recruit me to go to Iraq,? Pendley
says. ?He called out of the blue. He said he?d been over there for
Blackwater and that he?d just gotten back. He said he killed
sixty-nine people.?

Rick Clark knew instinctively that his father had remarried. He had,
in fact, warned his mother that his father had remarried, although
he hadn?t spoken to his father in a year and a half. It was just
something he felt, from a lifetime of experience -- the familiar
vibrations of his father?s falsehoods. ?He?s living a movie in which
he?s the flawed but sympathetic central character, a really deeply
interesting central character,? Rick said. ?He?s smart enough to
show his flaws, because when he does, he becomes believable, and you
become an accomplice in the movie of his life.?

Was Rick one of Bill Clark?s accomplices? ?I grew up with the
mythology and to some extent defined myself by it,? he said. ?One of
the reasons I went into the military was to carry on the tradition.?
Rick is thirty-five now, about to leave the Air Force, and he
doesn?t consider himself an accomplice anymore. ?If my father told
me the sun was shining, I wouldn?t believe him -- even if I lived in
the next town over, for God?s sake.? But he did want to know one
thing. He wanted me to find out the truth of one story, because he?d
been hearing it since he could remember and had built his life
around it. He wanted to know if Bill Clark had been a Ranger and had
been in Vietnam. ?I really need to know that, Tom,? he said.
?Because I need to know whether everything has been a lie.?

There was no incident on Zeke?s first day at Palisades; no threat to
throw his boss out the window. That?s what the senior manager said,
the same one who had told me that Zeke had gone to Afghanistan
looking for a high-velocity round between the eyes. When I told him
that Zeke had never actually been to Afghanistan or Iraq, he said,
?He wasn?t?? And then he said, ?You know, I?m really glad you
called, because he?s been trying to get me to quit my job and go
into business with him. He said that I had the know-how, and he had
all the contacts from his years in covert operations.?

The movie was called Team Dragon. Bill Clark got the idea for it
when a B-movie company came to Tulare to reshoot some footage on the
cheap, and he went out to get some stunt work. He thought it looked
pretty easy, making a movie, so he started watching movies
obsessively on his VCR, with a notebook in his lap. When he felt
ready to direct, he began shooting bits of a script he?d written,
featuring guys he knew from Tulare. One of them, Ken Washman, was
bothered by the suspicion that if what Clark was shooting ever did
become a movie, he wouldn?t get paid a dime, and so he began asking
Clark what it would cost to get cut in -- to make a real movie whose
profits he could share. Clark came up with a figure, which happened
to be the amount of the check Washman had recently received in
compensation for a workplace accident. And so, in 1990 and 1991,
Bill Clark shot Team Dragon in and around Tulare, with Ken Washman
as his star. It was about a Vietnam veteran who had to face his
demons when he found out that the NVA was selling opium in
California, and it cost $25,000 to make. ?My wife wasn?t real happy
about it,? Washman says now. ?She didn?t really like me spending
that much time with Bill Clark, and she wanted me to put the money
in a piece of property or something. I guess I would have had a
better return on my investment if I did, but I wouldn?t have had as
much fun as I did running around and shooting guns out there in
Tulare. And it was a real movie, you know. We had a premiere at the
Elks club in Tulare. Bill showed it and said, ?Well, Ken, what do
you think?? ?I said, ?Well, Bill -- it?s a movie.? There was not a
whole lot much more you could say about it, other than that.?

Zeke didn?t kill anyone in Louisiana. A former marine who was on
Zeke?s Blackwater team said that no one even discharged his weapon,
because it was well known that if you did, Blackwater would fire
your ass. Besides, they were in the sticks. They weren?t in New
Orleans. It was quiet where they were, really sort of boring, except
when Zeke told the story that a gang was coming to get at the
narcotics. Even then, the former marine listened with half an ear.
That guy was always telling stories.

The volunteer from the shelter in Louisiana received a call one day
from Linda Clark. Linda told the volunteer that she?d been speaking
to the Lord, and the Lord had instructed her to forgive the
volunteer for breaking up her marriage to Bill. By this time, the
volunteer was living in fear of the man she knew as Zeke, and so she
asked Linda the one thing she really wanted to know: Is he
dangerous?Oh, I don?t think so, Linda said.

But what about the video footage he sent? the volunteer asked. What
about the footage of him executing people?And that?s when the
volunteer found out about Team Dragon. That?s when she found out
about everything, including the fact that he had never been to
Afghanistan or Iraq. She was hoping that she could keep the affair
from her husband, but she wound up confessing it all, and once she
did, he forgave her, as the victim of a skilled predator.

?So I dodged a bullet,? she told me. ?And so did you.?

It was embarrassing to think of it that way, of course --
embarrassing to think that Zeke had singled me out the way he?d
singled out so many others, embarrassing to think that I was one of
his victims.

?Hey, look at it this way,? the volunteer said. ?At least you didn?t
have sex with him.?

The old soldier was surprised to hear Zeke?s name when I called him
on the phone. ?William Clark from California?? he asked, and when I
told him what I was calling about, he responded immediately. ?Well,
if he?s the security manager at a nuclear plant, he bullshitted his
way into it. He was like that as a teenager. He was one of the most
grandiose, storytelling individuals I?ve ever met.?

Indeed, in May 1975, the soldier had been arrested for the sake of
one of Clark?s stories. At the time, the most famous mercenary in
the world was a man named Michael Hoare, who had raised private
armies in the Congo and the Seychelles. Clark said he had been a
Ranger, but now, like the soldier, he was in the 34th Infantry. He
and a friend told the soldier that they knew somebody who worked for
Michael Hoare, and that Hoare was looking for new recruits. First,
though, they had to prove that they were brave and that they were
ruthless. And so one night, Clark convinced the soldier to throw a
bomb at the window of the S&S Truck Stop. It bounced off the
bulletproof glass and exploded in the parking lot. They were
arrested, along with three others, and spent the night in jail,
before their CO got them out the next morning. There was no friend
they were defending; there was no FBI agent. There were only a bunch
of ignorant kids beguiled by a shot at glory, and in the story the
old soldier tells, ?I disassociated myself from William Clark as
soon as I got back to the base.?

So he was living it, even then -- the fantasy that has consumed his
life, as well as the lives of everybody who has trusted him. Court
records from McIntosh County indicate that there were no charges of
attempted murder, as Zeke had said; the charge was ?criminal
attempt,? and it was dropped when it came to the docket. His
military records indicate that although he might have gone to Ranger
School, he did not graduate, and although he was assigned to a
Ranger battalion, he finished out his career in the 34th Infantry,
with an undistinguished rank and without a Ranger tab. There was no
career as a Green Beret, as he had told his son; nor had he ever
served in Vietnam. The gooks had not broken him, but he had come
damned close to breaking Rick, who, when I told him the military
records con?rmed that he?d been lied to since he was four years old,
said simply, ?I want to put my head through a wall.?

When Zeke had the cell-phone conversation with his handlers in the
restaurant, I knew that his story had only two possible outcomes,
and that both were monstrous. If Larry and Kyle were real, then Zeke
was an assassin in the employ of a secret governmental agency that
had seen fit to give him a job at a nuclear plant just as he was
starting to go crazy with guilt and shame. If they weren?t real,
then Zeke was not just a liar; he was a liar who was willing to
engage in complicated three-way public conversations with people who
didn?t exist. He was a liar with an alias and fake passports, a liar
who maintained extensive stocks of boarding passes and hotel-room
keys, a liar who packed a duffel bag and kept it in his house in
order to further the fiction that his next mission was one phone
call away. He was a liar who conflated his lies with threats so that
skepticism would be conflated with fear. He was a deranged liar, and
he was the security manager of a nuclear plant on Lake Michigan.

I have a pretty good idea of what the answer is. After all, Zeke
told the volunteer the exact same things about the handler that he
told me, with the exact same proviso: that this was the first time
he had talked about him to another living soul. And Linda Clark said
that when Zeke got phone calls from his girlfriends, he often told
Linda that his handler was on the line, and that he had to take the
call in private.

There is no handler. There was no Larry or Kyle. And yet sometimes I
find myself wishing that there were, because the alternative is
harder to accept. In the four months I spent with Zeke, he told me
exactly two signi?cant facts, two plain truths uncomplicated by
falsehood and fantasy: first, that he was security manager of
Palisades Nuclear. And second, that last October he had gone to
Washington, D.?C., in the company of two federal agents and
presented his vision of nuclear security to the head of the
nuclear-hazards branch of the Department of Homeland Security.


He was wondering if he should tell her. He was wondering if she
would love him if he did. I urged him to. It was last December, and
he had been married less than two weeks. I was saying goodbye to him
for what turned out to be the final time, and I urged him to tell
his new wife who he really was, so that he wouldn?t make the same
mistakes he?d made with Linda. And then the phone rang. It was Baby
Doll. He handed the phone to me, and I asked her why she?d married
him. She told me that he was tall, that he was not fazed by her
multiple sclerosis, and that he was, in her mind, ?a gentle
protector. He?s afraid that if I found out what he did, I wouldn?t
love him. But that?s not the part of him that I care about. The part
that I care about is the courageous part, the part that came to
Michigan to start a new life without knowing a soul. The rest -- he
did what he had to do, what he was asked to do for his country.
Others did it, too, and are still doing it. I know he has bad dreams
about it. But I want to hold him through his bad dreams. He told me
when we first met that we?re both wounded souls, and he?s right. But
that?s why I love him.?

