***************************************************************** 06/19/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.143 ***************************************************************** 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 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy: Funds Reach N.Korean Account 2 US: Guardian Unlimited: Lobbies Stymie Action on Energy 3 US: Arizona Republic: Arizona's solar liftoff 4 US: UCS: GAO: Agency Media Policies Confuse Scientists 5 US: Reuters: Calif. needs fossil-fired power plants: officials 6 US: New West Network: Energy Winds Shift in D.C. 7 US: CQ Today - House Approves Nuclear Fuel ‘Bank’ Funding to Deter W 8 US: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Pa. seeks authority over nuclear mate 9 AFP: US concerned about political crisis in Pakistan - 10 Daily Times: US fears N-armed mullah takeover in Pakistan 11 Daily Times: Pakistan complicit in US moves on Iran NUCLEAR REACTORS 12 US: Times Daily: Bush to visit Browns Ferry | 13 AFP: Russia's first nuclear power reactor goes into operation in Chi 14 US: Gristmill: Nuclear power no climate cure-all 15 US: newsobserver.com: Nuclear regulators side with Progress 16 RIA Novosti: Russia to commission 2nd unit of Tianwan NPP in Septemb 17 RIA Novosti: Russian power generation needs foreign investment 18 US: Platts: NRC begins special inspection at Point Beach-1 19 Platts: British Energy starts design selection for new UK nuclear pl 20 US: APP.COM: NRC personnel less than upfront with Oyster Creek criti 21 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance Assessment for Cooper Nucle 22 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance Assessment for Arkansas Nuc 23 IAEA: Nuclear Knowledge Takes the Stage in Vienna 24 US: NRC: NRC Begins Special Inspection of Pump Issue at the Point Be 25 US: KnoxNews: Go-ahead likely for Watts Bar finish NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 26 US: BBC NEWS: Search for freight train drivers 27 US: The Spectrum: Need Downwinder's study 28 Ottawa Citizen: 'It's like you're in the middle of a thunderclap' 29 US: Hemscott: Court: dismissal of Boeing case stands 30 Scoop: What's a little depleted uranium in the yard... NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 31 Las Vegas SUN: DOE releases design requirements for nuclear transpor 32 AU The Age: Owners warn of tremors at nuclear waste dump site - 33 US: RIA Novosti: Ukraine plans to join in intl. uranium enrichment p 34 CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Proposed nuclear waste plan could harm WNC 35 US: CNW Group: Dumont stakes 20 square miles of Uranium claims in ce 36 US: LA Daily News: Still cleaning pollution from the past 37 US: UPI: Uranium mining making a comeback 38 US: Ventura County Star: EPA tells public to avoid former Halaco pro 39 US: csmonitor.com: Mining revival: a uranium boom for a wary West | 40 KRNV.com: Standards Released For Yucca Mountain Waste Canisters PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 41 Tri-City Herald: Hydropower -- It's a 'green' resource 42 Tri-City Herald: PNNL project aims for clean Columbia River 43 Hanford News: House approves money for international nuclear fuel ba 44 Hanford News: Kennewick company buys isotopes division 45 Hanford News: Powell resigns as AIT leader 46 Hanford News: Project aims for clean river 47 AIP: President Would Veto House Version of FY 2008 DOE Funding Bill 48 Tracy Press: Use your voice to make Tracy safer 49 NewsBlaze: U.S. Department of Energy Moves Forward with Final Requir 50 KnoxNews: DOE ditches pension reform ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy: Funds Reach N.Korean Account From the Associated Press Tuesday June 19, 2007 11:46 AM TOKYO (AP) - The chief U.S. envoy to North Korean nuclear talks called Tuesday for rapid progress in shutting down Pyongyang's nuclear reactor, saying the communist regime already had received millions of dollars in disputed funds. The process of persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear program was stalled for months by a dispute over about $25 million in North Korean funds that were frozen in a Macau bank backlisted by the United States. Top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said the disputed funds had now reached the North Koreans. ``My understanding is that today, it was deposited in a North Korean account in Russia,'' Hill told reporters on his arrival in Tokyo. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: Lobbies Stymie Action on Energy From the Associated Press Tuesday June 19, 2007 1:16 AM 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. In an effort to move ahead with an energy bill in the House, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said Monday he is dropping a provision to boost auto fuel economy from a draft bill, along with incentives for the development of liquefied coal as a motor fuel. He said he also was jettisoning proposals that would have blocked California and 11 other states from cutting greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, measures that had attracted the ire of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. He was postponing consideration of these issues as part of climate change legislation next fall ``so we can rapidly complete work on a bipartisan (energy) bill,'' Dingell said in a memo to members of his Energy and Commerce Committee. The action brought a tepid response from Pelosi, who had been at loggerheads with Dingell, a staunch supporter of the auto industry, over the coal issue and attempts to stop California's efforts on global warming. ``The Speaker has made no decision at this time'' on whether to support Dingell's revised bill, said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, adding that she and Dingell were still discussing what direction energy legislation should take. Unless agreements can be worked out in the coming days, hopes by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Pelosi to produce an energy bill before Independence Day may be dashed. Senate 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, argued 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, 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. If the GOP continues to block a vote, he said, it could ``unplug the whole bill.'' Another imbroglio that threatens to derail Senate action centers on demands that automakers significantly improve fuel efficiency. 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 been at the heart of some of the most divisive energy discussions in the House. Dingell's decision Monday to scrap - at least for the time being - some of the House bill's most controversial provisions was a setback for the auto industry and coal companies, although Dingell said he planned to revisit them this fall when his committee takes up global warming legislation. He said the delay ``will give us the needed time to achieve consensus ... if at all possible.'' ``There was broad opposition to these provisions,'' said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a member of the committee who in all likelihood will pursue auto fuel economy increases when the energy legislation reaches the House floor. Support for development of liquefied coal has been a priority of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., whose district is in the heart of coal country, and who is chairman of the subcommittee crafting the energy bill. Government help to develop liquefied coal as a substitute for diesel and jet fuel has been a high priority for the coal industry. ``It opens an entirely new market for coal,'' said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association. --- Associated Press Writer Erica Werner contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 3 Arizona Republic: Arizona's solar liftoff Jun. 19, 2007 12:00 AM Warning: You may need sunglasses. Arizona's energy future is getting brighter. A critical program to promote renewable fuels finally got a legal green light. The Arizona Corporation Commission approved the "renewable energy standard" back in October. It requires regulated utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from solar, wind and other renewable resources by 2025. But the requirement has been in limbo ever since, waiting for a seal of approval from Attorney General Terry Goddard. He gave the go-ahead on Friday. What a ray of sunshine for Arizona! The state is reclaiming its position as leader in renewable resources. We were in the national forefront six years ago when the Corporation Commission set a target of getting 1.1 percent of electricity from renewables by 2007. Other states followed suit, setting more aggressive goals. Corporation Commissioners Jeff Hatch-Miller, Bill Mundell, Kris Mayes and Barry Wong (who served on an interim basis) showed foresight in ratcheting up the requirement. Fortunately, Gary Pierce, who was elected to take Wong's place, is also committed to the renewable standard. Conventional fuels, including nuclear, oil and gas, have benefited from decades of federal subsidies. So it's not surprising that renewables need some initial revving-up. For now, generating electricity is cheaper from conventional fuels, although the gap is narrowing. Electric bills already contain a tiny surcharge for renewables, and the Corporation Commission pushed it up a few notches. Residential customers will pay a maximum of $1.05 a month, up from the current 35 cents. It's hard to imagine a better way of spending a buck. Arizona Public Service, Tucson Electric Power and other regulated utilities will have the resources for pacesetting investments. (Salt River Project is outside the Corporation Commission's jurisdiction but sets its own renewable targets.) By 2025, estimates show that Arizona will reap enough electricity from sun, wind, geothermal and biomass to power 500,000 homes. We'll have cleaner air. Reduced water consumption. A diversified electric supply. Improved energy independence. A key part of the Corporation Commission's new standard is that part of the renewable requirement, 30 percent after 2011, must be "distributed generation." That means power is produced right where it's needed, such as solar panels on roofs, in installations typically owned by the customer. With our rapid growth and dramatically increasing power needs, the requirement is essential for getting solar and other technology built into projects from the start. Besides the extra power, the potential benefits include reducing loads on transmission lines at peak times and using electricity more efficiently, since power is gradually lost as it travels through the system. Some energy companies may be tempted to try to block or weaken the renewable-energy standard. Arizonans will lose out if that happens. And there's no reason for it. The utilities here have all done innovative projects using renewable resources, including TEP's solar installation near Springerville. Let the wind blow. Let the geothermal heat up. And let the sun shine in. Copyright © 2007, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. Users of this ***************************************************************** 4 UCS: GAO: Agency Media Policies Confuse Scientists Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report June 18, 2007 UCS Calls For Stronger Protections for Federal Scientists WASHINGTON (June 18, 2007) -- The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released a report supporting recent criticisms that federal agency media policies hinder government scientists from publicizing their research results relating to critical public health and environmental issues. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) said the report's findings suggest agency policies for communicating scientific results need significant clarification and improvement. "Public health and safety are at risk when federal scientists are prevented from speaking freely about their research," said Francesca Grifo, senior scientist and director of the UCS Scientific Integrity Program. "Current policies even with the new GAO recommendations do not protect these basic scientific freedoms." The GAO investigation examined communications policies at several federal agencies where the censorship of science has become pervasive, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The GAO report recommended steps federal agencies should take to address the problem. First, agencies need to clarify and better explain existing media policies to federal scientists. Fewer than half of the NOAA and NASA scientists surveyed understand they are allowed to "discuss potential policy implications of their research as long as they identify such views as their personal opinions and not those of the agency." Second, agencies should provide a robust appeal process for scientists who are refused permission to disseminate their research results. Only a quarter of the scientists at NASA, NOAA, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are aware of an intra-agency appeals process. While the GAO recommendations are important first steps, they are "insufficient to prevent political interference in the communication of research results and guarantee the First Amendment rights of government scientists," Grifo said. The GAO report was released just a few weeks after the Commerce Department issued a new media policy that does little to improve the quality of federal scientific communications, according to UCS. Last month, UCS and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez urging him to address policy shortcomings that are not addressed by the GAO report: * All federal media policies should affirm scientists' rights to speak freely to the media on any topic, provided they make it clear that any views expressed are their own and do not reflect their department's official position; * Scientists must have the right of final review of any communication citing their research; and * Federal media policies should guarantee federal scientists' rights under the Whistleblower Protection Act and other free speech protections. "The new Commerce policy restricts and confuses scientists," said Grifo. "Scientists do not leave their basic first amendment rights at the curb when they come to work for the government. The Commerce Department must address the new media policy's fatal flaws." A revised NASA communications policy released in 2006 also fails to guarantee many critical rights, according to an analysis by UCS and GAP. The GAO report confirms the findings of "Atmosphere of Pressure," a joint investigation by UCS and GAP that found that while the quality of federal climate science remains high, there is broad interference in the communication of results. The GAO report found that about 200 researchers at NASA, NOAA, and NIST had dissemination requests denied during the past five years. In a survey of climate scientists across nine federal agencies included in "Atmosphere of Pressure," scientists reported experiencing at least 435 occurrences of political interference in their work over the past five years. Nearly half of all respondents (46 percent) perceived or personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words "climate change," "global warming," or other similar terms from a variety of communications. Forty-three percent of respondents reported they had perceived or personally experienced changes or edits during review of their work that changed the meaning of their scientific findings. And nearly half (46 percent) perceived or personally experienced new or unusual administrative requirements that impair their climate-related work. Today’s GAO report was requested in 2006 by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), then-ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, in response to allegations of widespread political interference in science. Reporters: Join our notification list to receive breaking news from UCS. General media inquiries can be directed to our media office line at 202-331-5420. If you are calling about a specific issue, contact the appropriate press contact below. Press Contacts: Energy, Food, Scientific Integrity MEGHAN CROSBY Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-6943 mcrosby@ucsusa.org Climate, Global Security, Vehicles, Invasives AARON HUERTAS Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-5458 ahuertas@ucsusa.org Scientific Integrity, Vehicles LISA NURNBERGER Press Secretary 202-331-6959 lnurnberger@ucsusa.org Climate, Food EMILY ROBINSON Press Secretary 202-331-5427 erobinson@ucsusa.org ELLIOTT NEGIN Media Director 202-331-5439 enegin@ucsusa.org © Union of Concerned Scientists ***************************************************************** 5 Reuters: Calif. needs fossil-fired power plants: officials Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:28PM EDT By Leonard Anderson SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A "green rush" of clean, renewable power is underway in California but the Golden State still need powers plants burning natural gas to keep the lights on, state energy officials said on Monday. Coal power, however, is ruled out unless "clean coal" technologies could capture most of the carbon emissions. "We can't do everything with renewables," Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, said at a clean energy forum at the San Francisco headquarters of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the state's biggest utility and a subsidiary of PG&E Corp.. Some of California's older fossil-fired generating plants will need to be replaced with fuel-efficient combined cycle units to provide reliable "baseload" electricity to the state, Peevey said. A revival of nuclear power was not completely rejected but officials noted that California, which has two nuclear power stations, barred new nuclear plant construction in 1976 until the U.S. Department of Energy develops a permanent site for the disposal of radioactive spent fuel rods. "Nuclear sounds better than coal for global warming but California is not the place to start," Arthur Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy Commission and the principal developer of the state's energy efficiency programs, told the meeting. California's energy plan puts energy efficiencies and renewable electricity supplies such as wind, solar and geothermal ahead of fossil-fuel generation. Annual energy savings from utility efficiency programs and energy standards for buildings and appliances have increased steadily since 1975 and accounted for a 15 percent power savings in the state in 2003. State regulators have directed utilities to make renewable power 20 percent of their electricity supplies by 2010, a deadline that Peevey said may slip to 2011. Continued... That figure would rise to one-third of supplies by 2020, which Peevey called a "difficult task" New interstate transmission lines also were urged by Yakout Mansour, president and chief executive of the California Independent System Operator, the state's grid manager. Mansour called on federal energy regulators to push new policies to develop transmission lines to integrate renewable energy into the nation's grid. Arizona utility regulators recently rejected a transmission project to carry 1,200 megawatts of electricity 230 miles from the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona to Riverside County in Southern California for utility customers of Edison International. "It comes down to this: California wants to drop a 230-mile extension cord into Arizona at a time when Arizona is the fastest growing state in the nation," Kris Mayes, a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, said. ***************************************************************** 6 New West Network: Energy Winds Shift in D.C. Renewable Power Subsidies By Richard Martin, 6-19-07 Energy producers across the West are watching events in Washington D.C. today as the Finance Committee of the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would reverse years of energy policy favorable to fossil fuels in an effort to boost the nation’s renewable-energy capacity. Democrats