***************************************************************** 07/29/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.176 ***************************************************************** 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: Sentido.tv: Energy Policy, or the Unnecessary Prolongation of an 2 US: CITIZEN-TIMES.com: It's high time for N.C. to act on energy refo 3 US: St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Coal's doubters block new wave of power 4 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Energy, the environment and Utah's economic f 5 UPI: Analysis: U.S. backs Musharraf on terror 6 The Hindu: Nuclear deal will not interfere with weaponisation: Prana 7 BBC NEWS: Brown and Bush ponder post-Blair ties 8 IAEA: 29 July: Birthday of the IAEA´s First Half Century NUCLEAR REACTORS 9 AFP: SE Asia mulls tougher nuclear rules - 10 Pahrump Valley Times: Two commissioners will tour Scandinavian nucle 11 Daily Yomiuri: TEPCO shows reactor containment 12 Indiatimes: More than 12,000 MW nuclear power generation by 2020 13 NYT: In Its Nuclear Deal With India, Washington Appears to Make More 14 US: Tennessean: TVA study recommends finishing 2nd Watts Bar reactor 15 US: Burlington Free Press.com: Vermonters to add voices to energy de 16 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Indian Point's license renewal battle will take pl 17 US: PATRIOT LEDGER: NRC report favors Pilgrim nuke plant: Initial OK 18 UPI: Australian reactor temporarily shut down 19 US: La Crosse Tribune: Nuclear power is not the answer 20 AFP: US Congress skeptical of India nuclear accord - 21 US: Sarasota Herald Tribune: Nuclear power not so cheap or safe NUCLEAR SECURITY 22 Guardian Unlimited: Southeast Asia to Set Up Nuclear Monitor 23 China Post: Southeast Asia to set up nuclear watchdog NUCLEAR SAFETY 24 US: Las Vegas SUN: Report: Increase in radiation not caused by fire 25 US: DailyBulletin.com: Rialto takes perchlorate stand 26 US: deseretnews.com: Fire radiation not from fallout, study finds 27 US: Tribune-Review: Retrial set in lawsuit against Apollo nuclear pl 28 Whitehaven News: Go-ahead for nuclear clean-up centre NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 29 Pahrump Valley Times: Yucca rail estimated at more than $3b 30 US: Casper Star Tribune: Federal regulators plan uranium meeting in 31 US: KOB.com: Energy Dept. wants errant waste drum left at WIPP 32 News & Star: Sellafield body parts probe helpline set up 33 LVNFES: Poll: Most Americans agree with Nevadans on Yucca Mountain 34 Nevada Appeal: Survey shows most Americans oppose Yucca Mountain 35 Nevada Appeal: The people have spoken on Yucca Mtn. PEACE 36 Reuters: SE Asia to adopt new plan on nuclear-free zone US DEPT. OF ENERGY 37 Indybay: The Nuclear Weapons Lab Bombing Range 38 Seattle Times Newspaper: Hanford makes progress with radioactive bas 39 SF New Mexican: State lawmaker encourages LANL to diversify 40 Director: No new job cuts before October 41 Tri-City Herald: Hanford workers evacuated after waste leak 42 Tri-City Herald: B Reactor partnership likely a historic match 43 Chillicothe Gazette: Cleanup done at diffusion plant 44 Dayton Daily News: Mound cleanup touted as model of restoration 45 Dayton Daily News: Mound cleanup to cost $32.5 million 46 New Port News Daily Press: Nuclear-powered Savannah undergoing costl 47 Knoxville News Sentinel: We can't pass energy problems to next gener 48 Knoxville News Sentinel: Reactor cleanup to resume 49 News Watchman: USEC reclaims building 50 KOB.com: Director: LANL work force stable through September 51 KOB.com: Lawmaker worried about LANL contamination ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Sentido.tv: Energy Policy, or the Unnecessary Prolongation of an Inefficient Status Quo? THE US HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO DECIDE ITS FUTURE COURSE IN ENERGY DEVELOPMENT, IN PART BECAUSE IT'S EASIER NOT TO CHANGE COURSE, BUT THE TIME IS NOW 29 July 2007 The US Congress is still working on producing legislation that would bring together federal law and executive regulatory policy in one comprehensive national energy strategy. The special consulting group organized in 2001 by the vice president wanted nuclear plants and "clean coal", but both carry huge costs for preventing or reversing high levels of contamination, and neither is broadly considered the "future" by scientific consensus. Environmental groups are pushing for "green fuels", such as wind turbines, solar-voltaic power, undersea wave-harvesting, and geothermal energy capture, but industry giants have been slow to develop solutions for producing these resources in mass quantities on a national scale. Since the Iraq invasion of March 2003, there has been a steady rise in the call to overcome "America's dependence on foreign oil". The call was championed at first by proponents of drilling in Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge and in other federally protected nature preserves. But with the ongoing escalation of chaos in the Iraq conflict, a steady increase in the number of terrorist incidents worldwide, especially in the region, destabilization of economies, and the constant rise of oil and gasoline prices, the call has been transferred in popular culture to a resistance to the idea of financing an oil-based future. What popular culture has not yet come to terms with is which, if any, of the existing technologies, could help get us to an alternative future. Over the last few years, there has also been a steady increase in popular awareness of the climatic irregularities which science has demonstrated are attributable the global burning of carbon-based "fossil fuels". A federal judge has ruled that the current plan to deposit the entire nation's nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain, on federal land in Nevada, does not meet basic safety or public health standards, and that the facility should be guaranteed hermetically sealed for up to one million years or more, to avoid destroying the surrounding environment. This means contamination itself is becoming a catch-phrase, a prime issue-parameter in the public consciousness. Why, it is now being asked, if we can use clean energy sources, are we using dirty ones? Why, if we can prevent harm to future generations, have we not acted sooner to do so? Why, if there are safe alternatives, should we expand use of technologies that can open civil society to unthinkable terrorist threats? And pressure is on, as the Democratic-led Congress gets wind of the sweeping national majority that favors moving toward clean and/or renewable fuels. In the book, One World, we find that public surveys repeatedly show that such environmental and anti-pollution concerns are not partisan or ideological issues, but have the interest of some 90% of the national population. It's politics in Washington that has slowed progress and distorted the public interest. Now, part of the problem has been the unpleasant fact of who is pushing for what, and how. Major energy producers have backed initiatives to disprove the global scientific consensus that climate change is already well underway and attributable to human behavior. And those energy producers have sought public funding to continue research and extraction, arguing they are needed as supports for a system whose existence is part of the nation's long-term economic and political security. What does this mean? That politicians in Washington will be unable to show they are serious about the nation's security if they don't give billions of dollars to some of the wealthiest and most profitable corporations in the history of the world? No. But that's what a very well-paid network of lobbyists is trying to persuade them to believe. There is, ultimately, no reason whatsoever why any existing energy-industry giant should fear a transition to renewable resources. The solutions going forward require major technological expertise and innovation and will be major industrial undertakings. The economy may need to be overhauled and altered in fundamental ways, but this does not mean losing all the profits of a major corporation to research and development. Public funding will (and already does) benefit anyone pushing major innovations in those new technologies, and doing well with renewables what these entities claim to do well now with fossil fuels or nuclear power, will secure for the industry leaders a position not unlike what today's energy giants are all too happy to enjoy. The problem is not that oil is easy or that nuclear is cheap. Neither is really true. Not as a business model and not as a practical process. The problem is that what is coming is a major paradigm shift. Energy companies will not be merely resource-driven. They must become service-driven, and manage complex networks of producer-to-end-user energy swapping and grid re-alignment, and be agile enough and present enough of mind to ensure that in a new age of multiple-resource local-generation energy technologies, they can provide the services and maintenance the public needs. Solar power may ultimately work best as a single-point resource, but filling out onto a grid where surplus energy can be shared and re-sold to the service provider. Wind power may turn out to lend itself more readily to major industrial "farming" and large-scale production, but have a similar end-user production network, where saleable current flows in two directions. Wave energy, harvested underwater near shorelines with intense tidal activity, and geothermal, which extracts energy from volcanic heat vents in geological faults and other formations allowing the earth's own heating processes to be energy sources, without resource extraction as with petroleum or natural gas, has its practical perils, but also promises a vast expansion of renewable energy availability. Biofuels have a lot of drawbacks, including the obvious threat posed by energy-destined crops to the global food harvest, with already dwindling available arable land area and a population book. And Reuters reports the estimate made by scientists in Indonesia that orangutans may become extinct within 20 years' time if palm-oil plantation-owners do not stop slaughtering them to prevent harm to their crops. The entire planet is heading into a period where energy resources must and will change, the industry taking on new shapes and forming new alliances with the public at large and with government policy. What is needed, clearly, is a governmental policy aimed at ensuring that the way forward is the safest, cleanest and most efficient human ingenuity can develop, and not merely an extension of a status quo rooted in 18th century technological standards and industry's preference for staying the course. [s] BACKGROUND: US SUPREME COURT RULES EPA MUST REGULATE CARBON EMISSIONS 5 TO 4 RULING CHASTIZES EPA FOR SHIRKING ITS RESPONSIBILITIES FOR YEARS 2 April 2007 In a lawsuit brought by 12 states, several cities and a dozen pro-environment organizations against the federal government, the US Supreme Court has handed down a narrow 5 to 4 ruling reversing Bush administration policy that avoids regulating carbon dioxide emissions. The Court says the Clean Air Act specifically authorizes the EPA to enforce such regulation in order to protect the public and effect clean air standards. [Full Story] FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN BUSH POLICY LOOSENING CONTROLS ON PESTICIDE USE 28 August 2006 U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour has struck down a Bush administration policy loosening regulation of toxic pesticides. He found the rule change "striking in its total lack of any evidence of technical or scientific support for the policy positions ultimately adopted" and further chastised the government for failing to properly apply the Endangered Species Act. [Full Story] BILL PRESENTED TO PREVENT GOV'T TAMPERING WITH SCIENCE 18 June 2006 Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) is to introduce an amendment to legislation currently under debate, which would restrict the executive branch's ability to gag scientists, manipulate their findings or demote those who disagree with official policy. The legislation would also require that scientists appointed to investigatory panels be selected for their credentials, not their political views. [Full Story] SCIENCE ABOVE TECHNOCRACY, FOR A FULLER FUTURE SCIENTIFIC METHOD CAN CONTEXTUALIZE TECHNOLOGY, PROTECT AGAINST EROSION OF RIGHTS, ENVIRONMENT 8 May 2006 Science is in many ways an artform, but it is specifically and most importantly, the art of knowledge. It is not philosophy, not a study of how knowledge comes about, what it is, whether it can be trusted or whether we need to adjust our thinking; it is, instead, a direct study of the natural world, its tendencies, its evidence, and its capacity to work with us, for us and around us. [Full Story] GOV'T POLICY UNLAWFULLY CRIMINALIZES COMMENT ON SCIENTIFIC FACT NASA SCIENTIST TARGETTED FOR SPEAKING TO PRESS, EPA STAFF GAGGED SO BOSSES AREN'T "SURPRISED" BY COVERAGE 20 April 2006 The global environment is, of course, a global issue, one that touches every life on the planet, and the science about it should be open and available to all. Past government policy and existing federal law mean that such scientific evidence should be readily available to the public. But now, it appears that several agencies are laboring to silence scientists who are researching climate trends and alterations. [Full Story] POPULATION, LAND, AND CONFLICT 14 June 2005 As land and water become scarce and as competition for these vital resources intensifies, we can expect mounting social tensions within societies, particularly between those who are poor and dispossessed and those who are wealthy, as well as among ethnic and religious groups. Population growth brings with it a steady shrinkage of life-supporting resources per person. [Full Story] Sentido.tv is a digital imprint of Casavaria Publishing All Excerpts & Reprints © 2000-07 Listed Contributors Original, ***************************************************************** 2 CITIZEN-TIMES.com: It's high time for N.C. to act on energy reform Asheville, NC Sunday, July 29, 2007 8:05 PM by Rep. Susan Fisher and Rep. Paul Luebke Our country is in desperate need of a sound energy policy, one that addresses our dependence on foreign oil and the threat of global climate change. This year, the North Carolina legislature has an historic choice to make: become a real leader in the South and adopt a sound, vibrant energy policy or continue down a path of energy generation that is dirty, expensive and unsustainable. Currently, electricity generation depends on an antiquated system of coal power plants that spew particulates and CO2, major causes of asthma and global warming respectively. But there is another way to meet our energy needs: renewable energy and energy efficiency. Renewable energy is derived from sources that naturally regenerate, such as wind, solar or biomass, as opposed to limited energy sources such as oil, coal, natural gas and uranium. Whether the goal is to cut back our greenhouse gas emissions, or just create good local jobs through clean industry, renewable energy makes sense. Added economic boost Using energy more efficiently has the added effect of reducing the price that consumers pay for energy. In fact, energy efficiency and other measures that decrease electricity demand are the most cost-effective way to limit global warming pollution. Nationwide, states are passing renewable portfolio standards (RPS), which require electric utilities to purchase a percentage of their electricity from renewable sources and cut demand through efficiency measures. These standards are rapidly moving a number of states toward a more sustainable energy future, while creating jobs in local communities and boosting local economies. Presently no Southern state has adopted a renewable and efficiency portfolio standard. North Carolina should seize this opportunity to become a leader in the region’s energy future by passing a renewable portfolio standard. Current bill deficient Sadly, the current energy bill before the legislature (SB 3) isn’t a renewable and efficiency portfolio bill. Yes, it does contain a renewable and efficiency standard, which is laudable, but the real substance of the bill takes advantage of consumers and ironically paves the way for dirty energy development. First, the bill allows utilities to finance new power plants through consumer rate increases even before those plants provide any energy. In effect, you would be forced to invest in your utility provider, except there’s one catch: you get no shares, dividends, or votes. Usually, generating companies court large investors to bear the risk of building new power plants. In exchange for the risk, those companies make money through interest. But if SB 3 passes, the risk shifts to the customer with no guaranteed payback. Moreover, such large projects are notorious for running over budget. When a power plant runs over budget, the zeros pile up. In the end, consumers could end up paying for projects that are abandoned, or some that exist only on paper. To make matters worse, the power plants they’re going to build on your dime aren’t renewable. They would be coal, or even nuclear. Imagine, consumers subsidizing the development of the dirtiest power sources known to man. In 2007, we should be leaving the “coal age” behind. Worse still is the prospect of nuclear power plant development. Nuclear energy is the most expensive way to generate power and consumers will bear the brunt of these overwhelming costs. Furthermore, the jobs they do create are few, and highly specific, so any positive impact to the local economy would be reduced. Nuclear energy isn’t sustainable. While supplies of uranium are not unlimited, the radioactive toxic waste they produce will be around for another 10,000 years. Yucca Mountain, the planned repository for such waste, won’t be ready for another 10 years, that is if it can overcome massive opposition from locals aided by the U.S. Senate majority leader. Looking back at the accident at Three Mile Island and the horrors of Chernobyl should be enough to convince you of the dangers inherent in nuclear energy. Just recently, an incident in Japan caused a nuclear plant to release 30 gallons of radioactive wastewater into the ocean. North Carolina is ready to embrace renewable energy by passing a portfolio standard, but SB 3 would do more harm than good. Instead of protections for industry that cost consumers, we should allow the free market to finance development. Instead of archaic and toxic power sources, we should invest in clean, renewable energy that creates good local jobs. We need to fix SB 3 so that we can pass a sensible renewable energy bill that protects consumers and preserves our state. Copyright © 2007 Asheville Citizen-Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Coal's doubters block new wave of power plants JULY 29, 2007 By Rebecca Smith THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 07/29/2007 From coast to coast, plans for a new generation of coal-fired power plants are falling by the wayside as states conclude that conventional coal plants are too dirty to build and the cost of cleaner plants is too high. If significant numbers of new coal plants don't get built in the U.S. in coming years, it will put pressure on officials to clear the path for other power sources, including nuclear power, or trim electricity demand, which is expected to grow 1.8 percent this year. In a time of rising energy costs, officials also worry about the long-term consequences of their decisions, including higher prices or the potential for shortages. As recently as May, U.S. power companies had announced intentions to build as many as 150 new generating plants fueled by coal, which now supplies about half the nation's electricity. One reason for the surge of interest in coal was concern over the higher price of natural gas, which has driven up electricity prices in many places. Coal appeared capable of softening the impact because the U.S. has coal reserves and prices are low. But as plans for this fleet of new coal-powered plants move forward, more and more are being canceled or delayed. Coal plants have come under fire because coal is a big source of carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for global warming. Recent reversals in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Oregon and other states have shown coal's prospects are dimming. Nearly two dozen coal projects have been canceled since early 2006, according to the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh. It's hard to say how many proposed plants never will be built. Some projects suffer deaths when permits are denied. Many more wither away, lost in the multiyear process of obtaining permits, fending off court challenges and garnering financing. Last week, Steven F. Leer, chief executive of Arch Coal Inc. of Creve Coeur, said some of the power plants he had expected to be built "may get stalled due to the uncertainty over climate concerns." U.S. COAL RESERVES For now, coal companies haven't taken steps to ratchet back production or big projects because of coal plant delays. They believe that in a time of global energy concerns, U.S. coal supplies will be seen as too important to dismiss. The U.S. has the world's largest coal reserves and is sometimes called "the Saudi Arabia of coal" by energy industry observers. Roadblocks for coal put greater attention on other energy sources. The U.S. power industry is exploring building more nuclear plants. But those plans are several years away, and nuclear power currently provides only about a fifth of U.S. needs. Other sources, like wind, don't provide around-the-clock energy, while solar is expensive and isn't yet capable of producing large amounts of electricity. That puts the focus on natural gas. "Gas is the bridge fuel" that will step in if coal stumbles, said Marc Spitzer, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, regulator of the nation's wholesale gas and electricity markets. THE ROLE OF GAS Currently, clean-burning gas provides roughly a fifth of the nation's power needs. But the nation's gas production has been flat, and other industries are increasingly using it as a fuel or raw material. Spitzer says the U.S. needs more facilities to accept liquefied natural gas, which is gas cooled into a liquid that can be imported from overseas. The rapid shift away from coal shows how quickly and powerfully environmental concerns, and the costs associated with eradicating them, have changed matters for the power