***************************************************************** 06/12/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.137 ***************************************************************** 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 BBC NEWS: America's financial war on Iran 2 DEBKAfile: Moscow Releases Nuclear Fuel for Iran's Bushehr Reactor 3 IRNA: Tehran condemns Israeli threats against Iran - 4 US: Wamp: Tennessee Valley Corridor Leading the Way to Energy Securi 5 Huffington Post: Gen. Wesley Clark: Joe Lieberman Is At It Again - 6 Guardian Unlimited: Poland 'Closer' to Defense Shield 7 Guardian Unlimited: Villagers revolt as Bohemian hilltop set to be e 8 BBC NEWS: Marchers meet at military range 9 IAEA: G8 Summit Reiterates Support for IAEA Work NUCLEAR REACTORS 10 The Australian: Nuclear option 'must be considered' 11 Sydney Morning Herald: Ziggy continues to sell nuclear option - 12 US: SunHerald.com: DuPont asks that lawsuits be thrown out 13 AFP: Thai utility to build six billion dollar nuclear plant 14 US: Decatur Daily: Time to solve Browns Ferry spent-fuel risk 15 guelphmercury.com: N.B. premier shopping for new nuclear reactor 16 Jakarta Post: Financial boost for SMEs and listed firms 17 US: Oshkosh Northwestern: Point Beach Nuclear Plant unit returns to 18 Prague Daily Monitor: Czech govt to answer Austrian note over Temeli 19 US: KHOU.com: Idea could put nuclear reactors underground 20 US: Herald Online: Eskom comes in for grilling over nuclear station 21 US: Daily Titan: Nuke power needs approval 22 AU ABC: Switkowski heckled at climate change lecture. 23 AU ABC: Thousands protest against Indonesian nuclear plant. 24 Scotsman.com: Nuclear power station inquiry continues 25 icWales: Morgan: No need for new nuclear stations 26 News & Star: New nuke centre to get 20m NUCLEAR SECURITY 27 US: Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism: Joint Statement 28 AFP: US, Russia hail Pakistan's move to combat nuclear terror - NUCLEAR SAFETY 29 [DU-WATCH] SCOOP: Illegal Use of Canadian Uranium in DU Weapons 30 [DU-WATCH] TACTICS TO THWART A NONVIOLENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST URANIUM M 31 US: Rocky Mountain News: Immediate aid to most ill Flats workers den 32 US: 9NEWS: Sick Rocky Flats workers make one last plea 33 US: Denver Post: Ill former Flats workers make bid for help 34 globeandmail.com: Danger of tritium exposure underrated, report says NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 35 US: BBC NEWS: Tribals strike over uranium plans 36 US: Daily News Journal: Former mayor: 'Radioactive never came up' 37 Chillicothe Gazette: Centrifuge demonstration nears 38 Reuters: Uranium enricher USEC denies report of struggles 39 US: Murfreesboro Post: House acts to end radioactive dumping on The 40 Scotsman.com: Public gets say on future of Dounreay dome 41 US: HeraldTribune.com: Long road ahead for tainted Tallevast PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 42 ajc.com: House panel inquiry into nuclear research site reaches UGA 43 Rocky Mountain News: 100 rally in support of federal aid for those w 44 Rocky Mountain News: O'Brien backs Flats workers 45 Rocky Mountain News: Flats workers say dose estimates flawed 46 KnoxNews: Y-12 spills blamed on equipment 47 SPI: Making more nuclear waste while Hanford keeps growing and glowi 48 DOE: Energy Department to Work with National Association of 49 Santa Fe New Mexican: Udall criticized on LANL spending priorities 50 SPI: INL: Public not at risk as nuclear lab responds to "incident" 51 Platts: EIA: Renewables requirement would cut nuclear by 5% 52 Hanford News: Board wants public inputon long-term Hanford plans 53 Tri-City Herald: Vit plant's Analytical Laboratory topped out (w/ vi 54 9NEWS: Panel expands coverage for ex-Rocky Flats workers 55 IAEA: IAEA Chief Briefs Board on Nuclear Issues 56 Denver Post: A few more Flats workers covered 57 Denver Post: Panel backs expanding compensation for ex-Rocky Flats w 58 KTVB.COM: UPDATE: Fire at INL sends 37 to treatment facility | 59 LocalNews8.com: INL: Public not at risk as nuclear lab scrambles eme ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 BBC NEWS: America's financial war on Iran Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 June 2007, 22:51 GMT 23:51 UK By Mark Gregory International business reporter, BBC World Service The United States is waging an undeclared financial war on Iran as part of efforts to persuade the Tehran government to abandon alleged plans to acquire nuclear weapons. Iranian business is being subjected to greater scrutiny Stuart Levey, US Treasury Department It is being run from an ornate, grey building located close to the White House in Washington - the headquarters of America's finance ministry, the Treasury Department. "What we're trying to do is make it difficult for Iran to use the global financial system to pursue illicit conduct," explains Stuart Levey. As undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury, he is in charge of a US campaign that has two main prongs. The first is formal financial sanctions on Iran, as agreed at the United Nations. These are limited in scope - the sort of thing that even Iran's friends, China and Russia, are willing to accept. The UN sanctions prohibit transactions with a small number of Iranian banks, companies and individuals said to be directly involved in the country's nuclear programme or in support for terrorism. But there is also a second, potentially more powerful, element. Since September 2006, US officials have been travelling the world talking to banks and company bosses. They aim to persuade business to voluntarily abandon or scale back all dealings with Iran. Mr Levey, who is spearheading the Treasury's campaign, insists he is already getting results. "There is significant evidence that it's working in the sense that Iranian business is being subjected to greater scrutiny and it's more difficult for them to operate," he says. "A number of major financial institutions have cut off doing business with certain Iranian banks or with Iran entirely." I won't say Iranians can't raise money at all, but the difficulty level has been raised substantially Barmak Besharaty, loans arranger American financial pressure shows up in small ways. For example, international banks have become reluctant to issue letters of credit on Iranian trade, or only on exorbitant terms. Letters of credit guarantee payment in international commerce. The alternative is paying in cash. Consequently, Iranian companies often find themselves unable to carry out transactions in dollars, still the most important currency for trade. The aim is to squeeze the Iranian economy so that the nation's leaders will decide the price of developing nuclear weapons is just too high - although Iran, of course, denies that it is trying to acquire a nuclear arsenal in the first place. American influence So is American financial pressure as effective a tool as US officials claim? Dubai is a good place to find out - a rich Gulf city that is Iran's economic gateway to the world. A quarter of Dubai's population are Iranian and much of Iran's trade goes through Dubai. The relationship is similar to China's link with Hong Kong. Iranian businesses in Dubai are universally reluctant to talk about such a sensitive topic. They risk offending either the Americans or the government in Tehran, more or less whatever they say. Much Iranian economic activity is channelled through Dubai It took several days of intensive effort to find a few brave souls willing to speak openly. Barmak Besharaty is an Iranian with an American passport. His business is to arrange huge loans for property deals and he works closely with international banks. For customers from Dubai, Pakistan, Britain, or any of 70 other nationalities operating in this Middle East entrepot, there is no problem. But when it comes to persuading banks to stump up loans for Iranian customers, he says it is a different story. "I won't say Iranians can't raise money at all, but the difficulty level has been raised substantially," he observes. Mr Besharaty cites a specific example, claiming that the Dubai office of HSBC, the world's fourth biggest bank, is refusing to give loans to Iranians. "They do more business in the United States than in Iran," he says. "And the United States says, 'If you want to operate here without difficulty, it would be more prudent for you to not do business in Iran.' And I think that HSBC listens to that." Interestingly, when this was put to HSBC they did not exactly deny it. The bank's head office in London issued a statement: "At the present time, all financial institutions do need to be careful about the business they do in Iran. "There are sanctions in place from several bodies, notably the United Nations, and any bank that is, as we are, committed to abiding by all of the regulations that apply to us has to be cautious." Legal loophole Nasser Hashempore is another Iranian prominent in business in Dubai. He is a senior figure in the Iranian Business council, a lobby group. What you're seeing is a strange sort of dance with some of these energy companies and they're all hoping that another company will be the first one in to become the lightning rod for the US reaction David Kirsch, a former official at the US State Department Mr Hashempore says Iranian businesses are all worried about US financial pressure, but so far, they are finding ways round it. Mr Hashempore confirms that many Iranian firms are barred from doing deals in dollars, but they cope by switching to euros or yen instead. He also says that many Iranian companies are able to pass themselves off as local Dubai businesses, which means they can get loans and letters of credit from international banks. Under Dubai law, foreign enterprises are required to have a local business partner, nominally with a 51% stake in the firm. These partners are usually paid a fee and play no active role in running the business, but for legal purposes, the firm can say it is locally-owned and thus avoid American financial pressure. Difficult situation Faranak Mahmoudi is a rare example of an Iranian woman with a senior role in business. She has lived in Dubai since 1990 and specialises in advertising and promotions. Her clients include well-known European consumer products companies who want to tap into the Iranian market. Faranak Mahmoudi says foreigners are flocking to invest in Iran "Actually, nobody is taking 'American pressure' seriously yet," she says. "In fact, I see more investment from foreign companies in Iran. I've never had so many requests for media campaigns in Iran as I've had during the last two months." Iranian firms in Dubai are putting up a brave face, but it is clear that they fear America's financial squeeze could get a lot worse. The key to Iran's prosperity though is its oil and gas sector. Iran is an oil economy. It has the world's second-largest confirmed oil reserves and huge quantities of untapped natural gas. But it desperately needs energy investment. The obvious way to strangle the economy is to hit the vulnerable oil and gas industries. And yet, for international energy companies, Iran is potentially a mouth-watering prize. European energy giants - including Shell, Spain's Repsol and Total of France - are eyeing up big up Iranian deals, as are Chinese and Malaysian oil firms. But in so doing, they all risk alienating the US, the world's only super-power. Most oil companies do business in the US - and that would be under threat if they get too close to Iran. Hence, oil firms are in a difficult situation, observes David Kirsch, a former official at the US State Department who now works for a Washington consultancy, PFC Energy. "You've already seen some local calls in the US for protests against oil companies, Shell in particular, for their investments in Iran," he says. "These could become far more widespread, particularly if politicians in Washington seize upon these investments as a rallying call." Economic pain But on the other hand, Iran's huge energy reserves are hugely significant for the oil industry. Iran has started enriching uranium gas, nuclear watchdogs say Mr Kirsch says many oil firms would take the risk of upsetting the US if others were doing the same. "What you're seeing is a strange sort of dance with some of these energy companies and they're all hoping that another company will be the first one in to become the lightning rod for the US reaction," he explains. "The first company that does break ranks and makes a major investment will lead to an opening of the floodgates," he says, meaning that if one oil company does a deal with Iran, lots of others may follow. So what does all this add up to? A Treasury campaign of squeezing business with Iran; Iranian businesses in Dubai bending but not breaking under the strain; International energy firms calculating the odds on whether to defy the US. And all this underpinned by small scale UN sanctions. Will this be enough to make Iran to abandon its alleged nuclear plans? The answer is probably no - at least if Tehran is determined enough to put up with some economic pain. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 2 DEBKAfile: Moscow Releases Nuclear Fuel for Iran's Bushehr Reactor June 12, 2007, 1:12 PM (GMT+02:00) Iran's Bushehr atomic reactor can start rolling with Russian fuel Russian president Vladimir Putin put teeth in his threats and his cynically helpful alternative suggestions regarding the deployment of US missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic. DEBKA-Net-Weekly 304 disclosed on June 8 that the week before the G8 opened in Germany, Moscow released the long-withheld nuclear fuel for Iran’s atomic reactor in Bushehr. It was delivered 24 hours before Israel launched its new military imaging satellite Ofeq-7, bringing forward the Iranian threat to Israel, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources. One immediate result has been the stiffening of Tehran’s negative posture, sparking what nuclear watchdog director Mohammed ElBaradei called Monday, June 11, a confrontation that needs to be urgently defused. As DEBKA-Net-Weekly reported, special nuclear containers were loaded on a train in the yard of the manufacturers JSC Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant on June 2-3. They contained two types of nuclear fuel, WER-440 and WER-1000. The special train then headed out of Novosibirsk to Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, 2,000 km away. There, the containers awaited loading aboard a Russian ship destined for Bandar Anzili, the Iranian military port on the Caspian shore. According to our Iranian sources, a fleet of Iranian trucks was waiting at the other end outside Bandar Anzili port to transport the nuclear fuel and drive it slowly and carefully to Bushehr, a distance of 850km, arriving June 10 or 11. But DEBKAfile’s sources added the journey was interrupted by holdups ordered by the Kremlin in an episode which also laid bare the interdependence of Iran’s nuclear industry and Tehran’s program for arming Syria for war with Israel with the latest Russian munitions. Arguments over payments due from Tehran have dogged relations with Moscow before and Putin is far from trusting. A few days before the nuclear fuel left the Siberian factory, Tehran delivered the sum of $327m for a fresh delivery of Russian missiles to Syria. Iran pledged another $438m for further arms consignments before the fuel cargo was allowed to go forward. Putin then ordered the cargo to be loaded at Astrakhan, but await delivery in port until payment was made. DEBKAfile picks up the story Tuesday, June 12, and reports that Iran duly deposited the money and the ship was permitted to set sail and cross the Caspian Sea to Iran. DEBKA-Net-Weekly went on to report that Putin never promised Bush that Russia would deny Iran the nuclear fuel for its Bushehr reactor in perpetuity, as some administration circles in Washington have claimed in the last two years. He did assure Washington, mainly in conversations with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that he would postpone delivery as long as he could, despite Moscow’s contractual commitments to Tehran. The Bush administration’s plan to deploy missiles in East Europe made the Russian president mad enough to set this assurance aside. His move hits the US where it hurts most: The UN Security Council meets at the end of June to approve harsher sanctions against Iran for continuing to enrich uranium in defiance of previous resolutions. The Russian fuel delivery will substantially dilute the effect of such penalties, especially when the Islamic Republic is about to clinch a deal for the acquisition of long-range ballistic missiles from North Korea (as DEBKA-Net-Weekly 300 revealed on May 11). Putin developed a complex and well thought out retaliation strategy for America’s missile deployment in East Europe. 1. A second consignment of nuclear fuel went out to India from the same Russian factory which supplied Bushehr. This was a swipe by Putin at US-Indian nuclear cooperation which it is also under attack in the US Congress. It was also meant to place Moscow at dead center of the Russian-American-Israeli contest over domination of the Indian arms market. This contest also pertains to the developing military ties between New Delhi and Tehran, which Moscow is working hard to turn to its benefit. The Kremliln has not said the last word on this contest. 2. Monday, June 4, the Russian president sent the director of the Russian Nuclear Energy Commission, Sergei Kirienko, to the Russian Interfax news agency with an announcement: “I have just visited the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant; fuel for Iran and India is ready,” he said. “It will be delivered six months before the physical launch.” This statement has granted the Russian president six months’ leeway for jumping whichever way he finds expedient. It is time enough for Moscow and Washington to reach terms on the Iran issue as well as the East Europe missile deployments. If the Bush administration digs its heels in on the missile defense shield, Russian engineers employed at Bushehr will be told to go ahead and activate the reactor even before December 2007. But if Washington relents, Russian personnel can always be told to go back to dragging their feet, as Moscow did on the nuclear fuel. Back Next Print Send to Friend Go to top Copyright 2000-2007 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 IRNA: Tehran condemns Israeli threats against Iran - United Nations, June 12, IRNA UN-Iran-Zionists-Letter The Islamic Republic of Iran here on Monday wrote a letter to the UN Security Council condemning the insolent threats made against the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Israeli regime. In the letter also addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Iran's permanent mission at the UN said, "Emboldened by the absence of any action by the Security Council, various Israeli officials have unabatedly continued to publicly and contemptuously make unlawful and dangerous threats of resorting to force against the Islamic Republic of Iran in total defiance of international law and the fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations." The letter, signed by Iran's Ambassador to the UN Mohammad-Javad Zarif, further said in yet another blatant violation of the basic provisions of the United Nations Charter, particularly the provisions which call for refraining "from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations", on Saturday June 9, 2007, Shaul Mofaz the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister threatened to use military action against Iran. Prior to this, the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in response to a question in April 2007 regarding whether military action would be an option against Iran said, "...It is impossible perhaps to destroy the entire nuclear program but it would be possible to damage it in such a way that it would be set back years... it would take 10 days and would involve the firing of 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles", the letter added. "These malicious threats, together with previous ones including those mentioned in document A/61/571-S/2006/884 constitute matters of extreme gravity that require urgent and resolute response on the part of the United Nations and particularly the secretary general and the Security Council," Zarif reiterated in his letter. "These unacceptable, unlawful and dangerous statements are being made by the Israeli regime's officials in full impunity while the Security Council and the officials of the UN Secretariat are silent and some of the council's permanent members, by pushing for statements against Iran based on various distortions and unsubstantiated allegations, have joined the Israeli regime in a failed attempt and tired smokescreen to distract the international community's attention from the real and serious threats that the said regime poses to international and regional peace and security and to deflect the attention of the United Nations from the daily barrage of illegal Israeli threats to resort to force, as well as its shocking record of resorting to force, terrorism, aggression and occupation against various members of the United Nations," it added. Indeed, the inaction of the Security Council in dealing with such criminal Israeli policies and practices and the impunity with which this regime has been allowed to carry out its crimes so far have emboldened it to persist on its flagrant defiance of the most basic and fundamental principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations and to resort to force, aggression and state terrorism as a matter of routine policy, Zarif further said in his letter. The Iranian envoy urged Security Council to react to these threats by unequivocally condemning them and demanding that the said regime abandon its policy of flouting international law and the the UN Charter and cease and desist immediately from the threat of use of force against the UN members. Zarif then called for the letter to be circulated as an official document of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. ***************************************************************** 4 Wamp: Tennessee Valley Corridor Leading the Way to Energy Security - 6/12/2007 - Opinion - Chattanoogan.com by Rep. Zach Wamp Tennessee Valley Corridor Leading the Way to Energy Security One of the most important challenges facing our nation is clearly ending America's dependence on foreign sources of energy. Nothing is more important to our future energy security, economic security or national security than solving this critical challenge. And the Tennessee Valley Corridor, as one of the premier science and technology "hot spots" in our nation, is leading the way. Over the past several years, the Tennessee Valley Corridor National Technology Summits have focused on many of the problems facing our nation and our region - and this year's Summit once again focused on solving some of the nation's most immediate and pressing challenges. More than 500 regional and national leaders in the fields of science, technology, education, healthcare, homeland security, energy and several other subject areas recently gathered in Kingsport, Tenn., at the Tennessee Valley Corridor's 17th National Technology Summit. A stellar panel of speakers helped explore some Tennessee Valley solutions for the America's energy sources of tomorrow - ranging from nuclear to clean coal, to new cutting-edge alternatives like bio-fuels and "grass-oline," in which switchgrass is used to produce ethanol. Other sessions addressed equally important topics, including homeland security and building a resilient America. The presentation from the National Institute for Hometown Security, Y-12 National Security Complex and the new Southeast Regional Research Initiative at Oak Ridge National Laboratory offered insight into those who work to assist local, state and regional leaders in the Southeast in developing new tools and techniques to better prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters - whether man-made from terrorist attacks or from natural causes like hurricanes and tornados. A session led by Summit host Congressman David Davis and Congressman Lincoln Davis focused on how to boost health care access and affordability to all who live in the Corridor - including in our most rural areas. And another session centered on boosting college rates and how to maintain a technical workforce in the Corridor. Tennessee U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander brought keynote remarks to the event at the Summit's opening dinner where he addressed America's future economic competitiveness and how to maintain our competitive advantage. For the past two years, Senator Alexander has helped craft legislation to keep America's brainpower advantage, and just this year helped introduce and pass the America COMPETES Act in the U.S. Senate to provide incentives to keep America competitive in fields of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As our great nation continues to face challenges such as energy independence and remaining competitive in science, technology and math - it is now, more than ever, absolutely vital that we continue to work smarter at working together - and to show national leadership through the regional cooperation we have developed in our Tennessee Valley Corridor. news@chattanoogan.com (423) 266-2325 © 2004 Site designed and copyrighted by HD Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 5 Huffington Post: Gen. Wesley Clark: Joe Lieberman Is At It Again - Posted June 12, 2007 | 02:42 PM (EST) Read More: Breaking Politics News ,Joe Lieberman, George W. Bush, Wesley Clark After wrongly supporting George W. Bush's strategic blunder of attacking Iraq, and continuing to support Bush's failed policies after the invasion, Senator Joe Lieberman made irresponsible comments this weekend regarding military action against Iran. On CBS's Face the Nation, Lieberman said, "If [the Iranians] don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force, and to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing." This type of "tough-talk" by the Bush Administration and folks like Senator Joe Lieberman is why VoteVets.org and I collaborated to create StopIranWar.com, calling for heavy diplomatic, economic, and political action to discourage the acquisition of nuclear capabilities by the Iranian government. Senator Lieberman's saber rattling does nothing to help dissuade Iran from aiding Shia militias in Iraq, or trying to obtain nuclear capabilities. In fact, it's highly irresponsible and counter-productive, and I urge him to stop. This kind of rhetoric is irresponsible and only plays into the hands of President Ahmadinejad, and those who seek an excuse for military action. What we need now is full-fledged engagement with Iran. We should be striving to bridge the gulf of almost 30 years of hostility and only when all else fails should there be any consideration of other options. The Iranians are very much aware of US military capabilities. They don't need Joe Lieberman to remind them that we are the militarily dominant power in the world today. Only someone who never wore the uniform or thought seriously about national security would make threats at this point. What our soldiers need is responsible strategy, not a further escalation of tensions in the region. Senator Lieberman must act more responsibly and tone down his threat machine. Visit StopIranWar.com, and sign the petition to President Bush today! We cannot let people like Joe Lieberman dictate the terms of this debate. The Huffington Post ***************************************************************** 6 Guardian Unlimited: Poland 'Closer' to Defense Shield From the Associated Press Tuesday June 12, 2007 11:31 AM By RYAN LUCAS Associated Press Writer WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Poland's prime minister said Tuesday that his country has moved closer to hosting a U.S. missile defense facility after President Bush's visit last week. Bush held talks on Friday with President Lech Kaczynski, the prime minister's twin brother, on plans to base 10 missile interceptors in the country. Asked whether Poland was now closer to hosting the facility, the premier said on state Radio 1: ``Yes, closer. There was talk of an honest agreement and I hope that it will be reached.'' He underlined Poland's insistence that any deal must enhance the country's own security, including in ``military and military-political'' matters. He did not elaborate. Prime Minister Kaczynski also charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ``playing a game'' with his counterproposal last week to anchor the missile defense system around a Soviet-era radar installation in Azerbaijan. Putin has vehemently opposed the U.S. plans to build the system in Poland and neighboring Czech Republic, where Washington wants to base a radar facility. ``Not so long ago President Putin claimed that the installation itself was something incredibly dangerous and threatened nuclear bombs,'' Kaczynski said. ``But the fact that he's playing some sort of game is nothing new.'' Kaczynski warned against submitting to Russia's attempts to derail Washington's missile defense plans. ``If the Kremlin succeeds in winning, its position toward Europe would be incomparably stronger than at this moment,'' he said. Putin followed up last week's proposition regarding Azerbaijan by suggesting that missile interceptors could be placed in nations such as Turkey or Iraq, or on sea platforms. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 7 Guardian Unlimited: Villagers revolt as Bohemian hilltop set to be eyes and ears of 'star wars' | Special reports | Pentagon space shield plan raises stakes with Russia - and local Czechs Ian Traynor in Brdy Wednesday June 13, 2007 Washington's defence strategy for the west includes a missiles alert radar station in the Brdy military training area, decaying since the end of the cold war. Photograph: David W Cerny/Reuters When empires come to the Czechs, their armies invariably come to Brdy. The sprawling closed military area of 266 hectares (660 acres) in the rolling hills of western Bohemia is used to unwelcome visitors. Hitler pronounced this stretch of central Europe a Nazi "protectorate", and the Wehrmacht used the Brdy training ranges as a playground, expelling many local people. The Red Army invaded what was then Czechoslovakia in 1968, setting up camp deep in the forests of Brdy. And when the cold war turned warmer in the Euro-missiles crisis of the 1980s, the Kremlin trundled its SS-20 nuclear-tipped rockets around Brdy while it mulled over which western European cities to aim for, for a spot of mutually assured destruction. For the past decade Brdy has been slumped in depression, with the bases closed down and the military lifeline cut. But now in the villages there is a buzz of expectation and a ripple of anger. For, in all likelihood, the Yanks are coming. The Pentagon has selected Brdy as the nerve centre for the European platform of its contentious missile defence programme, planning to site a radar station on one of the hills here which would be capable of throwing a very fine beam thousands of miles into space to detect and track small objects outside the Earth's atmosphere. Should one of those small objects be an Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile, so the theory goes, the Brdy radar will guide one or more of the 10 interceptor missiles, to be installed in Poland, which will fly into space to "kill" the enemy rocket before any harm is done. "It's nonsense," said Vaclav Konicek, a Czech army captain for 21 years, who now works as a security guard for a Volkswagen dealer. "Anyone round here who is sane is against this." Jiri Kabelka, who spends his days pretending to watch over an abandoned Czech army barracks, agreed. "They can keep their radar. Why don't they put it in America where it belongs?" At least eight nearby villages have returned, in referendums, overwhelmingly hostile verdicts on the US. And national polls show that at least 60% of Czechs oppose hosting the US military in the country for the first time since the US reached the nearby town of Plzen at the end of the second world war. "Without any warning, we're just being told we're getting a new radar station and that it is supposed to protect us," said Frantisek Nerad, deputy mayor of Strasice, in Brdy. "People here just view it as a new form of imperialism." But in Prague, as in Warsaw, the Czech and Polish elites view the missile shield as an act of fidelity to their indispensable ally and protector, the US. The protests in the villages are unlikely to sway the decision takers in the two cities when the crunch time arrives this year or early next year. While Russia professes to view the missile shield deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic as a virtual casus belli, issuing what a senior US official describes as "bloodcurdling threats", the central European leaderships feel vindicated by the very aggressiveness of the Russian response. "The closer you are to Russia, like Poland or the Baltic states, the more worried you become and the more vulnerable you feel," said Karel Schwarzenberg, the Czech foreign minister. Relations between Russia and the west are going from bad to worse, and the missile shield in central Europe has become the biggest bone of contention in a new east-west conflict. Is this a new cold war or is it a phony war? The Americans maintain the missile shield is directed at Iran and the Middle East. Yet the missile defence project has a highly chequered history, has never been shown to work, regularly fluffs its tests, and is directed against a phantom threat - Iranian long-range missiles. The Russians claim they are the real target of the European deployments. Yet 10 small rockets in Poland, each weighing 75kg (165lb) and incapable of carrying a nuclear warhead, are no contest at all for a country that could rain thousands of nuclear and decoy missiles on North America if it chose. Besides, the Polish interceptors are in the wrong place to "kill" Russian rockets. In Germany, the centre-left half of the coalition government routinely makes false comparisons with the 1980s when Europe was menaced by rival batteries of hundreds of Pershing, Cruise, and SS-20 short-range nukes. The Poles and Czechs, meanwhile, do not feel remotely threatened by Iran, the ostensible reason for the shield. They do, however, feel pressured by Russia and are making bilateral deals with the Americans, bypassing European allies while demanding EU "solidarity" when it comes to disputes with Moscow. The US has mishandled the diplomacy surrounding the missile shield in Europe, with the Pentagon riding roughshod over the state department, say informed sources. "The American case is an argument against Nato and it undermines Nato," said Karsten Voigt, the German government official overseeing transatlantic relations. "The Poles and the Czechs think they can go national when it suits their interests, then argue for EU solidarity against Russia." As for Moscow, the 10 rockets in Poland were no threat, he said. "But US military bases are moving closer to their borders, not only in eastern Europe, but in the Caucasus and central Asia." For Sasha Vondra, the deputy prime minister and strategic thinker in the Czech government, the radar station in Brdy is about nothing less than saving the US alliance with Europe, and Washington's commitment to Europe's defence.The US will go ahead with its shield in any case, with or without the Europeans, he reasons. If the Europeans say no, the Pentagon will proceed with purely US missile defence. "Without the American umbrella over Europe, there will be further decoupling. We need this to keep the transatlantic alliance strong." For Poland, too, the imperative is to get Pentagon boots on the ground in central Europe as an insurance policy against Russia. The Poles are driving a harder bargain than the Czechs. Initially they demanded billions of dollars from the Americans and are now asking for a US-Poland security pact and/or Patriot missiles to be deployed against Russia. The problem is that the US might balk and that the Polish insurance policy will expose Warsaw to greater risk. "Poland is turning into a frontline state against Russia," warned Russia's pre-eminent arms control expert, Sergei Rogov. "And Moscow will not accept selective arms control on American terms." A world away from Brdy, meanwhile, in the US nuclear testing grounds of the Marshall Islands, north-east of Australia, a giant golf ball bobs among the coral reefs of Kwajalein, the biggest island of the atoll. This is the X-band radar supported by a submersible oil rig, destined, if the US gets its way, to move more than 8,000 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Czech Republic and the Brdy hilltop - there to become the eyes and ears of a US system viewed by many as a precursor to an arms race in space. Over beer and goulash in a pub near Brdy, a resident shrugs. "I don't know what all the fuss is about. I live right here and I don't mind. The radar's got to go somewhere. Anyway, this place has always been secret. We never know what's going on here." Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 8 BBC NEWS: Marchers meet at military range Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 June 2007, 12:47 GMT 13:47 UK A marathon anti-nuclear march has visited the weapons testing range at Dundrennan near Kirkcudbright. The Footprints for Peace walk is an 86-day tour of sites connected with the nuclear industry around the UK and Ireland. The protestors are concerned about the firing of depleted uranium shells at the south west Scotland base. The event started in Dublin on 12 May and hopes to finish in London on 4 August. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 9 IAEA: G8 Summit Reiterates Support for IAEA Work Leaders to Consider Multilateral Approaches to Nuclear Fuel Cycle Staff Report 11 June 2007 Leaders of the Group of 8 leading industrialized countries on the pier at Heiligendam, Germany. (Photo: REGIERUNGonline/Gebhardt) Leaders of the Group of 8 leading industrialized countries reiterated support for key areas of the IAEA´s work at their annual summit held 6-8 June at Heilegendamm, Germany, including initiatives for multilateral approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle. G8 leaders adopted a statement on non-proliferation reaffirming the summit´s commitment to the multilateral system as the basis for all non-proliferation efforts and the need to strengthen verification and enforcement. The G8 statement noted that proposals for multilateral approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle are being presented to the IAEA Board, which is meeting is Vienna this week. "We are now looking forward to the suggestions that the IAEA Director General will be presenting to the Board of Governors", the statement said. The G8 will consider the suggestions taking account of criteria such as the added value they bring to the non-proliferation regime, confidence in the reliability of supply assurances, compatibility with Article IV of the NPT, and the need to avoid unnecessary interference or disturbance with the functioning of existing commercial markets. The statement also stresses the G8´s commitment to continue working to make "the IAEA Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement together with an Additional Protocol as the universally accepted verification standard for the peaceful use undertakings of the NPT". The G8 statement also stressed the importance of developing and implementing mechanisms of multilateral approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle as a possible alternative to pursuing national enrichment and reprocessing activities. In the area of nuclear safety and security, the G8 countries declared their joint commitment to the "nuclear safety first" principle, recognizing that international conventions and IAEA standards form a good basis for the continuous improvement of national nuclear regulatory systems and nuclear safety. G8 countries include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States. The European Union also participates in the summit which takes place once a year. The next summit will be in Hokkaido Toyako, Japan in July 2008. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 10 The Australian: Nuclear option 'must be considered' NEWS.com.au | * June 12, 2007 This story is from our news.com.au network Source: AAP AUSTRALIANS must consider all options, including nuclear power, in the fight to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the Federal Government's nuclear energy inquiry said tonight. Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chairman Dr Ziggy Switkowski was the guest speaker at a lecture on climate change and nuclear power in Australia, at the University of Melbourne in suburban Parkville. The former Telstra head led the taskforce charged with researching and reporting on uranium mining, processing and nuclear energy in Australia in 2006. He said nuclear power was still a viable option to combat climate change in Australia, and if Australians were serious about tackling global warming then embracing nuclear power was a logical next step. "We are living through a significant warming period largely driven by the accumulation of GHG (greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere arising from our use of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and petrol," Dr Switkowski said. "And all available platforms for generation must to be on the table. For baseload generation, there are probably only four options (now in question): coal, gas, hydro and nuclear." He said nuclear power stations produced lower greenhouse gas emissions than fossil-fuelled power stations. One nuclear fuel pellet about 2cm long produces the same amount of electricity as 1.5 tonnes of coal. The energy produced by the splitting of the uranium nucleus in the power plant was used as a heat source that turned water into steam, which then drives a turbine that spins a generator to produce electricity. Dr Switkowski said electricity demand in Australia would double by the 2040s, "and planning for, and investment in, electricity generation need to happen now", he said. "The challenge is to moderate and meet this growing demand in an environmentally responsible way," he said. Dr Switkowski said Australia could have its first nuclear power plant operating within a decade, and public attitudes towards nuclear energy were changing. "At the 12-month anniversary of the Nuclear Review we have come from a position where nuclear power was not an acceptable topic within polite Australian society, to one where many people have an informed view and are open to debate – though not necessarily supportive," Dr Switkowski said. Dr Switkowski is currently a non-executive director of Suncorp, Tabcorp, Healthscope and Opera Australia. He is also a graduate of the University of Melbourne with a PhD in nuclear physics. © The Australian ***************************************************************** 11 Sydney Morning Herald: Ziggy continues to sell nuclear option - www.smh.com.au June 12, 2007 - 9:09PM Australians must consider all options, including nuclear power, in the fight to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the federal government's nuclear energy inquiry said. Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chairman Dr Ziggy Switkowski was the guest speaker at a lecture on climate change and nuclear power in Australia, at the University of Melbourne in suburban Parkville. The former Telstra head led the taskforce charged with researching and reporting on uranium mining, processing and nuclear energy in Australia in 2006. He said nuclear power was still a viable option to combat climate change in Australia, and if Australians were serious about tackling global warming then embracing nuclear power was a logical next step. "We are living through a significant warming period largely driven by the accumulation of GHG (greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere arising from our use of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and petrol," Dr Switkowski said. "And all available platforms for generation must to be on the table. For baseload generation, there are probably only four options (now in question): coal, gas, hydro and nuclear." He said nuclear power stations produced lower greenhouse gas emissions than fossil-fuelled power stations. One nuclear fuel pellet about two centimetres long produces the same amount of electricity as 1.5 tonnes of coal. The energy produced by the splitting of the uranium nucleus in the power plant was used as a heat source that turned water into steam, which then drives a turbine that spins a generator to produce electricity. Dr Switkowski said electricity demand in Australia would double by the 2040s, "and planning for, and investment in, electricity generation need to happen now", he said. "The challenge is to moderate and meet this growing demand in an environmentally responsible way," he said. Dr Switkowski said Australia could have its first nuclear power plant operating within a decade, and public attitudes towards nuclear energy were changing. "At the 12-month anniversary of the Nuclear Review we have come from a position where nuclear power was not an acceptable topic within polite Australian society, to one where many people have an informed view and are open to debate - though not necessarily supportive," Dr Switkowski said. Dr Switkowski is currently a non-executive director of Suncorp, Tabcorp, Healthscope and Opera Australia. He is also a graduate of the University of Melbourne with a PhD in nuclear physics. © 2007 AAP Copyright © 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 12 SunHerald.com: DuPont asks that lawsuits be thrown out Posted on Tue, Jun. 12, 2007 By RYAN LaFONTAINE rlafontaine@sunherald.com o DuPont's motion for summary judgement LAUREL -- Attorneys representing DuPont's titanium-dioxide plant in DeLisle are asking the Jones County Circuit Court to throw out most of the 1,951 toxic-exposure lawsuits pending against the chemical giant. Defense lawyers claim most of the plaintiffs - all but about 38 - allege to have been exposed to harmful chemicals negligently released from the DeLisle facility, but the lawsuits fail to mention "any individual plaintiff has actually sustained a specific physical injury" caused by DuPont. In their motion for summary judgment, the chemical plant's attorneys point to a 2004 lawsuit filed against the Boeing Company and Brush Engineered Materials, in which former employees alleged they were exposed to products containing beryllium while working at Boeing's facilities at the Stennis Space Center in Hancock County. The plaintiffs did not allege any physical injury but sued to have future medical examinations paid for by the defendants through a medical monitoring fund. The state's high court ruled earlier this year that Mississippi law does not recognize a cause of action for medical monitoring, saying, "The possibility of a future injury is insufficient to maintain a tort claim," according to court papers filed by DuPont. In 2002, a four-firm legal team, led by attorneys Al Stewart and Al Hopkins, filed more than 2,000 lawsuits against DuPont DeLisle on behalf of plaintiffs who claim pollution from the plant caused a variety of illnesses and even death. DuPont lawyers are asking the court to bring a speedy end to more than 1,900 lawsuits before the cases make it to trial, because none of the plaintiffs allege to have a specific injury. Instead, they only fear a "potential" injury in the future caused by chemicals released over the years from the DeLisle facility. "Mere exposure to a potentially harmful substance is not an injury," DuPont attorneys wrote in court documents. "All plaintiffs who have not stated any other claim against DuPont should have their claims dismissed." ***************************************************************** 13 AFP: Thai utility to build six billion dollar nuclear plant Tuesday June 12, 1:23 PM BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's largest energy utility said Tuesday it would invest six billion dollars building the country's first nuclear power plant, expected to start operations in 2020. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) said it planned to build the nuclear plant to produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity. EGAT's governor Kraisi Kanasuta said the utility would consider issuing bonds and seek offshore loans to help finance the investment. "Despite high total investment costs, the nuclear utility is cheaper than a coal power plant in terms of costs of production per unit," he said. The government's latest 15-year Power Development Plan, which runs through 2021, has for the first time called for considering nuclear as a new energy source. The country currently depends on natural gas for 70 percent of its electricity, with the rest coming from oil, coal and hydropower. ADVERTISEMENT The energy ministry said going nuclear would help Thailand reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that fuel climate change. Thailand currently produces 240 million tonnes of green house gas produced every year. Copyright © 2005 AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed ***************************************************************** 14 Decatur Daily: Time to solve Browns Ferry spent-fuel risk TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2007 EDITORIAL It is time for the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to re-evaluate its methods of spent-fuel disposal at nuclear plants. An article in Sunday's Daily explained a frightening vulnerability at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant and many other U.S. plants. Delays in opening a national repository for used — but still highly radioactive — fuel have left the plants with more of the deadly material than they were designed to store. The way they handled the surplus was to stack more fuel rods in cooling pools. That decision creates unacceptable risks to the public, particularly when the pools are above ground like those at Browns Ferry. An author of a 2006 National Academy of Sciences report believes an accident or terrorist attack causing a rapid loss of water from the cooling pools would create a fire or meltdown that would make Chernobyl pale by comparison. Decatur, Athens and Huntsville could become uninhabitable. The solution to the vulnerability is straightforward and, in the big-dollar scales of nuclear engineering, inexpensive. TVA needs to empty all but the most radioactive spent-fuel rods from the cooling pools and contain them in on-site dry casks. Is the solution perfect? No. Radioactive waste is the Achilles Heel of nuclear power that we are far from solving. In a post-9/11 world, however, NRC's head-in-the-sand approach to compelling evidence of the danger of aboveground pools is inexcusable. NRC rules should mandate removal of spent fuel from aboveground cooling pools. TVA should accelerate its use of dry casks rather than wait for NRC to fulfill its obligation to the public. The Daily didn't make the decision to run the article lightly. Some fear it provided a roadmap for potential terrorists. Information on the extent of the vulnerability is, however, accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. We hope the article's only roadmap assists an unsuspecting public push an NRC bureaucracy along the road to improved safety. THE DECATUR DAILY 201 1st Ave. SE P.O. Box 2213 Decatur, Ala. 35609 (256) 353-4612 webmaster@decaturdaily.com www.decaturdaily.com ***************************************************************** 15 guelphmercury.com: N.B. premier shopping for new nuclear reactor FREDERICTON (Jun 12, 2007) Even as Premier Shawn Graham kicks the tires on a possible French-made nuclear reactor for New Brunswick, at least one energy expert is skeptical a second nuclear generating station will ever see the light of day in the province. David Coon of the New Brunswick Conservation Council said yesterday there are too many barriers to the sale of the province's nuclear power in the U.S. to permit a multi-billion-dollar expansion at the Point Lepreau nuclear station on the Bay of Fundy. "There's no capacity to get that much power into New England because of the lack of transmission capacity in Southern Maine. "They would need a dedicated undersea power line that goes to New York," said Coon. Graham heads to Paris this week to meet with the president of Areva, a French state-controlled company that is one of three possible contenders for any second reactor at Lepreau. 8-14 Macdonell St. Guelph, Ontario, Canada, N1H 6P7 519-822-4310 ***************************************************************** 16 Jakarta Post: Financial boost for SMEs and listed firms Headline News June 13, 2007 Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The government finally unveiled Tuesday its long-awaited package of new economic policy reforms that will, among other things, provide tax incentives for publicly listed companies and facilitate easier access to bank loans for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono said that the new reforms would significantly boost the government's efforts to accelerate economic growth so as to reduce unemployment and poverty. "Hence, each of the policies contained in the new package set out the program, action and output with clearly measurable targets," he said during the announcement of the new policies. The 60-page policy package covers programs and measures in four main economic fields -- the financial, investment, infrastructure development and SME sectors. In the investment sector, the government will reduce the time required for obtaining business licenses to 25 days from the current 97 days. It will also simplify customs clearance procedures so that goods can be released through the green channel within 30 minutes and through the red channel in three days. Speaking during the announcement of the economic package, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that it would also provide tax incentives for publicly listed companies as part of the government's efforts to turn the country's capital market into an important alternative to the banking sector for businesses in raising funds. She said that the regulation detailing the tax incentives would be issued in August. The government will also push for the merger of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) and the Surabaya Stock Exchange (SSX) to make them more competitive and efficient, she added. According to the document, the merger process is expected to be completed in October. In addition to providing tax breaks for publicly listed companies, the new economic policy package also stresses the need to provide SMEs with easier access to bank loans. For this, the government will strengthen the financing capacity of state credit insurance firm PT Asuransi Kredit Indonesia (Askrindo) and state financing firm Perum Sarana Pengembangan Usaha so that they can extend the scope of their services to SMEs. Also in the SME sector, Bank Indonesia will revitalize the role of local financial consultants so as to increase the bankability of SMEs. Boediono said the government would also speed up land certification services for small businesses by revising the existing regulations issued by the National Land Agency, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs. "This is important so that small firms can use their land titles to secure loans," he said. I agree with Rizal Sukma that Indonesia needs rethinking of its Nuclear Energy Policy. In addition to the four points mentioned in his article, we have  to consider that Indonesia would become a captive of nuclear fuel market, since we might not be allowed to process the uranium and, hence, become dependent on foreign resources. Another important issue is the nuclear waste managment. How and where the government would dispose the nuclear waste? Taking an example from the US, the nuclear waste remains an unsettled issue.    ***************************************************************** 17 Oshkosh Northwestern: Point Beach Nuclear Plant unit returns to power Posted June 12, 2007 Point Beach Nuclear Plant's Unit 1 returned to full power Sunday after being shut down June 5 because of a malfunctioning valve. The reactor returned to service about 2 a.m. Sunday after workers repaired the valve, which was in a nonradioactive area of the plant. Point Beach Unit 2 continued to operate at 100 percent power. The two-unit Point Beach site generates 1,036 megawatts of electricity. Point Beach is operated by Nuclear Management Co., based in Hudson. It is owned by We Energies of Milwaukee. — Richard Ryman/Press-Gazette Contact us at 920-235-7700. thenorthwestern.com is a Gannett Company website. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, updated April 11, 2007. ***************************************************************** 18 Prague Daily Monitor: Czech govt to answer Austrian note over Temelin by weekend - By Prague Daily Monitor/CTK / Published 12 June 2007 CTK The Austrian government says it believes that Temelin fails to meet the required safety standards. Prague, June 11 (CTK) - The Czech government will answer the Austrian note concerning the Temelin nuclear power plant, south Bohemia, by the end of the week, government spokeswoman Jana Bartosova has told CTK, adding that the government discussed the issue at its meeting today. The Czech Republic's position will be worked out by Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. The Austrian government says it believes that Temelin does not meet safety standards allowing for its approval for use. Czech authorities approved the plant, situated some 60 km from nuclear-free Austria's border, for use last autumn. Austria has also called on the Czech Republic to launch talks with it on what is says are still open issues concerning Temelin's safety. The Austrian cabinet refers to the Melk agreement the two countries' then prime ministers struck in 2000 and that addresses Temelin's safety. Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer and Environment Minister Josef Proell recently sent a note to Prague in this respect. The Czech government minds the Austrian government having sent the text of the note to the Austrian media first. The Czech government, on its part, wants to first inform its Austrian colleagues about its answer, and only afterwards the media. The sending of the note to Prague was recommended to the Austrian government by a group of legal experts who assessed the possibility of Austria suing the Czech Republic. The group of experts came to the conclusion that the bringing of an international suit is practically unfeasible. This story is from the Czech News Agency (CTK). The Prague Daily Monitor and Monitor CE are not responsible for its content. Copyright 2007 by the Czech News Agency (CTK). All rights reserved. Copying, dissemination or other publication of this article or parts thereof without the prior written consent of CTK is expressly forbidden. copyright 2007 monitor ce media services s.r.o. | all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 19 KHOU.com: Idea could put nuclear reactors underground | News for Houston, Texas 11:09 PM CDT on Monday, June 11, 2007 By Dave Fehling / 11 News You usually only hear about them when something goes wrong: the enormous underground caverns used around Houston to store oil and explosive gases. But there are proposals to put things in the caverns that go way beyond oil and gas. On the outskirts of Houston, pipes leading to massive underground storage caverns have leaked and caused spectacular fires. Once was was three years ago in Liberty County, and 20 years earlier in the nearby town of Mont Belvieu, leaks led to an explosion that killed two workers. Only the foundations remain after petrochemical companies bought out and moved the families who once lived here. They are two accidents that remind us of what we cannot see, what is stored underground. In several sites just outside of Houston, explosive gases and crude oil are stored in enormous underground caverns carved out of salt formations. “These things are much bigger than the Astrodome,” Dr. Don Van Nieuwenhuise said. The enormous salt formations were originally mined as a source for table salt, and some still are, like in far northwest Harris County. After some of the salt is dug out, the walls of the salt cavern are, in theory, impermeable. And that has scientists thinking. The federal government is already storing radioactive waste in one salt cavern in New Mexico, and there’s a study under way in Texas to use caverns to bury waste from coal-burning power plants. But that’s not all.   What about using those underground salt caverns to house nuclear reactors? Some scientists see this part of Texas as the perfect place to try this radical new approach. Dr. Wes Myers worked for years on the country’s nuclear program. Then when the terror attacks using planes raised concern about the vulnerability of nuclear power plants, he thought, why not build the reactors underground? “And because I’d worked as a geologist here on the Gulf Coast early in my career, I knew of the salt domes,” Dr. Myers said. “And here are these huge rooms that are very stable; in my view, this deserves a serious look.” “I see a lot of problems with that,” Dr. Van Nieuwenhuise said. University of Houston geologist Dr. Van Nieuwenhuise fears not enough is known about the long-term stability of the caverns. “There’s a number of salt mines around the world that are having problems with leakage right now,” he said. “It’s kind of  a surprise to everyone; no one was expecting it. “I don’t know that there’s any technology saying that salt is going to stay secure,” Dr. Van Neiuwenhuise said. Cecil Parker lives atop the salt caverns in Mont Belvieu. He’s highly skeptical of using caverns for nuclear reactors or to bury toxic waste, but he has no problems with the explosive gases now stored there. “Things are a lot safer than it used to be,” he said. Safer, but the question is just how safe, no matter how far underground. ***************************************************************** 20 Herald Online: Eskom comes in for grilling over nuclear station PORT ELIZABETH By Guy Rogers Environment & Tourism Editor THE first round of public participation meetings for the proposed nuclear power station at Oyster Bay near St Francis was described yesterday as the most vigorous questioning Eskom has ever had to contend with. Shortly after the meeting, attended by 250 people, Eskom spokesman Tony Stott said he had not encountered such vigorous questioning and active participation since they began visiting the five possible sites earmarked for South Africa‘s new nuclear project. Participants asked his team why Coega was not considered as a preferred site for a plant. They also wanted to know how waste would be managed and what effect the power station would have on the chokka industry if there was a discharge of waste water into the sea. The meeting was hosted by Eskom and consultants Arcus Gibb and Acer Africa in the Oyster Bay community hall, about 3km west of the proposed Thuyspunt site. The group have already visited the Brazil and Schulpfontein sites in the Northern Cape. The other possible sites are Duynefontein, where the present Koeberg nuclear plant is, and Bantamsklip near Gansbaai, also in the Western Cape. The best site will be chosen following a comprehensive environmental impact assessment and public participation process. Eskom will then use the site identified to establish a “pressurised water reactor” nuclear plant, that will generate 4 000mW of power. The assessment process should be finished by January, 2009, with building to start at the end of that year. The plant should operate by 2016. Ryszard Stryzelecki, a St Francis tourism operator, who was in Poland at the time of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown disaster in the Soviet Union – in which 56 people were killed, up to 9 000 contracted cancer, 336 000 people were evacuated and large tracts of land were contaminated – said he wondered why the huge power demand identified by Eskom had not been predicted. “Why all of a sudden the rush? ” He said the Oyster Bay and St Francis areas were now very different from what they had been when Eskom bought the Thuyspunt site in the early 1980s. “There are many more people here and tourism is the primary employer. Do you think tourists, especially from Europe, will want to see Thuyspunt if a nuclear plant is established there? Presently it is a national heritage site. What will it be called then?” Stott said an important review of all studies would be done by top experts in the different fields. Endangered Wildlife Trust representative Adri Barkhuysen said before decisions on power generation were taken, wider discussion was needed on how South Africa was going to achieve its targeted six per cent growth. Copyright © Johnnic Communications ***************************************************************** 21 Daily Titan: Nuke power needs approval By: Eric Sifuentes Issue date: 6/12/07 Section: News The Assembly's Appropriations Committee approved a bill that would put a hold on the relicensing of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The hold is needed in order to finish a study on the future of nuclear power in California. But there should be no hold as time is money and relicensing is a good idea. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, put forth AB 1046, which would put relicensing of California's aging nuclear power plants on hold until the California Energy Commission completes its in-depth economic and reliability study. "There are few decisions we make as a society that have as many far reaching implications as nuclear power," Leno said in a press release. Nuclear power discussions are not any ordinary discussions and Leno said he wants to stress this and point out the importance of this issue. "The waste it generates will remain radioactive for 300,000 years and a single nuclear disaster has the potential to contaminate vast regions of our planet," Leno said in a statement. It is obvious that Leno has some strong feelings with this movement, but it is better to be safe than sorry and a hold does nothing. Why put a hold on it? The hold should not be placed and action should be taken now and the relicensing should be sooner. Action should be taken as soon as possible to avoid any problems in the future with the status of the currently licensed plants. In today's world of advanced technology, a relicensing would benefit the nuclear plants and the cost to get the plants ready will be worth it. Live for today and tomorrow will come. To get something done comes at a price and that price should be paid. Any roadblocks in the way will just cause nothing but damage in the future. The AB 1046 would prohibit the California Public Utilities Commission from approving the further use of ratepayer funds for costs associated with relicensing of nuclear power plants. This will happen until the energy commission completes a study required by a law. The study is slated for July of this year and is to finish in November of 2008. This study will assess the costs and impacts connected with accumulating radioactive waste at California's two nuclear power plants. Also, it has to be noted that the study is worth an estimated $800,000. The study fund is an investment that would pay off in the long run and make a sudden impact. Spend the money and do what it takes. The legislation was brought up by a Public Utilities Commission decision to allow PG&E to charge ratepayers $16.8 million for a study into the aspect of renewing Diablo Canyon's two operating licenses - even though they will not expire until after 2020. PG&E opposes the legislation, claiming that it is unnecessary because the commission required that the findings of the energy commission's report be put into PG&E's study said Sharon Galvin, a spokeswoman for PG&E. "The bill could prevent a utility from even initiating the relicensing process until the study is complete," she said. The state bill could slow Diablo Canyon's relicensing. Diablo Canyon's nuclear reactors generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity. In other words, it supplies approximately 10 percent of the state's power needs. This state as a whole needs power and the bill may do that. Only time will tell if the bill could be helpful or harmful. Don't fix what is not broken. © The Daily Titan - All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 22 AU ABC: Switkowski heckled at climate change lecture. 12/06/2007. ABC News Online Protesters have heckled the head of the Federal Government's nuclear energy task force during an address in Melbourne this evening. Chairman of the Nuclear Science and Technology organisation, Dr Ziggy Switkowski, was interrupted several times during his lecture on climate change and nuclear power at Melbourne University. Dr Switkowski told the crowd of 180 that 31 countries had already built nuclear reactors, another eight countries were in the process of constructing reactors, and 20 more were expected to have reactors by 2020. The protesters interjected, asking questions about possible reactor locations, costs and security arrangements, until other audience members called on them to be quiet. Dr Switkowski then fielded intense questioning from the crowd for another 30 minutes. ***************************************************************** 23 AU ABC: Thousands protest against Indonesian nuclear plant. 12/06/2007. ABC News Online Thousands of protesters have rallied in Indonesia's Central Java, calling on the Government to abandon plans to build a nuclear power plant on the outskirts of their city. The Government, under increasing pressure to improve energy supplies to the world's fourth most populous nation, plans to built its first plant on the foothills of Mount Muria, a dormant volcano on the north coast of Java island. Police say nearly 4,000 local residents, students and anti-nuclear activists have taken to the streets in the city of Kudus, about 30 kilometres from the volcano. Lilo Sunarya, one of the protest organisers, says the district Government will send a letter to Jakarta, urging national authorities to cancel the project over fears of the dangers posed by nuclear waste. Mr Sunarya says that although the nuclear plant is expected to generate power for 40 to 50 years, the waste created could threaten the health of local residents for centuries. The Indonesian Government shelved plans to develop atomic energy in 1997 in the face of mounting public opposition and the discovery and exploitation of the large Natuna gas field. But the plans resurfaced in 2005 amid increasing power shortages and as part of a government drive to develop and diversify energy resources. The International Atomic Energy Agency has backed Indonesia's plans to build nuclear plants, despite opposition from environmentalists. Greenpeace says the plan poses a danger to quake-prone Indonesia and its neighbours. - AFP ***************************************************************** 24 Scotsman.com: Nuclear power station inquiry continues LOUISE GRAY SCOTTISH POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT INVESTIGATIONS were continuing last night into the cause of a sudden shutdown at one of Scotland's nuclear power stations. The closure of a reactor at Hunterston B at the weekend over problems with temperature controls prompted concern of an energy gap if the station cannot remain open beyond 2011. Yesterday engineering work continued, although British Energy said it was a matter of "days rather than weeks" before the reactor could expect to start again. Nuclear provides up to 40 per cent of Scotland's energy and the problems at Hunterston B, which come after extensive repairs on cracked pipes, re-ignited the debate over the country's energy future after the SNP-led government ruled out building new nuclear stations. Yesterday, a survey of engineers and students found that more than half believe nuclear energy has a substantial part to play in solving the energy gap. However, more than a fifth think winning support for nuclear energy is the biggest single challenge for the industry, followed by encouraging households to reduce the level of energy demand, filling the UK energy gap and meeting emissions targets. Doosan Babcock, an engineering firm, interviewed 500 people. Related topic * Nuclear energy http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1343 This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=923042007 Last updated: 12-Jun-07 00:06 BST ©2007 Scotsman.com | contact | terms & conditions ***************************************************************** 25 icWales: Morgan: No need for new nuclear stations Jun 12 2007 icWales Rhodri Morgan said there was no need for new nuclear power stations in Wales today. He told AMs at First Ministers questions an application to build a new station in Wales would have to be considered if one was submitted. "But at this moment we see no need, we never have seen a need and we do not envisage any circumstances in which there could be a need for new nuclear generation in Wales," he said. Wales’s only nuclear power station – Wylfa, on Anglesey – is due to be decommissioned in 2010. Mr Morgan said he understood "concern" about job losses on the island if it closes. "I do not see the need for them (nuclear powers stations)," he added. "However, it’s not an unlawful activity." Copyright and Trade Mark Notice ***************************************************************** 26 News & Star: New nuke centre to get 20m Published on 12/06/2007 THE NDA and Manchester University’s nuclear institute signed a deal pledging to invest £10 million each in a proposed new nuclear facility. The multi-million pound centre will be built on the Westlakes Science and Technology Park, near Whitehaven, after a deal was struck last Thursday. The pair have signed an initial agreement which will see both of the organisations invest £10m over a seven-year period. The money will be used to provide research equipment and facilities and to drive forward research into radiation sciences and engineering decommissioning. The facility will include accelerators and experimental equipment to study the irradiation damage and effects on materials and chemical systems used in nuclear environments. The centre will also have close links with the British Technology Centre at Sellafield. Copeland MP Jamie Reed said: “In addition to unlocking our local potential, it will also attract some of the best scientists from around the world, boost our economy, and have a fundamental and transformational effect on higher education in West Cumbria.†nw evening mail | cumberland news | times and star | whitehaven news ***************************************************************** 27 Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism: Joint Statement Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC June 12, 2007 Following is the Joint Statement issued by U.S. Assistant Secretary John C. Rood and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak, Chairmen of the third meeting of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, upon the conclusion of the June 11-12 meeting hosted by the Government of Kazakhstan: Partners in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism met in Astana, Kazakhstan on June 11-12, 2007. The participants expressed their appreciation to the Government of Kazakhstan for hosting this important meeting and its excellent nonproliferation and counterterrorism record. The Astana meeting was the third meeting of the Global Initiative, consolidating and building on the foundations constructed during previous meetings. Global Initiative partners first met in Rabat, Morocco, on October 30-31, 2006, to establish a Statement of Principles to combat nuclear terrorism. We gathered in Ankara, Turkey, on February 12-13, 2007, to reaffirm our commitment and further develop a full stale of activities to build the capabilities of participating nations and to take advantage of synergies created through multilateral cooperation. To date, fifty-one partner nations have endorsed the Statement of Principles and are participants in the Global Initiative. Representatives from thirty-eight nations attended the meeting in Kazakhstan, as well as observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the European Union. Outreach We are pleased by the large increase in participation in the Global Initiative at this meeting. The expanded participation demonstrates the strong desire of the international community to combat nuclear terrorism and the readiness to strengthen our capacity to prevent the acquisition of nuclear materials and know-how by terrorists. A Strong Work Program As a demonstration of the active nature of the Global Initiative, partners linked up with the Conference sponsored by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on International Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement in Miami, Florida, USA. The Conference, conducted under the Global Initiative, brought together more than 500 participants from over twenty countries, including the Director of the FBI and the Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service in the Russian Federation. In addition, partners continued to develop a plan of work for 2007-2008. The plan of work includes activities to support each of the Global Initiative principles, with an emphasis on strengthening our key priorities to include: * preventing the availability of nuclear material to terrorists; * improving the capabilities of participating nations to detect, search for, and prevent trafficking in such materials; * promoting information sharing and law enforcement cooperation; * establishing appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks; * minimizing the use of highly enriched uranium and plutonium in civilian facilities and activities; * denying safe haven and financial resources to terrorists; and * strengthening our response capabilities to minimize the impact of any nuclear terrorism attack. We note the success of Japan and Australia in completing the first two capacity-building activities in the Global Initiative since the second meeting in Ankara, Turkey. In addition to the already-planned activities, we agreed at this meeting to include capacity-building activities that will be hosted by Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. More information about the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism is available at http://www.state.gov/t/isn/c18406.htm 2007/470 Released on June 12, 2007 The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. ***************************************************************** 28 AFP: US, Russia hail Pakistan's move to combat nuclear terror - Tue Jun 12, 3:25 AM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has welcomed Pakistan's decision to join a global program led by Washington and Moscow to combat nuclear terrorism. Islambad on Saturday announced its intention to join the the "Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism" although its participation would reportedly not cover the country's military nuclear program and installations. About 50 countries are involved in the joint initiative launched by US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin last July. "The United States and Russia welcome the decision of the government of Pakistan to become a partner nation of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism," a statement from the US State Department said on Monday. It added that at the most recent meeting of the group in Ankara, Turkey, in February, member states "emphasized the importance of increasing partnership and participation by nations committed to combating nuclear terrorism." Pakistan, like its nuclear archrival India, is not a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Islamabad's decision to join the global initiative comes amid concerns that a Pakistani nuclear smuggling network reportedly crippled three years ago could resume business amid strong demand for atomic technology from governments and terrorist groups. Although the United States had declared that the network led by disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had been rolled up, only a few of the 40 individuals identified as having worked with him are in prison, said a report last month by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 29 [DU-WATCH] SCOOP: Illegal Use of Canadian Uranium in DU Weapons Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:38:27 -0500 (CDT) SCOOP: Illegal Use of Canadian Uranium in DU Weapons http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0706/S00156.htm -- _________________________________ Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd ICIS-Institute for Cooperation in Space 3339 West 41 Avenue Vancouver, B.C. V6N3E5 CANADA TEL: 604-733-8134 FAX: 604-733-8135 Email: alw@peaceinspace.com ICIS: http://www.peaceinspace.com CAMPAIGN: http://www.peaceinspace.org NUCLEAR FREE ZONE: http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/nuclear_free_zone/ 9/11 Independent Prosecutor Act: http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/911/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] ***************************************************************** 30 [DU-WATCH] TACTICS TO THWART A NONVIOLENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST URANIUM MUNITIONS Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:20:28 -0500 (CDT) Dear Friends, This was written by Cliff Kindy, head of the CPT DU Delegation. Feel free to forward. Cathy http://du-blog.wildclearing.com/2007/06/05/tactics-to-thwart-a-nonviolent-campaign-against-uranium-munitions.aspx TACTICS TO THWART A NONVIOLENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST URANIUM MUNITIONS This entry was posted on 6/5/2007 1:18 PM and is filed under Information. Roger Helbig, Air Force Lt. Colonel, pressured sponsors, conferees, delegates by Cliff Kindy (CPT, Stop-DU) One week before the Depleted Uranium (DU) Conference at East Tennessee State University, Roger Helbig, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Air Force,sent scathing emails to the organizers and speakers, saying, among other things, "You really have been had [with these speakers]." He went on to discredit them systematically. One of the speakers, Cathy Garger, reported receiving sixteen messages from Helbig. Helbig also made two phone calls and sent two emails to the director of the Church of the Brethren Newsline, which had sent out the announcement of the conference. Helbig was attempting to divide the speakers and planners and force them to spend time defending themselves rather than just telling their stories. Apparently, other pressures from behind the scenes also entered this drama. An encampment across from the Aerojet Ordnance plant, a primary DU manufacturer, was supposed to happen in conjunction with the conference. Two landowners, who in previous months had offered their land for the Stop-DU encampment, withdrew those invitations in the last days before the conference. Then, the final day before the event, the professor who had arranged the space for the DU Conference on campus received a call on her personal cell phone from the Dean of East Tennessee State University. He questioned why she had opened her classroom to an "outside" group. The implication was that she should rescind the offer. As planners assess the timing of the conference, they can draw the conclusion that some people are feeling uncomfortable with the growing visibility of DU issues and are pulling out the stops to make the Stop-DU campaign falter. Their tactics failed. The conference proceeded on schedule. Sixty activists and interested visitors from at least nine U.S. states and Canadian provinces attended the six-hour teaching/organizing conference. [Members of Christian Peacemaker Teams' 18-26 May delegation that participated in the 19 May DU conference are Russell Attoe and Judy Leurquin (Madison, Wisconsin), Bill and Genie Durland (Colorado Springs, Colorado), Ron Forthofer (Longmont, Colorado), Ron Friesen (Loveland, Colorado), Anne Herman (El Paso, Texas), Kirsten Romaine Jones (Toronto, Ontario), Cliff Kindy (North Manchester, Indiana) Murray Lumley (Toronto, Ontario), Jane MacKay Wright (Providence Bay, Ontario), Wes Rehberg (Chattanooga, Tennessee), Michael Smith (Gibson City, Illinois) and Dick and Gretchen Williams (Boulder, Colorado).] Help the US become Radiation Free by 2033! www.radiation.org Cathy Garger www.mytown.ca/garger --------------------------------- Ready for the edge of your seat? Check out tonight's top picks on Yahoo! TV. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:du-watch-digest@yahoogroups.com mailto:du-watch-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 31 Rocky Mountain News: Immediate aid to most ill Flats workers denied Judy DeHaas © The Rocky Kay Barker, whose husband Lawrence Barker worked for Rocky Flats for 28 years and died of colon cancer in 1994, hands Dennis Romero, a former Flats worker, a tissue as he cries during the Radiation Advisory Board meeting Tuesday in Lakewood. The board decided, 6-4, against giving streamlined compensation to most Flats workers with cancer. By Ann Imse and Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News June 12, 2007 A federal advisory board today rejected immediate aid for the majority of Rocky Flats workers with cancer, disappointing and infuriating a crowd packed with sick people. The 6-4 vote by the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health was closer than expected. The board did recommend approval of aid for one small group of workers at the now-demolished nuclear weapons plant outside Denver. They are workers who were monitored or should have been monitored for neutron dose from 1959 to 1966. The board last month recommended approval for such workers from 1952 to 1958. The denial of aid for most former workers, if accepted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, means they still must prove their individual exposure caused their cancers to qualify for medical care and $150,000 in compensation. They had hoped the board would admit that records are so poor that such proof is impossible, and they would be grandfathered into the program. The board's decision came after scientific debates about last-minute changes in the process of calculating the level of workers' contamination by radiation. That debate ignored the argument of workers, who said the very fact that officials were still undecided on how to calculate their doses 847 days after the filing of their petition for expedited help should be proof that the estimates are neither timely nor accurate. Former Colorado Rep. Bob Beauprez testified that the board was not following Congressional intent in rejecting automatic approval for all Rocky Flats workers who come down with cancer, now and in the future. "I doubt honestly that anything I say in the next few minutes is going to change your minds. They're already made up. You just kind of wait til the bitter end and cast your vote. I get the joke. It's not a joke to these people. It's life and death," Beauprez said. Beauprez added that when he and other members of Congress approved the compensation program in 2000, "Every one of us said, ?Take care of these people.'" Particularly infuriating to workers was the board's refusal to consider their numerous claims of contamination that were never recorded because managers wanted to earn bonuses, not safety fines. They were also angered by a claim from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that workers received lesser contamination after the 1969 fire because they were sitting in the cafeteria, unable to work due to damage from the fire. "Hello!!" exclaimed Jennifer Thompson, the workers' spokeswoman. " The workers were cleaning up the fire, getting huge doses!" Jerry Harden said he and others worked for months on the cleanup, under far more hazardous conditions than normal. The fire investigation found that 7,000 pounds of plutonium was caught up in the fire. ***************************************************************** 32 9NEWS: Sick Rocky Flats workers make one last plea posted by: Jeffrey Wolf , Web Producer written by: Thanh Truong , 9NEWS Reporter created: 6/11/2007 6:47:29 PM Rocky Flats final cleanup plan approvedPanel recommends better benefits for some nuclear workers Rocky Flats panel breaks before further discussion and vote Salazar reintroduces bill to compensate ex-Rocky Flat workers LAKEWOOD - Dozens of former workers at the now demolished Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Site rallied outside at the Denver West Sheridan hotel Monday afternoon. One large sign read "Justice for Rocky Flats Workers." On Monday, a specially convened board organized by the White House came to Lakewood to listen to those former workers. Judy Padilla is among a large of group of people who say they became ill while working in areas where they were exposed to radiation. In 1998, doctors diagnosed Padilla with breast cancer. She is petitioning the board, which represents the federal government, for compensation that would help her pay for years of medical bills. It is a process that she says has been difficult. "We are a David fighting a Goliath," said Padilla. Monday, Padilla went before the board again to explain her predicament. Dozens of former Rocky Flats employees did the same. It is the same process they went through last month. At that previous meeting, the board granted a status to a small group of workers that paved a way to compensation. Those former employees worked at the site from 1952 to 1958. A majority of the workers seeking compensation were employed after 1970. The board explained at the May meeting that since there were inadequate records of radiation exposure for workers in the 1950s, they should be granted a status that would allow for group compensation. The board did not recommend such status to workers after 1970 because board members determined there are adequate radiation records which employees could review and use for individual claims. "It's been a difficult process. We understand the emotional stresses and difficulties these workers have gone through, but we must consider what the law requires us to do," said board member Paul Zimer. "In the end, it tells us that if there are sufficient, adequate records, they must be considered." Members of the United Steel Workers Union joined the workers on Monday. One union leader says the veterans of the Cold War, as they have described themselves, deserve help. "It's not right, I mean they ought to take care of the people who took care of the country," said Terry Bonds. Many former workers admit they have little chance of getting a group resolution, but they vowed to keep fighting. "We give up, we're already dying, we have nothing to lose," said Padilla. The board is expected make a recommendation Tuesday. (Copyright KUSA*TV. All rights reserved.) ***************************************************************** 33 Denver Post: Ill former Flats workers make bid for help Dozens tell their stories to a federal advisory panel in hopes that they become eligible for compensation. Denver Post Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 06/12/2007 01:12:16 AM MDT Lakewood - Dozens of former Rocky Flats workers and their families - telling stories of devastating illnesses - pleaded with a federal advisory panel Monday night to make it significantly easier for sick Flats workers or their next of kin to receive compensation. Many of those who spoke either suffered from cancer or know someone who died from the disease. One former Flats worker told the panel that 12 of the 15 men who worked in his area contracted cancer or another devastating illness from their work. Seven have died. "I want to remind you that time is not on our side," state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, told the panel, speaking in support of the workers. "The people who sit behind me are aware of this every moment of every hour of every day. ... This is a stain on the country's conscience." The 11-member panel - called the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health - is charged with making a recommendation to the U.S. secretary of health and human services on whether Rocky Flats workers should receive "special exposure cohort" status. Such status means a Rocky Flats worker who has one of 22 types of cancer and worked at the nuclear weapons facility more than 250 days would receive $150,000 and reimbursement of medical expenses. Last month, the advisory board recommended that a portion of Rocky Flats workers who worked there between 1952 and 1958 receive the status. This still leaves potentially more than 10,000 former employees outside coverage, said Jennifer Thompson, a former Flats worker who is leading the petition effort for cohort status. Employees who get sick from that group will have to individually petition the government for compensation, a process that many said takes years and might not result in compensation. Frank Steinbach, 81, a World War II veteran who also worked at Rocky Flats, said he contracted prostate and bladder cancer after retiring from the plant. He filed for compensation in 2001, he said, but was turned down. "They said I didn't qualify, that I didn't get it at Rocky Flats," he said. "I've been getting the runaround, that's all." Walt Capps, who worked at Rocky Flats for 31 years and contracted prostate cancer after his retirement, said he has been denied compensation. "If I don't get anything, maybe I can support somebody else getting something," he said. Clifford DelForge and his son, Douglas, both worked at Rocky Flats. While Clifford hasn't suffered any medical problems because of the work, Douglas contracted brain tumors that made him blind and deaf on one side and confined to a wheelchair. Clifford said he was told recently that Douglas would receive compensation, after more than five years of fighting. "If I hadn't done what I did, we would be where we were before," Clifford said. "We would be getting nothing." Today, the panel is scheduled to hear more testimony, then vote on whether to extend cohort status to a larger share of Rocky Flats workers. Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com. All contents Copyright 2007 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 34 globeandmail.com: Danger of tritium exposure underrated, report says NUCLEAR SAFETY But regulators insist radioactive substance found in lakes near reactors is not a health risk MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT ENVIRONMENT REPORTER June 12, 2007 Canadian-style Candu reactors are among the world's largest sources of tritium, producing up to hundreds of times more of the radioactive substance than other reactor designs. The report says high amounts of tritium in the Great Lakes and around the stations indicate nuclear plants routinely emit it into the environment. The Greenpeace report calls Health Canada's standard for the level of tritium in drinking water "very lax" because it is about 10 times higher than that of the United States and 100 times higher than the level allowed in Europe. "Scientific concerns about tritium's hazards are inadequately recognized by Canada's nuclear regulators," the study contends. But federal regulators insisted yesterday that tritium emissions shouldn't cause any concerns. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said in a e-mail statement that tritium levels around atomic sites aren't a health threat and that the public "has not been exposed to unreasonable risk" from the consumption of fruits and vegetables grown near any facility. However, the commission said in January that its staff would study tritium emissions. Most of Canada's nuclear power stations, located in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, are in thinly populated rural areas, but the Pickering plant on the shore of Lake Ontario lies just outside of Toronto, and thousands of people live near it. Greenpeace is the second influential entity to raise concerns about Canada's tritium standards recently. Last September, the Toronto Board of Health said it considered the drinking water standard out of date and it urged that it be tightened. The Greenpeace study was written by Ian Fairlie, a British radiation expert who worked on a British government committee set up in 2001 to review the safety of tritium and several other radioactive substances. Earlier this year, he published a peer-reviewed journal article that concluded tritium's hazards are being underestimated. Tritium, and the risk it poses, is among the most contentious topics in radiation safety. Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen, but is considered less of a cancer risk than substances such as radon that emit very large and damaging particles into cells when the elements decay. However, some experts worry that tritium, because it is similar to hydrogen, binds readily with water and organic matter and therefore easily becomes embedded in living tissues, from which it can harm nearby cells. In an interview, Dr. Fairlie said Ontario, with its large number of Candu stations, has some of the highest background levels of tritium in the world, and his recommendation about pregnant women living near nuclear plants was issued as a precaution, given the scientific uncertainty about its health effects. He said the federal and Ontario government should establish an expert panel to determine whether the hazards of tritium need to be reviewed. Canada considers drinking water containing up to 7,000 Becquerels per litre of tritium to be safe. A Becquerel represents one radioactive decay a second. An Ontario government panel recommended in 1994 that the province set a drinking water limit of 100 Bq/L and then lower it to 20 Bq/L over a five-year period. But the advice, which would likely have led to occasional shutdowns of drinking water treatment facilities after radioactive releases at power plants, wasn't adopted. California recently set a goal of having drinking water contain 15 Bq/L or less, although this isn't a binding regulatory standard. Small amounts of tritium are produced naturally in the environment, and pristine water typically contains about 2 Bq/L. However, water in both Lake Huron and Lake Ontario, where Candu reactors are sited, have about 7 Bq/L. The study said two-thirds of the radioactivity in the two lakes is from nuclear plant discharges. © Copyright 2007 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. globeandmail.com and The Globe and Mail are divisions of CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc., 444 Front St. W., Toronto, ON  Canada M5V 2S9 Phillip Crawley, Publisher ***************************************************************** 35 BBC NEWS: Tribals strike over uranium plans Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 June 2007, 13:25 GMT 14:25 UK A strike called by a tribal youth group to oppose the mining of uranium in part of northern India has caused severe disruption in the area. Rich uranium deposits have been discovered in the Meghalaya hills bordering Bangladesh. Plans to mine the ore have generated fierce resistance among local political parties and youth groups. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 36 Daily News Journal: Former mayor: 'Radioactive never came up' www.dnj.com - By TURNER HUTCHENS trhutchens@dnj.com — Turner Hutchens, (615) 278-5161 Officials are in disagreement over whether the Rutherford County Commission was told about plans in the mid-1990s for radioactive dumping at the Middle Point Landfill. State Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, who sat on the commission at the time, said last week that the commission was aware of the low-level radioactive materials being dumped in the landfill on Jefferson Pike during negotiations on a 1995 agreement between the county and BFI, the landfill owners. Then County Mayor Nancy Allen said Monday there was some discussion of "special waste" being dumped at the time, but that didn't alarm her because it could be anything from hospital waste to used tires. "The word radioactive never came up," Allen said. She said news that there was radioactive dumping in the landfill was "certainly a shock to the whole community." The dumping of radioactive materials at the landfill was brought to the public's attention last month when the nuclear-watchdog organization Nuclear Information and Resource Service published a report critical of the Tennessee standards for the disposal of such waste. Ketron, who was unavailable for comment Monday, said last week that at the time commissioners were told the dumping would include hazardous waste, which had much lower levels of radioactive materials than can be found in the average home. The signed agreement doesn't make any specific mention of radioactive or special waste. Commissioner Allen McAdoo, who sat on the commission in 1995 when the original agreement was signed, said the deal had been discussed at length by commissioners, and the disposal of radioactive materials was never mentioned. "With that commission, if they had said radioactive material, they'd of went through the roof," he said. McAdoo said getting to the bottom of the radioactive dumping should be a top priority for the 21-member commission. The 1995 agreement prohibits the county from passing any new rules to restrict the waste coming into the landfill beyond what is provided for by state and federal laws. It also allows the county's waste to be disposed of in the landfill free of charge, and gives the county $1.20 per ton of out-of-county waste taken to the landfill. State officials have said the material has an extremely low level of radiation and is safe for residents in the area, with a 1 in a million chance of killing someone. The county's Public Works and Planning Committee voted last week to ask Gov. Phil Bredesen, local state representatives and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to take action to stop all dumping of radioactive materials at the landfill. The full commission will vote on that request at its 6 p.m. meeting Thursday at the County Courthouse. The committee also asked County Mayor Ernest Burgess to bring representatives of the Tennessee Division of Radiological Health, Division of Solid Waste and Middle Point Landfill before the committee to explain why the commission was never told about the dumping. Middle Point is one of several sites in Tennessee where low-level radioactive materials are allowed to be dumped under a state program that was enacted in the early 1990s. According to Tennessee Division of Radiological Health figures, about 165,000 pounds of low-level waste were dumped at the landfill in 2004; 10.1 million pounds were dumped in 2005; and 1.3 million pounds were dumped in 2006. State officials have asked Middle Point Landfill officials to test water from the site for radioactivity. Betsy Allgood, a Murfreesboro resident and member of the new local anti-radioactive dumping organization Citizens to End It, said she doesn't believe the commission or the public was properly informed about the dumping. She believes if they had been, the landfill wouldn't be accepting the radioactive waste now. "We know that no level of radiation is a safe level," Allgood said. Allgood, a mother of three young children, said she's worried not just about the safety of the landfill right now, but also in the future. "My biggest concern is where does this leave us in 20 or 30 years," she said. Article quote: Then County Mayor Nancy Allen said Monday there was some discussion of "special waste" being dumped at the time, but that didn't alarm her because it could be anything from hospital waste to used tires. "The word radioactive never came up," Allen said. I am appalled at the attitude of those remarks. She was the County Mayor and she didn't have the initiative to find out EXACTLY what would be in this "special waste"? I am sorry, but I just can't believe the apathy of the county officials on this issue. Our present County Mayor, Burgess, doesn't seem to give a flying flip about the issues at hand! Why isn't he calling for a complete halt to this dumping until further studies show what is really going on out there? I know his request probably wouldn't be immediately granted, but heck, SPEAK UP MAYOR! At least ACT like you care. When we contacted Nancy Allen's office about the most recent landfill expansion, our calls were not returned. We wanted to meet with her in person, but were brushed off by her secretary. We were told that "she is looking into the situation". I personally think she is/was clueless about the landfill - either because she is ill informed or simply is closing her eyes to the issue. Who will ever really know the truth? I have a petition and trust me, I'll have as many people I know and can find to sign it! bonita Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:00 pm ====================================================================== Nancy Allen should be held personally and criminally responsible if radioactive levels are found in our water supply. Her teflon-queen remarks and approach to this issue are not acceptable. Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:22 pm ====================================================================== The reality is this waste dump has already been in our community for 12 years. And they are just now doing studies on the water. Are they crazy? 12 years is a long time to wait to see if there has been an impact on the water system. What about the physical damages to those around the dump. What about the rise of health issues like birth defects and cancer? We pay people to sit in their vehicles to count cars so that we can determine the impact of growth but we haven’t done a study to determine the long term health problems of waste going into our water system and into the air. What studies were talked about 12 years ago? Did they think it would just dissipate into thin air? It is time to hold folks accountable for their actions whether it was a decision yesterday or 12 years ago, if the law makers want to make decision for everyone GET INFORMED OR ASK QUESTIONS? MAKING A DECISION BASED ON THE ALL MIGHT DOLLARS IS JUST NOT RIGHT!!!! If possible I would love to see the DNJ print the transcripts of those meetings 12 years ago. Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:53 am It’s sad how our elected officials continue to sell us out. Rutherford County is a corporate paradise big business gets to run wild with out any restrictions. Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:37 am Test results to determine if Murfreesboro's water supply contains radioactive materials won't be back for at least another week, officials said. Samples of the city's water supply were sent away two weeks ago for testing, but the tests are taking longer than projected because of bureaucratic issues, city spokesman Chris Shofner said Monday. The Murfreesboro Water and Sewer Department decided to conduct the tests a few months earlier than scheduled due to news reports about low-level radioactive materials being dumped in Middle Point Landfill on Jefferson Pike, which sits on Stones River. Testing for radioactive materials in the city's water supply was last conducted in 2003 as part of regular water quality monitoring. State law requires this type of testing once every four years. At that time, no significant levels of radioactive material were found, with the amount of radioactive material generally testing below detectable levels. — Turner Hutchens, (615) 278-5161 Copyright ©2007 The Daily News Journal. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 37 Chillicothe Gazette: Centrifuge demonstration nears www.chillicothegazette.com - Chillicothe, OH Tuesday, June 12, 2007 PIKETON (AP) - In a building far from public view in the tree-covered hills of southern Ohio, the company that recycles uranium from Russian warheads for fueling U.S. nuclear power plants is preparing to demonstrate an advance from Cold War technology. USEC Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., is developing the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon to enrich uranium for nuclear power plants. The company, which last month began interior construction on the plant some 65 miles south of Columbus, is nearly ready to show the centrifuge process at a demonstration facility. The process uses centrifugal force to enrich uranium. The company says centrifuge is much more efficient than the 1950s-developed gaseous diffusion, with the new plant expected to use about 5 percent of the electricity needed for gaseous diffusion. USEC runs a gaseous diffusion plant in Paducah, Ky., the only uranium enrichment plant in the United States. The demonstration could be only weeks away, although no firm date is set, spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said. USEC still is trying to line up investors for the $2.3 billion commercial plant, part of a 3,714-acre site where a gaseous diffusion plant closed in 2001. "Investors are always more comfortable when they can kick the tires," Stuckle said of the planned demonstration. USEC expects the commercial plant to begin operation in late 2009 and to have 11,500 centrifuge machines, each about 40 feet tall, running in 2012. Local officials welcome the expected 400-plus permanent jobs the project will bring in an area that typically has one of the state's highest unemployment rates, and supporters say it will help U.S. efforts toward energy independence. The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in the area enriched uranium for weapons and nuclear fuel before closing in 2001, leaving its sister plant in Paducah. "We're tickled to death," Harry Rider, president of the Pike County Commission, said of progress on the USEC project. "We want the business here, that's the bottom line." Dan Minter, president of USW Local 5-689, said the union and the company are negotiating how many union jobs will be part of building and operating the centrifuge system. "There's a heritage here of over 50 years. We'd like to be part of that process," Minter said. The demonstration project is about two years behind schedule. Failure to meet timetables, cost overruns and questions about nuclear waste that will be generated concern longtime activist Geoffrey Sea, a spokesman for a group of people who live near the plant. "This is not being for or against a uranium plant," Sea said. "They were supposed to do a demonstration, then get a license; they couldn't demonstrate the technology, they don't have working centrifuges. No one in the public can make direct evaluations." Minter said he believes the technology will work. "This must succeed. The risk is too great of not having a viable enrichment operation," Minter said. "We should have learned our lesson from our dependency on foreign oil and gas. To rely on another nation would be irresponsible." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in April licensed the project for 30 years. The American Centrifuge Plant project has about 140 employees at Piketon. Another 1,100 work for United States Enrichment Corp., USEC's subsidiary, under contract to the Department of Energy in various projects here. Originally published June 12, 2007 Print this article E-mail this to USEC Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., is developing its American Centrifuge Plant at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, shown Wednesday in Piketon, to make fuel for nuclear reactors. Copyright ©2007 Chillicothe Gazette ***************************************************************** 38 Reuters: Uranium enricher USEC denies report of struggles Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:54AM EDT (Recasts; adds company comment) NEW YORK, June 12 (Reuters) - USEC Inc. (USU.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the sole U.S. company involved in enriching uranium, denied a media report on Tuesday that it was struggling to survive, but said financing problems could delay work on a new centrifuge project. The company's shares were down nearly 8 percent in early trading. "USEC is not struggling to survive as stated in the New York Times article," spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said. "Market conditions are the best in years for us, and the outlook for nuclear power is tremendous." The New York Times article said USEC had been unable to find a merger partner and had liquidated uranium inventories to stay afloat as its income fell. USEC had also maintained a high dividend, bought back stock and spent heavily on severance payments in frequent purges in the executive suite, the Times said, and the company's failure would leave Russia dominant in the market for fuel processing. Stuckle said the company had sold uranium, but described the move as a bid to take advantage of the skyrocketing prices for the material. USEC has faced difficulties and delays with its American Centrifuge project in Piketown, Ohio, with costs expected to rise beyond the planned $2.3 billion even as the rising electricity costs shrink the company's cash flow. The company had said in a May filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it was seeking government or third-party help to finance the project, which could face problems in the coming years. "If such funding does not become available we will have to slow down our work on the centrifuge," Stuckle said. Shares of USEC were down $1.70, or 7.8 percent, at $20.09 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Additional reporting by Nick Zieminski) © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 39 Murfreesboro Post: House acts to end radioactive dumping on The Welcome Visitor (login), Tue, Jun 12, 2007, 23:34 CST, 103 Readers By Michelle Willard, Post staff-June 12, 2007-Updated 3:26 PM Tennessee’s House of Representatives heard the cry from Rutherford County and passed a resolution that would stop dumping of low-level radioactive waste in Middle Point landfill. “We just passed a bill that puts a moratorium on the dumping of radioactive waste at Middle Point landfill,” bill sponsor Rep. Donna Rowland said. The bill must now go the state senate for a vote at 4 o’clock this afternoon before it can become law. Sen. Jim Tracy is currently working on the Senate resolution and expects favorable results. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem. I don’t think anyone will oppose it,” Tracy said. Once enacted Middle Point would no longer be able to accept low-level radioactive waste from Tennessee’s Bulk Survey for Release (BSFR) program, Rowland said. Rutherford County Commission is also considering a resolution that would ban the low-level radioactive waste from entering the county, but is bound by a 1995 contract with landfill owner-operator BFI. The commission votes Thursday night on the resolution. As reported last month, BSFR scans potentially hazardous waste to determine the level of radioactivity present. If the waste is within the acceptable range of radioactivity, it is sent to licensed commercial landfills for disposal. Middle Point landfill has been accepting low-level radioactive waste since the program’s 1997 inception without public disclosure. Member Opinions: By: bota on 6/12/07 This past weekend, someone began trucking huge loads of chicken manure in from Bedford County and dumping it at the low end of a corn field that is along S.E.Broad St. There are several tons of it piled up near Lytle Creek and it really stinks! (But its not radio active) 615-869-0800 | online@murfreesboropost.com | 630 Broadmore Blvd. Suite 120, P.O. 10008, Murfreesboro, TN 37129 ***************************************************************** 40 Scotsman.com: Public gets say on future of Dounreay dome Wed 13 Jun 2007 JOHN ROSS () THE public will get a chance later this year to help decide whether the iconic symbol of the Dounreay nuclear plant will be polished or demolished. A debate has been ongoing for some time over the future of the Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR), the golf-ball shaped dome which has been a familiar feature of the Caithness landscape for 50 years. The nuclear site is being decommissioned over the next 30 years at a cost of £2.9 billion and the famous fast reactor could vanish along with all the other buildings. The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has hinted it will be too expensive to maintain in future, but Historic Scotland is keen to keep it as a lasting legacy of the nuclear era and a possible museum, and consideration has been given to listing the structure. Malcolm Cooper, Historic Scotland's chief inspector, and Dr Deborah Mays, the agency's head of listing, visited the site this week as part on continuing negotiations over the landmark's future. UKAEA is carrying out a technical feasibility study for cleaning up the DFR dome and this will present a number of options on the cost of its maintenance to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The study will be completed in September when a public consultation exercise on the dome's future will begin. The Dounreay Stakeholders' Group has already stated it wants an open and transparent debate on the dome's future. A Dounreay spokeswoman said: "We feel it is a good way forward to take the consultation into the community to see what the feeling is. "There is a bit of strong feeling that it should stay but that has to be balanced against the cost." It costs £150,000 just to paint the dome every couple of years and an estimated six-figure sum annually to maintain after decommissioning. Last year, Dounreay officials told The Scotsman that if the dome is to be maintained, someone will have to sponsor its future upkeep. Dr Mays said: "We had a positive meeting with Dounreay's managers UKAEA and discussed plans to devise a heritage strategy for the future of the iconic features of the site. "There is a lot of interest in seeing the dome preserved as it is a popular landmark but this must be balanced with the critical realities of the decontamination exercise. "The heritage strategy will consider the options and include consultation with the public and UK heritage experts. "We will continue to work with UKAEA to look at options for recognising this technological achievement within the context of the decommissioning process." The DFR was completed in 1958 and operated from 1959 to 1977. At present, work is continuing on stripping out the inside of the reactor in a project that will take until 2030 and cost £250 million. The clean-out is seen as one of the biggest and most hazardous tasks of the site restoration. The International Council on Monuments and Sites, a United Nations body which identifies modern areas of world significance, has named the dome as an important landmark in the UK, alongside the Forth road and rail bridges. Related topic * Nuclear energy http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1343 This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=923102007 Last updated: 12-Jun-07 00:06 BST ©2007 Scotsman.com | contact | terms & conditions ***************************************************************** 41 HeraldTribune.com: Long road ahead for tainted Tallevast TALLEVAST -- Cleaning up the majority of the polluted ground water in Tallevast could take 30 years, and getting it all could take a century, Lockheed Martin officials say. But some experts fear that the Tallevast pollution will never be cleaned up completely. Lockheed's plan is to build a series of wells and trenches from which it will pump millions of gallons of tainted ground water into a treatment system and then discharge it into the Manatee County sewer system. Known as pump and treat, the method has been used at hundreds of polluted sites across the country. But some experts have become increasingly critical of the approach, saying it is inefficient and often fails to restore ground water in a reasonable time frame. One critic is George Robinson, vice president of Oasis Nuclear and a former nuclear power plant operator who worked to clean up Three Mile Island nuclear plant after its partial meltdown in 1979. "You're dealing with an unknown volume of water," Robinson said. "That pump and treat sounds good, but 30 years sounds optimistic. It could be forever." The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has in the past 10 years encouraged companies involved in cleanup operations to develop and adopt alternative approaches. "The EPA has started realizing that pump and treat does not address a lot of issues and they need to get the ground and the ground water beneath cleaned up a lot quicker," said Michael D. Campbell, a geological consultant and managing director of the Institute of Environmental Technology. About 200 acres of ground water are known to be polluted in Tallevast. The pollution was left behind by the former American Beryllium Co. plant, which built parts for nuclear warheads for the federal government for nearly 40 years. Lockheed bought the site in 1996 and shut down the plant. It later sold the property, but not before discovering soil and ground-water pollution on and around the site. In 2000, Lockheed notified county and state officials of the pollution. But the residents of about 100 homes, many of whom relied on well water, were not told of the problem until nearly four years later. The pollutants include trichloroethylene, or TCE, which has been linked to liver and kidney cancer and a host of other ailments. Water is not safe to drink if the level of TCE exceeds 3 parts per billion, according to state standards. The levels of TCE in Tallevast average 300. One area close to the former weapons site has levels as high as 13,000. Wells in Tallevast have since been sealed and resident homes connected to the county drinking water system. Lockheed removed about 530 tons of polluted soil in 2001. Company officials say the remaining soil is not polluted. Whether Lockheed has removed all the contamination from the soil will be key to its success, said Kurt Pennell, a Georgia Tech professor who has advised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on site cleanups. "TCE goes onto the soil and comes back off," Pennell said. "If all the contaminants are in water, they will get it out, but it's going to be relatively expensive and it's going to take them quite a while." Building six trenches, some as long as 900 feet, and installing 52 wells will cost Lockheed about $10 million. The company estimates the pump and treat operation will cost nearly $1 million annually to run. The process is so lengthy because for every gallon of ground water removed, another flows in from outside the polluted area and mixes with contaminated water. Provided that the soil within the aquifer is uncontaminated, eventually the process will dilute the pollutants to below the state standard for drinking water. But that may mean Lockheed will have to replace the water in the 200-acre plume seven times, Robinson said. "The reason they're saying 30 years is because they don't know the volume of water," he said. Lockheed is further hampered by the high clay content of the Floridan Aquifer. Clay is denser than soil, making it more difficult to pump ground water through it. The company calculates it will only be able to pump about 120 gallons of water per minute. By comparison, it pumps 9,000 gallons per minute at another site it is cleaning up in Burbank, Calif. "The aquifer only yields so much water, and that's our limiting factor," said John Perella, a project engineer with Arcadis BBL, a company hired by Lockheed to manage the cleanup. Lockheed will also have to negotiate with property owners to purchase easements to install some wells and trenches. That may not be easy as many Tallevast residents blame Lockheed for not disclosing it knew about the pollution for several years. Also, about 200 residents have filed lawsuits seeking damages from Lockheed. "We'll have to work with the state, to have the state talk to them or find an alternative," said Gail Rymer, a Lockheed spokeswoman. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has given FOCUS, a group representing Tallevast residents, a deadline of June 20 to submit comments or questions on Lockheed's plan. The group's leaders said they are still reviewing the plan. "We believe there's significant information not included that needs to be," said Jeanne Zokovitch, an attorney with WildLaw, a nonprofit environmental group representing FOCUS. Alternatives to pump and treat include bioremediation, in which pollutant-eating bacteria are injected into the ground, and steam flushing in which ground water is heated to the boiling point and the resulting vapors extracted before they go into the atmosphere. It has become more common for cleanup operations to combine pump and treat with more aggressive methods like steam flushing focused on the areas of greatest contamination, Pennell said. Rymer said Lockheed has not ruled out using alternatives as the cleanup progresses but believes pump and treat is the best approach for Tallevast. She said the company is committed to cleaning up the site for as long as it takes or until the DEP says no further action is needed. "This is the best method available today based on what we know and getting moving quickly," Rymer said. Last modified: June 10. 2007 12:45PM TALLEVAST -- Cleaning up the majority of the polluted ground water in Tallevast could take 30 years, and getting it all could take a century, Lockheed Martin officials say. But some experts fea . . . For free access to this article, you must be a member of HeraldTribune.com. Join today Create an account Signing up takes just a few moments. Personal information will not be shared or sold to any vendors. Serving the Herald-Tribune newspaper and SNN Channel 6 © Sarasota Herald-Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Member ***************************************************************** 42 ajc.com: House panel inquiry into nuclear research site reaches UGA By STACY SHELTON Published on: 06/12/07 A Congressional committee investigation into the Department of Energy's decision to cut funding to a University of Georgia ecology lab at a nuclear weapons plant has reached UGA president Michael Adams. In a June 8 letter to Adams, the House Committee on Science and Technology asked for records of recent meetings between DOE and UGA officials, including a telephone conversation between Adams and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. The committee also served notice that Adams will be asked to testify at a hearing scheduled for June 26, and asked Adams to meet this week with committee staff "to discuss the future of the laboratory." The letter was signed by two subcommittee chairmen, U.S. Reps. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) and Brad Miller (D-N.C.). Committee spokeswoman Alisha Prather said Tuesday the chairmen "want to be fully briefed on different aspects of a situation. Talking to UGA for their side of things would certainly fall into that category." The DOE earlier refused the committee's request to continue funding the lab at about $300,000 a month until it's inquiry is completed. Last month, about 100 faculty, staff and students learned the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory at the Savannah River Site would have to close. The Department of Energy has told UGA it would no longer provide baseline funding, which had peaked at $12 million a year. By last year, the DOE's annual funding had been reduced to about $4 million for the lab, which opened in 1951. DOE officials said they want the lab's work to continue and would fund research on a study-by-study basis if the lab can stay open. But that would require a significant increase in other funding sources, and the lab's staff said they have been unable to replace DOE's support. The committee, run by Democrats, almost immediately began asking why the Bush administration would cut funding for scientific research at the nuclear facility near Augusta when the Savannah River Site is undergoing a resurgence of activity. Support for the lab has come in from Georgia's two U.S. senators, both Republicans, and former President Jimmy Carter. © 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | ***************************************************************** 43 Rocky Mountain News: 100 rally in support of federal aid for those with cancer Barry Gutierrez © News Sitting front and center at a rally in Lakewood Monday is former Rocky Flats worker Douglas DelForge, who suffers from a palsy that prevents his eye from opening. By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News June 12, 2007 Douglas DelForge, a 45-year- old veteran Rocky Flats worker, sat quietly in a wheelchair in the rain Monday afternoon, his ravaged face silent testimony of a brain tumor and a frustrating federal aid program that repeatedly denied him care. After 24 years at Rocky Flats as a chemical operator, DelForge has had numerous brain surgeries and suffers from a palsy that distorts his face and prevents his right eye from opening. He was in a wheelchair because of a recent series of falls. Behind him stood a longtime friend, Dennis Romero, who worked with DelForge in Building 771, the most dangerous plutonium building at Rocky Flats. They cleaned up equipment that was leaking radioactive contamination. Back then, Romero said, DelForge "was just like the rest of us." Romero's eyes teared up as he clutched his buddy's shoulder. "Why he got picked, I don't know." The pair stood at the forefront of a demonstration Monday that drew about 100 people to demand that a federal advisory board decide today to grandfather in to the aid program all former Rocky Flats workers who contract cancer. They argue that records of radiation are so poor they can't prove that on-the-job contamination caused their illnesses. The rally was held at the Sheraton Denver West in Lakewood, where the board met. DelForge's father, Cliff, said the program denied his son's application for aid "four or five times," claiming that there was no evidence that radiation causes meningioma, a brain tumor that grew aggressively and damaged his brain but is technically not brain cancer. Cliff DelForge said he had assumed the officials, because they were experts, knew what they were talking about. But after five years of denials of aid for his son, he went on the Internet. "I typed in meningioma, and within 15 minutes, I found an article that said ionizing radiation does cause meningioma." Six hours later, he had 14 studies showing the connection. He sent them to the Department of Labor. It said the claim would be sent to a toxicologist. Last month, his son finally was approved under Part E of the program, which covers noncancer illnesses. The son, though, has not received a check or a medical insurance card. Meanwhile, the hospital bills mount. It is repeat denials such as this that make workers believe that the program is unfairly barring them from help. Cliff DelForge worked at Rocky Flats, too, spending 35 years on radiation safety. Once, he and two colleagues conducted an unauthorized experiment, deliberately exposing their radiation -badges to major contamination. All three badges were reported to them as having zero exposures - proof to them that the records were being distorted, he said. Now, the government is claiming it can estimate workers' contamination from such zeroed-out records. "How can you do a dose reconstruction from nothing?" he asked. What they said . . . ? "My husband wanted to be here, but unfortunately, death got in the way of that." Carmen Blackmon, widow of John, a radiation technician who died of colo-rectal cancer. ? "The litany of roadblocks we've heard (Monday) is truly astounding." Randall Weiner, Boulder attorney representing a Rocky Flats widow ? "We are not laboratory rats for you to study." Laura Schultz, former Rocky Flats engineer, denied for aid despite kidney cancer and numerous other serious illnesses. ? "This is a stain on the conscience of America." State Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald ***************************************************************** 44 Rocky Mountain News: O'Brien backs Flats workers Lt. governor tells panel employees deserve help By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News June 12, 2007 All workers who had life-threatening exposures to radiation at the now-demolished Rocky Flats nuclear weapons complex near Denver deserve immediate help, Colorado Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien told a presidential advisory board Monday night. The board will vote today whether to recommend expedited help to former Flats workers ill with radiation-linked cancers. "Even today, much of our nuclear defense capability relies on products produced by Rocky Flats workers," O'Brien said. "The working men and women who knowingly or unknowingly put themselves in harm's way for the sake of their country are entitled to justice and to appropriate compensation for their sacrifice." She was followed by dozens of Flats workers who told stories of missing records of known radiation accidents, questionable record-keeping and years-long struggles of trying to prove their jobs are linked to their illnesses. Many of them emphasized the patriotic nature of their work. "We Cold War veterans took a radioactive bullet," said former worker Judy Padilla, a breast cancer survivor. The workers petitioned 847 days ago for expedited help. Federal law allows expedited help for workers with radiation-related cancers whose work records are not good enough to use in calculating the dose of radiation they received during their careers. If workers are not granted the expedited help, they must collect evidence of what they were exposed to and try to prove their illnesses probably were related to those exposures. For Flats workers, that process has averaged more than two years each. The government so far has awarded $150,000 compensation and medical coverage to 647 Rocky Flats workers whose illnesses were linked to their jobs. But one in 10 of those people died before their case was completed and their awards delivered, the Rocky Mountain News reported this month. Congress created the nuclear worker compensation program in 2000, after it was determined that workers across the country had been put at risk while creating the nation's nuclear weapons. But the program came under criticism for being mired in bureaucracy and drifting away from Congress's original intent to get fair compensation to workers quickly. This month, 15 U.S. senators - including Colorado's Ken Salazar - called for a congressional inquiry into the way the program is being run. What's next ? Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health will decide today whether radiation records at Rocky Flats are so poor they cannot prove contamination caused some workers' cancers - and therefore those workers should be grandfathered in to a federal aid program that can provide medical care and $150,000 of compensation. ? The secretary of Health and Human Services makes the final decision. frankl@RockyMountainNews.com ***************************************************************** 45 Rocky Mountain News: Flats workers say dose estimates flawed By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News June 12, 2007 Rocky Flats workers today argued that repeated changes in the method of calculating radiation doses proves that the government?s dose estimates are not accurate. Therefore, all of the nuclear weapons plant?s workers with certain cancers should be automatically approved for aid, they told a federal advisory board. The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health is expected to decide today whether to approve the workers? petition. Approval would mean medical care and $150,000 in compensation for a substantial number of the 631 cancer-ridden former Rocky Flats workers who have been denied help. Workers say the records are so bad and the estimating process so flawed that workers can?t prove radiation caused their cancers. Of the 1,253 who?ve applied for help, 299 have received aid.. The remainder are still waiting for final decisions on their cases. Only those workers with one of 22 radiogenic cancers would be granted aid if workers win their case. Workers with other cancers and other illnesses still would have to prove their contamination on the job caused their diseases. The board has signaled it plans to reject the plea and consider only three groups of workers dating to 1970 and earlier. But Jennifer Thompson, a former Rocky Flats manager who speaks for the sick workers, argued this morning that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has changed its processes for estimating radiation doses eight times since the workers filed their petition saying those processes were flawed. In addition, it has been 847 days since the petition was filed, which means the workers are not getting timely action on their claims as required by law, she said. NIOSH contends it can use exposure records from co-workers and later workers to estimate contamination. ***************************************************************** 46 KnoxNews: Y-12 spills blamed on equipment Redesign of part should fix uneven suction By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com June 12, 2007 OAK RIDGE - Uneven suction on a process tank's vent line caused two February spills of an enriched uranium solution, investigators concluded at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. A part of the system is being redesigned to prevent a recurrence, and the plant's secondary-extraction operation - one of six chemical processes used to recycle weapons-grade uranium - may be restarted by the end of June, said Bill Wilburn, a Y-12 spokesman. The operation has been shut down for three months because of the problems. The first spill, involving more than 2 gallons of the uranium solution, was discovered Feb. 6 during an evening "walk-down" of the Y-12 facility. A second spill of about 8 ounces occurred a week later. The spills and other problems prompted A.J. Eggenberger, the chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, to question the safety of uranium operations at Y-12's old and deteriorated facilities. In a March 13 letter to the National Nuclear Security Administration, Eggenberger said continued operations could "involve significant safety risks to workers and the public." Staffers from the safety board reported that the tanks of enriched uranium were known to leak when liquid levels reached the upper sections where flange gaskets are located. The Oak Ridge operation reportedly relied on keeping the solution below those levels. The investigation centered on what caused the levels to fluctuate. "It has been determined that the inadvertent transfer of the liquid in the secondary extraction process tank was caused by a pressure differential in the tank's vent system," Wilburn said in an e-mail response to questions. "The tank has multiple vent-line connections that are piped to an environmental control system. The control system places a small - but, in this case, uneven - suction on the vent lines," he said. That uneven suction caused the uranium solution to leak from the tank onto the floor of the facility, Wilburn said. A change in the vent system "will prevent recurrence of the unintended transfers by eliminating the uneven suction," he said. Secondary extraction is part of the wet-chemistry operation that processes enriched uranium at Y-12. The Oak Ridge plant manufactures parts for secondaries - the second stage of nuclear warheads - and it is the nation's principal repository for weapons-grade uranium. Asked if the shutdown had an impact on plant's production schedules, Wilburn said Y-12 planned "to begin using the second extraction system before the end of June and should be able to resolve any impacts in the next few months." Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 47 SPI: Making more nuclear waste while Hanford keeps growing and glowing Seattle Post-Intelligencer Escargot of Puget Sound it's not -- but abalone got hit so hard it's never recovered. Now help may be on the way Blog index Seattle Making more nuclear waste while Hanford keeps growing and glowing Supporters of an international initiative called Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) are meeting this week in Seattle, just in time for nuclear watchdog Bob Alvarez's Seattle Town Hall talk Thursday evening on the risks and costs associated with GNEP. What a swell coincidence! In very simple terms, the idea of GNEP is to develop the technology and facilities to reprocess spent fuel from nuclear reactors. It's good for global warming, it will keep nuclear materials out of the hands of evildoers and it helps with that little problem of what to do with all that radioactive waste from reactors. The U.S. Department of Energy likes it. From Energy Sec. Samuel Bodman in May: "For Americans, pursuing nuclear power is wise policy; for industry it can be good business; internationally, it is unmatched in its ability to serve as a cornerstone of sustainable economic development, while offering enormous potential to satisfy the world's increasing demand for energy in a clean, safe and proliferation-resistant manner." Trouble is, there are lots of uncrossed t's and undotted i's. Alvarez released a short, informal report earlier this year highlighting some wee omissions including a lack of a plan for what will be done with hundreds of tons of plutonium created by GNEP. Alvarez is not alone in his concerns, which were echoed by the Energy and Water Appropriations Committee of Congress in May 2006: "The Department (of Energy) has failed to produce a complete accounting of the estimated volumes, composition, and disposition of the waste streams that will be involved in GNEP. The Department has also failed to produce even the most rudimentary estimate of the life-cycle costs of GNEP. Before the Department can expect the Congress to fund a major new initiative, the Department should provide Congress with a complete and credible estimate of the life-cycle costs of the program." That might give one pause if you consider what's going on right now at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south central Washington. At the home of the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor, an effort by the Department of Energy to cleanup decades of radioactive waste is years and years off schedule and billions (with a "b") of dollars over budget. The state Department of Ecology is so mad, they're talking to the DOE in closed door negotiations, under threat, it appears, of taking the department to court. A further sign of how screwy Hanford's cleanup has gotten is a report today from the Government Accountability Office (investigators for Congress) that recommends scrapping one major portion of the plans for cleaning up waste stored in leaking underground tanks. In an interview today, Alvarez said that after 25 years of cleanup, DOE has treated only 1 percent of the worst kind of nuclear waste for disposal. "It's not at all been successful," he said. "It's a cautionary warning." UPDATE: Came across this document sent to me from Gerry Pollet with Heart of America Northwest, a watchdog group. It's Ecology's comments on GNEP. As with the comments from Congress, it calls into question the ambiguity surrounding GNEP. Posted by Lisa Stiffler at June 12, 2007 2:34 p.m. 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com ©1996-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Terms of Use/Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 48 DOE: Energy Department to Work with National Association of Manufacturers to Increase Industrial Energy Efficiency June 12, 2007 WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman today expanded DOE’s work to maximize energy efficiency by increasing cooperation among U.S. industry and energy efficiency experts, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Specifically, this MOU includes a variety of activities, which aim to assist manufacturing facilities in implementing an energy management program; adopt clean, efficient technologies; and achieve continual energy efficiency and intensity reduction improvements. Through this partnership, DOE seeks to advance President Bush’s Twenty in Ten Initiative, which promotes greater energy security through increased efficiency and diversification of clean energy sources. “Increasing energy efficiency is not only good practice, but it can also be good business,” Secretary Bodman said. “Today’s agreement between DOE and NAM represents a significant commitment between government and the private sector to help curb our nation’s energy use and enhance energy security while also reducing emissions.” Secretary Bodman joined Governor John Engler, President of NAM today in Washington, to sign the MOU. The MOU states that DOE and NAM agree to share their specific expertise to create a consolidated catalog of tools and technologies, as well as a website for access to tools and services. DOE and NAM seek to provide companies with streamlined access to the tools and technologies, such as technical assistance, a consolidated user-friendly library of tools, and a roadmap necessary to implement an effective energy management program that will allow for increased commercial deployment of clean, efficient technologies. “Entering into this partnership with DOE to increase energy efficiency builds on the unique strength of American manufacturers as the world’s leaders in energy efficiency and conservation,” NAM President John Engler said. “Energy efficiency is an important contributor to our future energy security. Building upon manufacturers’ leadership in this area doesn’t just make energy and economic sense, but common sense.” DOE offers a wide range of respected tools, training, and other resources that enable manufacturers to identify opportunities for energy savings. If the U.S. industrial sector were to reduce energy intensity by 25 percent in ten years, the U.S. could save 8.4 quadrillions of energy, an amount equal to heating every U.S. household for one year. As part of DOE’s “Save Energy Now” campaign, energy experts using DOE software identified nearly $500 million in potential energy saving at 200 of the most energy-intensive manufacturing plants in the U.S. in 2006. Building on this success, DOE welcomes the partnership with NAM, which represents 11,000 large and small manufacturers in every industrial sector, representing over 200,000 facilities throughout the U.S. For tips on lowering the energy intensity of manufacturing facilities, visit the Energy Savers website or call DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Hotline at 1-877-337-3463. For more information view The MOU between DOE and NAM. Media contact(s): Julie Ruggiero, (202) 586-4940 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 49 Santa Fe New Mexican: Udall criticized on LANL spending priorities Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:25 pm Tom Udall By Andy Lenderman | U.S. Rep. Tom Udall is getting criticized for his opposition to the looming budget cuts facing Los Alamos National Laboratory. Udall has voiced opposition to the proposed cuts, which could result in layoffs to as much as 20 percent of the workforce. But Udall also supports diverting the mission of the lab to more energy research. But much of the work done at Los Alamos -- roughly 57 percent, according to the lab -- is weapons related. That work employs thousands of voters in Udall's district, which includes Los Alamos, Santa Fe and all of Northern New Mexico. Yet Democrats want less weapons and more energy research and basic science. The House Appropriations Committee has already put more money into those areas. Udall has said he plans to vote against the 2008 fiscal year committee budget that covers the U.S. Department of Energy and Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. Los Alamos would take a $500 million hit out of its $2.1 billion budget, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has said. He also told radio reporters on Monday that laying off 20 percent of the workers at Los Alamos is not the way to get changes there. However, Domenici's office has not established specific job cut numbers. Currently, 12,176 full-time and contract workers are employed at the lab. The 20 percent cut mentioned by Domenici would come to 2,435 people. A vote by the full House is expected Wednesday. The Senate, which often puts more money into lab programs, is expected to release its version of the bill later this month. Udall said that the private company that manages the lab, Los Alamos National Security, LLC, must diversify its mission to compete for the new energy research money. "The national labs are in a great position to tackle those challenges and make a contribution, and I hope to see the lab to do more of that type of work in the future," Udall said in a recent interview. New Mexico Republicans ripped into Udall for not doing enough to stop the cuts. Anti-nuclear weapons activists like Greg Mello at the Los Alamos Study Group say Udall is implicitly supporting President Bush's pro-nuclear agenda, and that he's trying to have it both ways. Mello and New Mexico Republicans have launched public attacks laying into Udall's maneuvering on the matter. "Udall has no cop out in this matter," said Adam Feldman, director of the New Mexico Republican Party, in an unusual broadside last week. "...Make no mistake -- this is a failure on the part of Tom Udall, and it affects one of the largest employers in New Mexico and a very vital part of our economy and national security." Mello sent out an "action alert" to his group's 2,100-person mailing list, urging them to lobby Udall to vote for the House Appropriations Bill. "We're disappointed that Tom Udall is not supporting this markup which moves money out of nuclear weapons and into renewable energy," Mello said. "This is exactly the kind of thing ...he has said he stands for. And there is no other way to get renewable energy money in the (Department of Energy) budget than by taking it out of something. And that something is nuclear weapons." Udall's spokeswoman declined to address these concerns, and referred a reporter to his statement. Udall said his focus during the appropriations process is to ensure the safety and security of the lab, and surrounding communities, and to make sure "that the outstanding scientists at New Mexico's national labs have a fair opportunity to compete for the increased funding levels" in science. Mello also questioned the impact of the lab on New Mexico's economy, and supports spending that money elsewhere. Contact Andy Lenderman at 995-3827 or alenderman@sfnewmexican.com. Copyright 2007 The New Mexican, Inc. ***************************************************************** 50 SPI: INL: Public not at risk as nuclear lab responds to "incident" Seattle Post-Intelligencer Last updated June 12, 2007 2:01 p.m. PT IDAHO FALLS, Idaho -- Emergency crews at the Idaho National Laboratory on Tuesday responded to what officials are describing as a "facility incident" inside the site's Reactor Technology Complex, but said no radiation was released and the public was not at risk. John Epperson, a spokesman for the INL's joint information center in Idaho Falls, said the Advanced Test Reactor, the 40-year-old centerpiece of this 890-square-mile federal nuclear reserve in southern Idaho, was not affected. The ATR research reactor is inside the Reactor Technology Complex. "The public is not in any risk or danger" and there was no radiation released, Epperson said, declining to give more specifics about the incident. He said state, county and tribal officials on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation to the south were notified of the incident. 