***************************************************************** 08/19/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.194 ***************************************************************** 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 AFP: Sacked Iran minister warns of energy 'catastrophe' - 2 US: ReviewJournal.com ERIN NEFF: Reid feels heat from global warmin 3 US: ReviewJournal.com: CLEAN ENERGY SUMMIT: Reid opposes coal-fired 4 Indiatimes: V P Singh supports Left on nuclear issue 5 Times of India: TDP to vote against N-deal 6 The Hindu: Congress core group to meet on nuke deal 7 Pakistan News Service: Pakistan to accelerate nuclear program 8 Press TV: ElBaradei to report on Iran-IAEA talks 9 The Hindu: TDP opposes Indo-US nuclear deal 10 Pakistan Times: Mumtaz Hamid Rao's Editorial - US Arming Israel 11 Reuters: Endgame looms as nuclear deal strains Indian government 12 The Hindu: Govt will pay 'big price' if it implements n-deal: CPI 13 NDTV.com: Govt in crisis over nuke deal 14 Comment is free: The cost of the bomb 15 The Hindu: Nuke issue: CPI(M) leaders call on Karunanidhi 16 IRNA: Pakistan angrily reacts to Australian FM nuclear remarks - NUCLEAR REACTORS 17 The Hindu: Don't operationalise nuke deal, Karat tells Manmohan 18 Guardian Unlimited: China Begins Building New Nuclear Plant 19 Sydney Morning Herald: Coalition split over nuclear future - 20 The Hindu: Put nuclear deal on hold: Karat 21 The Hindu: Put the nuclear deal on hold 22 The Hindu: I do not see an ultimatum to Government - Pranab 23 The Hindu: Hectic efforts on to resolve crisis over nuke deal 24 The Hindu: Don't go ahead with nuclear deal - CPI(M) 25 US: Rutland Herald: Strike at Yankee averted 26 US: Tennessean: Hot weather forces partial shutdown of TVA nuclear p 27 The Hindu: 'China, Pak discussing nuclear deal to counter Indo-US pa 28 US: Bennington Banner: Yankee Rowe decommissioning complete 29 Xinhua: China begins construction of nuclear power station 30 Reuters: Govt buys time over nuclear deal 31 US: NWAnews.com: Ex-nuclear plant gathers dust 32 IAEA: IAEA Issues Report on Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Plant 33 US: Post-Standard: Nine Mile Point 2 reduces power - 34 Japan Times: IAEA: No significant damage at nuke plant 35 US: TheDay.com: Region Should Benefit From Nuclear Plants 36 US: KGBT 4: West Texas, UT system pushing for first-of-a-kind reacto 37 US: KGBT 4: Proposed nuclear research facility at a glance 38 US: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Nuke doubts still at the core - 39 US: NewsBlaze : NRC Releases Most of Yankee Nuclear Power Station Si 40 AFP: Yemen says foreign firms to build nuclear reactor - 41 Guardian Unlimited: Little Damage to Japan Nuclear Plant NUCLEAR SECURITY 42 US: [v911t] Staging the Portland Nuke (A Comedy of Terrors) NUCLEAR SAFETY 43 US: Times Leader: Nuke group eyes shielding kids | 44 US: The Enquirer: Cold War pollution case to get trial 45 US: San Bernardino County Sun: Court delay may lead to longer cleanu NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 46 US: Gulfnews: It's not about the nukes, stupid! 47 US: The State: Barnwell leaks worse than feared 48 CTV Toronto: Radioactive waste cleanup behind schedule - report - 49 US: AU ABC: Final Russia uranium deal 'long way off' - 50 US: Charlotte Observer: Leaks reported at S.C. nuclear dump 51 US: Charlotte Observer: Barnwell radioactive waste could be worse th 52 Radioactive waste project east of Toronto years, millions behind sch 53 US: islandpacket.com: Toxins seep into water at Barnwell site 54 ReviewJournal.com: State officials unsure of Yucca discussions 55 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Canadian company acquiring Utah mining claims 56 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: Errant waste drum set for transfer over 57 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP mission expansion a no-brainer 58 Sunday Herald: Dounreay Likely Site For New Reactor 59 Sunday Herald: Row Over Disposal Of Nuclear Waste 60 FT.com: UK industry to foot nuclear waste bill PEACE 61 Green Left: H-Day rally condemns nuclear industry US DEPT. OF ENERGY 62 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Fire near Hanford under control 63 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Energy to investigate Hanford spill 64 Tri-City Herald: Hanford fire nearly contained at 67,000 acres (w/vi 65 DOE PNNL: What, oh, what are those actinides doing? 66 lamonitor.com: Zone of contention ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 AFP: Sacked Iran minister warns of energy 'catastrophe' - by Stuart Williams Sun Aug 19, 7:34 AM ET TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's sacked oil minister has issued a parting warning to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, predicting a looming "catastrophe" in the Iranian energy sector because of high consumption, media reported Sunday. "If we do not find a solution to the energy problem in the next 15 years, the country will face a catastrophe," Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was quoted as saying at his farewell ceremony late on Saturday by the ISNA student news agency. "I am ready to prove that if the fuel situation continues along current trends we will face an energy crisis in the future," he said. "The current pattern of consumption is a disaster for the country." The comments by Vaziri Hamaneh, who also revealed for the first time that he was sacked in a cabinet reshuffle last week, are a stark warning about the energy problems of a country rich in natural resources. Iran is OPEC's number two crude oil producer and is also pinning major hopes on its gas reserves, estimated to be the second largest proven reserves in the world after Russia. But frenzied consumption of petrol forces it to import millions of litres per day of refined oil to make up for a domestic shortfall. Wasteful heating methods also create gas shortages in winter. The government introduced petrol rationing in June in a bid to ease the immense strain on the budget of importing petrol for Iran's 70 million people, but it is still forced to import huge quantities of petrol daily. A further problem comes from under-investment in its oil fields, an issue compounded by US action to prevent banks lending to Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. The influential research centre of parliament also sounded a downbeat note on the future of Iran's gas industry, saying that exports would not be possible in the next 10 years given the scale of domestic consumption. "It seems that for at least the next 10 years there will not be any extra gas for export. Iran is advised to remove gas export from the country's policy due to the limited production capacity," it said. Turkey is currently the only recipient of Iranian gas exports, receiving several billion cubic metres annually. But Iran is seeking to export large quantities of gas to Turkey and other countries in the Middle East, as well as to India and Pakistan through new pipelines. Vaziri Hamaneh confirmed for the first time that he was sacked in the reshuffle, which also saw the departure of Industry Minister Alireza Tahmasebi and was seen as a bid by Ahmadinejad to step up his control over the economy. "I did not resign, because I still have the ability to work. Anyone who has the ability to work will not resign," Vaziri Hamaneh said, according to the Mehr news agency. "Sacking me from the ministry was the president's idea, and I obliged," he added. Vaziri Hamaneh is a veteran oil ministry official who was Ahmadinejad's fourth choice for the post when he took power in 2005. Two candidates were rejected by parliament and another stepped back of his own accord. He complained that in the "two years of Ahmadinejad's government, oil managers had been forced to pay for all mistakes made in the past. "And I say here if these group's pressures are not stopped, the industry and the country will face crisis." Tahmasebi also launched a stinging attack on Ahmadinejad's economic policies in his resignation letter, complaining of under-investment and damaging personnel changes. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 2 ReviewJournal.com ERIN NEFF: Reid feels heat from global warming Opinion - Aug. 19, 2007 Despite what you might glean from the majority of writers in this section, the overwhelming majority of scientists and world leaders realize something must be done to try to lessen human-caused warming of the Earth. Now that it's finally fashionable to wear green on your sleeves, and that the (compact fluorescent) lightbulb literally went on at Nevada Power marketing, it's politically OK for elected officials to stray into Sierra Club territory. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has accepted an invitation to join other Western mayors in a delegation to the United Kingdom next month to examine steps Great Britain has taken to reduce emissions. Even "independent like Nevada" Harry Reid is joining the mix. Reid usually reaches out to the environmental community when he's up for re-election. To be fair, Reid has his share of enviro bona fides -- voting against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and working procedural miracles to gut funding for the Department of Energy's planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. But the nation's top Democrat has taken his good ol' time acknowledging global warming as a political issue. If the House and Senate can compromise on their different energy bills, you can be sure the finished product (which could contain both strict renewable portfolio standards for power companies and vastly increased mileage standards for car manufacturers) is likely to draw a presidential veto. And while global warming is still trumped by the war in Iraq and health care as a national issue, it's near the point that Reid can't ignore it back home. "I sat around, I believe, far too long and did nothing about it," Reid told Review-Journal business reporter John Edwards after an event in Pahrump last Wednesday. "I just couldn't in good conscience keep my mouth shut." A lot of people have sat on their collective consciences for way too long. Back in 1997, the state Legislature set a very modest portfolio standard goal for Sierra Pacific and Nevada Power. At the time, the hope was that 1 percent of the energy used by the state's two power companies would be derived from green sources such as wind, geothermal and solar. The companies have complained each time lawmakers have increased the standard. And they don't just whine about it -- they fail to meet the requirements. If you or I break a law, we'd suffer the consequences for our actions. When Nevada Power didn't meet the solar requirement, everyone just decided the law wasn't working. Reid is finally playing hardball with the Sierra Pacific Resources, Nevada Power's parent company. Last month, he wrote a letter to the chief executive officers of Sierra Pacific and three out-of-state companies that are planning to build three coal-fired power plants in Eastern Nevada. "Because I believe that developing renewable energy in Nevada is far preferable to coal for the sake of our economy, public health and the environment, I will use every means at my disposal to prevent the construction of new coal-fired power plants in Nevada that do not capture and permanently store greenhouse gas emissions," Reid wrote in his letter. Last week, he reiterated he will do anything to stop the construction of the coal-fired plants. On Thursday, in an interview on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston," Reid declared the plants dead. "They will never be built," Reid said on the show. Clearly, Reid doesn't want to markedly increase Nevada's greenhouse emissions while he's in Washington trying to pass green energy policy. Nothing like a little pollution over Great Basin National Park to rain on the annual Lake Tahoe summit lovefest. And, of course, with Reid there aren't just nifty sunsets on the horizon, but political opponents. If Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., does choose to run for Reid's Senate seat in 2010, Reid will be able to pull those Northern Nevada environmentalists of both parties into his corner. Porter is sticking to his guns on Iraq and energy. In the past, he routinely sided with House Republicans on energy bills. Now that Democrats are in the majority and voting to end tax breaks for oil companies and to expand renewable energy, Porter is a reliable nay. No one knows what will happen in Iraq next month after Gen. David Petraeus' much-anticipated report, let alone what the political landscape holds in 2010 when Reid is up for election. But global warming ain't going anywhere but higher on the political radar. And if there's someone who knows what's registering high on that scale, it's Reid. Gov. Jim Gibbons, who would rather import even more coal to Nevada to burn it and convert it to fuel, is stuck to the Sierra Pacific line that the Ely plant uses the latest technology to reduce emissions. When Kenny Guinn was governor, he signed what was at the time the nation's most aggressive alternative energy portfolio standard. Gibbons is hardly carrying the baton. Reid may have done too little for too long on global warming. But the environment couldn't have a more powerful ally now that he's feeling the heat. Erin Neff's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com. Links powered by inform.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 3 ReviewJournal.com: CLEAN ENERGY SUMMIT: Reid opposes coal-fired power plants Aug. 19, 2007 Senate majority leader says sun is an untapped resource for the Silver State By SEAN WHALEY REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU Harry Reid Senator says using coal could pose health hazards RENO -- Sen. Harry Reid said Saturday he will do everything he can to stop construction of new coal-fired power plants proposed for Nevada. Utility companies, Reid said, should instead invest their billions in solar, wind and geothermal power. Speaking at the first Nevada Clean Energy Summit in Reno, Reid, D-Nev., said the coal-fired plants proposed for eastern Nevada would foul the air and lead to higher costs in terms of health problems for children and the elderly than they would save by using the cheaper fossil fuel to generate electricity. "I'm going to do everything I can to stop these plants," he said. "There is no clean coal technology. There is cleaner coal technology, but there is no clean coal technology." The summit brought together about 600 elected officials, power company executives and developers and users of green energy technology for a wide-ranging discussion on alternative energy. Reid, the Senate majority leader, said Nevada is wasting its sunlight, wind and geothermal resources every day and that the time is now to take advantage of these energy options. "Fifty percent of the power comes from outside the state of Nevada, even though we have fuel shining on us every day: the sun," he said. Michael Yackira, chief executive officer of Reno-based Sierra Pacific Resources, the company that has proposed building one of the plants, said in comments to the group that the utility is strongly committed to alternative energy sources. The company wants to build the coal-fired $3.7 billion Ely Energy Center, which would generate 1,500 megawatts of electricity. "Overall, we expect that more than $2 billion will be invested by us and others to more than triple our renewable energy supplies by 2015," he said. Over the past year, the company has signed nine contracts for approximately 300 megawatts of geothermal and solar energy to be produced in Nevada, Yackira said. But the company needs a diversified portfolio of energy sources, and fossil-fuel power plants are part of that mix, he said. Yackira said the company is developing improved technology to make coal plants more efficient. Testing is under way at the company's Valmy Power Station in Northern Nevada. Asked after his remarks to react to Reid, Yackira said building the company's new coal plant will help the environment by allowing it to shut down less efficient facilities. "What we are going to be building is the cleanest coal plant in the world," he said. While Nevada's alternative energy resources continue to go untapped, the state still leads the way in many areas of alternative energy development and use, according to data provided at the summit: ? Nevada is No. 1 in geothermal energy use per capita in the nation, generating 110 watts per person compared to California, which produces less than 70 watts per capita. ? Nevada will be No. 1 in solar energy production per capita in the nation by the end of this year with projects now under way, generating 33 watts per person compared to California, which produces 18 watts per person. ? The Nevada Legislature in 2007 modified, but continued providing, property tax breaks for "green construction" designed to use less energy. One of those green projects is the MGM Mirage's $7.4 billion CityCenter, a 76-acre mixed-use development on the Strip. CityCenter is the largest privately financed real estate project in the nation. It will include its own energy-efficient power plant and a people mover. Reid said the coal-fired plants proposed for White Pine County would pollute the air over Great Basin National Park and other parks and wild areas of Utah. It was a "matter of conscience" to oppose the plants, which Reid said he would have opposed anywhere in the United States. If Nevada's utility companies need a "bridge" between old technology and clean energy, they should build more environmentally friendly natural gas plants to produce electricity until alternative sources can be developed, he said. Reid said global warming is a reality, and just one of the proposed coal-fired plants would contribute to it by burning seven million tons of coal a year. In addition to the plant proposed by Sierra Pacific Resources, the others are being pursued by Sithe Global Power of New York, LS Power of New Jersey and Dynegy of Texas. Sierra Pacific and Sithe Global have separate projects while LS Power and Dynegy are developing the third project. Two are in White Pine County and one is near Mesquite. Gov. Jim Gibbons has expressed support for the plant construction. Reid said he has not spoken to the Republican governor about the projects and that Gibbons is entitled to his views. But if White Pine and other rural counties really want economic development, they should seek alternative energy projects, which have been shown to create jobs, he said. Information provided at the summit suggests there is huge potential for alternative energy development in Nevada. There is currently 550 megawatts of geothermal energy under development in Nevada, with the potential for up to 1,500 megawatts total. Nevada also has more than 24 million acres of land within 10 miles of existing transmission lines classified as "good" to "outstanding" for wind-energy development. If environmentally sensitive lands and lands with conflicting use were excluded, the state could still generate 63 million megawatt hours, 280 percent of the entire state's current consumption. Other speakers included Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, who said the state must also focus on reducing energy consumption in addition to alternative energy development. "Nevada has the highest per capita electric consumption in the West," she said. "Controlling consumption by reducing demand has to be a central part of Nevada's energy policy. The cheapest and cleanest watt is the one that we never have to produce." Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki also spoke, saying the state is committed to alternative energy development and providing any assistance it can. "It's going to be good business being green," he said. The summit was presented by the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, the Nevada Development Authority and the Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. Links powered by inform.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 4 Indiatimes: V P Singh supports Left on nuclear issue 19 Aug, 2007, 2020 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Supporting the Left parties on their opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, former prime minister V P Singh on Sunday said the country has to find a new prime minister if the government refuses to renegotiate the agreement. Singh said the Left parties have "valid" reasons for opposing the deal and everyone should see to it that the agreement does not go through. "If Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) cannot renegotiate the deal, terminate it. If he cannot do that, we have to find a new prime minister then," he told reporters here. Continuing his attack on the government for entering into an agreement by "not addressing" the nation's concerns, Singh said the Prime Minister should muster the courage to tell the US that India cannot go ahead as there was widespread opposition and concern about the deal. "Whom does the Prime Minister represent. Does he represent the sentiments of people of the country or someone else's," he said. "The Left is absolutely right in opposing the nuclear deal. The government has to heed the valid reasons forwarded by them," he added. Asked whether the Left would be justified if they withdraw support to the UPA, the former prime minister said that "the issue is whether to save the government or save the nation". He said there is enough time to get out of the deal and "if the government does not do that, it is a patriotic duty to see that deal does not go through". Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For ***************************************************************** 5 Times of India: TDP to vote against N-deal 20 Aug 2007, 0212 hrs IST,TNN NEW DELHI: TDP, which held an emergency meeting of senior party leaders and MPs, on Sunday decided to oppose the Indo-US nuclear deal if it was put to vote in Parliament. The meeting was held in the backdrop of discussions party president N Chandrababu Naidu had with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. Terming the deal as "disastrous for the nation", TDP sought a full-fledged debate in Parliament. Experts said, "For TDP, it would be a gain-gain situation, because the party has only four MPs in the Lok Sabha. After the meeting, Naidu told reporters that TDP had demanded a debate since Parliament was supreme and therefore the government should seek ratification of its decisions, especially when majority of the parties were opposing it. Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 The Hindu: Congress core group to meet on nuke deal Saturday, August 18, 2007 : 1745 Hrs New Delhi, Aug. 18 (PTI): The high-powered Congress core group was today summoned to an urgent meeting here this evening immediately after the Left parties demanded that the Indo-US nuclear deal should not be operationalised, failing which there would be "serious consequences" for the government. The core group headed by party President Sonia Gandhi and including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, A K Antony, Arjun Singh and others, will meet at 6 pm at the Prime Minister's residence. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu ***************************************************************** 7 Pakistan News Service: Pakistan to accelerate nuclear program PakTribune Sha'aban 6, 1428 Hijri August 20, 2007 Saturday August 18, 2007 (1614 PST) ISLAMABAD: After the finalization of nuclear deal between India and the United States, Pakistan has decided to accelerate the development of its nuclear and missile program and President Pervez Musharraf and the government in this regard have issued directives to the scientists and engineers of the country. Military sources said that Pakistan in the time to come would continue the testing of new missiles. Reliable sources further told Online that in the meeting of National Command and Control Authority, the matter of disturbance of strategic balance after Indo-US deal was discussed in detail and it was decided that Pakistan would continue the development of its nuclear and missile programme. The work on Khushab reactor would be speedup while new nuclear reactors would also be installed which number in range of four to five. Sources told that the government of Pakistan has rejected any US pressure in this regard and clarified that it would take all necessary steps to ensure its solidarity, defence and sovereignty and the strategic balance in the region would be maintained at all costs. The acquiring of latest technology would also be ensured and President General Pervez Musharraf in this regard has given go-ahead to Pakistani scientists aiming to continue the development of Pakistan nuclear and missile programme. The new missile tests would be held in September and October in which both ballistic and cruise missile would be tested and through these tests the strategic ability of Pakistan would be enhanced. Pakistan would also acquire assistance from countries having latest technology aiming to meet its increasing energy needs. • Web paktribune.com ====================================================================== USA has a long history of mistrust, unreliability and suspious policies towards Muslim World especialy towards Pakistan. Right from illegal crreation of Jew State to unflinching help to India to disintegrate Pakistan in 1971. Now USA and her allies viz. UK are trying their best to weaken the Pak army bcoz without this they can not succeed in implementation of JEW WORLD ORDER. Delineation of whole Muslim World is necesaary for implementation of thier policy to control the world, oil resources of CARS, Middle East, and Agricultural resources of other Muslim countries. The latest statements of USA presidential candidates about bombordment of Holy Makka, Madina and Pak nuclear installations is an eye opener. These statements are not mere election stunts as said by by some commentators. These statements are rather inner ugly vision of USA Leaders. They have lost sense, wisdom, balance, and even humanly thinking. they have become mad in rivalry against Muslims and Muslim world. It is very clear that if pakistan or Holy Places of Isalm are attacked she will definitely attack India and ILLEGAL CHILD of USA and EU.What will happen? I think a full world war! So pakistan must prepare for that horrible time. May Allah fobid to save his all creation, all human beings, all reliogns, all sects, all countries, all races , all clans, all colors, and all progenies to come in future. Posted by Zafar Sindhu, Pakistan Web paktribune.com Pakistan News Service © PakTribune.com Pvt Ltd 2003-2004 ***************************************************************** 8 Press TV: ElBaradei to report on Iran-IAEA talks Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:39:52 Iran's Envoy to the IAEA Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh Iran says the UN nuclear watchdog chief is to prepare a report on the results of the talks with Iran over the country's nuclear issue. At the meeting of the agency's Board of Governors scheduled for September 10, ElBaradei will present a report on the outcome of the talks, which have been held between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh told Mehr News Agency on Sunday. He added that the report would also include the results of talks held during the past two months over Iran's peaceful nuclear activities. "The third round of talks between Iran and the IAEA is scheduled to be held on Monday at the same diplomatic level which the first and second rounds were held," the envoy said. He said that negotiators are to discuss legal, technical and political issues in the new round of talks. Soltaniyeh dismissed the claims by Western media that Iran has suspended uranium enrichment as 'unfounded', saying, "As the Islamic Republic of Iran has previously announced, it will not suspend its uranium enrichment activities." SF/AA/RE © Press TV 2007. All rights reserved. Our privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 9 The Hindu: TDP opposes Indo-US nuclear deal Sunday, August 19, 2007 : 1625 Hrs Hyderabad, Aug. 19 (PTI): The TDP, a key member of the Third Front, today strongly opposed the Indo-US nuclear deal and demanded a debate in Parliament on the issue. "The issue should be debated in Parliament as no political party in the country supports the nuclear deal except for the Congress," Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu told reporters after a party meeting here. "The US wants to implement its agenda through the nuclear deal which would prove disastrous for the nation," he alleged. The TDP is of view that the nuclear deal with the US was against national interests, Naidu said. Asked whether the TDP is prepared for mid-term polls if the Central government fell on this issue, he said, "We are always ready for elections, but the entire onus lies with the Congress party." The TDP held a meeting chaired by Naidu this morning to decide its stand on the Indo-US nuclear deal. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 10 Pakistan Times: Mumtaz Hamid Rao's Editorial - US Arming Israel By the Editor THE US has decided to provide $ 30 billion in military aid to Israel over a period of next ten years. If truth be told – this decision shall have awfully negative impact in the already volatile region of the Middle East. World knows that the Jewish State is already well-armed – to the teeth with most devastating and advanced weapons – in addition to almost one hundred nuclear warheads. Prior to this announcement – Washington had announced the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf States – prima facie, to pacify the neighbours of Israel. Analyzing the scenario – in a pragmatic way – one comes to the conclusion that the Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians are threatened day-in and day-out by Israel, which is almost a mini superpower in the region. Amid the prevailing milieu, Egypt and Jordan have – in away – already submitted themselves to the will of Tel Aviv and Washington and have no aggressive designs – what-so-ever. With such a setting – naturally $ 30 billion aid for arms to Israel – is aimed at building further the Tel Aviv military might which, of-late has suffered humiliating defeat at the hands of Hizbullah in Lebanon. It seems that massive economic and military aid to Israel is being extended because of the persistent pressure of strong Jewish lobby in America. As the index of the recent history manifests – since 1992 the United States has sold over 20 billion dollars worth of arms to Israel in an effort to keep up – what it envisions – good relations and protect its lovely ally in the Middle East. Yet, as a matter of fact – by selling arms to Israel, the US strains relations between itself and Palestine, as well as between Israel and Palestine, not to mention – between the US and most of the other Middle Eastern nations. On average the US sells 1.8 billion dollars worth of arms to Israel every year, which is no small sum of money. If the goal is to protect the United States’ only in one ally in the Middle East in order to maintain a footing in such a volatile part of the world – the sale of arms seems mostly counter-intuitive since it disrupts US relations with the rest of the Arab world. We feel that – eventually, US arm sales to Israel would significantly complicate the relations between Palestine and Israel. While the core conflict lies between Palestine and Israel, the Palestinians feel deceived by the US’s overwhelming preferential treatment of Israel in the conflict. Thus, the prudent course of action for the policy makers in Washington ought not to make Israel a dump of deadly weapons – but, should pressurize Israel to resolve its dispute with Lebanon, vacate Golan Heights and accept Palestine as a sovereign State in line with the Saudi Arabia-backed land for peace plan. We feel optimistic that the United State – the solo super power of the world today – which is ought to ensure global peace – in the best interest of the new and up-coming generations – shall pay heed to the ground realities by re-affixing its priorities – as this is the only way for ensuring a stable and lasting peace in the volatile region – the Middle East.? Copyright © 2002-2007 TIMES Group of Publications All rights reserved PakistanTimes.net | TIMES.com.pk | PakistanTimes.pk Technical Courtesy: IT Wizards ***************************************************************** 11 Reuters: Endgame looms as nuclear deal strains Indian government Sun Aug 19, 2007 6:57AM EDT By Y.P. Rajesh - Analysis NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government is struggling to weather its worst crisis as communist allies threaten to end support, and even if the coalition scrapes through its stability is likely to be badly dented. Either way, analysts say the crisis will shake some investor confidence in one of the world's fastest growing economies and raise political risk at a time Indian markets are already reeling under the impact of global credit worries. The crisis -- triggered by the opposition of the left parties to a historic civilian nuclear cooperation deal between India and the United States -- was initially considered to be mere anti-American posturing by the communists. But with Singh refusing to give in and daring the communists to withdraw the support of their 60 MPs in parliament, the confrontation has deteriorated into a battle of political egos, analysts said. "I don't think we have reached a point of no return," said B.G. Verghese, a political analyst at New Delhi's Centre for Policy Research. "But we are on the edge." The communists, who now have the most lawmakers in parliament in their history, could never hope to better that performance and would therefore not want to push for an election, he said. "But you never know. They also have their extremists and adventurists who may want to go for the brink," Verghese added. The communists -- made of four parties in parliament -- have been critical of the government's growing friendship with Washington and opposed the nuclear deal, saying it hurts India's sovereignty and draws it into the U.S.'s strategic embrace. WINDOW FOR COMPROMISE? The deal aims to end three decades of American sanctions on nuclear trade with India and give it access to nuclear fuel and equipment to help meet its soaring energy needs, even though it has tested nuclear weapons and rejected non-proliferation pacts. Besides being seen as the cornerstone of a new warmth between the once-estranged democracies, the deal is also considered one of India's biggest foreign policy triumphs in decades and the most significant achievement of Singh's three years in power. The crisis had been expected to explode on Saturday at the end of a politburo meeting of the largest communist party but the left leaders apparently bought time and kept the door open for a way out. However, in an indication that the political stakes were higher, they threatened the government with "serious consequences" if it did not stop negotiations to gain global approvals for the deal without addressing their concerns. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government was looking for ways out of the logjam. "We are examining it from various sides and let us see how we can proceed further and what could be done to overcome the impasse," he told reporters. A debate in parliament next week over the deal and some mollycoddling of the communists by giving them fresh assurances that their concerns would be addressed could help take some of the steam out, political analysts said. DELAY RISKS DEAL New Delhi cannot afford to delay the deal and needs to sew it up and seek the approval of U.S. Congress before the end of this year, with a U.S. presidential election looming in 2008. The deal, which has also faced opposition from the non-proliferation lobby in Washington, would find it tough to get the backing of a Democrat-dominated U.S. Congress in an election year, diplomats say. Relations between Singh's government and the communists have been marked by constant bickering, with the left opposing everything from raising gasoline prices to the privatization of state firms, labor reform, pension reform and greater foreign investment in key sectors. "If we don't go ahead with the deal now what is India's status going to be in the world?" asked Verghese. "What is going to happen to the economy, who is going to sign any contract, economic, political or social?" Asked if the crisis had raised India's political risk, V. Anantha Nageswaran, investment research head at Bank Julius Baer in Singapore said: "I think the answer is yes. Regardless of anything it means materially to India's policy making, that is how the market would perceive it." Giving in to the left now would mean "even the very, very remote or slim chance of any economic reform or liberalization goes to pretty much zero in the next two years and that would be considered negative", he said. ***************************************************************** 12 The Hindu: Govt will pay 'big price' if it implements n-deal: CPI Sunday, August 19, 2007 : 1720 Hrs Ahmedabad, Aug. 19 (PTI): The CPI today threw its weight behind the ultimatum given to the government by the CPI-M not to implement the Indo-US nuclear deal, saying the UPA would have to pay a major "political price" if it went ahead with the pact. "They (UPA) will have to pay a big political price if they are not ready to reconcile with us on the nuclear issue. The Left had its final meeting with the prime minsiter on the issue yesterday," CPI general secretary Bardhan told reporters on the sidelines of a function here. "What we are saying is do not operationalise this deal. Don't take the first step at all," he said categorically. Asserting that the nuclear deal should be debated in Parliament, he said, "If the matter is discussed openly in Parliament, then the Congress will realise that they do not have majority support on the issue." The Left parties will hold a meeting on the issue tomorrow and "something concrete will emerge from it", the senior Communist leader said. "Sarkar ko yeh baat soch kar, samajh kar amal karna chahiye (The UPA government should think things over before taking a decision on the issue)," Bardhan said. Asked about the components of the draft 123 agreement with the US that the Left objected to, Bardhan said, "The main irritant will be subordinating all our foreign policies and economic issues to American policy. "Out of this exercise, what we will get is just 20,000 MW of power and that too by 2020. For this we cannot compromise the country's sovereignty and foreign policy." Bardhan warned the UPA government against beginning negotiations with the IAEA on an agreement on safeguards or with the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Asked if the government should scrap the draft 123 agreement, he said such deals "need not be scrapped -- they need not be implemented or operationalised". Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 13 NDTV.com: Govt in crisis over nuke deal NDTV Correspondent Sunday, August 19, 2007 (New Delhi) An emergency meeting of the Congress core group was held late Saturday evening on the Left's ultimatum regarding the Indo-US nuclear deal. CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat has said in no uncertain terms that it is up to the Congress to decide whether it wants to save the government. Karat made it clear at a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi that the nuclear deal was unacceptable in its present form. Otherwise the Left leaders said the government had to be ready for what they called serious consequences. The meeting of the Congress core group was attended not just by the PM but also Congress president Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, meanwhile, apprised Mukherjee of the strategic fallout, if the process of operationalising the deal is put on hold. Sonia Gandhi also spoke with DMK president Karunanidhi while Pranab Mukherjee meet key ally Lalu Yadav. The government will continue to meet its allies and make efforts to strike a compromise a formula today. The options before the government now are: o The Prime Minister can resign o Or the government stands firm on the deal, which means it will fall and there will be fresh elections o Or both sides will buy time to evolve middle ground. In Parliament, the UPA has a strength of 226, but together with the Left, BSP and SDF that number goes upto 304. Without the Left, it comes down to 245. If Left withdraws support, the UPA is 27 seats short of majority. * The leftists, it seems are the only Politicians who have carefully gone through the pros & cons of the deal.It is dangerous for India that the deal aims at tethering us into unquestioned allegiance with the USA on all matters-military or strategic.Thums up for the Left, they have stood up for our national interest. Posted by Cautious at 12:39 on Aug 19, 2007 Copyright 2007 ***************************************************************** 14 Comment is free: The cost of the bomb guardian.co.uk/commentisfree > Randeep Ramesh The Indo-US nuclear deal is a landmark one - but the Indian prime minister is facing brickbats rather than bouquets. Randeep Ramesh August 19, 2007 2:00 PM After the hoopla of 60th birthday celebrations, the bubbly tastes a trifle flat in New Delhi. Instead of cheer, the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, finds himself duffed up by the left and the right over the Indo-US nuclear deal. Mr Singh, a cerebral economist, says the pact is a triumph of diplomacy, a partnership between democracies. His detractors say it sells-out to Washington, infringing on India's sovereignty. MPs in the parliament have barracked and heckled the prime minister. The left threatens to pull the plug on the government. The deal is a landmark one: India exists outside of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which came into force in 1968 and declared five states - the UK, France, America, the USSR and China - to keep nuclear weapons and others to benefit from civilian nuclear technology. India, which tested nuclear devices in 1974 and 1998, calls this treaty a version of diplomatic apartheid - one rule for a select few, another for the rest. However, the deal offers India a way out of this prison: in return for a separation of military and civilian facilities and an inspection regime, New Delhi gets a nuclear supply-line. This is an exceptional offer. Brazil and South Africa had to give up their weapons before export controls were lifted. Japan and South Korea, which had the fissile material and the know-how to make a bomb, as well as a threat in the form of North Korea, were also similarly caged. All these nations, and dozens of others in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, are likely to give the nod to adjust the non-proliferation regime to accommodate India's desire for access to nuclear technology. There are two considerations here: one is resource the other technology. India has an innovative nuclear programme, a three-stage sequence that uses the country's abundant mineral thorium in a fast-breeder reactor to produce energy. It is highly experimental and, under current international law, impossible for India to work with the two other countries, France and Russia, which have developed such technologies. In terms of resource, India overestimated its uranium reserves and did not stockpile natural uranium when it could. Under the terms of the NPT, India is banned from buying uranium from the international market. That is why Australia's decision to sell New Delhi uranium, as long as the Indo-US nuclear deal goes through, is a historic one. So, given all the upsides, why is the Indian prime minister facing brickbats rather than bouquets? Because India's pursuit of nuclear weapons has led it to the ultimate weapon: a megaton thermonuclear, or hydrogen, bomb. India claims to have tested a low-yield thermonuclear device in 1998, but many seriously doubt this assertion. As the Americans and Soviets learnt in the 1950s, exploding a hydrogen bomb - which fuses rather than splits atoms - leads to uncontrollable and devastating ecological results. These weapons led to the doctrine of mutually assured destruction and a slew of arms control agreements. The only states allowed to test nuclear weapons remain the five stipulated by the NPT. India is outside. While New Delhi is not in first class it has been upgraded while the other rogue states Pakistan and Israel are left without tickets. The question is whether the long-term gain of testing a thermonuclear device is enough that India today might sacrifice short-term gains. But what are the circumstances that such a weapon is needed? They are not visible at the moment: no threat from China, none from Pakistan. The future may herald a nuclear Middle East as Iran gets the bomb and others follow. Proliferation on such a scale is panicky stuff - enough for uber-realist Henry Kissinger to cite India's Rajiv Gandhi and call for a joint enterprise to rid the world of nuclear weapons earlier this year. Mr Gandhi, addressing the UN general assembly in 1988, said: "Nuclear war will not mean the death of a hundred million people. Or even a thousand million. It will mean the extinction of four thousand million: the end of life as we know it on our planet earth. We come to the United Nations to seek your support. We seek your support to put a stop to this madness." This is fine sentiment that went unheeded at the time and led the world to dangerous waters. If craziness were to descend, India's decision would be to sacrifice its new nuclear status for the right to acquire a thermonuclear device. The appalling judgment would be one for a government of the future, not today. As Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian statesman advised, "no nation is obliged to sacrifice its existence on the altar of treaty fidelity." Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007. Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396 Registered office: Number 1 Scott Place, Manchester M3 3GG ***************************************************************** 15 The Hindu: Nuke issue: CPI(M) leaders call on Karunanidhi Sunday, August 19, 2007 : 2245 Hrs Chennai, Aug. 19 (PTI): The CPI(M) leaders in Tamil Nadu today called on Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and explained the party's stand on the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement to him. The CPI(M) Polit Bureau member K Varadarajan and party state Secretary N Varadarajan discussed the issue with the Chief Minister. The exercise comes following the CPI(M) Polit Bureau's decision to explain to the Congress and UPA allies,the party's stand on the issue, a party press release here said. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 16 IRNA: Pakistan angrily reacts to Australian FM nuclear remarks - Islamabad, Aug 18, IRNA Pakistan-Australian FM Pakistan on Friday night dismissed as incorrect and uncalled remarks from Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer in a TV interview that Pakistan has a long record of proliferation. The Australian foreign minister in an interview with ABC said his country would not consider selling uranium to Pakistan because Pakistan has a long record of proliferation. "I appreciate they have rectified that situation with the detention of AQ Khan and the closing down of the so called AQ Khan network. "But over the years, Pakistan has been involved in nuclear proliferation," Alexander Downer said, according to excerpts of the interview available at his Website. The Spokesperson for Pakistan Foreign Ministry when asked to comment on the remarks by the foreign minister said that the remarks about Pakistan are incorrect and uncalled for. Those who forget that Pakistan was not the one to introduce nuclear weapons in South Asia, nor were we the first to test nuclear weapons, need to be reminded of the facts of history, Tasnim Aslam said in a statement. She further stated that the Government of Pakistan fully supports the global efforts aimed at non-proliferation. "We have instituted strong command and control system and export controls that conform to the most stringent international standards maintained to ensure WMD non-proliferation," she said. ***************************************************************** 17 The Hindu: Don't operationalise nuke deal, Karat tells Manmohan Saturday, August 18, 2007 : 2010 Hrs Prakash Karat, General Secretary, CPI(M) addressing a press conference after meeting Manmohan in New Delhi on Saturday. Photo: Kamal Narang. New Delhi, Aug. 18 (PTI): The Left parties today put brakes on the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal by warning the government of "serious consequences" of operationalising it, but stopped short of withdrawing support to the UPA coalition. Turning up the heat on the government, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau passed a resolution describing the deal as "unacceptable" and demanding that the government should not proceed further on it by commencing negotiations with the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA for safeguards which would bind India in perpetuity. The blunt message was conveyed directly to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the main architect of the deal, and Congress President Sonia Gandhi by CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat at an hour-long meeting at the Prime Minister's residence here. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was also present. Asked whether the Left parties would withdraw support to the government if it went ahead with the deal, Karat told a press conference here, "we have conveyed to the Congress leadership our concerns and it depends on what they decide." Cong. leadership to decide He drew attention to the Polit Bureau resolution stating that, "it is for the Congress leadership to decide on the matter which will have serious consequences for the Government and the country." Karat summed up the Left stand in these words: "So, we are saying don't proceed (with the deal), discuss the matter, take into account all the objections and concerns and then we can take a decision." The Left parties want the government to "pause" and look at all the aspects before going into the next steps such as negotiations with the IAEA and with the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Polit Bureau fully endorses resolution The Polit Bureau resolution fully endorsed the stand taken by the Left parties on the bilateral agreement on nuclear cooperation with the US, remarking that the statement of the Left parties (last week) has set out comprehensively the reasons why the agreement is not acceptable. It said the agreement should be seen in the light of the Hyde Act passed by the US Congress and in the context of the wider implications of India being bound into a strategic alliance with the US and its adverse consequences for an independent foreign policy, sovereignty and the economic interests of the people. "The Polit Bureau is of the firm opinion that going ahead with this agreement will not serve India's interests. "Given the widespread opposition to the agreement and the fact that a majority in Parliament do not support the nuclear cooperation deal, the government should not proceed further with the agreement," the resolution said. It said till all the objections were considered and implications of the Hyde Act evaluated, the government should not take the next step with regard to negotiating a safeguards agreement with the IAEA. Take the issue to people The Polit Bureau also decided to take the issue of the nuclear agreement and the dangers of the strategic alliance with the United States to the people through a nationwide mass campaign. Karat said the Left parties will be meeting soon to decide on all other related matters. Asked whether an emergency meeting of the party's Central Committee would be convened shortly, he said "we will call a meeting if we feel it is necessary. .... We will wait for the Congress response". Asked in the context of Prime Minister's challenge to them to withdraw support whether he had suggested to him to quit, Karat said "I have not suggested anything. I have suggested don't take the next step." Maintaining that the government was aware of the strong reservations on the deal by a majority in Parliament, he said "the democratic way will be to put on hold the agreement till the doubts and apprehensions are clarified." The agreement "should not be seen as a narrow party issue. It concerns the entire country and it is going to be a long-term agreement and we are going to have safeguards in perpetuity," he said. The CPI(M) views on any strategic alliance with the US were well-known, he said "but more important than that on foreign policy, we told the Congress leadership that they have historically played a role on having a consensus on foreign policy". "Unfortunately, on the implications of the nuclear agreement and its consequences on foreign policy, there is no consensus," the CPI(M) leader said. He said in the past the CPI(M) has strongly supported government's independent foreign policy. "So we have urged the Congress leadership to seriously consider what our Polit Bureau has said and we hope they will discuss the matter and take an appropriate decision and get back to us. We have to wait for their decision". Acknowledging that the 123 agreement has been made, he said "but two-three more steps are required to oeprationalise it. We are saying don't operationalise it for now." Cong. core committee meets The Congress leadership went into a huddle shortly after Karat-PM meeting to assess the implications of the Left warning. The Core Group of Congress met in Prime Minister's official residence to chalk out the future strategy. The CPI leader D Raja made it clear that the level of Left cooperation will go down considerably from now on. "It is going to affect the coordination between the government and the Left .... It is also going to affect legislations in Parliament since it will be merit-based support." Before they met the Prime Minister and Gandhi, the CPI(M) leaders held consultations with other Left parties to convey their united opposition to the deal. The CPI(M) has been of the view that the government has deviated from the Common Minimum Programme commitments of pursuing an independent foreign policy and was sharply critical of the Congress-led coalition for entering into a strategic partnership with "imperialist" America. Other Left parties are more strident in their demand for reviewing support to the government with CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan saying that it has become "untenable" and the Left should extend "merit-based" support now. He feels that the UPA-Left Coordination Committee, the mechanism so far being used for consultations on key issues, has become "dead" and there is no point in carrying forward with it. The RSP leader Abani Roy said it is "high-time" that the Left review its support to the government otherwise it will become a "laughing stock" among the people. The Forward Bloc leader General Secretary Debabrata Biswas, who met CPI(M) leaders this morning, said "it is crystal clear that after the 123 agreement was signed there has been a visible tilt in our foreign policy practises towards the US." Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of ***************************************************************** 18 Guardian Unlimited: China Begins Building New Nuclear Plant From the Associated Press Saturday August 18, 2007 7:46 AM BEIJING (AP) - Chinese power companies began construction of a new nuclear plant on Saturday, the first in the country's northeast, a state news agency reported. The first of six units at the Hongyanhe plant in Liaoning province is set to start operations in 2012, with the rest coming on line by 2014, the Xinhua News Agency said. The plant will cost a total of $6.5 billion. It will be based on Chinese-developed technology, according to earlier reports. China's government says it plans to build 31 new nuclear plants by 2020 as it tries to curb heavy reliance on oil and coal. Equipment suppliers are looking to China to sustain sales at a time when few other countries plan new plants. But Beijing also is trying to develop its own technology. China has four nuclear power plants in operation, all in the booming south and southeast. The new plant is being built by a consortium led by the state-owned Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, which operates nuclear plants in the southeastern province of Guangdong. The other investors include Liaoning power utilities. Other nuclear plants in China are based on French, Russian and Canadian technology. U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co. signed agreements in July to sell four nuclear power plants to China and hand over technology to make its newest reactor. The deal is expected to make Westinghouse's third-generation AP1000 reactors the basis of China's future efforts to develop commercial nuclear power technology. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 19 Sydney Morning Herald: Coalition split over nuclear future - www.smh.com.au August 19, 2007 - 4:29PM An apparent split has opened in the coalition over plans to create a nuclear industry in Australia. Nationals leader Mark Vaile backed a federal candidate who said the party would prevent the Liberals building nuclear power stations or waste storage facilities anywhere in Australia. Dr Sue Page, who will contest the federal seat of Richmond in northern NSW in the coming election, said the Nationals were committed to opposing nuclear development. "There will be no nuclear power stations or waste storage facilities on the north coast or anywhere else in Australia if the coalition government is re-elected this year," Dr Page said in a press release. "Any such developments would require the approval of the state and federal governments. "The state government has already said no and the Nationals in federal government, without whom the coalition cannot enact legislation, are also committed to opposing this." Dr Page said she was making the statement to head off an expected Labor "scare campaign" about nuclear facilities on the north coast. Deputy Prime Minister Mr Vaile stood by Dr Page and indicated the Nationals did not support the development of a nuclear industry. "Dr Page is an excellent candidate and is one of many new-generation Nationals contesting this election for the party," Mr Vaile's spokesman said. The spokesman said the Nationals leader agreed with the prime minister that Australia should not rule out a nuclear power industry in future decades if and when it becomes economical. "But there should also be bipartisan support at state and federal level, and the current debate is about building that support," he said. "There are no plans to build nuclear power plants at present and nor is it envisaged that the federal government would play any role in building such plants." Prime Minister John Howard announced in April that the federal government would develop a regulatory regime to govern an expanded nuclear industry and any future nuclear plants. The legislation would also remove "unnecessary restrictions" on mining, processing and exporting uranium. The relevant ministers and departments were ordered to start work immediately and report to cabinet by September, ahead of the federal election. "The government will implement this strategy to increase uranium exports and to prepare for a possible expansion of the nuclear industry in Australia," Mr Howard said at the time. Mr Howard has since admitted the federal government had sought informal legal advice on whether it could use its constitutional powers to force nuclear reactors on the states. And last week he told parliament that commercial investors, not politicians, would determine the location of nuclear reactors. Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett said Dr Page's view put the Liberals and the Nationals at odds. "The coalition is now completely fractured on the nuclear issue," Mr Garrett said. "Coalition members continue to engage in the most arrogant hypocrisy by refusing to support nuclear facilities in their own electorate, yet supporting John Howard's pro-nuclear policies in parliament." © 2007 AAP Brought to you by When news happens: send photos, videos & tip-offs to 0424 SMS SMH (+61 424 767 764), or us. Copyright © 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 20 The Hindu: Put nuclear deal on hold: Karat Sunday, Aug 19, 2007 Special Correspondent Doubts should be clarified and the implications of the Hyde Act evaluated first NEW DELHI: With the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal kicking up a political storm and creating a rift between the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and its crucial allies, the Left parties, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Prakash Karat says the best course would be for the government not to proceed further with the operationalising of the agreement. “Till all the doubts are clarified and the implications of the Hyde Act evaluated, the government should not take the next steps with regard to negotiating the IAEA safeguards, which are to be in perpetuity, and proceed to get the guidelines from the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” Mr. Karat says. In an article in the latest issue of People’s Democracy, he says a wise and expedient step for the government would be to acknowledge that “there is widespread opposition to the agreement.” He says the question is not whether it should be put to vote in Parliament or not. It is clear that a majority in Parliament is opposed to it. He writes: “It may be difficult for ordinary people to grasp the implications of the nuclear agreement with all its technical aspects and intricacies. The supply of nuclear fuel, the fuel cycle, the enrichment and reprocessing technologies and the safeguards agreement are all not within the knowledge of lay people. Without going into the complex issues concerning nuclear cooperation, one way to understand and assess the agreement is to ask: does this agreement advance India’s interests, does it protect our capacity for an independent foreign policy and sovereignty? Is this an agreement only on nuclear cooperation or is it part of a wider agreement?” The nuclear cooperation deal is only one part of the wide-ranging alliance that the UPA government has forged with the U.S. Prior to the joint statement of July 2005, it signed a 10-year Defence Framework Agreement. “It is evident that without the defence agreement, the Americans would not have agreed for the nuclear cooperation. This is part of a quid pro quo,” he writes. ‘First conflict’ He says the first serious conflict with the Left arose when the UPA government did a volte face on the Iran nuclear issue. The government voted along with the U.S. and the Western countries in September 2005 and was not even prepare d to go along with the position adopted by the bloc of Non-Aligned Movement countries. Mr. Karat says the nuclear cooperation agreement ignores the very limited contribution that nuclear power makes to our overall energy generation which is just three per cent and cannot exceed seven per cent over the next 25 years. To make India’s foreign policy and strategic autonomy hostage to the potential of nuclear energy does not make sense except for the American imperative to bind India to its strategic designs in Asia, he writes. Referring to the Hyde Act, he says it expects India to have a foreign policy “congruent” to the United States. Every year, the U.S. President will be reporting to the U.S. Congress on how India is complying with the provisions set out in the Act. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 21 The Hindu: Put the nuclear deal on hold Monday, Aug 20, 2007 For a mild-mannered Prime Minister who leads a government dependent on external support for survival, Manmohan Singh is demonstrating obduracy of a strange and unreasonable kind. His current posture of ‘I-must-have-the-nuclear-deal-or-I-go’ suggests that the political objective of completing the elected term of the United Progressive Alliance regime has been subordinated to the greater goal of seeing the deal through. And herein lies a fatal contradiction. The guaranteed way of sinking the civilian nuclear deal, which this newspaper has editorially endorsed with some caveats, is for the government to go down, taking the 123 with it. What should be clear to anyone who is not on a high horse, with blinkers, is that given the deep political polarisation there is little chance of any other Prime Minister or government making a go of this deal in the conceivable future. For at least two years now, Dr. Singh has been passionate in his conviction that the civilian nuclear deal he initiated with President George Bush in July 2005 was not just in the interest of India’s nuclear programme, which had suffered from a harsh international regime of sanctions and technology denial; it was a supreme national necessity because “nuclear power is critical to our energy security if we want to be a world power” (as he put it in a recent interview). This conviction has been, by the Prime Minister’s own admission, linked to the ideological belief that the United States wanted to help India become a great power; that “of all the U.S. Presidents,” George Bush was “the friendliest towards India”; and that “in a globalised world, Indo-U.S. relations were the key and we needed to give them the highest importance.” But the UPA government finds itself in a hopeless minority in Parliament on this critical issue. There is also considerable opposition outside Parliament, with the community of scientists and the intelligentsia divided down the middle and the public mood uncertain. “A Country is Not a Company,” argued Paul Krugman in a celebrated 1996 paper published in the Harvard Business Review. He made the point that “the style of thinking necessary for economic analysis is very different from that which leads to success in business” and further that a failure to understand this can lead to disastrous mistakes. The economist in Dr. Singh needs to realise that arguments drawing from ‘decarbonising the economy’ exercises done in the Planning Commission combining with ill-founded ambitions of becoming a great power by becoming the sole superpower’s camp follower are likely to flop in the democratic political arena. It may be perfectly true that the Bharatiya Janata Party is the co-progenitor of this nuclear deal. But the reality is that the principal opposition party has aggressively attacked the deal as a sell-out of national interests, and specifically of the country’s ambition of developing “a minimum credible nuclear deterrent.” Its leaders are salivating at the thought of this Congress-led regime falling on so sensitive an issue. As important politically is the nature of opposition from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and its left partners whose bloc of 61 MPs provide life support for the UPA government. The CPI(M) has made it clear that it has serious problems with some of the specifics of the 123 read along with the Hyde Act and has asked the government not to go ahead even with the next step towards operationalisation. But its larger political objection is that the nuclear deal is part of a strategic alliance with the U.S. encompassing political, economic, and military aspects; and therefore has “adverse consequences for an independent foreign policy, sovereignty, and the economic interests of the people.” And the Manmohan Singh regime knows it will get no quarter from the recently formed ‘third force’ bloc, the UNPA. So for reasons analogous to why a country is not a company, this minority government must understand the difference between economic and technical analysis — which, in the eyes of critics, basically relies on showing how nuclear power’s 3 per cent contribution to India’s overall energy production can be raised to 7 per cent by 2020 — and what makes for sustainable political success. Non-transparency, which has been in evidence for much of the time this nuclear deal has been in process, has taken its toll of political and public support; and unprincipled compromises such as the U.S.-coerced ganging up against Iran in the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency and deepening military relations with the U.S. have had their influence on political perceptions of the 123 agreement. The way to resolve the present political crisis is for the UPA government to put the 123 on hold, and for the Congress party and its allies to persuade Prime Minister Singh, who continues to command wide respect in India and abroad, not to be inflexible. The government can pursue the deal by scheduling an earnest round of all-party discussions, which must take in objections, apprehensions, reservations, and questions relating to the nuclear deal that have come from all serious quarters. False notions of prestige and credibility, within India and internationally, must not be allowed to come in the way of this larger political necessity. There is nothing sacrosanct about the timeline indicated for the final three steps in the nuclear deal. President Bill Clinton did not resign or even go into a deep sulk when one of his key projects, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, was rejected 51-48 by the U.S. Senate in October 1999. The CTBT — which opened for signature more than a decade ago and has been signed by 177 countries and ratified by 139 of them — has not yet been enabled to enter into force but there are hopes of reviving it. Heavens will not fall if the 123 agreement is put on hold and all the issues opened up for discussion. There is a risk that it may fall by the wayside but that is clearly worth taking, especially if the risk is measured against the virtual certainty of the nuclear deal being buried if the UPA government falls. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. ***************************************************************** 22 The Hindu: I do not see an ultimatum to Government - Pranab Sunday, Aug 19, 2007 Special Correspondent NEW DELHI: Reacting to the Polit Bureau statement of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Pranab Mukherjee told a group of journalists here on Saturday that he did not see it as an ultimatum to the government. Asked if the statement contained an implicit withdrawal threat — “scrap the deal or we withdraw support” — the Minister for External Affairs said “withdrawal of support never came up at any time at any level during our many discussions with the Left. It is not in the text of the statement either. If they mean it, they will say it.” Mr. Mukherjee admitted that “there are genuine differences between our approach and theirs.” Mr. Mukherjee, who talked to Sitaram Yechury soon after the CPI(M)’s Polit Bureau meeting, said the CPI(M) was specific in asking the government not to proceed to the next step in the Indo-U.S. deal. “They are asking us not go to the IAEA.” The Minister refused to discuss the options before the government but said it would have to take into account all aspects, including holding consultations within the Congress core group and with partners in the United Progressive Alliance, before taking a decision. Mr. Mukherjee said there was a divergence of perception between the government and the Left on the Hyde Act as well as operationalisation of the deal. The government was of the view that the provisions of the Hyde Act were not binding on India, but the CPI(M) saw the 123 in the light of the Act. In the government’s opinion the deal would only become operational after it has crossed “three more hurdles”: negotiations with the IAEA, negotiations with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and ratification by the U.S. Congress. The Left, on the other hand, viewed the next step, that is negotiations with the IAEA, as amounting to “operationalising the deal.” Mr. Mukherjee noted that the Left had always been “anti-America” and had protested the Indo-U.S. joint military air and naval exercises. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. ***************************************************************** 23 The Hindu: Hectic efforts on to resolve crisis over nuke deal Sunday, August 19, 2007 : 1550 Hrs New Delhi, Aug. 19 (PTI): Hectic efforts were on today to resolve the crisis sparked by the Left ultimatum to the government not to operationalise the Indo-US nuclear deal or face serious consequences. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee after which the Left leader indicated that no compromise formula has emerged so far. "There is no compromise formula. It depends on the government what to decide," Yechury told reporters after the meeting. As part of the activities to find a way out, Congress President Sonia Gandhi will chair a meeting of the party's Core Group ahead of a meeting of UPA leaders to discuss the fallout of the Left threat Mukherjee, who has emerged as the key troubleshooter for the government on the issue, said "we are making serious efforts....both sides are engaged in talks on various fronts." He said the government was assessing the situation and examining all angles. "Let us see how we can proceed," he told reporters. Earlier, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and SP leader Amar Singh spoke over the phone with CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and are understood to have discussed the emerging political situation in the wake of the Left's threat of "serious consequence" to the government if it went ahead with the deal. Ahead of the UPA meeting to discuss ways and means to tackle the situation created in the wake of the Left ultimatum, the top brass of the Congress including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gandhi will hold deliberations on the nuclear deal. The Left parties -- CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc -- which are extending crucial outside support to the UPA coalition have virtually put the government on notice with the demand that further action on operationalisation of the 123 Agreement including talks with IAEA and Nuclear Suppliers Group, should not be taken up. The Left leaders are expected to meet tomorrow to study the government response on their position against implementation of the civilian nuclear deal which was conveyed by CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat to the Prime Minister yesterday. Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Telugu Desam Party President Chandrababu Naidu today spoke to Karat over the phone and are understood to have discussed the political situation. The Samajwadi Party has already made known its opposition to the nuclear deal and its members stalled the proceedings in Parliament last week.The TDP has sought an explantion from the Prime Minister on the issue during the ongoing session. Left parties to meet tomorrow Third Front leaders speak to CPI(M) leader Trinamool Congress to oppose nuclear deal CPI(M) for a mechanism to evaluate implications of Hyde Act Congress not wary of elections: Digvijay UPA leaders to meet today Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. ***************************************************************** 24 The Hindu: Don't go ahead with nuclear deal - CPI(M) Sunday, Aug 19, 2007 Special Correspondent & PTI Karat cites adverse effects for foreign policy, sovereignty & economic interests and indicates it is for Congress to decide what next — Photo: Kamal Narang Strong opposition: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat explains at a New Delhi press conference why the 123 agreement with the United States should not be operationalised. NEW DELHI: The crisis for the United Progressive Alliance government over the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear deal deepened on Saturday, with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) demanding that the government should not proceed even a step further with the 123 agreement. The party on whose support the government depends for its survival cited the “widespread opposition” to the agreement and the fact that “a majority in Parliament do not support” it. It said the matter, “which will have serious consequences for the government and the people,” was for the Congress leadership to decide. The party’s view, finalised at the end of a two-day Polit Bureau meeting, was conveyed to the Congress leadership — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee — by CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat and Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, M.P., at a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Race Course Road residence. After the meeting, Mr. Karat addressed a crowded press conference. He read out the one- page resolution adopted unanimously by the Polit Bureau. Asked whether the Left parties would withdraw support, Mr. Karat answered: “we have conveyed to the Congress leadership our concerns and it depends on what they decide.” “Not a narrow party issue” Responding to another question, Mr. Karat said the nuclear deal with the U.S. should not be seen as a “narrow party issue” as it was “a long-term agreement and we are going to have safeguards in perpetuity.” Asked whether, in the context of the Prime Minister’s challenge to the Left parties to withdraw support, he had suggested that Dr. Manmohan Singh should quit, Mr. Karat responded: “I have not suggested anything. I have suggested, ‘Don’t take the next step.’” He summed up the CPI(M)’s position thus: “So we are saying, ‘Don’t proceed, discuss the matter, take into account all the objections and concerns, and then we can take a decision.’” Noting that the government was aware of the strong reservations on the nuclear deal by a majority in Parliament, Mr. Karat asserted that “the democratic way will be to put on hold the agreement till the doubts and apprehensions are clarified.” The CPI(M) Polit Bureau resolution has specifically demanded that “till all the objections are considered and the implications of the Hyde Act evaluated, the government should not take the next step with regard to negotiating a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.” “We hope they will consider” Mr. Karat explained that his party’s views on any strategic alliance with the U.S. were well known “but more important than that…we told the Congress leadership that they historically played a role on having a consensus on foreign policy.” Pointing out that in the past the Left supported the government’s independent foreign policy, he added: “So we have urged the Congress leadership to seriously consider what our Polit Bureau has said and we hope they will discuss the matter and take an appropriate decision and get back to us. We have to wait for their decision.” In its resolution, the Polit Bureau explained its opposition thus: “The agreement should be seen in the light of the Hyde Act passed by the U.S. Congress and in the context of the wider implications of India being bound into a strategic alliance with the U.S. and its adverse consequences for an independent foreign policy, sovereignty and the economic interests of the people. The Polit Bureau is of the firm opinion that going ahead with this agreement will not serve India’s interests.” While fully endorsing the stand taken by the Left parties on the agreement for nuclear cooperation with the U.S., the Polit Bureau decided “to take the issue of the nuclear agreement and the dangers of the strategic alliance with the United States to the people through a nationwide mass campaign.” Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 25 Rutland Herald: Strike at Yankee averted August 18, 2007 The Associated Press BRATTLEBORO — A union representing Vermont Yankee nuclear plant workers has tentatively agreed to a contract, averting the possibility of a strike. About 230 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers will vote Tuesday on the contract offer, which would replace one that expires Sunday. Union members are expected to review the proposal over the weekend before attending an informational meeting with union representatives and plant officials Monday. The vote is set for the next day. "We are delighted to have reached a tentative agreement with the bargaining unit and will eagerly await the vote by union members," said Larry Smith, spokesman for Vermont Yankee. The existing contract will be extended through midnight Tuesday to allow for the vote. The terms of the new one, which was reached by negotiators late Thursday, were not released. "The union would not have walked away from the table, bringing this package to the membership, if we didn't believe what was negotiated is beneficial to them and if we didn't believe it was a fair agreement," said IBEW representative George Clain. Some details still must be addressed, but they won't stand in the way of the contract, he said. "We went into this with the deepest respect for our work force," said Smith. "Our intent all along has been to bargain in good faith." © 2007 Rutland Herald ***************************************************************** 26 Tennessean: Hot weather forces partial shutdown of TVA nuclear plant - Nashville, Tennessee - Saturday, 08/18/07 - Tennessean.com Plant not designed to run in hot temperatures says spokesman By JAY REEVES Associated Press Writer BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- One reactor at a north Alabama nuclear plant was idle Friday and two others operated at reduced power because of the record-breaking heat wave, an outage that an industry watchdog said could be a sign of trouble for nuclear energy in a warming climate. The Tennessee Valley Authority said it shut down the Unit 2 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant and scaled back operations 25 percent at the plant's other two reactors because of overheated water in the Tennessee River, which is used to cool the plant. "This all comes down to the drought and the hot weather," said plant spokesman Jason Huffine. Industry watchdog David Lochbaum said the shutdown highlights a problem for nuclear power even as it is touted as environmentally friendly by President Bush, who visited Browns Ferry in June. "This is an unforeseen impact of global warming. These plants don't do very well in extremely hot weather," said Lochbaum, a former Browns Ferry engineer now with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington. Ken Clark, a spokesman with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Atlanta, said such shutdowns were rare but had occurred elsewhere. Air temperatures soared to 105 degrees in north Alabama Thursday afternoon. Around that time, the temperature of the water downstream from the plant reached 90 degrees, the limit set by environmental regulators. TVA spokesman John Moulton said operations were scaled back because of the high temperature of the water. Unit 2 was shut down, and Units 1 and 3 were reduced to 75 percent of their capacity. Cutting back on power production reduces the temperature of the water discharged by the plant into the river, and that helps keep the river cooler, said Moulton. "We did the environmentally responsible thing and limited operations," said Huffine. Units 1 and 3 were being taken back to near full power on Friday to meet power demand, he said, but Unit 2 remained idle. Lochbaum said Browns Ferry can't efficiently turn water into steam or return it to its liquid form if its temperature is above 90 degrees. "There's not a reactor safety issue, there's an economic issue," he said. "These plants were designed for cooler temperatures. If something drives those up -- whether it's global warming or whatever -- you have to account for that." The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded earlier this year that global temperatures could rise as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and that climate change already is affecting animal and plant life. A TVA study from 2005 predicted that operations at Browns Ferry would have to be scaled back once every three to five years and could be completely shut down because of overheated discharge water. Alabama has had 11 straight days with triple-digit temperatures, breaking records that dated back to 1881 in some areas. Browns Ferry is located about 95 miles north of Birmingham. Bush visited the plant in June after operators restarted Unit 1, marking the first time in 22 years that all three of its reactors were on line at the time time. They had been shut down amid safety problems. Copyright © 2007, tennessean.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 27 The Hindu: 'China, Pak discussing nuclear deal to counter Indo-US pact' Sunday, August 19, 2007 : 1210 Hrs Beijing, Aug. 19 (PTI): China and its "all-weather" ally Pakistan are discussing an agreement similar to the one India has reached with the US on the civilian nuclear cooperation to maintain the regional security balance, sources said here today. Even as the two old allies discuss a nuclear deal, China's reservations over the Indo-US deal and the boundary issue may be clouding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's maiden visit to Beijing, which is likely to take place towards the end of the year, they said. Since Pakistan has pleaded with China at the highest level not to let it down in the nuclear balance with India, Beijing is apparently working out a nuclear deal with Islamabad, in case the Indo-US nuclear agreement is okayed by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the sources told PTI here preferring anonymity. While China was apparently taken aback by the finalisation of the 123 Agreement, Beijing now hopes that the opposition within India itself will wreck the Indo-US nuclear deal, the sources said. At the same time, China is making active preparations for a counter-deal involving Pakistan, they said, while taking note of the recent spate of critical reports on the Indo-US nuclear agreement in the official Chinese media. The China-Pakistan defence ties and the implications of the Indo-US deal on Beijing and Islamabad came up for detailed discussions here this month when Chairman of Pakistan's Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Gen Ehsan Ul Haq, visited Beijing. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 28 Bennington Banner: Yankee Rowe decommissioning complete BENNINGTON, VT BOB AUDETTE, Brattleboro Reformer Article Launched: 08/18/2007 02:59:21 AM EDT BRATTLEBORO ? The decommissioning of New England's first nuclear power plant ? the nation's third ? is complete, announced the Nuclear Regulatory Commission late Friday. The plant, which operated for 31 years, was shut down in 1992 and was located on the Deerfield River in Rowe, Mass., just across the state line from Whitingham. "The land ... is below NRC safety requirements that allow a maximum radiation dose of 25 millirems per year from residual contamination," wrote the NRC in a press release. According to the NRC, the average U.S. citizen receives 360 millirems from natural and manmade sources each year. Yankee Rowe nuclear power plant occupied 1,800 acres in the small town of Rowe, though only a small portion of the land was affected by the decommissioning, which included the removal of all plant buildings from the site, which has been remediated and restored, according to a Yankee Atomic Electric Co. press release. "Going forward, Yankee's mission and focus will be the safe storage of the plant's spent nuclear fuel and Greater than Class C waste at the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation until the U.S. Department of Energy meets it's statutory and contractual obligation to remove the material," said Yankee Atomic President and CEO Wayne Norton, in the press release. No decision As far as the future of the site is concerned, Yankee Atomic has made no decision, though Rowe Select Board Chairwoman Myra Carlow said she recently learned Yankee Atomic had hired a consultancy to help it decide what to do with the land. "We'd love to have them offer to give it to us again," said Carlow, an idea Yankee Atomic floated about two years ago before liability insurance issues nixed the idea. She said most people in Rowe would like the land to stay the way it is ? as woodlands ? adding that Rowe is tiny and rural. "We like that." The 167-megawatt electric pressurized-water reactor is one of 28 reactors either shut down or decommissioned in the United States since nuclear power was introduced as a major power source for the country. It was shut down in response to NRC concern about the safety of the plant's reactor vessel, said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan. "After conducting a study that showed that the costs of restarting the plant and operating it through the remainder of its license exceeded the value of the energy the plant could produce, Yankee's board of directors voted to close the plant permanently," wrote Sheehan, in an e-mail to the Reformer. In 1995, the NRC accepted Yankee Rowe's decommissioning plan and in June 2003, the site's dry cask storage facility was declared fully operational after the last container of spent fuel was transferred out of wet storage. The fuel storage facility, which takes up about 80 acres, is to be operated by Yankee Atomic, a consortium of power companies ? including New England Power, Connecticut Light and Power, Boston Edison, Central Maine, Public Service of New Hampshire, Central Vermont Public Service Corp. and the Western Massachusetts Electric Co. ? that now owns the land. Fifteen canisters of spent fuel and one container of "Greater Than Class C" waste is stored on site at the dry cask facility. The 15 canisters of spent fuel are expected to be safe within 100 years, according to the NRC. GTCC waste is considered safe after 500 years and includes activated metal hardware such as nuclear power reactor control rods, spent fuel disassembly hardware, ion exchange resins, filters, evaporator residues, moisture and density gauges and contaminated trash. The plant's steam generators were shipped to a low-level radioactive waste facility in Barnwell, N.C., in November 1993. The reactor vessel itself was shipped to Barnwell in April 1997, sealed in concrete and buried. The decommissioning, which took more than a decade to complete, was not without problems. In 1999, 40 shield blocks from within the reactor support structure were removed, sand blasted and used by a private land owner to reinforce the banks of the Deerfield River in Readsboro. Prior to the blocks being released for private use, an "analyses of the radionuclide content of concrete within the reactor support structure indicated values less than the minimum detectable activity," wrote the NRC in a finding of no significant environmental impact related to the blocks. In 2004, the concrete blocks were tested again and detectable levels of two radioactive isotopes were measured, but in 2006 the NRC recommended leaving the blocks on the river. "Based upon the non-radiological risks associated with removing and returning the shield blocks back to the Yankee Rowe site, the preference of the property owner to keep the wall intact, and a small estimated dose to the public, the licensee has requested to allow the shield blocks to remain in place," wrote the NRC in its 2006 finding. In February 2005, the Vermont Department of Health performed its own tests, eventually agreeing with the NRC's finding. ***************************************************************** 29 Xinhua: China begins construction of nuclear power station www.chinaview.cn 2007-08-18 12:29:20 Print DALIAN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- China on Saturday began construction of the main body of a nuclear power station in Dalian, Liaoning province, the first nuclear power station in northeast China. The Hongyanhe nuclear power station is designed to have six generating units of million-kilowatt class. The first phase of the project consists of four generating units. The first unit, now being built, is expected to start commercial operation in 2012. It will be joined by the other three units in 2014, when annual electricity output of the station will reach 30 billion kwh. The whole project will cost an estimated 50 billion yuan (6.6 billion U.S. dollars). ***************************************************************** 30 Reuters: Govt buys time over nuclear deal Sun Aug 19, 2007 3:25PM IST By Y.P. Rajesh NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian communists held crisis talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday before issuing a fresh warning to the government not to pursue a nuclear energy deal with the United States. The 60 MPs of the four communist parties ensure the survival of the government. They had been expected to boycott a panel formed to liaise between them and the ruling coalition or switch to offering only conditional support to protest against the deal. But Singh and Sonia Gandhi, head of his ruling Congress party, apparently bought time during a meeting with communist leaders after the end of a two-day politburo meeting. "Given the widespread opposition to the agreement and the fact that a majority in parliament do not support the nuclear cooperation deal, the government should not proceed further with the agreement," the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M), said in a statement. "It is for the Congress leadership to decide on the matter which will have serious consequences for the government and the country." Singh, Gandhi and other Congress leaders held talks after the communists' statement. There was no word on the outcome. Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi sought to play down his party's differences with the left. Even on a "hyperactive" day such as Saturday, the two sides were able to talk to each other and "there is no reason to suppose why that engagement will not intensify in the next few days and some very simple solution will come out", he told the NDTV news channel. CONSENSUS SOUGHT The deal aims to give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in three decades despite New Delhi having tested nuclear weapons and not having signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Critics, including the Hindu nationalist opposition, say it will eventually hurt India's nuclear security because of U.S. laws on nuclear trade governing the pact. The communists say it would also impose American hegemony. India must negotiate an inspection regime for its civil nuclear facilities with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and win approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group before nuclear commerce can begin. Prakash Karat, general-secretary of the CPI (M) -- the largest of the four left parties in parliament -- said he had urged the government and the ruling party not to pursue steps such as negotiating the IAEA safeguards. "We realise that the bilateral agreement is done," Karat told a news conference referring to the India-U.S. pact finalised last month. "There are two or three other steps they have to take to operationalise it. We are saying don't operationalise it ... discuss the matter, take into account all the objections and concerns and then take a decision." (Additional reporting by Rajkumar Ray) ***************************************************************** 31 NWAnews.com: Ex-nuclear plant gathers dust Northwest Arkansas' News Source BY ALEX DANIELS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Posted on Sunday, August 19, 2007 STRICKLER — Eighteen miles south of Fayetteville, on the edge of the Ozark National Forest, sits a dilapidated monument to both the promise of nuclear energy and the problems it can create. An egg-shaped dome rises six stories above the valley floor. A smokestack designed to disperse radioactive material in case of emergency reaches even higher. Creeping rust has gained more than a foothold. More than 30 years ago, men inside the dome purposefully set off some daring chain reactions. They brought the core of a reactor to the brink of overheating and then cooled it down again, to test whether they could place a bridle on nuclear power when the plant was running full-tilt. Satisfied with their tests, the consortium of power companies that built the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor, or SEFOR, vacated the plant in 1972, three years after it was built. The University of Arkansas took it over in 1975. The reactor has been dormant ever since, a decaying remnant of the Nuclear Age. While SEFOR rusted, the nuclear industry has primed for a rebirth. Once viewed as a solution for the nation’s energy needs, a lack of support for nuclear power stopped it in its infancy. High-profile accidents at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island plant in 1979 and at Ukraine’s Chernobyl plant in 1986, concerns about the spread of nuclear weapons and the lack of a plan for disposal of nuclear waste combined to sour public enthusiasm for splitting the atom. Utilities haven’t completed a new nuclear plant since 1996, when the Tennessee Valley Authority switched on its Watts Bar 1 plant. The 103 reactors in the United States that were built before nuclear power fell out of favor generate about 20 percent of the nation’s electricity. That number hasn’t really changed in 20 years. Since 2000, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted 44 reactors, including the two in Russellville run by Entergy Corp., 20-year extensions to their original 40-year licenses. “In the late ’ 90 s there was an expectation that a large number of plants would be closed at the end of their license,” said Alex Flint, vice president of governmental affairs at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry lobbying group. “Now, we assume the majority of reactors will be relicensed.” Not only are existing reactors getting a second life, but utility companies are getting ready to break ground on new plants. In the past two years, 17 utility companies have announced plans to build 33 reactors. Flint predicts five new announcements by the end of the year, and a “similar number” in 2008. Why are nuclear plants back on the drawing board ? For one thing, financial incentives offered by the federal government and rising naturalgas prices have made the huge expense of constructing a nuclear plant less daunting. So has a streamlined regulatory process for the licensing of new plants. And as Congress ponders carbon emissions and global warming, nuclear power grows more attractive. Nuclear reactors generate far less carbon than coal-burning plants. It is far from clear what, if anything, Congress will do on climate-change legislation. A tax on carbon emissions, which is a long shot, or a cap on emissions would make nuclear reactors a viable option for utilities trying to reduce pollution. But Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear, a Takoma Park, Md., group that advocates a nuclear ban, argues that the nuclear industry would have to grow substantially throughout the world to have any impact on global warming. That, he says, is too great a risk. “If we spread nuclear power abroad to boil water, the flip side of that coin is nuclear weapons,” he says. “We’d be exchanging global warming for nuclear winter.” Arkansas’ Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said she doesn’t understand proponents of energy independence and climate-change legislation who “in the same breath oppose nuclear power. You have to see it as part of the equation.” The Bush administration has aggressively promoted the expansion of nuclear energy. The Department of Energy has pushed for development of reactors that can use recycled nuclear fuel, encouraged the use of nuclear power abroad and tried to figure out how to dispose of nuclear waste. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act directed the energy department to construct an underground repository for nuclear waste. It took 20 years to agree on a site, Yucca Mountain in Nevada. And the department has not yet demonstrated that the site would be safe. ABSORBING RISK In the 2005 Energy Policy Act, Congress signaled its interest in nuclear power by including $ 13 billion in incentives for the industry. New spending in the act included risk insurance and loan guarantees for the construction of new plants. It included tax credits of 1. 8 cents for each kilowatt-hour of power generated in a plant’s first eight years of operation. And the law lowered from 35 percent to 20 percent the tax rate on investment gains utilities make in funds they must set aside to decommission plants. Public Citizen, the Washington consumer-advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, estimates that last item will save the industry $ 1. 3 billion. “These are cradle-to-grave subsidies,” says Michele Boyd, an energy specialist with the group. Particularly galling, Boyd says, is the fact that taxpayers would pay for risk insurance covering construction stoppages due to regulatory hurdles or litigation, and for loan guarantees on what she considers a risky construction process. “Taxpayers should not be paying the industry for this,” she says. Randy Hutchinson, senior vice president for nuclear-business development at Entergy, contends risk insurance and a whittled-down licensing process are necessary, because nuclear opponents can stall construction for months, if not years. When that happens, “everything stops, except the interest on your construction loan.” Before it adjourned for its August recess, Congress was poised to increase loan guarantees for the construction of “clean” energy plants, which would include nuclear sites. President Bush’s budget proposal set aside $ 4 billion for the purpose. But the Senate version of the fiscal 2008 energy spending bill would not put a limit on loan guarantees. The nuclear industry wants $ 40 billion to $ 50 billion in guarantees over the next two years. According to a 2003 report by the Congressional Budget Office, the risk of default on construction loans would exceed 50 percent because high construction costs would make it difficult to operate the plant and make a profit and because the technology planned in the new facilities is relatively untested. Flint, of the Nuclear Energy Institute, says potential investors are skittish without guarantees that their money won’t disappear. FAYETTEVILLE EXPERIMENT Meanwhile, SEFOR sits, discarded by the nuclear industry and shunned by the government that ushered in its creation. It has been part of Joann Pennington’s life since her late husband worked as a guard there. She lives at the long-shuttered visitors center in exchange for mowing the grass and keeping watch against intruders. The visitor center’s back deck overlooks the reactor dome. Pennington has hung plastic snakes from the deck roof to ward off birds. Across the valley at the dome, real snakes are a problem when she cuts the grass, as are black wasps. The snakes and the wasps, not to mention the double cordon of razor wire fence, would seem to tell interlopers: Stay away. But to Pennington, 66, the dome is just a benign constant in the landscape. Rarely, a driver will take the curve in the road by the plant too fast and knock out part of the fence. Or a former worker will stop by to snap pictures. “They don’t hardly come by anymore,” she says. One of those former workers, Louis Mansur, served as an intern with the U. S. Atomic Energy Com- Copyright © 2001-2007 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights ***************************************************************** 32 IAEA: IAEA Issues Report on Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Plant Earthquake damage at Japanese nuclear station less than expected, report says Staff Report 17 August 2007 The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan. (Credit: IAEA) Earthquake damage to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station on 16 July appears to be limited and less than expected, according to an IAEA expert report released today and submitted to the Japanese authorities. Although it appears that the earthquake of 16 July 2007 significantly exceeded the level of the seismic input taken into account in the design of the plant, the installation behaved in a safe manner, during and after the earthquake. In particular, the automatic shutdown of the reactors of Units 3, 4 and 7, which were at full power, and of the reactor of Unit 2, which was in the start up state, were performed successfully. According to the report's findings, this is probably due to the conservatisms introduced at different stages of the design process, the so-called 'design safety margins'. "The combined effects of these conservatisms were apparently sufficient to compensate for uncertainties in the data and methods available at the time of the design of the plant, which led to the underestimation of the original seismic input", it is said. "Safety related structures, systems and components of the plant seem to be in a general condition, much better than might be expected for such a strong earthquake, and there is no visible significant damage," the report states. The report summarizes findings of an IAEA expert team during a four-day physical examination of the plant's seven units and other facilities, as well as analysis of instrument logs and other records from the time of the event. The expert mission took place from 6-10 August at the invitation of the Japanese government. In the report, the IAEA experts noted the Japanese authorities' open cooperation. "This search for openness was shared by all the individuals with whom the team interacted", it is stated in the report. The Director General of the IAEA, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, had previously welcomed the cooperation and transparency the team had received from the Japanese authorities. While the plant's nuclear components appear to be in a satisfactory state, the IAEA team has also reported that "non-safety related structures, systems and components were affected by significant damage such as soil and anchorage failures and oil leakages." In the IAEA report it is suggested that a re-evaluation of the seismic safety the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP needs to be done taking into account the lessons learned from the Niigataken Chuetsu-Oki earthquake, using updated criteria and methods. In particular, detailed geophysical investigations are foreseen both on land and offshore in order to define the new seismic input to the plants. These investigations, it is stated in the report, should address the issue of the potential existence of active faults underneath the site. Another consideration is the possibility that the long-term operation of components could be affected by hidden damage from the earthquake. Thus, the potential interaction between large seismic events and accelerated ageing may be an important topic to consider in future inspection programmes. In addition to the more detailed and comprehensive inspections and analyses to be performed by the Japanese authorities and their commitment to present a report at the Regulator's Meeting during the 51st IAEA General Conference in September 2007, the IAEA will follow this mission with extensive international cooperation, including technical assessments and studies, as well as communicating the findings and lessons learned to nuclear operators, regulators and technical support organisations. Background The IAEA Expert Mission was conducted at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant following the 16 July earthquake upon request from the Government of Japan. The objective was to conduct a fact-finding mission and to identify the preliminary lessons learned that might have implications for the international nuclear safety regime. Analyses of safety events at nuclear facilities are routinely communicated to other nuclear operators and nuclear regulators, so that lessons learned can be incorporated where relevant at other plants. An opportunity for such feedback on the earthquake that affected the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant will occur in September, when Japan will present a report on the event to a Senior Regulators Meeting at the IAEA General Conference. With a total of 7,965MW net installed capacity and occupying a surface of 4.2 square kilometres, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility is the largest nuclear power plant in the world. The plant is run by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), one of the world's largest utilities. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: ***************************************************************** 33 Post-Standard: Nine Mile Point 2 reduces power - Syracuse.com Posted by Charles McChesney August 17, 2007 8:37PM Categories: Breaking News, Business News, Oswego County, Regional News A fuel bundle may be leaking at Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station Unit 2. According to plant officials and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, chemistry samples indicated that one of the thousands of fuel rods that contain the fuel pellets that power the plant may have a small hole. "The plant continues to be operate safely," said plant spokeswoman Jill Lyon. "This isn't posing any threat to public health." Power at the plant was reduced from 100 percent to 90 percent today, Lyon said. If it turns out there is a leak, control rods will be inserted to isolate the troubled bundle. "Based on past practice within the industry, that typically restores your chemistry to normal," Lyon said. " NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the commission's resident inspectors are closely following the situation. "They don't know for a fact that they have a leaker at this point," Sheehan said tonight. © 2007 Syracuse Online, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 34 Japan Times: IAEA: No significant damage at nuke plant japantimes.co.jp Web Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007 VIENNA (Kyodo) No visible significant damage has been found at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, but a detailed examination should continue, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a report released Friday The quake far exceeded the level of seismic activity accounted for in the plant's design, the report says, but the installation operated in a safe manner during and after the quake. In particular, the No. 3, 4 and 7 reactors, which were running at full power, shut down automatically, as did the No. 2 reactor, which was undergoing startup procedures. "The combined effects of these conservatisms were apparently sufficient to compensate for uncertainties in the data and methods available at the time of the design of the plant, which led to the underestimation of the original seismic input," the report says. "Safety related structures, systems and components of the plant seem to be in a general condition, much better than might be expected for such a strong earthquake, and there is no visible significant damage," it adds. The report summarizes findings of an IAEA expert team that conducted a four-day physical examination of the plant's seven reactors and other facilities, as well as analysis of instrument logs and other records from the time of the event. The inspection took place Aug. 6 to 10 at the invitation of the government. While the plant's nuclear components appear to be in a satisfactory state, the IAEA team has also reported that "nonsafety related structures, systems and components were affected by significant damage such as soil and anchorage failures and oil leakages." The IAEA report suggests that "a re-evaluation of the seismic safety the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant needs to be done taking into account the lessons learned from the Niigataken Chuetsu-Oki earthquake, using updated criteria and methods. "In particular, detailed geophysical investigations are foreseen both on land and offshore in order to define the new seismic input to the plants. These investigations, it is stated in the report, should address the issue of the potential existence of active faults underneath the site," the report says. "Another consideration is the possibility that the long-term operation of components could be affected by hidden damage from the earthquake. Thus, the potential interaction between large seismic events and accelerated aging may be an important topic to consider in future inspection programs. "In addition to the more detailed and comprehensive inspections and analyses to be performed by the Japanese authorities and their commitment to present a report at the Regulator's Meeting during the 51st IAEA General Conference in September 2007, the IAEA will follow this mission with extensive international cooperation, including technical assessments and studies" as well as communicating the findings and lessons learned to nuclear operators, regulators and technical support organizations," the report says. With a net capacity of 7,965 megawatts and occupying 4.2 sq. km, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility is the largest nuclear power plant in the world. The Japan Times ***************************************************************** 35 TheDay.com: Region Should Benefit From Nuclear Plants New London Day Sunday, Aug 19, 2007 It is grim that The Day's editorial board accepts the obstructionism of anti-nuclear activists. “Nuclear power, once the brave hope of the region for lower-cost power generation” has been driven “out of favor” by successful fear mongering. (“The grim energy reality,” Aug. 14.) The board accepts the prognostications of the Independent Systems Operator New England (ISO-NE), which was instrumental in adding our expensive natural-gas-powered power stations for their “environmentally sound” benefits. Half of Connecticut's electricity usage could be served by low-cost output of the nuclear Millstone Plant if ISO-NE didn't export it to the rest of New England. (Ask ISO-NE's Gordon van Welled to confirm this. Ask him if other areas of the country will beat New England to the environmental and cost benefits of the first new nuclear plants to be constructed since the '70s.) At least ask ISO-NE to dispatch cheap Millstone electricity to Connecticut at a regulated price determined by an appropriate mark-up on the much lower costs of the nuclear electricity as compared to natural gas. Why shouldn't we who bear the “risks” of a nuclear plant also derive the benefits of lower production costs? The editorial board of The Day doesn't have the spine to confront the “Gore activists” with the solution to global warming, for independence from imported oil and for unilateral compliance with the goals of Kyoto. Ask that Mr. Gordon van Welled require that all new base-load power plants in ISO-NE be nuclear. I object to Connecticut buying electricity through middlemen and hedge funds at the price of our most expensive electricity, that produced by the ISO-New England's choice to power us by natural-gas-generated electricity. At least have the judgment not to quote those who have demonstrated lack of foresight and spine. John A. Alexander Old Lyme | © 1998-2007 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 36 KGBT 4: West Texas, UT system pushing for first-of-a-kind reactor in U.S. TV Harlingen, TX: Associated Press - August 19, 2007 1:15 PM ET ANDREWS, Texas (AP) - The small, remote West Texas town of Andrews grew out of an oil boom decades ago. Now, it wants to leap into the nuclear age. It's years from becoming reality, but town leaders are seeking a proposed, state-of-the-art nuclear reactor -- not as a power source, but as part of an energy research complex that could lead to advances in hydrogen power. The reactor would be the first built on U.S. soil in 30 years. The people behind the plan include the University of Texas System, several UT system schools, local governments and private industry. Together, they hope to build the nation's first reactor of its kind in Andrews County, west of the city. The county is already home to a low-level nuclear waste processing and storage site operated by a Dallas-based company. City manager Glen Hackler says the proposed facility is expected to cost about $500 million and be completed by 2012. He says it would bring scientists and researchers from around the world to Andrews. Andrews is a town of about 10,000 residents situated about 30 miles from the New Mexico border. The boom that gave birth to the city during the late 1930s went bust in the 1980s when oil prices plummeted to about $8 a barrel. About 67% of the town's residents surveyed either favored or strongly favored the project, with only 10% opposed or strongly opposed. On the Net: Preconceptual Design: http://www.utsystem.edu/news/2007/PCD.pdf Facility Information: http://www.utpb.edu/ht3r/index.htm All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KGBT, a Barrington Broadcasting Group LLC. ***************************************************************** 37 KGBT 4: Proposed nuclear research facility at a glance TV Harlingen, TX: Associated Press - August 19, 2007 1:15 PM ET ANDREWS, Texas (AP) - Supporters of a proposal to build the High Temperature Teaching and Test Reactor Energy Research Facility in Andrews County say it would: Educate and train the next generation of scientists and engineers, providing them with state-of-the-art expertise in the latest nuclear materials and process technologies. Perform basic and applied nuclear research. Support the engineering, design, licensing, construction and operation of the Department of Energy's Next Generation Nuclear Plant. Optimize the economic high-temperature production of hydrogen, synthetic fuels and other materials. Develop and test new materials that can operate at temperatures at and above 950 degrees centigrade. Increase the efficiency of electricity production in power plants. Source: The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, http://www.utpb.edu/ht3r/description.htm All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KGBT, a Barrington Broadcasting Group LLC. ***************************************************************** 38 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Nuke doubts still at the core - By Bonnie Pfister TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, August 19, 2007 The renewed push for nuclear energy may be an economic boon to Western Pennsylvania, as reactor designer Westinghouse Electric Co. hires hundreds of high-end staffers. But for many people, serious doubts about the technology remain. Reactors cost billions to construct and insure, with taxpayers picking up a large share of tab. They burn cleaner than coal-fired plants and with a smaller volume of waste, but issues surrounding transport and long-term storage of radioactive material remain unresolved. Some fear that terrorists could target domestic reactors -- or divert nuclear waste abroad for weapons. And fires and shutdowns last month in Japan and Germany underscore safety concerns about the reactors themselves. A July 16 earthquake on Japan's western coast sparked a reactor transformer fire and leak of radioactive water. Officials say the 22-year-old facility may have been unknowingly been built atop an active seismic fault. Regulatory records show at least four other serious incidents worldwide, including a radiation release, since 2001: in Bulgaria, Hungary, Sweden and Taiwan. "Even in Japan, with a very mature nuclear industry, these problems exist," said Josh Dorner, spokesman for the Sierra Club. While some environmental groups are taking a second look at nuclear because of concerns about global warming, the Sierra Club remains opposed. Subsidies to U.S. companies help them expand abroad where, Dorner said, regulation is often lax and lines are more easily blurred between civilian and military uses of nuclear material. "Imagine the kind of oversight you will have with, say, 50 new reactors in Africa, or in other less-stable parts of the world," he said. Closer to home, the worst case of reactor corrosion on American soil came five years ago at a plant just 200 miles from Pittsburgh. FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse plant near Toledo was closed for two years, through March 2004, after workers found boric acid had eaten through a nearly 7-inch carbon steel reactor cap. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined that the radioactive steam could have burst through the remaining 1/2-inch stainless steel lining within as little as two months. Instead of fully investigating whether leaking acid was causing underlying damage, FirstEnergy workers for years had simply cleaned up the leak as best they could during routine refueling shutdowns, said David Lochbaum, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' nuclear safety program. The group does not oppose nuclear power, but monitors reactor safety. "But when it came time to restart the reactor they'd stop that job -- whether they were finished or not -- and start the thing back up." FirstEnergy, which operates the twin-reactor Beaver Valley plant in Shippingport, was fined $5.45 million for failing to properly maintain the reactor head over several years, as well as $28 million for covering up the leak in its NRC reports. It spent more than $600 million to replace the lid, upgrade safety and replace power promised to the grid. Spokesman Todd Schneider said safety is the top priority at all of the Akron, Ohio-based company's facilities. "The bottom line is (Davis-Besse) shut down safely," Schneider said. "The reactors are built with redundant systems in place so that if something does occur, there is another system to back it up and shut the plant down safely, if needed." The United States is home to 104 of the world's 439 nuclear reactors, and 20 percent of the nation's electricity comes from atomic energy. The last U.S. reactor was licensed in 1978 -- one year before a partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg. Storage of nuclear fuel is another concern. To date, spent nuclear fuel is cooled for at least five years in 40-foot pools of water at plant sites. After that time it may be stored in dry casks -- large steel and concrete containers that have been in use at 39 facilities, some for more than 20 years. That's because proposals from the 1980s to keep waste in a federal facility near Yucca Mountain about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas are stalled amid resistance by Nevadans, and others. "Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania would be a major transportation route for nuclear waste -- by rail, by river, by all sorts of sources," said Dr. Daniel Fine, a retired kidney specialist from New Kensington and officer with the local chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Low levels of radiation can impair fertility and fetal growth, and lead to leukemia and other cancers, he said. High-level exposure can severely damage the immune system, bone marrow and brain, or cause death. "From the public health perspective we view it as being both dirty and dangerous," Fine said. "There is no medical treatment for the effects of radiation, whether it's low-level or leaked." Fine theorized that nuclear waste transports could become targets for terrorists. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, some elected officials have called for nuclear plants to be made aircraft-proof. But while reactors are designed with several feet of concrete around them, Lochbaum said control facilities, switchyards and emergency generators are far more lightly protected -- even in new plant designs. Nuclear waste produced by overseas power plants could be attractive to those looking to build weapons of mass destruction. While President Jimmy Carter halted the reprocessing of nuclear waste domestically as an anti-proliferation move, agencies in Britain, France and Russia have continued reprocessing, said Judi Greenwald, director of Innovative Solutions at the Pew Center On Global Climate Change. Reprocessing spent fuel reduces its radioactivity, easing storage and disposal, Greenwald said -- but it also makes it easier to strip out the weapons-grade plutonium for troubling uses. Citing reports of involvement by residents of Kazakhstan in black-market sales of nuclear technologies, four anti-proliferation groups are opposing the planned sale by Toshiba Corp. of 10 percent of Westinghouse to that nation's state-run energy company, expected to be completed in September. "To some extent, people are more concerned in a post-9/11 world about this than they were before," Greenwald said. "I don't know the details of the controls in Kazakhstan, but I'm certainly among those who are nervous about reprocessing technology." Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886. Back to headlines Reproduction or reuse prohibited without written consent from Tribune-Review Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 39 NewsBlaze : NRC Releases Most of Yankee Nuclear Power Station Site The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released a majority of the Yankee Nuclear Power Station site near Rowe, Mass., for unrestricted public use. This action completes the decommissioning of the former nuclear power station portion of the site. The land, approximately 30 acres, is below NRC safety requirements that allow a maximum radiation dose of 25 millirem per year from residual contamination. (The average person in the United States receives about 300 millirem from background radiation each year.) Release of this land for unrestricted use poses no threat to public health and safety. Yankee's license still applies to the site's dry cask storage facility, where the spent nuclear fuel from the plant's 30 years of operation is safely stored, plus a small parcel of land surrounding this facility. The total land remaining under license is approximately five acres. The licensee, Yankee Atomic Electric Co., remains responsible for the security and protection of this land and the dry cask storage facility, and is required to maintain $100 million in nuclear liability insurance coverage for the facility. Yankee Nuclear Power Station began commercial operations in 1961, and ceased production Oct. 1, 1991. Yankee Atomic Electric Co. initiated decommissioning shortly thereafter. Dismantlement and decommissioning were completed in July 2007. NRC surveys verified that cleanup met the 25 millirem per year requirement. The NRC's Safety Evaluation Report of Yankee's amendment request will be available in the agency's online documents database, ADAMS, at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html, using accession number ML071830515 in the search field. Source: NRC judythpiazza@newsblaze.com Copyright © 2007, NewsBlaze, Daily News ***************************************************************** 40 AFP: Yemen says foreign firms to build nuclear reactor - Sun Aug 19, 5:13 PM ET SANAA (AFP) - Yemen's energy minister said on Sunday that international companies would build a nuclear reactor in the impoverished Arabian peninsula state, the official Saba news agency reported. "International companies will undertake building... the nuclear reactor that Yemen aspires to own for peaceful purposes of producing electricity," Mustafa Yahia Bahran said. He did not give details about the plan but said nuclear power would ensure the long-term energy security of Yemen, which has few oil deposits compared to its neighbours such as OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia. Tension is mounting in the Gulf due to the suspicion among some Western powers and their regional allies that Iran is secretly developing a nuclear weapon, an accusation Tehran strongly denies. Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has backed Iran's right to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful ends. During a visit to France in June, Saleh discussed possible cooperation over nuclear energy production with President Nicolas Sarkozy, Yemeni officials said. Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and one of the poorest countries on the planet, has been battling a number of militant attacks in recent months. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 41 Guardian Unlimited: Little Damage to Japan Nuclear Plant Saturday August 18, 2007 2:01 AM By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Key parts of a Japanese nuclear facility appear to have sustained little damage from a recent earthquake, but further observation is needed to establish long-term effects, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Friday. The magnitude-6.8 quake on July 16, which killed 11 people and injured more than 1,000, caused malfunctions and leaks at Japan's northern Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's largest in terms of capacity. ``Safety related structures, systems and components of the plant seem to be in a much better general condition than might be expected for such a strong earthquake and there is no visible significant damage,'' said a report posted on the International Atomic Energy Agency's Web site. ``However, (other) important components ... have not yet been examined and in-depth inspections are still to be performed,'' said the summary of the 47-page report, also noting ``significant damage'' to some elements not linked to the reactor or systems related to reactor safety. ``Another consideration is that long-term operation of components could be affected by hidden damage,'' said the report, saying ``more detailed and comprehensive inspections and analyses'' by Japanese experts were needed as a follow-up. Philippe Jamet, the IAEA team leader for the mission, told reporters that because of repairs and follow-up inspections it would take ``probably a year'' to get the complex running again. An IAEA experts team earlier confirmed Japanese assessments that only a very small amount of radiation was released, at levels that were well below environmental limits. On the Net: www.iaea.org Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 42 [v911t] Staging the Portland Nuke (A Comedy of Terrors) Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 11:53:46 -0500 (CDT) http://mke.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/207875.shtml Staging the Portland Nuke (A Comedy of Terrors) Captain Eric H. May, 12.08.2007 18:52 Captain Eric H. May, the Internet military intelligence writer, has written his most detailed article to date on the highly suspicious Portland Nuke exercise, Noble Resolve. He names the names of the key players in the operation, and of the military and media figures who have joined the growing outcry about what may turn out to be a false flag version of the White Houses much- predicted terror nuke. Staging the Portland Nuke (A Comedy of Terrors) "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." William Shakespeare By Captain Eric H. May Military Correspondent Writer's note: Several of the characters in the Portland Nuke plot have supplied their own lines via emails and articles, from which I have included extracts below. All emails were addressed to me as replies to my questions or articles. Prologue: LTC Philip Smith "In August, Noble Resolve will coordinate with officials in Oregon to model a nuclear attack on Portland." wrote Josh Rogin, military reporter for Federal Computer Week's FCW.com on April 4. His article was the basis of my first call with Lt. Col. Philip Smith, a senior public affairs officer for the U.S. Joint Forces Command, which is conducting the military exercise. Smith and I found plenty to talk about in a half-hour chat. As a former Army public affairs officer myself, I knew about his job, which is to inform the public on stories of interest or concern. We discussed computer-simulated exercises like Noble Resolve, and he seemed interested in my own experience with the concept back in its initial days, around the time of the first Iraq war. It's a small world when you're part of the military intelligentsia, and we soon discovered that both his wife and I had belonged to the 75th Division, specializing in military exercises, headquartered in Houston, Texas. On the subject of Noble Resolve itself though, he had few ready answers other than the date of the exercise, which was August 20-24. I told him that this bare fact added greatly to public knowledge, and said that I found it shocking that no press release had come out since the spring. It was as if the government was purposely avoiding informing the public of the training it claimed to be conducting for the public's security, and that impression of things had become general across the Internet, where alarmed citizens and specialists were writing that the exercise might be a cover operation for the execution of the nuke scenario it was practicing. Smith agreed with me that it was important to get an updated story out, and later replied to my email promising to follow up with much-needed details. By then, we were on a first-name basis: Subject: RE: ATTN LTC SMITH: Next 9/11, Summer 2007? Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 Eric, I've have [sic] not received an answer to the two questions you asked yesterday; a list of participating agencies to include Oregon state assets, and a list of unclassified exercises like Noble Resolve. Ms. Susanne Moore, LT Jereal Dorsey or I will contact you via phone or email as soon as we have the answer. Philip J. Smith Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Deputy Director of Public Affairs U.S. Joint Forces Command After this communication, though, he dropped strangely out of touch, something public affairs officers are taught never to do. Act One: Politicians Dodging and Diving Smith wasn't the only government official playing hard to get. Penny Dodge, chief of staff for Oregon's Congressman Peter DeFazio, had already disappeared from media scrutiny, although her boss was the center of anxious attention. DeFazio's constituents had blitzed him with their fear that Noble Resolve might turn out to be a false flag attack against them, undertaken by a sagging Bush administration to justify implementing National Security Presidential Directive 51, a plan for dictatorship, which Bush signed into effect in May -- at about the time that Dick Cheney led a growing chorus of White House insiders suggesting that an Al Qaeda nuclear attack was imminent. Worried Oregonians hounded DeFazio, despite his initial assurances that all was well, into requesting an examination of the secret annexes of NSPD-51. As a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, with all appropriate security clearances, DeFazio was entitled to see NSPD-51 in full, but for the first time in his 20-year career he was refused access. "Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right" DeFazio said in a July 20 interview, then issued a second request, this one written and co-authored by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bernie Thompson. On August 1 the possibility of a conspiracy seemed all the more likely: the White House had again refused DeFazio. To date both DeFazio and Dodge have failed to return calls or offer an update. They are more than a week into the congressional summer break, and less than two weeks away from Noble Resolve. One of the signs of an official conspiracy, it's said, is that officials refuse to consider the possibility of a conspiracy. According to that rule, the city of Portland is behaving most curiously, if not complicitly. On the same day I contacted Mayor Tom Potter's office about the widespread concern that his city might be a false flag target, his chief spokesman dived for cover, and hasn't been heard from since: Subject: RE: John Doussard (Portland's Director of Communications) Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 Capt May - No agency or bureau affiliated with the City of Portland is participating in any part of any operation affiliated with Noble Resolve. Our director of the Office of Emergency Management has contacted the federal government and asked that our name be removed from any public communication about Noble Resolve. John Doussard Director of Communications So Portland isn't an interested participant in a most alarming exercise -- it's only the target. Act Two: An Iconoclastic Inquest Wednesday, after a week of waiting for LTC Smith to supply promised details of Noble Resolve, and more than a week since Congressman DeFazio and Mayor Potter had become incommunicado, my editor at The Lone Star Iconoclast, W. Leon Smith, decided that we had waited long enough. I wrote a brief article, "Portland Nuclear Inquest Formed & Functioning." It contained the email from Smith, was copied to the offices of DeFazio and Potter and, thanks to a raging Internet interest, was quickly published worldwide. It was a no-frills attempt to kick start what had become a closed conversation -- and it worked. Act Three: Heroic Helpers -- KBOO-FM and an Anonymous Official The next day Portland's KBOO FM radio station continued the truth offensive. Its news analysis program Press Watch, hosted by Theresa Mitchel, carried an hour-long examination of Noble Resolve. Mitchel noted that the KBOO news department had just contacted the JFCOM public affairs office, which had informed the station that the Portland nuclear attack of Noble Resolve had been changed into a volcanic eruption instead. Mitchel said she doubted the new story, likely issued as a "public relations soother," and urged her listeners to monitor and discuss the upcoming exercise. That same day The Iconoclast and I received word from an anonymous military official that there was plenty in Noble Resolve -- and JFCOM's silence about it -- to worry about: Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 Subject: Re: "PORTLAND NUCLEAR INQUEST" Formed & Functioning CPT May: I'm sure LTC Smith has been given his marching orders to NOT reply to your questions. If you make enough noise about Portland going live, then they can't pull it off. I have no vibes on activities, but if I were there, I would be on the look out for indicators of something being set up. I sure hope someone steps up and offers assistance from the inside. I look forward to your words and works. Act Four: A Lap Dog and a Lap Dancer -- The Oregonian On July 28 The Oregonian ran a story by its Washington reporter, Jeff Kosseff, with the headline "DeFazio chases secret terror-crisis plan," followed by the subheading "After the White House denies access, the Web buzzes with conspiracy chatter." Kosseff's article continued: "After conspiracy theorists fanned the Internet with their outrage, the Oregon congressman renewed his push Friday to gain access to the classified portion of a White House plan to operate the government after a terrorist attack." The deprecating tone of The Oregonian and Kosseff toward the "conspiracy chatter" in the Internet was a cheap shot to say the least. By all accounts, the only reason that DeFazio had attempted to gain access to NSPD-51 at all was the incessant -- and informed -- opinion of Internet writers that there was a story worth investigation. Without "conspiracy chatter" and "conspiracy theorists," DeFazio would have dodged the confrontation with the White House, and The Oregonian wouldn't have bothered to run the story of the presidential directive. Further, The Oregonian had ignobly shirked half the story of why Oregon residents were worried about NSPD-51 in the first place: the Noble Resolve nuclear exercise, which they feared would turn into an awful false flag reality. In the months since the Internet took up the story, The Oregonian had never bothered to acknowledge the existence -- let alone report the details -- of Noble Resolve. Having failed to report the news of the exercise, The Oregonian nevertheless editorialized in favor of it yesterday with its "'Noble' is good, not grand." "In a couple of weeks, members of the Oregon National Guard are going to take part in a multiagency homeland security exercise... This drill, which the Pentagon has dubbed Operation Noble Resolve, has sparked concerns in some quarters in Oregon, where suspicions about the military and the Bush administration abound [because of the] online exercise that presses players to respond to a simulated emergency involving a nuclear threat... While some choose to view this exercise as sinister -- a pretext for a nuclear attack by the U.S. military on American citizens, according to some fevered speculation -- it is, in fact, a prudent thing to do. Act Five: Joint Forces Comedy (JFCOM) Yesterday JFCOM launched a public affairs operation for Noble Resolve as well. LTC Smith sent me and The Iconoclast a reply to the Portland Nuclear Inquest article. His tone had changed since our conversations and emails of a week before, and we were no longer on a first-name basis. He wrote (repeatedly) that what he had previously agreed was the Noble Resolve exercise was actually only an experiment -- and that he had always called it that. Finally, and amazingly, he asserted that the exercise didn't involve a nuclear scenario. This contradicted insider articles of previous months, KBOO's news department of the day before and The Oregonian's editorial of the same day: Subject: RE: "PORTLAND NUCLEAR INQUEST" Formed & Functioning Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 CC: Rep. Peter DeFazio, City of Portland, The Lone Star Iconoclast Mr. May, As discussed in our phone conversation last week, Noble Resolve is an experiment conducted completely in a modeling and simulation, or computer, environment. No troops or emergency management personnel will deploy. All of this is conducted in rooms and across computer networks. [T]here is no "nuke" or weapon of mass destruction event, real or otherwise, simulated in the Noble Resolve experiment. the [sic] most recent article on the experiment is found below. I believe it will answer your questions. Philip J. Smith Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Deputy Director of Public Affairs U.S. Joint Forces Command Smith attached a JFCOM press release, prepared that same day, with the innocuous title "Noble Resolve 07-2 aims at making communication easier." It asserted the same points he had made in his email, and it was poor reading -- unless you read between the lines. Needless to say, I had some hard questions for Smith about his email and the press release, but he had sent them at the close of business on a Friday, and neither he nor any other public affairs official has responded to messages relayed through the JFCOM duty officer. It's worth noting that Smith failed to provide the specific answers he had promised to my specific questions of the week before. Epilogue: The Enemy at the Bridge "Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories..." George W. Bush to the United Nations, 11/1/01 The "war president" who uttered the words above was, at the time of the utterance, credible and supported by nine-tenths of the American People; the same man now lacks credibility and is scorned by two-thirds of the American People. His White House actions and actors have revealed impeachable motives, and may lead to his impeachment. As commander-in-chief, he is the ultimate source and director of Noble Resolve, and we are right to not trust him. The same presstitutes who now openly detail his lies were once afraid to question his assertions in private, and they continue to lag behind public opinion when it comes to George W. Bush. Their incessant description of anyone who knows about, speaks about or writes about things outside their "reporting" as a "conspiracy theorist" is a self-serving attempt to explain away their failure to do their jobs, and is a good argument that there is indeed a conspiracy -- and that they are part of it. I offer one parting conspiracy theory for the affable or the anxious reader: Portland really has been set up by a failing Bush administration, and is being let down by its political and media leaders. A disturbing report, dated April 19, by the "Preventive Defense Project," suggests that Portland is in the crosshairs of a nuclear attack. With the ominous title "The Day After: Action in the 24 Hours Following a Nuclear Blast in an American City," the report contains three nuclear blast/fallout maps. Two of them are general and, not surprisingly, show Washington D.C. as ground zero; the third is quite specific, and, quite surprisingly, shows northwest Portland's Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge, near the port on the Willamette River, as ground zero: http://bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu/BCSIA_content/documents/DayAfterWorkshopReport_May2007.pdf Whether or not the Comedy of Terrors I have presented above will succeed or fail is up to the American People, who must compensate for the propaganda and plans of their leaders by thinking and acting for themselves. This is what was expected of us by the founders who created our republic, who had the vision to predict that eventually their creation would become corrupt and, if not redeemed, conspiratorial. # # # Captain May is a former Army military intelligence and public affairs officer, as well as a former NBC editorial writer. His analyses have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Houston Chronicle and Military Intelligence Magazine. Readers can receive regular updates on Noble Resolve through the Portland Nuclear Inquest: http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/Portland-Nuclear-Inquest/ e-mail:: captainmay@prodigy.net Homepage:: http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/07/08/06/may.htm Let others know about People's Revolution! Spread the word... the more who know the truth, the greater the force against the capitalist system! Resistance forever! ........... ......... ../4//) ........... ........, //../ ........... ......./. .../ ........... ./4//'...'/4//`78 ........./' /.../.... /......./(/ \ .......('(. ..4...4.... /~/'...') ........\.. ......... ......'.. .../ .........'' ...\..... ..... _.74 ........... \........ ...... STICK UP YOUR MIDDLE FINGER TO US IMPERIALISM AND CAPITALIST OPPRESSION! --------------------------------- Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool. ***************************************************************** 43 Times Leader: Nuke group eyes shielding kids | Wilkes-Barre News | timesleader.com Eric Epstein, of Three Mile Island Alert, is petitioning the NRC for a 15-mile radius in event of meltdown. By Rory Sweeney rsweeney@timesleader.com Staff Writer If a reactor at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station ever melted down, a citizens’ group fears some of the most vulnerable potential victims might not have a way to escape. Eric Epstein, who heads Harrisburg-based Three Mile Island Alert, is petitioning the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to demand that all evacuation centers for children be at least 15 miles from an emergency site and that all institutions charged with supervising children, like schools and day-care centers, create dedicated evacuation route and transportation plans. The current regulations include “fatal vulnerabilities,” Epstein said, that could keep parents from retrieving their children in such an emergency. First, preschool children are expected to be taken to general-population evacuation centers 15 miles from meltdown sites, but no dedicated routes or transportation are mandated. Both are mandated for school-aged children, but evacuation sites are only required to be beyond 10-mile “emergency planning zones,” which means “parents might not be able to get to them because their routes might be closed down,” Epstein said. “There’s no invisible lead curtain 10 miles from a nuclear plant. The NRC and the industry believe they don’t need to plan beyond a 10-mile radius from an accident,” he said. “The NRC’s regulations contradict (the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s) recommendations. … All we’re asking is for the NRC to be true to what they put on paper.” PPL Corp., which operates the nuclear plant near Berwick, opposes creating such regulations because the company works with child-care providers to create and practice evacuation plans regularly, according to PPL Susquehanna spokesman Lou Ramos. “I think that the plan that we have in place has been studied very carefully. … We feel very, very confident that it’s a good process,” he said. “We will not support Epstein’s recommendation.” Besides, he added, “we have never, ever had to evacuate school children at Susquehanna. … That surely shows the safety record that we’ve been able to prove to the community. … We’re talking about a very, very remote issue. ” But PPL’s “more proactive” policies mean nothing if the plant is ever sold, Epstein warned. “That’s why you need to enforce regulations. Pennsylvania politics has to be more than a handshake.” Epstein has previously tried to petition the NRC on evacuation issues regarding pre-school children, who are more vulnerable to radiation than others. “They can’t take care of themselves, so we wanted an additional layer of protection,” he said. To back the petition Contact the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before Sept. 24 via the following methods. Include Docket No. PRM-50-85 in the subject line. Comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or contact information, so don’t include any information not fit for public disclosure. Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. E-mail comments to: SECY@nrc.gov. If you do not receive a reply e-mail confirming that comments have been received, contact the NRC at 301-415-1966. Comments can also be submitted via the NRC’s rulemaking Web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418. © Copyright 2007 The Times Leader. All Rights Reserved. Times Leader 15 N. Main Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711 (570) 829-7101 or (800) 427-8649 ***************************************************************** 44 The Enquirer: Cold War pollution case to get trial Cincinnati.Com Last Updated: 7:38 pm | Saturday, August 18, 2007 A lawsuit filed by neighbors of the Mound Laboratory, a facility near Dayton that was a part of the Cold War atomic weapons production industry, will get a jury to hear their case. The Mound was opened in 1949 to make detonators for nuclear weapons, to recover radioactive tritium, to produce power sources for space probes sent to other planets, and to conduct weapons research. Most production work at the Mound was stopped in 1994, according to the Mound Museum Association. The Mound, located in the Dayton suburb of Miamisburg, and the Fernald uranium processing plant near Ross were two of the most significant atomic weapons facilities in southwest Ohio. Over the years, according to reports from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the Mound facility emitted a variety of radioactive and toxic materials, including plutonium, tritium, chlorine, formic acid, formaldehyde and other heavy metals. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Walter Rice ruled that the Mound case can go to a jury trial. No date for that trial has been set, according to Louise Roselle, a Cincinnati-area attorney representing the neighbors. Copyright © 2007 The Enquirer. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 San Bernardino County Sun: Court delay may lead to longer cleanup wait Staff Reports Article Launched: 08/18/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT RIALTO Hearings by a state board that could lead to water contamination around Rialto being cleaned up are at least months away following another delay in court Friday. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge had already put the hearings, originally scheduled for the coming week, on hold because of allegations they would violate the due-process rights of the companies accused of being responsible for the perchlorate contamination of the water. Late this week, the board's attorney filed a motion with the Los Angeles judge to move the matter from Los Angeles to San Bernardino. But the two sides could not work out a time to take on the issues until Oct. 17. If the judge decides the case should be moved to San Bernardino, the due-process issue will then have to go before another judge in San Bernardino at a later date. "We're very disappointed that the state has not dedicated adequate resources to be able to prosecute this case expeditiously," said Bob Owen, Rialto's city attorney. The city plans to ask the state's secretary of environment to start stopping the perchlorate from continuing to flow south during these legal battles, he said. Updated: August 19, 2007 2:06:28 AM PDT Copyright © 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group ***************************************************************** 46 Gulfnews: It's not about the nukes, stupid! Last updated: 11:16 (GMT+04) Sunday, August 19, 2007. By Neena Gopal, Special to Gulf News When that first tonne of yellowcake arrives from Canberra, reversing years of nuclear apartheid, will India's vociferous minority, the left parties finally be silenced? Unlikely. When the Nuclear Suppliers Group clears the supply of Russian fuel to the mammoth Koodankulam nuclear plant, will that mollify the rudderless right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, which has no qualms about sending its own foreign minister for secret parleys with Washington when in power, but cannot bear the beleagured Manmohan Singh government doing the same when the positions are reversed? Unlikely again. But if anyone believes that the opposition to the operationalisation of the nuclear deal, and the unprecedented display of sour grapes by the communist parties and their unlikely newfound allies, the saffronistas, and their willingness to push the Manmohan Singh government across the edge is because the Indo-US nuclear deal will end the supply of fuel if India tests another nuclear weapon or re-processes US supplied spent nuclear fuel for weapons, they are missing the nuclear wood for the trees. As the soft spoken Sikh uncharacteristically threw down a petulant gauntlet to the likes of Communist Party of India (Marxist) boss Prakash Karat and then as quickly backtracked after he realised the folly of rubbing the red czar's nose in the dust, it's clear the growing estrangement - a honeymoon that's gone sour, a marriage in trouble, call it what you will - has nothing to do with the nitty-gritty of the nuclear deal per se. Neither the opposition nor the government are under any illusions. Both sides are committed to seeing it through. The deal stands little chance of being re-negotiated. US Under Secretary Nicholas Burns said as much. Singh's statement in parliament, and the subsequent repetition of the government's position by his foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, subscribes to the government sponsored dictum that this is as good as it gets. Any tough talking by US officials on terminating the agreement - and the return of reprocessed nuke fuel if India tests - is only Washington cringing at the crowing in Delhi that the Indians had negotiated a better deal, if not a nod and a wink to its own Ed Markey-led non-proliferationist lobby that the deal subscribes to the tough provisions of the Hyde Act. Moratorium India, which subscribes to a self-imposed moratorium on testing, is clearly unlikely to test a nuclear weapon any time soon. The heart of this disagreement therefore lies elsewhere, in the clear shift in Delhi's power axis that for the first time in these 60 years of India's independence, markedly places it in Washington's camp. Singh has spoken of how he has rebuilt India's relations with all the major powers including China. But isn't he throwing the dust in everyone's eyes? The deal breaks India from a carefully crafted Nehruvian non-alignment, mocked at by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But it safeguarded the Indian minnow paddling in the shallows reluctant to be sucked into the rivalry of big power sharks as it built itself into a major industrial power in the region. The deal simultaneously delinks India from its Soviet-era embrace of the Kremlin which threw a protective umbrella around Indira Gandhi's nascent nationhood as the US and China built up rival Pakistan's armoury against India's armies. Therefore, to those who subscribe to the view that the CPM, which marches to a different Beijingian drum beat, has opposed the deal because it brings Delhi in line with Washington's grand plans to use India as a hedge against China's growing power, they would be partly correct. There is more. Re-read Singh's statement to pull out this one sentence - "Let me hence reiterate once again that a decision to undertake future nuclear test would be our sovereign decision, one that rests solely with the government." It's what Singh's assurance left unsaid on other "sovereign decisions" that is worrying. What has India given up in return for the US securing India's energy concerns, halving the fuel bill that the politically naive economist Singh believes has weighed down India's economy from taking off? Is the pipeline deal with Iran off? Has Delhi not learned from America's on-off relationship with Pakistan and Afghanistan, that it runs the danger of becoming yet another pawn, albeit a very large one, in the greater game being played in the region? The seventh Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan where the Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered to be the bridge between the United States and Iran shows Tehran's destabilisation of US proxies is high on Washington's radar. US and Israeli think tanks have long held that the two major challenges to the world they are shaping stem first from radical Islam - and the US has co-opted much of the unwitting Arab world in its battle to keep the Muslim world at war with itself - and second, the "rise of non-democratic great powers" like China and Russia. India must be wise to the reasons that the US prize control of an aspirational and powerful democracy like India just as it does a militaristic Pakistan-Afghanistan in maintaining its hold on the global balance of power. Neena Gopal is an analyst on Asia. About Gulf News | Contact Us | Subscribe | Jobs at Gulf News | © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 47 The State: Barnwell leaks worse than feared 08/19/2007 Radioactive tritium in groundwater exceeds EPA safe-drinking levels By SAMMY FRETWELL - sfretwell@thestate.com AN ANALYSIS OF TRITIUM A look at why health regulators are concerned about tritium in drinking water. What is it? Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen. It is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere, when cosmic rays strike nitrogen molecules in the air. Used in nuclear weapons, tritium also is produced as a byproduct in reactors producing electricity and in special production reactors. How does it get into the body? Tritium primarily enters the body when people swallow tritiated water. People also may inhale tritium as a gas in the air and absorb it through their skin. Can tritium affect my health? Although tritium is less dangerous than many radioactive materials, such as plutonium, it is believed to cause an increased risk of cancer when people are exposed to it on a regular basis. Other health effects are the subject of scientific debate, but some scientists have concluded it can cause birth defects. Are there other concerns? Yes. In water, tritium is one of the most rapidly moving radioactive materials. Other slower moving pollutants can follow tritium into groundwater if landfills are leaking. SOURCES: S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency SNELLING — Higher-than-expected amounts of a radioactive material are tainting the groundwater at a nuclear waste dump long considered safe by state regulators. Previously sealed records, obtained by The State newspaper, show groundwater beneath the state-owned landfill in Barnwell County has tritium levels exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for safe drinking water — in some cases by hundreds of times. Tritium levels beneath the 36-year-old landfill operated by Chem-Nuclear rival those on parts of the Savannah River Site, records show. SRS is a nearby atomic weapons complex with a well-documented history of groundwater pollution. Although tritium is not as toxic as many other radioactive materials, federal regulators say exposure to tritium can increase a person’s chances of cancer. California officials were concerned enough last year that they took steps to reduce tritium exposure in drinking water. Tritium also can foreshadow the flow of more toxic contaminants that don’t move as quickly in groundwater. Plutonium and uranium are among the more poisonous radioactive materials detected in the Barnwell County landfill. Leaks of radioactivity have been found before at the Barnwell County site. But the recently released records provide new details about the extent of pollution and how serious it is. They show the average levels of contamination in monitoring wells and the location of the wells. The trail of polluted groundwater extends beyond the landfill for about a half-mile toward a small community. “This is absolutely new information,” said Bob Guild, a Columbia lawyer who has challenged Chem-Nuclear’s permit to operate in court. “The striking thing is that some of the SRS tritium readings are lower than the Chem-Nuclear readings.” S.C. health regulators said the tritium levels should not be a surprise because low-level nuclear waste contains the material. They said no one lives in the path of the radioactive pollution from the landfill. Nor are area residents drinking from wells tainted by the material, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Several families living south of the landfill said they’d like the state to test their drinking water to make sure. “They have not checked either of my wells,” said Bill Steed, who has lived about a mile south of the landfill for 30 years. Chem-Nuclear is willing to test the wells of anyone concerned about tritium in their drinking water, said Jim Latham, a Chem-Nuclear vice president. The Department of Health and Environmental Control also plans to take a closer look at the wells in the area, agency regulator Richard Haynes said Friday. Latham said he doubts contamination would show up because the tritium pollution hits a creek and disperses before it can reach private wells below the stream. However, on one occasion in 2002, elevated levels of tritium were found below the creek, state records show. Chem-Nuclear, a division of Energy Solutions Inc., lobbied unsuccessfully last spring to keep the landfill from closing to most of the nation in 2008. The company is expected back at the Legislature in January to make its case again. SECRET POLLUTION Walter Grubbs and his neighbors were surprised to see the levels of tritium outlined on the state’s 2006 map of radioactivity at the landfill. Grubbs, a factory worker with three daughters, wants to know why state regulators never told him about the tritium — and whether radioactive waste threatens his family’s water. Grubbs relies on a private well. “It concerns me if I’m drinking this stuff and it’s doing harm to me somewhere down the road,” Grubbs said. “You’d think the government would be keeping on top of all that. That’s what they get paid to do.” Grubbs, 35, grew up on the land south of the landfill. His father lives across a pasture from the small house that Grubbs shares with his daughters. He said he always thought the waste dump was safe because it contained low-level nuclear waste. Low-level nuclear garbage, generally considered less toxic than other classes of atomic waste, is buried at the site. Much of the refuse contains materials slightly contaminated by radiation, such as hospital clothing. But the landfill also includes more radioactive nuclear reactor parts with contamination that could take thousands of years to break down. Some low-level waste goes into unlined trenches that are left open and exposed to rain, until the holes fill up with the radioactive garbage. Since opening in 1971, the Barnwell County landfill has accepted about 28 million cubic feet of the nation’s low-level nuclear waste. Today, about a dozen of the more than 50 tritium-polluted monitoring wells lie between the burial site and Grubbs’ community, according to a 2006 contamination map released recently by DHEC. Tritium has been found seeping into Mary’s Branch, a creek about a half mile south of the landfill. Mary’s Branch drains to a tributary of the Savannah River, about 12 miles away. The Savannah River is a drinking water source for thousands of Georgia and S.C. residents, including those living in the Hilton Head Island area. A 2004 contamination map, released recently by state regulators, also shows groundwater contamination above the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe drinking water standard. It shows about 30 percent of the monitoring wells exceed that tritium standard. Stoney Stewart, 58, was shocked to learn about the tritium levels beneath the Chem-Nuclear landfill. “The public needs to know,” said Stewart, whose wife’s family has owned land in the area for decades. “It’s like they’ve been hiding something.” Stewart, who is Steed’s son-in-law, lives with his wife, Brenda, and 3-year-old daughter below the landfill. Brenda Stewart said DHEC had not tested their well for tritium. NOTHING TO HIDE State regulators and Chem-Nuclear say they have nothing to hide and there’s little reason for public concern. The company has acknowledged a leak occurred. The leak has been traced to the late 1970s, when the company says its disposal practices were not as advanced as today. “Our door has always been open to anybody who may be interested or who has questions about what we do,” Latham said. State records show the state health agency doesn’t think anyone lives in the path of the polluted groundwater flow, even though Grubbs and his relatives live south of the site. DHEC says the flow of groundwater contamination is to the southwest. “Exposure ... has been negligible because there are no consumers of groundwater or surface water downgradient of the Barnwell facility,” a February 2007 state environmental report said. Haynes, a waste regulator at DHEC, said the amounts of tritium shown on the 2006 contamination map generally are consistent with recent readings in groundwater beneath the landfill. The 2006 map is being updated this fall, he said. Monitoring records for this year show tritium contamination continues to exceed federal safe drinking water standards beneath the site. For years, Chem-Nuclear persuaded the state not to release some details of the contamination, saying it was “proprietary.’’ Proprietary information is typically trade secrets that could be used by a rival company. Chem-Nuclear runs the only low-level atomic waste site of its kind in the country. After The State newspaper filed a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this year, the company and the state environmental agency agreed to release maps showing the location of the contamination and the number of polluted wells. The company also released reports on pollution cleanups, groundwater monitoring and surface water contamination, including a 2001 report about tritium-tinged Mary’s Branch. “We re-examined why this was proprietary and decided that the data could and should be released,” Latham said. The 2006 map — which provides the location and tritium levels of monitoring wells at the landfill — shows amounts of tritium that were unknown to Guild and environmental lawyer Jimmy Chandler of Pawleys Island. “Those numbers are higher than any I’ve seen,” said Chandler, who is working with Guild on the court case challenging Chem-Nuclear’s permit. TOXIC FINDINGS Last year’s map detailing the spread — or plume — of radioactivity from the Barnwell site shows about a third of 98 monitoring wells contained levels of tritium above the Environmental Protection Agency standard of 20,000 pico curies per liter of water. A pico curie measures the level of radioactivity in water. All told, more than 50 wells showed some level of tritium contamination. The findings also show: ? Four wells contained average tritium concentrations of at least 10 million pico curies per liter. ? Fifteen wells contained average tritium concentrations of at least 1 million pico curies per liter. In comparison, at least three parts of the nearby Savannah River Site registered levels below 1 million pico curies per liter, a 2005 federal report says. ? Fourteen wells contained average tritium concentrations of at least 100,000 pico curies per liter. ? Elevated levels of tritium have been found in about a dozen wells outside the landfill’s boundary on land Chem-Nuclear has acquired south of the site. In addition to tritium, a February 2003 report for the state environmental agency said some monitoring wells with elevated tritium levels also contained “detectable quantities of carbon 14” as well as chemicals such as chloroform. Like other radioactive materials, carbon 14 can increase a person’s risk of cancer. High levels of chloroform can cause liver and kidney damage and are suspected of causing cancer. “These results indicate tritium is an excellent indicator for other contaminants,” the report said. The report also identified trace amounts of uranium 238 and polonium 210. Polonium 210 was linked last year to the fatal poisoning of a Russian spy. The report, however, said it appears the polonium level was naturally occurring. FEARS DOWNPLAYED Latham said his company has followed federal requirements to contain tritium at the landfill. Tritium drops to federally acceptable levels by the time it reaches a monitoring point on Mary’s Branch, Latham said. In an attempt to reduce tritium levels, the company has in recent years begun sealing closed landfill trenches in a way that prevents rainwater from getting into the burial pits. The company is using a synthetic liner above some of the burial trenches to repel rainwater that could otherwise trickle through the nuclear garbage and into groundwater. Latham said his company is also complying with federal standards for water pollution. Although tritium in many wells exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency standard, Chem-Nuclear is bound by a looser state standard for tritium at Mary’s Branch. That standard equates to a safe tritium level of about 500,000 pico curies per liter of drinking water; the Environmental Protection Agency standard is 20,000 pico curies of tritium per liter of drinking water. Steed, 64, said he’s not persuaded the site is a benign neighbor. Since 1978, he has lived south of the landfill. He shares a modest home with his wife, Lucy, their two dogs and a pet squirrel. Steed remembers community protests in the early 1970s over digging the landfill in Barnwell County. Today, he’s finding it hard to ignore the tritium levels. “It’s got to be a concern,” Steed said. “I know that water runs downhill.” Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537. THREE DECADES OF NUCLEAR WASTE Chem-Nuclear operates a 235-acre landfill used by the nation to dispose of low-level nuclear waste. The landfill has been a source of discussion and debate among state leaders since it opened. 1971 — Chem Nuclear opens low-level waste landfill near the town of Snelling, between Barnwell and the Savannah River Site nuclear weapons complex. 1978 — A monitoring well detects tritium leaking from the site. 1982 — South Carolina forms a compact with other Southern states to close the Barnwell County landfill to radioactive waste from outside the region by 1986. A replacement landfill is to be opened in North Carolina. 1986 — Federal officials extend the closing date for the Barnwell County landfill to 1992 while the N.C. site is planned. 1991 — Tritium contamination in groundwater is first discovered off the landfill site. 1992 — South Carolina officials agree to keep the landfill open through June 1994. 1995 — North Carolina abandons plans for its landfill. Gov. David Beasley and state lawmakers agree to keep the Barnwell County landfill open to the nation. That allows nuclear waste generators from every state to use the landfill, rather than just those in the Southeast. 1999 — Tritium spills from the landfill and contaminates St. Paul Church property next door. Cleanup eventually declared successful. 2000 — Gov. Jim Hodges signs legislation to close the landfill to the nation. Only South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut can use the landfill after mid-2008, according to the agreement. 2006 — Chem-Nuclear acquired by Energy Solutions Inc. of Utah. 2007 — Legislators rebuff Chem-Nuclear attempts to keep the landfill open to the nation through 2023. SOURCES: Atlantic Compact Commission; S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. ***************************************************************** 48 CTV Toronto: Radioactive waste cleanup behind schedule - report - Canadian Television Sun. Aug. 19 2007 1:43 PM ET Canadian Press ? A planned cleanup of low-level radioactive waste near the shores of Lake Ontario -- the largest project of its kind in North America -- remains years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget, leaving some residents of a picturesque southeastern Ontario town both frightened and angry. The federal government committed in 2001 to remove more than 2 million cubic metres of uranium-and radium-contaminated soil from beneath neighbourhood houses, roads, schoolyards, farm fields and the bottom of the local harbour. However, documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Freedom of Information Act cast doubt on how soon the project will be completed, and at what cost. The National Resources Canada report says "a high degree of public scrutiny and public participation" has been the key factor in delaying the planning-based phase of the project by three years and driving up costs by about $5 to $7 million. The second phase of the operation will see the contaminated soil -- enough to fill 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools -- excavated and moved to a different location before being contained in thick layers of clay, rock and soil. In 1999, the cost of the second phase was estimated at $170 million - a price tag that's expected to soar as a result of changes in the "amount of low-level waste, the number of facilities, their location and design," as well as political stresses, the report says. "When this all finally comes down, the taxpayers of Canada will be on the hook for a lot more money than they realize," said John Miller, founder of the local group Families Against Radiation Exposure. A similar cleanup of nuclear waste in the U.S. ran at a cost of $1,000 per cubic metre of soil, Miller said -- a rate that would push cleanup costs in Port Hope to more than $2 billion. The Port Hope Area Initiative was designed to manage radioactive waste left in the city's soil after decades of dangerously lax standards, said Glenn Case, manager of projects for the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office. The soil is classified as low-level historic waste because it was contaminated at a time when radiation was not seen as severe a threat to human and animal health, and "the original producers cannot reasonably be held responsible." Port Hope's Cameco uranium refinery, once home to a Crown corporation called Eldorado Nuclear Ltd., developed material used in the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, said prominent Canadian historian Robert Bothwell. In 2001, the federal government signed an agreement with Canadian municipalities to take responsibility for the waste, and established an office to manage its removal. According to a newsletter from that year, "another 5 to 7 years (would) be required to construct the facilities, consolidate the wastes, clean up and restore waste locations," establishing a deadline of 2008 that is no longer realistic. "This process is open, transparent and traceable," said Case. Involving the public may be expensive and time-consuming, but for the project to be successful, it needs to be community-driven, he said. "Going through the process, we have consulted members of the public extensively on the various phases of the project, throughout all aspects." Not so, said Miller. "They absolutely have not informed us adequately," he said, calling it outrageous that the delays and cost overruns are being blamed on public consultation. No one knows for sure what impact the waste may be having on residents, he added. "There's never been any health studies of residents to find out what the health effects of 60, 70 years of low-level radiation are." Toxic elements currently found in the area include above-average levels of the radioactive metals radium and uranium, as well as arsenic, radon and lead. "Our big concern is all the dust," Miller said. "It's buried now and they're going to dig it up and it'll be in the air." "They should have the facts. Instead, the burden seems to be on citizen's groups to prove there's a danger. We're not equipped to do that." Since 2002, radiation has ranked at or near the top of the list of concerns for locals, based on an annual public opinion survey prepared for the waste management office. "The people who have asked good questions have been ridiculed and I think that a good question deserves a good answer," one respondent to the survey wrote. "And I haven't heard any good answer." Judy Herod, the office's communications officer, insisted Miller's concerns are unfounded. The project has a great many supporters among local residents, she added. "There's not going to be a disaster," Herod said. "People are going to live here. This is up-front and personal, the way we remediate waste in this town." Project spokeswoman Sue Stickley said critics of the project remain in the minority. "We have this ongoing relationship with property owners, hundreds of them, and we need to do it right," Stickley said. "We need to take our time to develop a program that suits their needs and the needs of future generations." © 2007 All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 49 AU ABC: Final Russia uranium deal 'long way off' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Posted August 18, 2007 16:29:00 Prime Minister John Howard says the Australia has not come to any firm agreement with Russia on a uranium export deal. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer confirmed yesterday that negotiations were under way and would continue during President Vladmir Putin's visit to Australia next month for the APEC meeting. But Mr Howard says a final agreement is a long way off. "We will only sell uranium to countries that enter into strong bilateral safeguard agreements that are either signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or they enter into arrangements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that deliver the same safeguards as are provided under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." Tags: nuclear-issues, government-and-politics, federal-government, foreign-affairs, australia, russian-federation © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 50 Charlotte Observer: Leaks reported at S.C. nuclear dump 08/19/2007 | Radioactive tritium in groundwater exceeds EPA safe-drinking levels SAMMY FRETWELL sfretwell@thestate.com SNELLING, S.C. -- Higher-than-expected amounts of a radioactive material are tainting the groundwater at a nuclear waste dump long considered safe by state regulators. Previously sealed records, obtained by The State newspaper, show groundwater beneath the state-owned landfill in Barnwell County has tritium levels exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for safe drinking water — in some cases by hundreds of times. Tritium levels beneath the 36-year-old landfill operated by Chem-Nuclear rival those on parts of the Savannah River Site, records show. SRS is a nearby atomic weapons complex with a well-documented history of groundwater pollution. Although tritium is not as toxic as many other radioactive materials, federal regulators say exposure to tritium can increase a person’s chances of cancer. California officials were concerned enough last year that they took steps to reduce tritium exposure in drinking water. Tritium also can foreshadow the flow of more toxic contaminants that don’t move as quickly in groundwater. Plutonium and uranium are among the more poisonous radioactive materials detected in the Barnwell County landfill. Leaks of radioactivity have been found before at the Barnwell County site. But the recently released records provide new details about the extent of pollution and how serious it is. They show the average levels of contamination in monitoring wells and the location of the wells. The trail of polluted groundwater extends beyond the landfill for about a half-mile toward a small community. “This is absolutely new information,” said Bob Guild, a Columbia lawyer who has challenged Chem-Nuclear’s permit to operate in court. “The striking thing is that some of the SRS tritium readings are lower than the Chem-Nuclear readings.” S.C. health regulators said the tritium levels should not be a surprise because low-level nuclear waste contains the material. They said no one lives in the path of the radioactive pollution from the landfill. Nor are area residents drinking from wells tainted by the material, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Several families living south of the landfill said they’d like the state to test their drinking water to make sure. “They have not checked either of my wells,” said Bill Steed, who has lived about a mile south of the landfill for 30 years. Chem-Nuclear is willing to test the wells of anyone concerned about tritium in their drinking water, said Jim Latham, a Chem-Nuclear vice president. The Department of Health and Environmental Control also plans to take a closer look at the wells in the area, agency regulator Richard Haynes said Friday. Latham said he doubts contamination would show up because the tritium pollution hits a creek and disperses before it can reach private wells below the stream. However, on one occasion in 2002, elevated levels of tritium were found below the creek, state records show. Chem-Nuclear, a division of Energy Solutions Inc., lobbied unsuccessfully last spring to keep the landfill from closing to most of the nation in 2008. The company is expected back at the Legislature in January to make its case again. SECRET POLLUTION Walter Grubbs and his neighbors were surprised to see the levels of tritium outlined on the state’s 2006 map of radioactivity at the landfill. Grubbs, a factory worker with three daughters, wants to know why state regulators never told him about the tritium — and whether radioactive waste threatens his family’s water. Grubbs relies on a private well. “It concerns me if I’m drinking this stuff and it’s doing harm to me somewhere down the road,” Grubbs said. “You’d think the government would be keeping on top of all that. That’s what they get paid to do.” Grubbs, 35, grew up on the land south of the landfill. His father lives across a pasture from the small house that Grubbs shares with his daughters. He said he always thought the waste dump was safe because it contained low-level nuclear waste. Low-level nuclear garbage, generally considered less toxic than other classes of atomic waste, is buried at the site. Much of the refuse contains materials slightly contaminated by radiation, such as hospital clothing. But the landfill also includes more radioactive nuclear reactor parts with contamination that could take thousands of years to break down. Some low-level waste goes into unlined trenches that are left open and exposed to rain, until the holes fill up with the radioactive garbage. Since opening in 1971, the Barnwell County landfill has accepted about 28 million cubic feet of the nation’s low-level nuclear waste. Today, about a dozen of the more than 50 tritium-polluted monitoring wells lie between the burial site and Grubbs’ community, according to a 2006 contamination map released recently by DHEC. Tritium has been found seeping into Mary’s Branch, a creek about a half mile south of the landfill. Mary’s Branch drains to a tributary of the Savannah River, about 12 miles away. The Savannah River is a drinking water source for thousands of Georgia and S.C. residents, including those living in the Hilton Head Island area. A 2004 contamination map, released recently by state regulators, also shows groundwater contamination above the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe drinking water standard. It shows about 30 percent of the monitoring wells exceed that tritium standard. Stoney Stewart, 58, was shocked to learn about the tritium levels beneath the Chem-Nuclear landfill. “The public needs to know,” said Stewart, whose wife’s family has owned land in the area for decades. “It’s like they’ve been hiding something.” Stewart, who is Steed’s son-in-law, lives with his wife, Brenda, and 3-year-old daughter below the landfill. Brenda Stewart said DHEC had not tested their well for tritium. NOTHING TO HIDE State regulators and Chem-Nuclear say they have nothing to hide and there’s little reason for public concern. The company has acknowledged a leak occurred. The leak has been traced to the late 1970s, when the company says its disposal practices were not as advanced as today. “Our door has always been open to anybody who may be interested or who has questions about what we do,” Latham said. State records show the state health agency doesn’t think anyone lives in the path of the polluted groundwater flow, even though Grubbs and his relatives live south of the site. DHEC says the flow of groundwater contamination is to the southwest. “Exposure ... has been negligible because there are no consumers of groundwater or surface water downgradient of the Barnwell facility,” a February 2007 state environmental report said. Haynes, a waste regulator at DHEC, said the amounts of tritium shown on the 2006 contamination map generally are consistent with recent readings in groundwater beneath the landfill. The 2006 map is being updated this fall, he said. Monitoring records for this year show tritium contamination continues to exceed federal safe drinking water standards beneath the site. For years, Chem-Nuclear persuaded the state not to release some details of the contamination, saying it was “proprietary.’’ Proprietary information is typically trade secrets that could be used by a rival company. Chem-Nuclear runs the only low-level atomic waste site of its kind in the country. After The State newspaper filed a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this year, the company and the state environmental agency agreed to release maps showing the location of the contamination and the number of polluted wells. The company also released reports on pollution cleanups, groundwater monitoring and surface water contamination, including a 2001 report about tritium-tinged Mary’s Branch. “We re-examined why this was proprietary and decided that the data could and should be released,” Latham said. The 2006 map — which provides the location and tritium levels of monitoring wells at the landfill — shows amounts of tritium that were unknown to Guild and environmental lawyer Jimmy Chandler of Pawleys Island. “Those numbers are higher than any I’ve seen,” said Chandler, who is working with Guild on the court case challenging Chem-Nuclear’s permit. TOXIC FINDINGS Last year’s map detailing the spread — or plume — of radioactivity from the Barnwell site shows about a third of 98 monitoring wells contained levels of tritium above the Environmental Protection Agency standard of 20,000 pico curies per liter of water. A pico curie measures the level of radioactivity in water. All told, more than 50 wells showed some level of tritium contamination. The findings also show: • Four wells contained average tritium concentrations of at least 10 million pico curies per liter. • Fifteen wells contained average tritium concentrations of at least 1 million pico curies per liter. In comparison, at least three parts of the nearby Savannah River Site registered levels below 1 million pico curies per liter, a 2005 federal report says. • Fourteen wells contained average tritium concentrations of at least 100,000 pico curies per liter. • Elevated levels of tritium have been found in about a dozen wells outside the landfill’s boundary on land Chem-Nuclear has acquired south of the site. In addition to tritium, a February 2003 report for the state environmental agency said some monitoring wells with elevated tritium levels also contained “detectable quantities of carbon 14” as well as chemicals such as chloroform. Like other radioactive materials, carbon 14 can increase a person’s risk of cancer. High levels of chloroform can cause liver and kidney damage and are suspected of causing cancer. “These results indicate tritium is an excellent indicator for other contaminants,” the report said. The report also identified trace amounts of uranium 238 and polonium 210. Polonium 210 was linked last year to the fatal poisoning of a Russian spy. The report, however, said it appears the polonium level was naturally occurring. FEARS DOWNPLAYED Latham said his company has followed federal requirements to contain tritium at the landfill. Tritium drops to federally acceptable levels by the time it reaches a monitoring point on Mary’s Branch, Latham said. In an attempt to reduce tritium levels, the company has in recent years begun sealing closed landfill trenches in a way that prevents rainwater from getting into the burial pits. The company is using a synthetic liner above some of the burial trenches to repel rainwater that could otherwise trickle through the nuclear garbage and into groundwater. Latham said his company is also complying with federal standards for water pollution. Although tritium in many wells exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency standard, Chem-Nuclear is bound by a looser state standard for tritium at Mary’s Branch. That standard equates to a safe tritium level of about 500,000 pico curies per liter of drinking water; the Environmental Protection Agency standard is 20,000 pico curies of tritium per liter of drinking water. Steed, 64, said he’s not persuaded the site is a benign neighbor. Since 1978, he has lived south of the landfill. He shares a modest home with his wife, Lucy, their two dogs and a pet squirrel. Steed remembers community protests in the early 1970s over digging the landfill in Barnwell County. Today, he’s finding it hard to ignore the tritium levels. “It’s got to be a concern,” Steed said. “I know that water runs downhill.” ***************************************************************** 51 Charlotte Observer: Barnwell radioactive waste could be worse than feared Posted on Sun, Aug. 19, 2007 The Associated Press SNELLING, S.C. -- Higher-than-expected levels of a radioactive material are tainting the groundwater at a Barnwell County nuclear waste dump that's been considered safe by regulators, according to a published report. Tritium levels in the groundwater beneath the landfill are above the Environmental Protection Agency's standard for safe drinking water, The (Columbia) State reported in Sunday's newspapers. Exposure to tritium can increase a person's chances of cancer, regulators say. Leaks of radioactivity have been found before at the Barnwell County site. But the recently released records give new details about the extent, showing the average levels of contamination in monitoring wells and the location of the wells. Company officials said that Chem-Nuclear complies with federal standards for water pollution. No one lives directly in the path of the radioactive pollution from the landfill, and area drinking wells are not tainted by the material, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. Still, the agency said it will take a closer look at chemical levels in the wells. Chem-Nuclear will test wells for anyone concerned about tritium in their drinking water, said Vice President Jim Latham. The company has acknowledged a leak, traced to the late 1970s, when the company says its disposal practices were not as advanced as today. "Our door has always been open to anybody who may be interested or who has questions about what we do," Latham said. In an attempt to reduce tritium levels, the company has begun sealing closed landfill trenches to prevent rainwater from getting into the burial pits. The company is also using a synthetic liner above some of the trenches to repel rainwater that could trickle through the nuclear garbage and into groundwater. Walter Grubbs, 35, a factory worker who grew up south of the landfill, wants to know why state regulators never told him about the tritium - and whether radioactive waste threatens his family's well. "It concerns me if I'm drinking this stuff and it's doing harm to me somewhere down the road," Grubbs said. "You'd think the government would be keeping on top of all that. That's what they get paid to do." ***************************************************************** 52 Radioactive waste project east of Toronto years, millions behind schedule Published August 19th, 2007 KAREN PINCHIN PORT HOPE, Ont. (CP) - A planned cleanup of low-level radioactive waste near the shores of Lake Ontario - the largest project of its kind in North America - remains years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget, leaving some residents of this picturesque southeastern Ontario town both frightened and angry. The federal government committed in 2001 to remove more than 2 million cubic metres of uranium-and radium-contaminated soil from beneath neighbourhood houses, roads, schoolyards, farm fields and the bottom of the local harbour. However, documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Freedom of Information Act cast doubt on how soon the project will be completed, and at what cost. The National Resources Canada report says "a high degree of public scrutiny and public participation" has been the key factor in delaying the planning-based phase of the project by three years and driving up costs by about $5 to $7 million. The second phase of the operation will see the contaminated soil - enough to fill 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools - excavated and moved to a different location before being contained in thick layers of clay, rock and soil. In 1999, the cost of the second phase was estimated at $170 million - a price tag that's expected to soar as a result of changes in the "amount of low-level waste, the number of facilities, their location and design," as well as political stresses, the report says. "When this all finally comes down, the taxpayers of Canada will be on the hook for a lot more money than they realize," said John Miller, founder of the local group Families Against Radiation Exposure. A similar cleanup of nuclear waste in the U.S. ran at a cost of $1,000 per cubic metre of soil, Miller said - a rate that would push cleanup costs in Port Hope to more than $2 billion. The Port Hope Area Initiative was designed to manage radioactive waste left in the city's soil after decades of dangerously lax standards, said Glenn Case, manager of projects for the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office. The soil is classified as low-level historic waste because it was contaminated at a time when radiation was not seen as severe a threat to human and animal health, and "the original producers cannot reasonably be held responsible." Port Hope's Cameco uranium refinery, once home to a Crown corporation called Eldorado Nuclear Ltd., developed material used in the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, said prominent Canadian historian Robert Bothwell. In 2001, the federal government signed an agreement with Canadian municipalities to take responsibility for the waste, and established an office to manage its removal. According to a newsletter from that year, "another 5 to 7 years (would) be required to construct the facilities, consolidate the wastes, clean up and restore waste locations," establishing a deadline of 2008 that is no longer realistic. "This process is open, transparent and traceable," said Case. Involving the public may be expensive and time-consuming, but for the project to be successful, it needs to be community-driven, he said. "Going through the process, we have consulted members of the public extensively on the various phases of the project, throughout all aspects." Not so, said Miller. "They absolutely have not informed us adequately," he said, calling it outrageous that the delays and cost overruns are being blamed on public consultation. No one knows for sure what impact the waste may be having on residents, he added. "There's never been any health studies of residents to find out what the health effects of 60, 70 years of low-level radiation are." Toxic elements currently found in the area include above-average levels of the radioactive metals radium and uranium, as well as arsenic, radon and lead. "Our big concern is all the dust," Miller said. "It's buried now and they're going to dig it up and it'll be in the air." "They should have the facts. Instead, the burden seems to be on citizen's groups to prove there's a danger. We're not equipped to do that." Since 2002, radiation has ranked at or near the top of the list of concerns for locals, based on an annual public opinion survey prepared for the waste management office. "The people who have asked good questions have been ridiculed and I think that a good question deserves a good answer," one respondent to the survey wrote. "And I haven't heard any good answer." Judy Herod, the office's communications officer, insisted Miller's concerns are unfounded. The project has a great many supporters among local residents, she added. "There's not going to be a disaster," Herod said. "People are going to live here. This is up-front and personal, the way we remediate waste in this town." Project spokeswoman Sue Stickley said critics of the project remain in the minority. "We have this ongoing relationship with property owners, hundreds of them, and we need to do it right," Stickley said. "We need to take our time to develop a program that suits their needs and the needs of future generations." © 2007 CanadaEast Interactive, Brunswick News Inc. All rights ***************************************************************** 53 islandpacket.com: Toxins seep into water at Barnwell site islandpacket.com - The Island Packet Online Hilton Head Island - Bluffton, SC Sunday, August 19, 2007 By SAMMY FRETWELL The (Columbia) State SNELLING -- Higher-than-expected amounts of a radioactive material are tainting the groundwater at a nuclear waste dump long considered safe by state regulators. Previously sealed records, obtained by The (Columbia) State newspaper, show groundwater beneath the state-owned landfill in Barnwell County has tritium levels exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency's standard for safe drinking water -- in some cases by hundreds of times. Tritium levels beneath the 36-year-old landfill operated by Chem-Nuclear rival those on parts of the Savannah River Site, records show. SRS is a nearby atomic weapons complex with a well-documented history of groundwater pollution. Although tritium is not as toxic as many other radioactive materials, federal regulators say exposure to tritium can increase a person's chances of cancer. Tritium also can foreshadow the flow of more toxic contaminants that don't move as quickly in groundwater. Plutonium and uranium are among the more poisonous radioactive materials detected in the Barnwell County landfill. Tritium has been found seeping into Mary's Branch, a creek about a half mile south of the landfill. Mary's Branch drains into a tributary of the Savannah River about 12 miles away. The Savannah River is a drinking water source for thousands of Georgia and South Carolina residents, including those living in the Hilton Head Island area. Leaks of radioactivity have been found before at the Barnwell County site. But the recently released records provide new details about the extent of pollution and how serious it is. The trail of polluted groundwater extends beyond the landfill for about a half-mile toward a small community. "This is absolutely new information," said Bob Guild, a Columbia lawyer who has challenged Chem-Nuclear's permit to operate in court. "The striking thing is that some of the SRS tritium readings are lower than the Chem-Nuclear readings." South Carolina health regulators said the tritium levels should not be a surprise because low-level nuclear waste contains the material. They said no one lives in the path of the radioactive pollution from the landfill. Nor are area residents drinking from wells tainted by the material, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Several families living south of the landfill said they'd like the state to test their drinking water to make sure. Chem-Nuclear is willing to test the wells of anyone concerned about tritium in their drinking water, said Jim Latham, a Chem-Nuclear vice president. The Department of Health and Environmental Control also plans to take a closer look at the wells in the area, agency regulator Richard Haynes said Friday. Latham said he doubts contamination would show up because the tritium pollution hits the creek and disperses before it can reach private wells below the stream. However, on one occasion in 2002, elevated levels of tritium were found below the creek, state records show. Chem-Nuclear, a division of Energy Solutions, lobbied unsuccessfully last spring to keep the landfill from closing to most of the nation in 2008. The company is expected back at the legislature in January to make its case again. Low-level nuclear garbage, generally considered less toxic than other classes of atomic waste, is buried at the site. Much of the refuse contains materials slightly contaminated by radiation, such as hospital clothing. But the landfill also includes more radioactive nuclear reactor parts with contamination that could take thousands of years to break down. Some low-level waste goes into unlined trenches that are left open and exposed to rain, until the holes fill up with the radioactive garbage. Since opening in 1971, the Barnwell County landfill has accepted about 28 million cubic feet of the nation's low-level nuclear waste. State regulators and Chem-Nuclear say they have nothing to hide and there's little reason for public concern. The company has acknowledged a leak occurred. The leak has been traced to the late 1970s, when the company says its disposal practices were not as advanced as today. State records show the state health agency doesn't think anyone lives in the path of the polluted groundwater. "Exposure ... has been negligible because there are no consumers of groundwater or surface water downgradient of the Barnwell facility," a February 2007 state environmental report said. Haynes, the DHEC waste regulator, said the amounts of tritium shown on a 2006 contamination map generally are consistent with recent readings in groundwater beneath the landfill. Monitoring records for this year show tritium contamination continues to exceed federal safe drinking water standards beneath the site. For years, Chem-Nuclear persuaded the state not to release some details of the contamination, saying it was "proprietary.'' Proprietary information is typically trade secrets that could be used by a rival company. Chem-Nuclear runs the only low-level atomic waste site of its kind in the country. After The State filed a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this year, the company and the state environmental agency agreed to release maps showing the location of the contamination and the number of polluted wells. The company also released reports on pollution cleanups, groundwater monitoring and surface water contamination. Copyright © The Island Packet, . ***************************************************************** 54 ReviewJournal.com: State officials unsure of Yucca discussions Aug. 18, 2007 Judge urged compromise with Energy Department By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL Nevada officials battling the Yucca Mountain project are taking a wait-and-see approach to U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt's urging this week that federal lawyers try to work out a compromise with them over using the state's water to drill bore holes at the planned nuclear waste site. There appears to be no appetite for discussions, let alone a compromise, the state officials said Friday And, the longer they wait the more drilling the Department of Energy will do despite State Engineer Tracy Taylor's cease-and-desist order that was reinstated July 20. Taylor said he can't tell yet if anything will be gained by discussions with Justice Department attorneys Stephen Bartell and Keith Saxe. They have refused to comment on the matter. "Until I sit down and meet with them, I won't know," Taylor said from Carson City. "I don't know." Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams, whose client is Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said she is expecting a call Tuesday from Bartell. That would be the first step in any compromise discussions, if they take place at all. Loux said it's hard to tell what will happen after Tuesday. "No one wants to talk about these issues ahead of time," he said. "I think it seems difficult that any sort of negotiations can be successful, especially if DOE doesn't stop drilling. "If they're not willing to stop, I don't think there can be any discussions. If they're willing to stop then at least we'll be able to sit down and talk but I don't know if we'll be able to reach an agreement," Loux said. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said through his spokesman that there is no logic in Nevada wanting to compromise. "How do you compromise with someone who is stealing from you?" Reid's spokesman Jon Summers wrote in an e-mail from Lake Tahoe where Reid, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and former President Clinton were meeting. "The Department of Energy is stealing water from Nevada in a rush to turn our state into the nation's nuclear dumping ground," Summers wrote. "The DOE should adhere to the state's cease-and-desist order." Similarly, Ensign's spokesman, Tory Mazzola, said the senator's position remains strongly opposed to any effort that would facilitate DOE's work at Yucca Mountain. Hunt is weighing arguments on whether he should block Taylor's order, allowing DOE to continue drilling through probably November. That's when DOE expects to have collected enough rock samples to gauge the safety of surface facilities from earthquakes and floods for a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Water from wells near the site is needed to cool and lubricate drill bits and to create mud for extracting core samples from rock layers. As many as 80 bore holes are expected to be drilled hundreds of feet below Midway Valley where surface facilities are planned. The hangar-size buildings are being designed to handle and house highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies before they are entombed in the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Hunt questioned Bartell on Department of Energy officials stringing Nevada along on the bore hole project, at first saying only 300,000 gallons of Nevada's water were needed at the site where 15 bore holes were dug and then coming to the court with intentions of using 4 million gallons to complete some 80 bore holes. The state, in a previous court approved agreement, disallowed use of any water to drill bore holes because such site characterization work ended when then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended Yucca Mountain to President Bush in 2002. Nevertheless, DOE launched a two-phase drilling program in 2006 that was "below the radar," in Loux's words. Then, after Taylor determined last month that using Nevada's water for geotechnical work at Yucca Mountain was not in the state's interest, DOE continued to drill after his July 20 deadline. Bartell, in turn, filed an emergency motion for a preliminary injunction that was argued Wednesday in Hunt's courtroom. Loux said he expects Hunt will decide on the matter by the end of this month. Links powered by inform.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 55 Salt Lake Tribune: Canadian company acquiring Utah mining claims Article Last Updated: 08/17/2007 11:41:17 AM MDT Posted: 11:43 AM- Bayswater Uranium Corp. has been granted an option from private corporate entities to acquire interest in mining claims in Utah and New Mexico. The Vancouver, B.C.-based company says the claims may have potential for the production of uranium. The properties are located on favorable sandstone units on the margin of the Colorado Plateau known for its uranium deposits, many of which have been in production previously. Bayswater said it currently is being compiled on both properties to determine drill programs. Field work is planned on both prior to any drilling, which is planned for 2008. The company said it is obligated to issue 1 million shares of its stock and pay $500,000 in staged payments over a four-year period. Bayswater shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ***************************************************************** 56 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Errant waste drum set for transfer over weekend By Kyle Marksteiner Article Launched: 08/17/2007 09:21:15 PM MDT CARLSBAD ? An errant waste drum that contains materials prohibited under the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's state permit is on schedule to be removed from WIPP this weekend, according to a news release from the New Mexico Environment Department. The drum, which contains a small amount of liquid, was sent from the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project at Idaho National Laboratory and placed in the underground repository at WIPP last month. Virtually all liquids are prohibited by state permit. NMED Secretary Ron Curry ordered the removal of the waste container on Aug. 3. The drum was 36 rows back when the error was discovered. Dave Moody, manager for the Department of Energy's Carlsbad Field Office, confirmed Friday afternoon that the process of retrieving the waste drum was complete. The container will be returned to the Idaho National Laboratory, but the DOE declined to elaborate in advance Friday on the specific details of the return trip. "I am pleased that WIPP has acted quickly to remove this prohibited container," Curry said in a prepared statement. "This successful retrieval confirms that our confidence in WIPP's strong worker safety record was warranted. WIPP's permit is a promise to New Mexicans that its mission will remain narrowly focused on certain well-defined wastes that can be properly characterized and disposed of safely. We need to ensure that DOE's promises are kept now and in the future." Shipments of radioactive waste to WIPP have been halted since Curry's decision. According to a Thursday update on WIPP's Web page, waste handling crews have been working in four shifts since Aug. 8 to remove the drum. By Thursday morning, according to the Web page, 26 of the 36 rows had been removed from Room 6, Panel 4 to nearby rooms 4 and 5. Shipments to WIPP will resume once the drum has been retrieved and shipped back to Idaho, officials have said. Shipments from Idaho National Laboratory's Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project will resume pending approval from the Environmental Protection Agency. On Aug. 7, the EPA conducted an inspection of the Idaho facility and noted that shipments from Idaho were not to resume until the organization was satisfied that measures were in place to prevent such a problem from happening again. During its inspection, the EPA looked for corrective actions with regards to changes in components such as training, segregating different types of drums and dual verification. The EPA concluded that the corrections made were appropriate. On Friday, Moody submitted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency stating that the DOE has verified completion of actions needed to resume shipments. Because those conditions were met, Moody said he has authorized Idaho to resume shipments to WIPP pending the EPA's final nod. Environmentalist Don Hancock said the retrieval process was closely monitored by Environment Department officials in Carlsbad and Santa Fe. The DOE made changes to its retrieval plan, he observed, but some of the changes were for the better. For example, sacks containing magnesium oxide rest on the top stacks of the drums. The sacks are there to curtail gas buildup, Hancock said. The original plan involved removing the sacks, but the final decision involved using a forklift to remove the top row of waste and the sacks at the same time, Hancock said. There were a few instances where the magnesium oxide sacks had to be removed first, Moody said. The DOE's original plan was to bring the waste out of the room to get to the errant container and then put it back. The final plan involved permanently moving the waste to a different room. The entire process generally went smoothly, Moody said. "There was normal equipment that needed maintenance, but that was promptly taken care of," he said. Several crews were assembled to handle the procedure, he said. "Our crews all communicated well with each other," he said. Moody said some parts of the original plan were adapted based on worker feedback during mock retrieval training sessions. "We exercise a standard feedback loop process called integrated safety management where you evaluate the work to be performed," he said. "We involved our workers in the process and looked at improving the process before we started." Moody said the process was designed to minimize the amount of risk. "Everything was done deliberately and with total care," he said. "I have nothing but praise for our workforce." Hancock said he did not feel the waste handlers were exposed to any higher levels of radiation during the retrieval process than they would have been during typical disposal at WIPP. "The waste handlers at WIPP have been doing this for seven and one-half years," he said. "They've shown to my satisfaction that they know what they're doing. There should be no additional exposure if it was done correctly, and I have no reason to believe that the retrieval hasn't been done correctly." Hancock said his continuing concern about the issue is with the process at Idaho. He said Friday he was reviewing the documents sent from the DOE to the EPA. "Once the drum gets out and shipped back to Idaho, before the shipments resume we should know that this kind of thing is not going to happen again," he said. Copyright © 2005 Carlsbad Current Argus, a MediaNews Group ***************************************************************** 57 Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP mission expansion a no-brainer Article Launched: 08/18/2007 09:10:58 PM MDT Imagine the following: in your left hand you hold an apple; in your right hand, you hold another apple. Both apples are Granny Smith variety, and both were grown from trees planted the same year, from the same lot of seedlings, near each other but in different gardens. Through the years, the trees were pruned, fertilized and harvested in identical ways. In fact, in this "apples to apples" comparison, these Granny Smiths are virtually indistinguishable in every way except one: the apple in your left hand was produced from a tree at the Quantum Field Fruit Grove, and the apple in your right hand was grown nearby in the Subatomic Apple Orchard. Now imagine having to live by a rule that says all apples grown by Quantum may be used to make pies, but all apples grown by Subatomic can never be used to make pies. Defies logic, does it not? An eerily similar irrationality is occurring in the acronym-filled realm of the U.S. Department of Energy. The DOE is compelled to observe a difference, basically where none exists. Transuranic nuclear waste originates from the DOE's bomb-building efforts, so it can go to WIPP. Meanwhile, Greater Than Class C nuclear waste originates by and large from medical, industrial or other commercial efforts, so it cannot go to WIPP. These two types of waste are very, very similar there is no rational reason to exclude the latter from WIPP. Furthermore, GTCC waste poses a national security threat. This is exactly the kind of nasty stuff terrorists would love to get their hands on in order to build a "dirty bomb." As the Land Withdrawal Act was forged into its final form, back in 1992, the politicians rendered a series of compromises. They included strict rules over exactly what