***************************************************************** 06/18/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.142 ***************************************************************** 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 UN Nuclear Watchdog Agency Team To Visit Dpr Korea 2 AFP: Stage set for Japan to seize NKorea's 'embassy' - 3 RIA Novosti: Russia has not received N. Korean funds - 4 YONHAP NEWS: N. Korea plans to seal its nuclear reactor in late July 5 IAEA: DPRK Invites IAEA Officials to Pyongyang for Verification Talk 6 US: [NYTr] Bob Woodward: Yes, I Should Have Probed Iraqi WMD More Cl 7 [southnews] Britain feared US would 'nuke' Afghanistan 8 Bellona: Congress puts breaks on Bush nuke warhead plan, encouraging 9 US: UPI: Congress wants nuclear weapons policy 10 US: UPI: NIAC hits out at Lieberman 11 US: Guardian Unlimited: Interest Groups Could Slow Energy Action 12 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Australia Launch War Games NUCLEAR REACTORS 13 The Hindu: BARC to develop high temperature nuclear reactors 14 US: CT: University cancels reactor simulation 15 Times of India: 'Nuke deal may not be finalised this year' 16 US: NTC: Leaking valve prompts closure at San Onofre station this we 17 US: Platts: Quad Cities units can operate continuously at EPU levels 18 US: SanLuisObispo.com: NRC sets date for public meetings 19 US: Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: NRC investigating plant shutdow 20 US: Bay City Tribune: NRC gives STP high marks 21 US: Inside Bay Area: Nuclear power: Dark horse for alternative energ 22 US: KSU: K-State project aims to make sodium-cooled nuclear reactors 23 US: REPUBLICAN & Herald: Nuclear power revival needed 24 US: Deccan Herald: Safe, clean way to nuclear energy? 25 Ottawa Citizen: Going nuclear by stealth 26 NEWS.com.au: Few support nuclear power - poll | NUCLEAR SECURITY 27 UN Official Urges All States To Sign On To Treaty Against Nuclear Te 28 IHT: Nuclear powers must do more to prevent terrorists getting nukes NUCLEAR SAFETY 29 US: [v911t] MORET: Geiger Counter Shootout At the OK Corral NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 30 Pahrump Valley Times: Letters to the Editor (Yucca) 31 US: RIA Novosti: Rosatom, Interros to co-develop uranium fields in R 32 US: Guardian Unlimited: House Backs Nuclear Fuel Bank PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 33 P&I: Energy Department urged to keep DB plan reimbursements for 34 KnoxNews: Research may help increase use of hydrogen as energy 35 KnoxNews: Staggering security at new DOE building 36 KnoxNews: Bridge to India still under construction ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 UN Nuclear Watchdog Agency Team To Visit Dpr Korea Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:01:47 -0400 UN NUCLEAR WATCHDOG AGENCY TEAM TO VISIT DPR KOREA New York, Jun 18 2007 6:00PM In response to an invitation from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to visit the country for talks, the head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/PressReleases/2007/prn200708.html">IAEA) said today that he is dispatching a team to Pyongyang next week. IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei received a letter dated 16 June from the Director General of the country’s General Department of Atomic Energy Ri Je Son, in which he asked for an IAEA delegation to visit the capital to discuss how the agency could verification and monitor the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facility. In his letter to Mr. Ri today, Mr. ElBaradei said that an IAEA team headed by Olli Heinonen, the Deputy Director General for Safeguards, will travel to Pyongyang for talks. Mr. ElBaradei visited DRPK in March to discuss plans for the country to get rid of nuclear weapons in what he called “the first step in a long process” toward normalizing relations with a country that ordered UN inspectors out more than four years ago. Ever since the Asian country ordered IAEA inspectors out at the end of 2003 and formally withdrew from the NPT and its inspections and other safeguards of fuel diversion from energy generation to weapons production, top UN officials have repeatedly appealed to it to return to the fold. In October, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on the DPRK as well as individuals supporting its military programme and demanded that it cease its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction after it claimed to have carried out a nuclear test. 2007-06-18 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 2 AFP: Stage set for Japan to seize NKorea's 'embassy' - Monday June 18, 05:54 PM A Japanese court Monday paved the way for authorities to seize North Korea's de facto embassy to pay off debts, as a former spy backed out of a plan to buy the building as a goodwill gesture. Chongryon, which represents Koreans in Japan loyal to Pyongyang, serves as the communist state's de facto embassy in the absence of diplomatic relations between the bitterly opposed nations. The association has been sued by a government's debt collection body demanding payment over non-performing loans held by pro-Pyongyang financial institutions that went bankrupt. The Tokyo District Court ruled that Chongryon had to pay debts totalling 62.7 billion yen (508 million dollars) and that authorities could impound property as collateral, including the group's headquarters in Tokyo. Rejecting Chongryon's claims of bias, Judge Tsutomu Arai said, "There is no evidence to show that the plaintiff filed a lawsuit for a political purpose such as forcing the defendant into dissolution." In another blow, Chongryon's hopes to sell the 10-storey headquarters in the heart of Tokyo fell through. Shigetake Ogata, Japan's former spy chief who monitored North Korean activities, had said he was buying the headquarters as a friendly gesture to help the minority community. Ogata faced a storm of criticism including from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has built his career as a hardliner on North Korea over its nuclear weapons and its past abductions of Japanese civilians. Ogata, whose home was raided by prosecutors last week over the deal, acknowledged that the pressure was too great. "I'm really sorry that this ruling would pave the way for the seizure of the Chongryon headquarters, which is an emotional home for Koreans in Japan," Ogata told reporters. "I regret that I couldn't complete the transaction," he said. "Maybe later people will understand that there was nothing illegal in this transaction." Some 600,000 Koreans live in Japan, mostly a legacy of those who emigrated or were forced to Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. About 10 percent are believed to be affiliated with Chongryon, which charges that the community is persecuted by authorities and harassed by right-wing activists. Authorities have frequently raided Chongryon offices over charges ranging from banned exports to North Korea to alleged involvement in kidnappings. An investment firm headed by Ogata agreed to buy the building for 3.5 billion yen, still well short of the money Chongryon needs to repay. Had the transaction gone through, Ogata had said he would have given preference to Chongryon if it later wanted to repurchase the property in Tokyo, one of the world's most expensive cities. Chongryon lawyer Koken Tsuchiya insisted the deal was not aimed at preventing Japanese authorities from seizing the property. "This was serious. It did not violate the law," he said. The Tokyo metropolitan government, headed by nationalist Shintaro Ishihara, in 2003 suspended a tax break which Chongryon enjoyed due to the building's quasi-diplomatic status. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo!7 Pty Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 RIA Novosti: Russia has not received N. Korean funds - finance minister-1 12:07 | 18/ 06/ 2007 MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's finance minister said Monday North Korean funds from a Macao bank had not been transferred to a bank in Russia's Far East, where the North Korean government has an account. "I have received a letter from the U.S. Treasury guaranteeing that sanctions will not be applied [against a bank participating in the money transfer]," Alexei Kudrin told reporters at an investor conference in Moscow. He said the sides were still working on technicalities for the money transfer and the Dalkombank (Far East Commercial Bank), based in Khabarovsk, had not yet received the funds. "When we are 100 percent sure [that sanctions will not be applied], the Finance Ministry will allow the transfer," the minister said. Russia said previously it could make a financial vehicle available for the transfer of North Korea's funds if Washington guarantees that no sanctions against Russia will follow. The U.S. envoy at six-party nuclear talks, Christopher Hill, said Saturday that the final transfer of North Korea's previously-frozen $25 million from a Macao bank has been held up by technical problems. The North Korean accounts held in Banco Delta Asia in Macao were frozen in September 2005 after the U.S. accused the regime of counterfeiting and money laundering. And although the accounts were unfrozen in March, after North Korea agreed to shut down its Yongbyon reactor, the BDA was blacklisted making foreign banks wary of handling any further transactions. The transfer, when completed, will dramatically improve the chances of ending a deadlock in the implementation of North Korea's denuclearization plan, adopted in February at Beijing talks between Pyongyang and the five other countries involved in the protracted dispute over its nuclear program - South Korea, the United States, China, Russia, and Japan. Christopher Hill said Monday that the Yongbyon reactor could be shut down within a few weeks following the North Korean funds transfer. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 4 YONHAP NEWS: N. Korea plans to seal its nuclear reactor in late July 2007/06/18 16:41 KST Interfax By Sohn Suk-joo & Byun Duk-kun SEOUL, June 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will be able to freeze and seal its main nuclear rector at Yongbyong north of Pyongyang in the second half of July, Russia's news agency reported Monday.    Quoting an unidentified North Korean diplomatic source in Beijing, the Interfax news service said that the shutdown of the Yongbyon complex will take a month.    "In the estimate of our experts, the reactor's technical freezing will take about a month, so we hope to seal it, as required by the agreements reached at the six-party talks, in the second half of July 2007," the North Korean diplomatic source said.    The North Korean was referring to a February agreement in which Pyongyang agreed to shut down and seal the Yongbon facilities in exchange for 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.    North Korea is soon expected to start implementing the February agreement as the final obstacle blocking denuclearization steps -- the return of disputed funds previously frozen at a Macau bank -- has been removed.    Pyongyang on Saturday invited a working-level delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to its country to "discuss the procedures" of the IAEA's verification and monitoring of the Yongbyon reactor shutdown, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday.    A South Korean official involved in the six-party nuclear talks said it did not matter how long it takes North Korea to shut down the Yongbyon facilities, as long as it does.    However, he noted that technical issues or difficulties involved in the process should not take any more than two weeks to solve.    "It is up to North Korea. It would take about two weeks, but I think the process can be completed before that if North Korea wishes to, unless there are other technical problems I am not aware of," the official told reporters while asking not to be identified.    The nuclear disarmament talks are attended by the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.    bdk@yna.co.kr (END) ***************************************************************** 5 IAEA: DPRK Invites IAEA Officials to Pyongyang for Verification Talks Press Release 2007/08 18 June 2007 | IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei received a letter dated 16 June 2007 from the Director General of the DPRK´s General Department of Atomic Energy, Mr. Ri Je Son, in which he asks for an IAEA delegation to visit Pyongyang to discuss the modalities for verification and monitoring by the IAEA of the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facility. In his letter of reply today, Dr. ElBaradei informed Mr. Ri that a team headed by IAEA Deputy Director General for Safeguards, Mr. Olli Heinonen will travel to Pyongyang shortly to discuss and agree on these modalities. The team is scheduled to visit Pyongyang in the week commencing the 25th of June. Melissa Fleming Head, Media and Outreach Section Spokesperson Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21275 [43] 699-165-21275 (mobile) Ayhan Evrensel Press and Public Information Officer Media and Outreach Section Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21271 [43] 699-165-21271 (mobile) About the IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) serves as the world's foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Established as an autonomous organization under the United Nations (UN) in 1957, the IAEA carries out programmes to maximize the useful contribution of nuclear technology to society while verifying its peaceful use. NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit the Press Section of the IAEA's website (http://www.iaea.org/Resources/Journalists/), or call the IAEA's Division of Public Information at (431) 2600-21270. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 6 [NYTr] Bob Woodward: Yes, I Should Have Probed Iraqi WMD More Closely Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:38:12 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Editor & Publisher - Jun 18, 2007 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003600242 Bob Woodward: Yes, I Should Have Probed Iraqi WMD More Closely By E&P Staff NEW YORK--The venue was a bit odd -- an online chat marking the 35th anniversary of the Watergate burglary -- but it produced one of the clearest admissions yet by Washington Post editor/reporter Bob Woodward that he was among the many who fumbled the ball on pre-war Iraqi WMDs. He also took issue with how a key Fred Thompson angle relating to Watergate is portrayed. Woodward has written three books relating to the war, each one more critical of the effort than the previous one, but in the online chat at www.washingtonpost.com this afternoon he was asked about the media's performance while the run-up to the war was still underway. A reader from Rancho Mirage, Calif., asked: "In light of Watergate, why did the "investigative" branch of the press miss so badly on the Bush-Cheney spin machine to justify Iraq? Was the lesson of Watergate wasted, or was the press serving the country well?" Woodward replied: "I think the press and I in particular should have been more aggressive in looking at the run-up to the Iraq war, and specifically the alleged intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction stockpiles. To answer the WMD question before the March 2003 invasion would have been a monumental task, but one that we should have undertaken more systematically." Later, in response to a similar question, he added: "I think we've learned a lot from Watergate and from the handling of controversy and scandal in all the presidents' administrations since then. At the same time, as I said earlier, I wish everyone would be more aggressive -- the press and the Congress, and in developing a fuller system of accountability. Hopefully those in government also would see the value of transparency. Speaking openly and honestly gets issues out on the table, and as Nixon himself once said, 'it's the coverup that always matters.'" Another reader asked about Fred Thompson, who was an attorney for the Watergate committee chaired by Sen. Sam Ervin and asked the crucial question about whether Nixon kept tape recordings. Woodward replied: "First of all, when Fred Thompson -- who was the Republican cousel to the Senate Watergate committee -- asked Alexander Butterfield the question about possible tape recordings in the White House or Oval Office, Thompson, like a good lawyer, knew the answer -- because three days before the public testimony, lawyers and investigators for the committee got Butterfield to reveal the existance of the secret tape-recording system. Though Thompson seems to get public credit for asking this critical question, it was the work of others on the committee staff who dug out Butterfield's revelation in a lengthy interview on a hot Friday afternoon on July 13, 1973." On another note, Woodward was asked if was really friends with Carl Bernstein (they have had their differences). He replied: "I just talked to him an hour ago, and we talk all the time and see each other regularly. He was down here visiting my wife Elsa and I last week while on his book tour for his Hillary Clinton excellent biography 'A Woman in Charge.' Carl and I indeed are friends and will always be friends. We look at lots of things very differently, but over the decades have become much closer." E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com) * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 7 [southnews] Britain feared US would 'nuke' Afghanistan Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:39:51 -0500 (CDT) Britain joined the United States' invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001 because it feared America would "nuke the shit" out of Afghanistan, the former British ambassador to Washington reportedly told a television documentary to be screened on Saturday. Britain feared US would 'nuke' Afghanistan: ex-diplomat AFP Monday June 18, 10:18 AM Britain joined the United States' invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001 because it feared America would "nuke the shit" out of Afghanistan, the former British ambassador to Washington reportedly told a television documentary to be screened Saturday. In comments printed in advance in the Daily Mirror tabloid on Monday, Christopher Meyer said that fear explained why Prime Minister Tony Blair chose to stand with US President George W. Bush in his decision to invade Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks -- to temper his aggressive battle plans. "Blair's real concern was that there would be quote unquote 'a knee-jerk reaction' by the Americans ... they would go thundering off and nuke the shit out of the place without thinking straight," Meyer reported told the documentary, according to the Mirror. In other excerpts of the documentary, printed in The Observer newspaper on Sunday, members of Blair's inner circle said the prime minister agreed to commit troops to the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq despite believing that the United States had failed to prepare adequately for post-war reconstruction. Channel 4 will air the first part of "The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair" on Saturday. ***************************************************************** 8 Bellona: Congress puts breaks on Bush nuke warhead plan, encouraging dismantlement - Bellona.org The White House's nuclear weapons renewal plan looks like it will be slapped down by Congress. Nils Boehmer NEW YORK - In an effort to steer the direction of the Bush Administration’s nuclear weapons programme in a less aggressive direction, the democrat-dominated Congress is demanding the White House develop a comprehensive post 9/11 nuclear strategy before Congress funds a new generation of nuclear warheads, congressional staffer told Bellona Web Monday. Charles Digges, 18/06-2007 The nudge to the White House from Congress to rethink its antiquated nuclear weapons policy comes amid several signals that a new Cold War is on the verge of breaking out between Washington and Moscow, several of the staffers interviewed said, and - contrary to White House wishes - seeks to significantly boost funding on the dismantlement of nuclear warheads. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin entered this month’s Group of Eight (G-8) Summit at loggerheads over a proposed missile defense system that Washington wishes to place in Poland and the Czech Republic. Though Putin countered Bush’s plan with a suggestion that the anti-missile system be located in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan – where Russian leases a radar station – the Bush plan had Putin speaking Cold War language prior to the summit. In an interview with reporters from G-8 nations, Putin threatened to target Europe with nuclear missiles if Bush pushed ahead. The two leaders are holding further talks on the missile shield in July. Washington still hovering a finger over the red button Yet, as the Bush administration enters its final years, it is becoming increasingly clear, both in hindsight and current activity that the Bush Administration is still uncomfortably trigger happy around the big red button – not only against Russia but all comers. Indeed, late last week, Britain’s former ambassador to the United States, Christopher Meyer, said he had talked London into joining forces with the United States in Afghanistan because he feared American forces would drop an atomic bomb on the country – then suspected of harbouring Osama Bin Laden, the recognized terrorist mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks on the New York and Washington. His whereabouts remains unknown. "(Tony) Blair's real concern was that there would be quote unquote 'a knee-jerk reaction' by the Americans ... they would go thundering off and nuke... the place without thinking straight," Meyer said on a British television documentary on Blair’s years as prime minister. Congress says ‘whoa’ to cowboy nuke programme US President George Bush had hoped to have a new nuclear warhead designed, engineered and in place by 2012. The House Appropriations Committee – which controls funding for the US nuclear arms complex - gave a thumbs down to the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) programme developed by the Bush Administration in late May, and demanded more thorough studies rationalizing keeping the US on Cold War level nuclear footing. On Monday, congressional spokesmen told Bellona Web that the House Appropriations Committee nixed the RRW plan in its report on the current US nuclear posture. "Currently there exists no convincing rationale for maintaining the large number of existing Cold War nuclear weapons, much less producing additional warheads," said the committee report on the fiscal 2008 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill released last week and obtained by Bellona Web. House bill to triple funding on nuke dismantlement The House Appropriations Committee bill more than triples the amount the Bush administration is asking for dismantlement of old warheads and adds $30 million to modify a facility at the Nevada nuclear test site so it can be used for dismantling weapons. At present, the only facility that does that work is the Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas, which also refurbishes currently deployed weapons. The full democrat-dominated House is expected to vote on the measure this week. The Bush administration had sought $88 million for the RRW program next year so that cost and engineering studies could be completed and a decision could be reached on congressional approval to build the first RRW model, with the first new warheads ready by 2012. The House, however, has already passed the fiscal 2008 Defense Authorization Bill, which reduced RRW funding and called for development of a new nuclear weapons strategy before steps are taken to produce new warheads. The Senate has yet to act on the authorisation or the appropriations measure. But the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees are expected to follow in the footsteps of the House of Representatives by reducing proposed RRW spending and demanding development of a new nuclear weapons policy, a senior Democratic senate staffer told Bellona Web. North Dakota’s Senator Byron Dorgan, chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee handling the nuclear programme, has indicated he is thinking along the same lines, the staffer, who is familiar with Dorgan’s views, said. Could Bush pass nuke policy to his successor? Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee that handles strategic weapons, said in an interview with The Washington Post last week that she expects that the question of future US nuclear weapons policy will be passed to the next administration, since the Bush White House is preoccupied with the grinding war it is leading in Iraq. What the House appropriations bill demands The House appropriations bill eliminates RRW funding and directs the Energy and Defense departments and the intelligence agencies to develop a "comprehensive nuclear defense strategy based on current and projected global threats." And it slows down funding of the Bush administration's programme to modernise the facilities where nuclear weapons are built, stored and dismantled. "These multi-billion dollar initiatives are being proposed in a policy vacuum without any administration statement on the national security environment that the future nuclear deterrent is designed to address," the report said. "It is premature to proceed with further development of the RRW or a significant nuclear complex modernization plan." The committee pointed out that neither the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review last year nor the administration's 2001 Nuclear Posture Review "provided a long term nuclear weapons strategy or the defined total nuclear stockpile requirements for the 21st century." Copyright © Bellona -- Reprint and copying is recommended if source E-MAIL: info@bellona.no ***************************************************************** 9 UPI: Congress wants nuclear weapons policy United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: June 18, 2007 at 10:41 AM WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Congress reportedly is preparing to scale back President George Bush's nuclear weapons program and seek a new program based on current threats. "Currently there exists no convincing rationale for maintaining the large number of existing Cold War nuclear weapons, much less producing additional warheads," a House Appropriations Committee report released last week said, the Washington Post reported Monday. A House appropriations bill expected to come to a vote this week would eliminate funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead, or RRW, program and would require intelligence, defense and energy agencies to develop a "comprehensive nuclear defense strategy based on current and projected global threats," the Post said. The House bill would also slow modernization programs at some nuclear facilities. The Senate is expected to consider similar legislation. "These multi-billion dollar initiatives are being proposed in a policy vacuum without any administration statement on the national security environment that the future nuclear deterrent is designed to address," the House report said. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 UPI: NIAC hits out at Lieberman United Press International - Security & Terrorism - Briefing Published: June 18, 2007 at 3:36 PM WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- An Iranian-American group has condemned Sen. Joe Lieberman's hawkish talk on Iran in the U.S. media. The National Iranian American Council issued a statement last week saying that it "denounces Sen. Joe Lieberman's, I-Conn., irresponsible" call for war with Iran in a June 10 interview on "Face the Nation." "In spite of the White House's recent shift towards diplomacy, Lieberman revived unsubstantiated accusations by administration hawks of Iranian meddling in Iraq as a pretext for military action," the group said. "By moving the military option center stage, Lieberman undermines the administration's efforts to use diplomacy to stabilize Iraq and protect U.S. troops," said NIAC President Trita Parsi. "It is simply reckless to make such comments when diplomacy has just begun." NIAC noted that President George W. Bush authorized "unprecedented bilateral talks with Iran last month, a move advocated by lawmakers, the Iraq Study Group, and foreign policy experts alike. The aim of the talks is to seek Iranian support for the stabilization of Iraq. "At a time when the United States needs international cooperation to solve serious problems such as Iraq and Darfur, Sen. Lieberman continues to promote a failed policy of coercion and force, further jeopardizing our country's standing and security," said NIAC board member Dokhi Fassihian. "Today, the world supports cooperation between Iran and the United States in Iraq. We are puzzled by the senator's desire to scuttle the diplomatic process and enflame the region even more," he said. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Guardian Unlimited: Interest Groups Could Slow Energy Action From the Associated Press Monday June 18, 2007 11:01 PM By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP)- Three powerful lobbying forces - automakers, electric utilities and the coal industry - are confounding Democrats' efforts to forge a less-polluting energy policy. Disputes over automobile fuel economy, use of coal as a motor fuel, and requirements for utilities to use more wind or biomass to generate electricity have threatened to stall energy legislation in both the Senate and House. The issues have been the focus of intense lobbying by the coal industry, electric utilities heavily dependent on coal, and by automobile manufacturers trying to block new fuel economy requirements from Washington and in a dozen states. Unless agreements can be worked out in the coming days, the impasse could dash hopes by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to produce an energy bill - the first since Democrats took control of Congress - before Independence Day as promised. Democrats this week are trying to find a way around a threatened filibuster and resurrect a proposal to require electric utilities to use more renewable fuels and spur development of wind, solar and biomass energy sources. An intense GOP fight against the proposal has been waged largely at the behest of two of the country's biggest coal-burning electricity producers - the Atlanta-based Southern Company and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The companies, in letters to senators, argue that the requirement to produce 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources can't be met without huge electricity cost increases. Supporters of the measure argue that is false. The coal industry has weighed in as well, urging support of an alternative that would have included more efficient coal-burning power plants and nuclear reactors eligible under the mandate, a plan senators rejected. Bill Wicker, a spokesman for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D.N.M., the lead sponsor of the renewable fuels mandate, said the senator views promotion of renewable fuels a core ingredient of a fresh energy policy and if the GOP continues to block a vote it could ``unplug the whole bill.'' Meanwhile, another imbroglio that threatens to derail Senate action on energy - and also has complicated progress on energy legislation in the House - centers on demands that automakers significantly improve the fuel efficiency of their vehicles. The automakers have unleashed an intense campaign to block a requirement already in the Senate bill that calls for new cars, SUVs and small trucks to meet an average fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 with further annual improvements of 4 percent after that. Dozens of car dealers and auto plant managers were making the rounds of Senate offices to lobby against the measure this week. Chief executives of the Big Three automakers recently came to Capitol Hill to tell Senate leaders the proposed requirement can't be met. Auto industry lobbyists said it would mean fuel economy would have to more than double by 2030 to a fleet average of 52 mpg. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., brandishing a letter from the auto manufacturers' lobbying group outlining its opposition to the Senate provision, plans to join several other senators close to the auto industry and offer a more modest proposal, possibly as early as Tuesday. Automobile and coal interests also have played havoc with Democrats' plans for energy legislation in the House. Pelosi, who has promised an energy bill before Independence Day, has been at loggerheads with Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and a longtime protector of the automakers, over a package of energy proposals being crafted by Dingell's committee. Dingell backed off Monday on several of the more controversial provisions of his bill, including one that was a particular focus of Pelosi's ire. It would have barred the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating ``greenhouse'' gas emissions from automobiles, and blocked California and 11 other states from doing so. The auto industry has been fighting the California mandate, which cannot go into effect unless the federal EPA gives a green light. Dingell told members of his committee that he was circulating new bill language without that provision and was also dropping language on liquefied coal, fuel economy standards and a low-carbon fuel standard. He said he would come back to the issues as part of a larger climate change bill in the fall. ``This will also give us the needed time to achieve consensus on these issues if at all possible,'' Dingell wrote in a memo with his energy subcommittee chairman, Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., whose district is in the heart of coal mining country. Dingell and Boucher said they'd discussed their new approach with Pelosi, ``and she understands the rationale for proceeding this way.'' Pelosi and key Democrats on Dingell's committee had opposed language in the bill to promote development of liquefied coal as an alternative to diesel and jet fuel. Such government help has been a top priority for the coal industry. ``It's very important. It opens an entirely new market for coal,'' said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, which represents coal interests in Washington. Coal companies argue coal is America's most abundant energy resource and can replace imported oil. But environmentalists worry that processing coal into a liquid fuel will produce more carbon dioxide and add to the problem of global warming. The issue has strong Republican support and has divided Democrats in both the House and Senate, where a liquid coal provision is expected to be offered. In the Senate, among those pushing for more liquefied coal development is Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who represents a state with significant coal interests. Both Boucher and Obama have said their provisions would require that the liquid coal produce no more greenhouse gases than the use of conventional gasoline. Still, that has not satisfied environmentalists who view development of such a fuel as a step back in dealing with climate change. --- Associated Press Writer Erica Werner contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited: U.S., Australia Launch War Games From the Associated Press Monday June 18, 2007 6:31 AM By MERAIAH FOLEY Associated Press Writer SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Australia and the United States launched their biggest joint war games Monday, with 27,500 troops backed by a U.S. aircraft carrier engaging in exercises aimed at consolidating the allies' military dominance in the Asia Pacific region. The biennial Talisman Sabre exercise pits 20,000 U.S. troops and 7,500 Australian forces against two fictional enemies - the Kamarians and Musorians - in a variety of land and sea-based scenarios designed to test their skills in combat, peacekeeping and humanitarian relief efforts. The exercise, which runs until July 2, will also include 10 U.S. ships, 20 Australian ships and 125 aircraft operating off the coast of Rockhampton in northeastern Queensland state. ``The United States and Australia have a long-standing relationship ... we share the same values and interests. Foremost among those interests is the stability and security of the Asia-Pacific region,'' U.S. Vice Admiral Doug Crowder told reporters on board the USS Blue Ridge in Sydney. ``Therefore it is very important that our militaries train together to carry out the types of missions our governments may call upon us to execute to ensure regional security and stability,'' he said. The exercise comes as the United States and Japan step up efforts to build a joint missile defense system in Asia, partly as a bulwark against regional threats, such as a nuclear-armed North Korea. Australia, a steadfast U.S. ally that maintains around 2,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, is studying whether to participate in the defense shield, Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said this month. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 13 The Hindu: BARC to develop high temperature nuclear reactors Monday, June 18, 2007 : 1640 Hrs Mumbai, June. 18 (PTI): A prototype Compact High Temperature Reactor is being developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre as part of the Indian programme to produce hydrogen as a substitute for fossil fuels. CHTR prototype would be a technology demonstrator for all high temperature nuclear reactors planned for the future, Director, Nuclear Reactor Engineer Division, R K Sinha told PTI. "The high temperature nuclear reactors are being developed with an objective to provide energy to facilitate combined production of hydrogen, electricity and drinking water," Sinha said. The reject and waste heat in the overall energy scheme is proposed to be utilised for electricity generation and desalination respectively, he said and added that hydrogen production using nuclear reactors will become economical too. CHTR is mainly a Uranium-233-thorium fuelled reactor using lead-bismuth as coolant and beryllium oxide as moderator. The reactor, initially being developed to generate 100 kw (thermal) power, will have a core life of around 15 years along with several advanced passive safety features to enable its operation as compact power pack in remote areas not connected to the electrical grid. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 14 CT: University cancels reactor simulation Published on columbiatribune.com Monday, June 18, 2007 An emergency simulation at the University of Missouri-Columbia Research Reactor Center scheduled for this morning has been canceled because of rain, MU spokesman Christian Basi said. The research reactor is located on Research Park Drive west of Providence Road, just behind Reactor Field. It is a tan brick building with a large rectangular structure at its rear. The university is required to hold a drill every two years under federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations. Copyright © 2007 The Columbia Daily Tribune. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Times of India: 'Nuke deal may not be finalised this year' Updated: 19 Jun, 2007 0005hrs IST | Powered by Indiatimes NEW DELHI: India is not certain whether the nuclear deal with the US will be wrapped up by the end of this year. "I cannot say it can be positively done this year. We are trying," foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee said in an interview to The Straits Times of Singapore. He was clear that while "some advancements have been made... there are certain areas which have to be sorted out." Indian and US officials will have an opportunity for an informal round of talks in Washington next week, coinciding with a visit by senior Indian officials. At the recent G-8 summit where US president George Bush and Manmohan Singh stole a quiet chat for a few minutes, the deal was "briefly" mentioned, Mukherjee said. India took a forward step by declaring it would dedicate a reprocessing facility to be under international safeguards which would take care of US non-proliferation concerns. The US is yet to revert to the Indian side on the offer, though there are indications that the response would be positive. India is also insisting that in the event of cessation of nuclear cooperation by the US, it should get to keep the stockpiled fuel for its civilian nuclear reactors. It's here that the fuel guarantees in the nuclear deal are clashing with the right of return the US can invoke if ties are disrupted. The deal guarantees life-long fuel supplies to Indian reactors which was the grand bargain made when India put its civilian reactors under permanent safeguards. But this bargain is in danger if the US takes back its fuel after India conducts any nuclear tests in future. Analysts and observers say there is an invisible deadline for the US Congress to take up the 123 Agreement for a vote in the next few months because by the end of this year, the Bush administration will enter its "lame duck" phase, in preparation for a new government. But the bigger problem is the loss of political capital by the US president that will make it more difficult for him to carry the Congress along - particularly, one that is dominated by Democrats. Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For ***************************************************************** 16 NTC: Leaking valve prompts closure at San Onofre station this weekend - North County Times / The Californian - Last modified Monday, June 18, 2007 12:06 PM PDT By: North County Times SAN ONOFRE --- The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station shut down this weekend to fix a leaking valve, according to officials at Southern California Edison and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Officials said the valve, which was leaking hydraulic fluid, is one of several used to vent steam from the plant's Unit 2 reactor in the event of an unplanned shut down. An Edison spokesman said the valve was repaired late Sunday and Unit 2, which generates more than 1,000 megawatts of power, was working its way back to full production levels today. webmaster@nctimes.com © 1997-2007 North County Times ? Lee Enterprises editor@nctimes.com ***************************************************************** 17 Platts: Quad Cities units can operate continuously at EPU levels - US NRC 2007-06-15 Washington (Platts)--15Jun2007 The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a letter released Friday, informed Exelon Nuclear that its Quad Cities-1 and -2 reactors may operate continuously at extended power uprate levels. Flow-induced vibration, caused by operating at EPU levels after December 2001, severely damaged steam dryers at both reactors in 2002 and 2003. The dryers were replaced in 2005, but both units operated at pre-EPU power levels while steam dryer performance was monitored and power was gradually increased. At a March 22 meeting, NRC staff gave preliminary approval for continuous EPU operation at the reactors. In a letter dated Monday, NRC Division of Reactor Projects Director Mark Satorius told Christopher Crane, Exelon Nuclear's president and chief nuclear officer, that, after further review, NRC has concluded that modifications to the plant and strengthening of the new dryers "has effectively addressed the vibration-caused degraded conditions experienced by these components sufficient to support continuous operation at EPU power levels." --Steven Dolley, steven_dolley@platts.com For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?src=story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=67 Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 18 SanLuisObispo.com: NRC sets date for public meetings 06/18/2007 | Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant The commission expects to hear from watchdog groups about nuclear waste storage but insists material is safe from attack By David Sneed - dsneed@thetribunenews.com MEETINGS JUNE 26 The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two public meetings in San Luis Obispo on June 26. The first meeting, with Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant managers, will start at 2:30 p.m. The second, a town hall-style meeting, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Both will be held at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 333 Madonna Road. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two local meetings June 26 and expects to get an earful on its recent new assessment of a radioactive storage project at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. A 2:30 p.m. meeting that day will feature discussion with officials from plant owner Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Diablo’s safety performance during 2006. Then, at 6:30 p.m., the NRC will hold a town hall-style meeting with the public, at which the environmental assessment of the plant’s above-ground storage facility for high-level radioactive waste is expected to be addressed. The NRC recently released a court-ordered supplemental environmental assessment of the likelihood and consequences of a terrorist attack on the dry cask storage facility under construction behind the power plant. The town hall meeting was original- ly scheduled for June 5 but was postponed to give the public more time to review the updated assessment. The eight-page document reaffirmed the agency’s previous finding that the likelihood of a successful terrorist attack is very low. It also found that the public’s level of radiological exposure in the event of a successful attack would be well below the annual dosage nuclear plant workers are allowed to receive. The findings validated nuclear industry and NRC assertions that dry cask installations are robust, well-guarded facilities capable of withstanding a terrorist attack like those of Sept. 11, 2001. But nuclear watchdog groups criticized the updated assessment as cursory. “The NRC staff’s review is so poorly documented that it is hard to tell what they reviewed,” said Jane Swanson, spokeswoman for the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace. “But what little information is given shows that they didn’t look at a very broad range of threats to the Diablo Canyon spent-fuel storage facility or measures for avoiding or mitigating the impacts of the attacks.” PG&E officials disagree, contending that much of the environmental analysis required by the court was done when the agency did its original environmental assessment. “We think they did a thorough job throughout the entire process, and it was just summarized in this document,” said Diablo Canyon spokesman Pete Resler. The earlier session is expected to be much less contentious. It will consist of NRC officials discussing the findings of its annual safety assessment of the plant. An NRC letter sent to PG&E concluded that the plant operated safely during 2006. The meeting will consist mostly of dialogue between plant managers and NRC officials, but the public will be given an opportunity to comment before the meeting adjourns. Reach David Sneed at 781-7930. ***************************************************************** 19 Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: NRC investigating plant shutdown Posted June 18, 2007 Herald Times Reporter LISLE, Ill. — Federal regulators are investigating a problem with a pump that led to a shutdown of unit 1 at Point Beach Nuclear Power Station on June 14, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Unit 1 will remain shutdown until the cause is identified and repairs are made, according to the NRC. The plant’s unit 2 is operating at 100 percent, according to Sarah Cassidy, plant spokeswoman. NRC inspectors will review the incident and issue a report about 30-45 days after the completion of the inspection. According to the NRC: On June 9, while plant operators received indications that the unit 1 auxiliary pump's temperature was unusually high during a quarterly test. However, plant personnel failed to recognize the temperature as a potential problem and no immediate action was taken to address it. On June 11, plant engineers reviewed the June 9 test and noted the pump temperature was higher than normal. During another test, performed that day, the pump temperature again approached the pump’s operating limit. Plant operators then stopped the test, shut down the auxiliary feedwater pump and declared it inoperable. The utility tried to identify the cause of the problem and fix it. However, the NRC said, plant operators did not identify the cause to repair the problem, causing the plant to shut down. The conditions of the plant’s license require the plant to shut down if one of the auxiliary feedwater pumps is unavailable for more than 72 hours. Contact us at 920-684-4433. htrnews.com is a Gannett Company website. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, updated June 13, 2007. ***************************************************************** 20 Bay City Tribune: NRC gives STP high marks Tuesday, June 19, 2007 By Sarah Wells Bay City Tribune Published June 18, 2007 The South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company earned favorable marks from U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspectors in an annual report delivered Thursday at the Bay City Civic Center. The commission’s report accessed the plant’s performance in 2006 in three key areas or “cornerstones”: • Reactor Safety — avoiding accidents and reducing the consequences of accidents if they occur • Radiation Safety — for both plant workers and the public from unnecessary radiation exposures during routine operations • Safeguards — protection of the plant against sabotage or other security threats “STPNOC operated the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station Units 1 and 2 in a manner that preserved public health and safety,” said NRC Senior Resident Inspector John Dixon. “All is green again.” STP returns to the green safety level — the safest of four designations that match the Homeland Security Agency’s threat assessment levels — after Unit 2 received a White Performance Indicator in 2003 for a standby diesel generator that failed during a systems test. A white indicator represents performance outside an expected range of normal utility performance, but the cornerstones are still being met. A supplemental inspection by the NRC after the failed test indicated the generator had been repaired and was acceptable, but any safety performance issue stays on a plant’s record for three years, said Dixon. Dixon also told audience members that aside from the cornerstone objectives being met, STPNOC did not have any substantive cross-cutting issues identified. Cross-cutting areas include human performance, workers’ ability to raise safety issues and plant owners’ corrective action program if they find a problem. Dixon said the NRC inspection process is a “trust and verify” system to ensure the commission’s number one goal — safety. “STPNOC reports to us their findings and performance indicators and we trust their accuracy, but we send our own inspectors annually to verify those reports,” said Dixon. STPNOC President Joe Sheppard said the plant was satisfied to be back on all green levels, but would not use the positive results to work with less diligence. “We are never satisfied with our performance at STP. We continue to strive to be better,” said Sheppard. “We acknowledge that we’ve been given special trust by the NRC and the local community to operate in Matagorda County and we take that trust very seriously.” Email Sarah Wells at city news(at)baycitytribune.com © 2007 Bay City Tribune. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 21 Inside Bay Area: Nuclear power: Dark horse for alternative energy By Sarah Jane Tribble, MEDIANEWS STAFF Article Last Updated: 06/18/2007 08:34:33 AM PDT The removal and replacement of nuclear fuel rods is a gradual process, starting with a "cooling" of spent fuel in a deep pool of water, shown here. Workers used the opportunity to inspect components, a process shown here. (Len Vaughn-Lahman/Mercury News) Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series. DIABLO CANYON ? The nuclear power plant nestled on the cliffs of Central California's scenic coast has for decades been a remnant of our energy past, rife with memories of protests and lingering security concerns. That is changing. As California grapples with global warming, energy-industry leaders, environmentalists and policymakers are subtly ? but significantly ? starting to shift their thinking about the controversial power source. "Nuclear power has to be part of the solution," Stanford University President John Hennessy said at an alternative-energy gathering in Palo Alto this spring. "Can we really understand the notion of risk? Nuclear plants versus carbon emissions ? which will kill and has killed more people?" The audience applauded. Unlike natural gas and coal, nuclear energy does not produce greenhouse gas and is becoming an alternative-energy dark horse. In California, however, with its strong environmental stance and a 31-year-old ban on construction of new reactors, nuclear power faces immense political and practical hurdles. Later this month the state's energy commission plans to tread carefully when for the first time it will review new ways to handle the radioactive waste produced by nuclear energy ? the biggest legal obstacle to building new plants in California. One possible option could be to reprocess, or recycle, the waste. "We want to understand how the issues have changed regarding reprocessing ? if in fact it's a viable option or not or just another pipe dream," said John Geesman, a member of the California Energy Commission. "And this is a field filled with pipe dreams." Moving ahead Other states ? where nuclear energy isn't as controversial ? are moving more quickly. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects applications for as many as 28 new nuclear reactors during the next two years. That construction boom is spurred by a growing demand forelectricity, volatile natural gas prices, concerns about global climate change ? and federal subsidies. There are 104 operating nuclear reactors in the United States, producing about 20 percent of the country's electricity. The last one opened in 1996. Dennis Spurgeon, the Bush administration's senior nuclear technology official, said new plants could be running by 2015. "It's not a pipe dream; it's happening," said Spurgeon, whose experience in energy dates back to the Ford administration. "The existing reactors are very safe. The new ones are even better." And while many planned nuclear plants have never been built because of the high construction costs and lengthy review processes, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission believes there's enough momentum that some of the expected plant applications will result in construction. "This time, we are taking it very seriously," said agency public affairs officer David McIntyre. "Our agency has been reorganized to prepare for these applications coming in. We're hiring people right and left. Congress has given us a budget increase." Even some environmentalists are willing to consider nuclear energy. "We think global warming is such a tremendous planetary problem that we're not going to refuse to look at it," said Karen Douglas, director of the California climate initiative of Environmental Defense. However, the group does not support an expansion of nuclear-power capacity until issues such as safety, security, waste and nuclear-weapons proliferation are resolved, she said. Critics such as the Natural Resource Defense Council's Ralph Cavanagh, who has staunchly defended the California moratorium, said talk of a nuclear revival is "as predictable as the spring." He said there are still concerns about waste disposal, the lingering threat of nuclear proliferation and the high costs of building plants. "The nuclear renaissance tends to be built around idle talk by people with vague ideas around economic development," Cavanagh said. Other opponents, including Julie Enszer of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, also raise concerns about the safety of nuclear waste. Americans are still worried about the potential for accidental exposure to radioactive nuclear waste, she said. "People in the U.S. are still opposed to nuclear power and that hasn't really abated since the partial meltdown of Three Mile Island" in Pennsylvania in 1979. Since then, California in particular has led the nation in the anti-nuclear movement, she said. "People around the country look to Californians to carry that mantle," she said. State's perspective As the nation enters a new nuclear era, the California Environmental Protection Agency's Dan Skopec said climate change provides the perfect opportunity to revisit the controversial power source. "We need to have a debate on nuclear," said Skopec, who was appointed undersecretary for the agency by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In California, one of nine states with laws that hinder nuclear-power-plant construction, about 13 percent of California's energy currently comes from two operating nuclear plants, PG&E's Diablo Canyon and Southern California Edison's San Onofre Generating Station. There are two separate pushes for more. A group of Fresno businessmen formed the Fresno Nuclear Energy Group, which plans to introduce a statewide ballot measure next year seeking to override California law and allow voters to decide if they want a $4 billion nuclear plant in that area. "If your goals are going to be cheap energy to keep the economy rolling and to stop global warming and provide clean energy, the available options at this point in time are very few," John Hutson, president and chief executive of the group. If approved, the plant could be built in four years, he said. Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace who has infuriated many in the environmental community because of his stance for nuclear power, said he is "very supportive" of the Fresno strategy. "If it isn't done, California will never meet its CO2 objective in a millions years," Moore said. Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, proposed a bill this year that would lift California's statewide construction ban. Not surprisingly, the bill died in committee. DeVore said he'll bring it back year after year. "When rate payers have blackouts and brownouts and they see their residential energy costs spike through the roof, eventually they will call for a real solution," DeVore said. Until now, California has been able to rely on low-cost coal to provide about 16 percent of its energy. But this year, state regulators effectively banned coal because they ordered utilities to buy power that is as clean as that produced by the latest generation of natural-gas-fired turbines. Coal is not. The state needs to find replacement power, but faces tough choices. Natural gas is cheap but produces carbon dioxide. Renewable sources such as wind and solar produce no carbon but are expensive and unreliable. That leaves nuclear energy. Wind, now the cheapest of renewable energies, is expected to cost 6.8 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2020, according to the Federal Energy Information Institute. Natural gas, by comparison, would cost 5.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Nuclear energy would cost 6.1 cents per kilowatt-hour. All these figures include the cost of plant construction. Advocates argue that not including construction costs, nuclear power is the cheapest option of all. The California Energy Commission's most recent estimates put nuclear power's current cost at 1.4 cents to 1.