***************************************************************** 07/25/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.173 ***************************************************************** 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 US: OCRegister.com: Life: atomic bomb, atomic blast, bomb testing - 2 Guardian Unlimited: UK OKs Base for U.S. Missile System 3 US: UPI: Bush pledges to cut nukes by 50 percent 4 US: TheDay.com: Sub Money Included in Appropriations Bill 5 US: AFP: Bush asks Congress to fund nuclear arsenal revamp 6 BBC NEWS: Russian North Pole mission stalls NUCLEAR REACTORS 7 US: NRC: Calvert Cliffs Environmental Report Available, Public Meeti 8 AFP: Japan's quake-hit nuke plant says nothing to hide - 9 ENS: British Prime Minister Blames Floods on Climate Change 10 MDN: Overhead crane damaged in quake-hit nuclear reactor - 11 The Hindu: Are Indian nuclear power plants earthquake-resistant? 12 Daily Yomiuri: 13 radiation leak sources suspected at N-plant 13 Daily Yomiuri: Tourism in Niigata on ropes / N-plant leaks keep drov 14 Daily Yomiuri: Nuclear reactor still safe despite quake 15 RIA Novosti: French firm could build shield over main Chernobyl reac 16 Business Insurance: Damage to power plant to be paid by TEPCO 17 US: APP.COM: Questions posed about nuclear accident evacuation plan 18 US: Poughkeepsie Journal: Feds accept Indian Point's re-licensing ap 19 The Australian: Local reactor 15 years away | 20 US: Oregon Daily Emerald: Nuclear fission is a better fuel alternati 21 US: baltimoresun.com: Hancock: Fantasy of cheap electricity is just 22 China Daily: Hunan to get 'first inland nuke' station 23 UPI: Walker's World: India's nuclear deal 24 UPI: Westinghouse to build China nuclear plants 25 UPI Asia: Feature: Japan's nuclear safety questioned after earthquak 26 AU: Blacktown City Sun: No future in nuclear power 27 US: ANI: Nuclear energy is 'green' compared to conventional renewabl 28 US: Guardian Unlimited: Renewable energy projects will devour huge a 29 asahi.com: Crane for reactor damaged by quake - 30 asahi.com: Towels used to mop up nuke spill 31 AFP: US-India nuclear agreement kept under wraps 32 US: AFP: US lawmakers question secretive US-India nuclear pact - NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 33 IHT: Japan power official defends speed in alerting about radioactiv 34 US: Salt Lake City Weekly: Where There's Smoke 35 The Herald: Two Nagasaki survivors are among protesters arrested out 36 US: Bradenton.com: Tallevast residents sue for medical screening pla NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 37 Pahrump Valley Times: County flicks off funding for park lights 38 Pahrump Valley Times: GOVERNOR CITES DISAGREEMENT OVER YUCCA PROJECT 39 US: ABC Perth: Uranium conference to be held in Fremantle 40 US: AU: ABC News: WA uranium ban symbolic - 41 US: ABC News: Aussie uranium 'won't be used for weapons' in India - 42 US: Gallup Independent: Texans: Say no to uranium mining 43 US: The Hindu: No spillage of yellow cake after accident 44 ReviewJournal.com: Hauling plans sought 45 ReviewJournal.com: EDITORIAL: A Yucca counteroffer 46 US: Herald Sun: Premiers reject ALP uranium mines stance | 47 ReviewJournal.com: State officials renew charge against DOE 48 US: Exec Digital: DOE examines GTCC waste disposal 49 US: UPI: Australia may sell uranium to India 50 US: Murfreesboro Post: Landfill expert questioned 51 Scotsman.com: Dounreay told to clean up 'while limiting costs' 52 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear waste is hardly a worry when the climate PEACE 53 BBC NEWS: Glasgow and West | Anti-nuclear protesters arrested US DEPT. OF ENERGY 54 DOE: U.S. Nuclear Weapons Strategy Delivered to Congress 55 Hanford News: Monks to pray for peace at Hanford 56 Tri-City Herald: Crib crawler travels Hanford's plutonium wasteland 57 Tri-City Herald: GAO report questions DOE review of Hanford vit plan 58 Tri-City Herald: Most K West Basin sludge vacuumed into containers ( 59 DOE: DOE Seeks Industry Participation For Engineering Services To 60 Knoxville News Sentinel: Cost of Y-12 project still a moving target ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 OCRegister.com: Life: atomic bomb, atomic blast, bomb testing - STOKES: Test shot "Stokes," a 19-kiloton blast, was one of 29 explosions in the 1957 Operation Plumbbob series. August 7, 1957. Tuesday, July 24, 2007 On watch at atomic history By TOM BERG THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER HUNTINGTON BEACH - It was 50 years ago this month the two men defied death in the Nevada desert. One hour before dawn, the young Marines were placed in an open trench, then ordered to kneel and cover their eyes. Three miles away, what would be the largest atomic device detonated over U.S. soil was about to explode. Test shot Hood was five times greater than the bomb that killed 90,000 people in Hiroshima, Japan. And no one was sure what would happen this close to ground zero. The blast blew doors off hinges 14 miles away, rattled homes all the way to Santa Ana and was seen by pilots near Hawaii. And that's not all. It was the dirtiest test stateside in terms of radiation fallout, says R.J. Ritter, national commander of the National Association of Atomic Veterans. And they walked about 2,200 Marines right into ground zero. This included the two men in the closest trench. One was Gary King, now 70, of Huntington Beach, a rough-and-tough Marine who still calls the blast no big deal. The other was a former Santa Ana Marine, who saw it quite differently. Darel Brower's memoirs, posted online, describe the eerie pre-dawn silence, the panicky Marines, the silvery-white explosion and the trek through 100-degree heat to ground zero with no masks. When King read this, he tried to e-mail his former platoon mate. It bounced back. Then he tried to phone, but there was no listing. He knew they'd both survived the blast 50 years ago. He was left to wonder if they'd both survived the fallout. BOMB PARTIES In retrospect, the audacity of 1957's Operation Plumbbob was stunning: a series of 29 aboveground atomic explosions witnessed at close range by 18,000 men testing their ability to fight on a nuclear battlefield. Planes flew through radioactive clouds. Marines marched through radioactive sand. Paratroopers jumped through radioactive skies. Assaults were launched. Objectives taken. The military measured blast effects on pigs, dogs, rabbits, mannequins, tanks, trucks and the psyches of men witnessing unparalleled power. Sixty-five miles south, Las Vegas was measuring how to cash in on the mushroom-cloud spectacle with dawn bomb parties on hotel rooftops. Knowledge of radiation was still in its infancy. At the time, we were all very cavalier about it, says King, whose specialty was atomic, biological and chemical warfare. Nobody really talked about radiation too much. It wasn't a big thing. From the military standpoint, an A-bomb was nothing more than a high-explosive bomb. Both King and Brower had to monitor radiation at three detonations: Priscilla, Diablo and Hood. Their observations could not be any more different. People ask, Weren't you scared?' King says. The answer is no. We were macho. It was just another assignment. Marines climbed out of trenches after each blast and smoked, he says. Or ate. Or napped. Most ignored the devices, he says. Brower was positioned several miles from the blast, facing away so as not to go blind. He describes the 37-kiloton Priscilla test this way: I'm not sure anyone was breathing, as it surely could have been heard, he wrote. When the count went from 10 to zero, everything lost its color, including the olive, drab truck parked in front of us. It all turned brilliant silver-white. The air around us was alive with the sizzling and crackling of electrical charges. My neck, which was the only thing exposed to the light, felt as if someone was holding a blowtorch to it. A few days later, both men were brought to the trenches for Diablo. It would prove stranger than Priscilla. Countdown to nothing Before you're sent to the bottom of a 6-foot-deep trench, three miles from an atomic explosion, you get a warning to close your eyes tight and place an arm in front of them. If they open, you may go blind. You are also warned that if you lift a finger in the air, it will be scorched. So when the loudspeakers count down 3, 2, 1, 0 and nothing explodes, what should you do? No one dared move, wrote Brower. For close to 20 minutes we held those positions. Legs went numb. Expletives were shouted. Men feared crawling out of the trenches, but Diablo was a dud. Eventually, they were ordered up and trucked away. For King and Brower, that left only the granddaddy of atmospheric tests, the 74-kiloton Hood. About it they would later agree on something. With eyes clenched tight, kneeling at the bottom of a trench, they both saw the same thing at detonation the bones in their arms. 21 Cancers We'll never know what Marine Maj. Charles Broudy saw in the trenches when Hood exploded. Or what he breathed when he marched like King and Brower to ground zero. He died of lymphoma in 1977. We do know that the Veterans Administration denied him benefits, saying he couldn't prove he was there. And that his widow later showed he received more than 5,000 times the 13-millirad dose the government said his film badge read. Broudy's widow Pat Broudy, 83, of Dana Point, fought an 11-year battle to help win benefits for atomic veterans, who now can claim relief for 21 kinds of cancers. For many, however, it's too little, too late. Most of our guys are old, she says. And they don't have the fight or will or knowledge to confront our government agencies anymore. The number of living atomic veterans is hard to place. But the National Association of Atomic Veterans estimates that more than 900,000 men and women took part in about 1,000 nuclear tests from 1945 to 1992. And more than 140,000 may have suffered cancer or other illnesses as a result. So far King is not among them. I have prostate cancer, but it's not attributed to that, says the still macho Marine. It's because I'm 70 years old. All men get it. Which leaves us wondering about his old battalion-mate Darel Brower, whose memoirs prompted King to reflect on the nuclear war games they played 50 years ago. What about him? Godlike and demonic Darel Brower, it turns out, is 76 and living in Jacksonville, N.C. For an old duff, I'm in good shape, he says, suffering only heartburn and a slight heart arrhythmia. The blasts remain vivid in his mind: The greens and blues, the beautiful hues glowing around the fireball, once he could look up, were both godlike and demonic. That is the lesson he took from those long-ago tests. We are definitely part of something deeper, he says, as if he were still in that trench. And we are very fragile. Copyright 2007 The Orange County Register | Contact us | Privacy ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited: UK OKs Base for U.S. Missile System Thursday July 26, 2007 1:31 AM LONDON (AP) - Britain has agreed to let the United States use a Royal Air Force base as part of its planned missile defense system, British Defense Secretary Des Browne announced Wednesday. Browne said Menwith Hill, a U.S. military listening station in northern England, would be equipped with communications equipment enabling it to route satellite warnings about missile launches to British and American officials. The defense secretary said in a written statement to lawmakers that the move was ``a building block to enhance our national and collective security.'' He said there were no plans to locate missile interceptors in Britain, but added that the government was keeping the matter under review. Britain supports the contentious U.S. plan to deploy a missile defense system in Europe, although American officials have indicated that Britain's role would likely be limited to providing early warning information. The U.S. made a formal request in January to place a radar base in a military area southwest of Prague and 10 interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland as part of the planned defense shield. The U.S. says the system is intended to protect Europe from the potential threat of a nuclear missile attack from Iran. Other parts of the system outside Europe would be aimed at defending against a possible attack from North Korea. Russian officials have strongly protested the U.S. plan, saying the system is aimed at their country's nuclear arsenal, and would upset the balance of strategic forces in Europe. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 3 UPI: Bush pledges to cut nukes by 50 percent United Press International - Security & Terrorism - Briefing Published: July 25, 2007 at 12:48 PM WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- The Bush administration Tuesday said it plans to cut the number of U.S. nuclear weapons by 50 percent. U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered their new nuclear weapons strategy to the U.S. Congress. "This document not only describes the history of nuclear deterrence during the Cold War, but reinforces how deterrence applies to present and future security threats, and what a nuclear stockpile of the 21st century will need to look like in order to meet those threats," the Energy Department said in a statement. The department said the new plan focused on Bush's "goal of maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent with the lowest possible number of nuclear weapons. It is consistent with the Moscow Treaty that sets U.S. and Russian operationally deployed strategic nuclear forces at 1,700-2,200 by 2012." The plan will also fulfill "the president's 2004 directive to cut the overall U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile almost in half, so that in just five years the nuclear arsenal will be at its lowest level since the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s," the statement said. "We are committed to maintaining the nuclear weapons stockpile, but as our Cold War-era weapons age this becomes more and more difficult and very costly," Bodman said. "This document clearly lays out the best actions we can take in the face of an uncertain future." Bush has pledged to streamline and modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without resorting to any new underground nuclear tests. Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 TheDay.com: Sub Money Included in Appropriations Bill By Jennifer Grogan Published on 7/25/2007 The state's Congressional delegation has pushed for funding for increased submarine production in the past, but today marked the first time that this money was included in an appropriations bill. The House Appropriations Committee approved its defense subcommittee's mark of the Defense Appropriations spending bill for fiscal 2008 this morning, which included $588 million in advanced procurement funding for an additional Virginia-class nuclear submarine. "Virginia Class submarines have proven to be exceptionally capable, and the Navy has said it needs more of them," said Electric Boat President John P. Casey. "This is good news for Electric Boat, the Navy and the nation." Currently, Electric Boat's Groton shipyard and Northrop Grumman Newport News in Virginia produce one $2.5 billion submarine a year, a production schedule the Navy would step up to two submarines a year starting in fiscal 2012. Connecticut lawmakers have asked to increase production earlier, arguing that the current rate threatens national security and the submarine industrial base. The full House is expected to take up the bill next week, and then send it to the Senate for consideration. Sen. Joe Lieberman called the funding "crucial to providing the best possible national defense," and said he would work with Sen. Christopher J. Dodd to make sure their colleagues "remain committed to this effort." Posted - 7/25/2007 8:26:23 PM | © 1998-2007 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 5 AFP: Bush asks Congress to fund nuclear arsenal revamp Wed Jul 25, 3:13 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House wants Congress to fund US nuclear missile updates to dissuade possible attacks from countries such as Iran and North Korea, according to a government report released Wednesday. "Credible US nuclear capabilities and our security commitment to allies remain an indispensable part of deterrence and an important element in our effort to limit proliferation," said the report prepared by the Departments of Energy, Defense and State. "The future security environment is very uncertain, and some trends are not favorable," it said, pointing to North Korea and Iran as countries whose nuclear programs "underscore the importance of US security guarantees." The document sent to Congress, titled National Security and Nuclear Weapons: Maintaining Deterrence in the 21st Century, recalls that in 2001, President George W. Bush ordered reduced by 2012 the number of strategic nuclear weapons from 6,000 to between 2,200 and 1,700. The Bush administration estimates that that number of nuclear weapons, while smaller than the Cold War arsenal, is sufficient, but says that the weapons must be modernized. "The United States needs to invest in the Reliable Replacement Warhead program. "The sooner Congress authorizes and funds transformative replacement programs ... the sooner the United States and its allies can realize the benefits this approach holds for maintaining a credible and effective deterrent with the lowest possible level of nuclear weapons," it said. Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 BBC NEWS: Russian North Pole mission stalls Last Updated: Wednesday, 25 July 2007, 21:31 GMT 22:31 UK The ship was following an ice-breaker through the Arctic A Russian naval expedition on its way to explore the ocean floor below the North Pole has come to a sudden halt. The Akademik Fyodorov research ship suffered engine failure a day after setting off from Murmansk port and is reportedly drifting in the Barents Sea. A nuclear powered ice-breaker leading the expedition has turned back to help. The ice-breaker is expected to reach the stricken ship on Thursday. An assistance team has also been despatched from Murmansk, Russian state media reported. See a detailed map of the region The mini-submarine was expected to be launched on Sunday - it is not clear how long it will take to fix the problem. Geological proof Melting ice in the Arctic has raised hopes of accessing energy reserves. Russia's claim to a vast swathe of territory in the Arctic, thought to contain oil, gas and mineral reserves, has been challenged by other powers, including the US. Moscow argued before a UN commission in 2001 that waters off its northern coast were in fact an extension of its maritime territory. The claim was based on the argument that an underwater feature, known as the Lomonosov Ridge, was an extension of its continental territory. The UN has yet to rule upon the claim. The team aboard the mini-submarine Mir was expected to carry out scientific experiments and measurements on the sea bed. The Law of the Sea Convention allows states an economic zone of 200 nautical miles, which can sometimes be expanded. To extend the zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory. At the moment, nobody's shelf extends up to the North Pole, so there is an international area around the Pole administered by the International Seabed Authority. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 7 NRC: Calvert Cliffs Environmental Report Available, Public Meeting August 14 in Solomons, Maryland News Release - 2007-089 - 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 today made available the environmental report portion of a combined license (COL) application for a new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Lusby, Md. The agency will discuss its COL review process during a public meeting Aug. 14 in Solomons, Md. Details of the meeting will be announced separately. The applicant, UniStar, submitted the report and associated information July 13. The report is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/col.html. Agency regulations allow an applicant to submit one part of a COL application up to six months before the remainder is submitted to NRC. A COL application has primarily two parts: a safety analysis and an environmental report. UniStar’s COL application will seek approval to build and operate an EPR reactor at the Calvert Cliffs site, approximately 40 miles south of Annapolis. The EPR is a large pressurized water reactor of evolutionary design. The NRC staff is currently conducting an initial check of the environmental report to determine whether it contains sufficient information required for a formal review. If this part of the application has sufficient information, the NRC will “docket,” or accept it for reiew. The agency will notice an opportunity for the public to request an adjudicatory hearing on the application once Unistar submits the remainder of the application and it passes its initial check. Additional details of the Aug. 14 meeting will be provided in an upcoming meeting notice and press release. More information about the NRC’s review of COL applications is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactor-licensing.html NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Wednesday, July 25, 2007 ***************************************************************** 8 AFP: Japan's quake-hit nuke plant says nothing to hide - Thursday July 26, 02:02 AM TOKYO (AFP) - The operator of Japan's largest nuclear plant, which was damaged in a powerful earthquake, said Wednesday it had nothing to hide as UN inspectors prepared to visit. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team is set to arrive in Japan in the next few weeks to look at the sprawling Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). Asked to promise the company would not hide anything, TEPCO vice president Ichiro Takekuro said: "If we did, we would lose the value of our company. It would be a tremendous bill to pay in the future." He dismissed a suggestion the firm would hurry up repairs of the plant to hide the true extent of the damage from the UN nuclear watchdog. "We will be conducting a detailed investigation into the current situation or just be preparing for that" when the IAEA team arrives, Takekuro told reporters. "We will not be in the midst of doing any repair work," he said. The pledge came amid reports that the plant would remain shut for a year, and even longer if major safety problems were detected. "At least one year is needed for operations to resume," Haruki Madarame, an expert in nuclear engineering, was quoted by Kyodo news agency saying late Wednesday. Madarame, a professor at the University of Tokyo, is set to be officially appointed head of a government-backed team to investigate the extent of damage at the plant and other nuclear facilities by last week's quake, Kyodo said. Japan said it invited the IAEA in hopes of easing international concern after the 6.8-magnitude earthquake caused a radiation leak on July 16. The earthquake struck off the coast near the plant, killing 11 people and destroying hundreds of homes. TEPCO said the quake automatically shut down the plant's reactors but triggered 63 problems, including a fire that lasted for hours and a radiation leak into the sea. The company said the radiation amount was far too small to pose a health hazard but has come under criticism for taking hours to report it and then understating the level. ***************************************************************** 9 ENS: British Prime Minister Blames Floods on Climate Change Environment News Service (ENS) LONDON, UK The sun is forecast to shine across much of England Wednesday, illuminating flood waters that have risen to 60 year highs. Prime Minister Gordon Brown blamed climate change for the torrential rains that pounded the British Isles on Friday and through the weekend, inundating vast stretches of southwest England and leaving more than 50,000 homes without power. In Gloucestershire, up to 350,000 people had no drinking water Monday after a water treatment plant in in the city of Tewkesbury was flooded, local police authorities said. About 250 water tankers were deployed to bring drinking water to Gloucester residents, who had stormed local markets in a panic to buy bottled water. Bottled water now is being distributed to residents and officials predict it will be seven to 14 days before water services are restored. Prime Minister Brown, who visited Gloucester Monday, said funds to tackle the crisis would rise to 800 million pounds (US$1.6 billion). Brown said the heavy rains and floods in Britain over the past month are related to climate change. "Like every advanced industrialized country, we are coming to terms with the issues surrounding climate change," he said. "We're looking, if you like, at 21st Century extreme weather conditions," he said. Responding to criticism that flood defenses are inadequate, Brown said, "We're going to have to look at how the infrastructure and how the drainage, how also the location of certain utilities is in order with the conditions we now face in the 21st Century." Floodwaters cover much of Gloucestershire. (Photo courtesy Gloucestireshire Constabulary) A major power outage was narrowly averted late Monday night when floodwaters lapping around Gloucestershire's Walham Substation were held back by temporary flood barriers brought in and erected by emergency services personnel and the military. Gloucestershire Chief Constable Dr. Tim Brain told reporters today, "The critical situation at the Walham substation was held overnight, that crisis was past just before midnight, and it has continued to function and supply electricity to the Gloucester area and beyond. Superhuman efforts were made by Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, the military and engineers involved to make this possible." "The emergency is not over, water is still high around Walham and there is a prospect of further peaks and the problem of retained water in the Severn basin is going to give problems for several days to come," the chief constable said. With regard to the Mythe Water Treatment works, GFRS and engineers of Severn Trent are beginning the process of inspection and making the plant safe," he said. "This will be a two day process and the current prognosis of water supplies returning remains seven to 14 days." The Environment Agency said river levels on the Severn in Gloucester have reached their peak. The agency says water levels on the Thames in Oxford and Reading are not expected to peak until Wednesday morning. Severe flood warnings remain in place for the British Midlands, and the counties of Oxfordshire and Befordshire. Phil Rothwell, Environment Agency Head of Flood Risk Policy, warned, "Flash flooding in recent days and weeks has been very sudden and has often occurred in areas where there were previously few flooding incidents in living memory. Therefore, everyone should stay fully aware of the weather situation. Where there is the danger of rivers rising people should check for flood warnings in their area." Lessons "will be learnt" from the "extreme weather" that has affected large parts of England this month, Prime Minister Brown said today. Brown said, "I have just come from a meeting of the emergency committee COBRA and the Cabinet where we have heard at first hand not only of the heroic efforts of the emergency services, our armed forces and communities themselves who are battling the flood waters, but also of their success in restoring power to some of the homes without it and preventing others from losing their electricity supply. We will continue to do all we can to help those affected." The prime minister praised beleaguered flood victims for their courage and selflessness. "In response to the unprecedented floods and their aftermath we have seen again and again what we witnessed a week or two ago throughout Yorkshire and Humberside: neighbor helping neighbor; young helping old; those with transport helping those who are stranded; and doing so selflessly." The Prime Minister's Spokesman said today that the government is considering applying to the European Union for financial assistance for flood recovery. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 MDN: Overhead crane damaged in quake-hit nuclear reactor - MSN-Mainichi Daily News July 26, 2007 The damaged part of the crane at the nuclear plant. (Photo courtesy of TEPCO) An overhead crane located in the structure that houses the No. 6 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Plant was damaged during last week's major earthquake, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has said. An official of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that the crane didn't fall, and that safety at the nuclear plant has been maintained. But observers say that the damage shows that the anti-earthquake design of the nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture was not strong enough. The crane is located on the fourth floor of the building that houses the nuclear reactor and is designed to lift the lid of the nuclear reactor's pressure container. The lid of a pressure container and a pool for spent nuclear fuel are located below the floor. A joint in the crane was apparently damaged in the quake. The No. 6 reactor was not in operation when the earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture and nearby areas on July 16. (Mainichi) Click here for the original Japanese story New panel to investigate Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant; report could be sent to UN July 25, 2007 Have your say in the MSN-Mainichi Daily News Readers' Forum Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 The Hindu: Are Indian nuclear power plants earthquake-resistant? Thursday, Jul 26, 2007 Indian nuclear power plant design follows internationally accepted seismic safety criteria The plants at Kakrapar, Narora, and Rawatbhata operated normally during the Bhuj quake Nuclear power plants are the most seismically hardened structures in the country Earthquake resistance of nuclear power plants (NPPs) received well deserved attention worldwide because the epicentre of the recent (July 16, 2007) earthquake in Japan was 19 km from the seven-unit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station. The units which were operating (3, 4 and 7) shut down automatically as per the design intent. The media storm rightly covered the delay in releasing the information and some inaccuracies in the reports on the minuscule releases of radioactivity and other dramatic events (waste drums toppled, exhaust ducts displaced etc.) which in reality had a limited impact on safety. Two reassuring facts However, nobody noticed two reassuring facts: the plant creditably withstood the earthquake which had twice the power of its design basis; the reactor, turbine building structures or major components did not suffer any damage. The nuclear power plants at Kakrapar, Narora, and Rawatbhata operated normally during the Bhuj earthquake (6.9 on the Richter scale) on January 26, 2001.These plants experienced levels of vibration much below those for which they have been designed (Warudkar, NuPower, 2001). The public may have concerns about Tarapur Unit 1&2 which were designed as per earlier standards. Specialists re-evaluated the seismic safety of these reactors and remedied the shortfalls by following the practices and guidelines in the Safety Report Series No 28 titled Seismic Evaluation of Existing Nuclear Power Plants of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, 2003). Specialists are re-evaluating the seismic safety of other older reactors Safety review is a continuous process. IAEA recommends reassessment if there is any evidence of higher seismic hazard than considered for the design of the plant. Re-evaluation will cover systems, structures and components required for safe shutdown, for maintenance of the plant in safe shutdown state, for removal of decay heat generated and for confinement of radioactive materials. The designers of Indian nuclear power plants follow internationally accepted seismic safety criteria and guidelines. The plants shall withstand maximum credible earthquakes at their sites. The designers followed seismic safety principles even when a high intensity event has a low probability of occurrence. Seismic sensors The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has installed seismic sensors at all plants as stipulated by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) The Earth is made up of a mosaic of tectonic plates which move constantly. They may collide with each other. Strains develop gradually over a large mass of rock at the plate boundaries (Bhardwaj, NuPower, 2001); when accumulated strain exceeds the strength of the rocks, the rock masses rupture suddenly releasing stored energy which gets transmitted as seismic waves. The vibrations generated get attenuated as they travel through the intervening media. Earthquake vibrations contain a mixture of frequencies. They are rich in the frequency range of 1 to 15 Hz. Above 15 Hz the energy reduces continuously and is very less beyond 33 Hz (Warudkar, NuPower, 2001). The force induced in a structure gets amplified if the excitation frequency is close to its natural frequency. Earthquake magnitude The effect of earthquake-induced vibrations depends on the magnitude of the earthquake, the depth of focus, the distance from the epicentre and the strata on which the NPPs stand. Specialists accept a site for constructing a nuclear power plant after analyzing the seismic inputs from agencies such as the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), India Meteorological Department, and Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research. NPPS shall not be constructed at sites falling above Zone 4. AERB also prohibits construction of NPPs at sites with a fault located within 5 km. Seismic parameters The designers estimate the seismic parameters for nuclear power plant structures conservatively. The analysis and design of these structures follow internationally accepted standards. They subject the designs to the requirements of vigorous quality assurance and safety review at multiple levels (Warudkar, NuPower, 2001) I know that the nuclear power plants are the most seismically hardened structures in the country. Only the ignorant will call me foolhardy, if I rush to a nuclear power plant to save myself from an imminent earthquake! K.S. PARATHASARATHY FORMER SECRETARY, AERB ( ksparth@yahoo.co.uk) Comments to : thehindu@vsnl.com Copyright 2007, The Hindu ***************************************************************** 12 Daily Yomiuri: 13 radiation leak sources suspected at N-plant Thirteen instances of damage at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture are suspected to have caused radioactive leaks, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday. The damage is believed to have been caused by the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake, which hit the prefecture last week. So far, the leak of radioactive materials has been confirmed at two locations in the power plant. The details of five of the cases are not yet fully known, according to TEPCO, which operates the plant. In a further six cases, the company is still unable to begin repairs. Inspectors have discovered that ventilation ducts that extract air from the reactor buildings and channel it to the main exhaust pipe, have slipped out of place in five reactor buildings. If they had been damaged when the reactors were still operating, radioactive gas could have escaped from the ducts. As they are located high within the reactor buildings, inspectors have been unable to examine the ducts manually for fear of another aftershock, leaving radioactive leaks and other details unconfirmed. It also has been discovered that up to 2,000 tons of water leaked from an area designed to handle radioactive substances on the fifth basement floor of the No. 1 reactor building due to damage to water pipes used for firefighting. Although the amount of radioactive material in the water was too small to be detected, according to TEPCO, such a massive amount of water surpassed expectations. The utility said it is uncertain when it will be able to complete repairs to the exhaust ducts and the water pipes. So far, two radiation leaks have been discovered at the plant. Some water that overflowed from the fuel storage pool at the No. 6 reactor poured into a noncontrolled area, in which radioactive substances were not supposed to be handled. Eventually, TEPCO says, a minute amount of radioactive materials leaked into the sea. In addition, a trace amount of radiation was emitted from an exhaust pipe in the No. 7 reactor due to its mishandling by officials after its operation was suspended immediately following the temblor. However, no radioactive substances have been found in the environs of the nuclear power plant. It is believed that the concentration of radiation became diluted to a level safe to humans. It has been discovered that water leaked from fuel storage pools at all seven reactors of the plant. As of Tuesday, the water has been drained at four locations. TEPCO said officials have completed major visual inspections, but they will investigate further. About 1,200 TEPCO employees work at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, and many of their homes were damaged during the temblor. Currently, only 600 or 700 of the employees are able to come to work, according to TEPCO's public relations department. So far, the plant has confirmed 64 instances of damage, including the aforementioned 15 cases. It was newly discovered Tuesday that a ceiling crane in the No. 6 reactor building was damaged. As inspectors are unable to start examining the reactors' cores, the actual health of the plant is not fully known. The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 13 Daily Yomiuri: Tourism in Niigata on ropes / N-plant leaks keep droves of visitors away in summer season Only a handful of people visit a beach in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, after a strong earthquake last Monday. Tourist spots in Niigata Prefecture would normally be looking forward to the peak summer season at this time of year. Instead, many are bracing for the worst as visitors are staying away after reports of radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant in the prefecture. About 48,000 reservations for Japanese-style inns and hotels were canceled in the five days after the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake on July 16, according to the prefectural association of city mayors and association of town and village mayors. These areas are likely to face hard times in the months ahead, despite the tourism industry claiming they are safe and the radioactive materials that leaked from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant have no harmful effects on humans. A fish market in Teramadori district in Nagaoka in the prefecture--about 35 kilometers from the hard-hit Kashiwazaki--is usually bustling with tourists on the lookout for fresh seafood. However, it has been practically deserted since the earthquake. Yamacho, an inn with a Japanese-style restaurant in Nagaoka, had all 240 guests scheduled to stay there in the week from July 17 cancel their reservations. Canceling customers made comments such as, "Is the sea safe to swim in?" and, "I want to hold off until [the area] is confirmed safe." Staff tried to convince the worried callers they would not be in danger, but were met with questions things such as, "How can you tell me what I should bring to stay safe?" "Time will heal any physical damage from the earthquake, but there's nothing we can do about misgivings stemming from the nuclear power plant," owner Hideo Okura, 55, said. According to the Kashiwazaki tourist association, about 1 million of the annual 3.8 million visitors to the city head to its beaches. Beach pavilions offering shade or selling food and drink are open as normal on the city's 15 swimming beaches, but virtually nobody is visiting them. Tomoe Sano, 64, runs a pavilion on Kujiranami beach in the city. Her home was destroyed in the earthquake and she is staying at the beach awaiting the arrival of visitors. "I just have to grin and bear it," she said. Water and exhaust air containing traces of radioactive materials were emitted from the nuclear plant following the temblor. According to Tetsuo Hashimoto, a professor emeritus in radiochemistry at Niigata University, the amount of radiation that Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the prefectural government said leaked into the sea was the equivalent of a nine-liter radon bath. "It wouldn't be enough to harm people in any way," Hashimoto said. However, more than 1,000 people have canceled plans to stay at the Shiomiso inn in the Senami hot spring resort in Murakami about 130 kilometers north of Kashiwazaki. Shiomiso staffers have tried in vain to convince people the area is safe, even visiting travel agencies outside the prefecture with newspaper articles stating the amount of radiation leaked was minute. The Yahatakan inn on Sado Island off the coast of the prefecture has had 560 people cancel and has vacancies on many days during the usually busy Bon holiday period in mid-August. Back onshore, about 2,700 people canceled accommodation reservations in Yuzawamachi in the prefecture in the four days following the temblor. According to the town government's tourism section, the problems at the nuclear plant have made many people "somehow scared about Niigata." The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 14 Daily Yomiuri: Nuclear reactor still safe despite quake Editorial : Are the radioactive leaks at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant really as severe as the sensational reporting of the mass media make them out to be? The problems that occurred at the nuclear power plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. when it was hit by the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake have made headlines in the media every day since the earthquake. The news reportedly prompted a popular Italian soccer team to suddenly cancel its visit to Japan. Reservations for rooms at inns and hotels in the prefecture have been canceled at what would normally be the summer's time of greatest profits. According to the prefectural government's calculations, the loss resulting from misgivings related to the earthquake could amount to between 100 billion yen and 200 billion yen. It is necessary to keep calm. The amount of radioactive substances leaked was minute: one-billionth to one-ten millionth of the emission standards stipulated by the government and the utility. Judging from the way the leaks occurred and the types of materials involved, it is unlikely that the leaks took place in the reactor itself and there was no damage to the environment. === Human error had role Neglecting to turn off the exhaust system caused radioactive materials to be emitted into the air, but the incident has passed. The leak was caused by human error rather than mechanical damage inflicted by the earthquake. Atsuyuki Suzuki, chairman of the Nuclear plant Safety Commission of Japan announced on July 19 that the safety of the nuclear had been maintained since the three important mechanisms of "cessation," "locking" and "cooling" were working normally. The government's guideline on quake-resistant design and construction of nuclear facilities was proved effective in principle. However, related facilities including exhaust ducts and fireplugs that are not designed or built with special quake-resistant features were badly damaged. A crane in the nuclear reactor building designed to be quake-resistant to some extent was also found to have been damaged. More than 60 problems at the nuclear power plant have been reported so far. But these problems should be differentiated from the issue of nuclear reactor's safety. === Learn from incident What is important is to review how much effect the quake had on the nuclear reactor in addition to analyzing the tremors of the earthquake. Another task is to determine how much can be done to ensure the ability of related facilities to withstand quakes. The tremors which hit the nuclear power plant are said to have been the biggest in history. We should make sure to improve the safety of all nuclear reactors in the country, taking advantage of and learning from the incident. An inspection team from the International Atomic Energy Agency are set to visit Japan to check the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. Japan's technological expertise in quake-resistant design is the highest in the world. The efforts taken to ensure the safety of nuclear reactors should be conveyed to the inspectors. It would lead to dispelling the damage of misgivings abroad. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 26, 2007) ) The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 15 RIA Novosti: French firm could build shield over main Chernobyl reactor 17:02 | 25/ 07/ 2007 KIEV, July 25 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine could sign a contract with a French firm in September to build a giant protective shield over a damaged reactor in Chernobyl, the scene of the world's worst nuclear disaster, the emergencies minister said Wednesday. "The Assembly of Chernobyl Shelter Fund Donors made a decision in London July 17 to give its approval to the contract to build the shelter with the Novarka concern, with a preliminary cost of 490 million euros (about $680 million)," Nestor Shufrych said. The decision came after numerous delays since the fund - which comprises 28 countries, including the G8 nations and is run by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - pledged in 2005 to allocate about $200 million on a new vault to contain radioactive material still inside the plant's main, fourth, reactor since the powerful 1986 explosions. The project is a tricky one, above all because of the radiation involved. A huge steel vault, which will be made away from the reactor site and will then be slid into place on rails, will seal the plant for 100 years, and further measures are expected to reduce the radiation threat or remove radioactive material from the plant. Much of the radioactive material inside the plant is temporarily contained by a Russian-designed "sarcophagus." The devastating disaster in then Soviet Ukraine killed and affected nine million people across the world, according to UN estimates. Vast areas, above all in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, were contaminated by the fallout of the explosion. An 18-mile zone, from which about 135,000 people were evacuated after the disaster, remains largely deserted to this day. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 16 Business Insurance: Damage to power plant to be paid by TEPCO by Michael Bradford Posted on July 25, 2007 3:57 AM CST KASHIWAZAKI, Japan?Tokyo Electric Power Co. will have to foot the bill without help from insurers for recent earthquake damage that could amount to several billion dollars. The Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant owned by TEPCO was heavily damaged by the 6.8-magnitude quake that struck Niigata prefecture on July 16. The earthquake was responsible for at least 11 deaths, around 1,800 injuries and property damage that could reach 1.5 trillion yen ($12.5 billion). Insured property damages are expected to be a small percentage of the total loss, likely amounting to around $168 million, according to catastrophe modeler Risk Management Solutions Inc. of Newark, California. In its damage estimate released this week, Niigata government officials said the loss includes 700 billion yen ($5.8 billion) of damage to TEPCOs nuclear power facility. A TEPCO spokesman in Tokyo would not confirm the prefectures damage estimate, saying the utility will release its own estimate next week. He said TEPCO has no insurance coverage in place to respond to the damages and will fund the loss itself. The plant remained closed this week. 1994-2007 by Crain Communications Inc. ***************************************************************** 17 APP.COM: Questions posed about nuclear accident evacuation plan Asbury Park Press Online Wednesday, July 25, 2007 CRITICS: Some in "caretaker" jobs could flee RESPONSE: Disaster brings out best in people Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 07/25/07 BY NICK CLUNN STAFF WRITER Post Comment TOMS RIVER The role that teachers, school bus drivers and other caretakers would play if a radioactive release from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant ever threatens the public was brought into sharp focus during a Tuesday night public hearing about the Lacey reactor's emergency plan. Like police and firefighters, workers responsible for the welfare of others during the course of an average workday might be called upon to fulfill evacuation or shelter orders before leaving their posts to look after their own safety or that of their families. But a few of the 13 speakers scheduled to address state officials responsible for the plan questioned whether enough individuals who are not professional emergency responders would stay behind to avoid a nightmare scenario in which children and the elderly are left unprotected. "Human behavior is what it is," said Paul Gunter, an advocate for Beyond Nuclear, a newly formed group based in Maryland that is concerned about the hazards posed by nuclear power. Gunter cited a 1985 University of California Los Angeles study that found about one-third of teachers surveyed around a nuclear power plant in that state said they would have an obligation to first take care of their families during a radiological emergency. The study also found that about 65 percent of school bus drivers who worked near a nuclear power plant in New York said they would not drive toward the plant to pick up people who needed to be evacuated, Gunter said. He then acknowledged that those tendencies could not be changed, and asked the panel if the plan took into account the possibility of "role abandonment." Drills build trust Sgt. Thomas Scardino, assistant supervisor of the State Police Radiological Emergency Response Planning Unit, said it did, pointing to periodic evacuation exercises in which teachers and school bus drivers work with authorities. "The way we drill with the school bus drivers and teachers builds trust," he said. He added that catastrophic events such as the Sept. 11 attacks and the August 2003 blackout have brought out the best in people by compelling them to help those in need. Scardino also said that children, the elderly and anyone else needing assistance with transportation would be among the first to evacuate, meaning that teachers and other caretakers would be helping emergency responders long before a situation at the plant became critical. Outside the meeting following Scardino's response, Gunter said he wanted to hear if evacuation drills took into account some degree of attrition. He wondered, for instance, if there were contingency plans in place if 40 percent of school bus drivers decided not to participate in an evacuation. After praising police and members of first aid squads, Joan Rubin of Pine Beach said she would predict that a number of professional emergency responders would abandon their posts to take care of their families. "You are asking the impossible of them," she told the panel. Caring for disabled Theresa Kotsolakis, who is responsible for the 50 or so disabled adults who attend daily recreational programs about 2 miles from Oyster Creek at Lacey Community Support Services, suggested in her comments to the panel that she would remain in her role as program coordinator during a plant emergency. Kotsolakis asked how authorities could help the senior program, and the families of her clients, during an emergency since many of the disabled adults she tends to need walkers, canes and wheelchairs to get around. Scardino told her that she should provide a list of names to Lacey's Office of Emergency Management, which is responsible for keeping track of special-needs individuals who might require help during an evacuation prompted by any kind of emergency, nuclear or otherwise. The hearing is an annual event held by the state near each of New Jersey's three nuclear plants to allow officials an opportunity to hear suggestions from the public and to answer questions. CARE TO COMMENT? Visit our Web site, www.app.com Copyright 2007 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Poughkeepsie Journal: Feds accept Indian Point's re-licensing application PoughkeepsieJournal.com Wednesday, July 25, 2007 Gannett News Service Federal nuclear regulators announced today that they have accepted Indian Point's re-licensing application that would allow the nuclear to remain open until 2035, officially kicking off the 27-to-35-month review process. The date is also important because it starts a 60-day clock for any entity to request a formal hearing from the federal government. Entergy Nuclear announced its plan to go for 20-year extension for Indian Point 2 and Indian Point 3 the day before Thanksgiving 2006. The company filed the document April 30th of this year. The acceptance ran into a delay when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found the application lacking on the issue of back up power source and the company responded by committing to a diesel fuel generator for Indian Point 2. Indian Point 2's license is set to expire Sept. 28, 2013 and Indian Point 3's on Dec. 12, 2015. Copyright 2007 PoughkeepsieJournal.com ***************************************************************** 19 The Australian: Local reactor 15 years away | NEWS.com.au Network Paul Maley | July 25, 2007 AUSTRALIA'S first nuclear reactor is at least 15 years away and will require bi-partisan political support, the head of the government's nuclear agency said yesterday. Speaking to journalists in Canberra yesterday, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) chief executive Ian Smith said a global nuclear boom was underway. Dr Smith said the creation of a nuclear industry would require the formation of a strong regulatory regime and bipartisan supports for nuclear power - a prequisite for business investment. And the fact that there was only one factory in the world capable of producing the large forgings required for a plant meant that it would be 15-years before nuclear energy hit the electricity grid. ''Companies are going to be doing the process over two or three elections,'' Dr Smith said. ''They'd want to make sure they won't hit a red light. (Bipartisanship) has been crucial in the US and UK.'' While the Howard Government backs the idea of Australia making nuclear emergy part of its energy mix, Labor dismisses the idea outright. Dr Smith said around 35 plants, which cost $2-$3 billion to construct, were expected in the United States by 2015-16, 10 in the UK, five in Europe and 6-8 a year in Russia. South East Asia was an ''intense region'' for nuclear activity, with plants planned for Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, which planned to build six plants. Dr Smith acknowledged there were concerns regional terror groups could obtain nuclear materials, but said ANSTO was working closely with local authorities to manage nuclear waste. One of the main risks came from radioactive material scavenged from old hospital equipment. He said the plants themselves would be ''full-standard, Western'' reactors. ''The world nuclear industry understands that they are absolutely interdependent. An accident anywhere can be the death knell everywhere,'' he said. Dr Smith said spruikers of clean-coal technology, often presented as an alternative to the nuclear option, were ''unjustifiably optimisitic'' about the timeframe in which it could produce high levels of electricity. Industry souces had advised him that up to 30 per cent of the electricity generated at a clean coal plant would be required to capture and sequester the carbon capture. Dr Smith said public support for nuclear energy would in part depend on ''how hard the climate change issue continues to bite''. ''I guess we're seeing reinforcement of it all the time, like the floods in England at the moment. If that keeps going people will be looking for solutions,'' he said. Opinion polling indicated dimisishing support for positions adopted by anti-nuclear groups such as Greenpeace, who he said were often ''rather more sensible'' in their private discussions with ANSTO than in their public comments. ANSTO makes $40-$50 million through commerical activities, mostly through nuclear medicine, and receives a Government appropriation of $120 million. Dr Smith said he hoped to boost ANSTO's commercial revenue to $100 million. Three Defence sites in the Northern Territory and one site near Tennant Creek volunteered by the Aboriginal owners were being considered as possible waste dumps, with a decision expected by early next year, Dr Smith said. Copyright 2007 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT +10). ***************************************************************** 20 Oregon Daily Emerald: Nuclear fission is a better fuel alternative - Commentary Issue date: 7/25/07 Section: Commentary American politicians are driving us off a cliff! The insane policy of subsidizing and promoting biofuels to replace gasoline will only help destroy the earth and the human race at a faster pace. Biofuels are bad because they take more energy to produce than they yield as fuel. Using scarce farmland to grow corn or other crops to produce fuel will only increase food prices, and also increase pollution and top soil erosion. The earth cannot feed our expanding population and at the same time use precious farmland to produce fuel. Higher food prices will starve the poor, increase inflation, which will raise the yearly Social Security cost of living index. This price inflation will make Social Security go bankrupt even sooner. The only solution to our energy problem is to get out of the carbon fuel cycle completely and switch to hydrogen fuel generated by nuclear fission. We have enough nuclear fuel on hand to last for hundreds of years in the form of nuclear warheads. Nuclear fuel can be reprocessed again and again, and we have the fuel now, already mined and paid for.   Nuclear fission produces no carbon dioxide and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect. Nuclear energy production does not use precious farmland and thus does not erode topsoil. Nuclear energy is cheap, reliable, and the new reactor designs are incredibly safe.    It is time to end the biofuel fiasco now before too much damage is done. Like the MTBE fuel additive disaster, which polluted ground water all over the nation, we humans can make a mess of things when we act without considering the true consequence of our actions.  State governors who support bills demanding the use of biofuels are only using feel-good slogans and tactics that will end up starving our people and destroying our environment at an even faster rate.  Humans need to not only control our population, but reduce human population as well. Our planet cannot even support the 6.7 billion people we have now adequately. Letting our population balloon to 10 or 12 billion will destroy the quality of life for all of us, and bring about the demise of "civilization" as we know it. Our politicians are not controlling illegal immigration because of short term political considerations. No American politician is even addressing the need to reduce human population to manageable levels. Yes, the human race is destroying itself through overpopulation and pollution, and the biofuel fiasco is just another nail in our coffin, not a solution.    Christopher Calder is a resident of Eugene 2007 Oregon Daily Emerald ***************************************************************** 21 baltimoresun.com: Hancock: Fantasy of cheap electricity is just that -- July 25, 2007 You can't have it all. Economists know a government cannot simultaneously control its interest rates, currency value and international capital flows. Only two of three are possible. Attendees at today's Annapolis summit on energy will find a similar "impossible trinity" in trying to chart Maryland's energy future. We can have cheap energy. We can have clean energy. And we can have reliable energy. But not all at the same time. If the summiteers don't recognize that one must be sacrificed to guarantee the other two, they'll be blowing smoke and setting Maryland up for an even worse situation than the one they're seeking to address. When all is said and done, bet on the disappearance of cheap energy in exchange for energy that is better for the environment and guaranteed to be there when we need it 10 years from now. That'll be an improvement on today, when energy is neither inexpensive, clean nor dependable. Take electricity, the form of power most within Maryland's control. Dependable? Maybe for now, but at this rate we risk brownouts and blackouts by the summer of 2010 or so. No major Maryland generation plant has been built since the 1990s, but the state's economy and megawatt use have grown steadily upward. Transmission lines to import out-of-state juice are also increasingly inadequate. Clean? Most Maryland electricity comes from coal, the filthiest fuel known to man or woman. True, pollution-control technology and stricter laws are reducing emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide and other poisons. But Maryland's coal generators still spew junk at higher-than-desirable rates. And that's not counting carbon dioxide. Pound for pound, coal is also the planet's worst source of greenhouse gases. Cheap? Electricity prices across the state are up to 70 percent higher than they were a few years ago. Part of the increase is caused by rising prices for coal, natural gas and other generation fuels. Part is caused by deregulation, a lapse in price controls and very large profits being earned by generators such as Constellation Energy and Mirant. What to do? Maryland could make electricity less expensive and pollution-free by shutting down coal plants and somehow ordering the rest of Maryland's generators to roll back prices to 2005 levels. Of course the state would immediately be without the megawatts to power its economy and would plunge into depression. Or, we could make electricity cheap and dependable by easing emissions caps and greasing the licensing process for new coal generation plants. Power companies once daunted by scrubber costs and permit snafus would trip over themselves to build generators. Maybe the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and other utilities could construct their own. Coal is still less expensive than other fuels, and easier pollution rules would lower costs, too. Utilities could pass the savings to customers. Naturally, asthma and cancer rates would rise, and a greenhouse-gas plume marked "Maryland" would rise to heaven. The right answer is to spend money on cleaning up pollution and building transmission and generation construction. The money has to come from somewhere. So goodbye cheap kilowatts. The dream of rolling back BGE and Pepco prices to anything close to 2005 levels is over. Expensive electricity is here to stay, whether or not Maryland sticks with the deregulation that caused the present high prices. Constellation and other generators earn huge profits on coal and nuclear plants that were once required to pass their lower costs to utility ratepayers. (Since deregulation, BGE and other utilities must shop in the expensive open market.) But high prices aren't the biggest problem. The primary problem is that, for the most part, generators aren't reinvesting earnings into Maryland projects. When new plants and transmission lines get built - and they must - they'll still need high prices to finance the mortgages. Even reducing energy use - sure to be a big topic at Gov. Martin O'Malley's energy summit - will require millions in investment for smart meters, home retrofits and the like. Building and buying alternative generation such as solar and wind will cost money. So will improving aid for lower-income electricity users. If policymakers can figure a way for high prices to be reinvested into clean and reliable electricity, two out of three on the wish list won't be bad. For updates from the energy summit, see Jay Hancock's blog at baltimoresun.com/business Baltimore Sun | ***************************************************************** 22 China Daily: Hunan to get 'first inland nuke' station By Xiao Wan (China Daily) Updated: 2007-07-25 06:50 China's nuclear power facilities are spreading inland from its coastal region as the country speeds up its eco-friendly power development. The first inland nuclear plant, according to industry experts, is likely to be set up near Yiyang City in Central China's Hunan Province on the bank of Taohuajiang, or Peach Blossom River. The feasibility study for the project was completed last year, and once built, the Yiyang plant will be generating 4,000 megawatts (MW) of nuclear power, or 10 percent of the country's total nuclear capacity by 2020. But Hunan may not be the only inland province to have a nuclear power plant. Anhui, Hubei and Sichuan, where land is being surveyed for such plants, may join it. Provincial governments are even ready to provide some of the funds for the projects. China's technology has matured enough to generate nuclear energy in its inland areas "so long as the site is safe and environmental protection is guaranteed," says Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China5e.com, a top energy website in the country. A source close to the Hunan project, who declined to be named, said: "China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), the country's largest nuclear reactor builder, expects to start work on the project in the next three to five years." Earlier this year, CNNC entered into a joint venture, Hunan Taohuajiang Nuclear Power Ltd, with Hong Kong-based China Resources, China Three Gorges Project Corporation and Hunan Xiangtou Holdings Group. Preparation for the project is "going on smoothly, although the development timetable is still to be set by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)", the source said. The Taohuajiang project will reportedly be divided into two phases, each designed to generate 2,000 MW. China sees nuclear power as a clean, alternative solution to its growing energy demand. It has decided to shift its nuclear power generation from the so-called appropriate, more cautious model to accelerate development, according to the nation's 11th Five-Year Plan for the nuclear industry. The country has 11 nuclear power reactors, all of them in its economically thriving east and southeast coasts. In 2006, nuclear power accounted for 1.1 percent of its total installed power capacity, according to State Electricity Regulatory Commission data. ***************************************************************** 23 UPI: Walker's World: India's nuclear deal United Press International - International Intelligence - Analysis Published: July 25, 2007 at 10:50 AM By MARTIN WALKER UPI Editor Emeritus MUNICH, Germany, July 25 (UPI) -- It is a striking coincidence that the Indian and U.S. governments should have announced the successful conclusion of their long-stalled nuclear cooperation deal in the same week that India established its first overseas military base. India's new base, an electronic listening post and radar station on the island of Madagascar, is perfectly situated to monitor the international waterways around South Africa and the Indian Ocean with its oil tanker routes to Asia. India has also leased an atoll from Mauritius on which a similar facility is to be built. Its navy has secured berthing rights in Oman, and signed an agreement last year to patrol the Mozambique coast. In 2003, the Indian navy provided seaward protection for the African Union summit at Mozambique. The Indian Ocean is increasingly under Indian management, led by a fast-growing navy that is buying advanced French-made Scorpene "stealth" submarines and has just acquired its first ever U.S. warship, the former USS Trenton, a large amphibious transport and landing ship, along with U.S. UH-3H helicopters. Three months ago, India completed a $1.1 billion deal with the United States for Hercules military transport. The United States sees India as a key strategic partner and as a potential balance against China's potential dominance of Asia, and is prepared to equip India for the role. Already one of the world's biggest customers for arms, spending over $10 billion in the last three years, India is now planning to buy 126 multi-role combat jets. The US F-16 and F/A-18 Super Hornet are seen as the main contenders in a deal that could be worth another $10 billion. A new study by India's Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry, "Private Sector Participation in Defense," suggests that India's imports of military hard and software should reach $30 billion by 2012. This is the strategic context for the nuclear deal, which ends the isolation from the nuclear community that was imposed on India when it staged its first nuclear tests in 1998, and will allow India to import nuclear fuels and technology under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. This will be important for India's civilian nuclear power program, but its main impact is symbolic in asserting the new closeness of the U.S. strategic partnership. The deal has been stalled over some of the terms imposed by the U.S. Congress under the Hyde Act, which sought to impose certain restrictions on India. The first was to hold the deal hostage, allowing it to be suspended if India staged more nuclear tests. The second was to bring some, but not all, of India's nuclear rectors under the intensive inspection regime of the NPT and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The most authoritative opposition to the deal has come from Peter Iyengar, former chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, who listed his concerns in an exclusive United Press International interview at his home in New Delhi with this reporter in February this year. "As currently drafted, the agreement would force us to stop re-processing nuclear fuel, something we have been doing for thirty years," Iyengar said. "It would terminate our strategic program (India's nuclear weapons program) by exposing us to sanctions if we conducted nuclear tests. And it puts impossible barriers in our path to ongoing and future research, including our well-developed programs for fast-breeder reactors and to use thorium rather than uranium as a nuclear fuel," he added. "By saying that India shall not re-process fuel and not develop the fast-breeder reactors, this deal undermines our ability to produce energy in the future when uranium runs out," Dr Iyengar went on. "This is a question of national sovereignty, of India's right and ability to decide such things for ourselves." The Hyde Act was designed to be watertight, but somehow the Bush administration has managed to accommodate India's concerns. This was done, to widespread surprise last week, when Vice President Dick Cheney took personal charge of the talks in Washington with India's National Security adviser M.K. Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Anil Kakodkar, secretary of India's Department of Atomic Energy Menon was packed and about to check out from his hotel when Cheney intervened and brought Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice into the final phase of talks, which opened with Cheney saying, "This deal must be done." The White House national security adviser Steven Hadley was also brought into the talks to fine tune the text of a document called "The 123 agreement" that spells out the details of the deal. The precise terms have not yet been made public, and the final document is a frozen text, which means that it can now only be voted up or down, and not amended further. According to U.S. sources, it is based on Cheney's traditionally robust view of the president's prerogative over foreign policy and strategic issues, and allows George W. Bush or future presidents to give India a form of waiver under the terms of the Hyde Act when supreme U.S. national interests are deemed to be at stake. The Democratic-controlled Congress may have doubts about this, but potential presidential candidates may see its usefulness. The increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court, with two new Bush-appointed justices, is likely to sympathize with Cheney's view of the presidential prerogative. The deal has been strongly backed by the wealthy and influential Indian community in the United States. Sanjay Puri, chairman of the U.S.-India Political Action Committee commented: "The United States and India have achieved what everyone thought was impossible when President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced their plan for a civil nuclear agreement in July 2005. Exactly two years later, the two nations have not only reached an agreement, but created a lifelong partnership between two nations that are committed to democratic principles and the idea of energy independence." This also seals the presence on the world stage of India's emergence as a regional superpower in Asia, while becoming a close U.S. ally and a major economic and technological force. Next month, India will launch its first dedicated military reconnaissance satellite, CARTOSAT 2A, on one of its own launch vehicles. Two more advanced imaging satellites with Israeli synthetic aperture radars are to be launched next year for all-weather monitoring of Asian airspace, including China It may also not be a coincidence that these developments come as China is upgrading its ballistic missile facility at central-north Delingha, where launch pads for older Dong Feng-4 intercontinental ballistic missiles are being modernized for new DF-21 medium-range missiles. A report this month by the Nuclear Information Project for the Federation of American Scientists concluded that the DF-21s "would be able to hold at risk all of northern India, including New Delhi." Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 UPI: Westinghouse to build China nuclear plants United Press International - NewsTrack - Business - Published: July 24, 2007 at 6:59 PM BEIJING, July 24 (UPI) -- Westinghouse Electric Co. said Tuesday it signed multibillion-dollar contracts to build four nuclear reactors in China, the world's No. 2 energy consumer. The reactors are to be built in pairs at the Zhejiang provincial city of Sanmen and at Haiyang City in Shandong province, Westinghouse said. Construction is to begin in 2009, with the first 1.1-gigawatt reactor to come online in late 2013. The suburban Pittsburgh company said it expects the other reactors will be operational in 2014 and 2015. Westinghouse, majority-owned by Japan's Toshiba Corp., and consortium partner Shaw Group Inc. of Baton Rouge, La., signed the contract with China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. in Beijing. Details of the contracts, including their cash value, were not disclosed. Past valuations put each reactor at $1 billion to $2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The agreements are expected to generate or sustain at least 5,000 U.S. jobs within Westinghouse, Shaw and suppliers, Westinghouse said. China is aggressively expanding its nuclear-generating capacity as its pollution problems worsen due to its growing reliance on fossil fuels. It hopes to increase its nuclear generating capacity from 7 gigawatts in 2005 to 40 gigawatts by 2020. Copyright 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 25 UPI Asia: Feature: Japan's nuclear safety questioned after earthquake TOKYO, Jul. 25 HIROYUKI KOSHOJI UPI Correspondent Japan has 55 nuclear power stations across the country, the third highest number in the world behind the United States and France. It is also an archipelago prone to earthquakes. The safety risks inherent in this situation were exposed by the latest major tremor. Last week, a tremor of magnitude 6.8 directly hit the area where the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station is located in Niigata prefecture, north of Tokyo along the Sea of Japan. A fire broke out, and a small quantity of radioactive material leaked into the atmosphere and the sea. This was the first such incident involving nuclear facilities in Japan. It was also the most direct hit to a nuclear station in Japan, or perhaps anywhere in the world, as the station was only five miles from the quake's epicenter. The facility consists of seven large-scale nuclear reactors, each capable of generating about 1 million kilowatts. The seismograph in the area recorded a jolt 2.5 times stronger than the limit the station is designed to tolerate. Tsunehisa Katsumata, president of Tokyo Electric Power Company, the largest power generating company in the world, said in a TV interview: "The A-ranked major facilities were not affected by the quake. Only C-rank structures were damaged." All three reactors running at the time of the quake were automatically stopped. "The leaked radioactive material was the lowest level to affect human bodies," said Naoto Sekimura, professor at the Department of Quantum Engineering and Systems Science at the University of Tokyo. But Japanese sensitivity to radioactivity is like an allergy, thanks to the devastation experienced with the two nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 62 years ago in August. The government ordered the reactors to remain shut down until their safety is thoroughly confirmed through rigorous aseismatic tests. Experts say the process could take one to three years. Even if the plant resumes operation, the inconvenient truth remains beneath the earth. The Japanese archipelago is located over four tectonic plates impinging against each other, producing thousands of fault lines that cause earthquakes. One of these fault lines was found recently to extend below the nuclear station in Kashiwazaki City. "Nobody had expected such a big earthquake, as the fault line was discovered only recently," admitted Hiromichi Tsuji, assistant professor at the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo. According to Tsuji, of all the earthquakes over magnitude 6 occurring in the Pacific Rim Zone between 1994 and 2002, 20 percent of the jolts have occurred in Japan. "Nowhere in the country is considered really safe (for constructing nuclear facilities)," he said. But Japan, with scarce energy resources within its own territory, cannot abandon the nuclear option altogether. On the contrary, the government's Framework for Nuclear Energy Policy issued in 2005 envisaged 30-40 percent of Japan's energy needs being met by nuclear reactors by 2030. The nuclear option is also vital for the country to meet its international pledge to reduce greenhouse gasses. The construction of 13 nuclear stations, including the replacement of aging ones, is planned at the moment. Already two facilities are under construction. "New nuclear plants may face stronger opposition from local residents," said Hideyuki Ban of the Citizen's Nuclear Information Center, a non-profit organization advocating a nuclear-free society. He pointed out that a court case has been filed on the safety of one nuclear station in the Tokai area, located just west of Tokyo in the area deemed most susceptible to inland tremors up to magnitude 8. A citizens' group has demanded the suspension of this nuclear facility. "(The latest quake) would influence the outcome of this case," he said. The verdict is expected in October. Japanese firms have achieved quake-resistant, high-rise construction technology and have built many such buildings in big cities, unthinkable until a few decades ago. Whether such technologies will help people overcome the nuclear allergy that has surfaced with the latest quake remains to be seen. 2007 News World Communications, Inc. ***************************************************************** 26 AU: Blacktown City Sun: No future in nuclear power July 25, 2007 1:47 PM Have you noticed that John Howard has been banging on about nuclear energy ever since he returned from visiting George Bush? Australians now learn that plans are afoot for us to co-operate with the U.S. on the development of a nuclear energy industry. We are to understand that this is in the interest of climate change. What other deals has Howard made with the thug Bush? In his move to take control of Aboriginal settlements in the Northern Territory, Howard stipulated that it will no longer be necessary to get a permit in order to enter an Aboriginal settlement. Is this a cunning ruse so that mining companies will have easy access to Aboriginal land? This move could also clear the way for the U.S. to use the Northern Territory as a nuclear waste dump, keeping in mind that the U.S. government is meeting resistance to dumping its nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain in the U.S. State of Nevada. Howard is reported to have said that Australia would not be taking other countries nuclear waste. And we all know just how relliable Howard's word is. Global warming presents us with many problems. Nuclear power will create insurmountable problems. Cancers, weapons of mass destruction and birth defects are only some of them. Clearly, nuclear power is not the solution to global warming. LATEST COMMENTS there's plenty green energy sorses so we don't need uranium mined and the waste products duried here at all !! we will destroy this beautifull country of ours and our children will have to fight to servive to bring back the beauty of the country because of greedy government policy ! sori john it caint happen lets unite as one nation ban uranium minning ! * Posted by: grant Ennew at July 26, 2007 3:05 AM there's plenty green energy sorses so we don't need uranium mined and the waste products duried here at all !! we will destroy this beautifull country of ours and our children will have to fight to servive to bring back the beauty of the country because of greedy government policy ! sori john it caint happen lets unite as one nation ban uranium minning ! * Posted by: grant Ennew at July 26, 2007 3:06 AM the future is clean coal . we dont want nuclear nightmare * Posted by: aydede at July 26, 2007 6:33 AM Well said, Jean Lopez! The whole nuclear industry thing is one of Howard's finest exercises in hypocrisy. Note that Howard always talks about not taking back "other people's wastes". Of course, if Australia LEASES uranium to the US and other overseas countries, then the wastes become "our wastes" The hypocrisy of it all is apparent when we realise that nuclear power is massively expensive, can only survive by having its costs and insurance covered by the taxpayer."Global warming" is not the real justification for the nuclear industry - it's really about developing nuclear weapons. The hypocrisy in Australia is not confined to the Howard government. The ALP thinks that Australia can just mine the stuff, and let other countries, (third world suckers) cope with the dangers and the cost and the waste. * Posted by: Christina Macpherson at July 26, 2007 10:26 AM Copyright 2006. Blacktown City Sun. ***************************************************************** 27 ANI: Nuclear energy is 'green' compared to conventional renewable energy sources From our ANI Correspondent Washington, July 25: Renewable energy wrecks environment and building enough wind farms, damming enough rivers, and growing enough biomass to meet global energy demands will absolutely devastate nature, according to a new study by a Rockefeller University researcher. In his study in Inderscience's International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology, Jesse Ausubel writes that renewable energy requires more land in a constant or worsening ratio in order to succeed. Technologies succeed only when economies of scale form part of their evolution and no economies of scale benefit renewables, since land good for wind, hydropower, biomass, or solar power may get used first, the study said. As part of his study, Ausubel analyzed the amount of energy that each so-called renewable source could produce in terms of Watts of power output per square meter of land disturbed. He also compared the destruction of nature by renewables with the demand for space of nuclear power. According to his findings, flooding the entire province of Ontario, Canada, about 900,000 square km, with its entire 680,000 billion litres of rainfall, and storing it behind a 60 meter dam would only generate 80 percent of the total power output of Canada's 25 nuclear power stations. Put another way, each square kilometre of dammed land would provide the electricity for just 12 Canadians, he said. Biomass energy is also horribly inefficient and destructive of nature, he said. To power a large proportion of the USA, vast areas would need to be shaved or harvested annually and to obtain the same electricity from biomass as from a single nuclear power plant would require 2500 square kilometres of prime land. He said though wind power is three to ten times more compact than a biomass farm, a 770 square kilometre area is needed to produce as much energy as one 1000 Megawatt electric (MWe) nuclear plant. In other words, to meet 2005 US electricity demand and assuming round-the-clock wind at the right speed, an area the size of Texas, approximately 780,000 square kilometres, would need to be covered with structures to extract, store, and transport the energy, he said. "One hundred windy square meters, a good size for a Manhattan apartment, could power an electric lamp or two, but not the laundry equipment, microwave oven, plasma TV, and computer. New York City would require every square meter of Connecticut to become a wind farm to fully power all its electrical equipment and gadgets," Ausubel said in his study. He said solar power is also not that efficient as constructing a photovoltaic solar cell plant would require painting black about than 150 square kilometres plus land for storage and retrieval to equal a 1000 MWe nuclear plant. "Every form of renewable energy involves vast infrastructure, such as concrete, steel, and access roads. As a Green, one of my credos is 'no new structures' but renewables all involve ten times or more stuff per kilowatt as natural gas or nuclear," Ausubel said. According to him, "nuclear energy is green, as "considered in Watts per square meter, it has astronomical advantages over its competitors". "If we want to minimize new structures and the rape of nature, nuclear energy is the best option," he said. Copyright Dailyindia.com/ANI Copyright 2004-2007 DailyIndia.com ***************************************************************** 28 Guardian Unlimited: Renewable energy projects will devour huge amounts of land, warns researcher Analyst argues wind farms and biofuels are not green Report's look at negative aspects aims to end 'taboo' Ian Sample, science correspondent Wednesday July 25, 2007 Large-scale renewable energy projects will cause widespread environmental damage by industrialising vast swaths of countryside, a leading scientist claims today. The warning follows an analysis of the amount of land that renewable energy resources, including wind farms, biofuel crops and photovoltaic solar cells, require to produce substantial amounts of power. Jesse Ausubel, a professor of environmental science and director of the Human Environment programme at Rockefeller University in New York, found that enormous stretches of countryside would have to be converted into intensive farmland or developed with buildings and access roads for renewable energy plants to make a significant contribution to global energy demands. Prof Ausubel reached his conclusions by ranking renewable energies according to the amount of power they produce for each square metre of land. The assessment allows direct comparison between the different approaches, based on the impact they will have on the surrounding landscape. The analysis showed that damming rivers to make use of hydroelectric power was among the most harmful to the landscape, producing around 0.1 watts of power per square metre. The world's largest dam, the Three Gorges power station on the Yangtze in China, stores nearly 40bn cubic metres of water, submerging land that was previously home to more than 1 million people. Biofuel crops and wind energy fared better in the study, with both generating around 1.2w to a square metre. Leading the renewable energy sources were photovoltaic solar cells, which use sunlight to create electricity, at around six to seven watts to a square metre. Prof Ausubel investigated how much land renewable energies would need to provide electricity for large populations and compared them to output from nuclear power stations. In one example he showed that damming rainfall and flooding the entire Canadian province of Ontario would generate hydroelectric power equivalent to 80% of that produced by the country's 25 nuclear power plants. Another calculation revealed that to meet US energy demands for 2005 with wind power would require constant winds blowing onto wind farms covering more than 780,000 square kilometres of land, the area of Texas and Louisiana combined. A comparison of solar energy with nuclear found that a hectare of photovoltaic cells was needed to produce the same amount of power as one litre of fuel in the core of a nuclear reactor. The report breaks what Prof Ausubel calls the "taboo of talking about the strong negative aspects of renewables", by focusing on examples that highlight their limitations. "When most people think of renewables and their impact, they're mistaking pleasant landscaping with what would be a massive industrial transformation of the landscape," he said. "A fundamental credo of being green is that you cause minimal interference with the landscape. We should be farming less land, logging less forest and trawling less ocean - disturbing the landscape less and sparing land for nature. But all of these renewable sources of energy are incredibly invasive and aggressive with regard to nature. Renewables may be renewable, but they are not green," he added. The report, which appears in the International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology today, also criticises plans for widespread farming of biofuels. With current technology, Prof Ausubel estimates that one to two hectares of land would be needed to produce fuel for each of the world's 700m cars and other motor vehicles. "From an environmental point of view the biofuels business is a madness," he said. Prof Ausubel said that despite technical and political concerns, nuclear power plants still ranked as the most environmentally-friendly for large conurbations. "The good news about nuclear is that over the past 50 years all of the forms of waste storage seem to have worked." Power compared Dams Hydroelectric energy is the least efficient way of using land to produce power. One square metre on average produces 0.1 watts. Biofuels A generator burning biomass requires crops from 250,000 hectares to match the electricity output of a nuclear power station. Wind energy Wind farms generate around 1.2 watts for every square metre of land. Solar power Photovoltaic cells covering an area of 150,000 square kilometres would be needed to meet US electricity needs for a year. To power New York city would take 12,000 square kilometres, about the size of Connecticut. Useful links Energy Saving Trust Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 29 asahi.com: Crane for reactor damaged by quake - 07/26/2007 BY HIDEYUKI MIURA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN KASHIWAZAKI, Niigata Prefecture--Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has confirmed for the first time that damage from last week's earthquake extended to the interior of a reactor building at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant here. The problem will slow down the inspection and repair of the reactor itself, TEPCO officials said Tuesday. The damage was found in a crane attached to the ceiling above the No. 6 reactor. The crane is examined annually as part of a wider annual inspection. Because no irregularities were uncovered during the inspection prior to the July 16 earthquake, TEPCO officials concluded the temblor was the cause of the damage to the crane, which was positioned directly above the reactor when the magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck. The crane is used to lift up lids to the reactor pressure vessel and the primary containment vessel. The problem will likely further delay efforts to check for any damage from the earthquake to the reactor itself because the lids to the reactor vessel have to be uncovered for a visual inspection. TEPCO officials said they would also inspect the cranes installed in the other six reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture. Company officials said the crane is located at the center of a steel bar about 35 meters long. The machine's total weight is about 310 tons. A motor and wheel apparatus attached to both ends of the steel bar holding up the crane is used to move the crane along rails attached over the reactor building ceiling. The steel axles connecting the wheels to the motors were found to be damaged, crippling the mobility of the crane. While TEPCO officials were still uncertain of the specific cause of the damage, they said there was no danger of the crane falling on top of the reactor. That is because the crane is supported by rails at both ends of the crane bar. TEPCO officials are now considering a visual inspection of the No. 6 reactor by mid-August. They are contemplating opening the lid of the primary containment vessel and checking for damage to the pressure vessel, control rod mechanism and recirculation pump within the vessel. One problem, however, is the expected difficulties in repairing the crane which is located high above the reactor. That location will make it difficult to set up a sturdy foothold, especially with the possibility of aftershocks. Unless the crane can be repaired, other inspection and repair work at the reactor will also be delayed. That could pose problems for any team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday he welcomed the Japanese government's decision to allow IAEA inspectors to check the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant and indicated that inspectors could arrive within a few weeks. The crane in the reactor was considered to have B-class level of importance in the central government's three grade classification from A to C for importance of anti-quake design. The crane must have 1.8 times the ability of an ordinary structure to withstand seismic energy. Another B-class piece of equipment was damaged during an earthquake in 2000 when turbine piping was damaged at the No. 6 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.(IHT/Asahi: July 26,2007) * The Asahi Shimbun Company ***************************************************************** 30 asahi.com: Towels used to mop up nuke spill 07/26/2007 BY HIDEYUKI MIURA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN KASHIWAZAKI, Niigata Prefecture--When reporters entered the quake-damaged Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) nuclear reactor building here Wednesday, the scene was rather primitive. Workers wipe up radioactive water with paper towels Wednesday in the No. 6 reactor building at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture. At right is the spent nuclear fuel storage pool. At left, the reactor containment vessel is covered by a sheet. Bags filled with used paper towels are in the foreground.(TAKAHARU YAGI/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN) Armed with paper towels, workers wearing protective clothing were wiping up radioactive water that had overflowed from a spent nuclear fuel storage pool when the magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture on July 16. Radioactive water spilled from a pool inside the No. 6 reactor building at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. It then leaked into the Sea of Japan through drainage ditches. The overflow was in the operating floor area, where workers offload the nuclear fuel. The used paper towels--containing radioactive water--were placed in clear plastic bags and stacked nearby. More than 100 full bags were already piled there. Near the spent nuclear fuel pool was a second, outer concrete lid used to cover the reactor containment vessel, which is already sealed with another lid. The outer lid is 2 meters thick and weighs 700 tons. On the ceiling directly above the reactor containment vessel, a 310-ton crane dangled. It is used to maneuver the outer lid into place. The crane broke during the earthquake. When the temblor hit, the No. 6 reactor was being readied for inspections prior to its scheduled restart at the end of July. The jolt occurred just before the outer lid was to be lifted onto the reactor housing. The reactor had already been loaded with nuclear fuel. The reactor containment vessel is now covered with a temporary dust sheet. The crane measures 35 meters by 12 meters, and is 6 meters thick. Its rotating axis broke just as the crane was positioned above the container. TEPCO officials said repairs on the crane cannot begin as long as aftershocks continue. Another strong aftershock hit Wednesday at 6:52 a.m., just before reporters were to enter the building. That temblor registered an intensity of 4 in Nagaoka and 3 in Kashiwazaki. There is no way to confirm the condition of the sealed reactor, but TEPCO officials said they believe the fuel rods are undamaged. "The amount of radioactivity in the water circulating around the fuel rods is not at abnormal levels, our tests show," TEPCO said.(IHT/Asahi: July 26,2007) * The Asahi Shimbun Company ***************************************************************** 31 AFP: US-India nuclear agreement kept under wraps by P. Parameswaran Wed Jul 25, 2:37 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said Wednesday it was not prepared to divulge details of an operating agreement of a civilian nuclear deal with India, which has already been approved by the Indian cabinet. The agreement for the United States to provide nuclear technology and fuel to India was finalized by the two sides in extended talks in Washington last week pending approval by government leaders but remains under wraps. The US State Department said the Indian cabinet's approval of the implementation agreement was "positive" and indicated that the administration of President George W. Bush would consider the accord by the end of the week. "I think the Indian government, based on discussions we had last week, are taking some positive steps," department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, without elaborating. "I hope that in the not too distant future we'll have more detail on our discussions with the Indians from last week," he said. "The results of those discussions, at this point, I can't really offer anything else in terms of details but I hope we'll be able to do so in the next couple of days," McCormack said. The critical aspects of the deal are India's request to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, which some non-proliferation experts worry could be diverted to India's nuclear weapons program. 