***************************************************************** 09/14/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.216 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: AP: USEC Spent Nearly $1.8M Lobbying NUCLEAR REACTORS 2 The Hindu: Basu flays UPA for not abiding by majority view on N-deal 3 US: CNET News.com: Nuclear power looks for comeback in U.S. | 4 US: APP.COM: Oyster Creek to hold preparedness drill | 5 US: NRC: NRC Publishes Annual Security Inspection Report to Congress 6 US: The Journal News: No glowing tributes 7 US: Rutland Herald Online: State: Yankee lax on checks 8 AFP: Survey finds 44 percent favour nuclear power - 9 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY: Inspections inadequate 10 US: NRC: Exelon Generation Company, LLC, Braidwood Station, Units 1 11 US: NRC: In the Matter of: Txu Generation Company LP (Comanche Peak 12 US: NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company; Notice of Availability 13 US: NRC: In the Matter of General Electric Company (Vallecitos Boili 14 US: NRC: Appointments to Performance Review Boards for Senior Execut 15 Reuters: Japan Aug nuclear plant usage falls, thermal up 16 Reuters: Areva executives hold talks with French government 17 US: UP*I: Six Indian firms bid for big power project 18 US: Boston Globe: Vt. Yankee reports on collapse in tower - 19 Earth Times: Vietnam plans eight nuclear reactors by 2025 20 WNN: Russia plans deployment of small reactors 21 NewsRoom Finland: Nuclear power opponents get organised in N Finland 22 WNN: UK public has its say on nuclear energy 23 Manila Times: OPINION > Nuclear power plants NUCLEAR SECURITY 24 US: Commander disciplined for nuclear mistake 25 US: Nuke flights: questions re/story 26 RIA Novosti: State Duma ratifies additional Russia-IAEA protocol 27 UPI: Commentary: Musharraf meltdown NUCLEAR SAFETY 28 US: El Paso Times: Inventory time NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 29 ReviewJournal.com: DOE vows battle over water use 30 ReviewJournal.com: 'Bait and switch' intentions denied for Yucca sit 31 ReviewJournal.com: Judges refuse to rule on document access 32 Canadian Press: Canada to send "observer" to nuclear partnership mee 33 RGJ.com: Water issue just the latest in DOE affronts 34 US: Gallup Independent: RECA reform; Navajo stands behind ban on ura 35 US: Murfreesboro Post: County OKs resolution on radioactive waste 36 barrow in furness: Nuclear chiefs deny lake damage 37 US: The State: State to test wells near Barnwell site 38 US: The State: ABOUT TRITIUM PEACE 39 [NYTr] Mushroom Cloud Part III: "N.Koreans in Syria" - Are they Gonn 40 Reuters: Canada to observe nukes-for-peace talks | Environment 41 Korea Times: US Prepares Fuel Oil Aid to NK US DEPT. OF ENERGY 42 Aiken Today: High-ranking DOE official announces his resignation 43 SF New Mexican: Immigrants use fake documents to try to get LANL bad ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 AP: USEC Spent Nearly $1.8M Lobbying Uranium Provider USEC Spent Nearly $1.8M Lobbying Federal Government in First Half of 2007 September 14, 2007: 03:48 PM EST NEW YORK (Associated Press) - USEC Inc., which provides uranium and support services to nuclear power plants, spent nearly $1.8 million in the first half of 2007 to lobby the federal government, according to a recent disclosure form. The company lobbied on issues related to renewable energy, government loan guarantees and international nuclear agreements, according to the form posted Aug. 9 by the Senate's public records office. Besides Congress, the Bethesda, Md.-based company lobbied the departments of Commerce, Energy and State, and the White House. Under a federal law enacted in 1995, lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches. They must register with Congress within 45 days of being hired or engaging in lobbying. Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This © 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company ALL RIGHTS ***************************************************************** 2 The Hindu: Basu flays UPA for not abiding by majority view on N-deal Friday, September 14, 2007 : 1615 Hrs Kolkata, Sept. 14 (PTI): The CPI(M) today expressed its disapproval of the UPA government's "unwillingness" to abide by the majority view in Parliament on the Indo-US nuclear deal. "The majority view in Parliament is against operationalising the deal. The Left parties and even the BJP have expressed their opposition to it," CPI(M) leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu told reporters here. Basu's comments came a day after CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat asserted that the Left would not allow the Congress-led government to sign the 123 agreement with the US. Referring to the Left and other opposition parties' stand on the deal, he said, "We are in agreement. The majority view in Parliament is against operationalising the deal and the Congress should remember it," he said. Asked to comment on Karat's statement of not allowing the government to sign the agreement and if there was a possibility of his party taking a decision to withdraw support to the government at the Polit Bureau and central committee meeting in Kolkata due from September 28 to October 1, Basu said he was not in a position to say anything now. "How can I say anything now before the meeting?" We will go by the majority opinion and take unanimous decision," he said. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the ***************************************************************** 3 CNET News.com: Nuclear power looks for comeback in U.S. | Is the nuclear winter ending for the industry? Applications for new nuclear plants will likely get filed this year and next. By Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: September 13, 2007, 5:43 PM PDT A nuclear power plant hasn't been built in the U.S. in decades, but that appears to be changing, says the CEO of the nuclear industry's advocacy group. Seventeen different organizations have expressed interest in building 31 new nuclear power plants in the U.S., Frank Bowman, CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and a retired admiral from the U.S. Navy, said in an interview with CNET News.com this week. Applications for four to seven nuclear plants will likely get filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this year, and eight more will probably follow next year, he said. The planning and permit process for the first plants will take about three years, and construction should take four years or less, he said. Thus, the first of the new plants could start generating power by 2015 or 2016, he said. As head of the NEI, Bowman is the spokesman for the nuclear industry, which went into a downturn after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. But in the past few years, global warming, rising gas prices and legislative ideas such as carbon taxation have forced governments to explore alternatives to coal, oil and gas. And mining tragedies, such as the recent accident in Utah, and news about coal-engendered pollution in China have further boosted interest in alternatives. Credit: Nuclear Energy Institute Frank Bowman, CEO, Nuclear Energy Institute Although strong opposition to nuclear power remains, politically the subject has become less polarizing, Bowman said. Overall, the general reaction to the industry now is, "yes, but," he said. That is, people can see the benefits of it, but have strong reservations when it comes to safety, disposal, proliferation and other issues. An MIT poll earlier this year reflects his comments. Thirty-five percent of those polled said they wanted to see nuclear technology increase, up from 28 percent in 2002. Nonetheless, 40 percent opposed storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. Only 28 percent thought nuclear waste could be stored safely for long periods of time. To this end, the nuclear industry has worked to improve its own practices and technology over the preceding decades, he said. In the past, nuclear plant builders were often vertically integrated. Each made its own components and systems. Now, many have agreed to build according to accepted standards, which should lower prices and speed up the time to build plants. Some of the standardization ideas come from the Navy, which has used modular manufacturing techniques for years to speed up the construction of nuclear subs. (By the way, there are 104 commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S., and 103 nuclear reactors in the Navy.) Uptime has also improved, which reduces the financial risks. Fifteen years ago, nuclear plants might have been producing electricity 75 percent of the time. Since then, that figure has risen to 95 percent. Additionally, safety procedures and practices have changed. Nuclear operators share safety data on a quarterly basis, he noted. The industry has also tried to become more open with the public and tone down some of the insularity and intellectual arrogance that was often part of its reputation. After Three Mile Island, the industry adopted a "Let's dive into the foxhole' mentality," he said. "An accident anywhere is an accident everywhere." Now on News.com How law enforcement uses Google Earth Photos: Touring NextFest Web ad blocking may not be (entirely) legal Extra: Harmonix's punk-rock design process New technologies for long-term disposal are also being devised. In one scenario, nuclear waste would be reprocessed and used again as fuel. Ultimately, reuse could dramatically cut down the amount of fuel that needs to be sequestered. The U.S. government is also floating supply agreements with emerging nations. In these agreements, emerging nations would get lowly enriched uranium from the developed world, but also agree to let the developed nations and suppliers become the custodian for the waste. To prepare for an industry expansion, the NEI, in association with utility owners and several state governments, two years ago began to put in programs to train people for the industry, such as recruiting more college students and junior college students. Ideas that have been installed or are being contemplated are ROTC-like scholarship agreements: a utility gives a student a full-ride scholarship, and the student agrees to work at a utility for a set period after graduation. The industry is also looking at incentives to retain older workers. "Why let 55-year-olds retire?" he said. Bowman, however, added that he doesn't hold out a lot of hope for fusion. In fusion technology, energy is released by fusing lighter molecules. Nuclear waste and accidents are ostensibly eliminated. Start-ups have gained money to pursue their fusion ideas recently. But so far, no one has gone beyond the experimental stage. "When I was at MIT in 1971, it was 25 years away," he said. "It is still 25 years away." Copyright ©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 APP.COM: Oyster Creek to hold preparedness drill | Asbury Park Press Online Friday, September 14, 2007 LACEY: An emergency preparedness exercise for the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant will be held Tuesday, according to officials with Ocean County Sheriff's Department. Results will be announced by federal officials at 1 p.m. Sept. 21 at a public meeting. The meeting will take place at the county Office of Emergency Management at the Robert J. Miller Air Park on Route 530 in Berkeley. The annual exercise tests the response of plant workers and local, county, and state agencies to a simulated emergency at the plant. Staff report Copyright © 2007 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 NRC: NRC Publishes Annual Security Inspection Report to Congress News Release - 2007-119 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has made available to the public an unclassified version of an annual report to Congress outlining the previous year’s security inspection program. The report is required under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The report covers the security inspection program, including force-on-force exercises, for commercial power reactors and certain fuel cycle facilities for calendar year 2006. According to the report, the NRC conducted 298 security inspections at commercial power reactors, of which 21 were force-on-force inspections, employing a well-trained mock adversary force to test a facility’s ability to respond to the level of threat the facility is required to defend against. There were 73 inspection findings from these reviews, of which 67 were of very low security significance and 6 were of low to moderate security significance. Any potentially significant deficiencies in the protective strategy of a plant are promptly fixed or compensatory measures put in place. Details of the findings are considered sensitive and not released to the public. The report can be found on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1885 . NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Friday, September 14, 2007 ***************************************************************** 6 The Journal News: No glowing tributes Friday, September 14, 2007 Are federal regulators tightening the screws on Indian Point? Maybe it's just our imagination, but the anecdotal evidence, including the rejection Wednesday by Washington of the power plants' comically failing emergency sirens system, suggests an ever-toughening stance with our nuclear neighbor in Buchanan. This would be something of a departure from recent practice as the feds were roundly criticized for pooh-poohing common-sense complaints about flawed evacuation plans, unrealistic security drills and any number of safety, security and environmental worries. The sirens debacle must be exasperating to owner Entergy Nuclear Northeast. Federal inspectors said the new $15 million emergency sirens, which Entergy maintained met muster after many false starts, still weren't ready for primetime. The Federal Emergency Management Agency told state officials the new system "is not adequate" and cannot be approved without major changes. The problem has already resulted in fines and talk of more sanctions. In June, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission required Entergy to promise to install a diesel backup power source at Indian Point 2; in July it pressed the plants - and those across the country - for a painstaking accounting of nuclear material. Last month, it publicly scolded Entergy about a sleeping security guard. Another set back, leaking nuclear material at Indian Point, has kept the NRC fully engaged with Indian Point officials. This new aggressive posture, if that's what it is, comes as Indian Point is under a bigger-than-usual microscope. The plants are in the midst of a 60-day period for the public and critics to raise and substantiate long-standing environmental and safety concerns. The comment period is part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's review of Entergy's application to renew its operating licenses for another 20 years. The license for Indian Point 2 expires in 2013 and Indian Point 3's in 2015. For critics, the NRC - which was mostly mum in recent years when concerns were raised about flawed evacuation plans and terrorism drills - cannot be aggressive enough. Notwithstanding the recent difficulties, the betting money prohibitively favors Entergy's securing the new licenses; of 48 license-renewal applications accepted by the NRC from plants across the country, the nukes are batting 1.000. Government and environmental groups have argued that the prevailing criteria for evaluating the plants tilts in favor of renewal; they want regulators to take into account such factors as the plants' proximity to large population centers and their attractiveness to terrorists. So far, though, those efforts have generated some vocal political support but no changes. Legal avenues - and much wrangling - remain. A Journal News editorial Copyright © 2007 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. ***************************************************************** 7 Rutland Herald Online: State: Yankee lax on checks September 14, 2007 Inspection process criticized; tower work nearly complete By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff Ted Sullivan, Entergy Nuclear site vice president at Vermont Yankee, explains one of several slides showing what the company believes may have caused the wall collapse in a cooling tower at the plant. Photo: ALBERT J. MARRO / RUTLAND HERALD VERNON — The state says it is not satisfied with the inspection process at Vermont Yankee nuclear plant's cooling towers, even as Entergy Nuclear Thursday announced it is on the verge of returning the reactor to full power this weekend. The plant has been operating at reduced power for more than three weeks, ever since a portion of one of its two cooling towers collapsed Aug. 21. Nine days after that, the plant was forced to shut down for two days because someone forgot to lubricate a large valve. David O'Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, and other state officials also suggested Thursday that Entergy think seriously of replacing the wooden structure of the cooling towers with a different material, in order to make the plant more reliable, especially if the company plans on operating another 20 years. "I'm very disappointed in the inspection process," O'Brien said after the briefing, as officials were given a tour of the repairs to the three-story high cooling tower. "There was inspection work that could have been done." In fact, the tower collapsed as the company was analyzing what had caused a four-inch sag in the top of the structure. The company had been aware since Aug. 13 that there was something wrong with the cooling tower, alerted initially because of a noise coming from one of the giant fans that disperse steam from the cooling towers. Company officials had called the briefing to update state and local officials about the recent problems at Yankee, and reassure them the plant, which supplies a third of the state's electrical power, was being run well. Ted Sullivan, the Entergy Nuclear