***************************************************************** 09/02/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.207 ***************************************************************** 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 Xinhua: Iran threatens to reconsider IAEA cooperation over possible 2 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI-Russia in talk over Bushehr 3 [southnews] NZ calls for action on operational status of nukes NUCLEAR REACTORS 4 The Hindu: Pro-U.S. policies harmful to our interests - Karat 5 India times: GMR mulls foray into nuclear power 6 edmontonsun.com: Nuclear power clean ... but is it green? 7 edmontonsun.com: Commentary - No nukes in near future 8 Calgary Sun: Nuclear reaction cautious 9 BBC NEWS: Call for German nuclear shutdown 10 Associated Press: Bulgaria Nuclear Unit Shut Down, No Leak 11 US: USGS Release: Lowest Streamflows in More Than 110 Years for Some 12 US: Rutland Herald: Bearing blamed in Yankee outage 13 US: Rutland Herald: The energy future 14 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Is Vermont Yankee showing its age? 15 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Who's minding the plant? 16 Hindustan Times: China hints at civilian nuclear cooperation with In 17 UPI: Germany proposes early nuclear shutdowns 18 Japan Times: Nuclear doubts spread in wake of Niigata 19 Japan Times: Three nuclear testing facilities in Tokai ordered to sh 20 Regina Leader Post: 'A non-starter and no brainer' 21 Vancouver Sun: Nuclear power debate about to mushroom into nastiness 22 Sofia News: Bulgaria: Unit in Bulgaria's Nuclear Power Plant in Emer 23 DW: Germany's Nuclear Phase-Out Ignites Fresh Political Row NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 24 US: Boulder Daily Camera: Nuclear projects killed thousands 25 US: KPUA.net: Army: Soldiers fired 714 depleted uranium rounds in Ha 26 US: Japan Times: Japan engages in disaster-preparedness drills 27 Guardian Unlimited: Japan Holds Annual Quake Drills NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 28 US: The Tribune: I, too, worry about uranium mining 29 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo plans to start using waste facil 30 Pahrump Valley Times: Nuclear waste impact study set 31 US: edmontonsun.com: Opposition frets over nuke plans 32 ReviewJournal.com: Craig battled for a Nevada nuclear waste storage 33 ReviewJournal.com: RUNAWAY TANKER: Rail car security tightened 34 RGJ.com: Mine scan maps hotspots, points way for soil testing 35 AFP: Iran warns against new UN nuclear resolution 36 Press TV: Over 3000 centrifuges working in Iran 37 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: Uranium Centrifuge Goal Reached PEACE 38 The perils of non-proliferation amnesia 39 [NYTr] NZ takes nuke weapons peril to UN; APEC faxes Bush, Putin 40 Guardian Unlimited: Chronology of NKorea Nuclear Program 41 IRNA: Ahmadinejad: Iran biggest regional political power - 42 BBC NEWS: Iran 'reaches key nuclear goal' 43 BBC NEWS: Glasgow and West | Faslane protest costs police Ł5m 44 BBC NEWS: Iran flexing muscles with nuclear claim 45 RIA Novosti: Russia to continue advanced missile tests in 2007-SMF c 46 London Times: How the West summoned up a nuclear nightmare in Pakist 47 Press TV: Italy urges diplomacy on Iran's N-issue 48 Thisisdorset: Winfrith Morale At Rock Bottom 49 US: ajc.com: Nunn still pushing safeguards on nuclear material 50 Scoop: Phil Goff: Address To Dr Hans Blix US DEPT. OF ENERGY 51 Knoxville News Sentinel: UT selected to receive $3 million of $30.7 52 Guardian Unlimited: Veteran NRC Member Dies From Cancer ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Xinhua: Iran threatens to reconsider IAEA cooperation over possible new UN resolution www.chinaview.cn 2007-09-02 23:16:57 Print TEHRAN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran said on Sunday that it will reconsider its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if the UN Security Council issues a new resolution against the country, the official IRNA news agency reported. Tehran would reconsider its cooperation with the IAEA and "study various options" over a possible new UN resolution, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini told his weekly press conference. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini speaks to journalists during a news conference in Tehran February 12, 2007. Iran said on Sunday that it will reconsider its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if the UN Security Council issues a new resolution against the country. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>> Commenting on the recent warning of U.S. President George W. Bush against a so-called "nuclear holocaust," Hosseini said, "We will reject any remarks which are far from logic and the existing realities." "There were various parts in President Bush's speech in which he repeated all his previous unfounded accusations against Iran," Hosseini said. In a speech to the American Legion veterans group in Reno, Nevada, last week, Bush said that Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere and the United States is ready to confront the danger. "Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust," Bush said. The United States and other Western countries have accused Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under a civilian cover, but Iran denies such accusation, saying it just wants to generate electricity. On March 24, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a new resolution, the second punitive one, with tougher sanctions to pressure Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities. However, an IAEA report in May said that Iran continued to resist the UN Security Council ban on enrichment and was instead expanding its activities. Editor: Mu Xuequan ***************************************************************** 2 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IRI-Russia in talk over Bushehr 2007/09/02 Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday that Iran's Atomic Energy Organization and Russia are in talks about completion of Bushehr nuclear power plant project. "Russians have newly announced that they are firm in their resolve to end the project for construction and equipment of Bushehr nuclear power plant and we too count on the Russian officials' comments," said Mottaki in a joint press conference with his Ghanaian counterpart Akwasi Osei Adjei on Saturday. Asked about the meeting of Iranian diplomats, kidnapped in Iraq, with their families, Mottaki said, "In parallel with continued illegal detainment of our diplomats, diplomatic efforts are underway to that end with the Iraqi government and the UN." He said that unfortunately Americans have had repeated and pivotal mistakes in Iraq, one of which being the kidnappings that downgraded their status in Iraq to the point of hatred and resentment. "Arrest of the energy ministry's engineers and technicians, who were visiting Iraq on an invitation by their Iraqi counterparts to look into certain venture projects, and their freedom and the occupiers' acknowledgement to their mistake in arresting the people all testify that their (the occupiers') measure have been based on false information." He underlined that America military commanders drop bombs and missiles on the oppressed Iraqi nation again based on false information. Referring to the meeting of Iran's ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi with the kidnapped diplomats, Mottaki said initial agreement has been reached to enable the abducted diplomats to meet their family. "Unfortunately the deal has not pointed to the meeting of all the diplomats with their families," he added. Also asked on closure of al-Araqia TV office in Tehran, Mottaki said, "We welcome presence of all foreign media in Tehran. Of course there are rules governing activities of the media which should be observed. As for the TV network I do not have any exact information." He then pointed to vast grounds for expansion of Iran-Ghana relations and said a joint economic commission meeting will be held in December 2007 to look into ways to promote mutual cooperation. Adjei for his part thanked Iran for letting Ghana open a representative office in its territory and said a permanent cooperation commission will soon be formed. Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. E-Mail: Info@IRIBNEWS.ir ***************************************************************** 3 [southnews] NZ calls for action on operational status of nukes Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 09:28:37 -0500 (CDT) New Zealand will lead a call at the United Nations General Assembly this year for nuclear states to draw back their nuclear weapons from immediate launch readiness, Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Goff said today. NZ calls for action on operational status of nuclear weapons NZ Press release 30/08/2007 New Zealand will lead a call at the United Nations General Assembly this year for nuclear states to draw back their nuclear weapons from immediate launch readiness, Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Goff said today. Thousands of nuclear weapons currently are on high-alert status, ready for instant launch. This presents a major threat to global security. Nuclear weapon systems at a high level of readiness increase the risk of these weapons being used, including unintentionally or by accident. Such an eventuality would have catastrophic consequences. Steps need to be taken to reduce this risk. New Zealand has played a leading role through its participation in the New Agenda Coalition in pushing for disarmament and non-proliferation. This new initiative is consistent with that role. New Zealand, together with like minded states including Sweden, will promote a resolution at the UN General Assembly this year calling on nuclear weapon states to take steps to lower the operational status of their nuclear weapons. New Zealand looks forward to others support, including nuclear weapon states. We call on States with nuclear weapons to take mutual action to remove all nuclear weapons from launch-on-warning status. We urge all States with nuclear weapons to take steps to decrease the operational readiness of their nuclear arsenals. Such steps could include the separation of warheads from delivery mechanisms and the separation of arsenal storage from potential deployment locations. Our goal of course is for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons. However lowering the operational status of nuclear weapons would be an important interim step towards this fundamental objective, Mr Goff said. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=30489 _____________________________________________________________ APEC faxes to Bush & Putin RE: APEC SUMMIT NUCLEAR WEAPONS OPERATING STATUS PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN cc PRESIDENT HU JINTAO PRIME MINISTER SHINZO ABE (Other APEC participants as listed) RE: NUCLEAR WEAPONS OPERATING STATUS Dear Presidents Bush and Putin: We are writing to you on the occasion of your upcoming meeting at the APEC summit in Sydney. Clearly, many vital issues will be on the table at that meeting. One of the most important issues that could be discussed, though not officially on the agenda, is that of nuclear weapons. We hope very much that both of you will broach this issue, which like that of Global Warming/climate change, bears - to put it as bluntly as one can - on whether human beings will survive the next century or so, and whether civilisation as we know it will continue and flourish or will be stricken by catastrophe. An accidental exchange of nuclear weapons between the US and Russia, even at the much reduced levels envisaged by the Moscow Treaty, would still, according to the most recent research by climate experts, be a global catastrophe. There have been a number of terrifying occasions on which such an event has come close to taking place. The lowering of nuclear weapons operating status from 'launch-on-warning' has been a strong recommendation of a number of high-level commissions starting with the 1996 Canberra Commission held by the Australian Government, and going through to the 2006 Blix Commission. In 2005, the authors of this letter coordinated an appeal to lower operating status that gained the signatures of 44 Nobel prize - winners, 362 parliamentarians and NGOs and which was endorsed by the European Parliament More recently, statements by Kofi Annan, by Henry Kissinger; William Perry and Sam Nunn; the 18-nobel advisory board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; and by the Rome Declaration of Nobel Peace- Prize winners (chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev) have urged progress on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. All have contained the lowering of nuclear weapons alert status as a high priority item. William Perry, who served as U.S. defence secretary in 1994-97, notes in a July 20 editorial in Ria Novosti: "Both American and Russian missiles remain in a launch-on-warning mode, And the inherent danger of this status is aggravated by the fact that the Russian warning system has deteriorated since the ending of the Cold War." The Nobel Prize-winning Pugwash group, has also called, in a meeting of 5-7 July, for: "....Immediate de-alerting of the thousands of nuclear weapons, on quick reaction alert, that could be launched by accident, miscalculation, or unauthorised computer hacking of command and control systems;..." The US and Russia have already agreed to the establishment of a strategic stability centre outside Moscow in which data on missile launches would be exchanged. However, while a memorandum on the establishment of this centre has been signed, and announcements have been made a number of times, the agreement has never unfortunately, been implemented. The lowering of nuclear weapons alert status is by no means the only measure that needs to be taken to make the world a safer place, but it is a vital first step. High - level group after high level group has called for decisive action to be taken on the matter of nuclear disarmament, and the lowering of nuclear weapons alert status by the US and Russia, (and where applicable by others) would be a real step forward toward the fulfilment of the obligations of nuclear weapons states under the NPT to accomplish the elimination of nuclear arsenals. President Bush spoke eloquently of the need to deal with the issue of nuclear weapons on alert in the Year 2000 presidential campaign. We are encouraged by recent statements coming from Russia, that discussions on further arms control measures might take place. The APEC summit would be an excellent venue to discuss this vital matter and to discuss other steps that might be taken on further reductions in nuclear weapons systems. The time for further progress in this area has well and truly come. Signed: John Hallam, Joint Coordinator, Appeal by 44 Nobel Prizewinners and 362 NGOs and Parliamentarians on Nuclear Weapons Operating Status; PND Nuclear Flashpoints Project Douglas Mattern, Joint Coordinator, Appeal by 44 Nobel Prizewinners and 362 NGOs and Parliamentarians on Nuclear Weapons Operating Status; President, Association of World Citizens San Francisco Senator Lyn Allison, Co-Convenor, Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament (PNND) Australia Maria Vamvakinou, Co-Convenor, Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament (PNND) Australia Senator Andrew Bartlett, Australian Democrats, Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja, Australian Democrats, Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens, Senator Christine Milne, Greens, Ian Cohen MLC, Greens, NSW, John Kaye MLC, Greens, NSW., Giz Watson MLC Greens, W.A., Carmen Lawrence MP, Jill Hall MP, Kelly Hoare MP Member for Charlton, NSW, Warren Snowdon MP, Member for Lingiari NT, Gordon F.Copeland MP, NZ, Frank Cook MP, General Rapporteur, Defence and Security Committee NATO Parliamentary Assembly Paul Flynn MP, House of Commons, London, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Patron, CND, Luisa Morgantini, MEP Vice- President, European Parliament, Angelika Beer MEP, Greens, European Parliament, Dr Carolyn Lucas MEP, Greens, European Parliament, Uta Zapf, MdB, Bundestag, Chair, Committee on Disarmament Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Berlin, Germany, Sergei Kolesnikov, MP, (Russian Duma) Co-Chair IPPNW Russia Muriel Gerkens, MP Maison Des Parliamentaires, Brussels, Langeland Hallgeir, MP, Norway, Socialist Left Party Sri Mani Shankar Aiyar MP, India, Minister for Rural Self Government Youth and Sport Sergey Kolesnikov, MP, Russian Duma, Deputy Chair, Cttee for Education and Science, Co-Chair IPPNW Russia. Dr Charles Y. Brempong- Yeboah MP, Accra, Ghana Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C. http://www.douglasroche.ca Rene Wadlow, Association of World Citizens UN Representative, Geneva, Bruce Blair, President, World Security Institute Aaron Tovish, Manager, Mayors For Peace 2020 Vision Campaign Alyn Ware, Vice-President, International Peace Bureau (IPB) Kate Hudson, Chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) UK Jenny Maxwell, Chair, West Midlands CND, Alexey Yablokov, Founder, Centre for Russian Environmental Policy, Moscow, Russia, Xanthe Hall, IPPNW Germany, Berlin, Germany, Ingrid Schittich, Director, Association of World Citizens, German branch Ole Kopreitan, Secy - General, No To Nuclear Weapons, Norway, Dominique Levesque, Les Artistes Pour La Paix, Fr, Jean-Marie Matagne, Action des Citoyens Pour le Desarmement Nuclaire, (ACDN) Fr, Arielle Denis et Pierre Villard, co-prisident du Mouvement de la Paix (France) Prof. Henri Firket, Association Midicale Pour la Prevention de la Guerre Nucliaire, (Belg). Ak Malten, Global Anti Nuclear Alliance, The Hague, Neth, Louise Rogers, Physicians for Global Survival Hamilton Chapter, Ont, Canada, Rosalie Bertell, Retired President, International Institute of Concern for Public Health, Board of Regents, International Institute for Humanitarian Medicine, Geneva, Switz, Janet Hudgins, Abolition Canada, Vancouver BC, Joanna Santa Barbara, Physicians for Global Survival, Canada, Theodora Carrol, Canadian Pugwash Group, Squamish, BC, Phyllis Creighton, Science for Peace, Phyllis Creighton, Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd, Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS), Vancouver, B.C. CANADA Mrs Eryl Court, Council of Advisors and Canadian Envoy, Coordinator of the Unitarian-Universalist United Nations Office, Canada (pers) Patricia Willis, Denman Island Peace Group, Canada, Pamela Meidell, Atomic Mirror, California, Joseph Gerson, American Friends Service Committee, (AFSC) Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, Calif, David Krieger, President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Alfred L. Marder, President, International Association of Peace Messenger Cities, Dave Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA, Dave Robinson, National Catholic Peace Movement, Jan Cebula, Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton, Iowa, Henry Lowendorf, Chair, Greater New Haven Peace Council, New Haven, Ct, USA, John Peck/Janet Parker, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Kathleen Sullivan, Educators for Peace, NY, USA, Ashley Tellis, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Wash, USA, Diane Perlman, PhD, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Marc Pilisuk, Co-chair, Global Violence and Security Committee, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, US Diane Perlman, PhD Transcend, Washington, DC Helen Caldicott, Founder, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Elizabeth Baldwin, Atlanta WAND (Womens Action for New Directions) Eileen Mc Cabe, Nuclear Policy Advisor, Acting for a Greener World, West Jordan, UT, USA, Deanna Taylor, State Party Coordinator, Desert Greens, Green Party of Utah, Taylorsville, UT, USA, Tom King, People for Peace and Justice of Utah, UT, USA., Timothy Baer, Campaign Coordinator, The Declaration of Peace, USA, Stephen Starr, Physicians for Global Survival USA, Sukla Sen, Peoples Media Initiative, Member, CNDP National Coordination Committee, Mumbai, India, J. Sri Raman, Movement Against Nuclear Weapons, Chennai, India, S.P. Udayakumar, Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy, Nagercoil, India, M. Channa Basavaiah, Vice President, Jana Vignana Vedika (JVV), Hyderabad, India. EP Menon, India Development Foundation, Bangalore, India, Paul Saoke, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Kenya, Stephen Hicks Acheampong, Association of World Citizens, Ghana, Ronald Mc Coy, Malaysian Physicians for Peace and Social Responsibility, Kuala Lumpur, Corazon Valdez Fabros, Stop The War Coalition Phillipines , Upali Magedaragamage, Asian Network for Culture and Development, Maharagama, Sri Lanka, Frohinda Suleiman, Beacon House School System, Quetta, Balochistan, Aslam Khwaja, Peoples Development Foundation, Pakistan, A.H. Nayyar, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan, Swati Bhat, Alpana Gandhi, Ashish Singh, Kishor Turkey, Tejaswini Madabushi, Palwashay Sethi, Momina Zahid,Frohinda Suleman, Shazaib Afzal - Indo-Pak Youth Peace Exchange Project Hiroshima 2007 Hiroshi Taka, Secretary- General, Japan Council Against A - and - H- Bombs, (Japan Gensuikyo), Tokyo/Hiroshima Japan, Yukio Yamaguchi/Philip White, Citizens Nuclear Information Centre (CNIC), Akebonobashi, Tokyo, Japan, Akihiko Takeda, 2007 Walk for Peace and the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons , Yokohama, Japan, Shinchiro Tsukada/Yosuke Kurashima Takuyun Fukui Peace Ring Article Nine Society Hiroshima , Keiko Nakamura, Peace Depot, Japan Hiro Umebayashi, Peace Depot, Yokohama, Japan, Rev Sanai Hashimoto, Japan Fellowship of Reconciliation, Chiyoda-Ku Tokyo Japan, Terumi Tanaka, Secy - General, Japan Confederation of A and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisation, Tokyo, Japan, Shingo Fukuyama, Secy-General, Gensuikin, (Japan Congress Against A and H - Bombs) Tokyo, Japan, Elbegzaya Temuulen (Mongolia) Sodnomdarjaa Oyuntsetseg - IPPNW Mongolia Alyn Ware Aoteroa Lawyers for Peace, Commander Robert Green Royal Navy (Rtd), Disarmament & Security Centre, Christchurch, NZ Bob Rigg, Former Chair, National Consultative Committee on Disarmament NCCD) NZ, Wellington Des Brough, Co-Convenor, NCCD, Wellington, NZ, John Hinchcliffe, Auckland City Council, NZ, Dame Laurie Salas, Wellington, NZ, Barney Richards, Nat. Secy, New Zealand Peace Council Judy Mc Veigh, Unity for Peace, Aust, Cameron Schraner, People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND) NSW, Jo Valentine, People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND) W.A., Denis Doherty, Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition,(AABCC) Surry Hills NSW, Peter Jones, War Resisters International (WRI) Tas, John Seed, Rainforest Information Centre, Lismore, NSW, Brenda Roy, Environment House, Perth, W.A., Natalie Wasley, Arid lands Environment Centre Beyond Nuclear Initiative (ALEC-BNI) Alice Springs NT, Bea Bliele, UNE Community for Peace and Freedom Robert Mann, Brooklands Community, Balingup W.A., Doreen Shenman, Tasmania Peace Network, Tas, Rochaya Machali, Indonesian Community Council, Sydney, Rob Wesley, Australians for a Free East Timor, Darwin NT Justin Tutty, No Waste Alliance, NT, Caroline Tapp, Nuke-Clear Territory, Darwin, NT, Susan Murphy, Roshi, Zen Open Circle, Sydney, Rev. Shelagh Zincke, New Coast Metropolitan Community Church, Morrissett, NSW, Debbie Hudson, NT Greens Candidate for Solomon, Helen Cooke, Coordinator, Womens International League for Peace and Freedom Victoria, Frankston Vic, Alec Marr, The Wilderness Society, Canb, Aust, Hideko Nkamura, Kaszuyo Preston, Japanese for Peace, Melb, Ffionnan Brooke- Watson, Convenor of WGAR ( Working Group for Aboriginal Rights. ) Fraser Kirkman, United Visions, The archives of South News can be found at http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ ***************************************************************** 4 The Hindu: Pro-U.S. policies harmful to our interests - Karat Sunday, Sep 02, 2007 Special Correspondent “Military collaboration dangerous” Nuclear deal will make India a “subordinate military ally” of U.S. Indian armed forces getting interlocked with U.S. NEW DELHI: Ahead of the mass mobilisation planned by the Left parties against next week’s five-nation naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat has warned that the India-U.S. nuclear deal and the Defence Framework Agreement with America would make India a “subordinate military ally of the United States.” “The nuclear deal, the military agreement, and the economic policies designed to advance the interests of U.S. capital are parts of the trio which are harmful to India’s sovereignty, independent foreign policy and the people’s economic interests,” Mr. Karat said in a front page article in the latest issue of the CPI (M) organ, People’s Democracy. Warning the government against such military collaboration, the general secretary said India had never signed an agreement like the Defence Framework Agreement, 2005, in the past. “Those who compare it to the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation of 1971 are wrong. There is no comparison. By the current agreement with the U.S., four steps are being taken to integrate India with the global strategy of the United States.” As a case in point, Mr. Karat cited the clause that provides for the two defence establishments to collaborate in multinational operations. “By this clause, India accepted the U.S. concept of multinational operations in third countries outside the U.N. auspices.” According to the general secretary, the Logistics Support Agreement that India has agreed to sign with the U.S. under the Defence Framework Agreement is “nothing but the ‘Access and Cross-Serving Agreement’ which the U.S. has with many other countries.” This, he said, will allow U.S. ships and planes to use Indian ports and airbases for refuelling, maintenance, servicing and communications. “By such an arrangement, Indian ports and airports can be used by U.S. warships and planes when they are deployed for offensive operations such as the attack on Iraq in 2003.” As for the Defence Minister’s contention that India was conducting joint exercises with a number of countries, Mr. Karat said there can be no denying the fact that the Indian armed forces are getting steadily interlocked with the U.S. More than half of the joint exercises conducted by the Army in the past five years were with the United States. Two marches — one led by Mr. Karat from Chennai and another by CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan from Kolkata — will begin from September 4. Both will converge at Visakhapatnam on September 8 for a rally. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. ***************************************************************** 5 India times: GMR mulls foray into nuclear power 2 Sep, 2007, 1215 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Infrastructure major GMR Group, likely to invest Rs 35,000 crore on expansion projects, is gearing up for a foray into nuclear power generation, aiming to be the first Indian private player to enter the sector. "The nuclear power is one sector which we are keenly studying at the moment. We have already kept a team ready," GMR Chairman G M Rao said. Once the India-US civil nuclear deal, caught in a political controversy, is operationalised, it will open new avenues for the private sector. The GMR group which is expected to pump in large funds in the next five years in various sectors such as airports and power in India and abroad, will seek opportunity in the nuclear energy sector as well. "I prefer to be the first to enter there (nuclear power) as we have done in other sectors in the past. We were the first private player to enter airports...and we would like to be the first in whatever we do," Rao added. The nuclear power sector has attracted attention from the Tata conglomerate which is also waiting in the wings to enter the sector once India starts international commerce in this area. Rao said a strategy team of the GMR group, which has a market capitalisation of about five billion dollars now, is working on finer details of the planned foray. He, however, declined to comment on the specifics such as investments and power generation capacity. Rao had said that the group's advisors have been working to chart out its future plans in areas such as power, airports and special economic zones. Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For ***************************************************************** 6 edmontonsun.com: Nuclear power clean ... but is it green? Alberta - Sat, September 1, 2007 By NICKI THOMAS, SUN MEDIA Once inextricably linked with television's most nefarious cartoon billionaire, nuclear power has recently become a viable energy source in the eyes of Canadians, said a spokesman for Energy Alberta Corporation (EAC). "For years, all the public saw was this tongue-in-cheek look at nuclear power," Guy Huntingford said of The Simpsons' Mr. Burns and his beloved nuclear power plant. But as Canadians become more curious about clean technology, attitudes toward nuclear energy are changing, Huntingford said. "North America is saying, 'We should take a look at this again.' " These changing attitudes are being driven by the fundamental need for a secure energy source and concerns about greenhouse-gas emissions, said Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) spokesman Dale Coffin. Once running, nuclear power plants emit no greenhouse gases and create less waste than other forms of energy, said Coffin. EAC and AECL are behind a proposed nuclear power plant near Peace River, an issue that has environmentalists up in arms. "It's not an environmental form of energy. It's not safe. It's not green. It's not clean," said Leila Darwish, associate director of the Prairie chapter of the Sierra Club. To promote nuclear power as environmentally friendly is "incredibly misleading." Though nuclear power plants emit no greenhouse gases once up and running, their construction and the process of mining for uranium - the fuel for reactors - does, she said. Brenda Brochu, president of the Peace River Environmental Society, agrees that people are becoming increasingly concerned about greenhouse-gas emissions but said that doesn't mean they endorse nuclear power. Brochu said that at a recent public meeting, EAC panellists misled the public by bringing an empty fuel bundle inside. "The idea was to make it appear there's nothing to be afraid of," she said. CANOE home | We welcome your feedback. Copyright © 2007, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. Test ***************************************************************** 7 edmontonsun.com: Commentary - No nukes in near future Sun, September 2, 2007 By NEIL WAUGH Last week's breathless announcement by Energy Alberta - the previously unheard-of outfit proposing to build the Nuke of the North - that it had picked Peace River as its site was heralded as though this was a done deal. And the way Peace River Mayor Lorne Mann was talking, Albertans were left with the impression that the cooling cones were already under construction. Alberta NDP critic David Eggen, always the political opportunist, demanded that the Alberta Tories "come clean" and accused the government of "racing forward" with the proposal. Of course, it's easy for the mayor to talk. Because the plant site is nowhere near his town, but located on Lac Cardinal 30 kilometres away. And now it appears that the little lake will be the primary source of cooling water. An issue, like the $6.2-billion plant itself, that will attract its fair share of negative reaction. Just as it already had after Energy Alberta hurriedly withdrew its first site choice in Woodland County - despite earlier insisting that Whitecourt was also enthusiastically behind it - after the county clawed back its support when it was hit with a 300-name petition. And despite Eggen's claim and the company's plan to file a preliminary application with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the wise words of Premier Ed Stelmach should be considered before anyone gets too excited. Because from where the premier sits, the concept of nuclear power in Alberta has not even been discussed. Let alone whatever Energy Alberta is proposing at Lac Cardinal. Stelmach said that any decision on nuclear power "goes beyond one person." And he reminded those who wanted him to give an instant yes or no last week of his previous comments that no decision will be made until there are "thorough public discussions" which will "involve all Albertans. "You don't build a nuclear reactor over one meeting," Stelmach scolded. And considering, by the company's own admission, that construction won't begin until at least 10 years into the future, there's plenty of time for Albertans to thoroughly debate the merits and concerns of nuclear power. Which is seen as a godsend by some who are pushing for a Kyoto solution to the world's alleged greenhouse gas woes, but is now being curiously opposed by the Alberta NDP. Because as Stelmach pointed out there isn't even a policy on nuclear power in the province yet. Let alone a green light for the Peace River proposal. The premier said he will be coming forward with a "structure" for these discussions soon. CANOE home | We welcome your feedback. Copyright © 2007, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. Test ***************************************************************** 8 Calgary Sun: Nuclear reaction cautious Sun, September 2, 2007 Opposition parties want government to come clean on risks of proposed nuke facility By DAVE DORMER, SUN MEDIA The fallout from a proposed nuclear power plant in northern Alberta has opposition parties demanding full disclosure from the provincial government on the $6.2-billion project's environmental and financial risks. Calgary-based Energy Alberta has applied to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to build two Candu nuclear reactors on a site 30 km west of Peace River, a project Liberal Leader Kevin Taft said he fears is being railroaded through the initial application stages without public disclosure. "We are very, very skeptical about Alberta going nuclear -- the environmental and other costs of this project worry me deeply," he said. "I think there are better choices and I am not comfortable with the process through which this has come forward." One thing that worries Taft is the fact a client has stepped up with an offer to buy 70% of the electricity generated by the plant, but the province so far hasn't identified the interested party. "My hunch is this is being pushed not for the benefit of the people of Alberta, but for the benefit of the people who bought the franchise to do nuclear power here," he said. "It's a commitment that we make today that will be a responsibility for centuries to come and I don't think we should make those decisions in a hurry." Meanwhile, NDP environment critic Dave Eggen pointed out the project was originally slated to be built further south, near Whitecourt. "I found it interesting that once the people of Whitecourt started to learn a little bit about the scope of the plan and asked for more time and information, this company packed up and went to another place," he said. "A year ago, I'm sure nobody in Peace River had even thought about the possibility of a nuclear power plant there." Energy Minister Mel Knight has said the province is neither for nor against the project and is not involved in the initial stages of the application, which falls under federal jurisdiction. He said if the process moves to the public hearing phase, there will be full consultation on the project. CANOE home | We welcome your feedback. Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 BBC NEWS: Call for German nuclear shutdown Last Updated: Saturday, 1 September 2007, 13:32 GMT 14:32 UK By Mike Sanders BBC News The German nuclear industry wants to keep older plants running longer The German Environment Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, has called for seven of the country's oldest nuclear reactors to be closed down immediately. Justifying his demand, Mr Gabriel pointed to recent breakdowns at two ageing nuclear plants. Germany is committed to phasing out nuclear power by 2020. As a trade-off, newer reactors could be kept running longer. Opinion divided Mr Gabriel is a member of the Social Democrats, whose previous coalition government with the Greens drafted the nuclear switch-off policy. Now they are sharing power with the more nuclear-friendly Christian Democrats, they face a battle to maintain the strategy. But if there is to be any trade-off in capacity, the nuclear industry, including the unions, would rather give up some output from newer plants to keep the older ones going longer. It is technically feasible: in the United States, some plants have had their design life of 30 years doubled. But it would require a political about-turn. So far, two of Germany's 19 nuclear plants have been shut down. European opinion on nuclear power is divided in the face of Russia's growing assertiveness in the gas and oil markets, not to mention the need to meet targets for reducing carbon emissions. As a result of a referendum after the Chernobyl disaster, Italy shut down the last of its four nuclear plants in 1990, but it is now one of the world's largest net importers of electricity, and the policy is under review. France, which generates 80% of its electricity from nuclear power, shows no signs of stopping. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 10 Associated Press: Bulgaria Nuclear Unit Shut Down, No Leak 1 day ago SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — A unit at a Bulgarian nuclear power station on the Danube River underwent an emergency shutdown Saturday, facility operators said. A statement from the Kozlodui power plant said the incident did not cause any radioactive leak. Experts were investigating what triggered the automated safety system shutdown at the 1000-megawatt unit, it said. It was not immediately clear what repairs would be necessary or when the unit might be back in operation. Two older 440-megawatt units of the same type at Bulgaria's only nuclear power station were permanently decommissioned at the end of 2006 because of safety concerns cited by the EU. Their decommissioning was part of requirements for Bulgaria's entry into the European Union this year. Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 USGS Release: Lowest Streamflows in More Than 110 Years for Some North Carolina Rivers as Drought Worsens (8/31/2007 4:40:58 PM) U.S. Geological Survey Contact Information: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Office of Communication 119 National Center Reston, VA 20192 Jerad Bales Phone: 919-571-4048 Editors Note: Maps and graphs are on the USGS North Carolina Drought Watch page The lowest average August streamflow in 110 years of record was recorded on the Tar River at Tarboro. The lowest average August streamflow on record was measured at 12 other monitoring stations in the state, with 9 of those sites located in central North Carolina, 2 sites in the coastal plain, and 2 sites in the mountains. All of these sites have at least 35 years of record, and most of the sites have more than 50 years of record. August 2007 streamflows at 17 monitoring stations, most of which are in eastern North Carolina, are lower than those measured during the 1998 - 2002 drought. Minimum streamflow records were established throughout much of North Carolina during the previous drought. In fact, most of eastern North Carolina is under some type of water conservation measure. Records for the lowest daily streamflow ever measured were established at three monitoring stations. Streamflow at the Oconaluftee River (Swain County, western NC) on August 17 was 72 cubic feet per second, compared with the previous record low of 110 cubic feet per second established during the 1987 - 88 drought. During more than half of August, streamflows at this site were lower than the previous record minimum. Record minimum streamflows also were established at Buckhorn Creek (Chatham County, southwest of Raleigh) and Fishing Creek in Edgecombe County. Streamflow has been measured continuously at Fishing Creek since 1923, and the minimum daily streamflow measured there in August 2007 was about 2.5 times lower than the previous minimum. Effects of the drought on ground-water levels are variable across the state. Ground-water levels in unpumped wells in western North Carolina and in the outer coastal plain are approaching the levels observed during the 1998 - 2002 drought. Ground-water levels at most locations throughout central North Carolina however, are slightly below average for August, despite the fact that streamflows at many locations are at record low levels for August. The heat and low streamflows also are affecting stream water temperatures. Fish and biological communities can be adversely affected by high temperatures and low streamflow. Monthly average water temperatures at 16 monitoring stations across the state averaged about 3 degrees Fahrenheit greater than normal for the month. At Hyco River in Person County, where water temperature has been measured since 1985, streamflow temperatures in August were about 4 degrees greater than average. Water temperatures in the sounds and estuaries also are affected. For example, in the Neuse River at New Bern, water temperature was about 3.5 degrees higher than normal for August. The USGS and its federal, state, and local cooperators maintain 270 streamgaging stations and 39 monitoring wells throughout North Carolina. A monthly summary of conditions at unregulated streamflow sites and ground-water monitoring sites provides additional detailed information. USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov. Subscribe to USGS News Releases via our electronic mailing list or RSS feed. **** www.usgs.gov **** Links and contacts within this release are valid at the time of publication. Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey URL: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1767 Page Contact Information: Ask USGS Page Last Modified: 8/31/2007 4:40:58 PM ***************************************************************** 12 Rutland Herald: Bearing blamed in Yankee outage September 1, 2007 By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff VERNON — Lack of grease in a bearing in a large motor-operated valve is being blamed for Thursday's emergency shutdown at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. And the plant's staff may have made things worse during their troubleshooting and actually caused the shutdown, a state official said Friday. Uldis Vanags, the state nuclear engineer, said it appears that the bearing was inadequately lubricated during the last refueling outage at Yankee. "There was insufficient grease applied in the last outage," Vanags said. "They've put in a new bearing and lubricated it really well." Vanags said that federal regulators were investigating the possibilities that actions by Entergy Nuclear staff during troubleshooting of the sticky valve is what actually caused the reactor to shut down, rather than the valve itself. "The way the troubleshooting was conducted could have caused the trip," he said. Repairs to the valve have been completed and Entergy Nuclear is making plans to restart the reactor, according to Robert Williams, Entergy spokesman. He refused to say when the plant would return to generating power, saying it was proprietary information. Vermont Yankee is expected to return to about 50 percent power for now, since rebuilding the plant's east cooling tower is still under way. He said that while the reconstruction of the tower should be completed in the next week or so, the timetable for bringing it back into operation has not yet been determined. The investigation into the collapse of the tower, which occurred Aug. 21, is ongoing, he said. Vanags said he didn't believe the lubrication problem rose to the level of negligence, and he noted that NRC inspectors were reviewing the maintenance records for the stop valves, which control the flow of steam from the turbines. Williams, who said he didn't have many details about the valve problems, didn't dispute Vanags' explanation. "That sounds like a good explanation," Williams said. David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C., said Friday that his review of the NRC records of Thursday's shutdown showed nothing unusual. He said it was normal for water levels inside the reactor vessel to go up and down. The NRC report stated that the water level over the fuel rods dropped to only 123 inches, and then shot back up to 179 inches. Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the fluctuating water levels never left the fuel uncovered. "When the reactor tripped, there was no steam going to the turbines and the water level rises in the reactor," he said. "Every shutdown is different," he said. An automatic pressure control had to be operated manually during the shutdown, something that Entergy is investigating, according to Sheehan. Lochbaum said the stop valves are a problem in the nuclear industry and that several reactors a year have problems with them. He said the steam lines leading to the turbine are about 28 inches in diameter, and the large, motor-operated valves are "the same size as a person." He said it's not unusual for workers to hit the valve to stop it from sticking. "In the industry they say they 'mechanically agitated it,'" Lochbaum said. Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. © 2007 Rutland Herald ***************************************************************** 13 Rutland Herald: The energy future September 1, 2007 Continuing problems at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant ought to cause policymakers in Montpelier to think long and hard about the state's energy future. It is a commonplace among Vermont Yankee's defenders to say that none of the alternatives to Vermont Yankee, even taking them together, could replace the large chunk of baseload power that Yankee provides. A third of the state's power supply comes from Yankee. Certainly, it would not be easy to replace such a sizable segment of Vermont's energy supply. But on Thursday Vermont was replacing it. Yankee experienced an emergency shutdown because of a problem with several valves, and so Vermont utilities were forced to buy replacement power on the spot market. The problem is that replacement power is more expensive, and it leaves Vermont vulnerable to the vagaries of the marketplace. Other alternatives to Yankee have their own limitations. Wind power could conceivably provide up to 10 percent of Vermont's power, and it would have the virtue of not adding to the emissions causing climate change. But wind power would not be baseload power — the kind that is there all the time. It would be used to offset more expensive purchases made on the market to top off Vermont's load. The other important alternative to Yankee is conservation. With the help of Efficiency Vermont, the state has made significant progress in implementing conservation at businesses and homes. Gov. James Douglas' views on Efficiency Vermont have evolved over the years. Earlier he opposed major budget increases for Efficiency Vermont in the belief that conservation would hurt the utilities and the ratepayer. But when the utilities saw that conservation would actually help them by diminishing demand, Douglas became more supportive of Efficiency Vermont. Now he touts its successes when he tries to sell Vermont to the Chinese as a pioneer in energy conservation. Money spent to eliminate the need for electricity is money that need not be spent to build now power plants or to replace power that is no longer there. Conservation is an investment in the state's energy independence. The troubles that Entergy Vermont has been having with Vermont Yankee in the past two weeks do not mean that the plant is ready to shut down permanently or that it will not be able to extend its license as it intends to do for 20 years beyond 2012. But the collapsing cooling towers and the emergency shutoff raise questions about the company's vigilance and its decision-making. The physical integrity of the plant itself is important, but so is the confidence of Vermonters in the company's willingness to make the investments that will keep the plant safe to Vermont's environment. The absence of that confidence for the moment highlights the need for Vermont to attack the energy problem on many fronts. That includes pursuing new contracts with Hydro-Quebec, which could end up as the major provider of baseload power. It also includes the array of wind, solar and small-scale hydro projects that could diminish our dependence on fossil fuels. And it includes an extra emphasis on conservation, which does not provide baseload power, but which makes us better off in every other way. © 2007 Rutland Herald ***************************************************************** 14 Brattleboro Reformer: Is Vermont Yankee showing its age? BRATTLEBORO, VT By DAVID GRAM, Associated Press Article Launched: 09/01/2007 03:06:22 AM EDT MONTPELIER -- Two mishaps within 10 days at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have given ammunition to its critics, prompted questions from regulators and have the plant's owners working to reassure the public about its safety. "You can say it about Vermont Yankee and you can say it about the nuclear industry as a whole nationwide," David O'Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, said Friday. "If you're going to have nuclear power over any long term, it's all going to come down to maintaining the public's confidence that it can operate safely and reliably." Robert Williams, spokesman for Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Nuclear, said Friday the plant was preparing to start up again after a sudden and unplanned shutdown Thursday, but was not expected to do so for a few days. Plant officials and regulators like O'Brien both say that neither the collapse of a water-cooling tower at the plant Aug. 21 nor a faulty valve that triggered the Thursday shutdown were safety issues. The plant was operating at 63 percent of its normal power output on Thursday while repairs were under way on the cooling tower when the emergency shutdown unfolded. Vermont gets a third of its power from its lone reactor; when it isn't running at capacity, utilities are forced to buy more expensive power on the New England spot market. In its formal report on the incident, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission said a third glitch cropped up during Thursday's shutdown: An automatic system designed to control pressure levels in the reactor failed to kick in as the plant shut down, forcing control room operators to do the work. The NRC said this happened "for some unknown reason," and that Vermont Yankee "is investigating the event." Vermont Yankee has been running for 35 years, its current license is set to expire in 2012 and it has asked the NRC and the state for a 20-year extension, to 2032. Williams said there's no reason for the public's confidence in the plant to wane. "Unfortunately, these two events occurred right together," Williams said. "But they're unrelated, and we'll bring the plant back on line consistent with our conservative operating philosophy." Raymond Shadis, technical adviser to the nuclear watchdog group New England Coalition, said any problem at a nuclear plant needs to be taken seriously. "This isn't a peanut butter factory," he said. "It's not like the worst thing that can happen is you get smooth instead of crunchy." Thursday's sudden outage came on the same day that the NRC reacted to the cooling tower collapse by questioning Entergy's assertion -- which the NRC previously had agreed with -- that most of its 22 cooling towers don't need to be included in the review the plant is getting in advance of relicensing. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Friday that the agency planned next week to send an expert on cooling towers to Vermont Yankee to investigate what happened. Williams said reconstruction of the collapsed cooling tower was expected to be completed in the coming days. He said the cause of the Aug. 21 collapse wasn't yet known, but if the investigation showed design changes were needed, they would be made as a retrofit to the newly rebuilt tower. David Lochbaum, nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, said he was not overly concerned about Thursday's shutdown, because the valve-sticking problem that triggered the shutdown has been a common occurrence at reactors around the country. Copyright © 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 15 Brattleboro Reformer: Who's minding the plant? BRATTLEBORO, VT Reformer.com Article Launched: 09/01/2007 03:06:07 AM EDT On Wednesday, David O'Brien, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, toured the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon. O'Brien, who went on a four-hour tour with the state's new nuclear engineer, Uldis Vanags, said afterward that last week's collapse of a cooling tower was just an isolated problem and that Vermont Yankee would be up and running at full power in a matter of days. On Thursday, Vermont Yankee went into a emergency shutdown due to a problem with a faulty steam valve. "The timing couldn't be much worse," O'Brien said Thursday. Do you think? Entergy and the Department of Public Service certainly look foolish right now, and their claims that all is well at Vermont Yankee ring more hollow with every new mishap at the plant. The list of mishaps -- lost fuel rods, transformer fires, blown pump seals, electrical problems -- is long. And, they seem to be coming more frequently since Entergy got approval to increase Vermont Yankee's power output by 20 percent. While O'Brien insists that what he called the "nuclear side of the plant" remains safe, he also put the onus on Entergy to assure the public that Vermont Yankee is still a safe and reliable source of energy. Good luck with that. The reality is that while Entergy wants to run an aging nuclear reactor at 120 percent of its generating capacity until at least 2032, Vermont Yankee is slowly but surely falling apart. Incidents like last week's cooling tower collapse do not increase public confidence in Vermont Yankee. Neither do emergency shutdowns. While the public was not in any danger in either mishap, who's to say that we won't be as lucky the next time? We think it is time for Vermont to stop pretending that Vermont Yankee will continue to function indefinitely. The state needs to get serious about coming up with a replacement source for the one-third of Vermont's electricity which the nuclear plant now provides. Up to now, it hasn't. The Douglas administration, the Department of Public Service and the Legislature have all taken for granted that there will be a nuclear plant in Vernon. They fully expect the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend Vermont Yankee's license past 2012, when its current 40-year license expires. They seem to see no reason to worry. It's time for them to start worrying. Even though the NRC functions as a rubber stamp for the nuclear industry, it has a limit to how many mishaps can happen at a nuclear plant before it has to be shut down. The events of the past two weeks certainly aren't helping Entergy's case. We believe the Douglas administration and the Legislature need to come up with a contingency plan for how Vermont will get the electric power it needs if Vermont Yankee is no longer operating. The state needs to get serious about energy conservation programs, and fully fund them. It needs to get serious about wind, hydro, solar and biomass energy, and expedite development of alternative power sources. The state needs to think about how Vermont Yankee can be safely shut down, and provide the necessary resources for the town of Vernon and the workers of Vermont Yankee to make the transition once the plant closes. O'Brien said Wednesday after his Vermont Yankee tour that he did not "see a reason for pushing the panic button here." He may want to rethink that statement today. While we don't think there is a reason to panic, we do think that the time to start planning for a post-Vermont Yankee energy future is now. It should be the state's No. 1 priority. ***************************************************************** 16 Hindustan Times: China hints at civilian nuclear cooperation with India September 02, 2007 China not to be "dogmatic" on N-issue China appears to be mellowing down on its strident opposition to Indo-US civil nuclear deal as it expressed readiness to cooperate with all countries on the peaceful use of atomic energy under the IAEA safeguards. China is ready to "explore cooperation with all countries for the peaceful use of nuclear energy in accordance with the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told an 11-member Eminent Persons' Group (EPG) from India which called on him here yesterday, delegation sources said. While Yang did not further speak of possible Sino-India civilian nuclear cooperation, the two governments have already hinted on such a move during Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to India last year. "Considering that for both India and China, expansion of civilian nuclear energy programme is an essential and important component of their national energy plans to ensure energy security, the two sides agree to promote cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, consistent with their respective international commitments," the joint declaration issued during Hu's visit had said. The Indian side to the two-day sixth session of the EPG meeting was led by former Ambassador to China, CV Ranganathan, while the Chinese delegation was headed by the former Vice Foreign Minister, Liu Shuqing. The Indian side was a little surprised that Yang did not harp on India not being a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), delegation sources said. They said it seemed that China is eagerly looking forward to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's planned visit within this year. Earlier this week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also said he was looking forward to Singh's visit and that both sides were making active preparations for a "successful" outcome. "The visit to be paid to China by Prime Minister Singh within this year is an important diplomatic event in China-India relations. It is also a big event in the development of China-India relations," Wen said. "We are now making vigorous preparations for the visit to ensure that the visit will be a success." Commenting on the outcome of the two-day EPG meeting, ex-Chinese Ambassador to India, Cheng Ruisheng, also an EPG member from China, said both sides used it as a kind of preparatory meeting for the Indian Prime Minister's visit. Chen said the discussions covered a gamut of topics like bilateral, regional and international issues. The Chinese side apparently expressed concerns over the proposed quadrilateral exercises in Bay of Bengal involving the navies of India, the US, Japan and Australia and their attempt to form an alliance, which Beijing calls 'anti-China.' The Indian delegation reassured the Chinese side that the initiative was not aimed against China or any other nation. The issue of India's growing trade deficit with China as well as the need to diversify Indian exports to China was also highlighted. The Chinese side strongly urged that India should accord China full market economy status. The representatives to the EPG include members from industry, media, culture, academia, diplomacy and public life. The EPG was constituted so as to receive ideas and suggestions from eminent persons from various walks of life so as to assist both Governments in finding new ways and means of widening and diversifying the bilateral relationship. ***************************************************************** 17 UPI: Germany proposes early nuclear shutdowns United Press International - NewsTrack - Top News - Published: Sept. 1, 2007 at 1:29 PM BERLIN, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Germany’s environment minister says the country’s seven oldest nuclear reactors should be shut down immediately. Germany has pledged to phase out nuclear power by 2020, but Sigmar Gabriel said recent mechanical issues at two aging plants indicate older reactors should be switched off right away. According to the BBC, such a move would likely be opposed by the plants’ unions. There also are concerns about Germany’s energy supply given Russia’s aggressive policy on natural gas shipped to Western Europe, the British network said. Gabriel, however, proposed that newer plants be allowed to continue running past 2020. © Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Japan Times: Nuclear doubts spread in wake of Niigata japantimes.co.jp Web Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007 GOVERNMENT SAFETY STANDARDS QUESTIONED By JUN HONGO and AKEMI NAKAMURA Staff writers Global competition for energy resources and tougher controls on greenhouse gas emissions have made Japan reliant on nuclear power. While the government and regional power utilities are quick to associate the word "safety" with atomic energy, several fatalities, accidents, coverups and earthquake threats have damaged the industry's image. A road inside the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant was severely damaged by the July 16 temblor. AP PHOTO/KYODO This is the first in a series asking whether, in the wake of July's massive quake just 9 km from the world's largest nuclear plant, it still makes sense for such a seismically active country to rely so much on the power of the atom. Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University warns that a major earthquake near the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in Shizuoka Prefecture could trigger destruction on the scale of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and cause millions of casualties. And despite the government's repeated assurance that the July 16 magnitude-6.8 temblor that hit Niigata Prefecture caused no severe damage to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the reactor expert reckons nothing is absolute when it comes to atomic plant safety. "The (damage) at Kashiwazaki could have been much worse," said Koide, an assistant professor at Research Reactor Institute. "The reported troubles only proved this country's policies need to change." Risk underestimated The risk of operating nuclear power plants in a quake-prone country are manifest in Japan. With four tectonic plates sliding around under the archipelago and at least 2,000 active and identified fault lines, all of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors, as well as nuclear fuel storage and other atomic-related sites, are under constant earthquake threat. Whether these facilities are sufficiently quake-resistant, however, is a question that experts and government officials are split over. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, the world's largest in terms of output at 8.21 million kw, shut down at 10:13 a.m. July 16 just seconds after being hit by the temblor, which registered a rare upper 6 on the 7-level Japanese intensity scale. The fault line that triggered the quake released a seismic energy wave 2 1/2 times more powerful than some parts of the plant were designed to withstand. What subsequently happened at the plant — the fire, ceiling crane damage and water leaks containing low-level radioactive waste — was referred to as minor trouble by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which oversees nuclear facilities in Japan. A four-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency that inspected the plant over four days in August said in a report that a visual inspection found no significant damage to its seven reactors, concluding the plant safely shut down at the time of the quake. The team, however, was unable to visually inspect the reactor cores. But Koide argued that if the fault line, which was underestimated as a risk by Tepco, had been just a little bit closer, the reactors could have been damaged. It was "sheer luck" that the plant was spared from a catastrophic accident and radiation release, he claimed. Time bomb in Hamaoka The entrance of the No. 2 reactor's housing at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, was damaged by the July 16 earthquake. KYODO PHOTO Koike is now worried about the Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, which is in a region where government experts in January forecast an 87 percent chance of a magnitude-8 earthquake striking within the next 30 years. The fallout from a nuclear meltdown at Hamaoka could easily reach Tokyo, Koide said, warning that millions would be exposed to radiation and its effects could linger for generations. Although the Hamaoka plant is designed to withstand a magnitude-8 quake, no one can promise that a seismic shock won't defeat its design and that the reactors will shut down and cool off properly, he said. "We judge that (our disaster-prevention protocols) worked properly" in the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant's case, said Hitoshi Sato, deputy director general for nuclear safety at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, an arm of METI. "But some may attribute it to luck, because the quake was indeed stronger than the maximum level estimated in the plant's design." Quake-resistance for nuclear plants is based on a government guideline drafted in 1981. It requires utilities to research active fault lines within a 30-km radius of any new power plant site and to conduct detailed examinations within a 5-km radius. The plant must then be designed to withstand the maximum seismic shock that could possibly be caused by an earthquake occurring along the active fault lines. They also must be designed to resist quakes that could be generated by unknown fault lines as well. The plants must be able to withstand a magnitude-6.5 earthquake with an epicenter within 10 km of the facility. Japan's 55 reactors are all designed to survive such a quake. But the Niigata quake was much stronger. Whether the July 16 quake was caused by a previously unidentified fault line is not yet known, but it has been confirmed that the seismic shock exceeded the plant's design limits. Sato said nuclear plants are built to avoid heavy damage even if quakes exceed the maximum estimate. But he did not know what the extra margin of safety was. "There is always an unexpectedly strong earthquake. We are dealing with nature. It would be a lie if we say our guideline is sufficient," he said. "The bottom line is we should learn from the experience of larger-than-expected quakes" and continue to reduce risk. Guidelines revised Last year, the government revised the 1981 guideline to reflect seismic findings from the magnitude-7.3 Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 and other major temblors. To prepare for a major quake caused by an unidentified fault, the new guideline would require nuclear plants to beef up their quake resistance by roughly 20 percent, Sato estimated, adding that the number differs for each plant, depending on local conditions. Since the Hamaoka plant sits near one of the four known tectonic plates, it must now be reinforced, and other utilities are re-examining the active fault lines around their plants to calculate new quake-resistance levels. Both the research and the new earthquake-resistance estimates will be examined by the government. The whole process, including reinforcement, will take two to three years to complete, Sato said. Chubu Electric Power Co. voluntarily began reinforcing the Hamaoka plant in 2005, increasing the cement in its foundation and inserting supports around its pipes. The work will cost up to Ą10 billion, a Chubu Electric official said. Meanwhile, Mitsuhiko Tanaka, a former Hitachi group engineer involved in building Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, said he was worried about restarting the Kashiwazaki plant. "Theoretically, it is natural to think that the power plant equipment underwent irreversible changes in their composition," said Tanaka, who joined an antinuclear energy campaign after quitting Hitachi in 1977. Invisible damage looms Tanaka explained that damage perceivable only through microscopic examination probably occurred in the reactor pressure vessel, piping or containment vessel at the plant. Such difficult to detect damage can considerably weaken a power plant, but Tanaka said he feared Tepco might skip the microscopic tests needed to evaluate the damage and put priority on restarting the plant following superficial nondestructive testing. "I fear that the government will just glance through some of the reports supplied by Tepco, hold short discussions with experts and make a decision to reactivate the Kashiwazaki plant," he said. Sato of NISA said the government and Tepco will examine the seven reactors at the plant and seriously discuss whether they can be used again. "In the worst case, they may need to be rebuilt," he said. Despite the chance that an unidentified fault line could bring a severe quake at any given spot in Japan, Haruo Yamazaki, a seismological geology expert at Tokyo Metropolitan University, said he supports the nuclear power industry. "In a way, nuclear power plants are a necessary evil," said Yamazaki, who has worked in the Nuclear Safety Commission at the Cabinet Office. "Nuclear meltdowns are terrifying, but so is a power shortage. The only way to handle the issue is to improve regulatory guidelines for the facilities." The Japan Times ***************************************************************** 19 Japan Times: Three nuclear testing facilities in Tokai ordered to shut down japantimes.co.jp Web Sunday, Sept. 2, 2007 Kyodo News The Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been ordered to halt three of nuclear research facilities in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, because they do not comply with the law on handling nuclear fuel material. The agency was ordered to check for problems and submit the report after an anonymous whistler-blower reported in June that a shared duct at the agency's Nuclear Science Research Institute in Tokai was contaminated with radioactive material. The reported problems do not undermine the safety and soundness of the targeted facilities, the ministry said, but the agency has been asked to examine them more in detail and report back. The three facilities are used to test criticality in fast-breeder reactors, static experiments and transient experiments. At the fast-breeder facility, the safety rods used to control criticality have not been tested or approved by the government, the ministry said. At the other two facilities, nuclear fuel materials have been stored for about a decade although the containers they use were only designed for temporary storage, it said. JNFL resumes test AOMORI (Kyodo) Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. has resumed the final test for commissioning its fuel-reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, following a four-month hiatus caused by miscalculations of earthquake resistance for equipment. The test resumed Friday Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura gave his approval. The test was getting ready to enter the fourth stage of a five-stage process in April when the miscalculations were discovered. In the fourth stage, the plant is to produce vitrified high-level radioactive waste while reprocessing 110 tons of fuel. Mimura gave the green light to JNFL President Isami Kojima at his office in the prefectural capital, saying he "recognizes the improvement measures presented by JNFL and the central government." But the governor also urged JNFL to strictly implement the measures to prevent the miscalculations from recurring and to report on the results to the local government. The equipment in question was supplied by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. After reinforcement work on the equipment was completed Aug. 17, Mimura received the OK to resume the commissioning test from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and consulted with prefectural assembly factions, mayors and experts. Even so, the opening of the plant is likely be delayed until next spring because JNFL will still have to win local support for the plant after the final test is finished. The Japan Times ***************************************************************** 20 Regina Leader Post: 'A non-starter and no brainer' Published: Saturday, September 01, 2007 A Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) official has criticized my Aug. 8 letter, "Nuclear energy's dirty secrets". Colin Hunt disputes my claim that nuclear creates significant greenhouse gases (GHGs), but doesn't consider the whole nuclear fuel system -- e.g., uranium enrichment emits GHGs such as fluorine and chlorine. But there is a more compelling case against nuclear energy as the "magic bullet" for global warming. A 2003 MIT study found that to increase nuclear