type of nuclear waste could be deposed at WIPP, as well as how much. Perhaps those compromises were the only way WIPP would ever have come to be. But now, 15 years later, several of those original rules are encumbering the nation's ability to properly dispose of a category of waste that poses an ongoing threat both in security and environmental terms. Therefore, the act should be changed to accommodate our nation's pressing need to safely and securely entomb GTCC and GTCC-like waste regardless of where it's generated. The other options DOE is floating are complex, expensive, less secure and in the case of Yucca Mountain all but undoable. (DOE should also ditch the murky definition system they're using for nuclear waste, replacing it with clear, easy-to-understand terms the average citizen can actually grasp.) Our local political leaders are right to be pressing for the expansion of WIPP's mission, as last week's scoping meeting revealed in full. New Mexico's Congressional delegation must see the urgency, get behind this change and see it through to resolution. Copyright © 2005 Carlsbad Current Argus, a MediaNews Group Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 58 Sunday Herald: Dounreay Likely Site For New Reactor August 20, 2007 Est 1999 Scotland's award-winning independent By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor Comment A NEW reactor could be sited at Dounreay on the north coast of Scotland as part of the UK government's plans to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system over the next decade. The submarines that will carry the warheads are planned to be powered by a new type of nuclear reactor. But before it goes to sea, it will have to be checked for safety and reliability at a land-based testing facility. By far the most likely site for such an operation is the little-known Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, adjacent to the civil nuclear complex at Dounreay in Caithness. Vulcan has been the UK's only site for testing submarine reactors for more than 40 years. The prospect of a new naval reactor in the north would be opposed by Scottish ministers and has been condemned by anti-nuclear campaigners, who fear an environmental disaster. Significantly, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has not denied that Vulcan is in line for the development. Owned by the MoD and run by the UK multinational Rolls Royce, Vulcan currently employs about 300 people. They conduct trials on the pressurised water reactors that drive much of the UK's military submarine fleet. But the site's contract runs out in 2014, and it had been expected to be decommissioned. Now, however, it looks like it will continue for many years. A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said: "The government's position is clear - we are against nuclear weapons being located anywhere in Scotland." John Ainslie, co-ordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: "The prototype reactor for the new Trident submarines will use a novel design. If there was a major accident then a large part of the north of Scotland could be contaminated." In a separate development, the MoD has revealed that the safety of the Trident nuclear warheads is currently being reviewed. Scientists from the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston, Berkshire, are investigating the impact of changes in the way weapons are handled. ©2007 newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 59 Sunday Herald: Row Over Disposal Of Nuclear Waste August 20, 2007 Est 1999 Scotland's By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor UK MINISTERS have been accused by one of their former advisers of ignoring official advice on the disposal of nuclear waste to pave the way for a new programme of nuclear power stations. Pete Wilkinson, a member of the government's Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), has also praised the Scottish Executive for boycotting the latest public consultation on plans to bury the waste deep underground. CoRWM, which has been advising ministers for the last four years, is being wound up this weekend to be replaced by another advisory committee. It concluded that disposing of highly radioactive waste in an underground repository was "the best available approach". But CoRWM also urged more research into alternatives, and a "robust programme of interim storage" for 100 years or more in case the search for a repository was delayed or failed. Wilkinson criticised Westminster for "ignoring" CoRWM's integrated package of recommendations on research and interim storage. "Such cherry picking allows the predetermination of a solution' to waste management and therefore the removal of a traditional hurdle to new nuclear build," he said. "By concentrating on disposal and the search for a repository site to the exclusion of other recommendations, Westminster is unfairly favouring disposal when a research programme may demonstrate no societal consensus for that management option." Wilkinson, a Suffolk-based nuclear consultant and former Greenpeace campaigner, is sceptical of deep disposal as a way of disposing of nuclear waste. He is concerned about the risks of leakage over the hundreds of thousands of years for which the waste has to be isolated from the environment. He backs the SNP-led executive's recent decision not to take part in a consultation over deep disposal. "It is a valid and justifiable policy," he said. Wilkinson's support was embraced by environment secretary Richard Lochhead. "Mr Wilkinson's comments are highly significant given his central involvement in the CoRWM process," said the minister. "We do not accept that it is right to seek to bury nuclear waste, which will remain active for thousands of years, in a deep geological facility or to expect any community to host such a facility. This out of sight, out of mind' policy should not extend to Scotland." A spokeswoman for the department of environment, food and rural affairs said: "We shall address such concerns in an open and transparent way, on the basis of sound scientific and technical evidence." Further support for deep disposal of waste came from Roger Brunt, the government's chief nuclear security adviser and director of the office for civil nuclear security in Oxfordshire. "I believe that the best place for radioactive waste is in a long term repository," he has said. ©2007 newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 60 FT.com: UK industry to foot nuclear waste bill Financial Times FT.com Malcolm Wicks: Interview in full - Aug-19 British Energy benefits as reactors regain centre stage - Aug-17 US-led group favoured for nuclear waste deal - Aug-15 By Christopher Adams and Ed Crooks The private sector would foot the entire bill for the decommissioning and waste disposal costs of any new nuclear power station, Malcolm Wicks, energy minister, said in a Financial Times interview. A forthcoming energy bill is expected to set out how industry would be required to pour hundreds of millions of pounds into a funding pot for disposing of radioactive waste from the new plants. Construction and operation of power stations will also be paid for by private operators. Mr Wicks confirmed that the most likely locations for the new plants would be on existing reactor sites where local communities were “supportive” of nuclear power. “If one was an investor, you can see the attractions of that,” he said, citing Sellafield in Cumbria as an example. There was “a lot of interest” from the private sector, with a number of companies wanting to build plants. At least six companies had signalled their interest including EDF Energy, Eon and RwE NPower. The energy bill, which could be published this autumn, would put in place a “state framework” requiring operators to make regular contributions to the huge cost of disposal. The scheme would be designed to protect the taxpayer from liabilities should unforeseen costs, such as an operator collapsing, arise later. Ministers have already ruled out economic subsidies or tax breaks to stimulate investment. “The starting principle is that if we go for nuclear, the private sector have to pay for it, and that includes this area of nuclear waste,” said Mr Wicks. The government had backed plans for burial of radioactive waste from existing reactors deep underground. The repository would take waste from new plants too but the financing for this had yet to be resolved. “How we achieve that is what we’re working on at the moment, but it is not sensible to think of them [the operators] being asked to write a cheque in 50 years’ time,” Mr Wicks said. “There has to be some ongoing arrangement.” A number of options were being considered, including requiring operators to make payments to a government-controlled fund or direct to the Treasury. Money could alternatively be paid into independent funds that would be shielded from claims by creditors. In the US, the utilities pay a levy into the government’s nuclear waste fund to cover the costs of disposal. Like the UK, the US is still evaluating a plan for a new national depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. France has a similar levy set aside by EDF, the state-controlled electricity company that runs the country’s nuclear power plants. Gordon Brown, the prime minister, plans to make a final, formal decision by the end of the year on whether to clear the way for a fresh wave of private investment in nuclear energy. After a court ruling earlier this year ordering the government to consult again on its plans, more than 1,000 people are to be canvassed next month in a nationwide polling exercise designed to gauge public support for new plants. Mr Wicks said it was not inconceivable the government might reverse its view that nuclear power should remain part of the UK’s energy mix, and disclosed that civil servants were doing preparatory work on alternative strategies should nuclear be rejected. “If new evidence or new arguments came up that made us think again, then we would think again.” However, Britain could not afford to become too dependent on foreign imports of natural gas for its energy needs. By 2020, the UK would be sourcing 80 per cent of its gas from overseas. “We would be wise as a nation if we tried to build up what I would simply refer to as home-grown energy.” Renewables such as wind, solar and tidal power were part of the answer. But the importance of energy security, more efficient energy use and tackling climate change were the reasons why ministers felt nuclear “could be part of the mix”. Three bills are likely to follow in the Queen’s Speech. One will set up a planning commission to fast-track big infrastructure projects such as nuclear plants. A second will set goals for cutting carbon emissions. The third, the proposed energy bill, will tackle waste disposal. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007 * © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2007. "FT" and "Financial ***************************************************************** 61 Green Left: H-Day rally condemns nuclear industry Jim McIlroy, Brisbane 18 August 2007 Hiroshima Day ?is not just a day for commemoration, but a day for action?, Nic Maclellan from the Nuclear Free Independent Pacific told a rally of around 200 people on August 5. Lew Rice, Atomic Ex-Servicemen?s Association ACT Inc representative and veteran of the atomic tests at Maralinga and Monte Bello in the 1950s, spoke of the sufferings of the ex-servicemen who became guinea pigs of the tests, and the Aboriginal people who were displaced and whose health was affected by the bomb tests. Rebecca Bear-Wingfield, senior cultural woman of the Arabunna-Kokatha people of South Australia, and a participant in the Woomera 2002 camp, outlined the struggle of her people for land rights and cultural identity. She condemned the expansion of the uranium mining industry in SA and the Howard government?s land grab in the Northern Territory. From: Australian News GLW issue #721 - 22 August 2007: Articles posted are as they were before proofreading, and prior to any final changes in the printed version. Authorised by K. Miller, 23 Abercrombie St, Chippendale, NSW. Site by Kiwa Systems ***************************************************************** 62 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Fire near Hanford under control Last updated August 17, 2007 9:42 p.m. PT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A wildfire that had briefly threatened the Hanford Nuclear Reservation a day earlier was 80 percent contained Friday, after burning more than 104 square miles of dry grass and sagebrush. In Western Washington, however, four homes were threatened Friday by a wildfire burning near state Highway 16 in Kitsap County. Three of the homes were evacuated, and firefighters were working to protect the structures, said Theresa MacLennan, a spokeswoman for Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue. The fire, which had burned across more than five acres by Friday evening, sent up a plume of smoke visible in Seattle. The cause of the fire, which began Friday afternoon, was not immediately known. In Benton County, firefighters expected full containment of the Wautoma Fire on Saturday. The fire has blackened 67,000 acres, down from an earlier estimate of 72,000 acres. Crews set a prescribed burn Friday morning to manage the fire south of Rattlesnake Mountain, which produced a great deal of smoke, and firefighters were pleased with the success of their containment efforts. The U.S. Department of Energy also ended its emergency alert status because fire was no long threatening the Hanford site. 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com Send investigative tips to iteam@seattlepi.com ©1996-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 63 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Energy to investigate Hanford spill Last updated August 17, 2007 9:41 p.m. PT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RICHLAND -- Federal officials with the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., are investigating a radioactive waste spill that occurred in late July at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The spill occurred as a single-walled underground tank called S-102 was being slowly drained of its nuclear waste, which is being pumped into newer, double-walled tanks that are less likely to leak. Hanford employees were told Thursday that the department's Office of Health, Safety and Security had started a Type A investigation, which are reserved for the most serious safety-related incidents. The investigation will determine the cause and circumstances surrounding the spill and evaluate the effectiveness of management processes, Shirley Olinger, acting manager of the Energy Department's Hanford Office of River Protection, said in a message to employees. A pump became clogged on July 27. Workers reversed it to try to clear it, but that sent some waste from the bottom of the tank up into the hose that was feeding water into the tank, spilling onto the ground between 50 and 100 gallons. Seven workers were given medical evaluations after the spill but were not found to have been contaminated. 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com Send investigative tips to iteam@seattlepi.com ©1996-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 64 Tri-City Herald: Hanford fire nearly contained at 67,000 acres (w/video, photos) Published Saturday, August 18th, 2007 By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer The worst was over Friday night on the fire that spread across the Rattlesnake Mountain area of the Hanford Reach National Monument and devastated much of the monument's Arid Lands Ecology Reserve. Firefighters had bulldozed lines around the entire fire, but not before it blackened 67,000 acres, or 104 square miles, according to size estimates updated Friday evening. Much of the vegetation and animal habitat on the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve was destroyed, with only the southeast portion of the reserve near Highway 240 untouched. No smoke was showing by 7 p.m. and the Central Washington Area Incident Management Team, brought in to oversee firefighting efforts, considered the blaze 80 percent contained. The fire, which started Thursday afternoon, was expected to be fully contained today. The cause of the fire was under investigation Friday, but it was suspected to be started by human activity near Wautoma Road, which is four miles west of the Hanford Reach National Monument near Highway 241. The fire, driven by strong winds burned east onto the monument and then jumped Highway 240 onto the Hanford nuclear reservation about 4 p.m. Thursday. Firefighters were able to hold it at the fence line of the 200 West Area, which includes underground tanks holding millions of gallons of high-level radioactive waste from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. Air monitoring continued Friday with no airborne radiation from the fire detected. Firefighters were comparing Thursdays's blaze to the fast-moving 24 Command Fire of 2000 that swept across 163,000 acres, including most of the Arid Land Ecology Reserve. The reserve stretches along Highway 240 from Highway 24 about five miles south of the Columbia River almost to the Horn Rapids Dam on the Yakima River. However, firefighters were able to hold the Wautoma Command Fire to less than half the acreage of the 2000 fire in a well-coordinated effort, said Greg Hughes, U.S. Fish and Wildlife project leader for the Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Refuge Complex. "They did a fantastic job to catch it in the conditions we had," Hughes said. The weather was hot, windy and dry. The ecological damage was severe, but no one was injured, no structures were lost and no radiological areas of the nuclear reservation burned. Wide gravel fire breaks around areas with radioactive materials helped firefighters contain the fire on the nuclear reservation. The only casualties known Friday were three wooden power poles that Benton County Public Utility District replaced. As soon as the fire was contained in central Hanford Thursday night, firefighting resources were moved back to the monument, Hughes said. Back fires were set along Rattlesnake Ridge as firefighters worked their way north to contain the fire near the boundary of the monument, protecting Benton City and nearby private property. Firefighters also used bulldozers to dig fire lines, trying to follow roads that are little more than two tracks in the dirt and an old disk line from the 2000 fires to minimize disturbance on the reserve. At 11 p.m. Thursday the fire could be seen throughout the Tri-Cities, showing up as a ribbon of twinkling red dots outlining the rugged ridge of the mountain in the dark. Fire continued to burn Friday morning in the canyons in the center of the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve on its western edge, including Snively Canyon. It contains the foundations of a pioneer farm house and the farmer's grain that still grows voluntarily on hillsides along a spring. In areas with heavy vegetation, the fire may continue to smolder for days. But it had little fuel left Friday night in most of the burned areas of the reserve. After the 2000 fire Fish and Wildlife had planted 1 million sage brush in pockets across the reserve, and they had grown to 12 to 18 inches high, Hughes said. All were believed destroyed in the fire. And the reserve's hundreds of elk will have to move elsewhere to find food. A combined federal and state Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation Team was expected at the monument Friday night to assess fire damage and make recommendations to stabilize and rehabilitate burned areas. The fire Thursday was the third this summer on the monument and there also was fire damage last month on the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, which is part of the same complex. About 170 firefighters were at the blaze Thursday night. That grew to about 200 personnel as the regional incident management team arrived about noon Friday and about 300 by 9:30 p.m. It set up a base camp at the HAMMER training center north of Richland to relieve weary commanders and crews who had fought the fire since shortly after noon Thursday. Resources included 41 engines and nine bulldozers, said Roland Emetaz, information officer for the Central Washington Area Incident Management Team. Five air tankers and a helicopter also were assigned to the fire at times. "Credit for the success goes to the local firefighters," Emetaz said. "They strengthened containment, did the burnouts." They included firefighters from the Hanford Fire District, Fish and Wildlife, Richland, Kennewick and the counties of Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla and Grant. Firefighters from Grant County arrived at the fire about 10:30 p.m., said Capt. Alan Hansen of Grant County Fire District 13, as he waited at HAMMER to see if he'd be sent back to the fire Friday night. On the drive down, they could see the fire as they crested the hill near Othello. He and other Grant County firefighters spent Thursday night upwind of the backburn on the top of the ridge, using water tenders to support other crews. "It was very windy," he said. After working through the night, they'd spent the day sleeping on the grass at a winery on Highway 24, they said. Local firefighters were beginning to be released from the fire Friday evening, as crews rolled in from across the state. The parking lot had rigs from Clark, Stevens, Cowlitz, Douglas and Chelan counties and Seattle Public Utilities, Washougal and Grand Coulee. A crew from Grants Pass, Ore., was setting up tents on the grass at HAMMER to get some sleep before they went out to the fire. Highway 240 was closed from near the Vernita Bridge south to Highway 225 Thursday but was reopened about 1 a.m. Friday. When a semi-truck hauling hay caught fire near 10 miles southeast of Mattawa about 4 p.m. Thursday, firefighters remained with it for about five hours to ensure it didn't spread to the monument. The truck was at Road L and Road 29 when it caught fire. As a precaution, work was canceled Friday for most Hanford employees who work north of the Wye Barricade. * On the Net: www.inciweb.org. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 65 DOE PNNL: What, oh, what are those actinides doing? Public release date: 19-Aug-2007 Contact: Geoff Harvey geoffrey.harvey@pnl.gov 509-372-6083 DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory New capabilities increasing knowledge of heavy element fate and transport Researchers are discovering how actinides such as uranium in solution interact with magnetite and other mineral surfaces. BOSTON – Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are uniting theory, computation and experiment to discover exactly how heavy elements, such as uranium and technetium, interact in their environment. As part of that effort, scientists have combined sensitive experimental measurements with fi rst principle electronic structure calculations to measure, and to really understand, the structural and bonding parameters of uranyl, the most common oxidation state of uranium in systems containing water. The insights were achieved by PNNL scientist Bert de Jong and associates Gary Groenewold of Idaho National Laboratory and Michael Van Stipdonk of Wichita State University, employing the supercomputing resources of the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (www.emsl.pnl.gov), a Department of Energy national scientifi c user facility located at PNNL. The large number and behavior of electrons in heavy elements makes most of them extremely diffi cult to study. De Jong said that advancements in computing power and theory are enabling computational actinide chemistry to contribute significantly to the understanding and interpretation of experimental chemistry data, as well as to predicting the chemical and physical properties of heavy transition metal, lanthanide and actinide complexes. “Now we can make sure we get the right answer for the right reason,” de Jong said, adding that results obtained from the calculations are an invaluable supplement to current, very expensive and often hazardous experimental studies. Researchers are discovering how actinides such as uranium in solution interact with magnetite and other mineral surfaces. Discoveries made using the new capabilities available to the growing field of computational actinide chemistry could have wide impact, from radioactive waste and cleanup challenges to the design and operation of future nuclear facilities. ### Bert De Jong will make his presentation at the 234th American Chemical Society National Meeting in Boston, Mass., on Sunday, Aug. 19, at 4:20 p.m., in the Boston Park Plaza’s Franklin Room. PNNL (www.pnl.gov) is a DOE Office of Science national laboratory that solves complex problems in energy, national security and the environment, and advances scientifi c frontiers in the chemical, biological, materials, environmental and computational sciences. PNNL employs 4,200 staff , has a $750 million annual budget, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab’s inception in 1965. ***************************************************************** 66 lamonitor.com: Zone of contention The Online News Source for Los Alamos Interest grows on all sides over Area G ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor It is the last milestone on the current list of cleanup chores for Los Alamos National Laboratory. But as plans are underway to retire a large segment of the lab's low-level nuclear waste storage site at Area G before the end of 2015, another set of plans is under way to open up a new section for storing nuclear waste well into the future. The waste management committee of the Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board said this week that they planned to have a major forum on Area G in the spring, calling it their number one priority for next year. The forum would address public interests and concerns about what is buried in Area G and what the site is used for. The featured expert at the committee meeting was Sean French, a LANL official who gave a progress report on a performance assessment (PA) and composite analysis (CA) that model long-term performance of the disposal facility in terms of risk to humans and the environment. The performance assessment evaluates radioactive wastes disposed at Area G after Sept. 26, 1988; the composite analysis takes into account all radioactive waste disposed at the facility. The models are used to calculate various dosages released into the air or into the groundwater under various scenarios and taking into account uncertainties associated with sensitive assumptions. The analyses use a probabilistic modeling tool known as GoldSim to compute the reliability and relative integrity of the Area G geological and hydrological setting over the 1,000-year period and under the specified conditions for which Department of Energy requires compliance. Work on updating the previous PA and CA began in 2003, according to French's presentation. In 2005-6, revisions were released and subjected to an independent technical review. Last year, more refinements were added to the model to respond to issues in the technical review. The latest results were issued to DOE in June. "We are waiting to hear," French said, adding that the revisions indicate that Area G meets its performance objectives. Among changes in waste management policy under the new managers of the LANL contract, French said LANS was reverting to a previous abandoned fee-for-disposal system in which nuclear waste generating programs pay for their own costs. By next year, all lab organizations will be paying half the costs, on their way to paying 100 percent for full recovery of disposal costs in 2009. Mounting needs With a wall-to-wall clean-up program underway, Area G is receiving contaminated soil from remediation and decontamination activities at other sites in the laboratory. Officials at the site said they are working extended schedules to meet demands for removing above-ground TRU waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in Carlsbad. The Department of Energy held a public forum in Los Alamos on Tuesday, beginning an evaluation of LANL as a possible repository for "Greater Than Class C Low Level Radioactive Waste," which has no designated resting place yet. If it comes to LANL, Area G is the most likely destination. Los Alamos is also under consideration for a possible role within a newly conceived Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, as the location for an advanced fuel cycle research facility. LANL's role as the nation's sole manufacturer of plutonium pits, the detonators for nuclear weapons, may well ramp up to dozens of pits a year by 2012, according to the lab's draft environmental planning document. The heightened activity will produce additional radioactive wastes that will need at least temporary storage. The growing list of future assignments prompted DOE to revise its previous plans to expand low-level waste disposal by an additional 30 acres - into Zone 4 of Area G. Officials at Area G said this week that waste efficiencies will enable them to delay expansion for another five years. After that, "Zone 4 will take us out to 2044," said Gilbert Montoya, deputy operations manager for environmental waste operations at Area G. Citizens groups have organized efforts to have Area G closed for the last several years, arguing that the radioactive load carried on the mesa top above the Rio Grande, and drinking water supply wells for Santa Fe and downstream to Texas and Mexico, pose a risk to human health and the environment. Addressing the challenge Last year, the citizens advisory board, under its federal charter to make environmental recommendations to DOE, called on the department to address the challenge. Referring to the board's previous efforts to mitigate the impacts of additional radioactive materials, one of the board's recommendations stated, "We do not propose that DOE and LANL install liners in the pits, trenches or shafts at Area G. We propose instead and recommend that the goal be that no more pits, trenches or shafts be dug or constructed at LANL and that no more radiologically contaminated wastes or hazardous wastes are buried at LANL." In reply, the Local Area Office that supervises for LANL for DOE stated, "More than 75 percent of the (low level waste) requiring disposal in FY 2007 is projected to come from environmental clean-up activities and decontamination and decommissioning," a percentage expected to grow over the next five years. The reply also pointed to the lab's success "in reducing routine hazardous and radioactive wastes." Routine low-level wastes were reduced by 83 percent and hazardous wastes by 93.6 percent during the period from 1995 to 2005, the department stated in reply. © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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