***************************************************************** 06/08/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.134 ***************************************************************** 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 US: [smygo] Republican Presidential Candidates Back Preventive Nucle 2 US: 25 Years After Protest, Nuclear Weapons Today 3 US: Guardian Unlimited: US to Press Ahead With Anti-Missile Plan 4 US: newsobserver.com: Efficiency in the equation 5 Daily Times: All of Bush’s eggs in Musharraf's basket 6 Reuters: Bush signals missile shield to go ahead 7 US: Reuters: Old power plant values soar in supply squeeze | 8 US: UPI: NNSA boosts nuke disarmament rate 9 US: The Indypendent: Two Ways of Life Vie for the Future & How 10 UCS: President Putin Needn't Worry About a U.S. Missile Defense Syst 11 AFP: Bush, Kaczynski reassure Russia on US missile shield plans 12 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Wins Polish Nod for Missile Defense 13 BBC NEWS: Blair tells Putin of Russia fears 14 IHT: Nuclear threat continues to grow, New Zealand warns on annivers 15 AFP: Royal Navy launches giant nuclear submarine - 16 Guardian Unlimited: Germany: G-8 Agreement on Climate Change NUCLEAR REACTORS 17 US: mongabay: Nobel prize winner debates future of nuclear power 18 The Hindu: India comes out with fresh proposal 19 Times of India: India softens stand on Indo-US N-deal 20 ottawasun.com: Lukewarm nuke audit 21 Platts: Nine European utilites, copper company bid for Belene nuke p 22 US: Arizona Republic: Jailed Palo Verde engineer to be freed 23 US: Rutland Herald: Court blocks Yankee's warm water discharge 24 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Court bars water temp hike by VY 25 US: NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet in Rockvill 26 Deccan Herald: G8 favours civil nuclear partnership with India 27 Hindustan Times: India proposes dedicated facility for spent nuclear 28 US: Toledo Free Press: A tradition for Toledo's future 29 US: TheDay.com: Outlook Dim For Power 30 Viet Nam News: Draft law on nuclear energy presented 31 The Telegraph: After N-hiccup, a belly ache NUCLEAR SECURITY 32 US: NRC: NRC Seeks Public Comment on Terrorism Risk Assessment for NUCLEAR SAFETY NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 33 US: Orange County Register: Nuclear incidents 'more than minor' 34 US: The Coloradoan: Just say, 'No way' to uranium 35 Las Vegas Business Press: Contractor with local ties acquired for $2 36 AU ABC: No plans to store high-level radioactive in Aust - Vaile. 37 News & Star: Sellafield finds "hot" pebbles PEACE 38 US: AFP: Hiroshima bombing display to visit 101 US cities - US DEPT. OF ENERGY 39 Santa Fe New Mexican: New report examines LANL cleanup efforts 40 Tri-City Herald: K East sludge, Klein slip toward history 41 Hanford News: LIGO receives grant for educational outreach 42 Hanford News: Tank farm cost jumps $18 billion: Estimated contingenc 43 KnoxNews: Browns Ferry 1 at 100 percent power 44 lamonitor.com: Study says LANL's water project 'in progress' 45 Rocky Mountain News: Ritter urges help for Flats workers 46 KnoxNews: Senators urge DOE to speed up OR cleanup 47 KnoxNews: Poplar trees fuel latest research project at ORNL ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 [smygo] Republican Presidential Candidates Back Preventive Nuclear Strike against Iran (Except Ron Paul) Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 02:22:13 -0500 (CDT) News & Views for Anarchists & Activists: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo [I don't like Trotskyists much, but this is interesting and on the mark.--DC] http://tinyurl.com/yp89dq Republican presidential candidates back nuclear strike against Iran By Patrick Martin 7 June 2007 Nine of ten candidates for the Republican presidential nomination explicitly or tacitly supported a US attack on Iran using nuclear weapons, in response to a question at Tuesday nights nationally televised debate in New Hampshire. Despite the extraordinary character of these declarations -- giving support to the first use of nuclear weapons in war since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 62 years ago -- there was virtually no US press coverage of these remarks and no commentary on their significance. While the Republican candidates sought to present the military action as a limited one against Irans alleged nuclear weapons facilities, calling them tactical nuclear strikes, no one should misunderstand what this means. The use of nuclear weapons, in whatever form, against a densely populated country of 75 million would be an act of mass murder. These comments reflect the derangement and depravity of considerable sections of a ruling elite which believes it must make a success of its occupation of Iraq, even if it requires doubling its bet and attacking another major country in the Middle Eastone which is three times larger than Iraq and with a long history of struggle for independence and against colonial-style rule. The initial exchange came about half an hour into the debate, which was broadcast on CNN and moderated by CNN anchorman Wolf Blitzer. After some initial discussion on the Iraq war, in which nine of the ten candidates vowed to persevere in the effort to control the oil-rich country, Blitzer asked Congressman Duncan Hunter of California, former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, about recent talks between US and Iranian officials in Baghdad. He asked Hunter whether it was correct to negotiate with Iran, given Irans alleged efforts to develop nuclear weapons. When Hunter endorsed the talks, Blitzer followed up with this question: Blitzer: If it came down to a preemptive US strike against Irans nuclear facility, if necessary would you authorize as president the use of tactical nuclear weapons? Hunter: I would authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons if there was no other way to preempt those particular centrifuges. Blitzer then turned to former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who currently leads in opinion polls of prospective Republican primary voters. Blitzer: What do you think, Mayor? Do you think if you were president of the United States and it came down to Iran having a nuclear bomb, which you say is unacceptable, you would authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons? Giuliani: Part of the premise of talking to Iran has to be that they have to know very clearly that it is unacceptable to the United States that they have nuclear power. I think it could be done with conventional weapons, but you cant rule out anything and you shouldnt take any option off the table. The same question was then posed to former Virginia Governor James Gilmore, and to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the candidate with the most backing from Wall Street and other financial interests. Gilmore criticized the desire for Iran to dominate that portion of the world, adding that while he supported negotiations with Iran, Were also going to say that having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable. They need to understand it. And all options are on the table by the United States in that instance. Questioned by Blitzer, Romney used the same formulation. Blitzer: Governor Romney, I want to get you on the record. Do you agree with the mayor, the governor, others here, that the use of tactical nuclear weapons, potentially, would be possible if that were the only way to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb? Romney: You dont take options off the table. These four candidates were the only ones directly asked the question, but five others -- Senator John McCain, Senator Sam Brownback, Congressman Tom Tancredo, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee -- had ample opportunity to object or to distinguish their positions from this endorsement of mass murder. Only one candidate chose to do so, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, the former Libertarian presidential candidate. Paul, a conservative politician who articulates the isolationist strain in American bourgeois politics, is a critic of the Iraq war. He finally addressed the issue of using nuclear weapons an hour after it was raised, in response to a question from a college professor in the audience, who asked what each candidate thought was the most important moral issue facing the country. Several of the Republican candidates gave predictable responses, citing abortion and the right to life, a right which they are not prepared to concede to the people of Iraq, Iran or any other country that stands in the way of American imperialism. Congressman Pauls response is worth quoting, since it demonstrates how far the mainstream of American bourgeois politics has gone in embracing mass killing as an instrument of state policy. Blitzer: Congressman Paul, whats the most pressing moral issue in the United States right now? Paul: I think it is the acceptance just recently that we now promote preemptive war. I do not believe thats part of the American tradition . . . And now, tonight, we hear that were not even willing to remove from the table a preemptive nuclear strike against a country that has done no harm to us directly and is no threat to our national security! These remarks were greeted with considerable applause, an indication that even among self-identified rank-and-file Republicans there is growing unease over the escalating militarism of the American ruling elite. But in the corporate-controlled US media, there was little or no commentary about the endorsement of a nuclear strike against Iran. CNN, which broadcast the debate, reported it in passing, and cited only Congressman Hunters support for the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The Washington Post reduced the issue to a single clause of a sentence towards the end of its report on the debate, in which, it claimed, McCain, Giuliani and Romney each had moments in which they shined. The Post reporters did not say if they thought that Giulianis and Romneys support for possible nuclear strikes on Iran was such a moment. The entire treatment of the subject was limited to the following: The candidates said they would not remove the option of using nuclear weapons to prevent Iran from obtaining such weapons, and they also fielded questions about abortion, religion, health care and global warming. The rest of the mainstream press did not even report this endorsement of an unprovoked US nuclear attack on Iran. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News Service, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News all said nothing. There is no politically innocent explanation for this silence. One can only imagine the howling in the American media if a prominent official figure in China had threatened the use of nuclear weapons against Taiwan, or if a candidate to succeed Vladimir Putin in Russia had called for nuclear strikes against one of its pro-Western neighbors. Outside the United States, the significance of the threats of nuclear attack on Iran was widely recognized. The British news service Reuters led its report on the debate with the Iran comments, under the headline, Republicans: Iran Must Not Have Nuclear Arms. The lead paragraph begins: Republican candidates for US president agreed on Tuesday that Iran must not develop atomic weapons even if a tactical nuclear strike is needed to stop it . . . The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz also took note, commenting, One of the more memorable statements was made by former Governor Jim Gilmore, who said that all options were on the table in dealing with Iran, including the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons. The bloodlust expressed in these remarks is not limited to the nine Republicans on the stage in New Hampshire. Prospective candidate Fred Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee, gave a television interview immediately after the debate in which he solidarized himself with the call for a preemptive strike against Irans nuclear facilities. As for the Democrats, nearly all of the partys presidential candidates, as well as the entire congressional leadership, are on record in support of escalating the US campaign of diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions and military saber-rattling against Iran, aimed at preparing public opinion in the United States for a new and even more terrible slaughter in the Middle East. -- Dan Clore My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_ http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1587154838/ref=nosim/thedanclorenecro Lord Werdgliffe & Necronomicon Page: http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/ News & Views for Anarchists & Activists: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo "Don't just question authority, Don't forget to question me." -- Jello Biafra ***************************************************************** 2 25 Years After Protest, Nuclear Weapons Today Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 11:02:09 -0500 (CDT) Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org ___________________________________________________ Friday, June 8, 2007 25 Years After Historic Protest: Nuclear Weapons and Power Today LESLIE CAGAN, lesliecagan@igc.org, http://www.unitedforpeace.org Lead organizer of the June 12, 1982, Central Park protest, Cagan is now national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice. She said today: "The march from the UN to Central Park was probably the largest single protest in U.S. history, with the police saying it was 750,000 people. New York City was shut down for the day. Today, 25 years later, the world is no safer, no more free of dangers of a nuclear catastrophe. The U.S. government's nuclear hypocrisy has not led to peace, but has fed perpetual conflict. While Washington takes us to war claiming to be searching for weapons of mass destruction, they are now about to produce a new generation of nuclear weapons." JACQUELINE CABASSO, wslf@earthlink.net, http://www.wslfweb.org Cabasso is executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation and contributor to the just-released book "Nuclear Disorder or Cooperative Security? U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis and Paths to Peace" (see ). She said today: "It was shocking that several presidential candidates in the recent GOP debate talked almost casually about using nuclear weapons against Iran, but there was no public outcry. The massive June 12, 1982, anti-nuclear demonstration in New York City was part of a coordinated day of protests around the world, organized in response to the U.S. deployment of nuclear missiles in Western Europe. In California, thousands of people nonviolently blockaded the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab, and 1,500 were arrested. "When the Cold War abruptly ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, people everywhere breathed a huge sigh of relief, believing that they had escaped a nuclear holocaust and putting nuclear weapons out of their minds. Yet, the nuclear juggernaut rolled on, as militarists in the Pentagon and scientists at the nuclear weapons labs conjured up new justifications to project the nuclear weapons enterprise into the future. Today, the U.S. still has about 10,000 nuclear weapons and is designing new ones. The annual nuclear weapons budget is one-third higher now -- in real terms -- than it was during the Cold War. We need to rekindle the intense international concern about nuclear weapons of 25 years ago that probably helped us survive. HARVEY WASSERMAN, Windhw@aol.com, http://www.solartopia.org Wasserman is a founder of the grassroots "No Nukes" movement and author of the recent book "SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030." He said today: "The 25th anniversary of the biggest anti-nuclear gathering in U.S. history comes with the attempt to revive atomic power. When one million people gathered in Central Park in 1982, they meant to call a halt to the spread of both nuclear weapons and the nuclear power plants that created the materials to build those weapons. The march was remarkably successful, in that it helped continue the movement to keep atomic power plants from spreading. It also focused new energy on keeping Ronald Reagan from using nuclear weapons in an 'Evil Empire' standoff with the Soviet Union. "In the wake of the 9/11/2001 terror attacks, every reactor is a pre-deployed weapon of nuclear mass destruction. The plants are unsafe, unreliable, unneeded and untenable. It is absurd to think that this old, failed technology would have a place in a world which must be powered by green technology. Instead, we need to shut these plants and leap with both feet into a renewable 'Solartopian' future." For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 _________________________________________________________________ You received this message as a subscriber on the list: public@lists.accuracy.org To be removed from the list, send any message to: public-unsubscribe@lists.accuracy.org For all list information and functions, including changing your subscription mode and options, visit the Web page: http://lists.accuracy.org/lists/info/public ***************************************************************** 3 Guardian Unlimited: US to Press Ahead With Anti-Missile Plan From the Associated Press Friday June 8, 2007 11:31 PM By TERENCE HUNT AP White House Correspondent ROME (AP) - President Bush signaled Friday the United States will press ahead with a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe despite Russia's heated objections. Poland's president expressed support for installing interceptor rockets in his country. An upset stomach crimped Bush's schedule on a busy day that took him from Germany to Poland and finally to Italy. The president stayed in bed and skipped morning sessions at the summit of world leaders in Heiligendamm, Germany, and he appeared subdued later after talks in Poland with President Lech Kaczynski. ``Still not 100 percent but better all the time,'' White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said of her boss. On Saturday, Bush will meet for the first time with Pope Benedict XVI. Large anti-Bush demonstrations are planned in Rome, and Premier Romano Prodi had to ask his Cabinet members to refrain from taking part. The administration made clear it was not abandoning plans for a missile-defense program in Poland and the Czech Republic despite a surprise counterproposal Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin to instead use a Soviet-era radar tracking station in Azerbaijan. Putin had more suggestions on Friday for locations for missile interceptors: ``They could be placed in the south, in U.S. NATO allies such as Turkey, or even Iraq,'' Putin said. ``They could also be placed on sea platforms.'