***************************************************************** 06/22/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.146 ***************************************************************** 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 Reuters: IAEA due in N.Korea for start of nuclear shutdown 2 UPI: Hill: North Korea shutdown coming 3 AFP; NKorea prepared to shut nuclear reactor: US envoy - 4 US: Chillicothe Gazette: Possible explosive situation found at Piket 5 US: UCS: Handful of Senators Block Clean Energy Vote 6 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy: North Wants Denuclearization NUCLEAR REACTORS 7 Interfax: Russia, Japan to prepare draft agreement on peaceful nucle 8 US: Woodstock Sentinel-Review: Nuclear plan a big mistake 9 BBC NEWS: Pakistan 'building new reactor' 10 US: WNN: Bush: 'Nuclear a key to economic vitality' 11 US: Decatur Daily: Bush visits Browns Ferry: Power intersects at nuc 12 Xinhua: Pakistan denies report on new nuclear reactor 13 Reuters: Siemens in talks with Areva over Framatome stake 14 UPI: Analysis: The nuclear revival 15 US: News 10 Now: FitzPatrick Nuclear Plant aging well 16 US: AFP: Mitsubishi, Areva to bid for US nuclear project - 17 US: Japan Times: Mitsubishi Heavy, Areva to bid for U.S. nuclear pro 18 AFP: Pakistan builds third nuclear reactor for bombs - report - 19 US: TheDay.com: DEP To Review Case Related To Millstone Water Discha 20 WNN: Stage set for UK reactor evaluation 21 US: NRC: NRC Issues Confirmatory Action Letter on Palo Verde Nuclear NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 22 Interfax: Rosatom rejects new imports of depleted uranium from Europ 23 US: Hemscott: Gov't demands Ariz. nuke safety 24 JOGJCC: Probe over plutonium in manhole NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 25 Pahrump Valley Times: House takes swipe at 'Yucca Johnny' 26 Pahrump Valley Times: Heller asks for removal of $202 million 27 US: Interfax: Ukraine's participation in uranium center may be docum 28 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Gov. ends Utah's Washington, D.C. lobbyist's 29 Scotsman.com: Dounreay plant staff in plutonium scare 30 NEI : Strong Bipartisan Support Shown For Yucca Mountain Repository PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 31 DOE: Global Science Gateway Now Open 32 Hanford News: Nuclear Energy Then ... and Now 33 Hanford News: Fine could pay for greenhouses, spill response boats 34 Hanford News: Lawmakers seek Battelle contract renewal 35 Inside Bay Area: Retirees from lab may see cash cut 36 NB: Department of Energy Hosts First Steering Committee Meeting on U ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Reuters: IAEA due in N.Korea for start of nuclear shutdown Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:55PM EDT By Karin Strohecker VIENNA (Reuters) - Senior U.N. inspectors will arrive in North Korea on Tuesday to agree steps in verifying a promised shutdown of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday. The timing of the breakthrough visit, to last five days, had been approved by the North Korean government, an IAEA statement said, allaying fears of a delay raised a day earlier when Pyongyang said a financial dispute had not yet been resolved. North Korea complained it had not yet received $25 million in recently unfrozen funds whose release it set as a condition for implementing the February 13 nuclear disarmament deal. But a way out of the impasse appeared on Friday when a Russian government source was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the transfer of the cash into a North Korean account on Russian soil would be completed on Monday. "Our team heading for North Korea will be leaving on Sunday, will be arriving in Pyongyang on Tuesday and hopefully then we will start the process of working with (North Korea) on the modalities of shutting down the nuclear facility at Yongbyon," said IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei. "This is good news and I think we finally should be able to start what I think will be a long and complex process, but I believe very much a process in the right direction," he told reporters at the U.N. watchdog's Vienna headquarters. The IAEA's statement said its deputy director in charge of nuclear safeguards, Olli Heinonen, would head the four-member delegation to establish a new monitoring system, 4 1/2 years after the Communist state expelled agency inspectors. Washington's top envoy on the North Korea crisis, just back from a rare visit to Pyongyang, said it was ready to disable its nuclear reactor, which produces bomb-grade plutonium fuel, in weeks and meet pledges it made in a disarmament deal. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the highest-ranking U.S. State Department official to visit the reclusive state in nearly five years, said talks during his brief surprise trip to Pyongyang were detailed and positive. Continued... ***************************************************************** 2 UPI: Hill: North Korea shutdown coming United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: June 22, 2007 at 7:19 AM SEOUL, June 22 (UPI) -- North Korea is willing to shut down its nuclear facilities, a U.S. negotiator said Friday in Seoul after a visit to Pyongyang. "They are prepared to disable the Yongbyon facility," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said at a news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Chun Yung-woo, Yonhap reported. Hill visited North Korea for two days to check on the status of a February agreement under which North Korean officials agreed to shut down the nuclear program in exchange for oil and other aid. The shutdown had been held up by a delay in one of the conditions, the release of $25 million in frozen North Korean funds frozen at a Macau bank that have since been freed. "I sense that we are going to be able to achieve our full objectives, that is complete denuclearization" of North Korea, Hill said. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 AFP; NKorea prepared to shut nuclear reactor: US envoy - by Jun Kwanwoo Fri Jun 22, 7:54 AM ET SEOUL (AFP) - US envoy Christopher Hill said Friday he had "useful and positive" talks on a rare visit to North Korea and the regime was prepared to shut down the reactor at the heart of its nuclear programme. Hill -- the most senior US official to visit the communist state in nearly five years -- said they had agreed on the need to swiftly implement a February agreement on disarmament. "The DPRK (North Korea) indicated they are prepared to promptly shut down the Yongbyon facility as called for by the February agreement," he said in Seoul after his two-day visit to Pyongyang. "They also said they are prepared to disable the Yongbyon facility," he said." In Pyongyang, Hill met with North Korea's Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun and Kim Kye-Gwan, its chief envoy to the six-nation forum that drew up the February 13 accord. Under that agreement, hammered out after a surge in tensions following the North's first nuclear weapons test last year, Pyongyang promised to shut down the Yongbyon plant in return for energy aid and diplomatic concessions. "Both of us reaffirmed our commitment to the February agreement and to the complete fulfillment of that February agreement," Hill said. "We discussed all elements of the February agreement and we also had a look ahead to what we have to do in the future to keep the process going and to really restore the sense of momentum and dynamism that will take us to the end game, which is a complete denuclearisation." The complete denuclearisation includes the North's declaration of all its nuclear programmes, including a highly-enriched uranium programme that prompted the 2002 nuclear crisis. "We did discuss the need to have a comprehensive list of all nuclear programmes. All means all," Hill said, indicating he touched on the issue. He said both sides wanted an early meeting of nuclear negotiators -- early July is seen as a possibility -- followed by ministerial-level talks grouping the six sides -- the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. South Korea's chief nuclear envoy said after meeting Hill that North Korea indicated it would take part in such meetings. Hill's visit came ahead of the scheduled arrival next week of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog -- the first time they will have been back since being kicked out in late 2002 -- to discuss how to shut down Yongbyon. Some analysts here say Hill's trip indicated the reclusive regime had made a strategic decision to push forward with the six-nation deal. "The visit to Pyongyang is a highly significant development," Paik Haksoon, an analyst with the Sejong Institute, said. "By inviting Hill, Pyongyang is sending a strong signal that it is firmly committed to implementing the February deal." But Foreign Minister Taro Aso of Japan, which has taken the hardest line in negotiating with the North, voiced scepticism. "Honestly, my feeling is, 'Does this really lead to six-way talks?'," Aso asked. "They must not go there in haste to get stared down," he said. "I don't want them to yield easily." Progress on implementing the February agreement has been slowed by a hitch over the return of North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank, but the assets have now been unblocked. The remittance via Russia will be completed Friday, a Russian diplomat was quoted as saying by Moscow's Itar-Tass news agency. Pending confirmation of the transfer, however, a North Korean official in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based, said Pyongyang had not yet given the final go-ahead for the UN inspectors to come back. In another development, South Korea said it would announce a timetable next week for the shipment of 400,000 tons of rice aid to the impoverished North. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 Chillicothe Gazette: Possible explosive situation found at Piketon www.chillicothegazette.com - Chillicothe, OH Friday, June 22, 2007 By ASHLEY LYKINS Gazette Staff Writer PIKETON -A building on the Department of Energy reservation was evacuated last Friday after workers found a chemical compound that had the potential to cause an explosive reaction. A putty-like piping compound was discovered near the valve of a 3-feet-by-5-feet tank containing oxygen. "There was a potential that ... there could be a chemical reaction, so until they could look and say, 'What do we have here?' they evacuated the building to be on the safe side," said Laura Schachter, a spokeswoman with the Energy Department. "They checked and made sure the tank, the oxygen, was stable. They took it out of the building and people went back in." The building, part of the depleted uranium hexafluoride waste processing project, is still under construction. It is a large, concrete building, she said. While Schachter maintained there was a "low, minor chance" of an ignition, the incident was reported to the Pike County Sheriff's Office. "Had the valve been open, there could have been a reaction," she said. "It probably would have been very localized. It definitely wasn't anything that could have blown up the building." Authorities looked into the possibility that someone purposely put the compound there, but they might not ever know, she said. "It's kind of how things happen at sites like the Piketon site," she said. "You know, you (have) to err on the side of safety. The good thing was the workers and their supervision reacted as they were trained to react ... They did what they needed to do and didn't take chances." Schachter said she doesn't believe the investigation can go much further at this point. "The public was never at risk, and the rest of the site was not," she said. Wednesday, the site conducted a security drill during which the training scenario was one of an explosive device placed on a chlorine cylinder. However, the drill wasn't triggered by last week's incident, she said. "They do an annual security inspection," she said. (Lykins can be reached at 772-9376 or via e-mail at anlykins@nncogannett.com) Copyright ©2007 Chillicothe Gazette All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 