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Industry view From the outside looking in, the prospect of California trying to cut carbon without more nuclear power seems idyllic at best and impossible at worst, according to business and political leaders nationwide. "We don't believe that conservation and renewables combined will be sufficient to meet demand in our market for an extended period of time," said Brad Peck, spokesman for the Columbia Generating Station, a nuclear plant in Washington state that feeds a small amount of power to Northern California. "You simply can't conserve yourself into prosperity." The leader of PG&E Corp., the parent company of Northern California's largest utility, agrees. "We need all of the options to meet this huge challenge and, therefore, nuclear ought to be on the table," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Peter Darbee. The utility doesn't plan to push for a new nuclear-energy plant in California, he said, but will purchase power from out of state. Tom King, chief executive of PG&E's utility unit, Pacific Gas & Electric, said the company doesn't want to force nuclear reactors on its customers until the public's perception of nuclear energy changes. "We think it's important that we take the time to educate people... before we put a stake in the ground and say we need nuclear." Diablo Canyon At PG&E's Diablo Canyon, those efforts are in full swing. During a recent tour for the San Jose Mercury News, an engineer and the communications director repeatedly noted safety and security measures. There are metal detectors and guards, like the ones at airports, searching bags before employees enter the plant. A military-style police force with automatic weapons makes rounds in the spent-fuel area. And the plant itself is a fortress, protected by rolling landscape on one side and a rock barrier on the other. Public tours stopped after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "The industry initially for a long time wasn't interested in necessarily educating the public," said Pete Resler, Diablo Canyon's communications director. He wants to change that. Resler's renewed interest in winning over the public also could be attributed to a looming deadline for his plant. Diablo Canyon may have to shut down by 2010 if it doesn't win approval for more storage space. The plant provides 2,300 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 2 million homes. Nuclear waste Diablo Canyon illustrates nuclear power's biggest challenge: radioactive waste. Radiation exposure, such as the kind that can be caused by nuclear waste, increases the risk of health problems, including cancer. While nuclear power produces a relatively small amount ? Diablo Canyon's 22 years of waste would fill a pool about the size of a basketball court ? dealing with it raises big concerns. Most nuclear reactors store waste on site in cooling pools or storage cylinders that prevent radiation leakage. Eventually, the plants will run out of storage room. The federal government approved Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a long-term storage site, but it has faced opposition from Nevadans and some environmental groups who contend that it could not safely store the waste for thousands of years. It is now unclear when or if the storage facility ? the only spent-fuel storage space approved by Congress ? will open. As an additional option, a growing number of industry advocates are offering the idea of recycling the waste, arguing that reprocessing or recycling could cut the volume of waste by allowing about 94 percent of the spent fuel to be reused. France, which gets 75 percent of its energy from nuclear power, has a successful recycling operation, and the United States is studying the option. Spurgeon said the United States could open a reprocessing facility sometime after 2020. Opponents say reprocessing would encourage nuclear proliferation, but nuclear supporters like University of California-Berkeley nuclear engineering Professor Per Peterson said such concerns need to be re-evaluated. "The whole logic of abstaining from a technology so that others would not pick it up no longer makes sense," Peterson said. Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu, who is also the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, echoes the desire to rethink nuclear. He reasons that despite the fears and concerns about the energy source, nuclear power must be considered because it does not produce greenhouse gas during generation. Anything, he said, would be better than carbon-spewing coal plants. And what of the people who don't want to consider nuclear energy in the hope that less controversial solutions like renewable energy and conservation will be enough? "If you start thinking like that, then you doom yourself," he said. Contact Sarah Jane Tribble at stribble@mercurynews.com or (408) 278-3499. © 2000-2006 ANG Newspapers | Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 22 KSU: K-State project aims to make sodium-cooled nuclear reactors safe, efficient 18-Jun-2007 Contact: Akira Tokuhiro tokuhiro@k-state.edu 785-532-3428 Kansas State University MANHATTAN, KAN. -- Proposals to reduce America's heavy dependence on foreign oil are helping to renew interest in nuclear energy. And at Kansas State University, the goal is to help make that energy source as safe as possible. The K-State department of mechanical and nuclear engineering has received a three-year, approximately $550,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Research Initiative for the project "Experimental Development and Demonstration of Ultrasonic Measurement Diagnostics for Sodium Fast Reactor Thermohydraulics." Principal investigator Akira Tokuhiro, associate professor, along with Bruce Babin, assistant professor, Terry Beck, professor, and Mohammad Hosni, professor and department head, will look at technology issues in sodium-cooled fast reactors. In reactor design, creating the reactor core and then the cooling system are the most important aspects, Tokuhiro said. "Liquid sodium works well for this task," he said of the cooling system. Sodium conducts heat better than water, which is the current coolant of choice. In addition, sodium's boiling point is higher than water's. "Reactors produce a lot of heat and you want a coolant that has a high boiling point," Tokuhiro said. Although sodium makes an excellent coolant for reactors, it is chemically reactive and optically opaque, which has implications for operations, maintenance and inspections. Using sodium, rather than water, as a coolant was the subject of much research in the '60s, '70s and '80s. However, waning support for nuclear energy in the post-Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl years led research and development to basically cease by the early '90s, Tokuhiro said. The concept is well-known, but Tokuhiro and co-investigators plan to undertake research on how to actually make a sodium-cooled reactor work and work safely and economically. For example, reactor operators must be able to measure and monitor certain things in a reactor to make sure the coolant is working, such as the velocity, pressure and temperature of the coolant. Since scientists can't see through liquid sodium and it chemically reacts with oxygen, there are only a few ways to measure the velocity of liquid sodium in motion. "Ultrasonic is practically the best way and our project will further develop the technology in this area," Tokuhiro said. "Also, since the speed of sound or acoustic waves change in sodium with temperature, if you can detect the change in this speed, you can back calculate the temperature of sodium -- in principle. "These thermohydraulic measurements need to be well tested in order to assess their applicability in a sodium-cooled fast reactor," he said. "This research will maintain and extend the U.S. nuclear sodium fast reactor knowledge base, as well as educate the next generation of professionals familiar with the sodium fast reactor." ### ***************************************************************** 23 REPUBLICAN & Herald: Nuclear power revival needed 06/18/2007 PPL's acknowledgement that it and potential partners are considering the construction of a third nuclear reactor at its existing two-reactor Susquehanna plant in Luzerne County reflects economic and environmental reality. Inexorably rising energy demand, unreliability and security implications of foreign sources of fossil fuels, and recognition of the need to reduce and contain greenhouse gas emissions, all point to the revival of nuclear energy in the United States, where a new plant has not been constructed in more than a quarter century. The chief drawback of nuclear power is the federal government's failure to establish a secure repository for radioactive nuclear waste, which most often is stored on-site at nuclear plants. That is a serious issue on a plant-by-plant basis, but one that can be accommodated through rigorous regulation and security. Opponents of nuclear power point to the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, a serious incident that came very close to being much worse. But the industry has had a safe operating record since then, and new reactors are designed to mitigate the flaws that contributed to the Three Mile Island emergency. Nuclear power generation's benefits are substantial. It produces no greenhouse gases while producing enormous amounts of electricity. The nation's 103 nuclear power plants produce about 20 percent of the nation's electricity and none of its air pollution. A single nuclear plant in Arizona, Palo Verde, produced as much energy in 2006 - more than 24 million megawatt hours - as all of the nation's solar and wind generation combined, according to industry statistics. Solar and wind generation are important and growing clean resources that should continue to be encouraged through federal and state incentives. But they cannot match nuclear generation for efficiency and reliability. Based on average pollution production, if the electricity produced in the United States by nuclear plants in 2006 instead had been produced by coal plants, another 681 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, 3.1 million tons of sulfur dioxide and 990,000 tons of nitrogen oxide would have been released into the atmosphere. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the amount of energy in a finger-tip-sized uranium fuel pellet is equivalent to the energy in 1,780 tons of coal, 149 gallons of oil or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas. And fuel supplies are secure. The top two producers of uranium are close and stable American allies - Australia and Canada. The United States has the fourth most abundant reserves in the world. According to federal statistics, the average electricity production cost in 2005 per kilowatt hour was 1.72 cents for nuclear, 2.21 cents for coal, 7.51 cents for natural gas and 8.09 cents for oil. Local issues have to be considered in any licensing decision, and PPL is just in the preliminary phase of what would be a long process toward licensing construction. Yet, the environmental and economic realities of the present and future generally argue for, rather than against, nuclear power production. ©The REPUBLICAN & Herald 2007 Copyright © 1995 - 2007 Townnews.com All Rights Reserved. Tuesday 19 June, 2007 ***************************************************************** 24 Deccan Herald: Safe, clean way to nuclear energy? Tuesday, June 19, 2007 Bombarding hydrogen with high energy laser seems a more promising idea for nuclear fusion than using powerful magnets, acccording to some scientists. A multinational project led by British researchers aims to use a high-power laser to reproduce the physical reaction that occurs at the heart of the sun and every other star in the universe - nuclear fusion. If the project succeeds it has the potential to solve the world energy crisis without destroying the environment. The scientists admit that a commercial reactor is a long way off, but they believe the laser approach to producing fusion shows great promise. The EU is considering a proposal to fund the set-up costs for a seven-year research project called HiPER - high powered laser energy research - that would build a working demonstration reactor. Preparing for the seven-year project alone, which is a collaboration of 11 nations, is expected to cost over €50m (£34m). Actually building the reactor itself will cost over half a billion euros. The British-led project, which has been earmarked by the EU as a priority, is designed to leapfrog an American-funded project called the National Ignition Facility (Nif) in Livermore, California. When that is built in 2010, physicists are confident that the Nif laser will be powerful enough to start a fusion reaction. Experiments in the Nevada desert in the 1980s with underground explosions of nuclear weapons have already shown how much energy they will need to deliver with the laser. Mike Dunne, director of the Central Laser Facility at a publicly funded research site in Oxfordshire that houses Vulcan, the most powerful laser in the world, said: "The world is going to take notice when this happens. Politicians are going to look around and say, 'So what are you going to do about it? What's the next step?'