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an Associated Press interview in New York, said Friday, ``One does not choose sites for missile defense out of the blue. It's geometry and geography as to how you intercept a missile.'' ``This is an idea that has not yet been vetted,'' she said of Putin's offer. ``We have to see whether Azerbaijan makes any sense in the context of missile defense.'' The U.S. system calls for a radar screen in the Czech Republic to watch for missile threats, and 10 interceptor rockets in Poland to shoot down any missiles. Both Bush and Kaczynski said the system would not threaten Russia. The Kremlin argues that the system would undermine its nuclear deterrent. ``The system we have proposed is not directed at Russia,'' Bush said after talks with Kaczynski at the presidential retreat at Jurata, a resort on the Baltic Sea. ``Indeed, we would welcome Russian cooperation on missile defense.'' Bush said a working group including the United States and Russia would ``discuss different opportunities and different options, all aimed at providing protection for people from rogue regimes who might be in a position to either blackmail and/or attack those of us who live in free societies.'' Kaczynski voiced strong support for putting the interceptors on Polish soil. ``As far as the missile defense system is concerned, the two parties fully agree,'' Kaczynski said. ``The Russian federation can feel totally safe,'' said Kaczynski. He said Moscow must recognize that the world has changed since the fall of the Soviet Union nearly two decades ago. Bush thanked the Polish president for sending troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Poland has nearly 900 troops in Iraq, and Bush noted that the country had recently agreed to keep them there at least through the end of the year. The three-day summit in Heiligendamm ended with agreement to commit more than $60 billion to fight disease in Africa. Half of the money already had been pledged by Bush, and other countries would have to fill in the rest. Anti-poverty activists have complained that promises to boost annual aid to poor countries have not been met. The leaders also warned Iran to drop its disputed nuclear program, signaling support for U.N. Security Council moves to discuss a third set of sanctions against Tehran. But, in a setback, they failed to reach a deal about the independence-seeking Serbian province of Kosovo. White House counselor Dan Bartlett said Bush likely fell ill with ``some sort of bug, probably more viral in nature'' and that it appeared unrelated to anything he ate. Bartlett joked that Bush's decision to avoid the other leaders for a while was a ``precautionary step'' to avoid following in the footsteps of his father, former President George H. W. Bush. At a state dinner in Tokyo in January 1992, the elder Bush fainted and vomited into the lap of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 4 newsobserver.com: Efficiency in the equation Friday, June 8, 2007 Bob McGehee RALEIGH - Next time you're in a room full of people, take a look left and right. Then pause for a moment and consider that for every two North Carolinians you see today, within 25 years, there will be a third. Between 2000 and 2030, North Carolina's population is projected to increase by half, to more than 12 million people, making it the seventh-most-populous state in the country. Not only are there more of us each year, but our new homes are bigger than ever, and individually we're depending more and more on electricity to power our lives. That electricity must come from somewhere, and through the years, that has meant increased production from power plants. Meanwhile, our world has become much more aware of global climate issues and the factors that affect climate change, including the implications of growth for our environment. Thus we find ourselves at an energy crossroads. As a utility, Progress Energy Carolinas is committed to making sure electricity remains available, reliable and affordable and that it is produced in an environmentally sound manner. We believe we must move forward with a balanced solution to meeting future energy needs. That balance includes a strong commitment to energy efficiency, investments in renewable energy sources and emerging technologies, and investments in state-of-the art power plants -- both current plants and those that might be needed in the future. We can't rely exclusively on one component or another. The balance is critical. l l l RECENTLY PROGRESS ENERGY ANNOUNCED A GOAL of aggressively implementing energy-efficiency programs to double the 1,000 megawatts currently being saved with existing programs. Over the next two years we will put into effect new conservation and demand-side management programs. We will evaluate their effectiveness and participation rates to determine their viability in reducing electricity demand further. Many of our customers are already participating in efficiency programs. Since 1980, customers have saved 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, deferring the need for building new power plants. Additional reductions in future electricity demand growth through energy efficiency could push the need for new power plants farther into the future. Related to this efficiency initiative, we've announced a commitment that we will not propose any new coal plants during this two-year evaluation period. And we have notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that if we move forward with plans for a new nuclear plant at the Harris site in Wake County (a decision that has not yet been made), the new plant would be online in 2018 or beyond, at least two years later than initial energy demand forecasts had indicated. Progress Energy is serious about this effort. We have set an ambitious goal -- reducing electricity consumption in our service area by the equivalent of six combustion-turbine power plants. We're going to be aggressive and innovative, starting with our own buildings, and we will work with our customers and communities to implement programs that will be a good fit for our customers' lifestyles. Our customers have the most critical role. Success comes down to active participation on a large scale. It requires each of us to understand and change our energy use and behaviors. But we're not talking about a return to the Stone Age. Many real efficiency opportunities cost neither money nor convenience. Start with the low-hanging fruit: Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, and turn off those lights, TVs, computers and other appliances when not in use. Keep your thermostat on the highest comfortable setting in summer and lowest in winter. Fix leaky ducts, windows and doorways. Our Web site, www.progress-energy.com, has more about the things you can do. Our state will continue to grow. The same things that brought us and our families here are bringing others every day. How we meet the needs of that growth a decade from now depends largely on whether North Carolina is truly ready to become a national leader in energy efficiency. (Bob McGehee is chairman and chief executive officer for Progress Energy, which has its headquarters in Raleigh. Progress Energy Carolinas has more than 1.2 million customers in North Carolina (mostly in the eastern part of the state, but also in the Asheville area), and additional customers in South Carolina.) © Copyright 2007, The News & Observer Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 5 Daily Times: All of Bush’s eggs in Musharraf's basket Leading News Resource of Pakistan Saturday, June 09, 2007 By Khalid Hasan WASHINGTON: The Bush administration has “put all of its eggs in the basket of an autocrat unlikely to survive – in this case, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf” on the one hand, while on the other it has blown chances to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden, to win wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to have any chance of maintaining a stable nuclear-armed Pakistan. According to an analysis by Ivan Eland, senior fellow and director of the Centre on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute in the United States, “Although Musharraf uses the US war on terror and desire to get Bin Laden to play the United States like a fiddle, the Bush administration’s reasoning is that alternatives to Musharraf are worse. If the United States keeps solidly backing Musharraf, things could get much worse than even Bin Laden using Pakistan as a haven: a nuclear-armed Pakistan controlled by radical Islamists.” He thinks it is unfortunate but Pakistan probably has already been “lost,” and the US policy has played an important role in its demise. US policymakers have repeatedly underestimated the consequences of the deep unpopularity engendered by the profligate US government meddling in the affairs of other countries. The Bush administration, with its “macho bravado,” especially has had a “tin ear” for the ramifications of anti-US hatred. After the 9/11, instead of scheming to use the attacks as a justification to go after Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the Bush administration should have eliminated the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, used enough US forces to get Bin Laden instead of relying on unreliable Afghan fighters, taken full advantage of Musharraf’s limited-time offer to give the US military free rein in Pakistan to hunt down Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, and then withdrawn from the region. Instead, the Bush administration allowed mission creep to take its eyes off the prize of taking down Al-Qaeda. Eland believes that the occupation of Afghanistan by non-Muslim forces and close US support for Musharraf in Pakistan revved up Islamic militants there and gradually turned them against the Musharraf regime. In an attempt to discreetly court these militants to support his government and to maintain the flow of US military aid to ostensibly fight them, Musharraf allowed these groups to operate in the wild tribal regions of western Pakistan on the Afghan border and even reached a truce with them that withdrew the Pakistani government’s military forces from these areas. “This wink and nod has allowed both Al-Qaeda and the militant Taliban to recover and re-energise themselves what are now essentially safe havens. The stepped up Taliban attacks on US forces in Afghanistan can be explained by the continued US occupation there and the havens given to them by Musharraf.” The writer asks why given Musharraf’s “unenthusiastic pursuit” of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan, the United States continues to support him. The answer is mainly out of fear of “instability” or any change in a nuclear-armed country. The United States, with its sprawling informal empire, tends to be status-quo-oriented. The United States fears that the only alternative to Musharraf in a nuclear-armed country is the Islamic militants; but this outcome is the most likely if the unpopular United States continues to back Musharraf so closely. Musharraf has faced mass protests across Pakistan for his “increased despotism” and his suspension of the country’s chief justice. The Islamists have been strengthened by Musharraf’s suppression of alternative non-Islamic opposition parties; Musharraf has said that their leaders – exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif – will not be allowed to return for upcoming parliamentary elections. According to Eland, “Instead of the disastrous policy the Bush administration has pursued, it should end the occupation of Afghanistan, which would cool the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan and Islamic militancy in Pakistan. In addition, the United States should threaten to cut off aid to Pakistan unless Musharraf and his intelligence services make a genuine attempt to capture or kill Bin Laden. With a cooling of militant Islam in the region, brought about by a US withdrawal, Musharraf should have more leeway to pursue Bin Laden without an Islamist backlash. Finally, the United States should press Musharraf to open the elections to non-Islamist oriented parties and allow their leaders to return from exile. These actions would further bleed support from the Islamist radicals. Unfortunately, keeping the Islamists around, but contained, has been good for the autocratic Musharraf regime. The problem is that the instability caused by this policy can no longer be contained. Like the Shah of Iran, Musharraf must use increased violence to put down popular protests, thus further fuelling the spreading uprisings. The Shah’s Iran and Pakistan have one important difference, however: Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Tragically, the Bush administration may eventually give the world an Islamist bomb.” Daily Times - All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 6 Reuters: Bush signals missile shield to go ahead Fri Jun 8, 2007 5:09PM EDT By Tabassum Zakaria GDANSK, Poland (Reuters) - President George W. Bush thanked Poland on Friday for being ready to host the U.S. missile shield and sent a clear signal he would not scrap the plan in the face of an alternative offer from Russia. Bush, making a whistle stop in Poland after attending the Group of Eight meeting in Germany, met Polish President Lech Kaczynski to discuss missile defense and Russia's vehement opposition to its positioning in Moscow's former backyard in central Europe. "First let me say I appreciate the support for the deployment of the missile defense interceptors here in Poland," Bush told a joint briefing with Kaczynski. "We will negotiate a fair agreement that enhances the security of Poland and the security of the entire continent against rogue regimes who might be willing to try to blackmail free nations." Washington has been negotiating to place 10 interceptors in Poland and a radar in another ex-Soviet satellite, the Czech Republic, as the European part of a global system to counter the threat of a nuclear attack from "rogue" states such as Iran. A skeptical Russia sees the project as undermining its own security and President Vladimir Putin has threatened to revert to the Cold War practice of targeting Russian missiles on Europe if the plan goes ahead. Upping the ante, Putin made a surprise offer on Thursday to let the United States use a Russian-controlled radar in Azerbaijan to detect any threats from the Middle East. On Friday, he said the interceptors could be placed in southern Europe or Turkey and that Russia was happy to share intelligence picked up by the Azeri radar. Continued... © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 Reuters: Old power plant values soar in supply squeeze | Industry Summits | Past Summits | GlobalEnergy07 | Fri Jun 8, 2007 4:00PM EDT By Lisa Lee NEW YORK (Reuters) - The North Lake power station, its stacks merely landscape for the Texas vista as it sat idle for a number of years, now churns natural gas to power for homes in Dallas County. The TXU (TXU.N: Quote, Profile, Research power plant is one of many across the country that has been restarted as America's growing appetite for electricity and increasing opposition to new plants are producing favorable economics for these power plants. Add interest from private equity firms looking to spend their mountains of cash in the power sector and you have a sellers' market. "We are really in the forefront of a market where the value of incumbent assets is rising very dramatically," Bruce Williamson said this week at the Reuters Energy Summit. The North Lake power plant was revived last year and brought an additional 531 megawatts online last month to meet growing power demand, after being shuttered in 2004. "There's been capacity that has been shuttered, plants mothballed, construction halted mid-way," said Angela Uttaro, analyst at OppenheimerFund which has $258 billion in assets under management. As power prices rise, she added, it makes sense to restart those plants. The rapidly accelerating drive to tackle global warming combined with soaring construction costs are making power plants, especially coal-fired ones, more difficult to build. Coal-fired power plants are the largest emitters of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas widely blamed for global warming. Even as plans for new coal-fired power plants stall and the prospect of new nuclear generation nearly a decade away, demand continues to grow as Americans hunger for such items as iPods, personal computers and plasma televisions. Continued... © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 UPI: NNSA boosts nuke disarmament rate United Press International - Security & Terrorism - Briefing Published: June 8, 2007 at 11:00 AM WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration said Thursday it had dismantled more nuclear weapons. The NNSA said it increased the rate of nuclear weapons dismantlement by 50 percent over last year's level, and would maintain it. "NNSA is committed to carrying out the president's vision of the smallest stockpile consistent with national security needs. By dismantling nuclear weapons safely and efficiently, we are ensuring that the weapons can no longer be used again. This increased dismantlement work demonstrates that this country is serious about non-proliferation," said Bill Ostendorff, NNSA's acting administrator. "At the beginning of fiscal year 2007, NNSA established a goal to increase the dismantlement rate of retired nuclear weapons by nearly 50 percent, but because of dramatic improvements in procedures, tools and policies NNSA was able to reach this goal four months ahead of schedule," the NNSA said. "In order to increase its dismantlement capacity, NNSA made substantial investments in previous years across the nuclear weapons complex to hire additional technicians, purchase the right equipment and tools, and develop better safety and security procedures," the agency said. "Since taking his oath of office, this president has authorized a nearly one-half reduction in the size of U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. This shows a true commitment to shrinking our country's nuclear forces," said Ostendorff. "At NNSA, we've been able to make the president's commitment a reality by investing wisely in the people and tools necessary to get the dismantlement job done." President Bush has made reducing the nation's nuclear stockpile inherited from the Cold War a key part of his overall nuclear strategy. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 The Indypendent: Two Ways of Life Vie for the Future & How Capitalism Plundered a Continent By Jessica Lee From the June 8, 2007 issue By Jessica Lee History has shown that behind most Indigenous struggles is an imperial conquest for resource extraction. Five-hundred years ago the relationship between Europeans and the Indigenous people they "discovered" in the "Americas" revolved around enslavement and exporting natural resources from their lands, leading to rapid economic development and the Industrial Revolution back in Europe. The legacy of colonialism pitted two ways of life against each other — one in which the world was defined by private property and monetary value and another based on bioregional harmony and sustainability. In the United States, a legacy of broken treaties, forced migration and assimilation, the creation of reservations and now trust and royalty agreements, have crushed native Americans under the racist wheel of progress and profit. To this day, tribes across the United States continue to resist, and struggle for autonomy against corporate interests in mining, timber, energy generation and waste storage. The U.S. Department of the Interior (in which the Bureau of Indian Affairs exists) estimates tribal reservations contain as much as 30 percent of all coal in the western united States, 4.2 billion barrels of oil, 17.5 trillion cubic feet of gas and as much as 37 percent of all uranium. At times, several tribes have found themselves fighting against the same transnational company such as when the Dine, Hopi and Zuni people fought campaigns against Peabody Coal. Toxic dumps are frequently placed on Indigenous lands, for example, nevada’s Yucca Mountain, which is sacred to several tribes, is now a repository for nuclear waste. Global warming poses a double-edged threat. Although they bear little responsibility for causing climate change, Indigenous people are already suffering from the effects. For example, Newtok villages in Alaska are sinking under as permafrost melts. Coastal and island communities around the world are flooding and erosion. Record droughts plague tribal lands in the Southwest. The proposed “solutions” to climate change, such as carbon trading, nuclear power and “clean” coal technologies, will only intensify further mining, air pollution from power plants and toxic dumping on Indigenous lands native American tribes are actively engaged in the global warming dialogue and have organized gatherings to discuss potential climate consequences on their lands and communities, the most recent on the Cocopah Reservation in Arizona December 2006. Moreover, they hope to promote the significant role Indigenous people will play in shaping how Americans address and generate active responses to combat climate change. “Native Peoples carry not only sharpened skills of observation, specialized environmental knowledge and time-tested ecological wisdom embedded within various aspects of our traditional cultures,” asserts a November 1998 report prepared for The Native Peoples-Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop, “but also the awesome responsibility to speak from the broader base of human experience sadly lacking in those merely concerned with the commodification of this planet
” Coal-fired Navajo generating Station near Page, Arizona, is fueled by eight million tons of coal each year from the nearby Kayenta mine owned by Peabody Western Coal Company. DinĂ© and Hopi people protested the Peabody Coal mine that was using millions of gallons of pristine groundwater to make coal slurry that was piped 273 miles to the Mohave generating Station, until they were both closed in January 2006. Peabody seeks to reopen the mine by seeking a new customer for the coal. “Dzil Yijiin” (“mountain that is black”) is sacred to the DinĂ© (Navajo) people. Since 1968 on Black mesa, Peabody Western Coal Company has operated the Peabody Coal mine and Kayenta mine, the world’s largest strip mining operation. The coal fuels the Navajo generating Station and, until January 2006, the Mohave generating Station in Nevada, providing electricity to millions of people in large Western cities hundreds of miles away. Peabody is currently applying for to extend their ‘life of mine” permit. PHOTOS: BLACKMESATRUST.ORG HOW CAPITALISM PLUNDERED A CONTINENT 1492 Christopher Columbus makes contact with Indigenous peoples in the Caribbean, noting “they could easily be commanded and made to work, to sow and to do whatever might be needed, to build towns and be taught to wear clothes and adopt our ways.” Over the next 150 years, Spain, Portugal, England and France establish commercially-driven colonies throughout the Western Hemisphere. 1607 With backing from London investors, Jamestown, Virginia is founded by 105 colonists. Unable to subdue the local indigenous population, the English begin importing African slaves in 1619 to work their tobacco plantations. 1621 One of the first treaties between colonists and Native Americans is signed as the Plymouth Pilgrims enact a peace pact with the Wampanoag Tribe. 1675–76 King Philip’s War erupts in New England between colonists and Native Americans as a result of tensions over colonist’s expansionist activities. 1770s For the large part, Native Americans fight on the side of the British during Revolutionary War. After the war, they continued to defend their land against “American” colonists. 1790 The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act places almost all interaction between Indians and non-Indians under federal, rather than state control. 1803 The U.S. purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, tripling the size of the young country. The Lewis and Clark expedition that follows initiates the exploration of the West. 1808–1813 Tecumseh, chief of the Shawnees, and his brother The Prophet rally warriors from southern and midwestern tribes to resist further white expansion with the goal of creating pan-indigenous confederation from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. After several years of fighting, their uprising is defeated. 1813-1814 The Creek Indians are forced by Gen. Andrew Jackson to cede 23 million acres of land, opening the southeastern U.S. to slave-owning cotton growers. 1823 In Johnson v. McIntosh, the Supreme Court rules that the U.S.  government holds title to all Native American lands based upon the “doctrine of discovery.” 