UCS: Handful of Senators Block Clean Energy Vote June 21, 2007 Statement by Marchant Wentworth, Washington Represetnative for UCS's Clean Energy Program WASHINGTON (June 21, 2007)—A handful of senators blocked a vote on a national renewable electricity standard last night, but the House of Representatives will consider a similar standard as early as next week. The standard killed last night would have required utilities to produce 15 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass by 2022. Because the Senate has invoked cloture on the Energy Bill, lawmakers cannot introduce an amendment to create a renewable electricity standard because it would not be germane to the base bill. Below is a statement by Marchant Wentworth, Washington representative for the Clean Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists: "Despite majority support in the Senate, a small group of senators mugged the latest effort to pass a national renewable electricity standard. They didn't take a vote, there's no record of who actually killed the initiative, so there is no accountability to the American people - who overwhelmingly support a strong standard. "Fortunately, similar legislation in the House could create a strong market for renewable energy and deliver new high-paying jobs, consumer savings on electricity bills, and income for rural communities. A renewable electricity standard would help establish the clean energy alternatives we need in the fight against global warming. A bill [HR 969] calling for 20 percent renewable electricity by 2020, proposed by Representative Mark Udall, has 117 cosponsors and support for it continues to grow. We have the best chance we've ever seen for getting a renewable standard through the House. "Already, 23 states and the District of Columbia have renewable energy standards up and running. The whole country deserves the same benefits." Reporters: Join our notification list to receive breaking news from UCS. General media inquiries can be directed to our media office line at 202-331-5420. If you are calling about a specific issue, contact the appropriate press contact below. Press Contacts: Energy, Food, Scientific Integrity MEGHAN CROSBY Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-6943 mcrosby@ucsusa.org Climate, Global Security, Vehicles, Invasives AARON HUERTAS Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-5458 ahuertas@ucsusa.org Scientific Integrity, Vehicles LISA NURNBERGER Press Secretary 202-331-6959 lnurnberger@ucsusa.org Climate, Food EMILY ROBINSON Press Secretary 202-331-5427 erobinson@ucsusa.org ELLIOTT NEGIN Media Director 202-331-5439 enegin@ucsusa.org © Union of Concerned Scientists Page Last Revised: 06/21/07 ***************************************************************** 6 Guardian Unlimited: U.S. Envoy: North Wants Denuclearization From the Associated Press Friday June 22, 2007 11:31 AM By JAE-SOON CHANG Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said Friday that North Korea is prepared to promptly carry out a pledge to shut down its main nuclear reactor, but warned that the country's complete denuclearization will not be easy. Hill, spoke to reporters following his return earlier in the day from a brief, surprise trip to North Korea, where he held talks with the country's chief nuclear negotiator and foreign minister. ``I come away from this two-day set of meetings buoyed by a sense that we are going to be able to achieve our full objectives, that is complete denuclearization,'' Hill said. He also said, however, that he is ``also burdened by the realization of the fact that we're going to have to spend a great deal of time, a great deal of effort, a lot of work in achieving these.'' Hill is the chief U.S. envoy to the six-party framework of nations that is working toward North Korea's nuclear disarmament. Besides North Korea and the U.S., the other members are China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Despite promises by North Korea, the six-party process, which began in August 2003, has failed to achieve any concrete action by the country toward denuclearization. Tensions surrounding the North's nuclear programs heightened in October last year when the communist country carried out its first nuclear test explosion, sparking outrage worldwide. In February, North Korea promised the other five countries that it would shut down its main nuclear fuel processing facility at Yongbyon by mid-April. That was delayed, however, due to a dispute over $25 million in allegedly illicit North Korean funds frozen in a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau. ``The DPRK indicated that they are prepared promptly to shut down the Yongbyon facility as called for in the February agreement,'' Hill said, referring to the North by the abbreviation of its official name. The rare visit to Pyongyang by a high-ranking U.S. official came amid hopes North Korea was on the verge of taking concrete steps to carry out its commitment to shut down its bomb-making reactor following the resolution of the financial dispute. On Saturday, the North's state media said it had invited inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit the country next week. North Korea expelled the U.N. nuclear watchdog in 2002. Hill said earlier this week that the financial problem had been solved and that North Korea had received the money. However, a Russian official said Friday that technical difficulties had caused a delay, though the transfer should still go through. ``The money transfer is to be conducted today,'' Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Officials have said the money was to be sent to a North Korean account at a Russian bank. Hill also said Pyongyang is ready to completely disable the reactor, also in line with the February agreement, ``although we must work out the details.'' He said that both North Korea and the U.S. ``reaffirmed our commitment to the February agreement and to the complete fulfillment of that February agreement.'' Hill also said that he and the North Korean officials expressed their support for holding an early meeting of chief delegates to the six-way talks, as well as a meeting of foreign ministers from those countries. The U.S. envoy, who carried the rank of assistant secretary of state, said that he was invited to visit North Korea by Kim Kye Gwan, his negotiating counterpart, and made no effort to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Hill went to Seoul earlier Friday for consultations with South Korean officials. He appeared at the press conference along with his South Korean counterpart in the six-party talks, Chun Yung-woo. ``The talks were very detailed, very substantive and I believe they were also very useful and positive,'' Hill said of his approximately 24 hours in the North. Hill said he planned to travel to Japan to brief officials there and would also talk with his Russian and Chinese partners. The visit by Hill, coming before North Korea makes good on its promises, appeared to demonstrate how much the U.S. wants to achieve a breakthrough in efforts to dismantle Pyongyang's atomic weapons program. The administration of President Bush has in the past preferred to meet the North with regional powers like China and Japan at the talks. But the U.S. has been moving away from that limitation, holding meetings on the sidelines of summits and sending White House adviser Victor Cha to Pyongyang earlier this year. Hill's trip is the clearest indication yet of a more direct approach. The U.S. and North Korea have been at odds since the 1950-53 Korean War and do not have formal diplomatic relations. -- Associated Press Writer Bo-Mi Lim in Seoul and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 7 Interfax: Russia, Japan to prepare draft agreement on peaceful nuclear cooperation by yearend Jun 22 2007 12:56PM ANGARSK. June 22 (Interfax) - Russia and Japan will prepare a draft intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy before the end of 2007, Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) chief Sergei Kiriyenko said at a briefing in Angarsk on Friday. "I think we will be capable of preparing the document for signing this year," he said. © 1991-2007 Interfax All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 8 Woodstock Sentinel-Review: Nuclear plan a big mistake Woodstock, ON June 22, 2007 One Person's View Matt Shurrie Friday June 22, 2007 Call it a case of one step forward and two steps back. At a time when the environment is dominating national and international headlines, it was more than a little disheartening last week to watch as the federal government approved in principle a plan for the underground disposal of nuclear waste. Not surprising, elected politicians quickly scattered for the summer. Perhaps it was a case of see you in September - or, in this case, October. What’s a little more frightening about the prospect of underground nuclear waste is the federal government’s laissez-faire attitude about the whole matter. "This is just the beginning of quite a long process," said Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, sounding more like 1980s pop singer Bobby McFerrin of "Don’t Worry Be Happy" fame. "It will be a number of years before there is anything further to announce." Which begs the question: Why move forward with such a plan, even in principle, if the details haven’t been worked out? Sounds like another decision by a government flying by the seat of its pants. Perhaps the biggest detail that still needs to be hammered out in the days, weeks, months and years to come is where to bury this highly toxic material. It’s a decision that won’t be made easy by at least one unlucky community. Not even Kincardine, the home community of the Bruce Nuclear power plant, wants anything to do with the unholy burial ground. Just two years ago, municipal councillors in Kincardine and surrounding communities (including Saugeen Shores, the Township of Huron-Kinloss, Arran Elderslie and Brockton) had dollar signs in their eyes as a benefit package of $39 million was being dangled. One municipal election later and officials from those communities are already looking for ways to take a pass on such a deal. The deal with the devil appears dead. Financially viable or not, we’re talking about nuclear waste here. It’s not the potato peels from last night’s dinner - this refuse packs a serious, toxic punch. Of course, the federal government continues to reassure Canadians that such a plan is safe. What could go wrong, right? Burying nuclear waste deep inside the earth seems like a fine idea. However, it’s almost impossible to tell what impact global warming might have on such a plan. Computers can provide all the data and simulations in the world. Only time will tell what really could happen. Let’s hope federal officials are serious about taking this process one step at a time - and very gingerly. There’s certainly no room for error here. If something does go wrong, those same officials will find themselves with their collective heads buried in the sand - alongside those same toxic chemicals. Publisher: Pat Logan Proprietor and published by Bowes Publishers Limited at 16 Brock Street, Woodstock, Ontario, Canada N4S3B4 © 2007 Woodstock Sentinel-Review ***************************************************************** 9 BBC NEWS: Pakistan 'building new reactor' Last Updated: Friday, 22 June 2007, 16:52 GMT 17:52 UK Pakistan says its nuclear materials are in safe hands Satellite images show that Pakistan is building a nuclear reactor that could be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium, a US watchdog says. It has warned that its construction could contribute to another nuclear arms race with neighbouring India. The Institute of Science for International Security (Isis) says photos taken earlier this month show work is "rapidly progressing". Isis says the reactor is being built at Khusab, 160km south-west of Islamabad. It says that its construction and other nuclear-related activities "imply" that Pakistan has opted to "increase significantly its production of plutonium for nuclear weapons". Both Pakistan and India have a nuclear weapons capability The Washington-based group said that evidence from recent photos suggest that almost all the work at the site has taken place in the last 10 months. The first reactor at Khusab started operations in 1998, the Isis report said, while construction on a second was underway in July 2006. It says that work on a third reactor is several hundred metres away from the second and appears to be a "replica". Isis reported earlier this year that Pakistan had also resumed construction of its second plutonium separation facility at Chashma, around 80km away from Khusab. It said this was "likely related" to Khusab's expansion. 