. This is how to take it from a scientific demonstration to commercial reality." Prof Dunne said that many of the details of the nuclear tests were still classified, "but the only thing that matters to us as a bunch of energy scientists is that it does work. The trick now is, can we get it to work without throwing a nuclear bomb at the thing?" That is what Nif is designed to do. Achieving fusion on Earth in a way that will release useable energy has long been an aspiration of physicists. The idea is to fuse two atoms of hydrogen to form helium. The reaction that powers the sun releases large amounts of energy because it turns Einstein's famous E=mc² equation on its head. A small amount of mass is lost when the hydrogen atoms combine, in the process releasing vast quantities of energy. Unlike nuclear fission, only low-level radioactive material, no more dangerous than hospital waste, is left over afterwards. And best of all, a runaway chain reaction like the one that caused the Chernobyl meltdown is simply impossible. The fusion dream is already being pursued by a €10bn project called Iter - international thermonuclear experimental reactor - which is being built in Cadarache, France. This project aims to use powerful magnets to fuse the hydrogen atoms. But many in the laser research community see their approach of bombarding hydrogen with energy laser as the more promising route. "The beauty of the laser approach is that you can divide and conquer," said Prof Dunne. There are formidable engineering challenges in building a high enough power laser, increasing its firing rate and designing the millimetre sized fuel pellets, but these can all be pursued in parallel, he said. Benefits & snags Nuclear fusion Process in which two isotopes of hydrogen - deuterium and tritium - are combined to produce helium, a neutron and huge amounts of energy. Deuterium or heavy hydrogen Conventional hydrogen is made up of a proton nucleus with an electron spinning around it. The nucleus of a heavy hydrogen atom contains a proton and a neutron. Tritium or super-heavy hydrogen Its nucleus contain a proton and two neutrons. It is moderately radioactive and can be manufactured from the metal lithium. Environmental benefits Nuclear fusion does create some low-level radioactive waste, but nothing more dangerous than you would find in a hospital. The reaction does not produce carbon dioxide so it will not contribute to the greenhouse effect and a Chernobyl-style meltdown is impossible. Problems The biggest challenge will be to build a powerful enough laser that can fire rapidly enough. The world's most powerful lasers need several minutes to reset for a second shot. A laser fusion reactor will need to fire several times a second. Scientists will also need to develop materials durable enough for the laser bombardment The Guardian Copyright 2007, The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd., 75, M.G. Road, Post Box No 5331, Bangalore - 560001 Tel: +91 (80) 25880000 Fax No. +91 (80) 25880523 ***************************************************************** 25 Ottawa Citizen: Going nuclear by stealth Susan Riley, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Monday, June 18, 2007 With little fanfare, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn last week opened the door a little wider to a nuclear future -- approving in principle a plan to bury radioactive waste underground. Lunn, an enthusiastic champion of nuclear power, downplayed the larger implications of his decision, noting that it falls to provincial governments to approve and build nuclear reactors. But industry representatives were clearly pleased. Canadian Nuclear Association president Murray Elston, a former Ontario cabinet minister, said: "This will allow us to answer persuasively those people who say the nuclear industry has no idea what to do long-term with the waste." Not entirely persuasively, perhaps. Apart from the experimental nature of the proposed solution, many hurdles remain -- notably, finding a community desperate enough to become a nuclear dumping ground. It has been long supposed that some remote northern town would be the lucky winner, given the technological preference for disposing of the waste deep in the Canadian shield. But recent research suggests the sedimentary rock underlying much of southern Ontario would also be suitable. That said, the prospect of a bidding war between Oakville and Rosedale appears unlikely. Federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn is a fan of nuclear power, but doesn't bring the same enthusiasm to finding safe ways to get rid of nuclear plants' poisonous waste, Susan Riley writes. Jana Chytilova, The Ottawa Citizen Leaving aside what is bound to be a heated debate over location, there will be intense public curiosity about the proposed route used for transporting the toxic cargo. There are also the astronomical costs of digging a kilometre-deep holding tank (an estimated $24 billion by one previous calculation). That will allow access for monitoring and reclaiming the waste for future reprocessing -- which, in itself, raises fears that the re-processed material could be used to make weapons, in the wrong hands. For his part, Lunn suggested nothing will happen for years -- an attempt, perhaps, to disguise the true significance of his announcement. In effect, the minister has given the green light to a near-moribund industry that is now rebranding itself as green. Because nuclear power plants produce negligible greenhouse gas emissions compared to coal 0r oil-powered electricity facilities, nuclear is being marketed as clean energy. It is anything but, say environmentalists, who point to its dangerous byproduct -- waste that doesn't become harmless for hundreds of thousands of years -- and to a history of enormous cost overruns in constructing existing reactors. Rather than re-invest in nuclear, they say, it would be smarter, cheaper and more environmentally effective for governments to pour money into alternatives like wind, solar, bio-fuels, or, better still, to get serious about conservation. A new generation of reactors, for instance, may not be up and running until at least 2020, by which time catastrophic climate change will be upon us. Nor is the "safe" disposal heralded by Lunn likely to become a reality for a decade or more. Meanwhile, as some provinces retrofit old reactors and other governments contemplate new ones, the existing stockpile of 36,000 metric tonnes of deadly waste will continue to grow. It is now stored at nine nuclear facilities, most in Ontario, but also in New Brunswick, Quebec and Manitoba. It sits mostly in concrete containers in metal sheds at ground level. These storage facilities are vulnerable to terrorist attacks from the air, say environmentalists, despite the tightening of ground-level security since 9/11. Mostly ignored by the media, a few public-spirited organizations and individuals (including Greenpeace) have been waging an unsuccessful campaign to get the nuclear industry, and regulators, to take the terrorism threat seriously. Instead, authorities seem more focused on stifling broad discussion of so delicate a topic. This is hardly surprising. All industries downplay the negative, preferring soft-focus ads emphasizing their corporate responsibility. What is unconscionable is the government collaboration in this marketing scam. Over the years, the federal government has pumped an estimated $20 billion in subsidies into Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and continues to give the agency $100 million a year. This, despite a world slump in the market for Candu reactors after Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and various other nuclear misadventures. The Conservatives are not uniquely culpable. Lunn's predecessor, the Liberal natural resources minister, John Efford, was another nuclear cheerleader. No minister has yet asked voters what we think. They don't dare. Susan Riley's column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail: sriley@thecitizen.canwest.com © The Ottawa Citizen 2007 © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks ***************************************************************** 26 NEWS.com.au: Few support nuclear power - poll | NEWS.com.au Network June 18, 2007 03:11pm Article from: AAP FEW Australians support nuclear power and clean coal as the best technologies to combat climate change, a survey shows. The research by left-wing think tank The Australia Institute found only 19 per cent preferred the Federal Government's focus on those energy sources. Seventy-four per cent favoured a greenhouse strategy based mainly on energy efficiency and renewable energy, the institute said. Among Coalition voters, 60 per cent supported renewable energy and 35 per cent nuclear/clean coal. The poll also found 77 per cent preferred to get their electricity from a renewable power source, while 8 per cent favoured nuclear power and 1 per cent coal. Solar energy was the most popular of the renewable sources for electricity - chosen by 50 per cent of respondents. The online survey, carried out by polling company Pollinate, had 1034 respondents and was conducted from April 30 to May 3. "This survey proves there is overwhelming support for a greenhouse strategy that gives greater prominence to energy efficiency and renewable energy," institute deputy director Andrew Macintosh said. "To date, the Government's approach has been weighted heavily in favour of clean coal technology and nuclear power, but the Australian community wants a more balanced policy." Copyright 2007 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT +10). ***************************************************************** 27 UN Official Urges All States To Sign On To Treaty Against Nuclear Terrorism Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:01:24 -0400 UN OFFICIAL URGES ALL STATES TO SIGN ON TO TREATY AGAINST NUCLEAR TERRORISM New York, Jun 18 2007 7:00PM Urging all Member States to become a party to a new international treaty which aims to prevent acts of nuclear terrorism, bring perpetrators to justice and promote cooperation among countries, a senior United Nations official today called for more vigilance and greater cooperation in the fight against the scourge. “Advances in technology continue to outpace the efforts undertaken to prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction,” said Larry Johnson, Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, he told a panel of nuclear terrorism experts held at UN Headquarters in New York. “There is an urgent need to enhance international cooperation between States for devising and adopting effective and practical measures for the prevention of acts of terrorism and for the prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators.” The International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism enters into force on 7 July, almost two years after it was adopted by Member States, after Bangladesh earlier this month became the 22nd country to ratify or accede to it. Originally proposed by Russia, the Convention was adopted on 13 April 2005, and outlaws specific and concrete acts of nuclear terrorism. It is intended to protect against attacks on a range of targets, including nuclear power plants and reactors. It is also applicable to threats and attempts to commit such crimes. The Convention, which has been signed by 115 countries, promotes cooperation among countries through the sharing of information and the providing of assistance for investigations and extraditions. Mr. Johnson stressed today that international terrorism remains an issue for all nations, whether rich or poor, large or small, and he reminded States that “terrorists must never be allowed to create a pretext in order to justify their actions.” Walter Gehr, Project Coordinator in the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told the panel that it is not enough to become a party to the new convention and other international instruments – States must be willing to properly implement the provisions in their national legislation. 2007-06-18 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 28 IHT: Nuclear powers must do more to prevent terrorists getting nukes, expert says - International Herald Tribune The Associated Press Published: June 18, 2007 UNITED NATIONS: Nuclear material is not as well-guarded, easily-detected or as hard to manipulate into a weapon as many think and the world's nuclear powers must act decisively to keep it from terrorist hands, a nonproliferation expert said Monday. Matthew Bunn, a senior researcher at Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom, urged countries to ratify and implement the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, which takes effect in July. The convention, which has been signed by 115 countries and ratified by 22 countries, asks states to criminalize acts of nuclear terror, such as procuring nuclear material to cause harm or plotting to sabotage a nuclear power plant. "Unfortunately, it does not take a Manhattan Project to make at least a crude nuclear bomb of the kind that terrorists might want," Bunn told representatives of member states at a conference. "Physics tells us it's not as hard as we would like it to be." Bunn said there was "no convincing evidence yet" that terror groups had acquired either highly enriched uranium or plutonium, at least one of which is required to make a nuclear weapon. He said there was evidence that groups such as al-Qaida have had "considerable difficulty" trying to find a source for these materials, but are still trying to acquire the fuel. Security breaches at nuclear facilities are not just the stuff of science fiction movies, he said. "Theft of the essential ingredients of a nuclear weapon is not a hypothetical worry," said Bunn, noting that over the past 15 years there have been several incidents in which nuclear material was stolen. "It is an ongoing reality." Transporting radioactive material across a border is fairly easy, too, Bunn warned. "These things are small. They're not as radioactive as people think they are. They're quite difficult to detect at any significant distance," Bunn said. Though many border crossings have begun to install detectors that sniff for radiation, he said most were not powerful enough to detect shielded highly enriched uranium. Though much of Bunn's message was grim, he emphasized that given the probability that terrorists do not yet have nuclear material, the international community still has time to prevent a disaster. He said states should ratify and implement the nuclear terrorism convention, as well as other international treaties. He also called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to publish more precise guidelines for safeguarding nuclear stockpiles. States should also work to reduce the number of locations at which weapons are stored, he said. As the holders of 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, Russia and the United States must lead this charge, Bunn said. He commended Russia on the great strides it has made in recent years, but noted that it was still negotiating the difficulties of securing weapons in an open society, after years of relying on closed borders and secret police to safeguard its supply. Countries such as Pakistan, which has a "proven record of selling dangerous technology" and is thought to be home to groups with links to al-Qaida, pose a particular risk, he said. In 2004, the scientist considered to be the father of the Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, confessed that he had leaked nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya. Bunn said the use of a dirty bomb — a conventional bomb laced with radioactive material — is the most likely form of nuclear terrorism. The deployment of such a weapon, while costly to clean up and psychologically terrifying, is unlikely to cause massive loss of life, Bunn said, and efforts should focus on effective response, rather than prevention. Prevention might be impossible, he said, given that radioactive material is "everywhere," at hospitals, industrial plants and agricultural facilities. In contrast, the detonating of a nuclear weapon in a major city would result in more than 100,000 deaths and economic devastation, he said, and the global community should do everything in its power to prevent it. Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights ***************************************************************** 29 [v911t] MORET: Geiger Counter Shootout At the OK Corral Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:16:54 -0500 (CDT) For Immediate Release http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/15/18427673.php http://tinyurl.com/2zl3zk *Geiger Counter Shootout At the OK Corral by Bob Nichols, Project Censored Award Winner San Francisco Bay View duweapons@gmail.com (San Francisco) June 14, 2007 - "This has sure been a "Geiger Counter" shootout at the OK Corral and it will continue to be. Citizens armed with radiation monitors in Hawaii are creating a global citizen air monitoring movement" declared world famous radiation expert Leuren Moret. [1] "I am going to Canada next week to meet with cattle ranchers and First Nation People who are tired of being poisoned... by uranium... by mining... by oil and gas burnoffs... by the "Big Boys" on Wall Street, Buckingham Palace, and the City of London." "And I now have an air monitoring group working around the world to air monitor their poisoned environments and a black community at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in south San Francisco tired of having their children die of cancer and suffer from asthma." .. More http://tinyurl.com/2zl3zk * ***************************************************************** 30 Pahrump Valley Times: Letters to the Editor (Yucca) Jun. 15, 2007 It can only get worse Mr. Saxman seemed a bit perturbed to find that radioactive waste was being transported through Pahrump in the dead of night. He should have attended some of the Department of Energy's Citizens Advisory Board meetings on radioactive waste. They, the DOE appointees, will explain to you that the waste is relatively harmless and will continue being shipped to the test site forever. They have these big holes in the ground from the atomic tests that need to be filled and can never be de-contaminated, so it will continue forever. Mayor Goodman of Las Vegas said that he would use his police to block the streets before he would allow radioactive shipments to go through his town. We have a town manager and the County Commissioners to look out for our welfare. Commissioner Hollis hasn't made any attempt to hide the fact that he is in the DOE's pockets. As long as the county is relying on PETT funds to run things, life will go on as usual. I'm sure that if we have a spill on Highway 160, in the heart of town they will be out there with a pickup truck and some shovels to clean it up, knowing that the stuff is harmless. As bad as this seems to be, if the DOE ever gets Yucca Mountain, up and running, it can only get worse. RICHARD A. BROWN Radioactive waste transport This is in response to a June 6 letter to the editor regarding nuclear waste transportation activities in Pahrump. Having responsibility for waste disposal activities at the Nevada Test Site, I have personally worked with the public, local governments and elected officials for many years. For those who are not intimately involved in this line of work, I realize that the word "radiation" can at times evoke fear and anxiety. I would like to take this opportunity to provide information on radioactive waste transportation to the Nevada Test Site that I hope will ease some of that fear. Based upon the description in the letter, it is likely that the trucks observed were low-level radioactive waste shipments en route to the Nevada Test Site. This type of solid waste is generated by environmental cleanup activities at U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Defense sites located across the United States. Low-level radioactive waste usually contains small amounts of radioactive material and includes items like construction debris, scrap metal and used personal protective equipment. Low-level radioactive waste has been disposed at the Nevada Test Site in engineered pits and trenches for over 45 years. For the majority of the shipments received, workers have no need to wear any special protective clothing while handling the waste at the site due to relatively low levels of radiation. Many of the shipments have traveled through Pahrump. In fact, 738 shipments traveled along Highway 160 between Pahrump and U.S. 95 in 2006. All shipments are made in full compliance with U.S. Department of Transportation regulations including waste packaging, labeling, marking, placarding and shipment documentation. While we have no authority over designating which routes these shipments take, we have worked extensively with local leaders, the state of Nevada and the shipping sites to designate preferred routes. To help alleviate concerns about possible transportation accidents, the U.S. Department of Energy has provided nearly $7.5 million to Nye County and several other rural Nevada Counties since 2000 through an emergency preparedness grant. The grant, which is administered by the State of Nevada Division of Emergency Management, is intended to assist our neighbors, which includes Nye County, to achieve an operational level of emergency response should it ever be needed. In order to inform the public and address potential concerns regarding low-level waste disposal and other Environmental Management activities at the Nevada Test Site, we have an established public outreach program. Regular communication to the public occurs through a variety of initiatives including a quarterly newsletter, an Internet Web site (www.nv.doe.gov/envmgt), informational displays (which have routinely been set up at the Pahrump and Amargosa libraries) and a Community Advisory Board (CAB). In fact, several of the current CAB members represent Pahrump and Amargosa Valley. For more information on their activities, please visit their Web site at www.ntscab.com. While it's impossible to inform each member of the public, the U.S. Department of Energy makes every effort to provide information on radioactive waste transportation and disposal activities. I invite all persons interested in learning more about these activities to sign up for our electronic newsletter by emailing envmgt@nv.doe.gov, see first-hand our waste disposal operations during one of the regularly scheduled Nevada Test Site tours, or call us directly at 702-295-3521. E. FRANK DI SANZA Waste Management Federal Project Director for the U.S. Department of Energy Nevada Site Office webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 31 RIA Novosti: Rosatom, Interros to co-develop uranium fields in Russia, abroad 16:39 | 18/ 06/ 2007 MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - The Federal Nuclear Power Agency (Rosatom) and Interros holding, one of Russia's largest private investment companies, agreed Monday to jointly develop uranium deposits at home and abroad. Under the agreement, the two sides will cooperate in geological surveying and development of uranium ore deposits in Russia and abroad, as well as in uranium production. The first joint project could be launched in the fall of 2007, Russia's nuclear chief said. "Today we have signed a strategic framework agreement covering a broad spectrum of cooperation," Sergei Kiriyenko said, adding that there is good potential in Uzbekistan and Africa, which "have gold and uranium deposits." He said future joint projects run into many millions of dollars, adding that the construction of a sulfuric acid production plant in the Chita region (Russia's Far East) has a price tag of almost $200 million. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 32 Guardian Unlimited: House Backs Nuclear Fuel Bank From the Associated Press Monday June 18, 2007 9:31 PM By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The House on Monday approved a $50 million fund to create an international nuclear fuel bank, an idea aimed at negating Iran's argument that it needs its own nuclear fuel program. The bill, passed by voice vote, gives the president authority to make voluntary contributions to the International Atomic Energy Agency to set up the bank that would guarantee reactor fuel to qualifying countries. Countries seeking to purchase from the reserve would have to meet IAEA safeguards and refrain from operating uranium enrichment or spent-fuel reprocessing facilities. ``This bill is a dramatic step forward in the epic struggle to contain the spread of nuclear arms around the globe,'' said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., adding that it would ``expose the subterfuge that we know Iran is perpetrating in order to further its nuclear weapons pursuit.'' Iran has cited the potentially unreliable international supply of nuclear reactor fuel in justifying its development of uranium enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing capability. Iran's program would also allow it to produce weapons-grade uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons. While aimed at Iran, the bill would also bar the Tehran government from participating in the fuel bank as long as it is designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. The bill also welcomes a proposal by Russia to place one of its uranium enrichment facilities under international management as part of a global nuclear power infrastructure initiative. The $50 million approved for 2008 matches the amount pledged last year by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a group headed by CNN founder Ted Turner and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., to help create a low-enriched uranium stockpile for those nations that decide not to build their own nuclear fuel cycle capabilities. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is financially backing the program. The bill is H.R. 885. On the Net: Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/ Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 33 P&I: Energy Department urged to keep DB plan reimbursements for contractors - Pensions & Investments June 18, 2007 By Doug Halonen WASHINGTON — A coalition of major pension and business organizations is asking the Department of Energy to end a controversial cost-cutting proposal that would stop reimbursement of contractor contributions for some defined benefit and medical plans for new employees. Under the initiative, announced last year, the Energy Department would limit future DB plan reimbursements to existing employees and retirees only. Retirement-related reimbursements for new employees would be limited to the costs of market-based plans, according to Megan Barnett, a DOE spokeswoman. Ms. Barnett said that meant for retirement plans, reimbursement for new employees would be limited to defined contribution plans or other plans in which the total benefit package does not exceed a market average of similar industry plans by more than 5%. Reimbursements for the medical plans of new employees would also be limited to no more than 5% more than medical plans offered by similar industries on average. Under the threat of a legislative override promoted by unions and pension industry lobbyists, the department last June announced a one-year suspension of the policy. As part of its review, the DOE solicited public comment on the proposed change; comments were due May 11. The suspension expires June 19, but Ms. Barnett, a DOE spokeswoman, said the policy will only go into effect if department officials implement it; she said there is no deadline for DOE action. The Energy Department’s plan has come under fire from pension industry and business groups: They say the change in policy is a slap at Congress and the White House, which recently endorsed defined benefit plans with their approval of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. “By stating that it no longer supports defined benefit pension plan designs, the DOE would be effectively stating that it does not view these plans as beneficial or viable,” said a coalition led by the American Benefits Council, Washington, in its comment letter to the department. “Such a statement would be inconsistent with the intent behind the PPA and would undermine both the work done in the PPA to support the continuation of the defined benefit plan system and the voluntary nature of the system,” the letter added. “It has been the long-standing policy of the federal government to support American workers’ retirement security through guaranteed pensions,” added Gene Wickes, global practice director, benefits consulting group, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Arlington, Va., in a separate letter. “It is inappropriate for the DOE to put itself outside of this policy consensus to unilaterally impose a viewpoint that is prejudicial toward plans.” Also blasting the Energy Department’s proposal are union representatives of the contract employees that would be affected. “We believe it’s inappropriate for the Department of Energy to change its policy and mandate the plans employers should provide to their workers,” Karin Feldman, benefits and social insurance policy specialist, AFL-CIO, Washington, said in an interview. Added Mike Fanning, chief executive officer for the $10 billion Central Pension Fund of the International Union of Operating Engineers and Participating Employers Union, Washington, in an interview: “Union members generally have expressed a strong preference for defined benefit plans. We believe strongly that these plans should be protected and strengthened.” According to the Energy Department’s public explanations, the reimbursement proposal is supposed to help the agency cut costs. In a March 27 news release, the department said its costs for reimbursing contractors pension and medical benefits plans in fiscal 2006 were $1.1 billion, up more than 226% since fiscal 2000. The release also said the department reimburses benefits for 100,000 active contract employees and another 100,000 retirees, dependents and beneficiaries. “The Department of Energy is committed to finding ways to help ensure the long-term viability of our contractor employee pension and medical benefits plans while managing our long-term financial commitments,” said Ingrid Kolb, director of DOE’s office of management, in the release. “While no decision on a path forward has been made at this time, we are continuing our efforts to seek input on this important policy matter,” Ms. Kolb added. In an interview, James Klein, ABC president, said pension industry representatives are concerned the Energy Department’s proposal could become precedent for other federal agencies with contractor work forces, if allowed to go into effect. In addition, assuming the Energy Department gets its regulatory druthers, companies that contract with multiple agencies could be forced to contend with a variety of conflicting retirement plan regulations at the same time, Mr. Klein said. “Only those agencies with jurisdiction over pension and health policy should develop rules governing employee benefit plans,” Mr. Klein said. The Energy Department’s Ms. Barnett said the DOE — which in addition to seeking public comment has held “dozens” of meetings with stakeholders on “the best way to address increasing costs” — is reviewing the suggestions. “At this point, we’re considering all that input,” she said. The other members of the ABC coalition are the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries, the Business Roundtable, the ERISA Industry Committee, Financial Executives International’s Committee on Benefits Finance, the Financial Services Roundtable, the HR Policy Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, Society for Human Resource Management and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Now On PIonline Copyright ©2007 Crain Communications Inc. Use of editorial content without permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy Site design by Gregg Runburg, Art Director, Pensions & Investments With assistance from Karen Morstad & Associates ***************************************************************** 34 KnoxNews: Research may help increase use of hydrogen as energy UT scientists get DOE grant to further study 'electronic growth' By News Sentinel staff June 18, 2007 A discovery by University of Tennessee scientists has led to a $1.2 million Department of Energy grant for research that could contribute to the wide-scale use of hydrogen as a national energy source, UT officials said. Researchers Hanno Weitering, a professor of physics and joint faculty member between UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Zhenyu Zhang, a UT-ORNL research professor, and Jim Thompson, UT professor of physics, published work this month on the process of "electronic growth" in Science magazine. Weitering found that by adding small amounts of the element bismuth to an extremely thin film of lead atoms, he could fine-tune the stability and physical properties of the newly made "quantum alloy." He and his co-authors call the process electronic growth because the formation and the properties of the film can be controlled based on the number of free electrons it contains. Lead and bismuth differ by only one electron, so adding bismuth to the mix adds electrons. Weitering's experiment revealed that varying the amount of bismuth in the lead film could vary the lead's superconductivity. According to Weitering, the significance of the research comes from the fact that it is extremely difficult to control a physical trait like superconductivity at such a small scale in a precise manner without suppressing or destroying it. "You could consider this a proof of principle," said Weitering. "Plus, if we can change physical properties in this manner, it raises the question of whether we could also tune a material's chemical properties." According to UT's Office of Media Relations, that's the question Weitering will address with the $1.2 million grant from the DOE to study how electronic growth might influence the efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells. The grant is part of $11.2 million given to universities and national laboratories around the United States as part of the DOE's effort to apply science to the challenges of wide-scale hydrogen use. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 35 KnoxNews: Staggering security at new DOE building $549M complex about 60% done, will house nation's bomb-grade uranium By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com June 18, 2007 OAK RIDGE - With a price tag of $549 million and a national-security mission, it's designed to be a modern marvel. But it looks like a medieval prison - especially from a distance. The government's new fortress for bomb-grade uranium is rapidly taking shape on the west end of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. Security is obvious and ominous even before arriving at the construction site. High fences are topped by razor wire, and barriers line the entry route, placed strategically to stall terrorist assaults. The new facility is impressively forbidding, with massive concrete walls, gun ports galore and special systems in place to safeguard the nuclear assets. The News Sentinel was granted access to the HEUMF last week, the first news organization to visit the site. But there were plenty of restrictions (and almost as many escorts) during an hour-long tour. No cameras. No recorders. No electronics of any kind. The storage complex won't be loaded with uranium until 2009-2010, and a tour of the facility doesn't expose any classified information. There is, however, plenty of Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information at the facility, even during the construction phase, and that makes it difficult for uncleared personnel to visit. UCNI is a nebulous term the Department of Energy assigns to sensitive information that could prove harmful if publicly disseminated. "It is intended to prevent the release of information that could lead to illegal production of a nuclear weapon or the theft, diversion or sabotage of nuclear material, equipment or facilities," said Steven Wyatt, a federal spokesman at the plant. During a pretour briefing by Richard Baylor, a classification analyst at Y-12, the News Sentinel was asked not to publish certain details about HEUMF - such as specifics of the floor plan, including the location and number of uranium vaults, and security features not visible to satellite viewers. Construction of the 110,000-square-foot building is almost 60 percent complete, and work is being accelerated this summer to take advantage of good weather and to regain schedule lost during earlier problems. Caddell-Blaine, a joint venture of Caddell Construction of Montgomery, Ala., and Blaine Construction of Knoxville, is building HEUMF. About 350 people are working on the project. Before the tour began, project managers gathered in 998T-25, one of many trailers at the construction site, to discuss the storage facility and its importance. They showed a couple of animated films that depict future operations inside the windowless structure. "Those security doors are massive," Dennis Grove, manager of the projects division at Y-12, remarked at one point as the animation showed the entry into a uranium vault. At each of the four corners of HEUMF is a tower-like protrusion known as a Tactical Support Area. That's where security police will be situated once the facility becomes operational. On the east end will be an adjoining structure where workers can load and unload truck shipments without being seen from above. Also, the building's mechanical and electrical infrastructure is housed in a separate facility connected to the south side. Once construction of HEUMF is completed, the nation's inventory of highly enriched uranium will be consolidated there. The loading is projected to take at least a year. Most of the U-235 is currently housed in five or six facilities at Y-12, but other stocks will be brought to Oak Ridge from other sites around the United States. The exact amount of Y-12's uranium inventory is classified, but it's estimated to be in the range of 400 metric tons. Inside HEUMF, a wide corridor connects the different vaults - with plenty of room for workers to move containers of bomb-making material. Steel racks will be installed inside those vaults to hold "rackable can storage boxes," which are supposed to house several 44-pound buckets of highly enriched uranium. The newly designed storage boxes are filled with material that absorbs neutrons to reduce the chance of fissile uranium achieving nuclear criticality. Some of those boxes are already being loaded to prepare for the move into HEUMF. According to information provided by BWXT, the plant's managing contractor, the new storage facility will have a capacity of 24,000 containers of enriched uranium. In addition to the buckets loaded into rackable boxes, the storage racks can be reconfigured to hold larger drums, the contractor said. The building's electricity is not yet turned on, so construction work uses auxiliary power. Some interior areas were not well lighted on the day of the visit, especially sections where the roof is already in place. The tour was made more interesting by the presence of scaffolding with narrow passages and 2-3 inches of standing water in some areas - the result of a recent rainstorm. The water relates to another peculiar aspect of the building's design: no drains. That's supposed to preclude the possibility of releasing any nuclear material. According to project officials, no highly enriched uranium will ever be exposed to air inside the building. Therefore, the facility should be free of contamination. Packages may be removed from containers, but they will not be unwrapped inside HEUMF, officials said. If it is necessary to process the uranium, the package will be taken to another facility - such as the nearby 9212 complex, the production hub of Y-12, they said. The giant storage center may become the most important building at the Oak Ridge plant once the strategic nuclear material is loaded into the vaults. But it won't be home to many workers. Ray Patterson, the project manager for BWXT, said only five or six people would work in operations there. That does not include the number of security guards assigned to the site, which is considered sensitive information. Construction is supposed to be completed by August 2008, and Patterson said project officials are studying the possibility of adding night shifts to speed the work along. Three large cranes tower above the work site, moving heavy materials into place. The biggest crane is capable of lifting 64 tons. Protection against terrorism is top priority at the uranium facility, but there are concerns about natural disasters, as well. A massive excavation and equally massive concrete pour predated the building's construction, connecting the foundation directly to the underlying bedrock. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 36 KnoxNews: Bridge to India still under construction By FRANK MUNGER, news@knoxbusinessjournal.com June 18, 2007 A delegation from Oak Ridge National Laboratory visited India in December to explore business opportunities there, and the ramifications could be big. Billy Stair, the lab's communications chief and a part of the management team that made the trip, said the strategy is an evolving one. He mentioned possible ties between Indian institutions and ORNL, as well as relationships with UT-Battelle (the partnership that manages the Department of Energy lab) and Battelle, the corporate parent based in Columbus, Ohio. "I think it would be accurate to say we have had discussions about all of those options and opportunities. The fact that Battelle has sent people subsequently to India suggests that they believe it is worthy of continued discussions," Stair said. "But we have not arrived at a concrete strategy or proposal." In early June, Thomas Zacharia, ORNL's associate lab director for computational sciences and member of the December delegation, returned to India in the company of a Battelle colleague. Stair said Zacharia planned to introduce the Battelle rep to "some of the relationships" developed on the first trip. "Remember, the relationships can go both ways," Stair said, noting that senior executives from major Indian companies have visited Oak Ridge since the ORNL team's two-week trip to India in December. Tracking the RRW It's still early in the game perhaps, but the Reliable Replacement Warhead appears to be in trouble, based on recent actions in Congress. The controversial new warhead is supposed to help make it easier to maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal in the future, but critics say it would set a horrific example for the rest of the world and perhaps open up another arms race. The Y-12 nuclear weapons plant has been doing preliminary work on the project, a minor effort at about $1 million this year. However, the plant would eventually produce parts for the warhead, if indeed the proposal gets approved. I asked Ted Sherry, the federal manager at Y-12, about the impacts on the Oak Ridge plant if the RRW is killed. He wasn't anxious to discuss the situation, noting, "It would be just speculative for me to fully respond to that question." However, Sherry said Y-12 would likely continue with the "life-extension" work that's currently done to refurbish warheads as part of the stockpile stewardship program. While there would be "high-level" impacts if something happens to the Reliable Replacement Warhead proposal, Sherry indicated that the local impacts on Y-12 might not be great. "I think a lot of these things would balance themselves out," he said. Security boss plays sax Pauline Douglas, the Department of Energy's new security chief in Oak Ridge, has an interesting background. She plays the saxophone and had a music scholarship to East Tennessee State University, where she ultimately earned two degrees in psychology. The native of Jonesborough, Tenn., has worked at DOE since 1989, beginning as an industrial security specialist. In that job, she inspected the Oak Ridge facilities and got an up-close looks at many aspects of security - physical, personnel, information, cyber. Since then, she's held a number of jobs with increasing responsibility. As assistant manager for security and emergency management at DOE's Oak Ridge office, she'll oversee programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, East Tennessee Technology Park, and Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, as well as the Federal Building, which serves as the DOE field office. "Security is constantly changing, especially since 9/11," Douglas said. "The thing I want to do is keep ORO (Oak Ridge Operations) ahead of the curve, ready to meet new challenges." Part of security in Oak Ridge is keeping secrets, and she's apparently pretty good on that. She held fast when asked her age, finally acknowledging she's in her "early 40s." DOE contract good to go Security services contracts awarded earlier this year to Protection Strategies Inc., will belatedly take effect after a protest was dismissed. The contracts, valued at $12.4 million, are for support services for the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge operations and the federal site office at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The work involves such things as processing security clearances, drug and alcohol testing and fabrication of badges for Oak Ridge workers. The contracts were supposed to take effect April 1, but that was delayed after a protest was filed by one of the competitors, Seminole Systems. The Government Accountability Office dismissed the protest June 1. Wackenhut Services, DOE's primary security contractor, handled the activities while the contract award was stalled. John Shewairy, a spokesman in DOE's Oak Ridge office, said the process would move forward with a relatively short transition period to allow Protection Strategies to move into the new role. Protection Strategies, based in Arlington, Va., is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business. ETEBA may expand The Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association (formerly the East Tennessee Environmental Business Association) changed its name to reflect a broadening mission and perhaps a broadening membership, and that may be taking hold. ETEBA, which represents the interests of about 150 companies, has held a number of meetings in New Mexico to explore the possibility of opening a chapter there. Many of the companies that do work at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge facilities also have interest in work at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other New Mexico-based facilities. Alice Murphy, ETEBA's executive director, said the group's work in Oak Ridge has spawned interest elsewhere - especially at DOE host sites. "It's been recognized that we've been effective in helping facilitate communications between businesses and prime contractors and also federal agencies," Murphy said. An expansion requires drawing up bylaws and charters, and Murphy said ETEBA had its logo trademarked. "We've got to take one step at a time." Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge operations. 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