***************************************************************** 07/16/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.165 ***************************************************************** 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 Secretary-general Welcomes Shutdown Of Dpr Korea Nuclear Reactor 2 [NYTr] IAEA Confirms N.Korea Has Shut Down Reactor 3 Russia Halts Participation In Arms Pact For Europe 4 [NYTr] West alarmed by Russian pull-out of arms treaty 5 BBC NEWS: UK expels four Russian diplomats 6 AFP: Britain expels Russian diplomats amid Cold War 7 Daily Times: Pakistan’s nuclear crown jewels safe in military’s cust 8 Reuters: Partners eye UK govt's atomic weapons stake 9 Guardian Unlimited: Britain to Expel 4 Russian Diplomats NUCLEAR REACTORS 10 [NYTr] Nuclear leak after earthquake in Japan 11 Daily Yomiuri: N-plant's earthquake fail-safes worked / 12 BBC NEWS: Japan rocked by major earthquake 13 BBC NEWS: Nuclear scare after Japan quake 14 RIA Novosti: Russia will build floating nuclear power plants 15 RIA Novosti: Second unit of China's Tianwan NPP suspended for mainte 16 Platts: Swedish Vattenfall denies reports of German nuke hand-over - 17 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Renewed interest in nuclear power may 18 Reuters: Japan shuts units at top nuclear plant after quake 19 Reuters: Japan quake victims take shelter | 20 Reuters: FACTBOX: Japan's many earthquakes | 21 Prague Daily Monitor: Czech nuclear power plant Temelin's units work 22 AFP: Japan quake causes nuclear plant leak, kills eight 23 SPIEGEL ONLINE: Vattenfalling: Energy Giant Fires Nuclear Boss 24 AFP: Seven dead, hundreds injured as powerful quake hits Japan - 25 Bloomberg.com: Japan Hit by 6.8-Magnitude Quake; Radioactive Leak 26 The Telegraph: Nuclear good and bad news 27 US: Bay City Tribune: Nuclear plants top priority for O’Day 28 Deutsche Welle: Vattenfall Sacks German Nuclear Energy Head After Pr 29 Guardian Unlimited: Strong Quake Rocks Northwestern Japan 30 Guardian Unlimited: Japan Quake Causes 9 Deaths, Nuke Leak NUCLEAR SECURITY 31 US: Austin American Statesman: Nuclear agency fails 'dirty bomb' tes NUCLEAR SAFETY 32 US: NRC: NRC Proposes $3,250 Fine for C&w Enterprises, Inc. 33 US: NRC: NRC Cites University of Pittsburgh for Violation 34 US: YN: World's First Atomic Bomb Test Exposed New Mexico Residents 35 US: DailyBulletin.com: It's time for Rialto to call in the EPA 36 US: Citizens Education Project: NEWS RELEASE: LARGEST FIRE SPREADS C 37 US: NAS: Project: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 38 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Hot topic: Recycling spent nuclear fuel 39 Hemscott: UK govt confirms BNFL to sell one-third stake in Atomic We 40 Hindustan Times: Reprocessing rights likely, but fuel supply a stumb 41 Scotsman.com: UK nuclear convoy safety record shows 67 incidents in PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 42 DOE: DOE Initiates Formal Enforcement Action in Los Alamos 43 Hanford News: Hearing planned for Hanford reservation air permit 44 Hanford News: Brockman to manage DOE Hanford 45 Hanford News: Advisory board seeks public comment on ill Hanford wor 46 Knoxville News Sentinel: Clearances a waiting game at Y-12 47 UPI: Part of Rocky Flats to be wildlife refuge 48 Daily Californian: UC Faces $3.3 Million Penalty 49 ENS: Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Site Becomes a Wildlife Refuge ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Secretary-general Welcomes Shutdown Of Dpr Korea Nuclear Reactor Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:00:49 -0400 New York, Jul 16 2007 1:00PM United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the verification by experts from the world body’s nuclear watchdog that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has closed its At the invitation of the DPRK’s Government, a team from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Focus/IaeaDprk/index.shtml">IAEA) visited the Asian country this weekend to implement agreements to monitor the shutdown and eventual abandonment of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities. “As Secretary-General of the United Nations, and as a former foreign minister of the Republic of Korea, I encourage the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and other parties to continue to implement their commitments to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula as soon as possible,” Mr. Ban told reporters at a Headquarters press conference in New York today. Late last month, IAEA inspectors visited Pyongyang and reached agreement with authorities regarding arrangements for the Agency’s monitoring and verification of the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facility and the reactor under construction in Taechon. “This is just one step, but I think that it is a very important and encouraging step,” Mr. said today. Eventually, the DPRK will “have to dismantle and destroy all nuclear weapons and related programmes in return for economic assistance as well as the security assurance and political horizons, diplomatic horizons,” he added. 2007-07-16 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 2 [NYTr] IAEA Confirms N.Korea Has Shut Down Reactor Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:10:34 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit AP via Yahoo - Jul 16, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070716/ap_on_re_as/koreas_nuclear IAEA confirms N. Korea has shut reactor By KWANG-TAE KIM Associated Press Writer U.N. inspectors have verified that North Korea shut down its nuclear reactor, the watchdog agency's chief said Monday, the first on-the-ground achievement toward scaling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions since the international standoff began in late 2002. The main U.S. envoy on the issue, meanwhile, said that the United States is looking to build on momentum and will start deliberations on removing North Korea from a list of terrorism-sponsoring states. North Korea pledged in an international accord in February to shut the reactor at Yongbyon and dismantle its nuclear programs in return for 1 million tons of oil and political concessions. However, it stalled for several months because of a separate, but now-resolved dispute with the U.S. over frozen bank funds. The shutdown over the weekend was confirmed by a 10-member team of IAEA inspectors, said Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency. "The process has been going quite well and we have had good cooperation from North Korea. It's a good step in the right direction," ElBaradei said, speaking in Bangkok ahead of an event sponsored by Thailand's Science Ministry. The Yongbyon reactor, about 60 miles north of the capital, generates plutonium for atomic bombs; North Korea conducted its first nuclear test explosion in October. On Monday, South Korea sent the second of two initial shipments of what eventually will be 50,000 tons of oil to reward North Korea specifically for the reactor shutdown. The first arrived Saturday, prompting North Korea to begin the shutdown of the Yongbyon. The second shipment departed Monday, South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said. The North's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that further progress under the disarmament accord would now depend "on what practical measures the U.S. and Japan, in particular, will take to roll back their hostile policies toward" North Korea. In an interview with The Associated Press, U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill laid out an aggressive agenda of a steps Washington hopes can be made in the reconciliation process as Pyongyang lays aside its nuclear weapons program. "If North Korea wants to denuclearize, all of this stuff is very doable," Hill told the AP. A first step will be the North declaring a complete list of its nuclear programs to be dismantled. However, the North has yet to publicly admit to embarking on a uranium enrichment program b which the U.S. in 2002 alleged it had done to spark the nuclear crisis. Washington wants the facilities disabled by the end of the year so they cannot be easily restarted, Hill said. Along with the oil deliveries, Hill said the U.S. would look at other incentives for the North such as humanitarian aid. "We have never had a quarrel with the North Korean people," he said. "We have wanted to help the North Korean people and will continue to look for options, look for ways which we can do that." The U.S. will also discuss starting the process to remove the North from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, Hill said. The designation rankles Pyongyang, which has not been tied to a terrorist attack since it bombed a South Korean plane in 1987. North Korea is set to participate in a renewed session of nuclear negotiations this week in Beijing, along with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. Hill, a U.S. assistant secretary of state, has said the negotiations would focus on a timeframe for how disarmament would proceed, adding that he planned to meet his North Korean counterpart Tuesday ahead of the formal start of talks. All foreign ministers from countries involved in the arms talks could meet as soon as next month to lay the foundation for a regional security forum in northeast Asia, Hill said. The region has struggled with territorial and historical disputes in addition to the North Korean standoff. Hill said talks on replacing the 54-year-old Korean War cease-fire with a peace regime that would formally end the conflict could start next year "with understanding that we can't complete that until we complete denuclearization." Officials cautioned that the road ahead would be difficult. "We cannot presume that North Korea will do everything if it is given oil," South Korea's nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo said after meeting Hill. "It's a complicated process," ElBaradei said. "Ultimately we will have to go and make sure the nuclear weapons arsenal of (North Korea) are dismantled. It is a very positive step we are taking this week. But we have a long ways to go." [Associated Press writers Michael Casey in Bangkok, Thailand and Burt Herman in Seoul contributed to this report.] Copyright B) 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 3 Russia Halts Participation In Arms Pact For Europe Resent-Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:21:52 -0500 (CDT) Russia Halts Participation In Arms Pact For Europe Suspension Seen as Response To U.S. Missile Defense Plan By Peter Finn Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, July 15, 2007 MOSCOW, July 14 -- Russia on Saturday formally suspended its participation in a conventional arms treaty dating from the last years of the Cold War that limits NATO and Russian military deployments in Europe. The Kremlin said in a statement that the 1990 pact was suspended "due to exceptional circumstances in relation to the treaty's content that affect the security of the Russian Federation and require immediate measures." Russia previously had threatened the move because of its opposition to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Eastern Europe to ward off a potential threat from Iran. Russian officials regard the project as unnecessary because they believe that Iran is many years from developing long-range missiles. And, more critically, military officials here believe the system can -- and probably will -- be used by the United States to peer deep into Russian territory. Suspension of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty will deepen the country's strained relations with its immediate neighbors in Eastern Europe. Russia can now move more tanks and other heavy weapons to its western borders, and officials in Poland, Estonia and other neighboring countries quickly said they deplored the suspension. But political and military analysts said major redeployments are unlikely. The suspension, they said, was both a symbolic expression of Russian anger over missile defense and a demonstration that the country has returned as an assertive power that must be reckoned with. NATO called Russia's decision a "disappointing step in the wrong direction." "NATO considers this treaty to be an important cornerstone of European security," said James Appathurai, a spokesman for the alliance. The White House expressed its disappointment with the Russians. But Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement, "we'll continue to have discussions with them in the coming months on the best way to proceed in this area -- that is in the interest of all parties involved and provides for security in Europe." Relations between the United States and Russia continue to slide despite a recent attempt at mitigating the tension when President Bush invited President Vladimir Putin to the summer home of Bush's parents in Kennebunkport, Maine. Besides the missile defense system, the two countries disagree on the future status of the Serbian province of Kosovo and how severely the international community should react to Iran's nuclear program. The Kremlin is also deeply hostile to the prospect of countries such as Georgia and Ukraine joining NATO following the accession of Baltic and Eastern European countries. Officials here describe NATO expansion as an aggressive encirclement of Russia and an attempt to isolate the country in its natural sphere of influence. There is a widespread view here that the United States, which has consistently criticized the pace of Russia's democratic development under Putin, wants to undermine the country's newfound self-confidence in its status as a booming energy superpower. Putin's decision is likely to be viewed not just as a snub of the West, but as further proof that the Russian president has restored the country's ability to assert its independence. In Russia, the move drew applause from across the political spectrum. "Russia can't just twiddle its thumbs when it sees the Americans taking root in the Baltic and Caucasus countries and strengthening their positions in East European countries," Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communist Party, told the Russian news agency Interfax. "When NATO's steam engine is directed toward us, we simply must respond." Russia has long bridled at the failure of NATO countries, including the United States, to ratify amendments to the treaty made in 1999. The amendments, however, required Russia to withdraw troops from Moldova and Georgia, and some NATO countries refuse to act until Russia withdraws its troops from those former Soviet republics. Western countries also argued that Russian force levels in the restive republic of Chechnya have at times not been in compliance with the treaty. The amendments would have allowed Russia to bolster its forces in southern Russia but only in return for withdrawal from Georgia and Moldova. Russia is drawing down its forces in Georgia but charges that NATO violates the treaty because of deployments in Eastern Europe. NATO officials reject that accusation. In April, Putin pledged to suspend the treaty, arguing that Russia was threatened by U.S. plans to place a radar system and interceptor missiles in the Czech Republic and Poland. In his annual state of the nation address that month, Putin said NATO was "building up military bases on our borders, and, more than that, they are also planning to station elements of anti-missile defense systems." Russian officials have noted that in 2001, the Bush administration unilaterally pulled out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty because it said the pact no longer served U.S. interests. U.S. officials thought the threat of a Russian pullout from the conventional forces treaty had eased as the two countries continued to discuss a compromise on missile defense in Europe. Before the recent summit between Putin and Bush in Kennebunkport, the Kremlin informed the United States that despite Putin's April statement, it would admit inspectors under the treaty. But Saturday, Russia said it would end the inspection of its military installations by NATO countries after a formal notification period of 150 days. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the suspension "does not imply we are shutting the door to further dialogue." "If today's message is ignored, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty will be next," Gleb Pavlovsky, a Kremlin political consultant, said in an interview with Interfax. "A mad arms race in the Caucasus, Caspian and Black Sea regions is underway, and it is being maintained by European and non-European countries, none of them restricted by the" treaty. Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 652 Brunswick, ME 04011 (207) 443-9502 http://www.space4peace.org globalnet@mindspring.com http://space4peace.blogspot.com (our blog) ***************************************************************** 4 [NYTr] West alarmed by Russian pull-out of arms treaty Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:41:41 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit EU Observer - Jul 16, 2007 http://euobserver.com/9/24485/?rk=1 West alarmed by Russian pull-out of arms treaty By Renata Goldirova NATO, along with several EU states and the US, has shown deep frustration over Russia's decision to pull out of a key arms control treaty, saying it was "a disappointing step in wrong direction". "NATO regrets this decision by the Russian Federation", a NATO spokesman said on Saturday (14 July), adding, "the allies consider this treaty to be an important cornerstone of European security and stability". Over the weekend, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree suspending the country's commitments under the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CEF) treaty, citing "extraordinary circumstances ... which affect the security of the Russian Federation and require immediate measures" as the driving force for such move. The 1990 pact - signed in the dying months of the Cold War - sets limits on the number of conventional weapons and military deployments across the continent and led to the removal of huge artillery stockpiles in the 1990s. The treaty was updated in 1999 just before Vladimir Putin took over from Boris Yeltsin as the new Russian president. However, Washington and several European NATO countries have, up until now, failed to ratify the revised version of the treaty, asking Moscow first to withdraw its remaining forces from two breakaway regions in Georgia and Moldova. Russia could no longer tolerate a situation in which it was complying with the treaty but its partners were not, the Kremlin spokesman was cited as saying by AP on Saturday. He also expressed hope that Russia's move would push Western nations to ratify the updated treaty. The suspension from the pact - although not a full-scale withdrawal - means that Moscow will no longer exchange data on its arms deployments. It will take effect 150 days after all parties to the treaty have been notified. The move, first threatened in April, is yet another setback in already tense relations between Russia and the West, first heightened following US plans to place parts of its anti-missile shield in Russia's backyard, Poland and the Czech Republic. Mutual ties, however, have also been strained because of the ongoing dispute over Moscow's ban on Polish meat and the EU's hesitation to approve Moscow's application for the World Trade Organisation. Several EU states have said they were alarmed by the Kremlin's latest move. "We obviously regard Moscow's announcement with great concern", Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, according to AP, adding that he hoped Russia will go no further than suspending the treaty. The Czech foreign ministry said it hoped that "Russia will stop taking unilateral steps and will return to the negotiating table because negotiations, not threats, can produce positive results," the BBC reported. However, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev - who signed the original treaty in 1990 - said "the decision of the head of state was an urgent call... to constructive dialogue and the implementation of the treaty". He cited the American anti-missile shield and NATO members' failure to ratify an updated version of the treaty as justifications for the suspension, according to Interfax news agency. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 5 BBC NEWS: UK expels four Russian diplomats Last Updated: Monday, 16 July 2007, 18:31 GMT 19:31 UK Mr Litvinenko died in a London hospital in November 2006 The UK is to expel four Russian diplomats in response to Moscow's refusal to extradite the prime suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Foreign Secretary David Miliband also said co-operation with Russia on a range of issues was under review. Prosecutors want Andrei Lugovoi, an ex-KGB officer, to face trial in the UK. He denies involvement. But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he had "no apologies for the action we have taken" in expelling the diplomats. Speaking on a visit to Berlin, he said he wanted good relations with Russia but also said people would understand that when a prosecuting authority made it clear what was in the interests of justice and there was no co-operation, "then action has to be taken." Former KGB agent Mr Litvinenko died of exposure to radioactive polonium-210 in London in November 2006. The Foreign Office has not named the four Russian diplomats, but the BBC understands they are intelligence officers. Mr Miliband told MPs Russia was an important ally and the situation was one that Britain had "not sought and does not welcome". But he said it was necessary to send a "clear and proportionate signal" to Russia, about the seriousness with which Britain regarded the matter. A UK citizen has suffered a horrifying and lingering death David Miliband Speech in full Analysis: Will the spat widen? Russia's Foreign Ministry chief spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said: "London's position is immoral. "Moreover, in London they should clearly realise that such provocative actions masterminded by the British authorities will not be left without an answer and cannot but entail the most serious consequences for Russian-British relations". Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina said she was "very grateful" for the actions being taken by the British government and "proud to be a UK citizen". Under the European Convention on Extradition 1957, the Russians have the right to refuse the extradition of a citizen. The UK has the right to request that Mr Lugovoi be tried in Russia, but the UK's director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald, has already turned down the offer. Mr Miliband said Moscow's refusal to extradite Mr Lugovoi had been "extremely disappointing" and said both the UN and EU had reported concerns that the law in Russia was applied selectively. Co-operation reviewed He told MPs the four diplomats would be expelled and said international agreements had been reached that would allow Mr Lugovoi to be extradited to the UK if he travelled abroad. Mr Miliband added: "We shall review the extent of our cooperation with Russia on a range of issues, and as an initial step we have suspended visa facilitation negotiations with Russia and made other changes to visa practice." KEY EVENTS IN CASE 1 November 2006: Alexander Litvinenko meets Andrei Lugovoi and another Russian at a London hotel 23 November 2006: Litvinenko dies in a London hospital 24 November 2006: A Litvinenko statement accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of involvement in his death. Experts say Litvinenko was poisoned 6 December 2006: UK police say they are treating the death as murder 22 May 2007: Lugovoi should be charged with Litvinenko's murder, British prosecutors say 28 May 2007: UK makes formal request for Lugovoi's extradition from Russia Full timeline of events The British embassy in Moscow later said that the visa process would only change for applications submitted by the Russian government, not those from ordinary Russians. The foreign secretary denied it was a "rush to judgment", but said: "A UK citizen has suffered a horrifying and lingering death. "His murder put hundreds of others, residents and visitors, at risk of radiation contamination, and the UK government has a wider duty to ensure the safety of the large Russian community living in the UK." Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said his party supported the tone and substance of the government's response. 'Appalling crime' He said the Conservatives hoped Russia would remain a key ally on issues like nuclear proliferation, the Middle East peace process, Kosovo and Iran, but that would require a "more positive and co-operative approach" from Moscow. "An appalling crime of this nature and gravity cannot simply be overlooked," he added. Andrei Lugovoi has denied involvement in the murder And for the Lib Dems, Michael Moore said the government had been forced to act, because of the lack of co-operation from Moscow. Later he added: "Today's announcement is an indication of the serious deterioration in Britain's relationship with Russia. "The Russian authorities should be in no doubt that we expect nothing less than full co-operation over the investigation into the murder of Mr Litvinenko." The radioactive isotope used to poison Mr Litvinenko was found in a string of places that Mr Lugovoi visited in London, but he said he was a witness, not a suspect in the case. Scapegoat claim He has said he was made a scapegoat and the poisoning could not have happened without some involvement from the British intelligence services. He has also claimed that MI6 had tried to recruit him, to collect information on Russian president Vladimir Putin. The UK's director of public prosecutions has recommended that Mr Lugovoi be tried for murder by "deliberate poisoning". Mr Lugovoi has told the BBC's Moscow bureau he has no comment about Mr Miliband's speech. But former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev reportedly told Russian news agencies: "In the past in similar situations Russia has always taken decisive and adequate measures. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 6 AFP: Britain expels Russian diplomats amid Cold War by Michael Thurston Mon Jul 16, 4:12 PM ET LONDON (AFP) - Britain said Monday it will expel four Russian diplomats over Moscow's refusal to extradite a key suspect in the murder of ex agent Alexander Litvinenko, raising the spectre of a Cold War-style standoff. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he made "no apologies" for the decision, and that the government was "not prepared to allow a situation of lawlessness to develop in London as a result of a failure to act." The expulsions, announced by Foreign Secretary David Miliband, are the first in over a decade and come amid rising tensions between Moscow and the West fuelled by Litvinenko's radioactive poisoning in London last year. In response, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin warned the sanctions "cannot but lead to the most serious consequences in British-Russian relations as a whole", raising the possibility of tit-for-tat expulsions. The last time Britain expelled Russian diplomats was in 1996, after four British diplomats had to leave Moscow for alleged spy-related activities. One analyst from London's Royal United Services Institute military and foreign affairs think-tank said there was a "sense of deja vu of the Cold War" about the standoff, warning of bigger reprisals if Russia responded in kind. "We are now talking about a very direct retaliation in diplomatic terms from one of the key countries in the West and this is a key departure," said Jonathan Eyal. "No one is seeking to be macho," Miliband told parliament, underlining that Russia's refusal to extradite former KGB spy Andrei Lugovoi was "extremely disappointing". Britain will also consider a range of other measures including possible consequences for visa arrangements, he said, while insisting that "this is not an anti-Russian statement." "This is about being firm and clear and proportionate and that is what we are seeking to do," he said, adding: "This is a situation the government has not sought and does not welcome." Miliband spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov earlier Monday, according to Mikhail Kamynin, a foreign ministry spokesman in Moscow, but it was not clear whether it was before or after the statement. Brown, in Berlin Monday night for his first talks as prime minister with Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Britain still wanted "the best possible" relations with Russia but there had to be co-operation on the matter. "We are sad that co-operation is not forthcoming," he added, saying that he hoped the matter could be resolved "shortly". Britain's move came after Russia confirmed to prosecutors here last week its refusal to hand over Lugovoi over the killing of Litvinenko. Authorities in Moscow have proposed putting Lugovoi on trial in Russia, but British prosecutors believe that would not "meet standards of impartiality and fairness," Brown's office has said. British prosecutors allege Lugovoi used a rare radioactive isotope, Polonium 210, to poison Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence agent turned Kremlin critic, during a meeting over tea in a central London hotel. Lugovoi, in a television interview broadcast Monday, said he is innocent and renewed a claim that the British secret service tried to recruit him. "My family and I were victims of a polonium attack in London," he told Sky News, calling the allegations against him "brazen lies... It's a convenient version chosen by the British justice for an internal audience." News of the expulsions came as Russia and the United States are locked in a heated dispute over missile defence, with Moscow accusing Washington of provoking a "new arms race" by planning a missile shield in central Europe. At the weekend the Kremlin announced it had frozen Russia's participation in a key post-Cold War pact with NATO, the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which limits troops and arms on the continent. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said after Britain's announcement that Moscow's reaction would be "decisive and appropriate", while a member of the Russian parliament warned Britain's economy would suffer. Kamynin also said Britain's position was "immoral", as it had consistently refused to extradite the exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky and the leading Chechen separatist Akhmed Zakayev to stand trial in Russia. US State Department number three Nicholas Burns said the issue was primarily a bilateral matter between Britain and Russia, but gave Washington's support to London, telling BBC radio: "Russia has a lot of questions to answer." Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 7 Daily Times: Pakistan’s nuclear crown jewels safe in military’s custody Leading News Resource of Pakistan Tuesday, July 17, 2007 By Khalid Hasan WASHINGTON: A Pakistani nuclear safety expert has claimed that the country’s “nuclear crown jewels” are safe in the hands of the army and cannot fall under the control of extremists or terrorists. According to Lt Col Zafar Ali of Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division, who spent four months at the Stimson Centre as a visiting fellow, if the “ Chinese government could maintain control of its nuclear weapons during the Cultural Revolution, Pakistan’s military can also maintain close watch and control over its nuclear crown jewels … The odds are still heavily in favour of the military maintaining strict command and control.” In a paper Col Ali wrote at the conclusion of his assignment, he said Pakistan has a well structured command and control system and its export control law on sensitive material and technology is aligned with international standards and the non-proliferation regime. He writes that the induction of new and sophisticated weapons in South Asia is destabilising as it could initiate an arms race. It is in Pakistan’s interest to reduce asymmetry in conventional forces to keep the nuclear threshold high. He calls the US-India civil nuclear deal an unhelpful development, since it creates an exception to non-proliferation rules and norms based on one country, rather than on specific criteria or energy needs. Col Ali notes that over the past couple of years there has been a renewed emphasis by Washington and some Western countries that nuclear weapons and materials in South Asia especially in Pakistan are vulnerable to terrorists’ or extremists’ control – “a seemingly deliberate effort to undermine the credibility of Pakistan’s command and control”. He admits that like any other country, Pakistan also faces terrorist threats from non-state actors or extremist groups operating in the region and beyond; however, the dangers to nuclear assets and materials are not as grave as perceived in the West. Col Ali agrees that media reports on Dr AQ Khan’s non-state network raised lingering suspicions, as a consequence overshadowing Pakistan’s efforts to harness a coherent command and control system. The security environment of the region and the innate opacity and lack of information about the Pakistani nuclear programme further provoke worries. Although Pakistan has put in place effective remedies to prevent the recurrence of past malpractice, no nation can be satisfied as improvement is a continuous phenomenon. “The question arises as to why Pakistan is regarded as suspect. There are three reasons: firstly, the legacy of AQ Khan’s proliferation network; secondly, Pakistan’s proximity to the region where Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants are located; and thirdly because of religious conservatism in Pakistani society. Pakistan’s nuclear assets are under custodial control and weak links in management and oversight have been addressed to prevent the recurrence of any proliferation activity. While Al Qaeda and the Taliban have no direct bearing on Pakistan’s nuclear assets, the threat from their affiliates and extremist groups is genuinely worrisome. Nevertheless, instances of illicit trafficking of nuclear material and loss of control over nuclear assets in other countries should not be made a basis to raise suspicions over Pakistan’s nuclear assets.” Daily Times - All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 8 Reuters: Partners eye UK govt's atomic weapons stake Mergers/Acquisitions | Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:15AM EDT LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - Serco (SRP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and the UK division of Lockheed Martin (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday they were interested in buying the British government's stake in AWE, the body in charge of developing Britain's nuclear arsenal. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is a one-third owned by the UK government through its stake in British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) with the remained equally split between Serco and Lockheed. The two firms have first refusal on the government's stake as long as they pay what the government calculates is the market rate. "As founding members of the consortium we are interested in exercising our pre-emption rights that will form part of the process," Serco and Lockheed said in a joint statement. A source close to the situation said the stake was expected to fetch in "the upper end of the tens of millions (of pounds) bracket." The three partners are not involved in the day-to-day running of AWE although they have managed it on behalf of Britain's Ministry of Defence since 1993 under a government-owned/contractor-operated arrangement. Britain said in February it was to spend up to 20 billion pounds ($40.8 billion) building new nuclear submarines to keep a nuclear deterrent in place to around 2050. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 Guardian Unlimited: Britain to Expel 4 Russian Diplomats Monday July 16, 2007 9:16 PM By DAVID STRINGER Associated Press Writer LONDON (AP) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown's new government ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats Monday over the Kremlin's refusal to extradite the key suspect in the fatal poisoning of a former KGB spy - Britain's first use of the sanction in more than 10 years. Russia quickly threatened retaliation, marking a new low point in Britain's relations with Moscow under President Vladimir Putin. Alexander Litvinenko died Nov. 23 in a London hospital after ingesting radioactive polonium-210. In a deathbed statement, the 43-year-old accused Putin of being behind his killing. British prosecutors have named Russian businessman and former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi as the chief suspect. Litvinenko said he first felt ill after meeting Lugovoi and business partner Dmitry Kovtun at a London hotel. But Russia has refused to extradite Lugovoi, saying its constitution prevents that. Brown, speaking in Berlin, said, ``I have no apologies for the action that we have taken, but I do want a resolution of this issue as soon as possible.'' ``When a murder takes place, when a number of innocent civilians were put at risk ... when an independent prosecuting authority makes it absolutely clear what is in the interest of justice and there is no forthcoming cooperation, then action has to be taken,'' the British leader said. Foreign Secretary David Miliband told lawmakers in the House of Commons that ``the Russian government has failed to register either how seriously we treat this case or the seriousness of the issues involved, despite lobbying at the highest level and clear explanations of our need for a satisfactory response.'' Russia immediately threatened to retaliate. ``London's position is immoral,'' Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said. ``They should understand well in London that the provocative actions conceived by British authorities will not go unanswered and cannot fail to produce the most serious consequences'' for bilateral relations, he said. Lugovoi said Monday the British decision ``once again confirms that the Litvinenko affair had a political subtext from the very beginning,'' the Interfax news agency reported. Russia formally rejected an extradition request a week ago, and British prosecutors then spurned an offer from Moscow to try Lugovoi there. Lugovoi could be extradited under international agreements if he travels outside Russia, Miliband said. ``The heinous crime of murder does require justice,'' he said. ``This response is proportional and it is clear at whom it is aimed.'' In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Bush administration has urged Russia and Britain to cooperate on the case. ``We believe that it is important to bring closure to that terrible crime.'' McCormack told reporters. ``We believe that it is important, as a matter of justice, to see some cooperation between the U.K. and Russia.'' The Russian diplomats had yet to leave the country and the Foreign Office declined to provide their titles. Britain also will place restrictions on visas issued to Russian government officials and is reviewing cooperation on a range of issues, Miliband said. The expulsion order underlined how British-Russian relations have deteriorated since an initially promising start when Putin came to office in 2000. Russia bristled at British criticism of its war in Chechnya, and later was irate at Britain's refusal to extradite Chechen separatist envoy Akhmed Zakayev and Boris Berezovsky, the tycoon and one-time Kremlin insider who fell out with Putin and obtained asylum in Britain. In 2006, Russia accused four British diplomats of spying and funneling funds to non-governmental organizations critical of Putin's government. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who pursued closer relations with the West, said the expulsion order was a mistake. ``There have already been such instances in the history of our joint relations. They didn't lead to anything good,'' he was quoted as saying by the news agency Interfax. One senior British diplomat, who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said he hoped Russia would not react by jeopardizing delicate discussions over the future of Kosovo or Iran's nuclear ambitions. Moscow would likely respond by expelling three British diplomats, said Oleg Gordievski, a former KGB defector to Britain. Litvinenko's widow Marina said in a statement that she was grateful for the government's stand. ``It makes me proud to be a U.K. citizen because I can see that my strong faith in the British authorities was well-founded and that they too share my determination,'' she said. Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb said the British action was encouraging. ``Hopefully this strong response will be the beginning of a policy change,'' Goldfarb said. ``The murder of Litvinenko was made possible by years of appeasement of Putin's regime by Western governments.'' Russia's ambassador to London met with Sir Peter Ricketts, a senior aide to Miliband, shortly before lawmakers were told of the measures being taken against Moscow. Britain and Russia last clashed over diplomatic expulsions in March 1996, when Moscow expelled nine British diplomats alleging that they were part of a spy ring. Britain kicked out four Russians in response. ``If anyone was under the illusion that the Gordon Brown government would take a softer stance on Russia than its predecessor, they no longer should be,'' said Andrew Kuchins, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ``While we most definitely are not in a new Cold War, it is very chilly in Russian-British relations,'' he said. --- Associated Press Writers Jim Heintz and Tariq Panja in London, and Steve Gutterman in Moscow, contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 10 [NYTr] Nuclear leak after earthquake in Japan Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:37:25 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit The Independent - Jul 17, 2007 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2776109.ece Nuclear leak after earthquake in Japan By David McNeill in Tokyo A strong earthquake struck central Japan, killing at least eight people, injuring hundreds and causing a fire and radioactive leak at the world's biggest nuclear power plant. The 6.8-magnitude quake levelled buildings, derailed trains and buckled roads after it struck about 10 miles off the coast of Niigata yesterday. The local media reported that four elderly women and a man were crushed to death by falling buildings and at least 800 people were hurt, some seriously. Thousands more spent the night in evacuation centres as aftershocks continued to jolt the area and electricity, gas and water remained cut off. Japanese television showed footage of several people being pulled from the rubble of flattened houses. "The whole building shook from side to side, " one pensioner sheltering in a local school said. "I'm too frightened to go back home." Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, interrupted campaigning for the 29 July general election to visit the area and oversee an emergency task force. " We have to make every effort to save lives and reassure people," he told reporters. As night fell, rescue workers were still trying to dig out people trapped under rubble before the start of heavy rain, forecast for tomorrow. The quake, which hit just after 10am local time, also started a fire at the No 3 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa light-water nuclear plant, the largest nuclear complex in the world. A spokesman for the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said there was a "small leak" of radioactive water from reactors 3 and 6 into the sea but denied the reactor was ever in any danger. "The radiation was well within safe limits," he said. Anti-nuclear campaigners have reacted with alarm to the leak and to reports that the blaze took as long as 90 minutes to put out. "I was watching it on television and was very surprised it took so long," said Chihiro Kamisawa, a researcher with the NGO, Citizens Nuclear Information Centre. " If they're having problems putting out a small fire, what will they do when a bigger one strikes?" Staff at the plant said fire engines were " busy" at other sites. Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action Japan said the plant was short-staffed on a national holiday. "It raises serious questions about their emergency preparedness," she said, adding that it was "very worrying" that radiation monitoring equipment at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex may have been stopped by the quake. Japan has a fast-growing nuclear industry, with 55 plants operating and another 11 planned. Nuclear power currently provides a third of the country's energy needs but Tokyo wants to boost this to 40 per cent. The plans are opposed by environmentalists and local residents who say the government is inviting disaster by building so many reactors in a seismically unstable country. The power companies are currently reviewing their disaster readiness, following a string of scandals and near misses. Niigata has been hit by a series of strong quakes, including another earthquake that measured 6.8 almost three years ago, which killed 67 people and injured 4,800. Mr Kamisawa said: "This is the second large earthquake in the same place. They should rethink concentrating so many plants in these dangerous areas." Japanese nuclear plants are built to withstand quakes of magnitude 6.5 but most experts now think this should be increased to 6.9 and some called for a complete rethink. Journalists accused the company of operating lax construction standards at the plant. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 11 Daily Yomiuri: N-plant's earthquake fail-safes worked / Small amount of coolant leaked from power station, but reactors shut down The reactors of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station automatically shut down immediately after Monday's powerful earthquake struck the area. The Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 7 reactors shut down as designed. The other three reactors were undergoing periodic inspections at the time. Soon after the magnitude-6.8 quake struck, a fire broke out in a transformer at the No. 3 reactor facility, sending black smoke billowing into the air. The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry said no abnormal readings had been detected from monitoring posts for radiation near the transformer. But on Monday evening, TEPCO said it had confirmed that a small amount of coolant containing radioactive material had leaked at the No. 6 reactor. Shunsuke Kondo, professor emeritus at Tokyo University, said: "It seemed the fire started in the transformer, which provides electricity from outside. I think insulation oil used for the transformer caught fire." According to Kondo, the black smoke indicated insulation oil had ignited. Pipe joints that provide insulation oil to transformers are relatively weak, and Kondo said insulation oil probably leaked from a joint and caught fire. The quake was similar in size to the main tremor of the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake that struck on Oct. 23, 2004. But that quake's epicenter was closer to bedrock and was not intense enough to trigger an automatic shutdown of the reactors. The transmission of seismic energy of an earthquake is very complicated and is greatly influenced by the depth and location of an earthquake's focus. The reactors' automatic shutdown is believed to have functioned as designed and not because of any imminent danger. Only important facilities at the power plant have strong quake resistance. Power plant facilities and machines are divided into four levels of importance. The lowest-level facilities, including electric generators, are required to have almost the same level of quake resistance as ordinary buildings. The transformer that caught fire probably was categorized as of low importance. "Quake-resistance standards for nuclear power plants are set to be strengthened to handle a catastrophic quake of a magnitude of 6.9, up from a magnitude 6.5 under the old standards," Waseda University Prof. Masanori Hamada said. "Nuclear power plants are designed with safety allowances under these standards, meaning that even if a quake over the standard occurs, there's only a slight chance of an accident occurring." Monday's quake magnitude came close to the new standard. "So far, we can't say reviewing the new standard will be necessary, but depending on the result of analysis from an actual quake, the standard might need to be reviewed," Hamada said. === Focus close to seabed The earthquake was caused by the shifting of a fault at a shallow part of the plate below the Japanese archipelago, according to the Meteorological Agency. The seismic focus was about 17 kilometers below the seabed of the Sea of Japan off Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture. While the quake was the same magnitude--6.8--as the 2004 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake, in which 67 people died, a different fault apparently shifted in this quake because the focus was about 40 kilometers northwest of that of the 2004 earthquake. As the fault is located in a sea area, its existence had not been known. In Monday's earthquake, tremors measuring upper 6 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 were recorded in Iizunamachi, Nagano Prefecture, despite its distance from Kashiwazaki. An earthquake occurring near the surface of the Earth, including this earthquake, is referred to as a "near-field" or "inland" quake. The 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Hyogo Prefecture and the Noto Peninsula Earthquake fall within this category. As this type of temblor can occur anywhere in the country, experts say areas that were not hit by the latest quake should take heed of the danger such quakes pose. Under the plate on which the Japanese archipelago sits, the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate are gradually sinking, pushing the land-side plate northwest. "Due to the strain energy within the land-side plate generated in the process, weak ground breaks, triggering a quake," an agency spokesman said. The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun © The Yomiuri Shimbun. ***************************************************************** 12 BBC NEWS: Japan rocked by major earthquake Last Updated: Monday, 16 July 2007, 11:55 GMT 12:55 UK Clouds of black smoke poured from the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant An earthquake has struck central Japan, killing at least seven people, flattening buildings and triggering a fire at a nuclear power plant. Hundreds of people were injured when the 6.8-magnitude tremor struck the Niigata area. The fire at the nuclear plant has been extinguished, and there was no release of radiation or damage to the reactors, officials said. He cut short a trip to the south-western city of Nagasaki, where he was campaigning ahead of forthcoming upper house elections. The seven deaths took place in the city of Kashiwazaki. In pictures: Japan quake Four women and three men - all in their 70s and 80s - died from injuries sustained in the earthquake, the National Police Agency said. City official Takashi Otsuka said about 2,000 people had been evacuated from their homes, while tens of thousands are reported to have no power or running water. Older buildings, many of them with wooden walls and heavy tile roofs, appear to have suffered the most damage in the earthquake, which also cracked roads and buckled bridges. The region has subsequently suffered several strong aftershocks. Clouds of black smoke poured from the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant, which automatically shut down during the quake. Motoyasu Tamaki, a Tokyo Electric Power Company official, said the fire had occurred in an electrical transformer. Hospital officials said about 300 people had been brought in for treatment of injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises, they added. 'Violent shaking' Masao Honma, a police officer in Kashiwazaki, described the moment the earthquake hit. Japan is in one of the world's most seismically active areas "It was too strong to stand," he told Reuters news agency. "Some people got under tables, others immediately went outside." Resident Ritei Wakatsuki told the Associated Press news agency: "I was so scared - the violent shaking went on for 20 seconds. I almost fainted through fear of the shaking." Skyscrapers swayed in Tokyo, more than 200km (125 miles), from the earthquake's epicentre in the Sea of Japan. Earthquakes are common in Japan, which is situated in one of the world's most seismically active areas, and the country regularly holds safety drills. Three years ago, an earthquake in the same area left 65 people dead. In 1995, a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe, killing more than 6,400 people. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 13 BBC NEWS: Nuclear scare after Japan quake Last Updated: Monday, 16 July 2007, 16:08 GMT 17:08 UK Clouds of smoke poured from the Kashiwazaki nuclear power plant A strong earthquake in central Japan has damaged a large nuclear power plant causing a leak of radioactive material, officials at the plant have said. A small amount of water containing radioactive substances leaked into the sea, officials said, and a fire broke out at the plant in Kashiwazaki. At least seven people were killed and hundreds injured in the earthquake. Tokyo Electric Power Company said the small amount of radioactive material that leaked into the sea posed no environmental risk. Reactors at the plant automatically shut during the magnitude 6.8 quake. 'Vertical jolt' The seven deaths occurred in the city of Kashiwazaki. Four women and three men - all in their 70s and 80s - died from injuries sustained in the earthquake, officials said. Several hundred homes and businesses in Niigata prefecture were destroyed, roads were cracked and several landslides buried roads. In pictures: Japan quake Japan's shaky nuclear record More than 800 people were reported injured, most with broken bones, cuts and abrasions from collapsing buildings and falling objects. "First there was a sharp vertical jolt and then it shook sideways for a long time and I couldn't stand up," said Kashiwazaki teacher Harumi Mikami, who was at her school when the earthquake struck at 1013 (0113GMT). "Tall shelves fell over and things flew around," she told Reuters news agency. More than 7,000 people were evacuated from their homes as aftershocks of up to magnitude 5.8 shook the area. No damage from the second earthquake deep under the sea off Kyoto was reported but Tokyo residents said they felt buildings shake. Safety fears Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe broke off from election campaigning to visit Kashiwazaki. He promised to "make every effort towards rescue and also to restore services such as gas and electricity". The safety of Japan's nuclear installations, which supply much of Japan's power, have come under the spotlight in recent years after a string of accidents and mishaps. Japan lies in one of the world's most earthquake-prone regions and the ability of some reactors to withstand a strong tremor has been questioned. Three years ago an earthquake in the Niigata area killed 65 people. In 1995, a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe, killing more than 6,400 people. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 14 RIA Novosti: Russia will build floating nuclear power plants Opinion & analysis - 11:11 | 16/ 07/ 2007 MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) - Since 2006, Sevmash, the main company of the Russian State Nuclear Shipbuilding Center, has been working to complete a floating nuclear power plant in northern Russia that will be launched in 2010 and moored in a nearby harbor. This technological marvel will raise quite a few eyebrows and cause widespread apprehension, because the world still fears everything connected with nuclear power. The floating NPP, three to five hectares in area, will power Sevmash's production and social infrastructure, and will generate heat and desalinate seawater. In fact, the ship, like a small island with two KLT-40S reactors, could be towed anywhere. It would not be an exaggeration to say that floating NPPs are a godsend for Russia, a vast country with many sparsely populated areas washed by numerous seas. Russia, which plans to build many floating NPPs by 2020, does not have to modify the State Maritime Doctrine. Viktor Opekunov, chairman of the nuclear energy subcommittee of the State Duma energy, transport and communications committee, said floating NPPs cannot be classified as ships, because they are not self-propelled and must be towed to their respective destinations. He said they have nothing to do with the Maritime Doctrine and would not threaten the environment, because nuclear fuel would be transported separately and loaded onboard floating NPPs in isolated bodies of water surrounded by dams. These NPPs, which are a vital element of the national energy program, the G8 strategy to prevent energy crises and the current renaissance in nuclear power, were developed in order to meet growing power demand in remote Russian areas. For instance, the Russian Far East faces regular power outages because the local power industry is not very reliable. It appears that the second floating NPP will be towed via Russia's northern sea route through the Arctic Ocean to the small town of Pevek in the Chukchi Autonomous Area and will provide the local seaport and meteorological station, as well as gold, tin, and coal mines and mercury producers, with an unlimited amount of electricity. There are plans to moor the NPP in the Chaunskaya Bay in the East Siberian Sea near Pevek, or it could be taken ashore on pontoons and spend its entire service life powering the town. Specialized sea-going ships would rotate NPP personnel and bring in fresh nuclear fuel. Opekunov said the floating NPP's design and engineering solutions take into account Russia's extensive experience operating civilian nuclear-powered ice-breakers along the northern sea route. He said their reliability is almost completely assured by the fact that different nuclear-powered ships have been operating for hundreds of reactor-years. Apart from two reactors, the floating NPP has technical facilities and accommodations for the crew and can be connected to coastal transformers, pumps, heating mains, etc. When operating at full capacity, it can power a city with a population of 200,000 or desalinate 240,000 cubic meters of seawater every 24 hours. The floating NPP has been designed in such a way as to make it invulnerable to terrorist attacks. The latest achievements of science and technology will prevent anyone from stealing fissionable materials from aboard the floating plant. All workers will be fingerprinted and their iris patterns used for identification purposes. In fact, the plant's sturdiness means it could even withstand a possible attack by divers or a plane crash; in the latter case, its reactors would continue to function as usual. Nevertheless, Russia will not offer the floating NPP to all prospective customers but will sell its heat, power and drinking water instead. This will help prevent the spread of nuclear technologies. After a contract is signed with a foreign country, the NPP would be towed to its coast under the Russian flag and would start operating in a safe harbor. The NPP's service life is guaranteed by the infrastructure of the Russian nuclear sector. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 15 RIA Novosti: Second unit of China's Tianwan NPP suspended for maintenance 21:56 | 16/ 07/ 2007 MOSCOW, July 16 (RIA Novosti) - The second unit of a Chinese nuclear power plant being built by Russians has been suspended for 22 days for planned maintenance, Russia's nuclear equipment export monopoly said. Atomstroyexport is building the Tianwan plant in eastern China's port city of Lianyungang under a 1992 agreement. The plant features improved VVER-1000 reactors and K-100-6/3000 turbo generators. Russia had planned to commission the second reactor in September. The unit, which was tested at 100% capacity last week, will undergo planned maintenance and then be re-tested. Commercial operation of the reactor may begin on schedule in September, Atomstroyexport said. The second reactor has produced 567,979 MW/h of power since early May. The first unit was completely commissioned in early June, and experts are preparing a feasibility study for the third and fourth units. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 16 Platts: Swedish Vattenfall denies reports of German nuke hand-over - CEO 2007-07-16 London (Platts)--16Jul2007 The Swedish utility Vattenfall is not considering handing over its stake in German nuclear power plants following a fire at its 1,316-MW Krumel plant on June 28, the company's CEO Lars Josefsson told Platts Monday. Josefsson denied German media reports that the company has already held talks with E.ON over the transfer of its stake in nuclear power plants to the German utility. The Krummel and Brunsbuttel units are already run jointly by the two companies. The CEO said: "Such reports are totally false. There haven't even been thoughts of such a thing and I don't know why the media is reporting it without even asking us about it first." The utility's German subsidiary Vattenfall Europe has been heavily criticized over the company's running of nuclear plants and there are investigations underway in both the federal government and the responsible state government of Schleswig-Holstein which could lead to a withdrawal of Vattenfall's accreditation to run nuclear power plants in Germany. According to the German Sunday paper "Tagesspiegel am Sonntag," Vattenfall Europe's CEO Klaus Rauscher will make decisions on "considerable personnel changes" of Vattenfall Europe's management "early this week," including the replacement of the company's nuclear director Bruno Thomauske. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Power in Europe at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=2_31&products_id=55 Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 17 Salt Lake Tribune: Renewed interest in nuclear power may resurrect Utah's uranium mining industry Article Last Updated: 07/16/2007 12:27:52 PM MDT Ron Wells, left, Seth Shumway, center, and Jerry Cowan use a probe to measure radiation in the ore walls containing uranium in the Pandora Mine outside La Sal. Sealed room where robotics are used to conduct experiments and Idaho National Laboratory. (Idaho National Laboratory) LA SAL - Jerry Cowan speeds his golf cart down through the pitch black recesses of Utah's first working uranium mine since the last boom rocked southern Utah in the 1980s. The cart's rapid descent - heading 600 feet below the surface - is reminiscent of the falling uranium prices of the 1980s. That particular fall left the Intermountain West's uranium industry in shambles. Deeper and deeper below the tiny town of La Sal rest tons of unprocessed uranium ore, now too valuable for companies to pass up any longer, said Harold Roberts of Canadian-based Denison Mines Corp., which reopened the Pandora Mine within the last year. Soon, beams from a few headlamps dance in the darkness ahead. A handful of miners drill into solid rock, emitting sounds that may herald a new Utah uranium boom, one that may be sustained if the world embraces nuclear power as a way to fight global warming. This latest trend is tied to skyrocketing uranium prices - about $140 a pound, up from about $10 in 2000. The increase is largely due to supply-and-demand issues for an expensive-to-process mineral available only in limited regions worldwide. For a time, Russia was dismantling nuclear bombs, reprocessing the high-grade uranium for weapons into low-grade uranium for power plants, which may have helped drive down costs, said Ken Krahulec, metals geologist for the Utah Geological Survey. Also affecting recent supplies: One of the biggest mines in Canada, the world's leading supplier of uranium, is closed due to flooding. Another factor adding to this record pricing is that a group of private investors is buying uranium and betting prices rise even higher, he said. Plans for China and India to ramp up their nuclear capacity may also be playing into the recent price hike. "They're going nuclear big time," said Peter Farmer, president of Denison Mines. All of these factors could simply be a prelude to a major resurgence for nuclear power. Global warming has forced a renewed debate about how to provide large supplies of electricity in a different way. Unlike traditional coal-burning plants, nuclear plants emit no greenhouse gases. These gases build in the atmosphere acting to trap heat, which contributes to the planet's warming. Some hope these arguments will boost nuclear's share of the future energy mix. For now, mines across the Intermountain West are slowly creaking back to life. Pandora is one of two operational uranium mines in the state, said Susan White, mining program coordinator for the Utah Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. A total of 15 mines have approval to begin operations, while another 10 exploration permits have been granted. The U.S. ranked 10th in uranium-ore output at 1,692 tons, while Canada led the world with 9,862 tons, according to 2006 figures from the World Nuclear Organization. If a nuclear renaissance takes hold, places like the Pandora Mine could be active for years to come. How mining works In the darkness of the mine on a recent afternoon, the sounds of drills driving into the rock echo through the carved-out passageways. Miners punch holes into the ceiling before sending thin probes into the opening for radiation readings. The data help the miners estimate how much uranium is interspersed with the surrounding rock. The miners do not need to wear any type of radiation protection, because it takes a ton of uranium ore to yield 6 pounds of uranium. In some Canadian mines, where the uranium concentrations are much higher, robots must be used to remove the ore. Cowan, who worked the mines during the last uranium boom, is now training the next generation of miners. Safety is among the priorities he stresses to the new crop. "We haven't had a smashed finger," Cowan said. Much of the early work has been placing steel support beams on the ceiling to cut down on rocks coming loose. Other holes being drilled into the walls are for explosives to blast loose the uranium ore. Once they are ready to blast, the miners duck around a corner and brace for the explosion. Workers maneuver carts into the blast area and use construction equipment to load the broken rocks into a hopper. Every once in a while, a cart barrels out of the mine's entrance. Workers take radiation readings of the ore and dump the haul into one of several piles that dot the Pandora Mine property. A series of chemical processes at a uranium milling plant separates the uranium from the ore, and eventually produces what is known as yellowcake uranium. The final product goes to other facilities designed to prepare the uranium for processing into fuel rods, which power nuclear plants, Roberts said. The mine now runs one shift a day with its 14 employees, Roberts said. As they hire more miners, the company hopes to build up to a second shift. But finding miners is a challenge. Most of