'More destructive' The report - co-authored by former UN arms inspector David Albright - said that neither the reactors nor the separation plant were monitored by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. It said that Pakistan may have decided to produce a "new generation of plutonium-based weapons" to make lighter warheads for cruise missiles, or to upgrade weapons aimed at Indian cities. The report states that most Pakistani nuclear weapons use highly enriched uranium. Mr Albright said that plutonium-based weapons carry more explosive power into smaller, lighter missiles than those made with uranium, which Pakistan has used for years. "By going plutonium... we have to interpret that as an attempt to make smaller, more powerful weapons that are going to be more destructive in India," Mr Albright said in a interview with AP. The Isis report also accused the US of not complaining about work on the reactor for fear of antagonising a key ally in its "war against terror". Pakistan's nuclear weapons are a source of national pride "The bottom line for us is that the US isn't doing enough to stop these countries from expanding their nuclear arsenals. They're turning a blind eye," said Mr Albright. But Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said that it "shouldn't be a surprise" that Pakistan is working on its nuclear programme. "We are a nuclear weapons state. We have facilities at Khushab, so this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone," she said. Ms Aslam denied suggestions the work could trigger a new arms race. "We were not the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the region or test them," she said. "We have no intention of entering into a nuclear arms race with India whether nuclear or conventional." Pakistan conducted its first and nuclear tests in May 1998 after Indian tests earlier that month. India detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1974. The two countries came close to war in 2002, prompting fears of a full nuclear exchange. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 10 WNN: Bush: 'Nuclear a key to economic vitality' 22 June 2007 US President George Bush paid a visit to the recently restarted Browns Ferry 1 nuclear power unit on 21 June, making forthright statements on the benefits of nuclear power. US President George Bush in the Browns Ferry 1 control room. (Image: White House, Chris Greenberg) Bush visited the machine shop and control room of the 1155 MWe boiling water reactor unit before addressing about 230 workers and local officials. In a wide-ranging speech on energy, Bush hailed nuclear as a safe, clean, affordable and reliable power source, which "is a key component of economic vitality, because it provides 20% of electricity." On environmental issues, he said that "if you are interested in cleaning up the air, then you ought to be an advocate for nuclear power... There is no single solution to climate change, but there can be no solution without nuclear power." "The world is seeing the promise and potential of the peaceful use of nuclear energy," said Bush, adding that Browns Ferry workers were acting in the spirit of President Dwight Eisenhower, who famously called for the worldwide use of peaceful nuclear power at the United Nations in 1953. Raising the issue of reprocessing used nuclear fuel, Bush said the practice could "answer a lot of the charges of our critics who say 'What are you going to do with the fuel?'" "Well here's a good answer: Recycle it, reburn it and reduce the amount of the problem. And that's what the United States needs to be doing." He was referring to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), which would see cooperation with other advanced nuclear nations to close the nuclear fuel cycle with reprocessing and advanced reactors. More energy could be gained from uranium resources and the volume of radioactive waste reduced by 90%, according to the Department of Energy. Bush's speech touched on America's oil dependence and his proposals to reduce that through efficiency gains and alternative fuels such as ethanol. He said: "The whole idea is to come up with different ways to power our automobiles" and mentioned forthcoming plug-in electric or hybrid systems. Further information WNA's US Nuclear Power Industry information paper ***************************************************************** 11 Decatur Daily: Bush visits Browns Ferry: Power intersects at nuclear plant here FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2007 AP photo by Gerald Herbert President Bush checks out the control room at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant on Thursday during a quick tour of the facility. The president lauded the restart last month of the plant’s Unit 1 reactor and said that new reactors should be constructed elsewhere in the United States. By Eric Fleischauer eric@decaturdaily.com · 340-2435 The power was palpable at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant on Thursday. Not only were three nuclear reactors humming along at 100-percent power, the most powerful man in the nation was speaking on the importance of nuclear energy. Among the 250 crowded into a hot employee gymnasium to hear President Bush speak were 150 Tennessee Valley Authority employees, 100 of them chosen by lottery from Browns Ferry rank and file. “Thanks for what you’re doing,” Bush said, to the employees. “Thanks for being skillful. Thanks for working hard. Thanks for helping the country.” Jeffrey Kirsch, a fire protection system engineer at Browns Ferry since 1985, said the president’s visit was an important morale booster for employees. “I think it was a shot in the arm for all of us,” Kirsch said. “People get tired after all that work (for the Unit 1 restart). It was a big plus for the employees.” Bush emphasized the importance of last month’s Browns Ferry Unit 1 restart and said new nuclear plants need to be built. Daily photo by Gary Cosby Jr. President Bush addresses the crowd at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday. “This is a safe plant, and the people in the United States must understand that,” he said. “It’s one thing to restart one, and I congratulate you,” Bush said. “It’s another thing to build the new ones. And that’s what we ought to have happen if we’re interested in a comprehensive, sound, wise energy policy that is environmentally friendly.” Unit 1 has had a troubled history, most dramatically when a worker using a candle to check ventilation in 1975 started a fire that closed it for a year and panicked a nation. The plant closed again in 1985 for safety reasons. Plans for the $1.8 billion restart began in 2002. ‘This is a safe plant’ “This is a safe plant,” Bush said after a quick tour, “and the people in the United States must understand that.” A major reason for Bush’s visit was to push Congress to pass energy legislation that would expedite the construction of new plants. “We want to start building plants, and we recognize that there have been some regulatory burdens that ... discourage the construction of new plants,” Bush said. He said expediting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s inspection process is a necessary step in adding new plants. “So, I’ve got the chairman of the NRC here,” Bush said to laughter. “I want him to hear what I just said.” Bush said the fact that the NRC has 20 applications pending for up to 30 new reactors — largely as a result of incentives included in 2005 energy legislation — is a sign that “attitudes are changing.” He proposed a partnership between government and industry to expedite construction. Bush advocated the reprocessing of spent fuel as a method of alleviating the ongoing dilemma over what to do with nuclear waste. U.S. nuclear plants are storing most spent fuel in on-site cooling pools, which many scientists see as vulnerable to terrorist attack. Plants are storing spent fuel that won’t fit into the cooling pools in massive dry casks, stored on site at Browns Ferry and other plants, which most scientists believe present a lesser risk. “Reprocessing spent uranium fuel for use in advanced reactors will allow us to extract more energy, and has the potential to reduce storage requirements for nuclear waste by up to 90 percent,” Bush said. “And when we (begin reprocessing), we will be able to answer a lot of the charges of our critics that say, ‘What are you going to do with the fuel?’ ” He pushed a proposal for a global partnership — that would include France, Japan, China and Russia — to develop technologies for the safe recycling of spent fuel. Bush touted his budget proposal, which includes $495 million to continue progress on licensing Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a national repository for spent fuel. Bush said the solution to the nation’s energy needs must include nuclear plants, but should include other sources as well. He pushed for more ethanol-friendly cars, improved technology for wind and solar energy, increased extraction of U.S. petroleum reserves, more efficient coal technology and improved battery technology for vehicles. “And your (battery-powered) automobile won’t look like a golf cart,” he said to an appreciative Alabama audience. “It will be a normal-size pickup truck.” Bush said the energy legislation debated in the Senate “falls far short of the ambitious goal I laid out,” but would assist in his goal of decreasing dependence on foreign oil. Environment friendly The president gave several nods to environmental concerns, stressing that nuclear power is environment friendly. “I remind those who share my concern about greenhouse gases that nuclear energy produces no greenhouse gases,” he said. “If you are interested in cleaning up the air, then you ought to be an advocate for nuclear power. ... There is no single solution to climate change, but there can be no solution without nuclear power.” THE DECATUR DAILY 201 1st Ave. SE P.O. Box 2213 Decatur, Ala. 35609 (256) 353-4612 webmaster@decaturdaily.com www.decaturdaily.com ***************************************************************** 12 Xinhua: Pakistan denies report on new nuclear reactor www.chinaview.cn 2007-06-22 23:26:25 ISLAMABAD, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Friday disputed a report from an American watchdog group that has alleged that Pakistan is building a new nuclear reactor that can produce weapons-grade plutonium. "Such speculations take place time to time. A similar report also appeared in July last year. The nuclear facility in Khushab is not new," Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said. A picture taken on June 3 shows work progressing rapidly on the reactor at the Khushab nuclear site, 170 km southwest of Islamabad, the Institute of Science for International Security said. The Washington-based institute said in a report that the development of the reactor and other nuclear-related activities implied that Pakistan had decided to increase significantly its production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. "Pakistan has a nuclear weapon program and we had a nuclear facility in Khushab. This is not a revelation. No one should surprise over it," Aslam told the private Geo TV. "As regards to our nuclear facility including development program, we do not comment on that. However I would say that Khushab is a well known nuclear site," she said. The spokesperson said that the facility was also on the list of nuclear sites which Pakistan exchanged with India every year on Jan. 1 under the 1988 agreement between the two countries. She avoided offering more comments, saying that Pakistan did not comment on the details, and developments of nuclear facilities. The report said that Pakistan might have decided to produce more plutonium for lighter warheads for cruise missiles, or to upgrade weapons aimed at Indian cities. Editor: Luan Shanglin ***************************************************************** 13 Reuters: Siemens in talks with Areva over Framatome stake Fri Jun 22, 2007 4:50AM EDT FRANKFURT, June 22 (Reuters) - Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) is in talks with France's Areva (CEPFi.