***************************************************************** 07/19/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.168 ***************************************************************** 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 IAEA: IAEA Team Confirms Shutdown of DPRK Nuclear Facilities 2 US: Hartford Courant: Dry Days Loom In West -- 3 US: UPI: Oil report faces energy's 'hard truths' 4 People's Daily: IAEA chief: Malaysia is supportive partner of IAEA 5 BBC NEWS: Russia expels four embassy staff 6 RIA Novosti: Defense source warns of threat to states hosting missil 7 RIA Novosti: Current nuclear threat worse than during Cold War - 8 UPI: Russia: Hosting missile systems risky NUCLEAR REACTORS 9 The Hindu: Drawing power from nuke plant totally safe: Minister 10 US: ISB: Permit process begins for proposed nuclear power plant | 11 Sydney Morning Herald: Nuclear partnership with US in the offing - 12 US: The State: Nuclear not the answer, critics say 13 AFP: Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant closed for year - 14 Free Press: The earthquake that screamed "NO NUKES!!!" 15 AU ABC: Uncertainty surrounds Indonesia's nuclear plans - 16 AU ABC: Govt pushes for US nuke deal - 17 New York Times: Japan Nuclear-Site Damage Worse Than Reported - 18 The Hindu: Nuclear deal matter of time, says U.S. 19 Daily Yomiuri: IAEA warned TEPCO in 2005 20 US: deseret news: Utah is stepping closer to nuclear plant 21 US: Charlotte Observer: Clean energy bill has a catch 22 IndianExpress.com: India's n-fuel storage gets US OK 23 CANOE: Canada: Councils take free jet ride and lobsters, then endors 24 BBC NEWS: Power cut fears after Japan quake 25 NEWS.com.au: Australia considering nuclear alliance | 26 US: POAC: Oyster Creek: N-plant admits to tiny radiation release 27 earth times: Restoration of trust in Vattenfall 'will take time' - c 28 US: SanLuisObispo.com: Diablo may cut hundreds of positions 29 680News: Radiation hole needs to be fixed, critics say 30 US: APP.COM: Plant releases harmless amount of radioactive steam | 31 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Legislators drafting law to make Utah nuclear 32 Climate Change Corporation: Nuclear power revisited – but is it 33 Japan Times: Tremors spotlight nuclear plants 34 US: AJC: Nuclear energy is safe option for future | 35 Reuters: U.S., India said still divided on nuclear deal 36 Reuters: Japan quake-hit plant may be shut a year or more 37 UPI: Report: Japan nuclear plant on fault line 38 Guardian Unlimited: Reports: New Leak at Japan Nuke Plant 39 Newswire: Russia Focuses on Nuclear Energy Throwing the Door Wide 40 Guardian Unlimited: Japan Nuke Plant Still Leaking Radiation 41 Chennai Online News: Atomic research centre at Vizag Search for More 42 Japan Times: Quakes rarely damage nuclear power plants | 43 US: AJC: 'Nuclear option' raises some questions | 44 IAEA: IAEA Offers to Send Expert Team to Japan Following Earthquake 45 Guardian Unlimited: Crucial six months to stop the lights going out 46 Hindustan Times: Cheney pushes last-ditch bid to save India-US nucle 47 NDTV.com: Firming up N-deal is matter of time - US 48 Reuters: TEPCO eyes thermal power after quake-hit shutdown 49 AFP: Japan's energy worries grow as nuclear plant shut - 50 AFP: US, India break 'logjam' in nuclear talks but final accord elus 51 Guardian Unlimited: New leak identified at damaged Japanese nuclear NUCLEAR SECURITY 52 US: Guardian Unlimited: Feds Say Classified Material Was Stolen 53 US: Reuters: U.S. nuclear lab ex-contractor accused of stealing | 54 US: KNS: Ex-worker charged with trying to sell uranium-enrichment co 55 Telegraph: Four UK diplomats expelled as Russia retaliates - 56 US: WATE: Former Bechtel Jacobs contract worker charged with trying 57 US: WBIR.COM: Rep. Wamp, DoE boss make statements on Oakley case 58 US: AFP: US man charged in theft of nuclear material NUCLEAR SAFETY 59 [NYTr] Japan Admits Radiation Leak Worse than Previously Stated 60 Insider Reveals 6 Hidden Secrets Your Government Prays You'll Never 61 EBR: EC to launch nuclear safety group - 62 US: UPI: Study: Elevated child leukemia near nukes 63 US: LocalNews8.com: Wildfire breaks out southeast of Idaho National NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 64 Las Vegas SUN: Gibbons seen undermining a nuke-free Yucca 65 BBC NEWS: Radioactive monitoring stepped up 66 ReviewJournal.com: Gibbons backs off on nuclear panel pick 67 US: NCBR: Public meeting set on uranium project 68 US: Rocky Mountain News: Driller leaves mess behind 69 US: Daily News Journal: Public lacks trust in state program for radi 70 RGJ.com: State officials not content with Yucca plan 71 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: Errant drum stops many WIPP shipments 72 Scotsman.com: Radioactive advice role for professor 73 Reid: Reid Highlights Yucca Safety Concerns After Japanese Quake 74 Whitehaven News: Sellafield pay rise slammed as ‘obscene’ PEACE 75 US: Santa Barbara Independent: Education and Nuclear Weapons Dont Mi US DEPT. OF ENERGY 76 SF New Mexican: LANL Cold War plutonium releases disputed 77 Tri-City Herald: PNNL honored for key scientific breakthroughs 78 Las Cruces Sun-News: Study: Los Alamos released more plutonium in 79 KOAT Albuquerque: LANL Might Have Released More Plutonium Than Repor 80 Tracy Press: Concerns about lab toxins 81 WBIR.COM: Former K-25 site played critical role in nation's atomic h ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 IAEA: IAEA Team Confirms Shutdown of DPRK Nuclear Facilities Press Release 2007/12 18 July 2007 | Following the recent understanding reached between the IAEA and DPRK, an IAEA team arrived at the Yongbyon nuclear site on 14 July 2007 to verify the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facility. The team was informed that the DPRK had on that day shut down the following facilities: the Yongbyon Experimental Nuclear Power Plant No. 1, the Radiochemical Laboratory, the Yongbyon Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Plant, the Yongbyon Nuclear Power Plant No. 2, and the Nuclear Power Plant at Taechon. The IAEA team has been able to confirm that the above five facilities have been shut down. The team applied the necessary seals and other measures as appropriate. The installation of the necessary surveillance and monitoring equipment by the IAEA team is expected to be completed in the next few weeks. "The IAEAŽs verification activities are going smoothly with good cooperation from the DPRK," IAEA Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei said. "This is an important step in the right direction but only the first in a long journey." Press Contact Press Office Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21276 About the IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) serves as the world's foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Established as an autonomous organization under the United Nations (UN) in 1957, the IAEA carries out programmes to maximize the useful contribution of nuclear technology to society while verifying its peaceful use. NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit the Press Section of the IAEA's website (http://www.iaea.org/Resources/Journalists/), or call the IAEA's Division of Public Information at (431) 2600-21270. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 2 Hartford Courant: Dry Days Loom In West -- Courant.com Robert M. Thorson July 19, 2007 A gnawing sense of uncertainty. Perhaps that will motivate us to move faster on climate change than all the predictions in the world. In their recent book, "Climate Change and Biodiversity," conservation biologists Thomas E. Lovejoy and Lee Hannah write "Much has been learned that is new, and yet our understanding is dwarfed by the vast and complex changes to come." There are two principal sources of uncertainty. First, "species respond to climate change individually and idiosyncratically, not as coherent communities." Second, natural systems more fundamental than ecology are simply too complex to predict at the level of detail we are comfortable with. With respect to individual species, there are dozens of excellent case histories discussed in the volume from polar bears to avian malaria. My main concern is with the subspecies of Homo sapiens now sprawling across the sun-baked cities of the American West. What will their population look like when individual families give up this unsustainable existence and seek cooler moister climes? Consider Nevada, where the population increased an astonishing 66 percent from 1990 to 2000, based on the last U.S. census, much of it near Las Vegas. The remaining four of the top five high-growth states - Arizona (40 percent), Colorado (31percent), Utah (30 percent) and Idaho (29 percent) - also have cities sprawling into triple digit heat waves. From Idaho to Texas the wildfires are spreading, the water budget is shrinking and the demand for electricity - especially for air conditioning - is growing. Much of this demand is being met by burning coal, the worst carbon emitter of all, despite great opportunities for solar, wind and geothermal power. (And what about nuclear power? Well, we haven't heard much about that since Nevada's Harry Reid became Senate Majority Leader. Before his election, the nation was actively developing its first permanent radioactive waste disposal site at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Things are now more or less on hold.) Can anyone predict where the Homo sapiens from western cities will go when they give up for lack of water, the elixir of life? Uncertainty about the future also stems from the complexity of natural systems. Consider weather forecasters. Despite Doppler radar, geostationary satellites and automated computer models, they still frequently get it wrong, becoming the butt of many jokes. This July 4th for example, communities such as Newport, R.I. launched their fireworks in steady, heavy rain because they had to abide by a decision based on a morning weather forecast. Smaller adjacent communities looked at the sky at night and rescheduled. TV weather forecasters are what amounts to good-looking witch doctors, especially in places like New England. Their job is to put a human face on the mysteries of the atmosphere. Yet these meteorologists have it easy compared to hydrologists. That's because the job of the hydrologist is to forecast soil moisture, snow pack thickness, groundwater budgets and river discharge based on the predictions of the meteorologist. And the hydrologists have it easy compared to the ecologists, whose job it is to forecast species migrations and food webs based on the predictions of the hydrologists. To illustrate the complexity in the middle of this chain of logic, consider the headline from an article published by Richard Kerr in last month's Science: "River-level forecasting shows no detectable progress in 2 decades." The physics of river forecasting is straightforward, and hydrologists are doing a fairly decent job. But despite two decades of hard effort, they are not doing any better now than before, at least not for the 11 large Missouri River flow stations examined. There are just too many variables involved - slope, soil, direction, temperature, irrigation, snow, moisture, wind, permeability, etc. Thinking about complexity gave me an idea. What if concerned scientists like me gave up trying to predict the future and parroted what the climate change naysayers have been saying all along: "We just don't know." Would this confession translate to the body politic as yet another reason to marvel at the mysteries of nature? Or would it translate as gnawing apprehension for the future? In either case, would that be enough to make us stop burning coal to cool our bodies in places where it's naturally hot? I just don't know. Robert M. Thorson is a professor of geology at the University of Connecticut's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a member of The Courant's Place Board of Contributors. His column appears every Thursday. He can be reached at profthorson@hotmail.com more in /news/opinion/op_ed Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant ***************************************************************** 3 UPI: Oil report faces energy's 'hard truths' United Press International - NewsTrack - Business - Published: July 18, 2007 at 11:29 PM WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Washington should toughen its motor-vehicle fuel-economy standards to reduce oil consumption, a White House-commissioned energy study said Wednesday. The study by the National Petroleum Council, a federal advisory group representing the oil industry, also recommended the government improve energy efficiency at buildings and homes. A 21-month inquiry, led by former ExxonMobil Chairman Lee Raymond, led to the 476-page study titled "Facing the Hard Truths About Energy," billed as one of the most comprehensive analyses of the world's energy challenge. "The world is not running out of energy resources, but there are accumulating risks to continuing expansion of oil and natural gas production from the conventional sources relied upon historically," the report said. These risks "create significant challenges to meeting projected energy demand," which it predicts will grow 50 percent in the next 25 years. While the council calls for expanding and diversifying oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power, it also calls for the development of alternative fuels, including biofuels like ethanol and technologies to convert natural gas to gasoline or diesel fuel. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, who requested the study in 2005, said Wednesday he would "consider its recommendations with great care." © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 People's Daily: IAEA chief: Malaysia is supportive partner of IAEA 07:43, July 19, 2007 Malaysia had been a supportive partner of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said on Wednesday. Malaysia was a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and signed the additional protocol in November 2005, ElBaradei said in his speech to a public lecture organized by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. The IAEA had a significant technical cooperation program in Malaysia, i.e., the use of isotope hydrology in Malaysia to combat groundwater contamination in industrial sites, he said. The IAEA was also supporting the establishment of a Malaysian cyclotron facility for radioisotope production as well as the establishment of a laboratory for the application of radiation in nanotechnology, he said. The IAEA chief also said that Malaysia, like many other countries, faced complex choices in its plans to expand energy mix and energy security. ElBaradei said that more than 90 percent of the country's electricity was generated from fossil fuels, primarily natural gas from domestic reserves. Decrease in natural gas reserves and rising electricity demand had forced the country to look at other ways to ensure its future energy security, he said. The IAEA was standing ready to assist Malaysia in finding solutions to its energy demand, he added. Malaysia is reportedly working on a comprehensive energy policy, including consideration of nuclear power. ElBaradei said that nuclear energy alone was not a panacea, but it was likely to have an increasing role as part of the global energy mix in the future. Source: Xinhua Copyright by People's Daily Online, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 5 BBC NEWS: Russia expels four embassy staff Andrei Lugovoi has denied involvement in the murder Russia is to expel four UK embassy staff in the row over Moscow's refusal to extradite the man suspected of Alexander Litvinenko's murder. The four must leave Russia within 10 days, and Moscow is to review visa applications for UK officials. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was "disappointed" by what he called a "completely unjustified" move. On Monday four Russian embassy staff were expelled from the UK and the visa facilitation process for Russian officials was suspended. 'Tit-for-tat' The move was a response to Moscow's refusal to extradite the man suspected of murdering former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006. Announcing the tit-for-tat response, foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Moscow would not apply for any UK visas for Russian officials. I think relations between Russia and Britain will develop normally because both countries are interested in this President Putin He said: "The position of the Brown government is not based on British common sense and reasoning." At the Moscow news conference he added: "The measures declared by London recently makes co-operation between Russia and the UK impossible... in the war on terror." But President Putin added later: "I think relations between Russia and Britain will develop normally because both countries are interested in this." "It is necessary to measure one's actions against common sense, respect the legitimate interests of partners and everything will be all right. I think we will overcome this mini crisis." 'Completely unjustified' The prime minister's official spokesman told reporters that Downing Street was examining the implications of non co-operation on terrorism. Earlier Tony Brenton, Britain's ambassador in Moscow, was summoned to Russia's foreign ministry and given "certain messages" to pass on to the Foreign Office in London. 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 Speaking in London, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "We are now studying these measures very carefully to ensure that we understand the detail. "We are disappointed that the Russian government should have signalled no new co-operation in the case of the extradition of Mr Andrei Lugovoi for the alleged murder of Alexander Litvinenko." He added that the decision to expel four British embassy staff was "completely unjustified" and help would be given to them and their families. But he said he had been heartened by support from the "international community" and "positive statements about the need to defend the integrity of the British judicial system". US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier: "This is an issue of rule of law to our minds, not an issue of politics." "It is a matter of Russia co-operating fully in what is simply an effort to solve what was a very terrible crime committed on British soil." Mr Litvinenko, an ex-KGB agent who had taken UK citizenship, died of exposure to radioactive polonium-210 in London in November 2006. Denies involvement Traces of the radioactive isotope was found in several places visited by another former agent, Andrei Lugovoi. Mr Lugovoi denies involvement and says he is a witness, not a suspect in the case and has told Russian television that the outcome of the inquiry had been predetermined. Under the European Convention on Extradition 1957, Russia has the right to refuse the extradition of a citizen and its constitution expressly forbids it from doing so. The UK has the right to request Mr Lugovoi be tried in Russia, but the UK's director of public prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald, has already turned down the offer. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 6 RIA Novosti: Defense source warns of threat to states hosting missile shield 15:46 | 19/ 07/ 2007 MOSCOW, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - A source in Russia's Defense Ministry warned Thursday that countries that host missile defense systems are not improving their own security, but are putting themselves and their neighbors at risk. The source told RIA Novosti that the expansion of the United States missile defense system would cause serious environmental problems in several parts of the world, as the interception of an intercontinental ballistic missile creates a vast zone of destruction. His comments echo warnings earlier in the week from Yury Baluyevsky, chief of staff of the Russian Armed Forces, who urged Poland, which along with the Czech Republic has agreed to host elements of the Pentagon's missile shield on its territory, to consider the dangers the country is exposing itself to. The ministry source said: "Should a U.S. anti-missile intercept a ballistic or other type of missile in Europe, substantial tracts of land would be affected in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, and a number of other states. Radioactive elements will be dispersed across these countries' territories," he said. Russia does not regard components of the U.S. missile defense system in isolation from each other, he said. "Europe, Alaska, naval components, and space-based tracking, control and communication systems - all of these are elements of the U.S. missile defense system," he said. He said that as far as Russia is concerned, it does not matter exactly how many interceptor missiles are deployed in a particular area. "What is of primary importance is the sheer fact that a global missile defense infrastructure is being created around Russia," he said. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 7 RIA Novosti: Current nuclear threat worse than during Cold War - U.S. expert -1 20:36 | 19/ 07/ 2007 WASHINGTON, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - The risks of an accidental nuclear war have increased since the Cold War as Russia's early warning capability has deteriorated, a former U.S. defense official said. William J. Perry, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and co-Director of the Preventive Defense Project at Stanford University, said in a congressional testimony Wednesday that "the danger of nuclear war occurring by accident" still existed. "Both American and Russian missiles remain in a launch-on-warning mode," Perry, who served as U.S. defense secretary in 1994-97, said. "And the inherent danger of this status is aggravated by the fact that the Russian warning system has deteriorated since the ending of the Cold War." Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has heavily depended on its radars located abroad, particularly the Daryal facility in Azerbaijan and two Dnepr stations in Ukraine, near Sebastopol and Mukachevo. Some reports said the outdated radar facilities that Moscow is renting on the territories of former Soviet republics were in poor condition, and that "holes" had appeared in Russia's early-warning missile threat coverage. In the same testimony, Perry blasted the Bush administration for concentrating its efforts on building defenses to protect the U.S. from a potential ballistic missile threat, while downplaying the danger of nuclear terrorism. "The centerpiece of our government's strategy for dealing with a nuclear attack is the National Missile Defense system now being installed in Alaska," he said. "But the greatest danger today is that a terror group will detonate a nuclear bomb in one of our cities," the expert said. "Terrorists would not use a ballistic missile to deliver their bomb, they would use a truck or a freighter," Perry said, adding that a missile shield alone would not reduce the nuclear threat to the country. Colonel General Valter Kraskovsky, a former commander of the Soviet Union ballistic missile defense, dismissed Perry's statement as an element of the information war the U.S. is waging against Russia. "We should have expected such statements. The U.S. will continue pressing this issue because its main goal is to present Russia as a country owning powerful retaliatory weapons which it is incapable of controlling. They will be striving to disarm us on any possible pretext - for instance that we cannot oversee everything, that we can make a mess of things, or accidentally deliver strikes, and so on," Kraskovsky said. He said the Russian warning system properly monitored near-space, but that the situation could change if intergovernmental agreements on Russia using the two radar stations in Ukraine were revoked. "If the stations stop operating in the interests of our country, the Russian air defense system will have problems," Kraskovsky said. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 8 UPI: Russia: Hosting missile systems risky United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: July 19, 2007 at 3:39 PM MOSCOW, July 19 (UPI) -- A Russian Defense Ministry source warned countries considering hosting an anti-missile defense system that they could be putting themselves at risk. RIA Novosti Thursday quoted the unnamed official as saying that Russia is concerned about an anti-missile system being erected around the country. "Europe, Alaska, naval components and space-based tracking, control-and-communication systems -- all of these are elements of the U.S. missile defense system," he said. "What is of primary importance is the sheer fact that a global missile defense infrastructure is being created around Russia," he said. Rather than provide security to the host country it could put them at risk, including an environmental risk. "Should a U.S. anti-missile intercept a ballistic or other type of missile in Europe, substantial tracts of land would be affected in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and a number of other states. Radioactive elements will be dispersed across these countries' territories," he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the United States facilities in Azerbaijan for missile tracking, a suggestion President George Bush has rejected. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 The Hindu: Drawing power from nuke plant totally safe: Minister Thursday, July 19, 2007 : 1300 Hrs Thiruvananthapuram, July 19 (PTI): There was no need for any fear about drawing power from the Koodankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu to Kerala through an overhead line, state electricity minister A K Balan said today. The propaganda that the power drawn from nuclear plant through the Koodankulam-Madakkathara line could cause radiation on its way had no basis whatsoever, Balan said in reply to questions in the state assembly. The feasibility and load-flow studies conducted by the Power Grid Corporation of India had found that there would not be any problem in receiving the state's share of 220 MW from Koodankulam through the proposed line. Also, the fears the alignment of the line would adversely affect the interests of rubber cultivators in Kerala had no basis. The average height of a rubber tree is 24 metres whereas the power line would be passing through a height of 74 metre. Kerala could not afford to lose the share it was going to get from the Koodankulam plant as setting up a new plant in the state with an matching capacity would require a huge sum. The state was expecting to get 3811 MW of power as its share from the Central Grid during the 12th plan period with the completion of various ongoing national projects, he added. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 10 ISB: Permit process begins for proposed nuclear power plant | Idaho Statesman Business Edition Date: 07/19/07 The Virginia-based company proposing a nuclear power plant in Owyhee County has started the permitting process with county officials. Alternate Energy Holdings filed an application this week for a conditional-use permit. Don Gillispie, the company's president and CEO, said the company intends to start the separate process applying for a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Company and county officials estimate that completing the county permitting process would require about 20 public meetings. The company needs a conditional-use permit to change the use of the land from agricultural to industrial. Alternate Energy proposes to build a $3.5 billion, 1,600-megawatt nuclear plant and accompanying ethanol plant on private land near C.J. Strike Reservoir. Last month, Gillispie announced that the company had received a letter of intent from Fairport, N.Y.-based Cobblestone Financial Group to finance the project. IdahoStatesman.com ***************************************************************** 11 Sydney Morning Herald: Nuclear partnership with US in the offing - www.smh.com.au Anne Davies Herald Correspondent in Washington July 20, 2007 AUSTRALIA is negotiating a big nuclear energy plan with the US and is considering whether to join an exclusive American-led club of nations to control the distribution, reprocessing and storage of nuclear fuel worldwide. According to draft plans seen by the Herald, the ministers for foreign affairs and resources have urged John Howard to announce the joint plan during George Bush's Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation visit in September. "The proposed action plan would help to open the way for valuable nuclear energy co-operation with the United States," the briefing note says. "It would also be consistent with the Government's strategy for the nuclear industry in Australia. An action plan on nuclear energy would also have bilateral advantages further broadening our relationship with the United States. "While the US has not raised the possibility, the action plan may be a possible 'announceable' for President Bush's visit in September." But the proposal appears to stop short of recommending Australia sign up with the controversial Global Nuclear Energy Partnership championed by Mr Bush. The partnership involves the main nuclear-fuel cycle countries, the US, Russia, China, Japan and France. Mr Bush says it is central to the world tackling climate change and aims to ensure the nuclear industry grows safely, while limiting the spread of material able to be used for weapons. The five countries met in Washington in late May and agreed to work on plans that would involve them taking control of the supply of all nuclear fuel and its reprocessing and waste disposal. Countries not in the partnership would be leased fuel only if they complied with the non-proliferation treaty. Pushing the US-Australia plan are the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, and the Industry Minister, Ian Macfarlane. A spokesman for Mr Downer confirmed discussions on an agreement focusing on safeguards and research and development of nuclear technology were under way. He said the Government had made no decisions about whether it would embark on enrichment of uranium, but the Prime Minister had made it clear Australia would not be taking other countries' nuclear waste. No decision had been made on joining the broader GNEP, the spokesman said. The GNEP partners have agreed to work towards new technologies for nuclear power generation and reprocessing that would produce less plutonium and highly enriched uranium. The problem with nuclear power is that spent fuel rods can be used once, but must then be stored or reprocessed. Reprocessing leads to the production of highly enriched uranium or plutonium, which can be used for nuclear weapons. The issue is so sensitive that even the US has had a policy against reprocessing dating back to the Carter administration. Australia, the world's biggest exporter of unprocessed uranium, and Canada, another big source, have expressed interest in GNEP. But the partnership is seen by some developing nations as highly divisive. The former diplomat Richard Broinowski, author of a history of Australia's nuclear ambitions, said joining the partnership would be seen as highly divisive in the region. "It's seen as a move by the nuclear haves against the have-nots," he said. "It's seen as perpetuating a double standard." If Australia were to join GNEP it is likely to alarm some near neighbours, notably Indonesia. Domestically, it is also likely to rekindle debate over whether Australia should venture further down the nuclear path as a means of countering greenhouse gas emissions, or to put its efforts into renewable technologies. It will also raise the spectre of a nuclear dump in Australia, since storage of nuclear waste by GNEP members is an integral part of the arrangement. The officials working on the US-Australia plan mention this concern, saying that in any discussions it will be important to ensure there is no perception on the part of the US that conclusion of an action plan could have implications for the Government's policy of not taking other countries' radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel. Last week Mr Howard said it would be "folly in the extreme" for Australia to remain aloof from nuclear power.He also announced $12.5 million for a research program between the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and universities. When news happens: send photos, videos & tip-offs to 0424 SMS SMH (+61 424 767 764), or Copyright © 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 12 The State: Nuclear not the answer, critics say 07/19/2007 Efficiency, alternative sources better solutions to energy woes, say speakers at USC By SAMMY FRETWELL - sfretwell@thestate.com Cranking up more nuclear power plants won’t answer the country’s energy needs — and it’s a poor way to fight global warming, two nuclear power critics said Wednesday during a stop in Columbia. A buildup of nuclear plants could cost taxpayers billions of dollars and create more high-level atomic waste, said environmentalist Brent Blackwelder and Robert Alvarez, a former U.S. Energy Department official. Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth, said the U.S. already has enough trouble disposing of the highly toxic waste generated at nuclear plants. He and Alvarez traveled from Washington to speak at USC as the debate over global warming heats up. “The idea that this somehow might be a clean solution to global warming’’ is a misconception, Blackwelder said of nuclear energy. “They’re going to have insurmountable problems with the waste. If you can’t handle it now, how can you possibly launch forward like this?’’ It’s quicker to launch energy efficiency programs and develop alternative energy sources than to try to build a nuclear power plant, which can take years to receive environmental approvals, he told about 75 people at a forum at USC’s Learning Center for Sustainable Futures. With pollution from coal-fired power plants a major contributor to global climate change, utilities such as SCE&G and Duke Energy are studying whether to build more nuclear plants. The South Carolina-owned Santee Cooper power company has been criticized heavily for attempting to build a new coal-burning plant in Florence County. Coal’s impact on climate change has prompted some environmentalists to say they’ll listen to arguments in favor of nuclear power. But Blackwelder said South Carolina and other states could learn from aggressive efficiency programs that have made a difference in California. California residents use only about half the electricity per person, on average, that other Americans do, he said. Switching from a traditional light bulb to a compact fluorescent bulb can cut 70 percent of the electricity needed for the light, he said. Utility company spokespeople say they’re trying to be more efficient and find alternative energy sources, but it’s hard to realize enough energy savings to offset the country’s growing power demands. “Absolutely these things help, but they won’t get us where we need to go,’’ said Theresa Pugh, director of environmental services for the American Public Power Association. Nuclear, coal and hydro-power are the only proven sources to supply major amounts of electricity, some industry officials say. Alvarez, a former senior Energy Department official, said the agency is wrongly pushing a plan to recycle used fuel to serve existing commercial nuclear reactors and new ones that would be built. The program will produce dangerous amounts of radioactive cesium and strontium and cost as much as $500 billion, said Alvarez, who authored a study on reprocessing earlier this year. Two sites near Aiken and Barnwell are under consideration for a nuclear recycling plant. “This shouldn’t (use) a penny of taxpayer dollars,’’ said Alvarez, who assessed the recycling program in a report earlier this year. The U.S. Department of Energy said in a statement Wednesday that the recycling program will help meet the world’s demand for energy and reduce nuclear proliferation threats. Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537. ***************************************************************** 13 AFP: Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant closed for year - Thursday July 19, 04:31 PM TOKYO (AFP) - Japan plans to keep its largest nuclear plant closed for at least a year amid a nationwide scare after it leaked radioactive water following an earthquake, a newspaper said Thursday. Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the sprawling Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant northwest of the Japanese capital, has already asked other companies to pitch in to meet the metropolis's electricity needs in peak summer months. The Nikkei business daily said the government planned to keep the nuclear plant -- the largest in the world -- closed for at least a year pending a company review of earthquake safety. If the study concludes that the facility needs reinforcement, the plant "could be offline for substantially more than a year," said the newspaper, which did not specify its sources. Both the industry ministry and the mayor of the quake-hit city of Kashiwazaki have ordered the nuclear facility to stay shut indefinitely. Tokyo Electric has insisted that Monday's 6.8 Richter-scale earthquake -- which killed 10 people, injured more than 1,000 more and destroyed hundreds of homes -- did not cause any dangerous nuclear leaks. But it has faced a storm of criticism over its reporting of the incident. It admitted underreporting both the radioactivity of a small amount of leaked water and the number of barrels of contaminated clothing that tipped over inside the facility. The best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun in an editorial Thursday supported nuclear power but said that reactors needed to be reinforced to withstand stronger earthquakes. If no action is taken, "it would only allow anxiety over the safety over nuclear power stations to prevail among the public," the daily said. Japan experiences 20 percent of the planet's major earthquakes but has increasingly turned to nuclear power as it has virtually no natural energy resources on its own to run the world's second largest economy. Senior industry ministry official Akira Fukushima acknowledged Wednesday that Japan, which relies on nuclear energy for a third of its needs, would not shut the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant forever. Save to MyWebEmail storyPrintable view ***************************************************************** 14 Free Press: The earthquake that screamed "NO NUKES!!!" Independent News Media - Harvey Wasserman July 19, 2007 The massive earthquake that shook Japan this week nearly killed millions in a nuclear apocalypse. It also produced one of the most terrifying sentences ever buried in a newspaper. As reported deep in the New York Times, the Tokyo Electric Company has admitted that "the force of the shaking caused by the earthquake had exceeded the design limits of the reactors, suggesting that the plant's builders had underestimated the strength of possible earthquakes in the region." There are 55 reactors in Japan. Virtually all of them are on or near major earthquake faults. Kashiwazaki alone hosts seven, four of which were forced into the dangerous SCRAM mode to narrowly avoid meltdowns. At least 50 separate serious problems have been so far identified, including fire and the spillage of barrels filled with radioactive wastes. There are four active reactors in California on or near major earthquake faults, as are the two at Indian Point north of New York City. On January 31, 1986, an earthquake struck the Perry reactor east of Cleveland, knocking out roads and bridges, as well as pipes within the plant, which (thankfully) was not operating at the time. The governor of Ohio, then Richard Celeste, sued to keep Perry shut, but lost in federal court. The fault that hit Perry is an off-shoot of the powerful New Madrid line that runs through the Mississippi River Valley, threatening numerous reactors. The Beyond Nuclear Project reports that in August, 2004, a quake hit the Dresden reactor in Illinois, resulting in a leak of radioactive tritium. Nevada's Yucca Mountain, slated as the nation's high-level radioactive waste dump, has a visible fault line running through it. More than 400 atomic reactors are on-line worldwide. How many are vulnerable to seismic shocks we can only shudder to guess. But one-eighth of them sit in one of the world's richest, most technologically advanced, most densely populated industrial nations, which has now admitted its reactor designs cannot match the power of an earthquake that has just happened. In whatever language it's said, that translates into the unmistakable warning that the world's atomic reactors constitute a multiple, ticking seismic time bomb. Talk of building more can only be classified as suicidal irresponsibility. Tokyo Electric's behavior since the quake defines the industry's credibility. For three consecutive days (with more undoubtedly to come) the utility has been forced to issue public apologies for erroneous statements about the severity of the damage done to the reactors, the size and lethality of radioactive spills into the air and water, the on-going danger to the public, and much more. Once again, the only thing reactor owners can be trusted to do is to lie. Prior to the March 28, 1979 disaster at Three Mile Island, the industry for years assured the public that the kind of accident that did happen was "impossible." Then the utility repeatedly assured the public there had been no melt-down of fuel and no danger of further catastrophe. Nine years later a robotic camera showed that nearly all the fuel had melted, and that avoiding a full-blown catastrophe was little short of a miracle. The industry continues to say no one was killed at TMI. But it does not know how much radiation was released, where it went or who it might have harmed. Since 1979 its allies in the courts have denied 2400 central Pennsylvania families the right to test their belief that they and their loved ones have been killed and maimed en masse. Prior to its April 26, 1986, explosion, Soviet Life Magazine ran a major feature extolling the virtually "accident-proof design" of Chernobyl Unit Four. Then the former Soviet Union of Mikhail Gorbachev kept secret the gargantuan radiation releases that have killed thousands and yielded a horrific plague of cancers, leukemia, birth defects and more throughout the region, and among the more than 800,000 drafted "jumpers" who were forced to run through the plant to clean it up. Since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the industry has claimed its reactors can withstand the effects of a jet crash, and are immune to sabotage. The claims are as patently absurd as the lies about TMI and Chernobyl. So, too, the endless, dogged assurances from Japan that no earthquake could do to Kashiwazaki what has just happened. Yet today and into the future, expensive ads will flood the US and global airwaves, full of nonsense about the "need" for new nukes. There is only one thing we know for certain about this advertising: it is a lie. Atomic reactors contribute to global warming rather than abating it. In construction, in the mining, milling and enriching of the fuel, in on-going "normal" releases of heat and radioactivity, in dismantling and decommissioning, in managing radioactive wastes, in future terror attacks, in proliferation of nuke weapons, and much much more, atomic energy is an unmitigated eco-disaster. To this list we must now add additional tangible evidence that reactors allegedly built to withstand "worst case" earthquakes in fact cannot. And when they go down, the investment is lost, and power shortages arise (as is now happening in Japan) that are filled by the burning of fossil fuels. It costs up to ten times as much to produce energy from a nuke as to save it with efficiency. Advances in wind, solar and other green "Solartopian" technologies mean atomic energy simply cannot compete without massive subsidies, loan guarantees and government insurance to protect it from catastrophes to come. This latest "impossible" earthquake has not merely shattered the alleged safeguards of Japan's reactor fleet. It has blown apart---yet again---any possible argument for building more reactors anywhere on this beleaguered Earth. -- Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, A.D. 2030, is at http://www.solartopia.org/. He is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and senior editor of http://www.freepress.org/, where this piece originally appeared. In 1975 he spoke near the Kashiwazaki complex, urging its shut down. All content © 1970-2007 The Columbus Free Press ***************************************************************** 15 AU ABC: Uncertainty surrounds Indonesia's nuclear plans - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Posted July 20, 2007 07:04:00 There are conflicting messages coming from Indonesia on plans to build a nuclear power plant. Indonesia's Vice-President Jusuf Kalla says Indonesia has no immediate plans to turn to nuclear power to fuel its hopes for economic growth. He says there have been discussions with scientists, but no mention of a date as to when a plant could be developed However, Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantor says Indonesia is determined to build a nuclear power plant in Central Java by 2017. Tags: world-politics, nuclear-energy, indonesia AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of UTC (Greenwich Mean Time) ***************************************************************** 16 AU ABC: Govt pushes for US nuke deal - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Updated July 20, 2007 10:30:00 A leaked letter suggests the Federal Government is pursuing a nuclear power with the US. (File photo) (Reuters: Michael Dalder) Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has confirmed plans within the Federal Government to push for a nuclear energy cooperation plan with the United States. Mr Downer confirmed Australia is considering working with the United States on the global nuclear energy partnership after a draft letter from him and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane to Prime Minister was leaked to AM. The unsigned letter seeks approval for discussions to begin on the new joint plan aimed at restricting the number of countries able to process uranium and flags cooperation with nuclear organisations Australia is seeking to join including the Generation IV International Forum. Mr Downer says it is too early to say if that would mean joining the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, but he says it is a real possibility. "Not for a moment would I rule that out it's a real possibility, that we could build a relationship with the Americans under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, but their work on that isn't even finished yet," he said. "Both Ian Macfarlane and I think it makes good sense to get into negotiations. "Where those negotiations would lead and what sort of agreement we would conclude at the end, I don't know, but I have no problems with it." Concerns Anti-nuclear campaigners are taking the letter as further evidence that Australia is moving towards a nuclear industry. Among them are the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), the Wilderness Society and Greenpeace. ACF nuclear campaigner David Noonan warns such a move could have far reaching effects for the security of the Asia Pacific region. "To join President Bush in promoting and pushing global nuclear energy could lead to a destabilisation in our region," he said. "We would have to expect Indonesia to respond to Australia developing uranium enrichment, which fuels nuclear weapons. "We could be risking a nuclear arms race in our own region." The Wilderness Society's Alec Marr agrees. "This bloke is really taking Australia down an extraordinarily dangerous path which is bad for the world," he said. "If we get an international nuclear waste dump, many generations of future generations are going to have to sit there and ponder how they are going to deal with the most toxic substance known to man." Nuclear physicist Professor Leslie Kemeny says the letter could lead to the expansion of Australia's nuclear role "It could give us the possibility of constructing nuclear power stations with the right sort of joint venture partners, they could well be United States," she said. "In turn we might be asked to go beyond mining uranium and exporting the yellow cake and letting other people make the fuel." Tags: environment, nuclear-issues, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia, united-states © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 17 New York Times: Japan Nuclear-Site Damage Worse Than Reported - Kyodo, via Reuters Tsunehisa Katsumata, second from right, the president of Tokyo Electric Power, bowed in apology to Hiroshi Aida, left, the mayor of Kashiwazaki, for errors in reporting quake damage at a nuclear plant. By MARTIN FACKLER Published: July 19, 2007 KASHIWAZAKI, Japan, July 18 — The Japanese operator of a nuclear power plant stricken by an earthquake earlier this week said Wednesday that damage was worse than previously reported and that a leak of water was 50 percent more radioactive than initially announced. For the third time in three days, Tokyo Electric Power apologized for delays and errors in announcing the extent of damage at the plant in this northwestern coastal city, which was struck Monday by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake. The company also said that tremors had tipped over “several hundred” barrels of radioactive waste, not 100 as it reported Tuesday, and that the lids had opened on “a few dozen” of those barrels. Tokyo Electric said it had found some 50 problems at the plant caused by the earthquake, including loose exhaust ducts and damaged pipes. In a statement, the company said it had miscalculated the level of radioactivity of the leaked water, 317 gallons of which flowed into the Sea of Japan. However, it said the water’s level of radioactivity was still far too low to harm the environment. Television scenes showed Tokyo Electric’s president, Tsunehisa Katsumata, bowing low in apology during a visit to the area on Wednesday. “We will start an investigation from the ground up,” he pledged. The company’s slow pace in revealing the plant’s problems has brought criticism from Japanese all the way up to the prime minister and fed public fears about the safety of nuclear power. On Wednesday, the mayor of Kashiwazaki, Hiroshi Aida, chimed in, ordering the plant to stop operations until safety could be ensured. The troubles at the plant raise questions about nuclear power at a time when resource-poor Japan must compete for oil and gas with hungry neighbors like China and India. Japan has embraced nuclear power as an alternative to energy imports from the Middle East, but revelations that Monday’s earthquake exceeded the Kashiwazaki plant’s design limits raised concerns about reactor safety in this earthquake-prone country. Also on Wednesday, the death toll from the earthquake rose to 10 after the body of a 76-year-old man was found near a collapsed Buddhist temple. City officials said they did not expect the count to rise much higher, as most of the city’s 93,500 residents had been accounted for. City officials said some 9,000 people remained in refugee shelters, though many are expected to return to their homes after the city fully restores electricity on Wednesday. Water and natural gas supplies remain severed. On Wednesday, many of Kashiwazaki’s streets remained blocked by toppled houses, and major roads had buckled and cracked from the force of the earthquake. In the city’s center, entire rows of shops had collapsed, and a large karaoke entertainment center leaned precariously over a street. The owner of a photography shop, Akio Yoshino, 53, said the earthquake had been strong enough to scatter heavy glass display shelves across his store like “pieces spilled from a chess board.” “If I had not been outside having a cigarette just at that moment, I’d be dead now,” he joked dryly, as his hands visibly shook. “Smoking saved my life.” The earthquake also made itself felt on Japan’s car industry. Toyota announced Wednesday that it would temporarily halt production at domestic plants later this week because the earthquake had destroyed the Kashiwazaki factory of Riken Corporation, a supplier of piston rings. More Articles in International » Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 18 The Hindu: Nuclear deal matter of time, says U.S. Friday, Jul 20, 2007 Washington: As top officials of India and the U.S. held hectic meetings to end the logjam in talks on the civil nuclear deal, Washington on Thursday said both sides were committed to reach the agreement and it was just a matter of time. “Certainly, there’s no time like the present to reach a deal,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters here as National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan prepared to meet Vice President Dick Cheney to discuss the nuclear issue. “We (the two sides) had some preliminary discussions yesterday. There are going to be some more discussions with (Under Secretary of State) Nick Burns and (Assistant Secretary of State) Richard Boucher. So we’ll see,” McCormack said, adding after these parleys “we’ll have a better idea” as to “where we are.” Asked to comment on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assertion that the talks on 123 agreement, which will operationalise the civil nuclear deal, were in the “last leg”, the spokesman said, “well, we hope that’s in fact the case.” He said U.S. has expressed its commitment and desire to reach an agreement “and we’re sure that the Indian government wants to reach an agreement. The question is a matter of timing ”. Continuing discussions Another State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the two sides “had a good meeting. They are continuing the discussions.” The remarks came as Narayanan, accompanied by Foreign Secretary, Shivshankar Menon, held detailed talks with U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, to push negotiations that have failed to yield any result due to differences on reprocessing and India’s right to conduct nuclear test. — PTI Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 19 Daily Yomiuri: IAEA warned TEPCO in 2005 The nuclear power plant where a radiation leak and transformer fire occurred after the earthquake was told two years ago by the International Atomic Energy Agency that it lacked fire prevention measures, it was learned Wednesday. Even though Tokyo Electric Power Co. reviewed the measures after the IAEA's evaluation that was issued in 2005, the fact that it took two hours to extinguish the fire suggests efforts to improve circumstances were insufficient. The IAEA sent a team of experts to TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in November 2004. The 16-member team examined the safety management system and interviewed the employees. A report of the examination released in June 2005 criticized the fire control measures, saying: * There was no section in charge of fire prevention measures. * Some members of the volunteer firefighters group at the power plant were not trained, and other members are not engaged in periodic safety patrols. * A fire control committee has not met for two years. The report urged TEPCO to strengthen the fire control system and improve the quality of fire drills. After the report, TEPCO held a joint fire drill with the local fire station and appointed an official in charge of fire prevention. The IAEA acknowledged that the problems were solved by the time it reexamined the power plant in May last year, the company said. Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 20 deseret news: Utah is stepping closer to nuclear plant Thursday, July 19, 2007 By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News A legislative interim committee voted unanimously Wednesday to proceed with legislation that could facilitate construction of nuclear power plants in Utah. The Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee hopes to have such a bill drafted for the 2008 session of the Legislature. Christopher R. Parker, staff member working with the committee, outlined a Florida law designed to help build nuclear power plants. It allows a utility to recoup its costs in constructing a nuclear power plant even if it never produces a megawatt of electricity. Florida and eight other states have such laws. Vanessa Pierce, director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, told the group that nuclear power would not be as inexpensive as some think. When construction of a nuclear reactor is figured, the cost of power jumps to close to 6 cents a kilowatt-hour, she said. That's more expensive than electricity generated by coal or natural gas, Pierce added. Under the Florida law, if a plant isn't completed, the project could "leave taxpayers holding the bag," she said. "This is a very complex issue. The impacts are quite profound for a state that has had such an embittered fight against nuclear waste," said Pierce. Rep. Michael E. Noel, R-Kanab, asked her whether Utahns are opposed to storing high-level nuclear waste generated in this state. "Just as we have opposed other states sending their waste to Utah and using Utah as a dumping ground for their waste..., we do not think it is responsible nor prudent for us to dump our waste on any other state," Pierce replied. Also, HEAL does not believe the proposed Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada will be ready to receive high-level nuclear waste anytime soon. The Nevada site has been slowed by environmental opposition. She said all members of the Utah congressional delegation have said the waste should be stored in hardened casks where it is generated, for the next 100 or 200 years, while waiting for long-term repositories to become available. Noel said Utah may be in competition with other states concerning nuclear power; if so, the state should encourage its development. "Many Western countries rely almost totally on nuclear power," and India and China are moving up in that category, he added. Noel quoted a Greenpeace official as supporting nuclear power. "Utah has the potential to produce nuclear power," Noel said. "We have the uranium," with sources available not only in the Beehive state but also neighboring Arizona. "The State Energy Policy does provide for the review of the development of nuclear energy, which I think is very prudent that we do," said Rep. Roger Barrus, R-Centerville. The policy, adopted by the Legislature, intends that Utah should explore that form of power generation, he said. Rep. Janice M. Fisher, D-West Valley City, said legislators should hear from groups like HEAL so that any bill produced "basically has the blessing of everyone that's involved." Rep. Steven Mascaro, R-West Jordan, moved that the committee proceed with legislation concerning generation of nuclear power in Utah. The committee approved the motion unanimously. E-mail: bau@desnews.com © 2007 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 21 Charlotte Observer: Clean energy bill has a catch 07/19/2007 | Provisions make it easier to finance new power plants CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK ckirkpatrick@charlotteobserver.com Legislation to force N.C. power companies to be greener would also make it easier for them to build power plants that would pollute, environmentalists and some lawmakers say. The complex proposal requires Duke Energy Corp. and other power companies to produce 12.5 percent of electricity from energy efficiency programs and renewable sources, such as the wind, the sun and animal waste. Environmentalists have fought for clean energy requirements for years, increasingly popular around the country. But some say this bill is little comfort because it has several corporate-sponsored provisions, including ones that make it easier to finance new power plants and pass those costs on to consumers. "This is a bill that was supposed to be about renewable energy," said Gudrun Thompson, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill. "It's ironic, and it's really been at the behest of the utilities." The legislation easily passed the N.C. Senate earlier this month. It's being debated in the House Committee on Energy and Energy Efficiency, where it has been held up over concerns about the financial risk to ratepayers. Rep. Pricey Harrison, the chairwoman and a Guilford County Democrat, delayed the committee vote because she wants independent experts to testify. The bill sets up a classic legislative battle pitting consumer advocates and environmentalists against corporate interests. It's also framed by larger concerns over how to battle global warming, meet skyrocketing power demand in the region and protect consumers. At least 21 states and Washington, D.C., have renewable energy requirements. The proposed 12.5 percent goal lags those of other states, such as Florida, that are shooting for 20 percent. Under the proposed N.C. legislation, the cost of renewable energy and energy efficiency programs would be passed on to consumers. Renewable energy can cost more to produce than power from coal-fired and plants that run on other fossil fuels. Some environmentalists say their original intent to require renewable energy production from utilities has been tainted. Duke and other utilities, eager to build new multibillion-dollar power plants with as little financial risk as possible, have successfully attached their own provisions to the proposed legislation. At issue are several provisions that would allow utilities to pass the costs of failed projects to consumers, making it easier for Duke to attract Wall Street investment and financing for new plant projects. Some consumer advocates and environmentalists say new coal and nuclear projects are onerous. Coal-fired plants emit carbon dioxide, blamed as a cause of global warming, and nuclear plants have radioactive waste that has to be stored and have been financially risky. Another provision in the proposed legislation would let utilities pass on the financing costs of building new plants while they are still under construction. Current law allows the costs of new plant construction to be passed along only after a plant is operating or if a utility can demonstrate financial distress. Duke spokeswoman Paige Sheehan praised the bill. She said the only added cost for consumers would come from meeting the renewable energy requirement. The region needs reliable power production to meet growing demand in the Charlotte region, she said. The company is also planning to build a $2.4 billion coal-fired power unit at its Cliffside facility about 55 west of Charlotte. It also has plans to build two new nuclear reactors in Cherokee County, S.C. Duke chief executive Jim Rogers said that without the provision to pass on financing costs for the planned $6 billion project, Duke will not move ahead with the nuclear plant. Bill Could Cost Customers Under pending legislation, Duke Energy and other utilities would be required to produce one-eighth of electricity through energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. On residential accounts, the companies could charge an extra $10 a year from 2008 to 2010, $12 a year from 2012 to 2014, and $34 a year after that. Commercial rates for the same time periods would be $50, $150 and $150. Industrial rates would be $500, $1,000 and $1,000. ***************************************************************** 22 IndianExpress.com: India's n-fuel storage gets US OK NUCLEAR DEAL Pranab Dhal Samanta Posted online: Friday, July 20, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email Talks: Both sides work on future pact on reprocessing; Indian team meets Cheney NEW DELHI, JULY 19: India and the US have moved closer on firming up their civil nuclear bilateral cooperation agreement with Washington accepting India’s proposal for a dedicated facility to store spent fuel and coming up with “forward-looking suggestions” to break the impasse on reprocessing rights. No weed in our wheat, says US Embassy ‘Major US firms ready to lobby for N-deal’Indo-US defence support agreement in final stageUS criticise India’s wheat import rules as ‘unrealistic’ Key players in Washington next week to seal N-deal Rad Links This acceptance — that came up in talks between National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and his US counterpart Steve Hadley yesterday — is being translated into text in the technical discussions that were underway today between Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns. The text is likely to spell out an in-principle OK to reprocessing and lay down terms for a future agreement. After these talks, Narayanan and Menon met US Vice-President Dick Cheney for half an hour. The key challenge for both sides is to bridge the divide on how to interpret the consent on reprocessing that would be enshrined in the agreement. For this reason, the technical talks are important. In fact, it was on this count that the Menon-Burns talks held here in early June failed to achieve a breakthrough. Washington had indicated that it was ready to allow India reprocess the spent fuel but interpreted it as something that would be discussed in the future when the need arises once India would have stored enough spent fuel on the civilian side to reprocess. India, on the other hand, read it as permanent consent. On the last day of talks, this gap over interpretation proved a difficult one to bridge. Since then, New Delhi has told Washington that both sides must speak the same language and project the same interpretation to their respective domestic constituencies. India wants to avoid a situation where any statement by the Prime Minister to Parliament contradicts what the Bush administration may convey to the US Congress. Given that the US has now tabled fresh ideas on reprocessing against this backdrop, the hope is that both sides have covered a significant distance. But sources indicated that neither side is likely to announce completion of agreement without informally getting a sense of whether the final text will be broadly acceptable to