***************************************************************** 08/02/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.180 ***************************************************************** 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 YONHAP NEWS: N. Korea says denuclearization possible when U.S. aband 2 The Hindu: U.S. should have signed deal with us too, says Pakistan 3 RIA Novosti: Moscow expects formal reply from U.S. to missile shield 4 RIA Novosti: U.S. refusal to prolong START-1 fatal mistake - Russian 5 Economist.com: America, India and the China bogey | A price too high 6 AFP: Pakistan says US-India nuke deal risks arms race - 7 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA Team to Inspect Plant Monday NUCLEAR REACTORS 8 The Hindu: Harness the power of the atom 9 US: Platts: PSEG eyeing adding nuclear unit at existing Hope Creek s 10 US: Platts: Group plans to study feasibility of New Brunswick nuclea 11 US: Platts: NRC extends Vermont Yankee's license renewal schedule 12 Platts: IAEA to inspect Tepco's earthquake-hit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa pl 13 US: Rutland Herald: NRC gives tentative OK to Yankee 14 US: Burlington Free Press: NRC: No environmental reason not to exten 15 US: NRC: NRC Invites Public to Submit Nominations for the Advisory 16 US: Jackson Sun: Sirens at Tennessee nuclear plant fail test 17 US: Tennessean: TVA to expand nuclear operation at Tennessee plant - 18 Slovak Spectator: Nuclear plant continues towards shutdown 19 Economist.com: Energy in Germany | Nuclear fallout | 20 US: NRC: NRC Finds No Significant Environmental Impacts from Extende 21 US: Knoxville News Sentinel: TVA's Sequoyah nuclear plant fails sire 22 AFP: IAEA to visit Japan quake-hit nuclear plant next week 23 US: AJC: Nuclear power lesson | 24 US: Arizona Republic: A clinic in nuclear power NUCLEAR SECURITY 25 US: NCT: Train carries sleeping man onto San Onofre plant property 26 US: BBC NEWS: Preparing for a dirty bomb attack NUCLEAR SAFETY 27 US: Coastal Post: Depleted Uranium, Diabetes, Cancer And You 28 US: KPTV Portland: Marine's Father Warns Of Possible Cancer Link 29 US: NRC: MI EA on release 30 US: NRC: U of Pittsburgh OI 31 US: deseretnews.com: Utah senators not aboard N-bill NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 32 US: Bradenton.com: State officials blast Tallevast cleanup plans 33 US: The State: MOX plant work begins 34 Pahrump Valley Times: Nuclear fact- finding trip 35 US: Aiken Today: Construction begins on MOX 36 BBC NEWS: Scans clear beaches of radiation 37 US: Daily News Journal: Landfill group demands answers 38 Dayton Daily News: Centrifuge plant likely to exceed $2.3B estimate 39 US: UPI: Nuclear waste spill linked to water line 40 US: UCS: New Nuclear Facility Undermines International Security 41 US: Murfreesboro Post: Radioactive waste before council 42 barrow in furness: N-plant bids to rise landfill site PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 43 Aiken Today: SREL hearing heated 44 Tri-City Herald: Energy Department extends Richland lab's contract 2 45 Knoxville News Sentinel: Audit detects faults at ORNL 46 Knoxville News Sentinel: Watts Bar 2 is now Job 1 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 YONHAP NEWS: N. Korea says denuclearization possible when U.S. abandons 'hostility' toward Pyongyang 2007/08/02 19:50 KST By Byun Duk-kun MANILA, Aug. 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will not give up its nuclear ambitions in exchange for mere energy assistance but will move only when it sees an end to what it calls "hostile" U.S. policy toward its communist regime, the North's Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun said Thursday, according to South Korean officials.    Pak, making his first international debut at the ASEAN Regional Forum here, said his country shut down its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon after months of delay because it saw progress in improving its relations with the United States, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said.    The North Korean diplomat's remarks came at a bilateral meeting with Song, the first since Pak took office in May.    The recent shutdown of the Yongbyon facilities was part of the first-phase denuclearization steps under a six-nation accord signed on Feb. 13 in which the communist nation promised to disable the plutonium-producing facilities at Yongbyon and submit a complete list of all its nuclear programs to the United Nations nuclear watchdog.    Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. nuclear negotiator, has repeatedly expressed hopes that the second phase of the February agreement will be implemented before the end of this year.    "It's a very ambitious timetable...but I think (if) we are not ambitious, we won't get it done," Hill told reporters earlier Thursday before attending the ASEAN Regional Forum, which also drew the foreign ministers of the two Koreas to the Philippine capital. The nuclear talks also involve Japan, China and Russia.    North Korea, however, apparently remains doubtful of the U.S. plan, according to Song.    "Pak said the denuclearization process should move forward with much more caution and precision," Song said in a brief interview with Yonhap News Agency following his meeting with the North Korean.    In the February agreement, the other countries in the six-party talks must provide 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid to the North in exchange for the disablement of the Yongbyon facilities and the declaration of its nuclear programs.    How and with what measures the provision of the energy assistance will be sequenced still needs to be worked out.    Working-group meetings are expected to be held this month to discuss the details of the next steps, but many believe it will take more than a few weeks just to reach an agreement on a roadmap to implementing the second phase of the February deal.    A meeting of foreign ministers from the six nations in the nuclear talks is envisioned for early September, shortly after the next round of the six-way talks earlier that month.    Meanwhile, the North Korean foreign minister expressed support for Seoul's efforts to win the release of 21 South Koreans taken hostage two weeks ago in Afghanistan, according to Song.    "Pak said his heart ached because people of his race are being held hostage," Song said.    bdk@yna.co.kr (END) ***************************************************************** 2 The Hindu: U.S. should have signed deal with us too, says Pakistan Friday, Aug 03, 2007 ISLAMABAD: The United States should have given Pakistan the same civilian nuclear deal as the one it recently concluded with India in the interests of South Asian stability and to prevent an arms race in the region, the National Command Authority (NCA) said on Thursday. This was one of the points made at a meeting of the NCA a body that controls and oversees the implementation of Pakistans nuclear programme chaired by President Pervez Musharraf at its Rawalpindi headquarters, known as the Strategic Plan Division. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, senior officials of the military, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman, the three services chiefs and a host of scientists and civilian bureaucrats were present at the meeting. According to a Pakistan military statement, the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal was one of the issues discussed. The NCA noted that the deal would enable India to make more fissile material and nuclear weapons from un-safeguarded nuclear rectors. The objective of strategic stability in South Asia and the global non-proliferation regime would have been better served if the United States had considered a package approach for Pakistan and India, the two non-NPT nuclear weapons states, with a view to preventing a nuclear arms race in the region and promoting restraints while ensuring that the legitimate needs of both countries for civil nuclear power generation are met, the military said. The NCA reiterated Pakistans position that the Nuclear Suppliers Group should evolve a criteria-based approach to help Pakistan access civilian nuclear energy under IAEA safeguards to meet its growing energy requirements. Norms fulfilled Pakistan had always fulfilled all its international IAEA safeguard requirements for its nuclear power reactors, and was ready to accept innovative bilateral and multilateral approaches for establishment of power plants under appropriate safeguards, including nuclear power parks, the NCA said. Copyright 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 3 RIA Novosti: Moscow expects formal reply from U.S. to missile shield alternative 15:02 | 02/ 08/ 2007 MANILA, August 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign minister said Thursday that Moscow expected a written response from the United States to its counterproposal on Washington's plans for a missile shield in Central Europe. "The U.S. side will provide a written response," Sergei Lavrov told journalists after a regional security forum in Manila. He said that at talks in the Philippine capital, some participants suggested that the flexible approach being used to resolve the nuclear dispute with North Korea could prove useful in dealing with Iran. "Many of them said the flexibility demonstrated by members of the six-party talks [on North Korea] could be used as an example in addressing the Iranian nuclear problem," he said. He said the cautious optimism currently felt by many parties would strengthen as Iran continues to honor its pledge to cooperate with the IAEA. Lavrov also said that Russia and Australia are drafting several bilateral agreements for President Vladimir Putin's visit, scheduled for September, but did not provide any details. The minister said Wednesday the United States failed to produce convincing evidence of a need to deploy its missile defense system in Central Europe at the first round of negotiations in Washington, adding the sides had agreed to prepare thoroughly for the second round of talks due in Moscow in early September. The Russian delegation at the talks on missile defense held in Washington July 30-31 was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak. At the negotiations, military and political officials from the two countries discussed prospects for cooperation on the issue, and the U.S. invited Russian specialists to view U.S. missile interceptors at a base in Alaska. Russian representatives reiterated Moscow's position that the U.S. has no reason to build a missile defense system in Europe until there is conclusive evidence showing that Iran has the capability to launch long-range nuclear-armed missiles. The U.S. has said it wants to place a radar and a host of interceptor missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic to fend off what Washington sees as an impending missile threat from Iran and North Korea. But Russia regards the plan as a threat to its national security. President Vladimir Putin, during his two-day meeting with President George W. Bush at the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, last month, proposed incorporating a new radar, currently being built in southern Russia, into a missile defense system managed by the NATO-Russia Joint Permanent Council, of which Moscow and Washington are members. Russia also said it is ready to upgrade its early warning radar in Gabala, Azerbaijan, which was also proposed as an alternative to U.S. missile plans, but Washington has repeatedly called it obsolete. Russia's future radar base is located near the town of Armavir, in the Krasnodar Territory - about 700 kilometer (450 miles) northwest of the Iranian border, and just 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Sochi, which recently won the bid to host the 2014 Winter Olypmics. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 4 RIA Novosti: U.S. refusal to prolong START-1 fatal mistake - Russian experts 16:37 | 02/ 08/ 2007 MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) - A decision not to renew a major nuclear arms reduction treaty may have dire consequences for U.S. foreign policy and the entire world, Russian experts said Thursday. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union on July 31, 1991, five months before the union collapsed, and remains in force between the U.S., Russia, and three other ex-Soviet states. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have since disposed of all their nuclear weapons or transferred them to Russia, and the U.S. and Russia have reduced the number of delivery vehicles to 1,600, with no more than 6,000 warheads. The treaty is set to expire on December 5, 2009. General James E. Cartwright, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said Wednesday that the refusal to prolong the START-1 Treaty would allow the United States to conduct quick and pinpointed strikes anywhere in the world, which is crucial for an effective fight against global terrorism. "With such statements, the U.S. officials continue to promote their policy of forced global leadership," Sergei Markov, the head of the Institute of Political Research, a Kremlin-connected Moscow think tank, told RIA Novosti. "All that we see today is that a global superpower is essentially ruled by extremists who commit catastrophic mistakes throwing the world into risky ventures," Markov said, adding that in the U.S. this group of radical extremists is represented by the so-called Neoconservatives, led by Vice President Dick Cheney. Alexander Khramchikhin, an expert at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, said the new initiatives proposed by the U.S. military were a logical continuation of the policies conducted by the current Washington administration. "Frankly, it is a consistent U.S. policy [at present] to abandon all treaties that bind them by obligation to anyone," the expert said. "It is difficult to predict the future of the START-1 treaty. The U.S. administration will probably be reshuffled soon," he said, adding that if a Democratic candidate became president the U.S. would "not continue destroying all [international] treaties." Sergei Markov also agreed that changes in the future U.S. administration after the 2008 presidential election would dramatically transform U.S. foreign policy. "It is clear today that the American people will reject the current policy and this group [of radical Neoconservatives] will retreat, 'licking their wounds,' to think tanks and newspaper and magazine offices," the expert said. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 5 Economist.com: America, India and the China bogey | A price too high | Thursday August 2nd 2007 From The Economist print edition The rise of China is no reason to trample on the non-proliferation regime Reuters SLOWLY but seemingly relentlessly, America's deal with India on nuclear co-operation is wending its way to fruition. Two years after it was first announced in Washington by George Bush and Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, the two countries have concluded negotiations on the terms of a technical agreement governing that co-operation. Both sides have claimed a great breakthrough. Nicholas Burns, the State Department official who has shepherded the deal through a maze of complications, called it perhaps the single most important initiative in the 60 years of our relationship. M.K. Narayanan, Mr Singh's national-security adviser, called it a touchstone of a transformed bilateral relationship. That once distant ties between America and India are warming up is indeed cause for celebration. But the heat also burns a huge hole in the global non-proliferation regime. As this newspaper has argued ever since the deal was first mooted, this is wrong, dangerous and unnecessary. India first tested a nuclear device in 1974 (and became a declared nuclear-weapons state in 1998), inspiring the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which it, like Pakistan and Israel, never signed, and which its agreement with America perhaps fatally undermines. Yet in both Delhi and Washington, DC, opposition to the agreement tends to be dismissed as nitpicking that ignores a fundamental shift. India, which tilted Soviet-wards during the cold war, and remains by far the most powerful exponent of non-alignment, is entering a strategic partnership with America. The world's oldest democracy is at last going to be on the closest of terms with its largest democracy. What could make more sense, when, in the background, a potentially hostile, undemocratic Asian giant is rapidly gaining economic weight, and adding military muscle? To spare everybody's blushes, the rise of China is rarely mentioned as a factor in America's nuclear exception for India. But it is perhaps the fundamental impulse behind it. Yet linking an end to India's nuclear isolation to the need for a strategic hedge against the rise of China makes no sense. No threat from China is either so great or so pressing. Its army is indeed modernising and spending lavishly. But as our briefing points out (see article), its military budget, in hard-currency terms, is not much bigger than France's. It remains decades away from being able to mount a credible military challenge to American pre-eminence. Moreover, whereas conflict remains possible, especially over Taiwan, China's priorities are internal: coping with the social and political dislocation that its economic revolution entails. Nor is the nuclear prize going to buy undivided Indian loyalty. Mr Singh's leftist parliamentary allies will balk at anything that smacks of toeing America's line, and especially of jettisoning close ties with Iran, an American priority. Nehruvian non-alignment runs deep. Even Mr Singhliberal economist and leader of the drive for better relations with Americafelt compelled last year to call Fidel Castro one of the greatest men of our times. The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in government when India went nuclear in 1998, is stridently nationalist. Yashwant Sinha, the BJP's most recent foreign minister, has criticised the government already for giving America too much. Conversely, the collapse of the deal is not going to fling India into any sort of embrace with China. Relations, still scarred by their war in 1962, are improving apace. China will soon be India's largest trading partner. But mutual suspicion and rivalry for resources mean that China will remain India's main strategic threatthe one it cited to justify the 1998 nuclear tests. No matter what nuclear stance America takes, India can be relied on to keep a healthy distance from China. How to send all the wrong messages China, then, is no justification for the damage America's nuclear concessions to India will do. They may yet trip at the remaining hurdles: in the American Congress; at the International Atomic Energy Agency; or the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group. The text of the latest agreement has not been made public. But from what has been said about it, it makes the damage far worse, by allowing India to reprocess American-supplied nuclear fuel, and by permitting it to build fuel stockpiles and hence withstand any future cut-off of supplies should it test another bomb. America claims that other aspirant nuclear powers, notably Iran, will learn the benefits of good behaviourie, of India's fairly respectable record on non-proliferation. More likely, however, the rewards India (and North Korea) are reaping will encourage countries without the bomb to strive to acquire one as soon as possible. Copyright The Economist Newspaper Limited 2007. All rights ***************************************************************** 6 AFP: Pakistan says US-India nuke deal risks arms race - Thu Aug 2, 11:33 AM ET ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan warned Thursday that a civilian nuclear accord between India and the United States threatens regional stability, saying it would allow its arch rival to produce more atomic bombs. The caution came at a meeting of Pakistan's National Command Authority (NCA) chaired by President Pervez Musharraf, a statement said. The body oversees the country's nuclear strategy. The long-delayed deal announced in July in Washington allows US exports of civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India for the first time in 30 years. "The NCA noted that the US-India nuclear agreement would have implications on strategic stability as it would enable India to produce significant quantities of fissile material and nuclear weapons from unsafeguarded nuclear reactors," the statement said. The deal has caused unease in Islamabad, which has firmly allied itself with Washington in its post-9/11 "war on terror" and is suspicious of growing US ties to neighbouring India. Muslim-majority Pakistan and mainly Hindu India have fought three wars since independence from Britain 60 years ago and they carried out tit-for-tat nuclear detonations in 1998 that alarmed the world. The NCA said that peace in South Asia "would have been better served if the United States had considered a package approach for Pakistan and India," neither of which are signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Pakistan would continue to pursue its military and civilian nuclear programmes, it added. "While continuing to act with responsibility in maintaining credible minimum deterrence and avoiding an arms race, Pakistan will neither be oblivious to its security requirements, nor to the needs of its economic development which demand growth in the energy sector," the statement said. President George W. Bush said last week he looked forward to working with the Democratic-controlled Congress to implement the nuclear deal, saying it was "another step" in ties with India, which he called "a vital world leader." The accord also allows India to reprocess spent fuel under safeguards imposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, going one step further than a law passed by the US Congress in December. Pakistan's NCA said it was pursuing "on a priority basis" its goal for civil nuclear power generation under IAEA safeguards, "especially in view of the increasing oil prices." A US report said earlier this year that Pakistan was building a third nuclear reactor to produce material for atomic bombs. Pakistan has also been at the centre of international concerns over a black market run by its disgraced top nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who admitted in 2005 to passing atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. But the command authority statement said that it "expressed satisfaction at the steps taken to further strengthen Pakistan's Export Controls" including a special department set up in the foreign ministry. "Pakistan would continue to work with the international community and its important partners in the global efforts against WMD proliferation," it said. Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 Guardian Unlimited: IAEA Team to Inspect Plant Monday Thursday August 2, 2007 11:16 AM TOKYO (AP) - A team of inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency will begin work next week to collect information at a nuclear power plant severely damaged in a quake last month, an official said Thursday. The magnitude 6.8 quake on July 16 killed 11 people and injured more than 1,000. It also caused a range of malfunctions and leaks at the plant - the world's largest in terms of capacity - that have raised concerns for safety at the country's nuclear power stations. The International Atomic Energy Agency's team will examine the plant beginning Monday for five days, according to Masahiro Yagi, an official of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Japanese officials, already at the plant for investigations, will cooperate with the IAEA team of six officials but the IAEA's probe will be independent, Yagi said. The visit came as the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, was under fire in the wake of the powerful quake, which triggered a small fire at the plant in Niigata state. It took two hours to put out the fire because plant officials had trouble notifying fire officials. In another incident, radioactive water had sloshed out of a tank and was flushed out to sea although the amount of radioactive material was extremely small. Plant officials said they had not foreseen such a powerful quake hitting the facility, and repeatedly underreported its impact afterward. The inspectors plan to compile a report after the inspection, according to Yagi. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 8 The Hindu: Harness the power of the atom Friday, Aug 03, 2007 Atomic destruction: The mushroom cloud; A-Bomb Dome at the Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima. There was a great sense of unease when the mighty USS Nimitz, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was to arrive in Chennai. It was the nuclear angle that caused concern. USS Nimitz was berthed 16 km away from Chennai port. During World War II, August 6, 1945, the worlds first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. This was the first bomb to be used against humans. Science and technology unleashed the power of the atom and brought sudden death and immense destruction. August 6 is Hiroshima Day. Atoms for peace Development of nuclear weapons continues even today despite the severe jolt that the Hiroshima bombing caused to humanity. On the brighter side, researchers are working extensively on peaceful applications of nuclear technology ranging from beneficial crop mutation to treatment of cancer. In industry, radioisotopes are used for measuring microscopic thicknesses and detecting defects in structures. Archaeologists use nuclear techniques to date prehistoric objects accurately. An important use has been to generate electricity. In India, nuclear power plants with a generation capacity of 4120 MWe are already in operation in eight states. August 15 will mark our 60th Independence Day. A good time to remember Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who said, We live in an age of great revolutionary changes brought about by the advancement of science and technology. Therein lies hope for the world and also the danger of sudden death. The onus to use nuclear technology for human good rests on all countries. Act Now Appreciate the importance of Hiroshima Day. Develop an understanding of the threats that nuclear weapons pose to humanity. Raise awareness on the impact of proliferation and use of nuclear weapons. Let us harness the power of the atom for the benefit of human kind. Childrens Media Unit, Centre for Environment Education. www.kidsrgreen.org Comments to : thehindu@vsnl.com Copyright 2007, The Hindu ***************************************************************** 9 Platts: PSEG eyeing adding nuclear unit at existing Hope Creek site - CFO New York (Platts)--1Aug2007 Public Service Enterprise Group will spend $50 million between 2007 and 2011 on investigating the possibility of adding nuclear capacity at its Hope Creek site in New Jersey, the company's CFO, Thomas O'Flynn, told a Wednesday conference call with analysts. Currently, PSEG operates one 1,059-MW unit at Hope Creek, but O'Flynn said that the site was originally set up for two units. The company has no specific plans at present, and will pursue a careful process in considering the nuclear addition, he told the analysts. In November 2006, Ralph Izzo, the company's president and COO, said acquiring or building another nuclear plant was a possibility for PSEG, but not within the next five years. Izzo said PSEG could be expected to "give much consideration to the future of nuclear energy" as it mulls its "many options for future growth." PSEG earlier Wednesday (Story, 1341 GMT) reported second-quarter net income of $275 million, up from $209 million in the same period of 2006 and attributed the improvement to increased electricity and natural gas rates and lower costs. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Electric Power Daily at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?src=story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=2_31&products_id=47 Copyright 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 10 Platts: Group plans to study feasibility of New Brunswick nuclear plant Washington (Platts)--1Aug2007 Team Candu -- a group of five nuclear technology and engineering companies -- said Wednesday that the government of New Brunswick has accepted its proposal to study the feasibility of building a 1,085-MW nuclear plant in the eastern Canadian province. "We are extremely pleased that the Province of New Brunswick has accepted Team Candu New Brunswick's proposal to conduct a feasibility study for the new ACR-1000 [reactor]," Ken Petrunik, chief operating officer for Atomic Energy of Canada, said in a statement. "We are confident the study will clearly demonstrate that a second unit will provide an energy-secure future and economic self-sufficiency for the province," he said. "This feasibility study may lead to a significant private sector investment into electricity generation in New Brunswick, creating up to 4,000 jobs during construction and 500 permanent, high-paying jobs to operate the facility," New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham said in a statement. "It further cements New Brunswick's growing position as an energy hub on the Eastern Seaboard and could be yet another catalyst towards our goal of self sufficiency by 2026." The group said it will pay for a feasibility study that is designed to evaluate the potential for building and operating an advanced reactor at Point Lepreau generating station, where New Brunswick Power already operates a 680-MW nuclear power plant. The study also will examine the business case for private-sector investment, identify prospective markets for this new source of power, and the project's potential environmental and socioeconomic impact. The study is expected to cost about $2.5 million and could take up to four months to complete. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Electric Power Daily at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?src=story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=2_31&products_id=47 Copyright 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 11 Platts: NRC extends Vermont Yankee's license renewal schedule Washington (Platts)--1Aug2007 NRC extended the Vermont Yankee license renewal review by at least two months to allow more time for Entergy's scoping activities and the agency's review. In a July 31 letter to Entergy, NRC's license renewal division director, Pao-Tsin Kuo, said a revised schedule would be issued after the NRC staff determines it has adequate additional information to complete its review. The original schedule had called for a final safety evaluation report to be issued August 1, but Kuo said meeting that target date wasn't possible because of the "volume and complexity of information" involved. The schedule has slipped by "a minimum of two months," Kuo said. Entergy submitted a license renewal application for the 635-MW BWR in January 2006. A commission decision, if no hearing were granted, had been anticipated around July 2008, but three contentions have been accepted by a licensing board. Copyright 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 12 Platts: IAEA to inspect Tepco's earthquake-hit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant Tokyo (Platts)--2Aug2007 Tokyo Electric Power Co. will allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its earthquake-hit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant over August 6-9, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Thursday. Five inspectors from IAEA will study the damage caused by the July 16 earthquake that forced the shutdown of Tepco's largest nuclear power plant which has a combined capacity of 8.21 gigawatt. The inspectors will also study the capacity of the power plant to withstand earthquakes, through series of interviews and an inspection, METI said. The IAEA inspectors will discuss and exchange information on the damage and the inspection with METI's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency August 10, the ministry said. The quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and rocked the Niigata region at around 10:13 am local time July 16. Tepco's nuclear generation capacity has been more than halved, falling to 6.44 GW from just seven units compared with normal capacity of 17.31 GW from 17 units across Japan. The drop in nuclear power generation has forced Japan's biggest utility to boost its thermal power generation using feedstocks such as direct-burning crudes, low sulfur waxy residue, low sulfur fuel oil, LNG and coal. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Power in Asia at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=2_31&products_id=54 Copyright 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 13 Rutland Herald: NRC gives tentative OK to Yankee August 02, 2007 By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff BRATTLEBORO The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday it could see no environmental reasons why the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant cannot keep operating for another 20 years. At the same time, the federal regulators said they have additional questions for Entergy Nuclear about safety issues about the proposed license extension and has pushed back its timetable for its final and complete decision as a result. The NRC said it would issue Entergy Nuclear an environmental impact statement by Friday, but that plans to issue its safety evaluation report Wednesday proved to be premature. Entergy Nuclear is on track to receive a decision on whether it can keep operating for another 20 years until 2032 in November. "The NRC staff concluded that all environmental impacts from a license extension for Vermont Yankee would be small," said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan on Wednesday. Larry Smith, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said the request for additional time from the federal regulators came after Entergy filed additional information about 24 safety systems at the plant. But he called the issue a simple one and not any cause for concern. "They're just asking for additional information, and it's all relevant to relicensing," he said. "It's a back-and-forth process," he said, adding that the delay in a decision would be expected. Sheehan said several steps still remain for Entergy Nuclear to complete, including a discussion of the application by the full advisory committee on reactor safeguards, which is a semi-independent group associated with the NRC. The director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation will make a final decision in November only if there is no formal hearing by the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission, he added. Entergy Nuclear filed its license amendment request in January 2006 after discussing its plans for a couple of years. Stephen Wark, spokesman for the Vermont Department of Public Service, said the NRC had asked for additional information and Entergy had replied. "They submitted a fairly complete package, and my understanding is there is going to be a delay in the final evaluation," he said. Wark said that delay was proof that the federal regulators were "not just rushing to conclusions." Raymond Shadis, senior technical advisor for the New England Coalition, an anti-nuclear environmental group contesting the license extension, couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. Vermont Yankee, which was purchased by Entergy Nuclear from a group of New England utilities in 2002, provides about one-third of the electricity used in Vermont. About half of its output is used by Vermonters. Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. 2007 Rutland Herald ***************************************************************** 14 Burlington Free Press: NRC: No environmental reason not to extend Yankee license burlingtonfreepress.com | Burlington, Vermont Thursday, August 2, 2007 The Associated Press BRATTLEBORO The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says there are no environmental reasons not to extend the license of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for 20 years, but officials have safety questions about the proposal. So the NRC says it is delaying its final decision on whether to approve the plan by Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Nuclear to keep the plant operating until 2032. The NRC is expected to issue its environmental impact statement for Vermont Yankee on Friday. A final decision on the relicensing request is expected in November. The NRC staff concluded that all environmental impacts from a license extension for Vermont Yankee would be small, said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan. Entergy spokesman Larry Smith said the NRC wants additional time to study 24 safety systems at the plant, but it was not a reason for concern. Theyre just asking for additional information, and its all relevant to relicensing, he said. Its a back-and-forth process, he said, adding that the delay in a decision would be expected. Vermont Yankee provides about one-third of the electricity used in Vermont. Copyright 2007 Burlingtonfreepress.com All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 NRC: NRC Invites Public to Submit Nominations for the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards News Release - 2007-097 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is seeking qualified candidates for appointment to its Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS). The ACRS is a part-time advisory group which is statutorily mandated by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. ACRS provides independent technical review of, and advice on, matters related to the safety of existing and proposed nuclear facilities and on the adequacy of proposed reactor safety standards. Of primary importance are the safety issues associated with the operation of 104 commercial nuclear power plants in the United States, and regulatory initiatives including risk-informed and performance-based regulations, license renewal, power uprates, and the use of mixed oxide and high burnup fuels. An increased emphasis is being given to safety issues associated with new reactor designs and technologies including passive system reliability and thermal hydraulic phenomena, use of digital instrumentation and control, international codes and standards for use in multinational design certifications, material and structural engineering, and nuclear analysis and reactor core performance. Currently, the Commission is seeking individuals with technical expertise in one or more of the areas of materials engineering, digital instrumentation and control, or plant operations. The ACRS membership includes individuals who possess specific technical expertise along with a broad perspective in addressing safety concerns. Committee members are selected from a variety of engineering and scientific disciplines, such as risk assessment, chemistry, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, materials sciences, and earth sciences. At this time, candidates are being sought who have 10 years of experience in one or more of the areas of materials engineering, digital instrumentation and control, or plant operations. Candidates with pertinent graduate level education will be given additional consideration. Committee members serve a four-year term with the possibility of two reappointments for a total service of 12 years. The Commission hopes to fill three vacancies as a result of this request. Criteria used to evaluate candidates includes education and experience, demonstrated skills in nuclear reactor safety matters, the ability to solve complex technical problems, and the ability to work collegially on a board, panel, or committee. The Commission, in selecting its committee members, considers the need for a specific expertise to accomplish the work expected to be before the ACRS. For these positions, the expertise must be preferably related to one or more of the areas of materials engineering, digital instrumentation and control, or plant operations. Consistent with the requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Commission seeks candidates with varying views and of diverse backgrounds so that the membership on the committee will be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and functions to be performed by the Committee. Candidates will undergo a thorough security background check to obtain the security clearance that is mandatory for all ACRS members. The security background check will involve the completion and submission of paperwork to NRC. Candidates for ACRS appointments may be involved in or have financial interests related to NRC-regulated aspects of the nuclear industry. Because conflict-of-interest considerations may restrict the participation of a candidate in ACRS activities, the degree and nature of such restriction on an individual's activities as a member will be considered in the selection process. Each qualified candidate's financial interests must be reconciled with applicable Federal and NRC rules and regulations prior to final appointment. This might require divestiture of securities or discontinuance of certain contracts or grants. Information regarding these restrictions will be provided upon request. A rsum describing the educational and professional background of the candidate including any special accomplishments, publications, and professional references, should be provided. Candidates should also provide their current address and telephone number, and email address. All candidates will receive careful consideration. Appointment will be made without regard to factors such as race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age or disabilities. Candidates must be citizens of the United States and be able to devote approximately 100-130 days per year to committee business. Rsums will be accepted until November 30, 2007. Rsums should be sent to Angelina Chapeton, ACRS/ACNW, Mail Stop T2E-26, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001 or emailed to ahc@nrc.gov NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Thursday, August 02, 2007 ***************************************************************** 16 Jackson Sun: Sirens at Tennessee nuclear plant fail test www.jacksonsun.com - Jackson, TN Thursday, August 2, 2007 The Associated Press KNOXVILLE A majority of emergency sirens failed to operate during a routine test at a Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear station near Chattanooga, officials said. During a drill Wednesday, 77 of 108 emergency sirens never sounded in the 10-mile surrounding the Sequoyah Nuclear Station in Soddy-Daisy, about 18 miles northeast of Chattanooga. TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said it was the first time TVA and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency have had so many sirens fail during the monthly tests. Afterward, technicians checked all 77 non-functioning sirens and found each physically operated as designed. The problem may be with the electronic systems that communicate with the sirens, since the tests are initiated from Nashville. Were pretty certain it wasnt 77 sirens deciding not to function, Johnson said. It appears to be some sort of system problem. The two-reactor Sequoyah station opened in 1981-82, was shut down with the rest of the TVA nuclear program in 1985, and was restarted in 1988. The plant generates about 2,300 megawatts, enough to supply about 1.3 million homes. ====================================================================== Shudder, shudder. TVA's nuclear program seems always to have been "snake bit" and it seems to have gotten down to a relatively minor but extremely important safety issue - warning of a nuclear problem. Now, on Wednesday the TVA board gave CEO Tom Kilgore total control of completing Watts Bar II nuclear plant at an estimated cost of $2.5 billion. Three weeks ago, TVA put up for sale $1 billion in "power bonds" to be used to refinace existing debt. Ultimately, ratepayers must pay for TVA's excursions into fantasy financing. Surely, making sirens work on call is not rocket science. Posted by: Ernest Norsworthy on Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:46 pm Copyright 2007 The Jackson Sun. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 Tennessean: TVA to expand nuclear operation at Tennessee plant - Nashville, Tennessee - Thursday, 08/02/07 - Tennessean.com Watts Bar reactor to cost $2.5 billion By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press KNOXVILLE The Tennessee Valley Authority's board of directors pushed aside pleas by environmentalists for further study and voted unanimously Wednesday to complete a second nuclear reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant on the Tennessee River. The plant, about 140 miles east of Nashville, was the last nuclear plant to come online in the United States when it fired up one of its two planned reactors in 1996. Unit 2, idled in mid-construction in 1985 when TVA shut down its entire nuclear program over safety concerns, could become the country's first new commercial nuclear reactor of the 21st century. The plan approved by TVA's eight-member board will finish Unit 2 in five years at a cost of $2.5 billion, funded by the public utility's revenues and adding debt. Directors approved the plan based on a $20 million internal feasibility study that determined the reactor is about 60 percent complete. Some questioned TVA using consultants, such as Bechtel Power Co., that will want to bid on the work. But TVA officials said bids will be judged competitively by an independent team. TVA is the nation's largest public utility, providing wholesale electricity through 158 distributors to about 8.7 million consumers, including those in the Midstate, and directly to several dozen large manufacturers in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. Watts Bar Unit 2 would be TVA's seventh nuclear reactor. The agency recently restarted a Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant reactor in Alabama, also mothballed since 1985, after a $1.8 billion, five-year renovation. "Completing Watts Bar Unit 2 puts an existing asset to work for TVA customers and provides a clean, safe and reliable source of affordable power to the people of the Tennessee Valley," TVA Chairman Bill Sansom said. "Stop trying to say that this is clean," activist John Johnson of Katuah Earth First! said during a four-hour meeting at TVA headquarters. "If you think it is clean then I dare you to store fuel rods in your basement." TVA officials didn't discuss the nuclear-waste issue. Instead, they pointed to Watts Bar Unit 2's potential to reduce TVA's carbon dioxide emissions by up to 8 million tons a year. TVA is predicting demand growth at nearly 2 percent annually. That would require a new nuclear reactor every couple of years unless TVA's new commitments to incentive-driven conservation pan out. Call for delay rejected Several environmentalists asked TVA directors to delay a vote on Watts Bar Unit 2 for a year to weigh the alternatives, while local government leaders, TVA distributors and major industrial customers, including the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, urged TVA to move ahead. "Utilities across the country are proving they can meet all load growth through conservation and efficiency measures rather than building new power plants," said Alex Tapia of Nashville, an energy-conservation advocate with the nonprofit Kilowatt Ours. TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said the agency can't afford to wait. TVA expects to spend $1.4 billion of some $9.6 billion in operating expenses next year on buying electricity from other utilities to meet peak needs up nearly $400,000 from this year. "We are 3,500 megawatts in the hole if you start today," he said. "We are going to be another 3,500 megawatts in the hole five years from now. We are going to need this (Watts Bar Unit 2) and all the conservation that you can bring on." TVA directors will vote on their fiscal 2008 budget later this month. Kilgore said there could be a single-digit rate increase during the year to pay for additional capacity, particularly purchases of combined-cycle gas turbine plants. Copyright 2007, tennessean.