It is easy to think of lying as a victimless crime, akin to
storytelling, akin to performance -- after all, wasn?t Zeke
performing when he was speaking to his handlers? All those
unpublished novels, all those unproduced plays and screenplays; and
now, at fifty-three, the chimney sweep finds his true métier,
telling tales to a complicit reporter. And yet his victims number
more than those whose feelings he?s hurt, whose lives he?s wrecked.
When I called Blackwater about William E. Clark, I asked if
Blackwater prohibited its contractors from having sex with the
people they were supposed to be protecting. ?What?? the spokeswoman
answered, in disbelief. ?Yes. Of course. It?s the ?rst thing they?re
prohibited from doing. It?s the worst thing they can do. Does that
answer your question?? When I called DynCorp to see if William E.
Clark was part of DynCorp?s Kosovo Mission -- he was, but he wasn?t
shot; no diplomatic observers were -- the spokesman was chiefly
concerned with Zeke?s claim that he was really in Kosovo for
American intelligence. ?He?s saying DynCorp was his cover?? he said.
?You have to understand -- that?s the kind of claim that can put all
our guys in jeopardy.? And when I called an FBI agent who until
recently had been one of the chief liaisons between the bureau and
the CIA, he listened to what I told him about Zeke, then said: ?Fuck
this guy. Expose him. He?s an asshole. Guys like that make it much,
much harder for the guys who are legit.?

A story about a liar always turns out to be about one thing: He
lied. Zeke says he doesn?t talk to his brothers anymore? He lied.
Zeke says that he threatened a UPI photographer who took his picture
in El Salvador? UPI says it never had a photographer in El Salvador
at the time in question. And yet what haunts me are not Zeke?s lies
but the truths he told, or tried to tell, from the moment I met him.
He was confessing, after all, and though his confession was a failed
one, the impulse behind it brought a psychological truth -- the
momentum of a man unraveling -- to his most outrageous falsehoods.
He said that he was a nobody. He said he lacked a moral firewall. He
said he lied to his mother like he lied to everyone else. He said
that his life was a fake. He said that he?d been a lot of people,
and that he?d hurt a lot of people. He even said, at length, in a
phone message, that he?d never been to Afghanistan or Iraq. I
listened, but I didn?t believe him, because as invested as I was in
telling his story, I was even more heavily invested in proving him a
killer and not just a liar. I was aware, all along, that he was one
or the other, but somehow I could not bear to think that he was just
a liar, and neither could he. It was too shameful. So he said he was
a killer instead, because he knew that somehow human sympathy
extends to killing even as it ends at lying.

He said that he was talking to me because he needed to burn his
bridges; because he needed to be stopped; because he didn?t want to
hurt any more people. I believed him then. I believe him now.

In April, Palisades Nuclear was bought by another firm, and Zeke?s
future status was unclear. He told a colleague at the plant that he
was going abroad again. He said he had to go to Afghanistan to
?counsel? someone who had displeased the government. By ?counsel,?
he meant ?kill,? and he asked if he could borrow the colleague?s
gun. The colleague wondered why Zeke would want a gun, when he
already had so many. ?Plausible deniability,? Zeke said.

Hearst Corporation
*****************************************************************
 26 Journal Gazette: This is only a nuclear drill

05/11/2007 | 

Emergency crews test disaster response

By Amanda Iacone The Journal Gazette

Associated Press photos

Indianapolis police officers help “victim” Pamela Rodriguez 
during a mock nuclear drill at the Muscatatuck training center 
Thursday.

Nick Earl of North Vernon sits with a mock face wound during a 
drill to test local officials’ emergency readiness.

At 9 a.m. Thursday, a nuclear device detonated in Indianapolis.

By 10 a.m., Fort Wayne and Allen County officials expected the first
of an onslaught of evacuees to start entering the city. Shelters,
decontamination areas and radiation testing would be needed.

On Thursday, police, fire, EMS, and Red Cross officials met with
Bernie Beier, the city-county chief homeland security officer, to
plan for such an event. Federal, state and military officials worked
through the same nuclear event drill in Marion County, Camp
Atterbury and the Muscatatuck military training center.

The idea was to test and discuss how overwhelmed local governments
would respond to such an event, knowing that federal help could be
two or three days away, Beier said.

Such an event would wipe out communications in Indianapolis, leaving
Fort Wayne on its own to determine how to help the state’s capital
city. Local officials met at Raytheon on Production Road to take
advantage of a mock emergency operations center that includes three
large screens, conference table and computer terminals.

The screens showed a map of Muscatatuck in southern Indiana, where
first responders could practice rescuing people from the rubble of
collapsed buildings in a city-like setting, and video cameras showed
pictures of officials working in Marion County.

Raytheon, a local defense contractor, is part of an ongoing national
research project to find ways to adopt military communications
technology, such as satellite communications, for use by local
governments, said Bruce Menshy, a Raytheon operations director based
in Fort Wayne.

Allowing local officials to use the emergency communications room,
which Raytheon staffers use as a laboratory, gave Beier ideas for
what Fort Wayne could incorporate into its center that will be
housed inside the new Regional Public Safety Academy at Southtown
Centre, Beier said.

For example, acoustic panels can help dampen the noise of a hectic
room, he said.

The nuclear bomb drill will continue today both in southern Indiana
and in Fort Wayne. The same group of public safety officials would
likely have to decide whether to send equipment and help to
Indianapolis. Or, Beier asked, does Fort Wayne need the help because
of crammed hospitals, hotels and shelters; problems from traffic
accidents and worries that the weather could shift, bringing the
nuclear cloud over Fort Wayne and threatening more lives?

Fort Wayne would be a major staging area if such an event occurred
in Indianapolis, said Marty Bender, a deputy chief with the Fort
Wayne Police Department.

About 700 local responders, 2,000 National Guard members and
hundreds of civilian and federal military responders were expected
at the Muscatatuck training center in Jennings County, about 75
miles south of Indianapolis.

The nuclear detonation in Indianapolis was the centerpiece of
nationwide training – dubbed Ardent Sentry/Northern Edge – that
began April 30 and runs through May 18. It is the largest and most
complex exercise sponsored by U.S. Northern Command, which was
formed in 2002 to oversee and coordinate Department of Defense
homeland protection.

Other mock events included a hurricane that hit Rhode Island and
terrorist attacks on Alaska’s oil pipeline and refineries.

aiacone@jg.net

*****************************************************************
 27 [NukeNet] You are invited to NE Tennessee to GET IN THE WAY of the
 
Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 14:54:14 -0700


<x-flowed>
Dear friends of justice and peace,

You are invited to northeast Tennessee for a series of events 
surrounding radiation, health, peace & justice issues that will occur 
here over next 2 weeks.  We can offer free housing in Churches of the 
Brethren or on farmland -- bring tents and sleeping bags if you intend 
to join us for "Camp DU" -- near Aerojet Ordance, a depleted uranium 
weapons manufacturer in Jonesborough.

Following is a list of activities that I believe that students and 
others working on nuclear issues will find productive to attend.   

We hope that you can join us in NE TN for all or part of the next 2 
weeks .........................

NUCLEAR NORTHEAST TENNESSEE
MAY 2007 
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

+ May 15, 6pm, Town Hall, Erwin:  Agency for Toxic Substances and 
Disease Registry presents its final Public Health Assessment on the 
impacts of Nuclear Fuel Service's operations in Erwin.  FREE.

+ May 16, 6pm, Johnson City Public Library, Johnson City: Agency for 
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry presents its final Public Health 
Assessment on the impacts of Nuclear Fuel Service's operations in 
Erwin.  FREE.

+ May 17, 12:30pm, Kingsport Public Library, Kingsport: Tennessee Clean 
Water Network Press Conference on Nuclear Waste Dumping in Sanitary 
Landfills.  FREE.

+ May 19, 10am-4pm, East TN State Univ., Johnson City:  National 
Conference on Depleted Uranium:  "DU -- from Appalachia to Afghanistan 
to Iraq", $7 lunch/registration (required) payable to First Tennessee 
Progressives; $32 for advance copy of Afghanistan After Democracy 
(optional, but highly recommended) also payable to FTP.   Mail check for 
lunch/registration ASAP to Anthony Pittman, 712 Wilson Avenue, Johnson 
City, TN 37604.

+ May 18-27, Camp DU, Jonesborough:  Put pressure on Aerojet to stop 
making Depleted Uranium weapons! This camp will feature press briefings, 
neighborhood outreach, balloon releases to demonstrate the reach of 
Aerojet's emissions, and more!   FREE on private land near Aerojet.


In solidarity with the victims of the "peaceful" and weaponized atom,
Linda.

Linda C. Modica, Chair
Sierra Club Radiation Committee
266 Mayberry Road
Jonesborough, TN  37659
H: (423) 753-9697
C: (423) 676-2925
E: Linda.C.Modica@mac.com <mailto:Linda.C.Modica@mac.com>
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes 
of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe." ~~ 
Albert Einstein, Telegram, 24 May 1946.