industry. One place where sentiment has swung against coal is Florida. Climate change is getting attention there because the mean elevation is only 100 feet above sea level, so melting ice caps would eat away at its coasts. In June, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law a bill that authorizes the state Public Service Commission to give priority to renewable energy and conservation programs before approving construction of conventional coal-fired power plants. ENERGY EFFICIENCY The law was bolstered by a recent report from the nonprofit American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy that found Florida could reduce its need for electricity from conventional sources, like gas and coal, by 29 percent within 15 years if it implemented aggressive energy efficiency measures. Backers of a major power plant proposal said they would suspend development activities for an 800-megawatt coal-fired plant proposed by four city-owned utilities including the one serving the state capital, Tallahassee. (One megawatt can power 500 to 1,000 homes.) They cited environmental issues. That decision followed the rejection by the utility commission of a proposal by Florida Power & Light Co., a unit of FPL Group Inc., to build a 1,960-megawatt coal plant in Glades County, Fla. One reason for coal's poor showing is uncertainty about the cost to curb pollution. Coal plants emit more than twice as much carbon dioxide per unit of electricity produced as natural-gas-fired plants, but there's no cheap, easy way to capture and dispose of the greenhouse gas. CLEAN COAL'S ROLE Even proposals to build so-called "clean coal" plants have been met with skepticism. This new technology, which primarily involves converting coal into a combustible gas for electricity generation, has been touted as a solution to coal's global-warming problems. A hearing judge at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is urging commissioners to reject a plan for Northern States Power Co., a unit of Xcel Energy Inc., Minneapolis, to buy about 8 percent of its electricity from a coal gasification power plant that was proposed by Excelsior Energy Inc., Minnetonka, Minn. The judge concluded the 600-megawatt plant wouldn't be a good deal for consumers. The judge concluded it would cost an extra $472.3 million, in 2011 dollars, to make the power plant capable of capturing about 30 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions, and another $635.4 million to build a pipeline to move the greenhouse gas to the nearest deep geologic storage in Alberta, Canada. Thus, pollution controls had the potential to inflate the cost of the plant's power and make electricity from Excelsior twice as costly as power from many older coal-fired plants. ***************************************************************** 4 Salt Lake Tribune: Energy, the environment and Utah's economic future Kent Stewart Udell Article Last Updated: 07/28/2007 11:31:40 AM MDT Kent Stewart Udell The stellar scientific work behind the predictions of global warming caused by the anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, has changed our view of our energy future. We now know that increases in carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor concentrations in the atmosphere will lead to an increase in the average Earth surface temperature. You don't believe me? Get into your car on a sunny day and tell me with a straight face that you don't feel warmer. As a heat transfer expert, I can assure you the thermo-physics of global warming are exactly the same as what heats the air inside your car parked in the sun. Expect the naysayers to declare the hot air is a hoax. But our experience tells us this warming is real and that we need to change our relationships with oil and coal or we'll face a host of enormous problems accompanying global warming. Utah is in an interesting energy situation. We have coal, oil and oil shale. We are also blessed with sunshine, snow-capped mountains (for now), geothermal resources and uranium. Unfortunately, according to the best global-warming predictions, Utah may feel the most dramatic increase in average temperature in the United States. This summer's unrelenting heat wave, drought and early fire season are examples of what is predicted to become the norm. The character of Utahns is to solve serious problems together and to build businesses from ingenuity and hard work. Thus, we may thrive in the days ahead, but only if we embrace the coming changes as opportunities rather than inconveniences. Let's first look at our energy portfolio and consider the cost we pay for the energy we use - the full cost, not just the utility bill. Coal, for example, is inexpensive to mine and burn to make heat to generate electricity. But the real costs of dealing with global warming from burning coal on a massive scale, and of healing those who suffer from the negative health effects of the gases and particulates spewing from the smoke stacks, are enormous. Why do you think Santa puts coal in stockings of naughty kids? Indeed, when you consider the full costs of fossil fuels, many renewable energy sources are much cheaper. Let's do an honest accounting, including externalized costs, and then choose what is in the best economic interest of Utah. Utahns are taught values. While those values may have led us to dismiss concerns of those coffee-sipping, tree-hugging environmentalists in the past, we can no longer hide from the fact that our wanton use of fossil energy is harming our children, killing our elderly, drowning our coastal regions and subjecting our fellow humans to starvation-producing drought, violent storms and terrible heat waves. Our famous Utah values are now being put to the test. How can we maintain our lifestyles and our ethics? By paying the real cost of our fossil energy use, putting the portion of that cost associated with negative health effects into health care, and the portion associated with global warming into renewable (carbon neutral) energy production technologies. That would be ethics in action. Don't be dissuaded by those who say "it would hurt the economy." What they are really saying is that "it would hurt their economy." However, a dynamic free-market economy constantly creates losers and winners. Don't cry for Exxon. Cheer for Utah-based renewable energy production industries. The energy future of Utah can be clean and bright. We have the ingenuity, creativity, resources and ethics to get it right. Let's sharpen our pencils and get busy. --- * KENT STEWART UDELL is professor and chairman of the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah, where he teaches sustainable-energy engineering and engineering ethics. ***************************************************************** 5 UPI: Analysis: U.S. backs Musharraf on terror United Press International - Published: July 27, 2007 at 9:03 PM By LEANDER SCHAERLAECKENS UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is still America's best bet to deal with Taliban insurgents operating along the Pakistani-Afghan border, an expert said this week. Pakistan under Musharraf has been unstable and is battling a rebellion by the leaders of the Red Mosque, an extremist Islamic group wishing to implement Taliban-style rule in Pakistan, Daniel Markey, a former State Department official, told reporters Wednesday. Musharraf remains head of the Pakistani army but is struggling to control it, Markey said. But the Pakistani leader remains America's most reliable ally to weed Taliban militia out of Pakistan's northern Waziristan province, the analyst said. "Musharraf is the only barrier to the Islamic peril that would take over the whole country if he left," Markey said in a conference call. "I think we have a better chance of dealing with the Taliban in Waziristan if we pull Pakistan towards us." Musharraf has been under fire for trying to sack Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, but when Chaudhry appealed against being fired, Musharraf was rebuked by Pakistan's Supreme Court. It called the firing "illegal" on July 13. Since the Red Mosque in Islamabad's rebellion started on July 3, some 300 people have been killed in battles with the army. Musharraf might not be in power for much longer, and the United States must make an effort to reach out to the Pakistani military, Markey said. "Musharraf has definitely taken a hit, but I think he could ride it out. The military stands at the center of the political game. We cannot afford to ignore whoever sits at the top of it," he said. Since Pakistan's creation in 1947 it has been ruled by the head of the army for 32 out of 60 years. Musharraf, who gained power through a military coup in 1999, would only be the latest in a line of military autocrats who eventually had to give up power and permit the holding of democratic elections. "It's quite possible that Musharraf is on his last legs. He can't constitutionally run for president -- the courts would throw it out -- and the army could decide that they've had enough of him," Markey said. "He could only run (if he declared a state of a national emergency, but it would bring the people out on the streets. There's a chance the army even without him will come to some sort of agreement with the people and come up with some sort of martial law." Markey predicted that if Musharraf's unpopularity with the people did not bring him down, he could be betrayed by his own army. "When the army gets enough of him, they could toss him overboard and do it alone. I would give that about (a) 30 percent (chance)," the analyst said. "Although he could hold on to power for as long as another year, his successor would most likely be someone very similar," Markey said. Whoever controls Pakistan, the U.S. approach would be the same, the analyst said. "Musharraf losing power wouldn't be a tragedy for us. We would learn how to work with his successor. It would merely be a hiccup," he said. The United States wants to promote democracy in Pakistan and has been frustrated by the country's inability to regulate its long border with Afghanistan. However, Markey said working closely with Musharraf was still a worthwhile endeavor in the war on terror. "We should coerce them through greater engagement. Through intelligence sharing, training and providing them with the resources that will allow them to be more effective partners. We could also assist with indirect military action from afar," he said. "Balancing supporting Musharraf against extremist Islam and promoting democracy is tough," Markey said. But it remains the best way to drive the Taliban out of Pakistan and into Afghanistan, where U.S. forces could operate freely in fighting it, he said. Markey also advised against U.S. action inside Pakistan. "I'm not convinced that Americans entering the country to take out some targets and then withdraw is advisable. We have to build trust and then you can expect cooperation," he said. "It is much better to coerce, even threaten privately if you must. But you can't threaten publicly because they'll look weak and under the influence of America." © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 The Hindu: Nuclear deal will not interfere with weaponisation: Pranab Sunday, July 29, 2007 : 1630 Hrs On Board Special Aircraft, July. 29 (PTI): India today said the civilian nuclear deal with the US would not interfere with the country's weaponisation programme and hoped to finalise the agreement to operationalise the deal "as soon as possible." "Our weaponisation programme will not be interfered with in this arrangement (nuke deal," External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee told PTI in an exclusive interview on board a special aircraft while returning to Kolkata from Bhutan after a three-day official visit. Mukherjee said the draft agreement hammered out at official level talks at Washington recently was expected to be released simultaneously by India and the US in New Delhi and Washington some time after August two. "The draft will also be put on the government of India Website to facilitate a larger discussion," he said. Mukherjee said the draft agreement has been 'frozen' and would come up for debate in Parliament on August 13 or 14. The Monsoon session opens on August 10. The minister said it was not possible to give a timeframe by when the agreement could be inked. "It is difficult to say now how much time it will take to ink the pact," he said. The draft has to be passed by the US Congress and finalising the agreement also depended upon their calendar. Also, necessary steps have to be taken to have India specific arrangements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to ensure that the Nuclear Suppliers Group make amendments in their guidelines to facilitate supply of nuclear fuel Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 7 BBC NEWS: Brown and Bush ponder post-Blair ties Last Updated: Sunday, 29 July 2007, 07:23 GMT 08:23 UK By Paul Reynolds World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website Gordon Brown: seeking a new US relationship Gordon Brown's talks with President George W Bush will set a new tone for US-British relations after years of exceptionally warm ties between Mr Bush and the UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair. The expectation generally is that the UK will continue to be close to the United States but perhaps not quite as close as it was. The new British leader is an Atlanticist, who knows and likes the US well. He is expected to - and indeed he and Foreign Secretary David Miliband have said he will - continue to advance a foreign policy that is sympathetic towards the US. But nobody thinks that Gordon Brown is going to find a soulmate in George Bush as Tony Blair did. That relationship was forged in the heat of 9/11 and Iraq. Iraq... On the most immediate foreign policy issue to hand, Britain will not undertake a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq. However Mr Brown has spoken of a "new stage" and the signs are that he wants out as soon as possible, as long as that is (or can be presented as being) compatible with the policy of handing over only when the Iraqis can do the job. And Britain will stay in Afghanistan in a combat role. Indeed, it wants more Nato members to join the fray, as does the United States. ...and Iran A key issue that might well test the relationship is Iran. A new round of UN sanctions is going to be debated, maybe decided, in September, but what if the Bush administration decides to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in the final 18 months or so of its term of office? Mr Brown has not ruled out military action - doing so now could undermine the diplomatic and economic pressure currently being applied, it is felt - but most observers think he would not join in if the US went ahead. Forged in fire: Bush and Blair at Camp David, February 2001 Mr Brown will go to Camp David on Sunday evening for dinner and will stay over into Monday, the White House spokesman Tony Snow has announced. He will no doubt try to clear up some mixed signals that his government has sent out about how it wants to deal with Washington. For example, the appointment of Mark (now Lord) Malloch Brown as Foreign Office minister - a man who was a leading critic of the Bush administration when he was a senior UN figure - was seen as a deliberate distancing from the US neo-conservatives. On the other hand, Britain does not really want to get much closer to the European Union, holding firm to its "red lines" in the EU treaty negotiations, one of which is to preserve a national foreign policy. This approach was reflected in the recent row with Russia in the Litvinenko affair, in which London did not reach out for an EU-wide response but trod its own path. The possibility is that Britain will end up semi-attached to the United States and semi-detached from Europe. Links to US The former British ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, was present at Camp David when Tony Blair met George Bush there in February 2001. He dismisses any suggestion that Gordon Brown will want to use Camp David to distance himself significantly from President Bush. "People have got quite excited about this," he said. "There are thousands of seminars about it but I don't think that it warrants that level of activity. They will not be as close personally, unless some magic strikes, but frankly that does not matter that much. "There is such an awful lot of stuff in the relationship and while there are variables - personalities, events, and shifts of tone - and sometimes the relationship is not that special, historically since 1945 it goes on regardless. Rendition differences One recent example of how the relationship can at times be tense came when a House of Commons committee revealed that Britain had reservations about aspects of the US policy of flying terror suspects around the world but that these were ignored. It was a reminder that, although the two countries are as close allies as they can realistically be, in the end they can diverge. "Mr Brown's mixed signals are a classic case of an administration bedding in, with some of the bits not dropping into place," says Sir Christopher. "As for Iran, I am not sure I see the UK going for military action. There are major military objections. I would be surprised if Britain got involved. "And in Afghanistan, we need help. How long can we sustain that action?" Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 8 IAEA: 29 July: Birthday of the IAEA´s First Half Century Staff Report 27 July 2007 A pictorial history of "Atoms for Peace" is being published on the occassion of the IAEA´s 50th anniversary. (Credit: IAEA) The IAEA officially turns 50 this weekend, on 29 July 2007, marking the day when its Statute officially entered into force. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others have sent anniversary messages voicing congratulations and support. "Over the past half century of distinguished international service, the IAEA has strived to accelerate and expand its contributions to security and development," Mr. Ban Ki-Moon said in a congratulatory letter to Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei. "I applaude the ceaseless efforts made by the IAEA towards this end." At the IAEA and among Member States, anniversary celebrations kicked off months ago, and are continuing. They include: * Special events organized by Member States, including the Republic of Korea, Japan, Hungary, and Bulgaria. (See Story Resources) * A Children´s Painting Contest * A pictorial history of "Atoms for Peace", focusing on the IAEA and its work in security and development. * A "Memorabilia" photo exhibition displayed at the IAEA General Conference and featured on the IAEA.org website. * The IAEA in Time, an updated chronology of key dates and developments issued inside the IAEA Bulletin. See Story Resources to learn about the IAEA and its historical development. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 9 AFP: SE Asia mulls tougher nuclear rules - Saturday July 28, 08:02 PM MANILA (AFP) - Southeast Asian nations will look at toughening security rules for atomic energy when they meet next week to review a treaty on keeping nuclear weapons out of the region, diplomats said Saturday. With several countries looking at nuclear power to meet their energy needs, the 10-member ASEAN bloc wants to ensure atomic material and technology does not get used for non-peaceful ends, they said. Under the wide-ranging 1997 treaty, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) may not develop or test nuclear weapons and pledge not to allow ships carrying those weapons from passing through their waters. But diplomats say it is all but impossible to monitor what ships are carrying -- the United States, for example, routinely refuses to confirm whether its ships have nuclear weapons aboard. Now as nations look at building more civilian nuclear power plants, ASEAN wants to tighten the rules to address proliferation concerns, said Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo. "We want to ensure that... the countries do not allow the exportation of certain materials which could lead to the development of nuclear power other than for peaceful purposes," he said. ASEAN members Indonesia and Vietnam have both announced plans to build nuclear power plants in the next few years. Romulo said the bloc would seek the expertise of the UN's atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as it mulls any new restrictions. "The IAEA has a set of ... safeguards and so we want these safeguards to be available and we would make use of it," he said. ASEAN foreign ministers hold talks in Manila starting Sunday ahead of next week's annual meeting of the region's main security body ARF, which groups the bloc and key partners including the EU, US, China, India and Australia. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Pahrump Valley Times: Two commissioners will tour Scandinavian nuclear sites Nye County's Largest Newspaper Circulation Jul. 27, 2007 By MARK WAITE PVT For the third year in a row the United States Transport Council is sponsoring a fact-finding trip to visit foreign nuclear waste facilities. This year up to seven Nye County officials may travel to Sweden and Finland Aug. 25 to Sept. 1. County commissioners recently approved up to $7,000 for each county representative to attend the tour. Commissioners Roberta "Midge" Carver and Gary Hollis, the commission's two liaisons on nuclear waste, plan to go on the Scandinavian tour. Last October, the U.S. Transport Council escorted a fact-finding tour to visit nuclear waste facilities in Japan. Commissioner Carver and Bob Gamble, the county's on-site representative at the U.S. Department of Energy, visited Japanese facilities for transferring nuclear waste casks, recycling fuel and waste storage. The year before, Carver went on a fact-finding tour to visit a shipping facility in Cherbourg, France and a reprocessing plant in The Hague, The Netherlands. Darrell Lacy, director of the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Office, said he doesn't know yet who will be making the trip; he said some county employees who don't have passports won't be able to get one in time for the trip. Lacy said Sweden and Finland both made decisions to store nuclear waste in geologic repositories. Members of the tour will see what long term monitoring plans those countries have and other plans, he said. In his memo to county commissioners, Lacy wrote: "It is incumbent on Nye County's elected leadership and staff to ensure Nye County's community protection plan objectives for the repository program are realized. Awareness and understanding of other nation's programs has the potential to contribute to Nye County's success in dealing with issues related to this country's repository program." The Nye County community protection plan outlines steps to protect the county from the impact of the Yucca Mountain project, where the DOE plans to store 70,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board visited Sweden and Finland in 2006. Delegates will stay in the Hotel Diplomat in Stockholm, Sweden and visit the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority and the Swedish Nuclear Waste Management Company SKB, touring their canister laboratory. Delegates will visit with local authorities in Oskarshamn, Sweden and visit a central interim storage facility. Next it's up to the Aspo Hard Rock Laboratory. Delegates will travel by ferry from Sweden to Turku, Finland, then continue by bus to the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Station in Finland. A visit is scheduled to a repository site, then a transfer to the Pori Airport for a flight to Helsinki. Delegates will stay at the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Helsinki. They have visits planned to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the STUK, the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority. Besides public policy representatives from government, the delegation includes transportation leaders in fields ranging from rail commerce to spent fuel management to transport technology to strategic communications. webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 11 Daily Yomiuri: TEPCO shows reactor containment Tokyo Electric Power Co. showed journalists the inside of buildings of the No. 3 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station Saturday, including, for the first time, the room containing the reactor that was damaged by the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake. Though TEPCO has shown the inside of a building accommodating the plant's No. 6 reactor, it was the first time that the inside of a reactor containment, which is a radiation-controlled area, was opened to the press. TEPCO also showed the inside of a building housing the reactor turbine. At the time of the earthquake, the No. 3 reactor's electric transformer, which was about 40 meters from the building accommodating the reactor, caught fire. The plant has seven nuclear reactors, and the Nos. 3, 4 and 7 reactors were in operation when the earthquake occurred. All three automatically shut down. TEPCO officials said the No. 3 reactor was chosen for disclosure because its repairs had been the quickest, in a move meant to reassure the public that the plant's core facilities were not damaged by the earthquake. In the operation-control area on the third floor of the building accommodating the No. 3 reactor, water containing a small quantity of radioactivity leaked from a nuclear fuel storage pool. The contaminated water had been mopped up. But one of four wall-borne steel pressure-relief windows, each measuring four by four meters, had not been repaired after it was blown outside building by the force of the quake. Sunlight entered through the hole where the window used to be. The windows are designed to channel excess pressure outside at the time of an accident. Inside the reactor containment area, important equipment, such as a device to move control rods and the main steam isolation valve for preventing radiation leaks in an emergency, superficially appeared undamaged. The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 12 Indiatimes: More than 12,000 MW nuclear power generation by 2020 28 Jul, 2007, 1554 hrs IST, PTI COIMBATORE: With eight more power plants sanctioned, the nuclear power generation in the country would cross more than 12,000 MW by 2020, a senior official in the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), said on Saturday. While existing 17 nuclear plants generating 4,680 MW power and another 3,580 MW to be generated from five new projects, the nuclear power generation would exceed 12,000 MW in another 10 years, Dr V Meenakshisundaram, Head, Radiation safety, IGCA told media. Out of the five new power plants that would generate a total of 3,580 MW, for which works have alrady been started, two would be in Kudangulam with 1000 MW capacity each with Russian assistance, one at 500 MW capacity Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam and two Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) with 540 MW capacity each, including one at Kaiga, he said. Meenakshisundaram was here to participate in a State level Technical symposium 'Ecofest-07+ with a theme 'Save Energy, Protect Environment, Sustain Life, organised by the students of Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Without elaborating on the eight new reactors sanctioned, he said that it was also proposed to increase the life of these plants to 40 years from the present 20 to 30 years. On burn-ups, he said that the department was successful in increasing them from 7,000 MW days per tonnes (fuels used) in PHWR to one lakh MWD/tonnes in PFBR. Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For ***************************************************************** 13 NYT: In Its Nuclear Deal With India, Washington Appears to Make More Concessions - New York Times By SOMINI SENGUPTA Published: July 28, 2007 NEW DELHI, July 27 — After a year of negotiations, India and the United States on Friday announced completion of a civilian nuclear accord, which Indian officials hailed as preserving India’s national security interests and as a testament to its emerging strategic importance to the United States. The Indian national security adviser, M. K. Narayanan, called it “a touchstone of a transformed bilateral relationship between India and the United States.” In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the agreement a “historic milestone” that would enhance relations with India. The agreement, which was forged during five rounds of negotiations, requires India to separate its civilian nuclear power reactors and open them to international inspections. But in the end it was the United States that appeared to make more concessions. India stuck fast to its demand to be able to reprocess spent fuel from the reactors on the civilian side, which had raised concerns in Washington about opportunities to produce weapons-grade plutonium for India’s military arsenal. The final agreement will allow India to carry out the reprocessing but requires it to develop a new facility dedicated to that purpose and subject to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. It also allows India to develop “a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel” in case of a disruption of fuel supply, according to the Indian foreign ministry. Under American law, the United States would have to cut fuel supply in the event of another Indian nuclear test; the final agreement does not spell out what would happen in such an eventuality. “We’ve got a very good deal, which we believe will meet the requirements of both countries,” Mr. Narayanan said at a news conference here Friday evening. For their part, Bush administration officials largely sidestepped questions about why they decided to carve a large exception to President Bush’s declaration three years ago that no additional countries should be manufacturing nuclear fuel. They argued that India — one of three countries that have refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, along with Israel and Pakistan — has never posed a proliferation risk, and would use its new fuel solely for peaceful purposes, at a safeguarded facility. But in other cases, most notably that of Iran, the United States has rejected building such facilities, even if international inspectors are resident there. While India has committed to using American-produced fuel for only civilian reactors, outside experts have noted that a result will be to free up other sources of fuel for its weapons. “At the very least, the Bush administration should not make it easier for New Delhi to resume nuclear testing and to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons,” said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Washington-based Henry L. Stimson Center. Some critics of the deal, led by Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, a Democrat, have vowed to try to defeat it. But it appears unlikely that they will muster the votes, especially in an election year when Indian-Americans are courted by both parties. The accord allayed the two sticking points that Indian critics of the deal — including, most important, its scientific community — had held up as offending to national sovereignty. Sitting beside Mr. Narayanan at the news conference was the last holdout on the deal, the Indian Atomic Energy Commission chairman, Anil Kakodkar, who went as far as to call it “a satisfactory thing.” Mr. Narayanan said Mr. Kakodkar’s blessings would help to blunt political criticism of the deal. Neither the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party nor the government’s leftist allies, who have balked at India’s friendlier relations with the United States, commented Friday night. The left has said it would make an assessment after reviewing the full text of the agreement, which has not been made public. Government negotiators took pains to point out that India’s fast-breeder reactor would remain outside the safeguards. The agreement bears on far more than nuclear matters. It potentially smoothes over abiding Indian distrust of American intentions ever since New Delhi conducted its first nuclear test more than 30 years ago. India has been a nuclear renegade ever since. By refusing to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, India has been ineligible to buy nuclear technology, including fuel. David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 14 Tennessean: TVA study recommends finishing 2nd Watts Bar reactor - Nashville, Tennessee - Saturday, 07/28/07 - Tennessean.com Recommendation comes after writing off $1.7 billion on nuke program in 2001 By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press Writer KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A $20 million internal study commissioned last year by Tennessee Valley Authority directors will recommend the federal utility complete a second reactor at the last new nuclear plant to come online in the United States, a top TVA nuclear executive said Friday. The nation's largest public utility is weighing whether to finish its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City, about 50 miles south of Knoxville. The plant opened in 1996 with one reactor after 23 years and $7 billion spent on delayed construction. The second planned reactor, Unit 2, was deferred indefinitely, although it still has a valid construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The study concludes that completing an 1,180-megawatt Watts Bar 2 reactor -- enough to power around 600,000 homes -- would be "the fastest way for us to provide clean, safe, low-cost generation to meet the demand growth we have today and the demand growth that we are projecting to see in the future," Senior Vice President Ashok Bhatnager said in an interview. The new study evaluates the value, the cost and the requirements of finishing Unit 2, which the study estimates is about 60 percent complete. Bhatnager refused to give the estimated cost or length of the project, but TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore has said in the past that finishing Watts Bar 2 could cost $2 billion to $3 billion. TVA would need it operating by around 2013 and would finance it alone. Bhatnager, who heads new nuclear generation, development and construction, will present the study to the TVA board on Wednesday. He wouldn't predict how the directors will vote, but said he is ready to move quickly on their decision. "We have the planning in place to be able to start this next fiscal year," he said. In May, TVA completed a five-year, $1.8 billion renovation of its long-mothballed Unit 1 reactor at the Browns Ferry station in north Alabama. President Bush marked the event with a visit. The reactor represents the first "new" nuclear generation in the United States this century and what the industry hopes will be the beginning of a nuclear revival. Bhatnager oversaw the Browns Ferry One restart, and likes what he has found at Watts Bar 2. "I walked the plant down to personally get an idea of what the plant looked like," he said. "The material condition looks good. We understand what is there and what is not there. I think we understand that fairly well. "So I see that as a doable option for us," Bhatnager said. Work stopped on the Unit 2 reactor in 1985 when TVA shuttered its entire nuclear program over safety concerns and regulatory fallout from the Three Mile Island disaster. In 1994, the federal agency said it would not finish the reactor without a financial partner, and in 2001 TVA wrote off $1.7 billion invested in the deferred project. But times have changed. Electricity demand is growing 2 percent annually in TVA's service area, which covers most of Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. Although equipment from Watts Bar Unit 2 was cannibalized for other TVA reactors, the agency has kept the unfinished reactor on the back burner as an option for new baseload capacity. Bhatnager said the project could generate an annual construction payroll of around $73 million and that once in operation the second reactor would add about 250 jobs to Watts Bar's 517-employee work force. Assisting TVA in the Watts Bar study were Bechtel Power Corp. for engineering and maintenance, Westinghouse Electric Co. on nuclear steam systems and Siemens Power Generation Corp. on turbine generators. On the net: TVA: http://www.tva.gov Copyright © 2007, tennessean.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Burlington Free Press.com: Vermonters to add voices to energy debate burlingtonfreepress.com | Burlington, Vermont Published: Sunday, July 29, 2007 By Dan McLean Free Press Staff Writer Anticipating the need to replace the supply of about two-thirds of the state's electricity, 200 Vermonters will sequester themselves in a hotel for a weekend in early November to study energy options and consider how to balance Vermont's energy portfolio for the next generation. Energy discussions -- whether considering wind, nuclear, or hydroelectric power -- attract crowds of special-interest groups and political activists. The competing rhetoric can be overwhelming. The goal of the $500,000-plus worth of studies -- the largest energy sampling ever conducted in the United States -- is to cut through the slogans and give policymakers a fresh look at how Vermonters envision the state's energy future, said Stephen Wark, the Department of Public Service's consumer affairs director. Vermonters will pay for the bulk of the studies, through rate charges on utility bills and state tax dollars. "We are looking for mainstream Vermonters, not advocates," Wark said. "What we are looking for is people with an open mind, people that are willing to learn and share their opinions with us." The discussion is needed because Vermont relies Page=001 Column=001 OK,0006.08 Overset= 00371^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^heavily on two sources: Vermont Yankee, a 650-megawatt nuclear power plant in Vernon, and Hydro-Quebec, a massive Canadian utility that generates 35,000 megawatts, mostly from 54 hydroelectric dams; a sliver of that, about 300 megawatts, is sent over the border to Vermont. One megawatt generates enough electricity to supply about 1,000 residential homes. Contracts with both suppliers are nearing an end. Vermont Yankee's 40-year license and power contracts expire in 2012; in 2015, most of Hydro-Quebec's contracts end. Although the dates might seem distant, it takes years to build and permit new generators. Signing new contracts with power suppliers like Hydro-Quebec is possible, but prices and terms are subject to negotiation, said Dave Lamont, power planning engineer at the Department of Public Service. "It's not like renewing a subscription to a magazine," he said. Also, Hydro-Quebec might decide not to offer electricity to Vermonters once the contracts end. "They go back and forth on whether they have surplus to sell," Lamont said. "They don't have to sell to us. They can sell to anyone." Replacement options include coal, hydro, natural gas, nuclear, oil, solar, wind, wood and other renewable energy sources, but decisions aren't made on philosophical preferences alone. Each source has advantages and disadvantages -- varying costs, reliability issues and environmental impacts -- that must be balanced. If wind power were pursued at its utmost capacity, for example, it could account for 15 percent to 20 percent of the state's energy portfolio, said Ken Nolan, director of resource planning at the Burlington Electric Department. Wark cited similar figures. But those numbers are just estimates. No one really knows the limits on wind power, Lamont said. Theoretically, more than 20 percent of Vermont's power could come from wind, but it could create an unbalanced energy portfolio since wind is not a constant source. "If you have too much wind, it's too much of a variable resource, which is not a good thing," he said. The major power contracts are ending, but Vermont is not in danger of operating in the dark. At any time, electricity can be purchased from the region's power grid, through ISO New England Inc., a nonprofit based in Holyoke, Mass. ISO New England draws electricity from a broad mixture of sources throughout the region, Lamont said. The grid's prices, however, are unpredictable and fluctuate with the market. "The lights aren't going to go out," Lamont said, "but you get plunged into a world of uncertainty." Utilities typically have a combination of short-term and long-term contracts with power suppliers and purchase additional power as needed from the New England power grid. Tapping Vermonters State officials hope to capture public opinion through several efforts. The 200 people, who are selected from 5,000 interviewed, will participate in "deliberative polling." Robert Luskin, director of the Center for Deliberative Opinion Research at the University of Texas, will lead the energy policy weekend. Each participant will be paid $100 to $150 and asked to read detailed material, designed to be neutral and jargon-free, before the November weekend. After learning about various power sources, they will be polled. Reached by e-mail, Luskin declined to comment on the results of previous deliberative polling efforts on energy, saying media coverage could influence Vermont participants. Participants in the $334,290 study are acting as delegates for the state's roughly 624,000 residents, Wark said. "This is, in a sense, a type of direct democracy," he said. Top executives at the state's two largest electric utilities, Central Vermont Public Service Corp. and Green Mountain Power Corp., expressed support for the studies. "As our region comes face-to-face with what we call the 'brutal facts,' some hard choices are going to be made," said Chris Dutton, president and CEO of Green Mountain Power. Dutton advocates keeping New England's approximately six nuclear plants online and encourages serious consideration of building a new nuclear power plant in New England in the next decade. Burning coal creates harmful emissions, and the region is already overdependent on natural gas generators, making nuclear the best remaining option, Dutton said, adding, "I think you are seeing that kind of conversation occurring all over the country right now." The second part of the state's polling efforts will be run by Jonathan Raab of Boston-based Raab Associates Ltd., who will conduct consensus-building workshops at five Vermont locations, each with 150 to 175 people. The $146,000 workshop series will also employ "keypad polling" on energy questions, Wark said. The Vermont Department of Public Service staff will participate in the studies online, through Facilitate.com, which will cost about $23,000. "I think it's really going to be fabulous," Lamont said of the studies. "The trouble is getting to educate people on how this stuff works." The state is paying $50,000 and all but one of the state's 21 utilities have agreed to collect another $300,000 from ratepayers, Wark said. Fund-raising and grants and will cover the remainder. The results will be complete by the end of the year and reported to the Legislature and governor, he said. It's unclear what impact the studies will have on Vermont's leaders. Reconfiguring the state's energy supply is "a really important debate for Vermonters" said Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham. "Vermont faces a real energy crisis." But, the legislator added, he tends to be "leery" of public opinion polls. Direct contact with Vermonters is more important to him. "Telephone calls and conversations on the street really make a difference," Shumlin said. "I have never seen poll results make much of an impression on legislation." In a letter titled "Vermont's Energy Future" posted on the state Web site, Republican Gov. Jim Douglas said ideas from Vermonters will be helpful. "The next steps for us are complex, the choices imperfect. I do believe your insight will help us to make a better-informed set of decisions," Douglas wrote. He could not be reached for further comment. Finding a balance Vermont's 2006 energy portfolio burned few fossil fuels, but depended on nuclear power for 37 percent of its electricity, a higher percentage than most U.S. regions, according to state data. Although nuclear power creates no carbon emissions, other issues arise -- particularly the disposal of spent fuel. Plans to send Vermont Yankee's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Nevada have been sidelined. The nuclear waste, originally scheduled for pickup in 1999, is now estimated for removal in 2017 at the earliest, said Brian Cosgrove, Vermont Yankee's manager of government affairs. "The process has gotten stalled up in Washington," he said, adding there is also a lawsuit in Nevada. "So, there are some tangles. "The program is moving forward. It has not been abandoned," he said. In the meantime, Vermont Yankee is storing its nuclear waste on-site in a spent fuel pool and plans to begin using 150-ton, dry-cask storage units later this year, Cosgrove said. The storage units are effective for about 100 years, he said. New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. owns Vermont Yankee. Even if there is a desire to avoid some types of energy, that becomes difficult in practice. Burlington Electric, for example, favors renewable energies such as wind, solar and wood, even though they are more expensive than coal or nuclear power, Nolan said. "Burlington residents have shown they are willing to pay a little extra to have that renewable quality," he said. Despite its lean toward renewables, the bulk of its power was generated from burning wood at the McNeil Generating Station. In 2006, 11 percent of the utility's electricity came from nuclear sources and 6 percent came from burning coal, because the utility purchased electricity from the New England power grid, which taps a cross-section of sources. "Eventually, we need to come to grips with the fact that we need energy," Nolan said. The question, he said, is how you do it. Central Vermont Public Service secures about 50 percent of its power from nuclear facilities and 30 percent from Hydro-Quebec. "At this point in time I think we are sort of agnostic about the type of power supply. We are open-minded," said Bob Young, the utility's president. This fall's studies will help determine the kind of balance Vermonters want, Young said. "When we understand that, those conclusions will begin to define what that portfolio looks like." Cosgrove, at Vermont Yankee, hopes politics don't enter the energy debate or influence the polls. "This is going to be a very big deal. It could make or break the economy," Cosgrove said. "If you make bad decisions about energy, your state can go broke really fast. "The politics have to stop at the door when you do something like this," he said of the extensive polling. "Ideology has to be left aside." Contact Dan McLean at 651-4877 or dmclean@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com ON THE WEB For more information log on to www.vermontsenergyfuture.info "I was disappointed in the Freep piece because it failed to describe how someone can participate in this process or make clear if those details are not yet available. Also, Mr. McLean failed to make important distinctions between baseload, peak, and intermittent power sources. Perhaps I am expecting too much of the Vermont media, but the article leaves the impression that different sources are easily interchangeable on the grid to meet demands. Without becoming too technical, I think the author could have done a better job explaining this point." I thought it was a poorly written piece. I don't expect a BFP reporter to understand the technical aspects of electric power. The average Vermonter is going to have to do their own research and draw their own conclusions. That being said, the way the state is approaching the energy issue is a big waste of time and money. Why bother getting the public's feedback? I'd rather the energy experts make that call. I can see this turning into a 3 ring circus. You better believe the idiots from VRPIG & the CLF will try to take control with the help of Simpleton & Shamlin. This is the Vermont way don't forget! Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:58 pm ====================================================================== Well said Dusher, and where did you come from? You should be in the discussion if they'll let you in. Likely won't tho - you sound too sane. JBT Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 11:56 am ====================================================================== A half million dollars seems a steep price for this effort, and the results alone certainly won't be the determining factor of our energy supply. At best, it will provide a broad based platform for public discourse and input. I was disappointed in the Freep piece because it failed to describe how someone can participate in this process or make clear if those details are not yet available. Also, Mr. McLean failed to make important distinctions between baseload, peak, and intermittent power sources. Perhaps I am expecting too much of the Vermont media, but the article leaves the impression that different sources are easily interchangeable on the grid to meet demands. Without becoming too technical, I think the author could have done a better job explaining this point. The issue should boil down to what is the expected demand for baseload power and how can that be met at the 'best' cost. I say best, because, for some, lowest price won't be best. Best for many in Vermont will be based on ideological and philosophical beliefs, e.g., the planet, the environment, renewable sources, etc., but baseload power should be priced as low as possible. In any event, the media has a wonderful opportunity to deal with the electric power issue for the next few years. I hope they take advantage of it to truly inform Vermonters of the implications and options from all sides of the issue, not only the political machinations that will inevitably surround it. I remember providing public comments many years ago at a hearing before Vermont utilities chose to negotiate a power supply contract with HydroQuebec. The environmental opponents attempted to turn the hearing into a circus by parading around the hall dressed as Cree carrying canoes. They were protesting the flooding of Native peoples' hunting grounds for the reservoirs that HQ was building in far northern Quebec. The good news was Vermont elected to obtain electricity from HydroQuebec at what history has shown to be very favorable rates and I believe the Cree were satisfactorily accommodated. Nevertheless, there was a time a few years ago when those supply contracts were bashed when for a very short time electric prices declined. Let's hope this public input effort is done in high quality way. The stakes for Vermont on many fronts are too high to do otherwise. Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 11:52 am They'll only listen to the ones they agree with, which by the way will likely be the only ones allowed into the group discussion. I like the idea of sequestering the legislators until the session is done; no conjugal visits either. JBT Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 11:44 am Copyright ©2007 Burlingtonfreepress.com All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 JOURNAL NEWS: Indian Point's license renewal battle will take plenty of resources and time Sunday, July 29, 2007 Indian Point's license renewal battle will take plenty of resources and time By GREG CLARY (Original publication: July 29, 2007) BUCHANAN - Indian Point's license renewal battle will likely not suffer from lack of troops or expert field generals - on either side. The clock began ticking Wednesday on a 60-day period for the public to raise and substantiate environmental and safety concerns at the nuclear plants, but whether Indian Point will be granted a 20-year extension to produce electricity until 2035 won't be decided for nearly three years. Getting two licenses renewed - Indian Point 2's expires in 2013 and Indian Point 3's in 2015 - will cost Entergy Nuclear between $10 million and $20 million per reactor and will require some pretty deep pockets from those who line up to stop the renewal. The opposition has been mobilizing since the voluminous application was first posted on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Web site. The leaders know there isn't much time to waste. "We have already retained the services of Diane Curran, a nationally recognized attorney on nuclear regulatory issues who was successful in winning a case in California," said Lisa Rainwater, policy director for Riverkeeper, an environmental group that is working to close the nuclear complex. "We have identified our contentions and our experts and we will in fact be ready within the next 60 days to submit our petition." Rainwater said Riverkeeper is expecting the renewals to take five years with legal challenges should the renewals be approved. Of 48 renewal applications accepted, none has been denied. The 60-day period may seem to pass too quickly for those anti-nuclear activist organizations stocked primarily with volunteers. Getting a handle on the details involved in such a highly technical process is a full-time job for many people on both sides of the issue, and average Joes may end up having to rely on the better organized and better funded. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan has already heard from a resident requesting more time to prepare, citing the size and complexity of the application. That request was not granted. "Folks knew this was coming," Sheehan said. "The application's been posted since it was delivered." Entergy won't lack for expertise in pushing its application. The man behind its fleet of 12 nuclear-plant renewal efforts has already supervised two successful extensions and has three others in various stages of development. Though each application and reactor is unique, the company is using whatever resources and expertise it can share across the entire company. "As far as doing the technical and environmental reviews, we use a fleet approach," said Garry Young, Entergy Nuclear's top license renewal official. "We have a team of people that does all our plants." Young said Indian Point will have between 20 and 30 people working on its two license renewals, not including those workers with specific operational roles who will be brought in to help in their areas. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said last week he was still sorting out what his options were and hadn't made a decision on what role his office would play. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo recently signed on as a supporter of Westchester County's federal lawsuit to tighten the relicensing criteria and include such elements as emergency planning, but his office did not respond to a reporter asking if Cuomo would intervene in the renewal process as currently constituted. Sheehan said a strategy the agency has seen in some other renewal applications is for a person or party to petition the agency to join with others that have similar contentions to avoid being kept out of the proceedings. He said by the end of September it will be clear what safety and environmental issues will be considered and a few months after, the agency will make a final determination about what exactly will be reviewed. A final decision on the renewal for both plants is due by the summer of 2010. Reach Greg Clary at 914-696-8566 or gclary@lohud.com. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's tentative schedule for Indian Point's license renewal application: - Overview meeting - June 27 - Application accepted - July 25 - Public meetings on environmental issues - Sept. 19 - Environmental scoping ends - Oct. 12 - Draft environmental impact statement due - July 25, 2008 - Public meeting on draft environmental impact statement - September 2008 - Tentative report on safety evaluation - September 2008 - End of comment period on draft environmental statement - Oct. 20, 2008 - Outside advisory committee on reactor safeguards discusses application - October 2008 - Final safety evaluation - March 2009 - Final environmental impact statement - April 2009 - Full advisory committee on reactor safeguards - May 2009 - Without hearing - agency decision expected in July 2009. - With hearings, the five-member NRC is expected to render a decision by June 2010. Copyright © 2007 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper ***************************************************************** 17 PATRIOT LEDGER: NRC report favors Pilgrim nuke plant: Initial OK given to facility for another 20-year license SouthofBoston.com The Patriot Ledger 400 Crown Colony Drive P.O. Box 699159 Quincy, MA 02269-9159 (617) 786-7000 By JULIE JETTE The Patriot Ledger PLYMOUTH - Staffers at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say the continued operation of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant will not create enough environmental harm to justify shutting it down when its 30-year license expires in 2012. Regulators made the recommendation that relicensing of the plant should go forward in a report released Friday. Like all nuclear plants, Pilgrim was given a 30-year license to operate when it first opened. Plants across the country are currently seeking 20-year license extensions, which in Pilgrim’s case would allow it to produce electricity through 2032. The report is the second of two from commission staff that will be considered by higher level federal officials within the commission to determine whether to grant the license. The first, involving safety matters, also recommended the relicensing go ahead if Pilgrim takes steps to ensure the plant’s long-term safety and efficiency. Especially with the latest positive report, formal approval of the plant’s relicensing could come as soon as November. However, Duxbury-based environmental group Pilgrim Watch is waiting for the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to decide whether safety concerns it raised warrant a longer hearing. If that board rules in Pilgrim Watch’s favor, a decision about the license won’t be made until next July. The state Attorney General’s office also has a lawsuit pending, contending that the nuclear agency has not sufficiently considered key safety issues during the relicensing process. The final environmental report did not contain major differences from a draft report regulators released in December, stating the biggest environmental impact the plant causes is on local winter flounder and smelt in the Jones River, both of which can get caught in the plant’s cooling system. The report said the effect on local winter flounder and the Jones River smelt would be ‘‘moderate’’ and that the effect on other aquatic species would be ‘‘small to moderate.’’ ‘‘The staff stepped back and looked at the bigger picture, and in doing that determined that these cumulative issues don’t rise to the level that licensing doesn’t make sense,’’ said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Pilgrim has what is known as a ‘‘once-through’’ cooling system, in which water from the Atlantic Ocean is run through the plant and then released. The water taken in and discharged from Pilgrim doesn’t have contact with any radioactive fuel at the plant. Power plants that discharge water back into a river or the ocean must have permits from the Environmental Protection Agency, and in Massachusetts from the Department of Environmental Protection. Sheen said the commission’s determination about the affect on fish could play a role when the plant’s discharge permit is reviewed. ‘‘Decision-makers will now have this available to them,’’ Sheehan said. It seems unlikely, however, that the EPA will make any changes to how Pilgrim cools itself any time soon. The plant’s license last expired in March 1996; by applying for a new permit, Pilgrim effectively was granted an extension. ‘‘There’s nothing in the license renewal process that would prompt (the EPA) to move any faster or any slower,’’ Pilgrim spokesman David Tarantino said. A spokesman for the New England regional office of the EPA could not be reached Friday. Last September, the agency required the Kendal Mirant power plant on the Charles River in Cambridge to make substantial changes in how it discharges water into the river. Julie Jette may be reached at jjette@ledger.com . Copyright 2007 The Patriot Ledger Transmitted Saturday, July 28, 2007 The Patriot Ledger, 400 Crown Colony Drive P.O. Box 699159, Quincy, MA 02269-9159 Telephone: (617) 786-7000 ***************************************************************** 18 UPI: Australian reactor temporarily shut down United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: July 28, 2007 at 12:09 AM SYDNEY, July 28 (UPI) -- A new nuclear reactor in Australia has been shut down for at least eight weeks because of three loose uranium fuel plates. Prime Minister John Howard opened the Lucas Heights Research Reactor in southern Sydney three months ago. Sharon Kelly, a Lucas Heights spokeswoman, said a uranium plate had risen a few centimeters in three of the 16 fuel assemblies, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. She said the problem had no apparent effect on operations and posed no risk to the public. "It was only noticed when we did a routine shutdown to do a fuel change," she said. "It is possibly a manufacturing problem. We have to find out why they got loose." Engineers plan to use the shutdown to investigate a minor water leak as well. © Copyright 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 19 La Crosse Tribune: Nuclear power is not the answer Published - Sunday, July 29, 2007 By AL GEDICKS | La Crosse Del Butterfield (“Fight Climate change with nuclear power,” July 26) believes that because nuclear power does not produce carbon dioxide and thus does not contribute to global climate change, nuclear power is preferable to the burning of fossil fuels in coal-burning plants. Without uranium there is no nuclear power. The mining, milling and enrichment of uranium into nuclear fuel are extremely energy-intensive and result in the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. The most intense mining and milling activity in the U.S. has been concentrated on the lands of the Navajo and Pueblo Indians in the Grants Uranium Belt of northwest New Mexico. Before uranium can be used in nuclear power plants, it must undergo a process of enrichment. Uranium enrichment plants are the largest industrial plants in the world and consume enormous amounts of electricity. The Oak Ridge, Tenn., enrichment plant required the construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority of what was then the world’s largest coal-fired electric plant, producing 238,000 kilowatts of power. In addition to producing large amounts of carbon dioxide, these plants release large amounts of chloroflurocarbon gas, which contributes to global warming and is 10,000 to 20,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Mr. Butterfield also ignores the substantial emissions of radioactive radon gas and other radioactive elements from the mining and milling of uranium ore in underground and open pit mines. At least 450 former uranium miners have already died of lung cancer, five times the national average. And what about nuclear waste disposal? A typical nuclear reactor will generate 20 to 30 tons of high-level nuclear waste annually. Proponents of nuclear power fail to address the disproportionate impact of nuclear activities on Native American populations. Al Gedicks teaches sociology at the UW-La Crosse and has written extensively on the impact of resource exploitation on indigeneous people. . Copyright © 1997 - 2007 The La Crosse Tribune. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 AFP: US Congress skeptical of India nuclear accord - by P. Parameswaran Sat Jul 28, 1:43 AM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - Key US legislators looked skeptically at a landmark nuclear pact between the United States and India amid speculation that the terms could exceed what lawmakers would accept. President George W. Bush said he looked forward to working with the Democratic-controlled Congress to implement the civilian nuclear deal, saying it marked "another step" in deepening ties with India, which he called "a vital world leader." But Edward Markey, co-chairman of the House of Representatives Bipartisan Task Force on Non-proliferation, vowed that Congress would cast a careful eye on the fine print. "I can only surmise that it includes provisions they fear will raise the hackles of Congress," said Markey. "Of course the administration will argue that they aren't breaking the law, but I think that folks up on the (Capitol) Hill have become increasingly skeptical of the administration's legal arguments," he said. Markey was among 23 House lawmakers who sent a letter to Bush this week reminding him that "any inconsistencies" between the agreement and US laws "will call congressional approval deeply into doubt." Congress in December approved landmark legislation allowing US exports of civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India for the first time in 30 years, a move intended to reverse sanctions on the Asian giant for its nuclear tests. But the new operating agreement goes one step further, allowing India to reprocess spent fuel under safeguards by the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, the US pointman in the talks to frame the pact. That right to reprocess spent US-sourced nuclear fuel has been given only to Japan and the European Union so far, and US lawmakers had expressed skepticism over safeguards needed to deter India from possibly diverting any nuclear material to its military weapons program. Burns said that India had to first establish a new national nuclear reprocessing facility under strict safeguards and then the two countries would agree on a set of arrangements and procedures for such activity. India had given firm assurances that all nuclear material reprocessed would be used "only for peaceful purposes," Burns said. Indian national security advisor M.K. Narayanan said the deal was not an opportunity for India to increase its nuclear arsenal. "I think it's time certain countries overcame the belief that we are interested in proliferation," Narayanan said in New Delhi. On the fate of the deal if India fires another nuclear weapons tests, Burns said the US Atomic Energy Act has made it clear that the US president could suspend the deal under such circumstances. He agreed that the pact, known as the "123 agreement," would come under tight scrutiny in Congress when forwarded to the legislature for a vote possibly by the end of 2007. But he emphasized that all provisions were in line with US law. "This is a very big step and Congress is going to look at it very carefully," he said. Copies of the agreement have not been made public and US lawmakers said the administration was afraid of letting them read the document. The United States would, under the pact, also support the creation of an "Indian strategic fuel reserve" and help India gain access to the international fuel market, Burns said, amid reports New Delhi wanted such a provision to guard against any supply cut-off due to nuclear testing. "This language clearly contradicts the intent of the (US law), which was to cut off US assistance if India resumes testing and was not to help India build up a multi-year fuel supply," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the US Arms Control Association. The operating agreement took about two years to complete. The "next steps" would include India's negotiation of a "safeguards" agreement with the IAEA and the deal gaining support in the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, Rice and Mukherjee said in their joint statement. "Once these additional actions have been completed, president Bush will submit the text of the agreement to the US Congress for final approval," they said. The deal could open up a whopping 100 billion dollars in opportunities for American businesses, according to the US Chamber of Commerce. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 21 Sarasota Herald Tribune: Nuclear power not so cheap or safe * SARASOTA HeraldTribune.com Regarding your recent article "Greener thinking by Crist may lead down nuclear path": I would advise the governor to be careful about endorsing nuclear power. Contrary to what we hear, nuclear is the most expensive and dangerous form of energy. The nuclear industry has been lobbying for many years without really solving the dangers associated with it. Claims had to be paid after the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island. In Sweden, a generator failure caused the threat of a meltdown. Luck kept these accidents from being worse. In England, the government asked sheep farmers not to graze their sheep near the nuclear plants because of radiation emissions. All power plants -- whether coal, natural gas, oil or nuclear -- have their environmental problems. The nuclear industry claims to have a new design for a plant to eliminate past problems. However, it has never built one. The cost could be $3 billion to $7 billion. Also, I don't think society can sue these new power plants if something goes wrong. In addition, Wall Street doesn't want any part of such ventures because the liabilities are too great. There are 117 nuclear plants in the United States and all of them must be shut down within 20 years. Their use has been extended beyond their original design twice. When shut down, these plants will remain hot for thousands of years, as will the spent fuel rods in holding tanks on their premises. In addition, contaminated tools and rags must be properly stored. The federal nuclear waste depository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain is being constructed but with great opposition. Las Vegas is only 75 miles away. Nuclear power only supplies 20 percent of our power. Surely a 20 percent reduction in consumption can be realized with conservation efforts. Sanford Danziger Bradenton Last modified: July 29. 2007 12:00AM Serving the Herald-Tribune newspaper and SNN Channel 6 © Sarasota Herald-Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Member ***************************************************************** 22 Guardian Unlimited: Southeast Asia to Set Up Nuclear Monitor From the Associated Press Saturday July 28, 2007 11:16 AM By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press Writer MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Southeast Asian countries will set up a safety watchdog to ensure that nuclear power plants in the region are not used to produce weapons or aid terrorists and other criminal groups, an official said Saturday. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations wants to ensure that any member countries pursuing nuclear energy programs ``do not allow the exportation of certain materials which could lead to the development of nuclear power other than for peaceful purposes,'' said Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo. The possibility of nuclear weapons getting into the hands of terrorists is also a concern. ``The emergence of possible non-state actors that might be eager to resort to the threat or use of nuclear weapons highlights the seriousness of this problem,'' Romulo said. The 10-nation ASEAN also plans to work more closely with the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency to improve its ability to detect any violation of a treaty banning nuclear weapons in the region, Romulo said. ASEAN foreign ministers will discuss ways to better enforce the decade-old treaty, called the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, at an annual meeting in Manila on Monday. They are to adopt a five-year plan to ensure compliance. The plan includes urging the world's leading nuclear powers - the United States, China, Britain, Russia and France - to declare their respect for the treaty, even if they do not formally accede to it. The treaty bans signatories from developing, stationing, transporting, using or testing nuclear weapons in the region. ASEAN has detected no violation of the treaty since it came into force in 1997, but has been unable to persuade key nuclear powers to formally endorse it. The five-year initiative also seeks the establishment of a regional early warning system for nuclear accidents and an emergency response plan, according to a copy seen by The Associated Press. Romulo said ASEAN ministers would also discuss how the region, with the IAEA's help, could better detect the presence of nuclear weapons on passing foreign military warships. Southeast Asia lies along the world's busiest sea lanes, traversed by both civilian and foreign military vessels. The United States has a heavy military presence in Asia but has traditionally refused to confirm or deny whether it transports nuclear weapons through the region or stores them on its bases there. ASEAN was founded as an anti-communist organization during the Cold War but has evolved into a trade and political bloc. Its members - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - have all signed the nuclear treaty. Ahead of Monday's meeting, ASEAN diplomats were also trying to settle their differences over the creation of a human rights commission under a proposed regional charter. Myanmar, whose military government has been condemned for rights abuses, has objected to any mention of the commission in the charter, while more liberal countries such as the Philippines are strongly pushing for it. ASEAN decided to create a charter to become a more rules-based organization with better international bargaining power. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 23 China Post: Southeast Asia to set up nuclear watchdog Sunday, July 29, 2007 - By Jim Gomez, MANILA, Philippines, AP Southeast Asian countries will set up a safety watchdog to ensure that nuclear power plants in the region are not used to produce weapons or aid rogue groups, an official said Saturday. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations also plans to work more closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency to improve its ability to detect any violation of a treaty banning nuclear weapons in the region, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said. ASEAN foreign ministers are to review the decade-old treaty, called the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, to find ways to better enforce it when they gather for an annual meeting in Manila on Monday. They are to adopt a five-year plan that outlines steps to ensure compliance by ASEAN member states and outside nuclear powers. Romulo said ASEAN wants to ensure that member countries pursuing nuclear energy programs "do not allow the exportation of certain materials which could lead to the development of nuclear power other than for peaceful purposes." "Nuclear energy for power and peaceful purposes ... that's OK," he said. "But we want to ensure that it remains so." Under the plan, ASEAN plans to ask the world's leading nuclear powers -- the United States, China, Britain, Russia and France -- to at least make individual or collective declarations to respect the treaty if they are unable to formally accede to it. It also seeks the establishment of a regional network for an early warning system for possible nuclear accidents and the development of a regional emergency preparedness and response plan, according to a copy of the plan seen by The Associated Press. Romulo said ASEAN ministers would also discuss how the region, with IAEA's help, could better detect the presence of nuclear weapons on passing foreign military warships. Southeast Asia lies along the world's busiest sea lanes, traversed by both civilian and foreign military vessels. The United States has a heavy military presence in Asia but has traditionally refused to confirm or deny whether it transports nuclear weapons or stores them on its bases. The possibility of nuclear weapons getting into the hands of terrorists has also been a concern. "The emergence of possible non-state actors that might be eager to resort to the threat or use of nuclear weapons highlights the seriousness of this problem," Romulo said earlier. While no violation of the treaty has been detected by ASEAN since the accord came into force in 1997, the group has failed to convince key nuclear powers to formally endorse it. The treaty was signed in Bangkok on Dec. 15, 1995, and came into force two years later. Signatories agreed not to develop, manufacture or control nuclear weapons in the region and not to station, transport, use or test them. ASEAN's members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam -- have all signed the treaty. Copyright © 1999~2007 The China Post. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 Las Vegas SUN: Report: Increase in radiation not caused by fire Today: July 29, 2007 at 15:15:24 PDT SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Radiation released into the air in southern Utah during several recent wildfires came from naturally occurring material and not from the fires, according to a University of Nevada, Las Vegas study. From July 5 to July 10, federal radiation monitors of the Community Environmental Monitoring Program recorded spikes in gamma radiation at Milford, with readings at times far above normal. Usually, this form of radiation is measured at 20 or 21 microrems per hour. But during that period the readings reached as much as 136.8 microrems per hour. However, that's still not high enough to cause health effects. Some residents had feared the increase in radiation in the air had been caused by wildfires. Downwinder groups cited the heavy radiation that fell on the region during open-air nuclear testing at the nearby Nevada Test in the 1950s and early '60s. But the UNLV report released on July 20 seemed to rule out fallout and an official from the National Nuclear Security Administration agrees with the report. The study was conducted by the UNLV health physics department, Radiation Services Laboratory. After analyzing air samples collected in Milford, the scientists concluded fallout was not involved. "Initial screening by gamma spectroscopy did not indicate the presence of unusual levels of man-made radionuclides in these filters," the report said. Cesium-137, which is a long-lived component of fallout, "was not detectable in any of the filter samples analyzed." However, several naturally occurring radioactive substances were identified in the samples: Beryllium-7, produced in the upper atmosphere; Lead-212 and Lead-214 derived from the decay of natural uranium and thorium, and Potassium-40, "which is present in atmospheric dust particles and virtually all other types of geological materials." Also tentatively identified were Uranium-235 and Radium-226, natural materials that were found in only small amounts. "Other natural (radioactive) components are present only in variable and relatively small amounts, and no man-made radionuclides were detected," the report concludes. "It's all natural. They did not detect any radiation that could be associated with worldwide fallout," said Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the NNSA in Las Vegas. ---- Information from: Deseret Morning News http://www.deseretnews.com All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 DailyBulletin.com: Rialto takes perchlorate stand Article Launched: 07/28/2007 09:59:16 PM PDT According to the most recent Study by the Center for Disease Control, perchlorate in drinking water, even at low doses, is a threat to the thyroid function of many of U.S. women, and to brain and nervous system development in children. By 2002, it had become apparent that a 6-mile-long plume of perchlorate, a key ingredient of rocket fuel, and trichloroethylene (TCE), a hazardous solvent phased out of industrial use by the 1980s, contaminates the otherwise pure groundwater aquifer that supplies drinking water for the city of Rialto and the Rialto Utility Authority. The source is a World War II ordinance depot later used for manufacturing by large defense contractors and fireworks manufacturers. The contamination comes from land now used by San Bernardino County for its Mid-Valley Sanitary Landfill, to the west, and a 160-acre site to the east occupied by Goodrich Corporation, Emhart (Black & Decker), Pyro Spectaculars and other manufacturers. In response, the Rialto City Council adopted a policy of shutting down contaminated wells to avoid serving perchlorate in any amount to its citizens. Initially, perchlorate concentrations were detected in the dozens to several hundred parts per billion (ppb). Additional investigation and testing found perchlorate as high as 5,000-10,000 ppb, the highest level in the nation in a domestic water supply. The state of California action level is 6 ppb. Protecting citizens' health is paramount, but the potential effects on business, development and the city's finances are also dire. Installing wellhead treatment costs millions, and operational costs add millions more. With the new 210 Freeway, parts of the city are poised for increased development and employment. But if the city cannot assure a 20-year supply of water, state law prohibits local development. Projected costs for the cleanup run as high as $200 million to $300 million. Initially, Rialto turned to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board - Santa Ana Region (RWQCB) for assistance. EPA undertook some studies and issued investigation orders to some of the dischargers. At the time, the Bush administration, under pressure from major defense contractors that had used perchlorate nationally and the Pentagon, resisted adoption of a federal cleanup standard or rigid enforcement by the EPA. EPA took no further action, and deferred to the state of California. The first prosecution effort by the RWQCB ended in a dismissal for lack of evidence. In 2003, Rialto turned to San Bernardino County and asked it to take steps to control the perchlorate from its Mid-Valley Landfill. Through then-supervisor Jerry Eaves, the county declined to offer Rialto any help and denied the extent of the contamination later confirmed by more testing. Faced with ineffective action from EPA and the regional board, a rejection of liability from the county, and some expiring statutes of limitation, Rialto brought suit in federal court in 2004 to make the large corporate polluters and insurance companies - rather than its own citizens - pay for the cleanup. Through investigation of activities as far back as the 1940s, and under federal discovery authority, a mass of evidence was collected and delivered to the RWQCB and EPA. Using some of this evidence, Rialto was successful in November 2005 in obtaining a Clean-up and Abatement Order from the RWQCB that requires the county to clean up the perchlorate emanating from the landfill. By late 2006, the RWQCB began a further prosecution of Goodrich, Emhart/Black & Decker and Pyro Spectaculars, supported in substantial part by the evidence from the federal litigation. Rialto's strategy is straightforward: use the federal litigation to supply evidence to EPA and the regional board with the objective of obtaining orders for cleanup of the basin. California law requires such a lawsuit to invoke the decades of insurance coverage of many of the dischargers, some of whom otherwise lack funding. Rialto's objective has always been to play a supporting role to federal and state agencies to obtain the orders for prompt cleanup. That strategy has worked as to the county and its landfill. The current State Water Board prosecution, which goes to hearing in Rialto Aug. 21-30, will hopefully result in a cleanup order on the eastern part of the plume as well. Rialto will participate and assist the RWQCB in presenting important evidence. If that hearing, which has been delayed four times by the large, well-funded law firms representing the dischargers, is not successful, Rialto has as a backup its federal lawsuit, which should go to trial in late 2008. Either way, Rialto is committed to making the large corporate polluters and insurance companies pay for the cleanup. The same federal litigation has been filed by the city of Colton, West Valley Water District and the private supplier Fontana Water Company. Right now, Rialto and Colton are doing the work in the litigation. The same water purveyors, and the county - both singly and jointly - have applied for federal and state cleanup money for years with only limited success. Rialto is following a dual approach of assisting the administrative agencies and using the federal litigation as a backup. We request this newspaper and all affected citizens to support the current State Water Board prosecution in Rialto Aug. 21-30. The state Legislature should be encouraged to supply funding for prosecution of the dischargers and to assist with the cleanup. EPA should likewise be more actively involved, and take further action on the evidence that has been supplied to it. The health and welfare of Rialto's citizens, and its women and children in particular, deserve nothing less. - Winnie Hanson, Rialto's mayor pro tem, and Ed Scott, council member, comprise the Rialto Perchlorate Subcommittee. Copyright © 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group ***************************************************************** 26 deseretnews.com: Fire radiation not from fallout, study finds Sunday, July 29, 2007 UNLV study finds it came from natural materials By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News A study by experts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says radiation put into the air of southern Utah during wildfires resulted from naturally occurring material. But J Truman, president of the fallout survivors group Downwinders United, criticized the monitoring methods and the fact that it took two weeks to produce a report on the issue. From July 5-July 10, the federal government's radiation monitors of the Community Environmental Monitoring Program recorded spikes in gamma radiation at Milford, with readings at times far above normal. Usually, this form of radiation is measured at 20 or 21 microrems per hour. But during that period the readings were much higher, in three instances going off the chart. Officials estimated that the highest radiation during the period was 136.8 microrems per hour, still not enough to cause health effects. The monitor's chart also showed the minimum to be minus 7.3 microrems per hour, an impossible reading that may reflect the wild swings of an automatic recording pen jogging up and down on graph paper. No other station in the 29-monitor network, operated by the National Nuclear Security Administration, showed a jump in radiation. The increase in radiation in the air had been blamed on the nearby Milford Flat fire, the largest since Utah was settled, but that conflagration started on July 6, the day after some of the most dramatic spikes. However, other fires may have been burning in the region at the time. Downwinder groups feared the material causing the spikes could have been fallout lofted from the ground or plants by fire. They cited the heavy radiation that fell on the region during open-air nuclear testing at the nearby Nevada Test in the 1950s and early '60s. But the UNLV report released on July 20 seemed to rule out fallout and an official from the National Nuclear Security Administration agrees with the report. The study, posted on the Internet at www.nv.doe.gov, was carried out by UNLV health physics department, Radiation Services Laboratory. After analyzing air samples collected in Milford, the scientists concluded that fallout was not involved. "Initial screening by gamma spectroscopy did not indicate the presence of unusual levels of man-made radionuclides in these filters," the report said. Cesium-137, which is a long-lived component of fallout, "was not detectable in any of the filter samples analyzed." However, several naturally occurring radioactive substances were identified in the samples: Beryllium-7, produced in the upper atmosphere; Lead-212 and Lead-214 derived from the decay of natural uranium and thorium, and Potassium-40, "which is present in atmospheric dust particles and virtually all other types of geological materials." Also tentatively identified were Uranium-235 and Radium-226, natural materials that were found in only small amounts. "Other natural (radioactive) components are present only in variable and relatively small amounts, and no man-made radionuclides were detected," the report concludes. Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the NNSA in Las Vegas, said in a telephone interview, "It's all natural. They did not detect any radiation that could be associated with worldwide fallout." Truman, a resident of Malad, Idaho, who is a former resident of southern Utah, remained skeptical about the monitoring. Also, he said, the report came out "two weeks after the fact. "What if there had been a train accident carrying nuclear waste out there?" he asked. Would it have taken the government as long to notify residents of the direction and amount of radiation drifting on the breeze? Truman called for improvements in radiation monitoring. E-mail: bau@desnews.com © 2007 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 27 Tribune-Review: Retrial set in lawsuit against Apollo nuclear plants - By Mary Ann Thomas Sunday, July 29, 2007 The new trial, set for Jan. 14 in the U.S. District Courthouse, Downtown, is another milestone in a complicated lawsuit now in its 13th year. In 1998, a federal court awarded $36.7 million to eight Apollo-area residents claiming that the Babcock & Wilcox nuclear fuel-processing plants in Armstrong County gave them cancer and caused property damage. There are about 235 claims involving personal injury or wrongful death and another 140 claims for property damage from nuclear fuel processing facilities in Apollo and Parks. Fred Baron, a Dallas attorney who is representing the plaintiffs, asked on June 29 to add eight new plaintiffs to the lawsuit, but Chief U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose has not ruled on this request. The company contends that its nuclear processing plants did not cause the illnesses or damages alleged in the lawsuits. B&W had no comment for this story. According to a July 28 court filing, B&W objected to the statement that "enriched uranium is capable of causing cancer in humans." The format of the new trial likely will make the legal proceedings continue for years to come, according to Baron, headquartered in Dallas. The trial will explore only if enriched uranium can cause certain diseases, though the U.S. Department of Labor's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program has found that uranium does cause certain cancers, Baron said. If the court rules that uranium did cause the cancers alleged by the plaintiffs, a second trial will address individual claims, liability and/or damages. There would be another trial on plutonium exposure from B&W's former processing facility in Parks. B&W had requested the new trial format, to which Ambrose agreed in a May 14 order. The original lawsuit was filed in 1994 after years of resident protests and environmental activism, which resulted in the removal and clean up of the Apollo plant for about $70 million in the mid-1990s. The 1998 verdict was overturned by Ambrose in 2000 because of errors in admitting evidence and some testimony. B&W declared bankruptcy that year. The parties, including the second defendant, the Atlantic Richfield Co., tried to settle the case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, but were not successful. When B&W emerged from bankruptcy in 2006, the Apollo case moved from bankruptcy court back to federal court. Baron represented Karen Silkwood in her radiation poisoning case. Reproduction or reuse prohibited without written consent from Tribune-Review Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 28 Whitehaven News: Go-ahead for nuclear clean-up centre Published on 28/07/2007 A ÂŁ6M nuclear decontamination centre can be built at Lillyhall, near Workington, county councillors have decided. Swedish firm Studsvik says the plant will clean metals with low levels of contamination so they can be recycled rather than buried at Drigg radioactive waste dump. But the hugely controversial proposal brought 77 objections from residents, businesses such as Iggesund Paperboard, Allerdale Council and Distington and Dean Parish Councils. It was passed on the casting vote of chairman Geoff Prest when Cumbria County Council’s development control committee met yesterday. Planning officer John Pell advised councillors to give little weight to objectors’ concerns about hazards. He said the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and the Environment Agency were happy the process was safe. He added: “The worst possible occurrence would be a fire that destroyed the plant. Even in that situation, public exposure to radiation would be minimal.” Mark Lyons, president of Studsvik UK, told councillors: “We have had similar facilities in Sweden for 20 years, which have operated successfully without a single incident. “The site we have chosen [at Lillyhall] is appropriate for the low-hazard operation that we are proposing.” Studsvik considered other locations, including Sellafield, but found only Lillyhall was suitable. The plant, in Joseph Noble Road, will employ 30 staff when it opens next summer. Sixty per cent of the metal treated will come from Sellafield and the rest from nuclear sites across the UK, travelling by road, rail or sea to the port of Workington. Studsvik will set up a local liaison committee and publish details about the plant’s operation on a website. Those assurances did not satisfy objectors at yesterday’s meeting in Kendal. Alan Winship, chairman of Dean Parish Council, said:“Local opinion is heavily weighted against this. Approval would set a precedent for the proliferation of nuclear activities away from the Sellafield complex.” And Keith Thomas, a Dean parish councillor of 30 years, said: “We are told that 850,000 tonnes of steel need to be decontaminated. “At 27 tonnes per truck, that’s almost 31,500 journeys on the crowded A595. “The best and safest place to decontaminate metal is Sellafield where monitoring and medical facilities exist.” Councillors were evenly divided on the issue. Ulverston’s Wendy Kolbe seized on news that plans for a cheese factory at Lillyhall had been scrapped because of worries about Studsvik’s plant. She said: “I’m convinced of the economic blight that this would create. All we are looking at is 30 jobs created and a vast amount of jobs [elsewhere] at risk, which is very concerning.” However, Gosforth and Ennerdale councillor Norman Clarkson accused objectors of scaremongering and exaggerating the risks. He said: “It’s as if the Quatermass Experiment was coming Lillyhall. Nothing could be further from the truth. “I live one-and-a-half miles from Sellafield and I don’t have webbed feet and two green heads.” View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/digitalcopy ***************************************************************** 29 Pahrump Valley Times: Yucca rail estimated at more than $3b Nye County's Largest Newspaper Circulation Jul. 27, 2007 BY STEVE TETREAULT Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- The cost of building a government railroad across rural Nevada to carry nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain has grown beyond $3 billion and is climbing with groundbreaking still several years away, according to new estimates. The Department of Energy has set $3.155 billion as the latest price tag to run rail about 319 miles from Caliente in Eastern Nevada to the Yucca site in Nye County. A previous cost estimate, disclosed in December 2005, was $2 billion. The numbers underscore the growing cost of the proposed Nevada nuclear waste complex, and the likely challenges facing the Energy Department to secure funding from Congress for the undertaking. "I think this is going to be a big pill to swallow on Capitol Hill," said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "This goes to show the longer things get delayed the more expensive it will be for the rising costs of concrete and steel. But also that this is a more difficult job than they thought before." The Energy Department in March estimated that repository construction and transportation, and initial operations at the site, would cost $27 billion. The department has not updated broader and longer range "life cycle" costs, which were at $57.6 billion in 2001. The government still is several years away, at least, from breaking ground for a railroad and for waste-handling buildings beyond the five-mile long wide-mouth exploratory tunnel and study facilities at the site already. Project Director Ward Sproat, at a meeting on Friday with Nevada county officials, said that railroad groundbreaking likely will be delayed beyond 2009, according to several meeting participants. Sproat told the meeting he was not sure if the rail project would have the funding to start by then, officials said. DOE has routinely steered money from Yucca transportation segments to complete a license application that is considered to be a more pressing priority. A 54-page draft national transportation document containing the new railroad cost estimates was circulated last week among state and local officials, potential repository vendors and other stakeholders. DOE spokesman Allen Benson said the new dollar amounts for a Nevada railroad are based on "a better understanding of the cost of facilities, understanding there was a lot more work done on (the plan) and we have had a better look at the costs. "As we come closer to construction we will have to update the costs. This is where we are at this point." The rail cost estimates include features such as an equipment yard, maintenance facilities, a train control center and sidings to connect the line to existing track in Caliente, according to the DOE transportation document. Bob Halstead, a transportation consultant under contract to the state, said DOE's estimate still might be low. "Not knowing what went into these numbers but having done detailed cost exercises and having revisited the numbers to adjust them I would say these DOE numbers seem credible but they still might be too low. The high number could be $3.6 billion or $3.7 billion," Halstead said. Halstead also said as the rail costs continue to grow, DOE may come under pressure from trucking companies to abandon rail and ship nuclear waste to the Yucca site by truck as a more economical choice. webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 30 Casper Star Tribune: Federal regulators plan uranium meeting in Casper Sunday, July 29, 2007 CASPER, Wyo. - Federal regulators are planning a meeting here early next month to hear public comments and concerns about in-situ uranium mining. Recent increases in the price of uranium have sparked increased interest in the mining technique, in which chemicals are used to free uranium from the surrounding ore underground. Water holding the freed uranium is then pumped to the surface where it's refined. Four years ago, uranium oxide, or "yellowcake," sold for around $10 a pound. It has jumped to around $135 a pound, with prospects of even higher prices. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversees the in-situ mining process. Faced with an increase in the number of applications from companies interested in building new facilities or expanding old ones, the agency is preparing a "generic environmental impact statement" to look at the effects of the in-situ mining technique. Dave McIntyre, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the agency expects so many new applications from companies interested in in-situ mining that, "if it all comes at once, there will be a resource problem." Preparing the generic environmental document will help to guide supplemental studies for individual projects, McIntyre said. "We want to get public input in case there's something we haven't thought of," he said. In-situ mining has been going on in Wyoming for several years and the state is attracting more attention from industry. A mine north of Douglas yielded more than 1.2 million pounds of yellowcake in 2003, according to the Wyoming Geological Survey. Powertech Uranium Corp. recently received a state permit to drill 155 exploratory holes to look for uranium in the southwestern corner of South Dakota. The company also has interests in Weston County, Wyo., just across the state line, and near Aladdin, Wyo. But while interest in the in-situ technique is growing nationwide, some opponents have voiced concerns. In New Mexico, Navajo tribal members earlier this year went to court to try to stop plans for planned in-situ uranium mining near the Navajo communities of Church Rock and Crownpoint. Some residents there say they're worried about the safety of their water supply. The lawsuit asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to reverse Nuclear Regulatory Commission orders in the past several years regarding proposals by Hydro Resources Inc. to mine uranium near the two communities. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting in Casper will be 7 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Parkway Plaza. Information from: Star-Tribune, http://www.casperstartribune.net A service of the Associated Press(AP) Casperstartribune.net encourages readers to engage in civil Copyright © 1995–2007 Lee Enterprises    a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises Incorporated CONTACT US ***************************************************************** 31 KOB.com: Energy Dept. wants errant waste drum left at WIPP Posted at: 07/27/2007 11:05:08 PM By: The Associated Press CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - Environment Secretary Ron Curry says he will decide by the end of next week what to do about a drum of liquid waste mistakenly put inside the Department of Energy's waste dump at Carlsbad. Liquid waste is prohibited at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, called WIPP. The Energy Department says the drum won't harm human health or the environment, and should stay where it is. Officials have temporarily suspended further contact-handled waste from the Idaho National Laboratory. Energy officials say Idaho shipped the drum after a mistake in reading its label. It arrived at WIPP on June 25th, and is stored underground. Curry says that if the department has to retrieve the drum, it will interrupt WIPP operations. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) ***************************************************************** 32 News & Star: Sellafield body parts probe helpline set up Published on 28/07/2007 By Susie Carter A HELPLINE has been set up as part of the inquiry into the removal of body tissue from nuclear workers at Sellafield. A telephone number, fax number and postal address have been released for the Redfern Inquiry. Michael Redfern QC is looking into 65 reported cases, mainly involving staff employed at the west Cumbrian nuclear plant between 1962 and 1992. He was appointed to investigate why samples were taken and whether next of kin were informed. An inquiry was launched in April after the GMB union said samples were taken from up to 70 former Sellafield employees. Mr Redfern, who conducted the inquiry into the removal of body organs at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, has arranged a point of contact at his offices in Manchester. He also plans to set up an additional base in Whitehaven. And a family support group is expected to start in the next few weeks. Mr Redfern said: “We are keen for as many people as possible to come forward and help us with this inquiry. “I recognise that people in Cumbria are keen for there to be an office in west Cumbria, and I too feel that this is important. “Contact details for our Whitehaven office will be issued in the next few weeks. I anticipate that a family support group will be up and running within the same time period.” Details for the inquiry office are: The Redfern Inquiry, 7th Floor, 1 Byrom Place, Manchester, M3 3HG; or email contact@theredferninquiry.co.uk; fax 0161 837 1569 or phone 0161 837 1554. The inquiry was announced by Alistair Darling, then Secretary of State, for the Department of Trade and Industry. It will focus on British Nuclear Group, Sellafield, west Cumbria, but will also consider sites including UKAEA Harwell in Oxfordshire and AWE Aldermaston, in Berkshire, among others. SCarter@cngroup.co.uk ***************************************************************** 33 LVNFES: Poll: Most Americans agree with Nevadans on Yucca Mountain Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard - VIKTORIA PEARSON, vpearson@lahontanvalleynews.com July 28, 2007 The majority of Americans are opposed to the federal government's plan to store the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, according to a recent poll conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT completed the poll with 1,200 Americans answering a questionnaire on how energy is made, used and harnessed in order to evaluate the public's opinion on energy options. The study, Public's Attitude Toward America's Energy Options: Insights for Nuclear Energy, was released by MIT in June. The summary on the Yucca Mountain project, by Stephen Ansolabehere, political science professor and author of the poll, stated, "The numbers don't look good (for support of the project)." According to the poll, 19 percent of Americans were in favor of the project. However, only 25 percent said they would support it provided it was supported by Nevadans. The remainder said they were against the project or did not have an opinion. A majority of Nevadans, state officials and congressional delegates have consistently opposed the plan to build the high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, approximately 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, since its inception. State officials have said they are in favor of nuclear waste being stored at the sites where it is generated. Approximately 15 Fallon residents were asked on Thursday what they thought about the Yucca Mountain project and the MIT survey. Many locals questioned said they either had no opinion or were somewhat in favor of the project because there could be benefits for Nevadans. However, these individuals refused to be named. One resident, Corey Etchinek, an engraver at Etched in Stone, said, "I think they should store it in Iraq, because they should make something of that mess they've (the government) created." Another resident, Debbie Elizalde, said she thinks the project is a bad idea. "We're already California's ash tray. Now the government wants us to be the country's nuclear dump site," she said. "Why do we have to take it all?" Nevadans' views on the project are swaying public opinion, said Michon Mackedon, a Fallon resident and former member of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, in response to the survey. "What I read into the numbers is that Nevada has been extraordinarily successful in analyzing the information about Yucca's flaws and transportation dangers and has done a remarkable job of getting the word out beyond our own borders. Much of the success is due to the strong and united front of the state's political leaders. I think the project is stalled in its tracks." Churchill County Commissioner Lynn Pearce, a county representative on Yucca Mountain for more than 10 years, said given the advance of technology, its probably reasonable that scientists will find a way to deal with nuclear waste in the next 50 to 100 years, he said. "Even if they will store it in Yucca, it needs to remain open to allow science the ability to find a solution," he said. "In the case of Carlsbad (N.M.), it is a prime example. Everything the government promised, they have done and then some. I think what the federal government offered could have been the beginning of a bargaining table." He said the state's position is complete opposition and will remain so. No negotiating will be done. Officials will continue to do so while nuclear waste is being put into the mountain with no compensation given to the state. "In 10 years, the state has been fighting valiantly; however, we are closer now than ever before to having the storage facility," Pearce said. "Despite the efforts of the state, we're closer than we were 10 years ago. You have to pause and wonder, is it coming here regardless of the best efforts of the state? Should Nevadans be compensated for having to take this within our state?" For more information on the MIT survey or to view a copy of the survey, visit web.mit.edu/canes/ For more information on Nevada's opposition to the Yucca Mountain project, visit www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/ All contents © Copyright 2007 lahontanvalleynews.com Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard - 562 North Maine Street - Fallon, NV 89406 ***************************************************************** 34 Nevada Appeal: Survey shows most Americans oppose Yucca Mountain Geoff dornan Appeal Capitol Bureau, gdornan@nevadaappeal.com July 28, 2007 A national survey by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows only one in five Americans believes Yucca Mountain should be used to store nuclear waste. The survey of attitudes toward different types of power says the primary reason for national opposition to nuclear power is the problem of handling nuclear waste. "Waste storage is a show-stopper for nuclear power," the survey concluded. "Much of the opposition to this fuel stems from waste." The poll, conducted in February, sampled 1,200 people and found that only 28 percent of those surveyed believe nuclear waste can be stored safely for long periods. Just 19 percent thought Yucca Mountain should be used to store that waste, while another 25 percent said it should be used "only if the state of Nevada assents." Bob Loux, head of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said those results are far different than the polls taken by those in the nuclear power industry. "I think this is the first independent nationwide poll I've seen that included Yucca," he said. "Before, I'd seen industry polls saying a lot of people support it." "We were pleasantly surprised with the results," Loux said. He said he was especially happy with the 25 percent of those polled who said they would only support building a dump at Yucca Mountain if Nevada approved it. "That shows clear concern that the state's rights would be trampled in this process," he said. "You'd assume everybody would want to dump on Nevada. We were pleasantly surprised to see that's not the case." A total of 39 percent of those polled said Yucca Mountain shouldn't be used at all. Loux said he hopes the Department of Energy and Congress pay attention to the poll. The poll also found that support for expanding nuclear power generation would increase substantially if a way were found to deal with the toxic waste. And reprocessing waste "proved highly popular," according to the survey with 60 percent saying they support expanding the Department of Energy's reprocessing program, and 50 percent saying they would support a significant expansion of nuclear energy in the U.S. if the country reprocessed the fuel as is done in France and Japan. Nuclear wasn't the least popular method of generating energy, the poll found. Oil is at the bottom with 74 percent of those polled calling for reduction of dependence on oil. Coal followed that with less than 19 percent calling for more coal generation. Nuclear was third with 39 percent wanting less use but nearly 36 percent recommending increased generation. That indicates a notable growth in support for nuclear power since MIT's last energy poll in 2002. Most popular were solar and wind with three-quarters of those polled saying those sources of power should be increased. ? Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750. 