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Slovak Spectator: Nuclear plant continues towards shutdown Volume 13, Number 29 July 23 - August 05, 2007 Nuclear decommissioning company Jadrov Vyraovacia Spolonos (JAVYS), which operates the V1 nuclear power plant in Jaslovsk Bohunice, generated 2,113 GWh of electricity in its only remaining reactor unit in the first seven months of this year, the SITA newswire reported. The plant generated 304.5 GWh of electricity in July alone. The V1 Nuclear Power Station has only one reactor in use, said JAVYS spokesman Dobroslav Dobk. Slovakia shut down the first reactor of the V1 Nuclear Power Plant at the end of December of last year. The second reactor is to be shut down at the end of 2008. The Slovak government made the commitment to decommission the plant as part of the EU admission process. The cost to prepare for the shutdown, and for the termination itself, is expected to reach approximately SK16 billion. Liquidation of the power station will require an additional SK25 billion. As of April 1, 2006, the GovCo, a.s. company, which took over the plant's operation, was renamed Jadrov Vyraovacia Spolonos. GovCo was established on July 6, 2005 and its sole shareholder is the state. Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovsk from press reports The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings. [8/2/2007 3:28:53 PM] Reply to article online:(number of contributions 0): Copyright 1998-2007 The Rock spol. s r.o. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 19 Economist.com: Energy in Germany | Nuclear fallout | Thursday August 2nd 2007 From The Economist print edition Two accidents heat up the debate over whether to revive nuclear power to fight climate change EPA UNTIL recently, nuclear power seemed to be making its way back into public favour in Germany. A warm winter, and dire warnings by scientists about climate change, convinced many that carbon emissions might be a bigger danger than nuclear accidents or radioactive waste. Opinion polls this spring showed that fewer than half of Germans favoured continuing the policy, adopted in 2000, of phasing out all nuclear plants by 2021. About a quarter of Germany's electricity still comes from nuclear reactors, and the country's four big power companies had dared to hope for a reprieve for nuclear powerat least to extend the life of existing reactors, if not permission to build new ones. But that changed at the end of June, when two separate accidents at nuclear plants operated by Vattenfall, a Swedish company, in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, set back the pro-nuclear lobby once again. The mishapsa short-circuit at the Brunsbttel plant and a transformer fire at the Krmmel stationposed little threat. But Vattenfall botched its public relations (and later sacked its German boss), while environmentalists gave warning that the accidents could have been much worse. Public support for the nuclear phase-out climbed back over 50%. This presents Germany with a dilemma. The chancellor, Angela Merkel, a physicist who in the past helped negotiate the Kyoto Protocol, is a strong campaigner against climate change and wants Germany to set an example. By 2020 the country aims to emit 40% less greenhouse gas than it did in 1990, exceeding the ambitious 30% reduction set by the European Union. But her grand coalition is divided over how to do it. Ms Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) wants nuclear power plants, which do not emit carbon dioxide, to run beyond the deadline, buying extra time for the introduction of greener energy. No way, say the Social Democrats, the CDU's reluctant partners. Their role in approving the nuclear phase-out is one of their few strong political cards. Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democratic environment minister, insists that energy conservation and renewables can make up for the loss of nuclear power. Germany's decision will be watched closely elsewhere in Europe, where similar debates are taking place. France remains committed to nuclear power, which provides nearly four-fifths of its electricity, and exports both electricity and nuclear-power reactors. Italy has given up nuclear power (but has interests in foreign nuclear plants). Sweden voted to phase it out by 2010 but is having second thoughts. Finland sees nuclear power as an attractive alternative to fossil fuels, while Britain is thinking of building new nuclear plants. Germany's aversion to nuclear power may run counter to its desire for both cheap electricity and security of supplies. It is set to replace half its ageing power stations (nuclear and conventional) over the next 15 years. Ms Merkel has presided over three energy summits, the last one in July, but there is still no clear idea of how to fill the gap left by the nuclear phase-out. The environment ministry, created after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, has many ideas. Seeking to boost Germany's energy efficiency by 3% a year, it proposes offering tax incentives to modernise buildings and imposing road tolls not only on heavy vehicles but also on light trucks. It wants to tweak subsidies for renewable energy, which already cost consumers some 4 billion ($5.5 billion) a year. Solar energy (not much use in cloudy Germany) would get less, while offshore wind power would get more. Only the most stubborn optimists think this will be enough. The efficiency target looks unrealistic. Renewable energy, which already generates an impressive 13% of German electricity, will grow either slowly or at great cost. That leaves unpleasant options. Gas is relatively clean, but it is expensive and its main supplier, Russia, has alarmed European countries by periodically choking off oil and gas supplies to those (such as Ukraine and Belarus) that fall out of favour. The great temptation is therefore to revert to coal, which is cheap, abundant in Germany and, at least until carbon-storage technology is ready, bad for global warming. Ms Merkel has so far done too little to resist its lure. Indeed, Germany subsidises new coal plants by granting them extra permits under the European Union's emissions trading scheme. Around 40 coal-fired generators are being planned, most of them with no provision for capturing carbon emissions (for example by pumping it underground), says Claudia Kemfert of DIW, a think-tank in Berlin. But the incentives may change. Mark Lewis, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, argues that the carbon-credit subsidy for coal is likely to be withdrawn when the European Union tightens up emissions targets after 2012, making conventional coal riskier. Could that revive nuclear power yet again? Electricity generating companies are pushing to extend the operation of older nuclear plants, in the hope of keeping them open until the 2009 elections, which might bring in a more nuclear-friendly government. Critics accuse the firms of profiteering, noting that the plants, whose costs have been largely paid off, generate profits of 1m a day. Some analysts suggest keeping them running and imposing windfall taxes that could be used to promote renewable energy. But most Germans would rather kill nuclear power than milk it. Copyright The Economist Newspaper Limited 2007. All rights ***************************************************************** 20 NRC: NRC Finds No Significant Environmental Impacts from Extended Operation of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant News Release - 2007-098 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its final environmental impact statement on the proposed renewal of the operating license for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The report contains the NRC’s finding that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude license renewal for an additional 20 years of operation. The Vermont Yankee plant is a boiling-water reactor located five miles south of Brattleboro, Vt. The current operating license expires March 21, 2012. The operator, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., submitted an application for renewal of the license Jan. 27, 2006. As part of its environmental review of the application, the NRC held public meetings near the plant to discuss the scope of the review and the draft version of the environmental impact statement. Comments were received and considered from members of the public, local officials, and representatives of state and federal agencies. The Vermont Yankee Final Environmental Impact Statement is available on the NRC’s Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1437/supp lement30/. NRC news releases are available through a free list server subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Thursday, August 02, 2007 ***************************************************************** 21 Knoxville News Sentinel: TVA's Sequoyah nuclear plant fails siren test By Andrew Eder (Contact) Updated 11:18 a.m., August 2, 2007 During a routine test near TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, a majority of emergency sirens failed to operate Wednesday. TVA and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency conduct tests each month of sirens within a 10-mile emergency planning zone of its three nuclear plants. On Wednesday, 77 of 108 emergency sirens never sounded in the area surrounding the Sequoyah plant, located in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., about 20 miles northeast of Chattanooga. TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said technicians checked all 77 non-functioning sirens following the test, and each one physically operated as designed. Johnson noted that the test is initiated from Nashville and said technicians were checking the electronic systems that communicate with the sirens. He said this was the first time TVA and TEMA have had a problem with such a large number of sirens. “We’re pretty certain it wasn’t 77 sirens deciding not to function,” Johnson said. “It appears to be some sort of system problem.” Johnson said once the problem is fixed, the agencies would retest the sirens. The test came on the same day TVA directors voted to complete a second reactor at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City, Tenn., about 30 miles north of Soddy-Daisy. Johnson said Watts Bar’s sirens were also tested Wednesday and operated normally. Business writer Andrew Eder may be reached at 865-342-6318. 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 22 AFP: IAEA to visit Japan quake-hit nuclear plant next week Thursday August 2, 3:51 PM Photo: AFP TOKYO (AFP) - The UN's nuclear watchdog is expected to send experts to Japan next week to examine a nuclear power plant damaged during a deadly earthquake, officials said Thursday. "We've heard the IAEA's inspectors will examine the nuclear plant from Monday through Thursday and on Friday exchange information with Japanese officials in Tokyo," an official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Japan invited the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to visit its largest nuclear plant in hopes of easing concern at home and abroad after the 6.8-magnitude earthquake on July 16, which caused a radiation leak. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has said the radiation was far too little to cause health concerns but came under criticism for initially underreporting the level. Japan's government has voiced concern about foreign media coverage of the plant incident after Italian soccer club Catania cited worries about radiation to cancel a tour of the country. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Tokyo, is the largest nuclear facility in the world and was shut down indefinitely as a precaution after the earthquake. ADVERTISEMENT The Japanese nuclear official said authorities would fully cooperate with the IAEA experts. "We will not instruct them nor suggest anything on their inspections so as to guarantee a fair and independent examination," he said. IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei has said in a statement it was important to draw lessons from this case "that might have implications for the international nuclear safety regime." The earthquake killed 11 people and destroyed hundreds of homes. Despite the risks of earthquakes, Japan has been trying to increase its reliance on nuclear power as it has almost no natural energy resources of its own. Tokyo Electric this week slashed its earnings forecast for the full financial year due to the earthquake. Copyright 2005 AFP. All rights reserved. All information ***************************************************************** 23 AJC: Nuclear power lesson | ajc.com ajc.com > Opinion A free-flowing, multibillion-dollar era too risky; Three Mile Island meltdown can't be forgotten Published on: 08/02/07 Nuclear energy proponents have long blamed overzealous environmentalists for killing the industry nearly 30 years ago after the fateful meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant. But in reality, those who effectively put the kibosh on nuclear power spent their time on Wall Street, not at Woodstock. That's an important lesson to remember as the U.S. Senate considers granting $50 billion in loan guarantees over the next two years for companies seeking to build the next generation of nuclear plants and so-called "clean-coal" technologies that produce fewer greenhouse gases than conventional power sources. Under a measure slipped into the pending energy bill, taxpayers could be tapped to repay the full costs of loans for the construction of nuclear plants if they go bad. It is a patently bad idea. Hoping to take advantage of the government's largesse as quickly as possible, Georgia Power and several other large energy companies around the country are moving forward with plans to build nuclear plants or expand older ones. The utilities have claimed that standardized reactor designs and other improvements being used successfully in Europe and Asia have made nuclear power more cost-effective and environmentally friendly and less accident-prone. There's some merit to those arguments. But as before, there are still strong cautions against subsidizing nuclear power. The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently concluded that nuke plants will still be four times more expensive to build than coal, gas or wind plants. In a separate report, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned that nuclear power plants, "by their nature, pose significant technical and market risks." The most damning indictment of the industry's future, however, came recently from Standard and Poor's, the well-respected financial research firm that ranks prospective investments. The company deemed that "an electric utility with a nuclear exposure has weaker credit than one without and can expect to pay more on the margin for credit. Federal support of construction costs will do little to change that reality." Congress should reject a massive giveaway that transfers the risk of failure for an mature industry such as nuclear power and places it squarely on the back of the American public. — Lyle V. Harris 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Customer care | ***************************************************************** 24 Arizona Republic: A clinic in nuclear power August 2, 2007 The writer of a letter Tuesday observes, "If better understood, nuclear energy would be more acceptable" ("Promise of nuclear power"). Well, here's a bit of "better understood" for the writer and other pro-nukers: Reprocessing of spent fuel rods for reuse in nuclear-power plants generates a waste stream more than 10 times greater by volume and enormously greater in toxicity/radioactivity than the rods themselves. Turning this waste into a manageable commodity, including the "glassification" process, has proved neither economically nor environmentally feasible. France manages it by either burial or export. No one has yet figured out how to safely and economically manage the highly radioactive waste byproducts of nuclear-power generation. No one has yet figured out how to economically generate electricity from nuclear power without enormous taxpayer subsidies. If the true cost of nuclear power were to be charged to consumers on a utility bill, we'd all be hustling hog tallow to make candles, because none of us would be able to afford the per-kilowatt-hour costs. Better understood, nuclear electricity generation becomes just another pie-in-the-sky, taxpayer-funded windfall for the industry, and not more acceptable. - Robert H. Walters,Phoenix Copyright 2007, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. Users of this ***************************************************************** 25 NCT: Train carries sleeping man onto San Onofre plant property North County Times - Last modified Wednesday, August 1, 2007 10:39 PM PDT By: PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer SAN ONOFRE -- Southern California Edison has changed its security procedures for inspecting train cars that enter the San Onofre nuclear power plant after a sleeping illegal immigrant was accidentally carried onto the property, company officials said Wednesday. Edison officials said that a man was found on the San Onofre property -- but not inside its "protected area" where its nuclear reactors and fuel reside -- just after three freight rail cars arrived inside the plant around 12:30 a.m. July 25. The rail cars, on a spur of Southern California's main north-south rail line, carry freight inside the San Onofre grounds and pass by an area where Edison stores spent fuel: highly radioactive material that can no longer produce power. The July 25 incident was described in a document obtained by the North County Times on Tuesday. On Wednesday, plant officials downplayed the breach and said they were confident the unexpected visitor could not have made it through a tougher set of security checks in areas where nuclear materials are stored. Officials with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday they had been notified about the incident and were confident in the plant's defenses. The accidental intruder was discovered when Edison employees spotted him standing near one of the recently arrived freight cars, John Todd, director of security at San Onofre, said Wednesday. "He was not wearing a security badge, so one of our people approached him," Todd said. "When he could not produce a badge, we took him into custody." Todd said the man, who spoke only Spanish, seemed surprised to find himself at the nuclear plant, 18 miles north of Oceanside. "He claimed he was hitching a ride from Oceanside to San Clemente and was sleeping in the car," Todd said. Southern California's main north-south rail line passes between the nuclear plant and Interstate 5. The entry occurred on a small spur track that leaves the main line just north of the plant, running alongside a small access road just west of Old Pacific Highway. Brian Katz, Edison's vice president of nuclear oversight and regulatory affairs, said that the freight cars stand about 12 feet above the ground and that Edison has used mirrors on poles to inspect the cars before they are allowed onto the property. "We went around that car twice with the mirror," Katz said. "We have concluded that we cannot do mirror inspections anymore." Both Katz and Todd said that Edison has changed its inspection procedures for rail cars at San Onofre in the wake of the incident. However, both also declined to specify how those procedures have changed, citing security concerns. Edison officials have said for years that security at San Onofre is nearly impenetrable, citing layers of security that were added after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, designed to identify intruders and stop potential attacks. Plant officials said Wednesday they reported the intrusion to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the agency responsible for law enforcement at the plant. "It was their conclusion that this guy was not a threat to the site," Katz said. Darrell Foxworth, an FBI spokesman in the bureau's San Diego office, confirmed that Wednesday. He said the incident "was not terrorist-related." To understand security at San Onofre, imagine a bull's-eye with the plant's two domed nuclear reactors at the center. The reactors, generators and pools where highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel are stored are all within San Onofre's "protected area." The area is protected by armed guards, security fences, high-powered cameras and a host of other features that Edison does not discuss publicly. Everything outside the protected area, all the way to the edge of San Onofre's property, is in a less-secure zone called the "owner controlled area." This zone includes warehouses where deliveries of supplies are made, training buildings and other structures. Katz and Todd said that many outside vendors pass through the owner controlled area every day. But they must first be cleared by the plant's security department and issued identification. Their vehicles must also be inspected as they enter to make sure no prohibited items are on board. Victor Dricks, a spokesman with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Wednesday that his office received a report from Edison following the accidental intrusion. He said that the agency examined the incident, and found no security concerns. "There is nothing in the owner-controlled area that would be