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 28 BBC NEWS: Denmark challenged over B52 crash

Last Updated: Friday, 11 May 2007, 14:53 GMT 15:53 UK

By Stephen Mulvey EU reporter, BBC News

"Let me take you back to an Arctic night in January 1968, still 
the era of the Cold War," a British MEP told the European 
Parliament this week, promising a tale comparable to an 
international thriller.

"An American B-52 bomber gets into trouble, the crew scramble to 
safety and the plane comes down in Greenland with an enormous 
amount of weapons-grade plutonium on board.

One crew member was killed in the crash, the rest survived


"Residents of Greenland working at the American base in Thule
immediately set out across the ice with husky teams to get to the
downed plane, the Americans desperate to get there before anyone
else."

The Stratofortress disintegrated on impact with the sea ice a few
miles from Thule, and parts of it began to melt through to the fjord
below.

In the dark of the polar night, US specialists hurried to remove all
traces of military technology, and - together with hundreds of local
civilians - to remove the contaminated snow and ice.

One of the four nuclear bombs on board may still be lying on the sea
bed.

Stomach cancer

The trigger for the re-telling of the story was a petition to the
parliament from former clean-up worker Jeffrey Carswell, appealing
for pressure on Denmark to start monitoring the health of those
exposed to contamination.

The US workers involved have been regularly examined, but the Danes
and Greenlanders have not, according to a report by Diana Wallis
MEP, which the parliament approved on Friday by 544 votes to 29.

"Many Thule survivors have died of radiation-related illnesses due
to the lack of medical monitoring, and current survivors risk
contracting such fatal illnesses," says the accompanying resolution.



It calls on the Danish government to start health checks now.

Mr Carswell himself, who represents an association of former Thule
workers, was diagnosed with stomach cancer in the 1980s, and has had
eight major operations.

His attorney, Ian Anderson, said the importance of the Wallis report
was that it demonstrated Denmark's obligation under EU treaties to
monitor the Thule workers' health - even though the B52 crash
occurred before Denmark joined the EU.

By the same token, it indicated that Britain was obliged to monitor
the health of people exposed to fallout from its atmospheric nuclear
tests, or to contamination from the fire at the Windscale plutonium
plant in 1957, he said.

Court threat

It is now time Denmark started behaving responsibly

Former clean-up worker


Norway denies bomb report


One member of the Thule workers' association, who asked to remain
anonymous, told BBC News the parliament had paved the way for him to
take Denmark to the European Court of Justice.

"I am hoping that Denmark will now understand that the games it has
been playing for far too long have now ended," he said. "It is now
time it started behaving responsibly."

But Kaare Ulbak, chief consultant to the Danish National Institute
of Radiation Hygiene, said Denmark had studied the health of Thule
workers in detail, and found no evidence of increased mortality or
cancer.

A search for plutonium in the urine of 115 workers thought likely to
have been most exposed to contamination had found no trace, he said.

Danish denial

"That is a strong indicator for us that they did not receive any
dangerous dose," he added.

Diana Wallis, however, says statistical studies are no substitute
for "proper, clinical, medical monitoring" of the workers, whose
clothes were sometimes so contaminated that they had to be destroyed.

Denmark did not co-operate with the parliament's petitions
committee, and is still refusing to release key environmental
radiation records made of Thule at the time.

The Danish government had always denied that nuclear-armed US planes
were flying over Danish-controlled Greenland - until the crash
occurred.


* BBC Copyright Notice
*****************************************************************
 29 SF Examiner: Lawmakers cite compensation progress for ill nuclear workers -

Examiner.com

May 10, 2007 6:58 PM (1 day ago)
By DENNIS CONRAD, AP

 
WASHINGTON (Map, News) -More employees at Dow Chemical Co.'s former
nuclear facility in Madison, Ill., may become eligible for
compensation for exposure to radiation during the Cold War.

The federal Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health has agreed
to make a recommendation that could have that effect, members of
Illinois' congressional delegation said Thursday.

The board will send an "advisory opinion" to the Department of
Health and Human Services suggesting that the agency investigate
issues that argue in favor of more worker compensation, lawmakers
said.

Illinois Sens. Barack Obama and Dick Durbin and two congressmen
based in southern Illinois, Reps. John Shimkus and Jerry Costello,
have made the compensation issue a priority.

Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate, addressed the board in
Colorado last week, the second time within five months he told the
group of his concerns for the needs of former nuclear workers.

The board approved at its Denver meeting a total, tax-exempt payment
of $7.05 million for 47 workers who were employed at the Dow site
from 1957-1960. They will also receive all medical benefits needed
to deal with their conditions.

Further action would affect employees who worked at the facility
from 1961 to 1998.

"For the first time the board is considering providing compensation
to residual claims ... workers who worked at these sites when the
radiation lingered," Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said.

The additional claims the Illinois lawmakers seek are expected to
come up for discussion by the board again in mid-July at a meeting
in Washington state.

"There remain dozens of workers who became sick because of
contamination at the Dow site and at other plants around Illinois,"
Obama said in a statement. "The facts are on their side, and they
deserve recognition, treatment and compensation."

The Illinois site, which has not been owned by Dow for decades, is
located northeast of St. Louis, across the Mississippi River. In the
late 1950s, employees there worked on behalf of the Atomic Energy
Commission.



Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 30 washingtonpost.com: Bomb Part Storage at Ky. Plant Disclosed - 

Nuclear Agency Is Told of Hazards In Secret Program

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 11, 2000; Page

More than 1,600 tons of nuclear weapons parts reportedly lie
scattered around the Energy Department's Paducah, Ky., uranium
plant, a safety manager informed regulators yesterday in a new
disclosure of potential hazards unknown to workers or civilian plant
supervisors.

Some of the bomb parts are stored in above-ground shelters and could
pose a risk of exposure or even an accidental nuclear reaction at
the plant, if the components are contaminated with radioactive
substances such as enriched uranium and plutonium, the official
reported in a signed statement to the federal Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
 
The U.S. Enrichment Corp. (USEC), the government-chartered private
company that now runs the plant, acknowledged yesterday that its
senior officials recently discussed the issue with the Department of
Energy.

"USEC has been assured that DOE is not aware of any conditions that
create a radiological hazard to USEC personnel at the site beyond
those already known and controlled," company spokeswoman Elizabeth
Stuckle said.

Energy Department officials involved with the country's classified
nuclear weapons program apparently were aware of the shipment of
bomb components to Paducah over many years, but the department did
not until recently inform the plant's civilian overseers and safety
officials who were in charge of evaluating threats to workers.

The statement by Raymond G. Carroll, a senior manager of health and
safety programs at the plant since 1992, quotes a conversation with
another senior civilian plant official who reportedly told Carroll
he was worried about the bomb parts after hearing of their existence
from a DOE official.

Carroll also said he was told that DOE officials recently began
hauling away documents related to weapons dismantlement.

A DOE spokesman confirmed that the department is investigating
"classified national security programs" conducted at Paducah in the
past, along with the Justice and Defense departments.

"This review includes the examination of potential worker exposures
and any safety, health and environmental issues associated with
these national security programs," the official said.

Carroll's statement was obtained by The Washington Post yesterday as
the government was making its most detailed acknowledgment to date
of historically unsafe practices at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion
Plant, a hulking industrial complex that has produced enriched
uranium for nuclear bombs and power plants since 1952.

The 77-page DOE report faults a "climate of secrecy" for keeping
workers and neighbors uninformed and unprotected while radioactive
contaminants spread through factory buildings and surrounding areas.
A few volunteers were deliberately exposed to uranium in a series of
previously undisclosed human experiments, the report said.

The DOE report does not mention nuclear bomb parts. A worker lawsuit
against plant contractors last summer revealed that some weapons
parts had been melted down at the plant to recover gold and other
metals. But details of the scope and purpose of the bomb program
have remained shrouded in secrecy.

Both DOE and Justice are investigating whistleblower allegations 
of improper handling of radioactive waste at the plant.

Yesterday's disclosure by Carroll suggests the bomb program may 
have introduced yet another unknown hazard at a facility where 
workers had been lulled by assurances that their jobs were 
virtually risk-free.
        
"Personnel could conceivably encounter highly enriched uranium or 
plutonium (or even tritium) without even knowing it," said 
Carroll, a 30-year veteran of the nuclear safety field who now 
works for USEC. Tritium is a radioactive component of the 
hydrogen bomb.

Carroll, in a five-page memo filed with NRC and DOE officials, 
said he learned about the bomb parts from a senior USEC 
supervisor, radiation protection manager Orville Cypret. Carroll 
wrote that Cypret said he learned about the bomb parts from Dale 
Jackson, the former DOE manager of the Paducah site.

Carroll said Cypret told him that 1,600 tons of weapons 
components had been shipped to Paducah since the 1950s. Although 
some parts were buried, others were dispersed in various storage 
areas across the sprawling complex, according to Carroll's 
statement.

Cypret became alarmed after a Justice Department investigator 
told him "he would not ask about a 'classified tritium project' 
or past nuclear weapons handling at Paducah," Carroll wrote in 
his statment.

In keeping with security policy, the weapons parts were not 
labeled, though "DOE thinks it knows where most of the material 
is," Carroll wrote.

Cypret and Jackson did not return phone calls from The Post. A 
Justice Department official in Louisville said he could not 
comment on the department's investigation into whistleblower 
complaints at the plant.

