***************************************************************** 05/18/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.117 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Book Review:'THE ATOMIC BAZAAR' 2 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Utah gets a cut of defense bill 3 US: UPI: GOP adds BMD funds for Israel 4 RIA Novosti: Putin says Russia not dramatizing delay in talks on 5 BBC NEWS: EU-Russian talks end in acrimony 6 IHT: 'The Atomic Bazaar,' by William Langewiesche - The nuclearizati 7 AFP: EU, Russia hold tense summit at Volga resort - NUCLEAR REACTORS 8 The Hindu: India should not succumb to US pressure on n-deal - BJP 9 Economic Times: Burns to do what's most effective for nuclear deal 10 RIA Novosti: Russian contractor completes testing of Tianwan NPP fir 11 BBC NEWS: Doubts over US-India nuclear deal 12 Platts: Germany refuses permission for RWE to transfer nuclear capac 13 US: PoughkeepsieJournal.com: Indian Point sirens KO'd 14 IHT: Indian prime minister hopeful nuclear deal with US can be final 15 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Storm knocks Indian Point sirens out of service 16 People's Daily: Generating unit up and running at historic Tianwan n 17 UPI: Austrians to block Czech border crossings 18 Kommersant Moscow: Power Investment Programs to Be Re-Drafted - 19 US: UPI: Analysis: Nuclear resurrection on horizon 20 US: Guardian Unlimited: Accused Nuke Engineer - I Was Showing Off 21 Stoney Creek News: Powerful debate over Clark's nuclear plant motion NUCLEAR SECURITY 22 UPI: Outside View: Is BMD futile? NUCLEAR SAFETY 23 US: NAS: Project: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 24 US: DOE: U.S. Department of Energy to Host GNEP Ministerial in Washi 25 US: SF New Mexican: House amendment would remove Moab tailings by 20 26 BBC NEWS: Dounreay radiation case adjourned 27 US: KTN: Report says Tennessee a popular destination for radioactive 28 US: reportonbusiness.com: What's the meltdown price for uranium? 29 US: deseretnews.com: Cleanup of Moab tailings inserted in bill 30 US: Boston.com: Report: Vermont has most nuclear waste per capita in 31 Sydney Morning Herald: Partner plan shares benefits - and risks - 32 Pahrump Valley Times: 2021 seen as more likely Yucca opening date 33 Pahrump Valley Times: Nicholson doesn't make cut as nuclear waste di PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 34 DOE: Swedish Delegation Visits DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab 35 DOE: Statement from Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman on the 36 SF Chronicle: Protesters disturb regents' meeting 37 SF Chronicle: UC legitimizes nuclear weapons industry 38 Inside Bay Area: Protesters hit UC, nuke arms link 39 KnoxNews: Restarted reactor at full power 40 lamonitor.com: LANL enforces strict drug policy ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Book Review:'THE ATOMIC BAZAAR' Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 22:43:52 -0500 (CDT) http://www.calendarlive.com/books/la-bk-winslow20may20,0,6360303.story?coll=cl-books-features LA-Times Book Review May 20, 2007 BOOK REVIEW By Art Winslow *Art Winslow, a former literary and executive editor of the Nation, writes frequently about books and culture. 'THE ATOMIC BAZAAR' BY WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE Declaring that the nuclear genie has escaped the bottle, the investigative journalist examines the illicit traffic in nuclear technology and fissile material. ##################### THE ATOMIC BAZAAR: THE RISE OF THE NUCLEAR POOR William Langewiesche Writing from Iraq for Vanity Fair last November, in a posting titled "Rules of Engagement," journalist William Langewiesche began with the Euphrates and enumerated the towns strung along it in Al Anbar province: Fallujah, Ramadi, Hit, Haditha. Of the last, he noted, "Snipers permitting, you can walk it top to bottom in less than an hour, allowing time enough to stone the dogs. Before the American invasion, it was known as an idyllic spot, where families came from as far away as Baghdad to while away their summers splashing in the river and sipping tea in the shade of trees. No longer, of course. Now, all through Al Anbar, and indeed the Middle East, Haditha is known as a city of death, or more simply as a name, a war cry against the United States." The opening is typical of Langewiesche, the juxtaposition of telling detail (you stone the dogs) and horrific implication (snipers might kill you); the smooth-flowing, unforced syntax; the straightforward connecting of political dots (before and after) with neither stridency nor euphemism. Vanity Fair, which was perspicacious enough to hire Langewiesche away from his distinguished perch at the Atlantic, has just won a National Magazine Award for "Rules of Engagement," a chronicle of the November 2005 killing of 24 Iraqi men, women and children in Haditha by U.S. Marines in the aftermath of a roadside bombing. Langewiesche is adept at long-form narrative journalism, along with such peers as Seymour Hersh, James Fallows and Robert Kaplan, and he has a nose for reporting on calamity. Readers of his trilogy of pieces written from the ruins of the World Trade Center and collected in "American Ground" may recall his account as unflinching, poignant and ultimately controversial (principally for its hero-busting contention that a few firefighters had been involved in looting). In his new book, "The Atomic Bazaar," the reportorial stakes are higher than at ground zero or in Iraq. It is about the escape of the nuclear genie from the leaky bottle of international controls, and many facts are necessarily murkier: Information is classified; sourcing is often anonymous; governments dissemble in the interests of policy; evidence can be indicative rather than conclusive. Like "American Ground," the book is assembled from Langewiesche's magazine reporting, this time from disparate locales along real and potential supply lines of nuclear material and processing equipment. "The nuclearization of the world has become the human condition, and it cannot be changed," Langewiesche observes, and in the post-Cold War era, "large parts of the world are exposed once again to the universal appeal of atomic bombs -- the fast-track, nation-equalizing, don't-tread-on-me, flat-out-awesome destructive power that independent arsenals can provide." An unnamed Russian high in Moscow's nuclear bureaucracy tells him, "Nuclear weapons technology has become a useful tool especially for the weak. It allows them to satisfy their ambitions without much expense." At the state level, this is worrisome, and much of "The Atomic Bazaar" is devoted to reporting on Pakistan and its atomic mastermind, Abdul Qadeer Khan, "the greatest nuclear proliferator of all time," who fed nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya -- and made overtures to a fourth country (Syria? Saudi Arabia?) -- before he was stopped. Langewiesche cautions that although Khan was perceived as evil in the West, to his countrymen and others in the Islamic world he "openly represented the right of the global underclass to bear nuclear arms." And what of the non-state players? "At the extreme is the possibility, entirely real," writes Langewiesche, "that one or two nuclear weapons will pass into the hands of the new stateless guerrillas, the jihadists, who offer none of the retaliatory targets that have so far underlain the nuclear peace." That fear, expressed as well by former CIA Director George J. Tenet in his new book, "At the Center of the Storm," is one of the principal angles from which Langewiesche approaches the topic of nuclear proliferation. He becomes a participant-observer of sorts, to divine how one would acquire the necessary weapons-grade material (by theft or other means, or by development of enrichment technology), how one would move it about and how one would then assemble the components of a nuclear bomb. "It turns out that the world is rich with fresh, safe, user-friendly HEU [highly enriched uranium]," Langewiesche reports, "dispersed among hundreds of sites and further separated into nicely transportable, necessarily subcritical packages." Worldwide, that amounts to 2.2 million pounds of fissile material, in more than 40 countries as widespread as Chile, Ghana, Iran and Jamaica. However, more than half the surplus plutonium and highly enriched uranium are in Russia alone, a place Langewiesche characterizes as offering "the best opportunities for anyone trying to acquire fissile material." So, our prospective bomb-maker sets off to Russia -- specifically, to the closed city of Ozersk, where the Mayak Production Assn. employs 14,500 people in the production of plutonium, tritium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear warheads. The radioactive material, whether in powder, puck, ingot or hemispheric warhead form, is found in lightly shielded containers that are "sealed but not locked ... on racks in vaults or ordinary storage rooms" in buildings easily identifiable from high-resolution images freely available on the Internet. The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration is charged with helping Russia to secure such material, but Langewiesche is told by close observers that a third of the identified buildings have yet to be secured and that they contain roughly half the Russian stock of fissile material. (In an April 11 announcement from the NNSA reaffirming its mission, it claims to have enhanced security "at approximately 75% of Russia's nuclear material storage and warhead sites of concern.") The goal of then-NNSA administrator Linton F. Brooks, interviewed by Langewiesche, seemed "simply to be driving up the costs and complications for would-be nuclear bombers." Speculating on where one might exit after acquiring fissile material in Russia, Langewiesche interviews anonymous sources and traces potential smuggling routes in person. He examines a model screening installation at a border crossing between Georgia and Azerbaijan but concludes that interdiction is unlikely, dependent as it is on elaborate technology at a single crossing point to intercept what might be just a couple of backpacks' worth of dull gray metal. Langewiesche calls the well-traveled smuggling routes for diesel fuel and opium on the mountainous Turkish-Iranian border "the Silk Road revived," a potential path for stolen uranium that is under the control not of either government but of clan leaders. A check of the International Atomic Energy Agency's database on illicit trafficking between 1993 and 2005 shows 16 confirmed incidents involving plutonium or highly enriched uranium in Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Greece, France, Lithuania, Japan and the United States. Less furtively, there is proliferation that takes advantage of weak export-import enforcement, of which Pakistan's Khan is the signal example. For years, Khan successfully ordered the technology piecemeal from Western companies, exploiting rules that allowed questionable but dual-use materials to be shipped. As Langewiesche points out, "the markets he worked were gray rather than black." "The Atomic Bazaar" builds a convincing case that Khan's early actions in helping his own country develop nuclear weapons -- dating back to the mid-1970s -- were well known in the United States. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had proclaimed his ambition to acquire them, and under his leadership Pakistan was a "U.S. client state" and the recipient of American aid. Khan's transformation into a franchiser of the enrichment process was exposed in large part by the efforts of journalist Mark Hibbs, an American living in Bonn, whom Langewiesche ranks as "one of the greatest reporters at work in the world today." Hibbs, who writes on the nuclear industry for publications such as Nucleonics Week and NuclearFuel, not only figured out Khan's scheme but has also, in hundreds of small dispatches over the years, told a story of consequence "perhaps even to the survival of mankind." It is a story that Langewiesche has built on in "The Atomic Bazaar," about "the gradual failure of Europe, China and the United States to prevent nuclear arsenals from spreading around the globe" and the "ferocious determination" of too many post-colonial states to acquire them. ***************************************************************** 2 Salt Lake Tribune: Utah gets a cut of defense bill The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 05/18/2007 01:19:40 AM MDT WASHINGTON - The House approved a major Defense Department bill on Thursday that includes a provision forcing the Energy Department to clean up 16 million tons of polluting uranium tailings, and could steer tens of millions of dollars in new programs to Utah. Rep. Jim Matheson's amendment to the bill dictates that the Atlas Mill tailings, remnants of the Cold War uranium boom, have to be moved from the banks of the Colorado River by 2019. Meanwhile, Rep. Rob Bishop touted tens of millions of dollars in new funding authorized for Utah defense installations. "We probably got more in here than I ever have before," Bishop said. "I'm exhilarated by it." It includes $10 million for testing for a new supersonic cruise missile engine, $2 million for new information technology systems at the Ogden Air Logistics Center and $5 million to begin the $25 million needed to build 32 new family housing units at Dugway Proving Ground. "This is the first time we've actually got anything out there [at Dugway] to improve the life quality," Bishop said. "One of the problems in actually getting more work out there is the conditions for living are not that great and if I can improve those conditions then people will be more willing to go out there." Bishop also added language aimed at helping the defense depots in the state compete for military projects with the private sector, and another provision removing a three-year limit for Utah National Guard linguists to remain on active duty if they choose. That way, the guard will not lose their expertise, Bishop said. The House-passed bill only authorizes the funds, which must still be provided through a separate appropriations bill. Matheson's tailings amendment came in response to recent Energy Department projections that it would take until 2028 to move the mountain of tailings, a significant departure from its original seven- to 10-year timeframe. "DOE has a miserable record here to be honest and I've fired many shots across the bow before but this was the time for the direct hit," said Matheson, D-Utah. "I've been generous in this amendment. I've given them 10 years, but that's it. And it's a good deal for them and I suggest they take it." The Atlas Corp. mill closed in 1984 and the company filed for bankruptcy in 1998. The tailings pile now sits just outside Arches National Park and studies have found that toxic chemicals such as ammonia are seeping into the groundwater and nearby Colorado River, threatening four species of endangered fish. ***************************************************************** 3 UPI: GOP adds BMD funds for Israel United Press International - Security & Terrorism - Briefing Published: May 18, 2007 at 6:27 PM WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- Republicans in the U.S. Congress say they have restored $200 million to ballistic missile defense. The Republicans on the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives said in a statement Thursday that they had "succeeded in adding back $205 million for missile defense in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008." The Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., had previously cut $776 million from BMD and had defeated or blocked previous Republican attempts to add the funding back into the legislation. The GOP group's statement said that Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, "offered a motion to recommit that successfully added $25 million to the Arrow Missile program; $45 million for David's Sling, a short-range missile defense capability being developed jointly by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Israeli Missile Defense Organization; and $135 million for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) fire unit. The motion also called for greater cooperation and integration of the United States and Israeli systems for missile defense and force protection." "This motion to recommit is $205 million that is dedicated to integrating our missile defense systems with those of Israel, using the great innovation of Americans ... to defend against this new era of terrorists with high technology," Hunter said in a statement. Israel's need for effective ABM defenses has been growing as Iran pushes ahead with its ambitious nuclear development program. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 RIA Novosti: Putin says Russia not dramatizing delay in talks on deal with EU -1 16:25 | 18/ 05/ 2007 VOLZHSKY UTYOS (Samara Region), May 18 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia is not dramatizing the delay in talks on a new cooperation agreement with the European Union, and believes the 27-nation bloc should first resolve its internal problems. Putin, speaking after a Russia-EU summit near the Volga city of Samara, said: "The strengthening of the Russia-EU partnership's legal basis was a difficult issue... But we are not dramatizing the situation, and we are aware that before the talks begin the EU should resolve its internal problems." The summit has been overshadowed by Moscow's disputes with the three EU members - over a ban on Poland's meat, the removal of a Soviet war memorial from the center of Estonia's capital Tallinn, and Lithuania's demands that Russian oil supplies be resumed via the Druzhba pipeline. The current Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between Russia and the EU was signed in June 24, 1994 in Corfu, Greece. The document came into force on December 1, 1997 and expires this year. Commenting on the new PCA prospects, German Chancellor Angela Markel said the EU was interested in starting talks on a new cooperation agreement despite a number of issues that hamper the negotiation process. "We want negotiations on a new partnership and cooperation agreement to be resumed... and we have no doubts that this should happen," said Merkel, whose country holds the presidency of the European Union. Energy issues Leaders of the EU, increasingly concerned over energy security, are also pushing for Russia to sign the Energy Charter, which would compel the country to open up its vast oil and gas reserves and pipeline network to European companies and to provide safeguards for investors. EU officials have reportedly warned they will add the main clauses of the Energy Charter in the agreement's new draft if Russia does not sign the energy treaty. Moscow has so far resisted, saying the agreement runs counter to its interests. The European Union, which imports more than a quarter of its oil and natural gas from Russia via Ukrainian pipelines, faced a brief disruption last winter when Moscow suspended gas deliveries to Ukraine over a price dispute, sparking doubts over Russia's reliability as a supplier. However, Russia, which has restricted European companies' access to its energy sector, insists that energy security works both ways, and wants Europe to offer purchase safeguards for its energy if it wants Russian producers to guarantee steady deliveries. President Putin reiterated that Russia will protect its interests in the same way that the EU does, considering the number of complex issues within the EU. "The European Union has changed, the number of members has increased, and it is more difficult to resolve the issues that were easy to settle in the past," Putin said. "However, we must defend our own interests as professionally as my [European] colleagues do." The Russian leader criticized the EU for not fulfilling its obligations under the Energy Charter, citing Europe's failure to open the nuclear materials market by 1997 and give Russia direct access to this market. Dispute over Russia's ban on Polish meat Putin also said the row between Russia and Poland over Moscow's ban on its former Eastern Bloc ally's meat exports was a common economic issue rather than a political matter. Last November, Warsaw vetoed new PCA talks over Russia's ban on meat and other agricultural imports from Poland. Moscow cited health concerns, but Warsaw said the move was political. "We all know that there are many disputes within the EU and between the EU and other countries on agricultural issues," Putin said, adding that a common approach to resolving these issues should be developed and used by all concerned parties. But the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said Russia's embargo on Polish meat imports was unjustified. "If there were grounds [for an embargo], we would not allow Poland to circulate meat in the European Union," he said after the Friday summit. Putin said Russia was ready to continue talks on its embargo on Polish meat imports, but expected closer cooperation and understanding from Poland and the EU. "We have not yet solved the Polish meat problem, since our Polish colleagues have not been on speaking terms with us for over a year" Vladimir Putin said. "Thank God, there is the German Chancellor representing their interests; we will move further." Russia remains one of the key economic partners of the European Union after the U.S. and China, and has been successfully cooperating with Europe on a variety of political, economic, cultural and humanitarian issues. "We need each other. We are cooperating with each other and will continue to cooperate in the future," the president said. "We are ready for an open and frank discussion between Russia and the EU, and today's summit has confirmed that we are on the right path," Putin said. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 5 BBC NEWS: EU-Russian talks end in acrimony Last Updated: Friday, 18 May 2007, 22:08 GMT 23:08 UK The tension at the summit was palpable, one EU official said The leaders of the European Union and Russia have traded sharp criticism over human rights, at a summit that exposed the divisions between the two sides. German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed alarm at the detention of activists intending to protest against the Russian government. Vladimir Putin retorted that Estonia's ethnic Russians were being persecuted. There are a number of prickly issues between the two, including trade, energy supplies and Kosovo. In a break with previous practice, no joint declaration was prepared before the summit at Volzhsky Utyos government resort, near the Russian city of Samara. The Polish problem is a European problem. The Lithuanian and Estonian problems are also EU problems Jose Manuel Barroso European Commission chief If the atmosphere at the post-summit news conference was anything to go by, the relationship has reached a new low, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow. President Putin turned the tables on the EU, accusing members Estonia and Latvia of violating the human rights of their Russian minority. "We believe this is unacceptable and unworthy of Europe," he said. It follows Estonia's removal last month of a World War II monument to Red Army soldiers, which led to riots and the death of one ethnic Russian. 'Colonial instincts' In a BBC interview after the summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the future status of Kosovo should be decided by the Serbian people. He said those who thought it could be determined by Russia, the EU and the US were burdened by colonial instincts. EU leaders have recently expressed alarm about Russian threats to veto a UN Security Council resolution proposing Kosovo's de facto independence from Serbia. Mr Lavrov said: "It's a case which, according to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1224, adopted by consensus, supported by Russia, by the European Union, and by the United States, must be resolved in negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina." Opposition detained European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned Russia that any action taken against an individual EU state would be considered action against the whole bloc. "It is very important if you want to have close co-operation to understand that the EU is based on principles of solidarity," he said. They (Estonian police) didn't just disperse demonstrators. They killed one demonstrator. We demand that the criminals be brought to account Vladimir Putin Russian President Mrs Merkel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, then stepped in, complaining that opposition activists had been prevented from travelling to the summit venue to take part in a protest. "I'm concerned about some people having problems in travelling here," Mrs Merkel said. "I hope they will be given an opportunity to express their opinion." A number of leading anti-Putin activists, including the former chess champion Garry Kasparov, had passports confiscated and were detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. The authorities said they had false travel documents. Several foreign journalists were also reportedly prevented from travelling. 'Sacred principles' Nevertheless, some protesters - estimated variously between 100 and 500 - gathered at a square in Samara and marched, chanting slogans like "Russia without Putin!" "I don't agree with what's happening in Russia today. I want another Russia, a free one," said Natalya Sorochan, 27. A perceived increase in Russian authoritarianism is one of the thorns in the side of EU-Russian relations, correspondents say. Mr Barroso said the EU's "sacred principles" included "democracy, freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of demonstration". Another testing issue is Russia's ban on meat imports from Poland over apparent food safety issues. Poland rejects the ban, and says it will veto any new strategic partnership between the EU and Russia, until it is lifted. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 6 IHT: 'The Atomic Bazaar,' by William Langewiesche - The nuclearization of the world - International Herald Tribune By Jonathan Raban Published: May 18, 2007 The Atomic Bazaar The Rise of the Nuclear Poor By William Langewiesche 179 pages. $22. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. One need read only the first three pages of "The Atomic Bazaar" to be reminded of William Langewiesche's formidable talent as a journalist whose cool, precise and economical reporting is harnessed to an invigorating moral and intellectual perspective on the world he describes. In a single paragraph, he lucidly explains the basic physics of the uranium-based atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Once a professional pilot, and the author of "Inside the Sky," Langewiesche then leads the reader inside the "pressurized, well-heated" cockpit of the Enola Gay, flying at 10,000 meters, or 31,000 feet, in "smooth air," piloted by the young Colonel Paul Tibbets, and vividly reconstructs the evasive maneuver taken by the B-29 as it banks steeply to minimize the coming shockwaves, while the bomb, named Little Boy, falls for 43 seconds before igniting several miles below, lighting the sky with "the prettiest blues and pinks that Tibbets had ever seen." Tibbets's subsequent career, from Air Force general to Internet purveyor of autographed souvenirs of that momentous flight, is adroitly sketched. The bombing of Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima, with a plutonium device, is handled in brisk but sufficient detail. Langewiesche counts the total killed in the two attacks (around 220,000), then delivers his own one-sentence bomb: "The intent was to terrorize a nation to the maximum extent, and there is nothing like nuking civilians to achieve that effect." There's no missing the incendiary effect of the word "terrorize," slyly linking the American attacks on Japanese cities in 1945 and Al Qaeda's attacks on New York and the Pentagon in 2001. On our comprehensively terrorized globe, almost everybody, from covert, stateless bands of jihadists to accredited members of the United Nations, believes himself in need of either ready-made atomic bombs or the technology and expertise with which to manufacture them. "The nuclearization of the world," Langewiesche writes, "has become the human condition, and it cannot be changed." It is with that grim but realistic assumption in mind that he sets out on a long expedition, from Washington to the Netherlands, Pakistan, Russia, Georgia and Turkey, in order to discover just how hard or easy it now is for a nuclear aspirant, private or national, to gain possession of such weapons or technology. First, he adopts the mindset of an imaginative and resourceful jihadist in search of a single device, powerful enough to devastate a city's downtown. The famed black market in Soviet-era "loose nukes" and "suitcase bombs" turns out to be probably a myth, so Langewiesche, in terrorist disguise, has to shop elsewhere. Plutonium won't work, for reasons that Langewiesche explains with his usual fluent grasp of technical detail; what's needed are two small but immensely heavy brick-shaped or hemispherical pieces of highly enriched uranium (H.E.U.), huge numbers of which are stored in Russia's closed nuclear cities in the southern Urals. He flies to Ekaterinburg and from there scouts out one such closed city, Ozersk (population 85,000), a relatively prosperous enclave in a hardscrabble landscape of decrepit farms and toxic lakes and rivers. The 130 square kilometers, or 50 square miles, of Ozersk and its nuclear facility, Mayak, are contained within a continuous double fence of chain-link and barbed wire. The guards who protect this atomic treasury have a reputation for drinking and taking drugs on the job, and for sometimes killing one another in brawls. Moreover, the U.S.-supplied radiation detectors are usually switched off, because they are too sensitive for Ozersk's radioactive environment, where a fish from the lake, carried in a worker's bag, is enough to trigger a full-scale nuclear alert. All of this is good news for someone planning an armed raid, but Langewiesche rejects that option: the hue and cry raised after the theft would make escape from Russia with the precious bricks of H.E.U., though not impossible, uncomfortably hazardous. With his blocks of H.E.U. in hand, as it were (and they have to be kept at least three feet apart), Langewiesche looks for an escape route. Kazakhstan, though temptingly close, is out for political reasons. He explores other likely crossing points, in Georgia ("one of the most corrupt nations on earth") and at the Turkish border with Iran. Both frontiers are promisingly porous. In Georgia, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has built a state-of-the-art port of entry, complete with a new six-lane highway, which smugglers cheerfully bypass, taking paths so well marked that they are almost roads. The Turkish border is controlled not by the government but by Kurdish tribal chiefs. One way or another, it will be no great feat to transport the stolen H.E.U. to Istanbul, where assembling it into a workable bomb will require a machine shop, a nuclear scientist, several technicians and up to four months of work. Then comes the problem of delivering the device to its target, either in a shipping container or aboard a chartered plane with a dedicated, suicidal pilot. The most alarming thing about "The Atomic Bazaar" is its utter lack of alarmism. At every point, Langewiesche stresses the difficulties that confront the determined nuclear terrorist. Between Ozersk and an explosion in an American city lies an epic string of daunting obstacles. The terrorist would need to be gifted with an extraordinary run of luck. But none of these obstacles is, in itself, insurmountable and, in the nearly lawless parts of the world described by Langewiesche, luck comes easily to anyone with millions in his pocket. For nation states, it's a different matter. The second half of the book is mainly devoted to the career of A.Q. Khan and his successful manufacture of the H.E.U.-based Pakistani bomb. Today in Culture At contemporary sales, art seems beside the point 'Shrek the Third': A new stage of life for the grumpy green ogre Cannes: A ravishing and disturbing puzzle in 'The Banishment' Khan, a metallurgist, not a nuclear scientist, just happened to find employment at a Dutch consortium where uranium is enriched for peaceful purposes in a "cascade" of linked centrifuges. With shocking ease, Khan copied the plans for centrifuges and bought parts for them mostly on the open market in Europe, marvelously unhindered by either nuclear proliferation treaties or export controls. A vain man, with a taste for extravagant vacations and large houses, as well as an ambition to be known as a lavish philanthropist, Khan then set himself up as the mail order-style supplier of packaged bomb-programs to the world. For sums of around $100 million (assembly required) Khan offered his wares to Libya, North Korea, Iran, either Syria or Saudi Arabia, and probably other nations. As the result of a British and American interception, in 2003, of a shipload of centrifuge parts bound for Libya, bearing the clear signature of Khan's operation, he is now under benign house arrest in Islamabad. But, as Langewiesche writes, there is a "likelihood that much of the network he established remains alive worldwide, and that by its very nature - loose, unstructured, technically specialized, determinedly amoral - it is both resilient and mutable and can resume its activities when the opportunity arises, as inevitably it will." To quote the title and refrain of Tom Lehrer's unfortunately evergreen 1965 song about nuclear proliferation: "Who's next? Who's next? Who's next?" - Lehrer's prediction was Luxembourg, Monaco and Alabama. He was not far wrong. A Russian nuclear bureaucrat tells Langewiesche: "At some point this change occurred. The great powers were stuck with arsenals they could not use, and nuclear weapons became the weapons of the poor." "The Atomic Bazaar" is an important book, but not a perfect one. The best nonfiction books, like good novels, have their own organic structure: chapter flows naturally into chapter, the architecture of the whole sustained by a multitude of subtle foreshadowings of what's to come and subtle echoes of what has gone before. That is not how any book by Langewiesche works. Like its predecessors, "The Atomic Bazaar" comes with the curse of The Atlantic Monthly all too visible on its pages, its chapters like free-standing boxcars, loosely coupled by a large general theme - much as they appeared in separate issues of the magazine between November 2005 and December 2006. Too little work has gone into its translation from journalism to book. Though short, it is littered with clunky repetitions and recapitulations. This is a serious pity, for Langewiesche is such an outstandingly able writer that he owes the world a proper book, and not another piece of bookmaking whose individual parts are splendid but ultimately fail to compose a shapely, aesthetically satisfying and conclusive whole. Jonathan Raban's most recent books are the essay collection "My Holy War" and the novel "Surveillance." Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 7 AFP: EU, Russia hold tense summit at Volga resort - Friday May 18, 07:13 PM VOLZHSKY UTYOS, Russia (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union leaders on Friday held a second day of a summit amid what Poland has called a "crisis" in relations. Russian authorities reportedly stopped former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and other Putin critics from staging a demonstration near the summit. Putin called at the start of talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, current holder of the EU presidency, for "frank and open discussions... to overcome any problems." Merkel said: "We have to define concretely where we have to go forward, where there's a bloc, where we can respond together to common challenges like climate change and energy efficiency." Negotiations over a partnership agreement between the EU and Russia, including in the sensitive energy sphere, are being blocked by EU member Poland because of a trade dispute with Moscow. The EU has called on Russia to lift a ban on meat imports from Poland, the source of the dispute, but Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said on Friday that Russia had already made concessions and was awaiting moves from Poland. It is one of many disputes between Russia and countries such as Estonia and Poland in formerly Soviet-dominated central Europe that joined the European Union in 2004. Russia has suggested it wants to deal only with more established EU members but Barroso on Thursday vowed a united stand, saying he came "with this spirit of defending European interests in that sense of solidarity." Ahead of Friday's meeting, the EU's External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner played down the disputes and defined current EU-Russia relations as "intense." "We don't see eye to eye on every issue," Ferrero-Waldner said. "Russia is in a pre-election period so maybe nationalistic feelings are coming up. But at the same time there are questions that have to be solved in a constructive spirit," she added. Tensions surrounding the talks mounted after reports that Kasparov, leader of the Other Russia, had been prevented by Russian law enforcement from boarding a plane to the city of Samara, which is near the summit venue. Protestors are planning an anti-Putin rally in Samara on Friday. A plane on which Kasparov and others were due to fly to Samara from Moscow "has left and not one member of the Other Russia delegation... was allowed to board," a spokesman for Kasparov, Denis Bilunov, told AFP. Ferrero-Waldner said the EU would raise the issue of democratic freedoms in Russia, including the arrest of protest organisers. The Kremlin has rejected criticism on democracy as outside interference in Russian affairs. The summit was being held at Volzhsky Utyos (Volga Cliff), a picturesque resort complex on the banks of the Volga River, some 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) southeast of Moscow. EU officials said talks would also touch on energy relations, Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as well as international issues such as the future status of Kosovo and Iran's nuclear programme. EU leaders have voiced concern about Europe's rapidly growing reliance on Russian oil and gas imports at a time when Russia is becoming an increasingly assertive energy power. Following brief disruptions in energy supplies from Russia because of recent transit disputes, Brussels has urged better communication from the Russian side and called for an early warning system in case cuts do occur. But the main topic missing from the summit agenda was the start of EU-Russia partnership talks despite attempts by Merkel during talks on Thursday to persuade Russia to lift its ban on meat from Poland and unblock the dispute. The current partnership agreement between the EU and Russia runs out this year and can be extended, but EU officials said that failure to start negotiations would be an embarrassment for both sides. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo!7 Pty Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 The Hindu: India should not succumb to US pressure on n-deal - BJP Friday, May 18, 2007 : 1340 Hrs Roy Mathew Thiruvananthapuram, May 18: BJP president Rajnath Singh demanded here on Friday that India should not compromise on its sovereign rights to maintain a credible nuclear deterrence. Addressing a press conference here, the BJP leader said there was fear that the UPA Government would surrender India’s rights under the Indo-US nuclear deal. “The scientific and strategic community is feeling uneasy about the deal. There is total confusion.” Mr. Singh said that the NDA did not want the Government to seek parity in nuclear prowess with any other nation. However, there should be credible deterrence against adventurist forces. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should assure the Parliament that the Government would not succumb to US pressure. He recalled that India was not a signatory of the Non Proliferation Treaty. It had imposed a voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing after the Pokran test. But the country should have option to resume testing in a changed security scenario. He noted that China was encircling India with a strong economic and military presence in countries such as Burma, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Madagaskar and Bangladesh. It had enhanced its military ties with Pakistan and was attempting to monitor India’s missile programmes from there. It was high time that India reviewed its security preparedness. He said that the India should not allow its influence on Sri Lanka and Nepal to decline. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. ***************************************************************** 9 Economic Times: Burns to do what's most effective for nuclear deal IANS[ FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2007 09:50:04 AM] WASHINGTON: The US says its key negotiator for the civil nuclear deal with India, Nicholas Burns, will decide when to visit New Delhi and do what is "appropriate and most effective" to get the deal done. As of now Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, has no travel plans to go to India as the work on the implementing bilateral 123 agreement is not completed yet, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday. "We are working on it. We are making progress on it. It's not completed yet. But I understand that over the course of the past several weeks there have been some positive discussions on concluding that agreement," he said. The US certainly wants to do that and "We understand from the Indian government that they want to conclude that agreement as well," McCormack added. There is, he said, a commitment in Washington to get this agreement done. "We would like to do it sooner rather than later, but these are important issues. They're important issues for us. They're important issues for India. "They're important issues for the international system that deals with matters of non-proliferation and nuclear energy. So we want to get it done in a timely manner, but we also want to get it done right," McCormack said . Commenting on a media report citing a State Department official as suggesting that Burns will go to New Delhi when the deal was done, he said, "Nick's going to do what he thinks is appropriate and most effective in order to get a deal done. "And at what point he travels to India, he's going to make that call. But he's going to do what he thinks is most effective to getting a deal." Asked if he wasn't very optimistic after Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon's visit here earlier this month that the deal can be closed by month end, the spokesman said, "I don't know if I said that it would be closed by month's end." "I very rarely apply timelines to diplomacy because it inevitably proceeds more slowly than we would normally like. Sometimes we're surprised by that," McCormack said. Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 RIA Novosti: Russian contractor completes testing of Tianwan NPP first unit 17:58 | 18/ 05/ 2007 MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's nuclear equipment export monopoly has successfully completed all tests of the first power unit of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China, the company said Friday. Atomstroyexport is building the Tianwan NPP in eastern China's port city of Lianyungang. The plant, which is being built under a 1992 bilateral agreement, features improved VVER-1000 reactors and K-100-6/3000 turbo-generators. "The final dynamic testing of the first power unit was successful," the company said. Atomstroyexport is currently preparing documents to put the unit into commercial operation, which the company said would take place in the near future. The first unit of the Tianwan NPP went online in early January, but was then shut down for maintenance work. The second power unit of the Chinese nuclear power plant was put to 12% of its nominal capacity May 8. Atomstroyexport is building seven NPP power units in China, India, Iran and Bulgaria. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 11 BBC NEWS: Doubts over US-India nuclear deal Last Updated: Friday, 18 May 2007, 09:32 GMT 10:32 UK India has pledged to open civilian nuclear sites to inspection India says no dates have been fixed with the US for the final talks on a historic nuclear power deal. Top US diplomat Nicholas Burns was due to travel to India in the second half of May to conclude the deal. The US said talks earlier this month made "extensive progress", but some reports suggest the deal is in trouble. The talks have been slowed by differences over India's right to test weapons and reprocess spent fuel. Critics of the deal say it could boost India's nuclear arsenal. They say it sends the wrong message to countries like Iran, whose nuclear ambitions Washington opposes. The two countries also have serious differences over India's close relations with Iran. India has insisted that the final agreement must not bind it to supporting US policy on Iran or prevent it from developing fissile material. No prediction India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna was asked on Thursday when the US's Undersecretary of State, Nicholas Burns, would next visit Delhi. The US sees India as a powerful democratic ally in the region "No particular date has yet been finalised," he replied. "We are in the process of exchanging suggestions and examining them. We will let you know when a visit is scheduled." US officials deny that Mr Burns has cancelled his trip, because no date for it has yet been arranged. A State Department spokesman told Reuters news agency that Mr Burns would go to Delhi "when we are ready to seal the deal". He added, "We're not at that point yet. Nobody I've talked to offered a prediction as to when that would be." The nuclear fuel deal was struck in July 2005 but some issues have remained stumbling blocks, despite President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appearing to have overcome the obstacles in March, 2006. The US sees India as a powerful democratic ally in the region India and the US were once on opposite sides of the Cold War fence, but are now close allies. But India's government has faced criticism at home that the deal will compromise its nuclear independence. One crucial sticking point is over a clause saying the US would withdraw fuel and equipment if India breached its unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests. India's military says a future nuclear test by Pakistan or China could compel it to follow suit. Another key area of difference is over reprocessing. India wants complete freedom to process all of its spent fuel, while the US argues that material it provides must not be used for military purposes. Under the agreement, India will get access to US civil nuclear technology and fuel, in return for opening its civilian nuclear facilities to inspection. But its nuclear weapons sites will remain off-limits. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 12 Platts: Germany refuses permission for RWE to transfer nuclear capacity 2007-05-18 London (Platts)--18May2007 Germany's environment minister Sigmar Gabriel has rejected an application by Essen-based utility RWE to transfer remaining nuclear capacity from the decommissioned Mulheim-Karlich nuclear power plant to the Biblis-A nuclear reactor, the ministry said Friday in a statement. Gabriel said: "According to the nuclear law, electricity cannot be transfered from Muhlheim-Karlich to the nuclear power plant Biblis A. RWE's application also contradicts the agreement utilities signed with the federal government on June 14, 2000." RWE has taken the environment ministry to court over the matter, the statement said. In September 2006, RWE applied to transfer capacity from the decommissioned unit at Mulheim-Karlich, but in the event that this would not be permitted, it also applied to transfer capacity from its Emsland unit. According to the ministry, that application is still being investigated by the ministry. RWE based its application on a clause in the nuclear law which states a capacity transfer can be granted if the environment ministry, the chancellor's office and the economics ministry agree on the transfer from a new to an older unit if there are no safety concerns. But the ministry said this clause did not apply to Biblis-A, because the law states capacity transfers from Mulheim-Karlich are only allowed to nuclear units specifically named in the nuclear law. The plants named are Emsland, Neckarwestheim-2, Isar-2, Brokdorf and Grundremmingen-B and Grundremmingen-C and Biblis-B. Under the terms of lthe law, Biblis-B could receive a maximum transfer of 21.45TWh from Mulheim-Karlich. Germany's previous SPD/Green coalition government passed legislation that nuclear reactors should be retired and not replaced when they come to the end of their operational of an average of span of 32 years lives so that the country would phase out nuclear power. Biblis-A, commissioned in 1974, is Germany's oldest remaining nuclear power plant and has a capacity of 1,225 MW. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=67 Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 13 PoughkeepsieJournal.com: Indian Point sirens KO'd PoughkeepsieJournal.com Friday, May 18, 2007 The Associated Press BUCHANAN - More than two dozen Indian Point emergency alert sirens were knocked out of commission by severe thunderstorms that swept through the region Wednesday night. As of Thursday morning, 12 sirens - two in Rockland and 10 in Westchester - remained damaged, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At the height of the storm, 26 of the system's 156 sirens were damaged, the NRC said. Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the regulatory agency, said there was also some damage to the plants' new emergency alert system, but those details were not presently available. The existing alert system is due to be phased out and replaced by a new system. Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns the Indian Point nuclear power plants and its two reactors, is to deliver a plan for installation of the new system to the NRC by Wednesday. Copyright © 2007 PoughkeepsieJournal.com ***************************************************************** 14 IHT: Indian prime minister hopeful nuclear deal with US can be finalized - International Herald Tribune The Associated Press Published: May 18, 2007 NEW DELHI, India: India and the United States are engaged in serious talks to finalize a civilian nuclear cooperation deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday, as the two sides work to overcome differences some fear could scuttle the pact. Frustration on both sides has been clear in recent weeks, but officials have remained cautiously optimistic about sealing the deal, seen as a cornerstone of an emerging partnership between the two countries. When asked Friday if he was worried the deal could fall apart, Singh said, "I am hopeful. We are in serious negotiations." He was speaking after the swearing in of a new Cabinet member. The deal was first struck in July 2005. It cleared a major hurdle in December when U.S. President George W. Bush signed a congressionally approved exception to American law to allow the shipment of civilian nuclear fuel to India. Among the sticking points is India's displeasure with a clause that allows the United States to halt cooperation if New Delhi tests a nuclear weapon. Some in India also fear the deal could limit India's right to reprocess spent atomic fuel, a key step in making weapons-grade nuclear material, and thus hamper its long-standing weapons program. American critics, meanwhile, say the plan would spark a nuclear arms race in Asia by allowing India to use the extra nuclear fuel that the deal would provide to free up its domestic uranium for its weapons program. Further clouding the picture was word Thursday that the top U.S. negotiator, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, had not yet scheduled a trip to India to continue talks. Following talks in Washington earlier this month, the U.S. State Department said Burns would travel to India in May to "reach a final agreement." But India's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that no date has been set for Burns' trip. Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 15 JOURNAL NEWS: Storm knocks Indian Point sirens out of service By JORGE FITZ-GIBBON (Original publication: May 18, 2007) BUCHANAN - More than two dozen sirens from Indian Point's emergency alert system were knocked out of service by thunderstorms that swept through the region this week. Twenty-six of the 156 sirens that make up the nuclear plants' current emergency alert system lost power Wednesday, although only a dozen remained so at 5 p.m. yesterday. "Nearly all of them are back," said Jim Steets, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns Indian Point. "The ones that went down went down as a result of the power outages." The good news for Entergy is that the plants' new alert system, which will soon replace the old one, easily passed two tests after the storm came through. The new system will include 150 sirens. In one post-storm test, all but three responded, Steets said; in the second, all but four. "What we can draw from this is that the new system is going to address one feature that the old system didn't have, which is the ability to operate when local power is out," he said. "That gives us a better than 95 percent success rate." Entergy is due to submit an operating plan for the new system Wednesday. The new alarms were to have been approved April 15, but the company missed the deadline and was fined $135,000 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC, said 24 of the sirens that went down in the storm lost electrical power, while two sustained communication problems. As of early yesterday evening, two sirens remained down in Rockland County and 10 in Westchester. Anthony Sutton, Westchester's emergency services commissioner, said Entergy is required to issue a bulletin when at least 10 percent of the alarm system goes down, as was the case this time. Reach Jorge Fitz-Gibbon at jfitzgib@lohud.com or 914-694-5016. Copyright © 2007 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. ***************************************************************** 16 People's Daily: Generating unit up and running at historic Tianwan nuclear plant UPDATED: 08:21, May 18, 2007 The first generating unit at Tianwan nuclear power plant, a Sino-Russian cooperation project on the east China coast, began commercial operation on Thursday. The first-phase development of the Tianwan plant -- which began in October 1999 -- saw the installation of two 1,060 MW AES-91 pressurized water reactors made by a Russian company. The first generating unit was connected to the grid in May last year. It began generating at full capacity on Jan. 9. By May 1, it had generated 2.08 billion kwh of electricity, of which 1.86 billion kwh was transmitted to the grid. Tianwan nuclear power plant in Lianyungang, a port city in Jiangsu province, is the largest ever technological and economic cooperation project between China and Russia. The plant will have four generating units and space for four more. The second generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in late December, said CNNC sources. The two units combined are expected to generate 14 billion kwh of electricity a year. In addition to the Tianwan plant, five more nuclear plants -- the first, second and third phases of Qinshan nuclear power plant, Daya Bay and Ling'ao -- are also connected to the grids. The Chinese government is promoting the nuclear power sector by aiming at an installation of 40,000 MW by 2020, but even this only represents four percent of total national capacity. Source: Xinhua ***************************************************************** 17 UPI: Austrians to block Czech border crossings United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: May 18, 2007 at 3:52 PM PRAGUE, Czech Republic, May 18 (UPI) -- Austrian anti-nuclear activists threatened to block border crossings with the Czech Republic if Vienna fails to sue Prague over nuclear plant safety. Reacting to the threat by Austrian protesters to block all 16 border crossings, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg told Prague's national television, "Knowing those (Austrian) loonies, they would continue holding border blockades." Austrian activists have been staging protests at a border crossing. They said the Russian-designed Temelin nuclear power plant in southern Czech Republic, close to the border with Austria, could develop problems similar to the Chernobyl nuclear plant's disaster in 1986. The Austrian government claims Czech authorities haven't met necessary safety conditions in the Temelin plant. Friday, Austrian Interior Minister Guenther Platter said his government will ensure the free flow of people, vehicles and goods across the Czech border, the radio said. Austria and the Czech Republic have been at odds since the Temelin plant was put into operation six years ago. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Kommersant Moscow: Power Investment Programs to Be Re-Drafted - May 18, 2007 The Russian government on Thursday rejected the country’s power industry investment programs, sending them for re-drafting. The programs are in short of at least 28 billion rubles of investments. The government has not endorsed investment programs for RAO UES of Russia, Rosenergoatom and other energy companies for 2008-2010, due to a 28 billion ruble deficit with the total spending in the industry at 902 billion rubles in 2008. Nuclear industry monopolist Rosenergoatom has a 23 billion deficit in its investment plan despite 676 billion it received in a federal program last summer. The government has called on Rosenergoplan to review sources of financing and draw loans. In a discussion of the UES of Russia program, Economic Development Minister German Gref noted that the company plans to put new power stations into operation months before power grids are built to ensure sufficient energy supply. The minister also voiced concern over a price hike in some construction projects. UES of Russia confirmed in an interview with Kommersant that it is aware of the grid capacity issue and working to bridge this gap. Ministers and agencies should solve the problems by August, otherwise the program will be considered as part of the next three-year budget plan – for 2009-2011. www.kommersant.com All the Article in Russian as of May 18, 2007 ***************************************************************** 19 UPI: Analysis: Nuclear resurrection on horizon United Press International - Energy - Analysis Published: May 18, 2007 at 1:36 PM By ROSALIE WESTENSKOW UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- After a long lapse in growth, the U.S. nuclear power industry seems ripe for revival, particularly as the simmering climate-change debate reaches a boil. More than 30 nuclear power plant proposals are in the approval process, and in early March the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorized the first new site in 30 years that could potentially host a nuclear power reactor. Amid the controversy of capping carbon emissions, many of the technology's proponents push nuclear as the only viable alternative to fossil fuels, especially when faced with the increasing demand for energy. In the past three decades the U.S. population grew 40 percent, while energy demand surged 47 percent. Within the next 25 years experts predict energy consumption will increase 34 percent, while production grows 27 percent. "When you look at projected growth and where we are today, you get the feeling we need to be do something besides standing still," Christine Todd Whitman, co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition and former New Jersey governor, said at a CASEnergy-sponsored event Tuesday. "Conservation alone will not supply the energy needed." Neither will renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectric, wind, solar or geothermal, others say. "Renewables have to be a big part of the picture, but in our world today, with the exception of hydroelectric, only half a percent of our nation's energy is coming from renewables," said Patrick Moore, CASEnergy co-founder and former leader of Greenpeace. "If we're really going to make a serious dent in fossil fuel consumption, nuclear has to be part of the mix. ... Otherwise there's no hope of decreasing fossil fuel consumption." Currently, fossil fuels provide 85 percent of the world's energy, nuclear power constitutes 7 percent, hydroelectric power another 7 percent and the remaining 1 percent comes from a mix of renewable energy sources, according to most estimates. Despite hydroelectricity's relatively high contribution to the mix, Moore and others argue it has nearly reached its potential in most countries and cannot provide the large-scale energy production needed to replace coal. While the initial cost of a nuclear power plant exceeds that of a coal plant, if the current energy dichotomy stays stagnant and fossil-fuel prices continue to rise, American businesses may find nuclear power more economically attractive. "As the prices of natural gas rise, so do the costs of doing business in the U.S.," said Keith McCoy, vice president of energy and resource policy at the National Association of Manufacturers. Soaring energy costs have driven companies to set up shop elsewhere, causing 3 million lost jobs in the country, NAM estimates. And while a carbon tax or cap on emissions might be environmentally counteractive if it increases the business emigration rate, encouraging nuclear power development could entice companies to stay and clean up the atmosphere at the same time. "The nuclear power industry needs a victory in the United States," McCoy said. Although the U.S. nuclear rebirth is progressing slowly, officials have responded on several levels with pro-nuclear policies. Under President Bush's fiscal 2008 budget, the Office of Nuclear Energy receives a 38-percent boost in spending, or an extra $875 million. Several legislators have nudged the nation to catch up with the liberal nuclear power policies in many other countries and advocate its use. One appealing aspect of the technology to Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., is its potential to decrease dependence on foreign oil. "(Our energy supply) aught to be homegrown and American-owned," said Clyburn, majority whip. Another legislative proponent of nuclear power, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., actually published a book on the subject, "A Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy." Domenici sponsored the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that established several incentives to invest in nuclear power, including $500 million of risk insurance for the first two power plants. "We now have 30 new power plant applications at one stage or another and before this act we had none -- zero -- for a period of 27 years," Domenici told United Press International. What we're doing right now is watching the process unfold." The technology has gained greater acceptability in many circles. For instance, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pointed to nuclear power as a possible path toward decreasing greenhouse-gas emissions in a report released earlier this month. "It's less controversial now than it was," said Matthew Letourneau, Domenici's spokesman. "But that doesn't mean everyone likes it." Nuclear waste raises concerns for many, including Mark Brownstein, managing director of business partnerships for Environmental Defense, a non-profit environmental organization. "It's foolish to move forward with a nuclear reactor if you haven't addressed what to do with the waste that's left over," Brownstein said at Tuesday's conference. Safety has also been an issue, particularly as power plants pop up around the globe. "What happens as this technology becomes more common in the rest of the world?" Brownstein asked. "We have to be really concerned about how this technology gets commercialized in the developing world." -- (e-mail: energy@upi.com) © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 Guardian Unlimited: Accused Nuke Engineer - I Was Showing Off From the Associated Press Friday May 18, 2007 6:01 PM PHOENIX (AP) - A former nuclear engineer accused of taking software back to his native Iran told authorities he was only trying to show off for family and friends. Mohammad Alavi, 49, also told FBI agents that he left his job at the nation's largest nuclear power plant and moved to Iran to be closer to relatives, according to records obtained by The Arizona Republic. Alavi, who lived in the U.S. as a naturalized citizen for 30 years, is charged with violating a trade embargo with Iran, which carries a maximum penalty of 21 months in prison. Trial is set for July 3. Alavi worked at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix for 16 years, until he resigned in August and moved to Tehran. The software he downloaded onto his personal laptop was part of an emergency-training package containing details of the plant's control rooms, reactors and designs. It is not classified, has no links to actual plant workings and can't be used to affect operations. Employees were encouraged to download the software and work on it at home, according to officials with the Arizona Public Service Co., the Phoenix-based utility company that operates Palo Verde. APS did not know Alavi had left the country with the information until the Maryland software manufacturer reported attempts to access the training system from a Tehran address. Alavi was arrested April 8 as he stepped off a plane in Los Angeles. He was returning to the U.S. with his wife for the birth of their first child. He is being held without bail in Arizona. Alavi acknowledged downloading the software in Iran but said he did it to show relatives and a business associate, according to court records. The laptop was still in a closet at his mother's house in Tehran, he said. He told authorities he was about to start a job with an electric-motor company in Tehran. The plant, located in Wintersburg about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, supplies electricity to 4 million customers in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 21 Stoney Creek News: Powerful debate over Clark's nuclear plant motion Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada News Desk: 905-628-2295 Ext. 333 Kevin Werner, Stoney Creek (May 18, 2007) Hamilton city council chambers was ground zero this week in the global debate on the merits of nuclear power. More than 35 people, representing nuclear power and union organizations and anti-nuclear activists faced off over Stoney Creek councillor Brad Clark's motion to establish a moratorium on the construction of any nuclear power plant within Hamilton's borders. The motion also urges the provincial government to close Nanticoke coal-fire Generating Station, the No. 1 greenhouse