1830-1840 The 1830 Indian Removal Act leads to the forced transfer of tens of thousands of Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi River. By 1840, 420 million acres of land, or 22 percent of the continental area had been secured from Native American tribes for an average of 7.4 cents an acre. 1862 Congress passes the Homestead Act opening western territories to land-hungry settlers. 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge — Forces free-roaming Plains tribes to live on small reservations where they can be supervised and ‘civilized’. “I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when I settle down I grow pale and die,” said one Kiowa chief. “This building of homes for us is all nonsense.” 1872 The Mining Act of 1872 is passed by the U.S. Congress. Native Americans, who were not citizens until 1924, were ineligible to make land claims. 1874 Thousands of prospectors invade the Black Hills of western South Dakota following the discovery of gold. Considered sacred by the Lakota Sioux, these lands were guaranteed by an earlier treaty. Several years of fighting break out before another treaty is signed forcing the Lakota to relinquish the land. 1880s Millions of wild buffalo are slaughtered by white settlers to deprive Plains Indians of the main source of their livelihood.  Eliminating the buffalo also opens the Plains to the cattle industry. 1887 The 1887 General Allotment Act created private property by dividing segments of communal tribal lands and distributing them to individuals, with the Federal government selling whatever was left. 1889 The Oklahoma Land Rush begins with an estimated 50,000 settlers race across the land to claim 1.92 million of land previously guaranteed as a permanent refuge for Native Americans forced to move from the east. 1890 Over 250 years of Indian wars end with the Massacre at Wound Knee in which roughly 300 sick and starving Lakota Indians are surrounded and gunned down by the U.S. Army. 1893 Indian Education Act passes making school attendance for Indian children compulsory. The Bureau of Indian Affairs withholds rations and government payments to parents who do not send their children to school. 1934 Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) makes federal funding available to tribes that adopt U.S.-style constitutions that go against traditional, consensus-based forms of decision-making. 1950s Government agents broker resource extraction deals that leave Native American tribes with royalty agreements that often pay less than 10 percent of market value. 1969-1971 Members of the newly-founded American Indian Movement (AIM) take over and occupy Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.  The protest brings national attention to Native American grievances for the first time. 1971 The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act extinguishes all aboriginal land claims in Alaska and turns tribal members into shareholders of for-profit corporations. 1973 Several hundred members of AIM engage in a 71-day armed standoff with the federal government at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Over the next several years, dozens of AIM activists on the Pine Ridge Reservation are killed in a dirty war carried out by the FBI and the official Lakota tribal government. 1980 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Lakota Sioux are entitled to $106 million in compensation for the unjust taking of the Black Hills. Some tribal members reject the settlement calling instead for the land to be returned. 2006 Tribal Lands Climate Conference. The first event of its kind, people from 55 indigenous nations meet on the Cocopah Reservation in Somerton, Arizona to share their direct experiences of climate change. Subscribe to the Indypendent! You can skip to the end 2 Responses to “Two Ways of Life Vie for the Future & How Capitalism Plundered a Continent” Eileen McCabe Says: June 8th, 2007 at 9:35 am Thank you for publishing this article. I would like to correct one detail about Yucca Mountain. While it has been proposed for a repositiory for spent fuel fron nuclear power plants, they have not yet submitted a license to the NRC. Fraud has been discovered in the geological and hydrologic studies, and there is peaked disagreement between scientists about the geologic suitability. What is rarely mentioned is that the Western Shoshone have been actively trying to stop this project for years. Most recently, in March 2006, they went to the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The CERD Committee issued a finding that the US was to stop, freeze and cease all extractive and defense operations on Western Shoshone land, as defined by the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863, which includes Yucca Mountain and the Nevada Test Site. There are still opportunities to stop the Yucca Mountain Repository. For more information on this issue, please check out the Treaty of Ruby Valley resources at www.wsdp.org and the Yucca Mountain resources at www.greenactionutah.org. Tough breaks Says: June 8th, 2007 at 12:03 pm Native Americans have been catching all the tough breaks for centuries. Its always good to remind the “pale faces” of the systemic brutality and genocidal practices of the racist U.S. government. Indian society stood in the way of the spread of Anglo business and domination - it truely was a clash of cultures. Capitalism’s birth in the New World needed the domination and extermination of the Indians. Copyright © 2006 The Indypendent All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 10 UCS: President Putin Needn't Worry About a U.S. Missile Defense System It Won't Work, Says Leading U.S. Science Group June 7, 2007 President Putin Needn't Worry About a U.S. Missile Defense System: It Won't Work, Says Leading U.S. Science Group Statement by David Wright, Union of Concerned Scientists WASHINGTON (June 6, 2007) – In the days running up to the G-8 Summit in Germany this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been denouncing U.S. plans to build a missile defense system in Central Europe. According to the top U.S. science-based nonprofit advocacy organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), President Putin has nothing to worry about. The system won't work. Below is a statement by Dr. David Wright, a physicist and co-director of UCS's Global Security Program: "President Putin's reaction to U.S. plans to field a missile defense site in Europe exposes the dangerous contradictions of missile defense. "In fact, President Putin has nothing to worry about. The defense system couldn't stop a Russian nuclear attack on the United States. It could be easily overwhelmed by the sheer size of the Russian nuclear arsenal, destroyed by an attack on the system at the same time Russia launched its own missiles, or foiled by decoys and other countermeasures. "Because the system is vulnerable to decoys, it also wouldn't stop a missile attack from the Middle East. If Iran or other states in the region develop long-range missiles and deliverable nuclear warheads, they would certainly equip those missiles with countermeasures that could render U.S. defenses ineffective. "So while Russia's reaction may seem nonsensical, so does the U.S. decision to invite such a reaction by planning to field a system that won't work. "Moreover, as long as the United States maintains a nuclear warfighting posture—keeping thousands of nuclear warheads ready to be launched within minutes at Russia's nuclear forces—Russia will find such defenses threatening, despite evidence they won't work. "The best way to increase U.S. security would be to take steps to dramatically cut U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals and reduce the chance they would be used. Instead, the proposed European missile defense site, by inflaming passions and strengthening hard-line Russian thinking, worsens a real threat while offering a false promise against a possible future one." For more information about UCS's analysis on missile defense, go to www.ucsusa.org/global_security/missile_defense. Contact Reporters: Join our notification list to receive breaking news from UCS. General media inquiries can be directed to our media office line at 202-331-5420. If you are calling about a specific issue, contact the appropriate press contact below. Press Contacts: Energy, Food, Scientific Integrity MEGHAN CROSBY Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-6943 mcrosby@ucsusa.org Climate, Global Security, Vehicles, Invasives AARON HUERTAS Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-5458 ahuertas@ucsusa.org Scientific Integrity, Vehicles LISA NURNBERGER Press Secretary 202-331-6959 lnurnberger@ucsusa.org Climate, Food EMILY ROBINSON Press Secretary 202-331-5427 erobinson@ucsusa.org ELLIOTT NEGIN Media Director 202-331-5439 enegin@ucsusa.org © Union of Concerned Scientists Page Last Revised: 06/06/07 ***************************************************************** 11 AFP: Bush, Kaczynski reassure Russia on US missile shield plans Fri Jun 8, 4:38 PM ET GDANSK, Poland (AFP) - President George W. Bush called Friday for greater cooperation on defence issues with Moscow, and again stressed that Russia would not be the target of missiles it wants to install in Poland as part of its defence shield. "This (missile defence system) is not pointed at Russia," Bush told reporters after two hours of talks with his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski at the presidential retreat in the Baltic seaside resort of Jurata. "Indeed, we would welcome Russian cooperation in missile defence. We think it would make sense," he added. Bush was speaking before leaving Poland for Italy, the fourth leg on a six-nation tour of Europe that has already taken in the Czech Republic and the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. Washington has launched talks with Warsaw to site 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of an extended defence shield against airborne attacks. Russia has objected to the US plan and threatened to retaliate if missiles are sited in Poland and a powerful tracking radar in the neighbouring Czech Republic. It does not accept Washington's argument that the system is purely defensive and meant to target attempts from what it calls "rogue states" such as Iran. As recently as Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "If the US nuclear potential extends across the European territory, we will get new targets in Europe." Putin also offered Bush the joint use of a Russian radar base in Azerbaijan as an alternative to plans for a US missile shield in central Europe. And in a press conference held after the end of the summit, Putin suggested Turkey or Iraq as possible sites for the interceptor missiles rather than Poland. In Poland, Bush did not comment on whether the US would act on the Russian proposals. Kaczynski said Russia needed to try to "understand that the world has changed in the past 18 years." "These changes have also affected Poland," he added. "But no projects that we have undertaken are aimed against Russia. The missile shield is entirely defensive." Relations between Poland and Russia have been tense because of recent trade rows between the two countries. In contrast, Poland has close ties with the US and is a key ally in the war against terrorism. Its troops are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, for which the Polish people earned words of praise from Bush, who was visiting the central European country for the third time. "Poland is a great advocate of liberty in the world today," Bush said. "Poland is involved in two very difficult theatres, Iraq and Afghanistan. Recently in Afghanistan there was a call for more NATO help, and the Polish government stepped up quickly," Bush said. After the talks, Kaczynski would not say if Poland would agree to housing US missiles. Kaczynski said the talks at Jurata were just an "introduction to the dialogue we will have in mid-July" when he is due to visit Washington. At those talks, the Polish president said, "we will reach concrete results." Bush left Poland for Italy on board the US presidential aircraft, Air Force One, shortly before 9:00 pm (1900 GMT). In Italy, the US leader will meet Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Wins Polish Nod for Missile Defense From the Associated Press Friday June 8, 2007 10:01 PM AP Photo POLGH119 By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press Writer GDANSK, Poland (AP) - President Bush pressed his plan for a proposed European anti-missile defense on Friday with the president of Poland and won his strong support for installing interceptors on Polish soil. Earlier, an upset stomach forced Bush to skip some meetings at a summit of major industrial democracies in Germany. Both Bush and President Lech Kaczynski said the missile-defense system would not threaten Russia in any way. The system has been an issue of contention between Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. ``The system we have proposed is not directed at Russia. We would welcome Russian cooperation in missile defense,'' Bush said. He said a working group including the United States and Russia would ``discuss different opportunities and different options, all aimed at providing protection for people from rogue regimes who might be in a position to either blackmail and or attack those of us who live in free societies.'' It came as Putin suggested new sites for the system designed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles - including stationing part of it in Iraq. For his part, Kacynski voiced strong support for the U.S. plan to install 10 anti-missile interceptors on Polish soil. ``The Russian federation can feel totally safe,'' said Kacynski. He said Moscow must recognize that the world has changed since the fall of the Soviet Union nearly two decades ago. The system Bush envisions would include a radar installation in the Czech Republic and 10 anti-missile interceptors in Poland. The two spoke at the airport as Bush prepared to leave for Rome, his next stop on a weeklong trip to Europe. He spent about four hours in Poland. Bush appeared subdued. Earlier, some bed rest let him rejoin the gathering of the Group of Eight industrial powers in Germany and continue to Poland. Putin has been a sharp critic of the U.S. plan to base its anti-missile system in two countries that had been part of the Warsaw Pact. But on Thursday, during a meeting with Bush on the sidelines of the G-8 summit, Putin softened his criticism by suggesting that the U.S. include in the system use of the huge Soviet-era radar in northeast Azerbaijan. Bush said he would consider it. On Friday, Putin suggested that U.S. missile defense interceptors could be located in Turkey, or even Iraq or on sea platforms. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press, ``One does not choose sites for missile defense out of the blue.'' Bush thanked Kaczynski for sending troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Poland has nearly 900 troops in Iraq, and Bush noted that the country had recently agreed to keep them there at least through the end of the year. Earlier, Bush missed some of the G-8 meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany, because of stomach upset. ``He's not 100 percent, but he felt well enough to return to the talks,'' White House counselor Dan Bartlett told reporters. The aide said Bush likely fell ill with ``some sort of bug, probably more viral in nature'' and that it appeared unrelated to anything he ate. Laura Bush didn't feel well a few days ago either, Bartlett said. Bush already was dressed when he began feeling ill, Bartlett said. He stayed in bed for several hours, missing one session with African leaders and most of another with leaders from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. Even while ill, Bush taped his weekly radio address and met as planned with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, though in his private quarters instead of a meeting room. Bush attended the closing lunch, engaging in extensive sideline conversations with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bush also met on the summit sidelines with Chinese President Hu Jintao and they had a ``good talk'' about Darfur, a Bush aide said. G-8 members on Friday reaffirmed two-year-old pledges to try to lift Africa out of poverty and fight the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The declaration came on the summit's third and final day. Leaders also agreed to a new program worth more than $60 billion to fight disease in Africa. Anti-poverty activists have complained that promises to boost annual aid to poor countries have not been met. The group warned Iran over its disputed nuclear program by signaling its support for U.N. Security Council moves to discuss a third set of sanctions against Iran. Leaders also discussed a proposal on the Serbian province of Kosovo, which is seeking independence, but did not agree. They had what White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said were ``several good conversations'' in which they reiterated the need to resolve the issue through the Security Council. Bartlett joked that Bush's decision to avoid the other leaders for a while was a ``precautionary step'' to not follow in the footsteps of his father, former President George H. W. Bush. At a state dinner in Tokyo in January 1992, the elder Bush fainted and vomited. The first hint that something was amiss with the current president came when Sarkozy emerged alone from their meeting. He said, in French, that Bush was in his bedroom and that Bush's spokesmen would have to explain further. It was their first meeting since Sarkozy took office May 16, and second overall; the first was last September in Washington. Sarkozy, seen as friendlier to the U.S., said Bush invited him to visit soon. ``The president felt that they established a real personal rapport,'' Bartlett said. --- Associated Press writer Christine Ollivier contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 13 BBC NEWS: Blair tells Putin of Russia fears Last Updated: Friday, 8 June 2007, 15:25 GMT 16:25 UK Mr Blair said the atmosphere was cordial with Mr Putin Tony Blair says he told Vladimir Putin "people were becoming fearful" of Russia's foreign policy. During "very frank" talks at the G8 summit, Mr Blair said President Putin expressed concern Russia "was not being treated properly by the West". And Mr Blair expressed "our view that people were becoming worried, fearful about what was happening in Russia today, the external policy". Mr Putin is concerned about plans by the US to site missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. Mr Blair said the pair spoke for about an hour on the fringes of the G8 summit in Germany. He told reporters: "It was a very frank discussion. "It went through all the issues you would expect us to go through and we set out each other's views, which are well known. "The atmosphere on a personal level was perfectly cordial but there are real issues there and I don't think they will be resolved any time soon." They spoke about energy, missile defence systems and the murder of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko. NUCLEAR WARHEADS Russia Land-launched: 2,146 Sea-launched: 1,392 Air-launched: 624 US Land-launched: 1,600 Sea-launched: 3,168 Air-launched: 1,098 Source: Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) data 2007 Q and A: US missile defence Geldof calls summit 'a farce' In an earlier meeting with US President George Bush, Mr Putin suggested that the US could use a former Soviet radar base in Azerbaijan, instead of placing missiles in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic. Such a compromise could prompt Russia to withdraw its threat to re-target Russian missiles at Europe, Mr Putin said. In his meeting with Mr Blair, the Russian President talked about his country's refusal to extradite former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London. Elsewhere at the summit, Mr Blair said "immense progress" has been made on aid to Africa by the G8. Africa 'recommitment' Mr Blair said both Africa and the G8 knew they had "a long way to go and a lot to do" but the leaders of the world's richest nations had "recommitted" to an aid deal it made two years ago. The deal aims to deliver Ł30bn to fight Aids and provide free schooling in Africa. "The important thing about what we have agreed today is that we have recommitted ourselves to all the commitments we made a couple of years ago at Gleneagles," said Mr Blair. "The important thing is we have set out how we are going to do them." He added: "It's a deal between Africa and the developed world and just as we have recommitted ourselves to substantial increases in support and help, so Africa has recommitted itself to its responsibilities as part of a partnership - proper governance against corruption, proper democracy and so on." * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 14 IHT: Nuclear threat continues to grow, New Zealand warns on anniversary of anti-nuclear law - International Herald Tribune The Associated Press Published: June 7, 2007 WELLINGTON, New Zealand: Nuclear weapons pose an increasing threat to world peace as more nations acquire them, New Zealand warned Friday as it marked 20 years since outlawing them on its soil and in its waters. The country was celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act, banning nuclear weapons from its territory, including visits by nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ships. The 1987 law caused a rift between the small South Pacific nation and Western nuclear states including the U.S., which was denied the right to have its warships make port visits and punished its former ally by cutting most military ties. New Zealand Disarmament Minister Phil Goff said the nuclear-free law remains as relevant now as when it was first passed. Complacency about nuclear weapons is threatening international arms control negotiations, Goff said, without giving specifics. "The threat to the world of nuclear weapons grows as more countries acquire possession of them," he said. With 27,000 nuclear warheads held in various arsenals, nations need to stay focused on stopping their spread and reducing their numbers through the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. "We need countries that will lead the way toward not only nonproliferation — there's a variety of countries strongly pressing for nonproliferation — but also for the other side of the bargain ... for the nuclear weapon states to carry out their unequivocal commitment from (the year) 2000 to work toward elimination of nuclear weapons," he told National Radio. Several Western nations voiced concerns in the 1980s that more strategically important countries might follow New Zealand's lead and declare themselves nuclear free. None did. Twenty years on, New Zealand still can only take part in joint military exercises with U.S. forces if a presidential order permits. It remains cut out of some high-level intelligence links. The move also strained bilateral diplomatic relations with the U.S. for nearly two decades, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this year calling the policy "a rock in the road" — but one the two nations "can work around." Goff noted the anti-nuclear policy had become "an important part of New Zealand's national identity," with all major parties now supporting it. The leftist Green Party on Friday reinforced that support, demanding that government equity funds stop investing some of the nation's retirement savings in foreign companies linked to the production of nuclear weapons and other armaments. Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights ***************************************************************** 15 AFP: Royal Navy launches giant nuclear submarine - Fri Jun 8, 10:15 AM ET BARROW-IN-FURNESS, England (AFP) - The Royal Navy's largest and most powerful attack submarine, the giant nuclear-powered HMS Astute, was given a beery royal launch on Friday. The Duchess of Cornwall launched the vessel not with the traditional magnum of champagne at the dockyard in Barrow, but with a bottle of home-brew beer made by the ship's crew. About 10,000 people, including workers, crew, military chiefs, dignitaries and schoolchildren witnessed the launch by the wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the throne. "As an admiral's wife myself, I am delighted to be in Barrow-in-Furness today for the naming and launching of Astute," Camilla said. "I shall follow her progress with particular interest as she serves in the fleet. "I name this ship Astute. May God bless her and all who sail in her," she said, before pulling a lever to break the beer bottle against the submarine's hull. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 Guardian Unlimited: Germany: G-8 Agreement on Climate Change From the Associated Press Friday June 8, 2007 5:17 AM By JENNIFER QUINN Associated Press Writer HEILIGENDAMM, Germany (AP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that the Group of Eight has agreed on a plan calling for ``substantial cuts'' in the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. The goal is to agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, Merkel said, hailing the decision as a ``huge success.'' She said it came after many rounds of talks and negotiations on climate change. Merkel, who has made the issue the centerpiece of her leadership of this year's G-8, had steadily lobbied fellow leaders on the matter since they began arriving in this Baltic Sea resort for their yearly summit. ``No one can escape this political declaration. It is an enormous step forward,'' she told reporters. Details of the agreement were not immediately available, and it was unclear how much binding weight the declaration would carry since it is up to G-8 leaders to keep the promises they make. A final summit communique was not expected until Friday Merkel has long been calling for setting specific targets for reducing the carbon emissions believed to cause global warming, including a ``two-degree'' target under which global temperatures would be allowed to increase by no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) before being brought back down. Experts have said that would require a global reduction in emissions of 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Merkel wanted binding reductions; President Bush opposed them. He instead proposed having the top 15 polluters meet and set a long-term goal, but decide for themselves how much to do toward meeting it. Merkel, the summit host, said Thursday that the ``toughest point was the halving of emissions ... that was the hardest step.'' But she said: ``We agreed that we need reduction goals - and obligatory reduction goals.'' All parties agreed the process should take place within the U.N. framework and will begin with a meeting of environment ministers at a U.N. climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December. Earlier Thursday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair held out hope that world leaders would reach such an agreement despite differences between the U.S. and Europe over whether such cuts should be binding. ``I think that it is possible that we'll leave the summit with a commitment on the part of everyone to a substantial reduction of greenhouse gases by 2050 as a global target that is of the order of the type of figures the Europeans are talking about,'' said Blair, who leaves office June 27. Blair was saying his goodbyes to Bush and other Group of Eight leaders in this seaside city in northern Germany. Blair and Bush later joined six counterparts for the first working session of the G-8. Besides global warming, the leaders are tackling edgy relations with Russia and Moscow's opposition to Western efforts to secure independence for Serbia's Kosovo province, the crisis in Darfur, poverty aid to Africa, the Middle East and trade talks. North Korea is likely to be another topic of discussion. The reclusive communist regime on Thursday fired short-range missiles off its western coast in an apparent test, according to South Korea's Defense Ministry. The United States immediately denounced the launch, saying such activity was ``not constructive'' in the midst of a deadlock in international negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Merkel chaired the first working session, with Blair to her left and Bush next to him. Also at the table were Russia's Vladimir Putin, Italy's Romano Prodi, Canada's Stephen Harper, France's Nicolas Sarkozy, Japan's Shinzo Abe and Jose Manuel Barroso of the European Commission. Afterward, Bush and Putin met privately after days of Cold War-style sparring over U.S. plans to base a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, essentially in Russia's back yard. Putin, bitterly opposed to placing such a system in Europe, told Bush that Russia would drop its objections and not seek to retrain its missiles on Europe if the shield were installed in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet satellite in central Asia. Bush's national security adviser, Steve Hadley, called it an ``interesting proposal.'' Anti-poverty groups, meanwhile, hope the leaders will recommit to promises made during their summit two years ago in Gleneagles, Scotland, to increase international aid to Africa and other poorer countries. In 2005, the G-8 agreed to increase the amount of aid by $50 billion a year through 2010, with half going to Africa. But since then, the pledge has missed the target by $30 billion, anti-poverty groups say. This year's gathering is being held under tight security, with Heiligendamm sealed off by a seven-mile, razor wire-topped fence. Thousands of police have been deployed across the northern German region. Protests continued Thursday for a second day, as demonstrators continued to block roads to Heiligendamm and police again resorted to firing water cannons to scatter them. Offshore, Greenpeace environmental activists led police on a boat chase, with one boatload briefly spilling its contents into the Baltic. --- Associated Press writers Jennifer Loven and Claudia Kemmer in Heiligendamm, David Rising in Hinter Bollhagen and Vanessa Gera in Bad Doberan contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 17 mongabay: Nobel prize winner debates future of nuclear power Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com June 7, 2007 Two renowned energy experts sparred in a debate over nuclear energy Wednesday afternoon at Stanford University. Amory Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an energy think tank, argued that energy efficiency and alternative energy sources will send nuclear power the way of the dinosaurs in the near future. Dr. Burton Richter, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in physics, said that nuclear would play an important part of the future energy portfolio needed to cut carbon emissions to fight global warming. Lovins: micropower and negawatts will kill nuclear power Lovins opened by noting the global decline in nuclear power plants, a trend he attributed to two powerful market forces: energy efficiency (i.e. "negawatts") and supply competition. "Global nuclear expansion is coasting to a halt," he said, noting that the last nuclear rector was completed in the U.S. was in 1973 and that even under China's most ambitious targets for nuclear expansion, it would displace only 10 percent of the nuclear capacity that will soon go offline. Lovins said the reason for the decline is cost: on an even playing field with no hidden subsidies, nuclear is simply more expensive than other options, especially co-generation. Photo courtesy of the Department of Energy (DOE). Lovins argued nuclear plants are currently being financed only in places where they are either mandated by governments or supported with generous subsidies. "The global market is going in a different direction," he said. "Risk-taking capitalists are concluding that nuclear power is not an attractive option compared with other technologies" including distributed power from co-generation (combined heat and power generation), next-generation biofuels, solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal energy. Lovins said that micropower (i.e. distributed energy generation) now accounts for one-sixth of world power, surpassing nuclear as a source of electricity for the first time in 2006. He noted that in 2005 micropower added four times as much output and eleven times as much capacity as nuclear added. "Nuclear is dying of incurable attack of market forces despite what the industry wants you to believe," he remarked, adding that micropower offer more climate solution per dollar spent than nuclear. Lovins sees the biggest benefit from the death of nuclear as making it easier to stop nuclear proliferation since suspect nations could no longer claim they were just making electricity. The only explanation for interest in nuclear would be for military use. Lovins said the U.S. could then focus its intelligence efforts, making the world safer. Richter: carbon-free nuclear will meet energy demand without warming climate Richter said that both he and Lovins agree that the greenhouse effect is real, human-induced, and needs action. He noted that there aren't any real constraints on fossil fuels--the only limitation on future energy use will be the environmental impact (i.e. global warming). Therefore Richter argued that we need to change our energy mix for both the environment and mankind. Richter said his biggest disagreement with Lovins was in energy storage and the need to meet peak load demands versus base load demands--neither solar nor wind can meet energy demand all hours of the day. He said that nuclear could help meet the world's growing needs for energy without generating carbon dioxide emissions. Richter pointed to France as an example. It produces only half the amount of CO2 emissions per unit of GDP relative to the rest of the world thanks to nuclear. Referencing Pacala and Socolow's paper in Science (305: 968), Richter presented a chart showing the primary power requirements for scenarios that stabilize carbon dioxide levels at 450ppm and 550 ppm, enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5-4 degrees Celsius by 2050. Global energy demand will double by then, but "carbon free" energy sources will need to expand by nearly 7-fold to keep CO2 levels below 450 ppm and by 5-fold to limit CO2 to 550 ppm. "How are we going to stabilize climate?" he asked. "China is not going to turn off its coal-fired power plants. Next year it will be the biggest CO2 emitter, while in ten years China will pass the United States." Richter said that neither wind nor solar can meet projected growth targets due to energy storage limitations. He said that solar has the greatest potential but is not there yet. Richter said the world is in the midst of a nuclear renaissance with 60 nuclear power plants in planning stages, 28 under construction, and 150 under discussion around the world. Richter claimed that radioactivity is not a health risk with nuclear power plants only producing a fraction of the radioactivity the bones of living humans generate. He said safety improvements and new technology will make nuclear plants safer than ever before. Regarding proliferation concerns, Richter said "the cat is already out of the bag." He noted that every state that has developed nuclear weapons has done it with research reactors not power reactors. "The world is not just us," he said. "We must consider the developing world. Developing countries will be the problem with climate change. During transition from poor to industrialized, they are going to have to make major contributions to reducing carbon dioxide. Nuclear will play an important role in this effort." Back and forth: Carbon Tax, Energy Storage, Etc Lovins said that Richter was understating energy efficiency gains. Lovins expects the market to reach 2050 targets 75 percent through efficiency and 25 percent through supply. He noted China has made energy efficiency its top strategic priority for development. Richter said we need a $60-100 fee per ton of carbon and that policymakers should skip cap and trade schemes. Lovins responded that Carbon pricing will hurt centralized energy producers, including nuclear plants, and give an advantage to solar, co-gen and wind. Richter said Lovins' projected costs for solar, co-gen and wind were too low; they didn't have enough installed capacity to make up for intermittency of the energy sources. Lovins replied that a diversified portfolio of distributed power sources would reduce intermittency and help mitigate the storage problem. Biomass, tidal, wave, geothermal all work at night while there is always wind blowing somewhere. He noted that nuclear energy isn't dependable, with regular down time for maintenance and said that it took two weeks to get nuclear plants up running at full speed after northeastern blackout. He said no renewable has this limitation. Besides, he said, 98-99 percent of power failures originate in the grid. Distributed power is simply a more reliable energy source. He compared distributed energy to distributed (network) computing. Poor countries To which Richter responded he didn't see how these solutions are easily applicable in developing countries, where most growth in energy demand is going to occur in the future. Storage is still a big problem, he said. He said "co-gen" was a fantastic idea but wouldn't work on the scale Lovins was proposing in the developing world. Lovins said there's 100GW of potential for co-gen in the U.S.--the same amount as nuclear power currently provides. "Nuclear is grossly uncompetitive with options I've mentioned," he continued, adding that in India wind power is growing fast with investment in nuclear is flat. "We need a workable energy storage option for the globe," said Richter. "For much of the world solar isn't viable." "The poorest countries should be allowed to do anything they want to increase their energy supply and take any path they want in order to develop," Richter continued. "It's rich countries that are in continued state of denial." "Atoms for peace is a stupid idea," said Lovins. "Sunbeams for peace is better and it undercuts proliferators. I'm all for making solar technology freely accessible." "I observe that nuclear plants are choice are not made by markets," Lovins continued. "Micropower and efficiency are backed by risk-taking capitalists." MONGABAY.COM Mongabay.com seeks to ***************************************************************** 18 The Hindu: India comes out with fresh proposal Saturday, Jun 09, 2007 Manmohan meets Bush on sidelines of G8 summit Berlin: India on Friday offered to set up a dedicated safeguarded facility for reprocessing spent fuel in an effort to break the logjam over a proposed agreement and make operational the civil nuclear deal with the United States. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met U.S. President George W. Bush in Heiligendamm on the sidelines of the G8 summit on Friday, National Security Advisers on the two sides, M.K. Narayanan and Stephen Hadley, discussed in detail the proposal, under which India will negotiate a higher level of safeguards with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Negotiators on both sides are looking for a political push at the highest level and the meeting between Dr. Singh and Mr. Bush was expected to give a signal in this regard. ``The conversation was positive,'' Prime Minister's Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru said. Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns met in New Delhi last week but failed to conclude negotiations as differences persisted. ? PTI Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. ***************************************************************** 19 Times of India: India softens stand on Indo-US N-deal Updated: 9 Jun, 2007 0137hrs IST | Powered by Indiatimes BERLIN: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a meeting with US president George Bush on Saturday on the sidelines of the Outreach Summit at Heiligendamm amid indications that India has made a fresh proposal in a bid to break the deadlock holding up signing of the bilateral agreement for civilian nuclear energy cooperation. Sources said India had prior to the meeting conveyed its willingness to ‘step back’ to address US non-proliferation concerns by offering to create a fully safeguarded facility to store spent fuel. The proposal is believed to have been discussed between national security adviser M K Narayanan and his US counterpart Stephen Hadley before the PM-Bush meeting. Later, Indian officials described both the Narayanan-Hadley and the PM-Bush meetings as ‘positive’. The Singh-Bush meeting took place in the backdrop of G8 countries putting their weight behind the nuclear deal, rebuffing the suggestion that it could contribute to proliferation. The Heiligendamm Statement on Non-Proliferation said, "We look forward to reinforcing our partnership with India. We note commitments India has made, and encourage India to take further steps towards integration into the mainstream of strengthening the non-proliferation regime so as to facilitate a more forthcoming attitude towards nuclear cooperation to address its energy requirements, in a manner that enhances and reinforces the global non-proliferation regime." Though details of the Singh-Bush interaction were not available yet, sources had earlier indicated that the PM was to ask Bush for a commitment upfront to recognise India’s right to reprocess fuel and guaranteed uninterrupted fuel supply. The two national security advisers went into the specifics as crucial spadework for the talks between their principals. Narayanan and Hadley had hammered out the March 2 Separation Plan after negotiations got deadlocked on the scheme to distinguish India’s civilian nuclear energy facilities to be placed under safeguards from the military ones. Official sources had earlier said that the offer to set up the dedicated facility to store spent fuel to be placed under strict safeguards like those mandated by IAEA was meant to blunt the campaign of proliferation hardliners and enable the Bush administration to ease up on reprocessing right and uninterrupted fuel supply to India. Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 ottawasun.com: Lukewarm nuke audit Fri, June 8, 2007 Nuclear commission burned through unauthorized hospitality expenses, working lunches By ALAN FINDLAY, NATIONAL BUREAU The federal agency charged with regulating Canada's nuclear industry is having its own troubles following government rules when it comes to picking up meal tabs. An internal audit of Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's hospitality expenses points out several cases of claims running over budget and lacking proper approvals and receipts. For 2005-06, "we noted several instances where the requirements of the (Treasury Board expenses) directive were not met," the audit states. AUDITORS SATISFIED "These included hospitality expenses for non-food or beverage items, hospitality expense claims without sufficient supporting documentation, and unauthorized cost overruns for commission working lunches." A summary of the audit posted on the commission's web site actually states the auditors were satisfied with controls put in place to ensure hospitality expenses were properly reviewed and recorded. But detailed findings in the full report obtained by Sun Media highlight several examples of Treasury Board regulations not being followed. Almost half of hospitality expense transactions (17 of 36) examined by the audit team lacked information detailing cost limits as required by government directive. Auditors broadened their examination of expenses from the commission secretariat after discovering a sample study of two working lunches found cost overruns and inaccurate guest counts for both. APPROVED AFTER EVENTS Preauthorization forms were approved after events, and in other cases an acquisition card (government credit card) statement was the only supporting documentation attached to a hospitality event claim. The commission spent $107,021 on hospitality during the 2005-06 year audited, which accounts for 0.5% of its non-pay operating budget. The report does not detail amounts claimed for specific events, but cost overruns are seen as "reasonable." Published by Sun Media Corporation, a Quebecor Media company at 6 Antares Dr., Phase 3, Ottawa, Ont., Canada, K1G 5H7 Publisher Rick Gibbons; Editor-in-chief Mike Therien Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. Test ***************************************************************** 21 Platts: Nine European utilites, copper company bid for Belene nuke plant London (Platts)--8Jun2007 Nine European utilities and a copper company bid for up to 49% of the Belene nuclear power plant, Lyubomir Velkov, chief executive of Bulgaria's National Electricity Co., or NEK, said June 6. The utilities are France's EDF, Italy's Enel, Czech Republic's CEZ, Germany's RWE and E.On, Switzerland's ATEL and EGL, Spain's Endesa, and Belgium's Suez-Electrabel. They all submitted expressions of interest to be "strategic partners" in the project, as did the copper smelter-refiner Cumerio Med, the Bulgarian subsidiary of Brussels-based Cumerio. NEK is in charge of the project to build the two reactors on the Danube River site and is expected to own at least 51% of Belene Power Co., which will own and operate the plant. NEK last year chose Atomstroyexport to build two AES-92 model VVERs at Belene. Velkov said a short list of investors will be announced within six weeks, according to the Dnevik newspaper. A final selection will be made by December, along with the final construction contract with Atomstroyexport, he said. 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 ***************************************************************** 22 Arizona Republic: Jailed Palo Verde engineer to be freed Robert Anglen Jun. 8, 2007 01:20 PM A judge has ordered that a former Palo Verde engineer accused of illegally taking software to Iran be released from custody on bond after federal prosecutors clarified key facts in the case. U.S. attorneys are now acknowledging that Mohammad Alavi did not take architectural blueprints or designs of the physical layout of the nation's largest power plant, and they say he did not download a software program about Palo Verde in Iran. Federal Judge Neil Wake said the government's reversal on these issues eliminates concerns that the software Alavi took posed a safety threat. "It is not now shown that the software in question poses a threat to the public interest," Wake said in an order last week, adding that the government's clarification also makes it unlikely that Alavi will flee the country to avoid prosecution on a single count of violating a trade embargo with Iran. Alavi, 49, has been held in custody without bail since his April 8 arrest in Los Angeles. "With the diminishment in likely harm and consequences to Alavi from conviction of this offense, the advantage of fleeing to avoid answering this charge diminishes," Wake wrote. Neither Alavi nor his lawyers could be reached for comment Friday morning. However, in earlier interviews, Milagros Cisneros of the Arizona Federal Public Defender's Office described the government's case as "more smoke than fire." A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix, which is prosecuting the case, said Friday that they respect the court's decision and reiterated there was never any allegation that Alavi took the software to aid terrorists. "We have no information that the alleged incident was done on behalf of a foreign government or related to terrorists," spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said. Federal prosecutors contend there is still enough information to prosecute Alavi for violating a trade embargo because he took the laptop with him to Iran that contained information about Palo Verde. The trade embargo prohibits U.S. citizens from importing any technology to Iran. It has an exception that allows travelers to take baggage, which might include a laptop that "includes only articles that are necessary for personal use incident to travel." A conviction for violating the trade embargo carries a maximum 24-month prison sentence. Records obtained by The Arizona Republic last month showed that Alavi told the FBI he took the Palo Verde software to Iran because he wanted to show off his work to family and friends and the computer was still in a closet at his mother's house in Tehran. In a motion denying Alavi bail in April, Judge Wake described the software as "a highly valuable product that presented grave risk to public safety if put in the wrong hands." Wake wrote in his order that Alavi's desire to leave the country "was an essential element in his plan and effort to obtain and access the software." He called Alavi a "serious flight risk." Wake told authorities at a hearing that there was no evidence "that this involved national security controls or controls relating to proliferation of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons or materials." Federal authorities repeatedly told the judge they were not making "a danger argument." Alavi is an Iranian native who lived in the United States as a naturalized citizen for 30 years. He worked at Palo Verde for 16 years until August, when he resigned and moved to Tehran. He was arrested as he stepped off a plane in Los Angeles. He had returned to the United States to meet his wife here for the birth of their first child. Records show Alavi wasn't the only employee to download the details of Palo Verde as part of a software training package onto his personal laptop and take it home. Officials with the Arizona Public Service Co., which operates Palo Verde, confirm that employees were encouraged to download the software onto personal laptops and work on it at home. The software provides employees with emergency scenarios and instructs them to react with proper procedures. It has no links to actual plant workings and can't be used to affect operations. Last month, Iran's foreign minister sent a letter to United States officials demanding Alavi's immediate release from custody and demanding full details of the case. As conditions of release, Alavi agreed to surrender his passport, wear a GPS monitoring device and forfeit a $200,000 retirement account if he fails to appear in court. Alavi's friends in Huntington Beach, Calif., also agreed to put up their home as surety of his appearance in court. Reach the reporter at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Copyright © 2007, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 23 Rutland Herald: Court blocks Yankee's warm water discharge June 08, 2007 By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff MONTPELIER — Environmental Court Judge Merideth Wright issued a stay late Wednesday to stop Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee from discharging warmer water than usual into the Connecticut River this summer. Environmental groups praised the decision, which sets the stage for a trial this summer on their appeal of the Agency of Natural Resources 2006 permit, which gave Entergy Nuclear permission to discharge millions of gallons of water at higher temperatures that would raise the temperature in the river by one degree. "We are disappointed and surprised," said Entergy Nuclear spokesman Robert Williams, who said the company and its experts were convinced that the warmer water discharge, which according to its permit can reach 100 degrees, would have no effect on the river. "It's hard to imagine how she came to that ruling," he said. A trial on the merits of the contested permit is slated to begin in two weeks in Windham Superior Court in Newfane and last for several weeks. "It's the right decision, of course," said Patrick Parenteau, of the Vermont Law School's Environmental Law Center, and the lead attorney for the environmental groups. Wright's decision extends a stay she granted last September against the higher temperature discharge, saying the environmental groups had made their case that the river faced irreparable harm until the matter was further litigated. That stay had expired in April. Entergy Nuclear wanted to start discharging water on June 16. Entergy discharged the warmer water last summer until September, when the environmental groups obtained a stay from Wright against the discharge. Parenteau and several Vermont Law School students represent the Connecticut River Watershed Council and the Citizens Awareness Network, as well as a local chapter of Trout Unlimited, in contesting the permit. Parenteau said the groups want Entergy Nuclear to provide information on why the American shad population has plummeted since Vermont Yankee started discharging large amounts of warmer water. Parenteau said that in 1991, the former owners of Vermont Yankee were given permission to discharge water to raise the river temperature five degrees. Since that time, Parenteau said the American shad population has dropped riverwide, but it has really plummeted just below Vermont Yankee. Parenteau said that in 1991, 150,000 American shad were counted at the Vernon fish ladder. In 2006, that figure was only 80, he said. Entergy Nuclear wants permission to discharge the hot water and not use its cooling towers as much in order to make more money. If it doesn't run the cooling towers, it has more electricity to sell on the open market. Williams said the amount could be up to 25 megawatts of power for the three months of the discharge. He had no figures on the financial impact. But according to Wright's decision extending the stay, finances are not a factor in granting a stay. David Deen, river steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council, said populations of American shad are in decline, but that the decline is the most severe on the Connecticut River just downstream from Vermont Yankee. "It's happening all over the East Coast, but the drop in numbers of fish north of Turner's (Turners Falls, Mass.) far exceeds percentage-wise the drop in the percentage of the fish to the river," Deen said. Deen said that while it is not completely clear what is causing the steep decline in shad numbers, Entergy has the burden of proof to show that warmer temperatures are not a contributing factor. "We're not pointing the finger that the discharge is the sole reason. We're saying Yankee hasn't proved that the temperature increase should be taken out of the equation," he said. "Last year was the lowest shad return we've had in two decades," he said. Raymond Shadis, senior technical advisor of the New England Coalition, which had also fought the warm water permit, praised Wright's decision. He said the power that Entergy Nuclear wants to save and sell on the open market is a fraction of the additional power — 120 megawatts — the reactor started generating last spring. Parenteau noted that Wright paid no attention to a letter from David O'Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, who had written a letter in support of Entergy Nuclear's plan. The environmental groups had protested, saying O'Brien was politicizing the matter. Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. © 2007 Rutland Herald ***************************************************************** 24 Brattleboro Reformer: Court bars water temp hike by VY By PAUL H. HEINTZ, Reformer Staff Friday, June 8 VERNON -- The state Environmental Court issued a ruling Wednesday that will block Entergy Vermont Yankee from increasing the water temperature in the Connecticut River until at least the end of this summer. Environmental groups appealed a permit issued by the Agency of Natural Resources last summer that would allow Vermont Yankee to increase the river temperature around the Vernon plant an additional one degree Fahrenheit. Judge Meredith Wright's decision continues to block the temperature change until a trial considering the appeal is complete. That trial begins later this month at the Windham Superior Court in Newfane and is expected to last until late this summer. The environmental groups hailed Wright's decision as a victory -- though a temporary one. "This is a very good ruling for us. We're very happy," said Evan Mulholland, an attorney for the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution -- one of the groups that appealed ANR's permit. "She kind of tipped off there's a good chance we're going to win," he said of the upcoming trial. But Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams said he does not believe the temporary stay means his company is at a disadvantage with respect to the final ruling. "We're disappointed and surprised given the scope and depth of information we provided," he said. "We're quite confident that when our witnesses appear before her, she can better assess their credibility and reach the right decision." Williams declined to speculate about whether his company would appeal the ruling. Existing regulations allow a 2-5 percent increase in water temperature from upstream of the plant's cooling water discharge area to downstream between June and October. The permit under appeal would increase those numbers by one degree, when the water temperature is between 55 and 78 degrees. While Entergy argues that the temperature increase makes the plant more efficient and therefore saves ratepayers money, environmental advocates say the change could do irreparable harm to fish populations in the area. Rep. David Deen, D-Westminster -- who is also river steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council, which was a plaintiff in the suit -- believes that higher temperatures hurt shad migrations. "Water temperature triggers spawning, so if the water temperature is artificially high, they spawn in downriver areas and don't take advantage of all the habitat," he said. Deen said the science remains unclear but indicates that shad populations have already been affected by Entergy's existing temperature increases. He said that much of the data used in ANR's decision came from Entergy itself. "We'd want to look at different things in different ways than Entergy did," he said. "We just feel there's data missing that hasn't been incorporated." One of Entergy's principal arguments against the stay was that it would increase the burden on ratepayers and society at large. According to a report that Entergy submitted as expert testimony, the "social costs" of the stay from 2007 to 2030 would range from $15.3 million to $24.1 million. But in her opinion, Wright concludes that using a 23-year window to measure the effect of a 3-month stay "is an absurdity for several reasons." She writes, "it appears that a relatively small amount of money would be expended on the operation of the cooling towers" during the stay. On the other hand, she writes, "Appellants have shown sufficient potential for irreparable injury to American shad in the Connecticut River through the summer of 2007... to warrant the stay during the pendency of the trial." Deen is particularly relieved because shad's migratory season lasts from June through July. "The Connecticut River will see one more fish migration season with the same temperature regime in place as last year," he said. Paul Heintz can be reached at pheintz@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 275. ***************************************************************** 25 NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet in Rockville, Maryland, June 19-21 News Release - 2007-071 - NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) will meet June 19-21 in Rockville, Md., to discuss, among other items, with the U.S. Department of Energy the status of the Transportation, Aging, and Disposal (TAD) Canisters that will be used for high-level nuclear waste in support of the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. The committee will be briefed by the Office of Public Affairs on the NRC’s efforts to inform the public about the health effects from low dose radiation exposure and address public perceptions about radiation exposures. The ACNW reports to and advises the Commission on all aspects of nuclear waste management. The meeting will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agency’s Two White Flint North building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. Tuesday’s session will run from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Wednesday’s session from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and Thursday’s session from 8:30a.m. to 5:00p.m. Anyone requiring the use of video teleconferencing to observe the meeting should contact Theron Brown at 301-415-8066 to ensure availability. A complete agenda is available on the NRC’s Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acnw/agenda/2007. Individuals interested in making a statement or those seeking more information should contact Antonio Dias at 301-415-6805. NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Friday, June 08, 2007 ***************************************************************** 26 Deccan Herald: G8 favours civil nuclear partnership with India Friday, June 8, 2007 Berlin, PTI: "We note the commitments India has made... We look forward to reinforcing our partnership with India," said the document issued by the US, Russia, France, UK, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan. Noting India's commitments in nuclear field, the Group of Eight most developed countries today favoured partnership with it but wanted New Delhi to take "further steps" for strengthening the non-proliferation regime. In a statement issued after the Summit at the Heiligendamm near here, the G-8 recognised India's need to address its energy requirements. "We note the commitments India has made... We look forward to reinforcing our partnership with India," said the document issued by the US, Russia, France, UK, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan. The statement said the G-8 encourages "India to take further steps towards integration into the mainstream of strengthening the non-proliferation regime so as to facilitate a more forthcoming approach towards nuclear cooperation to address its energy requirements in a manner that enhances and reinforces the global non-proliferation regime." The statement assumes significance as India is looking for the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to change its guidelines to allow international community to have civil nuclear trade with it. New Delhi is currently engaged in lobbying for support in the nuclear regulator which is required to change the rules through consensus. Deploring Iran for not stopping nuclear enrichment activities, the G-8 countries favoured "further measures" if Tehran refuses to comply with its obligations. The group said, however, that a "new chapter" could be opened in Iran's relations with the world, not only in nuclear but in political, economic and technological fields, if it were to create a confidence in the international community about exclusivity of its peaceful atomic programme. "We remain united in our commitment to resolve the proliferation concerns posed by Iran's nuclear programme," the statement said. "We deplore the fact that Iran has so far failed to meet its obligations under UNSC Resolutions 1696, 1737 and 1747 and will support adopting further measures, should Iran refuse to comply with its obligations," it said. "We again urge Iran to take the steps required by the international community, and made mandatory by these resolutions, to suspend all its enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, and allow negotiations to begin," it said. It supported the action of the IAEA and asked Iran to fully cooperate with the international nuclear watchdog. Referring to the North Korean nuclear programme, the G-8 condemned the tests conducted by the Communist country last October as a "clear threat to international peace and security" and asked it to comply with UN resolutions. Copyright 2007, The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd., 75, M.G. Road, Post Box No 5331, Bangalore - 560001 Tel: +91 (80) 25880000 Fax No. +91 (80) 25880523 ***************************************************************** 27 Hindustan Times: India proposes dedicated facility for spent nuclear fuel June 08, 2007 Arvind Padmanabhan, Indo-Asian News Service India has made a new proposal for a dedicated facility to safeguard spent nuclear fuel, seeking to give a new push to its talks with the US on the 123 pact to resume civil nuclear commerce, officials said on Friday. Under the proposal, a new facility will exclusively safeguard reprocessed atomic fuel, which is one of the key areas holding up the 123 pact, named after Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act to allow peaceful nuclear commerce. At the political level, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had an informal meeting with US President George W Bush on the margins of the G8 Outreach Summit in Heiligendamm on Friday. At a parallel level, National Security Advisor MK Narayanan met with his US counterpart Stephen Hadley at the same venue, as New Delhi and Washington tried to remove the irritants holding up the path-breaking agreement. The meetings came after a fresh round of talks in New Delhi early June between Nicholas Burns, Washington's chief negotiator on the deal, and the Indian side led by Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon ended with little progress. Bush had also spoken to Manmohan Singh over phone in May. India is demanding the right to be given prior approval for reprocessing the US-origin spent fuel to run its fast-breeder programme, which Washington is not yet ready to accede to, saying