safety-related," Dricks said. He said the regulatory commission is examining safety procedures at the plant, but has found no gaps. Plant officials said that the train rider was turned over to the Border Patrol officers shortly after he was detained. Matthew Johnson, a spokesman for the Border Patrol, said Wednesday that the man was in the country illegally and will be sent back to Mexico. He declined to say whether the man had a criminal record. "We typically don't give out that information," Johnson said. Katz said the train cars came to San Onofre to haul away material from demolition of the plant's Unit 1 reactor which is being decommissioned. -- Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com. webmaster@nctimes.com 1997-2007 North County Times ? Lee Enterprises editor@nctimes.com ***************************************************************** 26 BBC NEWS: Preparing for a dirty bomb attack Last Updated: Thursday, 2 August 2007, 13:09 GMT 14:09 UK By Frank Gardner BBC security correspondent, Chicago The authorities in Britain and the US are preparing for the increasing possibility of a radiological dirty bomb being detonated by terrorists. Argonne super gel penetrates walls to draw out contamination Pagers to detect personal radiation exposure have already been issued to some ambulance services in Britain. A dirty bomb would use radioactive material wrapped around conventional explosive. Although it is estimated that the inclusion of radioactive isotopes would cause very few immediate additional casualties there could still be a major psychological effect, with some people trying to flee the affected area and local businesses seriously damaged. In the worst-case scenario, whole areas could be rendered uninhabitable for up to several months or even years. Dealing with a dirty bomb But scientists are now developing a number of novel ways of mitigating the likely effects of a dirty bomb. The aim, they say, is to minimise the effect on human lives. "Today we see the use of home-made improvised explosive devices: tomorrow's threat may include the use of chemicals, bacteriological agents, radioactive materials and even nuclear technology," Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5 Director-General, said in a speech in London last November. Intensive research At the United States' Argonne National Laboratories, hidden behind a guarded perimeter, scientists in white protective suits burst out of a van and prepare to spray a fine liquid plastic on to the surface of a wall. There's been a lot of research work but it has been escalating over the past few months Sandra Bell Royal United Services Institute What is a dirty bomb? It is an exercise. The wall has not really been contaminated and the world has yet to experience a dirty bomb for real. But emergency planners are now training for when terrorists might one day detonate a "Radiation Dispersal Device", or RDD. Left unchecked, its after-effects could contaminate whole streets. Sandra Bell is an explosives expert at the UK's Royal United Services Institute. "The British government are getting increasingly concerned about an RDD," she says. "We have a long history of getting prepared and there's been a lot of research work but it has been escalating over the past few months." Locking down radioactivity Over at the Argonne laboratories, scientists are now spraying their plastic polymer gel on to a wall. Jayne Shelton is President of the company that developed it. ANTI-DIRTY BOMB DEVICES Bio-dosimeter assessment tool: available through US government Ocular scanner: prototype Argonne super-absorbent gel: seeking a commercial developer Polymer isotron spray: commercially available Sirad personal dosimeter card: commercially available A new radiation pager is also being developed in the US "The purpose of this coating is to lock down radioactive particulates to prevent contamination spread," he says. "The two issues you have with a dirty bomb release are the spread of the contamination and also the contamination of the public and first emergency responders. "Ideally you'd have a fleet of vehicles on the ground that would be supplied with our coating, have the spray equipment to disperse it over a large area. "You'd also have aircraft to spray it on the top of the plume to lock it down to the surface. And the whole purpose of this being to lock it down into a solid form such that when the first responders come back in by foot or by vehicle there's no recontamination." One of the problems with radioactive contamination is you can't see it. So many emergency workers fell ill at Chernobyl in 1986 because they did not realise how badly they were being radiated, in many cases fatally. But scientists in the US have been working on ways to detect radiation immediately after a dirty bomb. The technologies that we have developed will help decrease the panic and increase the peace of mind and help with the clean-up Jeff David Interagency US Technical Support Working Group Under a bilateral deal, they are sharing their findings with Britain. One of the more portable devices is the commercially available Sirad Personal Dosimeter, as explained by Gladys Klemic from the US Department of Homeland Security. "You'd carry this like an ID card," she says. "In situations where there are high levels of radiation this central rectangle would darken, the blue square can be used as a reference to see what the radiation levels are. "If an emergency responder comes to an event and is carrying one of these he can quickly check and see if he's been exposed to radiation." Picking up the threat The ocular scanner is another one of several prototype devices designed to cope with the aftermath of an RDD. Its development has been sponsored by the Interagency US Technical Support Working Group, linked to the defence department. We asked Jeff David, the group's deputy director, how these devices would work in a real-life situation. "If we're in a shopping mall and a bomb goes off, if you were injured you know it, it's obvious," he says. "You're bleeding from shrapnel. If it's an RDD, you may have received a lethal dose but you don't know what you've been exposed to unless you're properly prepared in advance, and the technologies that we have developed will help decrease the panic and increase the peace of mind and help with the clean-up." Funding battle Finally, there is the Argonne super gel, a highly absorbent substance sprayed on to a contaminated building. It is designed to tackle the most dangerous radioactive materials that have penetrated right into the concrete. It literally sucks out the radioactive particles then removes them with a wet vacuum before they are disposed of as radioactive waste. In theory, that means a building can be decontaminated in days instead of waiting weeks or even demolishing it altogether. But here lies the problem: until terrorists actually detonate a dirty bomb, the funding for coping for one is thin on the ground. Some equipment is now being distributed, in both the US and Britain, but privately scientists question whether it will really be enough to cope with a full-scale radiological disaster. DEALING WITH A DIRTY BOMB Isotron spray 1 Plastic polymer sprayed over radioactive contamination seals it on to surface, preventing further contamination 2 Hardened gel is then peeled from surface, taking surface contamination with it Ocular scanner 3 Detects and identifies degree of contamination and gives a prompt read-out on screen Argonne super-absorbent gel 4 Sprayed on contaminated surface and sucks out even deep-seated radioactive particles 5 Gel retains radioactive material and is removed with a wet vacuum for disposal Personal dosimeter 6 Rectangle in centre of device darkens if high radiation levels detected and indicates extent of contamination * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 27 Coastal Post: Depleted Uranium, Diabetes, Cancer And You MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS MONTHLY - FREE PRESS (415)868-1600 - (415)868-0502(fax) - P.O. Box 31, Bolinas, CA, 94924 August, 2007 By Alan Cantwell, MD Recently, I received an intriguing email claiming that the rapidly increasing worldwide epidemic of diabetes was caused by depleted uranium (DU). As a medical doctor I never heard of such an idea. Every physician knows that radiation can lead to cancer, but the DU and diabetes connection seemed ludicrous. Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to check it out on the Internet. The best tool for medical research on the Net is the PubMed website sponsored by the US National Library of Medicine. I typed in the keywords: depleted uranium and diabetes. No citations to scientific papers in the medical journals appeared on my computer screen, which further assured me there was no scientific connection. Even when I used key words - depleted uranium and human disease - only a mere 16 papers were cited on the subject from 1994 to 2005; and only half these papers addressed the medical problems of soldiers exposed to DU in the Gulf War. What was revealed is that DU accumulates in lymph nodes, brain, testicles, and other organs, and the short term and long-term effects of DU were not known. There was a definite increase of birth defects in the offspring of persons exposed to DU; and Gulf War vets who inhaled DU were still excreting abnormal amounts of uranium in the urine 10 years later. Why was there so little written about DU and its effects on the human body? Having written extensively on the man-made epidemic of AIDS and its cover-up for two decades, I was not surprised. I strongly suspected research into the health effects of DU on Gulf War veterans was "politically incorrect." On the other hand, a quick Google Internet searches of - "side effects" + "depleted uranium" - referred me to 71,000 English pages on the web. When I added the key word "diabetes" there were 22,000 pages. I also discovered that articles about the health dangers of DU rarely, if ever, appear in the major media. In a January 2001 press release FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting) accused the media of "depleted coverage of depleted uranium weapons." Nevertheless, a great deal of information on DU can be found on the Internet. DU was first used by the US in the 1991 Gulf War, then in the Balkans in the late 1990s, in Kosovo in 2000, in the war against Afghanistan, in Iraq in 2003, and also by the Israelis in the 2006 war with Lebanon. Needless to say, US military and government officials totally deny any health danger from DU. A reassuring New York Times article of 9 January 2001 entitled "1999 U.S. document warned of depleted uranium in Kosovo" by Marlise Simons, noted "while acknowledging the hazards, both the Pentagon and NATO, pointing to medical experts, have denied any links could exist between exposure to depleted uranium and the illness and deaths of veterans." DU weapons were developed by the US Navy in 1968, and were first given to Israel by the US in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Since then, the US has tested, manufactured and sold DU weapons systems to 29 countries. Vieques Island, a testing site in Puerto Rico, was repeatedly bombarded with DU in 1999 prior to its use in Kosovo. DU is a byproduct of the enriching of natural uranium for use in nuclear reactors. As nuclear waste, DU is costly to keep but relatively inexpensive to obtain. Due to their tank armour-piercing capabilities, DU weapons are extremely effective and the reason why the military is so enthralled with them. Depleted Uranium Whistleblowers Major Doug Rokke is a leading DU expert who has become a whistleblower against its use. He claims each tank round is composed of 10 pounds of solid uranium-238 contaminated with plutonium, neptunium, and americium. The round is pyrophoric, meaning it generates intense heat on impact, easily penetrating a tank because of the heavy weight of the metal. When DU munitions hit, they produce a firestorm inside any vehicle or structure, resulting in devastating burns and injuries to those who escape immediate death and incineration. On impact, DU produces uranium oxide dust and pieces of uranium explode all over the place. Once inside the body the tiny nanoparticles enter the lungs and blood stream and are carried throughout the body. When Rokke and his team were assigned to "clean up" the DU after the first Gulf War, all his men got ill within 72 hours with respiratory problems, rashes, bleeding, and open sores. In an Australian interview with Gay Alcorn in 2003, Rokke admitted: "After everything I've seen, everything I've done, it became very clear to me that you can't take radioactive wastes from one nation and just throw it into another nation. It's wrong. It's simply wrong." According to Asaf Durakovic MD of the Uranium Medical Research Centre in Washington DC, the term "depleted uranium" is a misnomer. Both "depleted" and "natural" uranium are over 99% composed of uranium 238. DU is almost as highly concentrated as pure uranium and may contain plutonium (a deadly element) in trace amounts. Leuren Moret is an independent American scientist who works on radiation and health issues with communities around the world. At age 61, she is the leading activist against the use of DU, having worked in two nuclear weapons labs, including the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, run by the US Department of Energy. She is the ultimate antigovernment whistleblower on DU, along with Rokke and Durakovic, and all three have personally suffered (including death threats) for their anti-DU views. In her article "Depleted uranium: The Trojan Horse of nuclear war," which appeared in the June 2004 World Affairs Journal, Moret claims: "The use of DU weaponry by the US, defying all international treaties, will slowly annihilate all species on Earth including the human species, and yet this country continues to do so with full knowledge of its destructive potential." DU travels. DU radioactive particles are picked up by the atmosphere and are transferred by wind storms and air currents. They permanently contaminate vast regions and slowly destroy the genetic future of populations living in those areas. As the Trojan Horse of nuclear war, Moret calls DU "the weapon that keeps on killing." There is no way to turn it off - and no way to clean it up. It meets the US government's own definition of "weapons of mass destruction." Depleted Uranium over the United Kingdom DU has a very high affinity for cellular DNA and permanently damages it. DU is the "fourth generation" of nuclear weapons. First came the atomic bomb, then the hydrogen bomb, then neutron bombs, and now DU. Moret claims the contaminated DU-dust from the Middle East gets absorbed into the atmosphere. Via dust storms and air currents it ends up in Europe and Britain. Eventually it spreads and get absorbed into the atmosphere globally. There is no safe place; no possible way to escape it. Moret's concerns are confirmed by a 2006 report from England by Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan, appearing in European Biology and Bioelectromagnetics and titled "Did the use of Uranium weapons in Gulf War 2 result in contamination of Europe?" Data (obtained with the help of the Freedom of Information Act) from the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK, revealed that after nine days of the "shock and awe" start of the Iraq war on 19 March 2003, much higher levels of uranium were picked up on five sites in Berkshire. On two occasions, levels exceeded the threshold at which the Environment Agency must be informed, though still within safety limits. These levels were the highest levels of depleted uranium ever measured in the atmosphere in Britain. The report also confirmed weather conditions over this war period, which showed a consistent flow of air from Iraq northwards. Not surprisingly this research was vigorously denied as "uranium of natural origin" by various government officials. However, Busby and Morgan insist the findings are the first evidence that DU particles were able to travel thousands of miles from Baghdad to England. Their report can be found on the Internet. Gulf War Syndrome About 300 tons of DU were dispersed over Iraq in 1991. Yet the US Department of Defense (DoD) has found little health risk to soldiers who inhaled DU and continues to claim exposure to DU is safe. Nearly 580,000 soldiers were deployed in the war. 294 soldiers died and 400 were wounded or became ill. As of year 2000, there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability, and over 11,000 have died. Obviously something serious happened to the health of these men and women who served in the Gulf. DU is known to be neurotoxic. Gulf War vets are twice as likely to come down with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) than vets who did not serve in Iraq. ALS, a fatal neuromuscular disease, is now considered a "service-connected" disease and vets can get disability. Gulf War vets have nearly twice the prevalence of "chronic multi-system disease" than soldiers who served elsewhere at the same time. But so called "Gulf War Syndrome" continues to be denied as a specific illness. The Department of Defense's evaluation does not consider GWS as a unique syndrome, unique illness, or unique symptom complex in deployed Gulf War vets. The Worldwide Diabetes Epidemic A half century ago, during the early years of the Cold War when I went to medical school, diabetes was not a common disease. Now in the 21st century it is common to hear of diabetes as an impending epidemic. Certainly the statistics bear this out. Currently, 7% of Americans have diabetes (17 million). In addition, a Los Angeles Times front-page report on 16 September 2006, claims that there are more than 41 million Americans with abnormal blood glucose abnormalities, "that indicate they may soon develop diabetes." In Puerto Rico (where DU was tested) 10% of the population has diabetes. The Centres of Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta declares that "unless Americans change their ways," 33% of the babies born this year will be diabetic by the year 2050. Also by 2050 there are expected to be 45 million diabetics in the US. A vet support group, Veterans with Diabetes International, says there are 143 million people worldwide with the disease, and 300 million people are expected to have diabetes in 2025. Type 1 diabetes, most often seen in children and young adults, comprises 5-10% of the cases. Type 2, a metabolic disorder resulting from the body's inability to make enough or properly use insulin, frequently strikes adults, especially obese adults. This group comprises 90% or more of diabetics. The CDC predicts that Type 2 diabetes will increase 165% by 2050. People with Type 2 diabetes are also twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer. Thirty-four years after the Vietnam war ended, the DoD finally presented the "strongest evidence" that Type 2 diabetes can be connected to Agent Orange. Eighteen million gallons of this plant defoliant and poison was sprayed over Vietnam by the US military. It is now known to cause cancer and birth defects. Starting in the year 2002 diabetes is now recognized as a "service-connected" disease for all Vietnam vets. At present, diabetes is not service-connected for Gulf War vets. Nine percent of Vietnam vets have Type 2 diabetes. There is no current evidence that Gulf War vets have a heightened incidence of diabetes, but I could find no solid research to confirm or deny this. Perhaps in one or two more decades government scientists will discover a connection to DU. The common causes of diabetes are thought to be obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise. Leuren Moret believes the cause of the new epidemic is more sinister: namely the increasing levels worldwide of depleted uranium in the atmosphere, combined with emissions from the proliferation of nuclear power plants. Unlike government scientists, Moret says DU is very, very, very nasty stuff; and that diabetes is an immediate response to DU, in contrast to the decades it can take for uranium to produce radiation-induced cancer. Although she cannot prove it, she is the first scientist to strongly suggest a connection between the new worldwide diabetes epidemic and DU. Moret insists the medical profession has been active in the cover-up of low level radiation from atmospheric testing and nuclear power plants. I have been unable to verify this, but it is consistent with the passive role the health profession took during the Cold War nuclear testing in the US (more later). She has also spoken about medical professionals in hospitals who were threatened by government officials with $10,000 fines and jail time if they talked openly about the returning Iraq war soldiers and their medical problems. This could explain the paucity of reports in the scientific literature regarding vets exposed to DU and their war-associated illnesses. Moret also says reporters have been prevented access to more than 14,000 medically evacuated soldiers from the current Iraq War, brought back to Walter Reed Hospital near Washington, DC. To learn more about Leuren Moret and her research, Google: Leuren Moret + videos. In addition, she appears in the recent documentary film Beyond Treason, detailing the horrific effects of depleted uranium exposure on American troops and Iraqi civilians in the Gulf region in 1991. Is Depleted Uranium Safe? Ronald L. Kathren is Professor Emeritus at Washington State University and a leading authority vouching for the safety of DU. Unlike Major Rokke, he does not appear to have ever served in the military or to have come in contact with DU on a battlefield. Nevertheless, his opinions carry a lot of weight in the scientific world. Kathren does not dispute the fact that military personnel who may have had contact with DU are suffering from various illnesses, but he believes that exposure to uranium is very unlikely to be the cause. Writing for the Portland Independent Media Centre on 3 July 2005, he declares: "Health physicists are deeply concerned with the public health and welfare, and as experts in radiation and its effects on people and the environment, are quite aware that something other than exposure to uranium is the cause of the illnesses suffered by those who have had contact with depleted uranium from munitions. A truly enormous body of scientific data shows that it is virtually impossible for uranium to be the cause of their illnesses. Despite this body of scientific data to the contrary, misguided or unknowing people continue to allege that the depleted uranium, and specifically the radioactivity associated with the depleted uranium is the cause of these illness. This is indeed unfortunate, for health physicists and other scientists and physicians already know that depleted uranium is not the cause of these illnesses and thus any investigations into the cause of these illnesses should focus on other possible causes. If we are to offer any measure of relief or solace to these suffering people, and to gain some important additional knowledge of the cause of their illness, we should not waste our valuable and limited energies, resources and time attempting to point the finger at depleted uranium as the culprit, when it is already known that uranium is almost certainly not the cause of the