gas emitter in the country, no later than 2009. Premier Dalton McGuinty had promised to close Nanticoke by 2007. Recently that deadline was extended to 2014. Mr. Clark introduced the motion last February, which quickly caught the attention of proponents of nuclear power. The motion was prompted by Stelco sending a letter to Haldimand County offering to use their Lake Erie property as a location for a nuclear plant. Mr. Clark, who is a former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, is opposed to the expansion of nuclear power and is asking the government to consider alternative sources of energy, including solar, wind and fuel cells. Councillors listened as McMaster University professors and members of the pro-nuclear power community, questioned the validity of the motion and argued it would send the wrong message throughout the country. "It contains incomplete and biased data," said professor John Valliant. "It's a short-sighted blanket motion." Associate professor David Novog, said the motion was created using information supplied by anti-nuclear groups who have a decided political agenda. Although the motion says Germany is closing its nuclear plants, Dr. Novog said Germans say with the rising cost of energy, nuclear power needs to be revisited. "If you pass this motion, it sends a message that Hamilton is turning its back on a clean energy source," said Dr. Novog. Mr. Clark's motion cites a 2006 Greenpeace report predicting 270,000 cancers and 93,000 deaths if a Chernobyl-like nuclear accident occurred in an area with a nuclear plant. "The city is being used to spread anti-nuclear ideology," said Dr. Jerry Cuttler, of the Canadian Nuclear Society, another proponent of nuclear power appearing before councillors during the long meeting. Ward 1 councillor Brian McHattie was surprised that McMaster academics were so opposed to the motion. Didn't they realize, he said, that without Hamilton's motion, the Liberal government would have allowed Nanticoke to be turned into a nuclear plant without public involvement? "They would have rammed a nuclear station at Nanticoke without an environment assessment," he said. Other defenders of nuclear power were the Power Workers Union (PWU) and the representatives of the Canadian Nuclear Workers Council (CNWC) who talked about the benefits of a clean energy source. "(Bruce and Pickering) are safe, with proven track records," said Peter Falconer, Power Workers Union vice-president. He said nuclear power plants produce no smog, no greenhouse gases, create 21,000 direct jobs and produce $1.2 billion in exports. Abut 500 of the union workers live in Hamilton, he said. "More nuclear plants are needed," said David Shier, president of the CNWC. "They are a safe, economical way of providing electricity without smog or greenhouse gases." A McMaster University professor, Doug Boreham, who researches radiation's effects on humans, said the public has "big radiophobia." He said low doses of radiation actually benefit humans. He said in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, instead of the thousands of radiation deaths, there have been some cancers. He said about 30 people died of radiation, they were Russian soldiers who raced to contain the fire near high doses of radiation. After public input and council debate, the motion was put on hold. Legal Notice:- Copyright 2007. Hamilton Community Newspapers. All ***************************************************************** 22 UPI: Outside View: Is BMD futile? United Press International - Security & Terrorism - Analysis Published: May 18, 2007 at 4:53 PM By HELEN CALDICOTT and CRAIG EISENDRATH UPI Outside View Commentators PHILADELPHIA, May 18 (UPI) -- The first military use of outer space was the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The second was defensive systems designed to stop them. Missile defense against ICBMs has never worked. Despite five decades of failure, the idea has continued to haunt military planners since the Cold War began. While the dream -- the idea that a bomb, once launched on a missile, could be stopped in mid-flight by another, very precisely aimed missile -- never materialized, the history of missile defense offers a number of important insights into the extension of military power into outer space. Furthermore, much of the technology developed in ground-based missile defense is being exploited to design missile defense launched from outer space, and is also applicable to space weaponization. To date, the United States has spent almost $150 billion on missile defense since President Dwight D. Eisenhower first proposed a modest program. The billions of dollars for long-range missile defense, which is a substantial part of this figure, have also necessarily limited defense spending in such critical areas as counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as underfunded aspects of homeland security, not to mention programs for the disadvantaged in the United States and abroad. If anything, these figures are likely to rise. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the annual cost of the current Bush administration's missile-defense plans could almost double from $10.4 billion, the largest single program in the fiscal year 2007, to $19 billion by 2013, and total $247 billion from 2006 through fiscal 2024. Despite a string of test failures and earlier indications that the program might be curtailed, the deployment of missile defenses in Alaska and California continues, and is being expanded. To shield the government from continuing criticism, the testing is being increasingly classified and restricted. It would appear that Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has successfully defended the missile system, despite the fact that it doesn't work; a clearer example of pork-barreling could hardly be found. U.S. President George W. Bush has banked on the fact that the American people support missile defense, if it works. A poll in March of 2006 indicated "more than 70 percent of citizens throughout the state of New York support a missile defense system with the ability to protect the United States from a nuclear, chemical or biological attack." The question is, of course, does it work? To date, however, the military has not declared the system operational, and has even suggested that it might never be. As an alternative, the Missile Defense Agency continues to pursue boost-phase defenses and is experimenting with the idea of orbiting satellites in outer space that will directly ram into the opposing missiles. Called "kinetic kill vehicles," this defense system, like boost-phase defenses, is fraught with enormous problems and is perhaps even less feasible than the failed ground-based system in Alaska and California. Meanwhile, however, the system that employs sensors to track and collide with a missile in space might, with only small modifications, be used to knock out satellites, and is now forming the technical basis for anti-satellite warfare. As the Bush administration moves toward space weaponization and toward extending missile defense from Earth-based to space-based, it is important that the administration's history of deceit in claiming the need for long-range missile defense and of deploying a system that doesn't work be kept clearly in mind. How much longer should this charade be allowed to go on before the United States puts its money and effort into more feasible measures of securing the heavens, including multilateral diplomacy? Instead, it is moving in exactly the opposite direction: toward the weaponization of outer space. -- (Helen Caldicott is president of the Washington-based Nuclear Policy Research Institute. She was a founder of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the organization that won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. Craig Eisendrath is the chair of the Project for Nuclear Awareness and co-founder of the National Constitution Center. This piece originally appears in Helen Caldicott and Craig Eisendrath's book, "War in Heaven: The Arms Race in Outer Space," and is published with the permission of The New Press.) -- (United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.) © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 23 NAS: Project: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of Depleted Uranium Project Title: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of Depleted Uranium PIN: PHPH-H-06-01-A Major Unit: Institute of Medicine Sub Unit: Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice RSO: Mitchell, Abigail Subject/Focus Area: Project Scope A committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will review, evaluate, and summarize scientific and medical literature regarding the association between exposure to depleted uranium and chronic human health effects. The study committee will focus on literature published since the IOM's 2000 report, Gulf War and Health, Volume 1: Depleted Uranium, Pyridostigmine Bromide, Sarin, and Vaccines was written. The committee will make determinations on the strength of the evidence for associations between exposure to depleted uranium and human health effects. The report might include recommendations for additional scientific studies to resolve areas of continued scientific uncertainty. The findings will not be limited to veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. They also will be applicable to veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. This project is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The start date for the project is September 18, 2006. A report will be issued at the end of the project in approximately 15 months. Project Duration: 15 months Provide FEEDBACK on this project. Contact the Public Access Records Office to make an inquiry or to schedule an appointment to view project materials available to the public. Committee Membership Meetings Meeting 1 - 03/22/2007 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 ***************************************************************** 24 DOE: U.S. Department of Energy to Host GNEP Ministerial in Washington, DC May 17, 2007 WASHINGTON, DC – On Monday, May 21, 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will host a ministerial meeting in Washington, DC, to discuss international cooperation for a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). This ministerial serves to bring together some of the leading nuclear fuel cycle states to discuss GNEP and its path forward toward increasing the use of safe, reliable and affordable nuclear power worldwide. China, France, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom have been invited to participate in this initial meeting. The International Atomic Energy Agency has also been invited to participate. "Not only can nuclear energy help meet world demand for electricity, but GNEP can help meet that demand in a way that maximizes the benefit of nuclear power while minimizing the risk of nuclear proliferation,” Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. “This ministerial demonstrates our intentions to work with others to create a true international partnership to expand the use of safe, clean and affordable nuclear power, as well as the Bush Administration’s commitment to GNEP." As part of President Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative, GNEP seeks to develop worldwide consensus on enabling expanded use of economical, carbon-free nuclear energy to meet growing electricity demand. Additional information on GNEP. **TIME OF EVENTS AND CREDENTIALING INFORMATION TO FOLLOW** Media contact(s): Julie Ruggiero, (202) 586-4940 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 25 SF New Mexican: House amendment would remove Moab tailings by 2019 Fri May 18, 2007 10:52 pm By JENNIFER TALHELM | Associated Press May 17, 2007 WASHINGTON (AP) The radioactive sludge sitting near the Colorado River outside Moab, Utah, would have to be cleaned up by 2019, years earlier than proposed by the Energy Department, under an amendment approved by the House. The amendment to a defense bill passed by a voice vote Wednesday night. It would require the uranium tailings to be moved nine years sooner than the latest estimate by the government. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, like other state officials, has long pushed for the government to clean up the 16 million ton pile, a major concern for millions of people across the West who depend on the Colorado River for drinking water. The job was supposed to be done by 2012, but Energy Department officials earlier this year said the target now is 2028, based on the agency’s budget. Matheson, who sponsored the amendment, said he was frustrated by what he considers were inadequate responses about the delay. He based his amendment on an earlier estimated timetable. It would require the tailings be moved to Crescent Junction, Utah, by Oct. 1, 2019. “I’m giving them to 2019,” he said. “That’s the maximum flexibility.” In a memo sent to Matheson’s office before the House vote, department officials said the 2028 target was an estimate for planning purposes only. They said the amendment, if it becomes law, could force the Energy Department to renegotiate deadlines and seek future legislation if technical problems or money woes slowed the cleanup. Matheson wasn’t sympathetic. He’s confident the amendment can make it through Congress. The tailings are a remnant of the Cold War, when Moab’s rich uranium deposits were mined for nuclear bombs. The waste comes from a uranium mill bought by Atlas Minerals Corp. in 1962 but closed in 1984. In 1998, the company filed for bankruptcy, leaving a temporary cap on the pile. The Energy Department has pumped 75 million gallons of contaminated water and put other measures in place to keep chemicals from reaching the Colorado River, which provides drinking water for about 25 million people across the West. ©2007, Santa Fe New Mexican, all rights reserved. Opinions ***************************************************************** 26 BBC NEWS: Dounreay radiation case adjourned Last Updated: Friday, 18 May 2007, 14:39 GMT 15:39 UK The operator is alleged to have breached health and safety laws A case against the operators of the Dounreay nuclear plant over allegations they caused an employee to breathe in plutonium has been adjourned. The motion was granted at Wick Sheriff Court to allow lawyers for the UK Atomic Energy Authority more time to prepare their case. The worker suffered the radioactive intake at the Caithness plant in January last year. The prosecution followed an investigation by inspectors into record keeping and the storage of material at a former fuel reprocessing laboratory that the employee had been sent to help decommission. The charge, brought under the Health and Safety at Work Act, cites the source of contamination as a number of lead bricks. Earlier this year, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, the nuclear industry's on-site regulator, served two formal improvement notices on the UK Atomic Energy Authority. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 27 KTN: Report says Tennessee a popular destination for radioactive waste Kingsport Times-News Published 05/17/2007 By J.H. OSBORNEand KEVIN CASTLE Tennesseans need to "wake up" to the state's popularity as a destination for radioactive waste, an author of a report released earlier this week said Thursday. A spokesman for the state agency that regulates landfills in Tennessee, however, said Tennessee is not alone as a state in allowing "very low-level" radioactive material in landfills. Diane D'Arrigo is one author of "Out of Control - On Purpose: DOE's Dispersal of Radioactive Waste into Landfills and Consumer Products." She spoke Thursday during a press conference called by the Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN). "You're being kept in the dark about what's going on," D'Arrigo said. "And I'm here to say ‘wake up.'" The report, published by the activist Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), says Tennessee is a leader in the number of licensed processors that can release radioactive materials into landfills. Dana Coleman, communications director for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, said there's a reason for the number of such processors in the state. "Tennessee is unique in that it has more waste processors than other states due primarily to the role played by the Oak Ridge Reservation in the development of atomic energy," Coleman told the Times-News. "Tennessee is not the only state, however, that allows very low-level radioactive material in landfills." Coleman described the "Out of Control" report as having "a number of factual errors and misrepresentations." "The NIRS has issued a report critical of Tennessee's Bulk Survey For Release (BSFR) program," Coleman said. "The report confuses Department of Energy self-regulated practices with commercial nuclear energy activities regulated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Agreement States, and has a number of factual errors and misrepresentations, including its portrayal of Tennessee's BSFR program." The TCWN also used the event to release its own report on leaking landfills in the state. TCWN Director of Community Organizing Rachael Bliss said 31 percent of landfills in Tennessee are leaking. Not so, said Coleman. "There are 38 active Class I landfills in Tennessee, and composite liner systems are one of the many requirements we have for modern-day Class I landfills," Coleman said. "Of those 38 landfills, there are 15 in assessment monitoring, but it's important to understand what that means. Assessment monitoring simply means there is a requirement on those landfills to conduct additional sampling because there has been a detection of some constituent in the groundwater above background levels. "If the expanded sampling detects a statistically significant increase, then the landfill owner must submit a sampling plan to the department and within 90 days evaluate corrective measures to be taken to address the problem. Often the problem is quickly corrected, such as a broken pipe, runoff from trucks, or methane gas intrusion. One of the things the department would look for in the increased sampling would be trends to identify cases where the integrity of the liner may be the cause. But again, a leak in the liner may not be that cause. "Landfills are not required by regulation to take corrective actions until the groundwater protection standards are exceeded, though they certainly have that option. Once groundwater protection standards are reached, landfills are required by regulation to take corrective action." Of the 15 active Class I landfills in assessment monitoring, 10 require only additional sampling and analyses of the existing monitoring system, while five require corrective action and assessment of the extent of contamination, Coleman said. Those five landfills are White County, McMinn County, Chestnut Ridge in Knox County, New Jefferson County, and Morristown/Hamblen County. Bliss said figures she obtained from TDEC for 2006 showed 225 permitted landfills in Tennessee and 69 - or 31 percent - were leaking. Coleman said that was not an accurate description of the situation. "There are, or were, approximately 225 permitted landfills - active and closed - of various types - Class I, II, II and IV - in Tennessee," Coleman said. "To say that 69, or 31 percent of these, are ‘leaking' is not accurate. "If you look at both active and closed Class I landfills in assessment monitoring, there are 54. Many of those old, closed landfills operated prior to the current regulations for operation of landfills and the requirements for such things as composite liners. "Of the entire 225, there are 69 in assessment monitoring. That includes the 54 mentioned above, plus another 15 active and closed Class II, III and IV landfills. The levels detected at 21 of these require only additional sampling and analyses of the existing monitoring system. The levels detected at the remaining 48 landfills require assessment of the extent of contamination and corrective action measures. Again, the majority of these 48 sites are closed landfills that operated prior to existing regulations." D'Arrigo said Tennessee is popular among the nation's producers of radioactive waste because the state is one of their cheapest options when it comes to disposing of the waste. She said a lack of public awareness that radioactive waste is even allowed at some landfills is one reason the state remains a cheap option. The landfill off Carters Valley Road in Hawkins County, for example, is one of four Class I landfills in the state authorized to accept radioactive materials, said D'Arrigo. Coleman confirmed that statement. "There are four landfills authorized to receive wastes under the BSFR program," Coleman said. "They are the Chestnut Ridge landfill facility in Heiskell (Knox County), North Shelby County, Middle Point in Rutherford County, and Carters Valley in Hawkins County." There are currently four licensees in the state authorized to conduct the BSFR program - IMPACt, RACE, Toxco and Duratek/Energy Solutions, Coleman said. "Nuclear power plants or other entities with very low-level radioactive material may send their waste to one of the four licensees," Coleman said. "The materials may be evaluated at the generator's site before going to the licensee's facility for required sampling and analysis. The sampling and measurement process must indicate the material meets BSFR criteria prior to it being disposed of as part of this program. It would further have to pass through detection monitors at the landfill site. "The criteria are extremely conservative for accepting material under the BSFR program. BSFR waste cannot contribute more than 5 percent of the total landfill waste, and it cannot contribute a dose of more than 1 millirem per year to any member of the public. To put that in perspective, the public is exposed to approximately 300 millirems per year in Tennessee from naturally occurring radiation in the environment." D'Arrigo and others at the TCWN press conference, however, said they are concerned about the cumulative effect of doses - and what they perceive as an unknown potential toxicity from the mixture of radioactive waste with chemicals and other materials over time. TDEC is in the process of implementing improvements in the BSFR program that will make it even more protective by requiring additional and more detailed sampling methodology and practices, Coleman said. "Any material that does not meet the strict requirements of the BSFR program would need to be disposed of in a radioactive waste facility, of which there are three commercial facilities in the United States," Coleman said. "By allowing waste that does not pose any significant risk to be disposed of under the BSFR program, space in the limited number of radioactive waste facilities can be conserved for the material that truly requires that type of disposal." To read "Out of Control - On Purpose: DOE's Dispersal of Radioactive Waste into Landfills and Consumer Products" visit www.nirs.org/radwaste/ outofcontrol/outofcontrol.htm. www.timesnews.net | Local News | Death Notices | Community | Photos Copyright 1997-2007 - Kingsport Publishing Corporation | User and ***************************************************************** 28 reportonbusiness.com: What's the meltdown price for uranium? JOHN PARTRIDGE INVESTMENT REPORTER May 18, 2007 The question for the fissile metal's producers, and for investors seeking to cash in on the gains, is how high can it get before its key nuclear power plant consumers defer plans to add reactors, or try to cut consumption at existing plants, as they wait for much delayed new mine supplies to come on stream and bring the price back down? Since bottoming out at just $7 (U.S.) a pound in December, 2001, the "yellowcake" spot price has climbed almost exponentially, hitting $40 a pound about a year ago and a startling $120 a pound last month. This means it is very close to shattering the record high of $43 it hit back in 1979, which, adjusted for inflation, is the equivalent of $122.42 today. Already, some producers are predicting it could rise to $250 some time next year. Not that many utilities will have to pay that much for it. The vast majority buy under long-term contracts years in advance at prices well below those of the spot market. By way of illustration, Cameco Corp. of Saskatoon, the world's largest publicly traded uranium miner, realized an average price of just $24 a pound in the first quarter, when the spot price averaged $80. As well, according to the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA), fuel now adds up to only about 5 per cent of the cost of electricity generated by a nuclear plant, and uranium is less than half the cost of the fuel. Refining and fabrication account for the rest. That translates to about 0.25 cents of the 5 cents a kilowatt-hour cost of nuclear power. "Even having uranium cost 10 times as much - on the order of $1,000 a pound - would only increase the cost of nuclear power from 5 cents to 6.2 cents," said CNA spokeswoman Claudia Lemieux. In a survey earlier this year, uranium and nuclear consultants Ux Consulting Co. LLC of Roswell, Ga., asked industry players whether uranium prices would rise high enough to have a negative impact on existing or new reactors. The answer was a "resounding ... no" for existing reactors, the firm said. However, 23 per cent of respondents felt the rise could deter new reactor orders, although the range of prices at which this would occur was broad: from $70 a pound to $500. "If people think [uranium] prices are going to keep doubling every six months, I don't know how many reactors would get built," Ux Consulting president Jeff Combs said in an interview this week. As for existing plants, one analyst noted that many are regulated and operate on a cost-plus basis that allows them to pass cost increases along to customers. As well, he said, the possibility of carbon credit schemes could improve the economics. In any event, operators of existing reactors have little choice but to pay whatever it takes to keep the yellowcake coming. © Copyright 2007 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. globeandmail.com and The Globe and Mail are divisions of CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc., 444 Front St. W., Toronto, ON  Canada M5V 2S9 Phillip Crawley, Publisher ***************************************************************** 29 deseretnews.com: Cleanup of Moab tailings inserted in bill Friday, May 18, 2007 Defense measure authorizes funds for Hill and other sites By Suzanne Struglinski Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON ? Congress on Thursday turned up the pressure on the Energy Department to clean up the Moab uranium tailings in a bill that also authorized spending at least $20 million in new programs for Hill Air Force Base and millions of dollars on Utah's military installations. Deseret Morning News Graphic "We got something for everything," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, which wrote the defense authorization bill. Although Bishop was happy with what Utah would receive in the bill, he was disappointed that more money overall had not been directed to missile defense and that the bill itself was about $2 billion short of what it should have included for the military. The $508 billion bill sets how much money the Defense Department can spend on certain items and programs and puts new policies in place. But none of the authorized money can be spent until the president signs the defense spending bill, which is still in its infant stages. The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to complete its version of the legislation next week, while the White House threatened to veto the authorization citing concerns on several provisions in the bill. Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, inserted an amendment that will force the Energy Department to remove the Atlas uranium mill tailings pile, located near the banks of the Colorado River north of Moab, to Crescent Junction by Oct. 1, 2019. "It's time to hold these guys accountable," Matheson said. "I'm being generous." The department initially predicted the job would be done in seven to 10 years, but then department officials told Congress earlier this year it would be more like 2028. Matheson has repeatedly tried to get schedule information from the department, but it has not responded. And once the amendment was brought up, the department did send a list of concerns to Matheson saying, "The 2028 date completion is currently set primarily for planning purposes only, based on an assumed funding profile and our understanding of the project at this very early stage." Matheson said this and their other responses were "non-answers to me." The tailings are a remnant of the uranium boom and Cold War, when Moab's rich uranium deposits were mined for nuclear bombs. The waste comes from a uranium mill bought by Atlas Minerals Corp. in 1962 but closed in 1984. In 1998, the company filed for bankruptcy, leaving a temporary cap on the pile. However, Colorado River water users are concerned about the tailing leaching contaminants into the river. The $20 million for Hill Air Force Base includes $8.4 million to build an aircraft power systems repair facility, $8.4 million to build a hydraulic flight control facility and $3.2 million for a reserve wing support facility. Bishop's defense counsel Steve Petersen said these are all new construction projects for the base. The bill also included the first $5 million of a $25 million housing update project at Dugway Proving Ground. The money will fund updates for 32 housing units and "represents that start of a significant reinvestment into the quality of life and infrastructure for Dugway," according to Bishop's office. The Ogden Air Logistics Center could receive $2 million for science engineering and laboratory data programs, which will reduce duplication throughout the depot system. The Utah Army National Guard will get $12.1 million for a new armory or "readiness reserve center" in North Salt Lake. "These programs demonstrate Utah is on the front lines and the cutting edge when it comes to our national defense and security," Bishop said. "Our installations and personnel are second to none and the money authorized for our state will be good, not just for our economy, but for our future security and preparedness." The bill also approved $10 million for supersonic cruise missile engine testing, which will help Williams International in Ogden, which makes the engines. Petersen said this seed money is important because Williams pioneers the technology and the United States has been falling behind India and Russia in missile advancements. The bill also fully funds the F-22 and F-35 programs as requested by the White House and funds pay raises and bonus pay for active duty and reserve forces, according to a press release. It also approved $2.4 billion for the C-17 Globemaster Aircraft. While this full amount will not come directly to Utah, Petersen said Boeing, ATK, and other companies with operations in the state build major parts of the new plane, so their businesses will be affected. The Tooele Army Depot was approved to build a $3.4 million recycling facility that turns munitions into fertilizers. Bishop had an amendment to the bill that makes the department study how to stop bases from having different rules on partnering with private companies. He would rather see standard rules throughout so companies would find it easier to work with depots. "This will help the depot to be more competitive and bring work to the depot," Bishop said. In a policy change based on a concern raised by a constituent, Bishop inserted language that would make the Defense Department continue to allow access commissary and base exchanges to spouses and dependents of veterans deemed 100 percent disabled, even if the determination comes after the veteran has died. Petersen said the office had received complaints that spouses or children were being denied access to commissary and base exchanges because the government declared their spouse or parent 100 percent disabled posthumously, when often the backlog of cases delayed action on the veteran's status. Contributing: Associated Press E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com © 2007 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 30 Boston.com: Report: Vermont has most nuclear waste per capita in country - By Ross Sneyd, Associated Press Writer | May 18, 2007 MONTPELIER, Vt. --Activists released a new report Friday indicating Vermont has more radioactive nuclear waste per capita than any state in the nation, which they said underscores the need for approval of a climate change bill that would tax the Vermont Yankee plant. Federal records compiled by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, D.C., and analyzed by the anti-nuclear Citizens Action Network determined that the 1.3 million pounds of irradiated nuclear fuel that will be on the grounds of Yankee by 2011 amounted to 2.15 pounds of waste for every resident of the state. The analysis found that South Carolina ranked second, with the equivalent of 2.03 pounds per resident. Elsewhere around New England: --Connecticut, 1.34 pounds per person. --Maine, 0.89 pounds per person. --New Hampshire, 0.72 pounds per person. --Massachusetts, 0.23 pounds per person. Rhode Island does not have a nuclear power plant. In all cases, the amount of nuclear waste is what will exist in each state as of 2011, according to an environmental impact statement filed by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2002 for its proposed long-term storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Many