Carroll said he was told that "large quantities" of plutonium and 
highly enriched uranium had been brought into the plant, and "not 
just in reactor tails." Last summer, following allegations by 
current and former workers, DOE acknowledged for the first time 
that radioactive plutonium and neptunium had entered the plant in 
uranium "tails," recycled uranium metal from military reactors 
that produced plutonium.

Carroll said in his statement that Cypret said a team of DOE 
officials had been assembled to investigate the matter but their 
findings "would not be voluntarily shared" with the plant's 
civilian managers. Instead, as records relating to the bomb 
program were found, they were held in a special vault for 
classified material.

"Someone from [the DOE's Oak Ridge, Tenn., site] would drive down 
each night to pick them up," Carroll wrote, quoting Cypret.

Carroll said the new disclosures had left him deeply concerned 
about the safety of the plant's workers. Besides the risk of 
radioactive contamination, improperly stored nuclear material 
could trigger a lethal "criticality," an accidental nuclear 
reaction.

"A decision had apparently been made that national security would 
take precedence over personnel radiological safety," Carroll 
wrote. "I find this situation to be unconscionable."

The risk posed by weapons parts could range from high to minimal, 
depending on the materials and how they are stored.

DOE's report on historical practices at Paducah wraps up the 
second of two major probes ordered by Energy Secretary Bill 
Richardson in August. DOE officials described it as one of the 
most thorough in the department's history.

The report concludes that the plant's lapses in worker safety in 
many ways reflected the culture of the time. "The Cold War was a 
reality," and federal oversight of the plant "was primarily 
directed at cost, schedule and production," the report said.

Although the "intention to protect workers was apparent," plant 
managers frequently failed to meet even the relatively lenient 
safety and environmental standards of the day, the report states.

The risks posed by plutonium and neptunium were "neither fully 
understood or appreciated," the report states. "The presence of 
these materials, the increased risks involved and the rationale 
for additional controls was not shared with workers."

In addition, radioactive and chemical wastes were routinely 
discharged into the water and air. Investigators documented 
nighttime smokestack emissions--dubbed "midnight 
negatives"--involving tens of thousands of pounds of uranium dust 
and smoke.

Richardson said the findings underscore his efforts to win 
compensation and other aid for ailing workers.

"I'm going to continue to be up front with the Paducah workers 
and the community about environmental, safety and health 
conditions at our sites during the Cold War," he said.
 Copyright 1996- The Washington Post Company | User Agreement
*****************************************************************
 31 Honolulu Advertiser: Depleted uranium a Cold War leftover - 

Posted on: Friday, May 11, 2007

By William Cole Advertiser Military Writer

Soldiers test the Davy Crockett at Aberdeen Proving Ground in
Maryland in 1959.

Depleted uranium that was left behind in Hawai'i in the 1960s came
from a recoilless rifle capable of firing a 76-pound nuclear bomb,
the Pentagon confirmed for the first time yesterday.

The Army told The Advertiser that the rifle's "spotting rounds,"
which are fired in order to aim the trajectory of the nuclear
device, were used at Schofield Barracks and possibly at Makua
Military Reservation and Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island.

There is no evidence, however, that the fission bomb warhead itself
was ever fired here, and it's unclear if it was ever stored in
Hawai'i. The warhead had the strength of two to four times the
explosive power that destroyed an Oklahoma City federal building in
1995.

The aiming rounds of the weapon left behind depleted uranium, and
the military this summer is going to conduct radiological testing at
Schofield, Makua and Pohakuloa for traces of the heavy metal, an
Army official at the Pentagon said. The official requested to be
identified as a "U.S. Army spokesman."

COLD WAR GAMBIT

The weapon was known as a "Davy Crockett" and featured either a 120
mm or 155 mm recoilless rifle that fired a fission bomb with a yield
of .01 kilotons, equivalent to 10 tons of TNT.

Army statements confirm a link in Hawai'i to the smallest and
lightest fission bomb ever fielded by the U.S. — a weapon that
experts say was a desperate Cold War gambit to be used in fighting
against Soviet or Chinese forces.

The result for Hawai'i is residual depleted uranium that today is
the source of extreme controversy because of its possible health
effects.

"I think it's a positive step that the Army is willing to
investigate uranium at the ranges," said Kyle Kajihiro, program
director for the American Friends Service Committee, an
international Quaker organization that supports Native Hawaiian
rights and demilitarization. "But we're going to reserve our
judgment until we can see what their actual plans are because it's
unclear how thorough (they are) and whether it will be adequate."

RANGE SURVEYS

The Army confirmed in January 2006 that 15 tail assemblies from
spotting rounds made of D-38 uranium alloy were found by contractors
clearing a range of unexploded ordnance at Schofield. At the time,
the service said they were from an obsolete weapon system.

The Pentagon yesterday said additional depleted uranium fragments
were identified near the initial find. The Schofield range is the
only known location for the spotting rounds, the Army said, but this
summer it will also survey ranges "with appropriate characteristics
to have been used with the Davy Crockett on Makua and PTA."

"We do not expect to find any fragments," the Army said in e-mailed
responses to The Advertiser, "but (we) need to verify that they do
not exist on these ranges."

The Army said it will conduct surveys with sensitive radiation
detectors capable of finding depleted uranium in the environment.
Additional soil and water samples will be collected and sent for
laboratory analysis as required, the service said.

A contract for those services still is being negotiated. Asked what
has to be done to clean up any depleted uranium sites, the Army
said, "We don't know yet. We need to do the initial scoping surveys
to determine the extent of the (depleted uranium) residue."

ARMOR-PENETRATING

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission license is required to fire depleted
uranium, or DU, rounds in the United States. The Army does not fire
DU rounds from its Stryker vehicles in Hawai'i, it said, and does
not intend to seek such a permit.

However, the Army said recently declassified records indicate
depleted uranium spotter rounds were used in Hawai'i between 1961
and 1968, and may have been licensed. Additionally, the Army said it
may have to apply for an NRC license for the purpose of cleanup.

Depleted uranium is used in some weapons systems because of its
armor-penetrating capabilities. Produced in the reprocessing of
spent nuclear reactor fuel, depleted uranium, with about twice the
density of lead, has about 60 percent of the radioactivity of
natural uranium, according to the World Health Organization.

A 1971 National Academy of Sciences report states that the M-101
spotter round for the Davy Crockett weapon system, fired from a gun
fixed beneath the larger recoilless rifle, was used to simulate the
trajectory of the physically larger nuclear bomb.

Asked yesterday if Davy Crockett warheads were stored in Hawai'i,
Schofield Barracks officials referred questions back to the Pentagon.

'EXPERIMENTAL' WEAPON

Nuclear weapons historically had been stored in Hawai'i for possible
bomber aircraft and ship missions.

Michael Pavelec, program chairman for diplomacy and military studies
at Hawai'i Pacific University, doubts the Davy Crockett warheads
were ever kept here, even with the spotter rounds being fired.
Between 1956 and 1963, 2,100 of the bombs were produced, according
to the Brookings Institution.

The bombs could be fired up to three miles but likely would have
irradiated the soldiers using them. Then-Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy witnessed a test fire and detonation of a Davy Crockett in
Nevada in 1962.

"These were completely experimental, but they were thinking about
using tactical nuclear weapons on the western European battlefront
against a potential Soviet aggression across western Germany,"
Pavelec said. "We were worried about hundreds and hundreds of
thousands, if not millions, of either Red Army or Red Chinese, and
the only way you could deal with that, they thought in the Cold War,
was with really, really big bombs."

The discovery of depleted uranium in Hawai'i and its effects on U.S.
troops exposed to it are part of a growing controversy over the
material, which some Iraq war veterans believe is the cause of a
variety of ailments.

The World Health Organization said inhaled uranium particles may
lead to irradiation damage of the lung. Measurements at sites where
depleted uranium munitions were used indicate only localized
contamination within a few yards of the impact site, the
organization said.

CAUSE FOR CONCERN?

In Hawai'i, a bill that would mandate regular testing for depleted
uranium at Schofield Barracks was unsuccessful this past legislative
session.

"We should be concerned. DU has the potential to really harm the
public's health," said Marti Townsend, who's with Kahea, a Hawaiian
and environmental group. "But we don't know anything yet. And that's
the problem. We need an independent assessment of the contamination
in Hawai'i."

With that, she said, an informed decision can be made about what
steps need to be taken to protect the public's health.

Russell Takata, program manager for the state Health Department's
Noise, Radiation and Indoor Air Quality Branch, said he hasn't
detected unusual radiation levels.

"It's not like they are using the penetrating rounds here," Takata
said, "and this is old stuff, very restricted, apparently small
amounts, and I can't find it with my meter."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.


DEPLETED URANIUM - ETHICS OF THE SILVER BULLET

http://cseserv.engr.scu.edu/StudentWebPages/IPesic/ResearchPaper.htm


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12903.htm
Depleted Uranium - Far Worse Than 9/11

Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of
Iraq and Afghanistan

By Douglas Westerman

05/01/06 "Vital Truths" -- - In 1979, depleted uranium (DU)
particles escaped from the National Lead Industries factory near
Albany, N.Y.,which was manufacturing DU weapons for the U.S military.

