***************************************************************** 08/23/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.198 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: NAS: Project: America's Energy Future: Electricity from Renewabl 2 US: AFP: Renewable energy can save East Asia two trillion US dollars 3 ENS: Western Governors, Premiers Set Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goal 4 PTI: Pak planning to set up new uranium enrichment facility - report 5 IAEA: IAEA Chief Receives Award from Russian Ministry of Foreign Aff 6 Sydney Morning Herald: Stop nuclear race - Labor - NUCLEAR REACTORS 7 Daily Yomiuri: TEPCO narrowly avoided worst-case scenario 8 AU ABC: Locals should have say on nuclear power - PM - 9 Bangkok Post: Greenpeace warns Thailand not to fall into nuclear tra 10 US: Herald News: Official: Fish kill not all that unusual 11 US: JN: Entergy says new Indian Point sirens are working, still face 12 US: Berkshire Eagle: Wasting away in Rowe 13 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY probes tower failure 14 Guardian Unlimited: Japan to Get Quake Warning System 15 Brunei Times: Asean to tackle nuke energy 16 Economist.com: India, America and Japan | Democratic baggage | 17 Economist.com: The America-India nuclear deal | Worse will come | 18 US: Pantagraph.com: Nuke plant mails emergency brochure 19 US: IBD: Is Global Warming Serious Enough To Lift Calif. Ban On Nuke 20 Prague Daily Monitor: Klaus: TemelĂ­n is political game - 21 VietNamNet: Experts share nuclear energy inspection experience 22 US: MHNN: New Indian Point sirens ready to go live 23 Sydney Morning Herald: PM backs community votes on nuke plants - 24 The Statesman: CPM breather to govt on N-issue 25 China Post: Southeast Asia grapples with safety, costs of nuclear po 26 US: Seattle PI: Nuclear Opponents Not Nuke Industry's Only Problem NUCLEAR SECURITY 27 US: Guardian Unlimited: Inspecting Millions of Cargo Containers 28 US: Platts: Federal judge rejects SAIC's motion to dismiss claim 29 Chnia Daily: Gang on trial for attempting to sell 8kg of uranium 30 Economist.com: Nuclear safeguards | In pursuit of the undoable | 31 US: Government Inc.: Nukes, Monitors and Questions Continued - 32 NAS: Project: U.S. - Chinese Glossary of Nuclear Security Terms 33 US: WATE: Nuclear monitoring problems cited at Oak Ridge facilities 34 AFP: ASEAN agrees to set up nuclear energy safety network - NUCLEAR SAFETY 35 MDN: Hibakusha: Hearing from the survivors in their own words - 36 Platts: German government, utilities agree nuclear safety improvemen 37 US: ReviewJournal.com: NEVADA TEST SITE: Audit finds gaps in health 38 US: Wilmington: Star-News: Tritium not found in nuclear plant area 39 US: NRC: FONSI for Genisphere Facility 40 UPI: ASEAN to set up nuclear safety panel 41 US: Knoxville News Sentinel: Nuclear exposure tests found lacking 42 US: NAS: Project: Beryllium Alloy Exposures in Military Aerospace Ap NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 43 Daily Yomiuri: Resumption of Monju reactor postponed 44 US: Daily Yomiuri: Japan, U.S., Australia to hold 1st summit 45 AU ABC: NT wants vote on proposed nuclear dump - 46 US: Aiken Today: Environmental groups seek to halt MOX facility lice 47 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: A policy meltdown 48 US: Chattanooga Times Free Press: Wamp calls on reprocessing nuclear 49 US: Economist.com: Australia's uranium mines | The Indian exception 50 US: WKRN.COM: Wamp touts TVA role in nuclear waste project | 51 Las Vegas Now: Nevada's Powerful Leaders Strategize to Stop Yucca Mo 52 Whitehaven News: New nuclear build hopes for Sellafield PEACE US DEPT. OF ENERGY 53 Columbian.comNew nuclear shipments to Hanford considered- 54 Knoxville News Sentinel: ORNL disputes IG report on nuke workers mon 55 Knoxville News Sentinel: New nuke facility closer 56 lamonitor.com: Lab Notes ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 NAS: Project: America's Energy Future: Electricity from Renewables Technology Opportunities, Risks, and Tradeoffs Project Title: PIN: DEPS-L-07-02-C Major Unit: Division on Earth and Life Studies Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences National Academy of Engineering Policy and Global Affairs Division Transportation Research Board Sub Unit: RSO: Blair, Peter Subject/Focus Area: Project Scope This panel will examine the technical potential for electric power generation with alternative sources such as wind, solar-photovoltaic, geothermal, solar-thermal, hydroelectric, and other renewable sources. The panel will evaluate technologies based on their estimated times to initial commercial deployment and will provide the following information for each: " Initial deployment times " Initial deployment times < 10 years: costs, performance, and impacts " 10 to 25 years: barriers, implications for costs, and R&D challenges/needs " > 25 years: barriers and R&D challenges/needs, especially basic research needs. The primary focus of the study will be on the quantitative characterization of technologies with initial deployment times The primary focus of the study will be on the quantitative characterization of technologies with initial deployment times < 10 years. Thus, the panel will focus on those renewable sources that show the most promise for initial commercial development within a decade leading to substantial impact on the U.S. energy system as well as consider the potential use of such technologies globally. In keeping with the charge to the overall scope of the America's Energy Future Study Committee, the panel will not recommend policy choices, but will assess the state of development of technologies. In addition to a principal focus on renewable energy technologies for power generation, the panel will address the challenges of incorporating such technologies into the power grid as well as the potential of improvements in the national electricity grid that could enable better and more extensive utilization of wind, solar-thermal, solar photovoltaics, and other renewable technologies. The project is sponsored by the The National Academies, Dow Chemical Company, the United States Department of Energy, and Kavli. The approximate start date for the project is July 2007. Project Duration: 18 months Provide FEEDBACK on this project. Contact the Public Access Records Office to make an inquiry or to schedule an appointment to view project materials available to the public. Committee Membership Meetings Reports Reports having no URL can be seen at the Public Access Records Office Email: info@nas.edu ***************************************************************** 2 AFP: Renewable energy can save East Asia two trillion US dollars in fuel costs - AFP - Thursday, August 23 SINGAPORE, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) - Shifting to renewable energy could save countries in East Asia as much as two trillion US dollars in fuel costs over the next 23 years, or more than 80 billion dollars annually, environmental group Greenpeace said Thursday. A shift from oil and coal could also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 22 percent in the same period, it said in a report released to coincide with a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) energy ministers here. Globally, investing in renewable energy -- geothermal, hydro, wind and solar power as well as biomass and biofuels -- would save countries 180 billion dollars a year and slash carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2030, Greenpeace said. Carbon dioxide sent into the atmosphere has been blamed as a major contributor to climate change. While upfront investment costs are higher for renewable energy, the long-term savings are greater, Greenpeace said. Athena Ballesteros, Greenpeace International Asia regional climate campaigner, said investment costs for new power plants in East Asia projected by the International Energy Agency (IEA) would total 490 billion dollars between 2004 and 2030. Under Greepeace's scenario, investment costs on renewable energy would amount to 556 billion dollars over the same time frame. However, fuel costs in the IEA projections would cost 6.3 trillion dollars over a 23-year period. But if East Asian states shifted to renewable energy, fuel costs over the same period would total 4.2 trillion dollars, translating into savings of 2.1 trillion dollars, Ballesteros said at a news briefing. "Our report shows that by employing massive energy efficiency, it makes economic sense to shift to renewable energy," she said. "By incorporating fuel costs into the picture, investing in renewable energy now is a better long-term option." However, Southeast Asian energy ministers and officials from China, Japan and South Korea who joined them later at a meeting in Singapore on Thursday indicated that shifting would not be easy. In a joint communique issued after their one-day meeting, they said that with robust economic growth, the region's demand for oil "will continue to increase, especially in the transportation sector." They also "recognised that coal will play an important role in the regional energy supply," in sharp contrast with Greenpeace's position calling for a moratorium on the building of new coal-fired plants. They acknowledged efforts of some countries to explore the peaceful use of nuclear energy and encouraged dialogues to discuss more viable nuclear technologies. Greenpeace had urged the ASEAN energy ministers to scrap plans to harness civilian nuclear energy and focus resources on developing renewable sources that are abundant in the region. ASEAN members Indonesia and the Philippines have among them the biggest geothermal resources in the world, Greenpeace said. The environmental group welcomed statements by new ASEAN chair Singapore that it will include climate change as a key issue during its one-year chairmanship. It said the city-state "has a unique opportunity to lead ASEAN leaders" to draw up an action plan that can help address the problem. But the 10-member ASEAN should "set ambitious and legally binding" targets and implement strict energy efficiency standards, among others, Greenpeace's Ballesteros said. ASEAN members have committed to increase the share of renewable energy in power generation to 10 percent by 2010. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Singapore Pte. Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. ***************************************************************** 3 ENS: Western Governors, Premiers Set Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goal Environment News Service (ENS) OLYMPIA, Washington The eight members of the Western Climate Initiative, WCI, today announced that they have established a regional goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the West to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. By defining the goal before the end of August, WCI members met the timetable they set when the organization was created in February. On February 26, the governors of Washington, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Oregon created the Western Climate Initiative. Since then, the state of Utah and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba have joined the WCI. The WCI membership cuts across party lines including Republican and Democratic governors as well as Canadian premiers from the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party. Washington Governor Chris Gregoire (Photo courtesy Government of Washington) Washington Governor Chris Gregoire said, "In the absence of federal leadership, states and provinces have stepped up to meet the challenge of global climate change. We are working together to agree on common goals that will reduce our region's contribution to the problem while recognizing the states' individual goals. In Washington, we are committed to meeting the challenge and seizing the opportunities presented by climate change." All eight WCI member states and provinces jointly agreed upon the economy-wide regional goal announced today, although it only goes part way to the WCI's overall goal of "significantly reducing" dangerous threats to the Earth's climate. The WCI governors and premiers said, "Science suggests that this will require worldwide reductions between 50 and 85 percent in carbon dioxide emissions from current levels by 2050." "Today's announcement is about individual state and provincial governments showing leadership and taking steps to deal with climate change," said Manitoba Premier Gary Doer. The Seven Sisters hydroelectric dam on Manitoba's Winnipeg River. The West generates much of its power with dams which emit far less greenhouse gases than burning coal, oil or gas. (Photo by Brian Simmons courtesy of Manitoba Hydro) "Instead of waiting for federal action, states and provinces are on the forefront of reducing greenhouse gases and dealing with this serious threat to our environment and economy," said Doer. "Together, we can create a market for change." The WCI members also have agreed to design a multi-sector market-based mechanism, such as a load-based cap-and-trade program, by the end of August 2008 to help reach the goal. Each member will participate in a multi-state greenhouse gas emissions registry. "States and provinces are leading the way by working to solve - not just debating - the problem of climate change," said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (Photo by Bernhard Kuttenhofer) "Our goal is the most aggressive regional goal in North America - to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020. Next, the partners in the Western Climate Initiative will develop a cap-and-trade program and do our part to tackle global warming," Richardson said. To meet the August 2008 deadline, all eight WCI members have joined The Climate Registry, a greenhouse gas emissions registry consisting of more than 40 U.S. states, tribes, Canadian provinces and Mexican states. WCI member British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said today that the new regional goal reflects "the combined impact of emission-related targets B.C. and other members have set, and does not supersede those individual targets." "Membership in the WCI means having an aggressive greenhouse gas target for your jurisdiction, adopting California tailpipe standards, participating in a cross-border greenhouse gas registry, and working together on a regional cap and trade system to help meet our targets," said Campbell. "The more partners we unite now in meeting these objectives, the better off our countries and world will be in decades to come." Campbell said, "I am urging other Canadian provinces to participate in this initiative to create a single, continental market for carbon trading." Greenhouse gases are emitted by vehicles that burn fossil fuels, like these cars approaching Los Angeles. (Photo by Darin Marinov) At the recent Council of Federation meeting in New Brunswick, the leaders of 12 of 13 provinces and territories agreed to work toward the objective of implementing California tailpipe emissions standards. British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba also committed to a cap and trade system. While the WCI is a regional effort, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sees the organization as a way to connect with a growing worldwide movement to fight global warming. "Climate change is a global problem that requires a global solution," said Schwarzenegger. "California is proud to be among the Western Climate Initiative partners taking this important step to establish the most comprehensive regional greenhouse gas emission reduction goal in North America. Our collective commitment will build a successful regional system to be linked with other regional efforts across the nation and eventually the world." Four other U.S. states, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada and Wyoming; three other Canadian provinces, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan; and one Mexican state, Sonora, are participating as observers to the WCI's deliberations. The WCI members said they expect that some of these governments, as well as others, may seek to join as full members in the future. Current WCI members will use the regional goal of 15 percent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020 in assessing requests from other jurisdictions to join the organization. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 PTI: Pak planning to set up new uranium enrichment facility - report Islamabad, Aug 23 (PTI) Pakistan is planning to set up its second uranium enrichment facility, which will be placed under international safeguards and meant exclusively for the country's civilian nuclear power programme, a media report said today. The new enrichment facility is envisaged as part of the nearly USD two billion Pakistan Nuclear Power Fuel Complex to be built at Kundian in Punjab province, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported quoting Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission sources (PAEC). Equipped with centrifuges made in Pakistan, the news agency said, the new facility would be much bigger than the controversial Khan Research Laboratory (KRL) at Kahuta, also in Punjab, where weapons-grade uranium is enriched for use in Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. While the KRL would continue enriching weapons-grade uranium, the new enrichment plant would enrich uranium only to the 3 per cent needed for use with two pressurised water reactors set up with Chinese assistance at Chashma, located in the same district as Kundian, and indigenous power plants being planned by Pakistan, Kyodo said. Unlike the KRL, the new plant will be placed under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. PAEC officials were quoted as saying the government has decided in principle to start indigenous manufacture of pressurised water reactors because efforts to negotiate an agreement with the US for supply of nuclear technology on the pattern of recent Indo-US deal have failed to make progress. Kyodo quoted sources as saying the proposed complex would comprise a fuel fabrication facility, a facility to produce hexa flouride gas, a zirconium tubing plant, a fuel-testing laboratory and an uranium enrichment plant. PTI © Copyright PTI 2007 ***************************************************************** 5 IAEA: IAEA Chief Receives Award from Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Citation Recognizes Dr. ElBaradei's Contribution to International Cooperation Staff Report 22 August 2007 IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei receiving a medal and citation for his 'Contribution to International Cooperation' from Mr. Alexander Zmeyevskiy, Russia's Permanent Representative to the international organizations in Vienna. (Photo credit: D. Calma/IAEA) IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has received an award from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his 'Contribution to International Cooperation'. The award recognizes Dr. ElBaradei's "high professional skill, broad range of vision, fidelity of principles, ability through dialogue to find ways to solutions of the most complicated international problems with the aim of the use of atomic energy for the welfare of mankind and prosperity all over the world". Mr. Alexander Zmeyevskiy, Russia's Permanent Representative to the international organizations in Vienna, presented the award to the Director General at a ceremony held at its embassy in Vienna on 21 August 2007. He said the Russian Foreign Ministry was presenting the award also in connection with the IAEA's 50th anniversary, which is being celebrated this year. In his acceptance speech, Dr. ElBaradei mentioned the IAEA's role as a vehicle for development and peace. "I am deeply honoured and grateful to be recognised by the Russian Federation for my contribution along with my colleagues to international cooperation in the area of the peaceful use of nuclear energy for development, peace and prosperity. I am one of over 2000 people who have been working hard in an objective, impartial and dedicated way to make our world more human, fairer, more equitable and safer," he said. There is a clear relationship between development and security and that it is the IAEA's job to help countries in the area of development making sure that nuclear power is only used for peaceful purposes, Dr. ElBaradei added. "When you allow countries to develop you are giving hope to humanity. If you have hope, you have fewer conflicts. And if people have a good standard of living, eventually a system of good governance, dialogue and security is created," he stated. Dr. ElBaradei also cited the Russian Federation's role as supporter of the IAEA. "We can only succeed as a Secretariat when we get the necessary support from our Member States, and I am proud to say that throughout our 50-year history we have had consistent support from the Russian Federation and the former Soviet Union in all our activities," he said. 