***************************************************************** 07/20/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.169 ***************************************************************** 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 The Australian: Govt seeks closer US nuclear ties | 2 UPI: Russia fears Euro-BMD is U.S. plot 3 AFP: Russia plays down mounting row with Britain 4 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Surprised by British Reaction NUCLEAR REACTORS 5 US: MyrtleBeachOnline.com: More nuclear plants? Not a bright idea, s 6 Daily Yomiuri: Disaster body urging N-plant safety rethink 7 Daily Yomiuri: TEPCO sure it will meet summer demand without N-plant 8 US: The Californian: The Japan syndrome - North County Times / 9 People's Weekly World - EDITORIAL: Sitting on a fault line 10 BBC NEWS: Japan post-quake power shake-up 11 Gristmill: Japan nuclear-site damage worse than reported | 12 Edinburgh Evening News: BE warns over struggling nuclear plants 13 SFGate: In Japan, the earth shook. Now, will heads roll? 14 US: News Tribune: Nuclear energy: Safe and clean but is it worth ris 15 Reuters: Bulgaria invites six to bid for nuclear plant 16 Reuters: U.S., India said still divided on nuclear deal 17 Reuters: U.S., India say substantial progress in atomic talks 18 Reuters: Japan asks firms to curb power use after quake 19 UPI: Markey: India nuclear deal on Iran hinge 20 UPI: U.S., India report progress on nuke deal 21 Hemscott: Vattenfall not to sell stakes in German nuclear power plan 22 Guardian Unlimited: Official Criticizes Japan Nuke Plant 23 US: NRC: Speech - “Perspective on Preparedness for Radiological 24 US: NRC: The NRC and the ‘Safety Business’” NRC Chairman Dale E. Kle 25 Hindustan Times: 'Substantial progress in nuclear deal talks'- 26 AFP: US, India declare 'substantial progress' in nuclear accord - 27 times and star: Nuke plan forces cheese firm rethink 28 Guardian Unlimited: Japan's Nuclear Plans Affected by Quake 29 AFP: Japan urges power-saving after nuclear shutdown - 30 AFP: French, US energy groups agree to build new US nuclear plants - 31 Guardian Unlimited: Another Radioactive Leak at Japan Plant NUCLEAR SECURITY 32 Iaea Welcomes European Contribution For African Nuclear Security 33 US: KNS: Man pleads not guilty to taking 'barriers' from ETTP to sel NUCLEAR SAFETY 34 US: Lancashire Evening Post: Worker survives nuclear station fall 35 US: Hawaii Reporter: Hawaii Reporter: Depleted Uranium: Radioactive NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 36 US: NRC: NRC, DOE to Hold Public Meeting in Washington on Non-high L 37 AU ABC: PM denies Australia will take nuclear waste - 38 AU ABC: Aust could become US nuclear waste dump: expert - 39 AU ABC: Labor disputes PM's assurance on nuclear waste - 40 AU ABC: Downer rejects 'wacky' nuclear waste concerns - 41 US: NRC: NRC Releases Documents on NFS Uranium Spill, Reviews Public 42 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Sleeping with the enemy 43 US: Edmonton Journal: Cameco closes Ontario plant after uranium foun 44 thewest.com.au: Australia won't be a nuke waste dump - PM 45 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: Environmentalist wants errant waste remo 46 US: Reuters: Cameco finds uranium in soil at Ontario plant 47 US: IHTA: U.S. plans to convert more weapons plutonium to commercial 48 US: KOB.com: Errant waste drum discovered at WIPP 49 barrow in furness: Sellafield’s potentially explosive secrets 50 times and star: Thorp gears up for full restart PEACE 51 US: SF Chron: On Nuclear Negotiations / A new way forward needed / T US DEPT. OF ENERGY 52 IS: All INL workers back to normal shifts with fire contained | 53 Gov Tech: DOE: Initiates Formal Enforcement Action in Los Alamos Nat 54 Pahrump Valley Times: 36 years ago this month 55 DOE: Statement as Prepared By Gerald Boyd, Manager, DOE Oak Ridge Of 56 Hanford News: Payments OK'd for early Hanford workers: Federal offic 57 Hanford News: Administration plans to convert more weapons plutonium 58 SanLuisObispo.com: Calif senators want Santa Susana Field Lab worker 59 Reuters: Fire nears Idaho nuclear fuel development complex 60 Knoxville News Sentinel: Wintertime mystery revealed to neighbors 61 UPI: Calif. nuclear site to undergo study 62 Ventura County Star: Senators aim to help ex-Field Lab workers 63 Oak Ridger: Y-12 receives two R&D 100 Awards - ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 The Australian: Govt seeks closer US nuclear ties | NEWS.com.au Network Sid Marris | July 20, 2007 AUSTRALIA is looking to expand its 25-year co-operation with the United States on developing nuclear technology after an approach from the Americans, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today. As a nation with the world's biggest reserves of uranium, Mr Downer said Australia should be part of global discussions on new technology and the development and policing of enrichment. "We’re exporting uranium to many corner of the earth, covered by nuclear safeguards agreements, so it is just common sense that we would want to see a safer and more efficient and a better nuclear energy industry,'' he told ABC radio. "If we were opposed to the nuclear energy industry, we wouldn’t export uranium.'' The Howard Government this week announced it would provide the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and local universities with $12.5 million to help them develop projects. The research under the banner of the Nuclear Collaborative Research Programme is designed to ensure Australia was part of the development of the global Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative – a multi-nation program looking at developing an advance form of nuclear generator which re-uses uranium fuel. The Generation IV program is being developed under the US-led Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. John Howard said today that nuclear power remained a very clean source of energy and in time it would become an attractive option. "What I have said is we shouldn't close our minds to nuclear power,'' the prime minister told ABC radio in Adelaide. "I keep hearing from people in the Labor Party and elsewhere that we want cleaner alternatives to this dirty commodity coal. "Well, the cleanest alternative of all, which is capable of generating enough power to run our nation, is nuclear.'' ANSTO chair Ziggy Switkowki said the project the fund was part of the organisations charter to co-ordinate research in cutting-edge nuclear technology. The focus will be on structural materials that can be used in bulding machinery and dealing with irradiated material - a crucial part in developing ways of recycling fuel. Dr Switkowski said the work would help Australia position itself to have access to the newest and safest technology when nuclear power became a commercially viable option in 10 to 15 years time. Labor says the money would be better spent developing research into nuclear medicine than joining a US-led expansion of nuclear power. The GNEP is designed to restrict the number of countries enriching uranium to existing players such as the US, Britain, China, Russia and France. But under the GNEP, nuclear fuel would be shipped to feed energy-hungry developing countries and the spent fuel taken back to the supplier so it could not reprocessed and used for weapons. Its clear aim is to prevent nuclear proliferation as witnessed in rogue states such as North Korea and as fears grow that Iran's civilian nuclear push is simply a cover for nuclear weapons manufacture. It is also designed to promote a fuel source that does not produce greenhouse gases. The project may also help India to get access to nuclear fuel rods for power stations, even though it is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But Mr Downer and Mr Howard again stressed that Australia would not be accepting back nuclear waste. ''We've made that clear, we're not taking other people's waste,'' Mr Howard said. A draft letter reported today that Mr Downer and his Industry counterpart Ian Macfarlane had suggested to the United States that an expansion of the existing nuclear co-operation framework could be announced at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum meeting in Sydney in September. Mr Downer said yesterday that the US Department of Energy had approached Australia to update the agreement reached in 1982. Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman David Noonan urged the government not to expand ties. ''Enriching uranium produces the material that is used in nuclear weapons,'' he said. Copyright 2007 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT +10). ***************************************************************** 2 UPI: Russia fears Euro-BMD is U.S. plot United Press International - Security & Terrorism - Briefing Published: July 20, 2007 at 4:28 PM MOSCOW, July 20 (UPI) -- The head of the Russian armed forces said this week U.S. plans to put BMD weapons in Europe were part of an anti-Russian plot. Four-star Army Gen. Yury Baluyevsky, the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, told reporters in Moscow Monday that Kremlin planners did not believe U.S. assurances that plans to deploy 10 anti-ballistic missile interceptors in Poland over the next three years were only to protect the United States and Western Europe from the threat of future Iranian nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. RIA Novosti reported that Baluyevsky said Russian leaders were convinced the interceptor deployment was planned with an expanded anti-Russian role in mind. "Of course a dozen such missiles as the Americans are planning to deploy in Poland -- unproven and untested as they are -- are not seen as a direct threat to Russia's deterrent capability," the Russian chief of staff said, according to the RIA Novosti report. "However, the U.S. doctrine treats missile defense as part of a broader 'strategic triad,' which also includes offensive strategic weapons. "We are sure that U.S. missile defense capability, including a proposed European site, would develop, and its anti-Russian capability would grow in the future," Baluyevsky said. "In such an environment, we would be forced to take appropriate counter-measures." Over the past year, U.S.-Russian relations have deteriorated to their worst point in nearly a quarter of a century, primarily because of Russian anger over Washington's determination to push ahead with plans to deploy the 10 ABM interceptors in Poland and an advanced radar system to direct them in the neighboring Czech Republic. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 AFP: Russia plays down mounting row with Britain by Stephen Boykewich Fri Jul 20, 1:36 PM ET MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia played down its mounting row with Britain on Friday while for the first time identifying the ex-KGB officer at the center of the dispute as a possible murder suspect. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was "interested in normalising relations with Britain" amid a stand-off sparked by the London murder last year of a former Russian agent. "We are ready for it," Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying. Tensions since the November poisoning murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former intelligence agent turned Kremlin critic, spiked on Monday when London expelled four Russian diplomats and imposed other sanctions on Moscow. London was retaliating for Moscow's refusal to extradite ex-KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi, whom British prosecutors accuse of poisoning Litvinenko. Russia responded with tit-for-tat measures on Thursday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Lugovoi is "one of the suspects" in the murder of Litvinenko. "The important thing is that we haven't received the British side's argumentation as to why they think he is a suspect," Peskov said. "For our prosecutor, this would be extremely important," he added. Lugovoi himself said in an interview broadcast on Echo of Moscow radio that he would be willing to stand trial in Russia if prosecutors there charged him with murdering Litvinenko. Russia has sought to play down the conflict in recent days, while the European Union and the United States have thrown their weight behind London. "In the latest stage of this conflict, Russia has truly projected a fairly moderate image," Masha Lipman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, told AFP. Russia has insisted in the dispute that its constitution forbids it from extraditing its own citizens, while Britain says an international convention Russia has signed would allow it. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband suggested this week that Russia should change its constitution to allow the extradition. Aside from the parallel expulsions of diplomats, each side has hit the other with visa restrictions on government officials. Moscow has also suspended counter-terrorism cooperation with London. Friday also brought a bit of Cold War-style drama, as British and Norwegian fighter jets scrambled over the North Sea after Russian bombers were spotted flying at "unusual" latitudes overnight. The two Russian bombers were detected in international airspace between Norway and Scotland. The bombers turned back, before two more Russian bombers were observed, again prompting Norway to dispatch jets. The murder of Litvinenko with the radioactive isotope polonium-210 sent shockwaves through British society, and raised an international outcry when Litvinenko's friends blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death. The Kremlin has fiercely denied any participation. Lugovoi, who is now a Moscow businessman, met with Litvinenko on November 1 at a central London hotel, where British investigators believe he put polonium-210 in Litvinenko's tea. Litvinenko died in agony in a London hospital 22 days after the meeting. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 4 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Surprised by British Reaction Friday July 20, 2007 6:01 PM By STEVE GUTTERMAN Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - The suspect in the radiation poisoning death of Kremlin foe Alexander Litvinenko weighed in Friday on the dispute over Russia's refusal to extradite him to Britain, claiming that London provoked the confrontation to hide a lack of evidence. In a radio interview, Andrei Lugovoi said he was prepared to face British prosecutors in Russia but will not leave his country for fear he could be arrested at the behest of Britain - which he dismissed as a haven for criminals and mocked as lacking the clout of its imperial era. Lugovoi's interview with Ekho Mosvky radio came a day after the latest escalation in the standoff over the November death in London of ex-KGB officer Litvinenko: Russia's decision to expel four diplomats, stop issuing visas for British officials, and halt counterterrorism cooperation. Those moves followed Britain's announcement Monday that it was expelling for Russian diplomats, restricting visas issued to Russian government officials and reviewing interaction on a range of issues, in what it said was a necessary response to Moscow's refusal to cooperate. Echoing remarks by Russian officials in less-diplomatic language, Lugovoi called British accusations of a lack of cooperation ``a cynical and impudent lie.'' He asserted that British authorities, short of evidence, deliberately provoked a dispute in order to hide behind claims of Russian recalcitrance. ``Official London's logic was very simple,'' Lugovoi said. ``I think that they have no direct proof or evidence,'' he said, suggesting that because of the ``huge resonance'' of Litvinenko's killing, British authorities understood that ``they had to somehow respond to this case'' to avoid embarrassment. As a result, he said, British authorities took steps to ensure that they would not have to prove his guilt. Those steps, he added, included requesting his extradition despite Russia's constitutional ban on handing over its citizens. Litvinenko - a Kremlin critic with asylum in Britain and an ally of tycoon Boris Berezovsky, one of President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foes - died Nov. 23 after ingesting radioactive polonium-210, blaming Putin from his deathbed. Lugovoi is one of three Russians who met with him at a hotel bar Nov. 1, the day he said he fell ill. Litvinenko's death sparked speculation of Russian government involvement, fueled in part by accusations from Kremlin critics such as Berezovsky. Moscow's allies, meanwhile, have suggested the killing was a plot - possibly hatched by Berezovsky - to blacken Russia's reputation. Putin played down the dispute Thursday, calling it a ``mini-crisis'' that he was certain Britain and Russia could overcome. But he also suggested it was up to Britain to back down, and there was no sign of an end to the confrontation. On Friday, Britain and Russia pointed to each other as the culprit. ``We had to take difficult decisions in relation to the Litvinenko case, and we will not tolerate a situation where a British citizen is assassinated on British soil,'' Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in Paris. British authorities ``identified someone who we wish to arrest for that charge and we're prevented from doing so through the inability of the Russian authorities to extradite him to Britain,'' Brown said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in Berlin, said Moscow wants relations to improve but accused Britain of political motives in its handling of the case. Lugovoi, looking tanned and calm in an open-neck shirt in video of the interview, had more colorful criticism for Britain, saying it ``has always hidden con men, swindlers, adventurists and defectors,'' and that ``to speak of imperial ambitions for Britain today is funny, to say the least.'' Meanwhile, in incidents that drew close attention amid the dispute, fighter planes from Britain and Norway scrambled Friday to keep watch on Russian bombers that were approaching the countries' air space, officials said. A spokesman for Britain's Defense Ministry said two Russian Tu-95 bombers briefly entered British airspace overnight but turned back after British planes intercepted them. Later, two Tu-160s neared the fringes of British airspace, he said on usual condition of not being identified. Norwegian military spokesman Lt. Col. John Inge Oeglaend told The Associated Press his country's F-16s were sent into action twice Friday, including once when two Tu-95s headed south along the Norwegian coast in international airspace and turned around above Aberdeen on Scotland's North Sea coast. Oeglaend characterized the incidents as routine, but said it was a ``bit unusual that the first two bombers went so far south.'' Russian air force spokesman Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky said British and Norwegian planes approaching bombers on training flights were a ``normal occurrence.'' --- Associated Press Writer Jim Heintz contributed to this report from London. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 5 MyrtleBeachOnline.com: More nuclear plants? Not a bright idea, say critics 07/20/2007 | By Sammy Fretwell - McClatchy Newspapers COLUMBIA -- Cranking up more nuclear power plants won't answer the country's energy needs - and it's a poor way to fight global warming, said two nuclear power critics 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, 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. "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 said to a forum at USC's Learning Center for Sustainable Futures. The S.C.-owned Santee Cooper Power Company has been criticized heavily for attempting to build a new coal-burning plant in Florence County. Coal's effect 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 where residents use 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 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. ***************************************************************** 6 Daily Yomiuri: Disaster body urging N-plant safety rethink The possibility the fault behind the earthquake that hit Niigata Prefecture and its environs on Monday stretches under the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant could lead to a review of the current antiseismic standards for nuclear facilities. The National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention discovered the east end of the fault line is highly likely to extend under the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station. It warned of the possibility after estimating that activity on the 29.1-kilometer-long, 14.6-kilometer-deep fault, stretching northeast and southwest, caused the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake. Kazushige Obara of the institute said a quake was believed to pose no immediate threat because it would originate far from the power plant and the fault is thought to be located 20 to 25 kilometers underground. "However, we have to keep in mind that there is a fault line running right under the nuclear facility," he said. "We must study whether the facility has sufficient antiseismic capabilities." The Japanese archipelago is continuously exposed to subductive tectonic activity that creates pressure in an east-west direction. Because weak sections of active faults collapse every 1,000 years to several millions of years due to built up tectonic pressure, a major earthquake--such as the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 that resulted from the collapse of the active Nojima fault--occurs frequently. After the Great Hanshin Earthquake, the central government's Earthquake Research Committee decided to examine 110 highly active faults nationwide that would have the greatest impact on society if they slip. The committee conducted large-scale drilling and other tests on them to learn the history of their activities and estimate the probabilities of earthquakes occurring along them. However, the faults studied are only a fraction of the faults believed to exist nationwide. It is thought to be impossible to discover all of the faults, including those located deep underground and under the sea. So there is always worry that an earthquake caused by an unknown fault could suddenly occur, resulting in damage to a nuclear facility. The nation's nuclear power plant antiseismic guidelines were revised in autumn for the first time in 25 years. As a result, power companies recently began reviewing the antiearthquake capacities of 55 nuclear reactors and conducting geological and other surveys. The fault that caused the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake and stretched under the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant was unknown when the plant was designed. In addition, the power station experienced vibrations 2.5 times stronger than it was estimated it would have to withstand. These factors have raised concerns over nuclear facilities' antiseismic capacities. However, the new guidelines were drawn up, based on the notion that no study can detect every fault. So power companies must now ensure nuclear power plants can resist an earthquake measuring up to 6.5 on the Richter scale with a focus about 10 kilometers under the plant. The new guidelines also urge power companies to make their nuclear facilities capable of resisting an earthquake measuring 6.9 and require an increase of the antivibration capacities of the facilities of more than 20 percent. However, the vibration force of Monday's quake was much stronger than the guidelines allowed for. Masakazu Otake, adviser to the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, said new guidelines were required and that active faults could be overlooked, just as occurred when the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant was constructed. New standards costly Adopting the highest antiseismic standards would be expensive. Even now, tight antiseismic regulations mean it costs more to construct a nuclear power plant in Japan than in other countries. Power companies have begun improving the antiseismic capabilities of their nuclear power plants. The Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry is developing technologies required to make the building that houses a nuclear reactor seismically isolated. The central government is considering adopting a standard that would see nuclear facility's antiseismic capacities measured in terms of the likelihood people who live near a plant would suffer serious health risks if it was damaged. It is