site vice president, said the company would change its inspection and evaluation process for the cooling towers. "Things happen for a reason," Sullivan said more than once. "This performance is unacceptable to us." Sullivan told O'Brien that while other nuclear reactors with similar cooling towers were switching to composite materials instead of wood, there were no plans to make such a change at Vermont Yankee. The company said it didn't see the rotted wooden beams, which caused the collapse because they were blocked by sheets of perforated plastic, through which millions of gallons of cooling water drips. O'Brien said he felt there should be more of an effort to remove the plastic sheets and have a thorough inspection. "If you can't see it, why not do it? Why not take that close a look?" O'Brien said, adding that the problems were not an indication of deferred maintenance by Entergy. Instead, he said he was concerned the company wasn't doing all it could to inspect for problems. O'Brien also said the state would revisit Entergy's original 2002 power contract with Vermont utilities to see whether there was some relief for Vermont utilities and its ratepayers because of the power reduction. Vermont utilities, including Central Vermont Public Service Corp. and Green Mountain Power Co., are spending an extra $50,000 and $20,000 a day, respectively, for replacement power over the past three weeks. The problems at the cooling tower were traced back to a combination of three factors, according to Entergy. Officials there said they discovered rotted wooden beams that make up the cooling tower superstructure. The rot could have been caused by a fungus attacking treated wood, or from a salt leached from the carbon steel hardware holding the Douglas fir beams in place. It also was possible the wooden beams had been cracked when the steel bolts on the hardware were tightened. The company inspected the two cooling towers since the collapse and replaced 20 four-by-fours in the west tower, which contained the damage. The east tower was free of problems, according to the company. Norm Rudemacher, director of engineering, refused to say how much the repairs would cost Entergy. Rudemacher said the damaged cell, which is one of 11 in each cooling tower, would not be put back in operation until next spring, after final repairs can be completed. The initial repairs made the remaining 10 cells operational, he said. The company ruled out that modifications made to the cooling towers to accommodate last year's 20 percent power boost contributed to the collapse. The additional weight from 200 horsepower fans on top of the cooling towers, which were a condition of the Public Service Board permit, paled against the weight of the water — 350,000 gallons a minute — cascading out of a broken pipe, plant officials said. Rudemacher said the emergency shutdown went well, and repairs were made quickly. The problem in a large, motor-operated valve on one of the plant's four steam lines was traced back to a lack of lubrication in one of the valves. The company still is investigating the shutdown, including who was responsible for the lack of maintenance of the valve — its own personnel or subcontractor General Electric Co. Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. © 2007 Rutland Herald ***************************************************************** 8 AFP: Survey finds 44 percent favour nuclear power - Fri Sep 14, 4:01 AM ET LONDON (AFP) - A survey to gauge public opinion about nuclear power showed that 44 percent of the population were in favour of investing in it, according to the Treasury. "On balance, 44 percent agreed that it would be in the public interest to give energy companies the option of investing in new nuclear power stations," said a statement from John Hutton, the business and enterprise secretary. The survey found that 37 percent disagreed, 18 percent neither agreed nor disagreed and 1.0 percent didn't know. "We have a preliminary view that nuclear should be able to play a part in providing the energy we need to keep the lights on and help to cut carbon emissions," added Hutton. Britain currently has 12 nuclear sites, many built in the 1960s and 1970s, which generate about 25 percent of the country's electricity. Ministers plan to allow the private sector to initiate, fund, construct and operate new nuclear power stations but it is not yet clear how many there would be or how much energy they would generate. The survey was undertaken last Saturday at "Talking Energy" events organised in nine locations across Britain. A thousand people were interviewed and the data was adjusted to give a picture for the whole of the country. Despite the broadly positive assessment of the technology, the survey revealed deep concerns about the treatment of nuclear waste. Based on information given to participants, a total of 51 percent said they were dissatisifed or very dissatisfied with plans by the British government to bury waste in deep geological storage. Twenty-four percent were satisifed or very satisfied. On the subject of safety and security issues, 87 percent were concerned about risks associated with nuclear power. Around a third (36 percent) were content with the measures taken to reduce these risks, while 35 percent were not. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 9 Brattleboro Reformer: VY: Inspections inadequate BRATTLEBORO, VT By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff (Zachary P. Stephens/Reformer)

Reconstruction of the cooling towers is under way at Vermont Yankee in Vernon on Thursday. Friday, September 14 VERNON -- Deficiencies in Vermont Yankee's inspection program of its cooling towers were the major reason one of 22 cooling cells collapsed at the nuclear power plant Aug. 21, said a company spokesman Thursday. "The inspection program that is in place needs to be enhanced," said Ted Sullivan, site vice president for Entergy at Vermont Yankee. "We are working on that now," adding "we are taking this very seriously." Sullivan called the failure "unacceptable," and "not like us." The manual supplied by the cooling fan manufacturer "may not have been satisfactory," said Norman Rademacher, Vermont Yankee's director of nuclear safety assurance, adding "we have had very good luck over the years." The plant has been running since 1972. Recently, Entergy, which owns and operates the plant, asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend its operating license from 2012 to 2032. A decision is expected sometime next year. The cooling cell collapse appeared to be "a matter of inspection" and "reliability" and not design, agreed David O'Brien, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, questioning the adequacy of Yankee's maintenance program. The exact cause of the collapse could be one of three factors, or a combination of those three, said Rademacher. He cited carbon steel bolts, which, as they deteriorate, create a salt that degrades wood, a fungus and overtightening of structural bolts. "We know they all contributed," said Sullivan. But, he said, the biggest contributing factor was Yankee's own inspection program. "We have to fix that," he said. "If we don't maintain it properly, it will fail." They hope to have the tower back in service today, and if all goes as planned, technicians will begin powering the plant back up to 100 percent. It has been running at about 50 percent since the tower collapse. The plant's general manager for plant operations, Bill Maguire, told the state officials gathered in a conference room at the plant Thursday, that technicians had planned to shut down the fan in cooling cell 4, Aug. 21, the same day it collapsed. Auxiliary operators, who work 12-hour shifts, conduct two inspections of the cooling tower assemblies every day, he said, and on Aug. 13, they noticed an unusual sound coming from the fan. It was shut down to allow inspection of the fan, which is accomplished by looking through a six-inch window in the massive fan's housing. But after not finding any problems, the fan was switched back on the next day. Five days later, operators reported hearing similar noises, and the fan was once again shut down. This time, technicians found a sagging platform responsible for holding the weight of flowing water as it poured out of a header pipe and started its journey down through the thousands of slats used to cool it before returning it to the plant. The sag in the platform caused the header pipe to pull apart at a connection point, more water spilling out onto the platform than it was designed to handle. The plan was to pull the fan out of service. Instead, the platform collapsed and the header pipe spilled down through the structure, smashing and breaking wooden beams on its way down. "While we were doing all the planning, the structure failed," said Maguire. Fourteen-foot wooden four-by-fours which help hold up the structure collapsed due to the extra weight of the water spilling out onto the "dripping" platform, said Maguire. The 14-foot segments, stacked end to end, travel from the floor of a 14-foot-deep water basin that runs under nine of the cooling cells in the west bank to the bottom of the structure holding the dripping platform and the header pipe, more than 40 feet off the ground. After the tower collapsed, the basin was drained. As a result, said Maguire, 1 percent of the four-by-fours in the west bank of fans were replaced. As far as the first two fans in the west bank, which are designed to higher specifications in order to operate in an emergency, Yankee technicians found no problems, said Maguire. The east cooling tower, which also has 11 cooling fans, needed "only minimal repairs ... not related to the integrity of the structure," said Rademacher. Before the cooling tower collapse, the plant's inspection program required technicians to drain the basin at every third outage, but because of the basin's safety significance, if it's drained for seven days or more, the plant must shut down. To accommodate the increased heat generated by a 20 percent power uprate, the plant's cooling towers were modified, adding 200 hp fan motors to replace the old 125 hp motors. The equipment added 1,000 pounds of weight to each cooling cell, which Rademacher said was minimal, compared to the 75,000 pounds of water the structure is designed to hold. The uprate boosted the average temperature of the water flowing out of the plant by 2 degrees, requiring the larger fan motors. Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 273. ***************************************************************** 10 NRC: Exelon Generation Company, LLC, Braidwood Station, Units 1 and 2; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact FR Doc E7-18141 [Federal Register: September 14, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 178)] [Notices] [Page 52585-52586] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr14se07-66] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket Nos. STN 50-456 and STN 50-457] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering issuance of an exemption from Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 50, section 46, and Appendix K to section 50, for Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-72 and NPF-77, issued to Exelon Generation Company, LLC (the licensee), for operation of the Braidwood Station (Braidwood), Units 1 and 2 located in Will County, Illinois. Therefore, as required by 10 CFR 51.21, the NRC is issuing this environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact. Environmental Assessment Identification of the Proposed Action The proposed action would allow the use of AREVA NP Inc. (AREVA) modified Advanced Mark-BW fuel assemblies. The proposed action is in accordance with the licensee's application dated September 26, 2006, as supplemented by letter dated August 8, 2007. The Need for the Proposed Action The proposed action would allow up to eight AREVA modified Advanced Mark-BW fuel assemblies to be placed in nonlimiting Braidwood, Unit 1 core locations. Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.12, ``Specific Exemptions,'' the licensee has requested an exemption to 10 CFR 50.46, ``acceptance criteria for emergency core cooling systems for light-water nuclear power reactors,'' that requires, among other items, that ``each boiling or pressurized light-water nuclear power reactor fueled with uranium oxide pellets within cylindrical zircaloy or ZIRLO cladding, must be provided with an emergency core cooling system (ECCS) that must be designed so that its calculated cooling performance following postulated loss-of-coolant accidents conforms to the criteria set forth in paragraph (b) of this section.'' Appendix K to 10 CFR Part 50, ``ECCS Evaluation Models,'' requires, among other items, that the rate of energy release, hydrogen generation, and cladding oxidation from the metal/water reaction shall be calculated using the Baker-Just equation. The regulation at 10 CFR 50.46 and 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix K, make no provisions for use of fuel rods clad in a material other than zircaloy or ZIRLO. The licensee will irradiate eight assemblies using fuel rods clad with AREVA's M5 alloy in Braidwood, Unit 1. Since the material specifications of the M5 alloy differ from the specification for zircaloy or ZIRLO, a plant-specific exemption is required to support the use of the eight assemblies. Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action The NRC has completed its safety evaluation of the proposed action and concludes that application of 10 CFR 50.46, and Appendix K to 10 CFR 50, is not necessary for the licensee to achieve its underlying purposes. The details of the NRC staff's safety evaluation will be provided in the exemption that will be issued as part of the letter to the licensee approving the exemption to the regulation. The proposed action will not significantly increase the probability or consequences of accidents. No changes are being made in the types of effluents that may be released off site. There is no significant increase in the amount of any effluent released off site. There is no significant increase in occupational or public radiation exposure. Therefore, there are no significant radiological environmental impacts associated with the proposed action. With regard to potential non-radiological impacts, the proposed action does not have a potential to affect any historic sites. It does not affect non-radiological plant effluents and has no other environmental impact. Therefore, there are no significant non- radiological environmental impacts associated with the proposed action. Accordingly, the NRC concludes that there are no significant environmental impacts associated with the proposed action. Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action As an alternative to the proposed action, the staff considered denial of the proposed action (i.e., the ``no-action'' alternative). Denial of the application would result in no change in current environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of the proposed action and the alternative action are similar. Alternative Use of Resources The action does not involve the use of any different resources than those previously considered in the Final Environmental Statement for Braidwoood NUREG-1026, dated June 1984. Agencies and Persons Consulted In accordance with its stated policy, on August 29, 2007, the NRC staff consulted with the Illinois State official, Mr. Frank Niziolek of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, regarding the environmental impact of the proposed action. The State official had no comments. Finding of No Significant Impact On the basis of the environmental assessment, the NRC concludes that the proposed action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed action. For further details with respect to the proposed action, see the licensee's letter dated September 26, 2006, as supplemented by letter dated August 8, 2007. Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's [[Page 52586]] Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible electronically from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or send an e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of September, 2007. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Robert F. Kuntz, Project Manager, Plant Licensing Branch III-2. Division of Operating Reactor Licensing. Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E7-18141 Filed 9-13-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 11 NRC: In the Matter of: Txu Generation Company LP (Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2); Order Approving Indirect Transfer of Facility Operating Licenses and Conforming Amendments FR Doc E7-18142 [Federal Register: September 14, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 178)] [Notices] [Page 52584-52585] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr14se07-65] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket Nos. 50-445 and 50-446; License Nos. NPF-87 and NPF-89] I TXU Generation Company LP is the holder of Facility Operating Licenses numbered NPF-87 and NPF-89, which authorize operation of Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2 (CPSES). The facilities are located at the licensee's site in Somervell County, Texas. The Operating Licenses authorize TXU Generation Company LP to possess, use and operate CPSES. II By application dated April 18, 2007, as supplemented by letter dated July 20, 2007, TXU Generation Company LP (TXU Power), acting on behalf of Texas Energy Future Holdings Limited Partnership (Texas Energy LP) and itself, requested that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), pursuant to Section 50.80 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), consent to the proposed indirect transfer of control of TXU Power's licenses to possess, use, and operate CPSES. TXU Corp., which indirectly owns 100 percent of TXU Power, and Texas Energy LP have entered into an agreement for Texas Energy LP to acquire all of the outstanding equity of TXU Corp. As part of the transaction, a new company, Luminant Holdco, will be established as an intermediate parent of TXU Power and indirect subsidiary of TXU Corp. At the time of the acquisition, TXU Power will be converted from a limited partnership to a limited liability company, but will continue in existence through the conversion and will continue to hold the licenses. Thus, there will be no direct transfer of the licenses. The application also states that TXU Power, i.e., TXU Generation Company LP, will be renamed as Luminant Generation Company LLC. Therefore, pursuant to 10 CFR 50.90, TXU Power also requested approval of conforming license amendments to the CPSES, Unit 1 Operating License (NPF-87) and CPSES, Unit 2 Operating License (NPF-89) to reflect the name change from TXU Generation Company LP to Luminant Generation Company LLC. Under the name of Luminant Generation Company LLC, TXU Power will continue to own and operate CPSES. Through the acquisition of TXU Corp. by Texas Energy LP, TXU Power will become part of an enterprise controlled and held by private equity investors. Notice of the requests for approval and an opportunity for a hearing was published in the Federal Register on June 13, 2007 (72 FR 32685). No comments or hearing requests were received. Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.80, no license, or any right thereunder, shall be transferred, directly or indirectly, through transfer of control of the license, unless the Commission shall give its consent in writing. Upon review of the information in the application as supplemented and other information before the Commission, and relying upon the representations and agreements in the application as supplemented, the NRC staff concludes that the proposed indirect transfer of control of TXU Power as described herein will not affect the qualifications of TXU Power as holder of the CPSES licenses, and that the indirect transfer of control of the licenses, to the extent effected by the proposed transaction described in the application, is otherwise consistent with the applicable provisions of laws, regulations, and orders issued by the NRC pursuant thereto, subject to the conditions described herein. The findings set forth above are supported by a safety evaluation dated September 10, 2007. III Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 161b, 161i, 161o, and 184 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2201(b), 2201(i), 2201(o), and 2234; and 10 CFR 50.80, It is hereby ordered that the application regarding the indirect license transfers related to the proposed acquisition is approved, subject to the following conditions: (1) TXU Power shall enter into the $250 million support agreement with Luminant Investment Company LLC, as described in the application, no later than the time the proposed transactions and indirect license transfers occur. TXU Power, whether or not converted to a limited liability company and/or renamed, shall take no action to cause Luminant Investment Company LLC, or its successors and assigns, to void, cancel, or modify the support agreement or cause it to fail to perform, or impair its performance under the support agreement, without the prior written consent of the NRC. The support agreement may not be amended or modified without 30 days prior written notice to the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation or his designee. An executed copy of the support agreement shall be submitted to the NRC no later than 30 days after the completion of the proposed transactions and the indirect license transfers. TXU Power, whether or not converted to a limited liability company and/or renamed, shall inform the NRC in writing anytime it draws upon the support agreement. (2) Following the subject indirect transfer of control of the licenses, all of the officers of the general partner or controlling member of the licensee of CPSES shall be U.S. citizens. This condition may be amended upon application by the licensee and approval by the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. It is further ordered that, consistent with 10 CFR 2.1315(b), license amendments that make changes, as indicated in Enclosure 2 to the cover letter forwarding this Order, to conform the licenses to reflect the change in the name of the licensee occurring in connection with the proposed acquisition of TXU Corp., and to reflect certain conditions of this order, are approved. The amendments shall be issued and made effective at the time the proposed acquisition and name change are completed. It is further ordered that TXU Power shall inform the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation in writing of the date of the closing of the acquisition of TXU Corp., establishment of [[Page 52585]] Luminant Holdco, and change in name of TXU Power no later than 5 business days prior to such actions. Should the indirect transfer of control of TXU Power not be completed by July 10, 2008, this Order shall become null and void, provided, however, upon written application and good cause shown, such date may be extended by order. This Order is effective upon issuance. For further details with respect to this Order, see the application dated April 18, 2007, and supplemental letter dated July 20, 2007, and the safety evaluation dated 2007, which are available for public inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area 01 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland and accessible electronically from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1- 800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 10th day of September, 2007. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Catherine Haney, Director, Division of Operating Reactor Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E7-18142 Filed 9-13-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 12 NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company; Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the Vogtle ESP Site and Associated Public Meeting FR Doc E7-18143 [Federal Register: September 14, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 178)] [Notices] [Page 52586] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr14se07-67] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket No. 52-011] Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the Commission) has published NUREG-1872, ``Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the Vogtle ESP Site.'' The site is located on the southwest side of the Savannah River in eastern Burke County, Georgia. The application for the ESP was submitted by letter dated August 15, 2006, pursuant to 10 CFR Part 52. The application included a site redress plan in accordance with 10 CFR 52.17(c) and 52.25. If the site redress plan is incorporated in an approved ESP, then the applicant may carry out certain site preparation work and preliminary construction activities. A notice of receipt and availability of the application, which included the environmental report (ER), was published in the Federal Register on August 29, 2006, (71 FR 51222). A notice of acceptance for docketing of the application for the ESP was published in the Federal Register on September 26, 2006, (71 FR 56187). A notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement and to conduct the scoping process was published in the Federal Register on October 5, 2006, (71 FR 58882). The purpose of this notice is to inform the public that NUREG-1872, ``Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the Vogtle ESP Site,'' is available for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, 20852, or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), and will also be placed directly on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. (the (the Public Electronic Reading Room). The ADAMS accession number for Volume I of the DEIS is ML072410045 and Volume II of the DEIS is ML072410049. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the PDR reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. In addition, the Burke County Library, 130 Highway 24 South, Waynesboro, Georgia, has agreed to make the DEIS available for public inspection. The NRC staff will hold a public meeting to present an overview of the DEIS and to accept public comments on the document. The public meeting will be held at the Augusta Technical College, Waynesboro Campus Auditorium, 216 Hwy 24 South, Waynesboro, Georgia, on Thursday, October 4, 2007. The meeting will convene at 7 p.m. and will continue until 10 p.m., as necessary. The meeting will be transcribed and will include: (1) A presentation of the contents of the DEIS, and (2) the opportunity for interested government agencies, organizations, and individuals to provide comments on the draft report. Additionally, the NRC staff will host informal discussions two hours before the start of the meeting at the Augusta Technical College, Waynesboro Campus Auditorium. No formal comments on the DEIS will be accepted by the NRC staff during the informal discussions. However, the staff will make available a court reporter from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. in the Waynesboro Campus Auditorium to accept oral comments on the DEIS for inclusion into the official meeting minutes. Otherwise, to be considered, comments must be provided either at the transcribed public meeting or in writing. Persons may register to attend or present oral comments at the meeting by contacting Ms. Cristina Guerrero, by telephone at 1-800-368-5642, extension 2981, or by Internet to the NRC at VOGTLE_EIS@nrc.gov, no later than September 28, 2007. Members of the public may also register to speak at the meeting within 15 minutes of the start of the meeting. Individual oral comments may be limited by the time available, depending on the number of persons who register. Members of the public who have not registered may also have an opportunity to speak, if time permits. Ms. Guerrero will need to be contacted no later than September 28, 2007, if special equipment or accommodations are needed to attend or present information at the public meeting, so that the NRC staff can determine whether the request can be accommodated. Members of the public may send written comments on the DEIS for the Vogtle ESP to the Chief, Rulemaking, Directives, and Editing Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, Mailstop T-6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and should cite the publication date and page number of this Federal Register Notice. Comments may also be delivered to Room T-6D59, Two White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., during Federal workdays. To be considered written comments should be postmarked by November 28, 2007. Electronic comments may be sent by the Internet to the NRC at VOGTLE_EIS@nrc.gov. Electronic submissions should be sent no later than November 28, 2007. Comments will be available electronically and accessible through the NRC's PERR link at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cristina Guerrero, Division of Site and Environmental Reviews, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC, 20555-0001. Ms. Guerrero may be contacted at the aforementioned telephone number or e-mail address. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day of September, 2007. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. James E. Lyons, Director, Division of Site and Environmental Reviews Office of New Reactors. [FR Doc. E7-18143 Filed 9-13-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 13 NRC: In the Matter of General Electric Company (Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor, General Electric Test Reactor, Nuclear Test Reactor, and ESADA Vallecitos Experimental Superheat Reactor); Order Approving Transfer of Licenses and Conforming Amendments FR Doc E7-18147 [Federal Register: September 14, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 178)] [Notices] [Page 52582-52584] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr14se07-64] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket Nos.: 50-18, 50-70, 50-73, 50-183; License Nos.: DPR-1, TR-1, R-33, and DR-10] I The General Electric Company (GE) is the holder of License No. DPR- 1 for the Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR), License No. TR-1 for the General Electric Test Reactor (GETR), and License No. DR-10 for the ESADA Vallecitos Experimental Superheat Reactor (EVESR), which authorize possession but not operation of these facilities. GE is also the holder of License No. R-33 for the Nuclear Test Reactor (NTR), which authorizes possession, use and operation of the facility. The VBWR, the GETR and the EVESR are permanently shut down with possession- only licenses, and are maintained in safe storage with their nuclear fuel removed from the site. The NTR is a research reactor that operates at power levels not in excess of 100 kilowatts (thermal) under the authority of an operating license. The facilities are located at GE's Vallecitos site in Sunol, California. II By letter dated January 19, 2007, and supplemented on January 25, 2007, February 23, 2007, March 2, 2007, March 26, 2007, May 16, 2007, May 18, 2007, June 4, 2007, July 6, 2007, and August 9, 2007, (collectively, the Application), GE requested approval by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory [[Page 52583]] Commission (NRC) to the direct license transfers that would be necessary in connection with GE's proposed transfers to GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC (GE-Hitachi) of its 100 percent interests in the VBWR, the EVESR, the GETR, and the NTR. GE also requested approval of conforming amendments to the respective licenses to reflect the proposed transfers of ownership of the facilities from GE to GE-Hitachi. No physical changes to the facilities or operational changes were proposed in the Application. After completion of the proposed transfers, GE-Hitachi would be the owner of the VBWR, the EVESR, and the GETR, and owner and operator of the NTR. Approval of the transfer of the licenses and the conforming amendments was requested pursuant to Section 184 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, (the Act), 10 CFR 50.80 and 10 CFR 50.90. A notice of consideration of approval and opportunity for a hearing or to submit written comments for the requested direct transfers was published in the Federal Register on March 28, 2007 (72 FR 14621- 14622). No request for hearing or comment were received on the Application. Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.80, no license for a production or utilization facility, or any right thereunder, shall be transferred, directly or indirectly, through transfer of control of the license, unless the Commission shall give its consent in writing. Upon review of the information in the Application and other information before the Commission, and relying upon the representations and agreements contained in the Application, the NRC staff has determined that GE- Hitachi is qualified to hold the licenses to the extent now held by GE regarding its ownership interests and operating authority as proposed in the Application, and the transfer of the licenses is otherwise consistent with applicable provisions of law, regulations, and orders issued by the Commission, subject to the conditions set forth below. The NRC staff has further found that the Application for the proposed amendments to the licenses complies with the standards and requirements of the Act, and the Commission's rules and regulations set forth in 10 CFR Chapter I; the facilities will operate in conformity with the Application, the provisions of the Act and the rules and regulations of the Commission; there is reasonable assurance that the activities authorized by the proposed license amendments can be conducted without endangering the health and safety of the public, and that such activities will be conducted in accordance with the Commission's regulations; the issuance of the proposed amendments to the licenses will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public; and the issuance of the proposed amendments to the licenses will be in accordance with 10 CFR Part 51 of the Commission's regulations and all applicable requirements have been satisfied. The findings set forth above are supported by NRC's Safety Evaluation dated September 6, 2007. III Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 161b, 161i, and 184 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended; 42 U.S.C. 2201(b), 2201(i), and 2234; and 10 CFR 50.80, It is hereby ordered that the transfer of the licenses, as described herein, to GE-Hitachi is approved, subject to the following conditions: 1. GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC, as stated in the Application, will abide by all commitments and representations previously made by GE with respect to the licenses. These include, but are not limited to, maintaining decommissioning records, implementing decontamination activities, and eventually decommissioning the facilities. 2. The Manager of the Vallecitos Nuclear Center, the Vice- President, Reactor Facility Safety and Security of GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC, and the Manager of GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC, shall be U.S. citizens. These individuals shall have the responsibility and exclusive authority to ensure and shall ensure, that the business and activities of GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC, with respect to the licenses for the subject facilities, are at all times conducted in a manner consistent with the protection of the public health and safety and the common defense and security. 3. The commitments/representations made in the Application, regarding reporting relationships and authority over safety and security issues and compliance with NRC requirements shall be adhered to and may not be modified without the prior written consent from the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, the Director, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, or their designee(s). 4. GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC, shall cause to be transmitted to the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation and the Director, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs within 30 days of filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), any schedule 13D or 13G filed pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that discloses beneficial ownership of a registered class of General Electric stock. 5. Prior to completion of the transfer of the licenses, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC, shall provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff satisfactory documentary evidence that it has obtained the appropriate amount of insurance required of licensees under 10 CFR Part 140 of the Commission's regulations. 6. Prior to completion of the transfer of the licenses, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC, shall provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff satisfactory documentary evidence of a parent company guarantee or another method authorized by and meeting the requirements of 10 CFR 50.75 for decommissioning funding assurance for the licenses in an amount no less than $8,016,000 for the VBWR, $14,077,000 for the GETR, $3,411,000 for the NTR, and $10,516,000 for the EVESR. It is further ordered that, consistent with 10 CFR 2.1315(b), amendments to the licenses that make changes as indicated in Enclosure 2 to the cover letter, which forwards this Order, to conform the licenses to reflect the subject transfer of the licenses, are approved. The amendments to the licenses shall be issued and made effective at the time the proposed transfers are completed. It is further ordered that GE shall inform the Directors of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation and the Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs in writing of the date of closing of the transfer of the subject interests in the VBWR, the EVESR, the GETR, and the NTR at least (five) 5 business days prior to transfer to GE-Hitachi. Should the transfer of the licenses not be completed within one year of this Order's date of issuance, this Order shall become null and void, provided, however, that upon written application and for good cause shown, such date may be extended by order. This Order is effective upon issuance. For further details with respect to this Order, see the Application and the Safety Evaluation, which are available for public inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, [[Page 52584]] Public File Area 01 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland and accessible electronically from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS, or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415- 4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 6th day of September 2007. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. J.E. Dyer, Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. E7-18147 Filed 9-13-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 14 NRC: Appointments to Performance Review Boards for Senior Executive Service FR Doc E7-18151 [Federal Register: September 14, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 178)] [Notices] [Page 52587] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr14se07-68] [[Page 52587]] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Appointment to Performance Review Boards for Senior Executive Service. SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced the following appointments to the NRC Performance Review Boards. The following individuals are appointed as members of the NRC Performance Review Board (PRB) responsible for making recommendations to the appointing and awarding authorities on performance appraisal ratings and performance awards for Senior Executives and Senior Level employees: Darren B. Ash, Deputy Executive Director for Information Services and Chief Information Officer; R. Wiliam Borchardt, Director, Office of New Reactors; Samuel J. Collins, Regional Administrator, Region I; Karen D. Cyr, General Counsel; Timothy F. Hagan, Director, Office of Administration; Bruce S. Mallet, Deputy Executive Director for Reactor and Preparedness Programs (Designate), Office of the Executive Director for Operations; William M. McCabe, Chief Financial Officer; Charles L. Miller, Director, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs; Luis A. Reyes, Executive Director for Operations; Martin J. Virgilio, Deputy Executive Director for Materials, Waste, Research, State, Tribal, and Compliance Programs. The following individuals will serve as members of the NRC PRB Panel that was established to review appraisals and make recommendations to the appointing and awarding authorities for NRC PRB members: Stephen G. Burns, Deputy General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel; Brian W. Sheron, Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research; Roy P. Zimmerman, Director, Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. All appointments are made pursuant to section 4314 of Chapter 43 of Title 5 of the United States Code. DATES: Effective Date: September 14, 2007. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Secretary, Executive Resources Board, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, (301) 492- 2076. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day of September, 2007. For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. James F. McDermott, Secretary, Executive Resources Board. [FR Doc. E7-18151 Filed 9-13-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 15 Reuters: Japan Aug nuclear plant usage falls, thermal up Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:02am BST By Chikafumi Hodo TOKYO, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Japan's total nuclear power plant utilisation rate fell in August, while the rate of thermal power generation jumped due to the shutdown of the world's largest nuclear plant and record temperatures in the country. The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan said on Friday the nuclear plant utilisation rate of 10 companies fell to an average 66.9 percent last month from 69.0 percent in July, leading to higher use of fuel oil, crude and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The rate was also down from 75.9 percent during the same month last year, after Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T: Quote, Profile, Research), Japan's top utility, shut down all operating units indefinitely at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant following a powerful earthquake on July 16. "The fall in nuclear utilisation is largely due to TEPCO. This trend could continue for a while if this situation continues," said an official of the federation. Domestic electricity demand surged due to last month's peak summer consumption when temperatures reached record levels in many areas of the country. Japan's 10 utilities generated record high electricity of 96.2 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in August, surpassing the previous high of 93.41 billion kWh reached during the same month last year. But the generation of electricity from thermal plants jumped 12.7 percent to 52.36 billion kWh from a year earlier, as TEPCO increased thermal electricity generation to make up for its lost capacity from the 8.21 million-kilowatt Kashiwazaki plant. Continued... © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 Reuters: Areva executives hold talks with French government Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:04pm EDT PARIS, Sept 14 (Reuters) - France's government said on Friday Prime Minister Francois Fillon would hold talks next Tuesday with the chief executive of nuclear group Areva (CEPFi.PA: Quote, Profile, Research). In an official calendar of Fillon's meetings, the government gave no reason for the talks, but they come just days after it said it was looking at the future of the Areva amid speculation of a merger with engineering group Alstom (ALSO.PA: Quote, Profile, Research). A Reuters correspondent saw Areva supervisory board chairman Frederic Lemoine visit Fillon's office on Friday, although it was not clear if he met the prime minister or his staff. Fillon's office declined to comment. Alstom Chairman Patrick Kron reiterated on Friday his interest in a tie-up with Areva. The French state has a direct stake of 5.2 percent in Areva while other public bodies own 88.2 percent. Building group Bouygues (BOUY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) has a stake of some 25 percent in Alstom and the Canard Enchaine newspaper said this week the building group could end up with a stake of 35 percent in a combined Areva-Alstom. Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) owns 34 percent of Areva's nuclear plant building unit, Areva NP, previously called Framatome. ((Reporting by Sophie Louet, writing by Nick Antonovics, editing by David Holmes; Paris newsroom, tel. +33149495452, paris.equities@reuters.com)) Keywords: FRANCE AREVA/ (C) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution ofReuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expresslyprohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuterssphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group ofcompanies around the world.nL14710748 © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 17 UP*I: Six Indian firms bid for big power project United Press International - International Security - Energy - Published: Sept. 14, 2007 at 9:41 AM NEW DELHI, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Six Indian private firms have bid for a 4,000-megawatt ultra mega power project in Andhra Pradesh state. The companies, including Tata Power, Reliance Energy, Larson & Tubro and Torrent, bid for the 4,000 MW coal-based ultra mega power project, to be constructed at Krishnapatnam. The Power Finance Corp. will call for a request for proposal later this month, a Power Ministry official said Friday. He said PFC completed the request for qualification process for potential developers last September. He said it was going to be a close race among contenders as all had requisite financial and technical strengths. The official said the Krishnapatnam UMPP was being developed as a coastal power project with an initial capacity of 4,000 MW, which would use imported coal as feedstock. The contract includes construction, operation and maintenance of the plant, which would run on super-critical technology with flexibility in unit size, the official said. © Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Boston Globe: Vt. Yankee reports on collapse in tower - Tries to reassure state regulators Workers repaired a damaged cooling tower yesterday at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon. Entergy officials said degradation of wood beams caused the collapse. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) By Dave Gram, Associated Press | September 14, 2007 VERNON, Vt. - Officials at the Vermont Yankee nuclear station yesterday sought to reassure state officials as they prepared to bring the plant back to full power following the collapse of part of a cooling tower last month. "This is a serious situation, and we at Entergy Vermont Yankee are taking it very seriously," said Ted Sullivan, the site vice president and the top official in the state for Entergy Nuclear. "It's unacceptable to us, and it's not like us." Sullivan spoke as officials at the reactor in Vermont's southeast corner said they would have the plant back to full power by the weekend. The wood beams, metal piping, and plastic parts of a massive cooling tower cell crashed down Aug. 21, leaving a pipe nearly 6 feet in diameter spewing thousands of gallons of water. Norm Rademacher, Vermont Yankee's engineering director, added: "What we know now is that the inspection program we have in place needs to be enhanced." Vermont Yankee officials told representatives of the state Department of Public Service, Vermont's two US senators, and lone congressman that the cooling tower collapse was not related to changes made to the plant 18 months ago to boost its power output by 20 percent. The power boost required the installation of larger fans on top of the cooling towers, but the new fans were on the other side of the football-field-sized buildings housing the towers, they said. Instead, the problem was degradation in the 4-by-4-inch wood beams providing structural support to the tower, said Rademacher. © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company. ***************************************************************** 19 Earth Times: Vietnam plans eight nuclear reactors by 2025 : Energy Environment Posted : Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:03:04 GMT Author : DPA Category : Energy (Environment) Hanoi - Vietnam has plans to build up to eight nuclear reactors by 2025 to meet rising energy demands in the fast-growing country, an official said Friday. The communist-run country also this week agreed with former battlefield enemy the United States to share information on nuclear science. "Vietnam and the US have agreed on nuclear safety exchanges," said Vuong Huu Tan, director of the Nuclear Energy Institute of Vietnam. "This will be part of the framework for the construction and operation of nuclear power plants in the future," he said. The planned eight nuclear plants would cost some 16 billion dollars but would provide 8,000 megawatts of power for Vietnam, Tan said. Vietnam's electricity demand is growing at more than 15 per cent per year and the country's master energy plan calls for shifting from reliance on hydropower to a mix of coal, nuclear and hydropower for electricity. There have been reports that Vietnam would import nuclear reactors from US company Westinghouse, but Tan said Friday it was not clear where the reactors would come from. The country's first nuclear power plant, a 2,000-MW generator, is slated to be put into operation by 2017. Vietnam, a signatory to the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has opened its nuclear programme up to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Copyright, respective author or news agency (c) 2007 Earthtimes.org, All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 WNN: Russia plans deployment of small reactors 14 September 2007 The deputy head of Russia's AtomEnergoProm has outlined the new giant's plans for building and funding new nuclear power plants. Petr Schedrovitsky, Deputy Director of AtomEnergoProm Petr Schedrovitsky made his comments at the World Nuclear Association's Annual Symposium. He explained that a Federal Task Program would see funding made available for seventeen 1200 MWe reactors to come on line between 2013 and 2020 at a wide range of sites. Construction has already started on Novovoronezh Phase-II units 1 and 2. Next would be two units at Leningrad Phase-II units 1 and 2, where site preparation is underway. Following those would come Volgodonsk 3 and 4. New nuclear power plant sites would be started at Tverskaya, 400 km northwest of Moscow; Severskaya near Tomsk; Nizhegorod, 325 km to the east of Moscow; and South Urals. These will be AES-2006-design VVER pressurized water reactors, which output 1200 MWe and are developed from today's proven V-320 units. Still more new reactors are proposed, but as yet unfunded, at the above sites and also at and Tsentralnaya near Vladivostok in Russia's far east. Small reactors A significant part of AtomEnergoProm's plan is to deploy six of the new VK-300 boiling water reactors (BWRs). These are slated to operate around 2017-10 at Kola Phase-II in the Arctic west and Primoskaya in the far east. These were given in the as-yet-unfunded category. Supplying around 300 MWe, the units will be unique. They would be the smallest light-water reactors available in the next decade, positioned between South Africa's and China's high-temperature gas-cooled reactors of 165 MWe and 200 MWe respectively and mainstream light-water reactors in the range 700-1650 MWe. The small BWRs should be of interest to countries and regions with smaller electricity supply requirements and grids of around 2000-3000 MWe Areva and Mitsubishi have also identified a need for intermediate-sized units and have formed the Atmea joint venture to design and build 1000-1100 MWe pressurized water reactors for markets in developing countries. Both companies are marketing new-generation nuclear units of 1600-1700 MWe. From 2016 older Russian nuclear power rectors will start to be retired. The smaller Novovronezh 3 and 4 would close in 2016-17 and Kola 1 and 2 in 2018-19, but also the large Leningrad 1 and 2 units in 2018 and 2020. Further information WNA's Nuclear Power in Russia information paper ***************************************************************** 21 NewsRoom Finland: Nuclear power opponents get organised in N Finland 14.9.2007 at 13:38 Opponents of nuclear power in northern Finland are in the process of organising themselves under a popular movement, Hannu Karvonen, an anti-nuclear activist from Oulu, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) on Friday. Mr Karvonen added that the activists putting together the movement had been contacted by concerned residents and various associations in municipalities like Simo, Pyhäjoki, Kemijärvi and Vaala. "I have a sense that people are starting to become conscious of this and reacting to these matters," Mr Karvonen said. The nascent popular movement opposes both the construction of new nuclear power stations and uranium mining. The movement is to organise its first rally in the centre of Oulu on Saturday. Fennovoima, a consortium led by German utility E.ON and Finnish steelmaker Outokumpu, is looking at a number of places in northern Finland to build what would be the country's sixth nuclear power station. /STT/ © Copyright STT 2007 © 1995 – 2005, Virtual Finland Produced by: Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland Department for Communication and Culture/Unit for Promotion and Publications ***************************************************************** 22 WNN: UK public has its say on nuclear energy 14 