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: ***************************************************************** 6 Sydney Morning Herald: Stop nuclear race - Labor - www.smh.com.au Peter Hartcher Political Editor August 24, 2007 KEVIN RUDD fears a nuclear arms race in the Asia-Pacific, and sees a role for Australia to head it off. The Labor leader argues this is one of the region's five "core challenges" that Australia and its ally, the US, can deal with together. "China is modernising its strategic nuclear arms and it's engaging in general force modernisation," Mr Rudd said. "The challenge for the US and the region is to engage China in substantive nuclear arms reduction talks." "Australia and the region should encourage China to sit down with the US to start this process soon," Mr Rudd said in an interview with the Herald in which he laid out his agenda for the Australia-US alliance. "The alternative is a nuclear arms race across the region, which does not serve Australia's security interests at all." The US President, George Bush, is due in Australia on September 4. He will be joined by China's President, Hu Jintao, and 19 other leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Sydney on September 8. Under John Howard and Mr Bush, the alliance has been preoccupied with Iraq. The Middle East, however, does not appear in Mr Rudd's future work program for the alliance. The other four "core challenges" on Mr Rudd's agenda for the alliance are to avoid needlessly provoking China's strategic fears; to "rebirth" APEC to deal with the issues of globalisation and climate change; to revive the fortunes of failing South Pacific states to prevent a strategic void which China may fill; and to defeat militant Islamism in South-East Asia. Specifically, Mr Rudd is concerned that Australia might arouse China's fears of being encircled with a proposal to join a "strategic dialogue" with three other countries. While he supported the existing "trilateral dialogue" between Australia, the US and Japan, he opposed a proposal to enlarge this dialogue to include India and perhaps Russia. Enlargement "would unnecessarily exacerbate unresolved strategic tensions between the US and China in particular". Third, Mr Rudd said APEC had "fallen into disuse", and the summit was an opportunity for "rebirth and redirection". "And that would include using APEC to restart stalled global trade liberalisation talks and creating effective post-2012 governance arrangements for climate change." Fourth, Mr Rudd said Australia was failing in its South Pacific responsibilities. "One of Australia's core alliance responsibilities is to re-secure the South Pacific ? failure to do that will cause the region increasingly to look to other great powers for economic and security support". The unnamed "great power" which could seek to fill any vacuum was China. Fifth was the problem of Islamic fundamentalism. There was "grave concern for Australia in the future incremental 'Mid-Easternisation' of elements of Islamic politics in South-East Asia", he said. Copyright © 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 7 Daily Yomiuri: TEPCO narrowly avoided worst-case scenario TEPCO implemented its emergency electricity supply measures this week not just because of higher-than-predicted temperatures, but also as a result of structural changes in the pattern of the nation's demand for electricity. Tokyo Electric Power Co. took the emergency measures for the first time in 17 years as the daily peak in electricity demand reached records this summer. With the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station still shut down in the wake of the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake, TEPCO has been on a tightrope in terms of balancing supply and demand. The company finally had to make use of measures it sees as its last resort once it became clear its initial estimate for the maximum demand for power proved to be a miscalculation. Early Wednesday morning, the mood at TEPCO's central supply control office in the Uchisaiwaicho area of Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, became very tense. In the office controlling the distribution of power supplies in TEPCO's service areas, one official said, "If it continues like this, there's no way 61 million kilowatts is going to be enough." In the Otemachi district, one of the major business centers in the ward, the temperature had already risen above 30 C by 7 a.m. and was continuing to rise. From past experience, it is believed as a rule of thumb that when the temperature in Tokyo exceeds 30 C, every subsequent one degree rise in the temperature increases the total electricity demand by 1.7 million kilowatts. In accordance with this rule of thumb, TEPCO was already down to its last 1.6 percent of supply capacity. When extremely hot days and tropical nights continue for extended periods, the asphalt of roads and walls of buildings do not cool down sufficiently at night, resulting in high room temperatures in office buildings from early in the morning. This heat-accumulating effect boosts the demand for power. Between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Wednesday the total power demand rose at a ferocious pace--by more than 8 million kilowatts per hour at the peak of the surge. This meant the overall demand was enough to consume the hourly output of a large nuclear power station in just 10 minutes. At 11:30 a.m., TEPCO Executive Vice President Takashi Fujimoto, who is responsible for power distribution, decided to take the emergency measures, which he had tried to keep in reserve if at all possible. One of the measures involves asking some companies to accept a cut in their power supply in accordance with their supply contracts, which stipulate that TEPCO is allowed to adjust the amount of power supplied. Another measure taken was the emergency activation of the Shiobara hydroelectric power plant in Tochigi Prefecture, whose operating license has been suspended since data falsification at the facility came to light. The requests for large-scale users to accept a reduction in power supply has restricted production at these companies. TEPCO took this measure twice in 1987 and four times in 1990. It is seen as the absolute last resort for TEPCO because the measure results in it cutting the supply of its product, which runs contrary to TEPCO's commercial obligations. Use of the Shiobara plant, meanwhile, may draw criticism from local residents. Shortly after 11 a.m., total demand surpassed 60 million kilowatts. TEPCO revised upward its prediction for Wednesday's maximum demand from 60 million kilowatts made the previous day to 61 million and then again to 61.5 million. In addition to the two measures, TEPCO was forced to use a third measure--increasing its access to power supplied by other electric power companies. Shortly after 11:30 a.m., TEPCO began making urgent requests to 23 plants in Tokyo and surrounding areas that have contracts allowing TEPCO to reduce their power supply when deemed necessary. By fax and telephone, TEPCO asked the plants to refrain from using electricity as far as possible between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. that day. Most of the 23 plants were manufacturers of nonferrous metals that consume large amounts of electricity. At at about 1:10 p.m., the Shiobara plant started operating at an output level of 300,000 kilowatts. Shortly before noon, TEPCO notified the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry of the situation. At 12:45 p.m., the ministry held an urgent press conference to ask companies and people to cooperate in saving electricity. In the ministry's head office building, lights were turned off in lobbies and corridors, and coffee machines were turned off and the temperature setting of air conditioners raised from 28 C to 30 C. At the request of the ministry, companies turned off lights in offices and took other measures to cooperate. But ordinary households were hard to reach in calling for cooperation. Not only that, the final game of the national high school baseball championship was about to start at 1 p.m. In recent years, TV sets do not consume as much electricity compared with the past, because of the spread of TVs with liquid crystal display screens that consume only about two-thirds the electricity of a comparable cathode-ray tube TV. But in many households, people will have watched the game in air-conditioned rooms. While TV sets consume less than 10 percent of the total electricity used by ordinary households, the figure for air conditioners is 25 percent, higher even than the 15 percent used by refrigerators and lights. Total electricity demand spiked at 61.47 kilowatts shortly after 2 p.m. But shortly after 3 p.m. when the baseball game ended, total demand fell away and failed to exceed TEPCO's revised forecast of 61.5 million kilowatts. === Small-user demand rises One of reasons of the tight balancing act between the supply of and demand for power in the Tokyo area is that the main consumers of electricity are no longer predominantly manufacturing plants but offices and households, which makes it difficult to coordinate actions to save power. Of fiscal 2006's total domestic electricity demand of about 1.04 trillion kilowatt-hours, 60 percent was consumed by plants, department stores, offices and other large business entities, and 40 percent by households, small offices and other small-scale users. Total annual demand has increased by 16 percent since 1996, when the figure was about 903.5 billion kilowatt-hours. While the increase in demand among business entities during that period was 11 percent, the figure for households was 22 percent. The sharp increase in household demand for electricity is a result of increased air conditioner usage, with many households now fitted with two or three air conditioners. The only measure TEPCO has held in reserve is the invocation of the power-cut option among smaller users with contracts stipulating the power-cut option. This measure could reduce demand by a further 1 million kilowatts. According to the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, if a condition of excess power demand is not addressed, the frequency and voltage of the electricity current falls, and this can result in computer glitches or the sudden stopping of elevators. In the worst-case scenario, power outages can suddenly occur, and TEPCO has no way of predicting where such outages might take place. Ikuo Kuribayashi, deputy director of the System Engineering Research Laboratory of the institute, said, "If the worst-case scenario of a serious power shortage occurs, TEPCO may implement a power cut rota." This measure cuts the power supply during designated hours in one area and then another. This can in effect force households to reduce electricity consumption. This measure has been used in the United States. ) The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 8 AU ABC: Locals should have say on nuclear power - PM - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Updated August 23, 2007 12:35:00 John Howard says people will come around to nuclear power. (File photo) (AAP: Alan Porritt) Prime Minister John Howard says he will push for communities to be given a vote on whether they want nuclear power plants in their area. Mr Howard had earlier said commercial considerations would determine the locations of up to 25 nuclear power stations around Australia. Last night Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile said binding local plebiscites should be held over nuclear power - a move backed this morning by Treasurer Peter Costello and Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews. Mr Howard says it will be at least a decade before nuclear power is an economic possibility and he believes public opinion will shift in favour of nuclear energy by then. "I think it would be appropriate and I would support and I would argue for, when the time does come, that as well as the environmental and safety considerations, that local communities should be consulted and consulting them by plebiscite would be a very good idea," he said. Mr Howard says Labor is running a "reckless fear campaign" against nuclear power. "Many countries are investing in nuclear power, with 90 new power stations under construction or consideration," he said. "Nuclear energy already represents 16 per cent of the world's electricity generation and contributes to the global abatement of more than two billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. "The Government's priority is to tackle climate change without damaging Australian jobs and living standards. Nuclear power could make a significant contribution to this challenge." Mr Costello says local communities would have "every right" to be consulted over nuclear power. "But it's not something that's going to happen in your or my political lifetimes," he said. Mr Andrews agrees. "People have views about this and my view is that the local community that could potentially be affected if a nuclear power plant was to be placed there should be able to have a plebiscite as to whether they want it or not and I think the outcome could vary around the country," he said. Greens Senator Kerry Nettle says she does not believe Australians would support nuclear power plants in their local areas if they were given a vote on the issue. "I don't think they would and I think that's because Australians understand that the nuclear industry is linked with waste that we don't know how to deal with and weapons that people are concerned [about]," she said. "[We] want to see governments investing in more sustainable forms of energy that don't [present] waste and weapons problems." Tags: alternative-energy, government-and-politics, nuclear-energy, australia AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of UTC (Greenwich Mean Time) © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 9 Bangkok Post: Greenpeace warns Thailand not to fall into nuclear trap Friday August 24, 2007 Technology is costly and dangerous, it says KULTIDA SAMABUDDHI Thailand should not repeat the mistakes of industrialised countries which have suffered a string of economic and environmental problems caused by nuclear power plants, Greenpeace warned yesterday. ''Nuclear technology is costly, dangerous, and should not be taken up by any country in Asia,'' said Nur Hidayati, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia. ''Our region has vast amounts of resources to produce renewable energy. Therefore, there is no need to resort to such risky technology,'' she said. Speaking in a phone interview from Singapore where Asean energy ministers attended a meeting on energy business yesterday, Ms Hidayati called on Asean governments to drop the idea of building nuclear power plants. Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam were the only three countries in the regional bloc that had come up with concrete plans to embrace atomic energy for electricity production, she said. Deputy permanent secretary for energy Kurujit Nakornthap told the forum on Wednesday that the country plans to generate 4,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2020. Seven years will be needed to develop safety standards, establish the framework and train personnel. Another six years would be needed to complete the plant's construction. Thailand and other Asean countries should not be tempted by the nuclear industry, which has been struggling to find new markets for its expensive and risky technology, said the Greenpeace campaigner. ''The [nuclear] industry is dying as industrialised nations have started to turn their backs on atomic energy and decommissioned their nuclear power plants. That's why the industry is turning to Asean countries,'' she said. Renewable energy and energy efficiency schemes were the only solution to a possible energy crisis in this region, she said. Debate over the use of nuclear energy heated up in Thailand in April when the National Energy Policy Council approved the 15-year Power Development Plan which stipulates that nuclear power will be one of the key fuels used in electricity production. Under the plan, the government will construct four nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts of electricity by 2021. Penchom sae Tang, a coordinator of the Campaign for Alternative Industry Network, urged the government to stop covering up information about nuclear power projects and seek opinions from the public and everyone involved. ''It is unacceptable that government officials keep telling people around the world that Thailand will build nuclear power plants but Thai people know nothing about it,'' said Ms Penchom. She said Thailand was not ready to handle such risky technology and its environmental impact, especially nuclear waste disposal management. Energy experts and environmental activists recently agreed to form a network called Nuclear Energy Watch to monitor government movements on the issue. ***************************************************************** 10 Herald News: Official: Fish kill not all that unusual HeraldNewsOnline.com Member of the Sun-Times News Group Official: Dead fish not unusual at power plants Braidwood Nuclear Power Plant August 23, 2007 By KIM SMITH STAFF WRITER BRACEVILLE -- Thousands of fish have gone belly-up recently at the Braidwood cooling lake. Thousands of shads and catfish have died in the Braidwood cooling lakes in an event some local fisherman call a fish kill. A state department of conservation spokesman said it's not unusual for a large number of fish to die in power plant lakes this time of year. Submitted photo "It is not unusual for power plant lakes this time of year," said Mike Conlin, IDNR spokesman with the Department of Fisheries. Conlin said the dead fish were shads and catfish. The heat wave combined with heavy downpours cooled the temperatures of the waters by 10 degrees, according to Paul Dempsey, spokesman for the Exelon Braidwood Nuclear Power Plant. The sudden temperature dip caused the oxygen levels in the waters to drop, suffocating the fish. "Nothing was released from the plant that would cause something like this to happen," Dempsey said. Dempsey said Exelon notified the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources "as a courtesy." A new law was recently signed by the governor that requires nuclear power plants to immediately report dangerous chemical leaks to government agencies within 24 hours of the release. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Careen Gordon, D-Coal City, and state Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi, D-Joliet, also requires the state agencies to conduct independent inspections rather than rely on in-house inspections conducted by employees of the power plant. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of tritium have been leaked over the past decade, though Exelon officials maintain there has never been any health threats caused by the leaks on their property and into the cooling lake. Tritium is a byproduct of nuclear generation and can enter the body through ingestion, absorption or inhalation. Some studies indicate that exposure to tritium increases the risk of cancer, birth defects and genetic damage. "We check the lake levels every day," Dempsey said. A Braceville man, who asked that his name not be used in this story, said it is sad that the power plant operators now consider fish kills an ordinary event in cooling lakes around power plants. "They can install cooling towers to prevent things like this from happening. They have them in Dresden," he said. "I am a devoted outdoorsman and think that it is wrong to accept the fact that the fish die like this. I have been coming here for years and have not seen anything like this before." Reporter Kim Smith can be reached at (815) 729-6067 or at ksmith@scn1.com © Copyright 2007 Sun-Times News Group | Terms of Use and Privacy ***************************************************************** 11 JN: Entergy says new Indian Point sirens are working, still faces possible fine Thursday, August 23, 2007 By MICHAEL RISINIT JOURNAL NEWS BUCHANAN - The owner of the Indian Point nuclear power plants in Buchanan still faces a possible fine or other sanction from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, even though the nuclear power company has readied its new siren notification system by tomorrow's federal deadline. Entergy Nuclear Northeast has completed tests proving the sirens are dependable and are sounding loudly enough so residents can hear them, the company said. But the data must be reviewed and approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency before the system can be deemed operational, an NRC spokesman said. That agency is in the midst of its 45-day review. "It's clear now (Entergy) will not be able to achieve that deadline," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said this morning. Sheehan said the NRC was discussing whether to again fine Entergy. The NRC had levied a $130,000 penalty against the nuclear power company after it missed a second deadline this spring to replace the alert system. Jim Steets, an Entergy spokesman, said the company "did all it could" to meet tomorrow's deadline. The review process, he said, came later and there was nothing the company could do about it. He declined to speculate on what measures the NRC may take because of FEMA's review carrying the process beyond the deadline. "We have an operating siren system now. In fact, we have two," Steets said. The new system is designed to improve on the decades-old air-raid-type sirens, which will remain in place until the new system is fully operational. The sirens in the 10-mile emergency planning zone around the plant - approximately 340 square miles covering parts of Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties - are meant to alert residents in all directions to turn on radios and televisions for more information in the event of an emergency at the Buchanan plants. The new $15 million alert system includes battery backups for the 150 sirens, multiple activation methods by which Entergy can sound the sirens, and a more reliable reporting system to alert local authorities if they have sounded. Copyright © 2007 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. ***************************************************************** 12 Berkshire Eagle: Wasting away in Rowe PITTSFIELD, MA Editorial Article Last Updated: 08/22/2007 02:59:38 AM EDT Yankee Rowe, one of the nation's first nuclear power plants and one of the first to expose the problems that became endemic to the industry, has been officially decommissioned, 15 years after its reactor was shut down for good. Still there, however, entombed in concrete, is the plant's nuclear waste, a silent reminder of the issue that prevents nuclear power from achieving its full potential. When it went online in 1960, the third nuclear power plant to do so in the nation, Yankee Rowe was at the forefront of the optimistic era when nuclear plants would provide power that was "too cheap to meter." Cracks and corrosion caused its closure, and the assumption 32 years earlier that a nuclear waste depository site would be designated to collect the nation's nuclear waste proved unfounded. Fifteen years later it remains so, and the waste at Yankee Rowe that was to have been removed in 1998 remains. Nevada's Yucca Mountain has long been thought to be the best site for storage of nuclear waste, but the toxic combination of politics and lawsuits has prevented that from happening. While Three Mile Island and Chernobyl have given nuclear power a bad name, it is actually less environmentally destructive than coal or oil and should have a greater role in the nation's energy mix. That can't happen, however, until a federal waste site is designated and opened for business. With so much of the state's land lost to development, the 2,000 acres owned by Yankee now pronounced clean and safe will ideally be turned over to recreational use and land conservation. Also, ideally, Congress and the Department of Energy will take the nuclear waste issue head-on, so states can remove waste they were never expected to store, and the nuclear power industry can be removed from its state of suspended animation. ***************************************************************** 13 Brattleboro Reformer: VY probes tower failure BRATTLEBORO, VT Impact on ratepayers not yet known By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff Thursday, August 23 BRATTLEBORO -- Before it can be determined why one of the 22 cooling cells at Vermont Yankee collapsed, repair workers have to make sure the area is safe to enter, said power plant spokesman Rob Williams. The plant powered down to less than 40 percent capacity Tuesday night after the failure, but by Wednesday afternoon had been returned to 50 percent, or 270MWe. "We want to ensure that industrial safety is fully considered during the evaluation and repairs," said Williams. Not only will technicians analyze why the tower collapsed, they will also be inspecting the other towers to make sure they are safe as well, he said. During the summer, Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, which is owned by Entergy, is allowed to increase the temperature of the Connecticut River from two to four degrees, depending on the upstream water temperatures. "(Entergy) will conduct a root cause analysis to determine what happened," wrote NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan, in an e-mail to the Reformer. "It will bring in outside help as needed to help conduct that review." After Yankee conducts its investigation, the NRC will ask to see a repair plan, and will determine whether the repairs will be limited to the section of the bank of towers that collapsed or need to include the other cooling towers at the plant. Vermont power utility representatives said it was too soon to tell if the reduced power output at Yankee would affect ratepayers' pocketbooks. "The cost for replacing the lost power is running about $20,000 a day," said Dotty Schnure, spokeswoman for Green Mountain Power, but if the reduced power output doesn't last much longer, it may just write off the loss. The state's public service board reviews Green Mountain Power's operating status every three months, said Schnure, and if it is determined increased costs need to be passed on to utility users, they would see it sometime in January 2008. "But it's too soon to tell," she said. "A lot depends on what happens with other power costs." "Assuming this is shortlived and power prices stay where they are now," said Central Vermont Public Service spokesman Steve Costello, "it doesn't appear this will have a tremendous impact." While Yankee was running 120 percent, utilities were paying 4.1 cents per KWH, said Costello. Now they are paying around 5 cents. And electric consumers have an unforeseen circumstance working in their favor -- the incredibly cool weather the area has experienced this month. In typical Augusts, when temperatures hit the 90s, electricity purchased on the spot market can reach 8 to 9 cents per KWH, he said. If CVPS needs to file for a rate adjustment, he said, it would take eight to nine months before ratepayers see it on their bills. "The impact in the short term will be nonexistent," said Costello. "In the long term, it may or may not have an impact." A rate increase is pending now, but Costello said the Vermont Yankee costs would have to wait, possibly for more than a year. The collapse of the cooling tower came 18 months after the plant boosted its power output by 20 percent, from 540MWe to 650MWe. While the power boost was pending before regulators, Vermont officials negotiated a deal with the plant under which Entergy would make payments to cover the power companies' costs if the power boost caused problems that forced the plant to cut its output, leaving Vermont utilities to buy more expensive power on the spot market. That warranty expired earlier this year. Entergy is also seeking to renew its license for 20 years beyond its scheduled 2012 expiration date. Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 273. ***************************************************************** 14 Guardian Unlimited: Japan to Get Quake Warning System Friday August 24, 2007 1:01 AM By CARL FREIRE Associated Press Writer TOKYO (AP) - It's still beyond the reach of science to predict exactly when an earthquake will strike, but Japan will soon get the next-best thing - televised warnings that come before anyone feels the ground shake. Japan's Meteorological Agency and national broadcaster are teaming up to alert the public of earthquakes as much as 30 seconds before they hit, or at least before they can bring their full force down on populated areas. The system - the first of its kind in the world - does not predict quakes, but officials say it can give people enough time to get away from windows that could shatter, or to turn off ovens and prevent fires from razing homes. And in one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, every second counts. ``If we can give people enough time to take even a few steps to protect themselves before the shaking starts, it could help reduce injuries and damage,'' said agency spokesman Makoto Saito. The warnings, to begin in October, will be based on data provided by the Meteorological Agency, which maintains a network of sensors deep underground that estimate the intensity of a quake as soon as the ground ruptures. Alarms can go out before the shaking starts because there is a lag between the time it takes for different seismic waves to travel to the surface. Japan, which sits atop four tectonic plates, has been hit by 83 earthquakes strong enough to cause injury since March 1996, including one last month that killed 11 people and caused a fire and small radiation leak at a nuclear power plant. The warning system works by detecting primary waves, which spread from the epicenter of a quake and travel faster than the destructive shear waves. When waves of a certain intensity are detected, the alarms are set off. The national broadcaster, NHK, will relay them almost instantaneously to its television and radio audiences. The agency started issuing warnings last August to more than 500 organizations such as power companies and train operators. The system is not perfect. Lightning or other interference can cause false alarms, for example, and early warning won't work for areas directly above the ruptured fault because the two waves would be nearly simultaneous. And residents would have to be watching TV or listening to the radio to get an alert. Still, the agency says the system helped it issue a tsunami alert for a magnitude-6.9 earthquake in northern Japan this March two minutes faster than its old early warning system would have. The agency also was able to put out a warning ahead of last month's magnitude-6.8 quake. How the public will react has been a concern. ``Chaos and injuries could result, for example, if an urgent earthquake warning is sent to a facility with large numbers of customers and a crush forms at the exits as people rush to get out,'' a meteorological agency study group said in a report last year. The warnings, it was decided, must come with explanations of what people should do - stop cars and elevators, get away from things that can fall and, most of all, protect their heads. ``We realized the warnings won't work if confusion is the result,'' said Saito. ``The public needs to be educated about how and how not to react.'' Since early last month, NHK has begun preparing Japan for the alerts, carrying promotional spots accompanied by skits that show how to respond. Officials say the system may serve as a model for others. ``A lot of the injuries in an earthquake come from secondary damage, like fires started from open gas lines,'' said Barry Drummond, who oversees seismic monitoring for Geoscience Australia. ``If you've got enough time to shut the gas valve, you're that much further ahead.'' Small-scale warning systems exist in parts of Mexico, Taiwan and Turkey. In the United States, commercially available, battery-powered seismic gadgets can warn a limited region, while seismologists at the University of California, Berkeley, are working on a system inspired in part by Japan's. ``The implementation in Japan is most important to us as a test of the concept,'' said Richard Allen, who heads the group. ``We are particularly interested to see how the public react to the information and (who) starts to make use of the information and how.'' Mike Blanpeid, a Virginia-based geophysicist at the United States Geological Survey, said the USGS would also be watching Japan's new program closely as they evaluate what kind of investments are required to improve warning systems in the U.S. Blanpeid said Japan's dense network of seismometers, combined with a system that rapidly delivers seismic information to the surface, would make their early warning program particularly effective. ``You can do a lot if you know an earthquake is coming in less than a minute,'' said Blanpeid. --- Associated Press Writer Lily Hindy in New York contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 15 Brunei Times: Asean to tackle nuke energy SINGAPORE 23-Aug-07 NUCLEAR safety issues are expected to feature prominently in talks among Southeast Asian ministers here today as more countries look to nuclear as an alternative energy amid soaring oil prices, diplomatic sources said. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) energy ministers will hold the one-day meeting first among themselves and then with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea. Energy ministers from Australia, India and New Zealand will join the meeting later in the day, the Singapore government said in a press statement. Diplomatic sources said a key topic will be safety issues following a move by several countries in the region to build nuclear plants to meet growing electricity needs and reduce dependence on oil and natural gas. Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand have announced plans to tap nuclear energy, but environmental activists have warned about risks as the region does not have the expertise to operate such plants and deal with nuclear waste. There is also a problem of who will fund the plants. "Our message to the energy ministers is that they should forget nuclear power technology," said Nur Hidayati, climate and energy campaigner for Southeast Asia at the environmental group Greenpeace. "Instead of wasting their time on this costly and dangerous technology, they should now start to look at renewable energy potentials in order to really solve the long-term problem of energy security and address climate change." Hidayati said operating nuclear power plants was risky as the region is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and governments are unprepared to deal with leakage. Greenpeace also doubts whether governments would be transparent regarding nuclear programmes. "Safety issues do not only depend on technology per se ... They also depend highly on the reporting mechanism and monitoring which are very much lacking," Hidayati said. But government officials said generating nuclear power is necessary to diversify the energy mix, reduce vulnerability to volatile oil prices and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Kurujit Nakornthap, Thailand's deputy permanent secretary of energy, told an Asean energy business forum here yesterday that Thailand will go ahead with plans to generate 4,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2020. The decision to include atomic energy in its long-term development plan was made because nuclear energy is recognised as efficient, cost-effective and emitting no Co2 (carbon dioxide). AFP ***************************************************************** 16 Economist.com: India, America and Japan | Democratic baggage | Thursday August 23rd 2007 The Communists see red over India's nuclear deal with America HAVING for two years glowered at a gift-horse, India's Communist parties are trying to wrench out its molars. A furore has engulfed the country's Parliament over a nuclear co-operation deal with America, the terms of which were finalised last month. On August 18th the biggest of the four communist parties—the Communist Party of India (Marxist)—warned the government of “serious consequences” if it pursued the agreement. The deal does not require Parliament's approval. Yet the Congress-led government of Manmohan Singh needs the parliamentary support of the Communists to pass legislation (see table). This is not new ground. The Communists have indulged in periodic ideological grandstanding ever since offering the government their “outside support” in 2004. They have ensured that Mr Singh, a noted economic reformist, has attempted only a handful of modest reforms. Yet the nuclear deal, which took two years to negotiate, symbolises India's fledgling strategic relationship with America. It is central to Mr Singh's foreign policy. India is also getting cosier with America's allies, such as Australia (see article) and Japan, whose prime minister, Shinzo Abe, visited Delhi this week. Mr Singh has therefore refused to concede an inch of the deal. Indeed, it cannot be renegotiated. So, with scant room for compromise, either the government or the Communists will be bruised. A nuclear-arms power, India has been barred from civilian nuclear trade by America and other countries because it refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Now America is to make India an exception to this rule. It would supply India with civilian nuclear fuel and technology provided it submits to safeguards on its civilian nuclear programme and separates it from its military one. For anti-proliferation diehards, this would threaten the NPT. Worse, under the final agreement, which must be approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and America's Congress, India won further concessions. In particular, it would retain the right to reprocess atomic fuel for energy generation—a procedure which also yields fissile material for weapons—in a purpose-built facility. The final settlement also muddied a central concern: that the deal would be off, and America's nuclear technology returned, if India tests another nuclear weapon. How and when—and even whether—this technology would be returned is left unclear. At a meeting of the IAEA next month, India hopes to get approval for “India-specific” safeguards. It would then appeal to the NSG—a 45-nation anti-proliferation union—for its blessing. America's Congress might then be asked for its final approval early next year. The stand-off in Delhi is jeopardising this timetable. The Communists say the government should not appeal to the IAEA before renegotiating the deal's contents with them. Otherwise, according to the boss of the second-biggest party, the Communist Party of India, “there is no doubt” that they would ditch the government. The government says it would be delighted to discuss the deal with its friends on the left, but suggests there would be little point, for two reasons. First, the deal could be changed only by renegotiating with America, which would be fruitless and make India a laughing-stock. Second, the Communists object to closer ties with America, period. This at least is coherent—unlike the objection of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP, which led a coalition government that tested a nuclear bomb in 1998, says the deal would impede India's weapons programme. The reverse is more likely. Out of nuclear isolation, India could funnel its own modest uranium supply into its weapons programme. In the end, the Communists will probably climb down—after all, even if the government falls, the deal will stand. They are anyway not keen to fight an election on an issue for which most Indians—poor and rural—probably care not a fig. Even so, the rumpus may hasten the government's end. Many think that elections, due by May 2009, will now be held next year. At least the upheaval should encourage empathy between Mr Singh and Mr Abe, whose party took a beating in upper-house elections last month. Japan has big misgivings about the nuclear deal. But Mr Abe's visit repays one by Mr Singh to Tokyo last December and has excited talk of an Asian “axis of democracy” against a rising China. Indo-Japanese relations are certainly improving. Japan backed India's attendance at the inaugural East Asia Summit in 2005. Japan, India and America held joint naval exercises in April off Japan. Next month Australia will join them in fresh manoeuvres in the Bay of Bengal. In Delhi, however, Indian and Japanese officials were predictably keen to keep the strategic talk low-key. They stressed that Mr Abe had come principally to discuss trade between their two countries. It is currently puny—$6.6 billion last year—but could double within five years, according to a recent study. A huge boost would be provided by a vast industrial zone, stretching 1,500km (930 miles) from Delhi to Mumbai, that India wants to develop as a hub for Japanese manufacturers. Despite the benefits the scheme might bring both countries, its implementation seems almost unimaginable. An economic reform pursued by Mr Singh, a more modest scheme to provide plots of 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) for industrial development, has been bedevilled by difficulties in acquiring land. A Japanese official in Delhi also expressed astonishment at reports that Japan would commit $10 billion to the Delhi-Mumbai scheme. The figure has been widely touted in India's lively press, which, like parliamentary debate, is an important underpinning of an energetic democracy. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2007. All rights ***************************************************************** 17 Economist.com: The America-India nuclear deal | Worse will come | Thursday August 23rd 2007 From The Economist print edition Unless others stand up for the anti-nuclear rules AP FOR India's government, despite the hubbub in Parliament and barely veiled threats from its neighbour, Pakistan, the controversial deal it struck last month with America to allow civil nuclear co-operation between the two countries is already radiating success. Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, was in Delhi this week to cement a “strategic partnership”, despite Japan's decades-long discomfort with India's bomb. Meanwhile, Australia's cabinet, hitherto resolute in its refusal to sell uranium to any country outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (and only to a select few within it), has taken its cue from America and agreed in principle to sell uranium to India, even though India hasn't signed the NPT, and won't. India is breaking out of the nuclear quarantine imposed after its first “peaceful” nuclear test in 1974. But for commerce to resume, it must first agree with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which safeguards will apply to nuclear facilities it has designated “civilian”. It will then need an exemption from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which bars nuclear trade with countries, such as India, that refuse to apply such international safeguards to all their nuclear facilities. Some governments are deeply unhappy at carving an India-sized hole in the nuclear rules. But none has yet vetoed it. Unlike North Korea and Iran, which signed the NPT and then violated its rules, India (like Pakistan and Israel) never signed the treaty; its bombs are not illegal. Since no one expects it to give them up, the Bush administration argues it is better to bring India in from the cold and have it take on similar responsibilities to the treaty's five recognised nuclear powers: America, Britain, France, Russia and China. That, say the Americans, would be a net gain for non-proliferation. This newspaper has long disputed that. Among other dangerous loopholes, some of which have widened since Congress gave its conditional go-ahead to the deal in December, India is pointedly not taking on the obligations and practices of the official five. Unlike them, it has refused to sign the test-ban treaty. Unlike them, it declines to end the production of fissile material—uranium and plutonium—for bombs. America's readiness to make an Indian exception to all the rules risks snapping two of the joists that support the global non-proliferation structure. At the IAEA, India wants the right not just to say which reactors can be inspected, but when. Such unprecedented laxity in India will make it hard to get others—for example, Brazil, which already does some uranium enriching of its own—to accept the tougher inspections that the IAEA wants as standard for all NPT members. Likewise, the hard-won clarity of the NSG's trade ban has helped maintain support for the NPT, despite the cheating antics of a few. Mere talk of fudging the rules last year encouraged Russia to break them, citing spurious “safety” concerns as an excuse to sell India uranium fuel. China, unhappy at America's coddling of India, is exploring more nuclear co-operation with Pakistan—which in turn threatens to match India, should it step up weapons production or test again. Sending precisely the wrong message Japan, the NPT member with the most capable nuclear industry outside the nuclear five, has told Iran and others that they should do as it does—scrupulously observe all IAEA safeguards—if they want to be trusted with nuclear technology. Exemptions for India will convey a different message: first get your bomb. Such rule-bending puts at risk the anti-nuclear regime that everyone else's safety and security is built on. Governments at the NSG and the IAEA that are unhappy with this need to find the courage of their convictions, and block it. The United Nations has the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. See also the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2007. All rights ***************************************************************** 18 Pantagraph.com: Nuke plant mails emergency brochure Daily Digest 08/23/07 Bloomington-Normal, Illinois By Pantagraph staff CLINTON — Residents and businesses within a 10-mile radius of Clinton Power Station have been mailed a new public information emergency brochure. The brochure includes a card to be completed and returned by people who may have a special transportation or other need. Clinton Power Station has mailed more than 13,000 copies of the brochure. Residents should read and keep the brochure for future reference. Copies may be downloaded at www.exeloncorp.com/ourcompanies/powergen/nuclear/Clinton_Power_Station .htm. Advisory Council members sought NORMAL — Openings remain for at-large members of the Unit 5 Citizens Advisory Council. The council fosters district-wide dialogue and examines topics of interest, serving as a liaison between the community and the school board. At-large members must live in Unit 5 and cannot have children enrolled in any Unit 5 school. To apply, visit www.unit5.org or 1809 W. Hovey Ave. Deadline is Aug. 31. Customer Service | 301 W. Washington St., PO Box 2907, Bloomington, IL 61701-2907 | Ph. 309-829-9000 | 800-747-7323 Lee Illinois Regional Newspapers: Carbondale | Charleston-Mattoon | Decatur | DeKalb Copyright © 2007, Pantagraph Publishing Co. and Lee Enterprises. ***************************************************************** 19 IBD: Is Global Warming Serious Enough To Lift Calif. Ban On Nuke Plants? Investor's Business Daily investors.com BY CHUCK DEVORE Posted 8/22/2007 Global warming has become a lot like the weather: Everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. In environmentally conscious California, a poll found that 54% of residents believe "global warming poses a very serious threat to the state's future economy and quality of life." But only 13% claim to carpool and 7% use mass transit. IBD Podcasts: Listen to IBD's interview with Chuck DeVore In other words: Do as I want you to do, not as I do. Meanwhile the California legislature, reflecting the conventional wisdom, has passed a sweeping new greenhouse gas law that calls for a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 - while the state's population is projected to grow 20% to 44 million people. Passing the law was the easy part. Now we implement. Perhaps this is where the majority of Californians were right - but not for the right reason - when they agreed that "global warming poses a very serious threat to the state's future economy." Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% in 13 years while growing the economy to support 7 million more people will, to put it mildly, be a challenge. Thirteen years is not a long time to dramatically change the way California uses energy. Electrical generation accounts for 20% of the state's greenhouse gas emissions. More than half of these emissions come from burning natural gas that powers 42% of the grid. Coal contributes 16% of California's power, yet accounts for about 36% of its greenhouse gas emissions. A separate California law passed last year will phase out the use of conventional coal power over 20 years. Most of this power will be replaced by far more expensive natural gas, assuming adequate supplies can be secured. Wind and solar power are being increased, but grid reliability is a problem. The wind in California has this unfortunate habit of peaking when its power is not needed and vanishing when it is. The sun in sunny California has its off days too. This requires both technologies to be backed up by additional natural gas plants that have to remain on costly standby. Solar power also continues to be very expensive. California is already the most electrically efficient state in the U.S., so large additional conservation savings will be hard to achieve. A little over half the state's man-made greenhouse gases come from the tailpipe. But there aren't a lot of ways to significantly reduce these emissions while the state is growing so rapidly, though small cars could be mandated or favored through the tax code. Burning corn as ethanol instead of eating it may be an attractive solution for a politician angling to win the Iowa presidential caucuses. But in the real world, the balance sheet of carbon combustion is unmoved by massive federal subsidies. Further, switching to corn-based fuel is already causing unintended inflationary pressures, as corn shortages have increased feedstock prices that in turn have driven up the price of milk, poultry, beef and pork. A fleet of hydrogen-electric cars could make a major impact on the problem - but only if we doubled our electricity production using low greenhouse gas technology such as solar, wind or nuclear. Of these, nuclear is the only reliable way to make electricity that could be affordable for anyone other than a San Francisco hedge fund manager. That leaves four possible outcomes with California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: 1. The regulations to reduce greenhouse emissions pose such a serious threat to the state's economy that politicians decide to delay the reduction mandate or simply rescind it, letting greenhouse gas emissions grow. 2. A carbon cap-and-trade scheme is implemented, enriching a few traders on the floor of the Chicago Climate Exchange and serving as a massive fossil-fuel tax, leading to economic harm and reversal of the law. 3. Politicians and regulators ignore the economic consequences and wring a 25% carbon emissions reduction out of the California economy that causes havoc and misery. Then they get thrown out of office by mobs of angry unemployed people, whereupon their successors reverse the law. 4. California gets serious about greenhouse gases, lifts its ban on new nuclear power plants, constructs four new reactors and, as a result, enjoys a large reduction in carbon emissions from the electrical sector and a small reduction overall. Additional reactors would yield further greenhouse gas reductions. Construction of nuclear plants, however, has been banned in California since 1976. But the four reactors under construction then were allowed to be finished. Today, those reactors furnish about 13% of state's electricity. The four reactors save $2.6 billion a year in natural gas (a nuclear reactor can run on about $30 million of fuel for almost two years) while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 22 million metric tons. Adding four modern reactors would let the electrical sector reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40%, returning the sector to 1990 levels. Nuclear power has the lowest total life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of any energy source, including solar and wind. In spite of this, the California legislature shows no interest in nuclear power. Due to fears about global warming, public opinion about nuclear power has improved nationwide. California polls show likely voters closely divided on the question. Bypassing the legislature with a ballot initiative to overturn the state's obsolete 31-year ban on nuclear power might succeed following a serious public education campaign. Unfortunately, California's risk-averse investor-owned utilities fear provoking the anger of environmentally liberal lawmakers by supporting such a ballot initiative. Instead, the utilities may try to build reliable and safe nuclear power plants out of state. But this means spending billions to build long-distance power transmission lines as well as billions more in fees to buy approval from the states over which the lines traverse. California ratepayers will pay for this in higher electrical bills. In addition, 15% of the power would be lost through long-distance line resistance. These added expenses mean that two reactors could be built in California for the cost of a single reactor built in New Mexico or Utah. A total of 104 reactors now produce about 19% of America's electricity. By comparison, France's 59 reactors produce 78% of its electricity while environmentally conscious Sweden has 10 reactors that provide 48% of its power. Still, environmentalists fiercely oppose any new plants. Their opposition is deeply rooted in our Cold War past and focuses on a single isotope created during the nuclear fission process: plutonium-239. With a half-life of 24,110 years, plutonium-239 would have to be stored for almost 200,000 years for its radioactivity to be rendered safe. Each commercial nuclear power reactor makes about 500 pounds of plutonium a year. This plutonium is embedded in the fuel rods that in the U.S. are simply set aside and stored, with the plan being to store about a football field's volume of spent fuel rods at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Environmentalists oppose this, arguing that Yucca Mountain cannot keep nuclear material safe for 2,000 centuries. The issue of storing plutonium-239 for 200,000 years can be solved by extracting the plutonium and using it to produce electricity. The French do this, reducing the volume of used nuclear material by about 96% by recycling usable fuel, including plutonium, back into their reactors. This slightly increases the cost of electricity, but it eliminates the need to safely store plutonium-239, saving money on the back end. Unfortunately, many environmentalists oppose reprocessing spent nuclear fuel because reprocessing extracts plutonium that could be diverted for nuclear-bomb making. It was this rationale that caused President Jimmy Carter to ban U.S. reprocessing in 1977 in the hopes of inspiring other nations to do the same. (It didn't work.) Environmental opponents speak darkly of "plutonium-in-commerce," as if a U.S. utility would sell 100 pounds of extracted plutonium to al-Qaida to boost its profits. The net result is that it gives the American environmental left a perfect and unassailable circular argument: Reprocessing is bad because plutonium can be made into bombs, but storing unreprocessed spent fuel rods with plutonium in them for 200,000 years is problematic. Ironically, nuclear power plants can be operated with plutonium recovered from nuclear bombs, turning nuclear swords into electrical ploughshares and using up the plutonium in the process. For better or for worse, California often leads the way in American trends. What if Californians considered the relative risks and rewards of nuclear power vs. global warming, increased use of imported fossil fuels and massive electricity rate hikes, and decided in favor of nuclear power? The California Energy Independence and Zero Carbon Dioxide Emission Electrical Generation Act slated for the June 2008 ballot will give Californians that choice. The proposed initiative overturns California's nuclear ban, enacts seismic and environmental restrictions that place about 40% of the state off limits to nuclear power, and approves on-site dry-cask storage of spent fuel as an acceptable storage method for 100 years. California can get serious about meeting its ambitious global warming goals while providing economic opportunity, or it can try to power its economy on good intentions. DeVore, a Republican from Irvine, is a California state assemblyman representing 450,000 people in coastal Orange County. Further information on the initiative may be seen at powerforcalifornia.com. © 2007 William O'Neil + Co. Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. The William O'Neil + Co. Database and all data contained herein are ***************************************************************** 20 Prague Daily Monitor: Klaus: TemelĂ­n is political game - By ÄŚTK / Published 23 August 2007 Vienna, Aug 22 (CTK) - Problems in Czech-Austrian bilateral relations should not be dramatised, Czech President Vaclav Klaus told CTK after informal talks with his Austrian counterpart Heinz Fischer in Vienna Wednesday. Klaus added that time would heal bilateral problems, which is apparent already now. Among the hottest Czech-Austrian topics is primarily the Temelin Czech nuclear power plant in south Bohemia, situated some 60 kilometres from the Austrian border. It is criticised by some Austrian and Czech environmentalists as well as some Austrian politicians as allegedly unsafe. "Temelin is for some people a certain political game, but let us not dramatise it. I consider, for instance, border blockades [recently staged by Austrian anti-atom activists] nonsense, but it is not such a big problem to make us go on a hunger strike over it," said Klaus who, along with his wife Livia, arrived for a several-day working visit to Austria today. "I can see the decisive shift in a European solution, in the fact that Europe will say we cannot do without nuclear power. And as soon as it becomes an official doctrine, sooner or later even that problem of ours will be somehow diminished," Klaus told CTK during a Czech Republic vs Austria soccer friendly he attended in Vienna tonight. Both presidents Wednesday discussed a long list of topics concerning European development, ranging from power industry up to the issues of Temelin and the problems in Kosovo.y. However, neither of them specified the content of talks to journalists. They only stated that "no resolutions or conclusions were made." Asked about his talks with Fischer, Klaus told CTK that they continue permanently. "It is a permanent debate about bilateral relations, about European and general matters," Klaus said. Klaus also highly appreciated his relations with Fisher. "We both look at things as experienced politicians...We assess matters pragmatically and rationally," Klaus noted. Austria can have a different opinion about nuclear energy, but there is no reason to stir up a conflict over it, Klaus said in an interview for CTK. Fischer did not elaborate whether he met today's request by Austrian opponents of Temelin that "he say clear words about the breach of agreements on Temelin by the Czech side". The opponents also insisted that Fischer tell Klaus about their demand that the dispute over Temelin be transferred to an independent authority. "We meet on various occasions several times a year, but we also need such informal talks to be able to discuss various issues," Klaus said earlier today. Similar talks are on the agenda of Klaus's stay at the Austrian presidential residence in Styria on Thursday. This story is from the Czech News Agency (CTK). The Prague Daily Monitor and Monitor CE are not responsible for its content. Copyright 2007 by the Czech News Agency (CTK). All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 21 VietNamNet: Experts share nuclear energy inspection experience 11:04' 23/08/2007 (GMT+7) VietNamNet Bridge – Local and foreign experts shared experience in the field of nuclear energy inspection at a symposium on the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Safeguards Agreement that was held in Hanoi on August 22. Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Dinh Tien said at the seminar that Vietnam’s signing of the protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on August 10 reflected the country’s commitments to using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes only. The Government of Vietnam had previously approved a strategy on the application of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and pledged to strictly implement articles regulated in the protocol, he added. By August 2007, 83 countries from around the world had signed the protocol that was issued to increase the inspection of nuclear-related activities. The seminar was jointly organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the global nuclear watchdog, IAEA. (Source: VNA) ***************************************************************** 22 MHNN: New Indian Point sirens ready to go live Covering the Hudson to the Catskills! August 23, 2007 Copyright © 2007 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide Example of the new sirens Buchanan – Indian Point owner Entergy Wednesday notified FEMA that its new siren alert system for the nuclear power plants is ready to be placed into service pending federal reviews. Along with its notification to the federal agency, Entergy is providing hundreds of pages of documents as well as results of more than 50 system tests performed during a formal testing regimen in August that demonstrate the system performs reliably and with sufficient volume, said company spokesman James Steets. “We met out commitment to have a siren system that could be placed into service by this Friday, but now we have to go through the review process where the federal regulators – FEMA and the NRC – are going to review the documents before they can actually give the okay to place it into service,” he said. The new 155-siren system has as an enhancement of its four county emergency notification capabilities, a speed-dialing system that can notify people by phone in their homes and businesses, or by cell phone. HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's only Internet radio news report. ***************************************************************** 23 Sydney Morning Herald: PM backs community votes on nuke plants - www.smh.com.au August 23, 2007 - 9:00AM Prime Minister John Howard has moved to counter a Labor scare campaign on nuclear plants and a split in the coalition by supporting plebiscites about proposed reactor sites. After telling parliament last week that the nuclear plant locations would be a commercial decision, Mr Howard on Thursday changed tack to back community ballots which effectively could be decades away. "If and when the time comes for plants to be considered in particular parts of Australia, I believe that local communities should be given a vote," he told reporters. "I think having a plebiscite in a local community would be a good demonstration to the rest of the nation of the desirability of people being involved in the decision." The prime minister last week ruled out funding local votes on nuclear reactors this year because no specific proposals had been made. His shift follows remarks by Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Mark Vaile on Wednesday, floating the idea of plebiscites in the face of Labor's scare campaign. Mr Howard said Australia had to consider adding nuclear power to its energy mix if it was serious about addressing climate change. "There's never been any intention to force these things on local people but it is my opinion that in 10, 15, 20 years time, public opinion will have shifted on this issue and people will see nuclear power as a very sensible alternative," he said. A top-level report to the federal government this year said a network of 25 nuclear reactors would be needed around the country to meet power demand, although it concluded nuclear energy would in current circumstances be uneconomic. Federal Labor has nevertheless consistently called on the government to say where those reactors would be built. Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett said the prime minister could not be trusted on nuclear reactors and waste dumps. "His vague support today for local plebiscites on nuclear reactors is his third position on the matter in as many months," Mr Garrett said in a statement. "Mr Howard's latest position exists only for political convenience - to paper over the gaping cracks in the coalition on nuclear and climate change matters." Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said the government had to come clean on its nuclear plans. "You can't stand at the dispatch box in Parliament House and proclaim your support for 25 nuclear reactors being imposed on local communities, and then hope you can tip-toe through an election without saying where those nuclear reactors will go," Mr Albanese told reporters. "Labor believes that nuclear power is not part of Australia's future. Australia's future is in clean coal technology and in renewables, such as solar and wind power." The Australian Conservation Foundation welcomed Mr Howard's commitment to plebiscites but not his nuclear advocacy. "That the prime minister has finally acknowledged the community's views on nuclear reactors is a good thing - that he continues to champion this high-cost and high-risk energy option is not," nuclear free campaigner David Noonan said. © 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. ***************************************************************** 24 The Statesman: CPM breather to govt on N-issue Friday, 24 August 2007 Statesman News Service NEW DELHI, Aug 23: Reeling under internal schisms on the question of pulling the plug on the Manmohan Singh government over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the CPI-M today effected a Japan calls for IAEA adherence KOLKATA, Aug 23: However much the CPI-M’s stand on the Indo-US nuclear deal may push the UPA-government to the brink, Japan would like India to adhere to the International Atomic Energy Agency safegua NRI MP plays with surname for US visa Stanley Theodore HYDERABAD, Aug. 23: NRI Lok Sabha MP Mr Madhu Goud Yashki (photograph on the right) played with his surname to get a US visa and later created fake certificates to enable his two br Pak Supreme Court clears Sharif return ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: The former Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, was today allowed by the Pakistan Supreme Court to return to the country after seven years of exile in Saudi Arabia. In what is Retail giants forced to shut shop in Uttar Pradesh Press Trust of India LUCKNOW, Aug 23: The retail plans of big corporates suffered a jolt today after the Uttar Pradesh government ordered the closure of all organised retail stores. It has recommende Sanjay walks out a free man SNS/PTI MUMBAI, Aug 23: Actor Sanjay Dutt has returned to Mumbai after his release from Yerawada Central Prison in Pune this morning. An interim bail had been granted to him by the Supreme Court thr ***************************************************************** 25 China Post: Southeast Asia grapples with safety, costs of nuclear power Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - By Ramthan Hussain, SINGAPORE, Reuters A drive by some Southeast Asian countries to join the global revival in nuclear power may be running into new obstacles as costs expand and neighbors grow anxious over their safety in a region exposed to earthquakes. Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam -- all of which have said they hope to develop atomic power by around 2020 -- will have the chance this week to allay concerns arising after a July 16 quake in Japan caused a small water leak at the world's biggest nuclear plant, forcing its indefinite closure. Energy ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), who are meeting in Singapore from Aug. 22 to 24, are already taking note of the nuclear vogue, fuelled by a need to meet rapidly rising power demand with minimum pollution. "For the first time, Singapore will propose the establishment of the ASEAN nuclear energy safety subsector network," to explore the issue of nuclear power plant safety, said Weerawat Chantanakome, head of the ASEAN Centre for Energy. For countries like Indonesia, located like Japan on the "Ring of Fire" that causes frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the possibility of a natural disaster looms large. For others like Thailand, environmental opposition is a major issue, while Vietnam has struggled in the past to fund major energy projects. Malaysia, ASEAN's biggest net oil exporter and No. 2 natural gas producer, has also voiced an interest in nuclear power, as has the military junta running Myanmar. The energy officials from Japan, which draws a third of its power from nuclear plants but has a history of safety scandals, as well as China will be on hand to lend advice. Led by China and India, Asia is already the driving force behind a worldwide renaissance in nuclear power, as energy supply concerns and the urgency to fight climate change help overcome years of opposition after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. There are currently 109 nuclear power reactors operating in six Asian countries. Of 29 reactors under construction worldwide, 18 are in Asian nations, which face the pressures of economic growth, scarce natural resources and booming populations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. By year-end, 26 of the last 36 reactors to have been linked to the grid will be in Asia. Singapore is the only Asia-Pacific country other than New Zealand without a research test reactor, according to the Australian Uranium Association. With power demand projected to double to 233,000 megawatts by 2020 and most countries already heavily reliant on imported oil and natural gas, some analysts say southeast Asia has little alternative to nuclear power. "It's going to be vital for ASEAN nations to have a significant amount of nuclear in their energy mix because of high fossil fuel prices," said John Price, a nuclear power expert at Australia's Monash University. But it will come at a price. The IAEA estimates that building a nuclear power plan can be up to three times more costly than a fossil-fuelled plant and take at least two more years to build. Demand for tighter safety norms in the wake of recent incidents, regular maintenance checks and the disposal of nuclear waste add to the financial costs. While analysts say the ultimate decision on whether to build the plants will rest with national governments, a pan-ASEAN pact governing nuclear fuel import, use and disposal could go a long way toward easing any regional anxieties. But even that could be problematic. "Can ASEAN ensure that member states implement the measures, and if they don't, what sanctions can there be?" Andrew Symon managing director of consultancy Menas Asia Pte. Ltd. said. Copyright © 1999 ˇV 2007 The China Post. Breaking News, World News, and News from Taiwan. ˇ@ ***************************************************************** 26 Seattle PI: Nuclear Opponents Not Nuke Industry's Only Problem Energy: Strategies, Policy & Best Practices for the Northwest If you don't happen to follow the Toronto Star or environment reporter Tyler Hamilton's blog, here's a view of the self-proclaimed revival of the nuclear industry from north of the border. If the "nuclear renaissance" emerges as many energy experts predict, finding the raw materials, components and skills necessary to meet Ontario's nuclear needs could prove tricky, and more expensive than authorities are banking on. Tyler reports that all Ontario coal plants are scheduled for shutdown by 2014, so existing nuclear reactors must be refurbished or replaced. With new coal plants, wind farms, and nuclear reactors in development worldwide, guaranteeing supply of something as simple as concrete becomes a monumental task. The issue isn't isolated to the nuclear industry; the entire energy sector is feeling the resources crunch, particularly as China moves aggressively to power its own economic growth. The cost of concrete, steel, copper, nickel and other metals has skyrocketed. Skilled trades workers are harder to find. Transportation costs are rising because of increased fuel costs. The U.S. situation from his perspective: South of the border, where 28 new reactors based on next-generation nuclear technology are planned, Wall Street isn't ready to take on the risk. Power companies are telling the U.S. government that projects won't get financing unless Washington ponies up $50 billion (U.S.) or so in loan guarantees. In other words, if projects implode, U.S. taxpayers will have to cover bad loans. Posted by Denis DuBois at August 23, 2007 12:00 a.m. Category: Policy 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 ***************************************************************** 27 Guardian Unlimited: Inspecting Millions of Cargo Containers Thursday August 23, 2007 7:01 PM By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The specter of a nuclear bomb, hidden in a cargo container, detonating in an American port has prompted Congress to require 100 percent screening of U.S.-bound ships at their more than 600 foreign starting points. The White House and shippers maintain that the technology for scanning 11 million containers each year doesn't exist, and say the requirement could disrupt trade. Current procedures including manifest inspections at foreign ports and radiation monitoring in U.S. ports are working well, they contend. Nonetheless, President Bush earlier this month signed the measure into law, praising its shift of funds to states and cities at higher risk of terrorism attack and saying he will work with lawmakers to ensure the cargo screening provisions don't impede commerce. Scanning containers at their point of origin in other countries is a highlight of that law, intended to fulfill recommendations of the 9/11 Commission for safeguarding the United States from terrorist attack. It sets a five-year deadline for having the system in place but - recognizing the technology might not be ready - gives the Homeland Security secretary the authority to extend that deadline by two-year increments. ``If a terrorist manages to conceal a weapon of mass destruction in a shipping container, it must be discovered long before that container reaches our shore,'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in support of the measure. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a chief proponent, said the costs and complexity involved in the new system pale beside the devastating effect of a nuclear attack launched from a big city port. ``The truth is, we cannot afford not to do it.'' The White House issued a statement strongly opposing the scanning requirement, saying it was ``neither executable nor feasible.'' Opponents warned that it could cause huge backlogs at the nation's seaports, which handle some 95 percent of goods coming into the country. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says ``it would be wonderful'' if all containers were inspected before they left foreign ports. ``But it's got to be done in a way that reflects reality and also reflects the fact that we're not the only players in this pool.'' Industry groups that lobbied against the 100 percent screening asked whether Congress intends to cut off trade with small-volume ports that can't install the needed technology. They also warn of foreign governments retaliating by requiring U.S. ports to set up the same inspection regimen. ``You have to have the permission of all these foreign points,'' said James Carafano, a defense expert at the Heritage Foundation. ``There are a lot of people around the world who are going to be really teed off about this.'' The Bush administration argues that its current risk-based, layered approach to port security is a success. That approach has several main components: -Under the Container Security Initiative, teams from Customs and Border Protection now review manifests at some 50 ports covering more than 80 percent of the container cargo shipped to the United States. Containers identified as high risk are subjected to X-ray and radiation scanning. Markey argues that this is nothing more than a paperwork check that relies on descriptions of content supplied by shippers. Less than 5 percent of containers get scanned, and only a fraction of those are opened up and inspected. -Homeland Security, together with Customs and Border Protection, has set a goal of screening, by the end of 2007, close to 100 percent of all containers entering the country by sea for radiological and nuclear material, using what are called Radiation Portal Monitors. -Under a pilot program called the Secure Freight Initiative, created in a port security bill passed last year, Homeland Security is testing high-volume scanning at six ports in Pakistan, Honduras, Britain, Oman, Singapore and South Korea. The program should give some indication of the practicality of the 9/11 Act provision, which requires containers to undergo both a radiation check and a scan with nonintrusive imaging such as X-rays that might locate highly enriched uranium or other materials that don't emit a lot of radiation. Homeland Security's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office also plans to award up to $1.2 billion over the next five years to develop and acquire a next generation radiation monitor for land and sea cargo known as Advanced Spectroscopic Portals. Lawmakers have questioned whether the new technology offers much improvement over current monitors that are prone to false alarms set off by naturally occurring radioactive material in medical isotopes, ceramics or kitty litter. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairmen of the Senate and House Homeland Security committees, said preliminary tests indicate the effectiveness of the new advanced monitors ``may fall well short of levels anticipated.'' Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., a critic of the new provision, noted that those unhappy with current technology are among the same people calling for 100 percent scanning. ``You can't have it both ways,'' he said, adding that ``the technology is not there at this point.'' Democrats, in successfully arguing for the scanning provision, said that if the United States could put a man on the moon within the same decade that John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to that goal, it can certainly come up with effective nuclear warning technology in five years. Markey also disputed the contention that the new system would be too expensive, citing estimates that the cost of 100 percent scanning, including the application of tamper-proof seals, would be about $100 per container. He said that's insignificant compared with the average $66,000 value of goods shipped in each container and estimates that the cost of a disruption of U.S. port operations from a successful terrorist attack could reach $58 billion. The Congressional Budget Office quoted a figure of $1.5 billion over three years to acquire and set up the scanning and detection equipment. The United States could provide financial aid to smaller countries, but the CBO said it expected most of the costs to be borne by foreign ports in order to maintain trade with the United States. Among opponents of the new law is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Jason Conley, its senior manager for homeland security, said there is no really good cost estimate, but predicted that the amount of money needed to implement and operate the system, deal with false alarms and handle delays and disruptions will be very high. He said foreign governments and ports would probably pass along the costs to shippers and consumers. But cost is not the main reason that 100 percent scanning provision is opposed by major cargo shippers and America's key trading partners, according to the World Shipping Council. It said the new law doesn't adequately address who will buy and maintain the equipment, who will do the scanning, how the data will be analyzed, how radiation-linked health issues will be handled and what might happen when foreign governments demand that U.S. ports install similar equipment. Markey said the technology exists, the warnings of trade disruptions are overblown and the bottom line remains the same: If a nuclear bomb reaches a U.S. port or city, it's already too late. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 28 Platts: Federal judge rejects SAIC's motion to dismiss claim 2007-08-22 Washington (Platts)--22Aug2007 A federal judge rejected Science Applications International Corp.'s motion to dismiss the government's claim that the company failed to disclose to NRC its relationship with an industry trade association while working under contract to assist NRC with a rulemaking. The Department of Justice, on behalf of NRC, filed in 2004 a lawsuit against SAIC in US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking $2 million that NRC paid SAIC to provide the agency with "impartial and unbiased advice" in developing a rule establishing clearance of materials and equipment with very low levels of radioactivity. In an August 22 ruling, US District Court Judge Richard Roberts said that SAIC was required under the terms of two contracts it signed with the NRC to have notified the agency that it was a sponsor of the Association of Radioactive Metal Recyclers, an organization advocating the reuse of radioactive and contaminated metals. The judge also ordered the attorneys for both sides to appear September 7 to schedule a trial date. Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 29 Chnia Daily: Gang on trial for attempting to sell 8kg of uranium By Liang Qiwen (China Daily) Updated: 2007-08-24 07:49 GUANGZHOU: Four men from Central China's Hunan Province have gone on trial at the Tianhe District Court here charged with trying to sell uranium, a radioactive element used in the production of nuclear weapons. The court heard that between April 2005 and January of this year, Zhang Sangang, Yang Guoliang, Li Zi'an, and Li Huibin, attempted to sell 8 kg of types U-235 and U-238 uranium. Zhang said he met a uranium mine owner surnamed Zhou - who is being tried separately - in April 2005 and offered to sell 8 kg of the radioactive chemical for him. Zhou said he wanted a minimum of 200,000 yuan ($26,400) for each kilogram of uranium. If Zhang was able to achieve a higher price, he could keep the difference, the court heard. Later, Zhang met Yang and the pair agreed to work together to find a buyer. Soon after, Yang met Li Huibin and Li Zi'an, and they also joined the team. The court heard that at the end of last year, Li Zi'an made contact with a businessman, Peng Shuangjin, in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province. Peng claimed he had found a buyer in Hong Kong who was willing to pay 1.6 million yuan per kilogram for the uranium. However, Peng was aware it was illegal to sell uranium and so reported Li Zi'an to the authorities. On January 4, Li Zi'an and Li Huibin were arrested in Guangzhou in possession of a 15 g sample of the element they had brought from Hunan to show Peng. Police in Hunan later tracked down and arrested Zhang and Yang. However, despite having the four men in custody, police were unable to locate the 8 kg of uranium. The men claimed it had been lost because it had been moved around so much between potential buyers. A verdict has yet to be reached in the case, as the court said the trial would continue until authorities tracked down the missing chemical. Under Chinese law, the illegal trade in uranium carries a sentence of between three and 10 years in prison. In exceptional cases, it can carry the death sentence. Jiang Chaoqiang, director of the Guangzhou No 12 People's Hospital, told China Daily: "The radioactive substance uranium does not explode when it is in its raw state, but it is very harmful to people's health." Jiang said if people are in close contact with uranium for long periods, they run the risk of contracting leukemia or other cancers. He said the missing uranium could pose a threat to the health of the general public and therefore needed to be found as soon as possible. ***************************************************************** 30 Economist.com: Nuclear safeguards | In pursuit of the undoable | Thursday August 23rd 2007 Troubling flaws in the world's nuclear safeguards Getty ImagesA nuclear fuel pond: don't plunge IF THE predictions of the nuclear industry prove correct, and concerns about carbon emissions and climate change drive more governments to start investing in nuclear power to keep the lights on, how will the world protect itself from the technology's inherent dangers? It is not just the risk of accidents that keeps people awake at night. Some materials and technologies used to generate electricity can, without a lot of extra effort, be abused for bomb-making. And with more and more nuclear material being processed and reprocessed—as mostly uranium-laden reactor fuel-rods turn into mostly plutonium-laden spent fuel—the possibilities for theft or diversion can only grow. A crude nuclear device, or a dirty bomb that spews radioactive debris about, is everyone's nightmare. The scale of the potential problem is getting clearer: 31 countries already operate large nuclear-power reactors, and some of those will be adding more. Since 2005 at least 15 more governments have said they want one too. A whole clutch of these—Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen—are in the fissile Middle East. Their plans seem to have been prompted in part by the discovery in 2003 of Iran's extensive, covert and hence suspicious nuclear activities. At one time or another in recent years officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and even Turkey, a member of NATO, have mused aloud about the possibility of a nuclear or “strategic” option. For some Muslim states, the spur to proliferate might be Israel, for others Iran. Algeria, for its part, has always been worryingly secretive about a nuclear research reactor discovered in 1991 and that it surrounds with air defences. Not all the supposedly “civilian” nuclear plans now being laid will come to fruition. But some will. Meanwhile a detailed two-year study by the Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre (NPEC), a Washington-based think-tank, has uncovered troubling flaws in the internationally approved verification and monitoring procedures for safeguarding nuclear materials against diversion or theft. In a new report, NPEC's director, Henry Sokolski, argues that UN nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have too little money for the job they are asked to do. Not only that, but the yardsticks by which the IAEA measures its own safeguarding success are woefully out of date. Indeed, some of its supposed safeguarding, Mr Sokolski argues, is inherently undoable. The money problem is easier to remedy. As the chart shows, the amount of potentially weapons-usable nuclear material—either highly enriched uranium or separated plutonium—under inspection has increased far faster than the funds available for safeguarding it. New methods and technologies have increased the efficiency of inspections, but the IAEA's director-general, Mohamed ElBaradei, has long complained that his regular budget does not even cover all costs; it has to be topped up by less certain voluntary contributions, mostly from America. Among the few things America and Russia agree on now is that the IAEA needs more cash. Without more money, Mr ElBaradei told his agency's 35-country board in June, safeguarding capacity will diminish. Last month he said he would ask a panel of experts to look at an internal review of safeguards-spending requirements—and then come up with some ideas about ways to meet them. One improvement, suggests Mr Sokolski, would be to install more real-time remote-monitoring cameras, so inspectors can check more reliably that materials and equipment are not being diverted to covert use. According to the NPEC study, over the past six years the IAEA has learned of camera “blackouts” that lasted for more than 30 hours on 12 separate occasions. It found the gaps only after inspectors visited the sites and downloaded the camera recordings, as they do every 90 days. That is more than enough time to divert nuclear material and make mischief with it. The IAEA assesses these things using a measure of militarily “significant quantity”: the amount of highly enriched uranium (25kg) or separated plutonium (8kg) it would take to make a weapon. But these quantities were arrived at 30 years ago. The NPEC study finds them too high by between 25% and 800%, depending on the type of weapon and yield required. What is more, in each case what the IAEA considers timely detection of such diverted quantities exceeds the time needed to process the materials for weapons use. The search for MUF All the more important, then, to keep a close eye on plants that produce quantities of such dangerous materials—especially where uranium is enriched and plutonium is extracted from spent fuel. But NPEC's conclusion is that proper verification here is impossible. At best, the report says, the IAEA can improve its monitoring techniques (those more capable cameras would help). That is because of the volume of material involved and the way the plants work. Material unaccounted for (called MUF) is often stuck in piping. Discrepancies, even at the best-run plants, can amount to many bombs' worth. And it can take months for inspectors to be confident they have it all more or less accounted for. Imagine the problems if the IAEA is attempting to monitor such plants in a country like Iran, with its past record of lying to inspectors. Mr ElBaradei and others have suggested multinational fuel centres as a way to avoid dangerous technologies being abused by individual governments. But safeguarding those would be no easier. Better that such fuel-making technology isn't spread around at all. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2007. All rights ***************************************************************** 31 Government Inc.: Nukes, Monitors and Questions Continued - The dispute over the Department of Homeland Security's effort to buy a new kind of radiation detection machine continues to unfold. Though it may seem arcane, a lot more is at stake than the $1.2 billion in contracts, which have been stalled by questions from the Government Accountability Office about the effectiveness of the machines and the department's efforts to test and deploy them. Homeland security officials have repeatedly said that stopping a nuclear attack is a top priority, and that the machines known as radiation portal monitors are crucial to that effort. Last week, the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce criticized plans by the Department of Homeland Security to have an outside review of department efforts to test and deploy the new, more expensive radiation detectors. Chairman John D. Dingell and another lawmaker said in the Aug. 10 letter that it appeared as though the homeland security department was trying to do "an 'end run' with hastily planned and initiated 'independent review'" -- instead of allowing the GAO to follow through on its own review of the department's testing process. The department has issued a tart response defending its efforts. In a letter to Dingell, Under Secretary for Management Paul A. Schneider said the independent review announced several weeks ago is not intended to conflict with the GAO efforts. Schneider said "there appears to be several areas of misunderstanding related to this effort," including apparently the impression by some lawmakers that the department's effort is a biased ruse intended to generate a positive report. "I do not pre-judge the viability of the program until I know the facts," Schneider wrote in the Aug. 20 letter. The letter included an attachment with answers to specific questions about the program posed by Dingell last week. Dingell's response: "I'm glad DHS recognizes that the GAO is well qualified to assess whether the newer radiation portal monitors DNDO is developing and testing will be effective in screening for radioactive materials and dirty bombs. This change in attitude by DHS is a constructive first step towards getting an objective assessment of the advanced spectroscopic portals before DHS commits up to $1.2 billion on new machines. The Committee will be holding hearings once the GAO's review is complete." It has been more than a year since homeland security officials announced the contracts, more than five years since the country began pushing for a radiation detection network at border crossings, ports and suchlike. The government has spent many millions of dollars on a first generation of machines that don't work as well as officials want (in part because they have a tough time distinguishing between threatening radiation and more benign sources, such as cat litter). One question now is: When will the country have a set of machines in place to screen for weapons many of us fear most? By Robert O'Harrow | August 23, 2007; 5:28 AM ET | Category: homeland security Previous: Critic: SBA Report Cards Need To © 2007 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 32 NAS: Project: U.S. - Chinese Glossary of Nuclear Security Terms Project Title: PIN: ISAC-N-07-01-A Major Unit: Policy and Global Affairs Division Sub Unit: Committee on International Security and Arms Control RSO: Harrington, Anne Subject/Focus Area: Education; International Issues; National Security; Policy & Research Project Scope Many of the nuclear safety and security issues the United States and China seek to address are highly technical and discussion of these issues is often limited due to the lack of understanding of the associated terms across languages. However, communicating effectively requires more than just translating nuclear security terms; it requires a more profound understanding of how terms are used by each country and of the assumptions surrounding these terms. An ad hoc U.S. committee appointed by the NRC Chair will undertake a joint project with a committee appointed by the Chinese Scientists Group for Arms Control (CSGAC) at the Institute for Applied Physics and Computation Mathematics to construct and publish a Chinese-English English-Chinese glossary of nuclear security terms as a means of examining the definitions and use of these terms across languages and cultures. The project will focus on the following tasks: -Develop a list of approximately 1,000 terms to be included in the glossary and the subset of approximately 100 terms that will be defined; -Reach consensus on the terms to be translated and the translations of the definitions; -Assemble the glossary for review and publication; -Conduct an external review of the glossary prior to publication; -Publish the print version and online version of the glossary and conduct outreach activities; -Hold follow-on discussions and assess the success of the project as needed. CISAC and CSGAC intend to publish an online electronic version of the glossary in addition to a limited number of print copies. There will be follow-on activities to discuss shared meaning and usage of key terms in current U.S. and Chinese policy practice and a review of the glossary one year following its publication to assess the project's impact and to identify any terms that might be modified or added in a future edition based on developments in the fields covered by the glossary. This 18-month project will include two joint meetings of the NRC and CSGAC committees to discuss the glossary of nuclear security terms and one meeting in the United State to finalize the glossary for publication. This project is sponsored by the Dept of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration The approximate start date is June 2007. The project will publish an English-Chinese print version of the glossary as well as an online version. Project Duration: 18 months Provide FEEDBACK on this project. Contact the Public Access Records Office to make an inquiry or to schedule an appointment to view project materials available to the public. Committee Membership Meetings Reports Reports having no URL can be seen at the Public Access Records Office Email: info@nas.edu ***************************************************************** 33 WATE: Nuclear monitoring problems cited at Oak Ridge facilities August 23, 2007 OAK RIDGE (AP) -- Federal auditors cited the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a former uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge for failing to adequately monitor workers for radiation exposure. The Department of Energy's inspector general found problems with more than 65% of radiological workers sampled at the Oak Ridge National Lab. The audit said ORNL workers either didn't receive all of their scheduled bioassay tests, weren't tested often enough or weren't tested for all radioactive materials they might have been exposed to. The University of Tennessee-Battelle Memorial Institute partnership that manages the lab for the government disputed the finding. Meanwhile, the report said at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant, about 20% of nuclear workers were not tested often enough for all the radioisotopes at their work sites. Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and WATE. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 34 AFP: ASEAN agrees to set up nuclear energy safety network - Friday August 24, 05:04 AM SINGAPORE (AFP) - Southeast Asian countries agreed Thursday to establish a regional nuclear energy safety network, amid warnings from environmental activists that the risks of atomic power outweigh the benefits. Energy ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) tasked senior officials to work out the details of the ASEAN Nuclear Energy Safety Sub-Sector Network, they said at the end of a one-day meeting here. The officials are to report on their progress before the next meeting of the 10-member bloc's energy ministers in Thailand next year, a joint statement said. As the ministers launched into talks, the global environmental watchdog Greenpeace urged them to drop plans to generate civilian nuclear power across the region, citing safety concerns and the risk of weapons proliferation. Three ASEAN member states -- Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam -- have so far announced plans to build nuclear power plants by 2020 in a bid to cut their dependence on crude oil and natural gas, sparking concerns over safeguards. "We say this is a very dangerous pathway if it is followed," said Nur Hidayati, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia. "We say this is not a solution because it creates more problems and it will last a long time." But Thai Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand defended the decision by some ASEAN states to develop nuclear power capabilities, stressing the plants are generally safe and do not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. He said civilian use of nuclear power was making a resurgence worldwide, with 30 new plants under construction. The three ASEAN countries planning to build plants will "spend a certain amount of time making preparations" to ensure safety standards, the Thai minister said. "Nuclear technology is actually safe, very safe as shown by the various incidents... Nuclear power plants are the safest kinds of buildings built on Earth," he told a news conference. Thailand is planning to build a 4,000-megawatt plant by 2020. Kurujit Nakornthap, Thailand's deputy permanent secretary of energy, told a forum here Wednesday that Bangkok needs until 2014 to develop safety standards, establish the regulatory framework and train the necessary personnel. It will need another six years to build the plant. Piyasvasti said it was unfair to say that nuclear plants were unsafe based on the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. "Chernobyl was a bad design, badly operated and (used) outdated Soviet technology which is no longer in operation anywhere in the world," he said. But Greenpeace activists insisted the region does not have the expertise and the personnel to operate nuclear power plants and store radioactive waste, warning of the possible danger should plutonium get into the wrong hands. Plutonium is a key ingredient for the making of a nuclear bomb. During their annual meeting in Manila last month, ASEAN foreign ministers discussed how they could strengthen rules to ensure that civilian atomic energy is not used for non-peaceful ends. With the region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, it was doubtful if ASEAN members had the capability to deal with a nuclear plant leak, it said. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 MDN: Hibakusha: Hearing from the survivors in their own words - MSN-Mainichi Daily News August 24, 2007 Akihiko Ito (MDN) Retired Nagasaki Broadcasting Corp. (NBC) journalist Akihiko Ito has spent decades -- and a small fortune -- recording a huge collection of testimonies from the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which are now online with English transcriptions. Ito, 70, gathered verbal testimonies from 1,003 hibakusha in the period from 1971 to 1979 and added recordings of another 837 A-bomb survivors collected by NBC from 1986 to 2006. He produced a series of nine CDs containing the statements made by the hibakusha and, together with copywriter Yoshihisa Furukawa and a group of 18 volunteers, added pictures and English transcripts to the recordings and listed them on a free Website called Voices of the Survivors From Hiroshima and Nagasaki (VOSHN.com). "If you think about it, it's only natural for young Japanese to oppose nuclear weapons, but I want young people from nuclear-armed countries to feel the same way, too. I carried out this project to encourage people to stop the use of nuclear weapons and to abolish nuclear weapons," Ito told the Mainichi on Thursday. Ito hopes the website will give people from overseas the chance to hear directly from the hibakusha. VOSHN.com acknowledges that Japan did much wrong during World War II and the lead-up to the conflict, but points out the excessive horrors the A-Bomb caused. "Young people overseas tend to see nuclear weapons as nothing more than an extremely powerful weapon. The fact that they bring boundless misery has not been passed on, nor has the fact that they bring about lingering inhuman effects. I've learned about that through decades of listening to what people from Hiroshima and Nagasaki have had to say," Ito said. "Nuclear weapons are appalling. The physical effects are destructive, people were burned to death in front of their own relatives' eyes. This was extremely inhumane. The vast majority of A-bomb victims were civilians and non-combatants such as women, children and the elderly. The bomb caused entire schools, entire years and entire classes to disappear in an instant. And, finally, the effects of the bomb are permanent. Even now there are still many victims suffering." Ito grew up in Nagasaki and entered the city 10 days after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on it on Aug. 9, 1945. On Nov. 5, 1968, he began hosting a radio program on NBC that gave testimonies from A-bomb survivors. Ito's successors continue hosting the same program today, almost 39 years later. Ito displays a map of 1945 Hiroshima with marks indicating where the survivors he has interviewed were located when the A-bomb struck the city. (MDN) Meanwhile, Ito continued recording hibakusha testimonies. He only started using a computer last year and realized the Internet would be an effective medium to easily spread the hibakusha's messages around the world. Also last year, Ito began a new project taking video footage of the survivors. He will spend a year each in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo to catch on film the stories of A-bomb survivors. He hopes to interview 500 hibakusha and complete the video project by 2011. "The significance of the atomic bombings goes to unimaginable bounds. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are events of historical importance, but they are also more than mere history. They are events that had enormous significance for the entire human race," Ito said. "The atomic bombings are up there with the first time humans used fire, or the first time humans used tools, or acquired language. That's how revolutionary these events were. They were of an unprecedented enormity." (By Ryann Connell) VOSHN.com http://www.voshn.com As I See It: Bridging the A-bomb perception gap August 23, 2007 Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. Under the copyright law of Japan, use of all materials on this ***************************************************************** 36 Platts: German government, utilities agree nuclear safety improvements 2007-08-23 London (Platts)--23Aug2007 The German environment ministry and the country's four biggest utilities --E.ON, RWE, ENBW and Vattenfall Europe--have agreed to improve safety culture and operations of nuclear power plants in Germany within one year, the environment ministry said Thursday in a statement. A debate over safety, information policy and the operation of German nuclear power plants started after Vattenfall Europe's Brunsbuttel and Krummel reactors had to be taken off the grid June 28 in emergency shutdowns after a short circuit at Brunsbuttel and a fire at one of Krummel's transformer stations. According to the statement, key improvements are to include: the operators' safety management systems are to be improved; regular scheduled safety investigations by state authorities are to be intensified and their processing accelerated; protection against gas penetration of the power plants' control rooms is to be improved; internal communication of facilities is to be improved. "These measures are to be coordinated with the responsible state authorities," the statement said. The ministry also said that the utilities offered to create a "code of conduct" together with the authorities in order to improve the companies' public information policies. According to the statement, the environment ministry also plans to introduce bi-annual meetings between the ministry, the utilities and the state authorities responsible for nuclear safety. Germany's previous government passed a nuclear phase-out law in 2002, forbidding the construction of new nuclear plants and limiting existing ones to an average life-span of 32 years. The utilities are demanding a review of this policy under the aspects of climate protection and security of supply. Thursday's meeting was attended by environment minister Sigmar Gabriel, Utz Claassen (CEO of ENBW), Klaus-Dieter Maubach (CEO of EON Energie), Harry Roels (CEO of RWE) and Hans-Jurgen Cramer (chairman of Vattenfall Europe). Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 37 ReviewJournal.com: NEVADA TEST SITE: Audit finds gaps in health screening Aug. 23, 2007 Changes urged in monitoring of exposure to radiation By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Health screening might be falling short for some workers at the Nevada Test Site, according to a Department of Energy inspection report released Wednesday. Some workers were not screened even though they were assigned to the program that looks for evidence of exposure to radiological elements at work sites, the audit reported. Others were tested even though it was unclear whether they needed to be, the audit said, because records were spotty. In other cases, workers were selected for testing based not on their potential for exposure, but rather on their willingness to undergo urine testing. Similar problems were discovered at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and at the East Tennessee Technology Park, a former uranium enrichment site. Inspectors warned that problems such as these could make it difficult for the government to weigh future health claims by employees. The lack of authoritative records has crippled the efforts of thousands of former nuclear workers to get compensation for cancers and other diseases that stemmed from being exposed to radiation and toxins when they were employed at nuclear weapons factories. "Without an improvement in the control process for personnel monitoring, department and contractor employees may be at risk for occupational exposures to radioactive material that might not be detected," auditors said in the 24-page report issued by the Energy Department inspector general. The audit was based on a sampling of records at the test site and other DOE facilities from January 2006 to May of this year. It said the test site did not have a formal process to determine which workers should be screened. Kevin Rohrer, a test site spokesman, said the audit identified that "our documentation is lacking, and we agree we can improve on that." But Rohrer maintained that workers are safe. "Our current bioassay program is in compliance with all DOE orders and regulations, and this additional documentation that was needed would go to further enhance the program," Rohrer said. "We are fixing it to incorporate the recommendations of the IG report," Rohrer said, adding that since 1998, "we have had only six workers who have registered any internal doses, and all of them were well below regulatory limits." The inspectors focused on the sites' confirmatory bioassay testing, which identifies workers for health screens after they emerge from work areas where they might be at risk of incidental exposures. The screening is held in conjunction with air and soil monitoring at the sites, and other worker protections, DOE officials said. The Energy Department requires mandatory bioassay testing for a "small number" of workers likely to receive a effective dose equivalent to 100 millirems per year, the regulatory limit for public exposure, said George Malosh, chief operating officer for the DOE Office of Science. For comparison, someone undergoing a chest X-ray generally receives 5 millirems of radiation exposure. For others workers, bioassay testing is optional, Malosh said, particularly because air monitoring is the "preferred method" for measuring worksite radiation levels. At the test site, workers at the low-level nuclear waste facility and those performing environmental cleanup of historic nuclear explosion sites are considered for health screening, Rohrer said. Also, employees working on weapons stockpile experiments that involve nuclear materials are enrolled for screening. Rohrer said that this year 325 workers were enrolled in the bioassay program and 250 were given health screenings after working in areas where they might have been exposed. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 ***************************************************************** 38 Wilmington: Star-News: Tritium not found in nuclear plant area | StarNewsOnline.com | Published August 22. 2007 3:30AM Progress Energy officials answer questions at public open house By Shelby Sebens Staff Writer shelby.sebens@starnewsonline.com CORRECTION: Progress Energy's Brunswick Nuclear Plant is still using a stabilization pond on its site, but the pond no longer collects runoff containing the radioactive isotope tritium. A story on 1B of Wednesday's Star-News incorrectly reported the pond's status. Southport | No surprises means good news for the Brunswick Nuclear Power Plant. Progress Energy announced at a town meeting Tuesday night that it has not detected any levels of tritium off its site or in the public's drinking water from samples taken from 26 newly dug wells. Several Progress Energy officials were available to answer questions from the very few members of the public who showed up for the open house and information session at Progress Energy's Visitors Center. Tritium, a radioactive isotope of the element hydrogen, was found in May in two on-site manholes. The plant invited nearly 100 nearby residents to a meeting in late June to inform them of the discovery. Initially, the plant determined there was no tritium outside the plant or in the public drinking water. Testing of the wells has confirmed that finding, Progress Energy officials said. Progress Energy has tested wells that go as deep as Brunswick County's main drinking water aquifer and found no traces of tritium. The Environmental Protection Agency allows 20,000 picocuries per liter of tritium in drinking water. The tritium found at Brunswick Nuclear seeped from a stabilization pond that regularly receives the radioactive isotope from the plant's cooling turbine building. Tritium occurs naturally in the atmosphere and, at low levels, is a harmless byproduct of nuclear facilities. However, as with all ionizing radiation, exposure to tritium can increase the risk of developing cancer, according to the EPA. The plant is no longer using that stabilization pond and is in the process of determining a permanent change to the facility. The plant split its samples with the state and Nuclear Regulatory Commission from wells ranging in depth from 7 feet below grade to 150 feet. "To this point, our results are quite close," said Dale Dusenbury, emergency response and environmental branch manager for the state Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, Radiation and Protection Division. The plant will continue monitoring the wells indefinitely. "We want to monitor to make sure nothing unusual happens," Tim Silar, hydrogeologist, said. The nuclear industry has launched an initiative to better communicate with the public since millions of gallons of radioactive water were released at the Exelon nuclear power plant in Braidwood, Ill., Dusenbury said. "There is a national effort throughout the industry," he said. Shelby Sebens: 755-7963 shelby.sebens@starnewsonline.com StarNewsOnline.com » ***************************************************************** 39 NRC: FONSI for Genisphere Facility FR Doc E7-16701 [Federal Register: August 23, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 163)] [Notices] [Page 48310-48312] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr23au07-84] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket No. 030-33804] Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendment to Byproduct Materials License No. 37-30211-01, for Unrestricted Release of the Genisphere Facility in Philadelphia, PA AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for license amendment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dennis Lawyer, Health Physicist, Commercial and R&D Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; telephone 610- 337-5366; fax number 610-337-5393; or by e-mail: drl1@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of a license amendment to Byproduct Materials License No. 37- 30211-01. This license is held by Genisphere (the Licensee), for the space it leases from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) located at 4170 City Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (the Facility). Issuance of the amendment would authorize release of the Facility for unrestricted use. The Licensee requested this action in a letter dated March 19, 2007, and responded to an information request by letter dated May 11, 2007. The NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in support of this proposed action in accordance with the requirements of Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 51 (10 CFR Part 51). Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate with respect to the proposed action. The amendment will be issued to the Licensee following the publication of this FONSI and EA in the Federal Register. [[Page 48311]] II. Environmental Assessment Identification of Proposed Action The proposed action would approve the Licensee's March 19, 2007 license amendment request, resulting in release of the Facility for unrestricted use. License No. 37-30211-01 was issued on February 27, 1996, pursuant to 10 CFR Part 30, and has been amended periodically since that time. This license authorizes the Licensee to use unsealed byproduct material in connection with conducting research and development activities on laboratory bench tops and in hoods at this Facility and their facility located at 2801 Sterling Drive, Hatfield, Pennsylvania. The proposed action pertains only to the cessation of licensed activities at the Facility, and the license will thus not be terminated if the proposed action is approved. The Facility is situated within the eight acre PCOM site and consists of approximately 8,000 square feet of office space and laboratories. The Facility is located in a mixed residential/commercial area. Within the Facility, the radionuclide of concern was hydrogen-3, because of its half-life being greater than 120 days. Use of this licensed material was confined to Rooms 316 and 319 of Evans Hall, an area of approximately 1050 square feet. In December 2003, the Licensee ceased licensed activities at the Facility, and initiated a survey and decontamination of the Facility. Based on the Licensee's historical knowledge of the site and the conditions of the Facility, the Licensee determined that only routine decontamination activities, in accordance with their NRC-approved, operating radiation safety procedures, were required. The Licensee was not required to submit a decommissioning plan to the NRC because worker cleanup activities and procedures are consistent with those approved for routine operations. The Licensee conducted surveys of the Facility and provided information to the NRC to demonstrate that it meets the criteria in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20 for unrestricted release. Need for the Proposed Action The Licensee has ceased conducting licensed activities at the Facility and seeks the unrestricted use of its Facility. Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action The historical review of licensed activities conducted at the Facility shows that such activities involved use of the following radionuclides with half-lives greater than 120 days: Hydrogen-3. Prior to performing the final status survey, the Licensee conducted decontamination activities, as necessary, in the areas of the Facility affected by these radionuclides. The Licensee conducted a final status survey of the Facility on February 19, 2004, but delayed making a final decision about whether or not to resume licensed activities there. The final status survey report was attached to the Licensee's letter dated May 11, 2007. The Licensee elected to demonstrate compliance with the radiological criteria for unrestricted release as specified in 10 CFR 20.1402 by using the screening approach described in NUREG-1757, ``Consolidated NMSS Decommissioning Guidance,'' Volume 2. The Licensee used the radionuclide-specific derived concentration guideline levels (DCGLs), developed there by the NRC, which comply with the dose criterion in 10 CFR 20.1402. These DCGLs define the maximum amount of residual radioactivity on building surfaces, equipment, and materials, that will satisfy the NRC requirements in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20 for unrestricted release. The Licensee's final status survey results were below these DCGLs and are in compliance with the As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) requirement of 10 CFR 20.1402. The NRC thus finds that the Licensee's final status survey results are acceptable. Based on its review, the staff has determined that the affected environment and any environmental impacts associated with the proposed action are bounded by the impacts evaluated by the ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC-Licensed Nuclear Facilities'' (NUREG-1496) Volumes 1-3 (ML042310492, ML042320379, and ML042330385). The staff finds there were no significant environmental impacts from the use of radioactive material at the Facility. The NRC staff reviewed the docket file records and the final status survey report to identify any non-radiological hazards that may have impacted the environment surrounding the Facility. No such hazards or impacts to the environment were identified. The NRC has identified no other radiological or non- radiological activities in the area that could result in cumulative environmental impacts. The NRC staff finds that the proposed release of the Facility for unrestricted use is in compliance with 10 CFR 20.1402. Based on its review, the staff considered the impact of the residual radioactivity at the Facility and concluded that the proposed action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment. Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action Due to the largely administrative nature of the proposed action, its environmental impacts are small. Therefore, the only alternative the staff considered is the no-action alternative, under which the staff would leave things as they are by simply denying the amendment request. This no-action alternative is not feasible because it conflicts with 10 CFR 30.36(d), requiring that decommissioning of byproduct material facilities be completed and approved by the NRC after licensed activities cease. The NRC's analysis of the Licensee's final status survey data confirmed that the Facility meets the requirements of 10 CFR 20.1402 for unrestricted release. Additionally, denying the amendment request would result in no change in current environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of the proposed action and the no-action alternative are therefore similar, and the no-action alternative is accordingly not further considered. Conclusion The NRC staff has concluded that the proposed action is consistent with the NRC's unrestricted release criteria specified in 10 CFR 20.1402. Because the proposed action will not significantly impact the quality of the human environment, the NRC staff concludes that the proposed action is the preferred alternative. Agencies and Persons Consulted NRC provided a draft of this Environmental Assessment to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Radiation Protection for review on July 3, 2007. On July 5, 2007, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Radiation Protection responded by electronic mail. The State agreed with the conclusions of the EA, and otherwise had no comments. The NRC staff has determined that the proposed action is of a procedural nature, and will not affect listed species or critical habitat. Therefore, no further consultation is required under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. The NRC staff has also determined that the proposed action is not the type of activity that has the potential to cause effects on historic properties. Therefore, no further consultation is required [[Page 48312]] under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. III. Finding of No Significant Impact The NRC staff has prepared this EA in support of the proposed action. On the basis of this EA, the NRC finds that there are no significant environmental impacts from the proposed action, and that preparation of an environmental impact statement is not warranted. Accordingly, the NRC has determined that a Finding of No Significant Impact is appropriate. IV. Further Information Documents related to this action, including the application for license amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The documents related to this action are listed below, along with their ADAMS accession numbers. 