The particles traveled 26 miles
and were discovered in a laboratory filter by Dr. Leonard Dietz, a
nuclear physicist. This discovery led to a shut down of the factory
in 1980, for releasing morethan 0.85 pounds of DU dust into the
atmosphere every month, and involved a cleanup of contaminated
properties costing over 100 million dollars.

----
http://www.counterpunch.org/freeman02032007.html

Pohakuloa sits between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Even the Army
acknowledges, in its Environmental Impact Statement, that "the
entirety of Mauna Kea, whose southwestern slopes form part of PTA's
base, is considered holy." Mauna Kea (The White Mountain) is
associated with Poli'ahu, the snow goddess of the summit, while
Mauna Loa (The Long Mountain), last erupting as recently as 1984, is
associated with Pele, the goddess of volcanic fires. The area
between the two sacred mountains, considered to be a site of conflict

Declaration from World Uranium Summit

------

Poisonous Legacy - warning, graphic

http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html

Resurrecting Liberty.com - Depleted Uranium
http://www.resurrectingliberty.com/Depleted%20Uranium.html

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/dura-a21.shtml
Gulf War Syndrome
Of the 579,000 American veterans who participated in the Gulf War,
some 251,000 (43 percent) had sought medical treatment from the
Department of Veterans Affairs as of July 1999. Approximately
182,000 (31 percent) filed claims for compensation for medical
disabilities or damage related to illness or injury. The illnesses
included leukemia, lung cancer, chronic kidney and liver disorders,
respiratory ailments, chronic fatigue, skin spotting and joint pain,
according to the Japanese newspaper Chugoku Shimbun. A large number
of the veterans’ offspring suffer from congenital

Other states are testing Veterans for DU exposure.

Other countries are testing also.
--------
http://AngelsForTruth.com/blog

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 4:30 pm

© COPYRIGHT 2007The Honolulu Advertiser. All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
 32 DaytonDailyNews.com: Nuclear worker Ray dies

By Lynn Hulsey

Staff Writer

Friday, May 11, 2007

Nuclear worker Sam Ray, who lost his larynx in 1994 to a rare 
form of cancer and spent the rest of his life fighting to help 
other sick workers, has died.


He testified before Congress, which ultimately approved a program
for some sick atomic workers, including those from the Piketon
plant. He also took a job with the United Steelworkers, helping
employees and survivors with medical claims.



Copyright ©2007 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All rights
reserved.

By using DaytonDailyNews.com, you accept the terms of our visitor
*****************************************************************
 33 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

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
 Meeting 2 - 06/28/2007
 Meeting 3 - 09/27/2007

Reports

Reports having no URL can be seen
at the Public Access Records Office

 Email: info@nas.edu
*****************************************************************
 34 SF New Mexican: Federal court denies injunction in WIPP case

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

May 11, 2007

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) _ A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's
ruling against an environmental group that sought to stop shipments
to the government's nuclear waste dump east of here.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week affirmed a June
2004 decision by U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo of
Albuquerque. She had dismissed a lawsuit by Citizens for
Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping against the U.S. Department of
Energy over the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

"We're pleased that the court of appeals affirmed the earlier
district court decision and found that the agency had acted with all
due process and in accordance with laws and regulations," said Mike
Rose, counsel for the DOE's Carlsbad Field Office.

Janet Greenwald, a spokeswoman for the environmental group, said
CARD stands by the findings of its contracting scientists, although
the court chose to believe the Department of Energy.

The organization wanted the DOE to be required to do a new
environmental impact statement, Greenwald said.



CARD's lawsuit, filed in 1999 just before WIPP received its first
waste shipment, accused the DOE of violating the National
Environmental Policy Act and asked the court to issue an injunction
to stop the shipments.

Armijo dismissed the claim and affirmed the process the DOE used for
a supplemental environmental impact statement for WIPP's radioactive
waste disposal.

CARD appealed, and oral arguments were held last September before
the 10th Circuit Court in Denver. The court affirmed Armijo's
decision last week.

The environmental group alleged in its appeal that Armijo should
have admitted so-called extra-record evidence. It also argued the
DOE was "arbitrary and capricious" in reviewing geological data at
the WIPP site.

The judges said they found nothing to justify including extra-record
evidence "to demonstrate gaps or inadequacies" in the environmental
impact statement. The court also concluded the DOE was not arbitrary
and capricious in its review.

"The i's were dotted, the t's were crossed, and (the National
Environmental Policy Act) requires nothing more," the appeals court
concluded.

Privacy Policy / Terms of Use | ©2007, Santa Fe New Mexican, all
*****************************************************************
 35 Lincoln County Record: Editorial: Municipal Welfare (Yucca)

May 09, 2007

One of the most controversial, divisive issues of the last half
century is the governmental innovation known as Welfare.

Like most Federal programs, it was a good idea in the beginning that
eventually evolved into something ugly that was loved by those who
dipped their beaks into the public coffers yet was despised by those
filling the well.

Welfare is free money given by a government with too much of it to
recipients who did nothing to earn it.

Today, there is a new form of Welfare.

It's called Yucca Mountain.

More specifically, it is the incredibly deep pocket of a Federal
government trying to buy the goodwill of local governments with
their spare change.

It is being done with grants given under the laughable cloak of
pretending to allow those municipal agencies to use money from the
Feds to find ways to fight the Feds over the nuclear waste
repository.

And there are few local governments with their noses any deeper in
that Department Of Energy trough than Lincoln County.

On Monday, the county rolled out their 2007-08 budget for their
Nuclear Oversight department.

One point nine million dollars.

That&rsquo;s how much the county plans to spend in the next year.

Unfortunately, while some of that money will stay here to fund local
people in made-up county jobs, the bulk of it will go to various
&ldquo;consultants&rdquo; with their hands out.

There are local residents trying to get their roads paved, others
struggling to survive on the pennies to be made in 21st century
agriculture, and county agencies using 20-year-old vehicles to take
care of too many people in need.

Meanwhile, wealthy consultants whose biggest task is giving a book
report or reading an obscure newspaper clipping to the County
Commission once a month will reap hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The money isn&rsquo;t being used for legitimate scientific research,
or legal maneuvering or even the use of lobbyists that might be able
to make a difference when it comes time for the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to make a decision about Yucca Mountain.

It&rsquo;s being used to conduct studies and interpret paperwork.

Sorry, $1.9 million seems like a lot for a glorified C3PO unit whose
only task is to translate data.

And to those who support this bizarre form of municipal Welfare,
it&rsquo;s all okay because &ldquo;it&rsquo;s Federal money,
it&rsquo;s not county money.&rdquo;

Well here&rsquo;s a news flash:

It IS county money.

And city money, and state money.

It is OUR money.

The tax dollars being wasted on this boondoggle come from U.S.
citizens.

Believe it or not, that includes us.

On Monday, County Commissioner Ronda Hornbeck had the guts to say
&ldquo;Stop the Madness&rdquo; and actually question whether
it&rsquo;s in the best interest of the county to continue blindly
forking over blank checks to these consultants.

Her reward was a blistering hue and cry from those wounded
consultants who can&rsquo;t understand why a county where families
have to make a decision every day between whether to buy food or
whether to buy shoes, would have the audacity to challenge their
hundred-thousand-dollar studies over whether the route to Yucca
Mountain should go through an empty stretch of desert or an empty
stretch of desert.

Somehow, the consultants seemed to express a certain amount of
&ldquo;entitlement&rdquo; to that money.

Just like some third-generation Welfare recipients who have
developed the mindset that they are somehow entitled to government
money.

Maybe there is a certain amount of value to the work being done by
some of the consultants.

But the benchmark should be this: if we were writing the checks
ourselves, if we were squeezing the quarters out of our own pockets,
is this an endeavor we would be willing to pay nearly $2 million a
year for?

In a county where those quarters are not easy to come by, the answer
would be no.

And taking these Federal handouts just to turn around and line the
pockets of out-of-town professionals with lots of letters behind
their names shouldn&rsquo;t make the decision any easier.

Hornbeck is right to ask questions.

If more municipal leaders showed that kind of stewardship, maybe our
country wouldn&rsquo;t be carrying trillions of dollars in debt that
our grandchildren will someday have to pay.
*****************************************************************
 36 WNN: Funding for GNEP studies announced

11 May 2007

The US Department of Energy has allocated $60 million for research
into conceptual design of future fuel cycle facilities and reactors
necessary for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).

The money would engage industry experts in the conceptual design of
the initial used nuclear fuel recycling centre and the 'advanced
recycling reactor' - also known as the 'advanced burner reactor' -
that would generate electricity while destroying wastes.

Study results from the 'funding opportunity announcement' would
serve to inform the main GNEP research and development effort, which
would come later.

In January the DoE awarded over $10 million for preliminary studies
into the suitability of 11 sites for advanced fuel cycle facilities
and burner reactors.

Under GNEP, so-called 'fuel cycle nations' would provide guaranteed
supplies of nuclear fuel to other nations, to be returned after use
for recycling. Uranium and plutonium recovered during recycling
would be reused in fresh fuel, while certain recovered actinides
would be included in fuel for recycling reactors. Destroying those
actinides would produce energy while decreasing radioactive waste
volumes by a factor of one hundred.