the issue will arise at a much later date. New Delhi is hoping the new proposal on safeguards is able to break the impasse. Officials said India also wants to preserve its strategic autonomy and is unwilling to go beyond a voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing, while the US wants to terminate the agreement should India conduct a nuclear test. ***************************************************************** 28 Toledo Free Press: A tradition for Toledo's future 6/8/2007 Wind energy's relevance By Kristine Hoffman Special to Toledo Free Press It is touted as the most economic of renewable energy sources. So why is wind energy important to consumers in Northwest Ohio? Globally, the wind energy industry is the most rapidly growing sector of new generation resources, Kevin Maynard, director of utilities for the City of Bowling Green, said. “Most of the generating capacity in the United States is either coal-fired or nuclear capacity. But wind is making rapid gains across the country and in our region,” Maynard said. In fact, Bowling Green has four wind turbines — the only utility-scale units in Ohio. Each unit in Bowling Green is 1.8-megawatt unit, or 1,800 kilowatts. Combined, the four turbines generate between 13 million and 14 million kilowatt hours per year — enough electricity to power an average of 1,800 to 1,900 homes in Northwest Ohio. The energy estimates in the turbines' five years of operation have been met and exceeded, Maynard said. Why Northwest Ohio for wind energy? Maynard said that, although Bowling Green was jokingly called Blowing Green, a man named Daryl Stockberger, the city's former utilities director, felt it was feasible to develop a wind energy project in the region, but he needed to obtain data to prove its viability. Stockberger worked with an organization now called Green Energy Ohio to put up a wind monitoring tower to monitor average wind speed and direction data for one year. Based on the results of the data, the group determined a wind energy project was possible. Today, Texas leads the nation in installed wind generating capacity followed by California. Other areas where there are high average wind speeds for greater energy production from wind turbines are Minnesota and Iowa. Maynard said Ohio is looking to set a “Renewable Portfolio Standard” that would require the state to have a certain percentage of a utility's power supply coming from renewable resources like wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass and/or landfill gas to energy. “Wind is one of the easiest ways to try to implement that,” Maynard said. Maynard said recently released studies have stated we could easily get 10 percent to 20 percent of Ohio's energy needs from wind energy. He said, “In Northwest Ohio, wind turbines could have a positive impact on farmers who may lease turbines on their properties and have a steady income, regardless of what the prices of corn are or what the weather might be. So the potential in Northwest Ohio looks very promising.” The technology of wind turbines continues to improve with the development of larger, longer blades and strong lightweight materials that decrease the cost per kilowatt hour. From a manufacturing perspective, the state, and particularly Gov. Ted Strickland, have looked at using Northwest Ohio's core manufacturing capabilities to attract jobs in the manufacturing of newer high growth technologies like wind turbines. “Concerns about wind turbines include the visual impact, bird kills, noise, ice forming on the blades and flying off, as well as flight paths of migratory birds being affected,” Maynard said. “If the studies prove wind turbines are safe, this could mean much more wind energy development in this area.” The growth potential for the wind energy industry is enormous, but the question will be how comfortable people feel with having wind turbines in Northwest Ohio. “Because it's a fairly new industry, not a lot of thought has been given to zoning or to the implications of having wind turbines in people's backyards. As we continue to use more energy, no one wants to have a power plant in one's backyard,” Maynard said. “But if you had to choose between different ways of generating power, I think most people would pick a wind turbine over a coal-fired power plant or a nuclear facility in their backyard.” Kristine Hoffman is host and executive producer of “Business 360,” which airs every Monday and Friday evening on WGTE-TV, during PBS' “Nightly Business Report.” Contact her at Kristine_Hoffman@wgte.org. ***************************************************************** 29 TheDay.com: Outlook Dim For Power By Patricia Daddona , Published on 6/8/2007 Keeping up with Connecticut's high demand for electricity will continue to be a challenge over the next decade, according to a forecast by the Connecticut Siting Council. According to the draft report, which will be revised and finalized after a public hearing on Tuesday, the state will consume 33,711 gigawatt hours of electricity in 2007, but by 2016 could be using 36,812 gigawatt hours a year. That growth averages almost 1 percent a year. A gigawatt is equivalent to one billion watt hours of electricity. The forecast is a tool used by state utility regulators and planners to project demand and supply in the quest for balanced consumption. It is used to guide the development of the state's electric power system. The council incorporated projections by ISO New England, the manager of the region's electricity grid, into its conclusions, which basically deem supply “adequate” — that is, so long as weather conditions remain normal and no major generating plants are permanently shut down. Coupled with ISO New England's projections, however, a “significant shortage” is forecast over the 10-year period, siting council analysts state. What's more, Connecticut's summertime consumption, when demand is highest, is its Achilles heel. Despite a drop in electric consumption year over year, peak loads in the summer continue to grow, the report states. While the council projects a summertime peak load of 7,035 megawatts, ISO New England puts the figure at 7,320 megawatts, and adds a worst-case projection of 7,810 megawatts, a number that could grow to 9,080 megawatts by 2016. That's a possible growth rate of 1.7 percent for the state, according to ISO New England. So, how realistic are those projections? Last year, the state set a summertime record of 7,366 megawatts, which nevertheless did not exceed ISO New England's previous worst-case projections. Connecticut has several strikes against it, the council analysts state, including the now well-known failure of deregulation to attract new competition among generators into the marketplace, which could have lowered costs for consumers. Southwest Connecticut, which consumes half the state's “peak” load, also continues to eat away at supply, the forecast states. But the difficulty the state's transmission system has in handling electricity from east to west, even when it is imported, also curbs the ability of the state's distribution companies, Connecticut Light & Power Co. and United Illuminating, to serve its customers. Compared to other New England states, Connecticut can only import 30 percent of its peak load, compared with 100 percent for New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island and 50 percent for Maine and Massachusetts. Several projects are in the works to increase capacity here, including four new generation proposals recently approved by the state Department of Public Utility Control. In addition, an upgrade project known as the New England East-West Solution, could allow imports of 1,100 or more megawatts if approved later this year by ISO New England, the forecast states. Dominion, the owner of the Millstone nuclear complex in Waterford, is pursuing plans to increase one nuclear reactor's output by 7 percent and add up to 75 new megawatts to the grid. If Dominion seeks approved from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this fall, that step could eventually provide power to about 55,000 more homes and businesses, said Dominion spokesman Pete Hyde. Tuesday's public hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in the Room 2C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford and resume at 7 p.m. p.daddona@theday.com | © 1998-2007 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 30 Viet Nam News: Draft law on nuclear energy presented Friday, June 08, 2007 (08-06-2007) HA NOI — The Government Office yesterday presented the draft Law on Nuclear Energy in Ha Noi. The draft, composed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, has 11 chapters and 84 clauses regulating the development and application of nuclear energy as well as outlining related security and safety measures. The draft also mentions boosting nuclear applications in Viet Nam and how the State could manage this process while funding its development and providing compensation packages for damage claims. Some officials had suggested that the draft law should focus only on regulations to make sure radiation levels remain within human safety limits and that radioactive or nuclear resources are secure. But members of the drafting committee said the draft should promote both boosting nuclear research and its possible applications and the safety and security of atomic facilities and radiation. — VNS Copyright by Viet Nam News, Vietnam News Agency 11 Tran Hung Dao Street, Hanoi, Vietnam Editor in Chief: Tran Mai Huong Tel. 84-4-9332316; Fax: 84-4-9332311 E-mail: vnnews@vnagency.com.vn Publication Permit: 599/GP-INTER Granted by the Ministry of Culture and Information on April 9, 1998. ***************************************************************** 31 The Telegraph: After N-hiccup, a belly ache Calcutta : Frontpage Saturday, June 09, 2007 | Advertise with us - India moots national vault for spent fuel JYOTI MALHOTRA Manmohan Singh, who prefers vegetarian food, chats with George W. Bush, who had a stomach ailment earlier on Friday, in Heiligendamm, Germany. ?He?s just not feeling well in the stomach, and guess he didn?t want to follow in the footsteps of his father in Asia,? White House counsellor Dan Bartlett said, explaining why Bush skipped the G8 summit morning meetings. In January 1992, George Bush, the father of the current President, had vomited and collapsed during a state dinner at Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa?s residence. (AP picture) Berlin, June 8: The fragility of the nuclear deal was driven home to Indian officials at the Heiligendamm resort this morning when a viral saboteur kept President George W. Bush in bed longer than usual and nearly wrecked an encounter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But Bush soon overcame the stomach ailment and rose from bed to meet the Prime Minister for a ?few minutes?. India had a second line of defence ready in the form of national security adviser M.K. Narayanan, who had a more substantive conversation with his US counterpart Steve Hadley. Foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, who accompanied the Prime Minister, said the meeting with Bush lasted 10 minutes and both sides were now going home to review the story so far. Turns out that when Singh met Bush, his first words were: ?We were worried, how is your health now??? Bush replied: ?I am fine, I had a digestive problem.? But Menon refused to elaborate on what was discussed in those 10 minutes. ?Both of us are committed to seeing it through. Both of us think that it?s doable,? he said. It is learnt that New Delhi had proposed to Washington that in order to break the reprocessing deadlock, India would dedicate a national facility for storing the spent fuel from the safeguarded civilian nuclear reactors. This offer had been made on the eve of the visit of US diplomat Nicholas Burns to India last week, and Narayanan, who stays in constant touch with Hadley, has now put forward this proposal to him in Heiligendamm. Official sources, describing the storage facility as a ?concession? and a ?step back? from the position that India had earlier adopted on reprocessing, said they hoped the proposal would get a positive response from the US. Asked in what way India considered it a concession, the sources said the dedicated national facility would also be open to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The officials said they hoped the US would be able to look at this proposal carefully and Bush would take a ?political call? on the fact that New Delhi was willing to meet the Americans half way. India feels that the July 18, 2005, and March 2, 2006, agreements with the US allow full reprocessing rights. However, if the US had had any second thoughts, the officials said, India would like to make every effort to go half way and clear the air. It was not clear whether Singh managed to convey India?s hopes that Bush would be able to take a ?political call? on the now stalled nuclear deal with India as the meeting was for such a short period. On the other major obstacle to the nuclear deal — immunity for a strategic fuel reserve — officials said they hoped the offer on reprocessing would also convince the US that India could be trusted to keep its side of the bargain. Singh also took a short walk with Russian President Vladimir Putin and met the new President of France, Nicholas Sarkozy, as well as outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair. atomic angst The Indian atomic establishment struck a note of caution while the Prime Minister was meeting the US President. The Atomic Energy Commission chairman, Anil Kakodkar (in picture), said in Hyderabad India would not accept the deal if it adversely affected Delhi’s nuclear programme. It is unusual for an official to articulate his views in the middle of talks at the highest political level. Copyright © 2006 The Telegraph. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | ***************************************************************** 32 NRC: NRC Seeks Public Comment on Terrorism Risk Assessment for Proposed Irradiator in Hawaii News Release - 2007-072 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on an appendix to the draft environmental assessment for a proposed commercial irradiator facility to be operated in Honolulu, Hawaii. The appendix concludes that no significant environmental impacts are likely from a potential terrorist attack on the facility. The appendix bases its conclusion on an evaluation of the current threat environment, information from the intelligence community, and various security enhancements imposed by the NRC on commercial irradiator facilities since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The NRC staff conducted the terrorism assessment in response to the June 2, 2006, ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace v. NRC. That ruling required NRC to conduct an environmental assessment of the potential impacts of a terrorist attack on a proposed spent nuclear fuel storage facility to be constructed at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California. That assessment was published May 29 for public comment. In response to the Ninth Circuit ruling, the NRC decided it was appropriate to conduct a similar assessment for the proposed Pa’ina irradiator. Hawaii is in the Ninth Circuit. More information about the Pa’ina irradiator, as well as the appendix to the draft environmental assessment, is available on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/materials.html by clicking on “Pa’ina irradiator” under Key Topics. A Notice of Availability regarding the appendix was published today in the Federal Register. Comments will be accepted through July 9. After evaluating the public comments, staff will make a determination on a final environmental assessment for the proposed facility. Comments may be submitted to the Chief, Rules Review and Directives Branch, Mail Stop T6-D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Please note Docket No. 030-36974 when submitting comments. Comments will also be accepted by e-mail at NRCREP@nrc.gov or by facsimile to (301) 415-5397, Attention: Matthew Blevins. NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Friday, June 08, 2007 ***************************************************************** 33 Orange County Register: Nuclear incidents 'more than minor' Friday, June 8, 2007 Overall, San Onofre gets good marks from federal regulators, but human error remains a factor in plant mishaps. By TERI SFORZA On Dec. 11, operators in the control room of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station were bringing Reactor 3 up to full power after a months-long refueling outage. The goal: raising power to 18 percent by adding water to the nuclear core. But rather than doing the precise calculations necessary to determine how much water to add, operators consulted a book, did some rudimentary math and added 500 gallons – twice what was necessary. When power jumped to 19 percent from 15 percent, operators alerted supervisors. Boric acid injected into the reactor halted the increase at about 20.3 percent of full power, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports. "A lack of oversight by the shift manager and Unit 3 control room supervisory personnel significantly contributed to this event," commission inspectors said. "In addition to poor oversight … a poor pre-job brief and a lack of clear management expectations for performing reactivity additions contributed to this event." This incident was among more than a dozen at San Onofre last year considered "more than minor" because it could have led to a significant event, challenged safety systems or affected workers' health. In the end, the incidents had very low safety significance, and no harm was done, the commission said. Overall, San Onofre gets good grades from the commission. Seven years elapsed between its last two major enforcement actions. But some neighbors don't trust the commission. Last year, radiation 16 times higher than that allowed in drinking water was found beneath the decommissioned reactor known as Unit 1. The commission called it "troubling" but said it was within radiation protection limits. Opponents say San Onofre's incidents illustrate a disturbing truth: Even the best of systems are run by people, and people make mistakes. Southern California Edison, which runs San Onofre, declined to discuss the Dec. 11 incident in detail. In a statement, spokesman Ray Golden said: "We concur with the NRC that these issues were of very low safety significance, and never presented a risk to the community or to the operation of the facility. It should be understood that we review and monitor every step of our operation to ensure that we work error-free. This is an ongoing and never-ending process." The safety debate about nuclear power is intensifying as a push to build nuclear power plants surfaces in the U.S. There are 103 working reactors in America, providing 20 percent of the nation's electricity. Plans for 30 more are in the works with the commission. It's a huge about-face: The most recent construction permit was issued by the commission in 1978 – before a notorious accident at Three Mile Island. Most of the new plants will be in the South. Nothing is planned for California, because state law forbids nuclear development until a federal waste repository comes online. Legislation to repeal this ban was recently introduced – and killed – in Sacramento, but a pro-nuclear ballot initiative is in the works. Advocates tout nuclear power as a solution to global warming. Opponents say the dangers posed by spent fuel, which remains radioactive for tens of thousands of years, rule it out as an answer. How safe is nuclear power? There have been no major accidents in the United States since a reactor at Three Mile Island had a partial core meltdown in 1979. Radioactive gases were released, but no deaths or injuries were reported. A government report found that the projected number of "excess fatal cancers" due to the accident was "approximately one." How safe is San Onofre? The last major enforcement action issued by the commission to San Onofre was on Sept. 13, after liquid radioactive waste leaked from a truck in Utah. The tanker's discharge valve was improperly closed and sealed. The action before that was on Dec. 15, 1999, after operators failed to recognize a condition that rendered inoperable a diesel generator and battery chargers. While violations serious enough to garner official dings are fewer and farther between than they were a decade ago, there are still many minor incidents – some reported by San Onofre itself. An Orange County Register review of commission reports shows San Onofre workers: ?Improperly labeled a container of radioactive material, which wound up in a chemistry-lab trash can. ?Allowed debris to collect in water-storage tank enclosures, which could block flow in an emergency. ?Failed to promptly identify trapped air in safety-injection suction lines, which could damage emergency core cooling-system pumps. Dave Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, has criticized the commission, testifying before Congress that it has let plants cut back on safety checks and operate with dangerously worn equipment. Lochbaum's group isn't anti-nuclear, but argues for stricter regulation. At the Register's request, Lochbaum reviewed San Onofre's recent safety records. "The good news is that there's a big time gap between the most recent enforcement action and the previous one," he wrote in an e-mail. "If you look at other reactors, you'll see that NRC writes tickets far more often (at other reactors) than at San Onofre." And Lochbaum is impressed by how hard San Onofre officials are trying. "About a year ago, I attended a public meeting between San Onofre and NRC," he wrote. "San Onofre had requested the meeting. They presented the results from a recent survey of the workforce on safety culture