problem." (http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/320739.shtml) "No Level of Radiation is Safe for Humans" As a physician it is inconceivable to me that government-approved experts like Kathren can so quickly dismiss DU as safe and harmless, particularly when on 29 June 2005, a National Academy of Sciences panel in Washington DC has found that no level of radiation is safe for humans. The panel concluded that "any dose of radiation, no matter how small, can induce cancer. Exposure to radiation is becoming more and more likely for most people because of the growing use of radiation in medicine. The new findings could lead to changes in medical practices and the levels of radiation allowed at former nuclear sites." The panel also contradicted the often heard dictum of some government pro-nuclear scientists that "a little radiation is good for you." The idea that low doses of radiation are safe is the myth that allowed extensive nuclear testing during the Cold War without a huge protest from every member of the human race. It is this myth that still allows DU weapons to be used on battlefields against "terrorists." Historically, the proof of the danger of nuclear warfare was provided a decade ago by the publication of a US Congressional committee report authorized by President Bill Clinton and entitled, The Human Radiation Experiments. The report showed clearly that government scientists and physicians could not be trusted in their pronouncements regarding the safety of nuclear weapons. Even worse was the documentation of countless covert and secret radiation experiments conducted on unsuspecting citizens during the Cold War "in the name of science." Unfortunately, this horrific 1996 report did not deter Clinton from allowing DU weapons in Kosovo in 1999, nor did it deter President George W. Bush, who authorized their use again in Afghanistan and Iraq. Anyone with Internet access can simply Google "the human radiation experiments" for details of the shameful science surrounding nuclear testing and the disastrous health effects on unsuspecting American citizens. In 2001, a half century after extensive nuclear weapons testing in the American West, the US National Cancer Institute was finally forced to reveal its finding that bomb testing in Nevada, which spread radioactive fallout across every state of the Union, has caused at least 15,000 cancer deaths and up to 212,000 non-fatal thyroid cancers. John LaForge of Nukewatch.com reminds us that "the 67 bomb tests blown off between 1946 and 1958 were said at the time to be safe." Money, Power and Depleted Uranium Who is profiting from this global uranium nightmare? In The Enemy Within (1996) Jay Gould reveals that the British Royal family privately owns investments in uranium holdings worth over $6 billion through Rio Tinto Mines, an Anglo-Australian company, which is the world's largest mining company with more than 60 operations in 40 countries. Africa and Australia are two of the main sources of uranium in the world; and the Rothschild's control uranium supplies and prices globally. Gould notes that nuclear radiation has brought dramatic increases in breast cancer mortality, especially in communities 50 to 100 miles downwind from nuclear reactors. Book reviewer Donna Lee writes: "The Enemy Within has enough scientific data to address those bureaucrats who deny that living near a nuclear reactor is a hazard to one's health. It also includes enough direct, clear prose to convince me, a breast cancer survivor, that I grew up during the Cold War as an unknowing guinea pig, further victimized by the politics of suppression and denial." Lee continues: "After reading the book, however, I am bothered by one persistent question. I was born and raised and continue to live in San Francisco, California, which has the highest incidence of breast cancer in the world. The Enemy Within concerns itself with breast cancer mortality rates, which are highest in the communities around New York City. San Francisco isn't within 100 miles of a nuclear reactor and it isn't even mentioned in the book. If low level radiation explains clusters of breast cancer throughout the US, what explains us?" Actually there was a nuclear power plant located in Sacramento, less than 100 miles from San Francisco, which became active in 1975. Gould probably did not include this in his 1996 book because the Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant was forced to shut down its operations in 1989, due to a public outcry and a referendum. David Bradbury says child cancer rates on Vieques Island have soared 250% above the Puerto Rican national average in the last thirty years. In his 2005 documentary film, Blowin' in the Wind, the provocative Australian filmmaker and two-time Academy Award nominee also provides some answers regarding the huge financial interests involved in uranium production and DU weapons. Australia provides one-third of the world's uranium supply, and Bradbury reveals a secret treaty that allows the US military to train and test its DU weaponry on Australian soil. He exposes plans to extract over $36 billion from uranium mines over the next six years, and shows the finished construction of a 1,000 mile railway from the mining area to a port on the north coast of Australia to transport the ore. The railway project was built by Texas-based Halliburton Company. In 1995 US Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO of that company. The film maker says, "The Queen's favorite American buccaneers, Cheney, Halliburton, and the Bush family, are tied to her through uranium mining and the shared use of illegal depleted uranium munitions in the Middle East, Central Asia and Kosovo/Bosnia. The major roles that such diverse individuals and groups as the Carlyle Group, George Herbert Walker Bush, former Carlyle CEO Frank Calucci, the University of California managed nuclear weapons labs at Los Alamos and Livermore, and US and international pension fund investments have played in proliferating depleted uranium weapons is not well known or in most instances even recognized, inside or outside Australia. God Save The Queen from the guilt of her complicity in turning Planet Earth into a 'Death Star'." Depleted Uranium and the War on Terror There is nothing more terrifying than the thought of exposing all life forms on the planet to DNA-altering radiation in order to provide us with "safety" and "democracy." It is truly diabolic to think that the destruction of the planet is now occurring with so few people comprehending what is going on - and still fewer people taking an active stand against this tragedy. It is apparent that most of the world's political and spiritual leaders, as well as scientists, physicians, lawyers, and health professionals do not care about the dangers of DU weapons and other forms of nuclear energy. If they cared we would certainly be hearing and reading about it on television and in the major media. As a researcher and writer over the part few decades, I have focused on the man-made origin of AIDS and the little-known bacterial cause of cancer, paying little attention to nuclear radiation. However, in 2001 I wrote an article entitled "The Human Radiation Experiments: How Scientists Secretly Used US Citizens as Guinea Pigs During the Cold War", which was published in the September-October 2001 issue of New Dawn, and is posted on several websites. But I must admit I was unaware of the serious planetary problems posed by DU. I simply assumed that no civilized and peace-loving country would ever be reckless and heartless enough to use these radioactive weapons. How wrong I was! What I find most pathetic and inconceivable is that we have learned nothing from the detrimental health effects unleashed by the atomic bombing of Japan - and nothing from the nuclear testing horrors of the last half of the 20th century. Instead we continue to contaminate vast areas of the world with radiation we don't know how to get rid of. I remember as an eleven year-old boy how jubilant everyone was by the atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which brought the war to a rapid end. A half century later my Caucasian niece married a Japanese-American man. Shortly after the wedding she noticed a lump in his neck, which proved to be thyroid cancer. His mother was a child when she lived 50 miles outside of Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped. Decades later, in her forties, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, undoubtedly due to the radiation fallout. The doctors considered the possibility that my niece's husband might have developed thyroid cancer because of radiation-altered and thyroid cancer-causing genes passed on to him by his mother. Of course the family wonders if their two young children will eventually also get thyroid cancer. Who would have thought that the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945 would have a cancerous effect five decades later on my family living in California? A few years ago I developed a thyroid nodule, which was biopsied and proved non-cancerous. As a teenager in the 1950s I received "superficial" radiation treatments for acne at the recommendation of a well-known New York dermatologist, a treatment that was later banned because of its potential to cause thyroid cancer. It is almost a clich to remind people that "all of us are connected." The fallout from DU and nuclear energy now binds us all together in an increasingly radioactive planet. No one is immune from the deleterious effects of radiation, and no one knows how to clean it up. What can we do about it? The only thing we can do is to stop the madness immediately. However, power and greed and politics and religion make that highly unlikely. We have met the perpetrators of the new radiation-induced "war on terror." And, sadly, it is us. Dr. Alan Cantwell is a retired dermatologist and the author of five books on the man-made origin of AIDS and the infectious origin of cancer, all published by Aries Rising Press, PO Box 29532, Los Angeles, CA 90029, USA (www.ariesrisingpress.com). His book, Queer Blood: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot, is available in Australia through New Dawn Book Service for $24.95 plus $8 p&h. Many of his personal writings can be found on www.google.com by typing in key words "alan cantwell" + articles. His latest book is Four Women Against Cancer: Bacteria, Cancer and the Origin of Life. His books are also available on www.amazon.com and in the US through Book Clearing House @ 1-800-431-1579. Email: alancantwell@sbcglobal.net. Alan Cantwell M.D. alancantwell@sbcglobal.net http://www.ariesrisingpress.com FOUR WOMEN AGAINST CANCER: Bacteria, Cancer and the Origin of Life ***************************************************************** 28 KPTV Portland: Marine's Father Warns Of Possible Cancer Link UPDATED: 1:25 pm PDT August 2, 2007 OREGON CITY, Ore. -- The father of a local Marine who died of leukemia has stepped forward after hearing the story of a soldier's fight against cancer. Andy Rounds, a 22-year-old Army soldier from Oregon, may have been exposed to depleted uranium, a substance that gives off low levels of radiation, when a munitions dump exploded on his Iraqi base. He's now fighting off an aggressive form of leukemia. Rounds' treatment is not being covered by the military because he was not diagnosed until after he was out of the Army. When Steve Renner heard of Rounds' story, his heart ached. His son Eric Renner, an Oregon City Marine, died of a similar leukemia after his time in the military. Steve Renner thinks his son was exposed to the depleted uranium, which is used by the military as plating on weapons because it allows ammo to penetrate armored vehicles. When Renner visited his son at a military hospital in California, he said he discovered four other Marines in the same ward who were fighting the same cancer. "I thought it was kind of strange," Renner said. "This is a bigger problem than anybody really knows." The military admitted depleted uranium gives off low levels of radiation, but a spokesman from the Pentagon said those levels are harmless. The military also said it has done extensive research and found no connection between depleted uranium and leukemia. The Renners said the Marines took good care of their son while he was sick and that they are worried that Rounds is not getting the same kind of care. Renner hopes speaking out about the possible connection between depleted uranium and leukemia will help prevent more cases. "Maybe there's no conclusive evidence, but based on what I've seen and what I've read that there is, there is some responsibility on the military's part and on the government's part," he said. Copyright 2007 by KPTV.com. All rights reserved. 2007, KPTV; Portland, OR. Portions: 2006, Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. ***************************************************************** 29 NRC: MI EA on release FR Doc E7-15040 [Federal Register: August 2, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 148)] [Notices] [Page 42440-42442] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr02au07-129] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket No. 030-07188] Notice of Environmental Assessment Related to the Issuance of a License Amendment to By-product Material License No. 21-05199-02, for Unrestricted Release of Former Facilities for the State of Michigan, Department of Environmental Quality, Lansing, MI AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Snell, Senior Health Physicist, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region III, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 2443 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois 60532; telephone: (630) 829-9871; fax number: (630) 515-1259; or by email at wgs@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of an amendment to NRC By-product Materials License No. 21-05199-02, which is held by the State of Michigan, Department of Environmental Quality (licensee). The amendment would authorize the decommissioning and unrestricted release of the licensee's former facilities located at 3423 and 3500 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Lansing, Michigan (the facilities). The NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment in support of this action in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR Part 51. Based on the Environmental Assessment, the NRC has determined that a Finding of No Significant Impact is appropriate. The amendment to the State of Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality license will be issued following the publication of this Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact. I. Environmental Assessment Identification of Proposed Action The proposed action would approve the State of Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality request to amend its license and release the facilities for unrestricted use in accordance with 10 CFR Part 20, Subpart E. The proposed action does not pertain to the licensee's radiological laboratory at 815 Terminal Road, in Lansing, Michigan, where licensed activities will continue. The proposed action is in accordance with the licensee's request to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to amend its license by letter dated February 28, 2007 (ADAMS Accession No. ML070590426). The State of Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality was first licensed to use by-product materials at its facilities at 3500 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (formerly 3500 N. Logan) on June 30, 1964, and at 3423 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. on February 21, 1997. The licensee is authorized to use by-product materials for activities involving instrument calibration and for analysis of environmental samples. The licensee was authorized to use sealed sources at the facilities containing cesium-137, cobalt-60, americium-241, nickel-63, and strontium-90. Isotopes that were authorized for use at the facilities in an unsealed form included any by-product material up to a maximum of 100 millicuries at any one time. At the 3500 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. address, the licensee used by-product materials in two buildings. The licensee analyzed environmental and special samples in its Nuclear Counting Facility in Building 44, and stored radiological materials in its Radioactive [[Page 42441]] Material Storage Bunker in Building 20. The licensee ceased using the Nuclear Counting Laboratory and moved all calibration standards, environmental samples and special samples to its new radiological laboratory at 815 Terminal Road, Lansing, Michigan, prior to conducting final status surveys in November 2000 to verify that the 3500 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. facility could be released for unrestricted use. In October 2000, the Michigan Department of Public Health requested the NRC terminate its SUB-1385 license, which also authorized the use of radioactive material in the Radioactive Material Storage Bunker in Building 20. The Michigan Department of Public Health provided a Final Status Survey Report that documented that the Radioactive Material Storage Bunker in Building 20 had been surveyed for residual contamination in 1998 and was acceptable for unrestricted use. In January 2001, the NRC terminated the SUB-1385 license and released the Radioactive Material Storage Bunker in Building 20 for unrestricted use. The licensee stated in a July 11, 2007, telephone conference, that it had not used the Radioactive Material Storage Bunker in Building 20 since it had been released for unrestricted use by the NRC in 2001. At the 3423 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. address, the licensee maintained a facility for the calibration of portable radiation survey instruments and the storage of radioactive material. The licensee ceased using the calibration/storage facility and moved all radiation sources and environmental samples to its new calibration facility at 815 Terminal Road, Lansing, Michigan, prior to conducting final status surveys in November 2000 to verify that the 3423 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. facility could be released for unrestricted use. The licensee conducted surveys of the facilities as part of its decommissioning activities and provided this information to the NRC to demonstrate that the radiological condition there is consistent with radiological criteria for unrestricted use in 10 CFR Part 20, Subpart E. The licensee was not required to submit a decommissioning plan to the NRC since any decommissioning activities and procedures implemented were consistent with those approved for routine operations. No radiological remediation activities are required to complete the proposed action. Need for the Proposed Action The licensee is requesting this license amendment because it has moved out of the facilities, and is conducting licensed activities at another location. The NRC is fulfilling its responsibilities under the Atomic Energy Act to make a decision on the proposed action for decommissioning that ensures that residual radioactivity is reduced to a level that is protective of the public health and safety and the environment, and allows the facilities to be released for unrestricted use. Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action The NRC staff reviewed the information provided and surveys performed by the licensee to demonstrate that the release of the facilities is consistent with the radiological criteria for unrestricted use specified in 10 CFR 20.1402. Based on its review, the staff determined that there were no radiological impacts associated with the proposed action because no radiological remediation activities were required to complete the proposed action, and that the radiological criteria for unrestricted use in Sec. 20.1402 have been met. Based on its review, the staff determined that the radiological environmental impacts from the proposed action for the facilities are bounded by the ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC- Licensed Nuclear Facilities'' (NUREG-1496). Additionally, no non- radiological or cumulative impacts were identified. Therefore, the NRC has determined that the proposed action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment. Alternatives to the Proposed Action The only alternative to the proposed action is to take no action. Under the no-action alternative, the facilities would remain under an NRC license and would not be released for unrestricted use. Denial of the license amendment request would result in no change to current conditions. The no-action alternative is not acceptable because it is inconsistent with 10 CFR 30.36, which requires that decommissioning of by-product material facilities be completed and approved by the NRC after licensed activities cease. This alternative would impose an unnecessary regulatory burden in controlling access to the former facility, and limit potential benefits from the future use of the facility. Conclusion The NRC staff concluded that the proposed action is consistent with the NRC's unrestricted release criteria specified in 10 CFR 20.1402. Because the proposed action will not significantly impact the quality of the human environment, the NRC staff concludes that the proposed action is the preferred alternative. Agencies and Persons Consulted The NRC staff has determined that the proposed action will not affect listed species or critical habitats. Therefore, no further consultation is required under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. Likewise, the NRC staff has determined that the proposed action is not a type of activity that has potential to cause effect on historic properties. Therefore, consultation under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act is not required. The NRC consulted with the Michigan Department of Community Health (DCH). The Michigan DCH, Bureau of Health Systems, Division of Health Facilities and Services, was provided the draft EA for comment on July 13, 2007. Mr. Bruce Matkovich, Manager, Radiation Safety Section, with the Michigan DCH, responded to the NRC by e-mail on July 16, 2007, indicating that the State had no comments regarding the NRC Environmental Assessment for the release of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality facilities. II. Finding of No Significant Impact On the basis of the EA in support of the proposed license amendment, the NRC has determined that the proposed action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment. Thus, the NRC has not prepared an environmental impact statement for the proposed action. III. Further Information Documents related to this action, including the application for amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS, or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1- 800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. The documents and ADAMS accession numbers related to this notice are: [[Page 42442]] 1. Robert D. Skowronek, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, letter to Patricia Pelke, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, February 22, 2007 (ADAMS Accession No. ML070590426). 