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) about keeping its stake in their nuclear-power joint venture Framatome, which Areva has an option to buy, Siemens said on Friday. "We want to keep the stake and are in talks with Areva about this," Klaus Voges, head of Siemens's Power Generation unit, told analysts at a conference monitored by Reuters via Webcast. German industrial conglomerate Siemens has a 34 percent stake in Framatome. French state-controlled nuclear group Areva has an option until 2011 to buy Siemens out. Asked whether it was to be expected that Areva would exercise its option, Voges said: "That's it." "We have to wait. We're negotiating with Areva," he added. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 14 UPI: Analysis: The nuclear revival United Press International - Energy - Analysis Published: June 22, 2007 at 6:28 PM By STEFAN NICOLA UPI Energy Correspondent BERLIN, June 22 (UPI) -- Nuclear energy has seen an astonishing revival recently -- mainly because of the increased demand for energy produced without greenhouse gas emissions. It was nuclear's darkest moment: On April 26, 1986, an explosion inside the Chernobyl reactor in what today is Ukraine sent a lethal radioactive plume into the night sky, radiating the area for 10 days straight. Estimates of the number of people who died or will die as a result have ranged from 9,000 to 93,000, and nuclear energy since then has had a terrible public image. Two decades after the Chernobyl disaster, however, nuclear energy is undergoing somewhat of a revival. This is due mainly to the global pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, key to stopping global warming. The second reason for the nuclear boom is an increased unwillingness to trust foreign powers when it comes to providing domestic energy security. Among the nations not currently using nuclear power, Iran, North Korea, Australia, Turkey, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt and Israel are planning or are already developing nuclear power. Roughly 30 percent of Europe's electricity needs are met by nuclear power. Observers say that number could go up soon. Several Eastern European countries as well as France and Finland will build new nuclear power plants, most of them of the type of the European Pressurized Reactor. Developed in a joint project between France (the only country that has built atomic plants in Europe since 1986) and Germany, the industry says the EPRs are so safe they would withstand and contain a Chernobyl-type meltdown. For several former Communist countries, developing nuclear power is a way out of energy dependence from Russia, still Europe's main energy supplier. In recent years, Russia's image as a reliable supplier has suffered after Moscow temporarily shut off gas supplies to Ukraine until it agreed to pay higher prices. Yet the main reason for a nuclear boom -- apart from the fact that power produced by atomic plants is relatively cheap -- is the political pledge by the 27-member European Union to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2030. Nuclear power plants generate vast amounts of electricity without emitting toxic carbon dioxide. According to a 2007 story broadcast on "60 Minutes," nuclear power gives France, which generates nearly 80 percent of its power in nuclear power plants, the cleanest air of any industrialized country, and the cheapest electricity in all of Europe. Opponents of the power source argue, however, that during the entire production cycle -- which includes the uranium mining and the construction of the plant -- a lot of CO2 is produced. They also point to disasters like the one in Chernobyl or to the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, a serious incident that came very close to being much worse. They also cite the problem of storing radioactive waste, the potential for possibly severe radioactive contamination by accident or sabotage, and the possibility of nuclear proliferation. Nevertheless, nuclear at the moment seems to have a lot going for it: Claude Mandil, the head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, recently told United Press International that he is "absolutely convinced that there is a need for nuclear to have a share of the global energy mix." The Group of Eight also shares that opinion, but there is one country in Europe that is of a different opinion -- Germany. The government in Berlin is bound to an agreement to shut down all German nuclear power plants by 2021 -- an ambitious plan, given that Germany generates nearly half of its electricity in its nuclear power plants. "Personally, I don't see how it is possible in Germany to at the same time drop nuclear, try to reduce CO2 emissions, trying to improve security of supply -- the three seem incompatible," Mandil said. Opposition to the German agreement is forming inside the government coalition: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, is a supporter of nuclear power, and so are most of her party colleagues. Katherina Reiche, a lawmaker of Merkel's conservatives, recently told German news channel n-tv it will be very hard for Germany to reach its emission reduction goals "knowing that four nuclear power plants will be shut down by 2012." "Nuclear must remain in the mix," she said. Merkel's coalition partner, the center-left Social Democratic Party, however, has staunchly opposed rethinking the phase-out. In Germany, much will depend on the outcome of the next elections: If Merkel's center-right CDU manages to dominate those, nuclear will likely also be revived in Europe's largest economy. -- (e-mail: energy@upi.com) © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 News 10 Now: FitzPatrick Nuclear Plant aging well | 24 Hour Local News | Central New York Updated: 6/22/2007 6:57 AM By: Nneka Nwosu Thursday's meeting between representatives from the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Plant and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was short. Based on inspections completed in April, the 32-year-old plant is aging gracefully. Glenn Meyer, a Senior Reactor Inspector for the NRC said, "We found that their application was thorough and they had a credible program for extending the license and managing the effects of aging." WATCH THE VIDEO One of Oswego County's highest employers wants to stay in the community for years to come. The James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Plant has applied to extend its operating license by 20 years. And as News 10 Now's Nneka Nwosu reports, so far, the outlook is good. FitzPatrick's operating license expires in 2014. Last August, the plant submitted a renewal application to extend its license by 20 years. Inspectors say management of aging equipment is crux of that application. And so far, FitzPatrick's plan looks good. "Recently, performance seems to be pretty reasonable, pretty good. We focus on safety and they've done a pretty good job of that," said Meyer. Thursday's meeting was part of the plant's license-renewal process. If approved the new license would allow the plant to run until 2034. Bonnie Bostain, the Communications Manager for the FitzPatrick Nuclear Plant, said, "I do live in this community and it does make me very proud to be a part of this company and to be able to contribute to the community for another 20 years.” FitzPatrick's license renewal process should be complete by May of next year. Copyright ©2007 TWEAN News Channel of Syracuse, LLC, d/b/a News 10 Now. ***************************************************************** 16 AFP: Mitsubishi, Areva to bid for US nuclear project - Fri Jun 22, 3:35 AM TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and France's Areva have jointly bid for a multi-million-dollar research and development project on a US nuclear fuel cycle program, a spokesman said Friday. The United States is set to resume building nuclear power plants after a gap of more than two decades amid growing concern about high oil prices and greenhouse gas emissions. Under the plan, Japan's top heavy machinery maker will mainly work on fast breeder reactors -- which are in part driven by plutonium fuel -- while Areva will build facilities to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, said Mitsubishi spokesman Hideo Ikuno. Mitsubishi plans to introduce a loop-type fast reactor that uses liquid-metal sodium for the reactor coolant, the spokesman said. The Japanese and French governments have agreed to support the planned alliance, which will also include several US energy firms, Ikuno said. US President George W. Bush's administration has given the go-ahead for the construction of nuclear power plants which have been frozen since a major accident at Three Mile Island in 1979. The US Energy Department is seeking initial research plans budgeted at 7.4 billion yen (60 million dollars) for the new project and will select several candidates around August. Mitsubishi Heavy, which has worked with fast breeder technology since the 1960s, is responsible for developing core parts of domestic reactors, including the Monju reactor in central Fukui prefecture. It was selected in April as the main builder for Monju's successor, scheduled to start operation in 2025. ***************************************************************** 17 Japan Times: Mitsubishi Heavy, Areva to bid for U.S. nuclear project japantimes.co.jp Web Saturday, June 23, 2007 Kyodo News Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and its French partner, Areva Group, will jointly present their ideas for a nuclear fuel recycling system in a bid to apply for a U.S. government contract for a planned nuclear research and development program, MHI said Friday. Last year, the United States unveiled its Global Nuclear Energy Partnership plan to promote the use of atomic power in view of soaring oil prices and demand for cleaner energy sources, and began inviting corporations around the world to submit ideas for the project. Mitsubishi Heavy and Areva aim to work on the basic designs for a reprocessing facility for spent nuclear fuel and a fast-breeder reactor to burn plutonium extracted from the spent fuel. MHI wants to take charge of the fast-breeder reactor design, given the key role it played in the development of the prototype Monju fast-breeder reactor used in Fukui Prefecture and the experimental Joyo fast-breeder reactor in Ibaraki Prefecture, both sponsored by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. According to the plan, the development of the reprocessing facility will be led by Areva with the cooperation of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. and several American firms. The Japan Times ***************************************************************** 18 AFP: Pakistan builds third nuclear reactor for bombs - report - by Danny Kemp Fri Jun 22, 7:56 AM ET ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan appears to be building a third plutonium nuclear reactor to significantly boost its production of atomic bombs, a US research group said. Satellite images show work progressing rapidly at Khusab, 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Islamabad, where the other two reactors are sited, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said in a report on Friday. Pakistan carried out its only nuclear tests in May 1998 after similar detonations by rival India, alarming the world. The Islamic republic is now a key ally in the US-led war on terror. The construction work would "imply that Pakistan's government has made a decision to increase significantly its production of plutonium for nuclear weapons," the institute said in its report. "Almost all of the third reactor construction