are attempting to shift about $14 billion in incentives, tax breaks, and other subsidies from the oil industry to green fuels – an effort that has already been endorsed the top Republican on the Finance Committee, Charles Grassley of Iowa, a state whose corn farmers would benefit from a boost to the ethanol industry. Provisions in the Senate bill include $1.5 billion in tax-free bonds for advanced coal-fired electricity plants, $332 million in tax credits for plants that make diesel fuel from coal, and $5.6 billion in tax credits for wind and geothermal electricity companies. Passage of the bill, which could well be vetoed by President Bush, would mark the biggest shift in U.S. energy policy since World War II. New Mexico’s Senator Jeff Bingaman wants to eliminate the loophole that allows companies to drill for oil and gas in federal waters without paying royalties – a change that could raise $10 billion in new taxes. An amendment from Sen. Jon Tester of Montana would provide subsidies for the nascent coal liquification industry – a technology that could actually add to climate-changing emissions. A Washington Post editorial, noting that Tester’s provision would support coal-to-liquid plants that capture the carbon they produce and store it underground, added, “But large-scale and premature subsidies for this untested and environmentally risky technology may amount to nothing more than a big giveaway to Big Coal.” The Senate bill includes no subsidies for nuclear power – which many energy experts contend is the only form of generation that offers a way to stave off climate change. © 2007 NewWest, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 7 CQ Today - House Approves Nuclear Fuel ‘Bank’ Funding to Deter Weapons Proliferation CQ TODAY – FOREIGN POLICY June 18, 2007 – 8:21 p.m. By Tim Starks, CQ Staff The House passed a bill Monday that would help create an international nuclear fuel bank to discourage countries from enriching uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons. By voice vote, the House passed legislation (HR 885) that would authorize $50 million in fiscal 2008 to help start the International Nuclear Fuel Bank, to be run by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The measure was written with Iran in mind. Tehran maintains that its uranium-enrichment effort will help it produce nuclear power for energy, but the Bush administration and others allege that it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon. “It is imperative that we keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran,” said Tom Lantos, D-Calif., who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee and who sponsored the bill. Added Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking Republican on Lantos’ panel: “The legislation will prove to be significant to the global non-proliferation effort.” The authorized amount would match the $50 million offered by the Nuclear Threat Initiative in September. The non-governmental organization, which focuses on non-proliferation, was founded by former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga. (1972-97), and mogul Ted Turner, and is backed by billionaire Warren Buffett. The bill would require that any fuel made available by the bank be un-subsidized and offered at current market prices, and that any country receiving the fuel have effective nuclear-technology export controls. It also would bar any country that possessed uranium-enrichment or spent-fuel processing facilities or was a state sponsor of terrorism from receiving fuel from the bank. The president could waive the provision related to sponsorship of terrorism. The fiscal 2008 Energy-Water spending bill (HR 2641) approved by the House Appropriations Committee would put $100 million toward a fuel bank. Several Senate measures would authorize funds, including the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill (S 1547). Michael Teitelbaum contributed to this story. Source: CQ Today Round-the-clock coverage of news from Capitol Hill. © 2007 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Pa. seeks authority over nuclear materials - By Kim Leonard TRIBUNE-REVIEW Tuesday, June 19, 2007 Pennsylvania officials want to take on regulatory powers over nuclear materials used in medicine or industry inside the state's borders. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering a request from Gov. Ed Rendell that would make Pennsylvania the 35th state with authority to license, make and enforce rules and inspect businesses that work with radioactive materials -- such as a hospital's nuclear medicine department. The state could collect a $2 million in fees from about 950 licensees, with its fees running 30 to 40 percent lower than the fees now charged by federal regulators. A manufacturer of devices that contain radioactive material now pays the NRC $28,900 a year for a license, for example. Federal authorities would retain responsibilities for nuclear power plants, such as FirstEnergy Corp.'s Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport. A division of the state's Department of Environmental Protection would have jurisdiction for about 690 current NRC licenses under a program that would start Oct. 1. The state Bureau of Radiation Protection would retain oversight of 460 licenses that work with some naturally occurring radioactive substances or byproducts. Traditionally, "States have had some responsibilities for regulating radioactive materials already, such as with medical X-rays," NRC spokesman David McIntyre said Monday. Basically, the state would have oversight for radioactive materials that are byproducts of the production or use of enriched uranium or plutonium; naturally occurring or accelerator-produced byproducts; source material, or uranium and thorium, or enriched uranium or plutonium in small quantities that couldn't support a chain reaction. The plan said the Bureau of Radiation Protection already has sufficient staff, and it would employ about 17 full-time positions for the program. DEP spokesman Michael Smith said current staff will shift to all radioactive materials work, and the state will add some X-ray inspectors, once the NRC approval would be granted. In addition, McIntyre said, Pennsylvania would take over regulation of industrial radiography in the state -- such as the use of cameras or gauges containing radioactive materials that help construction companies detect weaknesses in structures, or measure moisture in soil. "This is an economic issue, reducing Pennsylvania's business and health care costs and improving our business environment," Smith said. Pennsylvania's plan for handling the materials will be published for four weeks in the Federal Register, with a comment period to expire July 18. The five-member NRC then would consider a staff recommendation and take a final vote. Kim Leonard can be reached at kleonard@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5606. Back to headlines Tribune-Review Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 9 AFP: US concerned about political crisis in Pakistan - by P. Parameswaran Tue Jun 19, 9:52 AM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that Washington was concerned about the political crisis in Pakistan and underlined the need for "free and fair" elections. "Well, of course, we've been concerned about the situation in Pakistan. And any time there is violence, we're concerned about it," she told reporters ahead of talks with her Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri at her office. She was asked about the violence and US interests in the region amid the political turmoil faced by President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US "war on terror." The crisis, the biggest since Musharraf seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999, was triggered by his suspension of Pakistan's chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9, which has led to widespread protests. Days after the suspension, pro- and anti-Musharraf supporters clashed, leaving more than 40 people dead. Opposition figures say Musharraf ousted Chaudhry to make it easier to be re-elected this year as president-in-uniform, despite the constitution saying he should give up his dual role by end 2007. US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and his assistant Richard Boucher met Musharraf last week at his army office. "We have a very intensive engagement with the Pakistani officials at this important time," Rice acknowledged. Boucher had said earlier that the United States expected that elections should be "free, fair and transparent" and conform to international standards. But he indicated there was no pressure on Musharraf to hang up his uniform. Rice also highlighted the need for free elections. "There are important set of events coming up when there will be elections in Pakistan and the importance of those elections being free and fair as a foundation for a more democratic Pakistan, I think, is very clear and I will discuss that as well with Foreign Minister Kasuri," she said. Rice however hastened to add that Musharraf had implemented "important" reforms in Pakistan. "I think we have to recognize that Pakistan has come a very long way since 2001 in its commitment to try and root out extremism, to try to make reforms, educational reforms, reforms on concerns of women and the like," she said. But Washington, she said, would continue to prod for more reforms. "We have been second to none in continuing to press for openness in Pakistan, for the rights of opposition in Pakistan, and for free and fair elections when they are held," she said. Kasuri, when asked in an interview with American broadcasting network CNN whether Musharraf would shed his uniform if reelected, said, "What the president has said, on many occasions, is that he will abide by the constitution." The minister cited media freedom, especially in broadcasting, as among reforms pushed for by Musharraf. "When he took over, there was only one channel, the Pakistan Television, PTV. That's it. Now there are so many that I can't count. And our media is very independent," he said. "It's independent in the sense that there are no holy cows, unlike some countries -- even in America -- that say on security, on foreign policy the American media is relatively soft." Kasuri, a member of the Pakistani National Command Authority, also dismissed fears that Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal could fall into the hands of Islamist terrorists if Musharraf was ousted, saying there were "strong institutions" in place to secure the arms. "But whatever may happen, one thing is absolutely clear: Pakistan's nuclear weapons are in very safe hands," he said. "And we are consulting with all our friends. We are following all the latest procedures for safe-guarding our weapons," he said. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Daily Times: US fears N-armed mullah takeover in Pakistan Leading News Resource of Pakistan | Wednesday, June 20, 2007 By Khalid Hasan WASHINGTON: It is the American fear of “nuclear-armed mullahs” taking over in Pakistan that has played a motivating role in its policy towards Pakistan since September 11, a report in the Christian Science Monitor quotes experts as saying. It has also “led the Bush administration to back a military ruler seen to be strong and supportive of American interests, despite the fact that he overthrew a democratically elected government.” However, increasingly, such apprehension are being seen as “specious” since it is “extremely unlikely that religious extremists could ever come to power in Pakistan”. The change of power in Congress this year has brought new scrutiny to the idea that Gen Musharraf is the only man who can prevent “Pakistani-sponsored nuclear terrorism.” To maintain his rule, some Congressional democrats say Musharraf has had to marginalise Pakistan’s largest parties, which are secular, and instead rely on religious parties to give him some patina of support. In doing so, however, Musharraf has suppressed civil society’s moderating elements. The report quotes Frederic Grare of Carnegie Endowment as asserting, “The Islamist vote remains limited to slightly more than one-tenth of the electorate despite heavy manipulations in its favour by the state machinery.” The statistics play against common perceptions of Pakistan abroad. Some 70 percent of the population of Pakistan comes from the lowland areas of Punjab and upper Sindh, where cultural traditions and economic aspirations hew to those of moderate India. Likewise, more than 84 percent of the army officer corps comes from Punjab and Sindh. Because of this, the military has never dismantled the democratic system but bent it to its will to create a “sheen of democracy”. For this, Gen Musharraf has had to rely on fringe religious parties, which have deep grassroots connections and formidable street power, making them a convenient political ally for military rulers, who otherwise would lack popular support bases of their own. In return, religious parties receive disproportionate influence. “Washington should not press for Musharraf’s ouster, since this year’s elections are only the first step along the way to disengaging the military from domestic politics,” according to Daniel Markey, a former State Department official, in the forthcoming issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Syeda Abida Hussain, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US from 1991 to 1993, told the newspaper Pakistan has experience in managing political turmoil and transition. “He’s the fourth (military ruler) we’ve had,” she says. “We’ve done all this before.” Daily Times - All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 11 Daily Times: Pakistan complicit in US moves on Iran Leading News Resource of Pakistan Wednesday, June 20, 2007 By Khalid Hasan WASHINGTON: The reason the United States is reluctant to support the democracy movement in Pakistan is because it has reached certain understandings with President General Pervez Musharraf on possible military action against the Iranian nuclear programme, according to noted area expert Selig Harrison, who recently returned form a week-long trip to Iran. He said Pakistan is “already complicit” and is playing a role as “destabilisation activity” against Iran has been underway for some time through Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, prevailing evidence does not substantiate this perspective. First, this is the US presidential election period where divergent viewpoints on America’s role in Iraq are uppermost. For America to take any military action in Iran, it would need fresh authorisation from a Democratic-controlled Congress, which is highly unlikely. Secondly, any military action will open a huge third front for which there is no public appetite in the country today because it could mean reinstatement of the hugely unpopular draft. Also, Iran has cards: namely Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as it has the ability to trigger actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The credibility of US policy in the Middle East already lies in tatters and the administration cannot possibly sell fresh military action in another theatre. Also, it should not be ignored that after nearly 30 years, the US and Iran have sat down together in Baghdad for face to face talks, in pursuance to the Iraq Study Group recommendations. Nor can it be ignored that Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff Scooter Libby has been convicted of perjury, further eroding the vice president’s authority and influence. Harrison told Daily Times in an exclusive interview that Washington’s Pakistan policy is run from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. There is a group in there which is pushing for a showdown with Iran, including military action, over its nuclear programme before the end of the Bush presidency. That could also become a basis for regime change in Tehran. The vice president attaches great importance to President Musharraf and it would appear that an understanding has been reached with him on Iran. The Cheney lobby is keen on destabilising Iran. Harrison said Cheney’s last visit to Pakistan was Iran-related. Cheney also wanted to find out if there was more information to be gleaned from Dr AQ Khan on Iran’s nuclear programme and what assistance his network had rendered to it. The US is frustrated that it is not able to question Dr Khan direct and has to settle for information filtered through Gen Musharraf and Maj Gen Khalid Kidwai. The State Department is of the view that the US should recognise the significance of the present democracy movement in Pakistan and the sentiment behind it, but is inhibited by the vice president’s office to move in that direction, hence its recent “wishy-washy” statements on Pakistan. Many people in the State Department recognise that the people of Pakistan want military rule to end but are unable to have this assessment translated into the desired action. Harrison said he deeply regrets this because democracy can only develop if democracy is enabled to take root. He expressed his “complete dismay” that the United States has failed to come out in support of pro-democracy forces in Pakistan. He added, however, that there are many in the US who fear what will follow Gen Musharraf, were he to leave the scene. Daily Times - All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 12 Times Daily: Bush to visit Browns Ferry | TimesDaily.com | Florence, AL By Trevor Stokes Staff Writer Published: June 19. 2007 3:30AM President George Bush is scheduled to visit TVA's Browns Ferry nuclear power plant Thursday, according to the White House press office. Bush's visit will be nearly one month after Browns Ferry Unit 1 restarted after a 22-year shutdown, the first nuclear plant to start operation this century. "TVA is pleased that the president is planning to visit," said Terry Johnson, a TVA spokesman in Knoxville, Tenn. "It is in recognition of the significance of the restart of Unit 1." "(The restart) is significant to TVA, to our customers, to the utility industry, even to some extent to the country," Johnson said. "It's the first nuclear plant to start up in a long, long time." Previous to Unit 1's restart, Watts Bar became the last nuclear plant to begin operation more than 10 years ago. The restart of Unit 1 included a $1.8 billion overhaul that took five years and involved thousands of workers, many from the Shoals. There have been two shutdowns since the restart because of technical problems that included a leak of 600 gallons of nonradioactive hydraulic fluid and a tripped turbine because of high water levels in a moisture separator drain tank. Johnson said that two planned shutdowns would occur sometime in the near future as part of the restart of Unit 1. The White House would not release a time for Bush's visit to Browns Ferry. The president also is scheduled to meet with the "Friends of Jeff Sessions," a campaign fundraising committee for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, at 5:05 p.m. in Mobile. The White House is expected to release details about the visit this afternoon. "What this (visit) might bring for the future is really hard to say," said Johnson. "We're just glad that he's coming to recognize our efforts." As of Monday afternoon, Unit 1 was at 100 percent of its full capacity and was connected to the power grid, Johnson said. Staff Writer Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@timesdaily.com. © Copyright 2007 TimesDaily. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 AFP: Russia's first nuclear power reactor goes into operation in China - Tuesday June 19, 08:57 PM Russia's first nuclear reactor in China has finally gone into commercial operation after numerous delays and a second will begin production by year's end, Russian officials said Tuesday. "The Tianwan nuclear power plant is a very big Russian-Chinese project," Ivan Kamenskikh, vice head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency of Russia, told journalists via video phone from Moscow. "Our first reactor has gone into operation, we can't say it happened very quickly, but on the other hand, it didn't take a very long time either. Experts from both nations have overcome a lot of technical issues." The two nations agreed to build the 3.3-billion-dollar pressurised water nuclear plant in eastern China's Jiangsu province in 1997. The second phase of the project, also to include two 1,000 megawatt reactors, is currently under discussion, Kamenskikh said. The number one nuclear reactor at the plant, the 10th to go into commercial operation in China, formally went online on June 2, while the number two reactor is currently undergoing test operations. China plans to have up to 40 gigawatts of installed nuclear power by 2020, meaning that it will need to build around 30 more 1,000 megawatt reactors in the world's fastest-paced nuclear power buildup. China has joined several other nations in seeking to further develop nuclear power, including India, Russia and the United States, partly due to the concerns of global warming, but also to offset its dependency on coal. Western nations like France, the United States and Canada, have competed with Russia for China's nuclear power market, while the nation is also developing its own indigenous industry. "We hope that we can get the go-ahead on the third and fourth reactors (at Tianwan) and start up a new phase of cooperation," Kamenskikh said. "As far as China's plans to install 40 gigawatts, I think our competitiveness is strong, we have succeeded at Tianwan ... so of course we hope to get involved in other projects in China." Sergey Shmatko, president of AtomStroyExport, Russia's exporter of nuclear power plants, the Russian side would supply uranium for the two reactors and a similar arrangement would be negotiated for the next two reactors. "Russia's advantage is that as we build nuclear power plants, we also ensure the supply of nuclear fuel," he said. "If we can secure the third and fourth reactors, we will also seek to reach a deal on the supply of nuclear fuel." The price of uranium has jumped dramatically in recent years as Russia, the United States, China and India all announced long-term nuclear energy that look to greatly boost the demand for nuclear fuel. Joint design plans by Russian and Chinese experts for the next two reactors are to be completed by the end of the year, he said. Shmatko also said Russia was pondering working with China to develop nuclear power plants abroad. "If we can reach an agreement on the third and fourth reactors, we will begin to research the possibility of cooperating with China to build nuclear power plants in third countries," Shmatko said. Egypt has already expressed an interest in both Russian and Chinese nuclear power plants and is seen as a possible recipient of such joint cooperation. "The first and second reactors at Tianwan will enter commercial operation by the end of the year. This is a very big step and provides a very good and important basis for future cooperation," Luo Jianhang, the Russia representative of the China National Nuclear Corp, said. "We still have a lot of work to do, but from what we have done we have a bright future." ***************************************************************** 14 Gristmill: Nuclear power no climate cure-all The environmental news blog | Grist Posted by Joseph Romm at 10:38 AM on 19 Jun 2007 Everything you could possibly want to know about nuclear power -- and its (limited) potential as a potential climate solution -- can be found in the new Keystone Center Report with the less-than-captivating title "Nuclear Power Joint Fact-Finding." Reuters is confused in its article on the report, "Nuclear Power Can't Curb Global Warming -- Report," and actually overstates the case for nuclear: Nuclear power would only curb climate change by expanding worldwide at the rate it grew from 1981 to 1990, its busiest decade, and keep up that rate for half a century, a report said on Thursday. Specifically, that would require adding on average 14 plants each year for the next 50 years, all the while building an average of 7.4 plants to replace those that will be retired, the report by environmental leaders, industry executives and academics said. Incorrect. You would need 8 to 10 times faster growth (3 nuclear plants built each week for 50 years) and some 100 Yucca Mountains to store the waste for nuclear to curb global warming on its own. How did Reuters get it wrong? The huge growth in nuclear power examined in the Keystone report amounts to only one of the so-called "stabilization wedges" needed to fight global warming. The "wedges" idea, created by Princeton's Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow, has become a term of art in the climate debate which you can read about here (PDF). The short version is that a wedge represents a climate solution that starts slowly but then rises in impact over the 50 years and ultimately avoids the emission of one billion tons of carbon per year. If the average car on the road in 2057 got 60 miles per gallon, that would be one wedge. The world needs 8 to 10 wedges, starting now, to avoid catastrophic global warming. Interestingly, the report makes clear that: For nuclear power to be even one wedge we would need 10 Yucca Mountains to store the waste. We would have all of the proliferation risks associated with spreading nuclear power across the planet. And the power isn't cheap: 8.3 to 11.1 cents per kilo-watt hour. So nuclear is not a climate cure-all. Even climate advocates like John McCain get this wrong. In a March 2006 interview, he stated he would demand legislation to expand U.S. nuclear power as part of his efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: "It's the only technology presently available to quickly step up to meet our energy needs." Incorrect. As the Keystone report makes clear -- and as former Vice President Al Gore told Congress earlier this year -- nuclear may be a part of the solution, but probably only a very limited part. This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. systems) along with plant operating lifetimes at least 2-3 times as long. ©2007. Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 newsobserver.com: Nuclear regulators side with Progress Modified: Jun 19, 2007 06:13 AM From Staff Reports RALEIGH - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected a claim by nuclear critics that Progress Energy's Shearon Harris nuclear plant in Wake County is vulnerable to fire risk and should be fined $130,000 daily for violations or have its operating license revoked. Fire barriers at Shearon Harris first failed tests in 1989, two years after the plant went into operation. The utility has implemented corrective actions. Raleigh-based Progress Energy has until June 2008 to propose a permanent solution for meeting fire safety standards at the Shearon Harris plant. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner. © Copyright 2007, The News & Observer Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 16 RIA Novosti: Russia to commission 2nd unit of Tianwan NPP in September -2 16:21 | 19/ 06/ 2007 (Recasts, adds additional information in paras 8-11) MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will commission the second unit of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China in late September, the Russian nuclear equipment export monopoly said Tuesday. Atomstroyexport is building the Tianwan NPP in eastern China's port city of Lianyungang. The plant, being built under a 1992 agreement, features improved VVER-1000 reactors and K-100-6/3000 turbo generators. "The second unit of this NPP is currently operating at half capacity. The experience of commissioning the first unit will enable us to put the second power unit into operation in late September 2007," Atomstroyexport President Sergei Shmatko told a RIA Novosti news conference. The Russian company commissioned the first reactor of the Tianwan NPP at the beginning of the month. Shmatko said Russia and China would draft a schedule by the end of July to build the third and fourth units of the plant. "Since the successful launch of the first power unit, our dialogue has intensified considerably. A task force has been set up to prepare a feasibility study for the construction of the third and fourth power units, taking into account the experience of building the first two units," Shmatko said. Meanwhile, Ivan Kamenskikh, deputy head of the Federal Nuclear Power Agency (Rosatom), said Russia and China were discussing potential projects to build fast neutron reactors, a uranium enrichment plant, and projects to introduce new technologies into the process of irradiated nuclear fuel management. Shmatko told the news conference that Atomstroyexport could attract Chinese contractors involved in the Tianwan plant's construction to similar projects in other parts of China and in other countries. "In NPP construction projects at other sites in China, local companies will have a larger presence than at the Tianwan NPP," he said. Atomstroyexport is currently negotiating a nuclear power plant project with Morocco. "Morocco is a very promising country with huge export potential [for power generation], where the NPP could be privately owned," Shmatko said. The Atomstroyexport chief said Moroccan authorities had already held a preliminary closed qualifying tender for the project, believed to have included France, Canada and South Korea. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 17 RIA Novosti: Russian power generation needs foreign investment Opinion & analysis - 18:20 | 19/ 06/ 2007 MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator Vasily Zubkov) - The rapid economic growth which began in Russia several years ago has led to an exponential rise in the demand for electricity. Some Russian regions, including Moscow and its suburbs, as well as regions in European Russia, the Urals and Western Siberia, are facing power shortages. Electricity demand is expected to grow in Russia by 5.2% in 2008 (10% in some regions). Funds, including foreign investment, are crucial for satisfying it. The shortage of electricity could hinder Russia's accelerated economic growth. Therefore, the privatization of power plants (with the exception of hydropower and nuclear power plants) will be complemented by an impressive program for prolonging their working life. This plan will increase generating capacities by 41 GW by 2010 and 180 GW by 2020, compared with 209 GW now. That challenging program cannot be fulfilled without financial injections, including by foreign investors. There are three reasons for growing investment in the Russian power industry. The first reason is a clearly articulated desire on the part of the Russian authorities to use foreign funds to develop the sector. During the recent 11th International Economic Forum held in St. Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin said the capacities of the national power generating infrastructure should be increased by more than 50% in the next 10 years, adding: "We expect foreign investors to contribute to it." When the president lobbies for an idea, potential investors view this as the best possible guarantee. A clear schedule for the liberalization of the electricity market has been drawn up to create transparent conditions for foreign and local investors. This will increase the sector's profitability, a crucial factor for investors. The second reason is the mind-boggling size of potential investment, to which the state and private Russian companies will contribute. The national development program for the generating sector until 2010 calls for raising $115 billion. According to Russian electricity monopoly RAO UES, $30 billion will be invested in the sector in 2008, including $3.2 billion from the federal budget. The company said that aggregate investment had soared from $2 billion in 2005 to $20 billion in 2006. Andrei Dementyev, deputy minister of industry and energy, said some $20 billion of investment in 2008 would be channeled into six wholesale generating companies (OGK) and 14 territorial generating companies (TGK) privatized as part of the UES reform. They will raise capital through an initial public offering. The third reason is that conditions are becoming more comfortable for business in Russia, which explains the unprecedented growth of foreign investment. In January-May 2007, foreign companies invested $65 billion in the Russian economy. If the figure reaches $100 billion by the end of the year, Russia will surge ahead of China in this measure. The St. Petersburg forum, which was attended by delegates from 500 major companies (220 of them represented by presidents and chairmen of the board), was a vivid proof of growing investment interest in Russia. Investment agreements exceeding $13.5 billion were signed during the forum, including $4 billion worth of foreign direct investment. These are sufficient reasons for focusing on the Russian power-generating sector. UES experts said several global energy giants are ready to invest in Russia, notably Finland's Fortum, Italy's Enel, Germany's E.ON, Spain's Endesa, France's Electricite de France, and America's AES. Many of them are already working in Russia. Enel was the first to arrive, and has been managing the Northwest Thermal Power Plant jointly with Russian company ESN since 2004. This is a unique case in the Russian power industry. E.ON has also earned a good reputation in Russia. It has recently signed an agreement with the government of Siberia's Tyumen Region to build a gas turbine power plant with a capacity of 3,000 MW in Tyumen. Investment in the project will exceed $1 billion. The German energy giant has also announced its intention to buy major stakes in OGK-1, OGK-4 and TGK-3. Fortum is not a newcomer either; it has a blocking stake in TGK-1. Other European and American companies mentioned above have also hinted at their interest in the Russian electricity sector. An executive at Enel said foreign companies could invest up to $15 billion in the next few years. Unfortunately, foreign investment is kept back by legal restrictions. Russian law does not allow foreign companies to own more than 50% of territorial generating companies, which must be state-controlled. Since this rule does not apply to wholesale generating companies, Enel, which recently bought a blocking stake in OGK-5 during its IPO, may increase it to a controlling stake. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 18 Platts: NRC begins special inspection at Point Beach-1 2007-06-18 Washington (Platts)--18Jun2007 NRC has begun a special inspection at Point Beach to "look into a problem" with an auxiliary feedwater pump at unit 1, NRC said in a June 18 statement. The unit has been shut down since June 15. Plant operators received indications of unusually high temperature from the pump during quarterly testing on June 9, NRC said. The temperature "again approached the pump's operating limit" when another test was conducted June 11, leading to it being declared inoperable the next day, NRC said. The unit was shut as required by plant license conditions if an auxiliary feedwater pump is unavailable for more than 72 hours, it said. The inspection "will review the circumstances surrounding the incident and its safety significance; examine the historic maintenance and operation of the pump; review routine pump testing practices," and will "assess the utility's response to the overheating issue, the preliminary root cause determination, and proposed corrective actions," the agency said. Point Beach-1 will remain shut down until the root cause is identified and necessary repairs are implemented, NRC said. Point Beach-1 is a 530-MW PWR operated by Nuclear Management Co. Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 19 Platts: British Energy starts design selection for new UK nuclear plant 2007-06-19 London (Platts)--19Jun2007 British Energy has started a technical assessment of nuclear reactor designs for the next generation of nuclear stations it plans to build in the UK, it told Platts Tuesday. BE spokesperson Sue Fletcher said that the company is to look at the four main reactor designs: Atomic Energy of Canada's ACR-1000, Westinghouse's AP1000, Areva's Evolutionary Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) and GE's Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR). The announcement comes days before the UK government's deadline for submissions by reactor manufacturers for pre-licensing of reactor design, so- called generic design acceptance or GDA. GDA gives regulators the chance to assess the safety, security and environmental impact of power station designs, including waste arisings and radioactive discharges to the environment. It limits the need to revisit these issues in depth during site-specific planning processes. This reduces regulatory risk and provides a route to shorter and more predictable site- specific assessments. BE says it will be carrying out its own broader preliminary design assessment, independent of but in parallel with the initial regulatory review. Its assessment is to examine licensability and also encompass a review of the commercial viability, broader supply chain considerations, constructability and operability of designs for deployment in the UK. It plans to time its conclusions to coincide with the regulators' initial assessment late 2007/early 2008. BE's CEO Bill Coley said "We're looking at deployment in the UK for commercial operation from around 2016. At this stage, we support regulatory review of all four designs. Our own assessment will put us in a position to make an informed, competitive choice of preferred technology when we need to. This is an important step in making nuclear a real option in powering the low carbon generation." For more news, request a free trial to Platts Power UK at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=2_31&products_id=57 Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 20 APP.COM: NRC personnel less than upfront with Oyster Creek critics | Asbury Park Press Online Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 06/19/07 Post Comment I have written to Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, to express my concern with the situation surrounding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Dennis Zannoni, supervising nuclear engineer with the DEP. I addressed the comments made in the Press regarding a complaint that might have been lodged against Zannoni by the NRC accusing him of questioning the expertise of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards panel during the Jan. 18 subcommittee review. Our group, which consists of members of STROC (Stop the Relicensing of Oyster Creek), and officials from the DEP, at another location, were listening in to the hearing on the renewal of the license for the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey via phone lines set up for remote access by the NRC. There might have been others listening in, but they were never identified. The experience was frustrating because we had such a difficult time with the audio, especially the testimony by witnesses giving presentations. During one of the breaks, a cross conversation between DEP folks and us ensued. We were trying to get their take on some of the statements made and also "who and what." Because of my continuing doubt that many of the people who are in charge of the process don't have the specific expertise in the areas that are of great concern, such as the corrosion issue, I have been known to rant a bit on that subject. Zannoni's response to my rant was in no way derogatory or disparaging, rather just a matter-of-fact statement of who these folks were, and where they came from. At that same meeting, after numerous phone calls to the NRC to try to get a better connection, we called our elected public officials' staffers who we knew were either listening in or attending, to see if they could help. During the lunch break, I heard NRC staffers in the hearing room, grumbling about us and complaining, referring to our "crappy phone" and "that bitch from