considering whether the appropriate standard would be defined as "highly unlikely." The government is discussing whether people should analyze risks after taking the the benefits of carbon dioxide-emission-free nuclear power plants into consideration. ) The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 7 Daily Yomiuri: TEPCO sure it will meet summer demand without N-plant Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced Friday it would be able to meet peak summer demand despite suspending operations at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, one of the firm's key facilities, following Monday's earthquake. However, if this summer's La Nina weather pattern produces a heat wave, demand is expected to peak about 2 million kilowatts above the 62.14 million kilowatts the company is confident it can provide, resulting in a power shortage. As the nuclear power plant is highly unlikely to be permitted to resume operations anytime soon, the power shortage could persist. Due to the suspension, TEPCO's capacity decreased to 58.01 million kilowatts. At a press conference in Tokyo on Friday, TEPCO President Tsunehisa Katsumata said his firm planned to take the following measures to make up for electricity shortfall brought on by the shutdown of the power plant: -- Improving the output at other power plants. -- Receiving supply from other power companies. -- Purchasing surplus electricity from private firms that generate power. -- Postponing the periodical checkups of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The company says these measures will help increase the power supply by 2.84 million kilowatts to 62.54 million kilowatts in July and by 4.13 million kilowatts to 62.14 million kilowatts in August. With this, the company says, TEPCO will be able to meet the expected peak demand of 61.1 million kilowatts in July and August. The supply also will be increased to 60.13 million kilowatts by 3.85 million kilowatts in September, according to TEPCO, which expects demand during the month will peak at 56.4 million kilowatts. However, if the country experiences a heat wave due to the La Nina weather pattern, in which ocean temperatures near the equator decrease by more than 0.5 C from the average, power demand could swell to about 64 million kilowatts--beyond TEPCO's supply capacity. In that instance, TEPCO will ask for large consumers, such as factories and department stores, to decrease their power consumption based on prior contracts on the coordination of supply and demand. The firm also plans to purchase more power from companies operating private generators. "We'll do everything we can," Katsumata said. In order to generate more electricity at its thermal power plants, TEPCO would need to increase its procurement of oil, the price for which has been on the rise, thereby adversely affecting the company's finances. An increased use of thermal power also would result in greater emissions of carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming. Also Friday, an Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry task force dealing with the expected power shortage in the Kanto region held its first meeting. The ministry demanded that TEPCO secure a stable power supply by keeping tabs on how much electricity will be required this summer. The ministry also decided to call for the business community to cut down its consumption. © The Yomiuri Shimbun. ***************************************************************** 8 The Californian: The Japan syndrome - North County Times / Editorials Last modified Thursday, July 19, 2007 9:19 PM PDT By: North County Times Opinion staff Our view: Earthquake aftermath is worrisome, but nuclear power still a vital energy option It wasn't the best week to have a nuclear plant in your backyard, not with an earthquake in Japan damaging a key nuclear plant there. But we can't afford to allow an old, unfounded fear to trump the historical record. Nuclear power remains one of our best sources of clean, cheap energy, and it's a vital asset in the effort to minimize the buildup of carbon in our atmosphere that appears to be raising global temperatures. The facts about what happened at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant are still emerging . Meanwhile, officials from Southern California Edison, which operates San Onofre, are predictably assuring us that whatever happened in Japan couldn't possibly happen here. Edison spokesmen say the domes that protect the reactors at San Onofre are built to withstand a quake as strong or stronger than 7.0 on the Richter scale, or a large tsunami, as well as internal stresses that are actually more dangerous. But Japan, perhaps the world leader in earthquake engineering, experienced a rude awakening after hearing similar claims. Besides, San Onofre's domes don't concern us as much as the pools beside them, in which rods of nuclear waste, also called spent fuel, are stored. Edison representatives say Kashiwazaki's cooling pools were probably the source of radioactive water that leaked into the Sea of Japan. Our local nuclear plant wasn't meant to store so many spent fuel rods, but it doesn't look like the Yucca Mountain storage site in Nevada will be open for business anytime soon. That means that we're stuck with adding more waste to the pools for the forseeable future. And that, despite Edison officials' best efforts, isn't all that reassuring. Given all those risks, how can nuclear power still be a good option for powering North County? Nuclear energy is cheap and abundant. Even more important to a state that is trying to reduce greenhouse gases, nuclear energy is a source of zero-emission electricity. And, despite all of the oft-repeated fears, the Nuclear Age, now in its 62nd year, has proven to be about as safe as any other. Even Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear accident in history, did not result in the long-predicted, worst-case scenario of a meltdown. In fact, one of the things we do know about the incident in Japan is that, despite the potential for catastrophe, the plant's safety mechanisms worked and its operating reactors automatically shut down during the quake. That's been the rule, not the exception. On the other hand, power plants that burn fossil fuels, which supply most of our power, may be even worse. They are not only filling our atmosphere with carbon but also filling our lungs with deadly pollution. A 2000 report by the Clean Air Task Force , a collection of environmental groups, pinned the blame for 30,000 premature deaths each year on plants that burn oil, natural gas and especially coal. These plants have accidents, too: A gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India , killed 4,000 people while they slept in 1984 and is believed to be responsible for as many 14,410 deaths total. By comparison, the World Health Organization estimates that 9,335 people are likely to die of cancers caused by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster . Nuclear is an important option. However, it probably doesn't belong on or near earthquake fault lines. Unlike Japan, which has far fewer options, the United States has a whole continent on which to select more suitable locations for nuclear facilities. Of course, building them will mean overcoming the objections of Americans who don't want a nuclear facility in their backyards and who will offer any reason ---- legitimate or otherwise ---- not to build them. That's why Yucca Mountain is stalled . Both unresolved problems ---- moving nuclear plants away from seismically active areas and improving waste storage ---- are more political than technical. As we learn the true cost of burning the fossils that fueled the last 200 years, nuclear power will only grow more attractive. The quake in Japan gives both concerned citizens and regulators a good excuse to reexamine safety at nuclear power plants in this country. Let's not in the process eliminate the one alternative energy that actually works. webmaster@nctimes.com © 1997-2007 North County Times ? Lee Enterprises editor@nctimes.com ***************************************************************** 9 People's Weekly World - EDITORIAL: Sitting on a fault line Search WWW Search pww.org Author: PWW/NM Editorial Board People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/19/07 14:56 A major earthquake hit Japan’s Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant this week. That should give pause to those who advocate looking to nuclear power as concerns about global warming escalate. On July 16, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck near the facility, the world’s largest in terms of output capacity. What came next included a fire, leakage of water containing radioactive material into the sea, and a spill of low-level radioactive waste. The plant is now closed indefinitely. The facility on Japan’s western coast was built to withstand a quake of magnitude 6.5. An official of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which manages the plant, said designers did not anticipate a larger quake. “After looking at aftershock location data,” he added, “we have come to realize a fault lies right below the plant.” Beyond the ongoing issues of safely operating individual nuclear power plants looms the elephant in the room — what to do with the huge amounts of nuclear waste generated even by today’s facilities, let alone tomorrow’s. Three decades ago the U.S. government started studying Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as a possible national nuclear waste dump. In 2002 President Bush signed a bill to make Yucca Mountain the country’s central repository for nuclear waste. But both the Western Shoshone Nation, on whose land the mountain sits, and the people and government of Nevada, including its Republican governor and attorney general, have fought the proposal tooth and nail. The Western Shoshone say waste already generated by nuclear power and nuclear weapons facilities would more than fill Yucca Mountain’s planned capacity, even without the future output of existing and prospective plants. They also point out that the waste is lethal for 10,000 years and dangerous for 250,000 years, and that the proposed dump is near several local fault lines and a volcano. Real clean energy alternatives are out there, including solar, wind and geothermal power. Isn’t it time to turn away from nuclear power, as well as nuclear weapons, and seek a truly green future? E-mail: piu#$@ww@pwiu#$@wiu#$@.iu#$@org Editorial Office: 3339 S Halsted St. Chicago IL 60608 ph: 773-446-9920 fax: 773-446-9928 newcatcher@cpusa.org Business Office: 235 West 23rd Street New York NY 10011 ph: 212-924-2523 fax: 212-229-1713 ***************************************************************** 10 BBC NEWS: Japan post-quake power shake-up Last Updated: Friday, 20 July 2007, 10:46 GMT 11:46 UK By Chris Hogg BBC News, Tokyo There are fears the closure of Kashiwazaki may lead to blackouts Japan's trade minister has given the power companies that run the country's nuclear facilities a week to put in place better safety procedures. Minister Akira Amari said he also plans to ask the country's businesses to save power this summer to try to reduce demand at peak times. An earthquake on Monday damaged the world's largest power station. The facility remains closed. Conserving energy Japan's trade minister summoned representatives of the 11 firms involved in nuclear power generation in Japan for what were called emergency talks. He gave them six days to demonstrate that they have tightened up safety procedures. In particular, he wants firefighters stationed at each nuclear power station. He also wants assurances that accurate information about any accident at a plant is passed swiftly to the government. These are the lessons learnt after Monday's quake started a fire and led to radioactive leaks from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility. The government was not told about the leaks for seven hours. The minister said he had been assured that there would not be shortages of power this summer as long as temperatures in Japan remained at average levels for the time of year. He told the power companies though that as the weather was unpredictable he would be asking industry to conserve energy during periods of peak demand. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 11 Gristmill: Japan nuclear-site damage worse than reported | The environmental news blog | Grist Posted by Joseph Romm at 11:09 AM on 20 Jul 2007 Read more about: Japan | energy | nuclear power | waste | toxics I am shocked, shocked at the report: 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. Why is it you never read, "Wind Farm Damage Worse Than Reported"? The L.A. Times has more alarming news: "It is possible that the epicenter of the fault line runs under the power plant," said Akira Fukushima, deputy director-general for safety at the Industry Ministry's nuclear agency ... "This earthquake was much bigger than the plant had been designed for," said Fukushima ... And yet it was only a magnitude 6.8 quake. What will happen if they get hit with one that is two times as strong -- or ten times? The L.A. Times story makes clear that this was no isolated incident: Public skepticism about the safety of Japan's nuclear power plants has been nurtured by a slowly emerging pattern of questionable safety habits and cover-ups. Tepco's 17 nuclear plants were temporarily shut down in 2003 after it admitted it had falsified safety inspection reports. And owners of the Shika nuclear plant revealed in March that they had suffered a critical accident in 1999. Until this week, the government and Tepco had vociferously denied claims that the facility's seven reactors sat above an active fault. In 2005, government experts defended and won a court challenge brought against the power company by a local citizens group, which argued that the plant should not be allowed to build additional reactors because the area was an active earthquake zone. "The nuclear power industry is terrible about disclosing information," said Yoshinori Ito, a lawyer who represented the citizens group. He accused the government witnesses in the case of being too timid to contradict the scholars who had provided the initial data that allowed construction to proceed. The court declared that the ground under Kashiwazaki "did not even amount to a fault and could not cause a quake." As Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns would say, "Excellent." For story: Japan nuclear-site damage worse than reported Grist: Environmental News and Commentary ©2007. Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Gloom and doom with ***************************************************************** 12 Edinburgh Evening News: BE warns over struggling nuclear plants Friday, 20th July 2007 Change Date BRITISH Energy has warned it is unlikely to regain 100 per cent power at its troubled nuclear plants at Hunterston and Hinkley. The Livingston-based firm, which owns Torness power station in East Lothian, said at its AGM that the two power stations, which were shut down for four months earlier this year following boiler problems, were running at around 70 per cent power. Chairman Sir Adrian Montague said output from its nuclear power stations - at 51.2 terawatt hours (TWh), some 9TWh lower than last year - was disappointing. He said: "Work is continuing to deliver increased power, but I have to say that returning to 100 per cent power is unlikely." One unit at Hunterston has been taken down for an additional two weeks to allow for additional work on balancing the water flows in the boilers. Eggborough, the company's coal fired power station, produced output of 7.2TWh. Sir Adrian added that the company, which supplies about a fifth of Britain's energy, welcomed the Government's Energy White Paper. He added: "We believe that the case for nuclear is strong. Nuclear power can and should play an important role, as part of a diverse mix, in delivering a low carbon economy." This article: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=1133172007 Last updated: 20-Jul-07 11:57 BST ©2007 Scotsman.com | contact | terms & conditions ***************************************************************** 13 SFGate: In Japan, the earth shook. Now, will heads roll? Besides the obvious answers - insurance companies, homeowners - who's going to pay for the various kinds of damage caused by Monday's earthquake in Japan's northern Niigata Prefecture? In particular, will anyone take responsibility for the reportedly less-than-adequate safety precautions that were implemented at Tokyo Electric Power Company's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear-power plant, which was located near the quake's epicenter? As a result of the tremor, whose magnitude was measured at 6.8 on the Richter Scale, fire broke out at the plant, and radioactive water leaked from a spent-fuel storage pool. Issei Kato/Reuters Radioactive water leaked from and fire broke out at Tokyo Electric Power Company's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear-power plant, in northern Japan, as a result of Monday's earthquake Presenting more "embarrassment for Japan's nuclear-power industry," Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) publicly admitted that "the amount of radioactivity in water that leaked into the sea during the earthquake was 50% higher than it had originally said. The firm blamed a calculation error and said the levels were still well within safety standards." The power company also made it known "400 drums - not 100 as first reported - of low-level radioactive waste had toppled over during the quake. About 40 lost their lids, spilling their contents on to the ground as they fell. The spillage was one of more than 50 malfunctions the plant experienced in the immediate aftermath of the quake." News of such mishaps prompted international nuclear inspectors to express their concern about TEPCO's "apparent lack of preparedness for such a powerful quake." (Guardian) The good news, as an editorial in Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun notes that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear-power plant "was found to have suffered no serious damage that could put the facility's safety at risk, indicating there is no immediate danger." Recognizing that "neither TEPCO nor the government ever imagined [that] a nuclear-power plant could be struck by an earthquake whose impact so greatly exceeded the level of maximum probable shock as that of Monday's temblor," the newspaper nevertheless adds that the power company's "initial response to [the] earthquake was far from satisfactory." In earthquake-prone Japan, 55 nuclear-power plants produce 30 percent of the country's electricity. Yomiuri Shimbun observes: "Nuclear-power generation is important in the fight against global warming and for the nation's energy security. The government must provide the public with information about the significance of nuclear power generation." AP A man walks across a quake-damaged road in the city of Kashiwazaki Asahi Shimbun notes: "The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is relatively new. But what if the same thing had happened at an old plant? The damage must be investigated thoroughly, and lessons must be learned." The Japanese daily urges the TEPCO plant's administrators to "find out exactly where and how they erred" and adds: "We suspect the operators lacked precautions for a possible overload in an earthquake. It is believed that the transformer's insulator oil caught fire, but we wonder why this occurred so easily. A bigger question is why it took nearly two hours to extinguish the fire. Apparently, local firefighters were late in arriving, but it makes us uneasy to think that the plant workers were unable to douse the fire swiftly by themselves....[W]hat if the same thing had happened at an old plant?" Even Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe commented: "It's no wonder that the people's anxiety and distrust over the safety of nuclear power keep rising....Needless to say, ensuring the people's safety is of utmost importance." (Reuters) AP After the shake-up: Workers inspected derailed trains at the main station in Kashiwazaki In the aftermath of the big quake, TEPCO has been ordered to shut down the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant indefinitely, pending the outcome of an investigation into what occurred there and the completion of cleaning-up and repairs to the facility. With Kashiwazaki-Kariwa out of service, it won't be providing its usual output of 8.2 million kilowatts to help meet the demand of the Tokyo region's peak, summertime consumption of 68 million kilowatts. Other plants are expected to help make up the loss. In the city of Kashiwazaki, local politician Tadao Yabe "said the latest developments would boost anti-nuclear opposition among residents." Yabe observed: "I think people are really fed up. When they saw flames rising from that fire" at the nuclear-power plant, "they must have said, 'That's it.'" (Reuters) Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: "It is clear that this earthquake...was stronger than what the reactor was designed for....I would hope and I trust that Japan would be fully transparent in its investigation." (Guardian) Posted By: Edward M. Gomez (Email) | July 20 2007 at 12:43 PM Listed Under: Asia-Pacific, Energy, Japan | Comments (2) : Post Comment ***************************************************************** 14 News Tribune: Nuclear energy: Safe and clean but is it worth risk? Friday, July 20, 2007 By Brock Cooper lasallereporter@newstrib.com Reactor operator in training Dave Volden bends over a desk to examine reactor systems as reactor operators Randy Pritz (from left) and Al Zolmie discuss plant operations in the main control room. Each individual fuel rod can be monitored for anomalies and the operators can control many of the plants system from the room. Each system is color coded so operators can more easily follow the status of the plant. NewsTribune photo/Kemp Smith Razor wire and armed guards are common sights at the nuclear power plant in Morris, but despite the impenetrable fortress exterior, its real power resides underneath tons of steel and concrete. “We are the largest nuclear operator in the nation,” Exelon communications manager for the Dresden site Robert Osgood said. Dresden nuclear power plant, owned by Exelon, produces almost 2,000 megawatts of electricity using two nuclear reactors. Radioactive fuel rods are placed in water and bombarded with small neutral particles called neutrons. As the neutrons collide with the nuclear fuel, often uranium-235, it breaks apart other neutrons in a process called fission. Those neutrons in turn collide with other atoms of the fuel, freeing more neutrons and creating a chain reaction. When the neutrons collide with the atom, in effect splitting it, it creates a large amount of energy in the form of heat. The nuclear rods are submerged in water and as the heat builds from the fission, it converts the water into steam that turns the turbine for the generator Copyright © 2006 NewsTribune, LaSalle, Illinois. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Reuters: Bulgaria invites six to bid for nuclear plant Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:12AM EDT SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's state utility NETC on Friday invited six European utilities to file initial bids for a 49 percent stake in a planned 4.0 billion euro ($5.52 billion) nuclear power plant. Bulgaria has contracted Russia's Atomstroyexport, controlled by gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research), to build two 1,000 megawatt reactors at the Danube river town of Belene. The plant is expected to come online after 2014. The new plant aims to compensate for the closure of two 440-megawatt reactors last year and restore Bulgaria's position as a leading power exporter in southeastern Europe. Italy's Enel (ENEI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research), Germany's E.ON (EONG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and RWE (RWEG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), Czech CEZ (CEZPsp.PR: Quote, Profile, Research), France's EdF (EDF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Belgium's Electrabel, owned by French utility Suez (LYOE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), should file their offers by October 1, NETC said. "The six firms will be allowed to carry out a due diligence and file initial bids that will be used as a basis for negotiations with NETC," the Bulgarian utility, which will keep the majority stake in the plant, said in a statement. NETC said Spain's Endesa (ELE.MC: Quote, Profile, Research), Swiss energy firms EGL (EGL.S: Quote, Profile, Research) and Atel (ATN.S: Quote, Profile, Research) and the Bulgarian unit of Belgian copper refiner Cumerio (CUMR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research) have expressed interest in acquiring stakes lower than 25 percent in the new plant. The four companies could be invited to place initial offers if needed during the talks with the six shortlisted bidders and only upon their and NETC's approval, the utility said. NETC has said it plans to pick a strategic partner to own and operate the Belene plant by the end of the year and wrap up the deal next February. It has opened a tender to find a lead manager to arrange the financing of the plant. NETC has said it expected the new investor to help it secure the funds by either offering a corporate guarantee or by signing long-term power purchase agreements that will help it receive better debt conditions. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 Reuters: U.S., India said still divided on nuclear deal Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:42PM 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. The two sides were considering an Indian compromise proposal that would represent a special concession for New Delhi, U.S. officials and congressional sources told Reuters. "There's goodwill, we've made progress and we're very hopeful that we can hammer out the remaining differences in the coming days and weeks," said State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey. 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 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. India's ties with Iran are also a complicating factor, experts say. 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. Continued... ***************************************************************** 17 Reuters: U.S., India say substantial progress in atomic talks Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:59PM EDT By Carol Giacomo and Paul Eckert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and India said on Friday they made "substantial progress" in negotiations on a landmark nuclear cooperation agreement, and one U.S. official told Reuters the long-delayed deal was effectively done. In a terse joint statement, U.S. and Indian negotiators said they "are pleased with the substantial progress made on the outstanding issues" but gave no details on how they bridged significant differences in talks extended two days longer than planned. However, other officials said the agreement apparently turned on a compromise proposal proffered by India that would represent a special concession for New Delhi. The two sides have been stalemated for months over the deal, which would give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and reactors for the first time in 30 years. "We will now refer the issue to our governments for final review," said the joint statement, issued after four days of talks. "Both the United States and India look forward to the completion of these remaining steps and to the conclusion of this historic initiative," it added. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: "There aren't any problems here." While there needs to be "final review work done in capitals ... we're fairly confident this is going to move forward and be completed in the next week or so," he said. He said U.S. negotiators were also confident the deal would be acceptable to the U.S. Congress, which must approve it. Continued... ***************************************************************** 18 Reuters: Japan asks firms to curb power use after quake Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:52AM EDT By Kentaro Hamada TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's trade minister asked industry to limit electricity use at peak periods and ordered nuclear utilities to make strict safety checks, after a strong quake forced the world's biggest nuclear power plant to shut. Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari said on Friday Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the closed plant, had told him there would be enough power if summer temperatures were average, but there may be shortages if it got too hot. "Since we can't rule out an unusual rise in demand due to a big jump in temperatures, it is necessary to be on the safe side," Amari told reporters. "We need to ask industry to limit power use during peak periods." TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant was closed indefinitely after Monday's 6.8 magnitude quake in northwestern Japan caused radiation leaks. Ten people were killed by the quake and hundreds of houses were flattened. Fears about the safety of the nuclear industry -- which supplies about one-third of Japan's electricity -- have been renewed by the leaks -- and one expert said planned, tightened rules were still too lax. TEPCO supplies power to the greater Tokyo area, where peak demand of 68 million kilowatts is forecast during the capital's humid summer. The firm has asked six utilities to help replace lost production and said power supplies were sufficient for now. Shutting the quake-hit plant deprives TEPCO of up to 8.2 million kilowatts of capacity -- around 12 percent of Tokyo's forecast peak demand -- which means more power must come from coal- or oil-fired thermal plants and it may need to restart some mothballed plants. Continued... ***************************************************************** 19 UPI: Markey: India nuclear deal on Iran hinge United Press International - Energy - Briefing Published: July 20, 2007 at 3:05 PM WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Edward Markey criticized India's friendliness with Iran and demands on Washington in its talks for a U.S.-India nuclear pact. The Massachusetts Democrat said Thursday in a statement India is trying to pressure the United States into bending on its anti-proliferation laws. "India must understand that the legal boundaries established by the Congress for nuclear cooperation cannot be overstepped during negotiations between the two Executives," Markey wrote. The two countries' leaders have been negotiating the deal since 2005. It would provide India access to U.S. nuclear technology and material, something banned by U.S. law since India has nuclear weapons and hasn't signed key international treaties. The deal would make an exception. There are two main sticking points: India has contested certain provisions that would hamper what it calls a sovereign right to develop its nuclear weapons program, and the U.S. Congress wants New Delhi to break development ties with Iran. India wants to increase nuclear energy as a way to meet rising energy demand. It has maintained a relationship with current Bush arch nemesis Iran, forging ahead on deals that include investing in natural gas supplies. "India is not only getting chummier with Iran, but it looks like New Delhi is actively courting Tehran," Markey said. "Their growing relationship is making a lot of folks in Congress increasingly skeptical about the long-term viability of this nuclear deal." © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 UPI: U.S., India report progress on nuke deal United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: July 20, 2007 at 1:32 AM WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Progress is reported after three days of talks in Washington on the U.S.-India civilian nuclear deal, but a final agreement is still not ready. The Voice of America quoted a U.S. diplomat as saying the talks had "broken the logjam" on the deal, reached in principle by President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2005. However, a firm agreement awaits a high-level review by both governments. The deal basically requires India, a nuclear-weapons state, to allow international inspection of its civilian nuclear facilities in exchange for access to U.S. civilian nuclear technology and fuel. The deal has been bogged down since July 2005 by a number of issues, mainly dealing with India's objection to U.S. demands that it not conduct further nuclear weapons tests, the report said. The Unites States also wants to curb India from reprocessing nuclear fuel. After three days of talks, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey gave no specific time frame, but told reporters U.S. officials are very hopeful the remaining issues can be hammered out "in the coming days and weeks." © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 21 Hemscott: Vattenfall not to sell stakes in German nuclear power plants to E.ON - CEO FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - Vattenfall is not planning to sell its stakes in the two German nuclear power plants Kruemmel and Brunsbuettel to E.ON, chief executive Lars Josefsson said in an interview with weekly Wirtschaftswoche. Vattenfall and E.ON each hold 50 pct in Kruemmel. Both companies also have stakes in Brunsbuettel, with Vattenfall being the majority stakeholder, the weekly said. A recent fire at the Kruemmel atomic power plant and a capacity overload at the plant in Brunsbuettel sparked criticism of Vattenfall's safety standards. judith.csaba@thomson.com jcs/hjp Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, ***************************************************************** 22 Guardian Unlimited: Official Criticizes Japan Nuke Plant From the Associated Press Friday July 20, 2007 11:31 AM By JUNJI KUROKAWA Associated Press Writer KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) - Failure to follow procedure was to blame for the latest leak from a nuclear power plant damaged in this week's earthquake in northwestern Japan, a top government official said Friday. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said radioactive material was leaking from an exhaust vent as late as Wednesday night, two days after the plant suffered a near-direct hit by Monday's quake, which killed 10 people and injured more than 1,000. TEPCO announced Friday that a check the previous night at the plant, 135 miles northwest of Tokyo, confirmed the vent leak had stopped. The embattled operator of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant - the world's largest in terms of capacity - already had announced a barrage of leaks and malfunctions, and said the latest might have been caused by workers failing to follow rules and turn off a fan inside the building. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said the trade and industry minister would issue a further ``stern warning'' to TEPCO. ``This is an error of not implementing the manual,'' Shiozaki said when questioned about the latest exhaust vent leak. TEPCO and nuclear regulators have stressed the amounts of radioactivity leaked were extremely low and posed no threat to the environment or local residents. The announcement of the leak came a day after officials issued similar assurances about other damage at the plant - including a fire, burst pipes and waste spillage. The seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant shut down automatically when the quake hit, and the plant has been ordered closed indefinitely while inspections and repairs are carried out to assure it can be restarted safely. TEPCO has warned 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. All six companies said they would cooperate in providing power and TEPCO is also considering restarting oil and gas plants, TEPCO officials said late Thursday. The government has urged the operators of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors - which supply one-third of Japan's energy - to speed up safety checks for earthquake resistance, a top concern in the temblor-prone nation. Officials at the Kashiwazaki plant acknowledged they had not foreseen such a powerful quake hitting the facility. They also repeatedly underreported its impact after it hit. After initially saying the quake had caused 50 separate types of minor damage or leaks, TEPCO upped that estimate to 63. --- Associated Press writer Kana Inagaki in Tokyo contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 23 NRC: Speech - “Perspective on Preparedness for Radiological Terrorism, Commissioner Gregory B. Jaczko, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: Public Affairs Web Site Prepared Remarks for The Honorable Gregory B. Jaczko Commissioner U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society Portland, Oregon July 10, 2007 I admire the work that you do and I am glad to have the opportunity to open your session entitled “Community Preparedness for Radiological Terrorism.” You will be engaging in technical discussions about radioactive dispersal devices, community response plans, and first responders throughout today’s session. The work health physicists perform, whether for a radioactive materials licensee, a nuclear power plant, a university, or a government agency, is designed to ensure protection from the health affects of radioactive materials. Health Physicists have unique training and expertise. Before I get much further, I want to discuss something that I believe is vital to good public policy. To best accomplish its mission of protecting public health and safety and the environment, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should be as open with information as possible and transparent in explaining the processes the Commission uses to make decisions. To be successful we need two things: policy based on sound science, regulatory, and technical decisions, AND public confidence in those decisions. We only get that public confidence when we engage a diverse group of stakeholders, to hear their concerns and ideas, and to make them active participants in our decision making processes. No where is this more important than in the emergency preparedness arena. This is one of the few issues in which the NRC interacts not only with licensees, but directly with the public. Emergency preparedness is an emotional issue which makes communicating accurate scientific information even more important and challenging. The public must also follow recommendations we make for those protective actions to be effective. Looking at preparedness planning through the public’s eyes gives us a much fuller appreciation for what we need to accomplish. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has an advantage in that our agency and our licensees have been working with the local communities around nuclear power plants for decades. We have a good understanding of the risks these facilities pose, the time frames in which an accident is likely to occur, and the investments that have been made to develop preparedness plans for the ten-mile emergency planning zones and the fifty-mile ingestion pathways. That is not to say the agency is not continuing to evolve. The Commission has proposed modifying its regulatory requirements for radiological emergency preparedness in several different areas. The first involves additional requirements for our licensees to provide better information more quickly. Based on advances in technology and emergency management over the last quarter century, they deal with such issues as requiring licensees to have a backup capability to notify government and the public of an incident at a plant, and performing periodic reviews and updates of evacuation time estimates to better assist in making protective action recommendations. We have also funded evacuation and protective action studies at Sandia National Laboratory over the past few years. The preliminary results of these studies show that in certain emergencies resulting in releases of radiological materials – such as short duration or “puff” releases and/or in communities with longer evacuation times, it may be better for people to shelter in place rather than attempt to evacuate. There is a widespread perception that radiological emergency preparedness is equivalent to evacuation. So making a dramatic change such as this would require good communication and stakeholder confidence. The second area involves the inclusion of security-based drills and exercises. We have a sophisticated exercise program at nuclear power plants, but are planning to add more realism into these training opportunities. These exercises may include a spectrum of simulated releases to better familiarize responders with different timing, duration, and severity of events. Finally, we are exploring a new way of regulating emergency preparedness – a performance based approach which focuses on results as the primary basis for regulatory decision-making. This would allow the agency to more effectively define what “adequate public health and safety” means in an emergency preparedness context. It would involve a broad stakeholder discussion about what the “adequate protection” standard should be, the protection that emergency preparedness plans and procedures should result in, and new more objective and measurable regulations. Now, none of that is easy or short term, but the NRC has talented and dedicated career staff who constantly work to implement and improve our programs. For the nuclear power plants we regulate, we have sixty-five distinct sites to worry about. Concerns about the potential of radiological terrorism have no defined boundaries and could affect areas that do not have as established of an emergency preparedness infrastructure. This is the challenge and the opportunity that the government faces. Our role as radiation experts and regulators is to help communicate with the public and educate them about the risks of the materials we know. This benefits the work of emergency responders during planning for the initial and intermediate phases of an incident, but it is also invaluable to providing the “sound science” portion of decision-making about long-term recovery efforts. The NRC has been involved in revising the Environmental Protection Agency’s 1992 Protective Actions Guidelines, and the Department of Homeland Security’s addition of a section on radiological dispersal devices and improvised nuclear devices. These recommendations for when communities should take protective actions are vital and the most important aspect of them will involve moving back to communities that may be affected. The interagency community has appropriately not yet defined a standard for long term recovery, instead relying on the principle of “optimization” for determining the appropriate radiation threshold after a radiological event. I agree that one size might not fit all and that there are public benefits to being able to return to communities as quickly as possible. But optimization is rather loosely defined and it is important to remember that the public would look to you for help to make decisions about whether and when it is safe for them to go home. This type of situation would pose a challenge similar to the anthrax attacks that occurred at the U.S. Capitol when I worked there in 2001. There was no play book for the challenging set of circumstances that confronted decision makers following the discovery of anthrax spores in a Senate office mailroom. There were lengthy debates about how clean was “clean,” and officials were required to make difficult judgments about how to remediate and when to reopen Senate office buildings. Similarly, your work is and would be crucial if a radiological incident were to occur in the U.S. The public would need your expertise and you would need the confidence of the public to succeed. In conclusion, I want to thank you for the valuable work you do to provide the sound science that serves as a foundation for policy making and public protection. I appreciate the opportunity to be here and I look forward to hearing the results of today’s session. NRC speeches are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when speeches are posted to NRC's Web site. Friday, July 20, 2007 ***************************************************************** 24 NRC: The NRC and the ‘Safety Business’” NRC Chairman Dale E. Klein Speech - 07-036 - “ OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: Public Affairs Web Site Remarks Prepared for NRC Chairman Dale E. Klein Women in Nuclear Conference Anaheim, CA July 16, 2007 Thank you. I am very glad to see such a large turnout at this meeting. Nuclear engineering is much different today than when I first got into the field years ago. Both the academic and business aspects are changing, more rapidly all the time it seems—and not just in the U.S. but around the world. So today, for example, when I travel I find more and more often that my counterpart is a woman… such as Judith Melin in Sweden, or Linda Keen in Canada. And we are quite proud of the increasingly important role women play at the NRC. If I may brag for a moment, Undine Shoop, an engineer who works in the NRC’s Communication’s Office, is on the cover of the current issue of Woman Engineer. Now, the changing face of the nuclear power business is a positive development for a number of reasons including basic fairness and greater diversity. There is also the simple fact of self-interest: ensuring full access for women essentially doubles the talent pool. And both government and industry are going to need all the talent we can get. In fact, there are now more women in college than men—so if industry wants to build a future with the best and brightest young talent, it needs to attract and encourage people of both genders and all races. Another benefit is tied to the fact that the success of the Nuclear Renaissance—if it is to happen—will depend ultimately on public trust. That’s a theme I will come back to in a minute. But my point right now is that the more an organization looks like the public, the more likely it is to earn that trust. After all, people are more comfortable with what is familiar. So the more the organization represents society at large, the more likely that it will be trusted by society at large. This is all the more important today, because one of the potential bottlenecks I see for future growth is workforce development. One of the challenges facing both industry and regulators is the need to prepare the next generation of engineers, as well as electricians, welders, and other skilled crafts people. I have said before that none of our interests is going to be well served if we spend our time and money chasing after a limited number of candidates. Instead of bidding against each other, all of us – industry and government alike – must focus on an intensive nationwide effort to expand the base of qualified people. And reaching out to people who were not traditionally well-represented in this business is one of the best ways we can do that. So I am very pleased to see how large and strong a force WIN has become for expanding the industry’s talent pool. On the subject of workforce development, I want to commend you for your decision to hold this event at Disneyland. I assume you chose this venue so that we could all check out the competition… because I know that I regard Disney as my competitor. That may seem like a somewhat cryptic remark, so let me explain what I mean with a brief story. Bill Gates was once asked who Microsoft’s biggest competitor was. He responded, rather surprisingly, that his biggest competitor was Goldman Sachs. Gates explained that both companies were in what he called “the IQ business.” “Microsoft must win the IQ war,” he said, “or we won't have a future. I don't worry about Lotus or IBM, because the smartest guys would rather come to work for Microsoft. Our competitors for IQ are investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley." So what does that story have to do with nuclear energy and Disneyland? I think it comes down to a similar commonality: safety. I don’t mean to discount IQ, of course. But since we are in a room full of nuclear engineers, I think we can take high IQ’s in the nuclear energy business as a given. And, as you know, the NRC is not a Mickey Mouse operation. But what Disney and the nuclear energy business have in common is that they both depend for their success, for their existence, on an absolute commitment to safety. That focus is key to a successful in-house engineering operation, with a comprehensive education, training and development program. I think you will find this kind of program in companies that understand, as Disney appears to, that without their customers’ trust, nothing