visible in the June 3, 2007 image has taken place in the last 10 months," the Washington-based group added. Pakistan's Foreign Office said the report was based on speculation. "Off and on there are speculations of this nature. Pakistan has a nuclear weapons programme and Khusab is a declared nuclear site, that is not a new revelation," spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP. A Pakistani defence source told AFP that there was "an expansion programme in Khusab" but would not give any other details. Pakistan is fiercely protective of the security of its nuclear sites. Another Pakistani government official defended Pakistan's right to a defensive atomic programme. "The nuclear programme is a cornerstone of Pakistan's national defence strategy," the official said on condition of anonymity. The first reactor at Khusab began operations in 1998 while the institute reported that a second was being built in July 2006. The third reactor is several hundred metres (yards) away from the second and appears to be a "replica", although building work is progressing more quickly on the latest version, the ISIS said. It reported earlier this year that Pakistan had resumed construction on its second plutonium separation facility at Chashma, around 80 kilometres away from Khusab. It said this was "likely related" to Khusab's expansion. The report said that neither the reactors nor the separation plant were safeguarded by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. After three wars and decades of hostility, Pakistan and India launched a slow-moving peace process in 2004 which has led to the introduction of several bilateral nuclear safeguards. The two countries, whose enmity focuses on the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir, still regularly carry out test launches of nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. Pakistan, the world's only known nuclear-armed Muslim country, remains at the heart of an investigation into an atomic black market headed by its disgraced chief nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. Khan confessed in 2004 to passing atomic secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. He was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf but remains under virtual house arrest in Islamabad. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 19 TheDay.com: DEP To Review Case Related To Millstone Water Discharge Permit By Patricia Daddona , Published on 6/22/2007 The state Department of Environmental Protection will get two months to review a landmark court case that could lead the agency to revise its proposal to renew a water discharge permit for the Millstone nuclear complex in Waterford. The DEP is in the middle of a pending application for permit renewal, but asked hearing officer Janice B. Deshais in May to postpone public hearings for three months while the state agency reviews Riverkeeper v. EPA, a four-month-old federal ruling that could alter the way 539 power plants, including nuclear reactors, avoid killing fish while cooling their energy producing systems. Deshais works out of the DEP's Office of Adjudication, which decides whether permits are issued. Dominion, the owner of Millstone, which has two operating reactors and one that is shut down, had asked for a one-month suspension of the proceedings, Deshais stated when issuing her ruling. Deshais ordered the DEP to submit a written report on how it will proceed on Aug. 20, the end of the two-month suspension. “We will work within the time period granted by the hearing officer,” DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said. In the court case, decided in January, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the EPA to clarify or change its laws involving whether power plants must stop fish kills by using “the best technology available” — a step that could require an expensive technological overhaul at many plants, including Millstone. At Millstone, the reactors take in water from Long Island Sound to cool steam used to generate electricity. The water flows through a grate, which traps fish and other sea life alive and returns them to the Sound by way of a vertical conveyor belt. The proposed permit, which DEP had tentatively approved, incorporates some new rules to reduce the death of winter flounder larvae. Millstone's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit originally expired in 1997, but former DEP Commissioner Arthur J. Rocque Jr. allowed the reactors to continue operating under an emergency authorization. p.daddona@theday.com (860) 442-2200 | New London, CT | © 1998-2007 The Day Publishing Co. 102 ***************************************************************** 20 WNN: Stage set for UK reactor evaluation 22 June 2007 Four nuclear reactor vendors met the UK government's 22 June deadline to submit details of their designs and industrial sponsors. ACR1000 AECL of Canada proposed its 1200 MWe ACR1000 pressurized heavy water reactor. It told World Nuclear News it had support from British Energy (BE) and "indications of support from potential utilities and investors in the UK." The company said that over the years it had never stopped building nuclear power reactors and that there is now a strong and diverse worldwide technology base for their design. EPR Areva of France put forward its 1600MWe EPR pressurized water reactor, (PWR) claiming support from BE, EdF, EOn, Iberdrola, RWE and Suez among others. EPRs are under construction in Finland and France; two are planned for China; and four for the USA. ESBWR GE-Hitachi (GEH), the newly formed partnership between those companies' nuclear energy divisions, submitted the 1550 MWe ESBWR boiling water reactor. Three ESBWRs are planned for the USA. GEH said it was supported by BE, Iberdrola and RWE. AP1000 Westinghouse of the USA submittted the 1100 MWe AP1000 PWR, four of which are planned for China; ten for the USA. BE supports the design, as does EOn. Regulators the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) will now begin, in discussion with the Department of Trade and Industry, to evaluate the 'licensability' of the designs in the UK. After this 'design acceptance' process, the departments will pick a shortlist of three designs for further study on a path to Generic Design Acceptance (GDA). In parallel to the GDA process, which would take around three years, the government would produce justification documents for new nuclear plants and utilities or consortia wishing to build would engage in new government planning procedures to qualify potential sites. The UK nuclear industry hopes it could have pre-approved designs and pre-approved sites in place by around 2011. Applications to build made around then could result in new reactors operating by 2016. Further information AECL Areva GE-Hitachi Westinghouse Health and Safety Executive: New nuclear power stations - Generic Design Assessment ***************************************************************** 21 NRC: NRC Issues Confirmatory Action Letter on Palo Verde Nuclear Plant News Release - Region IV - 2007-023 - 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 has issued a Confirmatory Action Letter (CAL) to Arizona Public Service Co. confirming the company’s commitments regarding actions it will take to improve performance at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. APS operates the plant located in Wintersburg, Ariz. “Palo Verde is being operated safely, but performance improvements are needed,” NRC Region IV Administrator Bruce S. Mallett said. “We intend to hold APS accountable to perform a thorough evaluation of the causes of the performance problems at Palo Verde and to complete actions to correct them. The letter will serve as a roadmap for performance improvement.” The letter confirms commitments the company has made to the NRC to: 1. Complete actions to address root and contributing causes identified in its evaluations in response to performance problems associated with the voided containment sump suction piping for all three units, and associated with the Unit 3 emergency diesel generator electrical relay problems, including: * Ineffective resolution of emerging technical issues, including thoroughness of technical evaluations and troubleshooting * Failure to routinely question the validity of engineering assumptions used to support operability decisions for degraded equipment * Lack of consistently notifying operations personnel of immediate operability concerns * Inadequate performance monitoring measures necessary to fully assess the effectiveness of the corrective actions. 2. Complete corrective actions that result in measurable improvement in the crosscutting areas of human performance and problem identification and resolution. Specific areas to address are: * Palo Verde operability determination process; timeliness and thoroughness for evaluations of conditions/significant conditions adverse to quality; and engineering quality. 3. Complete an independent (third party) safety culture assessment by September 15. 4. Incorporate the results of their in-depth evaluations and safety culture assessments into a modified improvement plan. 5. Submit to the NRC portions of the modified improvement plans that impact the Reactor Safety strategic performance area, including safety culture improvement initiatives by November 30. Issuance of the CAL does not preclude subsequent issuance of an order formalizing the commitments requiring other actions on the part of the company. Palo Verde has been under increased NRC oversight since the fourth quarter of 2004 following a finding for a substantial safety issue. Inspectors found that APS had incorrectly left air pockets in portions of the emergency core cooling system for each reactor that could have hindered the system’s operation during certain types of accidents. The finding remains open because APS has not effectively addressed performance problems. Those problems include a lack of questioning attitude, lack of technical rigor and poor operability determinations by workers - factors which contributed to a more recent finding issued by the NRC for problems with a emergency diesel generator at Unit 3, moving Palo Verde into a higher level of NRC oversight. NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Friday, June 22, 2007 ***************************************************************** 22 Interfax: Rosatom rejects new imports of depleted uranium from Europe - Kirienko Jun 22 2007 12:57PM ANGARSK. June 22 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency over a year ago decided not to sign new contracts for imports of depleted uranium from Europe for enrichment and plans only to implement contracts signed in the 1990s, Atomic Energy Agency Director Sergei Kirienko told journalists in Angarsk. "We decided over a year ago that we would not sign new contracts or extend old ones, but we cannot tear up agreements that we already have - they expire in 2009-2010," he said. © 1991-2007 Interfax All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 23 Hemscott: Gov't demands Ariz. nuke safety WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators said Thursday they sent a formal set of demands to Pinnacle West Capital Corp. subsidiary Arizona Public Service Co., requiring the company to improve the performance of a nuclear power plant in Arizona. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's letter details mandatory safety improvements for the company's Palo Verde nuclear station west of Phoenix, the nation's largest nuclear plant. The company has committed to make the required improvements, the NRC said. The NRC in February downgraded the safety rating of the plant, subjecting it to a level of scrutiny shared by just one other plant nationwide. That announcement came after three years of problems in the plant's safety systems. Last year, inspectors found that one of the plant's emergency diesel generators had been broken for 18 days. Emergency generators are critically important at nuclear reactors, providing electricity to pumps, valves and control rooms if the main electrical supply fails. Palo Verde can provide enough electricity for nearly 4 million homes and is owned by a consortium of seven utilities in Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico. Arizona Public Service owns a 29 percent stake in the plant. Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Hemscott PLC - Serious Investment Research Copyright 2007 Hemscott Group Limited. ***************************************************************** 24 JOGJCC: Probe over plutonium in manhole John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier: By Iain Grant Published: 22 June, 2007 A MAJOR investigation is under way after a routine survey uncovered evidence of plutonium down a manhole on open ground at the Dounreay site. Steps have been taken to barrier off the area, while 10 workers are undergoing tests to check whether they have breathed in the potentially lethal substance. Industry regulators were at the plant yesterday talking to the UK Atomic Energy Authority about future action. Friends of the Earth Scotland last night described the find as deeply disturbing and said a full-scale probe is required to protect workers and the public. Previous surveys have found that up to five per cent of the ground at Dounreay site is affected by low-level caesium contamination. This is the first time plutonium has been found outwith controlled areas where workers have to wear special protective clothing. The presence of plutonium was first suspected on May 11 during the survey of land on the lowest point of the site, between the low-level liquid waste disposal plant and the ruins of a castle. The manhole, which is near two disused effluent collection tanks, gives access to two groundwater drains which discharge on the foreshore. Dounreay communications manager Colin Punler said: "As soon as they recorded alpha radiation, they immediately stopped work. They went back on May 24 with respiratory equipment to confirm the finding, after which the area was barriered off." Mr Punler said the sample is currently undergoing laboratory analysis to double-check that it is plutonium. In the meantime, three of the four-strong team who carried out the initial survey and seven other workers have been put on a biological testing programme. Mr Punler said: "The seven have worked in the vicinity of the manhole and therefore could potentially have come into contact with material." Mr Punler said the UKAEA is drawing up an action plan to deal with the implications of the find. "We need to understand the extent of this and how quickly it needs to be cleaned up," he said. "We knew the ground was contaminated but we didn't know that there was plutonium there. It's being treated very seriously." As well as the tarred area around the manhole now being placed out of bounds, any worker who goes there requires to wear a respirator. One theory is that the rogue contamination could have been washed into the manhole by the serious flooding that hit the site last October. A section of the perimeter fence on the other side of the site had been washed away as a torrent of water swept down to the area near the low-level liquid waste plant. As well as wanting the UKAEA to gauge the extent of the plutonium contamination, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is seeking assurances the pollution could not leach into groundwater releases to the foreshore. The find could speed up the start of a planned £4 million programme to deal with contamination of open ground at the site. Duncan McLaren, chief executive of FoE Scotland, said the presence of plutonium in an open, unrestricted area is totally unacceptable. He said: "It's not unsurprising but it's nonetheless extremely worrying that the clean-up of Dounreay is exposing such a hazardous material in an area of the site where they did not expect to find it. "If they haven't already done so, they should be launching a full investigation into this to establish if it's a one-off find or – as tends to be the case with Dounreay – the tip of a large iceberg." He added: "One can only hope it is a one-off, but it's vital that they investigate quickly to determine the true extent of the contamination." Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Rob Gibson said the find demonstrates that Dounreay's current management have inherited a more dangerous legacy than they had imagined. He said: "I think the most thorough investigation has to be carried out into how this contamination arose and to establish whether or not it is an isolated find." iain-grant@ukf.net All content copyright 2007 Scottish Provincial Press Ltd. ***************************************************************** 25 Pahrump Valley Times: House takes swipe at 'Yucca Johnny' Nye County's Largest Newspaper Circulation Jun. 22, 2007 BERKLEY COMPARES WEB SITE AIMED AT YOUTH TO 'JOE CAMEL' COME-ON By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON --The House on Wednesday took a swipe at "Yucca Mountain Johnny" and other parts of a Department of Energy Web site about radioactive waste aimed at teaching students. Johnny is a cartoon hard hat miner on the Web portal. By voice vote, lawmakers directed DOE to put him out of business and shut down the "Yucca Mountain Youth Zone," where the animated icon stands sentry. The House accepted an amendment by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who charged the youth-oriented site conveys a "pro-nuclear" viewpoint and presents an unbalanced view of the proposed Nevada nuclear repository. The site is www.ocrwm.doe.gov/youth/index.shtml. Berkley argued the site neglects to point out the dangers posed by nuclear waste and geologic flaws, like threats from earthquakes and volcanoes, that Nevada leaders believe should disqualify the Yucca site. "The Department of Energy should not be in the business of propaganda and trying to persuade schoolchildren that storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain is OK," Berkley said. "Yucca Mountain Johnny is like Joe Camel was to cigarettes," Berkley added, referring to the once-ubiquitous cartoon pitch-camel who was dropped by the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company in 1997 under pressure from Congress and health groups. Defending the site, Energy Department spokeswoman Megan Barnett said the Yucca Mountain youth zone drew 20,000 page views from January through May. Barnett said the site has been valued by "students and adults around the globe on nuclear physics, geology, engineering and complex science. We intend to keep this educational tool available and we look forward to working with Congress on this issue." The Yucca site contains games and activities, suggested curricula for teachers, and discussions about "the nuclear waste problem" and how science is utilized to find "solutions." Aimed at students of varying grade levels, the entry pages link to more detailed science discussions deeper within the site. The Web site is among dwindling "public outreach" elements of the Yucca program, which has been squeezed by declining budgets. Public tours of the Yucca site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas have been curtailed, and the Energy Department this spring closed the Yucca Mountain Project Science Center on Meadows Lane in Las Vegas. Berkley went after the Web site last year but lost a 271-147 vote after Republican committee leaders came to Yucca Mountain Johnny's defense. This year, the chairman of the House Energy and Water Subcommittee is a Democrat, Peter Visclosky of Indiana, who accepted Berkley's amendment without debate. webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 26 Pahrump Valley Times: Heller asks for removal of $202 million Nye County's Largest Newspaper Circulation Jun. 22, 2007 WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives voted to fund the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in the Energy and Water Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2008 (H.R. 2641) June 20, despite an attempt by Rep.'s Jon Porter (R-Henderson), Dean Heller (R-Carson City) and Shelley Berkley (D- Las Vegas) to remove $202 million in Yucca Mountain construction funding from the legislation. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 80 to 351. Heller said the amendment "would strike the funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain site, and help end this enormous financial disaster for the taxpayers and for Nevada." He said Nevada has been wrestling with the Yucca Mountain project for decades. "The federal government has spent billions of dollars, and we are frankly almost no closer today to opening this site than we were years ago. As has been stated by my Nevada colleagues, over the past 20 years the proposed site has suffered from gross mismanagement, faulty science and research, and contract mismanagement," he said. Heller said he and his colleagues are not against safer concepts, "like dry-cask storage." He said both senators, the governor and the House delegation are united in opposition to Yucca Mountain. webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 27 Interfax: Ukraine's participation in uranium center may be documented by year-end Jun 22 2007 12:56PM ANGARSK. June 22 (Interfax) - Documents on Ukraine' s participation in the International Ukrainian Enrichment Center may be prepared by the end of the year, Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Director Sergei Kirienko told journalists in Angarsk, where this center is being set up. "We will, try along with Ukraine, to draw up all documents by the end of the year," he said. © 1991-2007 Interfax All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 28 Salt Lake Tribune: Gov. ends Utah's Washington, D.C. lobbyist's contract Huntsman says big issues are solved Article Last Updated: 06/22/2007 09:47:22 AM MDT Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has decided not to renew a $90,000-a-year contract signed two years ago with the state's Washington, D.C., lobbyist. The move leaves the governor without a representative in the capital for the first time in more than two decades. Two-thirds of the states and three territories have a Washington office or a representative in the city, according to the National Governors Association. "Right now we have been able to clear most of our major issues," Huntsman said in an interview, citing the successful fight to block a nuclear-waste storage center in Utah as one. Huntsman said he is confident the state won't suffer as a result of the decision to end the contract with Bill Simmons. "If I thought we'd be at all discounted in Washington or less effective, I'd be doing otherwise," he said. But the governor left the door open to hire a lobbyist in the future if issues arose requiring it. For the last several months, Simmons has largely been helping coordinate state initiatives with the National Governors Association on natural resources, No Child Left Behind and energy issues, according to e-mails between Simmons and the governor's office obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune under an open records request. When Huntsman took office in January 2005 he decided to close Utah's two-person Washington office, pitching it as a cost saving of about $230,000. The office had tracked Utah's interests since Gov. Scott Matheson's administration. But a month after the office shutdown, the governor sought bids for a Washington lobbyist to handle nuclear issues. The state eventually signed Simmons, a managing partner at Dutko Worldwide and former staffer to long-time Utah Rep. Jim Hansen, to help fight a plan by Private Fuel Storage to store high-level nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation. Dutko was the sixth-largest lobbying firm in 2006, with more than $21.3 million in contracts, according to figures compiled by The Center for Responsive Politics. Huntsman said after he was elected his preference was to go without a Washington office, but thought there needed to be some D.C. presence during the transition because of the issues that "if not handled well would have had negative ramifications for the state." He said his office works well enough with the congressional offices now that they deal directly with each other. "If the relationships are strong enough and the system works as it should, we have five offices