September 2007 Almost 1000 people have expressed their views on nuclear energy in the UK at nine government consultation events. Some 44% of people support the option of new nuclear, and some opinions were shown to have changed after the discussion. Nine 'deliberative consultation' events were held in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Newcastle and Norwich as part of the UK government's consultation on the possibility of building new nuclear power plants. Some 949 people were asked their opinion, both before and after attending the meetings, on the potential benefits, risks and implications of constructing new nuclear power reactors. On balance, 44% of those questioned said that they considered it to be in the public interest, in the context of tackling climate change and ensuring energy security, to allow energy companies the option to construct new nuclear power plants. However, 37% said they disagreed with this, while 18% neither agreed nor disagreed. Only 1% said they did not know. When asked their opinion on the contribution of nuclear power plants in reducing the UK's carbon dioxide emissions, after the meetings 60% of people said they thought nuclear could play an important role, while 21% disagreed with this. With regards to energy security, 63% said that nuclear power plants could make an important contribution to providing the UK with secure and reliable future energy supplies, with 20% disagreeing. Some opinions changed during the consultation discussion. Those who said they were either very or quite concerned about safety and security issues associated with nuclear power fell from 87% before the meeting to 83% afterwards. However, there was a significant drop for those who said they were 'very concerned', from 61% to 53%. Correspondingly, those who said they were not concerned increased from 11% to 17%. There was a similar change in opinion on the issue of creating additional nuclear waste. Although 90% of people were concerned about it both before and after discussion, the proportion who said they were 'very concerned' fell from 69% to 60%. Likewise, the proportion who said they were not concerned grew from 8% to 10%. Surprisingly, 20% of people questioned before the meetings were unaware that nuclear power plants were currently being used to generate electricity in the UK. John Hutton, secretary of state for business and enterprise, said, "Saturday was a great opportunity to hear first hand what the public think about the crucial issue." He added, "'We must secure our energy supplies for the future. Our livelihoods and the future health of the planet depend on us getting this right. It is absolutely in the national interest that we make a decision and urgently. We have a preliminary view that nuclear should be able to play a part in providing the energy that we need to keep the lights on and help cut carbon emissions. But it is important that we know what the public thinks before we take this important decision." In the 2003 energy white paper, the UK government had said that there would be "the fullest possibly public consultation and the publication of a further white paper" before any decision to build new nuclear power stations. A three-month consultation was launched by the government in early 2006. However, a legal challenge from Greenpeace led to a High Court ruling in February 2007 that the consultation process had been "misleading", "seriously flawed" and "procedurally unfair". The judge, Mr Justice Sullivan, said "something has gone clearly and radically wrong" with the consultation exercise. The government decided to launch a new consultation rather than challenge the ruling. Last week, a coalition of environmental groups including Greenpeace, Friends of The Earth and the World Wildlife Fund pulled out of the new consultation, accusing the government of already making its mind up in favour of nuclear and having branded the process a "public-relations stitch-up". Further information UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's The Future of Nuclear Power consultation website WNA's Nuclear Power in the United Kingdom information paper WNN: Green groups pull out of UK nuclear debate WNN: Consultation ruled "seriously flawed" WNN: Gordon Brown positive on nuclear ***************************************************************** 23 Manila Times: OPINION > Nuclear power plants Saturday, September 15, 2007 EDITORIAL Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, supported enthusiastically by President Arroyo, has been preparing the public to accept nuclear power-generated electricity to solve our energy crisis. The government—and we mean not only the Arroyo administration but every succeeding administration as well—must handle the nuclear option with extreme care. Secretary Reyes has been extolling the lower cost of nuclear plant-generated electricity. He has told the Congress and the media that the Department of Energy is organizing a team of nuclear-power experts. Many of these have left the country following the closure of the Bataan nuclear power plant in 1987. These new experts will update their knowledge of nuclear technology, including state of the art safety measures, to ensure that nuclear plants to be built in the Philippines do not pose dangers to the environment and the people. He urged the House, when he was defending the department’s budget there, to support the implementation of a new nuclear-energy program. Reyes disclosed to the congressmen that he had asked the International Atomic Energy Commission to help the Philippines determine the feasibility of using the nuclear power plant in Bataan. He said the IAEC will assist the Philippines and do its study free of charge. Secretary Reyes also told the congressmen that, given the advances in nuclear-plant safety, the primary concern that exercises experts and policy makers these days is the disposal of nuclear waste. To support his position that a nuclear power plant should be built here, he informed the congressmen that by 2015 most of our immediate neighbors would already be enjoying “nuclear energy plants in full blast.” If by that time we still have not availed ourselves of the cheap electricity from nuclear plants, Sec. Reyes said, “We cannot be competitive [against our neighbors Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand]. Let’s note that: (1) Taiwan now has 6 operating nuclear plants, is now building 1 more and will build several more as its need arises. (2) China now has 10 operating nuclear plants, is now building 5 more and will build 63 more. (3) Japan now has 55 operating nuclear plants, is now building 2 more and will build 12 more. (4) South Korea now has 20 operating nuclear plants, is building 1 more and will build 7 more. (5) India now has 16 operating nuclear plants, is now building 7 more and will build 19 more. (5) Pakistan now has 2 operating nuclear plants, is now building 1 more and will build 4 more. The Arroyo administration has working programs for poverty-eradication, job-creation and commercial, industrial and agricultural mobilization that require the use of massive electrical power. The need to drastically increase electricity generation and to make electricity costs cheaper for households and commercial-industrial customers has become critical. If our situation does not change, foreign investors, vital to the government’s socioeconomic programs, will surely ignore the Philippines—which has the highest electricity costs in the region. They will instead go to the other Asean countries that have cheap and steady nuclear-power-generated electricity. The dream of having an annually ascending rate of growth above 6 percent to raise the country to the level of a First-World country will not become a reality. Nuclear power—despite its risks—might indeed be the quickest and most effective way to avert a power shortage crisis and to advance the socioeconomic programs of the government. But we must beg the President and Secretary Reyes to make really sure that all the safety measures are honestly and effectively taken and maintained. There will be contracts with foreign suppliers to build a new nuclear power plant or to renovate and upgrade the rusting Bataan plant. We beg the President and Secretary Reyes not to let the scandals of the ZTE Internet broadband contract happen again. Rumormongers cynically whisper that a multibillion-dollar nuclear-plant loan and installation contract with China already exists. Lord God Almighty, let that not be true! The Manila Times Web Admin. Copyright (c) 2001 The Manila Times | Terms of Service ***************************************************************** 24 Commander disciplined for nuclear mistake Resent-Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:30:01 -0500 (CDT) Original source URL: http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-09-05-b-52_N.htm Commander disciplined for nuclear mistake By Michael Hoffman, Military Times The Air Force continued handing out disciplinary actions in response to the six nuclear warheads mistakenly flown on a B-52 bomber from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30. The squadron commander in charge of Minot's munitions crews was relieved of all duties pending the investigation. It was originally reported that five nuclear warheads were transported, but officers who tipped Military Times to the incident who have asked to remain anonymous since they are not authorized to discuss the incident, have since updated that number to six. Air Force and defense officials would not confirm the missiles were armed with nuclear warheads Wednesday, citing longstanding policy, but they did confirm the Air Force was "investigating an error made last Thursday during the transfer of munitions" from Minot to Barksdale. The original plan was to transport non-nuclear Advanced Cruise Missiles, mounted on the wings of a B-52, to Barksdale as part of a Defense Department effort to decommission 400 of the ACMs. It was not discovered that the six missiles had nuclear warheads until the plane landed at Barksdale, leaving the warheads unaccounted for during the approximately 3 and one-half hour flight between the two bases, the officers said. President Bush was immediately alerted to the mistake and the Air Force launched a service-wide investigation headed by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, director of Air and Space Operations at Air Combat Command Headquarters, said Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Ed Thomas. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has requested daily briefings from Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley on the progress of the investigation. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a member of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, requested a full-classified briefing, not just the preliminary information being provided to lawmakers, to explain how a mistake of this magnitude could have happened. Thomas said the transfer was conducted safely and the American public was never in any danger since the weapons were in Air Force custody and control at all times. But few critics were placated Wednesday by the Air Force's reassurances. "Nothing like this has ever been reported before and we have been assured for decades that it was impossible," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., co-chair of the House Bi-partisan Task Force. Non-proliferation treaty experts said the Air Force didn't violate any international nuclear treaties by transporting the nuclear warheads on the B-52, but it was the first time since 1968 that it's been known publicly that nuclear warheads were transported on a U.S. bomber. The Defense Department does transport nuclear warheads by air, but instead of bombers it uses C-17 or C-130 cargo aircraft. "These reports are deeply disturbing," said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "The American people, our friends, and our potential adversaries must be confident that the highest standards are in place when it comes to our nuclear arsenal." The Defense Department uses a computerized tracking program to keep tabs on each one of its nuclear warheads, said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. For the six warheads to make it onto the B-52, each one would have had to be signed out of its storage bunker and transported to the bomber. Diligent safety protocols would have to have been ignored to load the warheads onto the plane, he said. "I just can't imagine how all of this happened," said Philip Coyle, a senior adviser on nuclear weapons at the Center for Defense Information. "The procedures are so rigid; this is the last thing that's supposed to happen." At no time was there a risk for a nuclear detonation, even if the B-52 crashed on its way to Barksdale, said Steve Fetter, a former Defense Department official who worked on nuclear weapons policy in 1993-94. A crash would ignite the high explosives associated with the warhead, and possibly cause a leak of plutonium, but the warhead's elaborate safeguards would prevent a nuclear detonation from occurring, he said. "The Air Force takes its mission to safeguard weapons seriously," Thomas said. "No effort will be spared to ensure that the matter is thoroughly and completely investigated." Along with the 5th Munitions Squadron commander, the munitions crews involved in mistakenly loading the nuclear warheads at Minot have been temporarily decertified from performing their duties involving munitions, pending corrective actions or additional training, Thomas said. The error comes after the Air Force announced last March the 5th Bomb Wing won two servicewide safety awards during fiscal year 2006. "This is really shocking," Coyle said. "The Air Force can't tolerate it, and the Pentagon can't tolerate it, either." -- -------------------------------------------------------- Posting archives: historical: http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?lists=newslog recent: http://groups.google.com/group/newslog/topics Escaping the Matrix website: http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website: http://cyberjournal.org How We the People can change the world: http://governourselves.blogspot.com/ Community Democracy Framework: http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html Moderator: rkm@quaylargo.com (comments welcome) ***************************************************************** 25 Nuke flights: questions re/story Resent-Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:30:08 -0500 (CDT) Original source URL: http://freeworldsurvey.blogspot.com/2007/09/6-nukes-fly-over-us-big-problems-with.html SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2007 6 Nukes Fly Over The US - Big Problems With This Story! As the "official" story of six wayward nukes unfolds inconsistencies abound, and government reacts with absurd remedies. Government culture is not known for it's intelligence or common sense I grant you, but their reaction seems almost "Alice in Wonderland" like. Let's examine: Air Force official fired after 6 nukes fly over U.S. The Air Combat Command has ordered a command-wide stand down on Sept. 14 to review procedures, officials said. In addition to the munitions squadron commander who was relieved of his duties, crews involved with the mistaken load including ground crew workers have been temporarily decertified for handling munitions, one official said. According to the U.S. Air Force statement, the commanding officer in charge of military munitions personnel and additional munitions airmen were relieved of duties pending the completion of the investigation. According to Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Federation of American Scientists, "the error could not have come from confusing the Advanced Cruise Missile with a conventional weapons since no conventional form exists. So the munitions Airmen should have been easily able to spot the mistake. Other routine procedures were violated which suggests a rather obvious explanation for the error. The military munitions personnel were acting under direct orders, though not through the regular chain of military command." Now the question is - How did a squadron commander get access to nuclear warheads? (Weapons of mass destruction?) All nuclear weapons are released only by upper echelon authority. There are fail-safe procedures and protocols in place to keep just this sort of thing from happening. A nuclear submarine commander cannot launch his nuclear missiles without direct orders from the Commander in Chief or next in the chain of command. There are authentication codes and redundant verification procedures to stop this from happening. How did it happen? Was the president involved, was this a covert operation, or was there a security breach? Any way you slice it, there is something very, very wrong with this story. The timing of this looks very suspicious. This happens now at a time when there is much talk of: The US preemptively Striking Iran and large scale terrorist attacks on US soil. Is all of this just coincidence? Time will tell. Don't expect the truth from the military investigators though. Take a look at these comments to get the seriousness of the crisis. Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called the mishandling of the weapons 3deeply disturbing2 and said the committee would press the military for details. Rep. Edward J. Markey, a senior member of the Homeland Security committee, said it was 3absolutely inexcusable.2 3Nothing like this has ever been reported before and we have been assured for decades that it was impossible,2 said Markey, D-Mass., co-chair of the House task force on nonproliferation. Another angle of the story coming out also looks suspicious. Why was the nuclear armed B-52 sent to Barksdale AFB? If initial reports that the weapons were being decommissioned, but were mistakenly transported by a B-52 bomber, then the weapons should have been taken to Kirtland Air Force Base. According to Kristensen, this is 3where the warheads are separated from the rest of the weapon and shipped to the Energy Department9s Pantex dismantlement facility near Amarillo, Texas2 It is well known that Barksdale AFB is used as a staging base for operations in the Middle East. Another strange twist here from MSNBC: Langley jets grounded next week for safety review WAVY-TV HAMPTON, Va. (AP) -- Langley Air Force Base will ground its jets next week. The Air Force says the service's Air Combat Command has ordered all jet fighters and bombers to remain grounded so airmen can review safety procedures and protocol. Langley is home to three fighter squadrons, which fly the F-15 Eagle and F-22A Raptor. The nuclear tipped cruise missiles were on bombers not fighters! Fighters do not carry nuclear weapons. Furthermore the incident happened at Minot Air Force Base and not Langley Air Force Base. What is more disturbing is the fact that Langley is charged with defending the airspace over much of the east coast including the capitol. Why are fighters being ordered to stand down? This just doesn't compute! Let's review the strange and inconsistent aspects of this unfolding story: 1. Nuclear tipped weapons loaded and transported skirting layers of fail-safe security measures and the chain of command. 2. Nuclear tipped weapons supposedly slated for decommission transported to a base that does not have the facilities necessary. 3. Very suspicious timing. This all happens at a time when there is much talk of the US preemptively Striking Iran and/or large scale terrorist attacks on US soil. 4. Langley Air Force Base will ground its jets for a week leaving vital airspace much less protected. This announcement will alert any would be attackers that we will be vulnerable during this period. The whole scenario doesn't sound good or square up. Something much more is going on than we are being told! -- -------------------------------------------------------- Posting archives: historical: http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?lists=newslog recent: http://groups.google.com/group/newslog/topics Escaping the Matrix website: http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website: http://cyberjournal.org How We the People can change the world: http://governourselves.blogspot.com/ Community Democracy Framework: http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html Moderator: rkm@quaylargo.com (comments welcome) ***************************************************************** 26 RIA Novosti: State Duma ratifies additional Russia-IAEA protocol 15:36 | 14/ 09/ 2007 MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - The lower house of Russia's parliament ratified Friday an additional protocol between Russia and the UN nuclear watchdog to a Soviet-era agreement, on guarantees in Russia. The document envisions a set of additional organizational and technical measures to control civilian nuclear activity among Non-Proliferation Treaty member states. In particular, Russia must provide information to the International Atomic Energy Agency on its nuclear exports to non-nuclear powers and data on its cooperation with them. States possessing nuclear weapons are given the right to select control measures from those proposed in the protocol, which they deem possible to use on their territory. "This protocol confirms Russia's leading role in strengthening the global nuclear nonproliferation regime," Nikolai Spassky, deputy head of the Nuclear Power Agency, told journalists. He said that protocol's adoption would not harm Russia's security, as it is based on "the principle of voluntariness." RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 27 UPI: Commentary: Musharraf meltdown United Press International - International Security - Emerging Threats - Analysis Published: Sept. 14, 2007 at 10:40 AM By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE UPI Editor at Large WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Some 80,000 Pakistani soldiers who man the non-existent border between the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Afghan border have stood down, but no one knows who gave the order or whether they are even taking orders. Taliban and al-Qaida terrorist training camps are up and running again with the acquiescence -- or impotence -- of the Pakistani army. That’s the word by satellite phone from this reporter’s sources in Miranshah and Wana, the capitals of North and South Waziristan. Pakistani troops, these sources said, were fed up with the mission and humiliated by the capture of 264 troops who surrendered without a fight. Surprised by a roughly 100-strong Taliban guerrilla unit as they listened to radio news about the political crisis in Islamabad, they were later released with a reported pledge “not to fight on the side of the American crusaders against Islam.” The scuttlebutt among Pakistani troopers is that President Bush through his “puppet” Gen. President Pervez Musharraf ordered their mission in FATA. The two Waziristans are almost entirely Taliban-occupied Pakistan. The central government’s “political agents” have vanished. It is now abundantly clear that Musharraf’s deal with tribal elders a year ago to rein in Taliban and al-Qaida elements and prevent them from crossing into Afghanistan was a camouflaged surrender to the terrorists. Taliban chiefs have been in control of the Waziristans ever since. Last Aug. 9, Waziristan’s tribal leaders declined to travel to Kabul for a peace jirga with the Afghan and Pakistani presidents unless they could come with Taliban chiefs. While Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai has extended an olive branch to “moderate” Taliban representatives, he wasn’t ready to mix it up with anyone. The jirga, which Musharraf attended on its last day, adopted resolutions that were promptly ignored. Bajaur, one of the seven tribal agencies, led by Faqir Muhammad, who calls Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, “heroes of the Muslim world,” is adjacent to the Afghan province of Kunar, where Taliban guerrillas conduct some of the heaviest fighting. Throughout FATA, the Taliban is estimated to have some 40,000 guerrillas who use the tribal agencies for rest and training. Pakistan, one of the world’s eight nuclear powers, is in the throes of a national upheaval that dwarfs both Iraq and Afghanistan as threats to regional peace and stability. Almost half the country approves of Bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist organization. Bush and Musharraf vie in the single digits. With presidential and parliamentary elections looming this fall, Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf toppled in a bloodless army coup in 1999 and then exiled to Saudi Arabia, was cleared to return home by the Supreme Court. He flew back on a Pakistan International Airlines flight from London to begin campaigning only to be arrested by Musharraf’s order. Islamabad’s airport was ringed with security troops as police clashed with thousands of Sharif’s supporters trying to welcome him home. Sharif was served with a warrant on charges of corruption and four hours later deported again, back to Saudi Arabia. The other powerful political leader in exile since 1997 was twice prime minister and twice deposed Benazir Bhutto, arguably the country’s most popular figure after A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb and clandestine purveyor of nuclear weapons of mass destruction technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya (whose leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, changed his mind and surrendered everything to British and U.S. intelligence agencies in return for the lifting of all diplomatic and economic sanctions). Bhutto, who lives in Dubai and also has a London residence, has been negotiating with Musharraf the modalities of her return to campaign for her Pakistan People’s Party. But Bhutto insists Musharraf must take off his uniform, as the Constitution precludes the army chief and the president holding both jobs. Musharraf, says Bhutto, must campaign as a civilian. Vote-counting skullduggery by the Inter-Services Intelligence agency would automatically ensure the unpopular Musharraf’s re-election as a civilian. Bhutto would then campaign in a subsequent parliamentary election, and assuming her party won a plurality, Musharraf would ask her to form a government. Musharraf and Bhutto met in Abu Dhabi July 27, but the agreement still remains to be sealed. London and Washington believe a Musharraf-Bhutto alliance will produce a broad-based secular government that might stem Pakistan’s rising tide of Islamic extremism. But Musharraf feels it may all fall apart with countrywide chaos if he steps down as military chief. Pakistan has spent half its 60 years as an independent country under military rule. And the leaders of the politico-religious coalition of six extremist religious parties -- Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal -- that governs two of Pakistan’s four provinces are muttering darkly about the “collusion of two dictators.” MMA campaigns openly in FATA land on the Afghan border. Tribal chiefs keep out other political parties. And MMA’s “strategic adviser” is Hamid Gul, a former ISI chief, friend of Mullah Omar and admirer of bin Laden. He laid the groundwork for the creation of the Taliban in the early 1990s with radical students from Pakistan’s madrassas, one-discipline koranic schools that have resisted reform despite $11 billion in U.S. aid since Sept. 11, 2001. ISI is urging Musharraf to impose martial law. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, in Islamabad this week, strongly advised Musharraf to bring Bhutto back ASAP as a safety valve against mobocracy. Musharraf may well opt for both options and call it “judicial martial law.” Meanwhile, Bhutto announced she was coming home Oct. 18 -- with or without a deal. Last March Musharraf summoned Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and before four other generals, including the heads of ISI and military intelligence, ordered him to resign. Chaudhry refused and was confined to house arrest -- which triggered nationwide demonstrations against Musharraf, who then backed down. Chaudhry, as well as Bhutto, made clear Musharraf has to doff uniform if he wants to continue in politics. Pakistan is the world’s most dangerous crisis. The stakes are who controls Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal -- religious fanatics (including some in uniform), middle-of-the-road democrats or the military under more of the same. An ominous omen on Ramadan’s first Friday of prayer: A suicide bomber killed 15 Pakistani commandos and wounded 37, only 50 miles from Islamabad. It was a unit trained with U.S. aid to battle against terrorists in FATA. On Sept. 4 another kamikaze killed 25 in Rawalpindi, the capital’s twin city and military garrison. Several intelligence officers were among the victims. © Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 El Paso Times: Inventory time Los Alamos needs to track nuke material Article Launched: 09/14/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT You always want to keep track of your plutonium. You might misplace your watch. You might lose your keys. Perhaps you can't find the checkbook. Those things happen. But keep track of the plutonium. There's some question about whether that's been done at Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico. There hasn't been a full accounting of the plutonium -- used in nuclear bombs and warheads -- and other nuclear weapons materials stored at the lab for 13 years or more, according to a recent Associated Press story. It must be assumed that nuclear weapons materials, and how to obtain them, are of great interest to terrorists bent on creating the greatest amount of destruction possible. So it would seem to be common sense that the U.S. government would keep close tabs on any materials that could be turned into a suitcase-size dirty bomb -- or worse. Apparently, workers at Los Alamos have performed partial inventories of the materials, but that's simply not enough. A comprehensive audit of the nuclear materials should be performed, and as soon as possible. Kevin Roark, a spokesman for the lab, said that no nuclear material is missing. That's reassuring to hear, but it would be a lot more satisfying to have a complete inventory that would prove definitively that nothing is gone. Concerns about the safety of the nuclear material is reinforced because the laboratory has experienced a number of security problems over the years. If this slipshod behavior spilled over into keeping track of nuclear weapons materials, that could be big trouble. If any material is missing, that needs to be known as soon as possible so it can be located and retrieved, or its use accounted for. If none is missing, good -- but set up a regular, systematic inventory plan that won't allow for doubt again. Copyright © by the El Paso Times and MediaNews Group and/or wire ***************************************************************** 29 ReviewJournal.com: DOE vows battle over water use Sep. 14, 2007 State's resources for Yucca tests disputed By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU Ward Sproat Civilian Radioactive Waste Management chief says issue won't be decided in Nevada WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy plans to go to the mat with Nevada over the disputed use of water at Yucca Mountain, the director of the federal nuclear waste project said Thursday. The government probably will appeal an adverse ruling made late last month by U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt, said Ward Sproat, head of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. Meanwhile, Justice Department lawyers along with attorneys for the state are due back in Hunt's courtroom in Las Vegas on Sept. 20 for a fresh round of arguments over water. The state is trying to enforce a cease-and-desist order to stop the Energy Department from using water to drill test holes at the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In an Aug. 31 ruling, Hunt upheld the state's order but DOE maintained some drilling was exempt, and it has continued to work in certain sections of the site. "There is a broader issue here," Sproat said. "The broader issue is not geotechnical data. The broader issue is quite frankly, does the federal government have the right to withdraw water on federal land and on a project that was mandated by law by Congress. "That is the issue and that is not going to get resolved in federal district court in Nevada," Sproat said in a short interview outside a meeting at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Government attorneys raised the federal supremacy argument before Hunt this summer. He rejected it, saying "there has been no act by Congress which pre-empts Nevada state water laws." Sproat said Nevada is using water as a tool against the Yucca project, which state leaders have fought for years. "Obviously water is a big political issue out West and the state is doing what they think they need to do, to exercise their rights to try and impede the program," Sproat said. "I can understand that but there is a bigger issue here." Marta Adams, Nevada senior deputy attorney general, said Hunt's ruling "is going to be a tough order to appeal." It involved a specific state cease-and-desist action, and not broader water rights issues, she said. "It doesn't really go to the heart," Adams said. Sproat declined to answer questions about the impact any drilling halt would have on the repository project, saying he was advised by Justice Department lawyers not to discuss it. The Energy Department is collecting rock samples to analyze the earthquake and flood safety of large-scale industrial buildings it plans to construct to handle canisters of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. The analysis would be incorporated into a repository license application DOE has said it will file with the NRC in June. DOE officials have said crews have drilled 56 holes out of 80 that were planned. Water from wells near the site is used to cool and lubricate drill bits and to create mud for extracting core samples from rock layers. "I have a pretty good idea of what we got and what we didn't get" in the way of data from the holes already drilled, Sproat said. "Some of them are nice to have and some of them are must-have," Sproat said. "It is what the engineers need to fully understand and describe what is underground there." The issue of water rights at Yucca Mountain has been brewing since the late 1990s but largely on the back burner as Judge Hunt had declared the matter moot until the DOE could show significant progress. In the meantime, Nevada state engineers have denied DOE applications for water uses beyond sanitation, firefighting and other emergencies. The Energy Department has asked Congress to pass legislation that would broaden its powers to claim water from Nevada for the Yucca project. That proposal raised alarm bells in other Western states and has not advanced. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 30 ReviewJournal.com: 'Bait and switch' intentions denied for Yucca site Sep. 14, 2007 By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy moved quickly Thursday to deny the suggestion that it is looking to "bait and switch" on getting a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository licensed. Russ Dyer, chief scientist on the nuclear waste project, issued a rebuttal to a suggestion made earlier this week by Nevada officials. Dyer said they were "simply wrong." Based on reviews of DOE documents, state technical experts said they suspected that the DOE was working on a "next generation" repository plan using "state of the art algorithms and computational software." Bob Loux, director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, alerted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the situation on Monday, and the state made its letter public on Wednesday. Loux said the state suspects a Yucca license application that the DOE plans to send the NRC in summer 2008 will be flawed, but then switched out improperly when an advanced version is ready. He called it a "bait and switch." Dyer, in a letter to Loux on Thursday, said, "Your assertion that DOE will switch midstream to its 'real assessment' is simply wrong." "The license application that DOE will submit and defend will be based on the (total system analysis) performed for the license application," Dyer said. "And DOE believes that will be sufficient to support the grant of an authorization for construction," he said. Dyer also scolded the state official, urging him to "refrain from speculation based on incomplete information." Loux could not be reached for comment Thursday night. Links powered by inform.