Recognising the difficulty of implementing such a scheme, a DoE
release says: "The recipients of funding will also develop
technology development roadmaps to describe the state of current
technology, perform a technology 'gap' analysis, and define the
methods and plans to acquire technology needed to achieve GNEP
goals."

Between three and six research awards are expected by DoE this year.
The DoE's FY2007 spending plan includes $15 million of the total
allocation, FY2008 $45 million.

Further information

US Department of Energy
The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

WNN: DoE awards over $10 million for GNEP siting studies
WNN: US steps out with global nuclear program
*****************************************************************
 37 Barrow in Furness: Japan launches nuclear ship for Barrow

Published on 11/05/2007

Pacific Heron launch

A NEW ÂŁ30m nuclear freight ship to be based in Barrow was launched
in Japan yesterday.

The 4,500 tonne Pacific Heron was launched by Mitsui Shipbuilding
and Engineering at its Tamano shipyard.

It will, like its predecessors, be armed with cannon at the shipyard
by BAE after it arrives in its new home town.

It has been built for Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited to carry
high level nuclear waste and the controversial Mox recycled fuel
containing plutonium, around the world.

A second new ship could follow.

The Pacific Heron is due in Barrow at the turn of the year and will
have a crew of 25.

John Clark, managing director of International Nuclear Services at
Sellafield, said: “The launch event is a significant milestone as
it demonstrates the ship is well on the way to operation.

“The vessel forms part of an ongoing commitment to provide a
dedicated specialist nuclear transport operation.

“The PNTL fleet has an exemplary record with over five million
miles travelled without any incident resulting in the release of
radioactivity.The new ship will enhance and extend our capability
even further.”

PNTL is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, but Japan
and France have part ownership of the fleet.

The fleet of six nuclear freight ships in Barrow recently sank to
two on active service after one of the two existing armed Mox ships,
Pacific Teal, was judged to need scrapping.

Pacific Swan and Pacific Crane have been scrapped in the last two
years and the European Shearwater has been sidelined. Only the armed
Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Sandpiper remain on the active list.

PNTL says it has completed more than 170 nuclear shipments over the
last 30 years, moving 2,000 casks of nuclear material including
spent fuel back from Japan. The British Nuclear Group gave UK
shipbuilders, including BAE, a chance to bid to build Pacific Heron
but yards including Barrow were not interested.

BAE said the low value contract for one small ship did not fit its
portfolio.


View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital
reproduction, just like the printed copy at
www.nwemail.co.uk/digitalcopy

*****************************************************************
 38 Aiken Today: Locals visit Washington with local concerns

AikenStandard.com

Fri, May 11, 2007

Chamber Chair K.D. Justyn, Aiken Regional Medical Centers, speaks 
to Senator Lindsey Graham (right forward) as he prepares to 
address the group.

By HALEY HUGHES Staff writer

MOX, SREL, GNEP and DOE. The acronyms represent a world of meaning
to a group of locals who recently returned from a trip to
Washington, D.C., to meet with elected officials and department
representatives.

"We wanted to remind them of their commitment to South Carolina,"
said Chuck Smith, a member of Aiken County Council and one of 45 who
attended.

The CSRA's four Chambers of Commerce were represented in the annual
leadership conference.

Attendees from and representing Aiken County said over and over how
supportive area delegates are of MOX ? a Mixed Oxide Fuel
Fabrication Facility which can turn weapons-grade plutonium into
fuel for commercial nuclear reactors ? at Savannah River Site.

"MOX is getting a tremendous amount of support in the Congressional
delegation," said Ernie Chaput, director of special projects with
the Aiken-Edgefield Counties Economic Development Partnership. "And
the Department of Energy clearly wants to get the project under
construction."

Though there has been some opposition, Chaput said the DOE has been
doing what it can to satisfy the various committees that have not
provided as much support as others have been. Additionally, he said,
the general consensus is that everyone is "cautiously hopeful"
Congress will initialize the funds that have been "earmarked" for
the project and construction will begin.

Smith wanted to specifically thank Rep. John Spratt (D-York) and
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-Columbia) for their support of MOX.

"The reason MOX is where it's at today (is because of them)," Smith
said. "All of our delegation has always been on-board."

The fate of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory was also a
much-discussed issue in meeting with Clay Sell, DOE deputy secretary.

"We just posed the question of could there be any more money for the
lab," said Ronnie Young, chairman of Aiken County Council. "There
was no set answer. It doesn't look good for the lab right now."

Chaput said the group from Aiken County proposed that all groups
involved take a "time-out" to reassess the situation, but that money
be provided to fund the lab in the meantime until another option
surfaces. The lab may have to close its doors and Chaput added that
is the last thing the group wants to see it do.

"Once you do that, you cannot recover," he said.

Finally, GNEP ? the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership which would
recycle nuclear waste ? was the third main topic of discussion.

Smith said the group tried to emphasize to the Washington, D.C.,
folks that Aiken County is well-suited for the endeavor with its
already "unique" role at the nuclear site.

"We're sending a strong message we're a committed partner," he said.
"We stand on our own merits for that project."

Clay Killian, Aiken County administrator, said everything that was
brought up in D.C. were issues people had heard before.

"I don't know any of it was a real surprise," he said. "We wanted to
go at them again and let them know those items are still important
to us."

Overall, it was agreed that the trip was very productive.

"The trips are very valuable," Chaput said. "They (the delegates)
keep their pulse on the community. They are working on our behalf
even though its not always obvious."

© 2005 The AikenStandard. All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
 39 Hanford News: Regulators say target budgets too small

This story was published Thursday, May 10th, 2007

Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

The proposed 2009 target budget number for Hanford is not large 
enough without additional funds to meet legal requirements for 
cleanup, Hanford regulators believe.

The initial budget target totals $1.896 billion, which is down 
slightly from the $1.912 billion being spent in the current year, 
fiscal 2007.

And even though Hanford budgets are proposed to climb to $2.349
billion by fiscal year 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency
still is concerned.

"If you look ahead to the budget targets for the next five years,
they fall way short of what is needed," Nick Ceto, EPA Hanford
project manager, said at a sparsely attended meeting on the 2009
budget Wednesday night in Richland.

The Department of Energy would be short $2 billion from 2009 through
2013 to accomplish what EPA would like to see done under the DOE
Hanford Richland Operations Office, according to DOE.

The Richland Operations Office is responsible for Hanford work other
than the tank farms holding 53 million gallons of radioactive waste
and the vitrification plant being built to treat the waste along
with any supplemental technology that might be used.

The state of Washington, which regulates Hanford with EPA, also is
concerned about the 2009 budget target number.

"Hanford's budget will buy a lot of work, but the cleanup is not on
schedule," according to comments prepared by the Washington State
Department of Ecology.

The Richland Operations Office target of $935 million for 2009 is 60
percent of the $1.5 billion needed to comply with legally binding
Tri-Party Agreement requirements and other environmental
regulations, according to the state.

Milestones already have been missed under DOE's Hanford Richland
Operations Office and also its Office of River Protection, which
oversees the tank farms and vitrification plant.

The state is pleased that funding of $690 million has been restored
for design and construction of the $12.2 billion vitrification plant
in both 2008 and 2009.

But the plant is not scheduled to open until 2019, eight years past
the Tri-Party Agreement deadline, under DOE's current schedule and
budget proposal.

The Department of Ecology also is concerned about insufficient money
to operate the tank farms and retrieve radioactive waste from
leak-prone older tanks.

"We do not agree that tank farm activities should slow to match the
delays" at the vitrification plant, said the state. Waste retrieval
is too slow to meet Tri-Party Agreement deadlines and is
significantly slower than the contractor could achieve using
existing technologies, according to the state.

The Wednesday night meeting was held to provide information to the
public and collect comments.

However, the majority of the 35 people at the meeting represented
DOE or its regulators.

However, the public still can submit comments on line at
www.hanford.govcq until June 13. The comments will be considered as
DOE prepares budget requests for fiscal year 2009 to forward to
Congress.

DOE headquarters typically makes additions to the original budget
targets that could increase the fiscal 2009 budget request above the
current$1.9 million target.

For instance, for fiscal 2008 about $185 million was added to the
original budget target.

"We urge citizens and stakeholders to press Congress and their
representatives to fulfill the federal government's commitment to
the people of the Northwest region for the safe and final cleanup of
the Hanford Site," the state said.

Budget meetings also are planned June 4 in Seattle, June 6 in
Spokane, June 12 in Hood River, Ore., and June 13 in Portland.


&copy 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 40 Hanford News: Outage planned at nuclear plant

This story was published Friday, May 11th, 2007

Chris Mulick, Herald staff writer

The state's only commercial nuclear power plant shuts down early 
Saturday for a refueling outage, the plant's 18th since it 
commenced operation in 1984.

The outage is scheduled for 38 days, though unexpected 
maintenance needs often have been discovered during previous 
outages, extending their duration.

"We always want to make it as short as we can for obvious reasons,"
said Energy Northwest spokesman Brad Peck. "You just never know with
these things."

More than 1,800 temporary workers are on site to help out with the
outage. Crews will swap out about one-third of the reactor's 764
fuel assemblies and replace them with fresh ones.

And a series of major maintenance and equipment replacement projects
also are planned, many of which can't be performed while the plant
is in operation.