states have significantly more waste than Vermont. Illinois, for example, will have 17.6 million pounds by 2011. But with a population of 12.8 million, it will have only 1.38 pounds per person. "Having two pounds of this stuff for every Vermonter is not a distinction, it's a disaster waiting to happen," said study author Chris Williams, the Vermont organizer for Citizens Action Network. A Vermont Yankee spokesman said he had not seen the report. But Rob Williams called nuclear power an environmentally preferable alternative to burning coal or other fossil fuels to generate electricity because it does not emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. "Our plant and all nuclear plants in this country protect the environment and that's by displacing the need to burn fossil fuels," Williams said. "If this plant were to be replaced by a fossil fuel plant, it would probably burn about two-and-a-half tons of coal a minute." The federal government has responsibility for the long-term disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste. Congress essentially designated Yucca Mountain as the site for it, but that decision has gotten caught up in politics and scientific disputes. If Yucca ever eventually becomes the long-term disposal site, it would be 2017 at the earliest before any waste is taken there, according to federal estimates. Activists and others say it's more likely the waste will remain at the nuclear energy plants where it's produced. Drew Hudson of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group said that was justification enough for tripling a tax on Vermont Yankee for the electricity it produces, as the Legislature proposed in a climate change bill that Gov. Jim Douglas has said he'll veto. The tax is in place of the statewide property tax to pay for education. "The truth about nuclear waste in Vermont isn't pretty," Hudson said. "And that truth is all the more reason why Gov. Douglas should make (Yankee owner) Entergy pay their fair share in property taxes by signing H.520 into law." Williams said that was an anti-nuclear view. "It's just clear we may never find common ground with nuclear plant opponents," he said. "But I think most Vermonters have come to realize the importance of keeping Vermont Yankee online to protect the environment by displacing fossil fuels." Home heating fuel dealers oppose the bill that would tax Yankee, also, because the money would be used to expand an energy efficiency utility so it could work to help consumers use less fuel to heat their homes. Independent dealers already do that, said Matt Cota, executive director of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association. "We have demand side management; it's called service," Cota said. Since the 1970s, despite population growth, Vermont's appetite for home heating oil has dropped by 53 million gallons a year to about 90 million gallons, he said. "The building stock's getting better and the way we heat our homes has improved," he said. © Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 31 Sydney Morning Herald: Partner plan shares benefits - and risks - www.smh.com.au May 19, 2007 A US proposal that includes reprocessing spent fuel is dividing nations, writes Mark Coultan. On the face of it, it's a win-win-win policy. Increase energy security, encourage clean economic development around the world and curb greenhouse gas emissions. That's the theory of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, an idea of the Bush Administration to pursue two of its highest priorities: to promote nuclear energy and find a way to limit nuclear proliferation. The partnership would allow countries to build nuclear power plants without having to develop the expensive and difficult technology of uranium enrichment, and without having to dispose of the waste. The idea is that countries with advanced nuclear technology, such as the United States, would "lease" nuclear fuel to other countries in return for them forgoing uranium enrichment, and thus limiting the potential for this technology to be used for nuclear weapons. It is an approach that was suggested to solve the Iran nuclear crisis, without success. Although Iran is a special case, with concerns about its history of hostility to the US and its support of terrorist groups, its rejection underlines one of the first hurdles of the policy - that countries want energy security, which they tend to define as energy independence. The partnership is also trying to expand the reach of nuclear power to countries without the resources to develop their own industries. The US wants to develop smaller nuclear power stations in order to lower the costs and fit more easily into existing power grids. But much more controversially, the plan envisages a big expansion of reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, and appears to address one of the biggest factors holding back nuclear energy - the lack of convenient waste disposal. The plan suggests recycling spent nuclear fuel without producing separated plutonium, which can be used for nuclear weapons. As the US Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman, said when launching the program: "That's the whole idea behind it. By doing so we will extract more energy from nuclear fuel, reduce the amount of waste that requires permanent disposal, and greatly reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation." While the partnership has barely prompted public debate, it has caused a flurry of opposition in Washington and reactions from countries such as Australia that may one day want to enter the uranium enrichment club. For a start, it overturns more than 30 years of American opposition to the reprocessing of nuclear fuel, began when India used US-supplied material to develop its nuclear bomb. Jessica Tuchman Mathews, the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, describes the partnership as a mistake. She says the message is that reprocessing is good, but that most non-weapons states - except for America's particular friends - cannot be trusted with it. It is a position that will not stand, she says. She also says the technology is not yet developed. "We will be left with a world in which we have multiple reprocessing and enrichment sites. Reprocessing, in particular, will provide terrorists with much greater access to fissile materials and the likelihood of some theft is indeed overwhelming in the interim." Princeton University's Professor Frank von Hippel, the co-chairman of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, argues that it is safer not to reprocess spent fuel, pointing out that enough plutonium to produce a Nagasaki-size bomb can be carried in three small cans, while a 3.6-metre spent fuel rod, weighing 450 kilograms, requires a 20-tonne transporter and remote handling. He regards the partnership as a "panic solution" to the problem of disposing of nuclear waste, which in the US is held at nuclear power stations waiting for the long-delayed Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada to be finished. The Prime Minister, John Howard, made reference to Australia being cut out of the enrichment process in a speech to the Canadian parliament last year. The US has since said that there is no reason for Australia not to be included in the partnership. But Australia is not the only country to suddenly think about uranium enrichment; Canada, Argentina and South Africa are also interested. Mathews's colleague George Perkovich, the director of the Non-Proliferation Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, describes the Bush Administration's policy as "the democratic bomb". He says that Bush's famous "axis of evil" speech was the start of America's policy shift. He recently wrote: "Contrary to the central premise of the nuclear non-proliferation regime - that nuclear weapons per se are a problem - the new strategy posits that the problem is bad guys with nuclear weapons." He says that this policy ignores Russia, China, and Pakistan, not because they are effective democracies, but because they are too big to transform or disarm. "Beyond targeting bad leaders, the new strategists seek to reduce penalties imposed on friendly democracies - that is, to bend the rules for friends." India is the most prominent recent case. The US has agreed to co-operate with its nuclear program, even though this undermines the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which India has not signed. ***************************************************************** 32 Pahrump Valley Times: 2021 seen as more likely Yucca opening date By MARK WAITE PVT MARK WAITE / PVT Ward Sproat and Eric Knox, director and associate director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management in Washington, D.C., look over the exhibits on Yucca Mountain at the entrance to the Nye County courthouse. March 2017 would be the earliest date the Yucca Mountain repository could open, but it will more likely be the year 2021, Ward Sproat, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said Monday during a stopover in Pahrump. Sproat visited Pahrump as three models of the Yucca Mountain project -- a shipping cask, the tunnel boring machine and a model of a rail and road shipment of nuclear waste -- were delivered to the Nye County Courthouse on East Basin Avenue. The exhibits were from the Beatty and Las Vegas Yucca Mountain information centers, which were closed recently due to budget cuts. Sproat said, "Those two information centers had very low numbers of people coming in." A new 5,000-square-foot Yucca Mountain information center was dedicated on East Postal Avenue in Pahrump last July, with facilities like touch screens to access information on the project, exhibits on the history of the repository from prehistoric times, plant life, cultural artifacts and other displays. The information center, however, is open only Mondays and Wednesdays due to the budget cuts. The plan is to keep it open to the public Mondays through Thursdays as funding permits. Sproat said when the operating budget for the Yucca Mountain budget is reduced by $100 million from $544.5 million to $444.5 million, the department has to look at where the program can be funded. But he still emphasized the role of public education at this critical step in the project. "I want to increase our public outreach and education in this program," Sproat said. "The licensing process is going to take three to four years in front of the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) at least. "The more we can provide about the straight scoop and give them a place locally to get answers to their questions that's what we want to do," he said. Sproat said he's been in his current job 11 months and during that time he met three times with representatives of the affected units of local government, the 10 counties surrounding Yucca Mountain including Nye County. Sproat said he put their budget requests in the federal 2008 year budget. "If we get fully appropriated the counties and the state are going to get everything they asked for," Sproat said. The affected units of local government stand to collect $7.5 million in the continuing resolution to fund the federal government this year. Nye County would receive $2.5 million under the plan proposed in February. Allen Benson, director of the office of external affairs for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said the department wanted to keep some exhibits in Nye County following the closure of the Beatty facility. There is also a Yucca Mountain information office in Goldfield in Esmeralda County. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has to approve the license for Yucca Mountain, Congress has to continue to approve appropriations to build the project and Congress has to approve the withdrawal of the land before Yucca Mountain can open, Sproat said. Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the project wouldn't open by 2010, a delay the Associated Press reported was due to allegations government scientists skirted quality control regulations and a federal court invalidation of proposed radiation safety standards. Nye County Commission Chairman Gary Hollis, the county's liaison on nuclear waste, suggested the exhibits be set up at the entrance to the courthouse. He said the exhibits could be moved to the Pahrump museum at a later date. Hollis was an unabashed advocate for the safety of the Yucca Mountain project. He vowed, "I will ride the first shipment myself from the power plant to Yucca Mountain." webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 33 Pahrump Valley Times: Nicholson doesn't make cut as nuclear waste director May 18, 2007 By MARK WAITE PVT Steve Johnson stops to look at the new exhibits at the entrance to the Nye County courthouse. Lewis Darnell Lacy Jr., a former assistant county attorney in Harris County, Texas and former consultant in the oil and gas industry, is Nye County Manager Ron Williams' choice as the new director of the nuclear waste repository project office. The recommendation to the Nye County commissioners will be made Monday. Lacy recently relocated to Las Vegas to work for Sierra Pacific Resources. He has experience as an engineer, manager and executive. He holds degrees in law, business administration and chemical engineering. Coming up short for the position was Rachel Nicholson, former deputy district attorney for Nye County, as well as interim nuclear waste project office director Dave Swanson. In his career Lacy has provided advice on real estate and property taxation, did consulting and business development work for clients in the oil and gas business as well as the nuclear power industry. "Your position would be an ideal fit for an attorney with my prior experience in the energy industry," Lacy wrote in his application letter. The director will interact with the U.S. Department of Energy on the Yucca Mountain project, supervise consultants in the county's oversight of the project, work with county commissioners on implementing the $10 million in annual payment equal to taxes the county receives from the DOE and other duties. Swanson has been interim director of the nuclear waste office since the resignation of Les Bradshaw in March 2004, except for a brief period from February to May 2006 when Dale Hammermeister ran the office. Swanson was offered the job last fall, but the commission held back after Commissioner Joni Eastley complained about a conflict of interest on the selection committee, which included Geneva Hollis, wife of Commissioner Gary Hollis, the county's liaison on nuclear waste. A selection committee narrowed down the latest list of candidates. When it comes to the assistant county manager position, former three-term County Commissioner Cameron McRae confirmed he was one of three candidates called in to interview for that job. Williams said last month he expects to have a recommendation to present to commissioners for assistant county manager by late June or early July. A five-member selection committee met April 6 and listed the same top seven candidates out of 45 applicants, Williams said. McRae served three terms as a commissioner until defeated by Candice Trummell in 2002. McRae has been the Nye County School District transportation director since October 2001. Pahrump Town Manager Dave Richards withdrew his application after failing to make the list of finalists. webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 34 DOE: Swedish Delegation Visits DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab May 17, 2007 GOLDEN, CO – Prime Minister of Sweden Fredrik Reinfeldt today toured the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the nation’s primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. Prime Minister Reinfeldt toured research facilities and viewed demonstrations on solar energy, biofuels, wind power, and hybrid vehicles. Today’s visit concludes the Prime Minister’s tour of the United States, which began earlier this week with a meeting with President Bush to discuss bilateral cooperation, as well as climate change and trade. “I thank the Prime Minister for visiting the nation’s premier lab for energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development,” Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. “Like the United States, Sweden, has set a bold vision for its energy policy. We look forward to working with and learning from Sweden to help achieve a cleaner and more secure energy future.” “It is a great opportunity for me to visit NREL and learn more about the cutting edge technologies in energy efficiency and renewable energy. I hope to see more cooperation between Sweden and the U.S. on research and innovation in these fields,” Prime Minister Reinfeldt said. The Prime Minister visited NREL’s Alternative Fuels User Facility (AFUF), which houses the bioethanol pilot plant and other