New Jersey" that called in. I immediately called my congressman, Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., and reported the conversation to his office staffers, apprised them of the situation and then called the NRC headquarters to lodge a complaint. I left a detailed message on the voice mail of Michael Junge. I am filing a formal complaint about their treatment of us. In all my dealings with Zannoni, he has never portrayed anyone as unprofessional or made detrimental personal comments about any of the parties involved. He has raised publicly the issue that the NRC did not (and does not) make recordings or transcripts of its public meetings, like the one held last July in Lacey. It was at this meeting that an NRC employee acted in an extremely confrontational manner to questions from our attorney, Richard Webster, as well as others in the audience asking questions with regard to the water that was found at the Oyster Creek plant. This has been a continuing concern to the coalition because, absent a transcript or recording, the NRC and plant operator AmerGen can deny statements made. We have found both Jill Lipoti and Kent Tosch of the DEP to be very professional in their dealings with us as well. By design or circumstance, these have been our "Jersey Guys." Whether we have agreed with them on every point or not, they have always treated us with respect and the deference. Not so with the folks from the NRC. From the beginning, I have found them to be condescending, disingenuous and at times downright belligerent. At every step of the renewal process, the NRC has put roadblocks in our way. At public hearings, we have been denied access to safety data that is public information under the guise that is "proprietary," it's too many pages to read and the infamous "you wouldn't understand it." It is my belief, which gets stronger every day, that the NRC thought that this renewal was not only a slam dunk but part of its marching orders from the Bush administration and its pro-industry stance. The serious concerns and safety issues we and the DEP have raised are hindrances to their mission. In all my interaction with Zannoni, he has acted as a true public servant and scientist. His conclusions about the plant, whatever they are, come from his long involvement with its operations and condition. Peggi Sturmfels JACKSON PROGRAM ORGANIZER NEW JERSEY ENVIRONMENTAL FEDERATION Copyright © 2007 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 21 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance Assessment for Cooper Nuclear Station News Release - Region IV - 2007-020 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 www.nrc.gov CONTACT: Victor Dricks Phone: 817-860-8128 E-mail: opa4@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet in Brownville, Neb., on June 21, with representatives of the Nebraska Public Power District to discuss the agency’s assessment of safety performance for last year at the Cooper Nuclear Station. The meeting, which will be open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. at the Brownville Concert Hall, Atlantic Avenue and Second Street. In addition to the performance assessment, the NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the safety performance of Cooper, as well as the NRC’s role in ensuring safe plant operation. “The NRC continually reviews the performance of Cooper and the nation’s other commercial nuclear power facilities,” NRC Region IV Administrator Bruce S. Mallett said. “This meeting will provide an opportunity for a discussion of our annual assessment of safety performance with the company and with local officials and residents who live near the plant.” A letter sent from the NRC Region IV office to plant officials addresses the performance of the plant during 2006 and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/cns_2006q4.pdf. The NRC utilizes color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear power plant performance. The colors start with "green" and then increase to "white," "yellow" or "red," commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. The NRC said Cooper operated safely during 2006, but identified 10 “green” inspection findings in the area of human performance during the assessment period. In order to address this substantive cross-cutting issue, the licensee has implemented an improvement plan, but it has not yet proven fully effective. NRC will continue to focus attention on this area as part of its baseline inspections during 2007. Routine inspections are performed by NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the Region IV Office in Arlington, Texas. Current performance information for Cooper is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/CNS/cns_chart.html NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Tuesday, June 19, 2007 ***************************************************************** 22 NRC: NRC to Discuss 2006 Performance Assessment for Arkansas Nuclear One News Release - Region IV - 2007-021 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 www.nrc.gov CONTACT: Victor Dricks Phone: 817-860-8128 E-mail: opa4@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet in Russellville, Ark., on June 26, with representatives of Entergy Operations, Inc., to discuss the agency’s assessment of safety performance for last year at the Arkansas Nuclear One nuclear plant. The meeting, which will be open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Russellville Depot, 100 N. Denver Ave. In addition to the performance assessment, the NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the safety performance of Arkansas Nuclear One, as well as the NRC’s role in ensuring safe plant operation. “The NRC continually reviews the performance of Arkansas Nuclear One and the nation’s other commercial nuclear power facilities,” NRC Region IV Administrator Bruce S. Mallett said. “This meeting will provide an opportunity for a discussion of our annual assessment of safety performance with the company and with local officials and residents who live near the plant.” A letter sent from the NRC Region IV office to plant officials addresses the performance of the plant during 2006 and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/ano_2006q4.pdf. The NRC utilizes color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear power plant performance. The colors start with "green" and then increase to "white," "yellow" or "red," commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. The NRC said Arkansas Nuclear One operated safely during 2006 and will receive regular, or baseline inspections during 2007. Routine inspections are performed by three NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the Region IV Office in Arlington, Texas. Current performance information for Arkansas Nuclear One is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/ANO1/ano1_chart.html. Current performance information for Unit 2 is available at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/ANO2/ano2_chart.html NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. , June 19, 2007 ***************************************************************** 23 IAEA: Nuclear Knowledge Takes the Stage in Vienna IAEA Hosts Four Day International Conference On Nuclear Knowledge Management Staff Report 18 June 2007 More than 270 participants from 50 countries and 10 international organisations are gathered in Vienna for a four-day conference on nuclear knowledge management. (Photo: D. Calma/IAEA) More than 270 participants from 50 countries and 10 international organisations are in Vienna for a Conference on Knowledge Management in Nuclear Facilities. The conference features an opening policy forum and four thematic sessions focusing on the role of nuclear knowledge management. Areas covered include the safe operation of existing plants, the achievement of gains in economic and operational performance of nuclear facilities, the preservation of existing knowledge and its use in relation to future innovations, and the smooth and effective transfer of knowledge to the next generation. In his opening statement, Mr. Yuri Sokolov, Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy of the IAEA, spoke of the importance of being able to transfer the experience accrued in the nuclear field over the past decades to the next generation. "Nuclear knowledge has been developed and accumulated over decades of research and development (R&D). Our present generation is the owner and custodian of that body of nuclear knowledge," he said. But he also warned the audience of the difficulties posed by this task and of the danger of losing invaluable knowledge, especially because of demographic gaps in the professional workforce, in the near future. "Unfortunately, the present status of nuclear knowledge and its management leave much room for improvement. Since nuclear knowledge is unique in many ways, its management requires specific programmes and has specific objectives. Without diligence in managing this knowledge, substantial portions could be lost due to staff retirements and to disuse and disposal associated with changing priorities," he commented. In his address, Mr. Tomihiro Taniguchi, Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, also stressed the importance of the human factor in knowledge management for issues relating to nuclear safety and security. "Knowledge management is vitally important for nuclear safety. Not only scientific knowledge, but also practical knowledge based on hands-on experience and international information-sharing are particularly relevant," he said. He pointed out that transparency, openness and information-sharing are all practices that can contribute positively to the creation of an effective global safety knowledge culture. But, he warned, at a national level safety knowledge can only be achieved through a long, laborious process. "Safety knowledge cannot be acquired by a country, as a readily available commodity. It has to be created and nourished in the country, by the country and for the country," he said. The International Conference on Knowledge Management in Nuclear Facilities is organized by the IAEA in cooperation with the European Atomic Forum (FORATOM), the European Commission (EC), the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA), the World Nuclear Association (WNA) and the World Nuclear University (WNU). A total of 145 papers, posters and keynote speeches are to be presented by experts, scientists and officials during the four-day event which is due to close on 21 June. See Story Resources for more information. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 24 NRC: NRC Begins Special Inspection of Pump Issue at the Point Beach Plant News Release - Region III - 2007-021 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 2443 Warrenville Road, Lisle, IL 60532 www.nrc.gov CONTACT: E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a special inspection at the Point Beach Nuclear Power Station to look into a problem with a pump that led to a plant shutdown on June 14. The plant, operated by Nuclear Management Company, is located near Two Rivers, Wisc. On June 9, while plant operators were conducting a quarterly test on the Unit 1 turbine driven auxiliary feedwater pump, they received indications that the pump temperature was unusually high. However, plant personnel failed to recognize the increasing temperature as a potential problem and no immediate action was taken to address the irregular temperature indications. Auxiliary feedwater pumps are used to cool down the reactor during routine shutdowns and in certain accident conditions. On June 11, plant engineers reviewed the results of the June 9 test and noted the pump temperature was higher than normal. Another test was performed on the same day. During this test, the pump temperature again approached the pump’s operating limit. As a result, plant operators stopped the test, shut down the auxiliary feedwater pump and declared it inoperable. The utility implemented actions to identify the cause of the problem and fix it. However, plant operators were unable to identify the cause repair the problem causing the plant to shut down on June 14. 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. The plant will remain shutdown until the root cause is identified and necessary repairs are implemented. The NRC inspectors will review the circumstances surrounding the incident and its safety significance; examine the historic maintenance and operation of the pump; review routine pump testing practices, as well as certain programs and procedures; assess the utility’s response to the overheating issue, the preliminary root cause determination, and proposed corrective actions. The special inspection will continue until the inspection goals are achieved. The special inspection team will issue its report about 30-45 days after the completion of the inspection. The report will be available from the Region III Office of Public Affairs or in the agency’s online document library at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Tuesday, June 19, 2007 ***************************************************************** 25 KnoxNews: Go-ahead likely for Watts Bar finish TVA releases impact report on reactor at Spring City plant By ANDREW EDER, edera@knews.com June 19, 2007 TVA has released a final report on the environmental impacts of completing an unfinished reactor at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, clearing the way for its board to approve the action. The report, known as an environmental impact statement, is required of federal agencies considering projects with potentially significant environmental effects. TVA and its contractors are conducting a study to determine the cost and schedule of finishing the Unit 2 reactor at the plant in Spring City, about 60 miles west of Knoxville. Assuming the study finds no major obstacles to construction, TVA is likely to recommend that its board approve the project. A draft of the environmental report was released earlier for public comments. TVA received more than 1,200 form letters opposing Watts Bar 2, most from citizens living outside TVA's service area, according to a list released by TVA. The agency also received a dozen letters supporting the project. Most of the opposition to finishing the reactor centered around the demands on the Tennessee River for cooling water, the security risks of nuclear plants and the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. TVA also received comments from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the Tennessee Historical Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. A letter from TDEC's Division of Water Pollution Control expressed "major concerns" related to the temperature, toxicity and amount of water released to the Tennessee River after being used to cool the plant. In an appendix to the environmental report, TVA responds point-by-point to each of the comments received, and the final report includes expanded explanations of certain issues, including cooling water systems and conditions in the Tennessee River. TVA met with the water pollution division in Nashville in May to address the concerns. A TDEC spokeswoman said Monday that the division has not yet reviewed the final environmental report. Watts Bar currently has one operating nuclear reactor, which was finished in 1996 after 23 years at a cost of $6.9 billion. In 2001, TVA wrote off $1.7 billion of construction costs for the never-completed Unit 2. In May, TVA restarted its oldest reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama after a five-year restoration that cost at least $1.8 billion, giving it a total of six operating reactors. TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore recently said the federal utility would look "almost exclusively" to more nuclear power to meet round-the-clock baseload generation needs in the growing Tennessee Valley. Business writer Andrew Eder may be reached at 865-342-6318. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 26 BBC NEWS: Search for freight train drivers Last Updated: Tuesday, 19 June 2007, 07:51 GMT 08:51 UK A Cumbrian rail freight firm is beginning a recruitment campaign for its first drivers "off the street". Currently Direct Rail Services only takes on qualified drivers. But on Tuesday it launched a campaign for a least 12 people from different backgrounds to learn to drive trains from scratch. The firm currently has a pool of about 100 drivers. It will take three years for drivers to fully qualify, with the first 10 months of training spent in intensive classroom and practical training. Professional mindset Dougie Hill, the senior operations manager at DRS, said: "This is a new venture for the company - we have been very successful with recruitment campaign. "However, as we look to increase our team of drivers - we are offering people with no real experience the opportunity to join the company and provide them with the skills for a career. "We want people from various backgrounds, with a flexible approach to work, a professional mindset, self motivated, enthusiastic and very safety conscience." * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 27 The Spectrum: Need Downwinder's study www.thespectrum.com - Spectrum, St. George, UT Customer Service: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 A newly released study from Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand, should alert the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to utilize funding to readdress exploring the public health consequences of nuclear weapons testing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute reported in February 2006 that it was feasible to delve deeper into the health effects from atomic weapons tests in the 1950s and 60s, but because it has not been ranked as a high public health priority, commissioning a study has not come to pass. Since the May 14 results of the New Zealand study of Navy veterans who were exposed to atomic fallout found a striking rate of genetic damage - the kind that can cause cancer - it is apparent the issue should be moved up a notch on the public health agenda. Especially considering tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Utahns and other western state residents were exposed to radioactive fallout from open-air nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site periodically from the 50s and into the 90s. Finding out whether the New Zealand study is conclusive with scientific evidence from the effects on Downwinders would be a good-faith effort by the federal government, since it canceled a CDC-funded $8 million University of Utah study on radioactive fallout and thyroid disease in 2005. When the U of U study discontinued, an estimated 1,700 people had been examined in hopes of clarifying the extent to which the Nevada tests increased the risk of diseases of the thyroid and thyroid cancer. The New Zealand study serves as a reason to renew this plight for answers because more than 400 of the 551 sailors who took part in the New Zealand study have died, according to Massey University's online news (masseynews. massey.ac.nz). There are enough Downwinders as it is, but it is incomprehensible to think there are many more who are unknown, and perhaps, even unborn. To know that for sure, more study is obviously needed. Shouldn't the CDC, under the aegis of former Utah Gov. Michael O. Leavitt, who is familiar with Downwinders and heads the HHS, push for this? Absolutely. The public should also advocate for it strongly and be prepared to accept the results, whatever they may be. What first needs to happen is acquiring solid data. To do that, the issue of further studying the health effects from the Nevada tests must become priority. The New Zealand study should launch that decision because conducting a detailed investigation that looks at dose estimation, risk analysis and communication of the results to the public is what Americans deserve - and nothing less. Copyright ©2007 The Spectrum. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Ottawa Citizen: 'It's like you're in the middle of a thunderclap' Canadian veterans who took part in Cold War nuclear weapons tests knew it was dangerous, but weren't protected, writes David Pugliese. David Pugliese, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 The first time an atomic bomb detonated, Rayburn Waters turned his back and shielded his eyes with his arms. Even then, the light emitted from the weapon's detonation was so brilliant he could almost see the bones in his forearm, a kind of macabre X-ray without having to go to the hospital. During another detonation at the U.S. military's Nevada test site, the Rockland man got covered in dust from the atomic cloud, giving him a highly dangerous dose of radioactivity. Through it all, Mr. Waters and the other Canadians knew the work was dangerous, but never seriously questioned what was happening. View Larger Image Rayburn Waters spent three weeks at the Nevada test site. Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen "We were young and stupid," Mr. Waters, 78, says with a laugh. "It was exciting." Mr. Waters is one of the almost 900 Canadian military personnel who were exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons tests during the Cold War or two serious reactor accidents in Chalk River during the 1950s. The details of the involvement of Canadian veterans in such tests is outlined in a January 2007 government report, obtained by the Citizen. The report, commissioned last year by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, marks the first time the full extent of the involvement of Canadian military personnel in U.S. and British nuclear weapons testing has been documented. What will happen with the report and to Canadian veterans like Mr. Waters is unclear. An e-mail from Mr. O'Connor's office stated yesterday that the Conservative government is committed to acknowledging the exceptional service of veterans. "When we have more to announce on this, we will do so," the e-mail added. The e-mail also blamed the previous Liberal government for failing to take action on the issue of atomic veterans. Mr. Waters, who witnessed four atomic explosions during the tests -- codenamed Operation Plumbob -- has had prostate cancer and now has skin cancer. "My skin doctor regularly cuts little chunks out," said Mr. Waters. "Whether it's related or not, who knows?" A friend of his who was with him during Operation Plumbob died a few years ago from lung cancer. In total, a little more than 300 Canadians witnessed the tests during the 1957 Plumbob detonations, according to the report done for Mr. O'Connor. Mr. Waters applied for compensation for a severe hearing disability received from the years he was around gunfire, explosions and the intense sound of jet aircraft -- at a time when the military did not provide ear protection. The claim by Mr. Waters, an air force veteran, who was an armaments officer and pilot, was denied. For the first detonation in Operation Plumbob, the men did not have any protective gear at all, Mr. Waters said. "We had to turn our backs to the tower where the device was loaded and cover our eyes with our arms to reduce the brilliance, but even at that it was so brilliant you could almost see your bones through your forearm," he recalls. Some protective gear was issued later for other detonations. Canadian veterans who took part in Cold War nuclear weapons tests knew it was dangerous, but weren't protected, writes David Pugliese. David Pugliese, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 After other blasts, the men would be at ground zero within five days to monitor the effects of the explosion. They would wear coveralls and rubber boots, but that was it. "I never had a gas mask or any way to prevent inhaling (dust)," said Mr. Waters. "I'm sure I inhaled a fair amount from the cloud." The study, done for Mr. O'Connor by Ottawa-based nuclear weapons specialist John Clearwater, does not attempt to determine how many of the veterans became ill as a result of their exposure. But it does note that the levels of protection the men used were at times questionable and that some personnel were exposed to radioactive contamination on the testing grounds, sometimes for months at a time. Radiation protection standards used for service personnel were below those recommended at the time by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the report concluded. The purpose of the report was to discover the extent of Canadian participation in such tests, details on the radiation produced by the blasts, and the names of the individuals who took part. Research was limited to official documentation and no effort was made to contact individuals who took part in the tests between 1946 and 1963. According to the study, Canadian military personnel attended up to 29 nuclear weapons tests conducted in Australia, the Pacific Ocean and the Nevada test site. The Canadians who witnessed atomic blasts in places such as the Nevada test range were monitored for their exposure to radiation, which came in the form of direct rays from the bomb detonation. But Mr. Clearwater, the author of three books on Canadian nuclear weapons and Cold War issues, found that troops were not monitored for the amount of radiation they absorbed through, for instance, breathing in contaminated dust. "What was not monitored was radiation from internal emitters, which may have been breathed or swallowed or made their way into the body through any opening in the skin," Mr. Clearwater wrote. "These internal emitters of radiation, even at the single particle level, can and do cause the onset of disease." Mr. Waters said the detonation of a nuclear weapon is something that it difficult to describe. "It's like you're in the middle of a thunderclap," he explained. "There's the flash first of all. Then the crack. Then the gust of wind." c The Ottawa Citizen 2007 © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks ***************************************************************** 29 Hemscott: Court: dismissal of Boeing case stands JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A federal appeals court has declined to reconsider its decision upholding the dismissal of a toxic substance exposure lawsuit brought by a group of Boeing Co. employees who sought establishment of a medical monitoring trust fund. The workers in 2004 sued the Boeing Company, now based in Chicago; Brush Engineered Materials Inc., based in Cleveland, Ohio; and Wess-Del Inc., based in Santa Clara, Calif. The employees said they were exposed to products containing beryllium while employed at Boeing's facilities at the Stennis Space Center in Hancock County and at Canoga Park in California. In 2006, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals withheld a final decision in the case until the Mississippi Supreme Court certified whether a medical monitoring cause of action is allowed under state law. A cause of action is a specific legal claim -- such as for negligence or medical malpractice -- for which a plaintiff seeks compensation. Each cause of action is divided into elements, all of which must be proved to present a winning case. Earlier this year, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that state law does not recognize a cause of action for medical monitoring. The justices said the "possibility of a future injury is insufficient to maintain a tort claim," according to court papers. In March, the 5th Circuit upheld U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola Jr.'s 2005 dismissal of the lawsuit. On Monday, the 5th Circuit denied a motion from the employees to rehear the case. In the lawsuit, which represents only one side of a legal argument, the plaintiffs did not claim any present physical injury. Rather, they sought to have future medical examinations paid for by the defendants through a medical monitoring fund. The issue of medical monitoring has been raised in several states, with mixed results. Organizations such as the American Tort Reform Association have argued the theory of medical monitoring would hold defendants responsible for an injury that the plaintiff has not developed and may never develop. Others, including trial lawyers, claim that a plaintiff's fear of developing an injury constitutes an injury in itself. Fifth Circuit Judge James Dennis, writing in a dissent Monday, said the court ought to let the workers amend their lawsuit so that their claims are in accord with the Mississippi Supreme Court opinion. Dennis said while the workers could file a new lawsuit, an amended complaint would save time. Two other members of the panel -- Judges Eugene Davis and Jerry Smith -- declined to rehear the case. Beryllium is a metallic element used in aerospace and defense industries. It's not dangerous in solid form, but inhalation of beryllium dust can cause a scarring lung disease that can be fatal. Boeing used the material in manufacturing parts for a space shuttle. Brush Engineered Materials sold Boeing many of the beryllium-containing products, according to the court record. Wess-Del allegedly sold the products to Boeing with the knowledge that they would be used in space shuttle construction in Boeing's Mississippi facility, according to the workers' lawsuit. Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Copyright 2007 Hemscott Group Limited. ***************************************************************** 30 Scoop: What's a little depleted uranium in the yard... if it helps defeat them terrorists? Wednesday, 20 June 2007, 9:52 am Column: Mark Drolette The following lead of an April 11, 2007, article e-mailed to me sort of caught my eye (more like pierced it with a radioactive-hot poker): “Proposed explosives tests upwind from Tracy [California] will release as much as 450 pounds of radioactive depleted uranium dust into the air every year, according to an air pollution permit application filed Friday by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.” Reading the entire item reminded me of my reaction when I first viewed the Project for the New American Century’s Web site several years ago: it had to be a bad fraternity prank gone even badder. I called the contact number in the piece, hoping I’d get a kegged-out trickster at Whadda Loda Krappa. Unfortunately, John Upton of the Tracy Press answered, assuring me his column was, indeed, legit. Worse, he said the mainstream media hadn’t touched the story. Depleted uranium blasts conducted where millions live, yet nary a peep from established news organizations? What’s wrong with this picture? If you’re a Bushie, the best friend the military-industrial complex or national undertakers association could have, the answer is: not a damn thing. Ditto if you’re the whoreporate media, the administration’s mouthpiece that excels in disseminating propaganda and disinformation or, in this case, no information at all. Maybe I’m overreacting. After all, physicist Richard Muller, who, according to Upton, spent thirty-four years with the “JASON science and technology advisory group, which is sponsored by federal intelligence, energy and defense agencies” (there’s impartiality for you), declares: “Depleted uranium is not terribly radioactive,” also claiming its “radioactivity is just a little bit of a pain in the neck.” Think he means the soreness produced by that cantaloupe-sized thyroid tumor that appeared overnight? (I wonder what Iraqi parents of spineless babies born since 1991 or thousands of ill Gulf War veterans think about the benign nature of depleted uranium ordnance which, upon impact, aerosolizes into particles the body can’t avoid ingesting. Untold tons of depleted uranium continue to criminally be used in the current Iraq fiasco.) Incredibly, it’s even worse than it first appears: In a follow-up article, Upton reports additional “analysis shows that tons of radioactive depleted uranium and other toxic heavy metals could be blown up in [the] blasts Yearly, 20 explosions could each vaporize 220 pounds of depleted uranium. The lab already conducts 60 to 100 smaller test blasts annually in which an unstated amount of depleted uranium is used ‘routinely’. Clearly, this is insane, just like everything else the Bushies do is insane. But why wouldn’t it be, since THEY’RE insane. Can you imagine if this were proposed ten years ago? That’s a trick question, because it wouldn’t have been, but in the interim we’ve all tumbled light years down the rabbit hole where up is down and in which America has undergone a creeping acceptance of madness as the norm. I’ll say one thing: at least the ruling thugs are equal opportunity killers. Iraqis, Afghanis and, yup, even Americans: it matters not, as long as the souleaters-in-charge get to keep suckling the grotesquely huge teat of the “defense” industry (has there never been a more sardonic euphemism?). The permit application was filed with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (www.valleyair.org; [559] 230-6000). The district’s spokeswoman, to whom I voiced outrage, assured me my opinion was not uncommon and said information about a public hearing on the permit would be posted online once a venue large enough to accommodate those interested was selected. I suggested she consider a stadium. I’ll be there, asking lab representatives: Do you even care this affects your kids, too? How can you look into their eyes, when you tuck them into their decontamination chambers at night, knowing you’ve intentionally poisoned them? And what, exactly, are you testing? Your utter lack of conscience? Or -- could it all be one mammoth Bushian experiment studying the long-term effects of depleted uranium on civilians? Forgive my cynicism, but I’m a tad suspicious of folks who’ve slain hundreds of thousands of people purely for personal gain telling me I’ve nothing to worry about. Here’s something I’ve pondered: When it’s all said and done, when the harebrained press the hair trigger and the attacked retaliate in kind, when the entire globe is one broiling wasteland and the inhumanoids like Cheney and Bush and Rumsfeld and Perle emerge from their bunkers in their designer X-Ray-Bans and dark blue Michelin Man-like anti-radiation suits (complete with skinny ties), what will they think? That at long last, this was what they wanted? That by scorching the earth, they finally achieved their ultimate prize: the knowledge that it’s all theirs now? But -- what’s all theirs? A smoking hulk of a planet on which nothing can survive for myriad millennia? A nuclear winter isn’t required, of course, for us to yet die from their toxicity or, more to the point, for the war pigs to continue slopping around in profiteering hog heaven. Because that’s their true desire, you know: (more) money. Whether it’s controlling natural resources or stoking the insatiable war machine, a few hopelessly deranged individuals call the shots, rapaciously reaping to their nonexistent hearts’ content, sovereignty and lives be damned. Still, for these loons, it’s never enough: In March, the Bush administration pegged Livermore to design a new nuke (America has 10,000 already): the “Reliable Replacement Warhead,” they call it. (Love the name; it’s much better than “Unreliable Replacement Warhead.”) Are the planned depleted uranium detonations specifically related to these new warheads’ development? Per Upton, the lab says no. But it doesn’t matter; poison is poison. What does matter is that it’s done in the name of “national security” and protecting American lives while it simultaneously, whoops!, snuffs them out. The extraordinarily lethal, exorbitantly wasteful industrial-military complex slays on. The war profiteers would like nothing more than to remain on a permanent war footing and, with the never-ending “war on terror,” they’ve got just the ticket. Meanwhile, ours gets punched with unhinged schemes like spewing death into our backyards. ************* Bio: Mark Drolette lives in Sacramento, California. His first book - “Why Costa Rica? Why the hell not?” -- will be available once it’s finished, published and then, uh, made available. You can reach him at mdrolette @comcast.net. ***************************************************************** 31 Las Vegas SUN: DOE releases design requirements for nuclear transport canisters June 19, 2007 By ERICA WERNER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department announced design requirements Tuesday for canisters to transport radioactive waste to Nevada and store it in the planned Yucca Mountain national nuclear dump. The agency envisions vendors competing to produce canisters dubbed "TAD"s - short for transportation, aging and disposal - between 15 1/2 feet and 17 1/2 feet long and weighing a maximum of 54.25 tons each. Some 7,500 of the TAD canisters would be needed to fill the dump to its proposed 77,000-ton capacity. They would be shipped by rail from commercial reactor sites in some 39 states. It's the latest announcement by the Energy Department in planning for the troubled Yucca Mountain repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The project has been delayed by scientific controversies, money shortages, and opposition from Nevada officials including Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., now the Senate majority leader. Originally targeted to open in 1998, the best-case opening date for Yucca Mountain is now 2017. It would be the nation's first federal nuclear waste dump and would receive some 50,000 tons of radioactive waste already piled up at power plants around the country. Earlier plans had called for transporting waste to handling facilities at the desert site, then putting it into different containers for underground storage. The TAD concept emerged in October 2005 and the Energy Department will now invite vendors to come up with designs. "This was somewhat of a difficult birthing within the program," said Christopher A. Kouts, director of the waste management office at the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. "We did quite a bit of homework and hopefully we've developed a specification that will meet our needs," he told a meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste. Kouts declined to say how much a TAD might cost, saying that would be part of the procurement process with vendors. He anticipates having canisters available to utilities in four or five years. Yucca Mountain can't open until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission grants the Energy Department a license. The department plans to submit its license application a year from now and incorporate the TAD approach even if individual designs from vendors aren't ready. Many nuclear utilities are in litigation with the Energy Department because the department was contractually obligated to begin accepting their radioactive waste beginning in 1998. The federal agency will seek to modify some utility contracts to include their acquisition of the transport canisters, Kouts said. The canisters could be used to store waste at reactor sites before transport to Yucca Mountain, or could be taken directly there. The canisters would hold spent fuel rods from commercial nuclear reactors and could accommodate different types of fuel rod assemblies, either 21 pressurized water reactor assemblies or 44 boiling water reactor assemblies. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 32 AU The Age: Owners warn of tremors at nuclear waste dump site - www.theage.com.au On a speaking tour to protest against plans for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory are Donna Jackson, Stephen Atkinson, Priscilla Williams, Mitch, Dianne Stokes and Audrey McCormack. Photo: Penny Stephens Andra Jackson June 20, 2007 TREMORS have twice been felt in a proposed Northern Territory site for a nuclear waste dump site, according to Aboriginal owners. "The last one registered 2.5 on the Richter scale," traditional owner and Warramunga-Warlmanpa woman Dianne Stokes from the Muckaty Land Trust told a meeting of non-government organisations in Melbourne on Monday night. Two weeks ago, the other members of the trust ? with the backing of the Northern Land Council ? secretly negotiated a deal under which the Federal Government would pay $12 million to use the 2241-square-kilometre Muckaty Station as Australia's first national nuclear waste dump. Ms Stokes, an elected spokeswoman for the Warramunga and Warlmanpa tribes, said the deal was made by just one of the 16 family groupings represented on the trust. The Northern Land Council failed to listen to the other families, she said. Ms Stokes, a mother of six, was one of four traditional owners of four proposed nuclear waste sites in the Northern Territory who spoke at a public meeting at Melbourne's Trade Hall Council on Monday night. "I came here with all my spirits from my ancestors to keep my country alive," she said. Ms Stokes, who lives just half an hour's drive from the site of a proposed nuclear waste dump at Muckaty, said it would kill the area environmentally and culturally. The surrounding country was a source of bush tucker and a place of burials in both the ground and trees, which were home to ancestral spirits, she said. Priscilla Williams, a member of the Hart Range community, the site of another proposed dump, said the community closest to Muckaty Station had a primary school that got its water from a river which ran around the proposed site. While the Federal Government had insisted there had never been an accident with a nuclear waste dump anywhere, "we're worried about what will happen if our water gets poisoned because we get it from under the ground", Ms Williams said. The delegation briefed the Wilderness Society and called on state premiers to oppose a national nuclear waste dump. Copyright © 2007. The Age Company Ltd. ***************************************************************** 33 RIA Novosti: Ukraine plans to join in intl. uranium enrichment project - 1 20:22 | 19/ 06/ 2007 (Adds details, background in paras 3-6) MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine intends to join an international uranium enrichment center being established by Russia and Kazakhstan in the near future, Ukraine's Fuel and Energy Ministry said Tuesday. "Ukraine intends to become a full-fledged participant in the international uranium enrichment center in the next few months," the ministry said in a statement. Russia and its ex-Soviet neighbor Kazakhstan, which holds 15% of the world's uranium reserves, signed documents last October to establish their first joint venture to enrich uranium. The center, part of Moscow's non-proliferation initiative to create a network of enrichment centers under the UN nuclear watchdog's supervision, will be based at a chemicals plant in Angarsk in East Siberia, and will also be responsible for the disposal of nuclear waste. Ukraine will be the second country after Kazakhstan to join Russia's initiative. The center will come on stream in 2013 and offer uranium enrichment services to countries interested in developing nuclear energy for civilian purposes. Russian President Vladimir Putin first raised the idea of joint nuclear enrichment centers early last year, in a bid to calm tensions over Iran's controversial nuclear program. The president said the centers would give countries transparent access to civilian nuclear technology without provoking international fears that enriched uranium could be used for covert weapons programs. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 34 CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Proposed nuclear waste plan could harm WNC Asheville, NC by Lewis E. Patrie, Guest commentary published June 19, 2007 12:15 am Hurray for the Citizen-Times’ May 23 report on Common Sense at the Nuclear Crossroads’ press conference describing the likelihood of greatly increased radioactive materials passing through our area if the Department of Energy’s proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership plan for reprocessing so-called “spent” nuclear fuel materializes. Actually, these fuel rods are the most radioactive material that the nuclear age has passed on to us. This high-level waste from across the U.S., and perhaps globally, would be shipped to one centralized location. Of several proposed locations, Savannah River Site and Barnwell, S.C., are leading candidates, which is why we are so concerned about Western North Carolina becoming the Crossroads of the Nuclear Heartland. Under this proposal, nuclear waste shipments would increase dramatically. During the first full year of operation, the total number of shipments would be about the same number that have taken place during the entire 65 years of the nuclear age, and this could then continue indefinitely. Radiation hazards Our concerns about radiation hazards created by transportation of this high-level radioactive waste include severe accidents and sabotage by those who would do us harm, which could release catastrophic amounts of radioactivity into the environment for miles downwind, contaminating our communities, homes, schools, hospitals, work sites and places of worship. Even shielded “routine” shipments, which are like x-ray machines that cannot be turned off, deliver “low level” doses of gamma radiation to workers or any persons who come near them. Shipments are allowed to emit gamma radiation out to a distance of six feet — equivalent to one chest X-ray per hour. Infants and children are especially sensitive to effects of radiation. The closer a person is to a shipping cask, the greater is the exposure. The outer surface of a shipping container is permitted to give off radiation equivalent to 20 chest x-rays per hour. In addition, should the outside surface of a cask become contaminated, exposure to workers and the public would be much greater. We know that at least 50 such incidents have occurred in the U.S. Imagine being stuck in a traffic jam with your family, trapped next to a radiation- emitting load. Transporting these hazardous radioactive wastes at highway speeds introduces considerably greater risks. There are unanswered questions about the ability of shipping containers to hold up in high speed crashes or prolonged fire. Last year, the U. S. National Academies of Science advised more careful safety studies of those containers be conducted. Some perspective A single truck cask may contain 40 times the radioactivity released by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Release of even a fraction of the contents of a high-level radioactive waste shipping container would be disastrous. Radioactive Waste Management Associates reported that had a single high-level radioactive waste container been aboard a train that caught fire in a tunnel beneath downtown Baltimore in 2001, disastrous amounts of radioactivity would have escaped. 350,000 people would have been exposed to harmful radiation. Up to 50 would have inevitably died from cancer. If people continued living in such contaminated areas for a year, up to 1,500 would have died from cancer. If people lived amidst contamination for 50 years, up to 30,000 would have died from cancer. Severe radioactive contamination could render a large area uninhabitable indefinitely. Under the proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, persons intent on doing harm to our nation would be afforded new opportunities. Commercial nuclear reactors and their wastes are currently stored onsite, not in downtown metropolitan areas. However, during transport, these wastes would pass through population centers like Asheville, especially with the completion of an I-26 connector. Terrorists could sabotage shipments, inflicting maximum damage and harming many people. Western North Carolina Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility believes this proposal should not go into effect. We further oppose our government’s proposed increased funding for H-bombs and for nuclear power. As long as nuclear power and nuclear weapons exist, the lives of all who will inherit what we leave them will be endangered from radiation. A summary of the nuclear transportation report is at www.nuclearcrossroads.org/secondreport.htm. Copyright © 2007 Asheville Citizen-Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 CNW Group: Dumont stakes 20 square miles of Uranium claims in central Utah June 20, 2007 QUICK SEARCH BY ORGANIZATION OTHER SEARCH OPTIONS (DNI: TSX-Ven, DG7: Frankfurt) TORONTO, June 19 /CNW/ - Dumont Nickel Inc. (DNI:TSX-Ven, DG7:FSE) is pleased to announce that it has completed staking of a 20 square mile land position in the West Marysvale (Newton) Historic Mining District, in central Utah. DUMONT holds a 100% interest in the claims which will be held by Red Butte Uranium Inc., DUMONT's wholly owned Uranium subsidiary. The claims are located on the rim of the Mount Belknap volcanic caldera, and include many Uranium showings and historic mine workings. Some of the mineral showings staked also carry Gold. The historic Marysvale Mining District, located approximately 300 kilometres south of Salt Lake City, is situated at the western margin of the Colorado Plateau, in the transition between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and the Range geological provinces. The Mining District lies within the Marysvale Volcanic Field, a complex suite of Tertiary volcanic rocks and calderas which formed during multiple extrusive events. Mineralization and mineral deposits in the District are associated with distinct volcanic events and related calderas. The most notable of these is uranium mineralization and deposits associated with the Mount Belknap and Red Hills calderas. In addition to historic Uranium production, the District has also produced base metals and Gold. Approximately 1.1 million pounds of U(3)O(8) were produced from the Marysvale Mining District, during the 1950's-1960's, from various mines located mostly in its eastern portion (the Central Mining Area). Historic grades typically range 0.1% to 0.2% U(3)O(8), with higher grades ranging 0.2% to 0.4% U(3)O(8), to as high as 1.1% U(3)O(8) reported from an underground cut at the historic U-Beva Mine located on DUMONT's claims. Documented Uranium mineralization extends westward from the Central Mining Area, nearly to the Nevada border. DUMONT's Properties are located in the western part of the District, approximately 30 miles to the west of the Central Mining Area, in a similar prospective geological setting. Primary Uranium mineralization in the District occurs in steep epithermal veins, cutting through a complex sequence of intrusive and volcanic horizons. Historic work has focused mostly on these veins with little attention paid to secondary, or re-distributed, Uranium mineralization potentially concentrated below surface in favourable lateral units cut by the higher grade veins. The potential for discovery of new Uranium deposits hosted in favourable lateral units has not been adequately evaluated as these units remain under-explored. Relying on historic records, approximately thirty targets have been identified by DUMONT on the newly acquired claims. The targets typically represent well defined zones of advanced clay alteration associated with a number of structures related to the rim of the Mount Belknap volcanic caldera. Many of the targets identified also host historic Uranium showings or mine workings, and can be considered to be very prospective areas for concentration of subsurface lateral uranium zones. Dumont has commenced work to prioritize the areas staked, in preparation for broader field programs to follow. Additional details will be announced once plans are finalized. Shahe F. Sabag, Dumont's President and CEO, stated, "we are excited by this first step toward consolidation of an active Uranium Property portfolio in historic mining districts in the western US." The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The Qualified Person in connection with this press release is S.F.Sabag P.Geo, President and CEO of Dumont. Dumont is a mineral exploration company with operations in Ontario, Utah and Nevada. DUMONT is Operator of the Utah Joint Venture which controls approximately 18 square miles of mineral properties across the historic Clifton-Gold Hill gold-silver-copper Mining District. DUMONT holds one of the most prospective land positions in the Attawapiskat diamond area in the James Bay Lowlands, Ontario, with a carried interest in the Dumont Joint Venture exploring the area through Metalex Ventures Limited and others under the direction of Mr.Charles Fipke. All of DUMONT's properties are being actively explored either directly by Dumont or via joint venture. DNI - TSX Venture DG7 - Frankfurt Issued: 96,198,010 For further information: Dumont Nickel Inc., Shahe Sabag, President & CEO, or Denis Clement, Chairman, (416) 595-1195, email ir@dumontnickel.com, also visit www.dumontnickel.com DUMONT NICKEL INC. - More on this organization Quotes & Charts News Releases (35) Photo Archive DNI.(TSX-VEN) © 2005 CNW Group Ltd. PRIVACY & TERMS OF USE / CONTACT US / SITE MAP ***************************************************************** 36 LA Daily News: Still cleaning pollution from the past Defense contractor finally allows inspectors BY JUDY O'ROURKE, Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 06/16/2007 05:46:00 PM PDT SANTA CLARITA - Long before the pricey tracts and top-notch schools, Santa Clarita drew folks who made some messy stuff. Most defense contractors and other manufacturers that used volatile chemicals have since moved out or shut down, and now some large-scale cleanups are under way. Polluted ground and water tables near the former Whittaker-Bermite property are being cleaned, and state regulators are eyeing three other smaller sites. After shunning federal inspectors for years, one defense contractor has opened its doors to the state. "We're doing a preliminary endangerment assessment," Jose Diaz, project manager for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, said of the agency's work at National Technical Systems in the Golden Valley area. The Calabasas-based company signed a voluntary cleanup agreement with the DTSC in November, should contamination be found. For years, the defense contractor conducted secret testing projects at its property in what is now the center of town. The NTS property - where products and components were tested for aerospace, telecommunications, automotive and military uses - has since been converted to commercial use. In about 1990, roughly 800 gallons of jet fuel were released on the property and waste oil and solvent have been dumped there, according to DTSC records. The company was cited in 1990 and again nine years later for storing hazardous waste that included kerosene, jet fuel and cooling tower waste. In 1999, NTS was cited for leaking a 55-gallon drum in the hazardous-waste storage area. Preliminary tests done in 2003 by the DTSC found perchlorate in the soil, but water agencies have said the chemicals have not infiltrated public water sources. Perchlorate is a chemical residue from rocket fuel that has been implicated in thyroid problems. The property was split in sections for the testing. Investigation of the eastern sector, where hazardous waste was stored, is complete. "It appears there is some high lead concentration," Diaz said. "Once NTS provides the report for the other portion of the site, the DTSC will review both reports and render a decision if further action is needed." Contaminant tests Last year, the company announced it was selling about 120acres of the 150-acre parcel, but the acreage lies in a buffer zone where no testing was done, officials said. A developer has been working with the city to extend a road in the burgeoning area, Diaz said. NTS property abutted the 996-acre contaminated Bermite property until last year, when Golden Valley Road was built between the two. The DTSC has begun overseeing the cleanup of Bermite, where contaminants in the soil and groundwater - namely perchlorate - remain from five decades of weapons manufacturing and testing. NTS officials say the company didn't use perchlorate, and if the chemical is found on the property it must have migrated from Bermite. Owners of the 35-acre Saugus Speedway property - not far from Bermite - asked the DTSC to explore whether pollutants migrated there from surrounding plants. During its heyday in the 1930s and '40s, crowds of 10,000 to 12,000 converged on the dirt track to watch top racers compete. Today, 6,000 to 10,000 flock to the Sunday swap meet. The Bonelli family, which owns the property, has said the swap meet will continue for years to come. But zoning allows mixed-use residential and commercial, and its prime spot near the Metrolink station could land a development there someday. Development issues Perchlorate contamination was found in monitoring wells under the property, and, should development be planned, excavating or drilling into the groundwater is prohibited, Diaz said. The agency also would need to approve any grading. Commercial businesses could occupy a first-floor space, but residences could not; they would need to be on the second floor, Diaz said. "At this time it cannot have an unrestricted use because of the contamination below," he said. On April 10, the agency approved a report on the site. A week later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency handed off another site to the state agency: Keysor-Century Corp. The former Saugus plastics plant was deemed eligible for federal superfund cleanup money because of chemicals remaining in the soil and groundwater. A private environmental study conducted more than three years ago by the property's owner found the site had no problems. However, Matt Mitguard, project manager for the EPA superfund, said the EPA has since found cancer-causing chemicals used in Keysor's PVC-manufacturing business in the soil and groundwater. Violating laws For decades, Keysor-Century manufactured polyvinyl chloride used in making record albums and other plastics. The EPA classifies vinyl chloride, a gas used in making PVCs, as a carcinogen. In August 2004, Keysor officials pleaded guilty to felony charges of violating environmental laws by releasing chemicals into the air and spewing toxic wastewater into the Santa Clara River over a number of years. Keysor paid $4.3million in civil and criminal penalties and issued a public apology. The company ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy in 2003. The EPA began its on-site investigation in June 2005, and its report - issued in September - said cancer-causing chemicals remain at the former Keysor property, southeast of the junction of Bouquet Canyon Road and Soledad Canyon Road. "We're looking to see how we will proceed with this," Diaz said. He expects to devise a plan by July. "We (may) issue them an order to investigate and clean up or (enter) into a voluntary cleanup agreement," he said. judy.orourke@dailynews.com (661) 257-5255 Copyright © 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group ***************************************************************** 37 UPI: Uranium mining making a comeback United Press International - NewsTrack - Business - Published: June 19, 2007 at 3:38 PM MOAB, Utah, June 19 (UPI) -- Uranium mining, after nearly 40 years of dormancy, is making a comeback in five western U.S. states, thanks to a reversal in prices since 2002. Claims are being staked by people hoping to be bought out or paid royalties. Canadian firms are buying old U.S. mines such as those that dotted the landscape around Moab, Utah. Seven new mines have opened in five states. This boom, unlike uranium mining borne from the 1950s nuclear arms race, is seeing more safety- and environmentally conscious prospectors, The Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday. The resurgence in uranium mining was triggered by increased global demand for the radioactive mineral. Five years ago, the spot price for uranium was just less than $10 per pound; now it's $138. But the process of restarting the industry is slow. "If it's a three-volume saga, we're now beginning Volume Two," Sidney Himmel, chief executive officer of Trigon Uranium Corp. of British Columbia, told the Monitor. Environmental and worker mishaps are rare now, Himmel said, and companies design for contingencies. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 Ventura County Star: EPA tells public to avoid former Halaco property : Oxnard : EPA tells public to avoid former Halaco property Officials say surrounding areas safe By Scott Hadly (Contact) Tuesday, June 19, 2007 The Halaco Files Visit our Halaco Web site for more information including videos that cover the history, cleanup and the reactions of those who live near and worked at Halaco; an interactive graphic that details site hot spots; an interactive timeline; an interactive graphic showing the dangerous elements found at the site and their possible effects on the body; documents from inspections, complaints, legal actions and more; a slide show of past and present images; an archive of Halaco-related stories; and links to numerous resources. VenturaCountyStar.com/halaco » The Environmental Protection Agency is delivering a message to anyone thinking about dropping by Halaco, the former metals recycling company in south Oxnard: "Stay out." "There is no risk to the public as long as they remain off the Halaco property," the agency said in a flier being mailed to community residents. Over the next few months, the agency plans to contact neighbors to warn them about the risks posed by going onto the property, said Francisco Arcuate, a spokesman for the EPA in Los Angeles. Notices will be sent in both English and Spanish to people living in the area, warning them to stay away from the old plant. The EPA's outreach coincides with the work of researchers from the California Department of Health Services. A team of state scientists was in the area last week making initial contacts for a health study that will determine if pollution from the plant, which operated from 1965 to 2004, has contributed to any health problems, ranging from cancer to asthma. Beyond that long-term study, the EPA is continuing its work to determine whether the plant and its adjacent 28-acre waste pile should be included on a list of Superfund hazardous waste cleanup sites. While that work goes on, the EPA and the property owners are trying to keep people out. There have been several incidents of trespassing, and crews working at the site have caught a few youths riding their bikes over the massive slag pile there, but the old plant is unsafe. Rob Wise, on-scene manager for the EPA emergency response team, said trespassers will be prosecuted if caught and warned parents that their children risk injury playing around the condemned buildings. Along with the heavy metals in the waste pile, crews recently discovered low-level radioactive waste buried under a concrete pad next to the smelter buildings that covered an area about the size of a football field. The agency's preliminary measurements found radiation levels from two to 100 times natural background levels. Crews took about 75 samples to determine the exact makeup of the waste and how it should be handled. Comments © 2007 Ventura County Star ***************************************************************** 39 csmonitor.com: Mining revival: a uranium boom for a wary West | from the June 19, 2007 edition Hot commodity: A miner drills a hole and inserts a probe to detect the grade of uranium at Pandora Mine in La Sal, Utah. Joanne Ciccarello – Staff Hot commodity: the West's uranium boom Seven mines are open so far in five Western states, including one in Utah. By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Page 1 of 3 Moab, Utah - Perched on a towering cliff above the town of Moab, the former mansion of a uranium prospector looks down on 130 acres of hazardous uranium waste piled on the banks of the Colorado River. Long after the industry went bust in the early 1990s, uranium still casts similar silhouettes of fortune and fallout across the mountains and mesas of the West. Now, after two decades of dormancy, the uranium industry is roaring back to life thanks to a 14-fold spike in prices since 2002. Canadian firms are snatching up old US mines with names like Pandora, Cyclone, and Whirlwind. Seven mines are open so far in five Western states, including one in Utah. Locals are scouring tattered topographical maps and driving across the wilderness; they staked 32,000 claims last year alone. And former geologists and miners are now sought-after consultants. This boom, however, returns to a more wary West, one more reliant on tourism and less innocent about the potential pitfalls of uranium. Regulations are more stringent now, but activists say history argues against complacency. "There are concerns because in the past the regulators let the industry get away with murder," says Sarah Fields, chair of the nuclear waste committee of the Sierra Club's Glen Canyon group in southeastern Utah. "The efforts should be put in cleaning up the old sites." Origins of uranium boom The nuclear arms race spurred the first uranium boom in the 1950s. Nuclear energy kept it going through the '70s. But by the early '90s, new nuclear plant construction fizzled in the US and uranium recycled from decommissioned Soviet warheads flooded the market. Prices fell so low that the industry only hung on in places like Canada, where the ore was high grade. As late as 2002, the spot price for uranium was just below $10 per pound; now it's $138. Supply is down due to problems at a Canadian mine and the drying up of the Russian legacy material. Meanwhile, demand is rising – 31 nuclear plants are under construction, mostly in Russia, India, and China. Interest in nuclear energy has rekindled in developed nations, too, as fossil fuels fall further from grace. The uranium prices are helping to open up mines. The Pandora mine in Utah, less than 40 miles south of Moab, reopened in 2006. Two mines in Colorado and Nebraska also reopened in 2006 after being closed for years. Texas saw two new mines open in 2004. Refining uranium: Ore extracted from the Pandora mine is loaded onto a truck and hauled off to be processed and refined in the White Mesa Mills in nearby Blanding. Joanne Ciccarello - staff Hot commodity: the West's uranium boom www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2007 The Christian Science Monitor. ***************************************************************** 40 KRNV.com: Standards Released For Yucca Mountain Waste Canisters Reno-Tahoe Region: WASHINGTON, D.C. The federal Energy Department is issuing standards today for companies to build canisters to contain radioactive waste during shipment and storage at the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear dump in Nevada. The agency is dubbing the containers "TAD"s, short for transportation, aging and disposal. They'd be under 18 feet long and weigh a maximum of 54 and a quarter tons each. Project planners say they will need about 7,500 TAD canisters to fill the dump to its proposed 77,000 ton capacity. They would be shipped by rail from commercial reactor sites in some 39 states. The Energy Department is decades behind in planning for the Yucca Mountain repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The project has been delayed by scientific controversies, money shortages, and opposition from Nevada officials including Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader. Officials say the best-case opening date for Yucca Mountain is now 2017. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) All content © Copyright 2001 - 2007 WorldNow and KRNV. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 41 Tri-City Herald: Hydropower -- It's a 'green' resource Opinions Published Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 Northwest ratepayers got a boost recently when Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., convinced the House Natural Resources Committee to agree that hydropower is a renewable energy resource. It was an important vote for ratepayers in general and for the many interests dependent upon the four Lower Snake River dams in particular. Some environmental groups are passionately in favor of breaching those dams. It will be more difficult when they -- and perhaps the federal courts -- have to factor in that dams are even "greener" than windmills and solar panels. "Hydropower is a clean, reliable and affordable renewable energy source that serves as a key component in our national environmental and energy policy objectives," McMorris Rodgers said. "It's about time Congress recognized that hydropower is renewable and emissions-free." She added: "At a time when there are growing concerns about the impacts of climate change, we need to find energy sources that will help curb greenhouse gas emissions without stifling our economy. "Hydropower does just that, and our dams in the Pacific Northwest produce one of the cleanest forms of electricity generation. I'm glad my colleagues recognized on a bipartisan basis that hydropower is a renewable resource similar to wind and solar." McMorris Rodgers said it would take three nuclear, six coal-fired or 14 gas-fired power plants to provide the peaking capacity of the four Snake River dams. Her amendment recognizing hydropower as a renewable energy resource passed by a bipartisan vote of 44-0. If that's any indication of the sense of the Congress (and we think it is), adverse rulings by federal judges could prove to be futile gestures in the long run. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 42 Tri-City Herald: PNNL project aims for clean Columbia River Published Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Scientists are trying a new system of chemical injections to clean up ground water contaminated with uranium and keep the radioactive metal out of the Columbia River. In a demonstration project by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in cooperation with Fluor Hanford, phosphate was injected last week to see if it can immobilize uranium that's contaminating ground water. "Nationwide it is a good tech demo," said Alicia Boyd, environmental engineer for the Environmental Protection Agency. If it proves successful, it could have applications not just at Hanford but at some of the many other places in the nation polluted with uranium. About a third of a square mile of ground water is contaminated with uranium beneath Hanford's 300 Area just north of Richland. Uranium was made into fuel there for Hanford's plutonium production reactors during World War II and the Cold War, with water contaminated with uranium in the machining production process disposed of in ponds and trenches. "The high volume discharge drove it deep into the ground water," said Mike Thompson, ground water geologist for the Department of Energy. A decade ago DOE thought the contamination would naturally attenuate to the drinking water standard if left alone. But that has not happened, as the river periodically rises and more uranium deep in the soil is washed into the ground water. The size and shape of the uranium plume remains much the same as it was 10 years ago, and contamination levels are one to three times the drinking water standard. However, the contaminated ground water that enters the river is quickly diluted and the uranium can no longer be measured as soon as the water gets ankle deep. In fact, larger quantities of uranium appear to be entering the water from fertilizer in farm runoff across the Columbia River from the Hanford nuclear reservation, according to DOE. DOE plans to evaluate multiple methods to keep the Hanford uranium out of the river before making a decision on how to tackle the problem full scale. But there are not a lot of other technologies that show promise, said John Fruchter, the project manager for the national lab. Elsewhere at Hanford, DOE has used a pump and treat system to clean uranium -- pumping up contaminated water, treating it and then adding it back into the ground. That does not appear practical at the 300 Area because uranium deep in the soil keeps being washed into the ground water to recontaminate it. Instead, PNNL is using $1.2 million from a $10 million earmark in the fiscal 2006 federal budget for ground water cleanup technology demonstrations to see if phosphate can help control the uranium. The technology already has shown promise in laboratory tests. Now uranium contaminating the 300 Area ground water is in a carbonate form that dissolves in the ground water. But combined with phosphate it forms autunite, a uranium phosphate mineral that's bright yellow and flaky, which sticks on the rock in the ground water. "It's very happy there and never redissolves," Thompson said. But as the river level changes, more uranium keeps entering the ground water. In an attempt to solve that problem, two more rounds of injections were made last week after the initial polyphosphate injection. For the secondary treatment, first calcium chloride, then more polyphosphate were injected. Together they form apatite, the same substance in teeth, to form a horizontal barrier. When the ground water rises and washes more uranium out of the contaminated soil, the uranium should hit the barrier and bind to it. "The secondary treatment is important because the formation of apatite gives long-term treatment," said Vince Vermeul, senior research engineer for the national laboratory. A similar apatite barrier is being tested upriver near Hanford's N Reactor to prevent radioactive strontium from entering the Columbia River. Data will be collected through the end of the year to see if the technology works as expected to reduce uranium contamination in the 300 Area ground water. In addition, PNNL also has received $1.1 million in the fiscal year 2007 federal budget for laboratory studies to see if a similar method could be used to immobilize uranium in the soil before it reaches the ground water. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 43 Hanford News: House approves money for international nuclear fuel bank This story was published Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 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/ © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 44 Hanford News: Kennewick company buys isotopes division This story was published Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 the Herald staff Kennewick-based Advanced Medical Isotopes Corp. has bought the Life Sciences Division of Isonics for about $850,000, the company announced Monday. The division had sales of about $5 million in the past two years, the company said. Isonics Corp. is based in Golden, Colo. The purchase gives Advanced Medical access to isotope suppliers in Russia and a commercial arrangement with Central Radiopharmaceutical Services Inc., which produces isotopes at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Radioisotopes are used to diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer. The company is engaged in the development of advanced production systems and processes to bring new isotopes into the market. William J. Stokes, CEO of Advanced Medical, said in a statement, "We understand the extraordinary growth of U.S. demand for medical imaging products will reach $21.4 billion by 2010, and AMIC is positioning itself to take full advantage of that growth." © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 Hanford News: Powell resigns as AIT leader This story was published Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 Pratik Joshi, Herald staff writer Lura J. Powell has resigned as the president and CEO of Richland-based Advanced Imaging Technologies, the company announced Monday. Powell, 57, will continue to be on the board of directors of the company, which is known for its ultrasonic holography technology used in de-tecting breast cancer. Powell said she quit to make way for new leadership to help the company move into aggressive production and marketing. Her resignation will give the company resources to recruit the required talent, she said. "My skills are in technology and product development," she added. Powell added that her decision to leave wasn't sudden or related to any differences with AIT board chairman George Garlick. "I'm a shareholder and founder and I don't want the company to fail," she said. Garlick said, "I'm thankful she'll remain active on the board. She has a passion for technology, community and women's health." Powell will be part of the decision-making in selecting a new company leader, Garlick said. "I value her so highly." Powell said the new leader needs to have demonstrated experience in the production of medical equipment and bringing new medical technology to market. Powell said she has no immediate plans, but she will continue to be involved with various community organizations. She currently heads Washington State's Life Science Discovery Fund Authority, which funds technologies to address serious health care issues. She left as director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 2002 to lead a more flexible and balanced life. A year later, Garlick asked Powell to lead his start-up company. "This is more of a cause than a job," Powell told the Herald after accepting the position. Powell, who holds a doctorate in analytical chemistry, worked for the Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology before coming to the Tri-Cities in 2000 as PNNL director. In 2004, AIT was named a runner-up in the bio-tech medical category of the Wall Street Journal's Technology Awards competition. "She has positioned us to go the next stage," Garlick said. With Food and Drug Administration clearance and patents secured, commercialization of the technology will be a major priority in the next year, he added. Powell said interesting things find her, but it will be hard to top the excitement of working at AIT. She said at this time, though, she's not looking for a job. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 46 Hanford News: Project aims for clean river This story was published Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Scientists are trying a new system of chemical injections to clean up ground water contaminated with uranium and keep the radioactive metal out of the Columbia River. In a demonstration project by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in cooperation with Fluor Hanford, phosphate was injected last week to see if it can immobilize uranium that's contaminating ground water. "Nationwide it is a good tech demo," said Alicia Boyd, environmental engineer for the Environmental Protection Agency. If it proves successful, it could have applications not just at Hanford but at some of the many other places in the nation polluted with uranium. About a third of a square mile of ground water is contaminated with uranium beneath Hanford's 300 Area just north of Richland. Uranium was made into fuel there for Hanford's plutonium production reactors during World War II and the Cold War, with water contaminated with uranium in the machining production process disposed of in ponds and trenches. "The high volume discharge drove it deep into the ground water," said Mike Thompson, ground water geologist for the Department of Energy. A decade ago DOE thought the contamination would naturally attenuate to the drinking water standard if left alone. But that has not happened, as the river periodically rises and more uranium deep in the soil is washed into the ground water. The size and shape of the uranium plume remains much the same as it was 10 years ago, and contamination levels are one to three times the drinking water standard. However, the contaminated ground water that enters the river is quickly diluted and the uranium can no longer be measured as soon as the water gets ankle deep. In fact, larger quantities of uranium appear to be entering the water from fertilizer in farm runoff across the Columbia River from the Hanford nuclear reservation, according to DOE. DOE plans to evaluate multiple methods to keep the Hanford uranium out of the river before making a decision on how to tackle the problem full scale. But there are not a lot of other technologies that show promise, said John Fruchter, the project manager for the national lab. Elsewhere at Hanford, DOE has used a pump and treat system to clean uranium - pumping up contaminated water, treating it and then adding it back into the ground. That does not appear practical at the 300 Area because uranium deep in the soil keeps being washed into the ground water to recontaminate it. Instead, PNNL is using $1.2 million from a $10 million earmark in the fiscal 2006 federal budget for ground water cleanup technology demonstrations to see if phosphate can help control the uranium. The technology already has shown promise in laboratory tests. Now uranium contaminating the 300 Area ground water is in a carbonate form that dissolves in the ground water. But combined with phosphate it forms autunite, a uranium phosphate mineral that's bright yellow and flaky, which sticks on the rock in the ground water. "It's very happy there and never redissolves," Thompson said. But as the river level changes, more uranium keeps entering the ground water. In an attempt to solve that problem, two more rounds of injections were made last week after the initial polyphosphate injection. For the secondary treatment, first calcium chloride, then more polyphosphate were injected. Together they form apatite, the same substance in teeth, to form a horizontal barrier. When the ground water rises and washes more uranium out of the contaminated soil, the uranium should hit the barrier and bind to it. "The secondary treatment is important because the formation of apatite gives long-term treatment," said Vince Vermeul, senior research engineer for the national laboratory. A similar apatite barrier is being tested upriver near Hanford's N Reactor to prevent radioactive strontium from entering the Columbia River. Data will be collected through the end of the year to see if the technology works as expected to reduce uranium contamination in the 300 Area ground water. In addition, PNNL also has received $1.1 million in the fiscal year 2007 federal budget for laboratory studies to see if a similar method could be used to immobilize uranium in the soil before it reaches the ground water. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 47 AIP: President Would Veto House Version of FY 2008 DOE Funding Bill American Institute of Physics FYI Number 62: June 14, 2007 President Would Veto House Version of FY 2008 DOE Funding Bill The language in yesterday's Statement of Administration Policy issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regarding H.R. 2641, the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill could not be clearer: "if H.R. 2641 were presented to the President, he would veto the bill." Congress and the Bush Administration are headed toward a fiscal train wreck because of a fundamental disagreement about the level of discretionary spending in the upcoming fiscal year. While there was a fair amount of grumbling and some creative bookkeeping in previous years, the Republican leadership was able to keep total spending within the parameter set by President Bush. As fully expected, the new House and Senate Democratic leaders disagree with the Administration about the level of FY 2008 discretionary spending. (This spending is in contrast to mandatory spending for entitlement programs and interest on the national debt.) Earlier this year, OMB statements indicated that appropriations bills would be vetoed if total discretionary spending exceeded the Administration's limit. The statements were somewhat hazy about timing, e.g., would only the bill which exceeded the overall spending limit be vetoed? Since the congressional leadership intends to send the Defense bill to the president as the last of the twelve appropriations bills, it would have presented a considerable dilemma to the White House. OMB removed any uncertainty by announcing this week that the president would veto the first three bills that the House Appropriations Committee has sent to the House floor in their current form (Homeland Security; Energy and Water; and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs). In almost identical language in three Statement[s] of Administration Policy issued this week, OMB raised objections about overall spending and earmarking. The following is the language regarding the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill: "The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 2641 because, in combination with the other FY 2008 appropriations bills, it includes an irresponsible and excessive level of spending and includes other objectionable provisions. "The President has proposed a responsible plan for a balanced budget by 2012 through spending restraint and without raising taxes. To achieve this important goal, the Administration supports a responsible discretionary spending total of not more than $933 billion in FY 2008, which is a $60 billion increase over the FY 2007 enacted level. The Democratic Budget Resolution and subsequent spending allocations adopted by the House Appropriations Committee exceed the President’s discretionary spending topline by $22 billion, causing a 9 percent increase in FY 2008 discretionary spending and a nearly 10 percent increase in the projected deficit for FY 2008. In addition, the Administration opposes the House Appropriations Committee’s plan to shift $3.5 billion from the Defense appropriations bill to non-defense spending, which is inconsistent with the Democrats’ Budget Resolution and risks diminishing America’s war fighting capacity. In combination with other spending bills, H.R. 2641 would lead to spending and tax increases that put economic growth and a balanced budget at risk. "H.R. 2641 exceeds the President’s requests for programs funded in this bill by $1.1 billion, part of the $22 billion increase above the President’s request for FY 2008 appropriations. The Administration asked that Congress demonstrate a path to live within the President’s topline and cover the excess spending in this bill through reductions elsewhere. Because Congress has failed to demonstrate such a path, if H.R. 2641 were presented to the President, he would veto the bill." The Statement of Administration Policy on the Energy and Water Development bill offered the Administration's additional views on specific provisions of the legislation. Selections follow: "AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS INITIATIVE: The Administration commends the Committee’s implementation of the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative with its strong support for the Office of Science." "ADVANCED ENERGY INITIATIVE: The Administration appreciates the broad support for the President’s Advanced Energy Initiative, but the unrequested funding provided in the bill, particularly the significant increases provided for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, are not necessary to achieve performance goals." "YUCCA MOUNTAIN: The Administration appreciates the Committee’s support for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository program and its recognition of the enormous costs of delay in fulfilling the Government’s responsibility for disposing of the Nation’s nuclear waste." SEQUESTRATION (Fossil Energy Research and Development): "The Administration agrees with the bill’s focusing of efforts within Fossil Energy Research and Development on technology for carbon capture and sequestration, but the funding levels are excessive. In particular, savings could be realized by terminating the Innovations for Existing Plants program -- rather than creating a new mission for this program -- and the oil and gas technology programs, as well as by moderating the proposed increases in Sequestration and Advanced Research." "NUCLEAR ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: The Administration is disappointed with the reduction to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), a key part of the Administration’s strategy to promote the use of nuclear energy domestically and internationally, and for the funding reduction for Nuclear Power 2010, a program that will assist companies with the nuclear licensing process. GNEP can extend the useful life of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository by reducing the waste placed in the repository. GNEP is also gaining growing support from other nuclear supplier countries, which a cut in funding would put at risk. The Administration urges the House to restore funding for these critical programs." "NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION (NNSA): The Administration appreciates the Committee’s support for the important work of NNSA. Of particular note is the Committee’s support for the vital work of the Administration’s priority non-proliferation programs. "The Administration notes the Committee’s continued interest in the effort to eliminate 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium through the creation of mixed oxide fuel. However, the reduction of $284 million would result in the termination of construction and procurement activities for the MOX facility and in lay-offs of approximately 500 contractor employees. In addition, the Administration disagrees with the Committee’s decision to change the structure of the fissile materials disposition program, which involves interdependent facilities that should be managed in one program. "The Administration understands the need to work with the Committee on a plan for transforming the nuclear weapons stockpile and complex that is aimed at assuring bipartisan support. However, the Administration strongly opposes the Committee’s decision to eliminate funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). Congress has consistently supported this vital effort to modernize the nuclear weapons stockpile. Failure to continue the program will contribute to increasing concern about weapon performance/reliability and may in turn require the maintenance of a larger size stockpile than was contemplated with RRWs. "The Administration strongly opposes the reduction for Weapons Activities of approximately $600 million from the President’s request. At the lower funding level, activities and programs critical to transform the nuclear weapons complex and allow it to become more cost-effective and responsive to rapidly changing requirements will be severely curtailed." The House may consider H.R. 2641 as early as today or tomorrow. While passage is expected in the House, the final bill's parameters will not be settled until a way can be found to bridge the $22 billion gap between the White House and the Democratic congressional leadership on total spending for FY 2008. Richard M. Jones Media and Government Relations Division American Institute of Physics fyi@aip.org 301-209-3095 ***************************************************************** 48 Tracy Press: Use your voice to make Tracy safer Marylia Kelley/Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment Friday, 15 June 2007 The community has an important opportunity Wednesday to make Tracy a safer place to live and work. The public’s voice is needed to make sure that deadly toxic and radioactive wastes, which have seeped into the soil and water at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Site 300 on Corral Hollow Road, are cleaned up. Site 300, which is used by the Livermore lab to test high explosives and nuclear weapon components, is a federal Superfund cleanup location. The pollution at Site 300, 8 miles southwest of Tracy, is among the worst in the country. This will be the public’s last chance to comment on the site-wide proposed plan for the cleanup. One of the main contaminants at Site 300 is TCE, which is the chemical of concern in the book and movie, “A Civil Action.” The soil and water at Site 300 are also massively polluted with high-explosive compounds, perchlorate, radioactive tritium and Uranium-238. Tritium is the radioactive hydrogen of the hydrogen bomb. Uranium-238, sometimes called depleted uranium, is a hazardous heavy metal used in nuclear weapon components and for testing at Site 300. It has a radioactive half-life of more than 4 billion years. Please attend the public meeting Wednesday. It will begin at 6 p.m. at Tracy Community Center, 950 East St. It is crucial that your voice be heard now. The federal Environmental Protection Agency will look at public comments given at the meeting and submitted in writing in determining whether the proposed cleanup plan is acceptable as it is, or whether it needs to be improved. Your input can protect the environment and safeguard the health of the community. You can request that the site-wide proposed plan be strengthened to provide a comprehensive cleanup of all pollution at Site 300. The proposed plan does not go far enough in cleaning up Site 300. For example, the plan does not propose to stop underground tritium plumes from moving — meaning the radioactive pollution will continue to travel and contaminate more and more water. Further, the proposed plan does not include excavation of “hot spots” in the unlined toxic waste dumps at Site 300. The Tracy City Council specifically requested that the Livermore lab excavate radioactive debris from the dumps so that the radioactivity would not continue to leak into the surrounding groundwater. Yet, doing this is not in the current plan. Risk estimates at Site 300 indicate elevated risk of human health problems and cancer deaths if contaminants are left in place. Tell the Livermore lab and the EPA that health risks to Site 300 workers and community members are not acceptable. The contamination must be cleaned up to the maximum extent possible, not left for future generations to deal with. I support a stronger cleanup plan for Site 300 than what has been proposed so far. Why am I involved In addition to caring about clean air, clean water and a healthy environment, I live next door to the lab’s main site in Livermore. The groundwater under my neighborhood is part of an off-site contamination plume emanating from Livermore lab. I want to see the Livermore lab spend more money cleaning up its radioactive and toxic messes and less money creating new pollution as it develops horrific new nuclear weapons. Only about 1 percent of Livermore lab’s total budget is going to cleanup of Site 300. The lab can and must do better! Join me Wednesday and speak up for the health of Tracy. For more information on the proposed plan and the public meeting, go to Tri-Valley CAREs’ Web site at www.trivalleycares.org. And, if you cannot be at the public meeting, download, sign and mail in the four-page comment letter that you will find there. Thank you for caring enough to take action. ***************************************************************** 49 NewsBlaze: U.S. Department of Energy Moves Forward with Final Requirements The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the release of final performance requirements for the Transportation, Aging and Disposal (TAD) canister for disposal of spent nuclear fuel at a repository to be located at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nevada. This canister approach will minimize the need for repetitive handling of spent nuclear fuel by using the same canister from the time it leaves a nuclear power plant to its placement in a waste disposal package at Yucca Mountain. "This is one more step in moving the Yucca Mountain Project forward to submit the License Application," said Edward Sproat, Director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). "We are strongly encouraged by what we have seen so far in the proof-of-concept design phase." DOE will shortly initiate procurement for the development of final TAD canister and cask designs. DOE also plans to enter into discussions with nuclear utilities to amend their disposal contracts with DOE to facilitate the use of TAD canisters. DOE anticipates that TAD canisters will be available for commercial use as early as 2011 and expects that up to 90 percent of commercial spent nuclear fuel could be placed in TAD canisters, resulting in the need for about 7,500 TAD canisters for the proposed repository. In November 2006, DOE released the preliminary TAD performance specification followed by a proof-of-concept phase that resulted in the development of designs by four cask vendors. The TAD-based approach, announced in October 2005, eliminates the need for the construction of several multi-million square foot, multi-billion dollar facilities for handling spent fuel at the Yucca Mountain repository. Yucca Mountain was approved by the Congress and the President as the site for the nation's first permanent spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste geologic repository in 2002. In March 2007 DOE submitted legislation to Congress to enhance the nation's ability to manage and dispose of commercial spent nuclear fuel and Defense high-level radioactive waste. The Department's license application for authorization to construct the repository, which is scheduled to be submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on or before June 30, 2008, will incorporate the TAD approach. The final TAD requirements are available on the OCRWM website under "WHAT'S NEW' at www.ocrwm.doe.gov. Source: U.S. Department of Energy judythpiazza@gmail.com Copyright © 2007, NewsBlaze, Daily News ***************************************************************** 50 KnoxNews: DOE ditches pension reform Officials won't ask its contractors to make changes By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com June 19, 2007 The U.S. Department of Energy has scrapped a proposal to reform pension plans at its contractors, including those in Oak Ridge. DOE first issued the proposal in April 2006, but the agency postponed the implementation because of a largely negative response. Federal officials announced last week they would not reissue the notice to put in place broad-based changes, including a change from defined-benefit pension plans to a system with defined contributions - similar to 401(k)-type plans. DOE had said the changes were needed to help control runaway pension and medical-benefit costs, which had reportedly grown 226 percent since 2000 and threatened the funding base for basic missions. Megan Barnett, a spokeswoman at DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C., said Monday the agency would "move forward with the previously established policy" while continuing to study the issues and gather input from stakeholders. She said DOE would manage its long-term financial commitments, but she did not address how that would be accomplished. UT-Battelle, which manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and other DOE contractors in Oak Ridge had been supportive of the reform proposal, saying it would provide flexibility and help them recruit new personnel. The sharpest criticism came from Oak Ridge retirees, even though the reform package would not have directly affected them. Current employees and retirees would have retained their existing benefits. The Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees criticized the DOE plan because some of the language appeared to make it more difficult to get pension adjustments. The retirees have lobbied hard for a pension increase in recent years, citing the loss of purchasing power due to inflation and noting the huge surplus available in the Oak Ridge pension fund. CORRE representatives said Monday that DOE may choose to implement pension reform on a contract-by-contract basis and expressed concern that the federal agency could look to use the Oak Ridge pension fund surplus for other purposes. "Considering Oak Ridge retirees start out with one of the worst pensions in the DOE system, this behavior is even more shameful," said CORRE President David Reichle. Charlie Kuykendall, a CORRE board member, said one positive about DOE scrapping the reform notice is that it removes the language that would have required the secretary of energy's approval for any pension adjustments. But he said it's not clear what impact the DOE announcement will have on retirees and their push for a pension increase. "I don't know if it's good or bad," Kuykendall said. "We're going to try to figure that out over the next couple of days." Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************