the domestic constituency. © 2007: Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 23 CANOE: Canada: Councils take free jet ride and lobsters, then endorse nuclear plants July 18, 2007 By JIM MACDONALD EDMONTON (CP) - Rumblings of protest are rippling through northern Alberta since two municipal councils wrote much-needed letters of support for nuclear power projects after taking a "junket" to New Brunswick on a private jet and returning with complimentary lobsters. Two mayors and 14 councillors took the trip as guests of Energy Alberta Corp., a newly formed company that has locked arms with Atomic Energy of Canada in hopes of getting the required approvals to build two nuclear power plants in northwestern Alberta. "Energy Alberta requested that we would write a support letter from the municipality," said Woodlands County Mayor Jim Rennie. "That is one of the requirements of the federal application is our understanding." The two-day trip included a tour of the Point LePreau nuclear power plant. Energy Alberta paid for the lobsters that were given to the mayors and councillors. Rennie said he viewed the trip as a fact-finding mission. "We're in competition with another community to receive this project and we need to open the doors so at least we get an opportunity," the mayor said in an interview. "If we don't have the letter of support in there, that opportunity won't even happen." "I totally think that it was in our taxpayers' best interests to save them money." Soon after the trip, the councils in Woodlands County and the town of Whitecourt wrote qualified letters of endorsement for the nuclear project. Energy Alberta says the council in Peace River and a half-dozen other northern communities have also written similar letters. "Council has taken the time to study and evaluate all aspects of the proposed development," says the letter signed by Rennie. "After listening to feedback from local residents, council has decided to support the proposal submitted by Energy Alberta Corporation." An Energy Alberta spokesman confirmed this week that the company requested the letters and even discussed their content with the elected councils. "To build something of this scope, you need to make sure that you have something in writing from wherever it is that you're potentially going to build it that says, 'Yes, we are interested,' " said Guy Huntingford, who described the trip as "an educational junket." "I mean they have to support the proposal," Huntingford said in an interview. "I don't think that there's anything untoward about any of that." Since there's never been a nuclear power plant in Alberta, Huntingford said it was important for the civic leaders to get "a frame of reference" from a community that already has a reactor. But this week, 55 of Woodlands County's 4,000 residents signed a letter of concern that was presented to the council asking pointed questions about why the endorsement letter was issued so quickly. Many of those people lined up at microphones at Tuesday's council meeting to ask about the trip, the letter and why the mayor was saying council had taken the time to study and evaluate the project after touring only one nuclear plant. "This is not a doughnut shop they want to build," said Bernard Krohn, who speaks for the group. "The main point is that many residents were not happy with the process." "It was premature to send out a letter of support," said Krohn, who added there are others in the community who are also saying, "What's going on here and why are we jumping the gun?" The three-page protest letter points out that the type of Candu reactor being proposed has never been built or licensed in Canada or elsewhere in the world and would require a huge artificial lake to provide water for cooling. The letter also says local residents were not widely consulted, as was suggested in the letter signed by Rennie on behalf of Woodlands County. Krohn said he tried to voice his concerns at the July 3 Woodlands council meeting when the endorsement letter was approved, but was told the agenda had been set and he wouldn't be given time to speak. "I'm not trying to make allegations. I would like to work with these people. Everybody can make his own conclusion." Krohn said the concerned residents are expecting some answers to their questions at the next council meeting in a few weeks. But the mayor said some of the questions may take months or even years to answer. "We're trying to get that information, but I don't know about the time frame." ***************************************************************** 24 BBC NEWS: Power cut fears after Japan quake Last Updated: Thursday, 19 July 2007, 12:11 GMT 13:11 UK The Kashiwazaki nuclear power could be closed for a year There are fears of power shortages in Tokyo, as the scale of the earthquake damage to the country's biggest nuclear power station becomes clear. The government reportedly wants the Kashiwazaki plant to stay closed for more than a year for safety checks. Kashiwazaki contributes about 12% of the Tokyo Electric Power Company's supplies to the capital. Tepco is considering restarting six mothballed thermal power plants to meet demand over the summer. The company has also asked six other Japanese power companies to sell it emergency electricity until the end of September. "We are working hard to prevent the worse case scenario, an energy shortage," Shogo Fukuda, Tepco spokesman, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. "We would also call on our customers to redouble their energy-saving efforts." Tepco did not say when Kashiwazaki might re-open. The safety checks alone are expected to take until the end of August. But the Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday that the government could order the plant to be closed for as long as a year. Impact on automakers On Wednesday, Tepco admitted that 50% more radiation was discharged into the sea than had initially been reported, although this remains well below danger levels. Japanese voice safety fears Why japan has many reactors The reported number of barrels containing low-level nuclear waste that tipped over at the plant was increased from 100 to 400, with the lids knocked off 40 of them. The malfunctions and the subsequent revelation that a fault line could stretch directly under the plant have triggered renewed concern in Japan about the safety of its nuclear industry. Most nuclear power stations in Japan are built to similar specifications as the plant in Niigata, says the BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo. There are fears that they too could be damaged if they were hit by an earthquake of similar intensity. A minister has asked power companies to check as soon as possible whether all their nuclear facilities can withstand strong tremors, but the power companies have told them that could take three years, our correspondent adds. Monday's earthquake left 10 people dead. Hundreds more were injured and scores of homes have been flattened. The earthquake has also affected Japan's automakers. The temporary closure of a factory in Kashiwazaki belonging to key supplier Riken Corp - a maker of transmission and engine parts - will force top manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan to scale back production. Toyota is to stop production lines at its plants in Aichi on Thursday and Friday, and review the situation on Monday, the Associated Press news agency quoted a spokesman as saying. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 25 NEWS.com.au: Australia considering nuclear alliance | NEWS.com.au Network July 20, 2007 01:11am Article from: AAP AUSTRALIA is considering whether to join an American-led group of nations to control the distribution, reprocessing and storage of nuclear fuel worldwide. The ministers for foreign affairs and resources have urged Prime Minister John Howard to announce the joint nuclear energy plan during the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation visit in Sydney in September, Fairfax reports. “The proposed action plan would help to open the way for valuable nuclear energy co-operation with the US,” the briefing note says. “It would also be consistent with the Government's strategy for the nuclear industry in Australia. “An action plan on nuclear energy would also have bilateral advantages further broadening our relationship with the US. “While the US has not raised the possibility, the action plan may be a possible 'announceable' for President Bush's visit in September.” However, the proposal appears to stop shot of recommending Australia sign up with the controversial Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). Mr Bush says the partnership, which involves the main nuclear-fuel cycle countries, Russia, the US, France, China and Japan, is central to the world tackling climate change. A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer confirmed discussions on an agreement focusing on research and development of nuclear technology and safeguards were underway. He said no decision had been made about Australia joining the broader GNEP. Copyright 2007 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT +10). ***************************************************************** 26 POAC: Oyster Creek: N-plant admits to tiny radiation release Friday, July 20, 2007 By HEATHER PHARO Staff Writer, (609) 978-2014 Published: Thursday, July 19, 2007 LACEY TOWNSHIP — A spokeswoman for the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station has confirmed that a harmless amount of radiation was released following Tuesday morning’s shutdown of the plant. The plant was shut down automatically after an electrical fault caused a motor on one of the station’s three feedwater pumps to fail at 5:22 a.m. Tuesday. The shutdown triggered the release of steam to maintain pressure inside the reactor. That steam contained tritium, characterized by plant spokeswoman Leslie Cifelli as “a weak radioisotope found naturally in the environment and also produced in commercial reactors.” The steam was condensate water, not reactor water, Cifelli said Wednesday. The amount of tritium released would cause “basically zero” impact on surrounding wildlife and area residents, as well as plant workers. In a statement released Wednesday, plant officials said it had about half the radiological exposure rate of living with a household smoke detector. About 1 curie of tritium was released during the shutdown, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He also characterized the effect as half that received from a smoke detector in a year. “It’s not reportable by state limits or federal limits,” Cifelli said. “It’s just within our own procedures to report any kind of release.” An acrid smell of insulation tipped off operators to the electrical fault. Cifelli said she couldn’t give any indication as to when the plant would be back online. The Associated Press contributed to this report. HPharo@pressofac.com © Copyright 1970- The Press of Atlantic City ***************************************************************** 27 earth times: Restoration of trust in Vattenfall 'will take time' - chairman Posted : Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:04:00 GMT Stockholm - The board chairman of Swedish energy group Vattenfall said Thursday it would "take time" to restore the group's image in Germany that has been tarnished after recent incidents at two nuclear power plants. Vattenfall did not plan to fire more top executives in its German subsidiary Vattenfall Europe but would rather recruit new executives in order to conduct a "restart," Dag Klackenberg said on Swedish public broadcaster SVT's breakfast show. The head of Vattenfall Europe, Klaus Rauscher, resigned Wednesday. Earlier this week, Bruno Thomauske, the head of its German nuclear power division, was dismissed over being too secretive about a fire at one of the plants near Hamburg. "It was a big information miss," Klackenberg said, saying that Vattenfall Europe's management reacted too slowly in releasing information about the incidents. Klackenberg said he and Vattenfall chief executive Lars G Josefsson had sensed how confidence in Vattenfall had slipped among the public and politicians in Germany since "they believed we were hiding something, which we were not." "This is self-inflicted, stupid and we have to start afresh," Klackenberg said. Klackenberg said Vattenfall aimed to speed up its information flow "even if very little had happened" and to properly implement its policy "that employees who had witnessed something like a fire in a transformer" should be made available for media. Klackenberg said he "did not know" why Vattenfall had also failed in presenting its recent price hikes that has also generated criticism. "The price hike and information misses" combined had impacted trust in Vattenfall "and it would take a long time to restore it," he said. Copyright © 2007 Respective Author (c) 2007 Earthtimes.org, All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 SanLuisObispo.com: Diablo may cut hundreds of positions 07/19/2007 | Nuclear plant owner Pacific Gas and Electric Co. says it will reduce staffing to improve efficiency; exact numbers, jobs and dates to be determined By David Sneed dsneed@thetribunenews.com Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant will shed possibly hundreds of workers in the next two to three years as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. brings the facility in line with industry staffing levels. Exact numbers, job descriptions and dates of the staff reduction have not been determined. But the utility has told its Diablo Canyon employees it will begin this quarter to identify jobs to cut, with the cuts beginning in the fourth quarter of this year. Plant spokesman Pete Resler said Wednesday the employees were told PG&E is reducing the facility’s work force to achieve greater efficiency. Diablo Canyon has more than 1,400 employees, compared with about 1,000 at other large, two-reactor plants nationwide. In another measure of efficiency, Diablo Canyon’s production cost is 1.53 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with a range of 1.01 to 1.23 cents for the more efficient plants, Resler said. He added that the cost of operating in California is higher than the rest of the nation. But he was unable to provide specific numbers Wednesday. “That’s a pretty big gap,” he said, adding that the cuts to come this year are “the first step in a long process.” The staff reduction will be achieved through layoffs and attrition from retiring employees. The utility plans to have its initial efficiency analysis completed by the end of September. Resler said the utility is determined to maintain its high level of safety. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Diablo Canyon high safety ratings at a recent assessment, and the plant has earned a reputation as one of the safest in the nation during its more than 20 years of operation. “Highly efficient plants are also the most safe,” Resler said. In the past, he added, Diablo Canyon has often resolved issues by throwing people at them. But “more people doesn’t mean more safety,’’ he said. Nevertheless, the announcement prompted concerns about the plant’s safety and security from the watchdog group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace. “The Mothers for Peace would hope that PG&E will not lay off personnel responsible for reducing human or mechanical error in this aging plant that has an increasing number of failing components,” said Jane Swanson, the group’s spokeswoman. “We will be interested in more information as PG&E reveals its plans.” Resler said plant managers will look at how the plant operates, with an eye for locating unnecessary procedures and eliminating duplications of effort. Workers often complain that it’s hard to get any work done, he said, because of the elaborate briefings and other procedures. Calls for reaction from union officials at the plant were not returned Wednesday evening. To help with the task, managers and employees are examining how highly efficient plants structure their work forces. Resler cited the Braid-wood nuclear plant in Illinois and the Limerick station in Pennsylvania as industry models of efficiency. These plants went through similar efficiency re-evaluations in recent years. Although Diablo Canyon has about 400 more workers than comparable plants, Resler indicated the staff cuts may not reach that level. The plant needs larger security and land management staffs than average plants, he said, because of the more than 10,000 acres and 14 miles of coastline that surround it. PG&E began a similar round of layoffs in May 1998,when the plant’s work force was trimmed nearly to current levels from about 1,700. Plant managers at the time cited energy deregulation as the main reason for the need for fewer workers. Reach David Sneed at 781-7930. ***************************************************************** 29 680News: Radiation hole needs to be fixed, critics say Thursday, July 19, 2007 - 08:37 AM By: 680News staff Toronto - Ontario Power Generation is being criticized for not fixing a hole in a radiation containment system at the Pickering generating station more than a month after it was detected. Both OPG and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission have confirmed the existence of the breach. But, they say the hole is not big enough to worry about radiation release and it will be plugged. © Rogers Communications Inc. TM Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. ***************************************************************** 30 APP.COM: Plant releases harmless amount of radioactive steam | Asbury Park Press Online Thursday, July 19, 2007 BY NICK CLUNN STAFF WRITER Post Comment LACEY — A harmless amount of radioactive steam was released from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant during Tuesday's shutdown, plant officials and federal regulators said Wednesday. The 1 curie of tritium vented through a stack equaled about half the dose given off in one year by a home smoke detector and did not threaten health or the environment, they said. Monitored releases of tritium, a normal byproduct of commercial nuclear power, are allowed at reactors in doses that do not endanger the public. Plant operator AmerGen Energy Co. was not compelled by law to disclose the release but did so citing company practice, according to a prepared statement from AmerGen officials. While the plant is running, steam is directed toward turbines, which spin to turn generators that create electricity. But that sequence does happen when the reactor is down, plant spokeswoman Leslie Cifelli said. Still, steam in the reactor needs to be released. Oyster Creek will remain closed until technicians replace a motor that caused Feed-water Pump C to fail and the plant to shut itself down at 5:22 a.m. Before starting the reactor, technicians also will perform other tasks that cannot be completed while the plant is running. AmerGen declined to release the date on which the plant might resume generating power for business reasons, which is a common practice in the industry. Though Oyster Creek produces the least amount of power among the 17 reactors owned by AmerGen's parent company, Illinois-based Exelon Corp., unplanned outages of this kind can reduce company earnings. Companies with plants out of commission during the summer also miss out on favorable pricing, the product of high consumer demand for electricity. Copyright © 2007 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Salt Lake Tribune: Legislators drafting law to make Utah nuclear power development easier The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 07/19/2007 08:24:51 AM MDT A legislative panel directed its staff lawyers Wednesday to begin drafting legislation to make it easier for nuclear power to be developed in Utah. The Legislature's Interim Public Utilities and Technology Committee said nuclear plants should be considered as part of the solution for growth in the state's energy demand even though the state's energy task force had not deemed nuclear a high priority. "We left it unsaid, is what we did," said Rep. Roger Barrus, a Centerville Republican and task force member. He noted that lawmakers had to deal with the subject delicately at the time because of the state's opposition to the Skull Valley high-level nuclear waste storage project. He added that supporting nuclear was "not politically appropriate at the time." Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, made a floor amendment last year that added nuclear development in the state's energy policy. He sparked discussion of the issue in the Legislature once again by asking staff to report on a Florida law to promote nuclear development. Currently, there are no electricity-producing reactors in the state. At Wednesday's meeting Utah energy providers added their voices in support of nuclear power during a discussion of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s decision to sign up for the Western Climate Initiative, an ambitious regional plan to cut the pollution blamed for climate change. The four representatives from Utah-based power providers agreed that the technology available to make pollution cuts is lagging far behind the goals outlined in the six-state agreement Utah's governor joined in May. The pact, led by California, would set up a system to measure and later reduce greenhouse gasses, including carbon dioxide, methane and other pollution tied to climate change. And, while some Utah businesses want guidance on adapting to a world in which those gasses are controlled, at least three of the companies attacked the Western Climate Initiative as wrongheaded and costly. "I'm questioning why does the state of Utah rush headlong into a program that has very uncertain and probably very high costs at the risk of extreme damage to the economy," said Kimball Rassmussen, president and chief executive officer for the Deseret Power Electric Cooperative. Rassmussen, a member of Huntsman's Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Climate Change, said his members support clean-environment efforts. But they see no technologies on the horizon to help them curb the greenhouse gas emissions that may soon be subjected to a carbon tax. Similar concerns were raised by Reed Searle, general manager of Intermountain Power Agency. IPA operates a 1,700 megawatt, two-unit power plant in Delta, Millard County, that sends about 80 percent of its electricity to California. He told lawmakers it's a bad idea to adopt any of California's climate-change programs, even though the need to deal with global warming "cannot be ignored by any utility." He said the state should instead support a national program, rather than a West-Coast initiative that is anti-coal. "Frankly, we don't comprehend how this can be dealt with on a regional basis," he said. All four power-company representatives said that nuclear energy needs to be part of any solution. Kyle L. Davis, manager of environmental policy and strategy for PacifiCorp, the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, urged lawmakers to focus on providing incentives for innovation in carbon-reducing technologies. Noting that his company does business in five of the six Western Climate Initiative states, he said a variety of strategies are needed to cope with the growth in energy demand at the same time greenhouse gasses are being cut. It will probably take a decade or more for new nuclear plants to come on line, so that means other low-carbon energy sources - including renewable-energy sources like wind power - need to be developed. He also said improved technology and a better regulatory climate for carbon capture should be a priority. "There is a lot of work that needs to be done today," said Davis. Lawmakers challenged Dianne Nielson, Huntsman's energy adviser, on why the state is "buying into" the idea that mankind is behind climate change and has the power to stop it. Nielson said, however, that the initiative is "not a vote on climate change" but a recognition that businesses and government are moving forward in addressing the issue. "If we are going to compete," she told the panel, "these are issues we ought to deal with." fahys@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 32 Climate Change Corporation: Nuclear power revisited – but is it really US energy supply’s white knight? Debate: Nuclear power: Not needed, not wanted Lisa Roner, North America Editor | Print | Send | 19 Jul 07 All Americans love a good comeback story, but there are serious concerns that “Nuclear Energy, Part II” will not effectively address energy supply problems in the US As the US begins to take a serious look at how to tackle climate change and its ongoing dependence on foreign oil, nuclear energy is capturing widespread attention for the first time in more than a generation. No new reactors have been ordered in the US since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 that turned the American public sour on the safety of nuclear power and no reactors have come online in the US since 1996. But before 2009, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) expects to receive 28 applications to build and operate 19 new reactors. The Bush push The Bush administration is pushing development of new nuclear plants and the refurbishment of existing ones. Such is the strong rhetoric and financial incentives, it is clear the White House believes nuclear energy is a viable and critical component of America’s energy future. The president says that while “there is no single solution to climate change” there “can be no solution without nuclear power”. Bush’s Nuclear Power 2010 initiative to reduce regulatory and other barriers to nuclear development, launched in 2002, provides matching funds for the early stages of new plant development – with a goal of plant deployments beginning in 2010. The administration’s proposed 2008 budget would expand the programme by doubling funding for the initiative to $114 million. In addition, the 2005 Energy Policy Act offers $13 billion in loan guarantees and tax credits to companies pursuing the first new nuclear reactors placed in service before 2021. And the race is on to be one of the first at the finish line to qualify for the subsidies. The NRC has already approved “early site” permits for new reactors at an Excelon site in Illinois and an Entergy site in Mississippi, giving the electricity providers the option of building there within the next 20 years. And early site permit applications by electric providers Dominion and Southern are pending. In addition, the NRC says it expects applications to be filed in 2007 by NRG Energy, Duke Energy, Progress Energy, Dominion and South Carolina Electric & Gas and to actually build and operate new reactors. International cooperation Bush is also touting his Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a proposal that includes not only incentives for new reactor and fuel recycling technologies in the US, but also to develop a controlled network of “supplier” nations. These are countries with advanced civilian nuclear energy programmes, such as France, Japan and Russia, that could provide fuel fabrication and waste reprocessing services to developing “user” nations worldwide. The plan, which Russia recently agreed to participate as a supplier in, would expand the availability of nuclear power worldwide by providing advanced nuclear technology, financing and development assistance to developing nations that abide by international rules. User nations would agree to use nuclear power only for civilian purposes and forego uranium enrichment and reprocessing that can lead to the development and possible dissemination of nuclear weapons. US negotiator Robert Joseph says there are more than a dozen countries interested in acquiring nuclear reactors and “now is the time to help shape their decisions in a way that advances our common interests”. GNEP calls for “small scale reactors” to be developed that are better suited to the smaller electricity grids of developing nations than the light water reactors that dominate today’s nuclear power industry. The aim is to develop reactors that would offer “long-life” fuel loads that might last the entire life of a reactor so that refuelling is not needed. Also incorporated would be monitoring protection against sabotage and other terrorist acts. Keystone conclusions With near-zero carbon emissions, nuclear power plants seem to offer a veritable “get out of jail free” card when it comes to global warming. But panellists participating in a recent report from the non-profit Keystone Center say a renewed focus on nuclear energy is not an easy answer to America’s difficult, carbon-filled energy woes. The Keystone report acknowledges that current US subsidies and incentives and looming carbon tax schemes will render future nuclear development economically feasible in a carbon constrained world. But to have a real impact on global climate change, development of nuclear power plants would have to expand at a rate equal to the industry’s peak development in the 1980s and maintain that rate for half a century, the group says. Leading climate change scientists who ascribe to the Pacala/Socolow “stabilisation wedge” theory estimate that seven to eight (some say as many as ten) “wedges” or one billion tonne reductions in carbon emissions by 2050 will be required to curtail worldwide global warming. For nuclear power to contribute one such wedge, according to the Keystone group, would require adding on average 14 new nuclear plants each year for the next 50 years and building 7.4 plants annually to replace those that will be retired. The US currently has 104 nuclear plants that provide 20% of the country’s electricity. And according to the Bush administration, the nation will need three additional plants each year beginning in 2015 just to maintain that percentage with the soaring demand for electricity. Safer than ever The “fact-finding” group of 27 panellists, that included environmental groups, academics, state regulators, electricity providers and consumer advocates, spent nearly a year assessing the future role of nuclear power in the US. In addition to its projections for capacity required to help reduce global warming, the Keystone group also concluded that nuclear power in the US is safer today than ever. The group stresses that disposal of spent by products from nuclear fuel should ultimately take place in geological repositories like the stalled Yucca Mountain site, a volcanic ridge line in Nye County, Nevada. But, it concludes spent fuel can safely be managed on nuclear plant sites in spent fuel pools or steel and concrete waste containers for extended periods of time. The group does caution, however, that storing the extra waste generated by the likely nuclear generation boom in the US will eventually require ten dumps the size of Yucca Mountain. According to Keystone, the small reactor technology proposed under the GNEP may not be practical or cost competitive. And the economics of its proposed fuel reprocessing technologies are not competitive with current “once through” fuel use and disposal approaches currently used by the industry, the group says. Dissenting opinions There is fairly widespread agreement among the Keystone report participants on its key assessments. Despite this, the Union of Concerned Scientists, a respected advocacy group started by faculty and students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, says the report understates the cost of expanding nuclear capacity and overstates the security and safety of nuclear plants. UCS’s board of directors vice chairman, Peter Bradford, participated on the panel. UCS says it believes that there are faster, safer and cheaper ways of meeting the nation’s energy needs and that nuclear power is not a solution for global warming. Thomas Cochran, director of the nuclear programme at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the US’s most powerful environmental advocacy groups, and a participant on the Keystone panel, agrees. He says nuclear power can at best contribute one-half of a “wedge” over the next 50 years and believes the “heavy lifting” of solving global warming will have to come from other industries, such as renewables. Members of the power generating industry, however, believe the US has the capacity to meet the one wedge challenge if it has the will. Ray Ganther, of the French-based energy conglomerate Areva that focuses heavily on nuclear power, says industrial capacity will rise to the occasion but it will require strong signals from eventual users of nuclear power to demonstrate that the market is real. James Rogers, chief executive of Duke Energy, a large US gas and electric power provider believes the country’s climate objectives will “trump how we think about cost structure going forward”. Climate, he says, is more important than the drawbacks of nuclear. Is this really a climate debate or an energy security debate? Anything but coal Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, agrees and says anything is better than carbon-spewing coal plants. Banking on less controversial solutions like renewable energy and conservation alone won’t be enough to curtail global warming and