capacity threefold by 2050, a plant had to be built every 15 days from 2010 on. This is unrealistic. Furthermore, nuclear electricity would only grow from 16 to 20 per cent of total electricity worldwide and GHGs would still increase. Nuclear is clearly a non-starter and no-brainer. The writer goes further on a limb saying background radiation "has never been demonstrated to cause any harm whatsoever". Actually, radon gas is responsible for half of background radiation and, after smoking, is one of the major causes of lung cancer. The U.S. Academy of Science's BEIR (Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation) VII's 2005 report concludes, "it is unlikely that there is a threshold (of radiation) below which cancers are not induced." So why would we want the nuclear industry to increase radiation? Hunt says I "decline to provide any evidence" that uranium still goes into weapons. The 1987 UN Commission on Environment and Development and the 1993 Joint Federal-Provincial Panel on Saskatchewan's Uranium Mining say existing safeguards don't prevent uranium going into weapons. More references are in my upcoming book. Hunt persists, saying I'm wrong that uranium will soon be exhausted. Actually, I said it, "will run out not long after oil." The present high uranium price will make mining lower grade ores lucrative, but this will require more fossil fuels while creating more GHGs and radioactive wastes. Since efficiency and renewables are more effective and less risky ways to reduce GHGs, these are the wise and moral choice. Hunt is unrepentant, saying nuclear utilities have "found it to be among the lowest-cost options for supplying electricity." This is because huge government subsidies, including from weapons technology, favour nuclear. As much as half the real costs -- decommissioning reactors and storing wastes -- are being deferred to our grandchildren, who won't be getting any electricity from these toxic plants. Energy economists looking at full costing conclude nuclear is underestimated by a factor of three: i.e. costing 14 cents (U.S.) per kWh, not the five cents the industry broadcasts. As CNA's director of research and publications, the writer is clearly motivated for promotional purposes. His ill-informed response confirms the CNA is not a trustworthy source of information. Jim Harding Harding is a retired professor of environment and justice studies and author of the forthcoming Canada's Deadly Secret: Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System. Fort Qu'Appelle © The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007 ***************************************************************** 21 Vancouver Sun: Nuclear power debate about to mushroom into nastiness Michael Campbell, Vancouver Sun Published: Saturday, September 01, 2007 When it comes to the nuclear power debate there are a couple of sure bets, namely that the discussion is going to get both nasty and silly. We got a hint of that this week with the announcement that a private company named Energy Alberta wants to build a nuclear power plant in northern Alberta, while the Ontario Energy Board unveiled plans to phase out its coal-generated electricity by spending upwards of $60 billion in the next 20 years with much of it going to nuclear power. So let me add to the prediction and say that the debate is going to get a lot nastier in North American than in any other part of the world. After all, the nuclear power horse is way out of the barn in Europe, where France gets 77 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power, Sweden gets 45 per cent, Belgium 58 per cent, Switzerland 37 per cent, and Spain 27 per cent. What will make this debate so entertaining is that it will pit environmentalists against environmentalists. Groups like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club will bring to bear their immense resources to oppose nuclear power, while green heavyweights like James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia hypothesis, and Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore support the use of nuclear power as the only realistic solution to dramatically reducing our carbon emissions. It must drive Greenpeace nuts to relentlessly read that Moore is a founding member. Maybe that's the root of the nastiness. While I'm not amazed by the vitriol of the personal attacks against the likes of Moore and fellow nuclear power advocate Stewart Brand, founder of the legendary Whole Earth Catalog, the viciousness of the slagging is still impressive. Of course, bad-mouthing is a lot easier than actually talking about the issues. And the issue is this: Last year, BC Hydro estimated that the gap in the electricity it produces and what we consume will grow by between 25 per cent and 45 per cent over the next 20 years. In the U.S., the Department of Energy forecasts that demand for electricity will grow at an annual rate of 1.5 per cent. So the big question is, how are we going to realistically meet our increasing power needs without dramatically increasing our carbon emissions, let alone reducing them? Even the United Nations seems to have thrown in the towel on the Kyoto targets of reducing emissions to 1990 levels in favour of holding steady at today's levels. The anti-nuclear advocates are pinning their hopes on alternative energy sources like wind, solar power and biofuels, plus a massive reduction in consumption through conservation. Personally, I'm a big fan of geothermal, but I see no way the impact will be great enough to stop the growth in fossil fuels. As James Lovelock states in summing up the sentiments of the 9,000-plus members of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, in light of the massive threat posed by global warming "we cannot continue drawing energy from fossil fuels and there is no chance that the renewable, wind, tide and water power can provide enough energy and in time." In his push for nuclear power, Lovelock -- whose credentials may qualify him for the title of "greenest of the greens" -- goes on to say, "Opposition to nuclear energy is based on irrational fear fed by Hollywood-style fiction, the green lobbies and the media. These fears are unjustified, and nuclear energy from its start in 1952 has proved to be the safest of all energy sources." As I said, this debate is just starting to get nasty. Michael Campbell's Money Talks radio show can be heard on CKNW 980 on Saturdays from 8:30 to 10 a.m. © The Vancouver Sun 2007 ***************************************************************** 22 Sofia News: Bulgaria: Unit in Bulgaria's Nuclear Power Plant in Emergency Shutdown DARIK NEWS 1 September 2007, Saturday Unit five at Bulgaria's sole nuclear power station has undergone an emergency shutdown. Facility operators at the Kozloduy nuclear power station on the Danube River said the incident did not cause any radioactive leak. It was not immediately clear what triggered the automated safety system shutdown at the 1000-megawatt VVER type unit or what repairs will be needed. At the end of last year, hours before joining the European Union, the country shut down reactors number 3 and 4 at Kozloduy nuclear power station to meet the safety requirements of the European block. Units 5&6 remain online and working, while units 1&2, the oldest pair, were shut down in 2003. Click here to receive realtime news about this topic in the future. novinite.com Forum Google Tourism Business MobileBulgaria Cheap Flights to Bulgaria · Bulgaria property in Bansko · Bulgaria Property Services · Bulgaria Property · Carpet Cleaners Lodon · Window Cleaners London · Property in Bulgaria · Cheap flights · Carpet Cleaning London · Bansko Property · Bulgaria Properties for Sale · Carpet Cleaning · Man and van removals · Mobile Bulgaria · Contact Us | The Team | Link to us | Partners | BGtop All Rights Reserved © Novinite Ltd., 2001-2007 - Copyright & ***************************************************************** 23 DW: Germany's Nuclear Phase-Out Ignites Fresh Political Row | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 02.09.2007 Germany could also phase nuclear power back in Although Germany decided years ago to phase-out nuclear power, politicians from the country's governing parties continue to argue about how and when it will happen. Christian Democrat Ronald Pofalla, the party's secretary general, rejected a call by Social Democratic Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel for Germany's seven oldest nuclear plants to be shut down years earlier than planned. Gabriel had said the reactors' permits to produce a certain amount of electricity could be transferred to newer plants. "It's not about old or new, but about safe or not," Pofalla said on ZDF television. He added that there was no reason to believe that the older plants did not meet the necessary safety standards. Gabriel had said in an interview with the SĂĽddeutsche Zeitung published on Saturday that shutting down the plants would "significantly lower the general nuclear risk." He pointed to recent incidents at the KrĂĽmmel and BrunsbĂĽttel plants. The plants had to be shut down in June after problems occurred outside of the reactors. Subsequently, the authorities discovered additional problems in both places. Gabriel said that although the incidents hadn't posed an immediate danger to people's safety, they showed the "vulnerability of complex nuclear technology." Bildunterschrift: Gabriel has irritated nulcear power proponents His suggestions to transfer permits to newer reactors could result in only 10 of Germany's 17 reactors being in use by 2009, with the last one out of commission in 2023, the paper calculated. The nuclear phase-out Germany agreed upon under former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's government of Social Democrats and Greens would result in the last reactor being shut down in 2020. Industry dismissive Germany's nuclear industry dismissed Gabriel's comments, the Berliner Zeitung newspaper wrote in its Monday edition. What was necessary was to discuss finding the right mixture of energy and what power sources would be needed in the future, it quoted an unnamed industry insider as saying. "If there was a genuine safety problem, Mr. Gabriel would have had to shut down the plants a long time ago," the person said. Energy companies active in Germany have applied to transfer permits for energy production from new to old plants, but none have been filed to shift the permits from old to new plants, according to the SĂĽddeutsche Zeitung. The nuclear industry continues to push for Germany to reverse its decision to phase out nuclear power. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, too, would prefer for Germany to stick with nuclear energy. DW-WORLD * German Cabinet Approves Ambitious Climate Plan Two years into its term, Germany's governing coalition on Thursday approved a 30-point package intended to improve climate protection and help meet its CO2 reduction goals. (24.08.2007) * Concerns Mount Over Nuclear Energy After Series of Scares Irregularities at nuclear reactors in Germany and Japan in recent weeks have rekindled safety fears and raised tough questions about nuclear energy amid increasing environmental concerns. (27.07.2007) * Despite Climate Concerns, Germany Plans Coal Power Plants European Union states agreed earlier this month on a binding 20 percent cut in CO2 emissions by 2020. Yet over 20 coal-fired power plants -- major producers of greenhouse gases -- are planned for Germany. (21.03.2007) © 2007 Deutsche Welle ***************************************************************** 24 Boulder Daily Camera: Nuclear projects killed thousands Rocky Flats facility workers risked exposure to radiation Associated Press Saturday, September 1, 2007 DENVER - At least 4,000 people died as a result of working on nuclear projects during the Cold War, and 36,500 became ill with radiation-related diseases, the Rocky Mountain News reported Friday. The News said it collected the numbers by records from federal projects involving uranium, including the building and testing of bombs, and did not include people who had never filed claims or whose claims were rejected. The nation built 70,000 atomic bombs, beginning in 1945. Some of the uranium used in the bombs dropped on Japan came from Uravan. About 15,000 workers were employed south of Boulder at Rocky Flats, making plutonium triggers for the bombs. Of the 36,500 who became ill, about 15,000 were involved in the manufacture of bombs. The radiation they were exposed to sometimes took years to affect them. Some of them may have ultimately died as a result of their work, but were not listed among project deaths by the government. Hundreds of thousands of people, including soldiers, were exposed to radiation from nuclear tests. "In those days, we were training military personnel to fight a nuclear war. The Department of Defense had to know the effect on soldiers, sailors and airmen who moved within hours into a hot zone,” said R.J. Ritter, who now runs the National Atomic Veterans Association and lobbies for aid to those contaminated troops. “Nobody had a clue what would happen years later from inhaling those particles.” Although many of those exposed were not warned of the danger, lawsuits have revealed that government officials were aware of it. “A lot could have been prevented if they had given the least bit of warning” said J. Turner, of www.downwinders.org. The government first admitted the problem in the 1980s, but finding records of those affected remains difficult. Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 25 KPUA.net: Army: Soldiers fired 714 depleted uranium rounds in Hawaii KPUA Hawaii News - 1145 Kilauea Ave Hilo, Hawaii 96720 PH: 808 935-5461 FAX: 808 935-7761 Posted: Friday, August 31st, 2007 5:02 AM HST By Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) _ The military says that Army soldiers training in Hawaii fired 714 spotting rounds containing depleted uranium in the 1960s. The Army is still studying which firing ranges were used for the training. So far, small traces of depleted uranium have been found on Schofield Barracks on Oahu and at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island. The Army and the state say the depleted uranium doesn't threaten public health. The heavy metal was used in aiming, or ``spotting'' rounds for a 1960s weapon system called the Davy Crockett that could fire a 76-pound nuclear bomb. The Cold War weapon was intended to be used as a last-ditch effort against masses of Soviet soldiers in the event of war. (Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved) ***************************************************************** 26 Japan Times: Japan engages in disaster-preparedness drills japantimes.co.jp Web Sunday, Sept. 2, 2007 Compiled from Kyodo, AP About 630,000 people nationwide took part in a major earthquake drill organized by the government on Saturday for Disaster Preparedness Day. Officials at an emergency headquarters set up in the Hamaoka nuclear power plant here submit reports on imaginary damage at the facility to central government authorities as part of an earthquake-response drill held Saturday. KYODO PHOTO This year, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency was among the key officials summoned immediately after the hypothetical quake struck. His inclusion is believed to have resulted from the July 16 quake in Niigata Prefecture that damaged and shut down the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. However, it is feared that the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, will also be at risk if a major quake focused in the Pacific strikes near the Tokai region. The plant is run by Chubu Electric Power Co. Experts say a major quake is due in the area at any time. Saturday's drills came weeks after a magnitude-6.8 quake in central Niigata Prefecture killed 11 people and injured more than 1,000. The July 16 temblor triggered malfunctions and leaks at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, raising concerns about safety at Japan's nuclear power stations. The drill was held under the assumption that strong quakes have struck the Tokai and Tokyo metropolitan areas. At the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addressed the public in the morning after the Meteorological Agency issued a mock warning for an imminent quake in the Tokai region. "Please act calmly even if you are in areas that may come under some damage," Abe, clad in a disaster work uniform, said told a news conference in announcing the alert. The main area of the drill was in Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture. The various exercises included one to evacuate tourists and another to secure the safety of employees of the Shizuoka Prefectural Government based on an urgent quake alert system of the Meteorological Agency, which will begin providing information to the general public in October. Aside from the disaster drill, a separate drill was held simultaneously around the Hamaoka plant, which set up an emergency task force of the nuclear safety agency in the area and held an urgent information relaying drill under the assumption that there was a fire at the plant. The Tokyo area drill was held mainly in Saitama and included transporting stranded commuters from their offices to their homes. The United States Navy also participated for the second straight year. The USS Tortuga and its crew were sent from the Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture to evacuate Tokyo commuters. The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 27 Guardian Unlimited: Japan Holds Annual Quake Drills Saturday September 1, 2007 5:16 AM TOKYO (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people across Japan joined an annual earthquake drill Saturday marking the anniversary of a devastating temblor that wiped out the capital 84 years ago. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a mock state of emergency at his office, where defense, police and fire officials gathered for the simulated drills. More than 600,000 people across Japan participated, commemorating the Sept. 1, 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, a magnitude-8.3 temblor in Tokyo that killed more than 140,000 people. Saturday's drills came weeks after a magnitude-6.8 quake in central Niigata state killed 11 people and injured more than 1,000. The July 16 temblor also caused malfunctions and leaks at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, raising concerns about safety at Japan's nuclear power stations. In Shizuoka - about 95 miles west of Tokyo - where experts say a major quake is due any time, prefectural and utility officials inspected Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, simulating information relays and firefighting procedures. People practiced carrying the injured on stretchers. The U.S. Navy in Japan also participated for the second straight year. The USS Tortuga and its crew were sent from the Yokosuka naval base near Tokyo to evacuate Japanese commuters. A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from nearby Camp Zama transported medical and other relief supplies. Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone nations, and Tokyo has a 90 percent chance of being hit by a major quake over the next 50 years, experts say. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 28 The Tribune: I, too, worry about uranium mining Guest Commentary September 2, 2007 EDITOR'S NOTE: We received word late Friday afternoon that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had agreed to Congresswoman Musgrave's request to extend the comment period regarding a proposed uranium mine near Nunn. The following commentary was written prior to Friday. For the full story on the NRC's extension, go to www.greeleytribune.com. During the past several weeks I have heard from a number of my constituents in Weld and Larimer counties who are alarmed about the potential consequences of a proposed in-situ uranium mine near Nunn. Chief among their concerns is the impact this mining operation could have on the underground water supply in the area. Like many of my constituents, I share this concern. Recently, I petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to strictly monitor any changes that would adversely affect water quality standards for in-situ uranium mining operations. I vehemently oppose any effort by the NRC to usurp the authority of state health departments and the Environmental Protection Agency over water quality. Local residents in Weld and Larimer depend on the water quality protections that are currently in place so they can continue to have access to clean, safe water. I am convinced that any effort by the NRC to impose inferior water quality standards would undoubtedly impact public health, the environment, and local agriculture. Under no circumstances should in-situ mining operations be allowed to subvert state or EPA water quality standards. In addition, I have petitioned the NRC to extend the public comment period for the ongoing environmental impact statement for proposed the uranium mining facility. The potential impacts on the rural communities are too significant to not allow local residents ample time to investigate and comment on the impacts it could have on their health, property, and livelihoods. Weld and Larimer residents deserve a thorough, open and fair process so they can make informed decisions and comment on this proposed uranium project. The availability of safe, dependable water supplies is absolutely essential to life. As stewards of these resources, we are required to ensure that they are protected for generations to come. I will continue to work on behalf of concerned citizens and demand that their health and property are protected. Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., represents Colorado's 4th Congressional District, which includes all of Weld County. She is a member of the House committees on agriculture and small business. CONTACT INFORMATION «Rep. Marilyn Musgrave * In Colorado: 5400 11th St., Greeley, CO 80634; (970) 352-4037; fax (970) 352-1915 * In Washington: 1507 Longworth House Office Building; Washington, DC 20515; (202) 225-4676; fax (202) 225-5870 * Web site: http://musgrave.house.gov/ «U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- Mailing address: Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone (800) 368-5642 or (301) 415-7000 * Web site: www.nrc.gov/. To submit comments, search under "contact us." «Powertech Uranium Corp. -- Investor Relations North America, 1205-789 West Pender St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1H2; telephone: (604) 685-9181; fax: (604) 685-9182 * Web site: www.powertechuranium.com «Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction -- P.O. Box 271; Nunn, CO 80648; telephone (970) 372-0029; e-mail, info@nunnglow.com * Web site: www.nunnglow.com All contents © Copyright 2007 greeleytrib.com The Greeley Publishing Co. - P.O. Box 1690 - Greeley, CO 80632 ***************************************************************** 29 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo plans to start using waste facility by next fall San Luis Obispo County’s website | 09/01/2007 | Posted on Sat, Sep. 01, 2007 Regulators’ final environmental report gives the nuclear plant the go-ahead By David Sneed Federal nuclear regulatory officials released their final environmental report Friday on Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant’s spent-fuel storage facility, giving the plant the green light to begin loading the first waste casks late next year. Release of the report ends, at least temporarily, a lengthy legal battle between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the anti-nuclear group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace. Last year, a federal appeals court upheld a Mothers for Peace lawsuit, finding that the commission’s initial investigation into the environmental impacts of a terrorist attack on the storage facility was insufficient. The commission issued a supplemental report in May that reaffirmed the initial one. The final report is a small but important step, said Diablo Canyon spokesman Pete Resler. “We are pleased that the NRC is moving forward,” he said. “We are on track to load the first cask next fall.” Jane Swanson, a spokeswoman for Mothers for Peace, said the group will request a hearing before the commission to ask it to reconsider the decision. “This decision by the NRC makes a mockery of federal environmental law and requirements for public disclosure and participation by the NRC’s environmental decision-making process,” Swanson said. The earlier study by the commission concluded that the likelihood of a terrorist attack on the storage facility is very low. It also found that a successful attack would result in radiation dosages to the public that would be well below annual exposure limits for nuclear plant workers or none at all. Documents on the ruling can be found at the NRC’s Web site www.nrc.gov/waste.html. Click on Diablo Canyon in the Quick Links box. ***************************************************************** 30 Pahrump Valley Times: Nuclear waste impact study set Nye County's Largest Newspaper Circulation Aug. 31, 2007 The U.S. Department of Energy filed a notice of intent last week to conduct an environmental impact study to examine how and where to store a quantity of low-level radioactive waste. Two of the eight sites being considered are Yucca Mountain and the Nevada Test Site. The waste, which is stored at commercial nuclear power plants and other generator sites across the country, was created from the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, medical activities, and nuclear research. The site would have to be approved by the state and receive licensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as there are currently no NRC-licensed facilities. In addition, a portion of the waste includes transuranic material, created from non-defense-related sources. Transuranic waste cannot, by law, be stored at the Waste Isolation Pilot Point (WIPP), located in southeastern New Mexico, although this is included in the list of sites that are being considered. However, Yucca Mountain may be used if licensed. DOE is considering possibly storing the waste at a combination of the listed sites. It estimates the current inventory of waste nationwide (existing and expected to be generated) to be approximately 2,600 cubic meters of "greater than Class C" waste and 3,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste. This is a relatively small amount compared to the amount of low-level waste that has already been disposed of at the test site, which in the third quarter of 2007 was 7,952 cubic meters. The activity of the waste is currently 15 million curies, and future activity is 129 million curies. The half-life of the constituents ranges from several years to over 10,000 years. How the waste will be stored has yet to be decided, although shallow bore-holes, shallow burial, and burial in a containment vault are all being considered. The other sites being considered for waste disposal include the Hanford Site in Washington, the Idaho National Laboratory, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, or "a generic commercial location." webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 31 edmontonsun.com: Opposition frets over nuke plans Alberta - Sun, September 2, 2007 By DAVE DORMER, SUN MEDIA CALGARY -- The fallout from a proposed nuclear power plant in northern Alberta has opposition parties demanding full disclosure from the provincial government on the $6.2-billion project's environmental and financial risks. Calgary-based Energy Alberta has applied to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to build two Candu nuclear reactors on a site 30 km west of Peace River, a project Liberal Leader Kevin Taft said he fears is being railroaded through the initial application stages without public disclosure. "We are very, very skeptical about Alberta going nuclear - the environmental and other costs of this project worry me deeply," he said. "I think there are better choices and I am not comfortable with the process through which this has come forward." One thing that worries Taft is the fact a client has stepped up with an offer to buy 70% of the electricity generated by the plant, but the province so far hasn't identified the interested party. "My hunch is this is being pushed not for the benefit of the people of Alberta but for the benefit of the people who bought the franchise to do nuclear power here," he said. Meanwhile, NDP environment critic Dave Eggen pointed out the project was originally slated to be built further south, near Whitecourt. "I found it interesting that once the people of Whitecourt started to learn a little bit about the scope of the plan and asked for more time and information, this company packed up and went to another place," he said. Energy Minister Mel Knight has said the province is neither for nor against the project and is not involved in the initial stages of the application, which falls under federal jurisdiction. He added that if the process moves to the public hearing phase, there will be full consultation on the project. CANOE home | We welcome your feedback. Copyright © 2007, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. Test ***************************************************************** 32 ReviewJournal.com: Craig battled for a Nevada nuclear waste storage site Sep. 01, 2007 Departure seen as boon to opponents of project By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Sen. Larry Craig's imminent departure from the U.S. Senate removes a major advocate for storing high level nuclear waste in Nevada, and a combative one at that. Craig was considered among the biggest proponents of nuclear power in Congress. In that vein, he focused on steering federal dollars and missions to the Idaho National Laboratory, an Energy Department installation that performs nuclear waste research. He also was one of the most vocal supporters of the Yucca Mountain repository, which if built could become the destination of more than 3,000 shipments of Navy nuclear waste now stored in Idaho. "He along with Sen. Pete Domenici in our view have been the one-two punch for the nuclear industry. In that sense the industry is losing one of their key spokespeople," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an anti-nuclear advocacy group. In 2002 Craig was a lead senator promoting the official designation of the Nevada site for nuclear waste storage. He regularly roused the Energy Department forward on Yucca and debated repository critics with an ferocity that some said bordered on disdain. On occasions he battled Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the project's most influential opponent. "Senator Craig was an advocate for Yucca Mountain. His being gone is one more nail in the coffin for that dump," Reid said Friday night. In a surprising confrontation, Craig at a August 2006 Senate hearing upbraided a representative of Gov. Kenny Guinn, saying he was not interested in the Nevadan's views. "I don't know that you have credibility before this committee. Your purpose is to kill Yucca Mountain, period." Craig said to Bob Loux, director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects. "Can you have any objectivity at all? I doubt it," Craig said. "Certainly as much as anyone who is advocating (the repository)," Loux shot back. "Every hearing that Nevada was ever at, he did nothing but attack," Loux recalled on Friday. "We all thought that was over the top." "Having him gone improves Nevada's chances for gaining congressional support," Loux said. Craig co-sponsored bills with Domenici, R-N.M., that envision nuclear waste being fast-tracked to Yucca Mountain by 2010, almost a decade faster than the Energy Department plans. The Idahoan maintained he was uncowed by Reid, who has vowed to block bills that would help the Yucca Mountain project advance. "Harry in his wildest dreams wishes it would go away, but it is not going away," Craig told reporters about Yucca last December. He believed a tide of pro-nuclear sentiment in Congress would force Reid to compromise. But with Reid exercising influence, repository legislation so far has not moved forward in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Craig and Reid squared off again last September. Reid prepared amendments to shield Nevada from spent nuclear fuel that might result from a landmark U.S.-India nuclear cooperation agreement. Charging that Reid was grandstanding for constituents, Craig prepared a counteramendment to begin moving nuclear materials to Nevada "as soon as practicable." The two eventually backed away from each other, dropping their amendments. With Republicans in the Senate minority, Craig's influence was diminished, said an industry official who asked not to be identified because she had not been cleared to speak to media. "If he were still in the majority I would say this would leave a huge gap," the official said. "And it doesn't look like the Senate is going to act (on Yucca) anytime soon so I am not seeing any huge impact on the legislative agenda." Idaho lawmakers monitor the Yucca issue closely in part because the state is party to a consent agreement with the Energy Department and the Navy calling for the removal of all spent nuclear fuel by Jan. 1, 2035. Craig's eventual successor likely also will promote Yucca Mountain, said Michele Boyd, legislative director for Public Citizen, an advocacy group. "I don't expect there to be dramatic changes," Boyd said. Nevada officials said they doubted a new Idaho senator would match Craig. "Clearly he has been one of the biggest pro-Yucca supporters all he way along," Loux said. "I don't think any of us are not happy to see him go." Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 33 ReviewJournal.com: RUNAWAY TANKER: Rail car security tightened Sep. 01, 2007 New safety protocols set to avoid disaster By LISA KIM BACH REVIEW-JOURNAL Local, state and federal authorities outraged by the potential for disaster posed by Wednesday's runaway chlorine tanker never want to see such an incident repeated. Union Pacific Railroad officials on Friday announced three measures being enacted immediately as a start to guaranteeing that. To prevent cars from escaping the Arden train yard -- the starting point of the tanker incident -- Union Pacific is placing anchor cars at the north end of every track, with hand brakes applied. A statement from the company said that will prevent unattached cars from rolling out of the yard, located south of state Route 160. Locomotives will be used to move hazardous material cars around as trains are being assembled. All such cars must be secured before the locomotive is disconnected. The company also will conduct a thorough review of its emergency notification procedures to prevent a recurrence of the confusion that surrounded the contacting of local authorities during Wednesday's incident. A utility company survey crew was the first to inform police of the fast-moving runaway tanker, not the railroad. "That process is a focus of the investigation," said Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis in Omaha, Neb. "We'll be looking at protocol and procedures and who called what and when." Clark County and city of Las Vegas officials were appalled when details of what transpired during the incident emerged late Wednesday and Thursday. Clark County Manager Virginia Valentine said she didn't receive a call from railroad executives until hours after the tanker was safely stopped by a Union Pacific maintenance crew, which ended a 20-minute uncontrolled run that saw the car loaded with poisonous gas traverse 20 miles of urban Clark County, from south to north. Police dispatched units immediately after it received the utility company's tip at 8:49 a.m. Eight minutes into the incident, police learned that the car contained chlorine gas, a poisonous substance that can be fatal to those who suffer prolonged exposure. "It is clear to us that Union Pacific's safety and notification plans are either fundamentally flawed or were not followed properly," Valentine wrote in a letter to Union Pacific obtained by the Review-Journal on Friday. "The fact that no injuries or fatalities occurred as a result of this incident is nothing short of miraculous, considering this event could have resulted in the worst disaster in our community's history." Valentine wrote the letter at the request of Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid. In it, she demands unfettered access to Union Pacific's safety plan, emergency operations plan, and warning and notification plan. She also wants a final report of the investigation, now being conducted by investigators from the Federal Railroad Administration and the Public Utilities Commission. It's not expected to be concluded for at least 30 days. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who on Thursday called for better notification of local authorities when hazardous materials are transported through city limits, could not be reached for comment. The incident also captured the attention of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev. Porter plans to hold a public hearing on the transportation of hazardous materials in Las Vegas within the next few weeks. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 34 RGJ.com: Mine scan maps hotspots, points way for soil testing PATRICK ABANATHY RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Posted: 8/31/2007 A recent survey of the old Anaconda Mine process area has given a more comprehensive map of radiological hotspots. Now, the task is to take soil samples to determine severity. For several years, it has been no secret the process area (just northwest of Burch Drive) has patches of elevated radiation because of former mining practices at the site and naturally occurring metals in the ore; however, until now, no single agency has wrapped their arm completely around the issue. The U.S. EPA displayed a map for the group of Yerington/Anaconda Mine stakeholders last Wednesday showing areas of elevated radiation mapped in the process area earlier this month. Jim Sickles, EPA Region IX project manager, said the portions, depicted in red and yellow, simply show areas where the Environment Radiation Ground scanner and handheld detectors found patches of radiation higher than estimated standard levels for the area. Sickles said it should not be taken as an indication of dangerously high radiation, but rather a kind of map. Whether the relatively large, and therefore sensitive, scanner found a little or a lot, it would show up on the map simply as an area of elevated levels. The next step is to take deep soil samples to determine extent of radiological contamination and, ultimately, any and all associated health risks. The EPA has already performed surface samples of these areas. Sickles said the hotspots seem to follow Anaconda's old sulfuric acid solution piping system. This could be a result of Anaconda's practice of recycling solution, which leached radioactive material, such as uranium, as a by product of copper. Over time, the by product could have fallen out of solution and deposited in pipes. On the map, stakeholders' attention was drawn to one relatively large spot of red and yellow just east of the old iron launders. Sickles reiterated the size of the area is not an indication of harmful radiation, though the area would be sampled along with all other spots. Aside from soil and pipe holding to radiological material, Sickle said any concrete on the site could also be a culprit. Despite perception, he said concrete is very porous and could have absorbed materials. The ultimate question is: What is the next step once sampling data is returned? Roy Thun, environmental business manager for site managers Atlantic Richfield Company, said, unless cleanup becomes an issue of urgency, ARCO could incorporate any mitigation work into the overall process area workplan. Nadia Hollan Burke, environmental engineer Superfund project manager with EPA, indicated this could work and the soil data should be available in plenty of time to alter the plan. Sickles said soil samples in the radiological hotspots could be taken as early as September or October. It is unclear when results will be available, as it depends on radiological testing procedures and equipment availability. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 35 AFP: Iran warns against new UN nuclear resolution TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran warned on Sunday it would "reconsider" its cooperation with the UN atomic agency if the Security Council imposes a third set of sanctions over its contested nuclear programme. Iran agreed a timetable with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month to answer outstanding questions over its atomic drive, in a move that is expected to stave off the threat of sanctions for several months. "We will continue our cooperation with the IAEA," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. "But if there is a new United Nations (Security Council) resolution we will reconsider our cooperation with the IAEA and we will study different options." Hosseini did not specify what the options were but top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has already warned that any further sanctions will render Iran's cooperation with the agency "sterile". The IAEA has welcomed Iran's willingness to answer the questions on its atomic drive as a "a significant step forward" but the United States has expressed doubts over the agreement. The United States accuses Iran of seeking to manufacture nuclear weapons but Tehran insists its atomic drive is aimed only at generating electricity for a growing population. Copyright © 2007 AFP. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 36 Press TV: Over 3000 centrifuges working in Iran Sun, 02 Sep 2007 17:19:33 Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran's nuclear achievements have challenged the supremacy of hegemonic powers in the world. President Ahmadinejad said more than 3000 centrifuges are active now and each week a new unit is installed. Ahmadinejad made the remark early Sunday at the inauguration ceremony of the 10th National Congress of the Students Islamic Community in Tehran. He said that Iran managed to become a nuclear country without granting any concession to any country. "The hegemonic powers supposed that the Iranian nation would sit back if they pass resolutions against the country, but Iran made another nuclear breakthrough after each resolution," he said. "Iran's nuclear achievements have undermined the supremacy of the hegemonic powers," he added. "We think that this case (Iran's nuclear dossier) is closed, and that only a few countries are expressing opposition to our nuclear activities," he said, adding," We have announced our nuclear victory and expressed our readiness to help the NPT members under the supervision of the IAEA, " AO/JG/RE © Press TV 2007. All rights reserved. Our privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 37 Guardian Unlimited: Iran: Uranium Centrifuge Goal Reached Sunday September 2, 2007 8:46 PM By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's president claimed Sunday that his country is now running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for its nuclear program, reaching an Iranian goal that could add momentum to efforts to impose new U.N. sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The claim appeared at odds with a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Thursday that put the number much lower - at close to 2,000. The International Atomic Energy Agency said enrichment had slowed and Iran was cooperating with its nuclear probe, which could fend off calls for a third round of sanctions. ``The West thought the Iranian nation would give in after just a resolution, but now we have taken another step in the nuclear progress and launched more than 3,000 centrifuge machines, installing a new cascade every week,'' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in remarks carried by the state television Web site. Iran previously announced operating 3,000 centrifuges in April, but the IAEA said at the time that Iran had only 328 centrifuges going at its underground Natanz enrichment facility in central Iran. In the latest report, drawn up by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the organization put the number of centrifuges enriching uranium in Natanz at close to 2,000 with another 650 being tested. The 2,000 figure is an increase of a few hundred of the machines over May, when the IAEA last reported on Iran. Still, the rate of expansion is much slower than a few months ago, when the country was assembling close to 200 centrifuges every two weeks. ``The recent report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agrees with Iran's approach and the dispute over Iran's nuclear case has ended,'' Ahmadinejad said. The IAEA report noted an increased willingness by the Iranians to answer questions after years of stonewalling and was seen as putting the brakes on the push for a new sanctions. The U.N. Security Council has so far passed two sets of sanctions targeting Iranian individuals and businesses involved in the country's nuclear and missile programs. The resolutions also ordered countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology for these programs. U.N. officials have suggested that Iran had slowed its program and increased its cooperation with the agency investigators to avert the new sanctions. The report said that Iran continued to produce only negligible amounts of nuclear fuel with its centrifuges, far below the level usable for nuclear warheads. The president's announcements appeared to mark a shift away from that strategy. Iran's ultimate stated goal for the Natanz facility, the only site now open to full IAEA monitoring, is to run 54,000 centrifuges - enough for dozens of nuclear weapons a year. Uranium gas, spun in linked centrifuges, can result in either low-enriched fuel suitable to generate power, or the weapons-grade material that forms the fissile core of nuclear warheads. The U.S. claims Iran is secretly trying to develop atomic weapons. But Iran insists it wants to master the technology only to meet future power needs and argues it is entitled to enrich under a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty provision giving all pact members the right to develop peaceful programs. Patricia Lewis, director of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva, said the North Korean agreement Sunday to set a timeline to disable its nuclear program could show promise for how to handle the Iran situation. ``The U.S. administration didn't want to engage with North Korea and then they changed their minds and look what happened as a result,'' Lewis told the AP. ``Rather than thinking it's rewarding bad behavior, which is what some people think, one can think of it like the prodigal son in the Bible where you reward the return to the fold. So in fact what you're doing is rewarding good behavior.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 38 The perils of non-proliferation amnesia Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:52:50 -0400 ----- Original Message ----- From: Harsh Kapoor To: saan_@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, August 31, 2007 8:10 PM Subject: [abolition-caucus] The perils of non-proliferation amnesia Asians Against Nukes September 1, 2007 URL: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/SAAN_/message/1055 o o o o The Hindu Sep 01, 2007 The perils of non-proliferation amnesia by William C. Potter and Jayantha Dhanapala The India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal, if endorsed by the NSG and the U.S. Congress, will virtually ensure the demise of global nuclear export restraints. Indo-U.S. nuclear cooperation means different things to different people - a reversal of decades of U.S. non-proliferation policy, a promising new market for U.S. nuclear commerce, violation of the fundamental principles of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the prospect of a strategic partnership among vibrant democracies. One thing it definitely does not mean is strengthened export controls. Despite efforts by the White House to portray the deal as a plus for combating the spread of nuclear weapons, the terms of the latest round of U.S.