For one, Energy Northwest is replacing the hydraulic control system
that regulates steam flow through the turbines. The current system
never has been replaced and was responsible for an unplanned outage
in October that ended the plant's longest ever run at 486 days.

"That cost us nine days," Peck said. "You can see what it cost us to
be down. That's about $10 million in power."

Also being replaced are two 90-ton heat exchangers that regulate the
temperature of water being injected into the reactor core.

And upgrades are being made to an emergency high-pressure spray
system that would spray the reactor with water should a leak develop
elsewhere.

The Columbia Generating Station used to be refueled annually but has
been fueled to run for two years at a time since 2001.

&copy 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 41 Hanford News: DOE seeks to work off EPA fine

This story was published Friday, May 11th, 2007

Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

The Department of Energy is considering projects ranging from 
restrooms for Hanford's historic B Reactor to converting trucks 
to use biodiesel in lieu of paying a $1.14 million fine.

The Environmental Protection Agency fined DOE in late March for 
problems at the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, a 
lined landfill for low-level radioactive waste. But it gave DOE 
the option of proposing an environmental project instead of 
paying at least a portion of the fine.

DOE's Hanford Richland Operations Office and Washington Closure
Hanford are interested in working off the fine to keep the money in
the Mid-Columbia and provide some local benefit.

But they still are working to come up with a proposal that meets
criteria to present for EPA's consideration and approval. The
proposal must cover work benefiting the environment that DOE is not
legally required to perform, Al Hawkins, a DOE senior technical
advisor, said at a Hanford Advisory Board committee meeting this
week.

An early favorite was converting the trucks that haul waste to the
landfill and within it to use biodiesel fuel. The trucks now use
20,000 gallons of fuel a month. Converting them to use a biodiesel
blend would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the warranty on the trucks may not be honored if they are
converted.

"We thought that had great promise," he said. "We hate to give up on
this one."

Another project under consideration is adding restrooms to Hanford's
historic B Reactor, which supporters are working to save as a
museum. Because saving the reactor would mean less waste sent to the
landfill, it might qualify as an environmental project.

There also is interest, particularly among the tribes, in planting
parts of the site with native plants where they have disappeared or
been replaced by non-native species, Hawkins said.

Because problems occurred at a landfill, offering classes at the
HAMMER training center for landfill operators and workers has been
suggested. They could include classes appropriate for workers at
municipal or county landfills in the region and classes for workers
at landfills accepting radioactive waste.

Some of the proposed projects do not have as direct a link to the
Hanford nuclear reservation.

One is to help preserve the Amon Basin wetlands in south Richland.
Sixty acres have been purchased for a wildlands park. But that's
just a portion of the basin that supporters would like to save from
development for a wildlife corridor and activities such as hiking
and teaching school children about the Mid-Columbia environment.

Better response to spills of fuel and other substances in the
Columbia River also might be considered. Small communities in
particular are not equipped to deal with spills. Ideas include
purchasing spill kits or even a boat, Hawkins said.

DOE is unlikely to receive credit for the full amount of the fine.
Typically, agencies or governments that choose to perform
supplemental projects still are required to pay around 25 percent of
the fine. In addition, the project may cost more than would be
credited toward the fine.

DOE plans to pass on costs to Washington Closure, which says it
plans to pass on costs to subcontractors at the landfill. Problems
at the landfill covered by the fine included falsified data,
compaction testing that was not done correctly and a water
collection system for the landfill's liner that stopped working and
was not discovered for months, according to EPA.

&copy 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 42 Hanford News: Fluctuating funding leads to layoffs at PNNL

This story was published Friday, May 11th, 2007

John Trumbo, Herald staff writer

Nearly 60 employees at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 
have left their jobs in recent months mainly because of the "ebb 
and flow" of federal funding.

About 40 of the employees received involuntary layoff notices, 
said Greg Koller, spokesman for the lab run by Battelle for the 
Department of Energy. But 17 other jobs were transferred to Fluor 
Hanford at DOE's request.

Koller said budget cuts to some programs and changes in the scope of
some of the work triggered some of the layoffs. But a continuing
budget resolution approved by Congress to keep fiscal 2007 funding
at the same level as fiscal 2006 funding, which ended Sept. 30, also
contributed, he said.

The lab, which operates on an annual budget of approximately $700
million, has 4,000 employees.

The greatest number of jobs lost were in computational science, with
a few in the biological sciences area.

Koller said the lab typically goes through some ebb and flow on
positions each fall during the budget cycle, but tries to protect
employee positions by reassigning affected staff elsewhere in the
lab.

The issuance of layoff notices to more than three dozen employees
this fiscal year is greater than what usually occurs, he said. "It
is a last resort," Koller said.

"Historically, the normal flow of federal funding and priorities
means funding for specific research areas or particular projects
occasionally is reduced or dries up altogether," Koller said. "When
this happens, our first priority is to find other projects within
the lab and redeploy the impacted staff if at all possible," he
explained.

The 17 employees involved in ground water monitoring were moved to
Fluor Hanford after DOE officials decided to transfer that program
from the lab to that contractor.

Koller said the lab's budget is in good shape, "with strong funding
in environmental, energy, national and homeland security, and other
research areas."


&copy 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 43 Hanford News: Vit plant funding is in bill: House committee OKs $690 million to
pay for construction next year

This story was published Friday, May 11th, 2007

Les Blumenthal, Herald Washington, D.C., bureau

WASHINGTON - The Defense Authorization Bill now headed to the 
House floor contains $1.8 billion in funding for the cleanup at 
Hanford, the same amount requested by the administration.

The House Armed Service Committee authorized $690 million in the 
coming fiscal year for construction of the Waste Treatment Plant, 
the cornerstone of the cleanup. That also was the same level 
requested by the Energy Department.

The plant will convert the highly radioactive waste now held in
underground tanks into glasslike logs suitable for long-term storage.

The bill, approved by the committee late Wednesday, could come to
the floor in the next week or so. The Senate hasyet to act on its
version of the bill.

The bills simply authorize certain spending levels, and
appropriations committees in both chambers still have to provide the
actual money.

Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., a member of the House Armed Services
Committee, said securing the Hanford funding this year didn't seem
as difficult as in the past. Rep. Adam Smith,D-Wash., also is a
member of the committee.

"I don't know if it's because the Democrats are in charge or not,
but cleanup funding at Hanford and elsewhere was not as much pain to
get the gain," Larsen said Thursday.

The committee also "emphasized" that it continues tosupport
construction of new facilities for the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory which are needed because of the cleanup of Hanford's 300
area.

The committee "strongly" recommended that sufficient funds be
included in future administration budget re-quests to finish the new
lab facilities.

"It's the right thing to do - finish the Hanford cleanup and support
PNNL," said Larsen, whose district is in Northwestern Washington.


&copy 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 44 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Appeals court supports DOE in decision

By Kyle Marksteiner

Article Launched: 05/10/2007 09:06:17 PM MDT

CARLSBAD ? The United States Court of Appeals has affirmed a
district court decision to deny an injunction request filed by an
environmental group against the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

The decision is related to a lawsuit filed by Citizens for
Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping, days before the Department of
Energy's first shipment of transuranic waste to the WIPP site. In
the lawsuit, the group claimed that the DOE had violated the
National Environmental Policy Act and asked the court to issue an
injunction to stop shipments to WIPP.

Federal Judge M. Christina Armijo, in a ruling issued June 30, 2004,
dismissed the claim and affirmed the DOE's environmental policy
process for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement used for
WIPP's radioactive waste disposal phase, according to a press
release.

The environmental group then appealed, but the 10th Circuit of the
federal appeals court affirmed Armijo's decision last week.

"We're pleased that the court of appeals affirmed the earlier
district court decision and found that the agency had acted with all
due process and in accordance with laws and regulations," said Mike
Rose, counsel for the DOE's Carlsbad Field Office.

The environmental group's argument was related to the 
department's final supplemental environmental impact statement 
for WIPP. Information from the statement was used to conclude 
that disposal at WIPP was the preferred alternative and that WIPP 
would comply with all radioactive waste disposal regulations.

But the environmental group's lawsuit alleged that the impact
statement relied on miscalculated and possibly even falsified data
regarding the hydrology of the site. The group contended that data
for a specific layer of rock, the Magenta Dolomite layer, was
misrepresented.

The evidence the group offered was extra-record evidence as it
allegedly came to light after the administrative record for the
impact statement was completed. It was based on research conducted
by a consultant for the environmental group.

Armijo, according to court records, found support in the
administrative record for the decisions made by the DOE.

In its appeal, the environmental group alleged that the district
court should have admitted the extra-record evidence. The
environmental group also argued that the DOE was "arbitrary and
capricious" in its review of the geological data.

Oral arguments were held Sept. 9 of last year in Denver.

"We disagree," noted the appeals court in reference to the
environmental group's claim related to extra-record evidence. "We
find nothing to justify the inclusion of extra-record evidence to
demonstrate gaps or inadequacies in the SEIS-II (impact statement)."

The appeals court noted that the environmental group did not provide
any evidence indicating that any reports were modified.

"Citizens have made nothing more than a speculative claim
uncorroborated by evidence of wrongdoing," the court noted.

The court also concluded that the DOE was not "arbitrary and
capricious" in its environmental review, which the court noted did
not ignore the Magenta layer.