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 31 ReviewJournal.com: Judges refuse to rule on document access Sep. 14, 2007 STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- A panel of judges declined this week to weigh in on a dispute over the availability of government Yucca Mountain documents. A three-judge panel formed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in an order issued Monday that to tackle a complaint that Nevada filed in July would be premature. The state charged that the Department of Energy was likely to withhold disclosure of research and analysis for the proposed Nevada nuclear waste repository site. Thirteen environmental groups also asked the NRC judges to weigh in on the matter. Such documents are required to be posted to a public Web site. The DOE has posted 3.4 million documents and has said it plans to add more before it certifies the database later this year. The judges said that if a problem occurs, it would not become evident until the Energy Department certifies the document collection. "The dispute is clearly not ripe for resolution," the judges said. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 32 Canadian Press: Canada to send "observer" to nuclear partnership meeting OTTAWA (CP) — Canada will send an "observer" to a major international conference on nuclear energy, scheduled to start Sunday in Vienna. Canada's plans for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, an initiative launched by U.S. President George W. Bush last year, had been unclear until Friday, when Foreign Affairs issued a terse statement about sending an official as observer. The move delays what could be a controversial decision, one that might see Canada getting into the business of reprocessing nuclear waste. "This will permit us to monitor developments of the GNEP and Canada will make a decision about joining the partnership at a later date," Eugenie Cormier-Lassonde, a Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, said Friday. "The next step and its implications will be carefully considered by the government." The new partnership - which includes the United States, France, Japan, China and Russia - proposes that nuclear energy-using countries and uranium-exporting countries form a new association to improve safeguards in the industry. "This international partnership seeks to build a new course for the nuclear industry, one with deeper and more thorough guarantees on non-proliferation," said Cormier-Lassonde. But the plan also includes a proposal that could see Canada accepting, storing and refining used nuclear fuel from other countries. The idea would be to send the spent fuel back to the original uranium exporting country for disposal. Canada is the world's largest uranium exporter. Opposition parties have suggested that the Conservative government has already decided to sign on, but is leery of a public backlash against accepting radioactive waste. The Green party urged the government Friday to shun the Vienna meeting. "The GNEP operates under the guise of non-proliferation by requiring countries to take back highly radioactive waste, but its true purpose is to act as a security blanket for the nuclear industry by increasing export of uranium and reactor technologies," said Green Leader Elizabeth May. "In reality, the GNEP will increase proliferation by further spreading nuclear energy, increasing plutonium reprocessing and speeding up the arms race." Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says there should be open public discussion before Canada gets into reprocessing. Copyright © 2007 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 33 RGJ.com: Water issue just the latest in DOE affronts September 14, 2007 Editorial Controversy about federal and state rights regarding use of water in a federal drilling operation at the Nevada Test Site should be viewed as a predictable sign that the U.S Department of Energy has disregarded this state's system of water rights and water usage. It is just the latest in a string of affronts and strategies the feds are using as they advance their plan to bury 77,000 tons of spent nuclear material in the Nevada desert. Energy officials said they had no intention to undermine state water policy, but clearly they were trying to extract evidence they think will help their Nuclear Regulatory Commission application for the storage facility. And they used Nevada water to do it. As long as the state opposes Yucca Mountain as a policy, believing the project to be unsafe, officials are right to put their collective foot down and resist DOE use of state water. Fortunately, state officials have a U.S. District Court ruling behind them. An agreement already was in place designating allowable water uses. The judge's refusal last week to stop the state engineer's cease-and-desist order should be the last word on this subject. But the state shouldn't count on it. Scientific and political improprieties have been used in efforts to keep the project on track. The closer the DOE gets to the NRC's licensing deadline, the more desperate it will be to push the project forward. Meanwhile federal officials have barred access to the site so state inspectors can confirm allowable water usage. This use of water to cool and lubricate drill bits, and to make mud for collecting and analyzing core samples, is flagrant for its strategy to support DOE contentions that water and earthquake conditions will not undermine construction. It is good to know the law has come down on Nevada's side in this water issue. Do not doubt that other issues will emerge. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 34 Gallup Independent: RECA reform; Navajo stands behind ban on uranium mining - September 13, 2007: By Kathy Helms Diné Bureau WINDOW ROCK ? When the Navajo Nation approved a ban in 2005 on uranium mining and processing within Navajo Indian County, it was done with the realization that the Nation would be losing out on millions of dollars in fees and royalties. But as Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. and numerous council delegates have said, ?The lives of the people are more important than the money to be obtained, and there is no answer to the illnesses that have resulted from uranium mining,? according to presidential spokesman George Hardeen. ?We still have people today who are sick and are dying as a result of past uranium mining. The president has said countless times, ?Show us the cure to this before we reconsider allowing uranium mining to come back on Navajoland.? ?At the time there was uranium mining, it was known to be dangerous. However, it was known to everyone except the Navajos who were mining. That has been well-documented. And that?s perpetrating a fraud on the Navajo people to get access to a potentially hazardous ore. This is the reason that the Navajo Nation passed its law,? Hardeen said. But the Navajo people were not the only ones kept in the dark. While they were laboring in underground mines in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado ? drinking the cool water that trickled down the walls and breathing the dust that permeated the mine shafts as they blasted their way deeper into the earth ? people across the United States also were being exposed to radiation. From 1945 through 1962, the United States conducted a series of above-ground atomic weapons tests which spewed radioactive fallout from test sites in Nevada and New Mexico. To date, New Mexico downwinders are not covered under RECA, established in 1990 to compensate the survivors of radiation exposure. According to GAO, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program, or RECP, has authorized payments totaling $1.2 billion for 18,110 claims since RECP began processing claims in April 1992. Almost half of the $1.2 billion was paid to claimants who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site. The 18,110 claims represent about two-thirds of the 26,550 claims filed since 1992. The remaining one-third of the claims was denied, because RECA?s eligibility criteria were not satisfied. The RECA Amendments of 2000 broadened the scope of eligibility for benefits and added uranium mill workers and ore transporters to the categories of beneficiaries. Congress also added San Juan County, Utah, and Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo, Apache, and Gila, Ariz., to the list of ?downwinder? counties, making those residents potentially eligible for compensation. This past May, Utah Rep. Jim Matheson and Rep. Mike Simpson sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee requesting a hearing on the expansion of RECA, stating, ?As you know, over the course of more than two decades, the United States carried out more than 1,000 nuclear weapons tests. ?The radioactive debris from these tests entered our nation?s atmosphere and was later deposited, in the form of radioactive fallout, all across our nation ... For decades, individuals living within the fallout areas have lived with adverse health effects caused by radiation exposure. ?Eligibility for compensation, however, is limited to certain counties in just a few states. These geographic boundaries are, quite frankly, arbitrary boundaries that do not account for the fact that radioactive fallout does not abide by lines on a map. Some of the counties experiencing the largest concentration of fallout in the entire nation are not included in the current RECA program.? The congressmen said they do not believe RECA has received serious review by Congress in the last seven years and that the time for review is now appropriate. Last month, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the Senate (S. 1917) to amend RECA to include downwinders in Idaho and Montana. U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said Wednesday, ?Over time it?s become clear that Congress should begin the process of revising the Radiation Exposure act. I am eager to start working to reform and expand this program and am currently working with the Navajo Nation and other members of Congress from the Four Corners region to begin laying the foundation for such reform. ?The first step is for Congress to fully evaluate RECA through our oversight mechanisms. In order to make the substantive and necessary reform we need, the Congress must fully evaluate the program and find out the successes and downfalls individuals have experienced with the act since its inception. ?In the coming months, along with the Navajo Nation and other members of Congress, I will be one of the hosts of a roundtable on the issue at which time we will discuss uranium mine issues and the steps we can take to move forward on remedying a difficult situation,? Udall said. In August, following introduction of the legislation, Jude McCartin of U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman?s office, said, ?Sen. Bingaman is studying the legislation.? He has not yet said whether he will support it, or propose inclusion of New Mexico as a downwinder state. Staffers for U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, a proponent of ?clean nuclear energy,? have not responded to questions from the Independent regarding whether Domenici will support the legislation. Media representatives for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a presidential candidate and former U.S. Energy Secretary, also have not responded as to whether the governor might push for New Mexico to be included under RECA. Regarding Navajo and the revival of the nuclear age, Hardeen, said, ?The companies make an argument that their method of mining uranium now is safe. But there are still people who have been hurt by uranium mining. These are the elderly people and people who were uranium miners. ?As a result, the Navajo Nation has said ?No more.? It doesn?t need to put itself into that situation again. These people are still hurt, and it affects entire families. ?President Shirley has said it has cost the Navajo Nation its own culture because these elders who are dying from various types of illnesses and cancers, they are the repositories of Navajo culture. They have the songs, the ceremonies, the teachings; and we are losing them and losing that. The cost is just tremendous, measured in that way,? Hardeen said. September 13, 2007 Please send the Gallup Independent feedback on this website and the Send questions or comments to gallpind@cia-g.com ***************************************************************** 35 Murfreesboro Post: County OKs resolution on radioactive waste BY MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer – Sept. 14, 2007 – 10:48 am Rutherford County Commission unanimously approved a resolution requesting Allied Waste to make permanent its promise to not accept low-level radioactive waste Thursday night. “We request that they will now and forever in the future not accept BSFR materials …” County Mayor Ernest Burgess said. “They are willing in good faith to do this.” Burgess met with landfill officials, he explained, and they are willing to amend the agreement between the landfill and the county to permanently end dumping the waste in the landfill. Allied Waste, Middle Point Landfill’s parent company, vowed to no longer accept waste from the state’s Bulk Survey for Release program after a General Assembly mandated study found the waste and Tennessee’s procedures controlling it safe. The company bowed to public and legislative pressure by voluntarily ending disposal of the waste at Middle Point Landfill last month. The resolution requests Allied Waste make the promise permanent and legally binding. The commission also unanymously accepted the Christy Houston Foundation grant for $1 million for renovations to Homer Pittard Campus School. Burgess met with Rutherford County Schools Director Harry Gill and state officials to confirm MTSU’s matching grant. Sam’s Club parking lot and the Haley Drive site were unanimously approved as the new homes of the county’s recycle bins. “I commend the county in trying to find a place for these,” Commissioner Ronald Williams said. The commission also deferred, in a 12-9 vote, transferring of the Center for the Arts building and property to a newly-formed nonprofit. Commissioners want to amend the resolution to include language that would transfer the building back to the county if the nonprofit fails to maintain the building. “We don’t need that building to be run in the ground,” Commissioner Robert Peay said. Other items approved by the commission: - Approved funding renovations at Buchanan Elementary, La Vergne Primary and Christiana Elementary schools, totaling $1.4 million. - Approved purchasing the Holloway High School gymnasium back from Murfreesboro for $75,000. - Approved receiving $42.7 million in bonds for future capital projects. Michelle Willard can be contacted at 869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com 615-869-0800 | online@murfreesboropost.com | 630 Broadmore Blvd. Suite 120, P.O. 10008, Murfreesboro, TN 37129 Copyright Statement | Privacy Statement | Terms of Service ***************************************************************** 36 barrow in furness: Nuclear chiefs deny lake damage Published on 14/09/2007 NUCLEAR industry chiefs claim their siphoning of water from a lake crowned as Britain’s favourite view has no adverse effect on its future. But environmental campaigners disagree, saying Wastwater is put at risk by the nuclear industry’s “addiction” to its freshwater stocks. Now, Sellafield bosses have responded to the story, reported in the Evening Mail earlier this month, which revealed the extent of the nuclear site’s plundering of supplies. They say that while an Environment Agency licence permits Sellafield to take up to four million gallons of water a day, on one day last week they only took two million. A spokesperson for the nuclear decommissioning site said: “We use the water for provision of drinking and domestic water in addition to our other process uses, which include water for steam and electrical provision. “Spent nuclear fuel is also stored under water in large ponds, which cools the fuel and affords protection to the workforce prior to it being reprocessed. “Previously we have had a number of nuclear reactors generating on the site and their operation has not adversely affected Wastwater. “Salt water is not suitable for our requirements. “Cumbria has adequate supplies of fresh water for a range of domestic and industrial uses.” Their response comes after campaigners for South Lakeland and Furness Friends of the Earth obtained the figures from the Environment Agency under freedom of information legislation. They found that Sellafield has an Environment Agency licence to take the water. Marianne Bennett, a spokesperson for the campaigners, said the lake and its rare Arctic char fish are threatened by the plundering of its water stocks. She added: “Ever more fresh water will be needed to feed the nuclear industry, as seawater is too corrosive for such a hazardous job.”industry, as seawater is too corrosive for such a hazardous job.” View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.nwemail.co.uk/digitalcopy ***************************************************************** 37 The State: State to test wells near Barnwell site 09/14/2007 By SAMMY FRETWELL - sfretwell@thestate.com The state health department will begin routine testing of private wells near a 36-year-old nuclear waste dump to see if anyone’s drinking water has been poisoned. First-time state tests, taken last month amid concerns about pollution leaks, show little or no tritium contamination in 39 wells near the Barnwell County landfill, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control announced Thursday. Energy Solutions, the site’s operator, reported similar findings at the state-owned landfill. But regulators said they are starting quarterly checks of private drinking water wells for pollution as part of a groundwater monitoring program their agency already conducts at the landfill. “Obviously, because of some of the concerns that have been brought out, we’re going to make sure we include some of these drinking water wells ... as part of the monitoring,’’ agency waste regulator Pat Walker, told the DHEC board. About three-dozen monitoring wells on the dump site and just south of the property have radioactive tritium levels that exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s safe-drinking water standard — in some cases by hundreds of times, The State newspaper reported Aug. 19. Updated statistics DHEC released Thursday reflect a similar trend. In one well underneath the landfill, tritium levels have reached 27 million pico-curies per liter in groundwater — higher than any levels the newspaper found in its reporting.A creek about a half-mile south of the landfill has tritium levels at 500,000 pico-curies per liter where groundwater seeps into the surface water, an agency report shows. The EPA’s drinking water standard is 20,000 pico-curies per liter. DHEC officials, in the past, have said no one lives in the path of polluted groundwater and the site is safe. After The State’s story Aug. 19, the agency began checking private wells near the landfill and the creek. Brenda Stewart, who lives south of the landfill, said she’s relieved no tritium was found in her drinking water and is encouraged the agency will regularly test private wells. “We told DHEC in the beginning that, with all the issues that have come up, this is something that needs to be done,’’ she said. “Don’t just test one time and forget about it.’’ Environmental groups said the health department is right to keep an eye on private wells near the leaking landfill. “What about in the future?’’ asked Amy Armstrong, an attorney with the S.C. Environmental Law Project. “What are you going to do when this does make it into drinking water somewhere?’’ Tritium can increase a person’s chances of cancer, but it also can be a forerunner of other, more dangerous contaminants from the dump. Since 1971, the landfill has taken more than 28 million cubic feet of the nation’s low-level nuclear garbage. The landfill is one of only three commercial low-level nuclear waste dumps in the country. According to private well test results released Thursday: ? State regulators found no tritium pollution in 34 of the 39 private wells tested last month. ? Five of the wells showed trace amounts of tritium, but none was over the federal drinking water limit of 20,000 pico-curies per liter. One well east of the site had a reading of 1,890. Follow-up tests did not find tritium, DHEC said.? Energy Solutions found trace amounts tritium in 24 of 45 water samples it took independent of DHEC. The amounts are considered normal. Agency board members said Thursday’s findings show the landfill is safe. The seven-member board, appointed by Gov. Mark Sanford, also blasted recent media coverage showing more than 30 monitoring wells contained tritium above the EPA safe-drinking water standard. After the agency staff’s report, board member Steven Kisner said, “It’s hard to get serious about this.’’ Board member Glenn McCall said Thursday’s presentation by agency staff wasn’t necessary. “I think we have misused the taxpayers’ funds by having each of you go out, from the duties you normally do, to put this presentation together,’’ he told DHEC staff. DHEC officials insist the information reported recently by The State is not new. But environmental groups, residents like Stewart and more than a dozen state legislators have said they didn’t know the extent of the tritium leak until The State reported on the issue Aug. 19. Maps detailing the level of pollution and the location of monitoring wells had been sealed by DHEC until recently. “Maybe they did know, but we didn’t’’ Stewart said of DHEC. “To me, it’s something they kept hid.’’ Cary Chamblee, acting director of the state Sierra Club, told board chairman Bo Aughtry after the meeting that the pollution problem had been “glossed over.’’ The agency’s presentation to the board showed tritium is leaking into Mary’s Branch creek below the landfill at levels 25 times the EPA’s safe-drinking water standard. “I’m disappointed they didn’t take a more detailed look at the Barnwell problem,’’ Chamblee said. Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537. ***************************************************************** 38 The State: ABOUT TRITIUM Posted on Fri, Sep. 14, 2007 A look at why health regulators are concerned about tritium in drinking water. WHAT IS IT? Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen. It is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere, when cosmic rays strike nitrogen molecules in the air. Used in nuclear weapons, tritium also is produced as a byproduct in reactors producing electricity and in special production reactors. HOW DOES IT AFFECT MY HEALTH? Although tritium is less dangerous than many radioactive materials, such as plutonium, it is believed to cause an increased risk of cancer when people are exposed to it on a regular basis. Other health effects are the subject of debate, but some scientists have concluded it can cause birth defects. SOURCES: S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ***************************************************************** 39 [NYTr] Mushroom Cloud Part III: "N.Koreans in Syria" - Are they Gonna Nuke Us? Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:08:00 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit AP via Yahoo - Sep 14, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070914/ap_on_re_mi_ea/syria_us U.S.: Syria on nuclear watch list By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press Writer A senior U.S. nuclear official said Friday that North Koreans were in Syria and that Damascus may have had contacts with "secret suppliers" to obtain nuclear equipment. Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not identify the suppliers, but said North Koreans were in the country and that he could not exclude that the network run by the disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan may have been involved. He said it was not known if the contacts had produced any results. "Whether anything transpired remains to be seen," he said. Syria has never commented publicly on its nuclear program. It has a small research nuclear reactor, as do several other countries in the region, including Egypt. While Israel and the U.S. have expressed concerns in the past, Damascus has not been known to make a serious push to develop a nuclear energy or weapons program. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to comment on Semmel's remarks but noted that the United States had longstanding concerns about North Korea and nuclear proliferation. "We've also expressed, over time, our concerns about North Korea's activities in terms of dealing with A.Q. Khan and others around the globe," he told reporters. McCormack said he was not aware of any specific link between North Korea and Syria. Proliferation experts have said that Syria's weak economy would make it hard-pressed to afford nuclear technology, and that Damascus b which is believed to have some chemical weapons stocks b may have taken the position that it does not also need nuclear weapons. Semmel was responding to questions about an Israeli airstrike in northern Syria last week. Neither side has explained what exactly happened, but a U.S. government official confirmed that Israeli warplanes were targeting weapons from Iran and destined for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The Washington Post reported Thursday that Israel had gathered satellite imagery showing possible North Korean cooperation with Syria on a nuclear facility. North Korea, which has a longstanding alliance with Syria, condemned the Israeli air incursion. Israeli experts say North Korea and Iran both have been major suppliers of Syria's missile stock. Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on Thursday that the accusations of North Korean nuclear help were a "new American spin to cover up" for Israel. Semmel, who is in Italy for a meeting Saturday on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, said Syria was certainly on the U.S. "watch list." "There are indicators that they do have something going on there," he said. "We do know that there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria. We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen." "So good foreign policy, good national security policy, would suggest that we pay very close attention to that," he said. "We're watching very closely. Obviously, the Israelis were watching very closely." Asked if the suppliers could have been North Koreans, he said: "There are North Korean people there. There's no question about that. Just as there are a lot of North Koreans in Iraq and Iran." Asked if the so-called Khan network, which supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, could have been involved, he said he "wouldn't exclude" it. Copyright B) 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. * ================================================================= .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 Reuters: Canada to observe nukes-for-peace talks | Environment Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:38pm BST OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada has decided to send an observer to ministerial talks on a U.S.-led initiative to provide nuclear fuel to other countries in a way designed to limit proliferation, a Canadian official said on Friday. Canada is the world's largest producer of uranium, and its Conservative government has been saying it will decide soon whether to join the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, advanced by the Bush administration. A Canadian official will observe the talks in Vienna on Sunday. The United States, China, France, Japan and Russia were set to participate. "This will permit us to monitor the developments of the GNEP, and Canada will make a decision about joining the partnership at a later date," said Eugenie Cormier-Lassonde, a spokeswoman at the foreign affairs department. The idea of the partnership is to support nuclear technology, which does not emit greenhouse gases, but to do it in a way that will not lead to more nuclear bombs. Initial ideas provided for advanced suppliers of nuclear fuel to take back other countries' spent fuel, but Cormier-Lassonde was unable to answer if Canada was considering doing that. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. | Learn more about Reuters ***************************************************************** 41 Korea Times: US Prepares Fuel Oil Aid to NK 09-14-2007 10:56 WASHINGTON _ The United States is preparing to provide heavy fuel oil to North Korea as part of incentives it pledged for Pyongyang's denuclearization, the State Department said Thursday. Sean McCormack, the department spokesman, said the notification this week to Congress of such intent was "done with an eye towards" North Korea fulfilling its commitments. "What it does is, it prepares us in the case we do need to fulfill some commitments" on the part of the U.S., he said. South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan are members of the so-called six-party talks that in February struck an agreement to eventually dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and programs. The communist state would receive in return political and economic benefits, including diplomatic normalization with Washington and Tokyo. One of the economic incentives is 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil to be provided by the five parties. South Korea already delivered 50,000 tons as North Korea shut down its primary nuclear facilities, fulfilling the first phase of the denuclearization deal. The second phase requires North Korea to disable the facilities and declare all of its nuclear stockpile. Reuters reported Wednesday that the U.S. administration sent the legislative notification this week, saying it was prepared to give North Korea US$25 million in heavy fuel oil. According to the document cited by Reuters, the administration deems the initial progress in the six-party talks "sufficient justification to begin preparations for a first shipment by the United States." McCormack said while there is preparation, the actual aid is still predicate on North Korea's fulfillment of its promises. "If North Korea does in fact follow through on their commitments as stated under the understanding of that phase two commitment, then the other parties have some commitments," he said. "This would be part of the U.S. fulfilling that commitment, although it's not done yet." After a bilateral nuclear deal in 1994 between Pyongyang and Washington, the U.S. had annually shipped 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to the North as energy assistance. The shipment was stopped after the U.S. accused North Korea in 2002 of cheating by running a secret uranium-based weapons program. (Yonhap) ***************************************************************** 42 Aiken Today: High-ranking DOE official announces his resignation AikenStandard.com Fri, Sep 14, 2007 By JOSH VOORHEES Staff writer A high-ranking Department of Energy official who had spent 15 years working at the Savannah River Site announced his resignation earlier this week. Charles E. Anderson, principal deputy assistant secretary for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, worked for the department's SRS office from 1990 until 2005 when he moved to the department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. While Anderson's decision became official Monday, there has not yet been a specific end-date set for his departure, according to department officials. "I am not (resigning) to not work," said Anderson by phone Thursday afternoon. "I will be pursuing interests in the private sector." He said that he could not provide details of his future plans until they are finalized, but did say that he is considering several opportunities in the nuclear energy industry. His decision to step down from his post was not a result of anything specific, said Anderson. "It was a combination of a number of things coming together," he said. "I had been thinking about this on and off again for some time." While Anderson's future plans will likely dictate where he works, he said that he plans on keeping his home in Aiken as a "home base," just as he has throughout his time in Washington. He said that in the future he could see himself playing some role with SRS again, but that he would have to be mindful of certain legal restrictions placed on him as a former federal employee. During his 15 years as a SRS employee, Anderson held a number of positions within the department. He began as the chief of the high level waste tank farm branch and also held positions as director of the liquid waste division, the engineering division, the nuclear material storage division, and the reactors and spent fuel division. Ines Triay, who currently is serving as the acting chief operating officer for the DOE's Environmental Management program, will be promoted to fill the opening left by Anderson's departure, according to the department. Contact Josh Voorhees at jvoorhees@aikenstandard.com. © 2005 The AikenStandard. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 43 SF New Mexican: Immigrants use fake documents to try to get LANL badges Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:46 pm By ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ALAMOS — Three illegal immigrants who used fake documents to try to get badges that would let them work on a construction job at Los Alamos National Laboratory have been turned over to federal immigrant agents. Security officers were suspicious of documents presented to the lab’s badge office Wednesday by the three men from Mexico and faxed the documents to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Albuquerque. ICE officials confirmed the documents presented by the men were false. Lab security officers contacted local police, who escorted the trio off lab property and held them for immigration authorities. Police said it’s a federal offense to falsify identity to federal agencies. The three men worked for a construction company that had recently gained a lab contract. But getting jobs with that firm was only step one, said Kevin Roark, a spokesman for the lab. “Step two is you’ve got to get a badge, and that means you have to prove you’re who you say you are,” he said. It’s rare for someone to attempt to obtain a LANL badge under false pretenses, Roark said. In fact, he said, he cannot remember anyone presenting forged paperwork to the nuclear weapons lab. “The badge office has a procedure that is thorough, but so efficient that it appears easy,” Roark said. “The truth is, it isn’t easy at all. So anyone thinking about falsifying documents should forget about doing that.” Los Alamos lab has a variety of badges, depending on such things as a person’s clearance level and what areas he or she has access to. Construction workers would receive uncleared badges, meaning they would have no access to any secure areas, Roark said. Such a badge is gray if the person is a U.S. citizen and red if the person is a foreign national, he said. Michael Wismer, the group leader for S-5, which oversees the lab’s guard force, said the catalyst in the incident “was an alert and very competent security specialist who checked the documents, was suspicious and contacted immigration.” Privacy Policy / Terms of Use | ©2007, Santa Fe New Mexican, all ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************