therefore spells “doom”, he predicts. It is clear that “Nuclear Energy, Part II” is already sparking the same diametrically opposed views that its first push through the US produced. But the spectres of global warming and energy security certainly add to the suspense – and the stakes. And now an influential group of moderate to conservative Democrats, including Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, is pushing for increased domestic nuclear energy production as part of its agenda for the House energy bill being debated this summer. With a continuing interest by the Bush administration and key power providers nuclear power seems poised to gain ground as an integral part of the US energy equation. Useful links: www.keystone.org www.gnep.energy.gov www.cfr.org www.uscusa.org www.nwf.org Write to Lisa Roner, North America Editor at Lisa.Roner@ethicalcorp.com, or write to the Editor at zara.maung@ethicalcorp.com. ***************************************************************** 33 Japan Times: Tremors spotlight nuclear plants japantimes.co.jp Web Thursday, July 19, 2007 The earthquake that hit Niigata and Nagano prefectures on Monday brought to light safety problems that could arise at nuclear-power plants during a powerful earthquake. The magnitude-6.8 quake occurred in the Sea of Japan, only 9 km north of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear-power plant, causing four of its seven reactors to shut down automatically. The three other reactors were undergoing regular checks. Meanwhile, insulation oil in a transformer supplying electricity to one of the reactors that automatically shut down caught fire — the first-ever at a Japanese nuclear-power plant due to an earthquake — that took about two hours to quell. And a small amount of radioactive material was emitted into the air from another reactor's exhaust stack. The biggest concern is that the tremors were stronger than the strongest tremors assumed in the plant design. For example, the No. 1 reactor recorded tremors of 680 gals (acceleration of 680 cm per second per second) in the east-west direction, more than twice the 273 gals anticipated in the design. Industry minister Akira Amari rightfully told TEPCO not to resume the plant's operation until sufficient quake resistance is confirmed. When the Nuclear Safety Commission revised guidelines for nuclear-power plant designs in September 2006, uniform assumptions applied to all nuclear-power plants regarding possible quakes were scrapped. The new guidelines call for examining geological features and records of past earthquakes near a particular nuclear-power plant and revising the anticipated strength of the biggest possible earthquake. The latest earthquake has underscored the need for power companies to review in earnest their nuclear-power plants' ability to withstand seismic tremors. Their reviews must proceed with public transparency. The Japan Times ***************************************************************** 34 AJC: Nuclear energy is safe option for future | ajc.com By CHRIS WOMACK Published on: 07/19/07 Last week, the Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved a plan that calls for additional energy efficiency programs, as well as competitive bids for future power resources. This plan will help ensure Georgia Power customers have access to more energy efficiency choices and the infrastructure needed to deliver electric energy to one of the nation's fastest-growing states. Chris Womack is a Georgia Power executive vice president. Georgia Power will also implement a refrigerator and freezer recycling program, raise the annual budget for low-income weatherization to $2 million, consider a new commercial lighting program and work to raise participation in all programs by doubling investments in energy efficiency education and promotion. When combined with existing programs, Georgia Power will now offer 18 efficiency and demand response programs or rates for customers at an expected annual investment of $43 million. These programs have the potential to reduce growth in energy and demand by more than 15 percent. This represents a reduction in energy of approximately 2.2 billion kilowatt-hours and an annual reduction in demand of approximately 780 megawatts by 2018, which is equal to the size of a large, coal-fueled generating plant. The PSC also approved Georgia Power's plan to develop cost-effective renewable generation projects such as bio-mass or wind projects. Georgia Power has 127,000 more customers today than it did just three years ago. The average residential customer uses 15 percent more electricity than just 10 years ago. Georgia Power's forecasts predict the need for about 500 megawatts of new generation every year for the foreseeable future. In the 2016-17 timeframe, a base-load power plant will be needed to meet this growth. The approved energy plan requires Georgia Power to meet that need by expediting a bidding process to compare proposals for new base load plants, including possible nuclear units at Plant Vogtle. In the past several years, most new power plants built in the United States have been fueled by natural gas. We believe nuclear energy, which now supplies almost 19 percent of Georgia Power's energy needs, is a clean, cost-effective and safe option for the future. © 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Customer care | Advertise ***************************************************************** 35 Reuters: U.S., India said still divided on nuclear deal Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:31PM EDT By Carol Giacomo and Paul Eckert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and India remain divided over a controversial nuclear cooperation agreement despite three days of talks to finally close the deal, a U.S. official said on Thursday. "There's good will (between the two sides), we've made progress and we're very hopeful that we can hammer out the remaining differences in the coming days and weeks," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said. The two sides have been stalemated for months over the landmark deal that would give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and reactors for the first time in 30 years. President George W. Bush, who considers the deal a major foreign policy success, has only 18 months left in office and experts say he is running out of time to get the agreement approved and implemented before a successor comes to power. Any deal must be approved by the U.S. Congress. Support there for rapidly improving U.S.-India ties is strong, but patience with what many see as India's unreasonable nuclear demands is waning. U.S. and Indian negotiators met on Thursday for a third and final day of talks, but Casey told reporters: "I wasn't given the impression that you should look for an announcement today or some kind of definitive conclusion." On Wednesday as part of what was supposed to be a final push to the finish line, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley met Indian National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan. Obstacles have included a U.S. congressional mandate that Washington halt nuclear cooperation if India tests a nuclear weapon as it did in 1998. Other disputed points have been the U.S. refusal to give India prior approval to allow reprocessing of spent fuel with U.S. components and to assure permanent fuel supplies. U.S. law prohibits such assistance to countries such as India which are not formally recognized as nuclear powers. The U.S. Congress last December passed the Hyde Act which created a unique exception to U.S. export law to allow nuclear cooperation with India, even though the country has nuclear weapons and has not signed the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. The current negotiations concern a separate agreement spelling out technical details of U.S.-India nuclear cooperation. ***************************************************************** 36 Reuters: Japan quake-hit plant may be shut a year or more Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:19AM EDT By Chisa Fujioka TOKYO (Reuters) - The world's biggest nuclear power plant may be shut for more than a year for checks after an earthquake in Japan caused radiation leaks, prompting speculation of power shortages and deepening concern about the safety of the industry in the tremor-prone country. Fears about the safety of Japan's nuclear industry have been renewed by radiation leaks from Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (TEPCO) plant in the northwestern city of Kashiwazaki, hard hit by a 6.8 magnitude quake on Monday. "It's no wonder that the people's anxiety and distrust over the safety of nuclear power keep rising," said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a weekly email magazine. "Needless to say, ensuring the people's safety is of utmost importance." Authorities have already said the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, closed since the quake that flattened homes and killed 10 people, cannot reopen until safety is assured. The government might order TEPCO to keep the plant closed for more than a year while a safety study is conducted, the Nikkei business newspaper reported, raising questions about possible power shortages during the peak summer demand season. The report also sent the firm's shares sharply lower. The shutdown might be much longer if the facility -- built over what now appears to be an active fault line and long criticized by anti-nuclear activists as unsafe -- needs to be reinforced, the newspaper said. Japan's nuclear industry has been tarnished by cover-ups of accidents and fudged safety records. The flow of bad news this week, including TEPCO's admission that the amount of radiation in water that leaked into the ocean was more than first estimated, has done nothing to ease concerns. NO RESTART DATE TEPCO spokesman Jun Oshima said the utility was unsure when it could restart the plant. "The priority is on being able to say that the facility is safe," he said. Japan's nuclear regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, also declined to say when the plant might reopen. Analysts warn the firm, Japan's largest utility, faces millions of dollars in extra costs and a possible dividend cut if it has to fire up mothballed plants to meet heavy summer demand. It's shares fell more than 5 percent on Thursday, more than doubling their losses since Monday's quake. TEPCO has said the tremor was stronger than the plant, whose first reactor came on stream more than 20 years ago, had been designed to withstand. The firm said it assumed the fault that caused this week's tremor was one found nearly 30 years ago, as the plant was being built. The fault had not caused concern then because it had not been expected to cause a big quake, it said. Japan accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater, and every year there are up to 2,000 quakes that can be felt by people. Quake-proofing regulations for Japan's 17 nuclear power stations -- which supply about one-third of the resource-poor country's electricity -- were tightened last year, requiring utilities to reassess risks to their plants. Completing the studies could take more than two years, a regulatory official said, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters the government wanted them speeded up. POWER SHORTAGES? TEPCO supplies power to the greater Tokyo area, where peak demand of 68 million kilowatts is forecast during the capital's muggy summer. Shutting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant deprives TEPCO of up to 8.2 million kilowatts of output. TEPCO has asked six utilities to help replace lost production. It said power supplies were sufficient for now, especially since summer has so far been unseasonably cool, but added it might restart unused thermal plants if needed. Tadao Yabe, a local Kashiwazaki lawmaker, said the latest developments would boost anti-nuclear opposition among residents. "I think people are really fed up. When they saw flames rising from that fire, they must have said, 'that's it'," Yabe told Reuters this week. ***************************************************************** 37 UPI: Report: Japan nuclear plant on fault line United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: July 19, 2007 at 7:25 AM KASHIWAZAKI, Japan, July 19 (UPI) -- The Japanese power plant damaged in a major earthquake on Monday sits atop a major geological fault line, officials reported Thursday. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata prefecture is the world's largest nuclear power plan, and was designed to withstand an earthquake up to a magnitude of 6.5, the Kyodo news agency reported. However, Monday's quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale. With each increase of 0.2 in magnitude, the energy of the quake doubles. Tokyo Electric President Tsunehisa Katsumata was seen on television Wednesday bowing in apology at the site soon after the company said it had identified at least 50 quake-related problems at the shut-down plant, a New York Times correspondent reported. Among the problems was that several hundreds barrels of radioactive waste tipped over during the quake, releasing 317 gallons of material into the Sea of Japan in the northwestern coastal city, the report said. At least 10 people were killed by the earthquake, officials said. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 Guardian Unlimited: Reports: New Leak at Japan Nuke Plant Thursday July 19, 2007 11:16 AM By ERIC TALMADGE Associated Press Writer KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) - Japanese regulators discovered a fresh leak of radioactive material Thursday from a nuclear power plant damaged in an earthquake this week, news reports said, adding to criticism of the embattled plant operator. Nuclear inspectors probed the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which suffered a barrage of leaks and malfunctions in Monday's 6.8-magnitude quake in northwestern Japan. The plant was ordered shut down indefinitely on Wednesday. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency found radioactive iodine had leaked from an exhaust pipe at the plant, Kyodo News agency and national broadcaster NHK reported. Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. already had announced the release of other radioactive materials from the exhaust vent previously. NHK said the material had been leaking into the atmosphere until Wednesday. The inspectors, however, concluded the leak was too small to harm the environment or public health, the reports said. Officials at the agency said they could not immediately confirm the reports. Also Thursday, TEPCO announced that the force of the quake had exceeded its resistance guidelines at all seven reactors, sometimes by more than double. NHK reported that the reading at the No. 1 reactor was the strongest quake ever measured at a Japanese reactor. Members of a separate panel, the Nuclear Safety Commission, toured the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant on Thursday and regaled TEPCO for missteps in its response to Monday's quake, which killed at least 10 people and injured more than 1,000 others. Still, the commission concluded none of the errors threatened public health. ``The safety of ... (the) plant was fundamentally maintained and we avoided the serious consequences of a nuclear accident,'' Commission Chairman Atsuyuki Suzuki said in a statement. ``The list of problems announced by TEPCO have no serious effect on the safety of the reactor.'' Commission members criticized TEPCO for a bungled response to a quake-triggered fire at an electrical transformer. Plant officials said they had no chemical fire vehicle at the plant, and local fire officials took 90 minutes to respond to their call. The commission also said the fuel rods in the plant were stable, but that the inside of the reactors should be checked more thoroughly. Also Thursday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki urged the operators of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors to speed up safety checks for earthquake-resistance, a top concern in this temblor-prone nation. ``Since there was such a huge earthquake that surpassed our expectations, we need to consider future measures for quake resistance,'' Shiozaki said. ``I asked them to speed up the assessment and check ups wherever possible.'' The plant fire, which blazed for two hours, likely broke out after the quake caused the ground beneath an electric transformer to sink, damaging cables, causing a short circuit and igniting leaked insulation oil, the business daily Nikkei reported, citing a probe by the prefectural government. The quake has caused trouble for other industries as well. Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi and Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru, all halted production because a key parts supplier was damaged by the temblor. Fears of an electricity shortage in the nation's capital swelled when the plant was shuttered. Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., Japan's largest utility, was scrambling to ramp up conventional power output. In the damage zone, residents struggled to put their lives back together, though basic services such as water had not been restored to some areas. ``Until we get gas and water, we can't think about the future. For now, we're just getting by day by day,'' said Masatoshi Ogawa, sitting in front of his closed pachinko parlor. ``Our houses were OK so we didn't have to go to evacuation centers, but life without water is really inconvenient.'' TEPCO has warned that the closure of the key nuclear reactor could trigger a power shortage in the summer months. The Tokyo-based company has asked six other power companies in Japan to consider providing emergency electricity to prepare for a surge in demand as people turn up their air conditioners in the summer heat. Though Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, officials at the plant acknowledged that they had not foreseen such a powerful temblor hitting the facility. In 2003, TEPCO was forced to halt all of its 17 nuclear reactors after admitting it had misreported safety problems in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A trade ministry report revealed 29 cases of cracks or minor structural damage in eight of the company's nuclear reactors, including two reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. The company's top three officials resigned over the scandal, and authorities raided its Tokyo headquarters. TEPCO contended the cracks never posed any serious danger. The last of TEPCO's shuttered reactors was cleared to reopen only in July 2005. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 39 Newswire: Russia Focuses on Nuclear Energy Throwing the Door Wide Open to Foreign Investment Opportunities - Energy | NewswireToday NewswireToday - /newswire/ - London, United Kingdom, 07/19/2007 - New Country Industry Forecasts from the Frost & Sullivan Economic Research and Analytics team addressing the Russian Energy Industry reveal that particular opportunities exist in the oil & electricity as well as nuclear energy sectors of the industry. While investment opportunities still exist in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector of the Russian energy industry for the construction of gas liquefaction plants, the Government has turned its focus on the nuclear power generation sector. The idea is to attract significant foreign investment by diversifying and transmitting nuclear energy through the establishment of various nuclear plants and other technologies. New Country Industry Forecasts from the Frost & Sullivan Economic Research and Analytics team addressing the Russian Energy Industry reveal that particular opportunities exist in the oil and electricity as well as nuclear energy sectors of the industry. The increasing nuclear power generation is expected to trigger demand for nuclear power reactors and nuclear gas turbines. Russia is emphasizing on upgrading and maintaining its old reactors and nuclear plants to enhance the electricity generation. The demand for electricity and natural gas may rise steeply due to an expected boom in automobile sector, an increase in the number of households, urbanization, and growth in the transport sector. In the wake of such enormous demand, Russia is trying to stave off energy security-related challenges by encouraging energy-efficient consumption patterns among Russian households. It also hopes to satisfy the country’s energy need through substantial R&D efforts and domestic production augmentation. “The huge untapped oil reserves, particularly in Western Siberia, provide immense prospects for oil exploration activities,” says Mary John. P, Research Associate for Frost & Sullivan’s Economic Research and Analytics Group. “However, the underdeveloped refineries in the oil and gas segment require huge investments for upgrades and expansion.” Transneft and other state-owned companies are looking to increase the transmission and distribution network using sophisticated technology to enhance distribution efficiency. The Government has been encouraging new pipeline projects and the adoption of latest technologies for these projects, both domestically and internationally. Russia is also focusing on the development of the huge Shtokman gas fields in the Barents Sea, which will increase natural gas production - particularly LNG. As oil drilling projects and the amount of gas production help exceed internal gas demand, Russia will continue to increase exports to satisfy international demand. Coal is another export-friendly sector, especially since Russia is the fifth largest coal producer in the world. This abundance of raw materials, coupled with privatization of the economy, has increased competition in the fast developing energy sector. As one of the most important and fastest developing industries in Russia, energy accounts for a quarter of the gross domestic product. “Moreover, Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the various energy agreements with countries worldwide has led to the increase in foreign investments and boosted the demand for its energy reserves,” notes Mary John. “Russia’s leadership in the G8 summit, on promoting energy security, has enhanced its trade ties in the international arena and promoted its huge energy reserves.” The country also shares strong associations with the European Union and the United States. The Russian Government has leveraged these favorable international relationships and signed various energy agreements to strengthen further its infrastructure. Several economic and industry-driven policies have also helped create an encouraging business climate by offering numerous attractive investment opportunities. If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the latest political, economic, and social analysis of the Russian Energy Industry then send an email to Chiara Carella, Corporate Communications, at chiara.carella[.]rost.com with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, email address, city, state, and country. We will send you the overview by email upon receipt of the above information. The three-part series addressing the Russian Energy Industry is part of the Frost & Sullivan Energy GPS subscription services. The Political and Policy Analysis of the Russian Energy Industry provides a detailed coverage of the political establishment, general economic and industry specific policies, and their impact on the industry. The Economic Analysis provides an overview of the market size, a discussion of drivers as well as restraints, and an analysis of market structure in the context of the overall Russian economy. The Social, Infrastructure, and Labor Analysis studies the labor market dynamics, infrastructure conditions, and consumption profile. Frost & Sullivan’s Country Industry Forecast research provides a unique country-specific perspective on various industries. The valuable Country-Industry Linkage includes in-depth analyses and forecasts. The Frost & Sullivan Economic Research and Analytics team provides research focused on timely and critical sociometric, econometric, demographic, political, and regulatory information for specific countries by industry. It produces research services, economic impact articles, and economic updates that discuss relevant and critical economic trends. About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, please visit: Frost & Sullivan | Contact: Chiara Carella +44 (0) 20 7343 8314 chiara.carella[.]rost.com ***************************************************************** 40 Guardian Unlimited: Japan Nuke Plant Still Leaking Radiation Thursday July 19, 2007 7:16 PM By ERIC TALMADGE Associated Press Writer KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) - Radioactive material leaked undetected for days at an earthquake-battered nuclear power plant even as the utility was assuring the public that the damage posed no danger to those outside the site, company executives admitted Thursday. The revelation cast more doubt on the plant's emergency measures and the response by Japan's largest power company, while the indefinite shutdown of the world's most powerful electricity generating facility raised serious fears of a summer power shortage. Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed reports that radioactive material was leaking as late as Wednesday night, nearly three days after the plant suffered a near-direct hit from a quake that killed 10 people and injured more than 1,000 in Kashiwazaki on Japan's northern coast. It was government inspectors who found radioactive iodine venting from an exhaust pipe at the plant's No. 7 nuclear reactor, said Hisanori Nei, an official with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. It escaped between Tuesday and Wednesday night, Nei said. Tokyo Electric previously announced other radioactive materials had escaped from the pipe, but not iodine. An exhaust fan inside the building may not have been turned off as instructed in the operations manual, company spokesman Manabu Takeyama said. Government inspectors concluded the iodine leak was too small to harm the environment or public health, Nei said. The utility also stressed the amount was extremely low and said it posed no threat to the environment or local people. But the revelation reinforced concerns about the plant's safety, coming a day after Tokyo Electric issued a list of previously unreported damage from the quake - including a fire, burst pipes and waste spillage. The seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant shut down automatically when the quake hit, and authorities have ordered the plant closed indefinitely while inspections and repairs are carried out to assure it can be restarted safely. Tokyo Electric has warned that the closure could cause a power shortage in Japan as demand rises from summer use of air conditioners. Six other power companies have said they will cooperate in providing emergency electricity and Tokyo Electric is considering restarting generating plants fueled by oil and natural gas, the utility said late Thursday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki urged the operators of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors - suppliers of one-third of Japan's energy - to speed up safety checks for earthquake resistance, a top concern in the temblor-prone nation. ``Since there was such a huge earthquake that surpassed our expectations, we need to consider future measures for quake resistance,'' Shiozaki said. ``I asked them to speed up the assessment and checkups wherever possible.'' Officials at the plant conceded earlier that they had not foreseen the possibility of an earthquake as powerful as the magnitude-6.8 temblor that hit Monday. They also said the utility hadn't known about the nearby offshore fault line in which the quake occurred. The utility announced Thursday that the force of the quake exceeded its resistance guidelines at all seven reactors, sometimes by more than double. Public broadcaster NHK said the reading at the No. 1 reactor was the strongest quake ever measured at a Japanese reactor. Tokyo Electric has repeatedly underreported the quake's impact. After initially saying it had caused a fire in an electrical transformer and the spill of radioactive water into the Sea of Japan, the company reported 50 incidents of damage or leaks. Then it upped the number to 63. Its stock tumbled again Thursday, sliding 5.6 percent to 3,400 yen a share, or $27.88, bringing its losses since the quake to 10.3 percent. Members of the Nuclear Safety Commission toured the sprawling plant Thursday and criticized Tokyo Electric for missteps in its response to the earthquake. Even so, they concluded none of the errors had threatened public health. The safety of the ``plant was fundamentally maintained and we avoided the serious consequences of a nuclear accident,'' commission Chairman Atsuyuki Suzuki said in a statement. ``The list of problems announced by TEPCO have no serious effect on the safety of the reactor.'' Tokyo Electric has been punished for failing to accurately inform the public of problems in the past. Four years ago, the utility was forced to halt all of its 17 nuclear reactors after admitting it misreported safety problems in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The halt caused a power shortage in the summer of 2003, and other utilities stepped in with emergency electricity production. In that scandal, a trade ministry report revealed 29 cases of cracks or minor structural damage in eight of Tokyo Electric's reactors, including two reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. The company's top three executives resigned, but the utility insisted the cracks never posed a serious danger. The last of the shuttered reactors wasn't cleared to reopen until July 2005. The impact of Monday's quake has spread far beyond the region. Japan's auto companies had to suspend production because a key parts maker sustained damage during the temblor. Officials at the damaged factory said they expected to restart production early next week. People in the Kashiwazaki region struggled to put their lives back together but basic services such as water had not been restored to some areas. ``We're just getting by day by day,'' said Masatoshi Ogawa, sitting in front of his closed pinball parlor. ``Our houses were OK so we didn't have to go to evacuation centers, but life without water is really inconvenient.'' --- Associated Press writers Kozo Mizoguchi and Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 41 Chennai Online News: Atomic research centre at Vizag Search for More News Chennai, July 19: An atomic research centre would be set up at Visakhapatnam by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, S K Malhotra, Head of Public Awareness Division, Department of Atomic Energy, said here today. India would generate 200 GW of nuclear energy by the middle of the century and most of it would be by fast breeder reactors, he told reporters after inaugurating a workshop on 'Nuclear Energy for National Development and Environmental Sustainability' here. On entry of private players into the field of nuclear energy, he said this could be possible only if the Atomic Energy Act was amended. Replying to a question on Kudankulam Nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu, Chairman of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board S K Sharma said it had the most modern design and was better than third generation reactors and had innovative safety features. There was absolutely no possibility of radiation or likely contamination of groundwater, he asserted. On agricultural research in using isotopes, Malhotra said 29 varieties of crops were under various stages of research and 27 of them were pulses and oil seeds, since this was the thrust area, which required more yield. A jute and paddy variety was also under research, he added. (Our Correspondent) Published: Thursday, July 19, 2007 Copyright © 2007, Chennai Interactive Business Services (P) Ltd. All rights reserved. cibs@chennaionline.com - Copyright and Disclaimer - Privacy Policy 2, North Crescent Road, T.Nagar, Chennai-600017. Click here for more ***************************************************************** 42 Japan Times: Quakes rarely damage nuclear power plants | japantimes.co.jp Web Thursday, July 19, 2007 By MATT CRENSON NEW YORK (AP) With 20 percent of the world's nuclear reactors in seismically active zones and the remote but real possibility of earthquakes just about everywhere else, nuclear power plants are designed with shaking in mind. "It did what it was supposed to," said William Miller, a University of Missouri at Columbia nuclear engineering professor. "It shut down. It did not release radioactive material into the atmosphere." Miller said he considers the relatively small amounts of radioactivity that were released when the earthquake knocked over several waste-containing barrels to be "negligible." But environmentalists and nuclear watchdogs expressed concern that fire and power failure, both of which resulted at Kashiwazaki on Monday, can trigger nuclear meltdown. Historically, Japanese nuclear plants have performed quite well in earthquakes, even the one that sustained minor damage in Monday's magnitude-6.8 quake. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant experienced a magnitude-6.8 quake in October 2004 without incident, though an aftershock two weeks later caused the automatic shutdown of one of its reactors. In August 2005, three reactors at the Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture shut down automatically during a 7.2 quake. "Barring an extraordinary seismic event, it is expected that the nuclear plants-based energy supply in Japan can be maintained with manageable disruptions," Rice University engineers concluded in a 2000 analysis. Generally, plants adhering to government guidelines drawn up after the 1995 Kobe earthquake are considered safe in quakes up to 7.75 magnitude. Facilities in especially active regions are designed to withstand even greater intensity. Even in the absence of earthquakes, however, Japanese nuclear plants have had safety problems. In 2004, five workers were killed and six were injured after a corroded pipe ruptured and sprayed plant workers with boiling water and steam at the Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture. In 2002, four out of the five companies operating nuclear plants confessed to hiding the presence of cracks in their reactors from the government. U.S. nuclear plants have stood up well to earthquakes. In 2003, a strong quake that rocked California's central coast was felt in the control room of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, a pair of 1,100-megawatt reactors near a series of faults running parallel to the San Andreas. On-site inspectors did not find any broken or leaking pipes, damaged support braces or displaced equipment. The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 43 AJC: 'Nuclear option' raises some questions | ajc.com > Opinion More aggressive approaches to energy efficiency beat risky plan Published on: 07/19/07 The machinations of the state Public Service Commission generally strike most Georgians as too bureaucratic and boring. But now that the regulatory agency has approved a strategic energy plan that includes the possibility of building a pair of nuclear reactors that could have a profound effect on our environment and economy, it's time to pay very close attention. By a 5-0 vote, commissioners gave the utility a preliminary green light to proceed while attaching several important caveats. With that important step cleared, Georgia Power and its corporate parent, Southern Company, will likely intensify efforts to get required permits for the project from other state and federal agencies. The PSC is expected to take a final vote on the utility's plans in December 2008. That timeline should provide ample opportunity for Georgia Power to fully explore other energy sources, as required by the PSC. It's also imperative for Georgians whose lives will be directly affected to understand what's at stake. THE COST: Unofficial estimates for Georgia Power's proposed reactors range from $2.4 billion to $3.6 billion apiece. But calculating costs for nuclear power plants has always been more art than science — which means estimates are notoriously unreliable. Plant Vogtle, for instance, was supposed to be a billion-dollar bargain when it was first proposed. But by the time it was completed, it wound up costing almost nine times that much for about half the generating capacity originally promised. Much-improved plant designs and generous federal incentives may help moderate costs of building a new generation of nuclear plants. But since no nuclear plants have been built in this country in more than a decade and the demand for construction materials is driving up prices sharply, ratepayers who will eventually foot the bill should be prepared for a serious case of sticker shock. THE CLEANUP: The disposal of spent nuclear fuel is perhaps the biggest unresolved question surrounding nuclear power. The U.S. Department of Energy has announced plans to open the Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada as the nation's permanent underground storage facility for radioactive nuclear waste by 2017, a deadline it will almost certainly miss. Strong political opposition in Congress and lingering security concerns about the relative safety of shipping deadly wastes cross-country also don't bode well. If the Yucca repository isn't open in time to begin accepting wastes from Georgia and elsewhere, nuclear power plants must continue storing their wastes in "temporary" facilities on-site, an expensive option that raises the risk of contaminating soil and groundwater. Another option — reprocessing spent fuel so that some of it can be reused as fuel — increases the possibility of bomb-making material falling into terrorists' hands. THE CONSEQUENCES: Georgia Power officials contend that nuclear power is the best option available given the state's mounting energy needs, concerns about global warming and the price volatility of coal and natural gas. It's true that once built, nuclear power plants are usually cheaper to operate and don't produce the same noxious, planet-warming pollutants as fossil fuels. But nuclear plants are far more expensive and environmentally unfriendly than options such as increased energy efficiency and programs to reduce or manage consumer demand. If such programs are aggressive enough, they could make large, new generating facilities unnecessary. A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute, an independent think tank, reports that the growth rate for energy consumption could be reduced dramatically in the next 15 years through widespread use of energy-efficient light fixtures, appliances, solar water heaters and improved insulation in new buildings. Those and other measures could reduce the projected growth in worldwide energy demand from a predicted 2.2 percent a year through 2020 to only six-tenths of a percent a year, according to the study. As a condition of the PSC's tentative approval for its nuclear plants, Georgia Power has committed to five modest new programs aimed at promoting efficiency and demand-side reductions. The PSC can and should push Georgia Power to become an industry leader on those energy initiatives instead of lagging behind the pack. The members of the PSC — and by extension the people of Georgia — face a critically important decision about the state's future. If they don't perform what lawyers call "due diligence," they will have only themselves to blame for the fallout. — Lyle V. Harris © 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | ***************************************************************** 44 IAEA: IAEA Offers to Send Expert Team to Japan Following Earthquake Press Release 2007/13 18 July 2007 | The IAEA has been closely following the situation at JapanŽs Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant following a powerful earthquake that occurred in the area on 16 July. Preliminary data indicates that the earthquake may have exceeded the seismic design assumptions for the plant. The Agency believes a thorough investigation of the impact of the earthquake on the plant and full transparency in such investigations is required. To this end, the IAEA expressed its readiness to assist Japan and is offering to send an international expert team to join Japan in assessing the event and its consequences. Press Contacts Press Office Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21276 Melissa Fleming Spokesperson Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21275 [43] 699-165-21275 (mobile) About the IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) serves as the world's foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Established as an autonomous organization under the United Nations (UN) in 1957, the IAEA carries out programmes to maximize the useful contribution of nuclear technology to society while verifying its peaceful use. NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit the Press Section of the IAEA's website (http://www.iaea.org/Resources/Journalists/), or call the IAEA's Division of Public Information at (431) 2600-21270. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 45 Guardian Unlimited: Crucial six months to stop the lights going out Mark Milner, industrial editor Thursday July 19, 2007 Britain's energy policy is entering a crucial phase with decisions over the next few months shaping the country's ability to meet demand over the next two decades, according to energy minister Malcolm Wicks. Climate change and the geopolitics of energy supply and demand will be among the big issues of the 21st century and the ability to meet the challenge will be as important to national security as the armed forces, he said yesterday. "No one wants the lights to be going out in 20 years time. I'm not saying they will. They won't. But they won't because of the decisions we will be taking over the rest of the year." Among the pressing issues are whether Britain will build a new generation of nuclear power stations. After a judicial review, the government is conducting a five-month consultation on the issue with Mr Wicks insisting it will be a genuine consultation not a cosmetic exercise to satisfy the high court ruling in February. "The government made a decision in principle that nuclear should - could, depending on commercial people coming forward - be part of the energy mix we require. That was a decision in principle. We were taken to judicial review and we lost, therefore we are engaging in a new consultation and we take that consultation very seriously." Mr Wicks acknowledged "we can't suddenly be empty-minded about this". But he said: "I am receptive to new arguments and new evidence; otherwise why do it? It's not a cosmetic exercise. I'm a social scientist. I have respect for evidence." The forthcoming energy bill will be part of a series of significant legislative measures related to the energy industry, including the climate change bill which will enshrine emission targets. A planning bill aims to streamline the planning process in relation to big energy infrastructure projects among others. Mr Wicks, who is just starting his second spell as energy minister, is aware of the large-scale investment which is needed in energy. The white paper published in May calculated that Britain needed up to 35 gigawatts of new electricity generating capacity over the next 20 years while gas import capacity could rise by up to 30%. Mr Wicks is keen to see Britain capitalise on new energy technologies, not only as part of its drive towards a lower carbon economy, but as a basis for an industry which will be able to exploit domestic skill and technology on world markets, especially growing economies such as China. An area Mr Wicks finds particularly exciting is carbon capture and storage. "The dark reality is that the world is going to be burning fossil fuels for another 100 years." As a result there was a long-term need for carbon abatement technology. "I think carbon capture and storage technology is one of those happy areas where the ethical and the environmental, the commercial and the profitable, come together." The government announced in the budget that it would hold a competition to demonstrate carbon capture and storage on a commercial scale. Some within the industry are concerned about how many schemes the government would be prepared to back and just how much money it will commit to the programme. Yesterday Mr Wicks refused to be drawn on details of the competition, due to be launched in November, or how much support the government would offer. "I don't think that has been agreed." He acknowledged that the commercial development of carbon capture and storage would be costly. "You can't do it on the cheap." Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 46 Hindustan Times: Cheney pushes last-ditch bid to save India-US nuclear talks- Friday, July 20, 2007 Indian and US negotiators kept looking for a formula to seal their civil nuclear deal on Thursday with Vice President Dick Cheney getting into the act to save the day, but did not seem any closer. Cheney met the high-level Indian delegation led by National Security Advisor MK Narayanan on Thursday afternoon after the two sides took one more crack at the vexed problem stalling the so-called 123 agreement to implement the deal. The meeting with the vice president came as last-ditch efforts spilled into an extra day with a compromise proving elusive even after an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice followed by another with US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley at the White House. Interventions from Cheney and Rice are reflective of President George Bush's keenness to get the nuclear deal done before he leaves office in January 2009 and score a major foreign policy success on par with Richard Nixon's 1972 opening to China. The meeting with the vice president came as last-ditch efforts spilled into an extra day with a compromise proving elusive.White House spokesman Tony Snow put it in so many words as he said on Wednesday, "As we've said all along, the civil nuclear agreement is very important to us and we want to see it successfully concluded." Now going to the wire, the current talks coming after several tortuous rounds of what is euphemistically called "steady progress" are critical in the race to beat the clock with only a small window left to present the final deal to the US Congress for an up or down vote before it goes into another election cycle. India also needs to sign an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and get the approval of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. After the meeting with Cheney at the White House, Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon goes back to the State department to resume his dialogue with Washington's chief interlocutor, Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns. Earlier, with little indication of how close they were to bridging their differences after three days of marathon talks, Menon and Burns picked up the thread on Thursday morning from where they had left it overnight. However, as the dialogue continued, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said, "I wasn't given the impression that you should look for an announcement today or some kind of definitive conclusion." "There's good will (between the two sides), we've made progress and we're very hopeful that we can hammer out the remaining differences in the coming days and weeks," he said. On the table to resolve contentious issues is an out-of-the-box Indian proposal for setting up a fully safeguarded stand-alone dedicated facility for reprocessing US-origin fuel as Washington would neither permit reprocessing nor is it willing to take back the spent fuel. There is no word on what solutions have been offered by either side to take care of other sticky points like India's insistence on its right to reprocess US nuclear fuel, conduct a test and guarantees for continued supply of fuel for the 14 civil reactors it has agreed to place under international safeguards under a separation plan. Eight other reactors designated military would not be subject to inspections. Narayanan and Department of Atomic Energy Chairman Anil Kakodkar, whose nod would be important to clinch the deal, are at hand for consultations along with Indian ambassador to US, Ronen Sen, but would not be taking part directly in the formal talks. Menon is backed at the formal rounds by Deputy Chief of Mission Raminder Singh Jassal, India's High Commissioner to Singapore S Jaishankar, an expert in nuclear diplomacy and Joint Secretary (Americas) Gaitri Kumar. The Department of Atomic Energy is represented by RB Grover. Burns has Robert Stratford, director of the State Department's Office of Nuclear Security and Cooperation, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher, and Ashley Tellis, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, with him. Rice, who had dropped a string of international engagements to be available for intervention, met the Indian delegation Wednesday morning as hard talks the previous day apparently made little headway in finding solutions to sticky issues holding up the deal that would resume nuclear commerce between them after 30 years. From the meeting with Rice, Narayanan went into a one-on-one session with Hadley. Rest of the team later joined them and then kept talking business over lunch and after as they had at a dinner hosted by Burns the previous night. As the talks continued, the State Department spokesman Sean McCormack reiterated Washington's "commitment and desire to reach an agreement. "And we're sure that the Indian government wants to reach an agreement. The question is a matter of when and the timing of it. Certainly, there's no time like the present to reach a deal," he said. Asked if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's reported comment that the negotiations were in the "last leg" indicated that the two sides were ready to seal the deal, he said, "Well, we hope that's, in fact, the case." ***************************************************************** 47 NDTV.com: Firming up N-deal is matter of time - US Press Trust of India Thursday, July 19, 2007 (Washington) As top officials of India and the US held hectic meetings to end the logjam in talks on the civil nuclear deal, Washington on Thursday said both sides were committed to reach the agreement and it was just a matter of time. ''Certainly, there's no time like the present to reach a deal,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington as National Security Adviser M K Narayanan prepared to meet Vice President Dick Cheney during which the nuclear issue will come up. ''We (the two sides) had some preliminary discussions on Wednesday. There are going to be some more discussions with (Under Secretary of State) Nick Burns and (Assistant Secretary of State) Richard Boucher. So we'll see,'' McCormack said, adding after these parleys ''we'll have a better idea'' as to ''where we are.'' Asked to comment on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assertion that the talks on 123 agreement, that will operationalise the civil nuclear deal, were in the ''last leg'', the spokesman said, ''well, we hope that's in fact the case.'' He said US has expressed its commitment and desire to reach an agreement ''and we're sure that the Indian government wants to reach an agreement. The question is a matter of when and the timing of it''. Copyright 2007 ***************************************************************** 48 Reuters: TEPCO eyes thermal power after quake-hit shutdown Thu Jul 19 10:20:28 2007 (For more stories on the aftermath of Monday's quake, see [nT173888]) TOKYO, July 19 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) <9501.T> may restart unused thermal power plants to make up for any shortages from the shutdown of its earthquake-hit nuclear facility, a spokesman said on Thursday. The nuclear facility, the world's largest, remains closed for safety checks after a strong earthquake on Monday caused radiation leaks among other problems. While power supplies were sufficient for now, especially since the weather was unseasonably cool, TEPCO would consider restarting mothballed thermal plants if necessary later, the spokesman said. TEPCO supplies power to the greater Tokyo area, where peak demand of 68 million kilowatts is forecast during the capital's muggy summer. The suspension of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant deprives TEPCO of up to 8.2 million kilowatts of output. TEPCO has gas, coal and oil-fuelled power plants, but has not decided which of these should be used. The company has also asked six utilities for supplies of electricity to help fill an anticipated shortage from the shutdown of the nuclear plant. The spokesman added that it was unclear when the company would be able to restart the nuclear facility, with TEPCO evaluating to what extent it would carry out the safety study. "The priority is on being able to say that the facility is safe," he said. The Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday that Japan's government may order the nuclear plant to stay shut for more than a year while the safety study is under way. ***************************************************************** 49 AFP: Japan's energy worries grow as nuclear plant shut - AFP - Thursday, July 19 TOKYO (AFP) - - Worries about energy supply grew Thursday in Japan as officials said an earthquake-hit nuclear plant would stay shut at least for the summer after a radiation leak. The powerful earthquake killed 10 people, injured more than 1,000 and destroyed hundreds of buildings, forcing Japan's fast-growing automakers to curtail production. The 6.8 Richter-scale earthquake struck just nine kilometers (five miles) from the world's largest nuclear power plant, where smoke billowed for hours and a small amount of radioactive water leaked. The Nikkei business newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said the government would keep the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant shut for at least a year as the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), conducts a safety study. Officials in Tokyo declined comment, but a local official in the plant's hometown of Kashiwazaki said it would stay off at least through the summer, the peak months for electricity demand. The damage to the plant is "unprecedented and it's hard to predict when operations can resume," said fire department official Osamu Oshima. "I don't know when we can finish inspections, but it's not going to be soon. Maybe it'll take several months or more," he said. TEPCO has already asked other companies to pitch in to meet the metropolis's electricity needs. "We'll do our best for stable electricity supply, utilising our existing thermal power plants, but we may need to ask our customers to save on power," TEPCO spokesman Ryo Shimizu said. Japan, which experiences 20 percent of the planet's major earthquakes, has increasingly turned to nuclear power as it has virtually no natural energy resources of its own. The world's second-largest economy relies on nuclear energy for a third of its needs and is seeking to reduce further its dependence on oil and gas from the turbulent Middle East. Tokyo Electric has insisted Monday's earthquake did not cause any dangerous nuclear leaks. But it has faced a storm of criticism over its reporting of the incident. It admitted underreporting both the radioactivity of a small amount of leaked water and the number of barrels of contaminated clothing that tipped over inside the facility. Chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki called for "thorough checks" on nuclear facilities across Japan. "We have to consider future anti-quake guidelines by taking into account that the latest quake was larger than expected," he said. The best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun in an editorial supported nuclear power but said reactors needed to be reinforced to withstand stronger earthquakes. If no action is taken, "it would only allow anxiety over the safety over nuclear power stations to prevail among the public," the daily said. But the conservative Sankei Shimbun urged people to "think coolly" and not exaggerate the damage. "Atomic power not only supplies electricity but is an effective tool in preventing global warming. We should not forget this reality," it said. The seven million-kilowatt Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant accounts for more than 10 percent of the total energy supply of TEPCO, the world's largest private power company. TEPCO also asked other companies to compensate energy in 2003 when it was forced to shut most nuclear plants for five months as punishment for covering up previous problems. ***************************************************************** 50 AFP: US, India break 'logjam' in nuclear talks but final accord elusive - by P. Parameswaran Thu Jul 19, 6:30 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States and India have "broken a logjam" in talks to forge an implementing agreement for their landmark civilian atomic deal but a final accord remains elusive, officials said Thursday. "We have overcome many of the outstanding issues. We just need to go the extra couple of feet," said US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, the chief American negotiator at the talks. "We are in an extra innings," Burns told reporters, using a baseball term. "We haven't given up and I'm very hopeful we might have an agreement." Even if they come to an agreement on the text in Washington, it will have to be referred to the leaders of the two countries in any case, Burns said. The two sides have been holding talks for the last two years to reach a comprehensive agreement under which the United States would provide nuclear technology and fuel to India, after Washington agreed in principle to reverse three decades of sanctions following India's nuclear tests. At their latest round of talks in Washington, the negotiators were scheduled to end their two-day meeting on Wednesday but extended it by another day after a breakthrough in issues that had blocked an accord, a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The two sides reportedly have "broken the logjam" and the United States is "very optimistic" that it could be almost done by Thursday, the official said, without elaborating. For the nuclear deal to be implemented, India should separate nuclear facilities for civilian and military use and set up a regime of international inspections in return for US technology and atomic fuel supplies. Despite several rounds of talks, India has stood fast against accepting any curbs on its reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. India, which is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), also wants assurances that Washington will continue to supply fuel for its atomic plants in the event New Delhi conducts further nuclear weapons tests. Under US law, if Indian conducts another nuclear test, the US president "must terminate all export and reexport of US-origin nuclear materials, nuclear equipment, and sensitive nuclear technology to India." Indian officials have reportedly proposed to set up a special unit to reprocess spent atomic fuel at home under international safeguards in a bid to break the impasse. In another apparent bid to find a breakthrough, US Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday met with India's National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, who is leading the high-powered Indian delegation to the talks, as well as Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. The Indian officials met US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley on Wednesday. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush, who first agreed on the deal two years ago, discussed over the telephone last week the need to resolve outstanding issues. The US Congress already approved the nuclear deal in principle last year and a bill to that effect was signed into law by Bush. It was subject to both sides crafting a comprehensive implementation agreement or "123 agreement" capturing all operational aspects of the deal that has to be passed again by the Democratic-controlled Congress. India also needs to sign an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency and get the approval of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. The deal, if implemented, could open up a whopping 100 billion dollars in opportunities for American businesses, according to the US Chamber of Commerce. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 51 Guardian Unlimited: New leak identified at damaged Japanese nuclear plant Justin McCurry in Tokyo Thursday July 19, 2007 Earthquake damage outside Japan's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. Photograph: Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images Japanese nuclear inspectors have identified a new radioactive leak at a power plant that was badly damaged in this week's earthquake, compounding concerns about the safety of the country's nuclear reactors. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said radioactive iodine had leaked from an exhaust pipe at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata prefecture on Japan's north-west coast following Monday's magnitude 6.8 earthquake in which 10 people died. The inspectors concluded that the leak posed no threat to human health or the environment, although that claim has yet to be confirmed by agency officials. The plant - the world's largest nuclear generating facility by capacity - will remain closed until its safety can be assured. The Nikkei business newspaper said today that it could remain inactive for at least a year, increasing the likelihood of power cuts when demand for electricity peaks this summer and casting doubt on plans to expand the nuclear power industry. Reports of the additional leak come after the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power company (Tepco), said 1,200 litres of water containing a small amount of radioactivity had leaked into the sea and dozens of barrels containing low-level nuclear waste had broken open during the quake. The firm was heavily criticised for failing to quickly extinguish a fire that broke out in an electric transformer at the plant and for delays in reporting malfunctions to the authorities. Yesterday it emerged that the plant may have been built on top of the fault line that caused the earthquake. Japan's nuclear safety commission said the malfunctions caused by the quake had not threatened the safety of the plant's seven nuclear reactors. "The safety of the plant was fundamentally maintained and we avoided the serious consequences of a nuclear accident," the commission's chairman, Atsuyuki Suzuki, said in a statement. "The list of problems announced by Tepco has no serious effect on the safety of the reactor." Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the government's top spokesman, urged all of the country's nuclear plants to speed up safety checks. "Since there was such a huge earthquake that surpassed our expectations, we need to consider future measures for quake resistance," he said. Japan depends on 55 nuclear reactors for 30% of its electricty and hopes to build more in the coming years. Other companies were left counting the costs of the earthquake, which injured more than 1,000 people and left 12,000 others homeless. Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi and Fuji Heavy Industries have all been forced to halt production in the area due to quake damage. Useful links Japan Today Asahi.com Far Eastern Economic Review Fuji News Network Japan Times Kyodo News Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 52 Guardian Unlimited: Feds Say Classified Material Was Stolen Thursday July 19, 2007 10:46 PM By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A contract employee at a nuclear material cleanup site in Tennessee pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he stole classified information about enriching uranium to sell to foreign governments. Roy Lynn Oakley, 65, of Roane County, Tenn., was arrested in January after he allegedly tried to sell the sensitive material to undercover FBI agents. None of the data made it out of the country or was transmitted to criminal or terrorist groups, the Justice Department said in a statement issued in Washington. Oakley entered the plea before a federal judge in Knoxville, Tenn. He was charged with two counts of possessing hardware used in uranium enrichment. He could face a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. His lawyer, Herb Moncier, said Oakley never took anything important from the site. Moncier said government lawyers, referring to the hardware items, ``say they are 'appliances.' We say they are trash.'' Oakley was expected to post $25,000 bail late Thursday, Moncier said. Oakley was employed as a maintenance worker by Bechtel Jacobs Co. at the East Tennessee Technology Park. The park is a cleanup site that once housed the government's gaseous diffusion plant used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, the Energy Department said. Moncier said Oakley's job was to break up metal rods so they could be thrown away. Moncier did not know what the rods were made of, but said they were not uranium or dangerous. A law enforcement official, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the information, said Oakley was soliciting buyers for the material. Moncier said Oakley sold the rods to an undercover federal agent who told Oakley that he represented the French Embassy. The government said the material Oakley tried to sell was classified and that he had ``reason to believe the materials would be used to injure the United States and secure an advantage to a foreign country.'' ``One of our top priorities in East Tennessee is to protect the mission, facilities and personnel at Oak Ridge from both external and internal threats,'' U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick said. Oakley has no criminal record, according to state and local officials. Moncier said his client was arrested once for reckless driving in 1967, but the charge was dismissed. The gaseous diffusion plant closed in 1987. The cleanup of the site, including radioactive waste left over from the Cold War years, has continued under a contract with Bechtel. The site is part of the federal Oak Ridge reservation, but is separate from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Oak Ridge is the Energy Department's largest science and energy laboratory. Between 1942 and 1945, it was part of the top-secret bomb-building Manhattan Project, which turned this rural countryside about 20 miles west of Knoxville into a ``secret city'' of 75,000 people. Oak Ridge was the first uranium enrichment facility; pilot-scale nuclear reactors were built there. About 50 kilograms of highly enriched uranium were produced over a year's time for the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. ``I think one of the lessons is that the security system works,'' Oak Ridge lab spokesman Billy Stair said. ``Even though the individual is not a part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the security process worked just like we hoped it would and all of our assets were protected.'' The indictment was the second leak of classified information from sensitive department sites in the past year. In October, police conducting a drug raid in northern New Mexico stumbled onto more than 1,000 pages of secret documents and several computer storage devices containing classified information that had been taken from the Los Alamos National Laboratory by a contract employee assigned to archive nuclear weapons data. Because of that security breakdown, the department this week proposed $3.3 million in fines against the University of California, which formerly managed the Los Alamos lab, and a consortium of companies that took over the management contract a year ago. --- Associated Press writers Duncan Mansfield in Knoxville, Tenn., and H. Josef Hebert in Washington contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 53 Reuters: U.S. nuclear lab ex-contractor accused of stealing | Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:40PM EDT By James Vicini WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former contract worker at a nuclear laboratory run by the U.S. Energy Department was charged with stealing classified equipment used for uranium enrichment, the Justice Department said on Thursday. Officials said Roy Oakley, 67, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee, as part of an undercover FBI operation in which federal agents posed as representatives of a foreign nation seeking to buy the materials. They said Oakley worked as a contract employee doing cleanup work at the East Tennessee Technology Park, a site within the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Energy Department's largest science and energy research facility. According to the two-count indictment, Oakley in January possessed equipment known as "barriers" and associated hardware used for uranium enrichment. He gave it to another person, having reason to believe it would hurt the United States and help a foreign nation, the indictment said. The second count charged him with converting the equipment, which belonged to the Energy Department, for his own use. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said that none of the stolen equipment was handed to a foreign government or terrorist organization. "The facts of this case demonstrate the importance of safeguarding our nuclear technology and pursuing aggressive prosecutions against those who attempt to breach the safeguards and put that technology in the wrong hands," Wainstein said in a statement. If convicted, Oakley faces a maximum punishment on each count of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Continued... ***************************************************************** 54 KNS: Ex-worker charged with trying to sell uranium-enrichment components Knoxville News Sentinel He worked at former K-25 uranium-enrichment site By Frank Munger (Contact), Jamie Satterfield (Contact) Originally published 11:29 a.m., July 19, 2007 Updated 04:09 p.m., July 19, 2007 A former maintenance worker at the East Tennessee Technology Park pleaded not guilty in federal court Thursday to charges of attempting to sell potentially sensitive components used for uranium enrichment to the French government. Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, of Harriman, faces a two-count indictment charging that he stole pieces of equipment from October 2006 to Jan. 26, 2007 at the Oak Ridge site, for the purpose of selling them. More seriously, he is charged with offering the material to France “to injure the United States and secure an advantage to a foreign nation.” He is free on $25,000 bond and his attorney, Herbert S. Moncier, said his client never intended to harm the U.S. Moncier wouldn’t elaborate on Oakley’s motives. The arraignment occurred in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton. Oakley works for contractor Bechtel Jacobs, which is engaged in dismantling old uranium-enrichment facilities at ETTP, including the original K-25 building that contains classified gaseous diffusion equipment. “Mr. Oakley was assigned to break up rods with his hands into small sections to be thrown away,” according to a court document. “The rods were not radioactive and, broken into pieces, had no apparent use except to be disposed.” The rods were associated with the former uranium-enrichment operations at the plant, and Oakley reportedly took three to five of the broken rods to his home and later decided they might be of interest to another country. Documents indicated the material included sections of “barrier,” the highly complex filtering system that separated different isotopes of uranium and helped concentrate fissile U-235. It also included associated hardware used for uranium enrichment, according to the documents. The French Embassy in Washington, D.C., reportedly turned down Oakley’s offer, but at some point later Oakley got a call from someone purported to be an official at the embassy. It turned out to be an FBI agent, the document said. During the conversation, Oakley was supposedly given a code name and they were reported to have negotiated a sale price for the rods. After a sting operation on Jan. 26, Oakley was detained but not charged, according to the court document. Neighbors said they were puzzled when the FBI raided Oakley’s property in the Midtown community of Roane County. In addition to his work with Bechtel Jacobs, Oakley has real estate holdings. The document said Oakley and Moncier had been working with the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. attorney’s office in Knoxville to negotiate a plea agreement. However, those talks reportedly broke down, and the U.S. attorney’s office secured an indictment in the case. This morning, Oakley, accompanied by his wife and attorney, reported to the U.S. Probation Office in downtown Knoxville for processing. While going to the sixth-floor FBI offices in the John J. Duncan Federal Office Building, the group was reportedly met by a television crew from Washington as they exited an elevator. Moncier is now accusing the Justice Department in Washington of leaking the story to a national television network and is expected to argue at a hearing later this afternoon that he be allowed to speak about the case to the news media. Current local rules prohibit him from doing so. Oakley reportedly has a high school diploma and has worked as a maintenance worker or laborer all his life. The only reported blemish on his legal record was a reckless driving arrest in 1967, but that charge was later dismissed, according to a court document. Dennis Hill, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs, said he could not comment on the case. John Shewairy of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge office said the same thing. Billy Stair, a spokesman at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, today confirmed that the lab “participated closely” with the U.S. attorney’s office in the investigation. Stair said he could not confirm any details or discuss the case, but he emphasized the reported suspect is not an ORNL employee. “He was not one of our people. I know that’s for sure,” Stair said. WNBC.com of New York said federal investigators are calling the theft of secrets a “serious breach” of security. Oak Ridge has a long history of nuclear research, dating back to the World War II Manhattan Project. In more recent times, ORNL has collaborated with the U.S. Enrichment Corp. on development of advanced centrifuge technologies to enhance the capabilities for enriching uranium for nuclear reactor fuel. Elizabeth Stuckle, a spokeswoman for USEC in Bethesda, Md., said, “It has nothing to do with USEC at all.” Bechtel Jacobs, DOE’s environmental cleanup manager, is engaged in a years-long cleanup and dismantlement of former uranium-enrichment facilities at the East Tennessee Technology Park. That includes the removal of uranium deposits in the process systems at the K-25 building, a World War II-era structure. Even though the gaseous diffusion operations are more than 60 years old, much of the technology remains classified. Security at U.S. Department of Energy facilities has a huge concern in recent years, dating back to the Wen Ho Lee scandal in 1999 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Lee initially was accused of accused of stealing nuclear secrets for the People’s Republic of China, but he was later cleared of those allegations. There have been many other incidents, however, and last the National Nuclear Security Administration proposed a $3 million fine against the operating contractors at Los Alamos for violation of security requirements involving classified information. Investigations at that lab revealed that security weaknesses allowed a subcontractor employee to reproduce and remove classified info from the federal site. More details as they develop online and in Friday’s News Sentinel. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 55 Telegraph: Four UK diplomats expelled as Russia retaliates - By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow and David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent Last Updated: 8:10pm BST 19/07/2007 Video: David Miliband condemns the expulsionsBoris Berezovsky: 'Putin behind plot to kill me'Speech: Miliband's vision for UK foreign policy (full text) Britain’s confrontation with Russia escalated yesterday when the Kremlin ordered the tit-for-tat expulsion of four British diplomats from Moscow. Moscow will also halt co-operation in the war on terror David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, denounced this response to Britain’s ejection of four Russian diplomats as “completely unjustified”. He repeated his call for Moscow to hand over Andrei Lugovoi, the main suspect in the murder of the former KGB spy, Alexander Litvinenko, in London last year. Russia’s move came as Mr Miliband delivered his first speech since taking over at the Foreign Office. In a lecture at Chatham House in London, he said that Britain should be “global hub” and place combating “extremism, radicalisation and conflict” as the first priority of its foreign policy. Russia, however, remains defiant against British pressure and says that its constitution prevents Mr Lugovoi’s extradition. “Four British embassy staff in Moscow are now persona non grata and they should leave the Russian Federation within 10 days,” said Mikhail Kamynin, the foreign ministry spokesman, in a terse statement. Sir Anthony Brenton, the British Ambassador in Moscow, was summoned by the Russian foreign ministry and handed the names of those to be expelled. Their identities have not been released. Russia also imposed a visa ban on British officials and said that it would cease cooperation with London in the war on terrorism. Robust though Moscow’s response was, it came at the lower end of the spectrum of possible retaliation. There had been fears the Kremlin would eject a greater number of British diplomats — a move that could have forced Britain into taking additional steps. “We feel that we kept our nerve and were right to do so,” said a Whitehall source. “It doesn’t look like we’ll have to do more in terms of further expulsions.” In a significant diplomatic victory, Mr Miliband has won the backing of America and the European Union — leaving Russia’s position on the Litvinenko row looking increasingly isolated. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, both called their Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to express their concerns about Russia’s behaviour. Speaking in Lisbon, Miss Rice told Sky News that Russia should meet Britain’s request for Mr Lugovoi’s extradition. “A terrible crime has been committed on British soil,” she said. “Russia should honour the extradition request and cooperate fully.” By the standards of diplomatic standoffs between Russia and some if its ex-Soviet neighbours, Moscow’s response has been relatively restrained — especially in view of the increasingly vitriolic anti-Western rhetoric emanating from the Kremlin recently. There have also been signals that the Kremlin is keen to repair ties with Britain — at least in part. Yesterday, President Vladimir Putin referred to a “mini-crisis” in Anglo-Russian relations and said it could be overcome. “A response exceeding London’s tough steps was not discussed,” said Alexei Gromyko, director of the British Studies Centre, an official think tank with close ties to Russia’s foreign ministry. “By not retaliating with tougher measures, Moscow is sending a signal that normalisation of relations is now in London’s hands.” But a resolution of the Litvinenko murder looks more distant than ever. “We cannot extradite Lugovoi,” said Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman. “We are not welcoming any request from Britain to change our constitution. We do not think it is polite.” Mr Miliband has faced this crisis in Anglo-Russian relations after barely three weeks in office. Yesterday, he made his first major speech laying out his vision of foreign affiars. “Just as the City of London acts as the centre of the global financial market, British cities and institutions and ideas can become the hubs for scientific, cultural and political collaboration,” he said. Mr Miliband said that America would continue to be Britain’s “single most important” ally and that Gordon Brown’s Government would be willing to use military force where necessary. There was a “continued role for hard power intervention,” he said. Mr Miliband cited the war in Kosovo in 1999 as an example of successful military action designed to stop “ethnic cleansing”. He added: “Britain under Gordon Brown’s leadership has the strength to make a difference in the world, and thereby make a difference to Britain.” © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2007. | Terms ***************************************************************** 56 WATE: Former Bechtel Jacobs contract worker charged with trying to sell nuclear secrets Roy Lynn Oakley Attorney statement on Roy Lynn Oakley Charges against Roy Lynn Oakley July 19, 2007 KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- A former Bechtel Jacobs contract worker is charged with trying to sell stolen, classified Department of Energy material used for enriching uranium to foreign governments. Roy Lynn Oakley, 65, of Roane County, was arrested Thursday after turning himself in to the FBI. Oakley's attorney, Herb Moncier, says Oakley was detained and questioned months earlier on January 26 by the FBI. Court appearance and charges Oakley appeared in federal court in Knoxville Thursday afternoon. He's charged with two counts of possessing hardware used in uranium enrichment, according to the federal indictment unsealed in court. If he's convicted, he would have violated the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. A statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office says Oakley is accused of taking the material, parts of nuclear rods, to his property from October 17, 2006 until January 26 of this year. He's also accused of disclosing to someone that he had the material on January 26. Oakley is accused of trying to sell that material to undercover FBI agents at McGhee Tyson Airport on January 26, the same day he and his wife's mobile home was raided in Roane County's Midtown Community. Oakley pleaded not guilty to the charges. According to his attorney, he could be sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. In court, Oakley, who was in hand cuffs, wore jeans and a short sleeved shirt. He said he had no preliminary questions about the charges. Oakley was released from custody Thursday afternoon on a $25,000 signature bond. Officials have scheduled a pre-trial conference for Oakley on August 19. His trial is scheduled to begin on September 26. Attorney disputes charges His attorney says Oakley took a piece of trash he hoped to sell to make money, not to do any harm to the U.S. "It's stunning, unfounded, unfair and somebody somewhere is trying to spin this for a purpose other than who Roy Oakley really is," his attorney says. Oakley reportedly held a "low level" job with Bechtel Jacobs, a contractor for the East Tennessee Technology Park, until January. He was assigned to break up rods with his hands into small sections to be thrown away. Oakley's attorney says those rods weren't radioactive and the broken pieces had no apparent use, except to be disposed. Federal accusations Federal officials said Oakley wanted to sell the secrets to someone pretending to be an agent of the French government to assist in its nuclear energy program. Officials are reported as saying they had serious concerns the documents could have fallen into the hands of enemy states or terrorist organizations. However, they say the material never made it out of the U.S. Representatives from DOE said scientists examined the material and determined it posed no threats to anyone who would have come in contact with it unknowingly. More about Oakley Fox News also reports sources saying Oakley was in deep debt and looking for a way out of it. Oakley was convicted of reckless driving in 1967. It's the only conviction on his record. More about the DOE facility The East Tennessee Technology Park is the former K-25 facility. It's run by the Department of Energy. The Park once housed the government's gaseous diffusion plant, used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and WATE. All Rights ***************************************************************** 57 WBIR.COM: Rep. Wamp, DoE boss make statements on Oakley case By: Jake Jost, Investigative Producer Last updated: 7/19/2007 8:14:43 PM statement by Congressman Zach Wamp "I'm gravely disappointed that the Justice Department actually prevented the Department of Energy from clarifying this misstatement before it went out all across the country, which has caused this story to be blown out of proportion, insinuating that it's actually at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory." statement by Gerald Boyd, Manager of the Department of Energy Oak Ridge site My name is Gerald Boyd, Manager of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge site office. I am the federal official with oversight of activities being preformed both by federal employees and contractors at the various facilities on the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation. I am limited in what I can say because this is an ongoing law enforcement matter, but as you know, today the U.S. Attorney in Knoxville, Tennessee, handed down an indictment of a former Bechtel Jacobs contractor employee who had been employed Oak Ridge's East Tennessee Technology Park. The East Tennessee Technology Park is an area of the Oak Ridge reservation where we are currently decontaminating and decommissioning buildings that were last used in 1985. When they were in use, now over 20 years ago, some of the buildings at ETTP housed facilities used for the enrichment of uranium. The individual in question was not an employee of the Oak Ridge National Lab, as has been erroneously reported. As the indictment states, the individual in question is accused of converting restricted government materials to his own use and attempting to illegally transfer the restricted materials to another person. These are very serious charges, but as the Department of Justice has stated, at no time was the material in question ever actually transferred to a foreign government or terrorist organization and at no time was there any risk to the health or safety of the public. We at the Department of Energy take the responsibility of overseeing sensitive work, information and material very seriously. The security of that information and the safety of our employees and the community in which we live and work is our top priority. The East Tennessee Technology Park, and the entire Oak Ridge reservation, are protected by multiple layers of security systems and detection programs - both visible and unseen, meant to identify rogue employees attempting to abuse their access and position. In this case, our layered approach successfully identified the individual in question, and because of the close coordination between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Energy's Office of Counterintelligence, the FBI successfully interrupted the accused individual's apparent intentions. After the situation in question came to our attention, I conducted a review of high risk security procedures. This review included officials from Bechtel Jacobs, the contractor who performs environmental cleanup work at the East Tennessee Technology Park, as well as officials from DOE's office of Counterintelligence and the FBI. And while that review concluded that the layered systems in place had worked, we are always monitoring the effectiveness of our programs and looking for ways to improve our systems. Unfortunately, there are some who make unfortunate choices and abuse the trust given to them, and this case demonstrates the importance of federal coordination and the need for ongoing vigilance. Make no mistake though, the men and women who work on the Oak Ridge Reservation, whether it be the East Tennessee Technology Park, the Oak Ridge National Lab, Y-12, or the various other facilities on the site are hardworking individuals dedicated to their community and their nation. The actions of one accused individual should never take away from that fact. I can assure you that we here at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge site office will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement authorities to assist in the ongoing investigation and proceedings in any way that we can. In closing, I would like to reiterate that a security system designed to detect the very type of illegal activity disclosed today worked. Thank you for your time. US Department of Energy K-25 uranium enrichment site (1995) Copyright ©2007 WBIR-TV Knoxville ***************************************************************** 58 AFP: US man charged in theft of nuclear material Thu Jul 19, 6:44 PM ET CHICAGO (AFP) - An employee at a US nuclear research laboratory was arrested Thursday for taking secret uranium enrichment equipment, the Justice Department announced. Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, worked for Bechtel Jacobs, a contractor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a US nuclear research facility created in the 1940s to develop a nuclear bomb. Oakley was charged with taking US government data and hardware and agreeing to pass it to another person. ABC television said he was arrested trying to sell it to an undercover agent. It was unclear how the low-level contract worker, who did maintenance work and escorted visitors at the Oak Ridge National lab in Knoxville, Tennessee, managed to access the classified documents. Bechtel Jacobs is the Department of Energy's prime environmental management contractor at East Tennessee Technology Park. The company specializes in decontamination and nuclear waste management. Oakley had reason to believe that equipment would be "utilized to injure the United States and secure an advantage to a foreign nation," the Justice Department statement said. He was to appear before a US Magistrate in Knoxville later Thursday. If convicted on both charges, Oakley could be imprisoned for up to 20 years, and pay a fine of 500,000 dollars. The US Department of Energy said the materials posed no threat to people who may have come across them. "While none of the stolen equipment was ever transmitted to a foreign government or terrorist organization, the facts of this case demonstrate the importance of safeguarding our nuclear technology and pursuing aggressive prosecutions against those who attempt to breach the safeguards and put that technology in the wrong hands," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said in the statement. ***************************************************************** 59 [NYTr] Japan Admits Radiation Leak Worse than Previously Stated Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:05:32 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Riaz K. Tayob (activ-l) - Jul 18, 2007 BBC - Jul 18, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6903964.stm Japan admits greater nuclear leak This shows the risks of this recently baptised "clean" (at least for GHG) nuclear powerstations.... Japan admits greater nuclear leak *A radioactive leak at a major nuclear plant in Japan damaged by an earthquake on Monday was worse than previously thought, the plant's operators say. * Owner Tokyo Electric Power company said 50% more radiation was discharged into the sea, following the magnitude 6.8 quake, than was earlier reported. But the firm insisted the leak was still well below danger levels. The mayor of nearby Kashiwazaki City has ordered the plant to remain closed indefinitely. Hiroshi Aida said the plant could not reopen until its safety had been verified. Meanwhile, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's atomic agency, has called on Japan to investigate the incident to "make sure that we learn the necessary lesson from the earthquake". * Exceeded expectations * In a statement, the Tokyo Electric Power company (Tepco) said there had been a mistake calculating the radioactive level of water that leaked into the sea. It was 50% more radioactive than had been announced, the company said. "But the corrected radioactivity is also below the legal limits and does not affect the environment," Tepco said. Despite Tepco's reassurances, the incident has triggered public concern and criticism of the company. The seven-reactor plant suffered more than 50 malfunctions as a result of Monday's earthquake. As well as the leak, a small amount of radioactive gas was emitted into the atmosphere. There was also a fire at an electrical transformer, and a number of drums containing low level nuclear waste came open after falling over. Tepco President Tsunehisa Katsumata has apologised for the incidents. "I think we can say the size of the earthquake was beyond our expectations," he said as he visited the plant. "We regret what happened and will strive to make this a power plant that is safe," he said. The plant is located close to the epicentre of Monday's earthquake, which killed nine people, injured hundreds and flattened scores of homes. Officials at Japan's Meteorological Agency said that they were examining whether a fault line could stretch underneath the plant. "We cannot deny the possibility" the plant sat on a fault, the French news agency AFP quoted the agency's Osamu Kamigaichi as saying. * BBC MMVII * ================================================================ .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 ================================================================ ***************************************************************** 60 Insider Reveals 6 Hidden Secrets Your Government Prays You'll Never Find Out. Can We Trust Nuclear? Expert Dr. Thomas Moore, Author of Hillary - PR.com Dr. Thomas Moore, structural engineer, who has performed forensic investigations of earthquake damage in many countries, including nuclear facilities in Japan, says we may be seeing just the tip of the iceberg at Tokyo Electric in regard to issues of nuclear safety. Kashiwazaki, Japan, July 19, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Dr. Thomas Moore, structural engineer, alleges that "the closing down of the nuclear plant at Kashiwazaki due to only a moderate earthquake is significant news... because the Japanese building code is relatively stringent with regard to seismic resistance." Dr. Moore says he has performed forensic investigations of the earthquake-resistant performance of buildings in many countries, including nuclear facilities in Japan, and says "we may be seeing just the tip of the iceberg in regard to issues of nuclear safety." Dr. Thomas Moore, (author of Hillary, Upland Road, and Progress of Man), has traced the history of nuclear accidents and structural engineering building failures, in his latest book, “Hillary,” which is due for release at the end of this month. Dr. Moore says he has "personally witnessed censoring or withholding of forensic information on structural performance under event-loading to play down vulnerability or uncertainty of US engineering or construction practices to resist either earthquakes, wind storms, fire, or explosive forces... to an extent that he feels public safety is being compromised for the sake of protecting worn-out practices, or protecting the budgets of developers." Dr. Moore says that his book addresses "several issues of conspiracy which has lead to a compromising of public safety." He says, "We continue to face a crisis of integrity that started years ago with our leadership in Washington DC, and threatens to spread contageously through all levels of society: from law to business, from family to relationship, from personal accountability to addictions." Dr. Moore claims that his new novel, “Hillary,” exposes societal issues of integrity and conspiracy, based on several real events, and questions what hope a virtuous leader of the future might have of cleaning up the system from six looming issues of integrity. Project Director: Anthony Chaytor, Contact 818-823-5658, 011640210752255, or Email: alphar@xtra.co.nz web: or www.alpharpublish.com for interviews. ### Contact Information Alphar Publishing Thomas Moore 646-912-3515, 011640210752255 alphar@xtra.co.nz www.alpharpublish.com www.alpharpublish.com 01164034727794 818-823-5658 ***************************************************************** 61 EBR: EC to launch nuclear safety group - Energy Business Review 18th July 2007 By Clare Watson The European Commission has announced plans to establish a high-level group for nuclear safety and waste management. The group will develop a common understanding and will reinforce common approaches in nuclear installation safety. The high level of representation expected from countries that operate or possess nuclear installations, as well as from countries that have chosen not to use this form of energy, should facilitate Europe-wide co-operation and increase confidence in the levels of safety in European nuclear facilities, the commission said. "The aim of the group is to swiftly identify relevant safety issues, ensure coherent action by the member states authorities and make recommendations on whether any course of action should be taken at EU level - I am confident this will reinforce the safety of Europe's nuclear installations," said EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs. The European Commission (EC) said that the idea of the group is to bring together the senior regulators of the member states in charge of nuclear safety, who would have to agree on priority items to tackle. Specific areas of action for the group will include the safety and decommissioning of nuclear installations, as well as the management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. According to the EC, transparency will be another essential aspect of the group's work and it will report its agreed approaches and recommendations to the European Parliament regularly. Meanwhile, the larger public will have access to any decisions made via a dedicated website. ©2007 Business Review ***************************************************************** 62 UPI: Study: Elevated child leukemia near nukes United Press International - Consumer Health Daily - Briefing Published: July 19, 2007 at 3:42 PM CHARLESTON, S.C., July 19 (UPI) -- A review of 136 countries including United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Japan found child leukemia rates elevated near nuclear plants. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston did a meta-analysis of 17 research papers covering 136 nuclear sites and found that death rates for children up to the age of 9 were elevated by between 5 percent and 24 percent, depending on their proximity to nuclear facilities, and by 2 percent to 18 percent in children and young people up to the age of 25. Incidence rates were increased by 14 percent to 21 percent in infants to 9-year-olds and 7 percent to 10 percent in infants to 25-year-olds, according to the study published in the European Journal of Cancer Care. But the authors point out that dose-response studies they looked at, which describe how an organism is affected by different levels of exposure, did not show excess rates near nuclear facilities. "Several difficulties arise when conducting dose-response studies in an epidemiological setting as they rely on a wide range of factors that are often hard to quantify," lead author Dr. Peter J. Baker of the Medical University of South Carolina said in a statement. "It is also possible that there are environmental issues involved that we don't yet understand." Del.icio.us | Digg it | RSS © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. United Press International, UPI, the UPI logo, and other trademarks and service marks, are registered or unregistered trademarks of United Press International, Inc. in the United States and in other countries. Post A Comment Your Name Your Email Address Comments Security Code Latest Stories Most Popular Popular Videos * Court orders new trial for Somali national * Mosque bombing kills 12 in Pakistan * Internet via power lines set to launch * Scientists: Flood made Britain an island * Mass. governor announces biotech plan * Brits advised to head to U.S. for holidays * 'Sicko' sponsors contest * Senate committee OKs indecency bill * MLB: Cleveland 7, Texas 5 * MLS All-Stars defeat Scottish powerhouse * Newborn giraffe at Indianapolis Zoo * Goddess cleansed of U.S. taint * Lung cancer lays Tammy Faye Messner low * Human remains found inside Boeing 747 * Teen gets cash stash with eBay package * Ice cream stick ship set to sail * Inexpensive solar cell technology created * Petraeus asks for more time in Iraq * Judge tosses Plame suit against Cheney * Racial slur outrages law students * Man alleges religious bias at JetBlue * Oil report faces energy's 'hard truths' * Haiti: Ex-rebel leader eludes authorities * Autistic child's tortoise mutilated * Death toll rising in India from building collapse * Forbes names Gisele Bundchen richest model * Hundreds may be dead after plane crash in Brazil * Dropouts: A Nationwide Dilemma * Benoit's body tests positive for steroids * Paris Hilton talks about time in jail * Sheryl Crow and Karl Rove clash at gala * Bush calls for Israel-Palestine peace talks * Carrie Underwood wins big at ACM awards * Mandy Moore to star in reality TV special * Japan quake injures hundreds * "Harry Potter" works magic at U.S. box offices ***************************************************************** 63 LocalNews8.com: Wildfire breaks out southeast of Idaho National Laboratory Idaho Falls, Pocatello - Associated Press - July 19, 2007 7:34 AM ET BOISE, Idaho (AP) - About 700 employees at the Idaho National Laboratory have been told not to report to work today because of a wildfire. The blaze started last night and as of early today covered more than four thousand acres of sagebrush and grassland, more than six and a half square miles. The fire is on the southeast side of the the federal nuclear research area, which covers 890 square miles in the southeast Idaho desert. INL spokesman John Epperson says the cause of the fire has not been determined. It is being fought by INL and Bureau of Land Management firefighters. Last night the fire advanced within a mile of U.S. Highway 20, and traffic on that road remains closed from junction with U.S. 26 to the eastern site boundary. Employees at the nearest INL facility, the Materials and Fuels Complex, are being told not to report to work today as a precaution. However, Epperson says the nuclear research laboratories and is well-protected by firebreaks. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KIFI. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 64 Las Vegas SUN: Gibbons seen undermining a nuke-free Yucca Today: July 19, 2007 at 7:24:2 PDT By Jeff German <jeff.german@lasvegassun.com> It was not one of Gov. Jim Gibbons' friendlier meetings. Earlier this month in Gibbons' office, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Bob Loux, the state's Yucca Mountain watchdog, strongly pushed the governor and his key aides to stop the U.S. Energy Department from using the state's water for drilling at the high-level nuclear waste project. The advice to Gibbons was unanimous: It's time to get tough with the feds. Don't give the Energy Department any chance to collect new data that could bolster its collapsing case to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste dump. But Gibbons, reminding those at the meeting that he's a geologist and a lawyer, rejected the concerns. This week he continued down that path by encouraging and publicly supporting a move by State Engineer Tracy Taylor to allow the Energy Department to continue using the water for a month longer. Although Gibbons has said he was following Taylor's recommendation, sources said it was clear that Gibbons was calling the shots on the water decision. That move was coupled with the Republican governor's replacement of Michon Mackedon, one of the most experienced and fiercest Yucca Mountain opponents on the Nevada Nuclear Projects Commission, with Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley, a well-known Yucca Mountain advocate. Late Wednesday, after Democrats and the media began pointing out her pro-dump position, the appointment was rescinded. In a statement, Gibbons took political spin to a new level by trying to distance himself from the flap over the appointment - by conveniently neglecting to mention that he had made the appointment in the first place. "This position on the Nuclear Project Commission requires a representative who shares the primary sentiment of Nevada's residents and my administration's views on the Yucca Mountain project," the governor's statement said. That was as true when Gibbons appointed Eastley, Yucca critics noted, as when he retreated amid growing controversy. Gibbons insists that he remains steadfastly against the dump. But his actions this week, seemingly contrary to Nevada's quarter-century battle to block the repository, shocked leading Yucca Mountain opponents, giving them reason to question the governor's resolve in the epic fight. "This demonstrates to me that he either doesn't know what he's doing or he's reversed his position," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said Wednesday. "Either way it's unacceptable. "What is this man thinking?" Berkley added. "The one thing that has saved Nevada all of these years is that we speak with one voice, no matter what party we belong to. For Jim Gibbons to break ranks at this very sensitive time is dangerous to the state of Nevada and its citizens." Neither Gibbons nor his aides have offered public explanations for the governor's perplexing moves. In particular, they have not explained how giving federal authorities more time to build a case for Yucca Mountain or appointing a Yucca advocate to the nuclear projects board could possibly be interpreted as being in line with the state's opposition to the plan. Mackedon, who lives in Fallon, said Gibbons' actions, including the abrupt way in which he replaced her with a Yucca Mountain proponent, caused her to worry about his loyalty to the fight. "It's raising concerns in my mind about what his end game might be," she said. "He's sending out mixed signals." Mackedon, who served through previous Democratic and Republican administrations, was the last original member of the Nuclear Projects Commission, created by then-Gov. Richard Bryan in 1985 to help the state challenge a Yucca Mountain repository. Bryan, who now heads the commission, said he received calls Wednesday from people worried that Gibbons' actions have made it appear that the state was softening its stance against the dump. "These two recent developments have not been helpful," Bryan said, adding that he did not understand the rationale for allowing the Energy Department continued access to the state's water. On Tuesday, after Gibbons publicly endorsed the decision to let the water flow to the Energy Department, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blasted the move, calling it a blow to the fight and the "biggest gift" the department has received since he's been in Washington. Although Gibbons backtracked on the Eastley appointment, his aides Wednesday stood firm on the water issue. On June 1 Taylor had issued a cease-and-desist order prohibiting the Energy Department from using the state's water to cool drill bits used to bore soil sample holes near Yucca Mountain. Eleven days later, Taylor lifted the order, and with this week's letter provided a 30-day extension for the water use. "If the state engineer felt that he could legally turn off the water today, the governor would support that 100 percent," press secretary Melissa Subbotin said. The decision to allow the Energy Department to continue using the water, Subbotin said, was a "collaborative" effort made with the help of legal advice. Sun reporter Mary Manning contributed to this story. Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at 259-4067 or at german@lasvegassun.com. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 65 BBC NEWS: Radioactive monitoring stepped up Last Updated: Thursday, 19 July 2007, 12:35 GMT 13:35 UK There is currently no evidence of particles moving into the firth Radioactive monitoring of beaches on the Scottish side of the Solway Firth is to be stepped up. The move followed an increase in the number of radioactive particles being found on the Cumbrian shore. They were identified as having come from the Sellafield nuclear plant and concerns have been raised they could be carried over by the tide. However spokesman Paul Dale said there was a risk that it could happen, adding that the agency would commission a programme of monitoring beaches on the Scottish coast to see if any contamination was present. 'Health risk' Sepa was alerted by its English counterpart about an increase in the number of radioactive particles on beaches in North Cumbria. Dumfries and Galloway's director of public health Derek Cox said current evidence suggested that the risk to human health was exceedingly small. He said there was no need to reduce access to, or use of, any of the region's beaches. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 66 ReviewJournal.com: Gibbons backs off on nuclear panel pick Jul. 19, 2007 By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL Under pressure for appointing a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project supporter to the anti-Yucca state Nuclear Projects Commission, Gov. Jim Gibbons on Wednesday rescinded his choice of Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley to replace vice chairwoman Michon Mackedon. "This position on the Nuclear Project Commission requires a representative who shares the primary sentiment of Nevada's residents and my administration's views on the Yucca Mountain Project," Gibbons said in a statement, accepting Eastley's resignation before she even attended one of the commission's meetings. The statement refers to Eastley's "decision to resign" but doesn't explain why she chose to do so. Gibbons has said if he found out Eastley was a Yucca Mountain supporter he would rescind her appointment. "It is my intention to have representation from Nye County and to ensure that this person can work with commission on our ongoing efforts to defeat the Yucca Mountain Project," Gibbons' statement reads. Attempts to reach Eastley in Tonopah were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, some of Nevada's leaders and the Democratic Party harshly criticized Gibbons' decision to let the state engineer give the Department of Energy water for another 30 days of drilling near the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The federal agency's effort at the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been staunchly opposed by Nevada's elected officials. Many are saying the state is missing a chance to prevent DOE from gathering geologic information from the site that's needed for licensing the project's above-ground facilities. "I don't understand the logic," said Richard Bryan, a former governor and U.S. senator who chairs the Nuclear Projects Commission. Bryan said he was out of the loop in the governor's decisions on both the Yucca water issue and his choice of Eastley for the commission. "Nye County has been a problem for the delegation almost from the beginning," Bryan said, prior to the governor's reversal of selecting Eastley to fill the seat of Mackedon, a long-time opponent of the Yucca Mountain Project. Mackedon's term ended June 30. "I don't know where she stands, but Nye County and Lincoln County have been thorns in the side of the delegation's opposition to the dump," Bryan said. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said he, too, was scratching his head about Gibbons' approval of cutting DOE some slack on water use at Yucca Mountain for another month, even though the use for drilling is not in the state's interest. Ensign said he wasn't consulted by the governor after State Engineer Tracy Taylor first ordered DOE to stop using the state's water for bore-hole drilling on June 1. Taylor lifted the cease-and-desist order 12 days later while he mulled letting DOE continue its deliberate, unauthorized use of the water until mid-August. "The lawyers I have on my staff say it doesn't make sense to them," Ensign said. "We are trying to figure it out. I don't understand it." Ensign said he had not spoken with Gibbons, but would do so. "We are trying to find out why they think this would be the right policy," Ensign said. The state historically has taken the hardest lines against the Energy Department on Yucca Mountain matters. Ensign said a change of strategy was news to him. He said Nevada's handling of Yucca matters "usually is done with more coordination" between Nevada officials and the congressional delegation. In a statement Wednesday, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., urged Gibbons "to reverse his administration's recent decision." "Denying the Department of Energy access to water for work at Yucca Mountain is one of the strongest weapons Nevada has in its fight to prevent our state from becoming a nuclear garbage dump," Berkley said. "The Energy Department should not be able to use one single drop of Nevada water to further President Bush's goal of dumping toxic nuclear waste 90 minutes outside Las Vegas," she said. Berkley noted that Bush "is pushing Congress to pass legislation that would override Nevada's control of its own water resources." She said Bush "realizes that without water, there will be no nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain." Meanwhile, the State Democratic Party pointed to Eastley's stance on Yucca Mountain, describing her as one of the most vocal supporters of the project. "Either Gibbons didn't check her position or isn't being straight with Nevadans to tell us he is stopping the dump. It's either one or the other," said Kirsten Searer, deputy executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party. Gibbons said Tuesday he will insist that all appointments he makes to the Nuclear Projects Commission align with the state's long-standing anti-Yucca views. Gibbons spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said the governor wouldn't react to comments by Ensign and Berkley. "We've already stated that we're going to support the decision," she said, referring to the state engineer's decision. Gibbons confirmed Tuesday that he backs Taylor's letter this week to DOE, giving Yucca Mountain officials until Friday to accept the letter's conditions. If DOE agrees, then federal scientists must stop using Nevada's water for drilling bore holes by Aug. 15, giving DOE roughly enough time to finish 80 bore holes where water is needed to cool and lubricate bits and create mud for sample collection. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Gibbons' decision to back the state engineer's letter amounted to an act of surrender in the state's decades-long fight against the Yucca Mountain Project. "I am terribly disappointed. This is a bad day for Nevada," Reid said Tuesday. If DOE doesn't accept the letter's conditions, then after Friday "no water may be used for any bore hole drilling projects currently underway," Taylor's letter reads. Not accepting the terms would make the issue ripe for legal action. Marta Adams, Nevada's senior deputy attorney general, has been handling the Yucca water case. She oversees the court-approved agreement on water use that Taylor accused DOE of breaching and said she is ready to enforce the state engineer's decision. "At this point, since the engineer has opined we will be enforcing the order, we stand ready to support it and enforce it." Stephens Washington Bureau chief Steve Tetreault contributed to this report. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 67 NCBR: Public meeting set on uranium project Northern Colorado Business Report - By Staff July 19, 2007 -- NUNN - The developer of a proposed uranium mining project near this tiny Weld County town about 20 miles north of Greeley will hold a public meeting Thursday, July 19, to provide answers to questions about the company's Centennial Project and its timeline. Powertech (USA) Inc. will host the townhall-style event at the Nunn Community Center, 185 Lincoln Ave., from 4 to 7:30 p.m. For more information, call (303) 796-8888. Powertech (USA) Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vancouver-based Powertech Uranium Corp. The Canadian mineral exploration and development company is proposing to mine uranium on 5,760 acres in Weld County. In addition to the mineral rights it owns on those acres, the company has also purchased six parcels in the area since March, according to Weld County assessor records, spending about $1.2 million for a total of about 434 acres. Some local residents and others have raised questions about the project's possible impact on groundwater and the environment. Powertech is proposing to extract the uranium deposits through an in-situ leaching process that would rely on the injection of water into the ground. Opponents have raised concerns over the possibility of uranium-contaminated water entering the underground aquifer and other local water supplies. Powertech also has rights to mine uranium deposits in Wyoming and South Dakota. ©2007 Northern Colorado Business Report. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 68 Rocky Mountain News: Driller leaves mess behind Nervous neighbors seek answers from oil, gas commission Matt McClain © The Rocky Signs mark the spot of the Project Rulison Nuclear Explosive Emplacement Well on Cary Weldon's property. The experiment failed because the natural gas produced was too radioactive. By Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News July 19, 2007 A Texas company drilling for natural gas near an area where an underground nuclear test took place in 1969 has sold its operations, leaving a string of environmental violations. Woodlands, Texas-based Presco Inc. sold all its property and gas wells near the Project Rulison site in Garfield County to Noble Energy Production Inc. on May 8 for an undisclosed sum. On the same day, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission cited the company for eight violations. The commission already had issued two notices of violations the week before. Storm water and snowmelt this spring filled up several pits at the company's drilling sites, overflowing into well pads and surrounding areas. "Sacks of chemicals and drums were floating in the pit," one violation notice stated. "Puddles of condensate and unidentified chemical residue were observed on the pad." Noble says it was not aware of Presco's violation notices when it closed the acquisition May 8. For now, Noble is correcting the problems at its own cost. But the company said it has not determined whether it will pay any fines or penalties associated with those violations. Neighbors who live in the area have been trying to get some answers, and until recently were ignored by the oil and gas commission. "This always has been in the back of our minds since the late 1990s," said New Castle resident Doug DeNio. "When oil and gas companies come and go and leave a mess behind, who's held responsible? "It seems like our worst fears are coming true." Last year, Presco paid a $1,000 fine for discharging drilling mud into Battlement Creek, which supplies water to nearby communities. The commission has not made a decision about fines on recent violations. "The future course of action has yet to be determined on those sites," said Brian Macke, director of the oil and gas commission. 1969 nuclear explosion Presco surprised the industry and local community two years ago when it announced plans to drill in the Rulison area. The 1969 nonmilitary nuclear explosion by the government in Rulison Field, eight miles southwest of Rifle in Garfield County, was intended to break shale and release natural gas trapped in the rock. A well at Rulison produced gas, but it was too radioactive. Oil and gas companies cannot drill within a half-mile radius of Rulison Field, a buffer made official by state regulators after local residents protested against drilling because of safety concerns. In 2005, Presco began drilling outside the buffer zone. The company hired a Chinese-built rig manned by Chinese crews to drill wells, setting off another round of protests. Earlier this year, Presco Vice President Kim Bennetts said the company would request a commission hearing to drill within the half-mile radius. Then, on May 8, Presco sold its properties and wells to Noble, even as the commission issued eight notices "of alleged violations" against the company. Presco says it is not responsible for those notices. "I am not aware of the details that occurred after Noble assumed operations," Bennetts said. "We have no responsibility in Colorado at this point." Noble spokesman Steven Flaherty said the company assumed operations four days after the buyout and "immediately started working to improve the conditions of the properties." "If there is a fine associated with these (violations) I am not sure who will pay," Flaherty said. "The two companies are working that out." Asked for water test Rulison resident Wesley Kent says he repeatedly asked a commission inspector in the past month to test his water well for possible contamination after Presco's pits overflowed and flooded well pads. Kent's neighbor, Brady Weldon, said his family has similar concerns about contamination. The Kents and the Weldons live within the half-mile radius of Project Rulison, and there are no gas wells on their properties. "My concern is, if no one is looking, you can't find anything," Kent said. "And no one is looking right now." Kent said the commission didn't heed his requests for water tests until Wednesday - after the Rocky Mountain News e-mailed queries to the commission on Tuesday. Macke said the commission received Kent's request this week, and requests for water tests are treated with high priority. An inspector was scheduled to sample Kent's water well Wednesday. "This points out the hopelessness we feel (while) dealing with the commission and the drilling companies," Kent said. "They are not looking out for our welfare at all." chakrabartyg@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2976 ***************************************************************** 69 Daily News Journal: Public lacks trust in state program for radiation waste www.dnj.com - No trust. That's the overriding theme in the conflict between Rutherford County residents and state government over disposal of low-level radioactive waste at Middle Point Landfill. No matter what steps are taken by the state Department of Environment and Conservation to explain how safe it is to bury these types of material at the privately-owned landfill, area residents will remain skeptical. Before a public hearing in Murfreesboro Tuesday night, state officials provided time for people to ask questions about radiation and its Bulk Survey for Release program, which allows Tennessee to streamline the process for disposing of materials with low levels of radiation at five landfills across the state. State officials explained that the low-level waste being buried at Middle Point, north of Murfreesboro in the Walter Hill area, holds no threat to the health of people or the Stones River, the water source for much of Rutherford County. People listened but still had their doubts. During the public hearing, Citizens to End Nuclear Dumping in Tennessee balked at the state's claims, saying no extra amount of radiation is safe. They also said the term "Bulk Survey for Release" disguises the program's meaning and pointed out that the state never held public hearings before adopting it in the early 1990s. They made good points because no matter how safe it might be to bury this type of waste at the landfill, the state failed to give due notice. It all goes back to trust. When this property was being rezoned by the County Commission in 1987, BFI (now Allied Waste) was not in the picture. The company bought the land — and with it the landfill permit — only after the county approved the rezoning for another group. This backdoor approach to bringing a regional landfill to Rutherford County created an atmosphere of mistrust, which is worse now than ever. Middle Point takes in 17 percent of all garbage buried in Tennessee, some 1.2 million tons a year. True, Rutherford County dumps free of charge and is paid for every ton of out-of-county garbage. But residents still believe the county was "hoodwinked" into becoming a dumping ground for much of Middle Tennessee. As the state moves toward a September decision on the BSFR program, it doesn't matter how many presentations are made on the safety of low-level radioactive waste. People will remain skeptical. They also feel a landfill of this magnitude has no business sitting on the banks of Rutherford County's water source. And because of the way it was handled from the very beginning, they don't trust the state or Allied Waste to run it right. The only way to regain any trust would be to stop low-level radiation dumping at Middle Point, but we don't smell that decision coming. Post a Comment View All Comments I also believe that Nancy Allen did not know that radioactive wastes would be dumped into the landfill from California. Yet, I strongly feel that her signature on the 1995 agreement with the VP of Allied Waste sealed the expansion of our landfill to allow Nashville's trash. This is not a political argument at all. Republican or Democrats are not willing at this time to STAND UP and say 'CLOSE THE DUMP. Revise the contract. We stand by the constituents and will do everything in our power to make this a better situation.' As it stands, our landfill (largest in state) will get larger and larger. No one representative is 'going to bat' to make this an issue for positive resolution. Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 6:07 pm Good editorial. I hope the DNJ can do some more investigative research and reporting on how the county got into this mess in the beginning, because maybe that would help us understand better how we can get out of this contract with BFI. Can you verify rumors that I have heard, that "other parties" who called themselves ROWMAC bought the Epps Matthews farm and then resold it, along with the permit, to BFI, and made a huge profit? This sounds to me like a front organization. BFI probably knew the county would not give them a permit because of their national reputation as polluters (and worse). I have also heard that one of the parties of ROWMAC was the brother-in-law of a prominent county official. If this is true, it shows how from the beginning this deal was a deception played upon the citizens of Rutherford. I imagine a number of people knew about the deal at the time, and perhaps this explains, at least in part, the public's distrust of government. And this deal was NOT made by Nancy Allen, but well before her time. Nobody has mentioned the fact that Nancy began her political career as a member of Recycle Rutherford, hardly the credentials of a person who wants to damage the environment. Some people have seized upon the wrong scapegoat there. I believe Nancy when she says that the word radioactive never came up during the 1995 discussions. Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:50 pm ====================================================================== It will take a human blockade of the dump before anyone in authority will take notice. The meeting the other night was nothing more than a dog and pony show. an attempt to quiet the hicks. The reality is if the dump is closed to "bulk special waste," it has no where else to go. Politicians see this as a cash cow and will not move to change the status quo. Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:43 am ====================================================================== The next step in this process is deciding how legislative hearings can be held to CLOSE the dump. We called Bredesen's office and Ketron and can get NO answers on the future of Middle Point. Bredesen pushed for moving Nashville's trash to Lascassas on his first election for Mayor. I remember his stopover in Murfreesboro and discussing this publicly. He said 'this has to happen.' Why can Nashville not take its own debris? Is there not ONE location that Nashville could contain their own landfill? Why do we have over 40 garbage trucks in a treacherous driving mode making constant trips on the narrow Jefferson Pike for this purpose? What dates can we be given that this landfill will lock its doors? We are the largest landfill in the state and growing.....now saddled with nuclear waste. Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:18 am Originally published July 19, 2007 Print this article Email this to Copyright ©2007 The Daily News Journal. All rights reserved. Users ***************************************************************** 70 RGJ.com: State officials not content with Yucca plan July 19, 2007 ANJEANETTE DAMON RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Posted: 7/19/2007 The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste dump in Mercury, Nev. is shown in this June 10, 1992 photo. Gov. Jim Gibbons' decision to allow the federal government to temporarily continue using state water for ground studies at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump site is at odds with the state's past strategy for fighting the project, a top state official said Wednesday. Also Wednesday, Gibbons rescinded an appointment he made to the Nuclear Projects Commission, which has a clear mission of opposing the nuclear waste dump, after the appointee's past statements in favor of the project came to light. The decision by the state engineer to allow the Department of Energy to continue using state water for a drilling project at the Yucca Mountain site for the next 30 days was made independently of both the state's Nuclear Project Agency and the attorney general's staff, agency director Bob Loux said. It's also at odds with the state's attempt to use its water rights as leverage against the project. "Yes, this is different from where things have been in the past," said Loux, who has helped coordinate the state's fight against Yucca Mountain with six governors. "Our concern all along has been with their ability to collect this data," he said. Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams also said the decision was made without her office. "I've handled this case all along and this most recent decision of the state engineer was made independently," she said. "I can't stress that enough. It was their decision and their's alone." The Department of Energy has been using water from two state wells for drilling operations at the site in violation of a court agreement that outlines how the DOE can use state water. State Engineer Tracy Taylor recently lifted her cease-and-desist order to gather further information on DOE activities. On Tuesday, in a decision backed by Gibbons, Taylor sent a letter to the DOE giving them 30 days to finish using the water for its drilling project or he will reinstate the cease-and-desist order. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., castigated the decision, calling it the "biggest gift the DOE has received since I've been in Washington." Loux and other opponents of the project fear the DOE is using the drilling to collect evidence to support its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must approve the project. Gibbons declined Wednesday to elaborate on his reasons for backing the state engineer, saying if the state could legally halt the DOE's water usage today, it would. "I don't think this is a departure (from past strategy)," he said. "We've granted the DOE nothing. We've objected to their actions and we continue to be opposed to what they are doing." Gibbons spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said the decision was made after extensive consultation with legal counsel. "An issue this sensitive must have been given so much attention and analysis," she said. Gibbons said his decision does nothing to undermine the state's future use of water rights to prevent the project from moving forward. The decision by the state engineer does not involve long-term use of state water for operation of a waste facility. Gibbons also came under fire Wednesday for appointing Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley to the Nuclear Projects Commission, after an extensive history of her comments in favor of the dump was revealed. Nevada Democrats sent a news release criticizing the appointment. "This position requires a representative who shares the primary sentiment of Nevada's residents and my administration's views on the Yucca Mountain Project," Gibbons said in a statement on Eastley's resignation. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 71 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Errant drum stops many WIPP shipments By Kyle Marksteiner Article Launched: 07/18/2007 09:30:34 PM MDT CARLSBAD ? Many shipments of radioactive waste being sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad have been suspended pending an investigation into one waste drum that isn't supposed to be there. BWXT, a contractor with the Department of Energy's Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project in Idaho Falls, Idaho, mistakenly shipped a drum that had not been approved, DOE officials said Wednesday. "They notified us yesterday that they had shipped a drum in error to WIPP that should not have been included in the shipment," said Kerry Watson, senior tech advisor with the Department of Energy's Field office in Carlsbad. "They had an operations error. They retrieved the wrong drum from storage." The shipment, Watson said, left Idaho on June 23 and arrived in Carlsbad two days later, where it was subsequently placed in the facility's underground repository. The drum was over-packed in a standard waste box, Watson said. Waste drums that don't meet Department of Transportation requirements are packed into such a box so they then meet DOT regulations, Watson said. Because many drums are fairly old, the over-packing process is fairly common. The incorrect drum was over-packed together with three other drums that had been properly certified, and the error was not noticed during a subsequent verification process. Employees in Idaho discovered the mistake this week. "They were doing some work in a storage facility," Watson said. "They saw a drum that they thought they'd already shipped." While the drum in question was not yet ruled as eligible for transportation, Watson said, its contents had been evaluated and identified. "We know a lot about this drum," said Dave Moody, manager of the DOE's field office in Carlsbad. "The fact that it wasn't certified doesn't mean we don't have a lot of characterization on it." "We've notified all of our regulators, and we're working with the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and NMED (New Mexico Environment Department) on a path forward," Watson said. "We know that the drum that was sent did not pose a risk to the public during the transit to WIPP and is not a danger at WIPP." But the DOE, Moody said, now has the burden of proof of convincing the EPA and NMED that leaving the particular drum here will not have any adverse effects. "If we can adequately demonstrate that, then we can propose to the state and the EPA that it remain in place," Moody said. State environmental officials are taking a wait and see attitude. "We are pleased that WIPP has taken action to suspend shipments and get to the bottom of this, but we are very concerned that DOE officials in Idaho allowed this drum to slip through the cracks," said Jon Goldstein, NMED Director of Water and Waste Management. "We are assessing the situation and will take appropriate action." The drum in question, Moody said, is currently 36 rows back in its panel at the underground waste repository. "It's going to be a difficult job to retrieve it," Moody said. "Can we do it? Yes, and we're putting a plan together we would implement if it was determined that we have to go retrieve it. But the first approach is to present a preponderance of data to support that there is no harm to humans or the environment (if the drum is simply left underground)." In the meantime, the DOE has suspended all waste shipments from the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project in Idaho. "This does not involve shipments from any other states," Watson said. "We're working with them (Idaho) to implement preventive actions and prevent reoccurrence." WIPP has been receiving between 23 and 25 shipments of contact-handled waste a week, but the bulk of them, between 15 and 17 a week, have recently been coming from the Idaho site. In addition to Idaho, WIPP is also currently receiving contact-handled shipments from Savannah River, Los Alamos and Hanford DOE sites. WIPP also receives remote-handled waste from a different portion of the facility in Idaho Falls, Moody said. "We suspended the (contact-handled) shipments (from Idaho) until we can go through this to make sure we don't have a repeat of this type of error," Watson said. "We take our regulation requirements extremely seriously." The DOE has already done a check on other over-packs that have been shipped to WIPP, Watson said. "We've verified that this was an isolated occurrence," he said. Copyright © 2005 Carlsbad Current Argus, a MediaNews Group ***************************************************************** 72 Scotsman.com: Radioactive advice role for professor Friday, 20th July 2007 A NEW chairman has been appointed for the group that advises the Government on storing radioactive waste. Professor Robert Pickard is the new chairman designate of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM). The committee will play a big role on providing the Scottish Executive and UK Government with advice on nuclear waste. Richard Lochhead, cabinet secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, said: "I am confident that Professor Pickard is the right person to take up this challenging role. "Mr Pickard will be tasked with heading up a committee to scrutinise and advise government on the long-term management of radioactive waste." This article: http://news.scotsman.com/education.cfm?id=1126492007 Last updated: 19-Jul-07 11:59 BST ©2007 Scotsman.com | contact | terms & conditions ***************************************************************** 73 Reid: Reid Highlights Yucca Safety Concerns After Japanese Quake Spills Nuclear Waste: 07/18/2007 Wednesday, July 18, 2007 Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada released the following statement as news continues to develop about the leakage of radioactive water into the Sea of Japan and the release of radioactive material from about 100 drums from the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, in Japan, as a result of the 6.8 magnitude earthquake on Monday. "My heart goes out to the families affected by the recent earthquake that struck Japan. Japan’s earthquake is yet another reason the State of Nevada cannot give up the fight against Yucca Mountain. The Yucca Mountain site is located on and adjacent to 33 faults, and is seismically active today. An incident like the one at the Japanese reactor would be a nightmare scenario at Yucca where several thousand times the amount of nuclear materials in Japan could be exposed. Instead of being released into the ocean, however, the radioactive material would be released into Nevada’s ground water. "Under the current proposal, Yucca Mountain would contain all the nuclear waste generated from more than 100 nuclear reactors. A similar accident at Yucca Mountain would jeopardize the health and safety two million people living in Southern Nevada. "As I’ve said from the beginning, I will do everything I can to ensure the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain is never built." Reno Bruce R. Thompson Courthouse & Federal Bldg 400 S. Virginia St, Suite 902 Reno, NV 89501 Phone: 775-686-5750 Fax: 775-686-5757 Las Vegas Lloyd D. George Building 333 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Suite 8016 Las Vegas, NV 89101 Phone: 702-388-5020 Fax: 702-388-5030 Carson City 600 East William St, #302 Carson City, NV 89701 Phone: 775-882-REID (7343) Fax: 775-883-1980 Washington, DC 528 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 Phone: 202-224-3542 Fax: 202-224-7327 Toll Free for Nevadans: 1-866-SEN-REID (736-7343) ***************************************************************** 74 Whitehaven News: Sellafield pay rise slammed as ‘obscene’ Published on 19/07/2007 Barry Snelson By Alan Irving ANOTHER big pay rise for 10,000 nuclear workers at Sellafield has been condemned as “obscene” by one of the area’s top politicians. Elaine Woodburn, Copeland Council’s leader, told The Whitehaven News: “I said it and I mean it.” The nuclear plant workers are getting a 4.85 per cent increase but Copeland Council’s leader fears it will widen the gap “between the haves and the have-nots”. Her outburst has sparked off a storm among other politicians and union leaders who say she had no right to make such an inflammatory remark at a public meeting. Coun Woodburn’s criticism came at a meeting of the Nuclear Working Group comprising other Copeland councillors who also work at Sellafield and representatives of the nuclear industry, including Sellafield head of operations boss Barry Snelson. The site boss is said to have been shocked and embarrassed. The public meeting was chaired by Labour councillor Dave Banks, a Sellafield team leader. He told The Whitehaven News: “It put Barry Snelson on the spot but he explained the reasons behind the increase, saying it was the first step in a two-year agreement. “One of the aims was to bring stability to the site and improve the morale of the workforce at a time of great uncertainty. This was more likely to make Sellafield more attractive to whoever takes over the running and help towards a more viable future. “Elaine was making personal comments and was probably expressing the feelings of a lot of people in the area who don’t work at Sellafield but at the end of the day they are the major employers and put millions and millions into our economy. “The vast majority of us will be spending our money in our own area.” Coun Woodburn confirmed that she did use the word obscene to describe the annual pay rise. “I don’t begrudge Sellafield workers getting what they get for working in high risk areas, but when you look at the big amount of rises on top of already high wages this is an obscene amount of money. It will widen the gap between the haves and the have nots in an area of limited population where a lot of people don’t even have jobs. “Considering the difficulties it is causing in the area as a whole, it has to be obscene. Other businesses, including Copeland Council, are losing key staff to Sellafield because of their big wages. This latest pay rise adds up to another ÂŁ8 million, a lot of this money could have gone towards the economic benefits the NDA has promised for the area through making savings on the site. “Someone new will be operating Sellafield from next April, this new company which could be American will want to make profits. If wage keep going up like this and profits go down then whoever takes over might be forced into making redundancies. “My job as the council leader is to ask the questions that other people are thinking and raise issues they are worrying about.” At Sellafield, Peter Kane, convenor for the GMB industrial union, said: “My priority is to help make the site successful, if it makes more money and bigger profits then why shouldn’t the workforce get their share of the cake? We have to negotiate the best deal possible. Take the craft workers, workers, some of these are in short supply, so if you want to attract them into the nuclear industry you have to pay the going rate. “As for redundancies, assurances have already been given there won’t be any when the new site overlords come in. The real concern is that if any of the production plants run down or have to close it will mean job losses irrespective of pay deals.” Tory councillor Alistair Norwood, who was at the meeting, said: “As a Sellafield worker I was shocked by what Elaine said, she used the word obscene several times. She had no right as council leader to suggest that the workforce would get less. She can’t be living in the real world.” Coun David Moore, leader of Copeland’s Conservative group, said: “I heard Elaine’s comments but I can’t defend them. I don’t believe the pay rise is obscene and it is not for politicians to get involved in wage settlements thrashed out between unions and management. “Barry Snelson wants some stability for the industry, for people to have confidence in it, he wants to dispel the myths of massive cuts when the new parent body comes in.” Coun Brian Dixon,one-time GMB regional organiser who helped win nuclear workers higher than average pay awards, said: “I am astounded by what I heard, it was nonsensical.” The average pay for a worker in Copeland is ÂŁ26,738 compared to ÂŁ17,667 in Carlisle. View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/digitalcopy ***************************************************************** 75 Santa Barbara Independent: Education and Nuclear Weapons Dont Mix Students Demand a Nuke-Free UC Thursday, July 19, 2007 By Will Parrish, youth empowerment director at the Santa Barbara-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (wagingpeace.org) and an alumnus of UC Santa Cruz. The U.S. government’s primary nuclear warhead contractor will convene a public meeting at University of California, Santa Barbara this week. That contractor is the University of California’s Board of Regents. This week’s meeting marks its first formal public meeting at the Santa Barbara campus in more than nine years. The Regents have managed the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) since each facility’s inception in the mid 20th century. In the fiscal year 2005-06, the U.S. Department of Energy gave the University of California $2.85 billion to run the nuclear weapons programs at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore. That’s more than the $2.8 billion the university system received from the State of California for education during the same period. Every nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal was designed by a UC employee. Likewise, nearly every nuclear weapon test detonation, both above and below ground, has been conducted by UC-employed scientists from these nuclear weapons labs. Despite the ostensible end of the Cold War in 1989, the UC-managed labs have continued to experiment with upgrades to existing nuclear weapons systems. In 1996, the labs developed a new nuclear weapon. In recent years, UC management of the nuclear weapons labs has met with strong opposition from students. The most dramatic manifestation of this took place from May 9-17, when more than 40 UC students, alumni, and faculty, acting independently of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, conducted a hunger fast under the banner of “No More Nukes in Our Name.” After the Regents failed at their May meeting to vote on a resolution to cut ties with the weapons labs, 13 students and alumni were arrested for an act of nonviolent civil disobedience: refusing an order by a Regent to vacate the room. That same month, a survey question as part of campus-wide elections at UC Santa Cruz revealed an overwhelming majority of students oppose the UC’s involvement in nuclear weapons research and development. Among nearly 5,000 respondents, 74.5 percent responded “No” to the question, “Should the University of California, or their affiliate labs, research, design, or produce nuclear weapons?” Only 14.2 percent answered affirmatively. The Regents justify their management of the labs on two primary grounds. The first is the UC has a constructive influence on nuclear weapons policy. They say the UC’s status as a publicly accountable institution makes it a better manager than a private corporation. However, the UC now co-manages the labs with Bechtel National, Inc., in a limited-liability, for-profit corporation. UC management of these labs provides a fig leaf of academic respectability for the ongoing development of the most destructive weapons in human history. The University of California’s other justification is the labs are on the cutting edge of a variety of non-nuclear scientific fields, such as global climate change research and advancement of energy conservation technologies. This justification, too, collapses under scrutiny. The UC’s nuclear weapons laboratories are hugely important to the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The labs’ executives and senior scientists exert a tremendous influence on U.S. nuclear weapons policy. And while important non-weapons research is being completed at the labs, the vast majority of research dollars at Los Alamos go toward nuclear weapon-related programs. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, through its UC Nuclear Free program, empowers young people to achieve social change by providing them with the education and resources necessary to make their voices heard. UC students have already made progress in convincing the Regents to reconsider their position. Some Regents have asked the students for further dialogue on the matter. These students believe the time has come for one of the world’s best public university systems to get out of the nuclear weapons business. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation couldn’t agree more. As more students, faculty, and alumni join the campaign to make the UC nuclear-free, expect the idealism of youth to become the engine of change. Copyright ©2007 Santa Barbara Independent, Inc. Reproduction of ***************************************************************** 76 SF New Mexican: LANL Cold War plutonium releases disputed By ANDY LENDERMAN | The New Mexican July 18, 2007 Documents show higher toxin discharge; health risks unclear POJOAQUE — Airborne releases of plutonium at Los Alamos National Laboratory could be about 59 times higher than what was officially reported during the Cold War, a health scientist told the public Wednesday evening. But it’s still unclear if that translates to a public-health risk, health scientist Thomas Widner said. Documents uncovered by the Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment project show plutonium processing work related to nuclear weapons resulted in a release of 42.83 curies of plutonium from 1948-1955. The lab’s official report for that time period was 0.724 curies of plutonium. A curie is a unit of radioactivity. “There are clearly discrepancies,” Widner said to a crowd of several dozen people at Homewood Suites Hotel in Pojoaque. These airborne plutonium releases came from the D Building and the DP West Building, where plutonium processing work was performed at the time, Widner said. The 42.83 curies number needs to be confirmed, Winder said. “It’s not cast in stone, but I’d be surprised if it was any lower than that,” he said. That plutonium release would be larger than plutonium released at the Department of Energy’s Hanford, Savannah River and Rocky Flats sites combined, he said. “The reason we’re concerned about this is because people lived so close,” Widner said. Some early post-World War II and current housing is located a quarter-mile or more from the original plutonium processing area at the lab, according to an interim report produced by Widner’s team. Inhaling or ingesting plutonium can lead to an increased risk for cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Widner’s team — a private contractor hired by the CDC — is also looking for other information about airborne plutonium releases from other sources. That’s in addition to other hazards they are examining, like uranium and chemical releases. “We wish we had the data for all the years,” he said. Widner’s San Francisco-based company, ChemRisk, is leading an effort to comb through millions of lab documents from 1943 to today in an effort to identify releases of radionuclides and chemicals from the lab. At the end of the project, in about two years, the team will present its information to the CDC, which could recommend what’s called a dose reconstruction for people or workers who live in the area. A dose reconstruction involves a team of scientists who determine what kind of radiation was released, where it went and how much radiation a group of people were exposed to, Widner explained. But the roughly $10 million project, which began in 1999, isn’t done gathering information. The interim report offers a lengthy historical perspective on Los Alamos and the work done there during the Cold War, including a section on the Trinity Test, where the world’s first nuclear bomb was tested in the New Mexico desert. New Mexicans in the vicinity of that July 1945 test, including some ranching families, were apparently exposed to radioactive fallout. Contact Andy Lenderman at 995-3827 or alenderman@sfnewmexican.com. On the web: www.lahdra.org Copyright 2007 The New Mexican, Inc. ***************************************************************** 77 Tri-City Herald: PNNL honored for key scientific breakthroughs Published Thursday, July 19th, 2007 HERALD STAFF The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has won three of R&D Magazine's prestigious R&D 100 Awards. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland is being recognized for a new material that improves detection of toxic heavy metals in water; for a device that manages heat and water in fuel processors and fuel cell systems; and for software that extracts and analyzes data in the most useful format for users. R&D Magazine selected the lab to receive three of the awards for the 100 most innovative scientific and technical breakthroughs of the past year. The selections for 2007 bring PNNL's tally to 74 R&D 100 awards since the contest began in 1963. The lab's work on functionalized nanoporous thin films technology significantly expands and enhances sampling and testing capabilities. It allows researchers to test water for virtually every heavy metal with potential to negatively affect human health and the environment. It also increases sensitivity by more than a thousand times the previous capability. Lab scientists also were recognized for developing a microchannel gas-liquid processing device to manage heat and recover water in fuel cell systems and fuel processors. The device helps balance fuel consumption, which is ideal for portable or mobile fuel cell applications. The device also can be used to distill diesel fuel to aid in removing sulfur so that it can be converted to hydrogen. The universal parsing agent developed at PNNL is a document analysis and transformation software program that accepts multiple information streams or data sets. It can find and extract information from the data sets in a way that allows for the most flexible analysis. The software was developed for a variety of U.S. government clients. Most recently a version was deployed at the Environmental Protection Agency to support a large Web content management system. R&D Magazine will honor the researchers who developed these technologies at its 45th annual awards banquet in October in Chicago. PNNL employs 4,200 staff, has a $750 million annual budget, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 78 Las Cruces Sun-News: Study: Los Alamos released more plutonium in early days than reported (9:49 a.m.) By The Associated Press Article Launched: 07/19/2007 09:50:04 AM MDT POJOAQUE, N.M. Los Alamos National Laboratory released far more airborne plutonium just after World War II than what it reported, but a health scientist says it's not clear what that means for public health. The lab's plutonium processing work released 42.83 curies of plutonium from 1948-1955, although the lab's official report for that period showed a release of 0.724 curies of plutonium. A curie is a unit of radioactivity. The eight years of releases are detailed in a 1950s-era memo from Edwin Hyatt, who was a member of the lab's industrial hygiene group. It includes a year-by-year table of airborne plutonium releases. The higher number still needs to be confirmed, health science researcher Thomas Widner said. However, he added, "I'd be surprised if it was any lower than that." "There are clearly discrepancies," he told several dozen people gathered Wednesday for an update on the Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment project. The estimated $10 million project has been reviewing millions of documents since 1999 to identify and evaluate the lab's past releases of radioactive materials and toxic chemicals. The higher figure would mean a release of plutonium larger than that from the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford, Savannah River and Rocky Flats sites combined, Widner said. Inhaling or ingesting plutonium can increase the risk for cancer, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "The reason we're concerned about this is because people lived so close," Widner said. Some housing at Los Alamos is as close as a quarter-mile from the lab's original plutonium processing area, according to an interim report from Widner's team, a private contractor hired by the CDC. Los Alamos lab spokesman James Rickman, who noted the lab's current managers were not in charge during the plutonium releases, said the lab is in the process of cleaning up so-called legacy waste under an agreement with the state Environment Department. Widner said research looked at plutonium concentrations in laboratory soils and used those samples to calculate that airborne plutonium releases into the early 1970s were likely much higher than the official numbers. An environmental impact statement in the early 1970s said 1.2 curies of airborne plutonium were released between 1948-1972. The researchers have discussed the findings with Los Alamos administrators, who indicated the official estimates may have been low because officials did not know of Hyatt's memo at the time, Widner said. In addition, the lab did not monitor plutonium releases in the early years, and exhaust filters were either rudimentary or nonexistent, he said. Widner's San Francisco-based company, ChemRisk, heads the effort to review lab documents from 1943 to the present to try to identify releases of radionuclides and chemicals. The project is to wrap up in about two years with a report to the CDC. The CDC could recommend a "dose reconstruction." Under such a program, scientists determine what kind of radiation was released, where it went and how much radiation a particular group was exposed to, Widner said. On the Net: Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment project: www.lahdra.org Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, www.sfnewmexican.com, Albuquerque Journal, www.abqjournal.com Copyright © 2006 Las Cruces Sun-News, a MediaNews Group Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 79 KOAT Albuquerque: LANL Might Have Released More Plutonium Than Reported - UPDATED: 1:37 pm MDT July 19, 2007 POJOAQUE, N.M. -- Los Alamos National Laboratory might have released 59 times as much plutonium into the air than what was officially reported during the Cold War, according to documents uncovered by the Los Alamos historical document retrieval and assessment project. Health scientist Thomas Widner said Wednesday it's still unclear if the plutonium releases translate into a public health risk. The documents show plutonium processing work related to nuclear weapons resulted in a release of 42.83 curies of plutonium between 1948 and 1955. The lab's official report for that time period was .724 curies of plutonium. A curie is a basic unit to describe the intensity of radioactivity in a sample of material. Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This © 2007, Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. ***************************************************************** 80 Tracy Press: Concerns about lab toxins Tracy, CA Rob L. Wagner Thursday, 19 July 2007 Residents meet with pollution control officials about bid to increase detonations. By Rob L. Wagner Officials Dan Barber, left, and Jim Swaney answer questions from citizens Wednesday night. Photo by Enrique Gutierrez About 40 people late Wednesday voiced concerns to regional pollution control officials about the toxins, specifically depleted uranium, released from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Site 300 during outdoor detonation testing of explosives. Tracy residents met with officials of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District in the council chambers at City Hall for an informational meeting to discuss a permit sought by the lab. The lab has a permit to detonate no more than 100 pounds of explosives a day or 1,000 pounds a year. The lab, which conducts research and development of high explosives at Site 300 just 6œ miles from downtown, is seeking to increase detonations to no more than 350 pounds a day or 8,000 pounds a year. Jim Swaney, permit services manager of the district, said the district is only examining air quality related to the site and not land-use issues. Susan Sarvey of Tracy told Swaney and Glenn Reed, a senior air quality specialist, that the amount of uranium in the air is unknown and that children in the city are at risk. "I’m concerned about radioactive material in my kid’s lungs," she said. Reed said the district would examine potential cancer risks resulting from testing as well as acute health risks such as eyes tearing or burning nasal passages. Reed also said that current guidelines allow 10 cancer deaths in 10 million people from pollution from a controlled environment at a specific site. But pollution district officials acknowledged that no studies have been performed to determine whether Site 300’s outdoor explosives testing has had any previous health effects on Tracy’s population, Swaney said. "We will consider all toxic compounds, including depleted uranium," Reed said. "We will try to determine the risks to (people). We will look at nearby facilities but not at the workers at the lab." The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health is responsible for worker safety at the lab, Reed said. Loulena Miles, an attorney for Tri-Valley CAREs, an environmental group based in Livermore, said in a statement before the meeting that "it is questionable whether any high-explosive testing with the attendant tons of radioactive and toxic materials should occur in this vicinity at all." Marylia Kelley, executive director of the group, suggested during the meeting that a full Environmental Impact Report should be conducted to determine the effects on "human health and the environment." Dan Barber, who supervises the California Environmental Quality Act requirements, said it hasn’t been determine whether a full EIR would be required, but noted it’s unlikely. Pollution district authorities originally granted the permit to allow the lab to increase its detonations, but Bob Sarvey of Tracy appealed. During a February hearing, district officials discovered that some information Sarvey sought had not been provided. The lab also did not tell the district that depleted uranium had been used in the detonations. The permit was canceled. The district is now re-evaluating the permit application. The district will then issue a preliminary recommendation to either approve or deny the application, which will be followed by a public workshop. ***************************************************************** 81 WBIR.COM: Former K-25 site played critical role in nation's atomic history By: Jake Jost, Investigative Producer By: Katie Allison Granju, Producer Last updated: 7/19/2007 8:11:59 PM Thursday's arrest of a worker at the former K-25 plant in Oak Ridge shined a national spotlight on this historic site. Advertisement The Oak Ridge reservation was responsible for the uranium in the atomic bombs that marked the end of WWII, and the K-25 plant played a critical role. Along with Y-12 and S-50, K-25 produced the enriched uranium in the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Each facility enriched uranium with a different method. Roy Lynn Oakley is accused of stealing and attempting to sell a critical piece of K-25's discontinued uranium enrichment operating system, a diffusion barrier. When K-25 was first put into operation, its process of gaseous diffusion was only theoretical. Uranium gas would have to move through a barrier that let the more radioactive isotopes (U235) through and concentrated them, while keeping the rest (U238) out. The development of that barrier allowed K-25 to begin enrichment, a process continued by the Y-12 electromagnetic separators. Later, gaseous diffusion became the preferred method of uranium enrichment in America throughout the Cold War. This made the K-25 barrier a critical part of America's atomic legacy. K-25 ended its uranium enrichment processes in the 1980s. Today, the former K-25 site is run as a joint government and private venture, known as the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETPP). CLICK HERE for the Department of Energy's page on the history of the Copyright ©2007 WBIR-TV Knoxville ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************