ethanol processing facilities. The AFUF allows users to test refining and processing techniques on a small scale as a first step toward commercialization. The tour also included reviews of NREL’s work on renewable power generation facilities including wind power generation and the President’s Solar America Initiative (SAI). SAI seeks to reduce the cost of photovoltaic solar power generation, making it cost competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015. The Prime Minister received a briefing on NREL’s research on Zero-Energy Homes. Through a combination of energy efficient technologies and materials, as well as on-site power generation through solar energy, Zero-Energy Homes will produce as much energy as they consume. Research projects at NREL are helping develop the technologies and designs that will make these homes a reality. Prime Minister Reinfeldt also toured NREL’s Science and Technology Facility, recently designated as one of the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly places to work, according to the U.S. Green Buildings Council. DOE Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner accompanied Prime Minister Reinfeldt at NREL today. Additional information on NREL. Media contact(s): Julie Ruggiero, (202) 586-4940 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 35 DOE: Statement from Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman on the Nomination of Thomas P. D’Agostino as Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator of NNSA May 17, 2007 “Today the President announced his intention to nominate Thomas P. D'Agostino as Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Tom served as NNSA's Acting Administrator for three months and as Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs for the past fourteen months. In these roles, Tom has done an outstanding job and has earned my full confidence. With this nomination, we are making NNSA even stronger and I am eager to have Tom step into the NNSA administrator role on a permanent basis. I look forward to working with Tom as we continue to pursue NNSA’s national security mission. While the nomination is under consideration by the U.S. Senate, Bill Ostendorff will continue serving as NNSA’s acting administrator.” Media contact(s): Megan Barnett, (202) 586-4940 Bryan Wilkes, (202) 586-7371 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 36 SF Chronicle: Protesters disturb regents' meeting Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer Friday, May 18, 2007 Scores of hunger strikers and other protesters demanding that the University of California cut ties with the nation's nuclear weapons program noisily disrupted Thursday's governing Board of Regents meeting before being forced out of the room by police as regents fled into a back room. Thirteen people who resisted were carried outside the meeting room at UCSF-Mission Bay by police and arrested. Several of them were part of a weeklong hunger strike opposing UC's role in nuclear weapons production and appeared frail. Thursday's melee began moments after the start of the regents' regular May meeting during which UC Vice President S. Robert Foley Jr. planned to formally announce the U.S. Department of Energy's decision -- originally unveiled May 8 -- to award UC and its corporate partners a seven-year contract to run Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a nuclear weapons lab in Livermore. Regent Norman Pattiz told the protesters that they were not alone in their concerns about nuclear weapons development, citing a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece by former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, among others. But, he said, the elimination of nuclear weapons is a "process that takes time." Pattiz then urged the hunger strikers to contact their elected officials and "go out and have some lunch." The room erupted in anger. Several protesters stood and shouted at Pattiz and the other regents. Pattiz fired back that if they didn't quiet down he would order the room cleared. The protesters quieted down for a few minutes, but started back up again as Foley began to speak. Nine UC police officers entered and announced the room must be cleared. Most protesters complied, but 13 remained and sat in two groups with their hands or arms linked while singing John Lennon's classic protest song "Give Peace a Chance." The police used cords to tie the protesters' hands and began hauling them out one at a time. As they were carried out, one protester who identified himself as Matthew Taylor shouted to board chairman Richard Blum: "I hope we can continue this dialogue." Police Capt. Jon Easterbook said the 13 protesters would be transferred to the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street, where he expected them to receive citations. After the protesters were removed, the regents resumed the meeting after a delay of about 40 minutes. Jedidjah de Vries, a former UC Santa Barbara philosophy student who now works full time for an anti-nuclear group in Livermore, said the protest reflected "an outpouring of frustration" over "the moral quandary (UC officials) put themselves in running the (nuclear) labs." The hunger strike among more than 30 students and former students at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz began on May 9 in opposition to UC's role in overseeing the nation's two nuclear weapons labs at Livermore and Los Alamos in collaboration with industrial partners. E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com. This article appeared on page B - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle ***************************************************************** 37 SF Chronicle: UC legitimizes nuclear weapons industry Darwin BondGraham Friday, May 18, 2007 The U.S. nuclear weapons complex is hurriedly finalizing the design and preparations to build a new hydrogen bomb, called the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). According to a recent National Nuclear Security Administration report, "the RRW strategy would enable a major transformation in the nuclear weapons stockpile and complex infrastructure. Although the stockpile would be smaller in 2030, deterrence would be enhanced because the transformed complex would be fully capable, sufficiently flexible to address technical matters relating to the stockpile in a timely manner, and able to respond to adverse geopolitical change" (www.nnsa.doe.gov/docs). In other words, RRW, if supported by the president and funded by Congress, will expend billions of dollars over the next few decades and guarantee the long-term existence of nuclear weapons. Such a program will also constitute a U.S. violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a regime that has mostly worked up to the present day. A number of students within the University of California, the government's No. 1 nuclear warhead contractor, have seized on the same criticism, and on May 9, initiated a hunger strike demanding UC severance from the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories. Their argument: The University of California must withdraw from the labs so it can be a major force in defeating an unnecessary and dangerous new weapons program and thus in creating the conditions for disarmament politics. RRW, plutonium pit production and the various other practical steps being taken toward a new U.S. nuclear weapons program are already in motion, even though Congress has yet to fully commit itself to the mission (in fact, funding was just reduced from $119 million to $74 million for RRW by the House Armed Services Committee). Nor have the armed forces committed themselves to the idea of rebuilding the U.S. arsenal. So where is the push for RRW and pit production coming from? Lobbyists for this new program include managers at the weapons labs and other facilities contractors, alongside a powerful (but small) alliance of politicians and policymakers in Congress and the executive branch. The University of California's role in this is primarily about legitimation. At one time, UC's administrative influence at the labs was high. Although UC, as an institution, had little say over the programs and policies that the labs would promote, certain members of the Board of Regents, UC President's Office and members of the faculty have held considerable sway over U.S. nuclear weapons policy. This did not mean, however, that the university operated these labs in "the public trust," (a phrase the regents often invoke to imply transparency and disinterestedness), but rather that only several regents and a few UC administrators have ever had a say with the labs. The vast majority of the university community -- its faculty, students, staff and administrators have never had any ability or opportunity to oversee the labs. The advent of contract competition in 2003 for Los Alamos signaled a new era for the nature of UC lab management. As a result, both LANL and LLNL have effectively been privatized. They are now operated by for-profit limited liability corporations, with 96 percent of the National Nuclear Security Administration's appropriations going to payments to contractors (www.lasg.org/NNSAPrivatization.pdf). By grafting the University of California's name onto the weapons labs, the UC Board of Regents effectively gives respectability to a mission that is increasingly rejected by the American people and the international community. It gives an aura of enlightened decision-making to a task that has already become profit-driven. The students have begun catalyzing faculty and administrative dissent against the labs and their missions to challenge UC role's as the grand legitimator of nuclear weapons. Darwin BondGraham is a graduate student in Sociology at UC Santa Barbara and a member of the UC Student DOE Lab Oversight Committee (http://doeloc.org). This article appeared on page B - 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle ***************************************************************** 38 Inside Bay Area: Protesters hit UC, nuke arms link CONTRA COSTA TIMES Article Last Updated: 05/17/2007 11:57:49 AM PDT SAN FRANCISCO - Dozens of hunger strikers and their supporters this morning protested the University of California's continued role in nuclear weapons development. Speaking at the UC Board of Regents' meeting, students and alumni criticized the university for managing weapons labs in Livermore and New Mexico. The U.S. Department of Energy last week announced that a UC-led team had been awarded the Livermore management contract. About 40 students and alumni have fasted for more than a week to protest the nuclear ties. Several told the regents the university was violating the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and hurting people worldwide. "This isn't fun," said Adrian Drummond-Cole, a fasting UC Santa Barbara student. "We're not suffering for fun. It's time you put principles before profits." Protesters gave the board hundreds of signatures from supporters. Board members did not respond to the comments. UC Santa Cruz student John Williams said his emotional pain far outweighed his pangs of hunger. "My brain aches every time I try to think about what we're doing with nuclear weapons," he said as supporters held up peace signs behind him. "My heart aches, because when I feel the pain we're inflicting on people, that hurts, more than going nine days without food." The group chanted, "UC, nuclear free," as they filed from the room after speaking. Matt Krupnick covers higher education. Reach him at 925-943-8246 or href="mailto:mkrupnick@cctimes.com">mkrupnick@cctimes.com. © 2000-2006 ANG Newspapers | Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 39 KnoxNews: Restarted reactor at full power By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com May 18, 2007 OAK RIDGE - The High Flux Isotope Reactor is now operating at full power, and scientific experiments will likely resume next week, the reactor manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory said Thursday. The world's most powerful research reactor was restarted Sunday for the first time in 16 months and since then passed a series of tests and gradual increases in the power level. John Bumgardner said the reactor achieved full power - 85 megawatts - at 4:43 p.m. Wednesday. "We're very pleased with the reactor and the cold-source refrigeration plant's performance," the manager said. "It's gratifying to see the design performing as we expected." During the lengthy outage, workers refurbished the 40-year-old nuclear facility and installed new instruments, including a cold source that greatly enhances the reactor's experimental capabilities. The cold source uses liquid helium and hydrogen to cool the research chambers to minus-425 degrees Fahrenheit. That slows the movement of neutrons emanating from the reactor's core along special beam lines. The ORNL facility is used mostly for neutron-scattering studies that explore the structure and property of materials, and cold neutrons are particularly suitable for research with polymers and biological substances. The reactor also produces radioisotopes for medical purposes, such as cancer treatments, and industrial and research applications. Forty-nine research experiments have been approved for the Oak Ridge reactor's first fuel cycle, and Bumgardner said scientists were at work Thursday aligning instruments and commissioning equipment that will be used for those experiments. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 40 lamonitor.com: LANL enforces strict drug policy The Online News Source for Los Alamos CAROL A. CLARK Monitor Senior Reporter Some 200 employees from Los Alamos National Laboratory have been called in for random drug testing since an expanded substance-abuse policy was implemented on March 5. A majority of those employees hold security clearances. "Of the approximately 200 employees tested, fewer than 10 have exercised options under the policy and have left the laboratory," LANL Public Affairs spokesperson Kevin Roark said during an interview this morning. Roark explained that under LANL's expanded substance abuse policy, employees who test positive can voluntarily resign to avoid termination. Employees also have the option to refuse testing. In that case, the employee is automatically considered to have tested positive and can either resign or be fired. "A couple (or) three exercised that option," Roark said, adding that some resigned and others were terminated. Rumors have been floating around lately as to how many employees have left the lab as a result of random drug testing, Roark said. He said he has heard some outrageous numbers over the last three weeks. "It's fewer than 10. We have no reason to make it what it's not," he said. An update of the substance abuse policy was implemented as part of the laboratory's efforts to tighten security. LANL Director Michael Anastasio told employees during an all-employee meeting in December that an expanded substance abuse policy to include testing for the use of illegal drugs would be implemented. Anastasio explained that the new program would include the following components: Pre-employment screening of all regular basis employees, including contractors; random testing of laboratory employees; testing in response to reasonable suspicion of illegal drug use; and testing after serious incidents and accidents. LANL employees were given the opportunity, through Feb. 5, to weigh in on the policy update and provided more than 300 comments and suggestions. Those comments were reviewed and revisions made to the new policy, according to the lab. Employees suggested that a metrics and an assessment schedule be developed to ensure effective implementation of the policy. And one of their major concerns was the issue of "false positives." LANL stated in January that provisions were put in place to safeguard against that happening, adding that those provisions protect employees taking prescription medication and able to provide documentation through medical or pharmacy records. In the absence of a medical explanation, specimens are reported to personnel security as confirmed positives. The new policy states that personnel security notify employees selected for random testing and that any employees on approved leave aren't required to appear for testing. All other employees who fail to appear for drug testing are treated in the same manner as if they had tested positive, according to the policy. The policy further states that a positive drug test will result in disciplinary action "up to and including termination." Anastasio said in December that the new substance abuse policy "reflects today's environment and the need to take greater precautions to ensure a workplace that is safe, secure and demonstrates that we are worthy of our nation's trust." Printed May 17, 2007 © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************