else matters. What does it mean for us to recognize that we are in the safety business? And I say “we” because, of course, the safe operation of commercial nuclear plants is a joint responsibility that requires the active cooperation of the utilities and the NRC. What is required for us to fulfill our separate but complementary responsibilities? I am glad you asked, because that brings me to the theme of our panel, “Rebuilding the Nuclear Industrial Infrastructure.” As I have remarked several times over the last few months, I firmly believe that while the NRC faces significant challenges in the near future, we will not be a roadblock to the anticipated growth in nuclear power, if we receive high-quality applications. But I have also pointed out that there seems to be two other areas that may present bottlenecks. I have already talked about workforce development. The second potential bottleneck is the ability of the global manufacturing sector to meet the growing demand for high-quality nuclear components in a timely way. I should mention that the relatively small number of firms producing major components at least makes it relatively easier to oversee the quality and authenticity of these components. But we—and I mean here both the utilities and the regulatory community—face a different challenge in ensuring the quality of the thousands of smaller parts and materials that are manufactured in other parts of the world. The construction of a commercial nuclear plant today involves pumps, valves, motors, fans, pipes… and even bolts… that may be produced by any number of companies—both private and state-owned—around the world. And the close scrutiny that regulatory agencies and nuclear customers can bring to bear on major manufacturers to assure that quality components are produced does not always apply with the same intensity to the sub-vendors that supply parts and materials to the manufacturers. To address this, I have suggested in meetings with regulators from other nations that we establish more extensive channels of communication to share information about any components or equipment that may be substandard, counterfeit, inadequate or inappropriate to a nuclear power plant. Regulatory agencies and industry would benefit from sharing this data under normal circumstances, but it seems to me even more critical during the current worldwide push to build new plants. Whether it involves major components, smaller parts, nuclear plant designs, or the actual construction and operation of power plants, we all have an interest in encouraging high levels of safety, and strong safeguards in every country that participates in the fuel cycle. Now, when I address the need for industry to join with us in being vigilant in this area it is not intended to cast aspersions. It is simply meant to recognize that the NRC depends on industry to be the first line of safety. It is a well-known adage around my office that if there is something amiss at a commercial nuclear plant, the plant owners and operators should find it first. If they don’t find it, INPO should. If INPO doesn’t find it… and it falls to the NRC resident inspector to find it… well, then industry has, in a sense, failed. So what I am trying to do when I revisit these themes is to avert problems before they come to our attention as a regulator. Still, some people wonder why I keep coming back to this theme. So let me offer two examples of why I think this issue is important, and why I want to ensure that all of us are putting sufficient effort into addressing it. Because I have always said that ensuring high-quality components is a challenge we must address together. Here is the first example: According to data compiled by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the number of ASME Nuclear Certificates holders fell worldwide from nearly 600 in 1980, to under 200 this year. More strikingly, the decline was due almost entirely to the loss of nuclear certificates among American companies. The number of certificates held by other nations has remained fairly steady—around 100—since 1980, but the number of American certificate holders today is one-fifth of what it was 27 years ago. Clearly, this must be a consideration as we contemplate the anticipated growth in the demand for parts. The second point is more anecdotal, but I am sure it is something you have been following in the news… and it seems to be happening more and more often. I am referring to the problems with regard to quality control over both food products and manufactured items that are bought and sold on the global market. This is bad enough when it concerns contaminated consumer products—which is certainly very serious. But it is a matter of even greater concern when supposedly high-quality machine components are substandard or counterfeit... particularly when such defective or fraudulent parts could find their way into a commercial nuclear reactor. That has not happened. And I am confident that it will not happen… as long as we remember that at the end of the day, nuclear power plants are really in the safety business. So the question I would leave you with is: Are we being vigilant enough? Is industry doing enough to: Establish more rigorous safeguards and oversight in procurement? Find quality vendors and ensure that they maintain high standards? Make quality assurance a top priority? That is my charge to you today. To come back to the point I made at the beginning—it clearly appears Disney understands this. There is a reason they are known and loved and trusted around the world… because this park is a global enterprise, too. No ride, no attraction will be enticing enough if people don’t feel safe bringing their families here. That same confidence, that trust, should be the ultimate goal of those of you trying to bring about the revival of commercial nuclear power. NRC speeches are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when speeches are posted to NRC's Web site. Friday, July 20, 2007 ***************************************************************** 25 Hindustan Times: 'Substantial progress in nuclear deal talks'- Sridhar Krishnaswami, Press Trust Of India Last Updated: 04:35 IST(21/7/2007) India and the US on Friday night reported "substantial progress" in official level talks over the civil nuclear deal and decided to refer the issue to respective governments for "final review". In a joint statement issued after four days of intense negotiations, the two sides said they look forward to the completion of the "remaining steps and to the conclusion of the historic initiative". "The discussions were constructive and positive and both Under Secretary (Nicholas) Burns and Foreign Secretary (Shivshanker) Menon are pleased with the substantial progress made on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement," it said. "We will now refer the issue to our governments for final review," it added. Menon and Burns held four day talks to sort out differences over issues like reprocessing and the fate of the deal if India were to conduct a nuclear test in future. The two sides said they look forward to the completion of the "remaining steps and to the conclusion of the historic initiative". In addition, India's National Security Advisor MK Narayanan and Menon held discussions with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and US National Security Advisor Stephen P Hadley. Burns had on Thursday said that both the sides have "overcome many of the outstanding issues. We just need to go the extra couple of feet." ***************************************************************** 26 AFP: US, India declare 'substantial progress' in nuclear accord - by P. Parameswaran Fri Jul 20, 5:11 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States and India have made "substantial progress" on crafting an implementing agreement for their landmark civilian nuclear deal after extended talks here, a joint statement said Friday. "We will now refer the issue to our governments for final review," the statement said after the talks in Washington led by US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns and Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. "The discussions were constructive and positive, and both Under Secretary Burns and Foreign Secretary Menon are pleased with the substantial progress made on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement," the statement said. The implementation agreement, or "123 agreement," is intended to capture all operational aspects of the nuclear deal, in which the United States would provide atomic technology and fuel to India. The move would reverse three decades of sanctions imposed over nuclear tests carried out by India, which is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In an indication of the upcoming government review, and any possible amendment, of the text of the agreement drafted by the two sides in Washington, the statement said the United States and India "look forward to the completion of these remaining steps and to the conclusion of this historic initiative." The talks were supposed to end Wednesday but extended by two days after the two sides broke the "logjam" that had blocked an accord for the last two years, officials had said, without elaborating. The extended talk showed "there really is goodwill on the part of both sides to resolve outstanding differences and finish this key piece of the US-India civilian nuclear arrangement," said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman. He rejected any notion that the talks were troubled, amid some reports that Washington and New Delhi were desperately trying to salvage the deal. "I certainly would take issue with the notion that these talks are somehow in trouble or that we don't ultimately feel confident that we will be able to reach an agreement," Casey said. 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 to allay concerns that material and technology received are not diverted to boost its nuclear weapons arsenal. Despite several rounds of talks, India has stood fast against accepting any curbs on its reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. India 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 India 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. 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 the comprehensive implementation agreement 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 ***************************************************************** 27 times and star: Nuke plan forces cheese firm rethink Published on 20/07/2007 A NEW ÂŁ45 million cheese factory planned in Workington will now be built in Carlisle or Penrith instead. Bosses of West Lakes Dairy Park have pulled out of a site at Lillyhall after discovering that Swedish company Studsvik want to build a nuclear waste treatment plant nearby. Studsvik has applied for planning permission from Cumbria County Council to build a nuclear decontamination facility at Joseph Noble Road. Allerdale council has recommended that the plan be refused, but the final decision will be made by the county council at the end of this month. Around 150 Cumbrian farmers, who would supply the factory with milk, have been told of two alternative sites where the facility could now be built; at Kingmoor Park in Carlisle and the Gilwilly Industrial Estate at Penrith. Kate Willard, chief executive of West Lakes Dairy Park, promised farmers that there would only be a short delay to the planned opening in September 2008. Full planning consent had already been secured for the plant in West Cumbria and construction work was due to begin within months. But it was feared that having nuclear waste treated nearby would put potential cheese customers off. Ronald Akkerman, the Dutch entrepreneur behind the scheme, said: “We remain 100 per cent committed to building this dairy facility in Cumbria and are working to secure another site as soon as possible so as to minimise any delay in starting construction.” Ms Willard said although the setback would cause a delay, farmers’ contracts will not be affected. Their milk will be bought by the company and brokered until the factory is up and running. Most of the dairy farmers signed up to the project earlier this year after losing their Dairy Crest contracts to supply the Aspatria creamery. Harold Armstrong, a farmer and chairman of the producer group, said: “We believe it is positive news to resite the factory nearer the M6 corridor. “We’re pretty upbeat about this announcement and there are no doubts or worries. The sooner the building is started, the better. If we have to wait an extra six months then I think we are prepared to do that.” Ms Willard said Kingmoor Park had already offered the company a site to buy and negotiations were ongoing with the Gilwilly Industrial Estate in Penrith. View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.timesandstar.co.uk/digitalcopy Other stories from this category that may interest you: ***************************************************************** 28 Guardian Unlimited: Japan's Nuclear Plans Affected by Quake Friday July 20, 2007 5:16 PM By JOSEPH COLEMAN Associated Press Writer TOKYO (AP) - Japan's nuclear power industry is among the world's most ambitious. Spurred by fears of global warming, planners envision a rapid expansion of plants, capacity and cutting-edge technologies. But a series of radioactive leaks at the world's largest atomic plant following a killer earthquake in northwestern Japan this week has given the industry a public relations headache that will be difficult to cure. ``You cannot have nuclear power without public trust,'' said Jan Beranek, nuclear energy project leader for the Greenpeace environmentalist group. ``And you cannot trust people who don't tell you the truth or who build nuclear plants in earthquake zones.'' The sprawling, seven-reactor Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant - the world's largest in capacity - suffered in Monday's 6.8-magnitude quake. A fire charred an electrical transformer, planks toppled into a pool of spent nuclear fuel and some 400 barrels of atomic waste tipped over. Disclosures of radioactive leaks seeped out over several days, exacerbated by operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s delays in notifying the public. First came word, 12 hours after the quake, that some 315 gallons of radioactive water had sloshed out of a tank and was flushed out to sea. In following days, TEPCO - Japan's largest power company - released a list of 50 malfunctions, damages and mistakes, announced that radioactive materials had spewed from an exhaust vent, and had to acknowledge the water leak contained 50 percent more radioactivity than initially reported. The list was later updated to 63 cases. The company was further embarrassed on Thursday when yet another leak was discovered from an exhaust vent, indicating leaks continued as late as Wednesday night, nearly three days after the quake. TEPCO, regulators and even environmentalists agreed the amounts of radioactivity involved were minuscule and posed no threat. But the most damaging result from the troubles was the realization that the world's largest nuclear power plant was not structurally equipped to withstand such a powerful earthquake - this despite Japan's long history as one of the most seismically active places on Earth. Until last year, Japan had required plants to be built to withstand a 6.5-magnitude quake. In September, the government began implementing tougher guidelines, though they have not set a fresh magnitude level. Regulators acknowledge they need to take a fresh look at the rules. ``Earthquake safety at nuclear facilities is an issue of utmost concern to the public, and it's imperative that we ensure safety as soon as possible,'' said Atsuyuki Suzuki, chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission. For some scientists, however, no guidelines would be enough to protect a plant. Katsuhiko Ishibashi, earthquake specialist at Kobe University's Research Center for Urban Safety and Security, said one problem is that scientists are unable to pinpoint fault lines with any accuracy. ``This situation clearly showed the insufficiency of the old guidelines for examining the seismic design of nuclear power plants,'' he said, arguing no plant could survive a direct hit from an earthquake. The troubles facing Japan's nuclear industry come just as it is getting a boost because of concern over climate change. Atomic power figured high in the government's proposal to cut world greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. Japan has 55 reactors producing about 30 percent of its electricity, with plans to build another 11 reactors by 2017, eventually boosting nuclear power's share of electricity production to 40 percent. Down the road, the government is pushing for development of next generation light water reactors around 2030, and so-called ``fast-breeder'' reactors that produce plutonium that can be reused as fuel, fulfilling a Japanese dream of energy self-sufficiency. Japan, however, already faces difficulties in finding communities willing to host reactors, mostly because of a long list of past accidents and cover-ups of malfunctions - including some at TEPCO. The problems at Kashiwazaki could make that expansion even more difficult. While many Japanese understand the need for energy to power the world's second-largest economy, they are hesitant to trust operators. ``It is impossible to guarantee 100 percent safety,'' conceded Yumi Shimoda, a 40-year-old marketing consultant in Tokyo. ``But what scares me is the fact that they tried to cover up the truth in order to claim safety.'' --- Associated Press writers Chisaki Watanabe and Kana Inagaki contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 29 AFP: Japan urges power-saving after nuclear shutdown - Saturday July 21, 03:17 AM TOKYO (AFP) - Japan on Friday asked businesses to save on energy during peak hours this summer after a powerful earthquake led to the closure of the country's largest nuclear power plant, officials said. The order came as authorities said that heat was contributing to illness among elderly people staying in shelters after Monday's powerful earthquake, which killed 10 people and injured more than 1,000 more. The 6.8 Richter-scale earthquake caused a small radioactive leak at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, which supplies some 10 percent of electricity to the nation's largest power company, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) The plant has been shut down since the quake and TEPCO has faced a storm of criticism for initially under-reporting the leak. "The trade ministry has decided to instruct all businesses under our supervision to save power and we are preparing to issue administrative instructions," Nobuhiro Watanabe, a ministry official, told AFP. The ministry supervises virtually all manufacturing and service industries. TEPCO voiced confidence it would have enough electricity by making use of other facilities -- unless the weather is exceptionally warm. Temperatures are starting to rise in Japan with the end of the rainy season. However, "if this summer becomes very hot, power supply may become insufficient," TEPCO said. "In order to avoid this situation, we will keep making efforts to secure stable supply and to ask our customers to wave on power," it said in a statement. Trade Minister Akira Amari also instructed power companies to review safety measures of all existing nuclear plants. He said power companies needed to develop better firefighting capabilities and to improve countermeasures, including quick reporting of incidents. The earthquake has also caused leading automakers to curtail production after damage to a key supplier of car parts. As shelters for evacuees tried to install fans and air conditioners, a local official said that 45 earthquake survivors have been taken to hospitals for health problems. Many of them are elderly people affected by the heat. More than 3,100 people are still staying at 66 shelters, which are mostly school gymnasiums or other public buildings. Despite being one of the world's most earthquake-prone nations, Japan relies on nuclear power for one-third of its needs and hopes to boost that level. Japan has virtually no natural energy resources, meaning the world's second largest economy is at the mercy of the volatile Middle East for oil and gas. The damage to the nuclear plant -- the first such incident in Japan -- caused particular alarm as seismologists did not consider the area to be on an active fault line. Even though earthquake guidelines were last reviewed in September, "they are still very insufficient," said Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a professor of earthquake seismology at Kobe University. "I think the new guidelines should be reviewed again," he told a news conference in Tokyo. "These guidelines basically assumed that magnitude-seven or larger earthquakes would all be found after an investigation into active faults," he said. "The basic assumption needs to be changed." US experts are planning to come to Japan to help work on safety measures for nuclear plants during earthquakes, the Nikkei business daily said in its evening edition. ***************************************************************** 30 AFP: French, US energy groups agree to build new US nuclear plants - Saturday July 21, 07:32 AM PARIS (AFP) - French state-controlled energy giant EDF said Friday it had agreed to create a joint venture with US peer Constellation Energy to operate new nuclear power plants in the United States. The companies are to form a jointly-owned nuclear holding company into which EDF will invest a maximum 625 million dollars (865 million euros), while Constellation will contribute assets from its UniStar Nuclear business. Constellation has also agreed to upgrade four of its existing US nuclear power stations with next-generation European atomic energy technology. The joint company, with a 50:50 partnership, will have a board of eight executives with an equal number named by EDF and Constellation. Pierre Gadonneix, chairman and chief executive of EDF Group, said: "We are extremely pleased to partner with Constellation Energy, one of Americas pre-eminent nuclear operators. "This agreement confirms EDFs interest in the US nuclear power renaissance." Under the terms of the agreement, EDF said it might buy up to 9.9 percent of outstanding shares in Constellation Energy, with 5.0 percent in the first year of the agreement. The new nuclear power stations developed in the United States by the groups will use EPR technology, which stands for European Pressurised Reactor, that has been developed by French state-owned nuclear engineering group Areva. EDF operates 58 nuclear power stations in France, which is the country with the highest reliance on nuclear energy for its electricity supply in the world. Mayo Shattuck, chairman and chief executive of Constellation Energy, said the group was making "progress toward the goal of constructing the first fleet of new nuclear power plants in the United States in nearly three decades." Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Guardian Unlimited: Another Radioactive Leak at Japan Plant Friday July 20, 2007 8:31 AM 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. An inspection Thursday night confirmed the leak had stopped, the utility said on Friday. Tokyo Electric previously announced that iodine and other radioactive materials escaped from the vent. The utility says it did not realize until it conducted further tests that the iodine leak had continued until Wednesday night. An exhaust fan inside the building may not have been turned off as instructed in the operations manual, company spokesman Manabu Takeyama said. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said the government would issue a ``stern warning'' to Tokyo Electric. ``This is an error of not implementing the manual,'' Shiozaki 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. The government has urged the operators of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors - which supply one-third of Japan's energy - to speed up safety checks for earthquake resistance, a top concern in the temblor-prone nation. 