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com Send investigative tips to iteam@seattlepi.com ©1996-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 51 Platts: EIA: Renewables requirement would cut nuclear by 5% 2007-06-11 Washington (Platts)--11Jun2007 A national renewable portfolio standard would reduce US nuclear generation by less than 5% by 2030, DOE's Energy Information Administration said in a report released June 11. EIA said it was asked by Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to "analyze a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requiring that 15% of US electricity sales be derived from qualifying renewable energy resources." If such an RPS were implemented, EIA said, the increase in renewable generation would primarily displace coal-fired generation. With an RPS, nuclear generation would be reduced to 856 billion kilowatt-hours in 2030, it said. Without an RPS, nuclear generation would be 896 billion kWh in 2030, EIA said. The report is online at: (www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/prps//pdf/sroiaf(2007)03.pdf). Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 52 Hanford News: Board wants public inputon long-term Hanford plans This story was published Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer The Department of Energy should adopt long-term schedules and cost estimates to guide planning only after review by the public and regulators, according to the Hanford Advisory Board. It issued advice Friday to DOE recommending the new policy after learning that budget documents given to Congress included a revised baseline for Hanford's tanks holding radioactive waste. Baselines are long-term work schedules for cleanup projects and the cost associated with doing the work. "Appropriators think it was vetted and some kind of agreement reached," said Gerald Pollet, chairman of the board's budgets and contracts committee. The new baseline raises estimates from $26 billion to $44 billion for emptying tanks of 53 million gallons of waste, closing all 177 tanks and treating the waste. It also extends the anticipated schedule for completing the work from 2028 to 2042. The board is concerned that the adopted schedules call for emptying the last of the leak-prone single-shell tanks in 2032, even though the legally binding Tri-Party Agreement requires them to be emptied in 2018. DOE's proposed budget for fiscal year 2009 and target budgets for planning for the five years after that provide only enough money for one tank to be emptied each year, the board said in its advice. Because of delays in treating the waste either at the vitrification plant under construction or by alternate means, newerdouble-shell tanks are filling up with waste emptied from older tanks years before any of the waste can be treated. The vitrification plant is not expected to be operating until as late as 2019, eight years past a legal deadline. The board also would have liked cleanup of leaks and releases into the soil at the tank farms included in the baseline. DOE agrees that it should have discussed the work in the revised tank baseline with the Hanford Advisory Board and others who were interested before it was adopted, said Steve Wiegman, senior technical adviser for the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection. But the baseline still would not have been able to meet legally binding deadlines, he said. DOE and its regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology, have a series of talks planned this summer to try to reach agreement on new Tri-Party Agreement deadlines after it became clear that DOE would not be able to meet key deadlines, including at the tank farms and the vitrification plant. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 53 Tri-City Herald: Vit plant's Analytical Laboratory topped out (w/ video) Vit plant lab steel topping off Published Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer The last major piece of structural steel was lifted into place at the Analytical Laboratory at Hanford's massive vitrification plant Tuesday. About 300 union construction workers gathered to watch the "topping out" as a steel beam adorned with an evergreen tree and an American flag was hoisted into place. The ceremony marked not only progress on the lab, but also on work to clean up contamination left at the Hanford nuclear reservation, said John Eschenberg, the Department of Energy project director. The $12.2 billion vitrification plant will treat up to 53 million gallons of radioactive waste left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The plant's Analytical Laboratory, which covers an area as large as a football field, will be used to analyze samples of nuclear waste. For the full story, read Wednesday's Herald. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 54 9NEWS: Panel expands coverage for ex-Rocky Flats workers posted by: Jeffrey Wolf , Web Producer Last updated: 6/12/2007 8:24:10 PM Sick Rocky Flats workers make one last plea Panel recommends better benefits for some nuclear workers Rocky Flats panel breaks before further discussion and vote Salazar reintroduces bill to compensate ex-Rocky Flat workers LAKEWOOD (AP) - A federal panel voted Tuesday to recommend special medical compensation for about 4,000 more former workers at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, but stopped short of including everyone who had worked there. The decision still leaves about 15,000 former workers - some of them with life-threatening diseases they blame on conditions at the plant - without coverage. The new vote by the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health would extend coverage to people who worked at the plant from 1959 to 1966. The board's recommendation next goes to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, which in turn makes a recommendation to Congress, which makes the final decision. Previously, the board had recommended special coverage to workers from 1952 to 1958. The two recommendations together still left about 75 percent of the former workers without coverage. Workers can still apply for individual exemptions. The decision angered Dennis Romero, 54, who worked at the plant for 18 years and underwent a procedure to remove his diseased thyroid, a condition he blamed on his job. "They're picking and choosing who they will take care of. I'm on medication. My thyroid is dead. It's all based on greed," he said. The United Stweelworkers also condemned the decision. "It is an outrage," said USW District 12 Director Terry Bonds in a statement. "These workers told the truth behind those faulty numbers and they were ignored." "Our union is prepared to get justice for these nuclear workers who sacrificed their lives for our national security," USW President Leo Gerard said in the same statement. Currently, the former workers must prove their diseases were the result of exposure to plutonium or other chemicals at the plant in order to get compensation. Former workers at 21 other nuclear sites can get government benefits simply by showing they have a form of cancer that can be caused by radiation. Jennifer Thompson, a former Rocky Flats worker who wrote the petition for special compensation, said the board's latest recommendation would be appealed. She said the decision was made without sufficient data on the workers or their conditions. "Obviously, the ruling today was heartbreaking," she said. Colorado's congressional delegation sent a letter to the advisory board in May saying the government has delayed providing compensation for the workers and has put obstacles in the path of legitimate claims. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) criticized Tuesday's vote, saying the board "failed the former Rocky Flats workers once again." "Today's decision by the Advisory Board is frustrating on many levels," said Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colorado) in a statement. "The vast majority of the Rocky Flats workforce and their families have a right to be disappointed with the decision. Those of us in public office who have a strong sense of public duty to the Rocky Flats workers and their families share in that disappointment." Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colorado) also expressed his disappointment in the decision. "It is not acceptable to me that the federal government has taken a nickel-and-dime attitude toward meeting the health benefits owed to our country's nuclear weapons workers," Udall said in a statement. The plant 15 miles northwest of Denver made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads. It opened in 1951 but was shut down in 1991 after a troubled history that included several fires. The FBI raided it in 1989, investigating claims that its operator had knowingly discharged chemicals into creeks that flowed into municipal water supplies, burned toxic waste and failed to adequately monitor groundwater. The company, Rockwell International, was fined $18.5 million after it pleaded guilty to 10 hazardous waste and clean water violations. (Copyright 2007. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) ***************************************************************** 55 IAEA: IAEA Chief Briefs Board on Nuclear Issues Staff Report Safeguards, Safety, Technology Issues, Budget Concerns Cited 11 June 2007 Dr. ElBaradei delivering his statement at the IAEA Board of Governors. (Photo: D. Calma/IAEA) IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei today briefed the IAEA Board of Governors on a range of nuclear issues, including IAEA safeguards in Iran, nuclear plant safety and budget concerns. The Board is meeting this week in Vienna. "Even with the proposed budget, the Agency´s financial situation remains vulnerable, and we still fall short of what is needed to carry out our mission in an effective manner. Significant additional resources are still sorely needed," he said. Regarding IAEA verification of Iran´s nuclear programme, the Director General said "it is incumbent on Iran to work urgently with the Agency, under a policy of full transparency and active cooperation, in order for the Agency to be able to provide assurance regarding the exclusively peaceful nature of all of Iran´s nuclear activities." Regarding the implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions, he said that he was "increasingly disturbed by the current stalemate and the brewing confrontation - a stalemate that urgently needs to be broken, and a confrontation that must be defused. I continue to believe that dialogue and diplomacy are ultimately the only way to achieve the negotiated solution foreseen in the relevant Security Council resolutions. The earlier that conditions are created to move in this direction, the better." On the Agency´s financial situation, Dr. ElBaradei warned of serious consequences for the IAEA´s capacity to fulfil its mission unless the issue of an increasing workload coupled with insufficient funding is addressed by Member States. "This dichotomy between increased high-priority activities and inadequate funding, if continued, will lead to the failure of critical IAEA functions," he stated. He said one focus of the problem is the fact that at present too large a part of the Agency´s budget comes from voluntary contributions from Member States. "Our nuclear security programme remains 90% funded through unpredictable and heavily conditioned voluntary contributions. Our safety department continues to rely heavily on extra-budgetary staff." Dr. ElBaradei also addressed the issue of assurance of supply and the nuclear fuel cycle. The Board is expected to receive a report on "options" for assurances of supply of nuclear fuel. "Controlling nuclear material and the use of nuclear energy is a complex process. And it is clear that an incremental approach, with multiple assurances in place, is the way to move forward," he stated. See Story Resources for more information. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 56 Denver Post: A few more Flats workers covered Denver Post Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 06/12/2007 06:07:27 PM MDT A federal advisory panel granted expedited financial help to a few former Rocky Flats workers, but rejected a petition that would have speeded compensation for many more. On an 8-1 vote, with an abstention, the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health backed expedited status for workers who may have been exposed to neutron radiation while working at the former munitions plant from 1959 and 1966. The board, on a 6-4 vote, declined to recommend immediate compensation for all other workers, who may have been made ill by an exposure to radiation at the plant that made atomic bomb components. The board's recommendations now go to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The two days of presentations before the board were both filled with emotion and weighed down by scientific minutiae. The board was asked to rule on whether the government has enough information to decide individual worker's radiation exposure. That was the only question the board was entitled to answer Tuesday, said board member Wanda Munn. "And we've heard no information that there isn't enough information," Munn said. Board member Michael Gibson said he felt the board's scope went beyond that. "To do our duty correctly we need to consider the experiences of people who were there," he said. Dozens of those workers and their families, who filled the meeting room at the Denver West Sheraton Tuesday agreed with Gibson. "You've listened to a whole lot of people who have pedigrees, but they weren't on the shop floor," Jerry Harden, a former worker and union leader at the munitions plant, told the board. "Please help the sick Rocky Flats workers." When the meeting ended, some workers and their families cried, some walked off in anger, and most, like Mary Ann Rupp, whose husband died of lung cancer in 1995, vowed to continue fighting to get compensation - soon. "We're not giving up," Rupp said. All contents Copyright 2007 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 57 Denver Post: Panel backs expanding compensation for ex-Rocky Flats workers By STEVEN K. PAULSON Associated Press Writer Article Last Updated: 06/12/2007 09:04:25 PM MDT LAKEWOOD, Colo.—A federal panel voted Tuesday to recommend special medical compensation for an estimated 4,000 more former workers at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, but stopped short of including everyone who had worked there. The decision still leaves about 15,000 former workers—some of them with life-threatening diseases they blame on conditions at the plant—ineligible to receive automatic compensation, said Jennifer Thompson, a former Rocky Flats worker who petitioned for the special status for the workers. The new vote by the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health would give compensation to people who worked at the plant from 1959 to 1966 but it didn't say how many workers that would help. The board's recommendation next goes to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, which in turn makes a recommendation to Congress, which makes the final decision. Previously, the board had recommended compensation to workers from 1952 to 1958. The two recommendations together still exclude about 75 percent of people who used to work at the plant. Workers can still apply for individual exemptions. The decision angered Dennis Romero, 54, who worked at the plant for 18 years and underwent a procedure to remove his diseased thyroid, a condition he blamed on his job. "They're picking and choosing who they will take care of. I'm on medication. My thyroid is dead. It's all based on greed," he said. Currently, the former workers must prove their diseases were the result of exposure to plutonium or other chemicals at the plant in order to get compensation. Former workers at 21 other nuclear sites can get government benefits simply by showing they have a form of cancer that can be caused by radiation. Thompson said the board's latest recommendation would be appealed. She said the decision was made without sufficient data on the workers or their conditions. "Obviously, the ruling today was heartbreaking," she said. Colorado's congressional delegation sent a letter to the advisory board in May saying the government has delayed providing compensation for the workers and has put obstacles in the path of legitimate claims. Sens. Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard and Rep. Mark Udall all criticized Tuesday's vote along with the United Steelworkers, which represents some of the workers. The plant 15 miles northwest of Denver made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads and many workers have said they developed cancer and other diseases because of their jobs there. A study done by the University of Colorado and state health department found that 1,259 cases of cancer had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control by former Rocky Flats employees. The plant opened in 1951 but was shut down in 1991 after a troubled history that included several fires. The FBI raided it in 1989, investigating claims that its operator had knowingly discharged chemicals into creeks that flowed into municipal water supplies, burned toxic waste and failed to adequately monitor groundwater. The company, Rockwell International, was fined $18.5 million after it pleaded guilty to 10 hazardous waste and clean water violations. Report of study of Rocky Flats workers: http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/rf/rfpworkerstudy/RockyFlatsFinalNIOSHRep ort—te xt.pdf All contents Copyright 2007 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 58 KTVB.COM: UPDATE: Fire at INL sends 37 to treatment facility | 03:18 PM MDT on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 KTVB.COM IDAHO FALLS - An incident at the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls triggered an alert to the public Tuesday afternoon. A worker at the lab was working with about an ounce red phosphorus while working in a laboratory. The substance caught fire during the process - and produced a "flash," according to INL officials. The worker was taken to an on-site medical facility, and is being treated for minor burns.  Thirty-six other workers were taken to a medical facility and are being examined as a precaution. INL officials stress that there was no radiological release, and the incident is under control. John Epperson, a spokesman for the INL’s joint information center in Idaho Falls, said the Advanced Test Reactor, the 40-year-old centerpiece of this 890-square-mile federal nuclear reserve in southern Idaho, was not affected. Red phosphorous is a heated form of white phosphorous. State, county and tribal officials were notified. The INL is in the desert west of Idaho Falls and is home to three reactors, including the Advanced Test Reactor originally designed to test fuel for nuclear submarines. It’s the site where electricity generated by a nuclear reactor was used for the first time to light a city, nearby Arco, in 1955. © 2007 KTVB-TV ***************************************************************** 59 LocalNews8.com: INL: Public not at risk as nuclear lab scrambles emergency responders Idaho Falls, Pocatello - Weather, News, Sports - Associated Press - June 12, 2007 5:14 PM ET BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Emergency responders at the Idaho National Laboratory on Tuesday responded to what officials are describing as a "facility incident" inside the site's Reactor Technology Complex. John Epperson, a spokesman for the INL's joint information center in Idaho Falls, says no radiation was released. Epperson says "The public is not in any risk or danger." He added that the Advanced Test Reactor, the 40-year-old centerpiece of this 890-square-mile federal nuclear reserve, was not affected. The ATR research reactor is inside the Reactor Technology Complex. Epperson says state, county and tribal officials on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation to the south have been notified of the incident. The INL is located in the desert west of Idaho Falls and is home to three reactors, including the Advanced Test Reactor originally designed to test fuel for nuclear submarines. This is the site where electricity generated by a nuclear reactor was used for the first time to light a city, nearby Arco, in 1955. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KIFI. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************