2. Telephone Conversation Record, Initiated by William Snell, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to Robert Skowronek, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, on July 11, 2007 (ADAMS Accession No. ML071930403). 3. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ``Environmental Review Guidance for Licensing Actions Associated with NMSS Programs,'' NUREG- 1748, August 2003. 4. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC-Licensed Nuclear Facilities,'' NUREG-1496, August 1994. 5. NRC, NUREG-1757, ``Consolidated NMSS Decommissioning Guidance,'' Volumes 1-3, September 2003. Documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Dated at Lisle, Illinois, this 20th day of July 2007. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Patrick L. Louden, Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region III. [FR Doc. E7-15040 Filed 8-1-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 30 NRC: U of Pittsburgh OI FR Doc E7-15046 [Federal Register: August 2, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 148)] [Notices] [Page 42438-42440] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr02au07-127] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [EA-06-266, 06-278] In the Matter of University of Pittsburgh; Confirmatory Order (Effective Immediately) I University of Pittsburgh (UPitt or licensee) is the holder of Byproduct Material License 37-00245-09 issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) pursuant to 10 CFR Part 30. License No. 37-00245-09 was originally issued on February 5, 1987, and is due to expire on May 31, 2015. II On March 10, 2005, and March 23, 2006, the NRC Office of Investigations (OI) initiated investigations (OI Case Nos. 1-2005-008 and 1-2006-023) to determine whether UPitt willfully violated the physical presence requirements on March 4, 2005, and whether a neurosurgeon had willfully entered the authorized user's (AU) initials on written directives without the AU's knowledge or consent. The investigations were completed on June 15, 2006 and October 10, 2006. Based on a March 5, 2005, visit to the UPitt Medical Center Gamma Knife facility and the investigations, the NRC informed UPitt, in a letter dated February 27, 2007, that three apparent violations were being considered for escalated enforcement action in accordance with the NRC Enforcement Policy. To address the three apparent violations, the February 27, 2007, letter offered UPitt a choice to (1) Attend a Predecisional Enforcement Conference (PEC), or (2) request Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) with the NRC in an attempt to resolve any disagreement on whether a violation occurred, the appropriate enforcement action, and the appropriate corrective actions. III Subsequent to the NRC's identification of the apparent violations, UPitt took several actions to assure that these events would not recur. These actions included: (1) Ensuring that an Authorized Medical Physicist (AMP) and an AU are present during each GSR treatment; (2) issuance of a procedure for physical presence requirements and posting it at each GSR unit; and, (3) hiring another AMP. Also, in response to the NRC's February 27, 2007 letter, UPitt requested the use of ADR to resolve the apparent violations and pending enforcement action. ADR is a process in which a neutral mediator, with no decision-making authority, assists the NRC and UPitt to resolve any disagreements on whether a violation occurred, the appropriate enforcement action, and the appropriate corrective actions. At UPitt's request, an ADR session was held in the Region I Office in King of Prussia, PA on May 17, 2007, between UPitt and the NRC. This ADR session was mediated by a professional mediator, arranged through Cornell University's Institute of Conflict Management. Based on the discussion during the ADR session, a settlement agreement was reached regarding this matter. The elements of the settlement agreement are as follows: 1. As noted in an NRC letter dated February 27, 2007, based on an NRC inspection and NRC investigations, the NRC identified three apparent violations of NRC requirements at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Gamma Knife facility. The first apparent violation, which involved a failure to meet physical presence requirements described in 10 CFR 35.615(f)(3), included three examples, two of which involved willfulness. The examples included: (1) A March 4, 2005, failure to meet physical presence requirements in that a GSR treatment was conducted without the continuous physical presence of an AMP; (2) multiple incidents between May 13, 2004 and March 10, 2005, when two neurosurgeons, in careless disregard of NRC regulations, initiated GSR treatments in separate suites with only one AMP available to meet physical presence requirements; and, (3) a February 22, 2005, incident when one neurosurgeon willfully initiated a treatment without a written directive signed by an AU and without the physical presence of an AU. The second apparent violation involved licensee management's failure to ensure that GSR activities met NRC requirements, as required by 10 CFR 35.24(b). The third apparent violation involved multiple occasions when a neurosurgeon recorded the Radiation Therapist's initials on the GSR written directive, causing the licensee to violate 10 CFR 35.32. In the NRC February 27, 2007 letter, the NRC noted that it had not determined that violations had occurred or that enforcement should be taken, and the NRC offered the licensee an opportunity to attend a PEC prior to making an enforcement decision. In the alternative, the NRC offered the licensee the opportunity to attend an ADR mediation session to resolve these matters. 2. As a result of an ADR mediation session conducted on May 17, 2007, the licensee and the NRC agreed to final disposition of this matter by way of a single violation of the regulatory requirements in 10 CFR 35.24(b). Specifically, the licensee through the Radiation Safety Officer: (a) Failed to ensure from May 13, 2004 through March 10, 2005, the physical presence requirements of 10 CFR 35.615(f)(3) were consistently met; and (b) failed to ensure between 1998 and 2000 that written directives were consistently signed by all three members of the Gamma Knife team prior to administration of GSR treatments in accordance with 10 CFR 35.32. The NRC [[Page 42439]] concluded that certain aspects of the 10 CFR 35.24(b) violation were willful. The licensee disputed this conclusion. The NRC and the licensee have agreed to disagree regarding any willful aspects of this violation. 3. Prior to the ADR mediation session, the licensee described the actions that it had taken to address the apparent violations identified by the NRC. Those actions included: (1) Ensuring that an AMP and an AU are present during each GSR treatment; (2) issuance of a procedure for physical presence requirements and posting it at each GSR unit; and, (3) hiring another AMP. Some of these actions were verified by the NRC during the following: (1) An on-site inspection on March 15-17, 2005; (2) the NRC's review of the UPitt response to a Confirmatory Action Letter (CAL), dated April 28, 2005; (3) an on-site inspection on May 12, 2005 to follow-up on the CAL; and, (4) a routine inspection performed September 25-29, 2006. 4. During the ADR mediation session, the licensee also described additional corrective actions that it had taken or planned, which includes: (1) Having the RSO initiate a requirement for a physical presence log to be maintained at each gamma knife treatment console, to include patient name, AU physically present, AMP physically present, date, and start/stop time of treatment; (2) having the RSO staff provide annual radiation safety training to the gamma knife staff, including a review of all applicable requirements in 10 CFR Parts 19, 20, and 35, with emphasis on the physical presence and written directive requirements; (3) having an outside independent consultant (medical RSO) conduct an audit of the Radiation Safety Program with special emphasis on the gamma knife program and management oversight; (4) increasing surveillance of GSR treatments by RSO staff; and, (5) developing a program to heighten awareness of the need to report concerns, and including this program in initial and refresher training for all radiation workers, to foster an environment for raising safety concerns. 5. To provide further opportunity for other licensees in the industry to learn from this incident, UPitt also agreed to: (1) Enhance its 40 hour GSR training course provided to users at other facilities throughout the United States, including expanding the lecture on NRC regulatory requirements to include the physical presence requirements, including a description of this experience as part of the training; and, (2) submit a lessons-learned article for the Operational Radiation Safety publication and the Elekta Newsletter, eWavelength, describing these occurrences. The licensee will provide a copy of the training syllabus before conducting the training, and a copy of the article to the NRC at least 30 days prior to the submittal of the article to the organization. 6. In light of the actions that the licensee has taken, or committed to take, as described in Items 3-5 above, as well as the fact that the violation did not result in any known safety consequences to patients, workers, or the public, the NRC agrees to issue a Notice of Violation without a civil penalty for the violation as characterized in Item 2 and to classify the violation at Severity Level III. This action will be publically available in ADAMS and on the NRC ``Significant Enforcement Actions'' Web site. 7. The licensee also agreed to issuance of a Confirmatory Order confirming this agreement. IV In light of the actions UPitt has taken and agreed to take to correct the violations and prevent recurrence, as set forth in Section III above, the NRC has concluded that its concerns can be resolved through implementation of UPitt's commitments as outlined in this Confirmatory Order. The NRC has also determined that these commitments shall be confirmed by this Confirmatory Order. Based on the above and UPitt's consent, this Confirmatory Order is immediately effective upon issuance. V Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 81, 161b, 161i, 161o, 182, and 186 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and the Commission's regulations in 10 CFR Part 2.202 and 10 CFR Part 30 and 35, it is hereby ordered, that within one year of the date of this order: 1. UPitt will enhance its 40 hour GSR training course provided to users at other facilities throughout the United States, including expanding the lecture on NRC regulatory requirements to include the physical presence requirements, including a description of this experience as part of the training; 2. UPitt will provide the NRC a copy of the training syllabus before conducting the training; 3. UPitt will submit a lessons-learned article for the Operational Radiation Safety publication and the Elekta Newsletter, eWavelength, describing these occurrences; 4. UPitt will provide a copy of the article to the NRC at least 30 days prior to the submission of the article to the organization; and 5. UPitt will send a letter to the NRC informing the NRC that the actions in Sections V.1-4 are complete, and UPitt will send the letter within 30 days of completion of all of these actions. The NRC Region I Regional Administrator may relax or rescind, in writing, any of the above conditions upon a showing by UPitt of good cause. VI Any person adversely affected by this Confirmatory Order, other than UPitt, may request a hearing within 20 days of its issuance. Where good cause is shown, consideration will be given to extending the time to request a hearing. A request for extension of time must be made in writing to the Director, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, and must include a statement of good cause for the extension. Any request for a hearing shall be submitted to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ATTN: Chief, Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff, Washington, DC 20555. Copies of the hearing request shall also be sent to the Director, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington DC 20555, to the Assistant General Counsel for Materials Litigation and Enforcement, to the Director of the Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs at the same address, to the NRC Region I office at 475 Allendale Rd., King of Prussia, PA 19406, and to UPitt. Because of potential disruptions in delivery of mail to United States Government offices, it is requested that answers and requests for hearing be transmitted to the Secretary of the Commission either by means of facsimile transmission to 301-415-1101 or by e-mail to hearingdocket@nrc.gov and also to the Office of the General Counsel by means of facsimile transmission to 301-415-3725 or e-mail to OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov. If such a person requests a hearing, that person shall set forth with particularity the manner in which his interest is adversely affected by this Order, and shall address the criteria set forth in 10 CFR Part 2.309(d) and (f). If a hearing is requested by a person whose interest is adversely affected, the Commission will issue an Order designating the time and place of any hearing. If a hearing is held, the issue to be considered at such hearing shall be whether this Confirmatory Order shall be sustained. An answer or a request for a hearing shall not stay the immediate effectiveness of this order. Dated this 23th day of July 2007. [[Page 42440]] For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Marc L. Dapas, Deputy Regional Administrator. [FR Doc. E7-15046 Filed 8-1-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 31 deseretnews.com: Utah senators not aboard N-bill Thursday, August 2, 2007 Duo decline to co-sponsor compensation expansion By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, is leading a drive to expand federal fallout compensation to other states in the West, but so far, Utah's senators are not aboard as co-sponsors. Deseret Morning News Graphic Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he will lend his support to actions justified by science. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said he will work to support Utah's downwinders and expressed concern for funding the compensation program if it were expanded. He did not refer to downwinders in other states. Federal studies have shown fallout was deposited throughout most of the United States, not only the counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona currently covered by the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The Utah counties are Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne. Also allowed compensation for fallout exposure are residents of five full counties and part of another in Nevada, and five counties in Arizona plus the section of that state north of the Grand Canyon. However, other parts of America also were subjected to dangerous levels of fallout, according to federal studies. Within Utah, according to a 2005 cancer-rate study by the National Cancer Institute, some counties excluded from compensation had higher rates of cancer caused by fallout than some counties whose residents are eligible. Tied with three southern Utah counties for highest rates were Salt Lake, Tooele, Weber, Morgan, Wasatch, Carbon and Grand counties. They fell into the category of 208 to 247 cases of fallout-caused cancer per 100,000 people exposed. "This week I'll be introducing ? reintroducing again ? my RECA bill," Crapo said Tuesday during a radio press conference. "This is the bill that deals with the issue of radiation damage caused to people in Idaho as a result of the (open-air nuclear) testing," he added. What's new about Crapo's bill is that now it includes Montana, as well as all of Idaho, as places where people might be compensated if they were exposed to high levels of fallout and contracted certain types of cancer. Crapo said the bill will be introduced today by himself and three other senators ? Sen. Larry E. Craig, R-Idaho; Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. A report by the National Academies of Sciences found that among the 25 counties in the United States with the highest doses of fallout radiation, "20 are in Idaho and Montana," he said. Crapo staff member Lindsay Northern told the Deseret Morning News that the Idaho senator's office is "still in discussions" with Utah's senators regarding their stances on the bill. As to whether all of Utah may be added to the bill's compensation expansion area if Bennett and Hatch support it, Northern said, "If they decide to join us on a new bill, they would determine what is covered, not us. "We just decided to go with an Idaho-Montana bill at this time to get the bill (introduced) before the recess. Other states can, and may be, added later." Asked about the issue, Bennett press secretary Emily Christensen wrote in an e-mail, "Sen. Bennett has worked hard to fully fund the program's shortfalls, but it is an ongoing challenge. "Expanding RECA will only place an extra burden on an already stressed program. As these discussions proceed, he will continue to work with Sen. Hatch to ensure that Utah's downwinders are protected." Hatch's office passed along this statement from him: "I am aware that some in other Western states believe RECA should be expanded to cover additional geographic areas. "If the science is there to justify an expansion ? I will support it. That has always been how I evaluate RECA ? changes should be made on the best available science." J Truman, ? a Malad, Idaho, man who formerly lived in southwestern Utah and is director of the group Downwinders United ? said he's grateful for the actions by Idaho's and Montana's senators. But he added that he was saddened that so far, other Utah and Arizona residents are not to be covered by RECA. He said there's no excuse for not at least trying "to give the same small measure of justice to those in the rest of Utah and Arizona." E-mail: bau@desnews.com 2007 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 32 Bradenton.com: State officials blast Tallevast cleanup plans 08/02/2007 | TIFFANY TOMPKINS-CONDIE/ttompkins@bradenton.com TOMPKINS-CONDIE/ttompkins@bradenton.com By DONNA WRIGHT dwright@bradenton.com TALLEVAST -- State environmental officials have issued a stinging rebuke of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s plan to clean up the Tallevast plume, now estimated to take 100 years or more. Lockheed has been ordered back to the drawing board by the Department of Environmental Protection to address more than 130 problem points the cleanup plan either fails to address or fails to support with adequate data. Gail Rymer, Lockheed's spokeswoman, said the DEP letter is under review. "The input from the DEP's review team and technical experts is valuable in helping achieve the most effective cleanup possible," Rymer said in a written statement. "We are committed to working with the State to do the right thing for the Tallevast community in correcting this problem and ensuring their environmental, health and economic well-being." But Bill Kutash of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is concerned about the 100-year-plus time line - more than four times longer than earlier estimates. He questioned whether Lockheed is employing the best remediation strategy. Lockheed's plan calls for a combination of soil removal, continuous operation of a pump-and-treat system to extract contaminants from groundwater that will then be discharged in the county's sewer system, and natural leeching away of contaminants over time. The Tallevast plume traced back to the former Loral American Beryllium plant is now known to cover more than 200 acres. As former owner of the site when the contamination was found, Lockheed is responsible for investigation of the spill and the cleanup process. Kutash's letter clearly indicates he expected more from the cleanup plan Lockheed submitted May 4. "In light of the extensive amount of time and assessment effort," Kutash wrote, "the Department had hoped that the Remedial Action Plan would incorporate extensive site-specific chemical, geologic and engineering data." But it's that very data that is missing, Kutash said, as described in more than 30 pages of questions Lockheed must now answer. Some of the DEP's criticisms of Lockheed's plan: ? A lack of data to describe and support Lockheed's claim that the source of the contamination is confined to a relatively small area of the former plant site. ? Lockheed claims that levels of arsenic and petroleum derivatives are consistent with naturally occurring levels found elsewhere in Florida and therefore cannot be attributed to operations at the plant. DEP is asking Lockheed to address the exposure risk and leeching potential of those contaminants as well as beryllium, copper and chromium found in Tallevast soil. ? Lockheed's detail on contaminated soil sampling and removal, such as where it will be taken and what the final disposal methods will be. ? DEP also disagrees that a "hard streak of cemented sand" provides a confining barrier to contain contaminants. DEP says Lockheed's own data shows the soil has been infiltrated in several areas including Heidi Booth's wetlands near U.S. 301, the golf course pond south of Tallevast and the retention pond on the former beryllium company site. ? DEP does not accept Lockheed's claim that off-site groundwater contamination in some residential properties is not connected to the beryllium plant plume. DEP is asking Lockheed to identify the location and contaminant of concern for each monitoring well or private well the company believes is not associated with the American Beryllium site and the basis for that conclusion. ? Lockheed must identify the other sources outside of the site boundary that the company believes is contributing to the 200-acre-wide contamination. ? DEP also questions Lockheed's assumptions on the long-term use of the both residential and commercial land and the controls the company says will limit environmental damage or human exposure during the cleanup phase. DEP's critical review won praise from leaders of Family Oriented Community United Strong - a residents' advocacy group, whose close scrutiny of the plume investigation has frequently caused Lockheed to do more tests to answer the community's questions. "I was very pleased," said Wanda Washington, vice president of FOCUS. "We always thought Lockheed's remedial plan was not complete. Now, they have to take into consideration all of our concerns as listed in all of the reviews we have submitted." Tim Varney, Tallevast's technical consultant, in June submitted a lengthy review of Lockheed's cleanup plan, raising many of the questions DEP now wants the company to address. Varney has repeatedly said Lockheed does not have enough research to understand, much less model, how groundwater is moving through the Tallevast area. Without that data, no cleanup plan would be complete because it could not address how the plume changes day to day, Varney said. "Michael Graves, our geologist, told us that there are lots of little plumes all connected to the beryllium plant," Washington said. "Until they do a picket fence of monitoring wells, they won't know what's down there." Washington is pleased DEP is holding Lockheed accountable. "If no one holds their feet to the fire, we will never know the extent of the plume," Washington said. "This report gives me the impression that DEP is now holding their feet to the fire. We just hope they don't put out this one critical report and then pull back." Donna Wright, health and social services reporter, can be reached at 745-7049. ***************************************************************** 33 The State: MOX plant work begins 08/02/2007 Construction of fuel facility at SRS will take seven years By JIM DuPLESSIS - jduplessis@thestate.com After years of delays, work began Wednesday in Aiken County on a $4.8 billion federal project that will bring hundreds of high-paying jobs into a county that has suffered some of the most severe economic setbacks in the state in recent years. About 400 construction workers began hauling equipment to the site where the U.S. Energy Department will build a plant to turn bomb-grade plutonium into electricity-generating fuel for nuclear power plants. It is expected to take 1,600 construction workers seven years to build the Mixed Oxide, or MOX, Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Energy Departments Savannah River Site, said James R. Giusti, a department spokesman at the site. The facility is being built by Energy Department contractor Shaw Areva Mox Services. The plant will undergo testing for two years before opening in 2016, employing 800 people. Pay will be similar to the other 10,000 workers now employed at the site, who average about $60,000 per year, Giusti said. Duke Energy has agreed to pay $100 million a year for fuel rods, which will be used in reactors at its Catawba Nuclear Station outside Clover and McGuire Nuclear Station in North Carolina. Duke is the only power company so far to reach an agreement. The MOX project finally got its go-ahead earlier this year, after U.S. officials overcame a years-long impasse with the Russian government, which is to build a similar swords-into-plowshares plant. The influx of jobs will boost an economy that suffered from the layoff of 2,000 Savannah River Site employees in the last two years, and last years loss of about 1,600 textile jobs near Graniteville when Avondale Mills went out of business, said Fred Humes, director of the Economic Development Partnership, an agency serving Aiken and Edgefield counties. These will be high-paying jobs, Humes said. Weve been waiting on this for several years. Even as jobs were added by other employers, the heavy layoffs at Savannah River and Graniteville contributed to a net loss of 1,426 jobs in Aiken County from 2004 to 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 310-square-mile nuclear weapons complex near Aiken opened in the early 1950s and once produced plutonium and tritium for atomic bombs. The sites reactors have been shut down for more than 15 years, and the site has been in a cleanup mode since then. Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305. ***************************************************************** 34 Pahrump Valley Times: Nuclear fact- finding trip Nye County's Largest Newspaper Circulation Aug. 01, 2007 Letters to the Editor I think that the upcoming fact-finding trip that our "Illustrious County Commissioners" are about to undertake will go down in history just like the $40,000 educational (how we should think) seminar. We already have a propaganda mill in town, known as the Yucca Mountain Information center, that can supply all the drivel that the Department of Energy wants us to know about nuclear garbage storage. Why then do we need to spend more of our tax dollars to educate the county commissioners about nuclear waste? It's bad enough that they can't find the time to discover how long it will be before the influx of new developers use up our water and turn Pahrump into another ghost town. I really feel that instead of touring sites that store nuclear garbage, they should stay home and take care of the business that they were elected for. There are all kinds of projects in our county that need attention and they won't be here to help solve the on-going problems like streets, traffic, health department, etc. It won't be too much longer that our area will need more schools. While Senator Reid is taking the administration to task for not pursuing wind and solar sources of energy, our elite commissioners are wasting money for a project that should never happen. RICHARD A. BROWN webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 35 Aiken Today: Construction begins on MOX AikenStandard.com Thu, Aug 2, 2007 (left to right) Dave Stinson, president and project manager of Shaw Areva MOX Services, William Tobey, Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation and Clay H. Ramsey, MOX federal project director, discuss the benefits of the new facility. By APRIL BAILEY Staff writer After several delays, Wednesday marked the first day of construction for the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site. Construction was initiated by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). NNSA is an organization within the Department of Defense responsible for increasing national security through the military application of nuclear science. It was established by Congress in 2000. The new facility is being created in an effort to fulfill the U.S.-Russian Plutonium Disposition Agreement made in 2000, during which the United States and Russia both agreed to dispose of 34 metric tons (about 75,000 pounds) of weapon-grade plutonium ? an amount that could create about 17,000 nuclear weapons. The project is expected to bring more than 800 jobs to the local area at the peak of construction. The design for the MOX facility is currently about 90 percent complete. Once complete, the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility will blend plutonium with uranium to make a mixed oxide powder. The powder will then be made into small pellets, about the size of a pencil eraser. The pellets will be pressed into shape and loaded into fuel rods and packaged into fuel assemblies. After the fuel is converted, it will be used in commercial nuclear reactors in North Carolina and South Carolina and will generate roughly enough electricity for one million households for 50 years. William Tobey, NNSA's deputy administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, said that the construction of the facility marks a major step forward in U.S. efforts with Russia to dispose of surplus weapon-grade plutonium so that it will not be used to create nuclear weapons. Tobey said that, ultimately, the facility will help to reduce the threat of terrorism once the plutonium is converted into MOX fuel, saying that the process "diminishes risks." "Once you've disposed of the material, you no longer need to pay to store and secure it," he said. In addition to plutonium already available to be converted at SRS, the facility will also be converting plutonium from around the country into MOX fuel. A longtime supporter of the project, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that the MOX facility is the culmination of years of hard work and a tribute to the determination of the local community to answer the nation's call. "This is great news for the site and the nation," he said. "I am pleased we are continuing to make progress on this national security project." The design of the facility is being based on the both the Melox and La Hague facilities, two MOX fuel facilities in France. Melox and La Hague produce MOX fuel for 30 nuclear reactors in Europe, where MOX technology has been used for more than 20 years. Tobey said that the plant, which will cost $4.8 billion, will operate for about 14 years. Construction for the facility is expected to be complete in April 2014 and will begin operations in September 2016. The facility will be licensed for 20 years, with operations expected to continued into the 2020s. Contact April Bailey at abailey@aikenstandard.com 2005 The AikenStandard. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 36 BBC NEWS: Scans clear beaches of radiation Last Updated: Thursday, 2 August 2007, 10:22 GMT 11:22 UK Particles found on nearby beaches are said to relate to past incidents Radiation scans of two north coast beaches near a nuclear plant have not revealed any fresh finds, according to the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Monitoring teams spent July checking Dunnet and Melvich for signs of historic radioactive leaks from Dounreay in Caithness. A particle and an unidentified radioactive object were recovered from Dunnet Beach in March 2005. Nearly all off-site contamination has been detected on the seabed off the complex and at Sandside Beach. Monitoring of Sandside has been suspended since May. Local estate owner Geoffrey Minter barred access to the beach after losing patience with the UKAEA's efforts to come up with a plan to deal with the contamination. The monitoring programme covers beaches at Melvich, Sandside, Crosskirk, Brims Ness, Scrabster, Murkle, Peedie and Dunnet. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 37 Daily News Journal: Landfill group demands answers Murfreesboro and Rutherford County, Tennessee news from The By TURNER HUTCHENS trhutchens@dnj.com Turner Hutchens, (615) 278-5161 A Rutherford County grass-roots organization opposed to radioactive dumping in the Middle Point Landfill has a long list of concerns and now they want some answers. Citizens to End Nuclear Dumping in Tennessee (ENDIT) released a letter Wednesday listing questions for the Tennessee Solid Waste Advisory Committee, the state agency charged with making a recommendation on the Bulk Survey for Release program. The state program allows private companies to dispose of low-level radioactive waste at five Tennessee landfills, including Middle Point on Jefferson Pike in the Walter Hill community. Kathy Ferris, a member of ENDIT, said the letter is her group's way of doing everything possible to end the BSRF program. "I'm just hoping that they will have time to restudy and think, if their minds aren't already made up," Ferris said. Many of the questions were brought up in two public hearings the committee held in July, but Ferris said she felt it was important to put the questions and criticisms in writing. "If you just hear something it doesn't necessarily stick," Ferris said. The group's letter includes questions on the origin of the BSFR program, who is responsible for it as well as a slew of concerns about the radioactive materials going into the landfill and their potential impact on Rutherford County residents. Among other things, the letter criticizes the model used to determine how much radiation people are being exposed to by the BSFR waste as well as the method of having private companies check their own waste. The group also maintains the dumping is dangerous because the landfill sits on the banks of the Stones River, the primary water source for Rutherford County. "Our backyard is one of the worst places in the country that you could have chosen to place hazardous or radioactive materials," the letter states. Ferris said if the committee doesn't help stop the radioactive dumping, ENDIT will continue to push for its end in the state Legislature. Although the group's immediate concern is for Rutherford County, they are also concerned about citizens throughout the state whose lives and health can be affected by the practice of using Tennessee as the dumping ground for low-level radioactive or other hazardous materials, the letter states. The BSFR program was brought to the public's attention in May when the nuclear-watchdog organization Nuclear Information and Resource Service published a report critical of the Tennessee standards for the disposal of such waste. In the letter, ENDIT references Tennessee's Sunshine Law, which declares the state's proceedings of the BSFR program to be open and public. "Citizens of ENDIT believe that the entire BSFR program, from its inception until the sun shone on May 14, 2007, has been in violation of that law," the letter states. The committee is accepting written comments by mail and e-mail until Friday. The committee must make its recommendation by Sept. 3 the same day a moratorium on the dumping at Middle Point expires. The committee is set to meet again Aug. 13 in Nashville to hear from Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation officials on the program. ====================================================================== I think that there is a bigger issue here. For 20 (TWENTY YEARS), radioactive waste, medical waste, whatever waste, has been dumped in this landfill. A landfill's lifespan is approximately 15-20 years. Liners degrade. There is runoff everytime it rains. There is leachate from all the liquid goo that settles to the bottom of the landfill which includes any radionuclides, body parts, drugs, etc. This leachate can and will leak into the river which surrounds the landfill. Yes, poor choice of location by someone 20 years ago but nothing can be done about that. HOWEVER, Rutherford County Water Supply is a few miles downstream, yes, DOWNSTREAM of this landfill. The current water treatment plant only uses coagulation/filtration and chlorine to treat your drinking water. It DOES NOT remove radionuclides. Despite what the experts are saying, drinking alpha and beta particles can be very damaging to the human beings especially young children and elderly adults. There is a solution. Rutherford County can install a Reverse Osmosis System to treat all water coming out of the Stones River. Contact your representatives today and encourage them to at least take that precaution so that our water is absolutely safe to drink. Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:12 pm ====================================================================== This groups' questions are much too broad. Most of them would apply to any landfill. And yet, I haven't heard anyone ask, and get an answer to the most obvious question, "What causes certain material to be labled 'Low level radioactive'?". The ENDIT group likes to claim that "any is too much" but "how much" really does matter. Everything in our environment is to some extent radioactive. If they would find out what this material is then they could ask why it is being brought here. Muddying their arguments with lots of other issues just makes it impossible to sort out their real concerns. Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:50 am ====================================================================== The latest data to surface is that the liner at Middle Point has a tear that cannot contain the radioactive wastes from flowing into the water. Why are our political reps NEVER listed in any DNJ articles as 'working on this.....finding resolution, obtaining future commitments to close the dump and stop the tragedy.' Have you contacted Ketron, Mayor Bragg, Hood, Rowland? What was the response? Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 8:09 am ====================================================================== I want to know who makes up all these anacronyms. I just dont that kind of time. Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:49 am ====================================================================== I keep looking for comments blaming Geroge Bush for this. None yet. The Bush bashers must be on vacation. Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:30 am ====================================================================== Some questions posed by ENDIT How much economic benefit is there from the Bulk Survey for Release program? Who receives the benefit? Is the amount of money taken in by the state and county governments sufficient to put at risk the health and welfare of millions of Tennessee citizens? Who (by name and position) in the state government (TDEC) was responsible for signing off on the BSFR program? When precisely did the program begin? Who was governor at the time? After the BSFR program was adopted, what notification was given, in writing, to state legislators and local government officials in the communities most affected, that the state of Tennessee would be depositing radioactive waste in their municipal landfills? The name of this program, Bulk Survey for Release, does not contain the word "radioactive" or "nuclear." Were those words purposely omitted so as not to garner public attention? We have been assured by TDEC that all radioactivity going into Middle Point Landfill is carefully monitored to keep the levels extremely low. Our question is, who does the monitoring? Who will clean up our water if it becomes contaminated? Will the city of Murfreesboro and the Consolidated Utility District receive monetary assistance from the state to upgrade our water treatment facilities so that radioactivity can be removed from our water? TDEC has stated that it is common practice for other states to accept low-level radioactive waste into municipal landfills. Why then is concrete and soil not deposited somewhere along the way between here and California, or Washington state, or Michigan or Connecticut? Are there no states willing to take it? Was any radioactive material dumped into Tennessee municipal landfills before the BSFR program was adopted? If so, from where and what and when? Radiation from all sources, natural or man-made, accumulates in a person's body throughout a lifetime. We live in an area of the country where levels of radon gas are very high. Thus, we are already at risk for cancer from the radiation we take in from natural sources and from medical procedures. Why contribute further to the public's exposure to radiation by dumping man-made radioactive materials in our landfills? Copyright 2007 The Daily News Journal. All rights reserved. Users ***************************************************************** 38 Dayton Daily News: Centrifuge plant likely to exceed $2.3B estimate DaytonDailyNews.com By Tom Beyerlein Staff Writer Thursday, August 02, 2007 > Ohio's nuclear legacy USEC Inc. said Wednesday it has begun running radioactive gas through prototype centrifuges in south central Ohio, moving another step closer to building a full-scale plant to enrich uranium for commercial nuclear reactors there by 2012. Also Wednesday, USEC (NYSE:USU) announced a second-quarter net loss of $13.4 million, or 15 cents per share. Net income before American Centrifuge expenses was $9.5 million, compared to $39 million in the second quarter of 2006. USEC spent nearly $69.3 million on the centrifuge project in the first six months of 2007, and plans to double that spending next year. The company has said it will need federal assistance and private-sector investment to finance the massive project. The plant would use classified government technology to boost the concentration of fission-producing uranium-235 so it can be used in fuel rods at reactors to generate electricity for homes and businesses. USEC says the plant is crucial for U.S. energy independence because it would be the only enrichment plant owned by an American-controlled company. The American Centrifuge, on the site of USEC's closed Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, would replace the only existing U.S. plant, in Paducah, Ky. DaytonDailyNews.com: Copyright 2007 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All rights reserved. By using DaytonDailyNews.com, you accept the terms of our visitor ***************************************************************** 39 UPI: Nuclear waste spill linked to water line United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: Aug. 2, 2007 at 1:11 AM RICHLAND, Wash., Aug. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. officials say a spill of high-level radioactive waste in Washington state was traced to a water line not intended for such hazardous sludge. Attempts to unclog a pump at Hanford Nuclear Reservation last Friday inadvertently forced the sludge from an underground tank into the water line, which sprung a leak, The (Portland) Oregonian newspaper said Wednesday. "This water line was never designed to contain or have waste injected into it," said Delmar Noyes of the U.S. Department of Energy in a conference call with reporters. Noyes said 50 to 100 gallons of radioactive waste was spilled onto the ground. Del.icio.us | Digg it | RSS Copyright 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 40 UCS: New Nuclear Facility Undermines International Security August 1, 2007 Energy Department Should Delay Construction, Science Group Says WASHINGTON (August 1, 2007)—The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today condemned the Department of Energy for proceeding with construction of a $5 billion South Carolina plant designed to turn plutonium into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for U.S. nuclear reactors without honoring its commitment to make the plant available for inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Edwin Lyman, senior staff scientist in UCS's Global Security Program, said this move undermines the credibility of nuclear non-proliferation efforts at a time when the international community is struggling to stop the spread of nuclear weapons materials and technologies around the world. In a letter sent to Energy Secretary Samuel L. Bodman, Lyman wrote, "…the U.S. has a responsibility to set the gold standard for safeguards and security as an example for Russia and for the rest of the world. Yet DOE has already failed to live up to that responsibility by shutting the IAEA out of the process for developing a safeguards regime for the MOX plant prior to construction." An IAEA review of the plant design would provide assurances to the international community that the facility will be used for peaceful purposes, Lyman said. Such a gesture would be a "powerful symbol" to the rest of the world that the United States plays by the same rules that it urges other countries to follow. If the Energy Department had arranged to put the plant under IAEA safeguards, it would have had to provide facility design information to the IAEA at least 180 days in advance of the start of construction. "Unless the United States leads the way in demonstrating its commitment to the highest level of safeguards and security for facilities that process bomb-usable nuclear materials, it will be a virtually impossible task to encourage other nations to adopt high standards," said Lyman. "The Energy Department's irresponsible actions today will only increase the chance that other nations will defy the IAEA and nuclear weapons materials will fall into the hands of rogue states or terrorists." General media inquiries can be directed to our media office line at 202-331-5420. If you are calling about a specific issue, contact the appropriate press contact below. Press Contacts: Energy, Food, Scientific Integrity MEGHAN CROSBY Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-6943 mcrosby@ucsusa.org Climate, Global Security, Vehicles, Invasives AARON HUERTAS Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-5458 ahuertas@ucsusa.org Scientific Integrity, Vehicles LISA NURNBERGER Press Secretary 202-331-6959 lnurnberger@ucsusa.org Climate, Food EMILY ROBINSON Press Secretary 202-331-5427 erobinson@ucsusa.org ELLIOTT NEGIN Media Director 202-331-5439 enegin@ucsusa.org Union of Concerned Scientists Page Last Revised: 08/01/07 ***************************************************************** 41 Murfreesboro Post: Radioactive waste before council By Michelle Willard, Post staff writer-Aug. 2, 2007-2:23 Murfreesboro City Council to consider taking steps to end dumping of low-level radioactive waste in Middle Point Landfill at tonight’s meeting. The council will vote on a resolution requesting an extension on the General Assembly’s moratorium on the Bulk Survey for Release (BSFR) program. The BSFR program allows disposal of low-level radioactive waste in commercial landfills in Tennessee. According to a May WSMV-TV report, Middle Point received 10 million pounds in 2005 alone without any public disclosure. Since then, the state legislature passed a 60-day moratorium on the program at Middle Point, which began July 5. The moratorium allows for a study of the environmental and potential health effects of the waste to be completed. The city council resolution, which will be effective upon passage, also requests the state completely explain to the public and scientifically study the state mandated program before lifting the moratorium. It also requests the state end the program “in the absence of clear, scientific evidence that the BSFR program … does not endanger public health.” The council will also consider raising fees for Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation facilities and services. Director Dennis Rainier proposes restructuring the fee schedule for Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation facilities and services. “We must charge reasonable and fair fees to help offset the cost of our programs, services and equipment,” Rainier wrote in his proposal. The proposed fee schedule contains 247 fees, most of which are eliminated, modified or simplified, another 73 are new, and 34 are increased. Some of the simplified fees include park pavilion, sports field, and facility rental fees. Admission fees and passes to SportsCom and Patterson Park Community Center would be reworked, eliminating gold, silver and bronze passes to be replaced by a single Premium Pass. As compared to the Gold pass, the new Premium reduces the monthly and yearly cost by $5 and $45, respectively. However, it is considerably more expensive than the Bronze Pass. New fees consist of equipment and staff for events held at Patterson Park Community Center and rental of the gym at Holloway High School, among others. Most of the eliminated fees are replaced by the new simplified fee schedule, not necessarily completely eliminated. If approved by the city council, the new fee schedule will be applied by September. Michelle Willard can be contacted at 869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com. 615-869-0800 | online@murfreesboropost.com | 630 Broadmore Blvd. Suite 120, P.O. 10008, Murfreesboro, TN 37129 ***************************************************************** 42 barrow in furness: N-plant bids to rise landfill site Published on 02/08/2007 SELLAFIELD’S own landfill site is set to take certain types of low-level radioactive waste under proposed changes. British Nuclear Group is asking for planning permission not only to run the so-called Calder tip for another 20 years but also to increase the height of the landfill site by up to nine metres as well as changing the profile. It is proposed after discussions with the Environment Agency that in future the tip should take some “radioactively contaminated” wastes such as de-watered sewage sludge, de-watered road sweepings, timber, moss, grit, vegetation, bird and small animal carcasses. Planning permission rests with Cumbria County Council, but Copeland’s planning panel has recommended approval subject to certain issues being resolved. These relate to surface water run-off, erosion of the landfill, leaching ofcontaminants and coastal erosion. View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.nwemail.co.uk/digitalcopy ***************************************************************** 43 Aiken Today: SREL hearing heated AikenStandard.com Thu, Aug 2, 2007 By JOSH VOORHEES Staff writer A second congressional hearing on the looming closure of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory took a distinctly partisan tone Wednesday, with a sharp divide between Democrats and Republicans widening throughout a full day's worth of testimony. House science committee Democrats had harsh words for the Department of Energy officials who decided that the majority of work being conducted by the 56-year-old research facility was not "mission critical" and therefore not important enough to justify the $4 million in funding that lab officials have said they need to continue their research. Investigations and Oversight subcommittee chairman Rep. Brad Miller, D-NC, called the department's explanation for the decision "demonstrably untrue" both to begin the days proceedings and, after hearing department testimony, in his closing remarks to end it. Miller's sentiments were seconded by Rep. Brad Miller, D-Texas, chairman of the energy and environment subcommittee, who joined Miller in launching the congressional investigation back in May. "There is simply no reason for DOE to discontinue funding for SREL. There are funds available. There is work to be done. SREL has the personnel and the experience to do the work," said Lampson in his submitted remarks. "The laboratory has the support of the scientific community broadly and of the local community who rely upon the independent voice that SREL represents." Run for more than 50 years as a partnership between the federal government and the University of Georgia, the lab monitors the Savannah River Site's long-term effects on the environment. The DOE has steadily reduced its budget under the Bush administration and is eliminating federal funding after the current year. While the majority members of the U.S. House Science and Technology Committee took out their frustrations on the DOE brass, the Republican committee members focused their attention on former-SREL Director Dr. Paul Bertsch. The Republican representatives questioned Bertsch to how, as director of the lab, he was unaware of the budget reduction that was spelled out in the latest cooperative agreement signed between the university and the department at the end of 2006. Department officials have maintained that the end to federal funding should come as no surprise to Bertsch or the rest of the ecology lab staff, saying the university agreed two years ago that the lab would need to wean itself from government support. While its research is valuable, DOE says, the lab does not fit with SRS's immediate mission to clean up hazardous waste. On Wednesday, Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell acknowledged that the agency's site manager at SRS, Jeffrey Allison, was left out of the loop and did not learn of the funding decision until more than a year after it was reached. While the Washington agreement assumed no funding after 2007, Allison, who typically handled the lab's budget, had been negotiating a new agreement that anticipated about $4 million per year in 2007 and beyond. "I do not want to suggest that we have been perfect. I do not want to suggest that we couldn't have done things better," Sell told the committee members. "But I do firmly believe ... that we have acted in good faith." Lab officials have cited the mixed messages from DOE in arguing that the agency left the lab in a budget lurch that could cause the university to abruptly close the lab. UGA laid off several dozen lab employees at the end of June, and the facility will likely close for good after current research related to active external grants is finished off by the remaining staff. On Wednesday, Sell conceded that the miscommunication "is an important point" and "caused some confusion." Allison said he personally regretted that "a lack of communication and misperceptions resulted in confusing and complicating this matter." Karen Patterson, an Aiken resident who chairs the Savannah River Site's Citizens Advisory Board, told lawmakers at the hearing that the potential closing has generated concern from residents who say the lab's research gives them confidence that DOE's activities are safe. "The (board) is sometimes cynical of DOE pronouncements that all is well," she said. During Wednesday's hearing, both Lampson and Miller said that they were hoping that a compromise could still be reached to save the laboratory before it closes its doors for good. At the first hearing, held on July 17, the committee heard from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., as well as two leading environmental scientists, who all touted the lab's important academic research and independent environmental oversight at the federal nuclear complex. The Associated Press was used in this report. Contact Josh Voorhees at jvoorhees@aikenstandard.com. 2005 The AikenStandard. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 44 Tri-City Herald: Energy Department extends Richland lab's contract 2 more years Published Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 The Associated Press RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's management and operating contract, scheduled to expire next month, will be extended for as long as two more years, the Department of Energy said Wednesday. The department said in February it planned to seek competitive bids for the contract to manage the PNNL, a national science laboratory managed and operated since its start in 1965 by Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit group based in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle's current contract was to expire Sept. 30. The Energy Department said the extension will provide for continued operation of PNNL by Battelle while the details for competitive bids to manage and operate the government-owned laboratory are completed. Battelle executives have said they intend to bid for the new contract. With an annual budget of $750 million, the laboratory's research areas include science and environment, energy, defense and national security. The Energy Department plans to issue a draft request for proposals for the PNNL contract before the end of fiscal year 2008. PNNL employs about 4,200 people. The department's decision to put the lab contract out for bid came after PNNL was criticized for a high-profile research error involving clean-up of the highly contaminated Hanford nuclear reservation. Battelle officials said the problems have been corrected. Energy Department officials said the decision to seek bids was a prudent management decision not related to performance. The laboratory conducts nearly 60 percent of its research for the Energy Department, 18 percent for the Department of Homeland Security and 7 percent for the Defense Department. Private work accounted for 11 percent of the laboratory's budget, followed by a mix of research for other national agencies. Battelle manages four other laboratories for the Energy Department: Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, Idaho National Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 45 Knoxville News Sentinel: Audit detects faults at ORNL Lab among facilities not fully protecting workers' info; official vows change By Frank Munger (Contact) Thursday, August 2, 2007 OAK RIDGE — A federal audit found that Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other Department of Energy facilities are not fully protecting the personal identification information of their employees. The report released Wednesday by DOE’s Office of Inspector General identified a number of weaknesses in the security programs and sluggish response in meeting new requirements or recommendations. “For instance, at the time of our review, ORNL was not aware of the number of laptop computers that contained personal information and had not ensured that encryption capabilities were installed on all mobile devices,” the report states. The audit was performed between June 2006 and April 2007. Billy Stair, ORNL’s communications chief, said Wednesday that the lab had since completed an inventory and that “as of today, we have identified that about 5 percent of our machines contain (personal information),” he said. The report states that the Oak Ridge contractor made the encryption software an option for employees but had no intention of mandating encryption — as required by the federal Office of Management and Budget — until instructed to do so in the management contract. Following the review, however, ORNL was instructed by DOE to require protection of mobile devices, the report states. ORNL also was among the facilities cited for not updating its policies to address new info-protection requirements by the OMB and the National Institute of Standards and Technologies. “During our review, we recognized that the sheer volume of data processed within the Department of Energy complex made the protection of PII (personally identifiable information) a significant challenge,” the report’s authors said. They also noted that DOE had taken positive steps to protect the information, although a number of sites were not keeping up with the needed changes. Auditors said that even though ORNL had begun an inventory of all devices that contained personally identifiable information, the lab had not done a review to identify “site-level systems” that potentially contained such information. The report cites ORNL and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California for not implementing the use of “two-factor authentication” for accessing systems from remote locations — even though many of the systems contained personal information. “Furthermore, requirements for controlling downloads of (personal information) to remote systems had not always been established at the sites reviewed,” the report states. “For instance, ORNL had not placed restrictions on the type of information that could be downloaded to remote computers.” Stair said the Oak Ridge lab agreed with the report’s findings and has responded by updating policies, fixing problems and adopting most of the recommendations. “The IG’s report reflects the challenge the lab will always have of identifying the ideal balance between the desire to provide an open scientific environment and the need to protect both privacy and classified information,” he said. Stair said the lab had updated its information-protection policies and would fix the remote-access concerns within the next year. He also said a “large majority” of ORNL’s laptops are now encrypted. The audit looked at 11 different DOE sites, including federal operations as well as contractors. The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge was among the facilities audited, but the report does not cite any negative examples from Y-12. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 46 Knoxville News Sentinel: Watts Bar 2 is now Job 1 TVA board OKs completion of nuke reactor By Andrew Eder (Contact) Thursday, August 2, 2007 J. Miles Cary Stephen Smith, executive director of the Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, speaks Wednesday during a meeting of the TVA board of directors, which approved completion of the Unit 2 reactor at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. Smith asked board members to delay their decision on the Spring City project. J. Miles Cary “We are convinced Unit 2 offers TVA and its stakeholders the most economically and environmentally sound means of serving the valley’s future power needs.” Howard Thrailkill, TVA board member J. Miles Cary “You’re basically relying on this company that is going to walk away with billions of dollars from actually doing the work. I actually think that’s the definition of a conflict of interest.” Stephen Smith, executive director of Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy J. Miles Cary “It’s more engineering at Watts Bar than materials and craft, whereas at Browns Ferry, it was more craft than engineering.” Ashok Bhatnagar, TVA’s senior vice president of nuclear generation and development WATTS BAR NUCLEAR PLANT * What: Completion of the Unit 2 reactor * Where: Spring City, Tenn., about 65 miles southwest of Knoxville * How much: $2.49 billion * How long: Five years * Project employment: Up to 2,300 workers Thirty-five years after breaking ground at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, TVA plans to finish what it started. On Wednesday, the federal utility’s board of directors unanimously approved completion of the Unit 2 reactor at the Spring City, Tenn., plant, about 65 miles southwest of Knoxville. The construction effort is expected to last five years and cost $2.49 billion. Against a backdrop of growing demand for power, rising fuel costs and impending regulation of carbon emissions from fossil fuel plants, TVA’s management cast Watts Bar Unit 2 as a necessary addition to the federal utility’s portfolio of power plants. “We are convinced Unit 2 offers TVA and its stakeholders the most economically and environmentally sound means of serving the valley’s future power needs,” board Director Howard Thrailkill said before the vote. TVA expects to complete the 1,180-megawatt reactor in 2013. It will generate enough electricity to power 650,000 homes. The Watts Bar reactor would be TVA’s seventh at three plants in Tennessee and Alabama. The decision on Watts Bar 2 follows the successful restart in May of the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in north Alabama, a five-year effort costing at least $1.8 billion that drew a visit from President Bush in June. The Watts Bar 2 reactor — estimated to be about 60 percent complete — represents a different challenge than Browns Ferry 1, which ran for more than a decade before being shut down in 1985. “It’s more engineering at Watts Bar than materials and craft, whereas at Browns Ferry, it was more craft than engineering,” said Ashok Bhatnagar, TVA’s senior vice president of nuclear generation and development. “Because Browns Ferry ran for such a long period of time, there was more wear and tear on the equipment.” The Browns Ferry restoration was paid for directly out of revenues from TVA’s power system. TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said the utility would borrow 60 to 70 percent of the construction costs for Watts Bar 2. During Wednesday’s four-hour meeting at TVA’s downtown Knoxville headquarters, the federal utility’s directors and management heard an earful from 17 speakers on both sides of the nuclear divide. Anti-nuclear activists criticized the description of nuclear power as “clean,” pointing to the nuclear waste created and the energy-intensive process of mining and enriching uranium for nuclear fuel. “Nuclear power is not clean, and the idea that you all found no significant impacts on your environmental impact statement is a joke,” said Earth First! activist John Johnson, referring to a federally required environmental study released in June. Stephen Smith, executive director of Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, asked TVA board members to delay the decision and undergo a more transparent review of the project. Smith also criticized TVA for basing its cost and scheduling estimates on a $20 million study done in part by Bechtel Power Corp. and other contractors that likely will work on the reactor’s construction. “You’re basically relying on this company that is going to walk away with billions of dollars from actually doing the work,” Smith said. “I actually think that’s the definition of a conflict of interest.” Bhatnagar said after the meeting that contractors for the project will be selected through a competitive bid process to be reviewed by an independent team. Several speakers offered support for the project, including Thom Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Ken Jones, mayor of Meigs County; and representatives of the public electric utilities and directly-served industries that make up TVA’s customer base. Jim Cobb, a state representative whose district includes both Watts Bar and Sequoyah nuclear plants, said his experience as a senior reactor operator at the Watts Bar plant gave him confidence in its safety. He stressed the importance, however, of being prepared for the impact on Rhea and Meigs counties of a construction effort that, at its peak, will employ as many as 2,300 workers. “We also ask that you take into consideration the fact that our schools are already overcrowded,” Cobb said. The Watts Bar plant was one of TVA’s most controversial projects, marked by safety complaints, regulatory problems, protests, construction stoppages and cost overruns. The single operating reactor at Watts Bar was completed in 1996 — the last new nuclear plant to come online in the United States — at a cost of $6.9 billion. Construction on Watts Bar 2 was halted in 1985 when TVA shut down its entire nuclear program, and the utility’s board wrote off $1.7 billion of related construction costs in 2001. TVA canceled eight of 17 planned reactors in the early 1980s, and the ambitious program contributed to much of the agency’s nearly $23 billion debt. But TVA officials say they’re now taking a more measured approach to nuclear power. “We’re lucky that we’re not trying to build four or five of these things at the same time, as TVA got beat up about in the past,” said TVA Chairman Bill Sansom. Business writer Andrew Eder may be reached at 865-342-6318. 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. Comments Posted by billed23 on August 2, 2007 at 7:27 a.m. (Suggest removal) 1) electric power is needed. 2) it must be cleaner and less fossil fuel intensive. 3) My major question is: Why try to reinvent the wheel with huge engineering costs? You already have a successfully operating plant right beside it, duplicate it with the use of updated control technology. 4} I see the towers on a very regular basis, I know the second tower is in place and I am pretty sure a lot of the infrastructure is in place for the second plant. 5) You turn an engineering company loose and they are going to think up more changes, to inflate their fees, than is even reasonable. 6) Finally in Europe a very high percentage of electricity comes from nuclear plants. Why? Because they they do not try to reinvent the wheel with every plant, they use a standard plan and build them like cookie cutters. I could go on and on about this but I have said enough. I am, William E. Edmondson Sweetwater, TN Posted by billed23 on August 2, 2007 at 7:31 a.m. (Suggest removal) The "suggest removal" is someone elses add on, I am not suggesting removal of any thing except unneeded costs. Bill Edmondson Posted by emcerlain on August 2, 2007 at 12:13 p.m. (Suggest removal) The claims by environmental activists that nuclear isn't clean and green because of emissions released during the mining and enrichment of uranium have no basis in fact. All industrial and manufacturing activities have impacts and produce waste by-products, but nuclear power has one of the smallest environmental "footprints" of any source of electricity or any manufacturing process based on an analysis of total life cycle emissions. For more evidence, consult the following study: Hydropower Internalized costs and externalized benefits, Frans Koch, International Energy Agency "Implementing Agreement for Hydropower Technologies and Programmes, 2000. 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