2007 nevadaappeal.com Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701 ***************************************************************** 35 Nevada Appeal: The people have spoken on Yucca Mtn. Opinion July 29, 2007 It's been well noted that a vast majority of people in Nevada don't want any part of a nuclear waste dump within our borders. A new poll showing that most people outside our borders agree with us comes as great news. In fact it should drive yet another nail in the coffin of the project. But we're not naive enough to believe it will have any effect on an administration and federal bureaucracy that seems deaf to what the American people are saying. You needn't think hard to find another example - polls show the majority of Americans see no favorable outcome from the Iraq War and want our troops withdrawn. The fact that the administration actually sent more troops ought to have Nevadans a bit concerned about its reaction to the Yucca poll. The MIT poll showed only one in five Americans believes Yucca Mountain should be used to store nuclear waste, and a quarter of those surveyed said it should be opened "only if the state of Nevada assents." That's what Nevada has been saying all along. If you believe Sen. Harry Reid, the Yucca Mt. project is dead. Apparently, he forgot to tell the Department of Energy, which is pressing forward along with Congressional supporters, many of whom have stockpiles of nuclear waste in their states they'd like to bury in our back yard. It's lunacy to proceed with a project that is unsafe, unproved and unsupported. Those billions of dollars would be better spent on developing viable alternative energy sources that won't require dumping toxic waste in Nevada, or any other state, for that matter. All contents © Copyright 2007 nevadaappeal.com Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701 ***************************************************************** 36 Reuters: SE Asia to adopt new plan on nuclear-free zone Sun Jul 29, 2007 5:05AM EDT MANILA (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from Southeast Asia are due to adopt a five-year work plan on Sunday to strengthen the implementation of a treaty banning nuclear weapons in the region, a Philippine diplomat said. Since 1997, a treaty creating the South East Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (SEANWFZ) has been in force in the region, limiting the use of nuclear power by members to peaceful purposes, such as power generation. The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have all signed the treaty. "The work plan was formulated to provide tangible plans and benchmarks that will align the activities of member-states under the treaty," said Claro Cristobal, spokesman of the Philippine foreign affairs department. Cristobal said the SEANWFZ commission, chaired by the Philippines, will convene on Sunday to review the cooperation to keep Southeast Asia nuclear-weapons free and plan its direction for the next 10 years. Cristobal said a five-year work plan would be adopted during the meeting to ensure members would abide by and meet their commitments under the treaty, particularly on adhering to all international safeguards agreements. ASEAN also plans to work closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency and other experts to develop a legal framework to meet international standards on nuclear safety, among other issues, he said. Alberto Romulo, the Philippine foreign affairs secretary, has said nuclear non-proliferation issues would be high on this week's agenda at a meeting between ASEAN and its 17 partners in a regional security dialogue. "The liberation of the Korean peninsula from nuclear weapons, as well as the nuclear issues involving Iran, will be taken up in our meetings," Romulo said on Friday, adding the discussions would also make sure these weapons "do not spread and non-state actors are denied access to materials that can be used to produce these weapons". © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 37 Indybay: The Nuclear Weapons Lab Bombing Range by Bob Nichols, Project Censored Award Winner ( DUweapons [at] gmail.com ) Friday Jul 27th, 2007 2:59 PM Massive Radioactive Explosions are routinely conducted at Site 300 (San Francisco) - Like the bully who says "I'm going to do it anyway and there is nothing you can do about it," the huge federal government protected Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab refiled their "application" to increase radioactive bombing at Site 300 eight times. The danger of the radioactive bombings at Site 300 is that people, plants and animals will absorb the tiny but deadly pieces of radioactive uranium released in the bombings. The Nuclear Weapons Lab's Bombing Range is in the open air and near the San Francisco Bay Area and San Jose's ten million people. The so-called "depleted" uranium is the same US/UK Expeditionary Forces bombed and shot up Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq with in the past fifteen years. Complete studies show the uranium is about 75% as powerfully radioactive as "natural" uranium. That is still very radioactive. Depleted it is not. Retired nuclear weapons lab physicist Marion Fulk says the submicron sized ceramic uranium aerosols are good for "killing lots of people." The kill/maim factor of 10,000 people per ton of uranium is used by the British government's MI6 Department to calculate projected Iraqi causalities. The San Francisco Bay Area's past causalities are about 230,000 people. Deadly uranium gas does not discriminate: men, women and children are all contaminated. Tiny unborn babies, the aged and the infirm are affected most. Marin County, in the Bay Area, experienced the highest breast cancer rate in the world in the 1990s as a result. The San Francisco Chronicle said the breast cancer rate was twice what it "should" be. The nuclear weapons lab just kept right on exploding massive amounts of cancer inducing radioactive munitions at Site 300 near San Francisco. Now the nuclear weapons lab demands the right to increase the deadly radioactive uranium "dirty" bomb open air detonations by Eight times. The projected number of people killed or maimed in the Bay area would be one million eight hundred thousand (1,840,000) over a similar period of time as the already dead 230,000. That is a lot of people who have to die because the nuclear weapons lab is too lazy to detonate the models of their precious global thermonuclear weapons underground. The "deal with the devil" that the "Bay Area city fathers" made 60 years ago to snag the big highly prized payroll of the nuclear weapons labs' has mushroomed from a modest "human sacrifice" of 230,000 men, women and children to a deal breaking One Point Eight Million. That is just too many people to sacrifice to the nuclear weapons labs and their hyper inflated claims of "national security." The deal is off as far as I am concerned. I demand to know "Why do we have to "sacrifice" anyone?" Why don't all the law enforcement officers and District Attorneys with their cushy tax payer funded positions in the Bay Area do their job! This is random Premeditated Murder by the psychopathic killers at the nuclear weapons labs! Throw them in the slammer! Dr Ernest Sternglass of the University of Pittsburgh was invited by President John Kennedy to talk to the US Senate in 1962 and was instrumental in the passage of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that banned above ground thermonuclear detonations. If they put the big nukes underground in 1962 why can't the nuclear weapons labs detonate the models of the big nukes underground in 2007? Or, are they trying to kill San Franciscans for some weird, nerdy experiment? What other reason could there be to continue and even increase open air radioactive detonations near San Francisco? Enough is enough. It is time these monsters paid with prison time or are executed for the mass murders they are. ## Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award Winner. He is a San Francisco writer, media personality and consultant. Mr. Nichols is available for interviews and speaking engagements. He welcomes your comments at: 415-992-NEWS (6397) or Email him at: DUweapons [at] Gmail.com © 2000–2007 San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. Unless ***************************************************************** 38 Seattle Times Newspaper: Hanford makes progress with radioactive basins seattletimes.com Saturday, July 28, 2007 - Page updated at 02:06 AM By The Associated Press RICHLAND — Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation are making big strides in cleaning up the highly radioactive K West Basin, filled with waste from the production of atomic weapons. Hanford workers have finished vacuuming the bulk of radioactive sludge from the floor of the basin into underwater containers, leaving bare concrete. "This is another example of the momentum we continue to sustain in cleaning up the site and eliminating risk to the Columbia River," Dave Brockman, manager of the Department of Energy's Hanford office, said in a statement. Completion of the sludge-removal task allows the DOE to meet a revised legal deadline and a commitment to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to have the sludge in containers by the end of this month. "We're pleased," said Larry Gadbois, environmental scientist for the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates the project. "It's another step in risk reduction." Both of Hanford's K reactors had irradiated fuel stranded in their cooling basins after fuel processing stopped at the end of the Cold War. The fuel in the K East and K West basins corroded and mixed with dirt and concrete from the basin walls to form radioactive sludge. After the fuel was removed, Hanford workers struggled to vacuum the sludge into underwater containers to allow it to be treated. Hanford workers spent two years vacuuming the bulk of the sludge from the leak-prone K East Basin into containers. But it took just seven months to vacuum sludge in the K West Basin into underwater containers. That was due, in part, to K West being cleaner. It held about 10 cubic yards of sludge, compared to the 37 cubic yards of sludge that contaminated the K East Basin. At the K East Basin, contractor Fluor Hanford discovered that the tons of debris that littered the basin was too difficult to vacuum around and stopped work while it was retrieved. To vacuum the sludge, workers stand on grating over the indoor pools and reach down 20 feet with long-handled tools. The water shields them from radiation. Some of the sludge is hard-packed and has to be broken up and some is so light that it mushrooms up in fine clouds. Underwater cameras guide the work in the sometimes murky water, and workers have to wear respirators to make sure they don't inhale any airborne contamination. The vacuuming took "time and patience and real perseverance," said Mark Peres, Fluor deputy vice president for the K Basins Closure Project. Work is continuing at the K West Basin. Preparations are under way to remove about 1,800 pounds of stray fuel scraps found in the basins. That's a small percentage of the 4.5 million pounds of fuel removed from the basins before sludge vacuuming began. Some additional debris, including tools and more canister lids, also is being removed from the K West Basin. Because more sludge will settle out of the water to leave a fine coating over the basin, a final vacuuming must be done by the end of January to meet another legal deadline. Sludge from both the basins will be held in underwater containers at K West until a treatment system is ready to prepare the sludge for disposal. The DOE faces a November 2009 deadline to have the sludge treated. Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company ***************************************************************** 39 SF New Mexican: State lawmaker encourages LANL to diversify Director of Los Alamos National Lab, Mike Anastasio, updated lawmakers about lay offs and budget problems at the labs on Friday afternoon at the New Mexico State Capitol. Photos by Jane Phillips/The New Mexican Los Alamos National Laboratory By ANDY LENDERMAN | The New Mexican July 27, 2007 An influential state lawmaker urged Los Alamos National Laboratory at a hearing Friday to diversify its mission to include more energy research. But the lab’s director, Michael Anastasio, told a legislative committee that Congress decides that mission, and the lab simply follows orders. State Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, urged lab directors Friday to pay attention to what the U.S. House of Representatives has voted for this year, 312-112: less money for nuclear weapons research and development, and more for energy research around the country. Griego, co-chairman of the Legislature’s LANL Oversight Committee, urged Anastasio to get ready for possible changes to the lab’s budget. “I think ... that if we don’t heed to the sentiments of Congress and start moving in a direction that Sandia has moved in ... I think in the long run, Los Alamos is going to get hurt,” Griego said at the hearing. Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque has a somewhat more diversified budget than Los Alamos. “The mix of missions and the relative priorities change, and that’s what Congress decides every year when they pass a budget,” Anastasio said. “But I have to say that right now, the basic capability of the laboratory is paid for by the stockpile stewardship program.” That program, which maintains the country’s nuclear weapons without underground testing, makes up 57 percent of the lab’s budget, Associate Director Terry Wallace said. About 20 percent goes to nuclear nonproliferation, 10 percent to basic science, 7 percent to energy and 6 percent to security, he said. “It would require a significant action on the part of Congress and the Department of Energy to fundamentally change and dramatically change the mission of the laboratory,” Anastasio said. “And, of course, it would require dramatic change at the laboratory, because if we were to fundamentally change our mission, it would probably require a different skill mix of both the technical work force and the scientific work force.” In his testimony, Wallace said, “We have the obligation ... to maintain the nuclear arsenal because we invented it.” The lab reported this spring that its workforce of 12,176 consists of 9,066 permanent employees, 2,020 contract workers and 1,090 students and researchers. The contract work force was reduced by 401 employees from June 2006 to April 30, 2007. U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who also wants a change in the lab’s mission, wrote to members of the oversight committee: “The process to this point must serve as a signal that change is needed if the funding — and the permanence — of the lab is to be certain.” Udall has been criticized for voting for a House bill that would essentially cut about $400 million from weapons work at Sandia and Los Alamos, with Los Alamos bearing the brunt of the cuts to its $2.1 billion budget. However, a Senate committee has suggested restoring those cuts, and it’s unclear what the lab’s final budget will be. Anastasio also said he’s aware that the work force and the community have a high level of anxiety about the lab’s budget, and that’s why he went to Washington this week to meet with lawmakers. “We have to await their decisions before I can make any decision about whether there’s going to be a need to reduce the overall workforce at the laboratory,” he said. However, there won’t be any changes this fiscal year, Anastasio said, since the lab has absorbed new costs by cutting travel and maintenance work and not filling some jobs when people leave, among other “belt-tightening” measures. Contact Andy Lenderman at 995-3827 or alenderman@sfnewmexican.com. Copyright 2007 The New Mexican, Inc. ***************************************************************** 40 Director: No new job cuts before October Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:29 pm By DEBORAH BAKER | Associated Press Jittery workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory won’t have to worry about their jobs for at least the next couple of months, director Michael Anastasio told lawmakers Friday. Anastasio said there would be no further cuts at the nuclear weapons lab before the new federal budget year begins Oct. 1. “I’m confident that we will not have to do anything ... through the end of September,” he told an oversight committee. What happens after that depends on what level of funding is authorized by Congress for the new fiscal year. The House slashed $300 million from the lab’s budget, which currently is nearly $2.2 billion, signaling the exasperation of key House leaders with years of safety and security lapses at Los Alamos. The Senate hasn’t voted yet, but its bill leaves the budget mostly unchanged. A conference committee would produce the final version. If the House spending plan was adopted, there would have to be job cuts, said Anastasio, who just finished his first year as head of the lab under its new, private operator, Los Alamos National Security LLC. But he said the outcome of budget negotiations is far from certain. The lab had to do some belt-tightening this year because of higher costs due to the new management setup. It lost a tax break it enjoyed when it was run by the University of California, for example, and had to pay the state an additional $50 million this year. More than 300 contract jobs were eliminated in the year that ended June 30, the director said. In addition, there was the usual turnover — including retirements — that accounted for about 370 additional departures, Anastasio said. Some of those jobs were filled, but lab officials were unable to say how many. According to figures provided earlier by the lab, there were more than 12,000 workers as of the end of April. Just more than 9,000 of them were LANS employees, 1,000 or so were students and postdoctoral researchers, and more than 2,000 were contractors, including security and maintenance workers. If next year’s budget remains much the same as this year’s, no drastic changes will be needed in the work force, Anastasio said. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said in a written statement to the committee that the funding fight in Congress is a signal “that change is needed” if the lab’s future is to be secure. He said it is “now up to LANS to decide whether it wants to diversify and thrive, or remain focused only on its current mission, which, as we have seen this year, means an uphill battle.” Anastasio told the panel that the lab — where the atomic bomb was born — is “grounded in our heritage and history” and that nuclear weapons are an important deterrent and part of the nation’s defense. Nearly 70 percent of the lab’s work is defense or national security or weapons-related, according to lab officials. But Anastasio said the lab’s mission had undergone shifts since its founding in 1943, and that it welcomed any new work the federal government wanted it to do — and provided funding for. The lab doesn’t set policy, he told lawmakers. “I would love to have a huge program at this laboratory to deal with the challenge of water,” in areas such as water management, distribution and contamination cleanup, Anastasio said. State legislators expressed concern that changing the lab’s core mission from nuclear weapons work to energy or another focus would jeopardize national defense and erode the influence of the facility, which is Northern New Mexico’s largest employer. Privacy Policy / Terms of Use | ©2007, Santa Fe New Mexican, all ***************************************************************** 41 Tri-City Herald: Hanford workers evacuated after waste leak Published Saturday, July 28th, 2007 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer A mix of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste leaked onto the ground in central Hanford Friday morning as it was being pumped between underground tanks. Workers in the 200 West Area of central Hanford were ordered into buildings or other structures and remained there until being allowed to leave the site midafternoon. No worker was contaminated and the waste did not become airborne, according to the Department of Energy. "There was no hazard to the public," said Steve Wiegman, senior technical adviser for DOE. "I believe the action for the employees was very conservative." Because Friday was a day off for most Hanford workers, few people were in the 200 West Area. The leak occurred at the transfer pump above Tank S-102, one of 142 underground single-shell tanks prone to leaks that are being emptied of high-level radioactive and hazardous chemical waste. Waste emptied from the tank is transferred in an above-ground line to a newer double shell tank, Tank SY-102. Workers had just started up the transfer pump early Friday morning, when the pump clogged, said Joy Shoemake, spokeswoman for DOE contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group. While they were fixing that problem they noticed some unusual instrument readings and began a visual inspection of the line. That's when workers found liquid waste that had spilled into an above-ground pump pit box and the nearby ground. DOE also reported that environmental monitoring in the area picked up readings indicating radioactive material was present. "They stopped work immediately and backed out of the farms," Shoemake said. The workers also called for help in evaluating the spill. Friday evening DOE reported that the spill was about 15 to 18 feet in diameter. Waste in the tanks is managed as high-level radioactive waste, but its content varies and the exact content of the spill was not available Friday evening. Friday afternoon workers were preparing to put a fixative or soil cement on the spill, Wiegman said. That would prevent any waste from becoming airborne in windy weather until further cleanup plans are made. Work also was under way to check the perimeter of the tank farm to make sure none of the contamination had spread. The spill is about seven miles from the Columbia River. Although DOE initially reported that workers in the area took shelter later in the morning, it revised that to say they took shelter soon after the discovery of the leak. In addition to the underground tank farms, the 200 West Area includes the Plutonium Finishing Plant, T Plant, temporary burial grounds for transuranic waste, the Waste Receiving and Processing Facility and the nearby Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility are in that area. Retrieval of 464,000 gallons of waste from the Tank S-102 began in December 2004. About 10 percent of the waste remained in March when a pump being used to retrieve the tank broke. A new pump was recently installed and preparations have been under way to restart getting waste from the tank. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 42 Tri-City Herald: B Reactor partnership likely a historic match Opinions Published Sunday, July 29th, 2007 Bus tours to Hanford's historic B Reactor and the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center are a perfect match. The reactor's supporters are proposing about 125 bus tours a year to the remote Hanford site, and they recently starting shopping for a partner to spearhead the plan. Last week, the B Reactor Preservation Coalition met with the board of the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center with a proposal to operate the tours. On Tuesday, the board concurred it's a great idea, and members drafted an agreement outlining their intent to pursue the plan. The move is important because the federal government wants the coalition to find a community partner for the reactor tours. The Reach is a natural choice for the job. The interests of the B Reactor Preservation Coalition and the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center dovetail perfectly. Hanford's history is central to the Reach's story, and no other artifact has the power to bring that history to life like the B Reactor. The Hanford Engineering Works, as the ultra-secret Manhattan Project facility was known, employed 50,000 workers at its peak, resulting in the construction of the world's first full-scale nuclear plant in just 13 months. B Reactor produced the plutonium for the world's first nuclear explosion in New Mexico and for the bomb dropped over Nagasaki, the last atomic bomb used in warfare. Standing in the fuel-loading area and looking up at the face of the reactor gives observers a feeling for the complexity involved that cannot be duplicated by text or photographs. You don't have to wait for the coalition and the Reach to get their tours on the road, however. The Department of Energy has scheduled six more days of public tours of Hanford this year. Registration, which is only available online, starts promptly at noon Wednesday for tours Sept. 5 and 6. Registration starts at noon Oct. 1 for tours Oct. 24 and 25 and at noon Oct. 2 for tours Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. For more information and to register, go to www5.hanford.gov/publictours. The four-hour guided bus tours behind security gates include a look at Hanford past and future. Sights range from the original Hanford townsite to the $12.2 billion radioactive waste vitrification plant under construction. But B Reactor is the star. The public understands the appeal -- DOE's last tour filled within one minute of the start of online registration. People interested in this critical piece of our nation's history shouldn't have to compete for a handful of slots, however. B Reactor ought to be turned into a national museum and arrangements made to give more people a chance to experience this amazing artifact of World War II and the Cold War. With B Reactor Preservation Coalition and the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center joining forces to make that happen, there's cause of hope. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 43 Chillicothe Gazette: Cleanup done at diffusion plant www.chillicothegazette.com - Chillicothe, OH Saturday, July 28, 2007 Waste from 50 years of uranium processing removed By LOREN GENSON Gazette Staff Writer The U.S. Department of Energy announced the completion of waste cleanup of more than 49,000 containers from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Waste was removed from Building X-7725, which was designed to assemble and rebuild centrifuge machines at the plant but was converted into a waste storage facility due to its large floor space. "Today we celebrate the removal of this waste," said William Murphie, manager of the Portsmouth/Paducah Project with the U.S. Department of Energy. "It was no small feat to remove waste generated from more than 50 years of uranium processes." Waste removal at the building began in 1993 by LATA/Parallax Portsmouth LLC, private contractors hired by the Department of Energy. The removal process was slow, as the materials on site contained mixed with low-level waste, which means it had both hazardous and radioactive components. "We had to downgrade the waste and repackage it to make it safe for transportation on the highway," said Mark Polley, operations manager for LATA/Parallax. About 1,063 various sized containers were taken without accident off site. Everything - including water used to wash the floors - was tested for possible hazardous material before it could be disposed of. Waste removal experts quickly learned some waste was more difficult to dispose of as it had turned from sludge, to solid form over the years, said Melda Rafferty, with the Department of Energy. "The cleanup was difficult also because until the mid-90s there was no way to treat mixed waste," Rafferty said. "Until the new technology came out, we couldn't do anything with some of the waste." Waste was transported from the site to Perma-Fix/M&EC's treatment facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., where it will undergo further treatment as part of a $9.4 million subcontract with LATA/Parallax. After treatment, the waste will be shipped by LATA/Parallax to the Energy Department's Nevada Test site for disposal. The site cleanup means plans at the site can move forward in a positive direction, said Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Chris Korleski. "I've only been in this position for six months, and I'm so glad that my first experience with the Department of Energy is for a project like this," Korleski said. "This facility can now be used for something positive, and it's no longer a hazardous waste storage facility." Although most of the waste at the Piketon site was contained in Building X-7725, other hazardous material still needs to be removed from other buildings before they can be turned over to USEC. "We still have waste to remove in the buildings where they used to process uranium," said Polley. "This was the first facility to be cleaned and it had the most waste." The clean-up of building X-7725 was by far the first priority for USEC, said Dan Rogers, director of the American Centrifuge Plant, which leases the land from the Department of Energy. "This is a very important day," Rogers said. "This is where all 11,500 centrifuges will be built so this site is one of the most important." USEC plans to continue work on constructing the American Centrifuge Plant to replace the gaseous diffusion process used at its Paducah, Ky. plant. In April, USEC was granted a 30-year operating license from the National Regulatory Commission to enrich uranium. The company plans to begin commercial operations in late 2009, and have about 11,500 machines deployed in 2012. (Genson can be reached at 772-9369 or via e-mail at lgenson@nncogannett.com) Originally published July 28, 2007 Print this article E-mail this to Manager William Murphie, U.S. Department of Engergy Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, addresses the crowd gathered during the X-7725 Recognition Event Friday morning at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The event recognized the completion of waste removal and turnover of the facility to USEC Inc. Copyright ©2007 Chillicothe Gazette ***************************************************************** 44 Dayton Daily News: Mound cleanup touted as model of restoration DaytonDailyNews.com Miamisburg Mound official says 'We're very close to completing this project properly.' By Tom Beyerlein Staff Writer Saturday, July 28, 2007 MIAMISBURG — The cleanup of the Mound Plant has taken more than a decade and cost more than $1 billion. It's being touted as a model for the restoration and reuse of a contaminated nuclear weapons facility. "Obviously, we would like to see them allocate more money to finish the project," said Mike Grauwelman, president of the Miamisburg Mound Community Improvement Corp., which is working to transform the site into a business park specializing in scientific technologies. "We're very close to completing this project properly." The industrial park could suffer if the Energy Department, which owns Mound, leaves contaminants behind when the $30 million is spent, he said. "We're basically 99 percent finished with this work. I'm afraid to leave any legacy (waste) at the site will leave a negative impression and make it more difficult to market the facility." The landfill, called Operable Unit 1, was used over the years to dispose of some 2,500 crushed 55-gallon drums contaminated with radioactive thorium and sand tainted with polonium-210. Of the greatest concern, though, are cancer-causing volatile organic compounds in the groundwater. The landfill is over part of a drinking-water aquifer. Since 1996, officials have been pumping out groundwater and treating it to reduce contaminants to drinking water standards. The Energy Department also has been using a vapor extraction system to remove toxic compounds from the soil. Many of the thorium drums were removed and replaced with fresh soil in 2005. Energy and environmental protection officials agreed these measures are sufficient to protect public health. But Miamisburg officials were concerned about the landfill's impact on reuse efforts. They contacted U.S. Reps. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, and David Hobson, R-Springfield, who got Congress to appropriate the $30 million to remove the remaining pollutants. The landfill cleanup was expected to cost about $26 million, but is running slightly behind schedule and now is over budget with an estimated cost of $32.5 million, Grauwelman said. He hopes to meet with Energy Department officials in Washington about the cost overrun, and has contacted Turner's office. Copyright ©2007 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All rights reserved. By using DaytonDailyNews.com, you accept the terms of our visitor ***************************************************************** 45 Dayton Daily News: Mound cleanup to cost $32.5 million DaytonDailyNews.com But Congress has earmarked just $30 million for cleanup of old nuclear weapons plant By Tom Beyerlein Staff Writer Saturday, July 28, 2007 MIAMISBURG — Another cost overrun in the environmental cleanup of the old Mound nuclear weapons plant has local officials worried the federal government will walk away from the project before contractors are done removing all the toxic hazards. He has asked to meet with Energy Department officials on the matter. Grauwelman is concerned the department will cease cleanup of an old landfill when the $30 million that Congress allocated for the project is exhausted. The work is now expected to be completed by the end of December at an estimated cost of $32.5 million. Last October, the department awarded a $25.9 million contract to an Idaho company to clean up the landfill, but during excavation Accelerated Remediation Co. found the contamination was more widespread than expected, an Energy spokesman said. The landfill is the last piece of a $1 billion Mound cleanup program that started in the mid 1990s. Energy — with the blessing of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — had planned to leave the landfill contaminants behind. But local officials complained, and U.S. Reps. Mike Turner and David Hobson got Congress to earmark the $30 million for the job. Copyright ©2007 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All rights reserved. By using DaytonDailyNews.com, you accept the terms of our visitor ***************************************************************** 46 New Port News Daily Press: Nuclear-powered Savannah undergoing costly shuttle -- dailypress.com By the Associated Press July 29, 2007 NORFOLK, Va. - The Savannah, the nation's first and only nuclear-powered cargo and passenger ship, has run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs before a preservation effort has even begun. As the U.S. Maritime Administration awaits support from Congress to dry-dock the 1950s-era vessel, the Savannah has been shuttled to three temporary berths in Hampton Roads since August 2006. The congressional funding delay is expected to add at least $400,000 in towing and berthing expenses. The administration's plan to dry-dock the ship for a hull blasting and repainting is part of the agency's plan to remove the ship's remaining nuclear components and prepare the vessel for a possible donation as a museum or other public attraction. "We've had to adapt what we thought we were going to do to the fiscal realities," said Erhard Koehler, the maritime agency's senior technical adviser for the Savannah. "It's a question of being flexible." Last August, the ship was towed from the James River Reserve Fleet to undergo preventive maintenance at Colonna's Shipyard in Norfolk. The agency expected to have money in hand to dry-dock the ship when the repair job was finished. The agency's budget, however, was still in limbo after last year's congressional budget battles. When the repair work at Colonna's ended, the shipyard agreed to let the Savannah stay on. After three months with no budget agreement, the Colonna's said it could no longer afford to house the ship. In January, the maritime agency spent about $60,300 to move the ship from Colonna's to a Newport News pier that the agency uses to dock three of the federal government's auxiliary working ships. The Maritime Administration got $2.9 million for Savannah work when Congress approved a continuing budget resolution that held federal spending for most agencies at 2006 levels. That was $7 million less than the agency had requested, shelving its plans for dry docking. At that point, the agency began planning to move the Savannah again to accommodate its crane ships. Federal documents show that, in May, the agency approved spending $312,900 to cover expenses for towing and berthing the 596-foot-long vessel at BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair, The Virginia-Pilot reported. Money for the dry-docking work is not expected to be available until Oct. 1 at the earliest, when the 2008 fiscal year begins. Copyright © 2007, Newport News, Va., Daily Press ***************************************************************** 47 Knoxville News Sentinel: We can't pass energy problems to next generation : Perspectives : Landon Medley Saturday, July 28, 2007 While Tennesseans appreciate the attention given to the current energy debate in the Congress by U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, many Tennesseans also realize that navigating the issue surrounding so-called clean energy is like finding your way through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a candle. There is growing controversy over sacrificing our state’s natural resources. It’s the question of powering our lives with a form of electricity as old as coal, while East Tennessee watersheds are being destroyed by mountaintop removal and strip mining means we can no longer sing “Rocky Top” at University of Tennessee football games. Common sense tells Tennesseans that words like “clean energy,” “alternative fuels,” “energy efficiency” and political leaders’ favorite “energy independence,” mean that robbing Peter to pay Paul will not solve the problem. The visual eyesore of miles of mountaintop removal mining of West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky makes Tennesseans cry for this nation of a lost generation. We deliberately chose to destroy our air, land and water — for energy that we already have other answers for. This eats away at the very foundation of early Tennessee conservation. It steals from Tennesseans tax dollars designated to clean up impaired watersheds from past impacts. It still leaves our grandchildren to the mercy of the energy industries. Before Congress and the Tennessee delegation vote on any bills to address this nation’s energy needs, we need to first look at where we are going and how to get there. Letting special interests decide our way is how we got to this place of being dependent on energy industries to start with. Are wind turbines and any other alternative the answer? Harry Truman would say, show me the evidence that wind turbines are more of an eyesore than 10 miles of mountaintop removal in East Tennessee. What are the future demands and supply of energy in this nation? More cars in driveways. What are the long-term conservation plans for large cities to meet transportation demands? Save Our Cumberland Mountains has been dealing with the issue since the early ’90s. The supply-and-demand issues are just part of the debate. What is clear to all is that our political and civic leaders have chosen to pass the answer to the problem to the next generation. The real challenge to Alexander and other members of the Tennessee delegation is making sure we still have a Tennessee to give to our great-grandchildren. I hope that we do not disappoint our youth with an answer of more fossil fuel or nuclear power but a new vision. I urge everyone to get involved with this issue. It is your family’s future, too. Landon Medley, resident of Van Buren County, Tenn.; served on the Save Our Cumberland Mountains Stripmine Issues Committee for 20 years. He is a former county commissioner and a former vice president of the Greater Van Buren County-Spencer Chamber of Commerce. He currently is working on SOCM’s campaign to end mountaintop mining in East Tennessee and our nation’s dependency on fossil energy by seeking other alternative energy resources for the United States. His e-mail address is beaugard@blomand.net. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 48 Knoxville News Sentinel: Reactor cleanup to resume Work halted at Molten Salt site after incidents in 2006 By Frank Munger (Contact) Saturday, July 28, 2007 OAK RIDGE — The long-delayed cleanup work at the Molten Salt Reactor will resume in September, a Department of Energy spokesman said Friday. Virtually no work has been done at the old reactor for the past year and a half because of persistent problems, including a fluorine leak in May 2006 and subsequent allegations that workers were goofing off and possibly smoking marijuana at the site. A number of safety reviews have been conducted in recent months to prepare for decommissioning of the reactor, which has been shut down since 1969. When work resumes, the focus will be on chemically extracting the uranium-233 from tanks that contain tons of highly radioactive fuel salts, said John Shewairy, the public affairs chief in the DOE’s Oak Ridge office. The fissile uranium is of concern because of its potential use in nuclear weapons. It will be removed from Molten Salt and relocated to a secure facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that already houses large quantities of U-233. A project is under way at ORNL to “downblend” the uranium to reduce its weapons capability and to prepare it for disposal. “We are making some very good progress (in restart preparations),” Shewairy said. “We believe we’re on track to start to remove the uranium from the salt in September.” The decommissioning work at Molten Salt is a couple of years behind schedule and well over budget, and DOE could face fines from the state for missing cleanup deadlines. DOE was obligated to have the fuel salts removed by Sept. 30, but that’s no longer a possibility. John Owsley, the state’s environmental oversight chief in Oak Ridge, earlier said the state did not plan to budge on that deadline, but he was unavailable for comment Friday. The Molten Salt Reactor was built in 1960 as an experimental facility to test new reactor concepts, including the use of lithium and beryllium salts to cool the reactor’s fuel. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 49 News Watchman: USEC reclaims building July 29, 2007 Emily Boggs The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the completion of a 20-acre waste storage cleanup project at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, on Friday, July 27. The completed waste removal project enables the X-7725 storage waste facility to be turned over to USEC for reindustrialization. As a centrifuge support facility for USEC's new advanced centrifuge program, the program is expected to employ more than 400 workers by 2012, when in full operation. William Murphie, Manager of Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, DOE, and Larry Clark, Assistant Manager for Nuclear Fuel Supply, DOE, presented Dan Rogers, USEC Inc. Director, American Centrifuge Plant, with a key to building X-7725 at a ceremony recognizing the completed waste removal project on Friday. "This accomplishment has allowed the Department to meet its commitment to make the facility available to USEC so they may deploy centrifuge technology in support of nuclear power as an important component of our domestic energy supply," said Gerald Boyd, Manager of DOE's Oak Ridge Operations Office, which administers the facility lease to USEC. The X-7725 Building contained approximately 50 years of past uranium enrichment operations and housed 20,000 tons of hazardous and mixed waste. Mixed waste consists of hazardous and radioactive constituents. In 1993, more than 49,000 containers of waste were stored in the X-7725 building. For more of this story, click on the link to read the News Watchman online or pick up a copy of Sunday's print edition. Software © 1998-2007 1up! Software, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 50 KOB.com: Director: LANL work force stable through September Posted at: 07/27/2007 11:12:50 PM By: The Associated Press SANTA FE (AP) - Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio says lab workers won't have to worry about their jobs for at least the next couple of months. He says there won't be further cuts at the nuclear weapons lab before the new federal budget year begins October 1. What happens after that depends on how much money Congress authorizes for the next year. The House slashed $300 million from the lab's $2 billion-plus budget. The Senate's proposal leaves the lab's budget virtually unchanged from this year. A conference committee would produce the final version. Anastasio says the House budget would require job cuts. The lab did some belt-tightening this year because of higher costs under a new management setup. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) ***************************************************************** 51 KOB.com: Lawmaker worried about LANL contamination Posted at: 07/27/2007 11:26:23 PM By: The Associated Press Debbie Rodella SANTA FE (AP) - State Representive Debbie Rodella worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory until last year. Now she says she's worried that she may have been contaminated after a 2005 incident. The San Juan Pueblo Democrat -- speaking at a legislative oversight committee -- complained about the incident to lab director Michael Anastasio. In July 2005, a lab worker was exposed to americium 241, a radioactive decay product of plutonium. The contamination was spread to his home, to homes in Kansas and Colorado and to a Pennsylvania research lab. The Department of Energy says contamination levels were low. Rodella says she was asked to retrieve personal belongings about a year ago from an office contaminated during the incident. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************