the miners that fueled Utah's last uranium boom in the 1970s and '80s have moved on to other industries or are no longer in good enough shape to handle the daily rigors of work in the mines, said Cowan. In addition to recruiting new miners, uranium companies are stealing experts from other industries, like gold and coal mining, Roberts said. Boom or boomerang? HEAL Utah, a nonprofit group that monitors nuclear issues, does not welcome the revival of mining and milling operations in Utah. Taxpayers were left to foot the bill from the previous uranium booms, which included cleaning up dozens of abandoned mine sites. The milling process also leaves polluted tailings that must be dealt with, said Vanessa Pierce, head of HEAL Utah. The latest cleanup efforts involve almost $100 million from the Department of Energy to remove uranium tailings near Moab. "We're going to see history repeat itself," she said of cleanup costs. Radon gas also posed health risks to miners and past workers have filed for federal compensation because of illness linked to mining, Pierce said. Roberts counters that mine safety is a greater concern today, and ventilation systems are in place to prevent the buildup of dangerous gases, such as radon, which debilitated miners in the 1950s and '60s. Some towns in southern Utah could be bustling once other mines begin operations. Roberts said these efforts will help improve the regional economy as well as the nuclear industry. Denison Mines hopes when the Pandora Mine is running at full speed, it can produce about 4,000 tons of uranium ore a month. While a productive total, the company has bigger plans for the Tony M mine near Ticaboo. "This is going to be a pretty good size for a uranium mine," Roberts said, standing near one of the Tony M mine's two entrances. Each entrance stretches 2 1/2 miles into the side of the cliff face. When it's fully operational, 150 miners could be pumping out up to 15,000 tons of uranium ore a month. The influx of ore from both mines will also help another of the company's uranium facilities start running at full bore again. Denison's White Mesa Mill, near Blanding, is one of four uranium processing mills in the nation. Utah has a second mill, Shootaring Canyon, near Ticaboo, which is owned by sxr Uranium One. "That'll open things up for the little guys," Roberts said, once the White Mesa Mill starts running. The mill will set a buying schedule, which is expected to encourage the smaller "mom and pop" mining operations to start up, he said. If Utah is at the leading edge of the next uranium boom, a worldwide expansion of nuclear power could make the ride last longer than usual. glavine@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 18 Reuters: Japan shuts units at top nuclear plant after quake Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:50PM EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co. shut down three major generators at the world's biggest nuclear power plant after a powerful earthquake in Japan on Monday caused a brief fire in one of the units, company officials said. TEPCO, Asia's biggest utility, added that 1.5 liters of water containing radioactive materials had leaked from a unit closed for maintenance at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. The contaminated water was released into the ocean and had had no effect on the environment, TEPCO said in a statement. The company had previously said there had been no radiation leaks at the plant, where reactors automatically shut down for checks. The leak was from the shut-down No.6 unit, which has a capacity of 1.356 million kilowatts. The fire had been sparked in a transformer linked to another unit, No.3. TEPCO could not say when the three units that had tripped offline after the quake would be restarted, but an official said it had no immediate plans to increase operations at oil- or gas-fired power plants to make up for the lost capacity. "We have plenty of power supplies to cover needs for this week between Tuesday and Sunday," a company official said. "We'll study the situation closely to decide on our plans beyond next week." Restarting other power units could boost oil, gas or coal consumption by Japan's power industry, which is closely watched by energy traders after maintenance scandals forced a series of nuclear shutdowns that increased use of other fuels. The magnitude 6.8 quake struck at 10:13 a.m. (0113 GMT) on a holiday Monday in Japan, killing at least four people in the same area as a tremor three years ago that killed 65 people. The No.3, No.4 and No.7 power generation units at the plant, located near the centre of the quake some 250 km (155 miles) northwest of Tokyo, shut down automatically. The No.3 unit alone has a capacity of 1.1 million kilowatts. Four more units at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, which the company says is the world's biggest such facility, were not operating as they had been shut for maintenance, TEPCO said. Continued... ***************************************************************** 19 Reuters: Japan quake victims take shelter | Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:56PM EDT By George Nishiyama KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (Reuters) - More than 10,000 people sheltered in evacuation centers on Tuesday in Japan's northwest after a strong earthquake flattened hundreds of houses, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 900. As aftershocks continued, rain began to fall, and forecasts for two days of wet weather raised fears of mudslides that could add to the devastation. Houses collapsed and water, gas and electricity supplies were cut by the 6.8 magnitude quake in Niigata prefecture on Monday, which also caused a small radiation leak and fire at the world's biggest nuclear plant. Nine elderly people were killed by the tremor, which hit at 10:13 a.m. (0113 GMT) on Monday, police said. "I am worried about the aftershocks," said 80-year-old Toshiko Kojima, who said she had spent a mostly sleepless night in a crowded elementary school gymnasium in Kashiwazaki. The quake halted gas service to about 35,000 homes and disrupted the water supply to all of Kashiwazaki, a city with a population of around 95,000 that was hardest hit by the quake. About 25,000 homes in Niigata prefecture were without electricity, local officials and media said. The country was rattled late on Monday evening by a deep tremor under the Sea of Japan estimated at magnitude 6.6 to 6.8 that caused buildings in Tokyo to sway, but there were no immediate reports of further damage. RADIATION LEAK Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said 1.5 liters of water containing radioactive materials had leaked from a unit at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant -- the world's largest. A similar amount of contaminated water had been released into the ocean and had had no effect on the environment, the company said in a statement, adding that the quake was stronger than its reactors had been designed to cope with. A fire in an electrical transformer at the plant was quickly extinguished but it was unclear when TEPCO could restart three power units there. Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. Houses, many wooden with traditional heavy tile roofs, collapsed and roads cracked in Monday's quake, centered in the same northwestern area as a tremor three years ago. RAIN Troops and extra emergency teams helped with rescue and relief efforts, including distributing water and rice. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut short campaigning for parliamentary elections to inspect damage. "We need to take every step to take lives. It's supposed to rain tomorrow (Tuesday) in the area so we have to take every step to save lives, secure lifelines and reassure people," Abe told reporters. The government set up an emergency office to deal with the quake, which officials said had damaged about 500 buildings. "I was sitting on the balcony and was scared to death," said Kiyono Fujisawa, a 70-year-old farmer, who lives with five others including her daughter and grandchildren in a house that was partly destroyed. "Look at my house. I'm too scared to go back in." Bullet trains stopped services in northern Japan for a time after the quake and a local train toppled from the rails, but media said no one was injured. Niigata was hit in October 2004 by a quake with a matching magnitude of 6.8 that killed 65 people and injured more than 3,000. It was the deadliest quake in Japan since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit Kobe city in 1995, killing more than 6,400. (Additional reporting by Isabel Reynolds, Elaine Lies, Chisa Fujioka, Teruaki Ueno and Linda Sieg) ***************************************************************** 20 Reuters: FACTBOX: Japan's many earthquakes | Mon Jul 16, 2007 10:08AM EDT (Reuters) - A strong earthquake killed at least three people in northwestern Japan on Monday, injured more than 500, flattened houses, and started a small fire at the world's largest nuclear power plant. Following are some facts about Japan and earthquakes. * Japan, situated on the "Ring of Fire" arc of volcanoes and ocean trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Basin, accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. * A tremor occurs in Japan at least every five minutes, and each year there are up to 2,000 quakes that can be felt by people. * The Great Kanto earthquake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9, killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area. Seismologists have said another such quake could strike the city at any time. * On January 16, 1995, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 hit central Japan, devastating the western port city of Kobe. It was the worst earthquake to hit Japan in 50 years, killing more than 6,400 and causing an estimated $100 billion in damage. * On October 23, 2004, a 6.8 magnitude quake struck the Niigata region, about 250 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, killing 65 people and injuring 3,000. * On March 25, 2007, a 6.9 magnitude quake struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300 km west of Tokyo, killing one person, injuring more than 200 and destroying hundreds of homes. * The Tokyo metropolitan government said in March 2006 that a magnitude 7.3 earthquake under Tokyo would probably kill more than 5,600 people and injure almost 160,000. Official estimates of economic damage have topped more than $1 trillion. * German insurer Munich Re was even more pessimistic, saying in 2004 that a severe earthquake in the Tokyo-Yokohama area would kill hundreds of thousands of people, cause damage running into trillions of dollars and have global economic repercussions. * The Tokyo-Yokohama metropolis, with a population of 35 million, has the highest "at risk" rating from natural disasters such as earthquakes of any of the world's 30 "megacities", the report said. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 21 Prague Daily Monitor: Czech nuclear power plant Temelin's units work at 100 percent - By CTK / Published 16 July 2007 Temelin, July 14 (CTK) - Both units of the Czech nuclear power plant Temelin started to work at 100 percent today, Vaclav Brom, spokesman for the CEZ group which operates Temelin, has told CTK. The second unit was connected to the grid after a two-month pause on Wednesday when its output started to be slowly raised. It started to operate at full capacity at 0:40 CEST today, Brom said. The first unit's operation was not limited. Brom said regular tests at the second unit continue even after the pause. The unit was disconnected from the grid in early May. Temelin's staff replaced a quarter of fuel with a better quality one during the shutdown. During the two-month shutdown, the staff placed 48 modernised fuel assemblies made by U.S. company Westinghouse into the reactor which contains 163 fuel assemblies in total (with 92 tonnes of fuel), as the original assemblies got deformed more than expected, and rearranged the remaining ones. They also placed a new part of the high-pressure rotor into the turbine that will raise the output of the 1,000 MW equipment by 20 MW. A quarter of fuel was replaced with the better quality one at the Temelin first unit at the beginning of this year already. Another quarter is to be replaced during the summer shutdown to start in August. A new part of the turbine's high-pressure rotor will be installed during the pause. This means that both units will jointly produce power till the end of July. This story is from the Czech News Agency (CTK). The Prague Daily Monitor and Monitor CE are not responsible for its content. Copyright 2007 by the Czech News Agency (CTK). All rights reserved. Copying, dissemination or other publication of this article or parts thereof without the prior written consent of CTK is expressly forbidden. copyright 2007 monitor ce media services s.r.o. | all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 22 AFP: Japan quake causes nuclear plant leak, kills eight by Kyoko Hasegawa Mon Jul 16, 3:23 PM ET KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AFP) - A powerful earthquake struck Japan on Monday, killing eight people, injuring hundreds and causing radioactive water to leak from a nuclear plant that also caught fire. The mid-morning quake, striking northwest of Tokyo and registering 6.8 on the Richter scale, also damaged hundreds of homes, reducing some to heaps of rubble. "The television set and washing machine were thrown across the room," said Satoshi Hirokawa, 51, whose house in the worst-hit city of Kashiwazaki was partially destroyed. "But I felt relieved as at least I could confirm that my family was safe." Water containing a "small amount of radioactive material" leaked from the massive Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, where a fire caused by the quake sent black smoke pouring into the sky for hours. "The leakage is believed to be far below the levels that could affect the environment," said Shougo Fukuda, of Tokyo Electric, which operates the facility located near the epicentre of the deadly earthquake. The plant is one of the largest in the world, supplying power to the energy-hungry Tokyo region. The firm said the fire broke out in the area supplying electricity but that the four reactors in operation had already been automatically stopped after the quake, which also generated small tsunami waves. Dozens of aftershocks were felt throughout the day in central Japan. Late Monday, a separate earthquake of 6.6 on the Richter scale struck in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) off the western city of Kyoto. There was no immediate fear of tsunami waves, said the Meteorological Agency, or reports of damage from the latest quake, which was nonetheless felt in much of the Japanese archipelago. At least 875 people were injured in Niigata prefecture which includes Kashiwazaki, local officials said. Rescue workers were hunting for anyone buried in the wreckage after nearly 800 buildings were damaged by the quake, which shook skyscrapers in Tokyo more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) away. The Defence Agency dispatched some 450 troops and 120 military vehicles to the region to help support rescue operations. The eight people killed were all in their 70s or 80s, according to the National Police Agency. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier broke away from election campaigning to rush to Kashiwazaki, where thousands of people flocked to schools and other emergency shelters. Dressed in a relief worker's uniform, he said he had given instructions to his government that "all possible measures be taken to ensure the safety of residents, secure lifelines to them and relieve their anxieties." Niigata was hit by another earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale in 2004 that killed 67 people, most of them elderly who died in the days and weeks after the first tremor from stress and fatigue. "Even though there was a big one three years ago, you just can't get used to these quakes," said Tetsuya Oda, a 17-year-old student. The quake also triggered mudslides in Kashiwazaki, where soil was already loose following a major typhoon at the weekend, which left four people dead or missing and flooded hundreds of homes across Japan. Monday was a bank holiday in Japan, so financial markets and many offices were closed. Japan lies at the junction of four tectonic plates and is hit by about 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes. In January 1995, a 7.3-magnitude quake destroyed much of the western metropolis of Kobe, killing more than 6,400 people. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 23 SPIEGEL ONLINE: Vattenfalling: Energy Giant Fires Nuclear Boss July 16, 2007 VATTENFALLING Pressure continues to grow on energy company Vattenfall. And on Monday, the firm announced it was firing Bruno Thomauske, who heads the company's nuclear power businesses in Europe. Meanwhile, authorities are questioning workers who were on duty during last month's fire. DPA Vattenfall is trying to reverse its image meltdown. During the first two weeks of July, it seemed that energy giant Vattenfall was doing everything it could to destroy its reputation as a reliable operator of nuclear power plants. In the last two days, it has been doing all it can to reverse that trend. The Sweden-based company, heavily criticized last week for having played down the seriousness of a late-June fire at its reactor in Krümmel near Hamburg, fired the head of its European nuclear energy operations, Bruno Thomauske, on Monday. In addition, company spokesman Johannes Altmeppen has resigned. Both moves have been widely welcomed by German politicians concerned about the company's (more...) toward recent reactor mishaps. Still, many emphasized that there is (more...). In addition to personnel consequences, the company, many have said, needs to make structural changes to ensure that such mishaps are eliminated in the future. Michael Müller, a senior official at Germany's Environment Ministry, told German television that more is expected. "That is the normal reaction, to sacrifice someone. ... But this isn't just about switching personnel," he said. "Most important is reforming concepts. And in that regard I would like to hear a lot more from Vattenfall." The Green Party also wants the company to do more and has called for a revamp of Vattenfall's safety procedures -- and for the sacking of the two managers responsible for safety, Klaus Rauscher and Lars Göran Josefsson. Greenpeace has called for the Krümmel reactor to be shut down for good. Slow Cooperation Criticized The (more...) in the reactor's transformer on June 28 and the company reported the incident as not having affected the reactor itself -- which later turned out to be untruthful. Miscommunication during the incident likewise led to the plant being shut down. On the same day, an incident at the nearby Brunsbüttel reactor led to that plant being shut down as well. Since then, Vattenfall has proved slow to cooperate with German authorities in clearing up the incidents. That hesitancy seems to have changed. The company on Monday announced that, in addition to working with the authorities, it was establishing its own group of experienced technicians and scientists to analyze safety and operational procedures. "The recommendations of the working group will be introduced without exception," the company said in a statement. "We want to win back lost trust. We will do everything to eliminate mistakes and mishaps in the future." Schleswig-Holstein, the state where the two Vattenfall reactors are located, is investigating whether it should withdraw the company's license to operate nuclear reactors. Experts from Germany's nuclear regulatory authority on Monday are interviewing workers at the Krümmel reactor to determine exactly what went wrong at the end of June. cgh/afp/dpa © SPIEGEL ONLINE 2007 ***************************************************************** 24 AFP: Seven dead, hundreds injured as powerful quake hits Japan - by Kyoko Hasegawa Mon Jul 16, 8:19 AM ET KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AFP) - A powerful earthquake rocked Japan on Monday, killing seven people and injuring nearly 700 more as it toppled houses and sparked a fire at one of the world's biggest nuclear plants. In the hardest-hit areas northwest of Tokyo, homes were reduced to rubble and a bridge was nearly cracked in two by the 6.8-magnitude mid-morning quake, which also sent small tsunami waves rolling into the Japanese coast. As dozens of aftershocks hit throughout the day, thousands of people flocked to schools and other temporary shelters to spend the night and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe broke away from election campaigning to race to the scene. Rescue workers were hunting for anyone buried alive in the wreckage after nearly 300 buildings were flattened by the quake, which shook skyscrapers in Tokyo more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the epicentre. "Everything in my house was a total mess. The television set and washing machine were thrown across the room," said Satoshi Hirokawa, 51, whose house in Kashiwazaki -- one of the worst-hit areas -- was partially destroyed. "But I felt relieved as at least I could confirm that my family was safe." The four women and three men killed, all in their 70s or 80s, died from injuries sustained in the earthquake, according to the National Police Agency. At least 692 people were injured in Niigata and Nagano prefectures, local officials said. Niigata was hit by another earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale in 2004 that killed 67 people, most of them elderly who died in the days and weeks after the first tremor from stress and fatigue. "Even though there was a big one three years ago, you just can't get used to these quakes," said Tetsuya Oda, a 17-year-old high school student. The latest quake triggered 50-centimetre (1.5-foot) tsunami waves and was followed by some 65 aftershocks that could be felt by people, the meteorological agency said. Raising fears among residents, smoke billowed for hours from a blaze at a nuclear power plant, one of the largest in the world, which supplies electricity to the Tokyo region. Plant officials said the reactors shut down automatically and that there was no danger of a radiation leak. More than 300 buildings were completely destroyed and another 212 were partially damaged, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Abe, dressed in a relief worker's uniform, headed to the scene by military helicopter, cutting short a campaign stop ahead of elections on July 29. Abe, who is struggling in opinion polls, said he gave instructions to his government that "all possible measures be taken to ensure the safety of residents, secure lifelines to them and relieve their anxieties." The quake also triggered mudslides in Kashiwazaki, where soil was already loose following a major typhoon at the weekend, which left four people dead or missing and flooded hundreds of homes across Japan. Monday was a bank holiday in Japan, so financial markets and many offices were closed. Service on Japan's famed bullet trains was temporarily suspended as a precaution after the earthquake, which severed power to some 21,000 households. Japan lies at the junction of four tectonic plates and is hit by about 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes. In January 1995, a 7.3-magnitude quake destroyed much of the western metropolis of Kobe, killing more than 6,400 people. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 25 Bloomberg.com: Japan Hit by 6.8-Magnitude Quake; Radioactive Leak By Mariko Yasu and Jonathan Tirone Enlarge Image A man stands in front of a collapsed house (Corrects to say radioactive water leaked from fuel container in fourth paragraph.) July 16 (Bloomberg) -- An earthquake of 6.8 magnitude struck Japan today, causing leak of radioactive water, toppling houses and sparking a fire. At least eight people were killed and more than 900 were hurt, according to the Associated Press. The undersea temblor, centered about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Tokyo, shook buildings in the capital for several minutes at about 10:15 a.m. local time. A second, deeper quake of 6.8 magnitude struck 13 hours later, causing little damage. No tsunamis were reported. The quakes were the strongest since March, when a 6.7- magnitude temblor shook central Japan, killing at least one person. The island nation is one of the world's most earthquake- prone countries, sitting in a zone where three tectonic plates collide. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said radioactive water leaked from its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant in Niigata. About 1.5 liters (0.4 gallons) of water leaked from a container of used fuels, entering into a pipe that flushed it with other water into the ocean, the company said on its Web site. The environmental effect is negligible, as the water that flushed into the ocean -- about 350 gallons -- had a radiation level one-billionth of the legal limit, the company said, according to the Associated Press. NHK television showed houses with collapsed roofs, cracked highways and a train car derailed at a station in the coastal city of Kashiwazaki. Japan had begun cleaning up yesterday after being battered for three days by Typhoon Man-Yi, which caused three deaths, injured scores of people and disrupted air and rail transport. Many offices were shut today for Marine Day, a national holiday. As of noon local time, 21,541 households in Niigata prefecture were without power, the Trade Ministry said in an e- mailed statement. The supply of natural gas, a typical cooking fuel in Japan, was cut to 34,000 houses, the statement said. Abe Visits Zone Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut short an election campaign stop in the southern city of Nagasaki to fly to Kashiwazaki, the area hardest hit by the quake, Kyodo News reported. The government set up an emergency task force and sent Kensei Mizote, minister in charge of disaster management, to inspect quake-hit areas, it said. East Japan Railway Co., the country's largest train operator, halted part of its Shinkansen bullet-train service, said Takahiro Kikuchi, a company spokesman. Services on the Joetsu line between the Echigo Yuzawa resort area and Niigata on the Japan Sea coast remained suspended as of 3 p.m., while trains resumed service between Tokyo and Echigo Yuzawa. Service was also restored on the Tohoku and Nagano bullet-train lines, which connect Tokyo with northern Japan and the central prefecture of Nagano. Local trains operated by JR East, as the company is known, derailed at Kashiwazaki station and in the Yoneyama Tunnel in Niigata, Kikuchi said. No one was injured, he said. Mobile Service Disrupted The earthquake damaged 93 wireless-communications base stations operated by Softbank Corp., owner of Japan's third- largest mobile-telephone carrier. The damage disrupted part of the company's wireless services in Niigata and Nagano, said Katsuhide Furuya, a Softbank Mobile Corp. spokesman. The Niigata area was hit by a quake in October 2004 that killed at least 33 people and injured 2,900. It forced JR East to shut a section of the Joetsu bullet train line for two months and damaged a semiconductor plant in the area operated by Sanyo Electric Co. Sanyo, which halted work at the plant today, will resume production tomorrow, Sanyo spokesman Akihiko Oiwa said via phone. ``There is no damage to the building, and no workers were injured,'' he said. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the world's largest consumer-electronics maker, had no serious damage at its plants, spokesman Akira Kadota said. Its Niigata factory makes facsimile and copying machines, according to the company's Web site. A September 1923 earthquake in Kanto, estimated at magnitude 7.9, sparked the Great Tokyo Fire and killed almost 143,000 people. Quakes of magnitude 5 and more can cause considerable damage. Today's second quake, while equal in magnitude to the first, was less intensely felt because of its depth in the earth. It struck at a depth of 315 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The first, more destructive, temblor originated at a depth of 49 kilometers, the agency said. To contact the reporters on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net ; Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at BLOOMBERG | CAREERS | CONTACT US | LOG IN/REGISTER ***************************************************************** 26 The Telegraph: Nuclear good and bad news Calcutta Tuesday, July 17, 2007 | K.P. NAYAR Washington, July 16: On the eve of what could be the final round of talks on operationalising the Indo-US nuclear deal through a so-called 123 Agreement, the good news is that reprocessing of spent fuel produced by any American reactors imported by India remains the only roadblock in the way of wrapping up the negotiations.The bad news is that the positions taken by New Delhi and Washington are so divergent that differences on this issue could still derail this week?s talks between Indian and US national security advisers M.K. Narayanan and Stephen Hadley. According to highly placed sources in the Bush administration, if talks between Narayanan and Hadley break down on Wednesday, there is a strong possibility that US Vice-President Dick Cheney may step in and salvage the negotiations. Cheney, who is often described as the ?real President? of the US, has intervened decisively in the American process of seeing through the nuclear deal twice in the last two years: once with the US Congress, where he is president of the Senate and once with the decision-making process in the executive. Even as the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice postponed her trip to the high-priority Middle East to be available to US negotiators on the nuclear deal -- without admitting as much -- Narayanan has responded by agreeing to spend a whole week in the US to wrap up the deal in what may become an Indo-US negotiating marathon here. Middle-level negotiators from both sides have been engaging each other for the past several weeks electronically and on telephone. As a result, two major issues which had clouded the prospect of successful talks here this week are no longer roadblocks in the way of concluding a 123 Agreement. The two sides had reached agreement some time ago that the only way out of tying India down in penal clauses for any future nuclear test was to merely restate the known positions of both sides on the issue. That formula would enshrine India?s ?voluntary? moratorium in the text of the 123 Agreement, which will also contain references to legal requirements in the US on the consequences of weapons testing by a non-nuclear weapons state. In addition, India is now demanding that there should not be any expeditious cut-off in the supply of nuclear fuel in the event of an Indian test and that any such termination in US fuel supplies should not affect normal operations in the Indian civilian nuclear programme. This has been conceded by the US, according to at least one American negotiator. Copyright © 2006 The Telegraph. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | ***************************************************************** 27 Bay City Tribune: Nuclear plants top priority for O’Day Tuesday, July 17, 2007 By Mike Reddell Bay City Tribune Passage of a bill helping companies build nuclear plants in Texas was State Rep. Mike O’Day’s top legislative priority this session, he told about 60 people at a Bay City Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday at Bay City Civic Center. Chamber president Mitch Thames introduced O’Day, noting the Pearland representative authored or co-authored 30 bills in his first legislative session. Thames added that the Texas Eagle Forum tapped O’Day as one of the 16 most conservative members of the Texas House during the 80th Legislature. Before discussing the legislature’s accomplishments, O’Day told how his initial perceptions of serving in the house changed. “I was not aware of what my job was really going to be,” O’Day said, adding that many people don’t know that each of the 150 Texas House members represents about 150,000 constituents. “While Mike O’Day and his family are a fit for Brazoria and Matagorda counties, all 150 representatives see it that way. Each of them was there for the same purpose — to represent those 150,000 people. “That changes your perspective when you look at each representative as a district, not a person.” O’Day explaining that while “I thought I knew what was right and wrong” — and knew what was common sense — he learned from other legislators “to explain what my people needs, not what is right or wrong.” That came into play, he said, as the legislature began discussing the nuclear industry’s sought-after decommissioning bill. O’Day said he found that by explaining STP’s reputation in Matagorda County as a good steward helped give other legislators throughout Texas the impression that nuclear energy is “clean and reliable.” By telling about STP’s contributions, O’Day said it was easier to tell other lawmakers about the plant’s proposed two new reactors and “to explain the needs of Matagorda County. “Our No. 1 priority was the decommissioning bill,” The passage of HB1386 eases the burden on firms and utilities proposing nuclear plants in Texas by amending how funding will be set up for a nuclear plant’s eventual decommissioning. While accounts paying for decommissioning had to set up before the plants were built, state law now will require the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to establish annual decommissioning funding for each nuclear generating unit over the span of the unit’s operating license period. O’Day, as he did in an earlier talk this summer with local leaders, took issue with the attention on TV and the press about the effort to unseat House Speaker Tom Craddick during the session. Saying that Craddick delivered a state budget that was “on time and under budget,” O’Day added “10 or 12 legislators disrupted the job for the rest of us. “The speaker did a good job keeping the session going by calling for votes.” O’Day discussed other accomplishments of the 80th Legislature that include: • Establishing an $8 billion fund to buy down local property taxes, and allocating another $6 billion from surplus general revenue. n Approving a $3.9 billion increase this session in education funding from the 2006-2007 biennium. • Reforming the Teachers’ Retirement System, “to make it fiscally sound for the next 30 years.” • Securing money for the Texas Tomorrow Fund – a pre-paid tuition program for Texas families to save for college education. • Replacing the TAKS test for graduation purposes with end-of-course exams. • Allocating $107 million for the state’s Homeland Security Program. “This is a job of the federal government, not the state’s job,” O’Day said. “The federal government is not doing its job.” O’Day said the legislative approved spending $107 million to help Texas border sheriffs and police departments reinforce their operations — by paying overtime to put manpower on the border — and to buy helicopters and technology to help law enforcement create a network to share information. • Passing Jessica’s Law, which takes a tough stand against child predators. “The law had been very vague on sexual abuse of a child. Law enforcement now has a good solid law that’s enforceable.” • Approving the Castle Doctrine bill, to give citizens the right to defend themselves with deadly force without requiring them to retreat, and reduces the probability that law-abiding citizens could be charged with a crime for acting in self-defense. “This allows you to protect your house. You don’t have to shoot them and then drag them in the house,” O’Day noted, drawing laughter from his audience. “Before, a burglar could sue if he got hurt, this law keeps that from happening.” • Funding for state parks. “I’m excited to say we doubled the funding for Texas parks” that includes money for repairs and staffing. That funding also will pay for new land acquisition, for counties and cities to build new parks, for capital improvements and to combat beach erosion. • O’Day said he was proud of co-authoring three bills affecting religious expression. One bill added “two Gods” to the Texas Pledge of Allegiance. Another includes language instructing school administrators were and when school prayer can be allowed. The third allows public high schools to offer elective courses on the Bible’s historic and cultural contributions for shaping American history and values. • O’Day said he was proud of co-authoring three bills affecting religious expression. One bill added “two Gods” to the Texas Pledge of Allegiance. Another includes language instructing school administrators were and when school prayer can be allowed. The third, was allowing public high schools to offer elective courses on the Bible’s historic and cultural contributions for shaping American history and values. Chamber President Mitch Thames noted during the luncheon that the front cover of Texas Highways magazine features Matagorda County, accompanied by an inside feature story. © 2007 Bay City Tribune. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Deutsche Welle: Vattenfall Sacks German Nuclear Energy Head After Problems | 16.07.2007 The fire at KrĂĽmmel nuclear power plant was followed by several other problems The head of Vattenfall Europe's nuclear energy division was fired Monday following a string of problems in two of the company's German nuclear energy plants. Vattenfall officials said that Bruno Thomauske, who headed Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy (VENE), has been relieved of his duties. Thomauske had faced criticism that he was too secretive about a fire that broke out in the KrĂĽmmel nuclear power plant in June. Johannes Altmeppen, the head of public relations at Vattenfall Europe, has resigned. Bildunterschrift: Bruno Thomauske Gradual disclosures since June 28, when the company's reactors at KrĂĽmmel and BrunsbĂĽttel near Hamburg both had to shut down, have revealed that staff at KrĂĽmmel were in crisis as a fire raged in a transformer. Though neither reactor was damaged and no radioactivity was released, the disclosures have embarrassed Vattenfall. The Swedish company's Vattenfall Europe subsidiary is one of Germany's four biggest utilities, operating main city grids and numerous fossil and nuclear-powered generating stations. The company said the removal of Thomauske from his duties took place "in close cooperation with the Swedish parent" and said it would commission an inquiry by scientists and business experts into what had happened. DW-WORLD * German Nuclear Plant Operator Admits "Misunderstandings" The Swedish operator of a German nuclear plant hit by a fire two weeks ago admitted to a "misunderstanding" between senior staff on duty at the time Saturday. Police investigating the fire searched the facility Friday. (14.07.2007) * Energy Company Admits Fresh Blunders At Nuclear Plants Swedish energy giant Vattenfall faces massive criticism after it admitted fresh blunders by its nuclear reactor operators in Germany after a string of irregularities last month. (09.07.2007) * Critics Slam Energy Firm For Handling of Fire At Nuclear Plant Critics have slammed a German energy company for failing to reveal the full extent of a fire last week at a German atomic plant that came amid a fresh debate about nuclear energy and global warming. (05.07.2007) 1. © 2007 Deutsche Welle ***************************************************************** 29 Guardian Unlimited: Strong Quake Rocks Northwestern Japan From the Associated Press Monday July 16, 2007 12:16 PM By KOJI SASAHARA Associated Press Writer KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) - A strong earthquake struck northwestern Japan on Monday, destroying hundreds of homes, buckling roads and bridges and causing a fire at a nuclear power plant. At least six people were killed and hundreds were injured. The quake hit the region shortly after 10 a.m. local time and was centered off the coast of Niigata state. Buildings swayed 160 miles away in Tokyo. The hardest-hit area appeared to be Kashiwazaki, a city of about 90,000 in Niigata Japan's Meteorological Agency measured the quake at a 6.8 magnitude. The U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors quakes around the world, said it registered 6.7. ``I was so scared - the violent shaking went on for 20 seconds,'' Ritei Wakatsuki, who was on her job in a convenience store in Kashiwazaki. ``I almost fainted by the fear of shaking.'' Flames and billows of black smoke poured from the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant, which automatically shut down during the quake. The fire, in an electrical transformer, was put out about two hours later and there was no release of radioactivity or damage to the reactors, said Motoyasu Tamaki, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. official. Tsunami warnings were issued along the coast of Niigata but later lifted. A series of smaller aftershocks rattled the area, including one with a 5.8 magnitude. The Meteorological Agency warned that the aftershocks could continue for a week. The quake hit on Marine Day, a national holiday in Japan, when most people would have been at home. Four women and two men - all either in their 70s or 80s - died after buildings collapsed on them, according to the National Police Agency in Tokyo. National broadcaster NHK reported more than 700 people were hurt, with injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises. Nearly 300 homes in Kashiwazaki - a city known mainly for its fishing industry - were destroyed and some 2,000 people evacuated, officials said. The quake buckled seaside roads and bridges, and left fissures three feet wide in the ground along the coast. A ceiling collapsed in a gym in Kashiwazaki where about 200 people had gathered for a badminton tournament, and one person was hurt, Kyodo reported. The quake also knocked a train car off the rails while it was stopped at a station. No one was injured Several bullet train services linking Tokyo to northern and northwestern Japan were suspended. More than 60,000 homes were without water and 34,000 without gas as of late Monday. More than 25,000 households in the zone were without power. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, campaigning in southern Japan for parliamentary elections later this month, was to return to Tokyo to deal with the quake, and the government had set up a task force, reports said. ``We want to do all we can to ensure safety ... and to quell everyone's concerns,'' he said. Niigata Airport, which had suspended flights shortly after the quake, resumed services after finding no damage. Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. The last major quake to hit the capital, Tokyo, killed some 142,000 people in 1923, and experts say the capital has a 90 percent chance of suffering a major quake in the next 50 years. In October 2004, a magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit Niigata, killing 40 people and damaging more than 6,000 homes. It was the deadliest to hit Japan since 1995, when a magnitude-7.2 quake killed 6,433 people in the western city of Kobe. --- Associated Press writers Kozo Mizoguchi and Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 30 Guardian Unlimited: Japan Quake Causes 9 Deaths, Nuke Leak Monday July 16, 2007 11:31 PM By KOJI SASAHARA Associated Press Writer KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) - A strong earthquake shook Japan's northwest coast Monday, setting off a fire at the world's most powerful nuclear power plant and causing a reactor to spill radioactive water into the sea - an accident not reported to the public for hours. The 6.8-magnitude temblor killed at least nine people and injured more than 900 as it toppled hundreds of wooden homes and tore 3-foot-wide fissures in the ground. Highways and bridges buckled, leaving officials struggling to get emergency supplies into the region. Some 10,000 people fled to evacuation centers as aftershocks rattled the area. Tens of thousands of homes were left without water or power. The quake triggered a fire in an electrical transformer and also caused a leak of radioactive water at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's largest in terms of electricity output. The leak was not announced until the evening, many hours after the quake. That fed fresh concerns about the safety of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors, which supply 30 percent of the quake-prone country's electricity and have suffered a long string of accidents and cover-ups. About 315 gallons of slightly radioactive water apparently spilled from a tank at one of the plant's seven reactors and entered a pipe that flushed it into the sea, said Jun Oshima, an executive at Tokyo Electric Power Co. He said it was not clear whether the tank was damaged or the water simply spilled out. Officials said there was no ``significant change'' in the seawater near the plant, which is about 160 miles northwest of Tokyo. ``The radioactivity is one-billionth of the legal limit,'' Oshima said of the leaked water. Eliot Brenner, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington, said the agency told Japan's government it was ready to provide assistance if needed but had not received any request for help. Brenner said he didn't have details about the incident. But a U.S. nuclear industry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was a Japanese affair, said the transformer fire and water leak occurred in systems linked to different reactors. In Kashiwazaki city, the quake reduced older buildings to piles of lumber. Nine people in their 70s and 80s - six women and three men - died, most of them crushed by collapsing buildings, the Kyodo news agency said early Tuesday. Kyodo reported more than 900 people were hurt, with injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises. It said 780 buildings sustained damage, and more than 300 of them were destroyed. ``I got so dizzy that I could barely stand up,'' said Kazuaki Kitagami, a worker at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Kashiwazaki, the hardest-hit city. ``The jolt came violently from just below the ground.'' The area was plagued by aftershocks, but there were no immediate reports of additional damage or casualties. Near midnight, Japan's Meteorological Agency said a 6.6-magnitude quake hit off the west coast, shaking wide areas of Japan, but it was unrelated to the Niigata quake to the north and there were no immediate reports of damage. The U.S. Geological Survey put the intital quake's magnitude at 6.6 and the second at 6.8. First word of trouble at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa power plant was a fire that broke out at an electrical transformer. All the reactors were either already shut down or automatically switched off by the quake. The blaze was reported quelled by early afternoon, and the power company announced there was no damage to the reactor and no release of radioactivity. But in the evening, the company released a statement revealing the leak of radioactive water, saying it had taken all day to confirm details of the accident. But the delay raised suspicions among environmentalists, who oppose the government's plan to build more reactors. ``The leak itself doesn't sound significant as of yet, but the fact that it went unreported is a concern,'' said Michael Mariotte at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Maryland-based networking center for environmental activists. ``When a company begins by denying a problem, it makes you wonder if there's another shoe to drop.'' The accident comes as the government is discussing improving the earthquake resistance of such plants, said Aileen Mioko Smith of the Japan-based environmentalist group Green Action. The fire indicated that some facilities at nuclear power plants, such as electrical transformers, were built to lower quake-resistance levels than other equipment, like reactor cores, she said. ``That's the Achilles heel of nuclear power plants,'' said Mioko Smith, who pointed out that it took plant workers two hours to put out the transformer fire. Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari told the power company early Tuesday not to resume plant operations before making a thorough safety check, Kyodo reported. The quake, which hit at 10:13 a.m., was centered off the coast of Niigata. The tremor made buildings sway in the capital 160 miles away and was also felt in northern and central Japan. Tsunami warnings were issued, but the resulting waves were too small to cause any damage. As rescue crews dug through the rubble for survivors or more dead, focus shifted to getting food and water to evacuation centers. Many roads were impassable, though bullet train service to nearby Niigata resumed late Monday. More than 60,000 homes in the quake zone were without water, 34,000 lost natural gas and 25,000 had no electricity as of late Monday afternoon, local official Takashi Takagi said. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose ruling party is trailing in the polls heading into July 29 parliamentary elections, interrupted a campaign stop in southern Japan to go to the damaged area. ``Many people told me they want to return to their normal lives as quickly as possible,'' Abe told reporters in Kashiwazaki. ``The government will make every effort to help with recovery.'' Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. In October 2004, a magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit Niigata, killing 40 people and damaging more than 6,000 homes. It was the deadliest to hit Japan since 1995, when a magnitude-7.2 quake killed 6,433 people in the western city of Kobe. The last major quake to hit Tokyo killed some 142,000 people in 1923, and experts say the capital has a 90 percent chance of suffering a major quake in the next 50 years. --- Associated Press writers Kozo Mizoguchi, Carl Freire and Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo and H. Josef Hebert in Washington contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 31 Austin American Statesman: Nuclear agency fails 'dirty bomb' test EDITORIAL EDITORIAL BOARD Monday, July 16, 2007 A sting operation inspired by a Republican senator from Minnesota showed just how easily would-be terrorists could get a federal license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to purchase radioactive materials that could be used in a "dirty bomb." A dirty bomb uses a conventional explosive — TNT, for example — to throw out radioactive materials that contaminate anybody and anything within reach. Though far less destructive than a nuclear device, the detonation of just one dirty bomb in an American city — at Sixth Street and Congress Avenue, for example — could have a devastating impact on Americans' confidence in their personal safety as well as on the economy. At the urging of Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., congressional investigators posing as a construction company used only a post office box and a telephone to get the license they needed from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to purchase radioactive materials that could be used in assembling a dirty bomb. It took all of 28 days. Confronted with the results, the commission said it would tighten its procedures and require its staff to visit an applicant's office before granting a license. But the agency downplayed the likelihood that real terrorists would actually go to so much trouble to build a dirty bomb: "Why would I not blow up a chemical tanker on a train with chlorine in it or other toxic materials, at a tiny fraction of the cost, before this very elaborate exercise?" said Edward McGaffigan Jr., a member of the commission's governing board, in an interview with The New York Times. We don't know. But then, why not blow up a chlorine tanker instead of, say, assembling four teams of terrorists at three airports in the Northeast to hijack four U.S. airliners and then crash them into two office towers and the Pentagon, all within less than two hours of one another? Coleman said, "The NRC has a pre-9/11 mind-set in a post-9/11 world, focusing just on preventing another Chernobyl." Preventing another Chernobyl is a highly legitimate concern, especially given the revived interest in building nuclear power plants in the United States. But considering the security hassles that hundreds of thousands of Americans go through every day as they board commercial airliners, it's maddening that the commission could be induced — more than five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — to so easily hand out one of its licenses to purchase radioactive materials. A question raised by the sting is whether the Bush administration's interest in cutting government red tape on business has sliced through the nation's interest in making sure that those who acquire radioactive materials do so for legitimate reasons. Congress needs to make sure it hasn't. Or to sew it back up if it has. Presented by The Austin American-Statesman. Contact us. Careers. Corrections. Site Requirements. Copyright 2001-2007 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 32 NRC: NRC Proposes $3,250 Fine for C&w Enterprises, Inc. News Release - Region IV - 2007-027 - 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 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a fine of $3,250 against C&W Enterprises, Inc., of Sioux Falls, S.D., for violating NRC requirements. In a letter to the company, Bruce S. Mallett, Administrator of the NRC’s Region IV office in Arlington, Texas, said that as a result of an NRC inspection, the agency determined that the company violated NRC requirements for the possession and use of radioactive materials. The violation involved failures to securely store a portable gauge containing radioactive material at a storage facility during NRC inspections in November 2006 and April 2007. “NRC regulations require that users of radioactive materials maintain appropriate security at all times in order to protect public health and safety,” Mallett said. The NRC has classified the violation at Severity Level III and proposed a $3,250 civil penalty. The agency has a four-tiered severity scale in which Severity level I is the most serious. The company has 30 days to either pay the fine or challenge it. The NRC’s letter, its enclosures, and the company’s response will be available through the agency’s electronic reading room at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Monday, July 16, 2007 ***************************************************************** 33 NRC: NRC Cites University of Pittsburgh for Violation News Release - Region I - 2007-040 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 www.nrc.gov CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited the University of Pittsburgh for a violation of agency requirements involving radiation therapy in its gamma stereostatic radiosurgery (GSR) program. The violation stems from a failure to ensure that radiation safety activities adhered to regulatory requirements as well as the university’s own procedures. Under the enforcement action – the details of which were determined during the NRC’s Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) process – the university is required to take several actions to prevent recurrence. GSR uses radiation therapy to treat tumors and other abnormalities. In a letter sent to the university on Feb. 27, 2007, the NRC provided the results of an investigation conducted by the agency’s Office of Investigations in 2006. The investigation was undertaken to determine whether the university and a neurosurgeon had willfully violated requirements with regard to the use of GSR. The university was offered the option of a predecisional enforcement conference or ADR. University officials requested ADR, which, in this context, refers to a process in which a neutral mediator with no decision-making authority assists the NRC and license-holders in reaching an agreement resolving any differences regarding an enforcement action. Toward that end, an ADR mediation session involving NRC and University of Pittsburgh officials took place on May 17, 2007 at the agency’s Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa. As a result of that session, a settlement agreement was reached. The terms have now been confirmed by the NRC via a Confirmatory Order issued to the university. Under the agreement, the NRC and the university agree that a non-compliance with regulatory requirements occurred. The violation has been classified as Severity Level III. The NRC classifies violations from Severity Level I to IV, with I being the most significant. “This demonstrates that the Alternate Dispute Resolution Process can work and achieve a result that protects the public health and safety. The extensive commitments made by the university provide the NRC with confidence that radiation safety activities will be performed according to NRC requirements,” said NRC Region I Deputy Regional Administrator Marc L. Dapas. Specifically, the university did not meet physical presence requirements consistently from May 13, 2004 through March 10, 2005. (Those requirements state that for GSR units, an authorized user and an authorized medical physicist must be physically present throughout all patient treatments.) Further, the university failed to ensure that between 1998 and 2000 written directives (detailed instructions regarding radiation treatments) were consistently signed by the authorized user prior to the administration of GSR treatments. The NRC and the university have agreed to disagree whether any aspects of the violation were willful. Both before and during the ADR mediation session, the university described corrective actions it has taken to prevent a recurrence. They include: ensuring that an authorized medical physicist and authorized user are present during each GSR treatment; having the radiation safety officer initiate a requirement for a physical presence log; having the radiation safety office staff provide annual radiation safety training to the GSR staff; having an outside independent consultant conduct an audit of the radiation safety program, with special emphasis on the GSR program and management oversight; and, increasing surveillance of GSR treatments by radiation safety office staff. As a result of the ADR session, the university has agreed to: (1) enhance its 40-hour GSR training course provided to GSR users at other facilities throughout the U.S., including an expansion of the lecture on NRC regulations to encompass physical presence requirements and a description of this experience as part of the training; and (2) submit a lessons-learned article for several trade publications that describes these occurrences. In light of the actions that the university has taken and committed to take, as well as the fact that the violation did not result in any known safety consequences to patients, workers or the public, the NRC agreed to issue a Notice of Violation without an accompanying civil penalty. The agreement requires that the university complete the additional steps within 1 year of the issuance of the Confirmatory Order. The university must provide the NRC with a letter within 30 days of completion of all actions stating that all commitments have been met. A copy of the enforcement action will be posted on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/enforcement/actions 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, July 13, 2007 ***************************************************************** 34 YN: World's First Atomic Bomb Test Exposed New Mexico Residents to Radiation YubaNet.com "I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." - Harry Truman By: Health Physics Society Published: Jul 16, 2007 at 07:15 The only color photograph available for the Trinity blast, taken by Los Alamos scientist and amateur photographer Jack Aeby from near Base Camp. As Aeby later said, "It was there so I shot it." From 1943 through the middle of 1945, while World War II raged in Europe and the Pacific, scientists and engineers at an isolated and top secret scientific laboratory near Santa Fe, New Mexico surmounted unbelievable difficulties to design and produce the world's first atomic bombs. One type used uranium while another used the newly produced and largely unknown element called plutonium. The scientists were confident that the uranium bomb would work, but they decided it was necessary to test the more complicated plutonium bomb before using it in combat. The test of a plutonium-based atomic device at the Trinity Site in southern New Mexico on July 16, 1945 was an undertaking unlike any that humankind had tried before. There was much uncertainty among the Los Alamos scientists, military personnel, and Manhattan Project officials assembled for the event as to whether the device would work and how, if it did work, it would affect the local environment. Some even feared the blast would ignite the atmosphere and cause worldwide destruction. As part of the Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment project being led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an independent study team has collected information about the world's first atomic explosion. While much information about the test has been documented in government reports, and some has been reported in books in the popular press, there has to date been no public accounting of the total radiation doses that local residents received from the cloud as it passed over, from radioactivity that fell onto the ground around them, and from contamination of their air, water, milk, and the foods that they ate. To avoid leaking the secret of the American atomic bomb project, local residents were not warned or evacuated in advance of, or following, the test. Numerous ranches existed in the area, some within 15 miles of "ground zero," and commercial crops were grown in nearby regions. Several residences closest to the Trinity Site were not known to Army Intelligence officers who had mapped the area. The terrain and air flow patterns in the area caused a number of "hot spots" with particularly high radiation levels. Five monitoring teams traveled along local roads in the hours after the explosion and recorded their findings, but portable instruments were very crude at the time. The highest radiation levels from the Trinity Test were measured in a swath 12 miles long and one mile wide that started near an area known as White Store, about 16 miles northeast of "ground zero," and stretched across Chupadera Mesa. Around nearby ranches, exposure rates around 15 Roentgen per hour were measured just over three hours after detonation. Fallout was measured as far away as Indiana. As a point of reference, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission currently states that members of the public should receive less than 2 millirem (approximately 0.002 Roentgen) in any one hour from external radiation sources in any public area. Exposure rates measured after the Trinity test exceeded this level by more than a factor of 10,000. In the 1940s, government officials had limited knowledge of the dangers of that would come from the radiation of a nuclear explosion, leading them to decide against an evacuation of the immediate area for secrecy reasons. As a result, people in the surrounding areas were exposed to radiation by breathing contaminated air and drinking contaminated water and goats' milk. At the time, scientists and physicians focused on the immediate, short-term effects of radiation exposure. Widner, the director of the new study, believes if officials had known what is now known about the long-term effects of radiation exposure such as cancer, evacuations would certainly have been arranged, even if their publicity would have threatened the mission. During their presentation at the Health Physics Society meeting on Wednesday morning, July 11, the CDC team reported that ingestion of radioactive materials, primarily from rain water collected in cisterns and that found in goat's milk, may have been a noteworthy contributor to public radiation dose and largely was not accounted for. Reconstructed dose data will be reported this week at a meeting in New Mexico. Copyright © 2007 YubaNet.com, all rights reserved. Email your ***************************************************************** 35 DailyBulletin.com: It's time for Rialto to call in the EPA Article Launched: 07/16/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT When is enough enough? When should Rialto throw in the towel and call in the big dogs? The city has been fighting for a decade to get suspected polluters, including major corporations and the Pentagon, to pay the costs of cleaning up perchlorate that has contaminated Rialto's wells. But the lawsuits and extended legal battle have cost more than $18 million so far and could go much higher. And while Rialto's city attorney seems content to play David to the suspected polluters' Goliath - albeit, with the help of a cadre of top-level lawyers - it's chiefly customers of the city's water utility that have had to bear the burden, and the brunt of the costs, with no quick end in sight. So far, the city has spent the equivalent of its Police Department's budget on the fight. The city's water agency serves about half of Rialto, with Fontana Water Co. and West Valley Water serving the rest. And so, it is about half of Rialto residents who are footing the bill for the city's legal juggernaut. The surcharge on water bills starts at $6.85 a month and rises from there. If Rialto eventually wins its case in court, resident ratepayers will be reimbursed. But that could be a long time in coming. And the total for actual cleanup of the contaminant could be $300 million. Besides ratepayers' hefty chunk, the City Council also contributed $5 million from general fund reserves to escalate the fight last year. But even the council has become leery, without seeing much in the way of results. Why won't Rialto call in the cavalry and ask the feds for help? We're sure city ratepayers would like to know. Why is it that the city has insisted on going it alone, without bringing the resources of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to bear? Commenting on Rialto's reluctance to do the logical thing, Penny Newman, executive director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, said, "I think going with EPA and the Superfund program is probably the strongest mechanism a city or community has. I'm always amazed that people - communities - shy away from that." Indeed, Rialto has become almost territorial in pursuing the fight on its own. It's almost as if time and money were no object. Let the ratepayers pay it - that seems to be the city's attitude. But with the pricetag reaching into the millions, it's time to regroup. The city needs to take a more regional approach and spread out the costs. Rialto initially considered going with EPA. But after looking at a variety of Superfund projects, and finding that each took 17 to 27 years to start cleanup, the city felt it would take too long, said City Attorney Bob Owen. So, this is any better? How long does the city expect ratepayers to keep fronting litigation costs? The state Water Resources Control Board, which has taken over from the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, plans hearings in August. At that time, it could order three suspected polluters - Goodrich, Pyro Spectaculars and Emhart Industries, parent company of Black and Decker - to remove the contamination. Then again, those companies all have been fighting long and hard to delay any consequences. The San Gabriel Valley Water Co., which owns Fontana Water Co., and the West Valley Water District have urged Rialto go with a regional coalition that works with the EPA. Rialto has been fighting for cleanup of the Rialto-Colton Basin, without regard for pollution of West Valley and Fontana wells. And while a fault separates the West Valley and Fontana wells from the Rialto-Colton Basin, such that the regional agency has said it can't prove the suspected Rialto-area polluters caused contamination of the other wells, it's all the more reason for a regional approach that takes all of the pollution into account. Yet Rialto persists in its one-sided struggle. Better to lean on the EPA - and save residents the aggravation. ***************************************************************** 36 Citizens Education Project: NEWS RELEASE: LARGEST FIRE SPREADS COLD WAR FALLOUT July 13, 2007 Contacts: Steve Erickson (801) 554-9029 J Truman (208) 776-5649 Government says there is no danger for downwinders Radiation levels seven times higher than normal are being reported by Utah monitoring stations downwind of the largest fire in the nation. National Nuclear Security Agency spokesman Darwin Morgan said Thursday that the agency released the information to reassure Utahns that elevated radiation levels are too low to worry about. "We know that from the experience with downwinders, we’re very sensitive to concerns that Utahns have about radiation," Morgan told the Deseret Morning News. "Downwinders" are the victims and survivors of exposure to cancer-causing radioactive fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests in Nevada in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. The Milford Flat fire in central Utah that has consumed 680 square miles since July 6 was reportedly 30% contained Thursday morning. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that NNSA cited the backlash from the cancelled Divine Strake non-nuclear test as a reason for releasing the data on fire-caused gamma radiation spikes. Divine Strake was derailed in part due a federal lawsuit brought by downwinders who claimed the explosion would re-suspend fallout particles in the soil left behind from the open-air atomic tests. Downwinders advocates agreed the radiation threat to local residents is minimal, but Citizens Education Project Director Steve Erickson, a plaintiff in the Divine Strake lawsuit, said the NNSA’s explanation that the source of the radiation is naturally occurring radon gas from the ground is "an artful dodge around the truth". Radon is a colorless, odorless gas known to cause lung cancer over many years of low-level exposure. Radon is primarily an alpha not a gamma radiation emitter. "This hot rocks spin won’t wash," Erickson said. "The burning of trees and vegetation that absorbed fallout from the open-air blasts, coupled with the strong winds stirring up the surface soils, as Divine Strake could have done, are the likely culprit here." J Truman, director of Idaho-based Downwinders, Inc., said the monitoring stations miss the most dangerous fission products - such as Plutonium, an alpha emitter - left behind from past nuclear tests. "They only measure the gamma and beta radiation in real time, and careful laboratory analysis is required to determine what isotopes and radiation sources we’re talking about. NNSA hasn’t done that yet, so they’re jumping the gun with this naturally occurring radon diagnosis," Truman said. "Plus there aren’t enough monitoring stations in enough locations to accurately assess the extent of radiation from this fire, and none in the area around the Neola fire in northeast Utah," Truman said. "Anywhere there is smoke from such fires, there’s radiation, and that would be in just about all of the cities in northern Utah. All of this shows the monitoring system is inadequate, more about public relations than public protection. It’s chilling that after all these years - and now in the era of ‘dirty bombs’ - we still don’t have proper monitoring or candor from the government." Truman and Erickson called for a full review of the monitoring program and an independent analysis of the levels and source of the fire-caused re-suspended radiation. "NNSA credibility is no better than that of its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission, which constantly and falsely told downwind communities that ‘there is no danger’ from fallout," Erickson said. ***************************************************************** 37 NAS: Project: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of Depleted Uranium Project Title: Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of Depleted Uranium PIN: PHPH-H-06-01-A Major Unit: Institute of Medicine Sub Unit: Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice RSO: Mitchell, Abigail Subject/Focus Area: Project Scope A committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will review, evaluate, and summarize scientific and medical literature regarding the association between exposure to depleted uranium and chronic human health effects. The study committee will focus on literature published since the IOM's 2000 report, Gulf War and Health, Volume 1: Depleted Uranium, Pyridostigmine Bromide, Sarin, and Vaccines was written. The committee will make determinations on the strength of the evidence for associations between exposure to depleted uranium and human health effects. The report might include recommendations for additional scientific studies to resolve areas of continued scientific uncertainty. The findings will not be limited to veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. They also will be applicable to veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. This project is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The start date for the project is September 18, 2006. A report will be issued at the end of the project in approximately 15 months. Project Duration: 15 months Provide FEEDBACK on this project. Contact the Public Access Records Office to make an inquiry or to schedule an appointment to view project materials available to the public. Committee Membership Meetings Meeting 1 - 03/22/2007 Meeting 2 - 06/28/2007 Meeting 3 - 09/27/2007 Reports Reports having no URL can be seen at the Public Access Records Office Email: info@nas.edu ***************************************************************** 38 Salt Lake Tribune: Hot topic: Recycling spent nuclear fuel Article Launched: 07/16/2007 01:10:48 AM MDT As the Bush administration continues to tout nuclear power, the government is pushing to revive a once-banned practice in the U.S. - reprocessing spent nuclear waste. The Ford and Carter administrations prohibited the reprocessing of old nuclear-fuel rods, due in part to fears of weapons proliferation. While the Reagan administration lifted the ban, the U.S. has not yet engaged in reprocessing. The process separates usable uranium that can go back into nuclear power plants, but it also creates byproducts, such as plutonium, which can be used for weapons. John Grossenbacher, director of Idaho National Laboratory, said technology is under development that will help counter proliferation concerns. "We're going to reprocess used nuclear fuel, but we're going to use advanced technologies," he said. These new technologies would help support the proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program, which calls for the development of new ways to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. Experts want to recover usable uranium while lumping the plutonium with other materials that would be too radioactive to steal. That waste would then be burned in special reactors, called fast reactors, which is another part of GNEP program. The Department of Energy has called for the development of advanced fast reactors for burning the plutonium-laced nuclear waste from reprocessing plants. England, France, Russia and Japan have active programs to recycle spent nuclear fuel, which produce new fuel rods for nuclear power plants. But none of them is known to be using fast reactors to burn reprocessed waste. For now the U.S. follows the once-through cycle, which sends used fuel rods into storage. In recent years, rule changes have opened the door to recycling the nation's spent fuel rods. Grossenbacher said recycling nuclear fuel would create waste products, some of which are less hazardous than normal spent fuel rods. The less-hazardous waste products would not have to be stored deep underground, but the process still produces some waste that would need a permanent repository. Producing less of the highest-level waste through reprocessing could help eliminate the need for a second Yucca Mountain-type facility, the Nevada site targeted for permanent storage of nuclear waste. A recent report from the Keystone Center, a nonprofit policy group, indicated that reprocessing would increase the amount of low- and intermediate-level waste that would need long-term storage. The Union of Concerned Scientists is also not yet sold on the idea of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. "This is really dangerous and tends to produce more plutonium," said Jon Block, a nuclear expert with the nonprofit group. Only a few fast reactors are now operating in the world; none in the U.S., which critics say indicates that these reactors are more difficult to operate than traditional nuclear power plants. Vanessa Pierce, head of HEAL Utah, a watchdog group that monitors nuclear issues, said some experts believe there would have to be many fast reactors to make a difference. It is unclear how many times that waste would have to be burned before the plutonium is eliminated. "Reprocessing will never eliminate high-level waste," she said. There is also the question of economics, since reprocessing is far more expensive than mining new uranium. Pierce said prices of uranium would have to skyrocket even further to make reprocessing economically viable. If the government is convinced that expanding the nation's nuclear power base is the right way to go to help curb global warming, watchdog groups are pushing to maintain the existing once-through fuel cycle practices. glavine@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 39 Hemscott: UK govt confirms BNFL to sell one-third stake in Atomic Weapons Establishment | LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The government has confirmed it British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) is to sell its one-third stake in the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). The move is part of the planned break-up of BNFL, and was announced in a written statement by Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Secretary John Hutton. The weapons facility near Reading, Berkshire, is run by a management company that is a consortium equally divided between BNFL, the support services company Serco Group PLC and American defence giant Lockheed Martin Corp. However, under a 25-year contract awarded to the consortium in 2000, if one of the three parties wants to sell, the other two have pre-emption rights to acquire the stake at market rate. Both Serco and Lockheed are reported to be keen to pick up the stake. tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com fp/fp/gp Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, Hemscott PLC - Serious Investment Research Copyright 2007 Hemscott Group Limited. ***************************************************************** 40 Hindustan Times: Reprocessing rights likely, but fuel supply a stumbling block- Tuesday, July 17, 2007 Nilova Roy Chaudhury, Hindustan Times Ahead of key discussions in Washington between high-level Indian and American officials to resolve details of the 123 Agreement, government sources said India's concerns over the right to reprocess spent fuel were likely to be resolved. However, the stumbling block in the current round of crucial discussions remains India's right to uninterrupted supply of nuclear fuel to power its 14 civilian atomic reactors to be placed under international safeguards. India should focus on its proposal (made on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Germany in June) to set up a stand-alone dedicated reprocessing facility for nuclear fuel of US (and foreign) origin, insisting on the highest level of international safeguards, western diplomats suggested. According to G Balachandran, fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), India should "call the US's bluff" and accept the 'right to return' clause, in case it tests a nuclear device. The United States would find it physically very difficult to follow through on its insistence on taking back everything (including a used reactor) it had supplied in the event of India testing a nuclear device some time in the future. A high-profile Indian delegation headed by National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and comprising India's Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, Secretary Department of Atomic Energy Anil Kakodkar and senior MEA and DAE officials will confer with major American non-proliferation experts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Monday before formal talks on the 123 Agreement. Heading the American delegation at talks on Tuesday will be US NSA, Stephen Hadley, US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, who has been involved in the dialogue since its inception exactly two years ago. The meeting, it is expected, will help close the gap over contentious issues, particularly India's right to reprocess spent fuel from its safeguarded reactors and the right for India to receive guarantees for perpetual supply of nuclear fuel in return for agreeing to accept safeguards in perpetuity in its deemed civilian atomic power reactors. In its Separation Plan, unveiled on March 2, 2006, India has designated 14 of its 22 nuclear power reactors as civilian, to be placed under international safeguards, and eight as 'strategic' or military, which would not be under any international scrutiny. The idea now is to finalise a mutually acceptable text for the bilateral 123 agreement, which will pave the way for resumption of nuclear commerce between India and the US after a three-decade hiatus. The political fillip to the crucial talks was provided last week when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up US President George Bush to urge him to help with a resolution of the issue. Depending on the outcome of the talks, official sources said, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may visit India early next month before the Indian Prime Minister travels to the US for the UN General Assembly session in September. ***************************************************************** 41 Scotsman.com: UK nuclear convoy safety record shows 67 incidents in seven years Tuesday, 17th July 2007 CONVOYS of nuclear material have suffered a total of 67 safety incidents over the past seven years in the UK, it emerged yesterday. The Ministry of Defence revealed dozens of mechanical faults and equipment failures to the specialised transports since 2000, as well as delays and diversions caused by anti-nuclear protests. Convoys of warheads for controversial Trident missiles travel by road between the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire and the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport on Loch Long, north-west of Glasgow. Safety incidents recorded include fuel leaks, a series of broken valves and instances of engine and brake overheating. One situation occurred in October 2003 when an axle began smoking due to "excessive use of wheel brakes" coming down a steep hill. Another happened in February 2003, during which a bomb carrier's clutch "became inoperative", and in January 2005 a fuse box started smoking when a heated windscreen was switched on. The transport convoys can involve ten or more vehicles and have been driven through 21 local authorities in Scotland. The MoD listed 50 "engineering incidents" and 17 "operational incidents" between 1 January, 2000, and 30 June, 2007. A spokesman for the MoD said: "These are not serious security failures, rather low-key mechanical issues that in all cases have been resolved quickly." Related topic * Nuclear defence http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=373 This article: http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1105262007 Last updated: 16-Jul-07 01:19 BST ©2007 Scotsman.com | contact | terms & conditions ***************************************************************** 42 DOE: DOE Initiates Formal Enforcement Action in Los Alamos National Laboratory Classified Information Breach July 13, 2007 WASHINGTON, DC – Following extensive investigations, the Department of Energy (DOE) and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) took formal enforcement actions today against the University of California (UC) and the Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), the prior and current management and operating contractors of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, for violations of classified information security requirements under their respective contracts. Investigations revealed that management deficiencies of both contractors were a central contributing factor in a Laboratory subcontractor employee’s unauthorized reproduction of and removal of classified matter from the site. In response to this serious security breach, the NNSA today issued a Preliminary Notice of Violation to the University of California with a $3,000,000 proposed civil penalty (the largest the Department has ever assessed) and a Preliminary Notice of Violation to LANS with a $300,000 proposed civil penalty. In addition, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman today issued a Compliance Order to LANS which requires the contractor to take specific corrective actions on a prescribed timetable in the physical protection and cyber security of classified information at the Laboratory. Violation of a Compliance Order is itself a violation of departmental regulations, which may result in the imposition of civil penalties up to $100,000 per day for each violation. From 1943 to May 2006, the University of California managed and operated the Laboratory for the Department and its predecessor agencies. On June 1, 2006, LANS, a limited liability corporation comprised of Bechtel National, Inc., the University of California, BWX Technologies, Inc., and the Washington Group International, Inc., took over as the new management and operating contractor. As one of the country’s three nuclear weapons laboratories, the Los Alamos National Laboratory performs sensitive national security missions, including helping to ensure that the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile is safe, secure and reliable. Read additional details on this and other departmental enforcement actions at the Office of Enforcement. Media contact(s): Megan Barnett, DOE, (202) 586-4940 Julianne Smith, NNSA, (202) 586-7371 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 43 Hanford News: Hearing planned for Hanford reservation air permit This story was published Saturday, July 14th, 2007 the Herald staff The Washington State Department of Ecology will take public comment July 26 on a draft permit to regulate air emissions at the Hanford nuclear reservation. The current permit will expire this year unless it is renewed. The hearing, which will include Ecology presentations, will be at 7 p.m. in the state offices at 3100 Port of Benton Blvd., Richland. * The CH2M Hill Hanford Group's communications department has won a gold award in the Hermes Creative Awards competition. The award was for a 14-page publication highlighting technologies to retrieve radioactive and chemical waste from Hanford's leak-prone underground tanks. The publication was among 3,000 entries in the competition judged by the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals. The award is named for Hermes, the Greek messenger god. * Colleen French has been named director of the Office of Organizational Effectiveness and Communication at the Department of Energy's Hanford Richland Operations Office. She will serve as a member of the senior management team. She has worked for DOE since 2001 and has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. * Andrea Melius has been elected to a two-year term on the National Contract Management Association's board of directors. Melius is manager of acquisition policies and procedures at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where she also leads the lab's small business program. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 44 Hanford News: Brockman to manage DOE Hanford This story was published Saturday, July 14th, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer The Department of Energy picked David Brockman as manager of its Hanford Richland Operations Office Friday, promoting him from within the office. He replaces Keith Klein, who retired at the end of May. Brockman will be one of two top Hanford DOE managers overseeing about $2 billion worth of work annually at the nuclear reservation. The Richland Operations Office is in charge of cleanup along the Columbia River and much of the cleanup in central Hanford, while the Office of River Protection manages the tank farms and vitrification plant construction. "We are extremely pleased that a man of Mr. Brockman's experience and capabilities will lead the Richland Operations Office," said James Rispoli, DOE's assistant secretary for environmental management. Brockman has worked at the Richland Operations Office since early 2006 as the project director for the K Basins Closure Project and was named acting deputy manager when Klein retired. He previously worked as vice president for the Richland office of Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC. "I've been very impressed with his professionalism," said Carl Adrian, president of the Tri-City Development Council. "He's well-liked. He understands the needs of the community." Brockman has 36 years of experience as a nuclear project executive for the federal government and private companies. That includes 18 years working for the federal government and nine years as a senior manager for private sector companies performing nuclear projects for DOE and other federal agencies. He also has eight years of active military service. He earned a bachelor of science degree in general science from Oregon State University in Corvallis. Among his work for DOE was serving as project manager and lead negotiator for the Rocky Flats Cleanup Agreement, which resulted in a clear path to complete cleanup at the DOE site in Colorado in 2005, according to DOE. At Hanford the leak-prone K East Basin was emptied of radioactive sludge under his supervision, after years of delays, schedule extensions and cost overruns. "It's been a tough project, but he has always been honest and straightforward," said Nick Ceto, program manager for the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates the K Basins. "We have come to appreciate his results-oriented approach to problem solving and his willingness to consider EPA a full partner in achieving our common goal of assuring a Hanford cleanup that protects both the public and the environment," he said. One of Brockman's tasks will be leading the Richland Operations Office through the establishment of a new contract for cleanup of central Hanford and a new contract to provide services across the nuclear reservation, including security, information technology and utilities. That work is now done under an expiring contract held by Fluor Hanford. Brockman has contracts experience from his five years as president of E2 Consulting Engineers Inc., an engineering firm that performed the majority of its business for DOE and DOE prime contractors, according to DOE. He was involved in bids, contract negotiations and the resolution of project performance issues. Brockman will address the 250 Richland Operations Office employees Monday. DOE continues its search for the second Hanford manager position for the Office of River Protection. Former manager Roy Schepens retired in February. In April, DOE started over in its search for a replacement and still is advertising for the position. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 Hanford News: Advisory board seeks public comment on ill Hanford workers This story was published Friday, July 13th, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer n advisory board considering compensation for early Hanford workers will take public comments Tuesday and Wednesday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, has recommended that the earliest Hanford radiological workers be automatically awarded $150,000 if they developed any of a broad range of cancers. Next the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health must consider the recommendation. The board will meet all day Tuesday through Thursday at the Red Lion in Richland. It will hear public comments from 5 to 6 p.m. Tuesday and 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. NIOSH said the evening sessions, also at the Red Lion, will be a chance for former workers, their survivors and others to be heard. But it warned that the comment periods will not be question and answer sessions with the board or NIOSH. The board is scheduled to discuss compensation for early Hanford workers from 9:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Currently, ill Hanford workers are eligible for the $150,000 payment if a federal agency estimates their personal exposure to radiation and determines there was at least a 50 percent chance it caused their cancer. But workers can petition to join classes of workers called "special exposure cohorts" if they believe their radiation exposure cannot be accurately calculated. NIOSH has agreed that's the case for the earliest Hanford workers. If the advisory board agrees, its opinion will be sent for approval to the secretary of Health and Human Services and then to Congress. The special exposure cohort would cover Hanford production workers who might have been exposed to radiation as early as Oct. 1, 1943, when uranium began arriving on the site to be machined into fuel for Hanford reactors, until Aug. 31, 1946, the end of contractor DuPont's operation of the site. That was about a year after the end of World War II. Eligible workers would include those who fabricated fuel, did research, operated reactors and separated plutonium from irradiated fuel - all activities that might have caused radioactive contamination within their bodies. To receive the payment, they would have to have worked at Hanford for at least 250 days, although work at other sites might be counted toward that total. They also would have to show they developed any of 22 covered cancers. Those cancers include bone cancer, renal cancer, some leukemias, some lung cancers, multiple myeloma, some lymphomas and primary cancer of the bile ducts, brain, breast, colon, esophagus, gall bladder, ovary, pancreas, pharynx, salivary gland, small intestine, stomach, thyroid, urinary bladder and liver, with some restrictions. For most of the cancers, the disease had to occur from at least two to five years after the first exposure to radiation. Survivors also may apply for compensation. For more information about the meeting, go to www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas on the Internet or call 800-356-4674. For information about the compensation program, call the Hanford Resource Center at 946-3333 or 888-654-0014. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 46 Knoxville News Sentinel: Clearances a waiting game at Y-12 By Frank Munger (Contact) Monday, July 16, 2007 At the end of May, BWXT Y-12, the government’s managing contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, had 4,533 employees. That’s a fairly typical number for the Oak Ridge plant, which has an annual operating budget approaching $1 billion. Even when employment is stable or declining, Y-12 has to hire hundreds of workers each year to fill needs and to address the losses from retirements and other attrition. Nearly all of those workers are required to have security clearances, including the high-level “Q” clearance if they’re going to work around the plant’s strategic nuclear materials or have access to weapons-making information. That, of course, can put a kink in the planning, because the process of getting an approved clearance can take a year or longer. So, what happens to the new hires while they’re waiting on clearances to come through? To hear some folks tell it, the newbies sit around in a holding tank in an obscure part of the sprawling plant and twiddle their thumbs or work crossword puzzles for days on end. That’s hardly the case, according to Debbie Shecterle, BWXT’s human resources manager. “The truth is, we’ve got too much work for people to be twiddling their thumbs,” Shecterle said. Still, making the best of an awkward situation can be challenging, she said. “On any given day, we probably have 150 to 170 who are in the clearance process,” the BWXT exec said. “I’m sure you understand the fact that, unfortunately, we can’t control the clearance process. We are at its mercy. In order to try and overcome the delays in the clearance process, whether that’s 30 days or 12 months, there are a couple of things we do.” In the case of hourly workers, including machinists and other skilled crafts workers, they often aren’t brought to Y-12 and put on the payroll until their clearances are approved, Shecterle said. “We will go ahead and interview and offer positions to people who are uncleared, but we do not give them a report-to-work date,” she said. “So, they maintain employment where they are (for the time being).” BWXT doesn’t have that luxury when hiring engineers and new college graduates of various backgrounds to do technical work in the plant’s secured areas. They typically are brought to the Oak Ridge site, put on the payroll, and given uncleared work to do in uncleared work areas. This might seem like a waste of time, but Shecterle said there’s always a silver lining. “It gives us additional time to provide all the training that these employees are going to need, so they can hit the ground running (when their clearances are approved),” she said. “We school them in the safety and security issues, our procurement process, our hiring process, our budgeting process — give them a well-rounded education of what it takes to work at Y-12.” If those same workers were to come in immediately and go to work on classified activities, they would have to acquire the training in smaller chunks over a much longer period of time, Shecterle said. An attempt is made to place the uncleared new hires as close as possible to their future work group, and that will become easier when many of Y-12’s employees — including the main engineering staff — move into the newly constructed Jack Case Center. The center has areas defined for uncleared activities, as well as large sections in the U-shaped building that are secured for classified programs. BWXT tries to match up new hires with mentors in their future work groups and promote as much contact as possible, advancing the learning curve. “If we hire a master’s degree nuclear engineer, they are not going to be able to do nuclear engineering in a classified building until their clearance comes in,” Shecterle said. “So we will give them other engineering project work that may take them up to the classified portion of the work they would be doing — and then they need to hand it off. And they may not be able to attend all the meetings because at some point there may be some discussion of classified information.” She said she makes it a point to personally meet with new hires after they’ve been at Y-12 for three months to address any concerns, answer questions and get some feedback on the system. Despite efforts to use the time effectively, there are continual complaints about the clearance system and the length of time it takes to get a top clearance. The process includes an intensive background check by officers from the federal Office of Personnel Management. The length of time for a clearance depends on the time of year, an individual’s work background, the number of places he or she has lived, and many other factors. “It’s all over the board,” Shecterle said. “I don’t want to generalize, but I am not hearing from our employees the level of concern that I heard a year ago with regard to the length. I believe the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) has tried to put additional emphasis on the need to turn these around — but, obviously, with the same level of caution in background checks.” Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy’s facilities in Oak Ridge. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 47 UPI: Part of Rocky Flats to be wildlife refuge United Press International - NewsTrack - Science - Published: July 16, 2007 at 1:53 PM WASHINGTON, July 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy says nearly 4,000 acres of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production site in Colorado will become a wildlife refuge. Officials said the land is being transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to become the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. The action follows more than 10 years of environmental cleanup work at the site, located 16 miles northwest of Denver. From 1951 until 1989 the Rocky Flats plant manufactured the trigger mechanism for nearly every nuclear weapon in the United States. Energy Department officials said that manufacturing process resulted in radiological and hazardous material contamination, including plutonium, uranium, beryllium and hazardous chemical compounds that were released into the air, ground and water surrounding the plant. The 10-year environmental cleanup of the site cost approximately $7 billion and finished in 2005, more than 50 years ahead of initial forecasts and for nearly $30 billion less than estimated in 1994. The Rocky Flats site encompasses approximately 6,200 acres of high prairie that has been closed to the public for more than 50 years. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 48 Daily Californian: UC Faces $3.3 Million Penalty BY Tamara Bartlett Daily Cal Staff Writer Monday, July 16, 2007 The U.S. Department of Energy issued a notice Friday proposing a $3.3 million fine against the University of California and other managers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory for an October security breach. The department and the National Nuclear Security Administration sent preliminary notices of the violation to the university and Los Alamos National Security, LLC with a proposed $3 million civil penalty against the university and $300,000 penalty against the security group in response to a 2006 incident involving the mishandling of classified documents. The classified material was discovered last October when police responded to a domestic disturbance near the lab at a trailer home that belonged to Jessica Quintana, a former subcontracted employee at the lab. During the investigation, the police confiscated the classified material along with drugs and drug paraphernalia found in the trailer home. According to the preliminary notices, the university and the security group, which includes the university, have 30 days to respond to the notices or they will have relinquished their right to appeal the violation and the penalty will be final. UC spokesperson Chris Harrington said in a statement the university plans to respond to the alleged violation, explaining that its contract with the lab ended in May 2006, before the alleged violation, and that the “incident involved the individual behavior of a subcontracted, non-UC/(lab) employee.” The department also issued a compliance order to the security group, which won a bid to oversee the lab in December 2005, requiring that it implement specific actions to fix the problems that led to the violation. The security group has 15 days to file an appeal if it wishes to contest the order. Violating the order could result in a notice of civil penalties of up to $100,000 per violation per day, the order stated. Harrington said in the statement that the university hopes to strengthen security. “The university remains outraged at the actions taken by the individual involved in this incident. We believe the type of behavior involved—a failure to follow clearly defined security protocols and a violation of the law—is completely unacceptable,” he said. Tamara Bartlett is an assistant news editor. Contact her at tbartlett@dailycal.org. (c) 2005 the Daily Californian dailycalifornian@dailycal.org ***************************************************************** 49 ENS: Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Site Becomes a Wildlife Refuge Environment News Service (ENS) DENVER, Colorado Sixteen miles northwest of Denver, the site where once the trigger mechanisms for nearly every nuclear weapon in the United States were made, has become the country's newest wildlife refuge. The U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, transferred nearly 4,000 acres of its former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production site to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Thursday. The transfer creates the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Over the warnings of some citizens groups, public access will be allowed to large portions of the site. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management James Rispoli said, "We are proud to transfer this space to the U.S. Department of Interior and we will continue with plans to complete environmental cleanup work at five more sites across the country by 2009." From 1951 until 1989 the Rocky Flats Plant manufactured the triggers and in the process released radiological and hazardous material contamination, including plutonium, uranium, beryllium and hazardous chemical compounds, into the air, ground and water surrounding the plant. The last of the former plutonium facilities to be demolished was Building 371, which was brought down in 2005. (Photo courtesy Rocky Flats Citizens' Advisory Board) After more than a decade of environmental cleanup work, in 2005, DOE certified the environmental cleanup work at the former Rocky Flats site complete. The Energy Department says environmental cleanup of the site cost $7 billion. It was finished more than 50 years ahead of initial forecasts and for nearly $30 billion less than estimated in 1994. The Rocky Flats site encompasses approximately 6,200 acres of high prairie that has been closed to the public for more than 50 years. During production and cleanup, a 5,800 acre buffer zone surrounded the 400 acre industrial area where the trigger mechanisms were manufactured. "With the transfer of nearly 4,000 acres from the Department of Energy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will establish the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge in order to conserve the rare and unique tallgrass prairie found along Colorado's Front Range," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall. "As intended by Congress, the refuge will preserve a lasting wildlife and habitat legacy for future generations." Deer now outnumber humans at Rocky Flats. (Photo courtesy RFCAB) Habitat conservation will include management of xeric tallgrass and native plant communities, as well as weed control, removal and revegetation of unused roads and stream crossings, management of deer and elk populations and black-tailed prairie dog colonies, and protection of habitat for the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, a species listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Visitor use facilities will eventually include 16 miles of trails, a seasonally-staffed visitor contact station, trailheads with parking, and developed overlooks. Most of the trails will use existing roads, and public access will be by foot, bicycle, horse or car. Under the refuge conservation plan, the Service will develop a limited public hunting program. A study done in 2004 of radioactivity in deer on the Rocky Flats site by scientists with the Service found "minimal human risk" from eating the meat of deer shot at the site. "The maximum calculated risk level in this study is at the low end of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's acceptable risk range," the study found. In May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency completed regulatory certification and released the lands for unrestricted use as a National Wildlife Refuge. Rocky Flats in 1995 (Two photos courtesy Los Alamos National Lab) The Energy Department will retain 1,300 acres in the center of the site for long-term surveillance and maintenance. This area is protected by physical and institutional controls and contains surface and groundwater monitoring equipment, four groundwater treatment systems, and two closed landfills. Many Coloradans are not satisfied that Rocky Flats is safe enough for public access. The Rocky Flats site is "still extensively contaminated with plutonium and other toxins from decades of nuclear bomb-making," wrote LeRoy Moore, PhD, founder of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, on July 5. In an article published on the website of the Colorado Coalition for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Moore wrote, "There are many reasons to be skeptical of claims that Rocky Flats is 'safe' for public use. Under the minimal standards the government set for cleaning the site, significant quantities of plutonium and other toxins have been left in the environment. With a half-life of 24,400 years, plutonium remains dangerously radioactive for eons; even minuscule particles taken into the body may result in cancer, harm to the immune system, or genetic abnormalities." Rocky Flats in 2005 after the environmental cleanup. Moore warns that the plutonium still left at Rocky Flats could migrate and that cleanup standards were were "based on computer modeling rather than direct observation" and "differ strikingly from actual documentation of significant plutonium migration at other sites and even at Rocky Flats in the exceedingly wet spring of 1995." Wildlife ecologist Dr. Shawn Smallwood, in his 1996 study, demonstrated how 18 species of burrowing animals redistribute contaminants left in the soil at Rocky Flats, and he also discovered substantial intrusion of waste structures by burrowing animals. Pocket gophers, harvester ants, and prairie dogs all burrow to depths of 10 to 16 feet and disturb large areas on the surface, while coyotes, badgers, rabbits, and other animals also move soil. "Those who set the legally binding cleanup standards for the site ignored Smallwood's findings, and relied instead on claims from an earlier study that plutonium in Rocky Flats' soil had "weathered in" and thus was stable in the environment," wrote Moore. The Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, which shut down in 2006 after 13 years of involvement, warned in its closing statement that "Water quality will be a significant measure of the site's cleanup." Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board Chair Gerald DePoorter, left, received the President’s Volunteer Service Award from Assistant Energy Secretary James Rispoli in April 2006. (Photo courtesy RFCAB) Water quality problems have occurred at Rocky Flats during periods of increased precipitation and run-off, the Board warned. Although surface water quality as its leaves the site has always remained below regulatory limits, there have been some instances, as recent as 2005, where onsite water quality has exceeded state standards for plutonium, uranium, and americium. The Board says that because "there is some residual contamination left at the site," it is very important that the Department of Energy develop "readily accessible and easy-to-understand information that describes this contamination and explains its risk." "Although this information can be found in the thousands of pages of written information documenting the cleanup, the Board believes it needs to be condensed and presented in a better manner." The information should provide simple maps, diagrams and other graphic materials that show where contamination exists. It also is important that this information include an easily understood description of the inherent risk. While general public interest in Rocky Flats is likely to diminish over time now that the cleanup is complete, community members still need to be provided opportunities to receive information and ask questions, the Board advises. "Are the cleanup remedies such as the landfill caps and the groundwater treatment units functioning as intended? Are water quality standards being met? the Board asked. "These and other questions must remain a part of the community's interest in the site." Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************