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 ***************************************************************** 32 Iaea Welcomes European Contribution For African Nuclear Security Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:00:23 -0400 New York, Jul 20 2007 2:00PM Africa’s nuclear and radiological safety will be reinforced thanks to a €7 million contribution form the European Union (EU) to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2007/nuclsecafrica.html">IAEA), the Vienna-based body said today. The donation is the largest ever made to the IAEA’s Nuclear Security Fund, established to bolster nuclear security globally in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. “Nuclear science and technology offers great benefits but must be guarded against misuse,” IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said, thanking the EU for its contribution which “allows the Agency to continue to work with its African Member States to improve nuclear security in the region and beyond.” The recently received funding will support nuclear activities in 35 countries, including 27 in Africa, helping to upgrade the physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities, secure vulnerable radioactive sources and combat illicit trafficking in nuclear and radioactive materials. The IAEA will work with Ghana, South Africa, Morocco and Nigeria, among other countries, to secure nuclear and radioactive materials and sites at risk of sabotage. South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia and others will receive IAEA assistance in boosting their capabilities to detect and respond to illicit trafficking. Azerbaijan, Cape Verde, Comoros, Croatia, Swaziland, and the Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia are among the countries to which the agency will provide support to strengthen national legislation and regulatory infrastructures related to nuclear and radioactive material. The latest contribution brings the total received to $53 million, but Mr. ElBaradei noted that “the IAEA’s nuclear security programme remained 90 per cent funded through unpredictable and heavily conditioned voluntary contributions.” 2007-07-20 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 33 KNS: Man pleads not guilty to taking 'barriers' from ETTP to sell to French Knoxville News Sentinel Question of trash or treason By Frank Munger (Contact), Jamie Satterfield (Contact) Friday, July 20, 2007 R. DANIEL PROCTOR/NEWS SENTINEL Roy Lynn Oakley, left, listens as U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton reads the two-count indictment against the 65-year-old former East Tennessee Technology Park maintenance worker. OAKLEY’S JOURNEY: OAK RIDGE WORKER TO ACCUSED THIEF * In mid-October last year, Oakley begins taking home pieces of metal from the East Tennessee Technological Park once used in uranium enrichment. * Oakley decides to offer the material to the French government. * Oakley calls the French embassy in Washington, D.C. His offer is rebuffed. * An FBI agent, pretending to be from the French embassy, contacts Oakley and the two strike a deal for Oakley to sell the material. * On Jan. 26, 2007, the FBI carries out a sting. Oakley is temporarily detained and his home searched. * Oakley and attorney Herbert S. Moncier start negotiating a plea deal. * Talks break down. Oakley is indicted on Wednesday and arraigned Thursday. AP VIDEO Contractor Charged With Stealing Nuclear Secrets It was trash. He needed the cash. And the French are our friends. That’s his attorney’s account of how Roy Lynn Oakley, 65, of Midtown wound up charged Thursday in U.S. District Court with stealing pieces of equipment used for uranium enrichment and offering to sell it to the French government. Oakley, a former maintenance worker at the East Tennessee Technology Park, pleaded not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton on the two-count indictment. One count is the federal equivalent of theft and alleges that he stole equipment known as sections of “barriers” from October 2006 to Jan. 26, 2007, at the Oak Ridge site for the purpose of selling them. The more serious count in the indictment alleges that Oakley offered the material to France “to injure the United States and secure an advantage to a foreign nation.” He is free on $25,000 bond. His attorney, Herbert S. Moncier, said his client balked at that language and criticized what he termed as a leak by officials in Washington, D.C., of overblown and erroneous details about the case before Oakley had been arraigned or the indictment unsealed. “It is, I think, uncontested, these broken pieces of rod were to be sold to the French government for peaceful purposes,” Moncier said. “To have this become a matter of national security is stunning, is unfounded, is unfair and somebody is trying to spin this for (unknown) purposes.” Oakley worked 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,” Moncier wrote in a document he filed in court Thursday. “The rods were not radioactive and, broken into pieces, had no apparent use except to be disposed.” Those metal pieces were associated with the former uranium-enrichment operations at the plant, and Oakley reportedly took three to five of the pieces to his home. Documents indicated the stolen material included sections of “barrier,” which is the highly complex filtering system in the gaseous diffusion process. The barrier separated different isotopes of gaseous uranium and helped concentrate the fissionable U-235. Materials taken from the site also included associated hardware used for uranium enrichment, according to the documents. According to Moncier, that material was nothing more than trash to Oakley — inches-long broken pieces of metal rods or tubing. Still, Moncier said, Oakley thought the material might be of use to some other country. As a loyal American, Oakley opted to offer the material to a “friendly” country, Moncier said. He settled on France, and called the French embassy in Washington, D.C. “They laughed at him,” Moncier said. France has had a nuclear weapons capability for decades, and the country also has one of the most advanced nuclear power programs, including uranium-enrichment facilities. At some point after the initial rebuff, Oakley got a call from someone purporting to be an official at the French Embassy. It turned out to be an FBI agent, a document said. During the conversation, Oakley was supposedly given a code name by his connection, and they were reported to have negotiated a hefty sale price for the pieces of equipment. After a sting operation on Jan. 26, Oakley was temporarily detained and his Roane County home searched. He was not charged, however. Moncier said he and Oakley had been working with the Department of Justice in Washington and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Knoxville to negotiate a plea agreement. However, those talks broke down at some point, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office secured an indictment in the case Wednesday. On Thursday morning, Oakley and Moncier headed to the sixth-floor FBI offices in the John J. Duncan Federal Office Building to surrender on the charge. Moncier said a television crew from Washington greeted him and Oakley as they exited an elevator. Moncier accused the Justice Department in Washington of leaking the story to a national television network. At Thursday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Dake told Guyton that he could not allow Moncier to see the metal pieces at issue in the case because Moncier was refusing to get the necessary security clearance. Moncier countered that he didn’t need to get clearance to see “some broken rods.” “They say they are appliances,” he said. “We say they are trash.” Dake agreed that Oakley could be freed under the terms of a $25,000 signature bond. He was freed minutes after the hearing. Oakley is a high school graduate who’s worked as a maintenance worker or laborer most of 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, a partnership of Bechtel National and Jacobs Engineering, said Oakley worked for the contractor from Oct. 4, 2005, until Jan. 31, 2007 — when he was terminated “for cause.” He said Bechtel Jacobs had cooperated fully in the investigation. Gerald Boyd, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge manager, said he was limited in what he could say because of ongoing law-enforcement matters. However, Boyd said the East Tennessee Technology Park and other DOE facilities in Oak Ridge “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.” Boyd said those security systems successfully identified the suspect in this case. After DOE became aware of the situation, Boyd said he ordered a review of high-risk security procedures in Oak Ridge. He said the review included officials from Bechtel Jacobs, a DOE contractor since 1998, as well as the FBI and counterintelligence officials. “Unfortunately,” Boyd said, “there are some (employees) 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.” Billy Stair, a spokesman at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said the lab “participated closely” with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the investigation, but he emphasized that the suspect was not an ORNL employee. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., noted that a number of early news reports indicating that the suspect in the case was an ORNL employee, quoting officials as being critical of the lab’s security. “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,” Wamp said in a statement distributed to the news media. Oak Ridge has a long history of nuclear research and production, dating back to the World War II Manhattan Project. 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 miles of process equipment inside the K-25 building, a massive, 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 Department of Energy facilities has been a huge concern in recent years, dating back to the Wen Ho Lee scandal in 1999 at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. 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. “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,” Knoxville U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick said Thursday. Guyton set a Sept. 26 trial date. Although the maximum penalty for each charge is 10 years, Oakley would face far less under federal sentencing guidelines if convicted. Jamie Satterfield may be reached at 865-342-6308. Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 34 Lancashire Evening Post: Worker survives nuclear station fall Saturday, 21st July 2007 A worker from Heysham Nuclear Power Station had a lucky escape after he fell around 30 feet from scaffolding. Colin Storey suffered a dislocated ankle and a broken arm in the accident which happened in Princess Alexandra Way in Heysham, shortly after midnight on Friday. He landed in a confined space among various metalwork and piping. Crew Manager Steve Hyde, of Morecambe fire station, said: "On arrival the fire service were informed by paramedics that the man had sustained a dislocated ankle and a broken arm. The paramedics had sedated him and stabilised his condition." The casualty was brought down and secured to a basket stretcher, while the scaffolding team rigged up a pulley system to raise the stretcher. "Both tasks were made more difficult by the confined spaces and obstructions involved, however, the casualty was safely extricated to an ambulance and then on to hospital after an hour." Last Updated: 20 July 2007 9:29 AM ***************************************************************** 35 Hawaii Reporter: Hawaii Reporter: Depleted Uranium: Radioactive Propaganda Special from Hawaii Free Press By Andrew Walden, 7/19/2007 5:38:51 PM Anti-depleted uranium activists have enlisted the assistance of all of Hawaii’s leftist alternative weeklies in a campaign against depleted uranium. The Hawaii Island Journal June 30 caries a front page cartoon skeleton in an aloha shirt and the headline “Radioactive us -- danger depleted uranium.” Articles on the alleged risks of depleted uranium appeared in quick succession in Honolulu Weekly, June 13, Maui Time, June 21, and Big Island Weekly, June 27 as well as the Journal. Big Island Weekly points out that the latest anti-DU hype is based on observations in South Kona by an activist armed with a $399.00 “Gamma Scout,” Geiger counter. Allegedly the readings of “63 counts per minute” cited by Big Island Weekly indicate that “we might have a Gulf War in our backyards” and underlines “suspicion that DU is being used on Hawaii.” As usual, the truth lies elsewhere. According to its manufacturer, the “Gamma Scout” cannot detect beta radiation below 0.2MeV (mega electron volts). It cannot detect gamma radiation below 0.02 MeV. Depleted uranium emits beta at 0.01MeV and gamma radiation at 0.001 MeV—one-twentieth the “Gamma Scout” thresholds. Thus none of the beta or gamma radiation the activists read can possibly come from depleted uranium. A third type, known as alpha radiation, is so weak that it is stopped by a single sheet of paper or a few inches of atmosphere. In attempting to prove DU is dangerous, the activists have in fact proved the opposite. They have discovered what any junior high school physics student already knows -- the world is naturally bathed in background radiation. This background radiation is far stronger than anything depleted uranium could ever emit. DU radiation is literally too weak for them to measure. Leftist alternative papers are not the only ones climbing on the anti--DU bandwagon. In a failed effort to win passage of a DU soil testing bill, Marti Townsend of the pseudo-environmentalist group “KAHEA” wrote March 19 in Legislative committee testimony, “According to the International Atomic Energy Agency exposure to DU -- especially when inhaled -- triggers mutation of genes is linked to extreme and debilitating birth defects, nervous system disorders, terminal kidney disease, and many types of cancer. The DU at Schofield Barracks poses a threat to the majority of Oahu residents.” Wrong. The IAEA, explains, “The most detailed ongoing study on the health effects of DU exposure is of 33 friendly fire veterans of the Gulf War, most of whom have embedded DU shrapnel in their bodies that cannot be removed. To date none has developed any abnormalities due to uranium chemical toxicity or radio toxicity, despite showing greatly increased levels of uranium in their urine.” “Gulf War Syndrome” afflicts hundreds or even thousands of veterans of the First Gulf War. Instead of searching for the causes and treatments, anti-DU propagandists use Gulf War Syndrome as an excuse to attack DU. They would have veterans believe that American use of DU must be the cause of Gulf-War Syndrome, ignoring the possibility that the disorders are caused by left over chemical munitions and residuals from the Iran-Iraq war, by poisons released in the hundreds of oil-well fires started in Kuwait under Saddam’s orders, or by multiple causes. Much background radiation comes from the sun and cosmic rays. Visualize the activists flying with their Gamma Scout in a 747 on a one-way ticket to Pyongyang, North Korea. Because DU is widely used in commercial aircraft, they could sit in the back row, nearest the up to 3,300 lb block of depleted uranium used as a 747 tail weight. Their “Gamma Scout” would not register any increase in background radiation from the ton and a half of DU under their seats, but as the plane takes off and soars to 50,000 feet, the Geiger counter will register increasing background radiation as the thinner atmosphere allows in more radiation from solar and cosmic sources. Anti-DU activists rarely mention the massive amounts of DU commonly used in commercial aviation because it is not useful to their purpose of disarming the U.S. military. If depleted uranium were banned, commercial aviation would be shut down until replacement tail weights could be installed. This could cause some inconvenience in Hawaii. There are also terrestrial sources of background radiation. The most common radioactive isotope is potassium-40--found in organic fertilizers such as dried chicken manure. About 0.012 percent of that potassium is the radioactive isotope potassium-40. Potassium-40 emits 1.46meV gamma radiation -- 1460 times more gamma radiation than the almost undetectable levels emitted by depleted uranium. Organic gardeners use a lot of chicken manure in an effort to raise plant-available soil potassium levels to optimal growing levels of about 100 parts per million (ppm). Without soil potassium, no plants would grow and the world would be barren of life. The top foot of soil weighs on average 4 million pounds per acre. At 100 ppm, there would be 400 lbs of potassium per acre including about 0.048 lbs of the radioactive isotope potassium-40. Since potassium-40 is 1460 times more radioactive than depleted uranium, this is the equivalent of having about 70 pounds of depleted uranium in a one-acre organic garden. More radioactivity may be introduced into Hawaii’s environment by the activists than by any accidental military use of depleted uranium in Hawaii. Depleted uranium opponents at Hawaii’s mis-named Malu Aina ‘Peace’ Center operate a 20 acre organic garden which they call a farm. In twenty acres, there would be 0.96 lbs of radioactive potassium-40 in the top one foot of soil. This is the equivalent of having 3,994 lbs of depleted uranium. By its own logic Malu Aina should be shut down and quarantined as a toxic waste dump. After the activists’ home base is quarantined and stripped of its radioactive topsoil, a check will have to be made on the activists themselves. If anti-DU activists weigh on average 200 pounds each and are no more radioactive than the average person, they will contain on average 100 micrograms of radioactive non-depleted uranium. The average 200 lb person contains about 20,000 micrograms of potassium-40 which emits gamma rays escaping the body at 1.46 MeV. The average person would have to carry 29.2 grams of DU inside them to get the same dose of radiation as from the body’s naturally occuring potassium-40. Heavy smokers of tobacco or marijuana may be even more radioactive. Marijuana and tobacco have so much potassium-40 content that gamma radiation detectors are used at airports and border crossings to detect hidden drug shipments and cigarette tax evaders. DU is a life saver for American soldiers. Because it is 70 percent more dense than lead a DU round will zip right through enemy armor. It then ignites causing ammunition and fuel to explode and burn, killing all the head-chopping Islamic fascists inside and thus saving hundreds of human lives. Equivalent lead ammunition would just bounce off. Far from being a radiation danger, DU is actually used as a radiation shield surrounding civilian and military nuclear reactors. DU is one of the reasons American casualties in Iraq are 3,500 compared to 58,000 in Vietnam or 33,000 in Korea. Low casualties are a major source of frustration for anti-Americans. As Halliburton shareholder and filmmaker Michael Moore explained April 14, 2004, "
 the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let 
.” The bloodthirsty anti-war profiteer Michael Moore is one of many enemies of the U.S. armed forces who are so very “concerned” about DU. While the activists point to America’s armed defenders of freedom, the real sources of background radiation include the sun, cosmic rays, the human body, second-hand marijuana smoke, and dried up chicken manure. None of the background radiation they measured comes from DU. FOR MORE INFORMATION Gamma Detectors used to detect drug shipments: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994SPIE.2276..374K Potassium 40 in the human body: http://tinyurl.com/32n4vr "Andrew Walden is the publisher and editor of Hawaii Free Press, a Big Island-based newspaper. He can be reached via email at mailto:andrewwalden@email.com' HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do not represent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials to mailto:Malia@HawaiiReporter.com Hawaii Reporter 1314 S. King St., Suite 1163 Honolulu, Hawaii 96814 Information and Subscription Phone: 808-524-4500 Fax: 808-524-4594 Subscribe@HawaiiReporter.com City Desk Phone: 808-306-3161 Fax: 808-263-8181 Tips@HawaiiReporter.com www.HawaiiReporter.com © 2007 Hawaii Reporter, Inc. | About Us | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Limitations of Liability ***************************************************************** 36 NRC: NRC, DOE to Hold Public Meeting in Washington on Non-high Level Waste Determinations News Release - 2007-085 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov Members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff will hold a public meeting July 20 with counterparts from the U.S. Department of Energy to discuss agency interactions under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (NDAA) with respect to non-high level waste determinations at DOE facilities. The meeting will be held at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, 480 L’Enfant Plaza SW, in Washington, D.C., in the Renoir Meeting Room, from 10 a.m. to noon. Members of the public are invited to participate and will have an opportunity to speak at designated points during the meeting. NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Wednesday, July 18, 2007 ***************************************************************** 37 AU ABC: PM denies Australia will take nuclear waste - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) By political correspondent Louise Yaxley Posted July 20, 2007 11:39:00 Updated July 20, 2007 12:29:00 John Howard says Australia will not take nuclear waste from other countries. (File photo) (Getty Images: Ian Waldie) Prime Minister John Howard says Australia will not take nuclear waste from other countries. The Government has revealed it is in negotiations with the United States about a nuclear cooperation agreement, but says it is too early to say what that will mean. Mr Howard has again argued that nuclear power is a good option for Australia and says it could be economically viable within 10 years. But despite the Liberal Party's Federal Council recently voting for Australia to store the waste of other countries, Mr Howard says that will not happen. "We've made that clear, we're not taking other people's waste," he said. The Federal Government says it was the United States which initiated moves towards heightened nuclear cooperation between the two countries. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the US Department of Energy approached Australia to suggest updating a 1982 nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries. Mr Downer says the negotiations are not about joining the Bush administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, but he is open to the idea "Certainly not for a moment would I rule that out. It's a real possibility," he said. Nuclear waste 'trap' Environment groups say the fact that Australia is in talks with the US opens the way for Australia to host a nuclear waste dump. Democrats Senator Lynne Allison has warned of serious consequences if Australia signs up to the partnership "It seems to me that Australia is being trapped into becoming the world's nuclear dump," she said. Greens leader Bob Brown says Mr Howard will face stiff opposition if he tries to repeal Australia's laws preventing nuclear power stations. "He's now going to have to move those laws if he wants to go the George Bush path," he said. "And he'll get a hot debate, particularly from the Greens in the Australian Parliament if he goes in that direction." Senator Brown says regional neighbours like Indonesia and Malaysia will be aggrieved by the decision to move closer to a nuclear deal. "It's a dangerous move, it's not been canvassed with the Australian People," he said. "It's part of John Howard's plan to use APEC to to appear like a world statesperson." Tags: environment, nuclear-issues, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia, united-states © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 38 AU ABC: Aust could become US nuclear waste dump: expert - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) By David Mark Posted July 20, 2007 14:36:00 Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says nuclear cooperation talks with the US could lead to Australia joinng a new global nuclear group. (ABC TV) The nuclear genie has escaped the bottle once again, with confirmation today that Australia is talking to the United States about nuclear cooperation. Critics of the Federal Government argue Australia is being courted by the US about nuclear cooperation so that it will become the world's nuclear waste dump. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says talks with the US about nuclear cooperation could lead to Australia joining a new nuclear group known as the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). The partnership includes the US, Russia, Japan, China and France, and aims to keep information about nuclear technology and the disposal of waste within the nuclear club. But the Labor Party and environmentalists say they do not trust assurances by the Federal Government that Australia will not accept nuclear waste. Mr Downer claims that the US approached Australia. "The United States Department of Energy came to us and suggested we might be interested in negotiating some sort of update agreement of the 1982 agreement on nuclear cooperation, particularly in areas like research and development, and safeguards," he said. He says it is all about developing a safer nuclear industry. "It's a real possibility that we could build a relationship with the Americans under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) but their work on that isn't even finished yet," he said. "But in general terms, we are absolutely in favour of working with them on safeguards on research and development, looking for safer and better ways of developing the peaceful nuclear industry, the nuclear power industry. Why wouldn't we be?" Bush's nuclear plan Last year, US President George W Bush announced his plans to form the GNEP and this May, some of the world's other major nuclear powers signed on. Under the plan, the entire nuclear cycle would be kept within this nuclear club, from control over nuclear fuel to reprocessing and disposal of waste. Disposal of nuclear waste is exactly why the critics are sceptical about today's news that Australia is talking nuclear with the US. Opposition spokesman for climate change and the environment Peter Garrett says he does not think the Government is particularly credible on the issue. "The first thing to point out is that the Liberal Party Federal Council in June of this year unanimously called on Australia to embrace worldwide nuclear waste storage, including for remote areas that Australia has to offer," he said. "Minister [Mark] Vaile has said we need to be open-minded about it, and with discussions under way between America and Australia that we knew nothing about, I think all roads lead to Rome." Today the Government was on the defensive. "We have a policy of not accepting nuclear waste and we're certainly not in the game of changing that policy, we've made that very clear to the Americans," Mr Downer said. But Prime Minister John Howard clarified that the Government's policy was not to accept other people's waste. Mr Downer also appeared to leave the door open to storing nuclear waste in the future. "To the best of my knowledge at the moment, enrichment in any case is not commercially viable in Australia, so it's not likely to happen," he said. But Mr Garrett has been quick to respond. "That's Mr Downer seeking to lessen the political damage that inevitably would result as a consequence of these discussions becoming public," he said. Guilty conscience Mr Garrett's analysis is shared by green groups such as The Wilderness Society and University of Sydney adjunct professor Richard Broinowski, a former Australian diplomat and the author of a book about Australia's nuclear ambitions. "[Mr] Downer's got a guilty conscience, he knows that by joining GNEP we're actually abrogating our responsibilities and our sense of balance with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, because under that treaty everyone is entitled to develop every aspect of the civilian nuclear fuel chain, so long as they don't get weapons," he said. "On the other hand, GNEP is a 'boys only' club, it's a club of the nuclear powers. "What [Mr] Howard is doing is really saying is, 'well, we want to be in that too because Australia's always wanted to have a seat at the nuclear table, with the United States'." He says Australia is being asked by the US to be involved, specifically because it needs a place to dump its waste. "Yaka Mountain in the United States is dead in the water, it's not going anywhere," he said. "There are thousands upon thousands of tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, over 100 nuclear power reactors in the United States and they don't know what the heck to do with it." Tags: environment, nuclear-issues, government-and-politics, federal-government, world-politics, australia © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 39 AU ABC: Labor disputes PM's assurance on nuclear waste - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Updated July 20, 2007 16:35:00 Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett says the policy record of the Government shows it is considering accepting nuclear waste [File photo]. (Getty Images: Patrick Riviere) The Opposition has questioned the Federal Government's credibility on nuclear waste, after the Government revealed it is negotiating with the United States about a nuclear cooperation agreement. Prime Minister John Howard has dismissed fears that the move to update a 1982 nuclear cooperation agreement will result in Australia becoming an international nuclear dumping ground. Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett says the Government's policy record shows it is considering accepting nuclear waste. "The Liberal Party Federal Council in June this year unanimously called on Australia to embrace worldwide nuclear waste storage, including for remote areas that Australia has to offer," he said. "[Trade] Minister [Mark] Vaile has said we need to be open-minded about it, and with discussions under way between America and Australia that we knew nothing about, I think all roads lead to Rome." Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says negotiations with the US will include safeguards and research and development, but not membership of the Bush administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. The Democrats and environmentalists, such as Alec Marr from the Wilderness Society, have warned that the Americans have a clear agenda. "They are all desperate to have somewhere to dump their high-level radioactive waste," he said. Mr Howard has again ruled that out. "We've made that clear - we're not taking other people's waste," he said. Mr Howard has reiterated his support of nuclear power as a "very clean" energy source. Tags: business-economics-and-finance, trade, environment, nuclear-issues, government-and-politics, federal-government, foreign-affairs, labor-party, australia, united-states © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 40 AU ABC: Downer rejects 'wacky' nuclear waste concerns - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Updated July 20, 2007 20:11:00 Mr Downer says the storage of nuclear waste is not on the agenda [File photo]. (Reuters: Issei Kato) Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says suggestions that closer nuclear ties with the United States will lead to Australia becoming a nuclear waste dumping ground are wacky. The Federal Government will update a nuclear cooperation agreement with the US, but the Democrats and environmentalists are warning that the US is looking for somewhere to store its waste. Mr Downer says the storage of nuclear waste is not on the agenda. "One of the more wacky theories I've heard is that this is a secret plan to bring nuclear waste to Australia," he said. "Nobody's ever mentioned nuclear waste, except in the letter I wrote to the Prime Minister saying that we had no intention of becoming a repository for nuclear waste." Mr Downer says the talk of Australia becoming an international nuclear waste dump is part of a anti-uranium scare campaign. The Federal Government has not ruled out joining the Bush Administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, but Mr Downer denies that means nuclear waste storage is a possible outcome. "Do I think we should be supplying the world with uranium? Yes," he said. "Do I think that nuclear power is a successful response to CO2 emissions and climate change? Yes. "Do I think that the critics of this are running a scare campaign? Yes." Tags: environment, nuclear-issues, government-and-politics, australia, united-states © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 41 NRC: NRC Releases Documents on NFS Uranium Spill, Reviews Public Disclosure Policy on Certain Fuel Facilities News Release - 2007-086 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has made public a number of documents, including a confirmatory order issued earlier this year, regarding a March 2006 spill of high-enriched uranium at Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (NFS), in Erwin, Tenn. The order, which does not identify current security issues, spells out actions NFS agreed to implement to improve its corporate safety culture and practices. Release of the order follows a June 22 directive from the Commission instructing the agency staff to re-evaluate criteria used to withhold from the public certain information about fuel facilities where the NRC and the Department of Energy’s Office of Naval Reactors have a role. Those facilities are NFS and BWXT in Lynchburg, Va. The confirmatory order will be published shortly in the Federal Register. Anyone adversely affected by the order, other than NFS, may request a hearing within 20 days of publication. Publication in the Federal Register, however, does not change any of the requirements on NFS in the original agreement. In addition to the confirmatory order, the NRC is releasing a redacted transcript of a closed meeting held May 30 between the Commission and NFS officials regarding the facility’s safety record. The transcript, and the June 22 staff requirements memorandum stemming from the meeting, are available on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/tr/2007/. A licensee performance review of NFS completed by the NRC staff and dated Dec. 1, 2006, is also publicly available through the agency’s ADAMS document system at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html by entering the access number ML071930522 in the search window. The confirmatory order will be available soon in ADAMS using access number ML071990558.The NRC’s annual Report to Congress on Abnormal Occurrences: Fiscal Year 2006, which described details of the NFS uranium spill, is available at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/congress-docs/correspond ence/2007/cheney-congress-04-27-2007.pdf ====================================================================== NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Thursday, July 19, 2007 ***************************************************************** 42 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Sleeping with the enemy Today: July 20, 2007 at 8:28:38 PDT Gibbons administration helps the Energy Department further its Yucca Mountain plan Gov. Jim Gibbons has made big claims about being an outspoken critic of the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain during his political career, including his 10 years in Congress, but his actions this week show his talk is nothing more than hot air. Despite having caught the Energy Department violating a court order, Gibbons is allowing federal workers to continue to illegally take water for the next month so they can try to salvage their disintegrating case for Yucca Mountain. Meanwhile, the governor appointed Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley, a Yucca supporter, to the state Nuclear Projects Commission, which has been a driving force against the dump. As first reported Wednesday by Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston, she resigned this week after her appointment was made public. Gibbons expressed surprise at her stance and told the Associated Press that he had been "assured" she was not a proponent of the dump. By whom? Nye County has long been aggressively lobbying for the dump, as everyone in Nevada politics knows - unless you believe the governor's office, which claims ignorance. As Jeff German reported in Thursday's Las Vegas Sun, Gibbons and his aides met with Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and state Yucca watchdog Bob Loux this month. The unanimous opinion: Get tough and stop the Energy Department's illegal work. Gibbons, however, rejected the advice, reminding those at the meeting that he is, by training at least, a geologist and a lawyer. With Gibbons' blessing, State Engineer Tracy Taylor, Nevada's water czar, this week gave the official approval for federal workers to carry on for 30 more days because stopping the program suddenly "may result in the waste of significant financial resources." A waste of significant financial resources? What do Gibbons and his administration think Yucca Mountain is? The federal government has spent more than $8 billion over the past two decades and has only shoddy science and a 5-mile-long hole in the dirt to show for it. No Nevada politician of any real stature thinks sending 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste hurtling across the nation's highways to Nevada is safe or a good idea - except Gibbons' confidant Bob List, a one-term Republican governor voted out of office in 1982 who has been a paid nuclear industry lackey. Unlike in his time as a congressional backbencher, Gibbons is now in charge, and he is in jeopardy of breaking Nevada's once unified stance against Yucca Mountain. He should reverse course immediately. Otherwise his unconscionable and unacceptable actions will tell Washington that Nevadans think it is acceptable to turn our state into the nation's radioactive dumping ground. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 43 Edmonton Journal: Cameco closes Ontario plant after uranium found in soil canada.com Murray Lyons, CanWest News Service Published: 4:36 pm SASKATOON - Uranium mining and processing giant Cameco Corp. said Friday it had shut down its Port Hope conversion facility in Ontario after discovering uranium in the soil near the plant. The company first discovered the uranium on July 13 and made the decision to shut the facility down while the company and third-party consultants try to figure out how the uranium got into the soil and how to contain it. In an interview Friday, Cameco spokesperson Lyle Krahn said the decision to shut down the Port Hope conversion facility was made by the company and not the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. "The decision to suspend production initially and the decision to suspend production for a minimum of two months ... were both at our initiative and not the regulator," Krahn said. "We continue to keep them (commission officials) informed and they are requesting information and monitoring the situation as we move along." Cameco said it plans to meet scheduled deliveries for the remainder of the year, based on existing inventory. It said it is not planning layoffs and will look for "alternate assignments" for the 420 employees at the Port Hope conversion facility. The company released a statement shortly after North American markets closed Friday. It's the latest setback for Cameco and comes during a month when it reported that it expects it will take an additional year to get its flooded Cigar Lake mine in northern Saskatchewan in operation and doesn't expect production to start now until 2011. Earlier this week, the company announced that revenue from the gold mine, through its 52-per-cent stake in Centerra Gold Inc., would be 33-per-cent below previous expectations. The Port Hope facility was opened in 1984 by Eldorado Nuclear Corp., a federal Crown corporation that was one of the predecessor companies to Cameco, which is the largest publicly traded producer of uranium. In its statement Friday, Cameco said that uranium and other "production-associated" chemicals were found in the soil beneath its Port Hope uranium hexafluoride (UF6) conversion plant. Uranium in that form is shipped by the plant to other companies that do uranium enrichment and make fuel bundles for light water reactors that dominate the world nuclear utility market. A separate facility at Port Hope that produces uranium dioxide (UO2) for the Canadian-designed Candu reactors is not affected by the shutdown. Cameco said the affected area of soil appears to be within and near perimeter walls of its UF6 plant, based on preliminary information. "Ongoing subsoil investigations are expected to provide additional information," a news release stated. "Cameco has suspended operations at the UF6 conversion plant and a thorough investigation is being conducted. "The chemicals are in a contained area so public health and worker safety are not affected." Saskatoon StarPhoenix © CanWest News Service 2007 ***************************************************************** 44 thewest.com.au: Australia won't be a nuke waste dump - PM 20th July 2007, 15:56 WST Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out Australia becoming a radioactive waste dump if it joins a US-led nuclear energy club of nations which could enable it to enrich uranium. Green groups say Australia would be obliged to accept the waste if it became a member of the proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). The federal government on Friday said it was taking part in negotiations about the initiative at the invitation of the United States but might not necessarily join. The strategy of US President George W Bush seeks to develop a global consensus on expanding the use of nuclear energy to meet electricity demand while promoting non-proliferation. It involves the US and the other main nuclear-fuel cycle countries - Russia, France, China and Japan - and proposes leasing the fuel to other countries and taking back the spent fuel for reprocessing and disposal. Whether Australia joined or not, Mr Howard said, it would not take the nuclear waste of other countries. "We've made that clear, we're not taking other people's waste," Mr Howard told ABC Radio. The Liberal Party's federal council in June supported storing nuclear waste in Australia in a vote which is not binding on the coalition government. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it made sense for Australia as the world's second-biggest exporter of uranium to be involved in the US-led negotiations. "Why wouldn't we, in the interest of safety, in the interest of clean energy and the interest of our continuing uranium exports, want to talk to the world's largest economy and the world's most powerful country about nuclear safeguards and technical cooperation?" Mr Downer told reporters. Earlier, the foreign minister said whether Australia joined the GNEP depended on how it was developed by the United States. "For example, they wish to limit the number of countries in the world that can enrich uranium to a small list of countries that currently do enrich uranium," Mr Downer told ABC Radio. "Australia would, under the global nuclear energy partnership as it currently stands, at least the draft of it currently stands, not be able to enrich uranium." Conservation groups were unanimous in damning the government's proposed involvement in the GNEP. Greenpeace Australia chief executive Steve Shallhorn said if Australia joined, the country's uranium supplies would be leased, rather than sold to other nations. This would expose Australia to the threat of becoming a dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste, Mr Shallhorn said. The Wilderness Society's Alec Marr said: "The prime minister is laying down to President Bush who is desperately seeking somewhere to dump American nuclear waste because he has not been able to build his own in the US." Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman David Noonan said there were also regional security implications in joining the GNEP. "Enriching uranium produces the material that is used in nuclear weapons," Mr Noonan said. "By getting involved in this US initiative we risk starting a nuclear arms race in the Asia-Pacific and fuelling existing regional insecurities." Federal Labor treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said the opposition remained firmly against nuclear reactors and uranium enrichment. "Labor has made it very clear that we oppose the prime minister's nuclear plan and we will do so vigorously all the way through to the election," Mr Swan told reporters. AAP West Australian Newspapers Limited 2007. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 45 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Environmentalist wants errant waste removed from WIPP By Kyle Marksteiner Article Launched: 07/19/2007 09:29:23 PM MDT CARLSBAD ? A New Mexico environmentalist says he wants the Department of Energy to remove a non-certified drum that was mistakenly placed in the underground repository at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Wednesday, the DOE announced that a contractor, Bechtel BWXT Idaho, shipped a non-certified drum containing transuranic waste to the nuclear waste repository near Carlsbad. Bechtel BWXT Idaho, also called BBWI, operates the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility at the DOE's Idaho Falls site, and certifies transuranic waste shipments from that facility to WIPP. The non-certified drum, according to the DOE, was mistakenly sent in June and identified this week when workers discovered that a drum with the identification number of a drum that should have been sent to WIPP earlier was still in storage in Idaho. The drum did not pose any danger to human health or the environment during shipment, the DOE said, but had not been cleared for shipment. "BBWI takes its compliance responsibility very seriously," said Paul Divjak, BBWI president and general manager in a prepared statement issued Thursday morning. "Following a complete review of the causes of this incident, we will institute appropriate corrective actions to prevent future occurrences." All shipments to WIPP from the Idaho facility have been temporarily suspended pending corrective actions. On Wednesday, Dave Moody, manager of DOE's field office in Carlsbad, said the department has the burden of proof of demonstrating to the New Mexico Environment Department and Environmental Protection Agency that the drum will not have any adverse effects and should be left where it is in the underground repository. The drum arrived in Carlsbad on June 25 and is currently 36 rows back in its room, one of several areas mined out of underground salt formations. Don Hancock, with the Southwest Research and Information Center, said he spoke with Moody about the issue on Wednesday. "He's saying they will be able to demonstrate to people like me that this problem is solely related to Idaho," Hancock said. "I expressed skepticism. The way the system currently works does not provide any check at WIPP to make sure this doesn't happen." While the final decision will involve the DOE and its regulators, Hancock is an advocate of pulling out the non-certified drum. "My position is that they should retrieve the drum," he said. "It's a violation of the permit. The downside (of pulling out the drum) from the DOE's standpoint is that that probably means they are going to have to stop all shipments to WIPP for a week or two. "Could any of this waste ever come to WIPP?" Hancock speculated. "Yes, but not the drum. They would have had to open up the drum and repack it." The DOE, Hancock said, is already working on a plan where no additional radioactive waste will be put in front of the drum in question where it currently rests. If the DOE doesn't stop all shipments, new waste that arrives may be put into a different room, even though the room now being used is not full. Contact-handled waste, which includes the drum in question, is placed in large underground rooms in the repository after remote-handled waste is sealed into the walls of a specific room. "It makes more sense to stop shipments from my view," Hancock said. "Idaho has way more than three strikes. It should be three strikes and you're out, but Idaho has more than 10 strikes." Last November, for example, some shipments from Idaho were halted after liquid was found in a waste drum in excess of what is allowed. The DOE later examined the radiography records of other drums in the waste stream, and shipments fully resumed when no additional liquid was found. Hancock said he wants the message to be emphasized, and he would like to see a long-term suspension of shipments from Idaho until the whole system is revamped. He noted that the problem was not located when the drum arrived at WIPP, but was discovered weeks later. "The way they found it tells me there could