issues. … The survey results for San Onofre were really good – numbers that most sites would love to have. But San Onofre's presentation to the NRC was as if they got a failing grade. I sent them (a) letter commending them on having such high standards. It's not the first commendation letter we've sent, but it's in a very small group." That's not much comfort to Lyn Harris Hicks of San Clemente, who has lived beside the reactors for about 30 years. She is deeply troubled that radioactive tritium was found last year in groundwater beneath a defunct San Onofre reactor more than a decade after it ceased operations. Public health was not in danger, the commission and Edison said: Every year, people are exposed to about 300 millirems of radiation from natural sources. Anyone in contact with the water would have received about 1/10 millirems. Harris Hicks is skeptical. "Tritium into the beach is the most important issue to us," she said. "This indicates it may have been seeping into the ground there all those years. We have our young surfers down there all the time. … That's the problem of nuclear radiation, of course. It permeates." Commission officials called the incident "troubling" but said it posed no danger to public health or safety because the tritium levels were within radiation protection limits. Extensive testing showed the contamination was contained on site and did not reach a drinking-water source, the commission said. "Nonetheless," commission spokesman Victor Dricks wrote in an e-mail to the Register, "the NRC takes this kind of unanticipated and unmonitored release very seriously." Dricks said two commission inspectors are assigned to San Onofre full time, and people should be reassured by the rigorous oversight it and other reactors receive. Harris Hicks and the Coalition for Responsible and Ethical Environmental Decisions aren't convinced. She particularly objects to the secrecy surrounding physical security in the wake of 9/11. On March 15, the commission released a letter saying San Onofre has two low-level security violations, but did not say what they are. The logic: Officials don't want to tip off terrorists to weak spots. "Everything they do is done with great secrecy behind closed doors," Harris Hicks said. "Their main purpose is to keep everything quiet so they can say: 'Nuclear power is so safe. Just look, we've operated all these years without hurting any of the public.' They have accidents all the time. They just don't call them accidents. They call them 'incidents' and 'occurrences.' Mild? They may be, they may not be, but they are possible precursors to something more serious." Edison's Golden understands the frustration. But since 9/11, more than $80 million has been spent beefing up physical security at San Onofre, he said. "Safety is the most important job at San Onofre," Golden said. "For nearly 40 years, Southern California Edison has demonstrated its commitment to operating a nuclear power facility at San Onofre in a clean, safe and reliable manner. And while we strive for flawless execution, we also constantly dedicate ourselves to continuous improvement through learning lessons along the way that have supported our excellent track record for nuclear safety." Contact the writer: 714-796-6910 or tsforza@ocregister.com Audio news & Podcasts Copyright 2007 The Orange County Register | ***************************************************************** 34 The Coloradoan: Just say, 'No way' to uranium www.coloradoan.com - Ft. Collins, CO. Friday, June 8, 2007 Jackie Adolph Uranium mining in Northern Colorado? What are we thinking? With so many problems on our minds, it is easy to push away issues and pretend that threats are not real. This issue of uranium in-situ mining is not going away. It is a mess that won't really ever be cleaned up if it starts. You could "Google" uranium pollution and probably not find one site that has been cleared of radiation or water problems due to uranium mining. We already have radon issues in Fort Collins, so we know we are sitting on top of it. According to the United States EPA Web site on radon, higher incidence of radon increases the risk for lung cancer (a citizen's guide to Radon). Uranium does not pose nearly the risk until exposed to air. Then the real trouble begins. Here in Larimer County, we seem to be turning a blind eye to what Weld County may allow. Believe me, a county line will not stop the impact from reaching all of Larimer County and beyond. Since I became aware of it, I have spoken to 10 people a day in Fort Collins. Nine out of 10 respond with shock and thought that this could never happen here! We wouldn't allow it, right? Well, who are we, and when will we stand up and stop this? It has been covered in the media, but it seems that it has failed to show up on the internal radar screens as danger! Uranium mining cannot be treated or permitted the same as gas and oil mining. It is not the same threat to the environment. Technology has not changed since water contamination in Goliad, Texas, prompted changes to stop uranium mining. Many areas already ban this (the entire Navajo Nation tribal lands in Arizona and Utah), but in most cases, the damage is already done (www.irc-online. org/americaspolicy/amcit/ 3963). In news released to investors May 24, Powertech calculated that there are 9,730,490 pounds of U308, plus or minus 3 million to 5 million pounds, in the Centennial Project to be extracted. Water can be contaminated even during the "prospecting" phase. During their work begun in 1974, ore was shipped into Wyoming for processing. (Powertechuranium.com) Will our highways also be at risk for spills during transport? This resource, with all its pitfalls and health threats, will not even benefit Colorado in any way. Far more valuable is our environment and the future generations that will inhabit this terrain. Water is at a premium in Colorado; those of us who have domestic wells feel fortunate. If all the ranches in the proposed area need to abandon their properties and wells, and the county wells are also affected, where will we be then? Real estate will plummet. Health will nose-dive as well. Not the best place to live in the United States anymore? The little group of Nunnglow.com needs help and participation to stop this from all of us. We need a resolution to stop uranium mining in Colorado. Get informed and be ready to vote or sign petitions when they emerge. This toothpaste needs to stay in the tube. Jackie Adolph is a Colorado native who lives in Fort Collins. Originally published June 8, 2007 Copyright ©2007 The Fort Collins Coloradoan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 Las Vegas Business Press: Contractor with local ties acquired for $2.6 billion Friday, June 08, 2007 BY TONY ILLIA URS Corp. of San Francisco last week announced the purchase of Boise, Idaho-based rival Washington Group International for $2.6 billion in cash and stock. The deal unveiled May 28 creates the nation's fourth-biggest engineering and construction company, with $8.6 billion in annual revenue, an $11 billion backlog and 54,500 employees in 50 countries. Both companies have Las Vegas offices responsible for several landmark local projects. WGI, for example, last summer completed the $82.6 million, Interstate 215/515 "Spaghetti Bowl" interchange in Henderson. It also built a $31.6 million, five-mile section of the Las Vegas Beltway that was completed in 2004, and performed a $33.7 million Interstate 15 widening in 2002. In 1989, the firm came to town to perform site work and grading for the Lake Las Vegas Resort in Henderson. Yet its local roots run much deeper. WGI, formerly named Morrison Knudsen Corp., helped build the 727-foot-tall Hoover Dam, which opened in 1936. TONY ILLIA | BUSINESS PRESS URS has acquired Washington Group Inc., which last year completed the $82.6 million, Interstate-215/515 "Spaghetti Bowl" interchange in Henderson. COURTESY NDOT URS, meanwhile, most recently developed ridership forecasts for a Las Vegas Monorail extension to CityCenter. It also designed numerous pumping stations, pipelines and reservoirs for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "The combination with Washington Group is the next logical step for us to take," said Martin Koffel, URS chairman and CEO, during a recent conference call. "This has created a single-source provider." The deal places the company in a better position to capitalize on renewed global interest in nuclear power as an alternative energy source, which it pegs as a $100 billion market over the next decade. WGI additionally has a major division that does nuclear cleanup and remediation work for the U.S. Department of Energy. It has previously provided design and construction management services to the Yucca Mountain Repository. The buyout can also help URS win lucrative oil and gas contracts, a $2 trillion market over the next 10 years. It will additionally make the combined company a more formidable bidder for U.S. Department of Defense contracts. WGI, under the deal, will become a stand-alone division of URS. But it will still remain under the current leadership of WGI President Stephen Hanks. Further integration could, however, occur at a later time, Hanks said in the May 29 analyst call. The acquisition is expected to save $50 million to $55 million a year by working together. "Our businesses complement each other, and we have highly compatible cultures," said Hanks. "This transaction will create a new leader in the engineering and construction industry." The boards of directors of both companies unanimously approved the deal, which calls for WGI stockholders to receive $43.80 in cash and 0.772 shares of URS stock for each company share. The transaction is valued at $80 per share, a 14 percent premium over WGI's most recent stock price. Both companies trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Upon completion of the transaction, WGI stockholders will own approximately 31 percent of the combined company. URS shares gained $1.89, or 4 percent, to $48.78 on news of the deal, while WGI stock surged $11.89, or 17 percent, to $81.86. Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Alex Rygiel placed an "Outperform," or "Buy," rating on URS following news of the deal. "The acquisition significantly improves URS's position within the global E&C industry -- particularly oil and gas, power and nuclear -- while enhancing its position within the infrastructure market and government sector," he said to investors. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services was less enthusiastic. It said on May 29 that it might downgrade its debt rating on URS Corp. further into junk, following the announcement. URS had total debt of $168 million as of March 31, and the acquisition raises that to $1.5 billion, according to S&P. "The acquisition grants URS some improved business capabilities, such as additional scale, diversity, and nuclear power expertise," S&P said in a statement. "However, the increased leverage will weaken the company's financial risk profile." tonyillia@aol.com | 303-5699 Copyright © 2007, Las Vegas Business Press ***************************************************************** 36 AU ABC: No plans to store high-level radioactive in Aust - Vaile. 08/06/2007. ABC News Online The Deputy Prime Minister says there are no plans to store high-level radioactive material at an Australian nuclear waste facility. The Commonwealth is examining three sites in the Northern Territory for a facility, with the Northern Land Council nominating Muckaty Station in the Barkly region as a fourth. Territory Labor MP Warren Snowdon says a Liberal Party Federal Council's pro-nuclear waste dump resolution shows it has a secret agenda for the Territory to take high level nuclear material. But Mark Vaile says that is not the Federal Government's plan. "The decision the Government's taken and the intention is low level waste only and we'll go through that process of consultation and research and assessment as we move forward in this area," he said. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. ***************************************************************** 37 News & Star: Sellafield finds "hot" pebbles Published on 08/06/2007 EXPERTS at Sellafield are puzzled by the discovery of pebbles on local beaches that have absorbed radioactivity. The handful of cases of ‘hot pebbles’ came to light after a new scanning and monitoring machine made extensive checks across beaches at Sellafield, Seascale and St Bees. The meeting of the environmental sub committee of the West Cumbria sites stakeholder group heard of the discovery from Tim Parker, BNG’s environmental monitoring manager. The meeting was told the radioactive traces found on the beaches posed an even lower risk than the risk of being struck by lightning. Mr Parker said the estimated risk to beach users from the minute traces of radioactivity would be one in 100 million. He said over 100 hectares were being checked and there had been nine finds near Sellafield, three at Braystones, one at St Bees and 22 at the mouth of the River Ehen. He said 14 of the finds were pebbles that had somehow absorbed radioactive caesium, which had puzzled the experts. At the meeting Matthew Emptage, representing the Environment Agency, said that last month they had served an enforcement notice on BNG to use best practice in ensuring solid particles were excluded from the liquid effluent discharges from Sellafield into the sea. Since the notorious 1983 beach ban incident the Environment Agency has required beach monitoring. This has been by hand held scanners and had only found a handful of radioactive particles. ***************************************************************** 38 AFP: Hiroshima bombing display to visit 101 US cities - Fri Jun 8, 11:53 AM ET TOKYO (AFP) - An exhibition marking the atomic bombing of Hiroshima is to visit 101 US cities this year in a bid to raise awareness of nuclear disarmament. The Japanese city is planning to bring the photo and video display to two cities in every state, as well as Washington, as American voters prepare to elect a new president, said a spokeswoman for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. "We want to bring our issue to the American people. We want them think of the experience of Hiroshima as a policy issue. We hope the people in America will have more understanding for dismantling nuclear weapons," she said Friday. "With the presidential election coming up, political consciousness will rise among the American people. We believe this is a good time to bring our displays to the United States and we hope many people would be interested in coming to see our exhibits." On the morning of August 6, 1945, a US bomb instantly killed more than 140,000 people in Hiroshima and injured tens of thousands of others who died later from radiation or horrific burns. The world's first nuclear attack was followed by the dropping of a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki three days later, leaving another 70,000 people dead. Exhibition organisers hope to recruit survivors of the 1945 nuclear bombing to speak in some of the cities, the spokeswoman added, but details are yet to be finalised. Following the August 6 attack, Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II. Tokyo has since lobbied unsuccessfully for a global abolition of nuclear weapons. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 39 Santa Fe New Mexican: New report examines LANL cleanup efforts Fri Jun 8, 2007 10:35 pm Groundwater study at LANL June 2007 (.pdf) By | The New Mexican Lab has until 2015 to locate and solve contamination of area groundwater Los Alamos National Laboratory still has a lot of work to do in understanding groundwater contamination threats to the regional aquifer from waste produced in its decadeslong nuclear research program, according to a report released Friday by the National Research Council. The lab has until 2015 to identify and provide a remedy for groundwater contamination under a 1995 state Environment Department consent order. It has disposed of radioactive and other waste on lab property since the 1940s, and the department is concerned those wastes could leak into the region’s groundwater aquifer stretching east to the Rio Grande and contaminate drinking water wells. While the lab has made great strides in understanding how water moves through layers of rock, sand and clay around its 43-square-mile site, researchers lag in understanding contaminants’ path through groundwater and in knowing the source of solid contaminants, according to the council, an arm of the nonprofit National Academies of Science and Engineering. The lab’s scientists also still don’t understand well enough how contaminants might move between watersheds, such as possibly through shared acquifers, the report says. In addition, LANL needs to beef up its communications with the public about groundwater contamination uncertainties and allow more peer review of its groundwater contamination research, according to the report. “It is a work in progress,” the chairman of the committee that wrote the report said of the lab’s cleanup efforts. “What they’ve done so far seems good,” added Dr. Larry W. Lake, a geosystems engineering professor at the University of Texas. “What we looked at was what they plan to do next.” Greg Mello, executive director of the lab watchdog Los Alamos Study Group, said LANL’s groundwater research program doesn’t address a key issue: the lab’s continuing use of unlined pits to dispose of contaminated solid waste. “Some areas are getting cleaned up; other areas are getting dumped on,” he said. “Existing sites continue leaching into the groundwater.” Instead of spending a lot of money on research in the last nine years, Mello said, the lab could have cleaned up contamination sites and lessened the risk of ongoing groundwater contamination. LANL has spent about $1 billion on the contamination research and cleanup program since the early 1990s and expects to spend at least $1.2 billion more to meet the state’s requirements, said lab spokesman James E. Rickman. “People could argue that in the past we could have done a better job of cleanup. No one really disputes that,” he said. But now, Rickman said, “the consent order is our guide to cleanup, and we take the consent order very seriously. The tenor among the staff right now is it wants to make the cleanup as effective and efficient as possible.” Rickman said all the transuranic radioactive waste buried at dry pits in Area G, such as plutonium, will be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant by 2015, but he acknowledged that some contaminated waste continues to be buried there. Cleanup costs include shipping out the waste, he said. In the last four or five years, the lab has reduced by 90 percent the contaminated liquid waste discharged into canyons cutting through lab property, according to the committee report and Rickman. The lab believes the waste is the prime source of some contamination found in groundwater samples, such as chromium, which is used for the lab’s power generating plant, Rickman said. He said the lab plans to stop all contaminated liquid waste disposal in the canyons before 2015. Lake said the committee thought the lab had done a good job disposing of the liquid waste. “We didn’t give them such high marks for the (25) so-called dry sites,” he said of lab officials. “Those are pits up on the mesa where contaminants were dumped and covered up. Their reasoning (for focusing on removing liquid waste) is those contaminants are less mobile.” Lake said he thought the lab could meet all the requirements of the state consent order by the 2015 deadline if it followed the report’s recommendations. Sue Stiger, the lab’s associate director for environmental programs, said the report’s recommendations were consistent with work required by the state Environment Department’s order. “The National Academies committee has provided us with a number of recommendations that we will use to augment our efforts to further strengthen and improve our Groundwater Protection Program,” Stiger said. State Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry said the report shows “LANL must do substantially more to quantify contamination from its operations and the effects of that contamination on groundwater. New Mexico has limited water resources, and the lab must do everything it can to ensure water is protected. The lab must also improve its relationship with the people of New Mexico by providing more information about every aspect of its operations.” Seven of the 12 drinking water supply wells in Los Alamos County are on lab property. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management funded the report, which is available at www.national-academies.org. Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com. Copyright 2007 The New Mexican, Inc. Privacy Policy / Terms of Use | ©2007, Santa Fe New Mexican, all ***************************************************************** 40 Tri-City Herald: K East sludge, Klein slip toward history Opinions Published Friday, June 8th, 2007 Perseverance paid as the K East Basin at Hanford was declared sludge-free last week. Fluor Hanford workers met a deadline most thought was unrealistic. They celebrated with a formal presentation at the site, of course. They had it coming. Starting in the 1950s, the K East and K West basins were used to cool fuel irradiated in Hanford reactors for the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. When production ended, fuel left in the basins corroded, mixed with debris and formed a radioactive sludge. K East was the leaker of the two basins. By constantly pushing and innovating, Fluor workers were able to get K East drained and scoured and its residue moved to the stronger K West basin by last Thursday. About 200 current and former workers gathered at the site to celebrate transfer of the final bit of sludge. "We've done it. You figured it out," Department of Energy Richland Operations Office manager Keith Klein, told the crowd. It was his last day on the job before retiring. After unexpected problems, delays and at least 10 deadline extensions by the Environmental Protection Agency, that's how close it was. It was a fitting end to Klein's tenure, capping eight years of work on a triad of ambitious goals -- removing K Basin sludge, stabilizing scrap plutonium left from the Cold War and shrinking the footprint of Hanford's high maintenance sites. It's been a tougher job than anybody anticipated, but we're safer because of the efforts of workers who've dedicated their professional lives to these difficult tasks. Fluor Hanford President Con Murphy's observation about the cleanup bears repeating. "Two million people down river today can feel better," he said. Right. Now it's time to turn to K West and a 2009 deadline to get all the remaining sludge treated for disposal. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 41 Hanford News: LIGO receives grant for educational outreach This story was published Friday, June 8th, 2007 John Trumbo, Herald staff writer Hanford's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory has received a $5,000 award from the Washington state Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform program. The award, presented Tuesday morning at TRIDEC offices in Kennewick, recognizes LIGO's contributions toward advancing science education for the public. The award was accepted by Fred Raab, head of the LIGO Hanford Observatory. Raab said LIGO is happy to be involved in helping "put some magic into the lives of thousands of residents of our region each year." He said the educational outreach has involved the Tri-City Astronomy Club, Columbia Basin College, the Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science and Technology, Washington State University Tri-Cities and other groups to conduct public activities at LIGO and school-based programs. LIGO offers field trips for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, teaching about 900 of them in 2006 about gravitational waves. About a dozen university groups also visited LIGO last year. Dennis Schatz, vice president for education at Pacific Science Center and co-director for Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform, or LASER, said in a prepared statement the award is to recognize and raise public awareness about science education. It was one of five awards given this year for that purpose. Raab said the award money will be used to support transportation expenses for trips to the observatory. Len Peters, former director at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, and chairman of the TRIDEC board, said the award emphasizes the importance of LIGO in advocating science education. "It is so important for people to understand the value of science outreach," he said. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 42 Hanford News: Tank farm cost jumps $18 billion: Estimated contingency costs are not included This story was published Friday, June 8th, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer The estimated price tag has increased from $26 billion to $44 billion for closing Hanford's underground tanks and treating their radioactive and hazardous chemical waste. That amount does not include estimated contingency costs of as much as $18 billion - bringing the potential cost to $62 billion - if the project has more delays or other difficulties. The jump in price is one of the results of setbacks in building Hanford's massive vitrification plant, according to the Department of Energy. "We're stretching the overall project out," said Zack Smith, acting deputy manager of DOE's Hanford Office of River Protection. "Every year you operate, the more it costs." The $44 billion cost would cover emptying and closing the 177 underground tanks at the Hanford nuclear reservation and treating the 53 million gallons of waste they hold. It does not include the $12.3 billion cost of building and testing the vitrification plant, which is being built to treat much of the waste, although it does include the plant's operating cost. Treatment of the waste and closure of the tanks would be completed in 2042, rather than 2028 as is required by the legally binding Tri-Party Agreement, under the revised schedule. The waste is left from more than 40 years production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The $44 billion cost and 2042 date are included in a revised baseline plan for the tank farm that lays out work that needs to be completed, Smith said. Hanford officials began working on the revised baseline in late 2005 as it became clear that the former cost and schedule were unrealistic, given problems with the vitrification plant being built to turn the tank waste into a stable glass form for permanent disposal. The revised baseline was approved in April by Jim Rispoli, DOE's assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. The issue of the baseline came up at the Hanford Advisory Board meeting Thursday in Pasco when Gerald Pollet, chairman of the Budgets and Contracts Committee, said he and some other members only recently learned about the revised baseline through budget documents. The Hanford Advisory Board may consider issuing advice to DOE today calling for baselines to be adopted only after review by the public. The increasing cost and schedule for the project are driven by delays at the vitrification plant, according to DOE. The plant was to begin operating by a legal deadline of 2011, but technical, management and budget problems have pushed the estimated start date to late 2019. Until waste can be treated at the plant, it must be stored in underground tanks. Leak-prone single-shell tanks are being emptied into 28 newer double-shell tanks, but they are nearing capacity. Emptying of the tanks has slowed until DOE has a way to treat the waste, freeing up more space in the double-shell tanks. Treatment costs also are increased by the delayed start to operations at the vitrification plant. The 2042 date for completion is an achievable target, Smith said. "It's realistic to work toward." The contingency of $18 billion would cover major risks for the project, including further delays in construction of the vitrification plant or delays in operations. It also would cover the costs of vitrifying certain tank wastes, if DOE has to treat it as high-level radioactive waste rather than transuranic waste. Transuranic waste typically is contaminated with plutonium or other elements that are heavier than uranium. DOE has proposed classifying the waste in up to eight tanks as transuranic waste and sending it to the nation's repository in New Mexico for transuranic waste. The revised baseline has been approved by Rispoli for the next six years, and verified with less certainty in the outlying years. In hindsight, DOE should have worked with the Hanford Advisory Board to develop priorities for the work in the baseline, even if it could not discuss some specific numbers, Smith said. Budget numbers in the baseline were embargoed until recently because of the federal budget process. However, DOE did present the revised baseline this spring to the Washington Department of Ecology, which regulates the tank project, Smith said. "The state has not agreed to the changes in the schedule," said Nolan Curtis, program administration section manager for the Department of Ecology. The issue is being discussed in high-level negotiations on changes to the Tri-Party Agreement. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 43 KnoxNews: Browns Ferry 1 at 100 percent power For the first time in more than 22 years, the Unit 1 reactor at TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant is at 100 percent power. TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said the reactor reached the milestone at 2:57 a.m. today. The federal utility has spent five years and at least $1.8 billion revamping the reactor, and the restart process has drawn plenty of attention from the nuclear industry and beyond. Posted by Andrew Eder on June 08, 2007 at 09:33 AM Share this post: Digg It! | Add to del.icio.us | Submit to Reddit | Add to Netscape | Technorati Copyright 2007 - KnoxNews.com is an E.W. Scripps Company website. ***************************************************************** 44 lamonitor.com: Study says LANL's water project 'in progress' The Online News Source for Los Alamos ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor An independent review of the laboratory's groundwater protection activities released this morning will not be the last word in the ongoing conversation, but it did offer a foundation for future discussion. At a public briefing today at Fuller Lodge, the chairman and vice chairman of a select committee of the National Academies of Science discussed the panel's findings and recommendations in the report, "Plans and Practices for Groundwater Protection at the Los Alamos National Laboratory." Among them, as committee chairman Larry W. Lake said, was the reality that the laboratory's water project is a work in progress. "I've always viewed this as a midcourse correction, more than a redirection of a major effort," he added, speaking for himself. Asked to quantify the magnitude of correction, he said, "A 30 percent correction or so." Again, he emphasized, "That's not in the report." The burden of the project includes not only the hazardous nature and sometimes haphazard disposal of the contamination on the site from more than six decades of heavy industrial duty as a nuclear weapons laboratory, but also the technical challenges and uncertainties associated with tracking, containing and cleaning it up. That this is an arid environment in which water is an especially precious resource, as the committee recognized, adds a high degree of urgency to the effort. Unscrambling the omelet The NAS report quoted from a final review to LANL by the External Advisory Group in 2005, remarking on the lab's accomplishments in understanding the hydrological complexities of the site, stating that "the many findings help unscramble the omelet that is the Pajarito Plateau." The study's optimistic conclusion was that the job of completing the groundwater protection program at Los Alamos can be done. In that spirit the committee offered its help, often softening the criticism with qualified explanations. Rod Ewing, the committee vice chair from the University of Michigan explained the tone of the report is typical of the NAS and the product of the many stages of review that they go through. Four "overarching" findings were emphasized. These included what the committee sees as a need for a better understanding of geochemistry, which deals with how contaminants interact with materials in the earth. Secondly, the report calls for the program to use a more precise and descriptive method of accounting for the site's inventory of contaminants. The committee recommends a mathematical tool known as "mass balance," that begins with quantified inputs and sources of contaminants. "It's like balancing your checkbook," explained Lake. "What goes in minus what comes out should equal what's still there." A third major finding has to do with uncertainty itself. "LANL needs to do a better job of describing the uncertainties in its groundwater protection program to both scientific and public audiences," the authors stated. Finally, the committee said it was willing "to accept LANL's motto, 'The World's Best Science Protecting America,' at face value," but found many reports to be typical of Department of Energy publications that are not peer-reviewed. The committee's recommendation is that key portions of the work should be summarized and published in peer-reviewed scientific journals to demonstrate the scientific merit of the program. Yes and No "In several instances, the committee's short answers to (the questions in its task statement) were negative," the authors wrote. "Such findings do not necessarily indicate major deficiencies in LANL's groundwater protection program, but rather that the program is incomplete." For example, the committee was asked to evaluate the laboratory's groundwater monitoring plan, first in terms of how well it follows good scientific practice, and secondly, the plan's adequacy for providing early warning and sufficient information for responding to the risk of contamination. The short answer given for the first question about scientific practices was "yes and no," and the short answer to the second question about early warning and response is "a qualified 'no.'" The report discussed gaps in LANL's conceptualization of contaminant pathways as a scientific shortcoming. "The plan is not adequate to provide early identification of potential contaminant migration with high confidence," the authors wrote. These points were unpacked by discussing the laboratory's strength in understanding the water-aided infiltration of contaminants from sources in wet canyons into the surface materials, migrating down to zones of perched water, in the vadose (or intermediate) zones and moving horizontally and downward according to regional geological structures. "However," the report adds, "there is a lack of understanding of the interconnectedness of pathways between basins ... (and) detailed knowledge needed to predict subsurface flowpaths does not exist." The laboratory has emphasized the study of liquid wastes, because they are known to be most mobile, but the committee recommended the solid wastes not be neglected in future efforts. "Solid wastes ... and certain contaminants deemed by LANL to be essentially immobile (e.g. plutonium) have the potential for impacting groundwater in the future," the study observed. "The committee received little information that would provide assurance that these sources are well understood." In answer to some of the controversial issues raised by community groups about drilling methods and reliability of sampling data, Lake said, "Message received," noting recent changes at the laboratory on both counts. To Bob Gilkeson, the geologist whose reports and white papers brought many of these concerns to light, Lake added, "And well done." Ewing said that the process itself, utilizing a workshop format involving presentations from a variety of perspectives, could be helpful as a model in the communication process. DOE and LANL responses Matt Johansen, the environmental program officer for the National Nuclear Security Administration, supervising the laboratory's work on the groundwater project said the Department of Energy is serious about the recommendations. "DOE welcomes the report, coming halfway through our program. By my count, the report includes 17 recommendations and additional sub-recommendations," he said, which will be given attention. Sue Stiger, LANL's associate laboratory director for environmental programs released a prepared statement that said the laboratory was pleased to receive the evaluation from "a well-respected, outside, independent source." The statement continued, "We are pleased that many of the committee's recommendations are consistent with work required under the New Mexico Environment Department Consent Order, which guides the Laboratory's environmental cleanup activities." © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 Rocky Mountain News: Ritter urges help for Flats workers June 8, 2007 Gov. Bill Ritter today urged a presidential advisory board to approve automatic compensation for former Rocky Flats workers who are sick with radiation-related cancers. The board is scheduled to meet Monday in Lakewood and vote Tuesday on a petition that would streamline federal compensation for most workers. Currently, workers must go through a process that takes an average of two years to determine how much radiation they were exposed to and the odds that it contributed to their illnesses. "This panel has existed for several years," Ritter wrote. "Scientific studies, examinations and reviews have been conducted for decades. The time is long past for action. Each day of delay means another sick employee comes closer to death. "If you fail our Cold War heroes, members of Congress seem poised to step in. On behalf of these workers and on behalf of the people of Colorado, I urge you to fulfill your charter and provide the efficient service and aid that our Rocky Flats workers deserve." Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien plans to testify Monday before the panel on behalf of the Ritter administration. Gov. Ritter sent an initial letter to the panel last month. ***************************************************************** 46 KnoxNews: Senators urge DOE to speed up OR cleanup Letter to energy official about $1.5B plan pushes for more support, funds By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com June 8, 2007 U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., are urging the U.S. Department of Energy to speed the cleanup of no-longer-needed facilities at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. An Oak Ridge plan to dismantle and decontaminate dozens of old nuclear facilities has been in the works for a couple of years but so far has not drawn the necessary support - or funding - in Washington. The proposal, called the Integrated Facilities Disposition Program, would cost about $1.5 billion and take several years to complete. In a June 4 letter to Clay Sell, the deputy secretary of energy, the senators said DOE's reduced request for cleanup funding in 2008 "jeopardizes progress on the much-needed nuclear cleanup work at Oak Ridge." They said they were particularly concerned that no specific money was allotted for the IFDP. Copies of the letter were sent to Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and James Rispoli, the Department of Energy's assistant secretary for environmental management. In a prepared statement released Thursday, Alexander said: "There are roughly 150 contaminated structures, storage tanks and other facilities at Oak Ridge National Lab and Y-12 that need to be addressed. Delaying the cleanup threatens the effectiveness of these institutions that are so important to keeping our nation safe and competitive in the global economy." Corker said the cleanup activities would "advance" the science mission at ORNL and the national security work at Y-12. Corker and Alexander are asking Sell to quickly review the package for "Critical Decision O," federal parlance for a decision that establishes the need for a project. The cleanup activities inside ORNL and Y-12 need urgent attention, they said. "The condition of the aging facilities is increasing the difficulty to safely decontaminate and decommission the structures in Oak Ridge," the senators wrote in the June 4 letter. Megan Barnett, a spokeswoman at Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, said the Oak Ridge proposal is in the earliest planning stages. "There's a recognition of some need, and we intend to evaluate this as we move forward," Barnett said. "We want to consider all alternatives to ensure that we are making the right decision." DOE's leadership team in Oak Ridge and its principal contractors have strongly supported the plan, saying it would save money in the long run and take advantage of resources already assembled for other cleanup activities. Billy Stair, communications director at UT-Battelle, the contractor that manages ORNL for the federal government, applauded the senators' support on IFDP. "Finishing that project is extremely important to the ability to expand our programs here at the lab, as well as further develop the Science and Technology Park," Stair said. "I think it's significant that they came out as forcefully as they did for the (cleanup) program." John Owsley, the state's environmental oversight chief in Oak Ridge, said Bredesen and James Fyke, the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, have both written letters in support of the proposal. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. Want to use this article? Click here for options! © 2007 - Knoxville News Sentinel ***************************************************************** 47 KnoxNews: Poplar trees fuel latest research project at ORNL By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com June 8, 2007 OAK RIDGE - Oak Ridge National Laboratory will receive a three-year, $1.04 million grant for biofuels-related research, federal officials announced Thursday. The U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture are jointly funding the studies at ORNL and other research institutions. Eleven projects totaling $8.3 million were announced as part of the federal research effort. The Oak Ridge project will look at ways to genetically alter poplar trees to maximize their ability to capture carbon and increase the production of biomass for fuel. The principal researcher at ORNL is Jerry Tuskan. Other scientists at ORNL, West Virginia University, and Oregon State University will participate in the project. Billy Stair, communications director at ORNL, said the new grant is "indicative of the lab's efforts broadly to become a larger player in bioenergy, both in Tennessee and nationally." ORNL is joining with the University of Tennessee on a demonstration project that would produce a form of cellulosic ethanol, trademarked as Grassoline. Gov. Phil Bredesen is supporting the $61 million project, and funding is pending before the Tennessee General Assembly. In addition to construction of the biorefinery, the funds would be used for switchgrass research at UT and ORNL and financial incentives for farmers to convert their land to grass production. Other research projects are in the planning stages at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which has significant expertise in biology, environmental sciences and fuel-conversion technologies. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************