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. Despite several rounds of talks, India has stood fast against accepting any curbs on its reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. According to some unconfirmed reports, the United States has agreed in principle to an Indian proposal to reprocess spent fuel in a dedicated national facility under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. But Washington is reluctant to provide such reprocessing technology to India, which has been under three decades of US sanctions for nuclear tests. India is also not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 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. The implementation agreement, or "123 agreement," is intended to capture all operational aspects of the nuclear deal, which was agreed upon by Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two years ago to highlight strategic ties between the world's two biggest democracies. "The 123 agreement is an important element of moving forward with this deal but it is not the only element remaining," he said. McCormack said once the implementation agreement was adopted by the two governments, the Indians also needed to sign an additional IAEA protocol and win approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. "I think once we have all these elements in place, we will go to the Congress with the full spectrum of what we are doing," he said. "That said, we are consulting every step along the way here with Congress, which is an important part of the process," he explained. US lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled US Congress have vowed close scrutiny of the implementation agreement. The Congress already approved the nuclear deal in principle last year and a bill to that effect was signed into law by Bush. Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 32 AFP: US lawmakers question secretive US-India nuclear pact - Thursday July 26, 12:07 PM WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers have warned President George W. Bush of "inconsistencies" amid reports Washington has agreed in principle to allow India to reprocess spent nuclear fuel under a landmark deal. The warning came after US and Indian officials finalized last week the implementing agreement for Washington to provide nuclear technology and fuel to India under a deal agreed upon by Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two years ago to highlight ties between the world's two biggest democracies. Details of the so-called "123 agreement" has been kept under wraps but unconfirmed reports say the United States has agreed in principle to New Delhi's proposal to reprocess spent fuel in a dedicated national facility under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. But Washington reportedly is reluctant to provide such reprocessing technology to India, which has been under three decades of US sanctions for nuclear tests. Nor is India a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. US laws ban export of reprocessing technology as it can be used for military purposes but Washington has reportedly made exemptions for key Asian ally Japan, for example. The letter from 23 members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday warned: "Any inconsistencies between the so-called 123 agreement and US laws would put final Congressional approval of the deal in doubt. "If the 123 agreement has been intentionally negotiated to side-step or bypass the law and the will of Congress, final approval for this deal will be jeopardized," said Edward Markey, co-chairman of the House Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation. Based on details of the finalized implementing agreement that had been leaked, "three or four significant issues could be in conflict with US laws," Daryl Kimball, executive director of the US Arms Control Association, told AFP. They pertain to reprocessing and safeguards, he said. The Indian Cabinet approved Wednesday the controversial agreement. "All concerns of India have been reflected and have been adequately addressed," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after two cabinet committees both "approved the agreement." The US State Department indicated that the Bush administration would consider the accord by the end of the week. "I think the Indian government, based on discussions we had last week, are taking some positive steps," department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, without divulging details of the agreement. But he vowed that the United States was "not going to agree to anything that is not in the United States' national interest. "In terms of, quote, "needing agreements" we're certainly not going to do anything that we believe is harmful to either our national security or foreign policy interests," he said. The critical aspects of the deal are India's request to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, which Kimball said could be risky as not all Indian nuclear facilities would come under international safeguards. 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. 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. McCormack said once the implementation agreement was adopted by the two governments, the Indians also needed to sign an additional IAEA protocol and win approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. "I think once we have all these elements in place, we will go to the Congress with the full spectrum of what we are doing," he said. "That said, we are consulting every step along the way here with Congress, which is an important part of the process," he explained. The Congress already approved the nuclear deal in principle last year and a bill to that effect was signed into law by Bush. Copyright 2007 Yahoo! All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 33 IHT: Japan power official defends speed in alerting about radioactive water leak at nuke plant - International Herald Tribune The Associated Press Published: July 25, 2007 TOKYO: A senior Japanese power company official defended on Wednesday the speed with which the public was notified about damage at a quake-hit nuclear plant that resulted in a radioactive water leak. Meanwhile, the head of a government-appointed panel said later in the day that it may take at least one year to resume operations at the shuttered Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in northwestern Japan, according to a news report. Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, has come under fire for being slow to inform the public about damage at the plant, which has been shuttered since the July 16 magnitude-6.8 earthquake. In one incident, radioactive water sloshed out of a tank and was flushed out to sea. In another, radioactive material was vented into the air. Still, the damage raised concerns, prompting the government to order it closed indefinitely until its safety can be confirmed. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, TEPCO Chief Nuclear Officer Ichiro Takekuro said the company regretted the delay in reporting the damage and apologized again for the worries it engendered. But, regarding the water leak, Takekuro who is also the company's executive vice president said there were difficulties in relaying information at the plant the day the quake occurred, and noted that much time was required to find the spill and determine whether it was radioactive. "I believe the workers at the power plant made the maximum effort to get the information out given the timeframe they had to work with," said Takekuro, who served as the plant's site manager from 2001-2004. He said, however, that TEPCO also needs to review the process down the road to see how it can be improved to get information out in a more timely fashion to the local community. Visual inspections of the ailing power plant have been completed, and TEPCO now plans to bring in an expert-led team for a more detailed equipment inspection as well as evaluate its seismic safety, he said. The company also plans to conduct detailed studies of the nearby offshore fault line on which the quake occurred, he said. Plant repairs are not likely to begin before the arrival of investigators from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, who are expected to inspect the plant in the next few weeks, he added. "In those weeks, I don't think we'll be in any position to do repair work. We will probably be doing more detailed investigations of the current situation, or preparing for them," he said. Given that inspections are still under way, TEPCO has yet to estimate what the total cost of damage will be or how it will impact its bottom line, Takekuro added. Meanwhile, the nuclear engineering expert informally named chair of a government panel that will investigate the plant's leaks told reporters he expects at least one year will be needed for the plant to resume operations, Kyodo News agency said. Copyright 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 34 Salt Lake City Weekly: Where There's Smoke City Week - July 26, 2007 Are Utah fires spreading Cold War fallout all over again? by Ted McDonough As Utah’s largest ever wildfire scorched western Utah in July, radiation monitors outside the town of Milford began sounding alarms. Set up during the Cold War to alert residents to radiation escaping from bomb tests at the Nevada Test Site, the monitors showed readings seven times higher than normal during the fire, with some spikes of radioactivity higher than the instruments could record—at 40 times normal background radiation. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says the readings were nothing to worry about, probably the result of monitors capturing naturally occurring radon escaping from area soil. Skeptical nuclear watchdogs, however, fear the fires now raging through Utah could be spreading radioactivity leftover from Cold War bomb tests. NNSA’s explanation of the radiation readings is “an artful dodge,” says Steve Erickson, director of the Utah watchdog group Citizens Education Project. Erickson agrees the radiation threat from the Milford fire was likely minimal but says old fallout from the Nevada Test Site is a likely cause, and the government should be looking for it. The idea that fires—all fires—are to some extent radioactive, is nothing new, notes Dane Finerfrock, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control. For more than a decade, fire watchers have noticed elevated radiation readings, thought to be from natural radioactivity. The question is less whether there is radioactivity in fires, but whether it matters, says Kevin Rohrer, spokesman for the NNSA’s Nevada Site Office. The radiation levels at Milford, while elevated, were still well below readings that would cause concern, even for firefighters closest by, he says. But nuclear watchdogs say radiation detection instruments used for the Community Environmental Monitoring Program (CEMP) don’t allow NNSA to make such blanket statements of safety. Current monitors check in real time for gamma radiation, but not two other potentially dangerous radiation types. And the monitors can’t immediately say what is causing elevated readings. Downwinders Inc. and the Citizens Education Project are calling for a review of the monitoring program and an independent analysis of samples collected from Milford. The groups complain that determining the source of detected radiation takes too long to do any good in an emergency, since radiation filters must be sent to a lab for analysis. As City Weekly went to press, more than two weeks after the Milford monitor first measured elevated radiation, results of the Milford filter analysis had not been posted on the CEMP Website cemp.dri.edu. In fact, in the case of the Milford fire, the detection equipment in use at the time will likely never determine the radiation source. “We may not be able to say what it was,” says David Shafer, who oversees the CEMP monitoring program at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “It’s a disappointment. It’s more likely we can say what it wasn’t.” If natural radon was the cause, as government scientists theorize, it can’t be proven. The element doesn’t last very long and any evidence of it would have disappeared by the time the Milford filter reached the DRI lab. So far, DRI’s scientists can say there was no evidence on the filter of cesium-137, a manmade radioactive isotope that is a telltale sign of Nevada Test Site fallout. DRI did find potassium, uranium and several other radioactive isotopes that are naturally occurring in the area. Shafer says the institute is experimenting with advanced monitors he hopes to put into the field, including monitors that sniff for all radiation types and a monitor specifically for radon. Additionally, the institute hopes to perform controlled burn experiments to determine if radon is the cause of increased radiation readings associated with wildfire. Radiation monitors, once spread throughout the country, were scaled back after the United States stopped bomb testing in the early-1990s. But DRI has added additional monitors to the network in recent years in areas of population growth in southern Utah and northern Arizona. Downwinder activist Andrew Kishner thinks advanced monitors should be arrayed throughout the West, given emerging evidence that fires are spreading old nuclear fallout. The idea that Cold War fallout can be suspended again in the air during fires and travel far and wide isn’t just speculation, he notes. Canadian researchers showed as much during controlled burns last year. Looking for evidence of secret modern-day nuclear testing, the Canadians instead discovered radioactivity from old Cold War fallout redistributed by forest fire. The same thing was found during a large New Mexico wildfire in 2000. Originally, scientists at New Mexico’s Environment Department thought their radiation monitors during the Cerro Grande fire were picking up leaks from modern-day tests at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). But analysis of ash after the fire showed man-made radiation released by the Nevada Test Site during open-air bomb tests in the ’50s and ’60s. Plutonium, cesium, strontium and other man-made nuclear products had been stored in plants for decades, then left behind on the ground after the burn. The levels found were high enough to trigger health and cleanup warnings. It took from two to four years before contaminated ash had fully washed off the burnt landscape. As in the Milford fire, the New Mexico monitors initially registered only radiation from naturally occurring sources. It took looking at the ash to determine the scarier aftermath. Follow-up studies found smoke had carried old fallout radiation as far as Idaho, where it was deposited on the ground by rain. “Immediately after the fire, most of the radiation was naturally occurring,” says Dave Englert, environmental surveillance manager at the department’s LANL oversight bureau. “That diminished in 12 to 24 hours. What remained were isotopes from the atmospheric (NTS bomb) testing.” Englert says if New Mexico found Nevada Test Site material in ash, the ash from July’s Utah fires, closer to the test site, should be examined. The Milford Flats fire has been brought under control, but as City Weekly went to press, eight other large fires raged in the state, including three on the Nevada border. ***************************************************************** 35 The Herald: Two Nagasaki survivors are among protesters arrested outside Faslane Web Issue 2896 July 26 2007 LUCINDA CAMERON and SAM REEVES Four Japanese protesters were arrested yesterday as they blockaded a Trident nuclear base in protest at plans to renew the weapon system. The men, two of whom are atom bomb survivors, linked themselves together with bamboo sticks and sat in the road in front of Faslane base, near Helensburgh. A local woman who joined the protest was also arrested, police said. The Japanese protesters are part of a 12-strong group from Nagasaki, where more than 70,000 people died after an atomic bomb was dropped on the city at the end of the Second World War. They held a ceremony at the gates of the base, where they sprinkled water brought from the Peace Park in Nagasaki bomb's ground zero, and left origami cranes and other symbols of life and peace. Five Japanese women also staged a sit-down protest in the road, but were not arrested. The group hopes that the visit will remind politicians in Scotland and the rest of the UK about the dangers they see in renewing Trident. Shinya Moriguchi, 30, whose father survived the Nagasaki bomb, said: "My relatives survived the bomb and against this background I cannot be indifferent to nuclear weapons. The UK stands at the crossroads of which way to go and I felt we should not miss this good opportunity to persuade the UK to go down the route of nuclear disarmament." Moboru Tasaki, 63, who was one-year-old when the A-bomb hit, said: "Our people know and experienced nuclear weapons and we know they are terrible for all humanity. "We hope that the UK government will change its decision and will go for disarmament of nuclear weapons. "I hope that today's demonstration will contribute to nuclear disarmament." There were also several professors, scientists and teachers among the delegation. They took part in yesterday's protest as part of Faslane 365, a year-long peaceful blockade of the base which started last October. A Faslane 365 spokesman said: "This has been very powerful and special because of the number of bomb survivors here. "It is part of a bigger effort to disrupt this horrible place and pressurise for change and it is a necessary part of a very necessary change." Strathclyde Police said that the five people arrested will be reported to the procurator fiscal. Today the delegation will visit cherry trees planted as symbols of peace in Helensburgh. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Posted by: Colin B, Bearsden on 12:31am today Once again CND rely on foreign protestors and try to undermine our democracy and disrupt local people's lives. However with idiots like Sheriff Margaret Gimblett and the Local Fiscal and JPs encouraging them we should not be surprised - wonder what visa the protestors are on since last time I checked Japan was not in the EC Once again CND rely on foreign protestors and try to undermine our democracy and disrupt local people's lives. However with idiots like Sheriff Margaret Gimblett and the Local Fiscal and JPs encouraging them we should not be surprised - wonder what visa the protestors are on since last time I checked Japan was not in the EC Quote | Report this post Posted by: Hyper Space Person, Roon the coarner fae Venus on 1:44am today I have actually never experienced this disruption any of the random times I have passed, and the more people who somehow make their opinion based on experience known, regardless of their original source on The Planet, or the way they do so without causing any harm themselves, the better the World shall hopefully become as regards to these weapons all over the surface and beneath the seas of Planet Earth. Or at least POINT THEM AT THE ASTEROIDS JUST IN CASE I have actually never experienced this disruption any of the random times I have passed, and the more people who somehow make their opinion based on experience known, regardless of their original source on The Planet, or the way they do so without causing any harm themselves, the better the World shall hopefully become as regards to these weapons all over the surface and beneath the seas of Planet Earth. Or at least Copyright 2007 Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights ***************************************************************** 36 Bradenton.com: Tallevast residents sue for medical screening plan 07/25/2007 | By DONNA WRIGHT dwright@bradenton.com After worrying for years about how their health may have been affected by exposure to toxic dust and chemicals, Tallevast residents and former beryllium workers hope a class action suit will set up a medical screening program to give them answers. Longtime residents say that, at times, emissions from the plant were so heavy the dust looked like snow falling from the sky. Joe Bivona, a quality control engineer from 1981 to 1996, remembers thick layers of dust on everything in the plant. The vacuum system that was supposed to get rid of the dust was almost always broken, said Bivona. "They were always putting duct tape on the pipes," Bivona said. "When you were going through the plant, you could not only taste the dust but smell it." The class action suit asks the 12th Circuit Court to order Lockheed Martin Co. to set up a long-term medical screening program providing blood tests and diagnostic screenings for anyone who lived within two miles of the plant for a continuous period of six months or more. Any employees who worked for more than a month at the former Loral American Beryllium Co. plant would also be eligible. Attorneys Kent G. Whittemore, of St. Petersburg, and Ruben Honik and Stephan Matanovic, of the Philadelphia law firm of Golomb and Honik, filed the class action suit against Lockheed Martin Co. this week on behalf of Laura Ward and Wanda Washington, representing residents, and Paul J. O'Brien and his wife, Nancy, representing workers and their families. Whittemore could not be reached Tuesday and Matanovic declined comment. Gail Rymer, Lockheed spokeswoman, said the company has not yet been served with the complaint. Other companies named in the suit include WPI Sarasota Division Inc. and Wire Pro Inc., which until recently operated a cable manufacturing business out of the Tallevast plant and BECSD LLC, a New Jersey-based limited holding company and current owner of the plant. Beryllium is a lightweight metal that was used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons during the time Loral operated the plant from 1961 to 1996, when Lockheed acquired the facility in a corporate buyout of Loral. The dust created in machining beryllium is highly toxic and can cause a chronic lung disease called berylliosis, which can be fatal if not treated. Exposure to beryllium dust was widespread according to former workers and residents. The class action suit is a positive sign, said Bivona, who now suffers from multiple sclerosis he thinks might have been caused by his exposure to toxic degreasers used to clean the beryllium parts. Ward and Washington said they are reaching out to workers. "It has always been our intent to include the workers," said Ward. "Like us, they have been endangered by the negligent release and handling of deadly toxins at 1600 Tallevast Road." Terry Owen, the last president of the union at the beryllium plant, welcomed the class action. "This should have been expedited years ago when this problem first surfaced," Owen said. "I think anyone who has worked at the plant should join the suit," said Owen. "They need this ongoing medical program. Berylliosis can hide itself for 20 years plus before it surfaces." Even the former medical director of the Loral American plant thinks the medical surveillance program is a good idea. "If there is now a test available for berylliosis, I would certainly recommend it," said Dr. Wesley Peterson, of Sarasota, who retired in 1993. Peterson was in charge of giving beryllium workers their annual physicals, which included lung X-rays and breathing tests. "The dust and toxins affected everybody who set foot in the plant and from what I know about the contamination, the community is at risk as well," said Bivona. "I think the only way that anything is going to come of anything is if we stick together." Ward and Washington are among more than 300 Tallevast current and former residents who have filed other civil suits against Lockheed alleging property damage from an underground chemical spill now known to cover more than 200 acres. Past exposure to contaminated groundwater has been linked by state health officials to an increased risk of liver and kidney cancer as well as leukemia and lymphoma. ***************************************************************** 37 Pahrump Valley Times: County flicks off funding for park lights Jul. 25, 2007 By CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT PVT Some of the town's parks could be left in the dark for a while now that the Nye County commissioners have voted to rescind previously approved funding to upgrade and add lighting to Petrack and Honeysuckle parks. Funding to work on Blosser Park (which has nothing on it but a portable toilet at the moment) was also rescinded. Simkins Park is the only town facility that will have some light shed on it since the commissioners approved retaining $291,700 of funding for it. The plan for the brand-new park is to put in a soccer field as well as some baseball fields. The funding, a total of $750,000, would