be other (similar) drums," he said. DOE officials said Wednesday that they re-examined other drums that have been sent to WIPP in a similar fashion and found no other occurrences. Copyright © 2005 Carlsbad Current Argus, a MediaNews Group Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 46 Reuters: Cameco finds uranium in soil at Ontario plant Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:36PM EDT TORONTO (Reuters) - Cameco Corp. said on Friday it has found uranium and evidence of other "production-associated" chemicals in the soil below an Ontario uranium hexafluoride conversion plant in which it's installing new equipment. The company, the world's largest uranium producer, said "the chemicals are in a contained area so public health and worker safety are not affected." It added all regulatory authorities have been notified. The company has suspended work at the conversion plant in Port Hope, Ontario, and is conducting an investigation to determine the source of the chemicals. It said full production of uranium hexafluoride will likely be suspended for "a minimum" of two months. It said a cost estimate was not immediately available. The plant, which Cameco says is the only uranium conversion facility in Canada, employs about 420 people. No layoffs are planned and instead Cameco will look for other work for the staff, it said. "In addition, holes are being drilled around the area and the soil and ground water are being tested to ascertain the area affected," it said. Cameco shares fell 43 Canadian cents to C$49.32 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday. ($1=$1.05 Canadian) © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 47 IHTA: U.S. plans to convert more weapons plutonium to commercial fuel. - International Herald Tribune The Associated Press Published: July 19, 2007 WASHINGTON: The Bush administration plans to convert more weapons-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel than previously planned. A senior Energy Department official said Thursday the department has concluded that additional tons of plutonium can be taken from dismantled warheads and disposed of, beyond the 34 tons (31 metric tons) already planned to be converted to commercial fuel. "It will be significant," Thomas D'Agostino, head of the department's nuclear weapons program, said in an interview, when asked how much additional plutonium might be set aside for conversion. D'Agostino said he did not want to provide a specific number of tons because the matter was still being discussed with the Pentagon. The administration for years has had plans to convert 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium into a mixed oxide fuel as part of a program with Russia where both countries agree to dispose of an equal amount of the material from their weapons stockpiles. The U.S. plutonium is to be converted into a mixed oxide fuel that would then be burned in a commercial nuclear power reactor. The Energy Department plans to begin construction this year of a conversion facility at the Savannah River nuclear complex near Aiken, South Carolina. D'Agostino, meeting with a group of reporters Thursday, said the department has determined "we can add more plutonium into the mix" destined for disposal. He said decision would be unilateral and no attempt would be made to try to get Russia to match the increase. "We want to get into a leadership position here globally and look at what minimum we need to do and what more can we do from a leadership standpoint," D'Agostino said. The administration is preparing a report for Congress on future nuclear weapons needs and weapons stockpile size that indicates more plutonium can be converted. The Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees nuclear weapons funding recently urged the Energy Department "to give greater consideration" to increase the amount of plutonium for conversion into mixed oxide fuel. The administration hopes that the new weapons stockpile review and the decision to eliminate more plutonium might help sell skeptical lawmakers on the merits of a more robust warhead to replace the aging warheads now in the stockpile. D'Agostino said he believes such a warhead is needed. Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 48 KOB.com: Errant waste drum discovered at WIPP Updated at: 07/19/2007 07:45:56 PM By: The Associated Press CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - Some shipments of radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant have been suspended after officials discovered a waste drum that isn't supposed to be there. Department of Energy officials say the shipment wasn't properly certified but didn't pose a health risk or other danger. The shipment came from Bechtel BWXT Idaho, the company that operates the Department of Energy's Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project in Idaho Falls. Pending an investigation, all shipments from the Idaho facility to WIPP have been suspended. Between 15 and 17 of those shipments go to WIPP each week. That's the bulk of the roughly 25 overall shipments that the plant gets weekly. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) ***************************************************************** 49 barrow in furness: Sellafield’s potentially explosive secrets Published on 20/07/2007 LET US BEGIN: Michael Redfern QC, who is conducting the inquiry MIKE McKENZIE MICHAEL Redfern QC understands better than most that what we don’t know holds the greatest power to hurt us. He knows that secrets can be interpreted as deceit and that deception inevitably will foster pain and the diminishment of integrity. He knows because he has seen it all before. Best known as chairman of the inquiry into the Alder Hey organ scandal in Liverpool, Mr Redfern is a clinical negligence specialist and a man who believes deeply in protecting and maintaining dignity and decency in all areas of life — and, equally as importantly, in death. His first-hand, up-closeencounters and experiences with the shocked, bewildered and bereaved families of children used for scientific investigation without parental permission have left Mr Redfern with a determination to uphold the entitlement of every individual to no less than the respect each man, woman and child deserves as birthright. And he is uncompromising in that aim. “Following death, every human being is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, including those who have chosen to donate organs and those whose next of kin are fully informed and have consented to organ donation,” he said as he launched another inquiry into yet another so-called body parts scandal. This time his investigations will be reaching into households in Cumbria, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and possibly other areas yet to be identified. The inquiry’s concerned probing is also very likely to extend into the homes of stunned, unsuspecting families for whom sudden and/or natural deaths of adults and children have been totally unrelated to a closeness to the nuclear industry. A softly spoken man with the kindly demeanour of a wise uncle, Mr Redfern has been charged with heading the inquiry to establish why body organs were removed from deceased nuclear workers at Sellafield — among other nuclear plants across the country — and whether all relatives gave their consent or were in any way informed that their loved ones were to be part of a routine and indeed necessary research programme. The principles are similar to those addressed by the Alder Hey inquiry but the reach of this investigation is longer, wider and in some ways more fraught with the potential to shock participants and observers alike on to a wildly spinning route to conspiracy theories. The imagined arrogance of faceless men in lab coats, suspicion of networked wrong-doing — it’s the stuff of which airport fiction is made. Secrets and deception can and will fire the starting pistol on all of that. It was ever thus. Michael Redfern must have been keenly aware of that potential as he presented his early statement to the public onTuesday at the launch of the 12-month inquiry. It was then he revealed that “control groups” had been used in scientific research into organs taken from nuclear workers. That should have surprised no one. Control groups are routine to any scientific research and would obviously be necessary for comparison if the findings were to have any value at all. But such is the intense sensitivity of the very notion of secretly harvesting organs or tissue from the dead, thatextreme emotional reaction is to be expected. The horrifying idea of road crash victims or cot death babies being carved up — perhaps unbeknown to next of kin — to serve the purposes of the nuclear industry was always likely to be deeply shocking. And over the past few days expectations of outrage have been met. Even those who reject all conspiracy theory as a stray into facile Da Vinci Code territory are bound to ask, if research was being conducted into deaths at nuclear instalments as far apart as Oxfordshire andCumbria, would not like-minded scientists be bound to discuss their work with one another? Would that not form a link looking similar to what some might describe as a network? Might it not be possible that one lab coat might call another lab coat with a request for help? “We have a 40-year-old liver heresuspected to have been contaminated with radiation. Do you have a clean one of similar age for comparison — perhaps from a pile-up on the M6?” Who knew about what was happening? Who might have helped oil the network’s wheels for smooth operation? Did secrets kept in the 1960s evolve into the custom and convenient practice of the 1980s and 1990s? And if permission for organ removal and retention were not being sought routinely, properly, sensitively and unambiguously from next of kin, would not that network have the appearance of something sinister, secret and straight out of the pages of a cheap thriller bound for straight-to-video film-right sales? Nothing is beyond the realms of possibility in the troubled minds of the grieving and hurt — such is human nature. That having been accepted by Michael Redfern, who has seen grief in its most raw and troubled state, his inquiry is now set to rule nothing in and rule nothing out as testament worthy of examination. “We have started investigating all the cases referred to us by BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels),” he said. “It is likely there will be more. “I don’t expect to deal with huge numbers but we expect to exceed the current total of 65. I don’t think it is useful at this stage to speculate on what the final figure may be. “We will be investigating whether the removal, retention, testing and disposal of organs was conducted in compliance with the legal requirements in force at that time.” In compliance with legal requirements. Within the law at the time. Surely even the inquiry chairman doesn’t quite believe that those simple parameters are going to make his life any easier over the next year as this difficult probing, examining, listening, scrutinising and weighing of checks and balances moves forward. There are no legal limitations or boundaries that can neatly be drawn around the human emotions of grief, loss, love and mourning. There is no text book response to the trauma of death in a family — whether that be by working in the wrong place at the wrong time or collision with a truck on the A66 on a dark Friday night. And Michael Redfern, deeply concerned that all people should be dealt with fairly at all times, is unlikely to apply his mind solely to the narrow, documented rules of operating within the law — which can also mean making most convenient use of all available loopholes. He is sharply aware of the importance of the nuclear industry to this country and in particular to this county as a major employer and source of prosperity now and in the future. Only the wholly naive or the blindly and ignorantly anti-anything-nuclear would want to damage the position of Sellafield as a source of income for countless Cumbrian families. Furthermore, if we had suddenly learned that BNFL had never engaged in any research into the health risks to its employees and close neighbours, we would be rightly alarmed to the point of condemnation of its neglect of duty of care to public health. The Redfern Inquiry is not about putting the nuclear industry on trial. It is not about deciding whether the industry is safe enough. Neither is it in any doubt as to the necessity for close research into risks and threats to workers within the industry and study into how risks may be reduced in the future. Michael Redfern has been clear on these points: “Our purpose is to encourage research and organ donation but strictly in compliance with the law,” he said. “It is not the intention to restrict or undermine research. The very essence of disease identification and cure depends upon it.” The inquiry is about law — the letter and spirit of it — and whether both letter and spirit have been afforded due deference by professionals with a responsibility to science and a well-intentioned aim to safeguard public health. But in reality it is about much more than that. At the core of it is the most natural of human emotions — love — and the grotesque possibility that the deeply vulnerable state following the loss of a loved one may have been abused or taken advantage of in secret and without consent. The inquiry wants — in fact, needs — any who might have suspected that organs, tissue or bone may have been taken from a relative — whether or not they worked at Sellafield — without their consent, to comeforward and offer oral or written evidence. Although the period under initial scrutiny is between 1962 and 1992, any experiences from 1992 onwards will also be heard by the inquiry. The reach of the Redfern Inquiry is wide, its scope has the potential to grow yet further as it progresses over the coming months and there is every possibility that it might uncover some unnerving detail on the way. But in the end, even in the face of unbearable loss, pitifully unnecessary shock, outrage and renewed pain, remarkably at the heart of this inquiry are the little fundamentals of life — so simple, we are bound to wonder why anyone ever wanted to avoid or side-step them in the first place. Trust, respect, dignity in life and in death and that principle most children were taught at their mothers’ knees. “All you ever needed to do was ask.” Ask properly and ask nicely. With full permission and wholehearted consent to allow death to play its positive part in safeguarding future life, almost anything would have been possible — and no one would have been hurt. View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.nwemail.co.uk/digitalcopy ***************************************************************** 50 times and star: Thorp gears up for full restart Published on 20/07/2007 OPERATIONS have been stepped up at Sellafield’s controversial Thorp reprocessing plant as the unit prepares for a full restart. But Cumbria’s anti-nuclear group has cast new doubt on whether the site should ever operate again. Thorp was shut down two years ago after a leak of radioactive chemicals, which went undetected for almost a year. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate has given consent to restart it, but a definite date has still not been set. Workers at the facility have now begun to process cells feed clarification cell liquors that have been held in storage since the shutdown and a short shearing campaign has begun. Martin Leafe, head of Thorp, said: “Once this limited campaign has been successfully completed we will review the performance of the plant along with the available evaporative capacity before discussing the next phase of restart with our regulators and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.” Meanwhile, Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE) has questioned an apparent change of approach by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in how plutonium and uranium is returned to overseas customers. The authority plans to send back the material without having to wait for any new reprocessing in Thorp. This would be done from Sellafield’s existing stockpile. The authority call the move ‘Advance Allocation’ of materials but CORE describe it as ‘virtual reprocessing’ and a major U-turn on government policy. The DTI says it is ‘presently minded to endorse’ it, subject to public consultation. A CORE spokesman said: “With the plant now closed for over two years and the likelihood that it will not reopen until autumn this year at the earliest, overseas customers will be increasingly concerned about further delays in getting their material returned.” The authority has denied accusations of a U-turn. View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.timesandstar.co.uk/digitalcopy Other stories from this category that may interest you: ***************************************************************** 51 SF Chron: On Nuclear Negotiations / A new way forward needed / Take steps toward limiting nukes now Steven Andreasen Thursday, July 19, 2007 The difficult issues surrounding nuclear energy, nonproliferation and Iran's nuclear program were front and center at the "lobster summit" between Presidents Bush and Putin at Kennebunkport. With at least one more meeting expected this year, there may still be an opportunity for both leaders to deal decisively with the greatest danger facing the United States, Russia and the world today -- what President Dwight Eisenhower referred to as "the fearful atomic dilemma." The United Kingdom's outgoing foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, outlined a path forward for dealing with this dilemma in a remarkable speech delivered in Washington last month. Beckett -- who reportedly cleared her talk with the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- said that while the conditions for the total elimination of nuclear arms do not exist today, that does not mean we should resign ourselves to the idea that nuclear weapons can never be abolished in the future. "What we need is both a vision -- a scenario for a world free of nuclear weapons -- and action -- progressive steps to reduce warhead numbers and to limit the role of nuclear weapons in security policy. These two strands are separate but they are mutually reinforcing. Both are necessary, but at the moment too weak." Beckett's call to action explicitly drew on the views of an op-ed written in January by former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, and former Sen. Sam Nunn. In their essay - "A World Free of Nuclear Weapons" - they argue that we are on the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era, with more nuclear-armed states and a real risk of nuclear terrorism (a danger underscored this week by the latest National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism, which reported that al Qaeda will continue to seek nuclear arms "and would not hesitate to use them"). In such a world, the four warn that continued reliance on nuclear deterrence for maintaining international security "is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective," and that none of the nonproliferation steps being taken now "are adequate to the danger." The veteran statesmen argue that the United States and other nations must embrace both the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and pursue a balanced program of practical measures toward achieving that goal: "Without the bold vision, the actions will not be perceived as fair or urgent. Without the actions, the vision will not be perceived as realistic or possible." Even under the best of circumstances, President Bush does not have time to accomplish each of the "practical measures" advocated by Shultz, Kissinger, Perry and Nunn. He can, however, engage Putin on a short list of nuclear initiatives consistent with this nonpartisan framework that will improve American, Russian and global security and help lay the groundwork for decisively reducing and eliminating nuclear threats. Moreover, these initiatives could be implemented over the next 18 months, without time-consuming negotiations or formal agreements with other states. Specifically: -- Change the Cold War era deployments of nuclear weapons. Today, there is simply no reason to continue to maintain thousands of nuclear weapons on ballistic missiles deployed on "hair-trigger" alert, and real risks in doing so -- in particular, that of an accidental, mistaken or unauthorized launch of a nuclear ballistic missile. President Bush spoke eloquently of the need to deal with this issue during the 2000 presidential campaign. But even with the 2002 Treaty of Moscow, we and the Russians still deploy thousands of nuclear weapons on hundreds of ballistic missiles that can be fired and reach their targets in fewer than 30 minutes. Presidents Bush and Putin could agree to order a change in U.S. and Russian nuclear deployments to deal decisively with this problem. -- Continue to reduce substantially the size of nuclear forces. President Bush could announce our intention to reach the ceilings agreed to in the Moscow Treaty (1,700 to 2,200 operationally deployed strategic warheads) well in advance of the 2012 deadline, perhaps cutting the remaining time for implementation in half to three years from six. The United States might also commit to abide by the "low-end" (1,700 warheads) of the Moscow Treaty limit -- or even lower -- in three years, and cut the number of warheads kept in reserve as well. Here again, President Putin could match U.S. actions in these areas. Moreover, both sides would be well advised to take the advice of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who has said the United States and Russia should extend the existing START I Treaty's verification and transparency elements, which expire in 2009 and are integral to the Moscow Treaty. -- Eliminate short-range nuclear weapons. Tactical nuclear bombs are the most likely targets for terrorists, and there is great uncertainty over the size, location and security of Russia's tactical nuclear inventory. This is an unacceptable security risk for all nations -- one that in no way is mitigated by the deployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. After consulting with our NATO allies, President Bush could announce that the United States will move to consolidate all tactical nuclear weapons in the United States, and urge President Putin to agree on the consolidation, accountability and transparency of this class of weapons as a first step toward their elimination. While any one of these initiatives would be perceived as an important move by the United States and Russia to reduce nuclear threats globally, together they would be perceived as a bold stroke -- one that would aid our efforts to secure cooperation from other nations in dealing with nuclear threats in the 21st century. It's not too late for the Bush administration to start the atomic ball rolling -- again -- in the right direction. Steve Andreasen, the director for defense policy and arms control on the National Security Council from 1993 to 2001, teaches at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. This article appeared on page B - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle ***************************************************************** 52 IS: All INL workers back to normal shifts with fire contained | Idaho Statesman Statesman staff - Idaho Statesman Edition Date: 07/20/07 A fire that threatened some structures at the Idaho National Laboratory was declared contained Thursday night. The Twin Buttes fire burned more than 9,000 acres, the Department of Energy said, but firefighters and air-tanker crews contained it on the southeastern edge of the site. All INL shifts were expected to resume this morning. Some 700 people at the building closest to the fire had been asked to stay home Thursday. Crews from the INL, the Fort Hall Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the Bureau of Land Management battled the fire. Its cause is still being investigated. For travelers heading that direction, Highway 20 across the Arco Desert remains open. IdahoStatesman.com ***************************************************************** 53 Gov Tech: DOE: Initiates Formal Enforcement Action in Los Alamos National Laboratory Classified Information Breach - Government Technology Jul 20, 2007, News Report Following extensive investigations, the Department of Energy (DOE) and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) took formal enforcement actions against the University of California (UC) and the Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), the prior and current management and operating contractors of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, for violations of classified information security requirements under their respective contracts. Investigations revealed that management deficiencies of both contractors were a central contributing factor in a laboratory subcontractor employee's unauthorized reproduction of and removal of classified matter from the site. In response to this serious security breach, the NNSA issued a Preliminary Notice of Violation to the University of California with a $3,000,000 proposed civil penalty (the largest the department has ever assessed) and a Preliminary Notice of Violation to LANS with a $300,000 proposed civil penalty. In addition, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman issued a Compliance Order to LANS which requires the contractor to take specific corrective actions on a prescribed timetable in the physical protection and cyber security of classified information at the laboratory. Violation of a Compliance Order is itself a violation of departmental regulations, which may result in the imposition of civil penalties up to $100,000 per day for each violation. From 1943 to May 2006, the University of California managed and operated the laboratory for the department and its predecessor agencies. As one of the country's three nuclear weapons laboratories, the Los Alamos National Laboratory performs sensitive national security missions, including helping to ensure that the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile is safe, secure and reliable. GovTech.com News | Events | Resources | RSS Feeds | Advertise | Privacy Policy | About Us | Contact Us Archives Copyright ©2007 eRepublic, Inc. All rights reserved. | e.Republic, Inc. 100 Blue Ravine Rd., Folsom, CA 95630 ***************************************************************** 54 Pahrump Valley Times: 36 years ago this month Jul. 20, 2007 Back then The Atomic Energy Commission resumed nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site with three underground explosions in June. June 23 and 24, the commission fired 20- to 200-kiloton shots -- the maximum equivalent of 200,000 tons of TNT. The tests marked the first nuclear explosions at NTS since Dec. 18 when the Baneberry shot leaked radioactive material into the atmosphere. Bob Murphy, superintendent of Death Valley National Monument, was elected president of the newly formed Death Valley Lions Club. More than 90 people, including 32 charter members, attended inaugural ceremonies at the Ash Meadows Lodge. Tom Williams of Death Valley Junction was toastmaster for the inaugural event. Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 55 DOE: Statement as Prepared By Gerald Boyd, Manager, DOE Oak Ridge Office July 19, 2007 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. Oak Ridge DOJ press release (pdf) Media contact(s): John Shewairy, (865) 576-0885 Cell: (865) 696-1601 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 56 Hanford News: Payments OK'd for early Hanford workers: Federal officials expected to follow recommendation of national advisory board This story was published Friday, July 20th, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Early Hanford workers exposed to radiation should automatically receive $150,000 in compensation if they developed any of a wide range of cancers, a national advisory board unanimously agreed Thursday. The decision still needs approval by the secretary of Health and Human Services and Congress, but they are expected to follow the lead of the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health. The decision earlier was recommended to the board by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH. I feel "a sense of justice," said Rosemary Hoyt of Lyle, one of the petitioners in the case. "I think our dad would be proud." Her father worked at the Hanford nuclear reservation from 1942 until 1961, when he could no longer pass the physical because of colon cancer that Hoyt believes was caused by radiation exposure. He died at age 47. Under a U.S. Department of Labor program, ill workers at Hanford have been eligible for $150,000 compensation only if the government estimates their personal radiation exposure and determines there was at least a 50 percent chance that it caused their cancer. But workers or their survivors can petition to be part of classes of workers called "special exposure cohorts" if they believe radiation exposure cannot be accurately calculated. The advisory board determined that's the case for Hanford workers who might have been exposed to radiation as early as Oct. 1, 1943, when uranium began arriving on site to be machined into fuel for Hanford reactors, until Aug. 31, 1946, the end of contractor DuPont's operation of the site. The determination would apply to any Hanford worker who was monitored or should have been monitored for internal radiological exposures at Hanford. That includes production and craft workers, such as carpenters and electricians, at the site where plutonium was made for the nation's nuclear weapons program. They are required to have been employed for at least 250 days, although that time could include work at other weapons siteswith a special exposure cohort class. The advisory board agreed with the NIOSH finding that Hanford did not have a reliable bioassay program to monitor the plutonium or fission products that workers might have inhaled or ingested while DuPont operated Hanford for the federal government. With only limited monitoring data for internal radiation, individual worker exposure could not be determined, it concluded. The determination would affect 386 claims made by early workers or their survivors, including spouses, children or grandchildren. Some of those claims already may have been approved for payment, based at least in part on estimates of external radiation doses. But there are expected to be many claims like the one involving Hoyt's father, which were rejected and now likely will be eligible for compensation. NIOSH estimated a 41 percent chance that radiation caused her father's cancer, based on data that the advisory board determined Thursday was inadequate for a sound decision. The petition to establish a special exposure cohort for the early Hanford workers was brought by Seattle attorney Tom Foulds on behalf of 10 clients. The petition initially was rejected, but Foulds persisted and continued compiling information about the inadequacy of early data until the petition was approved by the board for all early Hanford workers. The petition was merged with one brought by Hoyt and her sister, Mary Ann Carrico. They petitioned for all Hanford workers through 1990, but NIOSH combined the portion of their petition covering the earliest workers with the petition by Foulds. NIOSH expects to have more information in September about whether workers in the remainder of the sisters' petition from 1946 through 1990 also might qualify for a special exposure cohort. To be eligible for the $150,000 compensation, workers or their survivors need to have a claim with the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. For more information, to file a claim or check on the status of a claim, call 946-3333 or 888-654-0014. * On the Net: www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas. Click on "special exposure cohort" under the OCAS Directory for the list of covered cancers. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 57 Hanford News: Administration plans to convert more weapons plutonium to commercial fuel This story was published Friday, July 20th, 2007 By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration plans to convert more weapons-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel than previously planned. A senior Energy Department official said Thursday the department has concluded that additional tons of plutonium can be taken from dismantled warheads and disposed of, beyond the 34 tons already planned to be converted to commercial fuel. "It will be significant," Thomas D'Agostino, head of the department's nuclear weapons program, said in an interview, when asked how much additional plutonium might be set aside for conversion. D'Agostino said he did not want to provide a specific number of tons because the matter was still being discussed with the Pentagon. Defense officials establish warhead needs. The Energy Department manages the nuclear weapons, including dismantling those no longer required. The administration for years has had plans to convert 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium into a mixed oxide fuel as part of a program with Russia where both countries agree to dispose of an equal amount of the material from their weapons stockpiles. The U.S. plutonium is to be converted into a mixed oxide fuel that would then be burned in a commercial nuclear power reactor. The Energy Department plans to begin construction this year of a conversion facility at the Savannah River nuclear complex near Aiken, S.C. D'Agostino, meeting with a group of reporters Thursday, said the department has determined "we can add more plutonium into the mix" destined for disposal. He said decision would be unilateral and no attempt would be made to try to get Russia to match the increase. "We want to get into a leadership position here globally and look at what minimum we need to do and what more can we do from a leadership standpoint," D'Agostino said. The administration is preparing a report for Congress on future nuclear weapons needs and weapons stockpile size that indicates more plutonium can be converted. The Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees nuclear weapons funding recently urged the Energy Department "to give greater consideration" to increase the amount of plutonium for conversion into mixed oxide fuel. The administration hopes that the new weapons stockpile review and the decision to eliminate more plutonium might help sell skeptical lawmakers on the merits of a more robust warhead to replace the aging warheads now in the stockpile. D'Agostino said he believes such a warhead is needed. The administration has asked for $88 million for next budget year to examine a design and make a detailed cost estimate. The House recently refused to provide the money; a Senate committee cut it to $66 million. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 58 SanLuisObispo.com: Calif senators want Santa Susana Field Lab worker compensation | 07/20/2007 | The Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- California's two senators introduced legislation that would make it easier for former Santa Susana Field Laboratory workers to get federal compensation for exposure to nuclear and chemical contamination. In a joint statement Thursday, Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer said the Santa Susana Fair Compensation Act of 2007 would amend the 1999 Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program. The program compensates workers who get ill after working at Department of Energy sites. Employees of the old Rocketdyne facility in the hills along the Los Angeles/Ventura county line have filed 677 claims through the program. The Feinstein/Boxer legislation would guarantee former workers or their survivors up to $250,000 in benefits. Workers denied program benefits could reapply under the proposed legislation. Similar legislation was introduced this year in the House by Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley. In another development Thursday, the Department of Energy said it wouldn't resume cleanup at the site until completion of a long-awaited comprehensive environmental review. In May, the Department of Energy said it would abide by a judge's decision and the agency halted cleanup of radiation-contaminated areas for 45 days. The work could now be stalled two years while the environmental report is prepared. U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti had found the department violated and was continuing to violate the National Environmental Policy Act because it has not prepared an environmental impact statement. "We have been asking for an (environmental impact statement) for quite a while, and also a site characterization so we get an accurate picture of where the contamination is," state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, said Thursday. "I find it amusing when they send out a press release saying, 'We're going to obey the court's order."' The Department of Energy said it will study contamination on a 90-acre section of the lab called the Energy Technology and Engineering Center, where the department conducted nuclear research from the 1950s through 1998. The center was the site of 10 nuclear reactors, one of which had a partial meltdown, and an open-air pit where workers burned radioactive and chemical waste. The site has radioactive and toxic contamination in the groundwater and soil, and the study will look at the different options and costs for removing the contamination. ***************************************************************** 59 Reuters: Fire nears Idaho nuclear fuel development complex Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:42PM EDT By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A fire sweeping across drought-stricken sagebrush and grasslands prompted the closure on Thursday of a nuclear fuel facility at a U.S. Department of Energy research campus in southeast Idaho. Idaho National Laboratory officials told the 700 employees of the lab's nuclear fuel development complex not to report to work because of the threat posed by the wildfire, which has blazed across nearly 5,000 acres and is within 7 miles of the fuel complex. It is the first time in recent memory a wildfire has prompted the lab, home to three nuclear reactors, to close facilities on its 890-square-mile (2,300-sq-km) campus. Spokesman Ethan Huffman said neither the staff nor operations were immediately threatened by the wildfire. "We have no concern about any radiological release or anything of that nature," he said, adding that buffer zones cleared of brush and piled with sand surround the fuel complex. Other facilities at the national lab remained open. With vast stretches of U.S. West ablaze, fire managers raised the national wildland fire preparedness indicator to its highest level on Thursday. Fire conditions in the region have worsened in recent weeks because of sustained high temperatures, strong winds and storms that have brought lightning but little rain. "So often this year we've seen thunderstorms that spit out a lot of lightning but no moisture," said Don Smurthwaite, spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center. "The way conditions are now, it's a little like throwing a lighted match on a pile of paper." Experts have predicted an above-average fire season for the West. On July 5 lightning in the region sparked 1,000 fires in less than 48 hours. Some 16,000 firefighters are now battling 72 blazes across 1 million acres in 11 Western states, officials say. The fires have triggered a handful of evacuations in the past two weeks, with extreme fire reported in such states as Idaho and Nevada, where 43 fires have raged across more than 500,000 acres. In Utah, five wildfires have ravaged 400,000 acres (161,900 hectares), prompting road closures and emptying recreation areas. ***************************************************************** 60 Knoxville News Sentinel: Wintertime mystery revealed to neighbors By Bob Fowler (Contact) Friday, July 20, 2007 Joe Howell Attorney Herbert S. Moncier stands with Jane Oakley, whose husband Roy Lynn Oakley of Midtown is facing charges that he stole pieces of equipment used for uranium enrichment and offered to sell them to the French government. AP VIDEO Contractor Charged With Stealing Nuclear Secrets MIDTOWN — Neighbors said they were shocked and puzzled when FBI agents raided Roy and Jane Oakley’s modular home Jan. 26 on Old U.S. Highway 70 in Roane County’s Midtown community. It took until Roy Oakley’s arrest Thursday on charges of trying to sell sensitive nuclear secrets to the French government for them to unravel the wintertime mystery. During the raid, troopers cordoned off the road in front of the couple’s neatly kept, modest home and the nearby cluster of four mobile homes they rent out. Authorities also blocked traffic on Roane State Highway behind the couple’s home, where their apartment complex, called Jayro Properties, is located. FBI agents set up a table in the parking lot there — jammed at the time with federal vehicles — for examining computers they carried out of the Oakleys’ home and an on-site storage building, neighbor Tommy Galyon recalled Thursday. The Oakleys weren’t at home at the time, and they didn’t offer to talk about it later, Galyon said. “After the raid, they (the Oakleys) didn’t go out a whole lot,’’ said another neighbor, Darlene Rayburn. “After a while, everything went back to normal.’’ Up until January, the Oakleys were considered just everyday neighbors, Rayburn and Galyon said. “They looked like your normal family,’’ Rayburn said. “I’d see them get up and go to work and to church.’’ The couple’s activities became a hot source of gossip and speculation after the FBI raid, she said. “It was sort of the big talk of the town. Nobody knew what was going on.’’ The Oakleys have lived in the modular home about eight years, Rayburn said. Along with the neighboring trailers they rent out and the apartment complex behind them, the Oakleys also own and rent six trailers on Martin Road in Roane County, courthouse records show. “I always thought they were good neighbors,’’ Galyon said. Bob Fowler, News Sentinel Anderson County editor, may be reached at 865-481-3625. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 61 UPI: Calif. nuclear site to undergo study United Press International - NewsTrack - Science - Published: July 20, 2007 at 11:23 AM LOS ANGELES, July 20 (UPI) -- Officials at the U.S. Department of Energy have ordered an in-depth environmental review of California's Santa Susana Field Lab. While the federal department had previously planned on simply demolishing the former nuclear research site, officials said that they have abided by a recent court order and called for a comprehensive inspection of the site, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. One of the 10 nuclear reactors once operational at the Los Angeles site partially melted down previously and environmentalists have been concerned about possible contamination in the area. A call for an in-depth review of the site came after DOE officials announced in 2002 that they would follow a less stringent cleanup plan for the site. That decision came despite a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report that said the site was not entirely safe for public use. DOE officials estimated the site investigation would take two years and would likely cost $2 million to complete. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 62 Ventura County Star: Senators aim to help ex-Field Lab workers By Teresa Rochester (Contact) Friday, July 20, 2007 There was movement Thursday on two fronts involving the Santa Susana Field Lab that could affect both workers and the cleanup at the former rocket engine and nuclear test site south of Simi Valley. California's two U.S. senators, Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, introduced legislation Thursday to make it easier for former workers sickened by exposure to contaminants at the Field Lab to receive federal compensation for their illness, says a joint statement by the two. The Santa Susana Fair Compensation Act of 2007 would amend the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program approved by Congress in 1999. The program compensates workers who became sick after working at U.S. Department of Energy sites where they were exposed to radiation and chemical pollutants. Workers at the facility in the hills south of Simi Valley have filed 677 claims through the program, but only 56 have been paid. If approved, Feinstein and Boxer's legislation would ensure Field Laboratory workers or their survivors would receive up to $250,000 in benefits. Workers who have been denied under the program could reapply. Similar legislation was introduced earlier this year in the House by Representatives by Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley. Also on Thursday, the Energy Department announced it will analyze the impacts of radioactive and chemical contamination at the Field Lab and impacts associated with the cleanup activity. Cleaning up the Field Lab has long been controversial. In late May, the Department of Energy halted cleanup of the last radiation-contaminated facilities at the lab for 45 days, after it was discovered the agency was still doing cleanup despite a federal judge's orders issued earlier in the month. U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti found the department had violated and was continuing to violate the National Environmental Policy Act because it has not prepared an environmental impact statement. On Thursday, as the Energy Department announced it will conduct the study, officials indicated that it will focus on 290 acres where nuclear research took place and include extensive public input. Department spokesman William Taylor said it would likely take 48 months to complete the study. © 2007 Ventura County Star ***************************************************************** 63 Oak Ridger: Y-12 receives two R&D 100 Awards - Story last updated at 12:26 am on 7/20/2007 Jenny Kane/ The Topeka Capital-Journal Ed Schlarman collects cast-iron skillets, and has a collection of over 100 displayed throughout his home in Topeka. Engineers at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex have won two R&D 100 Awards. The awards are presented annually by R&D Magazine in recognition of the year’s most significant technological innovations. Y-12 received the 2007 awards for its Rapid Deployment Shelter System (RDSS) and Personal Annunciation Device (PAD). “We are very honored by this national recognition of our engineering and design capability. It means a lot to have a project that demonstrates your capabilities and expertise chosen from among the cream of the crop for research and development,” said George Dials, president and general manager of BWXT Y-12, the company that manages Y-12 for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Peter Angelo, who led the multi-disciplinary team that developed the PAD, said, “This is a great accomplishment for Y-12. We’re not a research and development lab, so no one really thinks of us as researchers or developers, but Y-12 has cutting-edge engineering and technology capabilities.” Since the awards program started in 1963, Y-12 has received 13 awards. The RDSS was originally designed as a mobile surgical suite for the U.S. Army but with a few modifications and it could be turned into anything from a command and control center to a logistics or operations center. The 400-square-foot shelter can be easily set up in less than two minutes and offers substantial protection against small-arms, as well as nuclear, biological and chemical contamination, making it an ideal tool for many federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Guard and Reserve units and homeland defense response teams. Y-12’s Lee Bzorgi was the inventor of the RDSS. Y-12’s additional 2007 winner, the PAD, may very well be the world’s smallest self-arming multiple-use accident notification device. The prototype of the non-nuclear based, radio frequency receiver is about the size of a small pager, but Angelo said it goes beyond existing technology by including radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for accountability. A commercial version of the PAD could be the size of a car key fob and easily worn by anyone over an extended time. “This is the first time personal wireless technology has been integrated into a safety-related nuclear accident alert system,” said Angelo. “The PAD provides for a personal alert over a much wider area than portable detection devices.” The PAD can be easily adapted for chemical, biological or any other hazard event where traditional notification means are not adequate, and rapid alert and accountability is required. 2004 The Oak Ridger | Conditions of Use ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************