1. NUREG-1757, ``Consolidated NMSS Decommissioning Guidance;'' 2. Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 20, Subpart E, ``Radiological Criteria for License Termination;'' 3. Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 51, ``Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions;'' 4. NUREG-1496, ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC- Licensed Nuclear Facilities;'' 5. Genisphere, Amendment Request Letter dated March 19, 2007 [ML070810465]; 6. Genisphere, Deficiency Response Letter dated May 11, 2007 [ML071340235]. If you do not have access to ADAMS, or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Dated at Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia this 16th day of August 2007. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. James P. Dwyer, Chief, Commercial and R&D Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I. [FR Doc. E7-16701 Filed 8-22-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 40 UPI: ASEAN to set up nuclear safety panel United Press International - International Security - Energy - Published: Aug. 23, 2007 at 12:46 PM SINGAPORE, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Energy ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said Thursday they would set up a panel on nuclear energy safety. The Nuclear Energy Safety Subsector Network Agreement, proposed by Singapore, comes as more members of ASEAN are looking to nuclear power to feed their rapidly growing economies. "They agreed to endorse the agreement and a nuclear energy subsector network will be established," Guillermo Balce, undersecretary in the Philippines Department of Energy, told Kyodo News after a meeting among ASEAN ministers. The agreement is likely to be signed in Bangkok next year. ASEAN already has six energy subsectors; nuclear will be the seventh, Kyodo reported. The plan comes as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Myanmar have all indicated interest in nuclear power. © Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 41 Knoxville News Sentinel: Nuclear exposure tests found lacking Federal audit cites ORNL, ETTP for problems monitoring workers By Frank Munger (Contact) Thursday, August 23, 2007 OAK RIDGE — A new federal audit identified problems with the way nuclear workers are monitored for exposures at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the East Tennessee Technology Park. The U.S. Department of Energy’s inspector general released the report Wednesday. Auditors found that more than 65 percent of radiological workers sampled by auditors at ORNL did not receive all of their scheduled bioassay tests, were not tested at the prescribed frequency, or were not tested for all of the radioactive materials to which they might have been exposed. The biological sampling is used to evaluate whether workers have absorbed radioactive materials. It supports other types of radiation monitoring for workers most likely to be exposed. UT-Battelle, the managing contractor at ORNL, disputed the finding. “In this case, the report apparently confused a voluntary testing program with a much more stringent monitoring program that ORNL has had in place for years,” ORNL spokesman Billy Stair said. “Extensive air monitoring and radiation surveys indicated that none of the staff involved was at risk for the exposure, and thus many felt no need for further individual testing,” he said. At ETTP, a former uranium-enrichment facility being cleaned up by Bechtel Jacobs Co., about 20 percent of nuclear workers were not tested at the frequency they should have been for all the radioisotopes at their work sites, the report states. On the positive front, the audit shows that workers at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge were being tested properly. The review at ORNL indicated that some workers in radiological areas were not showing up for tests, even after being notified of the requirement, and sometimes canceled appointments were not rescheduled or the rescheduled tests were missed as well. “For example, one individual only met two of seven required tests over a 14-month period,” the report states. “During this time period, the individual worked in areas where she was potentially exposed to isotopes such as iodine-131, which may increase a person’s risk for developing thyroid cancer.” At the East Tennessee Technology Park, some employees were not tested for all isotopes specified in the federal site’s work permits or tested at the frequency required, the IG audit found. “For example, four of these individuals were not scheduled in a timely manner and, as a result, over 25 percent of the required tests for uranium isotopes were at least three weeks delinquent,” the report states. John Shewairy, a DOE spokesman, said a “number of mechanisms including air monitoring, radiation screening, and the use of dosimetry monitors” are in place at the Oak Ridge facilities and provide “radiation detection and protection capability for our workers.” “The safety and well-being of our workforce is paramount,” Shewairy said. “Our contractors are in full compliance with the stringent and mandatory DOE requirements as provided for by the references cited in the department’s response to the IG audit — a response that was included in the IG audit report itself,” he said. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 42 NAS: Project: Beryllium Alloy Exposures in Military Aerospace Applications Project Title: PIN: BEST-K-05-03-A Major Unit: Division on Earth and Life Studies Sub Unit: Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology RSO: Martel, Susan Subject/Focus Area: Project Scope An ad hoc committee under the oversight of the standing Committee on Toxicology (COT) will conduct this study. In its first report, the committee will provide an independent review of the toxicologic, epidemiologic, and other relevant data on beryllium. The committee will also review carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects. In its second report, the committee will estimate chronic inhalation exposure levels for military personnel and civilian contractor workers that are unlikely to produce adverse health effects. The committee will provide carcinogenic risk estimates for various inhalation exposure levels. The committee will consider genetic susceptibility among worker subpopulations. If sufficient data are available, the committee will evaluate whether beryllium-alloy exposure levels should be different than those of other forms of beryllium because of differences in particle size. The committee will identify specific tests for workers surveillance and biomonitoring. The committee will also comment on the utility of the beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT). Specifically the committee will determine (1) the value of the borderline or a true positive test in predicting CBD, (2) its utility in worker's surveillance, (3) further follow up tests for workers with positive BeLPT (thin slice CT bronchoscopy, biopsy, etc.), (4) the likelihood of developing CBD after a true positive test, and (5) a standardized methodology to achieve consistent test results from different laboratories. The committee will evaluate whether there are more suitable tests that would have more accuracy as screening or surveillance tools. The committee will also identify data gaps relevant to risk assessment of beryllium alloys and make recommendations for further research. The project is sponsored by the U.S. Air Force. Start date: September 29, 2006. The first report will be issued in 12 months, and the final report in approximately 24 months. Project duration: 24 months Provide FEEDBACK on this project. Contact the Public Access Records Office to make an inquiry or to schedule an appointment to view project materials available to the public. Committee Membership Meetings Meeting 1 - 02/05/2007 Meeting 2 - 04/05/2007 Reports Reports having no URL can be seen at the Public Access Records Office Email: info@nas.edu ***************************************************************** 43 Daily Yomiuri: Resumption of Monju reactor postponed The Japan Atomic Energy Agency likely will postpone until October next year the resumption of the Monju fast breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, which has been shut down since a sodium leak accident in 1995, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Thursday. The resumption of operations was postponed after the JAEA decided to conduct further tests to ensure the reactor's safety. The renovation work on the reactor began in September 2005. The final tests to confirm functionality and safety of the nuclear reactor and its power generating units will begin at the end of this month. The JAEA originally planned to complete the tests by May 2008. * THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN © The Yomiuri Shimbun. ***************************************************************** 44 Daily Yomiuri: Japan, U.S., Australia to hold 1st summit Japan, Australia and the United States will hold their first trilateral summit meeting on Sept. 8 in Sydney to strengthen security ties, government sources said Thursday. At the trilateral talks, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and U.S. President George W. Bush will discuss North Korea's nuclear disarmament and how to deal with China's military buildup. Japan plans to propose regularly holding the trilateral summit talks, the sources said. The first summit will be held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting. In addition to the established alliances between Japan and the United States and between Australia and the United States, Japan and Australia signed a security pact in March. With the completion of the three-way alliance, the three countries have agreed that each country would benefit from deeper cooperation, not only in tackling North Korean issues, but also for marine rescues and counterterrorism measures, the sources said. Abe, Bush and Howard are expected to agree to ask China to increase its transparency in respect to its military buildup. Abe is planning to stress that North Korea should carry out actions as agreed in six-party talks toward nuclear disarmament. In March last year, Foreign Minister Taro Aso, his Australian counterpart Alexander Downer and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a strategic dialogue in Sydney. In June, defense ministers held their first meeting in Singapore. The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun © The Yomiuri Shimbun. ***************************************************************** 45 AU ABC: NT wants vote on proposed nuclear dump - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Posted August 23, 2007 16:04:00 * Alice Springs 0870 Northern Territory Chief Minister Claire Martin says the Federal Government should hold a vote on whether a nuclear waste dump should be built in the Territory. Prime Minister John Howard has announced there will be binding local plebiscites in communities where nuclear power stations are proposed. But Ms Martin says she wants Territorians to have a say on whether a proposed low and intermediate level nuclear waste facility goes ahead. "Before the last election John Howard said 'No, we won't have a nuclear waste facility in the Territory'," she said. "Go past the election, he's said 'Got you on that one, we're going to do it and we're going to do it regardless of how Territorians feel'. "So I say to John Howard, if you're talking about nuclear, you have a plebiscite here in the Territory about a nuclear waste facility." Anti-nuclear campaigners say they agree Mr Howard is hypocritical for supporting plebiscites on whether communities want nuclear power plants in their area but not nuclear waste dumps. Coordinator for the Alice Springs-based Beyond Nuclear Campaign, Natalie Wasley, says Mr Howard is employing double standards. "John Howard's stepping up and saying communities should be given the opportunity to have a say on nuclear development and facilities in their area," she said. "Given that the nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory - or the proposal for one - has been imposed on the communities that are living nearby, it's been imposed on the Northern Territory community as a whole and also overriding the wishes of the Northern Territory Government." Tags: environment, nuclear-issues, federal-government, states-and-territories, activism-and-lobbying, alice-springs-0870 ***************************************************************** 46 Aiken Today: Environmental groups seek to halt MOX facility licensing AikenStandard.com Thu, Aug 23, 2007 By JOSH VOORHEES Staff writer AUGUSTA ? A panel of nuclear safety officials convened in the Augusta Federal Courthouse Wednesday morning to hear legal arguments concerning attempts by three citizens' groups to block the proposed mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility from obtaining the necessary license to process nuclear materials. The contractor for the MOX program, Shaw Areva MOX Services, has already obtained a construction license for the project and construction began on the fuel facility earlier this month at the Savannah River Site. The operating license remains one of the last major hurdles standing in the way of the MOX program. The citizens' groups ? the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Nuclear Watch South and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service ? filed a lawsuit in May aimed at stopping the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from licensing the facility, citing concerns over possible air pollution and the program's long-term waste storage plans. Both BREDL and Nuclear Watch South filed a similar lawsuit during the construction licensing process and have repeatedly spoken out against a program that they see as unnecessarily dangerous. Wednesday's proceedings in front of the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board were a necessary step in addressing the validity of the groups' latest contentions and in determining if a formal hearing is justified to deal with the matter. The three-person panel that will decide if the case will proceed listened to representatives for the groups and from attorneys representing the NRC and Shaw Areva concerning the specifics of the petition during the three-hour proceedings. Attorneys representing the NRC and Shaw Areva disputed all of the citizens groups' contentions, arguing that both the contractor and the licensing agency followed the proper steps during the license application and review processes. A decision from the panel is not expected until mid-September. The proposed MOX facility would be part of the nation's effort to convert supplies of weapons-grade plutonium into more proliferation-resistant forms by blending it with uranium. Converting the pollution into MOX fuel would enable it to be used in commercial reactors to generate electricity. The facility would be owned by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration and operated by Shaw Areva MOX Services. For more information about the licensing process, visit the NRC's website at www.nrc.gov.?? © 2005 The AikenStandard. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 47 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: A policy meltdown Today: August 23, 2007 at 7:25:50 PDT Bad rules keep regulators from telling the public about serious nuclear accidents I n March 2006 a company that supplies nuclear fuel to the U.S. Navy had a serious spill of highly enriched uranium that could have led to an uncontrolled nuclear reaction. Last month details of the incident, along with a series of other safety issues or violations at Tennessee-based Nuclear Fuel Service in the past few years, were made public by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission had to vote to make the incidents public because the company is a defense contractor and falls under a secrecy policy designed to keep nuclear secrets from terrorists. It made the details public only in reprimanding the company and ordering it to bolster its safety program. The commission reported that a little more than 9 gallons of highly enriched uranium solution leaked onto a floor at a Nuclear Fuel Service facility. A supervisor discovered the spill after seeing yellow liquid "running into a hallway" from under a door, the Associated Press reported. The regulatory commission found that there were two areas where the solution could have collected in a way to cause an uncontrolled nuclear reaction, which could have led to the injury and death of workers. Commissioners are struggling with the secrecy policy, trying to find a way to give the public access to information without compromising safety . Luis Reyes, the regulatory commission's operations chief, told commissioners, "The pendulum maybe swung too far." The commission should change its rules to make public disclosure of such serious incidents the norm. Public disclosure - and the scrutiny that comes as a result - should force companies to make safety a priority and will give Americans a measure of trust that things are being handled properly. Considering the incident was kept under wraps for more than a year, it is frightening to think what other potential disasters have yet to be reported. All contents copyright 2005 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 48 Chattanooga Times Free Press: Wamp calls on reprocessing nuclear waste - Thursday, August 23, 2007, at 2:10 p.m. By Cliff Hightower Staff Writer SPRING CITY, Tenn. -- Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said today Congress needs to look at an experimental process that reuses nuclear waste as energy if nuclear power remains an option. Rep. Wamp said the U.S. Department of Energy currently has four proposals for demonstrations of nuclear waste reprocessing. One of those proposals includes the Tennessee Valley Authority, he said. "You can't address global warming without nuclear," Rep. Wamp said. "It is zero emissions." Rep. Wamp said Great Britain and France reprocess their nuclear waste. Using the program cuts waste by 80 percent, he said. Reprocessing the waste would take a congressional act, Rep. Wamp said. "It's not part of our national policy," he said. E-mail Cliff Hightower at chightower@timesfreepress.com See tomorrow's Chattanooga Times Free Press for complete coverage. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. © Copyright, permissions and privacy policy Copyright ©2007, Chattanooga Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 49 Economist.com: Australia's uranium mines | The Indian exception | Aug 23rd 2007 | SYDNEY The deputy sheriff does his bit for America's nuclear deal with India WHAT Australia's outback deserts lack in water they make up for in uranium. They contain almost 40% of the world's known low-cost reserves of the nuclear fuel. It is big business for Australia: exploration companies are at present spending ten times more money searching for deposits than they did three years ago. And ore from Australia's three operating mines supplies about a quarter of the world's uranium-oxide exports. Until now all this has gone to countries that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This ensures, in theory, that they will use it to produce electricity rather than bombs. But on August 16th John Howard, Australia's prime minister, said he would lift a ban on selling uranium to India, which refuses to sign the NPT, has tested nuclear weapons and does not rule out testing more. Mr Howard says the sales will be subject to “strict conditions”. India will first have to sign a safeguards agreement with Australia, guaranteeing that none of its uranium will be diverted to weapons. As part of an agreement with America (see article), it is also to submit to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency of some of its civil nuclear reactors. Yet environmentalists have accused the government of spoiling Australia's strong record on nuclear non-proliferation. Australia's safeguards regime was drawn up in the late 1970s when a former conservative government agreed to open up newly discovered uranium deposits in the Northern Territory for mining and export. America, Japan and South Korea are among Australia's biggest customers. Mr Howard first flagged the change of Australia's nuclear policy during a visit to New Delhi in early 2006. In part, he was echoing America's earlier decision to overturn a 30-year ban on sharing civilian nuclear technology with India: as one of America's closest allies, Australia is well placed to help India fuel its expanding nuclear-energy needs. But Australia is also keen to build a solid regional relationship with India similar to those it already has with Japan and China. Relations with India soured after Australia strongly criticised its nuclear weapons test in 1998. Mr Howard also wants to bolster his credentials as a promoter of clean (read nuclear) energy. Uranium mining has always divided Australians, but more seem to be leaning towards an expansion of the industry in response to global warming. The opposition Labor Party only recently dropped its policy of limiting mining to the three working mines. Labor still says it will ban any uranium sales to India if it wins an election due at the end of this year, as opinion polls suggest it might. Other doubts linger over the deal, notably the fate of the America-India agreement itself. It also needs approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. If it survives all that, argues Rory Medcalf of the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think-tank, Australia should see the deal as an opportunity: to use its clout as a uranium supplier to build strong anti-proliferation safeguards outside the “imperfect instrument” of the NPT. Should India test another bomb, public outrage, he reckons, would kill uranium exports in a flash. John Howard announced his intention to sell uranium to India. Rory Medcalf of the Lowy Institute discusses the implications. The International Atomic Energy Agency posts the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. See also the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2007. All rights ***************************************************************** 50 WKRN.COM: Wamp touts TVA role in nuclear waste project | [August 23, 2007, 10:01 pm] By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press Writer SPRING CITY, Tenn. The Tennessee Valley Authority is vying to host a national demonstration project for recycling spent nuclear fuel, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp said Thursday. "I believe TVA is going to ... prove to our country that you can deal with the No. 1 liability associated with the nuclear industry and that is the waste," the Chattanooga Republican said after touring an unfinished Watts Bar Nuclear Plant reactor that TVA intends to complete in five years. America needs nuclear power to meet growing demand for energy and power sources that don't foul the air like coal-fired... plants, he said. But the country will never be able to find enough places to bury the radioactive waste already piling up at nuclear plants, including TVA's, he said. "You can't build Yucca Mountain after Yucca Mountain after Yucca Mountain," Wamp said of the long-stalled Nevada site for nuclear waste. "As a matter of fact, we are proving it is kind of hard to build the first one." But if an anticipated nuclear revival develops as predicted, the United States will need six more Yucca Mountains over the next 50 years, said Wamp, a member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. "So let's look at what the British andFrench do and prove