have come from left-over Payment Equal to Taxes money (which the county receives from the Department of Energy in lieu of taxes on Yucca Mountain) from last year. The commissioners had approved the funding for all the projects last month but at their meeting this week rescinded most of it as part of a revision to the PETT funds budgets. Commissioner Butch Borasky said that "the money's needed more desperately by the county in other areas." Borasky did not comment about specific areas to which the reallocated money might be directed. Furthermore, Borasky pointed out that there's already lighting at the parks. "I don't see the county just changing lighting on a whim," Borasky said. Pahrump Town Board Chairman Laurayne Murray, however, said that isn't the case. Murray, who was at the meeting, admitted that it seemed as though the commissioners were under the impression the town was just replacing the lighting. Actually, the $200,000 to fund lighting for Field C at Petrack Park is not a replacement project but an entirely new field that needs lighting. "It's a new project and a new field, and is there to meet the demand of the kids who want to play there," Murray said. The increasing demand on the parks by Pahrump's growing population, and consequently by youth sports organizations such as Little League and the American Youth Soccer Organization, is the main reason the town requested the PETT funds for the lighting. The town has only one park, Honeysuckle Park on Dandelion Street, with Little League-approved lighting. However, due to the high desert winds, the Honeysuckle lights are beginning to deteriorate, putting the park at risk of losing its approved status. Additional lighting, or improvements in existing lighting at the parks, would give youth organizations more time and places to host practices and sporting events. "We've had to turn parents away, and we've had to turn organizations away," Murray explained. "We need more lighting to facilitate more Little League parks." A comment was reportedly made at the meeting to the effect that the lights at Honeysuckle Park were only five years old and, as such, don't need to be replaced. According to Stacy Behnke, Valley Electric Association's public information officer, the lights at Honeysuckle Park were actually installed in 1992. Another reported comment made was that the town was allocated the funding last year but failed to use it. Murray said this was due in part to the town's difficulty in securing a bid for what, relatively speaking, many contractors would consider a small job. Additional funding for Petrack Park would have gone to upgrade the electrical facilities at the park because the facilities cannot accommodate the increasing demands of the Fall Festival and various other activities. The town did consider using impact fees to fund the lighting projects but later discovered they could not be used for that purpose. However, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel, or rather on the ball fields. The town secured a contract with WillDan Engineering Group Inc. to do preliminary engineering work for lighting projects at Simkins and Petrack Parks, including Field C behind the town office. Town Manager Dave Richards said that once the engineering work is done, the town can ask the county for a PETT fund allocation. In addition, Richards said the town also has several other options, including possibly using the parks room tax fund or the capital improvements fund. webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 38 Pahrump Valley Times: GOVERNOR CITES DISAGREEMENT OVER YUCCA PROJECT Jul. 25, 2007 STATE NUKE AGENCY Eastley invited in, then ushered out By MARK SMITH and MARK WAITE PVT Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley had barely agreed to respond to an invitation to submit her name for membership on the state Agency for Nuclear Projects before it was, in short order, accepted and then rejected. Gov. Jim Gibbons announced last week that the available place on the agency, which is supervised by the Nuclear Projects Commission, demands "a representative who shares the primary sentiment of Nevada's residents and my administration's views on the Yucca Mountain Project." In other words, someone who is opposed to it. Eastley has made no secret of her support for the project but pointed out Monday that she had never tried to force her way onto the agency, which advises the governor and legislature on developing state nuclear policies. Eastley said she was nudged toward applying for the position, reportedly to replace Vice Chairman Michon Mackedon, by a representative of Gibbons' own office. Eastley did not wish to identify the individual who suggested -- more than once, she said -- that she ought to submit her resume. She said the representative called her about a month ago and then "contacted me several times" in pursuing the matter. Eastley submitted her resume, was notified that it had been approved, and then, July 18, got a call from Carson City in which she was told her appointment would be canceled. According to Bob Laux, who directs the agency, Gibbons planned to rescind Eastley's appointment but she resigned instead. "They said, 'We didn't know you supported Yucca Mountain,'" Eastley said, "and I said, 'You never asked me.' I was asked to apply -- I didn't push my way in. "I was asked to apply several times. I was asked several times to apply for the opening, and I was asked to resign." Melissa Subhotin, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Gibbons has always appreciated Eastley's work for Nye County. "However," she added, "we did feel that at this time it would be prudent to put somebody in that position who shared the views of a majority of the state regarding Yucca Mountain." Whatever the governor's point of view, Eastley said it is her opinion that a diversity of views might have been worthwhile. Laux said that all members of the agency are opposed to the Yucca project. Subhotin said that "we do try to reflect the views of the community and their interests ... After we had several discussions about this, we felt this would be the most appropriate position." Eastley recalled that she had actually received her official certification as an appointee before she received the July 18 call through which she was asked to step back. Eastley said she is neither ashamed nor embarrassed in the aftermath. Gibbons' office indicated strongly that it wishes to have a Nye County representative on the agency. webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 39 ABC Perth: Uranium conference to be held in Fremantle Posted July 25, 2007 11:45:00 The Fremantle Anti-nuclear group has described the decision to hold the National Uranium Conference in Fremantle as a poke in the eye to the Premier Alan Carpenter. The two-day conference is being held at Fremantle Hotel and brings together about 400 industry representatives as well as federal politicians. State Government representatives were invited but declined the offer. It is the third year in a row the Australian Uranium Conference has been held in Fremantle and Greens Senate Candidate and anti-nuclear group member Scott Ludlam says it's an antagonistic move. "It's a sign of the arrogance of the industry that they're holding their nuclear industry conference in a nuclear free city which is Fremantle in a state where it's illegal to mine uranium or build nuclear power stations," he said. ***************************************************************** 40 AU: ABC News: WA uranium ban symbolic - (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Posted July 26, 2007 09:27:00 A ban on uranium mining by WA Premier Alan Carpenter could be over-ridden by the Federal Government. (ABC) A constitutional law expert from Curtin University says the Federal Government can legally override a State Government ban on uranium mining. Premier Alan Carpenter yesterday reaffirmed his opposition to uranium mining in Western Australia following claims by Federal Labor Senator Chris Evans the state ban is unsustainable. Greg Craven says even if the State Government passed legislation to stop uranium mining in W-A, the Federal Government could use its constitutional powers to overturn any state ban. Professor Craven says outlawing uranium mining in W-A would be nothing more than symbolic. "I think a State Premier might well pass that legislation, but at the back of his mind he would always know that if push came to shove, and you had an absolutely determined and capable Commonwealth Government that legislation would ultimately not prevail, he said. © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 41 ABC News: Aussie uranium 'won't be used for weapons' in India - (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Updated July 26, 2007 12:25:00 Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane has guaranteed that any uranium sold to India would not be used in the production of weapons. Cabinet is expected to consider a submission within weeks to let India buy Australian uranium, but the Federal Opposition is worried about the move because India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But Mr Macfarlane says there would be strict checks on the use of the uranium. "There would be only one way we would sell uranium to India and that would be on the basis that it was only used for the generation of electricity," he said. "It would be under an inspection regime, and would be done in a way to ensure that while the Indians were able to generate electricity and thus lower their greenhouse gas emissions, that it was done in a way that the uranium was only used to generate electricity." Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has also told Southern Cross radio the Government will look at the issue very carefully before changing its policy. "I would want to know that there are very strict safeguards in place before we sold to any country which was outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty," he said. But Greenpeace says Australia will contribute to regional instability if it sells uranium to India. Greenpeace spokesman Steve Shallhorn says exporting Australian uranium for energy generation would let India use its own domestic uranium for its illegal weapons program. "Encouraging other countries to have nuclear weapons in order to make a few bucks is really a very bad idea," he said. "It is short sighted and it's something that will come back and bite us in the future. "The border situation between India and Pakistan is unstable at best. Both countries have nuclear weapons." Tags: nuclear-issues, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia, india © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 42 Gallup Independent: Texans: Say no to uranium mining July 24, 2007: By Zsombor Peter Staff Writer CHURCH ROCK ? In the late 1980s, representatives of Uranium Resources Inc. came to the small Texas town of Kingsville with promises of jobs and royalties, and a pledge to leave their well water as clean as they found it. Scores of landowners signed their acres over, and URI started mining in 1988. Some say the company has done everything it said it would. Others say it's broken every pledge and promise it made. Two decades on, URI representatives are making the same promises in Church Rock and Crownpoint. A small band of Texans paid a personal visit to the area last week to urge locals not to believe them. "Don't sign on, don't lease," said Fred Bell, a 1951 graduate of Gallup High School who now lives seven miles south of Kingsville. "They'll get all they can out of you and then they're gone." Bell and five other members of STOP South Texas Opposes Pollution, a grassroots group trying to bring URI's Texas operations to an end traveled to Gallup on their own dime for three days of site visits, community meetings and radio spots. The damage done, they say their land will never be the same. But they hope their stories will save people here from "making the same mistake." Things have changed since the 1980s, said Richard van Horn, HRI's vice president of operations. HRI's license requires the company to prove it can restore a test mine site in Church Rock before mining in Crownpoint. "If we can't do it safely," he said, "we won't do it at all." The Texans aren't convinced, though. "We need to spread the message," said Teo Saens, who now regrets the five-year lease he signed with URI in the 1990s. "You're at the point where we were in'88. You have time to stop them." Gathering On a sunny Thursday morning, they had all gathered on Teddy Nez's front lawn 15 miles north of Church Rock. A pair of long-abandoned uranium ore piles sit quietly a few hundred yards off in either direction, reminders of the mining boom that swept through the area before uranium prices plummeted in the early 1980s. Despite a recent $2.5 million cleanup by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, radium levels around Nez's home remain dangerously high. They've rendered the cedar, sage and pion he used to treat his colon cancer, diagnosed 1 1/2 years ago, useless. A few miles to the south, URI's New Mexico subsidiary, Hydro Resources Inc., wants to start mining again. Tempted by the area's prodigious uranium reserves, HRI began buying up land around Church Rock and Crownpoint in the 1980s. Despite a green light from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a decade of appeals from local opponents have kept HRI from mining them. Eager to win the locals over, the company talks of the hundreds of jobs the mines will create and the million in royalties it will earn for allottees. But above all else, it says their water will stay clean. Saens has heard it all before. "The promises have all been the same," he said. "They're going to take the uranium and leave (the water) crystal clear." But according to Saens and others, it hasn't quite worked out that way. Suelda Ortega, who also made the trip from Texas, said uranium levels in her three wells were just barely above government drinking standards before URI started mining her land. Now, she said, they're 20 times above drinking standards. George Rice, a groundwater hydrologist working for STOP, says water in some parts of the mine site are 400 times above what they were before URI started. Water contamination Company officials say the rising levels have nothing to do with their mining, that the water is being contaminated by the natural release of uranium from the surrounding rock. But that uranium has been lodged to those rocks for centuries. The company's opponents refuse to believe that so much of it would leave the rock on its own in two relatively short decades. Kleberg County has even threatened to sue URI over an alleged breach of contract. In 2004, URI agreed to restore any clean wells in the two areas it already mined before starting to mine a third. It started mining the new site in January even though one well in the other two remains contaminated. The company says it's found new data that proves the well was contaminated to begin with. Opponents find that suspiciously convenient. As for jobs, the Kingsville Economic Development Council's Richard Messbarger says URI hired every drilling rig it could find, employing up to 200 people at a time. But except for "a token few," Saens said, the company hired most of them from outside the area. Van Horn said he would probably be able to fill more than three quarters of the 400 or so jobs he'd need if mining ever starts up again here locally. But like STOP in Texas, ENDAUM the Eastern Navajo Din Against Uranium Mining is urging locals not to buy in. "We have a lot of things in common with them," ENDAUM President Mitchell Capitan said of his Texas counterparts. ENDAUM's appeals to the NRC and more recently the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have stymied HRI's efforts but field to bring them to a halt. It's made even less progress with the 400 allottees sitting on HRI's Unit 1 site just outside of Crownpoint. While HRI bought its other three sites in the area from private companies, it needs each of the allottees on Unit 1 to sign a lease. Capitan had hopes that the Texans would have a chance to share their stories with those allottees before leaving. But during a Thursday afternoon luncheon organized for the group at Crownpoint's St. Paul Parish Hall, he said, they ended up preaching to a roomful of converts. He's glad at least that the group managed to snag a few hours of air time on KTNN and KYVA. But it's an uphill battle for ENDAUM. Benjamin House, president of the Eastern Navajo Allottees Association, and a paid mining advocate for HRI, says most of the 400 allottees signed leases with the company in the early 1990s, although the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has yet to approve them. Although Bell, Saens and the others left Saturday, Capitan said the two groups would continue to collaborate. ENDAUM, he said, was already planning an August trip to Kingsville to see URI's Texas operations for itself. Tuesday July 24, 2007 Selected Stories: Gallup Independent feedback on this website and the questions or comments to gallpind@cia-g.com ***************************************************************** 43 The Hindu: No spillage of yellow cake after accident Thursday, Jul 26, 2007 Special Correspondent CHENNAI: A trailer transporting a container with 62 drums of radioactive yellow cake from Jaduguda in Jharkhand to the Nuclear Fuel Complex at Hyderabad overturned at Narsannapeta in Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday morning. According to S.K. Malhotra, Head, Environment and Public Awareness Division, Department of Atomic Energy, there was no spillage. DAE officials found no change in the background radiation-levels, Mr. Malhotra said. Jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force were escorting the trailer. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, which monitors safety in nuclear installations, was informed about the incident. Teams of DAE officials from Jaduguda, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad went to the accident site on National Highway 5 and were making arrangements to put the container in another trailer and ensure its journey to Hyderabad. Police officials at Narsannapeta said the trailer overturned and fell into the fields when it swerved to avoid a bus overtaking it on the wrong side. Natural uranium ore mined in different places in Jharkhand is processed into magnesium diuranate, popularly known as yellow-cake, at a mill at Jaduguda. This yellow-cake, which is in a thick slurry form, is transported in drums kept in a container to the Nuclear Fuel Complex at Hyderabad, where it is converted into fuel rods. The rods power the nuclear reactors. Copyright 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 44 ReviewJournal.com: Hauling plans sought Jul. 24, 2007 DOE seeks proposals to ship nuclear waste By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL The Department of Energy played a card in its strategy to haul highly radioactive waste across the nation to Yucca Mountain with a Federal Register notice Monday seeking comments on public safety training and planning grants for states and American Indian tribes. The notice offers planning grants of up to $200,000 and training grants of up to $100,000 annually to affected states and tribes. Both are subject to congressional appropriations. Highly radioactive defense wastes and spent nuclear fuel from commercial power reactors are stored at 121 locations in 39 states. That means all but a handful of the contiguous 48 states as well as tribes in them could be affected by DOE's plans to ship nuclear waste by trucks and trains to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Eligible states and tribes could receive financial assistance up to four years before waste shipments begin and each year after they begin. The notice came five years to the day after President Bush signed legislation overriding then-Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the Yucca Mountain Project. Bob Loux, executive director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects and a longtime critic of the federal government's Yucca Mountain effort, said he can't envision any of the waste being transported until 2017 at the earliest. "I don't think this means anything other than them showing they've got progress going. It's 12 years away and they haven't got a license application filed yet," Loux said. Gary Lanthrum, director of DOE's logistics management office for the project, said, in a written statement, "Preparations for the safe transportation of waste are an important step towards opening Yucca Mountain as the nation's first permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. "DOE has a long history of safely shipping transuranic and other wastes for disposal, and this training will build on these procedures to prepare safety officials in these jurisdictions," Lanthrum said. On Friday, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who is running for president, called for hearings on government plans to push the Yucca Mountain Project forward without a radiation safety standard from the Environmental Protection Agency. Leave Your Comment 0 Reader Comments Terms & Conditions The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The reviewjournal.com does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please notify the web editor. Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 48 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 45 ReviewJournal.com: EDITORIAL: A Yucca counteroffer Opinion - Jul. 25, 2007 When one boondoggle begets another, think creatively Ranking the worst government boondoggles in modern American history is a daunting task. So many public-sector failures. So much taxpayer money wasted. Certainly, federal agriculture policy has a huge lead on the field, with hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies buying the citizenry nothing but more expensive food. Untold billions of dollars have been poured into a national missile defense system despite the fact that plenty of scientists have doubts it could ever work as intended. Then there's the upstart filly in the horse race, the ethanol industry, fueled by protectionist tariffs, arbitrary congressional mandates and, yes, those handouts to farmers. But near the front of the pack, galloping stride for stride with Boston's bungled "Big Dig" underground freeway system, is the Yucca Mountain Project. Over the past two decades, about $8 billion has been poured into the planned high-level nuclear waste repository. Bogus scientific modeling, ever-shifting environmental standards and a whole lot of digging about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas haven't gotten the Department of Energy much closer to opening the facility. In a best-case scenario, the repository might be able to begin accepting waste shipments a decade from now, assuming federal regulators ever give revised safeguards the green light. And no one has a handle on just how the nuclear energy industry will move thousands of tons of spent fuel to Southern Nevada. The idea with the most traction at this point is a dedicated rail line from Caliente through rural Nevada. But a draft document that outlines railroad cost estimates reveals the proposed 319-mile track is a boondoggle in its own right. The report, which was circulated among state and local officials last week, says the rail line will likely cost nearly $3.2 billion -- $10 million per mile. Bob Halstead, a transportation consultant for the state, says that guess is probably low. Costs will continue to grow the longer groundbreaking is delayed. Work probably won't begin on the line before 2010, assuming Congress agrees to fund it. But why would lawmakers support such an expense when the future of the repository itself is in doubt? Building a dedicated, $3 billion rail line for a dying project makes Alaska's proposed "Bridge to Nowhere" seem useful -- and a bargain to boot. Mr. Halstead notes that such pressures could prompt the Department of Energy to abandon the rail project and reconsider shipping waste by truck. Which would put the state in an interesting position. Nevadans have long opposed the shipment of nuclear waste from out-of-state commercial reactors. And only a minority of Nevadans have expressed a desire to negotiate with the nuclear energy industry and the federal government for benefits in exchange for dropping their opposition. Recall that last year, the Nuclear Energy Institute proposed paying the state $25 million per year to accept waste shipments, then $50 million per year once the first shipment arrived. It was an insulting first offer -- one that made Nevada even less willing to bargain. But the Las Vegas Valley's highways need billions of dollars worth of improvements over the next decade, and the state has no way to pay for them. If the state is ever going to make a counteroffer to the Nuclear Energy Institute and the Department of Energy, this should be it: Scrap the rail line and give Nevada $4 billion to upgrade existing highways and build new ones. That way, when the Yucca Mountain site finally closes, filled with nothing but cobwebs, we'd have something to show for it beyond an empty tunnel in the side of a ridge. Leave Your Comment 1 Reader Comments Terms & Conditions The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The reviewjournal.com does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please notify the web editor. Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 48 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 46 Herald Sun: Premiers reject ALP uranium mines stance | NEWS.com.au | Article from: AAP By Maria Hawthorne, Andrea Hayward and Jessica Marszalek July 25, 2007 07:51pm TWO state Labor premiers have reacted angrily to a federal opposition frontbencher's suggestion that they will drop their bans on uranium mining. Federal Labor resources spokesman Chris Evans told a conference in Perth that Queensland and Western Australia's position on uranium mining was illogical and would eventually be scrapped. Federal Labor dumped its decades-old ban on new uranium mines at its national conference last April, but gave state governments the right to maintain their bans. Queensland and WA have made it clear they do not intend to change their policies. Senator Evans said federal Labor had no plans to intervene, as it had "neither the power nor the will to do so". But he said he believed the policies would eventually change. "I think it unlikely in the short term, but much more likely than it was prior to federal Labor's national conference decision in April," Senator Evans told the Australian Uranium Conference. "The question state governments must now confront is why they should continue to ban uranium mining in their state when there is no federal impediment to mining and South Australia and the Northern Territory reap the benefits of their development of their uranium reserves. "The logic of state bans on uranium mining is unsustainable and the bans will eventually be removed." Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said if that was what Senator Evans believed, he should have put his case at national conference instead of allowing the states to keep their bans. "If that is his view, why didn't he argue at the national conference that it (the decision) should be binding on the states?" Mr Beattie said. WA Premier Alan Carpenter said he had no plans to change his state's policy. "I don't know how many times I will have to repeat this – whilst I am the premier of Western Australia there will not be uranium mining in this state," he said. "There are lots of commercial interests wanting to see uranium mining begin in Western Australia because they know it will lead to enormous pressure for us to become a nuclear waste dump – that's not going to happen." Senator Evans said he understood that industry was critical of the state policies but urged delegates to the conference to consider the states' positions. "For premiers Beattie or Carpenter to allow uranium mining would be a reversal of commitments made to their electorates," Senator Evans said. "Both the state ALP policy and the electoral undertaking of the respective state governments would have to change before mining proceeds in either state." The respective economic conditions in each state also had to be considered, he said. "While South Australia has been desperate for economic development opportunities, Queensland and WA have been booming," Senator Evans said. "Despite the market opportunities for uranium miners with proven resources being very good, the WA and Queensland governments are under no significant economic or political pressure to alter their position. "Developments in community attitudes will obviously have a major impact on future developments." He pointed out that WA was the only state to elect a Nuclear Disarmament Party candidate to the Senate in 1987. Share this article What is this? Herald and Weekly Times. All times AEST (GMT + 10). ***************************************************************** 47 ReviewJournal.com: State officials renew charge against DOE Jul. 25, 2007 STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials have renewed a charge that the Department of Energy plans to withhold key Yucca Mountain documents from the state's scrutiny. Lawyers for the state filed a complaint Monday at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is part of a simmering dispute over how much technical information about the proposed nuclear waste repository DOE is required to make public and when. The Energy Department has posted 3.4 million documents to a public Internet database for Yucca Mountain. But Nevada officials said the department is legally required to post "all documentary material" before it files a repository license application. State lawyers said in the complaint that DOE has announced it does not plan to post its major repository performance assessment, nor the modeling reports that are its building blocks. The complaint was sent to a three-person administrative law panel at the NRC. The panel is refereeing early fights leading up to DOE's filing of a license application due next summer. DOE officials have said the information would be properly made available when the license is submitted. The Energy Department will file a formal response to the state's charge by August 3, a spokesman said. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 48 Exec Digital: DOE examines GTCC waste disposal Source:ExecDigital July News Date:25/07/2007 12:22:19 DOE has announced it will evaluate disposal options for GTCC LLW generated from the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, medical activities and nuclear research. DOE delivered to the Federal Register this week a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which will evaluate how and where to safely dispose of Greater than Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste (LLW) that is currently stored at commercial nuclear power plants and other generator sites across the country. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires DOE to report to Congress on its evaluation of safe disposal options for this commercial waste. The NOI includes a list of the preliminary disposal options for analysis in the EIS, describes the inventory of waste to be analyzed, identifies dates and locations of public meetings, and invites public comments on the proposed scope of the EIS. GTCC waste is commercial LLW generated from activities conducted by Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensees and stored at sites where it is generated throughout the United States. DOE estimates the total stored and projected quantity nationwide of the GTCC LLW to be 2,600 cubic meters. GTCC LLW is grouped into three general waste types: (1) activated metals, which come from the maintenance and decommissioning of nuclear power plants; (2) radioactive sealed sources that are no longer used, including irradiation of food and medical purposes; and (3) miscellaneous waste, such as contaminated equipment from industrial research and development. In addition to the GTCC LLW, DOE intends to include in the EIS evaluation certain LLW and transuranic waste that is generated from DOE activities, which may not have an identified disposal path, and has characteristics similar to GTCC LLW. This DOE waste is estimated to be 3,000 cubic meters. Regulations require that GTCC waste be disposed of in a geologic repository unless alternate proposals for its safe disposal in a NRC licensed facility are approved by the NRC. DOE will evaluate a range of disposal alternatives in preparing the EIS to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. In addition, DOE will submit a Report to Congress after the final EIS is complete and await Congressional action before making a decision on the disposal alternative or alternatives to be implemented by DOE as required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The EIS will evaluate a range of disposal methods and locations that include: (1) geologic disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and the proposed Yucca Mountain Repository; (2) enhanced near-surface disposal at the Hanford Site, Idaho National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nevada Test Site, Oak Ridge Reservation, Savannah River Site, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant vicinity, or a generic commercial location; and (3) intermediate depth borehole disposal at the same locations identified in (2). The EIS will consider these alternatives individually and in combination. DOE invites public review and comment on the proposed scope of the EIS and other information presented in the NOI during a 60-day comment period, which begins on Monday, July 23, 2007. Comments are on September 21, 2007. All comments received during the public scoping period will be considered in preparing the GTCC EIS. This website is published by White Digital Media Ltd / Inc www.whitedm.com UK Offices | US Offices (c) White Digital Media 2007 ***************************************************************** 49 UPI: Australia may sell uranium to India United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: July 25, 2007 at 3:49 PM CANBERRA, Australia, July 25 (UPI) -- The Australian government plans to sell uranium to India, which hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, The Australian reported Wednesday. While Australian Prime Minister John Howard supported the move, the Labor Party was expected to oppose it. Howard said he believes that will cause problems for the opposition since the uranium industry would benefit from the sales, the newspaper said. Howard also reportedly argued that Australian voters cannot understand why the country sells uranium to China and not to India. Deciding against uranium sales to India would also put Australia at odds with U.S. policy. U.S. President George Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh negotiated an arrangement that allows India to be considered a nuclear power and puts its nuclear plants under the inspection of the International Atomic Energy Agency. India plans a massive expansion of its nuclear power program. About 4 percent of the country's energy comes from its 14 nuclear plants. Copyright 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated ***************************************************************** 50 Murfreesboro Post: Landfill expert questioned By MICHELLE WILLARD – July 25, 2007 Citizens questioned the hiring of an independent expert Tuesday to study the radioactive waste program at Middle Point Landfill. Municipal Solid Waste Advisory Committee met again Tuesday in Nashville and hired health physicist Lisa Stetar to conduct a study of the Bulk Survey for Release program at Middle Point. Stetar has worked analyzing the risk of radiation exposure to the public on a variety for federal and state programs since 1990, according to her resume.

She also worked for Tennessee Department of Energy and Conservation reviewing and approving low-level radioactive waste processors in the late 1980’s, prior to the inception of the BSFR program. Kathleen Ferris, member of Citizens to End Nuclear Dumping in Tennessee (ENDIT), questioned Stetar’s indepence due to her past affliations with TDEC. 

“This is our independent consultant. This is incestuous,” Ferris said. Stetar warned the advisory committee the amount of money that is allocated for her services will only last about 10 days.

 Committee Member J. H. Graham voiced concern that many Rutherford County residents do not trust TDEC information and the independent consultant should not be limited by finances. The board did decide to question directly landfill managers, TDEC employees and waste processors at the next scheduled meeting. 

The BSFR program came under scrutiny after a May report of radioactive waste disposal in commercial landfills across Tennessee. The General Assembly passed legislation in June that placed a 60-day moratorium on the program and requested a study of its impact and safety.

 The Municipal Solid Waste Advisory Committee was charged with conducting the study and making recommendations on the future of the program.

The Municipal Solid Waste Advisory Committee meets again Aug. 16 to respond to issues and concerns raised by the public, as well as question officials involved in the program. The deadline for submission of written comments is Aug. 1. 

Comments should be sent to Joyce Dunlap at joyce.dunlap@state.tn.us or mailed to Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Solid Waste Management,
 8th Floor, L&C Tower, 401 Church St., Nashville, TN 37243-1535.

 Printer-friendly format ====================================================================== Member Opinions: By: k on 7/25/07 The latest news is that the liner at the dump has a 'tear' and is not adequately holding back the radioactive materials from seeping into the adjacent water supply to Ruth. County. We will pay for this! By: diddlede on 7/25/07 Why don't the City of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County get off their duff and do something serious about Middle Point Landfill. Why does someone not do a study as to the statistics regarding cancer and related illnesses around Rutherford County. I, myself, went on the internet and found a site that listed Rutherford County higher in cancer than surrounding area. Wish I could remember where I found it so that I could print it here. It was a comparsion of higher and lower cancer rates. Let's get this bomb out of our county. By: cmac on 7/25/07 We must consider a conflict of interest issue regarding Ms. Stetar's job of "reviewing and approving" low-level radioactive processors in the late 1980's, and considering that she has worked with both federal and state programs dealing with radiation and public health since 1990. Federal and state employees are not exactly known for objective analysis and conclusions of environmental issues when it comes to the public's best interests. The question is why should anyone trust either federal or state government, or their appointed representatives to conduct studies of the BFI dump at Walterhill. The citizens of Rutherford County were warned years ago that BFI was not to be trusted to be the "good neighbor". Of course, there was nothing to be done about their operation since our county commissioners had approved landfill zoning at Walterhill. We now learn that Tennessee government is not to be trusted in matters of honesty regarding environment and health to citizens living within the pollution zones of landfills. The tons of radioactive waste dumped at Walterhill was a well kept secret. Logic dictates that if radioactive materials have been detected in the Stone's River below the landfill they must have a source. The question is what is the source? The logical answer seems to be a leak in the landfill's lining. If the landfill is leaking, which we were told it would not, then, there is no telling what other pollution is flowing down our only river. I must say, I now thoroughly enjoy filling my glass with drinking water connected to the tap from the Stone's River intake below the Browning Ferris Industries radioactive mountain of garbage trucked from across the nation. But, I try to remember that our local and state government officials assure us that it is "safe" according to their investigation. Cheers. By: fenton on 7/25/07 Question: How much 'low level' radioactive material will it take to become a high level radioactive site? I feel that the voices of our citizens are not being listened to, or probably just being ignored by our local 'leaders.' As a Boro native it sickens me to witness the selling out of our beautiful piece of the earth for a few meaningless dollars. Our county has become the toilet tissue for all the other states who have the spine to keep this kind of operation out of their own cities. Come on fellow Boroans we need to take action so we'll be heard again. STOP DUMPING RADIATION ON US! As a matter of fact, CLOSE MIDDLEPOINT! 615-869-0800 | online@murfreesboropost.com | 630 Broadmore Blvd. Suite 120, P.O. 10008, Murfreesboro, TN 37129 ***************************************************************** 51 Scotsman.com: Dounreay told to clean up 'while limiting costs' JOHN ROSS () DOUNREAY'S operator has been told it should clean up radioactive particles both onshore and offshore, but keep the costs down at the same time. At present the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) recovers the so-called hotspots from beaches near the Caithness nuclear plant but monitors those offshore without removing them. Groups consulted on the issue say this must change. The particles have been a recurring problem for Dounreay since 1983 and already £10 million has been spent trying to find a solution. The recent consultation will feed into research and a draft best practicable environmental option (BEPO) will be made public in September. Consultants Entec took the views of eight groups, including local people, staff and contractors and national bodies. They also held workshops and exhibitions and issued a questionnaire. Opinions differed on the risks to the public. Overall, environmental criteria for tackling the particles were given the highest rating, followed by social and economic issues. Among locals, social and economic issues were seen as more important, reflecting concerns about the effects on quality of life and tourism. Local groups also said health and safety concerns over the particles were least important: "These stakeholders are potentially some of the most informed regarding the particles issue and its implications", the report said. One clear message was that doing nothing was not an option. Recovery of onshore and offshore particles, or removing all onshore particles and detectable individual offshore particles were the most favoured options. The report said the UKAEA should recognise that "many stakeholders, regardless of their view on the level of risk presented by particles, consider that monitoring without recovery offshore is not acceptable". But it added: "Stakeholders asserted that spending over a certain level would not be acceptable and that expenditure should be proportionate to benefits." Dredging the seabed, or restricting access to beaches, were not supported. UKAEA said: "We will use the consistent feedback from the workshops and questionnaires to arrive at a suitable way forward to formulate a long-term strategy that is both environmentally and publicly acceptable." Related topic * Dounreay http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=566 Last updated: 25-Jul-07 00:10 BST 2007 Scotsman.com | contact | terms & conditions ***************************************************************** 52 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear waste is hardly a worry when the climate change threat is so urgent Atomic power is crucial in the fight against global warming. When we need to deal with the leftovers, we'll have the technology Jim Al-Khalili Thursday July 26, 2007 With all things wizardly being topical, what better time to examine one of the practical skills that every self respecting wizard should master: alchemy? But this near-magical ability to turn base metals into gold is not confined to fiction. The quest for the so-called philosopher's stone that has the power to transmute one substance into another has been the obsession of many great thinkers throughout history. The wealth and power that would come to anyone who mastered alchemy seduced many great scientists and philosophers, including Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle and John Locke. All tried to change one element into another, and all failed. Then in 1919, the secret of alchemy was finally revealed in the physics department at Manchester University. The world's first successful alchemist was the New Zealand scientist and Nobel prize winner Ernest Rutherford, and his discovery was almost accidental. It began when one of his students noticed that when radioactive materials such as radium were placed in a sealed box of air, small amounts of hydrogen, which doesn't exist in ordinary air, began to mysteriously appear. Rutherford realised that in the presence of the powerful radioactive rays, nitrogen, which makes up more than three-quarters of the air we breathe, turns into two other gases - hydrogen and oxygen. The alpha particles being produced by the radium were embedding themselves within the nuclei of nitrogen atoms while knocking out single protons. What remained was an oxygen nucleus, while the protons themselves were actually nuclei of hydrogen. All that is needed then is for these nuclei to accumulate the requisite number of electrons and they become atoms of the respective gases. Today, changing one element into another through such nuclear reactions is routine. What is exciting, and yet not widely known, is that such subatomic alchemy might end up playing a vital part in the way we produce clean energy in the future. A loose interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics is that "there is no such thing as a free lunch". And so it is with electrical energy production. If you burn fossil fuels, you generate CO2; if you build dams, you destroy the ecology of entire valleys. Nuclear power is no exception. If you carry out controlled fission in a nuclear power station, you get long-lived radioactive waste, and that poses a long-term hazard to the environment unless it is dealt with properly. This has justifiably caused concern among many who would otherwise welcome nuclear power as a source of clean, carbon-free energy. The favoured option is to store the treated and vitrified waste in deep geological repositories. Understandably, people don't want this in their backyard, not least because material such as plutonium remains radioactive for tens of thousands of years. In a democracy, in the throes of deciding its future energy policy, such concerns are a serious issue. I find this a very strange concern: here we are trying to figure out how to avert the disaster of climate change now, and yet the long-term problem of nuclear waste still worries us. Human civilisation started less than 10,000 years ago, so to worry whether we'll be technologically advanced enough to deal with this buried waste thousands of years in the future, assuming we survive climate change, is utterly irrational. And, what if there was a way to incinerate the nuclear waste, destroying nearly all that plutonium and dramatically reducing the need for long-term storage? One such strategy is known as accelerator-driven transmutation. The basic idea is to place the radioactive material in a machine and smash it up into much more stable products, with shorter half-lives using a beam of high-energy subatomic particles. The waste would still need to be stored, but would be much less hazardous. At the same time, the process of transmutation would eliminate other biologically toxic products that exist in "normal" nuclear waste. The real beauty of the process is that it could generate more energy than is pumped in. The heat generated by splitting the waste nuclei can be used to generate electricity, part of which is used to run the accelerator and the rest fed into the national grid. The failsafe mechanism is that when the beam is turned off, the reaction stops. This type of plant is known as an "energy amplifier" and the idea has been around since the 1990s. So how feasible is this ability to transmute our nuclear waste? More important, why is no one talking about it? After all, the nuclear waste problem is seen as the major obstacle stopping many people from embracing nuclear power as one of the key ingredients in carbon-free energy generation. It is a source of deep concern that so many people still believe we can slash our reliance on coal and gas solely through renewable sources, such as wind and solar, along with energy conservation in buildings. These are all vital, but if we are going to avert the disasters of climate change while enjoying the standard of living that most in the west would be unwilling to give up, we are going to have to continue our reliance on nuclear energy. If transmutation could be made to work, it would go a long way towards helping the world come to terms with it. Beyond this timescale, we are now finally and genuinely optimistic that the ultimate energy source will come online: nuclear fusion. But that's another story. France has a well-funded programme of research looking into transmutation. There are also initiatives in the US, Russia, Switzerland, Italy and Japan, which the UK government continues to "monitor". The reason no one has perfected the technology yet is that while in theory it should work, we still do not know exactly what the final transmutation products will be, and in what proportions. The scientific community has to understand the science involved and the technology needed, its practicalities and potential impacts. This takes years. The US and Europe have produced roadmaps of timescales of 20 to 35 years. Unfortunately, the nuclear industry does not see transmutation as economically viable and the onus is therefore on us to urge governments to act. Many experts argue that while transmutation is a feasible future technology, there are several other options available too. The most widely touted is to use what is a called a fast-breeder reactor that would re-use the nuclear fuel over and over again until all the plutonium is burned up. Another option many nations are looking into is to use thorium as the basic nuclear fuel. It is more abundant in nature than uranium, and much less radioactive material is produced compared with uranium fuel cycles. With all these possible options for coping with nuclear waste it is disappointing that what little public debate there has been in the UK seems to have been aimed at answering the question of "should we" rather than the technological question of "could we". The answer to the latter question is only likely to be found in a multidisciplinary effort involving scientists from a wide range of fields. Then the philosopher's stone will be within our grasp once more. Jim Al-Khalili is professor of physics and professor of the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey. He is this year's recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday prize for science communication. His TV series Atom starts tonight on BBC4 j.al-khalili@surrey.ac.ukk Useful links British Energy Department of Trade and Industry British Nuclear Fuels Ltd Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Greenpeace Come Clean WMD awareness programme UK atomic energy authority National Radiological Protection Board Friends of the Earth World Nuclear Association World Nuclear Transport Institute Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 53 BBC NEWS: Glasgow and West | Anti-nuclear protesters arrested Last Updated: Wednesday, 25 July 2007, 17:58 GMT 18:58 UK Nagasaki survivors join protests against the renewal of Trident Five anti-nuclear protestors have been arrested at the Faslane submarine base near Helensburgh. Those arrested include two survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Nagasaki in Japan in 1945. A spokeswoman for the protest group Faslane 365 said four Japanese men and a Finnish woman had tied themselves to the gates of the base with bamboo. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 54 DOE: U.S. Nuclear Weapons Strategy Delivered to Congress July 24, 2007 WASHINGTON, DC U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman joined the U.S. Secretaries of Defense and State in sending to Congress the Bush Administrations nuclear weapons strategy. This document not only describes the history of nuclear deterrence during the Cold War, but reinforces how deterrence applies to present and future security threats, and what a nuclear stockpile of the 21st century will need to look like in order to meet those threats. The strategy emphasizes President Bushs goal of maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent with the lowest possible number of nuclear weapons. It is consistent with the Moscow Treaty that sets U.S. and Russian operationally deployed strategic nuclear forces at 1,700-2,200 by 2012. The policy document also supports the Presidents 2004 directive to cut the overall U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile almost in half, so that in just five years the nuclear arsenal will be at its lowest level since the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s. We are committed to maintaining the nuclear weapons stockpile, but as our Cold War-era weapons age this becomes more and more difficult and very costly, said Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman. This document clearly lays out the best actions we can take in the face of an uncertain future. The document reiterates the U.S. commitment to maintaining a secure, safe and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile into the future, without the use of underground nuclear testing, for the security of both the United States and its allies. The strategy also describes the proposed Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) as the best means for ensuring the future nuclear deterrent, while allowing for a decrease in the size of the stockpile. Established by Congress in 2000, NNSA is a separately organized agency within the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, reliability and performance of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing; works to reduce global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the United States and abroad. For more information visit the NNSA homepage. Media contact(s): Bryan Wilkes, NNSA, (202) 586-7371 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 55 Hanford News: Monks to pray for peace at Hanford This story was published Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Buddhist monks will gather outside the Hanford fence today to pray for peace and remember the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, nearly 62 years ago. Joined by people who share their wish for an end to nuclear weapons, the three monks and other visitors from Japan have been walking through Northwest communities since July 16 in a pilgrimage for peace. It's not a political protest but a prayer walk, emphasized organizers from the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Temple on Bainbridge Island. "This is literally the perfect place for you to come and do prayers," said Gene Weisskopf, vice chairman of World Citizens for Peace, as he welcomed them in an opening ceremony Monday at John Dam Plaza in Richland. "You are literally walking back into history." Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation just north of Richland produced the plutonium used in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Interfaith Peace Walk 2007 arrived in Richland on Monday and about 15 people made the short walk from Christ the King School to the park, beating drums as rush-hour traffic roared by. "I feel like we are making a difference," said Gizi Lewis, 13, of Richland. Just by being visible, the walkers force people along their pilgrimage to think about issues they don't really want to, Weisskopf said. The destruction of 9/11 shocked Americans, but "you in Japan have an appreciation for whole cities being destroyed," he said. It's not often that the Japanese hear such sentiments from Americans and the monks appreciate those who have joined them to walk for peace, said the Rev. Gyoki Makino, visiting from Tokyo and speaking through an interpreter. He also is sorry for the victims of 9/11, he said. In Japan it is not just the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who suffered and died, but also the 600,000 who died in conventional air attacks, he said. Most people have an image of Buddhists as people engaged in quiet meditation, said the Rev. Senji Kanaeda, who was born near Nagasaki. But sometimes they need to show their values outside the temple, he said. A respect for life is central to Buddhist teachings just as it is important in Christianity, he said. As peace activists and the Buddhists have walked through towns and rural areas, people have heard the drums beating and have come out of their houses to offer food and water, said Bob Torres of Sacramento. "I can tell my children and grandchildren I did something," he said. Today's walk starts at Christ the King School at 9 a.m., and walkers expect to arrive at the south gate of Hanford's 300 Area about 11:30 a.m. for prayer and reflection. Mid-Columbia residents are welcome to join them. Although walkers originally planned to travel along Stevens Drive to Hanford, on Monday night organizers were debating whether to shift to a cooler route along the Columbia River because of the high temperatures expected today. The Interfaith Peace Walk will conclude Aug. 6, the anniversary of the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan, at Bangor, 20 miles west of Seattle. It's the largest active nuclear weapons depot in the world. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 56 Tri-City Herald: Crib crawler travels Hanford's plutonium wasteland (w/video) Robot being used to explore Hanford plutonium trench Published Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer A robot dubbed the "crib crawler" has been sent into an underground trench at Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant where no person has been in more than 30 years. It's taking pictures of one of the nuclear reservation's most unusual waste disposal trenches, where liquid contaminated with plutonium was dumped into the ground from 1955 to 62. The trench once had so much plutonium built up at its bottom that Hanford workers feared an uncontrolled nuclear reaction. Now the Department of Energy and Fluor Hanford are collecting information to develop plans to clean up the radioactively contaminated trench, called the Z-9 Crib. "It's the only one like it," said Caroline Sutter, the project manager for Fluor Hanford. Most waste disposal trenches at Hanford are built something like the leach field of a septic system with piping punctuated with holes and surrounded by gravel. But for reasons lost to history, this trench, or crib as Hanford calls unlined soil disposal sites, was built by digging a 20-foot-deep hole with sloping sides that measures 30 feet by 90 feet at its bottom. Then a concrete slab supported by six columns was placed over the top. A pipe near the underground trench's roof discharged about 1 million gallons of waste water from RECUPLEX, an early facility at the Plutonium Finishing Plant. To gather more plutonium for the nation's weapons program, it retrieved plutonium from scrap left over from processing plutonium. In later years, liquid waste from retrieving plutonium was sent to Hanford's 177 underground tanks with other plutonium processing waste to await treatment for permanent disposal. But during the Z-9 Crib years, the waste was dumped into the trench to filter through the soil. Much of the plutonium bound to the dirt in the top 12 inches of soil in the trench. In fact, so much plutonium was captured there that as early as 1959 Hanford workers became concerned that it could cause a nuclear reaction, and samples of the soil were collected through a hole drilled through the concrete pad above the trench. After tests were conducted using an infrared scanner in the '70s, a program was started to add a liquid solution of cadmium nitrate to the waste, according to research by Michele Gerber, a Fluor senior communications specialist. Cadmium nitrate absorbs or "poisons" neutrons. There also were environmental concerns about the buildup of plutonium in the trench, said Matt McCormick, DOE assistant manager for central Hanford. In the late '70s, contractor Atlantic Richland Hanford Co. spent several years digging up the top foot of dirt in the trench. A control room measuring about 8 feet by 8 feet was suspended from the roof of the crib to operate the shovel, called a clamshell for the way its two halves came together to scoop up the dirt. The soil that was removed included 127 pounds of plutonium, Gerber reported. However, the soil mining did not solve another problem at the trench. The liquid dumped in the trench included the carcinogenic solvent carbon tetrachloride, which contaminated ground water in central Hanford. The initial step in cleaning up the Z-9 Crib is to remove its buildings, which include a glove box for the mined soil and the control room. But engineers needed to know more about the condition of the 50-year-old slab over the trench before making cleanup plans, said Andrea Hopkins, project engineer for Fluor Hanford. Rather than send workers into the trench to take a look, Fluor asked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop a robot to do the job. It came up with the crib crawler, a 50-pound robot equipped with halogen lights and a camera with a powerful zoom lens to creep around the bottom of the trench. It's used with a second, stationary camera in the trench to get a close up look at conditions. The pictures show support columns with marks where liquid once stood more than a foot off the base of the trench. Stairs that were used for maintenance remain in place, along with the clamshell shovel and a conveyer used to lift plutonium-contaminated dirt to the glove box. The ceiling of the trench has lost much of the acid-protective coating that covered terra cotta tiles and in places the tiles also are missing. "Right now engineers are poring over the first set of pictures" taken in June, said Jake Tucker, senior engineer for the national lab. DOE has a legal deadline to remove structures from the Z-9 Crib by Sept. 30, 2010. A decision about what to do with the underground portion of the crib will come later. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 57 Tri-City Herald: GAO report questions DOE review of Hanford vit plant bills Published Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 ANNETTE CARY HERALD STAFF WRITER The Department of Energy failed to adequately review invoices for work on Hanford's vitrification plant before paying bills that sometimes totaled $60 million a month, according to the General Accounting Office. "DOE's lack of appropriate oversight controls for contractor invoices significantly increased its vulnerability to improper payments," said the GAO report given this week to Congress. The report also criticized DOE for inadequate oversight of Bechtel National's management of government property, ranging from tools checked out to construction workers to computers used on the project. The $12.2 billion vitrification plant construction project is at risk for improper payments because of the size and complexity of the one-of-a-kind construction project, billion-dollar cost overruns and the many transactions on each invoice, according to the report. Bechtel submitted invoices twice a month on the project in 2005 and 2006, with each invoice typically totaling $20 million to $30 million. The invoices listed dates, suppliers and amounts but did not give purchase descriptions beyond broad categories such as "construction material and supplies," according to the GAO. "The lack of transaction descriptions would make it difficult for the contracting officer to identify obvious mistakes or unusual transactions," the GAO said. Bechtel did not provide supporting documents for each charge but instead agreed to make them available to DOE upon request. Before 2005, DOE selected a few charges from each invoice to check supporting documents. But after a staff reorganization, DOE began conducting only an annual review of a few dozen transactions, reasoning that prior reviews had found few or no problems. The report also criticized controls over $65 million worth of equipment such as computers, $16 million in tools and $100 million in construction materials. "Our review of Bechtel's property management program disclosed numerous internal control weaknesses that exposed government assets to an increase risk of theft, loss or misuse and decreased the likelihood of detecting such incidents in a timely manner," the GAO report said. Workers could check out tools indefinitely from the tool crib without the tools ever being inventoried to make sure they were being used, the report said. In addition, procedures were not consistently followed to make sure that workers ending employment returned their tools, it said. Records also showed that some employees were checking out tools the day before or the day of their termination dates. Despite the problems identified in the report, the GAO praised DOE and Bechtel for making many improvements in the last year to better control payments to Bechtel and manage tools and equipment. DOE hired a property administrator and Bechtel hired a new property manager and increased its property management staff from one person to eight. New requirements have been issued for reporting lost or damaged properties and Bechtel is required to do a materials inventory at least annually. DOE also strengthened its oversight of contractor payments, even though it disagreed with some of the GAO findings. It has been performing monthly invoice reviews, although GAO still believes the invoices lack sufficient information to identify potential improper payments. The GAO recommends DOE perform an assessment of risk that could be used as a basis to design a system of internal controls that would reduce the risk of improper payments. Despite the criticism of controls over contractor payments, the report did not identify any instances of fraud or abuse. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 58 Tri-City Herald: Most K West Basin sludge vacuumed into containers (w/video) Removing sludge from K Basin West Published Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 By the Herald staff Hanford workers have finished vacuuming the bulk of the radioactive sludge in Hanford's K West Basin into underwater containers, the Department of Energy announced today. The work was finished several weeks ahead of a legally binding deadline for the project, although the deadline had been revised as work fell behind schedule. Getting most of the sludge into containers helps protect the nearby Columbia River from radioactive contamination. Fluor Hanford workers earlier vacuumed the sludge from the more leak-prone K East Basin into containers, then transferred that sludge to containers in the K West Basin. Now the 47 cubic yards of total sludge will be held in containers in the K West Basin until a treatment system is ready to prepare the waste for disposal. The water will remain in the basin to shield workers from radiation from the sludge. For more about the project, read Thursday's Herald. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 59 DOE: DOE Seeks Industry Participation For Engineering Services To Design Next Generation Nuclear Plant 7/25/2007 Gen IV Reactor Capable of Producing Process Heat, Electricity and/or Hydrogen Washington, DC The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is issuing a request for expressions of interest from prospective industry teams capable of providing engineering design services to the INL for the conceptual design phase of the Departments Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP). The NGNP seeks to utilize cutting-edge technology in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by enabling nuclear energy to replace fossil fuels in the petrochemical and transportation industries. The high-temperature reactor is based on research and development activities supported by the Generation IV nuclear energy systems initiative at DOEs INL. NGNP supports President Bushs Advanced Energy Initiative, which advocates the increased use of nuclear energy, therefore increasing our nations energy security. Proceeding with conceptual design for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant brings the Department of Energy another step closer to developing this advanced new technology, DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said. Through this effort, DOE will foster a public-private partnership to complete this development and spur the commercial scale deployment of advanced clean and safe nuclear energy as quickly as possible. Expressions of interest are due to the Idaho National Laboratory, the Departments lead laboratory for development of the NGNP, by August 20, 2007, and will be used to identify a qualified pool of candidates to provide future engineering and design services. The specific scope of work will be developed as the contracts with the Idaho National Laboratory are negotiated. This announcement builds on the pre-conceptual design activities for which $8 million was awarded in September 2006. All pre-conceptual design contract deliverables were submitted in July of this year. The NGNP proposes to build a high temperature reactor capable of producing hydrogen, electricity and/or process heat. Once expressions of interest are received and evaluated, a request for proposals will be issued to develop the conceptual design, expected to begin in FY2008. During this phase, the NGNP reactors performance, safety and functional requirements will be defined in detail as well as estimated cost and schedule for its construction and operation. This design will provide the basis for subsequent analyses and design details leading to the submittal of a NGNP license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Department seeks to complete the design and construction of a prototype NGNP at DOEs Idaho National Laboratory by 2021. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Energy Power Online | VertMarkets, Inc. | Contact Power Online Legal | Help | Privacy Statement Copyright 1996-2007, VertMarkets, Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 60 Knoxville News Sentinel: Cost of Y-12 project still a moving target By Frank Munger (Contact) Wednesday, July 25, 2007 George Dials, general manager at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, earlier this year said the cost of the proposed Uranium Processing Facility could reach $2 billion. He said the working estimate was between $1.4 billion and $2 billion. The high end would be double the earlier estimate of about $1 billion. The UPF would replace the warhead plant’s main production complex. Tom D’Agostino, nominee to become administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, did not want to discuss the cost of UPF when he was in town recently. He bristled at suggestions that the cost may have doubled. D’Agostino, who oversees the entire nuclear weapons complex, acknowledged that another Y-12 project — the Highly Enriched Uranium Facility — had doubled in cost. But he said it’s too early to place a firm price on the UPF. Construction of the HEUMF, a new storage facility for bomb-grade uranium, is about 60 percent completed. The current price tag is $549 million, and D’Agostino said he expects that number to hold. The UPF is in the early stages of planning, years away from construction, and D’Agostino said the cost of a facility should not be considered firm until Critical Decision-2 — a part of the planning process where designs take shape and costs are evaluated. “Where we are right now (with UPF) is nowhere near establishing a performance baseline,” D’Agostino said. He said the federal agency should be held accountable for spending, even on national security projects, “but to say the cost has gone up at this stage is absolutely ridiculous.” Still, the fact is the estimated cost of the UPF — an important part of Y-12’s modernization plan — has gone up. That’s based on statements from those closely affiliated with the Oak Ridge work. “The key word is ‘estimate,’ ” D’Agostino said, concluding a brief interview. I received considerable feedback on recent stories about the sick nuclear workers compensation program. Several claimants came to the defense of the Department of Labor’s Office of Ombudsman. Although one person interviewed for the story said she’d had a difficult time getting help from the office, citing a three-month game of phone tag, others praised the Ombudsman’s work. Indeed, some sick workers or their family members were critical of every aspect of the program except for the Office of the Ombudsman. U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., announced last week that the Bush administration had found additional funds to help process sick-worker claims and avoid further delays. “This is a win for Tennessee and a step in the right direction in making sure our Cold War heroes get the compensation they deserve,” Alexander said in a prepared statement. The senators had written letters pushing for action to unclog the backlog of claims, which reportedly numbered in the thousands. Although the senators’ statement wasn’t specific, the additional money reportedly is bound for ORAU — the lead contractor on dose reconstruction. The dose studies are a key part of determining whether cancers were caused by radiation and, thus, eligible for compensation. Ron Townsend, the president of ORAU, recently said officials had heard informally they would receive an additional $4.5 million for work this fiscal year. Townsend acknowledged that some work slowed down this year because of limited resources. “We would have had to lay people off in July or first of August if we had not gotten the additional funding,” he said. Senior writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6329 or at munger@knews.com. 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************