-Indian nuclear negotiations confirm the opposite conclusion. Repeatedly outfoxed by their Indian counterparts and hindered by the political unwillingness of a lame-duck administration to walk away from the negotiations, U.S. diplomats have achieved an embarrassing accord. If endorsed by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the U.S. Congress, it will virtually ensure the demise of global nuclear export restraints. The next key round of deliberations on the deal is apt to take place this fall among the 45-member NSG - a body that only three years ago was urged by President Bush to tighten export controls, especially in the sensitive fuel cycle area. Today, however, Washington has a different agenda that closely resembles the one Russia had long sought (and the U.S. had opposed) - to create an exception for India to standard export guidelines that preclude the supply of nuclear material and technology to states lacking safeguards on all of their nuclear facilities. As a result of this shift in U.S. policy, Russia already has rushed to sign new nuclear trade agreements with India without waiting for the NSG to modify its guidelines by consensus as is required. China also has indicated its intent to apply a similar exception to Pakistan, and one can soon imagine Australia, Belarus, France, South Africa, and other states citing the NSG precedent for India as the basis for exporting nuclear commodities to anyone whenever it is commercially or politically expedient. What is perhaps most unusual and ominous about the current debate over India within the NSG is the extent to which economic considerations appear to override those involving proliferation even among states that are typically regarded as the leaders of the international non-proliferation community. Apparently, gone are the days when Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, and members of the European Union could be counted on to lead the charge in support of strict adherence to non-proliferation treaties. At the historic 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, which extended the Treaty indefinitely, NPT parties - including all members of the NSG - made a political commitment to refrain from nuclear cooperation with states lacking "full scope" safeguards. And yet, most of these states either are unaware of these obligations or have chosen to ignore them. Striking dissonance The dissonance is most striking with respect to Australia and South Africa - two countries that pride themselves on model non-proliferation behaviour - reflected in part by their ratification of nuclear-weapon-free zones in their respective regions, the Treaty of Raratonga in the South Pacific and the Pelindaba Treaty in Africa. Both treaties have explicit language prohibiting members from engaging in nuclear commerce with states lacking comprehensive safeguards, as is the case in India. And yet Australia and South Africa have each endorsed nuclear trade with India and are supportive of the U.S. initiative to weaken the NSG guidelines to allow such commerce. It is as if they believe they can selectively disavow inconvenient legally-binding obligations - a particularly difficult manoeuvre for Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who is on record as having acknowledged the restrictive nature of the Raratonga Treaty. It remains to be seen if the current subordination of non-proliferation objectives to economic and other considerations will be a fleeting phenomenon or a more enduring fact of international politics. However, it is disconcerting that the decision about nuclear trade with India in some capitals has been made by officials who do not have expertise in or responsibility for non-proliferation matters and who have little regard for its proliferation implications. This is the case in Canada and the U.S., and appears to resemble the process by which decisions were reached in many EU countries, as well as other members of the NSG. Export controls remain an imperfect but useful tool to curb the spread of nuclear weapons. In this regard, the NSG would be well advised to follow Florence Nightingale's guiding principle that "whatever else hospitals do they should not spread disease." Otherwise, at a time of mounting proliferation challenges, this body is apt to adopt a policy that intentionally or inadvertently erodes the effectiveness of one of the most important multilateral non-proliferation instruments. (William Potter is Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Jayantha Dhanapala is a former U.N. Under-Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs and Ambassador of Sr i Lanka to the United States, who served as president of the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference.) ____________ SOUTH ASIANS AGAINST NUKES (SAAN): An informal information platform for activists and scholars concerned about the dangers of Nuclearisation in South Asia SAAN Website: http://www.s-asians-against-nukes.org or http://perso.orange.fr/sacw/saan/ SAAN Mailing List: To subscribe send a blank message to: saan_-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ________________________________ DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SAAN compilers. ***************************************************************** 39 [NYTr] NZ takes nuke weapons peril to UN; APEC faxes Bush, Putin Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 22:08:21 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [Thank goodness there are efforts to use the platform of the General Assembly fall session to issue an alarm over nuclear weapons,at least. Let us hope that all nations in the Non-Aligned Movement will do more, and persuade other countries which aren't part of the Bush-Blair Cabal of Conquest to cooperate with vigor to stop this terrible dangerous irrational fascist regime. The world needs to see these criminals on trial in an international forum for war crimes, crimes against humanity, international fraud and thievery and violations of signed international treaties. - NY Transfer] sent bu Dave Muller (southnews) Government of New Zealand - Aug 30, 2007 http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=30489 NZ calls for action on operational status of nuclear weapons NZ Press release - Aug 30, 2007 New Zealand will lead a call at the United Nations General Assembly this year for nuclear states to draw back their nuclear weapons from immediate launch readiness, Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Goff said today. Thousands of nuclear weapons currently are on high-alert status, ready for instant launch. This presents a major threat to global security. Nuclear weapon systems at a high level of readiness increase the risk of these weapons being used, including unintentionally or by accident. Such an eventuality would have catastrophic consequences. Steps need to be taken to reduce this risk. New Zealand has played a leading role through its participation in the New Agenda Coalition in pushing for disarmament and non-proliferation. This new initiative is consistent with that role. New Zealand, together with like minded states including Sweden, will promote a resolution at the UN General Assembly this year calling on nuclear weapon states to take steps to lower the operational status of their nuclear weapons. New Zealand looks forward to others support, including nuclear weapon states. We call on States with nuclear weapons to take mutual action to remove all nuclear weapons from launch-on-warning status. We urge all States with nuclear weapons to take steps to decrease the operational readiness of their nuclear arsenals. Such steps could include the separation of warheads from delivery mechanisms and the separation of arsenal storage from potential deployment locations. Our goal of course is for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons. However lowering the operational status of nuclear weapons would be an important interim step towards this fundamental objective, Mr Goff said. *** APEC faxes to Bush & Putin RE: APEC SUMMIT NUCLEAR WEAPONS OPERATING STATUS PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN cc PRESIDENT HU JINTAO PRIME MINISTER SHINZO ABE (Other APEC participants as listed) RE: NUCLEAR WEAPONS OPERATING STATUS Dear Presidents Bush and Putin: We are writing to you on the occasion of your upcoming meeting at the APEC summit in Sydney. Clearly, many vital issues will be on the table at that meeting. One of the most important issues that could be discussed, though not officially on the agenda, is that of nuclear weapons. We hope very much that both of you will broach this issue, which like that of Global Warming/climate change, bears - to put it as bluntly as one can - on whether human beings will survive the next century or so, and whether civilisation as we know it will continue and flourish or will be stricken by catastrophe. An accidental exchange of nuclear weapons between the US and Russia, even at the much reduced levels envisaged by the Moscow Treaty, would still, according to the most recent research by climate experts, be a global catastrophe. There have been a number of terrifying occasions on which such an event has come close to taking place. The lowering of nuclear weapons operating status from 'launch-on-warning' has been a strong recommendation of a number of high-level commissions starting with the 1996 Canberra Commission held by the Australian Government, and going through to the 2006 Blix Commission. In 2005, the authors of this letter coordinated an appeal to lower operating status that gained the signatures of 44 Nobel prize - winners, 362 parliamentarians and NGOs and which was endorsed by the European Parliament More recently, statements by Kofi Annan, by Henry Kissinger; William Perry and Sam Nunn; the 18-nobel advisory board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; and by the Rome Declaration of Nobel Peace- Prize winners (chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev) have urged progress on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. All have contained the lowering of nuclear weapons alert status as a high priority item. William Perry, who served as U.S. defence secretary in 1994-97, notes in a July 20 editorial in Ria Novosti: "Both American and Russian missiles remain in a launch-on-warning mode, And the inherent danger of this status is aggravated by the fact that the Russian warning system has deteriorated since the ending of the Cold War." The Nobel Prize-winning Pugwash group, has also called, in a meeting of 5-7 July, for: "....Immediate de-alerting of the thousands of nuclear weapons, on quick reaction alert, that could be launched by accident, miscalculation, or unauthorised computer hacking of command and control systems;..." The US and Russia have already agreed to the establishment of a strategic stability centre outside Moscow in which data on missile launches would be exchanged. However, while a memorandum on the establishment of this centre has been signed, and announcements have been made a number of times, the agreement has never unfortunately, been implemented. The lowering of nuclear weapons alert status is by no means the only measure that needs to be taken to make the world a safer place, but it is a vital first step. High - level group after high level group has called for decisive action to be taken on the matter of nuclear disarmament, and the lowering of nuclear weapons alert status by the US and Russia, (and where applicable by others) would be a real step forward toward the fulfilment of the obligations of nuclear weapons states under the NPT to accomplish the elimination of nuclear arsenals. President Bush spoke eloquently of the need to deal with the issue of nuclear weapons on alert in the Year 2000 presidential campaign. We are encouraged by recent statements coming from Russia, that discussions on further arms control measures might take place. The APEC summit would be an excellent venue to discuss this vital matter and to discuss other steps that might be taken on further reductions in nuclear weapons systems. The time for further progress in this area has well and truly come. Signed: John Hallam, Joint Coordinator, Appeal by 44 Nobel Prizewinners and 362 NGOs and Parliamentarians on Nuclear Weapons Operating Status; PND Nuclear Flashpoints Project Douglas Mattern, Joint Coordinator, Appeal by 44 Nobel Prizewinners and 362 NGOs and Parliamentarians on Nuclear Weapons Operating Status; President, Association of World Citizens San Francisco Senator Lyn Allison, Co-Convenor, Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament (PNND) Australia Maria Vamvakinou, Co-Convenor, Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament (PNND) Australia Senator Andrew Bartlett, Australian Democrats, Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja, Australian Democrats, Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens, Senator Christine Milne, Greens, Ian Cohen MLC, Greens, NSW, John Kaye MLC, Greens, NSW., Giz Watson MLC Greens, W.A., Carmen Lawrence MP, Jill Hall MP, Kelly Hoare MP Member for Charlton, NSW, Warren Snowdon MP, Member for Lingiari NT, Gordon F.Copeland MP, NZ, Frank Cook MP, General Rapporteur, Defence and Security Committee NATO Parliamentary Assembly Paul Flynn MP, House of Commons, London, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Patron, CND, Luisa Morgantini, MEP Vice- President, European Parliament, Angelika Beer MEP, Greens, European Parliament, Dr Carolyn Lucas MEP, Greens, European Parliament, Uta Zapf, MdB, Bundestag, Chair, Committee on Disarmament Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Berlin, Germany, Sergei Kolesnikov, MP, (Russian Duma) Co-Chair IPPNW Russia Muriel Gerkens, MP Maison Des Parliamentaires, Brussels, Langeland Hallgeir, MP, Norway, Socialist Left Party Sri Mani Shankar Aiyar MP, India, Minister for Rural Self Government Youth and Sport Sergey Kolesnikov, MP, Russian Duma, Deputy Chair, Cttee for Education and Science, Co-Chair IPPNW Russia. Dr Charles Y. Brempong- Yeboah MP, Accra, Ghana Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C. http://www.douglasroche.ca Rene Wadlow, Association of World Citizens UN Representative, Geneva, Bruce Blair, President, World Security Institute Aaron Tovish, Manager, Mayors For Peace 2020 Vision Campaign Alyn Ware, Vice-President, International Peace Bureau (IPB) Kate Hudson, Chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) UK Jenny Maxwell, Chair, West Midlands CND, Alexey Yablokov, Founder, Centre for Russian Environmental Policy, Moscow, Russia, Xanthe Hall, IPPNW Germany, Berlin, Germany, Ingrid Schittich, Director, Association of World Citizens, German branch Ole Kopreitan, Secy - General, No To Nuclear Weapons, Norway, Dominique Levesque, Les Artistes Pour La Paix, Fr, Jean-Marie Matagne, Action des Citoyens Pour le Desarmement Nuclaire, (ACDN) Fr, Arielle Denis et Pierre Villard, co-prisident du Mouvement de la Paix (France) Prof. Henri Firket, Association Midicale Pour la Prevention de la Guerre Nucliaire, (Belg). Ak Malten, Global Anti Nuclear Alliance, The Hague, Neth, Louise Rogers, Physicians for Global Survival Hamilton Chapter, Ont, Canada, Rosalie Bertell, Retired President, International Institute of Concern for Public Health, Board of Regents, International Institute for Humanitarian Medicine, Geneva, Switz, Janet Hudgins, Abolition Canada, Vancouver BC, Joanna Santa Barbara, Physicians for Global Survival, Canada, Theodora Carrol, Canadian Pugwash Group, Squamish, BC, Phyllis Creighton, Science for Peace, Phyllis Creighton, Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd, Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS), Vancouver, B.C. CANADA Mrs Eryl Court, Council of Advisors and Canadian Envoy, Coordinator of the Unitarian-Universalist United Nations Office, Canada (pers) Patricia Willis, Denman Island Peace Group, Canada, Pamela Meidell, Atomic Mirror, California, Joseph Gerson, American Friends Service Committee, (AFSC) Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, Calif, David Krieger, President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Alfred L. Marder, President, International Association of Peace Messenger Cities, Dave Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA, Dave Robinson, National Catholic Peace Movement, Jan Cebula, Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton, Iowa, Henry Lowendorf, Chair, Greater New Haven Peace Council, New Haven, Ct, USA, John Peck/Janet Parker, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Kathleen Sullivan, Educators for Peace, NY, USA, Ashley Tellis, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Wash, USA, Diane Perlman, PhD, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Marc Pilisuk, Co-chair, Global Violence and Security Committee, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, US Diane Perlman, PhD Transcend, Washington, DC Helen Caldicott, Founder, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Elizabeth Baldwin, Atlanta WAND (Womens Action for New Directions) Eileen Mc Cabe, Nuclear Policy Advisor, Acting for a Greener World, West Jordan, UT, USA, Deanna Taylor, State Party Coordinator, Desert Greens, Green Party of Utah, Taylorsville, UT, USA, Tom King, People for Peace and Justice of Utah, UT, USA., Timothy Baer, Campaign Coordinator, The Declaration of Peace, USA, Stephen Starr, Physicians for Global Survival USA, Sukla Sen, Peoples Media Initiative, Member, CNDP National Coordination Committee, Mumbai, India, J. Sri Raman, Movement Against Nuclear Weapons, Chennai, India, S.P. Udayakumar, Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy, Nagercoil, India, M. Channa Basavaiah, Vice President, Jana Vignana Vedika (JVV), Hyderabad, India. EP Menon, India Development Foundation, Bangalore, India, Paul Saoke, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Kenya, Stephen Hicks Acheampong, Association of World Citizens, Ghana, Ronald Mc Coy, Malaysian Physicians for Peace and Social Responsibility, Kuala Lumpur, Corazon Valdez Fabros, Stop The War Coalition Phillipines , Upali Magedaragamage, Asian Network for Culture and Development, Maharagama, Sri Lanka, Frohinda Suleiman, Beacon House School System, Quetta, Balochistan, Aslam Khwaja, Peoples Development Foundation, Pakistan, A.H. Nayyar, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan, Swati Bhat, Alpana Gandhi, Ashish Singh, Kishor Turkey, Tejaswini Madabushi, Palwashay Sethi, Momina Zahid,Frohinda Suleman, Shazaib Afzal - Indo-Pak Youth Peace Exchange Project Hiroshima 2007 Hiroshi Taka, Secretary- General, Japan Council Against A - and - H- Bombs, (Japan Gensuikyo), Tokyo/Hiroshima Japan, Yukio Yamaguchi/Philip White, Citizens Nuclear Information Centre (CNIC), Akebonobashi, Tokyo, Japan, Akihiko Takeda, 2007 Walk for Peace and the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons , Yokohama, Japan, Shinchiro Tsukada/Yosuke Kurashima Takuyun Fukui Peace Ring Article Nine Society Hiroshima , Keiko Nakamura, Peace Depot, Japan Hiro Umebayashi, Peace Depot, Yokohama, Japan, Rev Sanai Hashimoto, Japan Fellowship of Reconciliation, Chiyoda-Ku Tokyo Japan, Terumi Tanaka, Secy - General, Japan Confederation of A and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisation, Tokyo, Japan, Shingo Fukuyama, Secy-General, Gensuikin, (Japan Congress Against A and H - Bombs) Tokyo, Japan, Elbegzaya Temuulen (Mongolia) Sodnomdarjaa Oyuntsetseg - IPPNW Mongolia Alyn Ware Aoteroa Lawyers for Peace, Commander Robert Green Royal Navy (Rtd), Disarmament & Security Centre, Christchurch, NZ Bob Rigg, Former Chair, National Consultative Committee on Disarmament NCCD) NZ, Wellington Des Brough, Co-Convenor, NCCD, Wellington, NZ, John Hinchcliffe, Auckland City Council, NZ, Dame Laurie Salas, Wellington, NZ, Barney Richards, Nat. Secy, New Zealand Peace Council Judy Mc Veigh, Unity for Peace, Aust, Cameron Schraner, People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND) NSW, Jo Valentine, People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND) W.A., Denis Doherty, Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition,(AABCC) Surry Hills NSW, Peter Jones, War Resisters International (WRI) Tas, John Seed, Rainforest Information Centre, Lismore, NSW, Brenda Roy, Environment House, Perth, W.A., Natalie Wasley, Arid lands Environment Centre Beyond Nuclear Initiative (ALEC-BNI) Alice Springs NT, Bea Bliele, UNE Community for Peace and Freedom Robert Mann, Brooklands Community, Balingup W.A., Doreen Shenman, Tasmania Peace Network, Tas, Rochaya Machali, Indonesian Community Council, Sydney, Rob Wesley, Australians for a Free East Timor, Darwin NT Justin Tutty, No Waste Alliance, NT, Caroline Tapp, Nuke-Clear Territory, Darwin, NT, Susan Murphy, Roshi, Zen Open Circle, Sydney, Rev. Shelagh Zincke, New Coast Metropolitan Community Church, Morrissett, NSW, Debbie Hudson, NT Greens Candidate for Solomon, Helen Cooke, Coordinator, Womens International League for Peace and Freedom Victoria, Frankston Vic, Alec Marr, The Wilderness Society, Canb, Aust, Hideko Nkamura, Kaszuyo Preston, Japanese for Peace, Melb, Ffionnan Brooke- Watson, Convenor of WGAR ( Working Group for Aboriginal Rights. ) Fraser Kirkman, United Visions, The archives of South News can be found at http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ * ================================================================= .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org . List Archives: https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ . Subscribe: https://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 40 Guardian Unlimited: Chronology of NKorea Nuclear Program Sunday September 2, 2007 9:16 PM By The Associated Press A timeline of nuclear weapons development in North Korea: - 1994: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement in Geneva under which the North shuts down its plutonium-based nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in exchange for help building two ``light water'' nuclear reactors for producing electricity. - 1998: Construction starts on the two reactors near the eastern town of Sinpo. - Sept. 17, 1999: President Clinton agrees to first major easing of economic sanctions against North Korea since the Korean War's end in 1953. - Jan. 29, 2002: President Bush labels North Korea, Iran and Iraq an ``axis of evil.'' - Oct. 4, 2002: North Korea tells visiting U.S. delegation it has a uranium enrichment program, Washington says. - Nov. 11, 2002: U.S., Japan and South Korea halt oil supplies to the North promised in 1994 deal. - Nov. 21, 2002: U.S.-led consortium - which includes South Korea, Japan, and the European Union - says it is suspending construction of light water reactors. - Dec. 22, 2002: North Korea disables International Atomic Energy Agency surveillance cameras at Yongbyon nuclear reactor. - Dec. 28, 2002: North Korea orders U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country. - Jan. 11, 2003: North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. - Feb. 26, 2003: North Korea is reported to have restarted Yongbyon reactor, which U.S. officials say was designed to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons but which North Korea maintains is for energy production. - Aug. 27-29, 2003: North Korea joins first round of six-nation nuclear talks in Beijing, which include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S., which continue periodically over the next several years. - Feb. 10, 2005: North Korea announces it has nuclear weapons. - Sept. 19, 2005: North Korea pledges to dismantle nuclear programs in exchange for pledges of energy assistance; U.S. pledges not to invade and to respect North's sovereignty. - Jan. 3, 2006: North Korea says it won't return to talks unless the U.S. lifts financial restrictions. - July 5, 2006: North Korea launches seven missiles into the Sea of Japan, including a long-range model, prompting a U.N. Security Council resolution to condemn it. - Oct. 9, 2006: North Korea says it has conducted its first-ever nuclear test. - Oct. 14, 2006: U.N. Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution imposing wide-ranging economic and diplomatic sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear test. - Jan. 16-18, 2007: U.S. and North Korean envoys meet in Berlin. - Feb. 13, 2007: North Korea agrees at six-nation talks on initial steps to disarmament, including shutting down its main nuclear facility within 60 days and eventually disabling its programs in exchange for aid equivalent to 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil. - July. 14, 2007: First shipment of 6,200 tons of oil arrive. Hours later, North Korea says it has shut down its Yongbyon plutonium-reactor. IAEA inspectors arrive in Pyongyang. - Aug. 17, 2007: The IAEA says its agents have confirmed the shutdown of four nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and an unfinished nuclear power plant at Taechon. - Sept. 2, 2007: The U.S. says North Korea agreed during talks in Geneva to declare and disable its nuclear programs by the end of the year - the first time it has offered a timeline. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 41 IRNA: Ahmadinejad: Iran biggest regional political power - Tehran, Sept 2, IRNA Iran-President-Nuclear President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Saturday that Iran is the biggest political power of the region. Addressing a large group of academics, he underlined the need for construction and development of the Islamic Iran. On Iran's peaceful nuclear program, he said, "As the Iranian nation took a step forward, the bullying powers retreated one step". The nuclear technology should be at the service of nations' peace and welfare, he said adding, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is today ready to provide member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with its latest scientific achievements, particularly in the area of peaceful nuclear technology". The bullying powers are not able to harm Iran, he stressed adding that since these powers are faced with numerous problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, they do not want to create a new problem in another part of the globe. Despite all embargoes and restrictions, the needs of the country are met thanks to the efforts made by the Iranian youth. The president also praised the current all-out progress and developments in different parts of the country. ***************************************************************** 42 BBC NEWS: Iran 'reaches key nuclear goal' Last Updated: Sunday, 2 September 2007, 14:13 GMT 15:13 UK The UN says Iran is using the Natanz facility for enrichment Iran has met a key target for its nuclear programme and now has 3,000 centrifuges enriching uranium, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said. Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran would continue its drive in spite of UN sanctions. Enriched uranium can be used for power stations but also for nuclear bombs. The West has accused Iran of trying to develop weapons - a charge Iran denies. IAEA plan "We have more than 3,000 centrifuges working and every week a new set is installed," Mr Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by Iranian news agencies. "[The world powers] were thinking that with each resolution the Iranian nation would retreat. But after each resolution the Iranian nation presented another nuclear achievement." TIMELINE: IRAN ENRICHMENT 2003: Enrichment programme that had been hidden for 18 years is uncovered by IAEA Feb 2006: Iran reported to Security Council 5 Feb 2007: Diplomats confirm Iranian claims to have set up more than 300 centrifuges in two cascades 9 April: Iran claims to be enriching uranium on an "industrial scale". IAEA and Russian officials are sceptical 19 April: IAEA document confirms that Iran running more than 1,300 centrifuges in eight cascades 2 September: Iran claims to have 3,000 centrifuges running Iran 'flexing muscles' The installation of 3,000 centrifuges is seen by Iran as a key medium-term goal - which it had hoped to reach by March this year - for its nuclear programme. There has been no independent verification of Iran's claim. The UN has already imposed two sets of sanctions and the US is leading the call for a third set if Iran's uranium enrichment does not halt. Only last week the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had agreed a plan with Iran to clear up key questions about its past nuclear activities, calling it a "significant step forward". The IAEA has said 3,000 centrifuges would represent a point of no-return for an industrial-scale production of enriched uranium. But it also suggested last week that Iran had 1,968 operational centrifuges - significantly short of the breakthrough President Ahmadinejad has now announced. The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says on the one hand Iran seems to be trying to defuse the situation in talks but, on the other, the president is saying Tehran has now mastered uranium enrichment and the issue should be set aside. The US and UN are not going to accept that, our correspondent says. A number of Western diplomats have criticised the IAEA's plan, accusing Iran of trying to delay the imposition of further UN sanctions while increasing its nuclear capabilities. US President George W Bush also recently stepped up the pressure with a new warning that Iran's nuclear programme put the region under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust. Key meetings of the UN and IAEA on the Iranian issue are scheduled over the coming weeks. A recent International Institute for Strategic Studies report said if Iran could operate 3,000 centrifuges smoothly, one bomb could be produced within nine to 11 months. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 43 BBC NEWS: Glasgow and West | Faslane protest costs police Ł5m Last Updated: Sunday, 2 September 2007, 11:55 GMT 12:55 UK Former MSP Carolyn Leckie is among those to have been arrested The cost of policing anti-nuclear protests at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde has reached Ł5m, new figures have shown. A campaign to stage daily protests at the base began last October. Statistics compiled ahead of a meeting of the Strathclyde Joint Police Board showed up to 150 officers had been on duty at the base at any one time. The figures show that policing costs reached a peak of Ł1.7m in October. The number of officers needed at the site has varied from an average of about 150 in October to lows of between 20 and 90 since March. Much of the money has been spent on overtime payments to officers. More than 110 groups from around the world have taken part in the protests, leading to more than 900 arrests. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 44 BBC NEWS: Iran flexing muscles with nuclear claim Last Updated: Sunday, 2 September 2007, 17:21 GMT 18:21 UK By Sadeq Saba BBC Iranian affairs analyst The president's opponents saw the IAEA report as a sign of weakness President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has announced that his country is now operating 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel. The statement follows a recent report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying Iran was actually short of reaching that goal. The installation of 3,000 centrifuges has always been a medium-term target for Iran. Iranian leaders had stated that they wanted to reach that target by the end of last March. And, indeed, some Iranian officials announced in April that the target had been met. But this is the first time that Mr Ahmadinejad has announced that Iran has reached this key goal in its nuclear programme. His statement comes a few days after the IAEA report said Iran in fact had slowed down its nuclear activities and that it was well short of operating 3,000 centrifuges. Reassurance Mr Ahmadinejad's opponents interpreted the IAEA report as a sign of compromise and weakness by his government. The aim of his defiant speech was to reassure his supporters that he was not giving in to Western pressure and that the country's nuclear programme was going ahead without hesitation. In the same speech he strongly attacked Iran's previous reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami for making compromises with the West on the nuclear issue. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 45 RIA Novosti: Russia to continue advanced missile tests in 2007-SMF commander 13:39 | 01/ 09/ 2007 MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Strategic Missile Forces will conduct more tests of new warheads for its intercontinental ballistic missiles later this year, the SMF commander said Saturday. "This year we will continue test and combat-training launches of new types of warheads for the Topol-M and Bulava sea-launched missile complexes," Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov said. He said previously a second missile battalion, equipped with advanced Topol-M (SS-27) road-mobile ICBMs, will be put on combat duty before the end of the year and that the deployment of silo-based Topol-M systems in the Saratov Region and road-mobile systems in the Ivanovo Region (central Russia) would be completed in 2010. As of December 2006, the Strategic Missile Forces operated 44 silo-based and three mobile missile systems. The commander said the Topol-M system will be equipped with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRV) in the next two or three years, adding that the new system would help penetrate missile defenses more effectively. His statement came against the backdrop of growing tensions between Moscow and the West regarding plans by the United States to deploy elements of its global antiballistic missile defense system in Central Europe. Gen. Solovtsov said the Strategic Missile Forces would factor in the new threats. "If the U.S. proceeds with missile defense plans, despite serious opposition from people in Europe, the Strategic Missile Forces will manage to take adequate measures to counter threats to Russia," he said. The national defense program envisions the deployment of Bulava-M sea-launched ballistic missiles on nuclear submarines. The missiles are expected to become the mainstay of the Russian Navy's strategic nuclear forces in decades to come. The Russian Armed Forces commissioned more than 30 new types of advanced weapon systems in the first half of 2007, the defense minister said last month. Anatoly Serdyukov said these weapon systems included the submarine-launched R-29RM Sineva ballistic missiles, the S-400 Triumf air defense complex, and the 120-mm Nona SM-1 towed mortar for Ground Forces. Serdykov also said Russia conducted test launches of the Yarts land-based ballistic missile, the X-102 airborne missile, and a new version of the Iskander-M ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple warheads, and launched two military reconnaissance and communication satellites. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 46 London Times: How the West summoned up a nuclear nightmare in Pakistan - From The Sunday Times September 2, 2007 Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark reveal how misguided deals with Pakistan have created a terrifying threat of nuclear terrorism General Pervez Musharraf was surprised. Visiting New York for a session of the UN, the last thing the Pakistani president expected was to be confronted with evidence of his country’s secret sales of nuclear bomb technology and equipment to members of the “axis of evil”. Yet here on the polished wooden table of Musharraf’s hotel suite, George Tenet, director of the CIA, was laying out a sheaf of incriminating evidence. There were intricate drawings of Pakistan’s P-1 uranium-enrich-ing centrifuge, with part numbers, dates and signatures. And there were details of the activities of Abdul Qadeer “A Q” Khan, the so-called Father of the Pakistani Bomb: his travels around the world, bank statements, even paperwork showing what his organisation had offered for sale and to which countries. It was only three months since President George W Bush had cancelled a $1 billion debt and instigated a new $3 billion military and economic assistance package for Pakistan. “Now the leash was being wound in, but Musharraf got over his surprise. He moved on and thought, so be it. He was a survivor. Pakistan was a survivor. We would adapt to a new reality,” a source said. But he was not going to confess all: “Musharraf would play dumb until he ascertained what the US knew and whom we could blame.” The general feigned ignorance. But everyone in the room during this “confrontation” four years ago knew that they were involved in a charade. American officials knew that Musharraf had known about the nuclear trade all along. And Washington had itself not only turned a blind eye to Pakistan’s nuclear bomb project for decades but had covered it up for imperative geopolitical reasons, even when Islamabad began trading its secret technology. By 2003 there was mounting evidence – still kept from Capitol Hill and the UK parliament – that Pakistan’s clients now encompassed North Korea, Iran and Libya and probably other countries and individuals too. Britain had privately been pressing America to tell Musharraf it had to stop. In October 2003 MI6 uncovered Pakistani nuclear material on a boat heading for Libya. But the consensus in Washington was that saving Pakistan’s vulnerable (and valuable) president mattered more than prosecuting the guilty. A senior British Foreign Office source explained: “He would come up with his own framework for survival and we would help him get through it, as long as the dirty deals were wound up. It was a compromise struck in the world of realpolitik.” The details were agreed between Musharraf and Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, at a meeting in Islamabad. A drama was conceived that drew from Musharraf a promise to shut down Pakistan’s nuclear black market in return for winning continued US support for his unelected regime. It was agreed that A Q Khan and his aides would be arrested and blamed for “privately” engaging in proliferation. The country’s military elite – who had sponsored Khan’s work and encouraged sales of technology to reduce their reliance on American aid – were left in the clear. Khan was made to admit his “unauthorised activities” on television. Bush subscribed to the deceit, announcing: “Khan has confessed his crimes and his top associates are out of business . . . President Musharraf has promised to share all the information he learns about the Khan network, and has assured us that his country will never again be a source of proliferation.” The truth was that Musharraf had been reducing Khan’s role in the nuclear enterprise and had pushed him into official retirement. The nuclear programme and trading were – and are – completely under the military government’s control. And proliferation did not stop. Four years on, Khan is still under house arrest, and Musharraf is still in power. In a further exercise in “realpolitik”, another political deal is being stitched together to keep him in the presidency as America’s best hope of maintaining stability in this geopolitically vital but desperately unstable country. Musharraf’s term of office comes to an end in November. Under the constitution he cannot win another term if he remains chief of army staff. Urged on by Washington, he has been discussing a power-sharing agreement with Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister. He intends, however, to keep hold of foreign affairs, the armed forces, internal and external security portfolios, the nuclear deterrent and the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programme, according to Pakistani sources. America’s reason for sustaining Musharraf in power is that the alternative is even less appealing. The upper reaches of the army, and the retired military elite, are rife with Islamists – a legacy of General Zia ul-Haq, the zealot who both ramped up the nuclear programme and gave the military a religious mission when he was president from 1978-88. The tragedy is that America’s gamble on Musharraf has not paid off. Washington’s nightmare is a nuclear Pakistan controlled by fundamentalists. Yet Musharraf presides over a country that is not only still a nuclear proliferator but the real source of the Islamist terrorism menacing the West. Al-Qaeda has merged with Pakistan’s home-grown terrorists, spawning new camps, new graduates and new missions abroad – including the July attacks in London in 2005. At least 17 of the worst Sunni terror groups banned by the US and the UN have been allowed to operate openly and launch recruitment drives, using flimsy cover-names, most of them operating within sight of the Pakistan military. The Taliban reformed after Musharraf signed a secret pact with its supporters in Waziristan – the tribal region of northwest Pakistan – in 2004, and again in 2006, leading to what Nato commanders in Afghanistan complained of as a 300% increase in attacks on UK and Afghan forces. US intelligence sources have accused elements of Pakistan’s intelligence establishment and army – including General Mo-hammad Aziz Khan, who until October 2004 was Musharraf’s chairman of the joint chiefs of staff – of coaching and sheltering the neo-Taliban. Pakistan today stands on the failed states index at position 12, just below Haiti, in worse shape than North Korea and Burma. Yet Musharraf’s government has been rewarded with a 45,000% increase in US aid since 2001, taking assistance levels to more than $10 billion, five times more than received by any other country (including Israel). On his only visit to Pakistan, in March 2006, Bush flew in at night, unannounced, without lights. As the US knew only too well, America’s enemies had access to US-supplied Stinger missiles that Pakistan’s former army chiefs had declined to help the CIA claw back after the Afghan war. Bush never got near to the people of Pakistan. A heavy security blanket enveloped Islamabad, which was patrolled by thousands of riot police and para-troopers while US Black Hawks buzzed the skies which were empty of any commercial traffic. After Bush’s visit, Eliza Manningham-Buller, then the director of MI5, made an unusual outing in public to warn that “resilient networks” of terror in Britain and elsewhere in Europe were being “directed by al-Qaeda in Pakistan”. Pakistan’s unsecured nuclear arsenal is increasingly vulnerable as terrorists gain new footholds in Islamabad. According to a recent poll of 100 US foreign policy experts by the Centre for American Progress and the Carnegie Endowment, both in Washington, Pakistan poses today’s greatest nuclear threat to the world. Robert Gallucci, who as a young US diplomat tracked its nuclear programme from inception in 1972 and ended his career as Bush’s adviser on WMD, describes Pakistan as “the number one threat to the world at this moment in time”. He warns: “If it all goes off, a nuclear bomb in a US or European city, I’m sure we will find ourselves looking in Pakistan’s direction.” Furthermore, disturbing new intelligence suggests that proliferation has not stopped. Last year, a 55-page highly classified “early warning” assessment was produced by Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, the BND, taking in the pooled knowledge of British, French and Belgian spies. Its authors found that a range of materials and components were still being procured by Pakistan that “clearly exceeds” what Islamabad needed for its domestic nuclear programme. One of the report’s authors said: “They were buying to sell, and it could no longer be hived off as rogue scientists doing the deed.” The report said that KRL labs, Khan’s old facility, had continued to coordinate the Pakistani sales programme and now ran a network of front companies in Europe, the Gulf and southeast Asia which deployed all the old tricks: disguising end-user certificates by shielding the ultimate destinations from sellers, and lying on customs manifests. The Pakistan-North Korean relationship was still very much alive, the report stated. Islamabad had hooked Pyongyang into its nuclear procurement network in western Europe, buying raw materials and machinery for production lines in North Korea that were churning out cheap centrifuge components. Pakistan was one of the key customers, selling the parts on to other clients. Most alarming was the finding that hundreds of thousands of components amassed by Khan had vanished since he had been put out of operation. In other words, Pakistan has continued to sell nuclear weapons technology (to clients known and unknown) even as Musharraf denies it – which means either that the sales are being carried out with his secret blessing or that he is no more in control of Pakistan’s nuclear programme than he is of the bands of jihadis in his country. Some of Pakistan’s generals are gleeful and even unguarded about the trade, seeing it as proof of their apparently untouchable status as a prime ally in the US war on terror, but also as evidence of their rapid industrialisation. Pakistan has learnt to manufacture the restricted components and materials, electronic equipment and super-strong metals needed for a ready-made nuclear weapons facility which they were selling to anyone who could come up with the cash. General Khalid Mahmud Arif, formerly in charge of the nuclear programme and still an influen-tial figure in military circles, said: “Once we skulked around. Now we have a new generation of men and the technology. We have labs and the industry to rival the West.” He said Pakistan was producing super-strength maraging (low carbon) steel which is primarily used for making centrifuges with which Pakistan enriched uranium to weapons grade. It was also making high-frequency inverters which regulate power to the centrifuges. “They used to come from the UK and now we are selling them ourselves,” he said. “Maraging steel too – once we struggled but now, finally, we are manufacturing it at the People’s Steel Mill and exporting it. It is better than you can get outside.” For many years the US and Europe have barred the export of both items to Pakistan. Musharraf has consistently hidden bad news from his American backers. Two particularly worrying incidents were recently disclosed by sources close to those involved. In 2001, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency, had proof that Osama Bin Laden had received in person two retired Pakistani nuclear scientists at his secret HQ in Afghanistan. Both had become Islamist radicals in retirement. According to the son of one of them, Bin Laden told them he had succeeded in acquiring highly enriched uranium from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and he wanted their help to turn it into a bomb. Amazed, they explained that while they could help with the science of fissile materials, they were not weapons designers. Soon afterwards, a secret army audit discovered evidence that 40 canisters of highly enriched uranium (HEU), the feedstuff for a nuclear bomb, were missing from the Kahuta enrichment labs outside Islamabad after A Q Khan retired. Dr Muhammad Shafiq ur-Rehman, an insider who is the son of one of Khan’s former key aides, revealed: “They could only account for 80 out of a supposed 120 canisters.” The ISI reasoned that some of the drums had probably gone to North Korea, and some to Iran and probably Libya, according to a former ISI officer. Enough highly enriched uranium remained at large to fuel 1,000 dirty bombs or a sizable nuclear device. All it would take for a doomsday scenario is 100lb of HEU – a mass the size of a sugar bag as the material is heavier than lead – to get into the hands of terrorists with the right expertise. Split into two loads to prevent accidental fission, it could be machined into semi-spheres, loaded into a cannon-style device, and driven in the back of a van to a western target. Behind this desperately worrying state of affairs lies a grand deception. For three decades, consecutive US administrations, Republican and Democrat, as well as governments in Britain and other European countries, allowed Pakistan to acquire highly restricted nuclear technology. Key US agencies were then misdirected and countermanded in order to disguise how Pakistan had sold it on. Intelligence gathering in the US was blunted while the departments of state and defence were corralled into backing the White House agenda and forced to side-step Congress and break federal laws. Officials who tried to stop the charade were purged. The deceit began under President Jimmy Carter; but it burgeoned under Ronald Reagan, who used Pakistan as a springboard for American aid to the antiSoviet jihad in Afghanistan. US officials converged on Islamabad carrying cash and the message that America would ignore the growing nuclear programme – while Reagan publicly insisted that nonproliferation remained a primary policy. A flavour of the duplicity comes from Robert Gallucci, who was director of the bureau of near eastern and south Asian affairs at the State Department in 1982 at a time when the Reagan administration was desperately struggling to suppress evidence that Khan was designing a bomb. After British intelligence caught the Khan network shopping in the UK for reflective shields made from beryllium, which could boost the power of a nuclear device, Reagan sent General Vernon Walters, a former CIA deputy director, to see President Zia in Islamabad. Gallucci, who