to our country that you can close the fuel cycle. Reprocess the waste back into energy _ safely and efficiently," he said. Wamp is confident that reprocessing works. He said he's seen it work on a small scale at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the country's top energy laboratory. Reprocessing the waste to extract still-usable uranium could help recycle about 80 percent into new fuel. Officials estimate the remainder would still have to be buried at a facility like Yucca Mountain. Toward that end, the Department of Energy is reviewing proposals from four industry groups for a nuclear fuel reprocessing pilot project underthe Bush administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership initiative. Cooperative agreements with the groups are expected to be announced next month. They will then have until 2008 to come up with more detailed business plans. TVA, the nation's largest public utility, has incorporated its processes into proposals from three of the four groups _ AREVA Federal Services LLC, EnergySolutions LLC and General Electric-Hitachi Nuclear Americas LLC. The fourth group is General Atomics. Ashok Bhatnager, TVA's senior vice president for nuclear power, said TVA is proposing a "Tennessee-only" demonstration involving potentially all nuclear waste at WattsBar and TVA's Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Chattanooga. "This is a very phased approach," he said. It would start with "taking it from a laboratory demonstration at a microgram kind of scale to something that's the size that you could process the waste from Watts Bar and Sequoyah combined _ more of an industrial-size demonstration facility." Wamp said the French have half as many reactors (53) as the United States (105), but can reprocess all of their spent fuel at one facility. That could mean two such facilities would be adequate for the United States, but Wamp said the better goal would be developing reprocessing systems that can work at the reactorsites. ___ TVA: http://www.tva.gov Copyright 2007 by the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 51 Las Vegas Now: Nevada's Powerful Leaders Strategize to Stop Yucca Mountain Project Edward Lawrence, Reporter Some of Nevada's most powerful leaders gathered in Las Vegas Thursday for a closed door strategy session. Their goal -- stopping the Yucca Mountain Project. The Department of Energy is building a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, just 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The state is vehemently against it. If the project is completed, high level nuclear waste from across the country will be shipped to Nevada. Senator Harry Reid kept us out of the strategy session for the first hour. The door was even locked. "First of all, I do not think it is appropriate that we disclose publicly what our strategy is to kill this project," said the senator. What we do know is the state is working on many fronts to keep high level nuclear waste from being shipped to Nevada. First, the governor is using the courts to delay the project. The latest federal lawsuit claims the Department of Energy is breaking the law by using water to drill and test at the site. The state engineer ordered water could only be used for everyday use. "Do I think that we will come to some sort of agreement? No. I think that is because the DOE has come in bad faith. They continue to use the water illegally in our perspective," said Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada's Attorney General. A federal judge is expected to rule on the case next week. Joining the state's fight is Senator Harry Reid, who is also working to cut funding. Reid invited North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan to the meeting. He is chairman of the committee which controls Yucca Mountain funding. Sen. Dorgan, (D) North Dakota: This is a big decision on a very important issue. I think that the most important questions deal with human health and what are the consequences? Dorgan recommended a 50 million dollar cut for the project this year. The full senate has yet to vote on it. Still, he would not come out and call it a bad project. "I think there is a lot that needs to be resolved here before final judgements are made about licensing," said Sen. Dorgan. Which could explain why Reid stacked the room with Yucca Mountain heavy hitters. The Department of Energy says the operating license will be submitted in June of next year. But the state agency fighting the project says it won't be complete and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should throw it out. The state says their timing is crucial, because the Department of Energy wants to submit the license while George Bush is still president.Email your comments to Reporter Edward Lawrence. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KLAS. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 52 Whitehaven News: New nuclear build hopes for Sellafield Published on 23/08/2007 ENERGY Minister Malcolm Wicks has given a strong hint that Sellafield could be a candidate for new nuclear reactors. In an interview with The Financial Times on Monday the minister was commenting on the forthcoming energy bill to be published by the government this autumn. He said that the most likely sites for new reactors would be where local communities were “supportive” of nuclear power. “If one was an investor, you can see the attractions of that,” he said, citing Sellafield as an example. However the interview also clarified the government insistence that the private sector has to pay the costs of looking after nuclear waste arising from any new reactors. “The starting principle is that if we go for nuclear, the private sector have to pay for it, and this includes this area of nuclear waste,” said Mr Wicks. So far the taxpayer has been footing the estimated ÂŁ65 billion bill for decommissioning the existing nuclear reactors and the ÂŁ10 billion estimated for an underground nuclear waste bunker. Last week The Daily Telegraph reported that British Energy was carrying out a detailed review of its existing reactor sites for potential new-build projects. Sizewell, near London and Hinkley Point, west of Bristol, were said to be likely sites that would welcome new nuclear plant. View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/digitalcopy ***************************************************************** 53 Columbian.comNew nuclear shipments to Hanford considered- Clark County, Washington | August 23, 2007 BY ERIK ROBINSON, Columbian staff writer The Hanford nuclear reservation, already the most polluted site in the Northwest, may be in for new shipments of radioactive waste under a proposal by the U.S. Department of Energy. A public hearing on the matter has been scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Comfort Inn & Suites, 477 N.W. Phoenix Drive, in Troutdale, Ore. Hanford is among eight federal sites being considered as a depository for waste from around the country; some is generated at commercial nuclear power plants, some is radioactive waste from government installations. This particular type of waste, known in the agency's parlance as Greater Than Class C low-level radioactive waste, is considered to be dangerous to an inadvertent human intruder beyond 500 years - the most hazardous category of "low-level" waste. Over the next 55 years, the agency expects 5,600 cubic meters of this material - a little more than 800 dump truck loads - will need to be stored somewhere. The environmental study now under way will evaluate disposal at the proposed national waste depository in Yucca Mountain, Nev.; near-surface disposal at Hanford or other DOE sites; and deeper borehole disposal at those same locations. "It's important to evaluate and analyze all the options," said Jonathan Shrader, a DOE spokesman in Washington, D.C. "We want to be thorough and make sure we make the right decision." Representatives of a Hanford watchdog group expressed outrage. "In all my years of working on Hanford cleanup issues, I always assumed that no one would ever go back to dumping radioactive waste into the dirt at Hanford," wrote Greg deBruler, a technical consultant working for the environmental group Columbia Riverkeeper. ©2007 Columbian.com. All Rights Reserved - Use of this site ***************************************************************** 54 Knoxville News Sentinel: ORNL disputes IG report on nuke workers monitoring By Frank Munger Originally published 11:32 a.m., August 22, 2007 OAK RIDGE — A new federal audit identified problems with the way nuclear workers are monitored for exposures at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the East Tennessee Technology Park. The U.S. Department of Energy’s inspector general released the report today. Auditors found that more than 65 percent of radiological workers sampled by auditors at ORNL did not receive all of their scheduled bioassay tests, were not tested at the prescribed frequency or were not tested for all of the radioactive materials to which they might have been exposed. The biological sampling is used to evaluate whether workers have absorbed radioactive materials. It supports other types of radiation monitoring for workers most likely to be exposed. UT-Battelle, the managing contractor at ORNL, disputed the finding. “In this case, the report apparently confused a voluntary testing program with a much more stringent monitoring program that ORNL has had in place for years,” ORNL spokesman Billy Stair said. “Extensive air monitoring and radiation surveys indicated that none of the staff involved was at risk for the exposure, and thus many felt no need for further individual testing.” At ETTP, a former uranium-enrichment facility being cleaned up by Bechtel Jacobs Co., about 20 percent of nuclear workers were not tested at the frequency they should have been for all the radioisotopes at their work sites, the report said. On the positive front, the audit showed that workers at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge were being tested properly. The review at ORNL indicated that some workers in radiological areas were not showing up for tests even after being notified of the requirement, and sometimes canceled appointments were not rescheduled or the rescheduled tests were missed as well. “For example, one individual only met two of seven required tests over a 14-month period,” the report said. “During this time period the individual worked in areas where she was potentially exposed to isotopes such as iodine-131, which may increase a person’s risk for developing thyroid cancer.” At the East Tennessee Technology Park, some employees were not tested for all isotopes specified in the federal site’s work permits or tested at the frequency required, the IG audit found. “For example, four of these individuals were not scheduled in a timely manner and, as a result, over 25 percent of the required tests for uranium isotopes were at least three weeks delinquent,” the report said. John Shewairy, a DOE spokesman, said a “number of mechanisms including air monitoring, radiation screening, and the use of dosimetry monitors” are in place at the Oak Ridge facilities and provide “radiation detection and protection capability for our workers.” “The safety and well-being of our workforce is paramount,” Shewairy said. “Our contractors are in full compliance with the stringent and mandatory DOE requirements as provided for by the references cited in the Department's response to the IG audit — a response that was included in the IG audit report itself.” More details as they develop online and in Thursday’s News Sentinel. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 55 Knoxville News Sentinel: New nuke facility closer Start of design work for production center OK'd; project could reach $3.5B By Frank Munger (Contact) Thursday, August 23, 2007 OAK RIDGE — Federal officials have approved the start of design work on a new production center, and a Y-12 spokesman acknowledged this week that the project’s cost could reach $3.5 billion — far more than previous estimates. Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration in Oak Ridge, said there is no firm price tag for the Uranium Processing Facility at this point, but he said the cost range for the project is $1.4 billion to $3.5 billion. The highest previous estimate disclosed publicly was $2 billion, which Y-12 general manager George Dials reported during a meeting with the News Sentinel earlier this year. At the time, Dials said the working estimates ranged from $1.4 billion to $2 billion. When first proposed a few years ago, Y-12 officials said they expected the UPF to cost about $1 billion. In an e-mail response to questions about the facility earlier this week, Wyatt confirmed that Oak Ridge officials recently received the go-ahead for Critical Decision-1, which is federal parlance to begin preliminary design work on a major construction project. The Uranium Processing Facility would replace the main 9212 production complex at Y-12, which manufactures nuclear warhead parts — specializing in so-called secondaries, the second stage of thermonuclear weapons. UPF is considered a key part of the modernization program at Y-12. A new storage facility for weapons-grade uranium already is under construction at Y-12. According to plant officials, the storage facility — known formally as the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility — is about 60 percent complete. The current cost of that project is $549 million, which is more than twice the initial estimates. Clay Sell, the deputy secretary of energy, gave Y-12 permission to proceed with preliminary design work on UPF following a July 25 presentation in Washington, Wyatt said. A formal authorization letter from Sell is expected soon, he said. Work on the preliminary design is now under way, Wyatt said. According to Wyatt, the current cost range for the UPF allows “significant consideration” for uncertainties and unknowns. “The actual cost baseline for the project will not be developed until preliminary design is mature enough to objectively quantify the scope and validate the total estimated cost,” the federal spokesman said. Establishing a “performance baseline” for the project, which includes an official cost estimate, is a prerequisite to getting approval of Critical Decision-2, tentatively scheduled for 2010. The actual project likely won’t be completed until 2015 or beyond, based on earlier reports by Y-12 officials. “Based on the process used to develop the cost range, it is reasonable to anticipate that the project’s baseline will be set at a number between $1.4 billion and $3.5 billion,” Wyatt said. Wyatt said the UPF is an important project, from both a production and a safety standpoint. “UPF will replace the heart of the Y-12 manufacturing complex, moving operations from 60-year-old facilities with outdated equipment into a new consolidated facility,” he said. “The new facility will have enhanced facility safety and worker health features designed into the facility and processes.” The cost, however, is sure to bring additional controversy to the big project. Peace activists already have protested the billions of dollars being spent on Y-12 modernization, saying there is no need for new weapons. Even one of the plant’s biggest supporters, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., recently said there has to be a cap on spending — even on national security projects. Wamp said the government needs to look at ways to control escalating costs, as well as look at creative ways to finance the big projects — perhaps looking outside the traditional funding mechanisms through Congress. Two major new facilities at Y-12, the Jack Case Center and the New Hope Center, which collectively will provide offices for about a third of the Y-12 work force, were built via private financing. Those facilities were developed by Lawler-Wood of Knoxville and are leased to BWXT, the government’s managing contractor at Y-12. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. Posted by norrisr on August 23, 2007 at 3:29 a.m. (Suggest removal) More billions wasted. We've already got enough nukes to blow up the world half a dozen times. Why don't they stop giving out white collar welfare to the military industrial complex and let the good folks at Oak Ridge do some good work with their careers and their lives. Posted by cmcfalls on August 23, 2007 at 7:38 a.m. (Suggest removal) By letting "the good folks at Oak Ridge do some good work with their careers and their lives" you mean like secure storage of nuclear materials, dismantlement under strategic arms treaties, stockpile management, global nuclear nonproliferation, providing employment for scientists from foreign countries formerly involved in weapons facilities, providing fuel to research reactors (that produce further, "better" science), providing fuel for Naval reactors, and the development and improvement of many manufacturing technologies as well as safeguards and securities? They already do that stuff. And a lot of it leads to other science and discoveries that will further enable someone to "do some good work." A lot of their activities not only help keep our country safe by stockpiling and protecting materials, but also the world through nonproliferation involving countries like Libya. Keeping our country (and the world) safe is not limited to manufacturing nuclear parts. Never mind that it provides thousands of jobs to folks who would otherwise be out of work. Posted by mtnlady on August 23, 2007 at 9:06 a.m. (Suggest removal) Since this facility does exist in East Tenn. Does that put us at risk for being a target of a terrorist attack. If so, I dont believe any of it is worth it. No one should have nuclear weapons. Posted by safetybobtn on August 23, 2007 at 9:39 a.m. (Suggest removal) This is a top-secret facility. The terrorist have no idea that it is even here or what goes on here. Unless of course they read the newspaper. Posted by Paone on August 23, 2007 at 9:54 a.m. (Suggest removal) Quote: "Since this facility does exist in East Tenn. Does that put us at risk for being a target of a terrorist attack. If so, I dont believe any of it is worth it. No one should have nuclear weapons." That'd be ideal, but the fact remains that at least 8 nations possess nuclear weapons, and at least one of those nations is hostile toward the United States. It'd be pretty foolhardy of the US to unilaterally dispose of our nukes while having others pointed at us. Quote: "This is a top-secret facility. The terrorist have no idea that it is even here or what goes on here. Unless of course they read the newspaper." The cat's been out of the bag for some time now, safetybobtn. After all, Y-12 has its own Wikipedia article and its own credit union, as well as dozens of news articles over the past six decades, its own website, and directions available from Google Maps. It's not like the News-Sentinel is printing a full feature article in its own dedicated section, complete with detailed blueprints of the facility. Posted by BSig on August 23, 2007 at 10:48 a.m. (Suggest removal) Actually most of what they do is research and to make fuel for nuclear powered vessels like submarines and aircraft carriers. As far as the dangers of living close to a nuclear research site, there is a far greater chance of dying on your way to work in a car crash than from a nuclear accident or terrorist attack. Posted by Sikorsky_and_Hutch on August 23, 2007 at 11:56 a.m. (Suggest removal) Very nice response, Paone. Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 56 lamonitor.com: Lab Notes The Online News Source for Los Alamos Compiled by ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor Public meeting on groundwater provisions The New Mexico Environment Department wants to tighten reporting requirements for groundwater monitoring at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A formal comment and public meeting will be held from 6-8 p.m. Monday at the Cities of Gold Hotel in Pojoaque to discuss the proposed modification and listen to public concerns. In a settlement agreement related to LANL's need to provide timely notification of hexavalent chromium contamination in a characterization well in Mortandad Canyon, the state and the managers of the laboratory agreed to additional notification measures under the Consent Order between the parties. The Consent Order, signed in March 2005, regulates the comprehensive environmental cleanup program at the lab. A negotiated settlement in June 2007 reduced the penalties for the laboratory from $795,620 to $251,870, and included the new specifications for reporting contamination. Among the requirements, the laboratory will be expected to review and report on a monthly basis all new analytical data from groundwater monitoring. Any new contamination found exceeding state and federal standards must be reported within one business day after the review. Fifteen-day deadlines were assigned for reporting newly detected contaminants and other specified occurrences and changes in contaminant concentrations. In December 2005, the laboratory reported that hexavalent chromium from samples and analysis had been found at elevated levels as early as January 2004, but had been overlooked for nearly two years. In May the laboratory finished drilling a new test well in lower Sandia Canyon to further characterized the nature and extent of the pollution and to guard against contamination of a nearby Los Alamos County drinking water well. The first results from that monitoring effort are expected shortly. IG finds mixed results in DOE radiation testing A federal auditor found that some DOE sites are, and some are not, meeting expectations for effective testing of workers against radiation exposures. Los Alamos National Laboratory was not among the sites included in the survey. According to DOE's two-tier approach, biological or "bioassay" testing is mandated when significant exposures are expected, but when significant exposures are unlikely, the department's contractors are supposed to develop precautions to ensure that effective controls are in place to reduce exposures. A report distributed Tuesday found positive results at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the auditors found that 16 out of a sample of 24 workers who regularly visited radiological areas were not adequately checked. They were either not tested at the prescribed frequency or were not tested for all of the radioactive isotopes to which they may have been exposed. Smaller percentages (20 percent) of workers sampled at East Tennessee Technology Park and Nevada Test site were also found to be inadequately tested. At the Nevada Tests site, documentation was lacking in some cases. The auditors concluded with the warning that the lack of accurate exposure history may affect DOE's ability to assess future health issues reliably. "This lack of adequate exposure evidence is highlighted by the department's experience with the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEIOCPA) and potential legal issues surrounding incomplete occupational exposure data from past radiological work," the report stated. "As of the end of Fiscal year 2006, the estimated future benefits payable to eligible individuals under the EEIOCPA was $6.9 million." A response by DOE's Office of Science and Office of Environmental Management, did not concur with most of the recommendations, on the basis that the issues were about discretionary monitoring, not requirements, and that optional testing was a matter for the employee to decide. The response said that engineering and process controls for containing radioactive materials and reducing exposures are mandatory, and that air monitoring, combined with radiation and contamination surveys, were the preferred techniques for verifying the effectiveness of protective controls. The National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nuclear weapons complex, generally agreed with the report. © 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. For more information go to: *****************************************************************