"The i's were dotted, the t's were crossed, and (the National
Environmental Policy Act) requires nothing more," the appeals court
concluded.


Copyright © 2005 Carlsbad Current Argus, a MediaNews Group
*****************************************************************
 45 KnoxNews: Planning for a catastrophic attack

By JAMES STERNGOLD

May 10, 2007

As concerns grow that terrorists might attack a major American 
city with a nuclear bomb, high-level government and military 
officials have been quietly preparing an emergency survival 
program that would include building bomb shelters, steps to 
prevent panicked evacuations and the possible suspension of some 
civil liberties.

Many experts say the likelihood of al Qaeda or some other 
terrorist group producing a working nuclear weapon with illicitly 
obtained weapons-grade fuel is not large, but such a strike would 
be far more lethal, frightening and disruptive than the attacks 
of Sept. 11, 2001. Not only could the numbers killed and wounded 
be far higher, but the explosion could, experts say, ignite 
widespread fires, shut down most transportation, halt much 
economic activity and cause a possible disintegration of 
government order.
 
The efforts to prepare a detailed blueprint for survival took a step
forward last month when senior government and military officials and
other experts, organized by a joint Stanford-Harvard program called
the Preventive Defense Project, met behind closed doors in
Washington for a day-long workshop.

The session, called "The Day After," was premised on the idea that
efforts focusing on preventing such a strike were no longer enough,
and that the prospect of a collapse of government order was so great
if there were an attack that the country needed to begin preparing
an emergency program.

One of the participants, retired Vice Adm. Roger Rufe, is a senior
official at the Department of Homeland Security who is currently
designing the government's nuclear attack response plan.

The organizers of the nonpartisan project, Stanford's William Perry,
a secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, and Harvard's
Ashton Carter, a senior Defense Department official during the
Clinton years, assumed the detonation of a bomb similar in size to
the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima in World War II.

Such a weapon, with a force of around 10 to 15 kilotons, is small
compared with most Cold War-era warheads, but is roughly the yield
of a relatively simple bomb. That would be considerably more
powerful and lethal than a so-called dirty bomb, which is a
conventional explosive packed with some dangerous radioactive
material that would be dispersed by the explosion.

The 41 participants - including the directors of the country's two
nuclear weapons laboratories, Homeland Security officials, a number
of top military commanders and former government officials -
discussed how all levels of government ought to respond to protect
the country from a second nuclear attack, to limit health problems
from the radioactive fallout and to restore civil order. Comments
inside the session were confidential, but a number of the
participants described their views and the ideas exchanged.

A paper the organizers are writing, summarizing their
recommendations, urges local governments and individuals to build
underground bomb shelters, much as people did in the early days of
the Cold War; encourages authorities who survive to prevent
evacuation of at least some of the areas attacked for three days to
avoid roadway paralysis and damage from exposure to radioactive
fallout; and proposes suspending regulations on radiation exposure
so that first responders would be able to act, even if that caused
higher cancer rates.

"The public at large will expect that their government had thought
through this possibility and to have planned for it," Carter said in
an interview. "This kind of an event would be unprecedented. We have
had glimpses of something like this with Hiroshima, and glimpses
with 9/11 and with Katrina. But those are only glimpses."


E-mail James Sterngold at jsterngold(at)sfchronicle.com. To comment
or for more stories visit scrippsnews.com

 Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
*****************************************************************
 46 lamonitor.com: LANL bestows top tech awards

The Online News Source for Los Alamos

JANE LONGMIRE Monitor Business Writer

More than 100 Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists, friends and
guests gathered for the ninth annual Technology Transfer Awards
event Thursday evening at Fuller Lodge. Previously known as the Los
Alamos Patent and Licensing Awards, the event has grown to encompass
patents, copyright, licensing, programmatic impact and regional
impact.

The program began with Terry Wallace, principal associate director
for Science, Technology and Engineering, introducing keynote speaker
Mark Crowell, associate vice chancellor for Economic Development and
Technology Transfer from The University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. It ended with a sit-down dinner following the award
presentation.

Wallace, in his introduction, spoke of technology transfer as the
"center of change" for the laboratory.




"Center of change is creating intellectual capital," he said.
Wallace spoke of technology transfer as the laboratory's connection
to the nation, saying that is why the lab is here. He said the
evening's awards event was a snapshot of what the lab is becoming.

Crowell, with 21 years experience in technology transfer, new
company development, seed capital formation, and research park
development and marketing has recently become a member of the LANL
Technology Transfer External Advisory Board.

He spoke with warmth and humor of the progress North Carolina has
made by utilizing creative intellectualism in its major universities
and pushing technology transfer, thus benefiting the educational and
financial prosperity of the state.

Emphasis was placed on benefiting mankind with technology transfer,
which begins as an idea not yet developable to an invention, which
becomes marketable. Crowell used an artificial retina as one
example. The first implant of an artificial retina took place last
year, while the idea started at Duke University in 1989.

For fiscal year 2006, laboratory patent attorneys and staff
submitted 92 U.S. patent application filings. Sixty-five individuals
were honored for their role in 32 patents issued to the laboratory.

A special award, the 2006 Distinguished Patent Award, went to David
Reagor and Jose Vasquez-Dominquez of the Materials Physics and
Applications Division - Superconductivity Center for the patent
"Through-The-Earth-Radio."

This patent improves wireless communication capabilities by using
very low frequency electromagnetic radiation, a superconducting
quantum interference device for signal reception and digital audio
compression to transmit voice and data signals. One possible use
given was in a mining disaster, when other forms of communication
would be useless.

LANL made five software copyrights available for commercial use in
2006. Eleven individuals were awarded for their work in software
development for technology transfer. The Distinguished Copyright
Award went to Chung-Hsing Hsu and Wu-Chun Feng (now at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute) of the Computer, Computational and
Statistical Sciences Division for their copyright of "Energy Fit."

Energy Fit is a software program created to enhance energy
efficiency and reliability associated with high performance
computing systems. The software can modify CPU voltage in real-time
to minimize energy expenditures. It is expected to enter the market
within one year with a license option agreement and cooperative R&D
agreement with AES Corporation.

LANL's licensing program grants rights to commercial and
noncommercial entities to patents and copyrights. For 2006, $1.63
million was shared with laboratory inventors and the divisions that
generated the inventions.

Of 88 licensees and 165 inventors, Kevin Ott of the Materials
Physics and Applications Division was awarded the Distinguished
Licensing Award. He invented a "selective catalytic reduction
catalyst" that can be used to reduce levels of nitrogen oxides
inherent in exhaust systems in a "variety of applications."

Ott's work has resulted in 19 new invention disclosures, 13 of which
have become patent applications, recognized by industry and other
researchers throughout the world.

The Programmatic Impact category recognized 49 Lead Principal
Investigators in their role in technology transfer agreements. One
team, the LANL Muon Tomography team, received the Programmatic
Impact Award for their association with partners in industry. Muon
tomography, the use of muons produced naturally by the interaction
of solar and cosmic rays within the atmosphere, was created to
provide homeland security organizations a tool to identify
high-density objects without using an active radiation source.

The Technology Division of LANL supports regional programs and
services to "assist regional entrepreneurs and to nurture potential
entrepreneurs within LANL." The 2006 Regional Impact Award went to
CleanAir Systems Inc. of Santa Fe and to Kevin Ott of the Materials
Physics and Applications Division.

The goal of the Ott/CleanAir Systems connection is to improve the
efficiency of diesel engines. CEO of AirSystems is Michael Roach,
who attended the awards ceremony.


© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 47 KFDA: Pantex Security Concerns

NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo, TX: newschannel10.com - 

05.10.07

Security at Pantex is drawing more attention on Capitol Hill.

A Chief Officer with the Department of Energy admits he is concerned
about the level of security while the current guard strike drags on.
NewsChannel 10's Marissa Bagg uncovered information this evening
about how several lawmakers voiced their concerns about it.

Some are calling for operations involving nuclear weapons at Pantex
be shutdown while guards remain on strike to ensure security.

That's according to Project On Government Oversight, a government
watchdog organization.

But so far, we've be told of no move to do that.

A Chief Officer of the Department of Energy says a long-term strike
could pose a problem.

Glenn Podonsky says "With the number of hours that the security
officers are working... We're concerned about the level of security
over the long haul."

Some supervisors stepping in to guard the plant are working up to 80
hours a week.

Right now a guard force of only 200 are guarding Pantex, that's less
than half the number employed to protect the sensitive site.

Even the union's president says the plant will be better protected
when the strike ends.

"The best people to protect that site is us. We have proven it time
and time again through assessments and exercises and that sort of
thing," says Robert Lynch, the PGU president.

Podonsky says if the strike continues for another few days the
D.O.E. will send inspectors to see what the long term effects may
be, and possibly recommend operations be curtailed at the plant.

Pantex maintains the plant is completely secure during the strike.


 All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KFDA. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 48 KFDA: New Proposal for Pantex Guards

NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo, TX: newschannel10.com - 

05.10.07

Negotiations could have turned the corner for guards on strike at
Pantex.

The president of the guards union says Pantex is writing up a
proposal that he will present to the membership monday for a vote.

They are hoping it offers them the benefits and retirement options
they went on strike for in April.

That vote could end the strike or send Pantex back to the drawing
board.


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Reserved.
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