accompanied him, remembers: “Our evidence was incontrovertible. ‘This is what your experts have been up to’, we said, as politely as we could, giving Zia a get-out. “However, the president rejected our briefing, saying our information had come from the Indians.” Gallucci was not privy to a secret agenda. Walters confided to a senior State Department colleague on his return that, far from demanding a rollback in nuclear trading, he had been asked to warn the Pakistanis to do it more discreetly. “He came in looking miserable,” the colleague recalled. “He said, ‘I was told [by the White House] to tell Zia to get that nuclear problem off our radar’. “I was shocked. It was the antithesis of what we were supposed to be doing. Instead of giving it to them with both barrels, Walters had told the Pakistanis they had better hide their bomb programme, lest it humiliate Reagan.” But Zia did not heed the warning and, as the months passed, the intelligence mounted. It was augmented by a US data-collect-ing operation made possible by a high-tech surveillance device secreted in the arid area surrounding the heavily guarded Kahuta hills outside Islamabad, where the nuclear installation had been built. The device, a resin “boulder”, was capable of transmitting intelligence through an array of recording and air-sampling technology hidden inside. A freak accident exposed the operation. Somebody fell on the “rock”, exposing the whirring and blinking components. While knowing what was going on, Washington pursued a deception that bloomed into a complex conspiracy. Evidence was destroyed, criminal files were diverted, and Congress was repeatedly lied to. The obfuscation concealed from the world Pakistan’s “cold-testing” of a nuclear bomb in laboratory conditions in 1983 and the intelligence that it had “hot-tested” – exploded – one in 1984 with the help of China. By the time Reagan’s presidency came to an end in 1989, Pakistan possessed a deployable and tested nuclear device. Much of the programme had been funded using hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid diverted by the Pakistan military. The bomb could be mated to a missile or dropped from Ameri-can-supplied F-16 fighter jets, also given by Reagan in the mid1980s, and the nuclear weapons programme had become a shop window for the world’s most unstable powers. The US deceit lapsed in the 1990s when President George Bush Sr cut Pakistan adrift after the fall of the Soviet Union; but this increased Islamabad’s need to develop and sell nuclear technology in place of aid. Under Bill Clinton an ever more detailed picture was pieced together of Pakistan’s dangerous liaisons: Iran in 1987, Iraq in 1990, North Korea in 1993, and by 1997 Libya, too. In 1998 both India and Pakistan held publicly announced nuclear tests. By the time George W Bush became president in 2001, there was a mountain of precise intelligence portraying Pakistan as the epicentre of global instability: a host of and patron for Islamist terrorism, ruled by a military clique that was raising capital and political influence by selling WMD. Yet even when American spy satellites photographed missile components being loaded into a Pakistani C-130 outside Pyong-yang, the North Korean capital – and intelligence analysts concluded that the cargo was a direct exchange for Pakistani nuclear technology – Washington did not react. It was in this dangerous condition that Pakistan was clutched back into the American bosom after the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. And the deception continued. © Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark 2007 © Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd. ***************************************************************** 47 Press TV: Italy urges diplomacy on Iran's N-issue Sun, 02 Sep 2007 11:57:47 Romano Prodi (l) at a press conference with Maaruf Bakhit Italian premier Romano Prodi has warned against any military solution to Iran's nuclear issue in a meeting with his Jordanian counterpart. In a joint press conference with Jordanian Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit, Prodi denounced any military option against Iran to resolve Tehran's nuclear standoff. The prime minister called for resolution of Iran's nuclear dispute through diplomacy and dialogue between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Italian premier also stressed Iran's compliance with IAEA rules and regulations. Prodi arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman late Saturday to confer with Jordanian officials on the latest developments in the Middle East, including Palestine and Iraq. AO/JG/BGH © Press TV 2007. All rights reserved. Our privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 48 Thisisdorset: Winfrith Morale At Rock Bottom By Juliette Astrup Comment THREATENED losses of 110 jobs, pay disputes, and uncertainty about the future have brought morale at Winfrith's former nuclear research facility to "rock bottom", it is claimed. The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has already announced it will lose some 50 workers tasked with the decommissioning and clean-up operation at Winfrith and sister facility at Harwell in Oxfordshire through voluntary early release. But union Prospect is forecasting some 200 jobs will be lost from in all, most from Winfrith. It follows a major funding cut by UKAEA's paymaster the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which slashed the expected Ł120 million budget for work at the two sites to Ł85 million this year. That figure is forecast to drop to just Ł60million next year, which union reps fear will mean compulsory redundancies. The cuts could leave Winfrith with a skeleton staff of around 40, effectively bringing decommissioning work to a grinding halt. A spokesman for the NDA said high-hazard sites would be given priority for funding. Winfrith and others where the decommissioning is more advanced could be mothballed until further notice. Union representative at Winfrith Austin Kinnane said staff had been working on an NDA-backed accelerated decommissioning programme due to have the site ready for commercial use by 2013, until the shock funding news before Christmas. He added: "Staff are understandably angry and upset about this. Sickness rate has gone up and I personally have had people come into my office in pieces about it. It is effecting health. Morale is now rock bottom. We are working in a safety-critical field and with the best will in the world, this is a huge distraction." Next year's budget not be known until after the government's comprehensive spending review in October, but staff are campaigning to secure Ł85million which they believe will save most jobs and secure the future of decommissioning. They have called on the support of MPs and councillors, including mid Dorset and North Poole MP Annette Brooke, and district and county councillor Fred Drane who have been invited to visit staff at the facility tomorrow. Cllr Fred Drane said: "I am absolutely totally against any redundancies which would mean very skilled workers lost to the county." 7:00pm Sunday 2nd September 2007Print  Email this Comment Add your comment Please note: to publish your comment you must be registered on this site. If you are already registered, please enter your details below. Newsquest Media Group A Gannett Company ***************************************************************** 49 ajc.com: Nunn still pushing safeguards on nuclear material By BOB DEANS Cox News Service Published on: 09/01/07 Washington — In the decade since he left the U.S. Senate, Sam Nunn, D-Ga., has become a leading force for trying to contain the threat of nuclear weapons - both as arms of war and tools of terrorism. Nunn and CNN founder Ted Turner are co-chairs of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington research and advocacy group devoted to the issue. Q. - You met this week with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and you discussed Russian concerns over the Bush administration's plans for building a missile defense system in Central Europe. Are there opportunities for cooperation on that? A. Clearly the Russians are very irritated, I think, mostly politically irritated now but I think they also clearly see a long-term military threat with the missile defense. But President Putin has offered to work with us, even including putting possible warning systems in Russia, which would be available for joint use, so this gives us a real opportunity. There's an old saying, 'If you want to go fast, go by yourself; if you want to go far, go together,' and I think in this field we really ought to go far, not go fast. It will certainly take more time working with Russia, but there is a tremendous pay off in terms of the security of the American people and the security of the Russian people if we do work together, and I'm hoping the administration will do that. Q. The possibility of using a Soviet-era radar station in Azerbaijan, as an alternative to building a new radar site in the Czech Republic, is something Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated last month when he met with President Bush in Kennebunkport. Any merit to that idea? A. We ought to move cautiously and slowly. But I believe that it is entirely possible that with a good bit of work we could tie in the Czech radar plans with the overall radar systems that we may work on with Russia, including possibly the one in Azerbaijan or one in Russia, and in that kind of network the Russians would be included. ././. We ought to take President Putin's proposal very seriously. ././. This should be viewed not as a technical matter but as a strategic matter. Q. Did you discuss at all with Minister Lavrov Russian efforts to urge Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons? A. I think the Russians see the danger from Iran, but they have, of course, different tactical considerations, and they want the United States to talk bilaterally to the Iranians, as well as multilaterally, and I think on that point the Russians are right. I've said for a long time that we need to be talking to the Iranians. I don't think you have very much success by refusing to talk to people whose behavior you want to change, and certainly you want to change it without a war if that's at all possible. Q. It's also been 15 years since that legislation you co-authored with Sen. Lugar set into place the Cooperative Threat Reduction program. It's helped to destroy or deactivate some seven thousand nuclear warheads, nearly 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles and hundreds of missile silos, mobile launchers and other equipment. How much safer is the world today as a result of those efforts? A. You really can't prove a negative, but in my view there was a very high likelihood, if we had not had such a program, that the Russians' effort to deal with their own vast stockpile of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and materials would have moved at a very slow pace and we would have had enormous dangers of leakage of both know-how and of weapon-grade material. I think there is a much higher probability that we would have had some type of terrible nuclear catastrophe by now if we had not had that program. That's my view, and it's not provable, but I think it's also the Russian view. Much more important than what we've already accomplished is the trust that has been built between thousands of people at the lower levels in the laboratories and defense establishments and military bases and chemical storage facilities. ././. That is the foundation on which trust can be built in both countries to really tackle these problems. Q. Russia still has, according to the Federation of American Scientists, nearly 6,000 operational nuclear warheads, and perhaps 15,000 more in stockpiles. The United States still has some 5,000 operational warheads and another 10,000 in stockpiles. Why do the United States and Russia still need 35,000 nuclear bombs between them? A. We don't, and both countries have fortunately recognized that. We're moving down to somewhere between 1,700 and 2,100 deployed weapons - each country - so we are heading downward in deployed weapons. But what we haven't done is made any agreement on substantial reductions of inventories, and I think that's very much in the interests of both countries. And I'd like to see us take all nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert - a couple thousand on both sides. We still have a situation where the chances of some type of accident or miscalculation or misjudgment would create serious dangers to each other. Q. Proliferation. Since the Cold War ended, we've seen the rise of Pakistan and India as nuclear states. North Korea is a nuclear power - can't feed it's people, can't make paper towels, our intelligence people tell us, but it's a nuclear state. Now we worry that Iran could soon have nuclear weapons. How serious a problem is this? A. North Korea is a serious problem. Fortunately they have made, now, some commitments, and it's going to be like pulling teeth to get those implemented. The Iranians have had a nuclear program going way back to the days of the Shah. So this is a national aspiration and, while I don't think that the United States is going to be able to handle this alone, I do think that bilaterally we need to put the cards on the table with the Iranians and talk directly to them. ././. It's extremely important, because if Iran, for instance, goes forward with its nuclear program, and other countries in the region believe that they're going to end up with nuclear weapons, you'll have five or six other countries within the next several years that will embark on their own (nuclear weapons fuel) enrichment program and, eventually I think, their nuclear weapon program. Q. Nuclear terrorism. Given the sheer number of nuclear weapons now sitting in various countries around the world, how hard is it for a terrorist group to get its hands on one of these weapons, and what might that mean for the United States and its allies? A. It's harder than it was five years ago and it's harder than it was ten years ago. It's not nearly as hard as I hope it will be in another five years. We've got a lot more to do. There's no question that we've tightened up and the Russians have tightened up. ././. (But) this is, as they say in football, three yards and a cloud of dust. ././. We've got a long way to go. But I think we've already avoided several catastrophes. Q. It sounds like there's a kernel of optimism in there. Five years ago, many people would have concluded that it's only a matter of time before a terrorist gets his hands on these weapons. A. Some people are still staying that. I think we have safeguarded a lot of material. But you're never stronger than the weakest link in the chain, and we've still got a lot of weak links in the chain. Q. For the first fifty years after World War II, there was a serious global non-proliferation regime in place. What's happened to that over the past decade and what will it take to revive it? A. It's seriously eroded and I think it's going to take leadership by the countries that have nuclear weapons to revive it. That's not just the United States and Russia, but also includes France and Great Britain and China, and it also includes Pakistan and Israel and India. We (also) have to keep countries from getting nuclear weapons - that means Iran and North Korea and others - and we have to show good faith that we are moving away from our heavy reliance on nuclear weapons - that means the U.S. and Russia." Q. Are you weighing in with any of the presidential candidates, advising any of them on this, and are you considering throwing your own hat in the ring? © 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Customer care | Advertise ***************************************************************** 50 Scoop: Phil Goff: Address To Dr Hans Blix Saturday, 1 September 2007, 5:40 pm Speech: New Zealand Government Hon Phil Goff Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control Speech Notes Dr Hans Blix – Introductory remarks New Zealand Institute of International Affairs Sixth Annual Foreign Policy Lecture by Dr Hans Blix, The Grand Hall, Parliament Buildings, Friday 31August Dr Hans Blix; Hon Russell Marshall, President of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs; Gray Southon, Vice President of the United Nations Association of New Zealand; Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome to the Grand Hall and thank you for the opportunity to make some introductory remarks. I thank the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and the United Nations Association for their support for this event. I am delighted that Dr Hans Blix accepted my invitation to mark the 20th anniversary of New Zealand’s nuclear free legislation by sharing his insights on what can be done to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction. For New Zealanders, these issues hold great importance. Twenty years ago this year, we took a stand and passed legislation that committed New Zealand to being nuclear free. The Nuclear Free Act reflected the belief of New Zealanders that nuclear weapons are a threat to humanity. This legislation enjoys wide support, across political parties and among the general public and is testament to the strength of New Zealand’s commitment to a world free of weapons of mass destruction and to our right as an independent nation to take a stand on this issue reflecting our values. Today, there are still more than 27,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled, some thousands of those poised on high alert. These weapons could be launched within minutes, as a first strike or a response to a perceived attack. They could be launched by accident, as a result of a technical malfunction or through terrorist infiltration of nuclear facilities. Whatever the cause, the results would be catastrophic. Each nuclear weapon today has a destructive power eight to forty times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The apocalyptic effects of a nuclear war is why New Zealand continues to push for total nuclear disarmament. We have been working since 1998 with the New Agenda Coalition of Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa and Sweden to ensure that the messages from the international community are strong and consistent – nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament can and must be achieved. This year a new initiative will be spear-headed by New Zealand at the United Nations General Assembly. New Zealand will work with Sweden, which has been our close ally on so many of these issues, and with a number of other interested States, to run a resolution to raise awareness, and to demand action, to eliminate the launch-on-warning status of any nuclear weapon. We will also continue to work to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and support efforts to break the stalemate at the Conference on Disarmament. We are further committed to work to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention and Chemical Weapons Convention, and will continue under the G8 Global Partnership to contribute to the destruction of chemical weapons and reduce the risk of proliferation of nuclear material in the Russian Federation and the Ukraine. The misuse of conventional weapons also merits our attention. Their effect, as Kofi Annan has stated, can be the equivalent of weapons of mass destruction, responsible for the death of many millions of people since World War Two. New Zealand is at the forefront of efforts to negotiate an international instrument to address the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions. New Zealand will host a negotiating meeting in Wellington next February towards this goal. We are involved in a range of other activities to control conventional weapons, including support for an Arms Trade Treaty. The report of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, chaired by Dr Blix, was a milestone. Released in mid-2006, this report set out sixty recommendations on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons which, if followed, would greatly enhance global security. As Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, I have invited Dr Hans Blix to address how we can best move forward to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction and how we can convince countries with nuclear weapons, and those that are seeking them, of what New Zealanders have believed for years - that nuclear weapons have no place in the modern world. It is my very great pleasure to invite Hans Blix to address us tonight. ENDS Hans Blix Talks Arms Control - Yesterday former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix (responsible for inspecting Iraq before the beginning of the Gulf War in 2003) delivered a keynote address to the Second Commonwealth Red Cross and Red Crescent Conference on International Humanitarian Law at Victoria University Wellington. ***************************************************************** 51 Knoxville News Sentinel: UT selected to receive $3 million of $30.7 million nuclear research grant Awards advance role of universities in progress Associated Press Saturday, September 1, 2007 A $30.7 million package of U.S. Department of Energy nuclear research grants includes up to $3 million for the University of Tennessee. The DOE announced Thursday the selection of 11 U.S. university-led teams that will receive grants for cooperative research projects, according to a DOE press release. The grants fall under the DOE’s Nuclear Research Energy Initiative and up to $30.7 million will be awarded over three years. UT leads a team that includes North Carolina State University, South Carolina State University and Westinghouse, which is not funded, the release noted. Angela Hill, a DOE spokeswoman, said the grants are for amounts of $2.2 million to $3 million. “The grants have not been finalized yet,” she said. The announcement let the universities know they had been selected, Hill said. Grant totals will be final at the end of the month, she added. According to the press release, the grants further engage U.S. university professors and their students in “advanced nuclear fuel cycle research and development.” “These awards will strengthen DOE’s commitment to expanding the vital role America’s universities play in supporting the advancement and expansion of nuclear power,” said assistant secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon. © 2007, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 52 Guardian Unlimited: Veteran NRC Member Dies From Cancer Sunday September 2, 2007 11:31 PM By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Edward McGaffigan Jr., the longest serving member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, died Sunday after a lengthy battle with metastic melanoma, a particularly dangerous form of skin cancer, the agency said. McGaffigan, 58, died at the Capital Hospice in Arlington, Va. A native of Boston and one of two Democrats on the commission, McGaffigan was appointed to the NRC, which regulates the nuclear industry, in 1996 and again in 2000 by President Clinton. He was nominated for a third term by President Bush in 2005. McGaffigan's death reduced the five-member commission to three members. One of the seats has been vacant since the departure of Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield earlier this year. Not known for being shy, McGaffigan often bluntly challenged his agency's critics, accusing some of fear mongering in their criticism of the NRC's oversight of the nuclear power industry and industry safety. McGaffigan announced in January that he would retire because of his cancer, but in late March changed his mind as the chemotherapy he was undergoing appeared to slow the diseases' progression. He continued at his job into late summer. In mid-July he led the NRC's response to reports that congressional investigators had set up a bogus company and obtained NRC permits to buy small amounts of nuclear material, telling a congressional hearing the failures exposed by the sting operation had been fixed. Before joining the NRC, McGaffigan was legislative director for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., working on defense policy and nuclear nonproliferation issues. He is survived by a son, Edward Francis, and daughter, Margaret Ruth, both of Arlington, Va., his mother, a sister and a brother. 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