of our own back there," Huntsman said, referring to Utah's five members of Congress. One of Simmons' most notable achievements was helping pass the Cedar Mountain Wilderness legislation to prevent deliveries of nuclear waste to the reservation. "At certain critical times, he had just the right connections and expertise to help break some things through," said Scott Parker, chief of staff to Rep. Rob Bishop, sponsor of the Cedar Mountain provision. "Sometimes you need someone on the outside with that kind of background who can sort of be an extra, full-time advocate for your cause. Bill was a perfect fit to help in that fight." "It was a great pleasure to work with the governor and his team," Simmons said. "We appreciate the opportunity to work with him on PFS and have nothing but good things to say about the experience." gehrke@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 29 Scotsman.com: Dounreay plant staff in plutonium scare Saturday, 23rd June 2007 JOHN ROSS TEN workers are being monitored for possible plutonium contamination after a surprise find at the Dounreay nuclear plant. A team of four was carrying out an inspection at a manhole where plutonium was not expected and so were not wearing respiratory gear to avoid breathing in or swallowing it. But readings showed suspected plutonium and work was stopped. Three of the four are being monitored as a precaution, as are another seven workers who have had reason to work there before. The UK Atomic Energy Authority has suspended all work of a similar nature at the complex until it identifies the cause of the contamination. The ground was being examined last month ahead of a full-scale clean-up, costing £4 million, as part of the decommissioning of Dounreay. The authority said the ground around the old effluent collection tanks is known to have been contaminated by historical leakage. During checks to finalise plans for the clean-up, higher than expected levels of radioactivity were detected during inspection of a manhole. The land was contaminated by other substances in a leak in the 1970s, but plutonium was not thought to be among them. Barriers have been placed around the ground to restrict access. A Dounreay spokesman said: "One of our sampling teams found indications of plutonium, at which point they immediately stopped work. We did not expect to find plutonium contamination in the ground in this area; it was a surprise. "There is no evidence the workers breathed or inhaled anything from that drain, but we have put a monitoring programme in place for them as a precautionary measure." He said the monitors had initially shown plutonium to be present and they were conducting further tests to verify this. Related topics * Nuclear energy http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1343 * Nuclear incidents http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=112 This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=976682007 Last updated: 21-Jun-07 00:49 BST ©2007 Scotsman.com | contact | terms & conditions ***************************************************************** 30 NEI : Strong Bipartisan Support Shown For Yucca Mountain Repository Thursday, June 21, 2007 Congress sent another strong signal yesterday that the deep geologic repository planned at Yucca Mountain, Nev. is a vital component of our national used nuclear fuel management policy. Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV), proposed an amendment that would have cut funding for the Yucca Mountain program previously approved by the House Committee on Appropriations. However, his bid to slash over $200 million from the project was met with resounding opposition. In a sizable margin that represented large numbers of both Democrats and Republicans, the proposed amendment failed with just 80 in favor and 351 opposed. That reflects an increase in support for the project over previous House votes regarding the used nuclear fuel repository. When the House voted to select Yucca Mountain as the site for the program in 2002, there were 306 votes in support and 117 against. Last year, another amendment which would have restricted activity at the site also failed, 271-147. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Porter said in response to the outcome, “This is proof that Yucca Mountain is alive and well.” In a statement released by the Office of Civilian and Radioactive Waste Management, Director Ward Sproat said, “Yucca Mountain is critical to the nation’s current and future energy and national security needs.” The Senate has not yet cast any votes this session regarding the program funding. ***************************************************************** 31 DOE: Global Science Gateway Now Open June 22, 2007 WorldWideScience.org opens public access to more than 200 million pages of international research information WASHINGTON, DC—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the British Library, along with eight other participating countries, today opened an online global gateway to science information from 15 national portals. The gateway, WorldWideScience.org, gives citizens, researchers and anyone interested in science the capability to search science portals not easily accessible through popular search technology such as that deployed by Google, Yahoo! and many other commercial search engines. “Scientific research results are archived globally in a plethora of sources, many unknown and unreachable through usual search engines,” Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, DOE Under Secretary for Science, said. “This international partnership will open up this vast reservoir of knowledge in a rapid and convenient manner, something that will add great value to our existing knowledge.” Relying on a novel technology called federated search, WorldWideScience.org gives science information consumers a single entry point for searching far-reaching science portals in parallel, with only one query, saving time and effort. As WorldWideScience.org grows, it will capitalize on existing technology to search vast collections of science information distributed across the globe, enabling much-needed access to smaller, less well-known sources of highly valuable science. Following the model of Science.gov, the U.S. interagency science portal that relies on content published by each participating U.S. agency, WorldWideScience.org will rely on scientific resources published by each participating nation. The U.S. contribution to WorldWideScience.org is Science.gov, the U.S. government’s one-stop searchable portal to major science databases of federal science agencies. In addition to the U.S. and the U.K., the inaugural WorldWideScience.org portal provides access to research information in English from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. The intent is for WorldWideScience.org to become a world-class Web facility that lets any scientist, any citizen, anywhere, easily find the research results of any nation in any language. WorldWideScience.org was developed and is maintained by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), a program within DOE’s Office of Science. OSTI has extensive experience in offering searching of distributed, deep Web databases, having played a central role in the development of Science.gov and other Web products that scientists and citizens access over 50 million times per year. DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the nation and helps ensure U.S. world leadership across a broad range of scientific disciplines. Additional information is available at the Office of Science. Media contact(s): Jeff Sherwood, DOE, (202) 586-5806 Cathey Daniels, OSTI, (865) 576-9539 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 32 Hanford News: Nuclear Energy Then ... and Now This story was published Friday, June 22nd, 2007 PRNewswire-USNewswire WASHINGTON, June 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A comparison of the advances made in the nuclear energy industry since Jimmy Carter's visit to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pa., on April 1, 1979. Carter was the last sitting U.S. president to visit a nuclear power plant prior to President George W. Bush's visit to Constellation Energy's Calvert Cliffs nuclear power station in Lusby, Md., on June 22, 2005. President Bush also visited Exelon Nuclear's Limerick Generating Station in southeast Pennsylvania on May 24, 2006. Nuclear Energy Performance Measures 1979 Today Number of commercial reactors 69 104 Electricity production (kilowatt-hours) 255 billion 787 billion Electricity production (percent of U.S. supplies) 11% 19% Average capacity factor 56% 90% Unplanned reactor shutdown (median per 7,000 reactor hours) 7.3 0.4 Industrial safety accident rate (per 200,000 hours worked) 2.1 0.12 SOURCE Nuclear Energy Institute © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 33 Hanford News: Fine could pay for greenhouses, spill response boats This story was published Friday, June 22nd, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Money owed to the Environmental Protection Agency could be used for boats to respond to chemical spills and to build a greenhouse complex for growing native plants at Washington State University Tri-Cities. Those are the projects the Department of Energy and its contractor plan to pitch to the EPA to pay off a portion of a Hanford fine, DOE told a Hanford Advisory Board subcommittee this week. In late March, the EPA fined DOE $1.14 million for problems at Hanford's Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, a lined landfill for low-level radioactive waste. But it gave DOE the option of proposing an environmental project instead of paying at least a portion of the fine. That would allow the money to be used for the Mid-Columbia's benefit, rather than being deposited in a federal account in a Pittsburgh bank. The money to pay the fine would come from the contractors who operated the landfill - Washington Closure Hanford and Bechtel Hanford - although Washington Closure said it would pass on costs to subcontractors who operated the landfill. Washington Closure would work with Washington State University Tri-Cities to build greenhouses on campus to grow native vegetation that will be needed as cleanup of the Hanford site progresses, said Al Hawkins, a DOE senior technical advisor. Private greenhouses now provide only a few types of native vegetation and not in quantities needed to restore hundreds of acres invaded by non-native plants, said state and federal officials. At least 40 native species are needed to provide good restoration, said Rico Cruz, representing the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The university also is well-suited for the project because it will involve some research to develop a program with plants that survive in the wild, Hawkins said. Additional fine money could be used for possibly two boats with cleanup equipment that could be used to respond to industrial chemical spills in the Mid-Columbia. The boats would be given to the Benton County Sheriff's Office because it already maintains boats for enforcement and search and rescue activities. The sheriff's office would maintain the boats and use them to take Tri-County Hazmat to chemical spills, where that agency would do the cleanup work, said sheriff's Capt. Charlie Kissler. "We're pretty excited about it," he said. "It's an opportunity to upgrade the fleet." Benton County Emergency Management is concerned about petroleum and fertilizer depots and facilities along the river, as well as other potential spill hazards such as the chlorine used for water treatment systems, said Lyle Ball, emergency planner for the agency. Barges on the river also have the potential for chemical spills, he said. In addition, the boats could be used in smaller incidents, like the accident that left a tie crane dangling from the open railroad drawbridge over the Columbia River between Finley and Burbank in February. It spilled hydraulic fluid and possibly diesel fuel into the river. EPA is receptive to the ideas, but will have to determine whether they meet the criteria for the federal Supplemental Environmental Project program, said Dennis Faulk, EPA environmental scientist. Typically, not all of the fine may be paid off through environmental projects, and the amount that may be spent in the community has not been determined. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 34 Hanford News: Lawmakers seek Battelle contract renewal This story was published Friday, June 22nd, 2007 John Trumbo, Herald staff writer Four of Washington's federal lawmakers urged the Department of Energy to continue to allow private work to be done at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland when DOE rebids the lab's management contract. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, both D-Wash., joined Reps. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Norm Dicks, D-Wash., in sending a June 18 letter to DOE Deputy Undersecretary Clay Sell urging the federal agency to preserve the "use permit" portion of PNNL's contract, which currently is held by Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio. The contract expires Sept. 30. The use permit, which was written into the original contract between the federal government when Battelle took it over in 1965, allows the contractor to use government facilities, equipment and people to do private research. It also allows private resources, facilities and people to be used for government projects. "We have never objected to the decision to compete this contract, but it is inexcusable for the department to leave the lab, its dedicated scientists and workers, and the local community in limbo over the future of this national asset," the four wrote. Battelle has held the contract - this year valued at about $750 million - with automatic renewals since 1965. DOE announced in February 2006 that it would call for competitive bids in the next contract cycle. But the agency hasn't taken the next step in calling for bids and has not announced if there will be an extension beyond the current contract's expiration. How to handle a contract rebid that retains the use permit reportedly is the problem. "PNNL is a vital part of the Tri-Cities community and the inclusion of the use permit is an integral part of the lab's future success," said Murray in a statement issued Thursday. "We must maintain the use permit for the future innovation, economy and competitiveness of our region," she added. Gary Petersen, vice president of Hanford programs for TRIDEC, said having four Washington state members of Congress unified in the bipartisan effort to preserve the use permit, is "extremely important" and is aligned with TRIDEC's wishes. "It's worth something in the range of $100 million a year to the community. Companies have spun off because of it," he said. "PNNL is the only national lab that has this use permit. We've advocated for a long time that if DOE was smart they would implement this at the other labs. It is good for the government and the community." In their letter, the lawmakers said the use permit has been a "tremendous success and is critical to the future of the lab under any contractor." The letter continued: "There does not appear to be any legal or practical reason why the department would preclude the continuation of the use permit." The senators and representatives told Sell they would be willing to meet to discuss their concerns, noting DOE has not taken any action on the bid process for PNNL in 16 months. "The permit is based on existing statutory authority of the department and has created substantial synergism" among state and federal governments, industrial research organizations and international organizations, the letter said. Petersen said TRIDEC members have been encouraging Roy Orbach, director of DOE's Office of Science, to include the use permit in the contract rebid for more than a year, with no sign of progress. "(He) has been hesitant to accept the use permit because it is so difficult to rebid a contract that is mixed with private facilities and equipment," Petersen said. Battelle has, over the years, invested millions of its own dollars in buildings and equipment at the Richland lab. Any rebid in which Battelle did not win would require some kind of arrangement for the properties that do not belong to the government. Petersen said federal law requires a rebid of federal contracts at least once every 50 years. Battelle's automatic rebid date is 2015, he said. "We're very, very pleased (the members of Congress) stepped up and did this. It is one of the strongest letters I've seen," Petersen said. "I do think DOE will listen more carefully to two senators and (two) congressmen than to TRIDEC." © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 Inside Bay Area: Retirees from lab may see cash cut Privatization of Livermore's gilded pension plan may prompt retirements By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER Article Last Updated: 06/22/2007 02:54:51 AM PDT The message in 40 pages of bland green slides hit research engineer Grace Clark like a body blow ? after more than 30 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab about a fifth of her future retirement benefits are at risk of vanishing, just like that. She and thousands of workers at the nuclear weapons lab learned Thursday in a PowerPoint presentation that privatization of the lab under a new corporate partnership could mean a leaner retirement. Their gold-plated pensions from the University of California ? coveted by everyone from Silicon Valley software engineers to scientists at other labs ? are being cashed into new plans, one a similar-styled but unproven pension plan and another, a basic 401(k), offering about 20 percent lower retirement benefits. All new employees must take the 401(k). "They're dumbing down our benefits package to private industry standards," Clark said. "They call it market-based standards, but I haven't heard anything yet about raising our salaries" in compensation. Executives for the lab's new management are worried, too. Thinner benefits make it harder to keep the older workers who know the most about a nuclear arsenal more than 20 years old ? and to recruit the best and brightest to learn from them. Physicist George Miller, president of Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC, complained to federal weapons officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration that the leaner plan could persuade Livermore employees that the federal government isn't committed to maintaining "world-class talent at the laboratory." "Under such conditions, many more employees will consider retirement and leaving the laboratory now," Miller wrote. Under pressure from Congress, the nuclear agency put the lab's management up for competitive bid and decided to fix a few historical problems along the way. Among them were numerous audits that suggested the federal government was overpaying the University of California for pensions at three federal labs that it manages ? Lawrence Livermore, its sister lab in Los Alamos, N.M., and Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Whoever won the Livermore contract, the agency said, would have to provide two separate, new retirement plans. Current employees could join one as close as possible to the university plan or they could choose the 401(k), which the agency said could pay benefits no greater than 105 percent of the market value for benefits paid by like employers. The same thing happened at Los Alamos weapons lab two years ago, but the resulting cut in retirement benefits was smaller. By 2007, it appeared that several of the many major research-intensive companies used to size up Livermore's peer market ? AT&T, Hewlett Packard, Northrop Grumman, Honeywell International, Motorola, IBM and others ? had cut back on their benefits. As Livermore workers learned Thursday, private industry is getting more tight-fisted on retirement, and so is the lab. Until a new comparison is done in two years, that means one of Livermore's retirement plans will pay considerably less than a similar plan created two years earlier at Los Alamos. One worker complained aloud at a lab meeting that "in the competition for the best and brightest, we now can offer 93 percent of what Los Alamos can." Consultants also explained that Livermore workers were deemed to get "greater value" out of their lower benefits, simply because of access to the Kaiser health plans. Kaiser delivers more services for patient dollars than most other health-plan providers, translating into more value for lab workers, according to federal and lab benefits officials. Nevertheless, by Thursday afternoon lab workers were flooding congressional offices with complaining e-mails and phone calls, seeking high-level pressure on the federal government to change its requirements. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, said she would do "everything in my power" as chairwoman of the House strategic forces subcommittee to make sure the National Nuclear Security Administration "gets this right." "Anything but a congruent benefit package among the labs is not in the interest of national security, scientific advancement or the spirit of fairness," she said in a statement. Contact Ian Hoffman at ihoffman@angnewspapers.com or (510) 208-6458. © 2000-2006 ANG Newspapers | Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 36 NB: Department of Energy Hosts First Steering Committee Meeting on U.S. - Japan NewsBlaze U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Dennis R. Spurgeon, today hosted Director-General of Japan's Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, Harufumi Mochizuki, to discuss bilateral nuclear energy cooperation under the U.S. - Japan Joint Nuclear Energy Action Plan signed in April. The Steering Committee meeting focused on increased cooperation in research and development for safe and emissions free nuclear energy technology, including fast reactor, fuel cycle technology advancements and safeguards for civilian nuclear reactors. "We are pleased to have been able to host our Japanese partners for the first implementation steps of the Joint Nuclear Energy Action Plan," DOE Assistant Secretary Spurgeon said. "As two of the world's leading nations in development and commercialization of nuclear technologies, we share a common vision of expanding nuclear power in our respective countries and around the world. Nuclear energy is a safe, emissions free, and reliable electricity source that powers growing economies, while greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution." The Action Plan, which was signed in April 2007, fulfilled the commitment made by U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari during their meeting in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2007, to develop a plan to increase nuclear energy cooperation between the nations. The Action Plan establishes the necessary framework to coordinate activities designed to promote the expansion of safe and secure nuclear power in the U.S. and Japan and globally. It also formalizes an agreement between the two nations - leading nuclear technology countries - to provide the additional foundation for the U.S. and Japan to align efforts in support of global expansion of nuclear energy. The U.S. and Japan share objectives to establish a global framework to expand nuclear energy use and minimize proliferation risks while enabling the benefits from the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Both nations support the development of a global nuclear energy infrastructure as envisioned in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) to develop innovative nuclear reactor and fuel cycle technologies. GNEP seeks to bring about a significant, wide-scale use of nuclear energy worldwide, and to take actions that will allow that vision to be achieved, while decreasing the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation and effectively addressing the challenge of nuclear waste disposal. Additional information on GNEP may be found at www.gnep.gov. Source: U.S. Department of Energy judythpiazza@gmail.com Copyright © 2007, NewsBlaze, Daily News ***************************************************************** 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. 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